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tion hosting the event.JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Recapping the first day of Jacksonville Jaguars training camp:
Rain cuts practice short: The Jaguars lost the last 20 minutes of their first practice because of a storm with lightning that blew through the area. Head coach Doug Marrone opted not to finish the practice at the indoor facility (IPF) on the other end of the stadium, and it doesn’t sound like the Jaguars will use the IPF much. Marrone said he wants the players to learn to deal with the high heat, humidity and rain so they’ll be used to it if it happens on game days. The IPF will mainly be used for walk-throughs and if there is really bad weather that threatens an entire practice or lighting in the area.
Heat issues: Even though there was sporadic cloud cover throughout practice and temperatures were in the high 80s/low 90s, it was a humid day outside EverBank Field. Numerous players were treated in the team’s cool zone for dehydration or heat issues, including quarterback Blake Bortles, linebacker Telvin Smith and nose tackle Abry Jones. Several other players, including defensive end Dante Fowler, were treated on the field for cramps.
Good day for Bortles: Though he missed about 20 minutes of practice while getting IV fluids for dehydration, Bortles looked sharp throughout the practice. He threw one pass behind receiver Allen Robinson on a crossing pattern than cornerback A.J. Bouye broke up, but he also threw three passes that would have been touchdowns. Robinson made a leaping catch over second-year cornerback Doran Grant on a back-shoulder pass, Marqise Lee caught a perfectly thrown fade pass down the sideline for another TD (Grant also was in coverage here) and Leonard Fournette got behind linebacker Telvin Smith and caught a pass down the sideline after Bortles scrambled away from pressure.
Players battled the heat and humidity during their first practice. Michael DiRocco/ESPN
OL shuffle: Brandon Linder, who signed a five-year contract extension on Tuesday that includes $24 million guaranteed, opened training camp as the center. He had played both guard and center during OTAs and minicamp. Branden Albert lined up at left tackle with Tyler Shatley at left guard, A.J. Cann at right guard and Jermey Parnell at right tackle. Marrone said they told Cann to be prepared to play both guard spots during camp. Cam Robinson, the Jaguars’ second-round draft pick, was the second-team left tackle.
Fowler flashes: Fowler had a sack of quarterback Chad Henne during team drills after beating Robinson off the edge. Fowler also took reps on special teams, and Marrone said he told special-teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis that nobody (other than QBs, of course) is off limits in terms of playing special teams.
Play of the day: Bortles’ TD pass to Fournette happened because Smith got caught between the two players. Bortles scrambled to his right and had no one in front of him inside the numbers. Smith was forced to choose between sticking with Fournette and Bortles and hesitated a second before taking a step toward Bortles. That allowed Bortles to easily loft a pass to a wide-open Fournette who raced down the sideline.
Friday’s schedule: The Jaguars will practice from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET.A couple of months ago I mentioned some public training courses that I’ll be running in London next month. The courses are being organised by FlossUK and since the courses have been announced the FlossUK crew have been running a marketing campaign to ensure that as many people as possible know about the courses. As part of that campaign they’ve run some sponsored tweets, so information about the courses will have been displayed to people who previously didn’t know about them (that is, after all, the point of marketing).
And, in a couple of cases, the tweet was shown to people who apparently weren’t that interested in the courses.
"Modern Web programming" and "Perl" in the same sentence. That's the first time I've seen that. https://t.co/w3eFgx023j — Andy (@ely_peddler) January 17, 2016
As you’ll see, both tweets are based on the idea that Perl training is pointless in 2016. Presumably because Perl has no place in the world of modern software development. This idea is, of course, wrong and I thought I’d take some time to explain why it is so wrong.
In order for training to be relevant, I think that two things need to be true. Firstly the training has to be in a technology that people use and secondly there needs to be an expectation that some people who use that technology aren’t as expert in as they would like to be (or as their managers would like them to be). Let’s look at those two propositions individually.
Do people still use Perl? Seems strange that I even have to dignify that question with a response. Of course people still use Perl. I’m a freelance programmer who specialises in Perl and I’m never short of people wanting me to work for them. I won’t deny that the pool of Perl-using companies has got smaller in the last ten years, but they are still out there. And they are still running successful businesses based on Perl.
So there’s no question that Perl satisfies the first of our two points. You just have to look at the size of the Perl groups on Facebook or LinkedIn to see that plenty of people are still using Perl. Or come along to a YAPC and see how many companies are desperate to employ Perl programmers.
I think it’s the second part of the question that is more interesting. Because I think that reveals what is really behind the negative attitude that some people have towards Perl. Are there people using Perl who don’t know all they need to know about it?
Think back to Perl’s heyday in the second half of the 1990s. A huge majority of dotcoms were using Perl to power their web sites. And because web technologies were so new, most of the Perl behind those sites was of a terrible standard. They were horrible monolithic CGI programs with hard-coded HTML within the Perl code (thereby making it almost impossible for designers to improve the look of the web site). When they talked to databases, they used raw SQL that was also hard-coded into the source. The CGI technology itself meant that as soon as your site became popular, your web server was spawning hundreds of Perl processes every minute and response times ballooned. So we switched to mod_perl which meant rewriting all of the code and in many cases the second version was even more unmaintainable than the first.
It’s not surprising that many people got a bad impression of Perl. But any technology that was being used back then had exactly the same problems. We were all learning on the job.
Many people turned their backs on Perl at that point. And, crucially, stopped caring what was going on in Perl development. And like British ex-pats who think the UK still works the way it did when they left in the 1960s, these people think the state of the art in Perl web development is those balls of mud they worked on fifteen or twenty years ago.
And it’s not like that at all. Perl has moved on. Perl has all of the tools that you’d expect to see in any modern programming language. Moose is as good as, if not better than, the OO support in any other language. DBIx::Class is as flexible an ORM as you’ll find anywhere. Plack and PSGI make writing web apps in Perl as easy as it is in any other language. Perl has always been the magpie language – it would be crazy to assume that it hasn’t stolen all the good ideas that have emerged in other languages over the last fifteen years. It has stolen those ideas and in many cases it has improved on them.
All of which brings us back to my second question. Are there people out there who need to learn more about Perl? Absolutely there are. The two people whose tweets I quoted above are good examples. They appear to have bought into the common misconception that Perl hasn’t changed since Perl 5 was released over twenty years ago.
That’s often what I find when I run these courses. There are people out there with ten or fifteen years of Perl experience who haven’t been exposed to all of the great Modern Perl tools that have been developed in the last ten years. They think they know Perl, but their eyes are opened after a couple of hours on the course. They go away with long lists of tools that they want to investigate further.
I’m not saying that everyone should use Perl. If you’re comfortable using other technologies to get your job done, then that’s fine, of course. But if you haven’t followed Perl development for over ten years, then please don’t assume that you know the current state of the language. And please try to resist making snarky comments about things that you know nothing about.
If, on the other hand, you are interesting in seeing how Perl has changed in recent years and getting an overview of the Modern Perl toolset, then we’d love to see you on the courses.Posted by
Aaron Nielsen,
December 15, 2017 Email
Aaron Nielsen
Twitter
@ENBSports
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It cannot be denied that the 2017 Canadian Soccer Season was an extraordinary year. This description is appropriate as the word for the season, even moreso than remarkable. We cannot talk about 2017 without giving credit to Toronto FC for not only winning the 2017 MLS Cup, Supporters’ Shield and Canadian Championship, but no doubt becoming the greatest team in MLS history. To some this might be a regional story, but I believe it is a Canadian story because when I first started writing for RedNationOnline my first articles were about how MLS ignores and belittles the Canadian clubs, and at the time regarded us in the same category as a club like the Columbus Crew. This was an insult to all Canadians, especially the city of Toronto, and shows how naive Americans are about geography of the North American sports market as seen by MLS television ratings in 2017. I try to always be honest with my analysis and would continue to say the number one Canadian asset when it comes to the game of soccer is our willingness to support the game and how much we are willing to do so. Toronto FC fans have shown this from the beginning, and credit to MLSE for finally not ignoring this and putting as much effort into the club as they were taking out. There should also be credit to MLSE for bringing in people who, yes are outsiders and might still be unaware of the game in our country, but what they were able to do is convince a group of 50/60 people to first come to this city, then perform and succeed in winning a Championship for Toronto FC. Toronto FC also shows that success is not insurmountable. I've made critical analysis on RNO of every move Toronto FC has made over the last four years. Without the PTSD of most Toronto FC fans, I was willing to express the development and expectation of Toronto FC as the top club in MLS. From an outsider, the math is pretty easy as the club has at least five players who could play in the top divisions in the World, who are also in their prime. They have a number of MLS veterans, especially in defense, who know what it takes to win in MLS. They have some American prospects who should have long careers in MLS, as well as Tosaint Ricketts and Jonathan Osorio, who are successful Canadian players with good track records, which is a part of scouting most MLS clubs ignore. The rest of Toronto FC’s Canadian contingent show quite a bit of talent, although questions still need be asked if they are being developed correctly, and what will they become in the future is still unknown. Which unfortunately is the case with most Canadian players currently attached to MLS. A Canadian MLS Academy still hasn't developed a consistent player in MLS, and outside of good stories like Cyle Larin, Samuel Peitte, and Alphonso Davies, I have concerns for the future. In this sense, 2018 might go down as the year we lost our Canadian content aspirations for the league as the number may dwindle down to less then 10 playing any minutes next season. At least in Toronto FC’s case, they haven't given up on turning Academy players into pros, while the Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps’ actions are harder to defend after folding their USL reserve clubs. Which brings us to the other extraordinary story, and that being the growth of grassroots soccer I've seen in the country this year and the hopes for our own league, The Canadian Premier League. There were a number of great Canadian soccer stories in 2017, many of which I saw live such as Oakville claiming the first League1 Ontario spot for the Canadian Championship, as well as AS Blainville in the PLSQ. I was also very excited by stories like the TSS FC Rovers who went out their way to use an all Canadian PDL side and in talking with Colin Elmes I see he is motivated in finding the best talent in British Columbia and more importantly giving them a place to play and become better players. Other is the Canadian PDL improved their local support as well as creating interesting stories. Despite the American affiliation, I feel PDL should also get a Canadian Championship bid along with Canadian Senior Challenge Trophy winners, who in 2017 were Western Halifax out of Nova Scotia. We can't ignore the folding of FC Edmonton and what can be said was a difficult season for the Canadian clubs in USL. The issue of attendance and support these club have dealt with has been a factor and in that sense Canadians are partly to blame, because if these clubs had overwhelming support they wouldn't be in the situation they are in now. In terms of precedence for CanPL, how we ended up supporting the MLS reserve clubs, as well as FC Edmonton and Ottawa Fury, raises some red flags over the viability of the new league. That being said, I was not in favour of how these clubs were run on the field, and in many cases these Canadian sides got caught up in the mess that is American lower league professional soccer. So for me, one of the more important agendas when it comes to CanPL is creating real short and long term goals that go beyond "A League of Our Own" and truly defining what that means. That slogan itself has been used by the CFL for a number of years, and I'd say that league has more American influence than MLS in terms of Canadian players having an impact, especially stars in the league. For me, the biggest story in 2016 was not Toronto FC hosting the MLS Cup final, but was Canada U20 beating England U20 in England 2-1. It was an English team with Marcus Rashford, Kasey Palmer and number of players who later won the U20 World Cup this past year. Exiting the 2017 and going into the 2018 season, only two players from that Canadian side, Davies and Ballou Tabla, are guaranteed to play in MLS next season and both might be sold off in a year or less. If we were England, the majority of those Canadian players would be professional players now. This to me is the Canadian problem, even on the Women’s side, where we need to at least try to give them as many games in a season as possible. Canadian players are not allowed to develop to their full potential, and to be quite honest I don't think most people in Canada even care. Even today, in all of my Canadian soccer conversations, those guys are old news regarded as not good enough. Instead, people want to discuss U16, U15, U12 and even U10. The fact is, all of those players will eventually be done with their youth careers and unless we change as a soccer country, will be the exact same situation as a Marco Bustos, Kadin Chung, or DuWayne Ewart, all of whom are in today part of Unattached FC. For me, this is why CanPL is important. Otherwise I'm going to take the lead of most others and purely concentrate on the Alphonso Davies-type talent and assume all other Canadians are not good enough to play the game professionally. This is something I know is not the case. 2018 could be another extraordinary year as Toronto FC could go for back-to-back championships and are also playing and looking to win the CONCACAF Champions League. Montreal and Vancouver will look to follow Toronto FC's footsteps. We also have a World Cup, which again will put soccer on the Canadian mainstream map. Although it will only be truly extraordinary if the CanPL administration confirms the league, teams are announced, supporters groups and people in those cities buy tickets and merchandise, and there is something legitimate the 400,000 youth soccer players in our country have something to play for. Aaron Neilsen is a co-founder of Prospect XI (Prospect Eleven), a scouting network and online magazine dedicated to tracking/highlighting young players that refer to as "prospects" as well as their development pathways both within North America and worldwide. Follow PXI via www.prospectxi.com or on twitter @ProspectXI.By Amina Nazarli
The national airlines of the UAE, Etihad Airways, plan to launch direct flights between Baku and Abu Dhabi, Azerbaijani Ambassador to the UAE Dashgin Shikarov said on October 5.
The negotiations on this regard are currently underway.
Moreover, low-cost airline Air Arabia also can open flights to Azerbaijan in 2017, he told Trend.
The direct flights from the third largest city in the UAE – Sharjah is planned to be opened to Baku and other cities of the country, the diplomat said.
Earlier, Shikarov said that Azerbaijan has offered the UAE to introduce mutual visa-free regime for citizens of both countries.
“Currently, there is a visa-free regime for persons with diplomatic and service passports, and since 2015, the UAE citizens has been visiting Azerbaijan on the basis of a simplified visa system,” he said.
Now Azerbaijan proposes to introduce a visa-free regime for citizens of both the UAE and Azerbaijan, the ambassador emphasized. “The UAE government has already given prior consent, and now the issue is under consideration,” said Shikarov.
Starting November 10, 2015, citizens of the UAE has visited Azerbaijan on a simplified procedure. They can obtain entry visa, valid for 30 days’ stay, at any international airport in Azerbaijan.
In 2016, Pegasus, Iraqi Airways, Fly Baghdad, ATA Airlines, Air Cairo and Komaviatrans began operating flights to Azerbaijan. With the entry of the winter flight schedule (October 30) into force Russian low-cost airline "Pobeda" (Rostov-Baku) and Iranian airline Mahan Air (Tehran-Baku) will open regular flights.
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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzNFL.com has the exclusive access to the latest Pro Bowl results, updated through Sunday of Week 11. You can continue to vote through Jan. 9, 2015.
The Pro Bowl will be Jan. 25, 2015 at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN in Glendale, Arizona, the site of Super Bowl XLIV. Like last year, it's the unconferenced format. We have some of our favorite choices for Pro Bowl voting right here.
The following are the top 10 overall vote-getters:
1. Peyton Manning, QB, Denver Broncos : 481,2972. Aaron Rodgers, QB, Green Bay Packers : 395,1483. Andrew Luck, QB, Indianapolis Colts : 386,6884. Tom Brady, QB, New England Patriots : 371,2155. DeMarco Murray, RB, Dallas Cowboys : 354,0986. Le'Veon Bell, RB, Pittsburgh Steelers : 277,8867. Antonio Brown, WR, Pittsburgh Steelers : 273,3038. Arian Foster, RB, Houston Texans : 264,5499. Jordy Nelson, WR, Green Bay Packers : 252,07710. Demaryius Thomas, WR, Denver Broncos : 248,012
Here are the top-voted players at each offensive position.
Quarterbacks:
1. Peyton Manning 2. Aaron Rodgers 3. Andrew Luck 4. Tom Brady 5. Philip Rivers 6. Ben Roethlisberger 7. Tony Romo 8. Drew Brees 9. Russell Wilson 10. Matthew Stafford
Running backs:
1. DeMarco Murray 2. Le'Veon Bell 3. Arian Foster 4. Matt Forte 5. Marshawn Lynch 6. Jamaal Charles 7. Eddie Lacy 8. Ahmad Bradshaw 9. Andre Ellington 10. LeSean McCoy
Wide receivers:
1. Antonio Brown 2. Jordy Nelson 3. Demaryius Thomas 4. Dez Bryant 5. T.Y. Hilton 6. Randall Cobb 7. Emmanuel Sanders 8. Julio Jones 9. Golden Tate 10. Jeremy Maclin
Tight ends:
1. Rob Gronkowski 2. Julius Thomas 3. Antonio Gates 4. Jimmy Graham 5. Greg Olsen 6. Martellus Bennett 7. Jason Witten 8. Dwayne Allen 9. Heath Miller 10. Jordan Cameron
Offensive tackles:
1. Tyron Smith 2. Ryan Clady 3. Joe Thomas 4. Doug Free 5. Bryan Bulaga 6. Joe Staley 7. Russell Okung 8. Jason Peters 9. David Bakhtiari 10. Nate Solder
Guards:
1. Zack Martin 2. Josh Sitton 3. Orlando Franklin 4. Louis Vasquez 5. T.J. Lang 6. Ronald Leary 7. David DeCastro 8. Mike Pouncey 9. Mike Iupati 10. Dan Connolly
Centers:
1. Travis Frederick 2. Maurkice Pouncey 3. Manny Ramirez 4. Nick Mangold 5. Max Unger
Fullbacks:
1. John Kuhn 2. Darrel Young 3. Kyle Juszczyk 4. Marcel Reece 5. James Develin
Kickers:
1. Stephen Gostkowski 2. Dan Bailey 3. Adam Vinatieri 4. Dan Carpenter 5. Steven Hauschka
Returners:
1. Devin Hester 2. Darren Sproles 3. Adam Jones 4. Jacoby Jones 5. Antonio Brown
The latest Around The NFL Podcast recaps every Sunday game from an action-packed Week 11. Find more Around The NFL content on NFL NOW.Rapper Kanye West on the cover of Time: Will rap music shed its “gangster” disguise?
By Kevin Kearney
30 September 2005
The image of Kanye West crouching down with one hand on his head—clad in designer clothes and sneakers—and the contrived facial expression of one who wishes to be considered a deep thinker adorns the cover of the August 29 issue of Time magazine. The headline of the article reads: “More GQ than gangsta, Kanye West is challenging the way rap thinks about race and class—and striking a chord with fans of all stripes.”
West is probably best known for blurting out “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” during a live concert fundraiser on NBC for victims of Hurricane Katrina. West and Mike Myers—of Austin Powers fame—were live on TV reading a canned summary of events when West, who appeared to be on the verge of tears, stopped reading from the cue cards.
On the East Coast, audiences heard him say: “I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, ‘They’re looting.’ You see a white family, it says, ‘They’re looking for food.’ And, you know, it’s been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite because I’ve tried to turn away from the TV because it’s too hard to watch. I’ve even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I’m calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there.... We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way—and they’ve given them permission to go down and shoot us!” He followed this with the comment about Bush, which was edited out for the West Coast broadcast.
The comments are a confused mix of truths (about the treatment of the poor and the black poor, in particular), reactionary nationalist phrase-mongering and sincere or insincere self-criticism that underscores West’s own tenuous effort to balance himself between various social layers.
Coincidentally, his new album was released within days (August 30) of the disaster in New Orleans.
Since the comments, West has become something of a media sensation, appearing in magazines, news shows and MTV nearly every day over the last few weeks.
According to Rolling Stone magazine, Kanye West’s new album, Late Registration, has sold over a million copies in its first two weeks. Only gangster rapper 50cent, whose latest album, The Massacre, has sold 4 million copies, has had more success this year. 50cent’s success is based on a time-tested formula of the American culture industry: sex, violence, aggression, etc. But Kanye West has a novel sales pitch for rap’s young fans. Banking on the street credibility created by figures like 50cent, West wants to create a new and improbable hip-hop genre: life through the eyes of a black yuppie (“Buppie”).
In the Time article, West details his tortuous rise to hip-hop fame. “It was a strike against me that I never hustled or sold drugs...but for me to have the opportunity to stand in front of a bunch of executives and present myself, I had to hustle in my own way. I can’t tell you how frustrating it was that they didn’t get that. No joke—I’d leave meetings crying all the time.”
On the issue of social class, West told Time he felt as though he was being discriminated against because he was from a privileged background. He says of the “discrimination” he felt, “Black people can be the most conservative, the most discriminating.”
Those months of rejection and “discrimination” were over after West’s debut album, The College Dropout, almost went triple platinum, earned 10 Grammy nominations and “made rap accessible to audiences that hadn’t paid attention in years,” according to Time.
One song, “All Falls Down,” slams what West refers to as “the single black female, addicted to retail.” He mocks a fictional, young, black college student by rapping, “She has no idea what she’s doing in college, That major that she majored in don’t make no money, But she won’t drop out, her parents will look at her funny.”
Although West locates the root of this struggling student/parents’ troubles in her overspending and financial mismanagement, he warns black consumers of the supposed real source of society’s ills when he raps “and the white man get paid off of all of dat.” A truly false and reprehensible remark!
Another single on the album called “Jesus Walks” complains that the US cultural machine discriminates against Christians! This little tune begins, “We need to recruit all the soldiers, All of God’s soldiers, We at war, We at war with terrorism, with racism, and most of all we at war wit ourselves (Jesus Walks), God show me the way because the Devil’s trying to break me down.”
Encouraging other rappers to “fight the system” by speaking up about their love for Jesus, West raps, “They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus, That means guns, sex, lies, video tapes, But if I talk about God my record won’t get played, Huh?”
Co-author of the song Che Smith told Time he had doubts about the song’s message: “When he wrote, ‘to the hustlers, killers, murderers, drug dealers/ even the strippers/ Jesus walks for them’ I said ‘Wait, it doesn’t matter what you do at all? Don’t we need to take a stand?’ and he (Kanye) said, ‘It’s about imperfection. Everybody can relate to that.’ Damn, if he wasn’t right.”
Time gushingly approves, “Jesus Walks is one of those miraculous songs that you hear for the first time and immediately look forward to hearing on a semi-regular basis for the next 30 or 40 years.” Despite West’s predictions of an anti-Christian plot in the music industry, the song was a big hit with major play on MTV and most popular rap stations around the country last year.
Yet Time reserves its full moral approval, pointing out that West frequently contradicts himself. In one song, West raps, “Life too fast, gotta slow down, Girl ain’t give me no ass, she need to go down.” Time finds a major contradiction between lyrics that treat women like interchangeable pieces of meat and other lyrics that it finds to be very positive like, “My father been said I need Jesus, so he took me to church, let the water wash over my Caesar [haircut].”
West, like many other “streetwise” rappers, comes from relative privilege. Kanye—which in Swahili means “the only one”—was raised by his mother in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago and spent summers with his father—a former Black Panther who is now a Christian marriage counselor. West went to good schools, received art and music lessons and spent a year abroad in Nanjing, China, when he was 10 years old. His mother says, “My plan was that he would get at least one degree, if not several.” West did, in fact, enroll in art school and took English classes for a year at Chicago State University—where his mother works as chair of the English department—until he dropped out.
His mother, who recently retired from her post in the English department explains, “His music is about being human.” She dismisses the mass of contradictions in West’s lyrics with a rather meaningless quote, “It’s like Walt Whitman. ‘Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes.’ ”
Damon Dash, West’s former boss and part owner of the multimillion-dollar hip-hop label Rockafella Records, describes West’s music in less mysterious terms: “He combines the superficialness that the urban demographic needs with conscious rhymes for the kids with backpacks. It’s brilliant business.” In other words, Kanye West encourages social backwardness, while showing the more privileged and educated layers that he is really an upper-middle-class, Christian yuppie who knows better.
West revealed how his life of privilege and ease has spoiled him when he walked out of the American Music Awards because he lost the Best New Artist Award to country singer Gretchen Wilson. West said, “I was the best new artist of the year, so get that other bullshit [meaning Wilson] outta here!”
Not all of West’s music is bad. In October 2002, West, reportedly exhausted from hours spent in the studio, fell asleep behind the wheel of his Lexus and nearly died in a car crash. In the aftermath, he wrote what was to be his first hit record, “Through the Wire,” which refers to the wires used to hold his broken jaw together.
The song was an inspirational tale of his accident and a comedic account of his difficult recovery, but much of the credit for the song should go to soul singer Chaka Kahn, from whom West lifted the beat and most of the chorus. This single created a stir among rap fans who anticipated a long-awaited departure from gangster themes.
Essentially, this is West’s strategy. Rap fans are among the most loyal, but even the most die-hard have been tested by the cultural level of rap music in recent years. One can only stand so much posturing, before he or she changes the radio station. West has consciously played on these hopes for a change by challenging some of the superficial conventions of the genre.
For example, he doesn’t dress like a “gangster” and his raps are about something other than his street resume. Yet, despite the change of clothes, we find an equally retrograde content: West endorses the war on terror, calls for a Christian cultural movement, criticizes the poor and working layers for being irresponsible and toys with identity politics.
Still, West has quite a few supporters, many willing to accept nearly anything he does. Darrel McDaniels, former member of one of the first popular rap groups, Run DMC, says, “He is trying to change this genre, and in order to do that he’s got to get people to listen to his music. They’ve gotten so used to hardness, to stupidity, that he has to engage in a little of that to be relevant, so be it.” Use hardness and stupidity to fight hardness and stupidity?
McDaniels talks about rap fans’ love of stupidity as though the artists themselves have little to do with the phenomenon, as though rap music hasn’t been in large measure a carnival of backwardness for the last 10 years. He is not alone in his views of West. Time, among others in the corporate media, paints West as some sort of prophet who will lead this sorry lot to a “higher” consciousness.
West embraces this role saying, “My mom’s a teacher and I’m kind of a teacher myself. But the ‘hood, the suburbs, MTV and BET [Black Entertainment Television] are my classrooms and I know how to talk to my class.” His lyrics give a good indication of the curriculum.
After an intense session in the recording studio, West reportedly told his producer, “You know that saying ‘you can’t be all things to all people?’ I want to be all things to all people.” Like so many shallow pop artists, West may just manage to appear as though he is all things to all people, but in the end, West supports one essential constituency: the black petty bourgeoisie and its comfortable home in American society.Image copyright AFP Image caption South Korea maintains a heavy naval presence around Yeonpyeong island
North and South Korean ships exchanged warning shots after a North Korean patrol boat crossed a disputed maritime border, say officials from the south.
The incident happened around 10:00 local time (03:00 BST) on Tuesday, said South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
It comes three days after North Korean officials agreed to resume high-level talks with the South.
The two countries technically remain at war, after the Korean War ended in an armistice.
The incident reportedly took place near the border island of Yeonpyeong, according to the AFP news agency.
A South Korea military spokesman said in a statement that they had sent "warning messages and fired a warning shot".
He said the North had fired back, resulting in another exchange of fire, before the North's ship retreated.
No injuries or damage were reported.
The BBC's Steve Evans in Seoul said that maritime skirmishes in the area are not infrequent. There was a similar one, with shots fired in a naval clash, two weeks ago.
Sailors from both sides have died in clashes over the years.
Our correspondent says the latest incident, while unlikely to derail the planned talks, underlines the dangerous nature of the relations in the heavily armed Korean peninsula.
Yeonpyeong IslandExamining the Green Bay Packers' roster:
QUARTERBACKS (3)
This might be the hardest call of them all, whether to keep both Flynn and Tolzien. And if the answer is no, then which to keep? Flynn is a proven winner as a backup, although he lacks some of Tolzien's physical attributes. There's just something about the Flynn-Packers marriage that seems to work, but Tolzien is making it a tough call. Both got some things done on Saturday against the Rams. Tolzien threw the ball more often and better, but Flynn directed drives that led to points. This one is going right down to the end.
RUNNING BACKS (4)
If the Packers keep only two quarterbacks, then it could open up a spot for another halfback. Rajion Neal of Tennessee opened some eyes on his 12-yard touchdown run against the Titans before he left with a knee injury. He did not play against the Rams. LaDarius Perkins of Mississippi State also has shown flashes, but then Michael Hill emerged as a contender with a strong showing in St. Louis. But if they keep only four backs, then all of that is moot.
RECEIVERS (5)
There's no way the Packers can cut Janis now, not after the potential the seventh-round pick flashed on his 34-yard catch-and-run touchdown against the Rams. He's still a raw, former small-college receiver but if the Packers were to try to sneak him through the practice squad, another team would snatch him off waivers for his speed and athleticism. If a sixth receiver sticks, it will be Kevin Dorsey. He has the potential to be a core special teams player. It may come down to the third quarterback or the sixth receiver.
TIGHT ENDS (4)
The only question is what to do with Colt Lyerla? His knee injury will prevent him from coming back before the regular-season opener. Injured reserve is the best option if they want to keep him and develop him.
OFFENSIVE LINEMEN (8)
The loss of Don Barclay to a season-ending knee injury might cause the Packers to keep one fewer offensive linemen. The Packers can get away with it because they typically only activate seven offensive linemen on game day. Without Barclay, Sherrod is the backup at both tackle spots, and Taylor would handle either guard spot.
DEFENSIVE LINE (6)
Pennel, a rookie free agent from Colorado State-Pueblo, probably solidified his roster spot with a second straight strong preseason performance against the Rams. The Packers like his size (6-foot-4, 332 pounds) in the middle of their defensive line, and they need a backup nose tackle. They thought veteran free agent Letroy Guion (hamstring) might be that guy, but he can't get on the field. He probably needs to return this week to have any chance.
LINEBACKERS (10)
The way rookie outside linebacker Carl Bradford has played, there's little reason to keep him on the roster unless Thompson decides he just can't cut a fourth-round pick this soon. The Packers haven't cut a fourth-rounder coming out of camp since receiver Cory Rodgers in 2006. Another rookie, undrafted free agent Jayrone Elliott of Toledo, deserves a spot more than Bradford. In just eight snaps against the Rams, Elliott had three sacks (including one that forced a fumble). But it came in garbage time against a backup
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Rebels accuse the YPG of aggression by firing on the only road into opposition-held Aleppo. In turn, rebels have shelled it heavily.
The TOW missile attack was a notable escalation. The YPG said it had notified the United States, saying the weapon was supplied under the U.S.-backed program. Reuters could not confirm the attack with rebel officials.
Rebels warn of the ethnic dimension to the struggle, fueled by the displacement of Arabs in YPG offensives. Kurdish officials have consistently denied claims of ethnic cleansing of places such as Tel Rifaat, captured by the YPG in February.
Slideshow (2 Images)
Only a few of the Arabs who fled there have returned, the Observatory says. It attributes that to fear, not a YPG policy to stop them, however. Saleh Muslim, head of the Syrian Kurdish PYD party, told Reuters the diversity of the forces in Manbij showed there was no Arab-Kurdish problem.
But Zakaria Malahefji, an official with an Aleppo-based FSA group, said he warned U.S. officials they were naive to believe the YPG would cede control of areas captured from IS.
“The people... feel there is significant coordination between the regime and YPG,” he said. “This will generate sensitivities and these areas will not be stable.”Rate this poem Sending User Review 5 ( 2 votes)
Dirge
a poem by
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Knows he who tills this lonely field
To reap its scanty corn,
What mystic fruit his acres yield
At midnight and at morn?
In the long sunny afternoon,
The plain was full of ghosts,
I wandered up, I wandered down,
Beset by pensive hosts.
The winding Concord gleamed below,
Pouring as wide a flood
As when my brothers long ago,
Came with me to the wood.
But they are gone,— the holy ones,
Who trod with me this lonely vale,
The strong, star-bright companions
Are silent, low, and pale.
My good, my noble, in their prime,
Who made this world the feast it was,
Who learned with me the lore of time,
Who loved this dwelling-place.
They took this valley for their toy,
They played with it in every mood,
A cell for prayer, a hall for joy,
They treated nature as they would.
They colored the horizon round,
Stars flamed and faded as they bade,
All echoes hearkened for their sound,
They made the woodlands glad or mad.
I touch this flower of silken leaf
Which once our childhood knew
Its soft leaves wound me with a grief
Whose balsam never grew.
Hearken to yon pine warbler
Singing aloft in the tree;
Hearest thou, O traveller!
What he singeth to me?
Not unless God made sharp thine ear
With sorrow such as mine,
Out of that delicate lay couldst thou
The heavy dirge divine.
Go, lonely man, it saith,
They loved thee from their birth,
Their hands were pure, and pure their faith,
There are no such hearts on earth.
Ye drew one mother's milk,
One chamber held ye all;
A very tender history
Did in your childhood fall.
Ye cannot unlock your heart,
The key is gone with them;
The silent organ loudest chants
The master's requiem.Why did Carrie Pollard push off from the safe lands of the 9-to-5 life to live in Namibia for a year? How did that experience change her and shift her perceptions about the world around her?
Given the opportunity to move to Namibia, Carrie and her husband, John, did not hesitate. Leaving behind her work in marketing and advertising, Carrie settled in Windhoek – the capital of Namibia – and established a new lifestyle. Carrie speaks openly about the wonders of Namibia as well as the fact that, despite where you are in the world, life simply goes on.
John is a pilot – and not just a casual pilot – that is his profession. So Carrie has had the really enviable benefit of being able to see the world from up high. This allowed her to move through Namibia and other parts of Africa with relatively more ease. She also describes how having the flexibility and freedom to experience places from up high changes her worldview.
Ultimately, her experiences with long-term travel have shifted her outlook on the day-to-day. For one, her perception of time has shifted – it is less of an artificially regimented concept now and more of a fluid, overlapping entity. She has become more flexible, a better friend, and more empathetic.
The experiences fade over time. But they have become part of my vernacular, part of who I am now…I just want to keep going – having those experiences, that feeling of being somewhere new, and outside my comfort zone.
Show Links
Author and Airman – Carrie’s blog
Carrie’s books
Wilderness Air
Panoramic view of Namib Desert from Big Daddy Dune – YouTube
The Minimalists
Credits
Podcast intro music: “Mister S” by Luc Marcotte
Podcast exit music: “Neogrotesque” by Luc Marcotte
All photography courtesy of Carrie PollardNew Year's Eve. A night of endings, and of new beginnings. A night often full of hope.
And most recently, a night of outrage and disappointment. See, I am not only an New York City season ticket holder, but also a passionate longtime Chelsea fan. So, when news broke that Frank Lampard would be staying in Manchester at least through the end of this EPL season, and potentially even longer than that, I had much cause to be aggrieved.
"Super Frank" was a large part of the reason I was so excited to get on board with season tickets to a team that I had never even seen play a single game. He's one of my all-time favorite players, and when I originally heard that he'd be coming to my hometown to play his club football, I was beyond excited.
But it's only when we allow ourselves to invest emotionally that we set ourselves up for disappointment.
My reaction to the Lampard situation is very complex. As a Chelsea fan, I am largely grateful to Frank for his time at Stamford Bridge and the amazing things he did for my beloved Blues. That has admittedly been mired somewhat by his recent exploits for Chelsea's biggest title rivals, where his ridiculous 1.5 goals + assists per 90 minutes is so good that it tops even Luis Suarez's numbers for last season.
These stats have admittedly come over a small sample, but despite playing relatively few minutes, Lampard's impact on the table has been massive. His five goals scored, as widely cited on Twitter this week, for example, have turned two draws into wins and one loss into a draw (against Chelsea, no less).
Does it hurt to see Chelsea legend Frank Lampard contributing meaningfully to Chelsea's only real threat in the table then? Of course! The late goal he scored against Chelsea stung in particular. But at the same time, I know that it was ultimately Chelsea who chose to cut him loose. I genuinely believe that he would've preferred to stay at Chelsea, working under Jose Mourinho, with whom he famously has such a wonderful relationship. In fact, he almost left Chelsea in his prime to follow Jose to Inter.
But Chelsea chose to end the relationship. At the time, Lampard said that he did not want to go to another English club, choosing instead to go across the Atlantic to MLS. Maybe I'm naive, but I don't think that it was Lampard's intention to sign for Manchester City. I think he wanted to come to New York City, and when the club said he needed to go on loan until the season started, he rightly chose to play at a higher level of competition at home in England, rather than go to far Australia.
Maybe this is also naive, but I don't think Lampard really expected to do much for Manchester City, who have one of the deepest and most talented squads on the planet. I think he expected to go, train for a few months to keep his fitness up, maybe see some garbage minutes in Capital One Cup games, and then come back to New York City. That his talent and industry made him indispensable to Manchester City, if anything, makes me proud of the man who I cheered on for so many years at Chelsea. It's incredible to see him doing so well, regardless of where he plays, and it's kind of nice to see a Chelsea legend beating Thierry Henry's records.
It stings that his good work is hurting Chelsea's title chances, but I can't really begrudge him that.
But I'm also a New York City season ticket holder -- and there, my feelings are much less complicated.
I'm not particularly angry at Lampard; it's only a good thing for us that one of our players is playing this well. I am angry, though, at the situation and the club as a whole.
I'm not going to go so far as to say that it was the plan all along. I do think that City Football Group knowingly left itself a loophole that could be exploited if Lampard performed particularly well at Manchester - which is what ended up happening.
I understand it's worth more - a lot more - to have Manchester City defend their Premier League title successfully, compete successfully in the Champions League, and thus further their global brand; more so, certainly, than it is to have a successful MLS team, even if that team is in New York City. I also get that New York City is part of a larger organization, not a standalone entity. That means that the organization's executives are going to do what they feel is best for the organization.
That's fine. I get that. It's how modern soccer works, for better or worse.
But the ways in which the club misled season ticket holders and built an entire advertising campaign around seeing Lampard playing at Yankee Stadium on opening day - knowing full well that there was a non-zero chance that he wouldn't be there - is nothing short of appalling.
With respect to the other players, even David Villa, I wouldn't have given a thought to shelling out that much money - on a grad student budget, no less - if it weren't for the chance to see my most beloved player play for my city's team.
What's really frustrating is not that this has happened, but how New York City handled media and public relations over the summer and autumn, and how we were all duped as a result.
"We want to be New Yorkers. We are building a truly authentic New York team. This is not a Manchester City team or a brand play or a marketing trick - this is real" - Ferran Soriano, CEO of New York City and Manchester City FC
They made it seem like New York City would not be secondary to Manchester City in any way, and we, in good faith, believed them, and purchased our season tickets, our shirts, and our scarves.
And now? Now it is abundantly clear that this was simply not true, and we are righteously angry.
You want New York City to be a minor league, feeder club for Manchester City? Fine. You own both clubs, and that's your prerogative.
But don't sell us a pebble, and call it a diamond.
New Yorkers pride themselves on being street smart, but for 11,000 season ticket holders, this Lampard situation shows that we had the wool pulled over our eyes on this occasion.
That stings, and deeply. We may forgive, but we won't forget.A previous version of this report included a misspelling of Kris Kobach’s surname. The story has been corrected.
Getty Images President Donald Trump and Kris Kobach, Kansas secretary of state, meet at Trump’s golf club in New Jersey in November.
President Donald Trump’s commission on election integrity has asked all 50 states to provide voter rolls going back to 2006, and personal information including names, birth dates and partial Social Security numbers of all registered voters.
The request by Kris Kobach, Kansas’s secretary of state and the vice chairman of the commission, is already facing a backlash by states that say the request is unnecessary and unwarranted.
“I have no intention of honoring this request,” Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said Thursday in a statement. McAuliffe, a Democrat, said there is no evidence of voter fraud in his state and that the commission is “politically motivated and silly posturing.”
“At best this commission was set up as a pretext to validate Donald Trump’s alternative election facts,” he said, “and at worst is a tool to commit large-scale voter suppression.”
In a statement on Thursday, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, a Democrat, also said he won’t cooperate: “I will not provide sensitive voter information to a commission that has already inaccurately passed judgment that millions of Californians voted illegally. California’s participation would only serve to legitimize the false and already debunked claims.”
Both McAuliffe and Padilla said the commission is a waste of taxpayer money that should be focusing on investigating Russian tampering, which they called the real threat to election integrity.
Late Thursday, Kentucky also rejected the request. “I do not intend to release Kentuckians’ sensitive personal data to the federal government,” Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, a Democrat, said in a statement. “The president created this election commission based on the false notion that ‘voter fraud’ is a widespread issue — it is not.”
The ranks of state’s rebuffing the Kobach request grew with a spokesman for Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin, according to CommonWealth magazine, saying, “They’re not going to get it. It’s not a public record.” Gov. Gina Raimondo of neighboring Rhode Island, appearing on MSNBC at midday Friday, suggested she saw no reason to comply with Kobach’s letter.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo joined that chorus Friday afternoon, saying on Twitter that his state would not comply, as doing so would “perpetuate the myth [that] voter fraud played a role in our election.”
NY refuses to perpetuate the myth voter fraud played a role in our election. We will not comply with this request.https://t.co/eQC6ORV0v1 — Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) June 30, 2017
The commission, led by Vice President Mike Pence, is scheduled to meet for the first time in July. Pence has said the group’s goal is to “protect and preserve the principle of one person, one vote.”
Kobach’s letter, sent Wednesday, asks the 50 secretaries of state to answer seven questions, including what evidence they have of voter fraud in their state and what laws hinder “your ability to ensure the integrity” of elections. It also seeks the full names of all registered voters, their addresses, dates of birth, party affiliation, last four digits of Social Security numbers and voting history for every election since 2006. Any documents sent to the commission will be made available to the public, the letter said.
Kobach told the Kansas City Star that all the voter data would be stored on secure government servers and cross referenced against federal databases to weed out fraud.
Jason Kander of the Democratic National Committee blasted Kobach’s request. “I certainly don’t trust the Trump administration with that information, and people across the country should be outraged,” he said in a statement.
Both Kobach and Trump have claimed that millions of people voted illegally in the November election, but neither has offered any proof of that. Independent experts and top Republicans and Democrats alike have said there is no evidence supporting those claims, and that voter fraud in the U.S. remains extremely rare.
As secretary of state, Kobach has backed extremely restrictive voting laws, and has faced a number of lawsuits accusing him of illegally disenfranchising Kansas voters.On July 18th, the New York Yankees made a blockbuster trade with the Chicago White Sox. The headline from The New York Times read: "Yankees Acquire Todd Frazier and David Robertson in Trade With White Sox". Perhaps the most important piece of the Yankees half of the deal wasn't mentioned in the headline at all.
That piece is twenty-eight-year-old right-handed reliever Tommy Kahnle. On paper, Kahnle is a secondary piece, behind Aroldis Chapman, Dellin Betances, and David Robertson in what is now the newest version of the Yankees' super-bullpen.
Kahnle lacks the name-brand recognition of Chapman, Betances, and Robertson, but so far in 2017, he has been considerably better than all three.
He has been the ninth-most valuable reliever in the league at 1.8 fWAR, 0.3 fWAR above the Yankees' next most valuable reliever Chad Green. Kahnle has been the 9th-best reliever in the league over just 46 innings; of the eight above him on the WAR leaderboard, all but one (Trevor Rosenthal) have over 50 innings pitched.
in 129 1⁄ 3 innings pitched prior to this season, Kahnle had been worth exactly zero wins above replacement. He had a career earned run average of 4.04 and a fielding independent pitched of 4.23, hardly encouraging numbers for a late-twenties middle relief pitcher.
Kahnle's struggles were caused by his control problems. Prior to 2017, his walk rate was 14.1 percent. He walked 5.5 batters per nine innings. Even though he had a hard time throwing strikes, the strikeouts were still there. He has never had a season in which he struck out less than 8 batters per nine innings, and his career strikeout rate prior to this year was a respectable 22.7 percent.
This year, everything has changed in a big way. Kahnle is throwing the ball in the zone, getting batters to chase, and missing more bats than ever, a lethal combination. As a result, his walk rate is at career-best levels. He has walked just 4.8 percent of batters and just 1.72 batters per nine innings.
The Yankees should scare you 2017 was supposed to be a rebuilding year in the Bronx. But their surprising success this season means they’re a threat both now and in the future.
His zone percentage has improved slightly, from 50.9 percent in 2016 to a career-best 53 percent this year, but the real difference has come in his chase and swinging strike rate.
Batters are making contact on his pitches just 69.6 percent of the time, and just 76.7 percent of the time on pitches in the strike zone, good for 16th-best among relievers. Batters have swung at his pitches 54 percent of the time, 11th-most in the league, and at the same time he has one of the best swinging strike rates in the league. His swinging strike rate is 16.5 percent, also 11th-highest in the league.
Kahnle makes his living with a three pitch mix: a four-seam fastball, a changeup, and a slider. He uses his fastball around 70 percent of time, with the other two pitches varyingly making up the other 30 percent. He is throwing all three of his pitches harder than ever.
His fastball is now one of the fastest pitches in the league, averaging 98.39 miles per hour according to Brooks Baseball. He throws a hard changeup just under 91 miles per hour, and his slider a little softer at about 87 miles per hour.
He has used his newfound control and velocity to become one of the premier strikeout relievers in the game. He has struck out 14.36 batters per nine innings in 2017, fourth-best among relievers behind Craig Kimbrel, Betances, and Corey Knebel. His K/BB ratio is fifth-best in the league at 8.22. His abnormally high.340 batting average on balls in play has had little effect on him, due to his high number of strikeouts and low number of walks.
Just going by this year’s numbers, Kahnle has been the Yankees best reliever. He has the strikeouts of Betances and Chapman without the high walk numbers. Although it is almost impossible to imagine Kahnle stealing the closer role from the struggling Chapman and the other, more established names in the Yankees' bullpen, it is easier to see him getting a bigger role if he stays on this dominant pace.
Look for Tommy Kahnle to be this years unheralded star coming out of the bullpen in October should the Yankees make a deep run in the postseason.
Dylan Svoboda is a writer for Beyond The Box Score and BP Milwaukee. You can follow him on Twitter at @svodylan.San Francisco - When you buy a printer cartridge, is it yours? Or can the company control what you do with it, even after you pay your bill and take it home? The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) urged the U.S. Supreme Court today to protect consumers’ property rights in a court case centering on the important “patent exhaustion” doctrine.
In Impression Products, Inc. v. Lexmark International Inc., printer company Lexmark sold printer cartridges with restrictions on refilling and resale. Impression Products acquired used Lexmark ink cartridges and then refilled and resold them, sparking a lawsuit from Lexmark claiming infringement. The Federal Circuit decided in Lexmark’s favor, ruling that a customer’s use of a product can be “restricted” by the patent owner with something as simple as a notice on disposable packaging.
In the amicus brief filed today, EFF—joined by Public Knowledge, AARP and the AARP Foundation, Mozilla, and R Street—argued that “conditional sales” like the ones attempted by Lexmark cannot impose arbitrary conditions on a customer’s use of a product. The Federal Circuit’s incorrect ruling to the contrary goes against the doctrine of “patent exhaustion,” which says that once a patent owner sells a product, it cannot later claim the product’s use or sale is infringing.
“If allowed to stand, the lower court’s decision could block your right to reuse, resell, and tinker with the devices you own,” said EFF Staff Attorney Daniel Nazer, who is also the Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents. “Under this theory, consumers could be held liable for infringement for using products purchased legally, and that the patent owner has already been paid for.”
Patent exhaustion has been part of centuries of law upholding the right of individuals to use and resell their possessions. If patent owners can control goods after sale, then all sorts of activities—like security research, reverse engineering, and device modification—would be threatened.
“This trick is straight out of some companies’ wishlists for restricting user rights,” said EFF Staff Attorney Kit Walsh. “They have tried a variety of legal tactics to restrict your ability to repair or resell the things you buy, and to prevent experts from investigating how they work. That includes experts who want to figure out if your devices are secure and respecting your privacy, or who want to build products that can plug in to your devices and make them do new and useful things. We urge the Supreme Court to reaffirm the patent exhaustion doctrine, and protect people’s rights to own and understand the products they’ve purchased.”
For the full amicus brief:
https://www.eff.org/document/supreme-court-merits-briefAs we reach the middle of the 21st century, half the population of the world will lose their job to a machine. Yes, this is another ‘robots will take our jobs’ story.The latest comes from Moshe Vardi, professor at Rice University, Houston, who delivered a talk to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, exploring the question: “If machines are capable of doing almost any work humans can do, what will humans do?”Vardi reckons that half of workers across the globe will be replaced by machines within the next 30 years, wiping out middle-class jobs and “exacerbating inequality”. He noted that robots would take over in many spheres of life, including automated driving and sex robots. As the Guardian reports, he also observed that this future is likely to mean humans have much more leisure time — indeed we may only work a handful of hours per week.However, this might not be the utopia we imagine. Vardi warned: “I do not find this a promising future, as I do not find the prospect of leisure-only life appealing. I believe that work is essential to human wellbeing.” Of course, if you don’t have to do a job, life doesn’t become ‘leisure-only’ — you can go for voluntary work for example. Perhaps Vardi is worried that many won’t see it like that, though.It’s clear that over the next few decades there are going to be big leaps in AI and robots, and these will have major repercussions on our society. Previous research has indicated that 20 years from now, 35 per cent of UK jobs are at high risk of replacement by automation and robotics.Taking stock after the momentous events in Arizona last week, Fox News and Washington Post pundit George Will tried to have his cake and eat it too (sorry) when it came to the debate over anti-gay Jim Crow laws by arguing that stores should not be allowed to refuse service to LGBT people while, at the same time, calling any LGBT person who'd want to do business in an anti-gay establishment a "sore winner."
"It's a clash of rights," Will said to Fox News host Chris Wallace. "Fifty years ago this year," Will continued, "in one surely the great legislative achievements in American history, we passed the public accommodations section of the Civil Rights Act, saying, 'If you open your doors to business in the United States, you open it to everybody.' That's a settled issue."
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But Will wasn't done. "That said," he went on, "this too needs to be said: It's a funny kind of sore winner in the gay rights movement that would say, 'A photographer doesn't want to photograph my wedding. I've got lots of other photographers I could go to, but I'm going to use the hammer of government to force them to do this.' It's not neighborly and it's not nice."
"The gay rights movement is winning," Will said. "They should be, as I said, not sore winners."
Wallace responded that he understood Will's point, but nevertheless tried to get Will to state clearly which side he was on. "You do say that if a gay couple wants to go into a bakery and have a wedding cake, the bakery should have to make the cake."
"Bake the cake," Will declared in response.
You can watch the exchange below, via The Huffington Post:The Danish People’s party’s success in the election continues a trend of rising support for rightwing parties across Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway
After four years of centre-left government, Denmark has swung back to the centre-right.
On the surface, the outcome is not monumental. In 2011, the centre-left won with a majority of 0.5 points.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, the centre-right won by 4.5 points. The Social Democrats even increased their vote share.
However, what does make the election (for lack of a better word) historic is the rise of the rightwing Danish People’s party (DPP). It won the biggest vote share in its 20-year history and, most significantly, emerged as the largest party in the bloc of those to the right of the political spectrum.
The Danish election continues a trend that began in Norway’s 2013 election: the rise of rightwing, anti-immigration parties in Nordic countries.
Although such parties are on the up – with few exceptions – across Europe, what makes the Nordic example somewhat different is that due to more representative voting systems in these countries, the parties’ parliamentary strength is greater in Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway than it is elsewhere.
In the UK, Ukip’s 12.5% vote share in May only translated into one seat due to Britain’s first-past-the-post system. France’s Front National regularly struggles to win seats in elections at different levels because of the country’s two-round voting system.
Over the past two decades, the DPP, the Sweden Democrats, the Finns in Finland and Norway’s Progress party have all seen their support trend upwards in election after election.
While support for the Finns and the Progress party dipped slightly in the most recent Finnish and Norwegian elections compared with previous ones, both became parties of government for the first time following their 2015 and 2013 elections.
This is an important distinction to what happens in Sweden compared to the other three Nordic countries: the Sweden Democrats are shunned by the other parliamentary parties who refuse to deal with the rightwing party due to its policies.
Yet the strength of the Sweden Democrats’ 49 seats following the 2014 election meant neither the centre-left nor the centre-right parties had the numbers required to form a government. A six-party budget deal was needed in order to form a government and avert another election.
There are of course diverse national factors that make the specific context and politics of each country and election different, but the one factor that unites the four parties and countries is immigration – and the parties’ populist rhetoric and stance against migrants.
In Denmark, the DPP is demanding a crackdown on the country’s borders and so called “welfare tourism” as well as a hardening of policies towards asylum seekers.
The growing influence of all four parties has moved in parallel with the four Nordic countries’ changing populations and their electorates’ attitudes to immigration.
In all four countries, immigration has increased since 1998
The number of asylum seekers has increased noticeably in Sweden and Denmark, in particular over the past two years. However, in Norway the number of applicants per 1,000 people has declined (as has support for the Progress party on a vote share basis).
Most crucially, attitudes to immigration have become significantly more negative in Sweden and Denmark. According to the Eurobarometer, a record number of people now see immigration as one of the two most important issues facing these countries. In Finland, the share has declined after spiking between 2007 and 2010 (support for the Finns follows a similar pattern), and immigration is now seen as less pressing than the economic situation and unemployment (the country was in recession for most of last year, and growth is still flat).“I think it would show a lot, it would show progression,” Ramsey told Goalon the set of a New Balance Football shoot.“Obviously going that period of time without winning something, everybody associated with the club felt that pressure and wanted to get it off our backs. We did it last year and this is going to be a tough game.“We know teams are always dangerous so we are going to have to take them seriously. I’m sure last year’s final will put us in a good place where we feel like we can go on and win the FA Cup again.”Ramsey says it would be “another fairytale” to score in consecutive FA Cup triumphs but already has half an eye on toppling Chelsea to win the league title next season.Arsene Wenger’s side was out of the running by Christmas after an inconsistent start to the 2014-15 campaign, but Ramsey believes his team's form since the turn of the year shows it is ready for a genuine challenge.“In the first half of the season we couldn’t get the consistency that we all wanted and ultimately we paid the price in the Premier League,” Ramsey added.“Our form in the second half of the season has been really good and we’re looking forward to building on that and finishing off strongly as well.“I think we’ve grown as the season has gone on and that puts us in a really good position for next year. If we get off to a good start and keep the momentum going from the back end of this season to next season, we have a very good opportunity.”Aaron Ramsey is a New Balance Football player. To find out more about New Balance Football go to newbalance.com/football or follow @NBFootball on Twitter and Instagram(photomontage) (photomontage)
Les sociétés modernes donnent l’impression d’être saturées d’activités, d’avoir mis en circulation autant de travail qu’il est possible d’en créer dans l’espace économique. En témoignent les industries gigantesques, les entrepôts pharaoniques, les réseaux tentaculaires de boutiques, les centres commerciaux démesurés, les embouteillages aux abords des villes, les constructions tous azimuts, etc.
Cette impression est doublement erronée. Elle l’est sur le plan quantitatif, mais aussi sur le plan qualitatif. Nous allons examiner ces plans successivement.
Pas assez de travail pour tout le monde?
Que la quantité de travail soit arrivée à saturation, cela semble être confirmé par un symptôme inquiétant : le chômage.
La télé, les radios, les journaux, sont quasi unanimes : les entreprises n’arrivent plus à « fournir du travail » à tout le monde. Ce mal terrible s’est même propagé aux écoles (les salles de classe débordent), aux administrations publiques (impossible de créer des postes de fonctionnaires : avec quel argent?), au monde agricole (impossible d’absorber d’autres agriculteurs : toute la surface cultivable est déjà vendue), etc. Et ça ne va pas s’arranger : d’un côté, les robots piquent des postes de travail à ceux qui en ont encore un, de l’autre la population ne cesse de croître sous l’effet de l’immigration!
— Au secours!!!
Comme il se doit, cette fable serait incomplète sans le chapelet des « solutions » : alléger la fonction publique, partager le temps de travail, refouler les immigrés, distribuer un revenu de base, bla, bla, bla…
Rassurez-vous, le cauchemar est fini, il est l’heure de se réveiller : tout ce discours n’est qu’un mauvais rêve, la vraie vie est complètement différente.
— Ouf!
Reprenons depuis le début :
La quantité de travail qu’une communauté humaine est capable de mettre en circulation augmente avec la taille de cette communauté. Prenons un exemple. Si l’on accueille 1000 immigrés, ça ne fait pas seulement 1000 bouches à nourrir. Car il y a parmi eux des menuisiers, des instituteurs, des maçons, des sages-femmes, des agriculteurs, des ingénieurs, etc[i]. En un mot, ces immigrés sont aussi des travailleurs! Ils vont permettre des créations d’entreprises, participer à leur construction, à leur financement et à leur fonctionnement. Comment? Tout simplement par leur travail, qui viendra s’ajouter à la somme de travail qui était déjà en circulation. Même conséquence du côté de la fonction publique : l’État n’aura aucun mal à payer les salaires de fonctionnaires que ces 1000 immigrés vont nécessiter (enseignants, soignants, administrateurs, etc.), ni à financer leurs aides sociales, puisque les caisses vont recevoir les sommes correspondantes en impôts et cotisations supplémentaires. Au-delà de l’exemple de l’immigration, ce raisonnement montre plus généralement qu’il est impossible qu’une population soit trop nombreuse par rapport à la quantité de travail que son espace économique peut mettre en circulation. C’est impossible car cette quantité de travail possible est définie par… la population elle-même! Qu’un pays refoule des travailleurs au prétexte d’un manque de travail, c’est un peu comme si la savane refoulait des zèbres au prétexte d’un manque de rayures!
Conclusion : le chômage est un processus artificiellement construit et entretenu pour empêcher un certain travail, pour priver une part de la population de l’accès à certains lieux de travail. Ceux qui organisent ce barrage (via tout un réseau d’influence, dans le monde de l’entreprise et dans le pouvoir politique) en tirent profit : le chômage entretient une pression sur les salaires et sur le droit du travail, au bénéfice de quelques profiteurs.
Par définition, les rentiers et les actionnaires détournent une part de ce que produisent les travailleurs. Mais grâce au chômage, ils en détournent davantage. Et surtout ils confortent durablement leur position dominante.
L’automatisation : un danger pour le travail?
On peut faire une analyse semblable des discours sur l’automatisation, présentée à tort comme étant intrinsèquement une menace pesant sur le monde du travail. L’automatisation des tâches pénibles n’est pas une menace, c’est toujours une bonne nouvelle. En revanche, confier à un robot un travail que des gens aiment faire est, potentiellement, une mauvaise nouvelle. Ça n’en devient une bonne que lorsque ces mêmes gens réalisent qu’ils vont avoir la possibilité de faire des choses tout aussi intéressantes, ou de façon plus agréable. Ainsi, les comptables sont bien aidés par l’informatique et ne regrettent sans doute pas la période des cahiers de compte sur papier, malgré la nostalgie. Les architectes regrettent parfois l’époque de tracés de plans, mais l’ordinateur leur ouvre un univers de possibilités nouvelles. Le raisonnement est bien connu : ni les allumeurs de réverbères, ni les dactylographes, ni les réparateurs de téléviseurs à lampes ne sont morts de faim. La disparition de ces métiers a été compensée par la création de nouveaux (techniciens du gaz, informaticiens, électroniciens) et par une baisse structurelle du nombre d’heures travaillées. Il est regrettable que cette baisse généralisée soit rendue totalement déséquilibrée par le marché du travail (certains travaillant trop pendant que d’autres sont au chômage), mais ça n’est pas à imputer à l’automatisation elle-même.
Les robots ne remplacent pas le travail humain, ils le déplacent[ii]. Chaque fois que telle automatisation fait disparaître une activité humaine, de nouvelles tâches apparaissent, dans le même secteur d’activité ou dans un autre, et/ou un nouveau rapport au temps et à l’effort se fait jour, dans le travail mais aussi dans les loisirs. N’ou
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idding it, have relaxed if Chris Brown’s 2012 performance of “Beautiful People” is an indication. The discerning listener knows this isn’t a black-or-white issue, while the superstar not only knows it but lives it. Pretending otherwise is a disservice to everyone. It perpetuates the the feedback loop of our impossible expectations of celebrities, and the measures taken by celebs to live up to said expectations, which in turn inform those expectations.
And on and on the hamster wheel spins. As though holding the celebrities to their inflated senses of self-entitlement, the public demands their elected stars must earn their keep by achieving perfection by any means necessary, lest they be ridiculed or have their status be demoted.
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The strange thing is that as hard as the public tends to be on celebrities, and how social media has the ability to amplify the ridicule and make it seem to really matter, it’s easier to be a pop star in other ways—multi-threats who can do multiple things decently are in, while artists who pretty much just stand there and sing are out. There is, after all, only one Adele.
“You have a lot of pop stars that have squeezed into the upper realms of stardom because they were able to game the system with all of these other aspects of performance, without really having the goods vocally,” says Gundersen of how MTV reconfigured pop stardom. “I think that’s short-changing the audience but the audience doesn’t seem to mind. At some point, you have to accept that.”
“We want plastic surgery faces. We want super white teeth. We want the face and sound we’re trained to see in a TV performance is so impeccable that both visually and aurally, our expectations are ridiculous,” says Pareles. “I think we’ve automated and Photoshopped ourselves into a very strange idea of aesthetics. You want a cosmetically flawless, white-toothed, incredibly thin body, and you want a voice that’s perfectly on pitch at all times. Where’s the humanity?”
Our standards continue to warp from talent to perfection to a sort of post-perfection that’s simultaneously demanding and aware of the measures taken to achieve a super-human appearance. The acceptance of lip-syncing is akin to the way the eye gets used to plastic surgery and further adjusts to admire the wealth it implies, so that a facelift becomes its own beauty standard as a status symbol. Where’s the humanity? As much as it’s scrubbed away by celebrities, it’s also lacking on the part of an audience that regards these stars as super-human. Thus lip-syncing is practically a logical decision for those merely interested in keeping up—it allows celebrities to obscure the fact that they’re doing something most of us humans take for granted without so much as a thought: breathing.
Here’s a brief history of lip-syncing in video, made by Jalopnik video creative director Michael Roselli:I had to laugh when the “mainstream” media began making a fuss about the alleged epidemic of “fake news.” My immediate and uncontrollable reaction was: “Are we to be spared nothing?!”
After all, as Antiwar.com’s longtime readers know, these are the very same people who were spreading the Bush administration’s “talking points” as if they were facts in the run up to the invasion of Iraq. They know this because we spent years debunking them. Here are just a few samples:
The famous “aluminum tubes” that were supposedly part of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear arsenal – debunked here and here.
The yellowcake from Niger – debunked here and here.
Iraq’s “mobile biological weapons” – debunked here.
The biggest lie – that Saddam Hussein had ‘links” to al-Qaeda and the 9/11 attack – is debunked here and especially here, where we exposed evidence that the media was covering for the Bush administration.
The very media outlets that are today loudly complaining about “fake news” – the New York Times and the Washington Post, the twin voices of the Acela corridor – served as a veritable echo chamber of the Bush administration’s lies as we were led into the worst military disaster in our nation’s history.
Even then, “fake news” was hardly a new phenomenon. War propaganda is as old as the history of warfare itself, and in more recent times it has been taken to a new and more audaciously dishonest level.
Antiwar.com was founded, in 1995, in reaction to media coverage of the Kosovo war – a conflict that was energized by media reports that depicted the “Kosovo Liberation Army” as a legion of saints out to free their country from human monsters, rather than the criminal cabal they turned out to be. According to the Clinton News Network, otherwise known as CNN, US intervention was justified because the Serbs were committing “genocide.” The War Party and its journalistic camarilla told us that hundreds of thousands of Albanian Muslims were being massacred by the Serbs. This nonsense is still the conventional wisdom today – except that, as we pointed out at the time, it never happened.
Fast forward to 2016-17: the same people are pushing the same made-up news, except the “enemy” is now Russia.
The Washington Post has been in the vanguard in this respect, publishing a story recounting how the Russians supposedly attacked Vermont’s electrical grid – without even contacting the power company. They had to walk that one back with a “correction” that basically said “Never mind.”
Then there was the story by Washington Post “reporter” Craig Timberg that took the wild assertions of a bunch of anonymous Internet trolls known as “PropOrNot” as good coin, smearing web sites like the Drudge Report, Counterpunch, and Antiwar.com as “Russian propaganda.” They had to append a lengthy correction to that one, too.
And who can forget the Slate story that mistook marketing emails for a direct link by the Trump campaign to a Russian bank – alleged “evidence” that the real estate mogul was taking orders and money directly from the Kremlin. That one was broadcast all over Twitter by the usual suspects before it was debunked, but the purveyors of the lie didn’t care – because the whole point was just to get it out there. Neither author Franklin Foer nor Slate has ever issued a correction, let alone a retraction.
That is really the modus operandi of the fake news industry: just get it out there. Even if it’s debunked, and the originators admit their “error,” it’s too late to reel it back in – and hardly anyone sees the correction. Do you go back to stories that appear in the “mainstream” media to see if they’ve corrected them? Of course you don’t.
That’s why Antiwar.com is a more valuable resource than ever before: we don’t publish fake news in the first place. And, what’s more, we are fact-checking the “mainstream” media 24/7, so that the “news” is corrected before you see it – that is, if you come to us first.
To say that we live in uncertain times is definitely an understatement – and that’s why the world needs Antiwar.com more than ever. Fake news is all over the place, spread by the very people who pose as arbiters of truth: the agenda-laden “mainstream” media. Hardly a day goes by without some anonymous “intelligence official” telling us via the Washington Post, the New York Times, or one of the wire services that Vladimir Putin has infiltrated the highest reaches of the US government, that the poor little Syrian head-choppers (called “rebels”) are really angels of mercy, and that Julian Assange and Edward Snowden are really “agents” of a foreign power.
The fake news comes thick and fast – and we here at Antiwar.com are devoted to debunking it.
This is more than a full-time job: it’s akin to the labors of Sisyphus, who was condemned by the gods to roll a heavy stone up a hill, only to see it roll back down the other side – forever.
This is our fate – but we aren’t complaining. We’re just doing our job, and we’ll continue to do it as long as our readers give us the support and the resources we need to do it well.
But we can’t continue to do this vital job without your financial support. We depend on you, our readers, to help us fight the fake news epidemic and bring the truth about our foreign policy to the American people.
If you’ve been to our front page, you’ll know that our fundraising drive has started – and if you haven’t, well then I’m telling you right now. And this is an especially important one: the country is divided as never before, and the news media is more biased than ever before. To say that the traditional sources of information are less than reliable is an understatement, these days: the sad reality is that we flat out can’t trust them to tell us what the heck is going on. And this is especially true when it comes to overseas news: there are so many pressures on the “mainstream” media to drag us into this or that conflict that the truth is more often than not lost in the rush the establish a “narrative.”
When you come to this web site, you can forget The Narrative. Here is where you get the unvarnished truth, proffered without fear, favor, or partisan bias.
This is our credo, and our vocation: but we need your support – your financial support – to make it happen. The War Party has the fulsome support of the military-industrial complex – those who profit from our foreign policy of endless conflict. On the other hand, Antiwar.com doesn’t get any big donations from major foundations, or eccentric millionaires. All the support we get comes from … you.
Please help us win the battle against fake news – make your tax-deductible donation today.
NOTES IN THE MARGIN
You can check out my Twitter feed by going here. But please note that my tweets are sometimes deliberately provocative, often made in jest, and largely consist of me thinking out loud.
I’ve written a couple of books, which you might want to peruse. Here is the link for buying the second edition of my 1993 book, Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement, with an Introduction by Prof. George W. Carey, a Foreword by Patrick J. Buchanan, and critical essays by Scott Richert and David Gordon (ISI Books, 2008).
You can buy An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard (Prometheus Books, 2000), my biography of the great libertarian thinker, here.
Read more by Justin RaimondoSally Vander Veer, president of Medicine Man marijuana dispensary, paused inside a growing room at their facility in Denver last month.
DENVER — Nestled between a 7-Eleven and a store selling Broncos jerseys, the door to the generic-looking retail establishment is easy to miss. But once inside, the smell is unmistakable.
At Euflora, tables are filled with glass containers of marijuana next to interactive tablets describing each strain (“sweet floral aroma,” “intoxicatingly potent”). An array of marijuana-infused products beckon behind locked cases: from energy shots to sour gummies, brownies to bacon brittle. And if you’re 21 or older, it’s all legal to buy.
This is Colorado, where a billion-dollar-a-year legal marijuana industry has emerged since January 2014. It offers an early look at what Massachusetts could face should voters greenlight an expected ballot question and legalize the drug this fall.
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So has legalization been a plus or a minus?
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“Yes,” Colorado Senate President Bill Cadman replied with a laugh.
The consensus among several top state officials — who emphasize that their job is to carry out the will of the voters rather than mull whether their constituents made the right choice — is that there have been no widely felt negative effects on the state since marijuana became legal, and a crop of retail stores, cultivation facilities, and manufacturers sprung up from Aurora to Telluride.
Legalization has ushered in thousands of new jobs in the burgeoning industry, brought $135 million into state coffers last year, and ended the prohibition of a widely used substance.
But police say they struggle to enforce a patchwork of laws covering marijuana, including drugged driving. Officials fret about the industry becoming like big tobacco, dodging regulation and luring users with slick advertising. And this state, long a leader in cannabis use, has the highest youth rate of marijuana use in the nation, according to the most recent data available from a federal drug-use survey.
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Colorado voters approved a constitutional amendment in November 2012 legalizing the sale of recreational marijuana, which began in 2014.
The drug is heavily regulated. Each plant for sale must be tagged with a radio frequency identification chip, from an early stage of its life to sale, to help the state track it. Marijuana, both in plant form and infused in products, is required to be tested for potency and contaminants, and sold in child-resistant containers.
Bob Pearson for The Boston Globe Matthew Benton weighs and packages marijuana buds for sale at their retail counters at the Medicine Man marijuana dispensary in Denver.
Tourists and locals alike can buy recreational marijuana as long as they are at least 21 and can possess up to 1 ounce. Only those with a medical marijuana “red card,” issued by the state on the recommendation of a physician, can possess more at one time.
While the popular image of marijuana use remains joints and vaporizers, a significant percentage of marijuana sales in Colorado — nearly half according to some estimates — take the form of infused products, such as edible treats, pills, drops, bath soak, and even “sensual enhancement oil.”
More than two years into the still-rapidly growing industry, how do top officials and their constituents see legalization?
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“There are a certain number of folks, like myself, who were pretty reticent about it to begin with,” said House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, a Democrat. But “the sky didn’t fall. Everything seems to be working pretty well.”
‘Everything seems to be working pretty well.’ Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, Colorado’s speaker of the House, on the legalization of marijuana in her state
That’s in line with the view of Colorado voters, according to a November 2015 survey. The poll found 53 percent believe legalizing marijuana has been good for the state, while 39 percent believe it has been bad.
And Dr. Larry Wolk, the top medical official in Colorado’s public health department, said that since legalization no large troubling public health trends have cropped up yet. But he noted sporadic reports of impaired driving and people getting violently ill from ingesting too much marijuana in edibles, such as candy bars.
He said this month new data indicate that the biggest increases in marijuana hospitalizations have been seen among out-of-staters, who might be naive about the drug’s effects.
All marijuana, including medical, is subject to standard state and local sales tax in Colorado. But recreational marijuana is also subject to an additional 10 percent special state tax, along with additional local marijuana taxes. And there’s also a 15 percent excise tax on wholesale transfers of recreational marijuana, that ends up raising retail prices.
For producers, the tax picture is among the many complexities of running a marijuana business.
Sally Vander Veer, president of one of the state’s largest dispensaries and cultivation operations, which has 70 employees and a payroll of about $3.8 million a year, is bullish on her rapidly expanding business. Medicine Man has a 40 percent profit margin, she said. But her company struggles with what she estimates to be an effective tax rate of nearly 50 percent, as well as having to deal almost exclusively in cash. Because marijuana remains illegal under federal law, access to banking services is severely restricted.
The state saw $135 million in tax and fee revenue last year from the recreational and medical marijuana industry, money that has gone to, among other efforts, education for youth and law enforcement on the drug.
State Representative Jonathan Singer, a leader on marijuana issues in the House, said what legalization has done is “allowed marijuana to pay its own way,” with the cost of regulation paid for by dispensaries and consumers.
Yet law enforcement officials offer a more negative, chaotic view. They paint a picture of a quickly evolving array of laws, regulations, and ordinances that outpace their enforcement tools for related issues, such as drugged driving.
For one, they say, there’s no quick, reliable check to see whether drivers are too high to operate a vehicle safely, as there is for blood-alcohol level. And there’s no easy way to determine whether food products in a vehicle are infused with pot.
Bob Pearson for The Boston Globe Young marijuana plants were tagged with the genetic history of each plant at the Medicine Man marijuana dispensary in Denver.
“You have no ability to test the gummy bear laying there on the dashboard,” said Chief John Jackson of the Greenwood Village, Colo., Police Department said.
“Edibles pose a problem because there is no way to tell the potency of it, there is no way to test it in the field. And no law enforcement officer is going to lick it and say, ‘Well, there’s marijuana, THC in that.’ ” (THC is the primary psychoactive compound in marijuana.)
Jackson, former president of the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police, and other police officials said legalization simply moved much faster than law enforcement officers’ ability to keep up with it.
Jackson, who sounded beleaguered in an interview, said a fallacy of legalization is that it would give law enforcement time back to focus on more serious, complicated criminal issues and bigger drug problems.
Two years and two months into full legalization, he said, “we’re not seeing that.”
Another problem with edible marijuana products, said Dr. Michael DiStefano, who directs emergency medicine clinical operations at Colorado’s only top-level pediatric trauma center: the inability of kids to distinguish between normal products and those infused with THC.
When marijuana is “handled responsibly, it’s not an issue for children’s health. The problem is a lot of these edibles,” he said. “They look like regular candy.... There’s no way to discern what is an edible gummy bear that has THC in it, versus a regular gummy bear. In fact, you cannot distinguish them unless they’re in the package.”
He said he’s seen an uptick in kids admitted to the ER at Children’s Hospital Colorado — to about 15 last year — ill from accidentally ingesting edible marijuana-infused foods since the drug became legal for recreational use in January 2014.
Indeed, the most grinding concerns and the biggest question marks focus on kids and young adults. But the effects of legalization on children remain effectively unknown with about two years of experience and lagging statistics.
Opponents of legalization point to a federal drug survey that estimates Colorado had the highest level of any state of 12- to 17-year-olds reporting marijuana use in the last 30 days for 2013-2014. But the change in Colorado’s youth use rate from 2012-2013 — before full legalization— to 2013-2014 — partly after — was not statistically significant. And federal statisticians say the findings are not sufficient to draw conclusions about changes in youth marijuana use patterns as a result of legalization.
Wolk, the top doctor at the state’s public health department, said Colorado marijuana use has always been high compared with the rest of the country.
“No pun intended,” he said, “we started high and stayed high — use hasn’t increased in a statistically significant way since legalization. Those that were using before are still using now, among youths and adults.”
For some opponents, a big concern isn’t just what has happened so far, but what’s yet to come. They worry that the burgeoning marijuana industry, like alcohol and tobacco before it, could eventually use its profits to gain clout and subvert attempts at regulation.
Bob Pearson The Boston Globe Lara Herzog trimmed marijuana plants to separate the buds from leaves and stems iat the Medicine Man facility in Denver.
Jeffrey Zinsmeister, executive vice president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a national nonprofit group cofounded by former US representative Patrick Kennedy that opposes legalization and commercialization of marijuana, said there have been several red flags.
“You’re seeing this headlong rush into another addictive industry without knowing what widespread marijuana use is going to do to society,” he warned. “And the signs from Colorado are not good.”
Officials say their primary concerns include: adults being able to legally consume the drug normalizes it for kids; Joe Camel-like ads that make pot smoking seem appealing to kids; and legalization increasing availability, thus making the barrier to getting marijuana lower.
“I worry about normalization, I worry about commercialization, and I worry about availability,” said Andrew Freedman, who directs Governor John Hickenlooper’s Office of Marijuana Coordination.
“What happens to people over the long term, especially kids over the long term, as they see marijuana normalized, as they see people advertising for marijuana, and as accessibility becomes greater and greater?” he asked. “Kids who are, right now, saying, ‘No thanks,’ will that change over time?”
Freedman and other people deeply involved in the day-to-day oversight of the new market say it functions pretty smoothly. But they emphasize the broader question of whether or not legalization ends up a success will probably take five or 10 years to answer fully.
Joshua Miller can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @jm_bos Click here to subscribe to his weekday e-mail update on politics.At its best, the independence referendum campaign in Scotland has been a reassertion of some of the things that matter most to this newspaper and its readers. The reflections and debates have felt at times like a collective reawakening, achieving a level of public engagement that had seemed to belong to history. In city and village, discussions have been well attended and vigorous. Many will remember this campaign all their lives.
Exciting as it is, though, the campaign should not be uncritically romanticised. Politics can never be like this all the time. The big issues – emotional, economic, cultural and international – have all reared their heads. Others have sometimes been dodged or caricatured. A week from now, whatever the result, there will be a lot of unhappy Scots. Overall, the campaign has breathed fresh possibility into the belief that vibrant civic society really can shape our shared life. That has been a reprimand to the established parties and media. It should not have come to this.
Inescapably, the question of national identity is near the heart of next week’s vote. Scotland’s voters must give their answer to the question – who exactly are we? Many in the modern world do not find it easy to give a single answer. Charles Kennedy’s remark that at one and the same time he is a Highlander, a Scot, a Brit and a European will have resonance for many. There can be no place today for the ugly nationalism that insists that everything is the fault of some other group, while we are different and better than them. Fortunately, that has not been an explicit part of the campaign, though a coded anti-English prejudice can lurk near the surface of Alex Salmond’s pitch. Nevertheless, socialists, greens and other groups are very much part of the yes campaign too, even though they lack the SNP’s machine. That is why the key issue is not identity but effectiveness: better apart or better together?
In any referendum on whether to choose a different path, there will inevitably be an element of profit-and-loss calculation. Early in the campaign, both sides played a bidding-war game over what would leave voters better off. More recently, that argument has been replaced by a more mature contest about larger uncertainties and calculations. It has not always been pretty. Unpopular UK politicians have appeared to finger-wag. But the pro-independence side’s habit of attacking the messenger and ignoring the message is just as unattractive.
Reforming together
The Bank of England governor Mark Carney underscored again this week that real material questions are at stake next week for the voters. Many important UK companies have now felt able to say the same. No one wants the currency and stock markets to be the final arbiters of national viability, but they cannot be ignored either. The economic union is real. An independent Scotland would be viable. But it would face hard times too. Independence would have rewards for some but costs for others.
Overall, the campaign has developed into a large political and philosophical argument rather than a cost-benefit calculation of personal advantage. Over time and on balance, the union was good for the people of these islands, not least in the shape of universal pensions and the NHS that bind us. At the same time, the union has never displaced the particularity of Scotland or England. So the real question is whether an independent Scotland would now offer a better kind of society. The claim that it could has played well for the yes side, not least because the no campaign disagrees about the kind of UK they do not want the Scots to abandon. In the Guardian’s view, the UK’s validity does not rest on monarchy or nuclear weapons. It must ultimately rest on whether the UK can supply social justice more or less reliably than independence can.
Some version of this national question faces everyone in the modern, developed world: it asks how far any nation state can choose and defend its preferred way of life from the impact of globalisation. Voters across the whole of the UK are uneasy and troubled, particularly after the poor and the ordinary, rather than the rich, have had to bear the weight of recovery from the financial crisis. Many Scots believe that independence gives them a chance of sustaining a more social democratic nation. But is this true? The hard evidence is thin. An independent Scotland would face the same problems as the UK, some of them in a more extreme form, since Scotland has a disproportionately ageing population and public spending per head is already high. Polls suggest it is a fantasy that Scots have radically more social democratic views than the rest of the UK. And the Scottish government has proposed no tax changes except cuts in corporation taxes that would cause a race to the bottom. In the end it is a false prospectus.
Does the United Kingdom, as currently constituted or as likely to evolve, offer a comparable or better opportunity for shared life to flourish? There is no easy answer to that question. The UK, with or without Scotland, needs to answer it better than it is currently doing. This requires two large commitments for which the Guardian has always stood. The first is a political economy which has the reduction of inequality and protection for the worse-off at its core. That’s no easier a matter in the continuing or reduced UK than it would be in an independent Scotland. It is the core political task facing all western societies today, and it is surely better done when risks and resources can be pooled across a larger population than a smaller one. It is thus a task better undertaken in a Britain that remains united, rather than one facing breakup. In that sense, Britain deserves another chance.
The second challenge is constitutional reform. As polling day has neared, the UK parties have been falling over each other to offer further change in Scotland. Yet Wales and England need new rights and powers too, including a form of UK federalism that guarantees that the other parts of the country cannot be overridden by England. England is not a Tory country. But that does not lessen the need for a radical new home-rule settlement involving the nations; including a new small, democratic second chamber, and genuine devolution in England. Agreeing the architecture of this is urgent work. Both of these large tasks place a great responsibility upon the Labour party in particular.
In Britain, in Europe and even in the world as a whole, we are indeed better together not better apart. Nationalism is not the answer to social injustice. For that fundamental reason, we urge Scots to vote no to independence next week. But voting no cannot be a vote against change, and there is now at last the real hope that it can be a vote for reform and decentralisation in Britain. The Scots have laid down a challenge to everyone in these islands, and even to Europe too. Better together, yes. But we must all, together, be part of a better future.Truth in Satire
Donald Trump Reviews “Hamilton”
Kevin Froleiks Blocked Unblock Follow Following May 1, 2017
I mean look, you have a hero, an American Hero, truly great, self made with only some help from his father, Ivy League education from Princeton, and on track to become a great lawyer and politician, and a man, and then everyone is fawning, just fawning, over this immigrant who came in from a boat, from the water, like a water boat, nobody mentions this, but the boat came in from another place, across the water, and he gets out, and with no claim to the America that was, begins to make it different and changes it, changes it to become different, you see, nobody talks about this, but America goes from one way to now all of a sudden it’s a different way, and this immigrant should not have been allowed to be as close to the presidency as he was, he infiltrated our military, but then this Ivy League Lawyer was also a war hero, so why is he a villain, answer me that, can you answer that, nobody has the answer, why in the world is the villain of the story a war veteran, brilliant scholarly student who studies, who earned, mind you he earned on his own with the help of his family by himself, he earned not with the help of a boat or the French, he earned a role in Thomas Jefferson’s cabinet as Vice President, and Jefferson’s a great man, truly great, people wonder if he was maybe not so great, because oh Thomas Jefferson said this or did this but he’s on the nickel for a reason, do you understand, people forget, they don’t realize, they always leave out and forget that he was on the nickel for quite a while, and some say even today Thomas Jefferson is and should be on the nickel, and so if people are wondering why America needs to be great again, and why I’m going to Make America Great Again, they’ll need to first ask why was America great again the first time, and it’s because of the brilliant minds of our founding fathers, and Mike Pence is doing a great job, really fantastic, he doesn’t get enough credit so I’d like to just say, he’s doing a great job as my Vice President and I think I’m doing better than Thomas Jefferson because although I’m not on the nickel yet, I also haven’t fired Mike Pence yet, and that’s something, that’s truly astounding, unheard of if you really stop and think about it, so that’s why we need to stop boats and water and especially water boats, it’s absolutely necessary, the boats bring in too many of these people, where are they from, I don’t know, but they could be bad, they could be good, some might be good, but some might be bad, we don’t know, and I don’t know, and that’s what I do know, I know that we need to think about the well being of Americans, the smartest, Americans have the brains and the heads, really something, they have both, brains and heads, truly really, it’s something, and we can’t let them lose anymore, America has been losing since the beginning, it used to be great, but then it was not so great, and some say it was never great because of water boats bringing in these people who can get so close to power, you understand, it’s something that I want to stop and should have been stopped and thank god it stopped so that I can stop it, I don’t have to stop it I mean, but I could stop it if it unstopped later on, and I think that in removing a foreign power with ties and connections outside of America, that maybe Jefferson’s Vice President was acting like Pence, in that he was Vice President, and sure people say he wasn’t so great a guy, but that was way back then and I think Pence is showing remarkable, truly remarkable, fantastic restraint by not just taking out these foreign people, instead he’s thinking with his brain and his head, both at once, incredible, and he’s thinking hey maybe for once we can work together, him and me together, we’re working together to find a solution that makes America truly great again for the first time since the last time.
Anyways, to answer your question, I thought Hello Dolly was confusing.LIBERAL FASCISM: University of Arizona Is PAYING Social Justice Warriors to Report Peers For ‘Bias Incidents’
The University of Arizona is now paying students to be “social-justice activists,” with the job description being to: “report any bias incidents of claims to appropriate Residence Life staff.”
Kat Timpf of the National Review reported:
In other words: These kids are being paid to tattle on other kids for anything they might consider to be a microaggression, and any students who gets these jobs should probably identify themselves so that other students will know to never invite them to their parties.
At 15 hours a week, the students can expect to make around $600/month to report nothing of value, the Daily Caller reports. This new type of paid activism sounds a lot like the types of recruitment techniques Nazi Germany might have used with their Hitler Youth.
From the DC:
Sounding a bit like a block leader in Soviet Russia, SJAs will “openly lead conversations, discuss differences, and confront diversely insensitive behavior.” When students are not complying with social justice standards, SJAs are encouraged to tattle on their peers, reveal the deviant actions to higher authorities and “report any bias incidents or claims to appropriate Residence Life staff.” Non-compliant students might achieve some degree of re-education through “real talks” that SJAs are expected to have with their fellow dorm students. The university stresses that one should not take the duties of an SJA lightly. “The position also aims to increase understanding of one’s own self through critical reflection of power and privilege, identity and intersectionality, systems of socialization, cultural competency, and allyship as they pertain to the acknowledgement, understanding, and acceptance of differences,” the online job description explains.
You can read the full original report by Campus Reform here.
You can view the original job description here.Christopher Dring Publisher Monday 20th November 2017 Share this article Share
Star Wars Battlefront II's Week One boxed sales in the UK were significantly lower than anticipated.
UK retailers told GamesIndustry.biz last month that the new Star Wars game will sell more than Battlefield 1.
However, first week sales are more than 50% down compared with last year's shooter. The boxed sales figures are also down 61% compared with 2015's Star Wars Battlefront.
The disappointing sales follows controversy and anger related to the game's microtransaction model, which EA pulled from the game last minute. It's unclear how much that debacle will have impacted first week sales, although the comparisons are inevitable.
Digital will have made up for some of that drop-off (based on the performance of other games this year). Although, based on EA's digital figures, that won't be enough to make up for the shortfall
55% of Battlefront II's sales were on PS4, 44% on Xbox One and 1% on PC (PC is a primarily digital market).
As a result, Battlefront II only made No.2 (in units, it did make No.1 in terms of revenue). It failed to knock Call of Duty: WWII off its perch, which is still performing very well and is about to hit a major sales milestone after just three weeks. Indeed, it took last year's Infinite Warfare 7 weeks to achieved what WWII has done in just three.
The other big games this week were the updated versions of last year's Pokémon 3DS games - Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.
It's difficult to compare these 3DS games to last year's titles, because they're more extensive updates than entirely original products. Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon's sales are 74% lower than last year's titles. Perhaps a fairer comparison is with 2012's Black and White 2, which were sequels to a previous game, released on ageing hardware (back then, the DS). In comparison to those products, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon sales are up 32.4%. Of course, digital has grown significantly since then, and this only factors in physical sales.
Ultra Sun sold more than Ultra Moon, with the two games making No.4 and No.5 respectively. If sales had been combined, the titles would have been the third best-selling game of the week.
Other new releases this week includes The Sims 4, making its debut at No.7 on PS4 and Xbox One. LA Noire is back at No.8. The remastered version sold best on PS4 (51% of sales), followed by Xbox One (28%) and then Nintendo Switch (20%).
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 makes a debut just inside the Top Ten at No.10, but expect that game to hang around for months and months.
The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim VR on PS4 is at No.19, while the Switch version debuts at No.26.
Here's the UKIE/GfK Top Ten for the week ending November 18th:I frequently agree with ideas expressed on New Geography but certainly not Ian Abley's article There is no "Free Market" Housing Solution
The common line used by advocates of housing affordability has been that the solution lies in “free markets”. Yet this "free market" solution does not address the fundamental problem which is really a political one.
The root of this problem lies with an elite agenda that is highly ideological. The ideology at work is environmentalism, making a moral virtue of the retreat of political and commercial elites from the industrial production of housing.
Home Price Index
On 24 November 2009 the Housing Minister John Healey confirmed that Britain will be the first country in the world to require zero carbon homes as a matter of law from 2016. Britain is the world leader in green ideology.
All of the newly built British housing will have much better insulated walls, windows, roofs and floors. The clear aim of the government is to keep reducing the energy consumption of all new homes to be measured in kilowatt-hours per square metre of floor area per year.
The commitment to "zero carbon" allows government to appear virtuous in its legislation for the new build sector.
This suits the financial markets as well, since it guarantees house price inflation by making it difficult to meet the demographic demand for homes. Environmentalism offers more and more reasons not to build. Green thinking ensures that house price inflation can be sustained through a bubble, and projected beyond the bursting of that period of financialisation into the next.
The idea of a "free market" is a long running ideological myth. But the universal freedom to build would mean people are free to attempt to raise the finance to buy land and build.
The
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trying to recover from the disastrous event, the government deliberately downplayed the uprising's horrors in order to retain its legitimacy. Then, as the economic reforms by Deng Xiaoping started to bring unprecedented prosperity into the country, people's focus shifted from the terrible tragedy of the past to the promising prospect of the future. The Cultural Revolution was both deliberately and conveniently forgotten. This dichotomy is summed up by Hu Rongfen, who was sent to a farm collective during the Revolution:
If the Cultural Revolution came back and I were to be dispatched again, I'd rather commit suicide. I stayed awake night after night at the commune, worrying if I’d ever return to any city. [...] I live a happy life now. I want to live every day like (I were still in my) youth because I was never able to enjoy my teens and 20s.
Economic prosperity loomed, while blotches in the nation's past were swept away under newfound wealth. Memories from particularly difficult periods started to fade and events like the 30th anniversary, the 40th anniversary, and the upcoming 50th anniversary will go largely un-memorialized. There were and are still many academics who call for the sins of the past to be reckoned, yet whether their voice will be allowed to make a larger impact on society is yet to be seen.
This is a curious occurrence, especially since many of the top leaders in China were themselves victims of the Cultural Revolution. The silence on the Cultural Revolution even extends all the way up to the President Xi Jinping. According to The Diplomat, President Xi was relocated to a re-education camp in Shaanxi province from his elite school in the heart of Beijing. The article continues, “What little he has said of the late 1960s and early 1970s has been mostly negative. His colleagues in the Standing Committee had roughly similar experiences. They too have maintained silence.”
Interestingly, because of these patriotic surges, old rhetoric and ideals have reemerged. According to preeminent Sinologist David Leese, the rhetoric and ideals of the time are making a resurgence in popular culture. Leese explains, “some other aspects of the [Cultural Revolution] period are remembered and even romanticized. The recently purged politician Bo Xilai tapped into heroic memories of revolutionary fervor and revolutionary ideals for example by way of singing 'Red songs'”. Especially as anti-Japanese sentiments are occasionally whipped into a frenzy, patriotism flares, and the idyllic class struggle rhetoric surges to the forefront of Chinese society.
In part, the lack of a deeper recognition and official memorialization of the Cultural Revolution is because it was a solely internal phenomenon – a civil war that tore through the national psyche. During the Cultural Revolution, there were no extraneous threats like the Japanese or Europeans to blame for China's misery. The history ingrained in every Chinese student, writes the New York Times, “is that China was humiliated by Western powers. Then some well-meaning but misguided patriots took up the fight until they were properly led by the Communists, whose inevitable victory in 1949 started China's recovery.”
Forbidden to remember, terrified to forget
Mao's Revolution is still a taboo in today's China. If one visits the two-million-square-foot exhibition on the country's modern history at the National Museum next to Tiananmen Square, they will see that the party acknowledges the Cultural Revolution with just one photograph and a three-line caption. For this 50th anniversary, it is highly unlikely that the Cultural Revolution will truly be forgotten, nor will it be properly confronted either.
Though it is not solemnly recreated in a museum or eulogized every year on May 16th, it is still there, a harrowing and unforgettable tragedy in Chinese history. Although there is a Cultural Revolution Museum in the southern city of Shantou, the chances are small for a national-level museum with the somber gravitas of the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall. But, as young Chinese grow into old Chinese, demographics, cultural norms and perhaps even China's collective self-image will change; eventually, the ghost of the Cultural Revolution may be duly confronted.
Edited by the East Asia Gazette.The latest AR-15 fore grip accessory to make its way to the market is the Kinesthetic Angled Grip (or KAG) made by Bravo Company Manufacturing (better known as BCM or simply Bravo Company).
The KAG was designed and made in cooperation with Travis Haley (Haley Strategic Partners – HSP) to create a fore grip that is more ergonomic for the support hand.
For a while I was using the BCM short VFG (vertical fore grip), but I didn’t use it like a traditional fore grip, and rather as a partial grip point when C-clamping the handguard.
I ditched the BCM VFG and switched to a Knight’s Armament Company handstop, which is essentially a small (less than 1″) polymer accessory attached to the handguard to act as an index point for placing the support hand. The reason why I went from a higher profile VFG to the low profile handstop is because the VFG got in the way when I wanted to shoot off a rucksack or other artificial support.
The KAC handstop is a nice way to get an index point on the handguard without the extra bulk of a VFG. That being said, C-clamping the handguard and clocking my hand / wrist forward feels like I don’t have as much control of the front of the gun.
When I saw social media posts by BCM and HSP regarding the new KAG, I decided to order one to give it a whirl. I ordered the Keymod version since I use the BCM KMR.
The KAG is a little more than half the height of the BCM short VFG (Keymod version) so it’s not as ‘bulky’.
Since it is a Keymod version, the KAG-KM simply attaches to a Keymod handguard and is tightened down with a T-15 torx wrench.
As mentioned, the KAG is supposed to be more ergonomic compared to a VFG or handstop, when utilizing a C-clamp grip on the AR-15 platform. It achieves this through the angled design.
Granted, Magpul has been making an angled fore grip for quite some time now. But the Magpul AFG didn’t appeal to me at the time due to the size. It takes more real estate on the handguard length-wise, and it significantly increases the girth of the handguard where the support hand is placed.
After a little trigger time this past weekend with the BCM KAG installed, I am actually quite happy with it and will continue to use it. I feel like I have increased dominance of the gun while firing and it feels quite comfortable.
The list price is currently only $20 direct from BCM, so it’s a low risk venture for anyone looking to try something new.
Like this: Like Loading...Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest, is issuing one final clarion call against Obamatrade as the House readies to vote on the matter on Friday.
Sessions’ final “critical alert,” one of several he’s issued throughout the Obamatrade process, shows House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) has been engaged in deception as he attempts to guide Obamatrade’s passage through the House.
“Promoters of fast-track executive authority have relied on semantic obfuscation in an effort to deny the obvious: the President’s top priority is obtaining fast-track authority because he knows it will expand his powers and allow him to cement his legacy through the formation of a new political and economic union,” Sessions said.
If, as promoters amazingly suggest, the President had more powers without fast-track, he would veto it. The authority granted in “Trade Promotion Authority” is authority transferred from Congress to the Executive and, ultimately, to international bureaucrats. The entire purpose of fast-track is for Congress to surrender its power to the Executive for six years. Legislative concessions include: control over the content of legislation, the power to fully consider that legislation on the floor, the power to keep debate open until Senate cloture is invoked, and the constitutional requirement that treaties receive a two-thirds vote. Legislation cannot even be amended.
It’s unclear what will happen when it does come up for a vote on Friday in the House, but one thing is absolutely certain: Pass or fail, Ryan’s credibility on the right is shot. What’s more, there’s likely to be a conservative grassroots rebellion against establishment Republicans in Washington that may dwarf the one Obamacare caused back in 2010.
Without granting Obama fast-track authority, Sessions notes that Congress remains in charge of trade policy and negotiations. Congress would keep the ability to amend trade deals and the Senate would still have power to filibuster against them—but that’s only if the House shoots down TPA on Friday. If the House passes TPA, there’s no telling what President Obama might do with the new power Congress would be ceding to him.
“By contrast, without fast-track, Congress retains all of its legislative powers, individual members retain all of their procedural tools, and every single line, jot, and tittle of trade text is publicly available before any congressional action is taken,” Sessions said.
Another obfuscation is the suggestion that TPP doesn’t yet exist. To the contrary, it has been under negotiation for six years and lawmakers can enter a closed-door, walled-off chamber to review it. A vote for fast-track is a vote to authorize the President to ink the secret deal contained in these pages—to affix his name on the Union and to therefore enter the United States into it.
“The so-called negotiating objectives in the fast-track bill are merely for show,” Nucor Steel chairman emeritus Dan DiMicco says, according to Sessions. “The President can and does sign the agreement before Congress views or votes on it.”
Sessions then wrote how fast-track authority is “the action that empowers the President to put America’s name on the deal sitting in that walled-off room—before a page of it has been shared with the public.”
From there, Sessions went straight after Ryan.
In a Ways and Means document on the new Pacific Union being formed by Obama, the Committee hints at some of this union’s powers: ‘if a proposed change to a trade agreement is contemplated [by the TPP Commission] that would require a change in U.S. law, all of TPA’s congressional notification, consultation, and transparency requirements would apply. In other words, Ways and Means is intimating that this new secret Pacific Union would function like a third house of Congress, with legislative primacy, sending changes to the House and Senate under fast-track procedures (receiving less legislative procedure than, for instance, Post Office reform). Moreover, this legislative fast-track, Ways and Means implies, is limited to that which requires a ‘change in U.S. law’—meaning if this President (or the next) argues it is simply an executive action, not a legal action, the Executive could have a free hand to implement the Commission’s decrees without Congress. This is not merely a loophole; this is purposeful delegation of congressional authority to the Executive and to an international body. The fast-tracked implementing legislation would have the ability to make these delegations binding as a matter of law.
Sessions noted too how both on the House and Senate sides, amendments that would have specified “Congress retains exclusive legislative authority, and to actively prohibit foreign worker increases” were blocked by Obamatrade promoters. Some, including Rep. Steve King (R-IA), have fallen victim to a phony solution backed by Ryan that wouldn’t fix the problem because it would be an amendment to future legislation that has no guarantees of ever becoming law.
“Fast-track supporters have tried to temper concerns about the formation of this transnational union, and the subsequent Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) that would also be pre-approved through fast-track, by adding additional “negotiating objectives” via a separate customs bill,” Sessions said.
The negotiating objectives are not binding, are not meaningfully enforceable, and no individual lawmaker can strike any provision which violates them. Fast-track keeps what congressional authority is left in the hands of the revenues and Rules committees. Under the Ways and Means ‘solution,’ TPP, TTIP, and TiSA could establish broad goals for labor mobility (allowing Ways and Means to say the negotiating objectives about ‘requiring’ or ‘obligating’ certain changes has not been violated) and the President would then implement those changes through executive action, or change our laws through fast-track.
Sessions noted next how Ryan’s so-called “negotiating objectives” are useless.
“Negotiating objectives are, by design, not explicit or realistically enforceable,” Sessions said.
They include such bromides as saying it must be the goal of the White House “to ensure that trade agreements reflect and facilitate the increasingly interrelated, multi-sectoral nature of trade and investment activity,” and “to recognize the growing significance of the Internet as a trading platform in international commerce.” It stretches the outer bounds of logic to contend that a President who happily disregards the Constitution will be bound to obey a series of broad “negotiating objectives”—especially when those objectives come with a promised surrender of congressional power.
Sessions then cited DiMicco again, and argued that this Obamatrade deal is not “free trade.”
Finally, it must be observed that this is not a “free trade” deal. It is, as Daniel DiMicco explained, a ‘unilateral trade disarmament’ and ‘the enablement of foreign mercantilism,’ whereby we open our markets to new foreign imports and they keep their non-tariff barriers that close their markets to ours. President Obama refuses to answer questions about the impact on unemployment, wage stagnation, and trade deficits. He refuses because the answer is all three will get worse. For instance, a study published in the Wall Street Journal showed that—due to barriers to U.S. auto exports—the deal would increase foreign transportation imports over our exports by nearly four-fold.
Sessions closed his statement by arguing that this deal would further erode American sovereignty and economic strength worldwide, and that’s why establishment Republicans in Washington are trying so hard to rush it through to final passage before Americans know what’s in it. He noted too that this is just like Obamacare and the Senate’s “Gang of Eight” amnesty bill all over again.
Americans have seen their sovereignty, economic position, and political power erode. They have seen that power transferred to an elite set who dream of writing rules in foreign capitals, unburdened by the concerns of the ordinary citizen. To read the trade agreement is to know that, if Congress adopts the fast-track, it will have preapproved a vast delegation of sovereign authority to an international union, with growing powers over the lives of ordinary Americans. Like the Gang of Eight, like Obamacare, and so much else—the goal is to get it approved before the American people know what’s in it.
Critical Alert – Fast-Track Would Pre-Approve Formation Of Sweeping Transnational Union (2)You know how Netflix clobbered Blockbuster using new technology? A very new New Hampshire startup has visions of doing the same thing to Netflix using an even newer technology.
The company, named Lbry, wants to deliver content online like movies via distributed networks of self-appointed nodes, sort of like BitTorrent, using the blockchain technology to confirm information, sort of like bitcoin, with a clever bidding process for file names, sort of like EBay.
“It’s a complex idea trying to deliver something that’s ultimately simple,” said Jeremy Kauffman of Manchester, co-founder of Lbry (pronounced “library”), a startup by Kauffman and college buddy Jimmy Kiselak, who has done the bulk of the actual programming and development, and not much more.
If Lbry works – there’s a proof of concept on its website, lbry.io – the end user wouldn’t see the geekery. We’d just click and watch a movie or listen to a song or read an e-book or play a game just like with current companies, except potentially cheaper and with access to more content.
That’s the idea, anyway. Lbry is in the earliest of startup stages, still funded by friends and family, and hasn’t faced what I suspect will be the biggest problem: Lawsuits from movie and TV and game studios when they realize that somebody else could own the Lbry rights to names like “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The odds are heavily against it.
But it’s still very cool, and since I’m admiring rather than investing, I can ignore obstacles. This is journalism, not reality!
The basic idea behind Lbry is common in the libertarian portions of the tech world: To replace a centralized network with a distributed one.
(It’s no coincidence that I learned about Lbry via an online article shared by Free Staters, who hate centralized systems, or that Kauffman, who has only lived in New Hampshire for three weeks, signed up to move here as part of the Free State Project.)
Whereas Netflix for movies, Amazon for books, Twitch for gaming and similar sites store their content themselves so they can control it, Lbry’s content would be distributed among “hosts” throughout the network. The content is encrypted and sliced up around the network, and gets put back together when it gets to the user.
If you’re at all geeky, right now you’re saying, “Sounds like BitTorrent.”
BitTorrent is a protocol for peer-to-peer (i.e., no central authority) sending of files online that has become the default method for bypassing the corporate world when sharing information. It is infamous for the amount of illegal stuff it handles, including bootlegged versions of films available before the actual film is released, but it’s far more than that.
“BitTorrent is an amazing technology,” said Kauffman, who has a degrees in physics and computer science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, as does Kauffman. “It’s beautiful, it’s elegant, it’s a great system, but it’s missing a few things.”
Specifically, he says, it’s missing incentives for proper behavior, the sort of incentives created in a functioning marketplace.
Lbry tries to fix that problem via a system of small payments – credits – that go to the publishers of content and to the places hosting content, but only when it’s viewed. Along with blockchain, the system that underlies bitcoin, to link “metadata” to files, Kauffman argues that this provides the incentive for people uploading files to be accurate and legal, two things that BitTorrent files often aren’t.
Lbry also proposes payments for folks who help confirm metadata, a parallel to so-called “miners” in bitcoin.
Most interestingly, Lbry establishes a simple naming convention so you can find files (BitTorrent names are incomprehensible) and then proposes to auction off those names to the highest bidder. Anybody can buy the rights to a Lbry name at any time by out-bidding the current owner.
This sounds crazy, since there’s no guarantee that a porn studio wouldn’t buy the Lbry link to the name “It’s a Wonderful Life” and link it to “Debbie Does Dunbarton,” which is exactly the problem you have with BitTorrent.
Kauffman says this will be a self-solving problem, since a misnamed file won’t draw much of an audience and thus won’t be worth much. The only money value to Lbry names, he argues, comes when they are accurate, because that’s what will draw users and thus money.
That sounds reasonable in theory, and is the story of approach you’d expect to see embraced by Ayn Rand fans, but I can’t imagine a New Hampshire startup telling a bunch of Disney lawyers that they need to cough up more money unless they want to see “lbry.io/ToyStory3” pointing to somebody else’s movie.
Still, you never know until you try, do you?
(David Brooks can be reached at 369-3313, [email protected], or on Twitter
@GraniteGeek.)A coalition of Colorado conservatives is banding together to unseat their state’s delegation to the Republican National Convention.
As a #NeverTrump plot based in Colorado seeks to stop Trump from winning on the first ballot, Trump and Ted Cruz supporters are uniting to un-seat the 37 pro-Cruz delegates who earned tickets to Cleveland after a caucus system that shut out presidential voting by regular citizens. Trump is heading to Colorado Friday to speak at the Western Conservative Summit.
Breitbart News has learned that activists have filed a formal challenge to the Republican National Convention to contest all 37 Colorado at-large delegates and alternates, including 34 who were elected, hoping to fill those seats with new people, including four of the contestants.
The challenge is based on the massive ballot errors and inconsistencies that threw the Colorado caucus into chaos and even prompted the chairwoman of the Boulder County GOP to say that the caucus might need to be done over.
#NeverTrump supporter Marilyn Marks, who is representing the contestants, told Breitbart News that a hearing will be held in Cleveland to determine whether Colorado will be un-seated.
“We got a two and a half page response from the Committee just a couple hours ago,” Marks said, citing a response from the Committee on Contest within the Republican National Convention, which she does not yet have permission to release. Marks quoted the response as saying, “The manner in which the CRC selected its at-large delegates and alternates is hardly a model of excellence…The Committee has serious concerns about the chosen balloting processes…”
“They upheld the election, saying there was insufficient evidence of material errors that would affect the outcome of the election,” Marks said. “They absolutely left the door open for an appeal. We will file an appeal.”
“There is a tentative time set for a hearing on July 10 in Cleveland, which is a Sunday, and we are confident that we have more than sufficient evidence of material errors that did affect the outcome of the election. We look forward to presenting that to the Committee at the hearing,” Marks said.
“I am not a contestant here. We have two Trump supporters, two Cruz supporters…I am personally a #NeverTrump person. However, as you know, the election process was unfair, illegal, and didn’t comply with the rules. Even though I am a NeverTrump person, everyone has a right to a fair process,” Marks added.
Kendal Unruh, the Colorado delegate leading the “Free the Delegates” movement to un-bind Trump delegates on the first ballot to cost him the nomination in Cleveland, pushed back against the challenge.
“Any convention has some problems,” Unruh told Breitbart News. “It’s human beings, it’s all volunteers, there are going to be some errors. I anybody had the most problems it was the Cruz slate.”
“We won regardless,” Unruh said. “If you want to complain after the fact…it’s sour grapes. This is silly. The people they’re challenging worked very hard. I know that because we were running the slates. The people [who are contesting the results] did not work hard.”
The formal challenge focuses on the merits of the ballot errors, not the politics surrounding Trump.
“This contest arises from widespread, pervasive Rules violations that resulted in the improper selection and certification of all Colorado at-large delegates and alternates,” according to the text of the formal challenge. The challenge reads:
This contest focuses primarily on the balloting irregularities and errors created by delegates marking materially noncompliant printed ballots, inaccurate tabulations, erroneous and incomplete candidate lists, unequal treatment of candidates, votes counted for ineligible candidates, and voter confusion. The combination of significant violations of election rules and the chaotic environment of the convention resulted in a materially inaccurate, unfair, and reckless election and certification of at-large delegates that must not stand.
Kyle Kohli, communications director for the Colorado Republican Committee, told Breitbart News that the state party is actively fighting the effort to un-seat their delegation.
“We expect to prevail in the event of an appeal,” Kohli said.
Jeff Hunt, the organizer of this weekend’s Summit where Trump will speak, told Breitbart News that the state party chairman is backing Trump.
“I do think it’s going to be a coming-together moment,” Hunt said of his summit, noting that some on both sides of the Trump battle lobbied unsuccessfully to get certain speakers removed. “The person introducing Donald Trump is Steve House, the chairman of the Republican Party, so after everything that happened he will be the one introducing Mr. Trump and giving him a nice firm handshake. So I think that is a good sign that the party here is ready to move forward and unite in defeating Hillary Clinton.”
Gabriel Schwartz, a lawyer and Trump supporter who helped organize the pro-Trump protest at the Colorado State Capitol after the caucus fiasco, told Breitbart News that the delegation should be unseated if it will not back the party’s presumptive nominee.
“My take on it is pretty simple, the people across America have spoken, and they want Donald J. Trump, not Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio or anyone else, and if you didn’t have a rigged system you’d have seen a Trump delegation from Colorado,” Schwartz said, noting that he received an email about the un-seating plan but has not been actively involved in it.
“Look, if you’re going to Cleveland as a Ted Cruzer, why bother? You should be unseated and let Trump people go. Why are you going if you don’t support your nominee?” Schwartz said. “It blows my mind that these people even want to go. If you’re NeverTrump why are you going to Cleveland? To cause more division when we need unity?”
“I hope Mr. Trump is welcomed by a unified Colorado crowd tomorrow at the summit, I hope he raises a lot of money at Mike Shanahan’s house, and I hope we rise up as Republicans to defeat Hillary Clinton,” Schwartz added.
“It was all politicians who got the delegates [at the Colorado caucus]. It wasn’t we the people, people like me or you. Cruz people rigged it and got in,” Schwartz added.Some names and other identifying information have been changed in this story.
He seemed drunk and ready for a fight. The man, mid-fifties, towering and broad shouldered, shouted over the other partygoers to his wife, “Honey, have you seen my jacket? It has my gun in it.”
George Mekhail, a pastor in his early thirties, tried to ignore the man for most of the party. That is, until he staggered toward George, amped for a confrontation.
George’s friend Jeff had invited him to this family friend’s Christmas gathering in Arlington, WA, a rural, predominantly white town outside of Seattle. Jeff and George hail from different worlds—Jeff is a white truck driver from a blue-collar Christian family, while George is an Egyptian-American pastor from an immigrant family. Despite their differences, a bromance had bloomed.
The drive into the country echoed the setup of the critically-acclaimed horror movie Get Out, in which a black photographer accompanies his white girlfriend to her family’s estate. As the landscape gave way to highways flanked by thickets of conifers and low-slung warehouses, Jeff reassured George that his brown body would be safe at this white party.
Of course, as a tall, striking, Egyptian-American man in a room of about eighty white, rural Christians, “I stuck out like a sore thumb,” George recalled. But it didn’t faze the affable pastor, who says he thrives outside his comfort zone. He worked the party like a pro, bouncing between conversations and laughing at jokes. Jeff said he’d be fine. But George was more than fine. He was having fun.
But then the grumpy drunk stumbled over, pointed at the beanie on George’s head and barked, “Why don’t you take that hat off. You look like a fucking terrorist.”
The white partygoers grew silent and waited for George to react, which he eventually did, diffusing the conversation with politeness. Though he lowered the heat a few notches, the man continued to call him a terrorist so many times that George realized something that hadn’t occurred to him, “He was concerned that I might have actually been a terrorist.” Still, nobody came to George’s defense, leaving him alone with this angry, potentially-armed man. “I didn’t feel like he was going to kill me,” George says, “but he wanted to intimidate me.”
This, and the fact that it happened one month after the election of Donald Trump, was a clarifying moment for George. Up to this point, he had spent over five years as the executive pastor of Seattle’s EastLake Community Church, a mostly white evangelical megachurch. His congregation adored him, but he had recently begun to realize the ways his own self-erasure might just perpetuate xenophobic evangelical culture. He rarely brought up his Egyptian heritage or the fact that he spoke Arabic, and he distanced himself from Egypt’s Muslim-majority population by going “out of my way to make sure people knew I was a Christian.” George acknowledges that he has been “complicit in every aspect of the (white evangelical) system.”
“I was working on a book that was marketed toward evangelicals and I’m no longer doing that because I think it’s a waste of time. I don’t think they’re ready. I’d rather work with folks who are ready.”
But this new administration has changed everything for George and evangelicals of color across the nation. The fact that 81 percent of white evangelicals supported a candidate who channeled white nationalism is not lost on minority believers. Nor is the unending news of travel bans, appointments of white nationalists, mass deportations and racial hate crimes. It has forced a reckoning.
Today, believers of color are redefining their relationships with white evangelicalism in ways that could dramatically shift the landscape. Already, people of color make up a larger portion of the entire American Christian population than before, and church growth experts predict they will make up the majority of the Christian population after 2042. And their values are largely at odds with the white evangelical support for Trump; pre-election surveys showed that nonwhite evangelical Protestant voters, which included black, Hispanic and Asian-Pacific Islander Protestants, supported Clinton over Trump by a very wide margin (67% vs. 24%), according to the Public Religion Research Institute.
So while white evangelicals captured the election, they may have lost their fellow believers, the very people who could keep their churches, denominations and institutions from the attrition that has many Christian institutions and leaders genuinely worried for the future. These days, evangelicals of color are talking next steps. Their endeavors run the gamut, but the ones gaining steam include leaving evangelicalism altogether, reframing the evangelical world as a mission field as opposed to a place for spiritual nourishment, creating ethnic safe spaces or staying firmly planted in evangelical community to combat racism from within. It’s too early to tell which will prevail, but the urgency and organization happening within communities of color point to a fundamental shift in the evangelical landscape.
Like these evangelicals of color, in the aftermath of the election and that party, George began to question everything.
“The final nail in the coffin”
For one attendee of a California megachurch, the questions began after her pastor made a sermon joke about how King Nebuchadnezzar’s Median Wall was built because he “got the Mexicans to pay for it.” The audience roared with laughter, but “Jan,”* who is Korean American, and her Mexican-American husband, ushered their children out of the service. Jan asked her pastor for a public apology. When he shrugged off her request, she was shocked. He had been a spiritual guide for years. He officiated the funeral of her son. But now it was as if they didn’t know each other. She resigned from her role in the children’s ministry, and her family has left that church for good.
Jan is one of many evangelicals of color choosing to depart from white evangelical spaces. For some, that means leaving churches and communities while for others, it means not supporting evangelical conferences or organizations that are predominantly white. Many describe these moves as “divestment” from white evangelicalism: they’re moving money, bodies and souls elsewhere.
Social justice advocate Alicia Crosby, who actively works with evangelical organizations, says divestment among her colleagues of color means finding spaces that foster healing for marginalized people. Her organization, the Center for Inclusivity, does just that giving Crosby, who is black and a former evangelical, a front row seat to how “marginalized people feel betrayed” by white evangelical support for Trump.
“For some people, the divestment began before the election,” says Dr. Chanequa Walker-Barnes, associate professor of practical theology at Mercer University and author of Too Heavy a Yoke: Black Women and the Burden of Strength. “One friend said the election was the ‘final nail in the coffin of my relationship with the evangelical church.’”
Walker-Barnes added that among the prominent minority evangelical leaders she knows, forms of divestment vary, from declining speaking invitations from evangelical colleges and conferences to turning toward organizations led by people of color, even if they are not explicitly Christian, such as Colorlines or the National Urban League.
Personally, “I don’t know if I’m doing a full divestment from evangelical spaces, but I’m definitely pulling back,” says Walker-Barnes, who is in the process of getting released from a book contract with an evangelical publisher. “I was working on a book that was marketed toward evangelicals and I’m no longer doing that because I think it’s a waste of time. I don’t think they’re ready. I’d rather work with folks who are ready.”
“Like it was all for nothing”
These forms of divestment come after a four-decade-long evangelical initiative many call “racial reconciliation,” something I write about in depth in my book Rescuing Jesus: How People of Color, Women and Queer Christians are Reclaiming Evangelicalism. The movement gained traction in the mid-1970s when black and white evangelical leaders tried working together. At the seminal Thanksgiving Workshops, annual meetings in which evangelical luminaries tried forging a progressive coalition, black leaders like John Perkins and William Pannell advanced conversations about combatting racism within white evangelical culture.
Discussions flourished momentarily, but support from white evangelicals eventually waned. (The same pattern played out with women.) White male evangelical neglect of issues concerning black evangelicals and evangelical women prompted these groups to turn to their own coalitions. As a result, the progressive movement lost its minority and female constituency and faded into the shadows just as the religious right was born. It wasn’t until the late 1980s and 1990s that the “racial reconciliation” movement gained momentum again. Animated by a new generation, mainstream leaders embraced the movement, which prompted, in 1997, the Wall Street Journal to call evangelicals, “the most energetic element of society addressing racial divisions.”
Despite this drive, two key problems stood in the way of truly bridging the racial divide. First, conversations about race made many white evangelicals uncomfortable, which often led to disengagement. For example, after Bill McCartney, the white leader of Promise Keepers, made this subject a focal point at his stadium-packed events in 1996, he reported that about 40 percent of participants reacted negatively to the theme, likely leading to the drop in attendance the following year.
“I got more out of these three tweets than I did out of sitting in church for two hours.”
The second problem: white evangelical “racial reconciliation” lacked rigor. It focused on building personal relationships between races, not addressing the systemic inequalities that devastate communities of color. This led minority evangelicals to question whether “racial reconciliation” was simply a convenient vehicle for white absolution and, given the long history of white oppression within the church (using the Bible to justify slavery, supporting Jim Crow segregation, condemning the Civil Rights Movement, to name a few), to what exactly were they “reconciling” in the first place.
But that didn’t always lead to disengagement. To this day many evangelicals of color have continued this work in white evangelical spaces, including the very leaders who prompted the movement in the 1970s and those who gave it new life in the 1990s. That’s why the exit polls showing widespread support of Trump by white evangelicals felt like such a devastating blow to them.
“For those of us who have been doing this for a while – making the circuit, speaking to crowds – it almost feels like it was all for nothing,” says Soong-Chan Rah, a professor of church growth and evangelism at North Park Theological Seminary. Rah, who is Korean American and a frequent speaker at evangelical institutions, adds, “It was a blatant ignoring of everything we’ve been trying to teach for decades now. Maybe I was being naive; I thought after the election people would have a little more remorse…this is white evangelicalism revealing itself in ways that are deeply dysfunctional.”
Their mission field, not their church
This is the context that has prompted so many evangelicals of color to change course. But not everyone is leaving.
As a growing number of minorities redefine their associations, many have chosen to see white evangelical spaces as their “mission field,” but not their source of spiritual nourishment.
These days, SueAnn Shiah just gets angry during church sermons. Still, the Taiwanese American congregant at a conservative, white church in Nashville, remains committed to serving on the church’s racial justice committee because she believes she can help dismantle racism within her community. She just goes elsewhere for spiritual development.
One Sunday, she left the sanctuary mid-sermon, upset because her pastor was not addressing current injustices impacting vulnerable communities. She scrolled through Twitter, where most of her spiritual discussions have migrated. There she read some revelatory tweets about a friend’s Sunday school conversation about how the slaughtered lamb in the prodigal son parable represents the oppressed. “Someone else screws up and I’m the one who has to pay for it,” she recalls reading. It gave her a new perspective on the familiar passage and she thought, “Oh wow, I got more out of these three tweets than I did out of sitting in church for two hours.”
“Some think it’s an anomaly that a black lesbian can be a Christian, but there are many out there like me, not just gay but those who are pro-choice and Christian, anti-Trump and Christian and interfaith and Christian.”
“Evangelical space has been a continual place where the tensions around race, gender and sexuality exist all the time,” says Ra Mendoza, the recruitment, academics and diversity coordinator at Mission Year, an urban ministry with evangelical roots. Mendoza, who is Mexican-Latinx, says that in most evangelical communities, people looked to her to “call things out, but I wasn’t part of creating the new thing.” That is, these groups never invited her to create something that actually corrected the problems she called out; they listened to her critique and they thought that was enough. Mendoza has instead planted her spiritual life in non-evangelical communities of color, but she remains committed to Mission Year because it’s actually “trying to create a new space that doesn’t perpetuate whiteness and sexism and all the stuff that was built into our DNA for the last 20 years.”
Many feel compelled to compartmentalize their personal spirituality and
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over the limb of the Earth? They are streaks in the upper atmosphere left behind by a meteorite that flared over Chelyabinsk in Russia on Feb. 15. The spectacular bolide that exploded over the Russian populace made international headlines when it was recorded by dozens of bystanders and dashcams. The event shook everyone in their morning routine and drew attention to the fact that meteors regularly impact the Earth. Because of the photographic ubiquity of the modern world, scientists have been able to estimate the meteor’s trajectory, speed, and initial size with fairly good confidence. Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, aerospace engineer and geophysicist Simon R. Proud from the University of Copenhagen proposes using geostationary satellites to help monitor future impacts and other small objects entering the Earth’s atmosphere. The method could come in handy when ground observations or other evidence is sparse. Proud hunted down the Chelyabinsk meteor’s trail in images from three Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellites, which take photos of the Earth every 15 minutes. By knowing the wind speeds in the upper atmosphere at the time of the event and using visual parallax, Proud was able to calculate the meteor’s orbital characteristics. The results are in good agreement with other methods and suggest that the technique could be used again in the future. Image: Simon Proud/University of Copenhagen, original image is copyright EUMETSAT 2013 Original caption: Wired Science
Nov. 24: Cubesat Release Framed by the Earth and enormous mechanism of the International Space Station, three tiny cubesats (measuring 10 x 10 x 10 cm) are tossed like dice into space. The Japanese robotic arm Kibo deployed the small satellites. With shrinking electronics, such devices could be increasingly more common in the future. Image: NASA [high-resolution] Original caption: NASA
Jan. 23: Gas and Dust in LMC The Large Magellanic Cloud is a satellite galaxy orbiting our own. Having this cosmic laboratory so nearby gives scientists the chance to study amazing processes that affect all galaxies. As NASA wrote of this image: Vast clouds of gas within it slowly collapse to form new stars. In turn, these light up the gas clouds in a riot of colors, visible in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Image: ESA/NASA/Hubble [high-resolution] Original caption: NASA
Mar. 17: 15,000-Pixel-Wide Panorama of Mt. Sharp NASA's Curiosity rover has been hunting for evidence of Mars' habitable past. Along the way, it's sent back some genuinely thrilling photos of the Red Planet's surface, a collection of which were stitched together to produce this amazing 15,000-pixel-wide mosaic of Mount Sharp. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS [Click here for mind-blowing 15,000-pixel-wide full panorama] Original caption: NASA/JPL
Jan. 29: Two New Views of Andromeda The Andromeda Galaxy is our closest large neighbor. Though usually photographed in visible wavelengths, the galaxy takes on whole new characteristics in the infrared eyes of ESA's Herschel space telescope. As NASA put it: The new image reveals some of the very coldest dust in the galaxy -- only a few tens of degrees above absolute zero -- colored red in this image. By comparison, warmer regions such as the densely populated central bulge, home to older stars, take on a blue appearance. Intricate structure is present throughout the 200,000-light-year-wide galaxy with star-formation zones organized in spiral arms and at least five concentric rings, interspersed with dark gaps where star formation is absent. Andromeda is host to several hundred billion stars. This new image of it clearly shows that many more stars will soon to spark into existence. Image: 1) ESA/Herschel/PACS & SPIRE Consortium, O. Krause, HSC, H. Linz. 2) ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech/NHSC [high-resolution] Original caption: NASA
Apr. 28: Icy Face of Enceladus Look, we love all the moons in the solar system. But we love some moons more than others. Routinely topping that list is Enceladus, the geyser-shooting icy world orbiting Saturn. This breathtaking pic of Enceladus released this year from Cassini is one of the best we've ever seen. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/G. Ugarković [high-resolution] Original caption: ESA
June 25: Near the Habitable Planets Astronomers think they've discovered planets around the star multiple system Gliese 667, whose surrounding environment is seen here. And not just a few, but seven exoplanets in a system much like our own, including some in the habitable zone where life could exist. As ESO wrote: A record-breaking three of these planets are super-Earths lying in the zone around the star where liquid water could exist, making them possible candidates for the presence of life. This is the first system found with a fully packed habitable zone. Image: ESO [high-resolution] Original caption: ESO
May 23: Ligeia Mare Is there anywhere in the solar system that we know you could go for a nice dip? Saturn's hazy moon Titan is one. The frozen world is too far from the sun to have liquid water on its surface. But temperatures are just right for hydrocarbons like methane and ethane to flow, creating enormous seas like this one, Ligeia Mare. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/Cornell [high-resolution] Original caption: Cassini Solstice Team
July 3: Earth Full of Clouds Nothing could be better than floating high above our world in a spaceship. This image, tweeted by ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, shows off the beauty of our planet, with sky meeting sea in a perfect bubble of space. Parmitano wrote of the picture: “The sky is simply perfect.” Of course, for people living down below, the weather would have been described as “patchy, with sunlight coming through at times”. Image: ESA [high-resolution] Original caption: ESA
Oct. 12: Hebes Chasma Mars is a world of extremes. Even a medium-sized canyon named Hebes Chasma on the Red Planet would rank among the biggest on Earth. Imagine the vistas from its edge. Image: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum) [high-resolution] Original caption: ESA
Aug. 10: Red and Blue Nebulas Two very different looking nebulas are captured in a star-forming region of the Large Magellanic Cloud. Go to the blue nebula, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. But go to the red nebula, you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Image: ESO [high-resolution] Original caption: ESOShare. Ready at Dawn continues to push the PSP to new heights Ready at Dawn continues to push the PSP to new heights
Kratos might possibly be the angriest game character ever created. We all know he accidently killed his wife and child in service to the gods, but his belligerent attitude has often made me wonder what else might have happened to him to make him so filled with rage. We get some insight into this in God of War: Ghost of Sparta, which does a wonderful job adding depth to Kratos' character while delivering one of the most fun and beautiful gameplay experiences on the PSP.
Set between God of War and God of War II, Ghost of Sparta picks up right at the end of God of War, with Kratos sitting upon his newly claimed throne looking appropriately grumpy. After all, becoming a god didn't remove the disturbing memories of his past, but now he's being plagued by a vision we've never seen before -- an old woman lying sick on a slab of stone. Convinced he can actually change this vision, Kratos sets off for Atlantis on a quest that eventually takes him back to his home of Sparta and into the realm of Thanatos, god of death.
Exit Theatre Mode
At E3 this year, reps from Ready At Dawn Studios said they were skeptical about doing another God of War game because they felt they had accomplished all they could on the PSP with God of War: Chains of Olympus. Luckily for us, they discovered they actually could push the system further, and it really shows.
Ghost of Sparta is gorgeous. Graphically, it looks better than a big chunk of PS2 games, and is absolutely the best-looking game on the PSP thus far. Detailed environments featuring constant rain and cascading water and lava create beautiful backdrops and really bring the world to life. Kratos looks wonderful as well. In fact, his character model was rebuilt from the ground up to add more detail for this game, such as the fact that he can be bathed in blood during battle, like he could in God of War III.
As far as the gameplay is concerned, there's nothing super unique here, but that's not a bad thing. You'll still spend your time slaying countless enemies, traversing dangerous domains, and solving light puzzles. Combat has been perfected throughout the series, so there's not a lot to improve upon, and too much change would have been jarring. That said, there is a brand new weapon and two new magical attacks that add something new to the experience.Putting Together A Database Of Bogus DMCA Takedowns
from the interesting-move dept
"no reasonable copyright holder could have believed that portions of the e-mail archive discussing possible technical problems with Diebold's voting machines were protected by copyright."
Over the years, we've written many, many stories of completely bogus DMCA takedowns. It's a pretty common occurrence. Sometimes it's done accidentally by clueless bots (or clueless humans). Sometimes it's done maliciously. We just had a case that appeared especially egregious, involving a site copying another sites' articles, then claiming copyright over the originals in order to take down the original stories (which just happened to paint a professor in a very poor light for allegedly faking parts of some high profile research). That story inspired David Weekly (founder of PBWiki, HackerDojo, SuperHappyDevHouse and a few other things) to do something: he set up the site DMCAInjury.com, which is just a simple Google spreadsheet input form at this point, but hopefully can become something much more.David has pointed out that it would be handy to have some more cases in which the filers of bogus DMCA notices are actually punished for their actions under section 512(f) of the DMCA. As we discussed last year, it's very difficult to win a 512(f) claim, in part because the language is so vague and so far courts have interpreted it pretty narrowly.However, as David points out, there have beensuccessful cases, including the case that the EFF ran against Diebold nearly a decade ago. David was actually one of the plaintiffs in that case. If you don't remember, someone had leaked some internal documents from Diebold (makers of e-voting machines) which showed the company was well aware of massive security problems with their machines. Diebold first tried to claim the documents were fakethen used the DMCA to claim they were covered by Diebold's copyright and that it could issue takedowns on them. As you might have noticed, those two claims would contradict each other. Either way, a judge pointed out that:The problem, of course, is that there just aren't that many such cases (there are a few scattered ones, including the Lenz case we've been talking about recently). So finding such cases, and actually having them go to court could be useful -- though I still think strengthening the ability to punish bogus DMCA notices would be helpful (well, and changing the entire DMCA takedown process, but that's another post for another day). Via email, David admits that this is just a "trial balloon" to see if it turns up any interesting cases of bogus takedowns that might make for good 512(f) cases. And that would be good, though the weaknesses of 512(f) still make it pretty difficult to find ideal cases, even as we see DMCA abuses all the time.Even with that being the case, if this effort doesn't turn up bogus takedown notices for new cases, at the very least, perhaps it will create a useful dataset to explore the nature and frequency of bogus DMCA takedowns.
Filed Under: 512f, bogus takedowns, copyright, dmca, takedownsTidal + FÖLJ
Uppgifter: Jay Z sparkar Tidals anställda i Sverige
1 av 5 | Foto: AP Jay Z värvade personligen Tidals delägare.
avChristoffer Nilsson
MUSIK 16 april 2015 19:01
Musiktjänsten Tidal slår hårt mot sina anställda.
Jay Z och de övriga ägarna sparkar nu medarbetare i Sverige, Danmark och Norge.
Enligt uppgifter till Nöjesbladet drabbas en handfull personer på Stockholmskontoret.
I flera artiklar har Nöjesbladet skrivit om Jay Z:s köp av det svensk-norska företaget Aspiro som ligger bakom musiktjänsterna Tidal och Wimp.
Efter köpet väntade en storlansering av streamingtjänsten Tidal och under en presskonferens avslöjades det att Jay Z fått med sig ett tiotal världsartister till tjänsten som skulle gynna upphovsmän och användare.
Men alla verkar inte tjäna på lösningen.
Nu har Jay Z och de övriga Tidalägarna beslutat att sparka alla medarbetare i Sverige, vilket Breakit.se först rapporterade om.
Anställda har informerats
De anställda ska ha informerats om uppsägningarna och enligt uppgifter till Nöjesbladet är det en handfull personer som drabbas på Stockholmskontoret. En ännu större smäll riktas mot bolagets kontor i Köpenhamn där ett dussintal personer tvingas sluta, enligt en källa med insyn. Även medarbetare i Oslo påverkas av beslutet där bland annat vd:n Andy Chen uppges bli utbytt.
För de enskilda anställda är beskedet tungt.
– Det är en mörk dag och för jobbigt att prata om just nu, säger en anställd.
Uppgifterna har ännu inte bekräftats officiellt.
Nöjesbladet har sökt Tidals presschef samt ett flertal styrelsemedlemmar utan resultat.
Jay Z: ”Stor möjlighet”
Inför lanseringen fick Jay Z med sig ett tiotal artister – bland annat Rihanna, Daft Punk och Madonna – att stödja Tidal. Enligt tidigare uppgifter till Billboard ska han ha erbjudit världsstjärnorna tre procent var av bolaget.
För Billboard har han även talat om sin ledarfilosofi gällande Tidal.
– Det är en stor möjlighet för alla och inte något som endast tillhör en person. Det vore inte rättvist, inte en demokratisk process och det är inte idén bakom det här, sa han då.
Missa inga nyheter om Tidal – följ Nöjesbladet på Facebook!
16 april 2015 19:01Orioles president Andy MacPhail and manager Buck Showalter just spent about 30 minutes taking fans questions here at Camden Yards as part of the latest “State of the Orioles” address with season ticket holders.
MacPhail was asked by a fan why the club seems to be outbid by some other clubs in the international market.
“We did spend more last year then we did the year before and we’ll probably spend more this year than last year. We are actually making progress in that market based on what Buck and I see in terms of velocities coming out of our Dominican Summer League and our Gulf Coast League. We are actually having success developing some arms there,” MacPhail said.
“I am not a big believer in spending a huge amount in a signing bonus on a player that you only worked out in not a game-type environment. For us to commit millions of dollars, which some teams are willing to do and frankly, I’m not, on just workouts and tryouts in a complex type of environment, I’m not there. The guy has to play.
“Come out here at 5:30 and a lot of guys are hitting home runs they aren’t during the game. If I’m going to put my money down on this player and bet on his future, I want to see him in a competitive environment. It’s not just who can run the fastest time and hit the ball the farthest in batting practice.
“A lot of the signing bonuses that you are reading about for no doubt talented players that are signing with these other clubs for millions out of the Dominican, they are doing that without the benefit of playing games. That is a not a risk I am willing to take.” he said.
Check back here later for most quotes from today’s address with the fans.Activist Post
The fight against indefinite military detention continues. Yesterday, the Las Vegas City Council and the Clark County Commission drafted anti-NDAA legislation to protect the Constitutional rights of their constituents.
City Councilman Bob Beers and County Commissioner Chris Giunchliani put forth the draft.
Afterward, Daphne Lee, the Clark County Chapter Head of PANDA, and Christopher Corbett, Nevada Executive Director of PANDA, expressed their gratitude to Beers and Giunchliani. Corbett said:
This initiative will help raise awareness of the NDAA and encourage other municipalities and our state legislators to do the same.
Specifically, sub-sections 1021 and 1022 of the NDAA allow the indefinite arrest, imprisonment and/or transport to foreign prisons of anyone on U.S. soil whom the federal government declares is a terrorist suspect. In short, the 2012 NDAA enables the government to make any person on U.S. soil a prisoner of war.
Currently making its way to committee in the Nevada State Legislature is a related bill, Don Gustavson’s BDR 728, the Nevada Liberty Preservation Act.
You can help stop this violation of our Constitutional rights. You can help stop the NDAA. Encourage your representative to support this legislation, or thank them for doing so:
If you live in Las Vegas, go to:
http://www.lasvegasnevada.gov/Government/council.htm
If you live in Clark County, go to: http://www.clarkcountynv.gov/depts/countycommissioners/pages/default.aspx
Join us in the battle to stop the NDAA nationwide:
http://pandaunite.org/join-us/
Edited by Ed R. Green
Here Read other articles and announcements from Activist PostDeep in the basement of the Washington Four Seasons hotel on Tuesday, a roadshow of the Democratic Party’s possible 2020 presidential contenders gathered to try out the big ideas they hope will propel their party forward.
But the daylong meeting — packed with some of Democrats’ leading operatives and donors — repeatedly bumped up against the party’s current predicament: most of the left’s big new ideas must contend with an environment dominated by President Donald Trump and the latest news out of a White House under siege.
Story Continued Below
Convened by the liberal Center for American Progress think tank for its Ideas Conference, the event featured an array of presidential prospects who found themselves effectively up for inspection at a full-fledged, pre-2020 showcase.
Starting with an opening address from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti — who has discussed his national ambitions in conversations with California fundraisers and strategists — the speeches and panels ran for eight hours until a closing speech from New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker. This was no dry policy forum — it veered from tryout to pep rally and back again, with chatter ranging from concrete policy proposals and party strategy floats to enraged discussion of the president’s conduct with respect to Russia.
As the Democratic Party works to rebuild itself in the age of Trump and embarks on the early planning for 2020, here are POLITICO’s five takeaways from the event:
IT’S ALL ABOUT RUSSIA
Early on Tuesday, the Democratic Priorities USA super PAC released a new round of polling that strongly pointed to the health care debate as one of the party’s most crucial fights ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. But the proceedings demonstrated that the storyline of Trump’s ties to Russia will drown out everything else for the foreseeable future.
CAP president Neera Tanden mentioned Trump’s disclosure of classified information to the Russian foreign minister less than five minutes in, and for the rest of the day just about every address and on-stage discussion included a lengthy condemnation of the president, no matter how dissonant the detour was with the main points of speeches.
For Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, that meant sitting down for an extended discussion about foreign policy that gave him the occasion to predict a renewed push from Democrats this week to demand a special prosecutor to look into Russian involvement in the 2016 election.
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, fresh off a presidential speculation-stirring trip to Iowa, diverted from her talk about rural voter outreach to demand the White House’s recording of Trump’s conversation with the Russian diplomats, if such a tape exists. California Sen. Kamala Harris called on GOP senators to “put country ahead of party and hold this presidential accountable.” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, for her part, said Democrats need to remind Trump “his personal desire to impress his Russian buddies does not outweigh the safety, security, and lives of Americans and our allies.”
And all that was before Booker issued the day’s final Russia barb: “Truman had a sign on his desk that said, ‘The buck stops here,’” said the first-term lawmaker. “Trump should have one that says, ‘The ruble stops here.’"
THE 2020 RACE IS ALREADY UNDERWAY
Few of the prominent lawmakers in attendance came to the windowless room — a ballroom where Wesley Clark was treated like a celebrity — specifically aiming to preview their potential campaign trail pitches. But their presentations revealed the contours of the presidential lanes that are forming.
While Booker took the stage aiming to project a message of optimism for his party — rather than zeroing in on any specific policy proposals — liberal Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley made clear in his panel discussion that his focus is on transforming the modern economy to a model that doesn’t leave everyday workers behind.
For some of the presenters, it meant a more forceful return to the rhetoric that’s made them politically famous: Warren, for example, went on an extended riff about the Trump team’s failure to “drain the swamp” as promised.
“The swamp is bigger, deeper, uglier, and filled with more corrupt creatures than ever in history,” she said. “The CEO of Exxon-Mobil is now the Secretary of State, Goldman Sachs has enough people in the White House to open a branch office. The Senate is scheduled to vote just this week on a nominee for Associate Attorney General who worked for years at the Chamber of Commerce to shield companies from any government accountability. Do you get the feeling that if Bernie Madoff weren’t in prison, he’d be in charge of the SEC right now?"
Murphy’s conversation made clear that his foreign policy focus is a distinguishing factor, and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand — a second-term lawmaker who has become a face of the Trump “resistance” — used her time to challenge the president to support her paid leave proposal, a longtime priority that she is looking to elevate as she amplifies her role as a defender of women.
Harris, a former prosecutor, used the opportunity to call attention to the Trump administration’s drug policies, specifically singling out Attorney General Jeff Sessions over and over and insisting, “if they care about the opioid crisis in rural America, as they say they do, they’ve also got to care about the drug-addicted young man in Chicago or East L.A.”.
And Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, painting himself as a party reformer desperately trying to save Democrats nationwide before it’s too late, turned his focus to redistricting, a cause he has started crossing the country to promote as he renews his ties to major party donors.
“Ladies and gentlemen, our future, the future of the Democratic Party for the next decade, will depend on how we handle this redistricting fight,” he said.
DEMOCRATS ARE STILL SEARCHING FOR THEIR VOICE
Even as the party’s next-big-things offered paths forward for Democrats, they continued to struggle with how to avoid getting drowned out by the daily deluge of Trump news.
A top party priority since Clinton’s loss has been to find ways to pick targets carefully rather than reacting to each of Trump’s headlines, and multiple speakers on Tuesday explicitly pointed to the difficulty of making that a reality.
“With everything going on, we must multitask,” Harris said. “We’ve got to keep our eye on Russia and North Korea, but we can’t lose sight of domestic policy, healthcare, immigration, climate change, and rolling back reform of criminal justice.”
“I was originally going to talk about how President Trump is routinely betraying the working class voters that he pledged to fight for,” said Gillibrand. “But last night’s reporting has truly taken us to a whole new level of abnormal: the president is truly creating chaos."
With nearly every presenter mentioning reports of Trump’s Oval Office meeting, their challenge was underscored just as the day’s event — from which many hoped for good headlines about themselves — came to a close. Shortly after Booker finished speaking, Washington was rocked yet again by a New York Times report that Trump asked former FBI Director Jim Comey to end an investigation into his former National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn.
Having left the Four Seasons earlier in the day, Murphy was by then back in the Senate. “Just leaving Senate floor,” he tweeted. “Lots of chatter from Ds and Rs about the exact definition of ‘obstruction of justice.’”
BERNIE’S SHADOW
Few national figures have been as active in trying to shape the post-2016 Democratic Party as Bernie Sanders, but the Vermont senator wasn’t present on Tuesday. Not invited because he had run for president before, Sanders was set to speak on Tuesday evening in a CNN debate with Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
But at the Four Seasons, signs of his influence — and speculation about his 2020 plans — were everywhere.
Warren has long spoken of the need for more economic populism as she rails against financial conflicts of interest, but pieces of her speech were also reminiscent of the message that Sanders took national — a reminder of why many Democrats thought she might endorse him in 2016 before she ultimately decided to stay out of the primary.
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And the only senator to endorse Sanders in 2016, Merkley on Tuesday formulated a pitch that at times sounded very familiar to followers of the Vermonter’s stump speech about how millionaires and billionaires have rigged the economy against working class Americans.
“Trump may have talked about workers in the campaign, but the reality on the ground is Billionaires First,” he said.
THE LESSONS OF 2016
The day’s conference was specifically designed to answer forward-looking questions, and the names “Clinton,” “Sanders,” “Obama,” and “Biden” were hardly mentioned at all. But some of the day’s most awkward moments came when lawmakers alluded to Clinton’s loss in 2016, demonstrating the party’s failure to fully address what, exactly, went wrong and led to Trump’s stunning upset win.
The day was punctuated by remarks about coal miners — shorthand for the kinds of workers that Clinton lost in droves — and reminders of how the speakers know how to relate to them. Even a big-city mayor like Garcetti insisted that his constituents in Los Angeles are “not that different from folks in coal country.”
Yet the criticisms amped up when it came time to provide suggestions about how the party can reach rural voters and those in more conservative states. Klobuchar said the need to show up and campaign in rural areas “is a bit of what we learned in the presidential race, but it’s certainly a winning strategy” — though she declined to use Clinton’s name.
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, who won re-election in 2016 even as Trump won his state by 21 points, was even more straightforward, getting right to the point in front of an audience that included some of Clinton’s biggest backers, including her campaign chairman John Podesta.
“As a national party, Democrats don’t seem to focus on this anymore. Think about those Rust Belt states we lost in 2016: the strategy was all about using data to find people who already agreed with us, so that we could drag them to the polls,” he said.
“And there was little attention paid to places where it might be difficult to win. There was little talk about trying to persuade people, about offering voters a reason to vote for a Democrat for president. If that was my strategy in Montana I would have been kicked out a long time ago. Democrats need to do a better job of showing up and making an argument, even in places where people are likely to disagree. It’s good for campaigning, it’s good for governing, it’s good for democracy, and it will be good for our Democratic Party."Over at Cosmic Variance, I learned that FQXi (the organization that paid for me to go to Iceland) sponsored an essay contest on “The Nature of Time”, and the submission deadline was last week. Because of deep and fundamental properties of time (at least as perceived by human observers), this means that I will not be able to enter the contest. However, by exploiting the timeless nature of the blogosphere, I can now tell you what I would have written about if I had entered.(Warning: I can’t write this post without actually explaining some standard CS and physics in a semi-coherent fashion. I promise to return soon to your regularly-scheduled programming of inside jokes and unexplained references.)
I’ve often heard it said—including by physicists who presumably know better—that “time is just a fourth dimension,” that it’s no different from the usual three dimensions of space, and indeed that this is a central fact that Einstein proved (or exploited? or clarified?) with relativity. Usually, this assertion comes packaged with the distinct but related assertion that the “passage of time” has been revealed as a psychological illusion: for if it makes no sense to talk about the “flow” of x, y, or z, why talk about the flow of t? Why not just look down (if that’s the right word) on the entire universe as a fixed 4-dimensional crystalline structure?
In this post, I’ll try to tell you why not. My starting point is that, even if we leave out all the woolly metaphysics about our subjective experience of time, and look strictly at the formalism of special and general relativity, we still find that time behaves extremely differently from space. In special relativity, the invariant distance between two points p and q—meaning the real physical distance, the distance measure that doesn’t depend on which coordinate system we happen to be using—is called the interval. If the point p has coordinates (x,y,z,t) (in any observer’s coordinate system), and the point q has coordinates (x’,y’,z’,t’), then the interval between p and q equals
(x-x’)2+(y-y’)2+(z-z’)2-(t-t’)2
where as usual, 1 second of time equals 3×108 meters of space. (Indeed, it’s possible to derive special relativity by starting with this fact as an axiom.)
Now, notice the minus sign in front of (t-t’)2? That minus sign is physics’ way of telling us that time is different from space—or in Sesame Street terms, “one of these four dimensions is not like the others.” It’s true that special relativity lets you mix together the x,y,z,t coordinates in a way not possible in Newtonian physics, and that this mixing allows for the famous time dilation effect, whereby someone traveling close to the speed of light relative to you is perceived by you as almost frozen in time. But no matter how you choose the t coordinate, there’s still going to be a t coordinate, which will stubbornly behave differently from the other three spacetime coordinates. It’s similar to how my “up” points in nearly the opposite direction from an Australian’s “up”, and yet we both have an “up” that we’d never confuse with the two spatial directions perpendicular to it.
(By contrast, the two directions perpendicular to “up” can and do get confused with each other, and indeed it’s not even obvious which directions we’re talking about: north and west? forward and right? If you were floating in interstellar space, you’d have three perpendicular directions to choose arbitrarily, and only the choice of the fourth time direction would be an “obvious” one for you.)
In general relativity, spacetime is a curved manifold, and thus the interval gets replaced by an integral over a worldline. But the local neighborhood around each point still looks like the (3+1)-dimensional spacetime of special relativity, and therefore has a time dimension which behaves differently from the three space dimensions. Mathematically, this corresponds to the fact that the metric at each point has (-1,+1,+1,+1) signature—in other words, it’s a 4×4 matrix with 3 positive eigenvalues and 1 negative eigenvalue. If space and time were interchangeable, then all four eigenvalues would have the same sign.
But how does that minus sign actually do the work of making time behave differently from space? Well, because of the minus sign, the interval between two points can be either positive or negative (unlike Euclidean distance, which is always nonnegative). If the interval between two points p and q is positive, then p and q are spacelike separated, meaning that there’s no way for a signal emitted at p to reach q or vice versa. If the interval is negative, then p and q are timelike separated, meaning that either a signal from p can reach q, or a signal from q can reach p. If the interval is zero, then p and q are lightlike separated, meaning a signal can get from one point to the other, but only by traveling at the speed of light.
In other words, that minus sign is what ensures spacetime has a causal structure: two events can stand to each other in the relations “before,” “after,” or “neither before nor after” (what in pre-relativistic terms would be called “simultaneous”). We know from general relativity that the causal structure is a complicated dynamical object, itself subject to the laws of physics: it can bend and sag in the presence of matter, and even contract to a point at black hole singularities. But the causal structure still exists—and because of it, one dimension simply cannot be treated on the same footing as the other three.
Put another way, the minus sign in front of the t coordinate reflects what a sufficiently-articulate child might tell you is the main difference between space and time: you can go backward in space, but you can’t go backward in time. Or: you can revisit the city of your birth, but you can’t (literally) revisit the decade of your birth. Or: the Parthenon could be used later to store gunpowder, and the Tower of London can be used today as a tourist attraction, but the years 1700-1750 can’t be similarly repurposed for a new application: they’re over.
Notice that we’re now treating space and time pragmatically, as resources—asking what they’re good for, and whether a given amount of one is more useful than a given amount of the other. In other words, we’re now talking about time and space like theoretical computer scientists. If the difference between time and space shows up in physics through the (-1,+1,+1,+1) signature, the difference shows up in computer science through the famous
P ≠ PSPACE
conjecture. Here P is the class of problems that are solvable by a conventional computer using a “reasonable” amount of time, meaning, a number of steps that increases at most polynomially with the problem size. PSPACE is the class of problems solvable by a conventional computer using a “reasonable” amount of space, meaning a number of memory bits that increases at most polynomially with the problem size. It’s evident that P ⊆ PSPACE—in other words, any problem solvable in polynomial time is also solvable in polynomial space. For it takes at least one time step to access a given memory location—so in polynomial time, you can’t exploit more than polynomial space anyway. It’s also clear that PSPACE ⊆ EXP—that is, any problem solvable in polynomial space is also solvable in exponential time. The reason is that a computer with K bits of memory can only be 2K different configurations before the same configuration recurs, in which case the machine will loop forever. But computer scientists conjecture that PSPACE ⊄ P—that is, polynomial space is more powerful than polynomial time—and have been trying to prove it for about 40 years.
(You might wonder how P vs. PSPACE relates to the even better-known P vs. NP problem. NP, which consists of all problems for which a solution can be verified in polynomial time, sits somewhere between P and PSPACE. So if P≠NP, then certainly P≠PSPACE as well. The converse is not known—but a proof of P≠PSPACE would certainly be seen as a giant step toward proving P≠NP.)
So from my perspective, it’s not surprising that time and space are treated differently in relativity. Whatever else the laws of physics do, presumably they have to differentiate time from space somehow—since otherwise, how could polynomial time be weaker than polynomial space?
But you might wonder: is reusability really the key property of space that isn’t shared by time—or is it merely one of several differences, or a byproduct of some other, more fundamental difference? Can we adduce evidence for the computer scientist’s view of the space/time distinction—the view that sees reusability as central? What could such evidence even consist of? Isn’t it all just a question
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winner. It was effective, with Nadal breaking Djokovic in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead. Djokovic regained that break several games later to lock things up at 4-4, but another Nadal break gave him a 6-5 lead and clear path to the set. Regardless of Rafa’s late break, Djokovic clearly gained strength as the set progressed, making it clear to Nadal that he wasn’t having an off day, just one that took a little longer to get going than usual.
There were obvious reasons for Djokovic’s slow start, chief among them his marathon five-set match against Andy Murray on Friday. No matter the explanation, though, what was startling about it was how a player whose game rests on holding the upper hand had to work his way into gaining it. It was a necessary process for an athlete who, like a small household appliance or children’s toy, comes into most matches with no assembly required. The monolith didn’t just appear out of nowhere; it came into being before our eyes.
Based on that first-set progression, it came as little surprise that Djokovic took control of the next two sets (6-4 and 6-2, by score) to reestablish the dominance he’d held over Nadal in their two major-final meetings last year. Djokovic sent Nadal from corner to corner with enough slices to turn the monotony into something more like sadism. Nadal’s test of will was rendered hapless; he was less the valiant knight than the protagonist in a Greek tragedy, trying his hardest to defy a fate that had been decided long ago.
It was also around this time that I started to check out mentally, and not just because it was roughly 3:30 in the morning in San Francisco. A Djokovic victory is almost always impressive but rarely inspirational, akin to watching someone recreate a Jackson Pollock painting drop by drop from the world’s longest instruction manual. As a physical accomplishment, it’s amazing. As a piece of drama, or really just athletic narrative, it’s a little dull. If Federer finds new ways to rethink tennis geometry on every point and Nadal conceives of the basic act of running to one side of the court as emotional expression, then Djokovic exhibits very little in the way of discovery from moment to moment. For full appreciation as an athlete in a state of continual self-improvement, he requires the right context. Like Pete Sampras before him, he’s a champion who needs someone to match his success in order to become transcendent.
It’s hardly controversial to claim that legendary rivalries or thrilling matches make athletes more exciting; many memorable Nadal-Federer contests prove as much, and those guys are plenty great when they’re not playing each other. It’s rare, though, for the best player in a sport to seem so utterly mechanical in domination and come across as more amazing in crisis. It’s when Djokovic loses control that he becomes most animated and the competitive drive that allows him to dominate so often manifests itself most clearly. When he’s down, or on the wrong side of momentum, Djokovic gets to shots with the overexerted effort of Nadal and produces winners with a near-Federerian level of creativity. It’s not that Djokovic is incapable of being exciting when in control of a match, but that he chooses the path of least resistance. The same qualities come out when he’s down—they just become easier to read as the efforts of a man doing everything he can to turn the tide of the match. The unbeatable favorite and plucky underdog are revealed as the same person thrust into different situations.
The saving grace of Sunday’s match, then, was that Nadal came back in the fourth when he seemed finished, for it allowed both men to present the best aspects of themselves. For the Spaniard, that meant he pushed himself in ways we haven’t seen since the glory days of Federer at Wimbledon, when Nadal (particularly in 2007) made matches closer than they anyone had expected them to be simply because he appeared to want it more. For Djokovic, that meant playing from beyond, as described above, but also thriving in uncertainty in a way he hasn’t in quite some time. Djokovic’s first-set reestablishment was fundamentally an issue of getting into a match over the course of several games, a tough but by no means unheard-of task. What he did late in the match was far different. With a 4-3 lead in the fourth set, Djokovic held a love-40 lead at a time when one more point would have given him a chance to serve for the match. He blew the opportunity, thanks to a bit of classic Nadal toughness, and lost the set in a tiebreaker that he very easily could have won. To give up a chance like that to Nadal, a competitor with the bloodthirstiness of a shark, would spell doom for any other player in the draw. Dropping a break to Nadal in the fifth set to go down 4-2 only made things worse—it seemed as if he’d blown his chance to win the championship and maintain his stellar record over his closest rival by failing to close things out when the match was his for the taking.
That wasn’t the end of Djokovic, of course: he took the break back immediately and won five of the match’s last six games to seal the title. However, calling that stretch a comeback or reassertion of dominance does a major disservice to Nadal, who equaled Djokovic during that time and lost more because of a few vagaries of physics than any massive failures. Djokovic’s accomplishment on Sunday was defined not by his usual peerless play, but the fact that he weathered his mistakes, didn’t entirely overcome them, and still won. He came out of Sunday’s match with the trophy, not that stupid silver plate, without ending the match in clear control. For a guy who seemingly never fell under serious duress during his three Grand Slam championships last season, that represents significant progress both emotionally and aesthetically.
For all we know, this fantastic match—along with his very similar semifinal against Murray, which deserves its own lengthy column—might have been an outlier during a string of historic accomplishments. We can hope, though, that it’s not the case. Similar to Federer’s status several years ago, Djokovic’s increasingly clear establishment as the sport’s top dog could inspire his closest competitors to step up their games in order to present any sort of challenge. For the sake of the sport, and Djokovic’s development into a transcendent superstar, it might be necessary. This isn’t about the excitement of a rivalry, but the joy of witnessing a great athlete become something more.Yesterday, Sen. Ted Cruz became the first candidate to announce they’re running for president in the 2016 election cycle, during a speech he gave at Liberty University. Liberty students were required to attend or face a fine, so Cruz had a pretty decent crowd to help try to insert some perceived energy into his political campaign.
As I sat last night and listened to the speech, and thought about the ways in which secular political loyalty has bled into the Kingdom of God, it made me wonder if Jesus himself would be invited to give a speech at a Christian university in America? And, if he did get invited, would he get thrown out mid-speech for sounding liberal or un-American?
Personally, I’d be shocked if he were invited and even more surprised if they didn’t cut his mic– because here’s some things I think Jesus would say about our current culture that would rub people the wrong way:
“You have heard some of my opponents say that we must kill and destroy every last member of ISIS… But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who hate you, so that you can become God’s children!”
…
“You have heard some of my opponents say that we must find ways around the drug shortage for executions in America, but I tell you: Let he who is without sin administer the first injection!”
…
“You have heard some of my opponents say that we are exceptional, but I tell you: No, we are not! There is none exceptional except for God.”
…
“You have heard some of my opponents say that the poor should go and find their own healthcare, but I tell you: Woe to you who say this yet will not touch their burdens with your own fingers.”
…
“You have heard some of my opponents downplay the seriousness of police violence against minorities in our country, but I tell you: It would be better for one to fling themselves into the sea than to harm a child.”
…
“You have heard some of my opponents say there’s nothing wrong with a Christian being filthy rich, but I tell you: It will be easier for a camel to fit through a needle’s eye than it will be for a rich Christian to enter heaven!”
…
“You have heard some of my opponents say there’s nothing wrong with corporate wealth and greed, but I tell you: Just wait and see what I’m going to do at the temple this passover.”
…
“You have heard some of my opponents say that we must get rid of all restrictions on guns, but I tell you: If you want to follow me you must put away your weapons! If you live by them, you’ll die by them.”
…
“You have heard some of my opponents say we must be tougher in the area of justice, but I tell you: Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy.”
…
“You have heard some of my opponents say we should build a giant wall to keep people out, but I tell you: Invite the poor, the lame, and the blind– then you will be blessed because they cannot repay you.”
…
“You have heard some of my opponents say we must be bold and draw hard lines in our churches, but I tell you: What sorrow awaits you who slam the door to the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces!”
…
“You have heard some of my opponents say we must return mandatory prayer to our public schools, but I say: you hypocrites! You love to pray in public where everyone can see you. Instead you should go to your house, close the door, and pray to your father in secret.”
…
“You have heard some of my opponents say we must ‘stand with Israel’, but I tell you: Oh, Israel! You who kill God’s messengers. How I longed to stand with you, but you would not receive me. You will not see me again until you are ready to bless me.”
…
“You have heard some of my opponents say we must pass laws ensuring that we don’t have to bake cakes for gay weddings, but I tell you: If a gay person asks you to bake a cake for their wedding, bake them two!”
…
“You have heard some of my opponents on both sides say we need to ‘take this country back’ but I tell you: It will be the meek, not the politically powerful, who will inherit this country.
…
“You have heard some of my opponents promoting ‘rugged individualism’ and that the poor must fend for themselves, but I tell you: Depart from me! For I was thirsty and you didn’t give me water. I was hungry and you didn’t feed me. I was naked and you didn’t clothe me. I was a prisoner and you didn’t visit me. I was an immigrant, but you tried to keep me out.”
…
See? I just don’t think the message of Jesus would be all that popular today in many Christian universities. These are just a few of the things Jesus said that I think would rub our culture the wrong way, but I’m sure there are many, many more that would offend people on both sides of the political spectrum.
In the end, I know the message of Jesus is crazy. But it’s the only message I’ve found that’s beautiful enough to give my life for- so this message of Jesus is where you’ll keep finding me, regardless of whether or not he ever gets invited to speak at a Christian university.A Six-Point Plan to Cut Traffic
Last year was the deadliest year on American roads in almost a decade — more than 40,000 people lost their lives in traffic crashes. Tens of thousands of lives could be saved each year if the U.S. achieved per capita fatality rates comparable to countries like Sweden, the UK, and even Canada.
If we’re going to create a safer transportation system — not to mention reduce vehicle emissions, which now account for more carbon pollution than electric power — we’re going to have to drive less.
A new study of travel and development patterns in Massachusetts sheds light on what can be done to cut down on traffic [PDF], Bill Holloway reports at the State Smart Transportation Initiative. The researchers identified six factors that affect the amount people drive in the state:
Land use mix (average distance between homes and the nearest retail establishment) Household density (households per square mile of land area) Sidewalk coverage (percentage of road miles with a sidewalk at least 3 feet in width) Transit access (average distance between homes and the nearest transit stop) Intersection density (number of intersections per square mile) Managed parking (block groups with a single-use parking structure within 1 mile scored 1, others scored 0)
All of these factors were found to play a significant role in driving mileage, but two were especially important:
Among the built environment variables evaluated, land use mix (the average distance between homes and the nearest retail establishment) and household density had the largest impacts on passenger VMT. Other built environment variables found to exert significant influence on passenger VMT include sidewalk coverage, intersection density, managed parking, and the distance from homes to the nearest transit stop. By enacting policies to change these built environment variables, Massachusetts could reduce statewide passenger VMT by 13.6% below the business-as-usual scenario by 2040. If policies to shift projected population gains in the state towards lower-VMT communities are enacted in addition to these built environment changes, VMT could be reduced by a total of more than 15%.
More recommended reading today: In light of the news that the Trump administration is withholding funds for Caltrain electrification, Pedestrian Observations looks at why electrification matters and where it should be implemented. Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space examines the Tampa region’s resistance to expanding transit. And Seattle Transit Blog reports that Sound Transit has countered a lawsuit that threatens a light rail expansion across Lake Washington.Levi Rosenblatt, the 22-year-old rabbinical student who was stabbed earlier this morning in the 770 Eastern Parkway synagogue, has been placed in an induced coma after doctors discovered internal bleeding that is putting pressure on his brain.
Early this morning, doctors at Kings County Hospital discovered a ‘vascular laceration’ that was causing internal bleeding and adding increased pressure on the victim’s brain.
Although Kings County is a top-rated hospital, their staff are not equipped to handle the procedure – which is described as micro surgery – and the victim had to be transported to anther hospital.
At around 7:00am, an ambulance along with an NYPD escort transported the patient to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, NY, where a staff specializing in this type of surgery was awaiting him.
The procedure is expected to take place sometime today, and the public is asked to increase their prayers for the victim, Levi Yitzchok ben Raizel, to make a complete and speedy recover.
Update at 3:00pm:
Doctors at Bellevue Hospital performed a non-invasive surgery on Rosenblat, and expressed optimism that the procedure was successful. His vitals are strong, they reported.
Rosenblat’s condition, though improving, is still serious, and the doctors are keeping him sedated for the time being.NORMAN, Okla.— There’s no avoiding it now. One social outrage has been identified and exorcised, and another has been teed up.
Goodbye, BCS. Hello, pay for play.
And you know what Bob Stoops thinks of this?
“I tell my guys all the time,” Stoops says, “you’re not the first one to spend a hungry Sunday without any money.”
How’s that for a shoulder to cry on?
While BCS conference commissioners have worked the last 18 months to find a solution to funding “full cost” scholarships (another word for extra stipend); while attorneys for Ed O’Bannon are closing in on a potential landmark class action ruling that could destabilize amateurism as we know it, Oklahoma’s star coach wants you to know not everyone is marching in step with the latest social outcry.
You want to argue billion dollar television contracts, or marketing jerseys and apparel, or a player’s cut of all that dough? Stoops has an answer for it all. Sit back and soak it in.
“You know what school would cost here for non-state guy? Over $200,000 for room, board and everything else,” Stoops said. “That’s a lot of money. Ask the kids who have to pay it back over 10-15 years with student loans. You get room and board, and we’ll give you the best nutritionist, the best strength coach to develop you, the best tutors to help you academically, and coaches to teach you and help you develop. How much do you think it would cost to hire a personal trainer and tutor for 4-5 years?
“I don’t get why people say these guys don’t get paid. It’s simple, they are paid quite often, quite a bit and quite handsomely.”
Brian Kelly, Nick Saban argue for stipends
If you think Stoops is just firing off numbers, think again. According to the University of Oklahoma, it costs $29,924.50 per year for out of state tuition, room and board and books.
That’s $149,622.50 alone over five years for 58 players on the 79-man spring roster who aren’t from the state of Oklahoma—not including the various specific training each student-athlete receives. Then there’s minimum freshman academic requirements. Universities don’t publish SAT requirements—but the accepted scores are well above the minimum score of 700 for student-athletes.
“A lot of our guys wouldn’t be here if they were like every other student,” Stoops says. “I hear what they’re being fed on the outside. Sometimes we have to feed them some perspective.”
You better believe that’s Stoops’ hardscrabble, you’re the only one you can count on Youngstown, Ohio, attitude is seeping through. And why not?
It got him this far: from an undersized safety at Iowa, to an All-American for the Hawkeyes, to a rising young assistant coach to one of college football’s most successful coaches over the last 15 years.
He’s 51 now, and he earns more than $4 million a year coaching football. Easy for him to speak out against paying players, you say.
Easy for him to add perspective, he says.
“I wouldn’t be here today if I wasn’t a football player at Iowa,” Stoops said. “To have that experience with Hayden Fry, Dan McCarney, Barry Alvarez, Bill Snyder, Kirk Ferentz—those were all of my coaches there. You think I’m here at Oklahoma without that experience of learning and growing under them? So all these kids I’m coaching now that are getting paid to go to school, they can be in my spot when they’re 51, too—or they could not. They’re getting a background to have a chance to do it.”
Exhibit A in Stoops’ argument: OU offensive coordinator Josh Heupel. In his two years as an OU player (1999-2000), Heupel played under Bob Stoops and future head coaches Mike Stoops (Arizona), Mark Mangino (Kansas), Mike Leach (Texas Tech, Washington State) and Chuck Long (San Diego State). As an OU assistant, he also worked closely with then offensive coordinator Kevin Sumlin (Houston, Texas A&M) and a handful of the game’s elite assistants.
And even though Heupel doesn’t agree with Stoops on the subject—“I think there should be some stipend,” Heupel says— he is also Stoops’ example for the argument that fans buy jerseys and tickets to games to see specific players.
When Sam Bradford was in the middle of his Heisman Trophy winning season in 2008, Stoops pulled his star quarterback aside one day after practice and decided to make a point.
“Sam Bradford was one of the most humble and grounded players I’ve ever been around; he got it,” Stoops said. “But I even told him, what makes you think those fans in the stands are wearing No.14 for you? Who says it’s not an old Josh Heupel jersey? I tell our guys all the time. It could be you—or it could be anyone else.
“Those 70,000 fans in the stadium are cheering and buying tickets to see Oklahoma.”
Blunt? Yes. Fair? You better believe it.
But understand this: Stoops says these things; he preaches the gospel that few amid the social outrage can see, because he wants his players to realize the value of an opportunity few receive. The percentages are slim of players moving on to the NFL and making money, and even those that do are finding it harder to keep their job or stay healthy long enough to make a living.
So you can complain about getting paid, or you can seize the opportunity.
“I’ve always said college is more about proving you can make it on your own,” Stoops said. “Proving you can go through the process and come out on top and be ready for the world. The typical student here leaves our university and has a boatload of student loans to pay back. Our players leave not owing a dime to anyone.”
Even if they do go hungry every couple of Sundays.I am working on a little side project that involves mining Reddit data. It fetches a listing of all posts on different subreddits and copies the obtained data to a Google spreadsheet for further analysis (more on the project later).
Reddit, unlike most websites, allows web scraping as long as the crawler scripts make no more than one request every two seconds to the Reddit servers (see rules). You don’t even need a developer account or an API key to perform scraping on Reddit.
There are popular tools like wget, Site Sucker (Mac) or HTTrack Website Copier (Windows) that can download entire websites for offline use but they are mostly useless for scraping Reddit data since the site doesn’t use page numbers and content of pages is constantly changing. A post maybe listed on the first page of a subreddit but it could find itself on the third page the next second as other posts are voted to the top.
While there exists PHP and Python libraries for scraping Reddit, they are too complicated for the non-techies. Fortunately, there’s always Google Apps Script to the rescue. Here’s what you can do to pull data from any Subreddit on Reddit automatically.
Open the Google Sheet and choose File – Make a copy to copy this sheet in your Google Drive. Go to Tools -> Script editor and copy-paste the Reddit Scraper Script. You can change “LifeProTips” to any other subreddit name. While in the script editor, choose Run -> Run and authorize the script.
That’s it. The script will run in the background automatically pulling content from Reddit into the Google spreadsheet. And it stops automatically once all the posts* of that Reddit have been fetched.
[*] All Subreddits on Reddit display a maximum of 1000 posts – you can’t go beyond that number even while manually browsing a subreddit.One of the many blessings of being able to work with the Appalachian State University Cross Country and Track and Field programs is that I was able to attend my 3rd USTFCCCA Convention, which was hosted at the JW Marriott in San Antonio this year. In its 10th edition, it’s a huge week-long event full of executive meetings, information sessions, technical symposiums, and of course lots of delicious meals and the awesome Hall of Fame and Bowerman Award Ceremonies.
This year’s convention also provided me with two new opportunities. Because I would be paying for a flight out West anyway, I figured what’s the harm in tacking on a little trip to LA for a course preview prior to convention. And since I was out there already, I finished off the week with a 2-day intensive course in Strength and Conditioning expertly instructed by Boo Schexnayder and Carrie Lane.
I’ll save my takeaways from Convention and my Strength and Conditioning Course and just focus on the LA course preview here.
Although it was about a 24-hour trip, I had a great time in LA and remembered what a fun adventure it can be to travel alone sometimes. I ran the course on Sunday afternoon (2.2mi loop), picked up some delicious super traditional Bimbim Bap at Gam Ja Gol on my way back to my awesome AirBnB, fell asleep at 7pm (gotta love travel to the West Coast), and got up 11 hours later to check out the 6mi loop.
Here are my top 3 takeaways from the course:
LA Olympic Trials Course Preview:
The start/finish straightaway is shockingly short. For reference, the straight away we had in Houston was about 280 meters – about 200m before the first turn and the last turn was 200m before the finish. LA’s start/finish straightaway is 140 meters total, which means at best we’ll have 120m before we have to take a hard left onto Pico.
Honestly, I don’t think this will be too much of an issue, but it is good to know just for visualization purposes. There are a lot of turns. With 11 turns in the 2.2mi loop plus 18-20 turns in the big loop (depending on how you count turns), there are at least 83 turns on the course, and that includes a 2-mile section that has 14-16 turns in it (again, depending on what you consider a turn) including the one pictured below – we will be coming in from the left and going through the barricades or bollards on the right.
This section will certainly slow things down a lot, and force a lot of pace changing, partially depending on how the turns are coned off. The USC campus section of the course will be really neat, especially since we’ll get to run by the Coliseum on each loop. It should also be an interesting place to watch, especially since we loop around so much and if it pours on race day, it could become even more exciting, kinda like watching Nascar. The good news is that the long sections on Figueroa do allow for really opening up and getting into a good rhythm. Plus, there are some beautiful views, and in my opinion, the incline/decline is barely noticeable.
Summary: This will be a great course for the crowds, so that part is really exciting. I’m sure there were tons of factors to consider when planning the course, many more than I can even imagine. All in all, I think it’ll be an awesome day. The fact is, at the end of the day, we’re all going to be covering the same 26.2 miles and the top 3 will become Olympians.Google said a lawsuit by Max Mosley, Formula One’s former president, asking it to block any further search results referring to a “Nazi-themed” sex party would create unprecedented censorship on the Internet.
Lawyers for Mosley asked a French court today to force Google, the owner of the world’s most-used Internet search engine, to build software filters that would detect and delete certain content, Daphne Keller, an associate general counsel at Google, said in a post on its website.
“We have removed hundreds of pages for Mr. Mosley, and stand ready to remove others he identifies,” Keller said. “But the law does not support Mr. Mosley’s demand for the construction of an unprecedented new Internet censorship tool.”
Mosley, 73, won a 60,000 pound ($94,000) breach-of-privacy award in a U.K. court in 2008 from News Corp.’s now-defunct News of the World newspaper for publishing the story on a Nazi-themed “orgy,” along with a video, without contacting him. A judge ruled there was no Nazi theme and the story wasn’t in the public interest. Mosley won a similar ruling in France in 2011 when a judge ordered News Corp. to pay as much as 32,000 euros ($42,278) in fines and fees over the story.
Mosley in 2011 told a U.K. inquiry investigating the phone-hacking scandal at News Corp. that he filed suits against Google in Germany and France over the search results.
"People’s Dignity"
France and Germany are pilot cases, and depending on how successful Mosley is — and if he doesn’t reach an agreement with Google out of court — there will be more lawsuits, said Tanja Irion, a lawyer representing Mosley at law firm Irion in Hamburg, Germany. The suits could be filed in other EU countries and in Mountain View, Calif., where Google is based, she said.
“The case is very important, not only for Mr. Mosley, also generally for the protection of people’s dignity and privacy on the Internet,” Irion said.
The German case will be heard by the Hamburg court on Sept. 20, the court’s press office said today. Rulings in both cases can be appealed.
The case raises similar issues with a Belgian suit that ended up in the EU’s top court, testing the scope of the powers of national courts. The EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg in a precedent-setting case ruled in 2011 that a national court cannot order an Internet-service provider to install a filtering system to prevent illegal downloading of files.
Image: CARL COURT/AFP/Getty Images
This article originally published at Bloomberg hereThe Department of the Treasury and the IRS can authorize the State Department to take away U.S. passports from individuals with seriously delinquent tax liabilities. (Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
It might be wise to pay your overdue income taxes before packing for that European river cruise.
A new enforcement provision passed by Congress and signed into law earlier this month allows the government to revoke the passports of seriously delinquent tax scofflaws — people who owe more than $50,000 to Uncle Sam.
"You could be on your honeymoon and they could revoke your passport," said Tom Wheelwright, a certified public accountant and chief executive officer at ProVision Wealth Strategists in Tempe, Ariz.
Some details still need to be worked out, but the new passport rule indicates the government wants to get serious about collecting unpaid tax debts. The IRS reported 12.4 million delinquent accounts owing nearly $131 billion in assessed taxes, interest and penalties in 2014.
In addition to going after delinquent taxpayers by revoking their passports, the FAST Act highway-transportation bill signed by President Obama on Dec. 4 also gives private debt collectors a shot at forcing taxpayers to make good on their debts. The act includes a mandate that the Internal Revenue Service turn over certain unpaid tax delinquencies to private debt collectors.
The passport-revoking provision allows the Department of the Treasury and the IRS to authorize the State Department to take away U.S. passports from individuals with seriously delinquent tax liabilities. That's defined as those greater than $50,000 and for which the IRS has filed a lien or levy, according to Matthew D. Lee of law firm Blank Rome. In a blog, he described the passport-revoking provision as a "powerful tool to force tax compliance." Affected taxpayers would receive written notice.
The State Department is now authorized to deny, revoke or limit use of a taxpayer's U.S. passport, and it isn't supposed to issue a passport to anyone owing that much money (with exceptions for emergencies or for humanitarian reasons). Americans out of the country when their passports are revoked may be allowed to return home.
The number of valid U.S. passports has surged in recent years, from roughly 30 million in 1995 to 126 million this year.
The new provisions wouldn't affect taxpayers who already have entered deals with the IRS to pay their tax debts, such as installment agreements or offers in compromise. Also, passports wouldn't be revoked for people who are seeking hearings or who are claiming innocent-spouse relief, according to Lee.
Wheelwright views the $50,000 limit as low, adding that it wouldn't take much to accumulate that much debt if a person lost a job or incurred big medical bills. It doesn't help that it's getting more difficult for people to contact the IRS, which is answering only about 40% of telephone calls from taxpayers, he said. Even tax professionals are looking at average phone waits of about 90 minutes, he said.
On the other hand, many of the people likely to get their passports revoked have been ignoring their tax obligations. An individual typically would receive three or four IRS notices over three to six months before getting to the collections stage, Wheelwright said.
Many of the people with severely delinquent accounts are U.S. citizens who live in other nations, said Mark Luscombe, principal federal tax analyst at researcher Wolters Kluwer in suburban Chicago. Some have dual citizenship and might not worry about losing their U.S. passports. "They feel they can ignore a tax problem for a while."
Americans out of the country when their passports are revoked may be allowed to return home. (Photo: Getty Images)
An IRS spokesman said the agency is reviewing the new law and taking steps to implement the program "as soon as feasible."
Congressional analysts expect the passport-revocation rule to raise about $400 million over the next 10 years, said Luscombe. That's less than the expected revenue from the new rule mandating non-IRS debt collectors. That's expected to bring in $4.8 billion total over the next 10 years, or around $2.4 billion after private collectors take their share, Luscombe said.
Private debt collectors would be called in on "inactive" tax delinquencies. "This means that the IRS has already tried to collect and failed because they couldn't locate the taxpayer or they deemed it not worth their time," Wheelwright said, adding that only those tax liabilities outstanding more than a year would be outsourced. The new rule carves out various debt-collecting exceptions, such as for minors with big tax bills as well as innocent spouses and military personnel in combat zones.
Reach Wiles at [email protected] or 602-444-8616.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1OkH3nAKeen On… The Second Machine Age: Will Humans Still Have A Role In Our Economy Of Brilliant Technologies?
The hot new book about the digital economy is Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson‘s The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress and Prosperity In a Time of Brilliant Technologies. It’s amongst the first books to seriously address the fundamental question of our digital economy: what will be the economic role of human-beings in an age of artificial intelligence, 3D printers and an Internet of things?
While McAfee and Brynjolfsson acknowledge that we live in a time of “astonishing progress”, they also admit that our digital economy is increasingly made up of “winner take all economics” which is hollowing out the middle class and leaving many people behind.
So what is to be done?
Perhaps it’s no surprise that both McAfee and Brynjolfsson are economics professors at MIT. They say we have to go back to our Economics 101 textbooks to learn how to retool for this second machine age. Education, they say, is key. Both in terms of what and how we learn. So just as the Internet might be taking away our jobs, it is also – as a learning network – giving us the opportunity to reinvent ourselves.
But it won’t happen magically, McAfee and Brynjolfsson both say. Our fate, as always, depends on our ability to change. There may be jobs for those that adapt. But for those that don’t, there will be nothing brilliant our second machine age.Sixteen youngsters fight to stay alive in the evil Arcade's dangerous Murderworld
Sixteen youngsters fight to stay alive in Murderworld in the new Marvel Comics series 'Avengers Arena.' (Photo11: Marvel Comics) Story Highlights Young Marvel Comics superheroes fight for their lives in 'Avengers Arena'
Marvel Comics' youngest superheroes are feeling the deadly effects of The Hunger Games.
Avengers Arena, debuting Wednesday as part of the publisher's "Marvel NOW!" initiative, places 16 teenage do-gooders in the continuous peril of Murderworld, run by the assassin Arcade, and only one of them can make it out alive.
Death is a major part of the book's concept, according to writer Dennis Hopeless, but fans of characters such as X-23, Reptil and Darkhawk need not worry about Avengers Arena becoming "a meat-grinder book where all of their characters die for shock value," he says.
"It does have really high stakes, but it's a very character-centric piece. It's designed to get you in the head of these characters and fall in love with them and be scared with them."
Kev Walker's art drives home the impact since he illustrates all 16 kids as "so devastatingly young," Hopeless says. "He makes them look like real teenagers. They all have different body types and none of them look fully grown or the adults they'll be, and it adds so much to the drama of the thing."
Teens fighting for survival is the central theme of not only Hunger Games films and books, but also the cult Japanese movie Battle Royale, and Hopeless is leaning into the influences, using a tweaked version of the Battle Royale logo on his first issue and planning homage covers. Arcade even says he got the idea for his latest murderous plan from reading a couple of kids' books.
"Let's just be like, 'Yeah, get it?' This is what it is, and it's going to be really cool," Hopeless says.
Because he has such a large cast, Hopeless is using a Lost-style story structure for the first few arcs of Avengers Arena, focusing on a different character each issue and showing who they are and how they're in this awful situation through flashbacks. Or, using Hunger Games lingo, it's like getting into Katniss Everdeen's head in one chapter and moving to other Tributes in subsequent episodes.
(To better serve new readers, Hopeless includes a map showing who each hero is in the first issue, and utilizes ongoing video-game-style power meters to remind readers who's who and who's in trouble health-wise.)
Hazmat is the central character of the first issue, and is a holdover from the recent Avengers Academy series where she's grown from being bitter about the curse of having to wear a suit to contain the harmful radiation her body emits.
Hopeless liked the idea of taking a girl on the cusp of coming out of a "Why did this happen to me?" phase in her life and then tossing her into a truly worst-case scenario.
"Do you regress and go back to being that angry petulant child who feels like she's been wronged, or do you move
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up, all that’s left is to play a sound whenever sound-timer is positive. We could do this in a number of ways, for example: loading a WAV file and looping it. But that’s boring and almost cheating, so let’s do it from scratch.
Sound is a pretty complicated beast. For this CHIP-8 emulator we’ll only dip our toes into the water and work with the very basics. I’ll explain some basics here but will simplify and gloss over a lot — there are plenty of resources online if you want to learn more.
For our purposes we’ll think of “sound” as a pressure value over time. For example, a simple sound wave might look something like this:
The pressure starts at 0, gradually climbs until it hits 1, then falls and gradually hits -1, then returns to 0 and starts the process over again.
The distance from the highest pressure value to the lowest is called the “amplitude” of the wave (specifically “peak-to-peak amplitude”). For sound, this is what determines how loud the sound is. For the CHIP-8 emulator we’ll always just be using pressure values between -1 and 1.
There are (infinitely) many different types of sound waves, each with their own distinct character. Let’s look at a few of them that might fit well with the CHIP-8’s retro aesthetic. This page has some example audio files so you can hear what they sound like.
Sine Waves
The wave I used as the example above is a sine wave. It’s based on the sine function you might have learned about in trigonometry class.
We usually think of sin as taking an angle as an argument, not a time. But we can convert time to an appropriate angle value later, so let’s not get hung up on that. Sine performs one complete “wave” in exactly τ radians:
Common Lisp has this built in as the sin function, so we don’t have any work to do for this one.
Square Waves
The next wave we’ll look at is the square wave. Instead of gradually moving between -1 and 1 over time like sine, it stays at 1 for half its wave then immediately jumps straight to -1:
This “jump” gives the square wave kind of a “buzzy” character that you may have heard before if you’ve played many old computer games (or like to listen to chiptunes).
Common Lisp doesn’t have this function built in, but we can make it pretty easily. First we’ll define some useful constants:
( defconstant +pi+ ( coerce pi'single-float )) ( defconstant +tau+ ( * 2 +pi+ )) ( defconstant +1/4tau+ ( * 1/4 +tau+ )) ( defconstant +1/2tau+ ( * 1/2 +tau+ )) ( defconstant +3/4tau+ ( * 3/4 +tau+ ))
We’re using single-floats because our audio library is going to want those later.
Now we can define the square-wave function:
( defun sqr ( angle ) ( if ( < ( mod angle +tau+ ) +1/2tau+ ) 1.0 -1.0 ))
I’ve called it sqr because my utility library already has a function called “square”, and I like that it’s three letters like the sin function.
The implementation is pretty simple. We just have to make sure to mod the angle by τ to make the results repeat properly, like this:
Sawtooth Waves
The sawtooth wave is next up in our little menagerie of waveforms. The name comes from what it looks like when you have a few in a row:
A single wave of it looks like this:
Sawtooth waves still have a bit of a “buzzy” feel to them because of the jump halfway through their period, but unlike square waves they have some gradual change, so they’re often a nice happy medium.
To implement the saw function, notice that for the first half of the wave’s life (0 to τ) it goes from 0 to 1, and for the second half (½τ to τ) it goes from -1 to 0. We’ll also remember to mod by τ to proper repeating:
( defun saw ( angle ) ( let (( a ( mod angle +tau+ ))) ( if ( < a +1/2tau+ ) ( map-range 0 +1/2tau+ 0.0 1.0 a ) ( map-range +1/2tau+ +tau+ -1.0 0.0 a ))))
map-range is a really handy function from my utility library. I wish I could think of a better name for it. It’s kind of like a lerp function, but instead of assuming the input value is between 0 and 1 it allows you to specify the input range.
map-range takes five arguments:
(map-range source-start source-end dest-start dest-end value)
I think of it as taking a source number line with a value on it, stretching that number line to become the destination line, and finding the new location of the value:
2 3 4 5 6 2 3 4 5 6 ━━◉━━━━━━━━━━ ━━━━━━━━━◎━━━ ╱ │ ╲ ╱ │ ╲ ╱ │ ╲ ╱ │ ╲ ╱ ┌──┘ ╲ ╱ └───┐ ╲ ╱ │ ╲ ╱ │ ╲ ╱ ▼ ╲ ╱ ▼ ╲ ━━━━◉━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◎━━━━━ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Triangle Waves
Let’s look at one more kind of wave before moving on: the triangle wave. As you might expect, this wave looks like a big triangle:
Triangle waves are closer to sine waves than square or sawtooth waves were, but they’ve still got a bit of “sharpness” to them because they don’t have that gradual rounding off at the peak like sine waves.
Much like saw, we can define tri by defining each half of the wave separately:
( defun tri ( angle ) ( let (( a ( mod angle +tau+ ))) ( if ( < a +1/2tau+ ) ( map-range 0 +1/2tau+ -1.0 1.0 a ) ( map-range +1/2tau+ +tau+ 1.0 -1.0 a ))))
That’s it for our whirlwind tour of simple sound waves.
Playing Sound
We’ve got four functions ( sin, sqr, saw, and tri ) that take in angles and spit out pressure values between -1 and 1, so the next step is to somehow use them to make the computer play sound.
We’ll be using PortAudio and cl-portaudio to handle the OS and sound device interaction. If you’re following along you’ll need to install PortAudio separately (before Quickloading cl-portaudio ). On OS X you can do this with brew install portaudio, for Linux use your distro’s package manager.
Sampling
In the real world pressure and time vary continuously, but our computer handles audio differently. Modern digital audio uses the concept of sampling to split up the pressure-over-time graph into discrete pieces. Instead of trying to work with an infinite number of times, we look at a finite number of individual samples.
A “sample” is just a pressure value at a particular point in time. The number of times per second the computer reads or writes a sample is called the “sample rate”. If the sampling rate is too low, we won’t be able to tell much about the original wave, and playing it would sound like noise:
But a higher sample rate can get us nice and close to the original wave:
We’ll stick with the most common sample rate, 44.1khz, because it’s the most widely supported (even though it’s overkill for our simple waves):
( defconstant +sample-rate+ 44100d0 )
Buffering
It would be wasteful to keep constantly calling back and forth between our code and PortAudio’s code, so instead we’ll be giving PortAudio a buffer of samples to play which will effectively contain a “chunk” of sound. This buffer will be a vanilla Lisp array of single-float s. The size of the buffer is configurable, with larger buffers representing bigger chunks of sound.
There’s a tradeoff between efficiency and responsiveness we need to decide on. Larger buffers are more efficient (less switching back and forth between us and PortAudio) but once we’ve sent a buffer it’s going to play to its end — we can’t stop it midway. I’ve found 512 to be a happy medium:
( defconstant +audio-buffer-size+ 512 "The number of samples in the audio buffer." ) ( defconstant +audio-buffer-time+ ( * +audio-buffer-size+ ( / +sample-rate+ )) "The total time the information in the audio buffer represents, in seconds." ) ( defun make-audio-buffer () ( make-array +audio-buffer-size+ :element-type'single-float :initial-element 0.0 ))
A 512-sample buffer with a sample rate of 44100 samples per second means that each buffer will represent about 11.6 milliseconds of sound.
We’re going to need a way to fill an audio buffer with sample values, so let’s make a fill-buffer function:
( defun fill-buffer ( buffer function rate start ) ( iterate ( for i :index-of-vector buffer ) ( for angle :from start :by rate ) ( setf ( aref buffer i ) ( funcall function angle )) ( finally ( return ( mod angle +tau+ )))))
fill-buffer will take one of our four waveform functions and fill the given buffer with samples generated by it. rate will be the rate at which the angle should be incremented per-sample, which we’ll figure out in a moment.
The one snag is that we can’t just start from an angle of zero each time we fill a buffer (unless our buffer size happens to exactly match the period of our wave). If we did we’d only ever be sending the first chunk of our wave, and we’d end up with something like:
This is obviously not what we want. The solution is to return the angle we ended at from fill-buffer, and then pass it in as start on the next round so we can pick up where we left off.
Configuration
Since we’ve gone to the trouble of writing four separate wave functions, each with their own character/timbre, let’s make the sound the emulator plays configurable. First we’ll make some helper functions for filling the audio buffer with a particular wave:
( defun fill-square ( buffer rate start ) ( fill-buffer buffer #' sqr rate start )) ( defun fill-sine ( buffer rate start ) ( fill-buffer buffer #' sin rate start )) ( defun fill-sawtooth ( buffer rate start ) ( fill-buffer buffer #' saw rate start )) ( defun fill-triangle ( buffer rate start ) ( fill-buffer buffer #' tri rate start ))
Then we’ll add a slot to the chip struct:
( defstruct chip ;... ( sound-type :sine :type keyword ) ;... )
And we’ll make a helper function for retrieving the appropriate buffer-filling function:
( defun audio-buffer-filler ( chip ) ( ecase ( chip-sound-type chip ) ( :square #' fill-square ) ( :sine #' fill-sine ) ( :sawtooth #' fill-sawtooth ) ( :triangle #' fill-triangle )))
We’ll use ecase instead of vanilla case so we get a nicer error message if the slot is set to something incorrect. I actually find myself reaching for ecase more often than case these days because a silent nil result is almost never what I want.
Angle Rate & Frequency
One last bit we need to figure out is how much to increment the angle for each sample.
All four of our wave functions assume that one wave happens in exactly τ radians. So if we assume that we want one wave per second, and there are +sample-rate+ samples in every second, we’d just use (/ +tau+ +sample-rate+) to get the angle increment.
But one wave per second is below the range of human hearing. We want something more like 440 waves per second (the “frequency” of the note A440), so our function to find the angle increment will looks like this:
( defun audio-rate ( frequency ) ( coerce ( * ( / +tau+ +sample-rate+ ) frequency )'single-float ))
We coerce it to a single-float here to avoid having to do it on every addition later.
Running the Sound Loop
We’ve now got all the bits and pieces we need to make some noise. Let’s build a run-sound function bit by bit. First we initialize the output stream with PortAudio:
( defun run-sound ( chip ) ( portaudio:with-audio ( portaudio:with-default-audio-stream ( audio-stream 0 1 :sample-format :float :sample-rate +sample-rate+ :frames-per-buffer +audio-buffer-size+ ) ;... )) nil )
The 0 1 arguments mean “zero input channels” (we don’t need access to the microphone!) and “one output channel”.
Now we’ll add our sound loop:
( defun run-sound ( chip ) ( portaudio:with-audio ( portaudio:with-default-audio-stream ( audio-stream 0 1 :sample-format :float :sample-rate +sample-rate+ :frames-per-buffer +audio-buffer-size+ ) ( with-chip ( chip ) ; NEW ( iterate ( with buffer = ( make-audio-buffer )) ; NEW ( with angle = 0.0 ) ; NEW ( with rate = ( audio-rate 440 )) ; NEW ( while running ) ; NEW ( if ( plusp sound-timer ) ; NEW ;... ; NEW ( sleep +audio-buffer-time+ )))))) ; NEW nil )
We create a buffer and some extra variables, then we check if the sound timer is positive. If not, we just sleep for a while. I decided to sleep for the same amount of time as a single audio buffer would take so that each iteration of the loop represents roughly the same slice of time, but this isn’t strictly necessary.
If the sound timer is positive we’ll need to fill the buffer with pressure values and ship it off to PortAudio:
( defun run-sound ( chip ) ( portaudio:with-audio ( portaudio:with-default-audio-stream ( audio-stream 0 1 :sample-format :float :sample-rate +sample-rate+ :frames-per-buffer +audio-buffer-size+ ) ( with-chip ( chip ) ( iterate ( with buffer = ( make-audio-buffer )) ( with angle = 0.0 ) ( with rate = ( audio-rate 440 )) ( while running ) ( if ( plusp sound-timer ) ( progn ; NEW ( setf angle ( funcall ( audio-buffer-filler chip ) ; NEW buffer rate angle )) ; NEW ( portaudio:write-stream audio-stream buffer )) ; NEW ( sleep +audio-buffer-time+ )))))) nil )
Pretty simple: just fill the buffer and ship it. We keep track of the angle the buffer-filler returned so we can pass it in on the next iteration to avoid the “truncated waves” problem we talked about earlier.
Threading Issues
In a perfect world we could just add one more thread like we did with the others and be done with it:
( defun run ( rom-filename ) ( let (( chip ( make-chip ))) ( setf *c* chip ) ( load-rom chip rom-filename ) ( bt:make-thread ( curry #' run-cpu chip )) ( bt:make-thread ( curry #' run-timers chip )) ( bt:make-thread ( curry #' run-sound chip )) ; NEW ( chip8.gui.screen::run-gui chip )))
Unfortunately there’s one more snag we need to deal with. It turns out that Qt becomes very unhappy if we set up our threads this way. I’m not 100% sure what the problem is, but it has something to do with control of the main thread on OS X.
The solution is to let Qt take control of the main thread, and spawn all our other threads from there. We’ll update run-gui to take a thunk and call it once it’s ready:
; NEW ( defun run-gui ( chip thunk ) ( with-main-window ( window ( make-screen chip )) ( funcall thunk ))) ; NEW
And now we can move all the thread spawning into the thunk:
( defun run ( rom-filename &key start-paused ) ( let (( chip ( make-chip ))) ( setf *c* chip ) ( load-rom chip rom-filename ) ( chip8.gui.screen::run-gui chip ( lambda () ; NEW ( bt:make-thread ( curry #' run-cpu chip )) ; NEW ( bt:make-thread ( curry #' run-timers chip )) ; NEW ( bt:make-thread ( curry #' run-sound chip )))))) ; NEW
Technically only the sound thread needs to be handled this way, but I figured I’d treat them all the same.
Result
That’s it! Now you can play games and should get a nice loud buzz when the sound should fire. ufo.rom is a good game to test it out with — it should buzz whenever you fire and whenever a ship gets hit. Turn down your speakers if you don’t want to scare the cat.
The sound type can be changed on the fly (e.g. (setf (chip-sound-type *c*) :sawtooth) ), so play around and decide which type is your favorite. I’m partial to sawtooth myself.
Future
With that we’ve got a full-featured CHIP-8 emulator! It works, but there’s still work left to be done. In the next few posts we’ll look at things like:
A menu system for runtime configuration
Disassembling/debugging infrastructure
A graphical debugger
Thanks to Joe Karl for reading a draft of this post.Lawmakers in North Carolina recently approved a bill that has made it possible for concealed carry permit holders to carry their guns in more places. The bill was approved by the NC House and Senate and signed into law on July 29, 2013. It will allow those with a concealed carry permit to carry their guns into bars and restaurants as well as greenways, playgrounds, and other public recreational areas when it goes into effect on October 1, 2013. Concealed carry permit holders will also be able to store their firearms in a locked vehicle on public school and university campuses, according to Raleigh-Durham ABC affiliate WTVD-TV.
In addition to increasing the number of places where concealed carry permit holders may take their guns, the new legislation has brought a few changes to the handgun purchase permit law in North Carolina. The NRA Institute for Legislative Action outlines them as follows:
An improved, streamlined permit issuing process
Revocation requirements for people that have been issued a permit and later are prohibited from buying or owning a firearm
A new and improved reporting process for records of those who are prohibited from buying or possessing firearms to the FBI’s National Instant Background Check System
Safeguards for confidentiality of those who apply for a handgun purchase permit
While some may worry that this law will lead to an increased number of unaccountable carriers, Representative John Faircloth says, “Responsible people are generally the ones who have concealed carry permits. They don’t want to get in trouble. They don’t want to ruin what they know was a good constitutional right.”
It’s been exciting to see the development of the new concealed carry law in North Carolina. We encourage everyone who carries concealed in North Carolina and beyond to become responsibly armed citizens by knowing the law and receiving the proper self-defense education, training, as well as legal protection that can cover your legal fees in the event that you’re prosecuted for justifiably defending yourself with your firearm. The USCCA invites all concealed carriers to check out our website for a variety of helpful materials ranging from gun and gear reviews to skill tips and other benefits with USCCA membership.The practice of tiger farming in countries such as China, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam is perpetuating the poaching of endangered wild tigers across the 13 nations that make up the animals’ historical range, according to conservationists.
The problem is not relegated to Asia. Thousands of captive tigers are bred in the United States—and those big cats could be exploited by wildlife traffickers, feeding demand for tiger parts on the black market.
Now, 45 wildlife and conservation groups are calling for an end to tiger breeding for commercial purposes and for a phase-out of tiger farms worldwide.
“Many tiger range states have devoted considerable resources to conserving their wild tigers—efforts that are being undermined by the existence of these farms,” Michael Baltzer, head of World Wildlife Fund’s global tigers initiative, said in a statement. “Closing tiger farms will help countries to achieve the ambitious goal of doubling wild tiger numbers by 2022.”
How does shutting down tiger farms help wild populations? According to the Environmental Investigation Agency, more than 200 tiger breeding centers operate across Asia, housing between 7,000 and 8,000 tigers. That’s thousands more than the estimated 3,900 tigers left in the wild, which occupy only about 7 percent of their historic range.
Tiger breeding centers are often tourist attractions, where people pay to have their photos taken with the big cats. One such tiger farm was Thailand’s now-closed Tiger Temple, which was found to be trafficking tiger parts.
Wildlife advocates believe Tiger Temple is not unique and that many of the breeding centers are likely to be involved in such illegal trade.
RELATED: Government Cracks Down on America’s Tiger Petting Zoos and Breeding Facilities
In the U.S., it’s estimated that more than 5,000 tigers reside in captivity at petting zoos and breeding facilities.
“Our concern is that when these cats get too large, costly, and dangerous to be profitable, they can be funneled into the illegal trade in tigers and tiger parts,” said Leigh Henry, wildlife policy expert at World Wildlife Fund. “Disincentivizing private tiger breeding will gradually decrease the number of tigers in the U.S. to a more manageable number and make them less vulnerable to illegal trade. Continued strong U.S. action in our own backyard in support of tiger conservation sends a positive signal to Asian governments considering action around their tiger farms.”
In April, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cracked down on unregulated trade of tigers, requiring all facilities that want to transfer tigers across state lines to be registered and in turn making it easier to detect illegal wildlife trafficking.
Still, wildlife advocates think more could be done, including banning public contact with tigers for photo ops.Iran has banned 18-year-old chess grandmaster Dorsa Derakhshani from competing for the national chess team for not wearing a hijab – obligatory dress for women under Iranian law.
Derakhshani was expelled for not covering her hair with the garment – compulsory wear for women since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 – while competing as an independent player in the 2017 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival.
READ MORE: Indian sharpshooter boycotts Iran tournament over compulsory hijab law
Her brother Borna, 15, has also been banned after competing against Israeli player Alexander Huzman in the same tournament.
The siblings have subsequently been precluded from competing in future international competitions for the Islamic Republic. Dorsa obtained her International Master and Woman Grandmaster titles last year and currently lives in Barcelona, Spain, after taking up the offer of a year’s residency.
The head of Iran's Chess Federation, Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh, was quoted as saying the Chess Federation will deal with the siblings in the “severest way possible.”
“The first step in dealing with them would be to deprive them from playing in Iran, and they won't have a chance to be in the national team,” Pahlevanzadeh said, Azerbaijani news outlet Trend News Agency reported.
Belgium-based Iranian gender discrimination activist Darya Safai tweeted a negative reaction about the move with the hashtag “forced hijab.”
Dorsa Derakhshani,Iranian #chess champion expelled from national team for not wearing the veil.#ForcedHijabpic.twitter.com/IAZxiCmcdq — Darya Safai (@SafaiDarya) February 20, 2017
“Dorsa to me is the true feminist, not the Swedish government parading with the headscarf with [President of Iran Hassan] Rouhani,” Safai said in a Facebook post.
Safai was referring to members of the Swedish government – many of whom self-identify as feminists – who visited Iran in February.
The Swedish delegation received criticism from many observers who saw the move as a legitimization of an enforced law that violates women’s rights in Iran.
Read more
Under Iranian law, women are required to cover their hair and wear loose-fitting clothes when they appear in public and foreigners are obliged to dress modestly when entering the Islamic Republic for whatever length of time.
“By actually complying with the directives of the Islamic Republic, Western women legitimize the compulsory hijab law,” Masih Alinejad, CEO of human rights group UN Watch, wrote on Facebook.
It is the not the first time Iran’s insistence on female competitors to wear the hijab has caused controversy.
In September 2016, female players accused the World Chess Federation (FIDE) of failing to stand up for women's rights after it said competitors must accept local law and wear hijabs during the world championship in Tehran, Iran.
Female grandmasters risked arrest if they did not cover their hair during the tournament, which prompted US women's champion Nazi Paikidze to boycott the event.1 #1 hobbbes 15 Frags – + thanks emkay thanks emkay
2 #2 glitture 16 Frags – + if the i55 fragmovie is as good as this im gonna freak out this is amazing
good job emkay if the i55 fragmovie is as good as this im gonna freak out this is amazing
good job emkay
3 #3 fade- 1 Frags – + pretty amazing, really nice editing pretty amazing, really nice editing
4 #4 xattuu 1 Frags – + EMAKY YOUR EDITS ARE SO SICK DO ME ;D EMAKY YOUR EDITS ARE SO SICK DO ME ;D
5 #5 Thorndyke 4 Frags – + This is awsome work. This is awsome work.
6 #6 Fozzlm 5 Frags – + Holy shit that was awesome, great editing Holy shit that was awesome, great editing
7 #7 Uber_Space_Whale 1 Frags – + emkay i actually love you emkay i actually love you
8 #8 obla 4 Frags – + good stuff!! good stuff!!
9 #9 Dont -38 Frags – + Man, this editing can even make AU frags look good ;) Man, this editing can even make AU frags look good ;)
10 #10 Brodogs 1 Frags – + Sick edit and sick frags Sick edit and sick frags
11 #11 smesi 4 Frags – + Prob. my favorite highlight so far with Kaptain / Perm's frags on granary. Prob. my favorite highlight so far with Kaptain / Perm's frags on granary.
12 #12 fnm 10 Frags – + Dont Man, this editing can even make AU frags look good ;) this was so unnecessary and untrue dude [quote=Dont]Man, this editing can even make AU frags look good ;)[/quote]
this was so unnecessary and untrue dude
13 #13 riotbz 1 Frags – + Dont Man, this editing can even make AU frags look good ;) dude just dont [quote=Dont]Man, this editing can even make AU frags look good ;)[/quote]
dude
just dont
14 #14 dishsoap 8 Frags – + Dont Man, this editing can even make AU frags look good ;) nigga ur not even open, dont even ATTEMPT to speak. anything you say becomes insta-autism. [quote=Dont]Man, this editing can even make AU frags look good ;)[/quote]
nigga ur not even open, dont even ATTEMPT to speak. anything you say becomes insta-autism.
15 #15 encyclopedia 0 Frags – + music fitted pretty nicely music fitted pretty nicely
17 #17 Encre 18 Frags – + Dont Man, this editing can even make AU frags look good ;) http://puu.sh/nwG6v/f0bfc47e10.jpg???? [quote=Dont]Man, this editing can even make AU frags look good ;)[/quote]
[img]http://puu.sh/nwG6v/f0bfc47e10.jpg[/img]
????
18 #18 ljad 3 Frags – + Dont Man, this editing can even make AU frags look good ;) http://imgur.com/Rcl5be1 also http://imgur.com/78bNSM5 [quote=Dont]Man, this editing can even make AU frags look good ;)[/quote]
http://imgur.com/Rcl5be1
also
http://imgur.com/78bNSM5
19 #19 yuki 6 Frags – + Dont Man, this editing can even make AU frags look good ;) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWtPFv194GU [quote=Dont]Man, this editing can even make AU frags look good ;)[/quote]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWtPFv194GU[/youtube]
20 #20 Runaway 8 Frags – + I ended up watching a lot of the VODS and man, a lot of the games were so entertaining. Thanks for the great matches throughout the entire tournament guys. I ended up watching a lot of the VODS and man, a lot of the games were so entertaining. Thanks for the great matches throughout the entire tournament guys.
21 #21 basti 4 Frags – + that sam guys tracking is really amazing to watch, so clean especially on the flying demo that sam guys tracking is really amazing to watch, so clean especially on the flying demo
22 #22 nyk 0 Frags – + This video immediately made yewl my favorite demoman currently in the game. I remember not being really very excited about bulk @ i49, so yewl is nice to see This video immediately made yewl my favorite demoman currently in the game. I remember not being really very excited about bulk @ i49, so yewl is nice to see
23 #23 face 16 Frags – + Good work on not including paulsen, you've got a good eye for quality frags. Good work on not including paulsen, you've got a good eye for quality frags.While Eritrean asylum seekers cannot be deported due to the risk they would face upon return, the new Prevention of Infiltration Law enables Israel to keep them in prison indefinitely. New arrivals, most having faced rape and torture en route to Israel, are presently being held in a prison in the desert, and nobody knows how long they’ll be kept there. A visit to Ketsiot prison.
By Yonatan Berman*
Almost three years ago, I wrote about how much I hate the journey to Ketsiot prison; how frustrating it is there, even for the fleeting visitor who knows that at the end of the day he’ll be free and safe in Tel Aviv. I wrote about the despair of the asylum seekers, who are locked up for days on end, not knowing until when. Although I know the right thing to do is to visit again and again, as often as possible, lately I have been doing so less and less, for my own peace of mind. Because even though in the three years since I poured out my bitterness most of the Prison Service staff was replaced, the situation in this desert prison has only deteriorated.
But sometimes there is no choice, like yesterday, when Mesi, Yuval and I were forced to return to that awful place. The thermometer in Yuval’s car read 39 degrees Celsius as we were getting out. We waited in the central courtyard of the growing prison. To the north (or so at least it seemed to me), they had already added two-story buildings to hold additional asylum seekers. The detainees are currently imprisoned under the new Prevention of Infiltration Law, which allows for the administrative detention of immigrants without legal status for an unlimited period of time (or for a minimum period of three years).
In the two months since the authorities began to use this draconian new instrument for detention, not one person has been released. The Detention Review Tribunal, which has judicial oversight over the detention of asylum seekers under the Prevention of Infiltration Law, has become the law’s rubber stamp. In practice, there are no circumstances under which the new law enables the release of detainees, so all that is left for the judges to do is to see detainee after detainee, to hear his or her story, and to inform him or her that they have no option but to approve the detention order.
The heat in the courtyard is unbearable, and one can only imagine what it feels like in the prison wings, and particularly for the women and children, who are held in tents during this scorching summer. Most of the detainees are Eritrean. “They’re not refugees,” we’re told by the interior minister and the prime minister, who in the same breath admit that we can’t deport them, because deportation would place their lives at risk. The camp, therefore, is not meant for the “illegal immigrants” awaiting deportation, but intended to exhaust and discourage the asylum seekers who can’t be deported.
The camp exhausts and discourages us, too. Most of the Eritreans here endured many months of severe torture at the hands of the smugglers in Sinai, in order to extort money from their families. Most of the Eritrean women were brutally raped, repeatedly, by the smugglers in Sinai. The first asylum seeker we interview recounts being cuffed at the hands and feet, electrocuted, having cigarettes extinguished on his arms, being hung by his arms and burned with white hot iron rods. These descriptions are familiar, from conversations with other asylum seekers, from aPhysicians for Human Rights – Israel report and from the Hotline for Migrant Workers’ report. Yet this firsthand account terrifies us. But when we get to the third interviewee who tells us the same horror story, I’m already whispering to Yuval, “Compassion fatigue.” Yuval nods. Our psychological defenses have kicked in.
The High Court of Justice recently recommended that the State set out guidelines addressing the rights of Eritreans, whom it is forbidden to deport. The State’s response, which finds its expression in Ketsiot prison, is: “They have no rights; eternal detention for all.” If once we could take comfort in the fact that the Eritreans we met in prison fell under the “temporary protection” policy, and would be released soon, today we have no words to comfort those we meet. All that is left for us to say to them is that we don’t know how long they will wait in this boiling hell, and that we know how hard it is for them to be there. (Although we don’t really know, and apparently never will know quite how hard.)
One can assume that in the interior and justice ministries, they will read these lines and smile with satisfaction, saying that this was their very intention – for people to know they won’t be released for years, and to send a message: “Don’t come.” Yet anyone with even the slightest experience and understanding of migration issues knows that’s not how it works – walls, prisons, starvation and degradation have never deterred immigrants, whether they’re refugees or economic migrants. These instruments are good for satisfying public opinion thirsty for a heavy hand, and for shaking off a sense of idleness, but they do not prevent migration. The Interior Ministry is already boasting about the drop in entries into Israel in the last month, but if you want to know the reason for this ebb, you had better turn your attention to what’s happening in the Sinai Peninsula and Libya. This ebb has nothing to do with Bibi and Yishai’s magic tricks.
Around the prison, a huge area is being prepared for construction of a new facility, which will be able to hold thousands more asylum seekers. Making the desert bloom, indeed – bloom that is entirely evil. When we leave after a depressing day, we photograph the construction going on around us for awhile and travel north, leaving the men and women we met behind, where they’ll be staying for quite a while longer.
Joseph Carens wrote, over two decades ago, that citizenship in the “West” today is comparable to feudal privileges – a hereditary status that improves one’s chances in life. For those not born with this status, it is almost impossible to acquire. Like hereditary feudal privileges, this is very difficult to justify.
When I return to my two-room apartment in Tel Aviv after the visit to Ketsiot, it really does feel like a palace.
*Yonatan Berman is the director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at the Academic Center of Law and Business. This post originally appeared in Hebrew on the blog Laissez Passer, and was translated by Caroline Beck.The enormous Volkswagen Group is going to make everything electric in some shape or form by 2030, and that involves a lot of cars.
That’s because the VW Group is made up of a hugely diverse set of brands sold around the world, such as Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, Porsche, and yes, Volkswagen. Offering everything from a 911 to a Tiguan with some sort of electric motor will have a noticeable impact on the number of hybrids and full-EVs available over the next decade or so – about 300 different cars sold in different markets in total.
VW Group is made up of a hugely diverse set of brands sold around the world
The whole electric endeavor is an $84 billion investment, VW Group CEO Matthias Mueller said Monday in Germany ahead of the Frankfurt Motor Show. Not only does it include the vehicle development, but it also covers a roughly $60 billion plan to build four battery factories that are expected to take more than a bit of inspiration from the Tesla Gigafactory.
By 2025, there will be 80 electrified offerings from VW Group, Mueller said, including the already announced production version of the VW I.D. Buzz Concept and a range of dedicated EVs from Audi.
Mueller says the internal combustion engine isn’t dead, however, and it will be a “bridge” toward a fully electric lineup. But that bridge has to end sometime. France and the United Kingdom have pegged 2040 as the year for gasoline and diesel bans
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there are no innocent Muslims, that ‘something must be done’ about these people, regardless of their likeability, their peacefulness, or their personal repudiation of violence,” Cole writes.
“Such categorization of an entire community as an insidious poison is a move we have seen before.”
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
Subscribe nowA Chinese chemical company has agreed to build a $1.12 billion chemical manufacturing plant in Louisiana after the state's economic development arm promised it a $4.3 million infrastructure grant.
The agreement between Wanhua Chemical Group and Gov. John Bel Edwards' administration caps more than three years of negotiations and marks the second-largest Chinese investment in Louisiana's chemical manufacturing industry. Yuhuang Chemical is developing a $1.85 billion methanol complex in St. James Parish.
China's Shandong Yuhuang secures St. James site for $1.85 billion methanol complex The project -- the first major foreign direct investment by a Chinese company in Louisiana -- is expected to create 400 jobs over the next six years.
Louisiana Economic Development, or LED, estimates the Wanhua project will create 170 direct jobs and 945 indirect ones.
Talks to bring Wanhua to Louisiana began in December 2013. A group led by LED Director Don Pierson put the final pieces in place in March during a trip to Wanhua's global headquarters in Yantai.
The company is still mulling where to build. Once operational, its complex will manufacture methylene biphenyl diisocyanate, or MDI, a major chemical in most insulation foam for refrigerators and freezers. It's also used for rollers, packing materials, furniture, footwear and synthetic leather.
As part of the deal, Wanhua will tap state tax exemption programs. The Industry Tax Exemption Program exempts a company from property taxes on its new complex for 10 years. The Quality Jobs Rebate program grants a 6 percent rebate for 10 years for up to 80 percent of a company's payroll for new direct jobs. In July 2018, the company's Louisiana payroll will be eligible, according to the LED.
Wanhua is expected to use the $4.3 million state grant to offset some of its infrastructure costs. Wanhua itself will pump $954 million into building the complex. Project partners plan to deliver the remaining $166 million in construction costs, according to the project's announcement.Week 11 at Philadelphia, we saw Winston 3.0, a star in the making. I guess this is growing up.
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Winston filled the box score early and often during Sunday’s 45-17 blitz at Philadelphia, throwing for 246 yards and five touchdowns in the signature game of his brief career. He completed 19-of-29 attempts, took just one sack, and finished the day with a 131.6 rating. Okay, the Eagles might have dropped a couple of possible interceptions here and there, but that’s nitpicking. Winston made good decisions for the majority of the day, threw with poise and anticipation, and kept the offense on schedule.
It's not that unusual to see a rookie quarterback throwing a bunch of touchdown passes, but five in one game is the magic number. Winston's just the third freshman QB to get to five, joining Matthew Stafford, Class of 2009, and Ray Buivid, Class of 1937.
(A handful of quarterbacks have pulled off the four-bagger in their first NFL season, including Russell Wilson, Marcus Mariota, Robert Griffin III, and Dieter Brock. Come on, you loved Dieter Brock.)
Winston spread the ball around at Philadelphia, perhaps the key to his success. He targeted seven different teammates for the afternoon, and no one saw more than seven passes in their direction (or caught more than one touchdown). It’s a far cry from the “Evans or Bust” problem Winston fell into earlier in the year, when Evans had games of 19 and 17 targets. No one denies Evans’s game-breaking ability, of course, but forcing throws when they’re not there — that’s not in anyone’s best interests.
Story continues
To be fair, it’s easier to spread the ball around when Vincent Jackson (4-5-6-1, six targets) is back in the fold. Evans also had a solid game (4-63-1), a reasonable haul on seven looks. Winston’s other scoring tosses went to players with limited fantasy cred — Cameron Brate, Charles Sims and Russell Shepard. Take what the defense gives you, rookie.
The Bucs also took what they wanted on the ground, with Doug Martin ripping off 235 yards on 27 carries. Sims added 43 yards on 10 totes, solid work in a reserve role. Tampa finished the day with 8.5 yards per pass attempt and 6.7 yards per rush — just about everything worked against a beleaguered Philadelphia defense.
More fantasy fun should be on the way for the Bucs offense. A Week 15 draw with St. Louis could get a little messy, but otherwise, look at the green lights: Indianapolis, Atlanta, New Orleans, Chicago. Those are all defenses we want to exploit. The nasty Carolina rematch is stashed in Week 17, a safe harbor. And if talented TE Austin Seferian-Jenkins ever makes it back, Winston will have another exciting target to work with.
-- The less we say about Philly’s offense, the better. Mark Sanchez threw three picks and took three sacks — bad decisions all over the place. DeMarco Murray lost a key fumble. Passes (and interceptions) were dropped. Fans justifiably booed. It’s been an awful home stretch for Philadelphia’s home franchises — the Eagles, 76ers and Flyers are all winless at home for November (and obviously the Sixers have yet to win anywhere). Where’s Ned Bastille when you need him?
-- If a five-touchdown game from a veteran is what you seek, let’s move down to Carolina, where Cam Newton personally demolished Washington his his own highlight film (21-for-34, 246 yards, five scores, no picks). Newton kept the rushing game under wraps, though Jonathan Stewart (21-102) filled that in nicely.
Like Winston, Newton threw his scores to five different receivers (a surprisingly-handy Devin Funchess; Greg Olsen; Ted Ginn; Stewart; Kool-Aid Mike Tolbert). Maybe those MVP chants aren’t misguided after all. The undefeated Panthers finish up this way: at Dallas; at New Orleans; Atlanta; at Giants; at Atlanta; Tampa Bay.
-- Green Bay desperately needed a win of any type at Minnesota and it came through, grinding out a 30-13 victory that felt much closer throughout. And man, what a physical, passionate game this was. I’m curious to see what the Pack will have left in the tank for Thanksgiving.
Welcome back to the season, Eddie Lacy (22-100), and welcome back to relevance, James Jones (6-109-1; maybe it was his power hoodie). Teddy Bridgewater threw for 296 yards and averaged eight yards per toss, but six Green Bay sacks kept the Vikings at bay. After sucking for eight games (129 yards), Kyle Rudolph exploded for 106 yards, including a 47-yard touchdown. If you saw that coming, please dispense with your expected lottery numbers.
-- How long does it take to clean up the Georgia Dome after a game? The Falcons leave so many points on the field. Atlanta somehow fell to Indianapolis despite a 99-yard edge in total offense, and a yards-per-play edge, 5.3 to 4.5. Three Matt Ryan interceptions helped doom the Falcons (one of them run back for a gift TD), and Matt Bryant missed another field goal. Losing Devonta Freeman to an early concussion also hurt; Tevin Coleman (17-48, one fumble lost) was mediocre in his stead.
Seattle Hero (Otto Greule Jr/Getty)
-- It turns out the Seahawks were misleading us all along with Marshawn Lynch and his abdomen injury. Beast Mode turned into Least Mode at the 4 pm ET hour — a surprise scratch — with understudy Thomas Rawls called in to start. It turned out to be a stroke of good luck for the win-desperate Seahawks, as Rawls jitterbugged through and around the Niners, rolling up a silly 255 yards from scrimmage (30-209 rushing; 3-46 receiving) and two scores in the 29-13 victory. Seattle also enjoyed a couple of touchdown catches from Tyler Lockett, and withstood a couple of botched kicks from Steven Hauschka.
Although the Niners don’t deserve a sonnet for scoring all of 13 points, we should point out Blaine Gabbert was surprisingly competent (98.2 rating, 7.8 YPA, no picks, just two sacks) in the face of the Seattle defense. The Niners also funneled a ton of work to ordinary RB Shaun Draughn — although his 20 touches collected a modest 77 yards, his eight receptions bailed out anyone in a PPR league. Anquan Boldin posted a respectable 5-93-0 line on seven targets, playing every snap like it might be his last. If only everyone viewed it that way.
-- History will record the Baltimore-St. Louis game as a 16-13 victory for the Ravens, but this felt like a game where everyone lost. The Ravens pulled out the last-second win despite two catastrophic injuries — Justin Forsett (broken arm) departed in the first quarter, while Joe Flacco (torn ACL) was hurt in the final period. Javorius Allen (115 total yards on 27 touches) becomes the new feature back, while Matt Schaub is the next quarterback up. Baltimore is that one team that couldn’t catch a break in 2015.
The Case Keenum start didn’t go well (12-for-26, 136 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT), but all anyone will remember is the obvious concussion he suffered in the fourth period — and the shocking way the Rams allowed Keenum to stay in the game. What happened to common sense? What happened to human decency? No matter how St. Louis spins this into Week 12, it looks like Nick Foles will be back on the field soon.
-- Detroit Lions defense, I don’t know what you are anymore. I expected the Packers to rout you last week, and I expected Derek Carr to expose you Sunday. Wrong again, Pianow.
The Lions won ugly for the second straight week, this time by an 18-13 count, and Carr had one of his worst games of the year (13-for-25, 169 yards, 0 TD, 73.6 rating). The Oakland receivers fizzled with Carr, and Latavius Murray was a bust, too, though he did punch in a short touchdown.
Don’t look now, but Matthew Stafford is starting to play competent football again. Perhaps his bottoming out Week 5 against Arizona was more a positive statement from the Cardinals than anything else. Although Stafford didn’t have a touchdown pass in Sunday’s victory, he chucked for 282 yards and added another 31 yards (and a score) on the ground. We’ll look forward to watching him and his resurgent mates on Thanksgiving, when they host Philadelphia.
-- Although the Broncos held on for a 17-15 victory at Chicago, snuffing out a converstion attempt in the final minute, the result felt far more decisive than that. Brock Osweiler was just about perfect in his starting debut (20-for-27, 250 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INT), other than occasional lapses with pocket awareness (five sacks). Ronnie Hillman (21-102) and C.J. Anderson (12-59) also kept the chains moving, and Demaryius Thomas had a glorious 48-yard touchdown jaunt. No one is in a hurry to watch injured Peyton Manning play again.
Jay Cutler did all he could despite the missing weapons (no Alshon Jeffery or Matt Forte), throwing for 265 yards on 32 attempts (8.3 YPA). The Jeremy Langford story took a step back: he was bottled up for 25 yards on 13 carries and made just 17 yards on six targets (three catches). His last-minute touchdown brought the Bears on the cusp of overtime, but he was tackled well short of the goal line on the ensuing conversion attempt. Chicago has a quick turnaround for Week 12, facing Green Bay on Thanksgiving night.
Speed Round: The entire Kansas City-San Diego box score feels like a put-on, other than the Chiefs scoring on defense. The Chargers coaching staff should receive an electric shock anytime they call a run for Melvin Gordon. Charcandrick West (hamstring) is day-to-day... DeAndre Hopkins needed 12 targets to do it, but a 5-118-2 line against the Jets is something to crow about. One of his scores came against Darrelle Revis. Jets QB Ryan Fitzpatrick had one of his worst showings of the year (5.5 YPA, 1 TD, 2 INT, 52.9 rating). If you want to be bored to death, watch Alfred Blue’s rushing tape on a loop (21 carries, 58 yards). He did have three useful catches, however... Tony Romo threw a couple of picks but otherwise looked spiffy in a 24-14 victory over fading-fast Miami. Darren McFadden (149 total yards) didn’t look like someone who was nicked during the practice week. The Wheel of Miami Receiving Touchdowns fell on Kenny Stills and Jordan Cameron. Looks like the pool carries over for another week.According to new research, humans may regularly live to 120 within the next 60 years. Leading experts have found ways to chemically slow down your biological ageing process. That means pills that interact with your DNA to maintain your bodily functions for decades after the current life expectancy of 81 years old.
At first read it seems too good to be true. A giant leap closer to eternal life. But when you begin to consider the quality of those extra years – your healthspan, not just your lifespan – questions undoubtedly arise. Here we investigate the possiblility of eternal life and whether we as men really want it.
For some people, it’s easy to dismiss the concept of immortality as fantasy. Or to believe that, even if it were a possibility, they wouldn’t want it. Call it arrogance. Or anxiety, maybe.
Recent biomedical advancements in the research spheres of stem cells, molecular repair, cloning, synthetic organs and cybernetics are already improving people’s life expectancy. Now scientists are daring to believe those developments could soon stop ageing decisively. Life extension. The end of death, bar fatal trauma.
The initial therapies are the hard bit: tissue engineering (creating organs in a lab and transplanting them), stem cell therapy (injecting ‘repair’ cells into the patient) and molecular regenerative medicine (repairing cells within the body). Current thinking is that there’s a 50% chance of getting it all done within 25 years.
Those therapies would be applied to middle-aged people, whose bodies haven’t suffered any serious damage. It would grant another 30 years of healthy life. Then when the patient comes back after 30 years the new therapies would have improved. The patient would be rejuvenated for longer. Therapies would improve again. The patient would not age. In the business of beating death, this is known as ‘longevity escape velocity’.
Even if you don’t escape and fatal trauma shuts the gate before we’ve all bolted, it’s not the end. You can come back. In the past two years, improved availability of cryonic techniques have sparked a price-war between clinics all over the world. From those in the US offering eternal-life insurance for $30 (£20) a month, all the way to a centre outside Moscow where they’ll preserve your head for as little as £6,000, coming back from the beyond is suddenly far less far-fetched. However much or little you pay, the promise is the same – suspension of your being until a time when death isn’t death any more.
We’re used to death, though. It’s ‘just a part of life’. Death has a psychological stranglehold over us; we’ve convinced ourselves it’s good because we think we can’t do anything about it. We’re afraid of immortality because it’s unfamiliar. We come up with ‘crazy’ reasons why it would be bad. We say we’d be bored; there’d be too many of us; dictators would terrorise forever. We want death instead.
But immortality is too important to sweep under the exisistential carpet. After all, billions of lives are at stake. Your life is at stake. Mine is too. For me – stocky, a history of early strokes in the family, atheist – death is increasingly real and terrifying. The scientists are claiming that it needn’t be the former; the philosophers say the latter shouldn’t worry you. Who should you believe? If the scientists are right, why don’t we embrace them as the saviours of a world’s worth of existences? Are we more scared of their eternal life than our own death? It’s immortalists vs deathists. Whose side are you on?
Life as we know it
Imagine if it worked. Life becomes a cruise instead of a race. No panic over ageing (300 is the new 30) and no need to stress with an eternity of tomorrows. It would be glorious, but we don’t want it.
To find out why, I decided to start as close to my home in the North East of England as possible: Ian Ground, senior philosophy lecturer at Sunderland University’s Centre for Lifelong Learning. We sit down in his office. He says he just gave a lecture on immortality and the arguments are fresh in his mind. Perfect. He says the world would become a worse place. The population would rise dramatically and basic resources would be scarce. Inequalities would increase. Dictators would live indefinitely (the Church of England’s medical ethics advisor also uses the same argument, saying mortality is good because it limits “the amount of evil” a person can do). And, of course, we’d be old.
“Typically people get more conservative as they get older,” says Ground. “They could become resistant to change, so what’s going to happen to innovation? There are questions about society stagnating. Most of us wouldn’t want the world to be run by our grandfathers.”
Then come problems for the individual. Things don’t get any perkier.
“Scientists think we can go on discovering things about the universe forever,” he continues. “Maybe we can, but what we aren’t envisaging is just becoming knowledge-acquiring machines for the rest of our lives. We need feelings and relationships, not just work.
“We’re used to the idea of birth, growth and development, a period of maturity, gradual tailing off, and hopefully a dignified retirement and death. We don’t know what happens if we plateau. We have no idea whether the human mind can survive that. It may be that we just get profoundly bored.”
Never-ending story
Boredom is a frequent fear with deathists. But would you get bored? Surely life would become infinitely more interesting? Every decade you could have a gap year.
You’d have a list of ex-girlfriends like the Domesday Book. And if it got that bad, you could just throw in the towel. But journalist Bryan Appleyard, author of How to Live Forever or Die Trying, says ennui would set in.
“Some gerontologists say ‘If you’re bored why don’t you learn quantum mechanics or learn to speak Arabic?’” he tells me. “Well I don’t want to learn Arabic. Just because I’m 200 years old won’t make me more keen on doing those things.
“I think there’s a point that the immortalists don’t understand, and it’s that one exhausts one’s own personality over a certain period. It’s a weird idea that you would go on and on, still being interested in being yourself. I don’t think anyone would. I think you’d get excruciatingly bored of being yourself.”
If you want to know what living forever would be like, you talk to gerontologist Aubrey De Grey. He was the subject of a previous MH profile, detailing his first acts as the frontman of immortalism. Since then, De Grey has continued on in his self-propelled race towards reaching the ‘longevity escape velocity’.
He suggests we meet over a beer but our schedules clash, so we arrange to speak on the phone. From internet videos I know he looks like a slacker Druid: long beard, jeans, trainers and crystal eyes.
De Grey has an answer for Appleyard: “Wouldn’t it be boring? Wouldn’t dictators live forever? I’m not saying the reasons they give are stupid. I’m just saying it’s unbelievably absurd to raise them as objections to solving a rather major problem that we have today, namely the ill-health of old age.
“I don’t want to be the sort of person who condemns humanity to an unnecessarily early death, just because I thought I knew what life would be like in the future.”
De Grey has a phenomenal brain. He studied computing science at Cambridge University and taught himself the science of ageing. Now he’s researching regenerative medicines. He believes he will discover biological immortality before the white coats of the traditional scientific establishment. People believe him, enough to fund his laboratory in California.
He tells me about the laboratory; about the mice; the cells and molecules; the rich backers (including Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal). He talks about his belief that someone alive today may live to be 1,000. You can laugh, but he’s cleverer than you are.
The disposable body
“Aubrey is a... very skilled showman.” Tom Kirkwood runs the Institute for Ageing and Health in the western suburbs of Newcastle upon Tyne – the biggest facility of its kind in Europe. Outside it’s leafy and peaceful. Inside it’s hard science. It’s a pretty far cry from De Grey’s sunny California base.
Kirkwood is the dean of ageing. In 2001 he gave the Reith Lectures – a renowned BBC radio series assessing the most vital contemporary issues of our time. In his lectures Kirkwood described how our (humanity’s) life expectancy doubled over the past two centuries. We (scientists) did it mainly by defeating acute infectious diseases. Now ageing is our bête noire, bringing with it cancer, stroke and heart disease. If you live long enough, your chances of being struck down with any, or even all, of the above increase exponentially. Kirkwood teaches me about ageing as we drink tea.
We are not programmed to age, he says. It’s just a build-up of damage. Kirkwood published a famous theory around this: our bodies are able to repair themselves and avoid ageing, but they divert the energy towards reproduction. Historically we were likely to be eaten by badgers or crushed by a menhir long before ageing became relevant. Repair was pointless.
He calls this the ‘disposable soma’ theory. It was published in 1977, after he thought of it while having a bath (take note all those who hurry in the shower). Now he’s spending his life learning how to stop the damage of ageing. It’s a growing field and a complicated field. It’s noteworthy that cancer gets a lot more investment and we (again, the scientists) haven’t fixed that yet. Kirkwood is a lot less optimistic than De Grey.
“What Aubrey has done,” he says, “is to look at this from an engineering perspective. He’s got a list of things he feels need to be fixed and he says, ‘Right, we’ll fix them and we’ll all live for a thousand years.’
“Well, in principle, who can argue with that? The reason I criticise him really very strongly, is he grossly distorts the scale of the scientific challenge and raises completely false expectations about what is likely to happen. And people get excited by it. I think that’s wrong.”
Kirkwood is one of 28 genterologists who co-authored a paper critical of this approach in 2005. It claimed De Grey was in the “realm of fantasy”. They said ageing research is only just emerging from a reputation of quackery and beginning to be taken seriously. Put simply, they don’t want De Grey’s “empty fantasies” cocking things up.
De Grey’s retort was to quote Lord Kelvin from 1895: “Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible”. He went on to say that life extension is a form of engineering and its goals, methods and skills are different to those of science. He ended by saying, “lives, lots of them, are at stake”. Kirkwood still hasn’t been persuaded.
“I work in mainstream biomedical research,” he says, “and these kinds of arguments discourage mainstream science from taking ageing as seriously as it needs to be taken. It’s damaging to the interests of older people, so I feel very strongly that what he is doing is wrong.”
De Grey stands by his predictions. Kirkwood by his proof. But if immortality is just around the corner, who would want to miss it when it does come around? Stick it out long enough, and you could decide whether living forever is what you want with all the facts of immortality in front of you. There is already a way you can.
Frozen in time
In 1948, an American wrier named Robert Ettinger wrote a short story for a magazine. It was about a man who was revived after centuries of being frozen. In 1964 he wrote a book called The Prospect of Immortality. It's about freezing real people in the hope that future science will resurrect them. He writes about repair and rejuvenation, transplants and prostheses, organ culture and regeneration (De Grey is a great admirer). Three years after publishing the book, a retired psychology professor became the first cryonics patient. In 1976 Ettinger opened the Cryonics Institute in Michigan.
When Ettinger died, aged 92, he became the 106th person to be frozen at the institute. Currently there are about 200 people frozen in various cryonics facilities around the world, mostly in America. De Grey is registered to be frozen at Alcor in Arizona. Adherents believe cold storage is preferable to the grave. It gives them hope of a wonderful afterlife: the future.
I call Dr Brendan McCarthy, the medical ethics advisor for the Church of England, to ask if he has any objections to this ‘afterlife’. Would he want it? He says Christians have a better offer: life with God. I ask if he understands why some of us want immortality.
“I think some people believe that when their body stops functioning as a physical organism that’s it, that’s simply the end,” he says. “They have a desire to keep on living and do better things, but they believe there is nothing. And they fear that.”
Your second coming
In the end, the entire subject of immortality is one of fear. We’re scared both of terminal death and of endless life. Professor Nick Zangwill, a philosopher at Durham University, has the final word on why some of us are now increasingly desperate to live on. He’s working late and scribbles some thoughts down on an email. What he says strikes to the very heart of the eternal question: “One might feel disappointed with the life one’s led, but clinging on to more isn’t necessarily going to right that. I suppose one might have a chance to live the life one would like to have lived. But what you’re really wanting is to live your life again but better. And that’s impossible.”
The 101st patient at the Cryonics Institute was an 18-year-old boy. He suffered from depression and committed suicide in late 2010. After he died his parents signed him up for freezing. His body was packed in dried ice, put on a plane and taken to Michigan. Upon arrival he was stored in a cryostat, an 18-year-old-boy-sized thermos bottle full of liquid nitrogen.
You can see why his parents did it. If you think immortality is impossible it’s easy to dismiss. But if you believe? That’s when you want it. That’s when you hope. In a world where the logic of science is more quantifiable, more acceptable to our mindset than the promises of religion, hope is the new afterlife. The boy’s parents hoped badly. They wanted him to have another chance, even if he didn’t. They wanted another chance. Whether you believe an end to death is something you truly want or not, it’s the same reason any of us want immortality: please, one more chance. Just give me more time.
Illustrations: Noma Bar; Words: Andrew Hankinson
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The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has reignited stalled plans for a $550 million Southern Beltway project to connect U.S. Route 22 and Interstate 79, prompting critics to question why an agency awash in debt is building it.
Proponents say it will alleviate traffic and spur development.
The long-talked about, and at times controversial, project would be a 12-mile, four-lane expressway to connect with the Findlay Connector. The road would let drivers on I-79 connect to Interstate 376 at Pittsburgh International Airport, bypassing much of the congested Parkway West.
The road would make it easier to reach parts of South Fayette and Cecil as well.
The commission awarded the first two contracts for the project last week. It will pay Miami-based CDR Maguire $15 million to manage construction. Mosites Construction Co. was awarded a $14 million contract to build a bridge over Route 22. Officials said the earliest the highway could be open is 2019 or 2020.
The commission has acquired more than 250 properties over several years to obtain rights of way for the highway.
“I’m not anti-progress, but don’t take over 200 properties and let them languish for years. And then the Turnpike Commission sits there and raises tolls, and then is spending a half-billion dollars on the Southern Beltway when there’s hundreds of bridges that need immediate remediation,” said Robert Lee, 71, of Cecil.
Lee owns three to four acres, where his horses graze, located near properties the state took, although the agency did not request any of his land.
“All this to support a vastly under-utilized airport. All you hear is how bad the Turnpike situation is, and now this. I don’t mind the road — it’s the taxpayer money,” he said.
Several elected officials, including Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, consider the road a vital link to development, and other residents in the area support it, saying it will give them greater travel access.
“This project is so critical for economic development, to get from Southpointe to the airport, for example. It also alleviates traffic. The Parkway West is becoming so congested with all the development out there,” Fitzgerald said. “This is not just for Allegheny County. This is really a tri-county benefit.”
The Turnpike Commission has about $9 billion in debt, although spokeswoman Renee Vid Colborn said about half of that is because a state law forces the agency to pay PennDOT $450 million annually through 2022. She said the newly passed transportation bill, which increased the wholesale gas tax and raised fees, helped the Southern Beltway to move forward. A lack of money had put the plan on hold for several years.
“It is anticipated that by year five (of the new law), the PTC will receive an additional $86 million from the oil franchise tax and that’s why it’s moving forward with the 22-to-79 portion of the Southern Beltway. Understand, that like in years past, the PTC moves forward with projects as funding becomes available,” she said in an email message.
Critics also point to the agency’s checkered past. Six people with ties to the Turnpike are awaiting trial for an alleged bid-rigging and influence-peddling scheme.
Still, some landowners, such as John Kosky, 58, of South Fayette, say the highway will bring development.
“Our family has about 800 acres in the area, and the Turnpike is going to take 50 to 60 acres. We’ve been supportive of the Southern Beltway because it will be good for economic development,” said Kosky, who owns a contracting business. “Some people don’t like to see development and highways. With a project like this, you’re going to have people for it and people against it. The people in Cecil should look at what Southpointe has done for them and their tax base.”
Traffic counts on the first 6-mile leg of the beltway, the Findlay Connector, have been less than officials expected. Turnpike statistics show about 4,500 vehicles use that road daily, paying about $1.4 million annually in tolls. Turnpike studies predicted the Findlay Connector would average 12,000 vehicles a day.
Officials project traffic will double to 9,000 vehicles per day once the next leg opens. Portions of the Parkway West leading to the airport carry 45,000 to 55,000 vehicles per day. About 80,000 vehicles daily use the Fort Pitt Tunnel, PennDOT stats show.
Bernadette Puzzuolo, CEO of the Pittsburgh Airport Area Chamber of Commerce, acknowledged the low traffic counts on the Findlay Connector but said once the road connects to I-79, traffic will increase.
“We think it’s going to do a lot to alleviate traffic out here. From 79, traffic is always backed up heading toward the airport,” Puzzuolo said. “The whole section will be opened up to business.”
Bobby Kerlik is a Trib Total Media staff writer. Reach him at 412-320-7886 or [email protected]. David Juurlink is an expert advisor with EvidenceNetwork.ca and Professor and Head of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Toronto. You can follow him on Twitter at @davidjuurlink
In my first career as a pharmacist, I worked in more than 30 pharmacies across Nova Scotia, filling more than 100,000 prescriptions between 1990 and 1995. Some of these were for strong painkillers called opioids – drugs like morphine and oxycodone, which are chemically and biologically very similar to heroin. Back then, these drugs were generally reserved for patients with acute, severe pain or pain due to cancer.
Twenty years into my second career as a physician, much has changed. In Ontario, about 10 people die accidentally from prescription opioids every week, often in the prime of life. Across Canada, overdose deaths have risen and addiction rates and demand for treatment have skyrocketed.
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This happened because doctors began prescribing opioids more liberally for patients with chronic pain. Sometimes this leads to meaningful improvement, but frequently it does not. By the time failure is apparent, patients are often 'opioid dependent,' meaning the body has come to expect the drug and will revolt violently if it is stopped. And so opioid treatment is continued – and doses escalated – in a dangerous, often futile search for relief.
We are now in a very difficult position. On one hand, we have millions of chronic pain patients seeking help, often in the form of a prescription. On the other, we have an epidemic of addiction and death. The false notion that opioids are safe, effective treatments for chronic pain was inculcated by the companies that manufacture them, with self-styled 'experts' preaching this gospel to front-line physicians. Incredibly, this happened in the absence of good evidence that the benefits of long-term opioid use outweigh the risks.
The United States and Canada have both declared prescription painkiller public health crises – in the U.S., about 17,000 people die each year from the drugs. But the countries have reacted very differently. In 2007, Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty in the United States for misleading doctors about OxyContin, a felony accompanied by a $634-million fine. No similar action occurred in Canada.
In 2011, a major White House report acknowledged prescription drug abuse as the country's fastest growing drug problem, establishing goals and timelines for addressing it. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks opioid deaths and prescribing nationally, and describes how some states have managed to reduce prescribing.
In contrast, there is no national system of surveillance in Canada, and even the number of Canadians who die annually from opioids is unknown. The federal government recently handed responsibility for tackling the epidemic to the Canadian Centre for Substance Abuse, an inadequately resourced non-governmental organization funded primarily by Health Canada that also addresses the abuse of alcohol and illicit drugs. In 2013, an advisory council to the centre produced a 10-year strategy to combat the opioid crisis, but its 58 recommendations were not prioritized (as they surely should be), and are to be implemented by volunteers from other organizations.
In February, the federal government announced funding to address prescription drug abuse as part of the low profile National Anti-Drug Strategy, a group headed by the Department of Justice and historically undermined by restrictions on information sharing. These initiatives give the regrettable impression of being ornamental rather than substantive.
We now face a public health crisis of exceptional scale – an epidemic fueled by well-meaning doctors, expectant patients and corporate interests, and perpetuated by governmental inertia. While we await federal and provincial interventions of substance, some pragmatic solutions have already been suggested.
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Doctors need better education, independent from the pharmaceutical industry, regarding pain and its treatment. We must start prescribing opioids more cautiously; otherwise, nothing will change. A national assessment of the toll exacted by opioids is long overdue. (How can we fix a problem we don't even measure?) Every doctor and pharmacist should have real-time access to a patient's full medication profile, as has been the case in British Columbia for almost two decades. Drug companies should be compelled to conduct large-scale evaluations of the benefits and risks of their drugs, rather than small studies aimed at getting their products to market. Patient and physician registries should be implemented for high-dose opioids, facilitating targeted interventions intended to maximize benefit and minimize harm.
Finally, we need better treatments for pain, including drugs that alleviate pain safely and effectively. This is a lofty long-term goal. Until then, we must collectively lower our expectations of what pills can do for patients with chronic pain. Unless that message sinks in and a measure of respect for opioids
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croaked.
And it followed Sigarda to the hard stone of the plaza below, curling like a dead spider on the ground. Thalia rolled off its back and fell to the ground beside it, staring upward into darkness.
Sigarda's hand lifted Thalia to her feet, and her pain fled and her vision cleared. The blessed angel, the last archangel, smiled at her.
Victory—the word flitted through her mind, and she returned the angel's smile.
Then Sigarda's face grew solemn again, and she shook her head as though aware of Thalia's fleeting thought.
Thalia turned to survey the scene. The battle still raged, but a glance suggested that the tide had turned, that humans and vampires and werewolves fighting in an improbable alliance were driving back the gibbering horde of madness.
Then her gaze rose to the sky.
The thing in the air was impossibly huge. It looked vaguely like the fused angels, Bruna-Gisela. Its dome-shaped body was supported by a mass of strange tentacles, and a reddish light glowed at its core.
But there was no remnant of any natural life, let alone the beauty and majesty of an angel, in the form of this creature. Its existence defied the natural order of things, violated physical laws, and blasphemed against the sacred nature of life. Its presence was an invitation to madness, pressing into Thalia's mind like a dull knife despite the saint's warding.
As it approached, a tidal wave of corrupted monstrosities crested before it, smashing into the plaza and turning the tide once more toward annihilation.
Eldritch Moon Story Archive
Shadows over Innistrad Story Archive
Plane Profile: InnistradAn old musician’s joke goes “there are three kinds of drummers in the world—those who can count and those who can’t.” But perhaps there is an even more global divide. Perhaps there are three kinds of people in the world—those who can drum and those who can’t. Perhaps, as the promotional video above from GE suggests, drummers have fundamentally different brains than the rest of us. Today we highlight the scientific research into drummers' brains, an expanding area of neuroscience and psychology that disproves a host of dumb drummer jokes.
"Drummers," writes Jordan Taylor Sloan at Mic, "can actually be smarter than their less rhythmically-focused bandmates." This according to the findings of a Swedish study (Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm) which shows "a link between intelligence, good timing and the part of the brain used for problem-solving." As Gary Cleland puts it in The Telegraph, drummers "might actually be natural intellectuals."
Neuroscientist David Eagleman, a renaissance researcher The New Yorker calls “a man obsessed with time," found this out in an experiment he conducted with various professional drummers at Brian Eno's studio. It was Eno who theorized that drummers have a unique mental makeup, and it turns out "Eno was right: drummers do have different brains from the rest." Eagleman's test showed "a huge statistical difference between the drummers' timing and that of test subjects." Says Eagleman, "Now we know that there is something anatomically different about them." Their ability to keep time gives them an intuitive understanding of the rhythmic patterns they perceive all around them.
That difference can be annoying—like the pain of having perfect pitch in a perpetually off-key world. But drumming ultimately has therapeutic value, providing the emotional and physical benefits collectively known as "drummer's high," an endorphin rush that can only be stimulated by playing music, not simply listening to it. In addition to increasing people's pain thresholds, Oxford psychologists found, the endorphin-filled act of drumming increases positive emotions and leads people to work together in a more cooperative fashion.
Clash drummer Topper Headon discusses the therapeutic aspect of drumming in a short BBC interview above. He also calls drumming a "primeval" and distinctly, universally human activity. Former Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart and neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley have high hopes for the science of rhythm. Hart, who has powered a light show with his brainwaves in concerts with his own band, discusses the "power" of rhythm to move crowds and bring Alzheimer's patients back into the present moment.
Whether we can train ourselves to think and feel like drummers may be debatable. But as for whether drummers really do think in ways non-drummers can't, consider the neuroscience of Stewart Copeland's polyrhythmic beats, and the work of Terry Bozzio (below) playing the largest drumkit you've ever seen.
Related Content:
Playing an Instrument Is a Great Workout For Your Brain: New Animation Explains Why
Isolated Drum Tracks From Six of Rock’s Greatest: Bonham, Moon, Peart, Copeland, Grohl & Starr
Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness.The UFC has released perennial Japanese contender Yushin Okami (29-8 MMA, 13-5 UFC).
MMAjunkie.com today confirmed the company’s decision with UFC officials.
Okami’s UFC run lasted more than seven years, and included four separate winning streaks of at least three fights. A top-ranked fighter throughout his tenure in the promotion, UFC President Dana White once labeled Okami as “the best fighter to ever come out of Japan.”
That praise was offered up after Okami went 10-2 in his first 12 UFC appearances and earned a shot at then-champ Anderson Silva at UFC 134, which took place in August 2011 in Rio de Janeiro. Okami suffered a second-round TKO loss and fell short in his one shot at UFC gold. He would lose again in his next outing, a surprising TKO loss to Tim Boetsch.
Despite his numerous UFC wins, Okami was often criticized for his wrestling-heavy fighting style, which saw him earn eight of his 13 career UFC wins by decision.
Okami fought most recently at “UFC Fight Night 28: Teixeira vs. Bader,” where he suffered a first-round TKO stoppage at the hands of Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza. The loss snapped a three-fight winning streak for Okami that saw him earn wins over Hector Lombard, Alan Belcher and Buddy Roberts. Despite the loss, Okami still sits at No. 7 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie.com MMA middleweight rankings.
The 32-year-old “Thunder” trains primarily in his native Japan but has also been a frequent training partner of Chael Sonnen in recent years. He leaves the UFC with career wins over MMA notables Dean Lister, Nate Marquardt, Mark Munoz, Mike Swick and Evan Tanner, among others. He was 3-3 in his final six octagon appearances.
Okami’s final two UFC fights took place in Brazil and Japan, where salaries are not revealed. However for his December 2012 win over Belcher, his disclosed pay was $84,000, which includes a $42,000 win bonus.
For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.
(Pictured: Yushin Okami)Working hard at the Library, I got a surprise phone call from an old friend with some great news. “I bought a car,” he told me, a smile in his voice. “Only issue is that the clock in the dashboard doesn’t work. I was thinking you might have some time to take a look…”
Well, I know when I have been cornered. Sharing all my technical creativity has me as the first port of call for anything that may be electrical or technology driven. With a smile, I made a time and he brought his car over for me to take a look at.
Before arriving, I did a quick google search and discovered that there was a frequent problem in this model of car and thankfully there was a trick to getting the clock unit out of the dashboard. It seems that over time, the surface mounted capacitors have an issue where they have been soldered onto the board. So with two pairs of pliers and some help, we were able to pop the clock free from the dash and dismantle it from it’s housing.
The clock itself is a very basic digital clock, the same circuits that were used in digital watches in the 80’s. This one had no alarm function, but allowed you to set the time. My first observation was the size of the surface mount capacitors on the board. These were HUGE. I had never seen anything like them before. I was worried I would have to go to the Connected Community HackerSpace and use their Electronics lab to do surface mount work, but with the size of these components, a normal soldering iron tip would do.
Taking a closer look, I realised that the solder joints were dry and that one of them had completely fallen off the board. I can only guess that in 13+ years of driving, the vibration had caused the solder joint to break away. This would explain why when I went looking for information, this issue was well documented by the Honda community.
Grabbing my gas powered soldering iron, I went around to all the components and touched up the solder joints, adding some more solder to reinforce the joints. When I got to the second large capacitor, it fell away as I applied heat to the bottom joint. As it hit the floor, I realised where the issue had been. The upper join, (which was tucked behind the LED display) was no longer on the board. This also explained why the clock would work intermittently when you tapped on the console, the connection was being made then broken as the car drove around.
Re-soldering the cap to the board, I finished touching up the other connections and then headed back to the car to power up the unit. After reconnecting the clock to the car, we were disappointed to find that the clock didn’t power on… till we realised we had not turned the car on! Simple things seem to always get in the way of an excited test. Turning the key, the clock turned itself on and, after a quick drive around the block, we resembled the dashboard.
It’s been a few weeks now and I got the report that the clock has been keeping the time with no power errors. A simple answer to do with basic soldering skills and something I was happy to apply outside my usual creative sphere.
This week, I got another call from my friend. “Hey, Gil, can we wire my iPad and embed it into the dash of my car…”
Bring it on.
Special shout out to mechanic and Honda specialist Mark K for all his help and guidance with this project.It’s game on in the 2016 presidential policy wonk sweepstakes.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has the early lead — in publishing four white papers — with his latest tome out Monday on education reform. Rick Perry’s attempt to look smart continued last week in Washington, where the former Texas governor dined with a pair of Middle East specialists — Elliott Abrams and Eliot Cohen — at an expensive steakhouse a couple blocks from the White House. Then there’s Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor who has attracted leading GOP heavyweights like Robert Zoellick and has tasked former Walmart CEO Bill Simon with hiring dozens of specialists who may need to move to … wait for it … Miami.
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Next year’s election is shaping up to be the strongest on policy in recent history, thanks to a wide-open, issue-hungry presidential field and the promise that no matter who wins, 2017 may just be the year that the legislative logjam finally breaks and big things get done again in Washington.
And while it’s a year until the Iowa caucuses, all of the candidates need ideas — and fast.
Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is pulling together a team tasked with the challenging job of charting a new, post-Barack Obama path. It will be packed with party heavyweights (including her husband) with more than two decades of experience battling Republicans on everything from the environment to budget deficits.
Leading Clinton’s campaign team is John Podesta, the former White House chief of staff, fresh off his second tour at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., where he was a counselor to Obama overseeing climate change and energy policy. Also in Clinton’s corner are former top State Department policy adviser Jake Sullivan and Neera Tanden, who led her 2008 campaign’s policy department and now runs the progressive Center for American Progress think tank originally established by Podesta and that’s widely seen in Washington as a second Clinton administration policy shop in waiting.
For Jeb Bush, the number of Republicans willing to help on policy is growing every day. Simon, a close Bush friend who served under him as head of the state Department of Management Services, has been interviewing dozens of policy experts eager to work for the next in a GOP dynasty, according to multiple sources familiar with the effort.
“He’s the one who everyone is chasing,” Stephen Moore, The Heritage Foundation’s chief economist and a close ally of Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, said of Bush.
Also in Bush’s corner is Zoellick, the former World Bank president and U.S. trade representative, who has been advising him on foreign and economic policy, according to a source close to Zoellick. Glenn Hubbard, who chaired President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, has also spoken with Bush and in an interview had only positive things to say about the former Florida governor’s economic record.
“If you ask which candidate has a really good opportunity agenda, it’d be Gov. Bush,” said Hubbard, who has also met with Perry and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and declined comment when asked who he planned to formally support in the 2016 race.
No candidate wants to be tagged an intellectual lightweight at the start of the campaign season. After all, bad things can happen when a candidate fumbles a reporter’s question on measles vaccinations or U.S. troops on the ground in Syria. Going forward, the entire 2016 GOP field has no shortage of opportunities in the coming days and weeks to showcase its policy chops: Sens. Paul and Ted Cruz of Texas, and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, are all scheduled to talk technology Thursday at a Lincoln Labs forum in Washington; Bush gives a foreign policy speech Feb. 18 in Chicago; and the hosts of the Conservative Political Action Conference later this month are urging all the candidates attending to talk about a specific issue area.
As they build up their issue portfolios, many of the Republicans are relying on a familiar cast of former GOP administration officials and Capitol Hill aides as experts for advice. Several policy experts said they are sharing years of pent-up ideas to any 2016 candidates that ask but are on the fence about committing to any one campaign.
“I think it’s just a question of whether I have an appetite to get involved in the primary and, if so, who shares my worldview and will do the best job for the Republican Party in competing against Hillary Clinton,” said Lanhee Chen, the former Mitt Romney 2012 policy chief, who confirmed he’s talked to several potential GOP campaigns, including Bush, Jindal, Perry, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and a couple of others.
Jindal, who last year said Republicans need to “stop being the stupid party,” continued his policy-minded rollout Monday with a 42-page report on education reform that includes calls to reduce the federal government’s role in schooling, new ways to measure teacher performance and allowing parents greater choice in where their kids go to class. “I don’t know how you get into a race this important without giving serious thought to these issues,” Jindal told reporters at a breakfast in Washington hosted by The Christian Science Monitor.
America Next, a Jindal-led policy group, has a full-time policy director in Chris Jacobs, a former staffer for Jim DeMint at The Heritage Foundation. Asked who he’s relying on for ideas, Jindal named former Missouri Sen. Jim Talent as an adviser for a paper he published last year on defense issues and noted conversations he’s had with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and another possible 2016 contender, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton.
“There’s no one person I’d say, ‘This is the determinate influence.’ I prefer to talk to a wide array of people and make my own decisions,” Jindal said.
A Paul spokesman cited Stephen Moore as one primary economic adviser, though Moore explained that he’d also given advice to fellow 2016 presidential hopefuls Cruz, Fiorina and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. For foreign policy help, Paul is leaning on former George W. Bush State Department official Lorne Craner and Richard Burt, a former U.S. ambassador to Germany and President George H.W. Bush’s chief negotiator for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Aides to Scott Walker wouldn’t name his outside advisers, though the Wisconsin governor did share writing duties on his 2013 autobiography with former George W. Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen.
Perry, meanwhile, is trying to overcome his reputation as a policy lightweight — the byproduct of his “oops” moment during the 2012 campaign when he forgot the names of the three agencies he was promising to abolish — through dozens of briefings on issues both foreign and domestic. Last week, he talked about the economy at his Washington, D.C., hotel with CNBC senior contributor Larry Kudlow and dined at Morton’s The Steakhouse with Abrams, a former George W. Bush deputy national security adviser, and Cohen, a military history expert who served as Rice’s counselor at the State Department.
Back in Austin, Perry political strategist Jeff Miller and Dallas-based economist Abby McCloskey have recently organized briefings for Perry with about three dozen experts on everything from the economy to the federal budget, energy, labor markets, taxation, education and immigration. Attendees say they were encouraged before meeting the governor to forward published articles so he could be ready with questions.
“It wasn’t just for show,” said one GOP policy expert who briefed Perry. “He was serious to try to learn and I think that’s commendable for a guy like him who, obviously, had some missteps in that area.”
For Christie, policy help frequently comes from Bob Grady, a Jackson, Wyo.-based venture capitalist and former George H.W. Bush White House aide who has been volunteering for the New Jersey governor since his 2009 election. Grady, a New Jersey native, helped draft each of Christie’s state of the state speeches, as well as both of his inaugural addresses. More recently, Grady has helped organize telephone and in-person briefings on domestic and foreign policy issues for Christie, including with Zoellick, Rice, Henry Kissinger and Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass.
Christie also has policy help back in Trenton, including Regina Egea, his chief of staff who volunteered as a policy adviser on his 2009 campaign, and Amy Cradic, a deputy chief of staff and Cabinet liaison who has handled the New Jersey portfolio on energy, environment, labor, tourism, gambling, emergency preparedness, transportation and federal issues.
Rubio’s aides pointed to meetings the Florida Republican has had with both Hubbard and Abrams, as well as former George W. Bush Undersecretary of Defense Eric Edelman; National Affairs writer Yuval Levin; American Enterprise Institute President Arthur Brooks and James Pethokoukis, an AEI columnist and former “Jeopardy!” champion. Talent, the former senator, also helped Rubio on a major defense policy speech he gave last fall. In the Capitol, Rubio relies on staffers Jamie Fly for foreign policy and national security issues and Sara Decker for domestic advice.
Cesar Conda, a former Rubio chief of staff, said the emphasis on policy so early in the 2016 presidential cycle is being well received and would go a long way for Republicans in differentiating themselves from each other and their nominee’s ultimate Democratic opponent. “2012 was really an issues-free zone,” he said. “There’s a vacuum out there. You’ve got to present an alternative. You can’t just be the anti-Hillary candidate.”Rick Osterloh has been on the job as the senior vice president of hardware at Google for just over 17 months now. In that time, he's had to repeatedly answer the same questions from reporters like me: just how serious is Google about making its own hardware? Is it a hobby or is it going to genuinely affect Google's financial bottom line? Is the company sure it won't repeat the same mistakes it made with its ill-fated Motorola acquisition and subsequent sale years ago?
He's heard it all before: Osterloh was actually president of Motorola for a time under Google. In an hour-long interview, his answers to those questions haven't changed since last April. They might not stop us from asking them over and over, but the consistency of the answers is important. And if there was any doubt about Google's ambitions in hardware, the company definitively put it to rest by acquiring 2,000 or so phone engineers from HTC last month, along with some IP and equipment.
Last October, Google wanted to show it was serious about hardware with a wave of hardware announcements. But Osterloh had just started a few months earlier, so he acted as more of a master of ceremonies for products than the original architect of them.
This year, everything Google is announcing was created under his watch. It’s our first real look at Osterloh's vision for what Google hardware should be. His vision includes no fewer than eight products, two of which are in completely new product categories for the company.
Last year was a coming-out party for Google hardware. This year is something different. It's a statement that Google is very serious about turning hardware into a real business on a massive scale — just maybe not this year.
Google's HTC deal wasn't a straight acquisition of the company. Instead it simply hired a ton of HTC engineers who will switch their badges to say Google but won't pack up and change offices. For Google, it wasn't about HTC's VR efforts, or even about its manufacturing capabilities. Osterloh says that Google will still choose the factories that are best for its future products.
"The deal was fundamentally to try to build our capabilities so that we could scale our business faster and strengthen our smartphone position," Osterloh says. Google is already very familiar with the team it's acquired. They built the original Android phone, the G1. They built the Nexus One. They were deeply involved in engineering last year's Pixel.
"The hardware business requires a lot of people to scale and to do big things," Osterloh says. "Especially smartphones, which are super complicated.... And then the second big thing is that we needed a more expansive Asia operation."
Google has been down a similar road before: it acquired Motorola and kept it at arm's length before ultimately spinning it out to Lenovo (in part because it needed to placate other Android manufacturers like Samsung). But Osterloh doesn’t think history will repeat itself. "They are very, very different deals," he says. "I wasn't here when the decision was made to acquire Motorola. I came afterwards. But it was pretty clear a primary driver of that was the situation with [smartphone patents and intellectual property] at the time."
"This strategic deal is very different. We know exactly what we need."
Those patents didn't turn out to be anywhere near as valuable as either Google or Motorola thought, but to Osterloh the real issue is that Google simply didn't know what its goals were with Motorola, which had lots of different businesses besides phones. "This strategic deal is very different. We know exactly what we need," Osterloh says. "We want deeper engineering capabilities, and we happened to know this team very well at HTC."
Fair enough. The HTC acquisition is tiny compared to what Google tackled with Motorola. Nevertheless, it does underline how serious Google is about making its own phones — and perhaps Samsung will eventually chafe under that competition.
That's not really Osterloh's problem, since he’s in charge of Google’s hardware efforts. "That's probably a proper question for Hiroshi [Lockheimer, the head of Android]," he quips. He also points out that Google is doing more than just smartphones: it's making home speakers, headphones, a new kind of camera, and a new high-end laptop.
One area that Google's hardware division is steering clear of is Nest's domain, and Osterloh isn't worried about it. "The company has made the decision that they're independent businesses. … Our focus has been trying to get people connected to Google's services in the home." Nest and Google coordinate sales and supplier relationships, but when I ask if Nest is keeping his team from making hardware products they’d otherwise like to make, Osterloh's answer is: "No, not to date."
Google's smartphone efforts are frankly not likely to sell in numbers that will threaten Samsung anytime soon. "We're focused on the high end in a few markets," Osterloh says. "So while there might be some overlap with the ecosystem, there are 2 billion Android phones out there. And our business is obviously much more narrow than that."
Which, again, brings up one of those repeated questions: the seriousness of Google's hardware ambitions. Osterloh still thinks of the Pixel as "trying to deliver a benchmark experience," calling it "a very common thread from Nexus." But where the Nexus was never meant to sell in any real volume, the Pixel seems like it is.
While Osterloh expects the Pixel to "become big, meaningful business for the company over time," right now his benchmark isn't sales, it's "consumer satisfaction and user experience.” So I ask: what about five years out? "We don't want it to be a niche thing," Osterloh says. "We hope to be selling products in high volumes in five years."
For the time being, Google is focused on nailing high-end technologies. It wants to sell the phone with the best camera and the best OLED screens. Osterloh contends that Pixel phones will not only be competitive on quality, but even better than the competition in certain metrics.
More than anything, though, he believes Google's mission in hardware is to take advantage of Google's core strengths and apply them to computer products. It's common now for people at the company to say the same thing we've heard Apple say over and over: that the integration of hardware and software is key to making great products. But Osterloh and everybody else at Google are adding a new twist: “hardware and software and AI.”
When you talk about integrating software and hardware, the elephant in the room is silicon. Apple designs its own processors, and it is able to produce chips that, by many accounts, are years ahead of what Qualcomm can provide to Android manufacturers like Google.
"Do we have an advantage in hardware now? No," Osterloh says. But he does so in an interesting context: processors aren't actually getting faster at the same rate they used to, and they're also not getting more power efficient as they get smaller. So focusing explicitly on the CPU is a mistake.
"The Moore's law performance curve has really slowed down," Osterloh says. "So there's still performance gains, like raw performance gains, but it is definitely not doubling every 18 to 24 months on technology anymore." He also points to something called Dennard scaling, which usually means that processors get more power efficient as they get smaller. That's another "law" that no longer applies, he argues. "You can't just put in a new chip that's on the cutting edge in a laptop or a phone and expect that the thing is going to perform at the same level of power performance.”
"Core hardware technology is slowing down, changing, and the laws of the past are no longer are valid.”
Osterloh says that Google will attack some of these problems by working with Qualcomm. "What we can effectively do is work with them closely to move that in the direction that's important," he says. He continues, saying, "We are not developing chips ourselves."
Instead, the key to Google's performance strategy is AI. If the curve of processor performance is flattening, Osterloh’s plan is to differentiate Google's products by integrating machine learning and AI.
The entire company is directed toward improvements in AI and machine learning, and those improvements will come to Google's hardware in interesting ways, he argues. "Because core hardware technology is slowing down, changing, and the laws of the past are no longer are valid, we think that provides a future ability for us to develop hardware that can solve the problems we want to solve, and that can really move computing forward."
That advantage, Osterloh believes, is unique to Google. "I think the corporate-wide advantage is that we know where our software direction is going." As Google extends its lead in AI and machine learning, Osterloh will take that work and put it directly into Google's hardware. Sometimes — as with Google Assistant — it will talk to Google's servers. Sometimes it will just be integrated directly into the hardware with custom, local chips, as with the new Google Clips camera.
It's going to take some time before we can tell if Google's machine learning bet will play out. And who knows, it may eventually decide it needs to compete directly with Apple on chips. But what we can judge right now is the design of Google's hardware products. They focus much more on simple pragmatism than flashy design.
"You know, I don't think Google has ever been a 'flash' company, right?" Osterloh says. I remind him about the people parachuting out of a blimp once upon a time. "Let me restate that, then," he laughs. "The product design is attempting to reflect the brand. I think the company has always been about trying to solve real user problems and having the technology recede in the background."
Google's not trying to make edge-to-edge screens with cutouts, or even curved screens. ("Look, we don't think there's use in that.") Instead, Osterloh says, Google "wanted to try to keep it simple and nice and clean... We're trying to be reminiscent of Google's main property: the big search box."
With Google, it always seems to come back to that search box. The company might be unveiling a large family of products. It might have hired a couple thousand new phone engineers. It might even be serious about creating products that are directly competitive with Apple, Samsung, Amazon, Bose, Sonos, and many others. It is doing all of those things. For the time being, however, it's not doing them at a massive scale — yet.
But after talking to Osterloh, it's very clear that Google wants to.Alina Gorghiu
Numele premierului Victor Ponta și al Alinei Gorghiu apar în rechizitoriul celui de-al doilea dosar al lui Mihail Vlasov, anunță Realitatea Tv. Vlasov, fost președinte al Camerei de Comerț, este acuzat că a dat mită unui deputat pentru a trece un proiect de lege ce viza trecerea OFICIULUI NAŢIONAL AL REGISTRULUI COMERŢULUI în subordinea CURŢII DE ARBITRAJ INTERNAŢIONAL DE PE LÂNGĂ CAMERA DE COMERŢ ŞI INDUSTRIE(CCIR). Potrivit documentului, Vlasov și-a exercitat influența asupra parlamentarilor care au avut calitatea de arbitri în cadrul Curţii de Arbitraj Comercial Internaţional, inclusiv asupra Alinei Gorghiu, care a și fost audiată la DNA în calitate de martor. Vlasov mai precizează în cadrul unei discuții că Victor Ponta i-ar fi promis că Registrul Comerțului va trece în subordinea sa, adăugând că este la a treia promisiune, după alianța DA, și PNL, prin intermediul lui Tăriceanu.
Se precizează în rechizitoriu, că Vlasov a depus o muncă asiduă pentru a exercitat influența asupra parlamentarilor care au avut calitatea de arbitri în cadrul Curţii de Arbitraj Comercial Internaţional, printre care și Alina Gorghiu:
”După finalizarea proiectului de act normativ inculpatul Mihail Vlasov a depus o muncă asiduă pentru influenţarea unor parlamentari din toată sfera politică în vederea semnării şi susţinerii respectivei iniţi legislative.
În special, influenţa s-a exercitat asupra parlamentarilor care au avut calitatea de arbitri în cadrul Curţii de Arbitraj Comercial Internaţional (Florin Iordache, Alina Gorghiu şi Aurel Vainer) ori prin intermediul unor membri ai Camerei de Comerţ şi Industrie a României ori camerelor teritoriale (Andras Edler). De asemenea, inc. Mihail Vlasov a iniţiat o campanie pentru obţinerea sprijinului politic în vederea adoptării proiectului normativ privind registratorul comercial”, se arată în rechizitoriu.
Potrivit aceluiași document, Alina Gorghiu a fost audiată în acest dosar pe 17 februarie 2015, ca martor:
”La data de 17.02.2015, martora Gorghiu Alina-Ştefania, deputat în Parlamentul României şi arbitru în cadrul Curţii de Arbitraj Comercial Internaţional a declarat, că, la începutul anului 2013, a fost contactată de către deputatul Florin Iordache care i-a solicitat să semneze propunerea legislativă privind registratorii comerciali şi activitatea de înregistrare în Registrul Comerţului. Martora declară că nu şi-a pus problema cine a redactat acest proiect de lege, însă arată că acesta era un proiect asumat de formaţiunea politică din care face parte. Alina Gorghiu arată că nu a purtat discuţii cu deputatul Mircea Grosaru asupra acestei iniţiative legislative, însă s-a întâlnit cu acesta la Curtea de Arbitraj şi a presupus că a fost numit arbitru”
Iată secvențele în care apare și numele lui Ponta, în care Vlasov preciezează că premierul i-ar fi promis că Registrul Comerțului va trece în subordinea sa, la Camera de Comerț. Pe de altă parte, apare și numele lui Tăriceanu în rechizitoriu. Vlasov mai precizează că prietenii săi din același spectru politic i-au promis pentru a treia oară că Registrul va trece în subordinea sa:”O dată, Alianţa DA, după aia din PNL, prin TĂRICEANU şi acum prin PONTA”, se arată în document:
Astfel, la data de 27.12.2012, ora 14:07:42, inc. Mihail Vlasov îi comunică martorei Brânduşa Ştefănescu faptul că are sprijinul politic din partea unor funcţionari guvernamentali(vol. 4, filele 46-52):
„ŞTEFĂNESCU BRÂNDUŞA : Eu nu vreau să-i facem ei complicaţii. Înţelegi?!
VLASOV MIHAIL: Da’ nu... ea nu face nimic, mă, dacă nu-i spune premierul. Tu crezi că ea face? Ai găsit-o pe MONA să facă ceva fără să fie... ă... Nu, spune premierul.
ŞTEFĂNESCU BRÂNDUŞA : Păi, da, da’ ca să-i spună premierul. Premierul din proprie iniţiativă nu-i spune că... să nu mă provoci, te rog frumos.
VLASOV MIHAIL: Păi nu, premierul îi spune pentru că mi-a promis mie şi pentru că eu insist să-i spună.
ŞTEFĂNESCU BRÂNDUŞA : Da, da, da.
VLASOV MIHAIL: Păi, da.
ŞTEFĂNESCU BRÂNDUŞA : Tu eşti un băiat prea deştept ca să crezi în prostii. Ce ţi-a promis!? Hai! Promets e noble!
VLASOV MIHAIL: Păi, cum adică ce mi-a promis? Că-mi dă Registru’.
ŞTEFĂNESCU BRÂNDUŞA : Păi, aia e. A promite este nobil, a te ţine de cuvânt este...
VLASOV MIHAIL: Ei! Adevărat.
ŞTEFĂNESCU BRÂNDUŞA : Atunci ce să discutăm?!
VLASOV MIHAIL: Dar... Nu, nu...
ŞTEFĂNESCU BRÂNDUŞA : Eu sunt mai bătrână decât tine şi de aia am altă înţelegere.
VLASOV MIHAIL: Dragă, eu sunt la... la a treia promisiune făcută de prieteni din acelaşi spectru politic.
ŞTEFĂNESCU BRÂNDUŞA : Atunci ştii ce înseamnă! Atunci ştii ce înseamnă. A treia promisiune. E clar.
VLASOV MIHAIL: O dată, Alianţa DA, după aia din PNL, prin TĂRICEANU şi acum prin PONTA.
În schimb, potrivit altor interceptări, Vlasov ar fi și avut o întâșnire cu Victor Ponta și ”Mona”, care ar putea fi chiar Mona Pivniceru, fost ministru de Justiție și actual judecător CCR:
VASILE BAR : Da! VLASOV MIHAIL: Am, am primit undă verde să încep, să fac tot ce cred de
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’s been the best part?
When you make the enormous decision on what journey you will take to growing your family you then learn what it will take to get there. You basically open up your life to be reviewed. Everything from medical history and medical tests to financial stability is scrutinized. Someone even comes into your home, on multiple occasions, and decides if you are going to have a child. Then you create marketing material. The text gets reviewed and edited along with pictures and layout. You read books and attend a weekend intensive course. It takes months to complete.
You might be thinking how does this have anything to do with the best part? The day when everything is complete and you are an approved waiting family, you feel like an overnight success. An overnight success that took four months. We received our Dear Birthmother Letter when Matthew was working. I waited what seemed like days for him to get home so we could share the joy of opening them together. This is no joke, it felt absolutely amazing to see our very own letter after seeing so many of them of the families before us. We felt like we truly worked hard to represent who we are as individuals and as a couple and we were very happy how it turned out.
Why do you think there’s still so much opposition to gay adoption?
I personally think that the opposition comes from misinformation as well as ideas and a thought process that is outdated and taught. There are a lot of people and organizations that are working hard to educate people that there isn’t any difference in a child raised by a heterosexual couple versus a same-sex couple. While you have one group using recent data from research saying there is no issue, there is another group using data from research several decades ago that didn’t even include same-sex couples in their research.
Do you think attitudes are changing?
We both feel positive and optimistic about new studies and commentary that show the tide is changing among individuals in the United States. It is also encouraging by all the changes happening around the world. The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on DOMA and Prop 8 as well as the push for equality is full steam ahead. We have great representation and positive images of gay individuals as well as couples in numerous television shows and media outlets. I guess I will use my chance to reference Dan Savage. I honestly believe that every day it gets better.
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What do you think needs to be done to open up the open adoption process for gays?
I think that our adoption agency, Independent Adoption Center, is making great strides in helping spread the message of open adoption by gay couples. We visited one of the IAC’s free informational sessions in Atlanta and imagine our surprise when we found out it was also Atlanta Gay Pride Weekend. Since I had never been to a Pride event, Matthew insisted that we go. We were so excited to find that the IAC had a booth to answer questions about open adoption. Our coordinator even made the comment that people ask her all the time at these events if “gay people can adopt?” The answer is yes!
We, as a couple, are also trying to portray a positive image for all gay couples, whether they want to adopt or not have children at all. We are doing what we can to spread the message and send this movement forward. All we really want is for what type of couple we are to become irrelevant. When it become irrelevant, we have reached the finish line.
As a gay couple, do you think you’ll have a harder time finding a match with expectant parents considering adoption than other couples?
In the beginning of our journey we were concerned if someone would pick us or what kind of negative reaction we might receive. This is another area that our agency helped out tremendously. When you visit their branch in Atlanta, you will see several bulletin boards with individuals that have matched as well as adopted a child.
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I am very number-orientated so it did not take long for me to notice that the board of those wanting to adopt that had “matched” with a birth family were 60% same-sex couples. On the bulletin board of those that had already welcomed a child into their home were 50% same-sex couples. So at this moment we felt even more excited and realized this is going to happen. We are going to be dads.
What are some of the things you’re doing to level the playing field with other hopeful adoptive parents?
There are a lot of families and individuals that want to become parents through adoption. It is very apparent there are more families waiting than there are birth families. While some may have a better advantage than others, we do not think there is really anyway to make things level. What would be exciting about life if we all were cookie cutter?
Our journey began with our commitment to be ourselves. We worked hard to show who we were as a couple and what we desire as parents. I think we have an advantage over what people consider as traditional. It seems that people overuse the word traditional. Tradition is something that happens ever so often. Tradition to me is the University of Florida and the University of Georgia football game every year. As far as I know, that tradition has happened every year for a century.
We know that we have the capabilities and experience to help a child to evolve into a young adult that shows love, respect and kindness. We have experience in uniqueness and individuality. I can say with confidence, that as parents we would not have a child that turns out to be an “Average Joe”. Maybe we are the one with an advantage.
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What do you know about the open adoption process now that you wish you had known when you started?
I wish we had known that we didn’t need to worry about “the what-ifs.” We didn’t need to fit into a certain box to become parents and we didn’t need to say this or that to become parents. All we had to do was be ourselves and everything else would happen when it is/was supposed to. Fortunately, we learned it very early on in our journey.
Follow Trey and Matt on Twitter: @MattTreyAdopt
This article was originally published at AmericaAdopts.com.
Photo—sara biljana/FlickrSomeone Created A Replica Of Chicago In 'Cities: Skyline,' An Urban Planning Video Game
By Justin Freeman in Arts & Entertainment on May 21, 2015 7:35PM
Cities: Skyline, a new urban planning simulation computer game, is a spiritual successor to such classic urban planning games as SimCity. As SimCity tries, increasingly in vain, to figure out its place in a world where they’ve been dethroned and the default educational game is Minecraft, Cities: Skyline has arguably emerged as the urban planning game of choice.
photo: Reddit
Unsurprisingly, Cites has a rather large following online of urban planning enthusiasts sharing their designs on Youtube and Twitch. Some are crap and some are just mediocre, but every so often you’ll come across something special. A week ago, someone on Reddit named dbFabio created a replica of the city of Chicago within the game and posted photos of it on Reddit.
photo: Reddit
dbFabio, who apparently isn’t even from Chicago, says it took around 20 to 30 hours to create the replica of the city. It looks really good and we’re quite impressed by his attention to detail. If you have a copy of Cities, the save file has been uploaded to Steam if you want to poke around. Check out a full photo gallery here.
photo: Reddit
This isn't the first time an idiosyncratic simulation game has heavily featured Chicago. About a decade ago, Railfan: Chicago Transit Authority Brown Line was released for the Playstation 3. It’s pretty much what you’re probably envisioning in your head: a simulation game where you pilot a Brown Line train through the city.
It only came out in Japan and is currently out of print, making it slightly obscure. It’s kind of strange. Railfan is a game that was designed for a Japanese audience that features three railway systems: the Chūō Main Line of Tokyo, the Keihan Main Line running between Kyoto and Osaka and the Brown Line here in Chicago—where I can almost see the place where I sometimes grab coffee in the morning near the Armitage station. That is just beautifully random.
If you need a moment of workday zen, check out this gameplay video of the Brown Line on Railfan.GETTY Mauricio Pochettino has been impressed with Lorenzo Insigne's form this season
That is according to Italian outlet Calciomercato.com, who claim Mauricio Pochettino has put the 24-year-old at the top of his summer wish list. The Spurs manager has reportedly been impressed with the Italy international this season, in which he's scored 12 goals and assisted a further 11 already.
Insigne, who is contracted at Napoli until the end of June 2019, is also a target for Tottenham's fierce north London rivals Arsenal. His agent, Antonio Ottaiano, revealed the Gunners - as well as Paris Saint-Germain - were keen on signing the Napoli academy product during the January window.
GETTY Lorenzo Insigne has impressed with 12 goals in all competitions this season
GETTY Arsene Wenger has also been linked with a move for Lorenzo InsigneTweet The potential for college outreach was confirmed as every student who initially subscribed to the official story abandoned it by the end of Gage’s explosive presentation at Diablo Valley College. Students were inspired to take action based on their new awareness of 9/11. If you are a student or professor, or if you live near a university, junior college, or any place of higher learning, we invite you to volunteer with AE911Truth and start organizing at your school to promote a new World Trade Center investigation. The College Outreach Team has been revived for the 2012–2013 school year in conjunction with the promising Spring AE911Truth College Speaking Tour, and we have plenty of opportunities for new volunteers. With just a few hours of effort, you can begin to make an impact on your college campus, alma mater, or nearby university. Over the past century, many grassroots movements have taken place at college campuses. From civil rights and war protests to political rallies, universities have always been havens for free speech, scientific research, and open discourse, and AE911Truth has left its own impression on campuses around the world. The live presentation of 9/11: Blueprint for Truth has been given to students at more than 49 colleges since 2007, including such prestigious institutions as MIT, the University of Toronto, and Cambridge University. At dozens of universities, Richard Gage, AIA, has demonstrated that presenting the 9/11 evidence for controlled demolition can be as poignant in a classroom as it is in a conference hall Arizona resident Steve Cohn has been the leader of the College Outreach Team for the last year. “When I first joined AE911Truth, I had almost no volunteer or leadership experience, but I was inspired by the 10th anniversary events to make a difference right away,” he explained. “I look forward to seeing other supporters join us as we continue to make an impact at colleges nationwide.” The mission of the College Outreach Team is to promote the vital WTC evidence on campuses throughout the country by Encouraging people to form registered student 9/11 Truth clubs at their schools and affiliating them as AE911Truth Action Groups.
Encouraging volunteers to reach out to students, professors, and administrators with AE911Truth information
Organizing public presentations and screenings of films like 9/11: Explosive Evidence – Experts Speak Out A key component of the College Outreach Team this year is the new AE911Truth College Speaking Tour. AE911Truth founder Richard Gage, AIA, is set to give a new presentation, titled 9/11: Explosive Evidence – Don’t Be the Last to Know, at colleges across America, starting at the Global Social Responsibility Conference on October 24 at St Cloud University. “We were honored to be called by Dr. Julie Andrzejewski, the conference coordinator, and offered an honorarium to give the event a boost in content,” Gage said. “The most eager of the 2,800 conference participants will be able to pack into the 400-seat auditorium to have the opportunity to hear the compelling WTC evidence in our new multimedia presentation.” We are also delighted to report that AE911Truth returned from our first college speaking conference at the Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities (APCA). “We had a very professional booth in the exhibit hall which drew many students in campus activities directors to inquire about us,” Gage recalled. “Some people were absolutely delighted that the 9/11 Truth issue was receiving such attention, and others had absolutely no idea what we were about until we explained to them.” Gage also had the opportunity to speak for 10 minutes to an audience of several hundred campus staff and students who were at the conference to book entertainment and speaking engagements for their campuses from around the area. “We had a fair amount of interest as a result and are following up with them!” Gage said. Members of the College Outreach Team will also have the opportunity to become AE911Truth Regional Organizers or State Organizers in addition to helping the College Speaking Tour take off. The “Science of 9/11” symposium organized by AE911Truth supporters at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville brought together a panel of experts, including former National Transportation Safety Board Director Jim Hall, Urban Planning Professor David Johnson, Ph.D., and Civil Engineering Professor Edwin Foster, PhD. Here is how you can deliver this vital information to colleges near you: Students: You can create 9/11 Truth clubs on campus. You can start by visiting your college’s student activities webpage to look for existing student clubs for that are related to 9/11 Truth. If there isn’t one, find out what the rules are for forming a new club and start one! Will you need a faculty advisor? How many students can join? Can a club be formed any time of the year? Every school is different. Some require only a handful of students, while others require at least a dozen students and a faculty advisor. Once you have formed the club, you can apply to become an independent AE911truth Action Group and be listed on our website. If you already belong to a student club, ask its officers to consider adding AE911Truth to its mission. Registered clubs are usually entitled to student activities funds from the University, which will enable you to hold screenings of AE911Truth films and sponsor presentations by Richard Gage, AIA, and other AE911Truth speakers. Alumni/Faculty: You can help us coordinate campus activities and assist in reaching out to alumni associations and college professors. You can also offer to be an advisor to a 9/11 Truth student group that is forming at your college. University of Maryland student Mo Farsh ensured that Gage’s presentation at UMD in September was a resounding success by including two technical professors who agreed to engage in a panel discussion afterward Everyone: You may want to consider contacting officers and advisors of other student clubs that may be receptive to the 9/11 evidence. For example, look for an engineering club, find the contact information for the club’s advisors and members, and send them a letter about AE911Truth with links to the YouTube versions of Experts Speak Out and Architects & Engineers: Solving the Mystery of WTC7. Offer to give a presentation at one of their meetings or to work with them to host an AE911Truth event on campus. Please email us and ask for a sample letter for you to use. Those who are interested in taking “instant action” should consider putting up posters on bulletin boards around campus to reach the most students in the least time. Please email collegeoutreach (at) ae911truth.org to request a specialized poster for your school with your preferred contact information. It will include the AE911Truth web page and read, “…Student Club now forming.” After we email the poster image to you, just print up a few dozen of them, bring a backpack with tape and tacks to campus, and hang them up. Brightly colored paper (for the B&W posters) will inspire the most responses. Handing out fliers on campus is a simple way to introduce the college community to the evidence, and this can even be done while hanging posters. You can create your own fliers or purchase a stack of fliers from the AE911Truth store. The new AE911Truth presentation makes its official debut at St. Cloud University this month, and with your help, it could also be coming to a college near you! Passing out fliers is always better if you speak with each person and get contact info. You’ll use fewer fliers and make better connections with students who are interested. Better still is to set up a booth with a table and chairs…but best of all is a full display — a canopy with hanging AE911Truth banners, DVDs for sale, books, and anything else eye-catching and inviting. You can also distribute our new campus promotional brochure to interested students. Don’t forget to bring a clipboard and sign-up sheet so you can get contact information for sending emails to interested people about the club you are forming. (If you can, bring an official sign-up sheet provided by the school.) A good time to set up a table or booth is at special events on campus, such as student orientations. Many colleges allow this and even encourage such off-campus promotions, but check with the campus first. If you set up a student group, you’ll also receive regular updates from the College Outreach Team, as well as assistance in coordinating events and film screenings at your college. Knowledge of the evidence about the World Trade Center catastrophe often leads to depression, stress, and even anger. A healthy cure for these is to take positive action – and soon. Now is your chance to make a difference and do something to change the future of our country. America is calling for patriots like you. Bob Hass, the AE911Truth campus organizer for several Milwaukee schools, passionately educates students about 9/11. “Working as a volunteer with the College Outreach team is quite possibly the most important work I’ll ever do to help secure the future of my children and grandchildren," he said. It’s also a great way to bond with people who share your desire for a real 9/11 investigation. If you can devote three to ten hours per week and would like to be part of the College Outreach Team at the national level, or if you want to focus on your hometown schools, we would love to have new volunteers at this critical time. Please email us at collegeoutreach (at) ae911truth.org with the Subject Line “College Volunteer”. Tell us how you’d like to help, and we will get you involved right away. < Prev Next >Here at Reformation21 we skip the best books of the year and instead give you the "Top Ten Seminaries of 2015." All of these seminaries provide a good theological education, especially when compared to what one finds in the rest of the world. America is spoiled for riches.
Honorable Mention: MARS: Alan Strange managed to argue from the OPC Form of Government that this list was unconstitutional, so MARS was not considered.
10. WSCAL: They merited 10th place even after admitting it was an imperfect year for them. Students are currently arguing over whether this list is law or gospel.
9. Covenant: "3 Points" off last year's 6th place finish; one of the judges named Adam abstained.
8. Puritan: The men in black (suits) were helped by a late vote from a judge named Adam.
7. Protestant Reformed Seminary: They literally do nothing and remain 7th, having always been seventh, even in eternity.
6. Greenville: 6 days means 6th place; up from 24th place. 6-24 in one year...hmmm
5. SBTS: Their impending decision to allow students to drink wine for communion - albeit in tiny communion cups - brought them to #5.
4. RPTS: The imprecatory Psalm-singing was obviously effective against most of the seminaries.
3. Whitefield Seminary: Up into the top ten after thinking about getting accreditation.
2. RTS: Talk of ten new campuses for 2016 was enough to convince judges they should be second.
1. WTS: Van Til says we must presuppose WTS as number one and then we can make sense of the rest of the list.Windows Phone users are reporting playback issues with YouTube videos on their handsets. Not all users are experiencing the issue, it should be noted.
To understand today’s situation, we have to step back: Microsoft recently accused Google of stymieing it from building a proper YouTube application for Windows Phone. In its public complaint concerning the FTC’s decision on its recent inquiry into Google, the company stated:
We are also disappointed that the FTC chose not to seek relief on other issues. Google continues to prevent Microsoft from offering a high-quality YouTube app for the Windows Phone.
Thus, on Windows Phone as a platform, Google has not brought forth a YouTube application and Microsoft can’t do much better. Yes, Microsoft has released an app for YouTube, but it appears to be little more than a wrapper around the web version of the video service.
Now to today’s news. According to a detailed report on WPCentral by its head editor Daniel Rubino, something has changed on the Windows Phone 8 platform in that Google is now treating YouTube traffic differently from phones running the mobile operating system:
The behavior is specific: head to m.youtube.com and click any video. In the past, such an action would launch Internet Explorer’s HTML5 video player, allowing Windows Phone users to watch just about everything that was mobile (assuming it wasn’t a Flash-only video). Now on Windows Phone 8 devices we get prompted to install an app.
As Rubino goes on to point out, following the user prompt appears to generate little, as the search for an application comes up empty. Separate searches can yield a third-party solution, but the average user would certainly not think to do such a thing.
WPCentral goes on to indicate the nub of the problem: users that have their phones set to ‘Desktop’ mode in Internet Explorer are now having problems with YouTube. Users that have their devices set to ‘Mobile’ mode are not suffering from the same issue.
What makes this news is that, akin to what happened with the Google Maps controversy that sprung up one week ago, something has changed. According to the user reports that Rubino published as part of his post, something appears to have changed in the last two days that led to some confusion as support for their configuration was pulled.
YouTube access on Windows Phone is no small, or new issue. Here is Microsoft, from a post published 10 days ago, on the subject [Bold: TNW]:
In 2010 and again more recently, Google blocked Microsoft’s new Windows Phones from operating properly with YouTube. Google has enabled its own Android phones to access YouTube so that users can search for video categories, find favorites, see ratings, and so forth in the rich user interfaces offered by those phones. It’s done the same thing for the iPhones offered by Apple, which doesn’t offer a competing search service. Unfortunately, Google has refused to allow Microsoft’s new Windows Phones to access this YouTube metadata in the same way that Android phones and iPhones do. As a result, Microsoft’s YouTube “app” on Windows Phones is basically just a browser displaying YouTube’s mobile Web site, without the rich functionality offered on competing phones. Microsoft is ready to release a high quality YouTube app for Windows Phone. We just need permission to access YouTube in the way that other phones already do, permission Google has refused to provide.
Therefore, to suffer any new restriction, no matter how slight, is more onerous than the individual act might belie; Google won’t allow Microsoft to build a full experience for its users, and so to further clamp down is frustrating.
Google, during the Maps issue, made it plain to TNW that it has no plan to deliberately undermine the platform, and that it instead restricts access to certain of its products based on performance. It could be the case that Google simply ran new tests, found Internet Explorer 10 mobile on Windows Phone 8 to be lacking, and thus enacted new barriers. If so, I’m stumped: IE 10 on the latest builds of Windows Phone is a capable browser, and is more than able to handle YouTube.
Even more, as pointed out before, it shares a rendering engine with the desktop version of Internet Explorer 10, so the point is all but meaningless.
Google should remove any new restriction that it has put into place, and provide Microsoft with the appropriate tools to build a real damn app for its platform; Microsoft wants to encourage its users to use YouTube over other video services, which should flatter its competitor.
For now, on Windows Phone scraps. TNW has reached out to both Google and Microsoft and will update this post upon hearing back from each firm.
Top Image Credit: Robert Scoble
Read next: 14 startups we predict will go even bigger in 2013Arno Gasteiger Geography The forgotten world highway A photographer’s quest to find memory and meaning on the Forgotten World Highway.
Written by Arno Gasteiger Photographed by Arno Gasteiger
My journey began when I saw a photograph of two women laughing in front of a road sign that read ‘Forgotten World Highway’, part of a slide show played during the funeral of a dear friend. Thelma and Louise on a road trip; a reminder to enjoy the moment and the journey. It made me yearn for a road trip myself.
Three years later, I drive to Taumarunui in the central North Island, leave State Highway 4 behind and begin my journey into New Zealand’s own ‘Forgotten World’, a place that history left behind. A traffic sign warning that there’s no petrol station for the next 150 kilometres looks promising.
On the outskirts of Taumarunui, the road runs beside the Whanganui River, the original ‘highway’ into this hinterland. By 1350, the legendary Tamatea had explored the entire length of the river. His journey can be followed in the places he named: Te Punga, where he anchored; Tangahoe, where new paddles were carved; Tangarakau, where the canoe was repaired. Although strewn with rapids and strong currents, the Whanganui made the protected valleys accessible, and around 20,000 Maori settled there.
The road and the river part company before Aukopae—the Whanganui makes a sharp left turn towards one of the biggest remaining rainforests in the North Island, and the road heads into hilly farmland. After I drive over a few low passes, the landscape changes to forest and the road to gravel, the rain eases, and I find myself in Tangarakau Gorge.
Unlike the coastal regions and the river flats, this area was only sparsely populated in pre-European times, but there was an extensive network of trails that Maori used to trade coastal fish for birds and eels.
The first surveyors followed these trails when mapping out a road, among them Joshua Morgan. He became severely ill (suspected peritonitis) when surveying the gorge. I can imagine the man lying in a damp canvas shelter, delirious, knowing his chances of rescue are slim. Though his assistant dashed all the way to the coast for medicine, Morgan died on the banks of the river in 1893, aged just 35. His grave marks the place of his passing, surrounded by trees and ferns.
It’s cold and feels lonely here. I turn up the car heater and drive a few kilometres to where a tunnel cuts through the Moki Saddle. “It used to be a swine, as soon as it rained you got bogged in the car—everyone carried chains,” a heritage trail sign informs me. The tunnel, originally proposed by Morgan, was dug by hand 45 years after his death.
I drive through the 180-metre-long single-lane tunnel and re-emerge in farming country. The first settlement is Tahora.
Murray McCartie has been living here all of his 86 years and runs a small museum from the woolshed, but I wouldn’t have found it unless a neighbour had told me. There are no signs.
When I arrive, McCartie is waiting for me in the yard, a tall man with piercing blue eyes. His museum was established after he gave up farming. He began by displaying old machinery, books, photographs and anything he could find that helps make sense of the past. He opens a padlocked door and switches on the light.
“This is Ned Shewry, world champion,” he tells me, pointing to a photograph of a man wielding an axe during a wood-chopping competition.
“Ned lived just down the road in Kohuratahi, but he showed the Aussies and the Americans how to chop. He also loved his rhododendrons.”
McCartie sits down in a comfortable chair and explains how the road was built.
By the end of the 19th century, the government was dividing the region into small farm sections, and despite limited access, all of them sold. Every week, the farmers were paid a certain amount to help the road gangs to build roads. The geology of the region proved a big challenge—soft papa stone turned into mud in winter, and the deep furrows made by wagon wheels dried like concrete in summer. Laying down manuka branches was a temporary solution. For a while, papa mudstone was fired in large kilns and broken up to spread on the roads. That worked well, but it was slow and expensive.
Good-quality gravel could be brought into the region only once the railway line began operation. It was built in stages, starting at Stratford in 1902, and took 22 years to reach Tahora, then another decade to link up with the main trunk line in Okahukura near Taumarunui. The terrain was extremely difficult, requiring 24 rail tunnels and 91 bridges. In today’s money the cost would have been around $9.4 billion. Sometimes supplies were delayed and railway workers had to labour on a farm as well to earn a few eggs to keep going. The government was hopeful that large-scale coal mining would make the line viable. It didn’t.
The Tahora-Tangarakau area was busy then, with hundreds of workers and their families living there. But that situation didn’t last long. After the line was opened in 1933, the area became quiet again, until the next surge of development accompanying the installation of an electric transmission line.
After that, shops and the post office disappeared. McCartie’s neighbour, Peter Kennedy, went to the school in Tahora with 40 other students. When his son Joshua attended, the roll was just 15. The school finally closed in 2002. Kennedy bought the building and is converting it into a homestead.
Kennedy takes me up a steep hill where he is replacing a fence line. His farm has been in the family since 1906, cleared by his great-grandfather with an axe and handsaw. These days, though, he lets manuka re-establish on some of the hillsides to tap into the lucrative new honey business.
The fence nearly finished, Kennedy collects a few posts for another project. Below us, the road winds around rugged hills, and I ask him how Highway 43 became the Forgotten World Highway.
“We had a highway and nobody came. They forgot us,” he says, then suggests I ask his wife about the details.
Vanessa Kennedy talks about strategies and 10-year forecasts, drawing a bigger picture. When council boundaries were redrawn in 1989, eastern parts of Taranaki became part of Manawatu. The locals of Whangamomona were not happy with the decision and declared themselves a republic. What started out as a protest of locals to air their annoyance turned into a biennial celebration of Republic Day that has grown by the year. From a handful of people who blocked off the road and celebrated with beer and fundraising activities, the last Republic Day saw a crowd of around 6000 gather to purchase their stamped passport of the Republic of Whangamomona and join the movement.
The rebranding of Highway 43 to the Forgotten World Highway in 2002 was the second stroke of genius. Houses have been restored and turned into bed-and-breakfasts. Forgotten World Adventures offers rail tours of the mothballed Stratford–Okahukura railway line in golf carts modified to run on the tracks. The carts have proved very popular, and business has doubled every year since the venture opened in 2011.
All this activity has passed by other towns, such as Tangarakau. I can’t resist the sign at the turnoff: ‘Ghost Town’. This is where Tamatea, the traveller from Hawaiki, repaired his canoe, and where 1200 railway workers were based to complete the line to Taumarunui. Here was established a town with shops, a post office, bank and police station; a coal-fired power plant provided electricity for streetlights and every house had a light bulb.
Today, however, I can hear only a chorus of paradise shelducks, tui, finches and lambs. A buckled shipping container lies not far from the line from which it tumbled, a relic from a derailment that finally shut the line down. Sheep and cattle graze on a large flat surrounded by native bush.
There is a small campground, the barn that used to be the school, and near the former train station, another small cluster of houses. Smoke twists from the chimney of just one of them. This is what happens when history turns its back—nature moves in, and civilisation slowly corrodes away.
I press on to Whangamomona, rising over the Tahora Saddle where I can see the snow-covered volcanoes of the Central Plateau glistening in the distance. The landscape below me looks as if it belongs in a model train set, with cone-shaped hills, delicately positioned trees on sharp ridges, and a train track disappearing into tunnel entrances beneath the hills. Sheep with lambs are scattered about and every fence and tree is decorated with lichen. A small country road with white centre-lines winds through the hills, marked by periodic sheds, peeling paint.
Turning a sharp corner, I nearly drive into a small rockfall, one of countless slips after a few days of heavy rain. It jolts me back to reality.
In Marco, a brightly coloured school stands out in a landscape of fading railway buildings. The place name seems unusual, and I find out that it was named for a surveyor’s dog, which died in a fight with a boar.
Whangamomona, the ‘Capital of the Republic’, is just down the road. A dozen vintage cars are parked in front of the hotel. I order a coffee inside, and start a conversation with the bartender. After 20 years, Kevin Barrow got tired of his job in the legal world in London. He needed a change and looked for a house on Trade Me. He bought one in Whangamomona. Two previous owners of the house were Golden Kiwi lottery winners in the days before Lotto. But Barrow and his New Zealand-born wife, Vivien, see themselves as winners already they can’t believe their luck to have a small lifestyle block in Whanga’.
While Barrow is busy serving the vintage car owners, I check out the interior of the hotel. It’s decorated with historic photographs, group shots of rugby teams, newspaper clippings and images of the two local All Blacks, Jack Sullivan and Bob Scott. It’s like walking inside a Facebook timeline. Subsequent publicans have been diligently keeping the records up to date: canvas camps of settlers breaking in the land, lean men standing with their tools in a devastated landscape, well-dressed families posing in front of first homes, or first cars, a framed photograph of the last passenger train that came through in 1983, school groups on outings, the fur of the largest possum ever caught.
What is worth keeping a record of? Moments of pride and achievement, the completion of a large project, images that illustrate the end of an era. Most of all I get the feeling of a strong community spirit and a good sense of humour.
I return to the bar and sit down on a barstool in the corner near the window. Barrow brings my coffee. “This is Johnnie’s seat,” he tells me. Sure enough, about half an hour later, Johnnie arrives. He doesn’t have to order; Barrow pours a Whangamomona Pale Ale in a handle glass.
At 87, Johnnie Poutu is small in stature, but remains agile. His gnarly hands tell of hard work, but his face, partly covered by a well-trimmed beard, has remained friendly and soft. He tells me that as a young man, he walked for two days from his hometown of Aria to Ohura on the off-chance of finding work in the coal mine. He did, and worked for the next 25 years underground.
“They called me ‘Teaspoon Boy’ because I had a smaller shovel,” he says. “But I moved just as much coal as anybody else.” Poutu lives across the road from the hotel, next to ‘the president’.
When I first meet the president, he is lying beneath a pale-blue Daihatsu miniute. Grass is growing on the loading tray, but that’s not the problem. “She’s not engaging in four-wheel drive, and that’s dangerous on these hills,” he mutters into his white ZZ Top beard.
After a while, he flings himself out from under the truck and introduces himself: “Murt Kennard, president of the Republic of Whangamomona. I drew the short straw.” He points at his massive corrugated-iron workshop surrounded by spare parts: axles, motorbikes in various stages of repair, a concrete mixer, cars, a house-bus.
“Welcome to my playpen! You wouldn’t believe what comes through my doors,” he says. “Anything that breaks in the district, including motorbike riders with grazed hands and broken side mirrors because they got the wobbles in the Moki tunnel. When you ride through the Moki, you need to fix your gaze on the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Kennard is running the only garage on the Forgotten World Highway, pretty much in the middle of the 150-kilometre stretch of winding road between Taumarunui and Stratford.
He introduces me to the First Lady, Marg Kennard. She guides me through their bed-and-breakfast, M&M’s, in the original Bank of Australasia building. The bank manager’s super-sized bathtub is still in use. Murt needs to go back to his workshop. A logging truck with brake problems has pulled up.
It’s getting darker and I wander over to the hotel. A few guests are settling in for the night. Two lads from a
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as the agreement in 1998 was an accord between two sovereign states - the UK and the Irish Republic, according to the committee on the administration of justice.
Scottish government to thwart Tory attempt to scrap Human Rights Act Read more
The CAJ is seeking an urgent meeting with Theresa Villiers – who was re-appointed by David Cameron as Northern Ireland secretary in his new cabinet – about the threat to the HRA.
In a letter to Villiers, the CAJ’s director in Northern Ireland, Brian Gormally, points out that European human rights law was incorporated into the 1998 agreement.
He says article 2 of an annex to the Good Friday agreement binds the UK internationally to the multi-party deal, which was endorsed in joint referenda on both sides of the Irish border in May 1998; and, after it was ratified, both governments lodged the agreement as a treaty with the United Nations.
Gormally notes that in the section of the agreement guaranteeing the rights of minorities, the British government commits to “complete incorporation into Northern Ireland law of the European convention on human rights, with direct access to the courts, and remedies for breach of the convention, including power for the courts to overrule assembly legislation on the grounds of inconsistency”.
This part of the agreement is going to be used, for example, by campaigners who are seeking to overturn the ban in Northern Ireland on gay marriage, a challenge that has been blocked by the assembly in Belfast but will now be taken to the European courts.
The CAJ director says any move to tamper with or dump the HRA would undermine Northern Ireland’s fragile peace settlement.
“The secretary of state should urgently clarify the government’s position as to whether it intends to breach the Belfast/Good Friday agreement in this way. Such a step would make the UK an international outlaw and significantly roll back the peace settlement in Northern Ireland.”
Gormally stresses that the Human Rights Act and and the European court of human rights, and states’ compliance with them, had nothing to do with EU membership.
Founded in 1981, the CAJ monitors human rights abuses by the state and the security forces in Northern Ireland.In last night’s fifth inning, the Rockies threw punches and punches until the Giants were frontless. They scored 13 runs, which, as was noted at Purple Row, was a team record for runs scored in an inning. Oh, did I mention that this game was in San Francisco, and not in Denver? Because it was, which makes it all the more surprising. Let’s walk back through their blockbuster night, and use it to show what the Rockies are doing right this season.
First, let’s put this game into some context. Here are all the teams who have scored 15 or more runs in a game at AT&T Park, which as you probably know has been open since 2000.
15+ Runs Scored by Single Team, AT&T Park History Date Tm Runs Opp Runs Barry Bonds? 5/6/2016 COL 17 SFG 7 No 7/10/2015 SF 15 PHI 2 No 9/13/2014 LAD 17 SF 0 No 8/31/2014 SF 15 MIL 5 No 8/24/2010 SF 16 CIN 5 No 9/24/2008 COL 15 SF 6 No 7/23/2005 FLO 16 SF 4 No 9/3/2004 SF 18 ARI 7 Yes 4/9/2003 SF 15 SD 11 Yes 5/24/2000 SF 18 MON 0 Yes SOURCE: Baseball-Reference Play Index
As you can see, this doesn’t happen very often — happens even less when Barry Bonds hasn’t been involved. For reference, over the same time span, a team has scored 15-plus runs at Fenway Park 37 times. Across the bay at whatever Oakland’s ballpark is called now, it’s happened 16 times. At Camden Yards, it’s happened 27 times. Runs are simply harder to come by in games affected by the marine layer.
It wasn’t just the game that was special, though. The inning itself was pretty special, too, as Rockies PR noted:
It's also the most runs scored in one inning by ANY team since Arizona scored 13 runs in the 4th inning vs. Pittsburgh in April 11,2010. — Rockies PR (@RockiesPR) May 6, 2016
Let’s take a look at the game graph, too, while we’re at it:
Source: FanGraphs
When the inning started, the Giants had a win expectancy of 33.6%. By the end, that number had declined to just 0.2%. Trevor Story’s homer to lead off the inning was the biggest WE blow of the inning, dropping the Giants’ chances by 12.2 points. Five batters later, the Giants’ WE was down to 2.2%.
To me, though, the most interesting WE tidbit came in the bottom half of the inning. Chris Rusin walked Kelby Tomlinson to load the bases with one out, and Gregor Blanco promptly hit a two-run single. Two-run singles are good, right? Well, usually. Here, the single lowered the Giants’ WE from 0.6% to 0.4%. The Giants were behind by so much that they needed more in that situation, which is a little bit nutty.
Going back to the Rockies, something one notices from the past week is that the Rockies have finally started putting DJ LeMahieu where he belongs in the batting order — at the bottom. With that tweak, the Rockies are officially stacking their lineup in the most optimal way. Here is the projected wRC+ of each batter in their batting order (via the Depth Charts ROS), as it has been the past week:
As you can see, the Rockies are avoiding getting cute with the lineup. This, to me, is important. I know that over the course of the season, a lineup simulator will only show a difference of 5-10 runs no matter how you run the scenarios, but the pattern here shows a willingness to operate sabermetrically. The five constant starters who can hit are at the top of the lineup, complemented by a strong platoon in the six-hole. Then comes the lesser hitters (despite Hundley’s hot start, I’ll take the under on that 92 wRC+). Blackmon hasn’t come around yet, and if he doesn’t, we might see changes, but that’s a problem for later. The point is that the Rockies are doing this right.
Another thing that the Rockies did last night — and of which they’ve made a habit lately — is that they let their relievers work for more than one inning. Now, last night the decision was a little easier, given the cushion, but even a 10-run lead wouldn’t stop some managers from mixing and matching. Furthermore, for the season, the Rockies have allowed their relievers to get four or more outs more frequently than they have two or fewer.
Rockies Relief-Pitcher Breakdown, 2016 Filter # RP # 4+ outs # 2 or less outs Total 88 26 24 In Losses 45 19 11 In Wins 43 7 13 1-3 RP/G 36 12 6 4-6 RP/G 52 14 18
The Rockies are still carrying 13 pitchers, which I don’t care for, but they are at least trying to get the most out of their relievers. While they have been more specialized in wins than losses, the overall trend is clear: the Rockies are giving their relievers the opportunity to put away more hitters. Part of this is by necessity, as they’ve had some starters unable to make it out of the third, but even in games when they haven’t needed a lot of relievers, they’re still giving their relievers some leeway. Again, this might not be a huge deal, but it does show that they aren’t being a slave to a one-inning reliever/specialist pattern. It’s possible that, given some success with longer relief appearances, the coaching staff could be convinced to carry just 12 pitchers, thus opening up roster flexibility on the offensive side.
Overall, the Rockies ‘pitching is doing enough to keep them in games. Their starting pitchers have the 14th-best FIP- in baseball right now, as well as the 19th-best ERA- and ninth-best xFIP-. That’s not only pretty good, but their best in awhile:
Rockies Starting Pitcher Minus Stats/Ranks, 2010-2016 Year ERA- Rank FIP- Rank xFIP- Rank 2016 112 19 100 14 94 9 2015 115 27 116 29 113 28 2014 114 27 114 29 112 29 2013 104 17 101 14 111 28 2012 126 28 122 29 117 30 2011 108 19 109 23 108 28 2010 92 4 90 2 96 6
If you don’t remember, 2010 was the best season of Ubaldo Jimenez’s career — he started the All-Star Game that season — and the team also got solid contributions from Jason Hammel, Jhoulys Chacin and Jeff Francis.
This season isn’t shaping up quite as nicely, but in Jonathan Gray, Tyler Chatwood and Chad Bettis, the Rockies have three starting pitchers who are performing well (well, Gray sort of is, he’s been unlucky on the surface) and can be expected to remain good all season. The last two spots are still a bit of a quagmire, but the team has plenty of options to cycle through.
This is what the Rockies need. They need their pitching to keep them in the game (the bullpen is also in the middle of the pack in the three minus stats) and for their offense to do the heavy lifting. Last night was an extreme example of that. And while the offense may not be up to that challenge night in and night out, they’ve been better than expected. We’re now at the point where we’re seeing articles about whether Nolan Arenado is the best player in the National League. While we don’t need to debate that here, what we can say is that he’s on the short list.
Entering the season, it was clear that the Rockies would need to see some players really step forward in order to be even a decent team this season. So far, they’re getting those performances, and Jeff Hoffman and David Dahl — who are both off to hot starts — are looming in the farm system. The Rockies may not quite be ready for another Rocktober — not without importing some more pitching at the trade deadline, anyway. But they may finally be ready to shed their doormat status, as they emphatically showed last night when they ran San Francisco’s jewels.A Flathead environmental group will meet this week to discuss several issues of concern, including how to deal with invasive species
According to the executive director of the Flathead Basin Commission, the two biggest concerns are rail line safety when it comes to transporting hazardous chemicals and keeping aquatic species out of water ways where they don't belong.
The commission hopes to combat the spread of aquatic invasive species by opening boat check points
"Typically they're open Memorial Day weekend but all the data is showing the highest risk boats are traveling in March and April so we're going to try to open those stations on highway 93 and Clearwater earlier this year,” Executive Director Caryn Miske said.
Members will also discuss clean up at the former Columbia Falls Aluminum plant.People in Ireland need to earn almost €450 a week to be able to afford an acceptable standard of living, according to new research to be published this morning.
The minimum hourly living wage a person needs has been put at €11.50 an hour by the Living Wage Technical Group, an increase of 5 cents on the 2014 rate. The rise has been driven by changes in the cost of living and changes in the taxation system over the past year.
The Republic of Ireland Living Wage was established in 2014 and is part of a growing international set of similar figures which reflect a belief across societies that individuals working full-time should be able to earn enough income to enjoy a decent standard of living.
The living wage has been calculated by a Living Wage Technical Group with experts from the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice, trade unions and other groups.
2,000 expenses
It is calculated based on the cost of 2,000 expenses typically faced by households including accommodation costs, food, energy, transport, clothes and other services.
The rate of €11.50 means a living wage is one-third higher than the minimum wage in the Republic, which is set at €8.65 an hour for an adult.
An 18-year-old in their first year of employment can be paid just €6.92 an hour.
Over the past 12 months, there have been reductions in the cost of health insurance and the cost of transportation, and energy costs and food prices have also fallen, the research shows.
These reductions combined put downward pressure on the living wage. The reduction in the Universal Social Charge in the last budget had a similar effect.
However, these effects were overshadowed by increases in housing costs, more expensive household goods and services and higher car insurance. Rising rents, in particular in Dublin, were the main driver of the hourly increase.EVE Online is the most difficult MMO you could ever attempt to play—and I'm not being at all hyperbolic here. It's obtuse, incredibly complex, and steeped in a culture built around the philosophy of the strong feeding from the weak. At the same time, learning to play EVE Online has been one of the richest, most defining moments of my years of playing games, easily making it one of the best MMOs ever. In 2017, EVE added a free-to-play update, so there's very few reasons why you shouldn't try stepping into the virtual galaxy of New Eden to see if that bloody boot fits. Once you've created a character and played through the tutorials, here's what your next steps should be.
Join a corporation as soon as you can
In most MMOs, playing by yourself is pretty easy, but taking that same approach in EVE Online is a shortcut to boredom and self-loathing. You can read a million of these guides and learn everything about EVE Online in the process, but nothing will help you grasp the game faster than flying alongside real players. Just about everyone in EVE understands how crucial new blood is to its health, and as a result, there's never been a greater number of organizations aimed at helping newbies get on their feet. You can now hop into EVE and, within days, participate in the massive, empire-destroying wars we've all heard so much about. If you want to go from scrub to scrapper as soon as possible, consider joining one of these groups.
Pandemic Horde : the new-player offshoot of Pandemic Legion, EVE's biggest group of badasses. Pandemic Horde is huge and lacks the intimate structure of a smaller corporation, so you'll need to work hard to meet friends and not be afraid to pipe up and ask questions. In exchange for a looser atmosphere, you'll also join a fully-fledged null-sec entity who hits just as hard as any of EVE's veteran alliances. Ever hear about Goonswarm and The Imperium, the biggest empire in EVE Online history? Yeah, Pandemic Horde was instrumental in their downfall.
Karmafleet : Speaking of Goonswarm, they also have their own version of Pandemic Horde known as Karmafleet and it is every bit as capable as their competitors. A big reason for joining Karmafleet is access to one of the most well-built alliance infrastructures in EVE Online. The Imperium is still one of the richest, most well-organized groups in EVE, and they've turned playing into a science, maximizing fun and minimizing tedium.
Dreddit : If you have a Reddit account older than 45 days old, consider joining Dreddit, the biggest Reddit community in EVE Online. Don't make the mistake of thinking that it's a group drowning in cat videos and 'dat boi' memes, however, as Dreddit is the founder of one of the biggest alliances in EVE history.
EVE University : The above recommendations have all focused on getting out to null-sec, the regions where player-empires battle for sovereignty. But if being a soldier doesn't appeal to you, EVE University is where you should look. EVE University is a fully-fledged educational alliance that can teach you about every aspect of EVE through hands-on classes and live lectures. Whether you want to be a pirate, salvager, or an industrialist, EVE University has you covered. They also have a huge repository of information that you should be looking at regardless of who you join.
Get blown up sooner rather than later
EVE Online is a game about conflict, and while some players do everything to avoid it, you're far better off learning to embrace and dish out violence in good measure. Shooting space rocks as a miner might make a decent paycheck, but it's dueling a pirate and barely escaping alive that'll get your blood pumping.
When you first start playing EVE Online, you're likely to encounter any number of frustrations as you try to comprehend its complicated rules and social protocols. But one of the biggest sources that causes players to quit again and again is losing a valuable ship and not having the money to replace it. Welcome to the one rule of EVE Online: Don't fly what you can't afford to lose and replace multiple times.
Instead of thinking about ships as a reward, like gear earned in World of Warcraft, think of it as a resource to be expended in pursuit of fun. Simply put, learn to love dying. The biggest mistake you can make in EVE Online is playing for six months, saving up for an exorbitantly expensive ship you can't replace, and never learning to cope with death. Because when death finds you (and it will), it will be devastating.
Once you feel comfortable piloting your ship and shooting at NPCs, do something bold and reckless and have a hell of a time with it. Go to low security space with a corpmate and try and set ambushes, or piss off a gang of local pirates and play cat and mouse with them. Whatever you do, learn to enjoy watching yourself explode and EVE Online will always be fun.
Figure out what you want to do
Once you've joined a decent corporation, learned the basics, and lost a few ships, start thinking about what you want to do long-term in EVE Online. In most MMOs, you'd rarely think a year ahead, but EVE Online's skill system rewards those who specialize in a few key areas and are intentional about training the right skills. You can be a jack of all trades, but I highly recommend working towards just one thing before expanding outward.
This chart does a wonderful job of laying out just about every kind of niche that exists in EVE Online, and even within the more combative professions there is plenty of room to specialize. Some players fit expensive ships and run 'incursions' for huge rewards, while others brave the unknown frontiers of wormhole systems that are so dangerous that only the most hardcore players tend to survive there.
Once you've figured out a path you want to take, spend some time researching and talking to other experienced pilots to get their opinions on that niche and whether you'll find it fun. And while it's immediately accessible from the start, avoid mining like the plague unless your ideal night is sitting in space watching your cargo hold slowly fill up for an hour. Down the road there's opportunities where mining can be enjoyable (especially if your fleetmates are all drinking together), but avoid it for now.
Take every opportunity to learn
Like your attitude toward losing your ship, you should also shift your attitude toward learning. EVE is the rare kind of game that values resiliency, and being able to pick yourself up after a crippling loss and figure out how to be better is going to be crucial in growing as a player. Everyone, no longer how long they've been playing, has at one time done something so bone-headed and stupid that it nearly ruined them. For some, that means losing thousands of real dollars because they thought no one would notice if they moved their very expensive treasures in a cheap ship. Others have fallen victim to scams or gambled everything on the market and lost. It happens, and no amount of preparation will save you.
But instead of throwing your hands up in frustration and quitting, what you can do is take that experience and learn from it. Hell, you could even use that experience to then ruin someone else's day the way someone ruined yours. That's what EVE Online is about.
As I mentioned, the EVE community values new players, and while that won't stop them from killing you without mercy, it does mean that most are also willing to help you out after they've had their fun. If you die and don't know why, message the player that killed you, explain you're new and ask them what you could do better. If you're genuine and respectful, most players will take the time to help you out and some will even go beyond that. New Eden might seem scary, but it can also be incredibly friendly.
Figure out all the technical mumbo-jumbo
There's no escaping the overwhelming complexity that comes with playing EVE. The steps above address the biggest hurdle I see in new players: having the wrong mentality about playing. But those steps won't make you an amazing pilot. You don't need to take the time to learn how every ship and module works, but you do want to be an asset to those you play with by being competent in the captain's chair. For the most part, finding a good group of players and not being afraid to ask questions will arm you with a good foundation of knowledge, but a little research never hurts, right?
For beginners, YouTuber Scott Manley has a series of guides that will walk you through your very first steps in the game and can be a great resource if you feel lost. There's also ISK: The Ultimate Guide for EVE Online, a daunting 800-page guide across two volumes that covers every aspect of EVE Online in detail. Don't feel like you need to read the whole thing, but it can be a great reference. And finally, get involved on the official EVE Online forums and the subreddit, as both of which are ripe with great information like r/eve's tips for newbies guide. EVE Online has a very social culture, and you're missing out by not participating.
You're not going to master EVE Online over a single weekend. Hell, I've been playing for five years and there's still times I do things that make my corpmates regret being friends with me. But that journey is what makes EVE so fun and exciting. It will never be a game that appeals to everyone, but if you can learn to how to appreciate EVE, you'll also begin to understand why its players are so dedicated to it.Cyber SHMUP is a cyber-space themed shoot'em up game guaranteed to XOR your bools.
Fly through manually assembled missions of QWORDS and face off against hordes of maligned bits.
Equip a primary and secondary weapon to defend yourself, acquire memory to load up on damage, fire rate, or improvements unique to your primary weapon.
Use special abilities to increase your chance of survival as you seek out the sources of corruption within your system.
Delete the massive bugs within your system at the end of each level to free upgrades for your special abilities.
You will find that your enemies will become more resilient and more diverse the deeper you dive into your system. Eventually, your journey will require navigating ever-more treacherous spans of memory, shaped by the powers of corruption.
You have only one chance, admin. Do your best!
Patch Notes
Version: 1.44.421
Fixed music muting itself on level transition. Hopefully.
Version: 1.41.419
Updated to run on Unity 2017
Improved terrain flickering/wiggling on scrolling a bit
exposed FPS Limit to options screen (always existed in.ini file)
Performance increase on some UI drawing. Unity was sometimes rebuilding the UI hundreds of times a frame
Fixed glitch in death animation
Fixed animation hitching on some level movement
Fixed glitch that made the player unable to use the buffer ability for a short time in some circumstances
Fixed glitch in audio levels that made it so the music and sound effects were not completely muted when set to 0 volume
Fixed material stencil bugs
Tweaked the look of damaged enemies to be more visible and more clearly communicate the state of the end boss & phasing enemies
Fixed bug with the Buffer not picking up memory
Fixed issue with Segment Boss that could softlock if you killed the head segment and the one behind it in the same frame
Fixed opening the options menu for the first time playing an extra sound effect
Made laser/arcer hit sfx less ear piercing
Improved targetting for arcer/seeker/targetter
Tried to work with Dualshock4 controllers. If it's detecting a different controller as dualshock4 erroneously add "Dualshock4 = False" to the ini
Version: 1.20.405
Fixed timing issue with player knockback animation
Tweaked GUI draw order issue
Tweaked player death animation
Version: 1.9.393
Fixed controls not saving correctly
Improved visibility during knockback animation
Improved visibility during beam cooldown
Tweaked some levels & bosses
Changed tapping energy system from a punishment for holding to a reward for timed tapping
Charge up colours easier to distinguish from Buffer
Added RunInBackground option
Changed ability pick up animation to better telegraph what it does
Updated some particle system texturesAuthored By seanphippster
A community passport for local craft beer enthusiasts has officially launched.
The concept of TapTour was designed by Chattanooga-based production company Super Chief. The goal of the program is to bring together beer drinkers and breweries, according to project manager John Dooley.
At each stop, guests drink beer and collect stamps by flashing their yellow brew guides. After four stamps are collected, guests can visit Imbibe to pick up pint glasses, T-shirts and more. Once 13 stamps are collected, guests can pick up a growler with discounts on local brewery fills. Prizes will only be available while supplies last.
A post shared by TapTour (@taptourcha) on Jun 16, 2017 at 3:39pm PDT
Brew guides are available at the Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau or any participating location.
Breweries and tap houses are listed below. More information on TapTour can be found here.
Local breweries
OddStory Brewing Co.
Moccasin Bend Brewing Co.
Hutton & Smith Brewing Co.
The Terminal Brewhouse
Chattanooga Brewing Co.
Big Frog Brewery
Big River Grille & Brewing Works
McHale’s Brewhouse
Mad Knight Brewing Co.
Tap housesHere’s the deal: Professional hairstyles for natural hair are becoming a very big topic of conversation lately.
With the up-rise of the natural hair movement and the large number of black women working in corporate America, it was bound to become a topic of conversation.
Do you work in corporate America?
Do you have plans to work a corporate job and keep your natural hair?
Well these women do and they talk about the challenges they face, silly questions they answer and the mental strength needed to be comfortable in their own hair when many people are not yet accustomed to seeing it or even understanding it.
Professional hairstyles for natural hair in the corporate world is often a matter of opinion, but when most of those that surround you have opinions based on lack of knowledge or exposure, how would you handle yourself?
That's what makes this video interview about corporate hairstyles for natural hair interesting.
The questions that these women have to face on a daily basis are quite revealing and has caused some to shy away from enjoying their natural hair to the fullest. Check out the video below and let me know in the comment section if you have any ideas of corporate hairstyles for curly hair that you will be rockin' while you're clockin' dollars.Villains For ‘Wolverine 3’ Potentially Revealed
James Mangold is currently at work shooting at New Orleans with Hugh Jackman on Wolverine 3, which is set to be Jackman’s final outing as the iconic mutant after over 16 years (oh my). Plenty of news has surfaced over the past few weeks with numerous casting news, Patrick Stewart confirming his involvement reprising his role as Professor Charles Xavier, and of course, Simon Kinberg discussing the film’s tone, being an R-rated film set in the future that is somewhat like a western in its tone.
We now have news on who the villains that Logan will be facing. Nerdist is reporting that Boyd Holbrook will be playing an original villain. Holbrook’s character has been described as “relentless, calculating… intense head of security for a global enterprise.” This enterprise could possibly be the Hellfire Club, which is comprised of rich, elite mutants who want to promote their own influence on the happenings in the world.
Nerdist also claims that a source close to the production confirms that the Reavers will battle Wolverine in the upcoming film. For those who do not know who the Reavers are, they are a team of criminal cyborgs that dedicate themselves to the destruction of mutants, and according to this report, will be led by Donald Pierce. Pierce is a half-robot who built the Reavers to wipe out all mutants and some humans. Richard E. Grant has been confirmed to play a mad scientist – possibly as Donald Pierce. It’s also worth noting that Pierce was also a member of the Hellfire Club mentioned above. Pierce may take leadership of the club, while the Reavers may take the role as their security crew.
*SPOILER ALERT* This next part concerns the post-credits scene in X-Men: Apocalypse.
The global enterprise in Wolverine 3 may be Essex Corp., which is run by Nathaniel Sinister/Mister Sinister. The Weapon X facility is shown in the post-credits scene, and it may give fans another morsel at the conflict of the upcoming film.
Rumors have been floating around about the possible appearance of X-23, who is a female clone of Wolverine. Nerdist also speculates that Essex Corp. is using the blood of different mutants to build the Reavers, and possibly serve as a way for Wolverine to battle his biggest opponents from the franchise one last time.
These potential ideas excite me as an X-Men fan. It’s only fitting that Hugh Jackman’s last movie in the franchise will end with a bang. I cannot wait to see what James Mangold brings to this flick, and I also hope that we see an appearance from Deadpool and perhaps, Liev Schreiber’s Sabretooth.
Wolverine 3 comes to theaters on March 3, 2017.
Source: NerdistImage caption Young people gaining access to technology is key for Africa, tech companies say
"I don't understand. Why is it that the media only seems to talk about Africa when bad things happen?"
The man behind the counter at my hotel in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, was talking to me about my job, and why I was visiting.
He looked genuinely pained. He told me he is a big fan of the BBC - in west Africa the World Service and language services have a big following - but it seemed to him that the media outside the continent often only noticed when bad things happened.
It's arguably a fair point. That's not to say the positive stories don't get reported, but he can be forgiven for seeing the headlines and thinking all the world sees is war, famine and pestilence.
In fact, Africa is booming, with growth of 5.6% predicted for 2013, according to the World Bank - although research suggests this has yet to trickle down to the very poorest on the continent.
The middle class in sub-Saharan Africa is expanding rapidly. With the seemingly unstoppable growth of the mobile phone, greater access to the internet, and an increase in access to education, change is happening, and more people have more disposable income to spend.
So it's no surprise that the big technology companies are investing in Africa. But is this the whole story?
Is it driven by philanthropy or a desire to get in on the ground before their competitors? Or does Africa offer other opportunities? I spoke to three tech giants about why they were investing in the continent.
IBM
Image caption The opening of IBM's research centre in Nairobi takes the company's total of research labs around the world to 12
The company has bolstered existing investments in the continent by opening a research facility in Nairobi, with the official inauguration celebration happening at the end of October.
According to IBM, this is the first research facility that does both applied and exploratory research on the continent.
We believe research for Africa, solving Africa's grand challenges, has to be done on the ground in Africa Dr Kamal Bhattacharya, IBM Research - Africa
"The key thing is… the great growth story of Africa," says Dr Kamal Bhattacharya, the director of IBM Research - Africa.
"We know that financial inclusion is the big challenge. About 80% of the population has no access to financial services. There is the lack of access to energy, safe water, sanitation, food security.
"As scientists we believe that science and technology is an enabler to express your needs, it is an enabler to shape your own future.
"And this is why IBM is making this very significant investment into Africa, starting with Kenya. We've hired some of the top talent from all over the world, the African diaspora, people of African origin, also people who contribute to the growth of Africa, and we bring them all together here.
"We believe research for Africa, solving Africa's grand challenges, has to be done on the ground in Africa and this is why we set up and made this investment."
Image caption Dr Uyi Stewart (left) and Dr Kamal Bhattacharya will celebrate the official opening of IBM's 12th research facility in Nairobi
His colleague, Dr Uyi Stewart, is chief scientist at the lab. Originally from Nigeria, the role has brought him and his family back to the continent after nearly 10 years in New York.
"People ask us: 'Can you do African research from New York?' Yes you can. It is possible, you can do research from anywhere.
"But you will miss the mark... In order to capture value, and deliver innovation that leads to commercially viable products that impact people's lives, we have to be here, in the local ecosystem."
Microsoft
Image caption The 4Afrika initiative wants to focus on young people and access to technology
Fernando de Sousa heads Microsoft's 4Afrika initiative, which focuses on encouraging innovation, increasing access to technology and building skills in the local workforce.
The division backs projects across the continent including access to training, roll-out of broadband in rural areas, infrastructure, agriculture and healthcare projects, as well as their App Factories, hubs designed to nurture young developers creating apps for the Windows phone platform.
It's not just about networks, it's not just about PCs. It's about the end economic impact, it's about the skills Fernando de Sousa, Microsoft's 4Afrika
Building these projects has a very personal resonance for Mr de Sousa, who was born in Mozambique and ended up spending time in a South African refugee camp as a child after the outbreak of civil war.
"We said we want on focus on young people. We want to focus on skills, we want to focus on small and medium enterprises. We want to focus on access to technology.
"Let's take Kenya - so we start with TV white spaces in a village in the Maasai Mara.
"It's now evolved into a national policy conversation - President Kenyatta has said he wants 1.3 million students to have a [connected] device by September 2013. And he travelled to the Masai Mara to go and see what we're doing.
"It's not just about networks, it's not just about PCs. It's about the end economic impact, it's about the skills.
Image caption Fernando de Sousa says the company's objective is enabling economic development
"[Now] we have 11 countries that have formally submitted requests for us to implement TV white spaces technology."
But Mr de Sousa is clear about the motivation behind the initiative.
"There is a corporate social investment part of Microsoft which has nothing to do with Microsoft 4Afrika. And I think that that is a well-established process, we do a lot of donations in that space.
"This is about being on the ground and creating huge consumers. There's no debate about the fact that our objective is enabling economic development.
"In proving the value of technology as the enabler for that development, it's not just creating consumption of technology, but it's actually more importantly creating the ability for knowledge to be developed, for technology to actually be built in Africa.
"Because that actually drives the IT ecosystem, that drives the IT industry, that makes technology relevant."
Salesforce.com
Image caption The Foundation has paid for schools to get on the internet and sponsored students
Isabel Kelly is the international director of the Salesforce.com Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the customer relationship management and services technology giant.
She joined the company 11 years ago from campaigning group Amnesty International.
Image caption Isabel Kelly spent more than 10 years at Amnesty International
The Foundation was started with an initial investment from the company, as well as access to Salesforce.com software, which is licensed to non-profits, and staff members volunteering.
The first project in Africa for the Foundation was the suggestion of an employee, who had a brother who was volunteering in a school in the Kibagare slum in Nairobi.
"We gave some refurbished hardware to them, we paid for them to get the internet," Ms Kelly says.
"And so the school has taken on a bit of a focus on technology, we sponsored about 40 girls through the school, over the 10 years."
One of the sponsored pupils from a particularly difficult background would go on to become a lawyer working for the Kenyan Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission.
Image caption Gilbert Ambani, from Juhudi Kilimo, addresses a group at a workshop at the iHub
The Foundation has its own revenue stream from the bigger NGOs it works with (customers include the Grameen Foundation) and also funds training in how to use the Salesforce platform, and workshops for start-ups at places like Nairobi's iHub and mLab.
Meanwhile, a host of social enterprises are using Salesforce tech to power their organisations - like Juhudi Kilimo, a micro-finance social enterprise, focusing on small, rural farmers in Kenya, and Honeycare, an organisation that helps farmers turn to honey production.From Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia.
Diane (Japanese: ダイアン Diane) is a character who appeared in Jirachi: Wish Maker. She assisted her childhood friend and partner, Butler, in his magic shows. The two now live at Forina in Hoenn.
In the anime
Diane and Butler
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not permit any local Momentum groups to do so.”Other hits from the movie include 'Love Is An Open Door' and 'In Summer'
Most successful video is 'Do You Want to Build A Snowman' (90m views)
They now earn$ 10,000 a month from song covers uploaded to YouTube
Earlier this year, the family negotiated with Disney for copyright licenses
It is the most successful animated film of all time.
And one family has found a way to cash in on Frozen's popularity - by making song-cover videos.
Robbie Bagley, 22, and his siblings, from Utah, earn a staggering $10,000 a month from their own versions of the Disney movie's hits, including 'Love Is An Open Door' and 'In Summer'.
Their most successful video to date is 'Do You Want To Build A Snowman?', which features eight-year-old Mia Bagley as lonely 'Anna' and has gained more than 90million views on YouTube.
Cover: Robbie Bagley, 22, and his siblings, from Utah, earn a staggering $10,000 a month from their own versions of the Disney's movie's hits, including' Do You Want To Build A Snowman' (pictured, with Mia Bagley)
Hit film: Their version of 'Do You Want To Build A Snowman?', which features eight-year-old Mia as 'Anna' (pictured in the 2013 movie Frozen) has gained more than 90million views on the video-sharing site YouTube
'Come on, let's go and play!': Although many people have seen their Frozen song covers take off YouTube this year, Mr Bagley took the further - and financially sound - step of negotiating with Disney for copyright licenses
Lonely: A young slides down her sister Elsa's bedroom door as she tries to convince her to leave her room
Making every effort: Under the Disney deal, the Bagleys net thousands of dollars in revenue every month. Above, Mia (left) and animated Anna (right) shout under the bedroom door in a bid to convince Elsa
Although many people have seen their Frozen song covers take off on the video-sharing site this year, Mr Bagley took the further step of negotiating with Disney for copyright licenses.
Under the deal - of which, the exact details remain unknown - the family nets thousands of dollars in revenue every month, according to Yahoo.
Mr Bagley, a filmmaker who runs a production crew called Working With Lemons, started making videos in high school using 'a $150 camera and a Mac'.
He decided to film a cover of 'Do You Want To Build A Snowman?' - featuring Mia and their 14-year-old sister, Ariana, as an older Anna - earlier this year following Frozen's release in November 2013.
Older: Mr Bagley, a filmmaker who runs a production crew called Working With Lemons, started making videos in high school using 'a $150 camera and a Mac'. Above, Mia, as a teenage Anna, knocks on Elsa's door
The movie version: He decided to film the cover of 'Do You Want To Build A Snowman?' - featuring Mia and their 14-year-old sister, Ariana, as an older Anna - earlier this year following Frozen's release in November 2013
Bored: 'I thought my sister Mia pretty much looks exactly like that Anna girl,' he told KSL. 'We just thought, "Let's just try it."' Above, Mia (left) and Anna (right) wave their feet in front of a clock as they pass the time
'Tick tock, tick tock': To create the video, Ms Bourne sewed costumes for Mia - such as this one, pictured - and Ariana, while Mr Bagley sorted out the recording and audio and his talented sisters rehearsed their lines
Her animated counterpart: To record the girls' singing, the family used a microphone from the video game 'Rock Band'. Above, a teenage Anna follows the clock's hand with her eyes while lying on the ground
' I thought my sister Mia pretty much looks exactly like that Anna girl,' he told KSL, adding that his mother, Jeane Bourne, felt the same. 'We just thought, "Let's just try it."'
To create the video, Ms Bourne sewed costumes for Mia and Ariana, while Mr Bagley sorted out the recording and audio and his sisters rehearsed their lines.
To record the girls' singing, the family used a microphone from the video game 'Rock Band,' free software on Garage Band, a 'pop filter' constructed from a hanger and some nylon tights.
'It's crazy, we really are doing it with nothing,' Ms Bourne told Deseret News earlier this year. 'But we've just been amazed with how things have turned out. Much better, really, than we expected.'
Plea: 'It's crazy, we really are doing it with nothing,' Ms Bourne told Deseret News. 'But we've just been amazed with how things have turned out. Much better, really, than we expected.' Above, Ariana as an older Anna
Sad: In the film, the older Anna sings to her sister through her bedroom door following their parents' funeral
Another popular cover: In May this year, Mr Bagley posted a version of 'Love Is an Open Door' (pictured) - featuring Mia and their brother, Anson - to the site. It has now been viewed more than 45million times
Enamored: In this movie still, Anna and Prince Hans dance and become engaged after meeting at the palace
After the video was uploaded to the family's YouTube channel, 'Working With Lemons', in March, it quickly gained attention from users across the world.
Two months later, Mr Bagley posted a version of 'Love Is an Open Door' - featuring Mia and their brother, Anson - to the site. It has now been viewed more than 45million times.
Mr Bagley and his siblings reportedly plan to release a cover of 'Let it Go' in the next few months.
Frozen, featuring Kristen Bell as Anna and Idina Menzel as Elsa, the 21-year-old Snow Queen of Arendelle and Anna's sister, gained nearly $1.3billion in worldwide box office revenue.
Talented: Mr Bagley (right), Mia (left) and their siblings reportedly plan to shortly release a cover of 'Let it Go'Bjarne Stroustrup first started developing the the C++ language in 1979 at Bell Labs. Back then, it was called "C with Classes," and it was created as part of an experiment in distributed computing. In the 30-plus years since, the language has taken off, becoming one of the most popular programming languages in use today.
Stroustrup, now a professor of computer science at Texas A&M University, talked with InfoWorld editor at large Paul Krill questions about the past, present, and future of C++, which was recently upgraded via the C++ 11 release.
[ Read InfoWorld's recent interviews with developers of the Ruby, Dart, and Kotlin languages. | Subscribe to InfoWorld's Developer World newsletter for the latest happenings in software development. ]
InfoWorld: What was your intent in developing C++?
Stroustrup: To build a general tool for managing the complexity of performance-sensitive applications. My immediate need was to write some simulations and some device-level software for an experiment in distributed computing at Bell Labs. Much of my inspiration came from the use of Simula and BCPL.
InfoWorld: What's the status of the C++ 11 upgrade and what was your role in developing it?
Stroustrup: C++ is specified by its ISO C++ standards committee. I'm a founding member of that committee and active as the chair of the Evolutions Working Group that evaluates proposals for new language features. I also try to help the committee set directions. C++11 became an international standard late last year, and the C++ compiler purveyors are now busy implementing it. Many features and the entire new standard library are already shipping.
InfoWorld: What do you see as the most important features of C++11? Accommodations for multithreading, perhaps?
Stroustrup: Certainly, standard and type-safe support for thread-level and lock-free concurrency is a major improvement on the various non-standard concurrency libraries that have been available for C++ for decades. It will be a boon to multiplatform development. The language feature changes are relatively minor, but there are quite a few of them; which of them are the most helpful will depend on what a programmer is doing.
I like the way move semantics will simplify the way we return large data structures from functions and improve the performance of standard-library types, such as string and vector. People in high-performance areas will appreciate the massive increase in the power of constant expressions (constexpr). Users of the standard library (and some GUI libraries) will probably find lambda expressions the most prominent feature. Everybody will use smaller new features, such as auto (deduce a variables type from its initializer) and the range-for loop, to simplify code.
InfoWorld: What future directions do you anticipate for C++?
Stroustrup: It's a bit early to say. We [the committee] have started to consider proposals for new language features and new standard library components, but nothing has been cast in stone. We need to develop a consensus. We aim for a new standard in five years. That limits how ambitious we can be. If I had to guess, I'd look to improved support for lightweight concurrency, more libraries (something like boost::filesystem), and several minor features. There are study groups for concurrency, modularity, filesystem, and networking.
InfoWorld: How does C++ compare to languages like Java, C#, or the dynamic scripting languages that are proliferating lately?
Stroustrup: I can't do a detailed comparison, but C++ is more flexible (for good and bad) and tends to perform significantly better, assuming competent developers in all languages compared. The other languages tend to have massive standard libraries. For C++, the standard library is relatively small, and a developer is faced with the problem of choosing among a host of commercial and open source libraries when going beyond that.
InfoWorld: At Microsoft's GoingNative 2012 conference recently, you emphasized native programming, saying, "Something has to talk to hardware," and not everything can be a virtual machine. When should a developer opt for native programming, and when should a developer opt for a virtual machine-based language?
Stroustrup: Actually, it was Microsoft that emphasized "native" programming and chose the title, but that's the kind of implementation techniques I've relied on for decades. C++ has significant strengths compared to "virtual machine-based languages" when it comes to building infrastructure. In other words, where performance, reliability, resources, and complexity need to be tightly controlled.
For example, you wouldn't write a JavaScript engine in JavaScript, and you probably wouldn't write a "first to market" simple Web app in C++. You would write the foundations of a Google, an Amazon, a Facebook, or an Amadeus (airline ticketing) in C++, but maybe not the rapidly changing top layers of such systems. C++ comes in strong where power consumption is an issue -- for example, server farms and handheld devices. Naturally, C++ can be competitive even where performance isn't a critical issue, but there the choice will be made more on the availability of libraries and developers than on the languages themselves.
This article, "Stroustrup reveals what's new in C++ 11," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the latest developments in business technology news and get a digest of the key stories each day in the InfoWorld Daily newsletter. For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.Auto Refresh is a clientside mod that automatically refreshes your server list and alerts you when your selected server comes online.
Features
Automatically refreshes your multiplayer server list
Plays an alert sound when your selected server comes online
If enabled, you will be connected to your selected server as soon as it comes online
Delay between refreshes can be adjusted in the config
Installation
Install Forge
Navigate to your.minecraft folder
Download the mod and place the jar file in.minecraft/mods
If you've used a different version of this mod before, delete any existing autorefresh.cfg files from.minecraft/config
Play!
Modpacks
Yes, you can use this mod in your modpack. I'd prefer if you provide a link to the mod's CurseForge page, but that's up to you.
Support
If you enjoy the mod and would like to support the project, feel free to drop me a pledge on Patreon or a donation on PayPal. Support is greatly appreciated!Different Investment Styles For Investing In The Stock Market
There are a lot of investment styles you can use when you participate in the stock market. We review how they work.
There are many schools of thought when it comes to investing, but the main rules still stand out:
(1) Invest early. (2) Invest regularly. (3) Stay invested.
After following these three rules for sometime, you should find yourself happily sitting on a nice pile of dough. But having waded through so many finance and investing books through the years, I continue to be fascinated by the various investment styles that have been used by so many successful investors and fund managers to generate that pile of dough. Care to know a little about some of them?
When you plunk down your money into a stock or fund, you release that money into a market heavily studied by investment strategists and money gurus. Don’t worry since many of them are already working for you, when you’re invested in mutual funds. But in case you’ve been doing your own investing without a professional involved, it may be good to know a few of the investing styles used out there by market players who constantly want to gain an edge. Here are some descriptions of contrasting strategies that exist in the market place and my own confessions about which styles I subscribe to.
Investment Styles For Any Portfolio
#1 Technical Versus Fundamental Analysis
I’ve described technical analysis versus fundamental analysis in the past and even included pretty pictures in the mix. Technical analysis involves using timing indicators and triggers. I’ve encountered a few folks who have decided that trading was the way to go to make some bucks. They play the market in their spare time by trading on volatility. Traders love it when market prices shift dramatically because that’s when they make money on their positions. A quiet and boring market is a money loser for them. On the other hand, fundamental analysts are most of us who are long-term investors. We keep the money in the market and minimize trades because we’re banking on the solid earnings of corporations and a nicely running economy to keep our money growing. On this note, I’m definitely on the camp of long term investing.
#2 Growth Versus Value
Value investors are those who buy lower valued stocks based on fundamentals and corporate balance sheets. They are looking to buy stocks of businesses that are currently unpopular, underestimated in terms of earnings or undiscovered by the market herd. They hope to buy stock at low price points in order to reap the largest gains when the tide turns in favor of these stocks. Meanwhile, growth investors favor stocks that have expected high future growth rates. It doesn’t matter whether a growth stock is expensive in terms of its price/earnings multiple, just as long as its future is bright and earnings remain strong. Small stocks are often in this realm as they go through growth spurts in a huge way. I personally put my money in blended funds — those that have equal representation in growth and value equities since I’d like to have some level of participation in whatever style is fashionable at any one time.
#3 Contrarian Versus Momentum
Contrarian investors like to go against the herd. Either buying stocks that everyone hates or going against what the investing crowd does. When the market dies, they buy. Most of the time, they just sit quietly in the wings, waiting for the opportunity to buy on dips. An example of contrarian investing is the Dogs of The Dow approach. Whereas momentum investors are just the opposite: they are what I call the “rah-rah” investors. They love to pump up the market. When things are going well, they buy on strength hoping to catch the momentum of the bull. The “momo” investors’ motto: Buy High, Sell Even Higher. I don’t know about you but I find it a challenge to buy when the market has been surging for some time. I’m really a pseudo-contrarian at heart.
#4 Active Versus Passive (Indexing)
Do you like to fuss over your portfolio? If you are, or if you’ve invested in what they call “actively managed mutual funds”, then you’re pursuing the active investment style. You’re an active investor if you tinker with your portfolio a lot to try to beat market returns, quite often racking up a good amount of transactional activity. If you’ve sent your money off to funds that have fund managers doing investment research and trades in your behalf, then by association, you’re an active investor. If in the meantime your investments are simply tracking an index determined by a third party, then you’re investing “passively”.
So which approach is superior? Reports such as those provided by Lipper Analytical Services have trumpeted the fact that most actively managed equity mutual funds underperform the S & P 500 Index. I’d love to see some hard statistics on this, for sure, but this is a point that many “indexers” and passive investors like to boast about when justifying their love for index funds or index ETFs.
Indexing is a great way to go if you are ready to accept slight under-performance by funds that are tracking their actual indexes. Funds that follow indexes have slightly lower returns due to minimal management fees and transaction costs incurred by these funds. After all these years of investing, I’ve accepted indexing as my core investment style of choice, for the simplicity and convenience it offers me.
#5 Asset Allocation
It’s a no-brainer: practicing asset allocation and diversification by utilizing any or all of the aforementioned investment styles to achieve your financial goals are very wise moves. I’ve tried quite a number of strategies in the past that involved trading, shorting, leverage, concentrated positions, and so forth and nothing made me more money and gave me less headaches than long term investing using the passive or indexing approach. For average investors, I think this is the most reasonable and sensible way to invest. Unfortunately, many decide to go this route only after getting burned by the market at some point in their investing careers.
-ooOoo-
There are other investment styles such as those that involve choosing which market caps you’d like representation in (e.g. small to large company investing) or top down vs bottom up strategies. Sometimes it’s a pattern of behavior, at other times, it’s about following what’s in fashion. For further diversification, I’ve tried to find representation of these styles in my own portfolio as they can co-exist in various capacities. At first, these various styles can make your head spin but if you’re going for simplicity, nothing beats passive investing. It’s a good place to start…and end!
Image Credit: Thank you to AmazingIllusions.com for their fun images. This post first appeared on September 6, 2007
Copyright © 2011 The Digerati Life. All Rights Reserved.MIAMI, March 8 – The Miami HEAT announced today that they have signed forward Michael Beasley to a second 10-day contract. Per club policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Beasley, who was originally signed to a 10-day contract by the HEAT on February 26, has appeared in six games with Miami this season averaging 10.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 23.6 minutes while shooting 44.6 percent from the field. In the HEAT’s last two games, he posted 13 points, all in the fourth quarter, on March 6 at Washington and then a season-high 18 points, seven rebounds, two steals and a block on March 7 vs. Sacramento.
Beasley, who was originally drafted by the HEAT in the first round (second overall) in the 2008 NBA Draft, has appeared in 415 career NBA games (199 starts) averaging 13.2 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 24.8 minutes while shooting 45 percent from the field.I have been brewing with Piercing Grief for a while now and I wanted to show the latest evolution of the old Grief Crown deck from before:
The deck is still not competitive, but it sure is fun, and it’s definitely closer than the last version. If you find a low-interaction match (not a lot of Silence) then you can often stall out and then go over the top of nearly anything. The deck works by combining void abilities like Ephemeral Wisp and the revenge of Piercing Grief with Xenan Cultist to build inevitability in the form of obscenely large creatures and grind out a win in the long game. It also combines together the synergy of Ephemeral Wispand Devour or Vault of the Praxis to keep drawing cards and Katra, the Devoted to sub as additional copies of Xenan Cultist. The kills this deck gets become absolutely insane, where you can chain together Varas and Cultists to grow monstrous Griefs to hit for 20+ a turn. Dawnwalker is a card that’s always awkward in the deck and could certainly be a possible cut as it is amazing when being returned with Vara or a massive Ephemeral Wisp, but that often requires a lot of set up and it does very little before that. It could be worth checking out ways to fit bigger creatures into the deck, like Sandstorm Titan or Mystic Ascendant or to sneak in some Annihilate or Deathstrike.
DECK LIST
*mouse over any card to see what it does
4 Dark Return (Set1 #250)
2 Seek Power (Set1 #408)
4 Dark Wisp (Set1 #264)
4 Devour (Set1 #261)
4 Ephemeral Wisp (Set1 #84)
4 Piercing Grief (Set2 #143)
2 Talir’s Favored (Set0 #11)
4 Temple Scribe (Set1 #502)
4 Xenan Initiation (Set2 #44)
4 Dawnwalker (Set1 #86)
4 Xenan Cultist (Set1 #516)
2 Katra, the Devoted (Set2 #208)
1 Memory Dredger (Set2 #159)
4 Vault of the Praxis (Set1 #480)
3 Vara, Fate-Touched (Set1 #307)
8 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)
9 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)
4 Seat of Mystery (Set0 #61)
4 Xenan Banner (Set2 #201)
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Arial | Courier | Lucida | Lucida Console | Monaco | TimesAn ancient bone found eroding out of a riverbank in the Yukon is the oldest bison fossil ever discovered in North America, researchers say.
What’s more, genetic evidence extracted from the bone reveals that all of the continent’s bison, living and extinct, descended from a single female ancestor that crossed into the Americas less than 200,000 years ago — and not millions of years ago, as some experts had thought.
“There has long been a controversy about the timing of bison arrival in North America,” said Dr. Beth Shapiro, of the UC Santa Cruz Paleogenomics Lab, in a press statement.
“Until recently, the fossil records from different parts of North America disagreed with each other, with a few fossil localities suggesting that bison arrived millions of years ago but most old fossil sites showing no evidence of bison at all.”
The newly found fossil is limited to a single foot bone, found protruding from a riverside cliff known as Ch’ijee’s Bluff in western Yukon Territory along the Porcupine River, not far from the Alaska border.
The exposed strata of the bluff allowed the researchers to date the bone to around 130,000 years old.
“We were fortunate with a fossil recovered from northern Yukon that was found adjacent to a well-dated volcanic ash,” said Dr. Alberto Reyes, the University of Alberta geologist who made the find.
Analysis of the fossil showed that it belonged to a now-extinct species known as the steppe bison, or Bison priscus, an ungulate that roamed Europe and Asia for millions of years.
And its discovery provided a unique opportunity to compare the genetics of this ancient steppe bison with those of nearly four dozen other fossils from around the continent, which together could help reconstruct North America’s bison family tree.
The first step was to isolate the bone’s mitochondrial DNA — the genetic code that’s found inside each cell’s mitochondria.
This is distinct from nuclear DNA, which contains the instructions for making an entire organism.
By contrast, mitochondrial DNA is only passed down from the mother to her offspring, which allows researchers to trace lineages by birth, going back millennia.
(Learn more about what mito DNA can teach us about human history: “Elite ‘Dynasty’ at Chaco Canyon Got Its Power From One Woman, DNA Shows“)
The scientists compared the mitochondrial DNA from the fossil found at Ch’ijee’s Bluff to that taken from 45 other bison remains, including one of the oldest and most interesting specimens, the fossil of a giant, long-horned bison — belonging to the species Bison latifrons — found in Snowmass, Colorado.
“Bison latifrons is an interesting beast,” said Dr. Duane Froese, a geologist with the University of Alberta, in a separate statement.
“Its horns measured more than two meters across at the tips, and it was perhaps 25 percent larger than modern bison.”
(Read about a long-horned bison recently found in San Diego: “Giant Ice-Age ‘Longhorn Bison’ Unearthed in San Diego“)
The Colorado specimen was a mere 15,000 years or so younger than the one from Ch’ijee’s Bluff, the researchers said, but their analysis showed that the two were indeed distinct species, although they shared a very close genetic relationship.
Moreover, the comparison across all 45 specimens allowed the researchers to estimate the timeline of bison evolution in North America, by tracking the mutations that have periodically shown up in the animals’ DNA.
The rate at which mutations take place can serve as a kind of “molecular clock,” the researchers said, which provides an estimate of how old a particular maternal lineage is.
And the results revealed that all the bison’s mitochondrial DNA stemmed back to a single female who made her way into the Americas very — at least in geologic terms — recently.
“[It] showed that all of the bison had a common ancestor between about 130,000 and 195,000 years ago,” Froese said.
These dates seem likely, the researchers noted, because they coincide with peaks during the last Ice Age, when sea levels were low enough to expose the Bering Land Bridge between what’s now Alaska and Russia, which would have made migrations possible.
“The land bridge forms during ice ages, when much of the water on the planet becomes part of growing continental glaciers, making the sea level much lower than it is today,” Shapiro said.
After the bison arrived, the rest is natural history.
North America had not seen such giant bovines like bison before, and the animals quickly made their mark on the landscape.
“After they arrived in Alaska, they spread quickly across the continent, taking advantage of the rich grassland resources that were part of the ice age ecosystem,” Shapiro said.
“They were so well adapted to the plains ecosystem, they quickly colonized the continent.” Froese added.
(Read about another record-breaking fossil: “700,000-Year-Old Horse Found in Yukon Permafrost Yields Oldest DNA Ever Decoded“)
“In a way, North American bison are really an invasive species, though perhaps not in the common sense of the term,” he noted.
“They were remarkably successful when they entered North America and interrupted a grazing ecosystem that had been dominated by horses and mammoths for at least the previous million years.”
The team reports its findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.World Cups.
They kind of resemble trophy girlfriends.
If you are a good looking rooster, it is expected that you have had at least one under your arm during your dating career. Hopefully you have one under your arm right now.
However, they will only be a girlfriend. Never a wife. They have no loyalty. At four years they get itchy feet.
I know of a bloke called Australia who dated one for almost 12 years. But even after all that time, she eloped with some fella called India. Or was it a girl? Isn’t India a female name? Who knows?
The West Indies have dated some stunners in their time, but they would all be getting a little long in the tooth now. It was a while back.
Pakistan and Sri Lanka either got one drunk or spiked their drink on different nights and scored. She won’t fall for that again.
India currently hold the hand of a Bollywood starlet. Nonetheless, it appears like that she is about to break up with him.
However, the hot blonde with the cherry red lipstick, long legs and knee high boots has shunned all advances from South Africa over the years.
It’s not entirely clear why.
South Africans are clever, handsome and athletic. They win lots of things. They give us alpha males that we all look up to. Donald, Fanie, Kluesner, Amla, ABdV, Steyn, Kallis and Imran Tahir.
Ok, maybe not Tahir, but there is a market for everything right?
Where have South Africa gone wrong?
Let’s review their dating history.
1992 Sydney
South Africa had just returned to the world of romantic pursuits. Their favourite night club had banned them for being naughty, but were willing to let them back in.
This particular evening looked to be going so well for the men in green.
The venue was perfect. Views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge would have delighted their guest. The conversation was flowing, and although a horde of Englishmen were trying to cut in on the dance floor, our South African hero well under control.
However, taking a date to an outdoor venue is full of risk.
On this particular night, that thug Mr Rain decided to gatecrash. Duckworth and Lewis, now the world’s premier doormen, were still unknown to the South Africans and therefore, were not present to protect them.
Mr Rain’s interference saw the Englishmen steal the girl. Well, at least they organised a second date where she rejected her conquerors of that night and bedded the Pakistanis instead.
1999 Edgbaston
This social engagement only occurred because Herschelle Gibbs had made a rookie error a few days earlier.
On the group date, he purposefully flayed his bat in an effort to seduce the beauty. He was like a peacock showcasing his feathers.
101 runs later and South Africa had 271 on the board. A massive performance.
However, when challenger Steve Waugh made it to the dance floor, Gibbs carelessly dropped his combatant’s drink. The replacement he had to buy him gave Australia enough time to win the dance off. Had that not occurred, Australia would have been sent home.
In the dancing competition semi final, the two teams met again.
It was a tight contest. The World Cup heiress was torn between whom to give a second chance. South Africa asked the pair of Donald and Kluesner to execute just a single move with 4 balls remaining.
Somehow, the klutzes goofed it.
The hot blonde would follow the bronzed Aussies home and stay with him for some time.
2011 Dhaka
This was the year South Africa was meant to get the girl.
No more falling over. No more stuttering over words. No more spilling the spaghetti sauce all over your white shirt.
Their challenger was the pale and freckly kid from New Zealand.
They had only ever dated frumpy librarians. Surely the most coveted cricketing super model was out of their league?
Well, it was.
But before the Kiwi’s failed, they brought down the South Africans with a quick one, two jab. Where did this display of manliness come from? No one knows. But it did.
Ryder, a slightly overweight kid who had little experience in chasing quality ladies, made an impressive 83. The prized target was impressed.
Jacob Oram made the ball perform tricks never seen before in Bangladesh. Four times he confused and dazzled his better presented foe.
New Zealand would rouse her intrigue on this day. In the end, neither would manage to seduce her quite enough.
So will 2015 be another South African romantic comedy?
The guys from south of Botswana will hope it’s more like 50 Shades of Grey.
Reproduced with permission at First Post Sports
Follow @denniscricket_Posted in: Android, iOS, Mobile Services, Mobile software
Good news for those who have been waiting for BBM on iOS and Android (yes, all four of you). BlackBerry has finally announced the dates when you will be able to download the app for your iOS or Android device.
Android users will be getting their hands on BBM first on September 21. iPhone users, meanwhile, will have to contain their enthusiasm for a day longer, and can download the app on September 22. Both apps will be available for free from their respective stores.
For those wondering, BlackBerry Messenger or BBM works pretty much like any other messaging service out there today (or should I say the others work pretty much like BBM). You can chat with a single or multiple people at the same time and share images and voice notes with them. The one unique thing with BBM is that it does not use your mobile number but rather a unique PIN that users have to share in order to add each other to their BBM contact list. This way you can share your BBM ID without giving away your mobile number.
Jokes and sarcasm aside, it’s hard to look at this and not think it’s too little too late. BBM was a way for BlackBerry users to communicate with each other but with the advent of a dozen other IM services, even BlackBerry users these days prefer to use services such as WhatsApp. To think Android or iOS users would like to install BBM just to talk to their friends using BlackBerry phones when they could just use the existing service is a bit laughable.
SourceFor Related Articles and More Information, Please Visit OCA's Genetic Engineering Page, and our Millions Against Monsanto Page.
To hear the pesticide and junk food marketers of the world tell it, anyone who questions the value, legitimacy or safety of GMO crops is naïve, anti-science and irrational to the point of hysteria.
But how long can Monsanto ignore the mounting actual scientific evidence that their technology is not only failing to live up to its promises, it’s putting public health at risk?
Jim Goodman, farmer, activist and member of the Organic Consumers Association policy advisory board, recently wrote about Monsanto’s deceptive use of the expression “sound science.”
But, ‘sound science’ has no scientific definition. It does not mean peer reviewed, or well documented research. ‘Sound science’ is only a term, an ideological term, used to support a particular point of view, policy statement or a technology. ‘Sound science’ is little more than the opinions of so-called “experts” representing corporate interests.
Simply put, ‘sound science’ always supports the position of industry over people, corporate profit over food safety, the environment and public health.
Here are five new reports and studies, published in the last two months, that blow huge holes in Monsanto’s “sound science” story. Reports of everything from Monsanto’s Roundup causing fatal, chronic kidney disease to how, contrary to industry claims, Roundup persists for years, contaminating soil, air and water. And oh-by-the-way, no, GMO crops will not feed the world, nor have they reduced the use of herbicides and pesticides.
1. Monsanto’s Roundup linked to fatal, chronic kidney disease. Article in Environmental Research and Public Health, February 2014
What happens when you mix glyphosate, the key active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, with “hard” water? That is, water that contains metals, such as calcium, magnesium, strontium and iron, either found naturally in the soil, or resulting from the use of chemical fertilizers?
The glyphosate becomes “extremely toxic” to the kidneys.
That’s the theory put forth by researchers trying to uncover the mystery of thousands of deaths from chronic kidney disease among people in farming areas of Sri Lanka, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
2. Monsanto’s Roundup persists in soil and water. U.S. Geological Survey report in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, February 2014
Monsanto has always insisted (despite evidence to the contrary) that its Roundup herbicide is benign, that its toxicity doesn’t persist.
But that’s only half the story, according to a study published this month in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. Researchers now say that if you study only the key active ingredient, glyphosate, you might, as Monsanto claims, determine that Roundup is benign.
But there are other ingredients in Roundup, including one called Aminomethylphosphonic acid, or AMPA. The study, called "Pesticides in Mississippi air and rain: A comparison between 1995 and 2007," found that glyphosate and its still-toxic byproduct, AMPA, were found in over 75 percent of the air and rain samples tested from Mississippi in 2007.
What does that mean for you? According to one analysis, “if you were breathing in the sampled air you would be inhaling approximately 2.5 nanograms of glyphosate per cubic meter of air. It has been
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Try to remember that your ancestors fought wars to get you these rights and if you willingly hand them over you nor your children will ever see them again. This is a massive privacy invasion comparable to having a camera installed in your shower and all done under our noses. We need to make it clear to these companies that our data is our PROPERTY and collecting that data without our permission is THEFT. Unfortunately our technology presses forward and our laws drag from the rear. If we allow the theft of our information to be come commonplace then all is lost. We open the door to a 1984 esque dystopia, and once we hand over a right which has been previously fought for we never get it back. Never.
So that should be take as point #2.. point #3 was going to be about my right to modify my own vehicle and the disturbing trend of automakers to lock out firmware to all but the dealer’s mechanics in an effort to monopolize maintenance, but I’m sure you could extrapolate what I want to say about the topic based on my previous comments.
This post is already turning into a novel so time to wrap up. In summary I find the idea that I am supposed to trust that GM has sold me a product that is safe and unhackable simply unacceptable. Lump onto that my concerns about my data being stolen and.. yea, not cool GM. Don’t get me wrong I love the truck and I wouldn’t have bought it otherwise but it is going to take a lot of reading and work before I am 100% OK with how it’s ECM operates.
Which brings us finally to countermeasures. What can you the concerned reader do if you are in a similar situation? Well as far as the auditing is concerned there is no easy fix. I recommend this book called The Car Hackers Handbook from No Starch Press. Read it twice.
On the other hand if you are concerned about your data exfiltration I do have a semi-easy fix. You see all this communication between GM and the vehicle requires a radio, radio’s require antenna’s, and antenna’s can be cut. Do a little research and find the connecting line between the car’s ECM (on mine it is a separate communications module) and the cellular antenna. It will be a coaxial cable similar to your cable TV but probably a little thinner. Remove the cable at the ECM. Chances are it will screw on with an SMA connector. This will cut communication most of the time but if you park right under the cell tower it will still be able to phone home. To fix this you need to solder a 50 Ohm resistor onto a new SMA connector between the inner signal conductor and the outer ‘shield’ conductor. This will ensure that any radio signal is immediately brought to 0 volts.
With my truck I found out the whole assembly is somewhere behind the glove box so I’m yet to actually implement this but when I do I will be sure to post the details here. Okay that’s it, if you’re still here sorry for the huge post. and remember…
Freedom is only free when you give it away!!"Stranger Things" trailer. Screenshot: YouTube/Netflix
Something strange is going on in one of Reddit's most cryptic subs.
You might remember _9MOTHER9HORSE9EYES9, the anonymous user who enchanted thousands of readers with his eerie, Lovecraftian vignettes that envisioned terrifying space portals, Nazis, LSD experiments gone wrong, flesh interfaces, and a ubiquitous entity called "Mother."
Like so many others, I was instantly hooked. Yet, when I first wrote about 9M9H9E9, I briefly wondered if his posts (the author has self-identified as a "30-something American male") weren't just pieces of an extremely elaborate marketing stunt. After all, Reddit is no stranger to these tactics, and it's wise to take most internet phenomena with a hefty dose of skepticism.
Now, some readers are questioning whether we've all been given the runaround. You see, on the surface, the narratives of 9M9H9E9 look an awful lot like the plot of "Stranger Things," a new Netflix series that debuted last week. Interdimensional travel? Check. References to MK-ULTRA, the CIA's illegal mind control program? Check. Flesh interfaces??? Shockingly, check.
And to make things even weirder, the person—or people—behind 9M9H9E9 announced their departure Sunday night, sharing one final post that brought their much-followed journey to an end.
"I stand and brush myself off. There is something at the end of the tunnel waiting for me. Good or evil, it will be an answer. A resolution. An end. I walk into the dark."
Flesh interface? Screenshot: YouTube/Netflix
Conspiracy theorist or not, the timing of 9M9H9E9's exit is undeniably curious. Why leave as soon as as "Stranger Things" begins?
Since April, the universe of 9M9H9E9 has expanded, and a growing legion of nearly 7,000 users now frequents a subreddit called "The Interface Series" to share theories, artwork, related texts, and their own fanfiction. Even Motherboard's science fiction hub Terraform joined in, publishing an original feature by 9M9H9E9 titled "The Flesh Interface."
For many, the subreddit isn't just an online forum—it's a community where people can be comfortably creative, psychotic, and creatively psychotic. The sub is civil and well-moderated, and it's clear that users have invested a lot of time and effort into making it a safe place for discourse and imagination. But as one user put it, if they were a mod, they'd "probably raze this place to the fucking ground" upon discovering it was all a marketing ploy.
"Yes, there are similarities, but it's only surface ones. Stranger Things even mentions Stephen King in Episode 6. By that reference they admit that it is not new literary territory. They seemed to have borrowed more from King & Spielberg in their story. They have the LSD and MKULTRA, telekinesis & telepathy," one of the subreddit's mods, GabbiKat, told me in a private message.
"MHE [9M9H9E9] and I even had a laugh about it, neither of us having watched or heard of the story until it came out. We'd been planning the ending for a few weeks, going back and forth on how to end it, and I enjoyed seeing my idea and his become the ending we now have."
Netflix's cerebral sci-fi drama stars cult weirdo icon Winona Ryder, and is set in 1980s Hawkins, Indiana—a fictional town invented by the show's directors, twin brothers Matt and Ross Duffer. And while its parallels to 9M9H9E9 lore are enough to raise eyebrows and suspicions, the series unabashedly riffs off of other more famous narratives, such as Stephen King's Firestarter and It, and even the campy feel of E.T.. The directors have made no qualms about their heavy-handed homages, and told Vulture the mysterious government experiments of the Cold War era were their primary font of inspiration.
Where 9M9H9E9 forays into cosmic rifts and psychedelic epiphanies, the plotline of "Stranger Things" focuses of telekinesis and telepathy. "MHE wrote more along biblical lines, strange dimensions, segmentation, Nazi experiments, and Mother (who is not a weird monster, but instead some form of a demigod), and Q," GabbiKat added.
It's also important to note that production of "Stranger Things" began back in 2015, and if this were truly a viral marketing campaign, it failed to promote anything other than a lively, albeit niche, internet community.
However, in all fairness, here's an alternate theory: The author of 9M9H9E9 was, or still is, a writer for "Stranger Things," and the anonymous fiction is their secret side project. "The Interface Series" is the stuff that fell on the cutting room floor. (Probably not, but on the internet, do you ever really know?)
I reached out to Netflix regarding the show's connection to the Reddit posts, but had not heard back at the time of this story's publication.
Regardless, the haunting reign of 9M9H9E9 is over for now, and all that remains is some seriously great fiction. According to GabbiKat, the subreddit doesn't appear to be going anywhere, though some of its moderators have chosen to take a break from the community now that 9M9H9E9 has passed into the beyond.
"There is a knock on the door. I wait. The knob turns, and the door opens. This is it, the beginning," he wrote.
"I walk into the light."Inflation has a subtle and quite way of eroding your purchasing power. The process can unfold slowly and before you know it you suddenly wake up realizing your paycheck no longer stretches so far. This is happening across the US in many ways. Those on very tight budgets, especially those now on food stamps are feeling the pinch of higher food costs. Middle class Americans seeking to send their kids to college realize that it might be difficult to do so without going into deep student debt. Inflation as measured by the CPI understates the real change in purchasing power because our system is flooded with massive levels of debt. Access to debt is viewed as a vector in which you can pretend to have money and spend on things you are unable to afford. Yet debt and wealth are not the same. Inflation is creeping into the system and people are feeling it.
Change in prices
As household incomes have gone flat over the last year, the cost of many items has actually gone up:
The fastest rising sector is medical care cost. Do you think this is going to be an issue given the large number of baby boomers now retiring and requiring more medical care? Do you think this is going to put a strain on those Social Security checks indexed to the CPI? Of course it is. Shelter went up by 2.2 percent over the last 12 months largely by the big push in rental prices and because banks are stunting the inventory available on the market. Again, if incomes are stagnant, all this means is more disposable income is now going to these sectors.
Food prices have also gone up by 1.8 percent over the last year and for the 47.7 million Americans on food stamps you can rest assured this is being felt. This is the slow eroding impact inflation has on your purchasing power. Americans feel poorer because they actually are. The Fed is purposely trying to devalue the dollar and create a low wage system where our nationwide debts are cheaply funded by low interest rates. The Fed is selecting winners and losers. This is no shock. Yet the Fed’s balance sheet is still near $3 trillion. Will they ever unload these items onto the market?
You’ll notice the large purchases done by the Fed starting in 2008. Not much has changed here. The Fed is the only player in town when it comes to mortgage backed securities. The Fed is keeping rates near zero to keep interest payments low but also to allow banks to unload their inflated assets onto the market at higher prices. Of course the public in order to compete will need to leverage itself with low rate mortgage but pay a much higher sticker price.
We are addicted to debt. That is clear. The Fed is creating a closed feedback loop here where the entire market now depends on its large action to keep rates low. They are now viewed as a permanent player in these sectors. You should not be surprised that the sectors being hit heaviest with price increases are those with maximum debt leverage. Think of housing and college. It comes as no surprise that these sectors see big price volatility. Housing has boomed, busted, and is now moving up again with the Fed keeping rates artificially low. Yet incomes are back to levels last seen in the 1990s. Tuition is rising across the nation in line with access to college debt. The large players in both markets are banks intertwined with the Fed.
Inflation is clearly here even as measured by the BLS data. Yet incomes are stagnant suggesting that people are seeing a real measurable decrease in the standard of living. The fiscal cliff is merely another method of funding spending with money we don’t have (more debt). It is part of human nature to want it all as quickly as possible without paying for it. Unfortunately the bill always comes due and many seem perfectly fine with passing the bill to future generations.
If you enjoyed this post click here to subscribe to a complete feed and stay up to date with today’s challenging market!When the game starts, you're alone in a bunker. You'd cross off another day on the calendar and start to check your gear. You prepare to leave for the nearest town; you strap on your gas mask and pull up your hood. The green light on your oxygen gauge tells you that you'll be able to survive in the airless environment outside. The world was brought to a complete standstill when the air started dissipating.
Most didn't know what was happening before it was too late. It wasn't how humanity had figured it would end. All in all, it was a very silent, quick affair without the big explosions or the screaming masses fleeing. In fact, no one could have imagined a quieter apocalypse. People simply fell where they stood or sat at the time. There wasn't time to evacuate, and where would have people gone anyway? Those who survived were the people who had planned ahead, who had planned for the impossible. Their reward was solitude on a lifeless, airless planet. But at least there's plenty of time to think and reflect.
The end happened so quickly that the destruction was limited. You have entire cities open to exploration and treasure hunting. Only... you have to watch your air gauge. The air gauge itself is on your suit/clothes and not on your UI, so you have to look down to see it. If you forget it, you might end up fucked unless you can somehow find air.
You move around empty schoolyards, apartment buildings, and skyscrapers. The lack of air preserved the billions of bodies worldwide relatively longer than they otherwise would have been, and now the empty planet is a mausoleum of dried up human husks littering streets and buildings.
You'd have to scavenge for stuff to improve your gear so you could stay out longer. Through exploring, you might find other safe bunkers and you'll be able to move more freely. Then there would be enemies. What would they be? Something that doesn't require air, which could stalk you and make you feel watched. A less open threat that might attack when you least suspect it. And would there be others?
Maybe you'd have to find them first. Would you even go armed? No air would mean no sound, so all you'd have was the clicking of the gas mask and maybe whatever contemporary band you managed to put on that banged up, scavenged iPod you managed to find in the pocket of a body near the airport terminal. You'd have to consider getting fuel for the generator in your safehouse, as well.
Your only contact with other people would be someone who you talk to frequently over what's left of the internet or some old radio-type thing. You've known them for years, but have never met them in person. They're your only company in an otherwise dead world, and they're holed up somewhere else, exactly like you.
One day, they stop signing in/going on the air and you decide to find out what happened to them. You only have a faint idea where their bunker is and you know you wouldn't have enough air to get there in one stretch. That's where the game really begins. Do you make an effort to find them or what happened to them, or do you go on with your life, salvaging, exploring, and listening to your own breathing as you make your way through the still graveyard of humanity?
Video Version:inviZimals™ turns your PS Vita® system into a virtual creature hunter that lets you hunt and capture the monsters living in the world around you. Follow the clues as you track them around the world. After they’re captured, battle your inviZimals against your friends or train them to become stronger. You’ve never seen a game quite like this.
Capture – Use a wide range of techniques to capture them in your world: yell into the microphone to scare them, slap your hand down to trap them or shoot them from the sky.
Battle - Pit your inviZimals™ against the computer or enjoy multiplayer fights with friends.
Evolve – Learn new attacks and power up so you can level up your monster.
inviZimals™ turns your PS Vita system into a virtual creature hunter that lets you hunt and capture the monsters living in the world around you. Follow the clues as you track them around the world. After they’re captured, battle your inviZimals against your friends or train them to become stronger. You’ve never seen a game quite like this. Capture – Use a wide range of techniques to capture them in your world: yell into the microphone to scare them, slap your hand down to trap them or shoot them from the sky.
Battle - Pit your inviZimals™ against the computer or enjoy multiplayer fights with friends.
Evolve – Learn new attacks and power up so you can level up your monster.
inviZimals™ turns your PS Vita system into a virtual creature hunter that lets you hunt and capture the monsters living in the world around you. Follow the clues as you track them around the world. After they’re captured, battle your inviZimals against your friends or train them to become stronger. You’ve never seen a game quite like this. Capture – Use a wide range of techniques to capture them in your world: yell into the microphone to scare them, slap your hand down to trap them or shoot them from the sky.
Battle - Pit your inviZimals™ against the computer or enjoy multiplayer fights with friends.
Evolve – Learn new attacks and power up so you can level up your monster.
inviZimals™ turns your PS Vita system into a virtual creature hunter that lets you hunt and capture the monsters living in the world around you. Follow the clues as you track them around the world. After they’re captured, battle your inviZimals against your friends or train them to become stronger. You’ve never seen a game quite like this. Capture – Use a wide range of techniques to capture them in your world: yell into the microphone to scare them, slap your hand down to trap them or shoot them from the sky.
Battle - Pit your inviZimals™ against the computer or enjoy multiplayer fights with friends.
Evolve – Learn new attacks and power up so you can level up your monster.BAGHDAD, July 29 -- Violent clashes continued for a second day Wednesday between Iraqi troops and members of an Iranian opposition group whose camp the Iraqis stormed Tuesday, presenting the first major dilemma for the U.S. government since Iraq proclaimed its sovereignty a month ago.
At least eight Iranians have been killed and 400 wounded since Tuesday, when hundreds of Iraqi police and soldiers in riot gear plowed into Camp Ashraf, northeast of Baghdad, using Humvees donated by the U.S. military, according to group leaders and Abdul Nasir al-Mahdawi, the governor of Diyala province.
Camp residents described the day's events as a massacre and the aftermath as a tense stalemate.
Behzad Saffari, a leader of the Mujaheddin-e Khalq, or MEK, said that Iraqi troops were preventing gravely injured people from being taken to hospitals outside the group's camp and that residents feared soldiers would storm their living quarters.
"We have 1,000 women," he said. "This is our main concern now."
The raid, ordered by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, coincided with an unannounced visit by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who left Iraq on Wednesday.
In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton described the raid as a legitimate act by a sovereign nation. "Although the U.S. government remains engaged and concerned about this issue, it is a matter for the government of Iraq to resolve in accordance with its laws," she said.
Clinton said Iraq had given assurances that camp residents would be treated humanely and would not be relocated anywhere they would have a well-founded fear of persecution. She urged the Iraqis to "show restraint."
U.S. officials are deeply concerned about the reports of violence and have been monitoring the situation using camera-equipped unmanned aircraft, said an official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "We're asking the Iraqis questions," the official said. "Sometimes they answer, sometimes they don't."
A contingent of U.S. soldiers based outside Ashraf have been watching but have declined to intervene, residents said.
The raid and its aftermath represent a conundrum for U.S. officials. Some say they feel obligated to the MEK because its members have provided information about Iran's nuclear program and because American officials vowed to protect them after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. But condemning this week's events could be seen as an affront to Maliki's government just as U.S. officials are talking up Iraq's sovereignty, proclaimed June 30 when American troops withdrew from cities.
The stated goal of the Ashraf operation was to set up an Iraqi police station inside the camp, a move Iraq has described as the first step toward evicting the more than 3,000 residents.The glimpses we caught of Boston Dynamics' astounding Handle robot earlier this month didn't tell even half the story.
The cutting-edge robotics company officially unveiled the 6.5-foot-tall Handle on Monday, weeks after a stunning, yet brief, video of it was leaked during a conference early this month.
Now we have the official video and confirmation that Handle brings together everything we love and fear about robots.
SEE ALSO: I moved this robot hand by flexing my arm
Standing full height, Handle looks like what car manufacturing robots might create if asked to build a human. It has wheels for feet and two arms attached to the hip area and extend grotesquely behind it (or is that its front?). Its hands, such as they are, are rubber nubs that can be swapped out for a variety of grabbers. There's a torso and chest, but no head.
It's also incredibly agile and athletic. In the video, it rolls over wildly uneven surfaces, turns sharply and even jumps 4 feet vertically while rolling forward at up to 9 miles an hour. At one point Handle appears to do crunches while its nub hands rest on an invisible surface. It's like a mechanical Olympian.
Not a lot of humans can jump like that. Image: boston dynamics
Handle is also quite strong, casually picking up from behind its back a crate filled with 100 pounds of weights and rolling away.
It also handles snow, ice and even a flight of stairs.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Handle is that, as Boston Dynamics notes in the video description, with just 10 actuator joints, it's less complex than most of their previous biped and quadruped robots and more energy efficient, going about 15 miles on a single charge.
A robot like this could handle virtually any terrain and could provide potentially life-saving support in search and rescue efforts. It might even make a good home companion if you could afford it (Boston Robotics rarely commercializes its robots).
That's awesome, but we should all keep in mind: Handle is coming for all of us.With many franchise restaurants throughout Japan, Gyndon Beef bowl 牛丼 remains one of the best and most affordable comfort food options for budget travelers in Japan. Typical price of a regular size Gyndon Beef Bowl is about $2.50 to $3.50 USD, the value far exceeds any other cuisine in Japan. Many of the restaurants open 24 hour a day in urban areas in Japan and they are everywhere near train/subway stations, this makes it a great option for a quick bite any time of the day. Typical Beef Bowl recipe consists of thinly sliced Beef braised in sweet soy sauce, cooked to perfection with onion over steamed rice. I am dedicating this blog article to the best and my favorite franchise Beef Bowl restaurants in Tokyo Japan, such as Yoshinoya 吉野家, Matsuya 松屋, Sukiya すき屋, Nakau なか卯 and Tokyo Chikara Meshi 東京チカラめし, etc.
Best and cheapest food in Japan: Beef Bowl Japanese Gyudon
- To read about my recommendation for the best food other than Ramen and Sushi in Japan, visit: Best Food in Tokyo Japan
- To read about my Kobe Beef in Kobe 2016 Experience, visit: Kobe Beef in Kobe 2016
- To read about my Wagyu Experiences and list of best Wagyu and Kobe Beef restaurants in Tokyo, visit: Wagyu Japanese Beef
A typical set up of a Gyndon Beef Bowl restaurant in an urban setting consists of counter seats with staff preparing meals for you in the middle. After purchasing meal ticket from the automatic vending machine, present the ticket to the staff and the meal will be served within a couple of minutes.
Best place to observe real Japanese Salary Man in Japan is at a Gyndon Beef Bowl restaurant
Delicious, fast and inexpensive are the common standards of the Gyndon Beef Bowl restaurants in Japan. This is the best place the observe the efficiency of how "fast food" restaurant is run in Japan.
Every Japanese Salary Man is minding their own business in Beef Bowl restaurants
MATSUYA GYUDON BEEF BOWL RESTAURANT
Sample Location:
Phone: +81 3-5772-5114
Hours: Open 24 hours
松屋 六本木4丁目店
〒106-0032六本木4-11-11
Matsuya remains my favorite Gyndon Beef Bowl restaurant during my travel in Japan. I remember my very first time I had Matsuya Gyndon Beef Bowl in 2001 in Tokyo, where the restaurant was next to the hotel I stayed at. There was a subtle difference in taste between Yoshinoya Gyndon Beef Bowl in terms of the balance of saltiness and sweetness of the beef stew. In my opinion the taste of Matsuya Gyudon Beef Bowl had a lighter flavor and a more refreshing sweetness. The saltiness of the soy sauce did not stand out as much when compared to Yoshinoya flavor.
Late night dinner at Matsuya in Roppongi area in Tokyo
Self service set up to keep the cost down, Matsuya is considered to be the cheapest among all major Gyudon Beef Bowl franchise chains.
Huge selection of condiments and dressing for the Beef Bowl and optional salad
This particular Matsuya restaurants serves their signature Premium Gyu Meshi Beef Bowl. The Beef is extra tender when compared to the ordinary Beef Bowl selection at other locations. Each order of Beef Bowl comes with complimentary Miso soup and optional spice shaker condiment in wooden container.
Matsuya Premium Gyudon Beef Bowl with complimentary Miso soup
YOSHINOYA
GYUDON BEEF BOWL RESTAURANT
Sample Location:
Phone: +81 3-5909-7565
Hours: 7:30AM–8PM
Yoshinoya franchise remains the biggest and the most influential Gyndon Beef Bowl in Japan and throughout the world. Yoshinoya branding is so popular that they there is a PlayStation game made for simulation of operating Yoshinoya restaurants. The flavor of the the Beef stew has a more robust flavor when compared with Matsuya. While having equal level of Umami, I feel saltiness of Yoshinoya Beef Bowl stands out more than Matsuya.
Yoshinoya Beef Bowl franchise dominates Beef Bowl business in Japan
I was a bit surprised to see Yoshinoya food being served in Japan Airline flight from Kansai International Airport to Los Angeles in October 2016. I realized that Yoshinoya brand is perhaps the symbol for Beef Bowl and it is one of the most satisfying choices of breakfast in Japan.
One of the perks of flying with Japan Airline or All Nippon is the great taste of their in-flight meals
Air Yoshinoya served in Japan Airline flights had no compromise in taste. Egg sauce, spice condiment and benishoga red gingers were options to "beef up" the Beef Bowl. Potato/Macaroni salad and almond tofu were great appetizer and dessert to accompany the best soul food breakfast from Japan.
Japan Airline served Yoshinoya Beef Bowl during the flight from Kansai Osaka to Los Angeles USA
In Japan, Yoshinoya and Matsuya are often being compared with each other. I ranked Yoshinoya slightly below Matsuya simply because there are plenty of Yoshinoya franchise restaurants in the greater Los Angeles area. I would rather enjoy the special flavor only offered at Matsuya while traveling in Japan.
Two major Gyudon Beef Bowl franchise competing with each other in Sapporo Hokkaido
SUKIYA
GYUDON BEEF BOWL RESTAURANT
Sample Location:
Phone: +81 120-498-007
Hours: Open 24 hours
Sukiya is another popular restaurant chain that serves great Gyudon Beef Bowl. Sukiya is known to offer variety of toppings and their creative dishes unique to their franchise. To my taste buds, the flavor has an even more robust saltiness when compared to other competitors. I believe the taste would be very suitable for people from North America, as I believe that people from the US prefer strong soy sauce flavor in their food.
Typical set meal at Sukiya: mini size Gyudon Beef Bowl, raw egg, and pork Miso soup for about $3 USD
TOKYO CHIKARA MESHI
GRILLED BEEF BOWL RESTAURANT
Sample Location:
Phone: +81 80-5986-4575
Hours: 5AM–3AM
Tokyo Chikara Meshi Grilled Beef is slightly different from other rival Gyudon Beef Bowl restaurants. In terms of the meat they serve, the slices are thicker but equally succulent. Chikara Meshi beef is marinated in special sauce and grilled i
nstead of being cooked in a stew like other competitors. I remember the grilled/marinated beef had a good balance of saltiness and sweetness to it, no overpowering flavor in their recipe made the meal very enjoyable even as breakfast.
Generous cuts of grilled beef, marinated to perfection at Tokyo Chikara Meshi restaurant
Thin slice Korean Kalbi-like beef grilled to perfection over perfectly cooked rice in Japanese standard. I recommend adding some of their chili sauce to kick it up a notch.
The meat texture stands out when comparing Tokyo Chikara Meshi to its competitors
NAKAU
GYUDON BEEF BOWL RESTAURANT
Sample Location:
Phone: +81 3-6833-8824
Nakau franchise is less well known when compared to its competitors, however, Nakau is worth a try because of their special flavor in their Wafu 和風 (Traditional Japanese) style/flavor Gyudon Beef Bowl. Topped with green opinion, Shiitake mushroom and Shirataki noodles, the complexity of Gyudon Beef Bowl flavor easily exceeds fast food standard.
Wafu Japanese flavor adds to the complexity of the taste of Nakau Gyudon Beef Bowl
I had the opportunity to try Nakau Wafu Gyudon Beef Bowl in 2010, I was quite impressed with the flavor and the different toppings. I am not quite sure if they still serve Shiitake mushroom anymore but I still recommend trying Nakau Wafu Gyudon Beef Bowl after travelers have tried other "ordinary' Beef Bowls at other restaurants. Nakau is also known for their famous Kyoto style Udon soup that has a very aromatic dashi soup base; the same dashi is likely to be used in their Wafu Beef Bowl stew.
Mushroom, scallion and Shirataki noodles were great ingredients for the Wafu Gyudon Beef Bowl
TYPICAL OPTIONAL UPGRADE FOR YOUR BEEF BOWLS
When in Rome, do as the Romans do. After years of traveling in Japan and eating Beef Bowls in counter seats, I have learned a few items that local customers often order to "beef up" their Gyudon.
***Onsen Tamago Soft Boil/RunnyEgg
One of the most popular and best way of eating Gyudon Beef Bowl is to crack an egg on top of it, entirely raw or runny style of egg. Only the freshest egg can be eaten this way in Japan and there is no weird or unpleasant taste to the raw egg added to the Beef Bowl. The mixture of egg yolk and egg white add to the Umami flavor and decrease the pungent saltiness. This upgrade typically cost about 60 to 100 yen, just remember to pre-order on the meal ticket vending machine.
Eat like a local! crack an Onsen Tamago runny egg on top of your Gyudon Beef Bowl
The typical way of eating Gyudon Beef Bowl with a raw/runny egg is to crack the egg into a bowl and then pour the egg on top of the beef. Break the egg yolk and mix it with beef and rice with chopsticks.
Break open the egg yolk and mix it well with the beef and rice before enjoy your Gyudon Beef Bowl, Japanese style
***Tonjiru Pork Miso Soup
Typical Gyudon Beef Bowl is served with regular plain Miso soup, but almost all franchise restaurants offer pork Miso soup on their menu to better satisfy their pork loving customers. Thin slice pork belly meat and pork bone soup was not heavy for the stomach and had no gamey taste, which makes it a good a option for breakfast.
Pork Miso soup is a great upgrade to your Gyudon Beef Bowl meal
SPECIAL RECOMMENDATIONS
*Kitsuneya Tsukiji Tokyo - I had it in 2007, before Tsukiji was packed with tourist due to Japan's VISA restriction lift. Good taste but I would not recommend this place due to the likely long wait in line. They are also known for Horumon ホルモン
Bowl (stew intestine) but intestine cuisine is not suitable for everyone.
Tsukiji Kitsuneya Beef bowel less fatty cuts of meat in their strong flavor stew. Worth a try if you want to try more gourmet beef bowl in Tokyo
*Tokyo Gyudon Gyu no Chikara - this place has been on my to-eat list for many years, I have not had a chance to try it yet.
*Yoshinoya Wagyu Beef Bowl at very selected locations - wait until I discover their secret location, I will write an article about it.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE GYUDON BEEF BOWL IN JAPAN???Explained: The Tesla Powerwall and what it means for Australia's energy market
Updated
The Powerwall, a lithium-ion battery system designed to store electricity generated from rooftop solar panels, is widely considered to be a game-changer for the electricity industry. 7.30 has asked consumer group Choice to crunch the numbers. Here's what they found.
What is the Tesla Powerwall?
While the concept of a home battery storage system is not new to Australians, the Tesla Powerwall unit has been highly anticipated.
The Powerwall is a 7 kilowatt hour (kWh) lithium-ion-battery system that stores electricity generated from rooftop solar panels (or PV panels) during the day so that electricity can be used at night during the peak-usage times.
The system has attracted a cult-like following in recent months after the announcement that Australia would be one of the first countries to have access to it.
The first installations of the Tesla Powerwall are now underway and have a 10-year warranty period.
How does it work?
The battery has a daily cycle, meaning it is designed to charge and discharge each day.
The efficiency of the battery is 92 per cent, so although it has a 7kWh capacity, the Powerwall's working capacity is more like 6.4kWh.
Tesla also has a 10kWh weekly cycle version intended for back-up applications, but it is the 7kWh version you will see in most home installations.
People who already have solar panels will be able to use their own power rather than exporting it to "the grid" — the energy distribution network that carries electricity from power stations to homes and businesses.
One of the Australian providers of the Powerwall, Natural Solar, says that there are only two inverters currently on the market which are compatible with the Powerwall, so most existing solar panel owners will need to obtain a new inverter.
If you do not already have solar panels, the Powerwall can be purchased as part of a complete system that includes solar panels and an inverter.
You will need a solar array large enough to power both your home and charge the Powerwall — for most homes that would mean at least a 4kWh array.
How much does it cost?
If you already have solar panels, the Powerwall and a compatible inverter will cost you between $12,000 and $12,500 depending on which inverter you choose.
Energy companies are selling Powerwall packages for between $13,990 and $16,500 (GST inclusive) and with consideration to rebates for small-scale technology certificates (STCs).
Is the Powerwall big enough to take my house off the grid?
It depends on your energy needs and the number of people in living in your household, but a 7kWh battery is not going to be enough to make most households independent of the electricity grid.
It is possible to install two or more battery units to increase your storage capacity.
So what does this mean for the grid?
The cost of energy has consistently rated as the top concern for Australian consumers according to leading consumer advocacy group Choice.
The latest report shows that almost two-thirds of Australians want to be self-sufficient in meeting their energy needs and while battery systems will not give complete independence for most consumers, it does offer a bit more control.
Costs of battery storage systems have been falling at a rapid rate and forecasts are for this trend to continue as more and more households adopt them. It is expected that prices will halve again within the next five years.
Solar panels have also gotten cheaper, with the Climate Council reporting a 75 per cent drop in price over the past five years.
With the global market for solar panels and battery storage expected to grow tenfold by 2020, the demand for battery systems like the Powerwall should have flow-on effects on prices as economies of scale kick in.
Even if consumers were able to make themselves independent of the electricity grid, they may benefit from selling their electricity back to it rather than storing it.
Companies such as Reposit, an ACT-based start-up, are using the grid's infrastructure to allow people to trade their energy directly on the wholesale market, effectively acting like a mini power station in everybody's backyard.
If there was a wholesale
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was alone.
That was exactly one year ago. The day my life changed forever. The day that separated things into “before,” and “after.”
Today was very regular. I slept in. I went to class. I ate lunch and chatted with my roommate. I called my mom and we didn’t talk about Crohn’s at all. I got a postcard in the mail from my best friend, Kristen, who remembers my snow cone order to this day. I watched half of Jurassic Park with my boyfriend, and then I did my homework.
I’m still sick. I will always be sick. But I’m not alone. I’ve learned that over this past year. As I type this, my friends are waiting for me in the next room. We’re playing board games and talking about nothing important. I didn’t make any decisions today that will affect the rest of my life. I just lived. I know these aren’t the kind of days that we remember. We don’t make average days into anniversaries. But still, I’d like to say that this moment is important. I’m happy. I’m surrounded by people I love. And I don’t want to keep them waiting one second longer.
So thanks for celebrating this with me.If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Michael Vick should be blushing. The former No. 1 pick in the NFL draft is one of the most dynamic players in NFL history, and plenty of quarterbacks over the past decade have tried to replicate his athletic style that he pioneered.
On the field, Vick is remembered for his six mostly electrifying seasons with the Atlanta Falcons, from 2001–06. During that time, he led the Falcons to the 2004 NFC Championship Game—only the second conference championship game in franchise history—and he went to three Pro Bowls. But off the field, of course, Vick was embroiled in a dogfighting scandal that sent him to prison for nearly two years and stalled his football career in his prime.
As the Falcons prepare to play in Super Bowl LI on Sunday, I caught up with Vick via phone conversation. With his playing days behind him, Vick has become an ardent Falcons fan, and he was on hand for the divisional win over the Seahawks. In our conversation, Vick was thoughtful and forthcoming about his relationship with Matt Ryan, regrets from his post-conviction playing career, athlete protests and his plans for the future.
Jonathan Jones: How excited are you for your former team finally reaching the Super Bowl?
Michael Vick: Man, I’m pumped to see this franchise move this far from the past four or five or six years where it’s been some up-and-down years, and they’ve been able to get some good runs and it’s been some not-so-good runs. They were able to put it all together. They kind of felt off the radar throughout the season and it kind of looked like the Atlanta Falcons team of the last three or four years and you forgot about them, then they surged onto the scene at the end. They got hot, put on a great performance in the playoffs and took advantage of the homefield opportunities. I’m pumped for them, man. I’m excited as a fan, not only for the franchise but to see some good football.
JJ: What are your feelings about Atlanta the city, and what a win for the team would mean for the city and the people of Atlanta?
MV: Just a championship within itself brings jubilation to a franchise and a city. When you don’t have a championship, that’s all you yearn for. To be in a situation where you have a chance to do that is a blessing. To be able to pull it off is even more of a blessing. I think everybody has their fingers crossed hoping for the best.
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JJ: How much time do you spend in Atlanta?
MV: I’m usually in Atlanta five or six times, maybe more, a year. Depends on if it’s business or if there’s something going on. I’m always flying through there and connecting so I feel the relationship and connection with the fans all the time. The love is still there. Very good people, and people who just work extremely hard and believe in what they believe in and love the Falcons.
JJ: When you went there as the Eagles quarterback, you weren’t that well-received.
MV: Yeah it wasn’t fun (laughs).
JJ: How do you go from being booed as mercilessly as you were in 2009 to all the love you get at the airport and the love you got a few weeks ago at halftime of the regular season finale at the Georgia Dome?
MV: I don’t think it was personal when I was getting booed. It was booing the opposition. I think if it was maybe Roddy White and he was playing for the Buccaneers if he left here… you’re going to get booed when you’re playing the opposing team. And the story behind my situation, it was nothing personal. Everybody just has to grow from that. It was tough, man. It was weird and it was always strange to be on the other side playing against them. Even though we lost to them both times we played against them, it was never personal like, “Man I wish we would have beat Atlanta just to throw it back in their face.” It was never that. I was more so disappointed as a competitor not winning the game for the Eagles, as opposed to losing against the Falcons.
JJ: If things had turned out differently for you, do you think the Falcons would have gone on a run like this in the late 2000s? Early ’10s? Were you guys setting up for one of those runs before ’07?
MV: I think everything happened in due time. When I finished up I had completed six seasons. Going into my seventh season we had a new coach. We were trying to put together all the pieces of the puzzle together and we were trying to put on a run. In the NFL, for some teams it takes time. Look at this team. Look at how long Matt Ryan and Julio have been there and working together and grinding it out. It took eight or nine years to get there. You never know when your run is going to come. It’s all about building.
JJ: I came across a picture the other day of you and Cam Newton about a week or two ago. What’s it like knowing that you spawned a generation of quarterbacks?
MV: Man, it’s great. When I think back on my story and what I wanted to do as a kid, it was just to be drafted in whatever round I could be drafted in and make the most of that opportunity. The city of Atlanta, the Atlanta Falcons organization believed in me as a young starter at the age of 22, and believed in my skillset. Dan Reeves believed in me. Arthur Blank believed in me. They made that decision together to start me as a 22-year-old sophomore quarterback. I took advantage of that opportunity and took advantage of my skillset. That skillset allowed me to become one of the most polarizing figures in sports in terms of being a pioneer of the position, revolutionizing the position, and inspiring a lot of kids. Now we’ve got that style of play everywhere. Anytime I watch kids, whether it’s in high school, college or the NFL playing the way I played, I know why they’re doing it. It’s great. I’m just glad it’s accepted. It’s a part of the game now, and it’s very hard to defend now. It’s won Super Bowls.
JJ: Imagine if another Michael Vick had come around and you, Michael Vick, are coming up now. Our offensive schemes are more advanced. We know the zone-read better. We have more run-pass options. Could you imagine being even more successful if you had these kinds of schemes?
MV: Absolutely. I had to grow and develop as a quarterback in my skillset. And I had to run a pro-style offense even though I was gifted enough to run a spread offense, the type of offense that they’re running today. It just wasn’t my time. It just wasn’t my era. It took for me to go through my phases in the game, my years in the game, and integrate the Wildcat into our offense in 2006, the year I ran for 1,000 yards. Then it became a commodity. You had to have the right kind of quarterback, and those guys started coming out and the Wildcat was being ran. Years later, you’ve got Russell Wilson winning a Super Bowl. You’ve got Cam Newton in a Super Bowl. That style of play took effect. If I was able to run it, it would have been scary. It wasn’t meant for me, because the year I ran it for the first time, I ran for 1,000 yards. Now who knows what would have happened in ’07, but I just didn’t make it that far. Then I didn’t step on the field as a full-time starter until three years later, and then I went from the age of 27 to the age of 30, and you know what happens as time goes on.
JJ: I’m sure you had to run through the what-ifs. Do you still play the what-ifs? You lost those three years of your life.
MV: Sometimes I do, but very rarely. I like to live life forward not backwards. I think the things you dwell on and hold grudges versus yourself, it creates a certain level of stress. I want to live for a long time, so I try to live a stress-free life and try to be as vibrant as I can every day.
JJ: You mentioned Arthur Blank earlier. I know when you were there, a lot of people referred to your relationship with him as a father-son type of relationship. What kind of work did it take to rebuild and repair that relationship after your time in prison?
MV: It just took an open line of communication. I was two years older when I came home and more mature. Getting a better understanding of what life was about really helped me in terms of my communication with him. He only wanted the best for me, always allowed me every opportunity to walk into his office every day and express concerns or needs. The door was always open, but what it took to rebuild that was just time. Arthur knows the type of person I am deep down inside, and he knows my background and where I come from. So I think putting all that together, he was able to create an assumption of how to handle me, and he was deadly accurate with it. Still to this day he knows the right questions to ask of me. I’m very appreciative of the friendship. It goes a long way.
JJ: When I talked to Matt Ryan after the NFC Championship Game, he told me you’ve been a big supporter of his for a long time. How have you encouraged him over the years?
MV: Absolutely. Well I’ve always felt like Matt was going to be one of the top quarterbacks in the game. Guys have their top fives and top 10. Matt was always somewhere in my top five. You’ve got your guys—the Roethlisbergers and Rodgerses—guys who had been doing it a little longer. And he was always on the cusp, and I always felt he was the guy who could get them over the hump. He was a long-term, franchise quarterback. Everything he did, year-in and year-out, he looked good doing it. I’m a big fan of quarterback play. He just happened to be playing for one of the teams that I had a lot of respect for. And he beat me twice. So I got to respect it.
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JJ: How did you know that they drafted him in 2008 when you were locked up? How were you able to keep up with the team?
MV: I always watched ESPN when I was in Leavenworth [federal prison]. They were always talking about what was going on and current events in sports. In 2008 I was very anxious to see what would happen. A couple representatives from the Falcons had come out to see me. I was always keeping hope alive that maybe I could return and finish what I started, but I always knew that door would close and a new chapter would open for the Atlanta Falcons. When they drafted Matt when I was prison, I was a little shocked. Stunned. A little bitter. A little salty. But I was able to get over it quick because I understood the circumstances.
JJ: Did you have a heads up before draft night or did you find out on ESPN?
MV: Oh no, not at all. I found out through the draft watching it. I walked upstairs late when they were watching the draft and somebody was like, ‘You know who the Atlanta Falcons drafted?’ I was like who? They said Matt Ryan. And you know there was a lot of talk about them selecting a quarterback, and you never know what’s going to happen until you see it actually happen. When they did, I was a little stunned. I was like I’ll be playing for another team if given the opportunity.
JJ: What did you do that night? Was it a punch-the-wall kind of thing or did you just go sit alone and think on it?
MV: It was just very hurtful. The same day it was my mother’s birthday and I lost my grandmother on the same day. [Caletha Vick had a stroke that day and died later in the week. Vick was not be allowed to attend the funeral.] It was a very rough day mentally, emotionally and also spiritually. You start to question certain things. But I could only question so much because I knew the reason why I was at where I was at. Going against my core principles and what I was taught in life, and not being loyal to certain people and not being honest.
JJ: After the shock of it wears off and you realize you’re not going to be an Atlanta Falcon, when was that?
MV: Right after the announcement was made. And I knew that my life was going to take a different turn. I knew trying to get back into the NFL wasn’t going to be in the same locker room. It wasn’t going to be in the same city or the guys that I had grown to love over a six-year time span. It wasn’t going to be with the people in that organization that I had gotten to know who was pulling for me to be the best that I could be. It was a very tough moment. I like to think about it now because I was able to get through it with a lot of gratitude and humility. I had to accept what had been thrown my way. I thought it was a good situation for that franchise to exhale and say OK we’re going in a different direction. It was a great moment, in a sense.
JJ: Can you imagine the kind of spot Matt was in, having to follow up you in Atlanta?
MV: And that’s why I’ve pulled for Matt from Day One. He can breathe life back into the city, as well as with other guys surrounding him. Yeah it took years of building, but that’s what it takes in the NFL. He was very persistent in the process of being great, and maybe proving a lot of people wrong—not even proving them wrong, but gaining respect. That’s what it’s all about.
JJ: After what was done was done, is there anything that you wish you could play back? Any regrets from your days with the Eagles, Steelers or Jets, maybe even yesterday?
MV: I wish I had been more assertive in being more consistent in terms of my own play-calling. I know there were times where I probably could have had that opportunity, but things were so good, I just wanted to trust my coaches. But sometimes you’ve got to trust yourself out on the field. When I played, I think there were times when I pulled back the reins and should have been more accessible to my beliefs in football and what I saw and knew. I’m pretty sure Andy Reid would have allowed me to call my own plays or do some things that I may have wanted to do. But I totally trusted and believed in him. I learned so much from him. But it would have been a big help. So now I feel like I have to take it out in coaching at some point. I have a lot to give back.
JJ: Why didn’t you speak up then? Were you trying to play the good soldier role?
MV: I just liked what we were doing. I knew Andy trusted me, and he wanted to get a ring so bad for me, for Philadelphia. He was very creative with (then-offensive coordinator) Marty Mornhinweg. Everything they put on paper—this concept, this play or that play—I liked. I couldn’t even pick out a game plan because I liked everything. I used to go in there and say just call it and I’ll get it done. That’s the kind of player that I was. I had so much belief in myself and my coaches.
JJ: I recently wrote a piece on the city of Atlanta and how things have shifted in the past 10 years. In talking with folks for it, a couple of people I talked to said that you were made an example of. With the suspension and the prison sentence and community service, and then you come out and there are protests at every game you play at, did you ever feel like you gave more than your pound of flesh? Did you say enough was enough?
MV: There were times I said enough was enough, but I felt like it was 93% of the world who really understood what I went through. Yeah, they thought I got a raw deal. A lot of people believed in the forgive-and-forget method and the world of second chances. Ninety-three percent of the world believed in that, and I live that every day to this day because so many people are so supportive—of all backgrounds, races, color, nationalities. Every day. And I appreciate that. And then there’s another 7% of the people, you may want to consider them radicals, who may never want to forgive or forget. And you’ve got to respect that, too. Those are people’s beliefs. I think they should keep it amongst themselves and try to find a way to harness that and work on it. I’m just thankful for the 93% of fans that I still do have who support me and wish and hope for the best for me. I take that with a lot of humility.
JJ: There was a lot of talk, especially this year, about social activism and protests, obviously led by Colin Kaepnerick. What’d you make of it all?
MV: Everybody’s got their own views and beliefs, and you’ve got to respect them. It may not be the right thing to do, it may not be the wrong thing to do. Some people are outspoken in what they believe in, and we’ve got to leave it at that. Look at it as an opportunity to [encourage] change. I think that’s what it all stands for and what it’s all about. People have to be respectful of people’s thoughts, and it’s all to make the world a better place. I know I try to live life moving forward not backwards and pull as many kids with me because the kids are our future. I think that’s what it’s all about; to make this world one, one day. We can get there.
JJ: As one of the freak athletes of a former era, you know Julio Jones is one of the freak athletes of this era. How well do you know Julio and what could you two have done together?
MV: I know Julio well. I’ve met him on a couple different occasions and I’ve spent time with him at some of Roddy White’s football camps. I don’t know what I could have done with Julio. He’s a special guy, but you have to have the right coordinators and people who know how to use him. You could easily have a guy like Julio and not put him in the best positions for him to succeed—moving him around on the field, putting him in the slot, putting him outside, designing plays specifically for him and what he does well. It wouldn’t have been just about me. It would have been about our entire offense as a whole.
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JJ: Is there any current Falcons player that could beat you in a foot race?
MV: I doubt it. Wait, are you saying now?
JJ: Yes. Now. Today.
MV: Who knows? Tell you what, they’d have to give me three months to train for it. And listen, they may beat me, but it won’t be by a wide margin. Let’s just leave it at that.
JJ: Over last summer you said that if you didn’t get picked up in 2016 you would retire. So is this it?
MV: Yeah, I think it’s it. I’m kind of looking at life from a different perspective now. I’ve got kids growing that I’ve got to be there for. I was committed in 2016 to giving it one more shot. I’m very content with my career and what I’ve been able to accomplish. I accomplished more than I ever thought I would. Listen, at the end of the day, through all the downs I played, I can say I won a game for every team that I played for, even though I only made three starts in New York and three starts in Pittsburgh. I made a difference, I’m content with my career and I’m ready to move forward in life.
JJ: So what’s next for Michael Vick?
MV: I think trying to take those steps in coaching or giving back—as long as it’s something connected with the game of football. Whether it’s sitting on the set of College GameDay or on NFL Network, I don’t know. I would have to work at it to make sure I’m good at it and happy doing it every day. But I think the future’s bright.CHICAGO (CN) – Defense counsel for a 20-year-old man who tried to explode a bomb in downtown Chicago may not have access to the secret warrant applications that permitted FBI surveillance of their client, the 7th Circuit ruled.
In 2012, 18-year-old Adel Daoud was indicted for attempting to detonate a bomb at a downtown Chicago bar.
Daoud, a U.S. citizen, was contacted online by undercover FBI agents posing as terrorists, and he expressed interest in committing violent jihad attacks in the United States, according to the 35-page ruling from the three-judge panel.
One of his FBI correspondents put him in touch with a “cousin” – another agent posing as a radical jihadist – whom Daoud met in person six times, and who supplied Daoud with a fake bomb to destroy the target of his choice.
Daoud parked a jeep containing the bomb in front of a bar in downtown Chicago, and tried to detonate the bomb in the presence of the agent, who immediately arrested him.
In court, Daoud’s counsel sought access to the classified information that supported the government’s warrant applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) authorizing the electronic surveillance Daoud.
This evidence could be excluded if it was unlawfully acquired or if the surveillance was not properly authorized.
Although no court has ever allowed disclosure of FISA orders to the defense, the federal judge overseeing Daoud’s trial granted the defense its requested access.
But the 7th Circuit overturned the ruling on Monday, one week after hearing oral arguments.
“Terrorism is not a chimera,” Judge Richard Posner wrote for the panel. “With luck Daoud might have achieved his goal of indiscriminately killing hundreds of Americans – whom he targeted because, as he explained in an email, civilians both ‘pay their taxes which fund the government’s war on Islam’ and ‘vote for the leaders who kill us every day.'”
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) attempts to strike a balance between the openness of adversarial legal proceedings, and the needs of national security, Posner wrote.
“Though it is certainly highly unlikely that Daoud’s lawyers would, Snowden-like, publicize classified information in violation of federal law, they might in their zeal to defend their client, to whom they owe a duty of candid communication, or misremembering what is classified and what not, inadvertently say things that would provide clues to classified material,” Posner wrote, referring to former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked confidential documents revealing the government’s mass surveillance of domestic phone records.
Even though Daoud’s counsel have the necessary security clearances to view the material, the judge still has the “statutory duty of attempting to determine the legality of the surveillance without revealing any of the fruits of the surveillance to defense counsel,” the court ruled.
The court said it would explain in a separate, classified opinion why it was convinced that the investigation did not violate FISA.
Judge Ilana Rovner concurred, but wrote separately to discuss the application of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Franks v. Delaware in this context. Under Franks, a warrant is invalid if a defendant can show that it contains a false statement, which the affiant knew was false at the time, and which was necessary to the finding of probable cause.
She said that the secrecy surrounding FISA applications make it “impossible” for a defendant to object to a material misstatement or omission, because the defendant has no access to it.
“I view it as mistaken to believe that a judge will be able on his or her own to ferret out any potential misrepresentations or omissions in the FISA application, given that the judge lacks a defendant’s knowledge as to the facts underlying the application and has only the government’s version of the facts as a reference point,” the judge said.
Rovner concluded: “My essential point is this: Courts cannot continue to assume that defendants are capable of carrying the burden that Franks imposes when they lack access to the warrant application that is the starting point for any Franks inquiry. Courts must do what they can to compensate for a defendant’s ignorance as to what the FISA application contains. Otherwise, Franks will persist in name only in the FISA setting.”
Like this: Like Loading...Less than a month ago, T-Mobile announced the ‘T-Mobile ONE’, a new plan for its postpaid customers that launched on September 6. Initially, the new plan was meant to replace all other postpaid plans but after people’s negative reaction, the carrier said that only the $95 postpaid plan would be replaced, at least for the time being. The same plan has been announced for prepaid customers too, but for ”later.” Maybe that’s why T-Mobile no longer offers $95 Simple Choice Prepaid plan.
The $95 Simple Choice Prepaid Plan used to offer unlimited talk, text and unlimited un-throttled 4G LTE data with 14 GB of mobile hotspot usage. Also, the plan offered coverage in Mexico and Canada, Music Freedom for unlimited music streaming without using plan’s data and Binge On for unlimited free video streaming at 480p (optional).
The new ‘T-Mobile ONE’ plan comes with unlimited talk, messaging and data in the US, Canada and Mexico and unlimited international texting to over 140 countries for $70 per month. Video streaming is limited to 480p and mobile hotspot speeds are throttled to 2G. T-Mobile customers can add high definition video streaming for $25 per month per line and unthrottled hotspot for $15 per 5 GB.
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Also, customers can add additional lines on the same account. The first line is $70, the second is $50 per month and the third and up to eight lines is $20 per month. If customers need even more lines beyond eight, they will be available to add them for $30 per month. Also, they can add tablet to this plan for $20 per month and smartwatch for $5 per month for 2G data.
Simple Choice Prepaid Plans
T-Mobile is still offering three lower priced Simple Choice Prepaid plans that start at $50 per month:
$50 plan – unlimited talk, text and data with first 2 GB of 4G LTE data
$65 plan – unlimited talk, text and data with first 6 GB of 4G LTE data
$80 plan – unlimited talk, text and data with first 10 GB of 4G LTE data
All plans can be used in Mexico and Canada just like at home. Music streaming doesn’t count against plan’s data on all plans. Binge On, free video streaming at 480p, is available on $65 and higher and the $65/6GB and $80/10GB plans offer Data Stash, unused data rollover for up to a year.
Now that T-Mobile no longer offers $95 Simple Choice Prepaid plan, we can probably expect the T-Mobile ONE plan to also launch on prepaid soon. And hopefully, just like with postpaid, the carrier will continue to offer other Simple Choice Prepaid plans, at least for some time.
Source: T-Mobile, T-Mobile NewsroomInfants born prematurely are at elevated risk for cognitive, motor, and behavioral deficits — the severity of which was, until recently, almost impossible to accurately predict in the neonatal period with conventional brain imaging technology. But physicians may now be able to identify the premature infants most at risk for deficits as well as the type of deficit, enabling them to quickly initiate early neuroprotective therapies, by using highly reliable 3-D MRI imaging techniques developed by clinician scientists at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. The imaging technique also facilitates early and repeatable assessments of these therapies to help clinicians and researchers determine whether neuroprotective treatments are effective in a matter of weeks, instead of the two to five years previously required.
The researchers — experts in brain imaging and anatomy — developed a protocol for using the special imaging technique to study the development of 10 brain tracts in these tiny patients, work published online January 24 in PLOS One. Colorful 3-D images of each tract revealed the connections of the segments to different parts of the brain or the spinal cord. Each of the 10 tracts is important for certain functions and abilities, such as language, movement or vision.
“Developing a reliable and reproducible methodology for studying the premature brain was crucial in order for us to get to the next step: assessing neuroprotective therapies,” said Nehal A. Parikh, DO, principal investigator in the Center for Perinatal Research at Nationwide Children’s and senior author on the paper. “Now that we have this protocol, we can improve the standard of care and evaluate efforts to promote brain health within 8 to 12 weeks of beginning the interventions. That way, we can quickly see what really works.”
The study tested a detailed approach to measuring brain structure in extremely low birth weight infants at term-equivalent age by comparing their diffusion tensor tractography (DTT) scans to those of healthy, full-term newborns. DTT is a special MRI technique that produces 3-D images and is able to detect the brain’s structure and more subtle injuries than earlier forms of the technology.
The research team is the first to confirm differences in the fibrous structure of the 10 tracts between healthy, full-term infant brains and those of premature babies. Although the imaging technology is regularly used in adults, the tiny head size and lack of benchmark measurements in healthy infants meant that the use of DTT in premature infants was previously uncharted territory. With the detailed technique developed by Dr. Parikh’s team, the images can now be reproducibly processed and reliably interpreted.
“This protocol opens the field to far greater use of the methodology for targeting and assessing therapies in these infants,” said Dr. Parikh, who also is an associate professor of pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. “We already have studies underway using our DTT segmentation methodology to measure the effectiveness of early neuroprotective interventions, such as the use of breast milk or skin-to-skin contact while premature babies are in intensive care.”
As imaging technology continues to be refined, the goal of targeted therapies based on the specific region of the brain with a delay or injury will become reality, Dr. Parikh predicted.For example, if an infant’s DTT scan indicates an under-developed corticospinal tract — the region of the brain controlling motor ability — physicians could immediately begin proactive physical therapies with the baby instead of waiting until the delay manifests itself. A repeat DTT scan a few months after beginning the therapy could then detect whether the therapy is effectively improving the structure of that brain tract.
“Because cognitive and behavioral deficits cannot be diagnosed until school age, there is an urgent need for robust early prognostic biomarkers,” said Dr. Parikh. “Our work is an important step in this direction and will facilitate early testing of neuroprotective interventions.”
This work was supported by The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the National Center for Research Resources/Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grant UL1 RR024148-04S3 (Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act), awarded to Dr. Parikh.At ISRAEL21c, we’re committed to providing a window onto the many ways Israeli innovation is changing the world for the better. We also share a glimpse of how Israelis simply let their hair down and have a really good time despite – or perhaps because of – living in a part of the world that isn’t ordinarily equated with fun.
The best way to show that is through action. This year, we’ve produced and posted more than 45 short films that you can view on our site or directly on YouTube – where ISRAEL21c’s channel has gotten more than three million views since 2007.
We’ve brought viewers to an olive-spitting contest, to roller derby in Tel Aviv, to a “live statues” festival in Rehovot and to a desert bike race at the Dead Sea.
And now… the 10 most-watched ISRAEL21c videos in 2012:
1. What does Made in Israel mean to you?
Produced in celebration of Israel’s 64th birthday, this video gives a rapid-fire visual overview of 64 years of amazing achievements.
You’ll learn that amniocentesis was invented by an Israeli, as was an ultrasound device to melt tumors; a treatment for multiple sclerosis; a device to help paraplegics walk; a pain-free dental laser; and non-invasive treatments for ADHD, depression and Alzheimer’s.
Israelis are helping you mow your lawn robotically, defend yourself with Krav Maga, turn your dog’s droppings into harmless powder, stay safer in the car, put bubbles in your soda, get rid of unwanted hair and enjoy a whole new crop of TV shows, musicians and artists.
2. A cardboard bicycle?
Izhar Gafni is crazy about bikes – he makes them, fixes them and rides them. But three engineer friends thought the chain had really slipped from the gears when Gafni suggested making a cheap and environmentally friendly bicycle out of 100 percent recyclable materials, 95% percent of which is strong cardboard.
With six prototypes already manufactured, Gafni hopes to interest corporate or governmental sponsors in helping to spark an urban environmental project or perhaps an affordable mode of transportation for schoolchildren in Africa.
3. Tel Aviv, home to the world’s most beautiful people
Travelers Digest readers included Tel Aviv on its 2012 list of Cities with the Best-Looking Men and on its companion list of Cities with the Best-Looking Women.
We show you why the mag says: “Tel Aviv has become a hot spot for trendsetters worldwide. Local cuties flaunt their fit bodies – made all the better by their year-round tans – at any of the numerous beaches and cafés found on the 10-mile seaside strip.”
4. Hannukah in Jerusalem
Walk the streets of Jerusalem’s Old City during the eight days of Hannukah and you’ll see why the holiday is called the Festival of Light.
Along its dark and ancient alleyways, hannukiyahot (eight-branched candelabras), are set outside everyone’s doorways. Every night of the eight-day holiday, a new flame is set alight. But Hannukah isn’t just about light, it’s also about food and fun.
5. Israel, the new ice cream capital?
Israel’s not known as a destination for great ice cream, but as this video illustrates, maybe it’s time to rethink that.
After all, the average Israeli eats about 10 liters of ice cream per year, compared to 6.2 liters per capita in Italy, home of gelato. We’ve got our own takes on the frozen treat –for instance, hummus ice cream, made with chickpeas and topped with olive oil and pine nuts; or 10-spice ice cream, reminiscent of chai latte.
6. Krav Maga: World’s best defense system
Imrich Lichtenfeld probably didn’t envision that the style of street combat he invented would become so popular outside of Israel, where it has long been taught in the military. In the 1980s, this defensive martial art went international and is taught to people from six to 60.
Many students prefer to come to Israel to learn or perfect Krav Maga at its source, and this video features some disciples explaining why they made the trip.
7. Neta Rivkin: Olympic gymnast
Neta Rivkin got her start in rhythmic gymnastics at age six, when her future coach saw her walking in Petah Tikvah with her dad, a basketball coach. The expert saw right away that Neta’s body was made for gymnastics.
She’s been perfecting her rhythmic gymnastic routine ever since, becoming one of only two Israeli gymnasts to win medals at international competitions. London was her second Olympics. “Representing Israel makes my heart flutter,” she says.
8. Jerusalem on ice
Tons of ice made for tons of fun during Jerusalem’s first Ice Festival in 2012. Keeping the frozen water at minus-10 degrees Celsius was no easy feat in the early spring in Jerusalem, but the Israelis and tourists who came marveled at the life-size giraffes, scenes from Noah’s Ark, “The Wizard of Oz” and other children’s books, as well as an ice windmill and the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, all crafted by 31 ice sculptors from China.
9. 3D street-painting festival
Chalk artists, painters, environmental sculptors and musicians from Israel and Holland, Italy, the United States and Russia contributed their diverse talents to the inaugural Festival of Street Painting in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Hasharon, which celebrated its 90th anniversary this year.
The highlight of the street festival, expected to become an annual event, were 3D sidewalk chalk drawings that cross the line into the genre of performance art. Take a look at the artists at work in our video.
10. Touring the Carmel Market
Tel Aviv’s Carmel Market is “the” place to go for everything from souvenirs to cutting-edge café cuisine. Top chefs from the city’s eateries come here to purchase raw ingredients, including Israeli staples such as bountiful varieties of fresh herbs, chickpe
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shockingly tweeted: “The terrorist came into our country through what is called the "Diversity Visa Lottery Program," a Chuck Schumer beauty. I want merit based.”
The truth is that while Schumer championed the bipartisan Diversity Lottery program, it was signed into law in 1990 by Republican President George H.W. Bush. But we know facts don’t matter to Trump—especially while demonizing political opponents or minorities.
And by early Wednesday afternoon, Trump declared to the press before a cabinet meeting his intention to end the Diversity Visa Lottery. He also added passionately that we must stop being “politically correct” and “get smarter and tougher” in dealing with this threat. Again, a far cry from his reaction to white supremacist terrorism.
In the coming days we may see Trump go even further, perhaps calling for an expansion of his Muslim ban to additional nations. He may call for more unconstitutional profiling of American Muslims simply because of our faith. He may even call for a moratorium on all immigration for a period of time.
But what Trump won’t do is ever use the term “white supremacist terrorism” or call for sweeping policies to counter that threat. (In fact, he cut funding to counter it.) The reason being Trump knows his base loves the Muslim- and immigrant-bashing but they would never forgive him for cracking down on white supremacists.Personally, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers when it comes to rolling my doobie. But, it would be handy to know how to roll a perfect joint or blunt
It needs to be tight but not too tight. Fat but not too fat. And, easy to light but not too easy. Rolling the perfect joint and building the perfect blunt takes patience, talent, and experience. And, some mistakes over time.
What you need to roll a joint
Some users regularly roll their smokes on automatic roller machines. The rollers have the advantage of securing a nice shape and consistency. But, most consumers look down on these modern contraptions, opting in favor of the good old way.
Experienced marijuana smokers can roll a joint just about anywhere under any conditions. But, it will take some time and lots of practice for the newcomer.
If you want to do it right, start with a slick-surfaced rolling tray with raised edges all around. The tray will let you spill your ingredients, gather the product, and keep it from falling off the surface
In addition, you need filter tips, weed grinder, cannabis product, and rolling papers. You can always work without the grinder or filters, but you are trying to roll the perfect joint.
Rolling papers are made of hemp fiber, rice, or wood pulp. Each works well, but some smokers prefer the smoke of one or the other paper. And, some papers come with adhesive tabs for easier sealing.
The setup
Lay out 1 gram of ground cannabis product, one 1.25” paper, and one crutch, filter, roach, or spacer (whatever you call it). Grind your product lightly. You want it to shred into a fluffy consistency. A grinder is optional; some chop away with razor blades, scissors, or credit cards. But, the grinder does make things easy. Don’t overdo it; you don’t want togrind it into powder. (Some veterans like to mix their product with tobacco, so that tobacco should have the same consistency as the marijuana.) Remove any seeds and debris from the product, and regrind it until texture is satisfactory. Crease the length of the rolling paper at one-third into a V shape or boat. It will make a seam where you can lay the filter at one end. Pinch the paper lightly at the filter end as you spread product along the crease. Distribute the marijuana so that it is fuller at the end opposite the filter.
The roll
Rolling is easier described than done, so be careful. As you roll, the filter will determine the shape of the joint. Holding it horizontally by the filter end, you use the fingers of your other hand to lightly distribute the material and tap it down. Roll the paper around the filter. Then, keeping the paper secure around the filter and with your thumbs roll the joint away from you. Roll it up, and unroll it when you are not happy with the shape and density. This should leave a horizontal tab. Lick the paper, starting at the filter, along that tab. Then, roll the paper and product upward to the moistened seal as you shape the tube. With more product at the one end, the shape will be a slight cone or a baseball bat. The conical shape burns more evenly, but you might prefer the pinner shape of a standard cigarette tube. Holding the joint vertically with filter end down, tap it several times on the tray to help product settle and pack to eliminate air pockets. Or, you can tamp it lightly with a finger, skewer, or pen.
The finish
Gather up any spilled product and add it into the open end, and twist the paper shut. Insert the joint into your mouth and pull it out through wet lips to lightly coat the paper with your saliva. Set it aside to dry for a couple of minutes.
You can prepare one at a time or a small supply of three or four joints. Roll just one if you are going to smoke it soon. Roll a small supply if you are going to share or smoke them later. But, you don’t want to make the too far in advance because they will not age well.
Cannabis has a long shelf-life, but once you have rolled your joint, it will dry quickly if you don’t smoke it soon.
What you need to roll a blunt
A blunt is a different approach to your buzz. The classic blunt is a hollowed-out cigar or cigarillo stuffed with cannabis. The various tastes and aromas of the tobacco mix with the cannabis for a different experience.
You start with your cigar, cigarillo, or blunt wrap of choice. Using a grinder to ready your project will promise an even burn.
Preparing a blunt wrap is easier, but you may prefer to cut a cigar or cigarillo lengthwise with an X-acto knife or razor blade. Then, use your fingers to break up and remove the tobacco from the inside.
Fill the cigar shell with your ground and fluffy cannabis and pat it down. Roll it between your fingers to distribute and pack the product. Then, using your thumbs, tuck one side of the wrap under the other, lick one side, and seal it along the length.
The cigar tobacco is fragile, so handle it carefully. Once finished, rotate the blunt through a lighter’s flame to dry or bake it.
The conclusion
You may find it tedious and frustrating at first, but rolling your own joints or blunts has always been part of the event. It’s part practical and part ceremonial. It’s a sort of ritual that you will get better with over time.
The people I know who roll it well. Their skill and comfort level with turning out the best toke comes from repeated tries and their own personal touch. They can do it in the dark, in their sleep, and with a certain pride in their product.
You can learn to roll a perfect one with lessons like this or online how-to videos. But, once you roll the one you most enjoy, you won’t forget how.A legal memo argues that replacing the PLO, currently chaired by Mahmoud Abbas, with a Palestinian state will undermine the Palestinian people's political position [EPA]
The recent release of an authoritative legal opinion highlighting certain unexpected, unintended, and serious political and legal dangers in the September initiative, has created useful popular discussion and public debate. The opinion assesses the implications arising if the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) replaces itself by the State of Palestine as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people at the UN.
The opinion was authored by Professor Guy Goodwin-Gill, perhaps the world’s foremost authority on international refugee law, and commissioned by his colleague at Oxford University, Karma Nabulsi. It appears to have been discussed with the relevant political figures within the PLO leadership, and its constituent parties and movements. A few individuals, including PLO Executive Committee members, have responded to the issues raised in this expert legal opinion. However, the main questions have still not been addressed by the PLO, and it is important to raise them again for the sake of an honest public debate on a matter of such critical concern to all Palestinians.
The main thrust of the Goodwin-Gill memorandum, that replacing the PLO at the UN with the state will undermine the political and legal position of the Palestinian people - especially the rights to return and to self-determination - remain unaddressed. What is suggested, however, is that the PLO's status will not be harmed if this happens, although the issue has not yet been responded to in detail or explained in any manner.
One explanation has been that the PLO will remain the overall representative of the Palestinian people, and it is even suggested (without any evidence) that the PLO's legal status will be advanced by this initiative, without saying how. But this does not address the key issue at hand: if the state becomes the representative of the Palestinian people at the United Nations, the status and role of the PLO is, without doubt, radically altered.
One Palestinian representative
Some suggest that the PLO’s status will not be harmed because the PLO itself will be submitting the resolution to the United Nations. Unfortunately, this argument is entirely irrelevant; the problem was never about who will submit the resolution, the PLO or the PA, but instead concerns what exactly the PLO will do when it goes to the General Assembly. What are the dangers if the PLO submits a resolution that removes the PLO from its seat at the UN as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and substitutes itself for the as-yet-unachieved State of Palestine? To clarify further: there is only one seat at the UN. Either the PLO holds it, or the state does. There cannot be two representatives of the Palestinian people at the UN.
This is where the problem can be seen clearly. The United Nations is where a people's legal representation sits. It is recognised by the international system within the United Nations. So the simple act of replacing the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people with a state (and, in addition, a state that does not even exist), removes the claims of the PLO to sovereign status as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
This cannot be in dispute, for this is what is being proposed now. It does not matter if the Arab League or any other groupings of states recognise and deal with us as the "State of Palestine". Nor does it matter that, out of courtesy protocol, we have been given the name, or "designation", of the State of Palestine by the UN. The PLO is still the sole representative of the Palestinian people at the UN, and this is where it mattered, and this is what is now being proposed to be changed at the UN.
This is not a mere technical issue; it is a critical one with both political and legal ramifications of a serious nature, and which is rehearsed fully in the Goodwin-Gill Opinion. Most damaging is that this initiative (as currently formulated) changes our ability as a people to represent the totality of our inalienable rights. Through the PLO and its seat at the UN, the majority of Palestinians, who actually live outside the West Bank and Gaza, now have representation (undemocratic though it is) as equal members of the Palestinian body politic under a single political structure, and which was achieved by a previous generation in 1974 after enormous sacrifices. This principle of the political equality of Palestinians inside Palestine with the Palestinian refugees outside of it will be completely lost if the PLO is substituted by the State of Palestine.
Unlike the State of Palestine, the PLO does not derive its sovereign status from a territorial claim, but from the claim to popular sovereignty and as sole representative of an entire people. As such, its competencies are not limited by borders, and can encompass the Palestinian shatat in its entirety. This cannot be said for the State of Palestine, whose sovereign claim is severely limited and bound by the 1967 Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs), the vast majority of which it does not even control. What the Goodwin-Gill Memorandum confirms is that unless the UN seat continues to be held by the PLO, more than half of the Palestinian people will face the threat of disenfranchisement.
Opposing views
Another response was authored by an American lawyer who claims to have been the originator of this Palestinian UN state initiative, as well as the earlier initiative in 1988. It is suggested that the Palestinian Declaration of Independence contains legal and constitutional technicalities ensuring the PLO’s position will not be prejudiced by the September initiative at the UN. In particular, he notes that the PLO Executive Committee was set up in 1988 as the Provisional Government of the State of Palestine and that all Palestinians, regardless of their place of residence, were declared to be citizens of this state.
Once again, this response misses the point. After 1988 the PLO was indeed designated as “Palestine” within the UN system, but this was a courtesy title only, and does not change the PLO’s status at the UN. The real point is that a new, parallel system of governance has been formed in the OPTs since the Oslo accords in form of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Legislative Council, and it is clamed this will form the basis of the Palestinian State.
This parallel governance structure (limited in its institutional governance capacity to the OPT) is currently morphing, under the guise of the State of Palestine, into a parallel representative structure that is prepared to seize the PLO’s seat at the UN in September. More worrying is that some PLO leaders, entrusted by the Palestinian people with the preservation of this most important of all national structures, seem to be willing to go along with this scenario, and even encourage it, by imagining that this State will represent all Palestinians.
It is worth recalling that the 1988 Declaration of Independence did not pose a threat to the status of the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people at the UN, or anywhere else. If the PLO cedes its seat to the State of Palestine in September, it completely alters its status, becoming a subsidiary body to the state, without internationally-recognised representative capacities.
The Palestinians will then have two representatives, the state at the UN for those under the PA, and the PLO for Palestinians outside the borders of 1967 occupied Palestine. It also creates two tiers of Palestinians: one with certain core rights, and the majority who lose their ability to advocate for them. It would not matter if Palestinian refugees are declared to be citizens of the State of Palestine (which does not exist yet in fact), for such a state is territorially bound within an undetermined territory contained within the 1967 boundaries. Those refugees that come from 1948 areas will be left with even greater disenfranchisement and a serious representational crisis that affects their rights to return to their homes and to self-determination.
Key questions
These question of PLO representation cannot be taken lightly or dismissed flippantly, nor should the Palestinian people themselves be treated with contempt about these serious matters, and without taking into account institutional and governance developments since the 1980s. Indeed, the Palestinian leadership has a responsibility to take seriously, and engage with, the legal advice of leading international legal authorities. Concrete answers are still needed to the following questions:
Why is there a need for the PLO or PA to make a new request for membership/observer status in the UN, given that the PLO already has UN observer status and could negotiate an upgrade of its status without a new request for membership/observer status?
What are the advantages of such a new request for membership/observer status in terms of UN recognition of the territory of the state? How is the request for recognition of the territory of the state as that of June 4, 1967 formulated in the September initiative? Is it undetermined as in 1988? Or is any language on the state’s territory and borders planned at all?
Why have there been efforts to discuss a constitution of the state that is being proposed to become the UN representative of the Palestinian people? If the state were to be governed by the PLO, then it should be subject to the PLO constitution. However, existing draft constitutions of the PA state assert that it will be a sovereign state, and not a subsidiary of the PLO.
Who will elect the parliament and government of the state that would be the UN representative: the people in the OPTs? Or all the Palestinian people? It has been said that all Palestinians can become citizens of the state, including the Palestinians in the shatat. What will the state do so that all citizens can exercise their right to participate in its public affairs?
Some members of the leadership have questioned the wisdom of discussing such fundamental political and legal questions of the Palestinian people at this particular juncture in time. They suggest that this is not the time to publicly put doubts on the content of the September initiative, especially given its enemies.
Yet it is far more dangerous to go ahead with ill-thought-out political initiatives which do not take into account such crucial legal concerns that remain - until now - unanswered; questions that were raised in a spirit of concern and public interest. In any case, the sole purpose and function of the PLO is to represent and serve its people, and to advance their rights. Closed-door discussions have, in the past, created problems, confusion, anxiety, and legitimate concerns. These national matters affect every single Palestinian in immediate and serious ways, and also affects our rights as a people collectively. Therefore we must debate and discuss these issues of our popular sovereignty and representation as a people - together, and in good faith.
Dr Abdel Razzaq Takriti is a political historian at St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford. He is active with Palestinian campaigns for democratic popular representation.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.A B.C. man who was found not criminally responsible after killing his three children has been granted escorted outings into the community.
Allan Schoenborn, 47, who lived in Merritt, has received the B.C. Review Board's approval for outings following his annual hearing as a patient at the province's psychiatric hospital in Coquitlam some seven years after he killed his children.
The family of Darcie Clarke, the children's mother and Schoenborn's estranged wife, said she was disappointed with the decision.
Schoenborn admitted to killing his children, Kaitlynne, 10, Max, 8, and Cordon, 5, in Merritt, B.C., in April 2008.
Schoenborn admitted killing 10-year-old Kaitlynne, eight-year-old Max and five-year-old Cordon, who were found slain in the mobile home where they lived with their mother in April 2008, but pleaded not guilty in court.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robert Powers, who heard the three-month trial in Kamloops without a jury, found that the killings were deliberate and planned by Schoenborn, but said he was not sane at the time.
"I find on balance of probabilities he was suffering from a disease of the mind," Powers told the court at the end of the trial.
Powers rejected the Crown's assertion that Schoenborn killed his children as revenge against their mother.
"I find it unlikely [he] would have killed his children out of anger given the close and caring relationship he had with his children," he said.
Outrage over decision
Clarke was not happy with the board's decision.
"This is the decision my family and I had been dreading: Allan Schoenborn, the man who murdered my three children — Kaitlynne, Max and Cordon — will be re-entering our community even though the review board found him to be a high risk to public safety," Clarke said in a statement.
The ruling gives the hospital director the discretion to direct trained staff members to escort Schoenborn on brief, highly managed excursions into a nearby city. The ruling permits outings only after extensive planning by the hospital. Its medical director can cancel a planned trip at any point.
Stacy Galt says Clarke, her cousin, was "just shattered" by the decision.
"She cannot live in Merritt anymore with her mother because it holds too many memories," Galt said. "She came here [in Port Coquitlam] to live with the rest of her family, and she can't do that anymore for fear of running into Allan on an outing."
Federal Industry Minister James Moore tweeted that the review board's decision was "an insult" to the victims and "should trigger a systemic review."
BC Review Board decision in Allan Schoenborn case is an insult to his victims & should trigger a systemic review by the BC Government —@JamesMoore_org
Port Coquitlam Mayor Greg Moore said that Friday's decision has outraged the community and that he will urge council to ask the B.C. government to re-evaluate the board's decision.
"We're just shocked by this. When this board makes a decision, they're not taking into consideration what the effects are on the community," he said.
"They're looking at it in a silo. They're not taking into consideration the family that lives in the community and the citizens that are here and are now expected to try to understand and comprehend this decision."
Family want Schoenborn labelled high-risk offender
The decision was made by a three-member panel that spent a month deliberating over the case that has come under intense public scrutiny and was even used as an example by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The ruling comes even as the Crown warned panel members to heed new Conservative government legislation empowering them to hold mentally ill offenders indefinitely.
Schoenborn's lawyer has said in the past that approval of outings for his client could make it more difficult for the province to persuade a court to label the man a "high risk" offender.
Clarke said that her family will still work with the Crown to apply to B.C. Supreme Court to label the 47-year-old a "high risk" offender.
"This is uncharted territory.… Our hope is that the Supreme Court will look at the facts without the review board bias and find Allan a high risk."
Clarke also took aim at the B.C. Review Board directly, calling on Premier Christy Clark and B.C.'s minister of justice to review the board and its operations at the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital.
"The dysfunctional nature of the board and forensic hospital administration is shameful," she said. "These two entities have cultivated a culture which condones conflict of interest while ignoring public safety. This is a system screaming out for reform."
Lengthy hearing
The hearing for Schoenborn's request for brief outings lasted four days, prolonged by adversarial questioning by the Crown of each witness. Most hearings take just hours.
The Crown challenged the hospital's director, a prominent expert on assessing and treating not criminally responsible patients, arguing that evaluations of Schoenborn's risk to the community were "not up to standard or consistent with the best practices."
Prosecutor Wendy Dawson told the board reviewing Schoenborn's case that allowing him to have supervised outings was gambling on public safety, and would not align with the year-old Conservative legislation, Not Criminally Responsible Reform Act.
The Criminal Justice Branch said at the time it was updating its files on Schoenborn's status and would wait until the ruling before determining whether to ask the court to designate him "high risk."
The hospital's lawyer countered during the hearing that public safety is always the first consideration before granting a patient limited release, and its goal is rehabilitation.
Schoenborn's treating psychiatrist said that while the man remains a "significant threat," he is at low risk of escape and would be under constant watch.
The hearing was told Schoenborn has 11 recorded incidents of physical or verbal aggression inside the hospital since his last review, mainly in relation to one other patient.Protesting the Confederate flag in Columbia, S.C. (Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty)
The Confederate battle flag is far from the only worrisome symbol in America today.
Everyone is weighing in on the horrific murders in Charleston and blaming the mindset of the mass murderer on wider social pathologies. After the airing of the racist crackpot ideas of the unhinged Dylann Roof, calls have gone out to ban the public flying of the battle flag of the Old Confederacy, which has also been incorporated in various forms in four state flags. Perhaps we should step back and eschew symbolism that separates us by race rather than unites us as fellow citizens.
Aside from the specious argument that the flag, along with media like Fox News and talk radio, fuels homicidal maniacs like Roof, there is quite another question: whether implicit state endorsement of Confederate symbolism offers sanction for the old idea of an apartheid nation, and thus sends entirely the wrong message of American separatism rather than unity. While many Southerners object that the flag simply proclaims the battlefield honor of those who were defending their homeland, the Confederacy was so entwined with the idea of preserving slavery that the flag, even today, can evoke racial polarization. For all the Southern patriots who understandably see in the Confederate battle flag the historical resonance of Pickett’s Charge or the resistance to Sherman’s March to the Sea, there are probably just as many who equally understandably consider it a nostalgic icon of white supremacy. In a racially diverse society, it makes sense to phase out state sanction for the battle flag — as South Carolina governor Nikki Haley advocated yesterday, in calling on the state legislature to vote for the removal of the battle flag that has been flying over the grounds of the state capitol.
But perhaps we should not stop there, given increasing ethnic tensions and widening racial fault lines. There are plenty of other overt racialist symbols that separate Americans. One is the prominent use of La Raza, “The Race” — seen most prominently in the National Council of La Raza, an ethnic lobbying organization that has been and is currently a recipient of federal funds. The National Council of La Raza should be free to use any title it wishes, but it should not expect the federal government to subsidize its separatist nomenclature.
The pedigree of the term La Raza is just as incendiary as that of the Confederate battle flag. The Spanish noun raza (cf. Latin radix: “root” or “race”) is akin to the now-discarded German use of Volk, which in the early 20th century came to denote a common German racial identity that transcended linguistic and cultural affinities: To be a real member of the Volk one had to “appear” German, in addition to speaking German and possessing German citizenship.
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La Raza is just such a racialist term. It goes beyond a common language and country of origin, and thus transcends the more neutral puebla (“people”: Latin populus) or gente (“people”: Latin gens). Raza was deliberately reintroduced in the 1960s to promote a racially superior identity of indigenous peoples and mestizos born in the Spanish-speaking countries of the New World. That is why the National Council of La Raza once had a close affinity with MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán), the infamous racialist U.S. student group (its ironic motto is “Unity creates strength”), some of whose various past slogans (cf. the Castroite derivative “Por La Raza todo, Fuera de La Raza nada”) finally became sources of national embarrassment.
La Raza is now a calcified separatist slogan, one full of implications that are unworthy of taxpayer support.
The use of the phrase La Raza reflects its illiberal modern origins. It came into popular currency during the 1930s in Spain, when the Fascist dictatorship of Francisco Franco wished to promote a new Iberian identity that went well beyond the commonality of Spanish citizenship and fluency in the Spanish language. Franco expropriated La Raza to promote the racist idea that the Spanish were a superior people by birth. He penned a crackpot novel, Raza, embodying Fascist and racist themes of Spanish genetic and cultural superiority. La Raza appeared on the big screen in the form of a hokey 1942 Spanish-language movie, full of racist themes, anti-Americanism, and fashionable Fascist politics.
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But Franco was only channeling another, more famous contemporary Fascist, Benito Mussolini, who had his own Italian version of the term, la Razza. In 1938 Mussolini published his Manifesto della Razza (“The Racial Manifesto”), which defined Italians as a superior Aryan race and excluded Italian Jews, Africans, and other supposedly less pure groups from various positions in the Italian government.
In sum, the word “Raza” has a disturbing recent history, and that is why Spaniards and Italians today have dropped its common usage. Yet that well-known association with racial chauvinism was precisely why the founders of the National Council of La Raza, by their own admission, reawakened the word in the 1960s to focus on what they saw as a particular racial category of Spanish speakers. But La Raza is now a calcified separatist slogan, one full of implications that are unworthy of taxpayer support.
One wonders why in 2015 there is still nomenclature such as “the Congressional Black Caucus,” over half a century after the civil-rights movement sought to promote integration and the idea that Americans should be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.. The Caucus ostensibly seeks to ensure the end of exclusion by race from full participation in American society by creating a lobbying group focused entirely on one particular race. The postmodern rationale is either that groups that have suffered past disfranchisement and discrimination should not be subject to current anti-discriminatory protocols, or that they should at least enjoy a compensatory period of exclusion from color-blind values to offset centuries of oppression.
The premise seems to be that African-American House members seek to promote a common “black” agenda that transcends their local, county, or state interests.
Thus the group’s membership is entirely race-based. The Caucus is not open to those members of the House of Representatives who are not African-American, but who might share the Caucus’s racial or political agenda — as the Jewish-American Representative Steven Cohen learned when he was elected to Congress in 2006. The Lebanese-American Ralph Nader was once attacked at a Caucus meeting in clearly racial terms on the understanding that the group was exempt from charges of racism. How far is the racial concept transferable — “the Asian Caucus”? “the Latino Caucus?” “the White Caucus?” “the European-American Caucus”? The premise seems to be that African-American House members seek to promote a common “black” agenda that transcends their local, county, or state interests. If an Asian, white, or Latino voter’s congressional representative is a member of the “Black Caucus,” does that mean that the voter will receive less attention than a black voter — as de facto white caucuses in the Old South most certainly did ignore the interests of their non-white constituents? Is that why conservative African-American legislators who see all their constituents in terms that transcend race tend to avoid joining the Caucus? Could not the “Black Caucus” rebrand itself as the “Civil Rights Caucus” or the “Progressive Caucus”?
Reexamination of the battle flag offers us a teachable moment. Critics made a good point that any state sanction of the secessionist flag inevitably sends the wrong message to millions of Americans, who in their private lives are free to display any symbol they wish. But the current racialist reaction to past racism has become equally indefensible in an increasingly fragile multiracial state. The state should not support any racially separatist symbols, titles, or groups.
RELATED: The Dishonorable Confederate Battle Flag
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We should pause to appreciate that the American democratic experiment in ethnic and racial diversity is nearly unique. Indeed, the very idea of racial diversity and nationhood does not have much of a record of success in history. Few countries have been able to transcend their ethnic origins and sustain a racially pluralistic society. Rome was an exception and pulled it off for nearly 500 years, as the Roman Empire grew to encompass non-Italian peoples from the Euphrates to Scotland before unwinding into tribal chaos. The Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires worked for long periods, though they relied on the use of autocratic force and imperial coercion to suppress minorities, in ways antithetical to modern notions of governance.
In more recent times, religious and racial diversity — in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, or contemporary Nigeria — has resulted in chaos and, occasionally, genocide. True, some nations have been able to incorporate different tribes, as in the United Kingdom’s unification of the various peoples of the British Isles, but usually after hundreds of years of fighting and only when there were underlying racial and cultural affinities that could trump tribal differences.
RELATED: Don’t Tear Down the Confederate Battle Flag
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In other words, the United States is history’s exception, not its rule. America is a great, evolving experiment of a constitutional republic in which peoples of all different races, religions, and ethnic backgrounds are equal under the law and see themselves as Americans first and members of tribes second — appearance and religion being incidental rather than essential to the American body politic.
In an America that was originally founded by mostly Northern European immigrants, a Juan Lopez from Oaxaca is freely accepted as a U.S. citizen in a way that a white Bob Jones would never fully be embraced as a citizen of Mexico, a country whose constitution still expressly sets out racially chauvinistic guidelines that govern immigration law. Someone who appears African or European would have a hard time fully integrating as a citizen in Chinese, Korean, or Japanese society, in a way not true of Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese in America. The world assumes that in America a president, attorney general, secretary of state, or Supreme Court justice can be black; but it would be as surprised to find whites as high public officials in Zimbabwe as to find a black as prime minister or foreign minister in Sweden or Germany.
#related#In the last half-century, Americans have increasingly tended to emphasize race and tribe in promoting “diversity,” rather than seeking to strengthen the more tenuous notion of unity with their fellow citizens. We have forgotten that human nature is fond of division and must work at setting aside superficial tribal affinities to unite on the basis of core values and ideas.
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Symbols, flags, organizations, and phrases that emphasize racial difference and ethnic pride are no longer just fossilized notions from the 1960s; they are growing fissures in the American mosaic that now threaten to split the country apart — fueling the suspicion of less liberal and more homogeneous nations that the great American experiment will finally unwind as expected.
That would be a great tragedy, but a catastrophe entirely predictable if citizens seek symbolic solidarity with their tribe rather than in the common idea of just being American.
— NRO contributor Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author, most recently, of The Savior Generals.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article has been amended since its initial posting.From Deadline|London editor Tim Adler: News Corp’s James Murdoch and WME’s Ari Emanuel both talked tough at the recent Abu Dhabi Media Summit about the illegal downloading of movies and TV shows. You’d have to look hard through all the James stuff to find the Ari stuff, but I thought it would be of more interest to DH readers: Emanuel said he’s been speaking to President Obama about the U.S. adopting France’s 3-strikes-and-you’re-out stance. (Last year, France introduced a rule allowing legal action once Internet users had been caught illegally downloading 3 times.) The agent, whose brother Rahm is White House chief of staff, told delegates he expects there will be a “fight with ISPs” over the showbiz industry lobbying. Meanwhile, James Murdoch, the chairman and CEO of News Corp’s European and Asian operations, received spontaneous applause when he said that illegal downloaders weren’t “crazy kids” and called on governments to “punish them” no different from shoplifters stealing from stores.A little over a year ago, Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie essentially dared a nurse to sue him after she was placed under mandatory quarantine in Newark, even though she tested negative for Ebola. And now, she’s doing just that.
Kaci Hickox, 34, has filed a lawsuit in federal court – with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union – against Christie and other state officials, alleging she was unconstitutionally held against her will and was deprived due process.
Hickox had been in Sierra Leone treating Ebola patients with the group “Doctors Without Borders.” When she flew back to the U.S. last October through Newark International Airport, en route to her home state of Maine, she was quarantined under a brand new policy under Christie and Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
RELATED: Chris Hayes gives props to Ebola nurse Kaci Hickox
Under the plan, instituted at the height of the Ebola scare, all arriving air travelers who had contact with Ebola patients in West Africa were to be quarantined for 21 days, the disease’s maximum incubation period. Several medical experts and the White House consequently criticized the plan, which was stricter than federal standards. Others defended the new protocol, pointing to Craig Spencer, a doctor who began showing symptoms well after he came back to New York from West Africa.
“I never had Ebola. I never had symptoms of Ebola. I tested negative for Ebola the first night I stayed in New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s private prison,” Hickox—who now lives in Oregon—said in a statement. “My liberty, my interests, and consequently my civil rights were ignored because some ambitious governors saw an opportunity to use an age-old political tactic: fear.”
The nurse’s lawyer, Steve Hyman, told msnbc “There was no medical reason that could be enunciated for keeping her in quarantine.” Hyman argued Christie, who is now running for president, “pandered to the fear that was in the American populace at the time.” After being held in a quarantine tent in Newark for 80 hours, Hickox was allowed to return to Maine, which also wanted to quarantine her. But a judge ruled she could come and go as she pleases as long as she kept health officials in the loop.
Donna Leusner, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, would not comment on the lawsuit (which seeks damages of $250,000), saying the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation. Kevin Roberts, a spokesman for Gov. Christie, also declined to comment.
The lawsuit described the conditions of Hickox’s quarantine as being in in a tent in an unheated parking garage at University Hospital in Newark. She had access to a portable toilet, but no shower and had to ask for extra blankets. Hyman said Hickox could only talk to people through a plastic window.
“Hickox was tired from jetlag and traveling for two-days, hungry, thirsty, confused and emotionally exhausted. No one told her what was going on or what was going to happen to her,” said the lawsuit.
Christie at the time argued he was doing what was best for the health and safety of those
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via AirTrain JFK. Broadway productions, sight-seeing, shopping and fine dining are closer than ever before.
Details of WestJet's new Calgary-New York service:
Route Frequency Departing Arriving Effective Calgary-New York (JFK) Daily 10:35 a.m. 5:00 p.m. April 27-October 25, 2014 New York (JFK)-Calgary Daily 5:55 p.m. 9:10 p.m. April 27-October 25, 2014
Fares are available starting from:
Departing Arriving Air transportation
charges (ATC) Taxes,
fees and
charges Total
one-way
price from Base fare from Other ATC Calgary New York (JFK) $209 $7.50 $94.59 $311.09*CAD
*Some restrictions apply. Please see westjet.com for details.
Today, WestJet also launched new daily non-stop flights between Calgary and Prince George, B.C., which became a part of the WestJet family in 1999.
"Prince George is one of WestJet's early destinations and we are very grateful for the strong support of northern British Columbians over the past 15 years," said John Weatherill. "Residents have asked for additional service and starting today, our guests will have the opportunity to take an early-morning, 90-minute flight to Calgary and connect to 27 destinations throughout the WestJet world. Whether heading south for a business meeting or a week-long vacation, we're very pleased to offer our Prince George guests more connectivity than ever before."
Details of WestJet's new Calgary-Prince George service:
Route Frequency Departing Arriving Effective Calgary-Prince George Daily 10:00 p.m. 10:27 p.m. April 27-October 25, 2014 Prince George-Calgary Daily 6:00 a.m. 8:27 a.m. April 28-October 25, 2014
Fares are available starting from:
Departing Arriving Air transportation
charges (ATC) Taxes, fees
and
charges Total
one-way
price from Base fare
from Other ATC Prince
George Calgary $136 $18 $36.18 $190.18*CAD Calgary Prince
George $136 $18 $46.68 $200.68*CAD
*Some restrictions apply. Please see westjet.com for details
"As one of the best-connected airports in Canada, the introduction of WestJet service to JFK and Prince Georgefurther enhances YYC's route network options," said Stephan Poirier, Senior Vice-President & Chief Commercial Officer for The Calgary Airport Authority. "Northern British Columbia will now have a direct link to the more than 70 destinations YYC serves and passengers from all over Canada will enjoy the leisure and business benefits of flying non-stop into the heart of New York City."
About WestJet
We are proud to be Canada's most-preferred airline, powered by an award-winning culture of care and recognized as one of the country's top employers. We offer scheduled service to more than 85 destinations in North America,Central America, the Caribbean and Europe. Through our regional airline, WestJet Encore, and with partnerships with airlines representing every major region of the world, we offer our guests more than 120 destinations in more than 20 countries. Leveraging WestJet's extensive network, flight schedule and remarkable guest experience, WestJet Vacations delivers affordable, flexible travel experiences with a variety of accommodation options for every guest. Members of our WestJet Rewards program earn WestJet dollars on flights, vacation packages and more. Our members use WestJet dollars towards the purchase of WestJet flights and vacations packages on any day, at any time, to any WestJet destination with no blackout periods -- even on seat sales. For more information about everything WestJet, please visit www.westjet.com.There's enough cash sitting in offshore bank accounts to wipe out the federal deficit — if only it was subject to U.S. taxes.
That's because U.S. companies are saving some $620 billion by parking profits outside the country, according to the latest accounting from Citizens for Tax Justice and U.S. PIRG Education Fund.
At least 358 large U.S. companies collectively maintain 7,622 separate overseas subsidiaries holding $2.1 trillion in profits, the group said in a report Tuesday. (The estimated tax bill comes from corporate regulatory filings.)
Bermuda and the Cayman Islands are the most popular tax haven jurisdictions; about 60 percent of companies with tax subsidiaries have at least one in those two island nations, according to the report. The Netherlands leads the list in terms of the total number of subsidiaries.|
One of the most significant political developments in recent US history has been the virtually unchallenged rise of the police state. Despite the vast expansion of the police powers of the Executive Branch of government, the extraordinary growth of an entire panoply of repressive agencies, with hundreds of thousands of personnel, and enormous public and secret budgets and the vast scope of police state surveillance, including the acknowledged monitoring of over 40 million US citizens and residents, no mass pro-democracy movement has emerged to confront the powers and prerogatives or even protest the investigations of the police state.
In the early fifties, when the McCarthyite purges were accompanied by restrictions on free speech, compulsory loyalty oaths and congressional ‘witch hunt’ investigations of public officials, cultural figures, intellectuals, academics and trade unionists, such police state measures provoked widespread public debate and protests and even institutional resistance. By the end of the 1950’s mass demonstrations were held at the sites of the public hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in San Francisco (1960) and elsewhere and major civil rights movements arose to challenge the racially segregated South, the compliant Federal government and the terrorist racist death squads of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). The Free Speech Movement in Berkeley (1964) ignited nationwide mass demonstrations against the authoritarian-style university governance.
The police state incubated during the first years of the Cold War was challenged by mass movements pledged to retain or regain democratic freedoms and civil rights.
Key to understanding the rise of mass movements for democratic freedoms was their fusion with broader social and cultural movements: democratic freedoms were linked to the struggle for racial equality; free speech was necessary in order to organize a mass movement against the imperial US Indo-Chinese wars and widespread racial segregation; the shutting down of Congressional ‘witch hunts’ and purges opened up the cultural sphere to new and critical voices and revitalized the trade unions and professional associations. All were seen as critical to protecting hard-won workers’ rights and social advances.
In the face of mass opposition, many of the overt police state tactics of the 1950’s went ‘underground’ and were replaced by covert operations; selective state violence against individuals replaced mass purges. The popular pro-democracy movements strengthened civil society and public hearings exposed and weakened the police state apparatus, but it did not go away. However, from the early 1980’s to the present, especially over the past 20 years, the police state has expanded dramatically, penetrating all aspects of civil society while arousing no sustained or even sporadic mass opposition.
The question is why has the police state grown and even exceeded the boundaries of previous periods of repression and yet not provoked any sustained mass opposition? This is in contrast to the broad-based pro-democracy movements of the mid to late 20th century. That a massive and growing police state apparatus exists is beyond doubt: one simply has to look up the published records of personnel (both public agents and private contractors), the huge budgets and scores of agencies involved in internal spying on tens of millions of American citizens and residents. The scope and depth of arbitrary police state measures taken include arbitrary detention and interrogations, entrapment and the blacklisting of hundreds of thousands of US citizens. Presidential fiats have established the framework for the assassination of US citizens and residents, military tribunals, detention camps and the seizure of private property.
Yet as these gross violations of the constitutional order have taken place and as each police state agency has further eroded our democratic freedoms, there have been no massive “anti-Homeland Security” movements, no campus ‘Free Speech movements’. There are only the isolated and courageous voices of specialized ‘civil liberties’ and constitutional freedoms activists and organizations, which speak out and raise legal challenges to the abuse, but have virtually no mass base and no objective coverage in the mass media.
To address this issue of mass inactivity before the rise of the police state, we will approach the topic from two angles.
We will describe how the organizers and operatives have structured the police state and how that has neutralized mass responses.
We will then discuss the ‘meaning’ of non-activity, setting out several hypotheses about the underlying motives and behavior of the ‘passive mass’ of citizens.
The Concentric Circles of the Police State
While the potential reach of the police state agencies covers the entire US population, in fact, it operates on the basis of ‘concentric circles’. The police state is perceived and experienced by the US population according to the degree of their involvement in critical opposition to state policies. While the police state theoretically affects ‘everyone’, in practice it operates through a series of concentric circles. The ‘inner core’, of approximately several million citizens, is the sector of the population experiencing the brunt of the police state persecution. They include the most critical, active citizens, especially those identified by the police state as sharing religious and ethnic identities with declared foreign enemies, critics or alleged ‘terrorists’. These include immigrants and citizens of Arab, Persian, Pakistani, Afghan and Somali descent, as well as American converts to Islam.
Ethnic and religious “profiling” is rife in all transport centers (airports, bus and train stations and on the highways). Mosques, Islamic charities and foundations are under constant surveillance and subject to raids, entrapment, arrests, and even Israeli-style ‘targeted’ assassinations.
The second core group, targeted by the police state, includes African Americans, Hispanics and immigration rights activists (numbering in the millions). They are subject to massive arbitrary sweeps, round-ups and unlimited detention without trial as well as mass indiscriminate deportations.
After the ‘core groups’ is the ‘inner circle’ which includes millions of US citizens and residents, who have written or spoken critically of US and Israeli policy in the Middle East, expressed solidarity with the suffering of the Palestinian people, opposed US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan or have visited countries or regions opposed to US empire building (Venezuela, Iran, South Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza, etc.). Hundreds of thousands of these citizens have their telephone, e-mail and internet communications under surveillance; they have been targeted in airports, denied passports, subject to ‘visits’ and to covert and overt blacklisting at their schools and workplaces.
Activists engaged in civil liberties groups, lawyers, and professionals, leftists engaged in anti-Imperialist, pro-democracy and anti-police state activities and their publications are on ‘file’ in the massive police state labyrinth of data collecting on ‘political terrorists’. Environmental movements and their activists have been treated as potential terrorists – with their own family members subjected to police harassment and ominous ‘visits’.
The ‘outer circle’ includes, community, civic, religious and trade union leaders and activists who, in the course of their activity interact with or even express support for core and inner circle critics and victims of police state violations of due process. The ‘outer circle’ numbering a few million citizens are ‘on file’ as ‘persons of interest’, which may involve monitoring their e-mail and periodic ‘checks’ on their petition signing and defense appeals. These ‘three circles’ are the central targets of the police state, numbering upward of 40 million US citizens and immigrants - who have not committed any crime. For having exercised their constitutional rights, they have been subjected to various degrees of police state repression and harassment.
The police state, however, has ‘fluid boundaries’ about whom to spy on, whom to arrest and when - depending on whatever arouses the apparatchiks ‘suspicion’ or desire to exercise power or please their superiors at any given moment. The key to the police state operations of the US in the 21st century is to repress pro-democracy citizens and pre-empt any mass movement without undermining the electoral system, which provides political theater and legitimacy. A police state ‘boundary’ is constructed to ensure that citizens will have little option but to vote for the two pro-police state parties, legislatures and executives without reference to the conduct, conditions and demands of the core, inner and outer circle of victims, critics and activists. Frequent raids, harsh public ‘exemplary’ punishment and mass media stigmatization transmit a message to the passive mass of voters and non-voters that the victims of repression ‘must have been doing something wrong’ or else they would not be under police state repression.
The key to the police state strategy is to not allow its critics to gain a mass base, popular legitimacy or public acceptance. The state and the media constantly drum the message that the activists’ ‘causes’ are not our (American, patriotic) ‘causes’; that ‘their’ pro-democracy activities impede ‘our’ electoral activities; their lives, wisdom and experiences do not touch our workplaces, neighborhoods, sports, religious and civic associations. To the degree that the police-state has ‘fenced in’ the inner circles of the pro-democracy activists, they have attained a free hand and uncontested reach in deepening and extending the boundaries of the authoritarian state. To the degree that the police state rationale or presence has penetrated the consciousness of the mass of the US population, it has created a mighty barrier to the linking of private discontent with public action.
Hypothesis on Mass Complicity and Acquiescence with the Police State
If the police-state is now the dominant reality of US political life, why isn’t it at the center of citizen concern? Why are there no pro-democracy popular movements? How has the police state been so successful in ‘fencing off’ the activists from the vast majority of US citizens? After all, other countries at other times have faced even more repressive regimes and yet the citizens rebelled. In the past, despite the so-called ‘Soviet threat’, pro-democracy movements emerged in the US and even rolled back a burgeoning police state. Why does the evocation of an outside ‘Islamic terrorist threat’ seem to incapacitate our citizens today? Or does it?
There is no simple, single explanation for the passivity of the US citizens faced with a rising omnipotent police state. Their motives are complex and changing and it is best to examine them in some detail.
One explanation for passivity is that precisely the power and pervasiveness of the police state has created deep fear, especially among people with family obligations, vulnerable employment and with moderate commitments to democratic freedoms. This group of citizens is aware of cases where police powers have affected other citizens who were involved in critical activities, causing job loss and broad suffering and are not willing to sacrifice their security and the welfare of their families for what they believe is a ‘losing cause’ – a movement lacking a strong popular base and with little institutional support. Only when the protest against the Wall Street bailout and the ‘ Occupy Wall Street ’ movements against the ‘1%’ gained momentum, did this sector express transitory support. But as the Office of the President consummated the bailout and the police-state crushed the ‘Occupy’ encampments, fear and caution led many sympathizers to withdraw timidly back into passivity.
The second motive for ‘acquiescence’ among a substantial public is because they tend to support the police state, based on their acceptance of the anti-terror ideology and its virulent anti-Muslim-anti-Arab racism, driven in large part by influential sectors of pro-Israel opinion makers. The fear and loathing of Muslims, cultivated by the police state and mass media, was central to the post-9/11 build-up of Homeland Security and the serial wars against Israel ’s adversaries, including Iraq, Lebanon, Libya and now Syria with plans for Iran. Active support for the police state peaked during the first 5 years post- 9/11 and subsequently ebbed as the Wall Street-induced economic crisis, loss of employment and the failures of government policy propelled concerns about the economy far ahead of support for the police state. Nevertheless, at least one-third of the electorate still supports the police state, ‘right or wrong’. They firmly believe that the police state protects their ‘security’; that suspects, arrestees, and others under watch ‘must have been doing something illegal’. The most ardent backers of the police state are found among the rabid anti-immigrant groups who support arbitrary round-ups, mass deportations and the expansion of police powers at the expense of constitutional guarantees.
The third possible motive for acquiescence in the police state is ignorance: those millions of US citizens who are not aware of the size, scope and activities of the police state. Their practical behavior speaks to the notion that ‘since I am not directly affected it must not exist’. Embedded in everyday life, making a living, enjoying leisure time, entertainment, sports, family, neighborhoods and concerned only about household budgets … This mass is so embedded in their personal ‘micro-world’ that it considers the macro-economic and political issues raised by the police state as ‘distant’, outside of their experience or interest: ‘I don’t have time’, ‘I don’t know enough’, ‘It’s all ‘politics’ … The widespread apoliticism of the US public plays into its ignoring the monster that has grown in its midst.
Paradoxically as some peoples’ concerns and passive discontent over the economy has grown, it has lessened support for the police state as well as having lessened opposition to it. In other words the police state flourishes while public discontent is focused more on the economic institutions of the state and society. Few, if any, contemporary political leaders educate their constituency by connecting the rise of the police state, imperial wars and Wall Street to the everyday economic issues concerning most US citizens. The fragmentation of issues, the separation of the economic from the political and the divorce of political concerns from individual ones, allow the police state to stand ‘above and outside’ of the popular consciousness, concerns and activities.
State-sponsored fear mongering on behalf of the police state is amplified and popularized by the mass media on a daily basis via propagandistic-‘news’, ‘anti-terrorist’ detective programs, Hollywood’s decades of crass anti-Arab, Islamophobic films. The mass media portrayal of the police state’s naked violations of democratic rights as normal and necessary in a milieu infiltrated by ‘Muslim terrorists’, where feckless ‘liberals’(defenders of due process and the Bill of Rights) threaten national security, has been effective.
Ideologically, the police state depends on identifying the expansion of police powers with ‘national security’ of the passive ‘silent’ majority, even as it creates profound insecurity for an active, critical minority. The self-serving identification of the ‘nation’ and the ‘flag’ with the police state apparatus is especially prominent during ‘mass spectacles’ where ‘rock’, schlock and ‘sports’ infuse mass entertainment with solemn Pledges of Allegiance to uphold and respect the police state and busty be-wigged young women wail nasally versions of the national anthem to thunderous applause. Wounded ‘warriors’ are trotted out and soldiers rigid in their dress uniforms salute enormous flags, while the message transmitted is that police state at home works hand in hand with our ‘men and women in uniform’ abroad. The police state is presented as a patriotic extension of the wars abroad and as such both impose ‘necessary’ constraints on citizen opposition, public criticism and any real forthright defense of freedom.
Conclusion: What is to be done?
The ascendancy of the police state has benefited enormously from the phony bi-partisan de-politicization of repressive legislation, and the fragmentation of socio-economic struggles from democratic dissent. The mass anti-war movements of the early 1990’s and 2001-2003 were undermined (sold-out) by the defection of its leaders to the Democratic Party machine and its electoral agenda. The massive popular immigration movement was taken over by Mexican-American political opportunists from the Democratic Party and decimated while the same Democratic Party, under President Barack Obama, has escalated police state repression against immigrants, expelling millions of Latino immigrant workers and their families.
Historical experience teaches us that a successful struggle against an emerging police state depends on the linking of the socio-economic struggles that engage the attention of the masses of citizens with the pro-democracy, pro-civil liberty, ‘free speech’ movements of the middle classes. The deepening economic crisis, the savage cuts in living standards and working conditions and the fight to save ‘sacred’ social programs (like Social Security and Medicare) have to be tied in with the expansion of the police state. A mass social justice movement, which brings together thousands of anti-Wall Streeters, millions of pro-Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid recipients with hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers will inevitably clash with the bloated police-state apparatus. Freedom is essential to the struggle for social justice and the mass struggle for social justice is the only basis for rolling back the police state. The hope is that mass economic pain will ignite mass activity, which, in turn, will make people aware of the dangerous growth of the police state. A mass understanding of this link will be essential to any advance in the movement for democracy and people’s welfare at home and peace abroad.
# # # #
Professor James Petras is the author of more than 62 books published in 29 languages, and over 600 articles in professional journals, including the American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, Social Research, and Journal of Peasant Studies. He has a long history of commitment to social justice, working in particular with the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement for 11 years. He writes a monthly column for the Mexican newspaper, La Jornada, and previously, for the Spanish daily, El Mundo. Dr. Petras received his B.A. from Boston University and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. You can visit his website here.Sony’s recently announced gaming back catalogue streaming service, PlayStation Now, will have a Netflix like subscription fee, according to a new PlayStation Access video posted on YouTube.
PlayStation Now will have the ability to stream games from remote servers, over your home internet connection, to Sony televisions, tablets and the PlayStation 4. Gaikai, the cloud-based gaming company behind PlayStation Now’s technology, was acquired by Sony last June for $380 million. It’s widely believed that PlayStation Now will be used to give the PS4 backwards compatibility with PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and PSOne games.
Sony hasn’t discussed specific pricing plans yet, but it’s expected a PlayStation Now subscription will be an additional fee on top of the $49.99 a year PlayStation Plus subscription model. The ability to purchase access to individual games will also reportedly be part of the service. Netflix currently charges about $8 a month for unlimited streaming of its content on a variety of platforms.
Imagine if Sony charged a similar fee for access to PSone, PS2 and PS3 games? If PlayStation Now actually works the way it’s intended to, it could change the way many people play video games. Having a decent internet connection, at least 5mb/s according to Sony, is essential to the service working properly though.
The video also mentions that all games on the service will be fully featured, meaning you’ll have the ability to save, earn trophies and play online multiplayer, in the same way disc-based versions of the game work. There’s no word yet on whether these features will extend to PSone and PS2 games, although you’ll presumably be able to save your progress. It also hasn’t even been confirmed that PSOne and PS2 games will be playable through PlayStation Now.
A beta for the U.S. version of PlayStation Now is set to launch later this month, with the full service launching in August. Sony recently told Gamespot that availability information for other regions will come at a later date.
Sony also recently opened a PlayStation Now beta sign up page for U.S. residents. The PlayStation Access YouTube channel is owned by PlayStation’s official U.K-based magazine and website.
Follow me on Twitter: @Patrick_ORourke.Written by Mike Hohnen on June 6, 2013
We can’t really say it’s a massive surprise, but an in-store appearance by Odd Future members, including Tyler, The Creator Earl Sweatshirt and Jasper Dolphin, has come to an abrupt end in Sydney after riot police were called in to disperse thousands of eager fans.
Hopefuls flocked to George Street’s Culture King store to get their moment with Odd Future, many of whom are sure to have some pretty cool war stories and Instagrams from back in their day, but unfortunately for most they didn’t even get through the doors.
According to theMusic.com.au, the queue to get in stretched for two blocks and both floors of the store were packed to the brim with eager fans.
Culture King has issued an apology to fans who missed out, stating:
“We were excited when Odd Future approached us about hosting an in-store. We’re big fans of their music and stock Odd Future Clothing in our stores. We’re very sorry to the fans who didn’t get to meet Tyler and the guys before police shut it down.”
Tyler himself also gave a shout out to disappointed fans on Twitter (in his usual shouty style):
“SORRY TO YOU WHO COULDNT SEE ME TODAY, POLICE SHUT IT DOWN, SORRY HOPEFULLY YOU COME TO THE SHOW!!!”
The EarlWolf tour will continue unheeded, no doubt. They’ll be performing tonight in Sydney then heading through to Melbourne and Brisbane, though you can be sure this won’t be the last time we report on happenings surrounding this tour.
(Via theMusic.com.au)
SORRY TO YOU WHO COULDNT SEE ME TODAY, POLICE SHUT IT DOWN, SORRY HOPEFULLY YOU COME TO THE SHOW!!! — Tyler, The Creator (@fucktyler) June 6, 2013
Watch: Circle pit on Australian EarlWolf tour – Perth, 04/06/13Lawmakers in Tennessee are considering legislation that would protect bullies who harass other students for their sexual orientation.
The so-called “license to bully” bill (HB 1153/SB 0760) would allow students to share any “religious, philosophical, or political views” that are “unpopular,” regardless of their consequences to the learning environment, and limits educators’ ability to curb such harassment.
Equality advocates lodged an email protest campaign against the measure, but were particularly surprised by the reaction of state Rep. John Ragan (R).
In a long letter to one opponent of the bill, Ragan replied that gay “feelings” can be controlled by “mentally healthy adult human beings,” and concluded by stating, “Should society avoid disapproving of pedophilia, prostitution, murder, etc., because practitioners of those behaviors may commit suicide at higher rates?” An excerpt from his letter:
Examining another statistic, it has been well known for a decade that suicide is attempted much more frequently in the homosexual community than in the heterosexual community (Mathy, Cochran, Olsen, & Mays, 2009). This same source pointed out that, on average, suicide is approximately three times more likely among homosexuals than heterosexuals. As a fitting critical thought question, it could be asked if other identifiable groups that engage in behavior of which “others may disapprove” commit suicide at similar rates? In other words, do prostitutes, pedophiles, polygamists, murders, etc., commit suicide at the same, or similar, rates to homosexual behavior practitioners? If similar rates were hypothetically so (not proven to be the case), do these behavior practitioners commit suicide at a higher rate because someone may have disapproved of their behavior or for other reasons? Should society avoid disapproving of pedophilia, prostitution, murder, etc., because practitioners of those behaviors may commit suicide at higher rates?
The mindset behind the measure undermines research that shows that the presence of LGBT-inclusive anti-bullying policies, supportive staff, and gay-straight alliances help minimize bullying.
In addition to this bill, the Tennessee legislature will also reconsider the infamous “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which prevents teachers and staff from providing any educational support about LGBT identities.
This Story Filed UnderThis post written by Don Stanwyck, Senior Program Manager, Windows Core Networking
Remote DMA (RDMA) is an incredible technology that allows networked hosts to exchange information with virtually no CPU overhead and with extremely little latency in the end–system. Microsoft has been shipping support for RDMA in Windows Server since Windows Server 2012 and in Windows 10 (some SKUs) since its first release. With the release of Windows Server 1709 Windows Server supports RDMA in the guest. RDMA is presented over the SR-IOV path, i.e., with direct hardware access from the guest to the RDMA engine in the NIC hardware, and with essentially the same latency (and low CPU utilization) as seen in the host.
This week we published a how-to guide (https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/RDMA-configuration-425bcdf2) on deploying RDMA on native hosts, on virtual NICs in the host partition (Converged NIC), and in Hyper-V guests. This guide in intended to help reduce the amount of time our customers spend trying to get their RDMA networks deployed and working.
As many of my readers are aware, in Windows 2012 we shipped the first version of RDMA on Windows. It supported only native interfaces, i.e., direct binding of the SMB protocol to the RDMA capabilities offered by the physical NIC. Today we refer to that mode of operation as Network Direct Kernel Provider Interface (NDKPI) Mode 1, or more simply, Native RDMA.
SMB-Direct (SMB over RDMA) was popular, but if a customer wanted RDMA on a Hyper-V host they had to set up separate NICs for RDMA and for Hyper-V. That got expensive.
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With Windows Server 2016 came the solution: Converged NIC operation. Now a customer who wanted to use RDMA and Hyper-V at the same time could do so on the same NICs – and even have them in a team for bandwidth aggregation and failover protection. The ability to use a host vNIC for both host TCP traffic and RDMA traffic and share the physical NIC with Guest traffic is called NDKPI Mode 2.
New technologies were built on the Converged NIC. Storage Spaces Direct (S2D), for example, delivered the ability to user RDMA for low latency storage across all the hosts in a rack.
That wasn’t enough. Customers told us they wanted RDMA access from within VMs. They wanted the same low latency, low CPU utilization path that the host gets from using RDMA to be available from inside the guest. We heard them.
Windows Server 1709 supports RDMA in the guest. RDMA is presented over the SR-IOV path, i.e., with direct hardware access from the guest to the RDMA engine in the NIC hardware. (This is NDKPI Mode 3.) This means that the latency between a guest and the network is essentially the same as between a native host and the network. Today this is only available on Windows Server 1709 with guests that are also Windows Server 1709. Watch for support in other guests to be announced in upcoming releases.
This means that trusted applications in guests can now use any RDMA application, e.g., SMB Direct, S2D, or even 3rd party technologies that are written to our kernel RDMA interface, to communicate using RDMA to any other network entity.
Yes, there is that word “trusted” in the previous statement. What does that mean? It means that for today, just like with any other SR-IOV connected VM, the Hyper-V switch can’t apply ACLs, QoS policies, etc., so the VM may do some things that could cause some level of discomfort for other guests or even the host. For example, the VM may attempt to transmit a large quantity of data that would compete with the other traffic from the host (including TCP/IP traffic from non-SR-IOV guests).
So how can that be managed? There are two answers to that question, one present, and one future. In the present Windows allows the system administrator to affinitize VMs to specific physical NICs, so a concerned administrator could affinitize the VM with RDMA to a separate physical NIC from the other guests in the system (the Switch Embedded Team can support up to 8 physical NICs). In the future, at a time yet to be announced, Windows Server expects to provide bandwidth management (reservations and limits) of SR-IOV-connected VMs for both their RDMA and non-RDMA traffic, and enforcement of ACLs programmed by the host administrator and applying to SR-IOV traffic (IP-based and RDMA). Our hardware partners are busy implementing the new interfaces that support these capabilities.
What scenarios might want to use Guest RDMA today? There are several that come to mind, and they all share the following characteristics:
They want low-latency access to network storage;
They don’t want to waste CPU overhead on storage networking; and
They are using SMB or one of the 3 rd party solutions that runs on Windows Kernel RDMA.
So whether you are using SMB storage directly from the guest, or you are running an application that uses SMB (e.g., SQL) in a guest and want faster storage access, or you are using a 3rd party NVMe or other RDMA-based technology, you can use them with our Guest RDMA capability.
Finally, while High Performance Computing (HPC) applications rarely run in Guest OSs, some of our hardware partners are exposing the Network Direct Service Provider Interface (NDSPI), Microsoft’s user-space RDMA interface, in guests as well. So if your hardware vendor supports NDSPI (MPI), you can use that from a guest as well.
RDMA and DCB
RDMA is a great technology that uses very little CPU and has very low latency. Some RDMA technologies take a heavy reliance on Data Center Bridging (DCB). DCB has proven to be difficult for many customers to deploy successfully. As a result, the view of RDMA as a technology has been affected by the experiences customers have had with DCB – and that’s sad. The product teams at Microsoft are starting to say more clearly what we’ve said in quieter terms in the past:
Microsoft Recommendation: While the Microsoft RDMA interface is RDMA-technology agnostic, in our experience with customers and partners we find that RoCE/RoCEv2 installations are difficult to get configured correctly and are problematic at any scale above a single rack. If you intend to deploy RoCE/RoCEv2, you should a) have a small scale (single rack) installation, and b) have an expert network administrator who is intimately familiar with Data Center Bridging (DCB), especially the Enhanced Transmission Service (ETS) and Priority Flow Control (PFC) components of DCB. If you are deploying in any other context iWarp is the safer alternative. iWarp does not require any configuration of DCB on network hosts or network switches and can operate over the same distances as any other TCP connection. RoCE, even when enhanced with Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) detection, requires network configuration to configure DCB/ETS/PFC and/or ECN especially if the scale of deployment exceeds a single rack. Tuning of these settings, i.e., the settings required to make DCB and/or ECN work, is an art not mastered by every network engineer.
RoCE vendors have been very actively working to reduce the complexity associated with RoCE deployments. See the list of resources (below) for more information about vendor specific solutions. Check with your NIC vendor for their recommended tools and deployment guidance.
Additional resources:Not to be confused with Charles the Bold
Denier of Charles the Bald struck at Paris
Charles the Bald (13 June 823 – 6 October 877) was the King of West Francia (843–877), King of Italy (875–877) and Holy Roman Emperor (875–877, as Charles II). After a series of civil wars during the reign of his father, Louis the Pious, Charles succeeded by the Treaty of Verdun (843) in acquiring the western third of the Carolingian Empire. He was a grandson of Charlemagne and the youngest son of Louis the Pious by his second wife, Judith.
Struggle against his brothers [ edit ]
Kingdoms of Charles the Bald (orange) and other Carolingians in 876
He was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt, when his elder brothers were already adults and had been assigned their own regna, or subkingdoms, by their father. The attempts made by Louis the Pious to assign Charles a subkingdom, first Alemannia and then the country between the Meuse and the Pyrenees (in 832, after the rising of Pepin I of Aquitaine) were unsuccessful. The numerous reconciliations with the rebellious Lothair and Pepin, as well as their brother Louis the German, King of Bavaria, made Charles's share in Aquitaine and Italy only temporary, but his father did not give up and made Charles the heir of the entire land which was once Gaul. At a diet in Aachen in 837, Louis the Pious bade the nobles do homage to Charles as his heir. Pepin of Aquitaine died in 838, whereupon Charles at last received that kingdom, which angered Pepin's heirs and the Aquitainian nobles.
The death of the emperor in 840 led to the outbreak of war between his sons. Charles allied himself with his brother Louis the German to resist the pretensions of the new Emperor Lothair I, and the two allies defeated Lothair at the Battle of Fontenoy-en-Puisaye on 25 June 841. In the following year, the two brothers confirmed their alliance by the celebrated Oaths of Strasbourg. The war was brought to an end by the Treaty of Verdun in August 843. The settlement gave Charles the Bald the kingdom of the West Franks, which he had been up until then governing and which practically corresponded with what is now France, as far as the Meuse, the Saône, and the Rhône, with the addition of the Spanish March as far as the Ebro. Louis received the eastern part of the Carolingian Empire, known then as East Francia and later as Germany. Lothair retained the imperial title and the Kingdom of Italy. He also received the central regions from Flanders through the Rhineland and Burgundy as king of Middle Francia.
Reign in the West [ edit ]
The first years of Charles's reign, up to the death of Lothair I in 855, were comparatively peaceful. During these years the three brothers continued the system of "confraternal government", meeting repeatedly with one another, at Koblenz (848), at Meerssen
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city," he said.
City officials said they won't know how much repair work needs to be done until after the backhoe is removed. Until then, they don't know how long the street will be closed.Oregon's bottle deposit will soon go from a nickel to a dime, an effort to raise redemption rates that have sagged in recent years.
In 1971, Oregon passed a first-of-its-kind "bottle bill," which added 5 cents to the price of canned and bottled beer and soft drinks. To get the money back, a person had to return the bottle or can instead of throwing it away.
A nickel carried real spending power back then. For the first 15 years, return rates exceeded 90 percent, while the amount of litter along Oregon's roads and in its landfills declined. But by 2009, only about three-quarters of bottles were redeemed, according to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.
To combat that problem, the 2011 Legislature decreed that if the redemption rate were to fall below 80 percent for two consecutive years, the 5 cent bottle deposit would be doubled.
In July, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission announced the latest numbers: about 68 percent for 2014 and 64 percent in 2015. The provision will kick in April 1, 2017.
The eight-month lag is important, said Christie Scott, the liquor commission's spokeswoman. The state plans to use the time to work with manufacturers, beverage distributors and consumers to prepare for the change.
Cans and bottle labeling must be updated to reflect the 10 cent deposit. Redemption centers need to reprogram their machines. And the state has to educate customers.
"We want to make sure people know this is coming and aren't surprised on April 1 when they take their six-pack up to the counter and it's a 60-cent deposit, not a 30-cent one," Scott said. "That's why it's not just snap your fingers and automatically it's 10 cents."
There's also the issue of ridding shelves of bottles labeled with the 5 cent deposit mark before the change kicks in. Even if someone pays the lower rate, they'll still receive 10 cents back come April 1.
"We're going to take a hit as an industry," said Joe Gilliam, president of the Northwest Grocery Association. "A lot of containers out there that are worth a nickel will suddenly be worth a dime the next day."
That's what happened in 2009, when the bill expanded to include bottled water. That change "didn't kill us, but it was a cost to the system," Gilliam said.
The commission will hold a "rulemaking hearing" to go over stakeholders' concerns and questions, Scott said.
Oregon is one of 10 states with a bottle bill. Most have stuck with 5 cents, though Maine and Vermont offer 15 cents for liquor bottles, and California gives 10 cents back for bottles larger than 24 ounces.
Only Michigan has a 10 cent deposit, and its return rates consistently hover above 90 percent.
Oregon will be the first state to increase an established deposit amount, said Cherilyn Bertges, an Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative spokeswoman. The cooperative operates 16 BottleDrop redemption centers across the state and is planning to add four more before April.
"We do expect there to be an increase in return rates, but how much that will be is a good question," Bertges said. "We don't have an exact example, so it's pretty much anybody's guess what will happen."
Though redemption centers handle about 40 percent of returns, Gilliam said, there aren't enough of them to mitigate the soon-to-be increased burden for grocery stores.
He estimates the state needs another 15 centers to absorb what he predicts could be a 20 percent uptick in returns at grocery stores.
"It's going to be tough on the retailer because we're really maxed out at the retail level in the number of cans we take in today," he said, noting that the average Oregon grocery store redeems 7,000 cans and bottles a day.
Doubling the deposit is going to increase the number of people who go through neighborhoods to collect others' cans, Gilliam said, and it also may exacerbate fraud.
Already, he said, people from Washington and Idaho - states without bottle bills - cross the border to redeem cans they didn't pay a deposit on.
"There's concern that would go up as well," he said. "There's always someone angling to make a buck."
Oregon's historic bottle deposit system will soon see additional change. In 2018, it will be expanded to include "all beverage containers except distilled liquor, wine, dairy or plant-based milk, and infant formula."
That means people will be able to get 10 cents back for beverages including tea, coffee, hard cider, kombucha and coconut water.
Part of the reason for the return rate's fluctuation is the evolving purchasing power of the nickel. Though the cost of living has changed over the last 45 years, the bottle deposit hasn't.
If it had, Bertges said, the deposit would be now be up to about 30 cents.
"Obviously we're not jumping all the way to 30 cents, but this is an effort to make up for some of that," she said. "It'll renew that financial incentive a little bit."
Ben Cannon, a former Oregon legislator who sponsored the bill, said he hopes the law he helped put in the books years ago has a positive impact.
"I would've been thrilled if the redemption rate had increased above 80 percent without the deposit going to the dime," he said. "The point wasn't to make a dime, it was to increase the number of containers being recycled."
Frequent visitors to Safeway's downtown bottle return had varying opinions on the upcoming change.
Robert Gimarelli saves his own bottles and comes almost daily to redeem them. He also picks them up at bus stops, on the street and at his apartment building.
"I don't want to see them thrown away - they're money, they're gold," said Gimarelli, 29. "It's a good day, April 1. It's more money in your pocket."
But Deb Stone, 61, said the increase will make her life harder. She "dumpster dives," and often spends three to four hours going through each of the eight trash rooms in her building.
"I'm not excited because I don't see the cans being there anymore," Stone said. "People will save them and take them in themselves now that they're worth more. Sometimes I come here with $15 worth of bottles but I don't think that'll be available anymore."
- Talia Richman
@TaliRichman
The Oregonian/OregonLive's Lizzy Acker contributed to this report.Introduction
The federal agency charged with investigating chemical accidents is weighed down by a backlog of unfinished investigations, hindering its ability to provide information and advice that could prevent future disasters, a report released this week by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General concluded.
A recent Center for Public Integrity story examined the causes of this backlog at the agency, the Chemical Safety Board, and the dissatisfaction with its performance among some in Congress, current and former board members and families affected by unfinished accident investigations.
The inspector general’s report found that the disparity between the number of investigations the agency, known as the CSB, planned to complete and the number it actually finished has widened steadily in recent years. In 2007, the IG found, the agency completed 10 investigations, its goal that year. In 2012, it completed just two of the eight investigations it hoped to finish.
Six current investigations have been underway for more than three years, and the CSB doesn’t have adequate written plans to close them out, the report said. These include a release of highly toxic hydrofluoric acid at the Citgo oil refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 2009, and a 2008 explosion that killed a worker at the BP refinery in Texas City, Texas — the site of a 2005 blast that killed 15 workers and injured at least 180 more. In its response to the inspector general, the agency said these two cases, along with others, have been proposed for termination.
Also unfinished is the report on the 2010 explosion that killed seven workers at the Tesoro Corp. refinery in Anacortes, Wash. This delay has prompted criticism from members of Congress and family members of those who died.
“I’m encouraged by the Inspector General’s recommendations, but this report doesn’t change the fact that after more than three years, the Chemical Safety Board has still failed to complete its investigation of the tragic Tesoro refinery accident in Washington state,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a statement to the Center. “Until the CSB finishes their open reports and demonstrates they can remain accountable as an independent agency, I will continue to follow their actions, and not just their words.”
A turnover rate of 15 percent among investigators over the past five fiscal years and a lack of formal policies to track investigations’ progress and set goals for completion may be contributing to the delay, the report found.
“[T]his report points out weaknesses that I believe can and should be improved upon,” current board member Mark Griffon wrote the inspector general. “I am very concerned about the significant turnover of senior investigative staff.”
The CSB declined an interview request from the Center. It did provide a statement, and its responses to the inspector general are included with the report.
“The CSB agrees with the OIG that it is desirable to complete reports more quickly — and we even agree with the majority of their recommendations (most of which we already had underway as CSB initiatives),” the statement said. “But this report has largely missed the mark in its analysis, overlooking the significant impact of resource constraints and demands from Congress and other stakeholders for large-scale investigations … ”
The agency acknowledged producing fewer reports in recent years but highlighted its involvement in complex investigations of high-profile accidents, such as the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the explosion at the Chevron refinery in Richmond, Calif., last year. It also disputed the inspector general’s calculation of its turnover rate, saying it should include only those who voluntarily left the agency, which it said would place the rate at 9 percent. No investigators had left in the past nine months, the agency said.
The inspector general cited a survey of CSB employees that found that 59 percent said they were dissatisfied with senior leadership — a figure the report said was worse than the government average. A former board member previously told the Center the agency was “grossly mismanaged.” This week, the CSB did not answer Center questions about the survey.Two nights ago, TNA Impact didn’t air until an hour and 50 minutes after scheduled due to technical issues at Pop TV. That predictably lead to very poor viewership numbers at 210K. That was down from 326K the week before.
Because of the technical issues, PopTV ran an encore last night to give a chance for those interested to tune back in for the Slammiversary fall out show. Impressively, the encore airing pulled in 117K viewers as reported by ShowbuzzDaily (you’ll have to scroll down to the comments to see it, where site founder Mitch Salem answers a reader question about the promotions ratings.)
117K is very good for a show airing on an unusual night. If added with those who stuck around on Tuesday, total viewership this week comes to 327K, which is about where they were the week prior. All things considered given the technical difficulties, this was the best they could hope for.
For a recap/review of the show, you can find it here.If your organization is looking to produce video, it’s likely time to look for a professional video production company. Though it may be tempting to try to figure it all out yourself, there are quite a few barriers ahead of you… some of which may be surmountable, but many of which are not. Ultimately, a professional video company will save you significant time, effort and money, while also producing a quality product that you can be proud of.
1. Training: Sure, It Looks Easy, But…
Experienced professionals make everything look simple. Even going to the doctor might leave you thinking, “I could have just Google searched my symptoms.” But, obviously, training has value that you can’t always immediately quantify. Professional video companies are staffed by individuals who have studied both film processes and theory extensively and know how to achieve the results that you want.
Film quality and audio quality depends highly on the environment and the equipment involved. A single mistake with your lighting, and you could find yourself having to re-shoot everything that you just did. A background noise, like a fan, may ruin all of your audio, requiring multiple takes or an investment in better equipment. These are small things to fix early on that an amateur wouldn’t even notice but that a professional would immediately know to look for.
As with any skilled profession, there is a sharp learning curve. The question is whether you want to go through all of the training necessary to produce high quality video yourself, or you want to pay the professionals who have already done so.
2. Equipment: You’re Only as Good as Your Tools
A woodworker may be able to create something beautiful with just a saw and some sandpaper, but video doesn’t work that way. Video quality is highly dependent on the equipment used. No amount of post-production work can improve the quality of bad raw video; if you’re recording on an inexpensive device, the video will look amateurish.
Professional video production companies have thousands (or even hundreds of thousands) of dollars of equipment specifically for this reason. A consumer-focused product is never going to achieve the quality that this equipment can. And, even more importantly, the professional production company knows how to use this equipment to the best effect. Though you could rent professional-grade equipment for the project, it’s unlikely that you would be able to fully utilize its features without significant training.
3. Experience: Doing It Right the First Time
It isn’t always just about the raw video; it’s also about the process of the project itself. An experienced professional video production company has a system in place and knows how to take a project from the beginning to the end. They know which steps have to be done and in what order, and they know what they need to progress to the next stage. Producing a video involves project management and time management skills, which are learned over many years within the industry.
As an amateur, you would likely find yourself often going back to prior steps or realizing things hadn’t gone quite right in the beginning. There are many things that you might have to do over as you learn, which will again eat up time and resources. It isn’t about skill or talent; a lack of experience simply means that you don’t have the knowledge to identify issues as they pop up (or before they occur), and thus will need to put more of your time into the work. And, for that matter…
4. Time: Sticking to the Deadline
“Do it yourself” projects always take longer than projects completed by a professional — and usually can’t achieve the same results within that time. Though you may feel as though you’re saving money by doing it yourself, you probably aren’t when you consider the amount of time you spend on the project. After all, how much time could you be spending working on your business, rather than trying to create a professional video from scratch?
If you need a project done quickly, a professional is really the only answer. There are too many things that could go “wrong” about a project in the hands of an inexperienced lead. In fact, the project might never actually get done at all — and that could be a lot of money and time wasted. Professionals know how to schedule everything just right so that they have enough of a buffer in case something unexpected occurs, and they will be guaranteed to get the job done.
5. Cost: Coming In Under Budget
Professional video production companies know exactly how much a video will cost. Give them a specification sheet, and they can usually narrow down an estimate with lightning precision — or even guarantee a specific rate for the completed product. But when you try to finish a video production on your own, you may be astonished at all of the incidentals that you rack up. And this isn’t even considering the above mentioned opportunity cost.
Consider the cost of paying your employees to work on the video production, in addition to renting professional-grade equipment and learning to use it. Further, consider the cost of any mistakes made: each mistake will exponentially increase cost, because all of the equipment (and employees) need to be brought in again, sometimes after you thought the project was complete. In short, everything ends up costing slightly more than you thought, until you’ve exceeded your budget.
Finally, there’s one last compelling reason to use a professional production company: the finished product. A professionally produced video simply has polish, through the equipment and experience involved, that a do-it-yourself video can’t achieve. There are many small aspects of a production, such as getting the color balance right, that will tip a viewer off as to whether the video feels professional or “cheap” — even subconsciously. The last thing you want to do is spend time and money developing a video that doesn’t feel polished or complete.
Article by Joe Forte, co-owner and producer at D-Mak Productions, one of the top production companies in Phoenix.
Download your guide to corporate videos
and why you need them!OXFORD, Miss. -- Ole Miss receiver Laquon Treadwell is expected to need four months to recover from a broken leg and dislocated ankle suffered in the team's 35-31 loss to Auburn on Saturday, coach Hugh Freeze said Monday.
Treadwell was close to scoring a go-ahead touchdown with 1:30 remaining in the game when he was tackled from behind and fumbled. His left leg and ankle bent at an awkward angle and the 6-foot-2, 229-pound sophomore was in obvious pain before being carted off the field.
He had surgery late Saturday night to repair the broken fibula and dislocated ankle.
Freeze said Monday he hopes Treadwell, who is the Rebels' leading receiver this season, will be healthy enough to return for spring practice.
Ole Miss (7-2, 4-2 SEC) hosts Presbyterian on Saturday.Lawrence O'Donnell had some harsh words for the actress who participated in the controversial political ad supporting a Michigan Republican Senate candidate.
During his Monday night show, O'Donnell replayed the ad that features an Asian actress speaking in broken English. She says, "Thank you Michigan Senator Debbie Spenditnow. Debbie spend so much American money. You borrow more and more -- from us. Your economy get very weak. Ours get very good. We take your jobs. Thank you Debbie Spenditnow." The ad was created by former Representative Pete Hoekstra who wants to challenge U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow.
The ad drew a considerable amount of criticism after it aired during the Super Bowl Sunday night and O'Donnell piled on some more. "It's one thing for Pete Hoekstra to buy 30 seconds of television time to tell us, if he can in clear English...what troubles him about this country's relationship with China. But it is quite another for him to hire an actor to do his dirty work for him," O'Donnell said. He harshly criticized the actress for playing a character in a political ad that cast her as a racial stereotype, and said he would like to know "what exactly she was thinking."
O'Donnell then urged actors of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) to make "a pledge of simple decency...[to] not play dirty politics."
O'Donnell ended his remarks by offering the young actress one piece of advice. "I've done things in show business...that I'm not proud of. But I've never done anything that I'm ashamed of," he said.
WATCH:Have you been good? Because we here at Boss Fight have a nice little holiday gift for our loyal fans. Along with a brand new Guild system, the next major patch will contain an all-new gameplay mode for all Dungeon Bosses who have reached at least level 28. We call this new feature The Tower of Pwnage.The Tower of Pwnage is an all-new challenge meant to test the extents of your wits, your team’s endurance, and your strategic planning. At its core, it’s simple: it’s a twelve-room challenge dungeon. Early rooms are fairly easy, but the tower gets more difficult as you ascend. Your rewards are based largely on how high you manage to climb. Getting to the top is a tough slog, but if you can actually beat the final boss on top, impressive awards await.Of course, a 12-room dungeon is a long, tough slog for one squad, so we’re going to open it up a little and let you use your whole hero collection. Between every level, you’ll have the opportunity to switch in new teammates, and give other heroes a breather.And this is important, because there’s a big catch: your heroes’ health and energy persists between floors. You might use IGOROK’s ability on the first floor right out of the gate, but that means you won’t be able to use it again for a couple of floors – and if you don’t use him for a few floors, his health and energy will NOT refresh during that time. This persistence lasts for the day – the next day, you can refresh the Tower, as well as your collection, in order to make another ascent.Health persists as you ascend. Wounds that your hero suffers will persist in the next level, and heroes that fall in battle will not be accessible for the rest of your climb up the tower. And retreating is a coward's way out that is punished harshly - wounds that your hero suffers will persist after retreating, but the defender's health will be restored to their pre-fight levels.The higher you climb on your tower run, the more Pwnage Points you get. You can cash those in at the Pwn Shop, for all sorts of wonderful goodies.Our goal in designing the Tower of Pwnage was to encourage players to use their hero collections in brand new ways, and we’ve already see this in our playtesting. Heroes that are normally undervalued become more valuable when you factor in endurance and strategically managing your healing capability becomes a crucial skill. Savvy players will quickly learn the value of ‘charging up’ their abilities on lower levels so those abilities can be unloaded on higher ones.We’re very excited about the Tower of Pwnage and we think you will be too. We’re planning for it to be the first of a number of new features that challenge players to think about Dungeon Boss, and their heroes in general, in an all-new way.We can’t wait to see the Dungeon Bosses of the world take this challenge on!Damion Schubert, Design DirectorGreen Party candidate and certified conspiracy theorist Jill Stein is obsessed with Harambe, the Cincinnati zoo gorilla neutralized to defend a human child. As a paragon of the political Left, this shouldn’t be a surprise. Harambe has become the Left’s raison d'etre. They worship at the gorilla’s grave with zealotry reminiscent of the Branch Davidians. If you think that’s hyperbole, check out Stein’s panegyric three months after Saint Harambe’s death.
The killing of Harambe 3 months ago today reminds us to be a voice for the voiceless. https://t.co/wMZpWlLicY pic.twitter.com/8WtlDhRlIy undefinedmdash; Dr. Jill Stein (@DrJillStein) August 28, 2016
@DrJillStein how is this a real tweet — Joshua Yasmeh (@JoshYaz) August 28, 2016
Tweeted Sunday, Stein’s statement suggests that the “the killing of Harambe” somehow epitomizes the oppression of the “voiceless.”
Yes, because zoo staff putting down gorilla is the same as Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad suffocating young infants to death with sarin gas.
The false moral equivalence is all the more disturbing given the Green Party nominee’s anti-science position on childhood immunizations.
During the course of her fringe campaign for president, Stein, an actual medical doctor with an MD, has repeatedly issued dog whistles to the Left’s anti-vaxxer community in an effort to rally her lunatic base.
“As a medical doctor, there was a time where I looked very closely at those issues, and not all those issues were completely resolved,” she stated in an interview with The Washington Post. “There were concerns among physicians about what the vaccination schedule meant, the toxic substances like mercury which used to be rampant in vaccines. There were real questions that needed to be addressed. I think some of them at least have been addressed. I don’t know if all of them have been addressed.”
While Stein denies the allegation that she’s “anti-vaccination,” her dangerous rhetoric has left the door open for skepticism about the safety, efficacy, and supposedly nefarious motives for vaccinating vulnerable young children.
With a tinfoil hat wrapped tightly around her trendy pixie haircut, Stein echoes far-Left talking points about the “corrupt” system, seemingly poisoning “our children.”
“I think what I have raised questions about is just influence peddling in the FDA,” she squawked. “Right now there’s a lot of distrust for government agencies and for government in general. That’s another reason to stop the revolving door, for example, between Monsanto lobbyists who then wind up as heads of major departments…”
Here’s another example of her anti-vaxxer dog whistle, implying that regulators approving medications and vaccines cannot be trusted:
Anyone who supports vaccinations and wishes to prevent dropping vaccination rates should be concerned about the erosion of public trust caused by the corrupting influence of the pharmaceutical industry in regulatory agencies and government in general.
Insidiously, Stein has even hinted at the conspiracy theory that autism may be linked to vaccines.
It’s a lie that’s been debunked by countless peer-reviewed studies and clinical trials. To be clear, vaccines are safe, effective, and necessary for children. They are lifesavers. Anybody that says otherwise shouldn’t be near the levers of power, to steal an expression from Hillary Clinton.
The fact that Stein is going out of her way to shower praise on a gorilla, while undermining the lifesaving power of modern medicine is a testament to the creed of misanthropy.
If children die from diseases (polio, measles, rubella etc), then that’s okay, just as long as we offer indulgences to Harambe’s hallowed soul.
Stein’s Modest Proposal isn’t satire, but it does reek of tragic irony. After all, she’s a physician who claims to be “pro-science;” but given her stances on vaccines (and even GMOs), that couldn’t be further from the truth.
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A mother has spoken of her double-grief at the brutal murder of her daughter whose remains were then dug up from her grave and mummified by a "genius" Russian historian.
Anatoly Moskvin, 47, ransacked graveyards and kept dozens of corpses of young girls in his bedroom in the flat where he lived with his mother and father.
He dressed the dead children in stockings, girls' clothing and knee length boots to make them look like dolls, even applying lipstick and make-up to their faces, and putting music boxes inside their rib cages.
The highly educated bodysnatcher marked the birthday of each of his dead victims in his in bedroom in Nizhny Novgorod.
A judge has decreed that schizophrenic Moskvin - too ill to face trial for his crimes - should remain in a secure psychiatric hospital for the foreseeable future.
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Following his arrest, the grave-robber told the parents of his victim accusingly: "You abandoned your girls in the cold - and I brought them home and warmed them up."
For Natalia Chardymova, 42, each new macabre report about Moskvin - arrested in 2011 - is like a hammer blow because her own daughter Olga was among 29 he secretly dug up, and dressed as a doll, and kept at home.
Olga had been horrifically murdered, aged ten, the first time she was allowed to walk alone from the family flat to her granny's apartment in the next block after her parents went to work.
"I'm ten already. I can go myself," she pleaded.
Her mother relented and she went out with her favourite green bag and blue umbrella, never to be seen alive again.
(Image: East2West)
Unseen, a drug addict waiting in the lobby of her block had forced her back up to the top floor, and robbed her of her earrings, and because she tried to escape, cracked her over the head with a metal bar.
Despite searches for her body, Olga's remains with the umbrella and bag were not found for five months wedged behind pipes in the block's attic.
"We buried her on 2 October 2002.
"I could never imagine that almost exactly ten years later, on the 5 October 2012 I would open her grave with the police, and find her remains had vanished.
Her coffin was empty, with a hole at the top from which he had pulled the remains.
(Image: East2West)
"You can't begin to imagine it, that somebody would touch the grave of your child, the most holy place in this world for you.
"We had been visiting the grave of our child for nine years and we had no idea it was empty.
"Instead, she was in this beast's apartment."
In 7 May 2003, Natalia and husband Igor, 44, started painting a small metal fence they had erected around the grave.
The next day, they came back to finish, and felt someone had been there.
A wreath had been moved and a torment began, lasting nine years.
The same month they found a note signed with two letters - D.A. - standing for Dobry Angel or Kind Angel, how Moskwin thought of himself.
"We shivered with fear each time we went to the grave, not knowing what to expect," she said.
"These sick anonymous notes were addressed to my daughter, calling her 'Little Lady'.
(Image: East2West)
"He congratulated her on all the public holidays.
"He remembered about 1 September each year (the first day of the school year in Russia) and the last school bell in May.
"He counted carefully which school grade she was about the enter, as if she was still alive.
"For example "happy last month of your 6th year at school".
"Imagine what it was like for us, her grieving parents, reading these notes about our murdered daughter.
"It was not at all like some sick joke but a spear through our hearts."
Sometimes, the desperate parents arrived at the grave to find soft toys - stolen from other plots, and on January 1 he always put New Year decorations on the grave.
In one note, he threatened the parents: "If you don't erect a great monument which she deserves, we will dig her body out."
The couple erected a headstone in June 2003, and he penned messages on it before taking an axe to it.
Natalia reported it to the police, who were appalled but said there was little they could do.
(Image: Police)
"They told us, if you find him, do what you want to this barbarian, we won't object.
"At this point we knew nothing about Moskvin, or that by now he had already removed her, but if I'd met him at Olga's grave, I'd have killed him with my own hands."
The strain drove them apart, and they separated. Natalia wanted to move to a new flat and try and rebuild her life.
But Igor refused to leave their flat where he sat for hours on end in Olga's room.
"I just could not live in the block where my daughter was murdered.
"And Igor did not want to sell the flat, he would go into Olga's room and stare at her things. Finally, I left and went to live with my mother."
Fourteen months later then got back together, and in now have another child together, a son Alexei, who "has restored my faith in life".
Through all this time, the unknown visitor kept coming to the grave, leaving notes, or bending the metal holy cross.
(Image: East2West)
In 2011, police arrested Moskvin after going to question him about other similar reports of graves being disturbed.
Later the police told Natalia they needed to open her daughter's coffin because 29 mummified corpses of girls from different graveyards had been found at the flat he shared with his parents Elvira and Yury.
"When we opened the grave with policemen in October 2012, we found a coffin there which looked amazingly well preserved after ten years - but it had a hole at the top.
"Moskvin had dug down, cut the hole, and pulled Olga's body out. I almost collapsed. I felt sick.
"My girl had been murdered, if anyone deserved to rest in peace, she did, but instead her grave had been robbed."
(Image: East2West)
The police said Moskvin's copious notes showed the grave had been disturbed on May 2003, the first time Natalia sensed it had been disturbed.
"They told me to see her: the sight was too grotesque, they said. But I have seen the pictures of some of the other girls.
"I still find it hard to grasp the scale of his sickening work but for nine years he was living with my mummified daughter in his bedroom. I had her for ten years, he had her for nine."
(Image: East2West)
He mother Elvira, 76, told police: "We saw these dolls but we did not suspect there were dead bodies inside.
"We thought it was his hobby to make such big dolls and did not see anything wrong with it."
She and his father Yury, 77, went to their country house each summer, leaving him alone in the flat, which is when Moskvin prowled graveyards stealing new corpses and dressing them up.
In interviews with police and in court, historian Moskvin, described as a "genius" and an authority on Russian cemeteries - gave various explanations of his actions.
"I was waiting for science to find ways for these girls to live again," he told them.
(Image: EuroPics[CEN])
"I wanted to be an expert in making mummies" - this was another excuse.
"I wanted to communicate with these girls" - and it seems he was trying to talk to them.
"He told how he carefully selected which girl to take.
"I lay on the grave and tried to get in touch with her.
"I listened to what she said.
"Often they asked me to take them out for a walk."
Police say he wasn't motivated by any twisted sexual desires with these children.
"He loathed sex and thought it was disgusting," said one officer.
He admitted the crime of digging up the graves, but the court found he was mentally ill.
While he's lucid most of the time, when talking about "his girls" he becomes obsessed, said the psychiatrists.
(Image: Police)
Reports claimed Moskvin had been raped as a child.
He also told how he was forced as a boy to kiss the face of a dead 11 year old girl at her funeral.
It was claimed that he wanted to adopt a girl and was refused because he was unmarried.
His behaviour was blamed on his parents taking him for walks in graveyards as a child.
For Natalia, there is one more reminder of the man who has caused her such grief.
From her kitchen window, she can see the yellow coloured psychiatric hospital where Moskvin is incarcerated.
"I worry that one day he will convince them he's sane, and he'll come out and start his morbid activities again," she said. To me, he got off lightly.
"Like other parents tormented by him, we reckon he knew what he was doing. I wanted to see him go to jail and face hardened criminals in the same cell.
(Image: CEN)
"He should know real pain, not be pampered by doctors who see him as a fascinating psychiatric case."
"In the court building in February 2013, I was standing there when suddenly two policemen escorted him in.
"He walked right towards me. I lost my breath. I just stood there, mouth open like a fish. I looked at his whimpering, trembling mother.
"Yes, I feel some sympathy, she is a mum after all, but deep in my heart I can't believe she and his dad Yury knew nothing.
"Just look at the police pictures of their home, like a burrow, in such a mess.
"I can't believe there was no smell, or nothing suspicious to her about all these 'dolls'.
"Yet she turned a blind eye to her son's weird hobby."
(Image: East2West)
Natalia keeps a picture of her daughter in the kitchen, and talks to her when she cooks. She would now be 22.
"She should be living her life to the full now, if not for the evil she faced. But to me she will always be a child."
Her husband, Igor, said: "I hate our soft laws. "The punishment must be somehow in balance with what the person has done.
"And this man will rest in his clinic and we fear they will say he is cured and let him out to go back to his graveyards.
"I wish I had met him ten years ago by Olga's grave. But if I'd done what needed to be done to him, I'd be in jail myself."
The couple have now reburied Olga in an unmarked grave where, finally, they hope she can rest in peace.
Prosecutor Konstantin Zhilyakov said: "All of us involved in this criminal case agreed that it is one of the most shocking we ever came across.
"You could never imagine such an investigation but it was deeply emotional at the same time.
"We had to deal with the relatives of the 29 children who lost their beloved children and had to bury them again."
"The verdict was to send Moskvin to a psychiatric clinic for treatment.
"There is no term, in other words he is not sent there for the certain number of years. He will stay there until he is cured - or forever.
"The only way for him to get out of this clinic is through another court action, where prosecutors and lawyers will take part."
He is now subject to annual checks but he said: "There is a very little chance that he even leaves this clinic."
For more stories like this join The Mirror on Facebook...The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to children (ISPCC) has called on the Government to consider forcing internet providers to block explicit material.
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UVA Basketball's 2014-2015 schedule is out! The defending ACC Champions will play 30 regular season games this year, including 12 out-of-conference matchups and 18 ACC games. 16 will be at JPJ, 12 on the road, and 2 at neutral sites.
Once again, UVA will feature heavily on national TV. Virginia has 3 games scheduled for ESPN, (the 3 Big Monday matchups), 4 for ESPN2, and 3 more that will be shown on either ESPN or ESPN2. 5 games will be on ESPNU, and 2 on NBC Sports. If not televised nationally, other games will be televised on regional TV or ESPN3.
Without further ado, here is the 2014-2015 Virginia basketball schedule. Further analysis follows!
Virginia Cavaliers 2014-2015 Basketball Schedule Day Date Opponent Time TV Fri. Nov. 14 @ JMU 7:00 PM Sun. Nov. 16 Norfolk State 6:00 PM Tues. Nov. 18 South Carolina St. TBA Fri. Nov. 21 George Washington TBA ESPN3 Tues. Nov. 25 Tenn. State TBA Fri. Nov. 28 vs. La Salle (BCC) 9:30 PM NBC Sports Sat. Nov. 29 vs. Rutgers/Vanderbilt (BCC) 7/9:30 NBC Sports Wed. Dec. 3 @ Maryland 9:15 PM ESPN2 Sat. Dec. 6 @ VCU 2:00 PM ESPNU Tues. Dec. 18 Cleveland State 7:00 PM ESPNU Sun. Dec. 21 Harvard Noon ESPNU Tues. Dec. 30 Davidson 6:00 PM ESPNU Sat. Jan. 3 @ Miami 2/4:30 ESPN2 Wed. Jan. 7 NC State 7:00 PM ESPN2 Sat. Jan. 10 @ Notre Dame 6:00 PM ESPN2 Tues. Jan. 13 Clemson 8:00 PM ACCN Sat. Jan. 17 @ Boston College 2:00 PM RSN Thurs. Jan. 22 Georgia Tech 8:00 PM ACCN Sat. Jan. 25 @ Virginia Tech 1:00 PM ACCN Sat. Jan. 31 Duke 4/7:00 ESPN/ESPN2 Mon. Feb. 2 @ North Carolina 7:00 PM ESPN Sat. Feb. 7 Louisville 6:00 PM ESPN/ESPN2 Wed. Feb. 11 @ NC State 8:00 PM ACCN Sat. Feb. 14 Wake Forest 2:30 PM ACCN/RSN Mon. Feb. 16 Pittsburgh 7:00 PM ESPN Sun. Feb. 22 Florida State 6:30 PM ESPNU Wed. Feb. 25 @ Wake Forest 7:00 PM RSN Sat. Feb. 28 Virginia Tech 4:00 PM ACCN Mon. Mar. 2 @ Syracuse 7:00 PM ESPN Sat. Mar. 7 @ Louisville TBA ESPN/ESPN2
The schedule is another tough one for Virginia. The out-of-conference features 4 games against teams that finished last season in KenPom's top 50, including road games at Maryland and VCU. Tony Bennett also did a good job avoiding those "RPI-killers" that plagued the team before last season. Virginia has just 4 games against teams that finished last season below 200th in RPI, and one of those is on the road.
The Hoos get underway on Friday, November 14, in Harrisonburg against the JMU Dukes. This marks the second time in the past 3 years that UVA has opened the year on the road against an in-state team - (the Hoos started in 2012 at George Mason). Coach Bennett has been extraordinarily willing to play away from JPJ against local teams. Virginia's home-opener is two days later, when Norfolk State visits on Sunday the 16th, followed by another one day break before SC State comes to JPJ. That's 3 games in 6 days...thankfully against what could be the 3 worst teams that UVA will see all year.
UVA's first true test comes the following Friday, 11/21, against George Washington at JPJ. Last year, Virginia was primed to take on the Colonials in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, before they fell to Memphis. This matchup is the first part of a home-and-home series that will see the Hoos head to DC next season.
In the Barclay's Center Classic, the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving, UVA will take on La Salle then either Rutgers or Vanderbilt in Brooklyn. (The games against NSU and Tennessee State at home are the "opening rounds" of the tournament, but UVA "advances" to Brooklyn automatically).
The next week is a brutal one, with two more games away from JPJ. We thought we had gotten rid of them, but Virginia will play Maryland in College Park as part of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. Then, that weekend, the Hoos head to Richmond to play the VCU Rams. Let's call this week "Redemption Week" after UVA dropped heartbreakers to both teams last season.
After the exam break, Cleveland State comes to JPJ, followed by Harvard, in what could be a showdown between two top-25 ranked teams. UVA then rematches Davidson at home before the conference season starts.
The ACC schedule will be unforgiving once again, though probably only average relative to other conference teams. UVA sees Louisville, VT, NC State, and Wake Forest twice, so there's still plenty of opportunity for opposing fans to complain about the unbalanced schedule.
The first ACC game of the season will be on the road in Miami, followed by the home conference opener against NC State. The toughest stretch of the year comes weeks later, when UVA sees Duke on Saturday, then heads to Chapel Hill for their "Big Monday" matchup, then returns home to take on Louisville.
The Hoos also have a brutal finish, ending on the road at Syracuse and at Louisville.
Come March, it's tough to imagine how this schedule won't be viewed favorably by the Selection Committee. Obviously, the ACC section should be brutal. The ACC is top-heavy with the likes of traditional ACC powers like Duke and UNC, as well as Louisville, Syracuse, and Pitt. And the bottom promises to be less sucky (we're looking at you, Virginia Tech).
And the out-of-conference section is very well done. UVA challenges themselves on the road at Maryland and VCU (and even heads to JMU, which helps the RPI). And, as noted previously, they play very few of those "RPI-killers." Here's a look at how UVA's out-of-conference opponents fared last year in KenPom and in RPI. It's nice that the teams tended to be ranked higher by RPI than KenPom (even if only a bit) - it means they generally "looked" (to the committee) better than they actually played, rather than vice versa:
UVA OOC Schedule Strength Date Opponent 2013-14 Ken Pom Rank 2013-14 RPI Rank Nov. 14 @ JMU 267 235 Nov. 16 Norfolk State 253 228 Nov. 18 South Carolina St. 345 331 Nov. 21 George Washington 47 37 Nov. 25 Tenn. State 284 208 Nov. 28 vs. La Salle (BCC) 105 98 Nov. 29 vs. Rutgers/Vanderbilt (BCC) 166/112 190/122 Dec. 3 @ Maryland 40 83 Dec. 6 @ VCU 17 18 Dec. 18 Cleveland State 88 90 Dec. 21 Harvard 32 44 Dec. 30 Davidson 120 132 Average: 145 137
Now, we wait. November 14th sits just two and half months away!The social network has lost more than a fifth of its value since its faltering Wall Street debut on May 18, while its 28-year-old founder Mark Zuckerberg has been honeymooning in Rome. It is now unlikely to recover in the short term, analysts claimed.
After placing at $38, Facebook’s shares briefly peaked at $45 before sinking back to $38.25 on their first day of trading. They have fallen every day since then, and today plummeted nearly 10pc to a low of $28.84 at the close in New York.
Many brokers are expected to cut their losses now that Facebook shares have passed the important psychological thresholds of $30 a share and a 20pc drop in value.
“When something is this broken this quickly, they sell and move on,” said Sam Hamadeh, managing director of US research firm, PrivCo.
“Historically, initial public offerings that trade down this quickly don’t ever recover. Brokers have lost quite a bit of money and many will have their own rules about dropping out when it passes that [$30] barrier.”
Facebook and its Wall Street advisors are already being sued by investors who lost out in the $16bn IPO, amid claims that they were misled about the social network’s business prospects.
The slump fuelled fears of a wider technology bubble, particularly among other social networks and consumer-orientated companies. In Russia, Vkontakte, which out-ranks Facebook as the country’s most popular social network, with 119m users, pulled its own IPO “indefinitely”.
Founder and chief executive Pavel Durov said the Facebook debacle had “damaged many private investors’ trust in social networks”. The company, whose biggest backer, Mail.Ru, also has a stake in Facebook, is valued at up to $3bn and had been eyeing an IPO in 2012 or 2013.
The flotation plans of $1bn travel search firm Kayak.com were also thrown into doubt. The US business was seeking to raise $150m in a June IPO but analysts it is unlikely to go ahead as planned.
Meanwhile Facebook was fighting to shore up its weaknesses by buying up mobile firms and hiring top-flight engineers to help it launch its own smartphone device.
The social network was reported to be in discussions to acquire Opera Software, a Norwegian mobile firm. Shares in Opera climbed nearly 20pc to 41 Norwegian krone on expectations it could go for as much as $1bn.Exotic car ownership is a bit of an experiential mixed bag. Sure, it’s interesting to be the person that gets the most attention at the gas station, but you’re nevertheless plagued by problems of the common driver, with the added sting of prices for repair procedures being every bit as comical as they are terrifying. I learned this lesson the hard way by replacing the windshield on my Aston Martin V8 Vantage. I’m still recovering.
A short while ago, I flew to Philadelphia to A short while ago, I flew to Philadelphia to buy an Aston Martin V8 Vantage from a former Jalopnik contributor and the oldest 20-something I know, Doug DeMuro. I purchased the car right as summer’s last warm rays were receding from the Northeast and drove to my house in Florida, a place Satan himself would consider “a bit on the warm side.”
Upon arrival, I parked the car in front of my garage and, as any good owner would do, washed off the 1,100 miles of bugs, debris, and road droppings that had accumulated on my tour of I-95's greatest hits.
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I unrolled my garden hose, turned on the lukewarm water, sprayed the top of the car down, and heard a sound not unlike the pop of a Snapple breaking its vacuum-sealed chains. Unfortunately, the business end of the mysterious sound was not a sugary fruit drink, but my Aston’s windshield tearing itself apart.
With one spritz of the hose, I had cracked the windshield.
I spent the next twenty minutes staring, in amazement at the calamity that had unfolded in front of me—my very first bona fide exotic car, a car I saved up and planned to buy over the course of several years, a car that was up to that point pretty dependable, wasn’t able to take a low-pressure garden hose without breaking itself.
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Here’s the most scientific explanation I can muster without actually having to put on a lab coat: The hot Florida sun made the windshield (made of laminated glass sandwiched together) expand, as molecules with more heat tend to want to move around.
When I added water, I extinguished that heat pretty fast, meaning that there was rapid contraction of the glass in one area, a force so strong that it overcame the strength of the glass itself, and it cracked right down the middle. It’s the reverse of pouring boiling water on an icy windshield, but shares the same potentially wallet-destroying result.
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With my Aston having a chronic case of windowsplits, I asked the previous owner, Doug, who actually did have a windshield crack repaired a while back, how much it would cost to replace the whole thing, and he said “Um, I think it was somewhere around $800 last time I checked,” with the same kind of almost-certainty that Kevin McAllister’s mom had when she landed in Paris less one kid.
I then searched the internet for the best price on Aston Martin Vantage windshields, to which I found some unrelated eBay links for LED mirrors and forum links that were all dead because every automotive forum in the world is perpetually stuck in the year 2003.
What I did find out, however, is that the state of Florida has these glass-cracking occurrences happen so often that any insurance coverage with comprehensive should cover it with zero deductible, once every year. I hopped my happy ass online to Geico’s claims center and realized that just like an oil tycoon trying to get an alternator for a Veyron at Autozone, there would be some hoops I would have to jump through to actually make it happen.
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First, my car wasn’t even listed in the drop-down menu, and when I put in the VIN of the car, it showed that my windshield was a special order part that would have to be ordered from the UK. Great.
Next, days after filing the claim, I got multiple calls from an exasperated Safelite shop owner that said that “We’ve never worked on an...uh..Austin-Martin before, and I don’t wanna screw it up, but I got a guy that’s been doing it 30 years, and I wanna have him do it right. We usually do the install at your house, but there’s no way that’s happening on this one. You gotta bring it here.”
The shop was an hour away, but if it meant that the car would get done right, I’d be perfectly content to nod off in the waiting room for a few hours until my Aston would be made whole again.
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After driving to the location and watching enough waiting room daytime TV to get embarrassingly emotionally invested, I learned two things: that the “30 years of experience” guy must have started installing glass when he was -6 years old, and how ridiculously expensive a windshield for an Aston Martin is.
When the installer figured out how the impossible parking brake worked and managed to bring the car out into the light, new windshield intact, he handed me a pamphlet that had an invoice, paid in full courtesy of Geico an the state of Florida.
Holy balls.
The tab was an eye-watering four thousand, four hundred fourteen dollars and forty one cents.
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As an apples to apples comparison, the Mercedes-Benz S500 that I drive to this day was purchased, with an intact windshield mind you, for $1,400 less than this windshield replacement. The $250 paid in taxes alone was more than I spent to replace the entire windshield in my Lexus SC300, including tax.
At this point, I’m not sure if my insurance rates are due to skyrocket, but I don’t have much faith in the status quo being maintained, because as it stands, the amount the insurance paid for me to essentially wash my car on a hot day is roughly equivalent to the payout of me totaling a used Honda Civic—a car that ironically wouldn’t have cracked its windshield at the first sign of slightly cool water.
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Now that I’ve had this experience, it should serve as a reminder to less insane people that parts like these, the taken-for-granted components no one ever thinks to price out, can severely dampen the awesome feeling of exotic car ownership if mishandled.The Italian cities of Milan and Venice have suspended their “Sister City” status with St. Petersburg, Russia over that city’s recently-passed legislation that ties gays to pedophilia and pretty much bans even mentioning the word “gay” in public. (Someone was arrested under the law for wearing rainbow suspenders.)
Russia is now considering passing the same law nationwide.
The question now is whether cities like Los Angeles and Quebec will continue to remain Sister Cities with St. Petersburg, in view of the brave position the Italians have taken. Also a Sister City with St. Petersburg is the State of Maryland, which just legalized gay marriages.
Other prominent cities that have Sister City status with St. Petersburg include Paris, Stockholm, Rio, and Melbourne, Australia. (You can find a longer list of St. Petersburg’s Sister Cities at the bottom of this story, and an even longer list here.)
Please look for your city in the list below, and contact your city council, mayor, and write to your local newspapers, urging your city or state to suspend its Sister City ties with St. Petersburg, Russia over that city’s new laws criminalizing even mentioning the word “gay” in public. I’ve bolded some of the more interesting cities:Bitcoin Achievement Unlocked: Bitcoin Surpasses 1,000 ATMs Worldwide
The number of Bitcoin ATM’s has surpassed 1,000th, a milestone in the history of Bitcoin that marks the continued growth of its infrastructure across the globe.
Bitcoin Hits 1,000 BTM’s
Today, CoinATMRadar celebrates the submission of the 1,000th Bitcoin ATM on their website. A significant moment for the website that tracks the presence of these machines worldwide, but even more so for the Bitcoin community in general.
The current number of Bitcoin ATM’s currently stands at 1,002, according to CoinATMRadar.
Now, Bitcoin can be bough (and sold with two-way machines) at these physical locations without a bank account in 55 countries. CoinATMRadar provides users with information on where to find these ATMs, explains how they can be used for remittances, how to set up their own ATM business along with a profit potential calculator.
Bitcoin ‘automated teller machines,’ sometimes called BTMs, play a vital role in Bitcoin’s global infrastructure. They provide a brick-and-mortar local to acquire Bitcoin extending the cryptocurrency’s reach.
They also provide convenience for users by saving time without the need to wait for bank transfers to clear. Also with the increasingly sophisticated methods being used in skimming operations, the Bitcoin counterparts provide a higher degree of security since no magnetic-strip cards are involved.
This milestone marks yet another success for the adoption of Bitcoin, which is beginning to gain traction in places where it previously had none. Demand for Bitcoin ATMs is growing in places like Texas, which has recently received eleven new BTMs.
4 Years of Continued Growth
The first BTM was placed in the Waves coffee shop in downtown Vancouver, Canada by Robocoin on October 29, 2013. Since then, Bitcoin ATMs have increased in popularity, demand and features.
Today, these provide the invaluable service of readily available currency conversion between fiat and crypto, including altcoins like Ether, Dash and others.
While all Bitcoin ATMs allow users to interact with cryptocurrencies without a bank account, the majority of these are still one-way. According to CoinATMRadar, only about 36% of all bitcoin machines are two-way.
Additionally, the vast majority of Bitcoin ATM’s are located in either North America or Europe.
Alternatives to BTMs
Although the service provided by Bitcoin ATM operators is highly valuable, certain apps are starting to provide highly functional and simple methods of exchanging fiat and cryptocurrencies without relying on banking institutions or BTMs.
Among these are Spare and Abra, which allow users to buy or sell Bitcoin through registered merchant locations. These merchants get to empty their bulky cash registers while also driving people to their store without the need to host or buy a physical machine.
As the world moves into a cashless society through the introduction of demonetization policies, it is possible that both these apps and Bitcoin ATMs will become obsolete. However, BTM operators seem to understand this and welcome the change.
In a previous interview with Bitcoinist, Michael Dupree, founder and CEO of EasyBit said:
Nothing last forever and we are well aware that the market is dynamic and continuously evolving, so if the society turns to a cashless structure we, as all ATM companies, will have to adapt to that change providing new types of services. What we are sure about is that it is a thrilling opportunity to live in this moment of big social, political and economic changes and we want to be here for the long term.
Will this growth in Bitcoin ATM’s continue far into the future? Share your thoughts below!
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, CoinATMRadar, EY.comTodd Graham is the director of debate at Southern Illinois University. His teams have won five national championships and advanced to the "final-four" of a national championship tournament nine consecutive years. He's been recognized three times as the national debate coach of the year. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.
(CNN) Last night, Tim Kaine and Mike Pence took up their most public roles yet as surrogates for their leaders in the vice presidential debate.
Knowing this, they each had three roles:
First, defend the top of your ticket. Second, attack the top of the other ticket. Finally, prove you are capable of being president. Once I got past the interruptions, here's what I heard.
Defend the top of your ticket
Tim Kaine: B+
I thought the email attacks hit home, especially when Pence hammered away at the fact that it was dangerous for American security. Kaine's answer was only that it was not "criminal." OK, but that's not really the point. He defended everything else pretty well, from the Clinton Foundation to the Iran deal. He was ready with the fact that Clinton apologized for the " basket of deplorables" line. Indeed, Kaine used the old backward-step-pivot-forward debating technique by turning this into an indictment of Trump's lack of apologies for anything.
Mike Pence: D-
Pence was clearly uncomfortable. This reminds me of so many debates my teams have had. In every debate, we are a team of two members. When one of my debaters is young or inexperienced, they make a lot of mistakes that the older member tries to overcome in the final speech.
That's precisely what happened here. Trump, in his stump speeches and the first presidential debate, was like my younger, inexperienced debaters, just saying things without thinking about the ramifications. Pence was like my seasoned veterans, trying to gloss over, re-explain, and even change the direction of the answers given by their partner.
JUST WATCHED What Mike Pence thinks vs. What Donald Trump says Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH What Mike Pence thinks vs. What Donald Trump says 02:14
Unfortunately, it usually leads to double-turns. (A double-turn is when a team directly contradicts something they've said earlier.)
Since Pence didn't want to contradict Trump, his only other option was silence. And it was painful to watch him getting hammered again and again by Kaine. Kaine even asked, "How can you defend that?" multiple times on these subjects:
-- The Trump insult about John McCain and prisoners of war
-- The Trump insult about the Indiana judge not being qualified because of his heritage
-- The Trump claim that more countries getting nukes is a good thing
-- The Trump argument questioning NATO and alliances
-- Trump's (and Pence's) comments about how Vladimir Putin is a strong leader
-- Trump's taxes
-- Trump's line that Mexico is sending criminals, drug dealers and rapists across the border
JUST WATCHED Reality check: Kaine claims Trump, Pence praised Putin Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Reality check: Kaine claims Trump, Pence praised Putin 01:38
In debate terms, Pence got "spread out of the debate." There were too many attacks and he had too few answers for them. Plus, his heart wasn't there. Pence defended his own positions just fine; defending Trump was another thing.
Multiple times, I thought he just gave up. He seemed frustrated, saying "did you work on that for a long time?" and "don't put words in my mouth." Unfortunately, it was Trump who put the words there, and Trump's own words were Pence's undoing.
Attack the top of the other ticket
Tim Kaine: A+
Mike Pence: B+
Kaine found the sweetest fruit to be the lowest hanging.
Finally, immigration and deportation was debated. These were the attacks Pence at least tried to defend. The rest he tried to brush off and ignore, which left Kaine free to attack Trump at will.
JUST WATCHED Poll: Mike Pence wins VP debate Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Poll: Mike Pence wins VP debate 00:52
As for Pence, he had his own good moments with criticisms of Clinton. He hammered the emails, the server, and our security several times. He was also pretty effective with his "Clinton reset Russia" argument (but honestly, I wish he'd spent 30 seconds explaining the term "reset Russia" and what, exactly, that meant).
Pence was also prepped to debate the lack of action by Obama and Clinton led to the creation of ISIS. Finally, he got to use the "basket of deplorables" line against Clinton and how she'd insulted too many people. All these were reasonable criticisms of Clinton that scored to some extent.
But in an emergency...
Tim Kaine: A-
Mike Pence: A-
Both candidates demonstrated the experience necessary to take over the role of president if needed. They both had detailed answers on questions ranging from the economy to their religious beliefs and abortion. Based on this debate only, yes, I think they are both qualified to be president. Not perfect, but qualified.
Overall grade
Tim Kaine: B (I deducted a letter grade for excessive interrupting)
Mike Pence: C (Defending Trump isn't his forte)UPDATE: The White House announced Thursday afternoon that President Obama would not sign a bill that some consumer advocates worried would make it more difficult for homeowners to fight fraudulent foreclosures.
The White House noted that the bill was designed to ease restrictions on interstate commerce. "While we share this goal, we believe it is necessary to have further deliberations about the intended and unintended impact of this bill on consumer protections, including those for mortgages, before this bill can be finalized."
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, moved the legislation through the Senate without debate on Sept. 27.
"Senator Leahy understands the President's decision not to sign the Interstate Recognition of Notarizations Act, and he supports that decision," said a Leahy spokeswoman in a statement. "When Congress passed the legislation, no concerns or objections had been expressed. Now that concerns have been raised, Congress should reexamine whether this bill might have an unintended impact on foreclosures in the future. We certainly do not believe that is what Representative Aderholt and the other cosponsors of the legislation intended."
* * *
EARLIER:
The White House is taking a careful look at legislation recently passed by Congress with little notice that would require courts to recognize notarizations from out-of-state, which some consumer advocates say would make it more difficult to fight bogus foreclosures by banks.
"There were a series of meeting on that this morning here," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, who added the White House would have a more definitive statement later on Thursday. "It is something that, as you said, there has been a lot of news on, the processing of documentation, the resulting impact on foreclosures, and that is being evaluated....In general, there is concern, ultimately, about the situation."
Max Gardner, a foreclosure defense attorney, said the timing of the bill was suspicious, considering fraudulent notarization of bogus foreclosure affidavits is at the heart of a scandal that has prompted the nation's largest banks to pause foreclosures in 23 states.
"The timing is just a little curious to me that all of a sudden you can't get anything through the Senate at all and then all a sudden on a voice vote," Gardner said. "This was first introduced in the House in 2007."
The legislation, titled the "Interstate Recognition of Notarizations Act," would "require any Federal or State court to recognize any notarization made by a notary public licensed by a State other than the State where the court is located when such notarization occurs in or affects interstate commerce." The bill would also require courts to recognize electronic notarizations.
"The thing that concerns me about the bill is that the provisions in it that allow for digital notarization by electronic means," said Gardner, "which implies that anyone with the appropriate software could notarize a digital document or image of a document, which would allow someone to notarize a document without seeing someone execute the document or doing the things a notary is supposed to do. In my mind that would lead a broad exception for more fraudulent practices."
Ira Rheingold, director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates, told HuffPost he wasn't sure he agreed the bill was so problematic. "Just because you get a lawful notarization of a bunch of lies doesn't change your ability to challenge an affidavit as a bunch of lies."
The legislation passed the Senate without debate on Sept. 27 following a "unanimous consent" request from Sen. Robert Casey (D-Pa.). Casey's office told HuffPost that the senator made the request on party leadership's behalf. "He had nothing to do with the bill himself," a spokesman said.
Reuters reported that, with the help of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), "Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy pressed to have the bill rushed through the special procedure, after Leahy 'constituents' called him and pressed for passage." Previous versions of the bill have died in the Judiciary Committee after being passed by the House.
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, who has blogged about notarization problems, told HuffPost she also considered the timing of the legislation suspicious, coming in the midst of a series of announcements by banks that foreclosure procedures are under review. "It's almost like H.R. 3808 was a trap door."
The bill's sponsor in the House, Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), was surprised by the speedy passage of the bill and the intensely negative reaction it's gotten. "There is absolutely no connection whatsoever between Congressman Aderholt's legislation and the recent foreclosure documentation problem," said a spokesman in an email to HuffPost. "Congressman Aderholt has been pushing this bill since April of 2005 when he first introduced it in Congress. Obviously, there was no controversy regarding foreclosure documents at that time.
"The Interstate Recognition of Notarizations Act will improve interstate commerce by requiring that lawfully notarized documents be recognized across state lines. The law, once enacted, will strengthen consumer protections by requiring identification of notaries by means of seal and in rendering electronic documents tamper resistant."Android smartphones continue to hit the market at a fast and furious pace, which is great for you and me as customers, but it can also be a little overwhelming as you're shopping around for your next device.
To help you out, we've rounded up some of the top Android devices we've reviewed lately. We've picked a model for each of the four major U.S. carriers, as well as U.S. Cellular and Virgin Mobile. We're sure you have your own opinions about which Android phone is best, so be sure to share your thoughts on what your favorite device is and why in the comments section below.
Samsung Galaxy S II (AT&T)
Packing a lot of power and features into a slim design, the Samsung Galaxy S II is AT&T's top Android smartphone, hands down. (Bonus: It's available from T-Mobile and Sprint, too.) Read the full review.
HTC Amaze 4G (T-Mobile)
T-Mobile and HTC might tout the Amaze 4G's camera, but we were just as amazed by the smartphone's speed and solid design. Read the full review.
HTC Evo 3D (Sprint)
In the Evo 3D, HTC made a good product even better with better battery life, a faster processor, and a great camera. The 3D capabilities are just icing on the cake. Read the full review.
Motorola Droid Bionic (Verizon Wireless)
Despite the delays, the Motorola Droid Bionic didn't disappoint and delivers the goods, with impressive performance. Read the full review.
Motorola Electrify (U.S. Cellular)
The Motorola Electrify brings a high-powered and fully stocked Android device with world-roaming capabilities that's sure to please U.S. Cellular's Android fans. Read the full review.
Motorola Triumph (Virgin Mobile)
Prepaid customers don't always get the latest and greatest smartphones, but the Motorola Triumph for Virgin Mobile is a move in the right direction. Read the full review.Getty Images
Don't worry, NBA fans.
The league will continue running in 2014-15, and the players will continue earning their contracts even if a member of the Sterling family is in charge of the Los Angeles Clippers. As National Basketball Players Association representative James Jones explained to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News, there will be no boycotts, regardless of the situation with the Clippers organization:
There is no boycott. There isn’t a lot of talk about a boycott. The union wanted to see the league step up and did what they did what we felt was appropriate - which was to remove Donald Sterling. They did that. It’s a process and we know it’s going to take time. But there is total trust between the union and the league and commissioner and the owners, knowing that eventually it will all play out the way we agreed - which is Donald Sterling no longer being the owner of an NBA team. We’re all on the same page. The Donald Sterling situation is a league situation. It’s not basketball.
Of course, this normally wouldn't be news.
After all, boycotts are extreme measures, and there's plenty of time remaining before such drastic actions would actually occur. There's an entire offseason for everyone to come to terms and resolve the Sterling mess in more realistic manners.
However, NBPA vice president Roger Mason Jr. stirred the pot when he mentioned a boycott and LeBron James during a Jim Rome on Showtime interview:
Well, those are definitely conflicting messages.
Technically, Mason has the higher rank within the player's association. But Jones delivered his quote more recently.
So...which do we believe?
Ideally, we never have to pick, though Mason did clarify/apologize later:
LeBron has since given his own statement, per CNN's Rachel Nichols:
Here's the full text:
The direction Adam [Silver] is going, there shouldn't be a need for it [a boycott]. We trust those guys and we know that they're going to take care of what needs to be done for our league, and we understand that it's not going to be tomorrow. The system will not work tomorrow, but the direction they're going – we're all for it.
Adam Silver, the first-year NBA commissioner, presumably still plans on following through with his lifetime ban of Donald Sterling, one that also involves the remaining 29 owners voting him out of their ultra-exclusive fraternity. Though the time frame is unknown and legal action—both from Donald and Shelly Sterling—remains likely, there's been no indication that the league is willing to renege on its harsh—but justified—sanctions.
USA TODAY Sports
As Ethan Skolnick noted for Bleacher Report, there's no reason to doubt LeBron's convictions, given his increasing social awareness and willingness to put himself out there for causes he believes in.
"James has grown into a person who wants to lead others," Skolnick wrote. "If the NBA doesn't find a way to shrink the Sterlings' presence down to zero, we may learn how much he's willing to sacrifice for his ideals."
And LeBron's obviously not the only one. He'd be the poster boy of a league-wide boycott, but "league-wide" indicates that all players would be involved, not just the four-time MVP who leads the Miami Heat.
Whether Mason was correct about LeBron's feelings at the time or whether Jones is correct with his recent declaration that no boycott is in the works, let's just hope that we never have to find out.
The NBA can remove all temptations by following through on its promise, after all.ST PAUL, MN - MAY 6: The National Anthem is observed by before Game Three of the Second Round of the 2014 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs between the Minnesota Wild and the Chicago Blackhawks on May 6, 2014 at Xcel Energy Center in St Paul, Minnesota. The Wild defeated the Blackhawks 4-0. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images
On Wednesday United States Senators Jeff Flake and John McCain released a report on U.S. Department of Defense spending for patriotic moments during sporting events.
It stated that there are 122 contracts in the NFL, NHL, Major League Baseball and MLS – totaling $6.8 million for “paid patriotism” meaning different situations during games that seemed spontaneous – such as military salutes for service people attending games – were actually paid for by the Department of Defense. There were other "perks" that were listed in the report as well.
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The NHL teams named in the report include the Boston Bruins, Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers, Minnesota Wild, Detroit Red Wings and Dallas Stars.
Said the report:
“By paying for such heartwarming displays like recognition of wounded warriors, surprise homecomings, and on-field enlistment ceremonies, these displays lost their luster. Unsuspecting audience members became the subjects of paid-marketing campaigns rather than simply bearing witness to teams’ authentic, voluntary shows of support for the brave men and women who wear our nation’s uniform. This not only betrays the sentiment and trust of fans, but casts an unfortunate shadow over the genuine patriotic partnerships that do so much for our troops, such as the National Football League’s Salute to the Service campaign.”
Through a league spokesman, the NHL declined to comment on the matter.
Story continues
According to the report, the Bruins (Contracted by the Massachusetts Army National Guard) received $280,000 for fiscal years 2012 and 2013. The Hurricanes (Contracted by the United States Air Force)
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merit. The Wallenbergs have managed their successions well over the years, but there is no guarantee this will always be so.
The Wallenberg empire might in theory be threatened if, as in other countries, there were moves towards curbing the use of the dual-class shares that let the family exercise such sway over its firms. In Ericsson, for example, Investor has just 5.3% of total stock, but controls 21.5% of votes. In Electrolux, Investor has 15.5% of the stock, but 30% of voting rights. Family firms often use such dual shares (The Economist Group, largely owned by European business families, uses them too), but prevalence does not mean popularity. However, the family has long enjoyed good political connections: for all its support for free trade and open markets abroad, until the 1990s it had decades of help from protectionist policies that kept foreign predators at bay.
That the KAW and other foundations get the Wallenbergs’ share of profits helps shield them from Sweden’s top income-tax rate, of 62%. The foundations’ beneficence also helps shield them from criticism: the KAW, for instance, makes $250m of grants a year, notably to fund basic research and education.
Nordic, not Anglo-Saxon
Discuss their set-up with the Wallenbergs and they say “Anglo-Saxons”, schooled in British and American ideas that companies are best owned by masses of small investors (or pension funds), are wilfully blind to the benefits of family-dominated firms. The family argues that ownership models need not be “black and white”, that theirs has proved it can deliver a “nice track record” for more than a century-and-a-half. Well-run family firms can ensure modern virtues—transparency, professional management, clear communication, agility—as easily as those Anglo-Saxons.
Tour the headquarters of Ericsson, and its CEO, Hans Vestberg, offers a similar argument: a stolid company, founded in 1876 (and part-owned by the Wallenbergs since 1950), can be nimble, even ruthless. Ericsson frittered away the strong position it once had as a maker of mobile handsets. But Mr Vestberg talks optimistically of how it will prosper from the coming launch of fifth-generation (5G) wireless telecoms and the “internet of things”. Ericsson, with a $5 billion annual research-and-development budget, files 4,000 patents a year, he says. In less than two years it has hired 30,000 staff, but also let go 28,000, to make possible a shift from a company that sells products to one more focused on services.
Gunnar Wetterberg, author of a book on the Wallenberg family, argues that having most of its wealth locked up in the foundations best explains its long-term success: family feuds are discouraged when no relative can dream of running off to Bahamas with all the loot. “There are no family fights,” says one Wallenberg. “No one understands how it works, but it works well.”
Other observers prefer explanations that focus on the personality and skills of a mostly self-effacing, hard-working and polyglot clan. Their spells working in the companies make them better owners. Carina Beckerman, who has just written a book on culture and leadership in Wallenberg companies, lauds two qualities that help encourage success. One is doggedness: the Wallenbergs found few firms, but they stick with existing ones, seek new markets and try ways to make them flourish. She notes that Atlas Copco had to be rescued from near-bankruptcy three times in its first 27 years, but now flourishes.
The second quality, says Ms Beckerman, is a near-obsession with getting the right managers in place: it is often the top item on the agenda whenever the Wallenberg leaders gather. They typically favour loyal insiders, not show-offs who promise dramatic change.
Not everything the family touches turns to gold. Efforts to go digital, just over a decade ago, by investing in a pair of online firms, Spray Networks and Bredbandsbolaget, had disappointing outcomes. Scania, a lorry-maker that has flourished since being bought by Volkswagen in 2000, was sold too cheaply, says Ms Beckerman.
But the sphere’s more recent efforts to expand its medical interests have been more successful—witness its investments in Sobi, which specialises in treatments for haemophilia and other rare diseases, and in Mölnlycke Health Care, which makes products for use in surgery and treating wounds. Even if its dominance of the Swedish business scene has diminished in recent decades, the Wallenberg sphere looks set to go on prospering in the hands of its sixth generation.
That makes them mere parvenus compared with the Lovenskiold family across the border in Norway: now led by its 13th generation, it claims a 360-year history and runs successful timber and furniture firms. But there may be a shared recipe for such longevity. “The majority of the really successful, long-lasting families are, like the Wallenbergs, convivial, modest, see the hard work needed and do it quietly,” says a close observer. If they were a bunch of work-shy show-offs, Swedes would surely have noticed the inequality by now.A presentation that promised to disclose "serious" vulnerabilities in networking gear from Huawei and H3C has been cancelled two days before its scheduled delivery date at the request of Hewlett-Packard, the parent company of the latter China-based firm.
Kurt Grutzmacher is the security researcher who planned to demonstrate the vulnerabilities on Saturday at the Toorcon 14 security conference in San Diego. He privately disclosed his research to the US Computer Emergency Response Team in August. The group then coordinated with officials at HP and H3C. Per a standard policy, that meant the penetration tester was free to publicly release his findings in 45 days unless one of the affected companies asked for an extension.
In a blog post published on Thursday, Grutzmacher said he agreed to one such extension, but in September made clear he intended to submit a talk on the vulnerabilities at Toorcon. On Tuesday, he said, he received a "very cordial and apologetic voicemail and e-mail" from HP officials asking him to cancel Saturday's talk. He didn't detail what he had planned to disclose, but a description on the Toorcon site said: "After this talk you just might be able to control a large part of the Internet in a very large CouNtry[sic]."
"So are you at risk?" Grutzmacher wrote in the blog post. "If you own and use H3C or Huawei equipment then of course you are. I have information of serious vulnerabilities and you don't. Nanny nanny boo boo." He said it's possible other people can find the same vulnerabilities he did, but asked those who do to keep the technical details private.I often complain that behavioural economics (behavioural science) often appears to be no more than a loosely connected set of heuristics and biases, crying out for theoretical unification. Evolutionary biology is likely the source of that unification.
Over the last few years, I’ve spotted the occasional attempt to analyse a bias through an evolutionary lens. But late last year, I came across Owen D Jones, a professor of law and professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University. At the time, I posted on his forthcoming book chapter Why Behavioral Economics Isn’t Better, and How it Could Be, but since then have been working through his impressive back catalogue (his SSRN page is here). For around 15 years Jones has published on the link between behavioural economics (or in his case, behavioural law and economics) and evolutionary biology, but this work has barely carried across from the law to the economics literature.
I plan to post on a few of his papers, and I’ll start with a 2000 article Time-Shifted Rationality and the Law of Law’s Leverage: Behavioral Economics Meets Behavioral Biology. As in the chapter I linked above, Jones starts by critiquing the lack of theoretical background in behavioural economics, a claim that is still fair today:
BLE [behavioural law and economics] scholars stand accused, for example, of merely organizing anecdotes, and of confusing counterstories for theories. This should not, of course, be construed as automatically damning. After all, unexpected empirical facts can, in sufficient number, warrant changes in legal strategies for pursuing existing goals, even absent convincing explanations for their patterned occurrence. And a number of BLE scholars have succeeded in making convincing cases for legal reform, based on empirical data about irrationalities alone, irrespective of causes. Nevertheless, in the absence of buttressing theory such efforts represent isolated successes, rather than promisingly synergistic ones that would signal a broad, systematic approach. For it is quite clear in the end that BLE shows neither a present and satisfactory account of the origins and patterns of identified irrationalities, nor signs of making quick progress toward developing one. Constructing the theoretical foundation of these phenomena will ultimately be necessary if BLE is to achieve its potential and be as useful, persuasive, and important to law as its proponents now hope.
Jones argues that an evolutionary analysis can provide that theoretical foundation, primarily through distinguishing proximate from ultimate causes. Proximate causes relate to the internal mechanisms or physical processes that underlie behaviour. Ultimate causes are the evolutionary processes by which a behaviour came to be commonly observable in a species. Jones argues that there is a general failure to analyse the biases through the lens of ultimate causation, which would allow us to understand the patterns of biases and why some biases are so widespread.
I am tempted to go further and would say that often there is not even an analysis of the proximate causes of biases. Gerd Gigerenzer tends to operate in this territory, looking to understand what decision rules are being exercised in particular environments, which allows you to understand the ecological rationality of the decision. A lot of behavioural economics research simply finds a deviation from what they consider a rational decision and moves on – with no thought as to how the decision making process led to the decision. Prospect theory, for instance, bears practically no resemblance to mechanisms or processes by which people actually make decisions.
Back to Jones, he argues that under the lens of ultimate causation, many biases turn out to be features, not bugs:
[S]ome behaviors currently ascribed to cognitive limitations reflect not defect, but rather finely tuned features of brain design. If so, we may gain important insights into the patterns of human irrationality by combining our proximate causation analysis with our ultimate causation analysis to yield a comprehensive evolutionary analysis. … A biologically informed view of the brain makes clear that substantive irrationalities are probably not just about physical, temporal, and informational limits. They are also, in some circumstances, likely to be about specific, narrowly tailored, efficiently operating features of brain design. My argument here is that the traditional approach to bounded rationality and decision-making is, in many cases, both descriptively wrong and materially misleading. It is descriptively wrong in the same way that it would be wrong to say that a Porsche Boxster is “defective” when it fails to climb logs and ford streams off road, or that a moth’s brain is “defective” when the moth flies into an artificial light source. It is materially misleading because to the extent that irrationalities are considered to be the result of defects, rather than design features, their specific content is assumed to be, though patterned ex post, unpredictable, unsystematized, and random ex ante—rather than predictable, interrelated, and content-specific. Put another way, turning old cognitive tools to entirely new uses introduces changed circumstances, not defects. And the inappropriateness of old tools to new uses does not mean those tools lack specialized design and function. Understanding what the tools were designed to do provides significant purchase on explaining and predicting how they will function when applied in novel contexts.
Today, we tend to put old cognitive tools to new uses in environments that don’t reflect those of our evolutionary past. Jones calls this “time-shifted rationality” (I think I prefer to just call it mismatch), which relates to the use of a once-successful tool in new, possibly inappropriate circumstances.
[T]here will be times when a perfectly functioning brain—functioning precisely as it was designed to function— will incline us toward behavior that, viewed only in the present tense and measured only by outcomes in current environments, will appear to be substantively irrational. This is simply because the brain was designed to process information in ways tending to yield behaviors that were substantively rational in different environments than the ones in which we now find ourselves. … Specifically, time-shifted rationality describes any trait resulting from the operation of evolutionary processes on brains that, while increasing the probability of behavior that was adaptive in the relevant environment of evolutionary adaptation in the ancestral past, leads to substantively irrational or maladaptive behavior in the present environment. In other words, poor behavior choices sometimes derive not from brain defects, per se, by rather from the brain’s deployment of old, once-successful techniques in the face of new problems. So before judging the brain’s abilities, we need to consider the effects of its choices in the environments for which the brain is principally adapted.
Here’s one example of this analysis at work (although I don’t agree with the point about increases in life expectancy as an explanation):
Researchers have noted not only that people often prefer to receive a smaller good now over a disproportionately greater good later, but also that people reverse this preference as the delay for receiving either good increases in equal amounts. This seems irrational. For example, the fact that a majority of adults would rather receive $50 now than $100 in two years—at the same time that virtually no one prefers $50 in four years to $100 in six years—is seen as clear evidence of “anomalies in the utilitarian reasoning of the normal human adult.” … It is likely a mistake to conclude that seemingly irrationally discounted futures are necessarily the function of calculating errors. Evolutionary analysis suggests an ultimate cause explanation. Hyperbolic discounting may reflect another time-shifted rationality. How might modern environmental features differ from features of the environment of evolutionary adaptation in ways that render once-adaptive predispositions maladaptive? First, average life expectancy has skyrocketed. And high discount rates make sense when life expectancy is short. Second, for nearly all of the roughly seventy million years of primate evolution, there was no such thing as a reliable future, let alone a reliable future payoff. Even under the most generous definition of investment, investment horizons were short. Third, a “right” to receive something in the future is a trivially recent invention of modern humanity. Since long lives, reliable futures, and reliable rights to future payoffs were not part of the environment in which the modern brain was slowly built, it is not particularly surprising that the modern brain tends to steeply discount the value of a future benefit compared to an immediate one, and is not particularly well equipped to reach the outcome currently deemed most rational. Rather than assume that people will be rational discounters, we should, logically, expect and assume the opposite: most often people will be hyperbolic discounters. In the EEA, the environment of evolutionary adaptation, the kind of hyperbolic discounting that humans now so regularly exhibit often would have led to more substantively rational results than the alternative. Put another way, at almost no time in human evolutionary history could there have been a selection pressure that regularly favored the kind of coolly calculated and deferred gratification now deemed to be so reasonable.
The other major area that Jones covers in the article is what he calls the law of law’s leverage, which deserves a future post of its own.Robert Glasper is gearing up to drop his eighth studio album Covered, flaunting an uncanny ability to take his favorite cuts and morph them into something jazzy and familiar. And while he’s proven this musical super power time and time again on both Black Radio and its sequel, today we’re getting a taste of the project that perfectly embodies that transformative prism. The first offering from Covered landed this morning in the form of a stripped-bare take on Radiohead‘s In Rainbows standout “Reckoner,” replacing the six-string of the original with his trademark ivory touches and keeping things fairly straightforward for an RGT treatment. But wait, there’s more. Glasper, bass-man Vicente Archer and drummer Damion Reid will be taking their show to road on a massive intercontinental sprint this summer, the dates for which are listed below. You can jump over to Revive for more info on the album, just be sure to put your ears to this smooth reworking of Radiohead’s “Reckoner” below and keep you eyes to the sky for the next joint to drop. Preorder The Robert Glasper Trio’s Covered LP ahead of its June 16th drop on iTunes today.
>>>Read More (via Revive)
Tour Dates:
April 22-23 – Jazz at the Bistro – St. Louis, MO
April 24 – Art of Cool Fest – Durham, NC
April 25 – St. John’s Methodist Church – Houston, TX
April 26 – Marathon Music Works – Nashville, TN
April 27 – House of Blues – New Orleans, LA
May 1 – Lawrence University – Appleton, WI
May 2 – Walker Art Center – Minneapolis, MN
May 23-June 8 – ASIA TOUR
June 14 – Playboy Jazz Festival – Los Angeles, CA
June 17 – TBD – Los Angeles, CA
June 19-20 – SFJAZZ – San Francisco, CA
June 23 – Jane Mallett Theatre – Toronto, ONT
June 24-27 – Blue Note Jazz Club – New York, NY
June 28 – Montreal Jazz Festival – Montreal, QB
July 5 – Essence Festival – New Orleans, LA
July-August – EUROPE TOURPosted June 21, 2017 at 1:00 am
- Sarah doesn't know Raven, but she knows of him
Do people actually brush their teeth with shirts on if they can help it? Is that a thing? I had Sarah brushing her teeth as a "time be passing" sort of dealie, and she was already dressed for bed, but I consider the brushing of teeth one of the easiest ways to get something minty that will stain on one's shirt. Maybe I'm just bad at it? I mean, it's not every time, or even most times, but it's tempting fate, isn't it?
Oh, and I guess Sarah has guesssed that "Box" is Adrian Raven's mother. Also, the next part is called "Fairy Great Godmother" or something. Whatever. What's important is awareness of the risk of getting toothpaste on one's pajamas.
- EGS:NP up now!
Original delay message: EGS:NP during the day because I had some very late ideas for Ellen Demo that I'm sorting out and also I am an inhuman monster made of evil (please don't tell anyone)Art of the Cut readers responded to surveys on Facebook and Twitter with the types of editors they wanted to read more about. Documentary was the top choice followed by trailer editors and indie editors. So here is the first of several documentary film editor interviews.
Chad Herschberger is an editor with many documentaries to his credit. His latest is the fascinating exploration of the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie, “Psycho.” The documentary is called “78/52” for the number of camera set-ups and edits in the sequence. He has also edited “Being Evel,” “A Lego Brickumentary,” and “Doc of the Dead” among others.
HULLFISH: I’m really interested in how you guys were able to make a movie about a three-minute scene in another movie. How did you organize this? What was the structure for you to organize things so you didn’t feel overwhelmed?
HERSCHBERGER: We knew there were four major “buckets” that this film was going to touch on. We knew that there was one part that was the oral history of the film. There was only going to be a handful of people that we could lean on for a couple of authentic first-hand accounts, in our case, Marli Renfro. We wanted to talk about film and society at the time Psycho came out, and so that was another bucket. We wanted to do this structural breakdown of the film. I think that was something the director, Alexandre was really interested in from an early stage. He’s a huge film buff and academic and teaches writing, so he really wanted to break it down. Then the fourth bucket would be the cinematic influences both leading into the film and flowing out of the film.
The film plays on this idea of opinion and how different people have interpreted Hitchcock’s work. The interviews tended to be really long and we asked almost everybody about every topic whether or not it was necessarily in their area of expertise, just to see if we could tease out some interesting answers.
I think the way a lot of these films go: you read a lot of transcripts and you have your categories and you start deciding. We knew early on we wanted to set the scene of the film. We knew that was really important. I think that cinema of the 1960s is not cinema today, and for this entire conversation to take place, people have to understand that context, so that was where we started.
You start building these scenes out, you place them together, you realize we need a little bit more humor, a little more levity, or you start deciding what feels right and what doesn’t feel right, then building up to the deconstruction scene – what we call the deconstruction scene – which is where we start watching through it with mostly editors and directors and we have them start talking shot for shot what’s going on. Once you have the history of Hitchcock’s psychology and what was going on at the time, then the deconstruction becomes a lot more meaningful. You start to hopefully have a little bit better sense of the context of some of the motivations there.
HULLFISH: I’m fascinated so many editors were chosen. What were the other choices? Did you interview cinematographers?
HERSCHBERGER: We did not unfortunately speak to a lot of cinematographers, which I would have liked to, but it wasn’t for lack of reaching out. We had a difficult time scheduling cinematographers. I think we got a lot of editors for the film because it’s a lot easier for an editor in L.A. to just swing by and give us a couple of hours in a studio. We had a lot of guys that came in right between their morning run and their edit session or whatever. But at the same time, editors spend a lot of time thinking about film and how it’s put together so it made a lot of sense. We talked to Walter Murch. We talked to Bob Murawski who has done I believe most of Sam Raimi’s films, and his wife, Chris Innis who edited The Hurt Locker.. We talked to Jeffrey Ford who cut Avengers and the Captain America films.
HULLFISH: Fred Raskin.
HERSCHBERGER: Yeah, not very long after he finished Hateful Eight, he was also a great interview. For me the real treat of this particular film was that it really just amounted to a lot of nerding out with other filmmakers about a subject that was easy for us all to nerd out on.
HULLFISH: Let’s talk about the melon stabbing scene that we can show. How well do you remember putting that whole section together? There’s some great, black and white, textural footage of melons and stabbing. It’s a great little sequence. Talk to me about putting that together.
THIS IS A LINK TO THE MELON SCENE
HERSCHBERGER: That was actually a really fun sequence to edit together. We knew we wanted to tell that casaba melon story. Through his research, the director had already chosen this story around the casaba as one of the things he wanted to talk about, and Stephen Rebello, who was a super smart guy and was really fun to interview, wrote the Hitchcock book that the Anthony Hopkins film that came out was based off of, Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho.
So, we asked him about the casaba. That was just his response and we all knew as soon as we heard him tell that story that we were going to anchor the entire scene around it. He told it in such a fun way. Actually, it’s not even that edited. That is almost exactly as he told the story in the original interview.
The director took it upon himself to just find every melon he could possibly find anywhere. I mean he’s hitting all these Asian markets and health food stores and just trying to find every obscure melon that they could find. They took a day to shoot that sequence, so they spent almost four hours just shooting shots of melons and then another four hours of stabbing stuff. Early on, it was just about trying to find things—obviously we’re riffing on the shower scene, the DP did a great job of giving everything this really moody backlight feel. There are experts who shoot nothing but food and spray from food. We have none of that. We’ve got a guy with a knife just stabbing the heck out of fruit. You spend a lot of time just watching stabs and trying to suss out the handful of them that have that moment where you can see a little bit of the goo and the juice, trying to get some of those things that felt like they were iconic horror images, like a knife with a little bit of juice dripping off of it. And that was a scene that was handed off back-and-forth between the music and Stephen Rebello in terms of its rhythm, you know, there’s places where it’s cut very tightly to the beats of the music, but then there’s other places where Stephen gets into his own rhythm and he’s like melonmelon melon, melon melon melon, so he takes over the rhythm at those points. I think scenes like that are the most fun to put together for an editor, honestly. It’s entertaining. It’s got strong rhythms to work with, and it’s got strong visuals to work with.
HULLFISH: I cut a theatrical feature-length documentary last year and it was almost exclusively based on interviews with very little visual stuff. I got this comment back from the producer: “There’s too many words in this movie.”
HERSCHBERGER: Yeah it’s tough. I’ve done a few of films that are more “talking head.” I have to give the director, Alexandre, a lot of credit in that respect. I think those films live and die by their characters and if you don’t find the right people to create some engagement with the audience, then these films just don’t fly. It has to be more than just a resuscitation of information. It has to be that you care on some level about the person that’s actually talking to you. We’ve done three of these films together now. We did this and Doc of the Dead together and we did The People vs. George Lucas together as well. I think all of those rely on the strength of their characters. In all of those films there are a couple of outliers who might not be the first name that comes to your mind on a particular topic, but they’ve got the right voice or they’ve got the right humor and they can bring a little perspective to it, and they can break up the monotony that some of your more intellectual people might have.
HULLFISH: I like the casaba melon guy. You can just tell he’s a storyteller.
HERSCHBERGER: With a film like this in particular, you’re talking to a lot of storytellers. I think when you’re talking to people that A) already inherently understand how to tell a story and B) are very excited to talk about the things that you’re asking them to talk about, then that’s the magical combination where you really start getting – not just a great telling of a story – but a great telling of a story where people have that glint in their eye and a smile and you know, you can feel it through the screen that they’re excited to be sharing with you the things that they’re talking about. And I think almost everybody, in 78/52 in particular has that emotion.
HULLFISH: I like the two audio guys who were sitting next to each other and I can’t remember, one of them uses some word and the other guy goes, really? Look over at him.
HERSCHBERGER: “Viscera.”
HULLFISH: That’s right. Viscera, huh? Good word.
HERSCHBERGER: Yeah, “Viscera. Good horror word.” Actually that exchange went on for a little while and in a longer cut we went on with that for a little bit with them ribbing each other about their vocabularies. This was a film that I think the stuff that ended up on the cutting room floor was a lot of just inside filmmaker jokes. Bob Murawski who is just a really fun guy—we had him in a conversation about “the wet hair” cut. One of my biggest concerns was that this is going to end up as a film by nerds for nerds and that it would be a little too dense for a general audience. I’m happy that that’s not the case at all, but there are some fairly detailed discussions. For example: Murch points out a cut in the shower scene that he has dubbed “the wet hair” cut. We’ve seen a couple of shots of Janet Leigh showering, but her hair is not actually wet yet, and then we cut to a shot–it’s a jump cut. The framing of the shot is not that different. But suddenly now her hair is completely wet, and so that spurs a conversation about jump cuts and where we use them and how we use them, and Murawski’s adding to that; this idea of jumping time and making the audience aware that you’re jumping time. So, I had a little editor’s joke there where I put a jump cut in where he was talking about it (and his hands are down) and then it cuts and he’s scratching his head. “It’s a time cut”. It was a totally stellar editor’s joke.
HULLFISH: That’s awesome.
HERSCHBERGER: That unfortunately didn’t make the final cut.
HULLFISH: Noooo!
HERSCHBERGER: Yeah. I know.
HULLFISH: C’mon! I’ve got to see that one. That’s great. I love that. That’s very funny. When are we going to be able to see it? I know it was at Sundance.
HERSCHBERGER: IFC plans for a fall release.
HULLFISH: You mentioned that before you could really get to the deconstruction of the scene you need to first set up the context. Tell me the structure, without giving away the movie. Did you intersperse the “buckets?” Why did you do the “buckets” in a certain order?
HERSCHBERGER: There’s logic to it in the sense that you work backwards from the things you want the audience to know. In this case, the whole film is working backwards from that deconstruction. We want to do that deconstruction, but we want the audience to be armed with the information that we need them to have in order for that deconstruction to actually be meaningful.
HULLFISH: Context.
HERSCHBERGER: I think it helps to start with the human story. Marli Renfro is the first interview in the film, and was also the first interview of the film we shot. She was the body double for Janet Leigh. She was also one of the first Playboy Playmates and one of the most charming human beings on the planet. She was super sweet. And so we wanted to use her as an entry point, mostly for human interest. I’ve done a lot of work around art and done some other artist process films and I think for me one of the important things any time you talk about art and creative people in general is that you’ve got to humanize them. You’ve got to bring them down onto a level where they feel a little bit more relatable. Certainly Hitchcock, but you could say this about any number of artists: that they reach a certain level in their work and we suddenly don’t feel like they’re the same as us anymore. So I think the first part of the film was about bringing in Marli because she’s somebody who’s actually met Hitchcock. She can give us a little bit of a taste of “Hitchcock the man” from her perspective.
Then we get more into a little bit more of the telling of Hitchcock’s psychology of the time. That’s from people speaking to the films that he had made in the past, or the public statements he’d made. We interweaved certain interviews that he’d given. We used some of the Hitchcock-Truffaut interviews, some of the stuff he’d done of BBC Monitor. Understanding Hitchcock was important. You need to know that this is not just an art piece, but he’s a guy with tastes and personalities and hang-ups and turn-offs and all those sorts of things. So that’s the first part of it.
Then I think the second part of it is to understand the context of the film. Not just in filmmaking broadly but in his filmmaking because I think in this case, they’re both unique. This film was a big departure from his oeuvre at that point. He’d been making these big, sexy, color thrillers and then he does this black and white independent horror film that felt like it was coming out of left field for a lot of people. But the genre of horror was changing quite a bit at that point, and the psychology of the country was changing a lot at that point. We were shifting away from the triumph of the greatest generation into the worries of Communism and the Cold War and Vietnam and all these sorts of things. There was just a lot of emotional transition, and so we attack each of those things.
We talk about horror films changing from being cheesy, campy, sci-fi, horror things to psychological horror where it’s like now the monster is actually another person doing unspeakable things. One of the more interesting conversations–and this was something I think it wasn’t in the early research but it came out in a lot of the interviews we started doing–was this whole concept of “Momism.” Which obviously plays really well into Psycho and the psychology of that film. It’s this notion that throughout the 50s and into the 60s, there was a growing group of people who really felt that mothers were too nurturing; that they were coddling American youths to the point that we were becoming incapable of taking care of themselves. So we spent some time talking about all of those things. And I think once you have that context then we could start getting into the construction of the film itself. We talked about the production of it, the cinematography of it.
We talk about the production process, rehearsing, and then we get in to the editing and the music. We talk about the choice of melon for sound design in the melon scene.
The other thing too, that makes the film interesting is that when we talked to other filmmakers, they started making their own connections to other films. One interesting one was Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead –they were the directors of a film named Spring, and they made this really interesting connection between Psycho and Jurassic Park. Those moments are the things that we found in interviews and those become the tangents that we break off into as we’re deconstructing the film. Every time we come to an interesting moment, we’ll stop the deconstruction briefly and we’ll just ride that tangent out, then come back and pick up Psycho and start talking about that scene again. The last half of the film really is built out like that. We’re working through the deconstruction but then there’s also these great other stories and ideas.
HULLFISH: I’m really interested in that idea of breaking away from the main story, which is this deconstruction, to show a B story. It’s always a question for an editor of “how long can I be away before I have to come back to where I was,” right? What were some of those questions or problems or decisions?
HERSCHBERGER: In this particular case I think we had this really great anchor, which was the scene itself. It’s a talking head film, so there’s a lot of tricks, there’s a lot of use of music, there’s a lot of jump cuts and flash cuts and things like that that are by design meant to bring you back. We use a – I hope not too campy of a rewind device – we’ll break off on one of these tangents for a second and then we’ll cut to a little bit of the scene rewinding really quick and re-queuing to the bit of the scene that we’re talking about again. I thought it worked really well as a way to reset the audience. I think a film like this benefits from the fact that there isn’t a strong single narrative arc that goes through the piece. It really is a thought piece in a lot of ways. We are going through the scene in a linear way. We are going through history in a linear way at some point, but there’s not a huge A to B arc where we’re trying to get from one to the other.
It was really important for me from day one that this felt like an accessible film. I want my mom to like this film. My mom knows nothing about filmmaking and she is not a film buff, but I think that this is a subject that even non-film people will enjoy. As we point out in the film, the music – the strings and the “eea-eea-eea-eea” – is something that’s a touchstone. It’s seared into our common psychology at this point. You have little kids who have never seen that film that know what that sound is. So hopefully the film to satisfies both of those audiences, something that filmmakers can watch and enjoy and find to be insightful but not be so Inside Baseball that my mom won’t enjoy it. That’s what a lot of those stories are to me. They’re these funny, human moments where people are actually relating it to something else and it’s hopefully something else that’s familiar and in that way I think gives insight. And they’re short for the most part. You saw the melon scene. Most of these departures are not terribly big departures. It’s a two to three minute moment where we just stop the flow of the deconstruction and riff on one particular scene for a minute.
HULLFISH: Well they’re two or three minutes now, but at some point I’m guessing they were not two or three minutes.
HERSCHBERGER: The first outline I got for the deconstruction sequence—just the deconstruction sequence – which was going to be the main point of the film, was about 75 minutes long by itself. Our entire film now is
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turned off the highway, and drove over the rise of a hill. He parked the car, got out, and squatted down facing the sun. He decided that the film was going to be "about a brother getting the Man's foot out of his ass."[5][6] Because no studio would finance the film, Van Peebles put his own money into the production, and shot it independently. Van Peebles was given a $50,000 loan by Bill Cosby to complete the film. "Cosby didn't want an equity part," according to Van Peebles. "He just wanted his money back." Van Peebles wound up with controlling ownership of the film. Several actors auditioned for the lead role of Sweetback, but told Van Peebles that they wouldn't do the film unless they were given more dialogue. Van Peebles ended up playing the part himself.[6]
According to Van Peebles, during the first day of shooting, director of photography and head cameraman Bob Maxwell told him he could not mix two different shades of mechanical film lights, because he believed the results would not appear well on film. Van Peebles told him to do it anyway. When he saw the rushes, Maxwell was overjoyed, and Van Peebles did not encounter that issue again during the shoot. Van Peebles shot the film over a period of 19 days in order to avoid the possibility of the cast, most of whom were amateurs, showing on some days with haircuts or clothes different from the prior day. He shot the film in what he referred to as "globs," where he would shoot entire sequences at a time. Because Van Peebles couldn't afford a stunt man, he performed all of the stunts himself, which also included appearing in several unsimulated sex scenes. At one point in the shoot, Van Peebles was forced to jump off a bridge. Bob Maxwell later stated, "Well, that's great, Mel, but let's do it again." Van Peebles ended up performing the stunt nine times. Van Peebles contracted gonorrhea when filming one of the many sex scenes, and successfully applied to the Directors Guild in order to get workers' compensation because he was "hurt on the job." Van Peebles used the money to purchase more film.[6]
Van Peebles and several key crew members were armed because it was dangerous to attempt to create a film without the support of the union. One day, Van Peebles looked for his gun, and failed to find it. Van Peebles found out that someone had put it in the prop box. When they filmed the scene in which Beetle is interrogated by police, who fire a gun next to both of his ears, it was feared that the real gun would be picked up instead of the prop. While shooting a sequence with members of the Hells Angels, one of the bikers told Van Peebles they wanted to leave; Van Peebles responded by telling them they were paid to shoot until the scene was over. The biker took out a knife and started cleaning his fingernails with it. In response, Van Peebles snapped his fingers, and his crewmembers were standing there with rifles. The bikers stayed to shoot the scene.[6]
Van Peebles had received a permit to set a car on fire, but had done so on a Friday; as a result, there was no time to have it filed before shooting the scene. When the scene was shot, a fire truck showed up. This ended up in the final cut of the film.[6]
Directing [ edit ]
Van Peebles stated that he approached directing the film "like you do the cupboard when you're broke and hungry: throw in everything eatable and hope to come out on top with the seasoning, i.e., by editing."[7] Van Peebles stated that "story-wise, I came up with an idea, why not the direct approach.... To avoid putting myself into a corner and writing something I wouldn't be able to shoot, I made a list of the givens in the situation and tried to take those givens and juggle them into the final scenario."[7]
Van Peebles wanted "a victorious film... where niggers could walk out standing tall instead of avoiding each other's eyes, looking once again like they'd had it." Van Peebles was aware of the fact that films produced by major studios would appear to be more polished than low-budget independently made features, and was determined to make a film that "[looked] as good as anything one of the major studios could turn out."[7]
Van Peebles knew that in order to spread his message, the film "simply couldn't be a didactic discourse which would end up playing... to an empty theater except for ten or twenty aware brothers who would pat me on the back and say it tells it like it is" and that "to attract the mass we have to produce work that not only instructs but entertains". Van Peebles also wanted to make a film that would "be able to sustain itself as a viable commercial product... [The Man] ain't about to go carrying no messages for you, especially a relevant one, for free."[7]
Van Peebles wanted half of his shooting crew "to be third world people.... So at best a staggering amount of my crew would be relatively inexperienced.... Any type of film requiring an enormous technical sophistication at the shooting stage should not be attempted." Van Peebles knew that gaining financing for the film would not be easy and expected "a great deal of animosity from the film media (white in the first place and right wing in the second) at all levels of filmmaking", thus he had to "write a flexible script where emphasis could be shifted. In short, stay loose."[7]
Editing [ edit ]
The film's fast-paced montages and jump cuts were novel features for an American movie at the time. Stephen Holden from The New York Times commented that the film's editing had "a jazzy, improvisational quality, and the screen is often streaked with jarring psychedelic effects that illustrate Sweetback's alienation."[8] In The 50 Most Influential Black Films: A Celebration of African-American Talent, Determination, and Creativity, author S. Torriano Berry writes that the film's "odd camera angles, superimpositions, reverse-key effects, box and matting effects, rack-focus shots, extreme zooms, stop-motion and step-printing, and an abundance of jittery handheld camera work all helped to express the paranoid nightmare that [Sweetback's] life had become."[9]
Music [ edit ]
Since Van Peebles did not have the money to hire a composer, he composed the film's music score himself. Because he did not know how to read or write music, he numbered all of the keys on a piano so he could remember the melodies.[6] Van Peebles stated that "Most filmmakers look at a feature in terms of image and story or vice versa. Effects and music [...] are strictly secondary considerations. Very few look at film with sound considered as a creative third dimension. So I calculate the scenario in such a way that sound can be used as an integral part of the film."[7]
The film's music was performed by the then-unknown group Earth, Wind & Fire, who were living in a single apartment with hardly any food at the time. Van Peebles' secretary was dating one of the bandmembers, and convinced him to contact them about performing the music for the film. Van Peebles projected scenes from the film as the band performed the music.[6] By alternating hymn-based vocalization and jazz rhythms, Van Peebles created a sound that foreshadowed the use of sampling in hip hop music.[10]
Van Peebles recalls that "music was not used as a selling tool in movies at the time. Even musicals, it would take three months after the release of the movie before they would bring out an album." Because Van Peebles did not have any money for traditional advertising methods, he decided that by releasing a soundtrack album in anticipation of the film's release, he could help build awareness for the film with its music.[11]
Release and alterations [ edit ]
The film was released on April 23, 1971. Melvin Van Peebles stated that "at first, only two theaters in the United States would show the picture: one in Detroit, and one in Atlanta. The first night in Detroit, it broke all the theater's records, and that was only on the strength of the title alone, since nobody had seen it yet. By the second day, people would take their lunch and sit through it three times. I knew that I was finally talking to my audience. Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song made thousands of dollars in its first day."[12] The film grossed $15,000,000+ at the box office (about $90 million in 2016 dollars).[5]
After Sweetback received an X rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, inspiring the advertising tagline "Rated X by an all-white jury",[13] and a theater in Boston cut nine minutes out of the film, Van Peebles stated, "Should the rest of the community submit to your censorship that is its business, but White standards shall no longer be imposed on the Black community."[14] The Region 2 DVD release from BFI Video has the opening sex sequences altered. A notice at the beginning of the DVD states "In order to comply with UK law (the Protection of Children Act 1978), a number of images in the opening sequence of this film have been obscured."[15]
Response [ edit ]
The end of the film was shocking to black viewers who had expected that Sweetback would perish at the hands of the police — a common, even inevitable, fate of black men "on the run" in prior films. Film critic Roger Ebert cited the ending as a reason for the film not to be labeled as an exploitation film.[3] Critical response was mixed. Kevin Thomas in the Los Angeles Times described the film as "a series of stark, earthy vignettes, Van Peebles evokes the vitality, humor, pain, despair and omnipresent fear that is life for so many African-Americans".[16] Stephen Holden in The New York Times called it "an innovative, yet politically inflammatory film."[8] The film website Rotten Tomatoes, which compiles reviews from a wide range of critics, gives the film a score of 72% "Fresh".[17]
Huey P. Newton, devoting an entire issue of The Black Panther to the film's revolutionary implications,[5][18] celebrated and welcomed the film as "the first truly revolutionary Black film made [...] presented to us by a Black man."[19] Newton wrote that Sweetback "presents the need for unity among all members and institutions within the community of victims," contending that this is evidenced by the opening credits which state the film stars "The Black Community," a collective protagonist engaged in various acts of community solidarity that aid Sweetback in escaping. Newton further argued that "the film demonstrates the importance of unity and love between Black men and women," as demonstrated "in the scene where the woman makes love to the young boy but in fact baptizes him into his true manhood."[19] The film became required viewing for members of Black Panther Party.[20]
A few months after the publication of Newton's article, Lerone Bennett responded with an essay on the film in Ebony, titled "The Emancipation Orgasm: Sweetback in Wonderland," in which he discussed the film's "black aesthetic". Bennett argued that the film romanticized the poverty and misery of the ghetto and that "some men foolishly identify the black aesthetic with empty bellies and big bottomed prostitutes." Bennett concluded that the film is "neither revolutionary nor black because it presents the spectator with sterile daydreams and a superhero who is ahistorical, selfishly individualist with no revolutionary program, who acts out of panic and desperation." Bennett described Sweetback's sexual initiation at ten years old as the "rape of a child by a 40-year-old prostitute." Bennett described instances when Sweetback saved himself through the use of his sexual prowess as "emancipation orgasms" and stated that "it is necessary to say frankly that nobody ever fucked his way to freedom. And it is mischievous and reactionary finally for anyone to suggest to black people in 1971 that they are going to be able to screw their way across the Red Sea. Fucking will not set you free. If fucking freed, black people would have celebrated the millennium 400 years ago."[21]
Black nationalist poet and author Haki R. Madhubuti (Don L. Lee) agreed with Bennett's assessment of the film, stating that it was "a limited, money-making, auto-biographical fantasy of the odyssey of one Melvin Van Peebles through what he considered to be the Black community."[22] The New York Times critic Clayton Riley viewed the film more favorably, commenting on its aesthetic innovation, but stated of the character of Sweetback that he "is the ultimate sexualist in whose seemingly vacant eyes and unrevealing mouth are written the protocols of American domestic colonialism." In another review, Riley explained that "Sweetback, the profane sexual athlete and fugitive, is based on a reality that is Black. We may not want him to exist but he does." Critic Donald Bogle states in a New York Times interview that the film in some ways met the black audience's compensatory needs after years of asexual, Sidney Poitier-type characters and that they wanted a "viable, sexual, assertive, arrogant black male hero."[18] In a compendium about the Museum of Modern Art's film and media collection, curator Steven Higgins describes the film's place in history: "Not since Oscar Micheaux had an African American filmmaker taken such complete control of the creative process, turning out a work so deeply connected to his own personal and cultural reality that he was not surprised when the white critical establishment professed bewilderment...[it] depends less on its story of a superstud running from the police than it does on its disinterest in referencing white culture and its radically new understanding of how style and substance inform each other."[23]
Legacy [ edit ]
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is considered to be an important film in the history of African American cinema.[24] The film was credited by Variety as leading to the creation of the blaxploitation genre, largely consisting of exploitation films made by white directors.[3] As Spike Lee states, "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song gave us all the answers we needed. This was an example of how to make a film (a real movie), distribute it yourself, and most important, get paid. Without Sweetback who knows if there could have been a [...] She's Gotta Have It, Hollywood Shuffle, or House Party?"[25]
Robert Reid-Pharr wrote that "...[Sweetback] was seen (correctly I believe) as the first in a long line of so-called Blaxploitation features..." and goes on to say that Van Peebles was "one of the first artists to bring not only compelling but realistic images of Black Americans into mainstream cinemas, breaking with decades-long traditions..."[26]
In 2004, Mario Van Peebles directed and starred as his father in Baadasssss!, a biopic about the making of Sweet Sweetback. The film was a critical but not commercial success.[27][28]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]Australia continues slide down International Corruption Index, perceived as'more corrupt'
Updated
Australia has been singled out for its deteriorating position as it continues a four-year slide down the International Corruption Index.
Key points: Australia ranked 13th of 136 countries in International Corruption Index
Australia has slid six positions since 2012
Lack of action by successive governments blamed for the slide
Each year Transparency International gathers assessments and surveys business people to rank 168 countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption.
Australia ranked 13th in the latest report, dropping six positions since 2012.
Figures released for 2015 show Denmark led the rankings, followed by Finland and Sweden, with New Zealand in fourth place.
The incoming chairman of Transparency International's Australian subsidiary, TI Australia, Anthony Whealy QC, said lack of action by successive governments to curb public sector corruption was the reason Australia continued to slide down the rankings.
"The delay in responding to these issues has now made reform critical and a commitment to ramp up efforts to tackle foreign bribery, which has particularly impacted perceptions of Australia, is now urgent," Mr Whealy said.
Those perceptions are not helped by the uncovering of large scale corruption linked to Australia's most reputable institutions, including the Reserve Bank.
Two firms owned by the RBA, Securency and Note Printing Australia, were charged with bribing foreign officials to win banknote contracts in 2013.
The scandal continues to taunt Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens as questions are raised about what he knew about Securency's alleged corruption involving up to $17 million paid in bribes.
TI Australia CEO Phil Newman has called on the Turnbull Government to deliver a stronger federal anti-corruption agency.
"With Australia's worst foreign bribery offences having been committed by former or current government-owned entities - the Australian Wheat Board, Note Printing Australia and Securency Limited - there is no excuse not to have implemented all of the OECD's reform recommendations in this area by the end of the year," Mr Newman said.
The inflow of illicit foreign funds into Australia's property market is also cited as a problem.
Mr Whealy said unless Australia strengthened its anti-money laundering regime it would continue to fall in the corruption rankings.
"The illicit flow of funds into Australia and particularly from Asia is a very significant problem and we need to have proper laws to vet it, transparency, and we need to have sanction to ensure that it doesn't happen," Mr Whealy said.
"We need to have better vision and control of where money is coming from."
The 2015 report found "68 per cent of countries worldwide have a serious corruption problem" and "not one single country anywhere in the world is corruption free".
The report shows Greece, Senegal and the UK are among the improvers and North Korea and Somalia are at the bottom of the corruption index.
Topics: corruption, government-and-politics, banking, australia
First postedHillary Clinton says she’s now “thinking about” a run for the Oval Office in 2016.
Speaking at a marketing summit held by software company Marketo in San Francisco, Clinton, who has teased with the idea of a 2016 presidential bid, dropped her strongest hint about a potential run on Tuesday.
“I am obviously … deeply honored to have some people ask me and people encourage me … and I am obviously thinking about it,” Clinton said when asked about the 2016 presidential race.
“But I am going to continue to think about it for a while,” she said.
Close video Hillary Clinton: helping or hurting? Roll Call’s Shira Center and Chicago Sun-Times Lynn Sweet weigh in on whether Hillary Clinton hurting other potential Democratic presidential candidates by taking all the spotlight, or is she helping by sparing them attacks and scrutiny with all the… share tweet email save Embed
“The hard questions aren’t ‘Do you want to be president?’ or ‘Can you win?’” Clinton told the audience at the Moscone Center. “The hard questions are ‘Why? Why would you want to do this? And what would you offer that could make a difference?’”
The former secretary of state has largely given non-answers when asked about her future professional aspirations, most recently saying at the Women in the World Summit in New York City that she won’t be deciding on a presidential bid “right now.”
Clinton, who is considered a frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, is leading most 2016 polls, even matched up against possible Republican contenders Chris Christie and Jeb Bush.
“I am not going to make a decision for a while because, you know, I am actually enjoying my life,” Clinton said, answering Marketo CEO Phil Fernandez’s question. “I am actually having fun doing ordinary things like seeing my friends and going on long walks and playing with our dogs … At the end of the day, it is what really gives joy and meaning to your life.”
“I danced around that pretty well, didn’t I,” she said.
Clinton offered a similar response in January. “I will think about it in the future sometime, but right now let’s think about what we have to do to continue building on our success,” the former first lady said at a New Orleans fundraising event.
Tuesday’s conference was attended by nearly 2,000 attendees, who cheered loudly when Clinton was asked about 2016, according to Carla Marinucci of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Huge cheers in SF as @HillaryClinton asked on #2016; “I’m actually here hoping to get some marketing advice…obviously thnking about it.” — Carla Marinucci (@cmarinucci) April 8, 2014
Clinton said Tuesday that her decision to run would rest heavily on whether she would want to battle with the constant contention in Washington.
“I would be the first to say we’re having a political period of, frankly, dysfunction,” Clinton said. “I saw it from afar as secretary and it was disheartening and even embarrassing to see people arguing about letting us default on our debt.”Puma is hoping that by forging partnerships with startups operating “in the fusion of marketing and technology” it can better engage with consumers as it continues its strategy to become ‘the fastest sports brand in the world’.
Following a reposition in 2013 where Puma announced its new brand strategy, the sports brand has since rolled out campaigns under the mantra 'Forever Faster', a statement it hopes deals with various startups will help it achieve.
The brand has already worked with Seenit, an app that allows fans to view branded content in real time that has been created by influencers. For Puma, the platform allowed the brand to encourage its influencers to shoot content around the Trapstar launch event at the end of 2015. Throughout the night, editors tied short videos together that were then shared by the influencers to their social channels, to make the content quick, consumable and shareable.
Speaking to The Drum Ruth How, head of marketing and communications, said by partnering with startups Puma wants to overcome both the challenge and exploit the opportunity of disrupting its consumers.
“Puma’s mantra is we are 'Forever Faster' and that is an external consumer facing proposition but it also permeates throughout the company. What that means to the marketing team is that we are always looking for the best way or the newest way to disrupt the consumer and engage with them. Working with startups and tech innovation in marketing is a really great way of finding new ways to do that and better deliver that brand message.
“The challenge for us is that disruption, and engaging with the consumer is a business challenge, but it’s also the biggest opportunity. [We look at] how can we do that and what’s coming up in the fusion of marketing and technology that can help with that consumer engagement piece because really that’s where so much of our target market lives and breathes in the digital space.”
In terms of ROI, How said that because of the types of startups Puma is working with – namely in the social space – the brand is looking at it from the qualitative side so how many people have engaged with the content. Puma is also working with a platform called My Appy, which aggregates all of Puma’s consumer social media conversations and brings it in to one space so the brand can monitor how the content is being engaged with and what user generated content is created off the back of that.
“My philosophy is that startups are out there on the cutting edge of whatever field they’re in and they’re pushing the envelope they are driving whatever is new or innovative,” added How. “For me and my team the opportunity to partner with [startup incubator] Collider provides us with great ways of seeing what is coming at the same time as helping the startups figure out what their business proposition is”.It has been nearly two weeks since the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, USS Fitzgerald, was rammed by the container ship ACX Crystal near Fitzgerald’s homeport of Yokosuka, Japan. The Fitzgerald was extensively damaged–probably putting it out of service for at least a year–and seven sailors were killed.
Initial reports based on tracking data from ACX Crystal showed it made a sharp right turn before impact. This led to a lot of speculation about a deliberate ramming because the crew of ACX Crystal is all Filipino and it had made previous stops in Pakistan. As it turns out, the sharp turn is actually the container ship broadsiding Fitzgerald and being forced off course, which the autopilot corrected when the two ships separated.
Right now, however, the emphasis seems to be focusing on what was going on in the bridge and combat information center aboard the Fitzgerald.
There should have been lookouts on watch on the port, starboard and stern of the destroyer Fitzgerald — sailors scanning the horizon with binoculars and reporting by headsets to the destroyer’s bridge. At 1:30 a.m. last Saturday, off the coast of Japan south of Tokyo, they could hardly have failed to see the 730-foot freighter ACX Crystal, stacked with more than 1,000 containers, as it closed in. Radar officers working both on the bridge and in the combat information center below it should have spotted the freighter’s image on their screens, drawing steadily closer. And under standard protocol, the Fitzgerald’s captain, Cmdr. Bryce Benson, should have been awakened and summoned to the bridge to assure a safe passage long before the ships could come near each other. But none of that happened. The Fitzgerald’s routine cruise in good weather through familiar, if crowded, seas ended in the most lethal Navy accident in years. Seven sailors lost their lives. As investigators try to figure out what many veteran seamen describe as an incomprehensible collision, they have plenty of mysteries to unravel. In addition to the questions for the destroyer’s crew, there is the peculiar course of the Crystal after the accident, recorded by ship-tracking websites. It raises the possibility that no one was awake, or at least aware of their surroundings, when the two ships hit.
…
Under strict orders not to talk about what they saw that night, the crew of the Fitzgerald is mostly keeping its counsel while grieving the loss of its shipmates. But one sailor, contacted via social media, offered what may endure as an epitaph for the accident. “All I can say is,” the sailor wrote to The New York Times, “somebody wasn’t paying attention.”
This is the kicker:
There are many signs that the Fitzgerald had almost no warning of the approaching collision: the fact that the captain was in his cabin and that no shipwide alarm had rousted sailors from their bunks. “As to how much warning they had, I don’t know,” said Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, commander of the Seventh Fleet, at a news conference on Sunday. “That’s going to have to be found out during the investigation.”
…
“It looks horrible,” said Gary E. Meyer, owner of a tech company in New Jersey, who served on the Navy ship San Diego and posted a YouTube commentary on the accident that got much attention. “You have three lookouts and you’re running radar,” Mr. Meyer said. “That ship can really accelerate and maneuver. It doesn’t mean they caused the collision, but they’re at fault for not avoiding it.” Steven M. Morawiec, of Sparta, Wis., who spent 22 years in the Navy and many times took charge of his ship at night as the officer of the deck, said the failure to summon the captain was incomprehensible. “On my ship, if another ship was expected to get within 4,000 yards, you had to have the captain there beside you,” he said. “If you didn’t wake the captain when you were supposed to, you were toast.”
I don’t pretend to be an authority on the day to day operations on the bridge and CIC of a surface combatant, but these statements comport with conversations I have had with Navy officers. The fact is that being asleep in your bunk will not prevent you from being relieved if something happens, most skippers are on the bridge anytime there is any danger of anything going wrong.
As a commander, I had a couple of “misadventures” that could have ended my career had the dice rolled a bit differently and I’m reluctant to second-guess a man in command in an environment in which I’ve never served. There are questions about the actions of ACX Crystal as well but the major focus right now has to be why no one on the Fitzgerald saw anything either visually or on any of the systems available to them to track surface ships.Shattered Tomorrow | Weiss Schnee
My try at a RWBY AU. Take a look at my take on Ruby here. The pictures here are ordered as: Weiss Final - Weiss sketches - Weiss Black Top Version - Weiss White Gloves Version.
Keep Reading for more info! Quite a bit of it so watch out.
About
After Cinder took control of the CCT and infected General James Ironwood’s Scroll with the Black Queen virus, all of the Atlesian Knight troopers are now under her control. Using them, Cinder coordinated a coup on Atlas using their own defenders. With most of their technology now her toys, the small pockets of the remains of the Atlesian army that weren’t wiped out had to use their ships and Paladins manually - without guided sensors and radar - putting them at a severe disadvantage.
Not only that, but in an event called the Schnee Dust Crisis, Cinder’s forces - with help from the White Fang and led by Roman Torchwick - took over the Schnee Corporation and control the largest pipeline of Dust in all of Remnant. The entire Schnee household save for the sisters are held hostage and forced to work the Dust mines - the White fang’s idea of “turning the hierarchy on its head.”
In this pivotal disaster, the enemy forces are now loaded with more than enough Dust to overpower the Kingdoms, Huntsmen and Huntresses who now have their supplies cut off. This change in the balance has forced many of the Huntsmen/Huntresses to focus more on their martial skill/melee combat and use of Aura and Semblances, saving all the Dust they can. Private Dust traders become more important than ever and our heroes desperately need to find and protect them, before the villains get to them.
Add that to Cinder gaining control of their top-secret Aura transference tech, and who knows what’ll happen.
After the disaster started at Vale, Ruby gathered her team to discuss their plan of action. Hearing about what had happened in Atlas from Ironwood, and driven by concern for her sister and family back home, Weiss chooses to return to her place up north, reuniting with Winter and finding out how to disable the virus, oust the White Fang and Torchwick, and bring the CCTS back online. No pressure!
Weiss’ operations in Atlas mainly consist of working more covert missions as a Huntress with her allies while Winter, as an Atlas-bound Special Operative, mobilises the few remaining troops with Ironwood. Together, this resistance group is called ATLAST, short for the Atlas Temporary Liberation Arrangement SomeThing Strike Team. There’s no time for nitpicking name choices – the world’s in danger! It was a rushed name discussed between her, Jaune and Neptune for 5 seconds anyway,and nobody was really bothered to suggest something better.
Character: Weiss Schnee
“I’ll be fine on my own! It’s just that frost Beowolves don’t make for very good company…”
Weiss, now 19 going on 20, has vastly improved as a Huntress during her (incomplete) time at Beacon. She’s finally unlocked the Schnee summoning ability, removing all previous doubt and imagined obligations that tied her down. Unsurprisingly, once she overcame the initial barrier, she’s proved to be incredibly gifted with the ability and can maintain control of numerous complex summons even while fighting at the same time, greatly enhancing her power and tactics with the added numbers and strength of her summons.
Her Myrtenaster remains the same, though now at the pommel is a trinket that is her most cherished memento: a set of metal pendants with cutouts of their emblems which she made together with her team. The rest of her team all agreed she should be the one to keep it because she was the one gushing over them the most. At first, the trinket sometimes got in the way of her swordsmanship, but Weiss largely ignores it out of stubbornness – but there’s also the practical reason that it places more weight on Myrtenaster’s back end, balancing the blade more.
Along the way, she meets some comrades also headed for or trapped in Atlas besides Winter, getting them together to fight alongside her: Jaune Arc, Neptune Vasilias and Ciel Soleil. And maybe Penny too if she survived getting hacked by the virus. I haven’t decided that yet.
Design Process
As you can see from the early sketches, I had intended a more knight-like design for Weiss, with a little more ornate designs on her jacket. It was because I saw this really cool fantrailer by JAC OneManBand and I was like “I gotta make a White Wolf Weiss!” She was supposed to wield a spear alongside Myrtenaster as well, but I couldn’t really work with it. She has summons to do most of the work anyway.
Initially I was going for a spaghetti strap top for her, but as you can see the sleeveless sweater won out. I had Rin Tohsaka in the brain while designing her, so I think that did something. Otherwise, her final design is basically just a fusion between her normal outfit and her Snowpea outfit in Volume 2. Her hairstyle remains the same because I find it hard to find different hairstyles for Weiss in particular. =p
Below you can see some alternate colours for Weiss: one in a black top and another with white gloves instead of black (it’s the little things that bother you most, amirite). The black was the original colour of her top actually but I found out sticking with all white still works the best for Weiss, as she relies the most heavily among the girls on just small hotspots of colour on a clean white canvas.
Next is Blake! Oh boy.SANTA ANA – A nurse with 14 years of experience was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of physically abusing a boy with disabilities, authorities said.
Oscar Gilbert Felix, 54, of Orange, was booked into the Santa Ana City Jail on suspicion of felony child abuse, Santa Ana Police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said.
The mother of a 6-year-old boy who uses a feeding tube and is unable to hear and communicate notified police of the suspected abuse on Monday.
The woman told police that within the last three weeks she noticed her son had become aggressive and suspected Felix, who had been providing care five days a week since August, was being inattentive, Bertagna said.
The boy’s mother installed a nanny cam on Friday, Oct. 27 in the living room of her home on Lacy Street to monitor Felix. A 46-second video clip shows the boy trying to get the attention of the nurse, who appears to be texting on a cell phone. The boy then moves some items off of a counter onto the floor, apparently angering the nurse.
“In the video, the nurse kicks him, reaches down and slaps him and pinches him,” Bertagna said.
During a police interrogation Tuesday about the suspected abuse, Felix made “incriminating statements,” Bertagna said.
“Had the boy’s mother not used a nanny cam, and had the suspect not made those statements during the interview, we would not have known about this incident,” he said. “The boy’s mother did the right thing in contacting us.”
Police are attempting to determine if Felix had been hired to care for other special-needs children in the area.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact Santa Ana police through the Orange County Crime Stoppers at 855-TIP-OCCS.
Felix was employed by Maxim Healthcare Services, which has an office in Orange, Bertagna said.
“The care and safety of our patients is our highest priority,” a Maxim Healthcare Services spokesperson said in an email. “Immediately upon learning of this incident, we suspended the employee and initiated an investigation. …
“As a result, we (now) have terminated the employee and notified the California Board of Nursing. We have fully cooperated with the Santa Ana Police Department in their investigation thus far and will continue to lend our full cooperation.”Buy Photo Purdue’s D.J. Knox is the No. 1 running back. (Photo: John Terhune/Journal & Courier)Buy Photo Story Highlights Austin Appleby was named Purdue's starting quarterback Tuesday
Behind a veteran offensive line, the run game has a chance to be a strength
Freshman Markell Jones is one of the newcomers to watch
Who will emerge as playmakers for the Boilermakers?
Breaking down Purdue's offense heading into the 2015 season:
FOUR-DOWN TERRITORY
Appleby's No. 1: No surprise Austin Appleby was selected the starting quarterback. The question is: Will the junior start all 12 games? The program desperately needs stability at the position, but we also have to see production. Stretching the field and managing an uptempo offense are areas to watch from the North Canton, Ohio, native. He has a solid offensive line and what appears to be a strong running game to lean on. But Appleby will consistently have to make plays for the Boilermakers to take another step forward.
Run game: As mentioned above, based on what we saw in camp D.J. Knox, Markell Jones and Keyante Green – along with an experienced offensive line – give the offense a chance to generate yards and points on the ground. Knox is clearly the top running back on the roster and gives the offense a breakaway speed threat. Depth is the key here. An opportunity to feature fresh legs with Jones and Green in the second half could be pivotal.
RELATED STORIES
In the air: There's more experience at wide receiver and the potential for new playmakers to emerge. DeAngelo Yancey made only 12 catches last season, about 20 less than his freshman season. In the end, Yancey wasn't ready for the spotlight and is in a much better place mentally to enjoy a productive season. Danny Anthrop will be a consistent weapon for Appleby. The addition of junior college transfers Domonique Young and Anthony Mahoungou, who add size, likely hold the key if the passing game can hit big plays down the field.
Tempo, tempo, tempo: The plan is to showcase a variety of speeds. As backup quarterback David Blough mentioned, he didn't remember the offense huddling a lot during training camp. This isn't going to be Oregon-type of tempo, but the Boilermakers plan to play faster to control the pace. This only works if the offense isn't stuck in a three-and-out syndrome. This area has to become an edge.
Freshman running back Markell Jones looks to make a big impact this season. (Photo: Jerry Schultheiss/For the Journal & Courier.)
NEWCOMER TO WATCH
Jones. Last year's Indiana Mr. Football currently sits as
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, +etch) versus non-internalizing control, RPARPARA (RA)-Ag-NA647 (yellow, -etch; green, +etch). Cells without Ag were included as a control (black). Paired ± etch is indicated in all panels by the clip icon. c, Internalization into cells was quantified from b as the percentage of mean signal retained after etching. Error bars (standard deviation) were generated across five separate incubations and cytometric runs. d, Dark-field imaging of cell suspensions with R-Ag-NA647 shows that etched cells lose the membrane puncta (Ag) but retain the perinuclear (and red-shifted) scattering colour from internalized Ag. Inset shows cells without AgNPs. Scale bars, 25 μm. e,f, The data collected for R-Ag-NA647 nanoparticles and cells from b plotted as ungated dot plots in fluorescence versus forward scatter (FSC, e) or side scatter (SSC, f). Black-dot plots are from cells-only control. In e, FSC detected cells but the signal did not shift when cells were bound with R-Ag-NA647; only y-axis fluorescence shifts were observed. FSC thus served as a stable gate parameter, indicated by the blue bar, and was used for creating panel b. In f, both SSC and fluorescence increased owing to R-Ag-NA647 (red). Etching caused a slight loss in signal from cells (upper-right population), attributed to the etching away of membrane-bound Ag, and a loss of events below the cell-minimum SSC at ~106 counts was attributed to free R-Ag-NA647 or debris. Full size image
We found that, unlike most probes commonly used in flow cytometry, binding by Ag-NA647 dramatically altered the side scatter (SSC) signal from cells, and the effect was proportional to the fluorescence signal across a wide dynamic range (Fig. 3d, e). Cells without Ag-NA647 did not show this behaviour (black). The basis for increased SSC is probably a result of the intense resonant AgNP plasmon scattering light at the 488 nm laser wavelength7 (Fig. 3b and Supplementary Figs 2 and 3). Post-etch dot plots showed a disappearance of low-signal events in both SSC and fluorescence, further evidence that non-internalized Ag-NA647 were removed (Fig. 3e). Generalizing these results, AgNP SSC could be monitored in label-free uptake assays, or as a confirmatory or ratiometric reference signal, for example, when using pH-sensitive dyes. The proportionality we observe between SSC and fluorescence indicates uniform dye labelling as well as a minimal change of AF647 fluorescence following endocytosis. These results provide a blueprint for the design and use of AgNPs for flow cytometry applications.
Imaging of probes in live cells is particularly demanding, as it requires a material to be both bright and photostable. To explore such applications we prepared CF555 dye-labelled 70 nm R-Ag-NA555 and allowed them to internalize into NRP-1 expressing GFP-PC-3 (prostate cancer) cells (Fig. 4). These cells have cytosolic GFP and were chosen to allow distinction to be made between R-Ag-NA555 adsorbed between cells (red) and inside the cell (yellow overlay). Etching specifically reduced the membrane-bound as well as the plate-adsorbed R-Ag-NA555 (Fig. 4a and Supplementary Movie 8). At a lower dose R-Ag-NA555 was easily tracked as NPs that moved in relation to each another inside cells (Fig. 4b). Owing to the large (>1 μm) separation, the Ag were presumably contained in separate endosomes. Their convergence into a single spot was therefore most likely an endosome fusion event, as we found no subsequent separation over 25 min. These results show that dye-labelled Ag nanoprobes can be tracked through the cell uptake and intracellular transport process.
Figure 4: Tracking AgNPs within live cells. a, Epifluorescence microscopy images of GFP-expressing PC-3 cells (green) after binding and endocytosing R-Ag-NA555 (red). These cells express the NRP-1 receptor. R-Ag-NA555 appears red when not associated with the GFP in cells, and these were removed by etching (arrowheads). Nuclei were stained using Hoescht (blue). The yellow colour represents cell-associated R-Ag-NA555, due to spatial overlap with the cells, indicated by the full arrows. See also Supplementary Movie 8. b, Intracellular tracking was possible by time-lapse epifluorescence imaging when a lower amount of R-Ag-NA555 was added with shorter incubation time. This post-etch image shows only a small number of red objects survived etching, and a pre-etch image of a region outside the cells (dashed box) is overlaid to show the representative intensity from R-Ag-NA555 that had adsorbed to the substrate. A region inside the cell body (solid box) was chosen for the time series presented in c. c, R-Ag-NA555 moved within the cell and relative to each other. Each frame advances forward by 20 s, with numbers in frames indicating the elapsed time. The two structures undergo an apparent fusion event at 220 s. d, R-Ag-NA555 particles were incubated with PC-3-GFP cells and imaged during the sequential procedure of fixing (fix.), etching and permeabilization (perm.). Representative regions for R-Ag-NA555 that were internalized (green boxes) and a region of bound but external particles (grey boxes) are shown. e, Time trace of the mean pixel intensity of the regions in d with each reagent added without washing. Rapid drops in intensity were due to etching of Ag and the gradual downward slope is due to fluorescence photobleaching. Two cells were averaged for this trace. Scale bars, 25 μm (a); 10 μm (b); 1 μm (c); 25 μm (d). Full size image
We found that aldehyde-fixed GFP-PC-3 cells remained protective over the endocytosed R-Ag-NA555, as particles near the centre of the cells were not removed by etchant (Fig. 4d). Disrupting the membrane of fixed and etched cells by adding the detergent Triton X-100, in the presence of etchant, quickly diminished the remaining fluorescent regions (Fig. 4d, e). Presumably, this resilience was due to the stability of lipid bilayers that exclude HCF or TS (ref. 17). The permeability data adds further support to the proposed mechanism that impermeable membranes are the critical factor shielding Ag from the highly charged etchant molecules.
The potential of Ag in multiplexed microscopy was tested with cells and tissues (Fig. 5). We prepared both green and red dye-labelled 70 nm Ag–NA, mixed and physically filtered them (0.22 μm), and deposited them on a glass slide. Dye-labelled Ag–NA were bright enough and sufficiently separated from one another to be visualized individually in their respective fluorescent channels and in dark-field27, despite their small size (Fig. 5a). We next coated the red and green Ag–NA with two different peptides that bind to different receptors, and incubated them with PPC-1 cells28. The observed heterogeneous binding pattern of green and red fluorescent Ag–NA indicates a capacity for differential targeting and multiplexing (Fig. 5b). We also explored smaller size Ag–NA in the context of imaging, and for uptake pathway studies. Antibody staining with anti-NRP-1 on fixed cells showed colocalization with 20 nm RPARPAR Ag-NA555 (Fig. 5c, not etched), demonstrating that smaller 20 nm Ag–NA are viable as photostable targeted nanoprobes, despite them being less bright than the larger Ag.
Figure 5: Distinguishing individual AgNPs of different colours, in cancer cells and tumours. a, Microscopy analysis of a mixture of Ag-NA488 (green) and Ag-NA550 (red) on a glass slide, ×20 objective. Insets show detection of single-nanoparticles in epifluorescence (upper) and colour dark-field (lower). b, PPC-1 cells were incubated with the mixture of green and red Ag–NA, carrying Lyp-1 and RPARPAR peptides, respectively. The difference in binding between cells reflects receptor-specific binding, with colocalization in endosomes occuring near the nucleus (Hoescht, blue), ×100 objective. c, Smaller 20 nm R-Ag-NA555 (red) imaged by epifluorescence after incubation with PPC-1 cells and counterstaining with anti-NRP-1 antibody, Alexa Fluor 488 secondary antibody (green), and Hoescht (blue). d, Living tumour slices of 200 μm thickness were prepared from resected tumours and cultured in media. Confocal laser microscopy was performed after incubation and etching of iRGD-Ag-NA647 (top; red) or biotin Ag-NA647 (bottom; red) as a non-peptide control. Strong internalization was seen with iRGD. Nuclei were stained using DAPI (blue). Z-stacks were collected through 60-μm total thickness, step size 2 μm,×20 objective. e, 2D slice from the top panel in d, for iRGD-Ag-NA647. Inset shows the perinuclear localization in red, ×40 objective. Scale bars in insets in a and e, 5 μm. DyLight 488 and 550 were used in a and b, CF555 in c and CF647 in d. Full size image
We evaluated the use of AgNPs with living three-dimensional (3D) ‘organotypic’ tumour slices. These cultures preserve the complex tumour tissue architecture and the epithelial–stromal interactions, important considerations in drug delivery and tissue transport studies29. We used a tumour-penetrating peptide iRGD, with sequence [CRGDKGPDC]. iRGD binds integrins overexpressed in many types of tumours and is proteolytically processed into a CendR peptide, which then internalizes into cells25,30. Tissue penetration of iRGD-Ag-NA647 (70 nm) was readily visualized by post-etch mapping in 3D using confocal microscopy, revealing localized hot spots of endocytosis (Fig. 5d, e) that were not found using control particles.
Injected therapeutic NPs follow a path that can be broken down into three major steps: circulation, binding and internalization. Extravasation occurs as NPs pass from blood into tissue by passive leakage or endocytosis31, and these contributions sum to give the signal and contrast seen with ‘always-on’ imaging probes. Endocytosis by cells is challenging to detect, but is of great interest for delivery of membrane-impermeable drugs (for example, nucleic acids) that act against intracellular targets. To test if etchable NPs can provide internalization contrast, we injected iRGD-Ag-NA into the circulation in mice bearing 4T1 breast cancer tumours. After perfusion to remove unbound NPs from the vasculature, we etched tissue sections from both tumour and liver (Fig. 6a). The spatial pattern of Ag in the tumour (Fig. 6b) was found to change markedly on etching, showing loss of the diffuse signal and revealing an underlying punctate pattern reminiscent of the in vitro result in Fig. 4a, d. By comparing + and no etch we estimated the degree of Ag internalization into the tumour cells to be ~25% (Fig. 6c). This result was compared to liver internalization (~100%, Fig. 6b, c), which can be attributed to internalization by liver-resident macrophages known to rapidly capture circulating NPs.
Figure 6: In vivo etching. a, Schematic of in vivo tumour homing, ex vivo and in vivo etching. Stages are: (i) iRGD-Ag-NA homing and extravasation, (ii) tissue perfusion followed by etching ex vivo, or instead, (iii) in vivo etching followed by perfusion, and (iv) tissue with Ag retained in cells. b, Bright-field images of ex vivo 4T1 tumour (left) and liver tissue (right) sections for mice injected with iRGD-Ag-NA following steps i, ii and iv, are presented. Ag was amplified by autometallography and appeared as dark pixels. Diffuse dark pixels (full arrows) were attributed to extracellular Ag, arrowheads point to endosomal Ag. c, Samples from b were quantified for dark Ag pixels per field as a measure of iRGD-Ag-NA in the tissue. d, In vivo etching with MMTV-PyMT tumours. Mice were perfused at 0.5, 4 or 24 h post injection of iRGD-Ag-PEG, and selected mice (+etch) were injected with etchant 10 min before perfusion. Shown are representative tumour tissue sections from 4 h. e, Dark-field imaging of Ag amplified section (4 h, −etch) shows strong signals (arrows) consistent with the pattern in the bright-field image of d. Note that this image has no nuclear counterstain and was taken from a separate section than that in d. f, Tumour samples from d were quantified for dark Ag pixels per field, representing the amount of iRGD-Ag-PEG in the tissue for the indicated circulation times. Error bars are standard deviations with N > 2 randomly chosen fields per condition in c, N > 4 in f. Scale bars are 100 μm in b,d,e. Full size image
Injecting etchant into mice previously injected with AgNPs cleared the blood of circulating AgNPs (Fig. 2c). In light of this finding, and considering the small size of the etchant molecules, we explored the possibility that AgNPs trapped in the extravascular/extracellular space may also be etched. Indeed, the components TS and HCF are known to distribute through tissues without crossing membranes18,32,33, and have been used to estimate the extracellular fluid volume in mammals18,32. Furthermore, the reaction products comprise stable and soluble compounds (Fig. 1b) that should not interfere with the autometallography used to amplify the Ag signal for histological analysis.
We developed an in vivo etching strategy that gives circulating NPs a set amount of time to find their target before chasing with an intravenous bolus of etchant (Fig. 6a, lower pathway). Comparing +/− etchant would then discriminate between accumulation in the tumour (homing) and internalization by cells within the tumour (that is, cell uptake). A possible complication for etching is that parts of the tumour can have dysfunctional local vasculature, impairing delivery34; however, those regions might also receive fewer AgNPs. We chose the well-studied MMTV-PyMT transgenic mouse model, which has relevance to human breast cancer, particularly the stages of its progression35. The Ag nanoprobe was modified to carry polyethylene glycol (PEG)-linked iRGD, instead of NA linked with biotin iRGD, to more closely resemble therapeutic ‘stealth’ NPs, and to allow repeat injections in an immunocompetent setting36. iRGD is a tumour-specific homing peptide that is converted into a CendR peptide in tumours. It has been found to increase tumour-homing and extravasation of NPs in several breast cancer models25,37.
Tumour-bearing MMTV-PyMT mice injected with iRGD-Ag-PEG exhibited a heterogeneous homing pattern in the tumour (Figs 6d, e; 4 h, −etch condition), similar to Fig. 6b and other NP homing studies25,28. Quantifying Ag pixels showed an initial homing burst (0.5 h, −etch), followed by a doubling between 0.5 h and 4 h, and doubling again by 24 h circulation time (Fig. 6f). Clearance by the reticuloendothelial system of circulating NPs could explain the decreased homing rate. Notably, relative to non-etched counterparts, mice that received an injection of etchant had a diminished quantity of Ag, irrespective of circulation time for iRGD-Ag-PEG. Assuming the Ag pixels from etched samples were due to the cell-internalized NPs, we may conclude the following: a significant amount of iRGD-Ag-PEG internalized as early as 0.5 h (Fig. 6f, +etch), and increased fourfold by 24 h (+etch). The rate of internalization (+etch) paralleled the rate of Ag homing (−etch). Comparing +etch and −etch we estimate ~30% of the homing resulted with internalization by 24 h, similar to the ex vivo tumour result in Fig. 6c (~25%, 24 h). Together, these data suggest a new method to determine intracellular biodistribution kinetics that uses etchable AgNPs as a model nanosystem for targeted therapeutics.
AgNP probes combine traits of etchability and brightness, in both fluorescence and scattering imaging modalities, with spectral barcoding, photostability and sensitivity to the single-particle level. The AgNPs were functionalized with NeutrAvidin for facile loading of affinity tags, and imaged inside cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. AgNPs also seem particularly promising for flow cytometry, which was implemented here to more finely parse receptor specificity and uptake efficiency. As other virus-like particles, AgNPs can carry a multiplicity of ligands that increase their avidity—short peptides, employed in this work, are of particular interest owing to their specificity and minimal immunogenicity, however, antibody or aptamer38 targeting elements may be conjugated to AgNPs. Coatings that respond to an electrochemical cue by a shape change are also possible, including Au–Ag (refs 39, 40, 41), redox-sensitive cleavable linkers39,42, and biomolecular nanostructures43,44,45. Multiplexed detection of internalized Ag should lead to a better understanding of NP-cell interactions and the role of size, shape and coating during molecular transport through tissue and cells. The recent emergence of NIR and multi-photon excitation systems for in vivo mapping provide key design features for engineering the inherently nonlinear optical properties of plasmonic nanoparticles. Taken together, these results illustrate how plasmonic nanoprobes based on etchable Ag cores will be a powerful tool in studies of targeted uptake and trafficking from a subcellular to tissue level.Baltimore City is undergoing a series of agency audits for the first time in thirty years. That it took thirty years to conjure the political will to conduct financial and performance audits is in and of itself infuriating. That the first audit released, a financial and performance review of Baltimore City’s Department of Transportation revealed that the agency "provided no evidence of policies, procedures, internal controls, or accountability" for its workers' performance in most categories is maddening, although not surprising.
While Baltimore DOT has made some internal shifts toward promoting more bike and pedestrian friendly designs, we have yet to see a single project from this new line of thinking get installed. That the response to citizens waiting years for projects like the Maryland Avenue Cycletrack is that it has been hampered in State Highway Administration (SHA) review is so far past adequate that one is left to wonder--how can we believe you anymore? And if it is true, where is the political will from our Mayor and City Council to deliver on promises to Baltimore citizens and hold SHA accountable?
Since beginning my tenure as Bikemore Executive Director in May, I’ve been promised countless dates of when the Downtown Bicycle Network will go to bid. Going to bid before the end of the year is critical to ensure a March 2016 groundbreaking. This is a project that has been fully funded for years. How can we tell if the back and forth between SHA is a product of poor performance at DOT, SHA or both? The answer--we can’t. When you have no policy or procedure to measure performance or to hold an agency accountable to actually deliver on the projects it promises, the results are what we have today. Very little accomplished, very few projects even close to completion. And what incentive do employees have to actually follow through on their promises when they can rest assured knowing there will be zero consequences for failing to meet their self appointed deadlines?
What’s more, specifically in relation to the Downtown Bicycle Network--which includes the plan for the Maryland Avenue Cycletrack--DOT as of today remains firm in their statement that they are waiting for SHA approval to be finalized. Meanwhile sources at SHA have confirmed that they have released the plans to the city--although we were not able to confirm a specific date the plans were released, and still other SHA employees in their communication to DOT today have stated that approval has not been finalized. That this level of inconclusiveness is considered status quo is unacceptable.
This is just one small example of how poor performance from DOT has been allowed to remain “unchecked”. This is in no way an indictment of individual employees, who for the most part have exhibited a willingness to hear Bikemore’s concerns and help us find answers. But rather a system that forces well intentioned employees to patronize people who are merely seeking clarity--clarity that without strong systems of accountability and performance measurement seems outside their ability to provide.
I hope those running for office this election cycle recognize there is a new crop of informed voters who want more than platitudes about job growth and crime reduction. We want candidates to bring forth actual plans to rid our city of the horrible abuses those with power have allowed to go on for too long. Abuses that are well documented across all agencies, not just the Department of Transportation. We want candidates that understand the nuances of operating a cash strapped independent city, and are realistic about our locus of control. Good government isn’t something that should be aspirational for Baltimore, it’s something as voters we should demand.In April, the high volume leak of the Panama Papers revealed an often unseen world of money and power. The leak of 11.5 million files came from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, which helps facilitate movement of money across accounts and borders, frequently with the goal of evading taxation and legal judgments. The leak placed the financial dealings of global celebrities and politicians, including Simon Cowell and Pedro Almodovar, under scrutiny. Vladimir Putin, though unnamed in the leak was connected to upwards of $2 billion of assets. And the revelations provoked such controversy for the Prime Minister of Iceland that he was forced to resign.
While the celebrity names got a good deal of the headlines, firms like Mossack Fonseca are instrumental to the creation of offshore tax havens. Our guest today, Brooke Harrington, set out to understand this world and the people who make it possible. She studied to become a wealth manager, so as to learn about the world of the global elite and how this labor force has contributed to global inequality. This study took her to 18 countries. And it offers a rare insight into the processes by which a small set of people control a good deal of the world’s assets. Like the Panama Papers, this research documents a world that is, as Brooke puts it, technically legal, but socially illegitimate.
Brooke Harrington is Associate Professor of Sociology at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. You can find out more about Capital without Borders here.Luis Scott-Vargas plays, writes, and makes videos about Magic. He has played on the Pro Tour for almost a decade, and between that and producing content for ChannelFireball, often has his hands full (of cards).
The shadows have lifted, and we can finally shine a light on the full set list for Shadows over Innistrad! It's time to investigate the set for Constructed standouts, and I'm sure we will find plenty of Clues.
Humans
The first group of suspects I interviewed were all Humans, and they seemed to gather based on some kind of tribal alliance.
Transform
Humans are indeed a powerful tribe, and Thalia's Lieutenant is a worthy leader. The combination of Always Watching and Lieutenant makes cheap Humans into a powerful offensive force, one that can attack early and still be resilient later. The only thing they are missing is a large flying threat, perhaps one that can be cast at instant speed...
Transform
Avacyn is just one of the best cards in the set, hands (or wings) down. She is a huge flier with a relevant enters-the-battlefield effect, and she can come down at any point you deem convenient. Playing her during combat is very effective, as is dropping her at end of turn and setting up to attack for a ton of damage. In the event that one of your creatures dies, Avacyn goes berserk and turns into an even bigger flier that casts a Lightning Bolt on everything except you. One of the biggest payoffs of playing a deck full of white creatures is Avacyn, and I wouldn't be surprised if there should be four in the deck.
Even when Avacyn doesn't show up, she's keeping an eye on the situation, and is ready to make your team better.
These two spells give this deck more staying power and more interactivity. Always Watching makes playing 28 creatures more appealing, and the vigilance is not to be underestimated. Getting to attack for extra damage while not exposing yourself to a counterattack is a huge boon, and you aren't paying very much for the privilege.
Declaration in Stone competes with Silkwrap and Stasis Snare (white sure does have a lot of good removal options these days), but I err on the side of trying the new cards. Declaration is good at helping you curve out and stacks well in multiples. If the opponent doesn't have time to crack the first Clue, any subsequent Clues won't help them much at all.
The only blue card in the deck isn't a new one, and in fact is one I'm sure you've seen before. Reflector Mage is just a great card, and worth adding an entire color to a monocolored deck. It's exactly what an aggressive/tempo deck wants, and being a Human makes it that much more appealing for this deck.
Spirits
The Humans were of no help (they just kept yelling about defending Thraben and the like), so I turned to a group that showed a little more spirit—Spirits.
Rattlechains is an impressive Magic card. A 2/1 flier with flash is already intriguing, though not quite there. Add the ability to save another Spirit and give Spirits flash and you have a great deal on your hands.
What Rattlechains wants is to be paired with Spirits and instants, which is something that can be arranged.
There aren't a ton of Spirits around (yet), but there are enough to rattle some chains. The combination of flash creatures and counterspells is an age-old strategy, and Shadows brings plenty of new additions.
These two Spirits combine with Anafenza and Rattlechains to give the deck the threats it's looking for. Bygone Bishop benefits greatly from Rattlechains regardless of which is played first, and accumulating Clues gives you even less of a reason to tap out. [autocard]Topplegeist[/card] starts with a minor ability and eventually becomes a way of stopping the opponent's best creature, while also combining nicely with Rattlechains. Once Topplegeist has flash, you can play it to tap down an enemy creature on the opponent's turn, ideally triggering some combination of Bishop and Anafenza while you are at it.
Transform
These cards are still great.
Transform
Avacyn protects Humans and Spirits alike, and becomes equally angry if either of them dies on her watch. She is another huge flash threat, which makes all the instant-speed cards in the deck even better.
Ojutai's Command is the big winner here. It brings back most of the creatures in the deck, draws a card, and gives you an excellent reason not to tap out. The downside of leaving up four mana is mitigated completely by all the creatures with flash, and that combination leaves the opponent in a very tough spot. If they tap out for a creature, you can counter it with Command and get value, but if they don't play anything, you can just flash in a Spirit or Avacyn. That's exactly where you want to be, and why this deck intrigued me.
Still, upon further reflection (perhaps too much reflection), I decided to move on.
Vampires
Vampires seem to know everything, or at least claim they do. The ones on Innistrad did seem to be a little mad, but it was worth a shot...
All the pieces of the puzzle are here: powerful creatures, tons of ways to discard, and insanely good madness cards. Olivia is ready for war, and she's bringing her whole coven with her.
Olivia is the centerpiece of the deck. She's a 3/3 flier for three with major upside, as she not only makes your other creatures bigger and hastier, but she enables madness perfectly. She's even a legendary creature you don't mind playing four of, as you can discard excess copies.
Transform
What these four cards have in common is that they allow you to discard cards as you please, which comes with multiple upsides. The first is that you get a benefit for discarding, such as a 1/1 Vampire token or dealing 5 damage. Equally important is that they enable your madness cards to be played for a huge discount, which is really what's mobilizing this deck.
The other side of the madness equation is the payoffs for discarding. Lightning Bolt isn't a bad one, nor is a 4/3 haste for three mana. Falkenrath Gorger makes every other Vampire into a madness card, letting you get tons of extra out of your one-drop. The real star here is Avacyn, or more specifically her Judgment. Dealing X damage, split as you choose, is a great deal for XR, and it being an instant really brings it to the next level. The "fail case" of casting Twin Bolt is still a very good one, and overall this is one of the main reasons to consider going down the path of madness.
Not all Vampires are insane, though I guess the title of "Asylum Visitor" makes that a questionable claim at best. That particular Vampire feeds off of madness, as you tend to play with an empty hand relatively quickly. Drana and Kalitas are just here as muscle, with both of them adding a lot more power to the Vampire deck, despite not really interacting with the main themes.
My investigation is far from over, but I've learned enough for today. Where will the Clues lead you?
LSVBalthasar Gérard (alternative spellings Gerards or Gerardts; c. 1557 – 14 July 1584) was the assassin of the Dutch independence leader, William I of Orange (William the Silent). He killed William I in Delft on 10 July 1584, by shooting him twice with a pair of pistols, and was afterwards tried, convicted, and gruesomely executed.
Gérard was born in Franche-Comté (then belonging to Spain, afterwards to France). He came from a Roman Catholic family with 11 children and was a great admirer of Philip II, king of Spain and the Netherlands. He studied law at the University of Dole. On 15 March 1580, King Philip had offered a reward of 25,000 crowns to anyone who killed William the Silent, to whom he referred as a "pest on the whole of Christianity and the enemy of the human race".[1]
Preparations [ edit ]
After the reward offered by Philip was published, Gérard left for Luxembourg, where he learned that Juan de Jáuregui had already been preparing to attempt the assassination, but this attempt did not succeed. In March 1584 he went to Trier, where he put his plan before the regent of the Jesuits, but another Jesuit convinced him to change his original scheme and go to the prince of Parma. In Tournai, after holding counsel with a Franciscan, Father Gery, Gérard wrote a letter, a copy of which was deposited with the guardian of the convent, and the original presented personally to the Prince of Parma. In the letter Gérard wrote, in part, "The vassal ought always to prefer justice and the will of the king to his own life."[1]
At first the prince thought him unfit but after consulting Haultepenne and others with the letter he was assigned to Christoffel d'Assonleville, who spoke with Gérard, and asked him to put this in writing, which he did on 11 April 1584. He requested absolution from the prince of Parma "as he was about to keep company for some time with heretics and atheists, and in some sort to conform himself to their customs".[1]
For his first expenses he begged for 50 crowns, which were refused. "I will provide myself out of my own purse", Gérard told Assonleville, "and within six weeks you will hear of me." Assonleville responded: "Go forth, my son... and if you succeed in your enterprise, the King will fulfill all his promises, and you will gain an immortal name besides."[1] On Sunday, 8 July 1584, Gérard loitered in the courtyard of the Prinsenhof examining the premises. A halberdier asked him why he was waiting there. He excused himself by saying that in his present shabby clothing and without new shoes he was unfit to join the congregation in the church opposite. The halberdier unsuspectingly arranged from the Prince of Orange himself a gift of 50 crowns for Gérard, who the following morning purchased a pair of pistols from a soldier, haggling the price for a long time because the soldier couldn't supply the particular chopped bullets or slugs he wanted.[1]
The shooting [ edit ]
The bullet holes still visible at the Prinsenhof (Delft)
On 10 July 1584, as William the Silent climbed the stairs to the second floor, he was spoken to by the Welsh captain Roger Williams, who knelt before him. William put his hand on the bowed head of the old captain, at which moment Gérard jumped out of a dark corner. He drew his weapons and fired two shots at the stadtholder. William the Silent collapsed. His sister knelt beside him, but it was too late. Asked whether he commended his soul to Christ, he answered in the affirmative. His last words were, Mon Dieu, ayez pitié de moi et de mon pauvre peuple ("My God, have mercy on me and on my poor people").
Gérard fled through a side door and ran across a narrow lane, pursued by Roger Williams. Gérard had almost reached the ramparts, from which he intended to jump into the moat. On the other side a saddled horse stood ready. A pig's bladder around his waist was intended to help keep him afloat. However, he stumbled over a heap of rubbish. A servant and a halberdier of the prince who had raced after him caught him. When called a traitor by his captors, he is said to have replied, "I am no traitor; I am a loyal servant of my lord." "Which lord?", they asked. "Of my lord and master, the king of Spain". At the same time more pages and halberdiers of the prince appeared and dragged him back to the house under a rain of fists and beatings with the butt of a sword. Hearing his assailants chatter and convinced he heard the prince was still alive, he cried "Cursed be the hand that missed!"[citation needed]
Trial, torture, and execution [ edit ]
At the house he immediately underwent a preliminary examination before the city magistrates. Upon being interrogated by the magistrates, he reportedly showed neither despair nor contrition, but rather a quiet exultation, stating: "Like David, he had slain Goliath of Gath."
At his trial, Gérard was sentenced to be brutally – even by the standards of that time – killed. The magistrates decreed that the right hand of Gérard should be burned off with a red-hot iron, that his flesh should be torn from his bones with pincers in six different places, that he should be quartered and disemboweled alive, his heart torn from his bosom and flung in his face, and that, finally, his head should be taken off.[1]
Gérard's torture was also very brutal. On the first night of his imprisonment Gérard was hung on a pole and lashed with a whip. After that his wounds were smeared with honey and a goat was brought to lick the honey off his skin with his rough tongue. The goat however refused to touch the body of the sentenced. After this and other tortures he was left to pass the night with his hands and feet bound together, like a ball, so sleep would be difficult. During the following three days, he was repeatedly mocked and hung on a pole with his hands tied behind his back. Then a weight of 300 metric pounds (150 kg) was attached to each of his big toes for half an hour. After this half hour Gérard was fitted with shoes made of well-oiled, uncured dog skin; the shoes were two fingers shorter than his feet. In this state he was put before a fire. When the shoes warmed up, they contracted, crushing the feet inside them to stumps. When the shoes were removed, his half-broiled skin was torn off. After his feet were damaged, his armpits were branded. After that he was dressed in a shirt soaked in alcohol. Then burning bacon fat was poured over him and sharp nails were stuck between the flesh and the nails of his hands and feet. Gérard is said to have remained calm during his torture. On 14 July 1584, Gérard was executed.[2][3][better source needed]
Aftermath [ edit ]
Philip II gave Gérard's parents, instead of the reward of 25,000
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associated with recession. Construction spending fell in May. The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey, which tracks attitudes about business and personal finance, has dropped to a depth last seen in 1980.
On the factory floor, a weak dollar has been fanning export sales. The I.S.M. Manufacturing Index — a widely watched gauge of factory activity — nudged up in June to 50.2 from 49.6 in May, entering barely positive territory, which indicates a slight expansion.
But that mostly reflected a buildup of inventories and higher prices for raw materials, and not an improvement in orders for factory goods, said Stuart G. Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Service Group in a note to clients. If business stays weak and orders do not materialize, factory layoffs could accelerate. Indeed, the employment component of the index declined to its lowest level in five years.
The slide in the labor market has become both symptom and cause of a weak economy, pulling many families into a downward spiral. Back when housing prices were still rising, Americans borrowed exuberantly against the value of their homes to finance renovations, vacations and shopping sprees. But that artery of finance has constricted considerably along with access to credit cards, forcing a reversion to the traditional limits of household finance. Millions of American families must now confine their spending to what they can bring home from work.
With job losses growing and working hours shrinking, many paychecks are eroding, prompting millions of families to cut their spending. Soaring prices for food and gasoline are overwhelming modest wage gains for most workers, leaving households with even less money to spend. All of which deprives struggling businesses of sales, prompting them to shed more workers, sending the cycle down another turn. Starbucks announced on Tuesday that it would close stores and eliminate up to 12,000 jobs, about 7 percent of its work force.
The fear of a downward spiral prompted the Bush administration to unleash $100 billion worth of tax rebates in the hopes that recipients would spend money and spur sales. The Treasury has already dispensed more than $78 billion, and the money appears to be finding its way into cash registers, with consumer spending climbing by 0.8 percent in May, according to the Commerce Department.
Economists expect the rebates will continue to help retail sales through the summer, fueling modest economic growth that spares some jobs and prevents an outright contraction.
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But few expect these rebate-laced sales to expand the job market, because businesses understand that the one-time surge of money will wear off later this summer.
Many experts expect the economy to then be pulled back into the weeds by the same forces that have led the downturn — declining home prices, tighter credit and leaner paychecks.
“It’s going to be very hard to overcome those headwinds,” said Mr. Harris, the Lehman economist.SAN DIEGO (CNS) - The body of a missing 4-year-old boy was found in Mission Bay Sunday, about 120 yards off the beach where he had last been seen, police said.
[Story updates and the latest information on a vigil can be found HERE.]
A San Diego police officer said that an earlier broadcast of a possible kidnap suspect was "a bad lead," and that police now suspect Wesley Hilaire simply drowned during a family outing by the bay.
Officer Dan Lasher said police no longer believe a kidnap had occurred. But it was not clear if action would be taken against the child's family, who
told officers the boy had possibly been abducted, triggering an Amber Alert across the southern part of California.
The remains were spotted about 15 hours after his tearful family described a strange man who reportedly took the child from a family gathering on eastern shore of Mission Bay Park in San Diego.
The child's family had reported that he had last been at seen at 7:44 p.m. Saturday walking with an unfamiliar man.
A description of a man was broadcast by police, and an Amber Alert and active search was conducted from the border as far north as Orange and Riverside counties.Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said Sunday that Attorney General Loretta Lynch did "nothing wrong" by meeting with President Bill Clinton last week, and as a "career prosecutor," Lynch knows how to have just a friendly chat with someone even if they have an interest in an ongoing investigation.
"She did nothing wrong — no violation," he said, adding that Clinton is very personable and he believes the two only spoke about personal matters.
"This is about a conversation that the two of them had that had nothing to do with this case," he told CNN Sunday morning. "They talked about golf and grandchildren. It in no way undermined this investigation," he said.
Booker added that Bill Clinton is "probably one of the friendliest people on the planet Earth. "One conversation from a professional prosecutor is going to have no implication on this at all."
Booker said people reading more into their meeting are just "whipping up conspiracy theories" that voters aren't interested in.
"At a time when we've had global terror... this is the kind of thing that more frustrates voters more than it does interest them," Booker said. "This is a distinction with barely a difference," Booker said about the latest flap over whether Lynch will accept the advice of FBI investigators in the probe into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server or possibly ignore their recommendation if they determine she should be indicted.
"This is a prosecutor who America can trust, who came up through the ranks and is going to do a good job with this case," Booker said.
Booker wouldn't say what Democrats will do if Clinton is indicted, and said "that is something to me that is not even in the realm of possibility."
Booker is on the campaign's short list for running mates for Clinton. But he declined to answer a question about whether he was being actively vetted by the campaign. "If you have a question like that, please direct it to the Clinton campaign," he said.Netherlands NOS TV station raid: Armed man demanding airtime arrested BelfastTelegraph.co.uk An armed intruder was arrested this evening, after he entered the studios of the Dutch national broadcaster and demanded airtime, according to its director. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/netherlands-nos-tv-station-raid-armed-man-demanding-airtime-arrested-30949371.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article30950119.ece/ceeff/AUTOCROP/h342/PANews%20BT_P-e1148990-1122-4466-aa2a-3344d1634241_I1.jpg
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An armed intruder was arrested this evening, after he entered the studios of the Dutch national broadcaster and demanded airtime, according to its director.
An reporter for NOS who spoke to the gunman said he had claimed to be from a "hackers collective".
Police quickly surrounded the NOS studios building, and those inside were evacuated from the premises in the central Dutch town of Hilversum, 20km (12miles) east of Amsterdam, the RTL press agency reported.
The broadcaster later reported on its website that the man had a pistol with a silencer and threatened a security guard, forcing him to take him upstairs to the editorial offices.
An NOS1 broadcast at 8pm local time (7pm GMT) displayed a message reading "In connection with circumstances, no broadcast is available at this time".
The channel was off air for just over an our, and showed a screen reading: "Please be patient" in Dutch, and the broadcaster said on its website that police were searching the building.
When the channel resumed programming, it played recorded images of the man in a studio calmly talking to another man off screen, dressed in a black suit, white shirt and black tie.
Speaking to a man off camera, the intruder said, "We have been hired by intelligence agencies. We have heard of issues that challenge today's society. We are going to tell everyone."
Shortly after, police arrived and ordered the man to drop the weapon and put his hands in the air. Four or five police officers then ordered him to lie down, which he did and he was arrested without a struggle.
Jan de Jong, director of the NOS, told national radio: "Someone got into the building" and added that the man had been taken into custody.
De Jong said it was unclear how the man got through tight security in the building and into the editorial offices.
There were no reports of any shots being fired in the building. Further details were not immediately available.
Police did not immediately return calls from the Associated Press seeking comment, and calls to NOS offices in Hilversum went unanswered Thursday night.
Belfast Telegraph DigitalHONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Bank of America Corp is planning to set up a wholly owned subsidiary in China in a bid to expand into the fast-growing Asian economy, according to a media report Friday.
The bank, the U.S.'s largest, intends to build up its corporate and investment banking business, as well as offer wealth management services to Chinese clients, according a Reuters report, citing unidentified sources.
Bank of America BAC, +0.07% will approach mainland Chinese authorities for a local incorporation license in the new few months and has set up a special working group to facilitate the venture, the report said.
The report gave no details in regards to the size of investment Bank of America would make in establishing the new China-based unit.
Under Chinese regulations, foreign banks need to find a local partner when establishing investment banking firms in order to conduct activities such as underwriting shares and debt issuance for local companies.An update to the Avast antivirus has blocked users' ability to access the Internet, most customers needing to disable the antivirus in order to be able to get online (and complain to Avast).
The issue seems to have been caused by an update Avast released late Wednesday night. Hours after the update, users started complaining about the problem, flocking to the company's support forum.
Many of these complaining users reported they were using Avast's free antivirus version.
While users could still connect to the Internet after they temporarily disabling the Avast antivirus, some users reported fixing the issue for good by uninstalling the antivirus and performing a clean install. Later, Avast team members started recommending the same thing.
"I tried doing a repair too. It didn't help," an Avast user wrote on their forum. "I then Uninstalled and re-downloaded. That did the trick."
An Avast spokesperson did not respond to Bleeping Computer's request for comment, so we can't know for sure how much of Avast's userbase is affected.
This is not the first time an antivirus goes bonkers. Barely two weeks ago, the Webroot antivirus flagged core Windows OS files as malicious and started moving a few to quarantine, effectively trashing customers' computers.
By this point in time, almost every major antivirus maker has faced with these types of snafus.
UPDATE [May 11, 2017, 15:10 ET]: An Avast spokesperson told Bleeping Computer the following:
We have identified that the problem is caused by an update issue of the dynamic link library (dll), which is part of the WebShield feature. We are preparing a patch that we will provide to the small number of users affected as soon as possible.
h/t jonas_me for the tipPresident Obama accuses the GOP of threatening to “shut down the entire economy,” on Sept. 26, 2013. Photo by Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
In the message war over the debt ceiling, the first big weapon has been fired. Its name is “economic shutdown.”
Everyone knows the phrase “government shutdown.” That’s how Democrats describe the failure of Congress to agree on legislation funding the government. In the 1990s, when Republicans withheld money, using the power of the purse to control spending, President Clinton and the Democrats accused them of shutting down the government. The term “shutdown” made Republicans look as though they, not the president, were deciding which programs and offices to close. In November 1996, Clinton was decisively re-elected.*
In the Nexis archive of news articles and political transcripts, there’s no record of the words “economic shutdown” during those battles. The economy was strong. Two years ago, a few congressional Republicans used this phrase to describe what liberal economic policies were doing to the private sector. The first Democrat I can find who used the term in the context of the debt ceiling is former Rep. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y. Appalled by the 2011 standoff between congressional Republicans and President Obama, Hochul accused her colleagues of playing “chicken” with people’s lives. She warned them that the country was “on the precipice of not just a government shutdown but an intentional economic shutdown.”
Hochul didn’t explicitly blame the GOP. “What happens when no one blinks, no one swerves, no one comes to their senses?” she asked. A week later, writing in the Atlantic, Democratic strategist Krystal Ball turned this into a partisan critique. Ball denounced “the current debt-ceiling hostage situation in which Republicans, led by tea party extremists, decided to threaten not only a government shutdown but total economic shutdown.”
Over the next two years, the phrase was rarely uttered. Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., used it to describe the 2011 debt ceiling impasse, and Durbin blamed the GOP—“The Tea Party of the House of Representatives and their followers in the Senate said, ‘We’re prepared to shut down the economy of America’ ”—but only in retrospect.
Two weeks ago, the term reappeared. The press secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee blasted Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Minn.: “Minnesota voters want Congressman Paulsen to stop giving handouts to the ultra-wealthy and instead pay the country’s bills and prevent economic shutdown.” A week later, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid chided the GOP for dragging its feet on funding the government and raising the debt ceiling: “While Republicans in Washington use these stunts to raise money and grab headlines, people in Nevada and around the country are going to feel the pain of this economic shutdown.”
Yesterday, in a speech outlining the Affordable Care Act, President Obama turned the volume way up. “Some have threatened a government shutdown if they can’t shut down this law,” he charged. “Others have actually threatened an economic shutdown by refusing to pay America’s bills if they can’t delay the law.” Obama accused “the Tea Party Republicans” of “threatening either to shut down the government, or shut down the entire economy by refusing to let America pay its bills. … No Congress before this one has ever—ever—in history been irresponsible enough to threaten default, to threaten an economic shutdown, to suggest America not pay its bills, just to try to blackmail a president.”
That’s three allegations of “economic shutdown” in a few minutes. Obama isn’t using the phrase casually. He’s making it a weapon. “Economic shutdown” is supposed to do for the debt ceiling what “government shutdown” did for failure to authorize appropriations. Its job is to draw a neat cause-and-effect line from congressional inaction to grim, complex consequences. Ratings agencies will downgrade U.S. credit, stocks will dive, people will be laid off, and all of it will be the fault of Republicans who, by failing to act, “shut down the economy.”
“Government shutdown” won an election and damaged the Republican brand for years. Don’t be surprised if “economic shutdown” does the same.
Read more of Slate’s coverage of the debt ceiling fight.
*Correction, Sept. 27, 2013: This article originally said that in 1996, Republicans lost seats in both the House and the Senate. In fact, they lost three seats in the House but picked up two in the Senate. (Return to the corrected sentence.)Harry Reid and the Democrats continue to make false claims about Kate’s law, with Reid suggesting on the floor of the Senate that it would tear innocent families apart or something.
Ted Cruz didn’t take kindly to that mischaracterization one bit:
HANNITY – One of the bills most vocal opponents has been Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. During yesterday’s debate on the Senate floor, Reid falsely characterized the bill as one that would “tear innocent families apart.” Senator Cruz fired back. Hard. “It is sad that the Democratic leader chooses to stand with violent criminal illegal aliens instead of the American citizen,” Cruz began. “But even sadder is that he impugns legal immigrants.” “I am the son of of an immigrant who came legally from Cuba,” Cruz continued. “And for the Democratic leader to cynically suggest that somehow immigrants should be lumped into the same bucket with murderers and rapists demonstrates the cynicism of the modern Democratic party.”
Watch Cruz’s full response below:Tea party-favorite Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) may not have ever volunteered for military service, but he says he can spot a “true hero” and the double amputee running for his seat isn’t one.
Think Progress captured video on Sunday of Walsh telling supporters that Tammy Duckworth wasn’t a hero because “all she talks about” is losing both her legs when the helicopter she was piloting was shot down in Iraq in 2004.
“Understand something about John McCain,” the congressman explained. “His political advisers, day after day, had to take him and almost throw him against a wall and hit him against the head and say, ‘Senator, you have to let people know you served! You have to talk about what you did!’ He didn’t want to do it, wouldn’t do it.”
“That’s what’s so noble about our heroes,” Walsh continued. “Now I’m running against a woman who, my God, that’s all she talks about. Our true heroes, it’s the last thing in the world they talk about. That’s why we’re so indebted and in awe of what they’ve done.”
Duckworth, who served as a helicopter pilot with the Illinois Army Guard’s 1st Battalion, 106th Aviation, was awarded the Purple Heart in December 2004.
“This is not so bad,” she said of her injuries later that year. “I’m just glad it was me and not one of my guys out there.”
Watch this video, uploaded by Think Progress on July 3, 2012.
Photo: Flickr/Gage SkidmoreAIN ISSA, Syria/BEIRUT (Reuters) - U.S.-backed militias launched their “final” assault on Syria’s Raqqa on Sunday after letting a convoy of Islamic State fighters and their families quit the city, leaving only a hardcore of jihadists to mount a last stand.
“The battle will continue until the whole city is clean,” said a statement by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias.
SDF spokesman Talal Selo told Reuters that “no more than 200-300” foreign militants remained to fight on in the city after the convoy left. “This is the final battle,” he said.
Under the withdrawal deal between Islamic State and tribal elders, the jihadists would let all other civilians trapped in Raqqa have safe passage out of the city, he said. Selo added that he believed only a few may have remained.
Raqqa’s fall to the SDF now looks imminent after four months of battle hemmed the Islamic State jihadists into a small, bomb-cratered patch of the city.
“We still expect there to be difficult fighting,” said Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the U.S.-led international coalition backing the SDF in the war against Islamic State with air strikes and special forces. The coalition will continue to operate on the basis that civilians remain in Raqqa, he said.
Raqqa was the first big Syrian city that Islamic State seized as it declared a “caliphate” and rampaged through Syria and Iraq in 2014, becoming an operations center for attacks abroad and the stage for some of its darkest atrocities.
But Islamic State has been in retreat for two years, losing swathes of territory in both countries and forced back into an ever-diminishing foothold along the Euphrates river valley.
“Last night, the final batch of fighters (who had agreed to leave) left the city,” said Mostafa Bali, another SDF spokesman.
There were conflicting accounts as to how many people left in the convoy.
Selo said 275 Syrian militants left along with their family members. Laila Mostafa, head of the Raqqa Civil Council formed under SDF auspices to oversee the city, said that figure included both the fighters and their family members. In a statement, she denied an earlier comment by another council member that some foreign fighters had left in the convoy.
Before the evacuation, the coalition estimated that about 300-400 fighters were still holed up in the Islamic State enclave.
HUMAN SHIELDS
Fighters who left in the convoy, which the coalition is tracking, had given biometric data including fingerprints, Dillon said.
The convoy was still in territory held by the SDF on Sunday morning, Selo said.
Bali described the civilians who left with Islamic State fighters in the convoy as human shields. The jihadists had refused to release them once they left the city as agreed, wanting to take them as far as their destination to guarantee their own safety, he said.
Such withdrawals of fighters along with groups of civilians have grown commonplace in Syria’s six-year war, as a way for besieging forces to accelerate the fall of populated areas.
The convoy would head to the remaining Islamic State territory in eastern Syria, Omar Alloush of the Raqqa Civil Council had said on Saturday.
The agreement was brokered by the council and tribal elders to “minimize civilian casualties”, the coalition has said. Tribal leaders from Raqqa said they sought to prevent bloodshed among civilians still trapped in the city.
“If there are any civilians remaining (in the enclave) they would be the families of those foreigners. The civilians exited completely,” Selo said on Sunday.
The SDF’s decision to hasten the battle’s end by allowing Islamic State fighters to leave Raqqa was at odds with the stated wishes of the U.S.-led coalition that backs the militias.
Dillon said it was not involved in the evacuation but added: “We may not always fully agree with our partners at times. But we have to respect their solutions.”
In August, the coalition spent weeks preventing a convoy of Islamic State evacuees from an enclave on the Syrian-Lebanon border from reaching jihadist territory in eastern Syria.
JIHADIST CAPITAL
The SDF launched the battle for Raqqa on June 6 after a months-long campaign to isolate the city against the north bank of the Euphrates.
Islamic State, then known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, had captured the city in January 2014, seizing it from rebel factions which had ousted the Syrian army a few months earlier.
As the group became more entrenched in Syria and Iraq leading up to its capture of Mosul in June that year, Raqqa became its most important center, and it celebrated its series of victories with a massive parade through the city.
Many of its top leaders were at times based there, and former hostages said Mohammed Emwazi, better known as Jihadi John, imprisoned them along with those he later executed, in a building near an oil installation near the city.
The group killed dozens of captured Syrian soldiers there in July 2014 and it was also the site of a slave market for Yazidi women captured in Iraq and given to fighters.
The coalition has said Raqqa was a hub for attacks abroad, and in November 2015, after militants killed more than 130 people in Paris, France launched air strikes on Islamic State targets inside Raqqa.
Members of Syrian Democratic Forces escort a blindfolded civilian detainee suspected to be a member of Islamic State militants in Raqqa, Syria October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Issam Abdallah
But the group is now in disarray. In Syria it does not only face the U.S.-backed SDF offensive but a rival one by the Syrian army supported by Russia, Iran and allied Shi’ite militias.
A Syrian military source said on Saturday the army had captured the city of al-Mayadin in the Euphrates valley, leaving Islamic State only a few more towns and villages, and surrounding desert territory, in Syria.
But the battle for Raqqa has come at great cost to its people. Intense coalition air strikes and the months of street-to-street fighting have pulverized much of the city. Thousands of people have fled as refugees and hundreds of civilians have died.Image copyright Pacemaker Image caption Pay cut threats should not be used as a "stick" to restore power-sharing, says Arlene Foster
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Arlene Foster has said cutting MLA salaries cannot be used "as a stick" to encourage progress at Stormont.
It follows comments by Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire that he would consider the issue if the deadlock cannot be broken.
The main parties have been unable to make progress since the Stormont executive collapsed in January.
Mrs Foster said pay could not be used as an incentive.
Anyone who thought that threatening a pay reduction would make a deal more likely did not understand the political process, she added.
'Don't understand me'
In a wide-ranging interview with BBC Radio Ulster's Sunday News programme, Mrs Foster acknowledged the issue would have to be re-assessed if an agreement could not be reached.
"Pay will not determine the outcome of a political process," she said.
Image copyright PA Image caption James Brokenshire has warned that time was running out to restore devolution
"It is quite offensive, I have to say, to those of us who have stood for election, who want to get on with the job of government, that people think if they make a threat of pay reduction that it will act as some sort of incentive.
"I think people out there, whether it's the BBC or anyone else, that think the threat of reducing my pay is in some way going to make an agreement more possible - they don't really understand me and they don't really understand the people that stand for election."
On Thursday, Mr Brokenshire said Northern Ireland was on a "glide path" towards greater UK government intervention if a deal could not be struck by the parties in the next few weeks.
In response, Mrs Foster said the DUP did not want to be heading towards direct rule, but warned that "there needs to be an end point" to the talks process.
She said there had been a useful, intensive stage of talks since the end of August, but that there are still "significant issues" between the DUP and Sinn Féin.
"It is about trying to keep the focus - people elected us to do a job, they want to see us in government and that's certainly where my focus is."
Sinn Féin MLA John O'Dowd said that the executive can only be restored on a sustainable basis if there is the "implementation of commitments in the Good Friday and other agreements".
"Arlene Foster also needs to make her mind up on the Irish language," he said.
You can listen back to the full interview with Arlene Foster on The Sunday News programme on BBC iPlayer here.Last night actress Natalie Dormer watched the season premiere of Game of Thrones with her legs up while eating “whatever she wanted,” thanks to her London Marathon performance. Dormer, who plays Margaery Tyrell on the HBO series, ran 3:51:21 yesterday.
“I’m a tiny bit peeved,” she told reporters after the marathon. She ran 24 seconds slower than her marathon debut of 3:50:57 in the 2014 London Marathon.
The British actress, 34, was one of 900 runners raising money for The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children’s ChildLine service, according to the Telegraph. When asked about the cause, she said she didn’t care about her time because her race was for children in need. Dormer raised about $7,200 for the charity.
Dormer talked about her race with Independent when she was finished.Former Speaker Newt Gingrich on Friday said white Americans "don't understand being black in America" as he reflected on a series of shootings across the nation this week.
“It took me a long time and a number of people talking to me over the years to begin to get a sense of this: If you are a normal, white American, the truth is you don’t understand being black in America and you instinctively underestimate the level of discrimination and the level of additional risk," Gingrich said.
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The former Speaker and potential Donald Trump vice presidential pick discussed race during a live Facebook video with liberal commentator Van Jones.
The discussion came after police killed black men in Baton Rouge, La., and suburban St. Paul, Minn., earlier this week, and a gunman killed five police officers in Dallas on Thursday night during a protest against the earlier killings.
"We've got to rethink what it means to be American and how we function together as an extended family," Gingrich said.
Jones said it was a signal of division in the country if one grew emotional this week over video of a black man bleeding to death in a car but not over news of police officers killed, or vice-versa.
"When you're one country and you're one people, you cry at every funeral," Jones said.
Jones remarked that he was raised to be "beyond respectful" of law enforcement.
Gingrich spoke of his upbringing in a largely integrated society before arriving in Georgia in 1960.
“It was still legally segregated, which meant that the local sheriff and the National Guard and the government at large would impose by force taking away rights from Americans," he said.
"We’ve come a fair distance — we have a black mayor of Atlanta, and have had a series of them. John Lewis John LewisThe Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump looks for boost from Korea summit The Hill's Morning Report - A pivotal week for Trump Six most memorable political Oscars moments MORE has gone from marching on Selma to the Democratic whip in the U.S. Congress. We've made progress. But for some reason we’ve stalled out on the cultural, economic, practical progress we needed to parallel the fight over legality."The FBI said a body has been found in a burned out room of a Topeka motel where an occupant fired shots at federal agents late Saturday.Officers from the U.S. Marshal’s Service’s fugitive task force were trying to arrest Orlando J. Collins, 28, at the Country Club Motel near 37th Street and Topeka Boulevard. Collins was on the Kansas Most Wanted List and faced charges of interfering with commerce by means of robbery.As investigators approached Collins' room, someone from inside the room opened fire. Two deputy U.S. marshals and an FBI agent were injured. Police said those injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.Initial reports from the scene indicated a fourth law enforcement agent was shot. The FBI now says there were only three shooting victims, though a fourth person may have suffered a minor injury that was not the direct result of gunfire.The motel room was set on fire during the confrontation. That fire later engulfed the entire building, the FBI said.Investigators said a body has been found in the room where Collins was believed to be hiding, but it has not been identified. It has been taken to the Shawnee County Medical Examiner's Office and additional information was not available.No other occupants of the motel were injured.11833402
The FBI said a body has been found in a burned out room of a Topeka motel where an occupant fired shots at federal agents late Saturday.
Officers from the U.S. Marshal’s Service’s fugitive task force were trying to arrest Orlando J. Collins, 28, at the Country Club Motel near 37th Street and Topeka Boulevard. Collins was on the Kansas Most Wanted List and faced charges of interfering with commerce by means of robbery.
Advertisement Related Content Body found in motel after shootout with federal agents
As investigators approached Collins' room, someone from inside the room opened fire. Two deputy U.S. marshals and an FBI agent were injured. Police said those injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
Initial reports from the scene indicated a fourth law enforcement agent was shot. The FBI now says there were only three shooting victims, though a fourth person may have suffered a minor injury that was not the direct result of gunfire.
The motel room was set on fire during the confrontation. That fire later engulfed the entire building, the FBI said.
Investigators said a body has been found in the room where Collins was believed to be hiding, but it has not been identified. It has been taken to the Shawnee County Medical Examiner's Office and additional information was not available.
No other occupants of the motel were injured.
11833402
AlertMeOld Gawker Media stories are getting new life in Spanish
Univision is moving fast.
Since agreeing to buy Gawker Media Group in August, the company has already begun to refashion the blogging empire in its image, shutting down Gawker, removing controversial posts and, on Wednesday, announcing the appointment of a new CEO.
The Spanish-language media company is also experimenting with ways to magnify the audience of the newly rechristened Gizmodo Media Group. This week, it launched La Familia Crece (“The family grows”), a new initiative focused on adapting content from Gizmodo’s family of blogs for Spanish-speaking audiences.
The website, which features stories from Gizmodo, Deadspin, Jalopnik, Lifehacker, Jezebel and Kotaku, is an early effort that represents an attempt at figuring out how non-English speakers will react to the content, said Borja Echevarria, vice president and editor in chief of Univision Digital.
“With all of this content and the voice that Gizmodo and the brands have, we see that there’s a good opportunity,” Echevarria said. “That’s why, from day one, when the acquisition was completed, we made two decisions.”
Number one: Start sharing stories from Gizmodo Media Group on Univision’s social media channels, he said. And two: Take steps to adapt its content for Spanish speakers.
It’s too early yet to tell whether the initiative has been a success, but there are reasons to think it could be. Gizmodo, the company’s technology blog, has an existing audience of about 5 million unique visitors in Spain and countries in Latin America, Echevarria said. Before Univision acquired Gizmodo, Gawker Media Group had a small team of journalists that adapted Gizmodo content for Spanish-speaking audiences and created entirely original work.
Univision has published some of their work on La Familia Crece. The other Spanish-language content — articles from Deadspin, Jalopnik, Jezebel, Kotaku and Lifehacker — were translated by Univision workers in Miami. The result is “more of a lab than a permanent home” for the Spanish stories, and will likely see further tinkering, said Jose Zamora, Univision’s senior vice president for strategic communications.
“…In the short-term the plan is to test a range of translated content to see what resonates and then potentially invest more with original Spanish-language content down the line,” he said in an email.
Univision looks at two factors when considering which pieces to adapt, Echevarria said. First: Is it evergreen? Unless the article is a noteworthy scoop, the benefit of translating a daily news story into Spanish might be relatively short-lived. Evergreen stories, by contrast, have a longer tail and justify the investment. Secondly, how has the post performed previously? Work that’s already been a hit with English audiences is more likely to resonate with Spanish-speakers.
Lifehacker, with its back catalog of user-friendly explainers, is a good bet for the initiative, Echevarria said.
The work of adapting Gizmodo Media Group’s editorial content is part of a broader mission to figure out how the newly acquired company fits in with Univision’s existing brands, he said. This week, leaders from all of Fusion Media Group’s brands — including reps from The Onion, AV Club, Clickhole, Fusion, Univision.com, Flama, Track Record and Gizmodo Media Group — met for 48 hours in Miami to help identify opportunities for collaboration and get to know one another, Echevarria said.
And the translation initiative fits into an industry-wide trend whereby news organizations create and translate stories for non-English speakers. In recent years, BuzzFeed, The Huffington Post, Vice Media and The New York Times have all launched efforts to reach new audiences.
For the moment, Univision is primarily focused on growing its audience with Spanish speakers in the United States, but Echevarria expects its audience in Latin America will grow organically as well.
It’s likely Univision will continue to adjust the experiment, too. Raju Narisetti, the new CEO of Gizmodo Media Group, will undoubtedly have some input on the program. The bottom line is to maximize the audience for content from the former Gawker properties without jeopardizing the voice that made them distinct in the first place.
“We are in a moment of experimentation, of getting data, of understanding what works with our audience,” Echevarria said.
Correction: A previous version of this post said Raju Narisetti was appointed on Thursday. He was appointed on Wednesday. A previous version of this story also misspelled Jalopnik.
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PrintBy Jim Marrs, Investigative Journalist
New York Times bestselling author
August 19, 2009
Today, one of the biggest problems we have, and one of the things that shocks so many Americans, is the rise of teen suicides and the rise of school shootings. Yet all we hear from the corporate mass media on the shootings is “Well, we need to take the guns away.” Let me tell you something, I went to school in Texas. We took guns to school. Nobody shot anybody. So what’s changed? Drugs. Kids on psychiatric drugs. Nearly every school shooter in this country can be shown to have been involved with psychotropic drugs—either taking them at the time of the shootings, or what can be even worse, coming off of them. And teen suicides? Read the FDA black box warnings, these drugs can cause suicidal ideation. So logically, if kids are being drugged up with antidepressants, and if in fact teen suicides are rising, then it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that we better stop drugging our kids to death.
Psychiatric drugs cause major changes in brain chemistry and in behavior. International drug regulators warn that the drugs we are doling out to kids can cause mania, psychosis, depersonalization, suicidal and even homicidal ideation. If we take a look at the school shooters that were under the influence of these drugs, you have to wonder why there hasn’t been a federal investigation into the correlation between drugs documented to cause violence and suicide and kids taking them who then became violent and suicidal. If even a handful of these school shooters were found to be taking PCP or smoking crack we would have headline news announcing a causal relationship between illicit drug use and acts of violence. But because these kids are taking legal drugs, prescribed by a psychiatrist for an alleged mental disorder, something we
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to the land north of the airport, and charging a fee for an enticement is counterproductive.
New additions to our “ring road” like the Stirling Lyon Parkway or Chief Peguis Trail, and their proposed additions, are short and not enough of an added convenience to warrant a fee. They are not freeways to begin with, and a toll booth would create additional delays. An automated system like the one Toronto’s 407 has is pricey. The cost would be disproportionate to the volume of traffic that would use one of these roads.
Most of our other major thoroughfares are riddled with controlled grade-level intersections where traffic grinds to a stop every 60 seconds. Bishop Grandin and Route 90 are so slow that it is often faster to travel straight through downtown to get to the other side of the city. Far from being a premium service, our ring roads are so bad that they actually add to congestion in downtown Winnipeg, which makes them unsuitable for a toll and leads us into the congestion tax …
A CONGESTION CHARGE or congestion pricing is a fee for driving within a certain area of a city. The most commonly cited example is London’s congestion charge — a £11.50 fee for driving in central London during working hours. It is widely considered a success, and a model for other cities.
Could Winnipeg implement a congestion charge? Sure. Does Winnipeg need a congestion charge? No. Should we implement one anyhow? Definitely not.
Congestion pricing is a solution to a problem that Winnipeg does not have. Our downtown is not congested, believe it or not. Our problem is not that there are too many people downtown, but that there are too few people downtown. The last thing we need is another deterrent to keep people away from our core area, and it would be foolish to implement such a charge without better mass transit options in place. We do not have any rapid transit that’s worth speaking of, and our regular transit service is stretched thin across our ever growing suburban landscape. If we had better alternatives for people trying to get downtown then perhaps a fee for drivers entering the area might be feasible, but until then it would only be a tax grab that scares people away.
One other idea that has come up is a congestion-type fee for the entire city. Visitors to the city contribute to the wear and tear on city’s infrastructure but pay no property tax. The idea here is to recover some of cost of using and abusing our infrastructure from those visitors. It’s an interesting idea, but I see it as being highly problematic. While daily commuters would be the primary target, all visitors would be hit with the charge. It would be expensive to implement and visitors are not just a burden but a benefit as well, as they support Winnipeg businesses when they visit. Also: it strikes me as being a little bit arrogant to charge somebody for the privilege of entering your city.
A better way to approach this concept might be to look at a specific problem and identify a solution for that problem. For example, new suburban developments create a burden on our tax base. Most also, conveniently, only have a couple of roads in or out. Why not impose a fee … let’s call it a SUSTAINABILITY CHARGE … for cars entering the suburb? I’m not saying it’s a fool proof solution, but it would be a way of representing the true cost of new growth, and introducing that cost into the housing market. There would also be little political blowback if the charge is only imposed on new developments were people do not yet live.
Anyhow … it’s just an idea. If you’re a candidate for mayor feel free to borrow it.
Elections should be about ideas. Some have been bandied about so far, but few that might be classified as original or visionary. It’s no Laser Pyramid, but the idea of a mobility fee is one of the more interesting ideas so far. It also has the potential to be extremely unpopular. Will Brian Bowman back off the idea or will he follow through and have a meaningful discussion about it? Will the idea fade off into oblivion or will other candidates evoke it in the hope of getting a leg up by labeling Bowman the road tax guy?
I’m not saying it’s a good fit for Winnipeg, but at least it’s something beyond the run of the mill stuff we’ve heard so far in this campaign, and that’s something we need more of in this election race.
feature image source: http://www.thestar.com
AdvertisementsColor Me Blind: Animal Pigmentation and Coat Pattern Genetics
Why does your dog have spotted fur? Why is the coat black at the knees, brown over the eyebrows? During embryonic development, pigment-producing cells called melanocytes proliferate across the body unevenly and paint the fur in a unique way. The behavior of melanocytes, where they go and which pigments they produce, is controlled by only a few genes.
Seemingly minute changes in a single section of a gene can alter an animal’s outward appearance. The genes MC1R and ASIP are antagonists; their relative levels of expression dictate what color melanocytes produce. When one of these genes is downregulated, it produces drastic visual changes on the body. Two flycatcher species on the Solomon Islands illustrate this phenomenon. The chestnut-bellied flycatcher and the melanic flycatcher have discernible feather colors, linked to a single protein substitution on the MC1R gene. The presence of a clay or black colored belly in these birds is perfectly associated with a subtle molecular switch. Populations of deer mice in Nebraska evolved camouflaged hair to hide from birds of prey. A mutation at the ‘Agouti’ locus of the ASIP gene alters the width of the subapical pheomelanic band within each hair follicle. This delicate anatomical change controls the brightness of fur color across the entire body, and kickstarts the formation of new species.
Domestic dogs in particular display an eclectic range of coat colors. The link between domestic behaviors and coat color is a point of contention, because of findings from a Russian experiment conducted in the 1960s. Following the persecution of geneticists by Soviet thought-leader Trofim Lysenko, Dmitry Belyaev stabled hundreds of Russian Wild Red Foxes in Siberia and bred them to exhibit certain behaviors. Through artificial selection, his team produced groups of docile and aggressive foxes. New physical traits arose in the tame group, including spotted fur and floppy ears. It turns out that friendly behavior may not be the root cause of these new traits. In 2013, research by Linderholm et al demonstrated that there is no explicit genetic link between domestic behaviors and novel coat colors, even though the two are correlated.
Although domestic behavior doesn’t produce a spotted coat, the genes that regulate color effect other anatomical traits. Melanocytes control fur brightness but are also linked to inner ear development. As an embryo, these melanocytes migrate asymmetrically and express varying amounts of proteins depending on their role in development. The cells that construct the inner ear may produce a secondary effect of darker coat color in that part of the body. This phenomenon produces a clumped fur arrangement on a Doberman or Border Collie.
Color-producing genes control an animal’s physiology as well. Mutations in the ASIP gene (studied in the deer mice above) produce a breed of yellow mice that are more susceptible to obesity and cancer. Coat color appears to be a superficial trait but instead unearths deeper findings on sensory development and disease prevention.A trophy is hoisted and once again Eric Hosmer is there, smiling, celebrating, arms raised in triumphant victory. Team USA is champion of the World Baseball Classic for the first time and at the heart of it all is Eric Hosmer. Many pundits decried Hosmer’s presence in the lineup over Diamondbacks slugger Paul Goldschmidt, a hitter who, by all objective measures is a better player than Hosmer. But Hosmer hit.500 in the series with a game-winning home run in Round Two against Venezuela, silencing many of his critics.
You can't spell eric hosmer without "hero" which is why he plays over paul goldschmidt — Craig Goldstein (@cdgoldstein) March 23, 2017
Eric Hosmer has now played 40 games over the last three years that are in the spotlight - the post-season, the All-Star Game, and the World Baseball Classic. His teams in those games are 29-11. Hosmer himself hasn’t been George Brett or anything, but he has been a very good hitter in those games, hitting.305/.364/.461. Eric Hosmer wins. That is what he does.
As his agent Scott Boras, pointed out:
“Anyone who truly knows Hoz knows he is a leader and one of the game’s true winning players. He makes instinctive decisions at the most critical moments while on the biggest stage. Hoz is known league wide as an extremely prepared player.”
We had our first beer league softball game last night. When I play, I don’t think about getting the game winning hit or smashing one over the wall. My only concern is “don’t screw up and embarrass yourself.” Sometimes I succeed!
I think being “clutch” and perhaps even a lot of winning comes down to just that. Execute and don’t screw it up. You don’t see first basemen on championship baseball teams hilariously colliding into their pitcher on a throw to home. You don’t see Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks missing wide-open receivers. You don’t see great basketball teams forget the game situation.
all sports really come down to is "which team does less dumb shit" — Lana Berry (@Lana) November 1, 2015
Of course, the funny thing is that if things were a bit different, Eric Hosmer could have been the goat. Last fall in Game One of the World Series, Hosmer booted a grounder from Wilmer Flores in the eighth inning to give the Mets the lead. It took Alex Gordon’s heroics in the ninth to rescue the game. Hosmer would commit another error in Game 5 that would lead to a run, a run that would have loomed larger had the Royals not won the game in extra innings to become World Champions. He hit just.190 in the series against the Mets. Had he been thrown out trying to advance on David Wright’s throw, and the Royals somehow lost the series, Hosmer might have been seen as committing an epic choke job.
But he was safe, and the rest was history. It is a fine line between hero and goat. A blooper in the ALDS against the Astros that shouldn’t be anything falls for a hit. A long fly ball against the Athletics that is sometimes caught at the wall turns into a triple that eventually turns into the game-tying run. A pitcher makes a mistake and leaves one up in the zone and Hosmer is ready to pounce with a long home run.
Eric Hosmer may leave Kansas City this fall, but he will leave a winner, the face of perhaps the most successful era of Royals history. I don’t know if he necessarily deserves all the credit for the winning, or that Paul Goldschmidt wouldn’t have done any better, or that clutch-hitting is even a thing, but there is no doubt that it happened. Hosmer wins. And we can’t explain it.Earlier this month, in the middle of the night, a pair of Minnesota parents heard strange music coming from their baby's room. When they investigated, they were horrified to find that the sound was coming from their Foscam baby camera. The camera had been hacked, and its live-feed of their baby's crib had been posted to a site with the URL "Spycam.cdn7.com." The site's title was "Big Brother Is Watching You."
The world of connected baby cams is no stranger to hackers, and Foscam, in particular, has been criticized for years for its lax security settings. Security researchers discovered in 2013 that the China-made camera was designed with a vulnerability that would let anyone on the Internet access it and take control of the stream. The company released an update that would fix the problem, but did not force an update out into the wild, meaning that thousands of the cameras are still vulnerable to hackers until their owners change their passwords and download a security update.
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The fact that digital security was not an inherent product feature obviously comes as a surprise to the new parents and other customers who bought the cameras.
"It's not just nurseries," the alarmed, unnamed Minnesota mother told the local TV station KTTC. "It's people's bedrooms, their living rooms, their kitchens. Every place that people think is sacred and private in their home is being accessed."
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Well-meaning hackers have been trying to alert parents to Foscam's security vulnerability for years. Sometimes, their efforts aren't subtle. (One hacker took control of a Foscam and screamed "wake up, you little slut" to a toddler in Texas in 2013; another shouted "wake up, baby" to a youngster in Ohio in 2014.) But as malicious as their methods can sound, these hackers are actually trying to do these customers a service: waking them up to the fact that the product they're putting into "sacred" places in the home is hackable by anyone with minimal tech expertise.
The method hackers used to alert the Minnesota family—putting their baby cam's stream online in a publicly accessible way—was gentler than screaming at toddlers. But clearly, it was still enough to freak out the family.
When I interviewed the chief operating officer for Foscam's U.S. distribution arm, Chase Rhymes, about the problem last year, he told me the company had made the cameras this way "to give our customers the freedom to keep it easy and not have to make their own password." He said with new products, Foscam does force customers to put a customized password on the devices, but he said there was no way for the company to communicate to some of the people who had bought the security-defective cameras the company had made in the past. “If customers bought from a third party [like Amazon or Best Buy] they’re on an island and we can’t necessarily reach them,” said Rhymes.
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The "Big Brother" camera site claimed to access over 1,000 cameras and had them categorized by the room they snooped on: "nursery," "bedroom," "living room," etc. The person behind the site, a programmer who corresponded with Fusion via an anonymous email account, says that he created it six months ago. He took it down after the news report in Minnesota, because his hosting provider received an "abuse complaint." When asked why he created it, he pointed Fusion to the disclaimer that was on the site when it was live:
This site doesn't own any of presented ip cameras. All captures are automatically deleted after 72 hours. Our goal is to give awareness of technical security problems around private life. All presented ip cams use default password or no password at all. Everyone on the internet can access such cameras using Google or other specialized search engines. It's a serious problem that can result in bigger security consequences. If you want your camera to be removed - simply change your password.
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He said his main goal was to alert people they were exposed, but he couldn't do it one by one. "That's technically difficult. The only thing you know is the IP address, so you have to contact an ISP to pass the info to their client. That's a huge work," he wrote (in shaky English) by email. "Generally people don't see the potential problem until they are touched with it. The level of IT education is rising but not as fast as the electronics is coming in our life."
However alarming their tactics, this white-hat hacker effort clearly worked with at least one family. According to KTTC, the Minnesota family "removed all the cameras, choosing to monitor their child the old-fashioned way."
Read more: I hacked myself to dig up a piece of my past
Beware, houseguests: Cheap home surveillance cameras are everywhere now
This guy got busted by the feds for writing code to fix poster prices on Amazon
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Hattip: PogoWasRightI only encountered the bizarre new concept of “cultural appropriation” within the past 2-3 years. I remember the moment well: a black Facebook friend posted a picture of some white, middle-aged women dressed in traditional African clothing. It was a sweet photo, so I was taken aback by the commentary that accompanied it: apparently, here was an example of white supremacy, once again stealing from Africa. The women were guilty of “cultural appropriation”, apparently. And that’s bad.
Here was a new and puzzling idea. The left of old was insistent that Africa was victim to the exact opposite problem: something we referred to as “cultural imperialism”. We thought that culture could be imposed by those with the money and the guns. It was a superficially obvious idea: but we failed to understand what culture is, or how it works.
There are genuine moments when a culture has been forced onto an African population: the South African attempt to teach children in Afrikaans was one example. This policy prompted an uprising by school students who demanded to be taught in English, and led to the Soweto uprising, and the famous 1976 massacre of school students. The imposition of Islam in the Sahel by the Arabian empire was, one suspects, not done entirely peacefully.
Suppressing culture for the sake of it is simply expensive and pointless. This doesn’t stop politicians, police and control-freaks from repeatedly trying.
Culture doesn’t flow by force, nor does it necessarily follow the money. The story of black American music is the ultimate proof of that. Even in pre-civil rights segregated America, black music found widespread popularity. Recording fuelled the rise of jazz, swing and rock & roll. The racist white establishment attempted to suppress this, but were unable: when something is good, people will find a way to get it; this is as true of “dangerous music” as it is of illegal drugs. For sure, it was easy (prior the civil rights era) to suppress black artists, by refusing to record them, banning them from radio and from live performances. But this couldn’t prevent white artists – Al Jolson, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly – from helping to popularise black music.
The dominance of black music, dress and language over white culture was undeniable. The African diaspora filled vacuums in Western culture: music, rhythm, dance, spoken word, new styles of humour. African culture also brought a more straightforward approach to discussion of sex; this fact alone might explain much of the resistance to black culture from conservatives.
Culture is neither imperialised nor appropriated: it flows where it is welcome, usually because it fills an existing gap. It is the self-appointed job of conservatives, racists and small-minded bullies to prevent the flow of ideas, but they will inevitably fail, in the long run.
The significance of “cultural appropriation” is that it marks the shift of racism and conservatism from the right to the left of the political spectrum. Rather than exhort people not to buy “NEGRO RECORDS”, the neo-bullies tell people that black culture is for black people, and must not be appropriated.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve seen black racists and their confused white “liberal” cheerleaders use cultural appropriation as evidence of how racially oppressed they are. Apparently, wearing African clothes, listening to hip-hop or making soul music is today’s evidence of just how much white people still hate black people. Which is weird, when you think about it.
This idea is the work of a racist minority, and certainly doesn’t reflect the views of most black people. In fact, many older black art-forms still only exist because they’ve been adopted by white people. The dub reggae scene – which I’ve frequented for many years – was once mostly black, and now mostly white. The same applies to many other music scenes, from soul to traditional African music. With the exception of current Nigerian pop superstars like Wizkid, who can fill large London venues with young, black Brits, African music is largely ignored by black people in the UK. Senegalese friends of mine are currently touring Europe, playing to appreciative white audiences. Without this appropriation of (i.e. love for) their culture, these African musicians would never get to leave Africa.
Most Africans love to see whites wearing their clothing, and would be bemused to learn that some angry black people in America and Britain see this is a symbol of racism. Furthermore, there is no such thing as “African clothing”. If I wear Nigerian clothes in Senegal (as I’ve once done), the locals don’t see the clothing as theirs, but as foreign.
One can also note that Africans and western blacks themselves have happily appropriated foreign culture. Today’s most enthusiastic flag-wavers for Christianity are found among Africans and the African diaspora. Although konscious black Christians will angrily point out that Ethiopia was an early Christian society, Christianity (and its European-made book) was brought to the rest of sub-Saharan Africa far more recently by Europeans, not Ethiopians, beginning with the Portuguese explorers of the west coast. Islam, likewise, came overland from Arabia. Just as African rhythm and spoken word filled a void in the West, so Islam and Christianity provided what sub-Saharan Africa had never before encountered: complex, stable religions, with their own books.
Sections of today’s left are continuing the work of the white supremacist right of last century. They try to define rules that only apply to certain racial groups. Blacks can “appropriate”, whites cannot. Black culture must be left alone, white culture can go where it chooses.
The difference between the person who rails about “cultural appropriation”, and the person that organised a boycott of “negro records” is wafer-thin. The language has changed beyond recognition, but the ugly, bullying, divisive intent is the same.Ex-football coach Barry Bennell has appeared in court charged with a further 14 counts of sexual abuse.
The charges, which include indecent assault and serious sexual assault, involve four boys who were aged between 11 and 14 at the time.
The former Crewe Alexandra youth coach now faces a total of 55 charges, relating to alleged offences between 1979 and 1991.
The 63-year-old denied all accusations during previous court appearances.
He appeared via video link for the hearing at South Cheshire Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, speaking only to confirm his name, age and that he understood the charges.
He was remanded in custody and will appear at Liverpool Crown Court on 17 July.
Mr Bennell coached a number of junior teams in north-west England and the Midlands, some with associations to Manchester City and Stoke City.The Menlo Park City Council on Nov. 1 unanimously approved Facebook's plans to build two large office buildings and a hotel in the area bounded roughly by Bayfront Expressway, Constitution Drive and Chilco Street overlooking the bay.
The office buildings will be 75 feet tall and provide a total of 962,400 square feet of floor space. The hotel will have 174,800 square feet of floor space and accommodate up to 200 rooms.
The new buildings are intended to be built in two phases, with one office building slated first, then the other office building and the hotel.
Replacing the TE Connectivity buildings there now, which would be demolished, the new buildings would add 121,300 square feet of floor space.
According to architect Craig Webb of Gehry Partners LLP, the designs will be a continuation of some aspects of the Facebook's Building 20 at Bayfront Expressway and Willow Road, also designed by Gehry Partners, including tree-covered rooftop parks. But the designs will be a departure from the previous building in other ways.
The new plans show the side of the buildings facing Belle Haven will be less imposing than the side facing Bayfront Expressway.
Between the new office buildings, there will be a public-access park, which could be used for farmers' markets or movie nights, and a 24/7 access bike and pedestrian bridge that people could use to cross into Bedwell Bayfront Park.
Facebook doesn't yet have permission from Caltrans to build the bridge, but the company will have to get that permission or else return to the City Council before moving past the first phase of its project, said City Attorney Bill McClure.
John Tenanes, Facebook's vice president of global facilities and real estate, said in a statement: "We are pleased with the City Council’s decision to approve our expansion project, which will revitalize a once-isolated industrial site into a multi-functional space for both Facebook and all community members. Menlo Park has been our home since 2011, and we’re invested in its preservation and enhancement."
Community response
Of 25 comments that were presented to the council, only two asked for further steps to address traffic and housing impacts. Most didn't refer to the project at hand, but spoke positively about the impact Facebook has had in the community.
At least 12 positive comments came from local nonprofits, or recipients of those nonprofit services, that Facebook funds or supports in some way.
One portion of Facebook's philanthropy, its contributions to what's called the Local Community Fund, has been mandated by the city in previous development agreements. In 2016, Facebook fulfilled its five-year commitment, and the company gave more than was required. The new development agreement would require Facebook to give $100,000 a year to nonprofits for the next five years, according to the staff report.
Several other letters of correspondence were submitted to the council that also urged further action to reduce impacts to the area.
Representatives from local environmental conservation organizations such as Friends of Bedwell Bayfront Park, the Audobon society and the Citizens' Committee to Complete the Refuge praised the company for working with them in planning a big yellow bridge Facebook plans to build that will go through the Facebook campus and cross over Bayfront Expressway into Bedwell Bayfront Park.
Impacts
Facebook will have to pay $6.5 million or find a way to get 20 units of affordable housing built – though it's not specified what kind of unit is required. Facebook says it is working with MidPen Housing, a local nonprofit housing developer, to figure out how to get housing built as fast as possible. The $6.5 million could be used as seed money for a MidPen housing project that would get more than 20 units built, Facebook representatives said.
Facebook would also cut down all 770 trees on the site, 274 of which are heritage trees, with plans to plant 1,605 trees, 423 of which would be heritage tree replacements., according to the staff report.
The office buildings will meet the LEED Gold equivalency, an indicator of environmentally sustainable design, and will have water recycling and solar panels.
Development Agreement
Facebook will be contractually required to follow through on certain steps it has committed to pursuing in a development agreement it signed with the city. A previous City Council discussion covered those terms, which were negotiated by a council subcommittee that included Mayor Rich Cline and Vice Mayor Kirsten Keith.
As part of that requirement, Facebook will pay to help Menlo Park work on its housing and transportation problems. That includes $1.5 million for a "Housing Innovation Fund," $1 million for a "Housing Preservation Fund," $350,000 for a housing inventory study with Menlo Park and East Palo Alto, and $430,000 per year for five years toward subsidizing rent for 22 teachers, public safety or nonprofit professionals at 777 Hamilton Ave.
On the transportation front, Facebook will put an additional $1 million toward following recommendations in the $1 million Dumbarton Corridor study it previously funded, and another $1 million toward a regional forum to implement next steps faster.
Facebook will put $100,000 toward setting up a transportation management association and $700,000 into a pedestrian and bike path between East Palo Alto and the Redwood City Caltrain Station. It would also give $1 million to maintain and operate Bedwell Bayfront Park.
The company will pay $60,000 per year for five years toward maintaining the Belle Haven pool and set up a scholarship program to give at least $100,000 per year for 10 years to Menlo Park and East Palo Alto students.
One measures in the agreement that has generated the most buzz requires Facebook to plan and design 1,500 housing units – with a minimum of 15 percent intended for below-market-rate tenants. Ultimately, City Attorney Bill McClure advised council members against requiring that the housing actually gets built because it could create legal risk.
Finally, the city will get $300,000 per year, plus $336,000 per year, until the city would be guaranteed $1.25 million per year in hotel taxes when the hotel is built.
If all the proposed buildings are constructed within 10 years, Facebook's project would add about $2.1 million per year to Menlo Park's revenue, according to the staff report.
See related stories:
• May 27: Environmental report released on Facebook's expansion plans
• June 24: Facebook expansion could exacerbate housing issues, report says
• July 6: Menlo Park: How Facebook's expansion might affect local traffic
• July 15: Facebook willing to pay Menlo Park $15 million-plus for company's expansion
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Follow the Almanac on Twitter and Facebook for breaking news, local events and community news.China has blacklisted 38 Japanese cartoons, including the megahit “Attack on Titan,” from appearing online, according to state media.
Amid a broadening crackdown on the country’s Internet content, 29 Chinese websites have received warnings or fines for carrying shows that “encourage juvenile delinquency, glorify violence and include sexual content,” the Xinhua News Agency said Monday.
Another eight websites have been shuttered, it said.
The actions are intended to “protect the healthy development of youth,” Ministry of Culture official Liu Qiang told Xinhua.
Rumors of a blacklist of Japanese anime began earlier this year, with speculation that candidates included popular cartoons “One Piece” and “Naruto.”
In March, the Ministry of Culture announced it would ban several lesser-known shows, including “Blood C,” due to adult content, and that a more comprehensive list was forthcoming.
The comic book version of “Attack on Titan” has sold tens of millions of copies worldwide, and the anime adaptation is enormously popular in China. A discussion group about the series, hosted on Baidu, had over 21 million posts as of Monday afternoon.
The blacklist includes the popular cartoon “Death Note.”
At least one of the 38 shows, “The Testament of Sister New Devil,” was still available online Monday afternoon.
The cartoons are the latest productions from Japan to fall victim to a push by Beijing to “purify” the Internet.
Although Chinese authorities have attempted to purge “offensive” online content for years, the project has picked up steam under President Xi Jinping.
In a speech late last year, Xi called on Chinese media and the arts to reject “vulgarity” and promote “fine artworks in line with socialist core values.”
In the last several months, officials have fined several major websites, including Baidu and Youku, for distributing shows the government deems inappropriate.
The release of the blacklist provoked passionate opposition from Chinese netizens, who criticized the Ministry of Culture for “censorship” and anti-Japanese bias.
“They should list anti-Japanese dramas,” wrote one person on Chinese micro-blog Weibo, referring to the proliferation of violent dramas about China’s resistance to Japanese invaders during World War II. “They’re gruesome!”Facing allegations that it improperly warehoused foster children at North Star psychiatric hospital in Anchorage, the Alaska Office of Children's Services has been ordered by a state Superior Court judge not to keep children at the facility for indefinite periods of time.
The order is part of a preliminary injunction issued by Superior Court Judge Erin Marston that said a minor, admitted to the acute psychiatric hospital during an emergency, cannot remain there longer than 30 days without court approval.
But that length of time may change. As a next step, the judge has asked parties in the case to offer recommendations on the appropriate period of time a minor should be kept at the hospital before a court can weigh in.
The case was brought a year ago by the Southwest Alaska tribal governments of Hooper Bay and Kongiganak on behalf of the tribes' children.
Alaska Legal Services, representing the tribes, argued that the state was improperly placing and holding children in the hospital. It provided examples of three Alaska Native teenage girls from two foster families who had been held at the hospital for at least four weeks without a judge's approval, though their admission was based on questionable evidence.
One of the girls, a teenager referenced as C.A. for her initials, was held at the hospital for about a month, though a hearing judge later found there was no evidence supporting the decision to send her there, wrote Marston.
"OCS decided to send C.A. to North Star, although the reason for this decision is unclear," Marston wrote.
Marston's Feb. 12 preliminary order said that indefinite stays by children at North Star may violate U.S. constitutional rights and lead to "irreparable harm."
"Continuing treatment of foster children without a judicial hearing raises the question of a violation of the fundamental right to due process," he wrote.
The hospital provides a secure, locked facility where 24-hour services are given under the care of psychiatrists to children with severe emotional and behavioral disorders, he wrote.
But long, unnecessary placement at a mental hospital is not good for adolescents, said Jim Davis, the attorney arguing the case for Alaska Legal Services.
"This is not to say North Star is 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,' but a mental hospital is not a good place for kids" with typical teenage behaviors, said Davis. "It can disempower and otherwise undermine a kid's sense of self if they don't really have a mental illness requiring them to be there."
North Star Behavioral Health System was a defendant in the case along with Christy Lawton, OCS director. Like OCS, North Star must change its practices because of the preliminary order, Davis said.
Officials representing and working for North Star did not return phone calls seeking comments.
Though the case is not settled, the judge's preliminary order is in part a victory for the tribal governments. But the judge also dismissed some of their claims.
"The plaintiffs' essential claim is there had to be a court hearing before admission to an emergency care facility, and that was rejected," said Steven Bookman, an assistant attorney general in the state's child protection section. "If anything, I see this as a loss for the plaintiffs."
Davis, however, said the tribes have been vindicated. "This is no longer business as usual for OCS," he said.
Bookman said that in May 2013 the state adopted a policy calling for court hearings to be held "very quickly" to determine if children should continue staying at the hospital.
Davis said that step was taken after Alaska Legal Services sent a letter to state officials arguing for timely hearings and threatening a lawsuit. By then, the three girls had already been improperly housed at the hospital and released, he said.
The state's policy was insufficient because it proposed no timeline, leaving that up to the scheduling of the courts, Davis said. Getting a hearing can take far too long, sometimes leaving a child in the mental hospital long after they should have been released, said Davis.
The girl had caused alarm after it was believed she had overdosed on antidepressants, leading to a trip to the hospital emergency room in the hub city of Bethel. There, the girl showed no physical signs of overdosing and the girl's foster mother found the bottle of pills the next day.
The girl's foster mother also found a kitchen knife under a bed in the girl's room, though it was uncertain how the knife got there, Marston wrote.
"OCS appeared to believe that the knife was a threat to C.A. and/or others, although (a hearing judge) could not determine who had put the knife under the bed or why it was there," Marston wrote.
The girl was released immediately after a Superior Court hearing in Bethel, but only after she had been at the North Star psychiatric hospital for 31 days, said Davis.
Another example involved two Alaska Native teenage sisters who came from the same foster home, called D.S. and J.S. in the case for their initials.
The girls' foster mother had refused to keep the girls in her home because they had been "disruptive" and attempted to avoid treatment and spread their scabies, Marston wrote, referring to an itchy and contagious skin disease caused by mites.
The state had tried to place the girls in a therapeutic foster home, but none were available.
"The OCS worker called several facilities, but North Star hospital was the only one available that weekend to take the girls," Marston wrote.
The state OCS worker had recorded in her notes that the hospital apparently accepted the girls to stabilize their scabies, Marston wrote. A psychological evaluation by the hospital found J.S. was admitted for "increasing aggression, high-risk behaviors and impulsivity."
D.S. was held for 38 days, while J.S. was held for 47 days, Davis said. They were released after a Superior Court judge said they shouldn't be there, he said.
"The process isn't working when it takes weeks and weeks to have a hearing," Davis said.
In his order, the judge wants the parties by March 12 to recommend the appropriate length of time to hold minors before a court can weigh in.
Davis said he will argue that minors, just like adults, should not be involuntarily held longer than 72 hours without a court's input. That is more than enough time to determine whether a minor is being improperly held at the hospital, he said.Joe Haden had never entered a bye week with more than two wins in his career.
He’d seen the Browns go a combined start of 6-14 (.300) before byes.
This season, the Browns are 4-5 and it feels like they’re two games from clinching a division.
Wednesday, the Browns left their locker room with a lot more confidence and a little more swagger than they have in recent seasons.
Joe Haden and the Browns are playing with a swagger that is starting to produce results. AP Photo/David Richard
Some might consider swagger to be posing and extreme; Browns coach Rob Chudzinski calls it confidence borne from preparation. He has seen it. He’s lived it with the Miami Hurricanes. He has examples of it around him. Offensive coordinator Norv Turner coached under Jimmy Johnson and won Super Bowls with him. Defensive coordinator Ray Horton has no lack of confidence, and he’s brought an approach the defense likes. Russell Maryland played at the University of Miami with Chudzinski and went from having the last scholarship to being the first pick in the draft. He’s on the coaching staff. Wednesday, Chudzinski had Hall of Fame receiver Michael Irvin speak to the team.
Irvin said all the right things. But... nobody remembered these speeches when the Browns were losing.
A team that hears this stuff and walks with swagger and doesn't win might as well be playing Tiddlywinks -- the swagger means nothing without results.
A
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income as of 2013 was $1.2 Billion dollars
Rustler [13]
Rock & Republic
Lee, Wrangler, Rock & Republic and VF Outlet will be under Kontoor Brands, Inc., a spinoff to be completed June 30, 2019. The headquarters will be at 400 North Elm Street, with merchandising, design, product development and innovation at Revolution Mill. Both facilities will be in Greensboro.[5]
Workwear [ edit ]
Horace Small logo
Dickies [14]
Red Kap
Horace Small (The Force), a clothing company based in Nashville, Tennessee, that produces uniforms for law enforcement, fire, EMS, security and land management services. It was founded in 1937. [15] In 1999 the company was acquired by VF Corporation, and was renamed as The Force in 2005 but reverted to the original brand name in 2010. [16] [16]
In 1999 the company was acquired by VF Corporation, and was renamed as The Force in 2005 but reverted to the original brand name in 2010. Bulwark Protective Apparel
Outdoor and action sports [ edit ]
Date of acquisition or merger in parenthesis.
Eastpak wallet
Sportswear [ edit ]
Divested brands [ edit ]
VF Outlet, Inc. [ edit ]
VF Outlet [ edit ]
In 1970, it was the suggestion of M.O. Lee, then President of VF Corporation, that established the VF Outlet business that surplus products from VF sources including Berkshire International and Vanity Fair were sold to the public from a 5,000 square foot factory store, with only a drop cloth separating it from the company's manufacturing facility.[17] In doing so, VF Corporation created a brand-new retail industry, the outlet mall.
VF Outlet stores offer everyday apparel including brand name jeans, intimate apparel, activewear, swimwear, and more for women, men and children. The company currently operates 79 stores in 31 states nationwide.[18]
In October 2013, VF Outlet launched their ECommerce store.[19]
VF Outlet Center [ edit ]
VF Corporation, which opened their first VF Outlet factory store in 1970, was one of the earliest outlet operations, and opened their first outlet center in the country, in Reading, Pennsylvania. The outlet mall, located in Vanity Fair's old manufacturing mills, was dubbed the official "Outlet Capital of the World." [20] The corporate name was changed from VF Outlet Village to VF Outlet Center in 2008.
Today, the VF Outlet Center is owned and operated by VF Outlet, Inc. with over 1,000,000 square feet of retail space and more than 20 stores.[21]
Subsidiaries [ edit ]
Subsidiary Jurisdiction 20X de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. Beatle Properties Limited Eagle Creek, Inc. The H. D. Lee Company, Inc. H.D. Lee Spain, S.L. Imagewear Apparel Corp. JanSport Apparel Corp. Jeanswear Ventures, LLC Kipling Apparel Corp. Lee Bell, Inc. lucy apparel, llc Mo Industries, LLC The North Face Apparel Corp. The North Face (Italy) S.r.l. R&R Apparel Company, LLC The Recreational Footwear Company Ring Company Seven For All Mankind, LLC Smartwool Consumer Direct LLC Smartwool LLC South Cone, Inc. TBL International Properties LLC TBL Investment Holdings GmbH TBL Licensing LLC Timberland LLC Timberland (Gibraltar) Holding Limited Timberland (UK) Ltd. Timberland Asia LLC Timberland Canada Co. The Timberland Company (Asia Pacific) Pte. Ltd. Timberland Europe Services Ltd. Timberland GmbH Timberland Holding Luxembourg S.àr.l. Timberland HK Trading Limited Timberland Hong Kong Limited Timberland IDC Ltd. Timberland International, LLC Timberland Italy Srl. Timberland Japan, Inc. Timberland Lifestyle Brand Malaysia Sdn.Bhd. Timberland Luxembourg Finance S.àr.l. Timberland Luxembourg Holding Asia S.àr.l. Timberland Luxembourg Holding Europe S.àr.l. Timberland Management Services GmbH Timberland Netherlands Holding B.V. Timberland Retail, LLC Timberland Spain S.àr.l. Timberland Switzerland Holding GmbH Timberland Trading (Shanghai) Company Limited Vans, Inc. Vans Madeira, S.L. VFApparel Portugal, Lda VF Apparel (Shenzen) Co., Ltd. VF Asia Limited VF Belgium B.V.B.A. VF Brands India Pvt. Ltd. VF Canada, Inc. VF Contemporary Brands Canada Corp. VF Comercializadora Limitada VF Contemporary Brands, Inc. VF de Argentina S.A. VF do Brasil Ltda. VF Ege Soke Giyim Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. VF Enterprises S.a.R.L. VF Europe B.V.B.A. VF Germany Textil-Handels GmbH VF Global Investments S.a.R.L. VF Imagewear, Inc. VF Imagewear (Canada), Inc. VF International S.a.g.l. VF Investments Italy S.à.r.l. VF Investments S.à.r.l. VF Italia, S.r.l. VF Italy Services S.r.l. VF (J) France, S.A. VF Jeanswear Argentina S.R.L. VF Jeanswear de Mexico S.A. de C.V. VF Jeanswear Espana S.L. VF Jeanswear Limited Partnership VF Jeanswear Nicaragua y Compania Limitada VF Korea Limited VF Luxembourg S.à.r.l. VF Mauritius Ltd. VF Northern Europe Ltd. VF Northern Europe Services Ltd. VF Outdoor (Canada), Inc. VF Outdoor, Inc. VF Outdoor Canada, Co. VF Outlet, Inc. VF Receivables, LP VF Receivables Services LLC VF Scandinavia A/S VF Services, LLC VF Shanghai Limited VF Sourcing Asia S.a.R.L. VF Sourcing India Private Limited VF Sourcing Latin America S.a.R.L. VF Sourcing (Thailand) Ltd. VF Sportswear, Inc. VF Treasury Services LLC VFJ Ventures, LLC Wrangler Apparel Corp. Source:[22]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
https://fashionunited.uk/news/business/vf-s-full-year-outlook-raised-on-strong-q3-performance/2019011841093ATHENS, Ga. -- When Georgia defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt watched film of his new team’s first spring practice last month, he wasn’t very encouraged by what he saw.
Pruitt and the Bulldogs’ other defensive assistants counted 147 “loafs,” in which Georgia’s defenders didn’t run to the ball, finish a play or hustle until the whistle.
“The first practice we were like deer in headlights,” outside linebacker Jordan Jenkins said. “We didn’t know what to expect or what the coaches wanted.”
New defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt says the players are adapting to his system with a good attitude. AP Photo/Jason Getz
While Georgia’s players might have been surprised by the pace and structure of their first spring practice under Pruitt, they adjusted to the new staff’s expectations with surprising quickness. Pruitt said he counted only 13 “loafs” in the second practice.
“The kids have good attitudes,” said Pruitt, who left Florida State for UGA in January after helping lead the Seminoles to a BCS national championship last season. “They’re trying to do what we’re asking them to do. We’re doing things a little different in terms of how we practice and finish. They’re doing a good job.”
In the first two weeks of spring practice, Pruitt has made it clear that Georgia’s defense will operate differently, at least in how it practices and prepares. Bulldogs fans can only hope that the changes lead to better on-the-field results this coming season.
Last year, Georgia’s defense ranked tied for 78th in scoring defense (29 points per game), 45th in total defense (375.5 yards), 41st in run defense (148.2 yards) and 84th in pass-efficiency defense (134.7 rating). Worse, the Bulldogs generated only 15 turnovers, tied with Kentucky for second-fewest in the SEC and 109th nationally.
Along with myriad injuries on offense, Georgia’s woeful defense caused it to limp to an 8-5 finish in 2013 after a promising start in which it defeated South Carolina and LSU, which were each ranked No. 6 nationally at the time. In four regular-season losses, UGA’s defense allowed an average of 38 points.
“They lost a lot of guys from the 2012 defense,” Pruitt said. “Some of the young guys were forced into roles they weren’t ready for. It’s no fault of their own or the coaches. They were the best guys here.”
Pruitt, a native of Rainsville, Ala., surprised a lot of people when he left FSU for UGA after only one season. Last season, FSU’s defense ranked first nationally in scoring defense (12.1 points), second in pass-efficiency defense (93.8 rating), third in total defense (281.4 yards) and 18th in rushing defense (124.8 yards). Pruitt, who was a finalist for the Broyles Award as the sport’s top assistant coach last season, replaced Todd Grantham, who left UGA for Louisville.
“To me, I’ve always wanted to coach in the SEC,” Pruitt said. “Once I got to college, that’s where I wanted to be. I think Georgia is a fantastic job and opportunity. I loved Florida State. They’re great people, and it’s a great place. But I just thought this would be a really good challenge.”
There's good news and bad news for Pruitt. The good news is that UGA brings back nine defensive starters from a year ago. The bad news is that not everyone returns. Defensive end Garrison Smith exhausted his eligibility, and free safety Josh Harvey-Clemons was dismissed from the team in February for an undisclosed violation of team rules. Earlier this month, sophomore safety Tray Matthews and three other players were arrested and charged with misdemeanor theft by deception for allegedly cashing university-issued checks twice. UGA coach Mark Richt hasn’t yet announced punishment for the accused players.
Pruitt doesn’t yet know what led to so many defensive breakdowns at UGA last season. In Georgia’s 43-38 loss at Auburn, its defense allowed a 73-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-18 with 25 seconds to play. In a 24-19 loss to Nebraska in the Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl, the Bulldogs surrendered a 99-yard touchdown pass on third-and-14.
“The big thing is we gave up way too many big plays last year,” Pruitt said. “Whether it was in the run game or the throw game, there were too many mistakes. We’ve got to do a better job of rotating in the secondary, where it’s a 7-yard gain instead of a 25-yard gain if the ball spits out of there. If we do that, we’ll make the offense work harder and have to earn it.”
Linebacker Ramik Wilson, last year's leading tackler, figures to be a cornerstone for Jeremy Pruitt's revamped defense. Don McPeak/USA TODAY Sports
The strength of Georgia’s defense this coming season figures to be its linebacker corps. Senior inside linebacker Ramik Wilson led the SEC with 133 tackles last season, and Jenkins and outside linebacker Leonard Floyd combined for 11.5 sacks and 17.5 tackles for loss.
Georgia’s secondary, which was plagued by communication breakdowns last season, remains a work in progress. Incoming freshmen Malkom Parrish, Dominick Sanders and Shaquille Jones might be asked to contribute right away, along with Shattle Fenteng, the No. 1 juco cornerback, according to ESPN RecruitingNation.
Pruitt figures to use more four-man fronts than Grantham did, although he prefers smaller, quicker linemen than what UGA had last season.
Pruitt hopes the faster pace in practice will help UGA’s conditioning.
“It’s a lot more up-tempo,” Wilson said. “We’re running more, and they’re trying to bring in more passion and effort. [Pruitt] is making the point that he’s going to play the best 11 guys out there. It’s a lot more intense.”
Said Jenkins, “The tempo is a lot faster and people are moving a lot faster. There’s no more watching. I feel like we have a sense of urgency now. We’re a lot more aggressive. Everybody is trying to make plays.”
Georgia fans will have to wait until Aug. 30, when the Bulldogs open the season against Clemson at Sanford Stadium, to learn whether last year’s growing pains will pay dividends this coming season.
“Our guys are learning how we want them to practice,” Pruitt said. “They’re trying to finish and trying to do what we ask them to do. We’re going to have to play with a lot of toughness and effort. We’re going to have to make fewer mental mistakes. That’s how we’re going to play this year. That’s our focus -- effort, toughness and eliminating mental errors.”Trump lied about Obama calling the families of soldiers killed-in-action, and his supporters will blindly accept every word.
Maybe you've noticed this. I sure have. Too many social media users never read articles beyond a few words in the headline, and then, making matters worse, they stupidly assume to know everything about the content of the piece, despite having not read it. After failing to understand anything about what was written, they scramble over themselves to blurt their dissatisfaction in the comment section or on their Twitter feed, haughtily explaining why your article is wrong while comporting themselves as experts on an angle they clearly haven't read about.
This dynamic happens to also illustrate Donald Trump's barely existent grasp of the facts. The extent of Trump's knowledge of the issues is very likely based on half-listening to goofy Steve Doocy on Fox & Friends, backed with exactly zero reading of official government memorandums gathering dust on the Resolute Desk. We've already heard that memos handed to Trump are required to be less than a page in length, with brief bulletpoints, as if an issue like healthcare or the climate could be summarized so sparsely. But it too often seems as though he doesn't even read those.
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Most of the time, Trump acts like a fifth grader bullshitting his way through an essay exam on topics he knows nothing about. In fact, we should assume that Trump knows nothing. Full stop. Not just about the issues, but also about history, too. Hell, he barely has a working knowledge of typical human behavior. Trump and his family, Don Jr., Ivanka, Eric and the rest of the 5th Avenue weirdos, are like the Coneheads: vaguely attempting to behave like normal humans but not quite getting it right.
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What's remarkable about this space alien thing is that Trump's awkward, eternal now, full-of-shit behavior is perfectly acceptable to around 62 million Americans, despite the reality that Trump is the first real villain to hold the office since Nixon or Trump's hero, Andrew Jackson, who he also likely knows very little about. He's not even a smart villain. He's much more Solomon Grundy than Lex Luthor.
Despite it all, Trump is acutely aware of the fact that whatever he says, no matter how ludicrous, his bullshit will be fully accepted as reality by his loyalists. Trump commands an army of comment trolls who don't read, and he knows it, because why should they read? The president said it so it must be true, right? It's got to feel liberating to know that he could blurt total gibberish and his people will parachute into their social media feeds to repeat his gobbledygook by rote.
This is precisely why you won't hear Trump publicly apologize to former presidents, especially Barack Obama, for suggesting they never call the families of American soldiers killed in action. Here's the full quote from a joint presser with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in the Rose Garden today:
I've written them personal letters. They've been sent, or they're going out tonight, but they were written during the weekend. I will, at some point during the period of time, call the parents and the families, because I have done that traditionally.
I felt very, very badly about that. I always feel badly. It's the toughest -- the toughest calls I have to make are the calls where this happens. Soldiers are killed. It's a very difficult thing. Now, it gets to a point where, you know, you make four or five of them in one day -- it's a very, very tough day. For me, that's by far the toughest.
So the traditional way -- if you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn't make calls. A lot of them didn't make calls. I like to call when it's appropriate, when I think I am able to do it.
They have made the ultimate sacrifice. So generally I would say that I like to call.
I'm going to be calling them. I want a little time to pass. I'm going to be calling them. I have -- as you know, since I've been president, I have.
But in addition, I actually wrote letters individually to the soldiers we're talking about, and they're going to be going out either today or tomorrow.
Once again, he's bullshitting an essay exam he was unprepared for. But here's how his enfeebled gray matter malfunctioned today. Right after he said "at some point during the period of time," knowing that it's been weeks since American Green Berets were ambushed in Niger, he realized it makes him appear insensitive to the troops, having allowed so much time to elapse. Naturally, his gaffe wouldn't have occurred if he actually did his job with the same thoroughness as previous chief executives, but he doesn't. Trump gets away with doing to bare minimum. In fact, he would've quit months ago out of pure exhaustion if he actually tried to accomplish a typical day-in-the-life.
Still kerfuffled by his initial gaffe, Trump shifted into a familiar "whining and grievances" posture in order to obscure the real news that he hasn't yet spoken to the families of the Green Berets. Maybe if he complains about how hard it is to be president, he'll gain the sympathy of those who were scowling at the "period of time" dodge. Hence more whining by easily the whiniest, poopiest-diapered president in history.
And just in case whining didn't work, he went with throwing Obama under the bus. Of course he wasn't concerned about fact-checking because Fox News doesn't fact-check Trump, so who cares if he lies? Besides, the rest of the news media, along with all of us following along on social media, will be distracted by the falseness of the Obama claim, and we'll completely overlook the fact that Trump admitted to not calling the families yet.
If that was his plan -- to distract from his initial remark with a lie about other presidents -- then mission accomplished. The focus on Twitter and Facebook appears to be the Obama lie rather than the fact that Trump said he hasn't called the families more than ten days and counting after the ambush.
Trump can't even do the basics. He can't get it together enough to call grieving families and he can't talk about slain American soldiers without gagging on his own horseshit. He can't talk about anything of substance, sure, but when it comes to being commander-in-chief, he's either acting like a this kid, or he's miserably failing his "Support the Troops 101" essay exams.
For his people, however, he's still the Bestest President Ever, an evaluation based on criteria no more stringent than what a little boy hears from his doting mother.China’s envoy to UN Liu Jieyi said that China voted in favour of the Russian draft resolution on Syria at the Security Council and regrets that it was not adopted.
UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) — China voted in favour of the Russian draft resolution on Syria at the Security Council and regrets that it was not adopted, China’s envoy to UN Liu Jieyi said after the vote.
"China voted in favour of the draft resolution and we regret that the resolution was not adopted," Liu Jieyi said.
China’s envoy praised the Russian draft and said that it called for the cessation of hostilities, opening humanitarian access, enhancing the fight against terrorism and supporting UN special envoy on Syria Staffan de Mistura.
Speaking of the French draft, Liu Jieyi explained China’s abstention from the vote by the fact that the draft "does not reflect the full respect for the sovereignty, independence, unification and territorial integrity of Syria".
Both resolutions were put to vote at the Security Council on Saturday and neither of them was passed.There are 70 white mice in individual boxes set like tiles on the floor of a gallery on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. In clear plexiglass cages, designed to be stepped upon, they peer up underfoot in an exhibition exploring phobia.
To Natasha Millikan, a self-described mouse expert who squatted on the checkered floor on Sunday afternoon, her head pressed into her hands as around her mice shivered, chewed bits of wood or slept beneath her boots, it was an exploration of torture.
“Mice are prey,” she said into her cellphone, to the artist, Joseph Grazi, whom the gallery owner had called at her request after she arrived from Jersey City to protest the show. “They have the instinct to be terrified from anything up above them, any shadow. So at this point, these guys are just shutting down.”
Mr. Grazi disagreed. The animals, so-called feeder mice, he said, had been destined to be eaten by reptiles. Here in the shallow tiles beneath gallery-goers feet, they were well-fed and happy.This is very strange, I know, but really what happened is as confusing to me as it is to everyone else. I have been told there is hard evidence saying that I was at the place of the murder of my friend when it happened. This, I want to confirm, is something that to me, if asked a few days ago, would be impossible.
I know that Raffaele has placed evidence against me, saying that I was not with him on the night of Meredith's murder, but let me tell you this. In my mind there are things I remember and things that are confused. My account of this story goes as follows, despite the evidence stacked against me:
On Thursday November 1 I saw Meredith the last time at my house when she left around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Raffaele was with me at the time. We, Raffaele and I, stayed at my house for a little while longer and around 5 in the evening we left to watch the movie Amelie at his house. After the movie I received a message from Patrik [sic], for whom I work at the pub "Le Chic". He told me in this message that it wasn't necessary for me to come into work for the evening because there was no one at my work.
Now I remember to have also replied with the message: "See you later. Have a good evening!" and this for me does not mean that I wanted to meet him immediately. In particular because I said: "Good evening!" What happened after I know does not match up with what Raffaele was saying, but this is what I remember. I told Raffaele that I didn't have to work and that I could remain at home for the evening. After that I believe we relaxed in his room together, perhaps I checked my email. Perhaps I read or studied or perhaps I made love to Raffaele. In fact, I think I did make love with him.
However, I admit that this period of time is rather strange because I am not quite sure. I smoked marijuana with him and I might even have fallen asleep. These things I am not sure about and I know they are important to the case and to help myself, but in reality, I don't think I did much. One thing I do remember is that I took a shower with Raffaele and this might explain how we passed the time. In truth, I do not remember exactly what day it was, but I do remember that we had a shower and we washed ourselves for a long time. He cleaned my ears, he dried and combed my hair.
One of the things I am sure that definitely happened the night on which Meredith was murdered was that Raffaele and I ate fairly late, I think around 11 in the evening, although I can't be sure because I didn't look at the clock. After dinner I noticed there was blood on Raffaele's hand, but I was under the impression that it was blood from the fish. After we ate Raffaele washed the dishes but the pipes under his sink broke and water flooded the floor. But because he didn't have a mop I said we could clean it up tomorrow because we (Meredith, Laura, Filomena and I) have a mop at home. I remember it was quite late because we were both very tired (though I can't say the time).
The next thing I remember was waking up the morning of Friday November 2nd around 10am and I took a plastic bag to take back my dirty cloths to go back to my house. It was then that I arrived home alone that I found the door to my house was wide open and this all began. In regards to this "confession" that I made last night, I want to make clear that I'm very doubtful of the verity of my statements because they were made under the pressures of stress, shock and extreme exhaustion. Not only was I told I would be arrested and put in jail for 30 years, but I was also hit in the head when I didn't remember a fact correctly. I understand that the police are under a lot of stress, so I understand the treatment I received.
However, it was under this pressure and after many hours of confusion that my mind came up with these answers. In my mind I saw Patrik in flashes of blurred images. I saw him near the basketball court. I saw him at my front door. I saw myself cowering in the kitchen with my hands over my ears because in my head I could hear Meredith screaming. But I've said this many times so as to make myself clear: these things seem unreal to me, like a dream, and I am unsure if they are real things that happened or are just dreams my head has made to try to answer the questions in my head and the questions I am being asked.
But the truth is, I am unsure about the truth and here's why:
1. The police have told me that they have hard evidence that places me at the house, my house, at the time of Meredith's murder. I don't know what proof they are talking about, but if this is true, it means I am very confused and my dreams must be real.
2. My boyfriend has claimed that I have said things that I know are not true. I KNOW I told him I didn't have to work that night. I remember that moment very clearly. I also NEVER asked him to lie for me. This is absolutely a lie. What I don't understand is why Raffaele, who has always been so caring and gentle with me, would lie about this. What does he have to hide? I don't think he killed Meredith, but I do think he is scared, like me. He walked into a situation that he has never had to be in, and perhaps he is trying to find a way out by disassociating himself with me.
Honestly, I understand because this is a very scary situation. I also know that the police don't believe things of me that I know I can explain, such as:
1. I know the police are confused as to why it took me so long to call someone after I found the door to my house open and blood in the bathroom. The truth is, I wasn't sure what to think, but I definitely didn't think the worst, that someone was murdered. I thought a lot of things, mainly that perhaps someone got hurt and left quickly to take care of it. I also thought that maybe one of my roommates was having menstral [sic] problems and hadn't cleaned up. Perhaps I was in shock, but at the time I didn't know what to think and that's the truth. That is why I talked to Raffaele about it in the morning, because I was worried and wanted advice.
2. I also know that the fact that I can't fully recall the events that I claim took place at Raffaele's home during the time that Meredith was murdered is incriminating. And I stand by my statements that I made last night about events that could have taken place in my home with Patrik, but I want to make very clear that these events seem more unreal to me that what I said before, that I stayed at Raffaele's house.
3. I'm very confused at this time. My head is full of contrasting ideas and I know I can be frustrating to work with for this reason. But I also want to tell the truth as best I can. Everything I have said in regards to my involvement in Meredith's death, even though it is contrasting, are the best truth that I have been able to think.
[illegible section]
I'm trying, I really am, because I'm scared for myself. I know I didn't kill Meredith. That's all I know for sure. In these flashbacks that I'm having, I see Patrik as the murderer, but the way the truth feels in my mind, there is no way for me to have known because I don't remember FOR SURE if I was at my house that night. The questions that need answering, at least for how I'm thinking are:
1. Why did Raffaele lie? (or for you) Did Raffaele lie?
2. Why did I think of Patrik?
3. Is the evidence proving my pressance [sic] at the time and place of the crime reliable? If so, what does this say about my memory? Is it reliable?
4. Is there any other evidence condemning Patrik or any other person?
3. Who is the REAL murder [sic]? This is particularly important because I don't feel I can be used as condemning testimone [sic] in this instance.
I have a clearer mind that I've had before, but I'm still missing parts, which I know is bad for me. But this is the truth and this is what I'm thinking at this time. Please don't yell at me because it only makes me more confused, which doesn't help anyone. I understand how serious this situation is, and as such, I want to give you this information as soon and as clearly as possible.
If there are still parts that don't make sense, please ask me. I'm doing the best I can, just like you are. Please believe me at least in that, although I understand if you don't. All I know is that I didn't kill Meredith, and so I have nothing but lies to be afraid of.I read a lot on my kindle and I noticed that some of the sequences aren’t available in book form. Also, the ones that are mostly only have the posts. I personally want them to also include some of the high ranking comments and summaries. So, that is why I wrote this tool to automatically create books from a set of posts. It creates the book based on the information you give it in an excel file. The excel file contains:
Post information
Book name
Sequence name
Title
Link
Summary description
Sequence information
Name
Summary
Book information
Name
Summary
The only compulsory component is the link to the post.
I have used the tool to create books for Living Luminously, No-Nonsense Metaethics, Rationality: From AI to Zombies, Benito's Guide and more. You can see them in the examples folder in this github link. The tool just creates epub books you can use calibre or a similar tool to convert it to another format.
Below is an FAQ on how to use it. If you have any other questions, let me know.
FAQ:
How can I quickly get the tool running?
Download the tool from this dropbox link. Copy the jar and the lib folder and then run.
You can use the xlsx files in the examples folder at this github link for input.
You can use the lesswrong.html file in the resources folder at this github link for a cover page. If someone wants to create a better cover page, then I will update it.
How does it work?
The below image is an example of the program running.
Descriptions of each of the configurable options are below:
Output File Location - this is where the epub file will be saved
Input Data - this is where the excel file that you want to use as input can be found. The excel file should be in a specific format. You can see examples in the Examples folder in the github location for the format.
Cover page - this is the location of any html file that you want to use as a cover page. Any image files that this html file uses should be in the same folder.
Include comments - this is used to determine whether comments should be included or not
Include children comments >= threshold - this determines whether you only want top posts that are greater or equal to the threshold or whether you want to include children posts that are greater or equal to this threshold as well. For example, if the threshold is five then out of the below comments 1 and 3 would be included if this is checked if it is not checked only comment 1 will be.
Comment 1 7 points
Comment2 3 points
Comment 3 5 points
Threshold - only comments which have a point score that is greater than or equal to this threshold will be included
Include posts parent - if this is checked than comments 1, 2 and 3 below would be included. This is because comment 3 is greater than or equal to the threshold and comment 1 and 2 are parents of this comment. Only parents of comments greater than or equal to the threshold will be included.
Comment 1 2 points
Comment2 3 points
Comment 3 5 points
Include posts children - if this is checked than comments 1, 2 and 3 below would be included. This is because comment 1 is greater than or equal to the threshold the other comments are children of a comment that is greater than or equal to the threshold.
Comment 1 7 points
Comment2 3 points
Comment 3 5 points
What sites can this tool pull posts from
Do you have some example output of the tool?
See the epub files in the examples folder at this github link
The example books had the include comments option checked and the threshold was set to 5.
Do you have some example input data that I can use to create epubs?
See the xlsx files in the examples folder at this github link
Do you have an example cover page that I can use
See the lesswrong.html file in the resources folder at this github link
Where can I download the tool?
Here is the dropbox link to the jar file. Copy the jar and the lib folder and then run.
Where can I download the code?
At this github link
How do I create an input file?
Copy one of the xlsx files in the examples folder at this github link. Update it as appropriate, e.g. change the links to the posts.
Each row in the first sheet defines a post that will be included in the book, its title, a summary to display for this post and which sequence and book it belongs to.
The second and third sheet define the summary to be shown for the sequence and book.
I created or improved some of the input files by adding summaries. Should I share them?
Yes. I haven't written summaries for most of the example excel files. If someone wants to write summaries. then I will then add them to the github link.
I found a problem with the tool or it is not working. What should I do?
Post a comment below and I will look into it.
An example of this is when you have Include children comments >= threshold set and threshold at 5. If you had the below comments, 1 and 3 would be included, but comment 2 would not be. When you include children comments there is normally a link to the parent comment. However, the parent (comment 2) for comment 3 is not included as its score was less than the threshold. Hence, "parent comment below threshold" indicates that the parent comment was not included. If you do want to include comment 2, then you should recreate the book with the include children or parent option selected.
Comment 1 7 points
Comment2 3 points
Comment 3 5 points
Hasn't someone else already done this?
Yes. See here for some examples, but I don't think that included any ability to get comments or summaries.
Why is this a separate GUI and not integrated into less wrong?
I was really just writing this for myself and also based on what was said here, also below, it sounds like it should be separate.
Matthew Fallshaw:Getty Images
Chargers running back Melvin Gordon grew up idolizing Adrian Peterson.
So in addition to getting to hang out with his hero, Gordon’s hoping to learn to hang onto the ball as well.
According to Ben Goessling of ESPN.com, Gordon has joined Peterson for his offseason workouts in Houston this offseason, as both of them try to get a better grip on the ball.
“I talked to Adrian about it, and he said, ‘The biggest thing about the lack of ball security is, it’s a mental thing,'” Gordon said. “You can do a lot of drills, but you can still go out there and mess up if you’re not mentally focused on it. It’s [having that reminder of], ‘Someone’s there. Someone’s always there [trying to take it].'”
And last year, people took it from both of them.
After not losing a fumble the year before, Peterson fumbled seven times, losing three. Gordon fumbled six times last season, so he joined in with Peterson and trainer James Cooper this offseason.
While it can’t replicate would-be tacklers, Cooper puts them through boxing and Brazilian jujitsu drills to work on balance and security, getting them ready for the hits to come.
“[The punches are] more of an instinctual trigger than a hit,” Peterson said. “It’s kind of like going through that front line, where you’ve got arms coming, you’ve got legs coming. It really makes you clench on it even more and keep it tight.”
Peterson has shown in the past he can eliminate fumbles, and Gordon’s hoping that’s one of the tricks he can mirror after a disappointing rookie season.President Donald Trump, right, salutes retired Army Capt. Gary M. Rose, left, before best
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exaggerating medicines mocks the poor, the ill, the giving public, the government and higher authorities,” says Luke Hingson, head of Pittsburgh’s Brother’s Brother Foundation. His leanly run charity, which long has been on our list, deals almost exclusively in foreign-delivered GIK but years ago stopped accepting deworming medicine.
GIK defenders say the accounting rules are flexible, confusing and in flux, and that nonprofits have acted in good faith. They worry, too, that low values might discourage cash donors. Certainly the GIK standards have been the subject of sometimes heated discussions within the nonprofit industry. The trend now is to use lower, but still puffed-up, values.
For example, earlier this year Oklahoma City-based Feed the Children announced that its latest yearly GIK contributions dropped by $668 million—a stunning 60% fall—mostly due to its lowering of deworming valuation from $9.07 to 35 cents. But that’s still 1,600% above the world market price. No stranger to scandal, the charity, a pioneering longtime distributor of deworming pills using high values, is no longer among the country’s ten largest.
For many years World Vision, a large faith-based charity in Federal Way, Wash., was one of the most aggressive in valuing deworming pills. In 2009 it used $10.64—the same 53,000% markup used by Crista Ministries. After studying the issue and paying for outside data, it dropped the valuation for 2010 to $2 a pill—a mere 9,900% markup. Across the country, in Brunswick, Ga., MAP International, another big faith-based charity, says it valued the pills it distributed in its latest accounting period at $1 each, down from $10.58. But that’s still 4,900% above what they cost. In Phoenix, Food for the Hungry dropped its per-pill valuation from $10.64 to $1.54—53,000% to 7,600%.
In a promotional Web-posted video after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Bill Horan, head of Pat Robertson’s Operation Blessing International Relief & Development, stands in a truck parked in Port-au-Prince that he says holds 1 million mebendazole pills. “These things cost less than a nickel apiece,” he declares. But on its statements OBI claimed a much, much higher average value for deworming meds—$6.85 over seven years, we figure, a 34,000% markup over actual costs. That extra $300 million swelled OBI’s reported contributions by one-sixth to $2.2 billion and enhanced its calculated financial efficiency. An OBI spokesman insists that the 5 cents Horan was referring to was the cost of administering medicine “and not the cost of the pills themselves.” Still, in a policy change, OBI says for the time being it will assign no value to the pills on its financial statements.
Significantly, not every big charity plays the goose-the-financial-statement game. The New York City-based United States Fund for Unicef books the same deworming meds at only 2.6 cents. Direct Relief International of Santa Barbara, Calif. uses 3.2 cents. Kansas City’s Children International eschews donations and buys deworming meds on the open market for no more than 4 cents a pill and often much less. “More cost-effective and straightforward,” the charity says.
So how did 2-cent medicines become $10.64 pills or even $16.25 pills? The tale involves a pricing guide that lists deworming medicine at prices no one seems to pay.
Red Book, published by Physicians’ Desk Reference, a division of Thomson Reuters, is a database for drugs approved for use in the U.S. For each it includes something called “average wholesale price,” or AWP. These prices are supplied by manufacturers, and there is no requirement that they be accurate or even real. Indeed, Red Book explicitly states in a Web-posted disclaimer, “Thomson Reuters relies on the manufacturers to report the values.” Not clear enough? “Thomson Reuters does not perform any independent analysis to determine or calculate the actual AWP.” Still in doubt? “The manufacturer’s suggested AWP … does not necessarily reflect the actual AWP.” Small wonder nonprofit insiders openly joke AWP really stands for “Ain’t What’s Paid.”
Nevertheless, for years the nonprofit industry and its accountants eagerly used Red Book’s AWP as a basis for accounting statements. But to do so when it came to deworming medicine, they had to go one step further. For foreign use the standard mebendazole pill, the more popular of the two major deworming drugs, has 500 milligrams of medicine. But the maximum dosage approved for use within the U.S. is only 100mg. The lack of U.S. need for deworming medicine—parasites are not a big problem here—plus the fact that U.S. drug prices are among the world’s highest, resulted in top-dollar AWPs for the 100mg version. Listed per-pill AWP in Red Book have included these quotes: $10.64, $12.72 and $16.25.
There is no Red Book listing for 500mg mebendazole pills (although we’ve seen a Red Book printout that one pill purveyor doctored by changing “100mg” to “500mg”). Yet AWP values for 100mg mebendazole are used by many nonprofits. At least on their financial statements.
That highest AWP quote for 100mg mebendazole seems to be where Islamic Relief USA got its now-called-into-question $16.25 valuation for 500mg mebendazole. But there’s a lot more to this story. The charity says it was using the work product of Diana Sufian, a Santa Monica, Calif. nonprofit consultant who ran its GIK program for about six years. In 2010 she was paid $520,000—nearly three times the pay of the charity’s president, Abed Ayoub. Islamic Relief says it now has dispensed with her services. Contacted by FORBES, Sufian declined to comment on her status or operations but said she was not responsible for drug valuations.
In a statement, Islamic Relief, which seems to be depicting itself as a shocked victim, said it had been told that the deworming pills came from Medical Education Training & Development Inc. in Spring Lake, Mich. METAD, as it is known, is also a registered tax-exempt charity but appears to be functioning as an agent or broker rather than as an actual donor. METAD’s latest tax return lists total revenues as just $2.2 million. METAD principal officer Barbara “Bobbi” Johnson declined to speak with FORBES.
Islamic Relief says that Sufian told its officials the pills via METAD came from MedPharm LLC, a for-profit drug company also based in Alexandria, Va. MedPharm’s website calls it “one of the preeminent suppliers of pharmaceuticals in the United States” and brags that since 2004 it has supplied more than 120 million deworming pills. Calls to its owner, Andrew Koval, were not returned. Several websites identify Johnson as being affiliated with MedPharm, raising the possibility that some of the pill transactions were not truly arm’s-length.
Islamic Relief faces another issue. FORBES has seen some of the METAD invoices for deworming and other medicines. They list a “handling fee” roughly equal to the actual cost of the medicines. An Islamic Relief spokesperson confirmed the charity paid such charges. This raises the possibility the charity’s receipt of the medicine was not a charitable donation at all, not even for 2 cents, but just a market-value purchase. If so, such a lack of donor intent means the charity’s stated fundraising efficiency—the percent of donations after deducting cost of their solicitation, and a key evaluation measure for many givers—was not as high as it appeared.
There are other nonprofits around the country with interesting operations like METAD’s. An August 2010 e-mail to a prominent nonprofit from Medicines for Humanity, a tiny Rockland, Mass. nonprofit, said that for a $4,800 “acquisition fee”—seemingly, actual costs—it could supply a package largely consisting of deworming pills that could be put on financial statements at $913,000. That’s a nearly 19,000% enhancement. “Providing value,” the e-mail declares. The prominent nonprofit passed on the deal. MFH says it fully discloses in its financial statements what it does.
In Canada tax authorities have shut down several nonprofits for ginning up tax deductions for medical-goods donors to far more than actual cost. In the U.S., though, it remains a mystery whether any donor has used Ain’t What’s Paid values as a basis for tax deductions.Tax Day is always a nightmare as American taxpayers complete their annual gymnastics routine of somersaulting over regulations, squeezing through loopholes and then trying to stick clean landings on their financial mats. But as painful as mailing those checks to the U.S. Treasury can be, we can only imagine what it must be like to gaze at the balance sheets of team owners who must file Form 1040 LFAS – Lousy Free Agent Signings.
You have to figure Arte Moreno will soon have a new appreciation for depreciation. That 10-year contract for Albert Pujols will cost the Angels owner $254 million over 10 years. And with Pujols earning only $12 million and $16 million in the first two years, the deal is backloaded so much that Moreno will be writing Pujols a check for more than $30 million in the year the deal expires just shy of the slugger's 42nd birthday. Can Moreno write this off as a gambling loss? Greece and Fannie Mae might wind up looking good by comparison.
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If we itemized all the ways Adam Dunn torpedoed the White Sox last year while pulling down $12 million to hit.159 with 11 home runs and 42 RBIs, we might crash the IRS computers. After Lamar Odom's brief but disastrous stint in Dallas ended with the 6-foot-10 forward averaging 6.6 points and shooting 35.2 percent, the Mavericks are only too grateful that he can now file as a nonresident. John Lackey's 6.41 ERA and 1.62 WHIP proved such a capital loss that many Red Sox fans are glad he's out for the season after Tommy John surgery. Maybe the Red Sox can deduct the cost of all that clubhouse beer and chicken as a business expense.
Story continues
Some other expensive acquisitions are continuing to collect huge paychecks for very little production. Barry Zito, after signing the richest free-agent contract as a pitcher in 2007, was left off the playoff roster entirely during the Giants' 2010 run to the World Series. Greg Oden was finally cut loose by the Portland Trail Blazers after spending five seasons to play a total of 82 games (and keep in mind Portland selected him over Kevin Durant). And Wade Redden is playing for the New York Rangers all right … in the minors. Yep, he's making over $6 million a season playing in Hartford in the AHL.
It's true that, in sports and in life, you have to spend money to make money. No one knows this more than sports franchise owners. And we're betting that their accountants would agree with this list of the top 10 players owners wish they could write off.
The list:
10. Lamar Odom, Dallas Mavericks -- Mavericks on the hook for $8.9 million
9. Matt Cassel, Kansas City Chiefs -- Has a six-year, $62.7 million contract
8. John Lackey, Boston Red Sox -- Has a 26-23 record, and a 5.26 ERA with Boston
7. Scott Gomez, Montreal Canadiens -- Scored 11 points in 38 games this season
6. Vernon Wells, Los Angeles Angels -- Batted.218 last season
5. Greg Oden, Portland Trail Blazers -- Played 82 games in five seasons
4. Barry Zito, San Francisco Giants -- Left off Giants' 2010 playoff roster
3. Rashard Lewis, Washington Wizards -- Earned roughly $22 million for low production this season
2. Wade Redden, New York Rangers -- see the details
1. Adam Dunn, Chicago White Sox -- see the details
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• Y! Games: Do you own any of the world's most valuable collectible cards?Otto von Bismarck is famously quoted as saying (although he probably didn't) that "Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made." That's certainly the case with the tax bills passed by the U.S. House and Senate and now set for conference. Sausages and laws do end up containing things that on their own might be fairly unappetizing, but that doesn't mean they should include things that are inedible or rotten.
For higher education, there is virtually nothing good in this tax legislation, but that doesn't mean that everything that adversely affects us is wrong or an inappropriate part of a larger bill. But there are at least two distasteful provisions that our representatives and senators should remove before the sausage becomes law.
Both the House and Senate bills contain an "excise" tax on certain university endowments, although the threshold for applying the tax differs: $500,000 of assets per student in the Senate bill and $250,000 in the House version. The House bill originally applied to any college or university with more than $100,000 per student, but that was ultimately raised to $250,000. The Senate worked with that number until an amendment that would have exempted only Hillsdale College, which identifies itself as a conservative Christian college, failed, and then the threshold was raised to $500,000 to exempt Hillsdale (and incidentally others) instead.
The discriminatory nature of the provision reflects its unprincipled quality and may make it legally vulnerable. It doesn't apply to nonprofit institutions other than educational ones even if they are sometimes engaged in the same work.
Thus an endowment gift to a university to support medical research would be subject to the tax, but a gift to a hospital would not be. A gift to support music and art at a university would be subject to the tax, but not to a museum or city orchestra. Even though public university endowments have in most cases been accumulated by gifts subject to the same favorable provisions on charitable giving, a public university is exempted, regardless of how it spends its endowment income. And a university that falls just below the $500,000-per-student threshold is completely exempted from tax, whereas a university like Rice must in effect pay tax on earnings from the entire endowment.
Up until this bill, discussions about applying taxes to university endowments have focused on how those endowments were being used. Was the university spending enough? Was it spending a sufficient portion on scholarship assistance or other student support? A leading congressman I consulted about those proposals once told me that Rice is the "positive poster child" for endowment use. Our endowment supports 40 percent of operating costs and we regularly spend more than 5 percent of its recent average value. Nearly half of our endowment expenditures go to direct student support. The rest of our endowment income primarily supports faculty and research. Our endowment also helps keep our annual tuition and costs about $6,000 below most of our peers.
All of this got chucked out the window in the frantic search for revenue, and by the time the Senate had accommodated the desire to protect Hillsdale, the bill was limited to fewer than 30 colleges. It is doubtful that the bill would raise much more than $180 million per year toward closing the projected $1.5 trillion budget deficit increase. Our Texas legislators should be outraged that three of the 30 or so institutions affected are located here, where they contribute to the best in education and research.
Equally odious is a provision in the House bill, but not the Senate's, that would tax graduate students on tuition waivers, which are essentially scholarships to support their advanced education.
At a private university like Rice, this would mean taxing them on an income of about $70,000 even though their actual income is less than $30,000, multiplying perhaps by five times the taxes they currently pay on their stipend, and requiring them to pay over a quarter of their low income in taxes.
The result will be simply to discourage the very kind of advanced education our country needs to remain competitive and innovative.
Many of the greatest ideas that are now fueling our economy or saving lives through medicine came out of universities. The global competition for discovery and innovation is intense, and, as we know, that it leads to new industries and jobs.
Taxing higher education, and in particular taxing those extraordinary students who are receiving advanced education thanks to tuition waivers, will put our nation at a competitive disadvantage and is surely the opposite of making America great.
The conference on the tax bill occurring this week and next is a last opportunity to remove these two dubious elements from the sausage.
Leebron is president of Rice University.Story highlights Given its limited judicial system, the Vatican may ask Italy to handle the case
Paolo Gabriele, the pope's butler, is suspected of leaking confidential papers to the media
Pope Benedict is "saddened and shocked" at the arrest, the Vatican spokesman says
A book based on the documents charts an internal power struggle within the Vatican
Pope Benedict's butler has been arrested on suspicion of leaking confidential documents to an Italian journalist, the Vatican said Saturday.
Paolo Gabriele, 46, was arrested Wednesday for illegal possession of confidential documents, found in his apartment in Vatican territory, the Vatican said in a statement issued three days later.
Gabriele, who has worked as the papal butler since 2006, is one of only a handful of people with access to the pontiff's private desk.
His job included handing out rosaries to dignitaries and riding in the front seat of the "Popemobile," a vehicle used for public papal appearances, as seen in many photographs showing Gabriele with the pope.
Last month, the Vatican gave Cardinal Julian Herranz a "pontifical mandate" to uncover the source of hundreds of personal letters and confidential documents that have been released to Gianluigi Nuzzi, an Italian journalist and author of "Sua Santita," a book that translates to "His Holiness" and includes the documents.
Nuzzi would not confirm the identity of his sources, but he told CNN that his primary source -- who he referred to as "Maria" in his book -- "risked life and limb" if ever found out.
The source worked inside the Vatican, according to Nuzzi, who refused to give other details such as the source's gender, age and if he or she was clergy or not.
Nuzzi told CNN that he has not been questioned in connection with the arrest. The Vatican called the publication of his book "criminal" when it was released last Saturday in Italian.
Feltrenelli and Mondadori booksellers both rank the book No. 1 in sales within Italy.
Nuzzi's book highlights an internal power struggle within the Vatican through numerous documents including faxes, personal letters and inter-Vatican memos. He told CNN that he received the documents during a year of private meetings in secret locations.
The documents show that the allegations of corruption and money laundering were a concern for a number of high ranking prelates, including Carlo Maria Vigano, who is now the Papal Nuncio in Washington, DC.
Vigano wrote in a series of letters to the pope that he was concerned about the spread of corruption and that his move to Washington would stir speculation.
"Holy Father, my transfer at this time would provoke much disorientation and discouragement in those who have believed it was possible to clean up so many situations of corruption and abuse of power that have been rooted in the management of so many departments," according to his letter which was published in the book.
The Vatican has not denied the authenticity of the documents, but instead says the breach of privacy is a criminal act.
The 108-acre city-state has its own judicial system, distinct from the Italian judicial system. CNN senior Vatican analyst John Allen pointed out that its courts normally prosecute the likes of pickpockets, "not alleged moles."
Thus, the Vatican doesn't have facilities to incarcerate anyone on a long-term basis and the civil and criminal penalties it typically metes out are limited, Allen said Saturday. He speculated that, for these and other reasons, the Vatican may ask -- assuming that it determines there is enough evidence against Gabriele -- that any such trial occur within the Italian judicial system.
"The question then would become: Does the Italian government want to pick that (trial) up?" said Allen, a senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter. "In addition to being an embarrassing scandal for the Vatican on its own terms, this also has the potential to become... a diplomatic contretemps."
For now, Gabriele is being held in a special cell within the Vatican City, a walled enclave within Rome, according to Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi.
Lombardi said the pope was "saddened and shocked" at the arrest.
The Vatican said the first phase of its preliminary investigation, under chief prosecutor Nicola Picardi, had now ended. An investigating judge, Piero Antonio Bonnet, is leading the next stage of the investigation, which could lead to a trial or acquittal.
Gabriele has appointed two lawyers of his choice to act at the Vatican Tribunal, and has had a chance to meet them, the Vatican statement said.
"He enjoys all the legal guarantees provided by the criminal code and criminal procedure in force in the State of Vatican City," it added.Story highlights Jeff Weaver addressed comments DNC chairwoman made to CNN
"Debbie Wasserman Schultz really is the exception," Weaver said
Washington (CNN) Bernie Sanders' campaign manager slammed Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Wednesday after she told CNN the Vermont senator did not do enough to condemn his supporters' behavior at the party's Nevada convention.
"We can have a long conversation about Debbie Wasserman Schultz just about how she's been throwing shade on the Sanders campaign from the very beginning," Jeff Weaver told CNN's Chris Cuomo on "New Day" about the Democratic National Committee chairwoman.
"It's not the DNC. By and large, people in the DNC have been good to us. Debbie Wasserman Schultz really is the exception," Weaver added.
Asked about Weaver's "throwing shade" comment Wednesday afternoon, Wasserman Schultz brushed off the comments.
"My response to that is hashtag SMH (shake my head)," Wasserman Schultz told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "We need to focus on one thing: get through this primary and work to prepare for the general election and make sure that we can continue to draw the contrasts between either one of our really fine candidates who are focused on helping people reach the middle class and make sure that we get equal pay for equal work and create jobs and not let the Republicans take health care away from 20 million Americans."
Read MoreWelcome to the official Forever Darkness WIP thread for the Nexus community! As you all can see, I'm working a rather large project involving two separate mods which are part of a larger series. There will also be a third and final mod if...I ever get through these two. First thing's first, the current project is in two halves. The first half that most people are familiar with is Forever Darkness - Ashes of Eris, which involves the nefarious and evil Eris. The second half - which you just saw above - is Embers of Valkyries, where the companion and race in that mod are good, honorable, and generally tailored to those who make righteous-type characters. Allow me to give you a brief synopsis of the project so far...- Special companion character named Eris Beolfag - the elder sister of the infamous Lamae Beolfag, the first pure-blood vampire in the current TES lore.- Special arch-vampire race included who will be far less weaker then normal vampires- Unique dialogue for a vicious and malevolent Eris played by the talented Marcy Edwards (voice talent for Interesting NPCs - check out her work!)- Full-length short story included showing a new twist on the TES vampire origin story, something that was sorely neglected in Dawnguard- Special companion character named Gavriella Corvain, the heroine and protagonist of the project who becomes the legendary Valkyrie.- New race called the Einherjar, based of the same mythological heroes in Norse myth - except that these are heroes who were turned into vampires against their will!- Unique dialogue and hopefully a talented voice actress to go with it!- Full-length short story showing how Gavriella was cursed by Eris and then found salvation from a source of power thought to be lost - The Aedra!
Forever Darkness: Embers of Valkyries Official Trailer -
__________________________________________________________She took everything from me, my home, my kingdom, and the most precious freedom every living thing owns - life. My people were quiet, honor-bound, and just happy to be alive. We were worshippers of Shor and Kyne, we sought no lands beyond what our gods gave to us, we were not a threat. So why did this newly crowned queen of death seek to destroy such a small land? What threat to her power could we possibly gather? I have asked these questions for centuries. Once you have lived as long as I have, you tend to ask the same questions in different ways, but it never helps you find an answer.The irony is that by destroying my people and my lands, that she ended up creating what she feared the most. Her reason for destruction is simply to stamp out life in any form. It doesn't matter if it's a powerful kingdom or the moss on a tree; it must be destroyed because it lives.But now we find new life flowing in our veins. No longer is it the passive flow of existence, but now it is the righteous wrath of creation itself. Light and life burns inside us, and instead of a simple soul, now a flame of salvation blazes wildly. Once we were meek, now we are strong. Once we were silent, now we roar. Once we sought peace, now we seek war. This isn't a war for honor, for land, or even revenge. We fight because we no longer have a choice but one: life or death?Dragonborn, I write to you because whatever she has promised she will not keep. She takes what she wants, and she destroys what she no longer needs. You can not under estimate her power. Eris is far more then just an ordinary vampire, she has become an aspect of death itself. In time, I will explain to you what she is, but first I wish to show you that there is hope in defeating her. She probably said you had no choice, that your destiny was hers to control. It is this arrogance and pride that proves how wrong she is and how I know that you're nothing like her.Your importance to her is unquestionable. If you do not go to her willingly, she will take you by force. I hope this letter comes to you in time, because my protection is the only sanctuary you have. I have marked a safe location for us to meet, so you have to hurry!Without you, darkness will reign forever. Life will be erased, and death will stand as the only remaining absolute. Allow me to prove to you that from the ashes of death come the embers of life. We do have a chance. We have hope, and we have faith.- Gavriella Corvain__________________________________________________________Music - Globus: PreliatorSoftware Used: Adobe Creative Suite 6.0 - Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects & Premiere Pro
Forever Darkness - Ashes of Eris - Trailer 1
Once I was mortal just like you...once I sought sun light instead of shadow.Allow me to share with you, a history never told. I hear your questions, even though you do not speak them. You wonder who I was, rather then who I am now. Do not fear, these questions do not anger me. Your curiosity may still be innocent, for now.So I'll tell you my story, and only you. Be aware that my past can not be used as a weapon against me. Instead, my past is what fuels the wrath you now share with me. My legacy has now become your destiny.Ages ago, I was a powerful sorceress, and the eldest daughter of a High King of Skyrim. I looked much the same back then, elegant, beautiful, and feared. I was born with amber-colored eyes and hair as black as night. This was strange in a clan filled with blonde hair and blue eyes, so while my parents proclaimed it to be a sign of power, others thought it a curse. Little did they know how right they were...My clan were worshippers of the moon, so from birth I had a affinity with the night. I do remember the warmth of the sun, but the cold light of the moon always brought me the greatest comfort. It was another sixty five full moons until I was given a sister. Her hair was blonde, much to my father's relief, but like me, she had amber eyes as well. The curse of whispered dread began anew, which my parents quickly silenced. I remember one soothsayer that said we were damned and would bring death to Skyrim. My father was quick to remove anything that threatened his power, so the man was gutted in public, and driven onto a pike for everyone to see. His corpse stayed there for over a month, and the whispers went back to the holes they crawled out of.Despite my father's success in keeping his people tamed, I could see that those whispers tainted his heart. Not only was he denied a boy to inherit his thrown, he was given two daughters that destiny sought to marry with death. It was this poison in his soul that began it all. Perhaps if I was shown trust instead of suspicion, and love instead of fear, maybe I would be bones long turned to dust. But when it comes to destiny, as I've come to know it, it's the greatest monster of them all.Music - Two Steps From Hell - Dark Ages__________________________________________________________1) Talented modelers who may want to contribute new armors based on the armor mixes/mashes I'm already working on, or are willing to help repair issues with the current mashes.2) Voice talent, voice talent, voice talent. Right now I mostly need an actress for Gavriella, but there will be other characters for download later on!If you think you can project a voice like Hrist from Valkyrie Profile, then send me some samples of heroic lines!Sample:I need Gavriella to sound like a strong warrior female who leads with honor, tact, and strength. She can't sound meek, cute, etc. Gavriella is compassionate as well, so try not to imitate Hrist's arrogance, but just the tone in her voice.3) Both Eris and Gavriella will need unique bases of operation. Perhaps not upon immediate release, but definitely for future updates. Please contact me if you're interested in making them special player homes.4) Scripting is NOT my strong-suit, so any advice and assistance will be greatly appreciated. I already have a lot of support with this project, and everyone involved will be THROUGHLY thanked and praised.5) Spells, skills, animations - I have ideas for making these characters truly unique with their powers and abilities. If you're talented with making spells, powers, skills, etc. - please contact me!And that's it! Let me know what you think about the project. Endorse the teaser images so the project gets greater exposure before release. Keep an eye on the project and my profile for updates. And last but not least, let me know if you want to join Team Forever Darkness!Links:Note: Armor designs will rely on permissions from original authors and are subject to change depending on concurrency of permissions from the original authors. All armors are mixes done in NifSkope and all texture work is done in Photoshop. Original authors will bethanked in the description page with a lot more emphasis then just a line of text. (Think big, pretty graphics with big letters for the names...which you've already seen on this page - but better!) I'm sharing this mod because I want too, so while honest critiques are welcome, troll garbage will be ignored. Permissions will be explained upon release.“We want to be the people leading this next boom, this next revolution,” says Andrew Rush, the CEO and president of Made In Space Inc. “We don't want other folks to lead it. We want to be out in front. As Americans we have a huge desire to explore and innovate. I don’t think there is any more innovative place with an opportunity to explore than space.”
After President John F. Kennedy announced in May 1961 the national goal of sending a man to the moon before the end of the decade, a large portion of the nation’s scientific and technical community was galvanized by the dream of space flight. Incredibly, what had occurred only in the realm of science fiction became a reality just eight years later when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed their Apollo 11 lunar module on the moon’s surface.
In a few years, the lure of manned space flight dimmed and soon our government’s ambitions were scaled back from the moon to the International Space Station orbiting the earth. In constant 2014 dollars, NASA funding fell from $43.5 billion in 1966 to just $15.3 billion 10 years later. The agency currently has a budget of approximately $18 billion.
But recently, it has been the private sector that has once again energized our ambitions for moving beyond our planet. A new breed of entrepreneurs, backed in many cases by government resources, is making space flight the stuff of which dreams – and a lucrative reality – are made. In the process, they are creating advanced manufacturing jobs as they develop production capabilities and supply chains. A 2014 Bureau of Labor Statistics report found that the U.S. space industrial base employed 2.6 million people and that employment at commercial companies had grown by 10.3% from 2009 to 2012.
No one has played a more significant role in this transformation than Elon Musk, who started the Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or as it is more commonly known, SpaceX, in 2002. The company has more than 5,000 employees and suppliers in all 50 states.
Space X is best known for its innovations in space flights commissioned to deliver satellites into orbit and resupply missions to the International Space Station. In 2010, SpaceX made history as a private company when it returned a Dragon spacecraft from low-earth orbit. In April 2014, the company was able to land the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket in the Atlantic Ocean. Then in December 2015, the company flew a Falcon 9 rocket to earth orbit, where it delivered 11 communications satellites, and then landed the first stage on land.
SpaceX successfully reused a Falcon 9 first stage rocket to send a satellite into space and then landed the booster rocket on a droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
Most recently, SpaceX successfully reused a Falcon 9 first stage rocket to send a satellite into space and then landed the booster rocket on a droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
The March 30 mission was hugely important because the standardization of rocket technology and its reuse of the rocket booster are essential to Musk’s plans to reduce the cost of space travel. SpaceX estimates that by reusing booster rockets it can reduce the cost of a supply voyage to the ISS by 30%, which would take it from $61.2 million to around $40 million.
Musk’s ambitions go far beyond reducing the cost of flights to position satellites in earth’s orbit. In February, SpaceX announced that the company had been contracted by two private individuals to fly them around the moon, a flight scheduled for late 2018. Space X plans to use its new Falcon Heavy rocket.
Last September, Musk announced the Interplanetary Transport System, a reusable rocket and spacecraft combination designed to deliver 100 or more people to Mars.
Musk is far from alone in his space ambitions. We spoke with a number of space entrepreneurs to learn about their innovative firms and views on the space market.
Made In Space
“We don’t want to go on camping trips in space anymore,” says Andrew Rush, the president of Made In Space (MIS). “We want to go on long, sustainable missions that ultimately settle it.” Doing that, he explains, requires the ability to manufacture products in space. And since 2014, when Made In Space’s first 3D printer was installed on the International Space Station, that is just what the company has been doing.
Made In Space’s Zero-Gravity 3D Printer enclosed within a protective glovebox.
MIS had originally hoped to purchase an off-the-shelf 3D printer, make some minor modifications and send it to the ISS to produce parts. That wasn’t to be the case.
“It turns out that if you take a commercial 3D printer and put it into microgravity, it makes a bird’s nest,” Rush said. After much development and testing, the company was able to solve two key technical challenges – control the positioning of all the materials in the 3D process to tight tolerances and control the heat produced by the printing process. MIS also had to make sure that the 3D printer could be safely operated in the ISS, which serves as the astronauts’ home as well as their workplace in space. “That meant we had to develop an environmental control system that could capture and control the volatile and other noxious materials that are produced during the 3D printing process,” Rush says.
In April 2016, MIS sent the first commercial printer to ISS. This second-generation printer has produced 39 prints, ranging from an adaptor for an oxygen generating system used aboard the ISS during monthly oxygen level testing to a finger splint design for a medical researcher.
MIS is also preparing for much larger production in space. The company is testing a system that will produce ZBLAN optical fiber. When manufactured in space, this fiber will provide a faster response time and wider transmission windows for communication lines than a similar product produced on Earth. MIS plans to produce the fiber in space, bring it back to Earth and sell it for applications such as long-haul communication cables.
Axiom Space
The International Space Station plays a critical role in the plans of Made In Space and many other companies. For them, 2024 is a critical date, because ISS is scheduled to be decommissioned that year. Axiom Space intends to fill at least part of that gap.
The Axiom space station
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(+4 weapon slots) which allows you to fully customize your character.
6 body slots (cloth, chainmail, plate, sleeves, gloves, coat/hood)
4 leg slots (trousers, chainmail, armor, boots)
4 head slots (coif, chainmail, helmet, necklace)
2 jewelry slots (ring, spur)
(Weapon slots contain: weapon, shield, bow, arrow)
Layer different types of armor over each other to prepare for the next battle. From a soft linen shirt to massive full plate armor, every material is good against different types of attacks such as slashes, stabs, and blunt hits. Combine different materials to use their benefits and negate their weak spots.
A sophisticated physical collision system calculates the exact position of each strike. Due to the collision system, armor pieces only protect particular spots on your body, but the more hits you get the more your armor is weakened. Keeping armor clean and in good shape is crucial; dirty, bloody or destroyed armor has a direct influence on the effectiveness, your appearance and your reputation. This could result in quests becoming easier or harder, trades cheaper or more expensive, or people might greet you warmly or attack you on sight. A wisely chosen piece of armor might make the difference between survival and death.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance - Broken Helmet
To get even more in-depth look at the technology behind our clothing system, please take a look at Tomas Barak’s speech from last years Game Developers Conference: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1022822/Adaptive-Clothing-System-in-Kingdom
Survival and item quality
Your weapons and armor can be destroyed, which will drastically decrease its quality and effectiveness. Bring your armor to the local smith or use a grind stone to keep your gear in good condition.
Wounds can only be treated with medicine, bandages, food and sleep. But food can spoil so choose wisely what to bring on your next quest. A lack of food or sleep will harm you and affect your overall vitality, combat strength and can eventually lead to death.
Beta Access to Kingdom Come: Deliverance
As you already know, Kingdom Come: Deliverance Beta Access is available for everyone supporting the game through our official website: www.KingdomComeRPG.com
Thank you for your support!
Warhorse StudiosImage copyright JEKESAI NJIKIZANA Image caption Prosecutor Johannes Tomana will now face a High Court trial for criminal abuse of office
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has sacked the country's chief prosecutor, Johannes Tomana, after a tribunal found him guilty of misconduct and incompetence.
Local media say he will now face trial for criminal abuse of office.
Mr Tomana was suspended back in February 2016.
His removal came after he dropped charges against two army officers accused of plotting to blow up a dairy belonging to Mr Mugabe's wife, Grace.
The two men were among four arrested outside the dairy farm, north of the capital, Harare.
They were found carrying ammonia and petrol bombs.
The men were initially charged with possession of weaponry for sabotage, and with money laundering for terrorism purposes. Charges of treason were added later.
The four were accused of hatching a plan to set up a militia base to the west of Harare, with the aim of unseating Mr Mugabe's government.
Mr Tomana was accused of obstructing the course of justice by releasing two of the suspects, which he denied.
In 2015, Mr Tomana was convicted of abuse of power after refusing to prosecute a lawmaker with Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party for raping a child at gunpoint.
He was threatened with 30 days in prison over the matter, but eventually agreed to act.
The legislator, Munyaradzi Kereke, was later convicted of rape and imprisoned.Story highlights Sen. Cornyn denies a political motive in GOP opposition to tougher gun laws
Sen. Reid says the Senate will return to the gun legislation at some point
Now comes the blame game, an analyst says
The Senate defeated key provisions on Wednesday
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid put proposed gun legislation on pause Thursday, setting it aside for now after the defeat a day earlier of major provisions sought by President Barack Obama and Democrats in the aftermath of the Newtown school massacre.
The move emphasized the solid victory for the National Rifle Association and its conservative Republican allies in what Obama called "round one" of the fight for tougher gun laws.
It also shifted the gun debate from details of particular proposals to political sniping by both sides in an attempt to generate public support on the divisive issue.
"The next stage is blame avoidance," noted Darrell West, the vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution. "Each side will seek to blame the other for the failure to address this important problem."
JUST WATCHED Obama angry about gun bill failure Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Obama angry about gun bill failure 01:43
JUST WATCHED Pres. Obama on background check rejection Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Pres. Obama on background check rejection 04:03
In announcing his temporary shelving of the gun legislation, Reid criticized Republicans for orchestrating Wednesday's defeat of expanded background checks on gun buyers, a top priority of Obama and Democrats that national polls show is supported by about 90% of Americans.
He said Obama agreed with him that "the best way to keep working towards passing a background check bill is to hit pause and freeze the background check bill where it is."
"This debate is not over," the Nevada Democrat declared on the Senate floor, adding that the Republican opposition to expanded background checks was "not sustainable" in the face of public support for the measure.
On Wednesday, Obama angrily accused Senate Republicans of doing the NRA's bidding in opposing a bipartisan compromise that would expand background checks for private transactions at gun shows and all Internet sales.
In unusually harsh language, he accused the NRA and its allies of spreading lies about the compromise drafted by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania as part of a campaign to defeat it.
A litany of supporters of tougher gun laws also condemned Republicans on Thursday, including a group of mayors led by New York's Michael Bloomberg and former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was seriously wounded in a 2011 shooting attack.
Conservative GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas responded Thursday by condemning Obama for taking "the low road" in the debate.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Cornyn tried to position Republicans as the ones seeking new gun laws by challenging Reid and Democrats to work with them instead of putting the measure aside.
He also sought to distance himself from the gun lobby, declaring he worked for the citizens of Texas rather than the NRA and insisting that "those of us who did not agree with the president's proposals are not being intimidated."
"It's absolutely false to say it comes down to politics," Cornyn said.
After the Senate voted down a series of amendments Wednesday, including watered-down measures to expand background checks and ban some semi-automatic firearms, it passed two amendments Thursday to the bill Reid later shelved.
One was a GOP plan to protect the privacy of gun owners while the other was a bipartisan proposal to strengthen mental health programs.
The decision by Reid indicated that he wants to see if calls for increased public pressure can influence more Republicans to defy the NRA, which scores legislators on their voting records and seeks to influence election campaigns involving candidates it supports or opposes.
Wednesday's votes showed the challenge Democrats face.
The compromise on expanded background checks forged by Manchin and Toomey, both with A-rated voting records from the NRA, failed on a 54-46 vote. It needed 60 votes to pass under an agreement reached by Senate leaders that applied to all the amendments.
Four Republicans broke from the NRA's position to support the background check plan, while four Democrats from pro-gun states offset them by opposing it. Reid also voted "no" in a procedural move giving him the ability to reintroduce his party's top priority for a gun package at a later date.
In other votes Wednesday, Republican proposals received stronger support. For example, a proposal by Cornyn that would have made state permits to carry concealed weapons acceptable throughout the country failed on a 57-43 vote.
To Erica Lafferty, the daughter of the principal of the Newtown, Connecticut, school who was killed along with 20 first-graders and five other educators in the December attack, the Senate result amounted to inaction in the face of a national tragedy.
"The next time there's a mass shooting and they're asked what they did to prevent it, they're going to have to say nothing," she said.
On the other side, the NRA's Chris Cox called the expanded background check proposal "misguided," saying it would not reduce violent crime "or keep our kids safe in their schools."
In the House, some Democrats and Republicans are proposing a measure similar to the Manchin-Toomey compromise defeated by the Senate.
While its chances appear remote, based on the chamber's GOP majority, Obama and Democrats urged people to insist that their elected leaders pass the background check measure that has strong public support.
"You need to let your representatives in Congress know that you are disappointed, and if they don't act this time, you will remember come election time," Obama said.
Republican opponents of the new gun laws parroted the NRA position that expanding background checks would be a step toward a national gun registry and eventual federal confiscation of firearms, a claim that Obama and sponsors of the compromise called false.
Some opponents argued the language of the compromise would burden law-abiding gun owners seeking to sell their guns privately over the Internet.
Cornyn and others called for a more limited bill that would focus on keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and people adjudicated as mentally ill, rather than seeking to expand background checks beyond current limits.
Democrats responded that such an argument was contradictory, because the expanded background checks would prevent criminals and the mentally ill from obtaining firearms.
"It's inconceivable to me that someone could believe that you can keep guns away from criminals and the dangerously mentally ill without at a minimum having a background check," said Rep. Mike Thompson of California, who was leading the Democratic gun law effort in the House.
The debate over gun laws is not going away, according to West, the Brookings analyst.
"I expect this issue to remain on the public agenda," he said, "because shootings happen all the time and large numbers still favor tougher background checks."Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI), on Capitol Hill for a hearing held by the House Oversight Committee on state budgets, had yet to even speak before Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) ripped into the Republican leader’s anti-union record.
“I strongly oppose efforts to falsely blame middle-class American workers for these current economic problems,” Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said in his opening statement. “This recession was not caused by them. Working America – fire fighters, teachers and nurses – are not responsible for the reckless actions of Wall Street, which led to this crisis in the first place.”
Cummings said he also “strongly object[s] to efforts by politicians who try to use the current economic downturn to strip American workers of their rights – the right to negotiate working conditions that are safe, the right to negotiate due process protections against being fired arbitrarily, and the right to negotiate fair pay for an honest day’s work.”Gov. Pete Shumlin of Vermont, a Democrat, also piled on, using his testimony to contrast his approach to deficits with unnamed other states.
“What is puzzling to me about the current debate about state budgets is that the focus has been not on bringing people together to solve common problems, like we have done in Vermont, but on division and blame,” he said.”I do not believe that those to blame for our current financial troubles are our law enforcement officers, firefighters, and other state employees whose services we take for granted.”
Walker and Shumlin will face questions from lawmakers on his state’s struggles with budget shortfalls.Photo of Secret Service in Trump Tower by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty News
Someone broke into a Secret Service agent's car on Thursday, jacking a laptop computer full of "sensitive information," CBS News reports.
The agent's car was parked outside her house in southwest Brooklyn when, at some point early Thursday morning, a sneaky thief hopped out of a black car, broke into the agent's vehicle, and then took off down the street on foot with her backpack. Along with the computer, the thief is said to have made off with other Secret Service documents and some kind of access card.
The laptop reportedly holds security info about Trump Tower, including floor plans for the president's New York skyscraper, and, more strangely, materials relating to the notorious investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails. A statement from the Secret Service made clear that the computer files were secured with "full disk encryption," though reports differed on whether it could be disabled remotely.
Secret Service recovered the bag itself, along with some coins inside. But the laptop and documents are still missing. A source at the NYPD told New York Daily News that the situation is a "very big deal" and that the Secret Service "is scrambling like mad" to fix things up.
In other Secret Service news, two agents are currently under investigation for allegedly creeping into Barron Trump's room and snapping some selfies with the sleeping boy. Just add these to the long list of bizarre, often sexual or alcohol-infused mishaps that have embarrassed the Secret Service in recent years.The Reason Rally marks a high point in the recent surge of atheism. For anyone who has been around long enough to watch atheism in America go from hated to somewhat tolerated to (almost) mainstream, this is an event we never thought we’d see: Thousands of atheists coming together on the National Mall for a celebration of freethought, with politicians and celebrities willing to speaking to us (at least via video)! It just didn’t seem plausible a decade ago.
For those of us under 30, though, this event doesn’t seem too out of the ordinary. A bunch of atheists getting together? It’s just like those gatherings we have for our college atheist groups. Or our local meetup groups. Or our online communities. Just bigger.
That wasn’t always the case.
Five years ago, the number of active campus atheist groups was just over 50. As I write this, the Secular Student Alliance ha over 350 affiliates across the country. It’s to the point where college students seeking out an atheist group at school are more surprised *not* to find one. Even high school groups have begun popping up. These atheists are not only active in their communities and spearheading conversations about religion on campus, they’re also media savvy, getting featured in their school newspapers, local media, and even major publications time and time again. We’re not anywhere near “Campus Crusade for Christ” levels with regard to money or ubiquity, but we’re not showing any signs of slowing down.
Even people who are not atheists are becoming more accepting of atheism. A recent report from Brookings and the Public Religion Research Institute found that people ages 18-30 were much more accepting of atheists than Americans 65 and older. Fifty-six percent of the younger generation viewed atheists favorably, compared to only 35 percent of the seniors. It’s getting to the point where high school and college-aged students all know someone who doesn’t believe in God. And when you know an atheist, you realize they don’t hate God, they aren’t immoral, and they have solid reasons for why they reject faith. It’s a lot harder to demonize us now.
Young people are also more likely to be atheists than ever before. Researchers Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell point out that “between 25 and 30 percent of twentysomethings today say they have no religious affiliation — roughly four times higher than in any previous generation.” Not all of them are atheists, but I’ll bet a large number of them are.
David Paul Morris
BLOOMBERG
“It it’s not as hard for atheists — certainly not in the age of the Internet — as it was before,” writes Mehta.
How did all this happen? It starts with every pastor’s worst nightmare, the Internet. Their “true stories” are now easily debunked on Snopes, their critiques against gay rights and women’s rights are quickly rebutted across the blogosphere, their arguments for the existence of God are laughable in the face of a well-written Wikipedia article. If you want to find the truth about how the world works, the Church of Google is more reliable than any megachurch pastor in the country.
Even though there may not be a physical building where we can meet, atheists have discovered communities online that weren’t around a decade ago. It’s easy to hear what other atheists have to say about current events on blogs, Tumblr, and Twitter. It’s not unusual to see the word “Pastafarian” show up under “religious views” on your friends’ Facebook pages, a humorous jab at faith. Want to put a face on modern atheism? Watch YouTube videos made by any number of popular heathens. We can talk about rejecting faith and thinking critically with an ease that wasn’t around a few years ago, and that has only amplified our message. The atheism subgroup at Reddit.com has nearly 600,000 (!) members.
OPINION: Why Americans should embrace atheists
View Photo Gallery: Despite their negative reputations among many Americans, atheists tend to be very ethical and high-achieving, argue Gregory Paul and Phil Zuckerman in an opinion piece in The Washington Post.
Perhaps the strongest indication that atheism is hitting a tipping point in our country — especially for young people — is seen in the story of Jessica Ahlquist. When she noticed a banner in her high school’s auditorium promoting a belief in God, she filed a lawsuit to have it taken down. She knew the prayer banner was unconstitutional and she ultimately won the case. As if on cue, many in her community treated her like a monster. One politician in her state even called her an “evil little thing.”
But online, she became a hero. Videos of her media appearances spread quickly. On my website, Friendly Atheist, I asked if people would contribute to a college scholarship fund for her. They came through, raising a grand total of over $60,000.
We still have a long way to go. But it’s not as hard for atheists — certainly not in the age of the Internet — as it was before.
What does all of this have to do with the Reason Rally?
We’ve never had a chance to celebrate en masse what we’ve mostly (up to this point) enjoyed online and in smaller groups: A chance to meet other atheists from around the country, a chance to talk about religion without feeling the need to censor ourselves, a chance to be inspired by the people who helped shape our views.
I expect to see hordes of young atheists make their way to DC for the event. And I hope they leave there eager to be even more active and politically-engaged.
Hemant Mehta blogs at The Friendly Atheist.
More On Faith:
Richard Dawkins: Who would rally against reason?
Fred Edwords: The great atheist ‘coming out’
David Silverman: Why we need a Reason Rally
R. Elisabeth Cornwell: Why women need secularism
Tom Gilson: Atheists don’t own reasonThe notion that President Obama wasn’t “focused” enough on jobs and the economy is an absurdity. Setting aside the dubious criticism that the President was so “distracted” by health reform that he ignored the economy—as if it were impossible for a president to walk and chew gum at the same time—the fact is, Obama did focus on recovery. Constantly. To wit, within four weeks of taking office, Congress passed, and the President signed, a massive $800 billion economic and jobs package—one which, mea
The notion that President Obama wasn’t “focused” enough on jobs and the economy is an absurdity. Setting aside the dubious criticism that the President was so “distracted” by health reform that he ignored the economy—as if it were impossible for a president to walk and chew gum at the same time—the fact is, Obama did focus on recovery. Constantly. To wit, within four weeks of taking office, Congress passed, and the President signed, a massive $800 billion economic and jobs package—one which, measured in real dollars, dwarfed the size and scope of the New Deal. This landmark legislation, the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act (shorthanded to “the stimulus,” ARRA, or Recovery Act), is given a full hearing, passing with (mostly) flying colors, in Michael Grunwald’s detailed examination of what amounts to the second-most crucial piece of legislation during the Obama presidency.
It’s also worth dispelling, up front, the misguided argument that Obama “didn’t focus” on jobs or the economy after the Recovery Act passed. True, the Recovery Act filled part of the economic gap, stopped the hemorrhaging in demand and employment, and allowed us to avoid a second Great Depression, but the Administration and Congress went far beyond that first bill, though frequently that fact is overlooked. Within the space of three years, President Obama and Congress enacted nearly a dozen pieces of legislation that pumped more than $1.5 trillion into a sputtering economy. While not quite enough to close the total economic shortfall (the output gap, or shortfall in demand, totaled about -$4 trillion), these efforts were sufficient to prevent a descent into the abyss, turn the corner, and dig out of the hole.
In the fourth quarter of 2008, one-eleventh of the economy essentially evaporated, GDP shrinking almost by 9%—though even the most pessimistic projects at the time didn’t recognized yet how bad it was. If we hadn’t enacted all the measures that we did, it’s conceivable that unemployment would have reached Depression-era levels.
Fortunately, the Recovery Act stopped a second Great Depression dead in its tracks.
The Recovery Act had two jobs, essentially. The first was to inject enough money into the economy to offset the massive pullback in spending by consumers and businesses (fall in aggregate demand) that was brought on by the 2008 financial crisis, collapse of the housing bubble, and temporary spike in oil and food prices. Simply put, everyone stopped spending. People stopped buying widgets, so stores stopped selling widgets (laying off the widget sales force) and stopped buying widgets from distributors, who stopped distributing widgets (laying off the widget distributors and transporters) and stopped buying widgets from manufacturers, who stopped manufacturing widgets (laying off the factory workers who made widgets) and stopped buying raw materials from resource producers, who—et cetera et cetera. And each new round of layoffs meant that even fewer widgets were bought, making the whole vicious cycle worse. You get the point.
Fortunately, there is one institution capable of stopping this vicious cycle: the federal government. By a combination of increased spending (on widgets, directly or indirectly) and tax cuts (so people can go out and buy widgets), the government can make up all or part of this short fall. And the elegant beauty of the whole system is this: The government pays for all of these spending increases and tax cuts by borrowing at almost ZERO percent interest. Wouldn’t you love a mortgage, car loan, or college loan at zero percent? Well, that’s that the Recovery Act cost. The interest rate on federal debt—in marked contrast to the high interest rates of the Bush deficits—was around one percent, less than inflation. We got the stimulus and ended economic calamity for free.
Economic stimulus, in other words, is a NPV-positive proposition.
Not only that, but it is also the decent thing to do. A lot of the most efficient government stimulus (the widget-buying and so forth) is found in measures that helped people get back on their feet and alleviate the worst suffering faced by families whose breadwinners lost their jobs or their health insurance. The Recovery Act wasn’t enough to fix all of this—depressingly so, for reasons I’ll get to shortly—but it kept us from going off the cliff and helped a lot of people get by in the meantime. Without the Recovery Act and subsequent jobs bills, millions more Americans would be jobless today, millions more would be without health insurance, millions more would have lost their homes.
The problem, of course, is that the Recovery Act—indeed, all successful disaster-avoidance measures, whether the Cuban Missile Crisis or levees that work properly or preventing a terrorist attack or avoiding economic calamity—faces what Grunwald refers to as the “counterfactual problem.” Crisis aversion is right on substance but weak when it comes to marketing, because if the crisis is averted then nobody experiences—truly experiences—just how bad “it could have been.” As a result, nobody internalizes the true value of the crisis avoidance mechanism. Grunwald put it this way:
“Obama is the ultimate counterfactual president. ‘That’s us: avoiding even bigger messes since 2009,’ one aide quips. He helped reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but we’re still dependent. He helped prevent atrocities in Libya, but he didn’t get credit, because the atrocities were prevented. His financial reforms could prevent another disaster, but presidents rarely earn points for averting disaster. One exception was George W. Bush, who got huge mileage out of ‘keeping us safe’ after September 11. Obama has kept us safer, and wiped out most of al Qaeda’s leaders, but apparently there needs to be a spectacular terrorist attack on U.S. soil during your presidency before you can get credit for avoiding another one. The Recovery Act is the ultimate counterfactual policy. It’s impossible to know precisely what the economy would look like without stimulus, because there’s no way to run a double-blind study of an alternative U.S. economy.”
A comparison with President Franklin Roosevelt’s efforts to combat the Great Depression is instructive. The Depression had been raging for nearly four years by the time FDR came in and pushed the New Deal through Congress. People had experienced, truly suffered, the Depression, and so they know what recovery looked like. In a way, Americans of the time knew the counterfactual possibilities.
In contrast, when Obama took office in January 2009, we were still at the beginning of the collapse. The good news: There’s still time to avert complete collapse, to avoid a 1929/30-level disaster. So far, so good. The bad news: You can’t get credit for it, and in fact, because things haven’t been fixed fast enough, the very stimulus policies that averted disaster are going to be blamed for the still-weak economy instead. It’s insane, but that’s exactly what has happened. Listen to any Republican running for Congress. (Or president.)
The stimulus worked, at least as far as it was intended to. Though not large enough, it was enough of a jolt to keep the U.S. (and global) economy from careening off a cliff, and ultimately made sure that unemployment, homelessness, and destitution didn’t rise anywhere near Great Depression levels.
So, that’s the “recovery” part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. But with this legislation, the President and Congress had a second, longer-term objective, denoted by the “reinvestment” in the bill title. The President and many other Democrats believed that the stimulus bill was an opportunity to tackle not just the short-run weak-demand problem, but also, to make headway in fixing what got our country in this mess in the first place—to begin correcting the economic and social imbalances in our energy, education, transportation, and health care policies so that our country is better able to meet similar calamities in the future. The argument, as described by Grunwald in this book, is that “Obama believed that the economy would never produce sustainable long-term growth until its long-term needs were addressed… after campaigning for change [in 2008], he managed to slip a lot of it into the Recovery Act,” often in an under-the-radar way.
I helped work on the stimulus bill, working for a member of the U.S. Senate. It was gratifying to read about some of the headway being made on a whole range of longer-term issues as a result of the some of the more “transformational” efforts in the bill. Michael Grunwald’s chapters that cover the infusion of funds for clean, renewable energy, health information technology, education reform, sustainable transportation, mass transit—a range of public goods that are critical to long run growth and U.S. international economic competitiveness, but which “the market” simply cannot accomplish on its own—was heartening, demonstrating how the advances coming online in the years to come, swaths of which will be attributable to the Recovery Act.
That these efforts—government spending! gasp!—were achieved with literally record-breakingly tiny levels of fraud, and more efficiency than market counterparts (for example, in the private equity business) to boot, is a testament to the seriousness with which this administration ensured accountability. They wanted to prove that government can work, and work efficiently. They did, and it did. This is the untold story of the stimulus: It was accomplished with almost no fraud or waste. And it’s provable, though if you watch Fox News it is unlikely that you will believe it.
Back to the “recovery” part of the Recovery Act. Despite the many merits of the Recovery Act, from the political Left you see repeated criticism that there wasn’t enough stimulus, that the Recovery Act and other stimulus measures weren’t “big enough.” Undoubtedly, this is true.
Two points have been made in defense of this failure. First, many observers point out that policymakers didn’t yet appreciate or understand the magnitude of the problem, how deep the collapse and how tough the recovery would be from a financial crisis. In the book Michael Grunwald cuts the Administration some slack on this score, given that the realtime data didn’t show just how bad the economy had gotten in late 2008 and early 2009. For example, the unemployment rate was already at a higher level (unbeknownst yet to anyone) in February 2009 than the worst-case scenarios were projecting. Some members of the economic team appreciated this likelihood, and proposed a much higher figure—such as Christina Romer—and that debate covered in illuminating detail in Grunwald’s book. However, in the end, this doesn’t fly. There were plenty of economists warning that the recession was going to be much worse than some of the official estimates projected. There a lot of data available that recessions induced by financial crises have always much deeper and longer than other, more “standard” types of recessions and lengthy. Objectively, the amount of stimulus should have been much larger, and last for much longer. In a perfect world, we should have erred on the side of caution and done “too much” stimulus rather than what we thought, based on imperfect data, was “just enough.”
That said, obviously we don’t live in a perfect world. And for that reason, I find the second defense of why the Recovery Act was too small much more (though not completely) compelling—and since I happen to work for a United States Senator, one that I have direct experience with: Republicans planned to do everything in their power to deny the President with a way to boost demand and stimulate the economy. Simply put, there probably was no way for Obama to wring much more stimulus out of Congress than he already did.
During the first two years of the Obama presidency, Republican obstruction manifested itself mostly in the United States Senate. Though the Senate, like the House, was ostensibly controlled by Democrats who were in agreement with the President’s agenda, the sad political reality is that the rules require 60 yes votes—not a mere 51-vote majority—for almost anything to pass through the U.S. Senate.
No matter where you are on the political spectrum, no matter how knowledgeable you think you are about politics or policy, you will not truly understand anything about the modern political process if you don’t grasp the need for sixty votes to accomplish anything in the United States Senate.
Because Democrats didn’t achieve a “filibuster-proof,” 60-vote majority until the spring of 2009—the recount fight in Minnesota limited Democrats to 59 seats until Al Franken finally was certified as the winner— in order to achieve approval by at least 60 senators, the pieces of the Recovery Act had to make at least one Republican happy. That constraint made the Recovery Act smaller than it should have been based even on the economic data we had at the time. And then, even after Democrats reached a 60-seat majority, more than handful of those Dems were “red state Democrats,” who were limited by the ideological disposition of the mostly Republican constituents who sent them to Washington. It’s a testament to the President and to the dedication of the Democratic leadership that, despite these obstacles, as I noted above, a number of additional economic recovery and jobs bills were enacted in 2009 and 2010.
At that point, the 2010 midterm election calamity hit, the Tea Party ran rampant, and the President faced a crowd even more determined to prevent him from fixing the economy: Republicans took over the House, while the Democrats Senate majority was trimmed to the low 50s.
True, Republicans have an ideological objection to Keynesian stimulus—well, right now, anyway, despite their advocacy of “stimulus” measures in past decades, but that’s really a case of motivated reasoning: conservatives have advocated for “stimulus” measures (spending too, not just tax cuts) in previous decades, even as late at 2008. The real cause of their obstructionism was a commitment to, in Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s words, “make Obama a one-term president.”
The idea is this: Make the economy bad enough, voters might just reward the obstructionists who are blocking the President’s efforts to improve the economy by electing even more of the them—including to the White House. Since I write this nine days from the 2012 Presidential election, we have yet to see whether this atrocious, cynical experiment work. I pray it doesn’t.
All this is to say, there is little more that Obama could do to make the Recovery Act much bigger. Much more stimulus simply wasn’t achievable in Congress, whether or not Obama did health care, banking reform, and the rest. What was economically necessary simply wasn’t politically possible.
(That is not to say, however, that there wasn’t a bit more that could have been done. Earlier I wrote there was no way for Obama to wring “much” more stimulus out of Congress than he did. It’s a caveat worth examining. In late 2008, shortly before taking office, President-Elect Obama recommended that the amount of stimulus should be $800. This figure was based on various political, practical, tactical reasons, many of them valid. Whether that specific amount was the right call—whether some slightly higher figure was doable—will be debated for decades to come. But one key takeaway is, initial markers matter: Obama suggested $800 billion… and Congress went ahead and enacted roughly $800 billion. Obviously the amount that was needed—in the trillions of dollars—would never have passed Congress. But what if the President suggested a package worth, say, $950 billion? It’s possible that that additional stimulus, or something close to it—directed to housing, tax cuts, infrastructure, or whatever—would have been passed by Congress, perhaps shaving some X percent more off the unemployment rate and boosting economic growth just a bit more. Maybe. Maybe not. All this is speculation. But in any case, even if you buy this argument, making the Recovery Act $150 billion or more larger, it wouldn’t have been a full solution to the scale of the $4 trillion problem.)
In any case, the fact remain that, had Congress had done nothing—or done less—chances were strong that we would have suffered a repeat of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Since that Depression not only caused massive devastation and joblessness—at one point, the unemployment rate reached 25%—but also produced Hitler and World War II, it’s sobering to consider the alternatives we might have faced in the years to come. Thank god for the stimulus.
The New New Deal an engaging—nay, enthralling—read, delving into everything from the unfairness of the legislative process, the vacuousness and vapidity of much of the media coverage, the irrational propensity to let ideology trump evidence, and the failure to grasp the real, profound change given birth by this one piece of legislation. I didn’t agree with everything in it, but Grunwald’s work here is, I believe, the first step in the economic and history-writing process that ultimately will vindicate the Obama Administration, Keynesian economics, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Please, do yourself a favor and read this book.
Finally, let me say this—particularly if you don’t plan to read this book or don’t wish to buy it—here’s a suggestion: Go the bookstore and read pages 426 through 448—that, more than anything else, summarizes the argument of this book. And, since Grunwald is a better writer than me, no doubt those pages will do so better than any scribblings of mine above.This week the first batch of 'Made in Canada' parasitic wasps will emerge in the fight against the emerald ash borer.
Researchers at the Great Lakes Forestry Centre in Sault Ste. Marie hope to rear between 10-12,000 of the tiny wasps, which go by the name Tetrastichus.
These wasps will join other parasitic wasps — both American and Chinese — released in 2016 to combat the borer.
Tiny, parasitic, all-Canadian wasps being reared to combat invasive emerald ash borer 0:59
Wasps target borer grubs hiding under bark
The Tetrastichus inserts its eggs through the bark and onto the ash borer grub feeding underneath.
Dr. Krista Ryall of Natural Resources Canada hopes the presence of these new wasps can help stem the spread of the borer, which so far has killed millions of ash trees in Canada and the United States.
"What we're hoping is that, over the long term... it could be decades... that as you have new ash regenerating, hopefully you'll have these wasps present and keep the emerald ash borer at a lower level," Ryall said. The emerald ash borer's larvae will be hosts to a'made in Canada' parasitic wasp, reared to combat the invasive borer. (Ed Czerwinski, MNRF)
The wasps will be spread across six new release sites in Ontario and Quebec, she said.
But the presence of this parasitic army shouldn't alarm anyone.
"They don't attack humans," Ryall said. "They don't bite or sting or anything like that. They're not like wasps that most people would think of."
"And this one in particular is very specific. It only likes to eat emerald ash borer. So really, that's its only host that it's out there looking for."
Hear more about Tetrastichus on CBC's Up NorthLynis is an auditing tool for unix/linux like systems which is used to scan the entire unix/linux systems for security
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anonymous Internet users such as dissidents, terrorists, and other targets
November [ edit ]
The New York Times reported that the NSA carries out an eavesdropping effort, dubbed Operation Dreadnought, against the Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. During his 2009 visit to Iranian Kurdistan, the agency collaborated with GCHQ and the U.S.'s National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, collecting radio transmissions between aircraft and airports, examining Khamenei's convoy with satellite imagery, and enumerating military radar stations. According to the story, an objective of the operation is "communications fingerprinting": the ability to distinguish Khamenei's communications from those of other people in Iran.[261]
The same story revealed an operation code-named Ironavenger, in which the NSA intercepted e-mails sent between a country allied with the United States and the government of "an adversary". The ally was conducting a spear-phishing attack: its e-mails contained malware. The NSA gathered documents and login credentials belonging to the enemy country, along with knowledge of the ally's capabilities for attacking computers.[261]
According to the British newspaper The Independent, the British intelligence agency GCHQ maintains a listening post on the roof of the British Embassy in Berlin that is capable of intercepting mobile phone calls, wi-fi data and long-distance communications all over the German capital, including adjacent government buildings such as the Reichstag (seat of the German parliament) and the Chancellery (seat of Germany's head of government) clustered around the Brandenburg Gate.[262]
Operating under the code-name "Quantum Insert", GCHQ set up a fake website masquerading as LinkedIn, a social website used for professional networking, as part of its efforts to install surveillance software on the computers of the telecommunications operator Belgacom.[263][264][265] In addition, the headquarters of the oil cartel OPEC were infiltrated by GCHQ as well as the NSA, which bugged the computers of nine OPEC employees and monitored the General Secretary of OPEC.[263]
For more than three years GCHQ has been using an automated monitoring system code-named "Royal Concierge" to infiltrate the reservation systems of at least 350 prestigious hotels in many different parts of the world in order to target, search and analyze reservations to detect diplomats and government officials.[266] First tested in 2010, the aim of the "Royal Concierge" is to track down the travel plans of diplomats, and it is often supplemented with surveillance methods related to human intelligence (HUMINT). Other covert operations include the wiretapping of room telephones and fax machines used in targeted hotels as well as the monitoring of computers hooked up to the hotel network.[266]
In November 2013, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and The Guardian revealed that the Australian Signals Directorate (DSD) had attempted to listen to the private phone calls of the president of Indonesia and his wife. The Indonesian foreign minister, Marty Natalegawa, confirmed that he and the president had contacted the ambassador in Canberra. Natalegawa said any tapping of Indonesian politicians' personal phones "violates every single decent and legal instrument I can think of—national in Indonesia, national in Australia, international as well".[267]
Other high-ranking Indonesian politicians targeted by the DSD include:
Carrying the title "3G impact and update", a classified presentation leaked by Snowden revealed the attempts of the ASD/DSD to keep up to pace with the rollout of 3G technology in Indonesia and across Southeast Asia. The ASD/DSD motto placed at the bottom of each page reads: "Reveal their secrets—protect our own."[268]
Under a secret deal approved by British intelligence officials, the NSA has been storing and analyzing the internet and email records of UK citizens since 2007. The NSA also proposed in 2005 a procedure for spying on the citizens of the UK and other Five-Eyes nations alliance, even where the partner government has explicitly denied the U.S. permission to do so. Under the proposal, partner countries must neither be informed about this particular type of surveillance, nor the procedure of doing so.[39]
Towards the end of November, The New York Times released an internal NSA report outlining the agency's efforts to expand its surveillance abilities.[269] The five-page document asserts that the law of the United States has not kept up with the needs of the NSA to conduct mass surveillance in the "golden age" of signals intelligence, but there are grounds for optimism because, in the NSA's own words:
The culture of compliance, which has allowed the American people to entrust NSA with extraordinary authorities, will not be compromised in the face of so many demands, even as we aggressively pursue legal authorities...[270]
The report, titled "SIGINT Strategy 2012–2016", also said that the U.S. will try to influence the "global commercial encryption market" through "commercial relationships", and emphasized the need to "revolutionize" the analysis of its vast data collection to "radically increase operational impact".[269]
On November 23, 2013, the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad reported that the Netherlands was targeted by U.S. intelligence agencies in the immediate aftermath of World War II. This period of surveillance lasted from 1946 to 1968, and also included the interception of the communications of other European countries including Belgium, France, West Germany and Norway.[271] The Dutch Newspaper also reported that NSA infected more than 50,000 computer networks worldwide, often covertly, with malicious spy software, sometimes in cooperation with local authorities, designed to steal sensitive information.[42][272]
December [ edit ]
According to the classified documents leaked by Snowden, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), formerly known as the Defence Signals Directorate, had offered to share intelligence information it had collected with the other intelligence agencies of the UKUSA Agreement. Data shared with foreign countries include "bulk, unselected, unminimised metadata" it had collected. The ASD provided such information on the condition that no Australian citizens were targeted. At the time the ASD assessed that "unintentional collection [of metadata of Australian nationals] is not viewed as a significant issue". If a target was later identified as being an Australian national, the ASD was required to be contacted to ensure that a warrant could be sought. Consideration was given as to whether "medical, legal or religious information" would be automatically treated differently to other types of data, however a decision was made that each agency would make such determinations on a case-by-case basis.[273] Leaked material does not specify where the ASD had collected the intelligence information from, however Section 7(a) of the Intelligence Services Act 2001 (Commonwealth) states that the ASD's role is "...to obtain intelligence about the capabilities, intentions or activities of people or organisations outside Australia...".[274] As such, it is possible ASD's metadata intelligence holdings was focused on foreign intelligence collection and was within the bounds of Australian law.
The Washington Post revealed that the NSA has been tracking the locations of mobile phones from all over the world by tapping into the cables that connect mobile networks globally and that serve U.S. cellphones as well as foreign ones. In the process of doing so, the NSA collects more than five billion records of phone locations on a daily basis. This enables NSA analysts to map cellphone owners' relationships by correlating their patterns of movement over time with thousands or millions of other phone users who cross their paths.[275][276][277][278][279][280][281][282]
The Washington Post also reported that both GCHQ and the NSA make use of location data and advertising tracking files generated through normal internet browsing (with cookies operated by Google, known as "Pref") to pinpoint targets for government hacking and to bolster surveillance.[283][284][285]
The Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS), which cooperates with the NSA, has gained access to Russian targets in the Kola Peninsula and other civilian targets. In general, the NIS provides information to the NSA about "Politicians", "Energy" and "Armament".[286] A top secret memo of the NSA lists the following years as milestones of the Norway–United States of America SIGINT agreement, or NORUS Agreement:
1952 – Informal starting year of cooperation between the NIS and the NSA [287]
1954 – Formalization of the agreement [287]
1963 – Extension of the agreement for coverage of foreign instrumentation signals intelligence (FISINT) [287]
1970 – Extension of the agreement for coverage of electronic intelligence (ELINT) [287]
1994 – Extension of the agreement for coverage of communications intelligence (COMINT)[287]
The NSA considers the NIS to be one of its most reliable partners. Both agencies also cooperate to crack the encryption systems of mutual targets. According to the NSA, Norway has made no objections to its requests from the NIS.[287]
On December 5, Sveriges Television reported the National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA) has been conducting a clandestine surveillance operation in Sweden, targeting the internal politics of Russia. The operation was conducted on behalf of the NSA, receiving data handed over to it by the FRA.[288][289] The Swedish-American surveillance operation also targeted Russian energy interests as well as the Baltic states.[290] As part of the UKUSA Agreement, a secret treaty was signed in 1954 by Sweden with the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, regarding collaboration and intelligence sharing.[291]
As a result of Snowden's disclosures, the notion of Swedish neutrality in international politics was called into question.[citation needed] In an internal document dating from the year 2006, the NSA acknowledged that its "relationship" with Sweden is "protected at the TOP SECRET level because of that nation's political neutrality."[292] Specific details of Sweden's cooperation with members of the UKUSA Agreement include:
The FRA has been granted access to XKeyscore, an analytical database of the NSA. [293]
Sweden updated the NSA on changes in Swedish legislation that provided the legal framework for information sharing between the FRA and the Swedish Security Service. [52]
Since January 2013, a counterterrorism analyst of the NSA has been stationed in the Swedish capital of Stockholm [52]
The NSA, GCHQ and the FRA signed an agreement in 2004 that allows the FRA to directly collaborate with the NSA without having to consult GCHQ.[52] About five years later, the Riksdag passed a controversial legislative change, briefly allowing the FRA to monitor both wireless and cable bound signals passing the Swedish border without a court order,[294] while also introducing several provisions designed to protect the privacy of individuals, according to the original proposal.[295] This legislation was amended 11 months later,[296] in an effort to strengthen protection of privacy by making court orders a requirement, and by imposing several limits on the intelligence-gathering.[297][298][299]
According to documents leaked by Snowden, the Special Source Operations of the NSA has been sharing information containing "logins, cookies, and GooglePREFID" with the Tailored Access Operations division of the NSA, as well as Britain's GCHQ agency.[300]
During the 2010 G-20 Toronto summit, the U.S. embassy in Ottawa was transformed into a security command post during a six-day spying operation that was conducted by the NSA and closely coordinated with the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC). The goal of the spying operation was, among others, to obtain information on international development, banking reform, and to counter trade protectionism to support "U.S. policy goals."[301] On behalf of the NSA, the CSEC has set up covert spying posts in 20 countries around the world.[10]
In Italy the Special Collection Service of the NSA maintains two separate surveillance posts in Rome and Milan.[302] According to a secret NSA memo dated September 2010, the Italian embassy in Washington, D.C. has been targeted by two spy operations of the NSA:
Under the codename "Bruneau", which refers to mission "Lifesaver", the NSA sucks out all the information stored in the embassy's computers and creates electronic images of hard disk drives. [302]
Under the codename "Hemlock", which refers to mission "Highlands", the NSA gains access to the embassy's communications through physical "implants".[302]
Due to concerns that terrorist or criminal networks may be secretly communicating via computer games, the NSA, GCHQ, CIA, and FBI have been conducting surveillance and scooping up data from the networks of many online games, including massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) such as World of Warcraft, as well as virtual worlds such as Second Life, and the Xbox gaming console.[303][304][305][306]
The NSA has cracked the most commonly used cellphone encryption technology, A5/1. According to a classified document leaked by Snowden, the agency can "process encrypted A5/1" even when it has not acquired an encryption key.[307] In addition, the NSA uses various types of cellphone infrastructure, such as the links between carrier networks, to determine the location of a cellphone user tracked by Visitor Location Registers.[308]
US district court judge for the District of Columbia, Richard Leon, declared[309][310][311][312][313][314] on December 16, 2013, that the mass collection of metadata of Americans' telephone records by the National Security Agency probably violates the fourth amendment prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures.[315] Leon granted the request for a preliminary injunction that blocks the collection of phone data for two private plaintiffs (Larry Klayman, a conservative lawyer, and Charles Strange, father of a cryptologist killed in Afghanistan when his helicopter was shot down in 2011)[316] and ordered the government to destroy any of their records that have been gathered. But the judge stayed action on his ruling pending a government appeal, recognizing in his 68-page opinion the "significant national security interests at stake in this case and the novelty of the constitutional issues."[315]
However federal judge William H. Pauley III in New York City ruled[317] the U.S. government's global telephone data-gathering system is needed to thwart potential terrorist attacks, and that it can only work if everyone's calls are swept in. U.S. District Judge Pauley also ruled that Congress legally set up the program and that it does not violate anyone's constitutional rights. The judge also concluded that the telephone data being swept up by NSA did not belong to telephone users, but to the telephone companies. He further ruled that when NSA obtains such data from the telephone companies, and then probes into it to find links between callers and potential terrorists, this further use of the data was not even a search under the Fourth Amendment. He also concluded that the controlling precedent is Smith v. Maryland: "Smith's bedrock holding is that an individual has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information provided to third parties," Judge Pauley wrote.[318][319][320][321] The American Civil Liberties Union declared on January 2, 2012 that it will appeal Judge Pauley's ruling that NSA bulk the phone record collection is legal. "The government has a legitimate interest in tracking the associations of suspected terrorists, but tracking those associations does not require the government to subject every citizen to permanent surveillance," deputy ACLU legal director Jameel Jaffer said in a statement.[322]
In recent years, American and British intelligence agencies conducted surveillance on more than 1,100 targets, including the office of an Israeli prime minister, heads of international aid organizations, foreign energy companies and a European Union official involved in antitrust battles with American technology businesses.[323]
A catalog of high-tech gadgets and software developed by the NSA's Tailored Access Operations (TAO) was leaked by the German news magazine Der Spiegel.[324] Dating from 2008, the catalog revealed the existence of special gadgets modified to capture computer screenshots and USB flash drives secretly fitted with radio transmitters to broadcast stolen data over the airwaves, and fake base stations intended to intercept mobile phone signals, as well as many other secret devices and software implants listed here:
The Tailored Access Operations (TAO) division of the NSA intercepted the shipping deliveries of computers and laptops in order to install spyware and physical implants on electronic gadgets. This was done in close cooperation with the FBI and the CIA.[324][325][326][327][328][329][330] NSA officials responded to the Spiegel reports with a statement, which said: "Tailored Access Operations is a unique national asset that is on the front lines of enabling NSA to defend the nation and its allies. [TAO's] work is centred on computer network exploitation in support of foreign intelligence collection."[331]
In a separate disclosure unrelated to Snowden, the French Trésor public, which runs a certificate authority, was found to have issued fake certificates impersonating Google in order to facilitate spying on French government employees via man-in-the-middle attacks.[332]
The Washington Post released an internal NSA chart illustrating the extent of the agency's mass collection of mobile phone location records, which amounts to about five billion on a daily basis.[275] The records are stored in a huge database known as [333] On December 4, 2013,released an internal NSA chart illustrating the extent of the agency's mass collection of mobile phone location records, which amounts to about five billion on a daily basis.The records are stored in a huge database known as FASCIA, which received over 27 terabytes of location data within seven months.
2014 [ edit ]
January [ edit ]
The NSA is working to build a powerful quantum computer capable of breaking all types of encryption.[334][335][336][337][338] The effort is part of a US$79.7 million research program known as "Penetrating Hard Targets". It involves extensive research carried out in large, shielded rooms known as Faraday cages, which are designed to prevent electromagnetic radiation from entering or leaving.[335] Currently, the NSA is close to producing basic building blocks that will allow the agency to gain "complete quantum control on two semiconductor qubits".[335] Once a quantum computer is successfully built, it would enable the NSA to unlock the encryption that protects data held by banks, credit card companies, retailers, brokerages, governments and health care providers.[334]
According to The New York Times, the NSA is monitoring approximately 100,000 computers worldwide with spy software named Quantum. Quantum enables the NSA to conduct surveillance on those computers on the one hand, and can also create a digital highway for launching cyberattacks on the other hand. Among the targets are the Chinese and Russian military, but also trade institutions within the European Union. The NYT also reported that the NSA can access and alter computers which are not connected with the internet by a secret technology in use by the NSA since 2008. The prerequisite is the physical insertion of the radio frequency hardware by a spy, a manufacturer or an unwitting user. The technology relies on a covert channel of radio waves that can be transmitted from tiny circuit boards and USB cards inserted surreptitiously into the computers. In some cases, they are sent to a briefcase-size relay station that intelligence agencies can set up miles away from the target. The technology can also transmit malware back to the infected computer.[42]
Channel 4 and The Guardian revealed the existence of Dishfire, a massive database of the NSA that collects hundreds of millions of text messages on a daily basis.[339] GCHQ has been given full access to the database, which it uses to obtain personal information of Britons by exploiting a legal loophole.[340]
Each day, the database receives and stores the following amounts of data:
Geolocation data of more than 76,000 text messages and other travel information [341]
Over 110,000 names, gathered from electronic business cards [341]
Over 800,000 financial transactions that are either gathered from text-to-text payments or by linking credit cards to phone users [341]
Details of 1.6 million border crossings based on the interception of network roaming alerts [341]
Over 5 million missed call alerts [341]
About 200 million text messages from around the world[339]
The database is supplemented with an analytical tool known as the Prefer program, which processes SMS messages to extract other types of information including contacts from missed call alerts.[341]
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board report on mass surveillance was released on January 23, 2014. It recommends to end the bulk telephone metadata, i.e., bulk phone records – phone numbers dialed, call times and durations, but not call content collection – collection program, to create a "Special Advocate" to be involved in some cases before the FISA court judge and to release future and past FISC decisions "that involve novel interpretations of FISA or other significant questions of law, technology or compliance."[342][343][344]
According to a joint disclosure by The New York Times, The Guardian, and ProPublica,[345][346][347][348][349] the NSA and GCHQ have begun working together to collect and store data from dozens of smartphone application software by 2007 at the latest. A 2008 GCHQ report, leaked by Snowden asserts that "anyone using Google Maps on a smartphone is working in support of a GCHQ system". The NSA and GCHQ have traded recipes for various purposes such as grabbing location data and journey plans that are made when a target uses Google Maps, and vacuuming up address books, buddy lists, phone logs and geographic data embedded in photos posted on the mobile versions of numerous social networks such as Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Twitter and other services. In a separate 20-page report dated 2012, GCHQ cited the popular smartphone game "Angry Birds" as an example of how an application could be used to extract user data. Taken together, such forms of data collection would allow the agencies to collect vital information about a user's life, including his or her home country, current location (through geolocation), age, gender, ZIP code, marital status, income, ethnicity, sexual orientation, education level, number of children, etc.[350][351]
A GCHQ document dated August 2012 provided details of the Squeaky Dolphin surveillance program, which enables GCHQ to conduct broad, real-time monitoring of various social media features and social media traffic such as YouTube video views, the Like button on Facebook, and Blogspot/Blogger visits without the knowledge or consent of the companies providing those social media features. The agency's "Squeaky Dolphin" program can collect, analyze and utilize YouTube, Facebook and Blogger data in specific situations in real time for analysis purposes. The program also collects the addresses from the billions of videos watched daily as well as some user information for analysis purposes.[352][353][354]
During the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, the NSA and its Five Eyes partners monitored the communications of delegates of numerous countries. This was done to give their own policymakers a negotiating advantage.[355][356]
The Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) has been tracking Canadian air passengers via free Wi-Fi services at a major Canadian airport. Passengers who exited the airport terminal continued to be tracked as they showed up at other Wi-Fi locations across Canada. In a CSEC document dated May 2012, the agency described how it had gained access to two communications systems with over 300,000 users in order to pinpoint a specific imaginary target. The operation was executed on behalf of the NSA as a trial run to test a new technology capable of tracking down "any target that makes occasional forays into other cities/regions." This technology was subsequently shared with Canada's Five Eyes partners – Australia, New Zealand, Britain, and the United States.[357][358][359][360]
February [ edit ]
According to research by Süddeutsche Zeitung and TV network NDR the mobile phone of former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder was monitored from 2002 onwards, reportedly because of his government's opposition to military intervention in Iraq. The source of the latest information is a document leaked by Edward Snowden. The document, containing information about the National Sigint Requirement List (NSRL), had previously been interpreted as referring only to Angela Merkel's mobile. However Süddeutsche Zeitung and NDR claim to have confirmation from NSA insiders that the surveillance authorisation pertains not to the individual, but the political post – which in 2002 was still held by Schröder. According to research by the two media outlets, Schröder was placed as number 388 on the list, which contains the names of persons and institutions to be put under surveillance by the NSA.[361][362][363][364]
GCHQ launched a cyber-attack on the activist network "Anonymous", using denial-of-service attack (DoS) to shut down a chatroom frequented by the network's members and to spy on them. The attack, dubbed Rolling Thunder, was conducted by a GCHQ unit known as the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG). The unit successfully uncovered the true identities of several Anonymous members.[365][366][367][368]
The NSA Section 215 bulk telephony metadata program which seeks to stockpile records on all calls made in the U.S. is collecting less than 30 percent of all Americans' call records because of an inability to keep pace with the explosion in cellphone use according to the Washington Post. The controversial program permits the NSA after a warrant granted by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to record numbers, length and location of every call from the participating carriers.[369][370]
The Intercept reported that the U.S. government is using primarily NSA surveillance to target people for drone strikes overseas. In its report The Intercept author detail the flawed methods which are used to locate targets for lethal drone strikes, resulting in the deaths of innocent people.[371] According to the Washington Post NSA analysts and collectors i.e. NSA personnel which controls electronic surveillance equipment use the NSA's sophisticated surveillance capabilities to track individual targets geographically and in real time, while drones and tactical units aimed their weaponry against those targets to take them out.[372]
An unnamed US law firm, reported to be Mayer Brown, was targeted by Australia's ASD. According to Snowden's documents, the ASD had offered to hand over these intercepted communications to the NSA. This allowed government authorities to be "able to continue to cover the talks, providing highly useful intelligence for interested US customers".[373][374]
NSA and GCHQ documents revealed that the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks and other activist groups were targeted for government surveillance and criminal prosecution. In particular, the IP addresses of visitors to WikiLeaks were collected in real time, and the US government urged its allies to file criminal charges against the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, due to his organization's publication of the Afghanistan war logs. The WikiLeaks organization was designated as a "malicious foreign actor".[375]
Quoting an unnamed NSA official in Germany, Bild am Sonntag reported that whilst President Obama's order to stop spying on Merkel was being obeyed, the focus had shifted to bugging other leading government and business figures including Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, a close confidant of Merkel. Caitlin Hayden, a security adviser to President Obama, was quoted in the newspaper report as saying, "The US has made clear it gathers intelligence in exactly the same way as any other states."[376][377]
The Intercept reveals that government agencies are infiltrating online communities and engaging in "false flag operations" to discredit targets among them people who have nothing to do with terrorism or national security threats. The two main tactics that are currently used are the injection of all sorts of false material onto the internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets; and the use of social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable.[378][379][380][381]
The Guardian reported that Britain's surveillance agency GCHQ, with aid from the National Security Agency, intercepted and stored the webcam images of millions of internet users not suspected of wrongdoing. The surveillance program codenamed Optic Nerve collected still images of Yahoo webcam chats (one image every five minutes) in bulk and saved them to agency databases. The agency discovered "that a surprising number of people use webcam conversations to show intimate parts of their body to the other person", estimating that between 3% and 11% of the Yahoo webcam imagery harvested by GCHQ contains "undesirable nudity".[382]
March [ edit ]
The NSA has built an infrastructure which enables it to covertly hack into computers on a mass scale by using automated systems that reduce the level of human oversight in the process. The NSA relies on an automated system codenamed TURBINE which in essence enables the automated management and control of a large network of implants (a form of remotely transmitted malware on selected individual computer devices or in bulk on tens of thousands of devices). As quoted by The Intercept, TURBINE is designed to "allow the current implant network to scale to large size (millions of implants) by creating a system that does automated control implants by groups instead of individually."[383] The NSA has shared many of its files on the use of implants with its counterparts in the so-called Five Eyes surveillance alliance – the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.
Among other things due to TURBINE and its control over the implants the NSA is capable of:
breaking into targeted computers and to siphoning out data from foreign Internet and phone networks
infecting a target's computer and exfiltrating files from a hard drive
covertly recording audio from a computer's microphone and taking snapshots with its webcam
launching cyberattacks by corrupting and disrupting file downloads or denying access to websites
exfiltrating data from removable flash drives that connect to an infected computer
The TURBINE implants are linked to, and relies upon, a large network of clandestine surveillance "sensors" that the NSA has installed at locations across the world, including the agency's headquarters in Maryland and eavesdropping bases used by the agency in Misawa, Japan and Menwith Hill, England. Codenamed as TURMOIL, the sensors operate as a sort of high-tech surveillance dragnet, monitoring packets of data as they are sent across the Internet. When TURBINE implants exfiltrate data from infected computer systems, the TURMOIL sensors automatically identify the data and return it to the NSA for analysis. And when targets are communicating, the TURMOIL system can be used to send alerts or "tips" to TURBINE, enabling the initiation of a malware attack. To identify surveillance targets, the NSA uses a series of data "selectors" as they flow across Internet cables. These selectors can include email addresses, IP addresses, or the unique "cookies" containing a username or other identifying information that are sent to a user's computer by websites such as Google, Facebook, Hotmail, Yahoo, and Twitter, unique Google advertising cookies that track browsing habits, unique encryption key fingerprints that can be traced to a specific user, and computer IDs that are sent across the Internet when a Windows computer crashes or updates.[383][384][385][386][387][388][389][390][391][392][393][394][395][396][397][398]
The CIA was accused by U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein of spying on a stand-alone computer network established for the committee in its investigation of allegations of CIA abuse in a George W. Bush-era detention and interrogation program.[399]
A voice interception program codenamed MYSTIC began in 2009. Along with RETRO, short for "retrospective retrieval" (RETRO is voice audio recording buffer that allows retrieval of captured content up to 30 days into the past), the MYSTIC program is capable of recording "100 percent" of a foreign country's telephone calls, enabling the NSA to rewind and review conversations up to 30 days and the relating metadata. With the capability to store up to 30 days of recorded conversations MYSTIC enables the NSA to pull an instant history of the person's movements, associates and plans.[400][401][402][403][404][405]
On March 21, Le Monde published slides from an internal presentation of the Communications Security Establishment Canada, which attributed a piece of malicious software to French intelligence. The CSEC presentation concluded that the list of malware victims matched French intelligence priorities and found French cultural reference in the malware's code, including the name Babar, a popular French children's character, and the developer name "Titi".[406]
The French telecommunications corporation Orange S.A. shares its call data with the French intelligence agency DGSE, which hands over the intercepted data to GCHQ.[407]
The NSA has spied on the Chinese technology company Huawei.[408][409][410] Huawei is a leading manufacturer of smartphones, tablets, mobile phone infrastructure, and WLAN routers and installs fiber optic cable. According to Der Spiegel this "kind of technology […] is decisive in the NSA's battle for data supremacy."[411] The NSA, in an operation named "Shotgiant", was able to access Huawei's email archive and the source code for Huawei's communications products.[411] The US government has had longstanding concerns that Huawei may not be independent of the People's Liberation Army and that the Chinese government might use equipment manufactured by Huawei to conduct cyberespionage or cyberwarfare. The goals of the NSA operation were to assess the relationship between Huawei and the PLA, to learn more the Chinese government's plans and to use information from Huawei to spy on Huawei's customers, including Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kenya, and Cuba. Former Chinese President Hu Jintao, the Chinese Trade Ministry, banks, as well as telecommunications companies were also targeted by the NSA.[408][411]
The Intercept published a document of an NSA employee discussing how to build a database of IP addresses, webmail, and Facebook accounts associated with system administrators so that the NSA can gain access to the networks and systems they administer.[412][413]
At the end of March 2014, Der Spiegel and The Intercept published, based on a series of classified files from the archive provided to reporters by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, articles related to espionage efforts by GCHQ and NSA in Germany.[414][415] The British GCHQ targeted three German internet firms for information about Internet traffic passing through internet exchange points, important customers of the German internet providers, their technology suppliers as well as future technical trends in their business sector and company employees.[414][415] The NSA was granted by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court the authority for blanket surveillance of Germany, its people and institutions, regardless whether those affected are suspected of having committed an offense or not, without an individualized court order specifying on March 7, 2013.[415] In addition Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel was listed in a surveillance search machine and database named Nymrod along with 121 others foreign leaders.[414][415] As The Intercept wrote: "The NSA uses the Nymrod system to 'find information relating to targets that would otherwise be tough to track down,' according to internal NSA documents. Nymrod sifts through secret reports based on intercepted communications as well as full transcripts of faxes, phone calls, and communications collected from computer systems. More than 300 'cites' for Merkel are listed as available in intelligence reports and transcripts for NSA operatives to read."[414]
April [ edit ]
Towards the end of April, Edward Snowden said that the United States surveillance agencies spy on Americans more than anyone else in the world, contrary to anything that has been said by the government up until this point.[416]
May [ edit ]
An article published by Ars Technica shows NSA's Tailored Access Operations (TAO) employees intercepting a Cisco router.[417]
The Intercept and WikiLeaks revealed information about which countries were having their communications collected as part of the MYSTIC surveillance program. On May 19, The Intercept reported that the NSA is recording and archiving nearly every cell phone conversation in the Bahamas with a system called SOMALGET, a subprogram of MYSTIC. The mass surveillance has been occurring without the Bahamian government's permission.[418] Aside from the Bahamas, The Intercept reported NSA interception of cell phone metadata in Kenya, the Philippines, Mexico and a fifth country it did not name due to "credible concerns that doing so could lead to increased violence." WikiLeaks released a statement on May 23 claiming that Afghanistan was the unnamed nation.[419]
In a statement responding to the revelations, the NSA said "the implication that NSA's foreign intelligence collection is arbitrary and unconstrained is false."[418]
Through its global surveillance operations the NSA exploits the flood of images included in emails, text messages, social media, videoconferences and other communications to harvest millions of images. These images are then used by the NSA in sophisticated facial recognition programs to track suspected terrorists and other intelligence targets.[420]
June [ edit ]
Vodafone revealed that there were secret wires that allowed government agencies direct access to their networks.[421] This access does not require warrants and the direct access wire is often equipment in a locked room.[421] In six countries where Vodafone operates, the law requires telecommunication companies to install such access or allows governments to do so.[421] Vodafone did not name these countries in case some governments retaliated by imprisoning their staff.[421] Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty said "For governments to access phone calls at the flick of a switch is unprecedented and terrifying. Snowden revealed the internet was already treated as fair game. Bluster that all is well is wearing pretty thin – our analogue laws need a digital overhaul."[421] Vodafone published its first Law Enforcement Disclosure Report on June 6, 2014.[421] Vodafone group privacy officer Stephen Deadman said "These pipes exist, the direct access model exists. We are making a call to end direct access as a means of government agencies obtaining people's communication data. Without an official warrant, there is no external visibility. If we receive a demand we can push back against the agency. The fact that a government has to issue a piece of paper is an important constraint on how powers are used."[421] Gus Hosein, director of Privacy International said "I never thought the telcos would be so complicit. It's a brave step by Vodafone and hopefully the other telcos will become more brave with disclosure, but what we need is for them to be braver about fighting back against the illegal requests and the laws themselves."[421]
Above-top-secret documentation of a covert surveillance program named Overseas Processing Centre 1 (OPC-1) (codenamed "CIRCUIT") by GCHQ was published by The Register. Based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden, GCHQ taps into undersea fiber optic cables via secret spy bases near the Strait of Hormuz and Yemen. BT and Vodafone are implicated.[422]
The Danish newspaper Dagbladet Information and The Intercept revealed on June 19, 2014, the NSA mass surveillance program codenamed RAMPART-A. Under RAMPART-A, 'third party' countries tap into fiber optic cables carrying the majority of the world's electronic communications and are secretly allowing the NSA to install surveillance equipment on these fiber-optic cables. The foreign partners of the NSA turn massive amounts of data like the content of phone calls, faxes, e-mails, internet chats, data from virtual private networks, and calls made using Voice over IP software like Skype over to the NSA. In return these partners receive access to the NSA's sophisticated surveillance equipment so that they too can spy on the mass of data that flows in and out of their territory. Among the
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, but added that she also has her claws set on a different DC heroine. “I want to be Catwoman someday. Don’t laugh at me—I can do it. I want to remake Halle Berry’s Catwoman and star in it. Please let me. That movie is amazing.”
In the video below she asks Marvel to give her the once-over. Nevermind that she should be meowing up the DC Comics tree for those roles (we won’t tell!).
Plaza’s bucket list also includes co-starring with Nicolas Cage… and Ryan Gosling. “Ryan Gosling! I’m waiting for you and I know you’re waiting for me,” she declares in the video above. Plaza also told us about her dream of working with Cage. “I definitely want to do a movie with Nicolas Cage. I want Nicolas Cage and me on a f–king poster. I don’t care what the movie is. I want to be in a movie with him. It doesn’t matter. Any movie he’s in, I see in the movie theaters, usually opening night. I think he’s amazing. I don’t think he can do anything wrong.”
Put these dreams plus her goal of starring on Broadway together and what do you get from the ambitious young actress? ” I want to do a play. I don’t care about awards, but I do want to do a play. A well-respected play. I want to do a staged Broadway version of Catwoman that’s directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman where Nicolas Cage plays Batman. Please let’s do it now.” Call the producers!
Additional reporting by Josh Rottenberg
NBCUniversal
For more about Plaza and the rest of the New Hollywood class—pick up the New Hollywood Issue, on stands FridayGallo Images/Getty Images
Glenn Jacobs, better known as WWE's Kane, has reportedly filed paperwork that indicates he plans to run for mayor of Knox County, Tennessee.
According to WCYB, Jacobs submitted formal campaign documents March 1 that disclosed he had hired a treasurer to assist with his pursuit of the mayoral post.
In May 2016, Jacobs said he was mulling a bid for mayor because incumbent Tim Burchett's term limit was set to expire in 2018 and he wanted to find ways to positively impact Knox County.
"I think the most important thing is I care very deeply about this community, like a lot of people do," he said, per WBIR.com's Mike Donila. "And that's the only reason I would consider getting into any sort of government because I do care very deeply."
Jacobs, who reportedly identifies as a Republican, is expected to have stiff competition in the Knox County mayoral race.
WCYB noted Knox County Commissioner Bob Thomas and Democrat Tracy Clough both took the same procedural steps as Jacobs and filed paperwork confirming they had also hired campaign treasurers.This talented, and highly rated, winger has the potential to be a key player for Arsenal, but how can Serge Gnabry break into the first team for next season after recovering from injury?
The 19-year-old German has been on Wenger’s development programme for a while now, but Arsenal fans haven’t seen as much as they would have hoped from him yet.
Having signed his professional contract in the summer of 2012, Gnabry made his Arsenal debut in the thrilling 7-5 League Cup victory away to Reading. The pacey winger scored his first, and only, Arsenal goal during their Premier League match away at The Liberty Stadium, where Arsenal recorded a 2-1 win in September 2013. Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger claims he is able to play anywhere amongst the attacking positions, but so far he has only been used as a winger.
How is this bright prospect going to thrive at Arsenal? Firstly, he must stay injury free. His career has been put on standby for the past season as a result of suffering a severe knee injury. Gnabry hasn’t featured all season long for the first team; his last appearance came in a Champions League Round of 16 tie versus Bayern Munich in March 2014. Injuries always seem to be a major problem at Arsenal, and Gnabry hasn’t been able to avoid the issue. His return for next season seems likely as he has featured several times for the U21 side in recent weeks.
However, the biggest problem for Gnabry is competition for places; Arsenal have a plethora of attacking midfielders and are spoilt for choice in this department. His main rivals are the wingers in the team, as that’s where he is most likely to play for Arsenal.
Since signing last summer for £32 million, Alexis Sánchez has been a crucial member of the team. 25 goals and nine assists from the Chilean this season has taken Arsenal to another level, and has helped them retain the FA Cup. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has also had a good season when he’s been injury-free; he’d certainly be above Gnabry in the pecking order. Danny Welbeck has been used many times by Wenger this year on the wing and has played well and made an impact when given the opportunity.
Those three will certainly be there next season, but there are others who might not. If one of Arsenal’s wingers were to leave then Gnabry will have a good chance of being a first team regular on the bench, and may start cup games.
The most high profile player to potentially leave is of course Theo Walcott. His hat-trick on the last day of the Premier League season, and his opening goal in the FA Cup Final may have just clinched him a new contract (especially having played through the middle as a striker), but there is still a chance of him leaving.
Lukas Podolski is likely to leave. Having been sent out on loan to Inter Milan in January, there is a very strong chance he will be playing his football elsewhere next season. Galatasaray are also rumoured to be in talks with him, and he is apparently set to undergo a medical.
Costa Rican star of the World Cup last summer, Joel Campbell, may also leave the Gunners in this transfer window. Campbell was loaned out in January to Villarreal to gain, as Wenger put it, some “much needed experience at this level”. Whether or not there is a spot in next year’s squad for him is unclear still.
Gnabry is certainly one to look out for, and he’s likely to play for the first team, but competition for places is likely to hamper his chances next season. If a couple of the players ahead of him leave, then he will definitely be part of Arsenal’s title challenge. However, he won’t be a regular starting player. It’s best for him to go out on loan next season to a good top flight club. He would then gain some experience and hone his skills whilst still developing and maturing. If Arsenal decide to keep hold of him, expect him to play a major role in the club’s success in years to come.
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Earlier this offseason, the Pac-12 announced that Levi’s Stadium, the new home of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, would host its conference championship game for the next three years.
Depending how things shake out in the coming months, the NFL stadium could be seeing some regular season college football action as well.
San Jose State head coach Ron Caragher confirmed to the San Jose Mercury News Wednesday that talks have been initiated between his school and Stanford about renewing their series. If that series returns, the coach also confirmed, it would likely take place at a neutral site, Levi’s Stadium.
“There’s some fringe talk about it,” Caragher said about playing a neutral site game/games with the Cardinal. “Has anything been finalized? Not necessarily. But I think it’d be great.”
SJSU and Stanford have met on a football field 67 times since the first game was played in 1900. However, last year’s game — a 34-13 Cardinal win in Stanford Stadium in the season opener — was the final game between the two programs until a new contract is signed.
Stanford comfortably leads the in-state series 52-14-1, with San Jose State’s last win coming in 2006.In August, researchers provided definitive evidence that Yersinia pestis, which is still causing infections in humans, was the bacteria behind the Black Death, perhaps the most deadly disease outbreak in human history. They managed this by unearthing skeletons from a mass burial site in London and obtaining DNA sequences from the bacteria that killed those interred over 500 years ago. Now, some of the same people are back with a new publication in which they report a draft of the entire genome sequence of the bacteria behind the Black Death.
The new genome is not complete, but it clearly shows that the bacteria found in England are nearly identical to an ancestral species that did not infect humans, and shares common features with all modern strains. The authors conclude that the medieval plague almost certainly introduced Y. pestis to the world, and that some factor other than the bacteria themselves may have been the key to making the plague so deadly.
Their earlier work on samples from the grave site had allowed the authors to identify samples that had preserved relatively high amounts of DNA. To separate out the Y. pestis DNA, they constructed a DNA chip that contains sequences from the modern bacteria; the DNA from the plague bacteria base-paired with the DNA on the chip, allowing it to be separated out from all the other bacterial and human DNA present in the samples. This technique would miss any large insertions or deletions of DNA, but is enough to provide a good draft of the genome (which can allow follow up work to fill in any gaps).
With the DNA they isolated, the authors were able to put over 4.3 million bases (Megabases) into continuous stretches of DNA; only 10 areas showed signs of major rearrangements. Overall, the authors obtained sequence for 93 percent of the genome areas they targeted with their DNA chip. In all those millions of bases, there were only 97 differences between the plague bacteria and a modern strain. Each one of these differences was present in an ancestor, Y. pseudotuberculosis, that does not infect humans. Thus, the plague bacteria is at or very close to the root of the Y. pestis phylogenetic tree.
How close? Given they had a precise date on the use of their burial site (East Smithfield was put into use during the winter of 1348-49), the authors were able to calibrate the phylogenetic tree of the plague bacteria and provide it with a pretty exact timing. The East Smithfield samples were nearly at the root of all Y. pestis strains currently infecting humans. That root was dated as likely to be between 1282 and 1343, with the later date being just a few years before the first appearance of the Black Death in Asia. Thus, the authors conclude that, almost as soon as Y. pestis started to infect humans, it went global, causing a massive pandemic in Europe and the Near East.
This rules out this pathogen when it comes to explaining the cause of the Justinian Plague, which hit Europe about 800 years earlier. If that was Y. pestis as well, then it left no descendants. Alternately, it was a completely different bacteria, and we'll have to wait for someone to find some well-preserved victims.
The other thing that their analysis makes clear is that, in its 600-year history, the species has undergone very little change on the genetic level—most proteins, including ones involved in virulence, are very similar in the East Smithfield strain and modern equivalents. Thus, it's not obvious that anything about the pathogen itself is responsible for the change from a deadly pandemic to a localized hazard that doesn't tend to kill many people.
The authors aren't short of alternative possibilities, though, writing, "we posit that molecular changes in pathogens are but one component of a constellation of factors contributing to changing infectious disease prevalence and severity," with that constellation including, "genetics of the host population, climate, vector dynamics, social conditions, and synergistic interactions with concurrent diseases." Some combination of these, it seems helped turn Y. pestis into a killer.
Nature, 2011. DOI: 10.1038/nature10549 (About DOIs).BBshakenbake Profile Joined January 2012 Sweden 13 Posts #1
Greetings fellow members of the Starcraft community!
I am writing this post as a spokesperson for a group of people who’s truly fascinated about Starcraft and the community (r)evolving around the game. We spend countless hours every day playing, watching, reading and experiencing Starcraft. And yes, WE ARE ENTERTAINED. We do appreciate the scene to it’s fullest extent, yet we are still professional lurkers and we are not contributing to the community’s growth in any way except by being another tick on the streams viewer counters. But we would like to change that and be more involved in the community.
So we started asking ourselves; how can we contribute to this magnificent source of entertainment? Well, the answer was kind of simple as we all work with them internetz for a living. We should develop something useful for the community in form of a website. So we started to put a lot of thought towards what kind of website could be useful for the community, which really isn’t an easy task. We like the fact that the community is somewhat centered around TL.net and /r/starcraft and we would not like to change that. So we started thinking about how we could enhance these sites and the community as a whole, what do we really need?
The answer was the following:
An utility support site for all the contributors of the community. Sounds weird? It is, but we do think it is something that would take the community as a whole to the next level.
Why?
+ Show Spoiler + We love all the different content getting published every day within the community. Wheter it is a live stream, a VOD, a strategy guide, a wallpaper, a song, a blog post, anything, it doesn’t matter - we love it. We love the dedication, the time and the effort that you guys put down on these things. The only “problem” we see with these things is that they disappear way so fast. If you have made something really appreciated you get your 24 hours of fame before your post vanishes into the massive wave of new things getting posted. And the only credit you got from it was some positive comments and a healthy batch of Reddit karma, which definitely is enough for most people. But what if we had some other incentive besides comments and upvotes? What kind of content would get published then? Our guess is way more content and content with way more depth.
We’re talking about monetization, people! But not in that scary corporate fashion. There is a lot of money in the Starcraft scene but it is divided kind of unproportionally since it is only the top tier of the community that gets a share. What we want to achieve is to make it possible for the general bulk of contributors to get some more credit for their hard work.
How?
+ Show Spoiler +
Basically the site will consist of profiles, and you can add all of your Starcraft related information and contributions to your profile for people to find. But how do you support the contributor by just finding all of his/hers creations? Answer: you can connect your profile to Kickstarter, PayPal and Flattr. The latter will be the one we will intergrate the most with the site as Flattr is very suitable for this kind of platform. The thing with Flattr is that it’s not just focused on money, it’s more focused on flattering the contributor, a small gesture of your appreciation. It’s like an upvote/Facebook like with a micro donation attached to it. You add a specific amount of money every month to your account, let’s say $4, and then that amount gets divided over all of your Flattrings that month. So if you Flattr two items, they both receive $2, if you Flattr ten items, they receive 20c and so on. Read more about the concept of Flattr
You will be able Flattr anything put up on the site as well as anything on a external site with a Flattr button on it. With this we will be able to keep track of anything Flattred and make lists of what’s hot right now overall and based on categories like Streams or Players. We want to build an utility site where you as a consumer easily can find your favorite contributor and show your support to him/her. Or from a contributors point of view, a site where you can compile and organize all of your work in one place instead of it being spread out on all of the different sites like TL, Twitch, Youtube etc. Note that we do not in any way want to draw traffic away from these sites, the content will still be hosted there and we will only build a library consisting of links to the original source.Basically the site will consist of profiles, and you can add all of your Starcraft related information and contributions to your profile for people to find. But how do you support the contributor by just finding all of his/hers creations? Answer: you can connect your profile to Kickstarter, PayPal and Flattr. The latter will be the one we will intergrate the most with the site as Flattr is very suitable for this kind of platform. The thing with Flattr is that it’s not just focused on money, it’s more focused on flattering the contributor, a small gesture of your appreciation. It’s like an upvote/Facebook like with a micro donation attached to it. You add a specific amount of money every month to your account, let’s say $4, and then that amount gets divided over all of your Flattrings that month. So if you Flattr two items, they both receive $2, if you Flattr ten items, they receive 20c and so on. Read more about the concept of Flattr here. You will be able Flattr anything put up on the site as well as anything on a external site with a Flattr button on it. With this we will be able to keep track of anything Flattred and make lists of what’s hot right now overall and based on categories like Streams or Players.
User case, contributor:
+ Show Spoiler + loC.Fate is a Starcraft player on the rise. He’s got a stream and is starting to get a lot of viewers, but the ad revenue from his stream and Youtube is not high enough for him to be able to make a living out of it which means he can not get enough time to practice due to his day time job. loC.Fate creates an account on our site and starts to add all of his content to his profile. He begins to add himself as a player, then continues to add the following:
- Twitch channel
- Youtube channel
- Personal homepage
- Facebook page
- Guides, strategies and blog posts he’s been posting on TL.net
- Fan art he’s been posting on deviantART
He then continues to add every Youtube clip he is proud of separately to his profile. As Fate is a member of the team loC, and the team has made Flattr buttons possible to integrate on their site, Fate can connect his profile on our site to the Flattr button attached to his profile on the loC site.
User case, consumer:
+ Show Spoiler + Bonell Stevenson works as a web developer and loves to watch competitive Starcraft on his spare time. He’s been watching a new streamer a lot lately, loC.Fate, and have really been enjoying it. He feels like he wants to show his appreciation to Fate so he goes to our site and finds Fates profile. He Flattres the profile itself and Fate’s channel on Twitch.tv. He then browses through the profile and finds the links to Fate’s guides on TL and continues to press them as he hasn’t seen them before. Bonell find the guides really informational and decides to give them a Flattr aswell and continues to browse Fate’s profile to see if there is something else of interest.
The project
As this is something we do for fun and something we do as a contribution to the Starcraft community, we would love to hear your thoughts on the project. We want to develop this platform with you, not for you. This is our vision of how it could work and not the final one. If the community comes up with a better way to do this, then we would gladly modify the concept until everyone is satisfied. If it turns out everyone thinks this is an horrible idea, we will simply kill the project. But then we at least tried to make our contribution as a way of repaying the community for all the entertainment it has given us the past two years.
If we continue with this project we would love to involve you in as many ways as possible, like naming the site, designing a logo, coming up with functions and features etc. If you are really good at developing web platforms or is a graphic designer with knowledge of how to design for the web, please do contact us if you want to contribute. Especially the latter one since none of us are expert designers.
We have started a basic Wordpress blog for the project where you can follow our progress. Use the comment system to ask us questions as this post disappears to the depths of the internet. You can also follow the project on GitHub if you know your code.
projecthive.wordpress.com
github.com/simme/projecthive
GL HF,
The Hive Project Greetings fellow members of the Starcraft community!I am writing this post as a spokesperson for a group of people who’s truly fascinated about Starcraft and the community (r)evolving around the game. We spend countless hours every day playing, watching, reading and experiencing Starcraft. And yes, WE ARE ENTERTAINED. We do appreciate the scene to it’s fullest extent, yet we are still professional lurkers and we are not contributing to the community’s growth in any way except by being another tick on the streams viewer counters. But we would like to change that and be more involved in the community.So we started asking ourselves; how can we contribute to this magnificent source of entertainment? Well, the answer was kind of simple as we all work with them internetz for a living. We should develop something useful for the community in form of a website. So we started to put a lot of thought towards what kind of website could be useful for the community, which really isn’t an easy task. We like the fact that the community is somewhat centered around TL.net and /r/starcraft and we would not like to change that. So we started thinking about how we could enhance these sites and the community as a whole, what do we really need?The answer was the following:An utility support site for all the contributors of the community. Sounds weird? It is, but we do think it is something that would take the community as a whole to the next level.As this is something we do for fun and something we do as a contribution to the Starcraft community, we would love to hear your thoughts on the project. We want to develop this platform with you, not for you. This is our vision of how it could work and not the final one. If the community comes up with a better way to do this, then we would gladly modify the concept until everyone is satisfied. If it turns out everyone thinks this is an horrible idea, we will simply kill the project. But then we at least tried to make our contribution as a way of repaying the community for all the entertainment it has given us the past two years.If we continue with this project we would love to involve you in as many ways as possible, like naming the site, designing a logo, coming up with functions and features etc. If you are really good at developing web platforms or is a graphic designer with knowledge of how to design for the web, please do contact us if you want to contribute. Especially the latter one since none of us are expert designers.We have started a basic Wordpress blog for the project where you can follow our progress. Use the comment system to ask us questions as this post disappears to the depths of the internet. You can also follow the project on GitHub if you know your code.GL HF,The Hive Project CHILL GET OUTWe made it past the 400k mark and are on our way to the 500k goal! Great job everyone!
REMINDER:
This is living concept art, not our real planned SpaceVenture game. The real game will not require a web browser. You will also be able to install it directly on your platform.
Living Concept Art Web Browser Support:
Safari
Plays great in Safari, but at this time, does not have sound.
Firefox
Plays in Firefox, but at this time, does not have sound.
Chrome Chrome Web Store
We also have a  hosted server without the web store if you’d prefer iPad Visit the website address in Safari and follow instructions
No sound or particle effects at this time
To use actions, hold finger until icons appear, then tap to activate action
Here is some things to note about this new playable sketch:
New death sequence, can ya find it? Fun new mechanic involving Cluck has been added New sound effects and music added involving the new mechanic New particle effects added by the waterfall (streaming water + steam)
To play the game in the Chrome Web Store, click here (Be sure to log into the store first)
All other browsers (including iPad), go here.Thoughts and Observations from the Redskins vs Cardinals
1. The Redskins are a bad football team:
-If the 1-5 record with the only win against a hapless Jaguars team wasn’t proof enough. Watching the Redskins week-in-week-out it is very clear that this team just lacks talent and their coaching staff isn’t getting the most out of the talent that they do have. The Redskins on offense have serious questions at QB (and that does include RGIII), 4 positions along the OL, RB (see below), and TE (can Reed stay healthy). On defense there are question marks surrounding just about every player with the possible exceptions of Ryan Kerrigan and Keenan Robinson. Now that is not to say that there isn’t talent at some of these positions. Guys like Alfred Morris, Brian Orakpo and Jason Hatcher have talent, they just aren’t producing like they should. Other positions have been weakened by injuries, but even then some of those positions still weren’t going to be that strong. The Redskins once again were beaten in every phase of the game versus the Cardinals and nothing looks like it is going to improve anytime soon. The scary thought is things could get worse before they get better. The Redskins are naturally talent deficient, have numerous players underperforming, appear to be getting out-coached/schemed, and are dealing with a number of injuries. This is a recipe for a disaster and if they don’t turn it around in the next three weeks it could get really ugly.
2. Kirk Cousins struggles when the pressure is on:
-For three quarters Kirk Cousins did a nice job taking what the Cardinals gave him and making some really good throws. He was off target on some throws and maybe missed a couple open receivers, but typically those were on plays where the defense got some pressure and they were more excusable. You wouldn’t have said it was a great day for Cousins, but he was doing his job and making good throws. Unfortunately there is a 4th quarter for football and that is where the wheels came off the wagon. Cousins just started making really questionable decisions in the 4th quarter and was forcing throws at a time when he really didn’t have to. The Cardinals were up 10 points, before Cousins first INT, but the Redskins still had 10 minutes left to overcome that deficit or at least play for overtime. In the end it might not have mattered as the Cardinals may have still won the game, but the first two Cousins interceptions were just back breakers (the 3rd was from a fantasy football perspective), for a team trying to stay competitive in a game and find positive things to build upon for the future.
3. Where has Alfred Morris gone:
–Alfred Morris was a stud for the Redskins his first two years, and looked to be a top 5 pure rusher in the league (his lack of skills in the passing game have held him back), but this season he has all but disappeared. Morris has yet to break 100 yards this year (though it wasn’t his fault versus the Texans), and has rushed for an average of less than 4.0 yards per carry in 4 of the 6 games this season. Now part of his issue can be attributed to a lack of carries, particularly the past three weeks where he’s seen just a total of 38 carries, but that isn’t the only reason for his running woes. Morris just hasn’t been as productive when running the football as he was the past two years. While Jay Gruden needs to find ways of using Morris more often (and effectively), some of it is on Morris as well. If Morris is only getting 1-3 yards on a first down carry, it’s tough to go back to the run on 2nd down. Now it isn’t all on Morris as of course the run blocking has been somewhat ineffective this year, and in this game in particularly not having Darrel Young fully healthy was going to limit his rushing ability. Morris these past two years did a better job of breaking tackles and making yards after initial contact. That isn’t happening as much this year and it’s been a noticeable difference.
4. Lack of a pass rush is extremely troubling:
-The Redskins were facing off versus a weaker offensive line yesterday and a quarterback who isn’t exactly known for his mobility. The end result was the Redskins got one sack on a play where there was a bad snap that Carson Palmer tried to pick-up and didn’t immediately throw it away. The Redskins were able to manage some decent pressure and generated a few holding calls, but it wasn’t good enough in a pretty favorable match-up. They have to find a way to get sacks and even more pressure on the QB in general and that has to happen given how bad/injured this secondary is. Schematically the Redskins need to do more as a defense to get their guys home, but the individual effort needs to be more as well. The Redskins have a number of picks and contracts invested in these guys, and they need to expect more out of them.
5. Where do the Redskins go from here?
-It’s sad to say but in the 2nd week of October the Redskins season is all but over right now. We are 6 games into the season (10 teams have only played 5 games), after tonight’s MNF game and the Redskins sit tied with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with the worst record in the NFC at 1-5 (even if the Rams lose tonight they will be only 1-4). The Buccaneers haven’t looked great overall, but they’ve arguably played better than the Redskins. Both teams are pretty bad, but the Buccaneers did get their win on the road against a Steelers team that is definitely better than the Jaguars. So through nearly 40% of our season the Redskins are possibly the worst team in our conference. The chances of the Redskins righting this ship are slim-to-none at this point as, there isn’t much the Redskins can look at as a success this season.
With the Eagles and Cowboys both sitting at 5-1 it would be nearly impossible to beat out both of them for the division at this point and the wild card race isn’t any more promising. With their playoff window basically closed, the Redskins need to start figuring out who can play for next year, and try to build something to prevent this losing from continuing.The song came gushing out like an open hydrant on a hot summer day, but for Natalie Cole, it was a complicated kind of high. Minutes before she heard her breakthrough hit, “This Will Be,” on the radio for the first time in 1975, she had scored a heroin fix and was tripping down 113th Street in Harlem. Drugs were a recent mainstay; she started using heavily in college, during the substance-fueled psychedelic era (she still managed to get her degree, in psychology). Music, meanwhile, was her birthright — after all, she was the daughter of Nat King Cole, one of the most beloved singers of the 20th century. Growing up in the exclusive Hancock Park section of Los Angeles, she could wander into the living room and find the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Sinatra gathered round the family piano. Now that she had a big hit of her own, fame was proving to be a stronger stimulant. She kicked heroin, married one of her producers, had a son, had more hits, appeared on “The Tonight Show.”Every year, studios and networks flood industry magazines like Variety with “For Your Consideration” ads designed to remind awards voters about shows or movies that might have slipped their minds. Often, these ads are pretty simple—a still of one of the film’s prominent stars, looking either inspirational or angsty, and surrounded by glowing reviews.
Leave it to Mad Men, then, to take the art of the For Your Consideration ad seriously, with this series of gorgeous, vintage-styled portraits showing the show’s cast modeling fake products with tongue-in-cheek names like “Emmy”-brand shoes or “Statuette’s.”
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The ads are full of coy little jokes, like finishing Elisabeth Moss’ make-up ad with the lines, “It always performs perfectly. And so do you.” Or referencing the way Kiernan Shipka has come into her own as an actress over the show’s five seasons. Hilariously, the ads seem to praise Vincent Kartheiser for his “invisible consistency,” because it is against the laws of the universe for Pete Campbell to get respect.
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[Images via The Hollywood Reporter]BERLIN (Reuters) - German economic growth slowed more than expected in the third quarter of 2016 as exports fell after Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, but Europe’s largest economy looked set for a fourth-quarter rebound.
Containers and cars are loaded on freight trains at the railroad shunting yard in Maschen near Hamburg, Germany, September 23, 2012. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File Photo
The economy grew by 0.2 percent in the July-September period after expanding by 0.4 percent in the three months to June, the Federal Statistics Office said. That was weaker than the consensus forecast for 0.3 percent growth.
Analysts expect the economy to end the year on a stronger note, though some are worried about the longer-term outlook for German exports in the light of protectionist campaign promises by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
“In our view, the latest less dynamic growth figure is not a reason to be concerned,” UniCredit economist Andreas Rees said, adding that most forward-looking data suggested the Q3 slowdown was a bump in the road, not a signal of longer-lasting weakness.
DekaBank analyst Andreas Scheuerle agreed, saying the signs for the final quarter were looking good as global demand for German goods was picking up again.
Supporting this view, a survey by the Mannheim-based ZEW institute showed on Tuesday that the mood among German investors improved more than expected in November.
ZEW President Achim Wambach attributed the fourth consecutive monthly rise in the economic sentiment indicator to positive data in the United States and China.
“The election of Donald Trump as U.S. President and the resulting political and economic uncertainties have, however, had an impact,” Wambach said, adding that sentiment had deteriorated since last week’s election.
Chancellor Angela Merkel told a business conference in Berlin that the German economy was doing fine and had shown it could adapt to a changing global environment. In a thinly veiled reference to Trump, she warned against protectionism.
“Growth is declining, uncertainties are rising,” Anton Boerner, head of the BGA trade association, said, adding that a trend toward isolation and protectionism would pose a threat for German exporters.
CONSUMER BOOM
Third quarter growth was hit by a slowdown in foreign trade as exports fell slightly and imports rose marginally, the Statistics Office said.
“Positive impulses on the quarter came mainly from domestic demand. Both household and state spending managed to increase further,” it said. Higher investment in construction also contributed to overall growth.
Domestic demand has overtaken trade as the most important growth driver in Germany, with falling unemployment, rising real wages and low interest rates pushing households to spend more.
The government is raising public investment in infrastructure and is spending more than 20 billion euros ($22 billion) on housing and helping more than a million migrants who arrived in Germany over the past 18 months.
The government forecasts growth of 1.8 percent, the highest in five years, in 2016 and a slowdown to 1.4 percent in 2017.
ING Bank economist Carsten Brzeski said the domestic economy should be strong enough to ensure solid, though perhaps waning, support for overall growth in the coming quarters.
“However, if Germany’s single most important trading partner, the U.S., really moves towards more protectionism, this would definitely leave its mark on German growth,” he said.
German exporters are struggling amid an uncertain global economic environment after Britain’s vote to leave the EU and Trump’s election victory, the Economy Ministry said last week.
The United States accounts for roughly 10 percent of Germany’s sales abroad. In 2015, German companies sold goods there worth 114 billion euros ($123 billion), mainly vehicles, machines and chemical products.
The Munich-based Ifo institute estimates that more than 1 million jobs in Germany are linked to those exports, which could shrink if Trump acts on his protectionist campaign pledges.CSU running back Donnell Alexander (7) has announced where he’ll be transferring to. (Photo: Troy Babbitt/USA TODAY Sports )
Donnell Alexander has found a new home.
The former CSU running back who averaged 5.5 yards per carry during his two seasons with the Rams announced Friday that he'll finish his college career at Akron.
"It came down to the coaches because everybody spoke so highly of the staff out there," Alexander told The Coloradoan. "I wasn't just looking to move to the biggest school and find myself in a situation where I may or may not play, because I had interest from schools in the SEC, Big 12."
He's the third player from Colorado State University to join the Zips since Jim McElwain was hired in late 2011, following the footsteps of defensive end C.J. James and dismissed lineman Nordly Capi. Todd Stroud, a CSU assistant from 2010-11, is the defensive line coach at Akron.
Alexander was expected to be the Rams' starting running back in 2014 following Kapri Bibbs' decision to enter the NFL draft, but after one spring practice left the team due to relationships with the coaching staff. His bond with his CSU teammates, however, has remained unbroken, which is what's made his decision so difficult.
"The hardest part has been leaving them, because I love those guys like brothers. Nothing is going to change that, I still am going to have love for you all," Alexander said.
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market Extension study team that has spent the last 18 months examining the option of expanding VRE service 11 miles west of Manassas.
Relocating the station will allow VRE to expand a storage yard at the Manassas Airport, and that will allow Virginia’s only commuter railroad to expand the number of daily trains on its Manassas line from 16 to 22 per day. The additional trains are expected to generate 5,100 more passenger trips by 2040, whereas extending the rail line to Haymarket would have generated 1,110 in the same timeframe at the cost of as much as $660 million.
The extension to Haymarket would have required the railroad pay for the construction of at least one new set of tracks along Norfolk-Southern’s B-line, which branches off in Manassas at Wellington Road and Prince William Street. VRE trains would not have been allowed to use the existing freight line.
The findings of the first phase of the Gainesville-Haymarket Expansion study were presented last week, which showed the cost of the extension outweighing the benefits. Becuase of that fact, VRE officials were skeptical about winning federal dollars to build the extension, and that would have left VRE going hat-in-hand to state and local sources of funding to build and maintain the expanded rail line.
VRE plans to add three of 14 new coaches to the Manassas line in 2018 to expand one of the trains on the line. The railroad maintains the Broad Run yard, where locomotives and railcars can be stored, must be expanded for the service to grow.
There is the talk of adding a midday shuttle train between Manassas and Alexandria that would, for the first time, provide bi-directional service during the day, allowing passengers to use the service operating similar to a Metro train.BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan — What is the right stuff for a mother in space?
Karen L. Nyberg, an American astronaut whose son, Jack, is 3 years old, is taking the next six months to find out.
Along with docking space ships and conducting science experiments, Ms. Nyberg, 43, who blasted off in late May, is using her tour at the International Space Station to grapple publicly with the difficulty of separating from a child because of work. She is cooperating with a Scandinavian television documentary on motherhood, has spoken to magazines on parenting and embraced the question her long business trip inevitably poses: how to choose between a dream job that requires long travel and the pull of children at home.
“It’s a challenge because my son is 3. He will do a lot of growing in six months,” Ms. Nyberg told journalists before the launching, speaking from behind a glass wall to prevent last-minute infections.
“But I will see a lot of video of him,” she said. “We will be very well connected. And he will be home with Daddy” — Doug Hurley, who is also an astronaut.Ian Davis, Deliberations, 2015. Acrylic on panel, 20 x 16 in. © Ian Davis. Courtesy the artist and Leslie Tonkonow Artworks and Projects, New York., 2015. Acrylic on panel, 20 x 16 in. © Ian Davis. Courtesy the artist and Leslie Tonkonow Artworks and Projects, New York.
Ten years ago, I went into the woods I loved to decide whether or not to leave them. I walked through the wide open door of the barn where I lived, on the green side of Oregon, veered west between the overwintering garden and the greenhouse where the rosemary thrived, and passed through grassy fields that flushed into knee-high carpets of silken violet petals when the camas came into bloom. At the edge of the property, I climbed into the forest, leaving the open meadow behind and bushwhacking steeply uphill into a remnant parcel of old-growth Douglas fir trees.
Somewhere hidden in the upper branches above my head were a pair of spotted owls that lent the land protected status, as long as they stayed. I drifted to the north, winding between granddaddy trees and prehistoric ferns, my boots sinking into the spongy beds of moss underfoot. I dropped down into the steep ravine of a creek, stone-stepped across, scrambled back up the other bank. Traveling where there was no trail, I used the lay of the land as my guide. Looking. Thinking. Deciding. Undeciding. Redeciding. Could I leave this for New York City?
Along the path of a deer trail, hypnotized by green and oxygen and swept up in my tornado of indecision, a cluster of Indian pipes leapt into view, ghostly and translucent. They rose like spectral stalks of asparagus from the leaf litter, feeding off the fungi that linked to the trees around them. They could thrive without light. It felt like an affirmation, and I fell to my knees, the way John Muir did when he spotted a Calypso orchid in a tamarack swamp, awed by the impossibility of its diaphanous beauty. I could leave and keep this wild beauty within me. I could go to New York City and survive. I could cross the border between this place of corporeal earth and wood, and step into New York, a construct of words and ideas. I would be okay.
And it would be temporary, this sojourn to work my brain as hard as, in Oregon, I’d worked my body. I would collect a graduate degree in journalism and stay for seven years, until love lured me to Cape Cod. For those years in the city, I thrived on the diversity of humans, no longer the only brown-skinned one in a bunch. I was thrilled to never know what language might emerge from a person’s mouth when they first opened it to speak. There was the rush of going to see a movie and then heading to the public library on public transportation to listen to the director and actors talk about it. It felt indulgent that my job as a student was to read Joan Didion and graphic novels and write about whatever I wanted. I slept with strangers on rooftops, looking up at one or two stars that permeated the glowing night sky, my blood saturated with Guinness, Irish fiddles looping in my ears. But in those heady urban days, I missed the Pacific Northwest, always. Sometimes I alienated potential friends, slipping into reveries about barns and goats and Indian pipes.
The memory of that pensive trek into the woods came back to me when I returned, recently, to that same pitch of land in Oregon, those same fields and the greenhouse, now cultivated with different crops. The barn was undergoing renovations but the land had remained constant. The scent of dry fields and Douglas firs evoked a comforting familiarity that, in the city, I had experienced only when the sidewalks were crowded with vendors selling Christmas trees trucked in for the holiday season.
In the time I’d been gone, there had been a shift. Of course I had changed, and the trees had grown taller, but a greater swing—the kind that happens on a geological timescale of thousands or millions of years—was beginning to be widely acknowledged. Some scientists were becoming urgently vocal about the need to recognize that, in recent centuries, the world had entered a new epoch. They called it the Anthropocene. Planet Earth was now defined, they said, by the complete and utter dominance of human beings.
It was Paul Crutzen, a Dutch Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric scientist, and Eugene F. Stoermer, a Midwestern phytoplankton expert, who coined the term “Anthropocene” and brought the concept to the mainstream in 2000. They took a notion that had been floating around for nearly a century and turned it into an argument: now, they proposed, was the time to formally recognize that human tinkering impacts every facet of life on Earth. According to Crutzen and Stoermer, along with a growing number of academics in the sciences and humanities, we are radically changing the geo-chemical makeup of the planet at a pace previously caused only by cataclysmic events, like massive asteroids colliding with Earth. After an 11,000-year run, we have left behind the Holocene, the epoch spanning time since the last great ice age. The defining characteristic of our new epoch is us and all the things our creative brains have generated to keep ourselves alive, fed, watered, housed, clothed, bejeweled, stimulated, elevated, educated, entertained, and multiplying.
Discussions and debates about this will continue to bounce around the editorial boards of Science and Nature, and the meetings of the Geological Societies of America and London, until the International Commission on Stratigraphy makes its official declaration, expected as early as next year. The Commission will rely on the findings of a thirty-seven-member working group of earth scientists familiar with deep time stratigraphic history who are currently comparing the rate of environmental change caused by anthropogenic processes with the environmental deviations of the geological past.
Whatever they conclude, ours is undeniably the age of humans. Consider that three-quarters of the Earth’s ice-free land can no longer be considered wild, and that extinction rates are estimated to be a thousand times higher than they would be in a people-free world. We made that happen. Consider the chemical alteration of the atmosphere above, clouded with greenhouse gases, and the deep blue ocean waters acidifying below. We did that, too. Consider the flame retardants collecting in the buoyant blubber of beluga whales singing their songs in the Bering Sea. The swirl of plastics throbbing at the heart of the Pacific Ocean. The fact that most of the nitrogen in our own bodies was manufactured in a factory. All of that is our doing.
We have stepped into the role of alchemists, fundamentally altering the elemental chemistry of the planet.
While the call for a declaration did not come until 2000, Crutzen and Stoermer mark the starting point of the Anthropocene somewhere around the time James Watt revolutionized the steam engine in 1784, tipping the first domino of rapid anthropogenic change on Earth. Human impact was far from negligible before the Industrial Revolution: we did a right proper job of deforesting most of the planet, even with the smallest of axes, and it is possible that we played a pivotal role in mass extinctions (according to the “overkill theory” that hypothesizes that early hunters managed to wipe out the megafauna of North America). But in the past two centuries humans have gone far beyond simply reorganizing the world, cutting here and digging there, moving things from place to place. We have stepped into the role of alchemists, fundamentally altering the elemental chemistry of the planet. The C-14 shadow of atomic bomb detonations from the late 1950s still lingers in our cells, an embedded time stamp even on those of us not born until decades later. Use of the pesticide DDT came and went in Western nations, but the chemical still seeps from the breasts of lactating mothers many years after it was banned. The Anthropocene has staying power.
Sometimes, the flora and fauna of ecosystems that have evolved over the course of millennia have adapted to the sudden changes we’ve wrought. Sometimes they have not. The last Vietnamese rhinoceros died in 2010. Golden toads were declared extinct in 2007. The fossil record of the baiji dolphin reaches back 25 million years but presumably ends around 2002, the last time one such dolphin was sighted in the industrialized waters of the Yangtze River. Eminent biologist Edward O. Wilson proffered an alternate name for this new epoch—the Eremozoic, meaning “the age of loneliness.” (Lonesome George, the last Pinta Island tortoise, died on a Sunday morning in late June, 2012.)
“It’s no longer us against ‘Nature,’” Paul Crutzen wrote in 2011. “Instead, it’s we who decide what nature is and what it will be.”
* * *
Back in Oregon, the boundaries between people and nature seemed clear to me. I could delude myself into thinking they were defined by the edges of the old-growth-forest tracts my friends and I fought to protect from logging. That they hung in the divide between my barking dog and the pack of coyotes that yipped as they passed through on their way to wherever. But even then, it was clear if you zoomed out and up and saw the former forests denuded of trees, that land of Cascadia was a patchwork quilt made of remnants.
The Anthropocene was easy to observe in Manhattan. New York was the anthropocity of the Anthropocene, life made by and for humans alone. The brownstones full of history and the looming cranes erecting glass-walled towers. The descent on a seemingly bottomless escalator to watch a movie in the enclosed darkness of the Angelika Film Center on Houston Street, where the floors would rumble when subterranean trains passed close by.
But there were ragged tears in the seams of civility, and if I leaned in close I could glimpse something more magnificent and uncontrollable on the other side. I sought out these moments during my years in the city, hunting for places where I could escape the fingerprints of human activity. I used journalism as an excuse to find those who saw green in the gray cityscape.
I latched onto the biologist who manages New York City’s falcons, the densest urban population of peregrines in the world. Chris Nadareski knew the locations of the city’s sixteen nest sites, and placed plywood boxes lined with stones in the precarious places where the birds tried to raise their young, to increase their chances of success. He visited each nest at just the right time every spring to encircle the young birds’ legs with identification rings. He knew their genealogy. He told me stories about incestuous pairings, about the time a male falcon raised his young chicks alone after his female mate was killed. The peregrines nested where they pleased, on skyscraper balconies or bridge tops. Seeing them made me feel airborne.
The first time I met the biologist with the sun-kissed face and the scratched forearms was at the Riverside Church on the Upper West Side, after he’d accepted my request to observe his work. Chris carried a basket holding a falcon chick fresh from a week in rehab. It had been recovering from a double ear infection that might have killed it. Now it was ready to be returned to the nest. We stepped inside the church, where people were arriving to pay their respects to a longtime member of the congregation who had passed away. A small crowd gathered around us. They gasped as Chris picked up the bird; its high, raspy cry echoed down the hall. A guard cooed, “Oooooo, my baby,” over and over. Cameras appeared out of pockets and purses.
The biologist and I ascended to the twenty-first floor of the church, just under the site where the carillon rang the largest bells in North America, and we squeezed into a dark machine room. Chris left me in charge of the chick as he opened a leaded glass window leading to the ledge where the nest was. Wind blew in from the opening, swirling loose feathers and dust and mingling with the smell of oil and grease as Chris leaned forward, the Hudson River hundreds of feet below and a stone gargoyle jutting out just above his head. The bird’s three siblings—downy creatures the size of softballs, sitting fluffy and awkward on their haunches, yellow leathery feet splayed wide—watched him intently. Their parents were out on the wing somewhere, and would arrive to find their disappeared offspring magically returned.
The bird took a moment to look back at the human who had taken him away and improbably brought him home.
I stared down at my charge at the bottom of the basket. It was just a bird, but a bird that couldn’t be found anywhere on the East Coast forty years earlier, when DDT was so abundant that every falcon nest failed, the eggshells thinned beyond survival. This bird was hope. There in a room far above the famous Riverside Church sanctuary that gives so many people a place to put their faith, I looked into the bird’s dark eyes and found a place for my own.
Chris turned to me and reached into the wicker basket, lifting up the falcon and giving him a final inspection. “Okay, there you go, little guy,” he said softly, placing the recovered male onto the pea gravel of the protected nest. The bird took a moment to look back at the human who had taken him away and improbably brought him home. Then he took a few steps toward his brothers and sister. The falcons sat together in silence, on the edge of a world they would soon discover in flight.
A week later, I joined Chris when he went to band barn owls at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. I’d return for multiple springs to help, taking the A train to the subway-accessible refuge that sits adjacent to JFK International Airport. While we labored to protect the wild birds, others at the airport shot gulls to reduce the chance of an avian collision bringing down a commercial flight. (When a US Airways flight crash-landed on the Hudson River in 2009, it was because birds had knocked out its engine upon takeoff from LaGuardia.)
With an orange-eyed osprey in my hands and jets flying overhead I wondered where I belonged. On the hazy horizon to the distant west, I could see the Empire State Building, where I had stood one night on the observation deck with camera-clicking tourists and watched a peregrine hunt for migratory songbirds, successfully, using the upturned lights for illumination. But although I loved the city’s undomesticated pockets, they were as much an illusion as the forty acres of spotted owl habitat next to my barn in Oregon. I could only get so close to the raptors because mine were human hands, indistinguishable from the ones that had nearly obliterated the species in North America.
* * *
A few days after revisiting Oregon, I attended the Breakthrough Dialogue, a gathering in the Bay Area of the Breakthrough Institute, to which I’d been invited to interview the keynote speaker. This tribe of self-defined EcoModernists, who released a manifesto earlier this year, see themselves as the demon slayers of the old-school environmentalism born of the Silent Spring era. The save-the-whales approach to protecting the planet, they argue, is not only outdated but utterly failing. The EcoModernists want us to jettison the tactics of the 1970s and get over our guilt about the havoc we’ve wrought. They believe that with human ingenuity, we can solve any jam we’ve gotten ourselves into, from hunger to climate change to energy shortages.
The deceptively straightforward theme of the Breakthrough Dialogue was “The Good Anthropocene.” There, in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge, the EcoModernist faithful—alongside the critics they had generously invited and a handful of skeptics, like me, who hovered cautiously in between—attempted to unpack the meaning of both “good” and “Anthropocene.” Attendees included one of the top environmental journalists in the country (who finished his panel with a song), Republican politicians, Economist editors, and fabulously wealthy philanthropists. Conversations were sustained and intense, at sessions, in the halls between them, and around a fire come nightfall.
Though the EcoModernists deny being techno-utopians, the discussions at the conference were dominated by Silicon Valley-style optimism. We can fix global warming, they contend. We can grow animal-free meat in a laboratory and use genetically modified organisms to save modern agriculture and feed the hungry. We can build nuclear power plants to produce all the clean energy we need. We can even rewild central California with wooly mammoths.
(With apologies to the EcoModernists, I’m not sure what could be more techno-utopian than rewilding, the term for reintroducing extinct species. It would involve sequencing the entire genome of the lost species from an ancient relic of bone—then matching it to its closest living relative and fiddling with the genes, one by one, until they most resembled those of the creature, be it passenger pigeon, Steller’s sea cow, or wooly mammoth. Then shooting the tweaked DNA into a cell and coaxing the cell into an embryo and implanting the embryo into that closest living relative and waiting for the miracle of life. From that point, there is only the minor question of where, exactly, to put a baby mammoth.)
The EcoModernists embrace the Anthropocene, but insist they do not believe Homo sapiens are at the center of everything. They love nature, they claim, and seek to create a human society so technologically advanced that there would be no need to raid the wild. In the EcoModernist view, it’s best to ramp up the rural exodus that’s already underway and concentrate ourselves in cities. Our urban efficiency would enable us to leave those places of extraction alone—to, as they write in their manifesto, “liberate the environment from the economy.” In our absence, it would thrive.
When the manifesto authors write, “cities both drive and symbolize the decoupling of humanity from nature,” they are partly right. At my Oregon barn, days would be filled with splitting and stacking the wood that fueled my stove, which cooked most of my food and heated my indoor space, along with the water in my outdoor shower thorough the long wet winters. Wood stoves are smoky and inefficient, horrible carbon emitters, but splitting the wood and stoking the fire kept me connected to the source. When I moved to New York, my illegal sublet didn’t even have a thermostat. I had no control over the temperature that broiled the small space, forcing me to crack open windows in the middle of blizzards. Yet my heat came from somewhere beyond the walls of my urban apartment. So it seems dreamy to believe that people might all move to the cities and no longer rely on any of the stuff “out there”—in the future habitat of the wooly mammoths—to keep us going.
When have humans ever looked at something we need, or even just want, and walked away?
The EcoModernists maintain that it’s wholly possible for humans to stay on one side of a boundary while wild things blossom in peace on the other, rejecting the idea that to avoid economic and ecological collapse, humans need to cooperate with nature. But when have humans ever looked at something we need, or even just want, and walked away? By some accounts, ninety-six elephants are poached every day in Africa, solely for their long, tapered tusks, a luxury coveted but useless.
The self-importance of humans isn’t new. It bloomed, arguably, during the Enlightenment, when we began to figure out how the world works, the aura of mystery tumbling away from lightning strikes and earthquakes to reveal the mechanics underneath. In 1820, the English poet John Keats lamented our audacity when he wrote that science might as well “unweave a rainbow.” In 1968, environmentalist (and EcoModernist) Stewart Brand published the inaugural Whole Earth Catalog, the instruction manual for a new generation of do-it-yourselfers, writing: “We are as gods and might as well get good at it.”
Yet we are not omniscient. Everything we learn today reveals what we didn’t know yesterday. We have indeed solved some of what the EcoModernists call wicked problems: We live longer. Fewer of us perish in childbirth. We know how to ward off epidemics by washing our hands, and how to unleash the power of antibiotics. But we have yet to figure out how to get this basic information to an appalling large segment of the human population—or why we should, when there is no money to be made. And many of these solutions merely resolve problems of our own making.
So while the optimism was feverish at the Breakthrough Dialogue, after two days there I’d gone cold. God was dead in Sausalito. I didn’t mind that part, but what troubled me was how casually we’d usurped the duties we’d once ascribed to the deity. Among the EcoModernists, there was no sense of deep ecology. There was no acknowledgement of the iron law of unintended consequences. There was no humility.
Something gravely important had gone missing. Something related to reverence—to holding on to the ineffable wonder of what already is, caring for what little remains, being cognizant of how quickly we’re losing it. As we attempt to develop new energy sources and figure out how to feed ourselves and inhabit this warming world, we need to remember what, apart from technological worship, drops us to our knees.
In Kenya, years ago, I was sitting in a Jeep by the side of a river when a small herd of elephants appeared and ambled around the vehicle, locking us in position. With no way out, we stayed put and observed the swing of their trunks, the way a young elephant crossed one thick leg over the ankle of the other as he stood at rest. I listened to their resounding breaths and humphs. Eventually they moved on.
There is no trail going forward. We have to follow the lay of the land. We need to remember that when we leave the woods, it is not so easy to find our way back. Once severed, the ties to the land that fed our souls cannot always be repaired. My hope is for a “good” Anthropocene crowded with falcons and Indian pipes. An epoch where humans will find the idea of keeping today’s elephants alive as urgent and beguiling as that of reintroducing wooly mammoths to a world of our own imagining.The 2013 Atlantic hurricane season was a well below average Atlantic hurricane season and the first since 1994 with no major hurricanes.[nb 1] It was also the first season since 1968 with no storms of at least Category 2 intensity on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale. The first tropical cyclone of this hurricane season, Andrea, developed on June 5, while the final cyclone, an unnamed subtropical storm, dissipated on December 7. Throughout the year, only two storms—Humberto and Ingrid—reached hurricane intensity; this was the lowest seasonal total since 1982.
The season's impact was minimal; although 15 tropical cyclones developed, most were weak or remained at sea. Tropical Storm Andrea killed four people after making landfall in Florida and moving up the East Coast of the United States. In early July, Tropical Storm Chantal moved through the Leeward Islands, causing one fatality, but minimal damage overall. Tropical storms Dorian and Erin and Hurricane Humberto brought only squally weather to the Cape Verde Islands. Mexico, where Hurricane Ingrid, Tropical Depression Eight, and tropical storms Barry and Fernand all made landfall, was the hardest hit; Ingrid alone caused at least 32 deaths and $1.5 billion (2013 USD) in damage.[nb 2] In early October, Karen brought showers and gusty winds to the central Gulf Coast of the United States.
All major forecasting agencies predicted an above-average season. All reduced their seasonal predictions in early August, but even the revised predictions were too high. The lack of activity was primarily caused by an unexpected significant weakening of the Atlantic Ocean thermohaline circulation between winter and spring. This resulted in continuation of the spring weather pattern over the Atlantic Ocean, with strong vertical wind shear, mid-level moisture, and atmospheric stability, which suppressed tropical cyclogenesis.
Seasonal forecasts [ edit ]
Predictions of tropical activity in the 2013 season Source Date Named
storms Hurricanes Major
hurricanes Ref Average (1981–2010) 12.1 6.4 2.7 [2] Record-high activity 28 15 8 [3] Record-low activity 4 2† 0† [3] ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– TSR December 5, 2012 15 8 3 [4] TSR April 5, 2013 15 8 3 [5] WSI/TWC April 8, 2013 16 9 5 [6] CSU April 10, 2013 18 9 4 [7] NCSU April 15, 2013 13–17 7–10 3–6 [8] UKMO May 15, 2013 14* 9* N/A [9] NOAA May 23, 2013 13–20 7–11 3–6 [10] FSU COAPS May 30, 2013 12–17 5–10 N/A [11] CSU June 3, 2013 18 9 4 [12] TSR June 4, 2013 16 8 4 [13] TSR July 5, 2013 15 7 3 [14] CSU August 2, 2013 18 8 3 [15] NOAA August 8, 2013 13–19 6–9 3–5 [16] ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Actual activity
14 2 0 * June–November only
† Most recent of several such occurrences. (See all)
In advance of, and during, each hurricane season, several forecasts of hurricane activity are issued by national meteorological services, scientific agencies, and noted hurricane experts. These include forecasters from the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s National Hurricane and Climate Prediction Center, Tropical Storm Risk, the United Kingdom's Met Office, and Philip J. Klotzbach, William M. Gray and associates at Colorado State University (CSU). The forecasts include weekly and monthly changes in significant factors that help determine the number of tropical storms, hurricanes, and major hurricanes within a particular year. According to NOAA and CSU, the average Atlantic hurricane season between 1981 and 2010 contained roughly 12 tropical storms, six hurricanes, three major hurricanes, and an accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) index of 66–103 units.[2][17] NOAA typically categorizes a season as either above-average, average, or below-average based on the cumulative ACE Index, but the number of tropical storms, hurricanes, and major hurricanes within a hurricane season are considered occasionally as well.[2]
Pre-season forecasts [ edit ]
Multiple agencies predicted above-average activity, citing forecasts for slower-than-average trade winds, warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures,[4] abnormally low wind shear, and the unlikelihood of an El Niño developing prior to the peak of the season.[7] On December 5, 2012, Tropical Storm Risk (TSR), a public consortium consisting of experts on insurance, risk management, and seasonal climate forecasting at University College London, issued an extended-range forecast. In its report, the organization called for 15.4 (±4.3) named storms, 7.7 (±2.9) hurricanes, 3.4 (±1.6) major hurricanes, and a cumulative Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) index of 134. While no value was placed on the number of expected landfalls during the season, TSR stated that the landfalling ACE index was expected to be above average.[4] Four months later, on April 5, Tropical Storm Risk issued its updated forecast, continuing to call for an above-average season with 15.2 (±4.1) named storms, 7.5 (±2.8) hurricanes, 3.4 (±1.6) major hurricanes, and an ACE index of 131; the landfalling ACE index was once again forecast to be higher than normal.[5]
Meanwhile, on April 8, Weather Services International (WSI) issued its first forecast for the hurricane season. In its report, the organization forecast 16 named storms, nine hurricanes, and five major hurricanes.[6] On April 10, Colorado State University (CSU) issued its first forecast for the season, calling for a potentially hyperactive season with 18 named storms, nine hurricanes, four major hurricanes, and an ACE index of 165. The probabilities of a major hurricane hitting the Gulf Coast and East Coast were well above average.[7] On May 15, the United Kingdom Met Office (UKMO) predicted 14 named storms, with a 70% chance that the number would be between 10 and 18, and nine hurricanes with a 70% chance that the number would be between 4 and 14. It also predicted an ACE index of 130 with a 70% chance that the index would be in the range 76 to 184.[9] On May 23, 2013, NOAA issued its first seasonal outlook for the year, stating there was a 70% likelihood of 13 to 20 named storms, of which seven to eleven could become hurricanes, including three to six major hurricanes; these ranges are greater than the seasonal average of twelve named storms, six hurricanes and three major hurricanes.[10] On May 30, the Florida State University Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies, FSU COAPS, issued its first and only prediction for the season. The organization called for 12 to 17 named storms, of which five to ten would further intensify into hurricanes; no forecast was given for the number of major hurricanes. In addition, an ACE index of 135 units was forecast.[11]
Mid-season outlooks [ edit ]
In June, predictions from CSU and TSR were similar to pre-season forecasts due to the a lack of an El Niño and warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures across the Atlantic Ocean.[12][13] However, by July and August, CSU and TSR all adjusted their forecasts downward because of predictions of cooler-than-average sea surface temperatures and above-average wind shear.[14][15] NOAA also decreased the amount of activity in its final outlook, despite predicting a wetter-than-average western Africa and above-average sea surface temperatures in its report.[16] On June 3, CSU issued its first mid-season prediction for the remainder of the year. In its report, the organization continued to predict well above-average activity, with eighteen named storms, nine hurricanes, four major hurricanes, and an ACE index of 165 units. CSU stated that there was a 72% chance of at least one major hurricane impacting any stretch of the United States coastline; the chances of a major hurricane hitting the East Coast and Gulf Coast were 48% and 47%, respectively.[12] The following day, Tropical Storm Risk issued its third forecast for the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season, calling for sixteen named storms, eight hurricanes, four major hurricanes, and an ACE of 134 units; this activity was predicted to be roughly 30% above the 1950–2012 long-term mean. TSR gave a 65% probability that the landfalling ACE index would be above-average.[13] A month later, TSR lowered its numbers to 15 named storms, seven hurricanes, and three major hurricanes.[14] On August 2, Colorado State University issued another update for the season, lowering its numbers slightly. However, the organization continued to state that there was an above-average probability of a United States and Caribbean major hurricane landfall.[15] Finally, on August 8, NOAA issued its second and final outlook for the season, predicting 13 to 19 named storms, six to nine hurricanes, and three to five major hurricanes; these numbers were down slightly from its May outlook.[16]
Post-season review [ edit ]
With 13 tropical storms, two hurricanes, and no major hurricanes,[18] activity fell far below the predictions. Brian McNoldy at the University of Miami noted several reasons why NOAA should not cease seasonal predictions, including the variability of hurricane seasons and the value of supplementing climatology with seasonal forecasts. Further, McNoldy argued that forecasting a hurricane season "challenges us to better understand how the atmosphere works."[19] On November 29, Dr. Phil Klotzbach of CSU noted that "[Dr. Gray and I] have been doing these forecasts for 30 years and that's probably the biggest forecast bust that we've had."[20] The program, which had already lost contributions from an insurance company in June, was defunded further following the botched season forecasts.[21] However, Gray and Klotzbach were able to issue predictions for the 2014 season.[22]
Seasonal summary [ edit ]
The Atlantic hurricane season officially began on June 1, 2013.[11] It was a below average season in which 14 tropical cyclones and one subtropical cyclone formed. Thirteen of the fifteen designated cyclones attained tropical storm status.[18] However, only two of those became hurricanes, the fewest since 1982; neither of these intensified into a major hurricane, the first such occasion since 1994. 2013 was also the most active season without a major hurricane. By default, 2013 extended the period without major hurricane landfalls in the United States to eight years since Hurricane Wilma in 2005. Further, neither hurricane exceeded Category 1 intensity for the first time since 1968. Throughout the season, NOAA and the United States Air Force Reserve flew a total of 45 reconnaissance missions over the Atlantic basin, totaling 435 hours; this was the lowest number of flight hours since 1966.[23] One hurricane and three tropical storms made landfall during the season, causing 47 deaths and about $1.51 billion in damage.[24] Tropical Storm Chantal also caused losses and fatalities, even though it did not strike land.[25] The last storm of the season dissipated on December 7,[18] a week after the official end of hurricane season on November 30, 2013.[11]
Activity was primarily suppressed by significant weakening of the Atlantic Ocean thermohaline circulation (THC) early in the year, representing the largest reduction in strength of the THC since NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis began. The weakening of the THC was possibly the result of lowered ocean salinity and a decrease in North Atlantic Deep Water formation. Oceanic and atmospheric gyres were able to strengthen in the subtropical Atlantic, allowing southward advection of cold air and water. Consequently, there was a significant cooling of sea surface temperatures over portions of the north Atlantic. This resulted in a continuation of the spring weather pattern over the Atlantic Ocean, with strong vertical wind shear, reduced mid-tropospheric moisture, and high atmospheric stability. The weak THC also resulted in slightly stronger trade winds and less wind convergence and rainfall in the Intertropical Convergence Zone, with an increase in upper-level zonal winds and higher environmental air pressures. Collectively, these factors worked to suppress tropical cyclogenesis.[26]
Tropical cyclogenesis began in early June, with the development of Tropical Storm Andrea in the Gulf of Mexico on June
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to find elsewhere. But that will not curb his determination to cultivate the same habits as much as possible wherever he goes.
He is drinking all this in, contributing enormously but also looking, learning and taking from every source of inspiration. He has just finished reading Win Forever by Pete Carroll, the head coach of the American football team Seattle Seahawks. The title is apt in view of Real’s winning run. The author could also serve as a role model – a modest player who worked hard to climb the NFL’s coaching ladder and won the Super Bowl last February aged 62.
“The principles of leadership don’t really change across sports,” Clement says. “And there are so many great stories about how coaches who have gone on to become head coaches have been shaped by difficulties they experienced earlier on.”
His own role has changed drastically. “I was still pumping the balls up right up to when I was the assistant coach of Republic of Ireland. There is a vast difference between working with a big team and previous jobs when I was the coaching staff.”
That massive jump from coaching kids to superstars has been safely negotiated to the point where everything now feels “normal”.
“There was a certain amount of anxiety when I first started working with the first team at Chelsea, having stepped up from the youth academy. I was working with some big characters and some big players and that was a really uncomfortable time.
“But it took me out of my comfort zone and when I went to the next place it became that little bit easier. I was still a bit anxious but players’ reputations usually have nothing to do with the reality.
“Working with Zlatan Ibrahimovic was totally different to what I had expected. He is a fantastic professional and a leader, somebody you would happily go into the trenches with. Ronaldo here is exactly the same.”
Experience in Spain and France means that when the big chance comes it will not necessarily be back in England. When David Moyes called him for advice about the Real Sociedad job recently he was full of praise for La Liga.
“He will enjoy the way teams really try to play football here. The Premier League can be a bit crash, bang, wallop at times. Not necessarily at the top end, but from mid-table down.”
England might also be the hardest place for Clement to be given his chance. “The Premier League is a global game in terms of recruiting players and it has become global in terms of recruiting managers too,” he says.
He was desperate for Liverpool to progress in Europe, both for the club and their manager. “It is nice to see Brendan getting an opportunity at a big European club, and long may that continue. I want him to be successful because that will help people like me get that next opportunity.”
The level of rumoured suitors continues to rise steadily for Clement. Where once he was linked with Brighton and Queen’s Park Rangers, the talk now has him on Arsenal’s radar.
What he will not allow himself to do is let thoughts about the next job distract from the next game. Tomorrow Real fly to Morocco for the World Club Championships. On Monday they will learn who they will face in the Champions League.
I remind him that last season he tipped Arsenal and Manchester City to be stronger than a transitional Chelsea. “Well, I got that wrong, didn’t I? They reached the semi-finals! Now they definitely look the strongest of the four.”
If Real Madrid win the tournament they will become the first side to defend the Champions League title successfully. “No one has spoken about that,” says Clement. “The players know if you keep looking after the small details you are going to end up in a good place. Take care of the journey and usually the destination will take care of itself.”
For a coach in ever-increasing demand, that sounds like good career advice too.
Keep up to date with all the latest news with expert comment and analysis from our award-winning writersThe Tsarnaev brothers' forceful and charismatic aunt, Maret Tsarnaeva, had barely begun her lecture to the press that had gathered outside her Toronto house this morning when she crossed the line:
"I'm suspicious that this was staged. The picture was staged," she said.
And she suggested dark motives behind framing her nephews.
"When you are blowing up people and you want to bring attention to something for some person — you do that math," she said.
The men's father said more or less the same thing: "Someone framed them. I don't know who exactly did it, but someone did. And being cowards, they shot the boy dead. There are cops like this."
The Tsarnaevs may sound like the craziest figures of the American fringe. But they come by their paranoia honestly: Russia's cynical and brutal governments have, for centuries, murdered their citizens in general, and their Chechen citizens and subjects in particular, under any number of pretexts.
Even the Chechen Republic's president, Ramzan Kadyrov, included a bizarre note of paranoia in the words he posted to Instagram, a note of doubt about the suspects' guilt — and about one suspect's death.
"It is evident that the special services needed to calm society by any means possible," Kadyrov, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, wrote.
This may sound paranoid. But paranoids can have real enemies. And you don't have to be crazy to believe Chechen allegations of baroque and brutal government conspiracies — at least, not when they're directed at the Russian government.
Reasonable people have directed truly horrendous allegations at President Vladimir Putin and his security services. Former Washington Post reporter David Satter argued convincingly in his 2003 book on Russia, Darkness at Dawn, that the Russian government had directed deadly and incomprehensible bombings of Russian apartment buildings in 1999, which killed 300 people — to justify a new invasion of Chechnya and to speed Putin's rise.
"They are ascribing to America things that are familiar to them at home," Satter told BuzzFeed Friday, of the sort of incident that fringe lunatics in the United States claim as "false flag" attacks and that Russians call "provocations." "It's not surprising that people have reacted that way," he said.
Indeed, Tsarnaeva cited her experience back home in making her strange intimations of conspiracy.
"I am used to being set up. Before I left former Soviet Union countries, that's how I lived," she said.
That does not, of course, have any bearing on what appears to be an extremely clear case against Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsaraev. It speaks, instead, to what it means to be a citizen of Vladimir Putin's Russia.
"The evidence against these characters is overwhelming," Satter said. "And also — we just don't do that kind of thing. Our institutions and our society and our values all work against it, whereas in Russia it's par for the course."Tallahassee: Schools in Florida are renewing a programme that monitors their students’ social media activity for criminal or threatening behaviour, despite causing some controversy since its adoption last year.
Orlando County Public Schools recently told the Orlando Sentinel that the programme, which partners the school system with local police departments, has been a success in protecting students’ safety, saying that it led to 12 police investigations in the past year. The school district says it will pay about $18,000 (Dh66,114) annually for SnapTrends, the monitoring software used to check students’ activity. It’s the same software used by Racine, Wis., police to track criminal activity, and joins a slew of similar social media monitoring software used by law enforcement to keep an eye on the community.
SnapTrends collects data from public posts on students’ social media accounts by scanning for keywords that signify cases of cyber-bullying, suicide threats, or criminal activity. School security staff then comb through flagged posts and alert police when they see fit. Research suggests that 23 per cent of children and teens have been cyber-bullied. Studies connecting social media and suicide have not shown definitive results, but there has been research that suggests that cyberbullying leads to suicide ideation more than traditional bullying.
Orange County Public Schools adopted the SnapTrends programme as part of a “prevention and early intervention” programme. After the Newtown, Conn., school shootings in 2012, the school participated in a sweeping technical review with law enforcement and state emergency experts with a focus on safety. They recommended some sort of social media monitoring programme, saying that threats can sometimes be spotted on social media postings. “We felt we needed to deal with these vulnerabilities,” said Shari Bobinski, who manages media relations in the school system, to The Washington Post.
Orange County schools said that since implementing the software last year, it has run 2,504 automated searches, leading to 215 manual searches by school staff. Details of the 12 police investigations that stemmed from searches in the past year have not been divulged by the school system. They told the Orlando Sentinel that they don’t want public details of the system to interfere with its effectiveness.
Bobinski, however, shared one anecdote from last year in which the software flagged a female student for using the keyword “cutting” and the phrase “nobody will miss me.” Since the software gets a huge number of flags for words and phrases like these, security staff delved deeper into investigating more posts by the student. They discovered that she had two conflicting social media accounts: one that told the story of a happy, normal girl, and the other of someone suffering from suicidal thoughts and depression. The school staff alerted local police, who conducted a welfare check at the student’s home and informed her father. She eventually went into treatment.
The story exemplifies the kind of safety checks that social media monitoring offers. But privacy and social media lawyer Bradley S. Shear, based in Bethesda, Md., expressed concerns about the unintended consequences of using software like SnapTrends. He’s uncomfortable with the collection and storing of information on students.
“Is this data then gonna be tied to a student’s permanent school record? Does the company have proper policies in place that delete this data after a certain period of time? These are some questions that need to be asked,” he said in an interview with The Washington Post. An example of an appropriate period of time for data to be stored, he suggested, would be until a year after the student graduates or until they turn 18, a guideline set by a California state law that aims to protect social media privacy for students monitored by schools.
Additionally, kids are very tech savvy, he emphasised, and are likely to find creative ways to evade monitoring. This puts their social media lives even further away from the watchful eyes of parents or other adults.
Shear also expressed fears of the inevitability of highly intrusive monitoring, such as collecting data on students during after-school hours or off school property. A software flag would require school staff and possibly police to track a student more closely. In Bobinski’s story of the suicidal student in Orange County, the original flag was set off on school property (SnapTrend’s “geofencing” technology limits monitoring within a locational boundary), but investigators delved into her posts from after-school hours to confirm her mental health status.
Orange County isn’t alone in choosing to monitor students. Schools in Alabama and California have adopted similar social media mining software. In Huntsville, Ala., 14 kids were expelled due to social media posts in 2014. The content of the posts were not made public, but a school board member told AL.com that expulsions only come from serious offences involving drugs, weapons or sex. Twelve out of the 14 were black, despite the school’s population of about 40 per cent black students compared with 60 per cent white. The expulsions raised concerns from the county commissioner that social media monitoring unfairly targeted black students, according to AL.com. The case raises questions about which students are most vulnerable when digitally tracked by both the school and police working in concert.
But Bobinski from Orange County schools emphasised that the system respects student privacy and only inspects student social media activity, which is public, should software-flagged content cause concern. Online activity would only appear on a school record if it led to disciplinary action. “We’ve been very transparent about what we’re looking for,” she said. “And that is to keep our students, our staff and our facilities a safe learning environment.” She was not able to confirm how long social media data is stored by SnapTrends.
But for lawyer Shear, the allocation of some $18,000 in school funds used to implement SnapTrends that could be used for digitally-minded education is particularly vexing. “[Schools] are not providing children the tools needed to protect their reputation, their privacy and to understand the law. Everything that these kids are doing online might have repercussions down the road,” he said.
“I think that’s something that’s missing in the conversation,” he continued. “I think that these companies are preying on the fears of these parents.”
— Washington Post(Jorge Ribas,McKenna Ewen/The Washington Post)
The High Plains dairy complex reflects the new scale of the U.S. organic industry: It is big.
Stretching across miles of pastures and feedlots north of Greeley, Colo., the complex is home to more than 15,000 cows, making it more than 100 times the size of a typical organic herd. It is the main facility of Aurora Organic Dairy, a company that produces enough milk to supply the house brands of Walmart, Costco and other major retailers.
“We take great pride in our commitment to organic, and in our ability to meet the rigorous criteria of the USDA organic regulations,” Aurora advertises.
But a closer look at Aurora and other large operations highlights critical weaknesses in the unorthodox inspection system that the Agriculture Department uses to ensure that “organic” food is really organic.
The U.S. organic market now counts more than $40 billion in annual sales and includes products imported from about 100 countries. To enforce the organic rules across this vast industry, the USDA allows farmers to hire and pay their own inspectors to certify them as “USDA Organic.” Industry defenders say enforcement is robust.
But the problems at an entity such as Aurora suggest that even large, prominent players can fall short of standards without detection.
With milk, the critical issue is grazing. Organic dairies are required to allow the cows to graze daily throughout the growing season — that is, the cows are supposed to be grass-fed, not confined to barns and feedlots. This method is considered more natural and alters the constituents of the cows’ milk in ways consumers deem beneficial.
But during visits by The Washington Post to Aurora’s High Plains complex across eight days last year, signs of grazing were sparse, at best. Aurora said its animals were out on pasture day and night, but during most Post visits the number of cows seen on pasture numbered only in the hundreds. At no point was any more than 10 percent of the herd out. A high-resolution satellite photo taken in mid-July by DigitalGlobe, a space imagery vendor, shows a typical situation — only a few hundred on pasture.
Bobby Prigel, owner of Prigel Family Creamery leads cows to morning milking in 2015 in Glen Arm, Md. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
In response, Aurora spokeswoman Sonja Tuitele dismissed the Post visits as anomalies and “drive-bys.”
“The requirements of the USDA National Organic Program allow for an extremely wide range of grazing practices that comply with the rule,” Tuitele said by email.
The milk from Aurora also indicates that its cows may not graze as required by organic rules. Testing conducted for The Post by Virginia Tech scientists shows that on a key indicator of grass-feeding, the Aurora milk matched conventional milk, not organic.
Tuitele dismissed the tests as “isolated.”
Finally, The Post contacted the inspectors who visited Aurora’s High Plains dairy and certified it as “USDA Organic.” Did the inspectors have evidence that the Aurora cows met the grazing requirement?
It turns out that they were poorly positioned to know.
The inspectors conducted the annual audit well after grazing season — in November. That means that during the annual audit, inspectors would not have seen whether the cows were grazing as required, a breach of USDA inspection policy.
“We would expect that inspectors are out there during the grazing season,” said Miles McEvoy, chief of the National Organic Program at the USDA. He said that the grazing requirement is “a critical compliance component of an organic livestock operation.”
Tuitele said: “We take these assertions very seriously, as we are a 100% certified organic producer, and our organic practices are the cornerstone of our operations.”
If organic farms violate organic rules, consumers are being misled and overcharged.
In the case of milk, consumers pay extra — often double — when the carton says “USDA Organic,” in the belief they are getting something different. Organic dairy sales amounted to $6 billion last year in the United States.
The failure to comply with organic standards also harms other farms, many of them small. Following the rules costs extra because grazing requires more land and because cows that dine on grass typically produce less milk.
Whether an organic dairy is grazing its herd is relatively easy to see, especially if roads crisscross its pastures. It is more difficult, however, for outsiders to judge whether a dairy is following other organic rules — such as those regarding hormones and organic feed.
Ten years ago, after a complaint from a consumer group, Aurora faced USDA allegations that it breached organic rules regarding grazing and other issues. The USDA charged that Aurora was in “willful violation” of organic standards, but a settlement agreement allowed it to continue to operate.
There have been no charges since then.
But some small organic dairy farmers say that the new, large organic dairies that have popped up in the West are violating standards.
On visits across several days to seven large organic operations in Texas and New Mexico in 2015, a Post reporter saw similarly empty pastures. It was difficult to determine where their milk winds up on retail shelves, however, so no chemical tests were pursued.
“About half of the organic milk sold in the U.S. is coming from very large factory farms that have no intention of living up to organic principles,” said Mark Kastel of the Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit group representing thousands of organic farmers. “Thousands of small organic farmers across the United States depend on the USDA organic system working. Unfortunately, right now, it’s not working for small farmers or for consumers.”
* * *
(Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
The “USDA Organic” seal that appears on food packaging — essentially a USDA guarantee of quality — was created by federal rules in 2000.
Until then, convincing customers that a product was “organic” could be a murky proposition — everyone relied on informal definitions of organic and informal measures of trust.
The “USDA Organic” seal changed that, standardizing concepts and setting rules. It has proved a boon: Organic food sales rose from about $6 billion annually in 2000 to $40 billion in 2015, according to the Organic Trade Association.
The integrity of the new label, however, rested on an unusual system of inspections.
Under organic rules, the USDA typically does not inspect farms. Instead, farmers hire their own inspectors from lists of private companies and other organizations licensed by the USDA. An inspector makes an annual visit, arranged days or weeks in advance. Only 5 percent of inspections are expected to be done unannounced.
To keep the inspectors honest, the USDA reviews the records of each inspection outfit about every 2½ years.
This inspection system saves the USDA money because it does not have to hire many inspectors. The compliance and enforcement team at the USDA National Organic Program has nine people — one for every $4 billion in sales.
McEvoy acknowledged that having farmers choose their inspection companies is “fairly unique” within the USDA, but he noted that rising sales show that consumers “trust the organic label.”
Others have doubts. Cornucopia publishes its own scorecard of organic dairies because, its officials say, the USDA has failed to weed out the bad.
“Consumers look at that cartoon label on organic milk with a happy cow on green pasture with a red barn, but that’s not always the reality,” said Katherine Paul of the Organic Consumers Association. “What we’ve said all along is that organic milks are not created equal, and your results show that.”
Many dairies much smaller than Aurora have come to rely on the “USDA Organic” label, investing in the opportunity it represents.
Several years ago, for example, Bobby Prigel, a fourth-generation dairyman with a 300-acre spread of rolling pastures and white plank fences in northern Maryland, made the switch.
With milk prices declining and feed costs rising, Prigel figured he had to try something different. The herd had been in the barn area for decades, munching feed. One day he shooed them out to pasture.
Here’s the funny thing, he said: His cows seemed confused. Though cows are natural grazers — like the wild aurochs they descended from — the grazing instincts of his cows had been dulled.
Bobby Prigel rounds up cows in 2015 in Glen Arm, Md. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
“They didn’t really know how to graze at first — they didn’t know how to bend down and get grass with their tongues,” Prigel said during a break on his farm. Nor were they accustomed to walking much.
Prigel, meanwhile, had to make economic adjustments.
Producing milk according to the “USDA Organic” standard costs more.
To begin with, organic cows cannot be given hormones to stimulate milk production. And any feed or pasture for the cows must be organic — that is, grown without most synthetic pesticides.
Second, to be considered organic, cows must obtain a certain percentage of their diet from grazing. Prigel is a purist and feeds his herd entirely from the pasture, but most organic dairies supplement the pasture with corn, soybeans or other grains, even during the grazing season.
The grazing requirement makes milk more costly to produce because it requires a certain amount of pasture land and because a grazing cow produces less milk than one eating a grain diet optimized for milk production.
With grass-fed cows, “there’s just not nearly as much milk,” Prigel said.
On the upside, a farmer can sell certified organic milk for almost double the price of conventional, and there are other benefits: The milk is measurably different, and according to the USDA, it improves cow health and reduces the environmental impacts of agriculture. Moreover, because grazing is natural cow behavior, some say it is more humane.
“Cows aren’t supposed to stay inside and eat corn,” Prigel said.
* * *
The grazing season typically runs from spring until the first frost. To evaluate the Aurora operation, The Post visited the High Plains dairy complex eight days during that period — three in August, three in September and two in October. Roads crisscross the farm, allowing a view of the fields. The Post’s visits ranged from about 45 minutes to as long as ten hours. In addition, in July, a satellite for DigitalGlobe snapped a high-resolution photo of the area.
Each of those 10 days, only a very small portion of the 15,000-cow herd was seen on pastures. Many more were seen in feed lots.
In response, Aurora officials said that during the grazing season the cows are on pasture both day and night. Maybe, they said, on those days, the cows were elsewhere, being milked or otherwise tended.
However, The Post visited at different times of the day, sometimes twice in a day. Because the cows are milked in shifts, thousands of them should be out at any given time, other organic farmers said.
Bobby Prigel at home in 2015. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Aurora did say that it stopped its grazing season on Sept. 30, so it’s not surprising no cows were seen on the two days in October. Aurora officials said they did so after exceeding the minimum of 120 grazing days. But the USDA says organic cows should graze throughout the grazing season, and the first frost was not until Oct. 20 in that area, according to weather records.
To see whether a lack of grazing was apparent in the milk, The Post turned to Virginia Tech dairy science professor Benjamin Corl, who analyzed eight milks, some organic, some not, and all bottled during grazing season. He performed the tests without knowing the brand names of the samples.
Grass-fed cows tend to produce milk with elevated levels of two types of fat. One of the distinguishing fats is conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA, which some regard as the clearest indicator of grass feeding. The other is an Omega-3 fat known as alpha-linolenic acid. Both have been associated with health benefits in humans, although the amounts found in milk are relatively small.
Another type of fat — linoleic acid, an Omega-6 fat — tends to be sparser in milks that are pasture-fed.
The results: Prigel’s milk stood out for its grassy origins. It ranked at the top for CLA and was a distant last for linoleic acid.
The milk from Snowville Creamery, another brand that boasts of pasture grazing, ranked second for CLA.
“Those two milks stood out like sore thumbs,” Corl said. “You can tell those animals have been on grass.”
At the other extreme were the conventional milks — from 365 and Lucerne. They ranked, as expected, at the bottom for the fats associated with grass feeding and at the top for the fat associated with conventional feeding.
Large organic brands — Horizon and Organic Valley — ranked roughly in between the extremes for two of the three measures.
As for Aurora’s milk, it was very close to conventional milk. On two of the three measures, CLA and linoleic acid, it was pretty much the same as conventional milk. On the third measure, alpha-linolenic acid, Aurora ranked slightly better than the conventional milks but below the other “USDA Organic” samples.
The milk tested by The Post had been processed at Aurora’s Colorado processing plant, according to the number stamped on the bottle. More than 80 percent of the milk that Aurora sells is produced at its own farms; it also purchases milk from other dairies, according to the company.
It was not the first time that Aurora milk has tested poorly for signs of grass feeding. In 2008, the Milkweed, a dairy economics report, compared Aurora’s milk to other organic milks. Of 10 organic milks ranked for the fats associated with grass feeding, Aurora’s was last.
“There has been an obvious failure by USDA to enforce the organic pasture standard,” Pete Hardin, editor and publisher of the Milkweed, said in a recent interview.
* * *
Tuitele, the Aurora spokeswoman, dismissed the milk tests and declined to comment in depth on them, saying that they were “isolated” and that there are “so many variables that are unknown.”
She suggested that Aurora milk may have tested differently not because of a lack of grazing but because Colorado pastures may have different plants. But milks from the Rocky Mountain region and those from the Mid-Atlantic vary little, according to a 2013 study of organic milks published in PLOS One.
Aurora’s inspectors also stood by Aurora’s milk.
While most inspectors are private organizations, Aurora hired staff from the Colorado Department of Agriculture, which it pays about $13,000 annually.
When asked about the Aurora inspection being done after grazing season, an official with the state agency initially suggested that other audits may have been conducted at High Plains last year. But Tuitele later wrote that the November visit was the only audit of its High Plains complex last year.
Aurora and its inspectors have been under scrutiny before.
About 10 years ago, the USDA launched an investigation into Aurora’s organic practices.
In April 2007, the USDA said it had identified “willful violations” of organic rules by the dairy. Aurora had, among other things, for three years “failed to provide a total feed ration that included pasture.”
The USDA proposed revoking Aurora’s organic status.
It also proposed suspending the Colorado Department of Agriculture from certifying organic livestock “due to the nature and extent of these violations.”
Four months later, though, the case was resolved.
Aurora pledged to make improvements and was allowed to continue operating. It issued a news release saying that the USDA had “dismissed the complaints... following an extensive review” — a finding contrary to the view at the USDA, which issued a news release saying “the complaint was not dismissed.” It noted that the consent agreement called for Aurora to “make major changes.”
For its part, the Colorado Department of Agriculture agreed “to make several changes in its operation,” including hiring more personnel and adding staff training, according to a USDA news release.
Aurora also settled a related class-action lawsuit for $7.5 million in 2012 and said it did not admit wrongdoing.
Since then, Aurora, already gargantuan, has continued to grow. In recent months it has been considering an expansion in Columbia, Mo., that may rely on milk from as many as 30,000 cows, according to local media coverage.
The growth of mega-dairies that may fall short of organic standards and produce cheaper milk appears to be crushing many small dairies, some analysts said.
“The mom and pop — the smaller traditional family dairies — who are following the pasture rules are seeing their prices erode,” said Hardin, the Milkweed editor. “It is creating a heck of a mess.”
Will Costello in Greeley contributed to this report.Lost in the coverage of President Obama's too-gentle smackdown of John
McCain at the health care reform summit - I would have preferred to
have heard something like, "You know, John, instead of whining about
all of my broken promises, why don't you take this opportunity to
apologize to your fellow citizens for inflicting that morally-impaired
harridan Sarah Palin on them?" - was something sublime that passed
this bitter old hack's lips while he was using his allotted time to
remind viewers how consumed with resentment he still is about entering
the history books as the first white man to lose a presidential
election to a (half) black man.
Health care legislation, McCain bellyached, was drawn up not in full
public view, as the president had pledged it would be, but was
"produced behind closed doors," in the kinds of back rooms that McCain
himself had hidden out in decades earlier while working on behalf of
his old buddy Charles Keating, architect of the nation's biggest
savings and loan collapse. Griped McCain about the health bill, "It
was produced with unsavory - I say that with respect - deal-making."
This unctuous blurt epitomizes the shameless hypocrisy that defines
the politics of the hate-fueled lunatic right, which our useless media
insists on covering as if it was the responsible middle. (The craven
spinelessness that defines the politics of the fear-fueled pathetic
left is the subject for another post.) McCain called the process
"unsavory," but did so "with respect." Let's take a moment to savor
that.
And then let's take another moment to appreciate exactly who is so
respectfully pointing his pious finger at Obaman seediness. A man who
graduated from the Naval Academy ranking 894th in a class of 899. A
man who left his disabled first wife for a rich young beer heiress,
who, once she was less young, he did not hesitate to call - in front
of witnesses whose reports have never been refuted - a "cunt." A man
whose frequent explosions of temper earned him the sobriquet "Senator
Hothead," and prompted one of those on the receiving end of his
disproportionate wrath to observe, "His volatility borders in the area
of being unstable." A man who got up in front of a crowd and told a
joke whose witless punch line explained why then-17-year-old Chelsea
Clinton was "so ugly." A man whose political career was built on
little more than having been a tortured POW, but who lacked the guts
to vote to ban waterboarding.
And finally, a man whose overriding need to be president - and whose
delusional belief that his spluttering, unprincipled essence qualified
him for it - led him to choose as his running mate a preternaturally
ignorant, demagogic harpy whose entire platform turned out to be
unearned umbrage. John McCain's casual willingness - while
unironically touting his slogan "Country First!" - to risk placing
this rabid witch one cancer-ridden 73-year-old heartbeat away from the
presidency makes him, to me, not the patriotic hero he likes to paint
himself as, but rather more of a traitor.Hornets defender Gabriele Angella is set for a deadline day loan switch to Queens Park Rangers, the Watford Observer understands.
The 26-year-old is due in West London tomorrow morning to undergo a medical after the Hoops agreed a deal with the Golden Boys and personal terms with the Italian centre-back.
Angella, who joined Watford two years ago from Udinese, hasn’t featured in any of the Hornets’ four Premier League fixtures and wasn’t included in the match-day squad for Saturday’s defeat at Manchester City.
His only appearance this season came in the League Cup defeat at Preston North End last Tuesday.
While Angella, who signed a new five-year deal this summer, has struggled to break into Watford’s first-team during the current campaign, he made 36 appearances last season as the Hornets clinched promotion to the Premier League under the guidance of Slavisa Jokanovic.
In total, Angella has played 82 times for the Golden Boys and has scored an impressive 11 goals.Research options
Click a bubble to change it's color to red, yellow or green. You can't change blue bubbles. Green means it's available right from the start. Yellow means you have to research it in-game and red means you'll never be able to build it in your scenario.Instead of changing them all manually you can just click the random or enable all buttons. Click the buttons left of random to change if it applies to all pages, or the current page only. Read the tooltip at the bottom-left of the window to see what each button does or what the current state of an item is.Click the x/x/x of an item to go to the ride improvements.If you decide to do it all manually, I'd advise you to make sure there are no researchable ride-improvements or disabled attractions. This makes it easier to change the sequence.Sequence tab - Left you can choose the category of which you want to change the research sequense. Click an attraction the then 'Move Up' or 'Move Down' to change the sequence. Attractions at the top of the lists will be researched first. Or simply click the Randomize button.Steven Madden Ltd. shares rose 5% in premarket trade Wednesday, after the company beat earnings estimates for the fourth quarter. The Long Island City, New York-based shoe designer said it had net income of $12.5 million, or 15 cents a share, in the quarter, down from $24.6 million, or 28 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Adjusted per-share earnings came to 42 cents, ahead of the 38 cents FactSet consensus. Sales rose 12.6% to $410.4 million, also ahead of the FactSet consensus of $402 million. "The trend-right product assortments created by Steve and his design team drove robust gains in our flagship Steve Madden brand in both footwear and handbags," Chief Executive Edward Rosenfeld said in a statement. The company said it is now expecting sales to grow 4% to 6% in 2019 over 2018. But it expects the bankruptcy of Payless ShoeSource to shave about 16 cents off adjusted EPS, however, reducing guidance to $1.75 to $1.83. The current FactSet consensus is for 2019 EPS of $1.92. Shares have gained 11.6% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained 1.8%.'Whether He's Pulling the Gun or Not...He's the Guy Who Made the Gun,' Allege Buckeye Lawyers About Man Said to Have Been Behind Florida 2000, Ohio 2004, RNC Emails, Congressional Computer Networks, & More...
Brad Friedman Byon 7/22/2008, 5:20am PT
-- Brad Friedman
Last week Ohio Attorney Cliff Arnebeck held a press conference in Columbus to announce his motion to lift the stay on the long-running King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell lawsuit in which massive improprieties, irregularities, and violations of the Voting Rights Act are alleged to have taken place in the 2004 Presidential Election in Ohio.
In the wake of the failure by the Buckeye State's Attorney General to properly investigate the allegations, and new evidence and testimony unearthed by Arnebeck and other private investigators, he is now asking that the stay on the lawsuit be lifted by the court in order to refocus the case and depose Karl Rove, and a number of other top GOP operatives believed to be involved in manipulating the results of the '04 election.
One of those operatives is Republican tech-guru Mike Connell.
Steve Heller covered last week's press conference for us, which featured comments from data security expert Stephen Spoonamore alleging fraud in the '04 election and Arnebeck's assertion that he believes "Rove will be identified as having engaged in a corrupt, ongoing pattern of corrupt activities specifically affecting the situation here in Ohio."
The following day, RAW STORY's Larisa Alexandrovna detailed related concerns by Arnebeck and Spoonamore concerning Diebold's questionable involvement in the 2002 Senate race in Georgia.
After last week's presser, Velvet Revolution's Brett Kimberlin sat down to follow up with Arnebeck and attorney/investigative journalist Bob Fitrakis, who participated in both the original '04 election lawsuits and has reported in detail on the related matters continuously since then at the Columbus Free Press.
In the video-taped interview, posted at right (appx. 10 mins), the two attorneys focus specifically on their concerns about GOP operative/IT specialist Connell, who, they allege, has been found to have been "at the scene of the crime" for numerous questionable elections since 2000. Connell's firm was also responsible for creating the RNC email systems used by Karl Rove and others. He is also said to have installed the existing Congressional computer networks for high-security House and Senate committees such as Judiciary and Intelligence.
[DISCLOSURE: The BRAD BLOG is a co-founder of VelvetRevolution.us.]
The complete text transcript of the interview follows below...
Transcript of the 7/17/2008 VelvetRevolution.us Interview
with Cliff Arnebeck and Bob Fitrakis VELVET REVOLUTION: Cliff and Bob you just had a press conference, talking about the next steps you are going to
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and where you came from, only then do you really realize how far adrift you’ve gone.” On the day the plug was finally pulled, Jonze and his collaborators held a ceremony at sunset to mark their liberation. They carried an eight-foot plastic crayon they had been given to the roof of the twelve-story building they were working in. “We threw it off and watched it fall and then shatter into a million pieces,” he remembers. “And I just had this huge sense of relief.”
Determined that this would never happen to him again, Jonze would soon go on to make two remarkable, and remarkably unusual, movies, Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, each a different kind of proof that when people did trust him to follow his own peculiar instincts and seek his own idiosyncratic truths, the results could be wonderful. What reason, then, to flinch from making a film of another classic children’s tale? He had now shown what he could do when left to his own devices. Besides, the book was just ten sentences and forty pages. What could there be to worry about?
‘Adaptation,’ Spike Jonze’s last movie, was released in 2002. Where the Wild Things Are, which he began work on not long afterward, finally comes out this month. When I first meet with Jonze, in May, he is on the top floor of a building in central London at a company called Framestore, in a room that is filled with row upon row of computer screens, the faces of various wild things frozen upon many of them. “I’m just deep in the throes of this thing,” he says.
For the benefit of anyone who was never a child, or who has somehow forgotten, the slender text of Maurice Sendak’s book describes how a misbehaving boy called Max finds himself on an island inhabited by a motley collection of toothy monsters known as wild things who make Max their king and romp with him while also letting slip that he might make good eating. For Jonze’s movie, the wild things have been filmed in real life, played by human “suit performers” in wild-thing costumes with static, impassive wild-thing faces. At Framestore these faces are being brought alive with the painstaking digital additions that will animate every single wild-thing expression. It’s quite a job.
Jonze shows me how the wild things’ expressions are determined. Worried that digitally created facial movements tend toward cliché, resorting to a constrained repertoire of simplistic emotions, Jonze devised a complicated work process. When the actors who provide the wild things’ voices recorded their parts, they did so together, acting out each scene as well as voicing them, and as they did this each actor had a separate camera focused on his or her face. It is this footage—of real-life expressions with all their unpredictable nuances—that the special-effects experts here are using as a reference. I watch as a technician clicks from the face of the wild thing called Ira to the raw footage of Forest Whitaker saying the same line. “Just making sure everything has an intention, comes with a thought,” Jonze explains. This seems a typical Spike Jonze decision: to embark upon an unmapped, inconvenient, cumbersome, labor-intensive process that others might consider unnecessary with faith that the end result will be imbued with a kind of realness that might, perhaps undetectably, make all the difference.
The history of Where the Wild Things Are is strangely tied up with the children’s-book adaptation Jonze didn’t make, Harold and the Purple Crayon. When Jonze was first taking studio meetings in the mid-’90s about possible films (early on, he turned down the second Ace Ventura movie), at one such meeting he spotted a copy of Maurice Sendak’s book lying on a table. Where the Wild Things Are was a story his mother had read to him as a child. “I can still totally hear the inflection of all the lines through her—I hear her delivery of them,” he says. “I do remember it being hypnotic. Just totally engrossing. Not even wanting to be Max, but just in being Max.” The book was there because Sendak had a production deal with that studio; Harold and the Purple Crayon was one of the projects he was producing. That was how Jonze got to know Sendak, and Sendak Jonze. The author, who is known for being prickly and protective when it comes to his work, liked what he found. As Sendak would later describe: “He was the strangest little bird I’d ever seen. He had fluttered into the world of the studios, and could he not be swatted dead, I knew he would manage. I had total faith in him.” It was then that Sendak first suggested Jonze might be the man to film his most famous book. Jonze wasn’t sure. “I’d percolate on it for a month and put the book next to my bed and read it before I went to bed and think about it,” Jonze remembers. Eventually he said no: “I turned it down because I had no idea what I could add to it.”
Sendak asked Jonze again after Being John Malkovich came out, and then once more after Adaptation. That was when it clicked. “It just hit me that wild things could be wild emotions,” says Jonze. “It was that simple of an idea. And all of a sudden, it seemed infinite where I could go from there.”
Jonze can be almost phobically reserved about the specifics of his early life (“Um, I just grew up in… I don’t know…in America?” he responds to my first direct question on the subject), but sometimes, as when he’s talking about childhood emotions, he’ll open up in a way that illuminates both movie and maker. “As a kid, that was really scary and confusing—both the wild emotions in me and the wild emotions in the people around me,” he says. “Unpredictable emotions, positive or negative—you don’t know where they’re coming from, you don’t know what they mean. Especially negative emotions. Your own behavior—you don’t know why you’re acting a certain way and it scares you, or you don’t know why somebody else is acting a certain way and it scares you. Big emotions that are unexplained are really scary. At least to me. I guess it’s anger, or sadness, guilt—or guilt for being angry, you know. Just the whole big mess that we’re sort of thrown into. Emotions are messy and hard to figure out. Hard to know where you start and the next person stops. Even as an adult, that’s a hard thing to know. As a kid it can be really confusing, because it’s all new and you’re trying to sort of make your map.”
That was what Where the Wild Things Are would be about.
it seems that there is a secret fact many people believe they know about Spike Jonze and can’t wait to share with me: that he is actually the heir to the Spiegel-catalog fortune. Grateful as I am for such pointers, they are making two mistakes. One is in believing that this information is truly secret. In fact it has been mentioned in print many times, often by reputable sources. For instance: “Jonze is a pseudonym used by Adam Spiegel, a 29-year-old Bethesda, Maryland–bred heir to the $3-billion-a-year Spiegel catalog business, who in June married Hollywood hipster princess Sofia Coppola at Francis Ford Coppola’s Napa Valley vineyard” (New York magazine, 1999). “Spike Jonze, the hip film director, didn’t let the fact that he was born Adam Spiegel, heir to the clothing-catalog fortune, sink him into a slough of pampered despond” (The New York Times, 2003).
The second, more fundamental mistake when it comes to this secret fact is that it is not a fact at all. Jonze is heir to nothing of the sort—the slur that he’s a spoiled brat slumming with the cool kids is a false one. Jonze insists he often used to set the record straight. “I think I gave up,” he says. When he did say anything, he would explain that his real name is Adam Spiegel but that he is only distantly related to the catalog family. That, too, is slightly misleading. The catalog was started at the beginning of the past century by the German émigré Joseph Spiegel and his son Arthur. Given that Spike’s father is called Arthur Spiegel III, this suggests that the genetic link is a pretty direct one; Jonze confirms this. “Yeah. I guess, my great-great-grandfather. But my family hasn’t…They sold it. So it’s by name only.” (His mother has been variously described as a writer, a communications consultant, and having worked in public relations; his father used to run a medical-consulting business.)
Nor is the name he now uses an alias he adopted to distance himself from his privilege. It came when he was about 13, when he would hang out at the BMX shop in Rockville, Maryland—the nexus of the teenage obsession that would eventually plug him into BMX and skate culture and lead him, the moment he left school, to head west to California as a writer and photographer for skate magazines. “Spike” was inspired both by the haircuts Jonze used to give others and by his own youthful skyward hair; “Jonze” completes a homophone of the old-time eccentric bandleader Spike Jones. Nothing at all to do with escaping the stigma that might accompany what I refer to as “a multimillion-dollar catalog fortune.”
This is a description Jonze takes real exception to.
“I thought it was multi_billion_-dollar,” he insists. “That’s the one I heard.”
armed with his “wild things = wild emotions” insight, Jonze worked on his own for about six months, writing pages and pages of notes and filling out the story of Max’s adventure with the wild things. He was excited by what he was coming up with, and Sendak was mostly supportive. “At a certain point,” says Jonze, “he was like, ‘I don’t care what’s in it. As long as you make something that is personal and that is dangerous and that takes it seriously and that doesn’t pander to kids and is honest, you can do whatever you want.’ ‘Take kids seriously,’ that’s what Maurice said, and that weaves right into my natural aesthetic and what I want it to feel like and what excites me.”
Jonze had never written a movie script before, but to him this seemed no impediment. “I never knew how to do anything before I did it, really,” he reasons. “Those are the situations that I find the most exciting. It’s most fun just to decide, ‘Okay, I’m going to choreograph this. I’ve never choreographed before, I’ve never really danced before, but I know what kind of dancing I like, so I’ll do that.’ ” It seems to him that such resolutions are less leaps of grandiose self-confidence than a way to reprise the unworried and unfettered creativity of childhood. “Like, if you were going to make a fort in your backyard,” he says, “you’re not going to go, like, hire someone to make your fort or go buy plans. You’re just going to have an idea for it and go make your fort.”
After a while, however, he decided it would be more fun to build this new fort with someone else. He asked Charlie Kaufman, who’d written both of his previous movies, but Kaufman was otherwise engaged. So he called Dave Eggers. They’d been friends since Eggers approached Jonze about filming his first book, _A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. _To write the _Wild Things _script, Jonze moved up to San Francisco, where Eggers lives, for several months, and they worked together in a rented room near the Castro. Eggers remembers how Jonze mapped out what he intended: “That it was going to be live-action, that there was going to be real danger, that it was going to be—like Maurice’s work—not necessarily written for kids even though it’s about a kid. I was always the guy, at least in this first year and a half when no one else got involved, that just kept on wondering how the hell he was going to pull it off. When we would write something, I would say, ‘Well, how are you going to do this?’ And he didn’t want to think about it then. It was really just about what’s best for the story. There was kind of a stunning, relentless commitment to that.”
Max was someone with whom they both strongly identified. “Spike is still half Max, probably, to this day,” Eggers says. “He’s still got a lot of boy in him.” (To this Jonze takes mock umbrage. “I’m 39!” he protests. “I’m a 39-year-old man!”) Though Eg-gers did the typing, this doesn’t mean he was in control. “Spike’s vision drove it all,” he says. “For every word on the page, there was an hour of talking, maybe. The recurring impulse was: Every word that went down had to be true, and it had to be right. It had to be something that was so true it hurt, I think. Efficiency, or deadline, didn’t factor into it.” He mentions one other facet of their nontraditional process: “I’ve never known a grown man to take as many naps as Spike does. ‘Yeah, it’s one o’clock—let’s take a nap.’ ” Eggers would get on with his own work until Jonze woke again.
“I like naps,” Jonze says. “I don’t drink coffee.
there seems no easy explanation for Spike Jonze’s speedy rise, as it is usually told, from BMX kid to skateboard photographer to innovative music videographer (the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage,” Weezer’s “Buddy Holly,” Fatboy Slim’s “Praise You”) to filmmaker. Jonze gives me the impression that he was a somewhat aimless high school student with no clear ambitions. Whether through modesty or his aversion to sharing, Jonze may be underplaying how early he blossomed. When I call his old photography teacher, Frank Stallings—the one school inspiration Spike mentions—Stallings paints a vivid picture of a small Mohawked boy who struggled academically but was inventive and popular and highly motivated, often away riding on BMX tours but already obsessed with filmmaking. “He ate and slept video,” says Stallings. “He was just so _talented. _I didn’t need to teach him.” In fact, Stallings says, a short film Jonze made and acted in back then won both county and state film competitions.
Charlie Kaufman’s Being John Malkovich script was apparently considered brilliant but unfilmable. The expectation could have been, from a very superficial knowledge of Jonze’s videos, that he would make the weird weirder, the wacky wackier, the gimmicky more gimmicky. But his smartness, and the source of the movie’s power, was to never lose track of the very human desires and foibles that lay at the center of all this strangeness. His videos thrived on what Eggers identifies as their “commitment to concept,” but the concept he committed to in his first two movies was an old-fashioned one—that, amid all the strangeness, at their center lie real, subtle emotions and the complicated, unpredictable ways these shift as an odd world changes around them.
After Being John Malkovich, Jonze agreed to film an F. Scott Fitzgerald story, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” but then backed away. “It was at a studio [Paramount] that I just didn’t hit it off with,” he says. Instead he turned back to Charlie Kaufman and _Adaptation, _which he calls “probably the best script I’ve ever read.”
They had planned a third movie together. After Adaptation, Amy Pascal, head of Sony, had suggested that Jonze and Kaufman make a horror movie. What they came up with, says Jonze, was not the regular horror pulp but “illness and mortality and heartbreak and loss—things that were actually horrifying.” That turned into Synecdoche, New York, a movie Kaufman would end up directing himself. By then, Jonze was too busy with creatures of his own.
originally, Jonze was to have made Where the Wild Things Are for Universal, but the studio eventually decided not to proceed. Its reaction to Jonze and Eggers’s script was the first presage of the rough times ahead. When I ask Jonze about Universal’s decision, it is before I have seen the finished movie.
“I could show you the movie, and then you can try and guess why they didn’t want to make it,” he says. “I’m sure it’s probably the same issues we had last year when we were editing and Warner Bros. was really anxious about the movie we were making. Because it’s just not what they pictured. It’s not what they think of when they make a children’s movie. The tone of it…it’s not like ‘a movie kid.’ It doesn’t have that movie reality. I tried to make it true to my memory, my experience, of being a human being at that age of life—what it’s like to be 9 and be alive. That was my goal. This movie is going to be in the children’s-movie section at the video store, and that’s fine, and our other movies were in the comedy section.” His expression seems to suggest that there is no point in being anything other than stoic in the face of a world that scrunches up and classifies everything in this manner. “I mean, they’ve got to put it somewhere. It doesn’t matter where it is.”
And when they put this in the children’s section?
“That’s fine, but I didn’t set out to make a movie they could put in the children’s section. I set out to make a movie that was about being 9 years old.”
For?
“Whoever connects to it.”
Does it matter if they’re 7 or 42?
“Not at all.”
Does it matter to the studio?
“More, probably.”
whenever I sit down with Jonze, he’ll pepper me with questions, as he does today at Musso & Frank in Hollywood. I don’t think it’s a ploy, but I’m also mindful of our time together being used up, so in the middle of my fifth or sixth answer, I pause for a moment and tell him that I will be shutting up in a second and making him talk.
“Okay,” he says. “Good luck.”
For almost as long as Spike Jonze has been doing interesting things, he has also been finding inventive ways to sidestep all but the most straightforward, practical queries about himself and what he does. Consider just a few representative examples:
The director’s interview on the Being John Malkovich DVD shows Jonze being questioned while driving a car. After about two minutes, he pulls over and throws up before the screen goes black. Appearing on Craig Kilborn’s show to promote his first movie, Jonze clearly managed to convince them it would be funny if he and Kilborn sat there without talking. The audience hears prerecorded voice-overs, supposedly their respective thoughts, as Jonze and Kilborn sit facing each other in silence. For an interview with Spin magazine, he took the writer to the home of a musician whom Jonze said he was hoping to make a music video with. The meeting was not a success. Jonze and the musician argued, the musician smashed Jonze’s chair, then threw him against a wall. Jonze retaliated by leaping onto the musician and raining punches on his head. It was, of course, a setup. (“He had some guy come to my house,” remembers Johnny Knoxville, who, pre-Jackass, played the angry-musician role. “I chased them both out of the house with a baseball bat—it worked out pretty good.”)
There have been many more. I’m not sure there’s a simple or obvious reason why Jonze acts and reacts, hides and disguises, in this way. Some of it is clearly just for fun and for the joy of the prank, whether or not that fun always spreads outward, but I’m sure it’s more than that.
As we eat today, I try to ask him about all these past strategies. His immediate reaction is to pretend not to know what I mean. “That’s not true!” he says accusingly. “I’m calling my lawyer! You just crossed the line!” But from what happens next, I think he may also be affronted at the implication that he would no longer act in such a way. Almost immediately, he springs to his feet. “Hold on a second,” he says.
A few yards away, in a nearby booth, a middle-aged man and woman are eating lunch. Jonze goes over to speak with them, and when he returns, the man comes with him.
“Chris,” says Jonze, “this is John Jackson, my attorney.”
“Hi, how are you doing?” the man says, offering his hand.
“He wanted to speak to you,” says Jonze, “about some of the defamation situations you’re drawing against my character right now.”
Playing along, I ask the man to spell out his exact objections.
“What?” he says, and looks at Jonze pleadingly. He’s doing his best. “I need more context,” he says.
“I’ll fill you in later, John,” Jonze says. “I just wanted him to know the threat was looming.”
“Good luck to you,” the would-be lawyer says to me before returning to his own booth. “You’re going to need it.”
“My attorney,” says Jonze. “The best attorney there is. The best attorney in town.”
He didn’t do so well just then, I say.
“No,” says Jonze, “he’s an idiot savant. People underestimate him, and then he goes in for the kill right at the end.”
Undeterred, I return to my original question—of why Jonze would engage with interviews in this manner.
“Can I just say: Why not?” he asks.
I have one more useless try at finding even half an answer to my original question: whether all this betrays a huge reluctance to share anything about himself.
He waits a moment before answering, as though considering his options.
“I feel like we’re entering therapy now,” he says. “Can I come over and get in the booth with you? I might need to be held.”
The things you’ll do, I say, to avoid answering a question.
He smiles broadly.
“I’ll cuddle with you,” he replies, “to avoid answering a question.”
I decline, but he has another idea.
“I could draw a tattoo on your arm for the rest of the interview.”
Why would you do that?
“Just to help answer some of your questions.”
He gets a green Sharpie from his bag, takes my left hand, and carefully draws a word on my knuckles. The word is “D-R-U-G-S.” He looks as happy as I see him. “Shall we go and get it inked in?” he suggest.
one of the great hurdles you face if you intend to make a realistic, powerful movie about a young boy is that of finding a boy who can carry your expectations. Max Records, the son of a Portland, Oregon, photographer, had appeared in a couple of music videos (for Cake and Death Cab for Cutie) but other than that had done no acting at all. His first audition with Jonze was not how he’d expected a movie audition might be. “Instead of making me read lines,” says Records, “he just made me do all this crazy stuff, like he took a Nerf gun that shoots little foam bullets, and I took an umbrella and deflected them like a light saber. Then he had some inflatable boxing gloves, and we were beating on each other.” Whatever Jonze was looking for within this, he found. “We were so lucky,” he says, “that we found this really special, soulful, sweet kid—sensitive and thoughtful. Just a freak of nature, a 9-year-old who already knows who he is so well. Max is the movie.”]
Max wasn’t involved in the first stage of filmmaking—what Jonze calls the “voice shoot,” recording the wild-thing actors’ voices—because Jonze wanted his reactions to remain fresh. Instead, Jonze would often play Max’s part. (There have been other substitute Mas along the way: At the script’s first table reading, Max was played by Brad Pitt. “He was so good,” Jonze remembers.) For the sound recording, the wild-thing voice actors—among them Whitaker and James Gandolfini—gathered for three weeks in Los Angeles on “a giant soundstage with shag carpeting.” There was lots of foam, to represent the scenery and for the actors to use when setting upon each other. “Once Gandolfini came into the room, he set the tone,” says Jonze, “just reckless abandon, throwing the actors around—he didn’t hold back at all. Just all out.”
“It’s very odd,” remembers Gandolfini. “You’re growling and you’re snarling and you’re howling, and sometimes you’d walk out of there like, ‘This is a fucking ridiculous way for a grown man to make a living.’ However, I think the end result, it’s a beautiful thing.” When I ask Gandolfini what Jonze was like, he says, “He’s incredibly smart, but he also did Jackass—that’s the kind of guy he is. He’s got a lot of things going on in there. He started tossing shit at your head, and there was one guy on the crew, he grabbed his underpants and tried to give him a wedgie. And he’s a strong little fucker, he really is. He’s very strong for a wiry little bastard. But he seems like he’s a kind, good person. Got a good temperament. Like, under pressure I’m a fucking raving lunatic, but under pressure he’s on a very even keel, and I admire that.” I also ask Gandolfini if he got a sense of what captivated and inspired Jonze to tell this story. “Um, I don’t know,” he says. “I don’t know if it’s something in his past or not. Actually, I do know, but I don’t want to say.”
Once the real-life filming concluded, Jonze cut together a version of the film that was still rough and unfinished (the wild things’ faces, for instance, were still inert), and in late 2007 there was a screening organized by the studio. That’s when the problems began.
“Really,” says Jonze, “the nitty-gritty of it all was that the studio was sort of nervous about it before, and they wanted to have an audience give them reason to be more nervous.” The movie was pushed back a year, and a difficult debate began. Rumors appeared in the press and online: that children fled the theater in tears; that the monsters were too frightening; that the whole movie was too adult, subversive, and scary and unsuitable for children; that the actor playing Max was a disaster; that his character was unlikable; that Warner Bros. was considering firing Jonze and reshooting the entire movie.
Jonze talks about this period uneasily. “To me it’s a small part of the movie—five months in the course of five years,” he says. “And it was kind of irrelevant. It was just a bummer. It was not easy or fun.”
Is it possible to summarize what kind of changes they were looking for?
“They wanted it to be a different movie. I think they really expected it to be more like a kind of pixie-dust movie. That was a word they used at one point: ‘Pixie dust.’ Magic. ‘Where’s the…?’ The specifics of the conversations are kind of pointless, because they’re behind us. The end result is I got to make the movie that I wanted to make.”
It was reported that kids were running out of the screening in hysterics.
“No, that wasn’t happening. I don’t know how that got reported.”
The implication was that you’d made a movie that scares the hell out of kids.
“It goes back to the whole testing-numbers thing, like, ‘We’ve got to get this many people to like this character’ and ‘this many people to think this’ and ‘this many people to feel this.’ I’ve never made a movie like that. I want anyone to feel anything that they want to feel. You can like a character, you can not like a character. Think something’s funny, think something’s sad, think something’s creepy. That’s not interesting, to make a movie where you try and make everyone feel the same thing, everyone think the same thing. You make a movie that is about what you want it to be about and let people have their reaction to it.”
I ask Jonze how much, when making an expensive movie like this, it becomes his problem to worry about the size or kind of audience it can reach.
“I think it’s my problem up to a certain point,” he says, “up until it takes me away from the movie I’m trying to make. I of course want to be responsible to somebody who’s giving me money, but I can’t let it take me off my path at the same time.”
“We didn’t see that coming,” says Eggers, “that anyone would think, ‘Oh, I don’t really like this boy’ because he howls, or that he doesn’t behave perfectly at home.” Back when they were writing, they never debated whether this was to be a movie for children or a movie about a child, or whether there was any need to consider any difference. “Pointedly, no,” says Eggers. “We just went back to Maurice. Maurice never thinks about what a kid’s going to want, or like necessarily, and he thinks of any of that as pandering. So the idea was, it’s a boy, let’s be true, and then let the chips fall where they might.” It was never meant to be a cozy experience. “It drives Maurice crazy that people think of it as this harmless canonical classic when he still considers it a provocative book—we were just hoping to sort of carry that over onto the screen.”
When the troubles started, they couldn’t help but be reminded of the resistance Sendak’s book had faced when it was first published—many reviewers and librarians found it scary and confusing—and to take succor from its eventual triumph. Perhaps the most perspicacious review it received, in the Cleveland Press, is one that Jonze and his collaborators would likely take to heart: “Boys and girls may have to shield their parents from this book. Parents are very easily scared.”
Jonze declines to discuss the specifics of what happened to resolve the situation, but by June 2008 he was free to shoot further footage. “The nature of the resolution—and it could be different from their point—is that they let me finish my movie,” he says. Jonze suggests that in the end it was less the movie that changed than maybe the studio began to embrace what it was, rather than what it wasn’t. “I think they really expected it to be a boy and I gave birth to a girl, and then they had to sort of learn: ‘What does that mean? How are we going to be a parent to a girl?’ Maybe they had anxieties about having a daughter or something. I think the movie that we made is the exact same version we screened—it’s just a better version of it.”
i was apprehensive about seeing Where the Wild Things Are. Perhaps Jonze really had overreached or had allowed the search for a certain kind of sensibility and truth to lead him astray. I was wrong to worry, though that’s not to say that Warner Bros. is completely insane in its concerns, for it is a very strange, magical, intense film. The first twenty or so minutes, where we see Max at home with his mother and sister, playing, being sweet, hurt, reckless, cruel, gentle, manipulative, elated, devastated, is an incredible evocation of what it is like to be a child—as I remember it, at least. What it is really like—not the familiar coded version of good kids and bad kids, innocence and venality, that we usually see on-screen.
One tumultuous night, Max flees the house (anyone, by the way, who doesn’t find Max Records’s performance fairly staggering would enjoy a very different kind of movie) and eventually ends up on an island where the wild things live. What happens here, the bulk of the movie, isn’t simple—either narratively, or emotionally, or in its tone. The adjective I use to describe it that Jonze seems most perturbed by is disturbing, but at times it is disturbing, both in terms of specific things that happen and in the way easy resolutions are declined. But I mean that as a compliment, and the movie is also savagely beautiful in unexpected, original ways, and funny, and sweet. The other thing I say about the movie that makes Jonze uncomfortable is—thinking about the issue of its audience and suitability for different age groups—that I wasn’t sure I was old enough to have seen it.
“Wow,” he says. “Shit.”
But by that I mean that none of us are ever quite ready for something that hits home in ways we aren’t expecting. It may be as the Cleveland newspaper reviewer said about Sendak’s book. If Jonze has judged it right, it may be that where adults are unsettled by certain kinds of truth, children will simply recognize them.
some questions just seem to paralyze Jonze. After I have seen the movie—among other things, a devastatingly brilliant depiction of divorce’s aftermath from a child’s viewpoint, a narrative theme that Jonze has added to Sendak’s story—I ask him when his own parents split up. This is his reply.
“I don’t know. I’m not sure. But, you know, I guess maybe I’m not sure because I don’t really want to talk about it.”
Fair enough, in its own way, but he won’t even be drawn out as to whether his own experience has any relevance at all to the movie he has made. We go back and forth. “The movie is the movie,” he finally says. “Why isn’t that enough?”
Given this, some of the other subjects that seem to horrify him are hardly surprising. I point out to him that, reading about him, half the articles are about how he is—
“A mathematical genius,” he interrupts. “I know.”
Actually, no—how he is one of the remarkable filmmakers of his generation, and the other half are about his relationships with famous people (for instance, ex-wife Sofia Coppola, Karen O, Drew Barrymore, and more recently, Michelle Williams).
“I guess they’re good articles to write,” he says. “If you even talk about it, it seems like participating in the nonsense. So fuck it.”
I wonder aloud whether it might not be completely absurd to ask about his marriage, at least in terms of the union of two of the emerging director talents of a generation.
“Well,” he says, “when we got together, we weren’t directors. But we sort of grew up together, in a way, from our early twenties to our early thirties.”
And was that a big influence on you?
“Definitely. Yeah. She was a big part of my life and a big part of forming who I was.”
I mention the common belief that Lost in Translation—in which Scarlett Johansson’s character’s husband is a photographer waylaid by work and other distractions—is a coded version of their marriage, and say that he must be aware of that perception.
“Yeah, I am,” he says. “But, you know, all I will say is that’s somebody who I was with for ten years. That’s not really how one would represent somebody.…” This sentence also trails off, and it feels like he’s caught between refuting what he considers an obvious absurdity and his distaste at having found himself, momentarily, even caring. If so, the latter wins out. “That’s all,” he says. “You can write whatever you want, but I won’t participate in that one, either.”
jonze may make other movies like Where the Wild Things Are, but he is clearly determined never to make another movie in the way he made Where the Wild Things Are. However proud he feels of the final result, and however much he succeeded in digging in his heels well and long enough to preserve his creation, it has surely taken a toll. “You know, I’ll certainly never be in a situation…” he begins. “I’ll still make movies for studios, but my editing process will be much further removed from the studio system. Because I don’t understand it. I don’t understand the whole testing-numbers thing. It is not how I want to make movies. So if that’s how they do it, then I don’t think I want to do it.”
I ask three members of the cast what they think Jonze’s new movie is about.
“It’s about real life,” says Max Records. “It’s about childhood. It’s about not talking down to kids.”
“It’s about all these different points of view,” says Catherine Keener, “and maybe how a family can be together and still be so distant, but want to be close and keep trying to be close. This real sense of yearning for love and closeness.”
“Trying to find a safe place,” says James Gandolfini, “in this fucking chaos we have created for ourselves. I think the movie shows that it’s not really anywhere. You’ve kind of got to maybe do the best you can, I guess.”
at musso & frank, Jonze tells me that he is late for an appointment, but I carry on asking and asking for as long as I can.
Why, I ask him, do you make movies
“I gotta go,” he repeats. “Why do I make movies? What a crazy question.”
Seriously, I say.
“I don’t know. I love making things. I just love making things.”
He appears relieved; it seemed an impossible question, but he found an answer.
Why, I ask, do you like making things?
For a second or two, I’m wondering whether, maybe, we’re stumbling toward a deep pool of the most intrinsic, majestic truths.
Spike Jonze looks at me, disbelieving. Answer a question, all you get is a worse one.
“Fuck!” he says.Paul Mitry moved to Canberra with his wife and three daughters – aged nine, seven and three – at the end of last year. It had
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records for box-office performance, and only just over a dozen titles have attracted 10 million admissions, which is equivalent to a fifth of the Korean population.
The crime actioner makes its international premiere Tuesday at Toronto International Film Festival. A special premiere will be held for Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers and their families on Wednesday before the film hits screens across major North America cities including Boston, Chicago, New York, Seattle and Vancouver on Friday via CJ Entertainment America.
Deep Trap, handled by Invent Stone, debuted at No. 3 by taking 9.4 percent of weekend sales. Its total earnings come down to about $1.4 million. Directed by Kwon Hyung-jin, the crime thriller is about a couple traveling to a remote island to be free from SNS and other modern-day worries, only to be met by a bizarre local who seems to know too much about them.
The Beauty Insidecame in next at No. 4, maintaining its position from the week before by accounting for 6.9 percent of the share. The Next Entertainment World (NEW) title surpassed Love Forecast to cross 2 million admissions on Monday, becoming the most-watched rom-com of 2015. In financial terms, it has so far grossed $13.242 million.
Last but not least, the blockbuster period actioner Assassination also stood strong at fifth place. The Showbox/Mediaplex film brought in 4.6 percent of the revenue during this time frame, for a gross total of nearly $83 million. Its attendance record comes down to over 12.65 million to remain the top film of the year and the fourth most popular Korean film of all time.ROCHESTER, MN—A comprehensive five-year study conducted by researchers at the Mayo Clinic has identified a strong link between heavy drinking during pregnancy and attending a public performance by Detroit-based rap-rocker Kid Rock, officials confirmed Wednesday. “Our survey found that expectant mothers who consumed hard liquor were far more likely to be at a Kid Rock concert than a control group who did not drink,” said Dr. Lawrence Talmage, whose research also indicated that 78.3 percent of women who drank to intoxication while pregnant were wearing shredded T-shirts and riding atop the presumed father’s shoulders during encores of “All Summer Long” and “Bawitdaba.” “Across all three trimesters, drinking three or more alcoholic beverages in less than an hour was highly correlated with going backstage at a Kid Rock show and then getting into a fistfight with another woman in the parking lot.” The study also suggested that combining recreational drug use with drinking during pregnancy made women twice as likely to scream “Sign my titty!” outside the band’s tour bus.
AdvertisementFrom left, Deputy Attorney General James Cole; National Security Agency (NSA) Deputy Director Chris Inglis; NSA Director Gen. Keith B. Alexander; Deputy FBI Director Sean Joyce; and Robert Litt, general counsel to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence; prepares to testify on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 18, 2013, before the House Intelligence Committee hearing regarding NSA surveillance. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. foiled a plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange because of the sweeping surveillance programs at the heart of a debate over national security and personal privacy, officials said Tuesday at a rare open hearing on intelligence led by lawmakers sympathetic to the spying.
The House Intelligence Committee hearing provided a venue for officials to defend the once-secret programs and did little probing of claims that the collection of people's phone records and Internet usage has disrupted dozens of terrorist plots. Few details were volunteered.
Army Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, said the two recently disclosed programs — one that gathers U.S. phone records and another that is designed to track the use of U.S.-based Internet servers by foreigners with possible links to terrorism — are critical. But details about them were not closely held within the secretive agency. Alexander said after the hearing that most of the documents accessed by Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former systems analyst on contract to the NSA, were on a web forum available to many NSA employees. Others were on a site that required a special credential to access. Alexander said investigators are studying how Snowden did that.
He told lawmakers Snowden's leaks have caused "irreversible and significant damage to this nation" and undermined the U.S. relationship with allies.
When Deputy FBI Director Sean Joyce was asked what is next for Snowden, he said, simply, "justice." Snowden fled to Hong Kong and is hiding.
In the days after the leaks, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers cited one attack that he said was thwarted by the programs. In the comments of other intelligence officials, that number grew to two, then 10, then dozens. On Tuesday, Alexander said more than 50 attacks were averted because of the surveillance. These included plots against the New York subway system and a Danish newspaper office that had published cartoon depictions of Muhammad.
In a new example, Joyce said the NSA was able to identify an extremist in Yemen who was in touch with Khalid Ouazzani in Kansas City, Mo., enabling authorities to identify co-conspirators and thwart a plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange.
Ouazzani pleaded guilty in May 2010 in federal court in Missouri to charges of conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization, bank fraud and money laundering. Ouazzani was not charged with the alleged plot against the stock exchange. Joyce said the arrest was made possible by the Internet surveillance program disclosed by Snowden.
Joyce also said a terrorist financier in San Diego was identified and arrested in October 2007 because of a phone record provided by the NSA.
The individual was making phone calls to a known designated terrorist group overseas, Joyce said. He confirmed under questioning that the calls were to Somalia.
Alexander said the Internet program had helped stop 90 percent of the 50-plus plots he cited. He said just over 10 of the plots thwarted had a connection inside the U.S. and most were helped by the review of phone records. Still, little was offered to substantiate claims that the programs have been successful in stopping acts of terrorism that would not have been caught with narrower surveillance. In the New York subway bombing case, President Barack Obama conceded the would-be bomber might have been caught with less sweeping surveillance.
Officials have long had the authority to monitor email accounts linked to terrorists but, before the law changed, needed to get a warrant by showing that the target was a suspected member of a terrorist group. In the disclosed Internet program named PRISM, the government collects vast amounts of online data and email, sometimes sweeping up information on ordinary American citizens. Officials now can collect phone and Internet information broadly but need a warrant to examine specific cases where they believe terrorism is involved.
Alexander said he would provide the lawmakers more details on the 50-plus plots Wednesday but the details would be classified.
Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the panel's top Democrat, said the programs were vital to the intelligence community and assailed Snowden's actions as criminal.
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MemberActivity: 92Merit: 10 Re: Scalability July 14, 2010, 01:57:48 AM #21 I think a lightweight client would need to trust the fast node it talks to that sees every transaction.
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TopSoil
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NewbieActivity: 9Merit: 0 Re: Scalability July 14, 2010, 02:15:31 AM #22 Quote That's not bad. Actual network bandwidth will be higher (the way the network is connected you get the same transaction multiple times from your peers). You won't be running an always-connected-network node on your iPhone, but any low-cost server will give you twenty times that bandwidth per month. And 18GB isn't much disk space in these days of terabyte hard drives.
Not bad? huh? That seems totally broken to me.
I'm less worried about storage space than the bandwidth and time it will take a new node to enter the network.
Like you said the blocks are duplicated so a given node must download some multiple of the transactions a day. That is a tremendous amount of downloading.
Also any new node must download 216GB for each year the network has been this large!
Doesn't the system also just completely break at some point when the rate of transactions is too high? I could be wrong since I'm not sure exactly how it is decided which transactions go into a particular block. Again the pdf is kind of lacking.
Also isn't there a problem when 2 computers both solve a block before they realize the other one has? This will become more and more likely as there are more nodes.
Quote Eventually, if Bitcoin survives and gets as popular as credit cards for paying for stuff I expect somebody will create a compatible version with a more efficient network structure (maybe by that time there will be
But it seems like a lot of these things aren't just issues of network structure. They seem inherent in the cryptographic design so it wouldn't be that straight forward to replace. Plus why not address these issues now if only to instill faith that the system is well thought out rather than just wave hands and say "computers will be faster" or "we'll tack on some better networking later"
Again I think the general idea is great and I hope the developers have good answers for all these questions. I just want to understand it/make sure it has been thought through carefully enough. I sincerely hope that it actually can work. I'd love to never have to use paypal again.
Not bad? huh? That seems totally broken to me.I'm less worried about storage space than the bandwidth and time it will take a new node to enter the network.Like you said the blocks are duplicated so a given node must download some multiple of the transactions a day. That is a tremendous amount of downloading.Also any new node must download 216GB for each year the network has been this large!Doesn't the system also just completely break at some point when the rate of transactions is too high? I could be wrong since I'm not sure exactly how it is decided which transactions go into a particular block. Again the pdf is kind of lacking.Also isn't there a problem when 2 computers both solve a block before they realize the other one has? This will become more and more likely as there are more nodes.But it seems like a lot of these things aren't just issues of network structure. They seem inherent in the cryptographic design so it wouldn't be that straight forward to replace. Plus why not address these issues now if only to instill faith that the system is well thought out rather than just wave hands and say "computers will be faster" or "we'll tack on some better networking later"Again I think the general idea is great and I hope the developers have good answers for all these questions. I just want to understand it/make sure it has been thought through carefully enough. I sincerely hope that it actually can work. I'd love to never have to use paypal again.
Gavin Andresen
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LegendaryActivity: 1652Merit: 1018Chief Scientist Re: Scalability July 14, 2010, 02:20:45 AM #23 Quote from: spaceshaker on July 14, 2010, 01:52:00 AM Quote from: gavinandresen on July 14, 2010, 12:42:32 AM And I expect most of us will be running lightweight clients that just keep our wallets, sign transactions, and send and receive transactions to the ultra-fast nodes that ARE looking at every transaction.
Is this possible? What would this look like? From a technical perspective what does a "lightweight client" look like for you? My understanding is that the Bitcoin client needs the entire block chain in order to establish trust.
Is this possible? What would this look like? From a technical perspective what does a "lightweight client" look like for you? My understanding is that the Bitcoin client needs the entire block chain in order to establish trust.
A lightweight client would have a wallet with coins in it (public+private key pairs).
And a secure way of sending messages to, and getting messages from, any of the ultra-fast, always-connected heavyweight nodes.
The lightweight client sends money by:
creating a transaction (signing coins with the private key)
sending the signed transaction securely to the ultra-fast server, which puts it on the network.
receiving confirmation that the transaction was valid and sent, and updating its wallet (marks coins as spent)
(or getting a "you already spent those coins" error from the server)
The lightweight client receives money by:
Either polling the server every once in a while, asking "Any payments to these BC addresses that I have in my wallet?"
... or asking the server to tell it whenever it sees a transaction to a list of BC addresses (or maybe when it sees
a relevant transaction with N confirmations)
When transactions occur, the lightweight client updates its wallet (adds the coins).
You don't have to trust the server; it never has your private keys.
Well, you do have to trust that the server doesn't lie about whether your transactions are valid or not, but why would the server lie about that?
I'm imagining:A lightweight client would have a wallet with coins in it (public+private key pairs).And a secure way of sending messages to, and getting messages from, any of the ultra-fast, always-connected heavyweight nodes.The lightweight client sends money by:creating a transaction (signing coins with the private key)sending the signed transaction securely to the ultra-fast server, which puts it on the network.receiving confirmation that the transaction was valid and sent, and updating its wallet (marks coins as spent)(or getting a "you already spent those coins" error from the server)The lightweight client receives money by:Either polling the server every once in a while, asking "Any payments to these BC addresses that I have in my wallet?"... or asking the server to tell it whenever it sees a transaction to a list of BC addresses (or maybe when it seesa relevant transaction with N confirmations)When transactions occur, the lightweight client updates its wallet (adds the coins).You don't have to trust the server; it never has your private keys.Well, you do have to trust that the server doesn't lie about whether your transactions are valid or not, but why would the server lie about that? How often do you get the chance to work on a potentially world-changing project?
knightmb
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Sr. MemberActivity: 322Merit: 250mymdn.io Re: Scalability July 14, 2010, 03:36:51 AM #24
Since the network can be participated by both dedicated server farms and Joe Blow with his laptop, you still maintain the open network and crypto security that you need, but also offer another solution for those less technical and wanting an easy click and send interface that they have now, website payments, etc.
I mean, I'm seeing stories about Bit Coin all over the web now, so the popularity is coming quickly and people are going to poke around the source code and program, then come here to make suggestions/complaints/worship/etc.
Might as well get a head start.
It's win/win because people can run thin clients, people can run servers, and those that don't trust either can run their own client/server/p2p application themself, but it all benefits BitCoin one way or another. I think then now would be a good point to work out a separate "server" and "client" for the next release. Those want to run servers that sit on fast fiber connections and run 24/7 (like myself) can do this for the good of the service. Those that just want to send money from point A to point B can use the client which either function as a full blown node server (like it does now) or give the option to connect to "trusted" servers in the network and just have the server do the hard work and report back to the client when coins are transfered around properly.Since the network can be participated by both dedicated server farms and Joe Blow with his laptop, you still maintain the open network and crypto security that you need, but also offer another solution for those less technical and wanting an easy click and send interface that they have now, website payments, etc.I mean, I'm seeing stories about Bit Coin all over the web now, so the popularity is coming quickly and people are going to poke around the source code and program, then come here to make suggestions/complaints/worship/etc.Might as well get a head start.It's win/win because people can run thin clients, people can run servers, and those that don't trust either can run their own client/server/p2p application themself, but it all benefits BitCoin one way or another.
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Gavin Andresen
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LegendaryActivity: 1652Merit: 1018Chief Scientist Re: Scalability July 14, 2010, 04:22:49 AM #25 Making it easier for merchants to accept bitcoins, and users to pay using them, aught to be priority number 1.
There's a great talk by the CTO of Facebook available on Youtube, and I think he gave the right advice on scaling:
Don't worry much about it until just before it becomes a problem. Don't overengineer, because you're likely to waste time doing something that turns out to be irrelevant.
I think Satoshi has done an amazingly fantastic job; over the last two days of Bitcoin being "slashdotted" I haven't heard of ANY problems with Bitcoin transactions getting lost, or of the network crashing due to the load, or any problem at all with the core functionality.
Yes, it's annoying to have to wait for the block chain to download (especially with the Microsoft Security Essentials weirdness), and yes it would be nice if all the pieces of Bitcoin functionality were already nicely separated and ready to be rearranged and extended in all the ways we all want to rearrange and extend it. But I've been poking at the Bitcoin code for over a month now, and the more I learn the more impressed I become at the thought that's gone into it.
This quote seems appropriate:
"We reject: kings, presidents and voting.
We believe in: rough consensus and running code." -- David D. Clark
How often do you get the chance to work on a potentially world-changing project?
spaceshaker
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NewbieActivity: 8Merit: 0 Re: Scalability July 14, 2010, 11:31:16 AM #26 Quote from: gavinandresen on July 14, 2010, 04:22:49 AM Making it easier for merchants to accept bitcoins, and users to pay using them, aught to be priority number 1.
Quote from: gavinandresen on July 14, 2010, 04:22:49 AM Don't worry much about it until just before it becomes a problem. Don't overengineer, because you're likely to waste time doing something that turns out to be irrelevant.
I agree with both points but they also seem to be somewhat mutually contradictory to me (this may be because of ignorance more than anything). Perhaps you can illuminate what steps you think need to be taken to "make it easier for merchants to accept bitcoins and users to pay using them". In my view, having a lightweight client, build on fairly open standards would facilitate making transactions easier. Ideally this lightweight client would/could be implemented in a number of languages/platforms.
Quote from: gavinandresen on July 14, 2010, 04:22:49 AM Don't worry much about it until just before it becomes a problem. Don't overengineer, because you're likely to waste time doing something that turns out to be irrelevant.
This is certainly good advice: "beware of premature optimization". I would like to point out though that optimization and system architecture are different beasts. Planning for scalability is a system architecture task. The whole "Don't overengineer" paradigm is more of an implementation & design principle and suggests that we should be agile in that we only implement what we need today. An agile perspective does not preclude thinking about and planning out the system architecture, at least testing assumptions mentally and ensuring that "it could scale" when the time comes for that ability to be added. I have been involved in a number of projects that failed not because the underlying technology was bad, but because scalability was never considered or tested up front. Everything worked perfectly until the system was put "to the (scalability) test". A lack of planning and foresight up-front was usually the cause.
Quote from: gavinandresen on July 14, 2010, 04:22:49 AM This quote seems appropriate:
"We reject: kings, presidents and voting.
We believe in: rough consensus and running code." -- David D. Clark
I like this quote. There is certainly something to be said for having something that works. I tend to struggle with being a bit of a purist; I have to work at pragmatism. Having said this, you can say: "we have great software. It has very few bugs and it hardly ever crashes" and that all sounds well and good until the day it becomes untrue. Scalability issues can hit you quickly and silently, especially in this day-in-age.
My preference would be, for a project like this, would be to continue to have "working software" but also establish a well defined road-map of where we hope the software is going. This road map needs to discuss scalability and how we envision a system with a million transactions a day would work and looks, not just today but 20 years from now. A currency needs to be resilient. For people to assign value to Bitcoin they need to perceive that it has value and that it is safe. This means they need to be able to trust that the infrastructure & design is (and will be) perpetually reliable. Unfortunately I don't Bitcoin, if it is to be successful, as the luxury of being just another hacked together open source project (I'm not implying that it is hacky...I'm implying that the prevailing mindset and practice in open source tends to be a "hack it together" mind set). I agree with both points but they also seem to be somewhat mutually contradictory to me (this may be because of ignorance more than anything). Perhaps you can illuminate what steps you think need to be taken to "make it easier for merchants to accept bitcoins and users to pay using them". In my view, having a lightweight client, build on fairly open standards would facilitate making transactions easier. Ideally this lightweight client would/could be implemented in a number of languages/platforms.This is certainly good advice: "beware of premature optimization". I would like to point out though that optimization and system architecture are different beasts. Planning for scalability is a system architecture task. The whole "Don't overengineer" paradigm is more of an implementation & design principle and suggests that we should be agile in that we only implement what we need today. An agile perspective does not preclude thinking about and planning out the system architecture, at least testing assumptions mentally and ensuring that "it could scale" when the time comes for that ability to be added. I have been involved in a number of projects that failed not because the underlying technology was bad, but because scalability was never considered or tested up front. Everything worked perfectly until the system was put "to the (scalability) test". A lack of planning and foresight up-front was usually the cause.I like this quote. There is certainly something to be said for having something that works. I tend to struggle with being a bit of a purist; I have to work at pragmatism. Having said this, you can say: "we have great software. It has very few bugs and it hardly ever crashes" and that all sounds well and good until the day it becomes untrue. Scalability issues can hit you quickly and silently, especially in this day-in-age.My preference would be, for a project like this, would be to continue to have "working software" but also establish a well defined road-map of where we hope the software is going. This road map needs to discuss scalability and how we envision a system with a million transactions a day would work and looks, not just today but 20 years from now. A currency needs to be resilient. For people to assign value to Bitcoin they need to perceive that it has value and that it is safe. This means they need to be able to trust that the infrastructure & design is (and will be) perpetually reliable. Unfortunately I don't Bitcoin, if it is to be successful, as the luxury of being just another hacked together open source project (I'm not implying that it is hacky...I'm implying that the prevailing mindset and practice in open source tends to be a "hack it together" mind set).
TopSoil
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NewbieActivity: 9Merit: 0 Re: Scalability July 14, 2010, 12:39:51 PM #27 Quote There's a great talk by the CTO of Facebook available on Youtube, and I think he gave the right advice on scaling:
Don't worry much about it until just before it becomes a problem. Don't overengineer, because you're likely to waste time doing something that turns out to be irrelevant.
He is also talking about a website. The scalability issues with websites are well known and solved and can be easily tacked on as you get bigger. So yeah you don't need to worry about them when you start. bitcoin is a whole new beast.
Having a collection of servers that act as transaction clearing houses for people would probably work but it seems to break the whole p2p idea of the system. And I think isn't necessary if you design the system right in the first place.
It seems like the best thing would be to lay the system on top of a DHT like kademlia. Maybe you can do this later I'm not sure. Again the documentation is lacking so it is hard to tell if you can easily break the chain apart in order to stick it in a DHT later. I was hoping the devs would stop by and answer maybe they are too busy improving the docs...
He is also talking about a website. The scalability issues with websites are well known and solved and can be easily tacked on as you get bigger. So yeah you don't need to worry about them when you start. bitcoin is a whole new beast.Having a collection of servers that act as transaction clearing houses for people would probably work but it seems to break the whole p2p idea of the system. And I think isn't necessary if you design the system right in the first place.It seems like the best thing would be to lay the system on top of a DHT like kademlia. Maybe you can do this later I'm not sure. Again the documentation is lacking so it is hard to tell if you can easily break the chain apart in order to stick it in a DHT later. I was hoping the devs would stop by and answer maybe they are too busy improving the docs...
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NewbieActivity: 8Merit: 0 Re: Scalability July 14, 2010, 02:06:05 PM #28 Quote from: TopSoil on July 14, 2010, 12:39:51 PM Having a collection of servers that act as transaction clearing houses for people would probably work but it seems to break the whole p2p idea of the system. And I think isn't necessary if you design the system right in the first place.
It depends on how it was implemented. I don't think having transaction clearing houses necessarily excludes p2p. It depends on how the network was implemented. Assuming things remained open, the transaction clearing houses could still be p2p. Anybody could join in and work to clear transactions. It's just that it wouldn't be required in order to send/receive transactions. It would actually be extremely beneficial if there were literally thousands of transaction clearing houses or if some regular users did participate in the full system to prevent the established clearing houses from conspiring together to cheat the system. That is one of the beauties of bitcoin IMO.
Quote from: TopSoil on July 14, 2010, 12:39:51 PM It seems like the best thing would be to lay the system on top of a DHT like kademlia. Maybe you can do this later I'm not sure. Again the documentation is lacking so it is hard to tell if you can easily break the chain apart in order to stick it in a DHT later. I was hoping the devs would stop by and answer maybe they are too busy improving the docs...
Although DHT is an interesting concept I don't know if it really solves the problem. Smartphones are a good use case:
You don't want to be acting as a peer on a p2p network with a smartphone. It hurts battery life and it could be costly in cellular data charges.
Smartphones don't have the processing power or storage capacity to either process blocks or store even parts of the block chain.
The future is not desktop PCs but is "thin" machines like smartphones, tablets and netbooks. These lightweight devices will vastly out-number PCs in the years to come. It isn't tenable to participate in p2p from a thin device, at least in the forseeable future. I think Gavin's ideas of a lightweight bitcoin client seem to address this issue. It depends on how it was implemented. I don't think having transaction clearing houses necessarily excludes p2p. It depends on how the network was implemented. Assuming things remained open, the transaction clearing houses could still be p2p. Anybody could join in and work to clear transactions. It's just that it wouldn't be required in order to send/receive transactions. It would actually be extremely beneficial if there were literally thousands of transaction clearing houses or if some regular users did participate in the full system to prevent the established clearing houses from conspiring together to cheat the system. That is one of the beauties of bitcoin IMO.Although DHT is an interesting concept I don't know if it really solves the problem. Smartphones are a good use case:The future is not desktop PCs but is "thin" machines like smartphones, tablets and netbooks. These lightweight devices will vastly out-number PCs in the years to come. It isn't tenable to participate in p2p from a thin device, at least in the forseeable future. I think Gavin's ideas of a lightweight bitcoin client seem to address this issue.
D҉ataWraith
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MemberActivity: 60Merit: 10 Re: Scalability July 14, 2010, 03:26:04 PM
Last edit: July 14, 2010, 03:39:54 PM by D҉ataWraith #29 Quote from: TopSoil on July 14, 2010, 12:39:51 PM Having a collection of servers that act as transaction clearing houses for people would probably work but it seems to break the whole p2p idea of the system.
Why? E-Mail and can run their own server, and many do, but most users prefer to use someone else's server(s).
Edit: Even more closely related: Kazaa and Gnutella work the same way, too. You connect to a supernode that then searches for files on your behalf. Why? E-Mail and Jabber work the same way. Everyonerun their own server, and many do, but most users prefer to use someone else's server(s).Even more closely related: Kazaa and Gnutella work the same way, too. You connect to athat then searches for files on your behalf. 1NvcPV6xi6yqo5yg8aWSkNdasPSAsGtt1m
TopSoil
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NewbieActivity: 9Merit: 0 Re: Scalability July 14, 2010, 03:59:18 PM #30 Quote Why? E-Mail and Jabber work the same way. Everyone can run their own server, and many do, but most users prefer to use someone else's server(s). Sure it can work that way but is that the ideal? Doesn't that make the network less robust and more vulnerable to attacks and manipulation? What happens if some attackers start running a cluster of supernodes? The main point is why rely on this more vulnerable architecture when you don't have to? It isn't easier to implement.
Quote Edit: Even more closely related: Kazaa and Gnutella work the same way, too. You connect to a supernode that then searches for files on your behalf. Yeah and I would argue neither of those systems are very well designed. Limewire replaced the gnutella routing with Kademlia actually.
spaceshaker: yes I agree there will have to be nodes that act as proxies for mobile devices. Sure it can work that way but is that the ideal? Doesn't that make the network less robust and more vulnerable to attacks and manipulation? What happens if some attackers start running a cluster of supernodes? The main point is why rely on this more vulnerable architecture when you don't have to? It isn't easier to implement.Yeah and I would argue neither of those systems are very well designed. Limewire replaced the gnutella routing with Kademlia actually.spaceshaker: yes I agree there will have to be nodes that act as proxies for mobile devices.
Jman
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NewbieActivity: 2Merit: 0 Re: Scalability July 14, 2010, 04:06:13 PM #31 Having to download the entire chain also causes issues with new user acceptance. I installed bitcoin on an older box I have and it took about 4 hours to download the entire chain. As time goes on this is only going to get worse. While this is a minor annoyance for most people here with fast connections and servers, if bitcoin were to actually get wider acceptance outside the tech circle it would be a deal breaker.
Say your neighbor wanted to buy something with bitcoins. You tell him to install the program, then go to the exchange and buy some coins. Sounds great, right? How do you think he will feel about the transaction when he has to wait 8 hours after installing the program to get his bitcoins because he has to download a chain with 200,000 blocks? Do you think he would recommend it to his friends? To gain more widespread acceptance, initial transactions would need to overcome this factor.
knightmb
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Sr. MemberActivity: 322Merit: 250mymdn.io Re: Scalability July 14, 2010, 04:34:44 PM #32 Quote from: Jman on July 14, 2010, 04:06:13 PM Having to download the entire chain also causes issues with new user acceptance. I installed bitcoin on an older box I have and it took about 4 hours to download the entire chain. As time goes on this is only going to get worse. While this is a minor annoyance for most people here with fast connections and servers, if bitcoin were to actually get wider acceptance outside the tech circle it would be a deal breaker.
Say your neighbor wanted to buy something with bitcoins. You tell him to install the program, then go to the exchange and buy some coins. Sounds great, right? How do you think he will feel about the transaction when he has to wait 8 hours after installing the program to get his bitcoins because he has to download a chain with 200,000 blocks? Do you think he would recommend it to his friends? To gain more widespread acceptance, initial transactions would need to overcome this factor.
I agree, I've been looking into packaging "blocks" for download so that you can install the client, unzip a fresh stack of blocks and let the client finish off the rest to get people up and running faster. I'm experimenting with Windows and Linux clients (don't have a Mac that can run the Mac client, sorry folks)
Hopefully that will help with the issue.
Of course, the trust factor comes in (should I download these from this guy instead of letting the network do it for me)
I agree, I've been looking into packaging "blocks" for download so that you can install the client, unzip a fresh stack of blocks and let the client finish off the rest to get people up and running faster. I'm experimenting with Windows and Linux clients (don't have a Mac that can run the Mac client, sorry folks)Hopefully that will help with the issue.Of course, the trust factor comes in (should I download these from this guy instead of letting the network do it for me)
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5,000 women (the lowest crude estimate of former comfort women who returned to the Korean peninsula) committed suicide or died of sexually-transmitted and other diseases that left their minds and bodies "manshinchang," meaning tattered to shreds. The ailments and hunger were compounded by "han," hearts bruised to pulp. This was the price of their silence.This was the price set by their fathers, mothers, and fellow countrymen.
The framed calligraphy work in his office, defining Kim Jong-pil's canon of politics (and life) ― "Merely Smile and Offer No Answer" ― witnesses his stunning rise as one of the most crucial shapers of Korea's modern history. His motto syncs with that of Korean comfort women, except the women's would have been, "Merely Bear and Not Say a Word."
All this said, the reason for the "Big Silence" Kim cited still rings hollow. If Koreans felt the passion to reach their abandoned women, apologize and compensate for Korea's failures, and comfort them, surely, they would have found ways.
The author of an autobiographical novel about Korea, "The Voices of Heaven," Maija Rhee Devine is working on her next books ― a nonfiction book and a novel about comfort women of WWII. Contact: www.MaijaRheeDevine; [email protected] Previews Chicago’s Next Round of New Bikeways
The quarterly meetings of the Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council are a good place to get up to speed on Chicago’s latest bike developments. Wednesday’s meeting was no exception, with updates on bike lane construction, off-street trails, Divvy bike-share, and more. The sessions take place during business hours, but if your schedule allows you to attend, you can get on the mailing list by contacting Carlin Thomas, a consultant with the Chicago Department of Transportation’s bike program, at carlin.thomas[at]activetrans.org.
CDOT Deputy Commissioner Luann Hamilton kicked things off by introducing MBAC’s four new community representatives. All four are seasoned bike advocates, so they’ll likely be an asset to the meetings, bringing on-the-ground knowledge of their respective districts.
Anne Alt, who works at the bike law firm FK Law (a Streetsblog sponsor) and volunteers with Friends of the Major Taylor Trail, will represent the South and Southwest Sides. Kathy Schubert, the founder of the Chicago Cycling Club who successfully lobbied CDOT to start installing non-slip “Kathy plates” on bridge decks, will cover the North Side.
Miguel Morales, a former networker for the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago’s Children and current West Town Bikes board member, will represent the West Side. And Bob Kastigar, a longtime activist who launched petition drives in support of fallen cyclist Bobby Cann and the proposal for a safety overhaul on Milwaukee Avenue in Gladstone Park, will cover the Northwest Side.
CDOT Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld somberly noted that Chicago has seen seven bike fatalities this year, up from three by this time last year. The crashes generally took place on the Southwest and Northwest Sides. All but one involved a driver, and the victims ranged in age from 20-year-old Jacob Bass to 59-year-old Suai Xie.
CDOT Assistant Director of Transportation Planning Mike Amsden provided an update on the department’s efforts to put in 100 miles of buffered and protected lanes by 2015. So far, 67.75 miles have been installed, with 19.5 miles built this year, Amsden said. An additional 23.5 miles of federally funded lanes are slated for construction in spring 2015. These include Lawrence (Central to Central Park) and Milwaukee (Lawrence to Elston).
Currently, 14 miles of bikeways are going through the approval process and could be built this fall or next spring. These include Elston (Webster to the northernmost intersection of Elston and Milwaukee, near Peterson), Kedzie (Milwaukee to Addison), and Pershing (King to Oakwood). Another 7.5 miles are tied to street repaving projects, and are slated for construction this fall or in spring 2015. These include Armitage (Western to Damen) and Augusta (Central Park to Grand). Presumably, the lion’s share of all of these upcoming bikeways will be buffered bike lanes, rather than protected lanes.
Amsden reported that recently built buffered and protected lanes on Broadway in Uptown have been getting positive reviews from business owners, pedestrians, and cyclists. A brand-new stretch of PBLs and BBLs on Lake Street from Central Park to Austin means you can now ride five miles from Damen to the city limits on next-generation lanes, albeit it under the shadow and noise of ‘L’ tracks. Buffered lanes were recently striped on Marquette, from Cottage Grove to Stony Island, and from California to Damen.
“Next we’re going to start focusing on closing the gaps in our network,” Amsden said. “We’re really trying to create a cohesive system by looking at areas of concern, like difficult intersections.”
Amsden also talked about the problem of parking in bike lanes, which has plagued bikeways like the new Harrison PBLs downtown. He acknowledged the recent #Enforce940060 Twitter campaign, which has drawn attention to the problem. He noted that bike program staff have been distributing “Never Park in Bike Lanes” flyers to motorists, and business owners have been contacted. The Department of Finance has done ticketing stings, and flexible posts may be added at spots like the Greyhound station on Harrison.
He encouraged people to call 311 to report drivers blocking the bike lanes, so that CDOT can learn where the problem areas are and target their efforts. “We really are doing a lot to try to curb that activity – no pun intended,” he said. Scheinfeld suggested that the language on the flyers should be changed to point out that parking in the lanes is illegal and to list the cost of a ticket. The Chainlink’s Julie Hochstadter asked if cyclists could get copies of the handbill to put on windshields, and Amsden offered to have it posted as a PDF on the bike program website.
Kastigar asked Hamilton for status reports on the Weber Spur Trail, which will run northeast from Elston Avenue in Mayfair to suburban Lincolnwood, as well as the planned bike bridge that will connect two sides of North Shore Channel Trail near Devon and Kedzie. The trail is partially funded, and CDOT staff have been surveying the project area, Hamilton said. After the data collection is complete, the department will apply for additional federal funding for construction.
Although the bridge was designed and locally funded back in the early 2000s, then-50th Ward Alderman Bernie Stone refused to allow CDOT to build it. By the time current alderman Debra Silverstein approved the bridge, the funding had been lost, and a new boat launch at the site meant that the department had to go back to the drawing board, Hamilton said. Since CDOT now has to apply for federal money, the “Stone Bridge” won’t be completed until fall of 2016 at the earliest, but it will get built, Hamilton promised.
Hamilton provided an update on Divvy. The system now has 23,542 active annual members, and 2,507,027 trips have been taken. Although the expansion of the system from 3,000 to 4,750 cycles was delayed by the bankruptcy of the equipment supplier, Montreal-based Bixi, supply chain issues are being resolved, she said. A purchase order for new bikes and stations was entered in August, the equipment should arrive by late February or early March of next year, and the new stations should go online in the spring.
Kindy Kruller, a planner with the Forest Preserve of Cook County, concluded the meeting by discussing recent challenges to building the 4.2-mile southern extension of the North Branch Trail, which would run from Devon and Caldwell to Foster and Kostner. Construction is planned for next year. “We’ve had a lot of community opposition, and it could get hairy over the next few months,” she said.
Some residents have protested the planned removal of 425 trees for the trail, although Kruller said some of these are dead and others are invasive species. Much of the opposition is coming from homeowners from the Old Edgebrook community, an enclave of about 40 houses near Devon and Central. The path would run on the west side of Central, a busy street with no turn lanes.
The residents fear that they’d have difficulty making turns from Central onto Louise and Prescott, the only streets that access the neighborhood, due to heavy bike traffic on the trail, which would back up traffic on Central, Kruller said. Amsden suggested that the bike trail could be “jug-handled” away from Central at Louise and Prescott. That way, residents could first make the turn off of the main road, and then wait for a gap in bike traffic to cross the trail.
Kruller encouraged MBAC attendees to show up for future community meetings on the trail to show their support. Hamilton suggested that MBAC send the forest preserve district a letter of support for the trail, and the council moved to do so.Late-night looters trash Oakland stores
Protesters loot the grocery store Smart and Final after vandalizing the front and breaking the windows during a protest against the grand jury's decision not to indict the white police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black teenager months ago in Ferguson Nov. 24, 2014 in Oakland, Calif. less Protesters loot the grocery store Smart and Final after vandalizing the front and breaking the windows during a protest against the grand jury's decision not to indict the white police officer who fatally shot... more Photo: Leah Millis / The Chronicle Photo: Leah Millis / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 55 Caption Close Late-night looters trash Oakland stores 1 / 55 Back to Gallery
As Monday night’s demonstrations over the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown dribbled into Tuesday morning, a hard core of remaining people in Oakland turned into opportunists as they looted two downtown businesses of booze, coffee beans and dog food.
The evening’s protests had started out peacefully in cities throughout Northern California, but in Oakland several demonstrators clashed with police early on — and then it got ugly around midnight.
A couple of hundred protesters lit a bonfire in the middle of Broadway as the Starbucks store on Eighth Street was trashed and looted of equipment and bags of coffee beans. Thieves then smashed into the nearby Smart & Final and ran away with booze bottles, snacks, 12-packs of beer and bags of dog food.
A phalanx of police in helmets with shields ordered the crowd to disperse, but the protesters refused to move, yelling obscenities and tossing bottles of alcohol at the officers. The officers fired flash-bang grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas, forcing back the mob, which ignited new bonfires as it retreated.
Most of the protesters left the scene after the clash, but a remaining 50 retreated to Telegraph and Broadway and lit a fire. They remained there past 1 a.m., many drinking booze looted from Smart & Final while police kept an eye on them from about a block away.
Vivian Ho, Jill Tucker and Kevin Fagan are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. E-mail: [email protected]’ve been wondering recently about what happened to Minecraft: Story Mode for Linux. A developer at Telltale Games even publicly spoke about his support for it and offered out a Beta to multiple people willing to test.
I was accepted to test, the game ran smoothly, everything looked good and then...nothing happened. No one spoke of it again, Telltale themselves went silent on it and it looked as good as dead. It was odd, because the Linux version seemed ready.
Turns out, it was ready.
I caught up with David Brady, the developer who worked on it, who has since left Telltale Games to work for another big developer. In his own words he said “it was my opinion that Minecraft was ready for release”. He seemed very certain of this too when we had a chat. That was the main bit I'm able to share, but he was very clear on it.
I should note those are the thoughts of that developer, not of Telltale Games as it stands right now.
I reached out to Telltale Games through the usual channels, but sadly I received no reply. We may never know what really happened. I doubt Microsoft would have suddenly requested the plug be pulled on it (they now own Mojang), since this was all happening after Microsoft’s purchase of the original Minecraft developer.
We can speculate, of course, as to what actually happened. It could have been the usual low market share issue that the “higher ups” didn’t like the idea of, which would have been strange since the work was already done and obviously approved of in some way.
It could have been a case of having no one left to maintain it and support it going forward, which seems quite believable. All extra platforms come with a support cost, but since Telltale don’t speak about it, we just don’t know.
If you ever read this Telltale Games, get in touch, let’s have a chat.
A shame, it would have been really nice to see a Telltale title on Linux. I’ve always been itching to try their titles.As Hollywood performers like Constance Wu are imploring TV networks to utilize more Asian talent to tell Asian-focused stories, NBC has greenlit the sitcom Mail Order Family about a white widower who orders a Filipina mail-order bride to help raise his daughters, Deadline reports.
Yes, you read that correctly.
The show is being produced by Jackie Clarke and Ruben Fleishcer, the duo behind NBC's Superstore. According to Deadline, Mail Order Family is loosely based on Clarke's own familial experiences growing up.
Perhaps predictably, many people have not reacted well to the news on Twitter:
Just when u think AsnAms are making progress, @NBC does this sht https://t.co/9ynL6lI43L Mail-order brides?? u fckn kidding me? This passes?
WTF is wrong with people. https://t.co/EHiqR6T7RR
Really @nbc, a family-comedy about the sex trafficking of Asian women? https://t.co/7YNrndEAh6 cc: @angryasianman
FUCK THIS SHOW. HOW are you gonna air a show making light of human trafficking Asian women? #CancelMailOrderFamily https://t.co/SAnIuMCAtE
Wait a "comedy" premise is he "orders" a "mail-order" "bride" from the Philippines? @NBC WHAT THE EVERLASTING F*CK? https://t.co/LT1fdQlbIX
Who thought this was a good idea? -- NBC Buys 'Mail Order Family' Comedy From 'Superstore' Trio https://t.co/zLzBusJyBh via @deadline
Seems like the excuse for this drivel is bc it's based on this white dude whose dad had a Filipina mail-order bride. https://t.co/PCCLHdBqxM
HEY @nbc - NOT HELPING your lack of #diversity by having a #SITCOM abt #humantrafficking & #Asian #stereotypes! https://t.co/EGOGs4vYV3
I didn't realize #HumanTrafficking was such a laugh riot. Maybe only to White Guys Whose Dad's purchase people https://t.co/K4wVRO3Tf1
A light hearted sitcom about women being forced into human trafficking! V cool @nbc! https://t.co/GOp8Fei2XT
Horrible! @NBC to do #MailOrderFamily sitcom featuring white guy buying a #Filipina bride. #filam #filipinoamerican https://t.co/oEQpTz07c9
Hey @nbc - Please whitesplain why you think a show about a subservient Filipino was a good idea. https://t.co/D8TJB3PhKG #dobetterhollywood
Today in terrible ideas: NBC buys "family comedy" about widowed white male who orders a Filipina mail order bride https://t.co/f2f6w7hcE0
THEY WON'T HAVE A 2ND SEASON CUZ IF SHE IS A SMART MAIL ORDER BRIDE SHE'LL CUT OUT WITH HER GREEN CARD IN SEASON 1 https://t.co/ii6WXRgKxm
Really @nbc, a family-comedy about the sex trafficking of Asian women? https://t.co/7YNrndEAh6 cc: @angryasianman
The entertainment blog Nerds of Color has since spoken out against Mail Order Family, claiming the show makes light of human trafficking.
"It is endorsing the concept of mail order brides and marketing it as a positive characteristic of a 'kooky' family," the post reads. "Human trafficking of a woman to be married off to a man she doesn't know should not be a laughing matter."
Clarke previously told her family's story — which inspired the show — for the PBS radio program This American Life. It sounds like a laugh riot:
"It wasn't that Pora didn't like me, she just had no desire to be a mother to me," Clarks said. "His marriage to Pora was never a good one. It was basically hellish fighting followed by silent treatments."
On Friday, September 30, NBC officially nixed production of the show after internet backlash to its concept.
NBC greenlit Mail Order Family amid growing scrutiny of the lack of Asian representation on TV. While accepting his Emmy for writing Master of None earlier this month, Alan Yang spoke about the importance of including Asian stories in the media landscape — and, more importantly, the need for Asian-Americans to work behind the scenes.
"There's 17 million Asian-Americans in this country, and there's 17 million Italian Americans," Yang said. "They have The Godfather, Goodfellas, Rocky, The Sopranos. We've got Long Duk Dong."
Oct. 1, 2016, 12:16 p.m.: This story has been updated.The following 1 percent wonders are doing just fine under Obama, but since their worldview is largely restricted to an obsession with their marginal tax rate, they can’t refrain from denouncing the president and thinking of new ways to thwart his re-election bid. The Romney men desperately want to see the first financier president, a man after their own cold hearts.
1. David Siegel, the Bitching Billionaire
Thanks to folks over at Gawker, we’ve gotten a look at the noxious activities of David Siegel, founder and CEO of national timeshare giant Westgate Resorts. Siegel is filthy rich and wants you to know it, building himself the largest (and possibly the tackiest) house in America. The documentary The Queen of Versailles follows Siegel and his wife Jackie in pursuit of obscene excess in the form of a 90,000-square-foot homage to bad taste, complete with a 20-car garage, a two-story wine cellar, and a 30-foot stained glass dome.
Though he brags that his company is more profitable than ever, Siegel, an avid Republican, recently sent an email to his thousands of employees suggesting that they would lose their jobs if Barack Obama is re-elected. In addition to dispensing voting advice, Siegel wallows in 1 percent self-pity:
“They want you to believe that we live in a class system where the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. They label us the ‘1%’ and imply that we are somehow immune to the challenges that face our country. This could not be further from the truth. Sure, you may have heard about the big home that I’m building. I’m sure many people think that I live a privileged life.”
Three swimming pools? Privileged? Perish the thought.
In high narcissistic style, Siegel goes on to praise himself for the “hard work, discipline, and sacrifice” that built a company “which by the way, would eventually employ you.” He laments the sacrifices he has endured since the Recession for the good of his workers: “Over the past four years I have had to stop building my dream house, cut back on all of my expenses, and take my kids out of private schools simply to keep this company strong and to keep you employed.” Siegel spends most of the rest of the letter bitching that shiftless Americans expecting a “bailout” in the form of higher taxes on fatcats will drive him to the Caribbean, where he will ensconce himself under a palm tree and cease to worry about the little people.
Edward Ericson Jr., formerly a reporter for the Orlando Weekly, has a different take on how the slimy Siegel made his money, a tale of running scams and ripping off customers.
2. “Neutron” Jack Welch
The former head of General Electric and big-time Romney fan has been making quite a spectacle of himself since last Friday. Incensed by the favorable jobs report, he went on a conspiracy theory rampage, accusing the Obama administration of manipulating the report in order to secure the election. After receiving a barrage of criticism, he told MSNBC host Chris Matthews that he had no evidence to prove such claims. Then he went on to make them anyway. Why should a gazillionaire bother with evidence?
He has since left Fortune magazine in a huff — the very publication that once named him Manager of the Century — after managing editor Andy Serwer suggested that his claims were absurd.
Ironically, the man levying charges of cooking the books is the one who wrote the cookbook. Barry Ritholtz of the Big Picture reminds us that Welch had a nasty habit of manipulating GE’s earnings while he was CEO of the company. In his article “You Don’t Know Jack,” Jonathan R. Laing describes how Welch committed epic misdeeds at GE while enjoying such perks as an $80,000-a-month New York pad, a corporate jet, payment for country-club fees, and a host of other luxuries.
A funny one to be going on about jobs, Jack Welch is a key architect of the business style focused on short-run profits, overspeculation, and obsession with stock prices, which, in addition to killing innovation and helping to blow up the world economy in 2008, has caused untold hardship for workers. Welch is a long-time champion of increasing profits by laying off employees, destroying so many jobs at GE that he earned the nickname “Neutron Jack.” When he wasn’t thinking of new ways to deliver pink slips, he was busy denying the health threats of PCBs that GE was dumping into New York’s Hudson River.
“You can’t just call me old and senile,” complained Welch in the wake of the jobs report flap. Okay, that would be mean. How about crooked and despicable?
3. Casino King Sheldon Adelson
Sheldon Adelson likes to go big. He heads up possibly the largest gambling and casino operation on the planet. And he spends big-time bucks trying to manipulate the American political system.
Adelson is unhappy with President Obama’s policies on Israel, and claims that’s why he supports Mitt Romney for president. But according to the New York Times, his company is also under investigation by the Obama Justice Department for foreign bribery and money laundering. Could the gambling honcho be hoping a Romney victory would make the pesky investigation disappear?
Annoucing that beating President Obama “isn’t everything, it’s the only thing,” Adelson has unleashed $70 million trying to influence the outcome of the 2012 elections — more than any individual has spent in any U.S. election to date. He has vowed to spend up to $100 million in total by election day.
Adelson also has a special knack for helping the new class of Asian elites enjoy ridiculous luxuries, such as a drink that comes with a one-carat diamond available at his nightclub in Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands casino. The drink sells for $26,000.
4. Donald Trump: Plutocratic Personality Disorder
When it comes to stratospheric greed and arrogance, it’s hard to beat the Donald. How could a man famous for the phrase, “You’re fired!” not love a man who claimed to enjoy putting people out of work? Naturally Trump just can’t say enough good things about Romney. And he fully has Mitt’s back on those repugnant remarks made at a Florida fundraiser that characterized nearly half the country as freeloading losers. Trump announced that not only should Romney not apologize, but that “what he said is probably what he means.” Much obliged for the clarification.
When Obama’s name comes up, the words “birth certificate” are never far from Trump’s lips. That and frequent questions about the president’s academic credentials.
The poster child for plutocratic personality disorder, Trump is obsessed with talking about himself, naming things after himself, and surrounding himself with pictures of – you guessed it — himself. Maybe that’s to compensate for the fact that he’s actually a pretty crappy businessman and perpetually in need of money. After spending time with Trump and discussing his various luxury properties, the New Yorker’s Mark Singer concluded that the man “had aspired to and achieved the ultimate luxury, an existence unmolested by the rumbling of a soul.”
5. and 6. Koch Brothers, Unlimited
No list of Romney men would be complete without the billionaire brothers who made their fortune in the oil and gas industries. Over three decades, Charles and David Koch have spent more than $100 million pushing their freaky libertarian agenda, which for years they did on the QT until the Obama presidency horrified them to such a degree that they could no longer hide in the shadows. There is no tax they don’t abhor, no environmental protection they don’t wish to kill, and no safety net they don’t ardently desire to shred. Romney, who aims to shield the rich from paying their fair share of taxes and offers an energy plan tailored to the needs of the oil, coal and gas industries, is their man for Washington.
The damage that these tycoons do to our natural world, our democracy and our sense of public trust would be difficult to overestimate. Whether they’re trying to resegregate schools (they tried to do this to my very own public school district in Wake County, North Carolina), repress votes, privatize Social Security, or dump toxic waste into rivers that sicken whole communities, the Koch brothers are indefatigable in their efforts and inexhaustible in their check-writing. (Check out the documentary The Koch Brothers Exposed, featuring AlterNet’s political writer Adele Stan.)
As AlterNet executive editor Don Hazen has noted, Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan is the Koch brothers’ hand-picked darling, a perfect vehicle for their twisted, cult-of-selfishness Ayn Rand philosophy. Ryan serves his masters by repeating Koch falsehoods on Medicare, scheming to steal your retirement, denying climate change and cutting taxes on the rich and corporations.What murky and fetid waters has the Abbott government sailed this nation into now? When Fairfax Media reported claims last week by an Indonesian police chief and others that Australian authorities had paid the crew of a people-smuggling vessel thousands of dollars to turn around and head back to Indonesia, it at first seemed too preposterous to be true.
Yet rather than deny any such thing has happened, and deny it immediately and unequivocally, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has all but confirmed it happened. Mr Abbott has been offered every opportunity in the past week to quash the notion that the Australian government did, or might in future, sanction paying cash to people-smugglers. Instead, he has said the government will do "whatever is reasonably necessary" to halt people smugglers.
Tony Abbott's government has sailed the nation into fetid, murky waters. Credit:Andrew Meares
He has said that the government "by hook or by crook" will do what it needs to stop boats from entering Australian territory, and that border protection agencies have been "incredibly creative" in devising strategies. He also says many of the things security agencies do to protect the nation "just should never be discussed in public". And, he says, Indonesia has co-operated in curbing the people-smuggling trade because his administration has not indulged in "gratuitous insults".
That might be so, but Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who generally demonstrates a level of competence above some of her ministerial colleagues, has resorted to the age-old trick of trying to distract attention by stirring up a storm elsewhere. She has pointed a finger at Indonesia, saying its concerns about Australia's tactics would be best resolved if Indonesia enforced its borders.Tens of thousands of Moroccans staged a popular protest to denounce the Israeli assault on Gaza and to show solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Protesters raised banners condemning Israeli aggression on Gaza and praising the resolve of the Gaza Strip in the face of Israeli aggression.
The protest was organised by the Justice and Charity movement, Morocco’s largest Islamist movement, in addition to the Working Group for Palestine and the Moroccan Association for the Support of the Palestinian Struggle (two NGOs), the Justice and Development Party, and several other political and civil society groups.
It comes after Morocco called for an immediate halt of the Israeli assault on Gaza, describing it as unacceptable and unjustifiable. Morocco accused Israel of violating international law and all humanitarian values.
The Moroccan Foreign Ministry expressed concern about the Israeli ground operation in Gaza, warning that it will increase the bloodshed, complicate the situation, widen the circle of tensions, and spread the culture of hostility and hatred.
Ministers who attended the demonstration included:
Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Salaheddine Mezouar
Minister Delegate to the Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Logistics Najib Boulif
Minister of Youth and Sports Mohamed Ouzzine
Minister of Parliamentary Relations and Civil Society El-Habib Choubani
Minister of Tourism Lahsen Hadad
Minister of Culture Mohamed Amine Sbihi
Minister of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Managers Training Soumia Benkhaldoun
Minister Delegate to the Ministry of Energy, Mining, Water and Environment Hakima El-Haite
Other prominent political leaders and heads of political parties also took part in the protest
[wpResize]Playtime for Kids and It's Called Divination By Jan Markell www.olivetreeviews.org January 5, 2010 I was planning to write about a current event issue when this story hit my in-box. I am no longer shocked by issues like what I am about to report. Our kids and teens have been seduced for decades. Harry Potter hasn't helped nor has Twilight. Both kids and adults have been introduced to the paranormal in dozens of TV programs and movies. So much so, in fact, that the paranormal is the new normal.
So now ToysRus has a cute little pink Ouija board and one that glows in the dark, both marketed for children. They advertise that kids as young as 8 need to have these new sorcery objects! (Well, they don't call them "sorcery objects" but the Bible does.) I know it is billed as a "toy" but I have enough personal experience that I can tell you it is blatant divination.
ToysRus children's Ouija board The Bible speaks extensively about "divination" and "sorcery." Entire civilizations have been wiped out because of sorcery. Those perpetrating this are aiming at younger kids every day. Serious reproach against witchcraft and divination is given in Deuteronomy 18:9-15. Are Christian parents going to say that this new kids' Ouija board is "just a game," just like they say Harry Potter and Twilight are "just fiction" and can't hurt anyone? You can bet some will! Let me tell you my personal ordeal with a Ouija board.
I was 23 years old. (I know that was back in the Bronze Age, but divination hasn't changed.) I was addicted to a Ouija board. I had people driving 100 miles to put their hands on the glass object, ask the board questions, and have it spell out answers. I was so good at it that the glass object could move with no hands on it. It made predictions and many of them came true. It instilled power in me that was stunning. The glass object that spelled out words would often spin around the board in a frenzy, and it was always talking about dark, evil things. All predictions were negative. It scared many participants. It has supernatural power, but since it is of the devil, not all predictions came true because the devil does not know the future. When I asked the board where it got its power, it spelled S-A-T-A-N. One evening I put the board away and felt a presence in my apartment. I did not want to open my eyes because I knew I would see a demon. If you think I am doing this for sensationalism, I can tell you that it has not been easy reliving my experience. I do it only to spare some of you from my mistakes. I had roots in a solid church in my teenage years and I sensed I had crossed a line. I seriously repented, took the board and glass object out to a bonfire and forever said good-bye to its evil. That was in accordance with Acts 19 which says that those who practiced magic gathered up their instruments and burned them. Sadly, I had obtained almost a lust for the paranormal from the Ouija board and that is why most participants then move to deeper and darker occultic practices. The Ouija board is stepping stone number one. But isn't this just a game like Monopoly? you ask. Going back to my personal experience -- the glass object was profane, cursed God, and sometimes flew off the board in a rage. Evil spirits were present to be sure. So no, it's not just like Monopoly. This is playing with FIRE. If anyone you know, child or adult, is playing with this force of evil, warn them. March on over to ToysRus and register a complaint. There are many Web sites that speak of people getting obsessed/addicted to this so-called game. Others say this was the start of their paranormal journey. Sadly, most toy stores will put profits before protecting children, but speak up nonetheless. This is just another sign of the times and of the lateness of the hour. In these last days, evil will wax worse and worse. That is why we as believers are called to be salt and light in a dark world. If a Christian feels they can dabble in darkness and still be "light," they are seriously deceived. To better understand such issues, visit our "Spiritual Deception" category at our Web site. MEDIA NOTICE: I will be a guest on Jewish Voice Broadcasts the week of February 8-12. To see their TV schedule, visit this link. To view online, go here. RADIO: White House correspondent Bill Koenig joins me for a Washington update. "Understanding the Times" radio airs live, Saturday, 9 to 11 AM CST on AM980 KKMS and AM1280 the Patriot. You can "listen live" at those two sites if we don't air in your city. All live Saturday programming is posted to our Web site Sunday evening at "Radio Archives." To view our radio station outlets, go here. For podcasting info via iTunes, go here. For all 2010 conference info, click here. For a printable flyer, click here. Awaiting His return, Jan Markell You may pass on these items or have people sign up on our Web site. We update Current Headlines twice a day, and you can access our radio programming from the last three years on Radio Archives. Also see the Web site for other options to catch the program, "Understanding the Times." Report e-mail address changes. Please remember us prayerfully and financially. Donate on our Web site. (Gifts are tax-deductible with receipts sent out January.) Olive Tree Ministries, Inc.
Box 1452
Maple Grove, MN 55311 763-493-3010 or 763-210-8291Russia has launched the ecologically clean Angara rocket from the Plesetsk military сosmodrome in Russia’s north on the second try. It is the first space booster designed in Russia from a scratch since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
A Ministry of Defense statement says that the launch of Angara 1.2PP conducted by Russia’s Airspace Defense troops has been a success.
“After the 21st minute from launch the second stage of the rocket with a full-scale mock-up payload has arrived to Kura range in the Kamchatka Peninsula, some 5,700km from the point of launch,” Colonel Aleksey Zolotukhin, an official representative of Aerospace Defense command, told ITAR-TASS.
The maiden launch of Angara did not deliver any satellites into orbit.
The first attempt to launch Angara was terminated automatically on June 27 and the same thing happened the next day. A decision was taken to remove the rocket from the launch pad for detailed examination.
Finally, technicians discovered that a drop in pressure in the supercharger spherical tank had caused the launch to abort.
The malfunction was repaired on site without having to return the rocket to the manufacturer.
The Angara booster is actually the first rocket designed for civilian space exploration. The legendary Soviet rocket designer Sergey Korolev died in 1966, but all rockets in use today were created by him. The Proton rocket was first launched within Korolev’s lifetime, while the world’s most reliable Soyuz rocket booster is actually a modified Korolev R-7 rocket.
Brand new Angara rockets, Russia's first new design of space vehicle since the Soviet era, have been in development since 1994. It took 20 years and approximately $3 billion to ready Angara for launch into space.
The Angara rocket family was developed by the Moscow-based Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center and is a future mainstay of Russian space boosters.
There will be four highly adjustable types of boosters, from light ones capable of delivering vehicles weighting 1.7-3.7 tons into orbit, to heavy class boosters with a 28.5 ton payload capability. This covers practically the entire spectrum of space launches, with the exception of super heavy booster which are at the design stage.
The new rockets are meant to ensure Russia’s access to space from its own territory – the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the north and Vostochny Cosmodrome, currently under construction, in the Far East.I. Introduction:
The purpose of the final project was to allow us to put the information we learned in class to practical use through a project. We decided to choose a project that would challenge our ability to solve problems and ultimately prove to ourselves that we actually did learn in EE360 this semester. We chose to attempt to gain remote control of an iRobot Create with a USB Missile launcher mounted on it. The project turned out to be quite a challenge but we conquered the problem in the end.
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like it, but I'm going to do everything I can to protect my teammates," he continued. "And I was protecting my teammate. But it is what it is, and I don't think twice about it. If it happened again, I'd protect my teammate the best way I could."
Wilfork, a leader of the Patriots defense, finished with one tackle on the afternoon.The United States ranks first among developed nations in rates of both teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. In an effort to reduce these rates, the U.S. government has funded abstinence-only sex education programs for more than a decade. However, a public controversy remains over whether this investment has been successful and whether these programs should be continued. Using the most recent national data (2005) from all U.S. states with information on sex education laws or policies (N = 48), we show that increasing emphasis on abstinence education is positively correlated with teenage pregnancy and birth rates. This trend remains significant after accounting for socioeconomic status, teen educational attainment, ethnic composition of the teen population, and availability of Medicaid waivers for family planning services in each state. These data show clearly that abstinence-only education as a state policy is ineffective in preventing teenage pregnancy and may actually be contributing to the high teenage pregnancy rates in the U.S. In alignment with the new evidence-based Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative and the Precaution Adoption Process Model advocated by the National Institutes of Health, we propose the integration of comprehensive sex and STD education into the biology curriculum in middle and high school science classes and a parallel social studies curriculum that addresses risk-aversion behaviors and planning for the future.Philz Coffee is a beloved San Francisco caffeine-injection shop. With 14 locations around the Bay area, it is a "pure" coffee joint, with a menu full of coffee bean blends and nary a latte or cappuccino. Jacob Jaber helped his dad, Phil, turn a small grocery shop in the Mission into the first Philz Coffee in 2003, clearing out the aisles for chairs and tables and turning the long check-out counter into a row of barristas for one-on-one orders. It's steadily built a loyal following in the area and you'll often spot Philz on offer in the cafeterias of the Valley's tech giants. In 2010 or 2011, a regular customer told Jaber about his company, Euclid Analytics, and how it was offering retailers the ability to gather analytics from customers and passers-by using their phones so they'd know how many people walked by without coming in, how many actually came in, how long they stayed, and how often they came back. He invited Philz Coffee to pilot the product for free.
"We're in Silicon Valley. We get pitched on new technologies every day," said Jaber, a wide-eyed 27-year-old with the boundless energy of an entrepreneur and frequent coffee drinker. "It sounded cool. I thought it would help us make decisions."
What kind of decisions? One of the first, and only, useful things learned from the data was that the "dwell time" -- how long customers stick around -- was highest in Philz's Berkeley location. "So we got more furniture and better Wi-Fi there so customers would be more comfortable," said Jaber. (To my surprise, as I'd think wavy benches and spikes might be in order to ensure customer turnover.)
Jaber and Philz were featured in a 2011 CNet article about Euclid, then fresh off a $5.8 million venture round, and its shopper tracking technology. "Call it innovative. Call it powerful. Just don't call it spying," wrote CNet's Paul Sloan. Since 2011, the "s-word" has been flung around, but not the first time I heard about it. At a forum at the beginning of 2013, privacy advocate Pam Dixon of the World Privacy Forum -- who doesn't go easy on data brokers -- expressed approval of how Euclid was doing data collection, keeping it anonymous and stripping individual identifiers before storing it. She mentioned that Philz was using it locally, and that it had stickers in the windows announcing that the tracking was happening and instructions on how to opt out. But when Euclid's smartphone-pinging tech was featured in a 2013 New York Times article about tracking people offline, things turned bitter. Sen. Al Franken peppered Euclid with questions about how many phones it had tracked and where. It turned out Euclid was up and running in cities in more than 20 states, including Tukwila, Washington. Though we get tracked all the time online, the idea of it being replicated in the real world made people uncomfortable and a backlash ensued. Stores that used its technology, such as Nordstrom, dropped it like a hot privacy-invasive potato. Euclid and other "offline" phone-tracking companies got nervous about talking to the press. I think Euclid is generally going about this right, but by being upfront about what it's up to, it got punished, while other sketchier actors remain quiet and probably get away with worse.
Philz still had the tracking technology running. The "you're-killing-our-privacy" storm didn't come for the coffee shop until last month when the San Francisco Appeal suddenly noticed the Euclid window sticker and wrote an ominous, if comprehensive, article on the implications of the tracking and how invasive it could be if the players involved took it to the next level -- by lying about anonymizing the data and instead pairing it with people's real identities using other advertising data lists or some hypothetical Facebook techno-magic. Jaber was surprised by the negative tone of the article, and by a few outraged tweets, thinking he'd been transparent about what was happening, even if the stickers were a little tough to spot on the windows. (I stopped in months ago and asked one of the barristas if he knew the store did smartphone tracking; he didn't and had never seen the sticker in the window of the store he worked in.) Jaber didn't think Philz nor Euclid was doing anything wrong, but he decided to abandon the technology.
"The concern outweighed the value of the data," he told me, as we sat drinking coffees on an outside bench in front of the now-cleared window where the Euclid sticker used to be stuck. Jaber said Philz wasn't actually using the data to make decisions -- beyond that Berkeley loitering-enabling one -- and that it had simply continued to collect the data because it was there and it was free, thanks to the pilot program. And this is what companies (and all of us really) so often do: we collect data because we can, whether we really need it or not.
Jaber says he thinks the data would be more useful for an apparel retailer that changes the display in its storefront frequently; that retailer would want to know which mannequin outfits lure the passers-by in and which don't. But Philz storefront is static, so the tracking data wasn't especially meaningful. "I spent 15 minutes over the last 4 years actually looking at the Euclid dashboard," says Jaber. "Our mission is to better people's day with an amazing cup of coffee. What we care about at Philz is the customer experience and this wasn't tracking that."
More useful to Jaber is looking at Yelp reviews and a social media sentiment analysis tracking tool called NewBrand Analytics to see whether customers are happy or not. He's still a staunch defender of technologies like Euclid's -- and says the company's employees still come to Philz and that there were no hard feelings.
"Data can be a great tool. You just need to let your customers know why you're collecting it, what you're going to do with it, and how to opt out," said Jaber. "I don't regret using Euclid at all. We're always trying to improve the customer experience. It just turned out this wasn't helping with that."
Meanwhile, Apple is acting to make this kind of persistent tracking of consumers' phones harder. Marketers will still be able to register the presence of an iPhone if Wi-Fi is turned on, but it will send out a randomized MAC address so someone can't be tracked over time or store to store.
For now, this "offline" tracking is far less creepy to me than what's happening online. As one commenter noted, the Appeal story that revealed the Philz tracking dropped 38 cookies on visitors' computers. (You're probably picking up even more cookies here at Forbes.) "That’s right," wrote the commenter. "38 creepy trackers accompany an article about creepy tracking at Philz."According to a 2008 study by the Energy Information Administration, buildings are one of the heaviest consumers of natural resources and account for a significant portion of the greenhouse gas emissions that affect climate change. In the U.S., buildings account for 38% of all CO2 emissions. That’s simply not sustainable.
Blue World Crete’s technology uses a proprietary catalyst/binding agent that is combined with materials containing alumina silicate to produce a cement product that dramatically lowers the amount of energy required to produce the cement and CO2 that is emitted into the atmosphere. It is the first true alternative to traditional forms of Portland cement.
Blue Crete uses many of the same materials used in blends with traditional Portland cement. However, the major difference comes from the fact that Geo-Blue Crete isn’t produced with quarried limestone product. Limestone creates an excessive amount of CO2 by virtue of the fact that extreme heat is used to create the cement. Geo-Blue Crete uses a proprietary catalyst/binding agent that can allow the cement to be produced at ambient temperatures, from sub-tropical to below freezing, meaning that it takes 80 to 90% less energy to produce and dramatically lowers the CO2 released into the atmosphere.
What does this mean?
It means we’re taking Traditional Portland Cement and replacing it with an even better product with a host of other valuable properties, not the least of which is making it more environmentally friendly and cost-effective. Blue Crete™ is a green product from birth, with the following advantages:
Highly-Resistant or impervious to water, acids, corrosion, sulfates and more
It is a monolithic product
Covalently bonds to most anything on a molecular level
Near zero coefficient of expansion, will work in freezing or tropical regions of the world
It cures by an exothermic reaction
Early strength when curing, 2500-3000psi after 3 days.
Three times the compressive and tensile strength of Portland
Can be handled and worked with in 3 to 7 days
Very slow, if any, transfer of heat. Great for insulating and fire retarding/proofing
Custom design client’s end product with our technology
Can be used as a coating to protect, insulate and enhance existing Portland structures and other material, even wood. It can be painted, rolled, or used in a Gunite gun.
Is used to create a superior Mortar, imparting many of its’ properties to whatever you put the mortar on.
Is cost competitive with Portland, but works just like Portland.
Is less expensive to produce than Portland. Portland must use expensive $200 million dollar plus plant to manufacture. A Blue Crete plant costs 1/20 th of this.
of this. Mixed and used on-site.
Pour into casts and remove cast after a few hours.
Low carbon footprint.
Allows end user to offset their carbon pollution, lower their carbon footprint and possibly earn carbon credits by using our technology/product in their projects
Is mixed packaged, shipped and delivered the same as traditional Portland cement.
Is priced competitively with traditional forms of Portland cement.
Can increase your LEED points in the categories of Energy & Atmosphere as well as Materials & Resources.
Meets all the same testing standards as traditional Portland cement.
and more….
Be sure to check out our incredible videos of R&D lab testing, click here
This is where the rubber meets the road. Blue World Crete is driven by the desire to continuously improve our products and services which helps inspire us to develop the most progressive technology in the building materials industry. With the use of our technology, at Blue World Crete, we can meet your needs from end to end.
To learn more about opportunities with Blue World Crete, call us at 561-929-8384 or contact us via e-mail by clicking hereYale Wishnick Answers Key Questions about Article V Convention of States
Anticipating the kind of runaway federal government that we have today, our Constitution’s Framers, led by George Mason and James Madison, wrote into the Constitution an explicit remedy, to be driven by We the People, through our state legislatures, to halt a future federal Leviathan. Clearly its time has come.
Article V of the US Constitution explicitly empowers our state legislatures to amend the Constitution themselves, without the permission or approval of Congress, the President, or the Supreme Court. In this Article V state-legislature-driven process, Congress has only two administrative obligations and nothing more. In particular, Congress is granted no vote or veto power anywhere in the process.
There have been attempts by the states to use Article V in the past (see this link), but none has succeeded. Now, however, the abuses and usurpations by Big Government in Washington (both parties) have become so egregious that grassroots movements to apply the state-driven Article V process are gathering serious momentum. Advocates of these movements are sometimes called “Fivers” for short.
Among the major Fiver movements is the rapidly growing Convention Of States (COS) program. In the video below, Yale Wishnick, Arizona State Director of COS, answers common questions about COS posed by Anthony Gonzalez and Shuron Harvey of “The Race”.
[FeaturedVideo]
Video is courtesy of TheRinoReport.com.
After some initial doubts, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) has endorsed the concept of state-legislatures-driven Article V proceedings to amend the US Constitution. Those proceedings may result in term limits for Congress and a balanced-budget amendment. See this link for more information, including more references on Article V. And in particular, see Mark Levin’s Liberty Amendments, published in August, 2013. You can read the first chapter free at this link.Bitcoin’s (BTC) riding high once again as the third week of April rolls to a close. BTC values are rising to approach the all-time highs seen in early March before all the China troubles, the Securities and Exchange Commission denial double whammy and fears of a hard fork.
The upward movement of BTC in April has been relatively steady nonetheless, boosted by adoption news out of Japan. However, prices spiked during Thursday (April 20) afternoon trading. At the time of writing, one bitcoin was worth $1,249.19, up 1.81 percent from Wednesday’s (April 19) close.
The estimated market cap of bitcoin was pegged at just over $20.4 billion, according to Coin Desk, with a total BTC supply of about 16.28 million.
While the rising value would seem to signal a positive change in the ecosystem, the past week in bitcoin has passed with more than its fair share of challenges.
Hong Kong–based exchange Bitfinex has seen its wire transfer issues worsen.
The exchange had initially reported outgoing wire transfer disruptions earlier this month, subsequently filed suit and an injunction against Wells Fargo. A few days later, Bitfinex dropped the suit, but the problem has remained.
Earlier this week, wire transfer issues with correspondent banks spread to a full-on moratorium on incoming wire transfers across fiat currencies, as well as a hold on outgoing transfers on Swiss francs and the Hong Kong dollar.
While the exchange has yet to state the exact cause of the issue with its corresponding banks, on Thursday (April 20), Bitfinex issued an announcement to quell brewing fears of a Mt. Gox–type situation.
“We want to be absolutely clear here that Bitfinex is solvent. We have assets that exceed all user balances,” the exchange wrote. “We also want to emphasize that digital token trading is not affected on Bitfinex.”
Between this and the withdrawal pause as mainland Chinese exchanges sort out their differences with the People’s Bank of China, that’s a lot of freezes for the ecosystem to handle.
For Bitfinex, domestic transfers and both incoming and outgoing as well as digital currency transfers have not been affected by disruption issues. However, some analysts have pointed out some could leverage the withdrawal freeze on fiat currencies as an opportunity for arbitrage.
While it’s unclear whether arbitrage is on buyers and sellers’ minds, the situation at Bitfinex has in fact led to a notable widening in exchange spreads.
On Thursday at 2:20 p.m. EST, bitcoin had traded for $1,299.00 on Bitfinex compared to $1230.76 on digital currency exchange GDAX and $1,230.63 on Bitstamp — roughly a 5 percent difference.
Bitfinex isn’t the only exchange in the region experiencing disruptions. Chinese exchange OKCoin also recently reported it was experiencing issues with intermediary banks. The exchange reported it is unable to accept deposits in U.S. dollars.
At the time of the above data, exchanges on OKCoin ran around 1BTC:$1,257 — just over a 2 percent difference.
Still, for now, traders can rest at least somewhat assured that this isn’t going to turn into a Mt. Gox 2.0. By the numbers, Mt. Gox traded between 10 to 26 percent higher than its competitors in its final days.Texas archaeologists may have found more pieces of the Alamo.
Spanish colonial adobe bricks discovered at a dig site in downtown San Antonio's Alamo Plaza may have made up part of the mission's original western wall, researchers announced Monday, although more analysis is needed to verify the architectural function of the centuries-old bricks.
The dig, the first of its kind at the Alamo, is the first phase in a larger effort by state and local officials to renovate the historical landmark. Before construction plans can be drawn up, members of Reimagine the Alamo, the city of San Antonio and the Alamo Endowment are trying to learn as much as they can about the original 18th-century mission's architecture and location.
Discovery of the bricks on Friday marked a major step toward uncovering the construction history of the world-famous Texas landmark.
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"Because we’ve got something from the Spanish colonial period, we know we are digging in the right place," archaeologist Nesta Anderson said in a press conference Monday. "Now we know we can get information from the ground over here that will support the master plan and the reinterpretation.”
The bricks were discovered near the current mission's western wall, just 23 inches beneath the surface, Anderson said. They clearly form a larger wall structure, but years of wear and tear have left the fragile mud structures in very poor condition.
In a news release, the officials in charge of the Alamo's refurbishing said they hoped to unearth the original western and southern walls.
Friday, archaeologists may have done just that. But Anderson noted the bricks could simply be a part of a structure that was erected near the original mission.
“All we know right now is that we’ve got wall,” she said.
Land Commissioner George P. Bush, whose office oversees the Texas shrine, expressed excitement over the discovery.
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"This archeological exploration of the area surrounding the Alamo will be a tremendous benefit as we develop a master plan for reimagining the Alamo," Bush wrote in a release. "I am proud of the team of leading experts we have assembled to guide us through this historical process."
Archaeologists will continue their dig for the next several weeks, updating the public on their findings with daily announcements.Biden aide: 'Schmidt lied, or got it wrong'
McCain aide Steve Schmidt told reporters today, amid a barrage of charges against the Obama campaign and the media, that Joe Biden's son, Hunter, had lobbied for the credit card and banking industries.
Those lobbying contracts don't appear in the public records, and Biden spokesman David Wade fired back in an e-mail just now.
"Steve Schmidt lied — or just got it flat wrong," he e-mailed "Hunter Biden has never — never — been a lobbyist for the credit card or banking industry."
UPDATE: The McCain campaign points out that Hunter Biden served as a vice president at the credit card giant MBNA at one time and later as a "consultant" to it.
Biden's camp has always denied that the senator's son was hired to lobby, though it's hard to imagine that the bank wasn't aware of their employee's connection to the senator.
He was never registered to lobby for the company.The veterinarian who made headlines after killing a cat with an arrow and bragging about it on Facebook is fighting to keep her veterinary license.
Kristen Lindsey and the Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners are in Austin for an administrative hearing that is expected to last three days.
The Board's Enhancement Committee earlier recommended that Lindsey's license be revoked, but right now she is still able to practice.
In April 2015, Lindsey posted the picture to Facebook holding a cat that had been shot through the head by an arrow. An Austin County grand jury did not have enough evidence to charge her with a crime.
The veterinarian who made headlines after killing a cat with an arrow and bragging about it on Facebook is fighting to keep her veterinary license. (KAGS photo)
Lindsey choked up on the stand Monday when her attorney asked how the incident had affected her.
"It's put me out of work for a year, not to mention death threats,” Lindsey said.
“If you don't get your license revoked, will you ever shoot a feral cat again?” the attorney asked.
"No. God no,” Lindsey said.
The defense attorney denied that she shot the cat for target practice.
Lindsey said she would not have killed the cat if she knew it was a pet.
A couple testified Monday that Tiger was their cat.An audio version of this story
Even as Atlanta struggles with one of the nation’s highest HIV infection rates, the agency tasked with curtailing the epidemic here is failing to spend millions of dollars set aside for HIV prevention.
In some years, the Fulton County Health Department has given back to the federal government as much — or more — than it spent.
Change in national HIV policy
The HIV/AIDS rates in certain areas of the U.S. are so bad, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2012 decided to change the way it tackled the epidemic.
In the past, the CDC handed state health departments yearly grants, and prevention was largely handled at the state level.
But most new infections happen in a handful of the nation’s biggest cities, so the CDC shifted hundreds of millions of dollars in prevention funds away from states and reallocated the money to the local level.
Because of Atlanta’s high prevalence of HIV, the Fulton County Health Department suddenly found itself with millions of new dollars and a mountain of new responsibility. It not only had to spend a huge influx of new money, but it had to put into action a federal plan that represented a major shift in HIV policy.
A shifted focus on HIV prevention
One goal of the CDC’s HIV new prevention strategy is to get more people tested and to do it outside of a clinic or doctor’s office. Places like Atlanta’s University Barbershop, which sits next to Morehouse College.
Last summer, the business offered $10 haircuts and a free HIV test to customers.
“We got involved with the project to help the community,” said barbershop manager Terrance Barron. “This is a way to give back to the community, to know your status.”
The event caught the attention of Morehouse student Frederick Miller, who passed by the barbershop on his way to class.
Statistically speaking, the 26-year-old black man is at a higher risk for HIV. Miller said he’d had a HIV test before, but figured it was a good time to have another.
“A lot of time when you’re a student, there are so many distractions,” Miller said. “And you don’t think about this kind of stuff until it hits you for real.”
Miller said he planned to tell his friends about the testing outreach and encourage them to drop in and get a test.
The Fulton County Health Department, along with several Atlanta barbershops, sponsored the event. And this type of partnership is exactly what the CDC had in mind when crafting local HIV prevention grants.
The problem?
Fulton County isn’t doing enough, at least when it comes to spending its grant money.
Money on the table
Documents obtained by WABE show that since 2012, the CDC has awarded Fulton County grants totaling nearly $20 million to fund its HIV-prevention efforts.
In the first two years of the program, Fulton County spent about half of the money. Last year, the county health department did a little better, spending more than half.
But what it didn’t spend, it had to give back — some $8.7 million.
“The fact that we have millions of dollars of funds to address this problem that have gone unspent is something that should be a concern for a lot of folks,” Jeff Graham, executive director of Georgia Equality, said.
Graham, who is also a member of Fulton County’s newly-formed Taskforce on HIV/AIDS, has pressed the health department’s director about the county’s lack of prevention spending.
Dr. Patrice Harris, director of health services for Fulton County, said the spending problems “absolutely concern” her. As the grant’s principal investigator, Harris is responsible for executing Fulton County’s HIV prevention strategy.
So why hasn’t the money been spent?
Harris said there many reasons, including the grant’s funding cycle, the amount of time needed to hire and train personnel, turnover and county bureaucracy. Plus, because the CDC requires Fulton County to contract with various community-based non-profits, ensuring their compliance can slow things down, she said.
“It’s certainly money that’s not spent going to work toward HIV prevention, and we need every dollar we can get,” said Harris. She noted the county is eligible to apply to get some of the unspent money back, a process called “carry-over.”
But that amount doesn’t begin to cover the county’s loss, and some close to the process said on background the money only replaces new funds the CDC would otherwise grant.
Dr. Harris, meanwhile, remained firm that her department is committed to fixing its spending issues. In April, she convened what she called a “turn-around” meeting, where various stakeholders offered their ideas on how to mend the problem.
She also said she’s certain the county will spend all of its grant money this year, barring what she called “unforeseen personnel problems.”
Spending issues not unique to Fulton County
As it turns out, the spending problem isn’t isolated to Fulton County.
Other health departments across the country also have struggled, according to Natalie Cramer of the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors.
“A redirect of funding is not flipping a light switch,” Cramer said. “It takes a significant amount of time.”
NASTAD commissioned a study that found many state and local health departments faced challenges one year into the CDC’s shift in HIV prevention strategy. Because some health departments saw reductions in their funds, they had to scale back or eliminate programs already in place.
Others, like Fulton County, quickly had to ramp up brand new programs.
“Fulton County had both this brand new resources with new reporting requirements, brand new scopes of activities, and not the historical infrastructure for HIV prevention,” Cramer said.
Given the demands of starting the program from scratch, it makes sense there would be growing pains. But Fulton County is heading into year four of the five-year grant, and the health department continues to struggle in some ways like it was day one. It still gives back to the CDC millions of dollars it hasn’t been able to spend.
A promise to fix the situation
Like all county agencies, the health department falls under the oversight of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. The Board’s chair, John Eaves, said he only learned of the spending problems a few days ago.
“This is one area that we were not aware of, in terms of the challenges,” Eaves said. “It really is disappointing and to a certain degree inexcusable.”
But unspent HIV prevention funds are just one problem the Fulton County Health Department has faced. Compliance documents obtained by WABE show the health department also failed to meet several key benchmarks tied to the grant money.
For example, it didn’t link enough newly-diagnosed HIV patients to medical care. It also failed to identify enough new HIV-positive people in non-health care settings. Recording and reporting data also posed a challenge, according to CDC records.
Fulton Commission Chair John Eaves said he was not aware of the compliance issues, but said he would direct the county manager to investigate “to make sure someone is held accountable and that going forward, this type of thing never happen[s] again.”
Fulton County is about to enter the final year of the CDC grant. Soon, the health department will apply for the next round of HIV prevention money.
Despite multiple requests, the CDC did not make anyone available to comment for this report, so it’s unclear what effect years of under spending and compliance problems could have on Fulton County’s future funding.NEW DELHI: The government wants to let shops stay open as long as they want — just like their online counterparts. The government is proposing that states scrap rules mandating store closures and replace them with a model law that it’s preparing, allowing restaurants, malls, theatres and local markets to remain open round the clock.
Such a change will level the playing field between online and offline besides cutting down on restrictions, thus improving the ease of doing business, a stated aim of the Narendra Modi government.
"We have begun discussions...The first draft of the new law is likely to be finalised in a month," said a labour ministry official. The draft will also cover the appointment of workers in this sector, taking it out of the purview of existing labour rules, he said.
Under existing state laws, shops are required to remain closed on a specified day depending on traditional practices.
Also, there is no provision for shops to remain open round the clock, so malls and restaurants close at midnight and local markets even earlier generally. Beyond that, malls only stay open to let moviegoers exit after the last show.
India’s retail industry is growing at 15 per cent and expected to touch $1 trillion by 2020 from $600 billion now. Modern retail, comprising ecommerce and brick and mortar, is expected to more than double its share of the overall market to 20 per cent from 8 per cent in the next five years.
Online retail is still a small part of this but is rising rapidly, pegged to reach $60-70 billion by 2019 from $17 billion in 2014, according to a report by Boston Consulting Group and the Retailers Association of India that was issued in February. Meanwhile, India’s leading ecommerce companies such as Flipkart and Snapdeal have been raising funds and spending heavily to win customers, as has Amazon India, which may even exceed the $2 billion investment in local operatons that CEO Jeff Bezos had pledged last year. Amazon’s India business has quadrupled this year.
Experts said the changes being proposed by the Centre would give a big push to the retail sector, putting it on a stronger footing against the online challenge.
"The retailers want to run shops 24x7 and this kind of flexibility will help them get more business. Besides, consumers, especially working couples, will get increased access to shopping even at night," said BP Panty, advisor to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci). This has been a longstanding industry demand, said Kumar Rajgopalan, CEO of the Retailers Association of India, welcoming the move.
"A central guiding law with no mandate on timing will be of immense use to retailers and would help create more employment besides addressing the needs of consumers," he said.
GUIDING LAW
Every state has its own version of the shops and establishment law that governs working hours for shop and commercial establishments and deals with licences for their operation. The draft also seeks to abolish provisions that require the annual revision of licences or regulation of working hours.
"This new law would serve as a model law for all states," the official, who did not wish to be named, told ET. Although it won’t be binding, the central government hopes rising competition among states on improving ease of doing business will encourage those eager for investment to adopt the new regime, putting pressure on others to follow.
Businesses will have to introduce shifts to ensure that employees work for a fixed number of hours, the official said. They will be entitled to weekly holidays besides all existing leave and other perks. Shop owners will only have to file annual returns under the model law and there won’t be any need to renew licences every year, the official said.
The labour ministry will begin tripartite consultations with state governments, trade unions and businesses once it finalises the draft, the official said, adding that it will then be taken to the cabinet.madals Profile Blog Joined June 2011 United Kingdom 623 Posts Last Edited: 2014-07-05 20:51:31 #1
As some of you may know, I am a TeamGB Paralympic Athlete (
Since then, I have been training hardcore in my other event called a Va'ar 200m. Today, I was able to qualify for the European Championships (starting next week)! The downside, I won't be streaming or casting all of next week The plus side, I may just be able to win a medal!!
If you want to follow more details, my athlete twitter is:
Below are just a couple of pictures - will try to answer any questions!
Just a quick blog update because I am going to be SUPER rushed packing!As some of you may know, I am a TeamGB Paralympic Athlete ( http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/452260-2014-balancing-casting-and-pro-athlete ) and last month I just missed out on qualifying for the World and European championships in my main event, the 200m kayak!Since then, I have been training hardcore in my other event called a Va'ar 200m. Today, I was able to qualify for the European Championships (starting next week)! The downside, I won't be streaming or casting all of next weekThe plus side, I may just be able to win a medal!!If you want to follow more details, my athlete twitter is: https://twitter.com/AdamSimmonsGB Below are just a couple of pictures - will try to answer any questions! Caster: @Madals91 http://www.youtube.com/Madals91 <--These are the sins we should be taxing
‘The UK already relies more than most rich countries on fuel, alcohol and tobacco duties’
Is it time to rethink the way we tax sin? The UK has long levied special taxes — “duties” — on products that pollute the environment, the lungs, the liver or the pocketbook: driving, flying, tobacco, alcohol and gambling. There are good reasons for these taxes. The government must raise revenue somehow, so there is much to be said for taxing products that are price-insensitive, socially harmful or, at the very least, unhealthy temptations.
But the way sin taxes are levied in practice is an incoherent muddle. Plenty of products that are bad for us (bacon, butter, sugar) get favourable tax treatment, attracting no value-added tax, although the standard VAT rate is 20 per cent. Heating and lighting our homes also attracts a concessional rate of tax, although a kilogram of carbon dioxide emitted from a power station or a gas boiler contributes to climate change just as much as a kilogram emitted from a car. Vehicle excise duty is a tax not on driving but on owning a car. And the rate of duty on alcohol varies depending on how we drink it.
It is easy to see how successive chancellors bodged their way to this point. Taxes on the pint or at the pump are eye-catching; raising them seems morally serious but cutting them is a crowd-pleaser. And so they bounce around like the political football they are.
George Osborne has an opportunity to fix the situation this Wednesday during his Budget speech. Here’s what he should do.
First, similar harms should attract similar taxes. The UK duty on 10ml of pure alcohol, roughly the amount in a shot of vodka or half a pint of beer, varies wildly. It is about 7p in strong cider, 18p in strong beer, or 28p in whisky and wine. A consistent price per millilitre would make more sense.
Second, he should broaden the sin tax base. UK duties are concentrated on tobacco, motor fuel and alcohol. As the Institute for Fiscal Studies showed in its “green budget” in February, revenue from duties has been falling for decades, from 4.1 per cent of national income in the early 1980s to 2.6 per cent last year. This drop is the net result of falling duties on fuel (back to the levels of 20 years ago in real terms), declining duties on alcohol and lower consumption of both tobacco and alcohol.
Should the chancellor, then, raise duties? Perhaps, but there are limits. The UK already relies more than most rich countries on fuel, alcohol and tobacco duties. Above a certain level, the smugglers and bootleggers take over.
A wiser approach is to tax sins that have thus far escaped attention. The most obvious is congestion: fuel taxes do not distinguish between driving along an uncongested country road and driving in rush-hour in a built-up area, which causes vastly more social harm. Congestion charges, which are now technically feasible, are fair and efficient, if the political case can be made.
Another obvious sin is sugar. While one can be too puritanical about nudging people to take care of their health and waistline, it seems strange that perfectly reasonable activities such as buying a T-shirt or earning a living attract tax, while sugar is tax-free. A sugar tax of a half-penny a gram would add about 18p to the cost of a can of Coke, more than that to a family pack of Bran Flakes, 25p to a 200ml bottle of ketchup and 45p to the price of a packet of chocolate digestives.
Third, Osborne should avoid arbitrary cut-offs where possible. In a bygone age it must have been simpler to slap a tax on an item in a particular category but this has led to the infamous “Jaffa Cake” problem. Are Jaffa Cakes — sponge discs with an orange jelly topping, partly coated in chocolate — cakes (zero VAT) or biscuits (VAT at 20 per cent)? A tribunal in 1991 mused that Jaffa Cakes are packaged much like biscuits, are sold next to biscuits, are the same size and shape as biscuits and, like biscuits, are eaten without a fork. However, it also noted that they are made of a cake-like dough, are soft and, like a cake, they go harder when stale. The tribunal eventually concluded that Jaffa Cakes are cakes, and thus they remain tax-advantaged
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Dale Romans 40 19 Candy Boy John Sadler 30 20 Cairo Prince Kiaran McLaughlin 24 21 Uncle Sigh Gary Contessa 24 22 Vinceremos Todd Pletcher 20 23 Harry's Holiday Mike Maker 20 24 Commanding Curve Dallas Stewart 20 25 Pablo Del Monte Wesley Ward 20 26 Bayern Bob Baffert 20 27 Social Inclusion Manny Azpurua 20 28 Big Bazinga Katerina Vassilieva 14 29 Coastline Mark Casse 13 30 Strong Mandate D. Wayne Lukas 11 31 In Trouble Tony Dutrow 10 32 Noble Moon Leah Gyarmati 10 33 Cleburne Dale Romans 10 34 Commissioner Todd Pletcher 10 35 Schiverelli Eddie Kenneally 10 36 Conquest Titan Mark Casse 9 38 Casiguapo Mario Morales 5 39 Asserting Bear Reade Baker 5
Not since Affirmed in 1978 has a horse won the Triple Crown. Orb fell to Oxbow at the Preakness Stakes last year after an impressive run to victory at the 2013 edition of the Kentucky Derby. I’ll Have Another was the last horse to attempt the feat in 2012. He won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness but was scratched due to injury before the Belmont and retired to stud.
Every horse entering the starting gate will be vying to become the 12th horse to ever win the Triple Crown. Will one of this year’s entrants make the hallowed list? One talented horse will have a shot when all the owners, trainers, jockeys and fans go to bed on Saturday night after the dust has settled from Kentucky Derby 140. Sit back and relax and enjoy the Sport of Kings, enjoy the most exhilarating two minutes in sports and if you are lucky, win a couple of dollars doing it. Below is the list of the 11 Triple Crown winners throughout history.
Year Name Jockey 1919 Sir Barton John Loftus 1930 Gallant Fox Earl Sande 1935 Omaha William Saunders 1937 War Admiral Charley Kurtsinger 1941 Whirlaway Eddie Arcaro 1943 Count Fleet John Longden 1946 Assault Warren Mehrtens 1948 Citation Eddie Arcaro 1973 Secretariat Ron Turcotte 1977 Seattle Slew Jean Cruguet 1978 Affirmed Steve Cauthen 2015 American Pharoah Victor Espinoza
After the post draw check back to read this writers opinion on who will win Kentucky Derby 140 as well as a breakdown of each contender or pretender in the field. Here at Sports Unbiased we will not charge you. You will get the picks and betting strategies for free because we like you and believe in information, at no cost, to our readership.Remember when President Donald Trump was upset because the media wouldn't buy into his demonstrably false claim that his inauguration crowd matched that of President Barack Obama (even though it was in fact smaller)?
It turns out the president was also personally involved in trying to root out the rogue tweeter who used the official National Park Service account to help prove him wrong.
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Tim Cash, the Chief of Digital Strategy at the National Park Service, sent an email to the NPS' Chief Information Security Officer Shaun Cavanaugh on Jan. 21 saying that "obviously, this has become a very sensitive issue, especially since the president has gotten directly involved and contacted Acting Director Mike Reynolds concerned about one of the images that was retweeted," according to a report confirmed by CBS News. The email referred to a rogue tweet that was issued from the NPS' account which showed a side-by-side comparison of the crowds at Obama's first inauguration and Trump's, with the former clearly surpassing the size of the latter.
The exchange between Cash and Cavanaugh was released by MuckRack through a Freedom of Information Act request.
A memo released through the same request shows a staffer describing how the department "traced the IP address used for the two questionable posts to an ISP in the San Bruno, Calif., area and checked all possible NPS social media points of contacts in that area." Although the National Park Service at first "suspected that this incident was an accidental cross-posting from a personal Twitter account (this has happened on multiple occasions in the past with other NPS social media accounts)," they later considered the possibility that the account had been compromised.
At the time of the controversy surrounding Trump's comparatively smaller crowd size, White House press secretary Sean Spicer claimed that the White House had not ordered the tweet to be taken down (which it was shortly after being posted). He also claimed they had not suspended the Interior Department accounts.Allspice is made from the dried, unripened berries of the allspice tree (Pimenta dioica) which is native to the Caribbean, southern Mexico and Central America. It was called “allspice” by the English who thought that it tasted like a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. It is an important ingredient in Jamaican Jerk seasoning. Its use has spread throughout the world and is now found in Middle Eastern cooking, as well as Great Britain, Germany and most famously, in Cincinnati-style chili in the US.
True to its tropical origins, the allspice tree is hardy only in zones 10 and 11. Mature trees can reach heights of 30 to 60 feet. They need full sun and are often grown to provide shade for coffee trees. Despite their large size, if properly pruned, they can be grown in containers like bay laurel trees.
Small white flowers appear in the spring followed by dark purple berries in the summer. The berries are harvested when they are green before they ripen to purple. Traditionally, they are dried in the sun. When dried, they are brown, resembling peppercorns. Once the dried berries are ground, they begin to lose their flavor so it is a good idea to buy allspice whole and grind it yourself only when you need it. The whole dried berries retain their flavor longer than when they are ground.
The leaves of the allspice tree are also flavorful and used in Caribbean cuisine. Unlike bay leaves, they lose their flavor once they are dried so they are only used fresh.
Normally the seeds of the allspice tree needs to pass through the digestive system of birds before they will germinate, but you can fool the seeds and grow your own tree. Simply wait until the berries have ripened, then extract the 2 seeds inside each berry and soak the seeds in warm water for 24 hours.
Plant your seeds ¼-inch deep in a pot and place the pot on a heat mat which is set at 70⁰F to 80⁰F. Keep the soil moist. Germination could occur as soon as 2 weeks but could also take up to 3 months. You will need patience. If you are fortunate to live in zone 10 or 11, you can transplant your seedling into your garden in the fall. Again, you will need patience because it will be several years before your trees will begin to flower and produce berries.
The rest of us in colder climes will need to grow our allspice trees in containers, bringing them indoors when outdoors temps drop below 60⁰F. We will need to be vigilant and keep our containers well-watered. Allspice trees do not tolerate any dryness.Image copyright ESA/CPOM
Antarctica is now losing about 160 billion tonnes of ice a year to the ocean - twice as much as when the continent was last surveyed.
The new assessment comes from Europe's Cryosat spacecraft, which has a radar instrument specifically designed to measure the shape of the ice sheet.
The melt loss from the White Continent is sufficient to push up global sea levels by around 0.43mm per year.
Scientists report the data in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
The new study incorporates three years of measurements from 2010 to 2013, and updates a synthesis of observations made by other satellites over the period 2005 to 2010.
Cryosat has been using its altimeter to trace changes in the height of the ice sheet - as it gains mass through snowfall, and loses mass through melting.
'Big deal'
The study authors divide the continent into three sectors - the West Antarctic, the East Antarctic, and the Antarctic Peninsula, which is the long finger of land reaching up to South America.
Overall, Cryosat finds all three regions to be losing ice, with the average elevation of the full ice sheet falling annually by almost 2cm.
Image copyright Other Image caption Cryosat's double antenna configuration allows it to map slopes very effectively
In the three sectors, this equates to losses of 134 billion tonnes, 3 billion tonnes, and 23 billion tonnes of ice per year, respectively.
The East had been gaining ice in the previous study period, boosted by some exceptional snowfall, but it is now seen as broadly static in the new survey.
As expected, it is the western ice sheet that dominates the reductions.
Scientists have long considered it to be the most vulnerable to melting.
It has an area, called the Amundsen Sea Embayment, where six huge glaciers are currently undergoing a rapid retreat - all of them being eroded by the influx of warm ocean waters that scientists say are being drawn towards the continent by stronger winds whipped up by a changing climate.
About 90% of the mass loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is going from just these few ice streams.
At one of them - Smith Glacier - Crysosat sees the surface lowering by 9m per year.
Image copyright BAS/ISTAR/Anna Hogg Image caption Some western ice streams such as Pine Island Glacier are retreating and thinning rapidly
"CryoSat has given us a new understanding of how Antarctica has changed over the last three years and allowed us to survey almost the entire continent," explained lead author Dr Malcolm McMillan from the NERC Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling at Leeds University, UK.
"We find that ice losses continue to be most pronounced in West Antarctica, along the fast-flowing ice streams that drain into the Amundsen Sea. In East Antarctica, the ice sheet remained roughly in balance, with no net loss or gain over the three-year period," he told BBC News.
Cryosat was launched by the European Space Agency in 2010 on a dedicated quest to measure changes at the poles, and was given a novel radar system for the purpose.
It has two antennas slightly offset from each other. This enables the instrument to detect not just the height of the ice sheet but the shape of its slopes and ridges.
This makes Cryosat much more sensitive to details at the steep edges of the ice sheet - the locations where thinning is most pronounced.
It also allows the satellite to better detect what is going on in the peninsula region of the continent where the climate has warmed rapidly over the past 50 years.
"The peninsula is extremely rugged and previous satellite altimeters have always struggled to see its narrow glaciers. With Cryosat, we get remarkable coverage - better than anything that's been achieved before," said Prof Andy Shepherd, also of Leeds University.
Future change
The GRL paper follows hard on the heels of two studies that have made a specific assessment of the future prospects for the Amundsen Sea Embayment.
One of these reports concluded that the area's glaciers were now in an irreversible retreat.
The other paper, considering one of the glaciers in detail, suggested the reversal process could take several hundred years to be completed.
A loss of all the ice in the six glaciers would add about 1.2m to global sea level.
This is still a small fraction of the total sea-level potential of Antarctica, which holds something like 26.5 million cubic km ice (or 58m of sea-level rise equivalent). But the continent has been largely insulated from some of the warming influences taking place elsewhere in the world and it is important, say scientists, to keep a check on any changes that are occurring, and the speed with which they are happening.
Prof Duncan Wingham proposed the Cryosat mission and is its principal investigator. He told BBC News: "We lack the capability to predict accurately how the Amundsen ice streams will behave in future.
"Equally, a continuation or acceleration of their behaviour has serious implications for sea level rise. This makes essential their continued observation, by Cryosat and its successors."
Prof David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey, who was not involved in the Cryosat survey, commented: "The increasing contribution of Antarctica to sea-level rise is a global issue, and we need to use every technique available to understand where and how much ice is being lost.
"Through some very clever technical improvements, McMillan and his colleagues have produced the best maps of Antarctic ice loss we have ever had. Prediction of the rate of future global sea-level rise must begin with a thorough understanding of current changes in the ice sheets - this study puts us exactly where we need to be."
Image copyright ESA Image caption The Antarctic Peninsula's rugged terrain has made radar measurement very difficult in the past
[email protected] and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmosComments are everywhere. From facebook and reddit to your local newspaper. Yet a lot of sites (cough… newspapers… cough) seem unable to maintain comment sections of an acceptable quality. Looking at it from the perspective of someone that has followed the development since Slashdot started taking comments seriously in 1997 a short guide may be in order.
This post will outline the basics of a good comment system. Note that since this is a vast field some finer nuances may be omitted, and my personal opinion and preferences will probably shine through. These are just the basics. Also, I won’t get into technical implementations since that would be too much for one blogpost, and will be dependent on which language/framework is used.
Also note that this guide applies to sites that have many users and many comments. If you have a small blog where each post gets 5-10 comments you should just use a standard comment system, or maybe disqus.
So let’s get started.
The basics
A good comment system consists of three parts:
User profiles. This may seem obvious, yet I still see sites that don’t have it. The profile is a users identity when he is commenting on a site. An upvoting/downvoting mechanism. There are many implementations, among them are facebook likes, Reddits up and downvotes and slashdots dropdown choices between interesting/insightful/funny//informative A sorting algorithm that will sort the comments based on input from user profiles and the upvoting/downvoting mechanism. This is the vital part that sorts the quality comments from the inevitable trolls, me-too posts and conspiracy nuts.
Let’s look a bit more closely at each of these three components.
User profiles
The primary function of the user profile is, of course, to identify the user. But it has several other uses that are just as essential
Giving the user an identity. The more of an identity a user has on a given website the more he will feel a part of a community, adhere to rules and netiquette and ultimately write better comments.
Identifying good and bad citizens. Users that write good comments will often do so consistently, users that write bad comments will often do so consistently too. This can be used in the algorithmic placement of comments.
The ability to “get to know” other users. A comment stating that something is completely wrong may either be very insightful, very stupid, or just trolling – it depends on the context and to a large degree the user. Being able to recognise the user, look through his comment history, and maybe see his profile adds a lot of context and value.
A voting mechanism
The voting mechanism allows others to vote on a users contributions. This is the primary input for the voting algorithm in assessing how valuable a comment is – a comment with a lot of positive votes is inevitably more valuable than one with none. Voting also serves two subtle psychological purposes. One is to allow users to easily approve or disapprove of a comment, and the other is to give some (hopefully positive) feedback to the commenter. Both help user retention and the feeling of being part of a community.
There are a number of different implementations to choose from.
likes. Probably the most known and versatile voting mechanism popularised by facebook. It has the intrinsic advantage that it is cognitively easy to parse – even your mom knows what it means to like something. Pressing the thumbs-up icon is done millions of times every day by non-technical users. It’s a safe bet, and probably the right thing to use if your demographic is old or not net savvy.
Upvotes/downvotes. The up and down arrows popularised by first Digg and then Reddit are for a slightly more tech-savvy crowd. An upvote and a like are of course technically the same, but the psychology behind them is slightly different. A like is exactly what it says, whereas an upvote can mean “I like this”, “this is a worthy and interesting comment”, “this adds to the conversation” or something else. It depends on the site, and it is not trivial to convey to users what an upvote means. Some sites, such as hacker news have a stated set of guidelines that users (surprisingly!) adhere to, whereas on a site like reddit an upvote means different things whether you’re in the “askhistorians” subreddit or the “aww” subreddit. Downvotes are of course the alter ego of upvotes, but you need to think about the psychology behind them before you implement them. Upvotes are a positive acknowledgement, downvotes are a negative acknowledgement which may deter users from coming back.
A sorting algorithm
One of the sad facts about the Internet is that 90% of what people write is crap. 99% if you set the bar high, 80% if you’re an optimist. This applies to comments too, and it means that without some intervention a reader is forced to read through 10 crappy comments before reading a good one. Most people don’t have the time for that.
That’s why sorting comments is important.
The ultimate goal is to present the reader with the good comments, and allowing him to skip over the bad ones. The goal of a sorting algorithm is to find these nuggets, and the job of the UX people is to present the nuggets to readers in the best way possible. Note that these are 2 different things. The algorithm calculates a score, and the design presents the comments to the user based on this.
Most algorithmic sorting systems are primarily based on other users votes, but presenting only the comments with the most votes to other users presents a problem; How will new comments gain votes? What if comment number 100 is incredibly insightful, but gets no votes because no one reads through 100 commetns before they see it? The way this is solved is to create an algorithm that makes sure that comments with many votes rise to the top, but also makes sure that new comments are seen and have a chance to get voted on.
Probably the most simple version, that works surprisingly well, is Hacker News. The algorithm is as follows:
Score = (votes-1) / (time since creation in hours+2)^1.8
If you’re mathematically inclined you’ll see that votes add to the score and time subtracts from the score. Since comments are listed according to score this means that new comments start at or near the top, allowing other users to see them and vote on them, but quickly fall down the page if they receive no upvotes. Thus the playing field is more level, and late comments still have a chance to rise to the top.
Reddit’s sorting algorithm works on the same principle of presenting users with a list of comments sorted by score, but the score is calculated somewhat differently. It uses Wilsons score interval, an algorithm developed by Edward B. Wilson in 1927(!). The idea is that you sample each comment when it is voted on, and give it a score. It’s basically like polling each comment when a vote is cast on it. The comment system is created by Randall Munroe of XKCD fame, and he has written a very readable blogpost about how it works here
Amix.dk has a good run through of both Reddit’s and *Hacker news‘ algorithms.
Facebook’s sorting algorithm is complex, often changing and a well kept secret – so it’s hard to say something meaningful about how it works. At least something meaningful that doesn’t change in a week.
The old-timer slashdot solves the problem somewhat differently. The comments are listed chronologically, but the ones that receive few or no votes are hidden from view, and require an active click to view. Since their voting system is a dropdown of insightful/informative/interesting/funny you can choose to sort by one of these if you just want to see the funny comments. Or the insightful ones. The advantage of this solution is that it keeps the chronological nature of the comment section intact, while still presenting only the best comments to the user.
Note that the above sorting algorithms are just the basics, and that you can, and probably should, add and experiment to get it right. Maybe you should include users average comment score in the algorithm, maybe you should add a negative weight to new users, maybe votes from moderators should count double. The possibilities are endless. This is also why it’s important to keep the sorting algorithmic separate in your code base so you can continue to tweak and perfect it.
Moderation
If you have a reasonable amount of comments you need moderation. There will always be trolls, personal attacks, haters and just assholes and you need to do something about them because they will infest your community and drive the good users away if you don’t. Nobody wants to spend time writing a thoughtful comment that will be lost in a sea of swearwords, illuminati conspiracies and presumptuous premises. This is a cumulative effect; Once you start having bad comments (for some definition of bad, that obviously depend on your community) they will attract more. The same goes for good comments. This is why moderation is important.
Good moderation is a combination of human and machine effort. The most blatant spam can be caught using standard techniques such as bayesian filtering, but reasoning about the validity of comments above a very low threshold is still beyond algorithms. There are a few different technques that can be employed:
Algorithmic sorting
The voting algorithm will get you a long way, especially if you have downvotes. Comments that have a sizable amount of downvotes can automatically sink to the bottom, where few people read them. Hacker News has a rather clever system where the text-color of a comment gets closer and closer to the background color the more downvotes it receives. After enough downvotes it is invisible.
An additional measure is a “report spam” button that lets users report spam comments. This is useful, since it’s clear indication that when a user presses it it is because he thinks a comment is spam. The system should, however, not just delete the comment since this is an easy way to cheat the system and remove comments that you disagree with. Instead a system should be employed where a report button is incorporated into the moderation system, such that the action taken is based on a more nuanced set of parameters. These could include the reporting users previous posts, average score, or time since creation, it could include the same parameters from the writer of the comment, and it could send a message to the moderators. Bringing us to…
Moderators
Moderators are the humans that make sure everything works as it is supposed to. These can either be paid moderators, which quickly gets expensive, or it can be powerusers that volunteer. Typically a hierarchy is employed with paid staff at the top that have a number of volunteers below them. The job of he paid staff is to find and keep good moderators, tweak algorithms and do normal housekeeping. The job of the volunteers is to moderate comments. One important reason for having volunteer moderators is to have a better response time. If moderation is only done by normal employees response times for commenting is typically slow, both because people have other things to do, and because there typically will be no moderation after working hours. A well-kept volunteer based system on he other hand will have almost instant moderation.
banning
Some users just won’t learn. Maybe they are trolls, maybe they have a personal agenda, or maybe they just have nothing better to do. To have a well functioning community you need to get rid of them since they can quickly infest and degrade your comment section. Banning can either be automatic, or done by moderators, and a ban can either be on the userprofile (with the disadvantage that he can just create another) or IP adress (with he disadvantage that others from that IP can’t join the discussion, and the problems with dynamic IP’s). There is no proven way to completely ban a user and make sure he doesn’t come back, short of requiring personal ID which is probably taking it a bit too far. For most sites it’s a whack-a-mole game, but the more effective you are at weeding out, the smaller the problem becomes as bad users find out that their comments won’t be read anyway.
A clever way of keeping bad users in a trap is hell-banning – they will see their comments on the site, but they will be invisible to everyone else. Often they don’t realise this, and wonder why their snarky comment doesn’t trigger a response, not realising that they are the only ones to see it. Eventually they will get tired and go somewhere else. A particular insidious version of hell-banning is to let hell-banned users see comments from other hell-banned users.
Transparency
Experience suggests that at least some transparency is important for a good community. If you just delete comments users are prone to start speculating and eventually get angry. Conspiracy theories about the political bias of moderators, personal agendas and the like are bound to pop up. So are comments about it, and they typically don’t add to the conversation. A good start is a set of guidelines, that state what is and isn’t allowed. Being able to contact moderators is another good measure. Flicking a switch that allows users to see deleted comments is another good way. Sending an automated message with the guidelines is another. Just deleting comments with no reason is a bad idea unless it’s obviously spam.
Some sites such as Hacker News choose to keep the identity of moderators secret (or at least not publicly available) whereas sites such as reddit has visible moderators for each subreddit that are free for all to see. Slashdot employs a unique system where some users are granted moderation abilities for short timeperiods based on their past acions. This approach crowdsources the moderation to all users, and may be more fair and has the advantage that there is not the the potential for one moderator with a political agenda, a personal vendetta or other non-desirable behavior.
Design and usability
Design and usability are important factors. You should strive for a system that makes it easy for new users to join the conversation and if you have the resources give advanced possibilities to advanced users.
The sign-up proccess
The sign-up process should be easy and hassle-free; username and password and maybe e-mail should really be enough. Full name, number of pets, where you are from and sexual orientation is just filler that will drive new users away. I have seen some sites try to use the sign up process to minimise spam comments by requiring phone numbers or real ID’s. I have seen no data to suggest that this works. If your strategy for minimising spam and bad comments is to make it harder to sign up you’re doing it wrong. Facebook is an exception here – the only reason it works is because they have massive network advantages.
Writing and reading comments
Writing a comment should be easy. Again, making it hard or limiting users possibilities doesn’t help much against bad comments, but it definitely hinders good comments. This is also the wrong place for moderation. Most well functioning comments seem to have some kind of markdown, so that users can style their comments. This is a big win for longer comments, that otherwise would just be a wall of text. Typically styling is limited to simple things such as bold, indented, headings, links and unordered lists. Not much, but enough to make a long comment readable. It’s not an absolute must, but with all the free markdown editors availabel it’s an easy implementation. I have seen some sites limit comments to 500 or 1000 characters, and I’m pretty sure this is a terrible idea. You end up with complaints, comments in 2 or 3 parts, and noone writing thoughtful comments without any apparent upside.
Anonymous posting may have its merits if the conversation is fickle and involves whistleblowing, sexual orientation, personal problems, or a number of other subjects. Typically users will create a throwaway account that will only be used for one comment thread. In my experience some of these anonymous postings are incredibly interesting because they touch on subjects that are normally taboo in one way or another. Slashdot has an interesting twist on snonymous posting; When you are logged in you can choose to post anonymously, and your comment will appear with the username “anonymous coward” and get an automatic penalty in the voting system to keep anonymous spam and personal attacks near the bottom.
The discussion between linear (one long list) and threaded (hierarchical, like folder views) comments has been ongoing since newsgroups was the hot thing. The advantage of linear comments is that they are easier to understand for non-technical users, but they are harder to parse for more savvy users. Particularly conversations are a problem for linear comments. Replying to another user is a mess, following a conversation is even more of a mess. Threaded conversations seem to be prevailing as more and more users get used to them. It’s also hard not to notice that almost all well-functioning comments sections have some kind of threaded comment system. On a sidenote I’ve more than once heard the argument that threaded comments with unlimited depth were almost impossible to implement. I suggest these people learn about recursion
Interaction and psychology
Why do people spend their time writing comments? To paint with a really broad brush it’s either because they are bored, have an agenda, are angry or have something interesting to say. The ones that have something interesting to say are usually the ones that are most busy, and have the lowest threshold for making a comment. For this reason it should be simple and quick to make a comment. The downside is that it will also be simple and quick for users that don’t have anything to add, but that’s what comment sorting and moderation is for. Making it hard to join the conversation is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Actually there’s another reason people spend their time writing comments, and it’s probably the most important one; to feel part of a community, and to get a feeling of acceptance or empowerment from that community. This is why feedback is important. Facebook is the master of this. We all know and love the little red globe on the top right of the page that indicates that someone has liked or responded to something we wrote. As any psychologist can tell you this brings you closer to the community, and gives you a more favorable view of the site. It also promotes discussion since a user is notified when someone responds to his comment. You absolutely need to have functionality that easily lets users see responses on their writings – it’s one of the major psychological drivers for spending time writing out a long thoughtful comment.
Karma is the word normally used for votes/points/likes. The more votes you have the more karma you have. It’s a disputed term that many people have a love/hate relationship with, but it works. Most power users on a given site with karma will follow it, and most people won’t acknowledge that they do so. It’s a measure of how good a member of the community you are, or as a psychologist might say, it is an extension of your ego. Even though it’s just a number it has a profound psychological effect, and spurs users to write better comments to gain karma. Some sites even have top lists of users with the most karma.
Closing thoughts
What was originally intended to be a short guide to comments for noobs ended up being much longer than I thought, and I’ve only covered the basics. This probably goes to show that comments are somewhat more complicated than they first appear, and that a good implementation is not trivial.
Best of luck to anyone faced with the job of implementing a good comment system.
If you think the task is monumental and don’t know where to start, you should send me an e-mail – if you have an interesting project I might be interested.President Barack Obama waves as he is introduced during a campaign event at Iowa State University, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012, in Ames, Iowa. AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
(CBS News) President Barack Obama answered questions from the link-sharing community Reddit on Wednesday. During a 30-minute question-and-answer session commonly referred to as an AMA - which stands for "ask me anything" - the President addressed Citizens United, the space program and Internet freedom.
President Obama answers questions on Reddit AMA - read his full answers
Reddit is a link-sharing community that has a sub-section called "IAmA," which allows anyone to start a thread for people to ask unfiltered questions. Within 15-minutes, the thread - titled "I am Barack Obama, President of the United States -- AMA" - had already received 1,333 comments. The number of comments is currently at 22,941.
"It was a good day!" Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian told CBS News in an email. "Over 200,000 people on site hitting during the interview (mashing reload to keep seeing updates) is a new high." Reddit typically sees about 100,000 people on the site at a time.
President Barack Obama sits at a laptop answering questions from Reddit users on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2012. Imgur/PresidentObama
Those familiar with Reddit may not be surprised at the turnout. While the site has a simple user interface and passionate community, it is anything but a small forum.
Reddit general manager Eric Martin told CBS News over the phone that the site passed 3 billion monthly page views in July. And Obama's AMA alone is currently at 3.8 million page views.
When asked how Reddit convinced the President to do an AMA, Ohanian told the blog AllThingsD:
"There's not a lot to it. I've gotten to know quite a few folks in the WH & Obama campaign team over the years and it was always something I brought up when I got the chance. There are quite a few redditors at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave and at the campaign HQ -- given the prominence of reddit, it's an easy sell."
Politicians have hosted AMAs in the past, including Rep. Ron Paul and former Rep. Anthony Weiner, but Obama is the most prominent host of an AMA session yet.
When asked if Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney would be asked to host an AMA, Ohanian told CBS News, "I'd been quietly working to encourage the Romney team to do one, but I went ahead and invited him publicly." In a Bloomberg report, Ohanian said that it was Romney's turn to face the Internet.
"He came out so strongly against SOPA during that CNN Republican candidate debate that it's clear he too wants Internet freedom for Americans," Ohanian told Bloomberg, referring to the Stop Online Piracy Act. Reddit played a central role in the online protests. It led to an Internet blackout in January, where websites went dark in protest of twin bills SOPA and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). "What better way to show it then to do a Reddit interview with the Internet public?"
There are about two months left until election day. If Romney does an AMA, it's likely that Ohanian will hint at an upcoming question-and-answer session. Leading up to Obama's AMA, Ohanian teased on Twitter, "There's a really special AMA coming later today."USPTO Not At All Happy About Justice Department Saying Genes Shouldn't Be Patentable
from the internal-rift dept
Last week, the Justice Department surprised a ton of people by filing an amicus brief saying that isolated genes should not be patentable. The NY Times has an article quoting a bunch of outraged patent attorneys, who are worried about their own jobs more than anything else, but also has some tidbits suggesting that the Patent and Trademark Office is not at all happy either, despite the fact that they're both part of the same administration. We noted in our original post that there must have been quite the political battle, and as will often happen, the losers appear to be griping. The USPTO has said that, even though the very same administration it's a part of says isolated genes shouldn't be patentable, it will continue to grant such patents until a court tells them not to (which, er, is what the district court did ). The article also quotes a lawyer who spoke with USPTO director David Kappos, and noted that Kappos "seemed chagrined" at the situation. That seems like a polite way of saying that the USPTO is pissed off.
Filed Under: gene patents, patents, politics
Companies: justice department, usptoPublished by Steve Litchfield at 23:10 UTC, September 20th 2015
The Lumia 930, 1520 and Icon all feature the same 'PureView'/'oversampling' camera, of course, with a 20MP sensor oversampled to produce 5MP photos with higher purity, lower noise and so on. At least that was what happened under Lumia Camera under Windows Phone 8.1. Now that the OS and camera application have changed dramatically, is PureView still a 'thing' on the current flagship devices (and presumably on the upcoming 950/950 XL, with similar camera specs)?
And before Lumia 1020 owners get all excited, that's a device for another day and another feature. The question has been asked of me several times in the last fortnight, I'll roll all phrasings into the one: "With Windows 10 Mobile Camera, and given that reframing is now a thing of the past, does the '5MP' mode still do oversampling, to produce 'purer' photos, i.e. is it worth bothering with, or does it just'scrape' a quick image off the sensor?"
It's an excellent question and, below, I'll use a few examples to try and answer it graphically.
I should point out, of course, that all this is incredibly geeky. It might even be that I'm the only person in the world who cares about this sort of thing, but hopefully you'll find it interesting anyway.
As usual, I go right down to 1:1 in the images, i.e. to pixel level. In fact, I go beyond, blowing up pixels in this feature so that you can more clearly see differences between raw images and oversampled versions. And if the thought of bothering with '5MP' versions of images in the first place bothers you then read my piece on the 2015 Megapixel Myth, which wll get you thinking, hopefully.
All of this is, of course, on the Lumia 930
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In terms of overall market cap, the bitcoin blockchain is now valued at $43 billion, or almost two-thirds of the current equity market cap of Paypal (NASDAQ: PYPL). The value of the entire cryptocurrency and blockchain assets ecosystem is now $87 billion, well over that of Paypal, with BTC dominance remaining at just under 50%.
Trading volumes supporting the recent move are very high, reaching over $2 billion daily in BTC/USD trading. However most of the trading activity is coming from Asia, as we reported before, with exchange rate premiums now reported on exchanges in Japan, Korea, China and India.
Trying to rationalize this irrational exuberance, bitcoin holders and advocates give a number of reasons for the jump. One is that Japan is to stop applying consumption taxes on cryptocurrencies in July. Another is that mainstream adoption seems closer than ever with companies such as Fidelity jumping on the bandwagon. The Chinese are also said to be protecting themselves from an expected economic downturn that might devalue their RMB holdings. And lastly, an agreement announced on Tuesday to end the bitcoin civil war by 56 companies representing 83.28% of the hashing power (which includes activating SegWit at an 80% threshold and a 2 MB hard fork within six months.)Thomas Jones by
Much time for economic migrants, no time for German voters — the infamous Merkel-migrant selfies speaking volumes about the treachery of cuckservatives against their own people
History and Role of Germany in Europe
T
German Guilt Trip, "Mama" Merkel and PEGIDA
Germany has two societies: one is enlightened, open, knowing that a good future depends on inclusion, and on making the four million Muslims living in Germany really feel at home. This generous society also knows that Europe cannot cut itself off and that a fortress Europe is absurd in a globalised world. Mrs. Merkel is now in the vanguard of that civil society. But alongside it is a second society, uncivil, noisy, hostile to foreigners, displayed in the so-called Pegida rallies in recent months.
"Mama" Merkel, heroine of all Muslim economic migrants
Germany's Demographic Decline and the (Muslim) Migrant Threat
Mosque in Berlin, built 2008 — a growing trend
Multicult Über Alles!
Follow our ongoing coverage of the migrant invasion of the West.
he European Union claims to be a grouping of equal states, but in reality Germany and France are the real powers behind this obviously un- if not anti-European union. Germany has the largest population of any member state and the strongest economy; her chancellor often speaks on behalf of the entire union. Germany has been a major factor in the expansion of the EU eastwards and the creation of the common Euro currency. Indeed, even if the EU didn't exist, Germany would still be an economic powerhouse. Throughout much of Europe's history Germany has been a leading if not the leading political and/or cultural force. In 962 AD the German king Otto the Great was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the pope. By that point Otto ruled the most powerful country in Europe which had been cemented by his victory over the Magyars in 955 AD at the Battle of Lechfeld. R. W. Southern wrote that Lechfeld, "had a place in ensuring the territorial stability of the Europeans perhaps not less important than Marathon in the formation of Greece." (, p. 12). In other words, Germans created Europe as we know it. In that same monograph Southern goes on to describe how the centres of knowledge and learning moved east from France into Germany and an Ottonian Renaissance appeared in Germany.This lasted until around the 13th century when, from that time onwards, the largely German Holy Roman Empire began the long process of disintegration and for much of the 17th-19th centuries Germany was a battleground for armies from across Europe. Even so, it continued to have a profound impact on European development. Religious figures like Martin Luther; philosophers like Kant, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche; musicians like Bach, Hayden, Mozart, Schumann and Wagner; writers like Herder and Goethe; and scientists like Humboldt, Gauss and Haeckel are but a few examples of the Germans who have greatly influenced the Western canon of art, religion and science.After the creation of the German Empire it quickly developed an industrial economy that surpassed Britain's and even the disasters of two world wars has not defeated Germany's economic performance. It is perfectly natural for Germany to have a leading role in Europe and it is high time they start acting like leaders.The leaders of Hungary, Czech Republic, Bulgaria and other eastern countries — and evidently Denmark as well — seem to be the ones attempting to turn the tide of migrants from the Afro-Asiatic world. But as much as I'd like to hope their steadfastness would be enough to influence Germany, France and others, in the end none of these countries have the political or economic power to influence the EU.The media's poisonous influence is felt everywhere in the lands of Greater Europe, but it is especially horrid in Germany where the past 70 years have seen that country browbeaten over the whole Nazi issue. Of course, as I am sure you are all aware, the main problem isn't so much that Germany had a totalitarian government or even that they were expansionist, but the Nazi genocide aginst the Jews. There is a spectre haunting Germany; the spectre of the shoah industry.Today, nobody reminds Germans many decades born after the events of WWII more penetrantly of Hitler and the Nazi ghost than German left-wingers. Just take this article written for the BBC by Heribert Prantl, chief opinion maker of Germany's largest non-tabloid newspaperThose damn patriots in PEGIDA, don't they know it's the current year!? Don't they understand that White countries need to say yes to hordes of Africans and Muslims if they are to fulfil their destiny as progressive nations!?Countries are supposed to protect their native populations and culture; not open themselves up to foreign conquest. This has been a basic and universally understood notion for all of human history up until this point. Cretins like Prantl rarely if ever care when non-White countries keep their borders closed. Despite everything the system media is doing in Germany, France, Britain and Sweden, a great many Europeans have made it clear they will not accept their countries becoming colonies for Afro-Asiatic Muslim hordes. Thilo Sarrazin and the PEGIDA movement are two prominent examples of public anti-immigration activism in Germany. No doubt such persons/movements will only increase as this crisis becomes more acute and desperate. But despite all their pretensions at democracy German leadership has shown itself to be against the will of the people. Germany's fat oaf of a Chancellor is better loved by illegal and economic migrants who call her "Mama Merkel" than German voters.Like Orbán, Merkel is a product of Soviet communism, but unlike her Hungarian counterpart she has not rebelled against the smug internationalist heresy and instead embraces it. Partly this is due to the ever present spectre of the shoah, but partly it is also because of Germany's current geopolitical position. Not only does Germany have the largest population of any EU member, but it also has the most aged. It is no wonder that as a result Germany has the largest percentage of migrants residing in it; 20% of its legal residents, excluding this year's mass influx, are foreign born or have at least one of their parents born abroad; half of them have immigrated from extra-European countries.White countries the world over are experiencing demographic decline, but it is far worse in Germany. In fact, the German birth rate is the lowest in the world. Instead of promoting native births the Germans – like all Whites – have opted for population replacement. Migrants = euros. As James Kirkpatrick notes, migrants are also useful as a tool to bludgeon restless eastern states with. Recently, Germany actually closed its borders to migrants, but do not expect this to mean they have woken up. Merkel's grand coalition of Christian and Social Democrats fully intend to keep taking these people in, but they are hoping to force their eastern neighbours to as well. One might think instead of imposing on less pliable states, the EU would just not have expanded in the first place, but of course that defeats the purpose. The EU is run by internationalist minded individuals who have no loyalty to kith and kin, blood and soil; they care only for power and money. And I believe it is fair to say they have drunk the kool-aid that is cultural Marxism and truly believe in what they peddle.The fact is nothing is inevitable and taking a hardline stance against border-breaching migrants works incredibly well. It is working excellently for Israel and it is also working for Arab states like Saudi Arabia, whose fences and walls are actually even built by German contractors. There is no reason for Europe to open itself up to Islamic conquest, especially as Europeans should well know from their own history what happens when Muslims take over. The minarets rising into the sky to the side of Constantinople's venerable Hagia Sophia should be a reminder for her 'leaders' plagued by an Alzheimerian lack of sense for Europe's history.Some things are more important in life than appeasing leftist drones, centralizing and expanding empires or even making money. Namely the cultures and heritage of one's own people. At this point already, the products of legal migration have proven a major problem for Western Europe, including Germany and France. Massive spikes in rape, murder, theft and other crimes as a result of legal migration have already occurred from Birmingham to Chemnitz and Stockholm to Marseille; why would opening the borders to "refugees" have an opposite effect?The heart of Europe is in charge of an entity whose name is a complete misnomer. The European Union is anything but European, and most European state-leaders are anything but pro-European. Although Germany wields an immense influence in the EU which could be well put into effect to stop the migrant invasion, Merkel watches idly apouring across the German borders, while desperately trying to coerce the appalled Eastern European nations into resettling the economic migrants who have been attracted by Germany's overly generous social welfare benefits in the first place.To the thunderous applause of the deluded leftist system media, a bad sign by itself, Merkel's Germany has outwardly discovered a new political cult of pathological altruism, which in its long-term consequences will be no less disastrous to the fate of the continent than that of her mustached predecessor. It is again the ghosts of old which are haunting Germany, her compulsive feeling to let the world know of her moral superiority, but now twisted in a psychopathic U-turn against her own people.is the new maxim Germany's crazed self-abolishers are shouting down the alleys and into the face of the increasing number of furious German patriots who watch helplessly their country going down the gutter.Is this the end for a thousand year-old culture, one of the world's richest? Or is this the beginning of the revolt of the silenced majority sweeping the old elites away for good?Related posts:HAMPTON ROADS, Va. – Plan on ringing in 2018 with some drinks and need a ride home? AAA has you covered.
Several AAA clubs, including AAA Tidewater, are offering safe ride services on New Year’s Eve for members and non-members.
In an effort to curb drunk driving, AAA Tidewater will offer Tipsy Tow, a complimentary ride and vehicle tow for drivers who have consumed too much alcohol.
If you need a safe ride home, call 1-800-AAA-HELP and tell the operator, “I need a Tipsy Tow,” to receive the free tow and ride home.
The program will be available from 6 p.m. Sunday, December 31, 2017 through 6 a.m. Monday, January 1, 2018.
The free service excludes rides for passengers and is restricted to a one-way, one-time ride for the driver. The destination is limited to the driver’s home. Drivers must expect to pay for long distance rides beyond the free Tipsy Tow range.
AAA Tidewater covers the cities of Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Suffolk, Newport News, Hampton, Poquoson, Yorktown and Williamsburg.
If you have been drinking, AAA recommends to designate a non-drinking driver, call a cab or stay with a friend.The Packers were whispered about as a team ready to make a splash in free agency, but that never happened.
Fewest UFAs from other teams since March 2010 Team No. of players Packers 5 Falcons 13 Bengals 17 Cowboys 18 Steelers 21
Continuing a long-standing tradition of open-market inactivity in Green Bay, general manager Ted Thompson didn't sign a single unrestricted free agent this offseason.
The addition of Julius Peppers is promising, but he technically didn't qualify as a UFA after being released by the Chicago Bears. Same goes for Letroy Guion, who was cut by the Minnesota Vikings in March.
Green Bay's hands-off approach borders on the epic. Since March 2010, the Packers have signed just five unrestricted free agents from other teams, by far the lowest in the league behind the Falcons (13), Bengals (17) Cowboys (18) and Steelers (21).
And it's really just four signings for Green Bay after kicker Ryan Longwell inked a straw-man deal last summer that allowed him to retire a Packer. It's been 748 days since the last true UFA, Anthony Hargrove, was added on March 30, 2012. The three others -- Charlie Peprah in 2010, and Jeff Saturday and Cedric Benson in 2012 -- hardly were impact signings.
There's a method to Thompson's madness. Weston Hodkiewicz of the Green Bay Press-Gazette noted that the team's top decision-maker would rather accrue compensatory picks, which are triggered by losing more unrestricted free agents than you sign.
Not surprisingly, the Packers have the most stable roster over the past two seasons. Fans might balk at the open-market silence, but Thompson's methodology has generated an 86-57-1 regular-season record since he took over in 2005, with a 44-19 mark (plus a Super Bowl win) since 2010.
Four of the five teams on this list have made the playoffs since 2010, with the Packers making it all four years. The Falcons and Bengals have earned three trips to the postseason in that span, with the Steelers making the playoffs twice.
On the flipside, the five most active teams in free agency this offseason -- the Buccaneers, Giants, Redskins, Raiders and Bears -- all missed the party in 2013. It's obvious: Losing teams have more holes to fill, while squads stocked with talent use more salary cap dollars to keep their own.
In Green Bay, Thompson's track record speaks for itself.
The latest edition of the "Around The League Podcast" covers the Aldon Smith arrest and analyzes the offseason movers and shakers in the NFC East and NFC South.There is no longer any chance of a late deal with the National Hockey League to send players to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the president of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) said on Tuesday.
"I can say that this is now gone. We can tick that off the list," IIHF president Rene Fasel told Reuters. "We will have to look ahead to China and the Beijing 2022 Winter Games because there is an interest of the league and we have noted that.
"But logistically it is practically impossible for Pyeongchang. That train has left the station."
The NHL had said in April it was not planning to participate at the Games next February as talks for a solution to the problem of halting its league mid-season had not been successful with the IIHF and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The NHL had been a willing participant in the Olympics since the 1998 games in Nagano, Japan but their decision now will affect every major ice hockey nation as the world's best players compete in that league.
While the league has refused to release players, some, including Washington Capitals winger Alex Ovechkin, said they planned to play. Ovechkin said he would compete with Team Russia even if he was the only NHL player to travel to South Korea.
"For some individuals [NHL players] who said they will come we will have to see how we will do it," Fasel said.
The Games in Pyeongchang will take place from Feb. 9-25 next year. The NHL, unhappy over the prospect of shutting down its season for almost three weeks, had sought major concessions from the IOC, comparable to that of an Olympic top sponsor.WASHINGTON -- As Congress prepares to give President Barack Obama expedited powers to "fast-track" trade deals through Congress, many U.S. steel mills and skeptics of Obama's trade agenda are worried about steel dumping, the term commonly used to describe countries selling steel below market price.
In an interview with The Huffington Post on Tuesday, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), one of the many Democrats feuding with their party’s president over the trade debate raging in the Senate, explained why steel dumping is an issue for communities such as his hometown of Cleveland.
As early as Thursday, the Senate is set to vote on legislation that will give Obama what is known as trade promotion authority, which would allow him to shepherd the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other trade deals through Congress with a simple up-or-down vote and no amendments. Without an amendment to the TPA bill ensuring stricter enforcement against steel dumping, Brown argues, the unfair trading practices plaguing the U.S. steel industry will continue.
A “vibrant steel industry," Brown said, is a “national security issue” that is being toyed with because of the failure to crack down on steel dumping and similar practices.
“China has more steelmaking capacity than the entire rest of the world combined. They can’t keep their steel mills busy, because they don’t have that much domestic consumption,” he said. “So China is always trying to sell steel at below-market prices -- so-called ‘dumping steel’ is the term the trade lawyers use."
“We’ve seen the price of steel plummet in the United States as China undercuts American steelmakers,” Brown continued.
The senator is working to get an amendment that strengthens restrictions on steel dumping added to the TPA legislation. He noted that in Cleveland, there is a steel plant where one person can produce one ton of steel per hour -- the first plant in history to be able to do so.
“We’d never seen that efficiency in the steel business, ever. So we are efficient, our steels are modern, but you can’t compete when China cheats,” Brown said. “They already have lower wages, we accept that, but they cheat on currency and they subsidize -- sometimes capital, sometimes infrastructure, sometimes land, sometimes water, sometimes iron ore. All very important in steel.”
Asked to elaborate on the impact an unamended TPA bill would have on U.S. towns that are home to steel mills, Brown said, “I won’t quite say it’s a death knell for communities like the one I grew up in, but it heaps one more disaster from globalization on another.”
“It’s pure and simple a betrayal of workers in this country,” he added. “In a place like Mansfield, Ohio, where I grew up, which used to have 6 or 8 major manufacturers and 5 dozen small manufacturers, most of them are gone. The rest of them, by and large, will be gone if we don’t take care of worker enforcement on trade law and if we don’t help those workers that lose their jobs.”
On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he was forced to file cloture on the TPA bill, after Democrats blocked votes on amendments because they were trying to reach an agreement with GOP leadership on a package of measures. Brown was involved in that effort, canceling his entire afternoon schedule for it.
While McConnell said the Senate would still consider amendments if a deal were reached, the upper chamber’s schedule has been thrown off by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) who is attempting to filibuster a separate effort to consider legislation that would renew the NSA's surveillance powers under the Patriot Act.
If Brown isn’t successful in attaching an amendment to crack down on steel dumping, he says he will lobby his House counterparts to push for such protections instead.
“These workers lose their jobs because of decisions we make, and then we’re not going to help those workers?” Brown said.
Companies like U.S. Steel and Nucor have been urging lawmakers to take action on lax trade enforcement. In March, U.S. Steel announced an extensive round of layoffs at one of its plants in Minnesota, which it blamed on steel dumping.
The problem is so persistent for other steel-manufacturing nations that earlier this year, the European Union imposed anti-dumping duties on stainless steel from China and Taiwan.edit: as below, this scent is no longer available.
So, I’m fast-tracking this review, as we recently heard word that Klar (apparently Germany’s oldest soapmaker) has decided to discontinue their celebrated Kabinett shaving soap. I’m not really sure why, it seems to be a very fine soap to me, and apparently tends to sell rather well.
The scent is a subtle rose; scented with essence of rose, it’s quite pleasant smelling, assuming of course that you like rose. It’s actually fairly strongly scented when in the bar, but fades to a reasonably low level when lathered; it doesn’t disappear, but it’s certainly not in your face.
The lather is rather wonderful, IMHO. I’d say that it requires an average level of water in order to get good enough lubrication out of it, but a bit of experimentation showed that it seems to have a fairly wide sweet spot. It gives a really good balance of a thick lather and good glide, doesn’t thin out easily, and has great stability. Not too much noticeable in the way of moisturization that I saw, but all in all, a very good shave.
9/10 Scent Pleasantness
7/10 Scent Strength
9/10 Lather Quality
All things considered, I think I’m happy rounding up to a 8/10. Personally, I would have preferred a stronger scent, but there was still just enough there to make a difference to the overall experience of the shave.
Cost: 500g of Klar Kabinett (in 2x 250g bars) goes for $20. Which is a pretty darned good price for that much soap. I got the sample used from a friendly redditor who wanted to know my thoughts on the stuff.
Gear used:
Ingredients: Sodium Cocoate, Potassium Cocoate, Sodium Stearate, Potassium Stearate, Aqua, Cocoamidoproprl Betaine, Soyamide DEA, Parfum, Sodium Chloride,Amino-Tris (methylene phosphomic acid) Tetrasodium EDTA, Sodium Hydroxide, Potassium Hydroxyde, CI 77891, Geraniol, Benzyl Salicylate, Citronellol, Eugenol
AdvertisementsBILLINGS — A federal judge accused the Obama administration of trying to “run the clock out” on a pending decision on an oil and gas lease near Glacier National Park that’s been held up for several decades.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon on Wednesday gave the Interior Department 24 hours to act on the matter. The 6,200-acre lease is in Montana’s Badger-Two Medicine area, considered sacred by the Blackfoot tribes of the U.S. and Canada.
The Interior Department said in November it intends to cancel the lease, but it has yet to follow through. Lease owner Solenex LLC of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, wants to drill for gas on the site and says its 1982 lease remains valid.
The company sued in 2013 to challenge a longstanding suspension of the lease.
Leon has repeatedly expressed frustration in recent months over the government’s handling of the case. On Wednesday, he accused Justice Department attorney Ruth Storey of acting “silly” when she suggested the latest delay was out of deference to the court, according to a transcript of a Wednesday hearing in federal court in Washington D.C.
“It’s pretty clear what’s been going on at the government. They’re running the clock out,” Leon said. “They want to get through this administration …. obviously the time has come for a court, some federal court somewhere to say enough’s enough.”
Leon, who was nominated to the federal bench by former President George W. Bush, is perhaps best known for challenging the government’s National Security Agency phone records collection program.
He rejected a request from Storey to give the government more time to act.
Justice Department spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle declined comment following Wednesday’s hearing.
The Solenex lease is on the site of the creation story for the Blackfoot tribes of southern Canada and the Blackfeet Nation of Montana. It’s located just west of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation within the Lewis and Clark National Forest.
Dozens more oil and gas leases were originally sold in the area. Over the years, most were retired or surrendered by their owners. But 18 remain, most of them held by Devon Energy of Oklahoma, according to federal officials.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recommended canceling all the leases in an Oct. 30 letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. However, the case before Leon concerns only the Solenex lease, and federal officials have not revealed what they intend to do with the remaining leases covering roughly 34,000 acres.
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commentsThe Colonel got rich late in life and hasn’t had time to develop expensive tastes. He says he will give away most of his money before he dies, to churches, schools, hospitals, and relatives, and he has already begun to do so. He and his wife, Claudia, live comfortably but modestly—by millionaires’ standards, at least—in a two-story, ten-room house in Shelbyville, Kentucky, a small town thirty miles east of Louisville. They also have a house in Toronto. Restless and devoted to no hobbies, the Colonel would rather work than relax. “Work don’t hurt nobody—work is wonderful for you,” he often says. “You’ll rust out quicker ’n you’ll wear out.” He is in no danger of rusting, because he never sits still. He travels two hundred thousand miles a year in pursuit of publicity and good will for Kentucky Fried Chicken; besides taping all the K.F.C. television commercials, he has appeared in innumerable parades and festivals, been on network television programs more than thirty times, and played small roles in several movies. Though the Colonel is sometimes cantankerous in private, he is a smooth, charming pro in public—outgoing, warm, funny, never at a loss for words, and patient with the demands of fans. Outside the New York area, he is probably as well known as any man in the country. Everywhere he goes, he attracts crowds of housewives who are grateful for all the nights in the kitchen that K.F.C. has spared them. The Colonel will stand by the hour with these women, signing autographs and posing for photographs. He knocks them dead with his flattery, but if you get close enough to him in a crowd you can hear him muttering a running commentary to himself: “Umm, that gal’s let herself go.... Look at the size of that one.... I don’t know when I’ve seen so many fat ones.... Lord, look at ’em waddle.” During these sidewalk photo sessions, Mrs. Sanders, who bores more easily than the Colonel, will sometimes stage-whisper in his ear, “After this bunch goes, let’s beat it.” When the Colonel is with small children, however, it is his turn to be charmed. “What chance has a grandpa got with a sweet little thing like that? ” he’ll say, quite sincerely. “Aren’t kids the finest folks in the world? ”
Even when he is not angry and red in the face, the Colonel is a striking figure. He stands about six feet tall and weighs two hundred pounds. He has white hair, a white mustache, and a white goatee, and he always wears a white suit, a white shirt, a black string tie, and black shoes—the appropriate outfit for a Kentucky Colonel. (The title is an honorary one, conferred by the governor of the state, and Colonel Sanders got his in the early thirties.) He is as alert and quick-witted as a man half his age, and his health is marred only by arthritis in his hands. Still adhering to the teachings of his beloved Mom, the Colonel does not play cards, smoke, or drink, except for an infrequent glass of wine with dinner. A little sign on the coffee table in the living room of the Colonel’s house reads, “People that like us will not smoke in the house. People that will smoke in the house we do not like.” Mom apparently didn’t have much to say about emphatic language, though, and the Colonel is famous among K.F.C. people for the force and variety of his swearing. The Colonel says he has been able to cut way down on his swearing since he asked the Lord for help at a church service some time ago, but he still has great difficulty calling a no-good, God-damned, lazy, incompetent, dishonest son of a bitch by any but his rightful name. “I used to cuss the prettiest you ever heard,” the Colonel said not long ago. “I’d take the name of the Lord in vain, too, though I always apologized right then, in my mind. But apologizing wasn’t good enough. The thing shouldn’t have been said in the first place. I did my cussin’ before women or anybody else, but somehow nobody ever took any offense. Only one man ever called my hand on it. That was at Richmond, Virginia—a fellow from Norfolk. I’d been talking in my full vocabulary, I guess—unconsciously, don’t you see, because it just come natural. And this fellow said, ‘Colonel, I wanta say something to you.’ He said, ‘Nobody can appreciate all that cussin’ you do.’ And I said, ‘I know that, and I’d give anything in God A’mighty’s world if I could quit. I’ve tried to quit and couldn’t.’ But I said, ‘I’ll tell you one thing, though. My cussin’ don’t hurt nobody but me. But that God-damned cigarette smoke of yours is fouling up the air for ten feet around, and I haven’t had a decent God-damned breath since you sat down here.’ ” [cartoon id="aa15"]
The Colonel cannot change the gravy policy, because he sold the company in 1964. (He still serves on its board of directors, and he receives a handsome salary for his food advice and his public-relations activities.) However, though he has relinquished control of the company, the Colonel retains considerable moral authority with K.F.C. executives and franchisees, all of whom revere him as a food genius, love him for inventing a product that has made them rich, and fear his terrible wrath. The Colonel doesn’t hesitate to exploit these feelings in the gravy issue, apparently reasoning that if he can’t force the franchisees to reinstate the old gravy, he can at least make them uncomfortable about the new. During his travels on company business, he will occasionally pay an unexpected visit to a K.F.C. outlet in order to inspect the kitchen and sample the gravy. If the gravy meets his low expectations, he delivers one of his withering gravy critiques, sometimes emphasizing his points by banging his cane on whatever furniture is handy. Months or even years after these ordeals, franchisees wince at the memory of such a gravy judgment from the Colonel as “How do you serve this God-damned slop? With a straw?”
Despite all these pleasing developments, the Colonel cannot rest easy. A perfectionist in an imperfect world, he dreams of fried chicken so golden and delicious that it will bring tears to the eyes of a grown man, and of cracklin’ gravy so sublime that, he says, “it’ll make you throw away the durn chicken and just eat the gravy.” During most of his waking hours, the Colonel is haunted by the fear that someone, somewhere, is doing something to hurt his chicken—that some upstart in the company is tampering with the recipe, or that a careless franchisee is undercooking or overcooking. The Colonel is vexed almost beyond endurance by the subject of gravy. The gravy now served by the K.F.C. franchisees is good, but it isn’t the Colonel’s. “Let’s face it, the Colonel’s gravy was fantastic, but you had to be a Rhodes Scholar to cook it,” a company executive has explained. “It involved too much time, it left too much room for human error, and it was too expensive.” This attitude is incomprehensible to the Colonel, who believes that making money is a reward for the virtuous, not a matter of cost accounting. Besides, he would rather have memorable gravy than extra profits. “If you were a franchisee turning out perfect gravy but making very little money for the company,” another K.F.C. executive has remarked, “and I was a franchisee making lots of money for the company but serving gravy that was merely excellent, the Colonel would think that you were great and I was a bum. With the Colonel, it isn’t money that counts, it’s artistic talent.”
Colonel Harland Sanders, the fried-chicken magnate, who seems in public to be as jolly and serene as Santa Claus, is actually one of the world’s foremost worriers. The Colonel maintains a vigilant fretfulness in the face of overwhelming good fortune. He has won money, fame, and the affection of his fellow-citizens. Now approaching the age of eighty, he has lived to see the company he founded, the Kentucky Fried Chicken Corporation, grow from a one-man operation to one of the giants of the food industry. There is a vast network of Kentucky Fried Chicken take-home food outlets covering every part of the nation but New York City, where the K.F.C. franchising effort has just begun. This year, these outlets will sell more than five hundred million dollars’ worth of fried chicken—more prepared food, in dollar volume, than will be sold by any other company in the world. The company has made millionaires of the Colonel and more than a hundred other people, some of them close friends of the Colonel’s. And the Colonel’s success has been artistic as well as financial—his secret recipe and his fast-frying process produce fried chicken of a quality unknown in New York restaurants and rare even in Southern restaurants.
The Colonel was born September 9, 1890, on a farm about three miles from Henryville, Indiana. He learned to cook at an earlier age than many children learn to ride a bicycle. When he was six, his father died, and his mother was forced to go to work, sewing for other families and peeling tomatoes at a canning factory in Henryville. This meant that little Harland had to look after his younger sister and brother and do much of the family cooking. He had already been picking up cooking pointers from his mother, just out of curiosity. By the time he was seven, he was excelling in bread and vegetables and coming along nicely in meat. Mom was away for days at a time, leaving the kids to forage in the fields for sassafras buds and May apples by day and to go to bed when they pleased at night. “We didn’t have any babysitter, but we got along fine,” the Colonel says. “We knowed enough not to burn the house down— I don’t know why kids are so different today. We was already firmly disciplined. Mom didn’t spare the rod if we disobeyed her. And usually we didn’t, because we knew she knew better. Whatever Mom said went. She had a philosophy of life and morals that if you followed them you’d never go too far wrong. She taught me to just be a man and leave off all these unclean things like alcohol and tobacco, to take care of my body, and to go to Sunday school and church. Lord, on Sunday we wasn’t even allowed to whistle. I don’t hardly know one card from another to this day. Cards were as poison to me as alcohol or cigarettes. I never drank coffee until the last four or five years, because Mom always taught us it was bad for us.” When Harland was twelve, his mother married a man who was not enthusiastic about stepchildren, with the result that two of the three Sanders children left home—the younger boy to live with an aunt in Alabama, and Harland to make his way in the world. The future chicken tycoon landed a job on a farm near Greenwood, Indiana, for ten or fifteen dollars a month and room and board. Life wasn’t soft on the farm. Harland got up before dawn to feed the stock, went to school all day, fed the chickens and did other odd jobs in the evening, and then shucked corn some nights until eight or nine o’clock. He gave up on school in the seventh grade. “When I started to class that fall, they had algebra in our arithmetic,” the Colonel has recalled. “Well, I couldn’t conceive any part of it. The only thing I got out of it was that x equalled the unknown quantity. And I thought, Oh, Lord, if we got to wrestle with this, I’ll just leave—I don’t care about the unknown quantity. So my school days ended right there near Greenwood, Indiana, and algebra’s what drove me off.”
For the next twenty-eight years or so, the Colonel had a varied career. He stayed in farm work until he was fifteen. Between the ages of fifteen and forty, he worked as a streetcar conductor in New Albany, Indiana; served in the Army, in Cuba; got married and had three children (this marriage ended in divorce thirty-nine years later, in 1947); worked as a fireman for railroads in Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Virginia; studied law by correspondence and practiced in the justice-of-the-peace courts in Little Rock; sold insurance in Kentucky and Indiana; operated a steamboat ferry between Jeffersonville, Indiana, and Louisville, Kentucky; worked as the secretary of the Columbus, Indiana, Chamber of Commerce; manufactured acetylene lighting systems for farmers, in Columbus; sold tires in Kentucky; and ran service stations in Nicholasville and Corbin, Kentucky, creating a mild sensation in both places by brushing cars out with a whisk broom.
At the Corbin station, the Colonel cooked for his family in a back room, and to make a little extra cash he began selling a meal now and then to interstate travellers who were crazed with hunger after the greasy-spoon diet of the open road. He served them plain but delicious fare—pan-fried chicken, country ham, stringbeans, okra, hot biscuits
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questions for me before we begin?
Mark: No, I read a little bit of your blog which was very interesting. I’m sort of surprised, maybe it’s more of an observation, that there’s still this huge interest in the show that has essentially been off the air for so long, particularly in Japan. I find it interesting that there is still this huge audience for it. It’s rather amazing.
Derek: I completely agree. People are still obsessed with Dragon Ball, and everybody wants a new series, but there isn’t one so they keep talking about the existing content.
And that is what brings us to our topic today, which is Dragon Ball GT.
First let me mention your background for a moment to introduce the reader to your experience.
You graduated from State University New York at Fredonia with a bachelor’s in music, correct?
Mark: Correct.
Derek: You taught guitar and Jazz from Brookhaven from 1989 to 1993. And then you opened your studio, Menza Music, in 1994, with a focus on scoring pictures. You’ve been doing it for 18 years and have worked on a number of documentary films, web media, and anime series, earning numerous awards.
Mark: Right. Actually, the reason I ended up working on GT was because I was in Dallas, in the area where they produced it. I came here to go to UNT (University of North Texas) and worked on my Masters for 4 years in Compositional Theory. So I was really here to write music.
I worked on other children’s properties; I worked on a show for PBS called Wishbone in the mid 90’s. I think that’s how I got involved with it. That was fun because we had a live, full orchestra to record, and we recorded some of it in Dallas and some of it in Seattle.
Then I worked on and scored the original pilot for Jimmy Neutron on Nickelodeon. I worked on that as the Audio Post Supervisor.
I started to write music for them and then Nickelodeon, the producers… and this applies to Dragon Ball as well, the producers really dictate what goes on.
Some of the other composers I’ve run into, we all sort of joke about this…
Everybody wants to say, “Oh, you guys did this, this and this to the music!” Well, actually we didn’t. The producers told us what they wanted us to do and we did it. And then they pay us, and then we eat! That’s how that works.
It’s always kind of amusing when the fans are like, “What have you done with our music?!” or “What were you thinking here?!” It’s like, “Agh, I don’t know, I didn’t really think about it. I did what I was told.”
Not that we’re robots, but on any project, whether it’s a film, TV show or even something simple like a commercial, the producers have really strong dictates about what they want. They’ll play all these things for you and say, “Can you make the music like this?”
Probably the most famous is the rap intro to GT, that people got…
Derek: Well, hold on, I’m going to ask you about that in a moment.
A Musician at a Young Age
Derek: Let me first ask, why did you get into music, and what type of music influences you the most?
Mark: I started playing and studying when I was 8 years old. I studied classical guitar as a teenager, about 13, 14, and 15. I studied with a guy name Michael Andriaccio at the University of Buffalo, which was a great privilege. My parents were a friend of the family and knew somebody who knew him. So he had a big influence on me, as well as several teachers growing up.
And of course all the music of the 70’s and 80’s was a huge influence, the Pop music for me and then later Jazz, probably the greatest influence, which you find in GT as well, is the Jazz idiom.
Derek: I noticed that.
Mark: Yeah, from the traditional stuff. Whenever I could sneak a hint of that in harmonically, I would. You never hear a jazz theme necessarily. I mean, rarely if ever did that show up in the GT landscape, but a lot of the harmony that went into it is probably more indicative of Jazz harmonies, such as moving tonal centers and keys changing around, that’s part of everything I write, and I think that comes from Jazz.
So to answer your question about what influences me, it’s always been the jazz tradition.
There have always been a lot of musicians in my family. I have a cousin named Don Menza, who is really known in the jazz world, and saxophone. If you Google him you’ll get hundreds of thousands of hits. An amazing player. Used to be on The Tonight Show. Toured with Buddy Rich for 10 years, which was almost unheard of if you know anything of the Buddy Rich era.
Derek: Unfortunately I don’t.
Don still lives in North Hollywood, he’s retired now. His son is Nick Menza, the one-time drummer for Megadeath. Nick is pretty well known in the heavy metal world.
Derek: So this is really in your family, then.
Mark: Yeah, and on that same side of the Menza family, there’s another drummer who lives in Ventura who was out with the Wallflowers for 7 years. His name is Mario Calire and he is my first cousin once removed. They opened for Tom Petty for years, and he’s now the host of Ozomatli. They’re a wild band. He toured with Liz Phair and they’ve gone all over the world. His dad, Jimmy Calire was a keyboard player and a cousin of mine.
All of that had an influence on me growing up. I would go and watch my uncles play in the garage, in orchestras. That was always around me.
Derek: Wow, I can definitely see why you’re doing what you’re doing.
Getting on Board the Grand Tour
Derek: How did you end up working for FUNimation making anime music?
Mark: Barry Watson was a friend, I knew his wife who was a wonderful classical guitarist in the Dallas scene.
Derek: Barry was a producer at FUNimation, correct?
Mark: Yes, with Gen Fukunaga [the founder and CEO of FUNimation] and all those guys, when it was that generation of FUNimation.
So, Barry I knew personally, and one day he said, “Hey man, would you ever be interested in this other series we’re doing?” I said, “Sure! That sounds like a ton of fun, I would love to work on something like that.”
And I didn’t really know a lot about anime, and I knew only peripherally about Dragon Ball Z. When that was going on I was really heavily into Wishbone and right after that, Jimmy Neutron. I didn’t grow up with anime. Age wise I missed that. When Dragon Ball Z came to this country and was popular, I was already out of school, teaching Jazz and being a studio musician, that kind of thing, so I didn’t really know it.
When Barry proposed it to me, I was sort of an outsider to anime, and I think he wanted that. He wanted somebody that wasn’t steeped in any of the tradition and could get a fresh take. I felt like FUNimation wanted to make their own version of GT.
Derek: Yeah, in an interview in Wizard Anime Insider magazine, Gen Fukunaga said, “If you think you know Dragon Ball GT, just wait! Nobody has done Dragon Ball GT like we have.”
Mark: Yeah, and you’ve got to know some of that is going to be marketing speak, although I think he really did believe that. I think I only met Gen twice, and it was during big events. It was like, “Hey, nice work!” He was always very nice to me and I didn’t really know anything about him until much later.
And Barry, I still talk to Barry every now and again, and he’s entirely out of the business now. He got me involved with it, to answer the question. He was the guy that knew me, knew what I did, had been to my studio, knew that I worked on animation and kids stuff, and thought I would be a good fit.
Derek: So there was no audition process, you were hand-picked?
Mark: If there was an audition to speak of, it was that I helped score one of the Dragon Ball Z features, and he really liked that. I think it was Return of Cooler.
So I had to really get up to speed on who these characters were and what these sagas were. It was like never knowing about Star Wars and trying to understand the whole Star Wars story, and the first project you get is the first prequel!
It’s like, “Wow, I’ve got to go back and watch all of them!” Which I did, I watched some of the stuff. I didn’t invest a tremendous amount of time because of time constraints.
Derek: It’s a huge series.
Mark: Right. It’s a huge saga, all of it! And I loved all the music that I heard, from the guys who did it here to the original stuff in Japan, that was all interesting.
I could see how FUNimation wanted to change it, and I scored in total, I think, seven Dragon Ball Z features, either in part or in whole, and then one GT feature much later on. Broly I did, and the others I can’t even remember the names of them now.
A lot of the times they had working titles, and only 6 months later I would finally see them for sale on the internet and I’d be like, “Oh, they called it that? Interesting!” So that’s why I don’t remember the names, because I had all these working titles.
So I had done these for maybe a year, a year and a half. I would do one, then I wouldn’t talk to Barry for a few months, then I’d do another, and so on.
Then he came to me with GT and pitched that idea. We came up with a deal, a contract, and away we went.
Derek: Wow, alright, very interesting. Nobody knew that story, so that’s a brand new exclusive. It had always been a mystery, so thank you very much for clearing that up.
You were only vaguely familiar with Dragon Ball before you got the project, but were you aware of the fandom behind Dragon Ball when you went into it?
Mark: You know, my understanding, as limited as it was, was that it was a show that was well known in Japan.
I didn’t realize it had as big and fervent a following that it does here. It eclipses anything you can imagine in like, Star Trek, the Trekkers. I wasn’t aware it had that large of a fan base.
Making the Music
Derek: You mentioned that you did listen to some of the Dragon Ball music. I had heard that you were specifically advised by the FUNimation producers to not listen to the DBZ soundtrack AT ALL. Is that correct?
Mark: I don’t know that anybody ever told me that. They did say, “Mark, don’t pay any attention to what’s come before, because we really want to take it in a new direction.” But I don’t think anybody said don’t listen to it because you don’t want to be influenced.
From time to time they would give me notes. The way all composers work is that somebody pitches the project to you, or in this case there’s an existing piece that has a legacy, so you can immediately see the picture. They send you the scripts and you can watch the finished product, which doesn’t happen on newer shows where it’s often a work in-progress. It was a little unusual to see a completed show where you could watch the show before it and even the show after it! Sort of wrap your arms around the storyline.
So I said, “Okay, what kind of thing are you going for?” They would play some examples for me very early on, “What about this band, or this one?” They would send little samples, mp3’s, and honestly I’d be lying if I could tell you what they were. Here’s a clip of some heavy metal band, or some dark orchestral music from a game that they liked. They said, “Use that as a jumping off point because that’s kind of what we’re thinking. What do you think?”
I would take that and do part of an episode, first or second episode, and send it to them. They’d say, “Yeah, that’s good. Maybe more of this, less of that.” Though after about 5 or 6 episodes I never got any notes back. They were like, “This is great, keep going!” Of course we talked on a regular basis.
Like they’d say, “On episode 20 (or whatever) that’s coming up, there’s a new villain, try to come up with a theme for him.”
So I had, sort of, themes for all the characters, but I didn’t really, it wasn’t like, The Lord of the Rings things, where you had this leitmotif going on, which is this Wagnerian idea where you give each character a theme and every time you see this character you play his theme.
It’s almost too complicated in most instances to do that, because all of a sudden, 3 or 4 characters show up on the scene. Piccolo shows up at the same time a villain appears, and somebody else shows up, and then Vegeta shows up. Then all of a sudden you’re going, “Um, okay, this is going to be a musical mess.” I decided to go with a more overarching theme as we move through it.
There was an attempt to give character’s themes, but really it was more of a show theme and situational theme.
Like, here’s the hero, something heroic happening, and all the heroes of the series. Then the villains were more transient, and they might show up for 3 to 8 episodes, and they might have a theme.
Derek: Like the Super 17 Theme.
Mark: Right, so those kinds of things would go on. But if you try to beat that to death, and be very literal with it, it gets goofy sounding to me. As a composer you have to figure out what’s working, and do that. So that was how the process worked and how I was introduced to it. I don’t remember anybody saying specifically don’t listen to this, that or the other thing.
I did hear some of the original Japanese music, and I thought it was great.
My take on it, and some of this was influenced from what the guys at FUNimation were saying, is that GT would be for a much older American audience.
I think one of the main reasons they rescored the shows at all was that they found the fan base here, at least this is my understanding, was older here than it was in Japan. While at the same time that a Japanese 12 year old boy might be sort of, culturally, at a different place than a 12 year old kid here. So that 12 year old kid might be listening to what a 16, 17 or 18 year old might be listening to in Japan.
And a lot of the J-Pop stuff is very, almost what we used to call Bubble Gum music here. And I don’t mean that in a pejorative sense, I think it’s cool music and trust me, I write it, I’m involved in a lot of children’s music. I think that all that music fits for certain ages, and the idea with GT was they really wanted to, and I think FUNimation did this with all the stuff they worked on, they wanted to age it up, a little bit.
My job was to write music that aged the show up a bit.
Not tremendously so, but when I compare it, at least in my ear, obviously fans who grew up listening to the original show, they’re going to tell you something completely different, but my ear, hearing the Japanese GT music for the very first time, the little bit I heard, it was like, “Oh, yeah, that’s definitely younger, sweeter, and in some cases kind of heartfelt.”
Derek: Yeah, more emotional.
Mark: Right, the Japanese wanted it more emotional. And I thought that was fine, but it seemed much younger than an American audience, and I think the pacing of it was much slower. It almost ran contrary to all the action on the screen. You had these very big, dramatic things going on, and sometimes the music was almost trying to be humorous, and I was going, “Wow, that doesn’t seem to work for me.”
Some of that may have been the translations, because I think the guys at FUNimation translated the script to make the characters older in how they talked and what they were saying, and how they interpreted the storyline. And I think they did the exact same thing with the music.
Derek: Yes, I would agree.
Mark: So that was the idea. The music was tougher sounding, and maybe a little grittier, and less sweeter.
[On second thought,] the Japanese was more emotional? Perhaps. I think it was simpler and more childlike in the original Japanese. Although I would be afraid to ever say that out loud because I think a lot of the fans really love it!
You always love how you first saw it presented to you. For a fan who loved the show in its original form, to even want to go and watch a redone one sounds suicidal. They’re going to hate it out of the box, just on principle.
Derek: Yes, that’s exactly what they do.
Mark: And I totally get that. I would be the same way for The Simpsons, which I watch a lot of. If I had to watch The Simpsons dubbed in German and rescored with music more endemic to German culture, I might hate it compared to what Alf Clausen has done because to me that’s vintage Simpsons. Anything other than the Danny Elfman theme, to me, would make me crazy.
So I totally get where the fans are coming from. I can’t stress that enough.
Making the GT Music
Derek: That leads me into the music itself. The GT soundtrack has big thumping bass guitar, heavy, grungy lead guitar riffs and a drum set backed by various effects. How would you describe this sound?
Mark: I think that’s sort of accurate. It was lots of layers of guitars. The themes were based around doing, kind of like the Evanesence thing, which was popular at the time. That may have also been something that was suggested to me. I listened to that very driving, very distorted guitar.
I had a guitar I had not used in years that I pulled out for the show. This white, custom made, Jackson guitar that Grover Jackson made for me years ago. It’s a very early serial number, a kind of collector’s item.
It’s a serious, heavy metal guitar. I pulled this thing out, dusted it off, and it went to work on GT. It was used almost exclusively. Big, etchy, loud, Jeff Beck pickup in the bridge position, for those people who are interested in that kind of stuff.
Derek: Yeah, there are people who would like to know these things.
Mark: It was a Seymour Duncan, Jeff Beck pickup that was series parallel and tapped. The guitar nutjobs will know what that’s all about. It means I can split the coils or I can shut one off and turn it into a single coil. All of this had a very specific guitar sound, so I was going for that specific guitar sound.
Once I established a voice for GT, I kinda kept that voice going. And I think it’s a valid criticism fans make, “Well, a lot of the lead guitar sounds the same.” Well, yeah, because it purposely is.
The reason that it gets to be so much is, probably the most challenging thing to do on GT was that they wanted it scored end to end. And I’ve never worked on another show that was scored end to end.
Derek: What does that mean?
Mark: There are two 11 minute segments that make up the 22 minute episode. When a piece of music starts at the beginning after the opening credit music finished and the episode began, it was a continuous piece of music for 11 minutes.
Derek: There was no silence?
Mark: Never! I mean, I would say…
In 64 episodes there was maybe less than 2 minutes of silence total. It was crazy! It was a challenge to keep that going. It’s like playing continuously and never taking a breath.
You would be hard pressed to find a single movement in most symphonies that are 11 minutes long. Bach, maybe. Most symphonies have several movements that stop. It was very difficult to compose GT’s music because it was continuously in transition.
Derek: Why was that? Was that a direction from the producers?
Mark: Absolutely. Right from the get go! They felt like the show needed that level of pacing, because they couldn’t change the animation and they couldn’t make any new animation.
Which for me, on something like Jimmy Neutron, if you watch any other kid show aimed at the same demographic, say, anything on Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network, even something like Power Rangers, in a 22 minute episode you might have anywhere from between 8 to maybe 15 minutes of music. That would be a heavily scored show.
This was 22 minutes of music.
Derek: Every episode.
Mark: Yeah! Every episode. I got to where I was doing each show in about 3 days.
Derek: Wow, that takes a lot of work.
Mark: It was a stupid amount of work. But I had to do it that way for scheduling purposes, with everything else that I was doing and the schedule of GT.
In the beginning I would probably spend 10 days to 2 weeks on the first 2 or 3 episodes. But once I had a chunk of material to work off of, I would say, “Okay, I’m going to bring in this theme, I’m going to use this, and this and this, I’m going to play a new guitar line on top of it, so let me lay down this part.” And boom, if I could get 3 or 4 minutes a day, then I was excited.
Then when I got to where I could do 7 or 8 minutes a day, I was truckin’. And the continuous nature of it was REALLY challenging.
Derek: I bet. Did you have an assistant or staff that helped?
Mark: No. Not on this show. That was a budgetary constraint. I had to make it work by myself. When I worked on other shows I had audio post people, which I didn’t do on GT because FUNimation had their own in-house audio people, as that was primarily what they were doing. But they didn’t have in-house composers, necessarily.
They had audio engineers, dialogue coaches, and studios that were set up to record all of that dialogue. And that was a huge job, that ADR job of looping the picture and recording each line. Once these guys, the script writers, had written the show and figured out what they were going to do for each saga of the series, that was a tremendous job in and of itself.
Having an in-house composer is not a business model that makes sense. You can’t keep them busy everyday so you’re paying them lots of money and it makes no sense. And that’s the way most shows are done. The composer doesn’t work for the production company, he’s a separate entity.
When you’re talking about a film where they hire a famous composer like John Williams, or a TV show that’s on currently, like 30 Rock, that all goes out to a composer who is a guy like me who probably has his own studio, either in a facility like I do, or many of them even in their homes. I have a facility because I also do audio post production. I just didn’t do that on any of the stuff for FUNimation because they had their own sound effects editors and dialogue guys.
You asked about assistants. Usually I have assistants to help me out, other engineers to help me on the engineering side of things, and the sound effects and mixing side of things.
Derek: Were there synthetic instruments in the GT soundtrack as well?
Mark: The short answer to that is yes. A lot of it is strings samples. 90% of what you hear on TV, if you watch Law & Order, it’s all samples, they don’t hire a real orchestra anymore. They do on the Simpsons, interestingly enough. That is one of the few shows that has a 30 to 40 piece orchestra that they record each episode with. But that is a rarity. It’s a hold over. Most television shows, because of both the schedule and the budgets that have shrunk over the years, almost all of those are sampled strings. Meaning a live string section recorded into a sample library that go into these elaborate computers.
Derek: Through the keyboard.
Mark: Right. And they’re all virtual instruments in the computer, or I have stand alone sample players to play the strings, the brass, or the woodwinds.
As far as synth stuff goes in GT, all the bass was live, all the guitars were live, there was some actual acoustic mandolin that was recorded, some acoustic guitar, steel string and nylon string that was used. All of that I played, recorded and engineered myself.
Mark Menza’s studio guitars. Photograph by Kris Hundt
Derek: That is fantastic. It’s amazing you did all that by yourself.
Let’s a take a break for a moment and then we’ll continue.
Conclusion of Part 1
Today you learned how Mark was chosen to be the composer for FUNimation’s version of Dragon Ball GT, how he composes music, and how he overcame the challenges of end to end music by working super hard, just like a Saiyan!
Continue reading Part 2 of the Mark Menza interview, where you’ll hear about Bruce Faulconer, corporate direction of GT’s music by FUNimation staff, the chances for a Dragon Ball GT album, and the origins of the infamous Dragon Ball GT rap intro!Yesterday, CNN managed to get some video from behind some foliage of President Trump playing golf.
PULITZER! This CNN footage of Trump golfing is 'light years beyond parody' https://t.co/SThkQ1oY5A — Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) December 27, 2017
That’s apparently not going to happen today:
Yesterday & 2 other times during POTUS' Winter vacation,CNN cameras captured Trump golfing, from public sidewalk. Today, not possible pic.twitter.com/EIfmWCj5kD — Noah Gray (@NoahGrayCNN) December 27, 2017
Mysterious white truck blocked TV news crew from getting shots of Trump playing golf in Fla., I’m told. As photojournalist moved the camera, he said, truck moved w/him to block the picture. The unmarked truck parked when Trump was apparently at hole, then drove off after. — Paul Farhi (@farhip) December 27, 2017
There will be no Pulitzer submission-worthy video reporting on this day.
Updates:
CNN is on it:
And here comes @cnn with more on the Trump truck golf block. pic.twitter.com/VFDiST7TWP — Paul Farhi (@farhip) December 27, 2017
"You Can't See Me" ❌? A large truck is attempting to block cameras from capturing video of President Donald Trump golfing?? https://t.co/qeO0k6c4YP pic.twitter.com/YO34DA6MGq — CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) December 27, 2017
The Secret Service reportedly said the truck has nothing to do with them:I went to a star city classic and enjoyed myself. I played 8 rounds and went 4-4, it should have been 3-4-1 or 5-3 but I will get into that later.
1st Round Vs. U/W Mill My first round of the night was a match up I was not looking forward to. I started the first round with a suspect hand because I hoped it could become a great 5 or 6 turn game ender. What happened was that he milled me out while gaining life and tapping my creatures down before I could attack. He never put up a blocker but he showed he did not need them. Round 2 I was annoyed at being milled out and took a hand without a win condition in it and suffered another loss because of it. Lost 0-2
2nd Round Vs. Selesnya aggro I went in with a great first hand and beat them down with zombies and I took care of everything they put on the field. The second game I took a slow hand and it proved fatal when he flashed in a Wolfir Avenger for a surprise block, after that he was able to drop a Wolfir Silverheart and swing in quickly for the victory. The third game I tried to battle back but between his Rancor and Avenger I couldn't keep up and he beat me quite soundly. Lost 1-2
3rd Round Vs. Blue Control This is one of the rounds I should have played differently and ended up in a draw but because they resigned at the end I got a win out of it. I won the first round by staying over extended and trying to swing round after round. In the second game they were able to keep my creatures from ever touching the field while swinging with 2/2 drakes tokens for the win. In the 3rd game I gained control of the board while she gained control of the Unsummon and Clone to keep us in a stalemate that lasted until time was called, on the last turn when we should have went to a draw she resigned so I could have the win. Had I played more aggresively in game 3 i would have had the win. Won 2-1 Real Result 1-1-1 Draw
Round 4 Vs. Geist of Saint Taft This deck's plan was simple get Geist of Saint Taft on the field and buff him up then swing for victory. I won the first round because he never drew into his Geist and couldn't compete with me without it. In the second round he used a Silverblade Paladin soul bound to the 4/4 angel with Geist to kill me in 2 hits. I figured he got lucky and decided to take a hand that said beatdown, he brought out Geist put a Spectral Flight and a Silverblade Paladin to finish me off before I could mount up any defence. I could not compete with the speed Geist created, the only way I could have won that game was a miracle Bonfire of the Damned and I am not even sure that would have worked. Lost 1-2
Round 5 Vs. Lingering Souls I won the first game by keeping him off the board. I won the second game when he got mana screwed on a 2 land hand. Vampire Nighthawk by himself basically won the first game for me and in the second he made an appearance but was not really needed. Won 2-0
Round 6 Vs. RDW This is the round I am kicking myself for most of all. In the first game we had a race and I was a turn to slow. With that in mind I decided it would probably be my win because I got to go first. instead I decided to attack with Hound of Griselbrand instead of saving him as a blocker 2 recently cracked Hellion Crucible had I blocked I would have won game 2, we played a 3rd and 4th game and in both of those games I crushed him. I have been kicking myself because I should have won that round, life goes on however. Lost 0-2
Round 7 Vs. Mono Green We played 2 rounds and they went pretty similar. I would let him ramp up while I hit him with Gravecrawler s then he would bring something big out to attack and i would take a hit and then Dreadbore it, then swing in for the win. Won 2-0
Round 8 Vs Mirror In game 1 I started up with a 3 land hand and 3 Gravecrawler s the result was a race that ended up with me winning. In the second game I went down to 4 cards and could not get a decent enough start to make any fight against him. In the 3rd round we went back and forth but I had more removal and kept his threats off of the battlefield and won by a good margin. Win 2-1
Overall I met my lowest goal that I set for the day which was not to lose more games then I won. I definetly need to work on looking at the board state and make better deicisions. Losing 1 game because I was to hasty is 1 game too many. After all is said and done though I had a good time playing and hanging out with friends. Next time I want to get in the top 8 though :).
This is the last deck rotation for this deck as I will be moving to my jund midrange build. This deck has served me well for my first standard season and I am proud of it. Here is a link to my Jund build if you wouldn't mind taking a look at it and giving me advice and +1's on it. The Deck is a LieShare. A fantastic revenge thriller that ups the ante with its complex storytelling and jaw-dropping set pieces. A fantastic revenge thriller that ups the ante with its complex storytelling and jaw-dropping set pieces.
If there’s any doubt foreign markets are catching up to America in terms of delivering mind-blowing action films, then Korean director Byung-gil Jung’s second narrative feature, The Villainess, should continue that conversation.
Inspired by Jung’s earlier short “Standing on the Knife,” the movie opens with an amazing POV action sequence ala last year’s Hardcore Henry that’s very much like a first person shooter, as a woman takes on all comers with a gun. When she runs out of bullets, she picks up a knife and continues to fend off her assailants. This is Sook-hee (Kim Ok-vin), who has been hell-bent on getting revenge on the man or men that killed her father, something she witnessed as a child. Since then, she’s trained as a government assassin at an elite school that programs young girls to fight and kill, but when she’s brought back to that school, she tries to escape. Oh, and we also learn that she’s pregnant.
From the beginning, it’s obvious director Jung isn’t going to gently hand-feed his audience all the information they need to understand what happens in the film’s opening 20 minutes, as we watch multiple flashbacks to Sook-hee as a girl after being entered into the program. The decision to use a complex and often confusing non-linear narrative may hurt the film’s ability to be immediately accessible to casual action enthusiasts, but at least it does pay off with the action that kicks off the movie. As frustrating as it may be not to know everything right away, all is eventually revealed as the film goes along.
Years later, Sook-hee is ready to be sent on her first assassination, her desire for revenge making it easier for her to be programmed and manipulated by her female supervisor, known only as “Chief” and played by Kim Seo-hyung. After this mission, Sook-hee is allowed to leave the compound with her adorable young daughter, and they set up shop at an apartment building where Sook-hee pursues an acting career, although it’s obvious she’s not really free from the Chief’s machinations.
Director Jung clearly has a secret weapon and a real gem in his two actresses, with Ok-vin Kim playing Sook-hee at a variety of ages using make-up and physical performance. Just as interesting is Kim Seo-hyung as the Chief, who is surrounded by so much mystery about her background and how she got to lead the agency that it’s something you almost wish would be explored in a future film.
An equally interesting aspect of The Villainess are the men within Jung’s film. As Sook-hee and other girls train, they’re watched by slightly older male agents on monitors, as they make sexist banter about the girls they’ll be assigned to as “handlers.” At this time, we also meet Hyun-soo (Bang Sung-jun), an agent set up to live next door to Sook-hee at her apartment complex. He begins to woo her, first as part of his own assignment, but then getting more serious emotionally. This adds a further layer to Sook-hee having to decide how far to take her own training.
The results are a layered revenge thriller in the vein of Park Chan-wook’s Old Boy, and the type of movie where you almost immediately want to go back and rewatch the first 20 to 30 minutes, knowing the filmmaker has created something that almost demands repeat viewings. Director Jung is yet another Korean filmmaker who has an amazing eye for a shot, so when you see Sook-hee dressed in a wedding gown holding a sniper’s rifle, for example, it just looks very cool.
More than anything, The Villainess thrives on its amazing action set pieces, whether it’s that opening sequence or a katana swordfight on high-speed motorcycles, offering enough variety to really perk up fans of films like John Wick. (Like that film’s directors, Jung originally trained to be a stuntman himself.) The movie does hit a noticeable lull in terms of action once it gets into the second act, but it leads up to an exciting climactic finale once all the pieces start coming together. To say more would spoil the viewer’s enjoyment of trying to assemble this puzzle themselves.
One issue that some Westerners might have with The Villainess is that so many of the characters, both male and female, dress the same with similar haircuts, so that you sometimes can’t keep track of whom is who. Some also may have trouble understanding the intentions of the two “agencies” that seem to be in a never-ending war. That, on top of the film’s intricate and fairly complicated plot, might frustrate some for sure, but all of it does pay off eventually.In 2006, during their 26th General Assembly, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) adopted a formal definition of the term “planet”. This was done in the hopes of dispelling ambiguity over which bodies should be designated as “planets”, an issue that had plagued astronomers ever since they discovered objects beyond the orbit of Neptune that were comparable in size to Pluto.
Needless to say, the definition they adopted resulted in fair degree of controversy from the
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have improper ties to Russia as part of "March of Truth" demonstrations nationwide.
Portland police will provide "a robust law enforcement presence" because of concerns of violence, spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson said Thursday. The groups have threatened each other online, Simpson said, and police have asked protesters to not bring any weapons or potential weapons such as bats, sticks, rocks or fireworks.
The city has not issued permits for a street march, Simpson said. There are no indications the demonstrations will block traffic, but police said drivers should plan for alternate routes.
Simpson did not respond to requests for the latest information about the demonstrations and the planned police response Friday.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler urges non-violence as feds decline to revoke Sunday rally permit Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler urged those planning to participate in Sunday's demonstrations to "exercise common sense" and "reject violence" after federal officials announced Wednesday that they will not revoke the permit for a pro-Trump free speech rally set to take place across from City Hall Sunday.
The actions come a week after Jeremy Christian allegedly stabbed three men on a MAX train in Northeast Portland when they tried to stop him from yelling racist and hateful language at two teenage girls. Ricky Best, 53, and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23, were killed in the attack. The third man, 21-year-old Micah Fletcher, was seriously injured.
City officials have said they fear high emotions after the attack would lead to violence at the free speech rally planned by the right-wing group Patriot Prayer.
The group, led by Joey Gibson, also hosted a "March for Free Speech" on 82nd Avenue in April, which Christian attended. Gibson told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Tuesday that his group has nothing to do with stabbing suspect, but organizers for the labor unions' counter-protest said in a news release that Gibson's group "threaten(s) immigrants and all working people."
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler asked federal officials to revoke the Patriot Prayer's permit Monday, prompting criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union and local conservative leaders. The federal government announced Wednesday it would not revoke the permit.
Fletcher's grandmother also said she hoped the demonstrations would be canceled. Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, in Portland for a convention Friday, also advised against the counter-protests, telling counter-demonstrators they should march on a different day.
Despite the concerns, organizers of the counter-protest planned at City Hall, "Portland Stands United Against Hate," said the event would proceed as planned.
Portland rally organizer respects MAX family member's request, but Sunday protest is on 'Best hope for preventing further violence comes from a powerful, united response to stand against a growing threat,' says statement issued by the Planning Committee of Portland Stands United Against Hate Coalition
Cari Luna, the chair for Portland Democratic Socialists of America, said organizers are "100 percent committed to a non-violent rally." The group is one of several co-sponsors for the event.
The organizers met with Portland police and Wheeler to discuss keeping the rally peaceful, Luna said. The demonstrators will not confront the right-wing protesters and police will provide a buffer between the two groups, Luna said. Peacekeepers trained in de-escalation tactics will also be present, Luna said.
However, Luna said she can't guarantee what the large number of people in attendance may do.
"Large groups of people are unpredictable," Luna said.
— Samantha Matsumoto
503-294-4001; @SMatsumoto55Eric Gordon
New Orleans Pelicans guard Eric Gordon looks on against the Denver Nuggets in the first quarter of an NBA basketball game in Denver on Friday, Nov. 21, 2014. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) ORG XMIT: OTKDZ129
(David Zalubowski)
A source close to Eric Gordon said he is leaning toward opting-in to play out the final year of his contract with the New Orleans Pelicans.
Gordon is looking to emerge in Pelicans new head coach Alvin Gentry's up-tempo, high-scoring offense that involves ball movement and plenty of perimeter shots from both guard spots.
Earlier this week Gordon told the Indianapolis Star during his basketball camp that he had not made a decision yet and was going to take the full two weeks before revealing his plans to the Pelicans.
But according to the source close to Gordon, he has pretty much made up his mind and is just waiting to make his final decision by June 21.
Gordon does not have to make a decision to exercise his early termination or alert the Pelicans he is going to play out the final year of his contract until June 29.
If Gordon opts in, he is scheduled to make $15.5 million this upcoming season. He is the only holdover from the Pelicans' blockbuster trade deal in 2011 with the Los Angeles Clippers that involved former point guard Chris Paul.
When the Phoenix Suns extended Gordon a four-year, $58 million offer sheet when he was a restricted free agent during the summer of 2012, Gentry was the Suns head coach at the time.
Ultimately, the then Hornets matched the Suns' offer to retain Gordon.
But Gordon still highly regards Gentry, according to sources. After the Pelicans signed Gentry to a four-year, $13.7 million contract on May 30 to replace Monty Williams, Gordon took to social media. He wrote on his Twitter account that he was looking forward to working with Gentry.
Despite missing 21 games with a torn labrum in his left shoulder, Gordon put off shoulder surgery to play the final 41 games in the regular season and playoffs. Gordon shot a career-high 44.8 percent of his 3-point shots (141-315), but averaged a career-low 13.4 points in the regular season. Still, he averaged 3.8 assists per game, the most since his third season in the NBA with the Clippers when he averaged 4.4 in 2010-11.
Gordon, 6 feet 4, 215 pounds, also elevated his game during the postseason against the top-seeded Golden State Warriors, averaging 18.5 points and making 13 of 32 3-pointers. In the Game 4 elimination game at the Smoothie King Center, he scored 29 points, which included a stretch of scoring 11 consecutive points in the second half.It’s the end of Day 2 of the stakeholders’ workshop to develop the 6th edition of the “Conservation and Management Strategy for the black rhino in Kenya, 2017-2021”. About 60 of us – from the Kenya Wildlife Service, private and community rhino sanctuaries, and not-for-profit organisations have spent the last two days thrashing out the next black rhino strategy. We’re based at a lodge on Lake Naivasha, about 2 hours’ drive north of Nairobi, well away from the distractions of the city – the most successful meetings and workshops are when you spend every waking hour talking with rhino colleagues.
Day 1 set the scene: a series of presentations reminded us of the content of the previous Strategy (2012-16) and reviewed successes and challenges. Particular highlights were covered in more detail, such as advances in the genetic analysis of the Eastern black rhino subspecies found in Kenya and progress on forensics in investigations. Then came the real work: trying to fit everything needed to plan and implement rhino conservation activities into a logical framework, known as a “logframe”. Rhinos are awkward beasts at the best of times, and fitting them into the headings of mission, vision, 5-year goal, strategic objectives, outputs, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and means of verification is complicated.
To round off Day 1, we split into groups of 10 and hammered out the key words and figures that we wanted to go into the vision (where do we want Kenyan rhino conservation to be in 20 years’ time – a punchy statement that needs to be inspiring and easy to grasp), mission (how are we going to get there) and the 5-year goal; then we reconvened and compared notes. We debated which baseline figure to use for Kenya’s black rhino population (annual rhino status reports include a “confirmed” number – rhinos sighted and IDed within the last 12 months – and a “probable” number – rhinos sighted / IDed within the last 24 months) and what the target net annual growth rate (i.e. growth after poaching and natural mortalities) should be. Such decisions are critical, as we will be held to account on whether we achieve the target population figure at the end of 2021. Too ambitious and we’ll have failed; too cautious and we risk losing momentum if we hit targets too early.
Today, Day 2, we agreed the recommended five overall Strategic Objectives (Protection and law enforcement, Biological monitoring and management, etc., in line with many other African rhino range state strategies) and then again split into working groups to develop each of these in more detail.
Save the Rhino’s Managing Director, Susie Offord-Woolly, and I had taken part in a course on facilitation at Durrell Zoo in March 2017 and – oh boy – was I glad to have had this training. Geoffrey Chege from Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and I were tasked with developing Strategic Objective #3: Communication and engagement, and we worked our way through multiple pieces of flipchart paper and rainbow coloured marker pens. For each of the key audiences – prioritised via a 3-dot voting system – we worked up targets, activities, actors, timelines, and risks and assumptions.
By the end of the day, we’d got bits of flipchart taped all over the walls and our bit of the logframe was taking shape thanks to Geoffrey’s simultaneous speed-typing on my laptop. Keeping energy levels high is pretty hard after a few hours, but our little group focused well and felt a real sense of achievement when we got to the end. And then posed for ridiculous photos round one of the flipcharts to prove it.
The report-backs from each of the working groups will take place tomorrow, but I’ll be on my way to Laikipia for a meeting at the Laikipia Wildlife Forum, so won’t hear all the discussion. A small team from KWS, WWF-Kenya and ZSL will continue to refine the logframe, and I’ve offered to help with wordsmithing and proofreading the resulting document.
Earlier this year, when we worked on Save the Rhino’s own logframe for our five rhino conservation strategies, I found that you need to “put down” the project for a few days and then come back to it with fresh eyes, when you can spot any logical inconsistencies or gaps; I’d be amazed if this draft Kenyan rhino strategy doesn’t also evolve during the next few weeks. Logframes are great tools, used throughout the conservation world, but it’s really important to get them right before you dive in to delivering the activities.
If this 5-year Strategy succeeds, Kenya’s rhinos will be well on the way to building the resilience we need for their long-term conservation. It’s been a privilege to take part in this workshop, and I’d like to thank the Kenya Wildlife Service and WWF-Kenya very much for inviting me to contribute to this Strategy.
Cathy Dean, 19:00, Wednesday 10 May 2017Question #1: What is a microservice architecture? What are we trying to achieve here?
Hehe, basically this are two questions. Here I just want to answer the first one.
I think there is no real and agreed-on definition of a microservice architecture. What I think can be agreed on by a lot of people are the following characteristics of a microservices:
Being small and perform a single function
Being easy to replace
Being isolated (e.g. not sharing databases, often running in containers)
Communicating over the network
Not necessarily being in the same language ( → use the right tool for the job)
Should be resilient and scalable, keeping failure and faults in mind
Problems with microservices
Now that we have a rough idea what a microservices are, we could ask ourselves
“Why on earth anybody wants to burden themselves with deploying that many services instead of just one?”
Of course, a microservice architecture has its own problems and burdens like being a lot more complex than monoliths or having to debug errors across services. But I personally think these drawbacks are worth it if you are a company and have a lot of developers working on the same project.
With the introduction of microservices you gain a lot of potential for the developers and the whole architecture of your application. In a microservice architecture, a single failure of a service does not mean that the whole application is down — implemented in a good way the whole system may be very unaffected by one single service.
Another great opportunity is more about the spirit of a developer team. Microservices can enable a lot of agility in a development team. Each team can deploy their service independent of each other. No long release cycles anymore — only it has to be ensured that the APIs via which the services are communicating don’t change in between releases or at least stay compatible.
Main benefits
The main benefit as a developer is for me that the services are by design very small, have only one function and are isolated. With a good test suite setup, you can be pretty sure that you don’t introduce that many side-effects as in a big monolith. Also when starting to work on an existing microservice it is much easier to get a grasp of what it is doing.Appendix Historical
illustration © Chris Peltier
Reefer Madness Propaganda Through the Ages
contributed by the Hempstead Company, 1534 East Edinger #7, Santa Ana, CA, 92705, 1-800-284-4367
1910: Marihuana is the most frightening and vicious drug ever to hit New Orleans. New Orleans Public Safety Commission
1920s: Makes darkies think theyre as good as white men. H.J. Anslinger, Bureau of Narcotics
1930: Marihuana is responsible for the raping of white women by crazed negroes. Hearst Newspapers Nationwide
1932: Hasheesh goads users to blood lust. Hearst Newspapers
1935: Marihuana influenced negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white mens shadows, and look at a white woman twice. Hearst Newspapers
1937: Marihuana is the most violent drug in the history of mankind. Congressional Testimony, H.J. Anslinger, FBN
1938: Marihuana is more dangerous than heroin or cocaine. Anslinger, Scientific American, May, 1938
1938: If the hideous monster of Frankenstein came face to face with marihuana, he would drop dead of fright. Anslinger, FBN, quoted in Hearst newspaper
1937-50: Negro entertainers with their jazz and swing music are declared an outgrowth of marihuana use which possesses white women to tap their feet. statements to Congress by Anslinger, FBN
1945: More harmful than habit-forming opium, inducing fits of temporary insanity. Newsweek, 1-15-45
1946: Marihuana is an important cause of crime. Bureau of Narcotics, Newsweek, 11-18-46
1948: Marihuana leads to pacifism and Communist brainwashing. Anslinger, before Congress
1973: Marijuana increases breast size in males.
1974: Permanent brain damage is one of the inevitable results of the use of marijuana. Ronald Reagan, LA Times
1974: interferes with reproduction, disease resistance, and basic biological processes. Daily Oklahoman, 11-19-74
1980: Marijuana leads to harder drugs. Reagan Administration
1985: Marijuana use makes you sterile. Reagan Administration
1980s: Marijuana leads to heroin; marijuana causes brain damage. the 17-week D.A.R.E. Program
1986: Marijuana leads to homosexuality, the breakdown of the immune system, and therefore to AIDS. Carlton Turner
1990: Marijuana makes you lazy. Partnership for a Drug-Free America
1992: Marijuana is ten times more dangerous than 20 years ago. Presidential Candidate Bill ClintonEducation
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Financial assistance for the Dragon Boat Festival has been provided by the Neighborhood Tourist Development Fund and the Missouri Arts Council.
2018 The 14th Annual Kansas City International Dragon Boat Festival Dragon Boat Race Results
Community Division
First Place: JCCC China Hands
Second Place: KU Medical Pathology
Third Place: Rotary 13
School Division
First Place: University of Kansas
Second Place: Blue Valley West Chinese Club
Third Place: Kansas City Art Institute
Xi'an Delegates Participated in Kansas City's Dragon Boat Festival
Report by Joan Pu
A delegation of four members from Kansas City's sister city, Xi'an, participated in 14th Kansas City International Dragon Boat Festival on June 9, 2018. The delegation was led by Hanyun Dai, Advisor of Xi'an Municipal Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Office. The other delegates include two award-winning performers of Chinese traditional musical instruments, Nan Ma and Ting Li, and a horse dancing trainer, Bing Wang.
Besides dragon boat races, Kansas City's dragon boat festival has stage performance and cultural demonstration. The hour-long, high-quality professional music performance by Ms. Ma and Ms. Li received high praises from the audience. Photos of horse training also attracted curious visitors to the cultural demonstration tent.
Teresa Chien, Chair of the Xi'an Sister City Committee and President of the Society for Friendship with China, thanked Xi'an municipal government for supporting the Dragon Boat Festival and asked Ms. Dai to bring the warmest wishes from people of Kansas City to Xi'an. Ms. Dai thanked the hospitality the delegates received in Kansas City. She said she was very much impressed by the community involvement of the festival from children performing Chinese traditional dances; to over 10 dragon boat racing teams consisting of local businesses, non-profit organizations, and colleges; to hundreds and thousands of volunteering hours by local residents, some of whom are over 80 years old, to organize and help with the festival.
"Kansas City will celebrate its sister city relationship with Xi'an for 30 years next year. I would love to welcome another delegation from Xi'an to celebrate the anniversary with us at the 2019 Dragon Boat Festival," said Ms. Chien.
Dragon Boat Festival Pictures
Photo by Linda Hanley. Click to see larger view.
Photo by Dan Paulsen. Click to see larger view.
Chinese Garden Model On Display Jan Armstrong leads our Garden project.
The garden model was on display at
The Kansas City Museum, 3218 Gladstone Blvd., Kansas City, MO 54123.
The director is Anna Marie Tutera.
About Dragon Boat Festival Kansas City International Dragon Boat Festival
Dragon Boat Festival memorializes the Chinese patriotic poet Qu Yuan.
Qu Yuan - A Patriotic Poet of Warring States Period
Living in the latter part of the Warring States Period (476 BC - 221 BC), Qu Yuan was the earliest great patriotic poet as well as a great statesman, ideologist, diplomat and reformer in ancient China. He has the reputation of being one of the world four great cultural celebrities. The traditional Chinese Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated to commemorate him. His patriotic influence has left its mark on many subsequent generations in China and beyond.
Dragon Boat Festival and Qu Yuan
Qu Yuan was a minister to the Zhou emperor during the Warring States Period (475 - 221 BC). He was a wise man who was strongly opposed to the corruption of the imperial court.
Because of Qu Yuans success, he aroused jealousy in his fellow ministers. They plotted against him and convinced the emperor that Qu Yuan was a traitor. Qu Yuan was banished, and returned to his home town.
During his years of banishment, Qu Yuan collected legends and folk tales, and wrote poetry. He never lost his patriotic love for his emperor, and was greatly concerned about the future of the Zhou dynasty.
The Death of Qu Yuan
Eventually the Qin warriors overthrew the Zhou rulers and proceeded to plunder the country. On the 5th day of May, 278 BC, Qu Yuan learned about the fall of his capital city, and in a fit of despair, committed suicide by throwing himself into the Miluo River. The townspeople, hearing of Qu Yuans fate, rushed to their boats to try to save him. Since he was much loved, they tried to prevent the fish from eating his body by throwing rice dumplings into the water. They beat drums to keep evil spirits away.
To this day, the 5th day of the 5th lunar month is celebrated by eating rice dumplings (zong zi) and racing dragon boats. It is also a day for wearing talismans to keep away evil spirits. Adults drink Xiong Huang wine, and children wear fragrant silk pouches to guard against evil.
Modern Dragon Boat Racing
In Chinese culture, Dragon boat festival has been an important holiday for centuries, but in recent years dragon boat racing has become an international sport.
Qu Yuans 71st Descendant coming to Kansas City
Qu Wanshen is the 71st descendants of Qu Yuan is come to Kansas City June 14, 2014 as a Kansas City International Dragon Boat Festival observer, its a Honor for Kansas City and our Dragon Boat Festival. KC World Citizen of the Year Award: Bob Chien
Photography by Dan Gilbert Click to see larger photo
Kansas City Mayor Sylvester James Jr. presented the 2013 Kansas City World Citizen of the Year Award to Robert (Bob) Chien, long-time advocate of closer China-U.S. relations, chairman of the Kansas City-Xian Sister City Committee and President of the Society for Friendship with China. This is also a nice birthday present - the award is presented at the banquet on October 23, 2013 - Bob's 83rd birthday! Mr. Weiping Zhao, the Counsel General of Chinese Consulate in Chicago, also sent birthday card to congratulate Bob. A heart warming story --- Wang Lihong
Part II
click here for part I The Scholarship is $500=3100 Yuan. Let me tell you some details about the necessary expenses at college.You may know how much the $500 helps. The tuition in ShiDa is 3850 Yuan (the cheapest), and the accommodation is about 1200 Yuan per yea. A student may spend at least 600 Yuan per month for living. So the total expense for a student in college maybe 12000 Yuan per year. The $500 scholarship may be one fourth of the one year expense. The students in bad conditions can receive the grant from the government, 1000yuan to 3000 Yuan per year. We can also apply for loans to the bank with low rate. About 6 students in my class applied for it, including me. I applied for a total number of 20000 Yuan loan form the bank at my college. We must payback the loans within 6 years after living school. I also did some part-time job, making some money, which happened to many students in ShiDa.
In my opinion, I prefer to increase the number of scholarship to more students. If I have the power or right to give, I will give two students to share, not one student. I dont think $500 is a small amount of money. It is almost one fourth expense to a student for one year. As I know, it is a medium scholarship in similar scholarships in ShiDa. Students may find other ways to get money, such as applying for loans, part-time jobs. In addition, there are a lot of poor students in ShiDa. They may come from the villages, and even mountain villages. Their parents dont earn much, so they are in need of money. Let the sunlight shine more students that is my wish.
With the above information Society will maintain our Five annual scholarships, but we add two more scholarships this year in honor Lihong and KC marathon team, lets call Half Marathon/Scholarship Lihong can make the decision as two scholarships or become four Half Marathon/Scholarship.
Kansas City councilman Scott Wagner and Half marathon runner will make the scholarship Presentation.
With Bob Chiens suggestion, Shaanxi Normal University accept Wang LiHong as a member of Scholarship selection Committee member.
LiHong, Congratulation and keep dream and have faith in yourself. Puppeteer Show The puppeteers from City of Xi An, Jun Liang, Yunru Liang, Yi Yan, Xiaoyu Dou gave their best performance on the stage. Their shows include the Princess of Iron Fan, the Concubine of Tang Dynasty, the Dream of Red Chamber, and Zhong Kui. The audience loved the performance and was eager to take photos with the puppets and the puppeteers.
After the Dragon boat races, a thank-you dinner was provided for the guests from Xi An, the officials from Chinese Consulate and Kansas City, and more importantly, the volunteers who worked very hard for the Festival. The dinner banquet climaxed and ended with Chinese puppet shows. What a great event for Kansas City!
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It looks like Donald Trump will be making frequent trips between the White House and the courthouse now that he was caught telling Fox News to publish a fake news story about the tragic death of former DNC staffer Seth Rich, heavily implying that he had been murdered by the Clintons for releasing the emails from the DNC that we know were in fact hacked by the Russian government.
Since the case involves presidential statements to the FBI in the wake of the Comey firing, it could become yet another area of focus for the Special Counsel investigation.
A Republican donor linked to Steve Bannon sparked the lawsuit by stage-managing and funding a deceptive national investigatory effort into DNC staffer Seth Rich’s tragic death.
That donor, Ed Butowsky, even met with Trump’s now ex-Press Secretary Sean Spicer at the White House about publishing the anti-Clinton propaganda about Rich in Fox News. The outgoing White House official is also on the list of people to be deposed under oath for testimony. Yahoo reports:
The lawyer for a Washington private investigator who is suing Fox News over its use of allegedly invented quotes in a news story advancing a bizarre conspiracy theory said Tuesday he will seek to depose President Trump and former White House press secretary Sean Spicer to question them over their roles in the affair. “We’re going to litigate this case as we would any other,” and that means “we’ll want to depose anyone who has information,” including the president, said attorney Douglas Wigdor, who is representing the investigator, Rod Wheeler.
Thanks to the legal decision Clinton vs. Jones, Trump lacks any kind of presidential immunity from this kind of civil lawsuit.
One week after Fox’s deplorable attempt to curry favor with the president and distract the public from the investigation into Trump and team’s alleged collusion with agents of the Russian Federation, they retracted the story.
But it’s been months and nobody has been fired at Fox News.
Putting Trump on the stand under will quickly expose the appalling nexus between the Trump team and the media network sworn to do its bidding. Lawyers will use the discovery process to request documents from the White House like appointment books, visitor logs, security checks and other information tying the President to the defamatory news story.
Because this story vividly illustrates that the President is actively involved in spreading deliberate misinformation to the public, it’s very likely that Special Counsel Mueller will use the publicly available documents and testimony from this case in his massive criminal probe of Donald Trump.
Add your name to millions demanding that Congress take action on the President’s crimes. IMPEACH DONALD TRUMP!
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Add your name to millions demanding that Congress take action on the President’s crimes. IMPEACH DONALD TRUMP!The definitive documentary explaining the influence of money on politics by Jonathan Shockley. If you like it, consider buying the high quality DVD or donating a few $ at http://goldenruledocumentary.blogspot.com/ This film is based on Thomas Ferguson's book Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the...
The definitive documentary explaining the influence of money on politics by Jonathan Shockley. If you like it, consider buying the high quality DVD or donating a few $ at http://goldenruledocumentary.blogspot.com/
This film is based on Thomas Ferguson's book Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-Driven Political Systems. The film offers an in depth look at the influence of money in politics--analyzing social forces and events that the mainstream media and scholarship have largely distorted or kept hidden. It also analyzes the meaning of democracy.A team of UCF administrators returned from Ireland today after a four-day trip to do "due diligence" on a potential future game against Penn State, the Orlando Sentinel reported this afternoon.
According to the Sentinel report:
The trip was one of the key steps the Knights had to take before locking in an agreement to play the game in Ireland, which could be completed in the coming weeks and formally announced in mid-June. UCF is very optimistic after a “very positive visit” to Ireland, one source said. The deal will not be announced until schools have an opportunity to put together a travel package for fans. According to both sources, the UCF-Penn State game is likely to be held at Croke Park in Dublin. Officials on the trip met with representatives from both Croke Park and Aviva Stadium. A final decision has not been made on the venue.
Penn State coach Bill O'Brien said today the university is "really close" to finalizing the Ireland trip, but has yet to comment on the opponent.
UCF was added to the Nittany Lions' 2013 schedule and was likely to land on the '14 and '15 schedules, as well. Logistical issues are being worked out now, and the trip is inching closer to reality.
The topic of an Ireland game was first introduced in January. Banned from a bowl game for the next three seasons, O'Brien mentioned the Ireland trip as a bowl-like destination. Earlier this month, it was reported that UCF could be the opponent in 2014.
"Logistically, it's not easy," David Hansen, UCF senior associate athletics director for internal operations, told the Sentinel at the time.
UCF is a match because of O'Brien's relationship with coach George O'Leary. Both men are also of Irish heritage.Dan Marino finished his career with the most passing yards, touchdown passes in a career and a single season, but yearned to return — and win — a Super Bowl.
People whose names are highlighted, like Dan Marino, hold a Dolphins team record or have received an honor. Click their names for details. See our full Hall of Records list here.
G o back and watch. And marvel.
No need to unearth those old VHS tapes in your garage. Simply go to YouTube, type in “Dan Marino Highlights.”
And remember with newfound awe how the ball exploded off his hand.
In the five decades of Dolphins football, there has never been a player like Dan Marino. The same might be said for football in general.
He was an icon, a Hall of Famer and a transformational athlete. He carried his franchise for 17 seasons. He starred in blockbuster movies and sold gloves by the case.
But more than anything, he could throw the football like no other.
Many of Marino’s passing records — and he owned many — have since been eclipsed by the new guard, whose stats were inflated by a manipulation of NFL rules intended to increase scoring and protect the safety of players.
First Brett Favre passed Marino in the record books, then a few years later Peyton Manning did the same.
“I hated that they broke my records,” Marino told the Miami Herald recently, a sly smile on his face. “It’s terrible.”
Marino chuckled, before continuing:
“No, it lasted for a long time. It’s like I told Brett Favre, ‘What took you so long?’ I was fortunate. I had a great career here.”
An understatement, to be sure.
Rather, he had an unmatched career, one that earned a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. When he retired after the 1999 season, Marino was the NFL’s career leader in pass attempts (8,358), completions (4,967), passing yards (61,361) and touchdown passes (420).
He made the playoffs in 10 of his 17 seasons.
And at just 23 years old, he led the Dolphins to the Super Bowl — a game that was both his greatest team achievement and No. 1 disappointment.
Marino, the uncannily gifted thrower from Western Pennsylvania, put up unprecedented statistics in 1984, his second NFL season.
He became the first NFL quarterback to throw for 5,000 yards. His 48 touchdown passes weren’t just an NFL record, they were 12 more than any other player had thrown in league history.
And in the process, he directed the Dolphins to a 14-2 regular-season mark.
They went on to blitz the Seahawks in the Divisional round before facing the Steelers — Marino’s childhood team — in the AFC Championship Game.
Marino responded with probably the best big-game performance of his career, completing 21 of 32 passes for 421 yards and four touchdowns to send Miami to its fifth (and most recent) Super Bowl.
Three decades later, Marino called that game the best memory of his playing career, “because I grew up right in the city [of Pittsburgh].”
Miami Herald file
Two weeks later, on football’s grandest stage, the script changed. Marino played well, but the Dolphins lost to the San Francisco 49ers 38-16.
Some would have been crushed. And sure, the loss stung Marino at the time. But not as much as it would have, had he known the future.
That’s because Marino, for all his brilliance, never realized the ultimate goal. His first trip to the Super Bowl was his last.
Twice more, in 1985 and 1992, the Dolphins made the conference title game. They hosted each one. And lost each one.
“I look back at it as I wish I was able to play in it again,” Marino said. “Ironically, I was 23 years old and I felt for sure that I would be back. After the game, I was disappointed, down about the game. But I was like, ‘You know what, I’m going to be back and we’re going to win one of these. I’m going to be back more than once. Maybe twice, you never know.’ And it never happened. That’s the one thing that is the regret. It’s to not know what it feels like to walk off the last game of your career and know that you’re Super Bowl champs.”
Fairly or not, that failure will keep Marino from being considered the best quarterback in NFL history.
When asked why it never happened for him, Marino didn’t have an answer.
AP file
“I thought we had a lot of good teams,” he said. “It just goes to show how hard it is to win a Super Bowl, because there’s so much change in the league. Why it didn’t happen? I couldn’t put one finger on it, or one point to give you why it didn’t happen. But we had a lot of great teams that had opportunities to do it. We just didn’t do it.”
Here’s a simple explanation: The Dolphins empirically were not as good as the Buffalo Bills, their longtime divisional rival who went to four consecutive Super Bowls in the early 1990s. The Bills knocked the Dolphins out of the playoffs three times in a span of six years.
One of those defeats was in the 1992 AFC title game. The following fall, Marino believed his side had the talent to take that last step.
Miami opened the season with wins in three of its first four games. Most encouragingly, the defense was excellent.
Then a Week 6 trip to Cleveland changed everything.
Late in the first half, Marino ruptured his right Achilles tendon, ending his season and forever altering the trajectory of his career.
Joe Rimkus Jr./Miami Herald file
“It was really disappointing for me, because I thought we had a team that could win a Super Bowl that year,” Marino said. “We had a lot of talent with Keith Jackson and [Keith] Byars and the defense that we had and Irving Fryar. … It’s really tough, because you never think something like that is going to happen to you.”
The Dolphins, without their franchise cornerstone, collapsed down the stretch. After starting the year 9-2, they lost the last five games of the season to miss the playoffs.
As for Marino, he would return for six more impactful seasons, but acknowledges he was never the same physically.
“The Achilles never really completely came back to the way you would want it to perfectly,” he added. “I had to play and adjust to that. Your body adjusts pretty well over time. But I had to adjust to dealing with my ankle and my Achilles, how you throw the ball and how you move around. But I did feel like I played at a pretty high level after that, too.”
He’s right. Even with a limited Marino, the Dolphins made the playoffs in five of his last six seasons. When the three-time All-Pro finally retired after the 1999 season, he did so as the most decorated quarterback to ever put on a helmet.
Al Diaz/Miami Herald file
Players don’t write their legacies. It’s up to others to do that.
But if Marino could?
“I guess that I was a competitor,” he said. “Loved to compete. Hated to lose. That’s it, really. I think it’s a team game. It’s about winning and losing. As far as throwing the football, I proved that I could throw it with anybody, and all the records, and that’s fine. But it’s about, ‘That guy was a competitor. He loved to play the game and was a great teammate also.’”
The proof is out there. Go find it and remember.NEW YORK—Speaking to reporters Wednesday ahead of the Stanley Cup Finals, New York Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault confirmed that veteran goaltender Henrik Lundqvist will need to really step up on offense if the team is to beat the Kings and secure their first
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ulated: “In a culture in which the marketing orientation prevails, and in which material success is the outstanding value, there is little reason to be surprised that human love relations follow the same pattern of exchange which governs the commodity and the labor market.”
“It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!”
_Nietzsche
If we were to dissuade ourselves, we are to admit that most philosophies are experience-borne, mostly from the unpleasant ones, thus the pain and confusion that unrequited love has prompted (romantic and other, other more than romantic) was a motive to this dubious inquiry, I strongly believe in how that pain can take unusual forms, how it calls for strong empathy, how it cannot be understated or ridiculed for its illogic.
Closeness comes with a price; a price of comprises and sacrifices, and it can beget painful misunderstandings, it can elucidate unnoticed differences—in personal endeavors and expectations, and if the communication were poor, a rupture between the people involved can occur.
Romantic love is no less delusional than close friendship, yet I tend to find the latter a less arduous, a more unconstrained ordeal, natural at a very young age, a simple pleasure that remains unbounded to the burdens of the outdated, ragged remnants of the 18th century romance pillars.
I don’t have a precise answer as to why I grew to find it a superior form of connectedness, and that love and friendship should not be widely segregated. As mentioned before, it is because I have experienced an extraordinary pain; the aftermaths of attachments, of unmonitored passions for people, can prove to be truly intoxicating, yet I don’t regret being close to any of them, I have gained with what I’ve lost and I’d like to view that as a balance.
Unlike Epicurus, I cannot build a school for people to attend to learn my ‘unorthodox ways’ of exercising companionship, I certainly don’t have idealistic friendships, nor do I think that such thing exists, and it would be (again) farcical, if I preached about something that I’m being morbidly skeptic about.
Perhaps the most immediate and less complex solution to this social clamor is to adopt Proust’s “We exist alone.”, “Each of us is trapped in our bodies, and there can be no true union between two individuals.”_ One of the people Andrew Solomon interviewed would complain.
Solitude as a quiet sanctuary, can be chosen over this tumult of attachments and pains. When one chooses to exist alone one is readily giving up on a lot of possibilities of beautiful experiences—possible pleasures, one is denying one’s nature as a social animal, however, this expense can be fruitful not in only avoiding the pain, but as to seek higher purposes of creativity, of arts, or other personally-custom forms of transcendence.
AdvertisementsThere are several good ways to upload content to an S3 bucket in the Java world – in this article we’ll look at what the jclouds library provides for this purpose.
To use jclouds – specifically the APIs discussed in this article, this simple Maven dependency should be added to the pom of the project:
<dependency> <groupId>org.jclouds</groupId> <artifactId>jclouds-allblobstore</artifactId> <version>1.5.10</version> </dependency>
1. Uploading to Amazon S3
The first step, in order to access any of these APIs, is to create a BlobStoreContext:
BlobStoreContext context = ContextBuilder.newBuilder("aws-s3").credentials(identity, credentials).buildView(BlobStoreContext.class);
This represents the entry-point to a general key-value storage service, such as Amazon S3 – but not limited to it.
For the more specific S3 only implementation, the context can be created similarly:
BlobStoreContext context = ContextBuilder.newBuilder("aws-s3").credentials(identity, credentials).buildView(S3BlobStoreContext.class);
And even more specifically:
BlobStoreContext context = ContextBuilder.newBuilder("aws-s3").credentials(identity, credentials).buildView(AWSS3BlobStoreContext.class);
When the authenticated context is no longer needed, closing it is required to release all resources – threads and connections – associated to it.
2. The four S3 APIs of jclouds
The jclouds library provides four different APIs to upload content to S3 bucket, ranging from simple but inflexible to complex and powerful, all obtained via the BlobStoreContext. Let’s start with the simplest.
2.1. Upload via the Map API
The easiest way jclouds can be used to interact with an S3 bucket is by representing that bucket as a Map. The API is obtained from the context:
InputStreamMap bucket = context.createInputStreamMap("bucketName");
Then, to upload a simple HTML file:
bucket.putString("index1.html", "<html><body>hello world1</body></html>");
The InputStreamMap API exposes several other types of PUT operations – files, raw bytes – both for single and bulk.
A simple integration test can be used as an example:
@Test public void whenFileIsUploadedToS3WithMapApi_thenNoExceptions() { BlobStoreContext context = ContextBuilder.newBuilder("aws-s3").credentials(identity, credentials).buildView(AWSS3BlobStoreContext.class); InputStreamMap bucket = context.createInputStreamMap("bucketName"); bucket.putString("index1.html", "<html><body>hello world1</body></html>"); context.close(); }
2.2. Upload via BlobMap
Using the simple Map API is straightforward but ultimately limited – for example, there is no way to pass in metadata about the content being uploaded. When more flexibility and customization is necessary, this simplified approach to uploading data to S3 via a Map is no longer enough.
The next API we’ll look at is the Blob Map API – this is obtained from the context:
BlobMap bucket = context.createBlobMap("bucketName");
The API allows the client to access more lower level details, such as Content–Length, Content-Type, Content-Encoding, eTag hash and others; to upload new content in the bucket:
Blob blob = bucket.blobBuilder().name("index2.html"). payload("<html><body>hello world2</body></html>"). contentType("text/html").calculateMD5().build();
The API also allows setting a variety of payloads on the create request.
A simple integration test for uploading a basic HTML file to S3 via the Blob Map API:
@Test public void whenFileIsUploadedToS3WithBlobMap_thenNoExceptions() throws IOException { BlobStoreContext context = ContextBuilder.newBuilder("aws-s3").credentials(identity, credentials).buildView(AWSS3BlobStoreContext.class); BlobMap bucket = context.createBlobMap("bucketName"); Blob blob = bucket.blobBuilder().name("index2.html"). payload("<html><body>hello world2</body></html>"). contentType("text/html").calculateMD5().build(); bucket.put(blob.getMetadata().getName(), blob); context.close(); }
2.3. Upload via BlobStore
The previous APIs had no way to upload content using multipart upload – this makes them ill suited when working with large files. This limitation is addressed by the next API we’re going to look at – the synchronous BlobStore API.
This is obtained from the context:
BlobStore blobStore = context.getBlobStore();
To use the multipart support and upload a file to S3:
Blob blob = blobStore.blobBuilder("index3.html"). payload("<html><body>hello world3</body></html>").contentType("text/html").build(); blobStore.putBlob("bucketName", blob, PutOptions.Builder.multipart());
The payload builder is the same one that was being used by the BlobMap API, so the same flexibility in specifying lower level metadata information about the blob is available here. The difference is the PutOptions supported by the PUT operation of the API – namely the multipart support.
The previous integration test now has multipart enabled:
@Test public void whenFileIsUploadedToS3WithBlobStore_thenNoExceptions() { BlobStoreContext context = ContextBuilder.newBuilder("aws-s3").credentials(identity, credentials).buildView(AWSS3BlobStoreContext.class); BlobStore blobStore = context.getBlobStore(); Blob blob = blobStore.blobBuilder("index3.html"). payload("<html><body>hello world3</body></html>").contentType("text/html").build(); blobStore.putBlob("bucketName", blob, PutOptions.Builder.multipart()); context.close(); }
2.4. Upload via AsyncBlobStore
While the previous BlobStore API was synchronous, there is also an asynchronous API for BlobStore – AsyncBlobStore. The API is similarly obtained from the context:
AsyncBlobStore blobStore = context.getAsyncBlobStore();
The only difference between the two is that the async API is returning ListenableFuture for the PUT asynchronous operation:
Blob blob = blobStore.blobBuilder("index4.html")..payload("<html><body>hello world4</body></html>").build(); blobStore.putBlob("bucketName", blob)<strong>.get()</strong>;
The integration test displaying this operation is similar to the synchronous one:
@Test public void whenFileIsUploadedToS3WithBlobStore_thenNoExceptions() { BlobStoreContext context = ContextBuilder.newBuilder("aws-s3").credentials(identity, credentials).buildView(AWSS3BlobStoreContext.class); BlobStore blobStore = context.getBlobStore(); Blob blob = blobStore.blobBuilder("index4.html"). payload("<html><body>hello world4</body></html>").contentType("text/html").build(); Future<String> putOp = blobStore.putBlob("bucketName", blob, PutOptions.Builder.multipart()); putOp.get(); context.close(); }
3. Conclusion
In this article, we analyzed the four APIs that the jclouds library provides to upload content to Amazon S3. These four APIs are generic and they work with other key-value storage services as well – such as Microsoft Azure Storage for example.
In the next article we’ll look at the Amazon specific S3 API available in jclouds – the AWSS3Client. We’ll implement the operation of uploading a large file, dynamically calculate the optimal number of parts for any given file, and perform the upload of all parts in parallel.If you want a good measure of how deeply the collective bargaining bill in Wisconsin has disrupted public sector unions, there is no better example than the Wisconsins Education Association Council (WEAC).
Last month WEAC announced that it was laying off 40% of its staff. With little over which to collectively bargain, and with dues no longer withheld from paychecks, the need for and sustainability of a union bureaucracy could not be justified.
Now WEAC is being boycotted by National Staff Organization (NSO), a union representing educational union employees.
Isn’t that great, education union employees have their own union? Is there a union for employees of education union employee unions?
Anyway (via JSOnline), NSO is urging its members to boycott WEAC because of the layoffs, which NSO claims are in breach of employee contracts.:
Because the Wisconsin Education Association Council is breaching staff contracts and destroying any working relationship with its employees, NSO President Chuck Agerstrand is cautioning all NSO members against applying for staff vacancies. “WEAC management is taking a page out of Gov. Walker’s playbook and making up new employment rules not in the USU contract. They should be looking to the 42 employees they laid off to fill vacancies before they go outside the state,” said Agerstrand. WEAC recently sent out a job posting for a staff position in the Racine UniServ office. WEAC’s new employment rule—which violates the WEAC/USU contract—says an employee must have successfully passed a year’s probation in the job he/she wants to bump into or the employee has no recall rights. The USU is challenging the management’s position. Agerstrand is encouraging support for our NSO members. “I’m asking NSO members to show support for our Wisconsin USU brothers and sisters by refraining from applying for any position in Wisconsin until our colleagues have their position restored.” On Aug. 15, 40 percent of WEAC’s employees received layoff notices—four days after the staff was made aware of impending layoffs. WEAC’s Executive Director Dan Burkhalter blamed Walker’s budget cuts for the layoffs.
I’ve been search for a better metaphor, but “feeding on each other” was the best I could come up with. Any suggestions?Example-driven ZODB
How to use an object database with a Python, a dynamic object-oriented language
Just like their friends who program in statically typed languages, programmers of Python and in other dynamic languages often use relational databases as a back-end data store. Whether they directly define database tables using SQL or instead use a schema language that their framework or ORM provides as an alternative, all such solutions offer a similar workflow: the application designer must specify the name, type, and constraint of each attribute than an instance of each class will support, and in return, database relations are instantiated that can persist instances of those objects.
Over a decade ago, the Zope Corporation first offered an alternative, which they designed to better fit the data model of a dynamic language: the Zope Object Database (ZODB), which specializes in the storage of extensible objects rather than classical relations. Today it is the database engine that most often underlies Zope-powered Web applications.
The decision of whether to use the ZODB or an ORM atop a relational database involves important trade-offs, which we will explore in this article, along with a basic guide to the maintenance of a production ZODB instance.
ZODB tips from Jim Fulton
ZODB includes a BTree implementation that allows relation-like structures to be defined and used. Zope "catalogs" can be used much like relational tables. The object used for the root object isn't very scalable. Large collections should use BTrees placed in the root object (or below, of course). Also, the keys of the root object aren't limited to strings.
Who is Jim Fulton? Jim Fulton is the creator and one of the maintainers of the Zope Object Database. Jim is also one of the creators of the Zope Object Publishing Environment and the CTO at Zope Corporation.
What Jim Fulton has to say about ZODB
ZODB is to relational databases as Python is to statically-type languages such as Java™. For many applications, especially applications involving complex objects, a database like the ZODB is a lot easier to deal with. This is a key reason why ZODB is the most popular back end for Zope applications.
Another important difference between object databases and relational databases is that object databases store already assembled objects. In a relational databases, objects that can't be represented as records of basic data values must be assembled through database joins. This can be very expensive and cumbersome, both conceptually and computationally.
The ZODB takes a minimalist approach to the services it provides. It provides basic persistence and little else. Other services, like security and indexing, must be provided at the application level. This approach has advantages as disadvantages. It allows ZODB developers to focus on core services and makes it easier to innovate, but it leaves some people wanting more. The lack of a database-level security model makes it difficult to fully leverage ZEO storage servers as clients have more or less unfettered access to the database and must therefore be trusted.
It is fairly straightforward to build indexing facilities for ZODB, but there is no query language other than Python. For example, to select people named Smith from a collection of people, we can use a Python list comprehension:
[p for p in people if p.last_name == 'Smith']
But this is a linear search. It would be nice to have a query language that could introspect and indexing structures. On the other hand, if queries are ad-hoc, it is unlikely that indexes will be available. In an OODB, most non-ad-hoc queries are unnecessary.
Features of ZODB
There are probably two features of the ZODB that are most striking to someone approaching it after experience with relational databases: first, that in the ZODB you store objects in a hierarchy; and, second, that ZODB objects have absolutely no schema and can gain or lose instance attributes on the fly. Let's look at each of these features in turn.
All objects in a ZODB database are part of a hierarchy that begins with the "root object" - a fairly generic container object created automatically by the database engine to contain all further objects in the database. It acts like a Python dictionary that allows objects to be placed at (and later deleted from) names identified by string-typed keys. So the root object can be used directly if the programmer has no greater ambition than to store some objects that are indexed by a simple or delimited text string, similar to the way that old-fashioned Berkeley databases can be used to create inexpensive and persistent associative arrays.
But the ZODB really comes into its own when container objects are placed into the root object which can then, in turn, hold other objects. Like the root object, a container object is designed to maintain a list of keys and associate an object with each one. A container can either support strings as its keys, like the root object itself, or can use integers as an alternate key system instead.
By placing containers inside of containers, a hierarchy of objects can be formed. This ability makes the ZODB very popular for programmers implementing content management systems! Just call your ZODB object containers "Folders" when displaying them for public consumption, and users will happily navigate your object hierarchy as though it were a familiar filesystem. The Plone content-management system makes particularly heavy use of this concept.
Now for the other big difference between the ZODB and a relational database: ZODB objects completely lack any schema specification. An object in a ZODB database is allowed to have any collection of instance attributes. They can be placed upon the object, and later deleted, at will. Furthermore, no type restrictions are imposed, beyond the basic restriction that the ZODB only supports attribute values that are composed of combinations of basic pickle-able Python types like numbers, strings, tuples, lists, and dictionaries.
This behavior fits very well with Python itself, though it contrasts very strongly with the practice in statically-typed languages of specifying the list of attributes that objects of that class can possess when one first designs an object and writes its definition. The attributes of a Python object behave like an associative array to which new keys can be added, and old ones deleted, during runtime.
When a programmer writes something like: myhost.hostname = 'aix.example.com', the programmer is not storing the string in some kind of pre-defined and constrained slot named "hostname" that is an inherent attribute of the "myhost" object. Instead, they are either creating or overwriting the value associated with a "hostname" attribute that only came into existence when it was first assigned to, and which will disappear off of the object if you perform a simple: del myhost.hostname.
Of course, seasoned Python programmers are wise and systematic, and generally do not use this freedom to create and delete attributes arbitrarily. Typically, they will use the __init__() initialization method of a class to assign an initial or default value to every instance attribute they ever plan on using. This means that subsequent code in the object's methods can assume the presence of each attribute, and therefore simply use, for example, "self.hostname" without having to worry about whether it has been set yet.
When Python programmers do not go ahead and create a particular object attributes at instantiation, they have to either check for the presence of the attributes with a function like hasattr() before attempting to access it, or use a try...except clause to catch the AttributeError exception that is thrown if they try to access it when it's not there.
But despite all of that, there is significant difference between the casual Python discipline of creating all instance attributes at instantiation, and the practice of creating the sort of type signature available in a statically-typed language. Therefore, Python programmers who want to use a relational database generally find they have imposed upon themselves the extra and unnecessary discipline of providing a schema for each of their types.
Python programmers are not always averse to schemas, which are often crafted in order to drive form generation and constraint checking in a Web framework, or to define interfaces in a dynamic component framework. But these are very specific situations, where a class faces outwards towards other components, or towards users. When using classes that are only visible internally, it can appear quite onerous to many Python programmers to have to provide data definitions simply in order to get persistence working in a relational database. And, of course, once they have done so, they then find that adding a new attribute to their class -- normally a very inexpensive operation -- becomes an exercise in the occasionally arcane world of relational database schema modification.
For all of these reasons, relational databases offer what we might call a noticeable impedance mismatch when we try to use them to persist objects in a dynamic language like Python.
How to use ZODB
To show how to use the ZODB, and to illustrate its properties, we will demonstrate three basic operations: First, we will show how to set up and tear down a connection to the ZODB. Second, we will store and then delete some simple values and data structures directly under keys at the database root. And third, we will persist some actual Python objects and show that their attributes get automatically stored.
We will have to leave for another time the details of how to create container objects with which full hierarchies of objects can be persisted.
Connecting and disconnecting from the ZODB
The standard way of connecting to the ZODB involves creating a series of four objects: a method of storing database data, a "db" wrapper around the storage that gives it actual database behaviors, a "connection" object that starts a particular conversation with that database, and finally a "dbroot" object that gives us access to the base of the object hierarchy contained in the database. All of the following examples will need this same code fragment placed above them in a Python file in order to correctly open and close a ZODB instance:
Using ZODB
   # myzodb.py from ZODB import FileStorage, DB import transaction class MyZODB(object): def __init__(self, path): self.storage = FileStorage.FileStorage(path) self.db = DB(self.storage) self.connection = self.db.open() self.dbroot = self.connection.root() def close(self): self.connection.close() self.db.close() self.storage.close()
Note that the "transaction" module was not used in the code fragment above; we imported it because the examples below will be using it.
Storing simple Python data
A Zope database can store all sorts of Python objects. The following script stores several values:
Storing simple Python data
# store_simple.py - place some simple data in a ZODB from myzodb import MyZODB, transaction db = MyZODB('./Data.fs') dbroot = db.dbroot dbroot['a_number'] = 3 dbroot['a_string'] = 'Gift' dbroot['a_list'] = [1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 12] dbroot['a_dictionary'] = { 1918: 'Red Sox', 1919: 'Reds' } dbroot['deeply_nested'] = { 1918: [ ('Red Sox', 4), ('Cubs', 2) ], 1919: [ ('Reds', 5), ('White Sox', 3) ], } transaction.commit() db.close()
And then this script will re-open the database and demonstrate that all of the values were stored intact:
Fetching simple data
# fetch_simple.py - show what's in the database from myzodb import MyZODB db = MyZODB('./Data.fs') dbroot = db.dbroot for key in dbroot.keys(): print key + ':', dbroot[key] db.close()
Note. Our use of the filename "Data.fs" is purely conventional, because many ZODB installations have in fact standardized on the use of that particular file name; but you can use any name you want. When we refer in the rest of this article to your "Data.fs" file, we really mean "whatever file in which you have placed your Zope database."
The ZODB will always be able to see when you set a key to a new value. So a change to the above database like the following will get automatically detected and persisted:
dbroot['a_string'] = 'Something Else' transaction.commit() db.close()
You need to explicitly tell ZODB about changes to lists or dictionaries because the ZODB cannot see the change being made. This is a define feature of mutability and participation in the persistence framework. The following code will not cause a change that a subsequent run of "fetch_simple.py" will see:
# broken code! a_dictionary = dbroot['a_dictionary'] a_dictionary[1920] = 'Indians' transaction.commit() db.close()
If you are going to be modifying -- rather than completely replacing -- a complex object like this, you need to set the attribute _p_changed on the database root to alert it that it needs to re-store the attributes beneath it:
a_dictionary = dbroot['a_dictionary'] a_dictionary[1920] = 'Indians' dbroot._p_changed = 1 transaction.commit() db.close()
If you then re-run "fetch_simple.py", you will see that the change was persisted correctly.
Removing an object is as simple as:
del dbroot['a_number'] transaction.commit() db.close()
Note that nothing will happen to the database in any of the above examples if you neglect to call transaction.commit()! Just as in a relational database, only by committing the operations you have been performing do you make them atomically appear in the database.
Persisting objects
Of course, few Python programmers want to work with increasingly complex forests of data structures like the lists, tuples, and dictionaries above. Instead, they want to create full-fledged Python objects whose attributes are then persisted for them. Let us create a small Python file that defines a type we can persist to the database.
To do this, the class will have to inherit from "Persistent." (Note that because Python allows multi-inheritance, the requirement that the class inherits from "Persistent" in no way prevents your own database-ready classes from inheriting from other base classes, as well.)
A model
# mymodel.py - a tiny object model from persistent import Persistent class Host(Persistent): def __init__(self, hostname, ip, interfaces): self.hostname = hostname self.ip = ip self.interfaces = interfaces
We can now create several instances of this class and persist them in the ZODB, just like we persisted the simple data structures above:
Storing objects
# store_hosts.py from myzodb import MyZODB, transaction db = MyZODB('./Data.fs') dbroot = db.dbroot from mymodel import Host host1 = Host('www.example.com', '192.168.7.2', ['eth0', 'eth1']) dbroot['www.example.com'] = host1 host2 = Host('dns.example.com', '192.168.7.4', ['eth0', 'gige0']) dbroot['dns.example.com'] = host2 transaction.commit() db.close()
The following script will re-open the database and demonstrate that all of the host objects were successfully persisted (by checking the type of each item fetched, it will ignore all of the objects that might still be left in the ZODB from when we ran our first example):
Fetching objects
# fetch_hosts.py - show hosts in the database from myzodb import MyZODB db = MyZODB('./Data.fs') dbroot = db.dbroot from mymodel import Host for key in dbroot.keys(): obj = dbroot[key] if isinstance(obj, Host): print "Host:", obj.name print " IP address:", obj.ip, " Interfaces:", obj.interfaces db.close()
Just as the "dbroot" object can detect when place new values at its key indexes, a Persistent object will automatically detect when you set its attributes and save them to the database. So the following code changes the IP address of our first host:
host = dbroot['www.example.com'] host.ip = '192.168.7.141' transaction.commit() db.close()
But if you store complex data types beneath an object, then the exact same problem comes into play as occurred with complex data types attached to the database root. The following code does not persist its change to the database because the ZODB cannot see that it has occurred:
# broken code! host = dbroot['www.example.com'] host.interfaces.append('eth2') transaction.commit() db.close()
Instead, you have to set the _p_changed attribute like before; but this time, you have to do it on the object itself, not on the database root, because objects act as their own root of the attributes under them:
host = dbroot['www.example.com'] host.interfaces.append('eth2') host._p_changed = 1 transaction.commit() db.close()
After running this improved code, you should be able to re-run the "fetch_hosts.py" script above and see that the host has indeed gained an interface.
Routine maintenance
A ZODB database instance is easy to maintain. Since it contains no schema that would require design or modification, the only regular maintenance to perform is a periodic packing to prevent it from consuming your entire disk.
Database administrators are already accustomed to the behavior of modern relational databases, whose table files will typically grow on disk without bound unless a SQL "VACUUM" command is performed periodically. For much the same reason -- that is, in order to support the rollback of transactions -- each new change written to a ZODB database is actually appended to the "Data.fs" file, rather than updating information already inside of it. To remove the old information that accumulates as transactions commit, a ZODB administrator must occasionally "pack" its database.
While many relational databases these days offer an auto-vacuuming facility that periodically runs "VACUUM" on each table -- perhaps at set intervals, or maybe after a certain amount of new data has been written -- the ZODB does not currently offer such a facility. Instead, a ZODB administrator will typically establish a cron job to perform the operation regularly. A daily packing is often perfectly appropriate for sites not pushing enormous volumes of new information through their ZODB every hour.
There are two ways of performing a packing. If you are running simple scripts that open "Data.fs" directly, like those demonstrated above, then you will need to create a small script that opens "Data.fs" and then runs the "pack" command on the resulting database object:
db = DB(storage) db.pack()
Because no two programs can have a "Data.fs" file open at the same time, you cannot run your packing script while any of your other scripts are running.
If, instead of having a script open your "Data.fs" directly, you are using a ZEO server (described in the next section), then packing will be simpler -- and will also not require that your clients disconnect! Simply use the "zeopack" command line tool that comes with the ZODB:
$ zeopack -h localhost -p 8080
This will connect to your ZEO server and issue a special order that will induce the server to pack your database. It is usually best to perform this when the load on your database is light; many sites run the command daily, early in the morning before the start of business.
Providing remote access with ZEO
While all of the above example scripts simply opened a local "Data.fs" file directly, most production installations of a ZODB run its database as a server instead. The ZODB server product is named "Zope Enterprise Objects" (ZEO), and it comes packaged with the ZODB code itself. Because only one program can safely have a "Data.fs" file opened at a time, a ZEO server is the only way to support connections from several clients. This is especially critical when a database is supporting several front-end servers that are arranged in a load-balancing configuration.
Even many installations that have only a single database client choose to use a ZEO server anyway, since -- as described in the previous section -- this allows the database to be packed without the client having to disconnect (or perform the pack itself).
While you should read the ZEO documentation, which can be found in the source code for ZODB in doc/ZEO/howto.txt, for more details, one generally creates a configuration file for ZEO that looks something like this:
>zeo] address zeo.example.com:8090 monitor-address zeo.example.com:8091 </zeo> <filestorage 1> path /var/tmp/Data.fs </filestorage> <eventlog> <logfile> path /var/tmp/zeo.log format %(asctime)s %(message)s </logfile> </eventlog>
Once you have written this configuration file, running a zeo instance is as easy as:
$ zeoctl... start
Just like a standard UNIX® "init.d" script, the "zeoctl" command will also accept subcommands like "status" and "stop."
Different ZEO clients have different ways of specifying which ZEO server you want them to talk to. Zope instances, for example, have "zope.conf" files with stanzas that look something like this:
<zodb> <filestorage> path /srv/myapp/var/Data.fs </filestorage> </zodb>
If you need to connect from one of your own programs, then you could replace the "MyZODB" example class given above with something that connects to ZEO instead:
Zeo client
from ZEO.ClientStorage import ClientStorage from ZODB import DB class MyRemoteZODB(object): def __init__(self, server, port): server_and_port = (server, port) self.storage = ClientStorage(server_and_port) self.db = DB(self.storage) self.connection = self.db.open() self.dbroot = self.connection.root() def close(self): self.connection.close() self.db.close() self.storage.close() mydb = MyRemoteZODB('localhost', 8080) dbroot = mydb.dbroot
The resulting "dbroot" object can be used exactly like the "dbroot" objects illustrated above, and will perform on the remote ZODB instance exactly the same operations that the above scripts were performing on the local "Data.fs" file.
Solutions for replication and redundancy
Whether replication is available for a database often decides whether it can be deployed as a storage infrastructure in the enterprise. No degree of flexibility or convenience for developers can, for a mission-critical application, outweigh the requirement that a database be able to survive the inevitable failure of hardware and servers without suffering downtime.
The traditional redundant ZODB implementation is the "Zope Replication Services" suite, offered commercially from the Zope corporation. Their clustering system supports read-write master server, which then forwards changes to any number of read-only secondary servers among which reader load can be distributed by any standard virtual server front end. When the master fails, the system falls back to read-only mode until one of the secondary servers is promoted to a master.
An open-source solution named "ZEORaid" has recently emerged with which more adventuresome developers might want to experiment. It uses the same techniques as a RAID file server to allow an entire cluster of ZEO databases to operate redundantly, with all servers participating in both reads and writes. See http://pypi.python.org/pypi/gocept.zeoraid/ for more information.
Conclusion
Although object databases can seem somewhat exotic, they are a useful tool for users of dynamic, object-oriented languages. Their flexible stance with respect to object structure is an excellent fit for the corresponding properties of dynamic objects, and their hierarchical structure is a natural complement to the hierarchical nature of content management systems. With the ZODB, all of these features are delivered in a client/server configuration, and with the addition of one of the available clustering solutions, it can be brought to enterprise-level robustness.
Ultimately though, let's get to the punch line. ZODB is cutting-edge stuff, and it is used in several important projects, including Plone, a Python-based, enterprise-quality Content Management System; and Grok, a next-generation, Python Web Application Framework. If you really want to get your hands dirty with an Object Database, go to the Resource section and go through the Grok Tutorial. You will be able to build a Web application that has persistent objects in a trivial amount of time. This should give you some idea of how much power persistent objects bring to Web application development, and you might ask yourself, why didn't I think of this before?
Downloadable resources
Related topicsImage caption Dr Matthews worked for Northamptonshire County Council
A Christian adoption adviser dismissed for refusing to recommend same-sex couples as suitable parents has lost her claim for religious discrimination.
Dr Sheila Matthews, 50, from Kettering in Northamptonshire, lost her job with the county council when she asked to abstain from voting in same-sex cases.
She told her employers Northamptonshire County Council she felt children "did best" with heterosexual parents.
The employment tribunal, sitting in Leicester, dismissed the claim.
Concluding a two-day hearing, regional employment judge John MacMillan said she had no case against the council.
He said: "The complaints of religious discrimination fail and are dismissed.
"This case fails fairly and squarely on its facts."
He added: "In our judgment, at least from the time of the pre-hearing review, the continuation of these proceedings was plainly misconceived... they were doomed to fail.
"There is simply no factual basis for the claims."
Mr MacMillan said there was no evidence that Dr Matthews was treated differently from any other panel member who might request to abstain from voting, or that she was specifically discriminated against on the basis of her Christianity.
He said the issue "transcended the boundaries of all religions" and ruled that Dr Matthews should pay the council's legal costs.
'Most appropriate environment'
A district judge will decide what amount of costs should be paid by Dr Matthews to the council at a county court hearing on a date to be fixed.
During the hearing Dr Matthews, who was dismissed from the adoption panel in April last year, told the tribunal the Bible was clear that "homosexual practice is not how God wants us to live".
She told the hearing: "As a Christian, my faith leads me to believe that marriage between a man and a woman in a faithful monogamous sexual relationship is the most appropriate environment for the upbringing of children."
Dr Matthews told the tribunal she first began researching the issue of same sex adoption after attending a training course on gay, lesbian and bisexual parenting in March 2004.
She said: "I believe a same-sex relationship is not the best, most healthy, environment in which to raise children.
"The overarching principle of adoption is to seek the best interests of the child who has already experienced disadvantage."
After the hearing, Dr Matthews said: "Everything is open to be considered, I'm not making any sort of decisions right now.
"We need to mull everything over very carefully. I wouldn't have brought the case if I felt we were destined to fail."Outgoing UN rights chief Navi Pillay has rebuked the UN Security Council for putting short-term geopolitical concerns and narrowly-defined national interests ahead of intolerable human suffering and grave breaches of global peace and security.
"I firmly
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south keep the North Star to your back.
***the following guide only works in the northern hemisphere***Since ancient times people have used the stars to navigate to new and uncharted places. Many have been led astray by not having a full understanding of how the stars move but even more have found their way by understanding the night sky.LUMBERTON, N.C.—New DNA evidence has freed a death-row inmate and his half-brother after they spent three decades in prison for rape and murder. A judge overturned the convictions of Henry McCollum, 50, and Leon Brown, 46, after another man’s DNA was discovered on a cigarette butt left near the body of a girl the siblings were convicted of killing in 1983. Tuesday’s ruling is the latest twist in a notorious legal case that began with what defence attorneys said were coerced confessions from two scared teenagers with low IQs. McCollum was 19 at the time and Brown was 15.
Henry McCollum is surrounded by guards as he sits in a courtroom, Tuesday in Lumberton, N.C. ( Chuck Liddy / AP )
Superior Court Judge Douglas Sasser said the new DNA results contradicted the case prosecutors put forward. He said he was vacating their convictions and ordering their release “based on significant new evidence that they are, in fact, innocent.” The DNA from the cigarette butts doesn’t match Brown or McCollum, and fingerprints taken from a beer can at the scene aren’t theirs either, attorneys say. No physical evidence connects them to the crime.
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Both were initially given death sentences, which were overturned. At a second trial, McCollum was again sent to death row, while Brown was convicted of rape and sentenced to life. Family members of the men gasped and some sobbed as the judge announced his decision to the packed courtroom. Brown smiled and shook a defence lawyer’s hand and McCollum looked spent and relieved “We waited years and years,” said James McCollum, Henry McCollum’s father. “We kept the faith.” Defence lawyers petitioned for their release after a recent analysis from the butt pointed to Roscoe Artis, 74, who lived near the soybean field where Sabrina Buie’s body was found in Robeson County. Artis is already serving a life sentence for a similar rape and murder that happened less than a month later. Because of paperwork, it took until Wednesday for the men to walk free. They were required to return to the prisons where they have been serving time before they can be processed out.
The men’s freedom hinged largely on the local prosecutor’s acknowledgement of the strong evidence of their innocence. “The evidence you heard today in my opinion negates the evidence presented at trial,” Johnson Britt, the Robeson County district attorney, said during a closing statement before the judge announced his decision. Britt was not the prosecutor of the men.
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Even if the men were granted a new trial, Britt said: “Based upon this new evidence, the state does not have a case to prosecute.” Minutes later, Sasser made his ruling. The day-long evidence hearing on Tuesday included testimony from Sharon Stellato. The associate director of the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission discussed three interviews she had over the summer with Roscoe Artis, 74, a convicted sex killer also held on death row at Central Prison in Raleigh. Artis was convicted of assaulting three other women and who lived only a block from where the victim’s body was found. In an interview with The Star, Stellato said that Artis did not confess to the crime but repeatedly told her that McCollum and Brown were not guilty of the Buie murder. “He has always stated that they were innocent,” Stellato told the Star. She said he offered no explanation for his assertion that the wrong men were convicted for her killing. Artis first told her that he didn’t know Buie, but then changed his story several times until he was stating that she visited him daily and that she hugged and kissed him on the day she went missing. “His story was inconsistent,” Stellato said. Just weeks after the Buie murder, Artis confessed to the rape and murder of an 18-year-old girl in Red Springs. Artis was originally sentenced to death, but that sentence was later reduced. Stellato said that Artis told her that saw the girl the night she went missing and gave her a coat because it was raining, which might explain why his DNA was at the crime scene. However, weather records show it didn’t rain either the night Buie went missing or the next day. Artis said the girl was alive the last time he saw her, as she left his house. Her body was discovered in a rural soybean field, naked except for a bra pushed up against her neck. Near her remains were two bloody sticks and cigarette butts. Lawyers for the two men said the new testing leaves no doubt about their clients’ innocence. “We were very hopeful that it would come out this way. We knew the strength of it,” said James Payne, an attorney for Brown. Ken Rose, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Death Penalty Litigation in Durham, has represented Henry McCollum for 20 years. “It’s terrifying that our justice system allowed two intellectually disabled children to go to prison for a crime they had nothing to do with, and then to suffer there for 30 years,” Rose said. With files from Peter EdwardsPeople I know and respect along with a ton of people I don’t know have latched on to the meme that Hillary Clinton is Dolores Umbridge, the sickeningly sweet teacher at Hogwarts who tortures Harry, is useless as a Defense Against The Dark Arts Teacher (though weren’t they all) and has a generally fascistic worldview.
I mean, I guess? Clinton voted for the USA Patriot Act and she views Edward Snowden as a criminal more than a whistleblower. That’s kinda fascist. But she’s also solidly against torture, said that we should screen and accept Syrian refugees and is making one of the themes of her campaign “Love Trumps Hate.” So, maybe?
What bothers me the most about this comparison though is how things end for Umbridge. Did you forget that part? I’m almost positive most people have, especially when making this comparison. She’s raped by centaurs. And it’s supposed to be funny. When she comes back to Hogwarts, she’s in shock, and our heroes know what happened. Ron makes clopping hoof noises to scare her (trigger her?) and Hermione and Ginny crack up. Granted, they’re teenagers, and they have bad judgement. But no one in authority tells them “Hey buzz off, that’s not funny.”
Similarly, though even more geeky and less widespread I see Trekkies making “Hillary Clinton is Winn Adami” jokes. On Deep Space Nine, Winn Adami, played by the amazingly badass Louise Fletcher, was one of the best villans in the history of Star Trek. She’s a religious cleric with both fascistic and theocratic tendencies (although on her home planet of Bajor it’s pretty accepted that the religious leadership shares power with the elected government). She’s a master at manipulating people’s fears to get what she wants no matter the consequences. Like Umbridge, she’s uses sickeningly sweet faux coquettishness to mask her true intentions. Unlike Umbridge, as the writers reveal the complexity of her character, we are meant to empathize with her as a person while still despising her actions. Her crisis of faith is relatable to so many people who have searched for truth.
Is Hillary Clinton like Winn Adami? They’re both blonde and religious and ambitious. I suppose you could draw it out further by bringing up Clinton’s connections to The Family. But that’s still a bit of a stretch.
And yet, like Umbridge, in the end Winn Adami is also raped. Deep Space Nine draws out a more complex story than Order of the Phoenix. Winn is seduced and deceived by her greatest enemy and she is sexually, emotionally and spiritually exploited. The storyline is fascinating one, with an unsettling trainwreck quality that still viscerally disturbs me.
I know that most people making the “Hillary is Umbridge” or “Hillary is Winn” jokes don’t really mean that they think Hillary Clinton should be raped by centaurs or a sociopath in disguise as punishment for her more imperialistic tendencies. I’m not immune to this myself. I love Tom Perrotta novels and when I saw people comparing Hillary Clinton to Tracy Flick I saw it as a backhanded compliment. Tracy Flick kicks ass. She’s super smart and accomplished and wins in the end.
Then I remembered that most of the plot of “Election” is driven by the fact that Tracy is seduced (statutorily raped) by her Math teacher, Dave. Tracy is smarter than most of her peers but she is far behind them in terms of social skills. She has no real friends. This makes her an exceptionally easy target to be groomed and taken advantage of by a much older authority figure. Dave’s actions set off a chain of events which Tracy’s teacher Jim blames her for on some level. In a moment of frustration Jim threatens to ruin Tracy’s reputation by telling the whole student body what happened to her. Tracy takes this in stride because she has a very thick skin, but it’s hard to watch her be manipulated and then blamed and threatened for it.
So perhaps this isn’t the best comparison either.
This is one of those things that once seen, cannot be unseen. So keep that in mind. If you keep making those clever memes, I’m going to keep rolling my eyes and thinking “Ugh. Raped by Centaurs. Really?”Following through on a threat made earlier this month, Amazon has pulled all Apple TV hardware from its online stores, regardless of whether it was being sold by Amazon directly or third-party vendors in Amazon’s Marketplace. The removal coincides with today’s official release of the fourth-generation Apple TV, Apple’s first model to launch with an App Store full of third-party apps.
Amazon notified third-party merchants that it planned to remove both Apple TVs and Google’s Chromecasts from its listings, claiming an interest in reducing “consumer confusion” over streaming media players that don’t “interact well with Prime Video,” Amazon’s streaming video service. Apple TV and Chromecast pages currently lead to 404 Document Not Found error pages, while attempts to search for the products now redirect to Amazon’s own Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, PlayStation TV, and a collection of off-brand alternatives. Certain Apple TV accessories remain available for purchase, however…
It’s unclear why Amazon hasn’t followed numerous rivals in developing a tvOS-compatible app for the Apple TV, though relations between Apple and Amazon have been prickly since the leading online retailer began selling its own direct rivals to the iPad, Apple TV, and iPhone. Using an iOS app, Prime Video users have previously been able to watch videos on iPads and iPhones, as well as through past Apple TVs using AirPlay. Amazon has continued to offer both Prime subscriptions and the vast majority of its product catalog to Apple users, albeit without submitting to Apple’s 30% revenue-sharing demands for iOS apps.
More From This Author
Check out more of my editorials, How-To guides, and reviews for 9to5Mac here! I’ve covered a lot of different topics of interest to Mac, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, and Apple Watch users. I’ve recently discussed how to safely prepare and wipe your iPhone for resale or trade-in, and how to get the best iPhone trade-in price to help buy an iPhone 6s, amongst many other topics.Coveted free-agent defenseman Justin Schultz reportedly has cut his list of desirable teams to sign with to five.
TSN reported Wednesday that the Canucks, Maple Leafs, Rangers, Senators and Oilers have made the cut. Among those eliminated from the bidding were the Red Wings, Flyers and Blackhawks.
Schultz has been in Toronto the last two days for meetings with his agents and prospective teams. TSN reported that with his final list of teams set, he'll begin another round of talks.
Schultz, a 21-year-old 2008 draft pick of the Anaheim Ducks, became an unrestricted free agent last week when he withdrew from the University of Wisconsin and failed to reach a deal with the Ducks in the team's exclusive 30-day negotiating window.
A two-time Hobey Baker Award finalist at Wisconsin, Schultz is considered by many scouts as the best player not currently in the NHL.
Schultz is eligible for a two-year, entry-level contract, so the financial package from each team is the same. Instead, he's looking for the best roster fit, including a chance to step onto a team and play top-four defense minutes right away. And the native of West Kelowna, B.C., also reportedly would like to play for a Canadian team, preferably in the west.
Contact Adam Kimelman at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @NHLAdamKBY: Follow @HashtagGriswold
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I.) deleted a pair of tweets Monday that directly blamed President Donald Trump for the racist murder in Charlottesville, Va. on Sunday.
"Do I think the president bares [sic] some responsibility for what happened Charlottesville? Absolutely, yes," Sanders tweeted, along with a video of him saying the same to reporters in Vermont.
The former presidential candidate deleted that tweet and tried again: "Do I think the president bares [sic] some responsibility for conjuring the behavior of white supremacists in this country? Absolutely, yes."
Bernie Sanders for some reason went two iterations of this tweet before settling on the final one. https://t.co/mOHPkP8P9r pic.twitter.com/se2ZaoXGOx — andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) August 14, 2017
But that tweet was also deleted, and replaced with the final, tamer version. "The message President Trump sent out to racists and Neo-Nazis all over the country this past weekend is this is okay," Sanders tweeted.
The message President Trump sent out to racists and Neo-Nazis all over the country this past weekend is this is okay. pic.twitter.com/k7o161yzuU — Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) August 14, 2017
Sanders similarly blamed former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's (R.) rhetoric for the 2011 shooting of former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. There is no evidence the shooter was inspired by or even liked Palin.
The senator ironically has his own problem with supporters perpetrating violence. Sanders' office had to issue an official statement distancing himself from a former campaign volunteer after the man attempted to murder Republican Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise in June.By Al Novack, Steve Beck, Dray Clark
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Police say a person of interest has been charged in connection with the rapes of four young girls at gunpoint (See Related Story).
Detectives with the Philadelphia Police Special Victims Unit picked up 22-year-old Antuane Brown for questioning early Wednesday morning in the 1100 block of East Price Street in Germantown.
Police say Brown was arrested and charged with four counts of rape, IDSI, sexual assault, kidnapping, simple assault, VUFA, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, PIC, REAP and unlawful contact with a minor.
It’s not known what led to Brown, but just Tuesday, the Citizens Crime Commission put up a $2,500 reward for any information leading to a suspect. Police also circulated a video of a man on a bicycle.
A woman who identified herself as the mother of the suspect spoke to Eyewitness News reporter Dray Clark Wednesday morning.
“I promise you, anybody that know me know if I thought that was my child, I would turn him in myself,” Tina Brown said.
Brown said a “paranoid” neighbor called the cops and that detectives took her son’s bike as part of the investigation.
“My son works every day. He has a girlfriend that lives here. What he got to run out and rape something for? And all his time is accounted for. He’s at work or home,” Brown said.
The suspect was wanted for the rapes of four females – ages 12 to 17 – in the streets of Germantown since March.
During this morning’s apprehension, police also removed a mountain bike from the man’s residence. Prior to one of the attacks, the suspect was caught on surveillance tape riding a mountain bike.
Brown said her son’s mountain bike is light blue, not dark-colored like the one police say was spotted on surveillance video.
Stay with CBSPhilly.com for the latest on this developing story.TORONTO (Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd (BB.TO)BBRY.O launched its third Android-based phone on Tuesday, the last device whose success will be the company’s financial responsibility, opting to price its top-end device well below Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) iPhone 7.
A Blackberry sign is seen in front of their offices on the day of their annual general meeting for shareholders in Waterloo, Canada June 23, 2015. REUTERS/Mark Blinch
The Canadian smartphone pioneer, which has lost most of the market to Apple and others, last month said it planned to completely outsource the development of its smartphones to focus on its more profitable business of making software and managing mobile devices.
That means the Android-based DTEK60 will be the last phone for which BlackBerry buys components itself, which carries a heavier risk if it does not sell well.
“This one is our phone,” BlackBerry Chief Operating Officer Marty Beard said in an interview. “This is fully our responsibility.”
BlackBerry’s Toronto-listed shares were down 1.2 percent in afternoon trade at C$9.70. They had touched C$11.18 - their highest since January - on Sept. 28 when the company announced its outsourcing plan.
“BlackBerry had to kill its hardware in order to save it,” website TechCrunch wrote in a broadly positive review of the DTEK60 that nevertheless questioned how much interest it would elicit.
Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry does not have any deals with telecom companies to distribute the device.
Instead, it is pitching the phone directly to companies and governments, as well as selling it on its own websites in the United States, Canada, and several major European countries.
“It’s not necessarily an anti-carrier strategy,” Beard said. “It’s more that we see this as the most efficient and most cost-effective way to get to that customer base.”
The device, which has a 5.5 inch touchscreen, will be priced at $499. Apple’s iPhone 7 with the same screen size starts at $769, while the equivalent version of Android-maker Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Pixel starts at $649.
“Certainly it’s not going to be the next superstar in the marketplace,” said William Stofega, a mobile phone analyst at IDC Corp. “But it’s a solid device that brings some really high-end security features and capabilities to it.”
The DTEK60 is being manufactured by TCL Corp (000100.SZ), a Chinese electronics company that makes phones as well as televisions, air conditioners and other household appliances.
BlackBerry launched its first Android device, the high-end Priv, in November last year and followed it with the much cheaper DTEK50 in July. The company last month wrote down $137 million of phone inventory and supply commitments.VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican said on Friday it would attend a U.N. conference on racism next month but hoped for a change in the wording of its final declaration, which some countries view as hostile to Israel.
“People go to conferences to discuss and debate,” said the Vatican’s chief spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi. “That doesn’t mean we agree with the draft text of the final declaration as it is now.”
Both Italy and the United States have said they will not attend unless the wording of a document they consider hostile to Israel is altered before the gathering starts.
Israel is calling for a boycott of the April 20-24 event but so far only the Jewish state and Canada have said they will not participate.
Critics of the conference say Arab nations plan to use it to attack Israel. They also object to sections of the final declaration they say would limit freedom of religion or speech.
Lombardi said the Vatican’s representative in Geneva had “made it clear that the Vatican is opposed to all forms of discrimination, whether it is against an individual, a religion or a state”.
The United States and Israel walked out of the first U.N. conference on racism in Durban, South Africa, in 2001, to protest against efforts to pass a resolution comparing Zionism to racism.JAMES McAvoy has pledged £125,000 to his former drama school to help aspiring actors.
The X-Men star is funding a 10-year scholarship programme at Glasgow’s Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS).
The cash will assist Scots aged 25 and under who would otherwise be unable to afford junior tuition at the school.
Bafta-winner McAvoy, who has received acclaim for his roles on both stage and screen, said he wants to help young people achieve their potential.
Doctor Who star David Tennant, Tom Conti, Alan Cumming and Robert Carlyle are all former students of RCS, formerly known as the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD).
McAvoy, a graduate of the BA Acting programme, said: “There are few opportunities for young people to engage in performing arts.
“I see tons of young people who are vastly intelligent but because they have this ingrained humility, it gets in the way of them expressing themselves and showing how brilliant they are.
“Drama breaks through barriers and it can give people the tools to walk into a room and express themselves.
“I really believe in that, it’s why I believe drama should be taught in our state schools from an early age and it’s why I am delighted to be part of creating the opportunity for young Scots to help them realise their potential through drama at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.”
The actor from Drumchapel, Glasgow, graduated in 2000 and returned seven years ago to receive a fellowship.
He said his time at the academy had a “profound effect” on his life before he went on to pick up roles in Atonement, The Last King Of Scotland and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
He will now take on the role of Patron of the Junior Conservatoire of Drama.
McAvoy said: “I am where I am today because of an exceptional teacher who went above and beyond the call of duty.
“She reached out to the community and she brought director and actor David Hayman into the school to talk to her students. That was me hooked.
“I had that opportunity and I want the same for other young people out there who may not have even considered going to college or any other kind of higher education.
“I would say to any young person thinking about drama, ‘Go for it, do it, don’t be worried about what people are going to say’.
“I come from a place where nobody had done anything like it and it worked out pretty good.
“Drama will open your mind. It’s not just about being an actor, drama opens your mind whether you are going to be an actor, a doctor or a plumber.”
RCA principal Jeffrey Sharkey said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have James McAvoy enable and inspire young people to be part of the Royal Conservatoire.
“I have no doubt of the profound and long-term impact his incredible support will have on individuals, their families and their communities.
“The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland is a world-class centre for the performance arts and is incredibly proud of the positive impact and contribution our students and graduates are making in so many ways across Scotland, and across the world, as creative contributors and engaged citizens.”
Applications to the James McAvoy Drama Scholarship fund will open in mid-May, with applicants having to demonstrate that financial cost is the main barrier to accessing pre-higher education drama training at RCS.
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iPhone | iPad | Android | {http://amzn.to/1wCOXwp|Kindle|Link to Amazon storeLate Wednesday night, Representative Ken Calvert of California, the chief GOP author of the appropriations bill, surprised Democrats by introducing an amendment, slated to be voted on Thursday, that appeared to undo the changes already added and restore the Confederate flag to national cemeteries. Democrats were aghast. According to Roll Call, Representative Betty McCollum was “audibly shaken” as she rose to protest the move in a speech on the House floor. The chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, G.K. Butterfield, took to the floor to express his “utter outrage”:
Don’t Republicans understand that the Confederate Battle Flag is an insult to 40 million African Americans and to many other fair-minded Americans?
By Thursday morning, Republican leaders decided that instead of risking a public debate over the flag, they would pull the entire spending bill from the floor. “This bill is going to sit in abeyance until we come to some resolution on this,” Speaker John Boehner told reporters at a press conference. While making clear he did not believe the Confederate flag should fly in federal cemeteries, he said he’d be forming a group of members that would look at the issue “in a responsible way.” Presumably, Boehner wants to find a way to simply remove the flag from federal areas, rather than allow Democrats to attach piecemeal provisions to other bills.
But Democrats were not having it. In the midst of unrelated votes later Thursday, Nancy Pelosi, the party leader, sought to force a vote on a resolution that would remove all flags that include the Confederate flag—such as the state flag of Mississippi—from display in the Capitol. Over the raucous objections of Democrats, Republicans voted to refer the resolution to committee, effectively tabling it. To protest, Democrats insisted on casting their votes manually, rather than using the now-traditional electronic method, slowing down the process.
Calvert, meanwhile, insisted on Thursday that the amendment was not his idea and that party leaders, under pressure from Southern Republicans, had put him up to it. In a lengthy statement, he said that existing Obama administration rules prohibited the sale and display of the Confederate flag, “except when displayed in a historical and educational context.” One of the Democratic amendments would have removed that exception, and the leadership amendment was meant “to clear up any confusion and maintain the Obama administration’s policies with respect to those historical and educational exceptions.” He said he regretted not consulting with Democrats “regarding this important and sensitive issue.”
“To be clear,” Calvert said in a part of his statement that was typed in bold, “I wholeheartedly support the Park Service’s prohibitions regarding the Confederate flag and the amendment did nothing to change these prohibitions.”
As the imbroglio unfolded in the U.S. Capitol, about 500 miles to the south, members of the South Carolina House of Representatives finally voted to remove the Confederate flag from the capitol grounds. At his press conference Thursday morning, Boehner said he scrapped the spending bill because he did not want the Confederate flag issue to become “a political football.” Judging by the theatrics in the House on Thursday, it might be a little late for that.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to [email protected] prospects continue to put up points, NCAA prospects return from the holiday break, and an AHL all-star highlights the prospect update. We’ll take a look in detail after the jump!
World Juniors
Since last week’s update, Erik Foley and Jack Roslovic played two more World Junior games. The US team took down the Russians in the semi-finals and took the gold medal in a shootout win over Team Canada. Congratulations to Erik and Jack!
CHL
Jansen Harkins and the Cougars won one of their two games this week, a pair of games at home against the Victoria Royals. Harkins had a secondary assist on the only goal in a loss and scored the first Prince George goal the following night. Harkins was in front of the net and was hit with the puck, which deflected into the net. The Cougars are looking to take a good run at the playoffs this year, adding potential first rounder in 2017, Nikita Popugaev.
Matteo Gennaro has been on fire the last two weeks and is currently on a four-game point streak (5G, 4A for 9 points). The Hitmen lost both games (6-2 to the Pats and 8-4 to the Wheat Kings) despite the point streak. Gennaro scored a fantastic goal on Friday to cut the lead in half, but Regina returned the favour a minute later and Portage la Prairie product Nick Henry scored four minutes later to put the game away.
Jordy Stallard scored on a giveaway on Friday night and assisted on a Gennaro powerplay goal the next night in Brandon. Stallard is now third in team scoring, behind new acquisition Jake Kryski.
Michael Spacek played a single game after his return from the World Juniors. Spacek played Friday night and was scratched from the lineup in the following game. This is most likely a rest day.
Logan Stanley scored a goal and added two assists this week. Stanley unleashed a bomb on Tuesday night on goaltender Tyler Johnson. The Spitfires won twice and lost one as they continue to sit comfortably in a playoff position.
Luke Green is continuing to find success with his new team. Green is currently on an assist streak spanning seven games with ten assists (nine with Sherbrooke).
USHL
Mikhail Berdin played a single game this week, a shootout loss to the Bloomington Thunder. Berdin stopped 44 of 48 and managed to add two assists to his point totals!
NCAA
CJ Franklin contributed a pair of assists in two wins over Alabama Huntsville. Minnesota State have won three in a row and are 13-7-2 overall this season. Franklin’s 19 points puts him third in team scoring.
Tucker Poolman recorded three assists this week as North Dakota embarrassed Omaha 9-1 and 7-3 on Friday and Saturday. The Poolman brothers appear to be together on a defensive pairing and combined for a goal on Saturday.
Erik Foley had a shot on goal in a 3-1 loss to Boston College on Sunday, playing an outdoor game at Fenway Park. Providence will be back at it tonight in a non-conference game against Yale.
Mason Appleton had a primary assist on Saturday against Wisconsin. Michigan State scored a grand total of two goals over the weekend, losing 5-1 to Matt Ustaski and Wisconsin both nights.
Matt Ustaski scored! Ustaski potted the last goal of the weekend for Wisconsin on Saturday.
Jack Glover and Minnesota had the week off.
Overseas
Pavel Kraskovsky did not record a point in four games played. He had five shots on goal and won 19 of 37 faceoffs (51%). Kraskovsky plays a 4th line game but does not throw his weight around.
Sami Niku was also held without a point this week. Niku fired 10 shots on goal, averaging just over 21 minutes per game in ice time.
Jacob Cederholm did not play a game in any league this week. It remains to be seen where he ends up for the rest of the season.
AHL
The Manitoba Moose played four times this week, winning the first game of the week but losing the next three. The Moose fall to a 14-15-3-2 record on the season and are now fifth in the Central.
The Moose may have been lucky to get the W in game one, as they were out-shot 35 to 16. De Leo and Lodge scored for the Moose in the 2nd period. Comrie started the second game against the Marlies, stopping 31 of 35 in a 4-3 loss.
Following this game, Eric Comrie could not participate in the game on Saturday due to sickness. Local firefighter Greg Husson would serve as Pavelec’s backup and got to take a fun little lap by himself. Very fitting, as the Moose will be hosting Firefighter Appreciation Day on the 15th. Be sure to check out the jerseys!
Manitoba Moose players let backup goalie Greg Husson skate out by himself for his first #AHL skate. pic.twitter.com/8DziaEn7VF — Dave Minuk (@ICdave) January 8, 2017
Jamie Phillips was called up for Sunday’s game against Iowa, also serving as Pavelec’s backup. Comrie must be feeling better, as Phillips was returned to Tulsa on Monday night.
Jack Roslovic was named an AHL All-Star and will represent the Manitoba Moose. The skills competition and game will be held January 29th and 30th at the PPL Center in Allentown, PA. Despite leaving for the World Juniors, Roslovic still leads the Moose with 19 points in 25 games in his rookie season.
ECHL
Ryan Olsen was recalled by the Moose following his three games played last week.
Jamie Phillips played a rough trio of games prior to his recall to the Moose and re-assignment back to Tulsa last night. Phillips now sports an 18-10-0-1 record with Tulsa, still holding a two win lead for tops in the ECHL.
All stats current as of this morning.
Be sure to visit jetsprospects.ca and check out stats and prospect profiles dating back to 2011.They are the diaspora Olympians. One is a 16-year-old snowboarder from San Diego. One is a skeleton rider from Vancouver. One is a downhill skier from Utah, another a downhill skier from just north of Birmingham. And one is a cross-country skier who was born in Cork and grew up in Ontario.
Together, they are Ireland’s team for the Winter Olympics beginning in Sochi, Russia in just over a fortnight.
All five were officially informed yesterday that they would be heading to the games, although the Olympic Council of Ireland will not be formally releasing their names until this Friday. Though their medal prospects are virtually non-existent, they keep up Ireland’s record of having been represented at all but one Olympics since 1992.
Seamus O’Connor is the brightest light among them, a Californian teenager who has qualified for two snow-boarding disciplines and who competes under an Irish banner thanks to grandparents who hail from Dublin and Drogheda. He will be joined by Sean Greenwood, son of a Galway mother and a Canadian father. Greenwood competes in the skeleton, the event in which Ireland came closest to a medal when Clifton Wrottesley came fourth in Salt Lake City in 2002.
They are joined by alpine skier Conor Lyne whose father is from Kerry and Cork-born Nordic skier Jan Rossiter. The last place will go to 17-year-old Florence Bell from Streetly in England.
The Winter Olympics opening ceremony takes place on February 7th.The study, published on Monday by the Family Affairs Ministry, found that 48,000 woman and girls living in Germany have been victims of female genital mutilation (FGM), an increase of 30 percent since 2014.
According to the authors, between 1,600 and 5,700 girls in Germany are faced with undergoing the illegal operation to remove external parts of their genitalia.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported other estimates which claim that up to 9,000 adolescent women face having this illegal operation.
The German government has pledged to clamp down on the practise by raising awareness about its dangers and pursuing it diligently through the courts.
Most of the women living in Germany who have suffered FGM originate from Eritrea, Somalia, Egypt, Ethiopia or Iraq.
The number of women from these countries living in Germany increased by 40 percent between 2014 and the middle of 2016.
“FGM is a serious breach of a person's human rights. It causes unbelievable physical pain as well as psychological damage,” said Ralf Kleindiek, state secretary in the Family Affairs Ministry.
According to German law, FGM is also illegal when it is carried out abroad, in order to prevent parents from taking their daughters back to their home countries to have the operation carried out there.
Since December, German authorities have been allowed to take passports from parents whom they suspect of taking their daughters abroad to have the operation performed.Whether you are in Aberystwyth for the sunsets over Cardigan Bay or to visit the National Library of Wales, you will need to eat.has scouted its best budget options and has suggestions for wider Ceredigion, too
Baravin
The coolest venue in Aber? No doubt. With its white-brick tiles, zinc table tops and partially open kitchen, Baravin could pass for one of those hip Soho joints. One of those hip Soho joints, that is, that desperately wants to be a buzzing Williamsburg bar-diner. Naturally, Baravin serves bottles of Brooklyn lager (£4). A spin-off from the Harbour Master Hotel, see below, Baravin makes the most of its seafront location, with a curved glass wall offering fantastic 180° views across Cardigan Bay. In terms of what the budget traveller might eat here, the menu runs to bruschetta (somewhat oddly served on sourdough, but excellent sourdough), topped with first-rate artisan ingredients; a handful of pastas; and innovatively topped pizza, such as a Welsh lamb, minted pesto, peas and mozzarella number. A couple could pair a pizza with a big salad for under £20.
• Daytime bruschetta from £5.50, pasta and pizzas from £8. The Old King's Hall, The Promenade, 01970 611189, baravin.co.uk
Gwesty Cymru
The restaurant at this reasonably chic, contemporary hotel has a decent reputation, reflected in the prices on its dinner menu. During the day, however, it's more accessible. There are salads and proper rarebits, which you can amend with various local and Welsh ingredients, and several filling platters of mini-dishes, which can be rolled together with ice-cream as dessert, for £9.95. Some items, such as an unusual but moreish mushroom-mined fish pie, topped with a Welsh cheese crumble, were more successful than others. For instance, the pastry on a pasty was almost thicker than the filling. But overall the quality was impressive. On a sunny day, the patio-cum-garden area is a great place to eat, with its views out across Cardigan Bay.
• Dishes £5.50-£10.95. 19 Marine Terrace, 01970 612252, gwestycymru.com
Treehouse
This organic hub encompasses two shops – a grocer's and, over the road, a cosmetics and clothing store – as
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A bill to end the use of corporal punishment in schools was introduced into the United States House of Representatives in June 2010 during the 111th Congress.[52][53] The bill, H.R. 5628,[54] was referred to the United States House Committee on Education and Labor where it was not brought up for a vote. A previous bill "to deny funds to educational programs that allow corporal punishment"[55] was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives in 1991 by Representative Major Owens. That bill, H.R. 1522, did not become law. A new bill, the Ending Corporal Punishment in Schools Act of 2015 (HR 2268) would prohibit all corporal punishment, defined as "paddling, spanking, or other forms of physical punishment, however light, imposed upon a student", the petition was closed. In 2017, Ending Corporal Punishment in Schools Act of 2017 was introduced, and was referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.[56]
The United States' National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) opposes the use of corporal punishment in schools, defined as the deliberate infliction of pain in response to students' unacceptable behavior and/or language. In articulating their opposition, they cite the disproportionate use of corporal punishment on Black students in the US: potential adverse effects on students' self-image and school achievement, correlation between school corporal punishment and increased truancy, drop-out rates, violence, and vandalism by youth, the potential for misuse and/or injury to students, and increased legal liability for schools. The NASSP notes that the use of corporal punishment in schools is inconsistent with laws regarding child abuse as well as policies toward "racial, economic, and gender equity", asserting that "Fear of pain or embarrassment has no place" in the process of education. The NASSP recommends a range of alternatives to corporal punishment, including "appropriate instruction", "behavioral contracts", "positive reinforcement", and "individual and group counseling" where necessary.[57]
Some scholars[Like whom?] note a severe legal double standard when it comes to the physical punishment of children versus adults. In North Carolina, teachers can use a 2-foot-long paddle to discipline children, which, in some cases, is more than half the height of an elementary school-aged child.[58] "In any other context, the act of an adult hitting another person with a board [2 feet long] (or really, of any size) would be considered assault with a weapon and would be punishable under criminal law."[14]
However, some teachers and administrators[specify] defend the use of corporal punishment in the classroom as a reasonable alternative to other types of disciplinary action, like suspension, which have been shown to negatively impact children's classroom performance and social skills.[59] Some students, when given the choice between an in-school suspension and corporal punishment, choose to be physically punished in lieu of missing class time.[13]
The student's choice in favor of corporal punishment is often dictated by the parents and by the fact that a corporal punishment is not reported on student's personal record, when a suspension is duly recorded and can jeopardize the access to the university. Often students accept a physical punishment as a way to erase the record of the infraction.
In March 2018 the mother of Wylie Greer, a senior year student, has published a Tweet that become viral, she reported that during national gun control student walkout, his son with two other students walked out of class in Greenbrier High School, Arkansas. The same day the Assistant principal Mr Brett Meek informed Wylie of the consequences, two days of suspension or two "swats" with a wooden paddle. Wylie chose the corporal punishment. During a nationwide protest in favor of a more strict gun control, Wylie described the experience more humiliating than painful, but he reported that Mr.Meek warned him that it was a particularly light punishment, somehow to avoid further bad publicity to the school. Arkansas is one of the states where even senior students above 18 year old, can be paddled in school.
In the 2018 case Ayers v Wells, Mr Ayers, Assistant principal in Etowah middle school in Alabama, was accused of excessive use of force during a paddling incident in 2016.[60] Judge William Ogletree refused to dismiss the charges of child abuse against Mr Ayers and argued that immunity laws cannot be an excuse for using disproportionate force during punishments. This was the first legal limit to immunity laws and school corporal punishments in Alabama.
In September 2018 The Georgia School of Innovation and the Classics in Georgia sparked controversy when the superintendent Jody Boulineau proposed a reintroduction of corporal punishment. One third of the parents agreed with the proposal. Mr Boulineau, in an interview with CBS, said that he was really surprised of the outrage from some parents. Google review ratings for the school dropped by 2 points, and several parents expressed in their reviews that they wish to find school alternatives, for fear of their children's safety. The school engaged in a counter-campaign to seek to boost the lowered Google review rating. [61]
On 3 October 2018 Gary L. Gunckel, the principal of schools in Indianola, Oklahoma was charged with two counts of felony child assault after paddling that left two boys with deep bruises. One of the children fell to the ground during paddling, and Gunckel apologized to one of the mothers for busting the boys. Once more, parents that gave consent for paddling realized too late that school corporal punishments can be much more severe than any corporal punishment dealt at home. In light of recent events it is indeed almost impossible to draw a line between punishment and child abuse and it is impossible to determine some standard on how hard a kid could be punished without committing a crime. The Supreme Court case Ingraham v. Wright appears to be more and more outdated facing growing hostility from parents towards consequences of corporal punishments in school. Gunckel has been placed on administrative leave as reported by local press. [62]
In December 2018 A Lake County (FL) school bus monitor has resigned after he was caught by the camera, grabbing children by the head, twisting them and putting a shoe over the mouth of one child. He had been facing 32 counts of child cruelty. However all charges had been dropped. As explanation in dropping charges, the state attorney's office released the following statement: "Bus driver behavior falls under the corporal punishment privilege given his role as a bus monitor." Corporal punishments are widespread in Florida and the laws permitting them, are once more used to abuse children (in this case children with mental disabilities). In Florida there is no opt-out option, corporal punishments can be administered against the will of the parents, in some areas it's impossible to find a school district that doesn't apply corporal punishments. Whatever kind of corporal punishment against students is legal in Florida, unless as Florida state's attorney declared, the children suffered of serious and permanent injuries (or dies). [63]
In January 2019 Ashley Lauer mother of a 6th grade student at Macon County Jr. High School (TN) published on social media the pictures of her son after paddling that left deep bruises and welts on his buttock. After a short investigation Ms Lauer was informed by Child protection services (DCS) that they did not find any wrongdoing by the school. Ms Lauer took social media to bring awareness to the parents who are giving consent for corporal punishments in school. Several post from parents underlined that if the mother of the child would have left those marks on child's buttock, DCS would have place him in foster care for child abuse. Once more it has been underlined how school districts are allowed to administer punishments that would be forbidden to the parents. [64]
On January 25 2019, a Memphis teacher at Cummings Elementary hit the face of a five years old girl Hailey Turner with a ruler, leaving visible bruises next to her left eye. The girl's family complained that the teacher tried in first instance to bribe the little girl offering a doll if she didn't say anything and after the teacher tried to convince the family that the bruises were an allergic reaction. Hailey Turner's father were furious and demanded to call the Memphis Police Department and the Department of Child Services. The family called the teacher sanction (2 days suspension) a "wrist slap" and complained that their daughter was moved to another class. To preserve the safety of the girl, the family decider to transfer her to another school. Shelby County Schools district refused to respond or give any additional information about the incident. Tennessee is one of the 19 US states that allow corporal punishments in school and has strong immunity laws to protect teachers from prosecution. [65]
See also [ edit ]Italian rider sorry for causing crash at Misano and for headbutting race rival Pol Espargaró.
With some time to reflect on the dramatic occurrences at Misano on Sunday afternoon in a breathtaking 125cc race, Ongetta Team I.S.P.A. rider Andrea Iannone has offered a sincere apology to Pol Espargaró for taking him out on the final lap and then appearing to headbutt the Spaniard.
The former 125cc standings leader was given a $5,000 fine by Race Direction immediately after the race, but he then further inflammed the situation with some harsh words uttered to the Italian and Spanish media.
On Monday, however, via a press release sent out by his team, Iannone stated, “I had been waiting for the Misano race for a long time and I had dreamed about achieving a good result in front of the Italian fans, but the dream turned into a nightmare a few metres from the finishing line.
He continued, “It was a great race, with both of us riding very correctly and with Pol Espargaró riding bravely, imposing his rhythm right until the end. But on the last corner I felt confident and certain I could get past him. I broke really hard, went on the inside, arrived at the apex and then when I thought I had got through the angle changed. I couldn’t do anything at that point to avoid the crash and I took Pol out of the equation as he was going around the outside and he had no fault in the crash. We hit the ground and all I could think of was that a big chance had been lost.”
“Then when I went to apologise to Espargaró he understandably reacted with some strong words and punched my bike,” Iannone added. “As Valentino Rossi said later I should have gone to apologise again but instead I lost my temper and I did something which I will always regret for the rest of my life. When I went back to the pit-box there were several journalists waiting for me and I made another mistake by saying some things in the heat of the moment which I really did not think. It was something that happened because of the intensity of the moment, after such a dramatic end to an amazingly close race.”
“On Sunday night, thinking through everything that had happened I was ashamed about what had happened with Pol and the things I said to the media afterwards. I have to say that I really appreciate Pol’s qualities as a rider, he is very fast and, like me, he tries to do the very best job he can. I want to apologise to everyone, to my team, to my sponsors and all fans of motorcycle racing. I am sure this will not happen again,” concluded the 20 year-old.
An understandably disgruntled Espargaró had commented on Sunday, “I rode one of the best races of my life and then I ended up on the floor with my bike totally destroyed. Iannone tried to get through where there was no room, took me down and then when I asked for an explanation he headbutted me. As a sportsman he behaved in an unacceptable manner.”Kisha Brown knew her ex for nearly 20 years before killing herself in Queens Monday, officials said. View Full Caption Facebook/Kisha Brown
QUEENS — Officers at a Long Island City prison are devastated after one of their own opened fire on her ex-boyfriend — also a corrections officer, whom she'd known for nearly 20 years — before turning the barrel on herself and committing suicide Monday, a union official said.
Kisha Brown, 47, who began her career at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in August 2000, chased her 44-year-old ex-boyfriend down 31st Place near the Queensboro Correctional Facility while shooting at him, missing him but striking his vehicle and another passing car with people inside, officials and witnesses said.
Her former boyfriend, who'd started working at Sing Sing about a year after Brown, managed to flee back into Queensboro unharmed before Brown fatally shot herself in the chest, officials said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
"It broke my heart. I couldn't believe it. It stunned me. It's still breaking my heart," said Clarence Fisher, a sergeant at Sing Sing who trained both Brown and her ex when they started there.
"She was always a sweet person. This was totally unexpected," he said.
Afterwards, Queensboro correction officers could be seen out on the street hugging and consoling each other.
"They are devastated and heartbroken. It's hard to describe. It's like losing a family member," said Fisher, who is also a vice president of the Corrections officers' union.
"Some of them actually saw her. That's something they'll never forget," he added.
Investigators didn't know what sparked the shooting, an NYPD spokesman said Thursday morning. Fisher didn't recall any warning signs.
For Queensboro staff, a group of approximately 140 officers and 60 civilian staffers, Brown's suicide is particularly difficult because it's the second staff suicide in three years, according to Fisher, who spent Tuesday and Wednesday at the facility.
The Department of Corrections dispatched crisis counselors to the prison, Fisher said.
Brown and her ex were both knew each other during their time at Sing Sing, Fisher said. Her ex transferred to Arthur Kill Correctional Facility in 2004 and then Queensboro in 2006, the same year Brown also started working there, sources said.
"She was always a very good officer and so was he," Fisher said.
"As an officer, she did her job and she did it well.... In fact, their stories in corrections kind of mirror each other because they're kind of the same. They're both good officers," the union representative added.
Brown, who lived in Queens, kept a Facebook account that documented her travels around the world to places like Jamaica, New Orleans and California.
With reporting by Trevor Kapp.Guidelines on Evaluating Historical Reports
By Shaykh Sharīf Hātim al-‘Awnī
Translated by Muntasir Zaman
[Translator’s preface: The following paper outlines an approach to evaluating the authenticity of historical reports. The author begins by emphasizing the merits of the Hadīth methodology, but makes sure to point out that not every science is obliged to adopt such a rigorous method. Drawing on statements from Hadīth experts like Ibn al-Mubarak and al-Khatīb al-Baghdādī, he proves that Hadīth scholars themselves were nuanced in their treatment of non-prophetic reports.
After a lengthy preamble, he presents a maxim that can be applied to such reports: every report that, directly or indirectly, forms the basis of a religious ruling will be accepted only through the rigorous methods of the Hadīth scholars used for the Sunnah; otherwise, their methods will not be applied. He then explains the theoretical application of this maxim in all areas from Sīrah to Companion statements to stories of the following generations; to illustrate its practical application, he provides two case studies.
To be sure, this paper is not a license to cite unsubstantiated stories. As the author himself explains, “Taking certain liberties when assessing transmitted information besides Hadīth is not tantamount to authenticating what is inauthentic; instead, every transmitted information is to be evaluated with a relevant scale.” Note: a paraphrased translation was adopted and subtitles were added to facilitate an easier read.]
Introduction
There has been an increasing demand to refine Hadīth studies in the fields of Sīrah, history, and prosopography. These demands have been made for a diverse set of methodologies, the most pure and cautious being the methodology of the Hadīth scholars. As a result, numerous research projects and books were produced, which is a blessed endeavor and a sign of great good. These studies have corrected many academic errors and refined some of the most integral primary sources. Nonetheless, these were human endeavors and therefore prone to error. An error in a peripheral issue is a light matter that can be easily resolved, but a methodological error is dangerous and its findings are difficult to remedy.
Varying Methods of Evaluation
It is clear from the words and practice of the Hadīth scholars that they would differentiate between prophetic reports and non-prophetic reports and between those related to matters of faith and those that were not. Even prophetic reports were further categorized: legal and theological hadīths were treated differently from hadīths on virtues and softening of hearts. In fact, legal hadīths themselves were divided into primary reports on a given subject and mere attestations, each being treated differently. In all these areas, Hadīth scholars worked wonders that humbles the intellect.
A flaw in some of the studies mentioned earlier is they were conducted by non-specialists in the field of Hadīth – who lack actual expertise, not mere degrees and titles. Consequently, at times, these studies failed to implement the nuances of the Hadīth methodology, thereby opposing the very methodology they set out to implement. The following statements explicitly establish this nuance. In al-Jāmi‘ li Akhlāq al-Rāwī wa Ādāb al-Sāmi‘, under the chapter “Writing that which does not require a chain of transmission,” al-Khatīb al-Baghdādī’s writes, “Chains of transmission are a mere adornment and not a prerequisite when citing anecdotes of the righteous, stories of the ascetics, advices of the eloquent, and aphorisms of the poets.” He relates from Yūsuf ibn al-Husayn al-Rāzī (d. 304) that he said, “The chain of transmission for a wise saying is its existence.”[1] He further relates:
Ibn al-Mubārak was asked, “Should we read the advices found in books [without chains to their respective sources]?” He replied, “If you find advice inscribed on a wall, read it and take heed.” When asked if the same applies to law, he replied, “It must be studied from a teacher.”
He then mentions the story of a Khurāsānī man who would attend the gathering of Yazīd ibn Hārūn and write information without their chains of transmission. When the attendees criticized him, Yazīd said:
There is no problem if the Khurāsānī man is writing stories of asceticism and anecdotes of admonition and morals. However, he has erred if he wrote legal hadīths on what is lawful and unlawful without their chains, because that is the only method of verification. He is, therefore, required to ask and evaluate their authenticity.
It should be noted that every discipline has specific methods to evaluate the transmitted and rational information therein. It is an egregious error to conflate distinct methodologies, as this will to lead to the deconstruction of each science. For example, applying the critical methods of the Hadīth scholars to pre-Islamic, early Islamic, and even general collections of poetry will do little more than deconstruct the Arabic language. Scholars of language have formulated adequate standards to critique their science and methods to assess transmitted language, and in doing so, they exerted much effort, fulfilling the responsibility on their shoulder towards the language of the Qur’ān and Sunnah.[2] It is essential that we respect experts of each field with regards to their respective fields and value the expertise of the specialists. So long as we are not experts in a given field, we will not compete with them, particularly the leading specialists, from the scholars of the various Islamic sciences.
The purpose of the above explanation is to point out that although the Hadīth methodology is the only method to evaluate transmitted religious knowledge, it is not necessarily the most efficient method for other sciences even though both sets of information are accompanied by chains of transmission. The presence of a chain of transmission should not lead one to evaluate it as per the Hadīth methodology used for prophetic hadīths, since the inclusion of a chain was part and parcel of all Islamic sciences. The presence of a chain, therefore, does not always mean it is to be scrutinized to evaluate the reliability of the report.
Having established that Hadīth scholars critique hadīths differently from historical reports, it is an opportune moment to emphasis that the Hadīth methodology is characterized by extreme caution and intense scrutiny and skepticism. Had it not been for the indescribable amount of care the Muslim civilization gave to the transmission, study, teaching, preservation, and writing of the Sunnah – it was their greatest preoccupation – such caution and skepticism would have removed authentic parts of the Sunnah. Their profound attention towards transmission allowed Hadīth scholars to be extremely meticulous without harming the Sunnah. As such, applying this rigorous methodology to sciences besides Hadīth is harmful because they do not require that degree of rigor and neither has the Muslim civilization given them attention that would facilitate such rigor without dismissing reliable information. Taking certain liberties when assessing transmitted information besides Hadīth is not tantamount to authenticating what is inauthentic; instead, every transmitted information is to be evaluated with a relevant scale.
Allow me to illustrate this theoretical expose with a simple, practical example. Say you hear a prominent scholar, whose knowledge and piety you hold in high regard, relate a plausible story about one of his teacher’s most famous or knowledgeable teacher. While relating the story, if the scholar says, “I heard many of my teachers mention regarding that scholar,” would you doubt it simply because the status of those teachers is unknown? To make this more practical, assume you hear Shaykh Bin Bāz (Allah have mercy upon him) say, “We heard many teachers say that so and so was such and such.” Would you doubt his story? Then why is it that when Ibn ‘Adī, a competent authority, says, “I heard several teachers relate that when Muhammad ibn Ismā‘īl al-Bukhārī (Allāh be pleased with him) arrived at Baghdad, news reached the partisans of Hadīth, so they gathered together and chose a hundred hadīths and shuffled their chains and texts…” a contemporary criticizes this story on the basis that the status of Ibn ‘Adī’s teachers is unknown whereas al-Bukhārī’s knowledge far exceeds what is described here and Ibn ‘Adī narrates it from a group of al-Bukhārī’s students? Had Ibn ‘Adī, who was a Hadīth expert and musnid, wanted, he could have cited one of his direct teachers, but he believed that the phrase “I heard several teachers relate” was a stronger expression for a story of this nature because it is evaluated differently from hadīths.
Maxim of evaluation: theory and practice
I can now proceed to explain a maxim that can help determine when to apply a more rigorous approach, like the Hadīth methodology, to evaluate historical accounts anecdotes or a less rigorous approach by adopting other relevant methods of evaluation. The maxim is as follows: every report that, directly or indirectly, forms the basis of a religious ruling will be accepted only through the rigorous methods of the Hadīth scholars used for the Sunnah; otherwise, their methods will not be applied. This maxim requires much explanation, but I will suffice on several examples that can shed light on pertinent aspects of it.
In the prophetic Sīrah, some reports can be used to extrapolate a legal ruling; here the rigorous method of assessment will be applied. Other reports cannot form the basis of a legal ruling, such as the date, number of participants, and exact location of a particular battle; here the Hadīth methodology will not be applied unless a ruling can be extrapolated from it indirectly, e.g. whether a report had occurred earlier or later to help determine abrogation, in which case it will be applied.
Then there are reports about the Companions. Some of these have a connection with the law, such as the Companions’ legal verdicts and judicial judgments. If the Companion report is the only piece of evidence on a subject where there is no scriptural evidence, then the Hadīth methodology will be applied. However, in the presence of authentic scriptural evidence, the Companion report is cited only to augment our understanding of the scriptural evidence. It is fine to apply the aforementioned caution when assessing such a report, but there is also scope not to because it will not affect the overall status of the ruling.
Companion reports that are merely historical, such as conquests and battles, will follow the same procedure as the Sīrah. But reports about their internal conflicts (fitnah) are to be assessed similar to prophetic hadīths. To be sure, this is in conformity with the aforementioned maxim and not an exception. Reports of internal conflicts are not only stories; they influence our judgment on who was right or wrong, and it may even influence some people’s perception of their probity and transgression. Those being judged here are none other than the Companions (Allah be pleased with them), who were praised and verified by Allah and His messenger. As such, these reports are to be scrutinized thoroughly, particularly when they can pave the way for people of innovation and animosity towards the religion of Allah and the Companions to misconstrue and fabricate against them.
That being said, it is possible to adopt a middle path when dealing with reports about internal conflicts or similar reports: when the crux of a report is verified by the Hadīth methodology, details surrounding it can be established from other reports [not established through such rigorous methods], provided they do not conflict with the established probity and virtue of the Companions or with the authentic report itself. By way of illustration, I spent several years studying the reports about Khālid ibn al-Walīd and Mālik ibn Nuwayrah during the renegade wars. The story is well-known, but forgers and their ilk from the Orientalists have built around it a web of despicable details. One researcher had outright rejected the story in its entirety, concluding that Mālik ibn Nuwayrah was a renegade who was lawfully killed despite the fact that he is unanimously mentioned among the Companions. After further research, it became clear that there is only one authentic chain of transmission for the story, related by Khalīfah ibn Khayyāt in his Tārīkh where Ibn ‘Umar said:
Abū Qatādah came to Abū Bakr with news about the death of Mālik and his people. This deeply troubled him, so he summoned Khālid. Thereafter, Abū Bakr said, “Did Khalid do more than formulate an opinion and err?” and sent Khālid away. He then paid the blood money for Mālik ibn Nuwayrah and returned the captives and spoils.
Despite its brevity, this report establishes the crux of the story and puts things into perspective: Khālid’s actions are excused and the despicable allegation against Mālik ibn Nuwayrah [that he was a renegade] is disproved because Abū Bakr paid his blood money. This begs the question: what are we to do about the details without which we cannot possibly understand the story? The way forward is to accept only those details that conform to the narrative in the authentic report and do not contravene the probity of the Companions, which is established from scripture. This is because the chains of these details are not authentic in the first place, and moreover, whatever conflicts with the constants will be disregarded. It is disingenuous to treat them equally to the constants, let alone rely upon them.
The default for historical accounts of the following generations, i.e. the second and third centuries, is to benefit from them without critiquing them according to the Hadīth methodology unless a judgment is going to be made regarding an individual who possesses religious sanctity, i.e. he is a Muslim (e.g. some of the kings and sultans), in which case it will be scrutinized like a religious ruling. This is only when such a judgment has academic benefit. If such research will yield no positive results or even unpleasant results, it should be avoided and time should not be wasted.
This universal maxim is also applied to the lives and stories of the scholars. Caution will be applied when a report will lead to passing a religious judgement, which is illustrated in the expressions of narrator criticism vis-à-vis the Hadīth transmitters. All other reports, like the aforementioned story of al-Bukhārī, words of wisdom, mention of their oeuvre, and descriptions of their libraries, etc., will not be scrutinized as thoroughly. Rather, the relevant standard of assessment will be applied, taking into consideration what is reasonable, the reliability of the transmitter (or source and author), and other factors that accompany the report. In addition, the expected outcome of such assessment should be weighed. This is a summary of my take on evaluating historical reports. And Allah knows best.
(Al-‘Awnī, Naqd Asānīd al-Akhbār al-Tārīkhiyyah in Idā’āt Bahthiyyah, pp.143-153)
[1] If the transmission of this quote is accurate, then Yūsuf ibn al-Husayn al-Rāzī learned this from his teacher, the renowned ascetic, Dhū al-Nūn al-Misrī, who was asked, “What is the chain of transmission for a wise saying?” to which he replied, “Its existence.” See Abū Nu‘aym, Hilyat al-Awliyā’, vol.9, pp.377-378.
[2] Refer to Muhammad ibn Sallām al-Jumahī’s (d. 231 AH) discussion on the methods of critiquing the various sciences, arts, and disciplines and the need to consult the specialists of each field in Tabaqāt Fuhūl al-Shu‘arā’, vol.1, pp.7-4. An interesting statement is reported from Yahyā ibn Sa‘īd al-Qattān, “Transmitters of poetry are more perceptive than Hadīth transmitters because the latter [unknowingly] narrates much forgeries while the former immediately detects a forgery [in poetry] upon reciting it. See Abū ‘Alī al-Qālī, Dhayl al-Amālī, vol.3, p.105. To asses this report according to the Hadīth methodology, it is narrated from al-Qālī from Muhammad ibn Abī al-Azhar from al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār; Muhammad ibn Mazīd ibn Abī al-Azhar al-Nahwī is a liar and fabricator according to the Hadīth scholars and linguists (like al-Marzubānī). See Lisān al-Mīzān, vol.7, pp.500-2.Individual Session Tickets
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This is a graph presenting aspects of the G20 protests in Toronto during the weekend of 26 & 27 June, 2010.
The security costs are compared with those of other, past G20 / G8 summits. While it must have cost about 1 billion Canadian dollars (about 938 million US$) for the security of both G8 and G20 summits in Canada in 2010, the costs were significantly less for past summits:
in Japan it was 381 million US$ in 2008 for the G8 summit, while for the London G20 summit in 2009 the cost was 30 million.
There is also a representation of the forces deployed for security: 19,000 police officers from all over Canada and 1,100 private security guards.
The graph focuses on the events / demonstrations during the weekend (26 & 27 June 2010). The number of security forces is compared to the number of the protesters.
While the National Post (Canadian newspaper) claims that the protesters were about 10,000, the Guardian (London, UK) brings this number down to 5,000 (the Guardian suggests that although about 10,000 were planning to demonstrate only about 5,000 made it due to poor weather conditions; i.e. rain). On the other hand there were about 5,500 police officers.
Finally, a time line shows the number of protesters arrested and charged during the demonstrations: more than 600 according to the Montreal Gazette or more than 900 people according to CBC news.
Many thanks to Jennifer Hollett for suggesting and inspiring me to develop and design this graph.
Source:
The Montreal Gazette
National Post
CBC News
The Guardian (I)
The Guardian (II)
AdvertisementsEvery Friday, the Friday Five will rank something in the world of college football -- anything and everything from the logical to the illogical. This week, we rank the five biggest Cinderella stories in college football.
The NCAA tournament has always been one of my favorite annual sporting events. While I don’t enjoy college basketball nearly as much as I do college football, when the tournament comes along -- like everybody else -- I morph into my couch, taking in as much college basketball as possible.
What’s not to like?
There’s game after game, and plenty of drama to keep your interest. There are also the Cinderella stories that seemingly come along every year. That double-digit seed that destroys your bracket, surprising everyone as it makes a deeper run into the tournament than could have been expected. It’s the kind of story we don’t see nearly as often in college football for a few reasons.
The biggest, obviously, is that college football doesn’t have a 68-team tournament that would allow an underdog to make a playoff run. But just because there isn’t a tournament doesn’t mean college football doesn’t have its own Cinderella stories.
College football’s Cinderella stories just look a little different. They can be teams with low expectations entering a season having a magical year and either winning their conference or sometimes, a national title. Hell, a college football Cinderella story can just be a single game. An enormous upset that nobody could have foreseen.
So with the NCAA Tournament going on, this week’s Friday Five takes a look at the greatest Cinderella stories in college football history. Admittedly, the list skews a bit more toward recent history because I’m not nearly as old as I look.
We’ll start with a team that played long before I was born, however.
5. 1959 Syracuse national title: When it comes to Syracuse sports history, we tend to think of two things: its basketball success, and all those Syracuse grads in the media talking about Syracuse’s basketball success. When it comes to football, we tend to think of the great Jim Brown, but Syracuse’s greatest football success came after Brown was already in the NFL.
As the 1959 college football season began, there weren’t many people thinking about Syracuse, and that’s because they didn’t have much reason to. Ben Schwartzwalder took over in 1949 and coached Jim Brown, but while Cuse had some good seasons, they never won more than eight games in any of them and hadn’t won a bowl game. Then 1959 came around and Ernie Davis and the Orange caught everybody off-guard. They opened the season with a win against Kansas and then went on to beat teams like Navy, Pitt, Penn State and UCLA. At the end of the regular season, they were 10-0 and headed to the Cotton Bowl to take on a 9-1 Texas team that was ranked No. 4 in the AP poll.
Essentially Syracuse was playing a road game against Texas, but Ernie Davis caught an 87-yard touchdown pass just over a minute into the game, and Syracuse never looked back, going on to win 23-14 and claim the national title. It was Syracuse’s first national title in football and remains the only one in school history. Schwartzwelder would remain at Syracuse through the 1973 season, but his teams would never win more than eight games in any season again.
4. Boise State’s 2007 Fiesta Bowl win over Oklahoma: The game that created a mid-major powerhouse in college football. While people are familiar with Boise State now, at the time they were a program that had barely been on the FBS level for a decade. They played in the WAC, and when they went to bowl games, it was typically the Humanitarian Bowl, or the vaunted MPC Computers Bowl.
Now the Broncos were suddenly taking on Oklahoma in the
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Office Capt. Mike Hartzler, who works as the director of a joint task force between local and federal authorities in Ohio.
“For the past several weeks, there have been multiple bomb threats called into Jewish centers on the eastern side of the country,” Hartzler told The Huffington Post. “Today there were several states that received these threats, which appear to be robocalls... Federal intelligence agencies are aware.”
The centers reported at least three kinds of calls ― those that include human voices, those that include disguised voices, and robocalls ― said Elise Jarvis, director of law enforcement outreach for the Anti-Defamation League. She confirmed that federal authorities have been briefed on the threats, but said they aren’t credible.
“Typically, these kinds of threats are a tactic used to scare the community, to disrupt operations and terrify,” Jarvis told HuffPost. “It is an intense climate right now, between a spike in hate incidents post-election and a series of bomb threats targeting the Jewish community over the past couple weeks.... These threats are not credible, but it’s important to take each one seriously.”
Authorities wouldn’t confirm the details of those calls. The FBI told HuffPost late Wednesday that it was “investigating possible civil rights violations” in response.
The threats have put Jewish leaders on guard.
“Like many JCCs around the country this month, we received a non-credible threatening phone call earlier today,” said JCC Manhattan Executive Director Rabbi Joy Levitt. “We have worked with the proper authorities and followed all recommended procedures, ensuring the ongoing safety and security of all members of our community. As always, we will maintain communication with our security team in order to vigilantly maintain a secure building.”
On Jan. 9, more than a dozen Jewish centers in South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, New Jersey, Florida, Maryland, Delaware, Georgia and Pennsylvania received anonymous bomb threats. Some of those calls were reportedly made by humans, and it’s unclear whether those incidents were directly related to the threats reported on Wednesday.
The JCC Association of North America, which oversees many of the centers that received threats on Wednesday, confirmed that the calls were similar to those received earlier this month.
“While we’re extremely proud of our JCCs for professionally handling yet another threatening situation, we are concerned about the anti-Semitism behind these threats. While the bombs in question are hoaxes, the calls are not,” said David Posner, spokesman for the association. “We know that law enforcement at both the local and national level are continuing to investigate the ongoing situation. We are relieved that no one has been harmed and that JCCs continue to operate in a way that puts the safety of their staff, visitors, and premises first.”Addicted to pain pills and pregnant, Jen McCormack landed in jail. 21 days later, she was dead.
by Jordan Green
High spirited, loud and full of caustic wit, Jen McCormack commanded the room at a party.
She was the person most likely to be dancing or singing along with Of Montreal at one of LaToya Winslow’s frequent gatherings on South Mendenhall Street near the campus of UNCG in Greensboro.
Jen was the ringleader, the one who made introductions in a circle of open-minded, artistically inclined friends that remains intact to this day, even as its members have graduated and spread afield to Raleigh, Fayetteville and San Francisco. An agnostic who majored in religious and classical studies at UNCG, she was considered among her friends to be the smartest, and the most likely to live an illustrious life.
But at some point, Jen began to go off track. There was an unsuccessful marriage that contrasted painfully with the contented pairings of some of her friends. Jen kept her ex-husband’s last name because she couldn’t afford the legal costs of changing it back. And while she found a new circle of loyal friends among coworkers at the Apple Store in Charlotte, Jen was plagued with health problems, including knees that required surgery. She started abusing prescription pain pills, a habit that began with a legitimate effort at pain management. Through all her ordeals, she still managed to earn a master’s degree in digital libraries from the University of South Carolina.
Jen had found a boyfriend, a guy her friends considered to be kind and supportive, but he left her after he discovered that she lied to him about her opiate habit. In early 2014, she became pregnant through a liaison with different man. Unable to continue at the Apple Store because of her health problems, she moved back to Winston-Salem to live with her mother in the summer of 2014. With her mother’s support, Jen made the decision to keep her baby.
By then, Jen had largely cut off her friends in the old Mendenhall crew. Over the course of several weeks in the late summer Jen resorted calling in fraudulent prescriptions for hydrocodone by impersonating nurses and physician assistants in Winston-Salem and High Point. She was arrested by a Winston-Salem police officer at the Walgreens across from Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem on Aug. 20.
The police report indicates that Jen attempted to hang herself in the bathroom at the pharmacy. As a result, she was taken to Forsyth Medical Center for a mental health evaluation. She also received treatment for her addiction — Suboxone, a relatively new opiate-substitute drug on the US market — during her eight-day stay. Medication-assisted treatment, whether with Suboxone or Methadone, is considering the standard of care for pregnant women struggling with opiate dependence.
The day she was released from Forsyth Medical Center, a Winston-Salem police detective charged Jen with 10 counts of drug fraud and a magistrate signed off on a $25,000 bond — an amount far beyond her family’s means that ensured she wouldn’t make bail.
In 21 days Jen would be dead.
ΦΦΦ
Here’s where I make a personal admission.
I knew Jen well enough to call her a friend. But looking back, I didn’t come through as a friend when she most needed one. And to be honest, we were never especially close.
I came into the Mendenhall circle in early 2008, shortly after meeting my future wife, which was also around the same time Jen was moving to Charlotte. We saw each other at parties and weddings, but I don’t particularly remember any personal conversations that would have allowed us to really get to know one another.
Over the past seven years, my wife and I have grown increasingly close with LaToya, and Sarah, along with her husband Adam. We named LaToya the godmother of our daughter, who was born in 2013. All that is to say that, not knowing Jen very well, her death registered with me primarily as sadness for LaToya and Sarah, along with my wife.
Jen’s arrest “made the news,” to use an unsentimental phrase common among those who don’t necessarily appreciate media attention. The hideous booking photograph and story ripped straight from the police press release in the Winston-Salem Journal rattled me, although I too have recycled plenty of press releases about low-level offenders, often adding a dose of mockery and belittlement. Now I know how it feels to be on the other side.
When my wife told me that Jen had died, I felt shock and sadness, but I was preoccupied with family and professional matters. And if I thought Jen’s death was newsworthy at all, I’m sure I concluded that my personal connection to her ruled me out as the reporter for the assignment. I wanted to move on as quickly as possible.
It took writing about addiction four months later for me to realize that I had a personal connection to a story as harrowing, sad and unjust as any I had covered as a reporter. After all, here was a woman with an unborn child who had suffered an apparent heart attack in jail, and later died as a result of it. Considering my personal entanglements, I felt that I needed permission from Jen’s closest friends to write the story. They agreed that it was important to hold the jail accountable, but wanted to make sure it was alright with Janis McCormack, Jen’s mother. Janis eventually gave her blessing.
Was Jen’s death avoidable? What might have been done to protect her? Where exactly did the system fail her? Have we as a society abandoned the most vulnerable of our citizens and failed to allocate adequate resources to ensure their protection?
These are questions that need to be asked on behalf of any friend — or, for that matter, any stranger.
If we don’t care what happened to Jen, maybe that means we don’t care that much about our own health and safety. Do we want a healthcare system in our jail that truly protects people, or should we just hope for the best and accept that the worst is in the realm of possibility if we or someone we love ends up there?
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commentsSuperbright and fast X-rays image single layer of proteins
Newest method for determining a protein's shape based on XFEL technology significantly broadens number and type of proteins that researchers can study
News Release
February 13, 2014
RICHLAND, Wash. — In biology, a protein's shape is key to understanding how it causes disease or toxicity. Researchers who use X-rays to take snapshots of proteins need a billion copies of the same protein stacked and packed into a neat crystal. Now, scientists using exceptionally bright and fast X-rays can take a picture that rivals conventional methods with a sheet of proteins just one protein molecule thick.
Using a type of laser known as XFEL, the technique opens the door to learning the structural details of almost 25 percent of known proteins, many of which have been overlooked due to their inability to stack properly. The team of researchers led by the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories report their results with this unique form of X-ray diffraction in the March issue of the International Union of Crystallography Journal.
"In this paper, we're proving it's possible to use an XFEL to study individual monolayers of protein," said PNNL microscopist James Evans. "Just being able to see any diffraction is brand new."
Evans co-led the team of two dozen scientists with LLNL physicist Matthias Frank. The bright, fast X-rays were produced at the Linac Coherent Light Source at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, Calif., the newest of DOE's major X-ray light source facilities at the national laboratories. LCLS, currently the world's most powerful X-ray laser, is an X-ray free-electron laser. It produces beams millions of times brighter than earlier X-ray light sources.
Coming in at around 8 angstrom resolution (which can make out items a thousand times smaller than the width of a hair), the proteins appear slightly blurry but match the expected view based on previous research. Evans said this level of clarity would allow researchers, in some cases, to see how proteins change their shape as they interact with other proteins or molecules in their environment.
To get a clearer view of protein monolayers using XFEL, the team will need to improve the resolution to 1 to 3 angstroms, as well as take images of the proteins at different angles, efforts that are currently underway.
Not Your Family's Crystal
Researchers have been using X-ray crystallography for more than 60 years to determine the shape and form of proteins that form the widgets and gears of a living organism's cells. The conventional method requires, however, that proteins stack into a large crystal, similar to how oranges stack in a crate. The structure of more than 80,000 proteins have been determined this way, leading to breakthroughs in understanding of diseases, pathogens, and how organisms grow and develop.
But many proteins found in nature do not stack easily. Some jut from the fatty membranes that cover cells, detecting and interacting with other cells and objects, such as viruses or bacteria, in the surrounding area. These proteins are not used to having others of their kind stack on top. These so-called membrane proteins make up about 25 percent of all proteins but only 2 percent of proteins that researchers have determined structures for.
Wafer Thin
Researchers in the last decade have been pursuing the idea that one sheet of proteins could be visualized if the X-rays were bright enough but flashed on and off quickly enough to limit the damage wrought by the powerful X-rays. Two years ago, scientists demonstrated they could use XFEL technology on crystals of proteins about 15 to 20 sheets thick.
Evans, Frank and their team wanted to push this further. The team worked on a way to create one-sheet-thick crystals of two different proteins — a protein called streptavidin and a membrane protein called bacteriodopsin. The structures of both proteins are well-known to scientists, which gave the team something to compare their results to.
The team shined the super-bright X-rays for a brief moment — about 30 femtoseconds, a few million billionths of a second — on the protein crystals. They created so much data in the process that it took them more than a year to analyze all of it.
The resulting images look like the known structures, validating this method. Next, the researchers will try to capture proteins changing shape as they engage in a chemical reaction. For this, even shorter flashes of X-rays might be needed to see the action clearly.
If successful, shorter flashes of XFEL might mean longer lines at SLAC.
Evans is based at EMSL, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory at PNNL. This work was supported by the Department of Energy Office of Science, National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Reference: Matthias Frank, David B. Carlson, Mark S. Hunter, Garth J. Williams, Marc Messerschmidt, Nadia A. Zatsepin, Anton Barty, W. Henry Benner, Kaiqin Chu, Alexander T. Graf, Stefan P. Hau-Riege, Richard A. Kirian, Celestino Padeste, Tommaso Pardini, Bill Pedrini, Brent Segelke, M. Marvin Seibert, John C. H. Spence, Ching-Ju Tsai, Stephen M. Lane, Xiao-Dan Li, Gebhard Schertler, Sebastien Boutet, Matthew Coleman and James E. Evans. Femtosecond X-ray Diffraction from Two-Dimensional Protein Crystals, International Union of Crystallography Journal, Feb. 10, 2014, DOI: 10.1107/S2052252514001444.
SLAC's LCLS is the world's most powerful X-ray free-electron laser. A DOE national user facility, its highly focused beam shines a billion times brighter than previous X-ray sources to shed light on fundamental processes of chemistry, materials and energy science, technology and life itself.
The Department of Energy's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.
Tags: Fundamental Science, ProteomicsBoulder, Colorado-based fertility tracking company Kindara unveiled its first device this week, a smartphone-enabled fertility thermometer called Wink. The device is available for preorders at a $79 pricepoint, which will increase to $129 at retail.
Kindara also raised an additional $700,000 in funding in August from SOS Ventures, Drummond Road Capital, Vast Ventures and various angels. The recent funding brings the company's total funding to about $1.2 million.
"This device, [Wink,] lives on a bedside table, inside a drawer maybe, next to the bed," Kindara CEO and co-founder Will Sacks told MobiHealthNews. "The app has an alarm that wakes a woman up. When she wakes up and grabs Wink, it turns on, knows she is awake, and then sends a message to the phone: 'OK, you can turn off the alarm.' Wink then becomes the 'off' button for her alarm. Then she takes her temperature in her mouth. Wink records her temperature [and the time it was taken] on her phone, and then she's done. She doesn't even have to touch her phone in the morning. Later, when convenient, she can log onto Kindara and see how her fertility is. She can also share that data with friends or practitioners on Kindara, too."
Sacks said that since the Wink device is wireless and not directly plugged into the phone, the team wanted to make sure Wink users didn't have to touch their phone in the morning, because if they had to touch their phone to use Wink, "what's the point of having a connected device? Then, you may as well just type it in."
The Wink device also has an LED display that shows the user's basal body temperature to two decimal points directly after she takes a reading.
While some temperature-centric, fertility tracking and coaching devices are intended to be worn continuously throughout the day, Sacks said the slight increase in accuracy that such a system provides is not worth the pain of having to wear a device non-stop for months or years.
"For women who are trying to get pregnant, I can see [continuous monitoring making sense]," Sacks said. "She's going to be more motivated, so maybe she would be willing to wear something for three months, six months, or maybe even longer. For women who want to avoid pregnancy, though, that would be a lifestyle change that they would be taking on for potentially years and years. Even for women who are trying to get pregnant it might be too much. I know people have used Kindara for a year or longer before they finally got pregnant. Asking someone to wear something for a year is a lot to ask."
Sacks said Kindara's app user base mix includes about 65 percent trying to get pregnant, 25 percent trying to avoid pregnancy, and about 10 percent using Kindara to understand some kind of cycle problem, which may be because of thyroid issues, endometrioisis, or any number of conditions. Kindara has helped more than 30,000 of its users get pregnant by its count.
While Kindara has remained software-only since its launch in early 2010, the company was part of the first class of hardware-centric startup accelerator Haxlr8r, which hinted that devices would eventually be a focus.
"At Haxlr8r we were working on a thermometer that connected directly to the phone, but we tabled that and stayed focused on [our apps] and building a user base," Sacks said.
Apart from testing out a paid version of the Kindara app for a period of time, Sacks said the launch of Wink marks the first real revenue stream for the company. It also has three other devices designed for women in its pipeline.
Sacks said that while Kindara has a regulatory team in place, Wink does not have FDA clearance. The company expects the FDA to implement its plan to not require 510(k) clearances for these kinds of devices, which the agency first proposed this summer. In any case, Sacks stressed that Kindara plans to fully comply with FDA requirements for Wink.Coming to the defense of the nation's intelligence community after Vice President Joe Biden blamed bad intel for the administration's false explanation of what led to the killings of the U.S. ambassador to Libya, the former CIA director and second-ever Homeland Security Department secretary said the White House is to blame.
Former CIA Director Michael Hayden and former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said the White House didn't listen to the intelligence community leading up to the September 11 attack on the U.S. facility in Libya and inaction led to the deaths of U.S. officials in Benghazi. Both are advising the Romney campaign.
In a statement, they said:
"During the vice presidential debate, we were disappointed to see Vice President Biden blame the intelligence community for the inconsistent and shifting response of the Obama administration to the terrorist attacks in Benghazi. Given what has emerged publicly about the intelligence available before, during, and after the September 11 attack, it is clear that any failure was not on the part of the intelligence community, but on the part of White House decision-makers who should have listened to, and acted on, available intelligence. Blaming those who put their lives on the line is not the kind of leadership this country needs."In this in-depth interview on Elijah Johnson’s Finance and Liberty, James Corbett details the process by which Russia, China, Iran and other so-called “resistance bloc” nations are being driven into each other’s arms by the increasingly aggressive US-led NATO/IMF community. James explains how this is analagous to similar periods from recent history where an enemy was consciously and deliberately created by Western corporate and financial interests in order to justify the further spending in an ever-escalating takeover of global economic and political systems.
SHOW NOTES:
How the West is Engineering its Own Downfall
Russia And China About To Sign “Holy Grail” Gas Deal
Russia Writes Off 90% of North Korean Debt to Facilitate Gas Pipeline to South Korea
Yuan Overtakes Euro As Second-Most Used Currency In International Trade Settlement: SWIFT
Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development
American military assistance to Soviets
Ford & the Nazi War Efforts
IBM ‘dealt directly with Holocaust organisers’
How Standard Oil Fueled World War II
Exclusive: CIA Files Prove America Helped Saddam as He Gassed Iran
Germany Helped Prep Russia for War, U.S. Sources Say
Ukraine Welcomes IMF Austerity Regime
IMF cautions Australia against austerity policies
IMF warns Ukraine on bailout if it loses east
Chinese central bank governor advocates a supra-national world reserve currency
China Expands Gold Reserves, Surged Past Italy and France in Ranking
Buffett warns of derivative markets
Raghuram Rajan warns of international financial market instability in 2005
Eric Holder Admits Some Banks Are Just Too Big To Prosecute
Filed in: InterviewsA North Korean mid-range Musudan missile on display during a military parade in Pyongyang. Another mid-range missile, the Rodong, has increased in accuracy, a South Korean government source said on Friday.
SEOUL, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- North Korea's mid-range Rodong missiles have increased in accuracy as Pyongyang has accelerated weapons development in recent months.
A South Korean government source told Yonhap on Friday that North Korea's launch of three Rodong missiles on Sept. 5 all showed the same results.
The missiles traveled for 620 miles, landed in Japan's air defense identification zone, and all dropped within a radius that extended less than a mile, the source said.
The circular error probability, the measure of a weapon system's precision, has decreased from previous estimates that ranged 2-2.5 miles.
With the kind of improved accuracy that was demonstrated by the recent launches, the Rodong missiles, when equipped with a miniaturized nuclear warhead, a chemical or biological weapon could cause "unimaginable" destruction, the source said.
There is also some speculation in Seoul the three North Korean missiles launched in early September were fired using a continuous shooting mode. North Korea could deliver dozens if not hundreds of projectiles if it has mastered the technology, according to the report.
North Korea may have also used this method of continuous shooting when it fired shells across the Northern Limit Line in 2010.
North Korea's missile and nuclear tests have jolted the region and have been widely condemned.
Japan press previously reported Pyongyang launched the missiles to test out the missile defense systems of Japan, the United States and South Korea, and that North Korea launched multiple projectiles to make interception more difficult.“We’ve taken a huge hammering,” said Koji Toshima, president of Yaskawa, Japan’s largest maker of industrial robots.
Profit at the company plunged by two-thirds, to 6.9 billion yen, about $72 million, in the year ended March 20, and it predicts a loss this year.
Across the industry, shipments of industrial robots fell 33 percent in the last quarter of 2008, and 59 percent in the first quarter of 2009, according to the Japan Robot Association.
Tetsuaki Ueda, an analyst at the research firm Fuji Keizai, expects the market to shrink by as much as 40 percent this year. Investment in robots, he said, “has been the first to go as companies protect their human workers.”
While robots can be cheaper than flesh-and-blood workers over the long term, the upfront investment costs are much higher.
In 2005, more than 370,000 robots worked at factories across Japan, about 40 percent of the global total, representing 32 robots for every 1,000 manufacturing employees, according to a report by Macquarie Bank. A 2007 government plan for technology policy called for one million industrial robots to be installed by 2025. That will almost certainly not happen.
“The recession has set the robot industry back years,” Mr. Ueda said.
That goes for industrial robots and the more cuddly toy robots.
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In fact, several of the lovable sort have already become casualties of the recession.
The robot maker Systec Akazawa filed for bankruptcy in January, less than a year after it introduced its miniature PLEN walking robot at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Roborior by Tmsuk — a watermelon-shape house sitter on wheels that rolls around a home and uses infrared sensors to detect suspicious movement and a video camera to transmit images to absent residents — has struggled to find new users. A rental program was scrapped in April because of lack of interest.
Though the company won’t release sale figures, it has sold less than a third of the goal, 3,000 units, it set when Roborior hit the market in 2005, analysts say. There are no plans to manufacture more.
Photo
That is a shame, Mariko Ishikawa, a Tmsuk spokesman, says, because busy Japanese in the city could use the Roborior to keep an eye on aging parents in the countryside.
“Roborior is just the kind of robot Japanese society needs in the future,” Ms. Ishikawa said.
Japan’s aging population had given the development of home robots an added imperative. With nearly 25 percent of citizens 65 or older, the country was banking on robots to replenish the work force and to help nurse the elderly.
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But sales of a Secom product, My Spoon, a robot with a swiveling, spoon-fitted arm that helps older or disabled people eat, have similarly stalled as caregivers balk at its $4,000 price.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries failed to sell even one of its toddler-size home-helper robots, the Wakamaru, introduced in 2003.
Of course, less practical, novelty robots have fallen on even harder times in the downturn. And that goes for robot makers outside Japan, too.
Ugobe, based in Idaho, is the maker of the cute green Pleo dinosaur robot with a wiggly tail; it filed for bankruptcy protection in April.
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Despite selling 100,000 Pleos and earning more than $20 million, the company racked up millions of dollars in debt and was unable to raise further financing.
Sony pulled the plug on its robot dog, Aibo, in 2006, seven years after its introduction. Though initially popular, Aibo, costing more than $2,000, never managed to break into the mass market.
The $300 i-Sobot from Takara Tomy, a small toy robot that can recognize spoken words, was meant to break the price barrier. The company, based in Tokyo, has sold 47,000 since the i-Sobot went on sale in late 2007, a spokeswoman, Chie Yamada, said, making it a blockbuster hit in the robot world.
But with sales faltering in the last year, the company has no plans to release further versions after it clears out its inventory of about 3,000.
Kenji Hara, an analyst at the research and marketing firm Seed Planning, says many of Japan’s robotics projects tend to be too far-fetched, concentrating on humanoids and other leaps of the imagination that cannot be readily brought to market.
“Japanese scientists grew up watching robot cartoons, so they all want to make two-legged companions,” Mr. Hara said. “But are they realistic? Do consumers really want home-helper robots?”
Robot Factory, once a mecca for robot fans in the western city of Osaka, closed in April after a plunge in sales. “In the end,” said Yoshitomo Mukai, whose store, Jungle, took over some of Robot Factory’s old stock, “robots are still expensive, and don’t really do much.”
Of course, that is not true for industrial robots — at least not when the economy is booming.
Fuji Heavy Industries argues its robots are practical and make economic sense. The company sells a giant automated cleaning robot that can use elevators to travel between floors on its own. The wheeled robot, which resembles a small street-cleaning car, already works at several skyscrapers in Tokyo.
Companies can recoup the 6 million yen investment in the cleaner robot in as quickly as three years, a Fuji spokesman, Kenta Matsumoto, said. The manufacturer has rented out about 50 so far.
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“A robot will work every day and night without complaining,” Mr. Matsumoto said. “You can even save on lights and heating, because robots don’t need any of that.”MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Bond was set at $25,000 plus house arrest for a South Florida mother charged with beating her daughter with a tire iron.
Tonya Burns appeared in bond court Wednesday charged with one count of Child Abuse.
According to the police arrest affidavit, Burns hit her daughter with a tire iron outside Miami Carol City Senior High School on Tuesday when Burns spotted her daughter trying to skip school.
According to the report, Burns told police “My daughter didn’t want to go to school. I pulled her out of the car then left. As I was turning around I saw her leaving the school so I pulled up, grabbed the stick and hit her to make her go back in the school. Security came and grabbed her then took her inside.”
Burns’ daughter sustained bruising on both of her arms.
The judge ordered Burns not to have any contact with her daughter who will be staying with another family member.
Burns’ other children were taken into custody by the Department of Children and Families.Oregon State freshman defensive tackle Fred Thompson, who would have been 20 on Sunday, died tonight of an apparent heart attack at the Dixon Rec Center on the OSU campus.
Thompson enrolled winter term and was considered a grayshirt. A shoulder injury set him back in the spring, but he was in uniform late in the season and Beavers' coach Mike Riley had expressed excitement at the possibility of a healthy Thompson competing for a spot in 2012.
The 6-foot-4, 317-pound Thompson is from Richmond, Calif. and played at Oakland Tech High School.
An employee at the Dixon Rec Center declined to release any further information on Wednesday night. Thompson was apparently playing pick-up basketball when he collapsed.
A supervisor at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in Corvallis said there would be no comment pending family notification.
The release from Oregon State:
There was immediate reaction on Twitter from other Oregon State athletes:
OSU basketball player Jared Cunningham: RT @J1Flight Haven't cried in a long time. (Stuff) just got too real.I was just in study hall with you last week. Rip to my bruh Fred Thompson
OSU defensive back Jordan Poyer: RT @J_Poyer14: R.I.P Fred Im really gonna miss you bro..My prayers go to you and your family
Former OSU defensive back James Dockery: RT @JamesDockery34 Man I'm just taken back right now! R.I.P. Fred..life is too short. My prayers to his family and you will be missed
RT @BrandonSprague Talked with Fred a month ago. Told him a lot of people thought he could be a BIG time player at OSU. He looked at me, smiled, wide-eyed...
...and said, "Man, just being here is a blessing. The fact that people believe in me, means everything." Tonight, I remember that big smile.
Former OSU quarterback Ryan Katz: RT @BigKatz12 Things just don't make sense sometimes....RIP Fred. Pray for his family. I'm gonna miss you man.
RT @Schalker22: RIP Fred Thompson. Didn't know you but was playing basketball with you right before it happened. Thoughts go out to you.
OSU basketball player Kevin McShane: RT @KevinMcShane0: RIP Fred Thompson. The thoughts and prayers of Beaver Nation are with you and your family tonight
And a link to another OSU trajedy in 1992,
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Paul BukerThe jan sabhas, which the Aam Aadmi Party intends to hold to seek public opinion on whether the party should form a government in Delhi with Congress's support, has been scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.
On December 17, in an open letter to residents of Delhi, Kejriwal had said the party found itself in "dharam sankat" on the question of forming government with support from the Congress. He also asked residents to register their opinion via SMSes, calls and on the web.
The AAP leader had also announced that jan sabhas would be organised in all wards and Assembly constituencies, where opinion would be collated to help the party come to a decision.
Senior party officials said, "Close to 25 lakh copies are being made of the letter that Arvindji wrote..., and they are in the process of being distributed. While phone lines have been opened, we wanted to keep the jan sabhas for the weekend, because we want people to read the letter and then make a decision. Volunteers have been instructed to leave no area untouched in the dissemination of the letter."
Party members said the jan sabhas had been scheduled for the weekend to ensure maximum participation from the city.
"This is the first time participatory politics have been extended to the people. They will be asked to decide if a government should be formed at all. We want as many involved in the process as possible," AAP members said.
Sources in the party said the number of responses that AAP had received so far through messages, calls and on the web had crossed six lakh. "A majority of that number is through messages," a source said. By the night of December 17, the number was close to 3.5 lakh.
On social media platforms, it was a split verdict.
While one person posted, "No, don't take the support, it is a trap, there are no free lunches," another said, "YES take the support and keep it transparent. Insist on sharing every detail with the public and keep it clean."
ALSO READ Hunger for power made Kejriwal align with Cong: Harsh Vardhan
Please read our terms of use before posting commentsFrom 1914 to 1918, the wealthy and powerful Western nations and empires that had come to dominate the globe wrecked themselves in a paroxysm of destruction unmatched in any previous era. Empires toppled, millions died and the world changed forever. In the wake of the First World War, nations sought appropriate forms of public mourning and commemoration to grieve and honor their dead. Among allies and foes, there was an overwhelming desire that such a war never be repeated. “Anything rather than war! Anything! … No trial, no servitude can be compared to war,” wrote French novelist and pacifist Roger Martin du Gard in 1936.
World War I: The Definitive Visual History This story has been adapted and reproduced from "World War I: The Definitive Visual History" with the kind permission of DK Publishing. Text copyright © Dorling Kindersley Limited. Buy
Today, memorials, monuments and museums dedicated to WWI can be found in all of the combatant countries. From a rose garden in Ireland to vast war cemeteries built on or near the major battlefields, these sites ensure that the memory of the war and the sacrifices of those who lost their lives will never fade.
AUSTRALIA
Set in Sydney’s Hyde Park, this is New South Wales’s principal war monument. Designed in an art deco style by C. Bruce Dellit, it is made of granite, with statuary and bas-reliefs created by the artist Raynor Hoff. The buttresses on the outside of the building are each topped by a mournful figure, while the bas-reliefs depict scenes from Australian campaigns at Gallipoli and the Western Front. Ceremonies are held at the memorial on Remembrance Sunday (11 November) and Anzac Day (25 April).
Hyde Park, Sydney
The national monument to Australia’s war dead was built in the aftermath of World War I, though it serves to commemorate Australian service personnel killed in all conflicts. The main parts of the memorial are the Commemorative area (which includes the Hall of Memory), Anzac Parade and the Sculpture Garden. In the museum on the ground floor of the main building, the Anzac Hall, a recently added high-tech exhibition space, includes “Over the front, the Great War in the air”, a permanent display telling the story of aerial combat in World War I. It includes five original aircraft from the war, memorabilia, personal testaments and a sound and light show.
Remembrance Park, Canberra
Built to remember Victoria’s war dead of 1914–18, this is one of Australia’s great memorials. Inspired by the mausoleum to Mausolus, King of Caria, at Halicarnassus in Turkey, the shrine was inaugurated in November 1934. The sanctuary contains the Stone of Remembrance inscribed with the words “Greater Love Hath No Man”, designed so that a shaft of sunlight (or artificial light) falls on the word “Love” held at 11am on 11 November each year. More than 120 ceremonies are held at the shrine each year.
St Kilda Road, Melbourne
BELGIUM
The only American Battle Monuments Commission cemetery in Belgium, this commemorates the American contribution to the war on the Western Front. Smaller and more intimate than most of the war cemeteries in Belgium, it consists of 368 burials, with the headstones arranged around a central chapel. Many of the casualties interred here came from the US 91st Division, killed in fighting in this area in October and November 1918. The
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at his own 24-yard line with 2 minutes remaining in the game. Denver placekicker Matt Prater kicked a 28-yard field goal as time expired to give the Broncos a 51-48 win.
Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning completed 33 of 42 passes for 414 yards, throwing 4 touchdown passes and 1 interception in a winning effort. This performance prompted KCNC-TV to report, "After 5 games and 5 big wins, the Broncos are on pace to become the first team in the history of the NFL to exceed 600, maybe even 700 points, in a season. It is the most remarkable five-game stretch in the history of professional football. The numbers don't lie. What Manning has done in his first five games — his "assault" on the record books — is simply unprecedented."[40]
98 points (Pittsburgh Steelers vs. San Diego Chargers, 1985) Edit
On December 8, 1985, the San Diego Chargers and Pittsburgh Steelers combined for 98 points in a 54–44 Chargers victory.
96 points (Cincinnati Bengals vs. Cleveland Browns, 2007) Edit
On September 16, 2007, Ohio intrastate rivals Cleveland and Cincinnati battled to combine for 96 points, with the Browns defeating the Bengals 51–45.
96 points (Miami Dolphins vs. New York Jets, 1986) Edit
In a September 21, 1986, AFC East showdown at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the New York Jets hosted the Miami Dolphins, combining for 96 points, with the Jets defeating the Dolphins in overtime, 51–45.
The contest featured 1,066 yards of combined offense, 59 first downs and 93 total pass attempts. Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino had 448 yards through the air and a personal best six touchdown passes, while Jets signal-caller Ken O'Brien threw for 479 yards and 4 touchdown passes. The shootout came to an end when Jets wide receiver Wesley Walker caught a 43-yard bomb touchdown from O'Brien in overtime, his fourth of the game. Walker finished with 6 catches for 179 yards. The Dolphins receiving corps was led by the "Marks Brothers", Mark Duper and Mark Clayton, combining for 328 yards receiving and 3 touchdown receptions.
95 points (Washington Redskins vs. Green Bay Packers, 1983) Edit
On October 17, 1983, the Redskins and Packers played on a Monday night with the Packers winning 48–47, a combined 95-point total. Redskins kicker Mark Moseley missed a field goal in the final seconds, securing the win for the Packers.
Playoffs Edit
96 points (Green Bay Packers vs. Arizona Cardinals, 2009 playoffs) Edit
In the 2009–10 playoffs, the Cardinals and Packers combined for 96 points in a 51–45 overtime Arizona win when Cardinals defensive back Michael Adams strip-sacked Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Cardinals linebacker Karlos Dansby picked up the loose football, returning it 17 yards for the winning score.
95 points (Detroit Lions vs. Philadelphia Eagles, 1995 playoffs) Edit
In a December 30, 1995 Wild Card playoff game, the Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions combined for 95 points in what was the NFL's highest scoring postseason game until \ The Eagles dominated the game on seven Detroit turnovers, winning 58–37. The Eagles scored 31 points in the second quarter alone, and led 38–7 at halftime. They extended their lead to 51–7 with nine minutes left in the third quarter. After that, Detroit scored four touchdowns while the Eagles added another.
89 points (Indianapolis Colts vs. Kansas City Chiefs, 2013 playoffs) Edit
On January 4, 2014, the Colts and the Chiefs played in a Saturday evening 2014 NFL Wild Card playoff game. The teams combined for 89 points, with the Colts winning 45-44. Following an early second half Chiefs touchdown, the Colts rallied back for a 28-point comeback, the second largest comeback in NFL playoff history.[a][41]
Super Bowl Edit
75 points (Super Bowl XXIX: San Diego Chargers vs. San Francisco 49ers) Edit
The highest-scoring Super Bowl was Super Bowl XXIX on January 29, 1995, in which the NFC champion San Francisco 49ers defeated the AFC champion San Diego Chargers 49–26 for a combined 75 points.[42]
74 points (Super Bowl LII: New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles) Edit
The second highest-scoring Super Bowl was Super Bowl LII on February 4, 2018, in which the NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles defeated the AFC champion and defending champion New England Patriots 41-33 for a combined 74 points. It is worth noting that there were multiple missed PAT attempts, including one missed kick from both teams and 2 unsuccessful 2-point conversion attempts from the Eagles, and a field goal attempt from the Patriots near the beginning of the second quarter that hit the upright.Joe Lieberman, who left the Senate in January after a career that saw him go from Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000 to shedding his party label in 2006 after losing a bitter primary, will join the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the conservative think tank announced Monday.
Lieberman will serve as co-chair of AEI’s “American Internationalism Project,” which will seek to “renew the foundations of American internationalism and the commitment to political and economic freedom that has been the hallmark of U.S. leadership for more than half a century,” according to a press release.
The Democrat-turned-independent from Connecticut will lead the project with former Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), whose career in the Senate also drew to a close in January. In the press release, Lieberman said he’s hopeful that the project will help forge foreign policy consensus between Democrats and Republicans. He added that he’s “grateful” to AEI for spearheading the project.
“There is an urgent need to rebuild a bipartisan — indeed non-political — consensus for American diplomatic, economic, and military leadership in the world,” Lieberman said in the release. “That’s why I am grateful to AEI for initiating and sponsoring this project and why I look forward to leading it with my friend Jon Kyl.”
This post has been updated.The new Eastern Access Route will allow traffic to travel through Remarkables Park and follow the Shotover River Behind the Queenstown Airport runway, to reconnect with SH6.
Construction of the long-awaited Eastern Access Route around Frankton will begin this month with a $21.8 million contract awarded to Fulton Hogan.
The road, which will link SH6 at Frankton with the Frankton industrial area along the Shotover River, thus avoiding the congested BP roundabout, is expected to be completed in December 2017.
It is primarily funded by the Queenstown Lakes District Council with support from the New Zealand Transport Agency.
Queenstown Lakes District Mayor-elect Jim Boult got the job of announcing the project in his first week in the job.
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*Congested Queenstown roads to get some relief
"This has been a long time in the making and it's great to see the contract awarded so work can begin right away. Being able to open up a transport link before winter next year will be of huge benefit to locals and visitors alike," he said.
A statement from the council said the road, which is officially known as Hawthorne Dr, would be completed in two stages, with an initial connection between Glenda Drive and Remarkables Park expected to be open to motorists before winter next year.
NZTA Acting Southern Regional Director Michael Aitken said the link was an essential part of the wider programme of works to manage the effects of Queenstown's unprecedented growth.
Fulton Hogan will establish and commence works on site from October 25.
Also today Queenstown Airport has announced it is starting on a project to expand its short and long term car parking facilities.
An addition 50 car parking spaces will be created by November 29 - an increase of over 10 per cent.
Works to expand the commercial zone have also commenced this week, enabling pick-ups and drop-offs for commercial operators in this zone.
Car parking rates are being reduced until November 3 to take account of the potential inconvenience to customers while the work is underway.
Queenstown Airport Corporation chief executive Colin Keel said the works formed part of the airport's short term infrastructure improvement programme following its 39 per cent rise in passenger numbers over the past three years.
The works were also a prelude to the airport's long term strategy on traffic management and road transport solutions which would improve traffic flow and further increase car parking options.
"These are key focus areas as we develop the 30-year master plan for Queenstown Airport."
Clutha Southland MP Todd Barclay has welcomed the airport's plans and is planning to launch a petition to ban parked cars and introduce double lanes along SH6, between Queenstown Airport and the BP roundabout.
A recent survey indicated the majority of the cars were associated with the airport and stayed four days on average.
He is holding a meeting for Frankton residents on November 5 to discuss traffic issues in Frankton, including parking and congestion along SH6.
"Based on the overwhelming feedback from Queenstown residents, I will soon be calling on members of the public to sign a petition calling for action on this," Barclay said.
"Before I do that, I want to ensure the directly affected Frankton residents' views are heard and needs are catered for."Midfielder Adam Lallana says Liverpool have devised a plan to come away with the win when they take on Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Monday.
The Merseyside club have won both their Premier League games this season and England international Lallana says manager Brendan Rodgers will be looking to take all three points against their North London rivals as well.
"The manager will set us up to get a result there," the Evening Standard quoted the 27-year-old as saying.
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"We've had two clean sheets in two games and we'll be looking for a third on Monday night. We're going there to try to get the win," Lallana added.
The Gunners trounced Liverpool 4-1 in last season's corresponding fixture but Lallana says the Reds will have a strategy to ensure that history does not repeat itself this time around.
"We'll go to Arsenal with a gameplan to keep this run going," he said. "We've got a full week to prepare for Arsenal now. Hopefully we can go there and put on a good show."
Shape Created with Sketch. Liverpool 1 Bournemouth 0 player ratings Show all 24 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Liverpool 1 Bournemouth 0 player ratings 1/24 LIVERPOOL: Simon Mignolet The goalkeeper didn’t have much to do in the first half, but did well when called into action later on. 6 2/24 Nathaniel Clyne Defended well while being heavily involved in Liverpool’s attack down the right flank and caused Gradel problems as the game went on. 7 Getty Images 3/24 Martin Skrtel Was commanding in defence and also helped provide long-range crosses to help in attacks but could have given away a penalty in the second half. 6 PA 4/24 Dejan Lovren Didn’t show enough strength to stop Elphick from heading in the opener, but was saved when the goal was ruled out. But he defended well otherwise although he wasn’t called into action much later. 6 EPA 5/24 Joe Gomez Did well on his home debut and looked assured at left-back although he did get a yellow card. 7 Reuters 6/24 Jordan Henderson Set up Benteke’s goal with his deep cross, and also worked hard to clear danger in the midfield areas. 7 PA 7/24 James Milner His Premier League experience showed as he remained calm while dealing with loose balls while linking up well with Coutinho and those around him. 6 PA 8/24 Jordon Ibe Demonstrated good pace down the left flank and was a real threat for the home side when they went forwards. 6 PA 9/24 Philippe Coutinho Was Liverpool’s most creative force, finding small pockets of space and using it to make key passes – both long and short – to his team-mates. 7 AFP/Getty Images 10/24 Adam Lallana Displayed a good work rate but couldn’t impact the game and assert his dominance in midfield. 5 11/24 Christian Benteke Scored his first goal for Liverpool and provided a strong presence up front, hitting the bar late on. 8 Getty Images 12/24 From the bench: Roberto Firmino Showed off his pace and fancy footwork after coming on as a substitute but couldn’t impact the game. 5 PA 13/24 BOURNEMOUTH: Artur Boruc Could not keep Benteke’s strike out, arguably because he was distracted by Coutinho, but wasn’t tested too much apart from that one moment. 5 Reuters 14/24 Simon Francis Made some good clearances and dealt with Liverpool’s threat down the right flank well. 6 Getty Images 15/24 Tommy Elphick Out-jumped Lovren to score what should have been the opener and linked up well with Cook. 6 EPA 16/24 Steve Cook Wasn’t tested as much and also proved dangerous in set pieces. 6 PA 17/24 Charlie Daniels Dealt with balls down the left flank well but Clyne increasingly caused him problems as the game went on. However, he did well against Liverpool. 7 Getty Images 18/24 Andrew Surman Made some key blocks in midfield but Coutinho’s pace caused him issues at times. Helped go on the attack when Bournemouth ventured forwards. 6 Reuters 19/24 Eunan O'Kane Was shown a yellow card for his foul on Coutinho as Brazilian started running the show from midfield but protected the defence well enough. 6 PA 20/24 Matt Ritchie Took several shots at goal and could have restored parity. Grew into the game as the second half wore on. 6 Reuters 21/24 Max Gradel Looked good early on but struggled with his defensive duties as Clyne caused him issues. 5 Reuters 22/24 Joshua King Was lively early on and helped with his defensive duties too but was taken off as he failed to partner well with Wilson. 5 EPA 23/24 Callum Wilson Initially caused the home side problems with his pace, but increasingly became ineffective as he dropped further back. 5 Reuters 24/24 From the bench: Lee Tomlin Made his Premier League and Bournemouth debut and got involved in some late attacks by Bournemouth but couldn’t be the difference and eventually got booked. 5 Getty Images 1/24 LIVERPOOL: Simon Mignolet The goalkeeper didn’t have much to do in the first half, but did well when called into action later on. 6 2/24 Nathaniel Clyne Defended well while being heavily involved in Liverpool’s attack down the right flank and caused Gradel problems as the game went on. 7 Getty Images 3/24 Martin Skrtel Was commanding in defence and also helped provide long-range crosses to help in attacks but could have given away a penalty in the second half. 6 PA 4/24 Dejan Lovren Didn’t show enough strength to stop Elphick from heading in the opener, but was saved when the goal was ruled out. But he defended well otherwise although he wasn’t called into action much later. 6 EPA 5/24 Joe Gomez Did well on his home debut and looked assured at left-back although he did get a yellow card. 7 Reuters 6/24 Jordan Henderson Set up Benteke’s goal with his deep cross, and also worked hard to clear danger in the midfield areas. 7 PA 7/24 James Milner His Premier League experience showed as he remained calm while dealing with loose balls while linking up well with Coutinho and those around him. 6 PA 8/24 Jordon Ibe Demonstrated good pace down the left flank and was a real threat for the home side when they went forwards. 6 PA 9/24 Philippe Coutinho Was Liverpool’s most creative force, finding small pockets of space and using it to make key passes – both long and short – to his team-mates. 7 AFP/Getty Images 10/24 Adam Lallana Displayed a good work rate but couldn’t impact the game and assert his dominance in midfield. 5 11/24 Christian Benteke Scored his first goal for Liverpool and provided a strong presence up front, hitting the bar late on. 8 Getty Images 12/24 From the bench: Roberto Firmino Showed off his pace and fancy footwork after coming on as a substitute but couldn’t impact the game. 5 PA 13/24 BOURNEMOUTH: Artur Boruc Could not keep Benteke’s strike out, arguably because he was distracted by Coutinho, but wasn’t tested too much apart from that one moment. 5 Reuters 14/24 Simon Francis Made some good clearances and dealt with Liverpool’s threat down the right flank well. 6 Getty Images 15/24 Tommy Elphick Out-jumped Lovren to score what should have been the opener and linked up well with Cook. 6 EPA 16/24 Steve Cook Wasn’t tested as much and also proved dangerous in set pieces. 6 PA 17/24 Charlie Daniels Dealt with balls down the left flank well but Clyne increasingly caused him problems as the game went on. However, he did well against Liverpool. 7 Getty Images 18/24 Andrew Surman Made some key blocks in midfield but Coutinho’s pace caused him issues at times. Helped go on the attack when Bournemouth ventured forwards. 6 Reuters 19/24 Eunan O'Kane Was shown a yellow card for his foul on Coutinho as Brazilian started running the show from midfield but protected the defence well enough. 6 PA 20/24 Matt Ritchie Took several shots at goal and could have restored parity. Grew into the game as the second half wore on. 6 Reuters 21/24 Max Gradel Looked good early on but struggled with his defensive duties as Clyne caused him issues. 5 Reuters 22/24 Joshua King Was lively early on and helped with his defensive duties too but was taken off as he failed to partner well with Wilson. 5 EPA 23/24 Callum Wilson Initially caused the home side problems with his pace, but increasingly became ineffective as he dropped further back. 5 Reuters 24/24 From the bench: Lee Tomlin Made his Premier League and Bournemouth debut and got involved in some late attacks by Bournemouth but couldn’t be the difference and eventually got booked. 5 Getty Images
Liverpool beat Stoke City 1-0 in their Premier League opener and followed that up by beating Bournemouth by the same score at Anfield on Monday after new signing Christian Benteke turned in Jordan Henderson's cross midway through the first half.
Lallana was full of praise for the 24-year-old Belgian, who joined Liverpool from Aston Villa for £32.5m in the close season.
"It was a real poacher's finish. It was a great ball in from Hendo and Benteke is a predator in the box," he said.
"He's a big presence up there. He's great in the air and good with his feet. He brings team mates into play."
Reuters
Keep up to date with all the latest news with expert comment and analysis from our award-winning writersHala, 7, has stopped speaking since her brother's death, and covers her head when he is mentioned
By Heather Sharp
BBC News, Gaza
Omsyat, 12, has become nervous and aggressive, Hala, 7, has completely stopped speaking and Sobhy, 11, burned the toys he was brought with a candle, says their mother, Wafa Awersha. Psychiatric nurse Rowiya Hamam nods as she sits on a thin mattress on floor of the tent in al-Atatra in northern Gaza. In what is now their home, Mrs Awersha updates her on how the five children are coping with their brother's death in the recent conflict. Sobhy stares at the floor fiddling with a toy as he is asked about his loss Ibrahim, 9, was hit by Israeli bullets on 4 January and died before his siblings' eyes, with their injured parents barely conscious nearby, the family say. His body lay for four days outside their house before the fighting waned enough for neighbours to take it away on a donkey cart. Israel blames civilian casualties on militants' practice of operating from populated areas and says Palestinian fighters fired at its forces during the daily unilateral three-hour ceasefire it instituted to allow emergency workers to reach the dead and injured. Several hundred of the 1,300 Palestinian deaths were children and some accounts of civilian deaths have raised concerns of war crimes. After Ibrahim's death, Sobhy began behaving like his sibling and asking to be called Ibrahim, Ms Hamam says. "School's fine," he says, when asked. "I like maths." But he stares at the ground and tears soon well in his eyes.
Audio gallery: Children's drawings Mrs Awersha says he used to be top in his class, but he struggles to concentrate now. Hala covers her head with a blanket whenever Ibrahim is mentioned, while Diya, 3, beheaded the soft toys he was given, Ms Hamam says. 'For my kids' Ms Hamam is one of a team of mental health workers in Gaza that say they have been "overwhelmed" by the scale of the needs since the conflict. She has visited the Awersha family several times, bringing toys and games, trying to help the children express their feelings and teaching them deep breathing exercises. Mrs Awersha smiles and teases the children as she scrapes the girls' matted hair into pony tails and helps them put on the school smocks rescued from the rubble of their home. The tent buzzes with fat, black flies. Mrs Awersha exhales hard when asked how she is coping. And then the tears flow. Wafa says she jokes with her children, but cries when she is alone "Maybe you found me making people laugh, but honestly I'm doing this just for my kids," she says. Whenever she goes back to her bulldozed home and stands in the spot where Ibrahim was killed, she weeps and weeps, she says. Gaza's mental health professionals have been working flat out in schools, kindergartens, clinics, homes and tents to try to help similar cases. Hassan Zeyada, who heads the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme's centre in Gaza City, and his colleague, psychiatrist Sami Owaida, say they are exhausted. "Many of our colleagues lost relatives. We have to give support, but sometimes we feel that we need support," says Dr Oweida. Dr Zeyada also points out the difficulty of treating "ongoing and continuous trauma" in a place where a long-term political solution remains elusive. "Sometimes you feel you are wasting your efforts. Another invasion, another war, another attack will happen - you feel they will demolish or destroy all your efforts," he says. Anxiety Ongoing trauma too plagues the residents of Israel's southern towns, who live under the constant threat of Palestinian rocket fire, with about 8,000 rockets and mortars fired since 2001. At least 18 people have been killed in that time. Children under eight have known little else but a constantly heightened state of anxiety.
Children hit hard as Gaza toll rises Sderot longs for end to rockets And even after the recent fighting, which Israel said was aimed at reducing the rocket fire, a steady flow of rockets and mortars has continued. But while mental health workers on both sides say at least 20-30% of the population suffers symptoms of trauma, the Israeli south is clearly better equipped to tackle the problems than Gaza. GCMHP say there are only five clinical psychiatrists in Gaza trained to international standards, and no clinical psychologists. 'Basics for life' John Jenkins, the World Health Organization's mental health project manager for the West Bank and Gaza, says that, as well as difficulties in getting people with the right skills into Gaza, shortages of drugs such as tranquilisers and antidepressants are a constant problem. He says it is too early to assess the scale of the mental health needs from the recent conflict, as the impact of trauma takes time to emerge. Living in a tent makes it harder for children to regain a sense of normality But human beings' ability to deal with stress is "quite remarkable", he says, and the majority of people do not need specialist treatment. "What people really need are the basic things in life," he says, such as reliable food supplies, a secure place to live and prospects for work. This should "absolutely" be the priority, he says. But as Ms Hamam traipses away past the rows of tents, while children in flip-flops clamour at her to bring them shoes, she says that for the Awersha children, the conditions will make recovery harder. "Before the war, they had their routine - come home, watch TV, write their homework, but in the tent it's very difficult." "It will take too much time for them to recover," she says shaking her head sadly.
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionA tractor cuts a small plot of hemp at a University of Kentucky research plot near Lexington. The Oregon Agriculture Department has begun accepting applications to grow industrial hemp, in time for spring planting. (Dylan Lovan/Associated Press)
For more than 100 years, Jane Harrod’s family set aside a corner of their farm to grow tobacco. The 20 acres they grew when she was a girl was only a fraction of the 400 acres the family owned outside Lexington, Ky., but it promised good money, about $1,000 an acre.
“Most all of us farmers raised some tobacco,” said Harrod, 63. “Tobacco definitely put the clothes on our backs when we were kids.”
But tobacco isn’t the reliable cash crop it once was. That has Harrod and hundreds of other farmers across the South revisiting a plant from deep in the region’s past: industrial hemp.
Known as marijuana’s non-potent cousin, hemp is not likely to replace the billions of dollars that tobacco once provided, but proponents such as Harrod say they’re willing to take a chance on a crop they hope will breathe new life into the South’s family farms.
Those efforts have faced resistance from law enforcement groups that worry that hemp farms could be hiding acres of marijuana, which would become harder to detect.
The South has largely resisted legalizing pot, even for medical use. (Medical marijuana is legal in 23 states and recreational pot is legal in four.) But in states where tobacco once reigned supreme, industrial hemp has come back into vogue.
Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia are among the 20 states that have enacted laws allowing researchers and farmers to revive the long-forbidden plant. And late last month, the North Carolina legislature approved a proposal to do the same; that bill is on the governor’s desk.
The end of federal subsidies for tobacco in 2004 and decreasing popularity of smoking have wiped out much of the crop’s prominence and profitability. The United States grew $1.8 billion worth of tobacco in 2014, a far cry from its peak in 1981, when the country produced $3.5 billion worth, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In Kentucky, 60,000 farms once grew some tobacco, mostly family farmers looking to make extra money, said Will Snell, an agricultural economist at the University of Kentucky. Now, just 4,500 do, as large-scale production has taken on a bigger role and family farmers have been pushed out of the business.
Hemp’s backers acknowledge that the plant probably won’t completely fill the gap left by tobacco, but they hope it will give farmers such as Harrod a new, potentially lucrative option.
The Hemp Industries Association estimates that Americans bought $620 million worth of hemp products last year — including clothing, building materials and food made with hemp seeds, said Eric Steenstren, the industry group’s executive director.
“It’s not the replacement, but it’s part of the solution,” said James Comer, Kentucky’s agriculture commissioner, a Republican who sponsored the state’s hemp bill when he was in the legislature.
The crop has set off something of a gold rush in states such as Kentucky, where hundreds have applied for permits to grow it, Comer said.
Harrod said she will apply to grow five acres next year. She and her siblings stopped growing tobacco in 2002 as the crop was in decline and their mother died of lung cancer. Other alternatives, such as vegetables, hogs and cattle, haven’t made up the difference.
Hemp’s relationship with marijuana has helped fuel some of the interest in the crop. The two plants are different varieties of the same species, Cannabis sativa, but instead of a high, hemp can be turned into material used in clothes and building materials.
Supporters pitch hemp as something of a miracle crop — a plant that can be used to make, among other things, car parts and cannabidiol oil, a chemical that’s thought to help people with severe epilepsy.
Hemp once reigned in the South. Harrod, the Kentucky farmer, says her grandfather grew it during World War II. She figures her ancestors grew it back to her farm’s founding in 1804. But it hasn’t been grown widely since the 1950s.
“We used to believe in this plant so much,” said Tennessee state Rep. Jeremy Faison, a Republican who sponsored the state’s bill to legalize the plant. “In the Southeast, you’re going to see it be a part of our future, just like it was a part of our past.”
Still, the politics haven’t always been cut-and-dry.
State lawmakers have complained that resistance from federal law enforcement has slowed the plant’s reintroduction and kept farmers from planting their seeds on time. (The Drug Enforcement Agency referred questions to the Department of Justice; a department spokesman didn’t return a request for comment.)
When Kentucky’s pilot program hit such roadblocks, it took Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican who represents the state, to clear a pathway for research in the 2014 federal farm bill.
After South Carolina passed a hemp bill last year, the pilot program it was supposed to create never materialized. The Legislature’s bill didn’t specify which agency should set it up.
So lawmakers this year proposed a bill to fill in the gap. It quickly met opposition from the State Law Enforcement Division, which feared hemp could give cover to growers hoping to furtively grow marijuana. The bill never left committee. (The agency declined an interview request.)
In North Carolina, state Sen. Stan Bingham, a Republican, faced similar opposition when he pitched industrial hemp a few years back. When police groups came out against the bill, he dropped the issue.
“I just gave up on it because I couldn’t get it passed,” Bingham said.
But this year, he tried again. Looser federal rules on hemp helped ease the process, and the law enforcement groups didn’t put up a fight. It passed the Legislature last month by a large margin.
“They had some very conservative members that I would’ve thought would’ve voted against this no matter what, but they didn’t. They saw the job opportunities,” Bingham said. “There’s just a lot of things that can be done with this, and I hope we’ll have a bright future.”A massive fireball, believed to be a meteorite, has fallen on Thailand. Awestruck commuters witnessed the spectacle, describing a green and orange glow, as it took a nosedive toward Earth.
The event took place during the morning rush hour at about 8:45am local time in Bangkok, although the meteor did not make an audible sound as it struck the ground.
The size of the fireball is judged to be quite substantial, as residents of the Sisawat district in Kanchanaburi province, some 200km from the capital, also described seeing the meteorite. They say they also heard a thunderous explosion, according to Thai PBS.
Some even reported hearing two explosions, so a team of rescue workers was dispatched to where the crash site was assumed to be.
Although something of this magnitude can potentially fill people with a mixture of awe and dread, a meteorologist interviewed on local radio says things like that are not a major event, and happen all the time. He admitted, however, that this was not a small meteorite by any measure.
All aviation-related services quickly dispelled suspicions it might have been some sort of air catastrophe; no aircraft were in the area.
YouTube videos began emerging almost immediately.
Events of this sort do take place occasionally, and without warning, as the Russians found out two years ago.
READ MORE: Meteorite hits Russian Urals: Fireball explosion wreaks havoc, up to 1,200 injured (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
Russians in the Chelyabinsk region are still a little shaken from the devastating event. No one saw the meteor coming – it injured 1,200 people and damaged buildings.PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Brown University's president is promising a full investigation and regular meetings on racial issues after a campus police officer handcuffed a student from another Ivy League school, an encounter officials called "heated and physical."
The turmoil is the latest in a string of incidents at universities nationwide that have opened a new discussion about race and academia.
President Christina Paxson apologized in an email Saturday to the campus community for the "fear and pain" caused by the incident earlier that morning.
A Dartmouth College student told the Brown Daily Herald student newspaper that a public safety officer slammed him against a wall, threw him to the ground and handcuffed him.
The student was attending the annual Latinx Ivy League Conference, where Latino students from Ivy League schools discuss race, gender and socio-economic issues.
He told the newspaper that he was waiting to enter a party at Machado House when he criticized how police were treating an intoxicated Brown student outside. He said police told him not to enter the building, but he entered through a back door and was confronted by the public safety officer.
The student said he was held until Brown students verified he was a guest. No charges were filed.
The student did not immediately return messages from The Associated Press.
Cass Cliatt, Brown's vice president for communications, told the AP that students feel the incident was racially motivated, but it is too early to make any determinations.
Cliatt said employment agreements prevent the school from releasing identifying information about the officer, who is on administrative duty pending the investigation.
Paxson said in an email that Brown is committed to funding a rescheduled conference, which was unable to continue after the police incident. She also said Brown will consider whether campus officers need additional diversity and sensitivity training, after hearing students' concerns about racial profiling in other incidents.
Last week, Brown students joined their peers at other colleges in protesting racial discrimination on their campuses and showing support for students at the University of Missouri denouncing what they call a racist environment at the school.
Also last week, hundreds of Yale students and supporters marched across campus Monday to protest what they see as racial insensitivity at the Ivy League school.
The "March of Resilience" followed several racially charged incidents at Yale, including allegations that a fraternity turned a woman away from a party because she was not white.This article provides an analysis of the relationship between annual advertising expenditures and sales, using a time series regression procedure, for beer, wine, and liquor sold in the United States from 1971 to 2012. Information from these four decades provides a comprehensive analysis of the relationships of numerous variables with aggregate alcohol category sales. Even though per capita alcohol consumption has not changed much throughout this period, alcohol advertising media expenditures for all alcohol beverages have increased almost 400% since 1971. This study has provided evidence of consumption changes across categories of alcohol beverages over the past 40-plus years with the preponderance of those changes significantly correlated to fluctuations in demography, taxation and income levels – not advertising. Despite other macro-level studies with consistent findings, the perception that advertising increases consumption exists. The findings here indicate that there is either no relationship or a weak one between advertising and aggregate category sales. Therefore, advertising restrictions or bans with the purpose of reducing consumption may not have the desired effect. Implications on policy decisions regarding advertising controls are addressed.Ag nanoparticles with salmon milt-based DNA as the template
DNA is capable of selectively binding Ag(I) with their nucleotide bases; this binding changes the wavelength of the maximum absorption of DNA.15, 24, 25 In this study, the change in the absorption at 260 nm upon addition of Ag(I) (Figure 1) reveals the formation of the DNA–Ag(I) complex. The increase in absorbance observed only for the HMw-DNA (Figures 1b and c) was assumed to be induced by the denaturation of the double-stranded DNA.24 The absorption peak of the DNA shifted with increasing concentration of Ag(I), and then remained unchanged (Figure 1c). These results suggest that the binding of Ag(I) to DNA did not increase as the [Ag(I)]/[nucleotide] ratio rose from 10-fold to 20- or 30-fold, that is, only the amount of unbound Ag(I) increased.
Figure 1 Evolution of the maximum absorption of DNA in the presence of different concentrations of Ag(I): (a) low-molecular weight DNA (LMw-DNA) and (b) high-molecular weight DNA (HMw-DNA). (c) Plot of the absorbance and wavelength of the maximum absorption vs the molar ratio [Ag]:[nucleotide] from 1:1 to 1:30. Absorbance vs wavelength data for IMw are not shown. Full size image
Next, to optimize the volume ratio, 10−2 mol l−1 LMw-DNA solution and 10−1 mol l−1 AgNO 3 solution were mixed at volume ratios of 1:1, 1:2 and 1:3, and then 1 mol l−1 NaBH 4 solution was added in a molar equivalence to Ag(I). The solution with a volume ratio of 1:2 changed from clear to dark brown in color with
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went to his neighbors earlier in the day to tell them he was having a party and ask that they not call the police if there was too much noise. He said the partygoers were surprised when the 39-year-old McNeil showed up, but said he was nice at first.
3. He Also Argued With the College Students Over the Mayweather-Pacquiao Fight
According to KBTX-TV, the students had also gathered to watch the boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
During the fight, McNeil and his friends became angry with the college students because they were not cheering for Mayweather, The Eagle reports.
4. He Has Previous Convictions for Drug & Gun Offenses
According to court records, McNeil was convicted in 2000 for manufacture of a controlled substance, a felony. He was also convicted in 1999 of unlawful possession of a firearm and sentenced to three years in prison.
5. LaRose’s Family Says She Dreamed of Becoming a Vet
April LaRose, Lacie’s mother, told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth that her daughter wanted to transfer from Blinn College, where she had been studying, to Texas A&M.
“Ever since she was little she loved animals. It was her dream to become a vet. The vet dream was taken from her,” she told the news station. “She had a short life. I wanted a grand-baby from her. She was our only child.”
LaRose’s family and friends are raising money in her honor. A GoFundMe page has been set-up to collect donations.iSpace, a Tokyo-based startup company has raised $90 million Series A funding to send a spacecraft into lunar orbit by 2019, and then land a year later after orbiting the Moon. The funding was led by Japan Airlines Co. and Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings Inc. Other investors in the Series A funding included Development Bank of Japan, Konica Minolta, Shimizu, Real Tech Fund, KDDI, Suzuki Motor, SPARX, Dentsu and and Toppan Printing. The investors will also be providing technology and other support to ispace, said Takeshi Hakamada, founder and chief executive of ispace. According to Bloomberg, Ispace plans on offering a “projection mapping service” which will serve as a small billboard on the moon. The company hopes to complete this mission by the year 2020.
ispace technologies Inc. is a space resource exploration company founded in 2013 by Takeshi Hakamada to develop micro-robots that will locate the resources necessary to extend human life into outer space. Our main focus is to locate, extract, and deliver lunar ice to customers in cis-lunar space. ispace manages the technological and business development operations of Team HAKUTO in the Google Lunar XPRIZE Competition. Team Hakuto is a finalist in the $30M competition to land a privately funded robot on the Moon and was one of only three teams to win a $500,000 Milestone Prize in mobility. ispace utilizes 3D printed and commercially off the shelf products (COTS) for rapid prototyping while maximizing structural mass efficiency and shortening the developmental life cycle. Their micro-robots are able to explore larger areas of the Moon faster, at a fraction of the cost of large robots.
ispace is currently developing micro-robotic technology to provide a low-cost and frequent transportation service to and on the Moon, conduct lunar surface exploration to map, process and deliver resources to our customers in cislunar space. The initial lander missions will not be the first spacecraft that ispace sends to the moon. “We wanted to make sure that our financing for the next two missions was in place,” Takeshi Hakamada said in an Interview with reporters. “Through these two missions, we’re going to validate our technology to land on the moon safely. After we validate the technology, we’re going to enter the lunar transportation business.” The team has already built a rover that it plans to fly to the moon on a lander being developed by another finalist, Team Indus. iSpace has its headquarter in Tokyo but also has offices in the United States and Luxembourg. The offices are responsible for business development in North America and Europe, respectively. The two offices also work on payloads for their customers.
Below is a video of iSpace 2020 Vision MovieOTTAWA — It could be the most expensive meeting on Parliament Hill.
Two senators are each pocketing several thousand dollars annually to head a committee that meets once a year – and sometimes not at all.
Conservative Senator Elizabeth Marshall, the Tory whip, receives $11,200 annually to serve as the chair of the Senate’s selection committee. That is on top of her $135,200 salary and the $11,200 she receives to serve as the Government’s whip. Her counterpart, Senator Jim Munson, the Liberals’ whip, receives $5,600 to serve as the vice-chair of the selection committee in addition to his $135,200 paycheque and the $6,600 he receives as whip.
The Senate selection committee last met – for 15 minutes – on June 9, 2011, right after the federal election. The meeting was to establish membership lists for all the Senate’s other committees, although, in actual fact, they simply rubber stamped decisions that the party leaders’ offices had already made.
The committee didn’t meet at all in 2012. It’s first meeting of 2013 is scheduled for Tuesday, a date that didn’t appear on the schedule until after HuffPost made inquiries last week about the committee’s work.
“For a committee where the chair is making $33,000 a meeting, it’s outrageous,” NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus told HuffPost.
Gregory Thomas, the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, called the practice “unacceptable.”
It’s “ridiculous” to pay them annually for chairing a committee that doesn’t even meet some years, he said. “They need to give the money back right away. And they need to end the practice.”
Conservative Senator Don Plett told The Huffington Post Canada he was not aware that Marshall and Munson were collecting extra pay to preside over the selection committee. Plett said he didn’t get any money to serve as deputy chair of the weekly veterans affairs subcommittee.
“I think I should definitely get extra money,” he said half-jokingly.
There are a lot of rules that need to be changed in the Senate, Plett added.
Should chairs that do a lot of extra work be compensated? “I think they should, if they do a lot of extra work...There should be some overall reforms,” he said.
Marshall told HuffPost that “things can change” but that, right now, this is the way the Selection committee works.
“It’s in the rules of the Senate, and the salary is in the legislation, I can only tell you what I do,” she said.
Marshall said she views her role as committee chair as being one that ensures Conservative senators show up to the committees to which they are assigned, and she views her role as whip as being one that ensures that Tory senators are present in the upper chamber when they have to be.
Munson told HuffPost the same thing.
“Each side has a shared responsibility for the membership selection of committees, the daily management of the committees and their effective functioning. There are procedures in place where I can fill the committees on a daily or weekly basis. Memberships often changes. Because the work of the committees is of such value, I continuously monitor their work,” Munson wrote in an email.
Munson said his primary function as whip is “managing caucus for Senate sittings, votes, question period, helping prepare opposition policy, and office accommodation.”
On the House of Commons’ side, both functions are performed by the party whips. There is no selection committee. Instead, membership on Commons committees is voted upon and changed when required at the procedure and House affairs committee – which meets twice a week, has a relatively busy workload and which also studies legislation. Party whips monitor the attendance of their MPs in the House and in committees.
Angus said the selection committee is a further example of the Senate’s being “an old boys’ club filled with partisan hacks who devise elaborate ways of spending taxpayers money on themselves.”
“What’s even more outrageous is Canadians have no ability to find out what they are up to, to hold them to account or even to fire them for this type of abuse,” he said. “When you have a system that doesn’t have any accountability, this is the type of abuse that becomes normal.”
Before the federal election was called in March, 2011, the Senate selection’s previous meeting had been on March 4, 2010. It met that time for 21 minutes. Now retired Conservative senator Consiglio Di Nino was then chair. Munson was still vice-chair. In 2009, the standing seletion committee met three times – for one minute on Sept. 30, for 20 minutes on Feb. 10 and for four minutes on Feb. 3. It did not meet in 2008.
Last year, a firestorm erupted in Alberta after it was discovered that taxpayers were footing the bill – worth several hundred thousand dollars – for 21 MLAs to sit on a committee that had not met in more than three years. Public pressure forced many MLAs who had received $1,000 a month to sit on the committee to give the money back.Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) angrily walked out of a congressional hearing on the contraception coverage rule last month because the one female witness the Democrats brought, Sandra Fluke, was rejected by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) for being "unqualified" to speak on the topic.
But after hearing that conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh called Fluke, a Georgetown University law student, a "slut" and a "prostitute" on Wednesday night for advocating that employers cover birth control pills in their health plans, Maloney is really fuming.
"I am just aghast," she told The Huffington Post on Thursday. "If the far right can attack people like Sandra Fluke, women are going to be afraid to speak because they're going to be called terrible words. It's an attempt to silence people that are speaking out for women."
Maloney and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) had brought Fluke into the hallway outside the House Oversight Committee hearing on Feb. 16 to allow her to give her testimony to reporters while the all-male panel of religious experts testified on record. Fluke told the story of one of her classmates who lost an ovary because Georgetown, a Jesuit university, did not cover the oral contraceptives that she was prescribed for her condition.
Limbaugh said on his show that Fluke's parents should be ashamed of her for testifying that she is "having so much sex she can't afford her own birth control pills."
He added:
"What does it say about the college co-ed Susan Fluke [sic] who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex -- what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex."
A handful of female Democratic lawmakers fired back on Wednesday and demanded that their Republican colleagues publicly denounce Limbaugh's comments. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the remarks "unmask the strong disrespect for women held by some in this country," and Maloney told HuffPost that if Republicans "stand silently by and let this pass, they will be condoning it and attacking women."
Limbaugh's comments coincided with a heated Senate debate on Sen. Roy Blunt's (R-Mo.) controversial amendment, which would override President Barack Obama's contraception rule and let any employer refuse to cover birth control or any other health service for moral or religious reasons. While Obama's policy would allow churches and faith-based organizations to opt out of covering contraception, the Blunt amendment would allow anyone, including non-religious employers, to do so.
Maloney said that the GOP attacks on contraception access should serve as a "wake-up call" to the women's rights movement.Russia is promising retaliation against an 'orchestrated campaign' of disinformation by the United States if allegations of election-year political hacking lead the Obama administration to level new economic sanctions.
'To be honest, we are tired of [the] lie about the "Russian hackers," which is being poured down in the United States from the very top,' Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Wednesday.
Zakharova also called reports of possible new sanctions a 'provocation directed by the White House,' suggesting that Moscow will respond.
Obama's State Department could be just days away from announcing a set of sanctions designed to punish Russia and its president,Vladimir Putin, for meddling in America's November election.
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President Barack Obama (left) is poised to issue new sanctions against Russia and Vladimir Putin (right) in response to Moscow's alleged involvement in election-year U.S. hacking
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (speaking) said Wednesday that sanctions would impact Putin 'as an individual'
Citing unnamed sources, The Washington Post reported Tuesday that a package of consequences could include economic sanctions, 'diplomatic censure' and a new round of retaliatory cyber operations targeting Russia.
During a press briefing, Zakharova laid into the U.S. and questioned both the Obama administration's truthfulness and its motives.
'The biggest accusation is that Russia allegedly launched cyber attacks at the US information space with a view to interfering in US internal affairs, in particular, the election system,' she said.
'Russia is being presented as a monster that is ready to encroach on the holy of the Western holies – its democratic principles. Of course, these allegations have not been supported by any facts.'
'You probably remember that we appealed to the United States to produce evidence of this at our briefings, in the Foreign Ministry’s comments and in statements made by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and interviews he gave. We asked for at least something, even the smallest facts. We did this publicly and during bilateral talks,' Zakharova argued.
'You can ask our American colleagues how often Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has asked US Secretary of State John Kerry for this evidence. In response, we heard nothing but another helping of nonsense and accusations. It was an orchestrated campaign; nothing was left to chance.'
The outgoing Obama administration is focused on making sure incoming president Donald Trump can't easily roll back new sanctions against Russia and Putin
Meanwhile, South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham warned during a trip to Latvia that Congress will back any plan to level penalties at Russia.
'You can expect that the Congress will investigate the Russian involvement in our elections and there will be bipartisan sanctions coming that will hit Russia hard, particularly Putin as an individual,' Graham said.
Russian officials have denied accusations of interference in the election, but the Obama White House has accused Putin of orchestrating a series of hacks that exposed embarrassing secrets of the Democratic national Committee and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.
Graham also said that 'Russia is trying to break the back of democracies all around the world,'
'It is now time for Russia to understand – enough is enough,' he added.
The Post reported that the White House's plan involves revising a widely heralded 2015 executive order designed to give Obama the power to respond to cyber attacks focused on affecting the U.S. economy or its national security.
Hacking that Obama blames on Putin plumbed computers linked with Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee, and plundered emails belonging to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta (background, center)
Sanctions could include a freeze on money and other assets located in the United States, and a ban on targeted individuals from using America's banking system.
But that measure had no provision for pushing back against election interference via computer.
Obama has pledged to take some kind of retaliatory action, but Putin's government has denied involvement in the election-year hacking.
White House insiders want Obama to put the new rules in place as soon as possible so he can flex U.S. muscles before he leaves office.
The White House is also working to ensure that incoming president Donald Trump won't find it easy to reverse what it does in the Obama administration's final three weeks.
'Part of the goal here is to make sure that we have as much of the record public or communicated to Congress in a form that would be difficult to simply walk back,' an unnamed senior administration official told the Post.AMBRIDGE, Pa. (AP) — Now this is a story all about how a high school student’s life got turned upside down. But it was all just a bad rap.
The teen’s voicemail greeting trigged a lockdown at his Pennsylvania school after a receptionist misheard his rendition of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” theme song.
While trying to confirm an appointment with 19-year-old Travis Clawson the receptionist thought the message said “shooting people outside of the school.” The line is actually “shooting some b-ball,” a reference to basketball.
The receptionist called 911 and Economy police arrested Clawson a short time later at Ambridge Area High School, but released him once he explained the message.
Acting police Chief James Mann says police acted “appropriately” out of concern for students’ welfare.
Clawson’s family has contacted an attorney.
(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)There really isn’t that much of a difference if you’re just talking about communicating with English speakers. There are some different spelling conventions, different slang, different accents, and some slight grammatical variations (for example, ‘gotten,’ the past participle of ‘got,’ exists in American English but not British English), but for the most part they are mutually intelligible.
If you are non-native, I wouldn’t even bother with accent unless you become highly advanced, and even then it’s likely you won’t be able to imitate a native speaker’s accent in its entirety anyway. Doesn’t matter. I actually rather like it when my Russians sound like Russians and my Japanese sound like Japanese and my Spanish sound like Spanish or whatever. So long as you’re understandable, you can throw accent out the window.
The slight grammatical differences aren’t that big of a deal, either. Just pick the system you learned. For instance, if somebody tells me, “I’ve already got it,” where as in that situation I would say, “I’ve already gotten it” (as an American English speaker) I completely understand. I also understand if somebody writes ‘favourite’ rather than ‘favorite’ and I don’t care. The main thing here is to pick one. Your “favorite color” can be blue, or your “favourite colour” can be blue, but if your “favorite colour” is blue, that’s not good. Pick one and stick with it.
Slang is an accessory that you’ll pick up depending on the kinds of media you consume and the people you hang out with. If you’re with more American speakers, you’ll pick up more Americanisms. If you hang out with more British speakers, you’ll pick up Britishisms. If you hang out with the Australians, God help you. (Just kidding.)
Basically, the exception to this is if you end up in a professional environment where a convention is expected. So if you learned British English but end up working for an American company, you’ll need to use American conventions. This honestly won’t take you that long. I’ve written copy using British English several times and it only took me about a day to pick it up to the point where people can’t tell I’m a native American speaker. Obviously, I am still a native speaker of English and thus this is far faster for me, but I would say a non-native speaker with a high enough level to operate professionally in English, with some effort, would be able to make a competent switch in less than a month.
They are both acceptable. Just pick the one that’s more useful to you.Nuclear energy companies are proposing small nuclear reactors as a safer and cheaper source of electricity.
In June, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories put out a “call for a discussion around Small Modular Reactor (SMRs) in Canada,” and the role the organization “can play in bringing this technology to market.”
The news release asserts that SMRs are “a potential alternative to large-scale nuclear reactors,” would be effective at “decreasing up-front capital costs through simpler, less complex plants” and are “inherently safe” designs. All of this warrants examination.
As a physicist who has researched and written about various policy issues related to nuclear energy and different nuclear reactor designs for nearly two decades, I believe that one should be skeptical of these claims.
SMRs produce small amounts of electricity compared to currently common nuclear power reactors. In Canada, the last set of reactors commissioned were the four at Darlington, east of Toronto, which entered service between 1990 and 1993. These are designed to feed 878 megawatts into the electric grid.
In contrast, the first two nuclear power reactors commissioned in Canada were the Nuclear Power Demonstration reactor at Rolphton, Ont., in 1962, and Douglas Point, Ont., in 1968. These fed 22 and 206 megawatts respectively to the grid.
In other words, reactors have increased in size and power-generating capacity over time. For perspective, normal summer-time peak demand for electricity in Ontario is estimated at over 22,000 megawatts.
Cost considerations key
The reason for the increase in reactor output is simple: Nuclear power has always been an expensive way to generate electricity. Historically, small reactors built in the United States all shut down early because they couldn’t compete economically. One of the few ways that nuclear power plant operators could reduce costs was to capitalize on economies of scale — taking advantage of the fact that many of the expenses associated with constructing and operating a reactor do not change in proportion to the power generated.
Building a 800-megawatt reactor requires less than four times the quantity of concrete or steel as a 200-megawatt reactor, and does not need four times as many people to operate it. But it does generate four times as much electricity, and revenue.
Small modular reactors are even smaller. The NuScale reactor being developed by NuScale Power in the United States is to feed just 47.5 megawatts into the grid. This reduction is chiefly due to the main practical problem with nuclear power: reactors are expensive to build.
Consider the experience in Ontario: In 2008, the province’s government asked reactor vendors to bid for the construction of two more reactors at the Darlington site. The bid from Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. was reported to be $26 billion for two 1200-megawatt CANDU reactors — more than three times what the government had assumed. The province abandoned its plans.
Not surprisingly, with costs so high, few reactors are being built. The hope offered by the nuclear industry is that going back to building smaller reactors might allow more utilities to invest in them.
NuScale Power says a 12-unit version of its design that feeds 570 MW to the grid will cost “less than $3 billion.” But because the reactor design is far from final, the figure is not reliable. There is a long and well-documented history of reactors being much more expensive than originally projected. This year, Westinghouse Electric Company — historically the largest builder of nuclear power plants in the world — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States precisely because of such cost overruns.
Cost overruns aside, smaller reactors might be cheaper but they also produce much less electricity and revenue. As a result, generating each unit of electricity will be more expensive.
Design aims to reduce costs
The second part of the SMR abbreviation, “Modular,” is again an attempt to control costs. The reactor is to be mostly constructed within a factory with limited assembly of factory-fabricated “modules” at the site of the power plant itself. It may even be possible to completely build a SMR in a factory and ship it to the reactor site.
Modular construction has been increasingly incorporated into all nuclear reactor building, including large reactors. However, since some components of a large reactor are physically voluminous, they have to be assembled on site. Again, modularity is no panacea for cost increases, as Westinghouse found out in recent years.
Safety in scale?
SMR developers say the technology poses a lower risk of accidents, as Canadian Nuclear Laboratories suggests when it asserts “inherent safety” as a property of SMRs. Intuitively, smaller reactors realize safety benefits since a lower power reactor implies less radioactive material in the core, and therefore less energy potentially released in an accident.
The problem is that safety is only one priority for designers. They must also consider about other priorities, including cost reductions. These priorities drive reactor designs in different directions, making it practically impossible to optimize all of them simultaneously.
The main priority preventing safe deployment is economics. Most commercial proposals for SMRs involve cost-cutting measures, such as siting multiple reactors in close proximity. This increases the risk of accidents, or the impact of potential accidents on people nearby.
At Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant, explosions at one reactor damaged the spent fuel pool in a co-located reactor. Radiation leaks from one unit made it difficult for emergency workers to approach the other units.
Looking ahead
The future for nuclear energy in Canada is not rosy. Canada’s National Energy Board’s latest Canada’s Energy Future 2016 report that projects supply and demand to the year 2040 states: “No new nuclear units are anticipated to be built in any province during the projection period.” It notes annual nuclear generation is forecast to decline nearly 12.5 per cent from 98 terawatt-hours in 2014 to 77 in 2040.
Promoters of SMRs argue that investing in small reactors will change this bleak picture. But technical and economic factors, as well as the experience of small nuclear reactors built in an earlier era, all suggest that this is a mislaid hope.Hegemonic masculinity enforces a half-reality, obscuring women’s perspectives. Yet the irony is that dismantling these gender norms would liberate Albanian men as well as women.
Despite decades of radical progress, gender inequality still characterizes social realities throughout the globe – of course, with varying scopes. This is hardly surprising given that in the thousands of years of human history, women’s subservient roles have been engraved in early legal codes, mythological legacies, holy texts, and even modern-day institutions with their implicit gender norms.
In the Balkans, the global phenomenon of gendered inequality reveals itself in highly normalized practices of domestic violence against women, rape shaming, enforced economic dependence via unequal resource distribution, and many other historical and contemporary dimensions.
Naturally, the majority of feminist efforts seek to ameliorate such female-centric issues – issues that have otherwise been delegated to the periphery of public and historical concerns. But if feminism is to truly serve as a unifying, equalizing nexus for society, it must also at times contend with limiting social constructions that predominantly affect men’s lives – at the expense of both their women counterparts and their own selves. Such normative externalities are not in short supply in the Balkans, as men seek to mold their most “manliest” of selves and avoid at all costs any “feminine” flaws – whatever society dictates those to be.
Albanian men, especially within Albania proper, are hindered by a range of gendered norms – norms that, if eradicated, would expand the social possibilities of both genders. These expectations and roles are not necessarily applicable to all individuals and may vary widely across regions and demographics, but they are prevalent enough so as to characterize social interactions and warrant discussion at the aggregate social level.
In addition, the following norms are not exclusive to the neither Albanian-speaking societies nor the Balkan region. They exist to some extent in most modern and relatively traditional societies, but each case presents with some unique characteristics and degrees of intensity.
Ultimately, the goal of this brief exploration is to highlight how feminist theory can explicitly serve groups who may be most hostile to its social applications. For such subjects and social contexts, the key to gender equality may be the promotion of feminism’s broad benefits across genders.
The scope of Feminism
Feminism as a critical social theory, both in the realm of international and domestic relations, focuses on explaining and addressing women’s subordination across time and space – especially how dominant forms of masculinity influence and limit individuals’ expectations and socio-political atmospheres. This focus, however, also allows for the critique of limiting gender norms that primarily influence men.
For instance, feminist scholars, such as Ann Tickner, contend that the definition of “maleness” does not rest on individual traits of men, but on a “hegemonic masculinity,” or the culturally idealized form of manhood, that permeates our realities – from the individual to the international relations level. It stands in stark opposition to less valued “feminine” traits. This construction of masculinity tends to associate men with bread-winning, aggression, competition, and emotional limitations – at the same time imbuing them with reason and stability relative to women.
The normative framework of hegemonic masculinity enforces a half reality, in which women’s perspectives and problems become obscured in favor of an all-male aggregated narrative. As an applied political example, feminist scholars and practitioners, unlike their more mainstream counterparts, define security positively and broadly as the diminution of all forms of public and private violence, including physical, structural, and ecological – not just as the absence of public violence and war. Hence, feminist scholars widen the scope of the concept to include arenas that are primary sources of women’s insecurity, yet are neglected in favor of male-dominated arenas.
But how can men ever truly benefit from a theoretical framework that aims to erase their existing monopoly on historical narratives, social expectations, and preferred personality traits? It’s quite simple – not all men fit under these constructed expectations nor do all men prefer to take up the roles dictated by the narrow umbrella of hegemonic masculinity. Perhaps, some men may even wish to pursue more traditionally “feminine” roles.
In other words, hegemonic masculinity confines individual male preferences while concurrently hindering women’s social potential. In sum, such forms of masculinity severely restrict the life choices that appear plausible to men and also enforce traits that may be harmful to social relations in general.
Feminist theory can function as a catalyst for the erosion of these masculine norms, which bound the range of socially acceptable choices for individual men. In Albania and in many parts of the Albanian-speaking Balkans, social limitations typically occur in the context of childcare and domestic roles, but they can also be found in normalized criminal activities, patterns of alcoholism, trends in educational investments, and wider international perceptions.
Distancing from childcare and domestic roles
As a general rule for most societies, women remain primarily delegated to childcare and domestic household tasks, while men are excused from contributing an equal share. Even the most inclusive and gender-sensitive OECD countries show a higher unpaid labor burden on women. Consequently, the domestic realm still falls almost exclusively under the jurisdiction of undervalued feminine traits.
This distinction between feminine domesticity and prized masculinity is often most pronounced in Southern and Eastern European states, where there are extreme discrepancies between female and male unpaid labor hours. For instance, in Southern OECD countries, women on average spend more than 180 hours per day in domestic and childcare roles relative to men, and Eastern countries average at a gendered difference of about 140 hours.
It is, therefore, an unfortunate yet unanimous social fact across cultures that women dominate in so-called feminine roles of childcare and domestic housework. But in the case of Albania, the severity of this norm and degree of gender dichotomization is quite profound – especially when considering that Albania has been characterized by dual-earner households for over seven decades now.
In Albanian society, not only do men not commonly partake in domestic roles, but even an insinuation that a man is aiding in household work is enough to damage his masculine image – making him vulnerable to accusations of lowly feminine traits. As the Advanced Studies Center found, women in Albania spend most of their day maintaining the household and caring for children, even when fully employed outside of the home, and have very low leisure time, in comparison to men.
More specifically, the study found that both unemployed and employed women’s primary daily activities consisted of housework, cooking, and caring for children and other family members. In contrast, men’s primary daily activities consisted of reporting to work, searching for a job, meeting with friends in bars, or playing sports. A clear, undisputed gendered delineation of household tasks that parallels masculine and feminine divisions is at play here.
The problem doesn’t just rest with the uneven frequency of household labor divisions – it’s also about the mentalities and feedback mechanisms that these frequencies are founded upon. In many Albanian households, if a husband is seen helping his wife cook dinner, change a child’s diaper, or serve guests the mandatory coffee – he is liable for mockery by his peers.
Mothers will sometimes indirectly insult their daughter-in-laws by pointing to instances in which their sons have been “forced” to cook, clean, or take care of a child, even if minimally. In Albanian cultures and Albanian-speaking regions, childcare and housework are thus the absolute monopoly of women – with very little progress made in equalization throughout the years.
So, why is this normative reality bad for Albanian men? Aren’t they actually benefitting from a lowered labor burden? Well, not when one considers individual preferences and advantageous traits. In general, men’s discouragement from domestic tasks actively hurts an optimal allocation of resources.
It is not hard to imagine men who may value their parenting roles to a great extent and may like to primarily invest in this dimension of their lives. Yet if a man wanted to serve as the primary caregiver in a family, for example, due to some naturally occurring or created comparative advantage, he would be forced out of this initial preference by rigid gender roles.
The cultural norm of machismo and masculinity assumes that men as a whole do not wish to prioritize taking care of their children, household, and families at the closest level. The norm, instead, makes the assumption that men want to stay as far away from household and childcare responsibilities as possible – no exceptions.
As “stay-at-home dads” begin to surface and dual-caretaker households increasingly become the idealized norm in other Western societies, Albanians hold tight to the traditional dichotomy between masculine and feminine.
Unfortunately, any man who wishes to magnify his caretaker role in Albania is penalized for having feminine traits – slowly eroding his coveted masculinity. If, however, this norm of masculinity is questioned, critiqued, and then reformed according to feminism principles, then not only would women benefit from an equalization of household labor (increasing their workforce productivity among other things), but many dedicated fathers, male caretakers, and husbands would finally be free to act on their true social priorities and preferences – whether those lead to a sole focus on the workforce, traditional male pursuits, or perhaps a greater domestic role.
At the very minimum, this norm weakening would open the doors to a wider range of possible male social roles, creating a society with less domestic limitations for both genders.
“Jail is for men”
“Burgu ështe për burra” [Jail is for men] is a long-used Albanian expression, and it’s also not far from the truth today when male relatives or husbands wind up behind bars with little family commotion or shock.
This expression begins to carry more weight when placed in context with Albania’s budding capitalistic economies. Due to weak political institutions, few legal opportunities, convoluted bureaucracies, and high levels of corruption, up to 40 percent of the total output (GDP) of Albania’s economy originates from informal, shadow markets – with some studies speculating the share to be as high as 60 percent of GDP.
A chaotic economic context, steeped in political corruption, further shapes cultural expectations. It normalizes and justifies the notion that Albanian men should break laws and risk imprisonment so as to increase the status and wealth of their families. As a result, it is typical across Albanian families to have some male relatives, friends, or husbands who have been imprisoned for smuggling, stealing, or petty corruption – even intensifying up to political and personal murders for property.
Worst of all, such behavior is rarely stigmatized, nor punished within families. Males receive a free pass on illegal transgressions within their personal relations. At the same time, women are held up to impossible standards on social decorum and proper behavior – culminating in a long list of often harmless activities that would eternally rain “turp” or shame upon the family name. Hegemonic masculinity allows aggression and such transgressions on behalf of the man and sometimes even constructs their glorification.
But families and society aren’t doing the men any favors in accepting or failing to discourage illegal and violent behavior. If men see illegal routes as more profitable, probable, and not rife with social stigma and punishments – they will aim for them, sacrificing educational investments and professional career paths along the way. They may also waste years of potential productive years behind bars.
Were such gender expectations to be erased, Albanian men would face stronger social opposition to violence and illegal activity and less social pressure to make quick fortunes via shadowy, risky routes. This may encourage greater educational and professional investments down the line – of course, only if coupled with a gradually improving macroeconomic and political environment.
It’s manly to drink
When they are not pursuing other traditionally masculine activities, many Albanian men, especially within Albania proper, enjoy drinking in social and non-social settings. Indeed, alcoholism among men in Albania is also normalized and rarely treated as a degenerative social disease that must be cured or prevented. Alcohol consumption is instead frequently hailed as a masculine virtue, regardless of the emotional, financial, and even physical suffering it may cause silent wives, mothers, and children within Albanian families.
Standing solely as personal anecdotes, I recall several instances in which my Albanian friend and her American boyfriend attended Albanian functions together in the United States and Albania. After refusing alcohol as a beverage preference in favor of a simple soft drink, the American boyfriend became the target of persistent comments regarding his masculinity. “You’re a man,” several Albanian males said, “why don’t you drink?” “You should really drink a beer – this is not normal.” My personal favorite was, “Your girlfriend has really tightened your leash – that’s why you didn’t drink!”
Although many of these types of comments occur in a light social setting, they still point to a strong, detrimental social norm influencing men across Albania. Alcohol consumption, alongside other drugs such as tobacco and harder substances, is associated with increased masculine traits, and refusing to partake in such habits marks you in the eyes of your society. Social pressure is quite strong for men to pick up and continue these habits in excess, and condemnation is low, despite the various physical, social, and economics ills these habits may bring.
Women who drink in excess or smoke, however, face greater social stigmas regarding their behavior. It is
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a massive slide-out kitchen, compartmentalized storage areas, and all the amenities you would expect in a modern RV. Between the best practice assembly methods, high quality components, and painstaking attention to detail, the Turtleback has become one of our favorite trailers and basecamps.
Building the Turtleback
Before we get down into the details, there are two broad factors that truly set this trailer apart from many of its competitors. First, it was designed from the ground up with civilian camping use in mind, which means that the layout and functionality were the first priority, not afterthoughts. You won’t find a table that sort of fits in a corner and is difficult to take out, or an oddly placed compressor or water system bolted into place where cargo can smash it. There are no cooking surfaces at knee height or mounting brackets which rattle and shake over every bump, just a well meshed system of components that integrate smoothly together.
Second, Turtleback is hopelessly focused on best practices for everything they do, and the reason is simple; experience. From building and wrenching on dune buggies and jeeps, to years of working in the RV industry, Dave has applied the culmination of his knowledge and hard learned lessons into these trailers. He only uses US made gxl wires with double crimp connectors because faulty wires left his dune buggy stranded in the desert. Rusted parts on VW’s taught him to always use stainless hardware, so each and every nut and bolt is rust resistant. After seeing water damage from busted pipes and connectors in RV’s, he opted for durable and expandable PRO-PEX lines despite their additional cost. Each step of this trailer’s design tells a story of improvement, and together they paint a clear picture of Dave’s dedication to quality.
The Frame and Chassis
The key to making any great product is to start with a strong foundation, and an off-road trailer is no exception. That is why Turtleback’s process doesn’t begin on the shop floor, but in an office as a CAD (computer aided design) file. This type of program eliminates the guesswork when it comes to measurements, loads, and stress on components, allowing the product to be optimized before a single piece of steel is ever welded. Once the design is completed, it is dissected into components which are laser cut with accuracy between ten and thirty thousandths of an inch. This level of precision means that each piece of the trailer goes together easily on the first try, reducing production time and making the product more durable.
Once the skeleton has been assembled, it leaves the shop to be professionally sealed. Since a standard powder coat or bedliner wouldn’t reach into every nook and cranny, a three step military grade process was chosen. It begins with a layer of rust inhibitor on every surface and caulk in every seam. Next a two part epoxy coating is applied on the top and bottom of the trailer, followed by a thick coat of Polyuria liner. After curing, a spray of UV protectant seals it against damage from the sun. Amazingly that is the abbreviated version of this process, and even more can be learned here.
When the trailer finally makes it back to Turtleback’s facility, it begins the journey down their 5S production line. From attaching exterior panels to installing the electronics and water systems, every step is organized and clearly labeled. The process is clean and efficient, but more importantly it produces the same high quality product each time so the customer always gets what they paid for.
Living Systems and Accessories
Building a great trailer on paper is one thing, but producing one that still performs well after hundreds of miles of washboards, stream crossings, and rocky climbs is another. Thankfully our borrowed unit had already seen years of use in the field, so we got a rare chance to see how it has held up under the tests of journalists and the wear of time.
The Kitchen and Water System
Summary Pros: Tons of work space
Stylish Baltic Birch Cabinets
Many separate drawers for organized storage
42 Gallon water tank
Good water pressure to faucet
Atwood water heater provides consistent hot water once warmed
Gas safety cut-off Cons: Top drawer slide detent wore out
Stove could use some more BTU’s
No fridge
Details
The first thing most people notice about the Turtleback is the kitchen, and for good reason. It is huge! Upon opening the back door you’ll immediately be greeted with two full width baltic birch drawers, each with sub drawers of their own. Additionally a stainless steel table can be deployed from the swing-out on the right to create the perfect space for chopping and mixing; while a thin cabinet on the door to your left holds bowls, cups, and other various sundries.
In the main galley, the top drawer holds spices, canned goods, coffee, cutlery, and thanks to the removable dividers, darn near anything else. It slides in and out easily and is the perfect height for most small containers. Our only gripe with this part was the lack of slide-locks, which allowed the drawer to creep out when the trailer was slanting down in the rear. It does have a detent to hold it back, but the countless hard miles endured by this test model had taken their toll and ours no longer functioned.
The lower slide out contains the backbone of this kitchen, the stove and sink. Of the two, the sink seemed to be everyone’s favorite feature, as it made cooking out of the trailer feel just like home. Sure it wastes more water, but with a 42 gallon tank you won’t be running out anytime soon. I found that we filled water bottles more often, cleaned dishes faster and more thoroughly, and even started making tea on occasion, but I have to say that it was the small daily task of washing my face that completely sold me on it. There’s nothing like turning on the faucet for a quick splash of water in the morning instead of having to pour it out of a container one handed.
The water pump provided good pressure and didn’t spit or cough with air bubbles, and we’ve been told it won’t burn up when run dry. For cold morning and warm showers, Turtleback also tied in an Atwood heater for hot water on demand. Although it took about twenty minutes to get going, it was very effective once on. In fact with the small amount of propane needed to run it you can actually heat the trailer’s entire water supply overnight to prevent it from freezing.
The only minor issue we found was that the original pump used in this trailer was noisy, making early morning or late night use somewhat irritating to those sleeping in the tent. However, newer models have a quieter pump eliminating the issue.
I’ll be honest and say that the stove didn’t overwhelm us like the rest of the kitchen. It’s a two burner Atwood unit, and in most cases it is adequate but average. Eggs and bacon cook easily enough in the morning, chicken will grill up okay though it takes longer, and overall there just never seems to be more than medium heat available. The most painfully obvious test of this was boiling water to make coffee in the morning, a time when twenty minutes feels like twenty hours. In general the stove can get any cooking job done, it will just take a bit longer to do it.
We have been told that a new upgraded kitchen and stove setup will be unveiled at Overland Expo West next week, and based on the rumored components we couldn’t be more excited!
One thing we loved about the stove setup was the auto-cutoff safety feature. With the upper drawer so close to the stove’s flame when deployed, Turtleback decided to wire in a switch that disabled the gas when the shelf above the stove slid out. Thankfully they included an override switch If you have to access the spice rack while cooking. Simply hold the button next to the stove and the gas will stay on while you slide it out and grab what you need.
Over all there was only one thing I felt the kitchen lacked and that was a fridge. While you can mount one in the storage area, it eats up a lot of cargo room. Dave’s thoughts are that the fridge should remain in your vehicle to stay with you on day trips, a good point. Often times we leave the trailer setup as a base-camp while exploring, and it stinks to leave your food and beer back at camp. For most people this works fine, but for those who can’t mount a fridge in their vehicle due to lease plans, or others that just want everything in a ready to roll hitch and go package, no fridge might be a hard sell.
The Tent and Awning
Summary Pros: Thick poly cotton rip stop canvas
Tons of features you would find in a more expensive tent including stargazer roof, snow support rod, etc
Thicker mattress than most roof tents – 3″
Easy to stow with intuitive cover design and strong elastic fabric straps
270 awning provides plenty of protection from rain Cons: Tent cover draped over storage box unless removed
Fox wing zipper is small, mandating proper care
Awning cover was a little short
Details
Our Turtleback came with a brand new 23 Zero roof top tent, features and specs can be seen here. As this was my first encounter with the brand I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I can say that I walked away impressed. In nearly every way, this is the tent that bridges the gap between the low end roof top tents and the top of the line South African imports. Though I would say it ranges closer to the South African tents. Made of 260gsm poly cotton rip stop canvas it feels thick and sturdy with an air of classic safari comfort about it. It has all the features you would expect to find in a more expensive tent like covered support poles, a stargazer roof with mosquito mesh, elastic straps to pull the walls in, an adjustable rain fly, heat sealed seams, and even one feature I have never seen before, a snow support rod to prevent accumulation! My favorite feature though is the 3″ thick mattress, which feels downright plush in a tent.
Stowing and deploying a soft-shell will never be as easy as a hard shell, but this is probably the easiest one I have used so far. While most tents require plenty of tucks and folds to the fabric before placing the cover, this one never did. Whether its in the design or pure luck I’m not sure, but everything always went perfectly into place without the least bit of coaxing. The cover itself also helped speed things up, as one side of it remains attached so you can just pull it back on. The downside is that it lays across the trailer’s side storage box when the tent is open, but we can live with it for the savings in frustration.
Unfortunately the awning wasn’t quite as flawless as the tent, but let’s start with the positives. The Foxwing 270° model wraps around the side and back of the trailer providing extensive cover for you and your guests. It is very affordable compared to similar products on the market, and provides expansive shade from both rain and sun. Deployment is easy, and once staked down we found it to be quite sturdy even in moderate winds. It also has optional extension sides which allows you to close off the awning as a living space. My reservations with the awning extend to the zipper, poles, and cover. The zipper is undersized for the application, which not only causes it to clog and stick when dusty, but also makes it easy to break while closing everything up. This problem can be alleviated with proper care by using a zipper wax and cleaning regularly, but ideally we’d see a different zipper in the end. The cover is also a little too small for the packed awning, which forces you to shove and tuck to stow the fabric properly. The upside is that once stowed the awning looks great and makes no noise, but a 1/2″ of additional fabric on either side would make the design much easier. Finally the support poles are relatively thin-walled in order to be so light, which allows them to dent easily, and once damaged they will not extend properly to support the awning. A heavier duty storage case or even a PVC tube would prevent this damage from happening on the road, and it seems to be what Turtleback has switched too. Of additional note, the dark green fabric absorbed heat more readily than say a tan or light grey would have, so it’s important to deploy it high enough to prevent heat from radiating down on the shade-seekers below. In the winter and on brisk mornings though, dropping the awning down gives a nice warmth and shelter to the camp space.
Storage
Summary Pros: Organized and compartmentalized storage, not a big empty cargo bed to fill
Easy to access lighting for nighttime illumination
“Junk” drawers for those pesky camp items that never have a place
12v outlets inside main box
Storage for long or bulky items under roof rack
Very little dust incursion
Quality latches to hold doors open Cons: Seals will need to be re-seated after a few years (minor)
Details
I mentioned earlier that the Turtleback set itself apart by not being an empty cargo box with parts thrown at it, but that doesn’t mean it’s short on space. Instead of leaving everything to rattle around in one box, this trailer separates it into four different areas. Up front you’ll find a large nose box with plenty of room to accommodate dirty gear you want to keep separated from other equipment. Your electronics system is here though so you’ll need to be careful about proper placement. Behind that you’ll find two boxes on the sides of the trailer, each perfect for wheel chocks, leveling blocks, paper towels, marshmallow roasting sticks, flip flops, and all that miscellaneous crud you never have a spot for. Then of course there is the main box, which will house the majority of your bags and equipment. Once again Turtleback is all about the details, and you’ll find interior lights wired to switches on both sides of the trailer, making it easy to see what you’re doing at any time of night. There were also three 12v outlets inside this compartment, which will allow you to charge computers, fridges, and other gear on the go.
Now you are probably thinking, all my camp gear won’t fit in that small box… but by the time you’ve allocated all your cooking equipment to the kitchen, your sleeping bags and pillows to the tent, and your recovery gear to the vehicle, you’ll find that things are becoming quite organized and spacious in that bay. Additional storage is found underneath the roof rack where you can secure and long bulky items that require more length. Our test trailer had two huge lifetime tables, as well as room for oars and fishing poles.
Despite our best attempts to get dust or water into the boxes, the seals remained tight throughout our trips even in storms and heavy silt. The one exception was a few tablespoons of water which made their way into the side box after extended direct pressure from a hose. This was not surprising, as any trailer’s seals will compress after extended off-road use. A quick adjustment was able to fix the issue and reseal the box.
Electronics
Summary Pros: Organized layout
Manual with full wiring diagram for easy modifications
Dual deep-cycle batteries for extended camp periods
High quality components and best practice connections give long term reliability
Excellent lighting system with high visibility and low ambient options Cons: None found
Details
Wiring a high quality electrical system can be a tricky business, and we’ve seen malfunctions ranging from failed lights to faulty switch panels plague trailers. To say Turtleback’s system was a breath of fresh air then would be an understatement. Two deep-cycle batteries, a solar controller, pure sine wave inverter, easy access circuit breaker, Blue Sea switches, panels, and fuse blocks, all connected with double-crimped heat shrunk USA made wiring. It makes me feel a little warm and fuzzy inside just thinking about it. Despite my love of their best practice wiring methods, there was something I appreciated even more, their organization and documentation. As you can below, everything was mounted in an easily serviceable location without a tangled mess of wiring. What’s more they created a full schematic of the trailer so no matter what issue you have or who works on it, you can simply look at the manual and know where everything is.
With all that power there’s no reason to skimp on lighting, and skimp they did not. From bright LEDs on the sides and back of the box, to the soft underglow for maintaining night time visibility, this trailer has some of the most useful coverage we’ve seen. Ill admit that the green color on the underglow wasn’t my favorite, however it does make a lot of sense for their branding.
Field Performance
In the few weeks we had this trailer, our team covered close to 700 miles of dirt and pavement throughout Arizona. We traveled long stretches of corrugation, made steep and loose climbs, traversed icy passes, and tackled cross axle ravines to try and find every strength and weakness of this great trailer. In the end we were very pleased with it’s performance, but that doesn’t mean it was perfect.
On the highway the Turtleback is very well mannered, and tracks with the vehicle flawlessly. The stout torsion suspension keeps it low and well balanced and the additional width helps to increase stability. Our test model’s tent sat just above the roof line of our 4Runner, so while there was some additional wind resistance it wasn’t as significant as taller trailers. The LED lights give it plenty of visibility to other drivers at night, and even large bumps in the road didn’t cause much of a disturbance in handling. The one drawback on the highway was weight. At 1300-1500lbs dry, it can become quite heavy when loaded with water and equipment. The 4Runner saw a mileage drop about equal to that incurred by our So-Cal teardrop, and it performed best around 55-65 mph.
Off-road the Turtleback really settled into its groove and the weight became less noticeable. Forest roads were smooth without as much of the side to side motion we experienced with other torsion axle trailers. This is mostly thanks to their special vulcanized cartridge which is sprung to 2700lbs with 3500lb components. The lower weight rating gives it a softer ride while maintaining the durability and serviceability of the torsion platform. Each axle is held on with a simple bolt up system which can easily be swapped in the field in less than 30 minutes.
On rough roads we did find the usual troubles with this style of axle. Rocks, dips, and bumps all tended to cause the trailer to bounce as the suspension was not able to compress quickly enough, and the lack of a shock limited the ability of the system to dampen and control the compression/rebound cycle. The result was less stability and more jolting of the trailer and cargo. Fortunately its low stance and reduced weight rating improved the ride when compared to every other torsion axle trailer we’ve tested, but it still limits your travel speed on the dirt.
Though bumpy roads weren’t this trailer’s forte, it shined on technical terrain and cross axle ravines. The wide stance gave the it tons of stability on off-camber sections of trail, and the low weight distribution given by the water tank and other equipment just improved it further. Clearance was never an issue despite the lower body and fenders, and the tongue length seemed to be perfectly matched to our 4Runner. One of my common complaints with most trailers is their narrow track-width which makes it hard to place your tires on rocks properly or see when backing up. Turtleback seems to have nailed it though, as I was able to easily guide it between trees, around boulders, and over ledges with ease.
Final Thoughts
Although the Turtleback may look like other off-road trailers, I walked away with a very different impression. It felt more comfortable, we used the features and accessories more often, and I enjoyed myself more than I had with many other products. It took me a while to pinpoint why, but I think it’s because everything was so easy that it became a home on the trail. Instead of having to rip open boxes and bags to assemble our camp kitchen, we simply pulled two levers and a stove and sink were waiting for us. We weren’t fiddling with tiny camp utensils and tables, because we had the space to use whatever we wanted. Our clothes and gear was easy to locate inside because there were convenient light switches wherever we needed them, and best of all each component worked smoothly because it was designed to go there, not adapted to fit. The culmination of Dave’s attention to detail with his team’s hard work has created one of my favorite trailers to date. While it isn’t perfect, it is good enough that I miss using it every time I head out without it in tow. If you’re tired of the same old cargo box formula and are looking for a purpose built four-wheel drive touring trailer, you might just find it in a Turtleback.
For more information and pricing, check out Turtleback’s website and blog here.The peregrine falcons in their nesting box in 2015. (Photo: Rob Schumacher/The Republic)
The month-old peregrine falcon chick that captured attention and hearts as its life was captured on a downtown Phoenix webcam died Saturday due to injuries from a fall.
The chick, which hatched on Mother’s Day, was on a ledge out of camera range when it slipped and fell from the Maricopa County administration building, said Randy Babb, the wildlife viewing manager for the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
Officials monitoring the nest quickly recovered the chick, which remarkably did not suffer any obvious injuries after the 10-story fall, Babb said. However, after X-rays revealed no broken bones and the chick was returned to the nest, it died a short time later, Babb said.
He said the chick may have suffered internal injuries the X-rays did not reveal. Heat also may have been a factor.
“We’re just not sure the exact cause of death,” Babb said. “But it all relates to the fall. The heat was intense but falcons can usually adjust to that.”
Babb said falcon chicks often leave the nest to explore along ledges. Falls are not uncommon.
“It happens in the wild all the time,” Babb said. “A number of falcon chicks die each year that way. But this chick had been seen by thousands, so it makes it more difficult to accept.”
For more than a decade, falcons have been nesting near the top of the county administration building at Third Avenue and Jefferson Street. Game and Fish officials eventually built and installed a roosting box, hooking up a webcam so people could watch nature unfold.
And, Babb said, it’s not always pretty.
“It’s a shame what happened,” he said. “But in the end, it’s just nature.”
Read or Share this story: http://azc.cc/1t1O3wpScientists Discover The Largest Planet Outside Our Solar System, Kepler-1647 B, That Orbits Two Suns!
Scientists Discover The Largest Planet Outside Our Solar System, Kepler-1647 B, That Orbits Two Suns!
Astronomers have discovered the largest planet outside our solar system orbiting two stars, at a distance that would make it potentially habitable for humans.
Reuters
The discovery was made using the Kepler space telescope.
The gaseous planet - dubbed Kepler-1647 b is the size of Jupiter and has a wide orbit, revolving around its two stars in 1,107 days, or around three years.
The discovery is the eleventh of its kind since 2005.
Planets that orbit two stars- known as circumbinary planets - are sometimes called "Tatooines," after the similar fictional planet in the movie Star Wars where Luke Skywalker was raised.
Kepler-1647 b is further from its two stars than any other known circumbinary planet, placing it in an orbit that "puts the planet within the so-called habitable zone," a statement from San Diego State University (SDSU) said.
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In theory, that would make the planet neither too hot nor too cold for human habitation, and water could exist in liquid form.
However, Kepler-1647 b is gaseous like Jupiter, making the possibility life could exist there unlikely. Still, any large moons orbiting the planet could possibly host life.
bccl
At 4.4 billion years old, Kepler-1647 b is roughly the same age as the Earth. Its stars are also similar to the Sun, one slightly larger and the other slightly smaller, according to a research paper set to appear in The Astrophysical Journal.
Located near the Cygnus constellation, the planet lies some 3,700 light-years away from the Earth (a light-year is the equivalent of around 5.9 billion miles, or 9.5 billion kilometers).
Researchers are able to detect planets outside the solar system - called exoplanets - when they pass in front of their stars, causing "slight dips in brightness," the researchers said.
"But finding circumbinary planets is much harder than finding planets around single stars. The transits are not regularly spaced in time and they can vary in duration and even depth," William Welsh, an SDSU astronomer, said.
bccl
Researchers who detect potential exoplanets use advanced computer software to verify the discoveries, a typically long and arduous process.
Astronomer Laurance Doyle of the SETI Institute - whose mission is to "search for extraterrestrial intelligence"- first noticed Kepler-1647 b's transit in 2011.
Scientists required several years to collect and analyse additional data before they could confirm the planet's discovery.
Also Read: NASA Discovers 1,284 Planets Outside Solar System, The Highest So Far
Inputs From AFPThe Angle Minnesota’s Jackson Yueill Breaks Out of the Shadows: Ready to Turn Pro by Brian Quarstad on 28 June 2016
To say the 2015/2016 soccer season was a breakout year for Minnesota’s Jackson Yueill would be an understatement. Yueill is on the brink of a promising career and he reveals to FiftyFive.One that he is ready to take his first professional steps.
Over the past year, he earned multiple call-ups to the US Men’s U-18 team where he participated in the 2015 NTC Invitational and the Copa Chivas. He made the cut again for the U-20 team where he played in the 2015 Four Nations Tournament in Germany. At the same time, he had a highly successful freshman season at UCLA, winning honors and accolades along the way. Then, just this past weekend, Jackson Yueill’s name was called once again by the national team, this time as the U-20s prepare for next year’s FIFA World Cup.
Since youth, Bloomington, Minnesota native Yueill was often left in the shadows of friend and teammate Mukwelle Akale. Akale, who currently plays in Villarreal’s youth system, would often be talked about by Minnesota youth coaches as the next up and coming player. It was Akale who would often grab the headlines and for good reason. Yet Yueill was a good player in his own right. He put his head down, continued to work hard and improve year after year as he played for the Minnesota Thunder Development Academy teams. There, you could often find Jackson training with Mukwelle’s father, Ralph, or with his own father Mark, who also spent plenty of time coaching Mukwelle. Jackson was clearly growing into a talent in his own right.
Read: Minnesotan Mukwelle Akale, Feeling at Home at Villarreal CF
Yueill received his first call up to a US youth national team as a U-14 but struggled to get called back until 2014. Afterward, his name was called regularly for the U-18s. Not only was Jackson a good attacking midfielder he was also versatile, playing defensively if needed. Yet for Yueill, recognition and attention were still hard to come by.
A Move to College
In 2015, Yueill made his way to UCLA for his freshman season. Talk amongst top Minnesota soccer coaches said Yueill had the talent and would really like to go pro. They also felt he still needed a year or two to develop before making the big jump. However, most shared the belief that he wouldn’t last more than two years before moving to MLS.
Yueill’s decision to attend UCLA was partially based on strategy but also what the midfielder saw when he visited the PAC-12 school. “Being from Minnesota it was sort of hard,” explained Yueill. “There aren’t really many scouts around here [Minnesota] because we have no Division I college programs. You don’t really get looked at. California and LA especially is a really competitive place. There are a lot of soccer people out there. That’s what I was looking for. In California, Florida, and Texas there dozens of scouts watching each game you play in. I think the regional aspect really plays a role in your own recognition and even your growth as a player. But when I was looking at schools, I thought UCLA played the best soccer. That’s really what influenced me the most to play there.”
The choice ended up being a good one for Yueill. He started out the 2015 UCLA season a bit slow but gained in confidence rapidly. Within a short while, Yueill’s name was on numerous lists for top college freshman. He played in 20 games, made 18 starts and scored seven goals with six assists in 1,560 minutes. He was an All-Pac 12 selection and made Top Drawer Soccer’s Freshman Best XI. He was named to the NSCAA All-Far West team and when the MLS SuperDraft came around in January of this year, he was on a number of lists as a player that could receive a Generation Adidas contract.
“You’re stepping into a new team where you are the youngest guy which is hard at first. But the coaches believed in me.”
“I really think that for me, college was a great choice. It’s helped me mature and understand the game better from a leadership role,” said Yueill. “I think overall it helped my confidence. That might have been the biggest part of the year for me. You’re stepping into a new team where you are the youngest guy which is hard at first. But the coaches believed in me. Even if I did something wrong they’d keep pushing me, kept playing me. As the season progressed my confidence really grew. It’s helped me mature and understand the game better from a leadership role. That definitely helped me mature more, as a player but also as a person.”
Yueill is explosive in his first step, athletic, and has a solid first touch. At 5’10” and 155 pounds, he isn’t large by any means. Yet watching him on the field he’s strong and appears bigger than he is. He holds the ball well and is rarely dispossessed. “I don’t know what you’d even call that,” Yueill reflected. “Maybe soccer strong? If you look at guys like Messi or Iniesta, they aren’t very big. But they have the type of strength you need for soccer. My positioning off a defender is something I can do well and it allows me to hold the ball, even against bigger guys.”
“If you look at guys like Messi or Iniesta, they aren’t very big. But they have the type of strength you need for soccer. My positioning off a defender is something I can do well and it allows me to hold the ball, even against bigger guys.”
Yueill says he sees himself as a number 10 because attacking “is his favorite thing to do.” But more often than not you will see him in the number 8 role as a defensive midfielder and transitional player. “For the US I almost always play the number 8 or sometimes you can find me wide on the left if we are playing a 4-4-2. I’ll be on the outside of that midfield diamond. In college, I play the 8 as well,” explained the UCLA sophomore.
According to Yueill, the biggest improvements he saw in himself this past year was his mindset and how he approached each game. “In college, the stakes are much higher. In the past, to be honest, I probably would take a game off [mentally] here and there. In college, everyone is expecting things from you. You learn that you have to try as hard as you can in each and every game and play to your full potential,” Yueill said. “It’s really a stepping stone for me to take it to the next level.
A Professional Future
What might that next level be? Yueill says he’s ready to move on after this season with UCLA and would love to sign a contract with either MLS or a European team. “I think next year will be a good year to transition to the pros,” Yueill said. “Since I’ve been a child I’ve dreamed of playing professionally. Given the opportunity, I’d definitely have to take it.”
Despite his decision to go pro after this season, Yueill said he has even more incentive to play well this fall. “Last year I think I was ranked pretty high, but a lot will depend on my performance this year.”
If Minnesota United do not join MLS in 2017, Yueill would likely receive a GA contract and be selected in the first round of the SuperDraft. If the Loons do join MLS next year, they could potentially snatch the midfielder from other MLS teams by proclaiming him a HomeGrown player.
Minnesota United Sporting Director Manny Lagos wouldn’t comment on when the team was moving to MLS or if there was interest in Yueill. He did praise the young Minnesotan. “I think he’s really one of the better up and coming American players, particularly central or even wide at midfield,” said Lagos. “He’s had a couple of really good years with the youth national team setups and he had a great year at UCLA. We are certainly excited when we see a local player going out there, playing well and considering staring his pro career.”
“I definitely think playing for Minnesota would be very cool – in my own hometown.”
“If [Minnesota United] were able to sign me as a HomeGrown player or whether I’d go into the SuperDraft, I’m just not sure,” explained Yueill. “That’s a talk I’ve had with my dad as well as a few others and I haven’t really figured everything out yet. But I definitely think playing for Minnesota would be very cool – in my own hometown.”
The UCLA freshman finished school on June 10th and immediately flew over to trial with Sweden’s Jönköpings Södra IF which was set up by a friend of his father, who lives in Minnesota. J-Södra is in the top-flight Allsvenskan after being promoted last season from the second flight Superettan. They recently defeated Malmö FF but sit 11th in a 16-team table with a 2-6-3 record.
Yueill was in Jönköping for 8 days and only returned to his Bloomington home on June 21. He admits to being very nervous going in, but by the end of his stint with Södra his confidence lifted seeing that he fit in with the players on their team. “It was very competitive but I was definitely able to play at that level,” said Yueill of his trial. “Everyone there is, of course, fighting for a paycheck. Going in I wasn’t really sure, but it went alright. I’ve not really trained with any first teams, especially a European team.”
”I think being in a European professional environment would be very beneficial and definitely expand my knowledge and level of the game. I would definitely consider it if they offered me a contract. It would also open more doors for me with other European teams, which would be great for my career,” reflected Yueill.
What’s next for the Minnesota midfielder? Currently, Yueill is in Carson, California with the US U-20s along with his old Minnesota teammate and friend Mukwelle Akale. They both hope to get minutes in the three games they will play in the 2016 Men’s NTC Invitational which runs from June 26-July 4.
“It’s always an honor to be called up to the national team. We are getting closer and closer to the qualifiers [U-20 WC] in 2017. The closer it gets the list of people getting called up gets very cutthroat. It’s hard to keep making that list. So far I’ve continued to get called up. I think that if I continue to keep doing what I’ve been doing, and keep improving, I’ll continue to get invitations.”
After the US camp, Yueill hopes to fly home to Minnesota where he would like to do some training with Minnesota United in the month of July. In early August he’ll be back at UCLA for preseason camp. “My summer at home in Minnesota this year is going to very short,” laughed Yueill. That’s something the young Minnesotan will have to adapt to quickly if he signs a pro contract this coming year. One thing seems for certain with Yueill, he’s worked his way into the public’s eye and he’s not going back.
Tags: jackson yueillPrivacy Gone on Offshore Assets When struggling consumers hear about offshore banking, they naturally think such assets only apply to the rich. Secret bank accounts issued in the name of a confidential number, often portrayed in mystery movies, are less prevalent than a stake in an oversea property estate. Cash in a financial institution is an easy reporting task for foreign banks. Although, most Americans do not possess such wealth, many do have an interest in real property or chattel ownership in portable entities that are outside the physical soil of the country. Even if you are not one of these fortunate beneficiaries, the principle behind the (FATCA) statue can certainly apply a broad interpretation domestically. The provisions commonly known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act became law in March 2010. •FATCA targets tax non-compliance by U.S. taxpayers with foreign accounts •FATCA focuses on reporting: •By U.S. taxpayers about certain foreign financial accounts and offshore assets •By foreign financial institutions about financial accounts held by U.S. taxpayers or foreign entities in which U.S. taxpayers hold a substantial ownership interest •The objective of FATCA is the reporting of foreign financial assets; withholding is the cost of not reporting. Notice 2013-43 revises the implementation timeline and provides additional guidance Clarification for individual’s states: Taxpayers with a total value of specified foreign financial assets below a certain threshold do not have to file Form 8938 If the total value is at or below $50,000 at the end of the tax year, there is no reporting requirement for the year, unless the total value was more than $75,000 at any time during the tax year "The I RS anticipates issuing regulations that will require a domestic entity (corporations, partnerships, trusts, or estates) to file Form 8938 if the entity is formed or used to hold specified foreign financial assets and the total asset value exceeds the appropriate reporting threshold." If you have insomnia, try some bedtime reading - Basic Questions and Answers on
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LOS governs maritime disputes on overlapping maritime zones like overlapping territorial seas, EEZs and ECSs. UNCLOS does not govern territorial disputes, which are sovereignty or ownership issues over land territory like islands or rocks above water at high tide. Rocks that are below water, or submerged, at high tide are not considered land and thus disputes over such rocks are governed by UNCLOS.
UNCLOS provides for a compulsory dispute settlement mechanism over maritime disputes among its member states, including disputes involving the interpretation or application of the provisions of UNCLOS.
A state may opt out of certain specified disputes, one of which is maritime boundary delimitation arising from overlapping territorial seas, EEZs or ECSs. A state cannot opt out of any dispute except those expressly specified under UNCLOS. China, the Philippines and all the other disputant states in the South China Sea are parties to UNCLOS, and are thus bound by the UNCLOS compulsory dispute settlement mechanism.
Maritime disputes are governed primarily by UNCLOS, while territorial disputes are governed by the general rules and principles of international law. Maritime disputes are subject to compulsory arbitration because under UNCLOS a party state has given its advance consent to compulsory arbitration, unless a state has opted out of compulsory arbitration involving certain specified disputes. In contrast, territorial disputes can be subject to arbitration only with the consent of each disputant state to every arbitration, unless such consent has been given in advance in a treaty. There is no such treaty between the Philippines and China involving compulsory arbitration of territorial disputes.
Solely a maritime dispute
The Philippines’ arbitration case against China is solely a maritime dispute and does not involve any territorial dispute. The Philippines is asking the tribunal if China’s 9-dashed lines can negate the Philippines’ EEZ as guaranteed under UNCLOS. The Philippines is also asking the tribunal if certain rocks above water at high tide, like Scarborough Shoal, generate a 200 NM EEZ or only a 12 NM territorial sea. The Philippines is further asking the tribunal if China can appropriate low-tide elevations (LTEs), like Mischief Reef and Subi Reef, within the Philippines’ EEZ. These disputes involve the interpretation or application of the provisions of UNCLOS.
The Philippines is not asking the tribunal to delimit by nautical measurements overlapping EEZs between China and the Philippines. The Philippines is also not asking the tribunal what country has sovereignty over an island, or rock above water at high tide, in the West Philippine Sea.
Under UNCLOS, every coastal state is entitled to a 200 NM EEZ, subject to boundary delimitation in case of overlapping EEZs with other coastal states. The EEZ is the area extending to 200 NM measured from the baselines of a coastal state. Under UNCLOS, EEZs must be drawn from baselines of the coast of a continental land or island capable of human habitation of its own. This basic requirement stems from the international law principle that the “land dominates the sea” – or to put it another way, areas in the seas and oceans can be claimed and measured only from land.
A coastal state has full sovereignty over its 12 NM territorial sea. Beyond the territorial sea, the coastal state has only specific “sovereign rights” up to 200 NM from its baselines. These “sovereign rights” are to the exclusion of all other states. The term “sovereign rights” refers to specific rights that do not amount to full “sovereignty.”
A coastal state’s “sovereign rights” to its EEZ beyond the territorial sea refer principally to the exclusive right to exploit the living and non-living resources in the area, without other sovereign rights like the right to deny freedom of navigation and over-flight, which a coastal state can deny in its territorial sea.
China claims almost 90% of the South China Sea under its so-called 9-dashed line map, which overlaps 80% of the Philippines’ EEZ in the West Philippine Sea. If China’s claim is upheld, the Philippines will lose 80% of its EEZ in the West Philippine Sea, including the Reed Bank and even Malampaya. The Philippines will also lose all its ECS in the West Philippine Sea.
The maritime dispute between the Philippines and China boils down to whether there are overlapping EEZs between the Philippines and China in the West Philippine Sea. Are the waters enclosed by China’s 9-dashed lines part of the EEZ of China such that China’s EEZ overlaps with the EEZ of the Philippines? China also claims that the islands in the Spratlys like Itu Aba generate their own EEZs which overlap with the Philippines’ EEZ in Palawan.
China argues, through its scholars and officials, that the arbitral tribunal has no jurisdiction over the Philippines’ claim for two reasons: First, the dispute involves maritime boundary delimitation arising from overlapping EEZs of the Philippines and China, a dispute that China has opted out of compulsory arbitration. Second, China’s 9-dashed line claim is a historical right that predates UNCLOS and cannot be negated by UNCLOS. On these grounds, China has refused to participate in the arbitral proceedings.
The Philippines’ response is that the waters enclosed within China’s 9-dashed lines do not constitute an EEZ because the 9-dashed lines are not drawn from baselines along the coast of continental land or habitable islands. Under UNCLOS, EEZs can only be drawn from baselines along the coast of continental land or an island capable of human habitation or economic life of its own. China’s 9-dashed lines do not comply with the basic requirement of UNCLOS for drawing EEZs.
China has no EEZ that overlaps with the Philippines’ EEZ in the Scarborough area. China’s baselines are either along the coast of Hainan Island, which is 580 NM from Luzon, or along the coast of mainland China, which is 485 NM miles from the Zambales coastline in Luzon facing Scarborough Shoal. Even if you grant the Chinese-held Paracels an EEZ, the Paracels are about 480 NM from Luzon. To have overlapping EEZs, the distance between the opposite baselines must be less than 400 NM. In the Scarborough area, there is no baseline in Luzon where its distance from the nearest Chinese baseline is less than 400 NM.
Low-Tide-Elevations or LTEs are rocks above water at low tide but below water, or submerged, at high tide. LTEs are not land but part of the submerged continental shelf. Under UNCLOS, LTEs beyond the 12 NM territorial sea are not capable of appropriation by any state. As part of the submerged continental shelf, LTEs beyond the territorial sea but within the EEZ of a coastal state are subject to the sovereign rights of such coastal state.
Thus, LTEs in the Spratlys within the 200 NM EEZ of the Philippines, like Mischief Reef and Subi Reef, are subject to the sovereign rights of the Philippines. Under UNCLOS, only the Philippines can construct structures on LTEs within its EEZ. Geographic and hydrographic surveys, satellite imageries, and international nautical charts, including China’s own nautical charts, all show that several geologic features in the Spratlys occupied by China, including Mischief Reef and Subi Reef, are LTEs within the Philippines’ 200 NM EEZ.
Scarborough Shoal, 124 NM from Zambales in Luzon, lies within the Philippines’ 200 NM EEZ. Scarborough Shoal has 3 to 4 rocks that protrude not more than 2 meters above water at high tide. The rocks have no vegetation and obviously cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own. As a non-habitable “island,” Scarborough Shoal generates only a 12 NM territorial sea.
Contrary to China’s claim, Scarborough Shoal cannot, for obvious reasons, generate an EEZ. The Philippine position is that whether China or the Philippines, which are the only two claimant states, has sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal, the rocks can only generate a 12 NM territorial sea. Thus, Scarborough Shoal has no overlapping EEZ with the EEZ of Luzon.
In the Spratlys, with the exception of China, all the disputant states, namely the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia, agree that none of the islands in the Spratlys generates an EEZ. The largest island, Itu Aba, has a land area of only 37.7 hectares and a coastline of 1.0 KM facing Palawan, the largest Philippine province. Palawan has a land area of 1,489,655 hectares and a coastline of 650 KM facing Itu Aba. In short, Palawan’s coastline is 650 times longer, and its land area 39,513 times larger, than those of Itu Aba. The distance between Itu Aba and Palawan is 250 NM. Itu Aba is occupied by Taiwan, which the Philippines recognizes as part of China.
Under UNCLOS, to generate an EEZ an island must be capable of human habitation or economic life of its own. The soldiers stationed in Itu Aba cannot survive without periodic supplies from Taiwan. In the law of the sea jurisprudence, there are many islands bigger than Itu Aba that have been denied EEZs opposite a mainland or a much larger island. In all probability, an international tribunal will deny Itu Aba an EEZ.
Even assuming for the sake of argument that Itu Aba generates an EEZ, the UNCLOS rule of ensuring an “equitable solution” in maritime boundary delimitation prohibits any substantial disproportion in the allocation of EEZs if the length of the opposite coastlines are substantially unequal. The opposite coastline of Itu Aba is 1 KM while that of Palawan is 650 KM.
Equitable solution
Under law of the sea jurisprudence, the rule of “equitable solution” in opposite coastlines requires a reasonable degree of proportionality, or at least absence of excessive disproportionality, in the lengths of the coastlines and the areas of the adjacent EEZs. The best-case scenario for Itu Aba is a reduced EEZ of 50 NM facing Palawan, while Palawan will have a full EEZ of 200 NM facing Itu Aba. Itu Aba may, however, be given a longer or even a full EEZ facing the South China Sea away from Palawan.
Of course, if an arbitral tribunal rules that Itu Aba is capable of human habitation or economic life of its own and thus generates an EEZ, the tribunal will have no jurisdiction to proceed further without the consent of China. The arbitral tribunal cannot rule on the extent of such EEZ for that will involve a maritime boundary delimitation on overlapping EEZs – a dispute that China has excepted from compulsory arbitration.
In such eventuality, where an arbitral tribunal rules that Itu Aba generates an EEZ, the Philippines will then file a second case against China, this time for compulsory conciliation over the maritime boundary delimitation between China’s EEZ in Itu Aba and the Philippines’ EEZ in Palawan. Under UNCLOS, states that opt out of compulsory arbitration in maritime delimitation of sea boundaries cannot opt out of compulsory conciliation. While the report of the conciliation commission is non-binding, it will have persuasive authority as the equitable boundary delimitation under international law.
Interestingly, in China’s dispute with Japan over the Japanese-held Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, China claims that the largest Senkaku island - Uotsurishima - with an area of 430 hectares, does not generate an EEZ but only a 12 NM territorial sea because, according to China, Uotsurishima cannot sustain human habitation of its own. In sharp contrast, China claims that Itu Aba, which has an area of only 37.7 hectares, and Scarborough Shoal, whose largest rock has an area of not more than 3 square meters, each generates a 200 NM EEZ, implying that both Itu Aba and Scarborough can sustain human habitation of their own. Uotsurishima is 11.4 times larger than Itu Aba and 860,000 times larger than the largest Scarborough rock.
This is not the only glaring inconsistency of China. China claims that the largest Japanese-held rock in Okinorotishima in the Philippine Sea, protruding about two feet above water at high tide with an area of less than 4 square meters, does not generate a 200 NM but only a 12 NM territorial sea because obviously Okinorotishima cannot sustain human habitation of its own. Yet China claims that Scarborough, which just as obviously cannot sustain human habitation of its own, generates a 200 NM EEZ. There is neither reason nor rhyme in China’s position.
China on shaky ground
China’s claim to a “historical right” to the waters enclosed within the 9-dashed lines in the South China Sea is utterly without basis under international law. This is the almost universal opinion of non-Chinese scholars on the law of the sea.
First, UNCLOS extinguished all historical rights of other states within the 200 NM EEZ of the adjacent coastal state. That is why this 200 NM zone is called “exclusive” – no state other than the adjacent coastal state can exploit economically its resources. Fishing rights that other states historically enjoyed within the EEZ of a coastal state automatically terminated upon the effectivity of UNCLOS.
Moreover, UNCLOS prohibits states from making any reservation or exception to UNCLOS unless expressly allowed by UNCLOS. Any reservation of claims to historical rights over the EEZ or ECS of another coastal state is prohibited because UNCLOS does not expressly allow a state to claim historical rights to the EEZ or ECS of another state. In short, UNCLOS does not recognize “historical rights” as basis for claiming the EEZs or ECSs of other coastal states.
Second, under UNCLOS the term “historic bays” refers to internal waters, and the term “historic titles” refers to territorial seas. A state can claim “historical rights” over waters only as part of its internal waters or territorial sea. Thus, under UNCLOS, a state cannot claim “historical rights” over waters beyond its territorial sea.
The South China Sea, beyond the 12 NM territorial sea of coastal states, has never been considered as the internal waters or territorial sea of any state. Since time immemorial, ships of all nations have exercised freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. Likewise, since the time airplanes flew across the seas, aircraft of all nations have exercised freedom of over-flight over the South China Sea.
If the South China Sea were the internal waters or territorial sea of China, then no state could have exercised freedom of navigation and freedom of over-flight over the South China Sea. Indeed, China has stated that there is freedom of navigation and freedom of over-flight in the South China Sea, an admission that the waters enclosed within the 9-dashed lines do not constitute China’s internal waters or territorial sea.
The waters enclosed within the 9-dashed lines cannot also form part of China’s EEZ or ECS because they are not drawn from China’s baselines and are beyond the limits of China’s EEZ and ECS as drawn from China’s baselines. In short, China’s claim to the waters enclosed by the 9-dashed line claim does not fall under any of the maritime zones - internal waters, territorial sea, EEZ and ECS - recognized by international law or UNCLOS that can be claimed by a coastal state. Only China seems to know what kind of maritime regime the 9-dashed line waters fall under, but China is not telling the world except that it is claiming “indisputable sovereignty” over such waters by “historical right.”
Third, under the general principles and rules of international law, a claim of “historical rights” to internal waters or territorial sea must satisfy four conditions. One, the state must formally announce to the international community such claim to internal waters or territorial sea, clearly specifying the extent and scope of such claim. Two, the state must exercise effective authority, that is, sovereignty, over the waters it claims as its own internal waters or territorial sea. Three, such exercise of effective authority must be continuous over a substantial period of time. Four, other states must recognize, tolerate or acquiesce to the exercise of such authority.
China fails to comply with any of these four conditions. China officially notified the world of its 9-dashed line claim only in 2009 when China submitted the 9-dashed line map to the United Nations Secretary General. Not a single country in the world recognizes, respects, tolerates or acquiesces to China’s 9-dashed line claim. China has never effectively enforced its 9-dashed line claim from the time of China’s domestic release of its 9-dashed line map in 1947 up to 1994 when UNCLOS took effect, and even after 1994 up to the present.
Thus, under the general principles and rules of international law, China cannot claim any “historical right” that pre-dated UNCLOS. Even assuming, for the sake of argument, that China has such “historical right,” the entry into force of UNCLOS in 1994 extinguished such right. Under UNCLOS, a state cannot claim any “historical right” to the EEZ or ECS of another state.
Weak position
China, with its blatantly weak position under international law, has tried to shore up its position with so-called “historical facts”. For one, China claims that Scarborough Shoal, or Huangyan Island to the Chinese, is the Nanhai island that the 13th century Chinese astronomer-engineer-mathematician Guo Shoujing allegedly visited in 1279, having been ordered by Kublai Khan, the first emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, to conduct a survey of the Four Seas to update the Sung Dynasty calendar system. Thus, the Chinese Embassy website in Manila claims:
Huangyan Island was first discovered and drew (sic) into China's map in China's Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368 AD). In 1279, Chinese astronomer Guo Shoujing performed surveying of the seas around China for Kublai Khan, and Huangyan Island was chosen as the point in the South China Sea.
The alleged visit of Gou Shoujing to Scarborough Shoal in 1279 is the only historical link that China claims to Scarborough Shoal.
However, in a document entitled China’s Sovereignty Over Xisha and Zhongsa Islands Is Indisputable issued on January 30, 1980, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially declared that the Nanhai island that Guo Shoujing visited in 1279 was in Xisha or what is internationally called the Paracels, a group of islands more than 380 NM from Scarborough Shoal. China issued this official document to bolster its claim to the Paracels to counter Vietnam’s strong historical claims to the same islands. This Chinese official document, published in Beijing Review, Issue No. 7 dated February 18, 1980, states:
Early in the Yuan Dynasty, an astronomical observation was carried out at 27 places throughout the country. In the 16th year of the reign of Zhiyuan (1279) Kublai Khan or Emperor Shi Zu, (sic) personally assigned Guo Shoujing, the famous astronomer and Deputy Director of the Astronomical Bureau, to do the observation in the South China Sea. According to the official History of the Yuan Dynasty, Nanhai, Gou’s observation point, was “to the south of Zhuya” and “the result of the survey showed that the latitude of Nanhai is 15°N.” The astronomical observation point Nanhai was today’s Xisha Islands. It shows that Xisha Islands were within the bounds of China at the time of the Yuan dynasty.
China is now estopped from claiming that Scarborough Shoal is Nanhai island. China has officially declared that Nanhai island is in the Paracels, and thus China can no longer claim that Scarborough Shoal is the Nanhai island that Gou Shoujing visited in 1279. Besides, it is quite ridiculous to claim that the famous Chinese astronomer-engineer-mathematician would visit and write for posterity about a few barren rocks that barely protruded above water at high tide.
One could not imagine how Guo Shoujing went ashore to “visit” Scarborough Shoal when it was just a rock, with no vegetation, and did not even have enough space to accommodate an expedition party. Worse, the Chinese historical account that Guo Shoujing installed one of the 27 Chinese observatories on Nanhai island clearly rules out any possibility that Scarborough is Nanhai island because no observatory could have possibly been physically installed on Scarborough Shoal at that time.
Based on the extant Gaocheng Observatory built in 1276 by Guo Shoujing in Henan Province, Guo Shoujing’s 27 observatories were massive 12.6 meters high stone and brick structures. The purpose of the observatories was to accurately determine the duration of the calendar year. To operate such an observatory, one had to visit the observatory every day of the year to take measurements. There was simply no way at that time that such an observatory could have been built and operated on the tiny rocks of Scarborough Shoal.
In short, it is both physically and legally impossible for Scarborough to be Nanhai island - physically because no observatory could possibly have been installed in 1279 on the tiny Scarborough rocks, and legally because China has already officially declared that Nanhai is in the Paracels, more than 380 NM from Scarborough.
Lost in translation
Another preposterous Chinese claim is that China’s southernmost territory is James Shoal, 50 NM from the coast of Bintulu, Sarawak, Malaysia. James Shoal is a fully submerged reef, 22 meters under water, entirely within Malaysia’s 200 NM EEZ and more than 950 NM from China. How did the fully submerged James Shoal become China’s southernmost territory?
Let me quote a fascinating article on James Shoal published on February 9, 2013 in the South China Morning Post, written by Bill Hayton, a well-known British journalist: How did the Chinese state come to regard this obscure feature, so far from home, as its southernmost point? I've been researching the question for some time while writing a book on the South China Sea. The most likely answer seems to be that it was probably the result of a translation error.
In the 1930s, China was engulfed in waves of nationalist anxiety. The predation of the Western powers and imperial Japan, and the inability of the Republic of China to do anything meaningful to stop them, caused anger both in the streets and the corridors of power. In 1933, the republic created the "Inspection Committee for Land and Water Maps" to formally list, describe and map every part of Chinese territory. It was an attempt to assert sovereignty over the republic's vast territory.
The major problem facing the committee, at least in the South China Sea, was that it had no means of actually surveying any of the features it wanted to claim. Instead, the committee simply copied the existing British charts and changed the names of the islands to make them sound Chinese. We know they did this because the committee's map included about 20 mistakes that appeared on the British map - features that in later, better surveys were found not to actually exist.
The committee gave some of the Spratly islands Chinese names. North Danger Reef became Beixian (the Chinese translation of "north danger"), Antelope Reef became Lingyang (the Chinese word for antelope). Other names were just transliterated so, for example, Spratly Island became Sipulateli and James Shoal became Zengmu. And this seems to be where the mistakes crept in.
But how to translate "shoal"? It's a nautical word meaning an area of shallow sea where waves "shoal" up. Sailors would see a strange area of choppy water in the middle of the ocean and know the area was shallow and therefore dangerous. James Shoal is one of many similar features in the Spratlys.
But the committee didn't seem to understand this obscure English term because they translated "shoal" as " tan" - the Chinese word for beach or sandbank - a feature which is usually above water. The committee, never having visited the area, seems to have declared James Shoal/Zengmu Tan to be a piece of land and therefore a piece of China.
Apparently, Chinese leaders and cartographers claimed James Shoal as China’s southernmost territory even without seeing James Shoal. Certainly, no Chinese could have gone ashore to “visit” James Shoal. James Shoal is the only national border in the world that is fully submerged and beyond the territorial sea of the claimant state.
Today, when Chinese naval vessels visit James Shoal, they would occasionally drop to the bottom of James Shoal cement and steel markers to designate China’s southernmost territory. Of course, this is blatantly contrary to UNCLOS, which prohibits any state from appropriating submerged features beyond its territorial sea. Not even Malaysia, whose coastline is just 50 NM away, can claim James Shoal as its sovereign territory.
Bill Hayton’s account of how James Shoal became China’s southernmost territory gives us an idea how dubious are China’s “historical facts” under its so-called 9-dashed line claim. China’s official proclamation in 1980 that Nanhai island is in the Paracels also exposes China’s false claim to any historical link to Scarborough Shoal.
Indeed, all Chinese official maps during the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties placed the southernmost border of China at Hainan Island. The famous 17th century Qing Dynasty Kangxi maps, prepared by the Jesuit missionaries who became advisers to Emperor Kangxi, placed Hainan Island as the southernmost border of China. None of the Chinese dynasty maps ever mentioned the Paracels, the Spratlys, Scarborough Shoal, the 9-dashed lines or the U-shaped lines.
Guangdong province of China first claimed the Paracels in 1909. China itself claimed the Paracels only in 1932 and the Spratlys only in 1946 after World War II. In the 1951 San Francisco Peace Conference that produced the Peace Treaty of San Francisco, the victorious allies rejected by a vote of 48 states to 3 states (only the Soviet Union, Poland and Czechoslovakia dissented) to turn over possession of the Paracels and Spratlys to China as demanded by the Soviet Union on behalf of China.
As late as in 1932, China has been telling the world that its southernmost border was Hainan Island. In a Note Verbale to the French Government on September 29, 1932 protesting the French occupation of the Paracels, the Chinese Government officially declared:
Note of 29 September 1932 from the Legation of the Chinese Republic in France to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Paris
On the instructions of its Government, the Legation of the Chinese Republic in France has the honor to transmit its Government’s reply to the Foreign Ministry’s Note of 4 January 1932 on the subject of the Paracel Islands.
The Si-Chao-Chuin-Tao Islands, also known as Tsi-Cheou-Yang and called the Paracel Islands in the foreign tongue, lie in the territorial sea of Kwangtung Province (South China Sea); the northeast are the Ton-Chao Islands; the Si-Chao-Chuin-Tao Islands form one group among all the islands in the South China Sea which are an integral part of the territorial sea of Kwangtung Province.
According to the reports on the Si-Chao-Chuin-Tao (Paracel) Islands drawn up in the Year XVII of the Chinese Republic (1926) by Mr. Shen-Pang-Fei, President of the Commission of Inquiry into these islands, and to the files of these islands compiled by the Department of Industry of Kwangtung Province, the islands lie between longitude 100°13’ and 112°47’ east. More than 20 in number, large and small, most of them are barren sandbanks, 10 or so are rocks and 8 are true islands. The eastern group is called the Amphitrites and the western group the Crescent. These groups lie 145 nautical miles from Hainan Island, and form the southernmost part of Chinese territory.
In short, in 1932 the Chinese Government officially declared to the world that the “southernmost part of Chinese territory” or border was Hainan Island, which for the first time according to the Chinese included the Paracels. This declaration categorically affirmed the previous official maps of the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties that showed Hainan Island as the southernmost territory or border of China. James Shoal, 800 NM away from the Paracels and 950 NW from Hainan Island, was never in Chinese history the southernmost territory or border of China.
The same is obviously true for Scarborough Shoal, which is 380 NM from the Paracels and 500 NM from Hainan Island. Since Hainan Island or even the Paracels are the southernmost territory or border of China as officially declared by China in its September 29, 1932 Note Verbale to the French Government, then Scarborough Shoal is not part of, and could never have been part of, Chinese territory.
The oldest map in the world depicting Scarborough Shoal is the Murillo map that was first issued in 1734 during the Spanish regime. The Murillo map, entitled Mapa de las Islas Filipinas, was made by the Spanish priest Fr. Pedro Murillo. The Murillo map clearly shows Scarborough Shoal, at that time called Panacot, lying just across Zambales. Panacot was the name given by Filipino fishermen to Scarborough Shoal during the Spanish regime.
The real and unvarnished historical facts in the South China Sea are quite different from what China has claimed them to be. Despite its name, which was given by European explorers and cartographers, the South China Sea was never the sole domain of China or of any one country. Even if we go back to the Sung Dynasty, we find the early Filipinos already sailing across the South China Sea to trade with the Chinese along the coast of Canton in mainland China.
A noted Chinese scholar during the Yuan Dynasty, Ma Tuan-lin, wrote in his book A General Investigation of the Chinese Cultural Sources, about traders from the Philippines, which the Chinese at that time called Mo-yi or Ma-i. Ma Tuan-lin stated in his book, published in 1322 during the Yuan Dynasty and republished in 1935 in Shanghai:
There were traders of the country of Mo-yi carrying merchandise to the coast of Canton [for sale] in the seventh year of Tai-ping-shing-kuo [of the Sung Dynasty, that is 982 A.D.].
As early as 982 A.D., Filipino traders were already masters of the South China Sea, sailing back and forth from the Philippines to China to trade, more than 400 years before the Chinese Imperial Admiral Zeng He launched his famous sea voyages from 1405 to 1433 A.D.
Joint development: Why it's problematic
China has been dangling to the Philippines and other claimant states its offer for joint development of the disputed areas while shelving the sovereignty issues, an idea suggested by the late Chinese paramount leader Deng Xiaoping. There are at least three problems to this offer.
First, China wants to jointly develop the EEZ of the Philippines but refuses to jointly develop China’s own EEZ. In effect, China is saying to the Philippines, what is exclusively China’s economic zone is China’s alone, but what is exclusively the Philippines’ economic zone belongs to both China and the Philippines, and if the Philippines does not agree, China’s warships will be there to prevent the Philippines from exploiting its exclusive economic zone.
Second, as explained by Chinese officials and scholars, China’s offer of joint development is subject to the precondition that participating coastal states must first expressly recognize China’s “indisputable sovereignty” under its 9-dashed line claim. This precondition effectively means that once a state agrees to joint development, it must not only vacate any island it possesses in the Spratlys and turn over the same to China, it must also renounce any maritime claim within the 9-dashed line area. This precondition demanded by China is obviously inconsistent with its offer to shelve the sovereignty issue.
Third, if the Philippines agrees to China’s joint development offer, the Philippines will in effect give up its exclusive “sovereign rights” to exploit all the living and non-living resources in its own EEZ. The Philippines will also give up its exclusive right to exploit the mineral resources in its own ECS. The bottom line is that China’s joint development offer will negate the maritime entitlements of the Philippines under UNCLOS. This is constitutionally impermissible because our 1987 Constitution mandates the State to “protect the nation’s marine wealth in its xxx exclusive economic zone, and reserve its use and enjoyment exclusively to Filipino citizens.” Any joint development with China constitutes a “culpable violation of the Constitution.”
Of course, the fact that the use and enjoyment of our EEZ is reserved exclusively to Filipino citizens does not mean that Chinese companies cannot participate in the exploitation of oil and gas in our EEZ. They can but as technical and financial contractors of the Philippine Government or Filipino companies under Philippine law, not Chinese law. As such technical contractors and financial contractors, they may be paid in kind. This is actually the set-up in Malampaya where Shell is the technical and financial contractor of the Philippine Government under Philippine law.
Not one of the claimant states to the Spratlys has accepted China’s joint development offer. Acceptance of China’s joint development offer means a complete surrender to China’s outlandish “indisputable sovereignty” claims. In an article in The Diplomat dated February 28, 2014, Prof. Carl Thayer, a well-known regional security analyst, quoted how a Malaysian defense official viewed China’s joint development offer:
Nor are we ready to consider joint development activities with the Chinese. That would require recognition of China’s claims in the South China Sea, including our EEZ. And that’s not our policy.
Vietnam has a similar view of China’s joint development offer. Dr. Tran Truong Tuy, Director of the Centre for South China Sea Studies at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, interprets the Chinese offer as saying: “What is mine is mine, what is yours is mine and we are willing to share.”
The world is now familiar with the expansionist designs of China in the South China Sea. China’s creeping invasion of the islands, rocks and reefs, as well as of the waters, of the South China Sea grows in force and aggressiveness each day as China’s naval forces assume greater superiority over those of other coastal states. The Philippines is particularly vulnerable to Chinese bullying because the Philippines has the weakest navy among all the major disputant states in the South China Sea.
The Philippines lost Mischief Reef in 1995 and Scarborough Shoal in 2012 to Chinese invasion. Vietnam lost the Paracels in 1974 and Fiery Reef Cross in 1988 to Chinese invasion. China, as I speak, threatens to forcibly evict the handful of Philippine marines aboard the shipwrecked RPS Sierra Madre in Ayungin Reef, an LTE within the Philippines’ EEZ in the Spratlys. The Chinese invasion and occupation of these islands, rocks and LTEs are acts of armed aggression outlawed by the United Nations Charter.
Deng's commitment
The world should now remind China of Deng Xiaoping’s solemn commitment to the world when he declared in his speech before the United Nations General Assembly on April 10, 1974:
A superpower is an imperialist country which everywhere subjects other countries to its aggression, interference, control, subversion or plunder and strives for world hegemony. xxx If one day China should change her color and turn into a superpower, if she too would play the tyrant in the world, and everywhere subject others to her bullying, aggression and exploitation, the people of the world should identify her as social-imperialist, expose it, oppose it and work with the Chinese people to overthrow it.
China’s rulers today have transformed China into the imperialistic hegemon that Deng asked the Chinese people and the world to fight and overthrow should China’s rulers in the future deviate from his vision of a peaceful and law-abiding China. Deng had repeatedly promised the world that China would “never seek hegemony.” Sadly for Deng, and sadly for the rest of the world, especially for the Philippines, that day has come.
I end by affirming that this exercise of pursuing the arbitration case against China is to reserve the use and enjoyment of our marine wealth in our EEZ exclusively to Filipinos, as mandated by the Constitution, which we have all sworn to uphold. - Rappler.com
(Philippine Supreme Court Senior Justice Carpio delivered this speech before the Philippine Women’s Judges Association on March 6, 2014)A year and a day — that’s how long it took Frydenberg to kill off “Finkel”.
On 7 October 2016, just nine days after a series of tornados took out at least 22 transmission pylons in South Australia and set off a cascading series of events resulting in a state-wide blackout, federal environment and energy minister John Frydenberg commissioned chief scientist professor Alan Finkel to review the stability of our energy system. Finkel’s expert team met with regulators around the world, considered 390 submissions, held 120 meetings and commissioned modelling from multiple experts.
What is the national energy guarantee and is it really a game changer? Read more
On 8 October this year, word trickled out that the clean energy target (CET), Finkel’s centrepiece, was dead.
A week later, Frydenberg announced the national energy guarantee (Neg). In just three weeks, with no public process, no modelling, no consultation with the Coag energy council, whose approval it requires, the newly formed Energy Security Board (ESB) had knocked together an alternative “conceptual framework”, described in an eight-page letter and a media release, that proposes to push responsibility for reliability and emissions reduction to electricity retailers.
Many energy analysts have been surprised at how quickly many in the electricity sector have fallen in line, especially when so little detail exists. Perhaps they are all punch-drunk, and at this stage in the fight, perhaps anything looks better than another round. More likely, the apparent truce will endure only for as long as details remain scant.
The easiest part of the Neg to deliver is the reliability guarantee. Retailers already use so called “cap” contracts which act as a de facto capacity market. With minor tweaking and regulatory oversight, existing mechanisms are likely to suffice. Further, there is no urgent need for additional capacity on reliability grounds — the Australian Energy
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We see that both of these men were gifted with an early life rich in contact with sources of remembering truth. They both also had yogic and mystical processes of a dramatic nature arise either spontaneously or by way of practices of one sort or another. They both finally reached a point of seeing jnana or true knowledge as not being the possession or experience of the ego and conceptual mind, and both also went on to teach that the idea of a teacher was bogus, and therefore by inference, one might come to assume that so is grace as well. The only conclusion I can draw from all this is that their understanding, while genuine, and even useful, was yet incomplete. [The needed balance is found in the work of Paul Brunton on the "Long Path" and the "Short Path." Both of these teachers benefitted from the former, but upon graduating to the latter, unnecessarily denounced the former as bogus, whereas the two approaches taken together are required in most cases. See The Long and Short of It on this website]. Yet all teachers are worthy of our gratitude, and the testimony and company of spiritual friends everywhere our blessing. There is help to be found at every step. As Kirpal Singh even said, “there are books in rivulets, and sermons in stones.” To tell you the truth, I kind of like these guys. J.K. - Nirvana U.G. - What Will You Do With Enlightenment? (1) Some feel thatwas written by Leadbeater; Krishnamurti remembered nothing about it, according to S.R. Vas, in(Jaico Publishing, 1971)(1a) Paul Brunton, reference misplaced(2) Kirpal Singh,(Franklin, New Hampshire: Sat Sandesh Books, 1971), p. 152(3)(Burdett, New York: Larson Publications, 1988), Vol. 16, 3.399(4) Ibid, Vol. 10, 2.511(5) Terry Newland, ed.,(Goa, India: Dinesh Publications, 1988), p. 16(6) Ibid, p. 20(6a) Mukunda Rao,(internet post)(6b) Wei Wu Wei,, 2002, p. 174-175(7) Rodney Arms,(Goa, India: Dinesh Vaghela, 1982)(8) Newland, op. cit., p. 23The end: Sanders comes to terms Bernie Sanders appeared to have sensed it Thursday: His campaign is days from its end. Sanders got a warm embrace as he returned to Washington -- first for a meeting with President Barack Obama, then private huddles with Sens. Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer, and finally Vice President Joe Biden at the Naval Observatory.
Back home in the Senate: Reid said the two spent time reminiscing over war stories -- "some of the battles that we had here in the Senate." He extended Sanders an invitation -- the Vermont senator will speak to the Democratic caucus at 1 p.m. Tuesday -- and said Sanders is "in a good place with my caucus and... with the country." The message was clear: Sanders has a place to land, with his influence intact or increased, as his campaign ends.
This is the tea leaf to read, from Sanders on the White House driveway after his Obama meeting: "I look forward to meeting with (Clinton) in the near future to see how we can work together to defeat Donald Trump and to create a government which represents all of us and not just the 1%" More from CNN's MJ Lee.
Up tonight: Sanders is rallying in Washington, D.C., at 7 p.m. at RFK Stadium. The District of Columbia's primary is Tuesday, and it's the last one of 2016.August 16, 2015 Can a subscription service ever afford romance readers?
JaneLetters of Opinion
In the space of a month, Scribd dropped over 70% of the romance catalog and Amazon retooled the way it paid authors under the Kindle Unlimited program. Both Scribd and Kindle Unlimited’s movements signaled (to me) that the cost of romance readers was too damn high for these subscription services. Amazon was able to adapt by paying authors less (and I suspect that KU payments will continue to decline overtime) but Scribd’s response was to cut the part of the membership body that was bleeding them money.
For under $10.00, readers got unlimited access to a huge catalog of romances. Scribd paid essentially a full royalty for any book read past 10%. For a book that was $3.99 or more, Scribd would lose money on any reader who accessed more than four books a month because it’s monthly subscription was $8.99. (Assuming 60% royalty, four books would equal $9.58 paid out for one reader).
According to one Pew poll, the typical American reads five books a year. A 2011 Library Journal study pegged the Power Patron as those who log more than 47 books read per year as opposed to the 27 read by the average patron. The Power Patron would check out just shy of four books a month making a Power Patron as someone whose cost would likely just exceed the $8.99 subscription price. Just exceeding the subscription price, however, would be offset by the typical American reader who would only borrow 5 books a year.
The problem is that the average romance reader consumes far more books than 4 books a month. Some romances readers can consume 4 books a week. I read about five D.B. Reynolds books one week. There were also a number of serials on Scribd that I was happy to access and read but would never have purchased because the cost would have been more than I wanted to pay for a single book. And for Scribd, serials probably were an even greater cost. Individually priced serial releases of 8,000 words probably resulted in one “book” exceeding a subscriber’s fee. I suspect serials were a big reason that Amazon moved to paying a per page price instead of a per download price.
In sum, romance readers were on a pace to break Scribd. (How they will deal with comic readers, I don’t know).
Since Scribd moved away from romance readers, I kept thinking about the price point. Is there a price point at which a service could provide a full royalty to authors and still be benefit to romance readers? Probably not. I spent $50.00 last month on 13 books but I read far more. I have a KU account and the benefit of free books. Despite reading fewer books last month due to other things, I still read about three a week. That’s one Scribd subscription a month.
While I’d be willing to pay $50 to have access to anything I want, I have a hard time saying $50 per month for a limited library. Even before the Scribd dramatically cut its offering, there were still several books I wanted that weren’t available on Scribd. Even if Scribd offered a tiered payment service, how many people would take them up on this?
$9.99 is the anchoring price point for streaming services. Netflix is $9.99. Hulu is $7.99. HBO Go is the most expensive option at $14.99 a month. Hulu has an interesting pricing system. It’s $7.99 and then they have “premium add ons”. The only one is Showtime for an additional $8.99. For music, Apple offers a $9.99 individual subscription and $14.99 per month for family access.
Getting anyone to pay more than $14.99 for books is unlikely.
The only other option for a subscription service is to pay the creators less. Amazon changed the way it paid KU authors from per download to per page read. The amount authors are expected to receive per page is approximately.0056. Netflix licenses content for a fixed fee and it’s suspected that Amazon does the same for the Amazon Prime movies. It’s not feasible for subscription services to pay per download. Subscription services for books are likely stymied by existing contracts between publishers and authors. For individual self published authors, a potential solution is to offer a per book flat fee, i.e., $100 per year to offer a book for unlimited downloads. Unfortunately, I don’t foresee this happening in the near future.
And I wonder whether anyone but Amazon is going to be able to afford offering a subscription service to romances readers. We just consume too much.
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RelatedIt's a good vape, very tasty and smooth. For me, it's 4 stars because I'd like it more if the peanut butter was more prominent.
Pretty good, but nothing like butterfinger
First off, I love 2vaped! Great company that really goes above and beyond. Great job guys. Now, this liquid is POTENT. When I received it I was afraid the bottle broke during shipment because I could smell a peanut butter/butter smell and it intensified when I opened the package. Initially when you smoke this for the first time, you get a hint of the chocolate followed by mostly butter with a hint of peanut butter. The more you smoke, The more you are left with butter with a hint of peanut butter. A little disappointed, but overall still a good taste. I can imagine this flavor is hard to make. The bottle itself is a higher quality than other 30mL I have gotten so that is a definite plus. Thanks 2vaped!We have been having an amazing week working with our friends in the Lonely Island, and a ton of other super talented people putting together an AWESOME performance for the Oscar’s on Sunday!! We can’t wait for you to see it. Make sure to tune in at 7pm ET / 4pm PT on ABC, and don’t forget to keep an eye out for us on the red carpet!
We also have a special treat for you while you are watching. We will be debuting a brand new remix of Goodbye, Goodbye from our very own bassist Jasper Leak, exclusively on Shazam! The only way to hear it, is to Shazam the Oscar’s broadcast and you’ll unlock the remix on our artist page. While you are there, you can enter to win a So Jealous X Deluxe box set!
It’s going to be a night to remember!
Tegan and Sara xoJACK DEMPSEY/Associated Press
Denver Broncos practice squad safety John Boyett was arrested on a misdemeanor assault charge Wednesday, Greenwood Village Police confirmed to Mike Klis of The Denver Post.
Latest Update from Friday, Oct. 24
Jesse Paul of the Denver Post has more details of Boyett's arrest:
John Boyett, now a former member of the Broncos' practice squad, was arrested early Wednesday in Greenwood Village after police say he drunkenly head-butted and punched a cab driver, stole a shovel from a construction site then tried to hide from officers by covering himself in mulch, court records show. Boyett, 24, told arresting officers to "contact his boss John Elway" before repeatedly slamming his head into a patrol car window while yelling and spitting, records say.
Boyett didn't stop there, according to Paul:
Before his arrest, Boyett had been drinking at the Sports Book Bar & Grill, where a bartender and patrons said he was highly intoxicated and making threats, police say. Police said Boyett tried to take food off another patron's plate and was asked to leave when he became agitated, threatening to punch a bartender and refusing to pay his tab. Two police officers responded and called Boyett a cab. About five minutes later, the driver called authorities to report he had been assaulted by Boyett on the 9700 block of East Arapahoe Road, records say. Responding officers and Arapahoe County Sheriff's deputies confronted Boyett and took him into custody after "giving Boyett commands and having Tasers pointed at him until he complied."
Original Article from Wednesday, Oct. 22
Boyett, 24, has been a member of the Broncos practice squad since November 2013. A sixth-round pick by the Indianapolis Colts in 2013, Boyett is yet to make a regular-season appearance on the active roster. He was among Denver's final cuts this preseason.
"We are disappointed to learn of the matter involving John Boyett and are in the process of gathering more information," a Broncos spokesperson told Klis.
The Colts released the former Oregon star last September after he was arrested and charged with disorderly public intoxication and resisting law enforcement following an altercation with police outside an Indianapolis bar.
Details on Boyett's latest off-the-field troubles are scant. Klis noted that he was given a third-degree assault charge but had no information on what caused the incident. In Colorado, a third-degree assault charge is the least severe and is defined by a person "'knowingly' or'recklessly' causing bodily injury to another person," according to The Law Office of Kevin R. Churchill's website.
The maximum penalty for third-degree assault is a two-year jail sentence, though first-time offenders are typically given lighter sentences.
Boyett has made no comment on his arrest at this time.
Update from Thursday, Oct. 23
One day after John Boyett was arrested for assault, the Broncos have released the safety according to Mike Klis of The Denver Post:
Klis also provided an additional detail from the scene when Boyett was arrested:
Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.Primus is at The Fox Performing Arts Center in Riverside on Sunday, but they will not be performing just any old concert…
Instead they are performing the soundtrack from the 1971 film Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory — to promote their studio recording of it, Primus & the Chocolate Factory – and we have found tickets for you for almost 50% off!
Featuring the return of drummer Tim Alexander, Primus founder Les Claypool and guitarist Larry LaLonde, prepare for a wild ride as the group reimagines Wonka tunes like “Candy Man” and “Golden Ticket” using — as Claypool once famously labeled the Primus sound — their “psychedelic polka” style.
Get Your Discount Primus Tickets Here
Cactushugs.com in no way guarantees any rates, details or promotions displayed on the site – but we do get a tiny, tiny percentage of anything you buy …hey, gotta pay the bills somehow. But whatever, you are saving money and we might be able to afford to eat, so win / win.Mike Scheidt has been busy over the last couple of years, having seen the release of his first solo album, the first VHOL record, and the Lumbar record. He also found time to guest on the last Red Fang album. This year sees his main band, Yob, put out a stellar new record, Clearing the Path to Ascend (Neurot), which pushes boundaries for the band and takes their uplifting music to darker, uncharted waters. I had a chance to speak to Mike about Yob’s new album, his vocals, and transparency in heavy music.
This being Yob’s initial album for Neurot Recordings, did you approach recording for this label any differently than you have approached labels in the past?
We know who we are and what we do, so we tend to just approach recording an album the same as we always have – but I will say, it’s a little more nerve-wracking handing in an album to Steve Von Till and Scott Kelly than it has been to just about any other label, just because we love Neurosis, and we hold them in crazy-high regard as artists. So that was a little nuts, giving them the record, especially as they took the leap of faith on our album without even hearing a lick of it. But it’s turned out great.
You’ve been friends with Scott Kelly for a number of years. How did Yob’s signing to Neurot Recordings come about?
Just through that, really. I’ve known Scott since 2004, and I’ve met the rest of the guys in Neurosis through Scott, and through being able to play live shows with them. Both Scott and Steve made it known to us a number of years back that Neurot would be available to us if we ever wanted to do an album with them. Then, when Scott and I were on our solo tour together, it just came up again, and we talked about it, and it became a reality.
Neurot really seems to be a perfect fit for Yob.
On every level, we feel like Neurot is the first time we’ve ever been on a label where the guys who run it know exactly what we do, because it’s what they do too. They’ve spent countless hours in vans, and toured the world multiple times, put out records on multiple labels, and put out their own albums. They remain artistically intact and very much, their spirit is a sense of tribe – and almost a spiritual brotherhood, I guess. For us to be included on their label, and for them to have that vote of confidence in us, and put out one of our albums is pretty satisfying. We’ve had a great time being on Profound Lore; we had a good experience with Metal Blade, too. Relapse is putting out the vinyl of the new album, and they’ve been great to us too. We’re in a good place right now.
You’ve spoken of this album being Yob’s heaviest record yet, emotionally, and it certainly feels like a darker record. Did you seek consciously to write a darker record, or did this emotional weight just reveal itself throughout the writing process?
Definitely the latter. I was just writing from a very heavy place, not trying to wallow in it but to move through it. It was digging into those emotions and heaviness in a complete and total manner, and as a result, I think the riffs are soaked in it; it makes for nuances to it that are unique compared to other music we’ve recorded.
The title of has the ring of a Zen koan to it. Is there a specific spiritual mindset you were going for when you named the album?
Yes, just to make space – make space internally, so that better information can come in. Lessons can be learned, and not at the expense of yourself. I guess my view of the dark things in me, is that I’m not out to kill them, or irradiate them – because to me, that stuff has also been responsible for leading me into some very beautiful things in my life. It’s also a way that, when people are in touch with their dark side and don’t get puritanical about it, it’s easier to connect with other people, because we all have it. People may live healthier lives and make healthy decisions, but they all know full well their own darkness. It becomes a balancing factor, and also a siren too – when something can be dangerous, it can be a voice to help someone out of it. So it’s really meant to be a balanced approach, but all the same, to not to be run by it either. Good servant, bad master.
You’ve really knocked it out of the park, vocally, on the new record. Did you approach your vocal recording differently on this album?
There’s been a pretty drastic difference this time because I decided to take vocal lessons, and I’d never done it before. I’ve taken lessons for pretty much everything else I do, but I was a little leery of taking vocal lessons because I didn’t want to lose what I already had, and maybe get, like, classical training that might start to affect some of the things I already do. But I did some research and found a guy up in Portland named Wolf Carr, who’s a graduate from Berklee College of Music. His mom is a professor of voice, so he’s been in voice work his entire life – but he’s a younger guy, so he understands metal, hardcore, and hard rock singing. He really understands screams and death-roars. So, as a result, our conversations weren’t about how I’m destroying my voice, or how I shouldn’t be singing x or y; it was all geared towards exercises, patterns and warm-ups, and different ways to approach vocals in a live setting, dos and don’ts – that kind of thing.
I started practising with him in late 2011, and his training has completely changed my entire world, vocally. It’s allowed me to sing better and more consistently, it’s given me more tone in my voice, and more power with less exertion. As a result, it’s made my recording experience way better. This is the first time I’ve been able to put it into effect with a Yob recording, but I used it in sessions with VHOL, Lumbar, and Red Fang, alongside touring with Yob. It was a really creative process in the studio on this new record, where I was able to do a number of takes, and never really struggle too hard at any point, because I did warm-ups and was able to try different things, and be able to sing for longer periods of time. The whole training process has been a really great and satisfying part of my evolution as a singer. Thanks to Wolf Carr.
In the past, prior to this vocal training, you must have had episodes where you blew out your voice quite a bit.
Sometimes, or I would hear things that were outside of my ability, and then I would do my best to make those things happen. I can listen to my earlier work now – and I don’t want to ruin it for anybody by analyzing it too much here – but I can hear a difference now, where things are more open, more full. The training has made a difference, for sure.
You’ve had an incredibly busy year. How do you alter your approach to each new project that comes along, and how much influence do these other projects have on Yob, or Yob on them?
They all have an influence, for sure. Maybe my solo album might have had the most influence of everything I’ve done this year –but they all have an influence. Some things took more time to prepare for than others, but I find that I do my best work when I’m as prepared as I can be. I like to get there and do a solid vocal warm-up, then be present and listen to the material in the moment – and then let my body and my voice decide to do what it’s going to do. Or I can collaborate with the people there to find the best scale or note, and in that process something comes out of it, and it’s instantly pretty rewarding.
When you get back from this next tour, you’re heading in to record vocals on the new VHOL record, right? When’s that going to come out?
Might be early next year, would be my guess; early spring or something.
I wanted to mention, the Lumbar record really blew me away. How is Aaron doing? Do you guys have any plans to do more recording with that project?
No plans for that. Aaron wrote all that music and laid it down before his disease had gotten to the point where he couldn’t play anymore. He did all the instruments and wrote all the vocals and lyrics. The power of Lumbar is really him, and if he can’t hold drumsticks or play guitar for any length of time, then it makes it difficult for that thing to happen. When we did the record there was no future goal with it other than getting support for Aaron. Tad and I both felt like a creative part of it, but it was really about supporting our friend and being part of his vision and giving him our time. That’s not meant in a patronising way at all; we’ve all been very good friends for a very long time, and to think of Aaron as not being able to play guitars is just like… [pause]. Fuck, man – I’ve played countless shows with Aaron in a number of bands, on guitars, or on drums in Brothers of the Sonic Cloth, so it’s a hard one to take.
When can we expect to see Yob tour back up the west coast again?
We’re talking about it; I think we’ve been playing on the west coast a fair amount, so we don’t ever want to blow it and play there too much. We really try to have a balance between, “Yeah, we’re gonna come play there,” but we don’t want it to be like, “They’ve been here three times already this year.” It loses its impact if we do that, and if we’re out on the road nonstop, our lives all fall apart too. It’s a balance to do that and protect the art – so that when we finally do come and play there, it’s worth coming to see us, and it doesn’t become like a product that’s being sold every time we come through. So, that’s my long-winded way of saying it’ll probably be early next year when we come up your way, but we will.
Final question, Mike: what is the enduring quality of this genre of music of ours that makes people lifers?
So far its history is currently being written, and time will tell, but I think the bands and the artists that are heavy people, and are, on some level, there’s a transparency in their music. Be that Neurosis, or Scott Kelly, or Michael Gira – people that are writing very heavy, sincere, powerful, cathartic music. At that point, it’s not about a “metal” aesthetic – you know, spikes or things like that. Those are things that I love; I’m not bagging on it, but there’s something very relatable about the transparency of human emotion in heavy doom music. The most effective music, in doom, I feel, has that. Without it – you can have all the stacks and all the right pieces and notes, but there something that’s not quite there.
So I think that’s it – when someone is really baring themselves up there and hitting hard and being present – to the audience, it’s undeniable. It hits you harder and deeper than a lot of things. I think that’s why it’s so powerful and huge, and has so much vibe and atmosphere – it’s that sense of human quality that everybody can relate to. That’s where it hits hardest for me. When I’m going and seeing a bunch of bands playing, I can always really enjoy it, but my favourite bands are bands like Spirit Caravan, for example – fucking Wino, I mean, that dude’s so heavy. That realness takes the music to another place; there’s something else much bigger and grander within it. Neurosis is the ultimate example of that, to me – the aura and the power, the vibration. The music transcends just being notes on the fretboard, and the people onstage, they are so there. They’re working out their shit, their demons onstage, by celebrating their love of what they do, their tribe and their family. It’s another level of connection. That’s my long-winded answer, anyway [laughs].
Thanks, Mike – congratulations on the new record, and thank you for your time!
Thank you for taking the time to do this, I’m very grateful!Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Aleem Maqbool: "You can see that there is still a white flag hanging there"
A row over the status of the Taliban's newly-opened office in Doha, Qatar, continues to frustrate efforts to start Afghan peace talks there.
After a rebuke from the Qataris, the Taliban removed a nameplate and a flag, only to hoist the white-and-black banner again on a shorter flagpole.
Kabul expressed "serious displeasure" at the handling of the peace talks.
The US has long wanted the talks, but Kabul said there had been a "breach of principles" in the initiative.
The Afghan foreign ministry accused the Americans of acting in bad faith.
"The manner in which the office was established was in clear breach of the principles and terms of references agreed with us by the US government," the ministry said in a statement.
It added that the Taliban had been presenting the office as an embassy - a move that Kabul said it could not accept.
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry told President Hamid Karzai that the flag, and the nameplate which included words "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan", would be removed - measures rejected as insufficient by Afghan officials.
Fraught process
Correspondents say that the Qatar office, which was opened on Tuesday, means the Taliban are no longer only a fighting group but have a political arm too.
Analysis For the US and its allies, a major threshold has been passed: this week the Taliban reassured the world they did not want Afghanistan to be a base to attack anyone else. That is shorthand for saying they will not be coming back hand-in-hand with al-Qaeda. Some don't believe them, some see the Taliban as equally malign. But for the US, that has lost more than 2,000 servicemen and women to this conflict, a de-facto Taliban assurance that there will be no repeats of the 9/11 attacks planned from Afghan soil is a valuable prize. Can Taliban office row derail peace talks?
The dispute is just one indication of how fraught with difficulty this fledgling talks process will be.
The BBC's Aleem Maqbool, in Qatar, says the Taliban crave public legitimacy and they feel the opening of their office is a big success.
For its part, the Afghan government feels it did not get enough credit for its involvement in the talks process, our correspondent says.
On Wednesday Mr Karzai said Afghan negotiators would boycott the Qatar talks until "foreign powers" allowed the process to be run by Afghans.
He also suspended security talks with the US on the American presence in Afghanistan after Nato leaves in 2014.
The Afghan foreign ministry said in its statement on Thursday: "The Afghan government will never allow for an Afghan peace process to be hijacked by the enemies of Afghanistan for reaching their nefarious designs that they have failed to achieve on the battlefield of war in Afghanistan.
"If the Taliban office in Doha is brought back into compliance with the written assurances given to us by the US government, the Afghan government will review its decision about... negotiations with the US," it added.
In a separate development, a Taliban spokesman in Doha told the Associated Press news agency that the militants were ready to hand over a US soldier held captive since 2009 in exchange for five senior Taliban members held at the Guantanamo Bay prison.
Some Western officials, with barely concealed frustration, often dismiss what they see as a prickly paranoia. But in this latest upset, the president's anger seemed justified Q&A: Taliban's Doha office
The first formal meeting between US and Taliban representatives had been expected to take place in the coming days, but it is now unclear what role Afghan officials will play.
The US met the Taliban secretly in 2011 in Qatar, but these would be the first open talks.
The Taliban office opened on the same day that Nato handed over security for the whole of Afghanistan to the Afghan government for the first time since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.
This was something analysts said was necessary before talks could become a realistic possibility. But the Taliban have long insisted on the complete withdrawal of foreign forces as a pre-condition to becoming part of a political settlement.
Nato's combat troops are due to leave the country by the end of 2014, but the US plans to station a few thousand personnel there after that as part of a bilateral security agreement.
Details are still to be agreed by Kabul and Washington.We had the opportunity to cycle in a number of North American cities in 2015, including Washington D.C., Montreal, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. And it was through the mixed experiences of sharing their streets with locals that we began to observe a seldom-discussed measure of a city’s bike-friendliness: the speed at which its cyclists travel.
In short, the slower the people on bikes were moving, the more mature the bicycle culture, and the better the conditions for cycling. Inversely, in regions that had failed to prioritize two-wheeled travel as a mode of transportation, getting on a bike was still seen as a sport predominately done by males moving long distances at fast speeds. We don’t have anything against the latter, but mass uptake requires a distinct shift from subculture to a more mainstream and normalized approach.
Through our observations and discussions, we were able to determine the average speed of cyclists is generally influenced by four factors: the types of people that were riding bikes, the types of bicycles they were riding, the types of trips they were taking, and finally, the types of infrastructure that particular city was (or wasn’t) building.
Upon arrival in a new city, a cursory glance at the types of people choosing to cycle there will tell you a great deal about its bike-friendliness. The places with the widest variety of ages and abilities can be considered – without exception – the most successful, with a greater number of women, children, and seniors on bikes a surefire sign you’re doing something right. That diversity brings with it a slower-paced, more relaxed environment, that is far more welcoming to the “interested but concerned” crowd.
Furthermore, the types of bicycles those people choose to ride also influenced the speed at which they are travelling. In many emerging bike cultures, we have seen a revitalization of the classic but clunky, utilitarian upright bicycle, complete with racks, fenders, lights, chain guards, bells, skirt guards, and baskets. Public bike-share also goes a long way to make those particular bikes accessible to the casual user, making it effortless to just hop on a bike and go, as easy as stepping out the door and walking to your destination.
Thriving cycling cities are also places where riding a bicycle is seen as walking with wheels, rather than running. We like to think of them as wheeled pedestrians. In those cities, bikes act as an extension of walking and/or public transit, primarily used for short jaunts to the shop, restaurant, or cinema. Without the sweat. As such, cycle-specific clothing and safety gear becomes entirely redundant, and dressing for the destination more commonplace. In turn, cycling becomes more appealing to a broader audience (the 99%, if you will).
Finally, and most importantly, cities with safe, separated space for cycling inspire the user to “slow down and enjoy the ride”. We noticed this phenomenon when pedalling with colleagues through the untamed streets of Philadelphia, and finding ourselves falling behind the pack. We were accustomed to travelling the serene cycle tracks and seawalls of Vancouver, without worrying about keeping up with or holding up motor vehicle traffic. With little-to-no protected bike lanes at their disposal, our Philly friends did not have that luxury. The only car-free spaces afforded to them were a series of off-street trails designed purely for speed and distance, with very few amenities or places they actually want to visit along the way.
Let’s be clear: the first three, more qualitative factors do not come into play without that crucial investment in better bicycle infrastructure. Nearly every time we leave Vancouver, we return home with a newfound appreciation for what we’ve built here, and our ability to ride happily with our children from one side of the city to the other. And so, with the start of a new year, let’s resolve not just to encourage, but to celebrate slow cycling in our cities. It is, after all, the defining characteristic of a street that is both comfortable and delightful for all of its users, regardless of the mode of transportation they happen to choose that day.JULIA Gillard says she has great respect for religion, even though she is a non-believer.
The new Prime Minister, who has described herself as a non-practising Baptist, told ABC Radio today she was not worried about losing the Christian vote drawn by her predecessors Kevin Rudd and John Howard.
Ms Gillard explained she was raised in the Baptist tradition - even winning prizes for remembering Bible verses - but as an adult she had formed different views.
"I'm not going to pretend a faith I don't feel," she said.
"For people of faith I think the greatest compliment I could pay to them is to respect their genuinely held beliefs and not to engage in some pretence about mine."
Ms Gillard said she never thought it was the right thing for her to go through religious rituals for the sake of appearance.
"I am what I am, and people will judge that."
Originally published as Gillard has 'great respect' for religionADVERTISEMENT
Sanders and his allies collected nearly 800,000 signatures on an anti-TPP petition and delivered them to the platform meeting in large cardboard boxes.
But his proposed amendment, which would have opposed a vote on the trade agreement, was defeated 116-64 by the platform committee.
"We must empower every representative of the Democratic Party to speak clearly against the TPP," said Ben Jealous, a former head of the NAACP and a Sanders delegate.
Robert Kraig, a Sanders supporter from Wisconsin, said: “We’ve had no speech in favor of TPP, but we can’t bring ourselves to say that we oppose TPP?"
The platform draft as it stands recognizes that there are "a diversity of views" on the deal within the party.
The platform committee's decision means that the fight over the TPP is likely to continue at the convention later this month.Conservatism Starts With YOU
Avi Woolf Blocked Unblock Follow Following Apr 10, 2016
Want to help fix things? Play the game, don’t just rage from the sidelines.
Trumpmania has been a shocking experience for many of us veteran conservatives. We’ve seen many thinkers and pundits sell their soul for national attention and many “conservative” media outlets throw all their purported principles and messages out the window for higher ratings. We’ve even seen some — thankfully not many! — veteran Republicans go Trump simply because he “shakes things up.” A sobering experience if there ever was one.
But at least for me, this was not the worst of it. No, for me the worst was seeing millions of ordinary Republicans go Trump: self-styled Evangelicals voting for a man who flaunts immorality and sees God as beneath him, “pro-family” folk voting for a serial adulterer and “pro-life” people supporting a guy who has backed killing babies who hadn’t entirely exited the womb, to say nothing of the “personal responsibility” crowd voting for a guy who repeatedly left others holding the bag for his failures.
This was the most painful revelation: the realization that, as one Buckley Club member told me, for many Republicans being conservative is a “jersey they wear, not a team they play on.” In other words: it’s a philosophy they back as passive fans, not as involved or even committed actors. And boy does it show.
Whether it’s the rank ignorance of the actual political process by people who complain that the “GOPe sold us out!” or the white working class which demands to be bailed out rather than make hard personal choices, too many on “our side” seem to think that politics — specifically national politics — is a magical process that can solve all our problems were it not for that damned #WashingtonCartel (TM). No personal involvement or charge is needed.
Yeah, no
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Nintendo has entered a divisional patent for Game Boy emulation to be utilized in mobile devices, PDAs, in-flight entertainment, PCs, and more. The patent was initially filed back in June and published on November 27th and is a continuation of one filed back in 2000, which also received an update in 2012.
A software emulator for emulating a handheld video game platform such as GAME BOY.RTM., GAME BOY COLOR.RTM. and/or GAME BOY ADVANCE.RTM. on a low-capability target platform (e.g., a seat-back display for airline or train use, a personal digital assistant, a cell phone) uses a number of features and optimizations to provide high quality graphics and sound that nearly duplicates the game playing experience on the native platform. Some exemplary features include use of bit BLITing, graphics character reformatting, modeling of a native platform liquid crystal display controller using a sequential state machine, and selective skipping of frame display updates if the game play falls behind what would occur on the native platform.
Cutting through all the legal speak and diagrams, the patent essentially says what you would think it says: Nintendo wants the rights to create video game emulation on a number of digital platforms other than their own. Since the initial patent was written on 2000 and worked on as early as 1999, it also includes comedically outdated devices such as PDAs and even the term “Game Boy” itself is no longer relevant as the platform has been almost completely changed to the DS line.
The obvious modern-day aim for this patent is mobile devices but that does not necessarily mean that Nintendo is about to create their own emulation app. While Nintendo has said in the past they are open to letting other companies use their first-party characters, and they even entertained the idea of utilizing mobile phones as part of their business model, they are not likely to just open the floodgates so quickly.
There is a much more straightforward use for the patents on mobile devices.
As it is currently, Apple is usually quick to shut down any emulation apps that they find. Android on the other hand, with its mostly-open ecosystem, allows anything to go that does not break the law. If a software developer creates an app that can play Super Nintendo games, but doesn’t include the ROMs to actually play them, that is currently legal. By applying for the patent over the domain of such emulation software, Nintendo would have the legal grounds to go after these developers and either entice gamers to make the jump over to the 3DS and buy classic games from them, or they could create their own app.
After an abysmal first couple years of their Wii U sales floundering, 2014 has been a turnaround year for Nintendo. Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros Wii U were both record selling games for the console when they came out, and the company posted a second quarter 2014 that beat analyst estimates. Their handheld gaming division has been going strong for years now as well, so making the jump off their own hardware (something Nintendo has always been reluctant to do) may not be in their best interest.
If you’re interested, the full patent application can be seen at the source link below. In the meantime, enjoy these application images dating all the way back to 2000, curated by NeoGAF user Rösti.House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., left, walks with House Energy and Commerce Committee Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich. to a Republican caucus meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2014. Camp plans to outline a major rewrite of the nationís tax code today that would lower tax rates for individuals and corporations, but recoup the revenue by eliminating or reducing popular tax breaks. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) ORG XMIT: DCSA115 (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite AP) Story Highlights Chairman of House tax-writing committee offers first sweeping overhaul of tax rules since 1986
Top tax bracket would drop to 25% for all but the richest
Senate leaders had said Tuesday that tax reform would be difficult if not impossible this year
WASHINGTON — The chairman of Congress's chief tax-writing committee released a plan Wednesday for a sweeping overhaul of the tax code that would close tax loopholes and drop the top tax rate from 35% to 25% for all but the very wealthiest taxpayers.
The plan, which has met with tepid response from Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, would be the biggest tax overhaul since 1986.
The current seven tax brackets would be collapsed into just three brackets of 10%, 25% and 35%. But 99% of households — those making less than $450,000 — would pay no more than the 25% rate.
The standard deduction would be increased from $12,200 to $22,000 for married couples filing jointly, allowing 95% of taxpayers to get the largest reduction without having to itemize.
But there are trade-offs: The $3,900 personal exemption for each dependent would be eliminated. Taxpayers would no longer be allowed to deduct state and local taxes. And only the first $500,000 of mortgage interest would be deductible.
The proposal by House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., delivers on a promise to simplify tax laws: 228 sections would be eliminated entirely. The alternative minimum tax would be repealed for individuals. And 15 different tax incentives for education would be consolidated.
The response to the plan on Capitol Hill ranged from encouragement to indifference to defeatism.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the plan was a way to start a discussion about tax reform, but when asked about the details, he responded, "Blah, blah, blah, blah."
House Democrats were about as enthusiastic. Camp's Democratic counterpart, Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, said the draft "opens up a discussion that Democrats have wanted to engage in on a bipartisan basis."
And in the Senate, leaders of both parties said Tuesday that tax reform would be difficult if not impossible this year — mostly because they don't trust the other side to compromise.
But from all quarters, there was an acknowledgement that Camp had done something few members of Congress had ever even attempted. Camp's tenure as chairman of the tax-writing committee is all but certain to end after the election. "We need to have this debate. We need to move the country forward," Camp said.
Camp already won a key rhetorical victory: For the first time ever, the bipartisan Joint Committee on Taxation agreed to include the economic growth effects of a tax overhaul in their revenue estimates. The result: 1.8 million jobs, resulting in $700 billion in new revenue to the federal government over the next 10 years.
Under Camp's plan, the average middle-class family would pay $1,300 less than they do now, according to a JCT analysis.
The proposal also addresses corporate tax rates. Four tax brackets topping out at 35% would be flattened to a single 25% rate.
STORY: Senators: Spy tactics in Swiss bank's tax scheme
Camp's plan largely leaves the 2010 Affordable Care Act intact, except for two provisions: The 2.3% excise tax on medical devices would be repealed, and taxpayers would once again be able to buy over-the-counter drugs through health savings accounts.
Charitable deductions would also be overhauled. Contributions would have to exceed 2% of income to be deducted, but with no cap. Taxpayers could deduct charitable deductions made through April 15 of the next year. Camp estimates that these changes would result in another $2.2 billion for charities annually.
Follow @gregorykorte on Twitter.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1bMEIihBy Edward Chaykovsky
Olympic gold medal winner Andre Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) is only a few weeks away from making his official light heavyweight debut when he faces Alexander Brand (24-1, 19 KOs) on November 21st at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
The fight will be the co-featured attraction for Miguel Cotto's defense of the WBC middleweight championship against Saul "Canelo" Alvarez on HBO Pay-Per-View.
Ward has received a lot of heat from the critics for his selection of Brand and very few were happy with his recent selection of Paul Smith, who was battered by the unbeaten boxer in June.
The constant criticisms will not influence any of his future decisions. Ward is focused on doing what he feels ire the best possible moves for his career.
“No disrespect, but I don’t make decisions based on opinions. Doesn’t factor in at all,” Ward told The Los Angeles Times.
Brand is the first step in Ward's recently finalized multi-fight agreement with HBO - and that agreement includes a 2016 showdown with light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev, who is viewed as one of the best and most feared fighters in the sport.
“I don’t owe any explanations for anybody I’m fighting. I do feel at times like I’m always proving myself. But I also feel that I’m proven. I’ve proven I can get to the mountaintop.... People are entitled to their opinion, I respect them, but it doesn’t mean they’re right.”
“I’m on a mission to be one of the greatest fighters who ever laced up a pair of gloves, a guy who they say fought the best and beat the best. And when it’s over, all the debaters, they can debate. I know what I dedicate to the sport and what kind of fighter I am -- with or without the support of some of the boxing media. What I’m telling you is, don’t believe how the critics are trying to leave me perceived. It’s not accurate.”NASA's Cassini spacecraft and Deep Space Network have uncovered evidence Saturn's moon Enceladus harbors a large underground ocean of liquid water, furthering scientific interest in the moon as a potential home to extraterrestrial microbes.
Researchers theorized the presence of an interior reservoir of water in 2005 when Cassini discovered water vapor and ice spewing from vents near the moon's south pole. The new data provide the first geophysical measurements of the internal structure of Enceladus, consistent with the existence of a hidden ocean inside the moon. Findings from the gravity measurements are in the Friday, April 4 edition of the journal Science.
"The way we deduce gravity variations is a concept in physics called the Doppler Effect, the same principle used with a speed-measuring radar gun," said Sami Asmar of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., a coauthor of the paper. "As the spacecraft flies by Enceladus, its velocity is perturbed by an amount that depends on variations in the gravity field that we're trying to measure. We see the change in velocity as a change in radio frequency, received at our ground stations here all the way across the solar system."
The gravity measurements suggest a large, possibly regional, ocean about 6 miles (10 kilometers) deep, beneath an ice shell about 19 to 25 miles (30 to 40 kilometers) thick. The subsurface ocean evidence supports the inclusion of Enceladus among the most likely places in our solar system to host microbial life. Before Cassini reached Saturn in July 2004, no version of that short list included this icy moon, barely 300 miles (500 kilometers) in diameter.
"This then provides one possible story to explain why water is gushing out of these fractures we see at the south pole," said David Stevenson of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, one of the paper's co-authors.
Cassini has flown near Enceladus 19 times. Three flybys, from 2010 to 2012, yielded precise trajectory measurements. The gravitational tug of a planetary body, such as Enceladus, alters a spacecraft's flight path. Variations in the gravity field, such as those caused by mountains on the surface or differences in underground composition, can be detected as changes in the spacecraft's velocity, measured from Earth.
The technique of analyzing a radio signal between Cassini and the Deep Space Network can detect changes in velocity as small as less than one foot per hour (90 microns per second). With this precision, the flyby data yielded evidence of a zone inside the southern end of the moon with higher density than other portions of the interior.
The south pole area has a surface depression that causes a dip in the local tug of gravity. However, the magnitude of the dip is less than expected given the size of the depression, leading researchers to conclude the depression's effect is partially offset by a high-density feature in the region, beneath the surface.
"The Cassini gravity measurements show a negative gravity anomaly at the south pole that however is not as large as expected from the deep depression detected by the onboard camera," said the paper's lead author, Luciano Iess of Sapienza University of Rome. "Hence the conclusion that there must be a denser material at depth that compensates the missing mass: very likely liquid water, which is seven percent denser than ice. The magnitude of the anomaly gave us the size of the water reservoir."
There is no certainty the subsurface ocean supplies the water plume spraying out of surface fractures near the south pole of Enceladus, however, scientists reason it is a real possibility. The fractures may lead down to a part of the moon that is tidally heated by the moon's repeated flexing, as it follows an eccentric orbit around Saturn.
Much of the excitement about the Cassini mission's discovery of the Enceladus water plume stems from the possibility that it originates from a wet environment that could be a favorable environment for microbial life.
"Material from Enceladus' south polar jets contains salty water and organic molecules, the basic chemical ingredients for life," said Linda Spilker, Cassini's project scientist at JPL. "Their discovery expanded our view of the 'habitable zone' within our solar system and in planetary systems of other stars. This new validation that an ocean of water underlies the jets furthers understanding about this intriguing environment."
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. For more information about Cassini, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/cassini
and
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov
News Media Contact
Jane Platt Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-354-0880 [email protected] Dwayne BrownHeadquarters, [email protected] BellCalifornia Institute of Technology, [email protected] Us
Texas Foster Care and Adoption Services is a private non-profit child placing agency licensed by the State of Texas. The organization was formed by like-minded individuals, dedicated to the mission of making a real difference in the lives of children in the State of Texas.
The number of foster children are growing more and more every year. Today more than ever, we face the growing issue of needing more foster parents in Texas. Many people in the Texas region either know current or former foster children or foster families.
We are searching for people in the community to provide loving, nurturing and healing homes to abused and neglected children in the state of Texas. Texas Foster Care covers the Austin Metro and San Antonio areas.
We are members of Interagency Foster Care Coalition.As if the pitching staff isn't good enough, the author of a baseball book says the Tampa Bay Rays have the best defense in baseball, and it's likely to stay that way for a while.
TAMPA | As if the pitching staff isn't good enough, the author of a baseball book says the Tampa Bay Rays have the best defense in baseball, and it's likely to stay that way for a while.
"You can call (Evan) Longoria and (Ben) Zobrist the biggest reasons," said John Dewan, principal author of "The Fielding Bible," "but the real reason is the way the Rays approach defense."
Dewan said Rays fielding saved 85 runs from what an average defense would yield. The second-place defense — the Arizona Diamondbacks — saved 54 runs. The second-place American League team, the Los Angeles Angels, saved 29 runs.
Since the 1970s, 10 runs scored or saved over a season has equaled a win.
"We measure by player," Dewan said. "Beyond fielding average and plays per game, we make a video record of every play and study some other things."
This includes "good plays vs. misplays," or outs a fielder makes that would normally result in a base hit against plays that were mishandled short of being charged as an error. It includes tabulating the success catchers and corner infielders have fielding bunts, how many poor throws a first baseman still manages to catch, and a series of maps charting range.
This is where a team comes in.
"A ball's hang time is really the biggest factor on whether it is fielded," Dewan said. "When a ball is in the air just two and a half seconds, you catch it if you're right in front of it. That's one area where the Rays do so well."
More than any other team, the Rays position each player based on the situation.
As a result, a player's defensive value has tended to drop after leaving the team. For instance, "The Fielding Bible" says that a drop in Jason Bartlett's range in 2011, after he was traded from the Rays, "may have had something to do with the sophisticated positioning schemes that the Rays use."
Three seasons ago, Carl Crawford won one of the first "Fielding Bible" awards as the Rays left fielder, saving 12 runs by himself in 2009. In 2011, the book estimates Crawford cost the Boston Red Sox two runs, with five more misplays than good plays.
"He is the player I have the hardest time understanding," Dewan said. "It might be the Green Monster (Fenway Park's famous short left field wall), but he looked entirely different on tape making plays he had no trouble with in previous years."
Dewan considers the book, whose third edition was published in March, part of the third wave of "sabermetrics," the methodical study of baseball statistics celebrated in Oscar-nominated movie "Moneyball."
"At first, you had some guys who were putting out stuff that a lot of people inside baseball resisted," he said. "The book ‘Moneyball' began to change that. We've reached a point where most front offices get it. The coaches and managers have been the last to resist, and that's starting to change."
The term uses an acronym for the Society of American Baseball Research to adapt cliometrics, the academic for using statistics to chart history. It has generated controversy since the 1980s, when Kansas writer Bill James reached the bestseller charts with annual editions of his "Baseball Abstract." James contributed two articles to the latest "Fielding Bible."A trip through time to Historic South-Central Los Angeles
'The Green Book,' a guide for black travelers first published in 1936, offers a glimpse of a vibrant Historic South-Central Los Angeles scene that some still recall, some hope to revive.
"The Green Book" was the creation of a black postal employee from New York, Victor H. Green. Now it's a collector's item, though you can download a copy from the Internet. With two pages of L.A. listings in hand, I headed to the place that was then a gleaming and affluent capital of black culture, to see the old landmarks and seek out anyone who might remember the neighborhood's glory days.
"It has been our idea to give the Negro traveler information that will keep him from running into difficulties, embarrassments and to make his trip more enjoyable," the 1949 edition proclaimed in its introduction.
"The Green Book" is an artifact. First published in 1936, it was meant to aid African American travelers in their journeys across the segregated U.S., by listing places where black people were welcome.
I took an excursion into Historic South-Central Los Angeles last week, using an old tour book that in its day was an essential tool for black visitors to L.A. and many other cities.
My first stop, I decided, would be the old Basket Room at 3219 S. Central Ave.
I'd heard about the Basket Room and the surrounding streets from R.J. Smith, the author of "The Great Black Way," an excellent history of Historic South-Central in the 1940s.
In Smith's account, South-Central's diverse cast of characters comes to life: Jazz musicians like Duke Ellington visiting writers like Zora Neale Hurston, who came out to California to earn a bit of money writing screenplays. It also has names that have now faded to history, such as the "baby-faced" wrestler known as the Black Panther.
L.A. neighborhoods were segregated then, and black people of all economic levels "got thrown back into their own community," Smith said. "The jazz musician knew members of the church, and the pastor was friends with a great civil rights leader."
Smith told me that a few years back he'd visited the site of the Basket Room — also known as Jack's Chicken Basket — and found the lyrics of a Cab Calloway song painted on a wall outside: "A chicken ain't nothin' but a bird."
I didn't find those words, but I did see a 6-foot-tall plastic chicken — the old building is now a "pollería" selling freshly slaughtered chicken to a mostly Spanish-speaking clientele.
Walking farther south, I reached the imposing brick building of the historic Dunbar Hotel, which is listed in "The Green Book" twice, as both a hotel and a beauty parlor.
My last visit to the Dunbar was in 1990, not long after its reopening as an apartment complex for seniors. Back then, I'd wandered through the lobby. But now all the doors were locked. Outside I found, leaning against one of its old storefronts, Wiley Ross.
"When I was going to school here there was only Orientals and a few Gypsies and some Italians," said Ross, 62. "All the Spanish people were downtown..... Now it's nothing but Spanish people."
Ross remembered many of the old businesses mentioned in "The Green Book," including restaurants such as the Pig and Pat. Back then the streets were thick with pedestrians, he said. "Down there was Hollywood's — that was a broadcast station," Ross told me, pointing toward the corner of Vernon and Central avenues.Image copyright NASA/JPL-CALTECH/SSI Image caption Saturn's moon Dione viewed by Cassini with the planet's rings in the background
The Cassini mission to Saturn has returned its final close-up images of the gas giant's Dione moon.
The probe passed within 500km of the pockmarked surface on Monday - its fifth such encounter in the spacecraft's 11-year tour of the ringed planet.
Cassini is now engaged in a series of observational "lasts".
And in 2017 it will put itself on a destructive dive into Saturn's atmosphere.
"I am moved, as I know everyone else is, looking at these exquisite images of Dione's surface and crescent, and knowing that they are the last we will see of this far-off world for a very long time to come," said Carolyn Porco, who leads the imaging team on the mission.
"Right down to the last, Cassini has faithfully delivered another extraordinary set of riches. How lucky we have been."
The closest ever approach to Dione was in 2011, when the US, European and Italian space agency mission swept just 100km above the moon.
Dione has a diameter of 1,122km, making it the fourth largest of Saturn's 62 moons. It has an icy exterior and a rocky interior.
Cassini has detected a wispy oxygen atmosphere at the world, and has also seen signs that it may still be active, with what appear to be regions on its surface that have been altered by internal processes.
Next year, Cassini will begin a series of manoeuvres to put itself in orbits that take it high above, and through, Saturn's rings.
Then, in 2017, once the probe's fuel has all but run out, ground controllers will command the spacecraft to plunge into the planet's atmosphere, where it will be destroyed.
As Cassini hurtles towards Saturn, it will become incredibly hot, will melt and ultimately will be crushed by huge pressures.
The mission is being disposed of in this way to be sure there is no possibility that debris from Cassini can one day land on Enceladus and Titan. These moons have been talked of as candidates for extraterrestrial life, and scientists would not want them contaminated by any Earth microbes that might still be on the probe - however unlikely that might be.
Image copyright NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI Image caption Cassini looks back at Dione as it heads away from the encounter
The coming months will see Cassini make final, farewell passes of a number of moons.
Referring to Monday's flyby of Dione, Dr Porco said: "Consider this the start of The Long Goodbye."
No missions are presently in preparation to re-visit the Saturnian system.
Those outer-planet ventures that are being worked on will go to Jupiter.
America has its Juno probe arriving at the gas giant next year, to be followed by Europe's Juice satellite in the 2030s.
Image copyright NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI Image caption It may be decades before another mission gets such good pictures
Image copyright NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI Image caption Cassini was about 970km from the surface when it captured this image
[email protected] and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmosEditor’s Note: The author of this piece, Jason D. Rowley, is a freelance journalist, entrepreneur, and proud Chicago resident.
Entrepreneurs and investors both know that, for better and worse, the San Francisco Bay Area is the top dog in basically everyone’s rankings of startup hubs. Its history as the cradle of the consumer computer age, present as the home of lots and lots of “unicorns” and penchant for wearing startup-branded hoodies and bringing dogs to the office all make it a lovely and dynamic place to start a company.
But, it’s also foggy and heinously expensive.
For those entrepreneurs and investors who either can’t, or do not want to be based in the Bay Area, the question begs to be asked: Which other hubs of investment activity stand out from the crowd? Which startup hubs performed the best in 2015 relative to the previous few years? In order to answer these questions, we pulled Mattermark’s deal information from over 6,700 Angel, Seed, Series A and Series B investments made in over 4,900 companies based in sixteen different US cities between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2015.
For those of you readers who want to escape Bay Area rents, or just want to stay closer to your hometown, here is the short answer. Although the dollar amount is kind of arbitrary, let’s say one wanted to be in a city that has an average of $250 million or more annual investment in early stage companies, has general upward momentum in deal making activity over the past few years, and has had a particularly high rate of investment activity in 2015. Surprisingly, the only three regions that meet all the criteria are Seattle, Austin, TX and the Denver/Boulder area. However, if you’re in the mood to compromise on one of those, places like Nashville, TN, Raleigh, NC, Washington, D.C., and Salt Lake City, UT are promising alternatives.
For all you table and chart fanatics, this is going to be a really fun read.
The Big Picture
In general, over the past four years, the total amount of money invested into earlier stage companies has steadily increased, but the total number of deals made has remained relatively stable.
Finding “The Best of The Rest”
Our goal is to find the “best of the rest”. In other words, where are the best cities outside of Silicon Valley to start or invest in startups?
We do this by comparing the number of deals that have occurred in each city, year by year, with the average rate of investment. However, divining this information the raw numbers would be somewhat difficult, because comparing, say, the Bay Area to Boulder, CO or Nashville, TN would not yield very useful results.
Why? Bay Area-based startups simply raise so much more money than in other metropolitan regions, both in terms of the number of deals done per year and in dollar volume.
Our main interest is upward momentum in investing activity over the past two years. But, again, to suss out some useful information from the data, the playing field needs to be leveled.
To do this, we normalized all of the cities deal information for each year to the total dealmaking activity in that city over the course of four years. In plain English, if a city experienced no change in investment activity, its adjusted activity score would be 25 in 2012, ’13, ’14, and ’15. Here is a (somewhat busy) chart identifying the top startup cities that gained the most steam in recent years.
Author’s update: Due to an error in how we initially created one of our data tables, the information we initially presented was not accurate. We caught this mistake and have now posted the correct data where it is supposed to be in the post. For the record, here’s the initial, incorrect data.
Editor’s note: We’re incredibly annoyed with ourselves for not catching the calculation error before publication. We’ll do better in the future.
Below, we ranked the cities to identify which cities had the most investment activity in 2015 relative to the previous year. Instead of showing all 17 cities, we show the top 10, plus the Bay Area and the average of all cities we analyzed.
We also ranked cities based on their average annual rate of growth (AAGR).
So, Which Cities Are Really The Best For Entrepreneurs and Investors?
In the beginning of this post we said that the most exciting cities outside of San Francisco for 2016 are those that have sustained growth in the number of deals being made and have seen a huge spike in investment activity in 2015. If you’re looking to capitalize on a short term bump in activity, cities like Seattle, St. Louis, Salt Lake City and Raleigh, NC are some of the most excited markets in the country right now. However, if you want to get involved in a startup scene with sustained momentum, well, again places like Seattle, St. Louis, and Salt Lake City are good bets. But, at the same time, so are places like Boulder, CO and Austin, TX.
There are, of course, tons of benefits to these cities apart from the sustained growth and recent uptick in startup investment. For example, St. Louis, Kansas City and Nashville both have excellent food scenes. [Editor’s note: Kansas City barbecue can be delightful.] So does Austin, and you wouldn’t need to buy airfare and pay exorbitant AirBNB rents to go to SXSW. For those nature lovers among you, Seattle’s access to forests and Denver/Boulder’s proximity to the Rockies cannot be beat.
So, if you want to be in a city that doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg to live in, and a culture that isn’t so dominated by technology, you can find opportunities and fringe benefits in any of the burgeoning entrepreneurial hubs we highlighted here. And even if your favorite city’s startup scene isn’t living up to its potential, that’s no reason to jump ship to the Bay Area or somewhere else. Maybe your startup or portfolio company will be the one to put your city on the map in 2016.
There are many, many cities that were overlooked here. If you know of any particularly exciting places that managed to fly under the radar here, let us know!A patent troll, Red Pine Point LLC, is suing Apple, Amazon and Mark Cuban's Magnolia Pictures for distributing movies over cellular networks to mobile phones (but only under certain circumstances).
How can that be?
Where have you been?
From Cuban's blog post last night:
Follow the logic here. If Magnolia, which distributes movies and pioneered the release of movies before they are in theaters, something we called UltraVOD and have done since 2004, decides to make movies available for download via cellular to mobile devices, we have not violated the patent. IT IS ONLY WHEN WE DECIDE TO SHOW THAT MOVIE IN A THEATER that we have violated the Patent. Huh? Here is what makes it even crazier. You have to own the rights to the movie before you can decide its distribution strategy. In the movie business, it's difficult to sell a movie before its theatrical release simply because none of the big theater chains will release a movie that has already been released on other platforms, whether cellular, download, VOD, whatever. There are some independent theaters that will. Magnolia is able to do it because we also own the Landmark Theater Chain and we can work with the independents to expand the theatrical distribution. When you look at the VOD or PPV or on Amazon or ITunes and see "Before it's in theaters" movies for sale or rent or PPV, that is a category that we created and grew to where it is today. This patent is not protecting a business the Troll came up with. It's not protecting an invention they created. They were not operating in this business in any way shape or form that i can find. They simply took the obvious idea that if movies can be downloaded and released via the internet, the same thing will happen via cellular data. And they probably noticed what we were doing back in 2004 and decided to try to patent it. Well they got the patent. Amazingl
Mark Cuban hates patent trolls so much that he (along with Minecraft creator Markus Persson) has literally put his money ($250,000) where his mouth is by endowing the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents. That esteemed position is held today by EFF senior staff attorney Julie Samuels, who I have asked to comment on this stupid patent even if nitpickers might argue she has a conflict of interest.
If the troll has a story they can tell it somewhere else.
(2014's 25 Geekiest 25th Anniversaries)
Here's the troll's complaint against Apple and Magnolia. Amazon and Magnolia here.
Here's one of the "patents." Here's another.
They would seem more like piracy methods than patentable inventions, but I am not a lawyer.Now that Trump has started enacting his terrible policies, a bunch of people on Twitter are saying that my past posts on Trump “haven’t aged well” or that I must be feeling really bad about them right now.
I’ve never been the slightest bit of a Trump supporter. Since he came onto the national stage, I have called Trump “a bad president”, “randomly and bizarrely terrible”, “an emotionally incontinent reality TV show host”, and “an incompetent thin-skinned ignorant boorish fraudulent omnihypocritical demagogue”. I’ve accused him of “bizarre, divisive, ill-advised, and revolting” rhetoric, worried that his election might “lead directly to the apocalypse [or] the fall of American democracy”, and called his administration “a disaster”. I’ve urged blog readers to vote for literally anyone except him and to donate money to the ACLU to stop him. If you want to accuse me of being pro-Trump, or even lukewarm on disliking Trump, I don’t know what else to tell you.
But I still seem to be getting flak on two points.
First, in Against Dog-Whistleism, I condemned the practice of overinterpreting candidates’ statements to secretly reveal evil beliefs and policies that they support more strongly than their stated platform:
Although dog whistles do exist…politicians’ beliefs and plans are best predicted by what they say their beliefs and plans are, or possibly what beliefs and plans they’ve supported in the past, or by anything other than treating their words as a secret code and trying to use them to infer that their real beliefs and plans are diametrically opposite the beliefs and plans they keep insisting that they hold and have practiced for their entire lives.
Believers in dog whistles are saying I have egg on my face because Trump just passed a law banning immigrants from some Muslim countries. Clearly, (they say) this means we should have listened to his dog whistles all along.
But this is dead wrong. Trump openly said throughout his campaign that he planned to ban immigrants from some Muslim countries. See for example Bloomberg, June 25: Trump Says Muslim Ban Plan To Focus On ‘Terrorist’ Countries. Trump has been saying this openly for seven months. If you didn’t know Trump wanted this, it’s not because he was being cryptic about it. It was because you were too busy chasing down his “dog whistles” about how he secretly hated Jews to listen to him.
Second, people are saying that my post You Are Still Crying Wolf has been debunked, since Trump has banned immigrants from some Muslim countries, and so is obviously the KKK-loving white supremacist that I argued he wasn’t.
Look, guys. I specifically said in that post that I knew he was going to ban people from some Muslim countries, and that when he did, that would be consistent with my model:
13. Doesn’t Trump want to ban (or “extreme vet”, or whatever) Muslims entering the country? Yes, and this is awful. But why do he (and his supporters) want to ban/vet Muslims, and not Hindus or Kenyans, even though most Muslims are white(ish) and most Hindus and Kenyans aren’t? Trump and his supporters are concerned about terrorism, probably since the San Bernardino shooting and Pulse nightclub massacre dominated headlines this election season. You can argue that he and his supporters are biased for caring more about terrorism than about furniture-related injuries, which kill several times more Americans than terrorists do each year. But do you see how there’s a difference between “cognitive bias that makes you unreasonably afraid” versus “white supremacy”? I agree that this is getting into murky territory and that a better answer here would be to deconstruct the word “racism” into a lot of very heterogenous parts, one of which means exactly this sort of thing. But as I pointed out in Part 4, a lot of these accusations shy away from the word “racism” precisely because it’s an ambiguous thing with many heterogenous parts, some of which are understandable and resemble the sort of thing normal-but-flawed human beings might think. Now they say “KKK white nationalism” or “overt white supremacy”. These terms are powerful exactly because they do not permit the gradations of meaning which this subject demands. Let me say this for the millionth time. I’m not saying Trump doesn’t have some racist attitudes and policies. I am saying
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their Republican colleagues.House Ways and Means Committee Kevin Brady (R-Texas), for example, scheduled an event in his district two weeks ago to discuss the Affordable Care Act, and he seemed eager to limit the audience to his allies. The gathering was held at a local Chamber of Commerce headquarters, it wasn’t announced to the public, and the congressman’s office said the point of the event was to hear from constituents facing “rising costs and loss of coverage and choice” because of “Obamacare.”As the Houston Chronicle reported, dozens of “skeptical and at times testy” locals showed up to express their vocal support for the health care reform law.There’s a lot of this going around. Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) recently snuck out the back of a library in order to steer clear of constituents who wanted to tell him not to take away their insurance. Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) faced a similar reaction during a town-hall event in Grand Rapids. TPM had a related report today out of Illinois.
Rep. Peter Roskam’s (R-IL) office cancelled a meeting with constituents about Obamacare on Wednesday when a staffer for the congressman learned that a reporter was present, according to the Aurora Beacon-News.
Constituent Sandra Alexander told the Beacon-News that she arranged the meeting about the Affordable Care Act with Roskam’s staff ahead of time and informed them that she would be bringing along a small group.
But staffers cancelled the meeting before it could begin, ostensibly because there were members of the media present.
And speaking of Virginia Republicans, the Huffington Post In Virginia, meanwhile, Politico reports that Rep. Barbara Comstock (R) “stood up constituents over the weekend who attended two townhalls with questions about an Obamacare repeal and the Trump Administration’s travel ban.”And speaking of Virginia Republicans, the Huffington Post reported this week:
Rep. David Brat (R-Va.) is feeling pressure from women in his district over Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
“Since Obamacare and these issues have come up, the women are in my grill no matter where I go,” Brat said to laughter at a private event on Saturday, according to a video posted to Facebook. “They come up and say, ‘When’s your next town hall?’ And believe me, it’s not to give positive input.”
He asked the audience to mobilize because “we’re getting hammered.”Hillary Clinton, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is being investigated by the FBI over her use of a private email server during her time as U.S. Secretary of State. With investigators finally interviewing her at the Bureau’s Washington D.C. headquarters on Saturday, we had to wonder: How would an attorney advise her in this situation?
So we asked a few top lawyers.
“Given all these circumstances, this is the only way to do it,” Elkan Abramowitz, a Washington D.C.-based attorney, told LawNewz.com on Saturday. He deals with high profile white collar cases frequently. Abramowitz said this is a unique investigation, so there’s nothing “normal” about what happened here. He mentioned the only way Clinton could get in trouble during the interview is if she lied. Abramowitz said that her attorneys likely and carefully reviewed the depositions of Clinton’s aides. Several of her aides, including Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, were deposed as part of Judicial Watch’s lawsuits against the State Department. He said Clinton’s lawyer, David Kendall, would likely know what other deposed aides said.
He doubted anything major would emerge from Saturday’s interview.
“There should be no surprises, but you never know,” he said.
That this interview happened on a Saturday is not unusual since the FBI is known to accommodate celebrities. Abramowitz added that FBI Director James Comey has a reputation for honesty.
“I’m surprised the investigation is taking as long as it has,” he said.
Another attorney told us that if he represented Clinton, he wouldn’t have agreed to the interview if he expected it to cause problems.
Bill Thomas, an Atlanta-based defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor, told us he’d have thoroughly reviewed all the available facts beforehand, and made sure his client wasn’t open to criminal liability. With that in mind, agreeing to the interview was in Clinton’s best interest.
“If you can assist them in ending the investigation sooner rather than later, that’s what you want to do,” he said.
Nonetheless, there are possible problems in a situation like this. He said Clinton’s lawyers “would not know everything the investigators know.” Hypothetically speaking, an FBI agent might open with “softball questions,” then present an allegation the defense wasn’t aware of. Thomas said that as a matter of standard practice, a defense lawyer must be prepared to shut down the interview if that happens.
Generally, he said, he tries to get immunity for clients who speak to investigators, but Clinton probably hasn’t asked for it yet because doing so would look really bad to the general public. “The question becomes, ‘Why would you need immunity if you did nothing wrong?'”
As for three-and-half-hour time span? He said that’s not strange. “There’s no typical interview length.”
And then there’s Henry Hockeimer, a Philadelphia-based defense lawyer who, like Thomas, is a former federal prosecutor.
“Secretary Clinton’s consistent position is that she did not intentionally violate any laws in using a private server, so that position combined with the fact she’s running for president certainly warranted her voluntarily meeting with the agents,” he told LawNewz.com in an email. “If she hadn’t, too many bad inferences could have been drawn.”
He also doesn’t find the interview length unusual.
“They’d likely want her knowledge concerning the history of the use of the server, and they probably had a bunch of emails to show her,” Hockeimer said. “And accommodating the interview on a Saturday is not uncommon in a case that is politically sensitive.”
Clinton’s talk with the FBI comes shortly after a controversial interaction between Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch. The meet-up got a lot of attention since Lynch’s Department of Justice has authority over the FBI. In an interview on Friday, she dismissed concerns about impropriety, but LawNewz.com columnist Chris White said she should recuse herself from involvement since there is at least the appearance of a conflict of interest. Lynch, however, promises to accept whatever the FBI recommends.
News of Clinton’s email use broke in March, 2015. She sent work-related documents through a private server. This led to an ongoing, politically charged controversy.
Rachel Stockman contributed to this article.
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Follow Alberto Luperon on Twitter (@Alberto Luperon)Snow storm leads to delays, unsatisfied customers: "You don't ever have to worry about me coming to Greyhound again."
The scene inside the Greyhound bus station in downtown Cincinnati. (Photo: Provided/Ashley Holloway)
UPDATE: Ashley Holloway said in a text message she eventually got on a bus headed out of Cincinnati sometime Wednesday afternoon.
ORIGINAL STORY: Stuck at a bus station more than 450 miles away from her relatives in Alabama, Ashley Holloway reached her breaking point.
"They're treating us like animals down here," Holloway told The Enquirer from the Greyhound bus station Downtown.
Holloway lives in Cleveland, but she's been stuck in Cincinnati since Tuesday morning. She slept at the bus station Tuesday night with her 4-year-old son and a bus ticket that hasn't gotten her anywhere.
And she's not the only one.
Ashley Sears, a spokesperson for Greyhound, said multiple customers were forced to stay overnight at the bus station Sunday and Monday. Spears said they were all placed on buses Tuesday morning.
Holloway said that's not true. She said at least one person riding with her had been at the station since Sunday.
"I'm just trying to take my son to visit his grandfather," Holloway said. "I understand things happen, but this is ridiculous. Children are sleeping on the floor."
Parts of Greater Cincinnati received up to 7 inches of snow Monday, which is why some trips were canceled, Spears said.
NEWSLETTERS Get the News Alerts newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Be the first to be informed of important news as it happens in Greater Cincinnati. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-876-4500. Delivery: Varies Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for News Alerts Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters
Greyhound provided food for those forced to stay at the station and their tickets were transferred to the next available departure, she said.
Holloway said employees at the bus station on Gilbert Avenue have been unresponsive and lazy dealing with customers.
"It looks crazy in here," Holloway said. "People are just standing in line at an empty counter waiting for someone."
No one answered the phone when The Enquirer called the Greyhound bus station Wednesday morning.
Just before noon, Holloway said employees found a bus for her, but she's heard that before. She was previously told she would be leaving Wednesday at 5 a.m., 6:30 a.m. and 10 a.m.
Spears said there are currently no delays or cancellations at Cincinnati Greyhound and that no Wednesday customers had been there overnight.
"I don't know why they'd tell you that," Holloway said. "You don't ever have to worry about me coming to Greyhound again."
Read or Share this story: http://cin.ci/1A6dJs5This was the second attempt to drill a well in about the same spot. The first well had to be abandoned because the well had been drilled too fast (under pressure from BP to bring the well in quickly). Result: the rock fractured, causing loss of control of pressure in the well. Twenty-five million bucks down the drain, said BP to the crew. So they had to try again, in a rock formation known to be problematic.
Early on while drilling the second well (the one that eventually blew up) an accident damaged part of the blowout preventer (BOP). According to Williams, they were conducting a routine test of the annular, a ring of rubber that closes around the well at the top of the BOP stack. While the annular was closed, thus closing off the well, a driller accidentally pushed a joystick, which pulled the pipe casing up through the rubber seal at very high pressure. A short time later, after drilling had resumed, pieces of rubber began coming up from the bottom of the well. A drilling supervisor told Williams that the rubber debris was "no big deal".
The BOP has two redundant electronics boxes, called pods, which communicate with the surface. These are critical devices which trigger the BOP to close the well in emergency. One of the two pods was problematic and occasionally inoperable. The batteries on the BOP were also weak.
The well was in the process of being closed with cement plugs when the blowout occurred. The day of the blowout, there was a disagreement between the Transocean supervisor and the BP supervisor over how that should be accomplished. The Transocean guy wanted to keep mud in the well (i.e., keep pressure in the well) during the cementing. The BP guy wanted the mud pulled from the well for cementing, because it was faster and they were already behind schedule. The BP guy won the argument. If pressure had been maintained in the well during the cementing operation, the blowout would not have occurred.
The bottom line: the blowout was caused by gross negligence on the part of BP. There is no other way to spin it.
Here are embedded vids from the CBS site; they contain some stuff not aired, but leave out critical details that were aired, specifically an interview with an engineering professor Robert Bea from UC Berkeley. It was Bea who said that the blowout would not have occurred if mud had been maintained during the cementing process.
UPDATE 2:
See bottom two embeds for entire aired 60 minutes segment!
h/t to Grannyhelen in the comments for noting this.
UPDATE:
As OLinda noted in the comments, Bea also said that one of the other problems was that once the rubber annular was damaged, the pressure readings they were getting from the bottom of the well would be inaccurate.
UPDATE 3:
Per dharmafarmer's fine suggestion in the comments, here's CBS's feedback page if you'd like to give them props.
Oil Rig part 1
Oil Rig part 2
Oil Rig part 3
Oil Rig part 4
Oil Rig part 5
Oil Rig part 6
Update 2: Entire segment on blowout
Entire segment, part 1SHARE Related Coverage John Doe prosecutor asks state Supreme Court to reconsider ruling About John Doe Separate but related criminal investigations initiated by Milwaukee County prosecutors have examined events and activities during Scott Walker's time as Milwaukee County executive and as governor. Prosecutors have conducted the probes under the state's "John Doe" statutes that grant extraordinary powers to investigators to compel testimony and maintain secrecy. The first John Doe investigation, begun in 2010, led to convictions of six Walker aides, associates or appointees on charges ranging from theft from a veteran's group to misconduct in office. The second Doe probe, launched in 2012, looked into coordination between conservative political organizations and Walker and other candidates during recall elections. The second probe was halted in May 2014 by a federal judge who agreed that the investigation denied one of the conservative groups' its free-speech rights. No charges have been filed in the second investigation. Walker has denied wrongdoing. See full coverage in John Doe special section
By of the
Madison— Gov. Scott Walker was under criminal investigation in 2011 for misconduct in office — even as he insisted he wasn't — over a proposed real estate deal when he was Milwaukee County executive, according to records filed Wednesday in federal court.
The Republican governor — who is running for president — was never charged with a crime, and the investigation was closed two years ago.
Wednesday's filing shows the governor was at the center of the probe, contradicting Walker's repeated claims at the time that he was not a target.
Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf declined to comment when asked whether Walker or his lawyers were informed that Walker was under investigation.
"I submit that there is probable cause to believe that Scott Walker, John Hiller and Andrew Jensen, in concert together, committed a felony, i.e., Misconduct in Public Office..." investigator Robert Stelter wrote in his 2011 request for a search warrant.
It was after getting the search warrant and the resulting evidence that prosecutors decided not to issue charges.
Hiller was Walker's campaign treasurer at the time. Jensen is a real estate broker who worked on the deal.
Jensen ultimately cooperated with authorities and Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm's office released an unusual letter of exoneration saying he was not a target of the probe.
Chisholm is a Democrat. Walker and other Republicans have contended he has been out to get conservatives — a charge Chisholm denies.
Stelter, who works in Chisholm's office, sought the search warrant for the home of Walker aide Cindy Archer on Sept. 13, 2011.
The wide-ranging inquiry resulted in charges and convictions of six Walker aides and associates for matters that included campaigning using taxpayer resources and stealing from a veterans fund. Prosecutors did not ultimately charge anyone over the real estate deal, and they shut down the probe in March 2013.
Before closing it, they opened a second investigation into whether Walker's campaign had violated campaign finance laws by working closely with conservative groups. The state Supreme Court ended that investigation last month, concluding no laws had been broken.
Walker presidential campaign spokeswoman AshLee Strong told The Associated Press: "It is another example of the politics involved in this process as people who could not prove things in a court of law are attempting to win in the court of public opinion."
Hiller did not respond to requests for comment.
The 2011 document is surfacing now because Archer has sued Chisholm, arguing her constitutional rights were violated when investigators searched her home. Prosecutors submitted the search warrant and affidavit Wednesday to bolster their case they did their work by the book.
Wednesday's court filing concerns a part of the probe that looked into whether bid-rigging occurred as officials considered whether to move offices for the county's Department of Aging.
Hiller and Jensen were involved in negotiations to extend the county's lease at the privately owned Reuss Federal Plaza.
Walker told his chief of staff, Tom Nardelli, to seek a six-month extension of the lease in June 2010, Stelter wrote in his affidavit. That was in the county's interest because it would give the county more time to review its options, according to Stelter.
Soon afterward, Walker told Hiller he needed Jensen's firm to deny the lease extension — an action that was against the county's interest, Stelter wrote.
Mary Spicuzza and Daniel Bice of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.HAWTHORN wingman Bradley Hill says it was a weight off his shoulders when his meeting with Fremantle coach Ross Lyon about a potential return home to Perth became public last week.
The West Australian will wait until the end of the season to make a decision on his future, after a quest for a fourth consecutive flag is complete.
Hill played his best game of the season, with 31 disposals against Richmond, after Lyon and Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson confirmed the Dockers' discussions last week.
"I haven't made any decisions on what I'm going to do," Hill told Channel Nine on Monday.
"I'm still just focusing on playing for Hawthorn, keep playing the best I can to help out the team. Whatever goes on after that we'll work out after the season's done.
"It probably took a little bit of weight off my shoulders (when the meeting became public)."
Clarkson admitted over the weekend he had been aware of the Dockers' interest in Hill for "five or six weeks" and knew that the club had spoken to the 23-year-old.
Hill said he was "a bit nervous" telling players including Cyril Rioli and Shaun Burgoyne of the discussions with Fremantle.
"Clarko brought me in with the leaders, they spoke to me and they were very good about the way they said it to me, made me feel a bit more comfortable," Hill said.
"They're a great club and they helped me a lot.
"They've done a lot for me over the time, (now I want to) repay them with playing some good footy."
The meeting with Lyon came at the North Coogee home of Hill's brother, Fremantle star Stephen, over a club-approved return west in Hawthorn's 10-day break before the match against the Tigers.
Hill put no timeline on his decision to move back with family.
"It would be great (to play with Stephen) but I haven't really thought about it too much yet," he said.
"I'll make a decision. It might be next year or in a couple years but I've just got to keep on focusing on this season.
"I'm at Hawthorn now, I could still be here next year and years to come. Hopefully I can keep being consistent over the next five or six weeks or whatever there is left."
Hill admitted to early homesickness on being drafted at pick 33 in the 2011 NAB AFL Draft before winning three premierships with the Hawks.It was always rumored in the Delhi media circles that Rajdeep Sardesai, Sagarika Ghose, and Ashutosh were asked leave their jobs due to non-performance, but all of them successfully turned their professional failures into stories of personal virtues and values.
This theory is getting credence due to developments in the last few days. The latest being sacking of a senior journalist named Pankaj Shrivastava, apparently because he opposed alleged anti-AAP policy of IBN7. This issue was raised by AAP leader Ashutosh on social media as well as in a press conference.
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According to reports, Pankaj Shrivastava belonged to a coterie of journalists led by the then Managing Editor of IBN7 Ashutosh, who later joined AAP in January 2014.
This coterie was deriving salaries worth lakhs of rupees per month while the financial health of the channel nosedived. It should be noted that Network18, of which IBN7 is a part of, was forced to layoff journalists on more than two occasions to improve the financial health of the media group.
These layoffs happened before Network18 was acquired by Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries Limited. Most of the journalists who lost their jobs belonged to the middle or lower ranks in seniority.
However, journalists like Ashutosh or Pankaj Shrivastava, many of whom support “socialist” ideas on social forums, didn’t say a word then. In fact, they didn’t even offer to take salary cuts to save jobs of a few junior employees.
In fact, Pankaj Shrivastava is reported to have been a fulltime member of CPI(ML) in his younger days, but he didn’t even join the token protest by IBN7 employees who were asked to leave by the then management. He happily continued to draw salaries worth lakhs of rupees per month.
However, when he was asked to leave the channel earlier this week, all his “revolutionary” ideas and ideals came back to him. He immediately found support from his old mate Ashutosh, who tried to link Pankaj’s sacking to politics.
Ashutosh tweeted these to paint Pankaj as some martyr:
Pankaj Srivastav, associate Editor in IBN7 was sacked because he objected blackout of AAP and Kejriwal on channel. Cont… — ashutosh (@ashutosh83B) January 22, 2015
Pankaj wrote an SMS to his editor at 8pm, his services was terminated by 1030. Editor Umesh Upadhaya is brother of Satish Upadhaya, cont.. — ashutosh (@ashutosh83B) January 22, 2015
IBN7 is owned by Reliance. Sacking of Pankaj shows BJP and Reliance can go to any extent to stop AAP in Delhi. — ashutosh (@ashutosh83B) January 22, 2015
However, the truth is something else. According to this report published on Bhadas4Media, Pankaj Shrivastava’s performance was “zero”. It quotes an employee of IBN7, who claims that Pankaj used to visit office only to do “timepass”, which left the management with no choice but to fire him.
It should be noted that Bhadas4Media is run by a journalist named Yashwant Singh, who himself is left-leaning and consistently anti-BJP in his earlier articles on the website. The reports about Pankaj Shrivastava’s sacking have been written by Yashwant Singh himself; thus any claim that the website Bhadas4Media is also BJP or Ambani funded is not valid.
The reports on the website claim that new management, controlled by Reliance, had given six months to old employees drawing huge salaries to perform or perish, and Pankaj appears to fall in the latter category.
But with help of AAP leader Ashutosh, Pankaj is trying to prove that he is a martyr. Not only Ashutosh, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal is also reported to be helping Pankaj in advertising his claim that he was sacked for supporting AAP in IBN7.
While it is natural that AAP will make it a political issue when Delhi assembly elections are near, what is notable is how a journalist is using his contacts and colleagues to hide his professional incompetency and non-performance.
Why could this not be the case when Rajdeep Sardesai, Sagarika Ghose, Ashtosh and Nikhil Wagle ended their association with Network18? All of them too tried to give a different spin, as Pankaj Shrivastava is doing, while media circles always maintained that they were sacked for non-performance.
Interestingly, all of these journalists keep targeting Network18 periodically, as if waging personal war of grudge for having removed them from their jobs. Ashutosh has been especially consistent in doing so.
While one may argue that such attacks could benefit AAP electorally, one must ask how ethical it is of Ashutosh to drive a personal agenda through the political party he belongs to. And the bigger question is – why is AAP allowing this?
The answer might have been given by former AAP member Shazia Ilmi, who tweeted this earlier today:
As I said on @HeadlinesToday tonight, I reiterate @ashutosh83B was given Lok Sabha ticket by AAP as quid pro quo — shazia ilmi (@shaziailmi) January 23, 2015
What could this “quid pro quo” be? Either Ashutosh paid some money or he extended some favors to AAP as a journalist. We at OpIndia.com believe that the chances of latter could be higher.
So is Shazia hinting that Ashutosh was given Lok Sabha ticket by AAP because he used IBN7 as a propaganda channel for AAP? Apart from non-performance, was that the reason Ashutosh was asked to leave IBN7, after which he resigned and joined AAP?
And guess what, even the latest episode of Pankaj Shrivastava could be a case of “quid pro quo”. Yashwant Singh of Bhadas4Media claims that there is “fixing” between Ashutosh and Pankaj, and Pankaj could soon join AAP and fight elections.
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Fossil Group, Inc., with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, markets, and distributes consumer fashion accessories. The company’s principal products include a line of men’s and women’s fashion watches and jewelry, handbags, small leather goods, belts, sunglasses, soft accessories, and selected apparel. Fossil Group owns and operates 153 retail stores and 143 outlet stores located in the United States, as well as 197 retail stores and 100 outlet stores internationally, in addition to a multitude of other sources of distribution. The company is headquartered in Richardson, Texas.
The company looks to break into wearable tech industry following sharp upturns in early 2016.
Fossil Group, Inc. released earnings reports for the fourth quarter of 2015 recently, bringing joy to investors. The earnings report revealed $992.5 million in revenue for 4Q15 while analysts expected revenues of only $928.2. Analyst expectations were lowered following the weak first three-quarters that the company saw in 2015. Still, investors can enjoy the growth after a long period of declining stock prices.
After such a successful quarter, the company is pointing to growth from the Fossil, Skagen, Michael Kors, and Kate Spade brands. Additionally, the launch of a new website led to double-digit growth in their e-commerce channel. Now, looking forward, the company is hoping to further develop and expand their use of technology, more specifically, by introducing wearable technology. This wearable tech is not expected to have a large impact on share prices until the second half of 2016.
Analysts are less optimistic that smartwatches are the answer to continuing growth for this company. Some note that there is immense smartwatch competition from Apple, Inc. (NYSE: AAPL) and that the market in North America is slowing down. Overall, analysts from Market Realist feel that investors should hold here on the stock with only 3 out of 15 recommending that investors sell their shares and 2 out of 15 giving a buy recommendation.
Despite analyst trepidation for the future, the I Know First algorithmic forecast from February 10th is showing bullish signals for the short, mid and long-term time horizons. Below is the S&P 500 Companies forecast for the 14-day time horizon showing a bullish signal and a return of 36.50% in just those 2 weeks. The package saw an overall return of 9.12%, compared with the S&P 500’s return of 4.19% for the same time period.
Overall growth for the company for the month starting on January 18th, 2016 was 45.01% after a tough year. In the year following February 18th, 2015 the company saw a loss of -55.40%. Analysts don’t think the future is looking good for Fossil Group, Inc. with stiff smartwatch competition coming from Apple, Inc. The genetic algorithm is still putting out a bullish signal, though, calculating that the share price will continue to rise. The company expects to see net sales for 2016 in the range of -3.5% to 1% with an operating margin of between 7.0% and 8.5%.Find a beer
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OrEuropean leaders seem unable to break the cycle of recession and unemployment, despite public pressure to abandon the austerity regime imposed under German rule. Meanwhile, the EU’s influence in the world is on the slide.
European leaders are great at introducing new laws, but for several years now they have been unable to resolve an economic crisis. Economic growth figures released recently by Eurostat sound like a death sentence; Europe, you are racing towards the abyss and the brakes have stopped working long ago.
In the first three months of 2013, the Eurozone economy shrunk by 1 per cent year-on-year, and the EU-27's economy contracted by 0.7 per cent. Virtually everyone is in the red: Greece down 5.3 per cent, Cyprus, 4.1 per cent, Portugal, 3.9 per cent, Italy, 2.3 per cent, Spain down 2 per cent. Finland and the Netherlands also saw negative growth, while Austria stalled. France is now officially in recession. German growth was positive, but only in quarter-to-quarter terms. It is all despair and misery.
Sparkurs vs. Austerity
While Europe is gnashing its teeth and crying, others are leaving the stormy waters. The United States, for instance, vilified in the past by many European politicians because it was there that the global crisis began, brought about by the greediness and irresponsibility of US banks. And today – what an ingratitude – the United States is growing while Europe is shrinking.
In the first quarter 2013, the US economy grew by 2.5 per cent, unemployment was its lowest in four years, and the stock market was buoyant. The European Union has always looked down on the US as a country of predatory capitalism and social injustice. Europe, in turn, has always had its “social market economy” that protects workers and grants them all kinds of nice rights.
For the last several years it had been the case of Europeans patronising the Americans on how to revive their economy. Now the roles have reversed. In a recent interview for the Spanish business daily El Economista, a high-ranking Treasury Department official suggested that the EU should follow the US example and stimulate the market instead of stubbornly clinging to the dogma of austerity and budget deficit reduction. Interestingly, many European politicians say the same but no one seems prepared to bang their fist on the table and oppose Berlin, for whom “demand stimulation” is tantamount to higher inflation (a taboo concept since the Weimar Republic’s hyperinflation) and more transfers from German taxpayers to the cash-strapped budgets of countries like Greece or Spain.
The southern countries are thus expected to tighten their belts and keep quiet. A chasm between Germany and the indebted southern EU member states is already evident on the level of language. In Ireland, it is austerity, in Spain, austeridad, in Italy, austerità, in France, austerité – all derived from the Latin austerus, meaning “strict, severe, ascetic”. A word of clearly unpleasant connotations. In Germany, in turn, it is Sparkurs – “savings course”. Something obviously reasonable, wise, and healthy. In Germany, if you manage your resources thriftily, you deserve utmost respect.
“Berlin’s policy is not motivated solely by pragmatism but also by fundamental values”, Ulrich Beck, a renowned German sociologist, explained in an interview. “Objections towards overspending countries are a question of morals. From the sociological point of view, such a position has its roots in Protestant ethics. But it is also a matter of economic rationalism. The German government adopts the role of a teacher who instructs the southern countries on how to reform their economies”.
Letters to Angela
Only this teacher is not much liked. To the extent that the last Eurovision contest saw Germany suffer a humiliating defeat: Natalie Horler, with Glorious, came only 21st among 26 contestants. Commentators at the German ZDF television channel had no doubts: “No one in Europe likes us anymore”. And they were probably not far from the truth.
The image of Angela Merkel dressed in an SS uniform has become a staple of Greek tabloid covers. But there has been a new trend too: politicians from certain countries have started writing letters to Chancellor Merkel, asking her to stop putting them through so many tests and exams. Begging her for understanding and leniency. But also suggesting that she is doing what she is doing to boost her chances in the Bundestag elections, scheduled for September.
Ms Merkel isn’t willing to mitigate the Sparkurs because that could alienate German voters. Duarte Marques, deputy of Portugal’s Social Democratic Party, argues in a letter to the German chancelor: “Germany is refusing to acknowledge the true consequences of austerity policy. It is an expression of opportunism, until now seldom encountered among the German elites. And unworthy of a country that once, under Helmut Kohl, had the courage to shoulder the responsibility for Europe – sometimes in defiance of its own public opinion. Mr Kohl belonged to a generation of statesmen that are hard to come by in Europe today”.
Shouldering European responsibility
“Now," Ms Merkel is likely to be thinking, “not only am I a mean person, I’m also inferior to Helmut Kohl. Great”. Such letters can only irritate Berlin and cause it to actually stiffen its position. The idea of Germany “shouldering responsibility for Europe” is invariably translated in Berlin as meaning “Germany should give us more money”.
But it won’t. Neither to Portugal, nor to Greece, nor to anyone else. Only the Sparkurs – so praised by Ms Merkel – isn’t producing the expected results either. A Portuguese newspaper recently published a comparison of economic indicators from two years ago – when Portugal found itself in the troika’s tender embrace and was forced to introduce austerity measures –
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.6 −0.62 ± 0.57 1.37 ± 0.66* 0.12 ± 0.65 1.34 ± 0.64* Hip abductor strength, kg 11.1 ± 4.3 11.0 ± 5.0 0.67 ± 0.41 0.85 ± 0.48 1.46 ± 0.41* 1.28 ± 0.58* Hip flexor strength, kg 12.0 ± 4.6 11.8 ± 4.6 1.51 ± 0.44* 2.20 ± 0.49* 3.55 ± 0.57* 3.67 ± 0.55* Hip adductor strength, kg 12.0 ± 5.6 12.1 ± 5.9 −2.06 ± 0.53* −1.59 ± 0.61* −1.53 ± 0.53* −2.05 ± 0.68* Timed Up and Go, s 7.9 ± 1.3 8.0 ± 1.5 −0.14 ± 0.13 −0.17 ± 0.15 −0.46 ± 0.12* −0.55 ± 0.12* View Large
Interactions with baseline protein intake and physical activity.
We tested the intervention by baseline protein intake interaction for muscle mass and strength measures at years 1 and 2. The interaction terms were not significant for any variables listed in Tables 2 and 3 except for hip abductor strength at year 1 (P = 0.003), which is likely to have resulted from a type I error with the multiple testing performed.
The physical activity levels at year 2 did not change significantly from those at baseline in either the protein or the placebo group, and there were no significant differences between the 2 groups (424 ± 406 compared with 385 ± 356 metabolic equivalent task–min/wk; P = 0.56). We tested the intervention by baseline physical activity level interaction for muscle mass and strength measures at years 1 and 2. The interaction terms were not significant for any variables listed in Tables 2 and 3 except for adjusted appendicular skeletal muscle mass at year 1 (P = 0.047), which again is likely to have resulted from a type I error.
Adverse events.
During the study period, there were no significant differences between the protein group and the placebo group in the rate of incident cancer (protein, 5.0% and control, 5.3%), type 2 diabetes (protein, 3.0% and control, 1.1%), diarrhea (protein, 4.0% and control, 1.1%), esophageal reflux (protein 2.0%, control 5.3%) or fracture (protein 3.0%, control 3.2%). Two participants in the protein group reported constipation.
Discussion
In this 2 y RCT, we found that in community-dwelling women aged 70–80 y at baseline with a mean protein intake of 76 ± 17 g/d (1.1 ± 0.3 g · kg body weight−1 · d−1), there were no significant differences between the group that received the high-protein drink (containing 30.1 g protein per 250 mL) and the group that received the low-protein, high-carbohydrate drink (containing 2.1 g protein per 250 mL) daily in changes in appendicular skeletal muscle mass, muscle area of upper arm and calf, muscle strength, and TUG performance. There was, however, a significant decline in upper arm and calf muscle area and hand grip strength in both groups, indicating a possible age-related decline.
Aging is associated with progressive loss of muscle mass and physical function. Over the 2 y, we observed a reduction in the upper arm and calf muscle areas and a decrease in hand-grip strength in women in both the protein and the placebo groups, indicating deterioration in muscle health with aging. However, appendicular skeletal muscle mass remained stable over the study period and TUG performance and some lower limb strength measures improved. Because both groups improved in the TUG and lower limb strength measurements and there were no significant changes in physical activity levels over the study period, a “learning effect” cannot be ruled out. However, the double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled design of the present study ensured that any “learning effect” had happened in both groups and did not introduce bias to the intervention effects.
In the present study, we used whey protein, a rapidly digested protein, because it has been shown to be beneficial in preventing body protein loss in the elderly compared with slowly digested protein (31). Previous studies showed that a moderate-to-large serving of amino acids or protein could increase muscle protein synthesis (4, 32–34), and oral amino acid supplementation has been shown to improve lean body mass in older people (5, 6). However, in the present study, although the intervention led to a 20 g/d increase in protein intake as confirmed by 24 h urinary nitrogen excretion and an 8% increase in serum IGF-I, as reported previously (16), there were no significant effects on muscle mass, muscle area, or physical function measurements. These findings are in contrast with previous longitudinal cohort studies that showed a positive association between protein intake and the maintenance of lean body mass with aging (11, 12), but consistent with a 12 wk RCT of protein supplementation (210 g/d ricotta cheese) in sarcopenic elderly men and women over 60 y of age, which did not observe any significant effect on appendicular skeletal muscle mass and hand-grip strength (13). However, the same type of supplementation (210 g/d ricotta cheese) for 12 wk was shown to improve appendicular skeletal muscle mass and balance test scores in nonsarcopenic elderly men and women (15), and, in malnourished hospitalized elderly patients, protein pulse (i.e., sudden burst of protein intake) feeding (72% of dietary protein, 1.3 g · kg body weight−1 · d−1 on average, consumed in one meal at 1200) was effective in improving lean body mass and skeletal muscle mass (14).
One possible explanation for the lack of effects on muscle measurements in the present study could be the high habitual protein intake of the study population. In the Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) study, which examined 2066 American men and women aged 70–79 y, energy-adjusted protein intake was significantly associated with change in lean body mass over 3 y; losses in lean body mass and appendicular skeletal muscle mass were ∼40% lower in subjects in the highest quintile than they were in those in the lowest quintile of energy-adjusted protein intake (11). The mean protein intake in female subjects in the Health ABC study was 60.9 g/d (0.9 g · kg body weight−1 · d−1), whereas the mean protein intake in the present study was 76 g/d (1.1 g · kg body weight−1 · d−1), which is approaching that of the 5th quintile (1.2 g · kg body weight−1 · d−1) in the Health ABC study. In a study by Alemán-Mateo et al. (15) in nonsarcopenic older adults in which a positive protein intervention effect was observed, the baseline protein intake was estimated to be 0.9 g · kg body weight−1 · d−1, which increased to 1.2 g · kg body weight−1 · d−1 with supplementation. In fact, in our study, appendicular skeletal muscle mass did not change significantly over 2 y in either the protein or the placebo groups (Table 2), although a decrease in muscle area was observed at both upper arm and lower leg. In addition, in our study, we did not find significant interactions between the intervention and baseline protein intake for muscle mass and strength measures at year 1 and year 2, but with the low number of subjects (n = 55; 28.1%) who had a protein intake below the Recommended Dietary Intake of 0.94 g · kg body weight−1 · d−1 for women of this age, our study is not powered to test this hypothesis. It is possible that protein intervention is more effective in older adults with relatively low protein intake and who have more pronounced loss of muscle mass with aging.
Another argument for the lack of effect could be that in our study the intervention was not carried out in combination with resistance training. A meta-analysis published in 2012 summarized the findings of 22 RCTs (680 subjects), and concluded that during prolonged resistance-type training (>6 wk), protein supplementation could increase fat-free mass and 1-repetition maximum leg press strength compared with the placebo group in both younger and older subjects (35). However, it is worth noting that most of the trials included in the meta-analysis (15 of 22) were conducted in men only, and although in younger subjects protein supplementation also led to greater gains in type I and II muscle fiber cross-section area, in older subjects (>50 y), such effects were not observed (35). Since the publication of the meta-analysis, an intervention study in 100 elderly women aged 60–90 y living in retirement villages showed that providing a protein-enriched diet with the use of red meat (160 g cooked) for 4 mo could enhance the effects of resistance training on lean body mass and muscle strength (36). The baseline protein intake of the abovementioned study was 1.1 g · kg body weight−1 · d−1 (36), similar to that of our study. However, the characteristics of women living in retirement villages might be different from those the women from our study. These women were community-living, their age range was wider (60–90 compared with 70–80 y), and 44% had a history of using hormone-replacement therapy, which has been shown to play a role in preserving muscle in postmenopausal women (37).
The strengths of our study included the randomized controlled design, study participants who were representative of large numbers of individuals living in Western countries, the high retention and compliance rates, and the use of a range of validated assessment techniques for muscle mass, muscle area, and physical function. A limitation of our study is that the study population included community-dwelling older Caucasian women; therefore, the findings may not be applicable to other populations. In addition, although women with a high protein intake (>1.5 g · kg body weight−1 · d−1) were excluded at study entry, the participants still had a relatively high habitual dietary protein intake, which may explain the lack of a protein intervention effect on muscle mass and strength. Furthermore, our protein intervention was not combined with resistance training. However, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of protein intervention alone on muscle health in older women.
In conclusion, in healthy ambulant women with a baseline protein intake well above the current Australian recommended Estimated Average Requirement of 0.75 g · kg body weight−1 · d−1, we found that extra protein of 30 g/d did not enhance muscle mass and physical function, despite some evidence of deterioration in upper arm and calf muscle area and hand-grip strength. Taking together the findings of our study and previous trials, it seems the effectiveness of protein intervention on muscle health in older adults would depend on participants' nutrition status and habitual protein intake, whether carried out in combination with resistance training, and the type and amount of protein intervention. Therefore, whereas protein intervention has the potential to improve muscle health in older people, the most effective way of intervention and the population most sensitive to the intervention deserve further study.
Acknowledgments
We thank Linda Schollum of Fonterra Brands Limited for her assistance with providing the whey protein isolate. KZ, DAK, AD, VS, CWB, and RLP designed the research; KZ, DAK, XM, AD, VS, CWB, and RLP conducted the research; KZ analyzed the data; XM performed the peripheral quantitative computed tomography measurements of the tibia muscle area; VS developed the test drink and provided oversight of the test drink powder production; and KZ, DAK, and RLP wrote the paper. KZ had primary responsibility for the final content. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
References
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Abbreviations
Health ABC Health, Aging, and Body Composition
IGF-I insulin-like growth factor I
RCT randomized controlled trial
TUG Timed Up and Go
© 2015 American Society for NutritionThe US Senate has passed a controversial trade bill that contains provisions opposing the growing international boycott movement against Israel.
The Senate passed the measure as part of the Trade Promotion Authority legislation. The legislation was already passed by the House of Representatives and can now be signed into law by President Barack Obama.
The bill was passed under massive pressure from the powerful pro-Israel lobby in the United States.
The provisions require US negotiators to oppose the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel during the ongoing free trade negotiations with the European Union.
The BDS campaign seeks to increase economic and political pressure on Israel until the regime ends the occupation and colonization of Palestinian lands and respect the right of return of Palestinian refugees.
“Today, for the first time in nearly four decades, Congress sent legislation to the president’s desk to combat efforts to isolate and delegitimize the ‘state’ of Israel,” US Representative Peter Roskam wrote in a statement released shortly after the Senate vote.Russian espionage in the United States has occurred since at least during the Cold War, by the Soviet Union, and likely well before. According to United States government, by 2007 it had reached Cold War levels.[1]
Operations [ edit ]
Espionage [ edit ]
According to former Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) Colonel Stanislav Lunev, "SVR and GRU (Russia's political and military intelligence agencies, respectively) are operating against the U.S. in a much more active manner than they were during even the hottest days of the Cold War."[2] From the end of the 1980s, KGB and later SVR began to create "a second echelon" of "auxiliary agents in addition to our main weapons, illegals and special agents", according to former SVR officer Kouzminov.[3] These agents are legal immigrants, including scientists and other professionals. Another SVR officer who defected to Britain in 1996 described details about thousand Russian agents and intelligence officers, some of them "illegals" who live under deep cover abroad.
Electronic espionage [ edit ]
In April 2015, CNN reported that "Russian hackers" had "penetrated sensitive parts of the White House" computers in "recent months." It was said that the FBI, the Secret Service, and other U.S. intelligence agencies categorized the attacks "among the most sophisticated attacks ever launched against U.S. government systems."[4]
Expulsion of intelligence agents [ edit ]
President Donald Trump ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian intelligence and diplomatic staff from the United States following the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal. The closure of the consulate in Seattle, Washington was also ordered, based on the belief of US intelligence officials that the consulate was serving as a key base of operations for the Russian intelligence operations in the US.[5]
See also [ edit ]NEPD Editor: Oliver Thomas
Brandon LaFell was targeted six times in his first two regular-season games as a member of the New England Patriots. And, heading into his third game of September, the former Carolina Panthers third-round pick had zero catches to his name.
He’s had 36 over the seven games since.
It’s been both a gradual and sudden rise for the 6’3”, 210-pound wide receiver; one that arrived along with the surveillance of his three-year, $9 million contact last March. Organized team activities proved to be about familiarization for him, and that continued through the summer as he looked to find a home on the practice fields behind Gillette Stadium.
Route miscommunications and concentration drops were the unintended consequences of a journey that sent him from the NFC South to the AFC East. The 28-year-old had to acclimate to the ball placement of quarterback Tom Brady instead of Cam Newton, and he had to acclimate to his own placement in the offense of coordinator Josh McDaniels instead of Mike Shula.
It required repetition.
“It was rocky this offseason because I was the new guy here. I didn’t know too much,” LaFell said in training camp. “I didn’t know where [Brady] wanted me to be. But the more reps I get with him and the more times he throws me the ball, day by day, we just continue to get better and I think we’re on a good path right now.”
Since then, the LSU product’s path has brought him to special teams, to running downs as a blocker, and to penalties, where he was flagged three times through the first three weeks of September. Yet now, heading into New England’s November bye week, LaFell’s growth has taken him to a role he hoped it would lead him to, even if it began elsewhere.
“I think that’s really been one of the best things about Brandon is just he’s finding different ways to contribute, whether it’s blocking, receiving, special teams,” head coach Bill Belichick said in August. “Whatever we’ve asked him to do, he’s done it and done it well. He’s gotten better at it. I think he’ll be able to carve out a role for himself here. It might be a big one, I don’t know, we’ll see.”
LaFell’s role has taken him to passing downs as the “X” receiver, where the mark he’s left has been a big one over the last seven weeks. Beyond his 36 receptions, his 514 receiving yards and five touchdowns are on pace surpass his career-best 677 receiving yards and five touchdowns by a meaningful margin.
He’s in line to finish Week 17 with 64 catches for 913 yards and nine touchdowns.
Even so, LaFell’s recent rise hasn’t hinged on him being a different player. It hasn’t hinged solely on him splitting cornerbacks and safeties on his way 30 yards down the field, or high-pointing passes 10 yards down the field.
It’s hinged on the coverage investment he’s provided the outside, and wherever else he’s stepped in.
During his tenure in Carolina, LaFell was seldom seen as the prototype for a split end. He ran 335 of his routes from the slot in 2013, 290 there in 2012, 115 in 2011, and 85 there as a rookie in 2010, according to Pro Football Focus.
Despite standing with the frame of an outside-the-numbers receiver, there were times when he didn’t fill it. And with more build-up speed than breakaway speed, there were situations where he could not position himself to gain more than possession.
He was tied for 19th among NFL wideouts in drops last season.
Parts of those sentiments may very well remain. But what LaFell has been for the Patriots has outweighed what he has not been. He’s been a different dynamic for an offense built on dissecting one.
LaFell has been physical – not only through his stature, yet through his technique. He’s remained undeterred at the line of scrimmage, leaning through press to establish inside leverage on in-cuts, quick slants, drags and drives.
Those same facets have applied to how he’s shouldered through contact to free himself on outs and corner routes.
From there has come LaFell’s footwork. The fifth-year pro has used it to generate separation in and out of breaks. And he’s done so without deliberation, planting his outside foot to propel opponents back as he breaks over the middle.
It’s become a prominent feature to his game on digs and posts.
Yet what LaFell has shown after the catch is also what has set him apart over the last two months. He’s shown the strength to strike, extending short cross and curl patterns up the field. And in fruition, his leg drive and pad level have left him running through tackles for more.
LaFell has stayed upright for 226 additional yards since he caught his first pass for the Patriots in Week 3.
The portrait painted by LaFell has been one of versatility throughout the route tree. It’s been one that’s affected each tier of defenses. And that was evidenced versus the Denver Broncos in Week 9, even when the outcome was not a completion.
Some of his incompletions to date have resonated just as well.
LaFell was able to get behind Denver’s secondary on Sunday evening, but he also got in front of it. Both courses of action expanded the offense’s dimensions as No. 19 aligned at the “X,” the “Z,” and in the seams.
But what he was able to do thenceforth held more significance than where he did it from.
He showed glimpses of what he has shown. Only a week removed from a career-high 11 catches, LaFell found himself as the intended recipient of 13 passes. He caught six and ultimately dropped two; however, his volume was indicative of the windows he created.
LaFell hauled in passes via a quick out, two slants, a deep curl, a whip route, a screen, and he was also tried deep on two fly routes. In the process, his patterns drew attention to all three levels. And his 54 yards and touchdown were in the byproduct of New England’s 43-21 victory.
The emergence hasn’t been rooted in one thing. It’s been rooted in being multiple; in getting open in more ways and from more places than one. Because of that, LaFell may not fit within the parameters of an “X.” He doesn’t need to.
Perhaps that was what New England saw in him back on March 15.
The presence of the unknown.
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Tags: Brandon LaFell, Denver Broncos, Film Breakdown, Tom BradyMy original santa missed the deadline and I signed up for a re-matcher after Christmas. I was originally disheartened but found out I got a re-matcher, what a re-matcher they were. My santa got me a HUGE lego set that I've been wanting for over a year! It also came with some great poly bags and a knex gun! I couldn't imagine a better gift, it goes well beyond what I ever thought a redditor would gift someone else they don't know.
I got a great re-match santa and they have inspired me to continue the reddit secret santa tradition for years to come. My original santa ended up sending a gift too so I'm signing up to be a re-matcher myself to pay it forward.
Ratings only go up to 10, but this rating should go up to 11.CLOSE A day before a scheduled alt-right demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia, protestors marched with torches at the University of Virginia. According to local reports, several people were injured during the demonstration. USA TODAY
The Virginia football team gathered for a photo in the aftermath of the violence in Charlottesville. (Photo11: Matt Riley, UVA Media Relations)
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — When the Virginia football team gathered Thursday morning for a brief meeting, the expectation was for another day in what, during preseason camp, becomes hot, fatiguing monotony. We’re talking about practice. But then Bronco Mendenhall announced a change of plans.
“Guys,” the coach said, “we’re going to the river!”
And that’s how 120-something inner tubes filled with football players, coaches and staff members came to be bobbing lazily down the James River. Mendenhall insists it was all about football, that the Cavaliers had been working hard, but after 17 practices he sensed they were tired and needed a break. But yeah, there was more.
“I felt like it was a way to relax our minds from everything that happened last weekend,” senior safety Quin Blanding says. “I think it was well needed.”
Last weekend, of course, saw controversy and carnage roil the idyllic town and its university’s campus (known to all here as “the Grounds”). White nationalists demonstrated Friday night and Saturday, protesting the planned removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. Saturday, one person was killed and 19 injured when clashes with counter protesters turned violent.
From a distance, the scenes horrified the nation. But from down the street?
Virginia Cavaliers safety Quin Blanding at the ACC Kickoff in July. (Photo11: Jeremy Brevard, USA TODAY Sports)
“I was just disgusted,” Blanding says. “I know (racism) is still a big problem in this world, but to actually see it and be living through it is something that’s a lot different than what most people can say. We know there’s still a big divide between certain people … but it opens people’s eyes.”
Last Friday night, the white nationalists marched with torches through the Virginia campus, chanting racist slogans en route to the Rotunda. The building was designed by Thomas Jefferson and inspired by the Pantheon in Rome and is considered the university’s most hallowed ground.
“You felt an eeriness in the air,” senior linebacker Micah Kiser says.
As many of the Cavaliers football players watched the events unfold on TV and social media, they were “shocked,” according to senior quarterback Kurt Benkert, and “surprised it could be happening here.”
Benkert says his next thoughts were of “how it would be affecting my teammates and the people around here, especially African-Americans. … It’s like seeing a family member hurting. It’s not directly about you, but it’s affecting you because it’s affecting my brothers.”
Mendenhall grew more concerned when he arrived at the office early Saturday morning and saw dozens of law enforcement officers putting on riot gear in an adjacent parking lot. He knew the players would soon see the same scene.
Our team participating in vigil taking place on The Lawn tonight.#HoosTogetherhttps://t.co/EtzbH7l7qy — Virginia Football (@UVa_Football) August 17, 2017
And then a text clattered into his phone. Frank Wintrich, the Cavs’ director of football performance, forwarded a passionate text message from Kiser, one of the team’s leaders.
“I realized right then, this is volatile,” Mendenhall says. “There were a lot of different emotions. There’s anger. There’s fear. There’s anxiety. There’s compassion and other emotions, all mixed in at the same time. I realized how quickly one of our players could make a decision and act in a manner that might affect not only him individually, but our team.”
In a team meeting a little later, when Mendenhall opened the floor to players, he was glad when Kiser stood. The senior’s essential message: Though they were of different races and backgrounds — no, because they were of different races and backgrounds — they had an opportunity to lead in unity.
“He said, ‘Who better than us to show what appropriate, authentic, sincere and productive behavior looks like?’” Mendenhall says. “It was really powerful. I don’t think words from me would have had the same effect.”
Kiser’s message set the tone. When the situation in town disintegrated into violence later that day, the Cavaliers’ collective response was a stark contrast.
“No matter what color or race or religion you believe in, we’re all one together, no matter what,” Blanding says. “That’s as a country and how we should be as a whole. But as a team, we’re gonna be strong together.”
Shortly before the end of a scrimmage Saturday, Virginia athletic director Craig Littlepage informed Mendenhall a state of emergency had been declared. The players spent the rest of the day at the athletic complex. They watched a movie — but mostly, they followed the events unfolding across town.
During preseason practices, some of the players are housed at the Cavalier Inn. During the weekend, so were some of the white nationalists. The team added security, and six coaches stayed there overnight. But there were no incidents.
Monday, at Kiser’s suggestion, they took a team photograph, sitting on the steps, arms locked together, at the Rotunda.
“You see these white nationalists and these racists walking through Grounds with these torches, kind of claiming that space, walking on the lawn, at the Rotunda — these really kind of iconic UVA places — and kind of claiming them as their own” Kiser says. “We just wanted to say, ‘This is our home, this is our community, this is our school. We’re not afraid of you.
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agreement to end the protests.They signed an agreement following Law Minister Zahid Hamid tendered his resignation.Protesters have refused to call off protest in Lahore and sit ins continue at Shahdara and Chairing Cross areas. Asif Ashraf Jalali stated that the future strategy will be announced later.Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced that the semi finals of National T20 Cup 2017-18 will be played on 29th November while the final will be played on 30th November.The sit in protest at Faizabad Interchange has ended and normalcy is returning in the area.The Metrobus Service in Rawalpindi has been restored after 19 hours.Motorway Police spokesman said that the road from Islamabad to Peshawar is open.The motorway from Lahore to Kot Abdul Malik is closed at the moment, Motorway Police spokesman said.The situation would not have deteriorated this much if I was involved in the negotiation process, Captain Safdar said.Captain Safdar, in his statement, said that the government should not have gone to this extent for ending the sit in protests.Cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi announced that the sit in protests of religious party across Pakistan have ended.Meanwhile, Federal Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal appeared in the Islamabad High Court for the hearing of Islamabad sit in case.A report regarding the failure of Faizabad Interchange operation has been sought from the federal government.Police has removed the barriers from Expressway.Traders and transport association in Rawalpindi have taken back their strike call for Monday.Security forces and protesters of a religious party locked horns in different parts of the country which left at least five people dead and over 150 people injured.The government of Pakistan banned the transmission of private television channels whereas the social media websites namely Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were taken down by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority.Acosta: And festivals, exactly. I mean, it’s cool, but I’m more of a club DJ. I need four or five hours to play. I definitely can’t play big room for five hours. *laughs* Progressive, techno, house, tech-house. That lets me create more of a vibe.
As someone who DJ’d hip-hop...
Acosta: Yeah, I was a hip-hop DJ when I started, a classic hip-hop DJ. I’m not like this new hip-hop. I like Biggie, Rakim, old school shit like that. When they say hip-hop, that new shit playing now, that’s not what I like. I like real hip-hop, old school hip-hop, that’s like house music in a way.
Yes! Like in a way, at early hip-hop shows it was house music a lot of the times with an emcee, and that’s something that’s completely been forgotten about in the culture.
Acosta: Yeah, I’m trying to bring that back right now.
I think a lot of people have really forgotten that when hip-hop started it was a Black and Latino thing. It was Puerto Ricans in New York, along with all the Black people doing hip-hop. It really was a cultural blend. Hip-hop is now this global phenomena, but I do think we’ve forgotten some of the early stories about it. I would love to hear you go back and play some of that old stuff.
Acosta: Yeah, I’m doing a once a month party in Miami that’s like a vintage playground setting. We’ve been doing like a lot of house and early house that ends up in techno. Techno today is like a remake of everything that was. If you listen closely you hear the things that have been done already. What we’re doing now is starting an early party, old-school house and old school hip-hop - together like the 90s, how we used to do it.It is heartbreaking to see men waste their entire lives trying to convince other people that they are someone they are not. This is why men’s soul’s do not grow mighty in spirit and courage. They spend their existence covering up and living in fear they will one day be discovered as a fraud. There is a voice inside them that keeps telling them that in spite of all the ornaments they collect in life, they are still not OK. The results are a lifelong tension with guilt, shame and anxiety. -Jerry Leachman in the foreward of The True Measure of a Man
I read that almost exactly a year ago today, as I was flying home from a trip to North Carolina, in a book that I grabbed from the nightstand at my parent’s house. As I was reading it, I came to a note that my mother had written on one of the pages:
(I’ve written about this book before…)
My dad marked that page on May 15. He died unexpectedly a few days later. Because of that I ended up paying more attention to what I was reading:
“six million American men will be diagnosed with depression this year”
“advertisers do not appeal simply to our practical, common sense but to our fears that we do not measure up”
“we give celebrities and media more and more power over our lives simply because of the images they project rather than the true values they represent”
On the plane ride home from NC, I had an epiphany: We had set ourselves up for frustration, confusion and failure. We had a huge house and an even bigger mortgage. We had 5 flat screen TVs in our house…for 3 people. We lived in an expensive city with expensive taxes. We built a huge pantry so that we could stockpile items from Costco…just because we could. We built a huge kitchen for entertaining because we thought we were supposed to entertain…and neither of us like to cook. We bought or leased a new car every three years. We sent our child to private school and bought her enough clothing that she’d rarely have to repeat an outfit. We ate at expensive restaurants because all of our friends did. We weren’t necessarily living beyond our means….but we were working to support our means. My epiphany was that I wanted to move the means.
Brett: You didn’t want to come back.
Me: I didn’t. This doesn’t feel like living. It’s all so draining. I want less to choose from. I want less to manage. I just want less.
Brett: I don’t know if we can afford to move to such a small town.
Me: We’ll make it work. We’ll sell everything, cut our expenses. We’ll find odd jobs. I would rather live out of our car, and have time for what we enjoy doing, than live like this.
Fast forward to one year later and here we are in the mountains of North Carolina.
It wasn’t easy, but it was freedom. We sold our house which, by the way, we lost money on. We left California with everything we owned in a 16 foot box trailer. On the long, slow drive cross country we never once opened up the trailer….instead we wore the same clothes day after day and did laundry in hotel sinks. (Conclusion: we didn’t even really need what we’d brought in the trailer.) We took as many backroads as we could and we saw the true heart of America. The roads typically less traveled left us in awe.
It wasn’t an instant decision to uproot our lives….I planted the seed and then we talked about it for months. But what really started the whole point of this post (long story long) is that once we started telling people about our big move we were surprised at how many people asked:
But what will Brett do?!
What will he do for work?!
How can he leave a company behind?!
I could feel the expectations radiating from the questions. And sometimes our answers of he isn’t sure yet or he’s going to be a dad and husband and help around the inn brought even more questions and lack of understanding. This reassured us about our reason for doing what we were doing…especially for me. I wanted Brett to know that I just wanted him to be happy. I wanted him to know that I would live within whatever means we ended up with. I’m pretty good at doing laundry in small sinks.
I wanted him to know that he could walk away from his livelihood and I would never once make him regret it.
He was more than his work.
Brett is a pretty simple man but he’s a hard worker. He has been an investment banker and an owner of a construction company…but he also finds the most joy in the simple things. He loves the outdoors, loves exercise and fitness, and loves to build things. He built me a bench the other day….and invited me to come and sit on it. Best gift ever.
I’ve seen a weight slowly lifted off of him the last few months that reassures me that he’s figuring it out. I have to admit I was worried about his feeling of identity if he walked away from what he’d built in the desert. But now I overhear him talking with other men at the inn and they are asking for his advice on how to get out of their own rat race and my heart swells. Men asking how he got the courage to step away from it all. He tells them how he reads with our daughter every night and helps with her homework. He tells them how he’s fallen in love with hobbies that don’t cost a thing. He tells them how spending time with his family gives him more joy than he ever felt in a high powered, high paying job. MY HEART SWELLS. His step-mother Gale and his dad recently visited us at the inn for 3 days. When they left, Gale said she had never in her life seen him more content, more fulfilled.
With almost universal agreement, [cultural analysts] tell us that in the more traditional, family-based societies of the past, men derived their identity and meaning through family relationships. A man’s status came from fulfilling a defined social role (a son, a husband, a father). Work – a discipline that created tremendous value within any social order – was not nearly as important as the fabric of one’s relationships. In the traditional social order, work was seen as merely a functional means of providing for the family and improving the quality of life within the community. Work did not define a man’s life’s worth and value in an absolute sense as it so frequently appears to do in our modern society. – The True Measure of a Man
One of the most freeing quotes I have ever read…and I wrote it in the front of my journal in 2005….is:
…if you’re trying to show off for people at the top, forget it. They will look down on you anyhow. And if you’re trying to show off for people at the bottom, forget it. They will only envy you. Status will get you nowhere.
– Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie
I read it over and over again and a few months after reading that I quit my job at the bank. We walked away from a new country club membership we’d paid for. We sold our house to someone that we knew was just going to tear it down and build a house five times its size.
So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they’re chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.
― Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie
And now years later I never would have pictured us in this place. We crave the inconvenience of things that really aren’t inconvenient at all if you think about it: running into town for mail, the nearest Starbucks is over an hour away, we have to take the trash to the dump. And there aren’t any shortcuts over the mountains or across the rivers….you have to just enjoy the long curvy drives around them and along them.
And we haven’t completely gone off the grid (yet). We do have a TV….it’s a whopping 22 inch screen. I had to add the closed captioning because I can’t hear it. Actually I eventually just stopped watching because when I take my contacts out I can’t see the screen.
Boo went back to a new school on Monday and she wore an outfit she’s had all summer. We didn’t purchase any new back to school clothes. She took last year’s backpack, one that we bought at a yardsale. She made a friend. Her first day was perfect.
We live in less than 900 sq feet and we make it work. We keep expenses as low as possible and I work from home now. We live in a place that has a very low cost of living. We talk to each other, see each other, and enjoy each other’s company. We are a team.
Our new 10’x 12′ living area (and office). We don’t even own a coffee table.
Brett helps out around the inn sometimes with handy things he enjoys doing. Sometimes he’ll venture into town to hang out at Bryson City Bicycles and watches the owner Andy repair and build bikes to learn a new trade. We spend lots of time getting to know the people that own the local businesses and try to support them as much as we can.
I spend a lot of time getting to know the staff at the inn. Brett drove three hours roundtrip today to pick up a new motor for a kitchen fan because while I sat with the cooks in the kitchen I noticed how overheated they were getting. Yesterday I overheard Donna tell her husband Wally “you over salted that….put a tater in it” and I loved that she said tater, and at the same time taught me how to “un-salt something.” And Wally said there are all sorts of medicinal plants in the woods that he picks and dries…including ginseng. I helped Harper “the intern” and George one of the other cooks load food into the freezer today. I’ve never seen so many eggs up close in my life.
Most importantly: God is the center of our lives. We’ve found a small local church that we all love called The Grove. The church’s tag line is: we are an okay church for people that are not okay. I love that. Because I’ve never met anyone that is truly okay. We all have our issues. We pray about everything, especially the things that are out of our control.
Prayer is not flight, prayer is power. Prayer does not deliver a man from some terrible situation; prayer enables a man to face and to master the situation. –William Barclay
I think there is a reason that God led us to such a vast, beautiful place. There’s something therapeutic about being surrounded by so much beauty.
Many men meet God only through a wilderness experience. We find ourselves in the wilderness and we recognize that we are absolutely alone in a severely harsh environment. It is through this wilderness experience that we finally wake up to the fact that the thing we have always looked to as our ultimate hope, the thing that has driven and motivated us, that one thing that makes us feel like real men, has deserted us. –The True Measure of a Man
Emerson said that in the woods we return to reason and faith. I feel like the more we are in nature, we live very much without a past and without a future. And around here…the nature is free.
The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature, and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes people to be happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and certainly it always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. -Anne Frank
Six million men diagnosed with depression each year.
Six million men minus one.
Love,
Ashley
P.S. I write a weekly letter to you, friend. A little bit of inspiration mixed with quotes etc:
Sign up here if you like. I never share you info with anyone else.
What is my husband doing now? Read the updates here.Meanwhile, its interface is as stale and frustrating as ever. Gmail may have been impressive nine years ago, but these days it’s being outdone by friendlier and more compatible alternatives like Outlook.com that merit consideration like never before.
In its four years of life, Gmail has changed from embodying anti-Microsoft panache to being a gateway drug for Google’s online services. Google sucks you in with Gmail, then keeps you with subtle technical incompatibilities and ever-more-creative ways of harvesting your private communications to sell ads.
Companies standardizing on Gmail – many of which were SMEs without the budget for Microsoft Exchange – found themselves hand-holding employees on an unfamiliar and unintuitive interface built around message tags, archiving and conversation view.
David Braue: Gmail was born to outshine Yahoo! Mail and Microsoft Hotmail. Superlative spam catching, innovations like Gmail Labs and the high-value (and free) Google Apps bundle embodied Google’s debonair anti-establishmentarianism – and made us forget its sole purpose in life was to help Google sell more ads.
It's got everything you need -- and it's simple to use
Ken Hess: As much as technology analysts and bloggers like to beat up on Google, there's no reason to abandon Gmail. Gmail isn't perfect but it is close to being so. I've used it since it was in early beta and I'd be hard-pressed to find something that even comes close. Sure, I used to miss folders but now I find that I don't need them cluttering up my navigation window.
And who really remembers where you put an email two or three years ago? You still have to search for it. Google knows search and searching your email is very easy to do. GMail is available on any platform via apps or browser, so there's no need to use a heavy client.
Gmail, for personal use, is also free. It provides plenty of space that grows every day. It's secure and supports IMAP and POP3 incoming mail protocols. It has an excellent SPAM filter. In fact, I only have to see an errant email about once a month that the filter doesn't catch. And it has some advanced features not found in any other mail application that I've used, such as the attachment sensor (That's what I call it).
The attachment sensor knows that you've referenced an attachment in your message but didn't attach it. It catches that and pops up a message asking you to confirm that you have no attachments. How many times have you sent an email without the attachment that you meant to send? You won't with Gmail.
With Gmail, you can do all the expected things with your online email account but one of the great advantages of Gmail is that it's integrated with Google's other applications such as Google Groups, Google Docs, YouTube, Google+, Gtalk, and more. You don't have to do anything special for that integration; it's just there.
You can highlight your important emails with various colors of stars or other icons so that you don't forget an important message. And now, GMail categorizes your incoming email, by default, as Notifications, Promotions, or regular Inbox.
In essence, Gmail is the mail application that goes where you do without hassle. It's simple to use and I don't see any reason to disconnect from it in favor of something else. At least, not until something much better comes along, and in almost ten years, I'm still waiting for that to happen.CLOSE The NFL is adding a combine for veteran players. The league sent out a memo to all 32 teams that said the venture will'serve to isolate and consolidate veteran free-agent talent for more focused evaluation on a comparative basis.' Watch to find out
Tim Tebow, Vince Young not on list of those scheduled to participate
The NFL will conduct its inaugural NFL Veteran Combine on March 22 at the Arizona Cardinals Practice Facility in Tempe, Arizona. (Photo: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports)
The NFL will conduct its inaugural NFL Veteran Combine on March 22 at the Arizona Cardinals Practice Facility in Tempe, Arizona. Players will be tested and evaluated by experienced NFL scouting personnel. Measurements, combine results, and videos of the workouts will be compiled and shared electronically with all 32 NFL clubs.
Free agents planning to attend range from veteran players who have been starters in the NFL to players who are one year out of college with no regular-season experience.
The combine is not open to the public.
Photos: 2015 NFL scouting combine
"Combines have long provided draft eligible players with the forum needed to showcase their skills to NFL teams," says NFL Director of Football Development MATT BIRK. "The NFL Veteran Combine will give veteran free agents a similar opportunity to work out in front of club personnel in a streamlined process."
The NFL Veteran Combine will serve to consolidate individual veteran free agent tryouts to one location, streamlining the process for NFL teams and participating players. Invited free agents will have the opportunity to perform position-specific and timed drills in front of scouts from all 32 NFL clubs.
NFL Media will provide fans with coverage of the Veteran Combine across all platforms including NFL Network, NFL.com, NFL Mobile from Verizon, and NFL Now. NFL Network will air a one-hour special on the Veteran Combine at 8:00 PM ET on Sunday, March 22. Fans also may get updates from across the NFL's official social media channels. For more information on the Veteran Combine, visit NFL.com.
This event is part of the NFL Combine Series under the NFL Football Development platform.
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Photos: 2015 NFL draft prospects
Players scheduled to appear – Subject to Change:
Full Name | Position | College
Armstrong, Matt | C | Grand Valley State
Carter, Sherman | C | Tennessee State
Foster, Jason | C | Rhode Island
Gallington, Deveric | C | Texas Tech
Golic, Mike | C | Notre Dame
Gottschalk, Ben | C | Southern Methodist
Pocic, Graham | C | Illinois
Van Roten, Greg | C | Pennsylvania
Berry, Aaron | CB | Pittsburgh
Burton, Brandon | CB | Utah
Carr, Deveron | CB | Arizona State
Edwards, Kip | CB | Missouri
Lee, Saeed | CB | Alabama State
Love, Jordan | CB | Towson
Lyn, Keon | CB | Syracuse
Patrick, Johnny | CB | Louisville
Posey, Julian | CB | Ohio
Reid, Greg | CB | Valdosta State
Sullen, Jordan | CB | Tulane
White, Ryan | CB | Auburn
Anderson, Jamaal | DE | Arkansas
Brown, Sammy | DE | Houston
Carriker, Adam | DE | Nebraska
Cox, Rakim | DE | Villanova
Mims, Tevin | DE | South Florida
Paulhill, Shahid | DE | Temple
Rayford, Caesar | DE | Washington
Roh, Craig | DE | Michigan
Sam, Michael | DE | Missouri
Black, Larry | DT | Indiana
Collins, Nate | DT | Virginia
Forston, Marcus | DT | Miami
Harris, DaJohn | DT | Southern California
Jerideau, Byron | DT | South Carolina
Minter, Zach | DT | Montana State
Thompson, Everrette | DT | Washington
Troup, Torell | DT | Central Florida
Moore, Dan | FB | Montana
Pryor, Lonnie | FB | Florida State
Unga, Harvey | FB | Brigham Young
Dominguez, Ray | G | Arkansas
Goodin, Stephen | G | Nebraska-Kearney
Huey, Michael | G | Texas
Morris, Darius | G | Temple
Wells, Justin | G | St. Augustine's
White, Ian | G | Boston College
Baker, Chris | LB | East Carolina
Copeland, Brandon | LB | Pennsylvania
Devitto, Steele | LB | Boston College
Doughty, Jake | LB | Utah State
Dowtin, Marcus | LB | North Alabama
Drakeford, Darin | LB | Maryland
Fox, Dan | LB | Notre Dame
Glaud, Ka'Lial | LB | Rutgers
Keiser, Thomas | LB | Stanford
Kimbrough, Jeremy | LB | Appalachian State
Lutrus, Scott | LB | Connecticut
Rolle, Brian | LB | Ohio State
So'oto, Vic | LB | Brigham Young
Steward, Phillip | LB Houston
Miller, Jordan | NT | Southern U.
Johnson, Jerrod | QB | Texas A&M
Kafka, Mike | QB | Northwestern
Kay, Brendon | QB | Cincinnati
Price, Keith| QB | Washington
Robinson, Zac | QB | Oklahoma State
Thomas, Darron | QB | Oregon
Wilson, Tyler | QB | Arkansas
Bush, Michael | RB | Louisville
Hampton, Jewel | RB | Southern Illinois
Hines, Quentin | RB | Akron
Jones, Felix | RB | Arkansas
LeShoure, Mikel | RB | Illinois
Scott, Da'Rel | RB | Maryland
Wood, Cierre | RB | Notre Dame
Mcmillian, Jerron | S | Maine
Mitchell, Charles | S | Mississippi State
Owusu-Ansah, Akwasi | S | Indiana, Pa.
Sebetic, Kyle | S | Dayton
Silva, Mana | S | Hawaii
Starling, Jawanza | S | Southern California
Young, Joe | S | Rutgers
Aladenoye, Josh | T | Illinois State
Breckner, Jack | T | Gustavus Adolphus
Foketi, Manase | T | West Texas A&M
Harris, Randall | T | Towson
Childers, Jamie | TE | Coastal Carolina
Momah, Ifeanyi | TE | Boston College
Ogbuehi, Emmanuel | TE | Georgia State
Veldman, Matt | TE | North Dakota State
Walker, Dallas | TE | Western Michigan
Waters, Eric | TE | Missouri
Adams, Joe | WR | Arkansas
Anderson, Joe | WR | Texas Southern
Gadsden, Ben | WR | Miami
Jean, Lestar | WR | Florida Atlantic
Johnson, Darius | WR | Southern Methodist
Kurihara, Tukashi | WR | No College
Mayo, Thomas | WR | California, Pa.
Mitchell, Carlton | WR | South Florida
Slaughter, Nathan | WR | West Texas A&M
Steelman, Trent | WR | Army
Williams, LaQuan | WR | Maryland
Notable NFL players changing teams in 2015:click to enlarge Courtesy photo
Don’t let the holidays make you crazy if you’re LGBT—rely on friends, family and resources
There’s no denying that the holiday season—regardless of your beliefs—is a busy and often maddening time. We nearly kill ourselves for a month of the year for the sake of family, significant others, shopping, decorations, cooking, baking and more shopping, all in the name of living up to some version of an “ideal” season.
In most cases (but definitely not all), friends can be our saving grace during the harried holidays. Friends often don’t expect as much as families or partners do, and they become a source of solace when everything else in our lives seems a bit too awry. In no community is this more evident than in LGBT circles, where for many, friends are the family they have chosen—sometimes because of rejection from their own families.
Thankfully, society is moving along fairly quickly when it comes to lesbian and gay acceptance (for transgender—not fast enough—but more on that below), and such estrangements are more and more rare. But ask anyone who is LGBT, and you’ll quickly find stories or people who know of stories with undercurrents of sadness, separation or loss. In a way, this is no different from the straight community, but LGBT stories are unique and worth recognizing as such.
One of my closest friends, “James,” has visited his parents in another state each Christmas without his partner of 22 years, “Alex,” at his side. James had not even been able to tell his parents that Alex existed because of an unspoken family “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. It wasn’t until 2010—when their relationship neared the 20-year milestone—that James threw down the gauntlet, told his parents about his lifetime love and essentially said they could accept all of him or nothing. Now, James and Alex both visit during holidays, and they’ve welcomed James’ mom to visit them. But it took two decades to get that far.
Even in cases where acceptance by family members is more the norm, there can still often be issues. Perhaps the LGBT person is out to most of the family, but not all—such as grandparents or more conservative members of the family. In such cases, both the LGBT and the open-minded relatives can find it difficult to work out holiday traditions.
Or maybe the family members truly want to be happy for their gay child/sibling/cousin, but they can’t let go of the heterosexual “ideal” they had in their minds for that individual. This can lead to awkwardness at best or anger at worst.
Longtime activist Lauryn Farris explains that the vast majority of people who are gender-transitioning lose marriages, family and friendships throughout their transition process. Although these schisms can occur any time, they are often exacerbated around the holidays, where family involvement becomes an expectation.
One facet that isn’t often discussed is children who must learn to accept their lesbian, gay or transgender parent. As Farris explains, “It can be very difficult for others in the family, mourning the loss of the person as they were but also trying to find ways to celebrate the new person they’ve become.
Mourning the loss of someone who is still here—but is changed—is as difficult as mourning someone who is lost completely.”
Farris’ son, Mark, adds, “The hardest thing for allies of people who transition is the fallout from family members. Lauryn’s birth family has alienated not just her, but myself, my wife Danielle and our three-month-old son, Austin. We stand with Lauryn, of course, but we’re caught in the not-so-friendly fire.”
Danielle has reached out to Lauryn’s sister, this being Austin’s first-ever Christmas, but thus far has not received a response.
Importantly, there are resources available. Jennifer Boylan of Colby College in Maine offers a free service called the December Project, through which a trained volunteer will call a transgender person during the holidays to talk and, hopefully, raise their spirits. More information about this non-crisis service can be found at jenniferboylan.net
Lastly, I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the impact of lost loved ones during this time of year. It’s something we all face in one form or another, and within the LGBT community, it can still be difficult for people to find comfort for their grief. Darwin Huartson of VITAS Hospice and board member of Pride Center San Antonio explains, “Holidays become a collision of emotions—reconciling happy and sad. It’s important to find ways to claim our loss and not [allow] the loss to claim us.”
Huartson, who has himself experienced the recent loss of a partner, is conducting an LGBT Grief in the Holidays workshop on Saturday, December 7 at 10 a.m. at the Deco Building at 1800 Fredericksburg Rd. “Workshops offer the opportunity to find a safe space to create a plan among others in a similar situation. LGBT people can feel disenfranchised by their grief, and times are hard enough as it is. No one wants to be a victim of the holidays.” For more information on the Grief Workshop, please email pridecentersa (at) gmail.com.
Below is this month’s “I Am” statement. Send your own 100-word statement to currentlyrichard (at) gmail.com for publication in future “Just Happens to Be LGBT” columns.ORMOC CITY—A village councilor was shot dead while he was on his way to work past 7:00 a.m. Thursday along Purok Gumamela, Barangay Punta.
Police Station 3 Chief P/SInsp. Joseph Joevil Young identified the victim as Allan Bensig, 35, a village councilor in Barangay Hibunawon in this city.
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Witnesses told the police that the victim just bought something from a nearby store when suspects riding in tandem shot him. Bensig tried to run away from the suspects but he later fell to the ground. The unidentified motorcycle-riding assailants finished off the victim, who was lying along the road, by shooting him in the head several times.
Scene of the Crime Operatives personnel recovered eight empty shells of.45 caliber pistol and eight deformed slugs from unknown caliber from the crime scene.
An investigation is being conducted by the police for the identities of the suspects and the motive behind the killing. RAM/rga
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MOST READWe speak to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and ask a former KGB general about Russia's air strikes in Syria.
In this episode of UpFront, Mehdi Hasan speaks to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert about the Iran deal, a two-state solution, and calls for him to be charged with war crimes.
Hasan also exposes some of the greatest misconceptions about the continent of Africa, and asks a former KGB general about the real motives behind Russian air strikes in Syria.
The Headliner: Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
Accused of wars crimes in Gaza and Lebanon and convicted for fraud, the former Israeli Prime Minister Olmert has been plagued by controversy throughout his political career. Despite this, many supporters laud him for coming close to a peace deal with the Palestinians in 2008.
In an exclusive interview with Mehdi Hasan, Olmert says Iran deal is "a done deal", and his opinion on allegations that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza and Lebanon.
Reality Check: Africa is not a country
Do you speak African? Well, neither do the 1 billion people on the continent.
Africa is home to 54 different nations, more than 2,000 languages and four of the world's 10 fastest growing economies, but is often painted with a sweeping stroke of doom and gloom. In this Reality Check, Hasan exposes the popular misconceptions about the continent.
The Arena: What are Putin's motives in Syria?
"We bomb in one hour. Stay out of our way." That was the message from a Russian general to US diplomats on Wednesday as Russian forces began bombing what they say are ISIL positions in Syria.
The Russian government claims the goal of the air strikes is to defeat "ISIL and other terrorist organisations", but Syrian opposition groups claim they are being targeted, leaving many to question if this is an attempt to prop up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In this week's Arena, former KGB Major-General Oleg Kalugin debates Alexander Nekrassov, a former Kremlin adviser, on Putin's motives in Syria.
Follow UpFront on Twitter @AJUpFront and Facebook.
Source: Al JazeeraDESTRUCTIVE FORCE: The 40-tonne boulder that came to rest under a Sumner house after crashing down the hillside.
A 40-tonne boulder has been turned into a political football after it smashed into an unoccupied Sumner house.
Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee said the rockfall, which may have been caused by the recent dry weather, vindicated the Government's decision to take no risks when it came to red-zoning some Port Hills properties.
But some residents forced out of their homes by the Government's zoning decisions still believe rock protection work is possible.
The van-sized boulder smashed through the deck into poles supporting the red-stickered house at 31 Finnsarby Pl on Wednesday night.
"We know from the extensive ground-truthing and area-wide modelling that the risk of rock roll in this part of the Port Hills is high; hence the need to zone the land red," Brownlee said yesterday.
He said reports from the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority's geologists indicated such rock-roll activity was to be expected, even without an obvious trigger like heavy rain or further earthquakes.
"This boulder is the size of a van, so clearly it posed a risk to life and limb had that home been occupied,'' he said.
''All areas of Port Hills land zoned red due to rock roll are as dangerous, and this cannot be forgotten."
Sumner resident Phil Elmey, who has vowed to fight the red-zoning of his land, said the Finnsarby Pl house was in a "bowling alley".
He said most of the red-stickered houses could be saved if money was spent on rock protection work.
"Even a rock that size could be stopped by the right protection,'' he said. ''We think it's disgraceful that it hasn't happened."
Terry Huggins, who lives opposite the house, said he heard the boulder fall.
Christchurch City Council building operations manager Ethan Stetson said the recent hot weather could have forced moisture out of the soil, causing the ground to contract and the boulder to fall.
"You can have rock movement in any or all of those locations at any time. It doesn't take an earthquake to make things move."
He said the property had been issued a section 124 notice, which barred entry to homes because of the danger of rockfall or landslip.
It was unlikely any more properties in the street would be red-stickered.
"If I had advice from the geotech [people], then that would be considered, but I'm not expecting that," he said.European Union leaders will discuss sanctions against Russia ahead of an emergency summit meeting, the French foreign minister said today, as western leaders increased diplomatic pressure on Moscow.
When asked what measures the west could take against Russia in the crisis over Georgia, Bernard Kouchner told a press conference in Paris: "Sanctions are being considered."
He gave no details, but the threat reflects western impatience at Moscow after its invasion of Georgia and its recognition of Georgia's breakaway provinces, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, as independent.
Despite Kouchner's comments, it will not be easy to reach consensus on sanctions within the EU as some states will be unwilling to jeopardise mutually beneficial relations with Moscow. In particular, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is unlikely to support any moves that could damage relations and interrupt the flow of gas and
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evolutionary tree prematurely.’ This is just an assumption because Africans supposedly have higher testosterone than both Europeans and East Asians, except East Asians have the highest testosterone out of all of all three traditional races, not Africans.
After watching this video I feel like starving my muscles off (not that I recommend that).
Good luck with that.
I realize not everyone agrees with the progressive model of evolution, but real scientists do. For example, check out this phys.org article:
This article has nothing to do with progressive evolution at all. In fact, this article is basically a summary of Full House (Gould, 1996) in which Gould argues that since life began at the left wall of complexity—where no organism can get simpler—that a right-tail distribution of complexity was inevitable. I have covered this here. This is not evidence for progressive evolution. It is, in fact, the opposite. He’s never read Gould’s books so he wouldn’t know that.
Now, PP’s contention that women find nerds more attractive has no basis. When I think of a ‘nerd’, I think of a scrawny pencil-neck, buck teeth, person with thick-rimmed black glasses. This, obviously, isn’t true. If it were, then why do East Asians—Japan specifically—have the lowest birthrates? Of course, social factors have a lot to do with it—birthrates decline in developed countries (Nargund, 2009; Sinding, 2009), as well as genetic ones (Harris and Nielson, 2016). So, clearly, the more intelligent, more developed countries don’t have more children, which then, of course implies that either higher IQ people are less desirable from a reproductive point of view (plausible), or they forgo having children until around 28 years of age (Lange, Rinderu and Bushman, 2016). Whatever the case may be, those with higher IQs do not conceive as many children as those with lower IQs, signifying something about their fitness aspects.
Further, women, evolutionarily speaking, sexually selected men for high levels of testosterone, which leads to bigger muscles, more defined facial features, higher levels of aggression (good for protecting genetic interests) and so on. The fact that some people may think that nerds have better prospects than non-nerds, evolutionarily speaking, had no basis in reality and for one to believe as much, it has to be driven by ideology.
Dixson et al (2010) showed that women prefer men with the mesomorphic somatype and ‘average’ body type, then prefer ectomorphs (a skinnier body type) and finally endomorph (a heavier build) ranging from most attractive to least. This study shows that, at least when it comes to European females, they prefer mesomorphic somatypes, which, more often than not, one who is over 6 feet tall will have. Does that seem like a ‘nerd’ to you? I don’t think so. Someone who has the potential ability to control a room with his presence doesn’t seem like a nerd to me. These are the same people who are CEOs.
Journalist Malcolm Gladwell showed that on average, CEOs averaged just under 6 foot tall. Since the average American is 5 foot 9, the average CEO has a three-inch height advantage over the average man in America. However, when looking at those who are 6 feet tall and up, for average Joe the percentage is a paltry 3.9 percent while, in Gladwell’s sample, 30 percent were over 6’2″. So, Gladwell states, the lack of minorities and women in high positions has a plausible explanation: height. Men are, on average taller than women. Tall men earn more money than their shorter counterparts. Taller children also perform better on cognitive tests, taller men earn more money in Mexico, and taller children do better on learning tests in India (Lawson and Spears, 2016).
Women want taller men more than men want taller women (Stulp, Buunk, and Pollet, 2012). Tall men are also more likely to have a mesomorphic somatype. Those somatypes are seen as the most attractive. Does that seem like a nerd somatype to you? An athletic somatype? On the other hand, women aren’t attracted to short men (Nettle, 2002). East Asians—the so-called ‘most evolved race’—are the shortest race. Doesn’t look too good for them.
Furthermore, while East Asian men see themselves as attractive and dateable, they don’t believe society sees it that way. Forty-six percent of the sample said they could recall one instance where they hear someone state that they do not date Asian men, while eleven percent of Asian men have heard it at least six times. For Okcupid’s 2009 race/dating data, 18 percent of Asian women (3,381 yes) would date someone of their own background/skin color while 82 percent (17,227) wouldn’t! So much for the ‘most evolved’ race having dating prospects in their own race. East Asian men said yes to the question at a rate of 24 percent (7,965 yes) and no 76 percent of the time (25,358).
To further put this into perspective, white women would said yes to the question at a rate of 54 percent (154,595) and no at a rate of 46 percent (132,497) while white men said yes at a 40/60 yes/no rate (183,360/277,827 respectively). In total, 45 percent of whites would prefer to date someone of their skin color/ethnicity while 55 percent wouldn’t (337,955/410,324) while non-whites said yes to the question 20 percent of the time while they said no 80 percent of the time (56,080/222,484).
A 2014 follow-up found the same thing, however with Asian women showing some positive ratings toward Asian males (while all races of men didn’t find black women particularly attractive). However, Asian men were seen as the least attractive throughout the whole sample. Asian males are also seen as less attractive than males of other races (Fisman et al, 2008). In their sample, they found even after running regressions that Asian women found white, black, and ‘Hispanic’ men. They also show that even Asian men find white, black and ‘Hispanic’ females more attractive than Asian females.
In sum, PP’s contentions and reaches in his article are wrong. ‘Nerds’ (in the way I’m defining the word) are not more successful than the alpha CEOs who are over 6’2”. PP seems to have an aversion to testosterone (believes that it is the cause for racial differences in prostate cancer differences, but vitamin D deficiencies are a more likely culprit). East Asian men—the so-called ‘most evolved’ men of the ‘most evolved’ race do not fair well in terms of physical attractiveness, and this may be a reason why the Japanese birthrate is declining, with the average Japanese woman having only one child during her lifetime (Nomura and Koizumi, 2016). PP’s theory makes no sense, because women favor mesomorphic somatypes. Mesomorphs are more likely to be CEOs of 500 companies, more likely to be more cognitively adept and make more money than their shorter counterparts. Making evolutionary theories off of one (obviously fake) ‘social experiment’ is ridiculous. East Asian men, the so-called ‘most evolved man’ fall short in the dating game, due to being seen as less attractive.
References
Dixson, B. J., Dixson, A. F., Bishop, P. J., & Parish, A. (2009). Human Physique and Sexual Attractiveness in Men and Women: A New Zealand–U.S. Comparative Study. Archives of Sexual Behavior,39(3), 798-806. doi:10.1007/s10508-008-9441-y
Fisman, R. J., Iyengar, S. S., Kamenica, E., & Simonson, I. (2008) (n.d.). Racial Preferences in Dating: Evidence from a Speed Dating Experiment. SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.610589
Gould, S. J. (1996). Full house: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin. New York: Harmony Books.
Harris, K., & Nielsen, R. (2016). The Genetic Cost of Neanderthal Introgression. Genetics, 2016 doi:10.1101/030387
Lange, P. A., Rinderu, M. I., & Bushman, B. J. (2016). Aggression and Violence Around the World: A Model of CLimate, Aggression, and Self-control in Humans (CLASH). Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1-63. doi:10.1017/s0140525x16000406
Nargund G. (2009) Declining birth rate in Developed Countries: A radical policy re-think is required. F.V & V in ObGyn. 2009;1:191-3
Nettle, D. (2002). Women’s height, reproductive success and the evolution of sexual dimorphism in modern humans. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences,269(1503), 1919-1923. doi:10.1098/rspb.2002.2111
Nomura, K., & Koizumi, A. (2016). Strategy against aging society with declining birthrate in Japan. Industrial Health INDUSTRIAL HEALTH,54(6), 477-479. doi:10.2486/indhealth.54-477
Sinding S.(2009) Population, poverty and economic development. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 364.
Stulp, G., Buunk, A. P., & Pollet, T. V. (2013). Women want taller men more than men want shorter women. Personality and Individual Differences,54(8), 877-883. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2012.12.019
AdvertisementsWASHINGTON — It is said after every election that the victors should put politics aside and work for the good of the country.
If President Obama believed this pious nonsense, he would put his second term in jeopardy. Asking politicians to ignore politics is like insisting that professional hockey players switch to basketball. In a system with national elections every two years — and in which the two parties are in relatively close balance — politics never disappears.
Fortunately, the president knows foolishness when he sees it. He has been toughened by four years of unremitting Republican opposition and has behind him both a large electoral college victory and an advantage of about 3 million popular votes. The word “mandate” is overused — just ask George W. Bush. But Obama was absolutely clear during the campaign about his insistence that taxes on better-off Americans need to rise as part of any deal on the budget deficit and “fiscal cliff.”
And so did Obama gracefully but firmly challenge Republicans on Friday to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the middle class immediately and then begin negotiations on how to raise taxes on the well-to-do. He was asking them to give up their leverage because he knows they don’t have much leverage to begin with. Meet the newly empowered Obama.
The voters clearly heard what Obama was saying during the campaign. According to the media exit poll, only 35 percent of voters said taxes should not be increased. Fully 47 percent of all voters supported raising taxes on Americans earning $250,000 or more, including 66 percent of Obama’s voters. An additional 13 percent, of all voters and Obama’s, said taxes should go up for everyone.
If Republican leaders in Congress want to pretend that Obama’s re-election means absolutely nothing, the president seems willing to let all the Bush tax cuts expire. This is the only way to deal with recalcitrance, reflected in the fact that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell didn’t even let the president make his case on Friday before issuing a flat statement rejecting any tax increases. Obama can only hope that he can break more reasonable Senate Republicans away from their hardline leadership.
House Speaker John Boehner has tried to sound more reasonable, and Obama took him at his word. Graciousness comes easily when you are operating from a position of strength.
Still, even in his conciliatory mode, Boehner made clear that preserving low tax rates for the rich remains the GOP’s single highest priority. The speaker said he might support new revenue, but only through some vague “tax reform.” But that’s what Mitt Romney offered during the campaign. Boehner is saying he will make a deal with the victorious candidate only on the basis of the program of the defeated candidate. Here’s hoping this is just a bargaining position.
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403The upcoming running season is upon us. Depending on what local Chicago runner you ask, the start to the running season is usually defined by locals as the day the Chicago Parks water fountains are turned on or the date of the Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle.
So, in preparation of newly found New Year's Resolutions, we asked some locals to share their running tips that they would tell someone who is just starting to delve into the wonderful community that is known as running.
What is one piece of advice you’d give to a beginner runner? — Fleet Feet Chicago (@FleetFeetChgo) January 26, 2017
We asked the question on Twitter and Facebook and we got so many accurate responses that we decided we would share with our community.
If any of these tips get you in the mood to start training, we offer a beginner 5k training program, half marathon, and full marathon training program via Chicago Endurance Sports, which you can sign up for through the above hyperlinks.
Disclaimer: Some are better than others but we tried to include all of the tips that we would likely cosign. Here are your responses.
The Good:
Not trying to get brownie points but, go to a brick and mortar store and get properly fit for shoes. https://t.co/A941TuRsNG — Brian Roache (@RoacheBrian) January 26, 2017
@FleetFeetChgo Find a program or coach that teaches you to train properly. You'll avoid injuries, gradually build endurance, and get support — Jo-Elle Munchak (@JoElleMunch) January 26, 2017
Run outside, always. No one ever fell in love with running on a treadmill. https://t.co/VimqLAARMx — Tim Grace (@tmgrace) January 26, 2017
@FleetFeetChgo Rest days matter! Plan them accordingly. Will prevent injuries in the long run (haha see what I did there?) ☺️ — Sabrina Ehmke (@teacher_sab) January 26, 2017
@FleetFeetChgo find a friend to run with. Hold each other accountable. — Brian Schmidt (@BrianSchmidty) January 27, 2017
@FleetFeetChgo get the right shoes. If you're an underpronator running in shoes built for overpronation you're going to have a bad time — Jason Smith (@FrostTyrant) January 27, 2017
@FleetFeetChgo Most runners make mistake of running too fast in training runs. Run as slow as you need to in order to go 1mi+ w/o stopping. — Steven Gomez (@ElStevenGomez) January 27, 2017
@FleetFeetChgo Start with small distances and build slowly. Ramping up your training too fast is a surefire way to cause injury or burnout. — Melissa Luety (@MelissaLuety) January 27, 2017
@FleetFeetChgo @ChiRunning never stop, never quit, for the last 2mo i finally know i could run 9km. I'm 178lbs. I want to #run farther. — kindahmazing (@ranindapuspa) January 26, 2017
@FleetFeetChgo @ChiRunning Your brain is your hardest competition and you know that you can beat doubt if you just try. No one is perfect. — Lisa Holloway (@balancednmotion) January 29, 2017
@FleetFeetChgo Start by running short distances, using a good running form 😉, to make it more enjoyable and to avoid preventable injuries. — ChiRunning (@ChiRunning) January 26, 2017
@FleetFeetChgo Run much slower than you think you are supposed to. — Arun Kristian Das (@arunwithaview) January 26, 2017
@FleetFeetChgo welcome failures & grow from them. — Manny (@emXCT) January 27, 2017
@FleetFeetChgo take it one day at a time and only think about how good you're gonna feel after today's run! — RickyRicardo (@rideoneverclear) January 26, 2017
@FleetFeetChgo structure. Consistency. Commitment. Register for a race, have a #running plan and stick to it — Damian L. Malek (@_Damian11) January 26, 2017
The Bad:
Uber and lyft have affordable car share rides 😊 https://t.co/2StvB0ij6Z — Chase Hausen (@chasethausen) January 27, 2017
@FleetFeetChgo Run until your dead 😋 — Ryan Bauer (@Logan33dc) January 27, 2017
The Obvious:
Check out all the responses on Facebook. We couldn't fit them all in this post.The good, bad and nerdy from the Portland Trail Blazers over the last week
GOOD: A DEFENSIVE SYSTEM
Even amongst the Blazers, the notion that this team would be among the NBA's best defenses in 2017-18 seemed like a bad joke last spring.
"What's funny is," Blazers wing Pat Connaughton said on Wednesday, "if you had told us at the end of last year that defense is what (would be) helping us win games as opposed to offense, then we probably all would've laughed."
The Blazers have the third best defensive rating in the NBA, allowing 99.3 points per 100 possession. The transformation of the defense from laughing stock to legit strength has propelled the Blazers to 13-8, good enough for fourth place in the Western Conference. It has been the defense that has propped up Portland's inconsistent offense this season, a notion that made Connaughton and his teammates chuckle a few months ago.
There was a time this summer when Terry Stotts and his staff considered a complete overhaul of the defensive principles he installed five seasons ago. But those discussions fizzled and instead the Blazers decided to stick with their defensive system, believing they could improve with better focus and commitment.
Stotts' decision looks prescient as the Blazers are excelling under his scheme. Portland is holding opponents to the lowest effective field goal percentage in the league (field goal percentage that takes into account the value of three-pointers). The Blazers are chasing teams off the three-point arc, allowing the second fewest three-point attempts and fewest corner three-point attempts in the NBA, according to Ben Falk at cleaningtheglass.com.
Opponents are shooting 54.6 percent at the rim against the Blazers, per Cleaning the Glass, easily the lowest percentage in the league. Nearly 38 percent of the Blazers' opponents shots are long twos, mid-range jumpers at least 14-feet from the rim. That's the profile of a good defensive team: Limiting easy opportunities and forcing the most difficult ones.
The Blazers say it's a renewed focus and commitment to improving on defense, starting with attention to details on the practice court and during film sessions.
"We're just taking more focus on the defensive end," Blazers center Ed Davis said. "And not letting the small stuff fly because that small stuff adds up."
Any discussion of the Blazers' defense has to circle back to Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, the small, high-scoring backcourt often associated with giving up as many buckets on one end as they score on the other. But as the Blazers have grown into a consistently effective defense, Lillard and McCollum have been noticeably improved and attentive on the defensive end.
Stotts points to deflection totals and numbers of contested shots, but warns that getting too caught up in the numbers distracts from the obvious. Watch the Blazers for five minutes and it's easy to see better communication and effort to help each other defensively.
Having the guards engaged helps, having Jusuf Nurkic and Davis healthy has been crucial, but the key is the interest. The Blazers want to be a good defensive team and their commitment to an effective system has put them in position to be one.
As Davis put it: "We knew that coming into this year if we didn't turn it up on the defensive end we'd be in the same position we were in last year."
BAD: CAVEATS
It's hard to fake being a good defensive team a quarter of the way into the season, but there is reason to believe the Blazers are just that: A good defensive team and not an elite one like their numbers suggest.
While Portland is defending well at the rim, teams are getting a ton of shots in close. The Blazers have allowed the eighth highest percentage of attempts at the rim as more than a third of opponents' shots have come right at the basket in the form of layups, dunks and put backs, per Cleaning the Glass.
Although the Blazers have stymied some talented offensive teams, they have had some schedule luck. When facing the league's top offenses, Portland has had the good fortune of playing teams missing key players. New Orleans played most of the game without Anthony Davis, Indiana's Myles Turner missed the game with a concussion and Washington was without John Wall.
Portland has played the second easiest schedule in the NBA, according to ESPN.com and the easiest schedule, according to Basketball-Reference. Things are going to get tougher in the final 60 games, and the Blazers have to hope that the defensive foundation they have built is a strong one.
NERDY: AMINU'S IMPACT
In 2016-17 the Blazers were brutal defensively when Al-Farouq Aminu wasn't on the floor. When he missed 13 games in November and early December the Blazers' defense cratered to the worst in the league.
Aminu missed another 13 November games in 2017 and instead of completely wilting without their best and most versatile defensive player on the floor, the Blazers have remained impressively consistent. Over the last 13 games without Aminu in the lineup the Blazers have a 99.4 defensive rating, allowing the second fewest points per 100 possessions in the NBA during that stretch.
Last season the Blazers went from a bad defensive team to an awful one when Aminu was out of the lineup. This season they are a very good defensive team when he sits and an excellent one when he's in the game. Maintaining their stingy defense without Aminu is perhaps the most positive sign that the Blazers can sustain their defensive success throughout the season.
"It's a testament to our guys and how committed they are to playing defense," Stotts said. "And having Chief (Aminu) back should make us even better in that area."There’s no doubt that you’re starting to feel the Christmas spirit (and madness) as you start to get your tree, decorations, cards, and presents in order. If you manage to find some time in between all the organizing, we’ve got some insanely creative and charming DIY wreath projects for you, ranging from classy and traditional to glamorous, modern, or rustic; they also range in time needed so regardless of whether you have just half an hour or days to spare, you can get one of these done! There’s a little something for everyone in this gorgeous collection.
Ready for more? Check out our other Christmassy collections and tutorials.
20 Hopelessly Adorable DIY Christmas Ornaments Made from Paper
Cute and Easy Christmas Craft: DIY Plastic Spoon Snowmen
60 Beautifully Festive Ways to Decorate Your Porch for Christmas
50+ Creative Christmas Printables Collection
15 Easy And Festive DIY Christmas Ornaments
40 Amazing Christmas Gift Wrapping Ideas You can Make Yourself
100 Mind-Blowing DIY Christmas Gifts People Actually Want
10 Insanely Easy Christmas Light Bulb Decorations and Ornaments
10 Fun and Easy Way to Dress Up Christmas Ornaments
Adorable Christmas Decoration: DIY Cotton Thread Snowman
12 Super Cute DIY Christmas Hairstyles for All Lengths
25 Yummy Homemade Christmas Candy Recipes
10 Genius DIY Ways to Transform Pinecones into Holiday Decorations
Candy Cane Creativity
What’s more Christmassy than candy canes? This is quick, simple, and effective, and we absolutely love the unexpected little hearts that come from the arrangement here. Just make sure you hang it high, out of reach from the kids!
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – Virginiasweetpea
More Sweets
Here’s another deliciously sweet wreath that looks oh so tasty! It’s not complicated at all, but you will need to set aside a good amount of time to stick those candies on one-by-one. It may be a good idea to finish it off with shellac or a spray sealant so that the candies don’t melt, letting all your hard work go to waste.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – GwynnWassonDesigns
Layered Leaves
This bushy wreath is a stunning, natural-looking addition to any door. We love the full look of it, and the fact that you have the freedom to play around with any foliage that speaks to you.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – BetterHomesAndGardens
Balls of Yarn
This yarn ball wreath is like perfect addition to the door of a knitter! You’ll want to get some cheapish yarn though, because you do use quite a bit to wrap around the styrofoam balls. You can skip out the wooden wreath form by reshaping a wire hanger to use as your base instead. Then attach the balls with U shaped paper clips and some glue to keep them from spinning around the wire.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – TwoJunkChix
Festive Felt
Ombre has been a big trend for a while now so why not inject some style to your Christmas decorations? This ombre felt wreath is truly magnificent. We love the colors, we love the fabric, and we adore the finished product!
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – Burlap+Blue
Door Snowman
This is one of those ‘why didn’t I think of that?’ projects – get three artificial wreaths in increasing sizes, attach them to one another like a snowman, and accessorize! Your front door and porch is sure to attract some attention and jealousy.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – SweetLittleBluebird
Winey Wreath
Many of us wine lovers tend to hoard our corks for no real reason; perhaps we think they can form some sort of a trophy one day. Nevertheless, we were delighted to finally find a project to put our little trophies to good use! See what else you have lying around that you can add in between the corks to jazz it up a little.
Idea Only Available on – Amazon
Getting Personal
As much as we all love getting presents, Christmas is more about the family time than the actual gifts, and we just love how this wreath reflects that. It’s simple, yet so meaningful and beautiful. This is one wreath that’s destined for inside the home – the mantelpiece by the tree would be the perfect spot.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – TheCraftingChicks
Frame It!
Who says Christmas wreaths have to be round? Okay, well, by definition they’re supposed to be circular but we like to bend the rules a little in the name of creativity. This tutorial also shows you how to give those boring, shiny ball decorations a personalized makeover. You’ll love showing them off in your Christmas frame wreath!
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – BlueCricketDesign
3D Paper Stars
This is a great project to use up all your spare patterned paper that you may have lying around; we always have half sheets all over the place! Adding a few embellishments and a big pretty bow really makes this look professional rather than handmade.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – LittleBirdieSecrets
Curly Paper Strips
Here’s another fantastic project to use you your scraps of pretty scrapbooking paper – just curl them and turn them into a beautiful decorative wreath! You’ll just need a hard styrofoam wreath form, some pins, and just enough patience.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – ForLoveOfPaper
Feathery Fun
As gorgeous and luxurious as this feathered wreath looks, it’s surprisingly simple to make! You basically just have to wrap and glue a boa (or two) onto a wreath form, then add in those bright and shimmery peacock eye feathers.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – HGTV
Toilet Roll Wreath
Yip, you read that right. This stunning and modern wreath is made of toilet rolls that have been painted green! How’s that for recycling? This project is really cost-effective and unique – your guests would never guess that those little flowers were wrapped in toilet paper once upon a time.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – CroissantAndLavender
Citrus Christmas
Who says Christmas has to be green and red? We love the pop of color from the oranges and lemons, but what we really, really love the most about this one is the fresh, fruity, fragrant aroma. It’s the perfect festive addition to your kitchen.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – BetterHomesAndGardens
Paper Dahlia
This paper wreath is a lot less complicated than it looks (which is just the way we like it!), but prepare to spend a bit of time on it. You don’t have to use the traditional Christmas colors but we recommend it to get everyone in the merry mood. This one is best kept indoors – you don’t want that paper to ruin outside.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – LovePomegranateHouse
Marshmallow Madness
This is an easy one: shove some toothpicks (about 500 of them) into a styrofoam form and then impale your marshmallows! You’ll need about four bags of the big marshmallows, and get some smaller ones for some variety. We really love the snowy effect that these soft treats deliver.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – FoodNetwork
Mix and Match
This wreath project is really fun because you get to play around a bit; you start off with a regular grapevine wreath, and then add your own flair with some ribbons, ball ornaments, netting, lettering, and whatever else you have lying around. The tutorial gives you a good starting point, so use that to harvest your own creativity.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – SusieHarris
Reusing Gift Bows
If you’re anything like us, you have a drawer or box full of these bows thanks to years of collecting them from your gifts. Well, all that storing has finally lead up to this point: for you to make a cheery second-hand bow wreath! Don’t worry if they’re all different sizes and colors – it’ll add to the character and make it more distinct.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – ChicSteals
Transforming PVC
For a really modern take on the traditional Christmas wreath, why not use PVC in a totally new way? If you don’t have access to a miter saw to cut the pipes to size, you could easily recreate this masterpiece with rolled cardboard. We just love the fresh elegance of it all, and the little compartments that give you extra decoration storage space.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – HomeDepot
Rudolph Wreath
This is one of the most adorable wreath ideas we’ve seen so far! The tulle netting actually makes the reindeer look fluffy and cute, and the antlers are just genius. Thankfully, this one isn’t actually that difficult to make – you’ll love the whole process, and so will your kiddies.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – BabyRabies
The Jolly Man Himself
If you’re more into the big man than his helper then here’s an easy Santa wreath project to melt your heart like hot glue from a glue gun. We love how such minimal effort (about 30 minutes) and spending can make such a bold statement! If you can’t find this wreath form you could always tape or glue the ends of a pool noodle to make a circle, or use a wire hanger.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – BabyRabies
Basic Balls
Making a pretty, welcoming wreath can be as easy as using your glue gun to stick different sized ball ornaments onto a wreath form. Yes, it really is that simple!
Leftover Scraps
This is the perfect project for all you serious crafters who happen to have scraps of fabric, buttons, brads and whatever else stored away neatly in a box (or strewn across your designated craft room). We love the whimsical, thrown-together look of this one, and the fact that the only expenditure will be the grapevine wreath.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – PicadillyPeddler
Ribbon Love
This is definitely one of the easiest projects – all you need for this beauty is a wire ring and an assortment of ribbons. Simply tie the bows directly on to the wire (use the bunny ear method of bow tying). You can stick with just one dominant color like in the example, or you can alternate between green and red, gold, or silver.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – Craftynest
Crafty Clothes Pins
This one is a true stroke of genius; who knew clothes pins could be so Christmassy? This project is a fun one to get the kids involved in and they may feel really proud to display it on their own bedroom doors. They could even use it to hold their Christmas letters to Santa!
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – GwennyPenny
Ornament Overload
What makes this wreath more than just a collection of red ornaments is the adorable Santa belt – it’s such a cute addition and it makes such a difference. If you can’t seem to find the red ornaments that you like, or don’t want to go out and buy new ones, you can always just spray paint some of your oldies.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – MallyKallyCreations
Magnificent Moss
We love the earthy look and feel of this mossy wreath. You’ll need to get a large piece of florist’s foam so your wreath doesn’t have to be square; you can cut out a circular shape and hide any imperfections with the moss. Then it’s up to you to add some extra pizzazz with bows, beads, balls and whatever else your heart desires.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – BetterHomesAndGardens
Coffee Filters
This is another easy project to make with materials that you probably already have around the house. If you want a bit more diversity in your delicate wreath, add in some smaller cupcake liners here and there.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – MarthaStewart
Rustic Burlap
We really love the raw look of burlap (also known as hessian), and it really is so easy to make: just tie the burlap strips onto a wreath form! You can, of course, spray the burlap in red or green, but we actually love the neutral tone of the fabric with just the touch of color that the cute flowers bring.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – CraftaholicsAnonymous
Poofy Burlap
Here’s another interesting way to use burlap; we love the how full, bountiful, and soft the end result looks. Once the main part is done, add your own little personal touch with some fresh flowers, buttons, lettering or other ornaments. If you’re looking for more contrast, get two different colors of burlap strips and place them on top of each other before you start weaving them through the wire.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – LittleLovelyLeaders
Bubble Wreath
This is one of the pricier projects, and it also requires more labor and effort, but the modern bubble wreath is totally worth it. And since it isn’t strictly Christmas-looking, you can leave it as a permanent decoration piece in your home. If you want to try save some costs, see if you can find some clear glass ornaments instead of the more expensive bubble balls. You can also weave some fairy lights through the bubbles for added effect.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – CB2
Stripy Straws
If you just have 30 minutes to spare to make your wreath then this is the one to make. We simply adore this artsy-looking explosion. And you don’t need to waste perfectly good, edible candy canes; these are actually cheap paper straws that you can find at any party store. If you’re not ready to part with it after Christmas, use it as a photo or mirror frame for the rest of the year.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – Tatertots&Jello
That’s Corny!
Thank you Martha, for your endless wealth of creativity! Transform these cornhusks to make an innovative wreath; you could always just use ribbon, but then you wouldn’t get the great natural texture. Of course, you can dye the husks any color, but we actually really like the striking burgundy. You could also spray paint them if you want to save yourself some time.
DIY Instructions and Project Credit – MarthaStewartTouchArcade Rating:
Last week, we got wind that animator and designer David O’Reilly, famous for his work on Spike Jonze’ Her, Adventure Time, and shorts like The External World, was submitting his first game to the App Store. In a rare Tuesday morning release, Mountain ($0.99) is now available.
OReilly describes his game as a “mountain simulator" and “relax ’em up." When he announced the game at Horizon earlier this year, he explained that “it’s designed to run in the background like it’s part of your desktop. You can do other things while you’re playing or interacting with Mountain." (The PC and Mac versions of the game were also released today, and also cost a meager $0.99.)
I’ve played Mountain for about fifteen minutes, just long enough to
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. A fan-favorite mechanic that originated in the Dwarrowdelf cycle of Adventure Packs, Secrecy allows you to play powerful cards at significant discounts so long as you keep your threat at twenty or below. Now, as you start with just one hero, the pack has arrived, and your prison door has cracked open, it might just be time to make your escape swiftly and Secretly!
Swift and Secret
Along with its new scenario, Escape from Mount Gram introduces a new hero and twenty-seven new player cards (three copies each of nine different player cards), several of which allow you to manipulate the victory display to your advantage. These permit the exploration of an all-new sort of strategy within The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, and it's one that plays very well into the strengths of the Adventure Pack's new hero, Rossiel (Escape from Mount Gram, 28).
This clever Silvan Lore hero arrives with a fairly modest set of attributes to befit her low threat cost. However, Rossiel is extremely quick to master the challenges she encounters, and she gains two extra Willpower whenever the active location shares a Trait with a location in the victory display. Likewise, she gains two points of Defense Strength whenever she defends against an enemy that shares a Trait with one in the victory display. You may not always benefit from her abilities, but when you do, Rossiel becomes one of the most capable heroes in the game, with an effective Willpower of four, Attack Strength of one, and Defense Strength of four – all for just eight threat cost.
Naturally, Rossiel will want to take advantage of the event Leave No Trace (Escape from Mount Gram, 35) to force locations into the victory display. Later on, she'll also hope to make good use of None Return (Across the Ettenmoors, 62) to force enemies with the appropriate Traits into the victory display, as well. Still, even before you can get your hands on None Return, you can explore the new tactics afforded by Rossiel and her victory display manipulations with such cards as Scout Ahead (The Wastes of Eriador, 9) and Out of the Wild (Road to Rivendell, 36).
There's no better place to start experimenting with Rossiel and her unique tactics than within the dungeons of Mount Gram. Here, she is guaranteed a couple turns to take advantage of Secrecy, and your ability to manipulate the encounter deck and victory display can help her free the rest of your fellowship… a matter that becomes especially important once you've made your way to the third quest stage and Jailor Gornákh (Escape from Mount Gram, 41) sounds the alarms!
Deck Created with CardGameDB.com The Lord of the Rings Deckbuilder
Total Cards: (49)
Hero: (3)
1x Rossiel (Escape from Mount Gram)
1x Pippin (The Black Riders)
1x Merry (The Wastes of Eriador)
Ally: (12)
1x Bilbo Baggins (The Road Darkens)
1x Bofur (The Redhorn Gate)
1x Elrond (The Road Darkens)
3x Gandalf (Core Set)
1x Gildor Inglorion (The Hills of Emyn Muil)
1x Gléowine (Core Set)
1x Haldir of Lórien (A Journey to Rhosgobel)
1x Henamarth Riversong (Core Set)
1x Quickbeam (The Treason of Saruman)
1x Treebeard (The Antlered Crown)
Attachment: (13)
1x Elf-stone (The Black Riders)
3x Hobbit Pipe (The Black Riders)
3x Leaf Brooch (The Three Trials)
3x Protector of Lórien (Core Set)
3x Resourceful (The Watcher in the Water)
Event: (24)
3x Keen as Lances (Escape from Mount Gram)
3x Leave No Trace (Escape from Mount Gram)
3x Needful to Know (The Redhorn Gate)
3x Out of the Wild (Road to Rivendell)
3x Ride Them Down (The Antlered Crown)
3x Risk Some Light (Shadow and Flame)
3x Smoke Rings (The Black Riders)
3x Will of the West (Core Set)
Side Quest: (1)
1x Scout Ahead (The Wastes of Eriador)
Race to Freedom
Whether or not you design a new deck around Rossiel and her victory display manipulation tactics, Escape from Mount Gram is certain to test your skills and your luck in an wildly new and exciting fashion. When you consider that this Adventure Pack introduces not only a thrilling new scenario but also presents you the keystone of a new strategy suited to the tastes of veteran deck-builders, as well as fans of the Secrecy keyword, you can see why Escape from Mount Gram is poised to become an instant classic.
The door to your prison cell is now unlocked. Don't wait! Head to your local retailer today, and pick up your copy of Escape from Mount Gram!More battery-powered vehicles would mean cleaner air and quieter streets – but also a drain on the National Grid and less fuel duty to the Treasury
Streets will be quieter, the air will be cleaner, people will spend less time at petrol stations and car factories might even return to Britain’s shores if the country switches to electric cars in a dramatic, widespread fashion.
But widespread adoption of battery-powered vehicles would not be without challenges too. A large-scale switchover to electric cars could create problems for power grids, could mean roads lined with charging poles and it could also leave a big hole in public coffers as fuel duty dries up.
With just over 90,000 fully electric and plug-in hybrid cars now on UK roads, such risks and benefits might look a way off.
But this week big changes have been announced. On Wednesday Volvo said it will only launch electric or hybrid cars from 2019 and just a day later Emmanuel Macron’s new government pledged that France will ban diesel and petrol cars by 2040. Battery-powered travel could be coming far sooner than previously thought.
According to research published this week by Bloomberg New Energy Finance the proportion of fully electric new cars sold in the UK will be one in 12 by 2030 – up from one in every 200 today.
The surge in electric cars will have to be accompanied by thousands of new charging points to plug them all in.
Today there are around 4,000 publicly accessible locations with 13,000 plug sockets. Of the 13,000, a fifth are so-called rapid charging connections that will top up a Nissan Leaf, the UK’s best-selling pure electric car, in half an hour.
The number of sockets is set to soar to 80,000 by 2025, predicts Zap-Map, which has mapped the ones built so far. There are 8,476 petrol filling stations across the UK, most with multiple pumps, but topping up takes minutes rather than hours.
A lot of those will be in supermarkets, railway stations and NCP multi-storey car parks. But it’s also a lot of poles along streets of terraced housing that do not have the luxury of off-street parking, even though there are other innovative fixes such as the charging sockets a German company is building into street lamps.
UK to fund research into letting electric cars return power to grid Read more
As far as Nissan is concerned, there is plenty of space for all the new infrastructure.
Gareth Dunsmore, director of electric vehicles at Nissan Europe, said the chargers’ ubiquity will mean constantly topping up becomes the norm.
“The mindset of charging, it moves away from this idea of going and spending 10 minutes filling up your car to every time your car is not in use – which is 95% of the time – you have the ability to top up. It’s not so much space because it’s a plug socket,” he said.
One thing that will have to change with charging points is the fragmentation of the market. There are eight big networks of them now and many more smaller ones, with drivers usually requiring a different membership for each.
Melanie Shufflebotham, director of Zap-Map, said: “The early adopters have been prepared to put up with it, but the mass market won’t.” She envisages a shift to pay-as-you-go through services such as Apple Pay and Android Pay, because “it isn’t sustainable as it it is”.
Another big question for the electric car revolution is where the power will come from.
Ministers said earlier this year that even in their relatively small numbers today, electric car batteries are putting pressure on the grid. One thinktank warned that as few as six electric cars in one neighbourhood could risk a “brownout” – an unexpected drop in voltage.
Those electric car hotspots in affluent areas have not materialised yet, according to the operators who own local electricity networks – but they are coming.
Should you join the charge and buy an electric car? Read more
SSEN, which runs such networks in the south of England and Scotland, has found that nearly a third of its distribution networks will need upgrading once 40% of customers on a circuit are charging their car battery at home.
Stewart Reid, head of innovation at SSEN, said: “There are two ways we can support the increasing number of EVs (electric vehicles) charging on the network – the first is to do traditional network reinforcements, such as installing new infrastructure and upgrading capacity. The second is using a smart solution, such as demand side management.”
Experts generally agree that the big problem is not the extra power capacity needed for electric cars, but managing the demand if all EV drivers try to charge at the same time, such as plugging in at the office at 9am, or at 6pm when they return home.
“The main challenge if everything moves to EV is managing the peaks, not the total energy production. That needs smarter charging,” said Dunsmore.
The government may also need smarter ways of collecting taxes if the sale of electric cars accelerates as expected.
Fuel duty on petrol and diesel, which has been declining as a share of GDP because of a freeze in rates since 2011, are still a “significant source of revenue” according to the Office for Budget Responsibility.
The Treasury earned £27.6bn in 2015-16 from fuel duty in 2015-16, three times as much as tobacco duties rake in and the equivalent of an extra 5p on income tax. Forecasts suggest the fuel tax take will increase to £30bn by 2021/22. If 8% of cars in 2030 no longer have owners paying taxes on petrol and diesel, the public finances would therefore take a substantial hit.
TfL to spend £18m on preparing London for new electric black cabs Read more
“This question of fuel duty, it’s a very real issue. It will take a long time to hit, but there does need to be a plan in place,” said Colin Mckerracher, the author of the Bloomberg report, who does not believe the cars will put a big hole in UK fuel duty take until after 2030.
When a certain number of electric cars are being sold, he thinks the government will need new mechanisms to recoup the loss – such as micropayments for drivers to use bridges and tunnels, or more upfront registration fees.
“The challenge is when do you introduce those – if you do it too early you stymie the [electric car] market, if you do it too late you put a hole in your finances.”
Petrol station owners have also been put on notice, with credit agency Moody’s saying this week that electric cars’ curbing of fuel demand will have a credit negative impact for fuel forecourt operators including Tesco and Morrison’s.
But for McKerracher, the overall economic impact is likely to be positive for the UK.
“The new Coventry factory building the electric black cab [the TX5] is one of the first new car plants for years in the UK. I think there’s a chance, post-Brexit, for the UK to seize on this as an industrial strategy, and to really lead.”A new set of results from Ookla, the company behind the immensely popular Speedtest service, has some bad news for Verizon. The carrier that charges the most money for the “best” network appears to be struggling when it comes to raw speed.
Data for the last few months puts Verizon’s network in third place for average speed, behind T-Mobile and AT&T. Although Ookla’s data isn’t anything close to an accurate, comprehensive analysis of wireless speeds, the overall trend — Verizon getting slower — is hard to argue with.
The data is collected from users of Ookla’s Speedtest service, so it’s only providing a small snapshot of users. Crowdsourced speed data that relies on users running the tests themselves tend to be subject to all kinds of bias: people generally only run speedtests when they feel their data is being abnormally slow or fast, and there’s no consistency in the location or devices being tested.
But even if the data is imperfect, the large number of tests means it should at least be broadly consistent. So, Verizon falling from second to third place is a good indication that something is slowing down, and that’s really not good news for Verizon. T-Mobile claims that it’s because Verizon’s network is being overloaded by its recent rollout of unlimited plans, but really, there’s far more factors that could be at play.
We’ve known for a while that Verizon is losing its edge in raw speed. Different kinds of network testing, from crowdsourced tests to head-to-head road testing has show that Verizon still has a fast network — it’s just not much faster that T-Mobile or AT&T, under ideal conditions. Verizon has also focused its investment on better coverage and futuristic 5G, rather than pushing the envelope on what speeds can be achieved over LTE.'Why dress down when you can dress up?': Group of dapper gentlemen in Victorian suits honour Benjamin Disraeli in decadent summer saunter
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A group of vintage aficionados kitted out in vintage-retro suits strolled around Mayfair in the name of sartorial freedom today.
The 24 gentlemen dressed in braces, bow ties, top hats, three-piece suits, cravats and shiny brogues met at 2pm at St. Pauls' Cathedral in London for a walk through town.
Some sported beards of various volumes, while other carried canes and hip flasks. One chap in particular looked to have got the inspiration for his look for the day from Jeremy Piven's interpretation of Mr Selfridge in the hit ITV drama of the same name.
The saunter, involving dressing in your finest clothes and indulging in extended, relaxed walks around town, was inspired by the summer saunters promoted by fashionable British Prime Minster of the 1800s, Benjamin Disraeli.
The group of 24 dapper gentlemen pose outside St. Paul's Cathedral today ready to stroll
I t quickly caught on to become one of the most popular and fashionable pastimes of Diraeli's era.
Led by tailor-turned-stylist Timothy Lord and a writer for Chap magazine known as Albion, today's walk was arranged in the hope of reviving the Victorian practice.
It was advertised on Albion's website Geovictwardianism, a blog for men who are fans of the Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian eras who like to behave 'with good manners and dress well'.
'These are not effete parvenus or aristocrats, these are certain types of people who wish to be classless and stylish, but with substance,' writes Albion.
The self-styled 'anti-dandy anarchic agitators' walked casually and chatted among themselves all the way from the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral to Mayfair's Berkeley Square in a 'demonstration of solidarity with all men who dare to dress differently'.
The looks on display paid homage to men's fashions from the 1700s through to the modern day.
The demonstration of solidarity welcomed all men who dare to dress differently
Bold and independent, three men who are clearly fans of Victorian fashions pose in their dapper suits, top hats and cravats
'It takes guts, determination and well-designed footwear to complete the course,' writes Albion.
'Benjamin Disraeli, that elegant trend-setting doyen of the young and fashionable in the late nineteenth century (and Victoria's favourite prime minister) was more than fond of sauntering.
'Charles Dickens sported exuberant clothing and he would be proud that they these protesting promenaders are re-igniting the streets of London with sartorial splendour, respectfully offering a return to and re-invention of classic menswear and the lifestyle which accompanies it.
'So what is the outward expression of their inner philosophy? Simply this: men do not sing from the same hymn sheet. Do they look like choirboys? Men should sing in a wonderful harmonious disharmony, a cacophony of styles, which express their enthusiasm for life.
Some gents opted for heavy jackets, not the optimal attire for soaring summer temperatures. Others simply opted for a shirt, exposing their braces
Gentlemen dressed in three-piece suits and beards of various volume
'Vintage-retro: What's that? Before during and after vintage some men dressed - and continue to dress - well in an individual idiom. The fashion fascists do not dictate to these free-style romantic radicals for whom cliché clothing and totalitarian toggery are banned. Trousers and ties to turn heads and melt hearts, shirts and shoes to seduce maidens and bewitch beauties.
'The Saunter is no cake walk, it is a tea and cake walk: a very British Beano.'
Timothy Lord said: 'Why dress down when you can dress up?'
The 2.5 mile route started from steps of St. Paul's, following Fleet Street, the Strand, the Mall, St. James's, Albemarle Street and ending at Berkeley Square.
Benjamin Disraeli, (1804-1881), pictured in his younger and older years (L-R) was a statesman and literary figure, who served in government for three decadesLaVar Ball, the father of a UCLA basketball player arrested in China last month, escalated his feud with President Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE on Thursday, posting a gif showing a cartoon version of himself dunking on Trump.
Ball posted the gif Thursday, tagging the president’s account and adding the hashtags, “The Trump Dunk” and “Stay in yo lane."
The gif shows the animated Ball making a slam dunk and knocking the cartoon Trump to the ground, where Trump angrily pulls out his cell phone and scrolls through Twitter, coming across the gif, which loops and begins again.
The conflict between Trump and Ball started after Trump secured the release of Ball’s son, LiAngelo, and two of his teammates from China. The players were arrested for shoplifting during a team trip.
Trump attacked Ball for downplaying the president's role in securing the players’ release, calling Ball an “ungrateful fool” and a “poor man’s Don King” — remarks that were criticized as being racially motivated.
Ball fired back at Trump in an interview on CNN, saying that if Trump really helped, he “shouldn’t have to say anything.”
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“Let him do his political affairs and let me handle my son, and let’s just stay in our lane,” he said.
Last week, Ball said that he was going to send Trump a pair of shoes from his son’s line so that he could “calm down a little bit.”PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The Pennsylvania Attorney General is joining an investigation of last week’s special election for a North Philadelphia state house seat. The results are also being challenged in court.
It’s been a bumpy ride for this seat. The ballot featured just one name– a Republican, though the district is 85 percent Democrat.
Democrat Emilio Vazquez ran a write in campaign, as did Cheri Honkala of the Green Party. Honkala and Republicans complained throughout the day about Democratic election officials violating electioneering and voter assistance laws. The District Attorney’s Office agreed it warranted a formal investigation and, at the behest of Republican house leaders, Attorney General Josh Shapiro is joining them.
READ: State House Special Election Votes Are In, It Just May Not Be Over Yet
“Our agents will be working side by side with District Attorney detectives during the course of this investigation and we will ultimately make a charging determination based on evidence,” Shapiro said.
Meanwhile, Honkala plans to file a federal suit on Thursday challenging the results. But Vazquez’s attorney Adam Bonin says with Vazquez getting 75 percent of the vote, he should be declared the winner.
“None of this can or should disturb the results of the election,” Vazquez said. “Not when the outcome is this clear.”
The City Commissioners say they do plan to certify the results, as scheduled.Full size image
This background is closer to the one I have in mind, but it will be changed eventually, it looks still too flat.
I made this because I didn’t want the other boring background to make bad first impressions for the screenshotsaturday.
A lot of things happened and I’m forced to put this project on hold. I don’t want to work on this just two hours a week. I like to have a lot of time working on it if I want every aspect to be consistent. I expect to be working on this again around July, if everything goes as planned.
Nontheless, I’ll keep colaborating on another project that is not that time-consuming. Maybe you’ll see a reblog with stuff that In worked on one of these days.It wasn't until just before graduation that we talked about what to do when a patient is dying. A single three-hour seminar with a group of specialists from the palliative care service; at least it was mandatory.
The presenters were young physicians, and they seemed kind and thoughtful. But I wondered why anyone would devote their medical career to end-of-life care. My classmates and I had spent years of medical school sharpening our history-taking skills, learning to recognize heart murmurs, memorizing the drugs used to treat high blood pressure, diabetes, even cancer. In the final months of school, I'd worked in the ICU, taking care of critically ill patients who required breathing tubes and life-sustaining machines. I'd learned how to perform intubations and place central lines. I marveled at how much I was able to do to help sick people. Nearly all of us became doctors to keep patients alive, to treat them.
I thought: The ultimate treatment failure is death. I graduated medical school and moved on.
Except for a cadaver in my first-year anatomy lab, I didn't see a dead body until the second month of my medical internship. When I finally did, it was my first overnight shift; I was the sole intern charged with cross-covering all of the medical patients. The pager never stopped beeping. I handled issues as they arose. I solved problems. But at some point in the night, a nurse called and said I needed to "come pronounce room 556." My heart sank.
I wasn't precisely sure what pronouncing a patient dead entailed. When I reached room 556, I entered to find a frail woman lying still on the bed. Mrs. Lee. She was surrounded by family members young and old, and, to my amazement, they were smiling, chatting, even laughing with one another. I mumbled a greeting, then crossed to the bed, where I proceeded shakily through the pronouncement checklist in my intern handbook.
For 30 minutes I watched strangers in masks and gloves race around an unconscious old man, trying everything they could to keep him alive One of Mrs. Lee's daughters touched my hand. "This is my mother; she was a wonderful woman but had a long battle with Alzheimer's, and it was time for her to go," she said. "She just wanted to be comfortable in the end."
The other family members nodded in agreement and went on talking about how much they had loved Grandma Lee's custard buns and who would be getting her recipes. Mrs. Lee's family and friends, who had gathered around her to say goodbye, moved me. Mrs. Lee had had the forethought to tell them how she wanted to pass, and they were by her side until the end. I had never before pondered the idea of a "good death," but that night I walked out of room 556 with a smile on my face, because, somehow, I had just witnessed one.
When I was a newly minted doctor, I found myself back in the ICU, no longer a lowly medical student but with real responsibilities.
The patients in an intensive care unit are very sick; they require the highest level of monitoring and intervention that a hospital can provide. This particular unit was lined with patient care bays featuring sliding glass doors, glaring white walls, blinking monitors, and little natural light. Alarm bells dinged constantly, and the smell of bleach disinfectant made my eyes water. I began my rounds each morning at 5, checking in on my patients and learning about those who had been admitted overnight.
One morning, I came in to a commotion. There were several nurses scurrying around a new patient's bed, and the night residents were huddled in a corner, concerned looks on their faces. Before I had a chance to ask what was going on, a loud code blue alarm went off overhead, and the team of doctors descended upon the patient. I peered into the room, and underneath the breathing tube and profusion of lines, I saw an elderly man.
The senior resident called out orders. The intern hopped up on a stool next to the bed and began performing rhythmic chest compressions that cracked the man's ribs. The nurses pushed various medications into his IV and watched the heart monitor intently. I stared at the spectacle in front of me. This was my first time seeing a code situation. For 30 minutes I watched strangers in masks and gloves race around an unconscious old man, trying everything they could to keep him alive. But after the heart rhythm monitor fell into a flat line, the team pronounced him dead, removed their protective garb, and walked out of the room.
I later learned that an ambulance had brought in the old man for decompensated heart failure. His heart could no longer effectively pump blood to his organs, and he had been drowning in fluid that backed up into his lungs. On arrival, he was immediately intubated and rushed to the ICU. His family members were out of town, and he had not come with advance directive paperwork, a document stating his wishes.
This was not his first trip to the hospital. He had been admitted five times in the previous six months. During his first hospitalization, his records showed that he was a "full code" and that family had wanted "everything done" to keep him alive. Despite multiple readmissions, the question was never revisited. I wondered whether they knew what "everything" meant.
I learned that the old man was named Mr. Azarov. He was 88 years old, a widower, originally from Russia, where he had worked as a tailor and musician before coming to the United States. In San Francisco, he'd opened a bakery and had led a simple life. Over the months of his hospitalizations, Mr. Azarov had slowly deteriorated, and each time he became weaker. He battled kidney failure, a stroke, and worsening dementia. Well before he came to us for the last time, he had lost the ability to stand up on his own. His adult children were no longer able to care for him, and several months before he died they'd moved him into a nursing home.
I never knew Mr. Azarov, but I realized then that this man had been dying for a long time. He had a brutal, impersonal end, one he received by default. Who would die that way if they had a choice? Expiring in a hospital room, doctors screaming and scurrying and cracking your ribs, away from your friends and family — I wondered how many opportunities there had been to explain his end-of-life options to him or his family. Did they understand his prognosis? I'll never know. But as he lay there alone in the hospital bed, curtains drawn, still attached to machines, I felt as if we'd failed him.
One day, late in my intern year, while working the emergency room, I met a patient named Mr. Jones. He was a botany professor who lived in an affluent suburb outside San Francisco. He was married, with three grown children, and had the amazing fortune of good health over the whole of a long life. But now he was 72, and he was dying of small cell lung cancer.
Mr. Jones was receiving chemotherapy under the care of a reputable oncologist. He'd come into the ER that night because of severe, worsening shortness of breath that made him unable to walk across the room without collapsing. He told me his family was scared and so was he.
Before coming into the room, I'd reviewed his labs and chest X-ray and found that he had significant bilateral pleural effusions secondary to his lung cancer. This was a bad sign. When I came in, I saw that Mr. Jones had once been fit and brawny, although now he was worn and thin. We talked for a while. I asked the customary questions about his symptoms, and got the sense that he was a kind man. I explained to him that fluid had built up in his lungs due to his cancer, and that while we could admit him and remove the fluid with a needle, it would only make him feel better temporarily. I told him I believed his cancer had progressed.
I felt unusually at ease talking to Mr. Jones. After delivering the news, I decided to venture into unusual territory: I asked him what he understood about his diagnosis and his future. He explained that he had read online how he likely had only months to live, but that his oncologist wanted him to continue chemotherapy for now. Then I asked him what he wanted. To my surprise, he paused. After a moment, he looked up, tears welling in his eyes.
"I've had a wonderful life," he said. "I have an amazing family who loves me, and I want to be at home with them, not here in the hospital." He started crying. He grabbed my hand. "No one has asked me what I want. Can I please go home? All I want is to be home."
We spend almost no time at all learning about illness in the context of a patient's life I was shocked. How could this be? I thought. How had we all failed to take a step back from the diagnoses and treatment options and the lab and imaging results to ask the most important question of all? Mr. Jones did not want to be admitted to the ICU. He didn't want to be intubated and adorned with the lines we use to sustain the dying. He knew there was no cure for his cancer, and he wanted what all of us hope for in the end: to die comfortably. With the help of the case manager and the social worker, I was able to send Mr. Jones home with hospice care early the next morning. I found out that he died in peace, two days later, surrounded by his beloved family.
I took time to talk to this man, to learn about his life and wishes. Together, we decided on a plan that fit his goals for his remaining days. The news of his passing gave me a sense of fulfillment. I felt relief that I had kept him from suffering. I thought back to the medical school seminar, and for the first time I understood why those doctors chose palliative care.
As doctors, we dedicate most of our time in medical school to learning about the physical body, how things can go wrong and how modern medicine can fix them.
During residency, we acquire methods for analyzing large amounts of data so that we can accurately assess, down to the minute, what is happening with our patients.
But we spend almost no time at all learning about illness in the context of our patients' lives, or how to heal people when modern medicine provides no cure. We are rarely schooled in how to break bad news compassionately, or how to sit in silence with a grieving family member, or even how to make recommendations for appropriate end-of-life care.
I have become disheartened by the number of patients who received invasive treatment in the final days and hours of life. So many spend their final moments hooked up to tubes and lines in the ICU, alarms beeping in the background, hidden away from the people who care about them. Modern medicine is always poised to offer another procedure or therapy for prolonging life, but it often does so without considering the quality of that life. How much suffering is five more weeks worth? Or five days, or five hours?
Today's physicians are spread thin. We have more responsibility than ever and are often tethered to a computer screen instead of at our patients' bedsides. Maybe it's easier to just give someone more treatment instead of stopping and telling her that she's dying. These conversations are never easy, no matter how many times you've had them. They can be enormously difficult even under the best circumstances, and often the circumstances are more like a patient (or, more often, his family) arguing, denying what's going on and demanding to see another doctor. Maybe we just don't want to go through it. Or maybe we hide behind more tests and procedures to make ourselves feel better — like we're still fighting. Like we haven't failed yet.
I don't see it that way. I believe we owe it to our patients to have open, honest conversations about what the future holds. Patients and families need to be informed in order to make decisions that are in line with their values.
My patients have all taught me valuable lessons about what a "good death" might look like. Each one has reminded me that there is more to medicine than placing a line to monitor the heart, or performing an intubation. Just because more tests and procedures exist does not mean that we should perform them all each time. Sometimes the most powerful healing of all comes through the simple act of sitting and listening to our patients with compassion.
We know that 75 percent of Americans would prefer to die at home. Only 20 percent actually do. We also know that 80 to 90 percent of physicians would not want CPR or mechanical ventilation at the end of life. Doctors actively choose to forgo the suffering that takes place in our ICUs, because we've seen it and we know better. My goal is to close this gap, to educate my patients about their options based on open, honest communication. I no longer see death as a failure but as a place we are all headed at some point — and if I can help someone live the fullest to the very end, I have practiced the best medicine.
Shoshana Ungerleider, MD, is a hospitalist physician practicing in San Francisco, California. Follow her on Twitter @ShoshUMD or on her website.
First Person is Vox's home for compelling, provocative narrative essays. Do you have a story to share? Read our submission guidelines, and pitch us at [email protected] Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry John Forbes KerryOvernight Defense: White House eyes budget maneuver to boost defense spending | Trump heads to Hanoi for second summit with Kim | Former national security officials rebuke Trump on emergency declaration 58 ex-national security officials rebuke Trump over emergency declaration Ex-national security officials to issue statement slamming Trump's emergency declaration: WaPo MORE (D-Mass.) on Tuesday called for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step aside and help establish a transitional government.
Reiterating points he made in a New York Times op-ed, Kerry said at the start of a panel hearing that Mubarak should announce that neither he nor his son will be candidates in the nation's next presidential election.
He also called on Mubarak to step down and work with the Egyptian military "and civil society" to form a "caretaker government to transition Egypt to a new government."
It is "vital" for Mubarak to "help transform this moment into a new era" for both his nation and the entire Middle East. Such actions could make a revamped Egypt "a template for transformation of the entire region," Kerry said.
Mubarak should set in motion a process to step aside, Kerry said, but not resign immediately.
"President Hosni Mubarak must accept that the stability of his country hinges on his willingness to step aside gracefully to make way for a new political structure," Kerry wrote in The New York Times.
Kerry's announcement comes after days of national protests by Egyptians of Mubarak, which have drawn intense international focus. The military in that country has refused to open fire on protesters, leading to speculation that some sort of agreement to oust Mubarak might be an inevitability at this point.
Kerry praised Mubarak in his op-ed, but said that it was best for the stability of Egypt that he begin the process of stepping down from power. The Massachusetts Democrat's declaration is arguably the most forceful by a credentialed U.S. official on matters of foreign policy.
"Well, I think that there's a process of transition here that's very importance to everyone, including to Egyptians," Kerry said of his plan on NPR. "You're not suddenly going to have a government of any competence at all that comes in, unless there's some understanding of who and how of a transition process."
This post was updated at 10:39 a.m.The death of a mentally ill woman being held in Cleveland police custody has been ruled a homicide, according to a medical examiner’s report released Friday.
Tanisha Anderson, 37, died on Nov 13 after police officers put her in a “prone” position and the physical restraint played a role in her death, according the Cuyahoga County medical examiner’s report. A heart condition and bipolar disorder were also cited as contributing factors to her demise.
Anderson’s family has called for criminal charges against the officers involved in her death. The Cleveland Police Department, meanwhile, has placed the officers on restricted duty, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.
The medical examiner's report comes amid criticism of the Cleveland police after the death of Tamir Rice, 12, who was shot to death by a Cleveland officer while he held a airsoft gun in a public park.
Anderson’s death also comes in the wake of nationwide protests over the killing of unarmed black men by white police officers. Protests erupted in November after a St. Louis grand jury declined to bring charges against Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old.
A grand jury likewise failed to indict a police officer over the case of Staten Island resident Eric Garner, 43, who died in July after being thrown to the sidewalk and put in a chokehold by an officer.
According to the Anderson family’s account of Tanisha’s death, an officer put her on the ground and placed his knee on her
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Al Jazeera's Malika Bilal, reporting from Cairo, said "the army is out in relative force to enforce the peace... the centre of Tahrir Square is peaceful. Protesters have begun cleaning up".
The army also called on "honourable citizens" to protect the square, separate the protesters from interior ministry riot police and arrest those who are found suspicious, raising concerns among some that the announcement had given license for street violence.
The SCAF's announcement and increasing reports of arrests and violence against local and international journalists has created a tense atmosphere in Cairo, with protesters calling for another "million-man" march on Friday, a day when protest crowds in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East typically mass for major demonstrations.
The military also began asserting a firmer street presence on Thursday, promising to help police secure the country during the voting and erecting a two-metre-tall concrete barricade on Mohamed Mahmoud Street.
The street leads towards the interior ministry and has been the focal point of violence between riot police and crowds of young men.
Future in question
Clashes between protesters and security forces first erupted on Saturday, days before the first phase of parliamentary elections scheduled to begin on Monday - casting the country's political future into question.
But Mamdouh Shahin, a major-general on the military council, said in a news conference on Thursday that election plans would continue as planned.
Shahin also assured demonstrators that those responsible for killing or injuring protesters would be held accountable and that many detainees would be released as early as Saturday.
He did not, however, meet the protesters' primary demand of immediately handing over power to a civilian authority.
Monday's elections will be Egypt's first vote since long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak was ousted from power in February by a popular uprising.
A temporary truce between security forces and protesters broke down on Wednesday night in and around Cairo's Tahrir Square, the epicentre of public dissent.
Police from the interior ministry's Central Security Forces appeared to fire an unprovoked barrage of tear gas at a large crowd gathered on Mohamed Mahmoud Street, witnesses said, despite the truce that had settled in after the arrival of army vehicles and religious scholars.
"Interior ministry forces are out of control... they're not being professional and they're not being controlled by the military council," Rebab el-Mahdy, a politics professor at the American University in Cairo, told Al Jazeera.
Ambulances raced back from Mohamed Mahmoud Street and other frontline battles south and east of the square throughout the night, ferrying dozens of protesters suffering from tear-gas inhalation.
Alexandria clashes
Fighting also resumed in other cities. In Alexandria, Egypt's second-largest city, clashes erupted for another night along a street near the main security directorate.
Riot police there fired tear gas after the withdrawal of the army, which had stepped in to oversee a prisoner release.
Besides Alexandria, clashes were reported in the city of Ismailia that left at least one person dead and two others injured.
Meanwhile, thousands of people have remained in Tahrir Square, rejecting concessions offered during a Tuesday-night speech by Field Marshal Muhammed Hussein Tantawi, the chairman of the ruling military council which took power following Mubarak's overthrow.
"The people want the fall of the field marshal," they called in thunderous unison, waving large Egyptian flags and signs denouncing the military.
The crisis began when riot police violently cleared a small encampment in Tahrir Square on Saturday, and protesters say the continued fighting has hardened their resolve to remove the military from power and complete a revolution that began in January.
Tantawi announced on state media that the military had no interest in staying in power and that parliamentary elections would go ahead.
He also pledged that the presidential election would take place before July 2012, the first time the military has set a deadline for the vote.The presidential election would mark the last step in a transition of power to civilian rule.On Monday’s Daily Show, Trevor Noah delivered a scathing rebuke to the (rest of the) media, whom he blamed in large part for the phenomenon that is Trump. Noah kept it blunt: “The media loves Trump because covering Trump makes the media money.” Noah cited a New York Times investigation, which found that the media had given Trump almost $2-billion worth of free coverage over the past nine months—as much as was spent on all Super Bowl commercials for the past five years combined.
“Frankly, America would be better off with President Puppymonkeybaby,” Noah quipped before returning to his more sober point: The media is supposed to keep politicians honest, not indulge or even encourage their basest instincts. As Noah pointed out, you never want to walk into a doctor’s office, only to hear a physician say, “I hate to see all these patients coming in with cancer, but I have to admit, it’s been really good for my practice.”'Daily Show': Trevor Noah asks how Trump can 'lie so big?'
Trevor Noah has a question for Donald Trump: "How can one person lie so big?"
The ABC News report that President Trump signed a letter of intent to construct a Trump Tower building in Moscow while he was running for president, after repeatedly denying having ties with Russia, does not sit well with The Daily Show host.
In a statement to ABC News, lawyer Michael Cohen said, “The Trump Moscow proposal was simply one of many development opportunities that the Trump Organization considered and ultimately rejected.”
"You have no connections with Russia, but you signed a deal to build the world's tallest building there?" Noah asked on Tuesday's show. "The gap between the lie and the truth could not be wider. It could not be wider. It's like if your friend said that they had never heard of Mumford & Sons, and then one day you see the album cover, and you're like, 'Wait a minute. You're Mumford.'"
To see The Daily Show segment in its entirety, watch the clip above.
Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2wS5l5hThe Secret History of Diplomats and Invisible Weapons
This month, the State Department revealed that American diplomats based in Cuba have suffered from possible hearing damage. Since then, hysteria over “sonic weapons” has exploded, and the number of diplomats said to be experiencing health effects, which may include brain damage, has also now increased. “We hold the Cuban authorities responsible for finding out who is carrying out these health attacks,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said. The device, or possible weapon, that was used to cause these effects apparently made no sound. Yet there is no credible evidence that such a non-audible device could cause the damage described. It turns out, this isn’t the first time the U.S. government suspected a foreign country of targeting its diplomats with a secret, invisible weapon.
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In 1965, medical workers began showing up at the American embassy in Moscow, drawing blood from the employees inside. The American diplomats were told that doctors were looking for possible exposure to a new type of virus, something not unexpected in a country known for its frigid winters.
It was all a lie. The Moscow Viral Study, as it was called, was the cover story for the American government’s top secret investigation into the effects of microwave radiation on humans. The Soviets, it turned out, were bombarding the embassy in Moscow with low-level microwaves. The “Moscow Signal,” as officials in Washington called the radiation, was too low to do any obvious harm to the people in the building. At five microwatts per square centimeter, the signal was well below the threshold needed to heat things, as a microwave oven does. Yet it was also a hundred times more powerful than the Soviets’ maximum exposure standards, which were much more stringent than those of the United States. That was cause for alarm.
The intelligence community was worried that the Soviets knew something about non-ionizing radiation that the United States did not. With research into the effects of low-level radiation still in its infancy, one of the first theories forwarded by the CIA was that the Soviets were trying to influence the behavior or mental state of American diplomats, or even control their minds. The United States wanted to figure out what was going on without tipping off the Soviets that they knew about the irradiation, and so the diplomats working in the embassy—and being exposed daily to the radiation—were kept in the dark. The State Department was responsible for looking at biological changes associated with microwaves, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects, a division of the Pentagon, was assigned to look at the possible behavioral effects of microwaves.
In October 1965, Richard Cesaro, the DARPA official in charge of the project, addressed a secret memo to the agency’s director, Charles Herzfeld, explaining the justification for this new research effort. The White House had charged the State Department, the CIA, and the Pentagon to investigate the microwave assault in secret. The State Department was the lead on the program, code-named TUMS, and DARPA’s responsibility, Cesaro explained, was “to initiate a selective portion of the overall program concerned with one of the potential threats, that of radiation effects on man.”
Thus was born DARPA Program Plan 562, better known by its code name, Project Pandora, an exploration of the behavioral effects of microwaves and one of the more bizarre episodes in the history of Cold War science.
With the passage of time, the government’s concerns about microwave-induced mind control might sound like something born of the worst sort of Cold War paranoia—the sort of thing easily parodied as a tin-foil-hat conspiracy—but set in the landscape of the 1960s, it seemed a plausible concern. The discovery of the Moscow Signal came amid a flurry of American and Soviet research reports on the possible biological effects of low-level microwave radiation. Anecdotal reports of fatigue and confusion fueled theories that microwaves could be used as a weapon for behavior modification, or even mind control.
One theory that officials floated was the Soviet Union might be using microwaves to influence the behavior of embassy workers, perhaps to induce clerks to make mistakes on encrypted messages, allowing Soviet cryptographers to crack American codes. In fact, DARPA-sponsored translations of Russian-language research at the time indicated that the neurological effects of microwaves fascinated the Soviets, which American officials took as possible evidence that the Moscow Signal was some sort of weapon.
DARPA’s role in Pandora immediately evoked concerns among the few Pentagon scientists who were cleared to review the program. Bruno Augenstein, a German-born physicist who worked for the Defense Department, sent a top secret memo to Harold Brown and Gene Fubini, two of the Pentagon’s top technology officials, to let them know that DARPA was evaluating proposals looking at the neurological effects of microwaves. In his note, Augenstein alluded to “past unsavory history of experiments of this kind in this country, which has made a number of people rather leery of further experiments in this field,” likely a reference to the CIA’s infamous MKULTRA mind control experiments begun in the 1950s, in which agency officials tested the effects of LSD as a possible mind control agent on humans. Augenstein wrote that there did appear “to be some internal resistance in DARPA to the suggestion that DARPA proceed with these experiments, probably because there is a feeling that at one time it certainly attracted a number of crackpots.”
If the DARPA program was supposed to avoid the mistakes of prior scandals in human experimentation, then Cesaro was an inauspicious choice to lead Pandora. A propulsion expert, he had no apparent expertise in the biological sciences, but he relished running a top-secret project that had high-level attention from the White House and the CIA. He embraced the assignment with an enthusiasm that might have been admirable, had it not been quite so morbid. It soon became clear Cesaro’s primary interest was pushing forward with actual microwave weapons, rather than understanding the underlying biology.
To see if the Moscow Signal really affected human behavior, DARPA first started by testing microwave radiation on monkeys. Because Pandora was top secret, the primary research had to be run at government laboratories rather than at universities. The air force was assigned to provide electromagnetic equipment needed to generate the microwaves, and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research was responsible for selecting the monkeys and running the experiments. The initial tests were designed to see how primates performed work-related tasks when exposed to radiation that matched the Moscow Signal, which was beaming every day at the men and women inside the American embassy in Moscow.
The test protocol involved training the monkeys to press certain levers in response to signals. If the monkeys pressed the lever correctly, they would receive a reward of food, “much as embassy employees might be rewarded with a dry martini at the end of the day,” wrote the columnist Jack Anderson. Researchers would then measure whether the monkeys performed worse when subjected to the Moscow Signal, compared with when there was no radiation.
By December 1965, Cesaro was already enthusing over the results. The normal process for accepting any new, significant scientific phenomenon would have involved submission of the results for peer review, publication in a respected journal, and eventually replication by an independent group. Pandora, on the other hand, operated in the world of classified science, where results were conveyed not by the researchers conducting the experiments but by the manager in charge, in this case Cesaro.
In December 1966, Cesaro reported that the first monkey involved in the tests had demonstrated “two repetitive, complete slowdowns and stoppages” as a result of exposure to the Moscow Signal. “There is no question that penetration of the central nervous system has been achieved, either directly or indirectly into that portion of the brain concerned with the changes in the work functions and the effects observed,” Cesaro wrote.
The radiation results were so convincing to him that he recommended the Pentagon immediately start to investigate “potential weapon applications.” He initiated a new phase of Pandora intended to move toward human testing, taking the DARPA program dangerously close to the very work that Augenstein, the Pentagon scientist, had warned of. Cesaro also wanted to make Pandora even more secretive than it had been previously. “The extremely sensitive nature of the results obtained to date, and their impact on National Security, has resulted in establishing a special access category for all data results and analysis, under codename Bizarre,” he wrote. Bizarre, as it turns out, was an appropriate name for the project, because at this point the number of monkeys involved in the testing stood at one.
Initially, the Pandora scientific review committee seemed to go along with Cesaro’s enthusiastic proposal to move directly to human testing. The committee even suggested recruiting human subjects from Fort Detrick, Maryland, home to the army’s biological research program (the conscripts assigned to Fort Detrick have been a continuous source of human subjects for Defense Department research for decades; subjects there have been exposed to everything from yellow fever to hallucinogenic drugs). In minutes from a May 12, 1969, meeting to discuss human testing, the Pandora scientific committee discussed plans to move forward with eight human subjects. The human subjects would be exposed to the Moscow Signal and then given a full battery of medical and psychological tests.
The committee was aware of the potential for a conflict of interest involved in classified human testing; the idea of informed consent becomes hazy when the subjects are not even aware of the true purpose of the test. To address this problematic issue, the committee recommended having medical personnel on hand to assure the “medical well being” of the subjects. Yet even those medical personnel would not be told the reason for the testing and would instead be given a cover story. Humanely, at least, the committee did recommend “gonadal protection be provided” to the male test subjects.
Fortunately for the would-be recruits and their gonads, the human tests were never pursued. The committee’s views on Pandora quickly began to change as they reviewed the actual data, which eventually included more primates and additional testing. The scientific committee’s minutes, declassified and released years later, demonstrate increasing doubts about the testing protocol, in particular the lack of controls used in testing the monkeys. Among the concerns was that there was never a solid baseline established to compare how the monkeys’ performance allegedly degraded after exposure to radiation, the members noted. In other words, it was never established how well monkeys performed the tasks during a test period when not exposed to any periodic bouts of radiation.
While Pandora never progressed to testing on humans, it did look at the effects of occupational radiation exposure on humans. One experimental protocol, called Big Boy, examined sailors on the USS Saratoga, comparing those who worked above deck, and were exposed to radiation from the radar, to those who worked below deck (the sailors were not told that they were part of a human radiation study; an unspecified cover story was used). The conclusion was that there were no psychological or physical effects as a result of exposure to low-level microwave radiation.
In 1968, Joseph Sharp, the lead Pandora researcher at Walter Reed, left the program. Major James McIlwain, a medical doctor who had been drafted into the army, was selected to replace him. It took almost a year before McIlwain was cleared for Project Pandora, but once that happened, he got to work on a rigorous review of the data, poring over the computer printouts detailing each animal’s behavior. Within a year, McIlwain completed the statistical analysis, and what he found was not encouraging for the prospects of microwave mind control weapons. The basic question, he recalled in an interview years later, was whether it was more likely that the animal would stop working when the radiation was on compared with when it was off. “The answer to that was no,” he said. The Pandora scientific review committee agreed, concluding, “If there is an effect of the signal utilized to date on behavior and/or biological functions, it is too subtle or insignificant to be evident.” In other words, microwaves could not be used for mind control.
By 1969, Stephen Lukasik, then the deputy director of DARPA, had some serious doubts about Cesaro, whom he regarded as a serial liar. The impresario of DARPA’s black programs acted as if he reported to no one, alluding to orders from high-level intelligence agencies but refusing to provide any specific information. “He was all over the place, cloaked in special access programs,” Lukasik said, a reference to highly classified national security programs.
Pandora, the mind control project, was particularly worrisome. At that point, the research had been going on for almost five years, and millions of dollars had been spent for construction of a new microwave laboratory. Lukasik asked Sam Koslov, a former DARPA official, to review the Pandora file and let him know what he thought. Koslov was an old hand at intelligence projects and less likely to be snowed by claims of secrecy and overwrought concerns about the potential for Soviet exotic weapons. Koslov, then at the Rand Corporation, reviewed the materials and discussed the results with McIlwain, at Walter Reed, and reported back to Lukasik in November 1969.
Like other review committee members, Koslov criticized the original experiments for having almost no baseline and noted the experimental procedure changed over time. Also, if the question was whether a modulated microwave beam, such as the Moscow Signal, was causing deleterious effects, why was it never measured against a continuous wave? he asked. Simply zapping monkeys with the Moscow Signal was an entirely wrong approach, if the goal was to understand whether the effects were associated with a specific signal. “One should start with an examination of various basic wave forms and then the combinations resulting in possible intermodulations and demodulations by biological tissue,” Koslov wrote.
Koslov also rightfully questioned whether the entire program truly needed to be secret.
One could much better run a more open program that looked at the health effects of microwaves generally and then have a secret program looking at technology or weapons, if it was warranted, he argued. “In brief, I am forced to conclude that the data do not present any evidence of a behavioral change due to the presence of the special signal within the limits of any reasonable scientific criteria,” Koslov wrote to Lukasik.
In 1969, DARPA ended its support for Pandora, and the remaining work was transferred to Walter Reed. A couple years later, Lukasik fired Cesaro for “general dishonesty.”
By the end of the 1960s, the intelligence community concluded that the Soviets were using the pulsed radiation to activate listening bugs concealed in the embassy’s walls, and not to control diplomats’ minds.
Yet concerns about the Moscow Signal lingered even after the scientific testing ended, though mind control was generally ruled out. A State Department doctor in charge of the blood tests, Cecil Jacobson, asserted that there had been some chromosomal changes, but none of the scientific reviews of his work seemed to back his view. Jacobson achieved infamy in later years, not for the Moscow Signal, but for fraud related to his fertility work. Among other misdeeds, he was sent to prison for impregnating possibly dozens of unsuspecting patients with his own sperm, rather than that of screened anonymous donors as they were expecting.
Richard Cesaro never attained that level of personal notoriety, but he asserted, even after he retired, that the Moscow Signal remained an open question. “I look at it as still a major, serious, unsettled threat to the security of the United States,” he said, when interviewed about it nearly two decades later. “If you really make the breakthrough, you’ve got something better than any bomb ever built, because when you finally come down the line you’re talking about controlling people’s minds.”
Perhaps, but Pandora resonated for years as the secrecy surrounding the project generated public paranoia and distrust of government research on radiation safety. Project Pandora was often cited as proof that the government knew more about the health effects of electro- magnetic radiation than it was letting on. The government did finally inform embassy personnel in the 1970s about the microwave radiation, prompting, not surprisingly, a slew of lawsuits.
In the end, the government found that the best method for dealing with the incessant Moscow Signal was to build an aluminum screen to shield the building from microwaves. “The lesson learned,” Koslov later told a reporter, “is to treat your people as if they have some intelligence.”
This article is adapted from Sharon Weinberger’s book, The Imagineers of War: The Untold Story of DARPA, the Pentagon Agency that Changed the World.
Photo credit: Ed Schipul/FlickrBY: Follow @cb0321
Several longtime officials at the Democratic National Committee have lost their positions ahead of their first meeting since Tom Perez took over as chairman.
The DNC is facing particular criticism for the over-representation of Clinton backers on its Rule and Bylaws Committee, according to NBC News. That committee helps create the rules for the party's presidential primary.
Many members that were ousted were supporters of Rep. Keith Ellison's (D., Mich.) bid to run the DNC. Ellison became vice-chair under Perez.
The announcements exposed a rift between Ellison and Perez, who have publicly expressed their support for each other since the election of Perez as chairman.
One DNC committee member pushed out, James Zogby of the Arab American Institute, expressed displeasure with his ouster.
"I’m concerned about the optics, and I’m concerned about the impact. I want to heal the wound of 2016," Zogby said.
Alice Germond, who previously served as the party's longtime secretary, was removed from her at-large position and found her removal unusual.
"It is quite unusual for a former party official who has been serving on the DNC for like forever to just be left out in the cold without even a call from the chairman. So I assumed it had something to do with my support for Keith," Germond said.
The DNC denied any retaliation and claimed changes were to diversify and freshen the party's leadership.
"This year's slate of at-large DNC member nominees reflects the unprecedented diversity of our party’s coalition," said DNC spokesperson Michael Tyler.
The DNC has been struggling with consistently poor fundraising despite the party's united disapproval of President Donald Trump.
Others who were ousted include Ray Buckley, the New Hampshire Democratic chairman, who lost his position on the Executive Committee and DNC Rules Committee, and Barbra Casbar Siperstein, the first transgender member of the DNC who was tossed from the Executive Committee.Iran’s lawmakers have a thing about dogs. They want to ban them in public because they are considered “impure” in Islamic tradition and their ownership is deemed a decadent Western import. But Iranians who own dogs, and a great many do, love them as much as anyone in any culture.
Stray dogs, some of them feral and menacing, are shot on sight. That is not new. But the real threat to the Islamic Republic’s sense of order, it would seem, is what one cleric has called “short-legged” and “holdable” dogs.
So when the government is in a get-tough mood its enforcers have been known to grab Fido right off the street, off the leash, even out of the owner’s arms. If the government is in a “reformist” mood, the pooches and their owners can breathe a little easier. But you never know how long that will last.
Like so much in politics, the issue seems to come up in the Iranian parliament at the most improbable times, as if the purpose were to distract attention from other rather more pressing issues.
Thus, last November a bill was proposed that would ban dogs (and monkeys, for that matter) in public. This was at the same time that Iran’s nuclear negotiations with the United States and five other powers had hit a wall and had to be extended, raising questions about whether they would ever reach a conclusion, or, indeed, whether their failure might lead to war.
Meanwhile pollution was suffocating, rats infested the streets, drug addiction was rampant, random violence had grown—internationally, nationally, and locally there were no end of problems to be addressed, but 32 parliamentarians introduced a bill, still pending, that would penalize anyone who bought or sold pet dogs with a hefty fine and up to 74 lashes.
A citizen journalist in Iran has just produced this little animated video to suggest just how preposterous this whole anti-puppy campaign has become.
And IranWire’s interview with Ahmad Salek in November, one of the parliamentarians who sponsored the anti-pet law, is especially revealing. Excerpts:
Mr. Salek, your bill would ban people from walking their dogs in public, and from keeping pets at home. Why?
In the name of God. Our Islamic Revolution is based on religious, divine and humane values.... Look, people who keep dogs do not believe in these values. They don’t get enough affection, are lonely or want to imitate Europeans and a Western way of life. Naturally this behavior is not appropriate for the social environment of our cities.
Why do you think some people still want to follow a Western lifestyles?
Cyberspace and foreign media—radio stations and websites—try to teach people many things, including association with dogs. Some people in Iran are influenced by these teachings and think that keeping animals such as dogs will give them peace. This belief is very wrong.
So the main reason for proposing the bill is to encourage people to avoid a Western lifestyle?
No, there are other reasons. For example, health reasons. When animals live at people’s homes it is natural that they pollute them and transmit diseases. The second reason is religious. A person who owns such an animal cannot pray, because when a dog’s hair sticks to their clothing, that clothing is unclean.
According to critics, the Quran does not deem dogs to be unclean. There is no mention of it anywhere in the Quran.
Who says these things? These sentiments come from foreign media. … Islamic jurists agree that dogs are unclean. There is no disagreement on this.
If your bill becomes law, people who take dogs to public places will be fined and face up to 74 lashes. Do you think these punishments will be enforced?
Punishments are preventive. People will try to change their behavior.
Why do you and other MPs feel it is necessary to punish the media?
Some domestic media outlets are influenced by foreign propaganda and produce content that is not appropriate for the Islamic Republic. They promote this unconsciously. If a punishment is stipulated, then they will smarten up and not fall into the trap set by foreigners.
The authorities will have to come up with a list of banned animals within three months of the bill’s passage. What kinds of animals are going to be on the list?
Whatever the animal, it has no place in a home. For example, a dog should be kept in a field or in a police station or next to a herd, not in a tiny apartment in violation of hygiene standards and religious beliefs. There are other kinds of animals as well. For example, I have heard that some people keep lizards at home. Animals that are religiously unclean, threaten health or disrupt people’s peace will be added to the list.
This article was adapted from two that recently appeared on IranWire.Building the "cameras of the future" doesn't necessarily mean that those cameras will actually have a future. In a very frank and straightforward assessment of Lytro's business posted on Backchannel, CEO Jason Rosenthal has tried to explain why his company chose to walk away from the consumer camera market. "The cold hard fact was that we were competing in an established industry where the product requirements had been firmly cemented in the minds of consumers by much larger more established companies," Rosenthal wrote.
Despite the fact that Lytro cameras possessed a stunning trick (the ability to refocus images after the fact), other obstacles like large file sizes, lower resolution, and their expensive cost made keeping up with those "established" companies impossible. And then, these days a lot of people are just fine using a smartphone as their primary camera. "Consumer camera market was declining by almost 35 percent per year driven by the surge in smartphone photography and changing consumer tastes," said Rosenthal.
The ability to refocus photos wasn't enough to make Lytro cameras successful
He notes that continuing work on third- and even fourth-generation products would've quickly eaten up half of the $50 million that Lytro recently raised. "A financial bet of this size was almost guaranteed to end the company if we got it wrong," he said. So instead, Rosenthal determined the right decision for Lytro was to take its advancements in light field photography in a different direction: virtual reality. "The more I looked at the needs of this market, the more convinced I became that we had something unique to offer."
Last November, the company unveiled a VR camera rig it calls the Lytro Immerge. "This change in strategy also led Lytro to "dramatically" cut its staff. After all that, Rosenthal seems certain that the new Lytro is a better Lytro. "My middle of the night panic attacks are gone. I wake with a burning desire to go to work because I am so excited by what we are building and its potential to help shape VR." The dream of reshaping consumer cameras, however, has been abandoned.1964's Mothra vs. Godzilla is seen by many as the ultimate Godzilla movie.
Film still: Toho Kingdom 1964: Mothra vs. Godzilla makes its screen debut in Japan. Or was it Mothra Against Godzilla, Godzilla vs. Mothra or Godzilla vs. The Thing?
By whatever name you choose – and it went by all of them at one time or another – for those of us who grew up watching these entertaining romps, this is the quintessential Godzilla movie.
It had everything you could ask for: wonderfully cheesy special effects (acute halitosis never looked so good), great dubbing (in the English-language release, the talking went on after the Japanese actors had stopped moving their lips), a couple of hot Japanese twins (albeit a pair of faeries scarcely a foot tall), wanton, widespread destruction (Nagoya, rather than Tokyo, took the hit this time), and a monster to root for (the big moth).
The Godzilla-Mothra imbroglio wasn't the first time these two had courted trouble.
Godzilla had already been around for a decade, rising from the sea in the 1954 film, Godzilla, to ravage the Japanese mainland following a hydrogen-bomb test gone awry. Godzilla evolved over the years, his dinosaur-like appearance always changing, although he never lost the atomic breath that, along with his sheer bulk, served as his main weapon of destruction.
As for Mothra, she (yes, Mothra was all woman) made her original cinematic bow in the 1961 flick bearing her name. Maybe because Mothra, a fictional lepidopteran, originated in a novel before coming to the screen, she was more nuanced than her troglodytic antagonist. Unlike Godzilla, Mothra possessed an intellect, which she put to use in a series of films.
The plots for what are loosely called "Godzilla movies" follow the same simple formula: The monster – usually our man Godzilla – is awakened from its slumber, either by man's folly (nuclear testing) or man's greed (there always seems to be an evil capitalist lurking in the weeds, eager to exploit a lost culture or a slumbering monster). Fully awake now, the monster wreaks vengeance on the hapless Japanese, whose soldiery, never fully recovered from Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima, lies prostrate before the rampaging beast.
The soldiers do know how to die dramatically, though, which makes for some entertaining cinematic moments.
In the end, the movie's alpha monster is finally overcome, either by a few plucky scientists who dream up some goofy formula that works, or by another hairy, scaly or wing-flapping opponent, who, for reasons never adequately explained, decides to temporarily ally itself with the perfidious two-legged mammals that stirred up this hornet's nest in the first place.
Simple and repetitive as the storylines may be, the '64 film began a complicated relationship between Godzilla and Mothra, who, over the course of several movies, died and were reborn, were alternately vanquished and victorious, and lined up both as friend and foe. Their relationship with humanity was equally complex: Mothra could be punishing but was ultimately benevolent, while Godzilla, usually the heavy, occasionally emerged as a kind of antihero, earning our sympathy in his role as avenging angel.
The Godzilla franchise was born in the Toho film studios in the 1950s but has been spun off so many times that it's impossible to chronicle the monster's lineage here. Suffice it to say, Godzilla has appeared on the screen – both large and small – in comic books, videogames, novels and in myriad other places as a pop culture icon.
OK, so maybe Mothra vs. Godzilla wasn't Kurosawa. But it was a fine way to kill a Saturday afternoon.
(Source: Various)
How To: Stop a 500-Foot Monster (Think Missiles, not Bombs)
Gates, Godzilla... Godzilla, Gates
Jan. 29, 1964: Duck and Cover
April 7, 1964: IBM Bets Big on System/360
July 31, 1964: Ranger 7 Keeps Shooting Until the Very Last Second
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NEW JERSEY — Governor Chris Christie declared a State of Emergency for Ocean, Atlantic and Cape May counties as post-tropical cyclone Hermine threatens to bring heavy rain and strong winds to the region.
Christie announced the State of Emergency on his Twitter around 1:30 p.m. Saturday, stating in a separate press release that the "impending weather conditions constitute an imminent hazard."
I’ve declared a state of emergency for Ocean, Atlantic & Cape May Counties in preparation for Tropical Storm #Hermine. — Governor Christie (@GovChristie) September 3, 2016
Hermine, which moved off the North Carolina coast, was upgraded to a post-tropical cyclone Saturday. It could re-energize and regain hurricane strength southeast of Cape May as it feeds off the warm Gulf Stream waters.
A tropical storm warning remains in effect for the entire New Jersey Shore, New York City and Long Island.
Neptune Township is anticipating roadway flooding and tropical storm force winds. Although no mandatory evacuation has been issued for residents at this time, residents with special needs or more significant hazards are encouraged to seek shelter away from coastal areas that could be impacted, according to Neptune Township authorities.
Severe weather conditions could begin as early as Saturday night and last through the rest of the Labor Day Weekend. Coastal flooding is likely to begin with high tide Saturday night, according to the National Weather Service.
Christie is warning residents to prepare for possible power outages and dangerous road conditions when the storm hits.
NJ Office of Emergency Management is preparing county shelter locations if there is a need for evacuation. For the full list of shelters click here.
NJ Transit will remain running, but service may be suspended depending on the severity of the storm.
According to PIX11 weekend meteorologist Craig Allen, the official track of Hermine has been shifted slightly to the east, which may bring less rain to the area. However, damaging winds, tides and beach erosion threat remains unchanged.
Moderate to major coastal flooding and strong rip currents is expected along the Jersey Shore.
Just before 5 p.m., the Barnegat Township Police Department issued a statement recommending lagoon and bay-front area residents voluntarily evacuate.
Officials are urged to move al vehicles to higher ground and secure outdoor loose items.“Are you crazy?”
It’s a question I get often because I get around Los Angeles with a bicycle as my primary means of transportation.
“I love biking,” people tell me, “but I would never ride in L.A. Isn’t it dangerous?”
I don’t think I’m crazy (I’ve never had a serious accident), but then neither are they. Los Angeles is a dangerous place to bike or drive or walk, and it’s getting more dangerous by the year. Our fair metropolis holds the distinction of having the deadliest streets of any major American city, this despite the fact that Mayor Eric Garcetti vowed to eliminate traffic deaths in the city by 2025.
Amid the carnage, bike lane construction in L.A. has largely ground to a halt, as has the removal of traffic lanes — “road diets” — to slow traffic, making streets safer for cyclists and other road users.
The car may still be king in Los Angeles, but its dominion isn’t as sweeping as some entitled motorists seem to think.
In fairness to our political class, it seems as if every time the city does try to experiment with safe cycling infrastructure, angry motorists do their best to gum up the works.
For four years running, a small but vocal segment of car-centric Silver Lake residents have demanded the removal of the demonstrably effective Rowena Avenue road diet. Manhattan Beach commuters, meanwhile, are threatening to sue Los Angeles for removing traffic lanes and installing bike paths on several deadly roadways in neighboring Playa del Rey. And just this month, apoplectic Mar Vista residents lobbied to undo a milelong segment of protected bike lane on Venice Boulevard, which narrowed the road from three lanes of car traffic to two
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far as winning, so I saw a lot of things that I didn’t agree with that he was doing and we were losing at the time, so we never could work together.”
This is another one of Jackson’s fundamental blocks. He has seen people he regards as tough up close. People that will literally fight and kill. No coach, in Jackson’s mind, fits that description. Those that try are tuned out. Right or wrong, Jackson sticks with what he feels is right.
Jackson’s assessment of Skiles is wrong. The Spurs more closely reflect a fine-tuned collegiate organization. Popovich is the iconic coach. His personality is reflected throughout the organization, and he is the longest-tenured coach not only in the NBA, but in all four major sports leagues. Graduates of the program like Kevin Pritchard, Sam Presti, Kerr, and Ferry mostly went on to success running other franchises. If the comparison needs further parallels, Popovich and Buford continually refer to the organization not as an organization, but as a program.
“He respects the program and he respects the guys he’s with,” Popovich said of Jackson. “It’s going to happen where he’s going to lose his cool a bit. Overall, it’s worth it to us because he won’t lose it to the point where he’s going to affect the team negatively, because if that happens, he won’t be on the floor.”
Popovich played Jackson during the defining run of the team’s first win over the Thunder in the Western Conference finals. Jackson scored all five of his points in the fourth quarter and helped silence Kevin Durant in that span.
“He had a pretty important role for one of our better teams,” Buford said. “I think that there’s always an appreciation for some of Stephen’s strengths. I think our players and our coaches have always had a place in their heart for Stephen.”
Jackson is also experiencing the same transition that happened to Steve Smith. Jackson uprooted Smith and helped San Antonio to a title early in his career. Now, a 34-year-old Jackson is backing up a rookie, Kawhi Leonard. Jackson is fine with it. He knows that Popovich will fiddle with his minutes. A game or series may not suit his strengths. Yet Popovich knows that Jackson will enter with the same mentality whenever called upon, a trait that eludes some veterans.
“That’s the beauty of Jack,” Kerr said. “It doesn’t matter if he’s 21 or 35. It’s just his nature. He’s going to take any big shot. He’s fearless. That was the element that he added to that team then. I think he gives it now, too. Just the element of not just being unafraid of the big shot, but loving it and relishing the moment. Not everybody’s like that.”
The building at 235 Proctor Street in Port Arthur is one of the first newly constructed buildings in the city’s downtown in about 50 years, according to Deloris Prince, the city’s mayor. The building holds the Stephen Jackson Academy. The center opened six years ago and serves as an after-school academic hub and includes basketball courts.
Hurricanes Rita, Humberto, and Ike all hit the city hard. The devastation prolonged economic hardships and caused population relocation. Jackson wanted to provide a facility that would last.
“He’s our hero,” Prince said. “We’ve never thought of him as reckless and thuggish. We’ve never thought of him that way. A basketball game is a basketball game. You’re expected to perform one way in a basketball game and another way off the court. But Stephen is a warm, community child. That’s the side that we know.”
The facility represents another side of Jackson. He conducts clinics, attends schools, holds fund-raisers, and helps feed the needy at each of his NBA stops. The efforts provide little counterbalance to his other more publicized transgressions.
“Yeah and no,” Jackson said when asked if he cares how people ultimately regard him. “I do care because I have kids and I don’t want people to tell my kids somewhere that, ‘Your dad was an asshole or a thug.’ I hate that. I’m not a thug or a goon. I’m loyal and I’m just down for mine. I’m a real guy. In a way, I do care. But in a way I don’t. At the end of the day, the people who are around me, the people who matter to me, the people who I respect and love, they know my heart and know me.”
He leaves behind a trail of mixed feelings wherever he plays. There is always the inevitable parting, but the teams performing the breakup often have more respect for Jackson upon his departure than on his arrival.
Walsh: “He’s a fun guy. I enjoyed him. He’s different, but in a good way. In a good way that sometimes hurts him.”
Stefanski: “I’ve seen him numerous times since he left Jersey and I left Jersey, and he has thanked me more than once for giving him an opportunity in the league. He’s always been a gentleman around me.”
Nelson: “He’s a one and only, as it should be.”
Jackson is a person whose past influences his present and will probably shape his future. Is he a good person who occasionally mixes in the bad? Or a bad person sometimes inclined to do good? The answer, with most like Jackson, is not as black and white as the familiar jersey he wears again.
“A lot of people mistake my passion for the game with being a thug or a gangster,” he said. “I’m far from that. I’m just a guy who come up in the hood and came from nothing and made something and hasn’t changed. I’m still going to be in Port Arthur all summer walking around with no shoes on, eating crawfish, barbecue, going fishing. I’m going to be the same guy, and I take pride in saying that because a lot of NBA players are not touchable. They’re not real. But I take pride in being a regular guy that people can walk up to and I’m not Hollywood. I want people to understand that that’s the person I am and I’m not changing for nothing.”Researchers say a new study suggests marijuana use by younger people will not harm their healthy kidneys, but that more research needs to be done with older users before the same can be said for them. Photo by Photographee.eu/Shutterstock.com
FRIDAY, Aug. 25, 2017 -- There's still a lot that scientists don't know about how marijuana affects people's health, but new research suggests that smoking pot doesn't seem to take a toll on healthy young kidneys.
Studies with animals had suggested regular pot use could alter kidney function. But the authors of the new study found no evidence to support that claim, at least among healthy young adults who were followed for up to 15 years.
"Results from our observational study in young adults with normal kidney function may not translate into a clinically meaningful difference and may be insufficient to inform decision-making concerning marijuana use," said Dr. Julie Ishida, who worked on the study. She's with the University of California, San Francisco, and San Francisco VA Medical Center.
The researchers used data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults, or CARDIA, study, which repeatedly assessed marijuana use and kidney health. The study included more than 5,000 adults who were aged 18 to 30 in 1985-1986, and have been followed at intervals ever since.
Past or current marijuana use was reported by 83 percent of the study participants.
When the study began, heavy marijuana users appeared to have reduced kidney function. However, follow-up assessments every five years showed pot use wasn't associated with signs of kidney damage, such as higher levels of the protein albumin in the urine.
The study authors noted that marijuana is increasingly viewed as safe and acceptable. And they cautioned that the link between marijuana use and kidney function could be different among patients at higher risk.
In a news release from the American Society of Nephrology, Ishida's team said more research is needed to investigate the drug's effects on older people and those with kidney disease.
The findings were published Aug. 24 in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more information on the health effects of marijuana.
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HAVING struggled with her weight since being spayed four years ago, Bella Murphy now proudly embraces her condition in full, recently starring in a dreamy photoshoot that is unlike any other.
“Before I was too ashamed to leave the house,” explained the curvy brave beauty. “My self-esteem was low and I was in a very bad place. Thankfully, that all changed after I was approached by a plus-sized cat modelling agency in Dublin. I haven’t looked back since.”
Bella rarely left the house, but was spotted coughing up some hair on the street outside by photographer Mark Delaney, one of Ireland’s premier cat plus-sized-model photographers.
“Big cats are in right now,” Delaney told WWN. “Bella has come from strength-to-strength since signing up with my agency, and you can even see the difference in her coat from this time last year. She’s so feisty and very hot. If I wasn’t a human I’d certainly tap that sweet pudgy ass.”
After signing a three year €40k deal in January with Delaney’s agency, Fatpuss, Bella has since starred in numerous cat food commercials across the world, including Japan, where she is now a bit of a celebrity.
“Last year I was just some fat house cat too down on my luck to even meow,” the inspirational feline added. “It’s amazing what a bit of self-confidence can do for a cat. I don’t even see myself as fat anymore. I’m quite proud of my body. And why shouldn’t I be?”
“If I had one bit of advice for anyone, it would be: ‘don’t conform to what is perceived to be as normal beauty standards’. You are beautiful, no matter what size you are.” she finished, before cleaning out her vagina with her tongue.Hertha Berliner Sport-Club (Hertha BSC)Ai??currently sit in sixth place after Matchday 8. After the first Matchday, they were on top of the table thanks to six goals scored past a disorganized Eintracht Frankfurt. On Twitter, fans’ response was glee tinged with a singular worry: this canai??i??t last. They knew, the only way was down from there.
The next two matches were a draw and a win, with their first defeat in Wolfsburg coming on Matchday 4, followed by another loss to Stuttgart, their first home defeat in 13 games. Days after a 1-1 draw in Freiburg, Hertha lost in the second round of the DFB Cup to second-division Kaiserslautern.
The Two Faces Of Hertha Berlin
There was little hope of victory going into the seventh Matchday, when Hertha played host to Mainz. The Cup loss to Kaiserslautern had shown the second face of Hertha: a chaotic, disjointed side that can neither score nor defend. But the fact is that coach Jos Luhukay sent largely second string players to the Cup match, including fan favorites like last seasonai??i??s captain Peter Niemeyer, and they didnai??i??t work well as a team. Days later, Hertha turned an early Mainz lead into a win, scoring three goals in the second half, two of which came from former Mainzer Sami Allagui.
In Hannover the following week, Hertha started strong, then collapsed slightly after Hannover scored against the run of play. Hertha struggled to find the back of the net, hitting woodwork instead. After almost 80 minutes, Luhukay finally decided to use his substitutions: on came set-piece specialist Ronny and forward Sandro Wagner. Ronnyai??i??s first touch was a free kick (earned by Wagner) that arced beautifully through the wall and into the top right corner of the net at 119 kmph. The draw ended Hannoverai??i??s home win streak.
Luhukay: Bringer Of Consistency
Compare this season to the 2011/12 season, when Hertha were promoted after securing first place in the second division with coach Markus Babbel: they bounced from 15th up to 8th (Matchday 5), back down to 12th (Matchday 7) and up to 10th (Matchday 8). Their records are almost identical between these two seasons: 3 wins, 3 draws, 2 losses, with a goals for:against of 12:9 (2011) and 14:9 (2013).
In 2011, mid-season saw Hertha in a holding pattern: five draws, three losses, and a solitary win. There was interpersonal drama between sporting director Michael Preetz and Coach Babbel, and the second half of the season saw four different coaches taking the reins, a plummet to the bottom of the table, and defeat in the relegation playoff.
One advantage Hertha currently have over the Hertha from two years ago is the coach. Jos Luhukay led FC Augsburg to promotion alongside Hertha in 2011 and kept them in the top flight. He has proven that he knows how to keep a team up, even if there are a few stumbles on their run. He parted from Augsburg under acrimonious circumstances late in the spring. As long as no personality conflicts develop, the departure of the coach should not be an issue.
Injuries Have Been Major Speedbumps
New signing Alexander Baumjohann tore his ACL in the game against Wolfsburg. In the four matches he played, he was a vital piece of the offensive midfield, assisting in two goals and participating in sixteen shots on goal. The good news is that this was before the close of the transfer window, and they were able to get Tolga Cigerci from Wolfsburg. The bad news is that Cigerci has not yet proved to be as valuable as Baumjohann was.
Midfielder Marcel Ndjeng has been out since the second Matchday with knee problems. He has returned to individual training in recent weeks. Defender John Anthony Brooks strained his right elbow in the Freiburg match, and he is also slowly returning to training.
Ronny: Team Hero to Peripheral Figure?
Last season, in the second division, Ronny was Herthaai??i??s most important player and top goalscorer with eighteen goals and fourteen assists. His ability to place a free kick is outstanding. This season, however, he has only started three times, though he played in all eight matches.
So why is Ronny no longer a central figure in the team? The first reason is that he returned from the summer holidays out of shape. For the first few matches, his physical capabilities were not up to a top-level footballer’s standards. Even in the more recent fixture against Mainz, it was apparent that he still wasn’t at the fitness level required for the top flight. Thankfully for him (and the club), even ifAi??Ronny may never be quite up to snuff to start in the first division, he is still an excellent super-sub. He is also Herthaai??i??s top free kick taker: five of his eighteen goals last season were free kicks.
The second reason for his exclusion is that the midfield is under construction. Luhukay shocked fans by taking the armband from Niemeyer after saying he had doubts about Niemeyerai??i??s sporting capabilities. He gave it to Fabian Lustenberger, another well-liked defensive midfielder, instead.
Clever Tweakings To The Team
Luhukay initially built the midfield around Lustenberger, Marcel Ndjeng, Hajime Hosogai, and Baumjohann. Both Ndjeng and Hosogai were familiar with Luhukay from their time in Augsburg, and the Coach does seem to prefer players he is familiar with. When Ndjeng injured his knee, Luhukay could use Peer Kluge or Nico Schulz. After Baumjohannai??i??s injury, he had to change his plans.
In addition to ex-Wolf Cigerci, Hertha acquired midfielder Per Ciljan Skjelbred from Hamburg in exchange for striker Pierre-Michel Lasogga. Skjelbred has integrated well into the team: he is a hard worker with a high pass completion rate, a goal and an assist already to his name in the four matches he has been with the club.
Lasogga was recovering from a torn ACL when Lukuhay came on as coach, and he never made it into his radar. Young and ambitious, Lasogga was unhappy on the bench, and trading him to HSV was good for his development as a player. It was also good based on his value in the transfer market: Hertha needed the money.
Hertha currently sits in a European position in the table. They are not likely to finish there, but if they continue this trend, they will remain in the top flight come the final Matchday of the Bundesliga.
Ai??by Conni Covington (@strafraum)
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As the Supreme Court is set to rule next month on the Constitutionality of same-sex marriage, many political and religious leaders continue to seek a balance between LGBT rights and religious freedom. While Indiana's recent attempt was roundly criticized, a recent nationwide poll suggests that the Mormon Church's approach (which guided the enactment of recent legislation in Utah) was seen more favorably. In January, Mormon leaders publicly announced official support for legal protections for LGBT Americans in terms of housing and employment (with some important exceptions, including religious institutions) while simultaneously affirming their support of "religious freedom" in the public square and reiterating their opposition to same-sex marriage.
According to the 2015 Colonel's Canvass Poll, conducted by researchers (including myself) at Centre College, roughly one-third (30.4%) of Americans report awareness of the Mormon Church's efforts to promote legal protections for LGBT individuals while simultaneously affirming the importance of religious freedom. Slightly over 1 in 10 Americans (13.7%) say that they followed the news story either very closely or fairly closely.
Of those who have followed the story, 32.6% say that Mormon Church's efforts have given them a "more favorable" view of the religion, whereas 10.9% report that it has produced a "less favorable" view. The remaining 56.5% say that this did not change their view of the Mormon Church one way or another. Combining these responses shows that 9.5% of all those surveyed are both aware of this news story and that it resulted in a more favorable view of the Mormon Church, while 3.2% are both aware and acquired a less favorable view (with 16.5% aware but no change). In contrast, nearly two-thirds of Americans were not aware of the Mormon Church's activities on this matter.
There is a small difference in terms of Protestant reactions to this issue. 16.7% of evangelical Protestants who followed the news story formed a less favorable view of the Mormon Church compared to only 2.9% of mainline Protestants. Approximately a third of both evangelical (33.3%) and mainline (32.4%) Protestants, however, formed a more favorable view.
The Mormon Church's support of legal protections for LGBT individuals also had a strong positive effect among theological moderates (those who believe that their religion or church should "adjust its beliefs and practices in light of new circumstances") and modernists (who want to "adopt modern beliefs and practices"). 34.7% of theological moderates and 33.3% of theological modernists who were aware of the news story reported that it resulted in a more favorable view of the Mormon Church. In contrast, only 8.8% of theological traditionalists (who prefer to "preserve traditional beliefs and practices") reported a more favorable view while 26.5% reported a less favorable view.
Politically, 40.3% of Democrats who were aware of the issue reported a more favorable view of the Mormon Church and 6.5% reported a less favorable view. Meanwhile, 20.5% of Republicans who were aware of the issue formed a more favorable view compared to 23.1% who formed a less favorable view. This is not surprising given the partisan divide on same-sex marriage. Given the Mormon Church's strong association with the Republican Party in the United States, though, it's noteworthy that the Mormon effort to emphasize protections for LGBT individuals was received so favorably by Democrats but not by Republicans.
The Mormon Church's efforts also boosted its favorability among college graduates (43.5% reporting a more favorable view compared to 19.4% of non-college graduates) and among younger individuals (40.4% of those under 50 reporting a more favorable view compared to 21.5% of those over 50). Given that younger, better educated Americans are increasingly likely to disassociate from organized religion, this suggests that taking a more tolerant and accepting view toward the LGBT community is exactly what religious institutions, including the Mormon Church, may need to consider in order to remain relevant and influential in coming years and decades.
Excommunication of Mormon Podcaster John Dehlin Viewed More Negatively
While the Mormon Church has recently emphasized its support for legal protections for LGBT individuals in terms of housing and employment, it has simultaneously reaffirmed its strong opposition to same-sex marriage. Not all Mormons are in agreement, however, with their church's position. On February 10, 2015, popular Mormon podcaster John Dehlin was excommunicated for public disagreement with many fundamental teachings of Mormonism as well as for active public advocacy for women's ordination and recognition of same-sex marriages in his church.
About one in five (19.8%) of those polled reported that they were aware of John Dehlin's excommunication, with only 10.6% saying that they followed this news story either very closely or fairly closely. Of those who followed the story, 19.9% reported a "more favorable" view of the Mormon Church as a result, with 26.8% reporting a "less favorable" view. The remaining 53.3% said it did not change their view of the Mormon Church one way or the other. Combining responses of the two questions shows that only 3.8% of the public is both aware of Dehlin's excommunication and that it produced a more favorable view of the Mormon Church, compared to 5.1% who are both aware and acquired a less favorable view.
Less frequent church attenders who were aware of the news story were split on the effects of Dehlin's excommunication on their view of the Mormon Church. 30.6% of those who attend church less than a few times a month gained a more favorable view while for 32.7% it resulted in a less favorable view. Those who are more frequent church attenders were less likely to be swayed in their opinions if they were aware of the story, as the excommunication resulted in a more favorable view by 9.3% and a less favorable view of the Mormon Church by 22.2%.
This suggests that Dehlin's excommunication may have minor, but negative, effects on the Mormon Church's proselyting efforts, as more religiously active Americans (prime targets for the church's missionary appeals) who knew about the issue were more likely to have formed a more negative rather than a positive response by a 2 to 1 margin. That being said, the proportion of Americans who are active church goers, aware of the news story, and had a negative opinion as a result is only about two and half percent - or about 1 out of every 40 Americans.
Politically speaking, 28.9% of Democrats gained a more favorable view of the Mormon Church as a result of Dehlin's excommunication while 15.6% gained a less favorable view. In contrast, only 16% of Republicans gained a more favorable view while 36% gained a less favorable view.
While it not possible to know for sure from the results of this survey, one possible reason that Democrats received a more positive view of the Mormon Church as a result of Dehlin's excommunication compared to Republicans is that it highlighted that Mormonism is not a monolithically conservative religion in the United States. It showed that there are some Mormons who are pro-gay marriage and pro-women's ordination and that they're not afraid to publicly disagree with some of their church's teachings. This would be more appealing to religious progressives and liberals as a whole who are more likely to identify as Democrats rather than Republicans.They have proudly borne the name of Cornwall to every part of the globe and become a culinary mainstay for Britain and many parts of America and Australia. Yet Cornish pasties are imposters, it transpires. They really come from Devon, historians argued last week.
As suggestions go, it is one of the most regionally inflammatory claims that could be made: the equivalent to saying Rangers and Celtic are really Edinburgh clubs, or Yorkshire puddings are from Lancashire.
Nevertheless Dr Todd Gray, chairman of the Friends of Devon's Archives, insists he is right. The pasty is a Devonian delicacy and Cornwall stole it. His claim is based on a document found in the historic Audit Book and Receivers Accounts for the Borough of Plymouth, which dates back to the 16th century.
Dr Gray said he spotted four key lines of text which refer to the financial cost of making a pasty, using venison from the Mount Edgcumbe estate just across the Tamar River in Devon. The words date back to 1510. So Dr Gray contacted the Cornwall Record Office and found that its earliest record of a pasty recipe was in 1746. Thus Devon wins the pasty war by a clear 200 years, he concluded. 'This is one of Plymouth's ancient 16th-century documents which has never been properly presented to the public. This is a great joy for me as an historian uncovering local history,' he said.
It was also a great joy for him to put one over on Cornwall, one suspects. For those of Cornish origins, however, the discovery has gone down like a cup of cold suet.
'There will always be debates about the origin of the pasty; one theory in parts of Cornwall is that it almost goes back to the beginning of time,' said Les Merton, author of The Official Encyclopaedia of the Cornish Pasty. Angie Coombs, spokesman for the Cornish Pasty Association, agreed: 'There has been a continual argument regarding the origins of the pasty and who was the first person actually to make it.
'In medieval times they always used pastry as a vessel for serving - they would eat the insides and throw the pastry away. I think it was going on as early as the 1100s, and this argument about who was making it which side of the border will go on and on.'
In fact, the Cornish pasty turns out to have a lengthy global pedigree. These semi-circles of meat and vegetable were favoured by miners from south-west England who exported them to America and Australia. It is still said a good pasty should be strong enough to survive being dropped down a mine shaft.ALBUQUERQUE — At the New Mexico Holocaust and Intolerance Museum, three dozen people, many of them teenagers, arrived last month without warning.
Wearing T-shirts that said “Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust,” they demanded that the museum include an exhibit on what they called the “American genocide” of legal abortion, and fanned out to scatter cards with pictures of bloody “late-term abortion victims.”
They then moved outside to picket with a banner calling Albuquerque “America’s Auschwitz.”
Albuquerque has become the latest flash point in the abortion wars, with Operation Rescue, the militant group based in Kansas, calling it the “late-term abortion capital of the country.” This is because a private clinic, Southwestern Women’s Options, is one of only a few nationwide that offers abortions after the sixth month of pregnancy.
A pitched political battle is now under way. After failed attempts in the Democratic-controlled Legislature, abortion opponents have collected enough signatures to hold a referendum over whether to make Albuquerque the first city in the country to ban abortions at 20 weeks after conception, just as a dozen states have done.For the past few weeks, the Battlefield 4 team has offered a nice option to players who wanted to grab BF4 when it shipped, but not miss out on the enhanced visuals in the Xbox One or PS4 versions. Everyone who bought the game at launch got a coupon to upgrade to the next-gen version for just $9.99. All your stats, game progress, and account information travel along for the ride, making it a no-brainer for someone planning to pick up a new console for the holiday season.
Turns out there’s a snag. While the upgrade process apparently works flawlessly, it’s a one-way, one-time deal. If you return to playing on the Xbox 360 or PS3, none of that progress will migrate to the other system. Potentially more frustrating is the console lockout. Because the Xbox One and PS4 versions apparently run on their own versions of Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network, you can’t play with your old friends or teammates until they buy the next-gen version of the game, too.
Cross-gen multiplayer is a missed opportunity
This is a new problem that previous console generations haven’t really had to address; there were only a handful of multiplayer games for the Xbox and PS2. Today, people who play games online often have a significant friends lists. If you play BF4 because you enjoy doing it with a specific group of people, upgrading is going to leave you sitting on your hands with an empty friends list.
It’s been well established that the importance of backwards compatibility for previous-generation games wanes fairly quickly — buyers who want it are willing to pay for it, but the Xbox 360 and PS3 both reduced their efforts in this vein and didn’t suffer much for doing so. Cross-platform multiplayer compatibility, however, is something more players might want — and want for a longer period of time. While console and PC gamers can’t typically play against each other, it’s less clear why BF4 can’t match Xbox 360 players up against their Xbox One counterparts.
The best way to deal with this situation would be to allow next-gen players to choose current-gen servers. Doing so would limit the number of available players and maps, but remember, we’re talking about versions of maps and playing conditions that the customer has already purchased when they bought the game. Allowing cross-platform play doesn’t hand an advantage to PC gamers with a mouse and keyboard rather than a console. Players on both sides of the gap could hypothetically opt in or out of gaming against those on different systems.
Right now, Sony and Microsoft are essentially running two different versions of Xbox Live or the PSN. And while that may make sense in aggregate, there’s no reason for games to intrinsically obey that gap in multiplayer. For now, we’re glad that upgrade option is there, but be aware of the hiccups with multiplayer if you primarily want to game with a specific group of friends.
Now read: PS4 vs. Xbox One: Battlefield 4 on next-gen consoles closes the gap on PC gaming master raceBefore I start telling the story, let me introduce myself. My name is Dexter, and I am currently playing football for the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. Growing up, I was a huge fan of pro wrestling, and I was always begging my parents to let me stay up late to watch Monday Night RAW. Yes, I know wrestling is (mostly) fake, but I never really cared. I just wanted to see my favorite wrestler, Kane, chokeslam everyone from Stone Cold to Meat.
Recently, with classes and football games, I've had trouble keeping up with both RAW and SmackDown. The other thing was that I only had a low-to-moderate amount of money, so I can only watch two or three pay-per-views per year. I usually stick to watching my old WWF DVDs when I can.
Except for one.
Last May, I was walking around the campus when I passed by a pro wrestling store. I had passed by that same lot a few days ago, and it was unoccupied and still had the "For Rent" sign. Those must be some efficient workers, I thought to myself. Shrugging, I walked inside.
As soon as I walked in, a blast of air conditioning welcomed me. Thank god, too - South Carolina isn't exactly the coolest place in the country. Scanning the shelves, I spotted action figures, signed merch, and DVDs. I hopped over to the DVD shelf and went through it's contents. A couple WrestleManias, a Jeff Hardy one, and a complete In Your House box set!
If you're not a wrestling fan, In Your House was a pay-per-view series that was held in the months the WWF didn't have a major PPV. Being from Memphis, I was able to go to the St. Valentine's Day Massacre event when I was eight. And it wasn't even nosebleed seats - I was four rows from the ring.
I snatched the box set, an Eddie Guerrero figure, and a Monster Energy from the vending machine, and put my loot on the counter. I expected the IYH collection to be worth a fortune, but nope! It was only twenty-five bucks. I didn't really think much of it, and I rode my skateboard back to my dorm.
When I got home, I popped the CD into my PlayStation 3. The menu came up, which was the IYH logo and a collection of shots from the events. There were four options - SELECT EVENT, RANDOM EVENT, OPTIONS, and EXTRAS. I checked out the options menu. It was nothing special - just languages, subtitles, display and all that junk.
I don't remember much from the extras menu - I saw a promo for WrestleMania 2000, though. (By the way, the DVD was apparently released in summer 1999.) I decided to get this show on the road, and went to SELECT EVENT. It took me to a list of In Your House PPVs, all twenty-eight of them.
I scrolled through, and sure enough, everything from the first IYH to Backlash was there. A part of my mind wanted me to go further for some reason, to see if there were any more options.
There were.
Right there on the screen was "29. ARMAGEDDON: IN YOUR HOUSE" clear as day. The title itself didn't really strike me as odd; there were IYH events that later became yearly PPVs, like Unforgiven. The first Armageddon was held in December 1999. But, still, twenty-nine? As far as my extensive knowledge went, there were only twenty-eight IYH shows.
I decided to select it. I was brought to another screen. The description said Armageddon took place on June 6, 1999 in Charleston, South Carolina. I selected the MATCH SELECT option. There were only two matches. The first was a twenty-man over the top rope battle royale, and the second was Kane vs. Mankind in an Inferno Match.
Saving the best for last, I chose the battle royale. Billy Gunn won, if you're one of the few who cares.
After that, I selected Kane vs. Mankind. Both of the wrestlers made their entrances, though I think Kane's music was a bit different. A lower pitch, maybe. When both were in the ring, the fire around the canvas was lit, and the match was underway.
As far as I remember, the match was pretty normal. Kane would get in a few hits, Mankind would get a few, and they'd both hit their finishers sometime during the match. I, myself, felt pretty successful. I had found a lost WWF event. Still, why would Mr. McMahon remove all traces of this from the promotion's history? I was about to find out.
Kane had been getting a ton of momentum, and he grabbed Mankind in a chokehold. Knowing full well what was coming next, I smiled like I was ten years old all over again. The Big Red Monster lifted Mankind up and tossed him into the flames. The bell rang, signaling Kane had won the match.
Then the screaming began.
Horrible, agonizing, ear-raping screaming that could only be described as a banshee's wail in reverse. The camera panned over to Mankind, and what I saw was terrifying.
Now, before I explain this scene, I'm rather immune to gore and disturbing imagery. I'm a dedicated /x/-phile, and I've written a few Creepypasta. But this... this was just above all of that.
Mankind was on fire. Standard end to an Inferno Match, right? That's how you win, after all. This was different. You could clearly see his skin melting off, showing muscle and even bone in some spots. His hair was singed. The lights in the arena turned off, but the flames still burned bright.
And this went on. And on. And on.
Finally, Jim Ross ran over with a fire extinguisher and sprayed Mankind. His charred body laid there, not moving an inch. Paramedics arrived and took him out of the arena. The television cut to black and took me back to the main menu.
Now, being a wrestling connoisseur, I had knowledge of what was legit and what was kayfabe. This was legit. There was no way, especially in 1999, that such a horrendous burning could be faked like that on live television. Fuck, I don't even think that's possible now.
I couldn't get the image of Mankind out of my brain. I hopped over to my computer and made a thread about it on /wooo/ as quick as I could. Only one person knew what I was talking about. He said that Mankind wasn't originally Mick Foley.
The character was portrayed by another, unknown wrestler who died after the Inferno Match. The PPV was never aired or referred to again, and Mick Foley was brought in to replace Mankind's original wrestler. Foley, however, had always been Cactus Jack and Dude Love. Mankind was called the third face of Foley because of the other wrestler's striking resemblance to Mick.
The next morning I went over to the wrestling store to ask the manager about the DVD. Surprisingly, the place was open on Memorial Day. The manager said he found the DVD on the black market, and thought it would be perfect for collectors.
I haven't touched that disc since.
Written by JimmyTheKeybladeWielderThe "I Boost Immunity" regularly patrols the World Wide Web for the latest news, articles and opinion pieces about all things related to vaccines and immunizations. And like many of you, we saw several stories emerge late last week questioning the effectiveness of this year’s flu vaccine. The intensity of the articles varied from source to source, with some of them still reminding us that the flu vaccine is a critical part of protecting yourself and your community, while others took the tone that the Center for Disease Control admitted vaccines are a lie.
We know that our Immunization Boosters are eager to spread the good stuff, so we reached out to the fine folks at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) to get their take on all of this. Here’s what they had to say:
The current influenza season is already shaping to be different from the last season. While last season was generally mild for seniors, the viruses circulating this year may pose a greater risk for them in particular. There are signs of early and above average seasonal activity as noted by a number of influenza outbreaks in long term care facilities. A/H3N2 virus which causes severe illness, hospitalizations and deaths, particularly among the elderly, is the predominant strain so far this season. Recent influenza seasons that had predominant circulation of A/H3N2 viruses (2012-2013, 2007-2008, and 2003-2004 seasons) were characterized as "moderately severe" and had the highest mortality levels in the past decade.
Increasing the risk of a severe flu season is the finding that roughly half of the H3N2 viruses analyzed so far this year are 'drift variants': viruses with antigenic or genetic changes that make them different from this season's vaccine virus. This means that while the vaccine provides excellent protection against half of the circulating A/H3N2 viruses that match the vaccine strain, it's ability to protect against 'drift' viruses may be reduced. Data on the exact degree of protection will only be available closer to the end of the season.
It is important to note that even in the context of mismatch, the vaccine provides some cross protection against the drifted strains such that immunized individuals will likely have a milder illness if they do become infected. During the 2007-2008 flu season, the predominant H3N2 virus was a drift variant yet the vaccine had an overall effectiveness of 42 percent against H3N2 viruses.
Immunization is always your best protection against contracting or spreading influenza. This year, the flu vaccine contains protection against influenza A/H3N2, A/H1N1 and influenza B viruses. It is important to note that vaccine does provide strong protection against other circulating strains. The influenza season has just started and influenza B and A/H1N1 which have also been detected may play a greater role in illness as the season progresses.
Despite a potential partial match against A/H3N2, it is still very valuable to get immunized, as the vaccine does provide a level of protection that you would not receive if you chose not to be immunized. The vaccine does reduce your chances of getting influenza, and if you were to get sick, it would modify the severity and duration of illness.
In addition, it is especially important for those who either care for or work with vulnerable older British Columbians to be protected. Seniors are typically most seriously affected by H3N2 strains of the virus and also are the group that respond less well to the vaccine. This year particularly, it is important that caregivers and health care workers are vaccinated to provide the best possible protection we can to seniors and other vulnerable patients.
Learn More
The I Boost Immunity team has already posted part one and part two of answers to frequently asked questions about the flu. Plus, we regularly publish links to news, articles and opinion pieces about vaccines and immunization.
We’re also happy to direct you to the ImmunizeBC.ca site for information about where to go for your flu shot and where to get even more facts about immunity.
Tell your story and Share your Flu Shot Selfie
Want to tell British Columbia why immunization personally matters to you? We’d love to hear it! Just go to our story page to share your story and encourage others.
Also, you can show your pride in being an Immunization Booster by sharing your flu shot selfie! Check out our post to get full details on how to share your "booster shot" and get 100 bonus points!NITI Ayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Friday said that the government had “long-term plans” to impose a cess on cash transaction in order to encourage digital transactions.
Addressing the annual general meeting of FICCI, Kant said that the all modes of digital transactions had witnessed manifold increase since the demonetisation decision, announced on November 8.
“Earlier, there was a charge of 1.5-2% on digital transaction when its volume was low. However, its volume has increased now. Since November 8 it has gone up by 316% for RuPay, 271% for e-wallets, 119% for UPI, 1,202% for USSD and 95% for POS (Point of Sale). Now, volume of digital transaction has increased, so charges on it will be low. The Merchant Discount rate (MDR) should fall,” he said.
“The government has already provided 11 different incentives (to encourage digital transactions). In the long term, the government has intention to make cash handling more expensive and digital transaction extremely cheap.
“There would be no charge on digital transaction while there will be cess on cash transaction. This is how economy will move if you want to push digital transaction.”
He emphasised that digitisation was necessary for the country to become a $10 trillion economy and sustain a 7.5% growth as it cannot afford to have a parallel economy generated by high level of cash transactions.
Kant said that the cash shortage that induced due to demonetisation of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes was to be ended by mid-January next year.
He added that the government was going to spend Rs 340 crore in next few months’ time to promote digital transaction.
Various incentive schemes were announced to promote digital payments such as ‘Lucky Grahak Yojana’ and ‘Digi Dhan Vyapari Yojna’, he said, while assuring that the merchants would not be harassed by tax official by way of scrutiny of the previous years of books of accounts.
Kant said about 30 crore people in the country without mobile connections will be able to do digital transaction using Aadhaar and thumb impression. He gave example of ration shops in Jharkhand, which use the Aadhaar enabled payment system.
First Published: Dec 16, 2016 18:53 ISTNorthwestern plays Nebraska at Ryan Field. The NU athletic department announced a new rule at the end of August saying only clear bags of a certain size will be allowed in the arena.
Northwestern plays Nebraska at Ryan Field. The NU athletic department announced a new rule at the end of August saying only clear bags of a certain size will be allowed in the arena.
Northwestern plays Nebraska at Ryan Field. The NU athletic department announced a new rule at the end of August saying only clear bags of a certain size will be allowed in the arena.
Last month, Northwestern announced a stark, disruptive change in the bag policy for Ryan Field. Under the new rules, only clear bags under certain size specifications would be allowed into the stadium, excluding medical equipment. Though NU characterized the change as an effort to improve security, comfort and efficiency, the policy has mostly served to infuriate spectators and students alike. Particularly for fans with young children or those who cannot easily use their pockets for storage, this policy is incredibly inconvenient. If NU wishes to avoid alienating fans, it should alter the policy so these fans are still allowed to enter the stadium with the items they need.
Under the current policy, the only non-clear bags allowed in are “small clutch bags no larger than (4.5 X 6.5 inches).” For fans who have necessary possessions that cannot be simply stuffed into wallets or pockets, this policy makes game attendance cumbersome. Families with young children cannot easily bring diaper bags and other supplies to the game, making it harder for young fans to come to Ryan Field and develop a connection with the Cats.
It is understandable that NU would do everything in its power to limit the security threats inherent to hosting large sporting events; eliminating the mass of backpacks from the crowd does help reduce risk. If NU really wants to reduce the risk of a security incident at Ryan Field, it would consider other security measures rather than installing a policy that has resulted in people turned away from the stadium.
In fact, clear bags might actually cause more of a security risk, considering that they display one’s possessions for the world to see. Seeing a stack of cash or a smartphone bouncing around in someone’s see-through bag makes it easier for a thief to decide who to target.
It’s also important to note that the policy makes it essential for people to buy items inside the stadium. Whether fans will flock to buy blankets and sweatshirts they could not fit into their clear bags as the season grows longer and the games get colder, or buy the expensive food and water from the concession stands, makes no difference. Although outside food and drink were already prohibited inside Ryan Field, it appears the new policy was made, in part, to enforce a rule that results in fans having no other option than purchasing water bottles for $4 a piece.
NU cannot do anything immediate to improve the on-field experience for its fans, which has been disappointing so far this year. However, the University can make the spectator experience better by loosening the Draconian bag regulations. At least then the fans could watch the game in relative comfort, regardless of the final score.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the location of a football game in the photo caption. The game was held at Ryan Field. The Daily regrets the error.
Danny Cooper is a Medill sophomore. He can be contacted at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this column, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.
CommentsThere's little doubt that the traditional password is in danger of being replaced — much has been written about its vulnerabilities and flaws, and organizations like DARPA and Google are hard at work looking for alternatives. Biometric sensors like the fingerprint scanner are one option, but some students and researchers from UC Berkeley are taking a more mental than physical approach to security. Using an off-the-shelf, consumer-oriented headset with a built-in electroencephalogram (EEG), the team developed a way for users to log in and authenticate their identities using only their brain waves.
The impetus for this project came from the availability of low-cost EEG sensors — while researchers have long proposed using EEGs to authenticate users with "passthoughts," previous hardware was both expensive and invasive. However, the UC Berkeley team was able to use the Neurosky Mindset, a $199 dollar headset that looks like a standard pair of bluetooth headphones with a single EEG probe attached to it. The question was then whether or not that single sensor would provide enough of a quality brainwave signal to effectively authenticate users. After selecting customized thought-tasks for each user and calibrating the headset for each user's "authentication threshold," the system returned error rates of less than one percent.
Another blow struck against the venerable but aging password
The last hurdle involved determining what specific mental tasks would be best-suited to this type of authentication — the team wanted the interaction to be as user-friendly as possible. To find the most suitable tasks, the team measured the brainwaves of test subjects performing seven different mental activities to authenticate their identify. Research showed that the best tasks for this setup were ones that users didn't mind repeating on a daily basis — the tasks need to be easy, but not too boring. Imagining singing a song or counting objects of a specific color worked well, while more mundane tasks like imagining sliding your finger were too boring. Users also didn't want to choose their own task — they ended up choosing something too complicated or difficult to repeat. While EEG hardware will need to become more commonplace before such an authentication system can be widely implemented, the simplicity and low cost of newer sensors means this system might have a shot.TAMPA, Fla. -- Carolina Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly wouldn't say Sunday whether he actually suffered a concussion that forced him to miss last week’s game at Chicago.
Kuechly returned for Sunday’s game at Tampa Bay, collecting eight tackles and an interception in the 17-3 victory.
But when asked about a report by ESPN’s Adam Schefter that he didn't suffer his third concussion in three years in an Oct. 12 loss to Philadelphia, the 2013 NFL Defensive Player of the Year repeatedly said, “I’m not going to get into it."
“It’s one of those things they threw me in the protocol and some of that stuff I’m not going to get into," Kuechly said. “But regardless they’re going to handle everything as best they can and I think we as a unit and an organization, we’ve handled it really well over the past years regardless of who gets them.
“With me and Cam [Newton] obviously got one last year, and they don’t play with them."
Kuechly missed three games after suffering a concussion in the 2015 opener at Jacksonville. He was in the concussion protocol for three more games last season and held out the next three after being cleared as a precaution with the Panthers out of playoff contention.
Asked how he was able to come back from this situation so much faster than the others, Kuechly said, “They’re all very different. It’s one of those things that you try to come back as quick as you can but you’ve got to be smart with it. Our guys do an excellent job with that. They’re cautious. They make sure everything is crossed off.
“It wasn’t like the last two years. To me, that makes me happy to get back out there sooner. For us, it’s about making sure I’m good versus pushing me out there too fast."
Kuechly was evaluated for a concussion after taking a hard hit to the neck and shoulder area in the second quarter against Philadelphia. It was announced he was in the protocol in the second half.
Three days later, Schefter reported, citing sources, that the team did not believe Kuechly had a concussion. Kuechly was listed as out with a concussion when the first official injury report came out prior to the Chicago game.
“They threw me into the protocol," Kuechly said. “We’re not going to get into the specifics on it."
But there’s no doubt the Panthers are better with Kuechly. Their record is 5-5 when he’s been in the protocol and now 17-7 when he plays since 2015.
“The guy is the best middle linebacker in the league," outside linebacker Thomas Davis said. “So whenever we have him on the field, we’re a much better team."In fiction, continuity is consistency of the characteristics of people, plot, objects, and places seen by the reader or viewer over some period of time. It is relevant to several media.
Continuity is particularly a concern in the production of film and television due to the difficulty of rectifying an error in continuity after shooting has wrapped up. It also applies to other art forms, including novels, comics, and video games, though usually on a smaller scale. It also applies to fiction used by persons, corporations, and governments in the public eye.
Most productions have a script supervisor on hand whose job is to pay attention to and attempt to maintain continuity across the chaotic and typically non-linear production shoot. This takes the form of a large amount of paperwork, photographs, and attention to and memory of large quantities of detail, some of which is sometimes assembled into the story bible for the production. It usually regards factors both within the scene and often even technical details including meticulous records of camera positioning and equipment settings. The use of a Polaroid camera was standard but has since been replaced by digital cameras. All of this is done so that, ideally, all related shots can match, despite perhaps parts being shot thousands of miles and several months apart. It is an inconspicuous job because if done perfectly, no one will ever notice.
In comic books, continuity has also come to mean a set of contiguous events, sometimes said to be "set in the same universe."
Continuity errors [ edit ]
Most continuity errors are subtle and minor, such as changes in the level of drink in a character's glass or the length of a cigarette, and can be permitted with relative indifference even to the final cut. Others can be more noticeable, such as sudden drastic changes in appearance of a character. Such errors in continuity can ruin the illusion of realism and affect suspension of disbelief.
In cinema, special attention must be paid to continuity because films are rarely shot in the order in which they are presented. The shooting schedule is often dictated by location permit issues. For example, a character may return to Times Square in New York City several times throughout a movie, but as it is extraordinarily expensive to close off Times Square, those scenes will likely be filmed all at once to reduce permit costs. Weather, the ambience of natural light, cast and crew availability, or any number of other circumstances can also influence a shooting schedule.
Measures against
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2015 Copyright © ACM. 1535-394X/15/04-2749228 $15.00Abortion pills bought online can be a safe “alternative” to travelling for abortion or unsafe abortion, research published in the British Medical Journal finds.
The study, based on self-reported outcome data from 1,000 women in the Republic and Northern Ireland, finds 95 per cent of those who obtained abortion pills online successfully terminated their pregnancies.
Just under 10 per cent sought medical attention.
Abortion pills are effective in terminating a pregnancy up to 10 weeks’ gestation.
Researchers at the University of Texas in Austin, with Rebecca Gomperts, founder of international collective Women on Web (WoW), analysed data provided by women who had bought medical abortion pills through the WoW website between January 2010 and December 31st, 2012.
The abortion pills, mifepristone and misoprostol, were sent to 1,636 women on the island of Ireland during the two years.
Follow-up information Follow-up information was obtained from 1,158. Of these, 1,023 confirmed they had taken the pills, and follow-up information was provided by 1,000 of these.
A total of 542 of the women were in their 30s, 270 were in their 20s and 184 were 40 or older. Four were under 20.
Some 781 were under seven weeks pregnant and 219 were between seven and nine weeks pregnant.
“Overall, 94.7 per cent reported successfully ending their pregnancy without surgical intervention. Seven women (0.7 per cent) reported receiving a blood transfusion and 26 (2.6 per cent) reported receiving antibiotics. No deaths... were reported by family, friends, the authorities or the media.”
Ninety-three reported experiencing symptoms for which they were advised to seek medical attention, of whom 87 did seek attention. Of the five who did not report, none reported any adverse outcome.
The purchase and importation of abortion medication is illegal in both the Republic and Northern Ireland. Under the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013, anyone found to have taken such medication could face prosecution and a fine or up to 14 years in prison.
No known prosecutions There have been no known prosecutions under the Act, and the Health Products Regulatory Authority has said it would not prosecute a woman who had illegally imported abortion medication for personal use.
Though the number of pills being seized by Customs, in the post, has fallen, it is understood abortion pills are being made available through alternative means.
In the North, the PSNI is actively raiding abortion activists’ homes and offices searching for abortion pills, and a number of women have been prosecuted for taking the pills or procuring them for other women.
This report’s authors say the study shows “self-sourced medical abortion using online telemedicine can be highly effective and outcomes compare favourably with in-clinic protocols.Chemicals stay on our body, even days or weeks after use. In this photo you can see high concentrations of sodium lauryl ether sulfate on the head, even though the subject hadn't washed their hair in days and we shed millions of cells every day. On the woman's neck there are high concentrations of avobenzone, which is found in sunscreen — even though again, that hadn't been used in days. Bouslimani et al., PNAS Our largest and most exposed organ — our skin — is covered in and composed of not just human skin cells but also about a trillion bacteria (and even more viruses) along with molecules from chemicals we come into contact with every day.
Researchers just mapped the "chemical topography" of human skin in order to figure out what exactly is living and settling on there and how those skin cells, bacteria, and chemicals interact.
We have different types of bacterial communities all over and inside our bodies, and while scientists have previously created maps of the skin microbiome, this was the first map to look at what these bacteria are doing and how they interact with the chemicals we're exposed to in day-to-day life.
To create these maps, researchers asked a man and a woman (person 1 and person 2, respectively) to skip bathing, shampooing, moisturizing, and using almost all cosmetics for three days (the woman did use deodorant during that time). After three days, they took samples from 4o0 individual spots on each person's body so they could run two different types of analyses to see what they found.
It's important to note that these maps are only representative of two people — there is likely a huge variety of bacterial and chemical diversity among humans. Part of the goal here was to show that these 3D topographical maps could be created, which they did successfully, but they also found all kinds of other interesting things. One intriguing finding? The cosmetic products that touch our skin, like soap and shampoo, seem to leave chemical residue that stays on skin for days, weeks, or longer.
The image below takes a look at the bacterial diversity and general chemical diversity on the skin of both subjects — the red spots have the highest concentrations of different bacterial species or chemicals, the blue the lowest.
These images show the diversity of bacteria and other molecules found on different parts of the skin for both the man and the woman studied. The color scale goes from lowest diversity of species found at blue to highest diversity at red. Hands, which touch everything, carry lots of bacteria and chemical molecules. Bouslimani et al., PNAS
Other maps show where species of bacteria are most highly concentrated.
Bouslimani et al., PNAS
We even carry dangerous bacteria like Staph, which can cause serious infections. They found it in moist body parts like both subjects' feet, under the woman's breast, and on the man's nose.
Bouslimani et al./PNAS
So what does this all help show us?
It'll help us understand how the chemicals we expose ourselves to (especially cosmetic ones) affect the communities of bacteria on our skin over time. The researchers write in the study they published these maps in that this could help us understand how "variation in this complex ecosystem impacts human health and disease."
We'll be able to study whether bacteria are appearing in certain areas in response to chemicals we put on our skin, and one of the researchers involved in the study told Wired that we may eventually have a database that shows how certain bacterial and molecular communities are signs of disease.
We could even find that we all have our own unique microbe/molecular footprint, like a fingerprint that can be gathered with a cotton swab — Wired reports that that's already being tested in crime labs.North Korea promised on Saturday to continue preparing "pre-emptive attacks with nuclear force" in the face of U.S. "blackmail," according to The Associated Press.
"Do not expect any change in its policy," the state's official media arm, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Saturday. "Its entity as an invincible power can neither be undermined nor be stamped out."
KCNA said North Korea has been working toward "bolstering the capabilities for self-defense and pre-emptive attacks with nuclear force," in response to ongoing "nuclear threat and blackmail and war drills" by the U.S.
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North Korea has tested missiles at least 16 times in 2017, and threatened the use of a hydrogen bomb small enough to fit on a missile. More than one North Korean missile flew into the air space of neighboring Japan, and new models have flown to heights that some military analysts predict could reach the mainland U.S.
Increased provocations from North Korea have led to the implementation of crippling sanctions from the United Nations in the form of trade and crude oil bans, and bombastic rhetoric from President Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE.
Trump in August said he would unleash "fire and fury" on Pyongyang if it continued to threaten the U.S.The United States will no longer accept applications for its special child refugee program, which had allowed minors fleeing violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to apply for asylum in the US before leaving their home countries.
President Donald Trump's administration had informed Congress in September that it intended to scrap the Central American Minors (CAM) program within the new fiscal year. In a statement Wednesday, the State Department announced that no further applications for refugee status under the program would be accepted after 11:59 p.m. EST (0459 UTC) on Thursday.
Read more: 'Fine line' to help protect children
From Friday, minors applying for refugee status in the US will be required to go through the normal screening process.
Watch video 12:06 Share The Dangerous Journey from Latin America Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/1DTV4 The Dangerous Journey from Latin America
The White House said it had decided to end the program "because the vast majority of individuals accessing the program were not eligible for refugee resettlement."
Trump's executive order in January to beef up US border security, which saw major restrictions against travelers from majority Muslim countries, had triggered a review of the CAM program.
The CAM deadline comes the same week that the government announced that it was also ending "temporary protected status," which had allowed a number of Nicaraguans to live in the US.
According to the Trump administration, it will replace such Obama-era refugee programs with "more targeted" refugee processing in Central America, which it will run in coordination with the Costa Rican government, the United Nations and the International Organization for Migration.
Read more: Teenagers on the run
The CAM program was introduced by Trump's predecessor, President Barack Obama, in December 2014 amid an influx of children fleeing violence and attempting the dangerous journey through Mexico to the United States. The program meant that children could apply and be screened in their home country before traveling out the US. Parents living in the US could also apply for refugee status for the children or relatives who were still living in their country of origin.
As of August 2017, figures released by the State Department showed that 1,500 children and eligible relatives had settled in the US as refugees as part of the CAM program. In total, more than 13,000 had applied over the course of the program's short history.
Watch video 01:58 Share Trump bans refugees from US Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/2WZIb Trump orders sweeping restrictions on refugees and immigration
dm/sms (AP, Reuters)I feel like making granola is a lot like making music. Now I wanted to sound really smart and fancy here, but to be honest, I know nothing about creating music but in my uneducated ideas on music, the oats and grains make up the baseline. The nuts and seeds create the beat and the fruits and and “sweets” make the high points. In the end it’s all about creating something that flows together but is still exciting and enjoyable.
I swear I’m saying this almost everyday but spring is almost here! In fact, I may be so bold (pun intended) as to say that it is here. It’s dropped a few times during the week and in the evenings but overall has been maintaining a pretty nice temperature.
Last weekend we visited my mom for her birthday (which was so much fun!) and her daffodils were starting to bloom. We were lucky enough to be able to bring some of them back and they are currently sitting happily on the kitchen table in the vase my grandfather made me, a reminder of the spring season to come.
But back to granola. (Check out that beautiful cluster-ooh baby!)
Granola is a wonderfully simple thing to make. The ingredients aren’t usually very expensive, and yet I often find myself tempted to buy the fancy artisan-style granola from the store- you know, the ones that are made without additives from local ingredients that cost $8+ for a small container. And then I stand around for a while, perusing ingredients on the labels and go “Come on Kelsey- you could make this at home!”
So here we are- I made some granola for myself and for you. The chocolate cherry combo probably comes from some of the cravings I’ve been having lately. I used a local honey for the sweetener but just enough so that it doesn’t overpower.
Give it a try- make a batch one evening or over the weekend and enjoy delicious homemade granola for the week!
Chocolate Cherry Granola with Flax
1 1/2 Cups Rolled Oats
2 TBSP Cacao
1/4 tsp Salt
2/3 Cup Shaved Coconut Chips
3 TBSP Ground Flax
1/3 Cup Sunflower Seeds
1/2 Cup Honey (Use agave or maple syrup to make vegan)
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
2/3 Cup Dried Tart Cherries
Preheat oven to 325°F.
In a large bowl combine all dry ingredients except cherries. Mix together and pour in honey and vanilla extract. Using a wooden spoon or your hands, work the honey in to combine. Add mixture to a lined pan in a single layer.
Bake for 10 minutes before stirring granola. Cook for 10-12 minutes longer. Carefully remove from oven and pan and allow to cool on a tray. Add in cherries.
Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
I like to eat this with by itself as a snack, or over yogurt or with milk.
If you like this recipe, you might also like my Grown A$$ Granola (with dark chocolate and crystallized ginger)!Order of Battle: Blitzkrieg, the new upcoming expansion, brings Order of Battle to the european battlefields. Playing as Germany you will show the world what it means to unleash a devastating blitzkrieg on unsuspecting foes!
It has a scope and a scale never seen before in an Order of Battle DLC, making it the most ambitious campaign up to date. Start in Poland in the September of 1939, move to Denmark and Norway and then off to France and Belgium! Subjugate the Balkans and Greece, and then it’s time to face the Soviet behemoth in Operation Barbarossa… two years of warfare, and a huge roster of units.
Today we’re going to have a look at some of those units! A nice selection from 1939-1941: some are iconic, others are a bit more original, but all of them represent mechanized warfare at its finest!
170mm Kanone 18
One of the highest ranged artillery units in the game: devastating. When you hear this beast roar you know that it will soon start raining hellfire.
Focke-Wulf Fw 190
One of the best fighters of its time, and virtually superior to the British Spitfire in almost everything. An absolute protagonist of the Blitzkrieg timeframe.
Armoured Train
This is a special unit the Wehrmacht can capture by completing a secondary objective! A unique unit with high mobility.
Junkers Ju 87 aka Stuka
It’s hard not to think “Stuka” when you hear “Blitzkrieg”. One of the most famous dive bombers of the whole war, it can be used to extremely destructive effects.
Panzer 38(t)
Originally a czech tank, it was adopted by the Germany army after the annexation of Czechoslovakia, and saw action in all fronts of the Blitzkrieg period.
Panzerkampfwagen III aka Panzer III
A medium tank the Wehrmacht employed extensively throughout World War II, in game it is -the- anti-tank tank. A must to support heavier vehicles and defend them from other tanks.
Panzerkampfwagen IV aka Panzer IV
The most widely built tank, used in all combat theaters involving Germany, and the only German tank remaining in continuous production throughout the whole war. The Panzer IV couldn’t be missing. It’s a very powerful unit but especially deadly against infantry and in shock assaults with his short barreled gun.
S Boot S26
Torpedo boats are always handy, right? This beauty will be available for operations in specific scenarios (Dunkirk? Coughs) – its specialties, coastal harassment and hit & run tactics against transport ships
Sd.Kfz. 7
The motorised quadruple 20mm gun is an excellent platform to keep the fast-moving panzer division under a constant umbrella of AA protection.
StuG III Ausf E
The StuG can be used both for direct fire (assault gun, higher damage to enemy strength and efficiency) or short range artillery. The perfect solution to (almost) any kind of problem: blast it with superior firepower.
These are but few of many new units coming with Blitzkrieg (over 200!). Do you want to see more?'My Bebe Love' breaks MMFF opening day box office records
By MARY LOUISE LIGUNAS
As Alden Richards keeps saying, “Do not underestimate the power of the AlDub Nation.”
The much-anticipated first big screen team up of Alden Richards and Maine “Yaya Dub” Mendoza in My Bebe Love #KiligPaMore shook Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) records as it posted gross earnings of 60,462,169.57 pesos on its opening day.
Over 33 million pesos from Metro Manila and over 27 million pesos from different provinces were recorded based on initial reports received by GMA Films.
My Bebe Love's gross of almost PHP 60.5 million is also the biggest opening day gross for all Filipino films to date.
The romantic comedy film also starring Vic Sotto and Aiai Delas Alas earns the lead, followed by 'Beauty and the Bestie' and 'Haunted Mansion.'
The film fest committee is set to announce official opening day box office gross within the day.(Note: This story has been updated to reflect the standings as of 10/10/15)
Over the last four matches, Orlando City has taken care of business. Collecting 12 points and putting themselves within one point of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Assuming the Lions continue their winning ways, they’ll end the regular season with 47 points which means they may need some help down the stretch. Let’s take a look at the current standings below.
TEAM POINTS GAMES PLAYED GAMES REMAINING GD REMANING OPPONENTS 3 New England Revolution 47 32 2 0 MTL, NYC 4 Columbus Crew SC 47 32 2 -2 TFC, DCU 5 Toronto FC 46 31 3 2 NYRB, CLB, MTL 6 Montreal Impact 45 32 2 2 NE, TFC 7 Orlando City SC 41 32 2 -10 NYC, PHI
As we mentioned above, Orlando City’s “Magic Number” is 47. So when you study the standings you’ll notice there are four teams in reach. Let’s take a look at each team and what will need to happen for the Lions to catch them.
New England Revolution
This is perhaps the least likely of all four scenarios due to the goal differential gap between the two teams. Basically, the Lions will have to make up six points as well as 13 goals in their final two matches.
For example, let’s say City wins by scores of 4-1 and 3-0 while the Revs lose by scores of 0-2 and 0-4. While a long shot, that would tie the teams in goal differential and then put the Lions in the playoffs based on the next tiebreaker condition, goals scored.
The Revolution will take on the Impact at home and then close out with NYCFC away on October 25th.
Columbus Crew SC
This is basically the identical scenario as above. Crew SC sit on 47 points, so Orlando City will need them to drop their final two while making up an eight goal differential. To be safe, you’d like to pass them in goal differential so you don’t hit the next tie-breaker which is goals scored. Columbus hold the edge there with 51 to Orlando’s 44.
Columbus will host Toronto FC next weekend and then finish up on the road in D.C.
Toronto FC
Toronto currently sits below the “Magic Number” of 47. That’s a good thing. The bad? They have three games remaining to Orlando City’s two. If Toronto drops all three of those games and Orlando City win out, the Lions are in the playoffs — it’s that simple. A win in any of those three will put the Reds out of reach. One point out of their remaining nine would put them in the same category as Columbus and New England.
Toronto won’t have it easy, though. After this weekend’s bye, they will travel to New Jersey to take on the Red Bulls in a mid-week fixture. They will then finish with Columbus at home and Montreal away.
Montreal Impact
With a win on Saturday in Colorado, Montreal have now played all of their games in hand and sit four points ahead of Orlando City in the table. This means the Impact only need three more points to secure a playoff spot. Two points would put them at City's magic number of 47, but the Impact would likely advance on goal differential.
Montreal will close out in New England (their fourth straight road game at that point) and then take on Toronto FC at home. If both Toronto and Montreal sit at 46 points going into that final match an interesting situation could arise. Both teams would only need to draw to advance to the postseason. If that result were to go any other way, Orlando City would pass the losing team for the final playoff position.Introduction
Nikon’s refresh of its top-flight professional camera follows a predictable cycle, and two years on from the announcement of the D4, the revamped model is now finally with us in the form of the Nikon D4s. Like earlier refreshes, externally the new model looks much the same as its predecessor but although there have been some slight modifications to the rear of the camera most of the changes take place inside the alloy shell.
Although the sensor is the same 16.2-Mpix type CMOS device as the D4s perhaps the most significant change is the upgrading of the imaging-processing engine from Expeed 3 to Expeed 4. Not only does this expand the camera’s capabilities with regard to ISO range (now including a new maximum ISO 409,600 extended setting) but it also allows for slightly faster continuous-shooting (now 11fps, up from 10fps) for up to 200 frames (JPEG fine L) and a new 1080 50/60p video capture option.
The improvements in the processor also mean the D4s can muster more from its battery pack, the modified EN-EL18a. Nikon claim 3,020 shots per charge as opposed to 2,600 from the EN-EL18 in the D4. In addition to the previously mentioned video frame rates, the D4s adds ISO Auto control to video capture in manual exposure (with exposure compensation), and simultaneous recording to an external recorder as well as the memory card. Live view output can also viewed while recording uncompressed video via HDMI. Sound recording now features the option to select the frequency range and level.
Nikon has also reduced the viewfinder blackout time, improved AF ‘lock-on and enhanced the 51-point AF system with a new group area AF option that monitors 5 groups of sensors offering more control over the size of AF area. The camera is available for pre-order at $6,499.
Key specifications:
16.2-Mpix full frame CMOS sensor
Expeed 4 processor
ISO 100-25,600 (ISO 409,600 extended)
51-point Multi-CAM 3500FX System
New 12-bit uncompressed ‘small’ Raw
11 fps burst mode with continuous AF/AE
3.2-inch 921k-Dot LCD, fixed
Additional HD 1080 video capture at 50/60p
1000 Base-T Gigabit Wired LAN Support
Nikon D4s versus Nikon D4: What’s new?
BODY AF sensor Advanced Multi-CAM 3500FX Advanced Multi-CAM 3500FX Group Area AF Yes
Five AF sensors used as a Group No Scene Recognition System Yes – Group Area AF Yes Face Priority analysis for viewfinder shooting On/Off with custom setting On only Group Area AF Yes
Five AF sensors used as a Group No Frame Advance Rate 11 fps with AF/AE 10 fps with AF/AE Ergonomics Shape of a grip and details at rear re-designed – Full aperture metering during Live View for stills Yes No Interval timer /
Time lapse movie Yes
Increased number of exposures (up to 9999), with exposure smoothening Yes
Up to 999 possible Battery One EN-EL18a Rechargeable Li-Ion
Approx. 3,020 shots One EN-EL18 Rechargeable Li-Ion
Approx. 2,600 shots SENSOR & IMAGING PIPELINE Sensor size 36.0 x 23.9mm CMOS 36.0 x 23.9mm CMOS Effective Pixels 16.2 (Approx.) 16.2 (Approx.) Processing Engine EXPEED 4 (30% faster) EXPEED 3 ISO Sensitivity 100 to 25,600
Lo1 (ISO 50) to Hi4 (ISO 409,600) 100-12,800
Lo1 (ISO 50) to Hi4 (ISO 204,800) Small Raw size 12-bit uncompressed No VIDEO Frame Size and rate 1920 x 1080 60/50/30/25/24p 1920 x 1080 30/25/24p ISO Auto Control with
Manual Exposure Yes No Simultaneous recording to memory card and external recorder Yes No View simultaneous live view output and record uncompressed video via HDMI Yes No Selectable audio frequency range Yes
Wide/Voice No Audio adjusted during video recording Yes No CONNECTIVITY Wired LAN 1000 Base T Support 1000 Base T Support Wireless transmission Via WT-5A Via WT-5A
Nikon D4s: Outstanding low light performance
With a DxOMark a score of 89 points the revamped Nikon D4s achieves a very high sensor and comes in 12th place overall in our sensor rankings. That’s on a par with its predecessor and the full-frame Nikon Df and Nikon D3s (now discontinued), but still some way behind the Nikon D600/610 and D800 models. Color sensitivity, or color depth as its measured is high at 24.4 bits and is only just behind the best in class for this sensor size. Dynamic range is also very good at 13.3 Evs although it’s a little lower than most of firm’s current range of DSLRs (including APS-C models). However, this camera is all about shooting under available light and, while, as you might expect the low light score is excellent it’s still not quite the leader in this category (although it’s very close).
Low light capabilities are exceptional, but the Nikon D4s ranks third in this category after the Nikon Df, and the older, now discontinued Nikon D3s.
Nikon D4s Versus Nikon D4:
Compared to its predecessor the scores are very similar, suggesting the sensor is ostensibly the same. At base sensitivity, the D4s appears only slightly down in color sensitivity, but that equates to around a -1/3 of a stop. Things have improved in dynamic range though.
The Nikon D4s can boast of a +1/2 stop improvement over the earlier model, and there’s a marginal improvement in low-light performance up from ISO 2965 to 3074, not that you’d notice in real word use. Although it’s a little disappointing perhaps that Nikon didn’t somehow wring more out of this sensor, it’s important to remember this is an exceptionally high performance.
Nikon D4s Versus Canon EOS 1Dx:
The most obvious rival of course is the Canon EOS 1D X, the firm’s first high-speed full-frame model aimed at photojournalists and a formidable camera with a hugely impressive capability. Before we compare the hard data between the two sensors, lets quickly recap on the flagship Canon’s specification.
The camera replaced both the photojournalist-oriented APS-H size Canon EOS 1D Mk IV and the full-frame 21-Mpix Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III and offered both an improved high-speed and low-light capability and a completely redesigned AF system. Like the D4 and D4s, the EOS 1D X has a full-frame CMOS sensor but it’s a slightly higher pixel count 18-Mpix device and adopts some serious processing power.
This enables the Canon EOS 1D X to shoot continuously at up to 14fps (12 fps with continuous AF) and offer a maximum sensitivity of ISO 51,200 (204,800, extended). In addition the Canon EOS 1D X was the first to feature the firm’s new 61-point AF system with 21 cross type AF sensors, sensitive to lenses with f5.6 apertures (and faster) and a 100,000 pixel RGB metering system, a variant of which was to be used in the Canon EOS 5D Mk III.
At the time of its launch in late 2011, the EOS 1D X was one of the most fully featured HD-DSLRs and it remains so today. As well as offering 1080p at 30/25 and 24fps it has two compression formats – a low compression ‘ALL-I’ option for the highest quality and a more storage-friendly IPB format. The Canon EOS 1D X can shoot at 60fps rate but at 720p not the 1080p of the D4s.
In our tests the proprietary 18-Mpix sensor in the Canon is overshadowed slightly by the Nikon D4s in every one of our use cases accounting for the 7-point lead in the DxOMark sensor score. Individually, the Nikon D4s has slightly better color discrimination of roughly +1/3 stop over the Canon and there’s a slight lead in low light performance but the main advantage is a close to +2 stops improvement in dynamic range at base ISO.
Conclusion
Although Nikon has improved a number a features, and added several video-oriented functions most of these have been achievable by upgrading the processor. Although some slight gains have been made minimizing shadow noise and expanding the dynamic range, sensor performance is largely unchanged. That’s not to say the D4s isn’t compelling in anyway, as it is, but anyone that expected significant gains in performance are going to have to wait for the Nikon D5.A newsreader has caused a stir in Saudi Arabia by shunning traditional Islamic dress to deliver a bulletin 'bare-headed'.
The presenter was broadcasting from the London studio of Al Ekhbariya, a state-owned news channel which featured the Kingdom's first female newsreader when it launched a decade ago.
Women often appear on Saudi TV without wearing headscarves or veils, but the appearance was thought by many to be the first by a newsreader on a government-owned station.
Scroll down for video
Significant: Saudi news sites suggested it was the first time a presenter has read a bulletin without wearing a veil or headscarf on a state-owned news channel. The newsreader was broadcasting in Arabic from London
The bulletin last week prompted a string of reactions on Twitter and news stories on Saudi websites.
A Twitter hashtag in Arabic circulated which translated roughly as #NewsEncouragesAdornments with one user, @HoNABIL, branding the channel 'Zionist enemies of religion'.
Another, @maysaaX, remarked that it was a 'psychological jolt' for the conservative country.
Several other users commented on how unusual the sight was, and some welcomed it as a step forward for personal freedom and women's rights.
Clips and stills circulating online showed the newsreader in two outfits, suggesting she had opted not to wear a headscarf or veil for at least two bulletins.
But the channel has disappointed those who hoped it was becoming more liberal, releasing a promise that the incident will not happen again.
Spokesman Saleh Al Mughailif issued the statement after the clip was shared on several Arabic language news sites and viewed tens of thousands of times.
According to Gulf News, he said: 'She was not in a studio inside Saudi Arabia and we do not tolerate any transgression of our values and the country’s systems'.
He also played down the significance of the incident, emphasising the newsreader was simply 'a correspondent reading the news from a studio in Britain'.
It is common for Saudi TV to feature women who are not wearing headscarves, but it usually only happens on foreign-made shows or when women feature as guests.
Several Saudi commentators said it was believed to be the first time a female newsreader in the country had not worn a head covering.
Those who hoped the incident was a step forward for women's rights in the conservative country would have been left disappointed, as the channel released a statement saying the incident would not happen again
Al Ekhbariya launched in January 2004 and its first bulletin made headlines by featuring the Islamic state's first female newsreader, who wore Western clothes with a hijab headscarf.
The newsreader stopped short of wearing the niqab, the full face veil seen as a requirement in other parts of the country.
The clip is the latest chapter in the long battle for women's rights in Saudi Arabia, which in October saw a landmark demonstration over its law preventing any woman from driving a car.
Dozens of women got behind the wheel in full-face veils to protest in Riyadh, where the TV station is based.One of the longest-running complaints against NBC’s Olympic coverage is how they’ve delayed their prime-time main-channel coverage for the West Coast, focusing on story over live results. That won’t be an issue for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, as Steve Battaglio of The Los Angeles Times reports that NBC is planning to air its prime-time coverage of those Olympics live from coast to coast:
NBC’s prime-time coverage of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, will air live across the United States, including on the West Coast, a first since the Games became a major television attraction in the late 1960s. …Jim Bell, president, programming and production for NBC Olympics, told the Los Angeles Times that making the Games live coast-to-coast is a way to address evolving viewer habits while “reasserting” television’s status as the preeminent medium for coverage. “We’re streaming it live, and social media has become so ubiquitous that it’s hard to ignore even for people who are trying to avoid it,” Bell said. “It just seemed like it was the right time to take this step.”
NBC has since confirmed with a press release of their own, featuring more quotes about how great this step is:
“Nothing brings America together for two weeks like the Olympics, and that communal experience will now be shared across the country at the same time, both on television and streaming online,” said Bell. “That means social media won’t be ahead of the action in any time zone, and as a result, none of our viewers will have to wait for anything. This is exciting news for the audience, the advertisers, and our affiliates alike.”
Hmm. That’s quite the change in tune for Bell, previously known for snarky Twitter responses to those who complained about the delay. It’s also a huge change for NBC; NBC Olympics chief marketing officer John Miller said last summer (in response to questions about NBC tape-delaying the opening ceremonies) that “The people who watch the Olympics are not particularly sports fans. More women watch the Games than men, and for the women, they’re less interested in the result and more interested in the journey,” and NBC sports chairman Mark Lazarus defended their tape-delay strategy by saying “our belief is that to make the programming available when most people are available, which is primetime in their time zone.”
Why is NBC finally abandoning its much-maligned tape delay plans? As Battaglio writes, it may be about audience movement. The network’s primetime Olympic coverage found some ratings successes for last summer’s Rio Olympics and still brought in 25.4 million viewers (on average for the primetime broadcast) over 17 nights, but that was down 18 per cent from the 2012 London Olympics. Meanwhile, streaming hit 2.7 billion total minutes, nearly double what had been recorded over all previous editions of the Games. Some of that was for things that weren’t being televised, of course, but some of it was people seeking out live events rather than waiting for NBC to get to them hours later (especially those on the West Coast). Going live coast-to-coast may indeed help to bring people back to the more-easily-monetizable platform of TV.
It’s amazing that it took NBC this long to do this, given how people have complained about these delays for so long, but the pressure perhaps finally built to a level where they could no longer resist. It’s worth noting that NBC did try more subtle shifts last summer, making those streaming options much more available (and leading to the mockable tagline of “Most Live Olympics Ever), but this is still a huge step beyond that. It also is somewhat surprising that they gave in in the end; while the delays were regularly cited as the biggest thing they needed to change, those NBC executives’ comments just last year seemed pretty set on sticking with their tape-delay strategy.
Of course, another part of this change may be about the event and about the time zone. For one thing, the Winter Olympics tends to draw less American viewers than the Summer Olympics, so a change here is less risky; if it pays off, great (and Bell says in the Times article that the plan is to do this for 2020 and 2022 as well), but if it doesn’t, it’s not as crucial of a misstep. For another thing, the time zone difference to Pyeongchang (13 hours behind Eastern Time) is already expected to hurt ratings a bit, so expectations are lower. It’s not like Rio, which was close to Eastern Time. Still, several marquee events are already planned for morning local time so they can be carried in prime time in Eastern Time. Showing those during the workday on the West Coast isn’t what NBC ideally would like, but they may find that ratings do just as well or better for feeds of what’s actually going on rather than what happened three hours ago. (And also, their primetime coverage is starting at 5 p.m. Pacific; that
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government. You will see the vast difference," he said. Modi announced that the people of Karbi community living in the plains of Assam and Bodos living in hill areas would be granted tribal status and the process has already started. "Development is the only solution to all problems of the area and I have opened both my heart and hand to ensure that the dreams and aspiration of the people of the area, which the state government has failed to fulfil, are realised," Modi said.
The Prime Minister said he had instructed that youths from the Northeast should be recruited in the Delhi Police and the process has already began. Announcing other initiatives, the Prime Minister said a central technical institute located in Kokrajhar would be given the status of a deemed university, the Sealdah-Guwahati Kanchenjunga Express will be extended up to the Barak Valley while the Rupsi Airport in Dhubri will be taken over by the Indian Air Force.
Election to Assam's 126-member Assembly is expected to be held in April-May along with four other states. The BPF is believed to have strong presence in Kokrajhar and its neighbouring areas. The party has been in power in Bodoland Territorial Council since its inception in 2003. In 2006 Assembly polls, the BPF had won 11 seats and joined the Tarun Gogoi-led government as a Congress ally. In 2011 polls, it had won 12 seats and again joined the Gogoi government. However, in 2014, BPF broke off the alliance with the Congress.
Quoting late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who had said that for every rupee one that is sent from the central government, only 15 paisa reaches the place where it is meant for, Modi said he was right and "we cannot allow it". "Delhi now asks state governments for accounts. They have to account for every rupee spent. Looting of people's money has to stop," the Prime Minister said. Assam government and several other states in the Northeast get perturbed whenever he sought accountability of the development funds, Modi said.
"Assam government has to give us details where the money meant for development has gone. All governments in the Northeast have to give full accounts. Because of this reason, these people don't like me. But I am not bothered. Whether they like me or not. I work for the country, I work for development," he said. Modi said ever since the NDA government came to power, the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region has taken several initiatives and now at least one Minister of the central government visits the Northeast every month.
"We have a three-point programme -- development, development and development. All problems could be solved only through development," he said. The Prime Minister said his government's aim is to provide electricity to every household 24 hours, every family a house, a toilet and potable water by 2022.
He said the DONER ministry was started by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee but during the UPA rule people of the region had to go to Delhi and they found it very difficult to get their grievances redressed. "To solve this problem, I have directed the DONER Ministry that its entire secretariat would meet once a month in any North Eastern state where people can come to discuss their problems and the state have been asked to give a detailed account of the funds allotted to them," he added.
"I am not bothered if people do not like me but I am bothered about my country's progress and development and I work to achieve that," the Prime Minister asserted. During the recent recruitment in Delhi Police, it was ensured that youths from the North East were given priority and many have been appointed from the region, he said.
He said his government was committed to development of the North East and was implementing 'Act East' policy with emphasis on infrastructure development, particularly road, rail and waterways. The Prime Minister announced that the issue of declaring the Bodo-Kacharis living in Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao districts and the Karbi-Mikirs in the plains as Scheduled Tribes will be soon approved by the Cabinet and then passed in Parliament.
Modi said he had talks with BTC Chief Hagrama Mohilary on the problems of the area. "I assure you that your blessings give me the strength and inspiration to serve you and with our new ally, the BPF. We will bring development in the area," the Prime Minister said.
Continuing his tirade against the Congress government in Assam, he said it is surprising that those who should be giving an account of their performance are asking questions. "Actually by asking us what we have achieved in 15 months, they are admitting that they have a document of long list of failure," he added.PoliZette Hillary’s Popular Vote Holdouts on Collision Course with History Electoral College designed by Founders to protect vulnerable Americans from the tyranny of elites
After complaining for months that our electoral process takes too long, now some commentators apparently want it to take even longer. Lawrence Lessig has written an article for The Washington Post saying that members of the Electoral College should ignore what they were actually elected to do, and should take it upon themselves to give the presidency to Hillary Clinton.
His argument is that since Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, she is the “people’s choice.” Other commentators have made similar claims, and given the general angst and unhappiness that fills so much of the commentariat these days, we can expect this meme to float around for years to come. So let’s clarify a few points right now:
The Founders deliberately set up the country so that it would be extremely difficult for one bloc of states to permanently dominate the federal government.
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1.) No one, including Hillary Clinton, was trying to win the popular vote. If the candidates had been trying to win the popular vote, almost everything about this election would have been different. The candidates might have picked different running mates. They might have emphasized different issues. They almost certainly would have campaigned in different states, run different commercials, and held different events. Does anyone think the Trump campaign would have largely ignored California and New York if he needed to win the popular vote? Of course not. He played under the rules as they are written in our Constitution — the same rules that governed the Clinton campaign — and he won. Trying to declare Hillary Clinton the winner because she won the popular vote is like saying that we should decide football games by which team has the most yards, or a baseball game by which team has the most hits. You could decide football and baseball games that way — and maybe we should — but we don’t. Similarly, we decide Presidential elections by Electoral College votes, not by popular votes — and we’ve been doing it that way since 1789. Trying to change the rules in the middle of an election would be bad enough; trying to change them after the election is an irresponsible attack on the whole political system.
2.) Now let’s look at that popular vote more closely. As of today, according to The New York Times, Hillary Clinton has 62,391,335 votes from all states. She has 1,969,920 votes from the five counties that make up New York City, and 1,893,770 votes from Los Angeles County, California. Donald Trump has 61,125,956 votes from all states, including 461,174 votes from the five counties that make up New York City, and 620,285 votes from L.A. County. In other words, Hillary beat Trump 3,863,690 to 1,081,459 in New York and L.A.; he beat her by 60,044,497 to 58,527,645 in the rest of the country. So Hillary’s margin in the popular vote rests entirely on her margin in two large cities — neither of which was contested by the Trump campaign.
3.) Of course, some people may think it’s fine to let New York and Los Angeles play such a large role in our presidential elections. And those people are entitled to seek a constitutional amendment to get their way. But it’s important to understand that we have very good reasons for our current system. The United States is not just a union of individuals — it is also a Union of States. (I’d have thought that the name “United States” gave that away, but apparently the point is too subtle for some observers and must be made more explicitly.) Under our system, the states are not merely provinces to carry out instructions from Washington; they are the building blocks of the nation, with legal power and meaning of their own. Back in the days when American children were still taught civics, they learned that one of the biggest problems facing the Founders was the issue of how to balance the interests of the large states and the small states. This is a brutally difficult issue with no perfect solution, and in the end we were left with a set of compromises. One of those compromises is that when it comes to the presidential election, we vote by states. The larger states have an advantage, in that they generally get more electoral votes than the small states. But the smaller states have an advantage in that the number of electoral votes they can cast is slightly larger than their percentage of the population.
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4.) I can understand that this compromise may not seem fair to people in New York and L.A. But does anyone really believe that New York and L.A. don’t already have a disproportionate impact on our government? They have the media, they have a huge percentage of the big donors, and they have major corporations and banks. Los Angeles County has 10 million people — approximately the same population as Georgia. Anyone who thinks that Georgia has as much influence over our national life as Los Angeles County simply isn’t paying attention. In other words, New York and L.A. already have a disproportionate share of influence — the Electoral College merely evens things out somewhat.
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5.) The folks in New York and L.A. may not think this is fair to them — they may insist that in addition to their disproportionate financial, cultural, and social power, they want their full share of political power when it comes to picking the president. Again, they are free to seek a constitutional amendment if they want — but they should consider the possibility that the Founders have treated them better than they realize. It is in everyone’s interest to have a compromise that gives all parts of the Union a sense that they have a stake in the government. The moment Middle America feels that it can do nothing to influence Washington — that all decisions are made for a few big cities on the East and West Coasts — that’s the moment people start looking to leave the Union altogether. In recent years, Canada has had problems with separatism in Quebec; Spain has had problems with separatism in Catalonia; Scotland has threatened to leave the United Kingdom; and the United Kingdom has voted to leave the European Union. Meanwhile, we Americans have been spared these problems — in large part because of compromises that (usually) allow us to feel that the system treats everyone fairly. Tearing up those compromises, and putting the very future of the Union itself at stake, would be foolish for all concerned.
6.) It is particularly mistaken for the anti-Trump voters in the East and West coasts to take such a view today. For years, the U.S. economy has been organized in a manner that unfairly favored highly educated Americans, many of whom are concentrated in the nation’s largest cities. The wealthy people in places like New York and L.A. took those benefits, and then showed no sympathy for the steelworker who lost his job in Ohio, the Catholic nun worried about freedom of religion in Missouri, or the young military veteran looking for a job in West Virginia. One of the main reasons that Donald Trump will be the next president is that he was the only candidate in 2016 who made a plausible argument that he would govern on behalf of all Americans, rather than just a favored few with advanced degrees. In other words, if there was ever a time in American history where we can see why the smaller states and rural areas are at risk from being tyrannized by our largest cities, and why they need special protections in our Constitution, that time is now.
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None of this is to say that Trump should disregard the voters in places like New York and Los Angeles. That would be a big mistake. George W. Bush should have tried harder to reach voters in the blue states; he didn’t, and it cost his party enormously. Similarly, Barack Obama should have paid more attention to people in so-called “flyover country”; he didn’t, and now his party is paying the price.
The Founders deliberately set up the country so that it would be extremely difficult for one bloc of states to permanently dominate the federal government; they intended national leaders to reach out to the whole nation, and not limit themselves to a faction, even a faction that represents a bare majority. So Trump should spend the next four years talking to Americans in New York, in New England, in Chicago, in Los Angeles, and the Silicon Valley — in all parts of the country where he faces significant opposition. He has outlined an agenda that should bring benefits for all Americans, and he should show that he cares about all Americans — including the ones who didn’t vote for him this time. But in the meantime, his opponents would be smart to spend less time complaining about our system, and more time trying to understand it.Calgary police Chief Roger Chaffin says officers who act as confidential sources to reporters undermine the integrity of the service and he's working to root them out.
"That's part of my quest," he said in an interview Thursday. "I want to find out who."
Chaffin said that includes the person or persons who revealed to CBC News on a confidential basis that the officer involved in a fatal shooting in January was still being investigated for a previous fatal shooting last year.
But family of Anthony Heffernan — who was shot dead by that officer in March 2015 — say they are "very thankful" to whoever leaked that information.
Calgary police Chief Roger Chaffin says confidential sources undermine the service but the family of Anthony Heffernan (right), who was shot dead by police last year, says they're grateful for the leak that revealed the same officer was also involved in a second fatal shooting in January. (CBC/Submitted)
A 'witch hunt,' says brother
Grant Heffernan said he only learned through the CBC report that the officer who shot his brother was also involved in the Jan. 25 death of Dave McQueen, a disabled man who began randomly shooting from his home into the northwest community of Huntington Hills before being killed by police.
"We want to know this information," Grant Heffernan said. "We have been in the dark with a lot of what's been going on with the investigation. There's a lot of things we don't know about and the Calgary police won't tell us. To us, this was important information."
Grant Heffernan called the quest a "witch hunt" and questioned the police chief's priorities.
"To me, I think the more important question for the chief of police is why did you allow this guy to go back to work when ASIRT was still investigating, and why did you allow him to go back into the field and give him a gun instead of maybe just putting him at a desk if you felt he was fit to go back to work?"
Anthony Heffernan's brother Grant says the family is grateful to the confidential sources within the police service. (CBC)
Anthony Heffernan was shot dead after officers broke into a northeast hotel room where he had been holed up and found him holding a syringe in what police described as a "high-risk situation."
The case was investigated by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) and is currently before the Crown.
The Heffernan family believes a rare murder charge could be laid against the officer who shot Anthony multiple times.
'We have enough butt-holes in the media'
Paul Wozney, a director with the police union and editor of its members' magazine, titled 10-4, said in a recently published article that the chief was right to send a "strongly worded" memo warning officers about the consequences of leaking information to the media.
"Don't you think that the member you blabbed about, who responded to two extremely high risk calls and had to make split second decisions in the interests of their own personal safety and the safety of the community, has a right to feel safe with their own organization?" Wozney writes.
"It disgusts me that one of our own members (sworn or civilian) would choose to make such a selfish decision," he adds.
This issue of the Calgary Police Association magazine, titled 10-4, includes an introductory column from the new editor, Paul Wozney, chastising officers for acting as confidential sources to reporters. (Robson Fletcher/CBC)
Wozney questions what motivation an officer would even have for acting as a confidential source, since "the media sure doesn't pay for this information."
"If you are some sort of unhappy employee, then I suggest you leave the organization or join the fire department," he writes.
As the newly appointed editor of the magazine, Wozney also explains in the article that he won't allow the publication to be used for members to "throw stones" at one another.
"To be blunt, we have enough butt-holes in the media, the community, and on the defence-side of the bar taking shots at us. We don't need our own members taking shots at each other in our own magazine."
'I don't necessarily disagree with the article'
CBC News requested an interview with Wozney but Calgary Police Association president Howard Burns opted to speak for the union.
Burns stood by Wozney's article, although he said he may not have used the exact same words if he had written it.
"I don't necessarily disagree with the article," Burns said. "You have to appreciate that this magazine is meant for the 2,100 members of the Calgary Police Association. So, it's not really meant for public distribution, although it's fine for it to be in the public eye."
You have to appreciate that this magazine is meant for the 2,100 members of the Calgary Police Association. - Calgary Police Association president Howard Burns
Officers who believe information needs to be made public can go through either the Calgary Police Service media relations team or the union, Burns noted, and if they feel uncomfortable doing so, they can use the City of Calgary's confidential whistle-blower program to report alleged wrongdoing.
Members who leak information to the media without authorization could be disciplined and face termination, he added.
Burns doubts the leak in the Heffernan case, however, would compromise any investigation.
"I think in that particular case, that investigation, my understanding is it's been concluded and is before the Crown in Edmonton," he said.
"So I don't think it's going to interfere but it certainly can be confusing for the public when they hear mixed messages and they start to hear about confidential sources. It's probably not the appropriate way to do business."
'The public should know what's happening'
Patrick Heffernan, Anthony's father, was disappointed by the article in the police union's magazine.
"The police, they should be open. The public should know what's happening," he said.
"This notion that they are to protect each other … rather than necessarily having the truth out … I think that's totally wrong."
He noted the family still doesn't even know the names of the officers involved in his son's shooting death, and he doesn't believe the investigation into the incident has been particularly transparent.
Other cases of confidential sources
Chaffin said there is a protocol to the investigative process into police shootings and for releasing information to the media, but his concern with leaks goes beyond just the Heffernan case.
There are numerous other recent examples in which confidential sources have been used to report information publicly, he noted.
"When it gets released without proper attention to details and policy, it puts people at risk," the chief said. "It puts the reputation of policing at risk, and it can really harm the work we do and the members and the organization."
Calgary police have adopted a much more open policy when it comes to speaking with reporters than in the recent past, Chaffin added, but there is a process to follow in order to ensure the information is communicated with the proper "rigour."
"We do have a very open policy and a very transparent way to talk to media around here, generally speaking," he said.
"But when it involves operational issues or personnel discipline issues that are within the organization, there are things that we want to have some controls over."Peak health bodies 'alarmed' by claims doctors forced to compromise standards in asylum seeker care
Updated
Australia's peak medical bodies are alarmed by evidence doctors are being forced to compromise clinical and ethical standards and put their patients' health at risk as they struggle to deliver basic care to traumatised children.
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), the Royal Australian College of Physicians (RACP) and the Australian Medical Association (AMA) have slammed a reported Immigration Department cover up of data showing the extent of mental health concerns among young detainees.
They say the issue is being ignored because it is happening out of the public eye in immigration detention centres.
In testimony to the Human Rights Commission inquiry into children in immigration detention on Thursday, psychiatrist Peter Young said in recent weeks the Immigration Department instructed him to withdraw data showing elevated mental health issues among the children and young people in the centres on Christmas Island and Nauru.
Dr Young was the director of mental health services at detention centre service provider International Health and Mental Services (IHMS) for three years until earlier last month.
"If we were seeing this on mainland Australia, in our community, it would be absolutely not accepted - questions would be asked immediately, social services would be involved, litigation would be involved," RACGP's chair of refugee heath Dr Christine Boyce said.
RACP president Professor Nicholas Talley said the allegation reinforced the view of the college and other peak medical bodies that the Federal Government's decision in December to disband the independent advisory body that used to have oversight of healthcare provision in the detention facilities was unjustified and detrimental.
"I am alarmed at the evidence from Dr Peter Young that the Federal Government requested figures showing the true extent of these mental health concerns be suppressed," Professor Talley said.
RACP paediatrician Associate Professor Karen Zwi, who visited Christmas Island and gave evidence to the inquiry in May, was also horrified by the evidence about children and adolescents in detention.
Considering the minister is their legal guardian, one must question whether he can be acting in their best interests in implementing the current policies RACP paediatrician Associate Professor Karen Zwi
"Considering the minister is their legal guardian, one must question whether he can be acting in their best interests in implementing the current policies," she said.
"The college of physicians strongly supports health care workers who are brave enough to tell the truth about what's happening to their patients and to children in their care.
"They shouldn't be put in a situation where their professional standards have to be compromised, so the organisations employing them are unfortunately placing them in a very difficult situation."
Immigration Department secretary Martin Bowles has told the inquiry that he was not aware of any cover up and if department staff had acted inappropriately, he would take action.
A spokesperson for the Immigration Minister said the Government will continue to cooperate with the inquiry.
"The Government will await the outcomes of that inquiry to be detailed and any supporting evidence in the final report," the spokesperson said.
"More importantly the Government will continue to reduce the number of children in detention as we have been doing since the day we were elected.
"More than 80 per cent of children are resident in the community either on bridging visas or under residence determinations."
Mr Morrison has agreed to appear at the inquiry at a later date.
Concerns over testimony given to inquiry
The inquiry has heard a litany of claims about doctors being pressured to breach their Codes of Conduct, then their complaints being ignored and misinformation being disseminated by those in authority.
Dr John-Paul Sanggaran, who worked on Christmas Island in October and November last year and co-authored 92 pages of complaints with 14 of his colleagues, said he was frustrated the AMA had been told IHMS's regional director Dr Mark Parrish had addressed the issues, "resolving these misunderstandings and allaying the individual doctor's main concerns".
"I think it was quite a misrepresentation of what actually occurred," Dr Sanggaran said.
He also took exception to testimony by Dr Parrish, at a previous hearing, that the detention centres complied with the RACGP guidelines for management and provision of health care.
We are creating traumatised individuals... we feel quite desperate, to be honest. Dr Christine Boyce
"Centres within immigration detention are in fact self-accredited against a modified version of general practice standards developed in collaboration with DIMIA (Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs and Indigenous Affairs), and the RACGP does not accredit the clinics nor are they accredited by an external body," Dr Sanggaran said.
The RACGP has told the ABC it also has concerns about Dr Parrish's testimony.
"We believe that we have absolutely enough evidence to think those standards in many cases are not being met and, even if they were, the standards themselves needed to be reviewed several years ago," Dr Boyce said.
"Over the last months it's really been a concern to us that the general public haven't really been getting very good quality information and they are being kept in the dark," she said.
"It makes doctors feel really powerless to help these people, it makes us feel very angry and it makes us feel very ashamed that damage that's being done by Australia actually exceeds the damage that's been done prior to arrival - which is a fairly big call if you consider what's happened to most of these people before they've arrived in Australia.
"We are creating traumatised individuals... we feel quite desperate, to be honest."
Do you know more? Email [email protected].
Topics: immigration, federal-parliament, government-and-politics, mental-health, australia, christmas-island, nauru, asia
First postedI hold two truths to be self-evident: The 1967 Chevrolet Camaro is the second-best American car design ever (after the 1963 Corvette Stingray), and that performing modern updates on old, mass-produced cars is not necessarily a sign of the apocalypse. By those two values, this restomodded '67 'Maro is a work of art.
But I’m struggling with a third truth: That ultra-budget tuner cars built for marketers to display at the glitzy SEMA aftermarket show, held in Las Vegas each November, provide little value for anyone but the shops that build them. And that's where I need your help.
Don’t get me wrong, commercially funded custom-car builds provide important moonshot work for skilled machinists, paint pros and electronics wizards to stretch their talents. And in the era of Instagram, the high-profile SEMA show provides gargantuan exposure to the best work. But once the lights go down and the transport trucks roll out, what’s a $420,000 build of a 50-year-old pony car actually worth when you try to sell it on eBay?
Is this Camaro worth $300,000?
This 1967 Camaro, created for paint supplier BASF in 2013 by Orlando, Florida-based Ultimate Auto is, no doubt, a stunning build—and has the trophies to prove it. It won a 2015 Goodguys Builder's Choice Award, and was featured on the cover of Rides Magazine.
Under the hood is a 6.2-liter Chevrolet Performance LS9 crate engine producing 638 horsepower, connected to the ubiquitous Tremec T56 6-speed manual transmission and delivering torque to the rear wheels by way of the perdurable Ford 9-inch rear axle.
Naturally, the exterior, in BASF Carizzma Ruthless Red paint (and hand-laid carbon fiber roof skin), is really the star of the show. The spec sheet is an understatement of “too much to list,” including a modern Camaro’s interior of upholstered in Connelly tan leather and suede, a full Pioneer/JL Audio sound system, a trick suspension Detroit Speed, Baer brakes, and a set of custom 20- and 21-inch Vellano VKS wheels.
There’s no doubting that the appraisal included with the sale is on the up and up. I’m curious about where on the lust list this car would sit for the average car nerd, and whether such mega-check builds can sustain outside the marketing bubble. Check out all the photos and specs and let us know what you think in the comments below.Peter Kenyon, the former ceo of English Premier League clubs Manchester United Football Club and Chelsea Football Club has been chosen by chinese retail giant Suning as global advisor for the activities of the chinese group in football, according to what en.calcioefinanza.com managed to know from sources close to the situation.
In particular Kenyon will have will have strategic oversight on the activities of Jiangsu Suning, FC Internazionale Milano and the other clubs that the Chinese group intends to acquire in Europe.
According to the reports the Chinese group led by Zhang Jindong would be in talks to buy a football club in Belgium and another in Portugal.
Kenyon has been introduced to mr Zhang, the owner of Suning, by Kia Joorabchian, the Anglo-Iranian agent, currently close to Suning group.
Kenyon took up the role of deputy chief executive at his boyhood team Manchester United in 1997, where he sat on the Board of Directors.
He was promoted to chief executive in August 2000 following the departure of Martin Edwards. Kenyon was influential in persuading long-serving manager Alex Ferguson to remain at the club despite Ferguson’s original intention to retire in 2002.
During his time in his role, the club actually became one of the most financially stable, while simultaneously expanding their global appeal.
Kenyon moved to Chelsea in 2003 and left his role in the club owned by Roman Abramovich in october 2009.SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 11, 2014 – Underscoring its commitment to excellence in education and certifications, Cisco today announced that its industry leading CCNA® Security Certification has been approved as a Department of Defense (DoD) 8570.01-M Certification.
Key Facts:
The DoD 8570 Directive provides guidance and procedures for the training, certification and management of all DoD employees performing Information Assurance functions in their line of duty. These individuals are required to carry an approved certification for their particular job role and classification.
Based on the Information Assurance Workforce Improvement Program Advisory Council Certification Committee’s recommendation, CCNA Security has been approved for DoD Information Assurance Technician Levels I and II. The certification has been verified to meet the requirements of the DoD 8570.01-M Information Assurance Workforce Improvement Program, as of January 15, 2014.
Cisco is the first vendor to offer a robust networking certification portfolio that meets the ISO 17024 standard accredited by ANSI.
Supporting Quotes:
Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn, vice president and general manager, Learning@Cisco, said: “Cisco is dedicated to continuously improving the rigor and quality of our career certifications. The announcement that CCNA Security is now approved for DoD Information Assurance Technician Levels I and II highlights our commitment to ensuring we align our training with future cybersecurity job roles and meet the highest standards in the industry for educational programs. This accreditation is one of a number of initiatives that Cisco is driving to enhance the value of our certifications. Cisco certifications provide the technical skills and depth of knowledge required for professionals to stand out in today’s job market, while enabling a competitive advantage for their employers.”
Dr. Vijay Krishna, director of ANSI personnel credentialing accreditation programs, said: “ANSI commends Cisco for maintaining the rigorous requirements of the ANSI/ISO/IEC 17024 standard and demonstrating its commitment to the continual improvement of its credentialing program. Accreditation by ANSI demonstrates compliance to a rigorous internationally recognized accreditation process and creates a valuable market distinction for these Cisco credentials. ANSI is designated by the Department of Defense 8570 directive as the accreditor for the Information Assurance Workforce Improvement Program under which the CCNA Security exam has been approved.”
Richard Hale, Deputy Chief Information Officer, Cybersecurity, Department of Defense, said: “We appreciate the effort your organization has shown in working with the cybersecurity community to support the assessment of this certification.”
Learn more about Cisco Certifications at www.ciscolearningnetwork.com
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About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in IT that helps companies seize the opportunities of tomorrow by proving that amazing things can happen when you connect the previously unconnected. For ongoing news, please go to http://thenetwork.cisco.com.
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Cisco, CCNA and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco’s trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company.Image copyright Operation Resolve Image caption The 19 witnesses identified by Operation Resolve were around Gate C at the Hillsborough Stadium
Detectives leading a criminal investigation into the Hillsborough disaster have released CCTV images of 19 men they want to speak to.
Ninety-six fans were killed as a result of the crush at the football ground in Sheffield in April 1989.
Images of potential witnesses at the stadium's Leppings Lane end have been released as part of Operation Resolve.
Senior investigating officer Neil Malkin stressed the men pictured "had done nothing wrong".
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The Hillsborough disaster criminal investigation, Operation Resolve, have launched an appeal for 19 people who were at Gate C on 15 April 1989.
Det Ch Supt Malkin said the men seen near Exit Gate C when it opened at about 14:50 were in the "right place at the right time" and may be able to identify others.
"Together with evidence already gathered, it would mean we can provide a complete picture of events to the Crown Prosecution Service," he said.
"We just want to focus on them to try and conclude what happened. The potential evidence could help shape our understanding of what happened at Gate C."
In April an inquest jury concluded the 96 who died at Hillsborough were unlawfully killed.
It found a number of errors by South Yorkshire Police and South Yorkshire Ambulance Service, as well as stadium defects, contributed to the deaths.
Hillsborough inquests: The 96 who died
Operation Resolve is one of two criminal investigations ordered following the publication of the Hillsborough Independent Panel's report in 2012.
Image caption Operation Resolve used police "super-recognisers" - officers trained to recognise individuals by finer details
A separate criminal investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission is examining police conduct.
Some relatives of those who died have expressed concerns over the new appeal for witnesses near Gate C.
'Absurd theory'
Lou Brookes, who lost her brother Andrew at Hillsborough, told the Victoria Derbyshire programme earlier she was "absolutely disgusted".
She said: "I have serious concerns for their motives and objectives for pursuing this issue."
Lawyer Elkan Abrahamson, who is representing a number of Hillsborough families, said: "Operation Resolve in the course of the inquest came up with an absurd theory that Gate C was opened before [police match commander] David Duckenfield gave the order to open it.
"When we corrected this they then abandoned that theory and they seemed then to be pursuing another theory that even if it was opened after the order was given, it wasn't opened because of the order."
"If that is the theory that they are still pursuing I just can't see the point in it."
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Images of 19 people police want to speak to, and a reconstruction of the Hillsborough stadium in 1989, have been released.
An Operation Resolve spokesperson said comments made by some families had been raised and considered."
They added: "Our job is to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation particularly around the opening of gate C.
"We are keen to identify and interview the 19 people in our witness appeal as we believe that they could hold vital information."
Image caption The rough location of Gate C. The layout was changed some time after the Hillsborough disaster
Operation Resolve has taken more than 1,200 statements from fans who approached from the Leppings Lane end on the day of the disaster.
A video reconstruction of the ground as it was in 1989 has been created to help jog people's memories.
Det Ch Supt Malkin said: "We are hoping with the context people will recognise themselves or friends and family. These people may recognise each other.
"We want to hear their experience of entering through Gate C, how they came to be there at that time, what they saw, what they heard."
The detective urged people to come forward and to inform police if any of the 19 have since died so they can be eliminated from the investigation.
A file is expected to be passed to the Crown Prosecution Service at the end of the year.A eczema sufferer who developed a flesh-eating infection which left him 'looking like a burns victim' has finally found relief after taking Chinese medicine.
Owen Richards developed the severe skin condition as a baby which developed into a potentially deadly infection from the herpes virus.
It left the seven-year-old's body covered in bloody, weeping sores, leaving him in agony.
His parents Cath and Andrew Richards, from Hale, Cumbria, tried steroid and emollient creams but watched on helplessly as his condition worsened.
It was only when he was hospitalised with a rare and sometimes-deadly infection, called eczema herpeticum, that they found something to alleviate his agonising symptoms.
Owen Richards developed a flesh-eating infection as a result of his eczema which his mother said left him looking like a burns' victim
The seven-year-old, pictured on holiday at the Isle of Mull earlier this year, has seen his symptoms reduce after taking a herbal remedy
Now, after drinking the herbal mixture twice-a-day, his parents say his life has been 'transformed'.
Owen first developed eczema when he was just six weeks old, with his sore, flaky skin plaguing him through his early hears.
His skin was so sore and itchy he suffered 'extreme fits' of screaming and scratching and he could not go to the toilet, get dressed or lie in bed without crying from the pain.
RARE BUT SEVERE INFECTION Eczema herpeticum is a rare but severe infection that generally occurs at sites of skin damage. It is most commonly caused by Herpes simplex, the virus that causes cold sores, and can be life-threatening in babies. It normally affects people with atopic eczema - the most common form of eczema - who instead of getting cold sores, develop it for unknown reasons.
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zi Avner, a desert archaeology expert at the Arava-Dead Sea Science Center who led the team that discovered the sites, said a preliminary interpretation of the objects suggests two symbolic aspects of the objects: fertility and death.
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Fertility is represented by “stones with elongated perforation (vulva-shape) and by the very combination of the elongated cell and the circle,” according to the research team, who recently published their findings in the Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society.
Death is likely signified by the burial of stone objects, set upside down. Among the artifacts, a human-like figure was found nearly entirely buried, with only the top visible on the surface.
According to Avner and his team, similar sites were found in other regions in Israel and in Jordan, leading them to believe they represent a broad phenomenon that offers new insights into desert Neolithic societies and their spiritual culture.
“The combination of fertility and death symbols is typical of ancestral worship in traditional societies,” Avner told the Israeli news site Ynet Wednesday.
“According to ancestral worship, the deceased does not leave the family, but continues to live with them as a spirit – the departed are invited to feasts and celebrations, taking active part in communal life, even after death.”
The research team says the density of the sites is phenomenal, taking into consideration the habitation patterns of Neolithic societies, as well as the rough topographical and environmental conditions in the area.
The researchers further stated that the large amount of cult sites found suggest many more await discovery on the Negev, southern Jordan and Sinai mountains.April is such an awesome month. Yes, the weather is getting warmer and we’re starting to finally see the sun, and that’s great. But you know what else? It’s National Grilled Cheese Month. Which means, really cool grilled cheese recipes are everywhere. Food blogs, magazines, cooking shows, restaurants… It’s grilled cheese mania, and we couldn’t be happier. Because, let’s face it, who doesn’t love grilled cheese???
Well, we do!
And surprisingly, up till now, we’ve only posted one recipe,our Middle Eastern Style Grilled Cheese... and it was a year ago! What were we thinking?!
So, to make up for it, we have a few coming for you.
How about we kick it off with a vegan one? Thanks to our friends at GoVeggie!,we have plenty of vegan cheese alternatives to play with. Along with lots of “goo”.
Check it out, you’ll see what we mean…
Enjoy!Natalia Viri
Às vésperas do julgamento final da fusão entre Kroton e Estácio pelo Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica (CADE), um decreto que altera as regras para o ensino à distância (EAD) favoreceu a concorrência – reduzindo o poder da gigante comandada por Rodrigo Galindo e derrubando o valor de ativos que possam ser colocados à venda por exigência do órgão antitruste.
O decreto 9057, publicado sexta-feira, acaba com a exigência de que, para oferecer ensino à distância, as instituições precisavam oferecer também o ensino presencial – o que, por si só, já amplia o leque de potenciais novos entrantes.
Mais importante que isso, o Governo mudou as exigências para liberar novos polos de EAD. Antes, os fiscais do MEC tinham que visitar cada polo para então liberá-los para funcionamento, o que gerava enorme lentidão no processo.
A DeVry, por exemplo, pediu há quase três anos a liberação de cerca de 180 polos de EAD – que até agora não haviam sido liberados pela demora na fiscalização. Com o novo decreto, será necessário visitar apenas a sede da instituição, o que deve fazer a fila andar.
Outra mudança é a que diz respeito aos critérios de avaliação. Terão prioridade para abrir novos polos as faculdades que tiveram o melhor Conceito Institucional, uma métrica atribuída pelo MEC após a avaliação in loco. O parâmetro anterior era o Índice Geral de Cursos (IGC) que dá uma média ponderada de qualidade de todos os cursos oferecidos pela instituição. O problema é que o indicador favorecia as instituições consolidadas, na medida em que contemplava apenas aquelas que já tinham turmas formadas, enquanto as entrantes, que ainda não tinham completado os primeiros cursos, ficavam alijadas do processo.
As mudanças sinalizam uma vitória de Janguiê Diniz, dono da Ser Educacional, frente a Galindo, que Diniz elegeu como adversário desde o anúncio da fusão Kroton-Estácio.
Diniz tem trânsito próximo ao ministro da Educação, Mendonça Filho, e foi um dos principais porta-vozes do setor para a liberalização do EAD. A Ser Educacional tem hoje 5% do mercado de EAD e quer expandir sua atuação no segmento. Há pedidos para 400 polos parados no MEC.Fontes apontam que a Kroton tentou costurar alguns vetos ao decreto quando ele chegou à Casa Civil no começo deste ano, mas sem muito sucesso.A Kroton surfa numa liderança confortável no EAD, com 37% do mercado, número que pode chegar a quase 50% com a compra da Estácio. O decreto de sexta-feira vem num momento crítico, quando a empresa avalia os potenciais cenários para aprovação da transação pelo CADE.O melhor dos cenários seria a venda da UniSEB e da unidade de ensino à distância da Estácio, mantendo o presencial – o que já é considerado pouco provável por analistas e concorrentes, após o parecer duríssimo dado pela área técnica do antitruste em fevereiro.A expectativa agora é de um veto total ou a exigência de venda também da Uniderp, a unidade de ensino à distância com 153 mil alunos arrematada pela Kroton com a compra da Anhanguera em 2013.Com as novas regras, ainda que a Kroton opte por vender também a Uniderp, o valor que embolsaria com o ativo agora diminuiu.“A Uniderp não perderia toda sua atratividade porque é uma operação grande e com fluxo de caixa garantido, mas o valor de uma eventual venda com certeza será menor,” diz um consultor do mercado de educação. “Os compradores vão colocar no papel a possibilidade de fazer a expansão orgânica ou comprar concorrentes menores.”
Siga o Brazil Journal no Instagram e assine nossa newsletter aqui embaixo.SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Gertis McDowell, a fixture of Marshall Street and the Syracuse University community, died Wednesday at his apartment, police Lt. Eric Carr confirmed.
McDowell, who the Daily Orange profiled in 2008, was 67.
McDowell was found dead in his apartment at 833 E. Brighton Ave. around 5 p.m. that day when a friend came by to check on him, Carr said.
He died of natural causes, Carr said.
A profile of McDowell appeared in the Sept. 5, 1993 issue of the Syracuse Herald American, detailing his past work as a nursing assistant and the happiness he found as a shoe shiner, something he'd been doing since he was a 14-year-old boy growing up in Birmingham, Alabama.
In December 1993, McDowell fell 40 feet from a broken fire escape at the YMCA on Montgomery Street, where he was living at the time. The fall forced doctors to rebuild his pelvis, knees and arms, the Daily Orange reported.
Former Post-Standard reporter Jim McKeever profiled McDowell in his personal blog last April.
Watch: A 2011 video profile of McDowell by Newhouse broadcast students:
Gertis McDowell Tells His Story from Newhouse BDJ on Vimeo.
Sad day on the Syracuse campus with the passing of Gertis McDowell. No longer will pretty ladies and big poppas be called out from Marshall — Mike R (@RemptoriousBIG) January 13, 2015
I demand @SyracuseU fly their flags at half staff for Gertis McDowell. He and Chancy Nancy need their own dorms named after them. — leslie berkowitz (@heyleslieb) January 13, 2015
Hope they serve Varsity wings in heaven for ya, buddy. Rest in peace, Gertis. http://t.co/uP1BHno36a — Hailey Temple (@haileytemple) January 13, 2015
Contact Jacob Pucci anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-766-6747The seriousness of a society’s funeral rites speaks volumes about the seriousness of a society, for the way we treat the dead is really a function of how we value life. That aborted children are disposed of as so much medical garbage is of a piece with society’s denial of their personhood. And that so many funerals are now cast as ‘celebrations of life’ [sic] reflects a childish refusal to acknowledge what we all know to be true: That death is universal, and universally devastating.
I was reminded of this basic truth last Friday when Justice Antonin Scalia’s casket arrived at the Supreme Court. My wife and I happened to be in DC for a visit to Georgetown and, hearing helicopters circling over our hotel, switched on the news to see what was happening. It was the arrival of Scalia’s casket at the Supreme Court.
Two things about the event struck me. First, that Scalia’s son led the funerary rites was remarkable and moving. Years ago my mother asked me to preside at the funeral of my father. I could not oblige. I knew that I would be unable to utter a word, let alone preside as minister. It was a good decision: At the service it was all I could do to hold myself together. By contrast, Fr. Scalia’s recitation of the Lord’s Prayer was simple, self-controlled, and somber. Only as he reached out his hand to touch the casket was the strain he must have been experiencing evident. The voice had been steady but the hand was clearly shaking.
The second was the evident seriousness of the occasion. The simplicity and the surrounding silence underscored the loss which the death of a loved one represents. The straightforward seriousness of the rites reflected the metaphysical depth of the Christian understanding of life and of its end. I could not help but compare the occasions with the growing penchant even among professing Christians for turning funerals into these ghastly ‘celebrations of life’.
Last year I gave a lecture to college students on modern society’s tendency to deny the reality of death. These were the comments I made on funerals:
I would suggest that Christian attitudes to death might well be a gauge of the church’s capitulation to the spirit of the world. If we often judge accommodation to the world in terms of attitudes to sex and sexuality, it makes sense given all that I have thus far said to argue that attitudes to death might also be a significant measure of our worldliness. Take for example the creeping intrusion of so-called celebrations of life into Christian churches as the default liturgy of death.
Such things deny death its due by attempting to numb the pain in the strangest of ways. If ever there was a way to underline the devastating trauma of a death, it is surely to recollect the joy and laughter which the deceased brought to the lives of others. If one is bankrupted, the devastation of one’s bankruptcy is not ameliorated by memories of all the money once possessed and now spent. Yet we seem to think this same principle is a cause for celebration at death. Perhaps Dante expressed it best through the words he put in the mouth of Francesca da Rimini in Canto 5 of the Inferno: ‘Life brings no greater grief / Than happiness remembered in a time / Of Sorrow.’ He was, of course, describing the Second Circle of Hell, not suggesting an appropriate liturgy for a Christian funeral service.
‘Celebrations of life’ and funeral liturgies which choose ‘My Way’ or ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ are interesting phenomena because they reflect the metaphysical superficiality of this present age and our childish inability to face up to the seriousness of death even when it is staring us in the face. They also represent the perfect paradox of an age built on so many fundamental contradictions. If the life was worth anything, then its end must represent a painful and permanent void for those left behind. Such a thing can surely not be celebrated with any honesty? And if the life was worthless or meaningless and ended without leaving a painful void in the lives of others, is it really worth celebrating at all?
Rites surrounding the dead demonstrate how seriously we take life. For a hedonistic society like ours whose primary purpose is personal pleasure and whose first priority is entertainment, death is a rather confusing, if somewhat unavoidable, embarrassment. ‘Celebrations of life’ are one of the results, both pitiful and incoherent. And that such things now even occur in Christian circles shows just how worldly we have become.
Carl R. Trueman is Paul Woolley Professor of Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary.Two maps from FiveThirtyEight show how men are expected to turn out for Donald Trump but women are expected to turn out for Hillary Clinton. Getty One hypothetical forecast of voter turnout in the November 8 election would apparently turn nearly all of the United States red.
FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver published a presidential-election forecast on Tuesday night that illustrated how the country would be likely to vote if only men were to cast ballots.
According to the projection, which was based on the FiveThirtyEight polls-only forecast, Trump would grab 350 electoral votes, while Clinton's 188 electoral votes would come from the West Coast, some parts of the Northeast, and just two states in between — New Mexico and Illinois.
Here's what that map looks like:
As for if women were the only voters, FiveThirtyEight projected 458 electoral votes for Clinton to just 80 for Trump:
"It seems fair to say that, if Trump loses the election, it will be because women voted against him," Silver concluded.TURKEY’S president has declared a three-month state of emergency following a botched coup attempt, declaring he would rid the military of the “virus” of subversion and giving the government sweeping powers to expand a crackdown that has already included mass arrests and the closure of hundreds of schools.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was accused of autocratic conduct before the insurrection, said the measure would counter threats to Turkish democracy. Possibly anticipating investor jitters, Erdogan criticised Standard & Poor’s for downgrading its credit rating for Turkey deeper into “junk” status and said the country would remain financially disciplined.
The news comes as global alarm is mounting over the retaliatory action of the authorities since Friday’s attempted putsch, which has seen a massive crackdown in the military, police and judiciary and thousands detained.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey had sent dossiers to the United States to back up its demand for the extradition of Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, President Erdogan’s sworn enemy who lives in exile in Pennsylvania.
The President did not announce details, but the security measure could facilitate longer detentions for many of the nearly 10,000 people who have been rounded up since loyalist security forces and protesters quashed the rebellion that started Friday night and was over by Saturday.
“This measure is in no way against democracy, the law and freedoms,” Erdogan said in a national televised address after a meeting with Cabinet ministers and security advisers.
The state of emergency announcement needs to be published in a state gazette and lawmakers have to approve it for it to take effect, according to analysts.
Turkey imposed emergency rule in the southeast of Turkey in 1987, allowing officials to set curfews, issue search and arrest warrants and restrict gatherings as the security forces fought Kurdish rebels. The emergency rule was gradually lifted by 2002. The president suggested military purges would continue.
“As the commander in chief, I will also attend to it so that all the viruses within the armed forces will be cleansed,” Erdogan said.
In an apparent attempt to calm fears that the military’s powers will be increased, the president said the military will be under the government-appointed governors’ command and work closely with the regional governors.
The pro-government death toll in the botched coup was 246. At least 24 coup plotters were also killed.
Turkey also said it would close more than 600 private schools and dormitories following the attempted coup, spurring fears that the state’s move against perceived enemies is undermining key institutions in the country.
Erdogan’s government said it has fired nearly 22,000 education ministry workers, mostly teachers, taken steps to revoke the licenses of 21,000 other teachers at private schools and sacked or detained half a dozen university presidents in a campaign to root out alleged supporters of a U.S.-based Muslim cleric blamed for the failed insurrection.
The targeting of education ties in with Erdogan’s belief that the cleric, Fethullah Gulen, whose followers run a network of schools worldwide, seeks to infiltrate the Turkish education system and other institutions in order to bend the country to his will. The cleric’s movement, which espouses moderation and multi-faith harmony, says it is a scapegoat.
While Erdogan is seeking to consolidate the power of his elected government after the rebellion, his crackdown could further polarize a country that once enjoyed a reputation for relative stability in the turbulent Middle East region. It also raises questions about the effectiveness of the military, courts and other institutions being purged.
“The fact that so many judges have been detained, never mind the workload at the courthouses, will render them inoperable,” said Vildan Yirmibesoglu, a human rights lawyer.
The education ministry said it decided to close 626 private schools and other establishments under investigation for “crimes against the constitutional order and the running of that order,” the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The agency said the schools are linked to Gulen, a former ally of Erdogan who lives in Pennsylvania and has denied accusations that he engineered the coup attempt.
Turkey has demanded Gulen’s extradition from the United States. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says Turkey must provide hard evidence that Gulen was behind the foiled coup, and that mere allegations of wrongdoing wouldn’t suffice.
The two allies cooperate in the U.S.-led war against the Islamic State group, with American military planes flying missions from Turkey’s Incirlik air base into neighboring Iraq and Syria.
Turkey’s domestic situation is increasingly a concern as the crackdown widens. Huseyin Ozev, an education union leader in Istanbul, said state education workers who were reported to have been fired had not received notices and that employees were “waiting at home or on vacation, anxiously,” to see if they had lost their jobs.
The fight against coup plotters “should not be turned into a witch hunt,” Ozev said.
In other moves, Turkey demanded the resignations of 1,577 university deans and halted foreign assignments for state-employed academics. A total of 50,000 civil service employees have been fired in the purges, which have reached Turkey’s national intelligence service and the prime minister’s office.
The government has also revoked the press credentials of 34 journalists because of alleged ties to Gulen’s movement, Turkish media reported.
Authorities have rounded up about 9,000 people - including 115 generals, 350 officers, 4,800 other military personnel and 60 military high school students - for alleged involvement in the coup attempt. Turkey’s defense ministry has also sacked at least 262 military court judges and prosecutors, according to Turkish media reports.
Saban Ceylan, a taxi driver in Istanbul, said he expected his income to drop because of the state of emergency.
“Nothing is going to happen if I don’t take money home during three months,” Ceylan said. In a reference to the coup plotters, he said: “I just want this country to be rescued from those dishonorable people.”
Turkey has blocked access to WikiLeaks hours after the website leaked thousands of ruling party emails in aftermath of a failed military coup.2018 is almost upon us and so it is once again time to predict which startups will take the tech industry by storm next year. Who better to ask than the startup experts, the VCs that watch the industry, guide the startups, hear their pitches, and invest in them? We reached out to a number of top VCs and asked them which startups will boom in 2018. We invited participation from investors from a variety of backgrounds and investing philosophies. This includes some of the top VCs in the Valley (Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Bessemer, Greylock Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia). We included VCs of note who specialize in seed and early rounds (8VC, Bloomberg Beta, BBG Ventures — which backs startups with at least one female founder.) We also asked some top VCs from the startup nation Israel (JVP, OurCrowd) and VCs that have been known for picking hits (like IVP's Somash Dash). We asked them to name a company they've backed that's on track to have a great 2018. After all, they believed in those companies so much they invested. But we also asked them to name another startup they think is cool that they don't have any financial interest in. As startup lovers, they gave us this list chock full of amazing up-and-comers creating tech for businesses, gamers, personalized health, robots, high-tech money, new forms of super computers, and even outer space. Slides View As: One Page
Nauto: An artificially intelligent dashcam for vehicles Company name: Nauto VC: Reid Hoffman at Greylock Relationship: Investor Funding: $173.9 million What it does: Nauto makes a cloud-based, artificially intelligent, networked camera for vehicles. It helps to identify dangers to drivers, provides feedback at the end of trips, and also analyzes the cause of accidents to reduce false liability claims. Why it's hot: "Soon, driving will become a networked and highly collaborative activity — cars on the road will benefit from what other cars have learned. Nauto is rethinking transportation safety by using AI, and founder Stefan [Heck] is seeking to completely redefine the transport grid," says Hoffman. Heck is a 20-year transportation veteran who is a research fellow and teacher at Stanford, and a member of the Energy Transformation Collaborative (ETC).
Rigetti Computing: A startup taking on quantum computing Company name: Rigetti Computing VC: Reid Hoffman at Greylock Relationship: No relation. VC just thinks it's cool. Funding: $69.5 million What it does: Rigetti Computing is developing technology to help usher in a new kind of powerful computer known as quantum computing. Why it's hot: “Quantum computing is going to be a very large industry and the promise of a large quantum computer is incredibly powerful. Companies like Microsoft, Google and Intel have experimented with quantum computers, but Rigetti Computing is taking a unique approach. The startup is building a business from scratch to build a quantum computing chip," says Hoffman. Rigetti Computing was also named among the "51 enterprise startups to bet your career on in 2018."
Pindrop: Stopping voice fraudsters Company name: Pindrop VCs: Martin Casado at Andreessen Horowitz and Somesh Dash at IVP Relationship: both VCs are investors Funding: $122.8 million What it does: Pindrop is used by call centers to analyzes a person's voice and detect fraud. It can even determine if a voice is real or generated by a computer. Why it's hot: "Voice as a way to interact with computer systems is becoming more and more pervasive, whether we’re talking to Alexa at home or interacting with an automated system online," Casado says, adding that voice fraud has been a huge hole in security until now. "They are detecting unprecedented amounts of phone fraud and saving leading financial institutions tens of millions of dollars annually," says Dash. Pindrop also recently nabbed legendary former Cisco CEO John Chambers as an investor and board member.
Relativity Space: 3D printing rockets Company name: Relativity Space VC: Martin Casado at Andreessen Horowitz Relationship: No relation. VC just thinks it's cool. Funding: $8.4 million What it does: Relativity Space is an automated rocket building factory making low-cost rockets to bring down the cost of transporting things into space. Why it's hot: "Relativity Space 3D prints rockets ships! No kidding, it’s amazing," Casado says. "And they’ve managed to build the world's largest 3D printer with relatively little funding. I’ve been tracking the micro-satellite trend, in which small satellites are being designed and deployed for a fraction of the cost of traditional satellites. There is a similar disruption going on in the rocket arena, and I think Relativity is an absolute highlight of that."
Reflektive: Ongoing employee performance feedback Company name: Reflektive VC: Somesh Dash at IVP Relationship: No relation. VC just thinks it's cool. Funding: $41.6 million What it does: Reflektive offers performance review software that is integrated into other productivity apps like Outlook, Slack, Gmail. Why it's hot: "Enables managers to have a real-time checklist of performance goals and objectives for each of their direct reports. For employees it gives them a running record," says Dash. "The company is poised to breakout in 2018."
MoveWith: World-class fitness classes on your phone Company name: MoveWith VC: Eurie Kim at Forerunner Ventures Relationship: Investor Funding: $3.8 million What it does: MoveWith is a personal fitness app that delivers audio workouts from well-known coaches. It includes classes for your body (running/cycling/Barre), mind (Yoga) and soul (meditation/talks). Why it's hot: "Growing 100%+ per month," says Kim. "It brings together all the pieces that you need to actually reach your health goals — tailored, branded workout programs across all activity levels, integrated meditation programs that balance out physical workouts... MoveWith is today’s modern gym, totally personal, totally digital."
Zume Pizza: Robots making pizza Company name: Zume Pizza VC: Eurie Kim at Forerunner Ventures Relationship: No relation. VC just thinks it's cool. Funding: $48 million What it does: Uses robotics in the kitchen to make the pizza and automation on the delivery truck to cook the pizza so it arrives at your door piping hot. Seen as a harbinger of a new type of smart food delivery industry. Why it's hot: "Robots making pizza? How is that not cool?! Memes aside, the team has an ultimate goal to make fresh, locally sourced food at prices that are affordable to all by reimagining the way fast food is made and delivered," Kim says.
Earny: Automatic refunds Company name: Earny VC: Michael Jones CEO at Science Relationship: Investor Funding: $2.5 million What it does: Earny is a service that seeks out refunds automatically in the event of a price drop through both retailer and credit card price protection. Why it's hot: "Earny helps users take advantage of price protection policies offered by major stores and credit card issuers that often go unclaimed due to the headaches of submitting adjustment claims," says Jones.
Ripple: Using blockchain to make payments globally Company name: Ripple VC: Michael Jones CEO at Science Relationship: No relation. VC just thinks it's cool. Funding: $93.6 million What it does: Ripple is a network that uses blockchain, the technology behind Bitcoin, to allow banks and payments processors to securely send money directly to one another globally, with a middleman. Former AOL and Yahoo exec Brad Garlinghouse is CEO. Why it's hot: "We’re seeing a sharp rise in blockchain-enabled startups, and with good reason. They’re convenient, they’re secure — and while early adopters have already noticed — I forecast that the rest of society will follow," Jones says.
Duo Security: Making passwords more secure Company name:Duo Security VC: Avery Rosin, Principal at Lead Edge Capital Relationship: Investor Funding: $121.5 million What it does: Duo is a cloud service that offers password management services and makes sure devices are virus-free before they connect to the corporate network. Why it's hot: "Duo just reached a valuation over $1 billion with their latest growth financing that we co-led, after first investing in the business nearly three years ago," says Rosin. The company is growing fast, has made a name for itself with health care, tech and other big enterprises, and earlier this year hired Josh Yavor, form Former Head of Corporate Security for Facebook.
Signal Sciences: Helping developers and security folks collaborate Company name: Signal Sciences VC: Avery Rosin at Lead Edge Capital Relationship: No relation. VC just thinks it's cool. Funding: $26.7 million What it does: Signal Sciences helps protect websites and apps from hackers by helping developers and security teams collaborate better. Why it's hot: "The team comes from Etsy, where they experienced the pain points first-hand and decided to build something to solve it. Signal Sciences identifies which parts of applications are being targeted and helps remediate security issues," says Rosin. "They are one of the emerging enterprise software businesses in Los Angeles and definitely one to watch in 2018."
Hudl: Pro-level analysis for athletes at every level Company name: Hudl VC: Miles Clements at Accel Relationship: Investor Funding: $108.9 million What it does: Performance analysis software for athletes and coaches at every level. Athletes upload video for analysis, highlight reels, and more. Why it's hot: "Hudl was bootstrapped in Lincoln, Nebraska, by former college roommates who built the early version of the product while working as graduate assistants for the Huskers football team. Today, Hudl's platform is used by more than 6 million athletes and 150,000 teams across 30 sports, from little league to elite organizations like Manchester United, the New England Patriots, and Team USA basketball," says Clements. Hudl has become so popular it's set to launch an original show called Hudl Contenders as part of Facebook's new video production studio.
JustWorks: Better HR for small businesses Company name: JustWorks VC: Miles Clements at Accel Relationship: No relation. VC just thinks it's cool. Funding: $53 million What it does: Small business HR software like payroll, benefits, compliance, and other HR tasks. Why it's hot: "JustWorks is a smart, modern spin on the traditional PEO [professional employer organization] business model. It pools small businesses together to give them the buying power of a large enterprise while removing back-office complexity and focusing on the types of benefits that matter to a younger workforce," says Clements.
Deepmap: Special maps for self-driving cars Company name: Deepmap VC: Vas Natarajan at Accel Relationship: Investor Funding: $32 million What it does: One day soon, all of our cars will drive themselves, but first, they need to know where they're going. Deepmap offers high-definition maps for autonomous vehicles and uses onboard sense to "see" the road and predict what's around the corner. Why it's hot: "Autonomous vehicles won't operate with just any mapping system — they need a high-fidelity and multi-dimensional understanding of their location if they're to safely navigate," Natarajan says. Plus, Deepmap is founded by a team that hails from Google Earth, Google Maps, Apple Maps, and Baidu Maps.
Remix: Better public transit Company name: Remix VC: Vas Natarajan at Accel Relationship: No relation. VC just thinks it's cool. Funding: $12 million What it does: Remix helps city planners design better transit systems. They can plan routes and immediately understand the cost or demographic impact of a proposed change. Why it's hot: "Remix is building a planning platform for cities to visualize and plan their transit systems. It's a great example of a tech company having a real civic impact — and building a thriving and sustainable business while doing so," says Natarajan.
Smash.gg: Helping eSports organizers plan and execute tournaments and events Company name: Smash.gg VC: Amit Kumar at Accel Relationship: Investor Funding: $14 million What it does: Smash.gg is software that helps eSports organizers plan and execute their tournaments and events. Why it's hot: eSports has become "a $500 million industry with viewership that has surpassed major sporting events like the Superbowl and NBA championship, and billions of players globally," Kumar says. Yet organizers were putting on events with spreadsheets, pen and paper. Smash.gg gives these organizers better software tools for this rapidly growing industry.
Dia&Co: Fashion for real women Company name: Dia&Co VC: Amit Kumar at Accel Relationship: No relation. VC just thinks it's cool. Funding: $20 million What it does: Dia&Co is an online shopper service selling clothing and accessories to women who wear plus-sized apparel. Why it's hot: "Dia&Co may be one of the best exemplifies of the next-generation of enduring consumer brands; they've paired fanatical execution with a deep understanding of their customers' pain points," says Kumar. "They were able to hone in on tremendous market demand that's been traditionally underserved by both legacy retail businesses and conventional startups."
Narvar: Ecommerce software for after the sale Company name: Narvar VC: Brian O' Malley at Accel Relationship: Investor Funding: $34 million What it does: Narvar provides software for tracking shipping and return options for over 400 top commerce sites, including 50% of the Internet Retailer 100 and 250 million customers per year. Reason: "As Amazon has raised the game for online commerce, traditional retailers must evolve their customer communication strategy to win," O'Malley says. "This conversation is moving from phone to email and now to messaging. Narvar is leading the way in this increasingly important channel for communication."
Molekule: Cleaning up pollution with nanotechnology Company name: Molekule VC: Brian O’Malley at Accel Relationship: No relation. VC just thinks it's cool. Funding: $13.4 million What it does: Molekule sells an air purifier using nanotechnology that breaks down and wipes out pollutants on a molecular level. Why it's hot: "Unlike traditional systems that attempt to block unhealthy particles, Molekule actually destroys those particles. As air quality deteriorates, tens of millions of people now suffer from asthma or severe allergies. Staying inside isn’t a great solution as indoor air is actually 5x more polluted than outdoor. Molekule is the first company to have a cure versus just a pain killer," O'Malley says.
Handshake: A LinkedIn for college students Company name: Handshake VC: Eric Feng at Kleiner Perkins Relationship: Investor Funding: $34 million What it does: Handshake is a recruiting and career network for college students and young alumni. Why it's hot: “Handshake’s growth in their university market has been phenomenal. They are now the recruiting platform of record to more than 450 colleges, 6 millions students, and hundreds of thousands of employers," Feng says.
Roblox: A gaming world by kids for kids Company name: Roblox VC: Eric Feng at Kleiner Perkins and Josh Elman at Greylock Relationship: No relation. VCs just think it's cool. Funding: $99.2 million What it does: Roblox is an online game for kids that attracts over 64 million monthly active players. Kids use it to create 3D worlds and play in them together. Why it's hot: "A few years ago, if you were to research what were the most popular video games for kids, you’d inevitably come across 'Minecraft.' Today when you do that same research, you’ll inevitably come across 'Roblox.' It’s not just amazingly popular, but it’s gotten to that point off purely organic growth, which is even more impressive," says Feng. "'Roblox' is the largest user-generated online gaming platform with over 29 million games created by users and over 64 million active players from across the globe," says Elman.
Lola: A cool brand for feminine products Company name: Lola VC: Susan Lyne at BBG Ventures Relationship: Investor Funding: $11.2 million What it does: LOLA is a subscription service for 100% organic cotton feminine products delivered right to the customer's door. Why it's hot: "Whoever thought that a cool brand could be built around feminine care products? Jordana Kier and Alex Friedman have done just that with LOLA," says Lyne. "By combining product transparency and convenience with straight talk about periods, they've won a growing base of enthusiasts and inspired a slew of instagram hashtags."
Function of Beauty: Personalized shampoo Company name: Function of Beauty VC: Susan Lyne at BBG ventures Relationship: No relation. VC just thinks it's cool. Funding: $9.6 million What it does: Function of Beauty uses machine algorithms to make personalized shampoo for each customer, based on their preferences and hair type. Why it's hot: "Function of Beauty emerged from Y combinator as a promising beautytech concept: unique shampoo and conditioner formulations for every customer's hair. But it's the execution that turned it into a hugely successful launch," says Lyne. "Every bottle carries the customer's name — because with a possible 12B combinations, this one is truly yours. Wish we were on their cap table." Business Insider's Avery Hartmans recently tried the products and liked them.
Citizen: Warning ordinary people of 911 situations Company name: Citizen VC: Mike Vernal at Sequoia Relationship: Investor Funding: $12.16 million What it does: Citizen is an app that shows you 911 incidents in your neighborhood in realtime. It was formerly known as "Vigilante," but after a popular but controversial start, it revamped itself so as not to imply it was trying to prevent crime. Why it's hot: "Today, there's information flying through the air that has a direct impact on your safety, but very few people have the ability to access it. Citizen helps you stay safe with instant notifications and live broadcasts of incidents reported to
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can be tweaked.
While GT5 worked perfectly fine with the DualShock3 controller, playing with the Logitech Driving Force GT racing wheel is an absolute thrill. Now that I've tried it, I don't think I can go back. It did take a couple of races to get a feel for it, but when I finally got it down, my driving and my course times improved greatly. The level of control you have over your turns is so much greater with the wheel, and that's not to mention how much better and more realistic acceleration and braking feel it provides. The force feedback in the wheel brings the realism over the top. Gran Turismo 5 feels like it was made for this wheel, and the game offers full support for it and many of the other racing wheels out there. I can't recommend the Driving Force GT wheel enough. It really takes GT5 to an even higher level.
With Gran Turismo 5, I found myself doing something I've never done with a racing game before: driving simply for the joy of it. Just as with a great car, Gran Turismo 5 feels so great that it begs to be driven. You can't put it down. I found myself cruising the 8.5 miles of Circuit de la Sarthe this week just to enjoy the drive. When you get in the zone and really get in tune with the controls, this game really does let you tap into the pleasures of driving and racing. I'd like to imagine that Polyphony Digital has spent all this time fine-tuning this game for this very feeling.
Even beyond the 1,000 cars, dozens of track variations, countless modes, gorgeous visuals and mountains of options, Gran Turismo 5 has something more that speaks to the world's car lovers and racing fans. The level of care taken by the people at Polyphony Digital shines in every aspect of this title, and this makes for a racing game that truly has no parallel. Gran Turismo 5 is a massive love letter to those that love cars. This is their dream videogame.
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Gran Turismo 5 reviewed by Dale NorthAnother study looked at a similar program, called Diversify. Conducted by Simone Ispa-Landa at Northwestern University, it showed how gender politics and gender performance impacted the way the minority students were seen at the school. The study shows that “as a group, the Diversify boys were welcomed in suburban social cliques, even as they were constrained to enacting race and gender in narrow ways.” Diversify girls, on the other hand, “were stereotyped as ‘ghetto’ and ‘loud’”—behavior that, when exhibited by the boys in the program, was socially rewarded. Another finding from her study was that because of the gender dynamics present at the school—the need to conform to prevalent male dominance in the school—“neither the white suburban boys nor the black Diversify boys were interested in dating” the minority girls. The girls reported being seen by boys at their schools as “aggressive” and not having the “Barbie doll” look. The boys felt that dating the white girls was “easier” because they “can’t handle the black girls.”
The black boys in Ispa-Landa’s study found themselves in peculiar situations in which they would play into stereotypes of black males as being cool or athletic by seeming “street-smart.” At the same time, though, they would work to subvert those racial expectations by code-switching both their speech and mannerisms to put their white classmates at ease. Many of the boys reported feeling safer and freer at the suburban school, as they would not be considered “tough” at their own schools. It was only in the context of the suburban school that their blackness conferred social power. In order to maintain that social dominance, the boys engaged in racial performance, getting into show fights with each other to appear tough and using rough, street language around their friends.
In the case of the girls, the urban signifiers that gave the boys so much social acceptance, were held against them. While the boys could wear hip-hop clothing, the girls were seen as “ghetto” for doing the same. While the boys could display a certain amount of aggression, the girls felt they were penalized for doing so. Ispa-Landa, in an interview, expressed surprise at “how much of a consensus there was among the girls about their place in the school.” She also found that overall, the girls who participated in diversity programs paid a social cost because they “failed to embody characteristics of femininity” that would have valorized them in the school hierarchy. They also felt excluded from the sports and activities that gave girls in those high schools a higher social status, such as cheerleading and Model U.N., because most activities ended too late for the parents of minority girls. Holland notes that minority parents were much more protective of the girls; they expressed no worries about the boys staying late, or over at friend’s houses.Dear VidAngel customers,
4 Hollywood studios have accused VidAngel of stealing their movies. That’s not true, but we are stealing their lawyers.
This week Attorney David Quinto, who used to be a lawyer for Disney and Warner Brothers, became the official lawyer of VidAngel. As you may recall, those studios and VidAngel are currently in a legal battle, so Quinto’s pulling a Kevin Durant and switching teams to the inevitable winners.
David Quinto is a fairly big deal.
The Hollywood Reporter named him to their list of Top 100 Power Lawyers. In fact, he was ranked #21 on the alphabetical list!
He spent 27 years as a lawyer for the Oscars, and during that time they never got sued for giving Best Actor to Nicholas Cage, so you know he’s good at his job.
He has had adventures in 140 countries during his life, including:
Outrunning a knife-wielding assailant for close to a kilometer in Rio de Janeiro
Escaping the Tuareg insurrection by fleeing Timbuktu aboard a Russian military cargo plane
Spending a month in Argentina during the height of the Dirty War and almost being executed in Mendoza (without cause, we should note)
Litigating his first case while still in law school and earning two published opinions, one of which has been cited by the Supreme Court
These are all true stories. No, WE PROMISE. They really are!
Welcome to the family, David!The hours that follow the finish of every NASCAR Cup Series event have become a curiously enticing time for me. Kind of like watching my next-door neighbor cut the grass in his tank top T-shirt throughout the hot summer months. I know it's coming every Sunday. I know it's going to be ugly. I know it's going to leave a mark. Yet I can't look away.
I always know the race is over whenever I hear him fire up his Briggs & Stratton. At that same instant, my Twitter timeline also cranks to life. When he inevitably pushes his mower over that same dry patch of gravel, the grinding racket it creates is the auditory equivalent to what I read on my timeline.
I want to tell him the same thing I want to tell the Tweeters. Dude, no matter how much you wish there to be grass right there on that spot, it's never happening. And I want to Tweet, Dudes and Dudettes, no matter how much you wish this stuff you're demanding to start happening in NASCAR, those things aren't happening, either.
What am I talking about? I'll give you the most oft-heard complaints. But because I care about all you, I'm not going to merely drop harsh truths on you like rocks flying off a mower blade. I'm also gonna give you alternatives with which to ease your pain. Like the time I handed my neighbor a bottle of Solarcaine for his shoulders.
1. Sorry, but debris cautions aren't going away
I'm not going to debate whether Race Control might occasionally see something on the racing surface at times when said foreign object might erase a brutally-large margin of victory.
Heck, there have been more than a few races I've covered when I've contemplated pulling a Jimmy Spencer and winging a glove onto the track myself. On Monday, NASCAR issued a lengthy explanation of how, why and when those cautions are thrown. Full disclosure: I worked for NASCAR's television production division when we were in the process of designing the exhaustive video system used to provide blanket coverage of every track. Short of mounting 10,000 Go Pros to every inch of every retaining wall, there's not a more thorough way to go about it. But anyone who thinks that this is some sort of new trend that will one day go away or that every caution thrown will come with indisputable video evidence of the troublesome trinket in Turn 1 is kidding themselves. And that includes Tony Stewart.
Alternative to embrace: Did I mention all those races I covered in the '90s with margins of victory larger than the running time of "Batman vs. Superman?" Trust me when I say late race restarts are better.
2. Sorry, but the Chase/Playoff/Whatever you want to call the championship format, isn't going away, either
NASCAR's postseason was introduced in 2004. Yeah, that's right, this is the 14th edition coming up in September. Has the format been messed with too much? Yes. But if you're waiting for the day when NASCAR will return to a "traditional" season-long championship format, you might as well be waiting for the NFL to rename the Vince Lombardi Trophy the Rex Ryan Trophy. It ain't happening.
Alternative to embrace: Remember all those races I had to cover with the double-digit margins of victory that were over with 20 laps to go? They were nothing compared to the points races I had to cover with triple-digit margins of victory that were over with five races to go. Instead of stressing over the fact that the Homestead finale is a toss-up, how about appreciating the fact that the race even matters. Back in the day I spent more meaningless November weekends in Atlanta than a Falcons fan.
3. Sorry, but aero-matching or pack racing or any of that is gone...
... because ultimately, it's called parity. Level-the-field rules, sleeker cars, across-the-board engineering geniuses, nearly-indestructible equipment, and a deep, deep field of talented drivers means that fields are going to be tighter and passing will be harder. No amount of aero-tinkering is going to fix that.
Alternative to embrace: Again, please don't make me go back to covering races with three cars on the lead lap. Why? To have five more passes?
4. Toyota isn't going away, either
Yes, I still receive "I can't pull for Toyota because it's foreign" comments.
If you want to root for the driver of a car made in America, the Toyota Camry is your only choice. Joshua Lavallee/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images
Alternative to embrace: The Camry is now the most "Made in the USA" car on the road. You ever been to Georgetown, Kentucky, or Lafayette, Indiana? Your Camry has.
5. Sorry, TV ratings and attendance are never going back to 2003
And, oh by the way, neither are sponsorship dollars. This isn't just a NASCAR problem or even a motorsports problem. The makeup of how sports do business and how they are broadcast is changing everywhere. Trust me on this. I'm a magazine writer. So, hoping that one day a sales guy is going to come up with a plan and 120,000 fans are going to reappear at Charlotte Motor Speedway... that's not a wise use of one's wishes.
Alternative to embrace: Have you tried taking all the stuff that's been devised to lure fans back to racing -- race broadcasts on mobile devices, timing & scoring apps, streaming team radio communication, selective on-board camera access, satellite radio team channels, etc. -- and fired them all up at once? It's crazy immersive. For a guy like me who grew up with only the top five car numbers displayed on an old scoreboard over Turns 3 and 4, it's mind-boggling.
6. Sorry, but qualifying is never going back to being a big-ticket item
I am a huge fan of elimination-style qualifying. Just about the time I forget that, we have single-car runs at a plate track to remind me how much I don't miss that. But even with that, the days of 40,000 people showing up on a Thursday night or Friday afternoon to watch time trials, those are long gone.
Alternative to embrace: Give props to the racetracks who have moved qualifying and added more oomph to a Saturday ticket. Let's hope that's a step toward two-day shows as Fridays are becoming a waste of time and money.
7. Sorry, but North Wilkesboro Speedway isn't returning to the schedule
Hey, I loved -- still love -- the place, too. I've written numerous columns and TV pieces about it. But the people who still cling to the notion of a NASCAR national series event returning to the land of Junior Johnson might as well be hoping for the return of rotary telephones. Lost to the warm and fuzzy feelings of nostalgia is the fact that the place was already falling apart when it hosted its final Cup race in 1996. The track itself was awesome. The dried-up toilets and the nails sticking out of the wooden grandstands were not. Not so long ago they brought late models back to North Wilkesboro and no one showed up. Down the road at Rockingham, fans did show up for the first Truck Series comeback race but failed to return for the races that followed.
There was some great racing at North Wilkesboro, but the track has gone to seed and won't be back on the schedule. ISC Images & Archives/Getty Images
Alternative to embrace: Martinsville Speedway is less than two hours north of Wilkesboro, located in the same moonshine-soaked foothills and raced on by the same moonshine-marinated NASCAR pioneers. The old bullring still hosts two Cup races and if half the people who scream to bring back North Wilkesboro would buy a ticket to Martinsville, it would easily prevent the latter from joining the former on the extinction list. And hey, the toilets and grandstands work just fine.
8. Sorry, but they're never going to race back to the yellow flag ever again
We can all agree that the Dover backstretch caution line earlier this month was a letdown. But it also exposed how quickly fans have forgotten the days when races ending under caution were as regular as rain at Pocono. Anyone who reacted by demanding that we bring back the days of racing back to the yellow flag has also forgotten the time that old way of doing things nearly killed a helpless Dale Jarrett at New Hampshire.
Alternative to embrace: Even the worst-case scenario now -- what we had at Dover -- is lightyears better than what used to be the worst case. Now we remember Dale Earnhardt winning Daytona in 1998 and Richard Petty edging out Cale Yarborough for his 200th win. But at the time we were all mad because those races ended under caution. And let's not forget why we have that caution line now... to avoid having the stupidest postrace ever, in the Talladega Chase cutoff race two years ago.
9. Sorry, but Dale Earnhardt isn't coming back
Earnhardt is gone. Bringing him back would require an ability to turn back the hands of time that we have yet to achieve (though I think Allen Bestwick might have it solved and just hasn't shared it with the rest of us). I get it. I miss him, too, and as a Richard Petty fan I hated him. But if he was still with us, he wouldn't still be racing. He'd either be sitting atop a pit box doing postrace interviews or in the woods looking for deer to shoot. The day we lost him was the worst day in NASCAR history. But it was also more than a decade and half ago. Every time I hear from someone who says they no longer watch because he's gone I always respond the same way. "That's a shame. I don't think he'd like to hear that."
Alternative to embrace: A big part of the thrill of watching Earnhardt race was knowing that he was always in the hunt to rewrite NASCAR records. Thus, my disdain for him as he marched toward tying Richard Petty's record of seven Cup titles and my booing of him from the Rockingham grandstands as he did just that. But in the end seeing history was worth being there. When I tell people about that day, it blows their minds that I was a witness. Hey, you know there's a guy out there right now, writing stock car history nearly monthly. I'm not saying you are required to love Jimmie Johnson. But you might want to take a moment to pause and appreciate seeing him at the top of his game. One day you can tell someone you witnessed one of the all-time greats. If Dale Earnhardt was here he'd sure be appreciating it.
On the eve of Jeff Gordon's would-be final Cup Series start he said to me, "It's funny, isn't it? I used to be the young guy who was ruining the sport. Now I'm the connection to the good old days. And all I did was get old and hang around." It's forgotten now, but Stewart, Edwards, Wallace and even Martin all spent time in their careers labeled as young punks. But as their careers rolled on, they became appreciated for their blue-collar backgrounds, work ethics and short-track roots. To hear many, that kind of career path has been lost to the history books. And even if they were handed some advantages (see: Dale Earnhardt Jr.) they "had so much more personality and were so much more badass than today's drivers!"
Alternative to embrace: That last frequent observation is totally wrong. There is plenty of personality in the Cup garage and pounds of red clay dirt to be found under the fingernails of today's younger generation of stars. The sanctioning body needs to do a better job of promoting it. Kyle Busch is a mechanical genius with an edge every bit as hard and a vocabulary every bit as bleep-filled as Rusty Wallace. Kyle Larson is a legit dirt stud who won a short-track race one night and at Michigan International Speedway a few days later, dedicating it all to his late friend Bryan Clauson. Not a bad kind of poster boy to be. Brad Keselowski is a one-track-mind racer who cut his teeth in the Midwest like Martin and takes no crap, just like Martin. And if you don't think Ryan Blaney, who just won his first Cup race, or Bubba Darrell Wallace Jr., who just sat in Richard Petty's ride, don't have enough personality, you must not use any form of social media.
Or perhaps you just don't know how to recognize fun. Because the reality is that there is plenty of fun to be had in today's NASCAR world. You just aren't ever going to see it if the only place you ever look is in the rearview mirror.Wow.
So, I’m really, really sorry this took so long, haha. What I SHOULD have done was just, like, a picture or two of Chara and a young Sans laughing at lame puns. But no. I did this instead. Note to self: For requests, a picture or two makes sense, an entire comic will make you a very tired individual.
What went through my head that made me make this comic was that I just HAD to create the scenario where Chara and Sans met or else it wouldn’t have made sense! Even though it still doesn’t make sense, considering Sans is probably not this old, but whatever.
As for the house, that’s Gaster’s house, I tried to make it look a lot like Sans and Papyrus’ house, but a lot emptier and boring because I stink at backgrounds.
I also stink at drawing each character the same way twice, so they look different in each panel, oops.
And yeah, Asriel can sleep through anything, who knew? (Me. Because Asriel is hard to draw, but for this to make sense he had to be there, so sleeping Asriel was the way to go.)
So basically in this, Chara is an awkward, I’ve-been-here-for-like-a-year-and-a-half-so-maybe-I-should-try-to-be-this-pun-monster’s-friend-or-something kid while Sans is just happy that someone likes his puns.
Cue friendship (very momentarily, considering canon, haha…)
I hope you like it!
For itsaeon.:]It’s Time to Abandon the Pursuit for Great Leaders
Remember that delightful period right after the Cold War, when globalization was the buzzword du jour, democracy was spreading like wildfire, and America’s political and economic system seemed like an attractive model? Academics who should have known better believed realism was headed for the dustbin of history, and lots of smart people thought tyrants, dictators, potentates, and other authoritarians were living on borrowed time. They believed the vox populi would grow ever louder, more and more countries would install representative institutions, adopt market economies, and protect human rights, and soon we’d be living happily ever after in a tranquil Kantian Garden of Eden.
Such notions seem rather quaint today, to say the least. Indeed one of the striking trends in contemporary world politics are the number of people who think that what we really need are Great Leaders—men and women who are unfettered by pesky domestic constraints. Instead of building effective institutions and strengthening liberal values, we see people rushing to back some Great Leader who will lead them out of darkness and toward a bright and glorious future. It’s probably not an accident that most of the candidates for that role seem to be men.
In China, for example, the dynamic and forceful Xi Jiping replaced by the cautious and uncharismatic Hu Jintao, and Xi has consolidated power to an extent not seen since Deng Xiaoping or even Mao Zedong. He shows no signs of stopping despite some recent missteps and China’s stumbling economy, and seems bent on establishing his own cult of personality. Similarly, Turkish President Recep Erdogan seems to think that only he knows what’s good for his fellow Turks, and continues to look for ways to stifle dissent and consolidate his personal control. (Never mind that Turkey has gone from “zero problems” with neighbors to “problems with nearly everyone” on his watch). Egypt has returned to military rule after a brief experiment with democracy, and former general-turned-President Abdel al-Sisi is angrily telling Egyptians “don’t listen to anyone but me.” Vladimir Putin is still riding high in Moscow, and both Viktor Orban in Hungary and Poland’s new rightwing government (controlled by party leader Jaroslaw Kaczsinsky) show strong authoritarian tendencies.
Meanwhile, back here in the Land of the Free, a vulgar tycoon with a flair for public relations and a mediocre business record is marching steadily toward the GOP nomination, based on a platform of bombastic xenophobia and a promise he will “make America great again.” He has yet to explain how he will do this, yet plenty of voters seem willing to believe that today’s complex challenges can be solved by hot air alone.
What’s going on here? What explains the resurgent belief that all a country needs is a strong and visionary leader who will transcend the messy business of democratic politics and guide his or her people to a new and brighter future?
For one thing, the temptation to place one’s faith in a strong leader has a long history. Athenian democracy succumbed to Alcibiades’ demagoguery, and a similar fate ultimately befell the Roman Republic. These lessons were not lost on America’s Founding Fathers, by the way, which is one reason the U.S. Constitution contains redundant firewalls against excessive executive power. Modern liberal democracy is a relatively new development in human history, and most social groups were not governed according to liberal norms and did not constrain leaders through an institutionalized system of checks and balance, let alone a written constitution. In most places most of the time, politics was a lot less like classical Athens and a lot more like Game of Thrones.
Furthermore, there are many sectors in society where hierarchical command is still the norm, and where big shots at the top get treated with awe and respect. Look at how we genuflect at titans of industry like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, or the late Steve Jobs, men not exactly noted for their humility or their eagerness to have their authority constrained by others or subject to public approval. There’s a similar reverence for military commanders, even those who didn’t exactly cover themselves with glory in America’s recent, mostly unsuccessful wars.
The lure of the Great Leader is even felt in the notoriously contentious world of academia, as universities search for dynamic presidents, provosts and deans who will raise scads of money, launch innovative new programs, raise the college’s academic rankings, get the football team to a bowl game, and keep students, faculty, staff and alumni happy. Yes, I know: corporate CEOs still have to answer to their Boards and shareholders (sort of), and university presidents and non-profit Executive Directors have to keep their trustees happy. Even so, these organizations are usually far from democratic, and people at the top are usually treated with considerable deference by their subordinates.
My point is that many modern institutions are run on mostly authoritarian lines, even in highly democratic societies. Given that we are surrounded by powerful people who are rich and famous because they are good at giving orders and getting people to follow them, is it all that surprising that many people are powerfully drawn to a similar model in politics? Add in the present faddish obsession with “Leadership Studies,” and the various academic programs seeking to recruit and train “great leaders” and you can see why so many people are convinced that the key to success is just getting the Right Person at the top of the organizational chart. Once you’ve bought into that basic paradigm, you’re well on your way to being an obedient drone.
I suspect the appeal of the Great Leader also reflects the present shortcomings of existing democratic institutions in Europe and North America, the transparent hypocrisy of most career politicians, and the colorlessness of many current office-holders. If you strip away the well-scripted pageantry that tries to make presidents and prime ministers seem all-powerful and all knowing, today’s democratic leaders are not a very inspiring bunch. I mean, seriously: whatever their political skills may be, can one really admire an undisciplined skirt-chaser like Bill Clinton, an insensitive, privileged bumbler like George W. Bush, or an unprincipled opportunist like Tony Blair? Does listening to David Cameron or François Hollande fill you with confidence and patriotic zeal? I still retain a certain regard for Barack Obama, who is both thoughtful and devoid of obvious character defects, but nobody is talking about him being a “transformational” president anymore. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton’s lackluster performance on the campaign trail and the clown show that is the Republican primary season is just reinforcing the American public’s sense that none of these people are sincere, serious, genuinely interested in the public’s welfare, or deserving or admiration or respect. Instead, they’re mostly out for themselves, and they would say and do almost anything if they thought it would get them elected. And if that is in fact the case (and many people clearly believe it is), then a buffoon like Trump or a grumpy outsider like Bernie Sanders are going to look appealing by comparison.
Lastly, entrusting one’s fate to a Great Leader is tempting because it spares us the burden of thinking for ourselves. For democracy to work, citizens have to pay a some amount of attention, be reasonably well informed about key issues, and be willing to hold politicians genuinely accountable for success and failure. By contrast, pinning our hopes on a Great Leader allows us to check our own judgment at the door: all we have to do is trust in the Leader’s alleged wisdom and all will be well. Given the repeated shipwrecks that democratic systems have produced in recent years (the financial crisis, Iraq War, Eurozone debacle, growing inequality, etc.) is it any wonder that some of our citizens are willing to turn the helm over to someone who conveys an image of independence, resolution, and confidence?
So should we throw up our hands and entrust our fate to a Great Leader who promises miraculous solutions to our present discontents? History warns against it. Great Leaders tend to think they are infallible, and they are often very good at removing threats to their rule and obstacles to their authority. Those qualities can promote efficiency, in the sense that lots of things can get done in a hurry. But that’s no guarantee that what gets done makes sense or will work. And when (not if) the Great Leader makes a mistake, who is going to stop them from driving the country over the edge?
As James Scott and Amartya Sen have explored in some depth, dictatorships are prone to truly enormous disasters, precisely because they lack the institutions that can hold leaders accountable and provide the information necessary to make mid-course corrections. For every successful autocrat like Singapore’s Lee Kwan Yew, there’s a host of Great Leaders who led their countries to disaster. Look at Stalin: whose economic and social policies killed millions, and who left Soviet Russia vulnerable to a German invasion in 1941, which cost 20 million more Russian lives? Or Mao Zedong, whose “Great Leap Forward” produced a massive famine and whose misguided policies over three decades kept the Chinese people trapped in needless poverty. Napoleon may have been a genius on the battlefield, but the end-result of his unchallenged leadership was France’s total defeat, the deaths of a million of his followers, and his own ignominious and lonely exile in the South Atlantic.
The problem with entrusting one’s fate to Great Leaders is that we are all human, and no one is infallible (no matter what a leader’s cult of personality claims). With great power often comes hubris, and hubris unconstrained is a recipe for disaster.
If you’re planning to vote sometime this year, you might keep that in mind.
Photo credit: GENT SHKULLAKU/AFP/Getty ImagesAs part of the initiative, new and funky designs are being used to replace the plain white stripes that act as 'zebra crossing'.
Trust Kolkatans to add a zing to anything they do! The culture capital of India loves a bit of art in everything. No wonder then, Kolkatans can do with a bit of twist in the zebra crossings on its roads.
So a new experiment in Kolkata's New Town area has caught quite a few eyeballs. The latest endeavour from West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) is intended to make pedestrian crossings a 'bit more interesting'.
As part of the initiative, new and funky designs are being used to replace the plain white stripes that act as 'zebra crossing'. Such new 'road graphics' have been installed near Eco park in Kolkata's New Town area.
Bengal Urban Development Secretary Debashish Sen, the brain behind this new idea says, the initiative intends to engage the masses and in the process make them wilfully adhere to traffic norms.
"It's a unique art experiment to replace boring pedestrian crossing marks often called zebra crossings. The first one is designed on the theme of ripples, like waves in lake," adds Sen.
According to HIDCO, more such designer pedestrian crossings will replace the old ones across New Town, which is being converted into a Smart City already.Q: Does the current Cavaliers run, predominately the LeBron James run, to the Eastern Conference finals begin to tarnish the contribution Pat Riley, Erik Spoelstra, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh made? In other words, LeBron is showing he can win without healthy All-Star teammates, a great coach, a great offensive and defensive scheme, a quality bench and a great owner. Maybe we need to re-evaluate our championship pieces? -- Stone, Miami.
A: I don't think it does anything to diminish the past. What I think it shows to this point is that the East was particularly down this season and that LeBron is more motivated than ever to justify his offseason decision. But, again, it's still early. The criticism came when LeBron lost the Finals with the Heat in 2011 and 2014, and even when he couldn't push Cleveland past San Antonio in his previous visit to the Finals with the Cavaliers. And I think the Heat would be the first to acknowledge that their previous championship pieces need more in support in the absence of LeBron. The hope is that Goran Dragic and Hassan Whiteside can provide that support, when available to the team over the court of a full season.
Q: I agree with you that if Erik Spoelstra wants to play the spacing game, he needs a legitimate 3-point threat or two or three. Danny Green is going to be a free agent and his defense is adequate. How would he fit into the system and the salary cap? Also, what do you think is his market value and will the Spurs let him go? -- Jason.
A: I think Danny has it too good in San Antonio, especially if Tim Duncan returns, to consider any other options if the money is close. And with the Heat having to prioritize Goran Dragic this offseason and perhaps Hassan Whiteside next summer, I'm not sure spending on a 3-point shooter would be a priority. With Chris Bosh and Josh McRoberts expected to make full returns, that's a pair of 3-point threats right there. Plus, Luol Deng was efficient from beyond the arc this season. I do think adding a lower-budget 3-point specialist for situational shooting would make sense, although I'm not sure James Jones is walking back through that door.
Q: In the draft we should pick Stanley Johnson. He's a good defender, he's athletic, and he shot a solid percentage from 3-point range. -- Dallas, Staten Island.
A: Based on where players are expected to fall at this stage, the question could be whether the Pistons nab him just ahead of the Heat. But Stan Van Gundy wouldn't do that to Erik Spoelstra, would he?If our lack of reviews didn't give it away, there have been few noteworthy SSD releases this year, with OCZ's in-house Vertex 450 and the Marvell 88SS9187-based SanDisk Extreme II being the primary exceptions. That's a lot less eventful than previous years and 2012 alone brought the OCZ Vector and Vertex 4, Crucial Adrenaline, Intel SSD 520 Series as well as countless other SandForce SF-2281-powered drives.
Samsung's contribution to the enthusiast flash drive market perhaps deserves special recognition, as its 840 Pro series arrived ahead of the holidays with 21nm Toggle NAND chips and crushed most of the competition. Although it's been a while and OCZ's flagships can certainly put up a fight, we still tend to favor Samsung's product -- at least partly because the 512GB 840 Pro as survived a year of duty in my office PC.
Flash performance and endurance is a tricky subject, but we're confident that the SSD 840 Pro remains one of the best in both categories, so we knew Samsung would really have to step things up. It was only a matter of how, of course, and the company revealed that part at its annual global summit. Having aced its attempts at speed and durability, Samsung seems focused on solving flash's biggest sacrifices: size and affordability.
Its new SSD 840 Evo lineup has models spanning from 120GB to 1TB, with the largest costing only $0.65 per gigabyte thanks to its use of TLC NAND. Meanwhile, the Evo drives promise solid performance courtesy of several ingenious features, including an SLC-based write cache ("TurboWrite") as well as a secondary caching system called RAPID (Real-time Accelerated Processing of I/O Data) that dips into system memory.
Samsung 840 Evo 1TB & 250GB in Detail
To be clear, the SSD 840 Evo is still aimed at performance buffs, while the older SSD 840 Pro series is largely aimed at enthusiasts willing to pay for the best performance. Armed with Samsung's MEX (SATA 3.1) controller, the series comes in five capacities: 120GB ($109), 250GB ($183), 500GB ($370), 750GB ($530) and 1TB ($650). The drives have a slim 2.5" design, measuring 100.08 x 69.85 x 7.11mm and weighing up to 54.4g.
The 120GB model touts read and write speeds of 540MB/s and 410MB/s, which is more than claimed by the same capacity SSD 840 Pro, while the 250GB, 500GB, 750GB and 1TB models can hit 540MB/s and 520MB/s. All of them have Samsung's 19nm 3bpc TLC Toggle DDR 2.0 NAND flash memory. You'll find two of those chips in the 120GB and 250GB versions, four in the 500GB unit and double that again in the 750GB/1TB variants.
TurboWrite -- one of the caching features we mentioned -- helps the Evo's TLC memory deliver MLC-like performance by using a small portion of each TLC NAND die as an SLC write buffer. The 120GB and 250GB Evo drives have a 3GB TurboWrite buffer and that increases by 3GB for each subsequent model with the 1TB having a 12GB buffer.
The idea is to write data to the SLC buffer before quickly moving it to the TLC memory. If you write a file that is larger than the buffer or the buffer becomes full and doesn't clear in time, the data is written directly to the slower TLC memory. For light use the 120GB and 250GB models should be fine, but you might experience a slowdown if you consistently write more than 3GB of data.
For example, the 250GB Evo's sequential write performance is around 500MB/s when using TurboWrite, but that will drop to below 300MB/s if the buffer fills up. This is mostly a non-issue for the 1TB drive because its 12GB buffer should be able to handle most conditions.
The Samsung MEX controller features a triple-core Cortex R4 processor, just like the SSD 840 Pro's MDX except the frequency of its three cores has been increased from 300MHz to 400MHz. SATA 3.1 support is also available, bringing queued TRIM commands -- something we first experienced on the SanDisk Extreme II.
The Evo series can also access up to a gig of system memory with its RAPID DRAM caching feature, which is unique to these drives and supposedly boosts read performance by storing frequently accessed data in your RAM -- something we'll explore in more detail on the next page.
Whereas the SSD 840 Pro series comes in 128GB, 256GB and 512GB models, the Evo range is cut down to 120GB, 250GB and so on
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with a blow from the headman’s axe. He’d fought to free his sister and dethrone a sorcerous tyrant, but he was outnumbered and alone.
And then his sister’s agents offered him a choice. They couldn’t get him past the guards, but they knew a way he could seek his vengeance. So long as he didn’t mind waiting until after his date with the chopping block…
Crypt of Stars, by Howard Andrew Jones
The Dervan Empire pecked at the sun blasted rocks with an army of slaves, determined to recover the fabled wealth of Volanus. Secure in their power, they worried only about delays. Even if they’d known that the last great general of Volanus was alive and free, why should they fear Hanuvar Cabera? He had no armies left him. What could a single man hope to accomplish against an entire garrison?
But then they had never reckoned with the secrets held within the crypt of stars.
There Was an Old Fat Spider, by C. L. Werner
Karl didn’t want much – just enough coin to purchase a bed each night, just a little luck so that his animal traps weren’t spoiled. Once he’d been a skilled carver with connections to royalty. Now he was a vagabond trapper. Mocked, bullied, and abused by the townsfolk, even the woman he loved could barely stand the sight of him.
And then a chance encounter led him to a dark, webbed grove, where he found a gruesome ally and began to hatch a sinister plan…
The Crystal Sickle’s Harvest, by John C. Hocking
The King’s Hand was the king’s most feared agent, the grim troubleshooter dispatched when subtlety and speed were paramount. It seemed like his apprentice Benhus might finally be able to prove his worth when the two discovered someone had crept into the royal cemetery.
But they quickly learned that they faced no common grave robbers. For someone had broken into the crypt of the king’s sister, a woman whispered to have mastered the darkest of arts…
Table of contents for issue #1
Maps
This is a small detail, but we think it's important. The early issues of pulp literature occasionally included illustrated maps and diagrams to help the reader understand the fantastic places being explored by pulp heroes.
Tales From the Magician's Skull does the same. Doug Kovacs, famous for his fantastically illustrated maps in the role-playing-game space, has provided illuminated maps to explain some of the stories' locations.
Map by Doug Kovacs
Pledge Levels
Most of the pledge levels are self-explanatory - either print or PDF editions.
One pledge level in particular is worth additional detail. The Legion of the Skull level is your chance to contribute to the greater community of sword-and-sorcery fans. We invite you to read more about this pledge level here!
Here's all the stuff you get at the Legion of the Skull level:
Stretch Goals
At a base funding level, this Kickstarter funds the print publication of issues # 1 and #2 of Tales From the Magician's Skull. If funding achieves certain levels, we may be able to invest even further in the product as follows!
STRETCH GOAL CLEARED! If funding exceeds $25,000, we will print issue #1 on textured, tan-colored paper stock that will have a "weathered pulp feel." If you're a collector who owns pulp magazines from the classic era, you'll know the effect we're going for.
Brad McDevitt's illustration for Beyond the Block
Learn More About the Guys Behind This
At Gen Con 2017, publisher Joseph Goodman held his annual seminar "What's New With Goodman Games." Magazine editor Howard Andrew Jones stopped by to discuss this project! This is a great chance to hear the inspirations behind the project and learn more about what you can expect. You can view the video here - Howard appears at about 9:00 in.
Hear the story behind the magazine! (Segment starts about 9:00 in)
Shipping Costs
Physical copies will be shipped as they are ready. We anticipate issue #1 shipping in January 2018 and issue #2 shipping in July 2018.
When you make your pledge, shipping charges will be applied. They are as follows:
USA: $5 for issue #1, $10 for issue #1 and #2
Canada, UK, and EU: $8 for issue #1, $16 for issues #1 and #2
New Zealand and Australia: $12 for issue #1, $24 for issues #1 and #2
Rest of world: $20 for issue #1, $30 for issues #1 and #2
Tell Me About Issue #2
We have already commissioned cover art, shown below. This cover is by Diesel LaForce, known for his early work on Dungeons & Dragons (including his classic illustrations in B2: The Keep on the Borderlands). We are in the process of lining up a suite of excellent authors with stories just as good as issue #1! You can check out this recent update to read more about what's in issue #2.
Cover art to issue #2, by Diesel LaForce
What About Future Issues?
We certainly hope to publish more! If these first two issues do well we would anticipate adopting a regular publication schedule.
Game Statistics for DCC RPG
Goodman Games is the publisher of this magazine, and also the published of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, also called DCC RPG. Tales From the Magician's Skull will include a short appendix at the end of each issue with DCC RPG game statistics for the monsters, non-player characters, and magic items that appear in the stories. The inimitable Terry Olson has provided the DCC RPG stats.
A Closing Word From The SkullWe would love to hear your thoughts on being desi and being a queer for our #GaysiSnippets section.
More often than we realise, it’s the tiny stories that make up our big world. Coming to think of it, we are all just a few words and images apart from one another. So why not share these experiences and create a common pool where all of us could reflect?!
Gaysi Family invites you to submit your tiny stories through words and/or images. These stories are your stories and could be about anything under the world!! The best ones would be included in the upcoming issue of The Gaysi Zine. Send in your sometimes poignant, sometimes witty, but always human tiny stories. (Email us: gaysifamily[at]gmail[dot]com.)
Gaysi Snippets by: Minazuddin Kazi & Ayush Bhagat
Artwork by: Sakshi Jalan
I’m a 20-year-old design student, whose life functions out of to-do lists. I proudly call myself an art-nerd, a dreamer and a thinker. Growing up in Calcutta and being in love with the city inculcated in me a deep admiration towards my culture which is evident in my work. When I’m not making art, I like to collect stamps and postcards and lose myself in new adventures. Instagram handle: @sak.shy. Art Instagram: @doodlinglifeaway.Robots have been used for everything from greeting bank customers to grabbing a slice of pizza — and now they seem to be venturing further into law enforcement.
A six-hour police standoff in a Southern California desert ended on Sept. 8 when a robot was used by police to take away the rifle of an attempted murder suspect.
The special weapons team from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department made the call after the suspect, 52-year-old Ray B. Bunge, refused to surrender. He has since been charged with attempted murder, criminal threats, assault with a deadly weapon / firearm, robbery and felony vandalism.
SEE ALSO: 100 tiny robots replaced humans in this queue for the iPhone 7
During the standoff, Bunge was lying in a "dark open field" in the desert of Antelope Valley, California, when the robot stealthily, quietly snatched the gun sitting next to his feet, according to a Facebook post from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.
Police had lost track of Bunge before using a helicopter and special weapons team to find him in a dirt area surrounded by shrubs and fence wiring. That's when they tried distracting Bunge and sending in the robot.
"He looked up and realized his gun was gone and he was exposed."
"While his attention was focused on the vehicles in front of him, the team deployed a robot from behind the suspect’s position," the Facebook post explains.
The robot picked up the gun without Bunge noticing before pulling away the fence wiring that had been covering him. At that moment, Bunge finally gave up.
"He looked up and realized his gun was gone and he was exposed," the post states. "The suspect surrendered to the team without incident."
The use of robots by police has been a point of controversy since Dallas police used a robot to kill a suspect who had murdered five police officers in July.
While robots have been used by police to dispose of bombs for years, using them as a killing weapon seemed to set a new precedent — something confirmed by Peter Singer, a robotics expert with the think tank New America Foundation.
Yes, this is 1st use of robot in this way in policing. Marcbot has been ad hoc used this way by troops in Iraq. https://t.co/FfrsgLS2x1 — Peter W. Singer (@peterwsinger) July 8, 2016
A UC Davis law professor who has studied American law enforcement's use of technology told the Associated Press that using a robot to kill could blur the lines of appropriate or ethical use.
"If lethally equipped robots can be used in this situation, when else can they be used?" Elizabeth Joh said. "Extreme emergencies shouldn't define the scope of more ordinary situations where police may want to use robots that are capable of harm."
One thing's for sure: There are reportedly hundreds of police robots across the U.S. and no telling what they'll be used for next. The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department said this was one of "very few known" instances where a remotely controlled robot was used to take a weapon.
"Although this method cannot be used in every incident, the use of robot technology in this instance has proven the safety of all involved," the department wrote in its Facebook post.A license to sell cannabis oils opens up a lot of opportunity for Aurora Cannabis (TSXV:ACB), says Canaccord Genuity analyst Neil Maruoka.
On Monday, Aurora Cannabis announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Aurora Cannabis Enterprises, had been licensed by Health Canada for the sale of cannabis oils.
“Obtaining our licence to sell cannabis oils is another major milestone for Aurora, and we can now participate in the derivative cannabis market by further expanding our product line for patients and offer prescribing physicians a high-quality alternative to inhaled products,” said CEO Terry Booth “We have made key capital investments that now enable us to rapidly deploy our differentiating extraction methods that rank among the most consistent and efficient in the sector. With the combined capacity from our existing production site, as well as from our planned 800,000-square-foot Aurora Sky facility now under construction at Edmonton International Airport, we believe Aurora is well positioned to become one of the largest producers and distributors of cannabis oil products, which remains a key element of our developing business strategy.”
Maruoka says that while Monday’s news came as no surprise to him, he notes that the economics are worth considering. The price for cannabis oils, he points out, can fetch two or three times the gram-equivalent of dried bud. It’s a development he thinks could drive margin expansion for Aurora.
“Although we have been expecting this news for some time, we view the license to be a positive milestone in the company’s commercialization strategy,” says the analyst. “We believe this license opens the opportunity to sell a higher-priced, higher-margin product that could ultimately grow to represent approximately half of the Canadian cannabis market in the longer term. The receipt of this license follows the production license for oils that the company received in February of last year; as such, we expect that Aurora has been stockpiling product in anticipation of this catalyst.”
In a research update to clients Monday, Maruoka maintained his “Speculative Buy” rating and one-year price target of $3.15 on Aurora Cannabis.
Maruoka believes Aurora will generate EBITDA of $13.1-million on revenue of $32-million in fiscal 2017. He expects these numbers will improve to EBITDA of $80.2-million on a topline of $192-million the following year.The Obama administration offered few details Tuesday about the technical problems that locked consumers out of new health insurance marketplaces.
Officials from the Health and Human Services Department would not say how many people enrolled in coverage through healthcare.gov, the website for federally run insurance exchanges in 36 states.
The website was unavailable for most of the day, and technical issues also forced some state-based exchanges offline shortly after they launched Tuesday morning.
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President Obama and HHS officials generally attributed the glitches to the volume of traffic healthcare.gov received. As of Tuesday afternoon, the site had recorded 2.8 million visitors just since 7 a.m.
“We think that’s a tremendous beginning to this program and we’re off to a good start,” said Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, deputy policy director of the office handling most of the healthcare implementation effort.
Obama and his administration have repeatedly warned that some “glitches” were inevitable when rolling out such a large, complex system. But heavy Web traffic was the only specific problem they would identify Tuesday.
HHS officials did not directly answer questions about whether any other technical issues were discovered and whether they had been resolved.Page 3 Of 4
IGN: With Jonathan Banks joining the series as Professor Hickey, John Oliver returning as Duncan and Jeff's new position, there's much more of a staff presence among the Community characters. Was that interesting for you, after a few years of the show, to be able to delve more into that?
Harmon: Yeah. What it is is we've sort of split the difference between Greendale being about faculty and Greendale being about student life and the faculty being this other force, because we now have a character that's bridging those two worlds. So really, if Season 5 has an over-arcing story, it’s a story about trying to save Greendale from itself, because it's a very poorly-run school with a lot of holes attached. That's something where the more passionate students like the study group and the faculty, who get their paychecks from the place, have a mutual interest in accomplishing. Even though they don't necessarily like the fact that they're stuck there, they still all benefit from Greendale pulling itself out of the situation that it's in. Of course, there's some healthy meta flavor to that. We're able to write what we know as a group of writers that were trying to resurrect a little train that sometimes can and sometimes can't in the show.
Community: Season 5 Interview - Alison Brie
IGN: The staff is mostly represented by male characters. Is there going to be any female representation on the Greendale staff's side this season?
Harmon: You know what? I wish you would have brought this up earlier, because we wrapped, and I absolutely forgot to have women teachers. That totally slipped my mind. [Laughs] We had talks at several instances about the possibility of bringing back Slater, but all the people that we lost this season, they were all men. So if we replaced them with women, our show was going to become a reverse-chauvinist Amazonian story about Jeff and Abed in a sea of femininity. With Pierce and Troy going away, we were definitely looking to bring in male energy, so we talked about Jonathan Banks early on, and John Oliver was always this big thing we'd always resolved to bring back, because I’d always felt like that was a big mistake, not bringing him back as much as possible. When you only have 13 episodes, you're kind of done, because your ensemble gets unmanageable pretty quickly. So no women teachers this season…
IGN: But when Season 6 hopefully happens, that can change?
Harmon: Right, exactly. What we're going to reveal in Season 6 is that the teachers are hatched like crocodiles in the school and their gender is based on the temperature -- which is crazy. I think that’s alligators, actually, not crocodiles.
Community: Season 5 Interview - Jim Rash
IGN: We know that there's an animated episode coming. What's that endeavor been like for you to tackle?
Harmon: Well, I really have to start writing that after I get off the phone. [Laughs] We came up with the concept. The tough thing with animation is that in order to do it properly you have to break one of the cardinal writers room rules at Community, which is you have to conceive far in advance as a concept episode and then figure out what story you're telling, which has always been our biggest enemy. Like, "We have to do a Dungeons & Dragons episode and I don't care what the story is. I know we'll have to figure that out later," and then it becomes a really hard story to write, because you should just let stories write themselves and let any concepts evolve naturally. But with animation, you really can't make any bones about it. You have to go, "Okay, what kind of animation are we doing?" We have to design the characters. We have to know what kind of animation we're doing, and then we'll figure out why we're doing it later. So it's very, very specific in concept. It's something very specific to a time of growing up that I would share with Jeff Winger's character, because we're the same generation. When we were 10 years old or so, there were certain things on TV that kind of dominated our upbringing, and that's the place that we're going for that animated episode. It is a departure in the sense that it's not driven by -- you know, I was gonna say something that would… I'm not going to finish that thought, because it might spoil something.
Exit Theatre Mode
IGN: You mentioned the D&D episode. I know you talked about how there will be a sort of spiritual sequel, if you will, to that episode this season.
Harmon: Yeah, that was my big mistake this year, deciding that we're definitely going to do another D&D episode, because we love it so much. I don't know when I'm going to learn the lesson, but when I do that, I sentence the writers to writing hell, because if you only know that you're going to do something with D&D and you don't know why you're going to do it, you deserve to find out that there is no reason why and you end up bashing your brains against the walls trying to figure out a way to make it fun and organic and better than the last episode and blah, blah, blah. The good news is that we actually did figure it out. I'm not done editing it, so I won't toot my horn too much, but Joe Russo came back, who directed the first one. We do it in a different environment, and it's for a different reason. The stakes are different. It's a really fun story.In August 2016, energy consultant Steven Gardner gave a presentation to the trade group Professional Engineers in Mining (PDF). In it, he hammered the Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement for what he said was a highly flawed regulatory process behind the office’s Stream Protection Rule, a regulation designed to prevent water pollution near coal production sites. Gardner’s firm, ECSI LLC, had been retained by a coal industry trade group “to conduct a comprehensive critical review of the proposed rule,” which it opposed.
Gardner ended his August 2016 presentation with a slide asking, “What’s next?” that featured a photo of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Contrary to the slide’s projection, Donald Trump prevailed and ended up signing legislation rolling back the Stream Protection Rule.
And last week, things came full circle when the president nominated Gardner to lead the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, the very office he had vehemently criticized on behalf of a client in the coal industry.
Environmentalists were, naturally, outraged. The Sierra Club called the idea of Gardner running a government agency that oversees mining operations “akin to hiring a wolf to guard sheep.”
But while the choice of Gardner may have been galling to the group, it was in no way surprising. In fact, it is one of the more succinct illustrations of how government is being run in the age of Trump.
Nearly a year since he won election, the president has turned federal agencies over to the private industries that they regulate. And he has done so to a degree that ethics groups say they have never witnessed.
The Daily Beast examined 341 nominations the president has made to Senate-confirmed administration positions. Of those, more than half (179) have some notable conflict of interest, according to a comprehensive review of public records. One hundred and five nominees worked in the industries that they were being tasked with regulating; 63 lobbied for, were lawyers for, or otherwise represented industry members that they were being tasked with regulating; and 11 received payments or campaign donations from members of the industry that they were being tasked with regulating.
Of the 162 nominees who didn’t have an overt conflict, 19 had either given money to or been a surrogate for Trump’s campaign (many of them ending up in ambassadorships), while 24 were career appointments or reappointments.
Of the 179 nominations with a conflict, not all proved successful. Some nominees, like Gardner, await consideration. Others, such as fast food tycoon and one-time Labor secretary hopeful Andy Puzder, had their nominations withdrawn. But many have been confirmed by the Senate and sit in positions to influence a vast array of executive policy.
“The depth of the ties of the industry is pervasive,” said Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist for the group Public Citizen. “With the Trump administration we are seeing complete regulatory capture and quite frankly it will be the defining feature of this administration.”
Asked about the administration’s routine appointments of individuals from industries they’re being tasked with regulating, White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters told The Daily Beast that the administration has thoroughly followed through on President Trump’s promises to root out corruption and special interest influence in Washington.
“Following the President’s pledge to ‘drain the swamp,’ the Trump Administration has put in place historically strong lobbying restrictions for current and former Administration staff,” Walters said in an email. “Under the Trump administration, expenditures on lobbying have decreased, as firms stop finding it as profitable to try to buy influence and rig the game in their favor.”
The Greatest Hits
While the Gardner nomination may personify regulatory capture under Trump, it is by no means the only or even the most remarkable instance of it within the current administration.
That honor probably goes to David Zatezalo, who was nominated to be the assistant secretary for mine safety and health at the Department of Labor. Until 2014, Zatezalo was the chief executive of Rhino Resources, a Kentucky coal company. In 2011, Rhino was faulted for the death of one of its miners, who was killed by falling rocks caused by inadequate support beams. In 2013, a subsidiary of the company was blamed for a similar accident that killed a machine operator. The agency that went after Rhino in both those instances was the Labor Department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration, the very agency Zatezalo is now in line to lead.
Though not as bold as Zatezalo’s, there are many other nominations that have shocked good government groups as particularly audacious.
Trump nominated Brendan Carr, a former telecom lawyer who represented, among others, AT&T and Verizon, to serve as a commissioner for the Federal Communications Commission, which oversees telecoms. He was confirmed.
Trump nominated Dana Baiocco, a lawyer who defended companies accused of selling unsafe products—like Mattel and Yamaha—to serve as a commissioner for the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Trump nominated Michael Dourson, a prominent consultant for chemical manufactures, for the job of assistant administrator for chemical safety and pollution prevention at the EPA. Dourson hasn’t been confirmed yet. But he already appears to be working at the agency, much to the confusion of Senate Democrats. Dourson has deep ties to DuPont, whose products are believed to be in a massive West Virginia warehouse fire that could spark an investigation by the agency he may soon help run.
Trump nominated Carlos Muniz, a lawyer at the Florida AG’s office, to serve as general counsel at the Department of Energy. Among the cases Muniz has argued included one defending his office’s decision not to join a lawsuit against the non-university known as Trump University.
Trump nominated Jeffrey Rosen, a lobbyist for a major airline group, to be the deputy secretary at the Department of Transportation, which will likely seek to implement the president’s proposal to privatize air traffic control. He was confirmed.
Trump nominated Paul Dabbar to be the Energy Department’s new chief scientist. Dabbar previously served as the “Head of Energy Mergers & Acquisitions at J.P. Morgan,” which he touted during his confirmation hearing. “I had the opportunity to lead energy sector investments and transactions in all 50 states and around the world,” he exclaimed.
Trump nominated David Malpass to be the undersecretary for international affairs at the Department of Treasury. In 2007, Malpass was the chief economist for investment bank Bear Stearns when a market plunge cost equity markets about $2 trillion. He characterized the drop as a “correction” and added: “Housing and debt markets are not that big a part of the U.S. economy, or of job creation. It’s more likely the economy is sturdy and will grow solidly in coming months, and perhaps years.”
After Bear Stearns collapsed during the financial crisis the following year, Malpass founded Encima Global, which advises institutional investors. He also advised Trump on financial matters during the campaign. His nomination was confirmed.
Some agencies, like the Department of Housing and Urban Development, had relatively few people nominated to its ranks with overt conflicts—just three of its nine nominees had either worked at a law firm on housing policy, advised banks on affordable housing, or served as an executive of a housing finance consulting firm.
And then there’s Trump’s nominees for the Department of Agriculture. Every single one of them is tied back to agribusiness in some form or fashion.
There is the secretary, former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, who ran a company that trades agricultural commodities globally and who served as secretary of the Georgia Agribusiness Council. There is deputy secretary, Stephen Censky, who lobbied for the soybean industry for more than two decades as CEO of the American Soybean Association. There is general counsel, Stephen Alexander Vaden, who owns farmland that relies on the USDA’s Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage programs—and he pledged to recuse himself from matters involving both (PDF). There is undersecretary for farm and foreign agricultural services, William Northey, who served as president and chair of the National Corn Growers Association in addition to taking nearly $400,000 in contributions from agricultural sector donors as Iowa secretary of Agriculture.
There is undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs, Gregory Ibach, a family farmer who once served as president of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture. There is undersecretary for research, education and economics, Sam Clovis, who has received campaign contributions from the agriculture sector in his failed run for Senate. And there is undersecretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs, Ted McKinney, who worked for 19 years at Dow AgroSciences before heading into public service.
At his confirmation hearing, McKinney pledged to be a “happy warrior” for agriculture. He was confirmed unanimously by the Senate.
A Revolving Door
There are, generally put, two types of conflicts for those entering government. There is the kind in which donors and friends and industry bigwigs get jobs in government simply because of their name, reputation, or proximity to those in power. Betsy DeVos was a well-heeled donor whose kids never attended public school before becoming Education secretary. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson was a major Trump supporter whose top aide said he wasn’t prepared to run a federal agency. Energy Secretary Rick Perry was a prominent governor, who admitted he didn’t know what the Energy Department actually did before getting there.
While Perry has gotten donations from industry officials in the past, neither DeVos nor Carson are technically conflicted. Still, their nominations stirred controversy.
Then there is the revolving door kind of conflict, in which officials go back and forth between public service and work in the private sector—usually at lobbying shops or an industry looking to get in the administration’s good graces. In April, for instance, Marcus Peacock, a top deputy to White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, left to join the Business Roundtable, a trade association. A few months later, White House spokesman Michael Short joined another such group, the National Association of Manufacturers, and was soon spotted back at the White House at an event promoting U.S. manufacturing.
In the Trump administration, there has been a healthy mix of the two, especially at the Department of Defense.
Trump has chosen numerous people for powerful Pentagon posts whose resumes are in the military contracting world. Patrick Shanahan, for instance, was nominated and confirmed to be the Defense Department’s second in command in July. Before his Pentagon gig, he oversaw supply chain management and manufacturing for Boeing, the Pentagon’s second-largest contractor, which did more than $24 billion worth of business for the military last year alone. Ellen Lord, the head of Textron Systems, the 18th-largest defense contractor in the world, was nominated to be the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics. John Rood, Lockheed Martin International’s senior vice president, was nominated to be the undersecretary for policy.
But nominees to critical DoD positions also have had previous careers in public service prior to leaving for private practice. Trump’s third nominee for Army secretary, Mark Esper, is an executive at Raytheon. Before then, he served in the Bush administration as deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy, as well as on Capitol Hill. Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of the Army, Ryan McCarthy, worked for former Defense Secretary Robert Gates before leaving in 2011 to join Lockheed Martin.
Those who have studied the melding of private enterprise into U.S. military structure say that Trump has accelerated a trend that was developing long before he assumed office. And while they, and even some lawmakers, including Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), find it troublesome, they also argue that it could be worse.
Within defense circles, it is well understood that Secretary James Mattis has submarined some potential nominees with far thinner resumes. It’s also understood that Mattis has been unable to staff his department with certain officials who were critical of Trump during the campaign.
Left with a smaller pool of potential talent, the Pentagon has turned to the private sector, where there is still expertise and people tend to be more apolitical. The nominations are logical, such as placing Bruce Jette, a military robotics promoter and the head of a Pentagon contractor, to serve as assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, technology, and logistics. But they also run risks.
“Every time a Department of Defense nominee gets named, Google gets a real workout inside the building,” said Peter Singer, a senior fellow at the think tank New America and the author of numerous books on 21st century warfare. “This is happening more than it has in the past. But these nominees are not egregious. They are certainly not as egregious as what you are seeing at other agencies. They are not the ‘holy crap, how did you think that was appropriate?’ category.”
The Ethicists Themselves Are Conflicted
In defending the Trump administration’s staffing decisions, industry representatives point to the expertise that private sector officials bring as precisely why they should be staffing federal agencies.
“It is Trump’s prerogative to hire people who have first-hand knowledge of how federal regulations have impacted states, industry, workers, families,” said Thomas Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, an industry funded group, in an emailed statement. “Frankly, the Trump administration could probably be reaching further into the states and industry than he already has, but at least he is attempting to look outside the swamp for help.”
Industries such as fossil fuels and financial services that felt singled out by the Obama administration see their one-time colleagues’ presence in the Trump administration as a reversion to policy informed by those it most directly affects. Obama, they say, stacked his administration with explicitly hostile officials. “Absolutely, personnel is policy,” Pyle wrote. “For eight years, the revolving door between the Obama administration and enviro lawyers, lobbyists, and activists was in full swing.”
Indeed, the revolving door between the public and private sectors, or between federal agencies and groups lobbying them, is an old and bipartisan phenomenon, and a frequent target of criticism from would-be reformers promising to shake up Washington. Chief among them is Donald Trump himself, who famously pledged to “drain the swamp” on the campaign trail and declared success on that front 100 days into his administration.
A pillar of that promise was an “ethics pledge” that Trump imposed on all administration nominees and appointees in an executive order shortly after taking office. Though weaker in many respects than a similar pledge imposed by his predecessor, Trump’s contained language designed to limit the industry-government revolving door, and implicitly acknowledged the undue influence of special interests on policymaking and regulatory processes.
But the White House then exempted wide swaths of the administration from provisions of that pledge, including every senior White House official and every former employee of the law firm Jones Day, which, in addition to representing Trump during the campaign, boasts some of the most prominent and profitable companies in the world on its client list—many of which have business before the U.S. government.
Good government groups have harshly criticized the president for abandoning the swamp-cleaning posture he ran on, though they never gave it much credence to begin with. But they also are conflicted about it. Are there cases, the question goes, where a bit of corruption is a necessary trade-off for a dose of competence? And if so, to what end?
Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, noted that the nominations Trump has made to Department of Justice have a similar quality: strong ties to corporate clients and serious resumes.
“Unlike in other parts of the government these are highly credentialed, conflicted people within the revolving door,” he explained. “That’s different than whatever the heck is going on at EPA or Energy, which are clusterfucks. This is a scandal along the lines of what normally makes people angry at D.C. It is less esoteric. But in some ways it is more dangerous because Department of Justice could clean up some of the errors made by other parts of the government.”
Trump is not unique, Hauser and others regretfully noted, in his reliance on people from private practice to fill government posts. Where he is unique is in the extent to which he is turning to individuals with no real previous government expertise for those posts.
“While some of the president’s nominees are nontraditional,” noted Scott Amey, general counsel for the Project on Government Oversight, “they are merely from a neighboring swamp and we’re in for years of the same old problems brought on by senior officials coming and going through the revolving door.”
Shortly before this article posted news broke that another set of nominations were announced (too late to include in our review). Among those listed was Scott Mugno, the vice president of safety, sustainability, and vehicle maintenance at FedEx Ground, who was the president’s choice to serve as assistant secretary of Labor at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
—with reporting by Joanna Purpich, Scott Bixby, Alex Brook Lynn, Tim Teeman, Kelly Weill, Justin Miller, Nico Hines, Andrew Desiderio, Emilie Plesset, and Asawin Suebsaeng
A note about our methodology: The Daily Beast used The Washington Post’s list of nominations made by Trump as well as official White House nomination notices to compile our data base. If someone was nominated twice, we counted that as two nominations. This is a database of nominations made, as much as a database of nominees put forward. We cross-referenced that list with the public disclosure forms made by nominees as well as official bios submitted by the administration and from the nominee’s prior place of employment(s). We cross referenced our work with data put together by Public Citizen. Additionally, we asked several good government groups to look over our database to ensure that no errors were made.After a week off the guys are back to make your commute 6% more comfortable. They mostly talk about Dave’s trip to Tokyo, including Dave meeting some nut bars at a bar that believe Hillary Clinton died and was cloned. WE SHIT YOU NOT fine listeners. Other topics include: beer recommendations, Gio’s Ramen Blog, and buying wine with Monopoly money.
Team GFB Radio – Episode 121 – Gnocchi For Breakfast
Original Air Date: January 23rd, 2017
2:40 – Dave brings another beer recommendation.
6:05 – Dave recounts his trip to Japan, and eats at a lot of places recommended by Gio’s Ramen blog.
26:45 – Dave’s post-international-travel-movie-reviews Team GFB Radio exclusive part of the show.
31:40 – Dave ran into some people at a bar that were BATSHIT CRAZY.
40:00 – Emails! Ben from Madison is going to Japan with friends on a $300/day budget and wants some tips. If you’re going to Tokyo for the first time watch this.
1:02:55 – Mike writes in to relate a dream his wife, Sarah, had that Dave appeared in (he was balling out of control with Monopoly money).In a delightful convergence of ancient wisdom and modern technology, Lama Tsultrim Allione spoke with Inquiring Mind via Skype from Darsedo, a historic border town in a steep valley surrounded by Himalyan peaks between eastern China and Tibet. Following the shocking death of her husband, David Petit, who died in the middle of the night from a heart attack this past July, she had come here as part of a pilgrimage on her way to Tibet, Nepal and India. In Darsedo she received teachings and the Entrustment Ceremony (Ka Tey) for the treasury of Do Khyentse Yeshe Dorje’s lineage from Jetsunma Do Dasel Wangmo, who is an eighty-three-year-old nun, a highly regarded Tibetan doctor and the great-granddaughter of Do Khyentse Yeshe Dorje (1800–1866).
Lama Tsultrim was ordained as a Tibetan nun, taking vows in 1970 from the Sixteenth Karmapa in Bodhgaya. After four years as a nun, she returned her monastic robes, married and raised a family of three. In 1993, after her children had grown up, Lama Tsultrim founded Tara Mandala in Southwestern Colorado with her husband David. Tara Mandala is
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is no other candidate, and they had some incredibly qualified people, there is no other candidate that could have done to the Clintons what Donald Trump did,” said Bannon during a brief address at the private University Club.
“His galvanizing this movement put us 20 years ahead of where we’d be if he hadn’t come. He’s a very imperfect person. He’s the first to admit that, but he’s our president and if we back down from this fight, if we roll over from this fight, if we give up on this fight, we’re going to waste something that is very precious to this country because I got to tell you, there’s going to be a fight to nullify every election from here on in,” added the former White House counselor in comments participants provided to Secrets.
Bannon spoke at the 40th Annual Pumpkin Papers Irregulars, a celebration of anti-Communism and a reference to the 1940s scandal in which documents given to Whittaker Chambers by State Department official Alger Hiss for transmission to the Soviet Union were hidden in a pumpkin by Chambers, who became a noted conservative and anti-communist.
The annual dinner, typically held around Halloween, has a ritual of the burning of papers in a pumpkin and Bannon and former Trump advisor Sebastian Gorka participated.
Bannon warned of a coming "crisis" in which the Democrats will try to gain control of Washington in the 2018 midterm elections and snuff out Trump's agenda. And, failing that, he added, they will come after Trump with legal attacks in 2019. He has been urging the White House to battle special prosecutor Robert Muller much more aggressively.
And he urged GOP leaders to stand with Trump and show support for the voters who put him in office.
Citing blue-collar workers in Ohio, Michigan, and Iowa as an example, he said, “They always do the right thing, and they’re looking for leadership and they have our back but we have to lead them.
In his address to the 100 at dinner, hosted by conservative publisher Alfred Regnery, Bannon also warned of the anti-American “axis” of China, Turkey, and Persia.
“We are coming together right now, as clear as the morning sun, China, Persia, and Turkey in an axis that collectively is going to be the greatest enemy and the greatest force of evil we’ve ever faced,” he said.
As he left the dinner, Bannon told one of the Irregulars, "We need to wake up the Republican establishment."
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at [email protected] Donald Trump has a plethora of movie and television credits that most budding actors can only dream of.
But according to movie star Matt Damon, it’s not because of the way Trump delivers his lines. Actually, it’s more about directors playing the game to gain permission to film on his property.
“The deal was that if you wanted to shoot in one of his buildings, you had to write him in a part,” Damon told The Hollywood Reporter in a wide-ranging interview published online Friday.
“[Director] Martin Brest had to write something in ‘Scent of a Woman’ — and the whole crew was in on it,” Damon claimed. “You have to waste an hour of your day with a bullshit shot: Donald Trump walks in and Al Pacino’s like, ‘Hello, Mr. Trump!’ — you had to call him by name — and then he exits.”
Watch Trump’s cameo in “Home Alone 2: Lost In New York”:
Essentially, “you waste a little time so that you can get the permit, and then you can cut the scene out,” Damon explained. “But I guess in ‘Home Alone 2’ they left it in.”
“It was explained to us that in order for us to film at the Plaza [Hotel in New York City, which Trump then owned], we had a little walk-on part for Donald and Marla [Maples, Trump’s wife at the time],” O’Donnell said.
The scene was indeed later consigned to the cutting room floor, however.
Damon also railed against Trump for failing to fully condemn white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, and called his “many sides” comment “abhorrent.”VANCOUVER - RCMP say they have foiled a domestic terror attack hatched by two Canadian citizens, driven by an "al-Qaida ideology" to blow up the British Columbia legislature during Canada Day celebrations.
The force was informed of the alleged plot in February by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, and a five-month investigation culminated with the arrests of two people in Abbotsford, B.C., on Monday, RCMP announced on Tuesday.
"This self-radicalized behaviour was intended to cause maximum impact and harm to Canadian citizens at the B.C. legislature on a national holiday," Assistant Commissioner Wayne Rideout said at a news conference in Surrey, B.C.
"They took steps to educate themselves and produce explosive devices designed to cause injury and death.
"The suspects were committed to acts of violence and discussed a wide variety of targets and techniques."
John Stuart Nuttall, 38, and Amanda Marie Korody, born in 1983, appeared in court Tuesday morning in Surrey, and were charged with three counts each: knowingly facilitating a terrorist activity, making or possessing an explosive device, and conspiracy to place an explosive device with the intent to cause death or injury.
RCMP released photos of what they said were the home-made bombs contained in pressure cookers, that police say are similar to a pair of bombs that killed three people and injured more than 260 during the Boston Marathon two months ago. The RCMP categorically ruled out any links to the Boston bombings.
"Our investigation revealed that these individuals were inspired by al-Qaida ideology but there is no evidence to indicate that these individuals had the support or were acting at the direction of a terrorist group, per se," said Assistant Commissioner James Malizia.
The RCMP revealed little about the suspects and their background or what may have motivated the alleged conspiracy, other than repeatedly saying the plot was linked to an "al-Qaida ideology."
When asked whether the alleged plot had a religious motive or was instead driven by something else, Malizia was vague.
"In this case here, the ideology had to do with a criminal act, wanting to pursue criminal acts on behalf of an organization that they believed in, and that organization and the ideology behind that organization as you know it is the al-Qaida ideology," he said.
However, the couple's Surrey landlord questioned where they might have acquired the money for the alleged plot. She said while they paid their rent on time, the couple lived in poverty and on social assistance, didn't have a car or bike and wore "torn clothes," noting that sometimes Korody dressed in what she believed was a burka.
The landlady said the couple even had to borrow money from her, on one occasion as little as $20.
"It is general knowledge, if you don't have anything, you know, how can you buy all these things and bring them it to Victoria and come back, you know," she asked.
The landlady even called Nuttall a polite person who was never harsh with anybody in her family.
Tom Morino, a lawyer who has represented Nuttall in the past, said he received a call from RCMP and spoke to him for about a half an hour from the lock-up on Monday evening. He also spoke to Korody for about 15 minutes.
Morino said he had not received any information from police about the case, but he said he will be involved, though he said he cannot represent both the accused.
Morino said he represented Nuttall previously. In 2002, Nuttall pleaded guilty to a robbery charge in Victoria and was sentenced to an 18-month conditional sentence.
A March 2003 story about the case in the Victoria Times-Colonist said drug addiction fuelled a criminal record that already included previous convictions for robbery, kidnapping and aggravated assault.
Court records for both John Stuart Nuttall and John Stewart Nuttall — an alternate spelling also used on the indictment filed Tuesday — also list convictions for dangerous possession of a weapon, mischief and multiple convictions for assault.
Morino said in 2002 that Nuttall was under the influence of cocaine and didn't remember much of what happened. He told the court then that Nuttall had entered a methadone treatment program and appeared to have turned his life around and was doing "remarkably well."
On Tuesday, Morino urged the public — and police — not to jump to conclusions about the two accused.
"We have to be careful about the hyperbole and use of these kind of descriptions of al-Qaida and such," he said, suggesting RCMP may have "self-serving reasons" for using such language about the alleged crime.
The RCMP said the force has been following the suspects' activities for months and said investigators ensured the alleged bombs were harmless. They offered few details of the five-month Project Souvenir, which involved the national Integrated National Security Enforcement Team, but did say that the investigation involved covert activities.
At no time during the investigation was public security at risk, Malizia said. The devices shown in the photographs were inert, and posed no public threat, police said.
Several leading members of B.C.'s Muslim community were shocked at the alleged home-grown plot.
"These names don't ring a bell at all. They're not even Muslim names," said Adam Buksh, president of Surrey's Jamia Mosque, in the city where police say both Nuttall and Korody were living.
Buksh said members of his mosque and the B.C. Muslim Association do not condone radicalism.
"In my mosque, if I see any kind of things like that happening... I will stop them in their tracks and report them to the authorities," he said. "We are law-abiding."
David Ali, spokesman for the B.C. Muslim Association, was doubtful the two suspects were part of any mosque.
"I don't think we expect anything of that sort in B.C., and people are very vigilant," he said.
After the Boston Marathon bombings, Buksh said members of the RCMP expressed some concern about a backlash against Muslims but no such thing materialized, Buksh said. Both men hoped the same will hold true for the alleged domestic plot.
B.C. Premier Christy Clark said she was profoundly shocked by news of the arrests.
"But let me say this to those who resort to terror: You will not succeed," Clark told reporters at the legislature in Victoria.
"You will not succeed in damaging our democratic institutions. Just as importantly, you will not succeed in tearing down the values that make this country strong."
Federal Public Safety Minister Vic Toews applauded the work of the law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation.
"Yesterday's arrests demonstrate that terrorism continues to be a real threat to Canada," Toews said in a statement.
"The RCMP has assured me that at no time during the course of this investigation was there an imminent risk to the safety of Canadians.
Also on HuffPostBuy Photo Detroit police chief James Craig talks to the media in front of the Spirit of Detroit Statue at the Coleman A. Young Municipal building in Detroit on Monday, December 8, 2014. (Photo: Jessica J. Trevino, Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo
Detroit Police Chief James Craig's contract has been extended two years, an agreement Mayor Mike Duggan said came easily in a "rare case" where the community is united in support.
Craig, 58, said he intends to stay here until retirement. When more than 600 people gathered to protest violence after the shooting of a federal judge earlier this year, it made him "humbled and proud" to be part of Detroit, he said.
"This community is resilient, this community is engaged, and this community is about making Detroit a safer city," he said.
The contract announcement Thursday morning drew applause as Craig and Duggan stood with police, union leaders, community leaders and other officials at Detroit Public Safety Headquarters in downtown Detroit. The contract is set to automatically renew each year; if either Craig or the mayor chooses to terminate it, he'll pay the other the term's remaining balance, Duggan announced Thursday.
"I have been so pleased with what I have seen" from Craig, Duggan said. "I am confident that we have the best leader for this department."
Under Craig, the 911 response time has decreased from 37 minutes to 16 minutes, he said. He also said there's more work to be done.
"We have a serious problem with people using guns to settle beefs," Duggan said, adding that serious strategies will be rolled out in the next couple months.
Craig, whose annual salary will remain $225,000, has been with the department since 2013.
Today, he thanked prosecutors and other law enforcement agencies for their cooperation as he works to make Detroit safer.
Police union leaders said they appreciate the chief's openness and willingness to work together.
Craig said cooperation with such groups in the community such as community-activist group Detroit 300 and the Nation of Islam is positive and not something seen in other cities.
Pastor Maurice Hardwick, a local community leader, said Craig is taking the right approach.
"He's reaching out because he realizes he can't arrest his way out of this," he said.
Craig grew up in Detroit and graduated from Cass Technical High School. He became a Detroit police officer in 1977. After being laid off, he went to the Los Angeles Police Department, where he worked for nearly three decades. From there, he became police chief in Portland, Maine, in 2009 and, in 2011, went on to become chief in Cincinnati.
In 2013, Craig told the Free Press he was excited to come back to his hometown. He said he wanted to be the chief "as long as Detroit will have me."
Since arriving, Craig has implemented weekly COMPSTAT meetings to identify crime trends, the department has orchestrated a number of large-scale operations that have netted hundreds of arrests and the recovery of weapons and he has worked to bridge the gap between the police department and the community.
At a news conference in January, Craig said people in the community report that they feel safer. "What I've heard, throughout the year, they've seen change in the police department and our response," he said.
Police reported earlier this year that violent and property crimes, including homicides, non-fatal shootings, robberies, carjackings, burglaries and larcenies, dropped in 2014 from 2013. According to police, there were 300 homicide cases in 2014, down from 332 the year before.
So far this year, homicides are up. As of May 10, Detroit had seen 101 homicides, compared to 81 during the same time in 2014.
Free Press staff writer Jim Schaefer contributed to this report.
Contact Robert Allen at [email protected] or @rallenMI.
Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/1HjUWcgDrug users all over the world are celebrating today after drugs were officially declared the winner in the war on drugs.
The news brings an end to a long and bloody war, which seen international governments pour money into a campaign which had little or no effect on front line drug users.
“Well thank god that war is over,” claimed Ian Spencer, an avid drug user and Liverpool fan. “I knew this was going to be our year and it feels really nice to be right for a change. I’m gonna go celebrate with a spliff and maybe even a cheeky line or two.”
Mexican Cartel boss Javier Torres, also known as El Don, has claimed that he is so happy with the result of the war that he will “stop cutting rival cartel member’s heads off for at least “one or two days”.
“This is a great day for drugs but more importantly a great day for people all over the world,” explained El Don from his house made entirely out of money. “It was touch and go there for a while but thankfully drugs came through in the end, I think I might add another floor to mansion to celebrate.”
“Now that the war is finally over the money politicians spent trying to ensure guys like me can’t afford Ferraris can be put into more pressing areas,” continued El Don, who claims to be responsible for the death of at least two hundred people. “Like bailing out banks, paying bonuses and giving consultants money to think up new ways to milk the public for every penny possible.”
“So in actual fact nothing much will really changed but at least now people can take some comfort in drugs.”
According to inside information, international forces are believed to be regrouping to wage another war, which can never be won, on music piracy, more on this story as it happens.Taking a page from a spy novel, London wants to put tracking devices on food trucks in a bylaw that could green-light the mobile eateries this summer.
The global positioning satellite (GPS) devices, installed at the operator’s expense, would collect information about where the kitchens-on-wheels park and make sure they’re following the city’s rules, said bylaw boss Orest Katolyk.
The controversial kitchens-on-wheels could hit downtown streets as early as this summer.
“It’s not that we don’t trust (the operators),” Katolyl said of GPS devicies. “It’s (also) a good way to verify, if there is a complaint, that there was no violation,” he said.
But it’s not just policing the roadside vendors that makes GPS attractive — it’s also a useful way to zero in on the most coveted parking locations and times for the trucks, which would fall under a control bylaw Katolyk will spell out Wednesday.
Katolyk will do so before a city council committee.
“It’s something we discussed and something that restaurant owners asked us — how will we know every night of the week where they are?” Katolyk said of the trucks.
“With a GPS, the city can monitor where they’re located” to make sure they’re followign the byalw.
Katolyk said he isn’t aware of any other city that requires food trucks to have GPS devices.
Common in major cities, but still not here, food trucks have been a contentious issue in London — mainly among traditional downtown eateries with higher costs — and were nixed by the last city council.
It’s widely expected the new council, made up almost entirely of rookies, will approve the trucks.
GPS devices are common in large vehicle fleets, such as transport trucks and transit buses, especially when real time information is needed about where the vehicles are located.
“It has become a bit of a normal thing in fleet management,” Katolyk said.
The public will be able to have its say when the bylaw is presented.
GPS would also allow food inspectors to know exactly where the trucks are when they visit them.
Operators would be responsible for logging their locations.
Some restaurants have opposed the trucks, saying they’ll eat into their already-tight business.
The report to council’s community and protective services committee will also include a map of where the food trucks would be allowed to park from among 200 parking spaces, in 32 distinct areas. They’d also have to keep to minimum distances from restaurants and schools.
“It would start as a pilot project,” said Coun. Josh Morgan, the committee chair.
“We want to make sure we get it right,” he said.
“Sometimes, you don’t know what’s working and what’s not until you try.”
[email protected]
Twitter.com/KateatLFPress
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PROPOSED BYLAWJeremy Corbyn will attempt to confront the crisis facing his leadership on Monday morning as he enters emergency talks with the deputy Labour leader, Tom Watson, amid a series of further shadow cabinet walkouts and a likely vote of no confidence from his MPs.
The Labour leader, who was left reeling after his decision to sack the shadow foreign secretary, Hilary Benn, was followed by the resignations of 11 senior shadow cabinet members, said he would not “betray the trust” of the people who voted for him by stepping down. He vowed to stand against anyone challenging him for the leadership.
But Corbyn has come under huge pressure from the resignations, which will pitch politicians against Labour party members who elected Corbyn by an overwhelming majority in a battle for the heart of the party.
The Guardian view on post-Brexit politics: perilous times for progressives | Editorial Read more
Heidi Alexander, the shadow health secretary, was the first to walk out, followed by Gloria De Piero, who has represented young people and toured the country talking to Labour voters and members.
Those that followed included Lord Falconer, the shadow justice secretary, Seema Malhotra, the shadow chief secretary and Chris Bryant, the shadow leader of the Commons. In his resignation letter, Bryant told Corbyn: “If you refuse to step aside I fear you will go down in history as the man who broke the Labour party.”
Many said they believed the cataclysmic loss of the EU referendum had created a sea change of opinion among the party’s membership.
Others argued the turmoil in the Tory party, caused by the shock Brexit vote and leading to the possibility of a general election within months, had forced them to act, with further senior figures expected to resign on Monday.
The shadow business secretary, Angela Eagle, was among those thought to be considering their positions, with a string of more junior shadow ministers also likely to step down, and council leaders expected to speak out. Many are pointing the finger of blame at Corbyn over the EU referendum, with Phil Wilson, the MP who chaired the parliamentary campaign to remain in Europe, accusing his leader of consistently trying to “weaken and sabotage” the pro-EU effort.
Watson, who will be a key figure in determining whether the leader can survive, intervened on Sunday evening to say he was saddened about the resignations.
But in a blow for Corbyn, his deputy, who was forced to rush back from Glastonbury festival, also said he was deeply disappointed about the sacking of Benn and could add his voice to those urging him to resign.
Arguing that his focus was keeping his party together through turbulent times, Watson said: “It’s very clear to me that we are heading for an early general election and the Labour party must be ready to form a government. There’s much work to do.”
Corbyn sabotaged Labour’s remain campaign. He must resign | Phil Wilson Read more
Corbyn responded late on Sunday, saying he regretted the resignations but was determined to reshape his shadow cabinet over the next 24 hours. “I was elected by hundreds of thousands of Labour party members and supporters with an overwhelming mandate for a different kind of politics … I am not going to betray the trust of those who voted for me– or the millions of supporters across the country who need Labour to represent them.
“Those who want to change Labour’s leadership will have to stand in a democratic election, in which I will be a candidate,” he added, arguing that the referendum result underlined how shut out of the political system millions felt.
Writing in the Guardian, Len McCluskey, the general secretary of the Unite union, warned MPs tweeting and briefing against their leader that they could face mandatory deselections if they continued with their disloyalty. “Those Labour MPs plunging their party into an unwanted crisis are betraying not only the party itself but also our national interest at one of the most critical moments any of us can recall,” he wrote.
The grassroots movement Momentum also began mobilising to protect Corbyn, with phone banks being set up to contact up to 100,000 supporters ready for another leadership battle. A petition had attracted almost 200,000 signatures to save the leader, and a protest is being planned outside parliament on Monday evening at the same time as the leader will face the vote of no confidence.
The rebels hope that they can challenge Corbyn to the leadership, and that he will be unable to stand because he will fall short of the required nominations from MPs.
Any contest is likely to trigger a bitter legal challenge. One piece of advice from lawyers, leaked to the Guardian, suggests that the leader may automatically have the right to run again without backing from Labour politicians. The document states that an “election triggered by a challenge to the incumbent” does not involve “the case of a vacancy” so does not require the leader to attract nominations. A challenger, however, would need the backing of 20% of Labour’s Westminster and European parties.
But a national executive committee source said the party had separate advice that had drawn the opposite conclusion, and argued that there was a historic precedent for leaders to have to seek out nominations in the case of a challenge.
The Guardian understands that rebel politicians are planning to poll Labour members as they work together to decide the best way in which to depose their leader. Potential leadership challengers, such as Dan Jarvis and Angela Eagle, are prepared to work together to decide which candidate has the best chance of toppling Corbyn.
Rumours in Westminster were that the MPs had organised themselves via a WhatsApp group called “the birthday” with one supporter of Corbyn saying information about the coup had been passed on to the leadership team, including the fact that Powell was likely to resign.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Former shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn appears on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday. Photograph: Reuters
One organiser said: “The plan is to make Corbyn’s job as leader extremely difficult in the hope of pushing him to resign, with most MPs refusing to serve as shadow ministers, show up on the frontbench in the House of Commons, support him at PMQs or formulate policy under his leadership.”
De Piero told Corbyn in her resignation letter that she had a “warm personal relationship” with the Labour leader but added: “I do not believe you can deliver that victory at a general election, which may take place in a matter of months. I have been contacted by many of my members this weekend and it is clear that a good number of them share that view and have lost faith in your leadership.”
Powell told Corbyn that she had enjoyed her role, which included pushing the government to drop plans for forced academisation of schools. She said she found her leader “decent, principled and kind”, but added: “However, it is increasingly clear that your position is untenable and that you are unable to command the support of the shadow cabinet, the parliamentary Labour party, and most importantly the country.”
Greenwood told the Guardian she had told Corbyn that the party needed unity, and she felt that was only possible under new leadership. “The EU referendum has exacerbated fault lines within the party and our supporters, and those divisions are still widening,” she added.
Perhaps the biggest surprise resignation was Malhotra, who was seen as an MP who had behaved loyally and would stand by Corbyn. Some suggested she was working on behalf of the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, a charge that was fiercely denied by both teams.
McDonnell said Corbyn was going nowhere, and questioned if his opponents had got enough sleep since the EU referendum last week. He said: “We are on the path of building a majority government for Labour … I think they should calm down and listen to their members.”
Brexit crisis won't end for years – and no one is taking responsibilty Read more
Other allies of Corbyn also waded in, with Diane Abbott, Emily Thornberry and Jon Trickett offering support. “We need to get on with the business of offering an alternative vision of a Britain outside the EU to the one offered by [Michael] Gove and [Nigel] Farage, which is a small-minded, inward looking and chauvinistic,” said Trickett.
Abbott, the shadow international development secretary and a staunch supporter of Corbyn, said some of her colleagues had been planning to launch a coup for months, whatever the result in the EU referendum.
She said the challenge to his leadership was “a recipe for unhappiness”, adding: “There has been a plan to challenge Jeremy for a long time, because many have failed to reconcile themselves with his victory last year.”NEW YORK -- When Indianapolis Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri rolled past me on the NFL.com/Live set Wednesday, I felt compelled to pull up his stats on my phone. This is what sports nerds do.
His career achievements are staggering. Eighteen seasons, four Super Bowl rings, 499 field goals. He even has a touchdown pass, which I'm sure he can recall with impeccable detail. Vinatieri, 41, showed little in the way of slippage this season, connecting on 35 of 40 field-goal attempts.
I took a brisk walk through Radio Row with the kicker and asked him how long he planned to keep doing this.
"I feel that as long as I'm an asset and not a liability I'm still loving the game as much as I ever have," he said. "I feel like I potentially have a few more years as long as I can keep my body feeling healthy and keep kicking at a high level."
We had to ask about recent comments from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who discussed a proposal to abolish the extra point. As you can assume, Vinatieri is not about it.
"I don't think any of us are above the ability to change football from what it is," he said. "I mean, it's been the way it has been for 100 years. I don't know if we should start changing that stuff up."
Vinatieri then offered up a counter idea only a kicker could come up with.
'ATL Podcast' The
The Around The League team hits all the NFL's hottest topics in its award-winning podcast. Join the conversation. Listen
"If anything, make a 50-yard field goal worth four points instead of three," he said. "Now all of a sudden we become more valuable rather than less valuable."
Vinatieri's idea feels a little too "Rock 'n' Jock" to us, but we're not on board with eliminating the extra point, either. If the NFL thinks the point-after attempt is too easy, why not just push the kick back 10 or 15 yards?
Sometimes the best solution is the easiest one.
The latest "Around The League Podcast" breaks down the Media Day stars and reflects on the significance of Super Bowl XLVIII.The tournament structure will reward rounds won, as teams will be paid out per round won, and the amount of money paid out per round will increase as teams go deeper in the tournament. According to Fragbite, this is how the tournament will run:
All the teams that compete in the G:loot Cup, and win at least one round, gets a share of the total prize pool.
Throughout the eight qualifiers the participating teams will be rewarded €1 per round won until the RO2 where the payouts will be raised to €3. At the qualifier finals the payout will be raised to €5.
A whopping €25 per round won will be waiting for the teams that successfully qualify to the main tournament. This is continued all the way throughout the semifinals as the payout will finally be raised to an impressive 50€ per round won. Beyond the prize money from round winnings, the tournament also features a €1,000 extra that will be given out to the winners of the tournament.
Players of all nationalities are welcome to participate in the tournament, as long as they fulfill the requirements that are specified in the official tournament rules.
Attention! In order to win money you will need to be over 18 years of age. Players under 18 are still welcome to participate, even though they can't recieve any prize money.The "most systemically dangerous bank in the world" is in grave trouble. Despite exclamations that there is "no need for additional capital" and that "Deutsche Bank is no Lehman" investors are fleeing the bank's assets en masse as professionals pile in to buy counterparty risk protection. With the only thing standing between bank runs and stability being the confidence of depositors, and knowing full well that everybody lies when it gets serious, one witty trader noted, "if it walks like Lehman, and talks like Lehman... it is Lehman."
Deutsche stock is collapsing...
And counterparty risk hedges are spiking...
as the bottom end of DB's capital structure is starting to reflect a serious haircut...
And the DB pain is spreading to the entire EU banking system...
When is Draghi going to starting sell CDS Protection?Germany's Agriculture Ministry moved to calm concerns over food safety with test results showing acceptable levels of dioxin, a potentially cancer-causing
chemical compound, in poultry and meat.
The European Commission said South Korea had become the first country to suspend imports of German pork, and accused Seoul of overreacting.
"It is a decision which is out of proportion as to what is going on in Germany, but we are going to try to talk with the South Koreans to reassure them," said Frederic Vincent, spokesman for European health commissioner John Dalli.
Brussels does not consider there are grounds for declaring a ban on exports of German meat or other products from Germany "because the farms have been closed and farm products which have been delivered are blocked, awaiting analysis," Vincent said.
Slovakia became the first EU country to impose restrictions on German meat, after it suspended sales of poultry meat and eggs while it conducted tests to assess dioxin levels.
"The Agriculture Ministry has ordered checks in shops and warehouses in response to the discovery of dioxins in certain foods," Slovakia said in a statement. "Pending the results of laboratory tests, the sale of eggs and poultry imported from Germany will be temporarily suspended."
Russia's agriculture watchdog said it had stepped up controls on food of animal origin from Germany and also from other EU countries although it did not specify which ones fell under the tougher regime.
The watchdog also warned that Russia could ban meat imports if it did not receive official information on the situation.
"The European Union still lacks a system to react urgently to cases that could be dangerous for animals and humans," the watchdog's spokesman Alexei Alexeyenko told the Interfax news agency.
The British Food Standards Agency said on Friday that cakes and quiches from two manufacturers which use liquefied eggs from Germany would be removed from shops, although due to the short shelf-lives of the products, most would already have been eaten.
German news magazine Focus reported on Saturday that increased dioxin levels had been recorded in animals, according to a report sent by the government to European authorities on Thursday.
This shows that meat probes taken from three laying hens contained 4.99 pictograms of dioxin per gram of meat – way over the top permitted level of two pictograms per gram. A public warning to stay away from such meat would not be made, as no immediate health risk could be expected, the federal Consumer Protection Ministry said in the report.
The assets of feed producer Harles & Jenzsch have been frozen, according to Focus, in anticipation of compensation claims, while nearly 5,000 farms across Lower Saxony and eight other states have been closed.
New accusations against Harles & Jenzsch are also being made by the Lower Saxony Agriculture Ministry, the local paper Westfalen Blatt reported on Saturday. It said that the firm could not only face charges of breaking food and feed rules, but also fraud and tax evasion.
A ministry spokesman told the paper that there was much to indicate that the firm had conned its customers and sold industrial fatty acids as feed fats - worth twice as much.
The scandal has continued to spread across Germany since it emerged that about 3,000 tonnes of industrial fatty acids contaminated with the highly toxic substance dioxin were used to enrich feed for egg-laying hens, poultry and pigs.
As only a small quantity of oil is generally added to animal feed, the original 3,000 tonnes may have been mixed into tens of thousands of tonnes of feed.
AFP/DADP/DPA/hc/mryImage caption Florence Weston had a fractured hip
Eighty-five-year-old Florence Weston was an active, outgoing person when she was taken into hospital with a fractured hip in December 2007.
She enjoyed living on her own and led a busy life.
But by Christmas she was dead, following repeated delays and three operations in 12 days.
According to her son Mike Weston she suffered "appalling care".
Florence's family were "shocked and horrified by her treatment".
Apart from a minor heart attack four years before, Florence was in good health when she fell and damaged her hip.
She was treated at Russells Hall Hospital in the West Midlands, where her son expected her to be operated on quickly.
But she was told day after day that she would have to wait for surgery.
For a proud woman to be told to wet the bed was an absolute disgrace. Mike Weston
Five days later Florence was taken to theatre but during that period she had not been allowed to eat or drink.
Terrifying pain
"It was a shocking state of affairs," says her son Mike. "I knew she should have had the operation within 48 hours and was very upset when she didn't, but I kept being fobbed off by the hospital when I asked what was happening."
"The pain of those first five days must have been terrifying for her."
The worst thing, Mike says, was his mother being told by nursing staff to wet the bed because she couldn't get up to go to the toilet.
"For a proud woman to be told that was an absolute disgrace," he said.
When Mike visited her next, his mother was in tears and demanded to be taken home.
When she was eventually operated on, the surgery was not done correctly and Florence had to be transferred to another hospital.
There she had to undergo another operation lasting between four and five hours.
In the end, says Mike, "she wasn't strong enough to deal with it all".
"If the operation had been done in the first 48 hours I think she would have had good chance of survival and been OK," he says.
But, at the time, the hospital told him there were other clinical priorities. It was only when Mike managed to speak to a senior consultant that things finally got moving for his mother.
Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Russells Hall Hospital, said: "We have made many improvements to our services, one of which is our target for patients to receive surgery for fractured hip in less than 24 hours from admission.
"We have also introduced several measures to improve access to hip fracture surgery including appointing a matron with experience in this field."
But Florence's experience is not unique. A study from the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death suggests just a third of elderly people undergoing surgery receive good care.
Pain management, nutrition and delays were all highlighted as problems by experts.
The findings prompted the Patients Association to say the problem was a "national disgrace".A couple of weeks after rumors first hit the Internet that Microsoft might be in talks to acquire the popular "to-do" app Wunderlist, a new report claims that the acquisition is a done deal. According to The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft has purchased the company behind the app, the German-based 6Wunderkinder, for between $100 and $200 million.
Neither company has officially confirmed this deal, but the WSJ claims that the Wunderlist team will remain in its home office in Berlin, Germany to continue working on the app. If the report is indeed correct, this will be just the latest acquisition by Microsoft for a mobile productivity app company. It bought the e-mail client Acom
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on this message. Now everyday all people are thinking about is God will not have same-sex marriage,” she said.
Since the “rainbow” house is in an area zoned for residential use, it will not be used for offices but will provide a place for volunteers to live, Jackson explained. He hopes to start an anti-bullying program and is seeking seed money.
Meanwhile, the house is causing traffic jams in Topeka, Jackson said. He calls the response “incredible” and remains amazed at the number of people showing up. “Thousands of people have stopped by, people from out of state, and they’re taking pictures.”
While we were on the phone, someone dropped off groceries — Jackson said it looked like a hundred dollars’ worth — as a donation to the cause.
As a native Midwesterner, I’m proud of the welcome Jackson’s received. After all, he explained why he’s doing this. “I want to show where there’s hate, there can also be love.”
Diana Reese is a freelance journalist in Overland Park, Kan. Follow her on Twitter at @dianareese.There’s no denying it: life can be stressful. Thankfully, there are a myriad of ways to relax and relieve stress – instantly improving the way that you feel and even the way that you look. If you’re someone who suffers from frequent or occasional stress, we are hoping that you find some sweet relief in the list below…
1. Meditate
Your mind is incredibly powerful and there are strong beliefs that meditation can affect physical as well as emotional maladies. If you’re a newbie, you are in for a treat! Novices can watch videos online or even purchase guided meditations to listen to on your phone. Begin slowly some deep breathing and the power of positive thinking.
2. Yoga
As good for your body as it is for your mind, this rhythmic form of exercise centers around breathing and focusing all of your concentration on holding poses. Classes range in level of complexity so even if you have never tried yoga, you don’t have to be intimidated. Most instructors will also have you set an intention of how you want to feel when you come to your mat – strength, calm, confidence, you name it!
3. Nap
Let’s face it; sometimes you just need to turn off the day for a while. A brief nap in a relaxing setting can quickly recharge your batteries and reset your focus for the rest of the day and week ahead of you. To get the most out of your rest, make sure that your room is quiet and dark. The addition of an eye mask or some soothing spa music can enhance your relaxation even further. Check out some of our tips for sleeping better here.
4. Get organized
Cluttered house, cluttered mind has always been a truth of mine. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, even the smallest tidying up of your desk area can help to lower stress. If you’re someone who finds comfort in tidying up, maybe tackle your own wardrobe or the kids’ dresser drawers. This process always leaves me feeling centered and in control.
5. Head to the spa
Opt for a facial treatment, massage or a soothing body treatment therapy to relieve your worries. Spas are incredibly relaxing environments and, when you’re carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders, nothing feels better than a little pampering. Try to clear your mind and enjoy the experience without running your to-do list through your head.
6. Take a walk
Getting out of the house or the office for a small amount of time can drastically improve your mood. Fresh air and physical exercise are natural stress relievers. Look for a small local loop that you can walk easily without being gone too long and find some relaxing music or even a book on tape to listen to while on your stroll.
7. Write it down
Sometimes it can be helpful to purposely evaluate what is making you stressed. In times like this, I try to make a list of all the things on my plate. There’s solace in knowing that they are all down in one place and visualizing what is actually causing my stress helps empower me to break down each task and get it done most efficiently.
8. Calming music
There’s a reason why they play soothing music in spas and salons – it works to relax you. You can search for existing playlists full of calming music or even find music geared towards things like peace, anxiety relief, and stress reduction online. Opt for something with a light melody.
9. Aromatherapy
Soothing scents such as lavender (found in Yon-Ka’s Eau Micellaire), tea tree oil, and chamomile have been proven to reduce stress and help people relax. You can purchase essential oils to rub on your pressure points, burn candles or even try a diffuser to bring these scents into your environment.
10. Chocolate
That’s right! A little dark chocolate releases endorphins, which help you to feel happy and less, stressed out. We keep a supply of dark chocolate-covered almonds at my house for just such an occasion! It’s amazing what a little sweet treat can do for your mood, and your stress levels.
11. Drink tea
If you’re like me, you love the ritual of a hot beverage. While it may be tempting to reach for coffee, a latte or even hot chocolate, Green Tea is truly your best option. Green Tea has L-Theanine in it, which can improve your mood and even help you to sleep better. If you’re not a fan of plain Green Tea, try a flavored version like Pomegranate or Cranberry – they’re delicious!
12. Wash your face
Since your body is likely accustomed to starting and ending the day with a wash, the act of washing your face can provide a mental “restart” that initiates relaxation. I know when I’m really feeling stressed, a quick rinse with a steaming hot washcloth can make me feel energized – and it also does lovely things to cleanse my pores.
For silky smooth skin with a delicate, calming scent, try Yon-Ka’s Lait Nettoyant Cleansing Lotion. It is sure to leave your skin perfectly clean, supple and soft.
I’m feeling relaxed just thinking about a nice calming meditation or a trip to my local spa. What are your favorite ways to de-stress?
Sign Up Now & Receive A FREE Gift! Enter your email below and you’ll receive a coupon code for a mystery Yon-Ka Paris product. Don’t miss out!NEW DELHI: The water logging that was witnessed in Gurgaon on the night of July 28, 2016 is no ordinary crisis that is witnessed across Indian cities every monsoon. Situated in the foothills of the oldest mountain range in the world—the Aravalis —Gurgaon is battling a flood-like situation as unnaturally high rainfall of over 5.5 cm in just over 2 hours brought the city to a grinding halt.After about 14 hours on the road and getting nowhere, traffic has started crawling out of the logjam that was witnessed overnight. Home guards have been commissioned to assist the Gurgaon Traffic Police The freak rain has brought the various planning oversights of the past two decades into sharp focus. The 5.5 cm of rain in the city in two hours was the first trigger for the crisis. It was aggravated by the fact that the overflow from other unplanned areas such as Ghata, Sainik Farms and the run-off from the Aravalis also flowed into the beleaguered Badshahpur drain that developed a small breach at about 11.30 last night.Could this have been averted?Gurgaon was crisscrossed by a network of drains till two decades ago. As land became more expensive many of these were filled and used to construct real estate, the backbone of the city’s economy.TL Satyaprakash, deputy commissioner of Gurgaon says that for the past few years storm water and sewerage has been flowing into the Badshahpur drain.“To fix this, funds have been sourced under the AMRUT scheme from the Centre. A three-month plan of documentation and finding solutions is currently under way.”In addition, work is on to restore four water bodies and 10 others have been identified in the next phase. This involves identifying its source, cleaning and de-silting the lakes and reducing putrefaction and decay so that they would become healthy water bodies.The problem is severe. Being on the foothills of the Aravalis, water in Gurgaon will always find its own path, unless there are serious efforts to create water channels that can carry the water to designated water bodies. About four months ago, the civic officials had attempted to create water harvesting systems across the Aravalis, only to be stonewalled by the Forest Department.Reviving water systems and respecting water channels have been attempted with great success in cities like Singapore where an impending threat to procurement of water pushed the city government to harvest every drop of rain water and channel them into 17 raw water reservoirs.Gurgaon needs to come up with such a plan in a hurry. If not the topography and natural forces will ensure that the city is forced to learn the lessons the hard way. It is estimated that if the Badshahpur drain breaches, half of Gurgaon can go under.(The author is the editorial head of Magicbricks.com)A private tuition class near Malvani gate no. 5 in Malad, Mumbai allegedly stripped two minor students and made them stand outside the class as punishment. The incident took place on Friday afternoon.
While one student was stripped naked, the other was allowed to keep his shirt on. Both students are under the age of 10.
The Malvani police has registered a case against two individuals who run the class and are carrying out further investigations. The coaching class remained shut on Saturday.
The children were made to stand out for not having completed their homework. Locals who saw the children say that they were made to stand out for around 15-20 minutes.
The Malvani police registered a case under the Section 75 and 82 of Juvenile Justice Act against the teachers of the private coaching class. The two accused have been arrested and have been identified as Ganesh Nayar, who is owner of Shree Tutorials, and Saroj Jaiswal, who is a teacher there.Liberal Reaction to the Missouri Rodeo Clown is Akin to the Radical Muslim Response to a Mohammed Cartoon
RUSH: This Missouri clown situation is so out of hand and out of proportion, and I’m gonna tell you what this is like, and I’m not gonna pull any punches. This is no different than those countries reacting freakishly when there were cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. That is exactly what this is. It is as though President Obama is a messiah or is a god and this little thing that happened at the Missouri State Fair is a defamation, a denunciation, almost a religious sacrilege that took place.
He’s the president of the United States! They get made fun of! They get laughed at all the time! Fun is poked at ’em. I know this happens to be the first African-American one, but that should not insulate this president from standard, ordinary, everyday treatment, analysis, whatever. You know, you people on the left, who the hell do you think you are? You can’t laugh. You can’t take a joke. You can’t take a punch. You can’t take anything. One little thing that you don’t like and this clown can never work, everybody involved is resigning, the state of Missouri might secede from the union. I mean, where’s this gonna end? Well, I’m joking about the state of Missouri seceding, bit I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the next thing.
If I were the president of the United States and this was happening in the country that I was president, I would put a stop to this. This is infantile. This is childish. This is worse than political correctness. It’s almost as though the president of the United States is a religious leader. What took place at the Missouri State Fair was with a clown. I mean, it wasn’t as though some serious journalist or political analyst went out there in an Obama mask. It wasn’t like a Democrat doing a minstrel show, like good old Mel Carnahan did back in 1960 in Missouri.
I mean, this is over the top. And the way people are caving on this in Missouri, instead of standing up and pointing out this for what it is. This wasn’t a sacrilege; it’s a joke, for crying out loud. And presidents are laughed at, and they’re poked fun of. Ask George W. Bush. Ask Ronald Reagan. Ask George H. W. Bush. Ask Clinton, for crying out loud.
This burns me. This is outrageous. This is no different than what happened in all those countries that had the cartoons of the prophet and militant Muslims had a cow over it, went nuts. It’s exactly what’s happening here. What do we have, a president of the United States who is above all this? We have a president who’s above criticism, above being mocked, above being laughed at? We have not just a president, we have an entire Democrat political party and the American left which thinks that they are so damn special that they cannot be mocked, they cannot be made fun of.
There’s a great quote by C. S. Lewis. You know who C. S. Lewis was. See, if I even quote C. S. Lewis I’ll get myself in a little bit of trouble here. I’d have to paraphrase. I don’t have it right in front of me. C. S. Lewis said the devil can’t stand being made fun of. The devil can’t stand being mocked. He actually used the word “mocked.” You people on the left, I know you don’t have the capacity for shame, but this is just absolutely — a clown now fearing for his life? Everybody involved in the fair quitting. The state of Missouri acting like it’s profoundly embarrassed to be alive. A bunch of people with nothing better on their hands to do, running around trying to make a federal, big, gigantic issue out of this.
Who cares if it was offensive. To who? Haven’t heard Obama complain about it. It’s like I’m saying, if I were the president of the United States, and I saw what this was doing, I’d put a stop to it. The next time I was on TV, I’d reference it. I’d have a smile on my face, I’d laugh about it, and I’d have everybody calm down. A little leadership. But, no, this guy, I am convinced he’s right in there with all this punishment. He’s right in there with all these people being taken out because of this, because he’s above being made fun of, he’s above being mocked, he’s above being criticized. I have no doubt about that.
Now, folks, this dovetails into something else. There’s something happening out there, I don’t want to make too big a deal of this, but for four and a half years — well, let’s give it four years. Six months people signed on and willing to see what happened. Yeah, the C. S. Lewis quote is “The devil, that proud spirit, cannot endure to be mocked.” That’s C. S. Lewis. So don’t get mad at me, stupid idiots in the media and on the left. Take it up with C. S. Lewis. Now, for four years, let’s be generous, three and a half years. Practically every one of you in this audience have been asking, “When are people gonna wake up in this country and realize what is being made to happen? When are people gonna realize that what is happening is not simply a normal evolution of events, but rather the result of policy? When are people gonna wake up?”
And I said not long ago, don’t look for some major tsunami type, tumultuous political event. It isn’t gonna be that. And then I told a little joke, no doubt irritated the left. I said, it’s gonna be something along the lines of Obama dissing the latest CD from Justin Timberlake and ticking off the low-information crowd. Folks, there are series of things out there — I’ll go into them in some detail. Yesterday, we had the audio of Kris Jenner, the Kardashian mother ripping into Obama for making fun of her daughter. Obama was holding up her daughter and her husband as examples of how not to be.
So the president can dish it out, but he can’t take it, and his defenders can’t take it, and his party can’t take it. You imagine being wound so damn tight that what happens at the State Fair in Missouri — this is all race. Everybody knows this is all race. You put Bill Clinton in the White House and put that clown with the Clinton mask on there, and it doesn’t even make the news.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Jennifer in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. Great to have you on the EIB Network. You’re up first today. Thank you for waiting.
CALLER: Thank you, and thank you for having me on the air, Mr. Limbaugh. Just a quick point about our president and the rodeo clown. Shame on the rodeo clown for doing the event, and, you know, shame on everyone who’s having so many problems with this, because as I’m sure you remember, back when the campaign was in full swing for presidency, Sarah Palin was hung in effigy over, I think it was Halloween.
RUSH: Let me tell you, there were assassination books and movies about George W. Bush. There have been Halloween clown costumes for Obama, Halloween costumes for Bush. This is common. I do remember. That’s what I’m saying, I agree with you.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Is there more? Did I interrupt you or is there more?
CALLER: You know, I just wanted to point that out and, you know, I mean, did Mr. Obama —
RUSH: Well, you started out by saying shame on the clown. Why?
CALLER: That’s a good question.
RUSH: That’s why I thought there might be more.
CALLER: Yeah. No.
RUSH: You started out ripping the clown a new one, and then you started making excuses for the clown. So I thought there was additional wisdom forthcoming.
CALLER: Yeah, I just think it’s not a wise thing to do. However, I’m just wondering if Mr. Obama had anything to say about Sarah Palin hanging in effigy.
RUSH: Here’s the thing about this. We’ve got people out there that are — do we have a call about this? Somebody called and said it was like the KKK out there? Jennifer, thanks for the call. I appreciate it. Somebody that was at the state fair is describing it like a KKK rally. Now, come on, folks. This is getting so far out of hand. This, as I said at the top of the program, this clown has now been banned for life. We have put a man in jail for supposedly producing an anti-Muslim video that caused four deaths in Benghazi, that he had nothing to do with. In the Netherlands, we had the Mohammed cartoons, and all hell broke loose. These are the people out there preaching tolerance. We’ve gotta be tolerant of gay marriage. We have to be tolerant of this, tolerant of that, tolerant of all this crap.
They are the most intolerant, and they have absolutely no sense of humor. They cannot take a punch. They cannot take a joke. And not only can they not take it, they then embark on an effort to ruin the lives of people who do nothing more than harmlessly offend them. Full disclosure, I have not seen anything but a still picture of this clown. I’ve not seen the act, I haven’t watched any video, ’cause I’m not big on website video. It’s just me. I’ve not watched it. Just seen the still. And it’s clear to me what this is all about. This is all about race. And it’s all about the fact that we’re not gonna make fun of the first black president. If this were Bill Clinton in the White House and that clown had put on a Clinton mask, this would not have even been a story.
Now we’ve got these people running around, everybody scared to death, running around in literal fear if they don’t get on the bandwagon that the clown needs to be destroyed the fair needs to be shut down, and Missouri needs to secede from the country. This is no different than this irrational reaction to the Mohammed cartoons. It’s exactly what this is. This is just absurd. This is so over the top. It really bothers me, the whole scope of censorship and the First Amendment. The idea of people unable to laugh at themselves. And I’ll tell you the real thing here. The president of the United States is sitting here watching this kind of thing rip the country apart, and he could shut it down, he could stop it.
But this guy, Barack Obama, he can’t laugh at himself, and that isn’t gonna happen. He’s above it all, folks, you don’t dare. I think we’re dealing with somebody literally spoiled rotten from the early days of their lives, and this is embarrassing. The whole event, the whole thing, reaction to it, the thing that happened. But this clown is a comedian, a freaking rodeo, they don’t even do rodeos anymore except for jokes. It’s a fair exercise. A clown, for crying out loud. This clown couldn’t hold a candle to some of the stuff Bill Maher has said. And nobody makes a move on Bill Maher to shut him up and ruin him and get him thrown off the air and HBO canceled and all that.
This clown has been banned for life. Think about that. A rodeo clown. A rodeo clown has been banned for life. The only people worse than this clown are people that smoke. Meanwhile, A-Rod continues to play for the New York Yankees. Well, I just thought I’d throw that in there. I won’t be surprised if this clown gets thrown in jail like the filmmaker was, Nakoula Nakoula, who made the anti-Mohammed video. Obama tried to blame that for the Benghazi attack. Why didn’t he just drone the state fair instead of going through all this? Obama could just launch a drone and have the drone attack the state fair and show Missouri what’s what. This is what happens when you dare criticize or laugh at our Dear Leader.
So here’s another job destroyed because of Obama, which we ought to be used to by now. If I were Obama, you know, I’d be bigger than this. I would pardon the clown, and I would turn it around, and if you want to make it look like something silly and ridiculous and childish, Obama could do that, put this thing in its place, and humiliate everybody involved and be done with it and make it a positive event, instead of the way this is all happening. This is just outrageous to me. I think the president needs to do something for Oprah, too. It’s all falling apart for Oprah.
We need a bag summit at the White House. We need the store clerk brought to Martha’s Vineyard from Switzerland, need Oprah taken up there, and the store clerk and Oprah and Obama have a bag summit in the backyard of this place he’s renting. Isn’t that how they’ve solved problems like this in the past? I don’t know, folks. I mean, this is hysteria. That’s what this is. This is hysteria, because of this Missouri state fair thing, and it’s the same kind of hysteria we get when somebody insults Mohammed. And I just thought, when did we become a country on the same level as that? At the end of the day this was harmless, and now they’re talking, “Well, it promoted violence”? Oh, give me a break. It was a rodeo clown. Promoted violence.
So we have here: “The president of the Missouri Rodeo Cowboy Association has resigned after getting flak about a State Fair event. … An attorney for rodeo announcer said that his resignation from the group is not an acknowledgment of wrongdoing on his part but rather a protest that the association has not banned the rodeo clown.” So the announcer is resigning in protest the clown hasn’t been banned, and now the clown has been.
What a bunch of gutless, cover-your-ass wonders we have here. Ficken is the announcer. Mark Ficken. His resignation from the rodeo group “comes as he tries to hold on to his job as superintendent of the Boonville School District. The school system announced Monday that it is hiring an investigator to look into whether Ficken was involved in any ‘inappropriate conduct’ during Saturday’s bull riding event at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia.” Utter irrational hysteria here.
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RUSH: And here’s the piece de resistance. Missouri officials are now saying that before they take part in any future state fair, the Missouri Rodeo Cowboy Association must provide evidence to the director of the Missouri state fair that they have proof that all officials and subcontractors have successfully participated in sensitivity training. I kid you not. This is like the ChiComs and their reeducation camps, and I am not exaggerating.
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RUSH: By the way, one more little tidbit on this rodeo clown thing out of the Missouri state fair. Did you hear the worst thing the rodeo clown called Obama? He called him a goober. I’m not kidding. The rodeo clown — has this guy been identified yet, or is he still — okay. He has been outed. Doesn’t matter. He’s never gonna get another job as a clown or anything else. I’m looking at the picture now, I think it’s funny. I’m sorry. I think it’s hilarious. Just looking at that. See, I happen to like satire, parody, and caricature. I happen to be an expert at it.
At any rate, he called him a goober. I did not know that goober was a racist word. You know what a goober is? It’s a peanut, like Jimmy Carter. Goober, it’s a certain kind of peanut. You know, there are different grades of peanuts. There are the kinds of peanuts that end up in a Planters can on your cocktail table, and then there are the rotgut peanuts that end up in peanut butter. And I think the kind of goobers that Jimmy Carter — he was a peanut farmer, and his peanuts went into peanut butter. That’s what a goober is, for those of you in Rio Linda.
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RUSH: Wouldn’t it be great if the media would spend as much time on Obama’s failed health care as they are on the rodeo clown story? Well, we can dream.From the isolated depths of California State Prison, Corcoran, inmate Antonio A. Hinojosa hand-wrote his way toward the U.S. Supreme Court.
On Monday, he lost. In being heard, though, he also made a point.
In a 6-2 decision that could affect other state prisoners, the Supreme Court rejected Hinojosa’s challenge to a California law that cost him good-time credits. The lost credits would have helped Hinojosa win earlier release from a 16-year sentence for armed robbery and related crimes.
“That is a terrible ruling to get from the Supreme Court,” Los Angeles-based defense attorney Caleb Mason, a former prosecutor who has studied the issue, said in an interview Monday. “I guess it means litigants will have to find a way to get a case before the state supreme court.”
Still, Hinojosa’s argument persuaded Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who dissented. Their written reasoning, including a denunciation of the majority’s “flimsier” arguments, was more than the court gives most of the 7,000-plus petitions received annually.
Last year, out of all the petitions received, the court issued only 186 written opinions.
Antonio Hinojosa was serving a 16-year sentence for armed robbery and related crimes when, in 2009, California prison officials ‘validated’ him as a prison-gang associate and placed him in a secured housing unit. U.S. Supreme Court
The unsigned ruling Monday, issued without oral argument, answered a procedural question involving how courts handle inmates’ habeas corpus petitions.
In substance, the new ruling reversed a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that questioned the 2010 California law cutting certain good-time credits. The law stopped good-time credits from accumulating for validated prison gang members placed in secure housing units.
Before the 2010 law, some prisoners could keep accruing credits for eventual early release while in secure housing. The law added gang membership to other violations or infractions that ruled out good-time credit accumulation for the inmates in secure housing.
In 2009, Corcoran prison officials validated the vividly tattooed Hinojosa as a member of the Mexican Mafia. Although he challenged the determination, it eliminated his shot at future good-time credit. He was allowed to keep what he had already earned since his guilty plea in 2003.
All told, Hinojosa calculated that the 2010 policy change meant he’d stay in the San Joaquin Valley prison’s Secure Housing Unit for a year longer than he would have under the prior rules.
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The 2010 law “discriminated against all inmates housed in the SHU for administrative purposes, merely because prison officials labeled them as a prison gang associate,” Hinojosa hand-wrote in one of his early court filings.
The court filings show Hinojosa persistently challenging Corcoran officials on their actions, first through administrative proceedings and then in court. Originally from Orange County in Southern California, Hinojosa periodically revealed his frustrations with the system he thought was stacked against him.
“Two of my... appeals have been ignored on several occasions,” Hinojosa wrote prison officials in July 2010, adding that his was a “citizen complaint.”
In February 2015, against the odds, the 9th Circuit sided with Hinojosa’s complaint that the 2010 state law violated the Constitution’s ban on ex post facto laws. These are laws that punish someone retroactively, for past actions that were formerly not illegal.
“In punishing Hinojosa for his in-prison gang-related misconduct, the state has effectively increased his prison sentence for his underlying crimes. And it has done so by means of a regulation that was enacted after Hinojosa committed those crimes,” Judge Carlos T. Bea wrote.
Attorney General Kamala Harris’ office sought Supreme Court review, contending in a brief that the 9th Circuit’s reasoning “makes no sense at all” and noting that the 2010 law had previously survived a challenge from an alleged Mexican Mafia member at Pelican Bay State Prison.
Hinojosa has since been released from prison.“We have no tolerance for violence against animals,” said 27-year-old Tunali Mukherjee, a photographer from South Bombay who participated in the protest against animal cruelty in Andheri on Sunday.
The procession, which started from Nana-Nani Park in Versova, saw a crowd of around 100 animal lovers come together to raise their voices about violence against animals and gather support against one Pratik Hota, who had recently made a video of himself kicking a kitten like a football.
“People should know that there are laws protecting animals in our country and upon seeing any violence, they can report it,” Mukherjee added.
The participants passed around pamphlets of laws against animal cruelty to children and adults alike as the morcha proceeded till they reached Hota’s building, where they shouted slogans against the absconding youth, asking him to face the consequences of his unnecessarily violent actions. The boy was charged under various sections of the Indian Penal code, the Bombay Police act and the Animal cruelty act after an FIR was filed against him at the Versova police station.
“He is nowhere to be seen, people with mutual friends have indicated that he is still in the city, but is planning to leave soon. The police have told us they have already looked for him and that we should search for him if we want him brought to justice,” said Zahara Ruhani, an animal welfare officer.Academic scattering
19 November 2013 by researchwhisper
Katie Mack has been training as a cosmologist since about the age of 10 when she decided she wanted Stephen Hawking’s job. She got her bachelor’s in physics at Caltech, PhD in astrophysics at Princeton, did an STFC postdoctoral fellowship at Cambridge, and is now a DECRA postdoctoral researcher in theoretical astrophysics at the University of Melbourne.
Her work focuses on finding new ways to learn about the early universe and fundamental physics using astronomical observations, probing the very building blocks of nature by examining the cosmos on the largest scales. Throughout her career, she has been working on the interface between astronomy and particle physics, studying dark matter, black holes, cosmic strings, and the formation of the first galaxies in the Universe.
Katie is also an active science communicator, participating in a range of science outreach programs such as Scientists in Schools and Telescopes in Schools. Her popular writing has appeared in Sky & Telescope, Time.com, and the Economist’s “Babbbage” tech blog, among others. She occasionally co-hosts a YouTube astronomy chat series called “Pint in the Sky.”
Katie blogs at The Universe, in Theory and tweets as @AstroKatie. Her ORCID is 0000-0001-8927-1795.
A couple of years ago, I was gathering my things after a seminar at a top physics research institution when I overheard two of the senior professors discussing a candidate for a senior lectureship.
Professor A was asking Professor B if the candidate had a partner, which might make him less able to move internationally.
Prof B replied, happily: “No, he has no family. He’s perfect!”
I doubt any selection committee would admit on-record to thinking a family-free candidate is “perfect”. Nonetheless, the traditional academic career structure is built around an assumption of mobility that is hard to maintain with any kind of relationships or dependents. I’m still trying to figure out if I can manage to keep a pet.
Right now I live in Australia, working as a postdoc in Melbourne. My first postdoc was in England. Before that I was in grad school in New Jersey, and I was an undergrad in my native California. Halfway through grad school I studied for a year in England. I’ve done two- or three-month stints in Japan, Germany, Australia and the UK. Each of these moves or visits has been, while not strictly required, extremely helpful for my career. And in a field where competition for jobs is so fierce, if you want any hope of landing that coveted permanent academic job, how many of these “helpful” moves can you really consider optional? If mobility is such an advantage, how does having a family or a partner affect your chances?
A couple of months ago, Slate published an article with the headline, “Rule Number One for Female Academics: Don’t Have a Baby.” The point of the article wasn’t actually to discourage women in academia from having children (though backlash from the community may have contributed to the change in title to the somewhat vague, “In the Ivory Tower, Men Only”). The article provided statistics and anecdotes to illustrate how having children, or being suspected of the intent to have children, could harm a woman’s progress in academia – from the necessary pause in research output, to the unconscious or explicit biases that act against “working mothers” but have no similar effect on “working fathers”. Personally, I found the piece deeply disheartening, but my dismay was of a somewhat detached variety. In order to worry about the effects of having children, one has to be in a position where that seems like even a remote possibility. As a single woman with a short-term contract and no idea which hemisphere I’ll be in two years from now, children are not exactly at the forefront of my mind. At the moment, I spend a lot more time thinking about the two-body problem.
In this context, the “two-body problem” is the problem of maintaining a committed relationship between two individuals who are trying to have careers in academia. When the two-body problem proves unsolvable, it’s sometimes called “academic scattering”. It is by no means unique to academia, but the international nature of the field, the frequency of short-term (1-3 year) contracts, and the low wages compared to other similarly intense career paths make it especially bad for academics. In the sciences, the gender disparity adds a further complication for female academics: when women make up a small percentage of the discipline, they are much more likely to be partnered with other academics.
Of course, solving the two-body problem is not impossible. I have many colleagues who have done it, either through spousal hires, fortuitous job opportunities, extended long-distance relationships, or various degrees of compromise. It takes sacrifice, luck, and, often, institutional support. But couples just beginning a relationship while building two academic careers might find the odds stacked against them. Even ignoring for a moment the fact that a no-compromise work-obsessed lifestyle is still considered a virtue in many institutions, academic careers are structurally best suited to people with no relationships or dependents, who travel light and have their passports at the ready.
It varies by field, but for physics and astronomy, a “typical” tenure-track career path looks something like this: 4-6 years in grad school, a postdoctoral fellowship for 1-3 years, then usually another (and maybe another), all followed by a tenure-track or permanent job, which may or may not be the job you end up in for the long-term. There’s no guarantee all these steps will be in the same country – very often they are not. For me, it’s been an international move every time so far, and it’s very possible the next one will be, too. When I took up my first postdoc, I left my country of origin, most of my worldly possessions, all my friends and family, and a committed relationship, to start all over in England. When I took up my second postdoc, I left my newly built life in England and another committed relationship to start all over yet again on the other side of the world. I’ve moved internationally several times chasing the prospect of permanent academic employment. I have yet to convince anyone to come with me.
I’m not trying to convince anyone that avoiding academia or refusing to move around the world is the key to solving all relationship problems. Anyone can be unlucky in love, even if they stay in the same city their entire lives
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44 47 3 Bolivia 61 64 3 Bhutan 64 67 3 Colombia 53 56 3 Latvia 51 55 4 Egypt 20 24 4 Jordan 12 16 4 Lebanon 20 24 4 Guyana 39 43 4 Djibouti 33 37 4 Cabo Verde 48 52 4 Mexico 41 45 4 Austria 51 55 4 Nicaragua 44 48 4 Belize 45 49 4 Lithuania 51 56 5 Singapore 54 59 5 Cuba 39 44 5 Guatemala 45 50 5 Sao Tome and Principe 41 46 5 Turkey 23 29 6 Qatar 45 51 6 Malawi 79 85 6 Pakistan 19 25 6 Luxembourg 45 51 6 Spain 46 53 7 Macao 59 66 7 Maldives 50 57 7 Malta 30 38 8 Israel 50 58 8 United Arab Emirates 37 46 9 Peru 58 68 10 Chile 38 49 11 Mali 38 51 13
There are several likely reasons for the drop off. Sher Verick, an economist at the International Labour Organization based in New Delhi, pointed to increased educational enrollment and a withdrawal from agricultural labour as two likely causes.
Anuradha Chatterji, a manager at the human rights organization CREA, also blamed lax enforcement of workplace sexual harassment policies, which have become more important as women move from rural agricultural work to urban office jobs.
Over the last decade, women in most of the world’s countries have enjoyed greater participation in the labour force: 114 countries out of 185 recorded an increase in the percentage of women who earn incomes. Only 41 countries experienced drops in female labour participation.
Megha Kapoor Mehra, 27, worked at the office of a major accounting firm in Gurgaon for nearly five years, rising quickly through the ranks of the company. But last November, Mehra quit her job when her superiors began to question her commitment to the firm after she announced her marriage engagement.
“People were saying, ‘Your commitment level has changed, your seriousness has changed,’” even though she had continued to work the same amount of hours, Mehra said. “If a man is getting married, I don’t think he would get that kind of reaction at work.”
It seemed as if the firm’s few successful women had been forced at some point to choose their work over their family, a decision men did not have to make.
The pressures from home, too, proved overwhelming. After she married, she moved in with her husband’s family, who were uncomfortable with her leaving for work at 8 in the morning and coming home at 8 at night.
Mehra said she hopes to find a job again, though she does not know when that might be. “I won’t let all my experience and all my knowledge go to waste,” she said.
The Indian economy excludes women like Mehra at its peril. According to a 2012 report by Booz and Company, India’s gross domestic could grow by as much as 27 percent if women worked as much as men.
“Ultimately, from a macroeconomic perspective, women’s participation and engagement in work and entrepreneurship is critical if India is to sustain a high level of inclusive growth,” Verick said.
To be sure, some women who are able to join the workforce do not wish to do so. But many others who would like to work are barred from doing so, often due to customs beyond their control.
In a country where men share very little housework, many Indian women are too occupied with household duties to also take on a job. Others are unable to earn money when the demands of raising children fall squarely on their shoulders.
“Either I had to join my work after my maternity leave, or I had to leave my work,” recalled Madhumita Nath, 32, of her experience at an NGO in Kolkata. “I did try to make things work and to see if the baby can be brought to the office, and if a room could be arranged. We did explore this kind of thing, but things didn't work out.”
Ineke Bezembinder, a spokesperson for Women on Wings, a non-profit that creates jobs for women in rural India, said that for some women, earning an income can provide benefits in addition to having more money to spend.
“Their position in their family and even in their community changes,” Bezembinder said. “In the eyes of their in-laws, they go from being a burden to being someone who looks after the family and contributes to the family income.”By Leo Babauta
One of the biggest frustrations many of us feel is having too much to do, and not feeling like we have enough time to do it. We are overwhelmed.
Of course, having “not enough time” is just a feeling — we all have the same amount of time, but we often fill up the container of our days with too much stuff.
The problem is having too much stuff to fit into a small container (24 hours). If we look at task management and time management as simply a container organization problem, it becomes simpler.
How do we fit all of the stuff we have to do into our small container?
By simplifying.
And letting go.
I promise, with this two-step process, you’ll be able to deal with the problem of “too much to do, not enough time.”
Simplifying Our Tasks
When we realize we’re trying to fit too much stuff (tasks, errands, obligations) into a small container (24 hours), it becomes obvious that we can’t get a bigger container … so we have to get rid of some stuff. It just won’t all fit.
We do that by simplifying what we have to do.
Mindfulness is a helpful too here: pay attention to all the things you do today and tomorrow, and try to notice all the things you’re fitting into the container of your day. What websites are you going to in the morning? In the evening? What games are you playing on your phone? What are you reading? What busy-work are you doing? How much time are you spending in email, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram? How much time on blogs, online shopping sites, Youtube? How much TV are you watching? How much time do you spend cleaning, maintaining your personal hygiene, taking care of other people? How much time driving around or commuting? What are you spending the valuable commodity of your attention on?
What you might realize is that you’re fitting a lot of junk into the container. Toss some of that out. Ban yourself from certain sites or apps until you’ve done a few really important tasks.
Notice also that you’re committed to a lot of things. Those commitments are filling up your life. Start getting out of some of them, and saying “no” to new ones.
Now look at your task list: how many of those things can you reasonably do today? I say three.
If you could only do three things today, which would be the most important? If you’ve ever played baseball, and swung a bat, you know that what matters is not so much how hard you swing, but hitting the ball with the sweet spot of the bat. What you need to do with your task list is hit it with the sweet spot of the bat — find the tasks that have the most impact, that matter most to your life. Choose carefully, because you only have so much room in your life.
Now ask yourself this: which task would you do if you could only do one task today? That should be what you put your focus on next. Just that one task. You can’t do your entire list today, and you can’t do your top three tasks right now. So just focus on one important task.
Clear everything else away, and focus on that.
By picking your tasks carefully, you’re taking care with the container of your time. You can pick important tasks or joyful ones, but you’re being conscious about the choices. You’re treating it like the precious gift that it is: limited, valuable, to be filled with the best things, and not overstuffed.
The Art of Letting Go
What about all the other stuff you want to do (or feel you need to do)? What if it doesn’t fit into the container?
This is where the joyful art of letting go becomes useful.
You have too many things to fit into your container, and you’ve decided to only put the important and beautiful things into the container. That means a bunch of things you think you “should” do are not going to fit.
You can get to those later. Or you can not do them. Either way, they won’t fit into today’s container.
This in itself is not a problem, but it only becomes a problem when you are frustrated that you can’t fit it all in. Your frustration comes from an ideal that you should be able to do it all, that you should be able to do everything on your list. Plus more: you want to travel, workout, meditate, learn a new skill, read more, be the perfect spouse (or find a spouse), be the perfect parent/friend/sibling, draw or create music, and so on.
Your ideals don’t match with reality — the reality is that you can’t do this all today, or even this week. You can choose to do some of them, but the others will have to wait, or not get done at all.
Since you can’t get a bigger container, you need to adjust your ideals. The ideal you choose to have can be this: that this moment be exactly as it is. The old ideal is one that you can toss into the ocean, as it was harming you (causing frustration). Let it go with joy and relief.
The new ideal is that this moment is perfect, and it deserves to be in your container.Like many children who started playing games in the USA around 2005 to 2010, I loved to play Massive Multiplayer Online Role Player Games (MMORPGs). I just loved the fantasy, freedom and adventure! The communities were immersive and lively, the adventures were wondrous and breathtaking and … you get the idea. They were amazing.
I specifically played Runescape and Flyff for 6 years.
But then, around 2012, something happened to Runescape. The game went under new management, and the developers made some majorly unpopular decisions to affect the gameplay, and before I knew it the game was chock full of cheesy microtransaction schemes and a community so divided that the game literally split into two. The community dissipated before my eyes, and eventually I left the game heartbroken.
I’m pretty sure a lot of you out there have had an experience like this with an MMORPG.
Luckily for Jagex, Runescape survived and is alive and well, but sometimes I wonder what caused them to leave such a permanent scar on the game and their player base. To this day, some could argue that the game hasn’t completely recovered. What caused them to, as some players put it, “care more about their wallets than their community?”
A little Story by the Campfire…
I had my theories. For a while, like many, I though it simple was a product of the MMO genre dying out, and Runescape was attemping to become more attractive to new players to avoid closure.
But eventually I decided to really look it up. After a little web surfing and a ton of Reddit, it became clear that the history of Runescape’s episode actually started almost 10 years before its occurrence.
In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, MMOs were all the range. The gaming industry welcomed the change and potential, and games like Eve Online, MapleStory, Everquest and Runescape (yeah, Runescape is a very old game) were benefiting from millions of players and were quite a lot of fun. Honestly, those guys struck a gold mine.
However, as was once said in an episode of the YouTube channel Extra Creditz, “Every once in a rare while, a single game comes along that affects the entire gaming industry.” And that couldn’t be more true for the MMO industry.
A game in 2004 came into the mix that changed the course of that genre forever.
What was this rare game? What was that anomaly, that game that would make it into the gaming history books? Anyone who plays MMOs enough should know exactly which game it was, and have most probably played it themselves.
World of Warcraft.
A World of Warcraft
Commonly abbreviated as WoW, World of Warcraft hit the industry like the meteor that hit the dinosaurs.
Literally.
WoW killed the industry. The interesting thing is, it’s not like WoW killed the industry because it was just mind-bogglingly bad or revolting or anything, but because it was just too good. It’s success was simply unprecedented, but more importantly, it was attractive.
The death it caused wasn’t necessarily a death concerned with numbers, but with individuality and flare.
WoW had found a formula to find success, and others wanted its benefits too. Suddenly, for a whole decade, the majority of the MMOs coming out were all rip-offs of WoW. They were being made by developers who entered the industry just for the money, and, not too surprisingly, didn’t really grasp how important the community aspect is to the MMO genre.
The games were low quality, and the industry became saturated. For anyone who doesn’t know what this means, it simple means that there were too many games. And it’s due to this the industry hit a pretty low point.
The genre seemed less interesting for new players, and existing players were faced with being treated like walking money bags since the games they played had to deal with more and more competition. Games became more and more about money and less about the community that made the games successful in the first place.
But here was another problem too.
The Evil of Instant Gratification
One thing about MMOs is that they take a lot of time. You’ll grind for hours and hours to level up and get make progress. Many times, such grinding is slow and…I must admit it…boring, albeit the reaped rewards make you feel really great.
That’s a problem for a gaming industry that’s growing and getting better at supplying users with instant gratification, rather than delayed gratification (working and earning your reward).
You see, RPGs are one of the only genres where you have to really work for an end product of gratification. In the past, that work was dull and repetitive, but modern RPGs are making that progress making more fun.
But it’s still an integral part of the genre.
So with the industry becoming saturated and competition becoming unfavorably tough, MMOs would prefer to keep any players that stumble upon their games. Many of these would be players new to the MMO scope, and when they get on they aren’t used to the delayed gratification. This leads to some MMOs making their games easier to play, reducing their challenge levels and doing anything to please players that leave to try out new games in the end anyway.
Games that become easier had a lower need for a cooperative community, so their communities crumbled too.
Playing it Safe
So by the end of this earthquake the MMORPG space was filled with tons of low-quality rip-offs with low community engagement. Sure, there were still high quality games out there, like Tera, but there were a lot of pretty mediocre ones out there too.
So this trend continued for a while. Why? For the same reason it started in the first place.
Making a MMORPG is a very herculean task. The costs are high and development time is long, and on top of that the maintenance that goes into the game once it’s live can be a real headache. Developers only want to jump into that abyss if they know there’s something good on the other side. They’d rather play it safe, which is why a lot of them decided to just follow WoW and choked up the industry.
So what now, then?
The MMORPG industry is starting to recover. More innovative ideas are coming out, but as I just said, these games take a while to develop and this recovery will be a bit slow.
Like I said, it will be a recovery of flare and individuality, not numbers of players playing the genre.
Apart from having more unique takes on things, MMORPGs are becoming more free-to-play, which will attract more players to them and can help revive their communities (provided the developers run the games well). Developers will also hopefully be a bit more rigid as to what they will add to the game, and focus more on the community and less on the wallet.
We probably won’t see that many challenging MMORPGs in the future anymore, but we will see more interesting ones with better communities and player engagement.
So I Got my Answer in the End!
So I think this is why Runescape went through that episode. It bucked under the pressure to fit the masses. It’s not necessarily a bad thing though, and I can’t objectively say whether how they changed was necessary or not. However, in this case, Runescape “lost its individuality and flare” as the fan Witchwood Icon put it. It became more “modern”, and took a while to find its place in the MMORPG industry that has become more competitive and easy. Its attempts to attract more players affected its indigenous players, and while the game tried to keep its core aspects,it became more and more alien to its fans.
Takeaways
The MMO industry is a complex one, and while I tried so summarize things for you, there’s a lot going on. Some of the things I’ve said don’t apply to the whole industry, and there’s sure to be a lot I haven’t covered or don’t fully understand.
So here are some links in case you want to look at this in more detail:
Reddit thread
Salmoneus’s blog postA simple twist, an innocuous pop, a familiar sinking feeling – Callum Ferguson knows the pain and heartache of a serious knee injury all too well.
He also knows what it takes to get back on the park and return to cricket an elite level.
Fielding at deep backward square leg in a Melbourne Renegades trial game last December, Ferguson took off to field the ball. Moments later, a season that had seen him rushing back towards Australian honours was over. Surgery, the sidelines and endless gym sessions beckoned.
But Ferguson has been here before, he knows the path back, and he's as hungry as ever to force his way back into the spotlight again.
Before the break for the KFC Big Bash League, Ferguson had been lighting up the Sheffield Shield. Again.
He averaged 52 with four centuries in the 2014-15 Shield season to put his name firmly in the debate for Australian squad selections, and had carried that form into last summer.
Ferguson had scored 478 runs in five Shield matches before the BBL break, averaging 53.11. He had hit a new career-best 213 against Tasmania just a fortnight before the injury and averaged 46.85 in the Matador BBQs One-Day Cup.
WATCH: Ferguson scores Shield double ton
Then his season went bust along with the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.
"I knew pretty well straight away, having been through it before playing for Australia six years ago," Ferguson told SACA TV this week.
"It was a pretty similar feeling.
"With the season going so well with the Redbacks, and I felt like I was playing pretty good cricket at the time, it was really disappointing."
The word 'disappointing' is one of the bigger understatements. Perhaps only Usman Khawaja truly knows how Ferguson must have felt.
Geez I hope @calferguson12 hasn't done anything serious to his knee. Absolutely sweating bullets for the great man. Fingers n toes crossed! — Usman Khawaja (@Uz_Khawaja) December 16, 2015
Khawaja did his knee on the eve of the BBL|04 campaign in a similar manner, a training ground mishap with the Sydney Thunder. He later admitted he thought his cricket career could be over.
But in a tale that must warm Ferguson's heart, Khawaja rebounded and last summer came back fitter and stronger – physically and mentally. Khawaja dominated the summer landscape, restored to the Australian Test team, scoring century upon century and lighting up the Big Bash amid an ever growing clamour for him to play for Australia in all three formats.
Quick single: Captain Cook poised to eclipse Sachin
Ferguson knows the path, knows the rewards, and says he's up for the fight.
"I came back from the last knee injury really hungry to do well, really hungry to make runs, really hungry to win games for South Australia and really hungry to get back into the Australian team," Ferguson said.
"I've felt like from a mental standpoint I was much stronger for the experience.
"I've got a feeling I'll come back from this knee injury in a similar state of mind; rearing to go, itchy to get back out there and just loving playing again."
Ferguson is dying to scratch that cricket itch. Sixteen weeks on from surgery and at the onset of winter, he's still in the gym, putting the strength back into his knee.
Ahead of last summer, Australia coach Darren Lehmann went on Adelaide radio to declare Ferguson and Redbacks teammate Travis Head were "really close" to national honours.
WATCH: Ferguson stars in Matador Cup
The 31-year-old's early season Matador and Shield form only strengthened that case.
And then, while Ferguson was recuperating and hitting the gym, Head went on to make his Australia T20 debut and has earned selection in the ODI squad for the Qantas Tour of the West Indies for a tri-series including South Africa.
Ferguson was a rising star before a serious knee injury prior to the Under-19 World Cup in 2004, and again at the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa.
The second injury cut short an impressive one-day career for Australia where he averaged 46 in 25 matches.
While Ferguson has been on the domestic scene for more than a decade, and has been touted as part of Australia's next generation for seemingly just as long, he firmly believes times is still on his side.
Quick single: Warner ready to launch at Lankans
The fact that he twice busted his knee before he turned 25 could in fact prove to be beneficial well into his thirties.
"I missed some time in the first half of my career with my knee; I had one in the Under-19 World Cup (in 2004) and missed time then and then obviously I blew my knee out in the Champions Trophy (in 2009)," he told cricket.com.au last summer.
"I feel like those periods of time out of the game probably have me being a little bit younger when it comes to playing years. I feel like I've been freshened up a little bit.
"Especially after the second operation when I spent 12 months out of the game, I felt like that freshened me up.
"So I'm certainly hoping that I'll be playing well into my thirties and I feel like I have plenty of time left in the game.
"I'm setting myself for the aim of getting back into the Australian team, that's for sure."
WATCH: Ferguson claims a Matador wicket
First port of call, however, will be a return to a young Redbacks side eager to go one better than last summer's Shield final defeat.
Ferguson said he felt "helpless" on the sidelines as South Australia charged into their first Shield final for 20 years.
"It was quite emotional, riding a lot of highs and lows emotionally," Ferguson said of the Shield Final.
"It was bitter sweet at times, and really tough watching when we were going through difficult periods of the game.
"Really difficult to watch as the game was slipping away and Victoria were take control, you just felt helpless.
"But certainly very exciting and great to watch the young guys come in and do so well.
"It bodes well for the future."
With Mark Cosgrove and Tom Cooper axed from the Redbacks list and Head, Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson increasingly on Australia's radar, Ferguson has an important role to play for the Redbacks.
But there can be no doubting the resilience and fortitude Ferguson holds to make the journey back.The rainbow sole featured on some of the Converse Pride sneakers
Following in the footsteps (no pun intended) of Adidas and parent-company, Nike, Converse is celebrating Pride season this year with a limited-edition range of its classic All Star footwear.
According to a statement, the range consists of three classic Chuck Taylor All Star sneakers ‘designed to be worn at pride parades, concerts, jubilations and beyond.
‘Inspired by all the LGBTA communities around the world, the collection serves as a passionate reminder for universal tolerance, diversity and equality — encouraging the creative community to be their most authentic selves.’
The collection – which features rainbow coloring and license plates – is available now at Converse stores and online, with prices starting at $60 (€54).
Nike has been applauded by LGBTI fans in the past for its Pride-inspired #BeTrue range of clothing, while Adidas produced rainbow-splattered variations of its classic sneakers in 2015.
A portion of the proceeds from the Adidas sneakers went to LGBTI causes in Portland, where that company’s US headquarters are based.
In response to a question from Gay Star Business, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts-based company said, ‘While the Converse Pride Collection does not specifically support any one organization, Converse is a company committed to diversity and inclusion, as well as unleashing creativity in all our consumers. We believe all people are created equal and support our consumers to be their most authentic selves.
‘This will be the third year Converse has been involved with Pride (2014, 2015 and 2016) both from a corporate level and in Boston specifically. Currently, support of the LGBT population is focused mainly in Boston, around activation out of our HQ.’
Check out images of the Converse range belowPlease enable Javascript to watch this video
SACRAMENTO -- The City of Sacramento has offered the job of police chief to Daniel Hahn.
Hahn was mostly recently the chief of police in Roseville since 2011, but had worked with the Sacramento Police Department for 23 years before that.
The city said its offer to Hahn was conditional, pending a background check that could take several weeks.
"I am excited and fully supportive of city manager Howard Chan's decision to make a conditional offer to Daniel Hahn to be our next Police Chief," Mayor Darrell Steinberg said in a statement released by the city. "I am confident he will lead an already great department to an even higher level of performance and community engagement. I look forward to welcoming him back to the city he grew up in."
Hahn is set to take over for Interim Chief Brian Louie, who assumed the role after Chief Sam Sommers' retirement in 2016.
Roseville City Manager Rob Jensen issued a statement on the city's Facebook page, thanking Hahn for his work in Roseville.
"I want to take this opportunity to thank Chief Hahn for the outstanding leadership he has provided in the six years he has served our city. During his tenure and with fantastic team work of the Roseville PD, our crime rates for violent and property crimes hit a 20-year low, and Roseville was named 21st safest city in the nation," Jensen wrote.A BUSSELTON woman has been charged with twice attempting to bite a police officer on the crotch.
But Senior Sergeant Steve Principe said the officer managed to avoid the bite both times.
The 26-year-old woman was arrested at McDonalds in Busselton at midnight, after reports she had been disturbing other customers.
She was taken back to Busselton Police Station to be charged and processed.
Senior Sergeant Principe said the woman lashed out at a male Senior Constable in the charge room.
“She threw a cup of water at him, and then she went to bite him in the genital area,” he said.
“I don’t think she made contact — he pulled away.
“She then bit him on the hand — he had gloves on — and tried to spit at him.”
The bite broke the skin but did not puncture the glove.
The woman was then taken to Busselton Hospital, at her request, before being taken to Bunbury Regional Hospital for assessment and allegedly attacking the Senior Constable again in the carpark.
“She has then scratched the officer on the forearm, drawing blood, and then she again attempted to bite him on the crotch,” Senior Sergeant Principe said.
The Senior Constable has had a blood test to check for communicable diseases and will have to wait three months for the result.
The woman, of no fixed address, was charged with two counts of assaulting a public officer and will face court at a later date."We had an excessive slide in the equity markets. We saw the dollar give up some of its earlier gains," said David Meger, director of metals trading for High Ridge Futures in Chicago, explaining reasons for the late-day bounce.
Prices have been under pressure since tumbling more than 3 percent in Asian trading hours on Monday in their biggest one-day drop in nearly two years, a selloff accompanied by heavy trading volumes in New York and Shanghai.
Gold has been hurt this year by expectations that the Federal Reserve is on track to raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade, boosting the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion while lifting the dollar.
The Fed will hold its next meeting July 28-29.
Read More2017 could prove to be gold's'magic' year
"In the short term, investor sentiment is what actually moves prices," Capital Economics analyst Simona Gambarini said. "It's now likely that the Fed will hike rates this year, most likely in September... (and) investors are already showing that in their positioning. They're becoming more bearish on gold."
The U.S. dollar pared gains against a basket of major currencies, while the euro fell on downbeat German and euro zone data. U.S. stocks extended losses late in the day.
As gold prices slumped this week, holdings of the world's biggest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, the SPDR Gold Trust, fell for a sixth day on Thursday to 684.6 tons, the lowest since September 2008. The fund is on track for its biggest weekly outflow since early May.
Physical demand in Asia remained lackluster amid modest premiums in top gold consumers India and China.
Gold is expected to struggle for the rest of this year, though platinum is expected to fight back, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.Last week, I wrote about the resume mistakes that can give your job application a short trip to the recycle bin. That was mostly a list of DO NOT DO THIS, and I had plenty of leftovers in the DO THIS category. This week, as promised, I share the opinions of professional HR staff and tech recruiters about what they want to see — and too often do not.
John Nicholson now runs Resumes That Jump and previously worked at Brainbench, an IT certification company. He's found that the three critical things likely to be left off résumés are:
achievements metrics introductory summary
Most people spend their entire résumé talking about everyday job duties, says Nicholson, such as "analyzed requirements" or "fixed bugs." They fail to stand out because plenty of other résumés are full of those same duties. Yes, Nicholson says, cover your primary responsibilities, but do it concisely. "Focus instead on unique achievements — things you initiated, architected, built, or were selected for that had a lasting impact on the company," he advises.
One recruiter backed this up with a bit more passion, by saying she dumps applications listing duties or tasks in lieu of real accomplishments. "So you just showed up to work for the last five years and only did exactly what you were told? There are another 100 people in line behind you, some of whom could actually tell me how they could be useful," she writes.
The best way is to highlight achievements with numbers. It's especially helpful to use numbers that have business meaning. An HR person doesn't need to be a techie to understand "saved company $2 million" or "reduced hours by 70%." Quantify your duties, too, such as number of people managed or number of projects led. Numbers do three great things, says Nicholson. They act as "slow down signs" to readers, they add credibility and uniqueness, and they show you understand and value business results. "Quantification is more challenging for programmers than, say, salespeople, but it's very do-able," he say. "I almost never see an IT résumé with enough numbers."
A related mistake is describing your organization rather than what you did personally. One recruiter discards résumés that tell her all about the company where you you worked and what they produced, instead of describing what you did to contribute. "I see this more on résumés with little experience in an attempt to make the resume bigger," she says. "When a résumé lists what the company does, what the application does and what the group was responsible for, one has to ask the question, 'What the heck did you do?'"
Do include an introduction in your résumé. Instead of jumping straight from name and contact information to chronological work experience, start instead with a title or header ("Senior Java Developer"), a compelling summary paragraph, and scan-able list of skills or core competencies, Nicholson says. Done well, the introduction gives readers context and makes them want to read more.
Don't make that list of buzzwords generic. Marsh Sutherland, president of Walden Recruiting, says technologies listed should include a self-rating of Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert and years of experience. Certainly, "5 years of J2EE" is more appealing than "J2EE," no? It's also helpful to include the year you last used the technology, says Sutherland.
Be sure to reconcile technologies you list in the summary to specific positions on your résumé. Each job description should include a "Technical environment included" section as the last bullet, listing all the technologies you worked with in that role, says Sutherland. If you really want to stand out, he says, include sample code; naturally, it should be well-documented with instructions and it should actually work. (I have to assume that this applies only when the submission process makes it possible to provide sample code; most of those annoying online application systems — which have you upload your résumé and then make you re-enter everything again — don't make it easy to upload any extras.)
We already know that HR pros and recruiters really love to see technology certifications, especially from the vendor of the technologies. If you have a choice (which I think generally means, "an existing employer who'll pay for it," right?) go for certification from the vendor. "Brainbench certification is nice and better than no certification, but not as good as a certification from the technology vendor themselves," advises Sutherland.
One unique situation that the HR people barely touched on — somewhat surprisingly, to me — is the expertise a developer gains on her own. I've long been a proponent of teaching yourself new, marketable skills by getting involved in an open source community. In addition to helping to improve the world in some way, you can gain skills worth marketing elsewhere. Want to learn a new language, add a new platform to your arsenal, take on a new kind of responsibility? Pick an open source project, and dive right in. I'm sure this is happening far more often than most recruiters realize (especially if you include your FOSS experience as a job, which I've seen often on LinkedIn). Yet the only specific advice I was given in this regard is "Separate your professional experience from your personal/academic experience." And even then, it was in a training and back-up-assertions context; the HR pro wrote, "Just because you took a single.Net class, you're still considered a Mainframe developer if that's what your experience is in." I dare say I could research another entire blog post on "how to present your open source experience in a résumé," especially as more developers successfully use the FOSS-gained skills in open source jobs.
You should follow me on Twitter.Fake Britain programme focuses on counterfeit FSA bars
Buying parts for your bike online might seem tempting, but a BBC documentary shown last night has highlighted the dangers of counterfeit carbon parts sold bought on the internet
The Fake Britain documentary focused on the case of mountain biker Matt Phillips who bought a set of FSA carbon flat bar handlebars on eBay, which ostensibly seemed to be the real deal, having all the correct graphics and feel of FSA bars. However, while out riding a short time later, the bars failed catastrophically, snapping into three pieces while Matt was descending.
>>> Cheap Chinese carbon imports: are they worth the risk?
The result was a broken wrist in two places, which would require seven weeks in plaster and many months of physiotherapy. And even after all that Matt still hasn’t regained full movement of the wrist.
Just as big a shock came when Matt sent the bars back to FSA headquarters in Milan, only for the Italian manufacturer to find that they weren’t made by FSA after all, and were in fact a cheap carbon copy produced in the Far East, therefore not conforming to European safety standards.
>>> Warning of fake FSA cycle components
And it turned out that this wasn’t an isolated incident, with FSA finding over 2,000 similar counterfeit parts online in just a single month. In order to combat this problem, the company puts a special FSA logo that can only be seen under ultraviolet light on all of its products.
eBay is also aware of the problem and has taken steps to protect its users, reminding them that counterfeit products are not welcome on any of its sites.
>>> Your chance to buy Bradley Wiggins’s time trial wheels on eBay
“A large community of legitimate sellers trade authentic goods on eBay in the UK every day, and we work hard to protect them through anti-counterfeit initiatives including the Verified Rights Owner Program (VeRO) which helps legitimate sellers to protect their goods.”
Bike of the Year 2016
This isn’t the first time that Fake Britain has examined the problem of counterfeit cycling equipment, having previously highlighted the issue of fake copies of Giro helmets that also fail European safety tests.
Of course our advice would be to always buy through your local bike shop or through a reputable online store, ensuring the quality of the parts that you are buying and to make sure there is a warranty option just in case the worst happens.President Obama, speaking at a DC sandwich shop, says that the House has the opportunity to end the shutdown today, if only Speaker Boehner would allow a vote to take place.
President Barack Obama told reporters Friday that he won't negotiate with Republicans to end the budget standoff "with a gun held to the head of the American people."
"I'm happy to
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logged thirty-five thousand miles, eleven states, and one hundred fifty events with her husband.
Before embarking on the whistle-stop tour, she told the Christian Science Monitor, “For me, and probably for most women, the attempt to become an involved, practicing citizen has become a matter of evolution rather than choice. Actually, if given a choice between lying in a hammock under an apple tree with a book of poetry and watching the blossoms float down, or standing on a platform before thousands of people, I don’t have to tell you what I would have chosen twenty-five years ago.”
All Aboard!
The original idea for a whistle-stop tour came from Harry Truman, who had suggested that LBJ undertake one for the 1960 election. “You may not believe this, Lyndon,” said Truman, “but there are still a hell of a lot of people in this country who don’t know where the airport is. But they damn sure know where the depot is. And if you let ‘em know you’re coming, they’ll be down and listen to you.” Over the course of five days in October 1960, LBJ covered eight southern states and thirty-five hundred miles. Now it was Lady Bird’s turn. Whereas the president had been waging a bare-knuckle brawl, the first lady would wage a charm offensive. She would talk about her husband’s accomplishments, the goals for his administration, and how the federal government had helped each community. She would praise local heroes. What she wouldn’t do was scold southerners about civil rights.
The tour, organized out of the East Wing, was primarily a woman-planned, woman-run operation. Johnson had the capable and charming Bess Abell as her social secretary and Liz Carpenter as her press secretary and staff director. A former reporter, Carpenter had cut her teeth on the Kennedy-Johnson campaign and went on to serve as the vice president’s executive assistant, the first woman to hold the position. Kenny O’Donnell, LBJ’s principal campaign adviser, wasn’t sure Lady Bird’s plan would work. “He sat sphinx-like in meetings with me—half laughing at the whole idea and obviously feeling that neither the South nor women were important in the campaign,” wrote Carpenter in her memoir, Ruffles and Flourishes. The president, however, loved the idea and pored over maps with the first lady, tracing railroad lines and making suggestions for where to stop.
The trip also received a helping hand from congressional wives—Lindy Boggs of Louisiana, Betty Talmadge of Georgia, and Carrie Davis of Tennessee. Virginia Russell, wife of Donald Russell, the outgoing governor of South Carolina, stayed for three weeks in a guest room at the White House to assist with the planning. “The South may have its shortages—in nutrition and education—but I will match the political talents of Southern women against any others, anytime and anyplace,” wrote Carpenter. “They have the uncanny ability to look fragile and lovely as a magnolia blossom, and still possess the managerial ability of an AFL-CIO organizer.”
The first lady spent Friday, September 11, personally calling governors and congressmen in the eight states that she would pass through to invite them to board the train. North Carolina senators Sam Ervin and Everett Jordan said yes, but Senator A. Willis Robertson of Virginia would be away hunting antelope. Harry Byrd of Virginia also declined, citing the recent death of his wife. Byrd may have been in mourning, but the pro-segregation senator was also quietly organizing “Democrats for Goldwater.” As an antidote to the Lady Bird Special, he arranged for Strom Thurmond, South Carolina senator and die-hard Dixiecrat, to campaign for Goldwater on the day the first lady passed through Virginia. Thurmond, of course, politely declined Johnson’s request, but South Carolina’s senior senator, Olin Johnston, accepted. Lady Bird knew better than to ask Alabama governor George Wallace, a virulent segregationist. “I doubt it would even be courteous to do so,” she recorded in her diary.
Tuesday, October 6
The Lady Bird Special departed Washington just before dawn. The jewel of the train was the “Queen Mary,” a special observation car built thirty-four years earlier by the Wabash Railroad and rescued from a Pennsylvania junkyard. The car had received a hasty makeover, starting with a shiny new red, white, and blue paint job on the exterior. A brass platform for speechmaking was fitted on to the back. The inside of the car, which served as a rolling reception room, was painted light blue and decorated with family photos and campaign posters. For all of its old-school charm, the “Queen Mary” lacked modern air-conditioning, requiring a constant supply of ice to keep the car cool. At each stop, an advance man from the campaign arranged for blocks of ice to be loaded onto the base of the train. The next to last car consisted of living and sleeping quarters for Johnson and her daughters. Painted a deep green, it was quickly dubbed “the green room of the White House.”
The remaining cars were stuffed to capacity with campaign staff and more than two hundred reporters, who ranged from old political hands to foreign correspondents, eager to see the traveling spectacle. To help “Nawthern” reporters understand the South, Carpenter prepared a tongue-in-cheek “Dixie Dictionary.” “Tall cotton” was what southerners walk through due to Johnson prosperity. “Kissin’ Kin” was anyone who would come down to the depot. A “Fat Back” was a rich Democrat who had turned Republican, but now had the good sense to return to the Democratic fold. Frances Lewine, a reporter for the Associated Press, filed a story about the dictionary, only to have it yanked from the wires for containing “objectionable material.”
A dining car kept reporters nourished with Southern-inspired snacks and Johnson family favorites—everything from pickled okra to crab dip to guacamole and chili con queso. The recipes were printed up in newspapers, so others could have a taste of Johnson’s hospitality.
As the Lady Bird Special made its first stop in Alexandria, Virginia, the sun was barely poking above the Potomac River. Five thousand people turned out to see the first lady, who wore an “American beauty red wool dress and jacket,” and her daughter Lynda, who sported a “black and white checkered jacket and elbow length blue gloves.” Three high school bands played “Yellow Rose of Texas.”
“I wanted to make this trip because I am proud of the South and I am proud that I am part of the South,” Johnson told the crowd. The country needed to look for the ties that “bind us together, not settle for the tensions that tend to divide us.” She praised the response of local government across the South to the civil rights law. The crowd didn’t cheer that line, nor did they roar when the president, who had come to see his wife off, mentioned his running mate, Hubert Humphrey, a senator from Minnesota with a strong record on civil rights.
After kissing his wife on the cheek, LBJ boarded a helicopter for the short trip back to the White House. But Lady Bird wasn’t alone. Louisiana congressman and majority whip Hale Boggs signed up as her escort for the entire trip. She also had her staff, congressional wives, and a phalanx of Secret Service agents. A steady stream of guests boarded at each stop, with the travel time between stations used for photographs and chitchat. To keep from being over-whelmed with flowers, which appeared by the bushel, arrangements were made for bouquets to be given to hospitals and retirement homes farther up the line.
The train stopped next in Fredericksburg, Ashland, Richmond, and Petersburg. Five miles out from the depot, the speakers on the train started blaring, “Hello Lyndon!” Composer Jerry Herman, a Johnson supporter, had rewritten the words to the title song from his smash Broadway hit, Hello Dolly! “Hello, Lyndon! Hello, Lyndon! It’s so nice to have you there where you belong!” To ensure that crowds turned out to greet the train, more than sixty “advance women” had descended on towns along the route three or four days before the whistle-stop tour ’s arrival. They met with local officials, courted garden and community clubs, and put out press releases. “One of them was named Mrs. Robert E. Lee, and I wish to gosh every one of their names had been Mrs. Robert E. Lee,” said Carpenter in her oral history.
For the brief stops, which lasted between five to twenty minutes, Johnson and the politicians who had joined her would speak from the back of the train. As they talked, fifteen hostesses with Southern drawls, outfitted in Breton straw sailor hats, royal blue dresses, and white gloves, floated through the crowd, handing out peppermint taffy, balloons, buttons, pennants, and campaign memorabilia.
After stopping in Suffolk on the way to the Atlantic coast, the train rolled into Norfolk at midday for a rally and flag-raising ceremony at Norfolk Civic Center. More than fifteen hundred people lined the five-block route, while another five thousand gathered on the center ’s plaza, along with high school bands and rifle squad.
From Norfolk, it was on to North Carolina, where the first stop was Ahoskie, a town of forty-five hundred. The sheriff estimated, however, that ten thousand people turned out to see the first lady. “This is the second biggest crowd we’ve had since Buffalo Bill brought his Wild West show here in 1916,” a resident told the Chicago Tribune. In A White House Diary, Johnson recalled a woman in Ahoskie who pushed her way through the crowd to shake her hand. The woman said, “I got up at 3 o’clock this morning and milked twenty cows so I could get here by train time!”
Large crowds and a growing number of protestors turned out to see her in Tarboro, Rocky Mount, and Wilson. During the planning for the trip, Carpenter, worried about the vagaries of press interest, had told the president that she thought they would “need beefing up by the time we get to Raleigh.” LBJ responded, “I’ll be there.”
After a stop in the little town of Selma, the train rolled into Raleigh, and LBJ joined Lady Bird for a rally at North Carolina State College. Fourteen thousand people jammed Reynolds Coliseum. Carpenter ’s plan worked. Reporters who might have passed on covering the first lady could not ignore a campaign stop by the president, and Lady Bird’s spirits were lifted. “He knew we needed a stimulant then to keep the train going,” she said in her oral history. “I always felt that he was sorry he wasn’t along every bit of the way.”
Wednesday, October 7
Before noon, the Lady Bird Special stopped in Durham, Greensboro, and Thomasville. Twenty-five thousand people gathered for a lunchtime rally at Charlotte’s Independence Square. In early afternoon, the train crossed into South Carolina, stopping first in Rock Hill, a town that made headlines in February 1961 when nine African-American men were arrested for attempting to desegregate a lunch counter. Then, in May of that year, a bus carrying the original thirteen Freedom Riders, a group dedicated to desegregating interstate travel, arrived in Rock Hill. Three of the riders, one of whom was John Lewis, attempting to enter the whites-only waiting room in the Greyhound bus terminal, were beaten by a group of white men.
Three years later, Johnson was received as a friendly visitor. “The sign on the dusty railway station said ‘Rock Hill,’” reported the Charlotte Observer. “But for 10 thrilling minutes Wednesday it was Petticoat Junction—and the men in the First Lady ’s party took a back seat. Eight thousand yelling, cheering people looked right past a governor, a senator, and dozens of other high-ranking Democrats. They fastened their eyes on a dark-haired woman in a red dress and on her pretty daughter, dressed in green.... The roar of approval left no doubt that the thousands gathered here were glad to claim the First Lady as a kissin’ cousin.”
At every train stop, reporters mingled with the crowd in search of local color, which is how Gloria Negri, reporter for the Boston Globe, found herself stranded in Chester. Before the train departed, a bell sounded to let the reporters know that they had two minutes to get back on the train. Unable to make the step up, Negri watched as the Lady Bird Special pulled away, the sound of “Happy Days Are Here Again” trailing in its wake. Carpenter had told reporters that if they were left behind, they should find the campaign’s advance man for a lift to the next stop—or better yet, stay in town, become a resident, and vote for Johnson.
When she couldn’t find the advance man, Negri appealed to Chester ’s deputy sheriff, William L. Nunnery, for help. At first the deputy didn’t believe her story, suggesting that she might be a Republican spy. “But chivalry is not dead in the South,” declared Negri. With the siren screaming and the speedometer reaching eighty on the twisting back roads, Nunnery gave Negri a ride to the next stop, arriving in Winnsboro as the Lady Bird Special pulled in.
After Chester and Winnsboro, the train stopped in Columbia, where Johnson encountered her first serious group of protestors. Goldwater supporters chanted “We want Barry!” upon her arrival. By the time the first lady and her contingent stepped onto the speaking platform in front of the station, a vocal war of “We want Barry!” versus “We want Lyndon!” had erupted. The hecklers quieted down for the prayer, but fired up again as Johnson was about to begin her speech. The first lady, sun glaring in her eyes, faced the crowd without her usual smile.
She spoke of LBJ’s role in negotiating the Test Ban Treaty. “That treaty came at the end of a long, hard path of negotiations, and my husband is proud to have played a part in gaining this measure of safety for the people of the world.” The heckling started again, but she’d had enough. Lifting her white gloved hand, she silenced the Goldwater supporters: “This is a country of many viewpoints. I respect your opportunity to express your viewpoint. Now it’s my opportunity to present mine.”
More hecklers awaited Johnson in Orangeburg, a John Birch stronghold. Her reception grew less gracious with each stop, which she knew would happen. “In 1964, anybody could go to Atlanta and speak out for civil rights and still get out with their hides on,” observed Carpenter. “She told us to give her the tough towns. And so we took Charleston.” There, she again appealed for civility, but failed to sway the Goldwater supporters, who drowned out her speech with their chants and boos. One heckler told the New York Times that the president was communist because “he supports niggers.”
Photo caption This family portrait of the Johnsons--Lynda, Luci, Lyndon, and Lady Bird--was taken in November 1963, a week after LBJ became president. Lynda and Luci both spent two days campaigning with their mother on the Lady Bird Special. Courtesy LBJ Presidential Library. Photo by Yoichi Okamoto
Thursday, October 8
Before leaving Charleston, Johnson toured The Battery by carriage, forcing more than a hundred reporters on foot to try and keep pace with a bay mare named Jimmy and a palomino named Sport. Touring the antebellum homes with their pastel facades and sprawling white verandas would have offered a pleasant break, if not for the signs on one door after another saying, “This House is Sold on Goldwater.”
Next, the train headed for Georgia and the Deep South, beginning the two most challenging days of the trip. In Savannah, a crowd of 15,000 turned out for a lunchtime rally. The Goldwater supporters were also back, carrying signs that read, “This is Goldwater Country ” and “Down the Drain With Lyndon Baines.” When a pastor tried to deliver the invocation, he was drowned out with shouts of “We Want Barry!” Georgia governor Carl Sanders, a Democrat who supported desegregation, received similar treatment. The first lady talked right through the taunts, and even shook the hand of one of the protestors. When the Chicago Tribune asked the hecklers why they had come, one replied: “If we hadn’t come, the newspapers might have said ‘Savannah is solidly behind Johnson.’ It’s not.”
As the train made its way from Georgia into Florida, the Secret Service received an anonymous tip about a bomb threat. Before the train made its way across a seven-mile bridge, the FBI and local law enforcement officials surveyed it for explosives. Despite the “all clear,” the train received an escort by boat, while a helicopter kept watch overhead.
Friday, October 9
The final day of the whistle-stop tour was a whirlwind ride through Florida’s panhandle, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. With each stop, Johnson’s accent grew a little thicker, a little more Southern. After stops in DeFuniak Springs, Crestview, Milton, and Pensacola, the Lady Bird Special rolled into Alabama. In Flomaton, population twenty-five hundred, Johnson told the crowd how her summer vacations consisted of “swimming in the creek, watermelon cuttings, hayrides and visiting aunts and cousins in Selma and Montgomery and Billingsley and Prattville.” Also waiting for her at Flomaton was a grand bouquet of red roses sent by Governor George Wallace, a very unexpected gesture.
In Mobile, the Goldwater supporters were back, but so was Johnson’s inherent graciousness. “Mrs. Johnson was the most relaxed, the most fiery and the most appealing of all the days of her history-making whistlestopping tour of the South,” declared the Chicago Tribune. “Ah’m home,” Johnson told the enthusiastic crowd who had gathered in front of Phoenix No. 6, a restored firehouse, in downtown Mobile. After dedicating the firehouse, Johnson received the key to the city and was made an honorary chief of the fire department.
“I am proud to be in a state where my mother and father were born and raised and being in Mobile is in part a sentimental journey for me. I’m mighty glad to be in that part of the country where, although you might not like all I say, at least you understand the way I say it,” she told the crowd. “Standing here today, I feel that having spent so many summers of my past here and having traveled quite some since, I can speak of what the new South means to the nation. I can talk about the warmth and courtesy of the South of my youth, which will never change, and about the new South that I saw at Huntsville where man turns his face to the moon, and the new South I see here in Mobile.”
In Mississippi, the train made one stop, in Biloxi, where Johnson emphasized how Keesler Air Force base, home to 17,000, pumped federal dollars into the local economy. It was a tactic she’d used repeatedly over the previous three days: keep mum on civil rights while reminding the local residents of how the federal government helped their community.
Johnson passed through Mississippi without incident, but not for a lack of trying on the part of the Ku Klux Klan. During a hearing before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in January 1966, testimony revealed that Louis Di Salvo, a barber and gunrunner for the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi, had attempted to recruit the KKK chapter in Poplarville to bomb the Lady Bird Special as it passed through the state.
After Biloxi, there was only one more stop, New Orleans, the culmination of the four-day trip. When the Lady Bird Special pulled into Union Station, the president was waiting with open arms for his wife. “Mrs. Johnson embraced her husband as if they had been separated for three years instead of three days, and prolonged the clasp for the benefit of television cameras,” wrote the Chicago Tribune. Forty thousand supporters, mostly African American, had also been bused in for the rally.
“This was not only a sentimental journey, but a political one,” she told the crowd. “I came because I want to say that for this president and his wife, we appreciate you and care about you, and we have faith in you.” She and the president had “too much respect for the South to take it for granted and too much closeness to it to ignore it.” Johnson also made her first reference to civil rights since the send-off in Alexandria, Virginia. “I do not believe that the majority of the South wants any part of the old bitterness, and the more I have seen these last few days, the more I know that is true.”
The first lady’s work, however, wasn’t done. She and the president made their way down Canal Street, riding in an open car, to attend a campaign fund-raising dinner at the Jung Hotel. At the dinner, LBJ delivered a speech that would further help to galvanize his campaign, presenting himself as a statesman who would not shrink from taking a stand. “If we are to heal our history and make this nation whole, prosperity must know no Mason-Dixon line and opportunity must know no color line,” he told those gathered. “Whatever your views are, we have a Constitution and we have a Bill of Rights, and we have the law of the land, and two-thirds of the Democrats in the Senate voted for it [the civil rights bill] and three-fourths of the Republicans. I signed it, and I am going to enforce it, and... any man that is worthy of the high office of president is going to do the same thing.”
Photo caption The first lady embraces her husband in New Orleans, the last stop on the whistle-stop tour. Courtesy LBJ Presidential Library. Photo by Cecil Stoughton.
All the Way with LBJ
Four weeks later, the nation decided to go “All the Way with LBJ,” voting Johnson into the White House with 61.1 percent of the popular vote. No candidate had made such a sweep since the election of 1820. He also netted 486 electoral votes to Goldwater ’s 52. Of the eight states visited by the Lady Bird Special, Johnson won three—Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida. The other five—South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana—went to Goldwater. The Republicans also claimed Goldwater ’s home state of Arizona.
While a short episode in the acrimonious campaign of 1964, the Lady Bird Special reaped tangible benefits for the Johnson-Humphrey ticket. In her pleasant Southern manner, the first lady had delivered the message that Democrats and her husband hadn’t written off the South over conflicting views regarding civil rights. Democratic leaders who had demurred on endorsing Johnson, because of his stance on civil rights, climbed aboard the Lady Bird Special. The tour mobilized Democratic support in communities that had previously been untapped. It also generated a feel-good story about the Johnson campaign that became fodder for newspapers and nightly newscasts. Reports of Goldwater supporters showing a lack of respect for the first lady didn’t hurt either.
After the election, the first lady and the women who had ridden the Lady Bird Special once again joined forces to promote Head Start, a program aimed at providing an educational and nutritional boost to low-income children.
The Lady Bird Special, which Johnson called “a marvelous, utterly exhausting adventure,” came to hold a special place in her heart. “Scores of times since that October as I have stood in a receiving line someone would come up and say, ‘I rode with you on the Whistlestop’—and we would clasp hands with a warmth and rush of memories of that very special time, those four most dramatic days in my political life.”Updated 5:47 p.m.
NOPD is on the scene of a fatal crash in the Marigny. A male bicyclist was killed in an accident near the corner of St. Claude Ave. and Elysian Fields Ave., officer Garry Flot said.
The 52-year-old bicyclist, who was not immediately identified, was hit by an 18-wheeler who was turning onto Elysian Fields Ave. from St. Claude Ave. He was then knocked off his bicycle by the truck. Then, an SUV drove by and also hit the man. Police at the scene were seen investigating both vehicles.
The 18-wheeler was being driven by a 51-year-old man from Violet, police said. He was not issued a citation.
As police worked the scene, the bicycle and tractor trailer remained in the middle of the road on the lakebound side of Elysian Fields Ave.
Further details on the accident were not immediately released. NoDef will provide updates as they come available.Scientists are finding clues about how climate change could affect marine life by looking deep into the global ocean's past experiences with warming.
Through analysis of ocean sediment data, researchers at the University of California, Davis, found that the last time the planet underwent a major temperature change at the end of the last ice age, ocean oxygen levels fell sharply along the continental margins in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The findings raise concerns about whether warming conditions will make certain parts of the ocean uninhabitable for a wide range of marine life that needs oxygen to survive.
The researchers focused specifically on regions called oxygen minimum zones (OMZs), which are naturally occurring low-oxygen regions in the intermediary waters just below the oxygen-rich surface.
During the glacial period around 20,000 years ago, these zones did not exist. But in modern oceans, they occur in intermediary waters all over the world. Over several millenia after the ice age ended, the low oxygen expanses of water began expanding until they peaked midway through the deglaciation period about 14,000 years ago. In some locations, the expansion took place much more quickly, over less than a hundred years.
The researchers analyzed archived sediment core sample data to chart ocean oxygen concentrations from four regions in the eastern Pacific—from the sub-Arctic region down to the equatorial Pacific.
The largest oxygen minimum zone appeared along the Humboldt Current on the western coastline of Central and South America. The extremely low oxygen region had a huge vertical range, from 110 to more than 3,000 meters (360 to 10,170 feet) below sea level. Today's oxygen minimum zones in the same region are much less extensive, extending from about 100 to 500 meters (128 to 1,640 feet) below sea level.
Expansion of the zones coincided well with the peak in deglaciation, according to the study.
Are dead crabs an early sign of warming?
The research could signal future environmental and economic trouble for areas near modern-day oxygen minimum zones, said Sarah Moffitt, a postdoctoral researcher at the Bodega Marine Laboratory at UC Davis and lead author of the study.
"We wanted to present the [research] in a way that was meaningful for people looking at ocean systems in the modern world," she said, adding that researchers had already documented changes in oxygen concentration in the ocean interior. "We want to understand these systems—are they stable or are they reactive? We need information on how sensitive these types of environments are to global scale change."
The study's authors were amazed by how sensitive the oceans were to past changes in the global climate, suggesting that current ocean systems are not as stable as they may appear, she said.
Previous research in 2008 estimated that the amount of hypoxic (very low oxygen) water could increase by 50 percent by 2100, with overall declines in oxygen ranging from 1 to 7 percent.
"It's very well accepted that climate change will change oxygen concentration in the ocean," said Francis Chan, an assistant professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at Oregon State University who studies ocean oxygen concentration levels closer inland, off the coast of Oregon. The oxygen minimum zones he studies are somewhat different than those in Moffitt's study—their upper ranges are 600 meters deep, not 100 meters.
According to Chan, the jury is still out on whether current changes in ocean oxygen concentrations are early signs of the effects of climate change, though there may already be some impacts on marine life. He has heard reports from crab fishermen that their catches are lower, and they are pulling up more dead crabs. There is also come anecdotal evidence that fish are moving farther up in the water column than they used to, perhaps because of expanded oxygen minimum zones.
"This is something we are paying very close attention to," he said.
Deciphering the mystery behind the ocean 'layer cake'
The complex mix of factors that lead to lower ocean oxygen levels make studying the phenomenon even more challenging.
"The problem with this kind of science is that it's really messy because there is a whole suite of physical processes that impact the interior of the ocean," said Moffitt, adding that the study did not analyze in detail the mechanisms driving modern oxygen loss.
The simple way to think about how oxygen is distributed in the ocean is to compare it to a layer cake, Chan said. At the very surface, the ocean is in intimate contact with the atmosphere, and the waters are oxygen-rich, but progress deeper into the ocean and the oxygen levels drop lower and lower.
Periodically, the poorly oxygenated waters blend with those on the surface. This can happen through subduction, when especially cold and salty surface waters become dense enough to sink into the low oxygenated waters. This process is often driven by the formation of sea ice and ocean surface currents.
Other times, oxygen-poor waters will rise up into surface waters through a process called upwelling, which is driven more by atmospheric processes, according to Moffitt.
Oxygen levels are also affected by photosynthesis from marine plants, algae and phytoplankton, said Francisco Chavez, a senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, who also studies oxygen minimum zones. Long-term climate cycles like the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, are thought to have an impact, as well.
Problems with the ocean's water mixing system begin as temperatures warm. With higher temperatures, the surface ocean acts like a cap that prevents oxygen from getting into deeper layers. As temperatures increase, that cap gets stronger and stronger, according to Chan.
The stratifying phenomenon is familiar to anyone who has jumped into a lake in the middle of the summer. Even though the surface of the water is relatively warm, closer to the bottom there is a distinct drop in temperature.
Multiple threats to the Calif. coast
Paleoceanographic research like Moffitt's study is just one of the ways researchers are trying to understand today's oceans.
Moffitt noted that it is important to recognize the differences between the end of the last ice age, which occurred because of a change in the Earth's orbit around the sun, and current warming that is driven by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
Chan said the study is interesting because it focused on the near geological past.
"One thing the study doesn't tell us a lot about is what is going on near shore. It's more focused on the continental margin; that's 65 to 75 nautical miles out," he said.
Researchers hypothesize that upwelling in the California coastal region is essentially piping deep ocean hypoxic water into coastal areas, making the area especially hypoxic, or low in oxygen.
"Because we are starting from a low number already, any changes that go lower than that can have very serious consequences," Chan said.
The Pacific coastline is at risk not just from low oxygen levels but also from higher concentrations of dissolved CO2, which are increasing the water's acidity.
"I think for a long time we were talking about the vulnerability of coral reefs. Actually, it's turning out that places like the U.S. West Coast are vulnerable because of currents and low oxygen," he said.
Others researchers, like Chavez are more skeptical of the short-term risks of low ocean oxygen levels.
"Because of these dynamic processes, with atmospheric highs and lows that intensify in a warmer world, you can override some of the stratification," he said.
While oxygen levels may have been declining off California's coastline for more than a decade, Chavez said imminent results of the decrease are unlikely in the next 10, 20 or even 50 years.
"If we continue down this path now, in several hundred years, we will have serious problems," he said.
Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500Product code: 82640124
The PlayStation 4 Ultimate Player Edition ensures you never stop playing, thanks to its huge 1TB hard drive. PS4 is a great place to play with dynamic, connected gaming, powerful graphics and speed, intelligent personalisation, deeply integrated social capabilities, plus innovative second-screen features. Combining fresh content, immersive gaming experiences, all of your favourite digital entertainment apps and PlayStation exclusives, the PS4 system focuses on the gamer.
Ultimate Player Edition
With 1TB of storage, the Ultimate Player Edition of PlayStation 4 will let you download and save twice as many games and additional content as the original version.
Powerful hardware
The PS4 system is centred around a powerful custom chip that contains eight x86-64 cores and a state of the art 1.84 TFLOPS graphics processor with 8GB of ultra-fast GDDR5 unified system memory, easing game creation and increasing richness of content. The end result is new games with rich, high-fidelity graphics and deeply immersive experiences.
DualShock 4
The DualShock 4 controller features new innovations, including a highly sensitive six-axis sensor as well as a touch pad located on the top of the controller which offers completely new ways to play and interact with games.
Share button
Engage in endless personal challenges with your community, and share your epic triumphs with the press of a button. Simply hit the Share button on the controller, scan through the last few minutes of gameplay, tag it and return to the game - the video uploads as you play. The PS4 system also enables you to broadcast your gameplay in real time.
No restrictions
PlayStation 4 doesn't place sharing restrictions on disc-based games, so you can simply hand a game to your friend for them to try at home for as long as they want, no strings attached.
PlayStation Plus
Designed to bring games and gamers together. PlayStation Plus is a membership service that takes your gaming experience to the next level. Each month members receive access to an Instant Game Collection of top rated blockbuster and innovative Indie games, which they can download direct to their console.
Includes
DualShock 4 controller, HDMI cable, headset and charging cable.Copying Is Not Theft, But Censorship Is
from the Crazy dept
This morning a friend shared with me some amusing American Sign Language videos, and in return I wanted to share with him my favorite ASL video of all time: B. Storm's interpretation of the Gnarls Barkley song. Only I couldn't because it was gone. Why? Because "This video contains content from WMG (Warner Music Group), who has blocked it on copyright grounds." This is appalling for many reasons, not least of which being the video is almost certainly fair use. Copying is not theft, but censorship is. When a video is blocked, banned, erased, or otherwise censored,. The commons is robbed. When B. Storm copied the song Crazy into his video, WMG's copies were still there. When WMG censored B. Storm's video, it was gone.I couldn't accept that such a great video was simply gone, so I attempted to recreate and re-share the original video. I found a silent version and combined it with the song, which I captured from the official video using Audio Hijack Pro (having written that, I expect storm troopers to bust down my door any minute now). Unfortunately its sync was a little off; soundtracks end up slightly different lengths and speeds due to all the different kinds of compression out there, and the song I captured was slightly longer than what B. Storm had on his original video. Fortunately another web search, using different terms, led me to this website of videos curated for deaf kids, which miraculously contained the unmolested video embedded from weebly. This I was able to download, and then re-upload to Vimeo where it's easier to share and embed. Of course it could be taken down at any time, so get it while you can:Great art like this matters too much to passively let monopolists erase it from our common culture. When you find good videos online, consider making local back-up copies. We never know what's going to be censored when, and without audience back-ups some great art could be lost forever.
Filed Under: censorship, crazy, sign language
Companies: warner musicFive years ago at the White House Correspondents dinner, master of ceremonies Seth Meyers and President Obama ripped The Donald about the possibility of a presidential run.
"Donald Trump has been saying he will run for president as a Republican," Meyers told the crowd adding, "which is surprising because I thought he was running as a joke."
Yesterday Donald J. Trump became the 45th president of the United States.
It’s surreal to watch this 2011 video of Obama and Seth Meyers taunting Trump about a presidential run pic.twitter.com/XkZNGmzcUx — Business Insider (@businessinsider) November 9, 2016
In the clip, the crowd roars as the host lambasts Trump for his hair, a Gary Busey endorsement, and owning the Miss USA Pagaent while Trump himself stares stone-faced at the stage, seemingly saying to himself, "Just wait and see, pal."
Obama then took some jabs at Trump, calling him a conspiracy theorist and lampooning his reality TV career.
It's truly going to be quite the sight when ol' Barry Soetoro hands over the Oval Office keys to President Trump.
The Twitterverse is also having a field-day with this clip:
@businessinsider Lol he's just sitting there quietly thinking to himself "one day. one day." — SEUN (@Dan_Onas) November 9, 2016
@businessinsider Never underestimate the power of karma! — Isik Mater (@isik5) November 9, 2016
@businessinsider and now we know how expensive that roast turned out to be ;) — XpressionS (@de_blacksmith) November 9, 2016
Let the gold-plating begin.A typical kiwi summer holiday consists of camping, barbecues and swimming in our lakes, rivers and seas. As a kid I remember spending hours jumping into waterholes and building dams in rocky rivers, and swimming out to pontoons in lakes. But our freshwater systems have become subject to pollution and degradation. A big pollutant to New Zealand’s waterways are fertilizer and faecal runoff from paddocks. However this can easily be managed by fencing waterways off from stock and planting a riparian zone between the waterway and paddocks. The plants in the riparian zone act as a filter, taking up the nutrients from runoff before it reaches the waterway. Also storm-water runoff in cities contains chemical pollutants.
Another threat to the quality of New Zealand waterways are aquatic weeds and algae. Didymo, also known as rock snot
|
: of what?
sweet17: me?
bloodninja: No. Im in hiding.
sweet17: LOL
bloodninja: Dont fucking laugh at me!
bloodninja: This shit is serious!
sweet17: What are you hiding from?
bloodninja: The cops.
sweet17: gimme a fucking break
bloodninja: Im serious.
sweet17: I dont get it
bloodninja: The cops are after me.
sweet17: For what?
bloodninja: Im wanted in three states
sweet17: For???
bloodninja: Its kindof embarrasing.
bloodninja: I had sex with a turkey.
bloodninja: Hello?
sweet17: You are fucking sick.
bloodninja: Send me your picture.
sweet17: why?
bloodninja: so I know you arent one of them.
sweet17: One of what?
bloodninja: The cops.
sweet17: Im not a cop i told you
bloodninja: Then send me your picture.
sweet17: hold on
bloodninja: Hurry up.
bloodninja: Are you there?
bloodninja: fuck you, cop!
sweet17: Hey sorry
sweet17: I had to do something for my mom.
bloodninja: I thought you were trying to find a picture to send to me.
bloodninja: When really you were notifying the authorities.
bloodninja: Werent you!?
sweet17: thats not it
bloodninja: Then what?
sweet17: I dont want to send you the picture cause Im not pretty
bloodninja: Most cops arent
sweet17: IM NOT A FUCKING COP YOU DICKSHIT!
bloodninja: Then send me the picture.
sweet17: fine. Whats your e-mail?
bloodninja: Just send it through here.
sweet17: alright *PIC*
sweet17: Did you get it?
bloodninja: Hold on. Im looking.
sweet17: That was me back in may
sweet17: Ive lost weight since then.
bloodninja: I hope so
sweet17: what?!?
sweet17: that hurt my feelings.
bloodninja: Did it?
sweet17: Yes. Im not that much smaller than that now.
bloodninja: Will it make you feel better if I send you my picture?
sweet17: yes
bloodninja: Alright let me find it.
sweet17: kks
bloodninja: Okay here it is. *PIC*
sweet17: this isnt you.
bloodninja: Ill be damned if it aint!
sweet17: You dont look like that.
bloodninja: How the hell do you know?
sweet17: cause your profile has another picture.
bloodninja: The profile pic is a fake.
bloodninja: I use it to hide from the cops.
sweet17: You look like the Farm Fresh guy lol
bloodninja: Well, you look like you ATE the Farm Fresh guy.
bloodninja: Not to mention all the groceries.
sweet17: Go fuck yourself
bloodninja: I was going to until I saw that picture
bloodninja: Now my unit wont get hard for a week.
sweet17: I shouldnt have sent you that picture.
sweet17: Youve done nothing but slam me.
sweet17: you hurt me.
bloodninja: And calling me the Farm Fresh guy doesnt hurt me?
sweet17: I thought you were bullcrapping me!
bloodninja: Why would I do that?
sweet17: I cant believe that cops are after you
bloodninja: I cant believe Santa lets you sit on his lap..
sweet17: FUCK YOU!!!
bloodninja: Youd break both of his legs.
sweet17: Youre a fucking wanker!
sweet17: Ive been teased my whole life because of my weight
sweet17: and you make fun of me when you dont even know me
bloodninja: Ok. Im sorry.
sweet17: No you arent
bloodninja: Youre right. Im not.
bloodninja: HAARRRRR!
sweet17: Im done with you
bloodninja: Aww. Im sorry.
sweet17: Im putting you on ignore
bloodninja: Wait a sec
bloodninja: We got off on the wrong foot.
bloodninja: Wanna start over?
sweet17: No
bloodninja: Ill eat your kitty
sweet17: Youll what?
bloodninja: You heard me.
bloodninja: I said Id eat your kitty.
sweet17: I thought you said you couldnt get it hard after seeing my picture
bloodninja: Do I need a hard-on to eat your kitty?
sweet17: Id like to know that the man eating me out is excited yes
bloodninja: Well Im not like most men.
bloodninja: I get excited in different ways.
sweet17: Like what?
bloodninja: Do you really wanna know?
sweet17: I dont know
bloodninja: You have to tell me yes or no.
sweet17: Im afraid to
bloodninja: Why?
sweet17: cause
bloodninja: cause why?
sweet17: well lets see
sweet17: you say you have sex with turkeys. You call me fat. then you wanna eat me out
sweet17: doesnt that seem strange to you?
bloodninja: Nope
sweet17: well its strange to me
bloodninja: Fine. I wont do it if you dont want me to
sweet17: I didnt say that
bloodninja: So is that a yes?
sweet17: I guess so.
bloodninja: Ok. I need your help getting excited though.
bloodninja: Are you willing?
sweet17: What do you need me to do?
bloodninja: I need you talk like a pirate.
sweet17:???
bloodninja: When I start to go limp you say HARRRR!!!
bloodninja: ok?
bloodninja: Hello?
sweet17: You cant be serious
bloodninja: Oh yes I am!
bloodninja: Its my fantasy.
sweet17: this is retarded
bloodninja: Do you want it or not?
sweet17: Yes I want it.
bloodninja: Then youll do it for me?
sweet17: sure
bloodninja: Ok. Here we go.
bloodninja: I gently remove your panties and being to massage your thighs.
bloodninja: You get really juicy thinking about my tounge brushing up against them
bloodninja: I softly begin to tounge your wet kitty.
bloodninja: I run my tounge up and down your smooth cunt.
sweet17: mmmm yeah
bloodninja: uh oh going limp.
sweet17: Har
bloodninja: You gotta do better than that!
bloodninja: Your picture was really bad.
sweet17: HARRRRRRRRRRRR
bloodninja: Ahhhh. Much better. I feel your kitty get more moist with every stroke.
bloodninja: I softly suck on your clit bringing it in and out of my mouth.
bloodninja: Your juices run down my chin as your scent makes its way to my nose.
bloodninja: I begin to feel empowered by your femininity.
sweet17: mmmmmm you are good
bloodninja: I feel your thighs tighten as I fuck harder
bloodninja: going limp
sweet17: HARRRRRRR
bloodninja: Mmmm I grab your swelling buttocks in my hands.
bloodninja: You begin to sway back and forth.
bloodninja: going limp
sweet17: this is stupid
bloodninja: still limp
bloodninja: Do it!
sweet17: HARRRRRRRRRRRRR
bloodninja: I turn you around to lick your asshole.
bloodninja: I pry apart that battleship you call your ass.
bloodninja: I see poo nuggets hanging from the hair around your ass.
sweet17: WTF?!?!?
bloodninja: They stink really bad.
sweet17: OMG STOP!!!
bloodninja: I start to get fed up with your ugly ass
bloodninja: I tear off your wooden peg leg.
bloodninja: I ram it up your ass.
sweet17: YOURE A FUCKING PYSCHO!!
bloodninja: Then I pour hot carmel over your head.
bloodninja: And turn you into a fucking candy apple
bloodninja: I kick you in the face!
sweet17: FUCK YOU DICKHEAD!!
bloodninja: The celluloid from your cheeks hits the side of the cabin
bloodninja: Your parrot flys away.
bloodninja: going limp again.
bloodninja: Hello?
bloodninja: Say it!
bloodninja: HAARRRRRR!!!!! #101881 +( 2502 )- [X] bloodninja: Ok baby, we got to hurry, I don't know how long I can keep it
ready for you.
j_gurli3: thats ok. ok i'm a japanese schoolgirl, what r u.
bloodninja: A Rhinocerus. Well, hung like one, thats for sure.
j_gurli3: haha, ok lets go.
j_gurli3: i put my hand through ur hair, and kiss u on the neck.
bloodninja: I stomp the ground, and snort, to alert you that you are in my
breeding territory.
j_gurli3: haha, ok, u know that turns me on.
j_gurli3: i start unbuttoning ur shirt.
bloodninja: Rhinoceruses don't wear shirts.
j_gurli3: No, ur not really a Rhinocerus silly, it's just part of the game.
bloodninja: Rhinoceruses don't play games. They f*cking charge your ass.
j_gurli3: stop, cmon be serious.
bloodninja: It doesn't get any more serious than a Rhinocerus about to
charge your ass.
bloodninja: I stomp my feet, the dust stirs around my tough skinned feet.
j_gurli3: thats it.
bloodninja: Nostrils flaring, I lower my head. My horn, like some phallic
symbol of my potent virility, is the last thing you see as skulls collide
and mine remains the victor. You are now a bloody red ragdoll suspended in
the air on my mighty horn.
bloodninja: Goddam am I hard now. #206068 +( 657 )- [X] bloodninja: My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love. My insides turn to celery as I unleash my warm and sticky cauliflower of love.
Katie_007: What the f*ck is this madlibs? I'm outta here.
bloodninja: Yeah, well I already unleashed my cauliflower, all over your olives, and up in your eyes. Now you can't see. Bitch.Photo: Tami Hultman/AllAfrica
Melinda Gates promoting family planning in London.
Nairobi — Kenya failed to make specific commitments on the use of family planning during a London summit that was attended by major international donors and 69 countries.
African Institute for Development Policy Executive Director Eliyas Zulu who attended the meeting told Capital FM News that majority of the other countries present made specific commitments to increase their financial budgets for family planning and or make family planning national priority.
Planning Minister Wycliffe Oparanya represented the country at the summit.
"There were no specific commitments that Kenya made. Kenya has made progress but there are big service gaps with about 25 percent of married women having unmet need for family planning," Zulu said.
"But also I think the most critical thing that the summit emphasised is that governments need to make sure that there is equitable access to family planning and that's one of the big problems we have in Kenya," he added.
He noted that although globally Kenya looked like it was making progress on provision of family planning; the poor women in some geographical regions continued to lack access.
"Even if women in Kenya now start having two children next year or this year the Kenyan population will still grow for the next 60 to 70 years because we already have enough young people and the Kenyan population is already guaranteed to reach 100 million," he stated adding: "So those who want Kenya to have a big population, that is guaranteed, you don't have to expose women to become child bearing machines for you to have a big population."
He said it was important for the country to accelerate action, funding and the focus on meeting the needs of the poorest and the underserved populations and stop relying too much on donors.
He attributed the over reliance on donors to history where when family planning was introduced in the 1970s, it was mostly funded by donors and a lot of African leaders were uncomfortable promoting family planning because they thought it against African culture.
"This is a disease in Africa that we need to address because if donors look the other way or their priorities change, then we expose women," he said.
But even if Kenya failed to make any tangible commitment, it would be among 69 countries that are set to benefit from a $4.6 billion funding for family planning, a commitment made by developed countries at the family planning meeting.
However, it was not clear how much each country would get from the funds that are aimed to help 120 million new users of family planning to have access over the next eight years.
"It may not fill the entire gap because it is estimated that about 220 million women in the developing countries have unmet need for family planning so you can see that this number is actually going to meet about half of that unmet need, but it would still go a long way in helping women who are unable to access family planning to be able to do so," Zulu said.
He described the London summit as a game changing meeting where the international community made a decision to stop low contraceptive access.
"What the summit said is that let's enable women who need to use family planning access it. It is not through coercive means, it's by giving women a choice. If a woman wants to have six children or whatever number, the government shouldn't come and say have two children, women should choose. But once a woman chooses to have one or two children, the government should help them have the means to do so," he said.Can you trust government data or even find it? Many are sounding the alarm
Last week, the Washington Post’s Jenna Johnson reported that FEMA removed statistics about drinking water and electricity access in Puerto Rico from its main website. The data was restored two days later, after Johnson’s piece came out.
It wasn’t the first time that the Trump administration has made government data harder for journalists to find. Engadget reported that the administration “scrubbed open.whitehouse.gov of datasets created under the Obama administration” in February. The Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, which monitors changes to federal environmental agency websites, has noted substantial changes on pages on the EPA, USDA, and HHS websites related to climate change.
This is a worrisome change. Ensuring that data is “reliable, accurate, and accessible” is necessary for both journalists and our democracy, as a panel discussion on “Maintaining the Quality and Integrity of US Government Data” recently noted in its description.
More than 70 journalists and economists came together to hear representatives from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on a panel moderated by Marilyn Geewax, a senior business editor with NPR, and co-chair of the First Amendment Committee for the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW).
Since the 2016 presidential election, Geewax has been leading NPR’s coverage of the conflicts of interest created by President Trump’s business holdings. In her role at SABEW, she has been pushing to protect access to taxpayer-supported data in a hyper-partisan era. Already she has seen public information disappear from websites, and worries about potential downgrades in data quality.
I asked her about her concerns.
Kramer: Chris Hayes recently tweeted that “We are seeing a really dangerous shut-down of publicly available data from the federal government across a variety of sectors.” What differences have you seen during this administration in terms of access?
Geewax: Journalists aren’t just being paranoid; access to data really has declined since the start of the Trump era. Here are some examples:
— The Independent reports: Public information about the companies importing Ivanka Trump goods to the U.S. has become harder to find. Information that once routinely appeared in private trade tracking data has vanished, leaving the identities of companies involved in 90 percent of shipments unknown.
— Axios reports: An Aug. 31 message — sent by the CDC’s public affairs officer Jeffrey Lancashire — instructs CDC employees not to speak to reporters, “even for a simple data-related question.”
— In April, the Environmental Protection Agency announced its website would be “undergoing changes.” Those changes meant the removal of several agency websites offering detailed climate data and scientific information.
— At one point, the Department of Agriculture removed a massive database of records on animal welfare but there was such an outcry that it reposted the information. Vigilance matters.
Kramer: You moderated that SABEW panel, done with NABE (National Association of Business Economics), about the need to maintain the quality and integrity of U.S. government data. I’m curious about what threats exist in terms of data integrity and quality — which is different from access – for both journalists and economists who use this government data?
Geewax: Here’s my concern: What if we keep receiving, say, BLS’ monthly jobs reports, but the surveys get changed in subtle ways to make the unemployment and wage data look better than they should? Will we know if the numbers are being collected fairly, and presented in responsible ways?
What if questions in the 2020 Census are changed just enough to make it more difficult to figure out how many gay families the country has? There are lots of ways to make data disappear, just by changing or dropping questions.
Bottom line: It’s not enough to get a government report. You have to get one that is accurate, fair and clearly presented.
Journalists need allies inside government and industry who can let us know when something is breaking bad. That’s why I thought it was important to have journalists and economists meet at the SABEW-NABE panel. I want economists to know: IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING to a journalist.
Kramer: How do you and your colleagues currently use government data in your reporting?
Geewax: Government data is at the core of all business journalism. We journalists all rely on government numbers to explain what is happening with employment, GDP, wages, inflation, etc. We could never properly inform citizens about the performance of their elected leaders on economic issues without reliable government data.
Kramer: How are business editors and writers approaching this situation — are there any ongoing efforts to speak about these changes or save existing data?
Geewax: Lots of journalists are engaged on this issue. Free Speech Week is coming up Oct. 16-22, and many organizations are partnering to mark that.
But it’s not just journalists who worry about data quality and access. A long list of groups, representing various types of researchers, sent a letter to the Labor secretary, urging him to “prioritize and work to ensure that BLS funding returns to levels sufficient to cover its varied and vital statistical programs.”
Kramer: Are you seeing any pushback from federal employees?
Geewax: There have been lots of leaks from government employees, and many have resigned or retired. I know from personal experience that some of those former employees can be good sources — helping journalists know what to request via FOIAs.
I might add: On Sept. 7, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration issued a report about the IRS’ FOIA procedures. After reviewing FOIA requests, the IG concluded that the IRS had improperly withheld information in about 1 in 7 requests.
Kramer: If the result is that you need to FOIA more or that FOIA requests take longer, how might this affect reporting in terms of costs and time?
Geewax: We always have more news than reporters. Any time that a reporter spends on filing FOIAs, instead of just getting the information on a web site, is time and money wasted. So it’s not good.
Kramer: There were a number of efforts from academics and librarians to archive datasets related to climate and the environment before the new administration started. I’m wondering if there’s anything you or your colleagues at SABEW are thinking or archiving now?
Geewax: ThinkProgress has launched Disappearing Data, a project to recover government data that has disappeared from online. They’ve already filed a bunch of Freedom of Information Act requests for disappeared websites.
But journalists won’t have the time or resources to watch everything. That’s why we need to partner with economists, scientists, historians and anyone else who can help preserve and protect taxpayer-supported data.
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PrintIf you’ve been a fan of this site for a while, then you know that we are pretty excited for the release of Dreadnought. This multiplayer spaceship combat game thoroughly impressed us at past conventions, with us putting up multiple impressions articles, and even an interview with the developer. The game won us over thanks to its slow, methodical combat that totally elicits the feeling of commanding a Battlestar Galactica style ship.
The game has been in a very Closed Alpha for some time, but has just transitioned to the official Closed Beta. This means more players, and servers that are active almost all the time. And thankfully, we have a bunch of extra codes to giveaway to all of you. I can’t say exactly how many we have, but it’s at least more than 10, so your odds are actually pretty good at snagging one. But, of course, we aren’t just tossing these things out there for anyone to use.
Here’s how this will work, we will pick, at random, people who have left a comment below on this article, and/or people who have subscribed to our YouTube channel and left a comment on this video. We’ll also be giving away a few during our podcast, so be sure to listen to Episode 28 for instructions on how to get those. The winners will be chosen totally randomly, so if you want the code, you better do all three if you want to increase your odds. We’ll pick winners over the next few days, and will contact you via whatever method you have on the account that wins, so be sure to check it later on.
We got these codes while at PAX East 2016, so also be sure to check out any other articles linked to the convention. We might toss a code or two to commenters on those articles, or their videos.
Dreadnought is a free-to-play game that is looking for release on PC later this year.× Mexican president praises trade deal with US during Trump visit
Donald Trump was greeted by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto with an earful on trade and the importance of ties between the US and its southern neighbor.
The Republican presidential candidate made a last-minute trip Wednesday to Mexico in his first visit after becoming the nominee to meet with a world leader — one who has publicly insulted him and criticized his immigration and border policies.
Peña Nieto began his remarks in Mexico City alongside Trump by saying the two held a constructive exchange of views even though “we might not agree on everything.” He then launched into a detailed explication of US-Mexican trade and the benefit to both countries delivered by the North American Free Trade Agreement — a common punching bag for Trump on the campaign trail.
Trump, who listened to his host’s long remarks with a somber look on his face while a woman stood beside him at the podium translating for him, said that Mexicans were “spectacular” people when it was his turn to talk.
But he laid bare disagreements between the two men when he said it was imperative to stop the “tremendous outlow” of jobs from the United States over the southern border, and that NAFTA had benefited Mexico more than the US.
He stood up for America’s right to build a “physical barrier or wall” on its territory to stop illegal immigration and drug traffickers.
Trump also said that the didn’t discuss “payment for the wall” that he has called on Mexico to build to stop illegal immigration into the US.
Trump’s lightning-speed visit with Peña Nieto takes place in the frenzied build-up to the GOP nominee’s speech in Arizona Wednesday night clarifying his murky policy on immigration.
Trump’s calls for deporting all undocumented workers, labeling many Mexican immigrants “rapists” and “criminals,” and plan to build a wall along the border — that Mexico would pay for — have earned him withering criticism from Peña Nieto, as well as many independents and moderate Republicans.
But they are central pillars of his campaign, which has galvanized his white working class base behind his White House bid. Those most fervently opposed to immigration have pushed back against the rumored “softening” in his stance that he could articulate on Wednesday night.
It is not unusual for presidential candidates to venture abroad during a campaign. Both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney made trips to bolster their foreign policy credentials in 2008 and 2012.
But Trump’s approach — like the rest of his campaign — is highly unorthodox. Presidential candidates do not typically show up in foreign capitals for talks with leaders without intense preparation and highly choreographed game plans. Often, the parameters of a meeting are settled in advance. This trip was announced Tuesday night.
In addition, they usually visit strong allies where they are assured of a warm reception that will make for positive media coverage rather than sitting down with a leader who has compared them to Hitler and has disparaged their policy proposals.
Trump’s style, however, is more impulsive and unpredictable. He has never met a foreign leader in an official capacity. So his trip represents something of a risk. Even though the meeting with Peña Nieto is private, he has no control over how the Mexican leader will address the public and how his officials will brief journalists about it afterward.
Any protests against his visit could also generate unfavorable publicity in the United States, detract from his speech on Wednesday and play into Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s assertions that he is not fit to represent the US on the world stage.
The trip was also unusual for not including his traveling press corps and coming against the advice of US diplomats.
The campaign’s decision to travel to a foreign country — one rife with security risks for a candidate who has stoked tensions with his rhetoric on Mexican immigrants — without reporters following close behind marks an unprecedented moment in the coverage of major party presidential nominees.
In addition, staff at the US Embassy in Mexico advised the Trump campaign against making such a hastily arranged trip, suggesting it would be logistically difficult to organize on such short notice, according to a source familiar with the discussions.
Still, even a picture of Trump and Peña Nieto together could go some way to enhancing the Republican nominee’s stature as a potential global leader among some voters — perhaps among the very swing state Republican moderates he desperately needs to court to cut his poll deficit to Clinton.
If he emerges from the talks to say he told Peña Nieto that he plans to build the border wall and present Mexico with the bill, Trump could offer himself some insulation against criticism from the most radical anti-immigration voters in his base should he ease his positions in his address.
Trump campaign officials said the goal of the visit was to cast Trump as presidential and to create a photo opportunity with him and the Mexican president. But one adviser also told CNN’s Sara Murray that the spur-of-the-moment trip also highlights how nimble the Trump campaign is and how responsive he would be to breaking developments as president.
“You’ve just got to throw in a little theater now and then,” the adviser added. But the campaign also acknowledged the risks of the trip.
Trump is “either going to have a very cordial … conversation with this guy and they’re going to say we can work together,” one adviser said, “or they’re going to have a meeting and this guy is going to blow Trump up afterwards.”
Peña Nieto said in a press conference with President Barack Obama in July at the White House that both candidates were welcome to visit.
He noted his “deepest respect” for Trump and Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, and that “from right now, I propose going into a frank, open dialogue with whomever is elected.”
But it is far from certain that Trump will emerge with a positive photo op, given his deep unpopularity in Mexico and his host’s own tumbling poll numbers.
The Mexican president has compared Trump’s “strident rhetoric” to Hitler and Mussolini’s.
“That’s how Mussolini got in, that’s how Hitler got in. They took advantage of a situation, a problem perhaps,” the Mexican president said in March to a Mexican newspaper, according to Reuters.
“Hitler, Mussolini, we all know the result,” he said in explaining his comments in June, as reported by Reuters. “It was only a call for reflection and for recognition, so that we bear in mind what we have achieved and the great deal still to achieve.”
Peña Nieto added that the world is at times “presented with political actors and political leaders who assume populist and demagogic positions.”
The Mexican leader has also flatly rejected the idea that Mexico would pay for a border wall, telling CNN’s Fareed Zakaria in July that “there is no way that Mexico can pay (for) a wall like that.”
The White House also emphasized the high-wire act Trump had set for himself, comparing his visit to Mexico to Obama’s visit to Europe and the Middle East while he was a candidate in 2008.
“You’ll recall that when President Obama took that trip … one of the highlights, was a trip to Germany — where the President spoke in Berlin to a crowd of about 100,000 Germans who warmly received him and enthusiastically cheered his speech,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest aboard Air Force One Wednesday. “We’ll see if Mr. Trump is as warmly received.”
Clinton also raised the stakes for Trump, noting that meeting foreign leaders and working with other countries was what she had done for four years as America’s top diplomat.
“You don’t build a coalition by insulting our friends or acting like a loose cannon. You do it by putting in the slow, hard work of building relationships. Getting countries working together was my job every day as secretary of state. It’s more than a photo op. It takes consistency, reliability.”
A senior Clinton aide said Wednesday that the former secretary of state had also received an invitation to meet Peña Nieto.
“Secretary Clinton last met with President Peña Nieto in Mexico in 2014 and our campaign is in a regular dialogue with the Mexican government officials,” the aide added. “She looks forward to talking with President Peña Nieto again at the appropriate time.”
Republican Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence praised Trump for choosing to make the trip.
“It would have been very easy to say, let’s get together, let’s talk for days and days and figure out how to make this happen. Donald Trump is someone that says, we got an invitation, we’ve got an opportunity, let’s drop what we’re doing — he’s going to begin a relationship that I truly do believe is in the interest of the United States of America,” he told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota Wednesday.
Pence said that he expects Trump to be forthright about how he sees the United States relationship with Mexico, and to communicate the policies he intends to pursue if elected, reiterating those he’s outlined on the campaign trail.Janik Beichler, staff writer for our good friends over at Mile High Sticking, tweeted today that the Avs have signed Norwegian forward Andreas Martinsen, late of Dusseldorf of the DEL. There have been rumors that the Avs have been scouting him for a few months now so it's not out of left field.
Martinsen is a large (6'3, 230#) C-RW who has extensive experience playing internationally for Norway and also has spent the last 3 years in the Deutsche Elite League. Scouting reports vary but he's obviously a big body with some scoring touch that isn't afraid to do a little brawling either.
Some stat lines:
Norway (League) 188 games - 53G/87A/140pts - 467 PIMs (holy shit!)
Dusseldorf (DEL) 144 games - 33G/47A/80pts - 295 PIMs
Andreas finished 3rd on Dusseldorf in scoring this year with 18G/23A in 50 games.
We'll see if the Avs staff have anything to say about Big Andy this week, or if any reporters are aware of this.
Fun Fact: Played with former Avs blueliner Shawn Belle this yearThe Swivet
Colleen Lindsay
Disclaimer: This is a personal blog; opinions expressed herein are entirely my own and do not reflect those of Penguin Group (USA) or any of its affiliates.
(This blog is currently a work-in-progress; forgive the mess! And I don't post very frequently these days. Mea culpa!)
Where You Can Find Me in 2013:
Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo
Romantic Times BookLovers Convention
-- Kansas City, MO [April 30-May 5]
Book Expo America
-- New York, NY [May 30-June 1]
San Diego Comic-Con International
[April 25-27]
-- New Orleans [May 14-18]
-- New York [May 29-31]
[July 24-27]
is maintained by; I'm Associate Director Marketing, Social Media and Reader Experience at the NAL/Berkley Publishing Groups, divisions of Penguin Group (USA). You can learn more about me hereby tomboy24 » Thu Sep 27, 2012 5:41 am
The host is usually the person who handles the everyday stuff and is "out" most of the time (things like going to school, grocery shopping, being "normal"). I've been the host of my system for about 10/11yrs now.
Tylas is right in that the system tries to stay hidden from the host, at least for the most part. They might seem more like consciences, or "shoulder angels" and "shoulder devils"; you know, enough to be recognized as voices, but not necessarily cause alarm.
They're kinda like when you argue with yourself in your head about a decision, like what to do or what to wear, except normally, that'd just be you being indecisive. With DID, one day you'll realize (the more and more you argue, especially if you do so out loud) that the two opposing options start to have different "voices/tones" from your "normal voice" inside your head; possibly different expressions will follow; and then you start to notice traits being attached to the voices, such as one being mostly angry, one being calm and quiet, one being upbeat and happy, etc. And then you'll start to think "Hm, it's like I have different sides to me". And then, (if you're like me) you'll think it's normal, or just something that makes you a bit weird, nothing to really pay attention to, for a few years. Until you stumble across DID (I did in school psychology classes), read about it, and start getting really relieved that there's something that exists that puts what you experience into words, into explainable sentences.
ANYWAY, usually the host doesn't know about the system until they stumble across a part or a few parts on their own, or a part thinks the host is ready to be contacted, or therapy reveals parts, or the host shows the parts they're ready to accept and communicate with them, or something like that.
With my system, we couldn't afford to raise any attention in the situation we were in, and things like switches couldn't afford to be too obvious (or too alarming to me). So, parts would sorta "come forward" to me, either already having a name or using me to help them find a name, or even making me find their name by letting me know what name "feels right". They wouldn't just jump out and be like "Hey, what's up? I'm a different personality and I'm here to help". It was more like a self-talk type of thing, like how I started to notice Rain. When I was upset, I'd start telling myself, "Sshh, shhh, it's ok. You're ok, sweetie. It'll be ok. Let's watch some movies and calm down, ok?" or something like that. Well, one day I realized that when I would tell myself that, it wouldn't sound like my voice/myself. When I would repeat that stuff to myself in my head, the "voice" saying it had a calmer, quieter, and higher-pitched tone. Then I found myself answering that "voice", saying things like "Ok" and "You sure it's ok?". Finally one day I was wondering what this "voice" was or why I would think in that different tone of "voice" and then I just got this feeling, that if the "voice" didn't sound like me, it wasn't me. That's when the "voice" spoke up and said, "Rain", and so I started calling the "voice" Rain. Later, of course, I found out that this "voice" had a name because an entire personality was attached to the voice. So, yeah, even when parts come forward to the host, it's not always obvious.
Sorry if I was ranting a little bit. I hope there were some helpful parts in there. From what you've shared (the different handwriting, names, etc), it sounds like DID/DDNOS could be a possibility, and you should definitely look more into it to see if anything seems to "fit" you.Over the past couple of weeks, the prevailing meme among some Donald Trump-defending reporters and commentators has shifted in a subtle but important way. For months, such folks have hewed to the line that no evidence had yet surfaced of “collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russian efforts to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Now, they say, collusion wouldn’t be
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Gov. John Hickenlooper released a statement Friday morning.
“It is beyond the power of words to fully express our sorrow this morning,” Hickenlooper said. “We appreciate the swift work by local, state and federal law enforcement. Coloradans have a remarkable ability to support one another in times of crisis. This is one of those times.”
In a statement released Friday morning, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said that he was “deeply saddened” by the “senseless violence.”
The FBI is assisting in the investigation. Officers and deputies responded from almost every local police and sheriff’s department in the metro area.
The FBI said that there was no indication that the shooting has any connection to terrorism.
Victims were transported to at least six hospitals. Several of them were rushed to hospitals in police cars. Ages of people injured and killed in the shooting vary.
Shortly after midnight, patients started arriving at the Medical Center of Aurora. A total of 15 patients — ranging from 16 to 31 years old — were sent to the medical center, 12 of them with gunshot wounds.
An additional 3 patients arrived at the hospital Friday afternoon. Information about those patients was not immediately available.
Eight of the patients have been discharged, five victims remain in critical condition and two patients are being prepared for surgery.
All of the patients came in with wounds to their torsos, heads or necks. Doctors said the wounds were caused by a high-caliber weapon or what appeared to be shrapnel.
Swedish Medical Center spokeswoman Nicole Williams says two people injured at the theater have arrived at the hospital in critical condition.
She says emergency workers said there could be several more patients.
Denver Health Medical Center treated six victims from the shooting. All were treated for gunshot wounds and abrasions. Three victims have since been released, the other three remain in fair condition, hospital officials said.
A total of 23 victims were taken to the University of Colorado Hospital. Nine of the victims are currently in critical condition.
Rep. Rhonda Fields of Aurora announced that she is hosting a prayer vigil for “any and all” at 7 p.m. The location of the vigil was changed to 14701 E. Exposition Ave.
Warner Bros. studio released a statement Friday morning saying the studio is “deeply saddened to learn about this shocking incident. The studio has canceled the red carpet premier of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ in Paris,” The Hollywood Reporter said.
Aurora police are asking anyone with information about the shooting to call Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867. Families looking for information about loved ones should call 303-739-1862.
Denver Post Staff Writers Eric Gorski, Kieran Nicholson, Kirk Mitchell, Michael Booth and Tegan Hanlon contributed to this reportE3 Impressions – Batman: Arkham Asylum
With the release date drawing, it was only proper for Eidos to bring a fully playable version of Batman: Arkham Asylum to the E3 show floor. The modes available were both the Batman and Joker Challenge Maps, as well as the beginning of the actual game itself. The first thing that needs to be addressed is that yes, the game looks just as good as the screenshots. Rocksteady has done a fantastic job with both the visuals and the game mechanics.
The mechanics are a clever blend of action and stealth. It is essentially how you would want to control Batman himself. If you want to be a stealthy Batman who uses the shadows, then you can. If you want to rush in there and take everyone out, that’s equally encouraged. The amount of gameplay freedom is refreshing, and always kept things interesting.
The challenge maps place the gamer within a room and put a certain number of characters within the room to be defeated by either Batman or the Joker. And the best part is that both characters provide completely different fighting mechanics. That was actually my main concern, that the developers would simply take the easy route and make Joker play exactly like Batman. But this was far from the truth. When the Joker is selected for the challenge maps, you actually feel as if you are fighting as the Joker. All his subtle animation details really sell the character. Oh, and by the way, the limited edition itself looks phenomenal as well. Photos of the booth and the badass special edition packaging are included below, as well as footage of yours truly playing through the demo. Enjoy!
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All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.New trans life line offers hope when suicide seems the only option
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Dealing with discrimination is a bitch. There’s bias in every facet of our lives. At home, school, at work, doctor’s offices and even in social scenes as we try to relax. Often these instances of hate accumulate inside until there seems no way to get away without just ending it all.
I tried once when I was 18 by taking a massive dose of pain pills. I slept for 2 days in the front of my 67 Chevy pickup listening to Black Sabbath Iron Man on my 8 track. Yes I am that old, and yes, I have experienced what so many in the trans community have or are feeling now.
Although the mainstream lags behind in studying trans mental health, specifically, the Williams Institute’s recent findings remind us of how vulnerable we are as a community.
I spent and almost wasted my life in the solitude long before the word ‘transgender’ was ever said.
But that does not need be you’re life experience. Or ending.
There is help.
There is now a life line run by trans people for trans people, possibly a first for our community. Founder Greta Martele experienced these suicidal feelings but when she called a hotline, and explained that she’s transgender, the attendant became flustered and ended the call.
So Greta did something about it taking her first call on the 2014 TDOR.
You can visit translifeline.org or you can call them right now at (877) 565-8860. There is no shame in admitting you need help from a friend.
Mondays
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8am – midnight
Wednesdays
12am – 6am and 10am – midnight
Thursdays
12am – 6am and 9am – midnight
Fridays
12am – 6am and 11am – midnight
Saturdays
12am – 8am and 10am – midnight
Sundays
12am – 9am and 10am – midnight
Eastern Time (US & Canada)
*******
GLBT Hotline
CONTACT INFO:
Toll-free 1-888-THE-GLNH (1-888-843-4564)
HOURS:
Monday thru Friday from 1pm to 9pm, pacific time
(Monday thru Friday from 4pm to midnight, eastern time)
Saturday from 9am to 2pm, pacific time
(Saturday from noon to 5pm, eastern time)
Email: [email protected]
The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) National Hotline provides telephone, online private one-to-one chat and email peer-support, as well as factual information and local resources for cities and towns across the United States.
Kelli Busey Editor in Chief at Planet Transgender Kelli Busey an outspoken gonzo style journalist has been writing since 2007. In 2008, she brought the Dallas Advocate on-line and has articles published by the Reconciling Ministries Network, The Transsexual Menace, The Daily Kos, Frock Magazine the TransAdvocate, the Dallas Voice and The Advocate. Kelli, an avid runner is editor in chief at Planet Transgender which she founded in 2007.
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Facebook CommentsJustin Trudeau has given the Liberals new optimism for the future, as the support for their party surges now that he has become leader. But based on how other new leaders have performed over the past 30 years, he will need to be one of the exceptional success stories if he is to win the 2015 election.
In the first quarter of 2013, the Liberals were averaging about 25 per cent in the polls. That has increased to 31 per cent in the first weeks of April, including surveys taken just before and after Mr. Trudeau was officially named the new leader of the Liberal Party.
A gain of six points from the quarter preceding a leadership victory is not unusual. On average, new leaders going back to Brian Mulroney have been about three times more likely to improve their party's polling numbers than to hurt them. On average, parties have gained 1.8 points from one quarter to the next when a new leader is named – and 3.1 points if the exceptional case of Jean Charest's first months at the helm of the decimated Progressive Conservative Party in 1993 is excluded.
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Subsequently, however, the initial boost in support has tended to wear off. New leaders have lost an average of 3.3 points in the quarter following their leadership wins. By the time the next election rolls around, that has increased to 4.6 points. New leaders have been three times more likely to lose support by election time than gain it, compared to where they started in the polls as party leader.
For Mr. Trudeau and the Liberals, that suggests that his party's support could drop to around 28 per cent by the summer and 26 per cent by the 2015 election. Though that is far better than the 19 per cent the party took in the 2011 election under Michael Ignatieff, it would be a disappointing result compared to the party's current level of optimism.
But Mr. Trudeau may not be an average leader. By already boosting the party's support by six points, that puts him above the performance of Jack Layton and Stephen Harper when they initially became new leaders in 2003 and 2004, respectively. But it also puts him below such Liberal flame-outs as Stéphane Dion and John Turner.
However, if Mr. Trudeau is able to keep the Liberals above 31 per cent by the summer he will be in rare company. Over the last three decades, only Thomas Mulcair, Kim Campbell, and Mr. Ignatieff have been able to increase their support in the quarter following their leadership victory. Mr. Mulcair's fate is still unknown, but Ms. Campbell and Mr. Ignatieff may not be examples the new Liberal leader would like to follow.
He could do worse, however. Paul Martin lost 13 points in the quarter following his leadership win, while Jean Chrétien's support fell by 17 points and Mr. Turner's by 25 points. It seems unlikely that Mr. Trudeau will suffer in the same way, primarily since these three former Liberal leaders kicked off their leadership at much higher levels of support (51, 44, and 45 per cent, respectively).
If Mr. Trudeau is to have a hope to win the 2015 election, he will need to be the first Liberal leader in at least the last 30 years to gain support at the ballot box. Mr. Turner's support dropped by 17 points between his leadership victory and the 1984 election, while Mr. Martin's dropped by 14 points in 2004. The performances of Mr. Dion (a drop of six points) and Mr. Ignatieff (a drop of nine points) would also need to be avoided, while Mr. Chrétien's comparatively good decrease of only three points would still keep the Liberals from power in 2015.
He does have a few good examples to follow, however: Mr. Layton and Alexa McDonough both took a little more of the vote in their first election than they had in the polls when they first became leader, while Mr. Charest returned his party from the ashes by gaining 11 points between his standing in the polls in 1993 and the election result of 1997.
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If Mr. Trudeau is in the midst of a honeymoon that will eventually wear off, how long does he have? On average, it has taken about nine months for a party's support under a new leader to fall back to where it stood before he or she was given the reins. That puts the Liberals back down in the high-20s by early 2014.
But not all honeymoons come to an end. Before Mr. Harper won the leadership of the Conservative Party in 2004, the leaderless Tories at the end of 2003 were polling at around 26 per cent. The party has never consistently polled at such a low level of support since he took over the leadership. The New Democrats, too, consistently polled at higher levels of support than the 12 per cent the NDP had just prior to Mr. Layton's leadership victory in 2003.
By one measure, Mr. Trudeau does stand out from other leaders over the last three decades. He has already boosted Liberal support by some 12 points since the last election. That is a greater increase in support under a new leader from the previous election than any other leader over the last thirty years, with two exceptions. When Mr. Mulroney took over the Tories in 1983, support for the party was 21 points higher than it had been in the 1980 election. And when Mr. Chrétien became Liberal leader in 1990, Liberal support was 12 points higher than where it was in the 1988 election. These are two examples worth following. Just maybe, the newfound optimism in the Liberal ranks is not completely misplaced.
Éric Grenier writes about politics and polls at ThreeHundredEight.com.By Melissa Dykes
And in other news, the TSA continues to suck.
It isn’t even summer yet, and major problems with longer and longer TSA screening times are happening at major airports across the nation, including Seattle, Chicago, Atlanta, Charlotte, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and San Jose just to name a few. During Spring Break (March 14-20) this year alone, an estimated 6,800 airline passengers missed their flights due to TSA screening delays on American Airlines — just American Airlines.
Who knows how many people in total — mostly innocent Americans who bought a ticket to ride on a plane simply because they want to travel quickly from one place to another — missed their flights that week in this country. Or how many miss a flight in total on a daily basis thanks to the TSA. The number would probably shock us all… or not. (It is the TSA we’re talking about.)
A thousand passengers missed their flights at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in March thanks to the TSA, and 650 passengers missed their flights in just one day at Charlotte Douglas International Airport — Good Friday — again on American Airlines for the very same reason.
Airport Policy News reported on the fact that many airports are now considering pulling the plug on the TSA, but who knows if it will actually happen. The manager at Atlanta’s airport has given TSA a deadline of 60 days to fix screening time issues or else he’s going to replace the TSA with contract screeners. Other airports are threatening to do the same.
Supposedly the TSA was banking on the fact that people would sign up (and pay) for Homeland Security’s PreCheck program, but hardly anyone wants to. Get ready for a marketing blitz of taxpayer-funded commercials about how awesome it is to pay $85 to take time out of your life to willingly be fingerprinted at a Homeland Security application center in exchange for being treated a little less like a criminal when you attempt to fly at an airport.
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Melissa Dykes is a writer, researcher, and analyst for The Daily Sheeple and a co-creator of Truthstream Media with Aaron Dykes, a site that offers teleprompter-free, unscripted analysis of The Matrix we find ourselves living in. Melissa also co-founded Nutritional Anarchy with Daisy Luther of The Organic Prepper, a site focused on resistance through food self-sufficiency. Wake the flock up!IN an excitable piece yesterday, The Herald accused me of bullying STV.
Over a breathless half page, Tom Gordon and Daniel Sanderson reported that I had set out – with the help of Pete Wishart MP – to “intimidate” the company.
Our mission? To make sure that STV’s Stephen Daisley was silenced. We had, according to The Herald succeeded in our dastardly aim.
Who is Stephen Daisley you might be asking? I should state at the outset that I’ve never met him and have nothing against him.
I hear he’s a lovely fellow. But soon after I was elected last year, he started popping up on my Twitter feed with the by-line “STV digital politics and comment editor”.
Now I’m a journalist by profession. It’s long been accepted that there’s a big difference between opinionated columnists in the press, and “editors” who work for TV companies.
You know what a mouthy Mail, Record or National columnist thinks about every issue under the sun. They’re paid to tell you. But you don’t know what BBC and STV editors like Sarah Smith, Brian Taylor, or Bernard Ponsonby’s private political views are on anything. If you do, they’re not being professional.
Stephen Daisley tweeted his views on everything. They tended to be right of centre, and very anti-SNP. But was he a columnist or an editor? And if he was an editor, did he speak on behalf of STV? We were never told.
I love great writing. And I enjoy political debate. I’ve good friends who are columnists – Torcuil Crichton, Jane Moore, and David Aaronovitch to name but three. I disagree with each of them, amicably, about many things.
However, one of the problems about the print press in Scotland at the moment, it seems to me, is the blurring of the line between news and commentary. I want opinion from named columnists. I want unvarnished reportage on the news pages. And I certainly don’t think TV stations should join the print medium in confusing these roles.
I don’t want to know whether Laura Kuenssberg likes or dislikes Kezia Dugdale. Down that route lies Fox News.
So what were STV trying to do with Stephen Daisley? I suspect they were chasing a younger, Buzzfeed-influenced demographic. They wanted Stephen to be a provocative gadfly whose waspish wit would sting politicians from all parties. Unfortunately, prolonged exposure to his pieces left many readers feeling that they were stuck in a bar trying to escape as the resident polemicist droned on about his very predictable views of the world.
Political journalist ‘wasn’t gagged’, says NUJ chief
Let’s get back to that Herald piece and its shrill claims. No Herald journalist phoned me to ask me for comment – even though I’m pretty easy to find. Had they done so, I’d have been happy to debunk said claims. I don’t think Stephen’s writing is especially good, but I have no leverage over the company, and fully recognise that who they employ is a matter for them.
I suspect STV pulled the plug on Stephen Daisley because of his endorsement of the Twitter troll Brian Spanner. For those of you lucky enough not to have come across the “Spanner” name, it’s the nom de plume for a writer (or more probably a small group of writers) who spew out a poisonous stream of misogynistic tweets of a grotesquely sexual nature, often targeting Scottish female politicians across the political spectrum. Astonishingly, and on more than one occasion, Daisley has tweeted approvingly about “Spanner”. Indeed last month, he went as far as to write that if his readers weren’t following Brian Spanner “you’re doing it wrong.” STV bosses, I suspect, decided enough was enough.
No-one likes seeing someone get the sack, and readers will be relieved to know that Stephen Daisley is still working for STV, and is still its digital editor. If that role is too restrictive, assuming any of Scotland’s newspapers like his style enough, he’ll be offered a columnist job I’m sure.
But I’m left wondering about The Herald. Its story was wafer thin. It attributed a ludicrous amount of influence to me. Its claims have been debunked by all the players cited, including STV itself. And a key ingredient of the story was omitted – the Spanner tweets – as they were too offensive to publish. However, it allowed Gordon to write about Daisley, and Alex Massie then to knock off a Spectator piece about Gordon’s Herald piece. And as I write this, I notice that Gordon has tweeted his compliments about Massie’s piece about his own piece about Daisley.
So here, it seems, is a key motive in contemporary Scottish journalism. In a world of plummeting print sales, a new newspaper tactic is emerging; shout something furious, if unsubstantiated, draw in your fellow commentators, and then sit back and allow the angry political tribes to engage online. Click click click bait. Advertising revenue anyone?For 17 days in February, millions of gallons of raw sewage flowed into the Tijuana River in Baja California, then into the Pacific Ocean, contaminating beaches in southern San Diego County – and it looks like Mexican authorities intentionally allowed it to happen.
Officials estimate that over 143 million gallons of sewage were discharged into the river while repairs to a sewer pipe were underway.
“This was like a tsunami,” said Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina, who said he tried to get answers from officials on both sides of the border for more than a week with no response. “It saves (the Mexican agencies) a lot of money in pumping costs, and ultimately, they can get away with it and do it all the time, just on a much smaller scale.”
The Mexican government did not warn US officials of the impending repairs, or that an ongoing spill occurred, until repeated inquiries by US officials. Residents along the coast complained of a foul odor for weeks, prompting those inquiries of the Mexican government.
Angry San Diego County residents packed a public hearing on the matter, telling officials about the harm already being caused to people on this side of the border:
Once residents had settled down, several elected officials spoke, including Carlsbad City Councilwoman Cori Schumacher, who said she drove two hours to attend the meeting. As a former resident of South County, she said the issue was very important to her. “My cousin surfed the Tijuana Sloughs and nearly lost his eye because bacteria crept into his optic nerve and nearly ate away at it, and also ate away at his skull and nearly got to his brain,” she told the crowd. “So what you’re talking about here has very large personal relevance to me.
So the Mexican officials, when faced with the conundrum of deciding how to deal with raw sewage during repairs, basically shrugged their shoulders and said, “Meh, send it downstream… let the Americans handle it”? Nice.
I think I speak for quite a few Californians when I say we are fed up with dealing with Mexico’s problems. Time to grow up and start adulting, Mexican government.Update: This post has been updated to include a statement from East Passyunk Crossing Civic Association’s zoning chair, David Goldfarb.
We’ve been following the King of Jeans building development for years and it appears that it is now officially the end of an era for the building. At about 11 a.m. this morning, we were informed that the sign is in the process of being taken down.
Goldfarb said in his statement that the sign will find a new home at Provenance Salvage in Northern Liberties.
More from Goldfarb’s statement:
Both East Passyunk Crossing Civic Association and I were sad to see that the iconic King of Jeans sign was taken down today. For well over a year, we worked diligently to find a new public place for the sign, ideally in the neighborhood but at any Philadelphia location if need be (chair Joseph F. Marino and owner Andy Kaplan even looked into the Atwater Kent independently). Unfortunately, although we came close to finding it an ideal home before a difficult party tangential to a deal scuttled the sign’s relocation, we were unable to find an appropriate location. We want to thank Andy Kaplan and everyone at Rockland Capital, who not only gave us *every* opportunity in the last year plus to find a new location for the sign at no cost but also looked himself. We regrettably have to agree with him that the best solution at this late time was to find it a new home at Provenance Salvage, whom Andy has reached an agreement with to display the sign under condition that it not be re-sold. However you viewed the sign–as art, as kitsch, as borderline obscenity–it was undoubtedly part of the neighborhood’s fabric, a reminder of an ’80s era of East Passyunk that we are lucky to still drawn upon, and a conversation piece that reminded us to keep things weird on East Passyunk. While we look forward to the new building that will replace the windowless shell at 1843 E Passyunk Avenue, that sign will be missed dearly and not forgotten. Excuse me while I mourn the sign’s passing the only way I can think of: listening to Philadelphia’s own Pissed Jeans, who named their third album after that weird, wonderful sign.
The existing building is being demolished and a five-story building will go up in its place.
Back in February of 2014, developer Andy Kaplan was granted approval for the project which will include apartments, retail and office space. Originally, the project was denied by the Zoning Board of Adjustments, but after a reconsideration hearing, the project was approved.
In 2012 we asked our readers what they’d like to see happen to the sign. Although none of these options will now be possible, check out some of the responses.
–Taylor Farnsworth, @tfarnsworth3Advertisement Trash from NYC, New Jersey sent to South Carolina Share Shares Copy Link Copy
WYFF News 4 Investigates learned out-of-state trash is coming to a South Carolina landfill for a huge amount of cash. To watch Gabrielle's story, click HERE.People who live near the Lee County Landfill in Bishopville, S.C. say the trash includes human feces. WYFF News 4 Investigates found Upstate lawmakers have signed off on a bill that some critics say would bring even more out of state trash to South Carolina. "It smells. It smells very badly," said Bishopville resident Brooke Raley. The Lee County Landfill is owned by a company called Republic Services, based out of Arizona. Republic Services wouldn't confirm that human waste is sent to the landfill, and wouldn't answer any questions about the landfill. WYFF News 4 Investigates learned the Lee County Landfill took in almost 225,000 tons of trash from other states in 2012. According to the South Carolina Solid Waste Management Annual Report, 215,000 tons came from New York in 2012. Lee County Landfill and others in South Carolina including Palmetto Landfill in Spartanburg County and Twin Chimneys Landfill in Greenville County also take in trash from New Jersey, North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia. WYFF News 4 Investigates learned that New York City's Department of Sanitation pays an average of $112 a ton to dispose of trash at the Lee County Landfill. In 2012, that added up to about $24 million. A group called the Coalition Against Dumping on South Carolina is against a bill that would make it tougher for counties to keep out other states' trash. The bill passed in the House last session. The group has launched a TV ad against the bill. "Leave the waste management decision-making where it belongs -- in the hands of the citizens and local communities and counties," said JoAnne Day of the S.C. League of Women Voters and a member of the group. WYFF News 4 Investigates learned some Upstate lawmakers took campaign money from private waste companies that bring out-of-state trash to South Carolina.According to South Carolina's State Ethics Commission, Seneca Rep. Bill Sandifer received $2,750 from Waste Management since 2010 and $250 from Republic Services since 2010. According to South Carolina's State Ethics Commission, Honea Path Rep. Mike Gambrell received $1,500 from Waste Management since 2010 and $250 from Republic Services since 2010. Local lawmakers cannot accept more than $1,000 in contributions from people or companies during each term of office. Sandifer asked WYFF News 4 Investigates to stop calling him. Gambrell did not return phone calls. House Majority Leader Bruce Bannister, who represents Greenville County, also signed the bill. Records show he did not accept campaign money from private waste companies. "I don't want any New Jersey trash here. I don't want any New York trash here," Bannister said. WYFF News 4 Investigates asked Bannister why his name is on the bill. He said he was told the bill would impact an isolated issue in Horry County and was unaware of statewide implications. "I read it and I did not understand all of the complicated issues between public and private landfills," Bannister said. "I don't know, if that same bill came back, if it would pass the House. I don't think it would pass the House a second time because now all of the landfills that are going to be affected or would be are aware and are saying, 'This is not a good idea,'" Bannister said.The bill now goes to South Carolina's Senate when the legislative session begins in January. To read the bill go here.George Sanker/Nature Picture Library
For the US government, the grizzly bears of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming embody a stunning success story: a population resurgent after 40 years of protection under the Endangered Species Act. More than 700 bears now roam the region, up from 136 in 1975, when the grizzly (Ursos arctos horribilis) was listed as threatened after decades of deadly clashes with ranchers, hunters and park visitors. But the US Fish and Wildlife Service is now expected to lift the legal safeguards, after a government advisory panel of wildlife officials endorsed delisting the bear last month.
Conservation groups have pushed back, saying that the government has underestimated the threat that climate change poses to the bears’ food supply, especially stands of whitebark pine. As the Yellowstone region has warmed, mountain pine beetles and blister rust fungus — once thwarted by the cold, dry climate — have devastated the trees, depriving grizzlies of energy-rich pine nuts. Moreover, say conservationists, invasive fish have crowded out native cutthroat trout in Yellowstone Lake at the heart of the park, reducing another important food source for the bears.
“We have an unprecedented situation with deteriorating foods, and an ecosystem that is unravelling,” says Louisa Willcox, the Northern Rockies representative at the Center for Biological Diversity in Livingston, Montana. The centre was one of several groups that sued the US government in 2007, following an earlier attempt to delist the bear. After two years, a district-court judge restored protection, citing concerns about the declining whitebark pine and its effect on the bears’ diet.
A report delivered in November by the US Geological Survey’s Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team describes a resilient and healthy bear population that has adapted to the loss of pine nuts by eating more elk and bison, keeping fat stores at levels that allow the bears to survive and reproduce. For Christopher Servheen, a biologist who oversees grizzly-bear recovery efforts at the Fish and Wildlife Service in Missoula, Montana, that is not surprising. “Bears are flexible,” he says. “It’s easier to say what they don’t eat than what they do eat.”
Source: IGBST
But other researchers suspect that the change carries a steep price. “Eating meat is hazardous on all fronts,” says David Mattson, an ecologist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. A reliance on meat heightens the risk that adult bears will come into contact with humans, including livestock owners and hunters seeking elk, he says. For young bears, it may increase the frequency of potentially deadly interactions with aggressive adult male bears and wolves.
Critics also argue that the government is basing its decisions on flawed population estimates. A study published last July suggests that the government’s figure of 741 bears is inflated (D. F. Doak and K. Cutler Conserv. Lett. http://doi.org/q3d; 2013). The number of survey flights used to count bears has tripled since the mid-1990s, but, the study argues, the model used to extrapolate population figures from the flights’ tallies does not account for increased observation time. Further distortion may arise because the model assumes that female bears will reproduce consistently throughout their 30-year lives, with no decrease in fertilityas they age.
Mattson says that population estimates have in the past jumped by more than 100 bears when the statistical method has shifted. “There is no clean and simple way to estimate the size and trend of the Yellowstone population,” he says.
But those criticisms are rejected by Frank van Manen, a wildlife biologist with the US Geological Survey in Bozeman, Montana, who led the diet study. Observation time has increased, he says, but so has the grizzly bears’ range (see ‘Home on the range’), which cancels out any observer bias from increased search hours. And although the government’s official estimate of the population did jump from 629 to 741 bears this year, van Manen says that the new number is better. That is in part because the revision takes into account a 2011 demographic study of bear survival rates based on radio-collar tracking data — the first such study since 2002 — that gives biologists more confidence in their population surveys.
Servheen says that if the government were to decide to pursue delisting, as many expect, the decision would not be announced until late spring at the earliest. At that point, the Fish and Wildlife Service would open a 60-day public-comment period to seek reaction.
But even that is unlikely to be the last word on the grizzlies: conservation groups are already gearing up to sue. Perhaps the only point on which the US government and its opponents agree is that there will be more legal wrangling over the Yellowstone bears’ future. “It’s sad that it’s come to this,” says Servheen. “What it should be is a celebration.”“reviewdog” provides a way to post review comments to code hosting service, such as GitHub, automatically by integrating with any linter tools with ease. It uses any output of lint tools, with translation if required, and post them as a comment if the file and line are in diff of patches to review. reviewdog also supports run in local environment to filter output of lint tools by diff.
I’d like to introduce reviewdog! An automated code review tool working with any lint tools and supports local run as well.
Background
We won’t take our time for review to find a bug or style problems which can be detected automatically. We want to focus on our core logic.
We can use various linters and static code analysis tools to detect such problems in local machine, editors, CI services. However, here is the problem. Static analysis tools may report false positive results. Reporting false positive results itself is ok, but due to the false positive results we cannot make build failed and it becomes difficult for us to find true positive results from messed up analysis results. Some linter supports suppressing result by code comments, but we won’t messed up code for analysis tools.
The one solution is reporting analysis result only for changed lines as a review comment. We can catch true positive results and can just ignore false positive comments. There is a couple of services to provide this feature, but supported analysis tools are limited. (e.g. Hound, Side CI)
So, here comes “reviewdog”! It provides a general way to parse any linter results, filter them by diff output, and can report them as a review comment.
Installation
go get -u github.com/haya14busa/reviewdog/cmd/reviewdog
Usage
Run locally to filter results by diff
# check golint results with `git diff master`
$ golint./... | reviewdog -f=golint -diff="git diff master"
# sample -efm (errorformat)
$ golint./... | reviewdog -efm="%f:%l:%c: %m" -diff="git diff"
Run in CI service (Circle CI) to post review comments
Store GitHub API token in REVIEWDOG_GITHUB_API_TOKEN Environment variables — CircleCI
test:
pre:
- go get github.com/haya14busa/reviewdog/cmd/reviewdog
override:
- >-
go tool vet -all -shadowstrict. 2>&1 | reviewdog -f=govet -ci="circle-ci"
(see detail and more example in README)
‘errorformat’ —scanf-like string to parse lint result
To support any compiler, linter, or whatever tools, reviewdog uses Vim’s ‘errorformat’ feature (ported in Go). For example, if the result format is {file}:{line number}:{column number}: {message}, errorformat should be %f:%l:%c: %m
It’s pretty easy, right?
‘errorformat’ also handles more complex multi-line messages.
$ cat testdata/sbt.in
[warn] /path/to/F1.scala:203: local val in method
|
.”
On the Development of Goku:
“Hakubun Ito came up with the idea of “GOKU”, an interactive title to tour seven wonders of the world in high definition CGI, but he was just really into producing CGI simulation of the seven wonders at Magic Box, his own CGI studio in Hollywood, and in fact the images they created were in superb quality back in those days, but I think he spent most of our budget, as HD CGI production was sooo expensive then.
Anyway, he didn’t really have any concrete scenario to go along with the images he had created, so I ended up developing an interactive scenario for “GOKU”, with a help from one of my favorite authors Mr. Hiroshi Aramata, who knows everything about anything historical. I developed a whole scenario based on his telling of the ancient mystery of the seven wonders of the world. ”
On the Development of Melon Brains:
“Lastly, I had come up with this idea of making a title featuring Dolphins. Somehow during the time when I was working with Yoko Ono around 1989 and 1990, to produce a series of concert event and CD, Video, and TV program to commemorate 50th birthday of John Lennon at Tokyo Dome, the event was titled “Greening of the World” (Dec.1990), I came across via Yoko, some amazing stories of Dolphin’s lifestyle and their ability to communicate with each other using this organ called “Melon”, a fatty part located in frontal area of their brain, and I became totally fascinated by them.
So I came up with this idea of making a program featuring top class scientists and researchers who were studying dolphins from various perspectives, and based on their findings and understanding, something intellectually intriguing, along with some beautiful video footage of Dolphins in wild, something relaxing and emotionally engaging, and combine them together, try to illustrate the dolphin as a being possibly smarter than us human.
Nakano liked my idea and it became “Melon Brains”. We were privileged to have interviewed some of the top names on this subject and based on their interviews, we have created interactive scenarios and produced visuals to accompany them. We also were lucky to have Bob Talbot who provide us his gorgeous film footage which he filmed exclusively for this title.
My best memory from this unique and yet exciting ordeal was my meeting with Dr. John C. Lilly who unfortunately past away already.
He was one of the top scientist on human brain and mind, his life was modeled after for several movies such as “The Day of The Dolphin” directed by Mike Nicolas, and “Altered States” by Ken Russell.
He was studying dolphin’s brain, which is relatively much larger and more complex than ours, and their ability to communicate using this big brain. And through his research and experiments, he came to believe that dolphin’s ability is far beyond our imaginations, and almost like extraterrestrials.
When I interviewed him at his house in Maui for “Melon Brains”, I felt deeply connected to what he was saying and I really felt that I have encountered someone who vested a true wisdom.
We became good friends after the shooting, and me and my wife visited him in Maui time to time.”
On The Fate of UFO & ET:
“…yes, we had this one planned, but we couldn’t make it, simply because we used up all of our budget with the three titles we’ve made already.
I wish we had more time and budget to finish this title as well, since the subject related to UFO and ETs has been, and still is one of my strongest interest, and I have been following the subject since I was a little kid.”
Thanks again to Nonaka-san for such an informative interview!
AdvertisementsPATRICK Dangerfield has given his strongest indication yet that he will turn his back on free agency next year and recommit to Adelaide, saying he "loves" the Crows and is happy to stay as long as Brenton Sanderson remains coach.
Dangerfield turned down lucrative offers from Geelong and Essendon when he last came out of contract in 2012, re-signing with the Crows for three years on a reported $600,000 a season.
But the star Victorian utility, who is set to become a restricted free agent at the end of 2015, gave Adelaide fans an almighty scare in March when he told Fairfax Media he would not make a decision on his football future until the final year of his contract.
Dangerfield said then his decision would primarily be based on whether the Crows' list could achieve future on-field success in the wake of forward Kurt Tippett's departure at the end of 2012, and the club's subsequent loss of its first and second-round picks in the 2012 and 2013 drafts.
But Dangerfield told SEN radio on Thursday morning that he was more entrenched at Adelaide than ever before.
"You always think about (coming home). I think early on in your career you'd love to come home because you don't have those really well developed relationships you get once you've been at the club for a long period of time," Dangerfield said.
"For myself, I've been here for a while now. Your family really does become the players around you, because you spend so much time with them.
"And whenever I go home now it's great to catch up with mates, but it's not like you can cruise back on a Tuesday or Thursday and catch up with a few friends. They've got work and study and that sort of thing.
"I've certainly enjoyed my time (at the Crows) a lot more, the longer I've been here."
Dangerfield said his relationships at Adelaide had been "too strong" for him to leave in 2012, Brenton Sanderson's first season as coach.
The former Geelong Falcon said he would be "very happy" to continue playing under the Crows' coaching team, in particular Sanderson.
"Paul Connors, my manager, (said that) if I wanted to go home then he would find a way, but I love what we're doing here in Adelaide," Dangerfield said.
"I think a really important part of enjoying your footy is having good coaches around you and I certainly think we have that in 'Sando'.
"He's a terrific coach and a really good people person, so as long as he's here I'm very happy to stay."On Friday, the inestimably-gifted and omniscient CNN pundit Sally Kohn decided to trumpet the idea of electing black women to office, presumably at the expense of any other candidate who is not a black woman. Kohn's effort earned her a riposte from Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro that illuminated the extent to which Kohn's remark could be interpreted as racist.
Kohn grandly tweeted this:
The brilliant @Luvvie has compiled a list of all the black women running for elected office in the United States right now. With links to ways you can SUPPORT THEM! https://t.co/OoMpzyyXSk — Sally Kohn (@sallykohn) December 15, 2017
Nine minutes later, Shapiro fired back:
Pretty sure Richard Spencer could supply you a list of all the white men, too, so you can vote based on immutable characteristics rather than qualifications https://t.co/QrqB2W8SqA — Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) December 15, 2017
Spencer, of course, is a well-known white nationalist whose views would be precisely the opposite of what Kohn would champion.
Shapiro's retort was enjoyed from one coast to the other. From California:
Zing. — Ben Krake (@BenKrake) December 15, 2017
To North Carolina:
Brilliant response! — John Greene (@spckahuna) December 15, 2017
And there were others:
Bravo Ben! — Xavier Fatbottom (@XavierFatbottom) December 15, 2017
Ben the political linebacker! pic.twitter.com/6mUEcnBNiz — NFL Kneelers (@Report_Kneeler) December 15, 2017
Not to mention conservatives who also took Kohn to the woodshed:
"Because....yknow....identity politics are the lifeblood of the Dem party...so y'all keep voting based on labels instead of merit...." #DivideAndConquer #VictimhoodUberAlles — CarolinaConservative (@ShaunaJ1776) December 15, 2017
Support someone based on the color of their skin? I see a racist here. — Luis Sánchez (@luissanxez) December 15, 2017
Do you even know how racist you sound? — Andrew Fry (@AF_Fry) December 15, 2017
I appreciate diversity but shouldn't candidates be elected based off of credentials not color? — David Weissman (@davidmweissman) December 15, 2017
I'll support candidates based on their merits, thanks. — Theresa Sickles (@tsickles321) December 15, 2017
I prefer to vote for the best candidate. If that happens to be a black woman, she'll have my vote... — Che Huahua (@_BottomLineGuy_) December 15, 2017
H/T TwitchyHello again! Hope you’re having a wonderful da…no, let’s upgrade that to a wonderful week! I am eagerly waiting for the weekend to come back around and will try my very hardest not to let it go once I have it.
So this weeks comic came from a story I’d sketched out a long time ago – too long to be able to verify whether or not I actually dreamt it, so I think that for the sake of argument let’s just say I did dream the whole thing and the events recorded within the comic are exactly how I remember them going down.
Anyways, take care – see you in a week (barring another fan art update in which case you’ll see me somewhere between the 1 week and 0 days area).
dave
This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 1:46 pm and is filed under Comic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.------- HugeNumbers.com -------
(See also googolplexian.com)
A huge number:
234,901,048,776,002,938,122,938,110,080,409,989,234,901,048,776,839,921,843,
230,672,033,318,898,389,423,202,001,982,678,671,980,098,290,099,067,926,090,
961,849,944,234,901,048,776,999,080,028,293,018,687,094,422,764,093,870,349,
209,902,069,016,130,016,069,392,124,987,273,487,192,982,012,011,929,813,671,
290,981,923,089,981,897,967,327,948,242,321,234,901,048,776,214,368,398,214,
136,739,028,736,002,938,022,938,110,089,409,983,108,247,018,027,839,921,843,
217,672,033,318,888,389,423,202,001,980,678,671,980,098,290,099,067,626,090,
018,849,944,101,369,891,911,919,080,028,293,018,687,094,422,764,098,870,349,
209,902,069,016,234,901,048,776,124,987,273,487,192,982,012,011,929,813,671,
290,981,923,089,981,897,167,327,948,242,321,639,147,248,369,214,368,398,214,
697,739,028,736,002,938,022,938,110,089,409,183,908,247,018,927,839,921,843,
210,672,033,318,888,389,423,202,001,982,678,234,901,048,776,099,067,626,090,
814,234,901,048,776,891,981,929,080,128,293,098,234,901,048,776,093,470,349,
267,902,069,016,130,096,069,392,124,987,273,487,192,982,012,011,929,813,671,
290,981,923,089,981,897,967,327,948,242,321,639,147,248,369,214,368,398,214,
937,739,028,736,002,938,022,938,110,089,409,983,108,247,018,027,849,921,843,
710,672,033,318,888,389,423,202,001,982,678,671,980,098,290,099,067,626,090,
017,849,944,101,369,891,971,939,080,028,293,018,687,094,422,764,093,870,349,
290,981,923,089,981,897,167,327,948,242,321,639,147,248,369,214,368,398,214,
697,739,028,736,002,938,028,938,110,089,409,183,908,247,018,927,839,921,843,
210,672,033,318,888,389,658,226,001,982,678,671,980,098,290,099,067,626,090,
217,672,033,318,888,389,433,202,001,982,678,671,980,098,290,099,067,626,090,
290,981,923,089,981,897,967,327,948,242,321,639,147,248,369,214,368,398,384,
017,849,944,101,369,891,901,909,080,028,293,018,687,094,422,764,093,870,349,
209,902,069,016,130,016,069,392,124,987,273,487,192,982,012,011,929,813,671,
290,981,923,089,981,897,967,327,948,242,321,639,147,248,369,214,368,398,214,
210,672,033,318,878,389,423,202,001,982,678,671,980,098,290,099,067,626,090,
017,849,944,101,369,891,911,999,080,028,293,018,687,094,422,764,093,870,349,
209,902,069,016,140,016,069,312,124,987,273,484,192,982,013,041,929,813,671,
219,902,069,016,130,019,069,392,124,987,273,487,892,984,017,061,929,813,601,
290,981,923,089,981,897,967,324,948,242,321,639,147,248,369,212,368,398,284,
937,739,028,736,102,938,022,938,110,089,409,983,108,247,018,027,839,921,843,
217,672,033,318,888,389,433,202,001,982,678,671,980,098,290,099,067,626,090,
937,739,028,736,102,938,022,938,110,089,409,983,108,247,018,027,839,921,843,
217,672,033,318,888,389,433,202,001,982,678,671,980,098,290,099,067,626,090,
290,778,828,819,441,402,871,717,781,222,200,401,123,346,789,920,230,970,124,
938,739,028,736,002,938,022,938,110,080,409,989,108,247,018,027,839,921,843,
230,672,033,318,898,389,423,202,001,982,678,671,980,098,290,099,067,926,090,
961,849,944,101,369,891,911,999,080,028,293,018,687,094,422,764,093,870,349,
209,902,069,016,130,016,069,392,124,987,273,487,192,982,012,011,929,813,671,
290,981,923,089,981,897,967,327,948,242,321,639,147,248,369,214,368,398,214,
136,739,028,736,002,938,022,938,110,089,409,983,108,247,018,027,839,921,843,
217,672,033,318,888,389,423,202,001,980,678,671,980,098,290,099,067,626,090,
018,849,944,101,369,891,911,919,080,028,293,018,687,094,422,764,098,870,349,
209,902,069,016,130,016,069,392,124,987,273,487,192,982,012,011,929,813,671,
290,981,923,089,981,897,167,327,948,242,321,639,147,248,369,214,368,398,214,
697,739,028,736,002,938,022,938,110,089,409,183,908,247,018,927,839,921,843,
210,672,033,318,888,389,423,202,001,982,678,671,980,098,290,099,067,626,090,
814,849,944,101,369,891,981,929,080,128,293,098,687,094,422,764,093,470,349,
267,902,069,016,130,096,069,392,124,987,273,487,192,982,012,011,929,813,671,
290,981,923,089,981,897,967,327,948,242,321,639,147,248,369,214,368,398,214,
937,739,028,736,002,938,022,938,110,089,409,983,108,247,018,027,849,921,843,
710,672,033,318,888,389,423,202,001,982,678,671,980,098,290,099,067,626,090,
017,849,944,101,369,891,971,939,080,028,293,018,687,094,422,764,093,870,349,
209,902,069,016,130,016,069,392,124,987,273,487,192,982,012,011,929,813,671,
290,981,923,089,981,897,967,327,948,242,321,639,147,248,369,214,368,398,214,
937,739,028,736,002,938,022,938,110,089,409,983,108,247,018,027,839,921,843,
910,672,033,318,888,389,423,202,001,982,678,671,980,098,290,099,067,626,090,
017,849,944,101,369,891,961,949,080,028,293,018,687,094,422,764,093,870,349,
209,902,069,016,130,016,069,392,124,987,273,487,192,982,012,011,929,813,671,
290,981,923,089,981,897,967,327,948,242,321,639,147,248,369,214,368,398,214,
937,739,028,736,002,938,022,938,110,089,449,983,108,247,018,027,839,921,843,
110,672,033,318,888,309,423,202,001,982,678,671,980,098,290,099,067,626,090,
017,849,944,101,369,991,941,969,080,028,293,018,687,094,422,764,093,870,449,
209,902,069,016,120,016,069,392,124,987,273,487,192,982,012,011,929,813,671,
279,981,923,089,981,897,967,327,948,242,321,639,147,248,269,214,368,398,214,
937,739,028,736,002,938,022,938,140,089,409,983,108,247,018,027,839,921,843,
810,672,033,318,888,389,423,202,001,982,678,671,980,098,290,099,067,626,090,
012,849,944,101,369,891,931,979,080,028,293,018,687,094,422,764,093,870,309,
209,902,069,016,130,016,069,392,124,907,273,487,192,982,012,011,929,813,621,
290,981,923,089,981,897,967,327,948,242,321,639,147,248,369,214,368,398,224,
937,739,028,736,002,938,022,938,110,089,409,983,108,247,018,027,839,921,833,
219,672,033,318,888,389,423,202,001,982,678,671,980,098,290,099,067,626,090,
017,849,944,101,369,891,921,989,080,028,293,018,687,094,422,764,093,870,349,
209,902,069,016,130,016,069,392,124,987,273,487,192,984,012,011,929,813,671,
290,981,923,089,981,897,967,324,948,242,321,639,147,248,369,212,368,398,284,
937,739,028,736,102,938,022,938,110,089,409,983,108,247,018,027,839,921,843,
217,672,033,318,888,389,433,202,001,982,678,671,980,098,290,099,067,626,090,
290,981,923,089,981,897,967,327,948,242,321,639,147,248,369,214,368,398,384,
017,849,944,101,369,891,901,909,080,028,293,018,687,094,422,764,093,870,349,
209,902,069,016,130,016,069,392,124,987,273,487,192,982,012,011,929,813,671,
290,981,923,089,981,897,967,327,948,242,321,639,147,248,369,214,368,398,214,
210,672,033,318,878,389,423,202,001,982,678,671,980,098,290,099,067,626,090,
017,849,944,101,369,891,911,999,080,028,293,018,687,094,422,764,093,870,349,
209,902,069,016,140,016,069,312,124,987,273,484,192,982,013,041,929,813,671,
219,902,069,016,130,019,069,392,124,987,273,487,892,984,017,061,929,813,601,
290,981,923,089,981,897,967,324,948,242,321,639,147,248,369,212,368,398,284,
937,739,028,736,102,938,022,938,110,089,409,983,108,247,018,027,839,921,843,
217,672,033,318,888,389,433,202,001,982,678,67l,980,098,290,099,067,626,090,
937,739,028,736,102,938,022,938,110,089,409,983,108,247,018,027,839,921,843,
217,672,033,318,888,389,433,202,001,982,678,671,980,098,290,099,067,626,090,
279,981,923,089,981,897,967,327,948,242,321,639,147,248,269,214,368,398,214,
937,739,028,736,002,938,022,938,140,089,409,983,108,247,018,027,839,921,843,
810,672,033,234,901,048,423,202,001,982,678,671,980,098,290,099,067,626,090,
012,849,944,101,369,891,931,979,080,028,293,018,687,094,422,764,093,870,309,
209,902,069,016,130,016,069,392,124,907,273,487,192,982,012,011,929,813,621,
290,981,923,089,981,897,967,327,948,242,321,639,147,248,369,214,368,398,224,
937,739,028,736,002,938,022,938,110,089,409,983,108,247,018,027,839,921,833,
219,672,033,318,888,389,423,202,001,982,678,671,980,098,290,099,067,626,090,
017,849,944,101,369,891,921,989,080,028,293,018,687,094,422,764,093,870,349,
209,902,069,016,130,016,069,392,124,987,273,487,192,984,012,011,929,813,671,
290,981,923,089,981,897,967,324,948,242,321,639,147,248,369,212,368,398,284,
937,739,028,736,102,938,022,938,110,089,409,983,108,247,018,027,839,921,843,
217,672,033,318,888,389,433,202,001,982,678,671,980,098,290,099,067,626,090,
290,981,923,089,981,897,967,327,948,242,321,639,147,248,369,214,368,398,384,
017,849,944,101,369,891,901,909,080,028,293,018,687,094,422,764,093,870,349,
209,902,069,016,130,016,069,392,124,987,273,487,192,982,012,011,929,813,671,
290,981,923,089,981,897,967,327,948,242,321,639,147,248,369,214,368,398,214,
210,672,033,318,878,389,423,202,234,901,048,776,980,098,290,099,067,626,090,
017,849,944,101,369,891,911,999,080,028,293,018,687,094,422,764,093,870,349,
209,902,069,016,140,016,069,312,124,987,273,484,192,982,013,041,929,813,671,
219,902,069,016,130,019,069,392,124,987,273,487,892,984,017,061,929,813,601,
290,981,923,089,981,897,967,324,948,242,321,639,147,248,369,212,368,398,284,
937,739,028,736,102,938,022,938,110,089,409,983,108,247,018,027,839,921,843,
217,672,033,318,888,389,433,202,001,982,678,671,980,098,290,099,067,626,090,
937,739,028,736,102,938,022,938,110,089,409,983,108,247,018,027,839,921,843,
217,672,033,318,888,389,433,202,001,982,678,671,980,098,290,099,067,626,090,
290,778,828,819,441,402,871,717,234,901,048,776,123,346,789,920,230,970,124,
Find the number "5" and the mystery letter. Found them??From the raucous taverns of the Shire to the dreaming spires of Gondor, there will be palpable relief today. Sir Ian McKellen is to reprise his role as the wizard Gandalf in Peter Jackson's forthcoming two-part Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hobbit.
McKellen will join Andy Serkis in New Zealand next month, the latter having also signed up to return as Gollum, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Both characters play major roles in JRR Tolkien's earlier tome. With only a short time to go until Jackson begins shooting, there was some degree of concern among fans that their involvement had not been announced.
Remarkably, the return of Gandalf will mark McKellen's first starring live-action turn on the big screen in five years. The actor has mainly involved himself in voice work for film and television since 2006 comic-book movie X-Men: The Last Stand. Serkis, meanwhile, has been busy with supporting roles in Christopher Nolan's The Prestige and Simon Pegg comedy Burke and Hare, as well as a star turn playing Ian Dury in rock biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll.
McKellen and Serkis are not the only Lord of the Rings alumni set to appear in The Hobbit. Rather to the chagrin of some Tolkien purists there are reports that Elijah Wood (Frodo), Cate Blanchett (Galadriel) and Orlando Bloom (Legolas) have all been approached with offers. None of those characters appeared in Tolkien's book, which sees Frodo's older cousin Bilbo travelling with a band of dwarves and Gandalf to liberate a hoard of treasure from the sly old dragon, Smaug.
The Sun reported recently that Bloom had been offered more than $1m to return as Legolas for a two-minute cameo.The Vancouver Canucks are talking rebuild, which is nice for the franchise, but raises an interesting and obvious question.
Like, uh, what took so long?
History has been kind to John Tortorella’s 2014 Vancouver curtain-closer when, in his wondrously cutting and bombastic style, he put the franchise on blast, labelling it stale, suggesting it needed to be turned upside down to have its pockets shaken clean.
In other words, it was time for a rebuild.
Even then, it was viewed as Tortorella’s most relatable, clear-sighted moment in his short Vancouver stay — or was it Point Roberts? — and years later it has become one of the few times in life we look back on him and remember a philosopher king.
But Tortorella’s infamous warning has played out much like asbestos studies in the 1930s, which proved the durable fibres were essentially airborne death, a rather troubling point manufacturers ignored and suppressed.
You know, like the word rebuild in Vancouver.
Instead of embracing a re-imagining of the franchise in the post-Tortorella summer, the Canucks marched its roster closer to a cliff, making another run at, well, the first round. The old car got some new brakes, a paint job, and was sold to the fans for thousands more than it was worth.
The remaining core was bolstered with veterans like Radim Vrbata, Derek Dorsett and Ryan Miller. A pick was moved for Linden Vey, a Willie Desjardins ask, and a mid-season deal saw a prospect, Gustav Forsling, traded for Adam Clendenning.
The goals then were mostly all in line. Some were understandable. The team was trying to get younger but also trying to get better, sooner. During this stretch, there was a belief by many in the city the team was only delaying the inevitable, and in doing that was missing opportunities to set up the future, which is, well, now.
The Canucks did get a dead-cat bounce, making the playoffs where they were out-coached and beat up by a Calgary Flames team which appeared to be on-the-come.
And in the two years since, the Canucks spent much time openly trying to travel down two paths — the retool on the fly — and results were not good, like a team slowly being poisoned, transitioning from playoffs to bottom-feeder.
Some moves, like acquiring Sven Baertschi and Markus Granlund, worked better than expected. Others, like acquiring Brandon Sutter, Erik Gudbranson and Loui Eriksson, did not.
So when the Canucks now suggest this will be a full rebuild, it’s hard not to think about what could have been if this began in earnest years ago.
The optimistic spin on this is there was no way any front office would had predicted the precipitous drop suffered by some of the cornerstone players, including the Sedins. The old guys had put in their time and the team owed it to them to try and land a playoff spot where some contend “anything can happen.”
Turns out, not quite anything.
The counter — that management was not able to see what needed to be done — is troubling. If you’re inclined to follow this track, you could pin it on their inexperience or, more problematic, their poor vision.
There is a middle ground here, and it centres around ownership’s culpability. Some believe the owners held a guiding hand in making the team “go for it” early on. But if this were true, and the hockey operations department was held in an arm-bar, you are not wrong to question the leadership and wonder if it’s a sign of weakness it wasn’t able to get ownership on point.
There is a good case to be made the rebuild announcement should allow the current Canucks structure a couple of years’ patience. But the Canucks still have to do rebuild-like things here, including acquiring draft picks — lots of them.
It means passing on offering term to free agents, and no-trade clauses, too. And there is no reason a rebuilding team should be spending to the cap unless that spending has helped buy prospects and picks.
It means looking at short-term free agents without trade restrictions who the team can unload at the deadline.
It means considering potential franchise-changing moves like trading Chris Tanev, or working Alex Edler to waive his no-trade clause.
It means weaponizing cap space to acquire bad contracts if it means prospects and/or picks come with them.
It means taking a hard pass on re-signing soon-to-be 37-year-old goalie Ryan Miller because you have a goalie who is a decade younger and ready to be a starter, and he’s one who put up nearly identical numbers as Miller the past two seasons.
Are the Canucks ready for this?
We’ll soon see.
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twitter.com/botchfordWhen Narrative Science inks a deal with a new client, their writers begin work customizing the existing platform within a configuration layer. House style—how to format names and dates, when to italicize, and so on—is the easy part. What takes more time is establishing the facts and inferences that will conceivably be drawn from client data, as well as a "constellation" of possible story angles through which the data might be presented. In the case of baseball, this means "all the scenarios that might be derived from the raw data of a box score": the slugfest, the shutout, the pitcher's duel, the back-and-forth, postponed by rain, on and on.
In
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mechanisms, and the process of their negotiation, need to be transparent and accountable as we need to make sure things are done in the best interests of people, animals and the planet, and not just profit. We need to look at what it is that could be “negotiated away.”
There are many ways we can try and 'take back control' in post-Brexit Britain, including working from the grassroots to challenge neoliberal politics and the power of multinational corporations in the ways we work and live. There also needs to be more pressure on our politicians to stop them treating environmental protection, safety and public services as troublesome'red tape' to be slashed away.Dejha Carrington, local art, design and culture guru, turned us on to Downtown Hollywood’s budding art scene. Last month, the district launched the Downtown Hollywood Mural Project, a new curated outdoor mural program, with an inaugural jazz-inspired mural by Lebo.
The Downtown Hollywood Mural Project will be centralized in the Live Music District. This past August, at the district’s monthly Downtown Hollywood ArtWalk, celebrated local artist, David “Lebo” Le Batard, unveiled Be-Bop Into Outer Space. Inspired by geometric abstraction, color harmony and 1950s jazz, Lebo’s contribution to the emerging cityscape will add a visual arts component to Downtown Hollywood‘s rapidly growing music initiative. The mural marked the first of ten pieces by uberly rad local artists (Jessy Nite, Ruben Ubeira and Michelle Weinberg rumored to be in the mix), as well as the start of another lucrative art season for Lebo who took us inside his studio for a peek at what he has in the works. Lebo’s mural is a nod to the revival of Downtown Hollywood as a fresh hub for the arts and only the first of the many distinct projects he will be unveiling this Fall/Winter season.
Following the big inauguration, Rod Deal headed to Lebo’s studio to talk more about his upcoming projects and snap some pics. Unfortunately, the interview got lost between shots and so, we will follow-up with more Lebo on a later date. Fortunately, the behind the scenes shots are so dope we forgive him. Check ’em out:
Downtown Hollywood ArtWalk – Third Saturday of Every Month, 7-10pm. Enjoy an enchanted evening strolling quaint, tree-lined sidewalks while being serenaded by the sounds of a jazz saxophone, or the soft strings of a violin or harp. Take a moment to look over the shoulder of an artist painting and visit the art galleries and businesses showcasing local, regional and international artwork. Upcoming Date: September 15The Government has raised €500 million in a debt auction today, in its first sale of Treasury bills since before the State sought a bailout.
The auction met its target, and had a yield of 1.8 per cent and a bid to cover ratio of 2.8.
The head of the National Treasury Management Agency John Corrigan said three or four more auctions of short-term debt may be held before the end of 2012, ahead of a return to longer-term markets early next year.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio One this afternoon, Mr Corrigan said the "wider mood music" has improved significantly since a summit of EU leaders held last week.
The NTMA may also consider selling six-month bills following today's successful debt auction.
The agency also wants to sell a bond with a duration of two years and over, he said.
Analysts described the auction results as "positive", and Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said it was an important step for the economy.
"This morning’s successful auction of three-months treasury bills by the NTMA was a very important milestone on Ireland’s continuing path to recovery," he said. "The yield on the bonds at 1.80 per cent was very competitive to its peer group, market commentators were agreed that any level lower than 2 per cent would be considered a good result, and demand was strong amongst investors."
The Irish auction was in contrast with Spain's debt sale, which also took place today. Most foreign investors are shunning Spain's auctions, even though Madrid has avoided going to international lenders for a full sovereign bailout.
The Spanish Treasury paid the highest rate in over seven months to borrow 10-year funds, suggesting the positive effect of last weekend's agreement by euro zone leaders is wearing off.
Altogether, Madrid auctioned €3 billion in three maturities of bonds. It sold €747 million in the benchmark 10-year bonds at an average yield of 6.43 per cent, up from 6.044 per cent at the last such auction on June 7th.
Ireland's return to financial markets was conducted by the NTMA. It has not disclosed the exact break-down of domestic and international lenders who purchased the treasury bills.
Owen Callan, a senior dealer at Danske Markets, one of the primary dealers in Irish government bonds, said that there was only a “very small participation” by the domestic banks and insurers in the auction given the low yield, or interest rate, being offered to lenders. He estimated that the international investors accounted for between 90 and 95 per cent of the borrowings raised.
Mr Callan said that the yield on the t-bills compared with about 1.70 per cent for Italy and 1.85 per cent for Spain on their equivalent treasury bills.
While not a "full" market return, the auction - the first time since September 2010 – was a "small but necessary step towards regaining full market access and avoiding a need for any additional troika support in 2014", Danske said.
On Tuesday, the NTMA announced it would seek to tap financial markets by issuing IOUs known as treasury bills. The bills will have to be repaid in just three months.
"Every aspect of the t-bill auction is better than expected. The total amount of bids is very impressive and the yield of 1.8 per cent is not only lower than the grey market before the auction but is approximately where Spanish letras (treasury bills) are trading," said Credit Agricole rate strategist Peter Chatwell.
The NTMA plans to increase gradually the amounts it raises at each successive auction over the remainder of the year and into 2013. The repayment duration of the IOUs it issues will also be lengthened.
Typically bonds of five- and 10-year maturity account for most government debt in developed countries, with short-term treasury bills accounting for a much smaller share.
The success of the Government’s plan to wean itself off bailout funding will depend to a considerable degree on the performance of the public finances this year and next.
New figures from the Department of Finance, published earlier this week showed the fiscal position is on track to meet targets set out in last December’s budget and under the terms of Ireland’s EU-IMF bailout.
The exchequer returns showed the deficit between public spending and revenues narrowed in the first half of the year, falling from €10.8 billion in January-June 2011 to €9.4 billion in the same period this year.
"Irish sovereign debt has been on a roll. The rally dates back to the middle of last year when foreign investors started taking a much more favourable view of Ireland's adjustment programme," said Nicholas Spiro of Spiro Sovereign Strategy.
"However Ireland is hardly out of the woods. Domestic demand continues to contract, the fiscal deficit was 13 per cent of GDP last year and the economy is expected to more or less stagnate this year."Syrian army helicopters killed at least 20 people, mostly children and women, in the first attack on a refugee camp in southern Syria along the border with Jordan, residents and opposition activists said.
Syrian army helicopters killed at least 20 people, mostly children and women, in the first attack on a refugee camp in southern Syria along the border with Jordan, residents and opposition activists said.
They said the army dropped several barrel bombs - highly destructive improvised explosives, use of which has been condemned by Western powers as a war crime - on the camp in the village of Shajra, 2 km (1 mile) from the Jordanian border.
"Women were wailing hysterically as they saw their dead children lying on the floor," said Abu Mohammad al-Hourani, a farmer in the village who said he had helped to remove bodies after the dawn raid. At least eighty people were injured, many seriously, aid workers said.
Hundreds of families fleeing intensified fighting between rebels and the army in southern Syria in recent months had taken shelter in the town near the border, which Jordan closed last year after taking in hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees.
Witnesses said the attack led to hundreds of panic stricken families fleeing the rural border town of over 15,000 people for fear of further aerial attacks on the camp that was set up nearly five months ago.
The difficulties of crossing into Jordan, which says it is overburdened with more than 600,000 U.N. registered refugees, almost 15 percent of its population, has led some NGO and relief agencies to consider constructing camps inside Syrian territory close to the border.
The bombing of the refugee camp, where hundreds of families are living in miserable conditions, has not only shocked NGOs and aid workers operating in Jordan but lead to a reassement of the risks of having such camps in what was considered relatively safe areas close to the border, aid workers say.
But the UN's refugee aid agency UNHCR, which has long discouraged such camps inside Syria without international blessing, said host countries such as Jordan and Lebanon should continue to allow refugees fleeing the escalating violence in Syria to find a safe haven on their territory.
"They are very few areas in Syria that are safe, that is why it is important that countries continue to keep their borders open because establishing camps in dangerous locations does not provide protection to people," Andrew Harper, head of the UNHCR's Jordanian operations told Reuters.
"If you set up a camp for people who need protection, you need a protected place. People fleeing violence must at least be able to cross the border safely," he added.
Jordanian authorities now allow only a trickle of refugees into Jordan from a U.N.-funded border crossing in a desolate area close to the frontier with Iraq, where relief agencies say they have to endure days of hardship before arriving.
Amman also imposed this month restrictions on entry of ordinary Syrians who arrive through its airport and official border crossing with Syria, official sources say.
More than 160,000 people have been killed in Syria's conflict, which started in March 2011 with peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad's rule and became an armed rebellion after a government crackdown.
Online EditorsSPRINGFIELD ‒ Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean urged support for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential bid during the Massachusetts Democratic Party convention at the MassMutual Center Saturday.
Dean, a surrogate for Clinton's White House campaign, said he believes the former secretary state is the most qualified candidate and "gets what has to happen in the country to preserve democracy." He was among three Democratic presidential campaign representatives slated to address convention delegates and party leaders at the daylong event.
Boston City Councilor Matt O'Malley and Karen Higgins, co-president of National Nurses United, will stump for the campaigns of former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT.
Dean praised Clinton's support for human rights issues, as well as her understanding of the economic divide, student loan problems and foreign relations.
"Another reason I support Hillary Clinton is because she's competent," he told The Republican. "We do not want to have (someone) incompetent in the White House."
Dean, who said he endorsed Clinton over a year ago, added that despite his support for the former first lady, he believes Sanders' campaign is great and that the independent senator is "raising important issues that are critical to the country."
The 2016 election, he added, cannot be about division and that Democrats must stand together regardless of who becomes the party's nominee.
"This campaign is not about Hillary and its not about Bernie and its not about Martin, it is about us," he said in a speech to delegates. "And it's about our country and it's about our country as a democracy and being a place where everyone can succeed."
Dean added that regardless of who represents the Democratic party in 2016 he'll "be on that team."
The former governor said he sees the 2015 state party convention as an opportunity for Democratic presidential candidates to build support for their campaigns in the Bay State.
"I do think people are paying attention in Massachusetts and this convention is part of the groundwork," he said.CHICAGO -- A community activist who worked to fight violence in Chicago was fatally shot less than a block from the offices of his nonprofit, according to police and the victim's relatives.
William "Willie" Cooper, 58, was shot Saturday afternoon near the offices of Lilydale Outreach Workers for a Better Community on Chicago's South Side. Cooper was the principal officer of the anti-violence group, which provides jobs to local teenagers.
Police said Cooper was walking when someone shot him from a dark-colored vehicle driving by. Cooper suffered wounds to his torso and mouth. About 20 shell casings were scattered near his body, according to his wife, Sherry Clark, with whom he had three children.
His wife told the Chicago Tribune that her late husband "did a lot for the community."
William "Willie" Cooper CBS Chicago
"He is just the rock of the family -- it just destroyed our family," Miltonya Covington, the victim's niece, told CBS Chicago. "Not just a loss for family, but also for the community."
Debbie McBounds lined up with others at a makeshift memorial Sunday evening. "It's heartbreaking. We love him. We will miss him," McBounds told CBS Chicago.
She added, "He would always try to help anyone -- the kids who needed to go to college, he gave money for that, anybody who needed help with their rent."
A look inside Chicago's deadly July Fourth weekend
Bamani Obadele, a friend and fellow activist, told the station, "It is our responsibility to not allow Willie Cooper's murder to be in vein."
No one was in custody as of Sunday afternoon and investigators have yet to identify any persons of interest, Chicago police spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi told The Associated Press. He said detectives are trying to determine whether Cooper was targeted or the victim of a random shooting.
"It's too early to say at this point," Guglielmi said, noting that investigators were trying to track down any surveillance video that may have captured the shooting.
Relatives arriving at scene of the shooting were in tears. They gathered with other family members in front of the nearby offices where Cooper had worked.
There have been 372 homicides in the city of Chicago this year, according to the Chicago Tribune.Now, Abedin has every reason to tell investigators what she knows about Hillary Clinton’s illegal use of a home email server to transmit classified materials. She may have already lied after being granted immunity, and Team Clinton should be nervous about what happens next.
To say the 2016 presidential election is dramatic would be an understatement. Never before have we had so many revelations, leaks, and shocking moments in an election. The revelation that Hillary Clinton consigliere Huma Abedin’s estranged husband Anthony Weiner would be the reason why the FBI’s criminal investigation would be reopened will make a great movie plot twist someday.
Recently, Hillary’s poll numbers are plummeting while alternative media sources scan through thousands of Democrat-insider emails published by WikiLeaks. Once the job of the mainstream media, the American public has to find the truth on a bizarre foreign website with a fugitive publisher hiding in London’s Ecuadorian embassy.
Even if Hillary’s campaign chair John Podesta’s emails came from Russian intelligence, no one is denying their validity. These electronic revelations are devastating, especially when it comes to the issue of immigration.
In a paid, private speech to a Brazilian bank on May 16, 2013, Clinton said, “My dream is a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders[.]” This transcript is proof that Hillary and her campaign has deliberately misled Americans about her elitist private views.
Now we know exactly why Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wanted Hillary’s private speech transcripts released during the Democratic presidential primary. Hillary’s “open borders” dream is a nightmare for American workers.
In the past year, the number of jobs held by recent immigrants (legal or otherwise) has increased more than five times faster than American-born workers. At rapid speed, companies are laying off American citizens and shipping jobs overseas – sometimes requiring American workers to train their foreign low-wage replacements before getting the axe.
Since late 2007, the number of jobs held by American-born workers has declined by 1.5 million, but jobs held by immigrants (legal or otherwise) are up by 2 million. Immigration has a downward pressure on wages for struggling minorities, especially high school dropouts. Expanded immigration also negatively affects the wages of skilled technicians and mid-level computer workers.
Hillary privately shares the views of her mega-donors, such as technology moguls who want expanded issuances of H-1B visas and green cards. They ultimately want completely open borders.
In addition, Hillary’s dream of open borders appears to include “voters without borders.” In an email on February 3, 2015, Podesta described the process in which illegal aliens with a driver’s license can vote, as long as they lie to election workers. Twelve states and the District of Columbia grant drivers license to illegal aliens. Following Podesta’s guide for lying on Election Day would have an especially large impact in California, as almost half of their driver’s licenses were issued to illegals.
Relaxed immigration laws and the growth of the welfare state mean more votes for Democrats. Then Hillary Clinton simultaneously receives more pro-amnesty contributions from corporate titans who consider themselves “global citizens.”
As U.S. Border Patrol agent Chris Cabrera recently explained on The Laura Ingram Show, the Obama administration treats immigration violations like a “traffic ticket,” even for aliens with extensive criminal records. Hillary wants to take it to the next step by making the borders entirely open.
For the sake of America’s workers and fair elections, Hillary’s dream must be stopped.
Ken Blackwell, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is a senior fellow at the Family Research Council and the American Civil Rights Union.Cubs support Blackhawks with customized jerseys
Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo tweeted a picture of Dexter Fowler, Starlin Castro and Jorge Soler in their customized Blackhawks jerseys.
The Chicago Cubs lost their second consecutive game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday but that didn’t stop them from having a good time.
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The Cubs supported the Chicago Blackhawks in their Game 2 win against the Minnesota Wild by wearing customized sweaters on the plane to St. Louis, where the Cubs will play a four-game series against the Cardinals.
All the Cubs players including manager Joe Maddon were wearing the Blackhawks jerseys in their post-game press conferences.
Joe Maddon and the Cubs are showing Chicago solidarity by wearing Blackhawks jerseys http://t.co/YrJ43Z4BPi pic.twitter.com/OakhN484ui — Blackhawks Daily (@BlackhawksDaily) May 4, 2015
Joe Maddon has become well known for themed road trips and we’ve highlighted a few in the past. This one happens to serve another purpose, a show of pride for the city of Chicago.
Maddon said the players all customized their own Blackhawks jersey.
“We all got our own tops with our names on the backs and their numbers, Maddon said.”
Here’s Cubs relief pitcher Zac Rosscup’s customized jersey:
The Cubs have supported the Blackhawks’ playoff run this season by making appearances at the United Center. Kris Bryant, Rizzo and Fowler were at the Blackhawks’ Game 1 win over the Wild on Friday.Nobody gets too excited for Leap Day. It’s kind of like a 24 hour shrug that comes once every four years. Still, Leap Day doesn’t happen very often which makes it fairly special for a non-holiday day. On the other hand, your distinct lack of specialness would be offensive if your averageness weren’t so numbingly bland.
Leap Day may not be the most amazing day of the year but it is still more special than you are. I will demonstrate proof now.
1. Leap Day only happens on February 29th
Leap Day is infrequent, but it is consistent, so that’s admirable. On the other hand, we have to deal with your up-and-down bullshit every goddamned day.
2. Leap Day was invented by Julius Caesar
Caesar is referred to as the “father” of the leap year concept because he reformed the calendar from lunar cycles to solar cycles which ended up being one of his most enduring legacies as a ruler. On the other hand, you were invented by two ordinary parents so boring they’re both named Terry. The only legacy you carry on is unremarkable genetics and assorted psychological problems.
3. Leap Day accounts for the extra time it takes Earth to complete a trip around the sun
The calendar shows only 365 days in the year, but the truth is that a full trip around the sun is 365 days and 6 hours. That’s why an extra day is needed every few years, to account for that time within the calendar system. Huh. That makes sense. On the other hand, every moment spent with you is time that may as well not exist because it is so achingly, painfully forgettable.
4. Leap years are actually not every four years
The way our standard Gregorian calendar is set up (named after Pope Gregory XIII who introduced it in the 16th Century), a leap year is only in years that are divisible by 4, such as 2008, 2012, and 2016. Years that are divisible by 100, but not by 400, do not contain a leap day. Thus, 1700, 1800, and 1900 did not contain a leap day, 2100, 2200, and 2300 will not contain a leap day, while 1600 and 2000 did, and 2400 will.
On the other hand, you are somehow even duller than that fact.
5. Some Leap Day traditions involve gender role reversals
In Ireland and Britain, there’s a tradition that Leap Days are the one time when women are allowed to propose marriage to men. On the other hand, the only traditions about you are that, traditionally, no one thinks about you when you’re not around. The only proposal you’ll ever receive is “I think we should see other people.”
6. Marrying in a leap year is bad luck
This superstition is popular in Greece. In fact, about 1 in 5 couples will delay their engagement simply to avoid getting married in a leap year. On the other hand, marrying you would be bad luck during any year.
7. Ja Rule was born on a Leap Day
Ja Rule was a rapper who made it big in the early 2000s due to successful collaborations with Ashanti and Jennifer Lopez. On the other hand, your most successful collaboration is with abject failure.
8. Christopher Columbus used Leap Day to trick Native Americans
In 1504, Columbus was able to use his knowledge of a Leap Day lunar eclipse to convince Native Americans they should give him supplies. On the other hand, you are at your most convincing when you’re being self-deprecating. People from all nations can agree that you are not special. In truth, that is your greatest gift.
9. The first arrest warrants in the Salem witch trials were issued on a Leap Day in 1692
On the other hand, getting burned at the stake would be the only way your life would ever be interesting.
Follow Grant on Twitter.Skateboarding games have come in disparate flavors over the years, from arcade-style hits like NeverSoft’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skateboarding to 2D bangers like roll7’s OlliOlli to hardcore simulators like EA’s Skate. Joining the latter camp is crea-ture Studios’ Project: Session, an upcoming indie skateboarding game that focuses on authenticity and creativity.
The developers promise “no turbo timer, gazillions of combo multipliers and shit,” claiming that the game is instead “entirely focused on creativity and freedom of expression, nothing else!” The game has an interesting aesthetic in its teaser, making it appear that the game will look like fish-eye footage played from a VHS tape, which aside from being an interesting look, also does wonders to hide any graphical shortcomings the game might have being from a small studio.
Project: Session has gotten nothing but an announcement and the teaser trailer below so far, but given that Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 will be coming out soon, it’s really interesting to see a skateboarding revival. No platforms have been announced yet, but crea-ture Studios say that the game will come to Kickstarter soon.Texas attorneys continued their argument in federal court on Wednesday that Planned Parenthood violated its Medicaid contract by altering abortions to obtain fetal tissue.
Showing multiple clips from a video released in 2015 by the anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress, state attorneys and witnesses said in the U.S. District Court in Austin that the footage was grounds for dismissing Planned Parenthood from the joint federal-state health insurance program for the poor and disabled.
The hidden-camera footage shows Planned Parenthood employees talking about selling fetal tissue, though Planned Parenthood has claimed it is heavily edited and misleading. Texas lawyers said the video is proof the reproductive health provider admitted to changing abortion procedures to help researchers.
During his two-and-a-half hours on the witness stand, Texas Health and Human Services Commission Inspector General Stuart W. Bowen Jr. said the video showed Planned Parenthood “violated medical and ethical standards” under Medicaid. Bowen said he watched the eight-hour video five times and read transcripts from it.
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Bowen also said the way Planned Parenthood employees used the phrase “financially beneficial” multiples times in the video also was evidence to the agency that “there was interest to pursue such activities” — that is, selling fetal tissue — for profits.
State attorneys are using the 2015 video as its main evidence in the multi-day hearing that will determine Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas and other affiliates’ future in Medicaid. Planned Parenthood lawyers are fighting for a temporary injunction to allow the organization to stay in Medicaid until a trial occurs.
The hearing comes more than a year after the reproductive health provider sued to block the state from removing them from Medicaid. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission put Planned Parenthood on notice Dec. 20 that its Medicaid funding would end.
Planned Parenthood lawyers pushed back on Bowen’s testimony, forcing him to admit that the agency had not actually seen any individuals in the video altering abortion operations.
But the video evidence used in court did appear to back up the state's claims. One clip showed Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast’s ambulatory surgical center director saying “it’s for a good cause” to obtain fetal tissue for research even if it means potentially prolonging an abortion procedure and having a patient endure more pain.
Texas attorneys also called to the stand O. Carter Snead, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School and bioethics expert. Snead said that bioethics and medical ethics was about “the singular well-being of the patient” and that Planned Parenthood was in violation based off the video. He said changing a procedure and willingly having patients “experiencing pain for research” was not in the organization’s consent form.
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But Planned Parenthood pushed back against Snead's testimony by pointing out his bias against the organization, reading clips from his past works as evidence. One of those articles quoted him writing that President Barack Obama’s administration was pushing Planned Parenthood’s “sexual freedom agenda” by forcing religious workplaces to cover contraception. Another article quoted him saying Obama “has chosen the agenda of Planned Parenthood over caring for the poor.”
Snead said if Planned Parenthood was not the largest abortion provider, he “would not have any issue with them receiving federal funding.” When asked about his general views on abortion, he said “it’s an extraordinarily complicated question.”
“When should it be legal to kill another person, is what you’re asking,” Snead said.
U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, after telling Snead, “We don’t need to know about Plato and all of that stuff,” told state attorneys the professor’s testimony would probably not carry much weight in his decision.
“I don’t think this gentleman is going to help me make a determination,” Sparks said. “I’m interested in what was done, not was willing to be done. I think that’s what you should be concerned about.”
During afternoon testimony, Texas attorneys aimed to make the case that Planned Parenthood would not be missed if dropped from Medicaid as multiple women’s health program exists to address basic health needs and family planning services.
Leslie French Henneke, associate commissioner for health, developmental and independence services for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, said that the state’s women’s health programs were taking a “holistic approach” to helping patients.
“You can’t treat one symptom without treating another,” Henneke said of balancing reproductive health needs with preventive care.
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Henneke said that the state has more than 5,300 providers in the program and that she wouldn’t agree there’s a Medicaid provider shortage in the state.
The hearing is slated to go through Thursday, when the state will put one more witness on the stand and Planned Parenthood prepares to present two rebuttal witnesses. Sparks said he had wanted to make a decision by the end of the day Wednesday but that he would allow Planned Parenthood’s witnesses on Thursday.
Read related Tribune coverage:
Planned Parenthood lawyers and witnesses said in front of a packed courtroom that ending the organization’s reimbursements for Medicaid could endanger access to family planning services for Texas’ most vulnerable populations.
Texas health officials in December delivered a final legal notice to nix the funding Planned Parenthood receives through the Medicaid program.
In the state's other abortion battle in court, Sparks announced earlier this month that he was delaying the start date of the state's fetal remains burial rule for another three weeks.
Disclosure: Planned Parenthood has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors is available here.Shortly after the two sticky-fingered 20-year-olds had dislodged the bicycle, they placed a call to a taxi service in order to avoid having to walk all the way home with the bike, which remained unrideable as a wheel was still locked.
As luck would have it, the young couple's call was answered by taxi driver Hassan Abdulnabi, who was more than happy to accommodate the couple's unusual request, the Expressen newspaper reports.
After meeting up with the woman, Hassan then set about constructing a rack on which to place the bicycle.
But when the woman's male friend showed up a few minutes later with the bicycle, the observant cab driver was surprised to see that the bicycle in question actually belonged to him.
Careful not to alarm the hapless crooks, Abdulnabi began subtly questioning the man about the bicycle.
“I asked him if he had the key for it to test if it was really his. He said he had it, but thought it was best if it stayed locked,” Abdulnabi told Aftonbladet.
Not willing to let the couple get away with stealing his bike, Abdulnabi asked the couple to get in the car and then called the police.
But when no patrol car showed up, Abdulnabi took matters into his own hands.
“It was taking too long so I drove to the police station, but without saying anything to the passengers,” said Abdulnabi.
Upon arriving on what was apparently a busy night for Örebro law enforcement, however, the cabbie couldn't track down any officers, deciding instead to lock the thieves in his car.
“I made my own little jail for them for about three or four minutes,” Abdulnabi told Aftonbladet.
When police finally arrived, the young man continued to insist the bicycle belonged to him and that he'd been using it all summer long.
However, Abdulnabi finally silenced the man by producing the key to the bicycle's lock, proving that the cab driver was indeed the rightful owner of the disputed two-wheeler.
A relieved Abdulnabi said he plans on pressing charges against the couple for trying to steal his bike, and is thankful he happened to be dispatched to answer the call.
“If another cab driver had taken the job, the thieves would have certainly gotten away,” he told the newspaper.Nigeria’s Health Minister, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, has today announced that there is “no single current” case of Ebola in Nigeria. Chukwu also confirmed that wife of the late Port Harcourt doctor who treated a primary contact of the index case, Patrick Sawyer, has been discharged from the isolation ward in Lagos. The minister said she was discharged on Tuesday, adding that there was no new confirmed case of Ebola in the country.
“As of today, the total number of confirmed cases of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Nigeria stands at 19, 15 in Lagos, four in Port Harcourt. The total number of deaths from EVD in Nigeria stands at seven. Five of this died in Lagos, one in a private hospital, the index case Mr Sawyer, and the other four 4 in the isolation ward in Lagos State.
Two of the seven died in Port Harcourt, the medical doctor who died in a private hospital and the contact, a patient in the hospital at the time the doctor was also on admission, who died in the isolation ward in Rivers state.
The total number of patients who have been successfully managed and discharged is now 10. The latest are the sister of the Port Harcourt doctor who was discharged from the isolation ward in Rivers state on September 7, 2014, and the wife of the same doctor who was discharged from the isolation ward in Lagos state, yesterday, September 9, 2014. (Please note that the 10 patients successfully managed and discharged are among the total number of 12 survivors of EVD in Nigeria.
At present, there is no single current case of confirmed EVD in Nigeria. However, a suspected case of EVD from Ile-Ife, a university student who had contact with the late Port Harcourt doctor at a naming ceremony in Port Harcourt has been quarantined and is being investigated.”A consumer rights activist who led the charge against restrictions on phone unlocking has graded the four major US carriers and found three of them aren't fully complying with commitments they made to the government.
The CTIA Wireless Association promised the Federal Communications Commission that carriers would meet six conditions by a deadline that passed last week. But Sprint hasn't met three of the conditions, T-Mobile fails on two of them and possibly a third, while AT&T meets five but possibly not the sixth, reports Sina Khanifar, who was credited by the White House for starting the petition that helped (temporarily) legalize phone unlocking.
In addition to that legislation, carriers promised the FCC to post clear and concise unlocking policies on their websites, implement postpaid unlocking policies, implement prepaid unlocking policies, provide notice to customers when their devices are eligible for unlocking, respond to unlock requests within two business days, and unlock devices for deployed military personnel.
Khanifar analyzed the carriers' performance in living up to these conditions and summarized his findings in this chart:
Verizon has to follow a more strict policy on handset unlocking than its rivals because of conditions placed upon spectrum it bought at auction. "Verizon has the most lenient policy: they've almost entirely stopped locking their devices," Khanifar wrote.
Sprint fares the worst in Khanifar's analysis. In addition to not meeting three of the six requirements, the company also gives customers trouble in connecting devices from other carriers. The "Consumer Code" carriers signed up for does not include "a commitment from carriers to accept unlocked devices on their networks," leading to varying policies, Khanifar wrote.
"Interoperability is an obvious and critical piece of what makes unlocking valuable. If you unlock your phone, you need to be able to take it to another carrier and use it," he wrote. "But many carriers, most notably Sprint, specifically say that they won't activate phones that were originally sold by another carrier. That's despite the cellular technologies the phones use being entirely standardized. In Sprint's case, those restrictions even apply to their own MVNOs. Virgin Mobile devices run entirely on Sprint's network. But even if Virgin Mobile unlocks it for you, Sprint won't activate it for use on a prepaid or postpaid account. It's patently absurd: there's simply no good reason to prevent users from bringing their own devices—in fact, it makes it even hard for consumers to switch to your carrier. The only justification for that kind of policy is to gouge customers and force them to buy more expensive, 'carrier-approved' devices that come with 2 year contracts."
Sprint's policy says it "will only activate devices certified to work on the Sprint network and may not activate unlocked devices from other carriers/service providers, including devices manufactured for Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile, and Assurance Wireless."
Even though Verizon met all six conditions, it isn't the friendliest carrier in terms of attaching other devices to its network, Khanifar wrote. "Their Bring Your Own Device" program makes it clear that your phone needs to be an 'unused Verizon phone' to be eligible," he wrote.
This appears to apply only to prepaid Verizon service. We asked Verizon if Khanifar's analysis is correct, and if so, how the carrier can prevent certain devices from connecting to its network without violating its spectrum requirements. We'll post an update if we get a response.
UPDATE: Verizon says it will connect non-Verizon devices for prepaid customers, and that the terms posted on its site are not written clearly enough. "That site was geared towards Verizon customers who can relate to having a phone they aren’t using or are off contract and want to move to prepaid," the company said. "To clarify though, you can bring your own device to prepaid and it can be a non Verizon device. The device does need to be compatible with our network and support the proper radio frequencies/bands in order to connect and it does need to be certified to work on our network."
The interoperability problem could be solved by the FCC's net neutrality proposal, which would prevent carriers from blocking non-harmful devices. Khanifar did not find any problems with AT&T's and T-Mobile's bring-your-own-device policies.
More on where the carriers fall short
Back to the six carrier commitments, Khanifar provided details on how he determined whether carriers met each one. Sprint's unlocking policy "can't be described as 'clear, concise and accessible,'" he wrote. The policy for prepaid devices "is hidden two links away at this URL."
Further, "Sprint says that they will only perform an 'International SIM unlock' for active customers," he wrote. "There appears to be no provision for unlocking phones for international use if you are not an active Sprint customer, which is one of the requirements of the CTIA’s 'Consumer Code.' Furthermore, they place restrictions on the number of devices you can unlock: for example, consumers don’t qualify for an 'international' unlock if they’ve unlocked a different phone in the past 12 months." The
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that community in order to do the most long-term good.
Among many of the lessons we’ve learned from managing disaster responses on behalf of clients, one of the most important is that community-based organizations offer tremendous value as innovative, cost-effective partners who can act swiftly and strategically compared to large, international NGOs. Community-based organizations are immensely resourceful, using innovative methods to overcome local limitations, which is even more necessary in the aftermath of a disaster.
Adrienne Bloomberg Grassroots organizations in Liberia identified the risk of stigmatization of Ebola survivors in their communities and developed community outreach and educational initiatives.
DON’T RELY ON A BRAND NAME
It’s increasingly difficult to separate good marketing from good impact. And it’s easy to think that an organization must be good if they’re receiving support from prominent, respected funders.
We’ve fallen into that trap ourselves. Many years ago, we helped a donor put money into a campaign to empower women’s groups in, coincidentally, Haiti. There were a lot of reports, workshops, and talk about what was going to be done. But as time went by, nothing seemed to be happening. We recommended the donor stop funding the program at the end of the first year. As we investigated where we had gone wrong, we realized that part of the decision to fund the nonprofit had been based on the fact that they had received funding from a major international organization. If this organization thought the proposal merited support, we’d reasoned, then it must be good.
From that setback, I’ve learned that there’s no substitute for doing your own digging and having a very solid process in place for due diligence. If that’s not a core skill you have, that’s an area where hiring a philanthropic advisor to do that on your behalf is worth it.
ASK QUESTIONS AND GAUGE THE WILLINGNESS TO TALK ABOUT FAILURES
There can be no trust if there’s no transparency. Ask a lot of questions during your due diligence process and gauge the organization’s openness and how they respond to your questions.
One of the things I look for is how willing an organization is to talk about past failures and what they learned in the process. After all, it’s incredibly rare that everything always goes according to plan, especially in the context of international development. Be skeptical if you don’t get a solid answer and probe more. Organizations may feel that they’ll lose funding by admitting mistakes, and there aren’t a lot of incentives for them to admit when something went awry. Our sector overall would be a lot better if there was more analysis around failures, and you as the donor can help advance that mentality by encouraging that transparency. Just as you are searching for signs of trust in the organization, make sure you are signaling that the organization can trust you not to pull funding the moment things go wrong. Be committed to an iterative learning process and constant improvement.
FOCUS ON THE RIGHT METRICS
One of the biggest criticism over the Red Cross’s Haiti response was how much went to overhead; the organization claimed 9% while the investigation found it to be 25%. Regardless of the true number, a singular focus on overhead is misguided for a few reasons.
First, it’s a number that can be manipulated in various ways. By allocating certain expenses to program work (for example, a portion of a CEO’s time can be attributed to a program), there are creative ways to bring down an overhead number.
Second, because of this fuzzy and flexible math, it’s often hard to understand what percentage of a donation goes to the local project on the ground. This to me is the only good metric to use when trying to compare various organizations and evaluate how much of your money will impact the beneficiaries.
Third, an overhead number doesn’t tell you about the organization’s efficiency in its work. I’d much rather support an organization with above-average overhead if it’s generating more impact than its peers.
You also want to understand what metrics will be used to evaluate impact. There’s a difference between counting and measuring, and it requires experience to recognize what are the right measurements that will indicate a successful program, and whether the program has the correct tracking mechanisms in place to get the right data over the long run.
PAUSE
In the aftermath of a disaster, it’s tempting to give right away. Unless you have a vetted organization that you know will use the money well, don’t rush. Take the time to assess who is doing what, and where your money can do the most good.
There’s typically a big drop-off in funding after the immediate disaster needs have been met. This is the time when communities need help rebuilding infrastructure and systems that could make them more resilient to future catastrophes. Providing funds for rehabilitation and recovery allows you to fill a gap that most others overlook, and can lead to a great return on your social investment.Getty Images
Unless it’s for a head coaching opportunity, teams don’t have to give under-contract assistants permission to interview for other jobs, even if it’s a promotion.
But the Panthers aren’t going to limit Steve Wilks’ chances.
Via Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, Washington asked for permission to interview Wilks for their defensive coordinator opening, and the Panthers granted it.
Wilks is the Panthers secondary coach and assistant head coach. He’s also on the Rams list of head coaching candidates.
Because coach Jay Gruden dismissed coordinator Joe Barry, the job is subject to the Rooney Rule, which (at least informally) requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate for coordinator posts. New coaches aren’t subject to the same provision when hiring coordinators.
Washington has been linked to both Gus Bradley and Wade Phillips.For those of you who don't know, the Halo universe is pretty expansive. It should be, considering it entails an entire fictional galaxy, or at least a fictionalized expanse beyond our own solar system. Halo: Combat Evolved was first launched on the original XBOX system in 2001. Since then, the title has come to represent the system itself, as the flagship series. When we think of XBOX, we think of Halo. The two are joined. Not surprising, considering the game was devleoped by Microsoft, and a little-known studio (at the time) called Bungie. Bungie has expanded their arsenal with another title, Destiny. There are a reported 20 million players for that one. These days, Halo has been taken over by 343 Industries. After the Bungie/Microsoft split in 2007, 343 came in to take over the game content with the Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary release and then Halo 4.
Well, the Halo universe has gotten even more expansive, and in a way that is fairly unheard of in gaming. Actually, just about anywhere, really. 'Hunt the Truth' is a blog, created by 343 Industries, that follows a war journalist investigating the fall of Master Chief. On Sunday during football, the 'Hero Fallen' trailer dropped for Halo 5. It's absolutely gorgeous.
Microsoft and Halo have always done commercials well, especially live action commercials. This is just another feather in that cap. I've seen the commercials that feature the two sides, Master Chief and the unknown fighter with the blue face mask, but this is fantastic. It treats the Master Chief saga as real, an event that we as humans would all respond to. The death of Spartan-117 might as well be Neil Armstrong on the moon. Another great example of their prowess with live action commercials is the ODST commercial.
Solid work. I want nothing more than to play that game. Everything you need to know is in that trailer, and it tells us nothing. The heart, the soul, the will, the strength. Everything we think of when we think Halo. And now, 'Hunt the Truth' adds another layer. The second season just started, and they've even shifted their own rules. The first season followed the war journalist Ben Giraurd as he was doing an expose on the life of the Master Chief. Only what he found was not the truth as we all understand. The second season follows and undercover agent known as FERO as she hunts the truth about the incident as well.
On the surface it seems like your standard fan fic about Halo. Except its not. 343 created it, but did so in a way that gives off the impression that it's from another source. It's filled with high profile acting talent. But there's something more than just a cool blog buried underneath. It took me a moment to understand exactly what Bungie was doing, but as soon as I did...
The brilliance behind 'Hunt the Truth' is not the great acting, or the use of multiple media streams (tumblr and soundcloud) but the fact that they've woven together one of the most complex tapestries we've seen in recent history. Ubisoft and Assassin's Creed have woven a similar tapestry in terms of story and background, but have done it across a handful of games. Kojima has created an immensely in-depth universe with Metal Gear Solid. Yet none of them have done so in the same way that 343 has. If you understand how tools like marketing campaigns and product placement work, it is a masterstroke.
The term is 'optics'. How things look, where they're placed, it all feeds together. When we see celebrities or hear stories from Hollywood, that's all optics. Much of it's planned. Daniel Radcliffe wore the same outfit one year filming Harry Potter so all the paparazzi photos would be useless. They'd all be the same. People have their photos taken strategically to enhance their brands. We see them how they want us to see them. It's exactly the same with Bungie. They created a new Halo game that has a major controversy at the heart. So, how do you market misdirection? The answer is both easy and difficult. You have to market it in the same way you want it played. With misdirection, with controversy, and with confusion.
That seems simple on the surface, but throwing people off a trail is difficult. It has to be planned out, down to every detail. Here' s the premise. Master Chief is no hero. How do you sell that? Do you just say it outright? Do you not sell it all? Or do you create so much confusion that no one knows what to think? It's a lot easier said than done. You present evidence that it's both true and false. You lead the audience down a false trail of bread crumbs so that the conclusion they reach on their own is already flawed. By the time the real answer is revealed, no one will know what to think.
Now, the problem with a complex marketing campaign is the worry that the final product isn't as good as the marketing. That was the case with ODST. I'm sorry Halo-faithful, but it's true. It wasn't the best offering from the series. The game is nothing like that commercial. The one advantage no matter what is that a good campaign will have the audience hyped for the release. Early sales will drive through the roof. If the game isn't as good as it's marketed, you'll see a drop-off within the first month. Word of mouth is a bigger killer than the plague. Great games do nothing but add sales, with their numbers holding steady or increasing over time. Word of mouth turns a fast rush of people who have to own the 'day one edition' to legions who have to try it for themselves.
'Hunt the Truth' is going to change the game. I don't think any other game companies will immediately do something similar, as that would be seen as some form of copying. Gamers are always quick to point out when companies copy someone's style. However, I do think that the future AAA games will have to up their game in terms of marketing. Current titles, like Assassin's Creed will adapt. They always have. Games like Forza don't need complex marketing campaigns. We all get what the game is. Cool videos that show off the new game engines are often all that's needed for a number of titles. But for those who want their audience foaming at the mouth for the release of the next game, they better hunt the truth. Or whatever fits in with the story of their game. Because if they don't want to be forgotten, they'll have to find a way to keep audiences coming back for more.
For those who want to follow along, 'Hunt the Truth' here. But start at the beginning. Get the full experience. Believe me, it's worth it. Scroll all the way to the bottom and work your way up. There is a'season one' super cut of all the sound clips edited together, but trust me, you need to follow along and see all the photos and videos. It's worth it.AMERICAblog reader Bcre8ve writes in the comments:
As a Southerner, the attacks on Obama being elitist by the elites of this country, it made me uncomfortable. Not just because the attacks are generally unfair and a distortion of what he actually said, but because it smacks of the sort of dirty, snide, racial attacks of the old South – the “uppity” black man attack. That somehow he just doesn’t seem to “know his place”, that his “reach has exceeded his grasp”. Sort of like the attacks that he wasn’t “black” enough. Being made by white people. (“high yellow”, anyone?) I could continue with the sort of vile, negative, stereotypical attacks that have been made by rich, white Southerners against black men that they view as a threat, but I wouldn’t want to give Hillary any ideas. This is a disgusting, racial attack against Obama being portrayed as an attack on Pennsylvania voters, and I will have none of it.One thing is for sure the Fantastic Four story being told in Fox’s upcoming reboot appears to be vastly different than the previous movies. In an interview with Collider, Toby Kebbell revealed that Doctor Doom has a different origin in the Fantastic Four reboot, and his last name isn’t even Doom.
In what Kebbell describes as a mild change, he said, “He’s Victor Domashev, not Victor Von Doom in our story. And I’m sure I’ll be sent to jail for telling you that. The Doom in ours—I’m a programmer. Very anti-social programmer. And on blogging sites I’m “Doom”.
In regards to how Victor Domashev fits into the overall picture, Kebbell explained, “Yeah, it was cool man. Josh, the whole deal, the lo-fi way he did it, the ultra-real. It was just nice to do that. It was nice to be feeling like we had to come to terms with what was given by this incident.”
Fantastic Four is scheduled to open in movie theaters on August 7, 2015.Manny Pacquiao and longtime promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank are discussing a five-fight contract extension that would take the Filipino superstar through 2016, which would coincide with Pacquiao's wish to fight for two more years.
"Yes, we are talking about the extension," Arum told ESPN.com. "We are working it out. We are talking about a lot of things. How many fights would be in Macau, how many would be in the United States, how many in other places. But we are talking about five fights."
Arum said if the deal is completed, it would likely mean a fight this fall followed by two fights each in 2015 and 2016.
Pacquiao's existing promotional agreement with Top Rank runs out at the end of this year, but he has stated time and again that he is loyal to Arum and hopes to finish his career with him, perhaps even to the detriment of making the biggest fight in boxing, a match with pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr., who has steadfastly refused to do business with Arum, his former promoter.
Arum has promoted Pacquiao since 2005, just before he began his historic run up the scale that saw him win world titles in five of the record eight weight classes he has claimed belts in.
"I have had conversations with Bob about an extension, but nothing has been finalized," Michael Koncz, Pacquiao's adviser, told ESPN.com. "Do we fight again this year or take some time off and fight next year? There are a lot of things to work on, but the new agreement we are discussing would entail five fights. That's our intention, barring injury."
Koncz said that although Pacquiao and Arum have enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship, they are still exploring other options. He said they are permitted to do so before the end of the agreement because technically Top Rank co-promotes Pacquiao with Pacquiao's own company, MP Promotions.
"Bob has been good to us over the years and we have been good to him. We may sign with him or we may not," Koncz said. "We have other offers on the table and we will look at all our options and decide what's best for Manny, but I don't want to discuss the particulars because I don't want to offend other people."
Koncz did say that he was not having discussions with Top Rank rival Golden Boy Promotions, which was once embroiled in litigation with Top Rank over Pacquiao's contract after he signed with both companies simultaneously, a situation that became one of the central reasons for the bad blood between them.
Koncz said he is going to the Philippines this week for a fight card MP Promotions is putting on and plans to talk business with Pacquiao while he is there, as well as to congratulate him on the birth of his son on Sunday. Jinkee Pacquiao gave birth to the couple's fifth child, a boy they named Israel.
Koncz said whether Pacquiao, 35, re-signs with Top Rank or not, a fight with Mayweather "isn't the driving force."
"I don't believe Floyd not fighting us has to do with Bob," Koncz said. "Why did he wait until he exhausted all other excuses before saying he wouldn't fight Manny if Bob was involved? First he brought up the drug testing [during the initial 2009 failed negotiations]. Then he wanted Manny to sign with him. Then he wanted to pay Manny only a flat fee of $40 million for the fight instead of sharing a percentage [of the revenue], and now he can't fight Manny because Bob would be involved?
"Why did he wait so long to bring that up? If that's true, why not use that excuse a few years ago?"
Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs) regained his welterweight title on April 12 with a clear unanimous decision against Timothy Bradley Jr. in the rematch of Bradley's extraordinarily controversial split-decision win in 2012. After the victory, Pacquiao said he wanted to fight for two more years.
If Pacquiao fights again in the fall, the possible opponent is the winner of the May 17 title elimination fight between Juan Manuel Marquez and Mike Alvarado. Pacquiao is 2-1-1 in four classic fights with Marquez, most recently Marquez's one-punch sixth-round knockout victory in December 2012.
But Koncz also said that Pacquiao, a small welterweight who began his fighting career at 106 pounds in 1995, is considering a move down to the 140-pound junior welterweight division in an effort to increase the field of opponents.
"We may move to 140 pounds. We have a lot of options and have to be careful with our final decision," Koncz said. "This is Manny's career and it's winding down. That's another option we have, of going to 140 to find other opponents."
Koncz said that whomever Pacquiao signs with, Pacquiao likes the idea of fighting in different places.
"We love fighting in America and we wouldn't mind going back to Cowboys Stadium [where Pacquiao fought twice in 2010]," he said. "But we're also looking at different venues and countries. Macau was beneficial to everyone involved. In Macau we didn't have such a heavy dependence on the American pay-per-view money. We'd love to fight in Macau again, whether we re-sign with Bob or not."First-year Illini men’s basketball coach John Groce landed his most heralded recruit to date with the commitment of Chicago Simeon shooting guard Kendrick Nunn.
The 6-foot-1 Nunn ranks 56th on ESPN.com’s top 100 rankings. The left-handed Nunn is said to possess a smooth shooting stroke from beyond the arc and impressive body control when going to the hole. At 175 pounds, Nunn will need to add a bit more meat to his frame to avoid being physically outmatched. Known as an unselfish player, Nunn works well on the break and consistently works to stretch the defense.
Nunn chose the Illini over Memphis, Ohio State and Marquette. He is the third commit to the 2013 class, joining the #25 shooting guard, 6-foot-5 Malcolm Hill, and the #19 center, 6-foot-10 Maverick Morgan.
Nunn averaged 15 points per game last season while winning his third consecutive state championship. The winning patterns continued when Nunn helped Team USA win gold at the FIBA U17 World Championship this summer.
While much will be made about Nunn’s commitment possibly influencing his superstar teammate, top-ranked recruit Jabari Parker, do not drink the Kool Aid. Parker’s list has not included the Illini since he came out with his top ten, and he appears ready to cut his list down to five.
The addition of Nunn is a major accomplishment, and for a team in transition like the Illni, it should be enough to add some serious anticipation for years to come.
The Big Guy
AdvertisementsSara Simonsdotter, called Tjocka Sara (Fat Sara) (floruit 1619), was a Swedish brothel owner and procurer in 17th-century Stockholm. Her brothel had clientele among the royal court and became the centre of a scandal when it was revealed in 1618.
On 4 November 1618, a married woman, Margareta Henriksdotter, was arrested in Stockholm for prostitution. Among her clients were people in high positions, such as Adam Richard de la Chapelle, a captain in the royal guard. Her arrest led to the discovery of a brothel at the ill-reputed street Kindstugatan, as well as the arrest of Simonsdotter and her employees. The brothel, which also functioned as a place to sell stolen goods, was managed by Sara Simonsdotter, while the town executioner, Master Håkan, acted as a pimp. Her prostitutes worked at the brothel but also visited clients in their homes and at other locations. Among her employees were several women who were not career prostitutes but rather married women who earned money without the knowledge of their spouses. The mistress of John, Duke of Östergötland was also seen there, though it was unknown in what capacity. The clients were often deprived of their clothing to prevent them from leaving before payment. Among the clients of her brothel were the Dutch ambassador and a courtier. While in prison, several of the women escaped in a prison break with a group of male prisoners, assisted by three soldiers, who helped them dig a tunnel under the wall.
Several of the former prostitutes seem to have been banished from town, a sentence carried out by Master Håkan, who does not seem to have been punished for his part in the affair. The clients were all fined, with a higher fine for the married clients than for the unmarried. Sara Simsondotter herself was sentenced to time in the pillory and to be flogged, a sentence which was carried out on 19 May 1619. She was afterward deported to her home parish Kimito in Finland, with the warning that she was to be executed if she ever returned.
References [ edit ]For the first time, Blue Origin successfully fired up its BE-4 rocket engine, a crucial piece of hardware the company has been working on for the last six years. Blue Origin tweeted out a video today of the test, known as a “hot fire,” which was conducted at the company’s test facility in Texas. It’s a major stepping stone in the development of the engine, which is slated to play a key role in Blue Origin’s economic future.
The BE-4 is slated to play a key role in Blue Origin’s future
Without the BE-4, Blue Origin’s future rocket wouldn’t fly. Currently, the company is developing a new reusable orbital rocket, called New Glenn, which is meant to be powered by seven main BE-4 engines at its base. Together, the engines will create a total of 3.85 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, allowing New Glenn to loft 100,000 pounds of cargo to lower Earth Orbit. Blue Origin hopes to fly New Glenn for the first time before the end of the decade, and having working engines is critical for achieving that goal.
First hotfire of our BE-4 engine is a success #GradatimFerociter pic.twitter.com/xuotdzfDjF — Blue Origin (@blueorigin) October 19, 2017
But Blue Origin wants the BE-4 to do more than just power New Glenn. The company is hoping to offer the engine to another company, the United Launch Alliance, which is a creating a new rocket of its own called Vulcan. For the last decade, ULA has been relying on Russian-made rocket engines to power its main rocket, the Atlas V. But that has put the company into some political hot water following the Ukraine crisis, since ULA is a primary launch provider for US national security satellites. To solve this problem, ULA decided to create an entirely new rocket that relies on American-made engines instead, and Blue Origin’s BE-4 served as an attractive replacement. In 2014 both companies agreed to jointly fund the development of the BE-4, so that it could power the Vulcan someday.
Blue Origin wants the BE-4 to do more than just power New Glenn
However, the BE-4’s use in Vulcan hasn’t been a done deal. Blue Origin is a fairly new company, founded in 2000, and it has much less experience with making rocket engines than other seasoned manufacturers. While ULA has always maintained a strong partnership with Blue Origin, the launch provider has also been maintaining a partnership with manufacturer Aerojet Rocketdyne. The company, which made the Space Shuttle’s main engines, has been developing another engine called the AR-1, which could be used to power the Vulcan too. And Aerojet has been very vocal about its desire for the AR-1 to fly on the vehicle.
ULA has made it clear, though: the first choice for the Vulcan is the BE-4. But there’s been a lot of political pressure on ULA to choose the more experienced Aerojet. Plus, ULA wants to have the Vulcan ready for flight in 2019, so that it can continue launching satellites for the US military without any gaps in access to space. Both Blue Origin and Aerojet Rocketdyne say their engines will be ready by then, but ULA has been keeping Aerojet around as a bit of a backup just in case the BE-4’s development doesn’t work out.
And Blue Origin has experienced a few hiccups along the way. In May, the company said it had lost some key hardware of the engine in a testing accident. The company has seemingly recovered from the incident, and Blue Origin seems to be farther along in the BE-4’s development than Aerojet Rocketdyne is with the AR-1. Plus, Blue Origin’s potential customer seems to be very pleased.Every other case involving people arrested for filming cops has been thrown out of court, but media promulgates hoax that recording police is illegal
Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones
Infowars.com
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
41-year old Illinois mechanic Michael Allison faces life in jail for recording police officers after authorities hit him with eavesdropping charges based on the hoax that it is illegal to film cops, a misnomer that has been disproved by every other case against people filming police officers being thrown out of court.
The state of Illinois is trying to charge Allison with five counts of wiretapping, each punishable by four to 15 years in prison.
Allison refused a plea deal which would have seen him serve no jail time but would reinforce the hoax that it is illegal to film police officers, as well as acting as a chilling effect to prevent other Americans from filming cases of police brutality.
Allison has chosen to reject the plea bargain and fight to clear his name via a jury trial, arguing, “If we don’t fight for our freedoms here at home we’re all going to lose them.”
A judge is expected to rule on when the case will go to trial over the next two weeks.
As another report concerning the Allison case documents, in every other example where people have been arrested for recording police officers, the charges have been dropped and the case thrown out of court. Despite this fact, the state is so desperate to make an example out of Allison that an assistant from the Attorney General’s Office was recently sent to speak against him during a hearing.
The notion that it is illegal to film police officers is a mass hoax that is being promulgated by authorities, the media, and police officers themselves.
In the latest example, charges were dismissed against a woman who filmed cops in her own back yard in Rochester, New York.
In Illinois itself, eavesdropping charges against Tiawanda Moore for recording patrol officers were dropped, after a “Criminal Court jury quickly repudiated the prosecution’s case, taking less than an hour to acquit Moore on both eavesdropping counts.”
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
{openx:74}
Despite the fact that recording police officers (public servants) is perfectly legal, Americans are still being arrested for doing so, and the establishment media is enthusiastically perpetuating the hoax that such conduct is unlawful, even though in doing so they are completely eroding protections that guarantee press freedom.
There is no expectation of privacy in public, the police are fully aware of this, which is why they have dash cams on their cars to record incidents, wear microphones and utilize other recording equipment as part of their job.
Cases like Allison’s have been thrown out all over the country and yet police continue to arrest people for filming them as a form of intimidation.
The fact that the state is knowingly ignoring its own laws in order to engage in acts of official repression highlights the rampant criminality that has infested every level of American government. This behavior is reflective of a predatory system that seeks to criminalize all first amendment activities.
It also highlights how petrified the system is about the public being able to document and record acts of police brutality.
Prosecutors in Allison’s case are deliberately attempting jail an innocent man for life for an activity that they know full well is not illegal. If anything, they should be the ones being charged with illegal conduct and official oppression.
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show.Jonathan Sexton remains on course to be available for Ireland’s second game of the Six Nations at home to France on February 14th.
Sources in Racing Metro confirm the Irish outhalf is making good progress after being advised to rest from playing for 12 weeks after sustaining four concussions in the last year. He should receive the all-clear for a return to full contact work from a Parisian neurologist, Dr Jean-François Cherman, the week before the French game.
Sexton is now more than halfway through his 12-week recovery timeframe, dating back to Ireland’s win over Australia near the end of November when he was forced from the field after a clash of heads with Rob Kearney.
The 29-year-old is reportedly making good progress in his recovery and is training fully apart from contact work with Racing, be it skills sessions with the rest of the squad, or kicking practice and weights sessions.
Sexton had only suffered one bout of concussion in his entire career prior to being forced off toward the end of Ireland’s title-winning Six Nations victory over France in Paris last March following a collision with Mathieu Bastareaud. However, he also had to be replaced in Ireland’s opening Guinness Series win over South Africa in the 79th minute and again a fortnight later in the 79th minute after that clash with Kearney.
The player had suffered headaches and dizzy spells following his return to training in the third week following the Australian game, on foot of which he underwent tests with Cherman, who advised him not to play for 12 weeks. One of the flip sides of his enforced absence from matches was that it afforded Sexton the opportunity to go home for Christmas with his wife, Laura, and boy, Luca.
Subsequent tests have shown a marked improvement, and all going well Dr Cherman is expected to ratify Sexton’s return to play when assessing him in the first week of the Six Nations. Ireland will have to begin the defence of their title against Italy in Rome without him.
Torn quadricep
He played his first game for Leinster under Schmidt in the Heineken Cup which, in a further irony, was a 38-22 win at home to Racing Metro.
Similarly, Sexton made his seasonal reappearance in a test match at the start of the 2011-12 campaign away to Scotland in an August World Cup warm-up match, as did all others that season, and as will be the case next August in the build-up to the 2015 World Cup.
Schmidt will have to choose between Ian Madigan, Paddy Jackson and Ian Keatley to face Italy. But it would be surprising if Sexton wasn’t involved a week later against the French presuming he is given the all-clear to return.
Projected comeback
However his projected comeback is managed, if as is now anticipated, Sexton is given the all-clear to return in the second week of the Six Nations, he will be straining at the leash after 12 weeks on the sidelines.Low: Prosthetic Ears Cost Less Than $10 Each Medium: Body Modifiers Charge $600-$1,000 Per Ear High: Surgeons Charge $2,500-$7,000
Ear pointing -- also called elf ears or Spock ears from the famous Star Trek character -- is a cosmetic surgery that is done for a variety of reasons. People who choose the surgery are typically correcting a birth defect, or they are reforming the ears for cosmetic reasons. The practice has become a trendy form of body modification. It is either performed by licensed body modifiers or by plastic surgeons. Typical costs:
On average, the elf ear procedure costs $2,500-$7,500 to be performed by a plastic surgeon. The California Center for Plastic Surgery [1] performs ear pointing surgery. During an initial consultation ($250 ), Dr. S Sean Younai evaluates the patient's ears and assesses the needs and cost of the procedure. Typically, the California Center for Plastic Surgery charges $6,000-$7,500 for elf ear surgery.
to be performed by a plastic surgeon. The California Center for Plastic Surgery performs ear pointing surgery. During an initial consultation ), Dr. S Sean Younai evaluates the patient's ears and assesses the needs and cost of the procedure. Typically, the California Center for Plastic Surgery charges for elf ear surgery. Research by the American Association for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery found the national average fee [2] surgeons charge for otoplasty (ear surgery) is $2,987. The site notes that this does not include fees for anesthesia, medical tests, the surgical facility or prescriptions.)
surgeons charge for otoplasty (ear surgery) is. The site notes that this does not include fees for anesthesia, medical tests, the surgical facility or prescriptions.) Body modification experts typically charge less than plastic surgeons to perform ear pointing surgeries. Typically, body modifiers who perform ear pointing surgery typically charge $600-$1,000 per ear. It is important to remember that not all body modifiers have the same surgical training as plastic surgeons. Body modifiers are not legally allowed to use anesthesia. Related articles: Otoplasty, Body Piercings, Tattoo
What should be included:
Prior to the procedure, the surgeon or body modifier should offer an initial consultation that includes evaluating and assessing the needs of the patient. The surgeon should discuss the surgery and options to the patient as well as provide a total fee for the procedure.
The total cost for the procedure should cover the surgery itself as well as any after-care or follow-ups. Additional costs:
Initial consultations are not always included in the total price of the procedure. Some consultations are offered free, other can cost from $250-$500.
. There could be additional fees for anesthesia or an anesthesiologist to be present during the procedure. In addition, medications might be prescribed post-procedure that may or may not be covered by insurance.
If the procedure is performed in a hospital setting rather than the practitioner's office, there could be additional hospital fees. Discounts:
If the surgery is to correct a birth defect or a deformity, there is a possibility that the procedure and its associated costs will be covered either in full or in part by health insurance.
Instead of choosing the complete ear pointing surgery -- which is irreversible -- patients can look into prosthetic attachments that can be considerably less expensive. Most prosthetic pointy ears cost less than $10 each. Shopping for ear pointing surgery:
Ear pointing surgery is done by both body modification experts and plastic surgeons. Body modifiers typically have experience doing specific procedures, while surgeons have surgical training and experience. Anesthesia cannot be legally used by body modification experts.
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons offers a searchable registry [3] of certified professionals.
of certified professionals. The American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons has a similar searchable directory[4].
Material on this page is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice. Always consult your physician or pharmacist regarding medications or medical procedures.
What People Are Paying - Recent Comments
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External Resources:Far from ordinary, a tiger ’s whiskers are more useful and mysterious than one might expect. Nerves at the base of the whiskers help tigers detect distances and changes in their surroundings. When
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to five years for stealing $71 worth of Good Humor Bars. A police source suggested as much to The New York Daily News: “He took the video. Now we took the video.”
A system with too many laws, too many jails, unaccountable police and unaccountable prosecutors provides infinite opportunities for repressing dissidents in ways that make proving Constitutional violations extremely difficult. The drug sting on Orta’s family is particularly problematic, since four others got caught in the same operation. Perhaps this is why the NYCLU has yet to wave Magic Paper on Orta’s behalf, though to be fair, the organization did tweet a link to the Pussy Riot music video about Garner’s death, “I Can’t Breathe.”
Putting the Libertarian in civil libertarian
Clearly there’s quite a lot to consider when assessing the utility to human liberation of haggling in court over fascist and corporate speech rights. But consistent with the minimizing dishonesty of Magic Paper Theory, today’s First Amendment absolutists reduce all objections to attempts at imposing one’s own values on everyone else. “There’s no right to not be offended” they say again and again. But few contests about speech are simply about being offended. They’re about weighing other interests and rights against the right of a person or group to express themselves.
I shouldn’t have to point out that there are many content-based state limits on speech that most absolutists don’t object to. You can’t deliberately provoke a fight. You can’t defame someone. You can’t put explicit sexual material in a store window. You can’t produce or read child pornography. You can’t make overtly sexual remarks to non-consenting coworkers. You can’t make bomb threats. You can’t make death threats. And so on. If empowering the state to regulate speech puts us on a slippery slope, we’ve been on it for over 200 years.
Underlying these acceptable prohibitions is recognition that certain speech in certain contexts is so socially potent that it requires communitarian consideration. Since most absolutists are fine with this, their insistence that the state protect, say, “God Hates Fags” pickets at LGBTQ funerals is less about principle than value judgements about the social potency of anti-LGBTQ speech at a funeral. It is therefore no less an imposition of personal preference than claiming that anti-LGBTQ harassment at a funeral is exceptionally potent and therefore worthy of communitarian consideration. But only the absolutist preference promotes reactionary politics and obliges funeral attendees to suffer abuse.
With truly painstaking simple-mindedness, absolutists render all contested expression equal. If all expression is equal, all “offense” taken is equal too, which means it’s all equally irrelevant, since only the speaker’s interests matter. There is no burden to consider power disparities between speaker and spoken to. The only history that matters is Supreme Court precedent. Hence, for their purposes CPUSA = KKK = NAACP = NAMBLA, a formulation that, in combination with Magic Paper Theory, puts no alliance beyond the pale, and renders no ideology or conduct too cruel or toxic to trivialize.
The answer to bad speech, they say, is more speech. That sounds nice, but let’s say I’m a Muslim and Bill Maher’s routine slanders against me and my loved ones, not only offend, but frighten me. What if I think, with some basis, that he’s fostering prejudice, empowering other Islamophobes, and making an already precarious political and social situation for me and mine worse? Without my own widely watched HBO show, how do I reach an equally large audience to undo the damage? The answer is, I can’t, a fact that seemingly never occurs to free speech absolutists when they’re thoughtlessly reciting their bad speech/more speech bromide while performing their awesomely more principled understanding of liberty.
Pop quiz: This elision of power disparities, this elevation of even the most toxic individual interests over the community, this singular focus on state power, and this positing of a magic greater good that people unwittingly conjure through pursuit of their own narrow interest — where else have we seen this?
If you answered Free Market Libertarianism, give yourself a cookie. Note how the Redskins case, which is more about property rights than free speech, revealingly merges these two great religions.
Second question: why do people who reject Free Market Libertarianism precisely because of its elision of power disparities and its magical thinking about “The Market”, uncritically embrace a First Amendment absolutism that argues for itself the exact same way?
That’s a harder one to answer, but one possibility is people can see for themselves what deregulated economic activity looks like. The relationship of First Amendment common law to repression is harder to get the measure of, so Magic Paper Theory touted by admired figures gets accepted on faith. Its wonderfully thought-stopping ahistorical simplicity, along with its appeal to vanity facilitate adoption.
There’s a slippery slope in all of this, but it’s not the one the Magic Paper club is always going on about. It’s from Skokie to Citizen’s United by way of springing Oliver North to God knows what else. Whatever’s going on, it’s either bleeding into other concerns or simply emblematic of a larger phenomenon. First Amendment absolutism’s rank individualism, ahistoricism, and willingness to ally with anyone, is becoming standard across the so-called left, as it fixates on internet privacy, government transparency and freedom of the press, making common cause with billionaires, corporations, nazi trolls, and defense contractors while severing historical ties to communitarian ideals, labor, genuine anti-racism (as opposed to this ACLU-sponsored bullshit), anti-capitalism, and anti-imperialism.
Free Ramsey Orta
There was a time, such as when a bunch of anti-war reds started the ACLU, that the Bill of Rights was seen as an instrument that might occasionally be useful to the defense of worthy causes like pacifism, labor organizing, and anti-racism. The enemies of those worthy causes, like capitalists, militarists and white supremacists, having a considerable advantage to start with, fended for themselves without the assistance of people they vocally despised, exploited, and persecuted.
Somewhere along the line, the idea that everyone has the same rights, morphed into an obligation to defend anyone’s rights, despite any evidence that helping avowed enemies is less self-destructive than it appears on the surface. That we are now at a point where the Redskins trademark and lynchy frat boys garner more avid civil libertarian support than Ramsey Orta, makes the folly of this exceptionally plain in a uniquely disgusting way. But this is the predictable result of chickens making tactical alliances with wolves.
Recognizing this is not tantamount to uncritical support for things like hate speech laws. It’s simply rejection of reactionary politics and whitewashed repression flying under cover of free speech fairy tales. It’s to insist that, regardless of where we are on the free speech spectrum, we’re no more obliged to actively defend racists and corporations than we are to provide a shuttle to a cross-burning.
Any friend, even an anguished friend, of a nazi, or any other flavor of white supremacist is no friend of mine. In fact, they’re an enemy. This goes triple if they also insist corporations are people. White supremacy and corporations don’t need our help, and anyone who says by helping them you help yourself is a liar or a fool. Whatever its proponents intend, First Amendment absolutism is, in practice, an extremely clever ruse that very obviously serves power. It’s long past time to call bullshit.Also, free Ramsey Orta.
h/t to Honeytrap commenters planting seeds: zoodoo for this and lorenzo for this.
UPDATE 4
Guess who got representation from an expensive Texas PR firm.
Flanked by black community leaders, one of the former University of Oklahoma SAE fraternity brothers captured on video singing a racist chant apologized Wednesday to those he had hurt and said he would pledge his life to fighting racism.
“What you all saw in that video was not who I am, was not who I was raised to be and not what I think of myself to be.”
“Black community leaders” LOL. This is what hegemony looks like.
Story and video here.
UPDATE 3
Here’s what you get when the shining lights of our discourse like Greenwald and Radley Balko equate racist reactionaries with dissidents. “Adults” who bastardize Niemöller to defend white supremacists. Where do you start with someone who is this politically confused?:
UPDATE 2
I’ve edited the first paragraph to include the news item in Update 1.
UPDATE
Look kids, another battle for white supremacism. That makes four this month and there’s four days to go! Of course Club Snowwald is all about protecting the speech they hate. Do they ever defend anything else?
Related
ACLU Triptych
Meet Your Civil Liberties Defender: The ACLU’s @csoghoian
Can We Have A Smarter Conversation About Free Speech?
Greenwald’s Free Speech Absolutism and Twitter’s Foley Ban
A Radical Look at Free Speech
Authoritarian Asshole Erik Loomis’s Free Speech Problems
Free Kathryn Bigelow
AdvertisementsThe South Bend Tribune reports,
Atheist and author Christopher Hitchens and Catholic conservative Dinesh D’Souza will present a public debate on the topic “Is Religion the Problem?” on April 7 at the University of Notre Dame.
The debate will be at 7:30 p.m. in Leighton Concert Hall in the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.
Named one of “America’s most influential conservative thinkers” by the New York Times, D’Souza has been outspoken in his defense of religion in his writing and speaking appearances.
A native of India and a graduate of Dartmouth College, D’Souza served as a policy analyst in the Reagan administration. He is the author of the best-selling book “What’s So Great About Christianity?” He is also the author of a 2007 book, “The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and its Responsibility for 9/11.”
Hitchens is an author, journalist and public speaker. Considered a leader in the “New Atheist” movement, he is the author of the 2007 book “God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.” He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, The Nation and other media outlets. Born and raised in England, he now holds dual British-U.S. citizenship. (more)By Marisa Fusinski, WWJ Webmaster
ANN ARBOR (CBS Detroit) – “I was a little melancholy to give up my position as a private citizen but such is the obligation of a democracy, yo.”
That’s the word from a 20-pound carp who is running what has been described as a “fishy campaign” for city council in Ann Arbor.
Man. Just a reminder when you're like voter 28 at 7pm on November 5: it's spelled T-W-E-N-T-Y P-O-U-N-D C-A-R-P. — Twenty Pound Carp (@TwentyPoundCarp) October 24, 2013
The weighty fish, who launched an unofficial write-in campaign via Twitter (@TwentyPoundCarp), touts itself as a “grass roots Ann Arbor local politician” and a “bottom feeder.”
Why would a carp seek political office?
“Nobody should be consigned to the sad fate of facing election unopposed,” Twenty Pound Carp said, in an email to CBS Detroit. “Where is the sport in that?”
Since the tweets began appearing. so have some legit-looking campaign materials around town.
Even now political operative are fanning out across the 4th Ward and planting signs–signs of political change, yo. pic.twitter.com/qaC3Gxlnbw — Twenty Pound Carp (@TwentyPoundCarp) October 28, 2013
As of Monday afternoon, the cold-blooded, aquatic vertebrate had amassed 278 followers — which it’s fair to say is a respectable number for a fish.
Twenty Pound Carp has been concentrating its efforts on the 4th Ward, where only Democrat Jack Eaton will appear on the ballot. Eaton, in an interview with The Ann Arbor News, said he welcomes the competition from the 20-pound carp in Tuesday’s election.
“I’m amused,” said Eaton, who, in the August Primary, unseated 14-year incumbent Marcia Higgins. “I have a sense of humor and I think it’s funny. I consider a 20-pound carp to be a substantial opponent and I wish him the best.”
As far as a platform, Twenty Pound Carp tweets that it wants to launch “high-rise developer reeducation camps,” and “bring back the tanneries.”
The carp, it seems, dreams of a simpler time, hoping, “To drag us back into Ann Arbor’s Golden Age, sometime shortly after the election of Van Buren and prior to the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, before we had slid into our present postlapsarian state.”
Also among its priorities, the carp has promised to give residents more talking time at the table.
@ryanjstanton first is public accessibility. I will allow continuous public commentary, even during deliberations and after council adjourns — Twenty Pound Carp (@TwentyPoundCarp) October 30, 2013
Twenty Pound Carp also has a stance on immigration.
I believe in open borders and free movement of all species (excepting maybe a few mute swans who shall go nameless, yo). — Twenty Pound Carp (@TwentyPoundCarp) December 19, 2012
According to MLive, workers from the city’s Natural Areas Preservation program removed a 20-pound carp from the small pond in West Park last year because it was destroying the ecosystem.
How does Twenty Pound Carp feel about its chances?
“I will sleep tonight with the placid brow of a fish who has done his best,” the carp said. “I suspect I will dream pleasant dreams of sustainable, pedestrian-friendly commercial and residential development.”
It should be noted that Twenty Pound Carp has not filed paperwork with the clerk’s office.I have to say Alec Ash and Tom Pellman’s recent collection of expat writings on China, While We’re Here (Earnshaw Books, 2015), has a catchy cover. It shows a street in what appears to be the popular Nanluoguxiang neighborhood of Beijing, a favored spot for the bohemian set along with hordes of tourists. A foreigner with a clown’s face looks a bit out of place as he stands in the street holding a bunch of balloons. The clown image conveys the irony that we foreigners cannot but avoid being buffoons in China no matter how cool and hip we think we are. We might as well accept our hapless role as objects of amusement and have a laugh at our own expense. But then I considered it from another angle. Is this merely the proverbial sad clown’s self-mockery? Or is there an implicit taunt or tease lurking in that face? Is the clown’s gaze an appeal, or a challenge? The title too carries a double meaning. Is it: we’ll be out of your way soon, but while we’re here please don’t be too hard on us; you will miss us bumbling foreigners. Or is it: we’ll be out of your way soon, but while we’re here we plan to cause some trouble. Treat us like clowns at your peril.
Now, after finishing the book, I am clearer on what the consensus is. Foreigners have no business causing trouble in China (and increasingly it seems, no business in China at all, what with the latest government campaign warning local girls against dating foreign imposter boyfriends who are likely spies). More specifically, there are numerous constraints in place for us expat writers. We have no business writing about the country except in the most favorable of terms. This is not just due to predictable norms and expectations — the decency and respect due to the host country — nor to domestic censorship laws determining what may or may not be put into print. There is a great deal of self-censorship operating on our side as well, arising from what we Westerners believe is now acceptable to be written about on anything, China or otherwise.
To sort out the different kinds of censorship that have come into play, let’s begin at the source and note some of the convictions foreigners bring with them before they even set foot in China. First, you may not write about another country that is or was oppressed by Western imperialism (which includes China), except to make amends for the historical outrage. Second, you may not write about sexual affairs between Western white males and females from any such country, since to do so perpetuates in different guise the rape of the colonized. This of course rules out writing by white male expats in China on relations undertaken with local women. And I don’t refer merely to such affairs these writers may personally have engaged in; they may also not write about other Western males’ encounters with local women, even purely fictionalized characters.
The reason for this has to do with the symbolic force — and consequent damage — that proceeds from ideas alone. You see, all heterosexual white males in China who have romantic or sexual designs on Chinese women (or even just fantasies) are without exception predators. Their sole purpose is to take advantage of these women’s helplessness, whether to traffic in them as one-shot sex patrons or marry them to keep them as permanent sex slaves. It is not merely that the women are traumatized by such oppression. The idea that this is happening now — that there are literally hundreds of thousands of Western predators on the loose in China — is traumatizing. In fact, just seeing the word “predator” (or synonyms) is traumatizing, in triggering memories of one’s own inevitable abuse at the hands of white males (who hardly spare Western women from the same when they can get away with it). Thus for an expat author merely to write about predators in China risks traumatizing his English readership, whether or not any actual oppression against real Chinese women has taken place.
It’s possible to wiggle out of these constraints a bit. You are allowed more leeway to write about predators if you are a female author, since being among the oppressed grants you the voice to claim your dignity back and empower both yourself and others through example. You are allowed more leeway if you are of Asian or Chinese ethnicity, for the same reason. You may write about gay or transgender relationships, again for the same reason. Ideally, you are of Chinese ethnicity, female, and gay or transgender all at once. Be advised, however, that you should keep your subject matter confined to the same sphere of relations while in China, and not write with such misguided exuberance that you attract the attention of the authorities. Unorthodox sexuality is still a sensitive issue here, as it’s capable of corrupting Chinese youth — and insulting Chinese women by suggesting that they have options beyond marrying a nice Chinese boy before they’re 30.
When we shift our attention to consider these issues from the Chinese perspective, it’s with great relief. We see that, contrary to expectations, it’s actually very difficult to traumatize Chinese people, females included. This is because the entire country went through the massive, nationwide traumatization known as the Cultural Revolution. The older generation that suffered through this got all the traumatizing it’s possible to experience out of their collective system at one go, so to speak, inoculating their children against further trauma. But if the current younger generation of Chinese are largely trauma-proof, it’s paradoxically very easy to hurt their feelings.
There are several ways to hurt the Chinese people’s feelings. 1) Suggest that Tibet, Xinjiang, Taiwan, and the entire South China Sea are not now nor have always been an inalienable part of the Chinese motherland. 2) Suggest that 5,000 years of Chinese history and civilization have not been anything less than glorious or that any other country could presume to share such a long history; put succinctly, China’s is the only civilization with a long history. (The Chinese Government particularly wishes to emphasize these first two points.) 3) Suggest that Chinese cuisine is not unquestionably the world’s best. Indeed, all the world’s cuisines combined can’t approach Chinese cuisine, which is the only “cuisine” proper. What the rest of the world eats is snack food.
There are other things it’s best to steer clear of when writing about China, not just because you might hurt people’s feelings, but you immediately betray yourself as uncivilized. We may believe it’s acceptable (indeed obligatory) to write about progressive, i.e. non-predatory, non-heteronormative sexualities. In China, it’s not acceptable to write about any form of sexuality. Try submitting, for example, a customer book review — a mere book review, not a book — on Douban, the Goodreads-style readers’ forum, that contains the Chinese word for “make love” (做爱). It will be rejected, and they won’t tell you why (since it’s indecorous). You can generally get around this restriction when writing about sex in China by simply dropping the “make” from “make love” (e.g. “They loved each other late into the night”).
If censorship restrictions on books (literature, novels) published on the mainland are less stringent than online periodicals and websites, it’s because few people read books anymore, and they are therefore less of a threat. The same applies to English books published in China. Magazine culture, by contrast, is highly policed — self-policed. Let’s take the English expat magazines in Beijing for example. There are four of them: City Weekend, That’s Beijing, Time Out Beijing, and The Beijinger. If you’re looking for something controversial here — say, any information about the best VPNs for scaling the Great Firewall, or what really happened with the recent simultaneous closings of the beloved The Den and Tim’s Texas BBQ restaurants in Beijing — you won’t find it. Since nothing politically sensitive or controversial may be put into print in these magazines, the only thing left to write is restaurant reviews. (And the bad reviews are always confined to international restaurants. When Westerners find a Chinese restaurant disappointing, it’s not the food’s fault, it’s our failure to appreciate Chinese food.)
Let’s take a look at the current City Weekend (May 5-18), for example. The first 33 pages are devoted to restaurant listings and reviews. The latter half is taken up with music events, book reviews and classifieds, though pages 59-60 and 66 return to food, as if we haven’t had enough. And to spice things up even more, there’s the regular two-page “party scene” spread found in this and the other expat mags, which functions like a tamer version of the old Page 3 naked tits in UK tabloid rags, to keep the reader’s nose in the issue. In these photo montages of white guys posing and dancing with (relatively) skimpily dressed Chinese girls in various clubs, you might be lucky enough to make out some cleavage with the help of a magnifying glass.
True, not every issue centers around restaurants. The current That’s Beijing (May 2016) has a cover story, “Giving up the Ghost,” about Tianjin’s recently developed Yujiapu district, another one of the country’s many new ghost towns with extravagant architecture but no residents. This is an interesting topic, inviting investigative reportage on the real estate corruption or tycoon showmanship or whatever causes are behind it all. But read the article and you realize that the author’s only concern is shopping — whether Yujiapu’s businesses and shopping centers will become profitable, and therefore whether the magazine’s readers will find it worthwhile to make a trip there for this purpose.
Now, head straight east from Yujiapu over to Dongjiang Port a couple miles away, if you want another tourist site to visit, which you’ll discover no longer exists. It disappeared in the massive chemical explosion last August, resulting in an undisclosed number of fatalities (unless you trust the suspect official figure of 173). The proximity of these two centerpieces in Binhai New Area, the rapidly built-up CBD of Yujiapu and the instantly dismantled port, would seem to provide an occasion for the journalist to note certain ironic parallels, or similar causal factors, but nothing is suggested. (To be fair, another page of this issue has a brief mention of the Binhai explosion, referring to the repairing and reselling of the destroyed cars on the blackmarket — though again it’s advice for shoppers by way of warning.)
To return to Ash and Pellman’s While We’re Here, the most striking feature of the book is how closely it adheres to the slavish self-censorship of the expat mags, even though it’s quite unnecessary. Books, as we’ve noted, operate under looser constraints, since their audience is smaller. The injunction is figurative, not literal. That is, you don’t have to self-censor to the same degree magazine editors do; you just have to keep some of the broader guidelines in mind and write as if a certain sensitivity is called for. You can write about sex or disasters or problems in China; just do so with a certain objectivity and delicacy. After all, writers have an obligation to challenge and provoke readers (without resorting to shock effects for their own sake), or at least they used to. The authors in this collection, however, write as if their intended audience was the Chinese Government’s Propaganda Department.
Admittedly, I’m from an earlier, more liberal generation, and am still trying to wrap my head around the new ethos. They really are stuck between a rock and a hard place: too many people to traumatize on the one hand, too many feelings to hurt on the other. Nevertheless, when nothing is allowed to be said, nothing gets said. This book is a perfect example of form following function. If so many of the pieces start and stop suddenly, in mid-air, with nothing happening, no story arc or conclusions drawn, as if they were journal or diary entries, it’s because they express precisely the silence imposed on them, the taboo of the argument and the insight, the empty verbiage of the stopped-up voice.
Most of the pieces are brief narratives of foreigners’ innocent encounters with locals while in China. They tend to fall into a pattern. By definition there is no conflict among the Chinese, since the Chinese all have a telepathic, harmonious understanding of one another. There is only something for us ignorant foreigners to imbibe from the collective voice of a wiser, older civilization, speaking through each of the characters, who’ve got it all worked out. Their voices accordingly tend to all sound alike and are interchangeable, whether they’re the middle-aged female neighbor, Wang Meijie, of Sascha Matuszak’s “Flower town,” about a Sichuan village undergoing changes after the 2008 earthquake (one of the better-written pieces), the caring landlord’s mother of Sam Duncan’s “Ayi and I,” the perceptive Auntie Han of Magdalena Navarro’s “Short nails, white socks,” the tenacious ping pong player Fang Zheng of Aaron Fox-Lerner’s “Back and forth,” or the retired Mrs. Wang of Ash’s “In the hutong.”
Some of the stories throw expats at each other, and here the earnest tenor gives way to a more layered, ironic and sarcastic tone — usually in the form of bickering. One of the more memorable, or perplexing, instances is Michael Salmon’s “Dumplings,” about a foreigner visiting a somewhat jaded and morose expat friend in Beijing. Over a meal in a dumpling restaurant, they compete with each other to eat the most dumplings, as if imitating Chinese males’ drinking habits. After the host friend eats too much, he bleeds from the nose and runs out of the restaurant. His friend goes in search of him and finds him retching in a public toilet down the street. End of story. Not sure what the moral is. If you want something more incisive, here’s another “Dumplings” story, one that would never have made it into this collection.
The most polished piece of the lot is Ash’s “In the Hutong,” in which he observes the changes over several years to the old Beijing lane where he lives. There are some nice turns of phrase:
The man on the rooftop across from mine signaling with a red flag as his pigeons circled overhead, whistles strapped to their backs whining like a passing UFO. The lady who kept a pet dragonfly tied to a piece of string, to eat the last of the mosquitos. The hawkers’ cries, clanging together knife sharpening rods or plaintively minstreling for second-hand furniture.
Here the model appears to be the long middle section of Peter Hessler’s Country Driving, an exquisitely detailed and thoroughly boring account of the changes to the village outside of Beijing where he set himself up for a spell to get some writing done. Granted, Hessler writes for the New Yorker, and the constraints its bourgeois audience imposes on him are particularly severe, but there is always a reliable consistency to his writing.
Actually, if Ash had buckled down and written the entire book himself, I would have rather enjoyed it. The problem with collections is they are almost invariably uneven. Another book similar to Ash and Pellman’s that came out not long ago and with which it will be compared is Tom Carter’s Unsavory Elements: Stories of Foreigners on the Loose in China (Earnshaw Books, 2013). The overall quality of the contributions in the latter is higher, yet it suffers from many of the same pitfalls. With the exception of Carter’s own piece on a visit to a brothel street in Beijing (which landed him in a lot of hot water from the expat PC crowd), the book fails most notably to deliver on its promise of being “unsavory”; the stories are politically correct with a vengeance, and relentlessly harmless.
In case you’re wondering what Tom Olden’s Shanghai Cocktales: A Memoir (Amazon Digital Services, 2014), a book Alec Ash called “a shitty 2am pun,” is doing in a review next to Ash’s own book, they actually have something in common. It’s as if Olden took a story like the “Dumplings” in Ash’s collection discussed above and expanded it into a book (or attempted to; we’re not talking great plotting skills here). The entire narrative of Shanghai Cocktales lurches and meanders without direction or purpose, with the usual bickering among expats and little interaction with the Chinese. It’s again the literature of paralysis: a lot of nothing getting said. In fact I wonder if much of the verbiage forming the book’s content was copied and pasted from email conversations. The difference, of course, is that Olden seems unaware of committing one breach in particular, the taboo against white male predatory sex.
Yet a curious, and highly ironic, feature of the book is that it doesn’t deliver on this breach: there is very little cock, or pussy, in Shanghai Cocktales. Olden, it turns out, is something of the prude. I had read Ash’s review beforehand, which piqued my interest. I mean, I have no problem with sex-saturated narratives, if it’s done with a certain style and panache. Ash had led me to expect a kind of Hustler Magazine take on the testosterone scene in China, what slant-eyed chicks are like on their home territory. That’s precisely why I bought the book, indeed the only reason I bought it. But I got gypped, big time. The title should have been simply Shanghai Cocktails, without the pun, a more accurate indication of the book’s content. And the misleading cover should have shown a cocktail glass at the top instead of an Oriental gal’s pair of eyes.
It does indeed feature much drinking, mostly Red Bulls alternating with vodka and apple juice, and Coke for breakfast. Most of the book is devoted to getting hammered with the dudes instead of getting laid, when not bogged down in endless trivial details about the jobs Olden finds and loses in the online marketing business. At one point he gets upset when one of his dudes shows up for a night of drinking with a woman: “Claire? Whaddefuck? You brought your girlfriend along? Tonight? When we’re supposed to have a blast? But setting aside the belligerent thoughts, I composed myself and returned her magical smile.” The male bonding is so close, so emotional, and female company so frequently avoided, that I suspect the author might be gay but just hasn’t realized it. On the rare occasions Olden manages to bring a woman home with him, he’s so wasted he’s not aware of it. Here’s a typical description of a bedroom scene the following morning. I have to admit the desolation is memorable in its own way:
It was after one of these heavy bar crawls that I slowly opened my eyes on a Saturday morning in early May and had no idea where I was. I felt someone next to me and slowly turned my head for a look. Shit! Whadde’hell’s this? I quickly closed my eyes again and breathed inaudibly. Jesus, that’s, uhhmm… Betsy? Whadde’fuck’m I doing here? I thought, trying to recall the previous night’s vague events.
Betsy is a white woman, by the way. The only Chinese women he gets into bed over the course of the book are a couple of prostitutes and one-night stands, and one clingy type he meets in the last chapter, before the book suddenly and inconclusively ends. The banal, hackneyed language in which they are described (“round breasts,” “seductive eyes,” “soft lips,” and here’s my favorite: “cute little springy Chinese girl”) renders them indistinguishable. There are hints of other encounters but they are not described: “Neither of us was interested in a long-term relationship and the girls slipped in and out of our tiny unfurnished apartment. It was as it should be” (I presume the unfurnished apartment had beds). Finally in the last chapter, we get a brief, sole description in the entire book of actual fucking: “Ting Ting was panting heavily on top of me, her warm, heavy breasts embracing my chest, her heart pounding in sync with mine.” So much for the cocktales.
One doesn’t expect all expat books on China to be of high literary quality. Writing talent is relatively rare. But in depicting the reality of a certain era and milieu with minimal competence, a book may be of documentary value. As firsthand documents that can benefit researchers and historical novelists, such books are especially valuable a generation or two later. Even for contemporaries they are of interest for what they tell us about life in China today. We want to see, for instance, how intercultural conflicts and relationships get played out, and for those of us knowledgeable about the country, recognize our own experiences in them. In fact, books from the past describing Westerners’ personal or sexual relationships with the Chinese are quite rare. Consider Carl Crow’s Foreign Devils in the Flowery Kingdom (Earnshaw Books, 2007), his 1940 journalist memoir of life in Shanghai over several decades until the outbreak of war with Japan. At the time, as Crow recounts, the European and American expat population in Shanghai would have greeted any suggestion that they interact with or befriend the Chinese with laughter or sardonic silence. Crow’s book is certainly of documentary value, but only about a narrow sphere of life — the exclusive male drinking clubs. We do learn something about them: in contrast to white males in China today, back then there didn’t seem to be many sexual predators; they were honest racists and simply had no interest in Chinese women.
Shanghai Cocktales expresses a different kind of hostility toward the Chinese: fetishist racism. However much local “birds” may be objects of sexual attraction, there is little meaningful mixing or communion with them. They remain essentially unknown and unknowable to the Olden brand of expat. While the book has some documentary value on the expat bar scene in Shanghai at the turn of this century, it sheds little light on its ostensible subject matter, relations with Chinese women. It not only fails to deliver on its promise, it takes the phrase “you can’t judge a book by its cover” to a new level. The angry tone to Olden’s amusing video rebuttal of Ash’s brutal review would suggest the effort he put into writing his memoir was sincere. But I’m not so sure. I think it’s a great example of a literary con job. I picture him getting high on Red Bulls and vodka one night, perhaps brainstorming with his marketing buddies, and coming up with a hilarious idea for making some money. He churned out the book with contemptuous speed, barely deigning to proofread it (formatting and grammar typos there are aplenty) and slapping an unusually high price on the Kindle edition of $13.40. No idea whether the scam worked and it’s selling. I’m evidence that at least one was sold; unless Ash got a free copy, that’s two. Maybe it’s selling a lot, in which case he’s now laughing all the way to bank. More power to him, I guess.
Ray Hecht’s South China Morning Blues (Blacksmith Books, 2015) presents some of the same issues we’ve seen with While We’re Here and Shanghai Cocktales. It’s a novel about relationships among foreign expats and locals in China. I’m not exactly sure what the title means. The blues one experiences in the morning after waking up in bed with the wrong person? I’ve read Hecht’s previous book, the rambling journal Pearl River Drama (self-published in 2015). Thankfully, the new book is better written, and it’s better than Shanghai Cocktales, with which it shares the theme of getting it on, or attempting to, with Chinese girls.
The concept behind the novel is to link twelve main characters in the narrative with the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, infusing the former with the proverbial traits of each animal. If it sounds like the results could be stilted, it is an original approach. In any case all the characters appear to be based on real people and experiences as well, or composites. They have just enough realism to be convincing, at the same time that they are archetypes drawn from mythology. And unlike the arid desert of Olden’s narrative, a shaping process went into Hecht’s effort, structuring the story arc and giving it a sense of closure by the end. Nonetheless there are problems with the structure, and the book would have benefitted from a longer brewing process before being committed to print.
It’s divided into three sections, corresponding to the events in the three key cities of the Pearl River Delta: Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong. None of the characters in the Shenzhen section reappears in or engages with any of the characters in the Guangzhou section (with one or two brief exceptions that don’t impact on the events). I was
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paid him to attend Ole Miss. But the fact that Lewis ultimately didn’t attend Ole Miss has raised questions about his motivations.
Lewis has admitted to taking money from one other school, according to responses to the NCAA filed by both Ole Miss and Farrar. In exchange for his testimony, the NCAA has offered Lewis immunity. Ole Miss has suggested that Lewis is using this process to avoid punishment for taking money from another school, while also hurting a rival.
Mississippi State declined to make Lewis and Jones available for interviews. Lewis’s lawyer said his client has told the truth.
“Leo Lewis stands by everything he is alleged to have reported, truthfully and accurately, related to any investigation he participated in,” attorney John Wheeler said.
Lewis and Jones also have alleged Farrar sent them to Rebel Rags, an Oxford store, to collect thousands of dollars in free Ole Miss gear. In disputing those accusations, Farrar has an ally: Terry Warren, the owner of Rebel Rags and an Ole Miss booster, who has sued the Mississippi State players for defamation, alleging they fabricated their testimony.
The lawyer for Rebel Rags, Charlie Merkel, has said he has compiled sales receipts and testimony from others who accompanied Lewis and Jones on their recruiting trips that shows the players lied. Merkel provided this evidence to the NCAA, he said, in the hopes they’d drop the allegations involving the store, to no avail.
On Sept. 11, at a hotel in Covington, Ky., these various parties and their lawyers will appear before the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions, who will be tasked with determining whom to believe.
Ole Miss, which has self-imposed a one year postseason ban, could face more severe penalties. Freeze faces a potential show-cause order that could delay his return to coaching.
Farrar will be fighting for his chance to work in the background somewhere else. Memorabilia from his career decorates his Oxford condominium. A framed, signed picture of Tunsil walking off the field with his arm draped around Farrar — “Love you Man!” Tunsil wrote — sits on one shelf. On another, there’s a sign with a message Farrar finds calming: “BARNEY, TRUST ME. I HAVE EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL. JESUS.”
Farrar credits his former boss at Rice, head coach Ken Hatfield, with helping him rediscover his Christian faith. Hatfield was one of the most decent, moral men he ever worked for, Farrar said.
Reached by phone last month in Arkansas, Hatfield said he had heard his former recruiter was in trouble with the NCAA. The retired coach, 74, praised Farrar effusively.
“There wasn’t anybody from a bank president down to a schoolteacher that didn’t just fall in love with Barney,” Hatfield said.
When asked if he could ever imagine Farrar involved with boosters paying players, though, Hatfield declined to answer.
“I’m not going to comment on the current situation because I don’t know it,” Hatfield said. “The dealings I’ve had with him, he’s been honest and upright … You’re going to have to make your own decisions about Barney.”From Kyiv to Honolulu and from Ottawa to Buenos Aires the West is under attack. This is a non-kinetic war except for Ukraine, which is a theater of combat operations. But we cannot doubt that Moscow, which has believed itself to be at war with the West for over a decade, is waging unceasing and far-ranging information warfare against the entire West.
This war never sleeps or stops. And information warfare in all of its many chameleon-like manifestations may well have become Moscow’s most potent weapon in this war. Certainly it is the instrument of Russian power that we most see being deployed daily across all Europe, North America and now Latin America. Indeed, about 30 percent of the Twitter accounts that magnified the Catalan issue in Spain were registered in Venezuela but were Russian. Now there are new concerns that Moscow might use the tactics it has employed throughout Europe and the U.S. in next year’s elections in Mexico and Italy.
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Thus information warfare is a global threat. While Moscow is hardly the only purveyor of such warfare; its wholesale resort to it has galvanized Western societies and states to establish numerous institutes to expose and counter Russian information warfare. This is a logical response as we have learned that Moscow tailors its attacks to individual country’s conditions, e.g. exploiting the race card in the U.S. or Catalan independence issues in Spain, etc. While it makes sense to have multiple institutions exposing threats tailored to their own country and the more general threat, we also need to coordinate and unify these efforts and institutions on behalf of Western civilization, Moscow’s real target.
Coordinating these efforts without sacrificing the benefits of converging multiple insights into Russian information warfare requires concerted action to thwart Moscow, expose the threat and counter it effectively, however it manifests itself.
Such coordination entails developing a shared threat assessment. In other words, we must awaken every European and Western government to the scope, ubiquity and constancy of the threat posed by Russian information warfare even if it is tailored to particular conditions in each country. The threat assessment in Mexico City should closely resemble if not be identical to that in Kyiv even when allowing for the differences between states. Sharing a common assessment enables everyone to speak the same language regarding the threat and countering it through the action of specific institutions.
Only when governments acknowledge the threat and that they are not alone in being targeted will they take concerted policy steps at home and hopefully together against it. This commonly held threat assessment is a necessary prerequisite to any kind of domestic policy to meet the threat in individual states or to an alliance-wide policy to resist and even turn the tables upon Moscow. This shared threat assessment is a necessary prerequisite for moving to the next step — a truly strategic response.
That strategic response, in both its national or multilateral forms, must confront the aggressor openly and politically. This means making Moscow pay a steep price for its attacks on Western political systems.
An attack upon the integrity of the electoral process in the UK, Germany, France, Italy or the U.S. is an attack upon the vital interests and foundations of our societies and civilizations. Key U.S. officials like UN Ambassador Nikki Haley Nimrata (Nikki) HaleyNikki Haley launches new policy group to tackle'socialism,' other issues Trump selects Kelly Craft for United Nations ambassador Ivanka Trump endorses Nikki Haley's daughter for student vice president MORE and former Vice-President Dick Cheney have even called it an act of war. And according to Russian literature on information warfare that is exactly what those writers and Russian leaders define as acts of war. We should impose even tougher sanctions on those leaders and firms engaging in such belligerent acts and if possible even hold them to legal account.
Information warfare offers its users the great advantage of being cheap to use. That cheapness makes it a seemingly attractive way to wage war. But once the costs grow and hit the leaders of Russia personally it becomes much less attractive.
Finally, Western authorities must devise a counter-information strategy that exposes the truth quickly, even proactively, and also reveals the truth to Russian speakers in Russia and elsewhere.
Modern technology can overcome Putin’s laws and decrees in helping make Western programs and institutions that rebuff Moscow’s lies constantly accessible to Russian speakers just as Russia enjoys relatively unfettered access to our media.
If we take our values seriously as Moscow obviously does — since it is attacking them — we owe Russian speakers nothing less than the truth. Indeed, that may turn out to be our strongest weapon just as information warfare is Moscow’s most potent weapon.
Stephen Blank, Ph.D., is a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council. He is the author of numerous foreign policy-related articles, white papers and monographs, specifically focused on the geopolitics and geostrategy of the former Soviet Union, Russia and Eurasia. He is a former MacArthur fellow at the U.S. Army War College.Latin! or Tobacco and Boys Poster for the 1980 production Written by Stephen Fry Date premiered 1979 Place premiered 'The Playroom', Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Original language English Subject pederastic and sado-masochisitic sexuality in a boys' school Genre comedy Setting Chartham Park Preparatory School For Boys
Latin! or Tobacco and Boys is a play by Stephen Fry, written in 1979. It was first performed at 'The Playroom', an L-shaped space in St Edwards Passage that belonged to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.[1] It is about life at the fictional Chartham Park Preparatory School For Boys, a prep school in England, and ends up in Morocco, via a homosexual relationship between a teacher and a 13-year-old student.
The title derives from Christopher Marlowe's claim, reported by Richard Baines, that "All they that love not Tobacco and Boys are fools".
Characters [ edit ]
Central characters [ edit ]
Only two characters actually appear on stage:
Dominic Clarke : a young Latin teacher/schoolmaster in his mid-twenties — a character known for his'sharp voice when teaching, but younger one when engaged in normal conversation'. [2]
: a young Latin teacher/schoolmaster in his mid-twenties — a character known for his'sharp voice when teaching, but younger one when engaged in normal conversation'. Herbert Brookshaw: a teacher/schoolmaster in his late fifties.
Students in Dominic's Latin class [ edit ]
These are referred to as if present, but their role is taken by the audience:
Rupert Cartwright : a semi-central character, a student in Dominic's Latin class.
: a semi-central character, a student in Dominic's Latin class. Barton-Mills
Catchpole
Elwyn-Jones
Figgis
Harvey-Williams
Hoskins (deceased)
Hughes
Kinnock
Madison
Potter
Smethwick
Spragg
Standfast
Whitwell
Plot [ edit ]
While the audience is walking in, a teacher (Dominic) is seen on stage marking exercise books 'with three different coloured biros'.[3] When the audience sits, the play starts. Dominic addresses the students (played by the audience), and after yelling at them, starts teaching, until Brookshaw enters.
After the students have supposedly left the room, Brookshaw enters. He explains to Dominic that he has been adding up merit-points accumulated by students, taking over the job for the headmaster while the latter is sick,[4] and has noticed that one student, Cartwright, has gained an enormous number of merits. Brookshaw then explains that he knows the reason for these excessive merits. It turns out that Dominic has been taking Cartwright for 'extra Latin periods' in which Dominic engages in sexual liaison with the 13-year-old Cartwright. The headmaster's daughter has seen what has been going on. Dominic admits to this, and says that making love with Cartwright is the only way in which he can feel young.
Brookshaw says that he won't tell anyone about the illicit affair if Dominic sends all of his naughty students to Brookshaw himself, instead of to the headmaster, to be beaten; and secondly, if Dominic will beat him for two days a week with a wet towel and other curious objects.
When the students' Common Entrance Examination results are announced, Cartwright's score is curiously high amidst the general mediocrity of the class, and Brookshaw recognises that Cartwright's test paper has been corrected by Dominic. As a result, Dominic is forced to leave the school.
Later, Brookshaw is serving as acting headmaster while the headmaster is sick. He reads a letter to the assembly from "Ghanim Ibn Mahmud" and "Abu Hassan Basim", Arabic names adopted by Dominic and Cartwright. It turns out that Dominic and Cartwright have become Muslims; they now live in Morocco, and Dominic has adopted Cartwright. After the assembly, Brookshaw starts writing a reply to the letter, and the play ends.
Chartham Merit-adding System [ edit ]
The Chartham merit-adding system is the system in which boys are commended or censured, and are rewarded or punished as a result. If a boy is good, he gets a merit; if he is very good, he gets a 'plus', if he gets 3 pluses, he gets "free tuck" (which means free food),.[5] Then, if the boy does very well in all fields, and shows "initiative far beyond his age",[6] he gets a star, worth 25 points, and a 5-pound "tuck token".[7] The opposites of these things respectively are the demerit, the'minus' (if a boy gets 3 minuses, the boy gets no tuck at all), and the 'black hole' (minus 25 points, "offender eats crap, is caned; ritually kicked out by headmaster every morning").[8]
Style [ edit ]
The play is known for its sexual explicitness, something of a trait of Stephen Fry's earlier writings. This type of writing is also seen in Fry's 1991 book The Liar.[9]
Critical reception [ edit ]
The play was well received when it first played at the 1980 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and it won the Fringe First prize. Mark Cook of 'Time Out' Magazine said that it was a 'chuckle provoking piece',[10] whereas Kieron Quirke of The Observer said that it was a play written by 'a clever 22-year-old seeing how many times he can say "bum" and still be taken seriously'.[11]
Revivals [ edit ]
The play has had many revivals, including one at the Burton Taylor Studio in central Oxford,[12] The Cock Tavern Theatre[13][14] in Kilburn, and The Everyman Theatre of Canberra (Australia).[15]
Edinburgh Festival Fringe [ edit ]
For the 1980 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Latin! was performed at Riddles Court, Royal Mile, by the Cambridge University Mummers. The dates were 18–23 and 25–30 August 1980, at 5.15 p.m., tickets costing 90p. It was part of a double bill, the other play being written by Robert Farrar, then a fellow-undergraduate. It was directed by Simon Cherry, with Stephen Fry playing Dominic Clarke, and John Davies, a law undergraduate at Cambridge, playing Herbert Brookshaw.[16] It won the Fringe first prize.
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Super 8 has had chins wagging since it was announced, and a marketing campaign that has built buzz without revealing much; the teaser trailer teased excrutiatingly.
But this morning Total Film was invited to see 20 minutes of the film... and wow.
JJ Abrams introduced the film via a video message from LA, where he's busy with post-production, "this is about Joe, a 14-year old kid from an industrial town in Ohio, the year is 1979.
"Joe's mother died when he was young, and his father is classic '70s dad," JJ continued, with a smile.
"His best friend Charles makes movies on a Super 8 camera. He is obsessed with making movies and production values.
"The scene you're about to see is 10 minutes into the film, Charles has asked a girl named Alice to star in his latest film. You can tell that Joe approves.
"It's not finished, and I'm sorry I couldn't be there in person. I hope you like it, see you soon." he concluded. Roll footage.
We're in 1979 and after a short, stifled exchange with his Dad, Joe (newcomer Joel Courtney) is radioed via walkie talkie by Charles (another newcomer, Riley Griffiths).
It's movie-making time.
The boys sneak out to meet the rest of the crew, Alice is due to pick them up and drive them to an old train station to film a scene.
The gang sit on the pavement singing 'My Sharona' and laughing.
Instantly you are reminded of Stand By Me, ET, The Goonies, The Monsters Squad and Dazed & Confused - despite its sci-fi allusions this is a classic coming-of-age drama, something producer Steven Spielberg is the past master at.
Well JJ the protege has certainly picked up where The Beard left off...
Alice (Elle Fanning) arrives - in a beat up Dodge Challenger - and there is intial friction when she recognises Joe as the son of the Deputy.
She isn't old enough to drive, and doesn't wanna get caught. But Joe talks her round, there is tension between the two, but Joe is excited she knows who he is.
At the old train station, Charles gets the scene ready. He darts around like a pint-sized Orson Welles, framing everything with his hands, exclaiming 'I've written a new line, it sounds better!' as the actors groan.
Charles is the kid that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas used to be. He is them. The chubby kid with a Super 8 camera and a dream.
The way he shouts direction sounds exactly like Lucas on the set of Star Wars - he is their analogue, making the kind of films they made when they were kids, and he ends up on the kind of adventure you can imagine they dreamed of.
The cast are excellent, you root for Joe as he tentatively applies Alice's make-up, and can't help but smile as she lets her guard down, finally, exchanging blushed glances with Joe.
Elle Fanning is superb. The promise she showed in Somewhere is more than delivered on, even amplified here.
As they boys rehearse the scene with her, she is so good that they can only stop and watch, mouths agape. That goes for us too.
Then the train arrives, and the scene hinted at in the teaser trailer is realised.
The train crash is nothing short of specatcular. A stunning, blend of CGI and sound design, you feel like you're in the carnage.
No 3D here, just fantastic direction. JJ Abrams fuses the adrenaline pumping action of his Star Trek with Spielberg's coming-of-age expertise with assured precision.
The look of the film is a triumph, it feels like 35mm and epic with it. Everything about the cinematography is gorgeous to look at.
Finally, we get a taste of the carnage whatever the train was carrying unleashed. The thing that breaks free from the carriage in the teaser trailer.
Whatever it is is big. We don't see it, the clip left it cleverly hidden behind objects in the foreground and in the reactions on it's victims faces - hopefully, like Jaws, they keep the monster hidden until the final act.
It tosses garbage dumpsters aside like matchbox cars, and smashes into a building like walking through paper.
From this you get an idea of the scale, we're dealing with something 10-15ft tall - putting it in the range of the concept drawings accidentally leaked online last December.
Brutish, extra-humanly strong and ferociously angry, we're left with the screams of an unwitting victim, and only guesses about exactly what the boys inadvertantly captured on their camera...
The monster on Super 8.Recording artist Lil Wayne meets fans and celebrates his contemporary street wear apparel brand TRUKFIT at his hometown Macy's, in New Orleans. (Photo: Jordan Strauss, AP) Story Highlights Rapper made crude reference to civil rights martyr Emmett Till in a song
Lil Wayne had a deal to promote Mountain Dew soda
PepsiCo also pulled online ad dubbed racist, featuring Tyler, the Creator
NEW YORK (AP) — PepsiCo is cutting its ties with Lil Wayne after the rapper made a crude reference to civil rights martyr Emmett Till in a song.
Lil Wayne, one of the biggest stars in pop music, had a deal to promote the company's Mountain Dew soda.
PULLING ADS: PepsiCo pulls spot featuring Tyler, the Creator
Earlier this week, PepsiCo also pulled an online ad for the neon-colored soda that was criticized for portraying racial stereotypes and making light of violence toward women. The ad was developed by rapper Tyler, the Creator.
PepsiCo said in a statement late Friday that Wayne's "offensive reference to a revered civil rights icon does not reflect the values of our brand." It declined to provide any further comment on any current promotions it might have in the market with Wayne.
A publicist for Lil Wayne, Sarah Cunningham, said that the split was due to "creative differences" and that it was an amicable parting.
"That's about all I can tell you at this time," she said.
The controversy erupted after Wayne made the reference to Till on Future's song "Karate Chop" earlier this year. He refers to beating someone during a sexual act and says he wants to do as much damage as was done to Till.
The black teen from Chicago was in Mississippi visiting family in 1955 when he was killed, allegedly for whistling at a white woman. He was beaten, had his eyes gouged out and was shot in the head before his assailants tied a cotton gin fan to his body with barbed wire and tossed it into a river.
Two white men, including the woman's husband, were acquitted by an all-white jury.
Till's body was recovered and returned to Chicago where his mother, Mamie Till, insisted on having an open casket at his funeral. The pictures of his battered body helped push civil rights into the cultural conversation.
Wayne had sent the Till family a letter offering empathy and saying that he would not reference Till or the family in his music, particularly in an inappropriate manner.
The Till family, which this week had called for a meeting with Wayne and PepsiCo representatives, was made aware of the decision Friday but did not immediately have a statement.
Earlier this month, Rick Ross also lost his deal with Reebok after he rapped about raping a woman who had been drugged.
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Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/136ab84Enlarge By Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP From left, Democratic Reps. Nancy Pelosi, Robert Andrews, George Miller and Steny Hoyer discuss their bill on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. DETAILS OF PLAN DETAILS OF PLAN Provisions of the House Democrats' health care bill: • Individuals would be required to obtain health insurance or pay a 2.5% income tax penalty. • Low-income families would receive government subsidies to help pay for the insurance. • Insurance companies could no longer deny enrollees for pre-existing conditions and would be prohibited from setting annual and life-time caps on payouts. • Employers, except small businesses, would be required to offer insurance or pay a penalty. • A public insurance program would offer an alternative to private insurers. • Wealthy Americans would pay surcharges on income taxes. USA TODAY research WASHINGTON Taxing the rich may be popular with many Americans, but some experts warn that a proposed tax on the wealthy to pay for an overhaul of health care could be bad economic medicine. House Democrats included a surtax on families making more than $350,000 in a sweeping health care bill unveiled Tuesday — the latest idea Congress is considering to pay for President Obama's broad goal to provide coverage to the nation's 50 million uninsured. A majority of Americans, 58%, supported increasing income taxes on the wealthy to pay for health care, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll found this week, but some experts say a less popular but broader tax tied to health care spending could be more sustainable over time. "You have a health plan that's meant to benefit everybody... but it's being paid for by only 2.1 million taxpayers," said Rosanne Altshuler, co-director of the non-partisan Tax Policy Center. "It's difficult to raise revenue this way." The House legislation comes as Obama is ramping up pressure on lawmakers to act quickly on health care, his top domestic priority. The president is scheduled to make remarks about health care at the White House today. Negotiations over separate versions of the legislation in the Senate and House have stalled in recent weeks as lawmakers sought ways to pay for the$1-trillion-plus cost. The most expensive provision: subsidies to help low-income people pay for premiums. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the bill will move quickly and reiterated that the House will vote on legislation before lawmakers return to their districts for the August recess. "Inaction is not an option for us," Pelosi said. House Democrats said the tax would raise $544 billion over 10 years. Under the House legislation, families earning between $350,000 and $500,000 would pay an additional 1% in income tax. The new tax would increase with higher salaries so that families earning more than $1 million would pay an additional 5.4%. The tax would apply to the top 1.2% of households in the USA, according to a House Ways and Means Committee document. A separate proposal to pay for health care by taxing some benefits offered by employers — currently exempt from federal taxes — lost steam this month in the Senate because Democratic lawmakers, including Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, said it would have been too great a burden on middle-class families. Joseph Thorndike, a historian with the Tax History Project, said broadening the tax base to more Americans — though it may be less politically popular — might be better policy. In part, a broader tax could be less easy to repeal in the future. "If you ask people to pay something then they have an ownership stake in it," Thorndike said, citing Social Security as an example. "The narrow, soak-the-rich approach is real short-sighted politics." Chuck Marr, director of federal tax policy for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, countered that high-income families have paid less in taxes over the past several years. He said the Senate's proposed tax on benefits and the House surtax on the wealthy are both realistic options. "Given the income gains that those at the very top have enjoyed, and the tax cuts they have received over the last three decades," Marr said, "a surtax on those same people is a natural option." Still, the idea has been criticized by some Democrats. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Tuesday that he has "not heard much support" from his colleagues. Republicans in the House have been more blunt. "The taxes are onerous during a recession," said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich. "They're going to fall on families, small businesses, manufacturers — and they're going to cost us millions of jobs." 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 moreAs an industrial designer, I’ve been particularly fascinated by products that have personality and emotion. And I think the droids in Star Wars have always been really great at capturing a character without facial expression and drawing you in. And BB-8 was no different when they brought it out onstage for the first time.
As I watched it roll around my only thought was “need!” …So I made one.
Part of what I really enjoyed about the process of making it was the timeline. Most projects I work on end up taking weeks, if not months to finish. With BB-8, I pushed myself to make it in a day. As a result, the surfacing and paint is less than perfect, which I’m serendipitously calling “weathered”. But I was able to stick to my goal, and was able to make the whole thing in a matter of hours. I wanted to capture the character and personality of the real robot as simply as possible, and I’m really happy with how it turned out.
To make it I used a Sphero 1.0 for the body (I’ve never split open the Sphero 2.0, so I’m not sure if it will work on that model), polyurethane foam surfaced with spackle for the head, and neodymium magnets to connect the two. My file for the head design can be downloaded from Thingiverse.Folks,
June ended up being a very busy month for us, filled with both highs and lows. On the sad side, one of our team suffered a tragic personal loss and life, as usual, also threw another member a bit of unexpected news. I abhor the usual clichés and as everybody at CSE looks out for each other, we have dealt with and continue to deal with these issues as a family.
Last month and this month as well have seen us spending a lot of time in the interview process. For example, we had four interviews lined up on Monday including some 2nd and 3rd interviews with prospective candidates. We are very picky who we let in the door and while we wish that the process could move a bit faster, it’s really important that we bring in the right people since we are not simply looking to “put some bodies in seats” as sometimes studios have to do. If things go well, we hope to make offers to at least 2 and possibly 3 of these candidates by the end of the week. We’ve also had to spend some time doing some business development stuff and that too occupied some of my and the studio’s time last month.
That being said, this should be a fun week for our backers. First, we are bringing back Smackhammer for some duck-hurling, fireball dodging fun. We will keep this version running for a week or so and then we will replace it with SH V0.2. That version of SH has improved client/network code that will lay the foundation for the same code in Camelot Unchained. We will also open a discussion thread on our forums to talk about SH. As we said during the Kickstarter, based on the feedback we got from our backers we want to look at making a more polished product out of the demo. At a minimum, SH should serve as a great place for us to test aspects of Camelot Unchained well in advance of IT testing. We will also consider replacing SH’s server code with the core server code for Camelot Unchained well over the next few months. My hope is that things work out so that SH ends serving as a wonderful way to playtest certain key technical aspects of Camelot Unchained under even more demanding conditions than IT. That would be a win-win situation for both our backers and CSE.
Secondly, two weeks ago I asked Michele and Sandra to experiment with some concepts for the land and one of the inhabitants of the Tuatha Dé Danann. I laid out some things from the backstory and general direction including that the lands shouldn’t be “Triple D” (dark, dank and depressing) but also with no sparkly forests full of even more sparkly elves. I told them to just have some fun and let their minds and styluses wander for a bit. Well, they did just that and as usual they came up with some great concepts, some new ideas and some nice chewy bits as well. We will be sharing some of these concepts with our backers at the end of this week and I will also have another “Becoming” tale to accompany their fine work. FYI, I’ve attached one grey-scaled environmental teaser to this update.
Thirdly, we have selected our new digs, as our current space is not large enough for the size of Camelot Unchained team. We don’t anticipate any significant downtime when we move because we are simply moving to a space across the hall in our building. Like our current setup it will be an “open office” floor plan but it is a bit bigger and has a nice space for a server closet if we choose to run some servers out of here during IT (not likely but possible). We will video the move when it occurs sometime early this fall.
Before I conclude this update I just want to take this opportunity to once again thank our backers for giving us the opportunity to make our game, our way. Whether you came through Kickstarter or PayPal, we are grateful to our Founders for the trust that you have shown us. We will reward that trust by working our collective butts off to make a great game. We might not have the financial backing of a company like EA but what we do have is a Community of Founders who want this game to succeed every bit as much as we do. When we began this project, one of the things I told the team was the same thing I said when Mythic Entertainment began work on Dark Age of Camelot. That is, we have to work harder and be smarter than our competition because we don’t have the luxury of a huge budget or deep-pocket publisher backing. To their credit, everybody then at Mythic did just that and I expect our team will do the same thing here going forward. I am proud of both their effort to date and the best is yet to come.
Again, and as always, my thanks.
Mark
P.S. Some Founders have asked on our forums if we are currently using some of funding for Camelot Unchained while we were/are finishing off stuff on March On Oz. The answer to that is no, we are not. I’m still funding MOO myself so no worries on that front. Every dollar that we raised for Camelot Unchained will go towards the funding of Camelot Unchained.The high degree of similarity among the 15 partial L gene sequences, along with the three full-length sequences and the epidemiologic links between the cases, suggest a single introduction of the virus into the human population. This introduction seems to have happened in early December 2013 or even before.”
The take-home message is that we now confront a brand spanking new genetic variant of Ebola. Furthermore, we still have no idea at all how the “single introduction of the virus in the human population” of West Africa occurred. And, the current Ebola outbreak appears to be orders of magnitude more contagious than previous outbreaks. It also presents with a fatality count that far exceeds all previous outbreaks combined. But it’s certainly not airborne, so who cares about nit-picking details such as these!
In spite of the above facts, we are supposed to believe that all questions regarding the current Ebola outbreak can be answered with exclusive reference to what has occurred in connection with previously encountered—in terms of genetic composition—and known—in terms of initial outbreak source—Ebola episodes.
Here are a couple of questions. When was the last time an Ebola outbreak coincided with instructions to U.S. funeral homes on how to “handle the remains of Ebola patients”? Not to worry, since Alysia English, Executive Director of the Georgia Funeral Homes Association, is quoted (click preceding link) as saying “If you were in the middle of a flood or gas leak, that’s not the time to figure out how to turn it off. You want to know all of that in advance. This is no different.” So it’s just about being prepared, you see. Of course, nothing resembling this sort of preparation has ever transpired alongside any other Ebola outbreak in world history, so what gives now?
“Oh, it’s because we now have that Ebola case in Dallas.” True, but this response suffers from two fatal defects. First, we’re not supposed to worry about one tiny case as long as it’s in America, right, since according to the CDC on 9/30:
…there’s all the difference in the world between the U.S. and parts of Africa where Ebola is spreading. The United States has a strong health care system and public health professionals who will make sure this case does not threaten our communities,” said CDC Director, Dr. Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “While it is not impossible that there could be additional cases associated with this patient in the coming weeks, I have no doubt that we will contain this.”
If the U.S.’ strong health care system (which is apparently far superior to hazmat suits) is so effective at containment, what explains the funeral home preparations again? If U.S. containment procedures are so superb and the virus is no more contagious than before, what difference does it make whether the case is in Dallas, Texas or Sierra Leone? To be sure, maybe the answers to these questions are simple, and it’s just about corrupt money and the like.This is complete B.S. How would you feel if this happened in your backyard?
A mosque in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, not only has the go-ahead to be built despite concerns over changes in city zoning, but the taxpayers have to pay $3.5M to the mosque because of lawsuits filed against the town.
Here is the plan for the mosque:
Trending: WATCH: ‘How Jussie Smollett REHEARSED His Attack’ Is HILARIOUS An Islamic society in New Jersey is allowed to move forward with plans to build a mosque, and the town that had denied it permission will pay $3.25 million, as the result of settlements finalized Tuesday in two federal lawsuits. The two lawsuits were the latest in a nearly four-year dispute between the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge and Bernards Township, New Jersey, which had denied zoning approval for the Islamic society to build a mosque. It would have been the first and only mosque in the town, and the society bought the proposed mosque site because zoning of the land permitted houses of worship, according to court documents.
The town says that the dispute was never about the building of a mosque, but about creating a mega-structure in a residential area that would re-zone the neighborhood and alter the quality of life for people that live there.
The bigots.
Michael Turner, spokesman for Bernards Township, said in a statement the township had entered the settlement on the advice of counsel as “represents the most effective path forward” and that the planning board’s rejection of the Islamic society’s application to build a mosque was always based on accepted land use criteria and was never discriminatory. “The settlement agreement addresses the land use concerns of the planning board and incorporates conditions previously agreed upon by the ISBR and the planning board during the application process and deliberations,” Turner said, “Bernards Township is a diverse and inclusive community, where for years the ISBR congregation have practiced their religion along with their neighbors unimpeded, using township facilities at the Bernards Township Community Center and at Dunham Park.”
The Islamic Society is thrilled with the result of the lawsuits.
“We are very pleased by this resolution and hope to receive prompt approval to build our mosque,” said Dr. Mohammed Ali Chaudry, the named plaintiff in the lawsuit and president of the Islamic society. “We look forward to welcoming people of all faiths and backgrounds to our mosque. Our doors will be open to anyone interested in building bridges to promote harmony in the community and peace in the world.”
Read more: CNN
What would you think of this happening in YOUR town?
Let us know in the comments.By: Seyed Hossein Mousavian. The decision by British
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achment of national power
This second test of federalism and the concomitant expansion of the national government occurred around the fulcrum of the War Between the States. In addition to the unplanned expansion of government that invariably accompanies war, especially civil war, Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party also set out intentionally to greatly strengthen and expand the power and scope of the national government through what became known as the “American System of Henry Clay,†a plan to use federal subsidies and high protectionist tariffs to establish economic nationalism and give large sums of tax dollars to corporations to build “internal improvements” – railways, waterways and canals.
As Reconstruction came to an end and throughout the remainder of the 19thcentury and into the 20th century, primarily under Republican rule, the skids to further centralization and consolidation were greased beginning in 1877 with the Supreme Court case of Munn v. Illinois. The Munn case illustrates how expansion of national power did not always appear to be such on its face. Indeed, as Munn illustrated, the predicate for the future expansion of national power could come first by a federal court ruling expanding state authority over individuals and businesses.
In fact, the most effective expansion of national authority came through a two-step process: First, expansion of overlapping powers (in this case the power to regulate commerce) followed by the national government’s claim of exclusive authority over the previously expanded common realm through the invocation of its constitutional supremacy (Supremacy Clause) in areas where state and national power intersect and conflict. Thus were states crowded from the field and hollowed out into mere shells of the authentic organs of government they previously were.
In Munn, The Supreme Court permitted states to regulate certain businesses within their borders, including railroads. This case is commonly considered a milestone in the growth of government regulation, practically eviscerating the bar against takings under state common law or the Contract Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The Court’s ruling upheld Illinois price-control legislation proposed by the National Grange to regulate grain elevator rates, declaring that business interests (private property) used for public good be regulated by government. This decision also affected similar laws governing railroad rates. Since they too were deemed private utilities serving the public interest, the laws governing their rates were held to be constitutional as well.
Although both holdings were considerably narrowed and weakened by the decision in Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad Company v. Illinois (also known as the Wabash Case), the predicate for further expansion of national commerce power had been firmly established. In Munn, the Supreme Court decided that the Fourteenth Amendment did not bar government from imposing price controls but focused instead on establishing the principle that a private company could be regulated in the public interest. The Court held that it could, if the private company could be seen as a utility operating in the public interest.
The Demise Of The Ninth And Tenth Amendments.
Once the primary constitutional bars to government (state or national) regulation of private entities were stripped away, it remained simply to expand the national government’s authority relative to the states and then to restrict the states’ authority to subjugate them to Washington, DC. The primary mechanism employed was an infinitely elastic Commerce Clause and promiscuous use of the Necessary and Proper Clause through which the national government’s power was inflated at the expense of state prerogatives, a process that ultimately pulverized the Ninth and Tenth Amendments under the national government’s boot. Jefferson clearly perceived the beginnings of this pernicious process and vigorously objected to it in the first Kentucky Resolution of 1798:
“...words [such as ‘necessary and proper’] meant by the instrument [Constitution] to be subsidiary only to the execution of limited powers, ought not to be so construed as themselves to give unlimited powers, nor a part to be so taken as to destroy the whole residue of that instrument.â€
The expansion of the national government’s commerce power was not without temporary obstruction and even occasional temporary reversals but it was, over the course of time, unidirectional and virtually all encompassing. Between the turn of the 20th century and the New Deal, the Supreme Court made a series of rulings that found congressional action in violation of the Tenth Amendment. Perhaps the most famous are the 1918 ruling striking down national child labor standards (Hammer v. Dagenhart, 246 U.S. 20), in which the Court embellished the Tenth Amendment to read that powers not “‘expressly’ delegated to the national government are reserved,” the 1922Child Labor Tax Case (259 U.S. 20), and United States v. Butler (297 U.S. 1, 1936).Â
Beginning in 1937, however, the Court reversed itself on restricting the powers of Congress under the Tenth Amendment. In cases that year, such as National Labor Relations Board v. Jones and Laughlin Steel Co. (301 U.S. 1) andSteward Machine Co. v. Davis (301 U.S. 548), the Court found the Tenth Amendment to be of limited relevance in assessing the constitutionality of congressional taxing and spending policies.Â
Although given several opportunities between 1937 and 1976, the Court refused to strike down national legislation on the grounds that it encroached on powers reserved to the states under the Tenth Amendment. See e.g., New York v. United States (326 U.S. 572,1946) and Fry v. United States (421 U.S. 542, 1975). In reference to the Commerce Clause specifically, on only eight occasions prior to 1937 did the Court find that the Congress had exceeded its constitutional limits. The last such case (prior to 1976) was Carter v. Carter Coal Co. (298 U.S.238, 1936), which invalidated the Bituminous Coal Conservation Act of 1935. The Court held in that case that regulation of production and labor relations lay beyond the allowable object of congressional power—regulation of interstate commerce. The Fair Labor Standards Act was upheld in United States v. Darby (312 U.S. 100, 1941), the Court holding that Congress may by law exclude goods that do not conform to specified labor standards from interstate commerce and may use direct regulation of labor relations to achieve this objective.
The Court temporarily rediscovered renewed state autonomy under the Tenth Amendment in National League of Cities v. Usery (1976). The Court found that the Tenth Amendment necessarily requires the existence of a set of essential state powers that remains beyond the reach of congressional regulation or preemption. However, the Court was soon to begin chipping away any new expansion of states’ autonomy under National League of Cities. During the early 1980s, federal regulation of the states was upheld in a series of cases. See Hodel v. Virginia Surface Mining, 452 U.S. 264 (1981), United Transportation Union v. Long Island RR, 455 U.S. 678 (1982), FERC v. Mississippi, 456 U.S. 742 (1982), and EEOC v. Wyoming, 460 U.S. 226 (1983).
The Court finally threw in the towel and reversed itself altogether in Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority (1985), holding that the Tenth Amendment provides the Court no basis on which to limit the Congress in the exercise of its commerce powers. The Court declined, not simply to rule against the Congress, but even to entertain the possibility that the Congress might, within the scope of its commerce powers, intrude upon the constitutional position of the states. The Court appeared finally to abandon whatever vestige remained of its role as federal umpire between the states and the federal government by refusing to blow the judicial-review whistle to signal a congressional foul.
In 1992, the Supreme Court appeared to breath life back into the Tenth Amendment by finding instances outside federal commerce power in which federal action might violate the reserved powers of the states. For the first time in 55 years, the Court invalidated one section of a federal law for violating the Tenth Amendment. The case in question (New York v. United States, 505 U.S. 144) challenged a portion of the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1985. The Act established three mechanisms to entice/compel states to comply with federal statutory obligations to provide for the disposal of low-level radioactive waste. The first two enticements were monetary incentives. The third, which was challenged in the case, required states to take title to any waste within their borders that was not disposed of prior to January 1, 1996. The Act also made each state liable for all damages directly related to the waste. The Court, in a 6–3 decision, ruled that the imposition of that obligation on the states violated the Tenth Amendment.
Justice O’Connor wrote the opinion of the Court, which held that the Congress may use its spending powers to encourage the states to adopt certain regulations (i.e., by attaching conditions to the receipt of federal funds, seeSouth Dakota v. Dole, 1987) or impose its will through the commerce power (by directly pre-empting state law). However, Congress may not directly compel states to enforce federal regulations.
In 1997, the Court went a step further in its apparent revitalization of Federalism when it ruled that the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act violated the Tenth Amendment (Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898). The Act required state and local law enforcement officials to conduct background checks on persons attempting to purchase handguns. Justice Scalia, writing for the majority, applied New York v. United States in holding the law violated the Tenth Amendment. Because the act “forced participation of the State’s executive in the actual administration of a federal program,†the Court found it to be unconstitutional.
Less than a decade later, however, the Court again expanded its elastic definition of “commerce among the states†to include local cultivation and consumption of marijuana (Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General, et al, v. Angel McClary Raich, et al.) In the process, the Court tightly constricted the life support it had provided the Tenth Amendment and, in effect, restricted its protections exclusively to a prohibition against federal commandeering of state governments to enforce federal laws and regulations through direct edict. With the Gonzales v. Raich decision, the Court again found it impossible to declare federal laws unconstitutional for violating the Tenth Amendment because it refused to circumscribe federal authority under the Commerce Clause.
Justice Clarence Thomas disputed the Court’s further expansion of federal commerce power:
“Respondents Diane Monson and Angel Raich use marijuana that has never been bought or sold, that has never crossed state lines, and that has had no demonstrable effect on the national market for marijuana. If Congress can regulate this under the Commerce Clause, then it can regulate virtually anything–and the Federal Government is no longer one of limited and enumerated powers.â€
Expounding upon what this expansive interpretation of “commerce among the several states†means for the Tenth Amendment, Thomas spotlighted the state of limbo in which the Court remains stuck on Federalism:
“One searches the Court’s opinion in vain for any hint of what aspect of American life is reserved to the States. Yet this Court knows that ‘“[t]he Constitution created a Federal Government of limited powers.â€â€™ New York v. United States, 505 U.S. 144, 155 (1992) (quoting Gregory v. Ashcroft, 501 U.S. 452, 457 (1991)). That is why today’s decision will add no measure of stability to our Commerce Clause jurisprudence: This Court is willing neither to enforce limits on federal power, nor to declare the Tenth Amendment a dead letter. If stability is possible, it is only by discarding the stand-alone substantial effects test and revisiting our definition of ‘Commerce among the several States.’ Congress may regulate interstate commerce–not things that affect it, even when summed together, unless truly ‘necessary and proper’ to regulating interstate commerce.â€
The range of federal power is circumscribed by the boundaries established by the enumerated powers; but the enumerated powers themselves are restricted only to the extent that the definition of “commerce among the several states†is limited, which for all intents and purposes the Court appears unwilling to limit. Therefore, at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, the limits of federal authority vis-à -vis the states has boiled down to a narrow restriction against the federal government’s commandeering or compelling the states to enforce federal statutes.
1913 Was A Very Bad Year
Concurrently with employing the Commerce Clause and Necessary and Proper Clause to fuel the expansion of the national government at the expense of the states, the national government also aggressively used its fiscal and monetary powers to aggrandize itself throughout the first half of the 20th century. Of all the government-sanctioned cartels, the most pernicious has been the Federal Reserve System, established in 1913, which was created to facilitate the creation of a banking-industry cartel and the creation of cartel profits in that industry as well. As Murray Rothbard wrote in A History of Money and Banking in the United States, “The financial elites of this country... were responsible for putting through the Federal Reserve System, as a governmentally created and sanctioned cartel device to enable the nation’s banks to inflate the money supply... without suffering quick retribution from depositors or note holders demanding cash.”
Additionally in 1913, the national government finally succeeded in enacting an income tax on individuals, which provided not only an unprecedented source of revenue for the national government but also evolved into a general, all-purpose engine of income and wealth redistribution, government monitoring and surveillance of individuals as well as a mechanism of direct control of individual behavior and social engineering.
Finally, the direct election of Senators, also in 1913, was perhaps the single biggest step away from federalism and the original constitutional design toward mass democracy and a consolidated national government. With the Tenth Amendment well on its way to becoming a dead constitutional letter, with an open-ended Commerce Clause in place to fuel unlimited growth of the national government’s reach, with a revenue-generating and behavior-regulating national income tax in place, and hard currency now able to be replaced by freely printed paper money at the Fed, direct election of Senators completed the necessary and sufficient conditions for a complete consolidation of political power in the hands of a unified national government.
Intergovernmentalism Replaces Federalism
After World War II, federalism was replaced by “intergovernmentalism,†an unlovely term for the unlovely transformation of the sovereign states into bureaucratic extensions of the central government. It happened this way.
The national government further expanded its control over state governments through the fiscal realm by a series of “revenue-sharing†measures, beginning with specific grants-in-aid eventually including huge national entitlement programs such as Medicaid, which entice and require state fiscal participation through direct mandates and statutory fiscal matching provisions. Along with the grant of money came federal mandates on the states, which provided the national government a lever to control and direct state behavior to comport to the desires of Washington. The ultimate fiscal hold on states developed during the Cold War through the expansion of the military-industrial complex, which thoroughly entangled the economic circumstances of the states with defense contractors and the perpetuation of the national war machine.
By 1985, with the Court’s ruling in Garcia, federalism was dead, and state sovereignty was a mere constitutional echo of days past.
Can Federalism And State Sovereignty Be Revived?
Beginning on September 11, 2001, the expansion and consolidation of the national government took another quantitative and qualitative leap forward, this time toward World Empire. As the United States approaches the end of the first decade of the 21st century and the 220th year of the American constitutional republic, an unrestrained, largely unlimited national government routinely ignores precious individual rights once held inviolate under the U.S. Constitution, regularly tramples on states’ prerogatives, pursues total information awareness of every detail of individuals’ lives, seeks total behavior control of American citizens and asserts the right to exert its power without the sanction of a declaration of war or legal warrant into any country against any individual anytime, anyplace in the world.
Fear, ignorance and greed, when fueled and manipulated by propaganda reduce people’s natural immune responses to oppressive and parasitic government, allowing politicians to sap their essence and abandon the principles on which their liberty is based. This process by which government grows at the expense of liberty has been the same since the English King and his Parliament oppressed American colonialists. The authors of the Declaration of Independence described the process vividly: “He Erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.â€
So also has Washington, DC erected a multitude of federal programs and taxes, complete with huge bureaucracies and police forces, and sent hither into the states and local communities bureaucrats, revenue agents, police and military personnel to harass the people and eat out their substance. Thus has Federalism failed, state sovereignty been destroyed and liberty eclipsed.
William Watkins summarizes the architectural imperative on which the U.S. Constitution rests:Â “Power can be checked only by power. The [Kentucky and Virginia] Resolves point to the states as the natural depository of power to check the national government...If the American people are once again to gain control of the national government, it will be through the states.”
But, it won’t be simply a matter of untying the knot or walking this cat back. It is impossible to simply retrace the steps that brought the American political system to its present perilous situation; it will require courage, steadfastness, truculence, defiance and a will of iron to stand up to Washington and stand down the power of the federal government. It will be an undertaking not in principle different from but even more daunting and difficult than the Civil Rights Movement, namely reviving America and restoring liberty by overcoming oppressive government that is acting illegally and immorally with a pointed gun under the color of law.
Dr. Lawrence A. Hunter is President of the Social Security Institute, a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization, and Senior Fellow at Americans for Prosperity and the Institute for Policy Innovation where he does economic research and writes reports on a diverse range of public policy issues.MINNEAPOLIS – At first, it looked like a double-wicket shot. It truly appeared – in real time – as if Minnesota Timberwolves guard Ricky Rubio had delivered a perfectly executed, improbably conceived bounce pass through his own legs AND through Dallas defender Elton Brand‘s legs too.
Only in replay, slowed down, was it clear that Rubio’s pass had gone just past Brand’s left leg rather than behind it, not that the Mavericks forward noticed. The basketball reached its destination right about the time the Target Center crowd realized what it was seeing, and Greg Stiemsma finished off with a simple layup for a very unsimple highlight.
“Playing with Rajon [Rondo] last year, I’ll say it was kind of similar, where you almost have to expect the ball every time you roll, every time you dive,” Stiemsma said of playing his first game with Rubio, the Wolves’ clever and, finally, available point guard.
“We’ve been running through some drills with him the last couple weeks, some pick-and-roll stuff. Even there, Ricky’s going between his legs, behind his back, all that in the drills.”
That one was Rubio’s piece de resistance (that’s Spanish, right?) in his first game in nine months. But there were others: Rubio shoveling a pass to J.J. Barea as they crisscrossed for a reverse layup. Rubio sticking a long arm into O.J. Mayo‘s passing lane, switching defense into offense in an instant as his dark eyes immediately searched for an open man. Rubio working the baseline like Gretzky behind the net, finding Luke Ridnour 18 feet out for a jumper.
With Rubio running the point, there’s always the risk for his four teammates of snuffing another of the kid’s wonderous assists and snuffing a video treasure. Worse, there’s the risk of getting hit in the head or the face by the ball if one is caught unaware. And so it was a risky night in downtown Minneapolis Saturday, where Rubio continued his comeback from knee surgery.
It is continuing, for al the excitement and the instant results. Rubio was on a minutes leash of (cough) 16-18 minutes Saturday and will build up his participation time gradually, coach Rick Adelman said. He probably won’t play in both ends of the Wolves’ back-to-back trip to Orlando Monday and Miami Tuesday. And after all the inactivity and rehab from surgery to repair the ACL and MCL ligaments torn in his left knee in March, Rubio’s performance curve figures to have a few ripples, maybe even reversals, in it.
Still, he electrified the crowd of 18,173 (the Wolves sold an extra 1,750 tickets in the hours before tipoff) and seemed to make them forget that All-Star Kevin Love was a late scratch due to the flu (Love hoped to play through his bruised right thumb, before the Wolves sent him home as a sickie). Rubio certainly animated Adelman, who lavished praise on his team afterward and even saved a little for himself.
“When he has the ball in his hands,” Adelman said, “I’m a lot better coach.”
If Houdini had come back from surgery, he would have started with a few card tricks. But Rubio came back sawing the lady in half, only from behind his back.
His first shift began with 1:47 left in the first quarter and ended at 6:16 of the second. In that 7:31 stint, he had four points, four assists and a steal. The Target Center had its second lineup thrill of the season – Love surprised them all with his sudden comeback from a broken hand the night before Thanksgiving. Folks boomed “Rubio! Rubio!” for him just for trotting to the scorer’s table.
“I can’t say with words how it felt,” the 22-year-old said.
Derrick Williams could. The disappointing No. 2 pick in 2011 scored 12 points with five rebounds in the first half, Rubio’s return applying paddles to his game. “That’s the best I’ve felt since I’ve been here, honestly,” Williams said.
Rubio’s second shift started at 4:37 of the third quarter and ended 7:15 minutes later. That pushed him to 14:46 for the game, Adelman holding back a few of Rubio’s rationed minutes just in case. And sure enough, when the Wolves’ 15-point lead dwindled to one with 3:16 left, Rubio came back in.
Key moment this time? A pile-up near the sideline with Dallas’ husky Derek Fisher. Fisher already was coming on like a Grinch trying to swipe Christmas, scoring nine points in the fourth. Now he was tangled up on the floor with the Spanish unicorn. But two men went down and two got up, both fine, Fisher tapping Rubio on the chest.
“Once guys come out there, everything’s free to go,” Fisher said. “But you’re obviously never trying to hurt a guy. I just asked him if he was OK real quick.”
Rubio’s third shift ended with regulation, his shot from out top bouncing off, same as a couple of Minnesota tips. Adelman showed great restraint in sitting him through the overtime. There was the minutes limit and, besides, Rubio was tired.
“That kills me inside,” Rubio said, smiling as always, “but we did a great job.”
Officially, Rubio was a mere +1 in plus/minus. But his impact had been more contagious to the other Wolves than Love’s flu. Andrei Kirilenko dominated the 12-4 overtime with five points, three boards and an assist.
“We’re going to do big things with this team this year, just showing how we played in overtime, getting that 10-0 run,” Rubio said. “It was amazing … They gave me a great gift, that W in overtime.”
Only fair for a guy who dishes so many gifts himself. As Dallas’ Dahntay Jones said of Rubio’s impact: “You have people flying down the court, because they know he’s looking for them. He’s special.”
Kirilenko ticked off the names of the great playmaking point guards with whom he has played: John Stockton, Mark Jackson, Deron Williams. “Ricky is one of those guys because when he sees opportunity, he goes there. I learned from the best how to get open – and how not to get hit on the back,” Kirilenko said.
“It’s always a privilege to play with those kind of guys. Especially if you can play without the ball – you know if you get open, you’re going to get the ball.”
Rubio changes the whole dynamic of playing without the ball – no one is without the ball for long when he’s on the floor. Rubio’s back, and defenders’ heads are swiveling again.
Category: Uncategorized / Tags:, Andrei Kirilenko, Derek Fisher, Derrick Williams, Elton Brand, Minnesota Timberwolves, Rick Adleman, Ricky Rubio, Steve Aschburner / 46 Comments on Rubio’s Back And So’s His Magic /Sen. Bernie Sanders won the West Virginia Democratic primary Tuesday to stay alive in his long-shot bid to take the party’s presidential nomination from front-runner Hillary Clinton, while Republican Donald Trump won primaries in West Virginia and Nebraska.
Sanders had roughly 51 percent of the West Virginia vote, compared to 36 percent for Clinton, with 94 percent of precincts reporting.
Trump, his party’s presumptive presidential nominee, was running uncontested in both states.
“We won a big, big victory,” Sanders said at a rally in Salem, Oregon. “The people of West Virginia … said we need an economy that can help more than just the one percent.”
The self-described democratic socialist has now won 19 states, compared to 23 for Clinton. But he still faces an extreme “uphill climb” toward winning the party nomination, in his own words.
Trump did not hold a victory rally but said in a statement: “It is a great honor to have won both West Virginia and Nebraska, especially by such massive margins. … Hope to win both states in the general election.”
Nebraska technically held a Democratic primary, which Clinton won 53-to-46 percent, with 100 percent of precincts reporting.
However, Sanders won Nebraska in March in a caucus. He was awarded 15 pledged delegates. Clinton won 10 pledged delegates and the support of three superdelegates.
The Vermont senator had won 16 of 29 delegates available in West Virginia, with 120, 321 votes, or 51 percent. Clinton had 11 delegates, with 84,176 votes, or 36 percent, with 94 percent of precincts reporting.
However, Clinton has an insurmountable lead in the delegate race -- 2,239 compared to 1,469 for Sanders, with just nine more contests remaining. It takes 2,383 delegates to win the Democratic nomination.
Sanders has acknowledged his only hope to win the nomination is to go to the party’s nominating convention in July and convince enough superdelegates to cast ballots for him -- amid calls from Democratic leaders to exit the race.
Next week, Sanders and Clinton will compete in Kentucky and Oregon, for 55 and 61 delegates, respectively. Oregon will also hold a GOP primary in which 28 delegates are available.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz dropped out of the GOP primary last week but re-emerged Tuesday to add some intrigue into the race.
Cruz said he’s still out of the race but that his campaign would “certainly respond accordingly” if a path to victory emerges.
He also has written to state party chairmen to hold onto the delegates he won in primaries and caucuses. And he’s submitted a delegate slate to the secretary of state in California, which votes June 7, Fox News has learned.
California state director Jason Scalese downplayed Cruz's effort, saying it was the first-term senator’s attempt to “keep faith” with supporters.
Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich suspended their campaigns last week after Trump’s huge Indiana primary win.
Trump, a billionaire businessman, has now won 30 state primaries or caucuses but must now try to get support -- including fundraising help -- from Washington Republicans.
He is scheduled to meet Thursday with House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Capitol Hill Republicans, as he prepares for the general election.
“I have a lot of respect for Paul,” Trump said on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor.” “He loves this country. He wants to see something good happen to this party.”
Trump also confirmed a report that he now has five potential running-mates in mind.
He has 1,107 delegates toward to getting 1,237 to secure the nomination before his party’s nominating convention in July.
Trump won all 36 delegates available in Nebraska. He had 119,531 votes, or 61 percent, with 95 percent of precincts reporting.
Trump secured three of the 34 delegates available in West Virginia and 151,307 votes, or 76 percent of the vote, with 98 percent of precincts reporting.
Clinton’s remarks in March about “putting a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business” severely hurt her chances of winning in West Virginia.
The former secretary of state apologized in person for the comment, which she said was taken out of context, but skipped campaigning in West Virginia.
Trump campaigned in West Virginia, donning a hard hat and pretending to shovel coal at a rally last week while vowing to help the struggling fossil fuel industry and its legions of out-of-work miners.
“I'm going to put miners back to work,” he told the crowd. Clinton “said I'm going to put mines out of business. That's a tough one to explain.”
The GOP presumptive presidential nominee also told the crowd to "save your vote for the general election. The primary's gone.”Russian hackers attempted to gain access to the inboxes of various senior U.S. generals and statesmen for more than a year prior to the 2016 presidential election, according to The Associated Press, which obtained a previously unpublished digital hit list.
Between March 2015 and May 2016, Russian hackers reportedly targeted the emails of then-Secretary of State John Kerry John Forbes KerryOvernight Defense: White House eyes budget maneuver to boost defense spending | Trump heads to Hanoi for second summit with Kim | Former national security officials rebuke Trump on emergency declaration 58 ex-national security officials rebuke Trump over emergency declaration Ex-national security officials to issue statement slamming Trump's emergency declaration: WaPo MORE, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, then-NATO Supreme Commander and U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, and one of his predecessors, former presidential candidate Gen. Wesley Clarke.
In addition to targeting top generals and statesmen, the hackers also attempted to gain access to more than 130 Democratic Party workers, campaign staff and supporters, in addition to various Republicans, according to the AP.
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The hackers also targeted figures outside of the U.S. in Russia, Ukraine, Syria and Georgia, according to the report.
The report comes as special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into alleged ties between Russia's election interference and the Trump campaign enters a new stage.
The Department of Justice announced on Monday that one of President Trump's former campaign advisers, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty earlier this month to lying to FBI agents who are investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
Prosecutors charged Papadopoulos with lying to investigators about his conversations with a foreign professor who told him that Russians had thousands of emails containing "dirt" on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
President Trump promptly responded to news of Papadopoulos pleading guilty, tweeting that he was a low-level volunteer.
"Few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar," the president said, despite pictures surfacing showing him and Papadopoulos meeting with other campaign officials during the campaign.
Also this week, Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who has reported ties to pro-Trump officials in Ukraine, was placed under house arrest after he was charged with conspiracy against the United States, money laundering, false statements and failing to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts.
Manafort's business partner Richard Gates has also been indicted.
The Kremlin told the AP that the notion the country attempted to interfere in the U.S. presidential election was "unfounded."Computers are thought to be on the cusp of a revolution as developers look toward the introduction of quantum power.
One attraction of a quantum powered computer is its ability to simultaneously calculate a number of different possibilities.
Peter Smith, Professor of Optoelectronics, University of Southampton told CNBC Tuesday that Google could this year announce a computer that supersedes current technology.
"So what does it mean for business? Well, it's huge. You give people much more computing power, then that affects finance, it affects business, it affects security, so you can use these things for example to crack encryption.
"You imagine a world in which a quantum computer can break much of what we're currently doing for security, across the internet, across finance," Smith added.
Smith said that although it could be viewed as a risk, quantum technology can also offer unparalleled levels of security.
"But then, that also raises the question of how will governments, how will people feel about totally secure communication that nobody else could break into," he added.
Smith said data centers would likely be key to quantum technology development as users looked to access the new computer power via the cloud.Image from 'Arresting Power' Kickstarter campaign video
The unique history of police violence in Portland is getting a new lens, with the upcoming documentary ‘Arresting Power.”
Over the last two years filmmakers Jodi Darby, Julie Perini, and Erin Yanke have been conducting research and shooting and collecting interviews focusing on the stories of people who have been killed by the police, people who’ve survived Portland police brutality, and those who have organized against such violence.
“As media artists and community activists, we have spent time in meetings, on the front lines of protests and behind cameras and microphones collecting stories of local police issues for the past 15 years.Arresting Poweris the culmination of that work,” they say.
Recently, the seasoned community activists were given access to Oregon Historical Society’s film archives which includes footage of resistance efforts throughout the past 50 years from organizations like the local chapter of the Black Panther Party, Portland Black Berets, and others.
Offering political and historical analysis to policing in America, the film documents the interconnectedness of aforementioned efforts to current accountability and city government change efforts like Portland Copwatch and Portland Community Liberation front.
Community leaders like Albina Ministerial Alliances’ JoAnn Hardesty and Dr. Leroy Haynes Jr., Walidah Imarisha, author of The Oregon Black History Timeline, Dan Handelman from Portland Copwatch, and Kent Ford, founder of the Portland Chapter of the Black Panther Party are just some of those interviewed for the film.
Arresting Power is set to premiere Jan. 2015 at the Northwest Film Center, after which the filmmakers will distribute the film and screen it at national and international festivals, universities, libraries, activist spaces and other community centers.
Though the film is mostly complete, a crowdfunding effort via Kickstarter has been launched by the film to help cover the costs of final editing, distribution and outreach efforts, shipping and travel fees, and finally to pay for footage of film obtained from the Oregon Historical Society, which costs $6-a-minute to use.
Their goal is to raise $20,000 by Dec. 7 when their campaign ends.
Filmmakers Darby, Perini, and Yanke say the ultimate aim for the film is to have it act as an organizing tool and provoke dialogue around alternatives to the current system of policing and strategies to “keep communities safe without the threat of constant surveillance and ubiquitous violence.”
For more information on the film visit its official Facebook page at facebook.com/arrestingpower and to consider contributing to their current crowdsourcing effort ending Dec. 7 visit Kickstarter and search “arresting power.”About
5-A-SIDE is inspired by the ever growing sport of Roller Derby, which in the last ten years, has experienced a massive resurgence. The game features an easy-to-learn rules system that places each player in control of a team and sees them attempt to out-score their opponent. As in the real sport, players must choose when to play offensively or defensively and make constant strategic decisions to protect their points.
Each skater has three statistics; Jam, Block and Tactics. To score points, you must successfully get your Jammer past the opposing Blockers. You do this by giving your Jammer actions to increase their Jam statistic, you prevent your opponent doing this by giving your Blockers actions to increase their Block statistic. The Tactics statistic is used to determine how many actions your team can use.
The game was created by myself, Reese Truscott, known to the Roller Derby community as 'Greese Monkey' with the assistance of a good friend and team mate Ashley Page, or, "Rampage". I am a creative media professional, have been playing Roller Derby for six years and played table top games since childhood. I think that this game will provide a fun and entertaining experience that draws from real situations in Roller Derby and puts them into a quirky environment. This Kickstarter has been created because I want to share this great idea with the world and it is a great platform to get it out there.
In order to win you must increase the abilities of your skaters using the stackable card mechanic. The five different types of action cards; Block, Jam, Teamwork, Strategy and Referee have a vast impact on your team by not only improving statistics, but also providing strategies to execute and take your opponent by surprise.
The first expansion set for 5-A-Side is currently underway, this pack will feature a number of Coaches and Venues to enhance the core set. Each player has a coach with unique abilities that flip over at half time to reveal interesting changes. Look for synergies with your skaters and manage your Coach's abilities for the best result.
Venues add random elements to the game by introducing variable game effects such as leaky roofs that may have positive or negative effects on your skaters. The audience cheering might give
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such an operation where the founders’ “sweat and blood” are the main ingredients for success.
He concluded:
“I wake up earlier than before, because I like to start my day with SatoshiTango, and I believe that is the great advantage. We really enjoy this.”
Images via SatoshiTango and ShutterstockJoel Campbell faced the media after Arsenal’s 1-1 draw against Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League at Emirates Stadium on Sunday. You can read a full transcript of his interview below:
on how he dealt with not playing at the start of the season…Obviously as a player you always want to play, but we have lots of very good players here so you have to be patient and make the most of your opportunity when it comes around.
on which position he prefers…Well, I’m happy playing in any position. I can play centrally, but I feel comfortable on the right too and I just try to do the best job I can.
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on whether he wants to leave…No, I’m an Arsenal player and I’m very happy here. I’m fighting to achieve my aims and hope to stay here for a long time.
on whether he has done enough to secure a regular starting place… You never know in football. I’m just focusing on playing and doing as well as I can, then it’s up to the manager to make the decisions.
on what Arsene Wenger has said to him… Just the normal sort of thing. If I’m playing it’s because he has confidence in me so I just try to do the best job I can.
on whether he is grabbing his first-team chance… Yes I’m trying to take advantage of my opportunity but I know that what happens next is up to the manager. As I’ve said, I’m just focusing on playing and performing as well as possible and the rest is up to him.
on the result… Well, we played very well in the second half and did everything we could to equalise. We’re at home and it’s a derby so we wanted to win, but a point is still a positive result.
on Manchester City drawing… We are happy because we’re joint-top with City, but by the same token there’s a long way to go in the league so we need to keep calm and win as many matches as possible.
on fatigue… Well we have the international break now, but in any case we have players coming back from injury and that’s important for the team.
on injuries… That’s football. It’s a contact sport and there are always going to be injuries.Yesterday, on the latest edition of the regular Sega Raw live stream, Sega producer and director Toshihiro Nagoshi stated that Persona 5 had surpassed 1.8 million copies shipped worldwide.
In the video archive below, around the 49:05 mark, host Ayana Tsubaki talks about how Persona 5 has been a great success in Japan and overseas. Nagoshi replies with the statement that the game has shipped over 1.8 million units WW since it released on September 15, 2016. This number includes digital sales.
On April 5, 2017, it was reported that Persona 5 had exceeded 1.5 million shipped copies worldwide. Since then, the Korean version of the game was released on June 8, 2017.
“SEGA Raw” is a Sega Games produced monthly talk variety show similar to Atlus’ Persona Stalker Club, where upcoming Sega related projects are discussed and featured. The live show is hosted by the director of the Yakuza series Toshihiro Nagoshi, with TV personality and fashion model Ayana Tsubaki.
Persona 5 was released for the PS3 and PS4 in Japan on September 15, 2016. It was released for the PS4 in Traditional Chinese on March 23, 2017. It released in North America and Europe on April 4th, 2017, and in Korean on June 8, 2017.Don’t even ask how much this fuel tank will cost to fill. The giant cylinder is just one of the two tanks that will hold the fuel used to power NASA’s new Space Launch System when it blasts off to take missions to Mars and deep space.
NASA engineers completed the final welding of the liquid oxygen tank this month. The huge component measures 200 feet tall and 27.6 feet wide. It will store oxygen, while another tank will hold liquid hydrogen—together, they will feed the vehicle’s powerful RS-25 engines.
These wide-angle images, shot through a 16 mm fish-eye lens, let you see an awful lot of the Vertical Assembly Center at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans where the tanks are built. Construction involved a 170-foot-tall, 78-foot-wide state-of-the-art welding toolkit—that’s the big blue structure below.
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[Marshall Space Flight Center/NASA]A young adult novel that has come under fire in its author's native country will be making its way to the U.S. Ted Dawe's Into the River, which earlier this month became the first book in more than two decades to be banned in New Zealand, has been acquired by Jason Pinter at Polis Books.
The award-winning coming-of-age novel, published by Random House New Zealand in 2013, recently became a target of the conservative group Family First. According to CNN, a representative from Family First said the book's "strong offensive language" and "strong sexual descriptions" drove the organization's complaint. The group said it also took issue with the fact that book "covers serious things like pedophilia and sexual abuse."
Family First asked that the country's Office of Film and Literature Classification—which generally deals with ratings on things like movies and video games—look into the title, which won the New Zealand Post Margaret Mahy Award in 2013. The result has led to the book being pulled from retailers, schools and libraries.
Targeted at boys 15 and older, the novel follows a Maori boy whose life is upended after he wins a scholarship to an elite prep school in Auckland. Te Arepa Santos's struggles to fit in, as he deals with issues of assimilation, are at the heart of the novel. This process, Pinter explained, forces the character to "turn his back on the culture and history that helped shape him and his ancestors."
The banning of Into the River has stirred a number of authors to speak out, with many criticizing the government for what they perceive as a blatant act of censorship. Among those taking up the issue are Man Booker winner and The Luminaries author Eleanor Catton; she called the ban "appalling and shameful," adding that the move "says nothing about the pretext and everything about those who are enforcing the ban."
Pinter acquired North American rights to Into the River, as well as Dawe's earlier novel Thunder Road (the sequel to Into the River), directly from Random House New Zealand. Polis is aiming to publish Into the River, in both hardcover and e-book, in June 2016.We've been living with the current generation of systems for years now, and while Nintendo is showing off its next big thing at E3, there has been very little news about upcoming home consoles from Sony or Microsoft. That changed during a conference call with investors yesterday, when a Sony executive confirmed what most of us expected: a new console is in the works.
"For the home equipment the PS3 still has a product life," Sony's executive vice president and chief financial officer Masaru Kato said, as reported by Eurogamer, "but this is a platform business, so for the future platform—when we'll be introducing what product I cannot discuss that—but our development work is already under way, so the costs are incurred there."
Kato also noted that it took too long for Sony's costs on the PlayStation 3 to come down, and said that it "is no longer thinkable to have a huge initial financial investment like that of the PS3." The PlayStation 3 launched at a higher cost than its competitors and was filled with cutting-edge hardware for the time, such as the Blu-ray drive and the Cell processor. It was expensive to make, carried a high price tag, and the company suffered for it.
EVERYONE is working on new hardware
This news isn't as big as it may sound at first, as Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo are all constantly looking at new technologies and developing ideas that may or may not ever see the light of day. Console development takes a very long time, and many ideas and concepts are dropped or added along the way; R&D on the "PS4" most likely began as soon as the PlayStation 3 was shipped.
The real news is that Sony may be focusing on using less-expensive components that can be ordered in larger quantities at a lower price. When you're trying to launch a system with as much new tech as the PlayStation 3, you're spending a lot of money on components, and you may be suffering from low yields as the high-end components are mass produced.
By using mature, off-the-shelf parts, Sony could cut costs and lower the price of the system, moves that would likely have little impact on the system's performance. While Sony often claimed the PS3 would be the only "true" high-definition console on the market, it took years for most games to match the graphical fidelity of the 360. You can argue about the possible power of both systems and that argument could get very technical very quickly, but the reality was that the PC-like architecture of the 360 allowed developers to come to grips with the hardware very quickly, while Sony's more intricate configuration only showed its power when developers took the time to learn its strengths and weaknesses.
In a world of so many multiplatform games, that's a trade-off Sony may be less likely to be comfortable with in its new system. We're doing some heavy speculation based on a few quotes, but the good news is clear: Sony may be learning.
Listing image by Image courtesy SonyAfter nearly five months of controversy and debate, members of Congress may face a clear choice over the National Security Agency’s program to collect the phone records of nearly every American: endorse it or shut it down.
On Tuesday, lawmakers are expected to introduce the first comprehensive NSA legislation since the agency’s phone records program was disclosed in June. The proposal, from a bipartisan coalition in the House and the Senate, would effectively halt “bulk” records collection under the USA Patriot Act. Another bipartisan group of lawmakers is preparing legislation that would preserve the program while strengthening privacy protections.
The dueling proposals are setting the stage for what could be a fierce political showdown over the NSA’s authorities. NSA Director Keith Alexander and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. — who are set to testify before Congress on Tuesday — have defended the phone records program as a vital counterterrorism tool. But privacy advocates and critics on Capitol Hill, led by a diverse group of liberal Democrats and libertarian conservatives, have described it as a gross infringement on civil liberties.
“There’s no sugarcoating it. These two trains — one that codifies bulk collection and the other that outlaws it — are on a collision course,” said Gregory Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a privacy advocacy group.
President Obama has called for reforms to restore Americans’ and foreign allies’ trust, including “appropriate” changes to the program collecting data from Americans. “Just because we can get information doesn’t necessarily always mean that we should,” he said at a news conference in Russia last month.
White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said Monday that she could not comment on legislation that had not been introduced yet. But in general, she said, the administration supports changes to achieve “greater oversight, greater transparency and constraints on the use of this authority, as well as measures to enhance public confidence” in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (also known as the FISA court) process. “We are working closely with Congress on these important reforms.”
In July, the House narrowly defeated a measure to defund the phone records collection program. Since then, fresh disclosures about the NSA’s activities and capabilities, based on leaks from former agency contractor Edward Snowden and declassified court opinions, have continued to spark controversy — and have built support for reining in the surveillance.
The phone call database contains billions of records of numbers dialed, as well as the lengths and times of calls, but not their content.
“This is going to be a huge battle because it is fundamentally about whether or not the oversight structure that we set up in the 1970s — to use Congress as a proxy for public oversight so we can have the secrecy of the programs — can be sustained,” said Paul Rosenzweig, who was a senior homeland security policy official in the George W. Bush administration.
The two sets of legislation reflect different judgments about what the proper balance between security and privacy is and ought to be.
On one hand, there is the approach taken by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman; Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), a former House Judiciary Committee chairman; and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. They would end the mass collection of phone data by requiring the government to prove to a court that it is seeking call records relevant to either an agent of a foreign power who is the subject of a terrorism investigation or someone with a link to that agent. Such a requirement would make bulk collection impossible, the proponents say.
The legislation also would require a warrant to deliberately search for the e-mail and phone call content of Americans that is collected as part of a surveillance program targeting foreigners located overseas.
“The government has not made its case that bulk collection of domestic phone records is an effective counterterrorism tool, especially in light of the intrusion on American privacy,” Leahy said at a hearing this month.
Some experts say a viable alternative would be to have phone companies give the NSA data from searches based on phone numbers linked to terrorism. “This process could easily be automated to make it virtually instantaneous,” Edward W. Felten, a Princeton University computer science professor, said in a court brief filed Friday in an ACLU lawsuit challenging the phone program’s constitutionality.
On the other hand, the approach taken by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, focuses on increasing transparency and privacy protections.
The intelligence committee leaders have not introduced their respective bills, but Feinstein has outlined the changes under consideration. They include limiting access to the call database; codifying the requirement that analysts have a “reasonable articulable suspicion” that a phone number is associated with terrorism to query the database; requiring that the FISA court promptly review each such determination; and limiting the retention period for phone records, now five years.
“This program is constitutional,” Feinstein said at a hearing on the issue last month. “It is legal.... I also believe that collecting timely and actionable intelligence is critical to our nation’s security.”
The Intelligence Committee’s bill, she said, would also expand the NSA’s authority to allow it to continue intercepting for three days the phone calls and e-mails of an overseas foreign target who had entered the United States. That would give the government a chance to go to the FISA court to seek a traditional individual warrant to continue the collection. If the warrant was denied, the intercepts would have to be deleted.
The bill would also require Senate confirmation of the NSA director and inspector general.
Both approaches have at least one element in common: a recommendation, endorsed by Obama, that there be a special advocate to promote privacy interests before the FISA court.
The proposal to end bulk collection, if it is allowed to reach the floor, could succeed in the House, where a similar effort failed by only 12 votes in July. At least eight lawmakers who voted against the July measure and two who did not vote on it are now in favor of Leahy and Sensenbrenner’s approach, congressional aides said.
“The public is justifiably concerned about the fact that everybody’s phone calls apparently have been snared in this — even people who have no relationship to terrorism,” Sensenbrenner said in an interview. “But what has come out since the end of July, I think, is going to tip the scales in favor of a significant NSA reform.”
Rosenzweig, for his part, said he thinks “the insurgent movement” will not succeed in ending bulk collection, “but I am quite sure that they are going to wind up getting changes — that something will happen.”On Syria, You Say Bureaucratic Politics, I Say Realism — Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off
Your humble blogger has been banging on for well over a year that a very brutal form of realpolitik was guiding the Obama administration’s Syria policy. For example, I wrote the following back in June of this year when the administration announced a plan to arm the Syrian rebels:
To your humble blogger, this is simply the next iteration of the unspoken, brutally realpolitik policy towards Syria that’s been going on for the past two years. To recap, the goal of that policy is to ensnare Iran and Hezbollah into a protracted, resource-draining civil war, with as minimal costs as possible. This is exactly what the last two years have accomplished…. at an appalling toll in lives lost. This policy doesn’t require any course correction… so long as rebels are holding their own or winning. A faltering Assad simply forces Iran et al into doubling down and committing even more resources. A faltering rebel movement, on the other hand, does require some external support, lest the Iranians actually win the conflict.
When I blogged this, I got a fair amount of pushback, arguing that this overestimated the Obama administration’s coherence on foreign policy and underestimated the bureaucratic politics going on.
As a useful study aid, Mark Mazzetti, Robert Worth, and Michael Gordon have a pretty well-sourced story in the New York Times that looks at the administration’s thinking on Syria over the past few years. Looking over the story, there’s clearly some healthy support for the bureaucratic politics narrative:
[A]fter hours of debate in which top advisers considered a range of options, including military strikes and increased support to the rebels, the [June 2013] meeting ended the way so many attempts to define a Syrian strategy had ended in the past, with the president’s aides deeply divided over how to respond to a civil war that had already claimed 100,000 lives…. A close examination of how the Obama administration finds itself at this point — based on interviews with dozens of current and former members of the administration, foreign diplomats and Congressional officials — starts with a deeply ambivalent president who has presided over a far more contentious debate among his advisers than previously known. Those advisers reflected Mr. Obama’s own conflicting impulses on how to respond to the forces unleashed by the Arab Spring: whether to side with those battling authoritarian governments or to avoid the risk of becoming enmeshed in another messy war in the Middle East…. In the first high-level discussion about wading into the conflict a few days later, the C.I.A. director, David H. Petraeus, presented a plan to begin arming and training small groups of rebel forces at secret bases in Jordan. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton backed Mr. Petraeus’s plan. She said it was time for the United States to get “skin in the game.” Mr. Obama went around the table asking what his aides thought about the C.I.A. plan. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and General Dempsey backed it. But others thought the proposal by Mr. Petraeus, a former four-star general who championed covert paramilitary operations, offered high risks with few rewards. Susan E. Rice, the American ambassador to the United Nations, spoke up by videophone, warning that arming the rebels would draw the United States into a murky conflict that could consume the agenda of the president’s second term and would probably make little difference on the chaotic battlefield.
So, score one for the bureaucratic politics crowd. But I think there’s some support for my argument as well:
In private conversations with aides, Mr. Obama described Syria as one of those hellish problems every president faces, where the risks are endless and all the options are bad. Those views would then be reflected in larger groups by Tom Donilon, the national security adviser, and Mr. McDonough. “You could read the president’s position through Tom and Denis,” one former senior White House official said…. By April, senior officials said, one of the major skeptics, Mr. Donilon, had shifted in favor of arming the rebels. Another strong opponent in the fall, Ms. Rice, had also shifted her position, partly because of the alarming intelligence about the state of the rebellion. Mr. McDonough, who had perhaps the closest ties to Mr. Obama, remained skeptical. He questioned how much it was in America’s interest to tamp down the violence in Syria. Accompanying a group of senior lawmakers on a day trip to the Guantánamo Bay naval base in early June, Mr. McDonough argued that the status quo in Syria could keep Iran pinned down for years. In later discussions, he also suggested that a fight in Syria between Hezbollah and Al Qaeda would work to America’s advantage, according to Congressional officials. (emphasis added)
Reviewing the evidence from this story, I don’t see a monocausal story here. Clearly, a lack of consensus among Obama’s top foreign policymakers buttressed his own stated reluctance to get too deeply involved in Syria. That said, the policymakers with the most influence over the president were articulating a rationale for why continued conflict might not be a bad thing. It’s also not a coincidence that a bureaucratic consensus emerged as it became clear that the rebel movement was faltering. These two causal logics complement rather than contradict each other.
[OK, but what about the chemical weapons deal? Doesn’t that signal a shift in strategy that binds the Obama administration to the Assad regime?–ed. So long as the chemical weapons removal is proceeding, yes, this is true. But I do wonder about the time inconsistency problem. Once the chemical weapons infrastructure is removed — and the evidence to date suggests that this is proceeding apace — then I don’t see what keeps the administration from ratcheting up pressure on the Syrian regime. If Assad can’t secure his position over the next 3-6 months, then he’s facing a more potentially more precarious situation afterwards.]
What do you think?Saturday on CNN’s “Smerconish,” Media Matters founder David Brock, a supporter of presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, discussed the allegations of improprieties regarding the Clinton Foundation, in particular accepting donations from foreign governments that were lobbying for favorable treatment by the United States while Clinton was secretary of state.
The allegations, which are assumed to be part of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s speech on Clinton, were laid out in Breitbart editor at large Peter Schweizer’s “Clinton Cash” and dismissed by Brock.
“Look, I think these charges were aired more than a year ago,” Brock said. “A lot — you know, every major media outlet in the country that I could see look into the allegations raised in the book to the questions that were raised and they all concluded that there’s no there, there. That there’s no evidence that the money influenced decisions. And in fact, in the specifics that are raised on the uranium case and the interagency process, the appointee in that interagency process from State says they never spoke to Hillary Clinton about it. So on the facts, just wrong. But I think the bigger question is you led with Donald Trump. Is this Donald Trump’s playbook? And if it is, he’s going to come up short, just as the author of this book came up short a year ago. Donald Trump is certainly the wrong messenger for anti-corruption story and the Clinton Foundation tried to help people in need. Look at that compared to Trump University and the scam that was pulled.”
Host Michael Smerconish pointed out that the allegations were not without merit and pointed to mainstream media outlets including The New York Times and The Washington Post taking them seriously.
“They did,” Brock replied. “Sure, and in fact, they built on it, but what did they come up with? They didn’t come up with anything more than what he came up with. The book was taken seriously by the mainstream media. Look, Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal took leads from the book and looked in it for months and found quote, ‘no wrongdoing.’ So the book has been aired. It’s had its days in the sun and it did nothing.”
Smerconish said he didn’t put Schweizer’s “Clinton Cash” in the same category as “the crap” about Vince Foster, to which Brock agreed. However, Brock said when Trump uses them in his speech, he anticipates his pro-Clinton super PAC Correct the Record will respond with a fact check in “real time.”
“I tell you how we’ll respond,” he said. “We’re going to fact check that speech in real time and we know that Donald Trump is factually challenged if nothing else. The things he’s thrown out about the Clintons to date have come out of just scurrilous tabloids. I don’t know if he’s going to use this book as part of his playbook, but we’re going to fact check him in real time and then we’re going to raise the issues that need to be raised about Donald Trump on the issue of corruption. The Politico did an investigation just weeks ago and found ties to the organized crime to the Russian mob. Let’s talk about his foreign ties. Who are his foreign investors? He wants to talk about – you know, the reason we know all this is they are 100 percent transparent. Where are Donald Trump’s tax returns? That’s what we’re going to see on Monday, Michael.”
When asked if it would have been better if the Clinton Foundation had not accepted foreign donations, Brock said there was a need for foreign money because it was a “global initiative.”
“I think you have to take foreign money. It’s a global initiative,” he added. “I think you have to take the foreign money and the protocols were set up at the State Department and they were followed.”
Follow Breitbart.tv on Twitter @BreitbartVideoCross‐sex hormones may be continued into old age but monitoring for cardiovascular disease and malignancies, both of the old and new sex, is recommended. MtoF will have more health complications in old age than FtoM requiring adaptations of treatment. Gooren L and Lips P. Conjectures concerning cross‐sex hormone treatment of aging transsexual persons. J Sex Med 2014;11:2012–2019.
Testosterone administration to female‐to‐male transsexual persons (FtoM) carries little risk with regard to cardiovascular disease and cancer. For those with high hematocrit or cardiac insufficiency the dose can be reduced. Administration of estrogens to male‐to‐female transsexual persons (MtoF), particularly when combined with progestins, does significantly increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease (almost a twofold incidence compared with the general population). This may require dose adjustment or changing from oral to safer transdermal estrogens. Tumors of the breasts, prostate and pituitary may occur. In FtoM, breast cancer can occur even after breast ablation. Older subjects can commence cross‐sex hormone treatment without disproportionate risks.
Due to lack of data on the subject population, sex hormone treatment of other conditions in older non‐transsexual people has been taken as the best available analogy to determine the extent to which these might be applicable to comparable transsexual persons. Findings in transsexual people receiving cross‐sex hormone treatment sometimes modified the above approach of applying guidelines for the elderly to the aging transsexual population.
Guidelines for cross‐sex hormone treatment of transsexual people are now in place. However, little attention has been paid to the issue of treatment suitability for older people. Does existing treatment need to be adapted as subjects age, and does it make a difference if treatment is only started when the subject is already older?
Introduction The administration of cross‐sex hormones to transsexual persons has become accepted medical practice. However, a question mark hovers over the continuation of such treatment beyond the age of 60 years. Should the dosage level remain the same as the subject ages? Should it be adjusted? Can hormone treatment be stopped altogether? This article addresses these questions. It also examines the feasibility of initiating cross‐sex hormone treatment in transsexual people aged between 60 and 70 years. Due to limited endocrine data on older transsexual subjects, any recommendations must necessarily be largely speculative, but they do reflect parallel experience with treatment approaches in other aging people receiving sex steroid replacement therapy, while also taking account of knowledge gained from the treatment of transsexual people.
Endocrine Treatment Recommendations for Transsexual People The first reports detailing cross‐sex hormone treatment of transsexual people began appearing nearly a half‐century ago 1-3. In 1981 Walter Meyer published a survey of such treatment in 20 gender clinics 4. In 2009 a major step forward was taken when a task force of The Endocrine Society formulated guidelines for the endocrine treatment of transsexual people 5. Another paper provided recommendations for treatment and its potential complications 6. The guidelines specified dosage schemes of hormones, contraindications, recommendations for clinical follow‐up and warnings concerning short‐ and long‐term side effects. These were necessarily based on clinical experience and general expertise in the area of sex hormone treatment as available knowledge about cross‐sex hormone treatment did not allow for evidence‐based recommendations 7. Since that time several papers on the hormonal treatment of transsexual people have appeared, but none has specifically addressed the needs of an aging population and the potential pitfalls that might be encountered when providing cross‐sex hormone treatment to it. In this article, the literature on hormone treatment of transsexual people is reviewed in the light of its relevance to that aging population. This information is set against the general principles of providing sex hormone treatment to elderly (non‐transsexual) people. The question of whether and to what extent sex hormone treatment of elderly men and women can be applied to transsexual subjects is also scrutinized, as well as points where differences emerge. Older women are compared with transsexual women who were born male but have undergone sex‐change treatment (referred to in this article as MtoF). Older men are compared with transsexual men who were born female (FtoM). The recommendations made are not evidence‐based, but represent clinical expertise and could serve to guide future research into cross‐sex hormone treatment specifically aimed at older transsexual subjects.
The Aging of the Transsexual Population Little is known about the age distribution of transsexual people throughout the world, though the matter has recently been reviewed 8. Data from the gender clinic of the VU University medical center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which started in 1975, might provide some guidance. This is the only gender clinic in the Netherlands, a country of 16 million people. The health insurance system of the Netherlands provides generous access to medical care, including all aspects of sex reassignment treatment. Since 1975 there has been a steady growth of those seeking sex reassignment and in the 30 years until 2005, applications for treatment consisting of cross‐sex hormone administration and surgery including gonadectomy were received by 2,307 MtoF (approximately 70 per year) and 795 FtoM (about 27 per year). This is a sex ratio of roughly 3:1. Most MtoF were between 25 and 40 years old when applying for sex reassignment treatment. FtoM were younger on average (20 to 35 years). But occasionally people over 50 or even 60 years of age sought help. Postsurgery cross‐sex hormone treatment has to be continued to guarantee well‐being in the sex experienced as one's own and to prevent the sequelae of sex steroid deficiency such as osteoporosis. Of the above population approximately 700 of the 2,307 MtoF and 225 of the 795 FtoM have now reached the age of 50 years.
Pertinent Questions Two questions immediately arise: The first is whether cross‐sex hormone treatment needs to be adjusted with age, analogous to sex steroid replacement therapy in older non‐transsexual people, such as postmenopausal women. The second is whether transsexual persons above the age of 50–60 years should be accepted for cross‐sex hormone treatment, and what possible precautions should pertain. There are no easy answers to these questions. A fundamental issue with regard to the first one is whether MtoF who have undergone decades of estrogen treatment (often with antiandrogens) have acquired a biological–endocrinological status identical to natal women, and whether FtoM can be similarly compared with natal men. Obviously, the answer should come from controlled studies but these are unlikely to be feasible. Arguing against biological feminization of MtoF is a study reporting that breast cancer in MtoF displays more similarities with breast cancer in men than in women 9. Furthermore, androgen‐deprived MtoF treated with estrogens may still develop a prostate carcinoma 10. There are clear differences in the white adipose tissue of males and females at many levels, including quantity, distribution, metabolic capacity, inputs, etc. A large number of metabolic processes are influenced by sex steroids and a large part of glucose‐fat metabolism varies with the prevailing sex steroid milieu 11. This means that while some of these differences are mediated by factors that are modified by sex steroids, others appear to be genetically inherent to each sex and therefore neither modified nor modifiable by a new sex steroid milieu. Genetic mechanisms may also lead to a difference in androgen action between men and women 12. Transsexual individuals often experience considerable struggles in the process of acquiring their new sex status. Cross‐sex hormones, which are a primary enabler of the transition to the new sex, take on a symbolic importance and the prospect of stopping these can be a source of anxiety. There is a fear that not taking the hormones may somehow jeopardize the hard‐won new sex status. The following section provides a concise review of the benefits and detriments of sex steroid hormone replacement treatment in aging non‐transsexual people, and considers whether valid parallels can be drawn with the situation in transsexual persons.
The MtoF Compared with the (Post)Menopausal Woman Women pass through menopause at about 40 to 60 years of age, with a median of around 52 years. Although estrogen production decreases profoundly, the postmenopausal ovary remains a source of some estrogens, largely through aromatization of ovarian androgens. Epidemiological studies show that postmenopausal bone mineral density continues to depend on the remaining estrogen level 13. MtoF who have undergone orchidectomy are probably in a situation resembling that of women with surgical menopause. In that case bone loss is more rapid during the first years. This suggests that complete discontinuation of hormones in MtoF older than 50 is not advisable. A low dose of unmodified estrogens after 50 years may be preferable.
Testosterone Replacement in (Elderly/Hypogonadal) Men Compared with FtoM Traditionally, testosterone treatment of hypogonadal men has received much less attention than estrogen treatment of postmenopausal women. But over the last decades there has been increasing focus on declining serum testosterone in aging men. Initially this decline was attributed to chronological age but that turns out to be incorrect. In fact, it is one's general health and metabolic status (metabolic syndrome, obesity, diabetes mellitus), which often deteriorate with age, that determine testosterone levels as one grows old 14. Studies in men with prostate cancer have been enlightening: Those who undergo complete androgen deprivation treatment develop metabolic syndrome and have higher risk of loss of bone mineral density 15. It has been established that men with serum testosterone levels less than 6.5 nmol/L have significantly worse metabolic profiles than men with eugonadal values of testosterone 16. There is an increased morbidity and mortality in men with low serum testosterone levels 17. Administration of testosterone to elderly men improves their metabolic status, reduces their body weight and waist circumference, and improves their lipid profiles and glucose metabolism 18, though blinded placebo‐controlled clinical trials have not been performed. Men with the sequelae of androgen deficiency whose testosterone treatment is discontinued return to their status of androgen deficiency, accompanied by diminished aromatization to estrogens. In other words, the benefits of testosterone replacement are not maintained after discontinuation of testosterone treatment. Because of this, current opinion holds that serum testosterone in aging men should be (maintained) in the eugonadal range. Unless there are contraindications (cardiovascular disease, unstable diabetes), testosterone treatment may be continued into old age, though probably at a lower dose. It is as yet unclear whether these findings apply to aging FtoM, but these people should be carefully followed up; in view of the relative safety of testosterone administration to the elderly, there are presently no strong arguments to stop testosterone administration or to reduce the dose in FtoM.
Effects of Sex Steroids on Drug Metabolism With aging the use of drugs usually increases. It is not widely appreciated that cross‐sex hormone treatment may have implications for drug binding and metabolism and may necessitate dose adjustments 19. Frequent and sometimes clinically relevant gender differences were able to be identified for drug elimination processes and were predominantly linked to the sex‐specific expression of metabolic enzyme systems, e.g., CYP3A4 and CYP1A2. In contrast, gender‐related differences in renal elimination are generally only of minor importance. With regard to pharmacodynamics, gender differences have been observed in baseline characteristics as well as in drug response, which might both, at least in part, be the consequence of modulation by sex hormones. Some of the most striking examples identified were in pain therapy and perception, glucose management and arrhythmia susceptibility 20. The available evidence suggests that sex hormones influence drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, pharmacodynamics, and adverse effects. For instance, many cardiovascular drugs are metabolized by enzymes of the cytochrome P450 mono‐oxygenases system, which is more expressed in females than in males, thus demonstrating sex differences in drug response 21.
Cardiovascular Disease Cardiovascular disease remains the leading killer of both women and men in the United States and Europe, but there are substantial sex‐ and gender‐based differences in the prevalence and burden of different cardiovascular diseases. The prevalence of coronary heart disease is higher in men at each age stratum until after 65–75 years of age, which may contribute to the perception that heart disease is a man's disease. This makes remarkable at first sight that estrogen treatment of MtoF has been associated with elevated cardiovascular morbidity 22 and mortality 23. The incidence mortality rates were 123 per 100,000 person‐years in MtoF (95% confidence interval: 73 to 173) and 15 per 100,000 person‐years in FtoM (95% confidence interval: 1 to 68). The use of ethinyl estradiol is a risk factor 23 but in
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added of experience…. Whichever way you go with grad school/law school/experience, start to carve out your own voice. Have a “thing” that you want to claim as your little slice of expertise. The strange thing about this town is that what you claim to be an expert on, your are perceived to be an expert on until proven otherwise (which can be a really good thing or a dangerously bad thing!) (emphasis added)
And here we get to the heart of the matter. In a community where the interns have master’s degrees and the competition for remunerative jobs is fierce, the Ph.D. actually does count for something as a credential, no matter how much pundits and textbooks like to mock it. But going to get a Ph.D. in political science comes with lots of sacrifice and great risks as well as great rewards. [And for those of you who immediately react by thinking "this is what’s wrong with a pseudo-scientific discipline that values the credential over real-world knowledge," let me assure you of two things: Political science Ph.D.s actually do accumulate a healthy amount of "real-world knowledge," and political science is hardly the only profession where people have exaggerated their credentials.]
O’Bagy is hardly the first person to misrepresent her academic credentials — nor is she the most egregious example. And everyone "embellishes" their accomplishments on a CV or a résumé. But this episode suggests that maybe, just maybe, think tanks and consulting firms in Washington should do a little more due diligence in their hiring. And for those 20-somethings thinking about faking it so they can make it, bear this parable in mind about the possible consequences.
What do you think?The US manufacturing base is surprisingly strong
Theodore Moran, Lindsay Oldenski
There is indisputable evidence that manufacturing employment as a share of total employment in the US has been declining. This column argues that focusing on employment masks important signs of growth of the manufacturing sector. Using most up-to-date data, the authors reason that the US manufacturing base is growing larger, more productive and competitive. The expansion of operations abroad by US manufacturing multinationals leads to particularly strong increases in economic activity – including creation of greater numbers of high-paying manufacturing jobs – by those same firms in the US domestic economy.
Recently, a number of studies, descriptive employment statistics, and statements by US politicians have raised concerns about the strength of US manufacturing. For example, in a January 2014 Journal of Economic Perspectives article, Martin Baily and Barry Bosworth expressed concern about the recent absolute decline in US manufacturing employment, as well as the long-recognised decreasing share of manufacturing within overall US employment. They also argued that productivity growth in manufacturing can be attributed solely to the unusual performance of computer production rather than to the accomplishments of the manufacturing sector more broadly. US Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont states on his website that “The manufacturing sector in Vermont and throughout the United States has eroded significantly in recent years and must be rebuilt to expand the middle class”. President Barack Obama has based his corporate tax reform proposals on the view that US manufacturing firms must be discouraged from “shipping jobs overseas” (State of the Union 2013).
To be sure, the evidence is indisputable that manufacturing employment has been steadily declining as a share of total US employment, and the absolute number of US manufacturing jobs has plummeted by almost 30% just since 2000.
But the perennial focus on employment masks important signs of the growing strength of the US manufacturing base. In a recent Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) policy brief (Moran and Oldenski 2014), we analyse the most detailed and up-to-date data on the state of US manufacturing.
Our research shows that the overall size of the US industrial base – real value-added in manufacturing – has been growing rapidly for more than four decades, and is on track to surpass the all-time 2006-7 high before the end of 2014.
In contrast to other researchers, we show that US manufacturing growth is broad-based and includes subsectors such as transportation equipment, medical equipment, machinery, semiconductors, communications equipment, and motor vehicles, as well as computers and electronics.
Moreover, contrary to widespread hand-wringing about weakening competitive performance on the part of US firms and workers, productivity in the manufacturing sector has been growing, both absolutely and relative to other sectors of the US economy.
At the same time, the most recent data show that the productivity growth in US manufacturing is also strong in comparison to other countries.
Finally, our research shows clearly that increased offshoring of manufacturing operations by US multinationals is associated with increases in the size and strength of their manufacturing activities in the US.
Indeed, the preponderance of net job loss in the US manufacturing sector comes within companies that stay at home and do not invest abroad. Of particular note is the large feedback to US R&D and other high-skilled services from outward investment on the part of US manufacturing multinationals.
Looking beyond employment data in US manufacturing
President Obama is the latest in a succession of political leaders who resolve that the US must find ways to strengthen the manufacturing sector and make it more competitive. Between 2000 and 2011, manufacturing jobs declined from 17.3 million to 11.6 million – a decline of 5.7 million or some 33%. There has been a slight increase in total manufacturing employment since 2010, with 12.0 million manufacturing jobs reported for 2013. This is still about a 30% decline, however, relative to 2000.
But this decline in manufacturing jobs is not because the size of the US manufacturing base is shrinking. Real value-added in manufacturing grew by 3.1% per year over the entire period 1960-2007, and after a dip during the recession recovered with 4% per year growth from 2010 through 2013. Even with a growth rate no higher than 2.8% per year, the absolute size of the US industrial base – total value-added in manufacturing – will surpass the all-time 2006-2007 high before the end of 2014.
Some authors – notably Martin Baily and Barry Bosworth (2014) – argue that this US manufacturing output growth has been driven primarily by one subsector – computers and electronics. But when we investigate the heterogeneity within the US manufacturing sector, we find that a number of other subsectors, including transportation equipment, medical equipment, machinery, semiconductors, communications equipment, and motor vehicles all grew at rates well above the manufacturing sector average.
Not only is the US manufacturing base becoming bigger than ever but the productivity of firms and workers in manufacturing leads the rest of the US economy in growing stronger. Total factor productivity and labour productivity in the manufacturing sector have been growing faster in the manufacturing sector than in the economy as a whole. At the same time, the most recent data show that the productivity growth in US manufacturing is strong not just relative to other sectors within the US, but also in comparison to other countries. In 2010 and 2011 (the most recent years for which data are available), the share of manufacturing value-added in total US GDP grew by 2.19%, while the total global share of manufacturing value-added in world income fell by 0.99%. Thus, the US is in a very strong position to compete globally in the manufacturing sector, even with sluggish employment numbers.
But major policy questions – particularly important in contemporary Washington – remain. What is the role of outward investment by US manufacturing companies in the evolution of the US industrial base? Might US firms and workers in the manufacturing sector be even larger and more competitive in the domestic economy if US manufacturing firms did less investing abroad?
The impact of offshoring by US multinationals on US domestic output, investment, and employment
To investigate the impact of outward investment by manufacturing multinationals on their operations at home, we use comprehensive firm-level data collected by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) to empirically identify what happens when an individual firm expands its operations abroad. We employ panel regression methods with data on all US MNCs over a 20-year time period. We include firm-fixed effects that hold constant everything that is unique about a given firm, isolating how its employment in the US and the other variables we examine change when it increases its outward FDI. Thus, all the characteristics that define a given firm – such as the industry it operates in, its size, its relative market power, etc. – are controlled for and do not confound the results. We also include year-fixed effects, which hold constant everything external to the firm that was going on in a given year, thus removing any potential impact of recessions and booms.
We track the changes in employment, sales, capital investment, and R&D in the US that are associated with offshoring and other types of foreign expansion by US firms. In a novel exercise, we compare the outcomes for manufacturing multinationals strictly defined and service multinationals with manufacturing operations. This latter investigation improves upon existing studies of pure manufacturing firms. We include firms for which the majority of US operations are classified as services, including high value activities such as R&D, engineering, IT services, marketing and management, but which also offshore manufacturing production. By analysing these kinds of firms, we are able to assess how offshoring of manufacturing impacts domestic services within the same firm.
Figure 1 shows the results broken down by the primary industry of operations in the US and in the foreign affiliates of the US firms. The top panel of Figure 1 shows the results only for strictly defined manufacturing firms, that is, firms that primarily focus on manufacturing both in their US headquarters and at their foreign affiliates. The bottom panel looks at firms that primarily focus on services at their US headquarters, but that also perform manufacturing activities abroad, and shows what happens to these firms when they expand manufacturing sales or employment at their foreign affiliates.
The first thing to note about these results is that they are all positive. Thus, by any measure, expansion abroad by a US-based MNC is associated with domestic US expansion by the same firm. The foreign operations of these firms are complements to – not substitutes for – domestic US operations.
While all types of offshoring are associated with increased activity in the US, some particularly important patterns emerge.
First, the overseas expansion of US manufacturing firms is accompanied by a positive and significant increase in employment at home.
Of course, this positive relationship does not emerge in each and every case. Some plants may close, other plants may open, and the composition of jobs within plants may change. But our results show that the creation of jobs by US multinationals abroad and the expansion of sales by US multinationals abroad are both associated with overall more jobs at home. Indeed, the preponderance of net job loss in the US manufacturing sector comes within companies that stay at home and do not invest abroad.
Figure 1. Relationship between foreign manufacturing expansion and domestic manufacturing and service activities of US MNCs
Notes: Based on regressions using BEA firm-level data from 1990-2009. All results are statistically significant at the 1% level. All specifications include firm- and year-fixed effects.
Second, it is notable that the largest benefits from offshoring manufacturing tasks accrue to US R&D.
For example, a 10% increase in manufacturing employment at foreign affiliates of US firms is associated with a 6.2% increase in the amount of US R&D spending at the firms doing the offshoring. When the US site is primarily focused on R&D and other services, increasing manufacturing offshoring by 10% leads to a 10.8% increase in the amount of US R&D spending at that firm. When manufacturing offshoring is measured using sales by foreign affiliates, rather than employment, the increases in domestic R&D spending associated with a 10% increase abroad are 13.2% for service-focused US facilities. In other words, international expansion by US firms does not reduce their domestic activities. Instead, it is accompanied by increases in investment at home, and these increases are the largest for R&D spending.
Finally, our results reveal that when manufacturing tasks are offshored, much of the gain for the US shows up back within the US domestic service sector.
Oldenski (2012) has shown that US MNCs offshore their relatively more routine tasks but keep the most complex and non-routine tasks in the US. This specialisation is not surprising based on the strong US comparative advantage in more highly-skilled and non-routine tasks such as innovation, engineering, and management rather than routine tasks such as basic assembly. Further work by Oldenski (2014) demonstrates that this specialisation, according to comparative advantage, results in the creation of more highly-skilled, high-wage jobs in the US.
There is no dispute that the data show that aggregate employment in the US manufacturing sector has declined since 2000. But such observed decline in domestic employment cannot be traced to the overseas expansion of US firms because of our clear confirmation that offshoring is accompanied by domestic expansion on the part of the firms that are doing the offshoring. Other factors, such as recessions, new technologies, or changes in demand must be the culprits in domestic job destruction. Quite to the contrary, if US MNCs had not undertaken the external investments and external job creation that they did during this period, the results in Figure 1 indicate that US domestic employment at US MNCs would be lower, not higher.
Conclusions
A careful look at the most recent and detailed data shows that despite falling employment, the US manufacturing base is growing larger, more productive, and more competitive. The results of our empirical analysis show that the expansion of operations abroad by US manufacturing multinationals leads to particularly strong increases in economic activity – including creation of greater numbers of high-paying manufacturing jobs – by those same firms in the US domestic economy. The policy implications are clear – any measures that the US might take to hinder or dis-incentivise outward expansion by US firms would lead to less robust economic activity – and fewer good US jobs at home, not more.
References
Baily, M N and B P Bosworth (2014), “US Manufacturing: Understanding Its Past and Its potential Future”, Journal of Economic Perspectives 28:1, 3-26.
Moran, T H and L Oldenski (2014), “The US Manufacturing Base: Four Signs of Strength”, Peterson Institute for International Economics Policy Brief Number 14-18 (June 2014).
Oldenski, L (2012), “The Task Composition of Offshoring by US Multinationals”, International Economics, Issue 131 (December).
Oldenski, L (2014), “Offshoring and the Polarization of the US Labor Market”, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 67, May.Night 1
Right, dat should do dat shit. throat clear Yo dawwwwg! Glad ta peep you're hustlin there, so peek-a-boo, clear tha way, I be comin' thru fo'sho. Da name's Fritz, n' welcome ta tha Popgoes' Pizzeria. Da next generation of lil playas entertainment son! As you already, you'll be guardin dis place until 6 up in tha morning, n' as yo' boss, I'm obliged ta help you KNOW yo' thang n' tha tools you'll be allowed ta use durin tha shift. Right back up in yo muthafuckin ass. So, first thang's first. I'm gonna be honest, yo' current setup might not be hella...optimal, so ta say. I didn't have time ta prepare a thugged-out designated room fo' you up in tha location so you'll just gotta manage wit rockin one of tha Internizzle Cafe monitors near tha stage next ta tha gang. Don't start complainin just yet, I've set a spot near tha window fo' you, biatch. Even looted a gangbangin' fan! Anyway, tha beeper you have up in yo' hand...it's probably used by lil playas durin tha dizzle fo' game n' whatnot yo, but I've sorted up tha securitizzle application dat only activates durin tha night, which is when you're here, obviously. Everythang you need fo' yo' thang is locked n loaded ta use. Go on, press some buttons muthafucka! Yo ass can check all tha rooms wit set cameras dat is connected online n' tha ventilation too! sigh Alright, I know what tha fuck you're thinking. First night on tha thang, I'm ramblin a funky-ass bit, it's a shitload ta take in. I aint talkin' bout chicken n' gravy biatch fo' realz. And fo'sho, I know there be a funky-ass bunch of anthropromorphic plastic muthafuckas round you watchin you work. Trust me when I say I know how tha fuck dat feels. Yo crazy-ass imagination might git a tad bit outta control. Right back up in yo muthafuckin ass. Stress do dat ta you, biatch. But don't worry dawwwwg! You're straight-up safe here, so peek-a-boo, clear tha way, I be comin' thru fo'sho. I've built dis place from tha ground up ta be one of da most thugged-out transparent, real n' safest places on Earth, unlike....some other bidnizzes. If you eva start feelin anxious, lookin up tha window or just...y'know, takin a look outside should calm you, biatch. That tendz ta work fo' me at least. Right, back ta tha anthropromorphic muthafuckas. I'm shizzle you already guessed by now dat these is our animatronic characters. Top of tha line technologizzle dawwwwg! Honestly, tha name "animatronic" don't do dem justice, they're mo' like....multi purpose robots, n' you can put dat on yo' toast. They can be programmed ta do anythang I can be thinkin of. They pretty much run dis place now, nahmeean, biatch? Of course, again, they is straight-up harmless. They aren't physically capable of hurtin anybody. Made shizzle of dat mah dirty ass. Ugh, I feel like I might be goin on fo' too long. Last thang on tha list: Yo ass may have noticed dat dis be a pre-recorded message, which means if you wanna ask a question, you won't git a answer n' shit. But hey dawwwwg! To fix that, I've given you some options. I stayed up all night ta set up a simple Q&A session ta [unknown]. When dis call ends, yo big-ass booty is ghon git 3 topics ta chizzle from n' when you chizzle one of them, another audio of mine will play ta help explain whatever you wanna know mo' about. Quite nifty, right, biatch? Obviously, not like as much freedom as a aiiight beeper call yo, but it'll gotta do fo' now, nahmeean, biatch? Well that's it fo' yo' first night. Peep dem cameras n' don't forget ta take a funky-ass breather once up in a while. Yo crazy-ass 3 options should appear...now.
Night 1 - What tha fuck iz tha "ROOM SHUT-DOWN" button?#
Ah, aiiiight son! Yo ass wanna learn mo' bout yo' thang, that's good. Y'all KNOW dat shit, muthafucka! I be fly as a gangbangin' falcon, soarin all up in tha sky dawwwwg! Well as you might have noticed, you can reset any electronic or wireless connections up in 6 of tha pizzeria's rooms by rockin yo' phone's "ROOM SHUT-DOWN" button. I aint talkin' bout chicken n' gravy biatch. I added dis feature ta yo' beeper ta ease tha thang of havin ta fix any tech related problems dat might crop up durin yo' shift. Y'know, so you don't gotta go there n' manually fix dat shit. Right back up in yo muthafuckin ass. So if you peep tha printas goin awry or something, just push dat button n' wait all dem secondz fo' all tha systems ta go back online. Put ya muthafuckin choppers up if ya feelin dis shiznit! Bear up in mind, technical faults almost never happen here, so I straight-up doubt you'll need ta use it dat much. Oh, n' don't worry bout breakin any machinery. They'll just go back ta bustin they aiiight activitizzles tha shuttin down proceedure is complete, which be bout 5 ta 10 secondz long fo' realz. Alright, well, that's yo' first night. I'll do tha same thang fo' you tomorrow. Yo ass know what tha fuck ta do. Dope night, kid.
Night 1 - What is tha robots capable of bustin?
Yo dawwwwg! Dope ta peep you wanna learn mo' bout mah crew. If you paid attention ta mah first message, you must've heard mah crazy ass say dat these robots can do pretty much anything, yes, biatch? Well I wasn't clownin. I aint talkin' bout chicken n' gravy biatch. This place is straight-up automated n' run entirely by dem wild-ass muthafuckas. No human hommies az of yet. Don't need them, straight-up. Da staff room exists ta keep tha ventilation openin outta hustlas. Cooking, cleaning, printing, struttin, takin care of kids, etc, etc, it's all down ta tha cartoon muthafuckas fo' realz. All straight-up efficient. Yes yes y'all. cough Did I rap dat I built tha charactas too, biatch? That's what tha fuck tha 3D Printas was originally for, before they was repurposed ta do tha same thang but...a shitload smalla n' shit. really awkward laugh Didn't need mah playas fo' dat either n' shit. Designed, printed, put together all by yours truly. Relyin on other playas is nonsense, I rap, biatch. Of course, don't let dat discourage you from bustin yo' thang. There is always exceptions. Right, uh, that'll be it fo' tha straight-up original gangsta night. I'll do tha same thang fo' tomorrow. Right back up in yo muthafuckin ass. See ya, kid.
Night 1 - How tha fuck is dis place durin tha day?
Da Popgoes' Pizzeria. Well shiiiit, it is straight-up is something, right, biatch? Which make dis a pimpin' broad topic ta rap bout yo, but I bet you can just guess how tha fuck most of it works by takin a peep tha place. Though I straight-up "the next generation of kid's entertainment" soundz dull, it aint nuthin but a gangbangin' fittin motto. When a kid opens tha door, they can grab a WeaselWare beeper from one of tha shelves n' play round wit dat shit. Da beeper will connect ta a monitor like yours yo, but durin tha dizzle it'll let tha lil playas play games, make thangs wit tha 3D printas ta paint on, use a shitload of tha repurposed arcades, etc, all of dis n' no staff required. Y'all KNOW dat shit, muthafucka! Yes, Popgoes n' tha crew keep tha lil pimps n' tha shiznit safe at all times. If they peep a kid gnawin on a funky-ass beeper or a wire, they'll just take it away from him, git tha muthafathas n' sort all dat shiznit out. Of course, that's not every last muthafuckin thang but these options is meant ta be short so I'll try ta be mo' specific wit tha other set of thangs. That's it fo' tha straight-up original gangsta night. Right back up in yo muthafuckin ass. See you tomorrow.
Night 2
Right, hey again! Second night yo. Hope you've gotten used ta yo' thang by now, pressin buttons on a phone. You'll have shiznit findin a thang dat straight-up requires you ta be on one of dem fo' realz. Anyways, I expect efficient use of dat phone, [unknown]. Oh, n' I'll let you know now, don't start slackin off. I'm payin attention. I aint talkin' bout chicken n' gravy biatch fo' realz. Afta yo' first week is done, I'll be bustin a review of yo' progress ta peep if you're fit ta continue or not. If you do yo' thang especially well, I might even hit you wit a funky-ass bonus muthafucka! Ah yo, but I guess there isn't even dat much fo' you ta do. I know I haven't given you much ta work wit just yet, as dis is just a test run. I aint talkin' bout chicken n' gravy biatch. But there is suttin' fo' you ta do if you git bored, I suppose fo' realz. And since, well, I'm not goin ta treat you like dem robots behind you, biatch....so, we're enterin tha Winta time. I imagine you'll be hustlin just next week, so it's goin ta git pretty darn cold fo' you, biatch fo' realz. And I'm shizzle you've already noticed dis from yesterday, I dunno...I have given you access ta tha ventilation system, which means you should be able ta turn on tha heatin grid once up in a while ta warm up tha place. They'll stay up fo' a minute, probably yo, but that's long enough, right, biatch? Bear up in mind tha vents go round tha perimeta of tha building, so....ah, I'm shizzle you'll figure it out. Well, dat should keep you entertained. Y'all KNOW dat shit, muthafucka! Gotta hope you're as easily pleased as I am. That's all fo' tonight. Oh, wait, no, it's yo' turn ta talk! Here you go.
Night 2 - Why can't I keep tha heatin on tha ventilation?
Ah fo'sho, as I holla'd, you're only allowed ta have dem hustlin up in 1 minute bursts, n' you can put dat on yo' toast. It's not dat I don't trust you, it's...everybody can make mistakes, right, biatch? These thangs overheat if they're left on fo' longs periodz of time n' I can't risk dis shit. We all know what tha fuck happened ta that...attraction last year. Shiiit, dis aint no joke. I...I remember I hit dat shiznit fo' tha similar problem, yknow, bein under constraints like that, I dunno. Dat shiznit was fine. I was fine n' I'm shizzle yo big-ass booty is ghon be like a muthafucka. Nothang fucked up bout vents, n' you can put dat on yo' toast. What is I saying...just check on tha heat sometimes n' yeaaaa you'll have limited use over it n' I'm sorry bout dis shit. Right, peep you tomorrow.
Night 2 - Can't tha robots sort up tha heating?
I don't know, they already do all muthafuckin day. It make me wanna hollar playa! Yo ass be thinkin I'm gonna bust dem up tha fuck into vents n' turn tha lasers on manually every last muthafuckin time one of mah thugs gets chilly, biatch? Alright, I'll admit I did try dat up once wit one of tha squirrels yo, but...come on, let's give dem mo' shiznit ta do! These muthafuckas is already busy enough durin tha day, they deserve a funky-ass break. Durin tha night, Popgoes n' tha others is supposed ta be, yknow, resting. Oh, n' Stone tha Crow up in tha hoopty park, his schmoooove ass can't physically move outta his bird cage, so he's pretty much restin all tha darn time biaaatch! Anyway, tha vents is fo' air ta travel round tha building. Well shiiiit, it could be fucked up if one of mah thugs, especially a plastic covered robot, was ta git stuck up in there or if they touched one of tha heatin lasers. It's pretty easy as fuck.. n' you KNOWS you'd have funk wit it anyways. Just git dat done n' you should be aiiiight fo' realz. Alright, biatch? Excellent. Right back up in yo muthafuckin ass. See you tomorrow, kid.
Night 2 - How tha fuck do tha heatin work?
Ah fo'sho, it do look kindof weird, don't it, biatch? Well, as wit all of tha other systems up in tha buildings, I've designed dem heatas mah dirty ass. They're just straight-up thick laser beams goin from one phase of tha vent ta tha other n' shit. Yo ass should be able ta peep a square rim round tha vent section wit a light dat switches between red n' green. I aint talkin' bout chicken n' gravy biatch. That rim is what tha fuck keeps tha lasers stable. When they're on, tha lasers heat up tha air that's constantly goin round tha vent system. Keeps almost every last muthafuckin human occupied room up in tha location warm. Well, except mah crib. Right back up in yo muthafuckin ass. Speakin of which, can you peep where it is, biatch? If you be thinkin it's up in one of tha cameras, well you're wrong. I'd don't give a fuck bout bein recorded all day. It make me wanna hollar playa! Yo ass can guess how tha fuck much work I do up in there n' bein on camera would only interrupt dis shit. I be thinkin it's tha only room dat isn't surveyed. Y'all KNOW dat shit, muthafucka! Oh n' tha bathrooms aren't either of course. If you still can't peep mah crib n' you straight-up wanna know where it is, just look ta yo' left. Da door's right there next ta Popgoes' stage. That's bout dat shit. Try up tha heatin n' I'll peep you tomorrow.
Night 3
Right, cough Wuz crackalackin' again. I aint talkin' bout chicken n' gravy biatch. I be thinkin I should start off dis call by pointin up dat I straight-up done cooked up a gangbangin' fuck up in mah previous message which was yesterday's main recordin fo' you, biatch. I holla'd dat tha heatas up in tha vents stayed on fo' a minute when you turn dem on. I aint talkin' bout chicken n' gravy biatch. In reality, I have juiced it up closer ta like...9 secondz or suttin' so, uh...sorry bout dis shit. Not a big-ass mistake yo, but I should own up ta it anyway. It's one of tha only one thangs I haven't gots freestyled down. I aint talkin' bout chicken n' gravy biatch. I should straight-up cook up a note of it now, I suppose. note makin noises Kinda chillaxed up in dis biatch, I've been bustin all these calls up in one take, so I've just noticed dat shit. Right back up in yo muthafuckin ass. Such a big-ass difference like a muthafucka. 1 minute should be 10 seconds, geez, I'm a idiot sometimes. Yo, now dat you've been here for...2 nights, erect, biatch? Beginnin yo' third one now, yes?...tell me, what tha fuck do you be thinkin bout tha place, biatch? Da pizzeria, I mean. I aint talkin' bout chicken n' gravy biatch. It's real special. It aint nuthin but tha nick nack patty wack, I still gots tha bigger sack. Let me rap, durin tha dizzle you can straight-up feel dat shit. Da fantasy. Da fun. I aint talkin' bout chicken n' gravy biatch. Da safety, yknow, biatch? Kidz can run down tha halls n' be greeted by tha characters. They gather round n' rap wit dem on tha stage, they...build n' print up these...figurines like posable toys fo' realz. And of course they git ta paint them, coat dem up in [unknown yo, but I be thinkin it's bindin agent], etc, make dem feel grown up. Makes dem feel special, yknow, biatch? laugh I remember dis kid one day. It make me wanna hollar playa! Straight-Up [unknown] there was dis kid. Y'all KNOW dat shit, muthafucka! Dude was hustlin round n' somehow managed ta open one of tha locked rooms. Boy it's gettin hot, yes indeed it is. Da server room, I be thinkin it was fo' realz. And da perved-out muthafucka started messin round up in there biaaatch! Well I was up in mah office, as always, n' I peep dis kid on tha camera. I start ta git a lil worried. Y'all KNOW dat shit, muthafucka! "Ah, here we go again," I'm sayin ta mah dirty ass fo' realz. And I was bout ta go git his ass sorted up mah dirty ass yo, but...right then, as I was takin mah jacket off...Blake, dat badger characta ta yo' left, gets up in tha room n' starts ta play a lil game rockin tha Server Room's monitors yo. Have you, yknow...you know tha game "Semen Says", biatch? Well dat shiznit was like that, he just turned the.....oh..uh...hold on now, I'll sort tha rest up later n' shit. I'll leave dis message here, tha options should be up fo' you now, nahmeean, biatch? Right back up in yo muthafuckin ass. Sorry bout all dis bullshit.
Night 3 - Yo ass betta continue tha story?
Yes, fo'sho, tha story. Right back up in yo muthafuckin ass. Sorry bout before, I had ta take care of something. Well I don't remember exactly where I left off yo, but tha kid ended up likin Blake like all muthafuckin day. It make me wanna hollar playa! Da rest of tha day, he just kept pressin his call button, tha yellow one ta tha left of tha monitors, ta git his ass ta come closer n' play they game. It's moments like dem dat can make you smile, yknow, biatch? Gettin ta use these charactas ta make dem as aiiight as they made mah dirty ass. That's straight-up somethang fo' realz. At least, I hope you feel tha same way, I know you're not here durin tha day, so I suppose you'll gotta take mah word fo' it when I say it's pimped out fo' realz. And tha kid I mentioned has been a loyal hustla since. Though I don't straight-up gots nuff props fo'usin dat word. Y'all KNOW dat shit, muthafucka! See you tomorrow.
Night 3 - What tha fuck iz Semen Says?
Oh, you don't know what....the game is. That's...alright, no matter n' shit. For a quick explanation, it's a game where one of mah thugs shows you a cold-ass lil colour, like, yknow, green, yellow, red, n' you gotta repeat tha same colour back ta dem wild-ass muthafuckas. Right back up in yo muthafuckin ass. Sometimes there be multiple colours which you need ta repeat up in tha same order back but up in tha case of Blake n' tha pimp whoz ass was like lil' there was only one. Right back up in yo muthafuckin ass. Sorry if dat wasn't dat phat of a explanation but it's just a lil playas game, not a god damn thang mo' n' mo' n' mo'. Durin tha dizzle you can play it on one of tha monitors here wit dat panel up in front of you, biatch. Bit mo' fucked up than just a cold-ass lil colour appearin on tha screen yo, but, yknow, same concept. They use tha beeper fo' dat like a muthafucka. That's childrens stuff, though, don't let me down wit you playin game durin yo' shift. Right back up in yo muthafuckin ass. Speakin of work, you should git back ta dat shit. Right back up in yo muthafuckin ass. See you tomorrow.
Night 3 - What was you just bustin?
Nothang major, straight-up, mah brutha was just askin me whoz ass I was poppin' off to. I've holla'd at you bout him, right, biatch? Da order of these calls might be a lil' bit confusin later, dependz on how tha fuck I organize dem wild-ass muthafuckas. Right, bustin lyrics of tha order, I be thinkin I'll also leave a option ta finish off dat rap I was spittin some lyrics ta you bout fo' realz. And dis one should be ta explain why I left, just so you don't git suspicious dat I'm hidin anythang from you, biatch fo' realz. As I holla'd on tha straight-up original gangsta night, I'm tryin ta be as transparent as possible wit mah bidnizz here, so coverin shiznit up wit mah hommies obviously wouldn't do. Right, I be thinkin that's it fo' tonight. Dope luck
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most exciting parts of a discipline occur near the edges where, in intersecting with other modes of thought, it produces an interference pattern that shows its essence.
If you can imagine the collision of bodies of water, the scattering of light through a prism, or the small gusts of wind that whisk the dust across lonely porches, you can see what this is like.
Politics presents an interesting study because it is truly an all or nothing discipline.
It is “all” because it is the foundation of human interaction. Chinua Achebe defined politics as the science of getting other people to do things. Because on one level, politics is the manipulation of the emotions and/or logical thinking of others, there is politics in convincing a buddy to bring you a cup of tea or coffee.
It is “nothing” because many people do not want to import it into their lives. When a situation becomes politicized, the goal is no longer the goal. The new goal is getting along with the committee, and getting some kind of compromise that approximates the goal. Because it never quite works, no one really wants to identify with this process.
At the edge of politics however is a more interesting question which we might call “civilization design.” Every act we commit has a consequence; ideally, all of these consequences would like dots of paint splatter forming a silhouette gradually create a bigger plan. Once we see that, it’s impossible to divorce our actions from the fact that whether intentional or not, they produce a bigger plan.
Thus there is no escaping politics and, worse, there’s no dividing it into issues. There is only one issue: what type of civilization do you desire? And that question extends far beyond politics, to cultural values, to the composition of the society’s population, to even what sort of day-to-day activities we undertake.
While I’m very fond of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, my first love was of Immanuel Kant. Among many other useful ideas, he pulled an idea that was soft-shoed in Plato and brought it to the fore: there are no inconsequential acts. Every act has consequences, which have consequences, and so no act is separated from having a bigger purpose.
The simplest example of this to me is littering. The litterer would like us to think that littering is an act of convenience; they “just forgot” or found it easier to leave the garbage around or throw it out a window. In fact, littering is an act that tells a lot about the litterer; it says they’re not in love with their world, that they aren’t thinking beyond themselves, and that there’s probably a motive of revenge, hatred or a desire to scream dissatisfaction with the world in that act.
Vandalism is another. People who spraypaint their doodles on walls like to think they’re artists who are expressing themselves. And yet, they’re choosing to do it in a way that’s permanent, that causes other people trouble and turns society into a motley of conflicting scribbles, each shouting for attention. Their act says they feel powerless and want control over their lives, and also want to revenge themselves on those who own walls.
Casual sex is another daily act which has wide-ranging consequences. People are fond of the notion that it is simply a choice of convenience, and of a bodily need. In fact, there’s no such need; people survive not having sex, sometimes for their entire lives. What it says instead is that they see themselves as a means to an end of their own bodily pleasure, not a means to an end of something greater than the body. There’s a lack of hope in that, too, and a lack of faith in themselves.
None of these acts are inconsequential and each act reflects a vision of society. The vandalism, littering and rutting suggest a world where each person does what strikes them as important in the moment, following a whim, feeling or judgment. By definition, this excludes long-term thinking and its visions like realism, consequentialism and through those, the finding of timeless and enduring values.
When we look at society then it is impossible to see politics not only in politics, but in all that we do, or to see politics as the end result of our many acts gesturing at what type of civilization we want. At that point, we see the fundamental split that occurs in all dying cultures (and the West is a dying culture; our economic, political and social instability are symptoms of that, not causes).
On one side are the people who are dedicated to the individual, the here and now, and the individual’s feelings, judgments and desires. These people have no long-term plan and so move from mania, fad and craze to another, always having some current obsession that they believe will give meaning to their lives. Since they have discarded meaning outside the individual, they must find it in such crazes, which momentarily make them feel connected to life, and are always justified as “doing good” because that makes the people involved feel they are “good” and thus that their lives are important.
On the other side are the careful analysts. These are the people who built civilization, and the ones who save it periodically through self-sacrifice. They are inherently long-term thinkers and consequentialists, because in order to have values at all, one must measure those values by how to achieve them and how past acts have done that or fallen short. Careful analysts measure consequences to enact the timeless whenever possible.
There is no reconciling these two ways of life. They are more fundamental than politics, and yet must be the foundation of it. Right now the mass mania has won, but this is winding down as liberal democracies across the world sail into multiple problems whose origins were created centuries ago. It is time for a new age. It helps to discover which side you want to be on, the faddists or the thinkers.
Tags: craze, crowdism, fad, mania, trend
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Did Sen. Ted Cruz disclose classified information on national television?
Those without access to the intelligence itself probably won't know for sure, but that seemed to be the implication in the reaction from presidential campaign rival and fellow Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., during a portion of Tuesday's CNN debate that focused on their differing views on the scope of National Security Agency surveillance programs. Rubio said that in transitioning to a system without bulk collection of phone metadata that existed under the Patriot Act, the intelligence community lost tools to prevent terrorist attacks. That prompted Cruz, a Texas Republican, to snap back.
"What he knows is that the old program covered 20 percent to 30 percent of phone numbers to search for terrorists. The new program covers nearly 100 percent. That gives us greater ability to stop acts of terrorism, and he knows that that's the case," said Cruz, who supported the bipartisan bill that changed the program, known as the USA Freedom Act, that became law earlier this year.
"Let me be very careful when answering this, because I don't think national television in front of 15 million people is the place to discuss classified information," Rubio responded. "So let me just be very clear. There is nothing that we are allowed to do under this bill that we could not do before."
And there was a sign that Rubio, who is a member of the Intelligence Committee, might have a point about the information itself.
As the exchange happened, Becca Glover Watkins, the communications director for Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard M. Burr, R-N.C., tweeted simply: "Cruz shouldn't have said that."
But Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, a longtime member of the Intelligence Committee, jumped to Cruz's defense on the substance.
"Senator Rubio is mistaken when he says that the USA Freedom Act does not let the government do anything that it could not do before," Wyden said in a statement, citing a specific provision of the new law.
"Section 102 of the USA Freedom Act, which I first proposed in 2013, gave law enforcement and intelligence agencies new authorities to obtain records in an emergency and get court approval after the fact," Wyden said."It also ended the mass surveillance of law-abiding Americans, which violated core American rights without making our country any safer."
Speaking Tuesday morning at a forum sponsored by Politico, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seemed to open the door to revisiting intelligence collection and related issues in 2016. The Kentucky Republican was on the same side as Rubio during the original debate.
"I think weakening the Patriot Act was a mistake, and we had internal divisions among the Republicans over whether that was the appropriate thing to do," McConnell said.
See photos, follies, HOH Hits and Misses and more at Roll Call's new video site. NEW! Download the Roll Call app for the best coverage of people, politics and personalities of Capitol Hill.… and phone calls with recordings of Hitler speeches and overnight casket services.
These don’t come directly from the Trump Campaign, but do come from people who support Trump. So Wolf Blitzer, to his credit, asked Trump if he had a message to these fans, and Trump said, “I don’t have a message to the fans. A woman wrote an article that’s inaccurate.”
If any other politician gave this answer, it would be a career ending, page-one scandal. But because it comes from someone who routinely retweets white supremacists and has been doing the winky-wink with David Duke for months, it didn’t register as a blip. It’s become normalized, which is what we’ve already lost by him being a nominee: America defining racism downward.
He also said of these racists, “I know nothing about it,” which is exactly what he first said about David Duke’s endorsement: “I don’t know anything about David Duke, okay?” This conspiracy of silence between Trump and the media is the most insidious form of racism today, the “Oh, how’d that get there?” type.
Isn’t the secret of Trump’s success that he realized America, and the media, is more tolerant of racism than people like to think it is? We’re not allowed to compare anyone to Hitler, but when you’re the hands-down choice of Neo-Nazis, and you’re their retweeter-in-chief, what do we call you? If the swastika fits...mjnousak-deactivated20180822 asked: Not technically a question, but since you feel the whole Jaune thing is worth posting about, I feel it's prevelant to counter your comments. Jaune is considered a stand-in for average guys, while Ruby is the stand-in for a average female. The entire point of Jaune's arc is that trying to be a "manly-man" is a BAD thing and you'll only get respect and good things if you be honest and true to yourself. Which, presuming any teen or younger boys are watching RWBY, is a pretty good lesson to teach.
blake:
jaune’s arc has never proven that anything he’s done is bad, he’s been rewarded for literally everything he’s done thus far
he learned nothing from the bullshit with cardin, in fact he had his masculinity and overall mindset validated because pyrrha didn’t tell him she helped him kill the ursa and so he thought he did it all himself without any help from anyone
he learned even less from the bullshit with weiss and in fact got rewarded for stalking and harassing her by being called “cool” by Stereotypical Cool Guy neptune and told he was really a good friend to weiss (despite that she obviously hates him and wishes he would leave her the fuck alone)
tl;dr:
jaune/cardin arc quality: ass
jaune/weiss development quality: ass
jaune’s characterization: ass
final score: ass/ass would not care about more than five minutesWashington (CNN) -- A federal judge has blocked the lead defense attorney for Roger Clemens from questioning Andy Pettitte, the ex-baseball star's longtime teammate and friend, once his client's criminal trial starts in July.
The lawyer, Russell "Rusty" Hardin, acknowledged during a hearing Wednesday that he briefly consulted Pettitte, as well as Clemens, after an independent commission released a report on illegal use of performance enhancing drugs in baseball.
Penned by a group led by former Sen. George Mitchell, the report became the basis of a hearing two months later by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The two pitchers were among dozens named in its findings.
Clemens last August was indicted on six charges -- one count of obstruction of justice, three of making false statements, and two of perjury -- for lying to Congress during that 2008 hearing, when he denied using steroids, growth hormones or other such performance enhancing drugs.
Pettitte, also a standout pitcher, played alongside Clemens for nine straight years -- with the New York Yankees starting in 1999, then onto Houston for three years beginning in 2004, before returning to New York for one last year in 2007.
He has admitted using growth hormone himself twice, in 2002 and 2004. In a sworn statement to the House committee, he said Clemens admitted using the hormone during a conversation the two had in 1999 or 2000.
Clemens, who won the Cy Young award given to his league's best pitcher seven times, said that Pettitte "misheard" the conversation.
The two men, both native Texans, were close friends before the fall-out from the federal investigation.
The ramifications of the judge's ruling barring Harding from testifying Pettitte does not preclude that pitcher from taking the stand in Clemens' trial. Rather, if prosecutors do call Pettitte to testify as a witness against Clemens, then a second defense attorney -- Michael Attanasio -- will conduct the cross-examination.
Attanasio was hired as part of Clemens' defense team to address the potential conflict. Prosecutors have agreed to the proposal, after the judge determined Attanasio had not been given any information from Hardin's earlier exchanges with Pettitte.
Judge Reggie Walton, of the U.S. District Court in Washington, called Clemens forward during Wednesday's hearing to ask him whether he understood the implications of having an attorney who worked for him, but could not use information he had that might help his defense.
"I do understand that, your honor," Clemens replied.
Meanwhile, the pitcher's defense team has asked the judge to dismiss all or parts of the indictment, claiming mistakes in how the charges are grouped and asserting that the allegations are sometimes too vague to prepare a proper defense.
In court documents, defense attorneys accuse prosecutors of unconstitutional duplicity "by stuffing over a dozen alleged offenses into a single kitchen-sink count."
The judge has yet to rule on the motion for dismissal, and the matter was not addressed during Wednesday's hearing.
Clemens ascended to the majors in 1984, and he played 24 seasons with the Red Sox, the Toronto Blue Jays, the New York Yankees and the Houston Astros.
In addition to Pettitte, prosecutors may also call a former Clemens trainer, Brian McNamee, who told congressional investigators he helped both Clemens and Pettitte use performance-enhancing drugs.
McNamee, who was seated at the same table as Clemens during the 2008 congressional hearing, displayed photographs of soiled medical bandages he said he kept to guard against possible retaliation by Clemens if they were questioned.
During preliminary hearings ahead of the Clemens trial, prosecutors have indicated they have scientific evidence and plan to call an expert witness in the case.Researchers disembark on Antarctica during an expedition in 2011. Credit: AP3 An international team of researchers supported by the National Science Foundation will journey to Antarctica this month to search for evidence that the now-frozen continent may have been the starting point for some important species that roam the Earth today.
Millions of years ago Antarctica was a warm and lush environment ruled by dinosaurs and inhabited by a great diversity of life. But today, the fossils that could reveal what prehistoric life was like are mostly buried under the ice of the harsh landscape, leaving the part that Antarctica played in the evolution of vertebrates (backboned animals) as one of the great unknowns in the history of life.
Leading the team are paleontologists from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, The University of Texas at Austin, Ohio University and the American Museum of Natural History. Other collaborators include scientists from museums and universities across the U.S., Australia and South Africa.
The monthlong expedition will begin Feb. 2. Aided by helicopters, scientists will conduct research on James Ross Island and other nearby islands off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, one of the few spots on Antarctica where fossil-bearing rocks are accessible.
"Ninety-nine percent of Antarctica is covered with permanent ice," said Matthew Lamanna, paleontologist and assistant curator at the Carnegie Museum. "We're looking for fossils of backboned animals that were living in Antarctica at the very end of the Age of Dinosaurs, so we can learn more about how the devastating extinction that happened right afterward might have affected polar ecosystems."
A research camp buried in snow during 2011 expedition to Antarctica. Credit: AP3
The team is specifically searching for fossils from the Cretaceous through Paleogene, a period about 100 million to 40 million years ago that includes the end of the Age of Dinosaurs and the beginning of the Age of Mammals. Among the questions the team hopes to answer: Did Antarctica play a critical part in the origins of certain modern bird and mammal groups, or was the evolution of species there more similar to what was happening in other parts of the world?
The expedition is part of the Antarctic Peninsula Paleontology Project, or AP3, a research initiative funded by the National Science Foundation.
During a previous expedition to the same area by Argentine investigators, a fossil of a new genus and species of bird was discovered that indicates Antarctica may have been an especially important place for bird evolution. The bird, a close relative of modern ducks and geese, is the only known example of a bird belonging to a modern group that lived alongside nonavian dinosaurs. Before the discovery, many scientists thought that most modern bird groups evolved after nonavian dinosaurs went extinct.
"It's impossible not to be excited to reach remote sites via helicopter and icebreaker to look for dinosaurs and other life forms from over 66 million years ago," said Julia Clarke, a professor and paleontologist at the UT Austin Jackson School of Geosciences. "The Earth has undergone remarkable changes, but through all of them, life and climate and geologic processes have been linked. A single new discovery from this time period in the high southern latitudes can change what we know in transformative ways."
Researchers in Antarctica look over horizon during 2011 AP3 expedition. Credit: AP3
Clarke, who led the research on the new bird species, is one of the many veteran Antarctic scientists on the expedition. Ross MacPhee, a curator and professor at the American Museum of Natural History, will also be returning to the continent.
"What I hope to achieve this time is to discover the first evidence of mammals in the Cretaceous of Antarctica, species that lived at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs," MacPhee said. "If we can find them, they will have a lot to tell us about whether any evolutionary diversifications took place in Antarctica, and whether this was followed by species spreading from there to other portions of the ancient southern supercontinent Gondwana."
In addition to paleontologists, the research team includes geologists who will survey the fossil-bearing rocks to help decipher what the Antarctic environment was like at the end of the Cretaceous and the beginning of the Paleogene. During an expedition in 2011, Eric Roberts, a geologist from James Cook University in Australia, discovered evidence that the rocks on Vega Island may date to the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. If so, it would be one of the few Antarctic examples of rocks laid down during the time of the asteroid impact 66 million years ago that killed all nonavian dinosaurs.
The team will be using the U.S. research vessel R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer to reach the James Ross Island area.
"This trip is very exciting, as we have assembled a fantastic team of scientists and students," said Patrick O'Connor, a professor of anatomy and expert on birds and nonavian dinosaurs at the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine. "Moreover, we have additional logistical support in the form of helicopters that can get us into places that have not been explored in the past. This exemplifies frontier paleontology."
The researchers will be available for interviews from Chile from Feb. 3 to Feb. 8 as they prepare to complete their journey to Antarctica. Researchers will be available for interviews from Antarctica on a limited basis.
The team will be sharing discoveries and daily life from the Antarctic ice on the expedition website, http://antarcticdinos.org/ and on Twitter @antarcticdinos.
Explore further: UQ researcher's icy dinosaur huntGenerally, it must suck to share your birthday with a holiday, but it’s not so bad when your born day also happens to fall on 4/20. Today is Killer Mike’s birthday. He’s 40, and he’s the man, and he’s definitely had one hell of a wild ride. That’s more than enough reason to shower him with gifts. Here are a few ideas.
A handmade card: He seems like the type of guy who would truly appreciate that.
Any kind of Run The Jewels fan art: See above.
Weed: Mike makes no bones about his love for weed, and he often cites it as one of the things he loves the most. Just look at his Twitter bio.
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A big ol’ bong: See above.
A relaxing, all-inclusive vacation: Between releasing Run the Jewels 2 and constantly touring, I am pretty sure Mike has been working non-stop for the past year, plus.
All of the awards: Mike has been in the game for such a long time, but the most success has come to him within the past year or so, as a result of Run The Jewels, his collaboration with El-P. If we could retroactively give Mike tons of Grammies, that would be great.
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His own TV show: Next year is an election year, and cable news are already up our asses about it. Mike, who has recently appeared on CNN to talk about race and police brutality, and has begun lecturing at colleges around the country about similar topics, would be a nice breath of fresh air on his own show.
A nap: Mike is a dad and dads love naps, and I’m guessing he doesn’t get to take many of them to begin with.
A billion views: On “Ric Flair,” the video he just dropped.
The keys to the city of Atlanta: If not now, when?
Hot naked pixxx:
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A hug or a phone call: I can say with extreme certainty that Killer Mike is probably the kind of guy who would truly see either of those things as heartfelt gifts.
Matching track suits for Mike and El-P: In velour. Trust me.
Heart necklaces that match up to say “Best Friends” when you put them together: For Mike and El.
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A foot massage: I can’t imagine how much time he spends on his feet.
A very ergonomic, very comfortable chair: Back and foot health go hand-in-hand, and he and El are working on Meow The Jewels now, so taking care of both is important.
A giant cake that exotic dancers jump out of: Explains itself.
A litter/sedan thing: That he can ride around on and smoke weed from all day.
An assortment of cool and varied t-shirts: I saw Mike perform with Run the Jewels at Coachella and he was wearing a sweatshirt and I couldn’t help but think he must have been burning up out there!
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A dart board with Ronald Reagan’s face on it: “I’ll leave you with four words: I’m glad Reagan Dead.”
A huge party in the middle of Atlanta: One that shuts down the entire city and features performances from Mike’s friends Bun B, Big Boi, and T.I. (if only because he always tends to show up at these kinds of things, and there’s a huge cake and everyone is invited). Killer Mike is a “the more the merrier type of guy,” and that’s why we love him.
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Anything he wants: Killer Mike is the best and he should be showered with love and praise today.
Image by Jason Kempin/GettyMeet The Man Who Sneaked Into Auschwitz
toggle caption Wikimedia Commons
This weekend marks the 70th anniversary of a World War II milestone few people have heard before. It's the story of a Polish army captain named Witold Pilecki.
In September 1940, Pilecki didn't know exactly what was going on in Auschwitz, but he knew someone had to find out. He would spend two and a half years in the prison camp, smuggling out word of the methods of execution and interrogation. He would eventually escape and author the first intelligence report on the camp.
The Mystery Of Auschwitz
In the early years of the war, little was known about the area near the town Germans called Auschwitz.
Poland was in a state of chaos. It was divided in half -- Nazi Germany claiming one side, Soviet Russia on the other. The Polish resistance had gone underground.
Pilecki wanted to infiltrate the Auschwitz camp, but he had difficulty getting commanders to sign off on the mission. At the time, it was thought of as POW camp.
"They didn't realize the information from inside the camp was that vital," says Ryszard Bugajski, a Polish filmmaker who directed the 2006 film The Death of Captain Pilecki.
Pilecki was eventually cleared to insert himself into a street round-up of Poles in Warsaw on Sept. 19, 1940. Upon arrival, he learned Auschwitz was far from anything the Resistance had imagined.
Life As A Number
"Together with a hundred other people, I at least reached the bathroom," Pilecki's Auschwitz report reads. "Here we gave everything away into bags, to which respective numbers were tied. Here our hair of head and body were cut off, and we were slightly sprinkled by cold water. I got a blow in my jaw with a heavy rod. I spat out my two teeth. Bleeding began. From that moment we became mere numbers -- I wore the number 4859."
That was a small and early number for a camp that would -- one year later -- see numbers in the 15,000s.
Alex Storozynski, president and executive director of the Kosciuszko Foundation, tells NPR's Mike Pesca that one of the early signs of Auschwitz's true purpose to Pilecki was the prisoners' diet. "The food rations were calculated in such a way that people would live for six weeks," Storozynski says.
Here's Pilecki's description of what a German officer told him: " 'Whoever will live longer -- it means he steals. You will be placed in a special commando, where you will live short.' This was aimed to cause as quick a mental breakdown as possible."
Smuggling Out Word Of The Horrors Within
Pilecki was assigned to backbreaking work -- carrying rocks in a wheelbarrow. But he also managed to gather intelligence on the camp and smuggle messages out with prisoners who escaped. SS soldiers assigned Poles to take their laundry into town, and sometimes messages could be smuggled along with the dirty clothes to be passed to the underground Polish army.
"The underground army was completely in disbelief about the horrors," Storozynski explains. "About ovens, about gas chambers, about injections to murder people -- people didn't believe him. They thought he was exaggerating."
Pilecki also hoped to organize an attack and mass escape from the camp. But no order could be procured for such a plan from Polish high command.
"We were waiting for an order, as we understood that without such one -- although it would be a beautiful firework and unexpected for the world and for Poland -- we could not agree to do that," Pilecki wrote.
For the next two and a half years, Pilecki slowly worked to feed his reports up the Polish chain of command to London.
"And in London," Storozynski says, "the Polish government in exile told the British and the Americans, 'You need to do something. You need to bomb the train tracks going to these camps. Or we have all these Polish paratroopers -- drop them inside the camp. Let them help these people break out.' But the British and the Americans just wouldn't do anything."
Pilecki's Escape
Eventually, after nearly three years, Pilecki reported, "further stay here might be too dangerous and difficult for me."
He planned an escape through a poorly secured back door in a bakery, where he'd managed to get a job. With a few other inmates, he ran into the night.
"Shots were fired behind us," he wrote. "How fast we were running, it is hard to describe. We were tearing the air into rags by quick movements of our hands."
After his escape, Pilecki continued to fight in the underground. But after the war, the Germans were replaced by a new occupying regime -- the Soviets. Pilecki was again asked to gather intelligence, this time on the ways in which the communists were establishing themselves in Poland.
Filmmaker Bugajski explains, "He was actually captured by the communists, he was accused of espionage, and he was shot."
A Story Revealed -- At Last
There's a reason many Americans have never heard the story of Witold Pilecki's infiltration of Auschwitz. The communist regime in Poland censored any mention of his name in the public record -- a ban that remained in place until the fall of the Berlin wall.
Only since then have documents emerged that reveal his story -- and that allowed Bugajski to accurately portray it in his film.
That film ends with an epilogue, as the actor who plays Pilecki, Marek Probosz, walks outside the same prison where Pilecki was executed.
"To our surprise, we see that this is free Poland," Probosz explains. "That you can talk about Pilecki, and no one is going to spit in your face or stab you with a knife."
Today there is a street in Warsaw named after Pilecki. A square might be named after him, too.
"Having a beautiful wife and two kids he loved dearly, he decided to leave them behind and go to Auschwitz." Probosz says. "Human beings were the most precious thing for Pilecki, and especially those who were oppressed. He would do anything to liberate them, to help them."In some parts of the world, it is still the 30th and still technically November. As such we have kept our promise of releasing the Sponge API during November!
We’re at the sunset of November, but don’t worry, Sponge is as strong as ever. In fact, this past November we contributed more code to the API than October and September, combined. See this pretty Github contributions graph:
And we’ve completed all PRs and issues in our 1.0 github milestone:
API 1.0 Release
The API is almost in a finalized state, as you can see from the contributions winding down. Over the past few weeks major additions have been made to the API, such as entities, events, text, as well as other important APIs to help developers make their plugins.
In light of that fact, we have decided to release 1.0 and declare the all current API to be ‘stable’. This means that most interfaces and methods won’t change as we consider them complete; however, there may still be some slight changes and fixes for plugin developers to adapt to.
We’ve also released Javadocs in a temporary location on github pages: http://spongepowered.github.io/SpongeAPI/.
In order for server administrators to use the amazing plugins the community creates there needs to be server software to run those plugins with. Sponge, the implementation for the Sponge API, is being worked on as well, and will be released as soon as possible. This part of the development process is more complicated and was put on hold until the API was more finalized and Forge for 1.8 was released as both of those things are dependencies for the implementation. However, now that we have a stable API release and Forge 1.8 we are able to start working on the Sponge implementation and we will be sure to give out a timeline.
Rolling Releases
Some parts of the API that were deemed “non-essential” have been moved back to the 1.1 release or further. This includes NBT, inventory, permissions, chat channels, and databasing. This is because we have adapted a “rolling release” model due to our rather unique situation.
In a nutshell, developing some parts of the API without having a stable implementation or testing ground is near-impossible. However, we don’t want to delay release of the API either because that delays plugin developers from using the API and giving feedback. A rolling release solves both of these problems. By making releases less stable and more incremental, we are able to make more of them, more rapidly, as we receive suggestions and discover problems when doing the implementation.
After several rolling releases(we project up to v1.5 or further) the server API will be declared stable in its entirety. Plugin developers can expect these features to change or be added before then:
Events
Inventory
NBT
Permissions
Simple database support
What does this mean for Sponge plugins?
Developers can start making Sponge plugins now if they want to. The current API will not change too drastically from this point on. As mentioned previously, some non-essential features have been pushed back until the v1.1 release and further, we believe that the v1.0 release should 80% of everything a developer requires to build a plugin.
Please see the Plugin Workspace Guide to learn how to set up a workspace for developing plugins. This will be moved to the documentation once that is up.
Forge Status
As many of you know, Minecraft Forge for 1.8 has been released in a beta state(do not be confused, however, because FML 1.8 was released in September). This is good news for Sponge, as it allows us to power on with the implementation. With the API in a stable state, work on the Forge implementation can begin. Due to Forge being in a Beta state and the Implementation being in an Alpha state, we strongly recommend that you do not attempt to run Sponge in a production environment until we officially release a “Beta” version of Sponge due to instabilities with both projects at the current time.Ben Thomas is on a mission to shrink cities! The technique Ben uses to get the added Depth of Field in his pictures is tilt-shift photography, that makes aerial photographs of real scenes look like miniature models. This technique is charming, as it applies to creating a ‘model-sized’ scenery that is catching on all over the globe (mostly via flickr, the online photo sharing community).
The general idea behind Tilt/Shift photography is that special lenses can be bent from side to side (tilt) and also from from their normal parallel, in-line, plane (shift). The tilt seems to create photos with very specific, and changeable, focal point within the photo while the shift action can be used to correct geometric distortion (converging lines). However, both types of photography yield amazing, and unrealistic, results. TweetMADRID (Reuters) - Barcelona midfielder Xavi will announce on Thursday that he is leaving the club he joined as an 11-year-old to sign a lucrative three-year deal with Qatari side Al Sadd, his agent told Reuters on Wednesday.
FC Barcelona Training - Etihad Stadium, Manchester, England - 23/2/15 FC Barcelona's Xavi during training Action Images via Reuters / Carl Recine
Now 35 and Barca’s appearance record holder and club captain, Xavi is set to follow in the footsteps of former Spain team mate Raul, who played for Al Sadd between 2012-14.
Xavi would also work with Qatar’s Aspire Academy, become an ambassador for the 2022 World Cup to be held in the Gulf state, one of Barca’s main sponsors, and aim to start his coaching qualifications, his agent, Ivan Corretja, said.
Corretja declined to comment on media reports Xavi will earn 10 million euros ($11.1 million) a season.
Barca said on Wednesday Xavi would hold a news conference at about 1030 GMT after Thursday’s training session.
After joining the Catalan giants in 1991, Xavi graduated from the club’s academy to the first team in 1998.
One of the most decorated footballers of all time, he defined Barca and Spain’s spectacularly successful possession-based playing style.
ROUSING SEND-OFF
He represented La Roja 133 times, a record for an outfield player, and was a key figure in Spain’s glittering run when they won the 2010 World Cup and the 2008 and 2012 European Championships.
With Barca, Xavi has won three Champions League crowns, eight La Liga titles and a host of other trophies but has had limited playing time this season under coach Luis Enrique.
He is set to receive a rousing send-off at the Nou Camp when Barca, who wrapped up their latest La Liga title last weekend, host Deportivo La Coruna for their final match of the campaign on Saturday.
He could still win another two trophies, with Barca through to the Champions League final to play Juventus on June 6, a week after they play Athletic Bilbao in the King’s Cup final.
Xavi made his debut for Spain in a friendly against the Netherlands in November 2000.
He played in four World Cups and three European Championships and won 100 of his 133 matches for the Iberian nation, controlling play from a central position, regularly providing assists and also scoring the occasional goal.
His last appearance for Spain was a bitter 5-1 reverse to the Netherlands in their opening Group B match at the World Cup finals in Brazil in June.
($1 = 0.8995 euros)Of all the myths the Republicans have perpetrated, and there are a lot of them, perhaps none is more powerful or insidious than the foundational one that this is an overwhelmingly conservative country and that progressives are outliers in it, along with its pernicious corollary that conservatives are “real” Americans while liberals (and the minorities who support liberal policies) are somehow counterfeits.
It is a brilliant bit of propaganda. The only problem is that it isn’t factually true, at least for those who still believe in facts. While there are more self-described conservatives than liberals, in large part, I think, because of the conservatives’ success at conflating their brand with Americanism itself, the gap has been narrowing. And in any case, party identification is just about evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. What is more important: Most Americans reject conservative policy positions. Again and again, on issue after issue, the majority of Americans seem to tilt to the left: on immigration, including Trump’s border wall; on Obamacare repeal; on leaving the Paris climate accord; and on gay marriage.
There is an old saw that
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2100 BST (1600 EST)
Steaming-hot loads of moral equivalence are delivered by Muslim journalist Roshan M. Salih, and by Peter Chen at Australia’s “The Drum”:
France is an Islamophobic nation with a hugely destructive foreign policy and these horrible attacks are a terrible blowback #NiceAttack — Roshan M Salih (@RmSalih) July 15, 2016
Chen: “We can call this radical Islamic terrorism if we can call civilian casualties of drone strikes radical Christian terrorism” #TheDrum — ABC The Drum (@ABCthedrum) July 15, 2016
“308 people died in a car bombing in Baghdad this month & no-one said Baghdad is under siege” Peter Chen #TheDrum pic.twitter.com/Dp0v8X1WDg — ABC The Drum (@ABCthedrum) July 15, 2016
Update 1930 BST (1430 EST)
The latest from elsewhere at Breitbart News…
Sky News Pins Blame for Nice Attack on ‘Disenfranchisement’: A Sky News correspondent asks a human rights activist about the “sense of disenfranchisement” among North African communities in France.
The Automobile Is Becoming the Weapon of Choice for Islamist Killers: A crowning achievement of Western civilization becomes an affordable, readily-available, highly effective weapon against its own people.
Update 1910 BST (1410 EST)
The UK Independent is reporting that the attack on Nice would have been even more horrendous, but for the heroic actions of an as-yet unidentified man who threw himself into the cab of the truck when it struck an obstacle, and wrestled with the murderous driver, who was armed with a revolver.
“A person jumped on to the truck to try to stop it,” reported an eyewitness. “It’s at that moment that the police were able to neutralize this terrorist. I won’t forget the look of this policewoman who intercepted the killer.”
Update 1900 BST (1400 EST)
The BBC quotes former French Europe Minister Pierre Lellouche, who participated in an inquiry into last year’s Paris attacks, strongly criticizing France’s response to the terrorist threat. He dismissed the extended state of emergency declared by President Hollande as a “joke.”
“We need much better intelligence, much better coordination of intelligence inside France, among Europeans, with our neighbors controlling our borders – particularly the Turks. This is not happening fast enough,” Lellouche told the BBC.
Lellouche made the devastating observation that “a violent tactic from the Syrian civil war has now come to the streets of Nice,” so “the Middle East and Europe are now part of what he calls the same strategic space,” as the BBC put it after interviewing him.
Update 1711 BST (1211 EST)
Black Lives Matter activists are angry at white Nice victims for stealing the limelight:
Black Lives Matter Activists Angry Dead ‘White People’ In France Stealing Their Limelight https://t.co/vxNUR9HHaQ pic.twitter.com/Tn0ze1Q5H4 — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 15, 2016
Update 1649 BST (1149 EST)
This is a photograph of the attacker:
Update 1623 BST (1123 EST)
#NiceAttack UPDATE: 10 children or adolescents among the 84 killed. Driver shot at 3 police officers. — BakersfieldNow (@bakersfieldnow) July 15, 2016
Update 1614 BST (1114 EST)
The French Prosecutor has given an update at a press conference.
The Guardian reports:
The death toll remains 84, he says, and “202 people were injured including 52 who are now in critical care”. “Among these 52 people 25 are still in intensive care,” he adds. He says the numbers are preliminary and they could increase. “The terrorist who drove the truck as you know was shot to prevent him from committing more criminal action.” “They have managed to neutralize this person, thus avoiding further victims. I would also like to pay tribute to all state services who were mobilized following this attack.” He thanks doctors and other emergency providors. He says that authorities are now in the process of identifying the dead, “which is painful for the families of the victims”. “All has been done to activate procedures during the attack.”
Update 1606 BST (1106 EST)
Update 1603 BST (1103 EST)
Foreign Secretary @BorisJohnson meets Foreign Office staff coordinating support to Britons following #NiceAttack pic.twitter.com/97CM1EeM2r — Foreign Office (@foreignoffice) July 15, 2016
Update 1540 BST (1040 EST)
Breitbart Jerusalem has more on how Arab social media has reacted to the attacks:
JAFFA, Israel – Reactions to the truck-ramming terror attack in Nice on Thursday, which left more than 80 people dead and 100 injured, dominated Arab social media. Some Islamic clerics denounced the attacks, to the protest of others. Salman Alodah, a leading Islamic cleric, tweeted: “May the curse of Allah, the angels and the people come upon that murderer… Here and everywhere, an unwarranted killing, carried out by a man who hated life and humanity.”
Click here to read more
1537 BST (1037 EST)
Nice truck attacker was from Tunisian town of Msaken – Tunisian security sources https://t.co/E2WZJjQ99C pic.twitter.com/HD2m66b8sF — Reuters UK (@ReutersUK) July 15, 2016
Update 1528 BST (1028 EST)
Update 1521 BST (1021 EST)
Breitbart Jerusalem says that a top Salafist jihadist based in the Gaza Strip has claimed more “brothers” are planning attacks.
Abu Alayna Al-Ansari, an IS loyalist, said he believes the attack was a “classic lone wolf” operation, inspired by the jihadi Abu Mohammad al-Julani, the IS spokesperson, who called upon young Muslims from around the world to carry out attacks such as Thursday night’s. Ansari is a well-known Gazan Salafist jihadist allied with Islamic State ideology. In previous interviews, Ansari seemed to be speaking as an actual IS member, repeatedly using the pronoun “we” when referring to IS and even seemingly making declarations on behalf of IS.
Click here to read more
Update 1513 BST (1013 EST)
#BREAKING Ex-wife of France truck attack suspect held for questioning: police — AFP news agency (@AFP) July 15, 2016
Update 1505 BST (1005 EST)
Australia’s Daily Telegraph has a powerful front page:
Update 1503 BST (1003 EST)
Here are the latest figures from the attack:
#Nice attack latest:
– 84 dead
– 188 admitted to hospitals
– 48 in critical condition
– 25 in intensive carehttps://t.co/IqTZGeOAeO — ABC News (@ABC) July 15, 2016
Update 1455 (0955 EST)
Nice is the 12th Islamist attack in France since January 2015. Here is a list of the most recent attacks:
Flashback: Dozen Terror Attacks In France Since Charlie Hebdo Slayings https://t.co/xOte29CaGc pic.twitter.com/R1k9dJNaFG — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 15, 2016
Update 1435 (0935 EST)
French President Hollande addresses the nation, saying:
“There are 50 other people who are still receiving emergency treatment. They are between life and death. Amongst the victims are French citizens as well as foreigners, who came from all continents. And there are a number of young children who came to watch fireworks with their families, who have been struck down just to satisfy the cruelty of one individual or possible of a group.” “We have visited scores of injured, who have horrendous images in their heads. They are suffering more because of the psychological trauma. Even people who have no signs of physical injury, will carry throughout their lives the trauma of the horrific images they saw.”
Update 1432 BST (0932 EST)
AFP reports 50 people remain in a “critical” condition.
“As I speak 84 people are dead, and around 50 are in a critical condition between life and death,” French President Hollande said after visiting a hospital in the French Riviera city.
Update 1411 BST (0911 EST)
Footage has emerged of a motorcycle trying to stop the truck:
Update 1355 BST (0855 EST)
UKIP criticises British PM Theresa May for not taking a more hands-on approach in response to the Nice attack.
Mike Hookem MEP, the party’s defence spokesman, said:
“My thoughts go out to the friends and families of those who died and of course it is heartbreaking that there are young children involved but these terrorists have no limits to their murder. “Once again this highlights the foolishness of open borders with not only 1.8 million migrants coming in but free movement of weapons probably including those which were found in the cab of the lorry. “As Home Secretary Mrs May oversaw the collapse in funding and support for the UK border force and I would have thought as a new prime minister hitting the ground running,,making COBRA her first responsibility. “She should have used it to show her intention to get a grip of this crisis. Mr Hookem said he thought the criticism of the new Prime Minster over her twitter response was “shallow” saying, “What we need is actions not words.” “Mr Cameron may well have responded on twitter but what we really need is to have better border security and to raise the level of the alert. “But fundamentally what we are desperately in need of a strong border force with investment in people and technology.”
Update 1348 BST (0848 EST)
Dr Sebastian Gorka and Oliver Lane were on Breitbart News Daily on Sirius XM this morning to talk about the Nice attack.
Update 1335 BST
King Salman of Saudi Arabia has sent a message to French President François Hollande, insisting that his nation stands with France against terrorism in all forms.
Update 1331 BST
(REUTERS) Germany Boosts Border Controls With France After Nice Attack
Germany will boost border controls at airports as well as road and rail crossings into France after the truck attack in Nice, the Federal Police said on Friday. “In coordination with the French security authorities the federal police are strengthening their control in the area of cross-border traffic into France,” the police said in a statement. At least 84 people were killed and dozens more were injured after a gunman drove a truck at high speed into crowds celebrating Bastille Day in the southern French sea resort.
Update 1327 BST
The Daily Mirror is reporting that “witnesses” have claimed the driver and suspected terrorist shouted “Allahu Akbar” – which means God is greatest in Arabic – as his vehicle came to a stop, before opening fire on officers.
Update 1258 BST
Nice airport evacuated:
Troops inside Nice airport. Luggage claim area has been evacuated, no one being allowed inside #cbc pic.twitter.com/bIclHFp4Og — Thomas Daigle (@thomasdaigle) July 15, 2016
Update 1252 BST
Airline stocks have fallen after the attack. The Evening Standard reports:
The horrific Nice massacre struck airlines and tourism stocks hard today, leaving easyJet floundering at the bottom of the FTSE 100 as investors absorbed the impact of another terror attack in Europe. About 15% of easyJet’s total seat capacity involves flights that begin or end in France. After the atrocity in Nice that killed more than 80 people celebrating Bastille Day, the budget carrier, which is also the largest airline at Nice airport, flying 3.7 million passengers to and from it each year, saw its shares slide 45p, or 3.8%, to 1126p.
Update 1250 BST
Pope prays for victims
I pray for the victims of the attack in Nice and their families. I ask God to convert the hearts of the violent blinded by hate. — Pope Francis (@Pontifex) July 15, 2016
Update 1246 BST
#BREAKING Two Americans killed in Nice attack: US official — AFP news agency (@AFP) July 15, 2016
Update 1239 BST
54 children in hospital
10 children killed by terrorist in Nice. 54 more in hospital.#PrayForNice
Read more:https://t.co/zUaeImigg7 pic.twitter.com/Edg3WHmD7w — Western Morning News (@WMNNews) July 15, 2016
Update 1222 BST
British police to review security at big public events, such as sporting events and music festivals:
UK police to review major events over next week after #NiceAttack, to ensure "appropriate security" in place https://t.co/Of25B65XlZ — BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) July 15, 2016
Update 1210 BST
A Saudi-funded mosque opened in Nice just two weeks before last night’s attack. Read more at Breitbart London:
Saudi Funded Mosque Opened in Nice Two Weeks Before Attack https://t.co/XIGANv6wbp pic.twitter.com/OwOHLrAKiW — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 15, 2016
Update 1204 BST
A memorial has sprung up in Nice.
Pictures from Getty
Update 1155 BST
Footage has emerged of police shooting at the truck:
Update 1145 BST
Here is the full text of Theresa May’s statement:
“I am shocked and saddened by the horrifying attack in Nice last night. Our hearts go out to the French people and to all those who’ve lost loved ones or been injured. “While the full picture is still emerging, it seems that at least 80 people are feared dead and many others have been injured. These were innocent victims enjoying a national celebration with their friends and families. “We are working urgently to establish whether any British nationals were caught up in the attack. Our ambassador is travelling to Nice today with consular staff and they will be doing all they can to help anyone affected. “I have asked my deputy national security adviser to chair a COBRA meeting of senior officials, to review what we know and what we can do to help, and I will speak to President Hollande today and make clear that the United Kingdom stands shoulder to shoulder with France today, as we have done so often in the past. “If, as we fear, this was a terrorist attack, then we must redouble our efforts to defeat these brutal murderers who want to destroy our way of life. We must work with France and our partners around the world to stand up for our values and for our freedom.”
Update 1138 BST
Marine Le Pen speaks out:
“Nothing that we have proposed has been put in place. Considering the new nature of terrorism which is now a terrorism of opportunity, that’s to say without hierarchical structure, the urgency is to attack the ideology on which this terrorism is based. “And in this space, nothing has been done, absolutely nothing – no reintroduction of double punishment, nor depriving people of nationality, nor the closure of salafist mosques… nor the banning of certain organisations. In truth we are not at war. For the moment, we are in a war of words.”
(translation from The Guardian)
Update: 1130 BST
The Guardian reports:
A label on the side of the truck suggests it was hired from Via Location. A spokeswoman for the company said she could not discuss the matter, citing an instruction from the interior ministry.
Update: 1108 BST
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says France must learn to live with terror:
France must learn to "live with terrorism", French PM Manuel Valls says after #NiceAttack https://t.co/UVBb4u9oF3 pic.twitter.com/gVRUmzQEts — BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) July 15, 2016
Update: 1106 BST
Prime Minister Theresa May condemns the attack:
#Breaking PM Theresa May says Britain must redouble its efforts to defeat "brutal" terrorist "murderers" after "horrifying" #NiceAttack — Press Association (@PA) July 15, 2016
She has called an emergency COBRA meeting.
Update: 1100 BST
France’s ambassador to the UK spoke on the steps of the French embassy in London.
“All our thoughts are with the victims and the families of the victims,” she said.
She also thanks the British government and UK politicians for their words of support, pointing out that Boris Johnson, the new Foreign Secretary, was at the embassy yesterday for Bastille Day.
“France is a strong country, it is resilient country, it is united country. We are determined to fight against terrorism. And we will be strong than terrorists.”
Update: 1041 BST
Former Prime Minister David Cameron condemns the attack:
A sickening and dreadful attack in Nice. I know we stand with the French people and share their values. They shall never defeat us. — David Cameron (@David_Cameron) July 15, 2016
Update: 1039 BST
The UK’s department for local government is also flying its flag at half mast:
Today DCLG's flag is at half-mast in support of Nice #NiceAttack pic.twitter.com/vE0A50FoQx — Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Govt (@mhclg) July 15, 2016
Update: 1027 BST
The attacker has been named as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel. He was 31 years old and born in Tunisia. He was known to police as a career criminal, but not known to intelligence services. He reportedly carried grenades in his truck, suggesting he was planning a even more elaborate attack:
INFO @Nice_Matin. Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel a été identifié comme le chauffeur du camion https://t.co/m0GJEUosT9 #AttentatNice — Nice-Matin (@Nice_Matin) July 15, 2016
Update: 1019 BST
London Mayor Sadiq Khan pledges a safety review of the UK capital in the wake of the attack in Nice:
Update: 1015 BST
Reports state that one British citizen is among the dead in Nice. Details of other nationalities to follow:
Update: 1010 BST
A half-mast Tricolour flies above No.10 Downing Street today, the official London residence of the British Prime Minister Theresa May.
Update: 0950 BST
France has declared three days of national mourning in the wake of the Nice attacks from Saturday, and the national state of emergency which has been in force since the Bataclan attacks has been extended until at least October, Prime Minister Manuel Valls announced. He said France should not be “destabilised” by the attacks.
Update: 0935 BST
Some of France’s front pages today:
Update: 0915 BST
Breitbart London reported Tuesday on the remarks of the head of the French security service Director General Patrick Calvar who said if there was another Islamist Terror attack against his country he foresaw a “civil war” coming. Predicting what he called “far-right” groups would begin reprisals against Muslims in France for the attacks, he said: ” You will have a confrontation between the far right and the Muslim world – not the Islamists, but the Muslim world”.
A police source said the Director General feared another big terror attack particularly because it would prove to the French people that their government lacked the resources or ability to stop terrorism, leading to a rise of vigilantism.
Intelligence Chief: Another Terrorist Attack Could Spark Civil War https://t.co/u6rKCSaV1x pic.twitter.com/8ciQFndrFt — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 12, 2016
Update: 0850 BST
French news agency AFP has released an infographic of the many terror attacks that have struck France over 2015 and 2016:
Update 2:21AM EDT (07:21 BST)
#BREAKING: Nice truck attack death toll rises to 84: interior ministry — AFP news agency (@AFP) July 15, 2016
Update 1:22AM EDT
“Again the French plunged into horror. Thoughts for the victims. The fight against Islamic fundamentalism must start MLP #Nice”
A nouveau la France plongée dans l'horreur. Pensées pour les victimes. La lutte contre le fondamentalisme islamiste doit démarrer MLP #Nice — Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) July 15, 2016
https://twitter.com/pnehlen/status/753735861397782528
Update 11:22PM EDT
Nice truck 'attack': 'I saw bodies flying like bowling pins' https://t.co/EVcUCIlHPk pic.twitter.com/Gr2Coe8Bfa — The Local Europe (@TheLocalEurope) July 15, 2016
AQAP called for jihadists to run over infidels. Inspire magazine in 2010. See screen shot. pic.twitter.com/Lqq1JzNFjD — Pete Hoekstra (@petehoekstra) July 14, 2016
Update 11:00PM EDT
HELP. MY UNCLE ADAL WAS IN #NIZA, WE CAN'T CAN'T FIND HIM 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/RprhsqCA8g — Marlboro Rojo (@ElEPTWAN) July 15, 2016
Pro-#ISIS image shows #ISIS commander, Shishani –reported killed yesterday: "Blood of our leaders is light & fire" pic.twitter.com/xfl131VrBg — Rita Katz (@Rita_Katz) July 15, 2016
11.14 #French #IS video "What are you Waiting For?" French Foreign Fighters called for killing w/ cars pic.twitter.com/tdUxhPBiWp — TRACterrorism.org (@TRACterrorism) July 14, 2016
Update 10:48PM EDT
An #ISIS Twitter account is linking #NIce's Truck attack to the death of Omar Shishani pic.twitter.com/vXfGZwJajs — Mohanad Hage Ali (@MohanadHageAli) July 14, 2016
Update: 10:27 EDT
#BREAKING: Nice attack death toll rises to 80: French interior minister — AFP news agency (@AFP) July 15, 2016
Update: 10:17PM EDT
From Sputnik News:
The driver of the truck that killed at least 80 people in Nice on Thursday evening was a 31-year-old resident born in Tunisia, according to French newspaper Nice Matin.
Update 10:07PM EDT
BREAKING: French president Hollande says 77 people killed in Nice, including children, 20 gravely wounded. — The Associated Press (@AP) July 15, 2016
On Fox News, Trump repeats statement that Clinton “created ISIS with her crazy policies" — Holly Bailey (@hollybdc) July 14, 2016
Update 10:02PM EDT
Vocativ reports that ISIS supporters celebrate Nice attack:
ISIS is celebrating the apparent terrorist attack in Nice, France, on Thursday as retaliation for the death of Abu Omar al-Shishani—the terror group’s so-called “minister of war”—who was killed earlier this year by coalition forces while fighting in Iraq.
Update 9:57PM EDT
#BREAKING: Identity papers of French-Tunisian found in Nice truck: police source — AFP news agency (@AFP) July 15, 2016
https://twitter.com/CNBCnow/status/753769151332622336
Update 9:15PM EDT
We need wise and honest leadership in these uncertain times. This is a fight for Western civilization. I join everyone in prayers for #Nice — Dave Brat VA 7th (@DaveBratVA7th) July 15, 2016
Update 9:08PM EDT
A fire nearby the Eiffel Tower earlier reported not to be related to terror attack.
Paris police: Smoke seen at the Eiffel Tower caused by a truck fire; not terror-related https://t.co/ueDGN53gg6 — BNO News (@BNONews) July 14, 2016
Update 8:53 PM EDT
#BREAKING: Truck in Nice attack loaded with 'heavy weapons': official — AFP news agency (@AFP) July 15, 2016
#Nice Attack: truck driver got out of his vehicule and started shooting at crowd #BastilleDay https://t.co/zfHo1OFP2X — FRANCE 24 English (@France24_en) July 14, 2016
Update 8:40PM EDT
CBS now reporting 77 dead in Bastille Day terror attack in Nice, France.
UPDATE: At least 77 dead in #BastilleDay terror attack, Nice mayor says in tweet https://t.co/Jy98ugBBBM pic.twitter.com/yrcOYqvAuN — CBS News (@CBSNews) July 15, 2016
Update 8:24PM EDT
Death toll reaches 75.
Scene: AFP reporter describes screams and flying debris as he watched truck plough into crowd at full speed in #Nice https://t.co/Rrn97LCB9N — AFP news agency (@AFP) July 14, 2016
Update 8:17PM EDT
AP confirms terror truck was loaded with arms and grenades.
Nice official says truck loaded with arms and grenades slammed into revelers; driver killed by police: https://t.co/BtposFOAJu — The Associated Press (@AP) July 14, 2016
Update 8:02PM EDT
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 14, 2016
Statement by the President on the Attack in Nice, France
On behalf of the American people, I condemn in the strongest terms what appears to be a horrific terrorist attack in Nice, France, which killed and wounded dozens of innocent civilians. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and other loved ones of those killed, and we wish a full recovery for the many wounded. I have directed my team to be in touch with French officials, and we have offered any assistance that they may need to investigate this attack and bring those responsible to justice. We stand in solidarity and partnership with France, our oldest ally, as they respond to and recover from this attack.
On this Bastille Day, we are reminded of the extraordinary resilience and democratic values that have made France an inspiration to the entire world, and we know that the character of the French Republic will endure long after this devastating and tragic loss of life.
Update 7:55PM EDT
UPDATE: French anti-terror police now in charge of Nice attack investigation, officials say https://t.co/ktc1edjeix pic.twitter.com/Fpy7RLUUx4 — CBS News (@CBSNews) July 14, 2016
ISIS has claimed responsibility for Nice attack, according to unconfirmed reports https://t.co/OJgZ7ukcDk — Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) July 14, 2016
Update 7:36PM EDT
Reuters reports the driver of the vehicle was killed by police.
Police shot and killed the driver, who drove at high speed for over 100 meters (yards) along the famed Promenade des Anglais seafront before hitting the mass of spectators, regional sub-prefect Sebastien Humbert told France Info radio. Humbert described it as a clear criminal attack, although the driver was not yet identified. Residents of the Mediterranean city close to the Italian border were advised to stay indoors. There was no sign of any other attack.
Update 7:22PM EDT
Donald Trump postpones announcement of VP running mate due to France terror attack.
In light of the horrible attack in Nice, France, I have postponed tomorrow's news conference concerning my Vice Presidential announcement. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2016
Update: 7:11PM EDT: Journalist Damien German has posted his account of being on the ground in Nice during the attack on the forum Medium in French. He recounts in part:
In the distance a noise. Shouts. My first thought: a delinquent wanted to fire his own little fireworks and has not mastered how to do it… But no. A split second later, a huge white truck was traveling at breakneck speed over people… This truck of death passed a few meters from me and I did not realize it. I saw bodies flying like bowling pins in its path. Heard noises, screams that I will never forget. I was paralyzed. I did not move. I followed this hearse with me eyes. Around me, there was panic. People were running, screaming, crying. Then I realized. And I ran with them… Blood. Groans. Sunbathers [on the beach near the promenade] were first at the scene. They brought water to the wounded and towels they filed where there was no hope. At this time, I lacked courage. I wanted to help, to be of service… in short to do something. But I did not succeed.
Update: 7:02PM EDT: Le Monde reports that the Interior Ministry cannot confirm rumors that grenades or explosives were found in the truck, which are circulating in French social media.
Update: 6:56PM EDT: According to the outlet Le Figaro, the current death toll stands at 73:
EN DIRECT – #Nice06 73 décès confirmés selon une source policière >> https://t.co/53NQMwpd2d pic.twitter.com/RtvTyW532o — Le Figaro (@Le_Figaro) July 14, 2016
Update: 6:52PM EDT: A Facebook user uploaded a video that shows the moment the truck began driving through the crowd:
Update: 6:46PM EDT: Video of assailants shooting at police has now surfaced on Twitter (Warning: Graphic):
Nice France
nice06 Shooting!pic.twitter.com/GUXslNIXiF — Rāfāʾēl (@70219) July 14, 2016
Update: 6:41PM EDT: French Interior Ministry spokesperson denies that an ongoing hostage situation is occurring.
MORE: No hostage situation at the moment in Nice attack – French interior ministry spokesman — Reuters Top News (@Reuters) July 14, 2016
Update: 6:35PM EDT: France’s iTele is now reporting that a man hiding in a restaurant nearby, believed to be involved in the attack, has been killed.
#Nice > Un homme retranché dans un restaurant du centre de Nice a été neutralisé (@iTELE)
>https://t.co/elDvxecHfy https://t.co/bameMSVB8r — iTELE (@itele) July 14, 2016
Update: 6:35PM EDT: Witnesses are now confirming that they saw police shoot the driver dead after he ran out of the truck. The Daily Mail is reporting that there were multiple gunmen, and that some eyewitnesses say that hostages were dragged into various locations near the celebrations. The newspaper is citing the Meridien Hotel, the Hotel Negresco and the Buffalo Grill restaurant as hostage locales, though officials have not confirmed this.
Update: 6:22PM EDT: Nice’s prosecutor’s office has raised the death toll to 60, according to reports.
Update: 6:17PM EDT: France24 is reporting that the driver of the truck is dead, though it has not been specified whether he was killed by police or killed himself in the attack. Eyewitnesses say the driver ran out of the truck after plowing through the crowd and began shooting. “”Everyone was calling run, run, run there’s an attack run, run, run. We heard some shots. We thought they were fireworks because it’s the 14th of July,” an eyewitness told France’s BFM TV, according to a BBC translation.
A reporter on the ground says at least one shooter is still on the loose:
“Nice attack: at least 40 dead, a suspect shot and shooter on the run. Ongoing hostage taking, according to police” https://t.co/HRAvI5RMTu — Nick Short (@PoliticalShort) July 14, 2016
The Telegraph adds that several eyewitnesses have confirmed that they also heard gunshots coming from the truck, confirming the nature of the incident. Various Twitter users have contributed photos of the truck allegedly involved in the incident. In an emergency press conference, Nice Mayor Philippe Pradal has confirmed that “tens” are dead, though he could not provide a more specific number at the moment.
Este es el camión que ha embestido a la multitud en Niza tras ser neutralizado.
(Via Nice Matin) pic.twitter.com/oaEOkPwvbh — EL MUNDO (@elmundoes) July 14, 2016
Le camion qui a foncé sur la foule pic.twitter.com/h4QuBabJMx — Nice-Matin (@Nice_Matin) July 14, 2016
Nice’s Promenade des Anglais, where the attack took place, is known for its prominent Bastille Day celebrations
Photos are also beginning to surface of the aftermath of the incident. Bodies can be seen mangled and strewn across the street Warning: Graphic Images Below:
Update: Dozens killed after truck drove into crowd in #Nice during #BastilleDay celebration: Mayor of Nice pic.twitter.com/xtf1g0IJQs — People’s Daily,China (@PDChina) July 14, 2016
Les images de la Promenade des Anglais après les #AttaquesNice pic.twitter.com/d4kDjs72OB — Nice-Matin (@Nice_Matin) July 14, 2016
Eyewitness tells me truck driver “mowed bodies over, accelerated as he hit them” #Nice #BastilleDay pic.twitter.com/gyavhEy5Ak — Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) July 14, 2016This is the first tutorial filmed at the Live It Up Pole Fitness Studio! Learn to flip over smoothly into the superman from the apprentice.
One trick to making this transitions smooth and fluid is it to use a cup grip on the top hand of your apprentice. It may feel a little awkward at first so practice holding your apprentice with a cupped top hand first and make sure you are very comfortable in it. It helps to lean back a little. The cup grip prevents the hand from getting in the way when the leg passes over to the front.
The other trick is to make sure the pole is very close into the crotch when you pass your leg around. So stick the very top of the bottom thigh to the pole. When passing your leg over, give yourself a little push with the cupped hand to help yourself along. As with many tricks and transitions, it will take some practice to get this smooth.
Good luck, and if you enjoyed this tutorial, please make sure to give the video a thumbs up.
Until next time, be sure to Live It Up!
MaggieNewsAbortion
Co-authored with John Jalsevac
Updated: Feb. 16, 2012 at 4:48 pm EST.
February 16, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Six pro-life activists, including one Catholic priest, were arrested this morning in front of the White House while holding a peaceful prayer vigil in protest against the Obama administration’s birth control mandate. They were released shortly thereafter, after paying a $100 fine.
Fr. Denis Wilde, the Associate Director of Priests for Life, told LifeSiteNews that by their arrests the protesters hoped to send a “wake-up call” to President Obama that opposition to his mandate is not going away.
The six were arrested on a charge of “disobeying a lawful order.” The priest explained that while it is legal to hold protests in front of the White House, protesters are not allowed to remain stationary, including if they kneel down and pray.
“Occupy Wall Street protesters have been occupying federal property for months, but when we kneel in prayer, the police are called in and we are arrested,” Father Wilde said. “We knew that was the risk when we gathered today, and we will do it again regardless of the risk. What people of faith – of every faith – need to do now is stand with us.”
In addition to Fr. Wilde those arrested were Jeff White and his teenage daughters Joanna and Jayne White of Survivors, Rev. Pat Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, and a local pro-lifer named John Randy Corish.
Fr. Frank Pavone, the head of Priests for Life, told LifeSiteNews.com: “The men arrested today, including our Associate Director, reveal the fact that the response to the unjust Obama mandate cannot be limited to the Courts, the Congress, and the press. It must bring us to the streets of America.”
“Over the years, the other side in this battle has tried to make the public afraid of us by painting us as arrogant, hateful, and violent. In reality, the other side should be afraid precisely because we are humble, peaceful, and prayerful, because therein lies the force that uproots injustice from society.”
A note on the Facebook page of Fr. Pavone of Priests for Life prior to the protest said that the protesters at the prayer vigil Thursday morning expected to meet with arrest, but said that “civil disobedience is called for.”
Pro-life groups including the Christian Defense Coalition, Operation Rescue, Rock for Life, Students for Life of America, and Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust were all slated to join the prayer vigil.
“The faith community can never be silent or indifferent when it comes to matters of justice, human rights and religious liberty. We want to make it clear to President Obama that Christians would rather spend time in a jail cell than be coerced into complying with an mandate that violates our religious beliefs!” said Operation Rescue in a statement Tuesday.
Obama’s mandate that all employers cover all birth control, including abortifacients like ella, and sterilizations, has united Christians from numerous denominations in an unprecedented show of opposition. Despite an “accommodation” from the Obama administration last Friday ostensibly designed to appease religious-based opposition, the protests have only increased in vehemence, with the United States Conference of Catholic bishops denouncing the “accommodation” as insufficient.
Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church has said that he would “go to jail rather than cave in to a government mandate that violates what God commands us to do.” Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
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, which of course is the environment we are now in, and it is another indication of Austrian consideration of cash balances playing an important role in the economy. He wrote:Something along these lines has been going on at the consumer level in the present US economy, as I have highlighted regularly in the EPJ Daily Alert. Though, of late, I am highlighting in the ALERT that we might be turning the corner on the desire of many to increase cash balances. It appears to me that the desire is now declining, which, of course, would intensify price inflation in the near future. This is not an exact forecast like the type that can be made in the physical sciences but one that is made in a very rough manner based on trends that appear to have been in force and are now changing.Finally, I want to address Krugman's claim that somehow the use of the term inflation by Austrians,as an increase in the money supply, is a "private language." The implication here is that Austrians are spinning the definition out of whole cloth and not that the use of the word inflation, as an increase in money supply, has had a very long history. Indeed the use of the term inflation to mean an increase in the money supply can be traced back to at least 1864 (SEE: WSJ Delves Deeper into the Meaning of the Word "Inflation" ).I will leave it up to the reader to decide whether Krugman is being deliberately misleading or that he simply doesn't know economic history very well.A pack of stray dogs follow women walking past a burnt out shop in the Kievsky district of the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on April 2, 2015 (AFP Photo/Dimitar Dilkoff)
Paris (AFP) - Bruised and battered after a year of armed conflict, Ukraine has been crippled by a combination of monetary, budgetary, industrial, banking and energy crises that could make it dependent on outside help for decades.
The country has suffered a series of shocks that has obliterated its fragile economy.
Its vital heavy industry, in the east, has been completely hamstrung, with production plunging by a fifth -- not helped by a sharp decline in steel prices.
In addition, with foreign investors fleeing the uncertainty, the value of the local currency, the hryvnia, has fallen by around 50 percent since the beginning of the year.
"Like many emerging markets, this has a direct effect on households, businesses and public finances, because both private and public debt is denominated in foreign currency," said Julien Marcilly, chief economist at insurance firm Coface.
Gross domestic product contracted 6.8 percent last year, according to official statistics and the central bank is bracing for a decline of as much as 7.5 percent in 2015.
Ukraine is also suffering a debt crisis, with its proportion of public debt to gross domestic product (GDP) expected to spiral to 94 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund -- from a healthy 40 percent in 2013.
"There is a banking crisis, a monetary crisis and an economic crisis that translated into a strong contraction of GDP last year. This year, there will probably also be an energy crisis," said Francis Malige, Managing Director for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
- 'Play-acting' on corruption -
The international community, desperate to avoid a collapse in the Ukrainian economy that could be a propaganda coup for Russia, has rushed to its aid.
In April 2014, the IMF sketched out a bailout plan worth some $17.5 billion to come in a series of tranches -- $5 billion of which has already been paid out.
This is part of a package of $40 billion pledged by the international community to help Ukraine back on its feet.
The European Union has offered Ukraine about 1.6 billion euros ($2 billion) in short-term assistance and put together a wider package worth about 11 billion euros.
Ukraine has encountered huge difficulties in borrowing on the open market, raising only small sums over short periods of time.
Possible lenders are scared off by the potential for default -- which the Moody's ratings agency says is near 100 percent.
However, others see it differently -- billionaire investor George Soros has said he is willing to plough one billion dollars into the country.
One thing that particularly irks investors is the perceived level of corruption in Ukraine.
The authorities in Kiev say they are trying to stamp out corruption and have fired a billionaire governor and arrested some high-level officials.
But Tatiana Jean, from the Paris-based IFRI think tank, said part of that was "play-acting".
If authorities were serious about clamping down on corruption, they could start with breaking the monopoly of state gas firm Naftogaz, she says.
Malige, from the EBRD -- the main investor in the country -- said another priority was to clean up the financial system.
"There are too many banks in Ukraine working on a closed system. They are in the hands of a few powerful people and they tend to finance the companies held by those same people," he said.
Nonetheless, he pointed out some of Ukraine's attractions: fertile agricultural land, "ultra-competitive" workforce and "the most reform-minded government since independence."
In a recent trip to Paris to drum up investment support, Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius played on the country's economic liberalism, vowing a series of privatisations and cuts in the public sector.
"I agree with (former US president Ronald Reagan), who said: 'The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help'."Image: Nokia
A Nokia Lumia 2520 eval unit arrived the day before Thanksgiving and two days later I am venturing out to purchase my own Lumia 2520 while my 3rd generation LTE iPad goes up for sale.
A couple weeks ago I bought an Apple iPad Air after Kevin convinced me to go look at one on MobileTechRoundup show #309. It wasn't enough of an upgrade over my existing 3rd generation to justify the $900 (I bought a $829 64GB model with tax) and I returned it two days later.
To be honest, I am a bit surprised there isn't more support for the Nokia Lumia 2520 when it is priced $230 less than the comparable iPad. There is even more value when you add in a microSD card for a third of what Apple charges to increase storage capacity. Nokia has a keyboard offer until this weekend too so that is another $149 savings, making the Lumia 2520 a great deal at $500 with no contract.
I listed the things I do with my iPad and the apps that I use regularly. My primary usage is watching different forms of media (Netflix, ABC Player, Hulu Plus) and using it to write articles for ZDNet while I commute on the train. I am more of a phone guy and use my smartphones for all the apps and other daily tasks.
Listed by side-by-side with the Lumia 2520, I am able to access all the same media sources and enjoy a rich writing experience with either Word or a text editor. Nokia also provides their HERE maps for offline navigation so just looking at the apps I use and experiences I look for in a tablet, the Nokia Lumia 2520 matches my iPad usage.
The original Surface Pro is still in my collection and serves the role as my primary home computer. The LTE in the Nokia Lumia 2520 is a key factor in my purchase decision and when Microsoft includes that in its Surface products, likely in 2014, then it will be a tougher choice between the Surface and Lumia 2520.
A full review of the Nokia Lumia 2520 will be posted next week, but in the meantime I am loving the display, enjoying media playing from the loud front facing stereo speakers, finding all the apps I need in Windows 8.1, having fun customizing the Start screen and Live Tiles, enjoying the durable feel of the plastic and Gorilla Glass (I've tended to set it down without worrying so much about scratching it like I do with my iPad), and absolutely finding use for the split screen functionality that is looking to improve my functionality and efficiency.
I personally enjoy the Windows 8.1 experience, especially on a touchscreen device. I don't yet have the keyboard accessory and can't wait to give that a try. In the meantime, the tablet experience is working out just fine and I might give my universal Bluetooth keyboard a try soon.
Given the large cost savings of at least $230, really about $300 when you add in a 32GB microSD and compare directly to the 64GB LTE iPad Air, and the free $149 keyboard/battery offer it is an easy decision to switch to the Lumia 2520 given my usage needs. My only decision now is whether I purchase a Verizon or AT&T model. I'm definitely going for the matte black model as I like that better than the glossy red fingerprint magnet I tried out for a bit a couple weeks ago.
Related ZDNet Surface coverage:Orlando, Florida (CNN) -- If an elementary school teacher graded you on your involvement in your child's education, what kind of a grade would you get?
Should your kid's first-grade teacher be grading you in the first place? If Florida state Rep. Kelli Stargel's bill becomes law, public school teachers will be required to grade the parents of students in kindergarten through the third grade.
The parents' grades of "satisfactory," "unsatisfactory" or "needs improvement" would be added to their children's report card.
Stargel, a Republican who sits on several education legislative committees, says that parental involvement is key to educating children for years to come.
As the mother of five, Stargel says, she understands the importance of her role in educating her children.
"I think a lot of parents understand that is something that is critical," she said. "On the other hand, you have some parents that don't realize they are not providing the needs."
Florida lawmakers have spent years overhauling the public school system to make schools and their teachers accountable for student achievements.
Many parents and teachers have not welcomed the changes. In the late 1990s, the state began the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT, in which a school would be graded based on the overall score of its students.
From the beginning, proponents of the FCAT wanted schools held accountable for their students' grades through standardized testing.
Critics contend that teachers are forced to spend too much time preparing students for the test instead of actually teaching.
Teachers, do you want to grade parents? Share your thoughts in the CNN Teachers' Lounge.
Last year, Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed a bill that tied a teacher's pay to his or her students' achievement. Another version of the bill is expected to pass this year under new Gov. Rick Scott.
"We have student accountability, we have teacher accountability, and we have administration accountability," Stargel said. "This was the missing link, which was, look at the parent and making sure the parents are held accountable."
Veita Stephens, an academic intervention facilitator for Polk County Public Schools, called the proposal a "unique notion."
"The thought has never entered my mind to grade a parent," she said.
Teachers agree that parental involvement is crucial to a child's education. But some teachers say that grading the parents is not the answer.
Sharon Francis, who teaches first grade in the small central Florida city of Winter Haven, is not sure that grading parents will work.
"I think those parents that are not going to show up or not do anything," said Francis, who teaches students from primarily poor homes, "it's not going to faze them, whether you put 'unsatisfactory.' "
The grading system is based on three criteria that Stargel wrote in the legislation:
• A child should be at school on time, prepared to learn after a good night's sleep, and have eaten a meal.
• A child should have the homework done and prepared for examinations.
• There should be regular communication between the parent and teacher.
"Those three things are key to a quality education," Stargel said.
Steve Perry, a CNN education contributor and founder of Capital Preparatory Magnet School in Hartford, Connecticut, says he couldn't disagree more.
Perry insists that a good education is based on what a child learns in the classroom and not what a parent might know that could help their child.
"There is nothing in any teacher's training that would put them in a position to be able to effectively judge the parenting of one their student's parents," Perry argued. "If getting a bad grade was the impetus for people doing things right, then I would have an entire school of kids getting A's."
Kindergarten teacher Theresa Hill of Snively Elementary School in Winter Haven disagrees.
"This is the real world. You don't always get a superior rating if you're not doing a superior job. That's life," she said. "We grade our children based on their performance. Why should the parents be any different?"
Some parents said they laughed out loud after hearing about the proposed legislation.
On the sidelines of his son's soccer practice in Winter Park, J.C. Adams said he thought it was an interesting proposal.
"It could have some validity. We could try it and see how that might work out for everyone," he said.
Kim Granger, who has two daughters -- one in high school and the other a mother of three young children -- welcomed the idea of being graded on her parental skills.
"I wouldn't mind that at all. I would get a good grade," she said. "If you're more involved with your children when they're littler, when they grow older, they're more stable, more willing to sit down and do the work."
Stargel acknowledges that not everyone agrees with her legislation, which she said is still under revision. The bill was not intended to tell parents how to raise their kids, she says.
"We want to make sure parents are involved in the education of their children," Stargel said.
Francis Monteiro agrees that parents like him appreciate feedback from their children's teachers, but he says requiring teachers to grade parents is not the answer.
"Bottom line: Everyone wants the best for their kids," he said.The US appears to have taken a back seat role in international relations. Is the US in decline? Or is it just taking stock as it accommodates to the new emerging world order?
On balance, the US is a force for good... it was the leading engine that protected democracy and advanced democracy in World War I, World War II and the Cold War, created a world, I think, where more people could enjoy freedom.... I think we have provided an order for the expansion of democracy, freedom and also prosperity. Thomas Friedman
In this episode of Head to Head at the Oxford Union, Mehdi Hasan challenges one of the world’s most influential columnists and authors, Thomas L Friedman.
Advisor to presidents and kings, Tom Friedman of the New York Times has won the Pulitzer Prize not once or twice, but three times.
He is the best-selling author, among many others, of The World is Flat and he argues in his latest book, That Used to Be US, that the US must rebuild itself to remain a global power.
Critics say American self-interest has trumped democracy and human rights time and again, and that Obama’s America is no different. So is the US foreign policy counter-productive? Or is America a force for good in the world?
The US "is not an NGO", admits Friedman, explaining that America "is a country like any country with its interests, it pursues them, and sometimes pursues them very narrowly."
Friedman also talks about the powerful influence of the Israeli lobby and his experience in Yemen.
"America is in a slow decline", he tells Mehdi Hasan and goes on to describe his "unique formula of success" that will place America once again ahead of the Brazils, the Chinas and the Japans.
Joining this discussion are: Seumas Milne, an associate editor and columnist at The Guardian, as well as author of the The Enemy Within, Beyond the Casino Economy, and The Revenge of History; Davis Lewin, the political director at the Henry Jackson Society, and the former Middle East director at the Next Century Foundation; and Dr Miriyam Aouragh, a lecturer of Cyber Politics in the Middle East, an associate member of the Oriental Institute at the University of Oxford who is currently conducting research on the political implications of the Internet for the Arab revolutions. She is also the author of Palestine Online: Transnationalism, the Internet and the Construction of Identity.
Source: Al JazeeraThe baseball rolls slowly up the third baseline, but like a flash of lightning, Nolan Arenado bare-hands the ball and throws a strike to first base, nipping the runner by half a step.
The baseball sizzles toward left field, looking like a sure base hit, but Arenado is there to snag it, throw across his body and start a double play at second base.
Game after game, the Rockies’ 25-year-old slugging third baseman pulls off another web gem. The spectacular has become routine, but not to be taken for granted.
Tuesday night, Arenado won another Gold Glove, becoming the first third baseman in major-league history to win four consecutive Gold Gloves to begin his career. The only other third baseman to begin his career with three Gold Gloves in a row was the Red Sox’s Frank Malzone, who won from 1957-59.
“Yeah, it’s an amazing thing,” Arenado said. “I have worked really hard at my defense. This is something I take a lot of pride in that. I have to thank God that I have been able to stay healthy, for the most part. It’s a good feeling that your hard work pays off.” Related Articles November 8, 2016 Excited for Rockies after hiring of manager Bud Black
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Arenado was the only Rockies player to strike gold. Second baseman DJ LeMahieu was a finalist, but he lost out to Joe Panik of the San Francisco Giants. LeMahieu, who captured the National League batting crown this season with a.348 average, won a Gold Glove in 2014.
Slugging right fielder Carlos Gonzalez also was a finalist, hoping to win his fourth Gold Glove, but he was beaten out by the Chicago Cubs’ Jason Heyward. Gonzalez previously won in 2010, 2012 and 2013.
Arenado’s expertise is illustrated not only by the jaw-dropping plays he makes at third base, but defensive metrics. According to Fangraphs, the runaway National League leader in defensive runs saved with 20. Last month, won his second consecutive Fielding Bible Award, which picks the top player at each position regardless of league. The awards, given by ACTA Sports, were decided by a 12-person panel of experts, who awarded the third baseman all but one first-place vote.
“I love playing defense,” Arenado said. “Hitting is just so hard sometimes. But I want to impact the game someway, somehow. So defense is something I take a lot of pride in.
“I will never forget what Tulo (Troy Tulowitzki) told me. He always said you have to take pride in your defense, because it can change games.”
Arenado tied for the NL lead with 41 home runs and led the majors with 133 RBIs, but he is not one of the three finalists for the NL MVP, which will be announced next week.
Colorado players have won 19 Gold Gloves. Outfielder Larry Walker has the most with five, followed by Arenado with four, while Gonzalez and first baseman Todd Helton are tied for third with three each.
Managers and coaches for each club voted for players in their league, but they could not vote for players on their team, to account for 75 percent of the selection process. The Society for American Baseball Research applies the SABR Defensive Index for the other 25 percent.Share this...
Pro-Clim, a forum of the Swiss Academy of Sciences, has recently put out a news release titled: The Arguments of the Climate Skeptics. Below you’ll find the news release translated in English by yours truly. Hat tip to NoTricksZone reader John Patagon.
The Swiss Academy is apparently unswayed by the change in direction recently adopted by the Royal Society in Britain. Pro-Clim is sticking to activism and dogma, at least until further notice. Comically it claims that skepticism is scientific, but only if it does not come from climate skeptics. More on this below.
The news release that follows serves to remind warministas that the science is settled and that arguments against “climate change” are to be dismissed. So keep the faith! The release also links to a pdf file, which provides frustrated warministas with arguments they can use against skeptics in public debate. Here is the release in English:
===================================================================
The Arguments of the Climate Skeptics
Climate Press No. 29
Skepticism is the basis for scientific work, as scientific findings must be reproducible and stand up to rigorous examination. On the other hand, the skepticism coming from climate skeptics is problematic because they accept scientific proof only selectively.
The arguments from climate skeptics are numerous, but often contradictory. The facts behind climate change are challenged in more or less complex ways. These are arguments that have been either refuted already, or simply are not scientifically plausible when examined more closely – but are always put forth anyway. In the meantime answers and detailed explanations for each point can be called up from websites at any time. A look at the collection of arguments allows them to be categorized into groups. Arguments made by climate skeptics almost always fall under one of the categories. The described categories will help you orgnanize the hundreds of arguments.
===================================================================
To me it seems strange that a scientific society would take sides instead of remaining neutral. I especially like their claim “the skepticism of climate skeptics is problematic because they accept the scientific proof only selectively“. What they are saying here is that skepticism becomes unwelcome and dismissible if it threatens their dogma.
When this belief becomes a guiding principle of a scientific society, then it has truly succeeded in reducing itself to a joke.
Sorry, but you don’t get to accept or dismiss skepticism based on whether you like it or not. If you don’t like skepticism because it’s “selective”, or “problematic”, then science is not your field.HONG KONG (NOVEMBER 10, 2015) – Toonami, Turner's kids brand dedicated to delivering the best superhero and action-adventure animation in South and Southeast Asia, has snapped up the latest instalment of the Dragon Ball franchise from Toei Animation.
Dragon Ball Super is the first all-new Dragon Ball television series to be produced in nearly 20 years, and will make its pan-regional launch on Toonami in mid-2016. It will be an exclusive first-run premiere on Toonami in Southeast Asia and India, which will also be its English-language world premiere.
“This announcement is huge for fanboys and girls in Asia. Dragon Ball is undoubtedly the original and world's biggest anime export, and is a cornerstone of our programming on Toonami,” said Mark Eyers, Chief Content Officer for Turner's Kids Networks in Asia Pacific. “Since the channel launched in 2012, Toonami has been airing episodes of Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Z Kai, and to premiere Dragon Ball Super demonstrates the channel's continued commitment to securing must-have and must-see content, first on Toonami.”
Reuniting the franchise's iconic characters, Dragon Ball Super follows the aftermath of Goku's fierce battle with Majin Buu, as he attempts to maintain earth's fragile peace. Overseen by Dragon Ball's original creator, Akira Toriyama and produced with Fuji Television, Dragon Ball Super will draw on its historic past to create a bold, new universe welcoming to fans and endearing to new viewers.
Introduced as a manga in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1984, Dragon Ball has evolved into a globally beloved brand. Seen around the world, with over 230 million copies of its comic books sold, Dragon Ball is one of the most popular anime franchises of all time.
Series Synopsis: The threat of Majin Buu has passed, and Goku and friends are finally living in peace. The day of Bulma's birthday party arrives, and everyone gets together again for the first time in ages. Then Beerus, the God of Destruction, appears. Goku gets his friends' help to become the legendary Super Saiyan God, and gets into a fierce fight with Beerus, but he's not quite as powerful as the God of Destruction. Beerus ends the fight, and informs Goku of a shocking fact. This universe where Goku and crew live is only one of 12. What's more, each universe has its own God of Destruction, which means there might be opponents out there even stronger than Beerus! The story now moves into a new phase. Now the world of Dragon Ball reaches a new dimension that's beyond imagination.Bree Newsome became an Internet and media sensation when she did what many were longing to do but didn’t dare. She scaled a flagpole outside South Carolina's statehouse and brought the flag down, while police officers waited to arrest her below.
Her actions, and the instantly iconic photos that accompanied them, inspired scores of retweets, headlines, conversations and debates. They also inspired artists.
“Seeing her do that, and then when she came down and they were putting her in custody and she had a smile on her face because she knew she was doing the right thing, it touched me, so I was like I had to do something about that,” says Niall-Julian Watkins, a 25-year-old illustrator who lives in Oak Grove, Kentucky.
A single image fundamentally changed the national debate over the Confederate flag and its meaning: Dylann Roof posing with it before he went on his murderous, racist rampage. The photos of Newsome, taken by James Tyson, captured the nation’s attention in a different way. Both Newsome and Tyson are facing charges of defacing a public monument and could spend up to three years in jail, if convicted.
Watkins drew Newsome without her helmet and ropes, holding the flag in one hand and gripping the pole with the other as she looks down. He posted the drawing on Twitter. It was shared more than 3,000 times and featured on Upworthy.
He wrote the word “still” below the image. It’s a reference to rapper Lupe Fiasco’s lyrics, and a nod to the tradition of black women activism.
“I think everyone was kind of waiting for someone to have the courage to take that down, so when it happened, everyone looked, and was like ‘Thank you,’" he says.
Artist Rebecca Cohen took a different approach. She illustrates a feminist comic strip featuring female superheros, so it seemed natural for her to depict Newsome in the same vein.
“The photos of her were already iconic and historical in nature, everyone recognized that immediately. I was using the wonder woman iconography because it immediately invokes a whole number of ideas,” Cohen explains. “I liked the immediate associations invoked by the Wonder Woman iconography — the all-Americanness, the feminism, empowered women. All of that stuff sort of comes together really crispy with Wonder Woman. I like the idea of blending that established character with this sort of real-life superhero.”
As a white artist who is supportive of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, she felt it was a way she could contribute.
“As a white ally, sometimes it feels like there is not very much I can do, so this was a little something that I could.”
Instagram, Tumblr and Facebook have more examples of illustrations inspired by Newsome's civil disobedience. Another telling example comes from Memphis illustrator Quinn McGowan.
He was moved by the calm, serene expression she had as she was being arrested, and, like Watkins and Cohen, he drew her without the harness and ropes. "She became a mythical figure right before my eyes and that's what I wanted to convey," he says.
McGowan thinks students and historians will be looking at the images of Newsome for some time to come.
"It’s the shot heard round the world. It’s a sit-in. It’s burning bras. It’s the sort of thing that you know you’re going to read about in the history books,” he says.The New Orleans Saints barely beat the rain as they wrapped up Tuesday's mid-afternoon minicamp practice session just before the thunderstorms hit the practice facility during the end of the autograph session with the fans.
There was plenty more action during this one minicamp practice then we've seen during the last two organized team activities sessions open to the media. The vast majority of the activity occurred in the passing game, which is the norm this time of the NFL calendar as the players will only practice in helmets, jerseys and shorts during the three-day camp.
There were some aspects to like on both sides of the football, depending on the drill. Here's a snapshot of the notable highs and lows, depending on your perspective:
- The quarterbacks and wide receivers dominated the defensive backs in one-on-one drills with nearly everyone involved offensively finding success. Only undrafted rookie wideout Steve Hull dropped a pass.
Cornerback Rod Sweeting made the only significant play on defense, breaking up a pass. It's one of a few plays, good and bad, by Sweeting during Tuesday's session.
- Drew Brees got off to a rough start during seven-on-seven drills in the redzone.
Brees fired a pass right into the chest of safety Rafael Bush in the back of the end zone for an interception. Brees was looking for a cutting Kenny Stills along the back line, but simply threw a bad ball right to Bush for the interception.
Cornerback Keenan Lewis frustrated Brees on the next play with a pass breakup on Nick Toon. Brees then wrapped up the drill by throwing too high to tight end Josh Hill, not allowing him the chance to come down with two feet in bounds. Brees let out an angry shout to end the drill.
Meanwhile, second-year passer Ryan Griffin continued his hot pursuit for the No. 2 job with four TD passes in the same drill. Griffin connected twice with undrafted running back Derrick Strozier for TDs, while hitting undrafted wideout Seantavious Jones and tailback Travaris Cadet with the other two scores.
Saints coach Sean Payton said after practice that the competition for the No. 2 quarterback job is definitely legit. While there's nothing to determine right now, he continued to praise Griffin after practice.
You can't discount Luke McCown, though, as he played pretty well Tuesday, highlighted with a TD pass to Cadet in seven-on-seven drills and another TD pass, this one to Toon on a corner route beating rookie Stanley Jean-Baptiste.
Cadet also continues to look sharp during the third week of practices as he's looked quicker and more relaxed than in previous camps. If he keeps this up for the next couple of months, Payton will certainly find a role for him.
- Brees, predictably, rebounded as he and Kenny Stills connected on the play of the day.
Brees hung in the pocket despite a solid pass rush during team drills and lofted the ball to Stills, who was heavily covered by Kenny Vaccaro. Stills came down with the one-handed catch in the end zone anyway as all Vaccaro could do was pat Stills on the butt for a great play.
Here's a peek at some other tidbits to catch my eye:
- I wrote last week on how we should expect a consistent rotation of defensive players with the first-team defense. So expecting the expected was a good mindset Tuesday as defensive coordinator Rob Ryan shuffled in bodies all over the place.
Some of the players outside of the normal starters to see snaps during the early walk-through portion included linebackers Victor Butler, Kyle Knox, Rufus Johnson, Ramon Humber and Keyunta Dawson; defensive linemen Tyrunn Walker and Glenn Foster; along with Baptiste and even fifth-rounder Vinnie Sunseri.
I like to pay attention to see who participates in the early walk-throughs during practice because it often gives an indication of which players the team could find promising.
- It took about a week for veteran center Jonathan Goodwin to receive snaps during team drills with the first team. He received the first round of snaps with Tim Lelito jumping in with the second team.
The pattern was reversed during the next team portion of practice with Lelito with the first team and Goodwin with the twos. This was to be expected as the two players will vie all offseason for the starting job. You can't make any judgments at this point as you can't gauge anything of major significance while practicing in jerseys and shorts.
- Derek Dimke won the mini-battle of many more to come in the kicking game as he drilled his three field-goal attempts from 32, 37 and 39 yards. Shayne Graham missed one of his three kicks booting a 39-yarder wide right.
- Once again, the punt returners were without Brandin Cooks as he should make his first appearance in full-team practices in next week's final OTA sessions. Kenny Stills, Charles Hawkins and Derrick Strozier fielded punts during special teams drills.
Hawkins muffed a punt, but managed to recover the loose ball with gunners closing in on him.Illinois may be known for Chicago and the bustling suburbs surrounding it, but there is much to explore without ever stepping foot into “Chi Town.”
The Central Illinois region (or “CI Region”) is the middle third of Illinois when divided north to south. In terms of terrain, the area consists mostly of flat prairie. It is from this landscape that Illinois gets it official nickname, “The Prairie State.”
The city of Chicago, located on the Indiana/Illinois border and along the shore of Lake Michigan, is not inside the CI Region.
But Springfield is, and it is here that you will find many of the historical attractions described below.
Springfield became the state capital in 1839 (at Abraham Lincoln’s insistence). Today, the city is home to roughly 116,200 people. It is located in the center of the southern third of the CI Region.
Other major cities in the CI Region include Quincy, Decatur, Champaign-Urbana, Bloomington-Normal, Danville, and Galesburg.
If you’re interested in visiting Central Illinois, you’ve come to the right place. Keep reading to learn more about the history of the region and what’s it like today.
Central Illinois: History & Trivia
Before the Europeans arrived, the lakes and rivers of Illinois were home to numerous Native American tribes (more on this later). The Central Illinois River Valley is still home to ancient sites, burial mounds, and settlements from these early inhabitants.
Central Illinois is divided diagonally by the Illinois River, a 273-mile waterway that once served as a vital trade route connecting the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River.
The area west of the river is nicknamed “the heart of Illinois,” and was originally a part of the Military Tract of 1812.
French pioneers arrived in the area during the late 1600s, and immediately started using the Illinois River as a trade route. Nearly 100 years later, in the late 1770s, Lewis and Clark claimed the Illinois region for the colony of Virginia.
In 1783, after America’s independence, this region became part of the Northwest Territory. Illinois achieved statehood in 1818, with the first capital in Kaskaskia (followed by Vandalia and then Springfield).
The state was named “Illinois” as a tribute to the Illinois Confederation (AKA Illiniwek), a group of Indian tribes living in the upper Mississippi River Valley.
Fast forward to the Civil War (1861-1865). Illinois was heavily involved in the conflict, sending 25,000 soldiers to fight for the North. General Ulysses S. Grant, who was influential in helping Abraham Lincoln lead the Union army to victory, is memorialized by the Ulysses S. Grant Home in Galena, Illinois.
More Trivia
President Reagan: Illinois is the birthplace of former president Ronald Reagan (born in Tampico, IL in 1911).
State Flag/State Motto: Illinois’ state motto is “State Sovereignty, National Union.” You will find these words on the state flag pictured at left. The shield the eagle is holding shows 13 stars and 13 stripes (representing the original colonies).
The two dates on the rock refer to the year Illinois became a state (1818) and the year the state seal was redesigned (1868).
Fun Fact: Happy hour was illegal in Illinois until July 16th, 2015. Click here to learn more.
Agriculture-based Economy
With a population of nearly 13 million, Illinois is the 5th most populous state in America.
The Central Region is best known for agriculture, primarily soybeans and corn. Illinois hosts an annual State Fair (along with numerous county fairs) to promote agriculture as well as to offer entertainment.
In regards to manufacturing and service, Caterpillar Inc. (headquartered in Peoria) employs more than 15,000 employees in the region.
The military had a large presence in Illinois until the Chanute Air Force Base closed in 1993.
The Central Illinois Region is also home to several universities and colleges, both public and private. You’ve probably heard of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and their mascot, the Fighting Illini.
Culture
The small town America/ Midwestern culture of Central Illinois is directly connected to the state’s focus on agriculture.
When compared to Chicago, the rest of Illinois is relatively relaxed. Illinois is known as a tolerant, multicultural state partly due to Abraham Lincoln’s push to end slavery.
The Underground Railroad has deep roots in Illinois and has helped to shape the tolerant culture it enjoys today.
Tourism
Much of Central Illinois’ value as a tourism destination is associated with Abraham Lincoln. Places to visit include:
Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site
Lincoln Home National Historic Site/ Lincoln’s Springfield home (pictured at left)
Lincoln’s Tomb
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
Popular non-Lincoln attractions include:
Chautauqua National Wildlife Refuge.
Old State Capitol
Dana-Thomas House (one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterworks)
Starved Rock State Park (voted the #1 attraction in Illinois)
Funk’s Grove
Cuisine
If you’re hungry, you’ve come to the right place. Central Illinois has no shortage of gourmet comfort food and foreign favorites:
D’arcys in Springfield: Authentic Irish pub with a relaxing beer garden. Try the famous “horseshoe” – a dish featuring
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a knee during her matches, and continuing to do so, despite criticism from the league.
That’s not “arrogant.” It’s all political protest. In other words, both constitutionally protected AND valuable.
And really what better, more American venue to have these expressions of political dissent than sporting events? I’ve written about the ways in which athletics can be a force for positive social change. We’ve seen this in the push for LGBTQ acceptance in sports, so much so that the National Women’s Hockey League not only has its first openly trans athlete; the league’s response seems to have been effectively “this is no big deal at all.”
Yet so much of American sports, especially professional athletics, remains wound up in expressions of compulsory patriotism: in God and country and freedom, all of which are, in some fashion, expressions of political speech. Meanwhile, much of the management structure in professional and collegiate sports remains very much invested in perpetuating white supremacy.
Justice Ginsburg believes in our democratic values; we know this from her opinions and dissents in reproductive rights cases, voting rights cases, and dozens of others in which she stood on the side of the less powerful to speak truth to power. Which is why it is so disappointing to see her fail to see sports venues as a platform for larger, more difficult conversations about human rights, racialized policing, and democracy. For white feminists especially, that’s not the kind of statement we can let slide.
As much as this is a scold on Justice Ginsburg for her careless statements on Kaepernick and the similar protests he has helped spark, it is also call to my fellow white feminists to do better. All of us. As Rapinoe herself explained, “I am kneeling because I have to do something. Anything. We all do.” Rapinoe used her platform to show support and to be an ally. She took a knee. The rest of white feminists should as well, in whatever way we can.CHENNAI/KOTTAYAM: Hours after sending an SOS to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure their safe return to India, 46 nurses from Kerala trapped in a hospital in the northern Iraq city of Tikrit on Wednesday evening said they had agreed to continue to work there after fighters from militant group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ( ISIS ), assured them they would be paid their salaries and dues.A nurse said the militants were courteous after they took control of Tikrit Teaching Hospital on Wednesday. The nurses have been on razor's edge since June 10 when ISIS fighters took control of Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussain, and massacred 1,700 Iraqi air force recruits there."For the moment we're safe in the hospital," another nurse, Jency James, said. "We hear gunfire but don't know what's going on." She said the rebels had asked the nurses not to venture out of the hospital. "Though we have basic necessities, we're concerned about our safety," she said. "The bombing has cut off our internet connections and we don't know how long our phones will work."Their seeming bravado notwithstanding, many of the nurses like Jency seem caught between the devil and the deep sea. Jency said 15 of the 46 nurses had not been paid for four months and were finding it difficult to survive. She said she had borrowed money and paid an agent Rs 1.60 lakh for a job with a salary of Rs 45,000 per month. "I have to pay back the loan. I don't know what I'm going to do," she said. "It's like being caught in a death trap."Another nurse, Sumi Jose, who worked with Tikrit Teaching Hospital as a nurse, said, "We hear sounds of shooting and bombing outside the hospital. We are safe, for now. We have contacted the Indian ambassador in Iraq and the CM of Kerala. But there has been no action so far," Jose, who is from Kothamangalam, told TOI over phone from Tikrit. Red Cross officials however have told the nurses that it is not safe to travel to the airport.India's special envoy Suresh Reddy arrived in Baghdad on Wednesday and started talks with the Iraqi leadership and rebels to secure the release of 40 Indian construction workers ISIS fighters captured in the Mosul on Tuesday. The Indian mission is also trying to bring home other Indians stranded in Iraq. Ambassador to the UAE T P Seetharam told TOI over telephone from Abu Dhabi that diplomatic efforts are on to evacuate 12 Indian workers employed by a UAE company in Iraq."We were approached by a leading company in the UAE that wants diplomatic help to repatriate 12 Indian workers," Seetharam said. The contact details of the 12 stranded workers have been handed over to the Indian Embassy in Baghdad, he said.( Armed and dangerous: Iraqi Shia women with weapons in a show of support for Iraqi security forces, in the city of Najaf.)Sona Joseph, another Malayali at the same hospital, said that they are struggling for food and water. "People from Red Cross bring us milk and water, which is a great relief," said the Ettumanoor native. The nursing staff has not reported for duty for the past five days.In Kerala, parents and relatives of these nurses are frustrated. "My daughter told me that all Americans in their group have been evacuated by US officials. She is asking me why Keralites have been left in the lurch," said an angry Jose from Pallikathodu, whose daughter Mareena is stranded in Iraq.Jose, bedridden for the past four years after he fell off a tree, said his other daughter Neethu — working in a Basra hospital — is safe. "She called today. The place where she is working is not facing troubles," he said.A TaskRabbit ad on Market Street in San Francisco. (Photo11: Natalie DiBlasio)
When I moved to San Francisco, I crafted nearly my entire new life — from my furniture to my friends and my health — from my iPhone. I was used to a partial on-demand culture in Washington, D.C., where you could order an Uber or have food delivered, but I had no idea how the convenience culture of San Francisco would change me.
Startups use San Francisco as a testing ground to see what works and what doesn't. To see what people will pay for. And the main target right now? Leisure time and convenience.
It started for me on day one in my new apartment, when I had forgotten to buy one key piece of furniture — stools.
I didn’t even have to wait for the once-impressive two-day delivery from Amazon Prime. My online cart full of kitchen stools, lightbulbs, toilet paper, bell peppers, coffee, NyQuil and yogurt came in 18 minutes, thanks to the Prime Now app. 18 minutes. To my doorstep.
Welcome to San Francisco, where apps are replacing chores, responsibility and the slightest inconveniences — like waiting and interacting with other humans. It's an assisted living community for the impatient accessed from your iPhone.
My boyfriend Brent Facetimed his doctor at One Medical and got diagnosed with the flu. I got it too, and was diagnosed through One Medical's texting feature on their app. We both didn't have to leave the couch. In fact, we had Amazon deliver chicken soup and tissues.
I spent that week in bed, a bed we ordered to our house through Casper, a service that delivers a mattress, sheets and pillows to your doorstep in a tidy little box the size of a mini-fridge. It arrived in less than 24 hours from when I ordered it.
Casper isn't alone in the on-demand mattress space. Lull delivers mattresses in as little as one business day. "We despise shopping for mattresses," Lull's CEO Sven Klein told me. "There really is no need to roll around on various mattresses at the retail store while a salesperson hovers over you." Nope. Not when you can order it to your doorstep from your iPhone. The process of ordering took me six minutes. The mattress arrived the next night and I slept like a baby.
Even when you're not sick, household chores aren't a blast. In San Francisco, you don't have to do any of them — if you can afford it. Washio and Rinse will pick up your laundry, wash and fold or dry clean it and return it to your door. Task Rabbit can be there that day to do your dishes, mop your floors or scrub your toilet.
Feeling lonely? Aside from a few of my college friends whose work lives also brought them to San Francisco, I hadn't met any new buddies in the first few weeks after my move. Making friends as an adult is hard and often awkward. But in San Francisco, there is, in fact, an app for that. You can't quite order a friend, but these apps are trying to make it as easy as possible. And, I have to say, these apps have been a great help in adjusting to a new place. There is VINA, think Tinder for ladies hunting for gal pals. You can leave off your height and job and instead pick if you prefer coffee or cocktails, describe yourself in five emojis and let the swiping begin. Weave is a networking service that connects you with professionals in similar or compatible fields for a 30-minute coffee meeting. One of my new Weave friends and I went out for a run together this weekend.
Since I've moved to San Francisco, I haven't called the local pizza place for delivery once. I'd been living in a large metro area so was used to a few online food delivery services like Seamless, Grubhub and Eat24. Now my dine-in apps folder is bursting at the seams. In new cities, Uber Eats promises to have you fed in under an hour. In San Francisco, the ranges are closer to 12-30 minutes. Caviar promises delivery in 15 minutes or less from their Fastbite menu, while everything averages between 40-60 minutes. Sprig offers around five organic dishes a day and delivers them to you in 15-20 minutes. Munchery even donates one meal to a local food bank for each meal you purchase. Need groceries? Instacart picks up and delivers. For those with a license, Eaze delivers medical marijuana to wherever you are in 20 minutes or less. That's just the tip of the iceberg.
But a convenient, on-demand culture is also a muted culture. I had burritos delivered from Pancho Villa twice before I ever stepped in the well-known staple in my Mexican-influenced neighborhood. There, I saw a decade of awards hanging on the wall for best salsa, I felt the energy on the staff wrapping perfectly cylindrical burritos at light speed and heard each order called out in Spanish and English. The burrito tasted better when I could appreciate the soul that went into making it. A feeling you just don't get from a third-party app.
Some of the best discoveries come from a walk around your neighborhood. You'll find a mom-and-pop shop that makes the best sandwiches you've ever tasted. Or a coffee shop with a perfectly shaded patio and well-stocked bookshelf out back. When I rely on apps to tell me what's nearest, what's fastest and what's best, I give up the opportunity to discover the city for myself. And to find the things that make this feel like home to me.
Sharing economy apps like Lyft and Task Rabbit were initially intended to help everyday people help each other by doing everyday tasks. But as these apps become more mainstream and competitive for pricing, the divide between the employees and customers grows. It's us and them. And the technology that stands in between, allowing you to never speak with anyone to order your service, makes it easy to forget that, in the end, the person you've outsourced your chores too, is a person — not just a company.
Besides, at 25, do I ever want to be so stressed and busy that I can't come home and mop my own floors or take care of my own responsibilities? Surely I can manage my home life and make it to yoga class on time. Otherwise, my problem needs a bigger solution than something that I can order through an app.
DiBlasio is a digital editor for USA TODAY who writes the column #Launched about tech and culture in San Francisco. Follow along with #Launched and on social media to explore the technology explosion and the culture collision that make up daily life in the Bay Area.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1RWYJVbtrial work, they gave me a chance to try again.
So, here's Mr. ChooChoo, completely detaled and colored. Detailing was pretty hard and some things vere just too difficult to include, like buffers. But I still tried my best to
perpetuate look of real-life Flying Scotsman locomotive. I was not sure if I've maganed to make a
coal wagon, and I feel like it came of as a little too short compared to real-life scale of it and the locomotive.
I painted it with Tikkurila
furniture paint. I didn't include any wax or
lacquer because paint looked shiny enough.
A wooden model project I started in intership shortly before my summer vacation, so I wasn't able to finish it. mahriking.deviantart.com/art/M… When I got back to the same place for apite
The 2015 Dallas Cowboys season was the franchise's 56th season in the National Football League, the seventh playing their home games at AT&T Stadium and the fifth full season under head coach Jason Garrett. Despite a 2-0 start, the team fell to a 7-game losing skid and went on finish the regular season at 4–12. It was the team's worst record since 1989, in Jerry Jones' first year as owner when they went 1–15. Their collapse from a 2-0 start was because of key injuries to their starters through the remaining 15 weeks and they were eliminated from playoff contention after losing to the Jets in Week 15.
2015 draft class [ edit ]
Notes
Offseason [ edit ]
Staff transactions [ edit ]
Head coach Jason Garrett remains head coach signing a five-year $30 million contract
Defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli resigned to a three-year contract
Players transactions [ edit ]
Resigned wide receiver Dez Bryant to a five-year $70 million contract
Resigned right tackle Doug Free to a three-year contract
RB Demarco Murray departed signing a five-year contract with the Philadelphia Eagles
[2]
Regular season [ edit ]
Despite starting the season 2-0 and leading the NFC East, the Cowboys lost their next seven games and finished the season by going 2-12 in their final 14 games, and were eliminated from playoff contention in week 15. Their collapse from a solid start was primarily due to injuries by starting quarterback Tony Romo and starting wide receiver Dez Bryant, which both occurred in week 2 of the season. Brandon Weeden started the next 3 games in which he lost, and then was benched in week 7 following the bye week in replacement for Matt Cassel who was, at the time, just released by the Buffalo Bills. Cassel then lost the Cowboys their next 4 games until Tony Romo recovered from his broken collarbone injury and won their first game in 9 weeks against the Dolphins. However, in a week 12 loss against the undefeated Panthers, Romo suffered a second collarbone injury and was later ruled out for the season. Matt Cassel then started the next 3 games for the Cowboys with a week 13 win against the rival Redskins. However, after a poor performance against the New York Jets in week 15 in the 1st half, Cassel was benched in favor of backup Kellen Moore, who then went on to lose the rest of the games of the season.
Staff [ edit ]
Rosters [ edit ]
Opening preseason roster [ edit ]
Week one roster [ edit ]
Final roster [ edit ]
Schedule [ edit ]
Preseason [ edit ]
Regular season [ edit ]
Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.
Game summaries [ edit ]
Week 1: vs. New York Giants [ edit ]
The Cowboys opened the season at home against their rival, the New York Giants, led by the quarterback-receiver tandem of Eli Manning and young Odell Beckham Jr..
Tony Romo came back late in the fourth quarter and nailed the game-winning drive to Jason Witten to give Dallas a narrow 27-26 victory.
The victory, however, was bittersweet as Dez Bryant broke his foot in the second half. The injury required surgery and he was expected to miss 10–12 weeks. Cameras caught Bryant congratulating his teammates in the locker room after a close victory. Romo spoke on Bryant's injury: "You can't replace Dez Bryant." Three days later, the NFL came forward and apologized to the New York Giants for 2 blown calls. The first call led to a Cowboys touchdown due to a wrong pass interference call which set up the Cowboys on 1st and Goal on the 2 yard line, and the second was a blown defensive holding call which would have set up the Giants on first and Goal with the Cowboys having no timeouts remaining and 1:36 left on the clock.[3]
Week 2: at Philadelphia Eagles [ edit ]
Shining atop the division, the Cowboys played their divisional rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles in what turned out to be a defensive juggernaut of a game. Neither team could really get anything going on offense; however, the Cowboys were able to pull away by dominating the time of possession. Already missing starting wide receiver Dez Bryant, the Cowboys experienced a devastating loss when Tony Romo was sacked by Jordan Hicks. The result of the hit was a fractured collarbone and an expected eight-week absence. The fractured collarbone is the same one Romo broke in 2010. Backup Brandon Weeden got his first taste of game time this season, completing all of his 7 passes for a total of 73 yards and one touchdown. Despite the injuries to the two key players, the Cowboys still managed to hold off the Eagles with a 20-10 victory, ultimately stunning Philadelphia's home crowd. Dallas's defense harassed Sam Bradford and ex-Cowboy DeMarco Murray all game, holding Murray to a measly 2 yards on 13 carries. Sean Lee, a defensive powerhouse, finished the game with 14 tackles and an interception for the Cowboys. For his performance, Lee was given the honor of being named NFC Defensive Player of the Week.
Week 3: vs. Atlanta Falcons [ edit ]
Many questions surrounded the Dallas Cowboys as they entered Week 3, especially regarding how the team would respond to having neither Dez Bryant nor Tony Romo. Coach Jason Garrett's mantra of “next man up” played a big part in preparing for the game against the Atlanta Falcons.
Backup quarterback Brandon Weeden started for the first time since the previous season's game against the Arizona Cardinals, completing 22 of 26 passes for 232 yards and one interception with no touchdowns.
The Cowboys played very well in the first half, outscoring the Falcons 28-17; however, the Falcons made a few halftime adjustments that squashed any running game the Cowboys pursued afterwards. On the other hand, the Cowboys had no answer for Julio Jones, who caught for 164 yards and 2 touchdowns. Owner Jerry Jones said after the game that the Cowboys just looked tired in the second half. The Falcons eventually came back late in the second half and won the game 39-28.
Week 4: at New Orleans Saints [ edit ]
In another heartbreaking loss which ended a 9-0 winning streak of regular season away games, the injury bug struck the Cowboys again. Sean Lee exited the game early with a concussion, Lance Dunbar saw the last of his playing time this season with a torn ACL, and Brice Butler injured his hamstring. Despite all the injuries, the Cowboys were able to stay neck and neck with the New Orleans Saints.
Enduring a few lead changes throughout the first four quarters, the Cowboys were able to come back and tie it up 20-20 with a last minute touchdown from Brandon Weeden (16/26; 246 yards; 1 TD) to Terrance Williams. However, the Cowboys defense was not able to hold off the Saints during overtime. An 80-yard touchdown was scored within the first 13 seconds of overtime, which handed the Cowboys their second loss of the season.
Week 5: vs. New England Patriots [ edit ]
After back-to-back losses, Dallas returned home to face the then-undefeated NFL champions, the New England Patriots.
Stout early defensive efforts kept the game close, including five sacks of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, but Dallas's offense could never produce steady results. Dallas QB Brandon Weeden (1 INT) and the offensive line were ineffectual, gaining only 264 yards total offense and making 18 1st downs. The offense could manage only two Dan Bailey field goals.
During the first quarter, the Cowboys held the Patriots to a field goal. However, the Patriots slowly but surely pulled away afterwards for the 30-6 victory, handing Dallas the loss and a 2-3 record entering the bye week - and handing Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett his first career three-game losing streak.
Week 7: at New York Giants [ edit ]
Dallas took its perfect record in games against NFC East opponents to MetLife Stadium to face the New York Giants, and despite limiting a highly efficient Giants offense and Cassel making some clutch throws, The Giants dominance of the turnover margin and special teams spelled doom for the Cowboys as the Giants left with the 27-20 win.
Matt Cassel made his starting quarterback debut for Dallas passing for 227 yards and 1 touchdown, but his 3 interceptions - including one returned for a touchdown - led to ten Giants points. On the ground Dallas had consistent success all day with Darren McFadden substituting for mysteriously injured starter Joseph Randle and the offense accumulated 460 total yards vs. the Giants' 289.
Despite sloppy, penalty-ridden play helping enable three lead changes Dallas was able to tie the game at 20 when Cassel threw a beauty on a 25-yard touchdown pass to Devin Street who had an even better catch, tapping his feet inches from the end line. However, the Giants returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown, immediately regaining the lead. Later, a quick "three and out" by the Giants' offense preceded a Giants punt which was fumbled by Cole Beasley and recovered by the Giants, who then ran out the clock on subsequent "kneel downs" to finish the game.
The loss hands Dallas a four-game losing skid heading back home to face the defending NFC champion Seattle Seahawks.
Week 8: vs. Seattle Seahawks [ edit ]
This game involved a scary moment, after Seattle's Ricardo Lockette was hit by Dallas's Jeff Heath during a kick return. He lied on the ground, motionless, for about 7 minutes before he was taken off the field on a cart. X-rays later revealed that Lockette had a broken neck, which turned out to be a career-ending injury.
The Cowboys would only kick field goals in this game, as Dan Bailey was 4 for 4 on field goals. Dallas led 12-10 with under 2 minutes to go. However, the Seahawks would march down the field and take a 13-12 lead after Steven Hauschka drilled a 24-yard field goal of his own. Dallas tried to come back, but Seattle forced a turnover on downs to end the game.
With their 5th straight loss, the Cowboys fell to 2-5.
Week 9: vs. Philadelphia Eagles [ edit ]
The Cowboys would rally to tie the game after Dan Bailey converted a 44 yard field goal that caromed off the uprights with 2 seconds left. The Eagles would get the ball first, and would move down the field. During the drive, the Eagles faced a 4th and 1, and decided to go for it. Ryan Mathews would get the ball, but he would fumble on the play, and the Cowboys appeared to recover. However, the play was reviewed, and review showed that Mathews's knee was down prior to the ball coming out. The Eagles got another chance. On the next play, Sam Bradford found Jordan Matthews on a 41-yard touchdown reception to end the game.
With the loss, the Cowboys fell to 2-6.
Week 10: at Tampa Bay Buccaneers [ edit ]
The Cowboys would manage only 2 field goals during this game, as they lost to Tampa Bay 10-6. Jameis Winston would run the ball in from a yard out to give the Buccaneers the lead for good with 54 seconds left. The Cowboys tried to rally, but quarterback Matt Cassel's deep pass into Buccaneers territory would end up getting intercepted, sealing the Cowboys' seventh straight defeat.
With the loss, the Cowboys fell to 2-7.
Week 11: at Miami Dolphins [ edit ]
Dallas would finally break their 7 game losing streak with a 24-14 win over the Dolphins. Tony Romo returned to action after missing 7 weeks with a collarbone injury. He would have a fine return, as he would throw 2 touchdown passes along with 2 interceptions in the win. He would also throw for 227 yards during the game.
With the win, the Cowboys improved to 3-7.
Week 12: vs. Carolina Panthers [ edit ]
Thanksgiving Day game
Tony Romo would play at quarterback for the second straight week. However, he would get injured again, as he would suffer a clavicle injury at the end of the 3rd quarter while being sacked by Thomas Davis. Romo would throw 3 interceptions and no touchdowns as the Cowboys were rattled at home to the undefeated Panthers, 33-14.
It was later revealed that Romo would miss the rest of the season with a broken clavicle. This would be Romo's last NFL game until Week 17 of the 2016 NFL Season, as he would lose his starting job to 2016 rookie Dak Prescott after a pre-season back injury that would sideline him for the first 10 weeks of the season.
With the crushing loss, the Cowboys fell to 3-8.
Week 13: at Washington Redskins [ edit ]
The Cowboys would get an upset win over the Washington Redskins on Monday Night Football. The game was mostly contested with field goals, until the end of the 4th quarter. DeSean Jackson would fumble a punt return with 1:31 remaining on the clock, which was recovered by Dallas. The Cowboys would take the lead after Darren McFadden took it in from 6 yards out to give them a 16-9 lead. On the ensuing kickoff, Washington got a good return from Rashad Ross that put the Redskins in Dallas territory. Washington would score soon afterwards, with DeSean Jackson catching a 28-yard touchdown pass from Kirk Cousins to tie the game at 16. However, the Boys would march down the field in response and Dan Bailey would end the game by kicking a 54 yard field goal with 9 seconds left.
With the win, the Cowboys improved to 4-8 and remained in the playoff hunt, aided by the fact that all four NFC East teams had losing records.
Week 14: at Green Bay Packers [ edit ]
The Cowboys traveled to Lambeau Field to take on the Packers in a rematch of last season's Divisional Round, in which Green Bay narrowly won after Dez Bryant's controversial catch was overturned, allowing the Packers to advance to the NFC Championship game.
This time, with no Tony Romo leading the Cowboys, Green Bay won handily by 28-7, which dropped the Cowboys' record to 4-9.
Week 15: vs. New York Jets [ edit ]
The Cowboys came into this game needing a win to remain in the playoff hunt. However, they had to go through a hot Jets team for it. Towards the end of the game, Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick would sneak the ball across for a first down deep in his own territory. However, the replay showed that the ball might have come out as he was sneaking over the line. The play was reviewed, but the call stood, and the Jets kept the ball. The Jets would eventually march down the field. Randy Bullock would give the Jets a 19-16 lead with 36 seconds left. The Cowboys would try to go down the field with Kellen Moore at the quarterback spot. However, one of his passes would be intercepted by Darrelle Revis, ending the game.
With the loss, Dallas fell to 4-10 and was mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.
Week 16: at Buffalo Bills [ edit ]
The Cowboys managed only 2 field goals from Dan Bailey, as they lost 6-16 to Buffalo. Kellen Moore would start for the Cowboys again, as Matt Cassel was benched.
With the loss, the Cowboys fell to 4-11.
Week 17: vs. Washington Redskins [ edit ]
The Cowboys would trail 0-24 by the second quarter, and despite an attempt to come back, they would go on to lose 23-34 to the NFC East Champions Redskins.
With the loss, the Cowboys ended their season with a frustrating record of 4-12. They also finished 1-7 at home, their worst home record since 1989.
Standings [ edit ]
Division [ edit ]
NFC East W L T PCT DIV CONF PF PA STK (4) Washington Redskins 9 7 0.563 4–2 8–4 388 379 W4 Philadelphia Eagles 7 9 0.438 3–3 4–8 377 430 W1 New York Giants 6 10 0.375 2–4 4–8 420 442 L3 Dallas Cowboys 4 12 0.250 3–3 3–9 275 374 L4
Conference [ edit ]It is not unusual in the children’s section of a library for children to open books to find what secrets they hold. Opening shelves in search of secrets is a little less common, but it happens at the Central Library Building in Rochester, New York.
The library’s secret room is not the first of its kind in the city. The library was previously housed across the street in the Rundel Memorial Library Building, which had its own secret room until it was renovated. When the new building was constructed in the 1990s, it was considered unthinkable to not have a secret room.
The new hidden portal has a wider door, to make it wheelchair accessible, though adults still have to duck to get in. Just as it was in the Rundel building, the new secret room is a reading room filled with dolls. Now numbering over 200, the collection started as a school project overseen by its namesake, principal George W. Cooper.
In 1934, Cooper’s school offered to exchange Shirley Temple dolls with schools and organizations in the 69 then-existing countries of the world for dolls dressed in each country’s native clothing. They received about 180 dolls made of various materials like wood and paper mache, often with hand-sewn garments. The collection was donated to the library in 1940. As the world has grown, so has the collection.
In addition to the doll collection, the secret room also has a quilt of “Rochester Images,” made by 4th and 5th grade history students in the late ’90s. The room is used for events and, as intended, it is a catalyst that sparks inquisitive minds on a journey for hidden knowledge and buried secrets.With economists thinking big emissions reductions not possible under the Coalition policy, reality is about to meet slogan
Slowly, inexorably, we are inching towards the time when one of the greatest fudges in recent Australian politics will be exposed.
Tony Abbott’s political demolition of the former government’s carbon pricing scheme was based not on what many in his party believe – that climate change is not happening and there is therefore no need to do anything at all – but rather on the assertion that the Coalition could achieve “the same” environmental benefit in an almost pain-free way.
The painlessness and effectiveness of the Coalition’s Direct Action plan has long been disputed. Study after study has concluded that it would actually require far more than the allocated money ($300m, $500m, $750m and then – at least according to the original document – $1bn a year until 2020) to achieve emissions reductions, but the environment minister, Greg Hunt, simply brushed them all aside and insisted his plan would work. Since it was always so vaguely defined it was difficult for those with doubts to pursue the debate.
And post-election it turns out that “the same” environmental benefit might well be the very bare minimum 5% reduction by 2020, despite the Coalition having promised in writing to increase that target under specific circumstances. The independent regulator (which the Coalition is seeking to abolish) says under the agreed conditions it should now be trebled. The Coalition says it is sticking with 5%.
But on both these fronts – the effectiveness and cost of the policy and the target it will need to achieve – a moment of truth is imminent.
The government now has to implement Direct Action. It will set up its emissions reduction fund that will pay for what may well be useful emissions-reducing things. But it must also legislate the other parts of the Direct Action “plan”, including the “baselines” to ensure polluting industries don’t, as the minister puts it, “go rogue” and increase their emissions and undo (in terms of national emission reductions) all the good done by the projects paid for from the emissions reduction fund.
Emissions from new state-of-the-art plants or mines or land clearing are not considered “rogue” under the plan, which raises another whole set of questions about how the emissions from massive new coal mines, or from weakened land clearing laws in Queensland will impact on Australia’s ability to meet an overall emissions reduction target, even with reducing electricity demand.
But as well as that, industry is now waging a concerted campaign to water down the baselines against which any “rogue” behaviour by existing operations may be measured.
The government’s Direct Action “green paper” suggests it might do this using the already-existing reporting scheme, from mid next year, with some kind of “safeguard” mechanisms to rein in companies that exceed their baseline.
The Minerals Council doesn’t like that idea. It points out that as ore grades decline it will take more energy for existing mines to produce and process the same amount, and “gassier” coal deposits will be have to be accessed, and therefore the existing baseline might be too tough and the government might have to allow it to be varied – upwards of course.
The LNG (liquefied natural gas) industry points out that production is set to treble over the next six years, and baselines will need to take account of that.
The Australian Industry group argues that “baselines” for manufacturers would have to take account of the fact that gas prices are set to rise and many factories will switch back to electricity generated from coal. It concludes it might be better not to have “baselines” at all.
But without some limit on overall emissions, the Coalition’s emissions reduction fund will be like plugging a tiny hole in a dyke that is leaking torrents in other places.
At the same time, the government’s insistence that a 5% reduction by 2020 represents Australia’s “fair share” in global greenhouse efforts is also starting to sound hollow. By April it needs to tell the UN whether it will increase its 2020 target, and British economist Lord Stern recently told Guardian Australia that re-submitting 5% will look “weak”, as if “Australia is just not serious”.
By April next year the government will be expected to say what target it is prepared to adopt post-2020. According to leaks, the IPCC report to be released Sunday night will recommend that countries like Australia need to make very large emission reductions – perhaps 50% by 2030 – while major emerging economies like China will need to start reducing emissions in absolute terms, rather than just slowing their growth.
Others, including the United States, the European Union and China, are well advanced in talks about their increased commitments.
But according to the available modelling, even if Australia spent $88bn from 2014 to 2050 on Direct Action-type policies, emissions would still rise by around 45%. Most economists conclude that big emissions reductions under Direct Action are just not possible.
That’s exactly the point former Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull was making when he explained in 2011 that continuing to use a big government taxpayer-funded scheme to reduce emissions in the long term would "become a very expensive charge on the budget in the years ahead".
Tony Abbott dismissed the modelling of Direct Action during the election campaign, saying the Coalition intended to “have a crack” at implementing the policy, rather than commission alternative modelling, and that even if it didn’t meet the 5% target, no more money would be allocated.
But as pressure builds domestically and internationally for Australia to do more, and to explain how we will actually do it, that kind of answer just won’t cut it. Reality will meet slogan.Donald Trump's supporters are rightly offended by Hillary Clinton's writing them off as racists, xenophobes, homophobes and "deplorables" at a fundraising event over the weekend. Like their candidate, however, Trump's backers have not chosen to sit idly by and let Clinton get away with such an unfair characterization.
MINUTES AGO??Trump supporters come on stage at Trump rally to respond to Clinton's #BasketOfDeplorables comment???? https://t.co/awn7Tlhcwj — Boston Bobblehead (@DBloom451) September 12, 2016
"I represent non-deplorable people," one African-American Trump supporter said on stage at a rally in North Carolina. "We are not racists at all," he continued. "We don't even fit on that list that she put out."
His wife agreed, saying, "As a black female American, I say let's get out and support Donald Trump!"
Other voters came on stage rejecting the title "deplorable."
"I am a wife, a mother and I work full-time and I am voting for Donald Trump and Mrs. Clinton, you can go home!" said one passionate advocate.
As for the Republican nominee, who at first told "Fox and Friends" on Monday morning he couldn't believe Clinton had written off half the country, has called on her to retract the remarks.Justin Trudeau's vow to legalize marijuana – made without much thinking, one suspects – was one of his signature campaign promises. It was intended to brand his party as progressive, youthful, and enlightened. And the time seemed right. Most Canadians agree that it's time to make it legal.
But when the government unveiled its long-awaited legislation – on the eve of a long weekend – our hip Prime Minister was nowhere in sight. He left the job to a bunch of hatchet-faced ministers, who grimly assured us that this was going to be all about law and order and harm reduction, not fun. Clearly, the government hoped that everyone would get distracted by the holiday and move on.
Legalizing pot
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members from the band Kombo Kolombia have not been heard from since.
Relatives said they got worried when the musicians, who play Colombian vallenato music, stopped answering their mobile phones.
Drugs gangs have killed a number of Mexican musicians in recent years.
When relatives travelled to the concert venue, they found the place abandoned and the band's cars empty.
Risky business
In 2007, Sergio Gomez, the singer of band K-Paz de la Sierra was kidnapped after a concert in the western state of Michoacan.
He was found strangled days later.
Sergio Vega, known as El Shaka, was shot dead in 2010 in Sinaloa state, in western Mexico, just hours after he had denied reports of his own murder.
However, most of those killed played narcocorridos, songs celebrating the lives of drug barons.
Kombo Kolombia specialise in Colombian popular music, not normally linked to Mexican drug gangs.
However, local media reported that the band had played in bars which have in the past been targeted by drug cartels.
More than 70,000 people are estimated to have died in drug-related violence in Mexico over the past six years.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, who took office on 1 December 2012, has announced the creation of a new national police force to tackle organised crime and violence.2014, New Year!
New Beginnings!
New Successes!
And to kick-start this year in-style, I’d like to feature the mindset shifts and strategies that you, as our readers, have found the most valuable in 2013. Below, you will find our 2013 Top 10, which has been selected thanks to a range of criteria, such as feedback (comments, shares, pingbacks, trackbacks) and page views and traffic.
Your success is determined by your commitment to make it happen. Click to tweet!
Whether you are a loyal reader, or are seeing these for the first time, this is a terrific way to either refresh your memory or review a wide range of popular mindset shifts, AND apply the strategies to your life, career or business. Have a look at the whole list, each blog post has been ranked and a brief overview of the mindset shift has been highlighted.
12 Questions That Lead To Clarity
In this article, I share with you 12 questions you can ask yourself today to maximise your results. Achieving what you want in life, career and business starts with knowing the answers to these powerful questions. Clarity is powerful as it enables you to lead powerfully: from strategising to designing, planning, deciding, focusing and acting, so that you can make it happen. Read more…
How To Turn Your Confidence ON!
In this article, you’ll learn ways to turn your confidence ON, so that you do not let a lack of confidence hold you back. Your confidence (or lack thereof) has a direct impact on your success, so apply any (or all) of these 9 strategies to think, feel and act with confidence! Confidence is not something you are born with or without; YOU can learn & acquire it at any point in time. Read more…
The Number ONE Enemy Of Success (And How You Want To Befriend It!) In this article, I discuss what the number one enemy of success is, and share with you reasons why you want to befriend it to avoid settling in your life, career and business, so that you can thrive and fully live on purpose. There is a much stronger and more paralysing fear than the fear of failing: the fear of succeeding. Read more…
7 Steps To Turning Imaginary Dreams Into Reachable Goals
In this article, I was inspired by one of my readers, who said to me: “I dream a lot, but I can’t seem to make it happen for real.” So, here, I share with you 7 steps to turning your dreams into reality. Have a life, or career, or business dream in mind, and follow these steps through to make it happen! A dream resides in dream-land, a goal in reality-land; it takes steps to shift it from 1 land to the other… Read more…
The Secret Of Achieving That Goal You’ve Been Trying To For Years
In this article, you’ll understand that sometimes the reason why you are falling short of a goal is because deep down you do not want to actually achieve it. And, will learn a 4-step process to shift things around to finally make progress on a goal you’ve been wanting to reach for a long time! If your goal is misaligned, no matter how hard you try, you’ll keep falling short of it. Read more…
Dealing With The Anti-Climax Of Reaching A Milestone (or How To Manage Your Blues)! In this article, you’ll learn ways to deal with your anti-climax phases, so that you reduce their impact on yourself, and continue moving forward in your life, career, and business. Knowing how to manage your blues is key to your growth and success! Read more…
Step Up Your Game & Reach More Goals With Mental Rehearsal
Ever wondered how some people reach their goals, one after the other?, and asked yourself: “What am I missing?” In this article, I share with you the missing component: a strategy, tested in the scientific world (+ LOTS of personal experience) and proven to add that little extra to your ordinary way of setting up your goals, so that you reach more of them. Read more…
Inspiration: Don’t Wait For It To Strike!
Have you ever said “I’m waiting for the inspiration to strike, and then, waited for it, so you could complete your tasks…?” In this article, I show you how to never again have to wait for inspiration, as you can stimulate it. Follow this 3-step guide to build your own inspiration power list, so that you can boost your productivity in accomplishing your daily tasks with direct impact on your results in life, career and business. Read more…
8 Strategies To Take Action NOW (and stop procrastination before it even starts!) In this article, I share THE key to ensure that you don’t even start procrastinating, and I highlight 4 of the most common reasons why people don’t take action – confusion, overwhelm, perfectionism, and fear – and provide you with 8 easily applicable strategies for you to take action right now. Read more…
Be At Your Best Thanks To These Resources!
Our surroundings have a massive impact on our thoughts. In this article, I share with you my top Self-Development, Leadership and Business recommendations, from books, blogs, to songs, podcasts and videos, to help you surround yourself with the best. When you are at your best, you reach your best! Read more…
So, that’s it!
This was our 2013 Top 10!
I’d love to hear from you!
What do you think?
Was there a favourite of your own that I missed?
Please leave a comment and join the below conversation!
Looking forward to serving, discussing, sharing, exchanging, supporting and networking some more in 2014. I will continue my posts (make sure you don’t miss any by subscribing to my RSS feed!) and for more mindset shifts and strategies, join my free M3 Power Community and get the M3 Power; all of the resources have one common point: help you become the true leaders of your life, career and business.
Until next time
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To your Mountain Moving Mindset, and to reaching new heights in 2014!
FrederiqueTHREE incidents encompassing a geographical spread but linked by a common thread this week offered a striking reminder of one of Scottish football’s most neglected guidelines.
It is that media reports of the sudden emergence of a clutch of extravagantly gifted young players of limitless potential should be met with the kind of scepticism normally reserved for tales of alien abductions.
When the entire nest of fledgling geniuses is located at a single club, the possibility of Earthlings being clandestinely whisked off to faraway worlds becomes an even more likely occurrence than the dawning of football’s new golden age.
This admittedly fanciful claim derives in part from the simple principle that if Scotland, as a country, has failed to produce a single, authentic top-tier footballer in the past 25 years or so, it is surely around a million-to-one (with no takers) about the messianic appearance of a raft of them, and all at the same club.
But, more than anything, the incredulity is born of experience, an aspect of reportage and criticism that too often seems to be blithely ignored by some more interested in an engaging headline than anything approaching considered judgment.
It is impossible not to wonder, for example, how this week’s developments impacted on the great swathes of people – fans, managers and professional commentators alike – who stampeded to the premature conclusion a few years ago that Hibernian Football Club had become the cradle of a generation of players who would set the world alight.
When Garry O’Connor, at 30, signed for Greenock Morton, Kevin Thomson, at 29, was shown the door by Hibs and Derek Riordan, also 30, was condemned by the Alloa manager, Paul Hartley, as not fit enough to play for his part-timers, the news – breaking on successive days – would almost certainly have been accompanied by a collective sigh over how the mighty had fallen.
The flaw in that reaction, of course, is that O’Connor, Riordan, Thomson and so-called fellow prodigies such as Ian Murray, Gary Caldwell, Scott Brown, Steven Whittaker and Steven Fletcher were never particularly mighty to begin with.
O’Connor has been arguably the most extreme example of unwarranted esteem. Some have lamented his descent into comparative ignominy and his admitted love affair with irresponsible behaviour as the most tragic because, as a player, he was The One, he had The Lot.
Well, if The Lot includes sluggish feet, a lack of spatial awareness, no appreciation of the geometry of the penalty area and angles of attack, the subtlety of a charging rhino and the near-total absence of the myriad qualities that conspire to produce a top-quality striker, he could, indeed, be considered pretty well equipped.
Riordan seemed at times to be competing with O’Connor for the title of King of the Prodigals, seemingly on a mission to be forcibly ejected and barred from every nightclub in Edinburgh. Unlike O’Connor, Riordan was unquestionably endowed with natural ball skills, but this would prove indirectly to be a hindrance, since it disguised his shortcomings – shocking lack of application, diligence and will – and convinced too many supporters that he was a serious player.
The point O’Connor, Riordan and their apologists missed was that exceptional players are endowed with packages of disparate qualities, ranging from congenital brilliance to imperishable tenacity and unrelenting commitment. Yet, when Riordan was signed by Gordon Strachan for Celtic and failed to meet the manager’s demands for the industriousness required by the modern game and was named as a substitute, a substantial number of supporters gave Strachan a hard time instead of the goldbricker on the bench.
Gary Caldwell, another of that Hibs band, has enjoyed an astonishingly rewarding career on both sides of the border, but it is impossible to recognise in him a single conspicuous feature – apart from a grossly unfair share of life’s good fortune. Veteran Hibs fans will look at his 55 Scotland appearances and wonder how Alex Edwards, Jimmy O’Rourke and the late Alan Gordon – three highly productive members of arguably the best team never to win a championship – could not muster a solitary cap between them. Down in Manchester, Sir Alex Ferguson, whose scoring statistics wherever he played would intoxicate a teetotaller, often looks at some of today’s internationalists and remains bamboozled by his own failure to wear the dark blue shirt.
He is much too respectful to say so, but it would be no surprise if one of the causes of his head-shaking were Steven Fletcher. If the former Hibs striker is said by anyone to have been a success along with Scott Brown, the claim should be met instantly with the riposte: “Compared to what?”. Fletcher may have cost Sunderland a reported £12 million, but fees can be an unreliable indicator of merit. He remains one of the least productive strikers around, with three goals from 19 appearances for his club this season, and one goal from 13 outings in a Scotland jersey.
As for Brown, his most impressive credentials are those concerning energy and commitment, worthy assets in themselves, but entirely inadequate to a midfielder at the higher levels of the game if not complemented by proper intelligence, vision and command of the killing pass.
Ian Murray, another of the heralded group at Easter Road a decade ago, went to Rangers and merely confirmed the wisdom of the late Tommy Burns’s observation that it was always easier to play against the Old Firm than it was to play for them.
What became of Hibs’ golden generation should be no surprise to anyone paying attention to the long-term deterioration in Scottish standards. But it should temper some of the superlatives currently being hurled in the direction of Jackie McNamara’s young hopefuls at Dundee United.Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday pledged to continue military support for Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad after Washington sounded the alarm over an alleged military build-up by Moscow in the war-torn country.
"We support the government of Syria in its fight against terrorist aggression, we provide and will go on providing it with all necessary military assistance," Putin said at a regional security conference in ex-Soviet Tajikistan.
A US military official told AFP on Monday that Russia has sent artillery units and seven tanks to a Syrian air base as part of moves to boost its military presence there.
The alleged increase of Russian hardware in Syria has caused concerns in the West about the implications of Moscow militarily helping its long-time ally Assad.
Russia has denied it is expanding its military presence in Syria but has pledged to continue support for Assad.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin (right) shakes hands with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad during a 2006 meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow Sergei Karpukhin, Pool/AFP
US officials have expressed fears that Russia may strike Western-backed rebel groups battling Assad and ultimately risk a confrontation with forces fighting the Islamic State (IS) group.
Moscow has been pushing for a broader coalition of forces to take on IS, but key regional players such as Saudi Arabia have ruled out fighting alongside Assad.
Putin said that Assad was willing to work with Syria's "healthy" opposition to find a political solution to the four-and-a-half year civil war but insisted that tackling IS was the priority.
"Undoubtedly the need to unite forces in the fight against terror comes to the forefront today," Putin said.
The Kremlin strongman blasted critics of Moscow's support for the "legitimate" Syrian authorities and said the current migrant crisis rocking Europe would be even more dire if Russia had not backed Assad.
Russian T-90 tanks roll on June 28, 2010, on a training field outside Moscow Alexey Sazonov, AFP/File
"If Russia had not supported Syria the situation in the country would be even worse than in Libya and the flow of refugees would be even greater," he said.
Syria's conflict began with anti-government demonstrations in March 2011.
But after a bloody crackdown by the ruling regime, it spiralled into a multi-front civil war that has left more than 240,000 people dead.Israeli celebrities went viral a long time ago, and now, thanks to Photoshop and some creative people, they’ve also turned Orthodox. Or, at least dress like the most devout ultra-Orthodox people in Israel.
In a trend started by Rosy Afriat (who created the picture of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara), pictures showing Israeli politicians, news anchors and even models dressed in ultra-Orthodox clothing are circulating on Facebook, gaining thousands of Likes and Shares on the social network.
A picture of supermodel Bar Refaeli, who’s been featured on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition and runs her own lingerie line, was doctored so as to give her a head covering like that worn by many religious women in Israel.
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Politicians, including Economic and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett and former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman, were given traditional ultra-Orthodox clothing and hairstyles.
Meanwhile, others responded with secularized versions of prominent Orthos, including a startling rendition of Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef sans beard and vestments (see below).Shopping in Chinatown is about dim sum â and then some. There's a lot more on offer than just dumplings and bedazzled Hello Kitty iPhone cases.The neighbourhood is actually a magic wonderland of incredible items, most of which cost $10 or less. A short trip to the spangley enclave can solve virtually any shopping need, with the added bonus of making it possible to avoid the Walmarts and Dollaramas of the world.
Nestled between the area's many fruit stands and restaurants, there are shops specializing in everything at once. From cookware to underwear, there's array of items is, in a word, dazzling. So much so that any attempt at an overview would have to be virtually encyclopedic. Let's not do that. Instead allow me to share 10 random discoveries from last visit to the dollar stores of Chinatown.
Panties (with extras!)
Pocketed panties. Panties with pockets. The ultimate in stealth undergarments for only $1.50. Use it for keys! Condoms! Contraband! Coins! Whatever! Available at Chinatown Dollar Mart, 490 Dundas St W.
Durian
Fresh durians can be had for a mere $5.99. Beware though â these hedgehoggy fruits smell like death. They smell so bad, in fact, that they've been outlawed from public transit in Singapore. (You may want to avoid indulging on the TTC.) Available at Lily Fruits Market, 300 Spadina Ave.
Paper products
Pretty paper. Use it to wrap a gift, and the recipient can recycle it into wall art. This stuff is far cheaper than what you'll find at The Paper Place and other similar shops. Available at B&J Trading, 378 Spadina Ave.
Incense galore
This is the place to go if you need copious amounts of incense sticks for very little money (read: a few dollars). Potheads, yogis, New Age types, take note! Available at Chinatown Dollar Mart, 490 Dundas St W.
Japanese Dolls
These Japanese dolls are painfully adorable. That is all. Available at B&J Trading, 378 Spadina Ave.
Hula hoops
Available in either stripey-shiny or floral-shiny, there are hula hoops aplenty in this little shop just east of Spadina. Hooping is a summer staple activity, especially in the park (they also make great fort frames, just FYI). Available at Chinatown Dollar Mart, 490 Dundas St W.
Little bottles
Amazingly tiny bottles. Tiny. Amazing. Starting at $0.59. Make a necklace! Insert a miniscule message! The possibilities are endless. Available at B&J Trading, 378 Spadina Ave.
T-shirts
Neon + snarling wild animals = optimally ferocious T-shirt. And there's plenty more like this to choose from. Available at S&H T's Inc., 380 Spadina Ave.
Buddha heads
You can spread the zen in a multitude of colours by purchasing a porcelain Buddha head. Not to mention the lanterns. Available at B&J Trading, 378 Spadina Ave.
Backpacks
This backpack is the kind of thing Urban Outfitters consistently tries to rip off, but is actually authentic (and at a fraction of the cost). Available at B&J Trading, 378 Spadina Ave.
Got a Chinatown dollar store find to share? Let us know in the comments.
Writing and photography by Sarah RatchfordA vulnerability in the update mechanism for the wireless networks operated by GoPro cameras has allowed a security researcher to easily harvest over a 1,000 login credentials (including his own).
The popular rugged, wearable cameras can be controlled via an app, but in order to do so the user has to connect to the camera’s Wi-Fi network.
Israel-based infosec expert Ilya Chernyakov discovered the flaw when he had to access the network of a friend’s camera, but the friend forgot the login credentials.
“In order to reset your Wi-Fi settings you need to follow the directions on the GoPro website. It is pretty simple procedure, with Next -> Next -> Finish that ends up with a link, to a zip file. When you download this file, you get a zip archive which you supposed to copy to a SD card, put it in your GoPro and reboot the camera,” he explained in a blog post.
After going through this process, he received the zip archive, and in it he found a file that contained the desired settings for the camera, including the network’s login credentials in plain text.
But the download link for the zip archive revealed more than it should:
8605145/UPDATE.zip
The number contained in it, which identifies this particular camera, can be easily changed, and the new URL will lead to other zip archives, containing plain-text login credentials for Wi-Fi networks of other cameras in use around the world.
Chernyakov tested the attack with the help of a Python script, downloaded a thousand of these archive files, and compiled a list of Wi-Fi names and passwords.
He didn’t do it to attack users. “It takes time driving around snowboarders and divers, looking fro a Wi-Fi networks of the GoPro cameras,” he noted, effectively explaining the limits of such an attack.
But a list like the one he compiled – or a more extensive one – could be used by attackers to brute-force their way into other networks or online services. After all, it’s a well known fact that many users re-used their login credentials over and over again.
Chernyakov notified US-CERT of this flaw, and they notified GoPro, so a fix is probably already in the works.
“As a quick mitigation I would consider replacing the number in the URL with a GUID or some other type of random value to make it harder to guess the links,” says Chernyakov, adding that it would be a good idea to delete this kind of data from the server after the user downloads it.Kashin / Shutterstock.com
On Thursday, some AdWords advertisers received an unexpected email from Google explaining upcoming changes to the phone numbers that appear in ads. The change affects campaigns that use both call extensions and location extensions.
Google has expanded exposure for ads that include location extensions over the past year, including showing ads in Maps and in Local Finder results. As of January 19, 2017, Google says it “may” show the local retail phone number when that store’s location extension shows in an ad even if a call extension in the campaign uses a different phone number in order to increase the relevance of ads that feature specific business locations.
The two-week notice was the first communication of the change. Asked why the email says a location-specific phone number “may be used” instead of “will be used,” a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land that they are continuously testing. That means it’s possible the ads could still potentially show (correction) with either number no number in the location extension.
Advertisers that have location extensions are advised to ensure their Google My Business listings have the accurate phone numbers for each location.
And that brings us to the problems that many advertisers will face with this change.
There are numerous scenarios in which advertisers with physical location prefer to have calls directed to a central number or call center. With AdWords, chief among those reasons is the lack of call conversion tracking at the individual location level. Google is clearly aware of that concern. There is a form that advertisers can submit before the change to opt out of having local numbers show in location extensions, but Google warns it could negatively impact ad impressions (and, in turn, calls). One of the reasons listed for opting out on the form is: “I want detailed call reporting and the ability to track conversions from these phone calls.”
A Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land that AdWords is actively exploring conversion tracking on location-specific phone numbers. Until that happens, advertisers that are not equipped to have calls come to individual locations, don’t want to lose conversion tracking or have other reasons they don’t want to pay to have calls coming to individual locations, are in a tight place come January 19.
Below is the email Google sent Thursday (with identifying information removed).Hanging out with Peyton Manning at the Neshoba County Fair that started in 1889. #MakeAmericaGreatAgain #Trump2016 pic.twitter.com/90lKiPfH4y — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 26, 2016
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It’s a picture, not necessarily an endorsement, but there’s Peyton Manning, conservative and former Denver Broncos quarterback, mugging with Donald Trump Jr. at the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia — not home of the Democratic National Convention this week, but the town of 7,500 in east Mississippi.
Manning donated to the presidential campaign of Jeb Bush, a bitter rival to Trump, but the signal-caller has reportedly played golf with the New York billionaire, and Trump said he was pulling for the Broncos in the Super Bowl this year, because he’s a friend of Manning’s.
Neshoba County has layers of history and significance in business and politics: some of it good, some of it bad and some of it you can make up in your own mind.
On Aug. 3, 1980, Ronald Reagan gave a campaign speech on “states’ rights” at the Neshoba County Fair, which historians view as a seminal moment in Republicans taking the South from Democrats. It echoed a then-not-so-distant time when George Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door at the University of Alabama not to hurt African-Americans, he said, but to stand up to federal judges who forced desegregation on Southern states. How do I know this? I grew up in Alabama in the aftermath of the civil rights era. I covered politics and civil rights in Mississippi. I’ve attended the Neshoba County Fair, a beloved spectacle held since 1889 in the dead of the Deep South summer, when the heat drives workers from the field to a welcome break before the fall harvest.
I once wrote a story for the Biloxi Sun-Herald about the monuments of history that tower over Neshoba County. One was Reagan. Another was Freedom Summer, 1964, when three civil rights workers were killed by Klansmen in Neshoba County, drawing the nation’s outrage to help spur passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. I’ve walked every known step of that crime scene, from the site of the fire-bombed church that James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman came to inspect to the farm where they were found buried in an earthen dam.
I am possibly the last reporter who tried to interview Cecil Price, the Neshoba County deputy who released the three to the Klan and was one of the few who served time for the murders. The attempted interview did not go well. Less than a month later Price died after he fell from a forklift and fractured his skull.
Neshoba County also is home to one of America’s greatest business success stories, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.
Once among the poorest inhabitants of the state, which is really saying something in Mississippi, the tribe today is one of the state’s largest employers with more than $500 million in economic development projects and a $100 million annual payroll in manufacturing and tourism, as well as tribal education, health care and public safety. The diamond in the tribe’s crown is Pearl River Resort, with beautiful, busy, profitable casinos, a water park, fancy restaurants, a hotel and a championship golf course.
I knew the late Chief Phillip Martin personally, and he joked about “running out of Indians” for his many diverse enterprises. Indeed, the tribe today says half its workforce is non-Indian. Martin died in 2010 and the New York Times reported he “guided his tribe from grinding poverty in the red clay hills of east central Mississippi to become proprietor of one of the state’s leading business empires.”
In 2011, Phyliss J. Anderson was sworn in as the tribe’s first elected female chief.
Given Donald Trump’s problems in the casino business, maybe the family could spend some time on the reservation in Neshoba County instead of hanging out with The Sheriff.Were you charged overdraft fees by Bank of Hawaii between 2005 and 2010? If so, you could get a cash payment from a class action lawsuit settlement.
The Bank of Hawaii overdraft fee settlement will resolve a class action lawsuit, entitled Taulava v. Bank of Hawaii, charging Bank of Hawaii with not posting debit card and ATM transactions in the order they were made, and instead posting transactions in the order of highest dollar amount to lowest dollar amount so it could maximize overdraft fees.
Bank of Hawaii denies the allegations, but has offered to settle the case with a $9 million class action lawsuit settlement.
Class Members of the Bank of Hawaii overdraft fee class action settlement include all persons and entities that had a personal checking account with Bank of Hawaii and were charged two or more overdraft fees on debit card or ATM transactions on a single banking day anytime between February 15, 2005 and August 15, 2010.
The amount of money you will receive from the Bank of Hawaii overdraft fee settlement will be based on the following equation:
Bank of Hawaii will use its business records to identify each day during the class period on which a Class Member had two or more overdraft fees on his or her account. Bank of Hawaii will then determine the total number of overdrafts for the Class Member on these days (the Individual Total). The Individual Totals of all Class Members will then be added to determine the total number of overdrafts for the entire Class during the class period (the Class Total). After deducting litigation expenses, the balance of the settlement amount will be divided by the Class Total. The resulting amount will be the reimbursement value for each overdraft. Each Class Member’s Individual Total will then be multiplied by the reimbursement value to determine individual payment amounts.
All Class Members will automatically receive class action settlement benefits if the settlement is approved, as long as they did not exclude themselves. A Fairness Hearing will be held February 14, 2012.
More information about your rights in the Bank of Hawaii Overdraft Fee Class Action Lawsuit Settlement can be found at www.TaulavaOverdraftSettlement.com.The British Medical Journal has just published one of the greatest and funniest research articles ever to grace the pages of the medical literature with a paper on the potential neurological consequences of headbanging to heavy metal.
As someone who once caused himself concussion and several hours of puking from head banging to Metallica at the age of 14, I feel this is important and invaluable research.
The researchers, Australian rockers Declan Patton and Andrew McIntosh, attended a number of heavy metal concerts to observe the most common forms of headbanging (the ‘up-down style’ apparently), and then did a biomechanical analysis to estimate the forces operating on the head and brain.
They also convened a focus group of local rockers to list their favourite headbanging classics, and modelled the physical stresses based on the tempo of the tracks.
They discovered that headbanging to songs with a tempo above 146 beats per minute when the head motion was more than 75 degrees was the point at which brain injury was likely to occur.
It’s traditional that the Christmas edition of the BMJ has a more light-hearted article. This study is a little different in that the science is completely bona fide, but the scientific paper is a very funny read.
Their public health recommendations are a particular gem:
Though exposure to head banging is enormous, opportunities are present to control this risk‚Äîfor example, encouraging bands such as AC/DC to play songs like “Moon River” as a substitute for “Highway to Hell”; public awareness campaigns with influential and youth focused musicians, such as Sir Cliff Richard; labelling of music packaging with anti-head banging warnings, like the strategies used with cigarettes; training; and personal protective equipment.
Great article, fantastic title, and completely open access.
Rock on!
Link to ‘Head and neck injury risks in heavy metal’.Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks.
SARAH ZANDER and Ashley Jacobsen are like many teenage girls. Sarah likes soccer. Ashley was captain of her school's team of cheerleaders this year. They are also earning good money as nursing assistants at a retirement home. Sarah plans to become a registered nurse. Ashley may become a pharmacologist. Their futures look sunny. Yet both are products of what is arguably America's most sneered-at high-school programme: vocational training.
Vocational education has been so disparaged that its few advocates have resorted to giving it a new name: “career and technical education” (CTE). Academic courses that prepare students for getting into universities, by contrast, are seen as the key to higher wages and global prowess. Last month the National Governors Association proposed standards to make students “college and career ready”. But a few states, districts and think-tanks favour a radical notion. In America's quest to raise wages and compete internationally, CTE may be not a hindrance but a help.
America has a unique disdain for vocational education. It has supported such training since 1917; money now comes from the Perkins Act, which is reauthorised every six years. However, many Americans hate the idea of schoolchildren setting out on career paths—such predetermination, they think, threatens the ethos of opportunity. As wages have risen for those with college degrees, scepticism of CTE has grown too. By 2005 only one-fifth of high-school students specialised in an industry, compared with one-third in 1982. The share of 17-year-olds aspiring to four-year college, meanwhile, reached 69% in 2003, double the level of 1981. But the fact remains that not every student will graduate from university. This may make politicians uncomfortable, but it is not catastrophic. The Council of Economic Advisers projects faster-growing demand for those with a two-year technical-college degree, or specific training, than for those with a full university degree.
A growing chorus of state and local leaders argues that CTE can help. Rather than pit training against university preparation, they are trying to integrate the two. CTE students may go on to university, to training or directly into work. The Perkins Act nudges such efforts forward, but the big shove comes from beyond Washington. Wisconsin's governor, Jim Doyle, has expanded his state's youth apprentice programme, which provides high-school students such as Sarah and Ashley with jobs. Academic courses are complemented by those at technical colleges.
The most successful model, however, may be “career academies”. Started in Philadelphia in 1969, mimicked in California in the 1980s and supported elsewhere by Sandy Weil's National Academy Foundation, these small schools combine academic and technical curriculums and give students work experience. When properly implemented, career academies can produce striking results. The non-partisan MDRC found that college attainment did not rise relative to a control group, but career academies did boost students' earnings by 11%. Among boys, earnings were 17% higher. Young men were more likely to be married.
The challenge is to scale up such programmes. Within a sprawling high school in Chicago, Kevin Rutter runs a small finance academy, teaching students about markets, accounting and personal finance, welcoming executives and helping students find internships. Chicago's schools system this year said it would revamp its CTE system to mimic academies such as Mr Rutter's, merging academic work with training for growth industries. California has pursued similar reforms; CTE's main champion is Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Mr Obama should presumably push along such efforts. Last year he asked every American to commit to at least one year of training, whether through a “community college or four-year school, vocational training or an apprenticeship”. However, the governors' new standards still emphasise academic skills. The education secretary's plan to reauthorise No Child Left Behind barely mentions CTE. Advocates hope this will change.
In the meantime, a bold new programme is inching forward. The National Centre on Education and the Economy (NCEE), a think-tank, is developing a test that students may take in their second year of high school. On passing, they could proceed to a community college or stay in high school to apply to a four-year university. Those who fail would take extra courses to help them pass. A pilot programme, supported by the Gates Foundation, will begin in eight states next year. Some parents are already outraged by the imagined spectre of tracking. Marc Tucker, who leads the NCEE, argues that a path to a community college might keep students engaged. Such a system would provide students with more opportunity, not less.Approximately one in four Latinx children living in the United States has one undocumented parent, according to the latest research from The National Research Center on Hispanic Children & Families published Wednesday — a stunning finding that could have major ramifications in the discussions of mass deportation policies under President Donald Trump.
The brief, co-authored by Wyatt Clarke, Kimberly Turner, and Lina Guzman, offers the most definitive and recent data that estimates anywhere between 25 and 28 percent of all Latinx children, or about 4 million children, have an unauthorized immigrant parent.
“In short, about 1 in 4 of America’s Hispanic children are at risk for experiencing the stresses associated with having a parent who is an unauthorized immigrant,” the report authors wrote in part.
The authors used three separate approaches and multiple sources to find their estimates, notably using numbers derived from various think tanks and federal data. The authors also used figures from a federal survey that directly asks people about their immigration status.
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Since he took office, Trump has articulated a mass deportation plan that plays well with his base, conjuring up a phantasmal image of undocumented immigrants as rapists, criminals, and drug dealers. He has also stripped away deportation protections from undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children, pushed a travel ban that excludes visitors from multiple Muslim-majority countries, set a historic low for the number of refugees the United States will accept next year, and tasked local and state-level law enforcement officials with federal immigration enforcement duties.
Following through with his promises, the Trump administration has aggressively conducted several enforcement operations that have swept thousands of immigrants into potential deportation proceedings. To be clear, some of those immigrants have criminal convictions or pending criminal
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convinced its 94 politicians will have a big impact on refugee policy.
"The AfD is not in a position in parliament to block anything," Meyer says. But he believes they will "change the discourse, change the narrative and pull other parties to the right."
It's already happened, he says: Just a week after the election, in which Merkel's party lost almost a million votes to the AfD, the Chancellor agreed to implement a type of refugee cap, a policy she had explicitly rejected early in the campaign.
The European Union
Unlike other far-right parties in Europe, the AfD is not calling for Germany to leave the European Union. But it is fundamentally opposed to the idea of "ever closer union," as championed by Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron.
"The last thing we need is more EU," says Cotar. "We need less EU; we don't need paternalism of the nation states."
"We should all regulate our own issues at a national level. However, where we need to work together with the EU we should... on the issue of border control, for example. This is a topic for the EU but it has failed so far."
Newly elected member of parliament Siegbert Drose, 48, is an even stronger opponent of a federalized Europe.
Siegbert Drose grew up in East Germany and joined the AfD soon after it was formed in 2013.
He wants to see "more sovereignty for nation states" within the EU, which he believes is "on the path to becoming a new Soviet Union."
On this subject he's inspired by the same nationalist outlook that drives his anti-immigration stance.
"I want us, as a European nation, to keep our identity and our diversity, our differences. So for peaceful coexistence, there is no future for multiculturalism."
Analysis: Meyer believes that the AfD could play a significant role in influencing discourse, if there is another eurozone crisis.
"They would then become as anti-euro as when the party started," Meyer says. "Could they make political hay with this? That depends on the circumstances."
The far right label
Petr Bystron, 44, leader of the AfD in Bavaria in southern Germany, is widely viewed as holding extreme right-wing views. But he rejects that label, both as an individual and on behalf of his party.
"We view ourselves as a party in the center, a citizens' party," he says, "a liberal party with conservative values."
Hilse takes a similar view when people describe his views as far-right.
"From my perspective, the CDU has betrayed their conservative values -- they simply moved too far to the left."
"That's why I don't mind when people say this to me. Because I know that I am still the man with conservative values in the middle."
It's not a view shared by most of the other politicians who will be sharing the Bundestag benches with Hilse and his 91 colleagues (the AfD won 94 seats but two have since left the party).
In a television interview a few days before the election, Sigmar Gabriel -- foreign minister in the outgoing government -- accused the AfD's leaders of spreading Nazi propaganda and spoke of his distress at the thought that "Nazis" would soon have a voice in the Bundestag for the first time since the end of the Second World War.
All the other major parties ruled out forming a coalition with the AfD before the vote.
Analysis: Ross Campbell, senior lecturer in political science at the University of the West of Scotland, says the other parties see them "as rabble-rousers, extremists" and will not cooperate with them in parliament. "They will try as best they can to shut them out and hope that they will implode," he says.
But Campbell says this approach could have the opposite effect. "It may justify one of the main narratives that they have -- that the parties are basically the same and that the media are corrupt in their portrayal of the AfD as a far-right party."
Thousands of people gathered near the German parliament Sunday to protest against the AfD. "Against racism in the parliament," reads the poster.
Party disunity
Almost since its inception, the AfD has been plagued by internal disunity. Cotar insists it's all in the past. "We are all in agreement and I don't think we will see any AfD parliamentarians wanting to leave now," she says. "We cannot afford disunity."
Opposition is at the top of her agenda. "(Our voters) expect from us exactly what we expect from ourselves," she says. "To be outspoken, to bring up painful subjects, to go where it hurts and to present a clear opposition to government."
But just a day after the elections, then-AfD chairwoman Frauke Petry walked out of a press conference, declaring that she would not sit with the party in the Bundestag and that the AfD must address "internal dissent."
Frauke Petry leaves a press conference in Berlin on the day after the German election.
Earlier this year, Petry had lost an internal battle to oust a regional AfD leader who denounced Berlin's Holocaust memorial, and her walkout seemed designed to make voters question which leader represented the "real" AfD.
She has since formed a rival right-wing group called "Blaue Wende" (blue change -- the color indicating conservatism).
Analysis: "The AfD could end up splitting down the middle," says the LSE's Meyer. Some members may join Petry -- who is now considered more moderate than the party's leaders Alice Weidel and Alexander Gauland -- while others are much more right-wing and are "pulling in a different direction."
"Petry will be a threat to them," says Campbell. "She does have the potential to pull people away if things begin to unravel."
But Campbell is also convinced that disunity within the party -- many of whose representatives are politically inexperienced -- could thwart the AfD from the start.
"We will hear a lot of opposition from the AfD but it may be disintegrated," Campbell says. "It may be quite difficult to get them to speak with a coherent voice."Cinema ticket sales have been declining for years. When you factor in inflation, these numbers are the some of the worst in around a century. I myself haven’t been going to the cinema as much since my children were born. But I have managed to go on occasion, and I do have a Netflix subscription. I’ve recently managed to catch up with some of the movies I missed in the cinema, many of which I’m glad I didn’t pay to see because it sends Hollywood the wrong message – that people want what they’re selling.
Let’s take a closer look at this obsession with diversity, to learn why this causes a decline in comic and movie popularity. When you combine this with a similar decline in the comic industry, this is obviously not what most people want, despite claims to the contrary. Many already know that this decline is fuelled by the raving obsession with diversity, after universities have been churning out rabid far-left ideologues for decades, completely unopposed for the outright sedition that it is. Diversity has merely become the latest buzzword for the Far-Left, replacing the failed economic theories of communism.
In March of 2017, Marvel Exec, David Gabriel, suggested that diversity in comics was causing a decline in sales. He was later forced to backtrack, thanks to the usual SJW crybully tactics, along with far-left sites insisting that other factors like archaic publishing methods are to blame. In response, Lefties also typically doubled down by claiming that (remarkably!) we need even more diversity in comics. Such incredible feats of denial are only surprising to those that aren’t familiar with the twisted history and psychology of the Left.
When people think of the Far-Left, you wouldn’t usually associate this with market economics. But the Far-Left now controls our societies by allowing a certain amount of market forces to exist, though only if heavily controlled by the kind of dogma destroying the comic and movie industries. Make no mistake; they’d rather see entire industries destroyed than relinquish control of them, and this is exactly what’s going to happen if things continue. Those in control are still the same kind of people that sent tens of millions to work to death in gulags under communism, being so evil that they preferred this to accepting that their theories were wrong. If they got the chance, they’d send all those straight white males to gulags in a heartbeat, and right now they’re being set up as unpersons, through a popular culture that under-represents and demonises them, while over-representing and celebrating the useful idiots that will help usher in totalitarianism that will consume us all.
If you want to see the logical conclusion of this cultural decay, look at the culture behind the former Iron Curtain, with Socialist Realism being the only permissible form of creative expression, and the children’s show, Sandmännchen, brainwashing children about how wonderful life was under communism. With this level of singlemindedness, it’s no revelation that as the Far-Left takes over, our culture is becoming equally monolithic and, ironically, seriously lacking in diversity. In true Orwellian fashion, the Left uses doublethink to hide their true intentions. Rather than diversity, they want conformity and the destruction of individuality. If you want to see this in action, look no further than the popular culture they promote – constantly attempting to condition you into accepting their ideological agenda.
One example in 2017 is the recent Ghost in the Shell movie adaptation of the Manga cartoon, starring Scarlett Johansson. In this version, Scarlett Johansson’s character, Major Mira Killian, initially believed that she was a refugee that died in a terrorist attack by Nationalists, along with her parents. The movie therefore takes the opportunity to associate terrorism with those opposing the European migration crisis caused by the illegal activities of NGOs, and of course the EU’s own attempt to take control of the migration policies of all EU members states.
Major then has a sexual encounter with a transgender person, as she attempts to understand her own sexuality within a reincarnated cybernetic body. Like the open border policies driving the European migration crisis, transgender normalisation is very much part of current cultural Marxist indoctrination, demonstrating how modern popular culture is far more openly propagandistic than ever before. In fact, everything about Ghost in the Shell comes across as an attempt to condition the public into embracing a globalism, something very common in today’s movies. The setting attempts to romanticise overcrowded globalist hub cities of the future, with citizens have no identity other than an atomised sense of self that’s so fluid it can easily be transferred from one body to the next.
Another 2017 example of this propaganda is Spiderman: Homecoming. The actor that played Peter Parker, Tom Holland, looked pale and drawn, and strangely enough this reminded me of comments on some of my videos, where racism against white people involves calling them melanin deficient, as though they’re defective non-white people. This could be a coincidence, but there were literally parts of the movie where Peter Parker looked so pale that I wondered if he might be ill.
In typical fashion for today’s culture, formerly white characters were replaced with actors that changed their ethnicity, considered an outrage if done in reverse (referred to as whitewashing). There were so many non-white extras and supporting characters that you would think the USA is already a minority-majority country, something I’m sure popular culture trying to acclimatise us to.
What’s more, the actors were unusually and disproportionately unattractive. It’s not as though everyone onscreen should be beautiful or handsome. But you could clearly see the cultural Marxist war against beauty at play. You might be able to get away with this in the case of Peter Parker, because he’s always been a nerd. But the Flash was played by Latino actor, Tony Revolori, a far cryfrom the athletic blonde jock of the original. The main love interest in the movie, Liz Allen, is played by Laura Harrier, another Latino who, like Tom Holland, looked oddly pale and drawn. Despite being a model, she’s easily the least attractive love interest in any Spiderman movie, adding up to yet another attempt to shoehorn in another non-white replacement. Peter Parker's best friend is an obese kid called Ned, another character than was originally white, but played by a Hawaiian. Virtually all the casting just seemed out of place and agenda driven, making it obvious that diversity was more important than anything else.
The New MJ - I'm not kidding!
Worst of all, throughout the movie a clichéd SJW female, named Michelle, kept irritatingly appearing. At one point she refuses to join her classmates inside the Washington Monument because it was “built by slaves”. When her teacher looks at the black security guard for clarification, he shrugs in agreement. To my horror, it was revealed that this character was none other than ‘MJ’ (Mary being changed to Michelle), played by Zendaya, a childhood showbiz star with an African American Dad. To those that don’t know, Mary Jane ass originally the fair red headed beauty that Peter Parker married, formerly played by Kirsten Dunst.
Similar ‘diversity’ can be found in the UK, where we now have a female Doctor Who to look forward to. Some people might be surprised by this, but truth be told, this show has been declining for years, hence the reason I no longer watch. Doctor Who already regularly promotes sexual degeneracy, like a lesbian interspecies couple. Once it was established that a Time Lord could become a woman, when the Master became Missy, it was obvious that we were being set up for the Doctor to have his own sex change, especially given that SJWs were campaigning for years to see this happen, and what SJWs want, they get, because despite being a tiny demographic that won’t generate sales, in this culture, those that scream and shout the most, win. It’s for this reason that movies and comics will continue to decline, as long as cowards appease a minority of SJW Crybullies, all in the name of virtue signalling over ‘muh diversity’!
Meet your new gender-fluid Doctor.
To contribute further to this madness, it’s highly likely that James Bond will soon be played by either a woman (don’t be surprised if she’s named ‘James’), or a non-white man. It wouldn’t shock me if this involves making the character bi, as everything has to include homosexuality, these days. I have no doubt that such changes will result in a decline in this franchise, too, along with all the other attempts to ram down diversity down our throats. But the question is, will anyone have the guts to say no to this, so they can actually give the public something they can enjoy, and make a *gasp* profit?
Frankly, there are so many other examples of this cultural appropriation (in the real sense) that I could fill a book. So I’ll stop here. To conclude, it’s incredible that it’s acceptable to write white people out of their own heritage and culture like this, which is exactly what happens when real ethnic cleansing takes place historically. First, you have to set the groundwork by making the target feel as though they deserve it. As for comic and movie sales, given that white people were the ones that built these industries, is it any wonder that, as white people are no longer welcome in this medium, that they can’t be sustained? You’ll find the same pattern, wherever white people are being replaced.(CN) – Los Angeles must pay its dispatchers and helicopter paramedics three years of double overtime for calling them firefighters, the 9th Circuit ruled Tuesday.
Dozens of fire dispatchers and paramedics assigned to ambulance helicopters claimed that the city knowingly misclassified them as being “engaged in fire protection” so it would not have to pay them regular overtime compensation of time and a half for all hours worked in excess 40 hours. As firefighters, the employees were exempted from Fair Labor Standards Act overtime rules and instead had to work 212 hours over 28 days to receive overtime.
Two of several cases challenging the classification – Tina Haro et al. v. City of Los Angeles and Juan Achan et al. v. City of Los Angeles – were consolidated for appeal after U.S. District Judge Consuelo Marshall ruled for the employees in Los Angeles.
The city had argued that the classification made sense because the employees were clearly engaged an important support role to actual fire suppression, but Judge Consuelo remained unconvinced. She cited a prior ruling in the 9th Circuit that defined firefighters as only those who “actively and physically fight fire,” and granted the employees summary judgment.
Consuelo also found the city liable for double damages going back three years, rather than the usual two years, because it had known that it was misclassifying the employees but continued to do so.
A three-judge appellate panel unanimously affirmed on Tuesday.
“Dispatchers do not have the ‘responsibility to engage in fire suppression,'” wrote Judge Harry Pregerson for the Pasadena panel. “The term most logically refers to those who are dispatched to the fire scene and actively engage the fire. Plaintiff dispatchers, working from the City Hall basement, do not suppress the fire; they send firefighters to the scene to suppress the fire.”
Pregerson added that the paramedics likewise “do none of the activities normally associated with suppressing a fire.”
The city’s behavior was willful because it had lost a similar court case involving dual-trained paramedics in 2002, Pregerson found.
“Yet at no time thereafter did the city take any steps to obtain an opinion from the Department of Labor regarding plaintiffs’ positions, although it had done so as to other employees,” Pregerson wrote. “Ignoring these red flags and failing to make an effort to examine the positions at issue in this case show willfulness.”
Like this: Like Loading...There is no shortage of scaremongers who believe that the future of the Internet — and by some extension, humanity — relies on keeping the Internet an even, open and neutral platform for the flow of information.
It can be tough to tell whether the concern is legitimate. After all, the grim picture of an Internet that more closely resembles cable TV is a far-off notion compared to the open platform enjoyed today.
Or maybe not. A look at the wireless industry now makes the doomsayers look more like soothsayers.
Mobile carriers have begun to give the world a picture of what a net neutrality-free Internet could look like. Wireless companies have slowly but surely begun to roll out plans that favor certain content providers or entirely limit access to particular sites and apps.
Regulation of this activity is tricky. It is an area that FCC chairman Tom Wheeler has said is under supervision but "should not be prohibited out of hand." Wheeler has not been shy about going after companies for limiting consumers' access, but has little legal basis for going after the deals made between companies. (The FCC declined to comment for this story.)
Here's a rundown of what T-Mobile, AT&T and Sprint have been up to:
T-Mobile and music: The "un-carrier" has looked for ways to attract younger consumers that tend to do data-intensive smartphone activities. Streaming music from the likes of Spotify tends to take a toll, so T-Mobile decided to stop counting it against data plans.
AT&T and sponsored data: Sponsored data is the term that usually refers to companies paying providers to give consumers preferential access to certain websites and content, often by not counting the activity against consumer data plans. This type of plan has been in the works for some time, but finally launched in early 2014. Re/code reported that it has some smaller customers, but no big names as of yet.
Sprint and its Facebook/Twitter plan: This might be the most disconcerting plan of them all. With this deal, customers don't have access to the Internet; they have access to channels. Customers can choose to have access to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram (or all four for an additional charge). Sprint bills the deal as a way for customers to have more choice while also serving to provide access for lower income customers.
As these deals pile up, a less-than-rosy picture of the future of mobile Internet begins to emerge. Fred Wilson, a prominent venture capitalist, recently took to his blog to discuss how these plans can seem advantageous. He focused on "zero rating," in which companies pay providers so that their content does not count against data plans.
"The pernicious thing about zero rating is that it is marketed as a consumer-friendly offering by the mobile carrier — 'we are not charging you for data when you are on Spotify,'" he wrote in a post.
"But what all of this zero rating activity is setting up is a mobile internet that looks a lot more like cable TV than our wide open Internet," he wrote. "Soon, a startup will have to negotiate a zero rating plan before launching because mobile app customers will be trained to only use apps that are zero rated on their network."
It's not that wireless Internet might end up becoming tiered for everyone, but freedom could become an expensive feature of smartphone plans.
Mobile broadband is regarded by the FCC differently from "fixed" broadband, which is Internet service used by devices at certain endpoints, usually computers. The most important distinction comes from the 2010 Open Internet Order, which detailed that mobile had to abide by transparency requirements but not other rules that helped ensure net neutrality for fixed broadband.
The order meant that wireless companies like AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and Sprint could strike deals with companies that would prioritize certain content.
This might not have seemed as big of a deal in 2010, as mobile data usage remained a fraction of the larger Internet. That changed as smartphones matured, networks grew faster and more companies tailored content for the mobile experience.
To capitalize on this growth, mobile broadband providers have rolled out new data plans that put caps on usage and charge for overages. Many plans once offered limited voice minutes and text messages with unlimited data. That has now flipped, with data capped and voice and text an unlimited afterthought.
Data caps are not unique to wireless companies, and are on their way to a broader landline market. Comcast has been testing such plans and its chief executive has already said "usage-based billing" is on its way.
The combination of data caps and sponsored content deals suddenly make the dystopian Internet future more believable. With Internet consumption pushing more into mobile, the lack of rules ensuring equal access is providing some idea of what might happen if the FCC is unable to enforce net neutrality rules.
The result, unfortunately enough, looks a lot like a nightmare dreamt up by the most paranoid net neutrality advocates.Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedIn
By the time he was two years old, my son Harry loved Barbie dolls, sparkly fabrics and all things pink. That’s also the age he told me, “Inside my head I’m a girl.” It was 1992. Harry’s dad and I had no idea what that meant. The Internet was no help, because there was no Internet. Terms like transgender and gender nonconforming were rare. And the concept of a gender creative child? Well, that just didn’t exist.
Fast forward to April 2016, and the release of an exciting new book titled, The Gender Creative Child: Pathways for Nurturing and Supporting Children Who Live Outside Gender Boxes, by Diane Ehrensaft, PhD. It comes five years after her groundbreaking first book, Gender Born, Gender Made, in which she first coined the term “gender creative” to describe kids whose authentic gender identify or gender expression didn’t match the sex markers of M or F that appeared on their birth certificate.
The Gender Creative Child is an essential guide for any parent whose child goes against the grain of society’s expectations about gender. Dr. Ehrensaft has delved deeply into the hearts and minds of gender-nonconforming and transgender children and adolescents to bust a multitude of myths. In simple language, The Gender Creative Child explores and explains affirming new ways of thinking about gender nonconformity.
As she points out in her very first chapter, a dress no longer equals girl; a buzz cut no longer equals boy. And the boys and girls themselves are most often the ones challenging the old and rigid ideas of gender conformity.
For any parent or family member confused or anxious by their child’s gender creativity and complexity, The Gender Creative Child will be an invaluable handbook that provides sensitive wisdom, helpful messages, and constructive advice. In all honesty, I think it’s a must-read for all parents, teachers and pediatricians and should be in every public library. Riding the crest of the sea change of gender she describes, Diane Ehrensaft is indeed a “gender angel.” I only wish I’d had this book when Harry was growing up. I know I’ll read again and refer to it often, just as I did with the one that preceded it.
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“When gender nonconforming means not fitting in.”
“Transgender and gender-nonconforming kids are…just kids.”
“A look to the future for gender-nonconforming kids.”The new Fifty Shades of Grey is being marketed as the Jill-off movie of a generation. But can you masturbate to its sex jam-heavy soundtrack? We tried our very hardest.
Our methodology was simple: interested Jezebel staffers were randomly assigned tracks from the new Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack, and confidentially given their song picks. Not every staffer opted to participate, and some of those who did were assigned more than one song. Their mission: to bring themselves to sexual climax while their assigned song was playing in the background. Participants rated each sex jam as a masturbatory soundtrack. Here is what we found.
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1 "I Put A Spell On You (Fifty Shades of Grey)" - Annie Lennox
Right from the get go I have a problem. The difficult thing about this song is Annie Lennox. I personally do not find Annie Lennox sexy. You may be wondering what that has to do with this and the answer is: everything.
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If there was a man involved right now, ignoring Annie Lennox would be easy. But seeing as it's just me trying to ride my vibrator solo, I can't help but be distracted by thoughts of Annie and that cute but severe pixie cut. There's a reason so many great sex jams are sung by sexy black people. Throw on a little "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" and I'm imagining D'Angelo and that camera accidentally panning down a few inches. Blast "The Sweetest Taboo" and all I can think about is Sade and that sexy-ass braid of hers. With no one else to focus my attention on, Annie keeps popping into my head. She just isn't doing it for me.
Another issue I'm finding with this track is that it's sort of scary? "Haunting" is probably the better word but either way, fear and masturbation do not mix well. I think that's going to be my conclusion here: Fear, Annie Lennox and masturbation do not mix well. However, I'm guessing that the much of the appeal of Fifty Shades of Grey is that sex with a sadistic billionaire is both alluring and scary. SORRY, I don't like being afraid when I masturbate, have sex, or receive dick pics. All that being said, this song is probably about as sexy as the books, so if those got you in the mood, this probably will as well.
2. "Undiscovered" - Laura Welsh
Listen, I tried?
There were many factors at play here. I may have put this off until the last minute, which was stupid because I ended up having to jerk it when I was a) riding some sick period cramps and b) not horny at all. Because I apparently can't keep anything to myself, I told my roommate about this assignment, which was also stupid: "Oh, so I should hang out in the living room [located adjacent to my room]? Would it turn you on to know that at any second, I might burst through your door?" So now I was c) very acutely aware of my roommate's presence 15 feet away.
I plugged in my a/c (a scary fucking thing to do in the winter, who knows what will happen) because I clearly required an extra noise barrier, and threw the cat out of my room because the last thing I needed, really, was someone staring at me/lunging at my vibrator. I turned on "Undiscovered"—I'm into Laura Welsh, so as masturbation soundtracks go, this was pretty chill—and started halfheartedly vibing without bothering to take off my huge hanky-panky thong (they are NOT one size, my mom keeps sending me the giant ones, idk what she's trying to say??). Around the second time the song came on, my cat began to lightly drag his paw across my door; by the third, my a/c was making a whistling noise and some weird air conditioning smell started happening and despite the fact that I had some choice scenes from Spartacus all cued up and ready to go, I had to drop my Lelo and admit defeat.
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Overall, I would say that this was a very high-stress experience.
3. "Earned It (Fifty Shades Of Grey)" - The Weeknd
The Weeknd is one of my vagina and I's least favorite artists. From that Basquiat wannabe hair to the assumption that someone actually wants to sleep with his whiny ass as he sings on Drake's "Crew Love"—so presumptuous!—he is not my cup of tea. That said, I had more to work with than my counterparts for my attempt at jilling off. "Earned It" has an S&M themed video with milky ladies sporting x's on their butt cheeks and nipples as well as a tied-up Dakota Johnson hanging from a ceiling and playing with Weeknd's locks. I've been rubbing it out for decades and I should be able to make it happen but it's still The Weeknd whining so my clitoris packed up shop and hit the non-sexy road.
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4. "Meet Me In The Middle" - Jessie Ware
Jessie Ware's "Meet Me in the Middle" is a pretty sexy song. It leans heavily on the blues side of R&B and feels like the kind of jam that could lead you to slow dancing with a handsome dude at a gritty dive bar with a live band or good juke box. I listened to it twice in a row and it was not hard to get off to. Would recommend.
5. "Love Me Like You Do" - Ellie Goulding
Generally I'm not someone who either fucks or masturbates to music, but variety is the spice of life, so I gave "Love Me Like You Do" a shot. Unfortunately, the track was very upbeat and peppy, so it was like trying to jill off to the end of the movie Working Girl. Despite my best attempts, the very loud drumbeat interfered with my own rhythm, which is ironic considering one of the lines in the song is "I'll Let You Set the Pace." Finally, for the sake of my poor, confused vagina, I gave up.
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6. "Haunted (Michael Diamond Remix)" - Beyoncé
Hey, whaddya know, it's possible to have an orgasm while this song is playing. Here's the trick: put it on repeat, turn the volume to "super low" and get far away from the speaker. Wait 10 minutes until the sound just melts into the background. This track is atmospheric enough that eventually your bedroom (or wherever!) will take on a boutique hotel lobby vibe, which, it turns out, is perfect for taking care of business.
7. "Salted Wound" - Sia
This song is called "Salted Wound," a title that already sets us way the fuck back on the self-pleasure scale. Salted Wound. Give me a break. And yet: it is a sultry-ass song. It's lazy-moving and building, all waves of harps and drums and Sia moaning something like words. It's not my usual bag for sex music; I go more for Jeremih or Frank Ocean.
"Salted Wound" is movie montage sex music. I haven't seen the film and maybe never will, but I imagine this song will play when Idiot Woman and Idiot Man are falling in love despite the crazy and unattached sex they've been having. This song will probably play the first time they have (scare quotes big here) "Emotional Sex." I'll put $10 on that.
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Anyway, sure. My salted wound gave in right around Sia's third drum climax. 2:50 or so. The orgasm was mild and soft, like the song.
8. "Beast Of Burden" - The Rolling Stones
No.
9. "I'm On Fire" - AWOLNATION
I can't. I can't. I can tell this isn't going to be successful from the moment I hear the opening words and realize this is a cover of the Bruce Springsteen song. Sad Dads Drifting Down a Post-Apocalyptic Jersey Shore don't do it for me, sex-wise, and the only thing even less sexy than that is a mumbly, nasal, over-produced imitation of Sad Dads. I mean, come on: "I wake up with the sheets soaking wet and a freight train running through the middle of my head over you"? Only the most deranged kind of sadness junkie could get off to that.
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I'd like to say I overcame my initial reluctance and attempted an orgasm, but you know what? I didn't. I just didn't. Honestly, the moment Aaron Bruno sang the words "I got a bad desire," everything just snapped shut like a bear trap. I made some brownies and just kind of rocked back and forth for a little bit instead.
10. "Crazy In Love (2014 Remix)" - Beyoncé
The song opens with Beyoncé's torpid moaning, and she cat-stalks the melody it like a torch singer at a slinky BPM; theoretically the "Crazy in Love Remix" is the ultimate sex jam. But without someone else in the room to absorb my interest, the song is the only thing on which to focus, and it is increasingly weird, because in my mind, Beyoncé is basically my mom. Additionally, songs that are overtly made to get you off—with vulnerable mewling and minor-key drama and guitars crescendoing like waves climaxing on the beach—do exactly the opposite. Excellent for scoring a sex scene in a movie, for sure—the song has to propel the scenery—but yeah, there is nothing that makes you feel cornier than trying to cozy up to a vibe while your mom is howling about sexytimes. Way too distracting.
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11. "Witchcraft" - Frank Sinatra
It took me 5.5 listens of "Witchcraft" to get off (the track 2 minutes and 52 seconds long, so we're looking at an orgasm in about 15 minutes. Not my best work; not my worst), and that was with assistance from a battery operated device and the personality of someone who cannot handle not completing a task. I wouldn't suggest "Witchcraft" as your Sinatra of choice if you're trying to get sexy; it's pretty bouncy, and every time the instrumental part would swell up I'd get so distracted it felt like I was starting all over again. Better musical choices, if you must go Sinatra: probably anything on Only the Lonely, all of which is very slow and sad – excellent stuff if you like jerking off and crying at the same time. Better things to do during this song: find someone in a very well-fitting suit and dance around an empty ballroom with them.
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12. "One Last Night" - Vaults
I prefer more ambient music if I'm going to touch myself with any music on in the background at all. That being said, while this track is a little Garden State soundtrack-meets-mid aughts Stars—androgynous energetic major key earnestness interwoven with quixotic strings—nothing about this track is overtly distracting.
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I came halfway through the first time I played it.
13. "Where You Belong" - The Weeknd
I got my period a few days before the deadline for this experiment, so for a second I figured a bloody fingering to Weeknd's dulce screams would fit perfectly with the Fifty Shades storyline. Jezebel staff kept referencing a "tampon thing" from the book, which I've never read—I sacrificed cultural fluency for brain cells. So "I Did It To Myself: Fifty Shades of Period Masturbation" kind of sounded like fun. Instead, I let my cycle ride out and did this thing with dignity, late at night on a weekday.
The Weeknd's music is already a mood-setter, so he's a regular on my sex playlists. I was given the perfect song: "Where You Belong." I chose to forego vibrators or dildos, since manual stimulation usually does the job for me. The first and second listens were literally a dry run. I kept giggling and couldn't focus, plus [redacted judgmental pet] kept jumping on the bed. Three plays in, I was restless and still not feeling it. The Weeknd's falsetto Tarzan screams became a torturous mantra. The chorus was the most mind-numbing shit ever: Where you belong. Where you belong. Where you belong. Where you belong. I grabbed my phone and checked Twitter.
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On the fifth listen (it's a nearly five-minute song), I buckled down and tried to focus on the sexy guitar solo. Embarrassingly, that worked. This specific lyric kicked me into the zone: "I'm in control when you give me your body." By the sixth listen, I'd flipped onto my stomach and was close to finishing. Eight plays, roughly 40 minutes later, I was wriggling and done.
14. "I Know You" - Skylar Grey
(Is Skylar Grey a character in this book? Obviously, I haven't read it. I read too much Henry Miller as an adolescent and became desensitized to the written form of erotica so this series titillated me not. The only written word that works on my hoo-ha are sexts.)
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As a perv who regularly sits on her foot in public *ahem* I thought this would be a pretty easy task. Jerk it to some music. No problem. But, I'm sorry, I got more turned on writing about sitting on my foot just now than I did actually touching my clit while listening to this song for five minutes. (FIVE MINUTES!) It was a total non-starter, as much as I tried. If I had to guess, this song plays during a breakup scene? Hopefully? Please tell me no one is fucking on screen during this sap fest.
But more about my self-humping: this project alerted me to the fact that I do not get off to music when I'm alone unless I'm dating the musician in question. I did have a long distance relationship with an artist at
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Canada is a multicultural country. We know that. We are taught it in school and, for Canadians, especially those living in big cities, we see and hear it around us everyday; written on restaurant signs, advertising delectable ethnic cuisine, and on crowded subway cars and buses where chatter abounds in a multiplicity of tongues.
English. French. Chinese. Russian. Spanish. Tagalog. Creole. Just name it, and we have it here, in Canada, the land of 200 languages — including the two official ones. No matter where people are originally from, nearly 90% of us primarily speak English or French at home. It is a robust number, and yet, beneath it, is a head-scratcher of a figure: more than two million speak neither English or French at home, while some 6.6 million people, more than the number of people in greater Toronto, most often speak something other than French or English at home.
[np-related /]
Salim Mansur is a political scientist at the University of Western Ontario. He has been described, including in the pages of this newspaper, as Canada’s “angriest moderate.” And what makes him so angry is that nobody, he says, not the media elite, politicians or even the academics, is willing to have a frank and open dialogue about multiculturalism in this country.
“Numerous languages spoken inside a country is only a problem, and a lethal problem, when the core identity of that country comes to be increasingly disputed — as is happening in Canada,” Professor Mansur, an Indo-Canadian Muslim originally from Calcutta wrote in an email. “A multicultural country, and officially so designated, has basically indicated it is a country without a core culture, or the core culture that once gave it cohesion, identity, framework, anchor, has been jettisoned to embrace a multiplicity of identities — and thereby the unintended consequence is that there is a void in the centre.”
He argues that Canada, before it became beholden to a Kumbayah notion that everybody should get along and be free to do so in whatever language they choose to speak was, at its core, a liberal democracy. Previous generations of immigrants — Irish, Italians and Greeks, Germans, Russians and Poles, to list a few — who arrived before multiculturalism became enshrined as federal policy in October, 1971, were forced, not by fiat, but out of necessity, to embrace English and/or French because speaking the official languages was key to being a part of the greater Canadian tribe.
“Whatever their particularities immigrants put them aside, because there was a core identity with Canada, and the United States, and it was clearly a liberal democracy,” the professor says. “But we trashed our core value system.”
Or else we simply expanded the definition. Language retention rates of immigrant populations offer a telling story, and, in some ways, tell a similar story to Professor Mansur’s. Italian, Portuguese, Greek, Polish, German — older stock immigrant groups — fully retain their mother tongues at rates far below newer arrivals to Canada.
For example, only 39% of Italians, a group that came to Canada in two great waves at the beginning of the twentieth century and again after the Second World War, are fully fluent in Italian, whereas Punjabi-speaking Indians have an 81.4% language retention rate. That may change for subsequent generations, or it may not.
Professor Mansur claims that we aren’t on our way to becoming “Balkanized” as a nation, but that we are already there. Maybe, in some sad instances, he is right. The other day I sat through a murder trial of an Afghan immigrant, a man allegedly unable and unwilling to adjust to life in Canada and to accept that his wife was accepting of Western ways. So he killed her. It is brutal story.
But there are others to tell.
Parminder Singh is 31-years-old, an immigrant, a Sikh, a medical student and, back when there actually was hockey to watch, a play-by-play man for Hockey Night in Canada’s Punjabi-language broadcasts. Lanky, and with a big beard, Mr. Singh was raised in a multi-generational home where English was effectively his first language but Punjabi was the ‘official’ language, a language he needed to master, by necessity, if he wanted to speak to his grandparents.
Mr. Singh’s father drove a truck. His mother worked in a bottling factory. On Saturdays the three generations gathered around the television to watch hockey.
“I would translate the games for them,” Mr. Singh told me in an interview a while back. “It was the one thing we all enjoyed — me in English — and them as a sport.”
We had this discussion at a Tim Horton’s in Brampton, where other men in turbans sat drinking coffee, presumably sharing the news of the day, chattering away in their native tongue. Mr. Singh and I chattered away in English.
It was a snapshot of multiculturalism, in all its glory. It didn’t feel like a failure to me, as Mr. Mansur suggests.
National Post
• Email: [email protected] | Twitter: oconnorwrites
Find the National Post on FacebookAs a lawsuit challenging a law that gives the government the power to indefinitely detain U.S. citizens is back in federal court this week, we continue our conversation with perhaps the country’s most famous whistleblower, Daniel Ellsberg, and computer security researcher, Jacob Appelbaum, who is also a former WikiLeaks volunteer. Appelbaum describes being interrogated by a U.S. Army official on American soil after he returned to the country following a speech he gave on behalf of Julian Assange. “When I was detained … there was [also] an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, who I heard say, 'So that's what a terrorist looks like these days.’” Ellsberg, the former military analyst who released the Pentagon Papers, discusses the Yoko Ono Courage Award given to Assange earlier this week, and recalls the importance of similar support he received from Barbra Streisand as he faced treason charges and a sentence of life in prison.
Watch part 1 of this interview with Appelbaum.
Watch part 2 of this interview with Daniel Ellsberg.
AMY GOODMAN: I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh. And our guests are Dan Ellsberg, premier whistleblower in this country, 40 years ago released the Pentagon Papers—he was a high-level Pentagon official, worked for the RAND Corporation. It was the secret history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. And Jacob Appelbaum is with us, computer security researcher, developer and advocate for the Tor Project, which is a system enabling its users to communicate anonymously on the Internet, has worked with WikiLeaks and, as a result, has been stopped at airports more than a dozen times.
In fact, Jacob, could you talk about what happened to your fiancée? You live in Washington state. This is very frightening.
JACOB APPELBAUM: Sure. Normally, I don’t talk about her in public because I’m pretty worried about her being targeted. But since you brought it up, I guess, you know, she woke up in the middle of the night one night, I think just a little over a year ago now. I was in Iceland working with a friend about their constitution’s reform. And she saw two men outside of her house on the ground floor in her backyard, meaning that they were on her property inside of a fence. And they—one of them was wearing night vision goggles and watching her sleep. And when she called the Seattle police, she was denied the ability to file a police report twice, until we had the ACLU help her. And, you know, much to their credit, Brian Alseth from the ACLU of Washington came down to her house. They again called the police. And finally, on the third try, the Seattle police finally allowed her to file a report.
AMY GOODMAN: I don’t understand. What did the police say? She called, and she said, “There’s someone with night goggles on looking in at me”?
JACOB APPELBAUM: Well, so the issue is a little more complicated than that. I mean, it’s impossible to pick up a telephone now without turning on a light. Phones glow. So she just laid in bed in pure terror for the period of time in which they stood there and watched her. And presumably, this is because there was a third person in the house placing a bug or doing something else, and they were keeping watch on her to make sure that if she were to hear something or to get up, they would be able to alert this other person. And so, when she called the police, she did so after the fact.
And they came eventually—again, the third time that she called. And when they came, they indeed looked by the window, saw that there was broken grass—that is, outside of her window where they had been standing. They tried to tell her that she was hysterical. And, I mean, who wouldn’t be upset about that? And basically, when confronted about whether or not it was their surveillance operation, they suggested that they’re too good, that she would never catch them, which is not really a very nice thing. And they also suggested that maybe she had been in with some unpleasant people, or the last people that had lived here had maybe been involved in some kind of operation that had caused her to be the—you know, the target of some surveillance. And they sort of backpedaled a bit. But the Seattle police are—even Obama’s Justice Department has called them pretty bad police, which is really saying something when you consider what the Department of Justice says for Obama.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you mean?
JACOB APPELBAUM: Well, that they use excessive force in a systematic way. And the Department of Justice has sanctioned the Seattle Police Department for this, and that there’s been a big battle between the federal government and the Seattle city, actually, about the police use of systematic violence, especially against Occupy protesters. So it’s no surprise to me that they would be complicit in a surveillance operation against an innocent woman who has nothing—who’s done nothing wrong, terrorizing her in her own house while she’s sleeping alone.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, you’ve been stopped more than a dozen times in airports. Can you explain when that started and what you believe it was prompted by?
JACOB APPELBAUM: Sure. In the summer of 2010, I spoke on behalf of Julian Assange at Emmanuel Goldstein’s Hackers on Planet Earth here in New York City. And I had actually given this talk for Julian. I left for Europe for a work conference. And on the return, I was detained by the U.S. military, in fact, on U.S. soil. Very few people actually know this. But Dan Ellsberg’s case is so important, specifically because it’s not theoretical. When I was detained on the return in the summer of 2010, there was an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, who I heard say, “So that’s what a terrorist looks like these days.” And I said, you know, “I don’t think that that’s the case.” But obviously they didn’t really want to talk very friendly to anyone that they consider to be a terrorist.
But in the interrogation room, in which I mostly just used humor, there was a U.S. Army guy. And this U.S. Army person was in fact interrogating me, denying me access to a lawyer, denying me access to a bathroom but giving me water. I mean, as far as enhanced interrogation techniques go, it’s pretty light: They didn’t waterboard me or do anything like that. But they did take my electronics. And I can’t say anything more about that, unfortunately.
AMY GOODMAN: Why?
JACOB APPELBAUM: Well, because we don’t live in a free country. And so, if there were certain kinds of legal orders, I wouldn’t even be able to talk about them in specific.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to a clip of you speaking at the HOPE conference—that’s Hackers on Planet Earth—in 2010. You were speaking on behalf of WikiLeaks.
JACOB APPELBAUM: Hello to all my friends and fans in domestic and international surveillance. I’m here today because I believe that we can make a better world. Julian, unfortunately, can’t make it, because we don’t live in that better world right now, because we haven’t yet made it. I wanted to make a little declaration for the federal agents that are standing in the back of the room and the ones that are standing in the front of the room, and to be very clear about this: I have on me, in my pocket, some money, the Bill of Rights and a driver’s license. And that’s it. I have no computer system. I have no telephone. I have no keys, no access to anything. There’s absolutely no reason that you should arrest me or bother me. And just in case you were wondering, I’m an American, born and raised, who’s unhappy. I’m unhappy with how things are going.
AMY GOODMAN: There you have it, Jacob Appelbaum at the HOPE conference—that’s Hackers on Planet Earth—in 2010. Jeremy, you said you were in Iceland, and we just read a headline—I mean Jacob. You said you were in—I was just thinking actually about Jeremy Hammond. It was something that you retweeted about Jeremy Hammond, a case that we have looked at, who has now just been placed in solitary confinement. That has been tweeted out. But in 2010, you talked about being in Iceland. It’s interesting. We just had a headline where the Icelandic government turned back FBI agents who had flown in on a private plane to investigate WikiLeaks in Iceland. And the Icelandic government called them in and said, “Get out of here.”
JACOB APPELBAUM: Yeah, I’ve heard about that. That’s great of the Icelandic government to do that.
AMY GOODMAN: Dan Ellsberg, I saw you at the honoring of Julian Assange at the Museum of Modern Art, Yoko Ono Lennon Prize for Courage. What is your sense of Julian Assange right now, in jail, in the Ecuadorean embassy, for more than eight months holed up? He’s already been granted political asylum by Ecuador, but they can’t get him to Ecuador because the British government says they’ll arrest him and they’ll extradite him to Sweden. He’s afraid then Sweden would extradite him to the United States.
DANIEL ELLSBERG: I talked to his lawyers last night. I think there’s every reason—at some length—every reason to assume that if he goes to Sweden, and according to their regulations, he’ll be put immediately in custody, will have no further ability to apply for asylum anywhere and no—and be totally vulnerable to extradition. I asked, by the way, about the difference between Sweden and England when it comes to extradition. It turns out to be quite a complex subject, and I think I understand some of it now. I won’t try to go into it. But he does have reason to believe that if he went to Sweden, he would either, after the Swedish proceedings, which he has no fear of whatever, no really basis for fear, even if they should go—
AMY GOODMAN: This is where he is wanted—he’s—
DANIEL ELLSBERG: —even if they should go against him, that his fear would be that either immediately or after he had served a sentence, if that proved to be the conviction, that he would be sent to the United States and essentially be incommunicado, under the provisions of this 1021(b)(2) of the NDAA, could be in Guantánamo—
AMY GOODMAN: Wait, explain 1022—
DANIEL ELLSBERG: 1021—I said 1022—1021(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization, the point that has been charged unconstitutional by Judge Katherine B. Forrest and which the government and Senator McCain will be arguing tomorrow [Feb. 6] should be regarded as constitutional, which, by the way, I believe means that they are violating their oath—the oath I took as a marine, the oath they took as senators—to uphold and support the Constitution. I believe here we have a case that isn’t really arguable. Senator—Justice Forrest makes a compelling, compelling argument that this is blatantly unconstitutional and can’t really, in good faith, by an intelligent person, be regarded as consistent with the United States Constitution, as written. I think they are violating that oath. And although I’m not aware of any senator ever suffering any sanction for violating his or her oath to uphold the Constitution, there should be a way of getting at them. I think it’s an impeachable offense.
Let me make clear: Politically, I think there is zero chance of impeachment of either them or of President Obama, who has richly earned it, for doing the same things that George W. Bush did. As I understand it, with September 11th, more than a dozen years—10 years ago, and even earlier, in 2011, I think that the officials of this government, led by Bush, Obama—David Addington, Bybee, Feith, Yoo, others—basically regard themselves as—
AMY GOODMAN: “Yoo” meaning Y-O-O.
DANIEL ELLSBERG: Y-O-O, sorry; I always have to say that.
AMY GOODMAN: Not us.
DANIEL ELLSBERG: Not you. If only, if only we had you in there. But although I have to say the corruption, the corruption that seems to be endemic in accepting an executive branch position, is something that I would not trust myself to be free of, I have to say, when I see what it’s done to people, really.
But in any case, I think they think of themselves of having essentially suspended the United States Constitution and that they’re operating under a different set of rules, which effectively mean no rules for the president of the United States, that he’s bound by no treaty, constitution, law, anything whatever. In short, Richard Nixon’s philosophy—mentioned in connection with what he did against me, by the way, at the time, to David Frost—which was: When the president does it, it’s not illegal. Puts him above the law, in a way that actually no British monarch has been above the law since John the First, with the Magna Carta. It gives him an absolute monarchy character, which I think is the nature of the U.S. presidency right now.
AMY GOODMAN: When I saw you at the Museum of Modern Art, you had a very—you had this photograph of you, John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Barbra Streisand. And you—
DANIEL ELLSBERG: I gave it to Yoko as a memory of the last time I saw her 40 years ago.
AMY GOODMAN: And you talked about how Barbra Streisand may well have saved America.
DANIEL ELLSBERG: Well, Barbra Streisand offered to do a fundraiser for us in the last month of our trial, at a time when we had no money left. And we were practically—
AMY GOODMAN: You were being charged with treason for releasing the Pentagon Papers.
DANIEL ELLSBERG: —being charged with 115 years, possibly life sentence—pretty much a life sentence. With good behavior, I would have gotten out a couple years ago, if I had good behavior. And she—we were really prepared to stop calling witnesses and to basically go into final argument, just essentially for economic reasons.
AMY GOODMAN: Because you had run out of money.
DANIEL ELLSBERG: We had run out of money. And she—very expensive process. And she offered a fundraiser, which raised a lot of money for that time, by auctioning off songs, actually, for The Beatles, appeared for. Had she not done that, and had the trial ended, on a day, by the way, when President Nixon, through John Ehrlichman, was offering my judge, Matthew Byrne, the head of the—head of the FBI.
AMY GOODMAN: Offering to make Matthew Byrne the head of the FBI, your judge.
DANIEL ELLSBERG: Make Matthew Byrne head of the FBI—his lifelong ambition, as it so happened—clearly contingent on a suitable ending to my trial. So I think I was pretty well fated to be found guilty, had that not been leaked to the public. And he dismissed that as a charge for dismissing the trial. He said it hadn’t affected him, that offer.
But many other crimes, such as the warrantless wiretapping and the attempt to assault me, did lead to that, only because the trial was kept going for another month. It was during that month that John Dean’s acknowledgment to the prosecutors about the White House efforts to silence me, to blackmail me, to go into my doctor’s office, warrantless wiretapping, to assault me, use the CIA against me, which at that time was illegal—all of these things now being legal, by the way, but at the time being illegal—subjected him to impeachment hearings and led to his resignation. Without that, he would have stayed in office, and the war would have continued for at least another couple of years. So that initiative of people giving support, to a man that the administration was trying to make a pariah, just as they are making that effort with Julian Assange and Bradley Manning right now, and the willingness of American citizens to stand up and say, “We stand with him,” like the people who wear signs now saying, “I am Bradley Manning” — in my case, I wore a sign for television saying, “I was Bradley Manning,” very, very apt — and without that demonstration, you have a kind of isolation that makes it very difficult for anyone else to do anything—anything that possibly supports the constitutional principles here.
So, there was a case when the Constitution worked. There was an independent judiciary. There was Congress cutting off money for an illegal war, eventually. There was the threat of impeachment, which was put in the Constitution, which, by the way, is something George the Third was not subject to. You did have impeachment in Britain, but not for the monarch. And we do have it in this country. When the monarch is violating the Constitution, violating the law, that’s why it’s there. Everything worked, and it made it possible to end a war. And it was a great tribute to the ability of our process to work.
That’s what I felt last night, when I called my wife on the West Coast, having read Katherine Forrest’s opinion, and said, “I’m proud to be an American.” This is a document now that expresses our highest ideals, and it’s actually working. It’s not just a columnist saying the way it should be. This is a [woman] saying, “The representatives to the government that appointed me are mistaken in their reading of the law. They have” — to paraphrase her, I’m definitely paraphrasing her — “They have produced an argument that is worthy of Communist China or of Stalinist Russia or of other countries, authoritarian countries I could name. It is not an American document.” Now, the circuit court may not have that courage or that commitment. I hope the Supreme Court will, when it goes to the Supreme Court. An interesting thing that I read, by the way, is that one justice on our side is Justice Scalia. I don’t normally find myself on the same side as Justice Scalia, and I imagine that if he rules in our favor on this, as he may, because he has a sense of the Constitution and of the inability of the president to detain people without charges. I suppose that may lead to a rift with Clarence Thomas and some others. But I do hope that the Supreme Court will have a chance to uphold our constitutional framework. And that’s worth living and dying for.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: I want to turn to a clip from another whistleblower, William Binney, formerly of the National Security Agency, where he spent nearly 40 years, but retired about a month after September 11th, 2001, due to concerns over unchecked domestic surveillance.
WILLIAM BINNEY: After 9/11, all the wraps came off for NSA, and they decided to—between the White House and NSA and CIA, they decided to eliminate the protections on U.S. citizens and collect on domestically. So they started collecting from a commercial—the one commercial company that I know of that participated provided over 300—probably, on the average, about 320 million records of communication of a U.S. citizen to a U.S. citizen inside this country.
AMY GOODMAN: What company?
WILLIAM BINNEY: AT&T. It was long-distance communications. So they were providing billing data. At that point, I knew I could not stay, because it was a direct violation of the constitutional rights of everybody in the country. Plus it violated the pen register law and Stored Communications Act, the Electronic Privacy Act, the intelligence acts of 1947 and 1978. I mean, it was just this whole series of—plus all the laws covering federal communications governing telecoms. I mean, all those laws were being violated, including the Constitution. And that was a decision made that wasn’t going to be reversed, so I could not stay there. I had to leave.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Jacob Appelbaum, that was William Binney, National Security Agency whistleblower. Could you comment on what he said?
JACOB APPELBAUM: Yeah. I mean, essentially, what William Binney is saying is that there’s a warrantless wiretapping program. He was privy to this. He named individuals that are actually responsible for it. And as Ellsberg is saying, these should be—these types of things are impeachable offenses. And what Binney is saying is completely terrifying, because the government is asserting different things, such as state secrecy in NSA v. Jewel. And we don’t actually have a democratic process, because we’re not being told these things, except by whistleblowers, who are being targeted by the FBI. I mean, he had a gun pulled on his head in the shower. He has one leg. An FBI agent put a gun to his head.
AMY GOODMAN: William Binney is a diabetic amputee.
JACOB APPELBAUM: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: His wife and his son were in the house. His wife and child were in the house.
JACOB APPELBAUM: Absolutely.
DANIEL ELLSBERG: He was in the shower when they arrived, and they put a gun to his head.
JACOB APPELBAUM: I mean, what is that? It’s intimidation. And why is that? Because the FBI is complicit in impeachable offenses against the American people.
AMY GOODMAN: Jacob, you have said, “Data retention is the beginning of the end of many of our freedoms in bulk, and that’s a very scary thing.”
JACOB APPELBAUM: That’s absolutely the case. Data retention is what enables retroactive policing. I mean, what the NSA and other government agencies can do now—for example, with the Fort Hood incident, what we learned was that they already had everything on the person that they alleged did a shooting, and the reason is because they were proactively wiretapping, and they simply dipped into their database, looked for matches of information, everything this person had done electronically, and they pulled it out. And they probably did this without a warrant. And this kind of retroactive policing is the stuff that the Stasi would dream of having, but they didn’t have. And so, now we have, in effect, a surveillance state the likes of which the world has never seen before.
AMY GOODMAN: We are talking to Jacob Appelbaum and Daniel Ellsberg, and we are asking you, please, to go to the phone. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report.CAIRO -- Masked militants riding in three SUVs opened fire Friday on a bus packed with Coptic Christians, including many children, south of the Egyptian capital, killing at least 28 and wounding 22, the Interior Ministry said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, the fourth to target Christians since December, but it bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The attack came on the eve of the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Local health officials said the attack happened on Friday while the bus was traveling on the road to the St. Samuel Monastery in the Minya governorate, about 140 miles south of the Egyptian capital.
Eyewitnesses told Egyptian media that around 8:45 a.m. local time, about 10 masked men with assault rifles, some dressed in military uniforms, emerged from vehicles and sprayed the bus with bullets.
ISIS attack targets Christians and Egypt's leader
Some of the gunmen went into the bus and continued to fire on the passengers, many of whom were women and children, according to the witnesses. The attack lasted just a few minutes, after which the attackers fled the scene. They governor of Minya said Egyptian police had launched a manhunt for the attackers and set up roadblocks in the region.
Khaled Mogahed, the Health Ministry spokesman, said the death toll stood at 28 but feared it could rise further. According to Copts United news portal, only three children survived the attack. It was not immediately known if most or all of the victims were children.
In April, ISIS suicide bombers struck hours apart at two Coptic churches in northern Egypt, killing 44 people and turning Palm Sunday services into scenes of horror and outrage at the government that led the president to call for a three-month state of emergency.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi called for a meeting with top aides to discuss the attack.
Pope Francis concludes his trip to Egypt
Late last month, Pope Francis visited Egypt, in part to show his support for Christians in this Muslim majority Arab nation who have been increasingly targeted by Islamic militants. During the trip, Francis paid tribute to the victims of the December bombing at Cairo's St. Peter's church, located in close proximity to Cairo's St. Mark's cathedral, the seat of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
Following the pope's visit, ISIS vowed to escalate attacks against Christians, urging Muslims to steer clear of Christian gatherings and Western embassies, saying they were targets for the group's followers.
The Coptic Christians of Egypt
Egypt's Copts, the Middle East's largest Christian community, have repeatedly complained of discrimination, as well as outright attacks, at the hands of the country's majority Muslim population. They account for about 10 percent of Egypt's 93 million people.
They rallied el-Sissi, a general-turned-president, when he in 2013 ousted his Islamist predecessor Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood group. Attacks on Christian homes, businesses and churches subsequently surged, especially in the country's south, the heartland of Egypt's Christians.This modified scientific calculator, seized from an admission seeker of Haji Danesh Science and Technology University in Dinajpur during an entry test on Tuesday, was reported to have a camera and a SIM card with internet connection and was used for leaking out question papers. Photo: Star
At first glance, it appears just like an ordinary scientific calculator. But on a closer look, what the teachers of Dinajpur's Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University (HSTU) saw baffled them.
Inside the case of the calculator is a sophisticated device with a camera and a SIM card. The machine is at once a scanner and a smartphone.
Using the device, a candidate of HTSU's undergraduate admission test on Tuesday was scanning the question paper and sending the images to his accomplices outside, and the answers were appearing on its screen soon afterwards.
The admission seeker -- Abul Hossain Liton -- was detained with the machine 40 minutes into the A unit test. He was later handed over to the police.
Police and the HSTU authorities said the calculator had a camera on the backside and a slot of SIM card for internet connection.
"It's really an innovative device to cheat during examinations and a big gang is involved with it, we suspect," said Prof Shahadad Hossain Khan, head of Soil Science department and a member of the HSTU admission test committee.
Even after the seizure of the device, messages containing the answers kept appearing on the tiny screen for a few minutes. But when the news spread on the campus, it stopped, he added.
"People with formidable IT expertise must have been involved in developing such a device that apparently offers a complete solution for those who want to cheat in the examinations," said Prof Ruhul Amin, vice chancellor of the HSTU.
The arrestee said he had struck a deal with some people two days before the test and they had provided him with the device in exchange of Tk 50,000.
"I paid half the amount. I was supposed to return the device after the test and hand them my admit card which they would return after I paid the rest" Liton told reporters at Dinajpur Police Station.
Sub-Inspector Nazmul Haque of the police station said the arrestee had told them that a total of 47 such devices were distributed among those who took the test.
Liton also had given the police the names of some people involved with the gang and police were hunting for them, he said.
Meanwhile, the HSTU authorities held an emergency meeting on Tuesday night and suspended two Chhatra League leaders -- Arun Kumar Roy, general secretary of university unit of the BCL, and Jahid Hasan, president of the Zia Hall BCL -- for their alleged involvement with the gang.
The university formed a four-member committee to look into the incident, and decided not to allow any electronic devices in the subsequent admission tests.Story highlights Attack killed at least 33 people at a soccer ceremony in Iskandariya, a city in central Iraq; 78 were wounded
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack Friday; U.N. official for Iraq condemns act by "evildoers" targeting innocents
(CNN) The death toll continues to rise after a man wearing a suicide belt walked into an Iraqi soccer stadium and blew himself up.
Iraqi police officials confirmed on Saturday that at least 33 people died as a result of incident and 78 others were wounded.
A crowd had gathered Friday for a ceremony to mark a championship for a popular local soccer team when the bomb exploded, the head of the Babil province security committee, Baydhan al Hamdani, told CNN.
A video posted on YouTube showed soccer players approaching a table holding trophies before an explosion occurred. CNN could not independently authenticate the video.
The attacker struck at al-Shuhadaa stadium in the Babil province city of Iskandariya, roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Baghdad.
Read MoreThe Nazi women who were every bit as evil as the men: From the mother who shot Jewish children in cold blood to the nurses who gave lethal injections in death camps
Chilling new book has unearth ered thousands of complicit German women
At least half a million witnessed and contributed to Hitler's terror
Have been dubbed the ‘primary witnesses of the Holocaust’
Secretaries typed the orders to kill and filed the details of massacres
Only a small number of women were called to account for their crimes
At the heart of Nazi killings: Irma Grese was a concentration camp guard and one of the few women to be called to account for her crimes
B londe German housewife Erna Petri was returning home after a shopping trip in town when something caught her eye: six small, nearly naked boys huddled in terror by the side of the country road.
Married to a senior SS officer, the 23-year-old knew instantly who they were.
They must be the Jews she’d heard about — the ones who’d escaped from a train taking them to an extermination camp.
But she was a mother herself, with two children of her own. So she humanely took the starving, whimpering youngsters home, calmed them down and gave them food to eat.
Then she led the six of them — the youngest aged six, the oldest 12 — into the woods, lined them up on the edge of a pit and shot them methodically one by one with a pistol in the back of the neck.
This schizophrenic combination of warm-hearted mother one minute and cold-blooded killer the next is an enigma and one that — now revealed in a new book based on years of trawling through remote archives — puts a crueller than ever spin on the Third Reich.
Because Erna was by no means an aberration. In a book she tellingly calls ‘Hitler’s Furies’, Holocaust historian Professor Wendy Lower has unearthed the complicity of tens of thousands of German women — many more than previously imagined — in the sort of mass, monstrous, murderous activities that we would like to think the so-called gentler sex were incapable of.
The Holocaust has generally been seen as a crime perpetrated by men. The vast majority of those accused at Nuremberg and other war crimes trials were men.
The few women ever called to account were notorious concentration camp guards — the likes of Irma Grese and Ilse Koch — whose evil was so extreme they could be explained away as freaks and beasts, not really ‘women’ at all.
Ultra-macho Nazi Germany was a man’s world. The vast majority of women had, on Hitler’s orders, confined their activities to Kinder, Küche, Kirche — children, kitchen and church. Thus, when it came to responsibility for the Holocaust and other evils of the Third Reich, they were off the hook.
But that, argues Lower, is simplistic nonsense. Women were drawn into the morally bankrupt conspiracy that was Hitler’s Germany as thoroughly as men were — at a lower level, in most cases, when it came to direct action but guilty just the same.
Ironically, it was the professional carers who were the first to be caught in this evil web. From the moment the Nazis came to power and imposed policies of Aryan racial purity, countless nurses, their aprons filled with morphine vials and needles, routinely slaughtered the physically disabled and mentally defective.
Pauline Kneissler worked at Grafeneck Castle, a euthanasia ‘hospital’ in southern Germany, and toured mental institutions selecting 70 ‘patients’ a day. At the castle they were gassed, which she decided was not that bad because ‘death by gas doesn’t hurt’.
Complicit: Johanner Altvater (left) and Lisolotte Meirer (right) killed Jews for sport during the Third Reich
Meanwhile, midwives were betraying a whole generation of German women by reporting defects in unborns and newborns and recommending abortions and euthanasia, as well as sterilisation of mothers.
From the outset, Lower concludes, ‘women made cruel life
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his critics, recasting himself as a victim of hate and discrimination; verses two and three take an axe to the Mathers family tree, as Marshall curses and wishes death upon his father, ponders the broken pieces of his marriage, excoriates his own mother for mistreating him as a child, and claims that he was a victim of Münchausen syndrome. Eminem had covered much of this territory before, but never with such plainspoken rage and intimate detail. He’s since apologized to his mom in song for dragging their dysfunctional relationship out in the public, but that doesn’t make “Cleanin’ Out My Closet” any less devastating. And the video — which features Em digging a grave in the rain — hasn’t softened, either. K.M.
7. “If I Had” (The Slim Shady LP, 1999)
Stressed, depressed, and broke, Marshall rattles off a list of life conditions he’s sick of dealing with before musing in the chorus about what he’d do if he ever became a millionaire in a subtle twist on the Barenaked Ladies track “If I Had $1,000,000″ from a few years prior. We all know the rest of the story: international fame, acclaim and stacks upon stacks of millions. Em doesn’t make records like “If I Had” anymore because he can’t. His fear of starving has long since vanquished. C.J.
6. “Stan” (The Marshall Mathers LP, 2000)
“Stan” reveals that parents and Eminem share the same fear: that Em’s most die-hard fans would take everything the rapper says literally. Broken into four verses and spread across nearly seven minutes, the third track on the MMLP tells the story of an obsessive who clings too closely to the macabre in Marshall Mathers’ work — and eventually acts out the kind of murder-suicide fantasy that Slim Shady would write off by chuckling and saying, “I’m only playing, America.” Aided by a sample of Dido’s “Thank You” and a wash of rainstorm effects, “Stan” unfolds as an epistolary narrative that lets Marshall play the role of Responsible Artist (note the glasses he’s wearing near the end of the song’s ambitious music video — a tell-tale sign that we’re dealing with serious Eminem). In the song’s final verse, Em drops the playful psychopath act and urgers his biggest (and most unstable) fan to seek professional help and focus on the real relationships in his life — solid advice, even if it came too late. K.M.
5. “My Name Is” (The Slim Shady LP, 1999)
Though Infinite and The Slim Shady EP preceded it, “My Name Is” was Eminem’s introduction to many of his listeners. The character was a lot to take in: a devilishly smart, bleached-blond white rapper with a penchant for violence, a natural disdain for celebrity, and a stunning history of family trauma. “My Name Is” showcased all of these facets, kookily springing a severely unusual character on an unsuspecting public with an infectious Dre beat and a calculatedly absurdist video treatment. His mom was so fried by her depiction in it that she sued her kid, then penned a rap diss and tell-all. C.J.
4. “‘Till I Collapse” (The Eminem Show, 2002)
The Eminem Show’s “‘Till I Collapse” does everything “Lose Yourself” would do months later, but “Lose Yourself” didn’t have Nate Dogg. C.J.
3. “’97 Bonnie & Clyde” (The Slim Shady LP, 1999)
Originally featured on The Slim Shady EP with a different musical arrangement and title, “’97 Bonnie & Clyde” was re-recorded and ported over to Eminem’s first major release, The Slim Shady LP. An R-rated bedtime story, the song follows Eminem immediately after the events of “Kim,” which was recorded as a prequel for The Marshall Mathers LP. In this track, Em’s got to dispose of his murdered wife’s dead body and explain to his daughter why her mom won’t be coming home with them. Of all the different facets of Eminem — Em the rapper, Slim the id, Marshall the son, Marhsall the husband — none is more fascinating than Marshall the father, who loves his baby girl more than anything and would do whatever it takes to raise her as he sees best, even if that means letting Slim Shady rob her of her mother. By design, “Kim” covers a lot of the same territory in much more graphic detail, but “’97 Bonnie & Clyde” (previously known as “Just the Two of Us”) plays with the maniac/dad-knows-best dichotomy that’s central to early Eminem. K.M.
2. “Kill You” (The Marshall Mathers LP, 2000)
The proper lead track on Eminem’s classic The Marshall Mathers LP is a daring response to criticism about his lyrical content. Accused of promoting misogyny, drug addiction, and violence in his music, Em leads off his best album by upping the ante, rifling through verses packed with jaw-dropping gore and warning anyone listening to the chorus that, “You don’t wanna f–k with Shady / Cause Shady will f–king kill you.” It’s Russian roulette. No living rapper has mustered the guts to try it since. C.J.
1. “Forgot About Dre” (Dr. Dre feat. Eminem, 2001, 1999)
Yes, a guest verse. Pause the outrage for a moment to first consider this: Eminem’s guest turn on “Forgot About Dre” is very possibly the best-known verse of his career — and even if you’d point to “The Real Slim Shady,” “My Name Is,” or “Without Me” as proof of otherwise, “Forgot About Dre” doesn’t get tripped up by dated name-dropping like those other tracks do. And, like any major hit single, “Dre” certainly feels of its time, but it’s not hampered by its turn-of-the-century release date; it’s the sort of song that people can get nostalgic about and still enjoy in-the-moment. In a pop sense, this is Eminem at his most likable — if you were anywhere near a radio in the year 2000, the phrase “hotter than a set of twin babies” is still seared into your brain. (And, if you’re Chris Pratt, you’ve retained much more than that.)
Let’s put it this way: Even people who find Eminem repugnant, offensive, and problematic can get behind “Forgot About Dre.” He’s still got his violent tendencies — he strangles a guy just for giving him an awkward eye, then burns down a house with Dr. Dre and never gets found out — but he doesn’t come off as dangerous or frightening when he’s rhyming over the symphonic drip cooked up by Dre. And looking back, this feature caught Eminem just as he was peaking, when he wasn’t completely mired in controversy or apologizing for entire albums. “Forgot About Dre” was able to bottle Eminem while he was still, relatively speaking, on the come-up, in between The Slim Shady LP and The Marshall Mathers LP. What could be more exciting than that? K.M.Jerusalem, settlements, and the “everybody knows” fallacy
Throughout the past week the world has heard Israeli government officials and their allies in the US –particularly among the pro-settler crowd — defending construction in East Jerusalem settlements on the grounds that "everybody knows" these areas will always be part of Israel.
The "everybody knows" argument is familiar. Those in the peace camp often say that everybody knows what an Israeli-Palestinian permanent status agreement looks like. Their point being: all that is needed is the political will of courageous leaders to work out the final, hardest details and sign the treaty.
But today the "everybody knows" meme has been cynically appropriated by Netanyahu and his supporters. "Everybody knows these areas in East Jerusalem will always be Israel," they say, "so when the Palestinians (and the Americans) make a fuss about new construction plans, it is just for political purposes, not because there is any real issue."
Those peddling this rubbish are guilty of transparent manipulation. Those buying it are guilty of having short memories and an excess of credulity.
In 1993, when the peace process was taking off, the settlement of Ramat Shlomo — which last week caused such a headache for Vice President Biden — didn’t exist. The site was an empty hill in East Jerusalem (not "no man’s land," as some have asserted), home only to dirt, trees and grazing goats. It was empty because Israel expropriated the land in 1973 from the Palestinian village of Shuafat and made it off-limits to development. Only later, with the onset of the peace process era, was the land zoned for construction and a brand-new settlement called Rehkes Shuafat (later renamed Ramat Shlomo) built.
If in 1993 you had asked what areas "everybody knows" would stay part of Israel under any future agreement, the area that is today Ramat Shlomo — territorially distinct from any other settlement and contiguous with the Palestinian neighborhood of Shuafat — would not have been mentioned.
The same can be said for the massive settlement of Har Homa, for which Israel issued new tenders in the past few days (sometime after the Ramat Shlomo-Biden fiasco). Here, again, the argument is that "everybody knows" this area will forever be part of Israel. But here again, we are talking about an area that at the outset of the peace process was empty land — devoid of Israelis, belonging mainly to Palestinians, and contiguous entirely with Palestinian areas — that anybody drawing a logical border would have placed on the Palestinian side.
American pundits and members of Congress may be unfamiliar with or may have forgotten these inconvenient facts, but the Palestinians — who have watched Israel eat away at East Jerusalem at an increasing pace — have not.
Some will argue that these are the facts on the ground today, and the fact is that Israel will never part with the big East Jerusalem settlements. So regardless of sins of the past, why make a fuss about new construction in them?
The answer lies in a closer look at what Netanyahu means when he talks about what "everybody knows."
Because if he meant that everybody understands what will be Israeli and what will be Palestinian in Jerusalem, this would potentially be great news: it could mean an agreement is possible, at least on Jerusalem, tomorrow. And if that were what he meant, then just as he suggests that Israel can build without restrictions in the areas that "everybody knows" will stay Israeli, he would have no problem with Palestinians building without restrictions in the areas that everyone knows will be Palestinian.
But there’s the catch: for Netanyahu, there is no place in Jerusalem that "everybody knows" will be Palestinian.
What Netanyahu really means is that East Jerusalem land falls into two categories: areas that "everybody knows" Israel will keep and where it can therefore act with impunity, and areas that Israel hopes it can keep, by dint of changing so many facts on the ground before a peace agreement is reached that they move into the first category.
It is an approach that can be summed up as: "what’s mine is mine, and what you think is yours will hopefully be mine, too." It discloses with stark clarity the underlying principle of Netanyahu’s Jerusalem policies: the status of Jerusalem and its borders will be determined by Israeli deeds rather than by negotiations. More bluntly, who needs agreement with Palestinians or recognition of the international community when "everybody knows"?
And it is an approach that we see today on the ground, where Israel is doing its best — through construction, demolitions, changes in the public domain — to transform areas of East Jerusalem that have always been overwhelmingly Palestinian into areas that everybody will soon recognize as Israeli, now and forever. This is happening in the area surrounding the Old City, in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods like Ras al Amud and Jebel Mukabber, and it is now starting to target areas like Shuafat and Beit Hanina.
The notion that a peace process can survive such an Israeli approach in Jerusalem is not rational. The notion that Israel can be taken seriously as a peace partner while acting this way is farcical. And the notion that the United States can be a credible steward of peace efforts while tolerating such behavior is laughable.
Lara Friedman is director of policy and government relations for Americans for Peace Now. Daniel Seidemann is the founder of the Israeli NGO Terrestrial Jerusalem.NSW jails prepare for riots ahead of smoking ban next week
Posted
New South Wales prison officers are prepared if there are violent prison riots in the wake of a smoking ban to be introduced on Monday, the state's Corrective Services Commissioner says.
All NSW correctional centres, complexes and residential facilities will become smoke-free next week.
Prisoners' rights group Justice Action said the smoking ban had created tension in jails and that inmates were horrified, angry and hyped-up.
Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Severin said prisoner staff were prepared for any violent response from inmates.
"We are very much focusing on being prepared for anything that may go wrong. Any unrest or disturbance," he said.
Earlier this year, 300 prisoner were involved in demonstrations in a Melbourne maximum security prison after the introduction of a smoking ban.
"And we've taken very careful note of what happened in Victoria," Commissioner Severin said.
"We've even ratcheted up training further than we had it before.
"Everybody who works in a correctional centre as a correctional officer is trained in riot control.
"We have specialist teams, immediate action teams, that are further trained to respond immediately to a high level.
"We have our security operations group which includes the dog squad, very specialised people who will be strategically deployed to centres where we might expect that something could happen and can support the staff on the day and in the days and weeks following.
"We already have our command post established... we have daily communication with every facility across the state... we have a very, very tight network of intelligence gathering."
Commissioner Severin said NSW correctional centres would take a more tempered approach than their Victorian colleagues.
"We have tobacco products banned as of Monday, but there will be an amnesty in the context of punishment if you are caught with cigarettes or with smoking implements," he said.
"It will be confiscated but you won't be punished for a period of three weeks."
He said nicotine replacement therapy would be handed out to prisoners.
Justice Action coordinator Brett Collins said the smoking ban was discriminatory.
"The [NSW] Government has no entitlement to remove the access to tobacco in a way that is not mirrored in the general community," Mr Collins said.
He said the ban would "cause immense trauma to prisoners" and "is only a deliberate torment of the people who have already lost everything".
Community also preparing for unrest
In a statement, the Department of Education told the ABC that all NSW public schools near prisons had action plans, which were tailored to their individual needs.
"Local schools within a close proximity to the Long Bay Correctional Complex have been consulted in relation to the introduction of the smoking ban," the department said.
Chifley Public School, which neighbours Sydney's Long Bay jail, has made its action plan in consultation with Corrective Services, the community and police.
Long Bay Community Consultative Committee member Trevor Watson has children at the school and said they were well prepared.
"I'm confident and safe that the Corrections [department] and the schools are going to do the right thing by my kids," he said.
"Certainly the community have learnt from what happened in Victoria that we need to be on top of the issues and have a good plan in place in case there is a problem."
Topics: prisons-and-punishment, smoking, laws, matraville-2036, nswIn recent years, communities across rural Alaska have pushed to add renewable energy and reduce the use of expensive diesel to power their communities.
Listen now
The majority of those projects have been funded with state and federal grants. But as the state budget has contracted, those grants have dried up.
Now, a start-up company in Anchorage wants to take a new approach: connecting private investors to the state’s remote villages.
Piper Foster Wilder moved to Alaska a couple years ago after working on renewable energy in the Lower 48. She saw a gap between the way renewables are viewed down south, and the way they’re viewed up here.
“There was nothing fringe-y, alternative or outside-of-the-mainstream about renewable energy,” in the Lower 48, Foster Wilder said. “This is the business of suit-and-tie wearing people, who are making a lot of money doing it.”
“That argument is still being made in Alaska,” Foster Wilder said.
Foster Wilder hopes to bring some of that suit-and-tie attitude to the state with her start-up, 60Hertz Microgrids. It’s one of four companies chosen this year by the Anchorage business incubator Launch Alaska, which offers seed money and coaching to local ventures.
Foster Wilder said, in the past, the state might have covered the cost of a wind turbine or solar array for a rural community, perhaps with a grant from the Renewable Energy Fund. With shrinking state budgets, that’s generally no longer an option. And it can be hard for communities to qualify for affordable loans for renewable projects.
So, Foster Wilder said it’s time to try a different model.
Foster Wilder said Outside investors are looking for renewable energy projects to put money into, because of attractive tax incentives.
“This was the lightbulb that went off for me a year ago,” Foster Wilder said. “I was meeting with an investor, and he said, ‘Piper, I just want to bring $200 million of clean energy capital to Alaska. Can you help me do that?’”
The answer, at the time, was no. But Foster Wilder aims to change that, connecting money to rural villages.
60Hertz hopes to aggregate several community projects, creating a big enough pool that it’s attractive to investors willing to lend money at low interest rates – and so the projects themselves can benefit from economies of scale.
“Our goal is to simplify the process, to be a bridge between money and need,” Foster Wilder said. “So, who are investors that want to take advantage of the incentives of investing in renewable energy? And who are the people that need that capital, so they can pay for this infrastructure in a fair way?”
Will it work? So far, it’s untested. 60Hertz is running a contest this fall, looking for communities to partner with. Foster Wilder hopes to give her concept a real-life road test in the coming year.The Montana Supreme Court on Friday put to work its own view of what the Supreme Court had decided in the controversial ruling allowing massive corporate spending in political campaigns, and came out differently: the state court upheld a 99-year-old state ban on the use of corporations’ own money to support or oppose any candidate in state elections. The 5-2 ruling, including two dissenting opinions, is here. One of the dissenters predicted that the ruling would not survive an inevitable appeal to the Justices, and might be overturned without even a close look.
Both the majority and the dissenters treated the voter-approved Corrupt Practices Act as a flat ban on independent spending of corporations’ internal funds to support or oppose specific candidates for state office — independent in the sense that the financial effort was not coordinated with a candidate. Thus, the measure was nearly identical to the ban in federal law that was struck down by the Supreme Court in January of last year in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
The Montana majority, in an opinion written by Chief Justice Mike McGrath, said that a closely similar ban could withstand the Citizens United ruling because the Supreme Court had left open the possibility that a “compelling interest” would allow such a measure, and the majority found that interest in Montana’s past history and its present economic and political climate. Corporations are more likely to have corrupting influence with their political spending in Montana, the majority said, because it is a small state, its economy still depends upon outside corporate interests, and its political campaigns are not very expensive so they do not bring out heavy donations by individuals to compete with vast corporate treasuries.
The dissenters, the majority noted, had interpreted the Citizens United ruling as declaring “unequivocally that no sufficient government interest justifies limits on political speech.” Disagreeing, the majority said that the decision put a burden upon government to show that such a restriction satisfies a “compelling state interest.” It concluded: “Here the government met that burden.”
The McGrath opinion provided a vivid chronicle of the days in Montana’s past when the so-called “Copper Kings” bought and sold politicians and judges in the way that other people buy and sell consumer goods (a comparison that the majority attributed to Mark Twain). It noted that the states’ voters had had enough of that corruption, so they used their newly acquired initiative power in 1912 to pass the ban on corporate political spending.
“When in the last 99 years,” the Chief Justice asked, “did Montana lose the power or interest sufficient to support the statute, if it ever did?” Even if the ban on corporate financing of campaign activity had in fact “preserved a degree of political and social autonomy,” the opinion said, that was no reason to “throw away its protections.” A state, McGrath wrote, would not repeal its murder prohibition just because the homicide rate went down.
“Issues of corporate influence, sparse population, dependence upon agriculture and extractive resource development, location as a transportation corridor, and low campaign costs make Montana especially vulnerable to continued efforts of corporate control to the detriment of democracy and the republican form of government,” the majority found.
Besides noting that individual contributions to candidates generally go down in states that allow unlimited corporate spending, the majority also concluded that the financial power of corporations in politics can be a corrupting influence in the election of state judges, threatening the independence of the judiciary.
The McGrath opinion was supported by Justices Brian Morris, Patricia O’Brien Cotter, James A. Rice, and Mike Wheat.
Justice James C. Nelson wrote a 44-page dissenting opinion (more than half again as long as the majority opinion), and used broadsides of bitterness and sarcasm to denounce the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, even while concluding that it settled the First Amendment right of corporations to spend freely on politics, so state judges had no authority whatsoever to fail to apply it faithfully to state bans. He left no doubt that he was holding his nose, figuratively, as he wrote. He also left no doubt of his conviction that the Montana ruling would be struck down, probably swiftly, by the Supreme Court in Washington.
Justice Beth Baker wrote a brief dissenting opinion, arguing that the state court should have struck down the flat ban even while upholding so much of the state law to preserve requirements for full public disclosure of the money that corporations take in and spend on politics.
Here is the actual language of the ban at issue in the case: “A corporation may not make a contribution or an expenditure in connection with a candidate or a political committee that supports or opposes a candidate or a political party.” Even though the phrase “in connection with a candidate or political committee” might suggest that the ban only applied to money outlays that were coordinated with a candidate or a candidate organization, that is not the way the state Supreme Court read it. It treated it as a ban on any use of corporate treasury money to try, independently, to promote or attack a specific candidate.
The law left corporations with the freedom to set up a separate political fund to spend on campaigns, but only if the money in the fund was given voluntarily by an employee, shareholder, or corporate member. Although the Supreme Court in the Citizens United case had found that the availability of a separate political action committee (PAC) for a corporation was not a sufficient substitute for a right to spend freely from its own treasury, since a PAC was hard to create and maintain, the Montana court said the state’s law made it easy to create a corporate PAC.
Recommended Citation: Lyle Denniston, A Citizens United sequel: different result, SCOTUSblog (Dec. 30, 2011, 8:05 PM), https://www.scotusblog.com/2011/12/a-citizens-united-sequel-different-result/Here’s a story my father likes to tell. When I was five, my family spent several months living in Barbados. Since we were in a rental house, there weren’t many games or toys around, save for the beat-up travel checkers set we’d packed in our suitcase. The hours I didn’t spend in school learning to add a ‘u’ to the word color, or inspecting shells on the beach, I spent playing checkers, first with my family, and then, when they got sick of it, with the visitors who straggled through our cinderblock bungalow. One of them, a computer science professor, thought he’d humour my parents by playing with their sunburned kid. I destroyed him in two games. ‘I told you she was good,’ said my father. ‘Yes,’ said the professor, ‘but the second game I was trying.’
I don’t remember this particular instance because it was unremarkable. I destroyed lots of people in checkers. The game turned out to be my gateway drug, and soon I began playing chess. Chess didn’t have the speed of checkers or the satisfying click the pieces made when you snapped one on top of the other and whispered: King me, but I liked that it had a story and characters and the ability to come back from near‑annihilation in a few swift moves. So when my school offered a chess club in fourth grade, I promptly signed up.
That first day we learned two endgame strategies. This was a whole new window onto the game: it was not a series of random moves, but rather the application of an already-established pattern. One merely needed to recognise the pattern, apply the strategy, set the trap and… checkmate. I was so dazzled by the idea of an endgame, even by the very word endgame with its connotations of finality and apocalypse, that it took me until the third week to notice that I was the only girl in chess club.
That was in 1980, and one might imagine that in the past 35 years the world has changed significantly vis-à-vis girls and chess, but one would be wrong. As of May 2015, there are only two women who rank in the top-100 chess players worldwide. The United States Chess Federation states on its website that it has 85,000 members who are ‘predominantly male’. Scanning the ‘sex’ column on the World Chess Federation’s list of grandmasters is like reading a statistical overview of the men’s and women’s bathroom lines at a tech conference – of 1,479 grandmasters, 31 are women. That’s two per cent. Where are all the women chess players?
Chess wasn’t always a male domain. In Birth of the Chess Queen (2004), the historian Marilyn Yalom describes a long line of female chess players stretching back through the centuries. In medieval Spain, women played chess in bed while recovering from childbirth. A French tale from 1230 tells of a knight who must win against an emir’s chess-master daughter in order to earn her hand. A school in 15th-century Germany, founded by a chess-loving bishop, taught girls and boys the game as part of the curriculum.
Then, around the turn of the 17th century, women abruptly dropped out of the chess scene. Yalom hypothesises that this could have been related to changes in the game: the queen and bishop, both formerly weak pieces with limited movement, were now allowed to swoop terrifyingly across the board and dominate. Chess went from a leisurely game played between lords and ladies to a cut-throat competitive sport played in public houses and cafés, and therefore considered an unseemly activity for women.
Whatever the reason, polite society has been murmuring the same message for more than 300 years: chess is not for women and, moreover, women are innately bad at it. In 1897, an article in American Chess Magazine noted that women’s chess games were subject to ‘illogical aberrations’ and suggested that the cause could be wire hairpins. In 1906, Lasker’s Chess Magazine explained the lack of female chess superstars as a natural outcome given women’s general lack of ‘qualities of concentration, comprehensiveness, impartiality and, above all, a spark of originality’. Chessworld’s 1964 spring issue featured an article by Norman Reider entitled ‘The Natural Inferiority of Women Chessplayers’. The US chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer was full of explanations for women’s chess shortcomings, most famously this one: ‘They’re all weak, all women. They’re stupid compared to men. They shouldn’t play chess, you know. They’re like beginners.’ This, from a man whose sister taught him to play the game.
Lest these opinions be dismissed as old-fashioned, or the misogynist rantings of a madman, the most recent comment in this vein came just this April from the UK grandmaster Nigel Short, who encourages us to ‘gracefully accept it as a fact’ that men are simply ‘hardwired’ to be better chess players. Short was pummelled in the British press for his remarks; Twitter users wanted to know what to make of the fact that he’d been beaten by the Hungarian grandmaster Judit Polgár. But in his defence, Short was merely echoing something men have been saying for more than 100 years, his argument buoyed by the study ‘Explaining male predominance at the apex of intellectual achievement’ (2013).
A solid explanation, Howard concludes, is that men are innately better at chess than women
This study, by the psychologist Robert Howard, then at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, compares male and female performance in international chess, and finds that men consistently perform better than women, even when there are more women chess players. Howard claims that by looking only at top players, his study eliminates the issues of ‘glass ceilings and male gatekeepers downplaying female achievement’, as though these issues can be simply dismissed once a woman makes it to the upper echelons of the chess world. Howard also points out that in Georgia, a former-Soviet republic where 30 per cent of chess players are women, the performance gap still exists, though less so. A solid explanation, Howard concludes, is that men are innately better at chess than women.
Howard has been conducting studies on the topic of male intellectual dominance for the past 10 years. His publications read like the reading list for a men’s empowerment club, with titles such as ‘Are gender differences in high achievement disappearing?’ (2005) – not according to Howard – and ‘Gender differences in intellectual achievement persist at the limits of individual capabilities’ (2013) – ie men are smarter. But whatever Howard’s motivation, his study was an attempt to discredit the prevailing explanation for why there are so few women chess players at the top, which is that there are so few girls at the bottom.
To this day, the number of parents who sign up their sons for chess lessons dwarfs the number of those who sign up their daughters. I studied the participant list at a recent elementary school-aged chess tournament that my kids played in on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and found that boys outnumbered girls five to one. The NYChessKids programme, which runs classes throughout New York City, reports that while girls make up about half of their classes for preschoolers through to third grade, when it comes to tournaments, girls make up a quarter of players at most.
One of those girls, at the moment, is my daughter, who has come to love the game through her chess-obsessed older brother. I’d always assumed my kids would learn the game just as I had, and I’d intended to start them out with checkers. When my son was three, I brought home a chess and checkers set, because if I had to play one more game of Candy Land I thought I might implode. I attempted to interest him in checkers, but he wanted to play only with the chess pieces. He was swept up in a love for the game before he even understood what the game was. He spent hours pretending to be chess pieces (you really haven’t fully experienced the glory of parenthood until you’ve watched your white three-year-old son run down a crowded street yelling ‘I’m a black queen!’), and began taking chess lessons at four.
Our breakfast conversations sometimes include the phrase en passant and mentions of the Sicilian defence. It was into this environment that my daughter was born. She quickly grasped that there was something precious and holy about the black and white wooden pieces her brother spent so much time with – for several months of preschool she insisted on bringing a ‘pet’ rook on a leash to school with her – and eventually he taught her the game so he’d have a willing opponent at all times.
So it was jarring to witness her, now six, marching into her first tournament surrounded by boys. Indeed, it wasn’t until I saw her blonde head bobbing in a sea of close-cropped hair that all those percentages began to mean something. The chess teachers and chess clubs I spoke with all report that, while the number of girls who start playing chess is increasing, and the percentage of females who are members of the US Chess Federation is at an all-time high, girls still tend to drop out at a furious pace.
Some of that might be due to something called stereotype threat. In a 2013 study, the US psychologists Hank Rothgerber and Katie Wolsiefer found that girls as young as six are aware of the stereotype that ‘good chess players are usually boys’. Even worse, awareness of the stereotype affects the way girls play. The psychologists analysed data from 12 chess tournaments, and calculated expected winning percentages for different pairings. Because chess players are all rated by the US Chess Federation, this is a simple calculation to make – a player with a 1000 rating is going to get smoked by a player rated at 2000, but has a fighting chance against one who is at 1100. Rothgerber and Wolsiefer found that when girls played against boys who presented a strong or moderate challenge, they lost more than they should have.
Stereotype threat isn’t confined to kids. In a 2008 study, researchers at the University of Padua in Italy matched 42 expert female chess players with similarly ranked male opponents online. When the women weren’t told the gender of their opponent, or were told (incorrectly) that they were playing against another woman, they performed as expected. When they were told their opponent was male, they played dramatically worse. Which could partially explain why girls are quick to quit. If somewhere back in the recesses of your brain you believe that girls aren’t naturally gifted at chess, then working to improve at the game would be an exercise in futility.
‘By middle school, boys get very aggressive vocally. Girls don’t like it’
Stereotype threat is only one possible reason girls quit. One chess teacher I spoke with said that he’s had several female students with great potential quit in favour of more traditionally girl-approved activities such as horse riding and ice skating. Gary Ryan, the Vice President of NYChessKids, said he’s noticed that girls can also be put off by the hyper-competitive atmosphere that tends to develop in the tween years.
‘When they’re young, boys and girls both love chess,’ says Ryan. ‘But by middle school, boys get very aggressive vocally, like trash talking. Boys almost do that all the time. Girls don’t like it and aren’t into it.’
The aggression could begin even earlier. I recently observed my daughter playing against a slightly older boy at a chess tournament. Whenever he took a piece, he crashed the figure onto the board, the pieces making a loud clicking noise as though one had broken the other’s neck, then swooped up the conquered piece and slammed it down to the side of the board. Watching the game, I had to stifle the urge to shove a bishop up his nose. To her credit, my daughter brushed off the aggression, but I couldn’t help but wonder how long that will last. You’d have to be a pretty strong-willed teenage girl to handle being the only female in a room full of hormone-addled, trash-talking boys smashing knights and rooks around a chess board.
And for those girls who have made it through the elementary-school years and into the more competitive chess world of middle and high school, even larger hurdles loom. Susan Polgár, sister of Judit and the world’s first female grandmaster, pointed out when we spoke recently that girls suffer from a Catch-22 when they begin to play chess more competitively. Because there are very few women at the upper levels of chess, there are very few female chess coaches. And because there are very few female chess coaches, there are very few girls who manage to make it to the next level in chess.
The lack of women coaches presents two challenges. First, there’s a logistical issue. Coaches typically spend long hours with their protégées, and many parents aren’t comfortable letting their teenage daughters hang out with some guy playing chess all day. Things get more complicated once coaches start to travel with players to tournaments, and logistical issues around hotel rooms and long weekends away from home crop up. Polgár also notes the economic issue: male coaches need a separate room from their female players, which doubles travel costs.
But beyond the discomfort factor, Polgár also believes that boys and girls need to be coached differently, and that male coaches might find it difficult to understand a young girl’s mindset.
‘Boys are a lot more competitive naturally, so you don’t need to teach them to be competitive,’ she says. ‘Girls need to be coached to be more competitive.’
When people talk about how girls aren’t suited to chess, one of the first things they point out is that boys are supposedly more competitive or aggressive than girls. Nigel Short, before he announced that women weren’t wired to play chess, said they ‘just don’t have the killer instinct’.
But there is a difference between being competitive and being aggressive. Multiple studies have shown that men are more physically and verbally aggressive than women, but studies around competitiveness have been inconclusive. And as anyone who survived middle school can attest, the world doesn’t lack for girls who like to win. I was curious about Susan Polgár’s assertion, so I asked Alexander Rasic, my son’s chess teacher and a man with more than 30 years’ coaching experience, whether girls needed to be taught to be competitive. He told me the following story:
I have two daughters. One came out of her first chess tournament holding hands with the kid she’d been playing against. She said they’d decided to make it a tie and be friends. My other daughter
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ies and drug offenses.
In neighboring Pakistan, sensing domestic political anxiety, after the execution of democratically installed Zulfikar Bhutto, Pakistan's dictator General Zia consolidated the power he had grabbed through military coup by launching his own 1978 Islamicization programs, quickly legalizing four Hudood ordinances which are particularly violently exacted upon Pakistani women and Pakistan's minorities.
Each are examples of Muslim leaders' political expediency fueling Islamist extremist policies in the service of both domestic oppression and appeasement of firebrand clerics to shore up seized but ever-fragile power.
The most cursory of searches in the Qur'an reveals over 200 instances of divine forgiveness and dozens of references to forgiveness that can be sought either from our fellow man or our Maker. Yet Muslim majority societies show little in the way of Mercy, kindness or humanity in either their human rights measurements or the letter or spirit of their laws. Their citizens reflect their society, after all, more than anything else, a society is what it tolerates.
In Saudi Arabia where the law isn't even written (all laws are oral and handed down by appointed judges) verdicts can only be challenged by royal decree. In both instances, whether the seat of all Islam, or the worlds first and widely acknowledged Muslim Democracy, citizens, particularly the most vulnerable, are subject to the whim of empowered unforgiving men. It's unsurprising therefore Farzana's husband took the actions he did -- he has been legitimized by a heartless state.
In the 'democractic' Islamic Republic of Pakistan which has held seats at the UN Human Rights Council, there are no deterrents for these actions. Pakistani citizens, despite being an empowered populace, freely mobile, and with access to all forms of media, have consistently shown themselves unmotivated to act in the defense of Pakistan's Christians, Shias, Sufis, Hazaras, Ahmadi Muslims, Ismaeeli Muslims, young girls attempting to get an education in the SWAT, nurses risking their lives to vaccinate babies against polio, their heroic statesmen including Governor Salman Taseer or Minister Shabbaz Bhatti or indeed any other vulnerable group.Michael Morell is the former acting director and deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Robert Pape is a professor of political science at the University of Chicago and the director of the Chicago Project on Security and Threats.
Good facts and good analysis make good policy. They guide decision-makers toward effective policies and prevent us from acting on ideology or singular events. This is why every meeting of the National Security Council, across multiple administrations, has begun with an intelligence briefing.
What should the intelligence briefing look like at a hypothetical NSC discussion on President Trump’s travel ban? It should address the current terrorist threat to the U.S. homeland as well as the implications of the travel ban.
On the threat, the briefing should draw on something like the detailed analysis being done by the Chicago Project on Security and Threats (CPOST), a research program associated with the University of Chicago. CPOST has studied the 125 individuals who in the past 36 months either were indicted by the Justice Department for Islamic State-related crimes or who would have been indicted had they not died perpetrating a terrorist attack in the United States or fighting for Islamic State on the battlefield in Iraq and Syria.
[The new immigration order: A disaster in the making]
The first point from the CPOST analysis that we would highlight at our hypothetical NSC meeting would be that the greatest terrorist threat comes from our own citizens who have been radicalized by the Islamic State’s recruiting narrative. Of those studied, 81 percent are U.S. citizens, with 78 percent of them born in the United States. Another 11 percent are green-card holders — permanent residents. Only 8 percent are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
The judgment that the greatest terrorist threat to the United States now comes from homegrown jihadists is not new. It is a point that many terrorism experts have made over the past several years. Senior officials from the National Counterterrorism Center have repeatedly made this observation in congressional testimonies. The data from CPOST drive this point home.
Why is the terrorist threat not greater from foreign nationals traveling to the United States? The answer is that, since 9/11, the homeland and national security agencies have worked diligently to keep terrorists out of the United States. The extreme vetting that Trump talks about is already occurring. The travel ban would do little to further mitigate the threat.
Second, there is no rationale in the data to focus on the seven countries the president’s executive order targeted.
A look at the countries of birth for the small share of those committing terrorist acts who were not born in the United States shows that 37 percent are from the seven countries. The other 63 percent came from six other countries in the Middle East and Africa, five nations in South and Central Asia, and three in Europe. So the travel ban, even if necessary to protect the homeland — which it is not — would be focusing on only a little more than a third of the problem from outside our borders.
(Reuters)
Third, there is often a significant time lag between those who enter the United States and the terrorist-related actions that they take. This means that these individuals do not come to the United States with the intent to commit terrorism but are radicalized by the same process that creates American-born jihadists. The hard truth is that there is no evidence that those born abroad are any more susceptible to radicalization than those born here.
[What ‘President Promise-Keeper’ should say on Tuesday night]
On the implications of the executive order, we would make two points: First, that our relationship with one of our most important allies in the fight against the Islamic State — Iraq — will be undermined by the order and second, that the ban will be used by jihadist groups as a recruiting and radicalization tool.
These groups tell their followers that the West, led by the United States, is a threat to Islam as a religion and even that the United States is working to destroy Islam. The ban plays into that narrative. In the past year, terrorist videos have included clips of candidate Trump calling for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the United States. In this way, the ban may, ironically, make the threat worse, as it may lead to more U.S. citizens being radicalized.
We applaud the Trump administration’s focus on keeping Americans safe. But the facts show that the travel ban is bad policy. They also show that better policy would be to focus on defeating the Islamic State narrative that is infecting those already in this country.His 43 years of successes, setbacks, joy and heartbreak taught him that — a lesson both priceless and horrible.
On an April Thursday in 1978, when he was 6, his mother, Cornelia, left their home just outside Fergus, Ont., to drive to the store for paper napkins and died in a car accident.
The backbench MP for Wellington-Halton Hills applies it to something as basic as whether his bill to change the balance of power in Parliament will become law before this year’s federal election and as monumental as the safety of his loved ones.
“You know you can’t make any assumptions about security because at any moment you could be killed. You think about it. Death is something that is always at the back of my mind... even when my wife gets in the car to get groceries.”
He describes such loss as a defining part of who he is. Losing his mother so young made him grow up quickly. “It has to. It takes away the innocence of childhood and makes you more serious.
“You’re not going to believe this, son,” Hayhurst told him, “but I investigated your mother’s accident too.”
The second time, Michael Chong was canoeing in northern Ontario and couldn’t be reached for two days. He remembers the call from OPP officer Stuart Hayhurst.
A little more than 20 years later on a Friday in May 1999, his father, Paul, died in a car crash at the same rural intersection, in an accident investigated by the same OPP officer.
He’s not morose. He understands that as much as tragedy robbed him, it made him appreciate every moment. That’s a gift, and he knows it.
On a winter’s afternoon, we’re settled in for coffee at a downtown Toronto hotel for an interview scheduled to last an hour and stretching to well over two. The setting could hardly be more mundane to talk about the events of a quite remarkable life.
Moreover, such loss, as well as the immigrant experience of parents from two continents who came to Canada with childhood memories of war, shaped him into an out-of-the-box thinker and risk-taker. If it’s not too much of an oxymoron, one might say he’s a maverick Conservative, a throwback to an era when his federal party was called Progressive Conservative.
Acts of rebellion define his career, a trait arguably rare in modern Canadian politics, other than the manoeuvring of impatient leadership hopefuls. Before he took his southern Ontario riding from the Liberals in 2004, he went against party policy and publicly supported the Kyoto Accord.
Once ensconced comfortably in cabinet, he surprised the House by resigning in November 2006 because he couldn’t support Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s motion recognizing “Quebec as a nation within a united Canada.” Chong had been in cabinet — intergovernmental affairs, sport and president of the Queen’s Privy Council — for only nine months before he stepped down.
Chong says he had no choice. “It creates a system of two-tiered citizenship, and that’s unacceptable to me.”
Then came his controversial private member’s bill to shake up Parliament by putting power back in the hands of elected members, the group Pierre Trudeau once scornfully dismissed as being “nobodies” when they’re away from the Hill. More on that later.
Dr. Gordon Chong, a retired Toronto dentist and no relation, knows the politician through Conservative circles and likes his controversial positions. “Maybe some people view them as harmful in the short and medium term, but in the long run they show he’s willing to stand up and be counted regardless of the consequences.”
He continues: “I think he has a great future. We do need thoughtful, articulate Chinese Canadian politicians.”
Michael Chong lives on a 100-acre farm he purchased in Fergus, located on the Grand River about 85 kilometres from Toronto, with his wife, Carrie, and three soccer-mad boys, William, 10, Alistair, 7 and Cameron, 5, plus a black lab named Tessa. His wife has joked that the boys had Chong as a surname so their Christian names would be Scottish to match her heritage.
His family hasn’t experienced the early economic hardships of his parents.
His father, Paul, emigrated from Hong Kong in 1952 with nothing, worked at various jobs (including as a lumberjack in British Columbia) and became a doctor, specializing in internal medicine and moving to Guelph, not far from Fergus.
Chong has a photograph of a very traditional Chinese family in Hong Kong, circa 1929, posed around a small table and staring solemnly into an unimaginable future before World War II and the Japanese occupation. In the photo there are six children. His grandmother is pregnant with his father; an eighth and last child would be born later.
His mother, Cornelia de Haan, left Friesland in the Netherlands in 1960, found work in Canada as a nurse and met and married his father. A black-and-white wedding photo shows a couple with so much hope, Paul Chong smiling in his white tie with top hat and beautiful Cornelia in a simple, high-necked gown, her blond hair loose, and carrying a bouquet with lily of the valley.
They had four children, with Michael (the image of his father, slight and fine-featured) the oldest. He was born in Windsor and followed by two brothers, Peter, now a surgeon in B.C., and Andrew a geneticist researching cystic fibrosis at Sick Kids. His third sibling, Joanna, is raising three children in Burlington.
“People would always remember my family,” Chong says of the distinctive-looking couple and their children. From Guelph, they made trips to buy specialty foods in Toronto’s Chinatown, sent their oldest son briefly to weekend Chinese language school and ensured their children understood and respected both cultures.
At school in Guelph, his kindergarten teacher thought he had a speech impediment. A noticeable accent — he pronounced Chong as “Shong” — came from speaking mostly Dutch with his mother. The school assessment was later amended with a note: “Called father, mother is Dutch,” it said. Hence, no problem.
He took “schoolyard discriminations” in stride. Nothing he couldn’t handle, he says. He speaks of his parents with pride: “They came here from war-torn countries and sacrificed everything for their children, and they didn’t complain.
“I have a great deal of gratitude to this country (for what Canada offered his parents) and (it’s why) I believe in politics,” he says. “I’m not one of those people who are cynical about politics and politicians.”
He listened to family stories and visited his extended family in Hong Kong as a child. Maybe that’s why he’s an independent thinker. “There are ways to learn from other places,” he says.
After his mother died, his father remarried another Dutch-born woman, Adrianna, who’d known his mother and still lives in the family home. “She undertook a Herculean task with so much responsibility,” says Chong.
Many aspects of his life seem charmed. He studied philosophy, history and politics at the University of Toronto, and graduated with an affinity for 17th-century Enlightenment philosophers John Locke and René Descartes. He admires Locke for his contribution to the foundations of modern liberal democracy and Descartes for challenging the old orthodoxy of Catholic Church control.
In the burgeoning computer age of the early 1990s, Chong worked in information technology for Barclay’s Bank and Research Capital Corp., later moving to the National Hockey League Players’ Association. As well, he became senior technology consultant to the Greater Toronto Airports Authority for the redevelopment of Pearson International Airport.
He’s been a political junkie since his teens, when he listened to Perrin Beatty, his local MP and a former Conservative cabinet minister. Later, he joined the party campus club at U of T. He ran unsuccessfully for the Conservatives in 2000 and, after redistribution, took the riding from the Liberals in 2004.
That’s when constituency assistant Jim Smith began a long list of posts he’s held for Chong, including campaign manager.
“It struck me from the beginning how he could go door to door and have intelligent, thoughtful conversations with so many different people about what matters to them,” says Smith over the phone. “He really listens and he engages people so quickly.”
Smith describes his boss as a “serious guy, an avid reader who’s in a book club with friends from university and a big family man.”
For four years, Chong worked quietly on a bill to curb the growing clout of the Prime Minister’s Office and empower MPs. He researched and consulted with, among others, academics and current and former politicians before tabling his bill in December 2013. At first, it essentially landed with a thud, with the PMO reportedly lobbying quietly against it.
“Parliament is society’s most important innovation,” says Chong, adding that party caucuses are “no longer decision-making bodies.” The clear message from his constituents is that “MPs don’t represent the views of their ridings to Ottawa but rather what Ottawa wants to their ridings.”
Chong’s aim was to end the leader’s ability to veto candidates from running and making it the prerogative of riding associations, as well as giving caucus the right to overthrow a leader, elect an interim one and decide about expelling members.
“I should be able to stand up and disagree with my party without facing execution,” says Chong. When it’s pointed out that he’s been able to do so, he says he’s been fortunate and that it should be guaranteed.
“It wasn’t very popular at the beginning but people have come on board,” says Smith. “Since some of the amendments were passed, (Harper) advised his caucus to seriously consider it.”
There have been setbacks, the bill has been watered down and Chong has faced criticism over the weakened version, essentially the only real attacks of his career.
The Commons is expected to give the bill third and final reading sometime after the House resumes next week. Then it goes to the Senate. Chong agreed to changes that include designating a party representative (who could be the leader) to sign off on candidates and mandating caucuses to vote on a set of rules for themselves after every election — as weak or tough as they choose.
“It’s a good bill, not perfect,” says Chong. “I’m cautiously optimistic.
“At least MPs will have to make a deliberate decision to disempower themselves” when they vote on rules. He thinks MPs will grow into the idea of assuming more power. Baby steps. After all, the whole concentration of power in the PMO is relatively recent in Canadian history.
He doesn’t think the Senate will be a problem due to the optics of unelected senators thwarting the will of the House.
Whatever happens, Chong can always find solace in his family and his farm. For the time being, it’s a non-working farm.
He met Caroline Davidson at U of T and they married in 2002. He describes her as coming from a “WASP family” with roots in both Quebec and Newfoundland who studied politics and economics at university.
Her great-great grandfather William Whiteway was a pro-Confederation politician (both Liberal and Conservative) and three-time premier of the colony of Newfoundland in the late 19th century. Her other great-great grandfather, Charles Peers Davidson, was chief justice of the Superior Court of Quebec in the early 1910s.
Listening to Chong, it sounds as if she could be as passionate about politics as her husband.
He does have one private passion, though.
His green John Deere tractor.
“He loves his tractor,” says Smith. “Loves it. When he bought the farm, the tractor came with it and he took the whole thing apart and restored it.”
So far, Chong has only used his baby to level their long driveway. Maybe someday that will change.
This story has been edited from a previous version.Before the launch of iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, Apple had joined Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) to enable wireless charging on these iPhones. When Xiaomi had enrolled with WPC in September this year, the rumor mill started speculating that Xiaomi’s upcoming flagship phone may carry support for Qi standard wireless charging. Fresh information claims that Xiaomi Mi 7 will feature wireless charging and its trial production will begin before China’s Sprint Festival.
According to Chinese media, since Xiaomi is rumored to be using the same foundry as Apple for wireless charging, it is unlikely to encounter product quality or supply issue for bringing wireless charging feature on the Mi 7. It is likely that the Mi 7 may feature the same Broadcom chip and NXP transmitter that enables wireless charging feature on the 2017 iPhones.
Speculations are rife that Xiaomi will be announcing the Mi 7 in March next year. Hence, it is ramping up the trail production before Feb. 16 Sprint Festival day in a bid to build up abundant stock of Mi 7.
Read More: Xiaomi Redmi 5 And Redmi 5 Plus Sale Starts From December 12, Price Starts At 699 Yuan
The arrival of wireless charging on Xiaomi Mi 7 could mean that it will feature a glass chassis. The inclusion of Qi charging on Mi 7 indicates that users will be able to refill its battery wirelessly by placing the phone on a wireless charging bed. The Mi 7 is rumored to arrive with a 6-inch AMOLED screen by Samsung and it will be fueled by Snapdragon 845 chipset.
The SoC is rumored to be accompanied by 6 GB of RAM. It is speculated to come with a pair of f/1.7 aperture 16-megapixel rear-facing camera sensors. It is likely to feature the same 3,350mAh battery that is present on the Mi 6 smartphone. It is also speculated to feature 3D facial recognition feature. It is likely to carry a starting price of 2,699 Yuan. After getting announced in March, the smartphone may hit the market in April.
(source)As a place to shop, it was years ahead of its time.
In the capital, there really was nowhere quite like Goldbergs.
The funfair roundabout inside Goldbergs department store in Edinburgh, November 1968.
Abraham Goldberg, a Jewish immigrant hailing from Eastern Europe, opened the first store in Glasgow in 1908, kicking off a business empire that would go on to boast more than 100 outlets the length and breadth of Scotland.
The purpose-built Edinburgh store was completed in the summer of 1960, standing prominently in the heart of Tollcross opposite the district’s famous clock.
It was quite unlike anything else which had gone before.
The Edinburgh Goldbergs’ lofty, plinth-like frontage, dressed in distinctive pale yellow stone with huge glass windows, was a world apart from the stuffy Victorian-Edwardian department stores of yesteryear.
Aerial of the Tollcross area of Edinburgh, showing Goldbergs (centre) in May 1976.
It must have seemed as if a spaceship had landed among the soot-ridden tenements of Tollcross.
Inside, Goldbergs was an airy palace of automatic doors, escalators and Mediterranean whitewashed walls.
Customers marvelled at its fancy decors and tremendous window displays, and a funfair, a creche, and an aviary filled with exotic birds kept the kids well-entertained.
To cap it all off, the Goldbergs roof garden boasted some of the finest views of Edinburgh Castle to be had from anywhere in the city.
Goldbergs was initially closed on a Saturday and open on a Sunday so that the owner could observe the Jewish Sabbath. The rather curious opening days eventually changed after Abraham Goldberg’s passing.
It is worth noting that the owners’ religious leanings did not prevent Goldbergs from putting on a dazzling display for Christmas. December is when the store came alive.
Later on, the store developed its own unique loyalty scheme and even had its own fashion brand, Wrygges, both of which proved to be extremely popular.
The catalyst for the Edinburgh store and expansion into a Scotland-wide chain was the handing-over of the business from father to sons, Ephraim and Michael.
Despite a strong economic performance in its first two decades, the opening of both the St. James and Waverley Shopping Centres, in 1973 and 1985 respectively, hit the Edinburgh Goldbergs hard.
The department store had been intended as the showpiece in a new busy interchange at Tollcross, but the new roads never passed the drawing board and the store failed to attract the kind of footfall it had been built for.
Goldbergs ceased trading in 1990 with demolition of the store taking place six years later. Apartments have since been built on the site.
Since its closure, the much-lamented shoppers’ paradise secured an almost mythical presence within the collective memory of just about every Edinburgh resident over the age of 30. There can be few structures dating from the 60s which are recalled so fondly.RFID tag skimming — breaching restricted areas.
Leedham Te Kani Blocked Unblock Follow Following Sep 20, 2016
RFID tag skimming can enhance the effectiveness of your penetration test by duplicating the credentials of workers with access to the building.
For those who do not know, RFID tags are a common component of modern credit cards, public transport systems and anti-shoplifting markers. RFID tags can be electronically duplicated with easily acquired equipment sourced from the internet.
Example RFID tag skimmer
With a properly constructed and prepared RFID skimming tool, the pen tester can copy nearby RFID tags embedded in security passes. The best way to do this is to wait in a neutral location near the objective where outsiders intermingle with workers. Examples of ideal locations are nearby coffee shops, eateries, parks with shared benches and tables and spots where smokers congregate.
By waiting at such a spot with a pretense — reading a magazine, smoking or eating food, the pen tester can wait for suitable targets who take a seat adjacent to them. Good spots give you access to the back and side of the target, and you should position yourself within short range so you are not mistaken for a thief or pickpocket. Remember to dress in non confrontational and location appropriate dress, such as business casual. The best RFID tags are located on the target’s hip, belt or waist.
With the device, you can make a copy of a valid RFID tag and use it to pass entry gates, operate locked elevators and gain access to restricted areas.
Example of the skimming process
When suggesting solutions to the client in regard to RFID tag skimming, I would suggest:
1. Mandate a body location to wear RFID embedded identification, preferably the chest, to prevent illicit access from the side or waist.
2. The distribution of RFID blocking sleeves, which are cheap and readily available. Encouraging employees to cover the Pass when outside business premises may reduce skimming.
3. The requirement of a different RFID pass for each sensitive area (i.e entry, offices, storerooms) to complicate the collection of RFID data.
4. The training of staff to promptly report visitors with incorrect passes to security. Training security to challenge the bona fides of any intruder and then to accompany them while their identification is validated or they are passed on to the police for trespassing.
5. Familiarise staff and security with the concept of RFID skimming, so they are aware of the equipment and processes involved and will report suspicious behaviour.
6. The discouragement of loitering around RFID machinery to prevent tampering or recording of the authentication process.
7. The obscuring and prevention of visual observation of the security processes around the entry area.
Being aware of techniques like RFID scanning will help develop your security mindedness and bolster your defences. Technological security solutions should always be supplemented with awareness of exploitable vulnerabilities and strategies.
This mindset is the core philosophy of HERT.Star Vs The Forces of Evil is different from most other cartoons aimed at girls. At first, you might not see why—the main protagonist is called Star Butterfly, a super enthusiastic teen who loves rainbows, unicorns, pink and kicking butt. StarVsFoE is only the second Disney TV Animation to be created by a woman in seventeen years, Daron Nefcy. StarVsFoE created such a buzz within Disney that they renewed the show for a second season before the first season had even aired.
Princess Star Butterfly’s enthusiasm and blind-optimism have got her into enough trouble that her parents are considering sending her to reform school, the dreaded Saint Olga’s Reform School for Wayward Princesses. It’s all about to get much worse though as Star has just turned old enough to inherit her family’s powerful magic wand. Fearing an unintentional Starmeggedon as their daughter learns how to use her wand’s power, Star is sent from her home dimension of Mewni to the one that holds Earth.
There she attends school while living with the Diaz family, meeting her best friend, adventurer and fellow 14-year-old Marco Diaz. She is forced to protect her wand from the evil Ludo, who using his army of monsters, wants to take the wand and rule the universe. Using inter-dimensional scissors given to Star by her best friend Pony Head (literally a floating pony head) the battles span dimensions as Star defends her wand by narwhal blasting her foes into submission.
StarVsFoE is aimed at tween and teen girls but adults are not left out, I’m enjoying it and a few of the episodes have had me laughing out loud. This is a show with a wide appeal, this is Disney cutting into Cartoon Networks traditional audience. I said the show was different, well it’s something of a blend of other shows. I’m reminded of Invader Zim in some ways; remove the grossness of Zim, apply a cute filter, mix with a sanitized Ren and Stimpy, and you have the over the top stories of StarVsFoE.
The show has stylised and distinctive artwork, it’s like Japanese and Western animation went to the same party, hit it off and ended up in a wardrobe together. After fumbling around for half an hour of fun times, the resulting tryst included a lost bra, a watch that no longer works, and nine months later StarVsFoE. It never lets go of it’s girl focused cuteness and the show is filled with puppies (firing lasers from their eyes), butterflies, bunnies, rainbows and hearts. Even the colour palette leans towards the pastel side; it’s everything that makes up the traditional pink-fluffy-princess trope crossed with Sailor Moon.
The real difference is that Star Butterfly is never helpless, she runs headlong into danger to protect her friends or her wand. She’s both brave and flawed, as she has no clue what she’s doing and her impulsive enthusiasm seems to create nearly as many problems as it solves. It’s really cool to see a girl who is into cuteness and rainbows also kick-ass and enjoy it. My daughter loves StarVsFoE over the top cute and she laughs maniacally as Star Butterfly fights using her wand. Like “magical girl” anime, Star yells out the spells she’s casting, these include:
Narwhal Blast, which shoots out a stream of narwhals, spiking or crushing foes
Bunny Rabbit Blast, powerful energy blast, with bunnies, allowing super jumps
Syrup Tsunami Shockwave, a massive wave of sticky maple syrup
The show isn’t perfect, although we have the ongoing threat of Saint Olga’s and the evil but incompetent Ludo, the show still hasn’t created an overarching plot, it’s all feeling a little hollow right now. The format of having two eleven minute shows isn’t helping either, as some of the stories feel rushed. I’d like to see some full length shows that give the characters more space to breathe; more backstory and character development please!
Another thing that bugged me was Marco’s personality change, he’s retconned after the pilot, he goes from overly safety conscious to martial arts expert looking for adventure. The other problem is the show is really patchy, an excellent episode can be followed by something … meh. It makes me wonder what’s going on behind the scenes when we can have the excellent ‘Mewberty’ and the mediocre ‘Party with a Pony’. The show has so much potential, and while it’s never bad, I hope it manages to be more consistently good.
StarVsFoE isn’t as complex as Adventure Time or Steven Universe, and I don’t think it will be, either. I hope it adds more depth by delving more into the characters and their emotions more, as well as the backstory of Mewni and Olga’s reform school. If you like Wander Over Yonder (which also involved Daron Nefcy), Sailor Moon, Gravity Falls, Steven Universe or the high energy randomness of Zim, then you really should try out StarVsFoE. It also has perhaps the best opening theme ever:
Marcy (@marcyjcook) is an immigrant trans woman and writer. This includes Transcanuck.com, a website dedicated to informing and helping trans Canadians. She also has a nerd job, too many cats, is a part time volunteer sex educator and has an ongoing sordid love affair with Lego. Those last two are not related… probably.
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Do you follow The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?It has been a jittery couple of months for the health research community, as the Trump administration has been casting about for spending to cut from the federal budget. In March, the White House threatened the National Institutes of Health with a $1.2 billion budget cut this year, followed by another $5.8 billion cut in 2018.
Some of that anxiety was just allayed — at least temporarily. In an agreement reached Sunday night, congressional negotiators said no to Trump’s 2017 visions for NIH. Instead, they opted to increase the agency’s budget by $2 billion (or 6 percent) for the second year in a row as part of a $1 trillion spending agreement that keeps the government going through September.
This is very good news for medical research in this country. It means the current set of lawmakers are carrying on with a longstanding tradition of bipartisan support for the NIH. It also means Congress wants to make good on the promise of the 21st Century Cures Act, a bipartisan law that aims to advance medical research and innovation though new funding and raised the NIH budget by $4.8 billion over 10 years.
As Axios’s David Nather reported, top Republican appropriators, including Sen. Roy Blunt and Rep. Tom Cole, had pushed for the NIH funding increase — but it wasn’t clear whether they’d listen to Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney and change their minds.
They clearly didn’t. And the fact that lawmakers not only rejected the Trump administration’s proposals but also gave the NIH a funding boost means we might not see the NIH gutting in 2018 that the Trump administration has been aiming for.
As House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement, "The omnibus [spending bill] is in sharp contrast to President Trump's dangerous plans to steal billions from lifesaving research.”
Here are some of the things the $2 billion increase will buy NIH:
A $650 million (or 430 percent) increase to fight opioid abuse
A $400 million increase for Alzheimer’s disease research
A $475.8 million boost for the National Cancer Institute
Funding increases for two of President Barack Obama’s signature health initiatives (which were also part of the 21st Century Cures act): a $120 million boost for the Precision Medicine Initiative and a $110 million increase for the BRAIN Initiative to map the human brain
A $50 million increase to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria
“Increases to every Institute and Center to continue investments in innovative research to advance fundamental knowledge and speed the development of new therapies, diagnostics, and preventive measures to improve the health of all Americans.”
Why NIH escapes partisanship: it’s good for business
NIH funding hasn’t typically been a partisan issue. That’s probably because the NIH delivers benefits to people on both sides of the aisle, such as medical innovations and jobs.
Researchers have found NIH funding “buys” us new patents for drugs, medical devices, and other technologies — and spurs the creation of new biotech firms.
In March, Science published a study looking at the impact of NIH grants over a 27-year period. The main finding: 8.4 percent of all NIH grants go on to generate patents — for new drugs, medical devices, or other medicine-related technologies.
The authors of the Science paper had previously figured out that “a $10 million boost in NIH funding leads to a net increase of 2.3 patents.” They estimate, roughly, that each patent is worth around $11.2 million in 2010 dollars. “A back-of-the-envelope calculation indicate that a $10 million dollar increase in NIH funding would yield $34.7 million in firm market value,” they reported in a recent NBER paper. Not a bad bet.
The Science paper’s secondary finding is perhaps just as important: Grant money also has a carryover effect into the private sector. Around 30 percent of all scientific papers generated by NIH grants are cited by successful patent applications from private firms.
This means that even if a grant isn’t directly generating a patent, it has a good chance of aiding the thinking behind the discovery of another.
There’s also research that suggests government funding is better at kick-starting this virtuous cycle than private sector funding: NIH-funded patents are cited by future patents at double the rate of those developed by the private sectors, a 2014 Nature Biotechnology paper found.
What to look for in the coming weeks
Despite this bit of good news, the future of science funding is still in a state of uncertainty. We’ll have a better picture of what to expect for next year when the Trump administration releases a full budget request this month. In that document, we’ll see what funds will be allocated for the National Science Foundation, for instance. And we’ll see where priorities are shifting in individual departments. How will changes at NIH effect research for individual diseases like Alzheimer’s, diabetes, or cancer in 2018? We don’t yet now.
Overall, the Trump administration is seeking to cut 10 percent of the nation’s non-defense discretionary spending. The hard truth is that even if these proposed reductions don’t make it through Congress, any reduction in discretionary spending is likely to cut into science. (One source of potential optimism: The Department of Defense, which Trump hopes to bolster, is also a major funder of university research.)
Whatever Trump proposes is going to have to pass Congress, though. And, again, there’s a good chance deep cuts simply won’t make it through.UFC 204 is coming up soon and the main event is a bit of a letdown to fans of competitive matchups. Join us as we take an in-depth look at one of the more compelling fights on the card.
The UFC’s current middleweight title picture is an embarrassment of riches. Yoel Romero is coming off a seven-fight winning streak including names such as Jacare and Lyoto Machida, as well as a win over Derek Brunson that looks increasingly impressive each time he fights. Jacare Souza’s only loss in the last 5 years came in a questionable decision to Romero, but aside from that he’s recently dominated Vitor Belfort and Gegard Mousasi. Former champion Chris Weidman was given a chance to reclaim his title at UFC 199, but an injury ended his luck. Finally, there’s Luke Rockhold, the man Michael Bisping upset to capture the title after Weidman pulled out.
Romero or Jacare seem like the most sensible options for the next title shot, but instead the UFC has decided to make the middleweight contenders fight amongst themselves while they trot Bisping off to fight Dan Henderson at UFC 204. Henderson famously knocked Bisping out in devastating fashion at UFC 100, but he’s since faded to a shell of his former self, losing to every top middleweight he’s fought along the way.
The sport of MMA has taught us time and time again that counting anyone out is a great way to end up shocked. This lesson has been reinforced in recent weeks by Eric Spicely and Brandon Moreno, one brought in as a sacrifice to the Brazilian crowd, the other a short-notice replacement who most gave little chance.
But we can allow for the possibility that Henderson might shock us while still admitting that the matchup is not compelling. The proverbial “puncher’s chance” rarely makes for an interesting matchup, especially when that punch
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Ben Emmerson (United Kingdom) is the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism. On 1 August 2011, he took up his functions on the mandate that was created in 2005 by the former United Nations Commission on Human, renewed by the UN Human Rights Council for a three year period in December 2007, in September 2010 and again in March 2013. As Special Rapporteur he is independent from any Government and serves in his individual capacity. Learn more, log on to: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Terrorism/Pages/SRTerrorismIndex.aspx
The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.
UN Human Rights, country page – United States of America: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/ENACARegion/Pages/USIndex.aspx
For more information and media requests please contact Claudia Gross (+41 22 917 9184 / [email protected]), or write to [email protected].
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Check the Universal Human Rights Index: http://uhri.ohchr.org/enExclusive: Hello Kitty teams with 'The Simpsons'
This new artwork teases the collaboration between Hello Kitty and 'The Simpsons.' (Photo11: Sanrio, Inc./Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products)
Bart, Homer, Marge and the gang are about to get even cuter.
Today I'm happy to break some big news for fans of Hello Kitty and The Simpsons: Next year, the two popular franchises will merge for a special line of products.
It's a landmark year for both of them, with HK's 40th anniversary and The Simpsons' 25th being celebrated. I'm told the collaboration between Sanrio, Inc. and Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products "will target collectors with limited-edition collectibles, while offering something for all fans."
It's still too early for specific details about the products, but Sanrio president and COO Janet Hsu promises "a fun and unexpected take on The Simpsons' transformation within Hello Kitty's super-cute world." Color me intrigued.
The product line will go on sale during the "back-to-school time frame" in 2014. I'll keep you posted.
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Disgraced Keith Vaz has shamelessly accused a fellow MP of harming his reputation and reported him to Westminster’s sleaze watchdog.
The Parliamentary Standards Commissioner opened an investigation into the Labour MP after the Sunday Mirror revealed he paid male prostitutes for sex.
The probe was triggered by Tory Andrew Bridgen, who spent months investigating the former Europe Minister.
But Mr Vaz has now reported Mr Bridgen to the same watchdog – accusing him of breaching its Code of Conduct.
In letters seen by the Daily Mirror, Mr Vaz suggests his rival’s complaint was outside the watchdog’s scope.
He highlights a section of the rules that says the Commissioner cannot probe matters relating to MPs’ conduct “in their purely private and personal lives”.
Mr Vaz quit the Home Affairs Select Committee – which is probing vice and drugs – in the wake of the scandal.
The Parliamentary inquiry is on hold while police decide whether to investigate.
In one meeting with escorts ex-lawyer Vaz offered to cover the cost of cocaine if it was brought to the “next meeting” but made it clear he did not want it himself.
When it resumes, the Parliamentary inquiry is expected to focus on whether Mr Vaz broke the rule that states: “Members shall base their conduct on a consideration of the public interest, avoid conflict between personal interest and the public interest, and resolve any conflict between the two, at once, and in favour of the public interest.”
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The Parliamentary Commissioner’s office confirmed it was inquiring into Mr Vaz.
Constituents in Leicester East have called for him to step down.
Mr Vaz’s solicitor did not respond to our request for comment.Australia-based Digital World Ventures exchange (DWVx) has launched a peer-to-peer Bitcoin brokerage through a partnership with the white-label currency exchange provider AlphaPoint.
The exchange, founded by Ian Davis and James Clarke, hopes to bring a trusted and personal brand, as well as provide a state-of-the-art exchange, to Australia’s Bitcoin scene.
“We’re very excited Digital World Ventures selected us as their technology partner”, said Vadim Telyatnikov, CEO of AlphaPoint. “James and Ian are well-known experts in the community. We believe they have the right technical and financial backgrounds to make DWVx a significant player in the region.”
Alphapoint has supplied the infrastructure that Bitfinex, MeXBT, FlowBTC, CoinTrader and many other exchanges run on. The software company claims to provide latest exchange technology, including multi-signature security, fast transactions and reliable uptime.
An Increasingly Crowded Market
Even with AlphaPoint’s exchange infrastructure, it might prove difficult for DWVx to stand out in the already mature Australian Bitcoin market.
Venture capital-backed Bitcoin exchanges Igot and Coinjar already have a sizeable portion of the market. And more recently, Independent Reserve entered the market with its own digital currency exchange, claiming to offer a more secure and reliable exchange.
Australia’s Bitcoin ecosystem offers a robust offering, including advanced Bitcoin services. BTC.sx offers advanced trading tools, data and numerous levels of leverage. DigitalBTC, a local Bitcoin company, is even trading on the Australian Securities Exchange.
Community With Cutting Edge Technology
DWVx co-founders Davis and Clarke have backgrounds in finance and IT support and experience working for Barclays, IBM, Nationwide and Westpac bank.
“We have been in active the local Bitcoin communities and tried many of the exchanges out,” Davis said. “Exchanges ran by financial people tend to focus on customer support, while neglecting the technology. Techie people tend to focus on technology and forget customer support; we come from both areas.”
The company hopes to stand out in the market with superb customer support and an active role in the western Australian Bitcoin community. DWVx will open an office in Perth, Australia.
“There is a large and active Bitcoin community, but all the exchanges are on the east coast of the country,” said Davis. “By really working on the customer support and experience, while also offering AlphaPoint’s technology, we think we can make a real difference in the market.”
“We are extremely excited to deliver a state-of-the-art Bitcoin exchange, capable of up to one million transactions per second, and offering leading-edge security and reliability, all while maintaining a simple and user-friendly customer interface,” added Clarke.
This personal approach is taken down even to their banking partners. DWVx’s banking partner is Westpac, the second-largest Australian bank by assets. According to Clarke, the bank “fully knows that we are a Bitcoin startup and what we do.” Davis, who previously worked for the bank and met Gail Kelly, who was CEO of Westpac at the time, said the bank was “surprisingly supportive and informed about cryptocurrency.”
Building The Brand
“As Bitcoin continues to become more mainstream in Australia, our mission is to become a trusted source of information and education, through our extensive communications and customer interactions,” said Davis. “Whilst we may be the most remote exchange in the world, we pride ourselves on our accessibility and personal approach.”
One of the main reasons the company decided to partner with AlphaPoint instead of building its own exchange is so it could focus on building its brand and customer experience. The duo plans on going to local startups and Bitcoin meetups to spread awareness and bring a face to the exchange.
They will also be putting the finishing touches on their local office, which will host regular Bitcoin presentations and even a co-working space. DWVx also has begun work on an in-person and online educational course about Bitcoin.I posted a rant back in 2012 called "Everything's broken and nobody's upset." Here's another. Lots of people commented on that first post and a number agreed with the general premise. Some were angry and thought that I was picking on particular companies or groups. Sure, it's easy to throw stones, and criticism is a great example of stone throwing. So, in the years since I posted I made a concerted and focused effort on a personal level to report bugs. By this, I mean, I REPORT BUGS. I take screencasts or videos, I email reproductions (repros) and I fill bug issues anywhere and anytime I can because a Bug Report is a Gift.
Fast forward a few years, and I think that we as an industry are perhaps still headed in the wrong way.
Technology companies are outsourcing QA to the customer and we're doing it using frequent updates as an excuse.
This statement isn't specific to Apple, Google, Microsoft or any one organization. It's specific to ALL organizations. The App Store make it easy to update apps. Web Sites are even worse. How often have you been told "clear your cache" which is the 2015 equivalent to "did you turn it on and off again?"
It's too easy to ship crap and it's too easy to update that crap. When I started in software we were lucky to ship every 6 to 9 months. Some places ship every year or two, and others still ship once.
I see folks misusing Scrum and using it as an excuse to be sloppy. They'll add lots of telemetry and use it as an excuse to avoid testing. The excitement and momentum around Unit Testing in the early 2000s has largely taken a back seat to renewed enthusiasm around Continuous Deployment.
But it's not just the fault of technology organizations, is it? It's also our fault - the users. We want it now and we like it beta. We look at software like iOS6 and say "it feels dated." I even overheard someone recently say that iOS9 felt visually dated. It JUST came out. Do we really have to restyle our sites and reship our apps every few months to satisfy a finicky public?
As with many rants, there isn't a good conclusion. I think it's clear this is happening. The question for you, Dear Reader, is do you agree? Do you see it in in your own organization and in the software and hardware that you use every day? Is the advent of the evergreen browser and the always updated phone a good thing or a bad thing?
Sound off in the comments.
Sponsor: Thanks to Infragistics for sponsoring the feed this week. Responsive web design on any browser, any platform and any device with Infragistics jQuery/HTML5 Controls. Get super-charged performance with the world’s fastest HTML5 Grid - Download for free now!LANSING, MI -- An 81-year-old man from St. Clair County couldn't believe he'd won a $1 million prize last week "I checked my ticket on Saturday morning, and thought: 'No, this can't be real,'" said James Decker. "I didn't tell anyone because I didn't think it was real. It wasn't until I started researching online where the $1 million winning ticket was bought that I started to believe I was the winner." Decker, of Harsens Island, matched the five white balls drawn - 05-39-54-63-66 - in Friday's Mega Millions drawing to win the prize. He bought his ticket at the Anchor Bay Market, located at 7205 Dyke Road in Algonac. The numbers he matched were made by an easy pick. Decker says he's been buying his tickets at the same store for years and has formed a friendship with the owner. So much so that he has a partial plan for the money already. "I've always told him that if I win the jackpot, I'd put his kids through college," said Decker. "When I walked into the store yesterday, he had a big smile on his face and said: 'It's you, isn't it?' I told him that I couldn't put his kids through college, but that I'd give him a nice bonus after I claimed the big prize." As far as the rest of his winnings, Decker says he hasn't decided what to do with the money, but that he's happy to win. Decker visited Michigan Lottery headquarters on Wednesday to claim his winnings.Automakers commit to UK despite Brexit
Nov 1, 2016, 4:50am ET
by Byron Hurd
Honda, Nissan publicly commit to UK manufacturing.
Honda and Nissan have pledged to keep manufacturing in the United Kingdom in wake of the country's vote to split from the European Union.
Honda, which raised prices after the British Pound collapsed after the "Brexit" vote, told Automotive News Europe that the company has "no intention" of scaling back its goal to grow its Swindon, England, manufacturing facility.
This news came on the heels of Nissan's reassurance last week that it plans to build future global models in the UK, however that company's decision has been mired in controversy.
On Monday, Labour Party representatives challenged U.K. Business Secretary Greg Clark to release a letter sent to Nissan shortly after the Brexit vote. According to Bloomberg, those representatives are concerned that Clark may have included a "sweetener" for Nissan.
Clark claims the letter simply contained reassurances that no automaker will be shortchanged by the country's departure from the EU and Nissan will receive no special treatment.
Labor parties argue that if such is the case, Clark should have no reservations about releasing the letter publicly. Clark countered by saying that any communications which discuss the plans of private enterprise should remain sealed so as not to jeopardize those strategies by exposing them to competitive scrutiny.The most treasured memories in sport come from victories that are achieved when all seems lost. Cricket provides more such reversals of fortune than most games. That explains why Sir Ian Botham (oddly, the knighthood came for services to charity, not cricket) became probably the biggest hero, next to WG Grace and Sir Donald Bradman, in the game's history. With either bat or ball, he rescued seemingly hopeless causes three times against Australia in 1981, turning round a series in which England seemed certain to surrender the Ashes. He did it, moreover, when his own career seemed close to ruin. He had just relinquished the England captaincy after failing to win any of his 12 Tests in charge and completely losing both batting and bowling form. It was the sporting equivalent of a Hollywood movie where the hero is engulfed in a roaring blaze only to come unexpectedly to life and carry his beloved to safety.
Simon Wilde, in this perfectly paced and exhaustively researched biography, recalls the magic of that astonishing summer. But he doesn't neglect the darker side of Botham's career and character, revealing a more complex and nuanced personality than the gruff, self-confident exterior suggested. Botham's heroic status, Wilde points out, rested on three relatively brief passages of play in 1981, totalling less than four hours. They involved no great skill or subtlety, only a mysterious capacity – perhaps derived from his imposing physical presence and his almost maniacal self-belief – to reduce the opposition to gibbering wrecks. The great Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee bowled like a village-green novice while Botham made centuries at Leeds and Manchester. At Birmingham, Botham's five, match-winning, second-innings wickets came from balls that appeared perfectly straight and not even particularly fast. The Australians just missed them.
One of cricket's virtues is that it is not only for people of differing shapes, sizes and skills but also for different personalities. Batsmen such as Geoffrey Boycott, who play steadily and carefully, and bowlers such as the late Alec Bedser, who pitch every ball on a good length, can save and win matches. But the more spasmodic, theatrical genius of a Botham – and, more recently, Andrew Flintoff – gets most vividly remembered and reaps the biggest rewards from the celebrity culture that was just beginning in 1981. Botham couldn't have timed his hour of glory better. Amid economic misery and urban riots, Britain was desperate for uplifting stories, preferably with a patriotic angle. The marriage of Charles and Diana provided one, Botham another.
After 1981, things often went as badly for Botham as for the royal couple. Though he could still turn in the occasional outstanding performance, his bowling declined in penetration and his batting in consistent judgment. Success against the West Indies, then the world's best team, eluded him. He neglected net practice, and allowed his weight to balloon. His 1981 successes encouraged the belief that, whatever he did, everything would come right in the end. After all, he scored 149 not out at Leeds from two hours of wild slogging because, as he put it to one batting partner, he didn't want to "hang around out here for two days". At Birmingham, he bowled only because his captain insisted. He didn't, he concluded, need to try that hard. As Wilde shrewdly observes, this working-class boy who went to a comprehensive and built his career on perspiration, became one of the last standard-bearers for the English public school amateur tradition, which regarded conspicuous effort as evidence of low breeding.
Unlike Flintoff – who flamboyantly ran out the Australian captain Ricky Ponting in his last Test – Botham didn't time his exit well. In his final match for England, a one-day international, he took no catches or wickets and scored no runs. He bowled his last delivery in first-class cricket, at the end of an inconsequential match for Durham against the 1993 Australian tourists, with his member hanging out of his trousers, an act which Wisden coyly described as "unbecoming and flippant". Even as England captain, he faced a court case on an assault charge (he was found not guilty) and, from the beginning, his alcohol consumption was prodigious. In his later years, the allegations of wild behaviour, including drug-taking and adultery, became more frequent, the great cricketing exploits less so.
Yet, in contrast to George Best, Alex Higgins and Paul Gascoigne, equally flawed geniuses from other sports, Botham never quite lost his heroic status – a considerable achievement in an age when sections of the media habitually follow the rules of classical Greek drama. Partly thanks to his long-suffering wife Kathy, he stopped well short of social and physical disintegration. Most importantly, he maintained his public image as the man who overcame impossible odds by undertaking long, arduous walks – from Land's End to John O'Groats, for example – to raise money for people with leukaemia.
It is possible to be cynical about his charity work. As a team-mate put it, "it became Botham the business rather than Botham the professional athlete" after 1981, and the walks were good marketing for the Botham brand. One should certainly be cynical about his claim, once made in a Sun column, that he refused to accept lucrative offers to join unofficial tours to apartheid-era South Africa because he wouldn't be able to look his friend and Somerset team-mate Viv Richards in the eye. As the Indian-born journalist Mihir Bose once tartly observed, "he had initially agreed to tour while gazing at Richards as they holidayed together in Antigua". His real concern was not to lose his commercial endorsements. As he claimed, he didn't put "cash before country"; he put more cash before less cash.
On balance, though, Botham deserves his comfortable after-life as a national treasure, chuntering in the Sky TV commentary box about how namby-pamby modern players fuss over injuries. He may be a fervent monarchist, a Tory voter with views, as one player unoriginally puts it, "to the right of Genghis Khan" and, in his single-minded go-getting, an emblematic figure of the Thatcherite high noon. But for a few years, he was the best cricketer in the world, giving pleasure and imperishable memories to millions.Bloodborne: The Old Hunters Q&A Details The Upcoming Expansion
By Casey. October 23, 2015. 8:00am
Sony Computer Entertainment recently did a Q&A session about Bloodborne’s upcoming expansion, The Old Hunters, that might answer some of your questions.
Q： What kind of content is included with the Bloodborne The Old Hunters expansion?
A： The Old Hunters expansion depicts a nightmare world where the old hunters are captured. It includes new areas, weapons, mysteries, items, and costumes.
Q： Can you play the Bloodborne The Old Hunters expansion without having the original Bloodborne game?
A： No. You will not be able to play without the original Bloodborne game.
Q： Can users who have installed the expansion interact online with other players who have not?
A： Just as it is now, all players will be able to interact online in the areas from the original game. Online interaction in the expansion’s additional areas will only be possible among players who have the expansion installed.
Q： How do you access the Bloodborne The Old Hunters expansion?
A： Once you reach a certain point in Bloodborne, the item, “Eye of a Blood-drunk Hunter” appears in the Hunter’s Dream. Once you have acquired this item, you will be able to access the newly added areas in the expansion.
Q：Can you use the save data from a cleared game of Bloodborne?
A： Yes. Also, if you are replaying the game and progress to a certain point, you will be able to access the newly added areas in the expansion once you acquire the Eye of a Blood-drunk Hunter.
Q： Will there be trophies added in the Bloodborne The Old Hunters expansion?
A： Yes, trophies will be added.
Q： Will you not be able to complete the story if you do not play the added content from the Bloodborne The Old Hunters expansion?
A. No. You can still get to the ending without playing the new content in the expansion.
Bloodborne’s expansion, The Old Hunters, will release worldwide on November 24th, and the Game of the Year Edition for Bloodborne will release in Europe on November 25th, 2015 for the PlayStation 4.Box Score | Photo Gallery
AUBURN, Ala. -- Casie Ramsier scored seven minutes into the match and Courtney Schell netted another just six minutes into the second half to guide Auburn to a 2-0 win against Cal State Fullerton on Friday night.
"It's a big win tonight against a quality opposing team," said head coach Karen Hoppa. "They're going to have a great season. I think at the end of the day, this is going to be a big win for us. I'm pleased with the adjustments our girls made from last weekend to this weekend because we got better."
The Tigers (2-1-0) asserted their dominance on the pitch from start to finish as they held a 14-7 advantage over the Titans (1-1-0) in shots and kept the ball on the attacking half most of the night.
Auburn maintained its physicality throughout the 90 minutes and induced four fouls, including one yellow card.
"The game was physical," stated Schell. "But we've been working on being tough against every opponent."
Ramsier put the home team ahead when she connected on a volley inside the box and drilled a shot past the keeper for her first goal of 2016. Schell was responsible for setting up her teammate when she put a cross into the box from 35 yards out.
"I was excited," said Ramsier of scoring early in the match. "I think [the goal] helped get the team amped up and settled into the game. That gave us momentum to finish out the game."
Schell then put the match out of reach early in the second half when she took a layoff from Kristen Dodson following a through ball from Bri Folds and put her laces into a shot that found the back of the net. The goal gave Auburn a 2-0 lead in the 51st minute and sent the Tigers to their first home win of the season.
Auburn returns to the pitch on Sunday night when it travels to Samford for a non-conference tilt. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. in Birmingham, Ala.Naperville's shrub-trimming goats have eaten all they can and will leave town Thursday after helping with park improvements.
The furry workers cleared five acres of invasive shrubs at Knoch Knolls Park within two weeks and then moved across the DuPage River to do some snacking. Naperville Park District officials said the animals have done exactly what they needed to do.
"The goats have eaten every green leaf within reach, and even the bark of some of the trees,” Park Specialist Tom Lynch said. “They have done a fantastic job clearing the area, which will allow us to remove the remaining stumps and branches. We also hope to be able to conduct a prescribed burn later this fall."
The Naperville Park District "hired' the goats in September to help clear the area for a disc golf course expansion. Officials said this was a more environmentally responsible way to remove unwanted shrubs.
Naperville Brings In Goats To Clear Invasive Plants
The Naperville Park District is bringing in a new method of plant control: goats. A herd of 45 goats will live at Knoch Knolls Park for the next four weeks to help prepare for an expansion of the area's disc golf course next spring. The goats can munch on a variety of plants, including invasive shrubs and poison ivy. Christian Farr reports. (Published Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2013)
The goats' Thursday departure is one week ahead of when they were originally supposed to finish the project.
During their stay, the goats were extremely popular. Park visitors in Naperville frequently stopped by the grazing area to check on their progress.The salaries of traditional leaders have been increased by 28.4%. Provinces will now need an extra R100 million per year to pay traditional chiefs, reported The Times on Tuesday.
According to the report, President Jacob Zuma determined the annual salaries of the country’s more than 5000 headmen will be standardised to R84 125. This comes after a recommendation by the independent Commission for Remuneration of Public Office Bearers.
The move has been slammed as a politically motivated move to secure support for the ANC in rural areas.
“Zuma is trying to nail down the rural support, and the system of patronage is the way he is doing it, spreading this patronage to the chiefs,” political analyst Nic Borain was quoted as saying.
Borain said the real question is where the extra money would be pulled from.
“If that money that is being used to buy the votes of traditional leaders is going to be at the expense of poverty relief, that’s scandalous and an outrage,” he added. ‘
The Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs denied the increases were designed to ensure loyalty to the ANC.
photo credit: GovernmentZA via photopin cc
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commentsHuman rights organization Amnesty International is calling on Nigeria, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom to launch a criminal investigation into Shell and the possibility that company officials tacitly encouraged the Nigerian military government in Ogoniland to commit atrocities in the 1990s, including rapes, murders, acts of torture, and the burning of villages.
According to Amnesty, internal documents from Shell, witness statements and documents from the Amnesty archives show that Shell encouraged the Nigerian army to take action against protests by the Ogoni community, despite knowing about the brutal way in which the army operates.
Residents of Ogoniland in Nigeria started protesting against Shell in the nineties, after the Dutch-English oil giant caused massive environmental damage in the area with oil spills. The protests were led by the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) led by Ken Saro-Wiwa.
In 1990 Shell asked a paramilitary police unit for protection against protests in the village of Umeuchem, according to Amnesty. Over the following two days, officers invaded the village, killing at least 80 people and burning 595 houses down. "Despite this, Shell continued to ask for military help in the following years, which in turn led to new bloodshed", Amnesty writes.
Internal memos and minutes of meeting show that Shell urged senior officials to provide military support, even after the Nigerian military forces killed, tortured and raped many demonstrators, the human rights organization says. Shell also provided material support to the military - the company financed at least one army commander who is known for his brutal actions and also transported army troops to break up protests,according to Amnesty. The human rights organization adds that the Shell directors in The Hague and London were fully aware of what was going on in Nigeria.
Internal documents from Shell also show that Brian Anderson, Shell president in Nigeria, had at least three meetings with Nigerian general Sani Abacha in 1994 and 1995. During these meetings they discussed the "problems of the Ogoni and Ken Saro-Wiwa" and how Shell suffered financially under the protests. MOSOP leader Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other leaders from the group were arrested soon after these meetings. They were executed in November 1995.
According to Amnesty, no investigation into Shell's involvement in these atrocities has ever been done. The organization therefore compiled a criminal file which the authorities can use to start a proper investigation. "The law must prevail for Ken Saro-Wiwa and the thousands of others whose lives were destroyed because Shell destroyed Ogoniland", Amnesty writes.
In June four Nigerian widows also accused Shell of complicity in the executions of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his eight fellow activists in 1995. They demanded public apologies and compensation for the damages done.[Editor's note: The original headline stated as fact that Apple was abandoning the headphone jack. This is informed opinion, so we added a question mark.]
Suddenly why Apple spent a seemingly ludicrous $3.2 billion buying Beats is starting to make sense. The reason: Apple is being more Apple than we ever imagined and it could mean saying goodbye to your favourite pair of headphones. Furthermore, if my theory is correct, then the new ones you buy will probably have Beats on the logo.
Get Ready For Lightning Headphones
Like most Apple developments, the news emerged from a leak. 9to5Mac has learnt that Apple submitted a specification to its MFi (Made For) licensing program for headphones which connect using the company’s proprietary Lightning port instead of the standard 3.5mm jack. Furthermore all it will take for the Lightning port to start accepting these new headphones is a firmware update.
In Pictures: Apple's Most Notable Acquisitions
Like most Apple innovations this brings some notable upsides. The 3.5mm jack (technically called a ‘TRS’ connector) is rarely the bottleneck to audio quality, but the Lightning port will enable a switch from analogue to digital audio with an exceedingly high lossless stereo 48 kHz digital output and mono 48 kHz digital input. If you can afford a $1,000 pair of headphones you may pick up the difference.
Of more relevance to most people, however, is the new functionality it will bring. Headphones with a Lightning connector would be able to do more than lower/increase volume, end calls and skip tracks. There could be specific app control or even the ability to set a specific app to start when they are connected. Since the Lightning jack can also receive power, not just send it, you could still charge a device by connecting it to your headphones while listening to music.
Apple Wins Big
But let’s cut to the chase. The biggest upside in this switch would be for Apple.
Right now you can plug any pair of headphones or earphones into an iPhone, iPod, iPad, Mac or MacBook, but with the switch Apple would control an essential peripheral and its MFi licensing program would see it start to take a sizeable fee for every pair of headphones sold for use with an Apple device. Meanwhile Apple would suck up the majority of the profits with the Beats brand because owning it means there will be no licensing fee.
As for users who want to stick with their headphones, they would need to pay for an adaptor which – like the $29 Lightning to 30-pin adaptor (below) – would inevitably be expensive and just bulky enough to make you want to buy dedicated Lightning headphones long term.
Crucially Apple would also strengthen the hold it has over users by tying them even tighter into its proprietary ecosystem. Yes Beats may primarily have been about securing a streaming music service, but suddenly the ability to earn multi-millions from locked-in Lightning headphones, license fees and sales of adaptors makes for a very juicy side business.
As for rivals, Apple gets a powerful new differentiator and the competition is unlikely to be able to agree on a universal 3.5mm headphone jack replacement standard to combat it for years to come.
But Customers Lose
The problem is most customers will lose out, even die-hard Apple users.
Aside from the extra expense in buying new Lighting headphones or an adaptor, it makes people’s lives more difficult. Apple doesn’t make everything. With new Lightning headphones the HiFi you love suddenly needs an adaptor from Lightning port back to a 3.5mm jack (if such things will be made). The same goes for the TV you use with wireless headphones, your Windows or Linux work computer, older Apple equipment and on and on.
In Pictures: Apple's Most Notable Acquisitions
Furthermore casual Apple users – the ones with an iPad but nothing else or an iPhone work phone – either need adaptors, multiple pairs of headphones or to only listen to audio from their Apple devices via the external speaker (impractical).
Worse still, the switch to Lightning headphones is likely to be mandatory.
Roll Out
Make no mistake Apple is not stupid. It knows the state of the headphone market and it knows the risk of trying to impose too much too quickly. That said there is a very simple and effective roll out trajectory:
1. Announce the technology with Beats and headphone partners
2. Unveil clever third party app integration
3. Make this integration inaccessible in any other way
4. Make Lightning port to 3.5mm headphone jack adaptors expensive and bulky
5. In a few years remove the 3.5mm headphone jack from Apple devices citing legacy, greater design flexibility and extra space for a bigger battery
Is there any way such a move could come back to haunt Apple? Potentially.
The flip side of locking existing Apple users in even tighter is that it makes for an extra hurdle in attracting new customers to switch to Apple. Just as those with Lightning headphones won’t want the expense of paying to go back to 3.5mm headphones, those with 3.5mm headphones (particularly expensive ones) will be reluctant to splash out on an adaptor or a whole new pair.
But Apple is unlikely to be worried. The company’s business model has always been about ‘us and them’ and controlling the user experience. By fracturing the oldest universal technology standard still in use today it will have found a powerful new way to make that distinction even stronger.
Video: Dr. Dre’s next episode: Apple IncYou may not realize it, but your house — and your family — could be exposed to cancer-causing gas that's killing hundreds of New Jerseyans each year.
New Jersey officials are warning people about radon, a naturally occurring, cancer-causing radioactive gas with no color, odor or taste, that is responsible for 566 deaths among New Jersey residents each year.
At least 23 Patch communities are considered to have a high risk of exposure to the gas, while another 57 towns have a moderate risk and the remaining 24 have a low risk (see list and map below).
The New Jersey Department of Health is joining with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection this month in urging all residents to protect their family's health by testing their homes for radon.
Gov. Chris Christie issued a proclamation declaring January as Radon Action Month in New Jersey, noting that radon moves from the soil and into homes through cracks and openings in the foundation.
One in six New Jersey homes has elevated levels of radon, but only 30 percent of households across the state have been tested, state officials say.
"Testing your home is the only way to know if your home's radon level is high," Health Commissioner Cathleen Bennett said in a press release. "Radon problems can be fixed by installing a radon mitigation system."
Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer. It is the leading cause among non-smokers. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 86 percent of radon-related lung cancer deaths occur among current or former smokers.
"The risk of developing lung cancer is highest among smokers who are also exposed to radon," Bennett said. "If you smoke and your home has high levels of radon, your risk of getting lung cancer is especially high. In addition to testing their homes, smokers should also take steps to quit smoking."
The state Department of Environmental Protection has a list of certified companies that provide radon testing services, or residents can purchase do-it-yourself test kits from hardware stores, home centers or directly from certified companies through mail order. For more information about the NJDEP radon program, call the NJDEP Radon Program at (800) 648-0394.
Here is the list:
High
Basking Ridge
Bernardsville
Bridgewater
Chester
Colts Neck
Hackettstown
Hillsborough
Holmdel
Hopatcong
Kinnelon
Little Silver
Long Valley
Marlboro
Mendham
Morris Plains
Morris Township
Morristown
Shrewsbury
Princeton
Warren
Watchung
West Depford
Moderate
Barnegat
Bedminster
Berkeley Heights
Butler
Caldwell
Chatham
Cherry Hill
Clark
|
arkers of risk in men. Circulation. 2012;125:1735-41, S1.
48. Fung TT, Malik V, Rexrode KM, Manson JE, Willett WC, Hu FB. Sweetened beverage consumption and risk of coronary heart disease in women. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009;89:1037-42.
49. Choi HK, Willett W, Curhan G. Fructose-rich beverages and risk of gout in women. JAMA. 2010;304:2270-8.
50. Choi HK, Curhan G. Soft drinks, fructose consumption, and the risk of gout in men: prospective cohort study. BMJ. 2008;336:309-12.
51. Hu FB. Resolved: there is sufficient scientific evidence that decreasing sugar-sweetened beverage consumption will reduce the prevalence of obesity and obesity-related diseases. Obes Rev. 2013;14:606-19.
52. Schulze MB, Manson JE, Ludwig DS, et al. Sugar-sweetened beverages, weight gain, and incidence of type 2 diabetes in young and middle-aged women. JAMA. 2004;292:927-34.
53. Palmer JR, Boggs DA, Krishnan S, Hu FB, Singer M, Rosenberg L. Sugar-sweetened beverages and incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus in African American women. Arch Intern Med. 2008;168:1487-92.
54. Malik VS, Schulze MB, Hu FB. Intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and weight gain: a systematic review. Am J Clin Nutr. 2006;84:274-88.
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The contents of this website are for educational purposes and are not intended to offer personal medical advice. You should seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The Nutrition Source does not recommend or endorse any products.Apple customers are known to pay a premium for their Macs, strong design, and integrated software. Apparently, Mac users will also shell out more for hotel rooms too.
According to the Wall Street Journal, travel site Orbitz has been able to segment its audience in Apple and Windows camps. The upshot: Mac users will pay $20 to $30 a night more on hotels than PC users.
The Journal noted:
The sort of targeting undertaken by Orbitz is likely to become more commonplace as online retailers scramble to identify new ways in which people's browsing data can be used to boost online sales.
From an analytics perspective, targeting by operating system and pricing accordingly may not be such a bad idea. The bonehead move of the century is Orbitz yapping about it. Orbitz did note that pricing by OS is just an experiment.
Rest assured that Mac users will refrain from using Orbitz en masse now. For what it's worth, Expedia and Priceline said they don't target by OS. What else would you say as Orbitz prepares to take some serious heat from Apple fans.
The remaining question from the Orbitz tale is this: If Mac users will pay $120 for a room that a Windows customer would get for $100 what would a Linux user pay?Of the other measure, Mr. Henry said, “It is unconscionable to grant a physician legal protection to mislead or misinform pregnant women in an effort to impose his or her personal beliefs on a patient.”
The Republican majorities in both houses, however, saw things differently. On Monday, the House voted overwhelmingly to override the vetoes, and the Senate followed suit on Tuesday morning, making the two measures law.
“This is a good day for the cause of life,” said State Senator Glenn Coffee, the Republican majority leader. “The voice of the people has spoken twice now this session in the Senate and twice in the House, and I sincerely hope those who would reverse the people’s voice would think twice before acting.”
Both of the laws enacted Tuesday over the governor’s objections were first passed in 2008 in an omnibus bill, along with several other anti-abortion measures. But state courts struck down the measure on a technicality, because it violated a clause in the Oklahoma Constitution requiring bills to deal with a single subject.
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This year, Republican leaders broke the omnibus bill into pieces to satisfy the courts’ concerns, passing several separate anti-abortion measures. Mr. Henry has signed two into law: a measure requiring clinics to post signs stating that a woman cannot be forced to have an abortion, and another making it illegal to have an abortion because of the sex of a child.
Two other anti-abortion bills are still working their way through the Legislature and are expected to pass. One would force women to fill out a lengthy questionnaire about their reasons for seeking an abortion; statistics based on the answers would then be posted online. The other restricts insurance coverage for the procedures.
Taken together, the various pieces of legislation would make Oklahoma one of the most prohibitive environments in the United States for women seeking to end a pregnancy, advocates for women and family planning said.
“These laws all have the same goal, and that’s to discourage women from seeking abortions in the first place,” said Anita Fream, the chief executive of Planned Parenthood of Central Oklahoma. “They just throw down one roadblock after another in front of women and hope maybe they will give up.”
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Just hours after the vote, the Center for Reproductive Rights, an organization based in New York that advocates for abortion rights, went to state court to challenge the ultrasound law as unconstitutional. It argued that the law violates the doctor’s freedom of speech, the woman’s right to equal protection and the woman’s right to privacy, said the group’s president, Nancy Northup.
Several states have passed laws in recent years requiring women to undergo an ultrasound before having an abortion, and at least three — Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi — require doctors to offer the woman a chance to see the image. But Oklahoma’s new law says that the monitor must be placed where the woman can see it and that she must listen to a detailed description of the fetus.
“The goal of this legislation is just to make a statement for the sanctity of human life,” State Senator Todd Lamb, the majority floor leader, said in an interview after the vote. “Maybe someday these babies will grow up to be police officers and arrest bad people, or will find a cure for cancer.”@ PatrickG 26
You need to go back and read my comment again, and consider your views in light of larger issues that have applied to other communities over here.
“ Here, you find it harmless:
I did not say it was harmful or harmless, you are inserting that. Given how shitty our society is when it comes to issues of mental diversity I make the assumption of harmlessness unless there is evidence of harm. All human behaviors that I have seen have harmful and harmless contexts. Your burden of proof.
I don’t see you explicitly saying they are mentally ill, but the manner of your observations are a lot like what I hear out of people that are justifying their mockery of people that deviate from the norm. If you want to start talking harm and mental phenomena you have some work to do. I’m not saying that you are intending to connected this stuff to mental illness but given the nature of the discussion the worry is rational. I have to point out that for something to be defined as mental illness it has to be perceived as harmful to the person experiencing it and/or harmful to others. So analogously if you want to act like something that people are saying they can’t help is harmful you have some work to do.
“ Because some people use that internal sense of self to impose on others. Like, hello, anti-choicers? racists? nationalists? Not imputing that behavior to anyone here, but.. you do immediately go on to say: “ Heck, I’m an atheist with the religion OCD.
Seriously? A group of people describe their experience and you go to imposition by anti-choicers, racists and nationalists? Yeah, I want to see you defend that. So how are otherkin imposing on others in similar manner? All I see is mere existence so far. You brought it up so you must think it’s a significant problem if you think that anti-choicers, racists and nationalists is the best comparison.
“ Could you please think about that a bit? If you recognize your own behaviors, why forgive comparable behaviors elsewhere?
This has to do with how a negative medical bias has led society to doing some really rude and insulting things. Some people have experience of other ways of being that society has mostly only portrayed from a medical perspective which is negative by its very nature (that paper on audio hallucinations is one of a very small number of papers that consider non-pathological phenomena like that). Because of that society misses the people who meet diagnostic criteria and do just fine with the associated characteristics that we call conditions and illnesses. Many people with Tourette’s Syndrome, ADHD, autism and more are happy to be what they are and are not hurting anyone else beyond giving other people funny feelings that they use for mockery and “jokes” at best. You are taking a very negative stance with respect to people who do not appear to be harming you in the slightest.
I don’t need to think about that if I’m not harming anyone and if other people and I have found ways of channeling the phenomena into something useful. Sometimes it’s unpleasant but I would not get rid of it because it’s emotional fuel for the things I like to think about. There is nothing to forgive.
If you want me to think about anything, the way you are treating people who already get a huge amount of crap everywhere else on the internet is not a good way to go about it (seriously, reduce the tone and remove the offensive imagery and the attitude here would fit in on 4chan or 8chan).
“ You also bring up clinical lycanthropy… outside of sites that propagate magical thinking, it’s fairly well described as delusional and disturbances of identity. You seem to think that’s wrong, but … I’m kind of at a loss to express how much I disagree with your position. Porphyria is a thing. Lycanthropy is not, thanks.
I said “clinical lycanthropy” which is delusional because the person or others is being harmed by the condition (presumably, that’s debatable given historical treatment of people like LGBT). I’m not assuming that every person who experiences this is feeling harmed or harming anyone, many otherkin would seem to fit non-clinical lycanthropy. The medical literature will tend to neglect those people by design.
“ No. That’s bullshit. A “human being” is very specific, and has nothing to do with how one expresses as a a human being. Particularly if one is expressing as a dragon, or a lion, or an oyster.
I said “FEELS”, and clearly feeling as if you are not human despite reality is part of how humanity is expressed. There is more than one group here that says they feel something that they KNOW is not consistent with the reality they can put their hands on.
“ And you quote this as… support?
Damn right. Human creativity, symbolism and diversity in ability to interact with and manipulate the world as a group come from our ability to make connections that can only exist because minds exist. Like every other area of human psychology it needs moderation and context to be expressed without hurting the person or anyone else. My oppositional psychology has the potential for harming other people, but I can shape it into the instincts of a Damn right. Human creativity, symbolism and diversity in ability to interact with and manipulate the world as a group come from our ability to make connections that can only exist because minds exist. Like every other area of human psychology it needs moderation and context to be expressed without hurting the person or anyone else. My oppositional psychology has the potential for harming other people, but I can shape it into the instincts of a social gadfly. Not the most respected of social roles, but one I embrace regardless.
“ Hallucinatory experiences may be very human. Having them is not necessarily healthy. Like great, we consider all sorts of behaviors “normal” and “otherwise healthy” that really, really aren’t. This link does not support your claim.
It supports my claim when my claim is that society has an individual obligation to confirm the existence of harm before mocking, joking about, speaking as if they are universally negative and other means of socially isolating people. You have the obligation to demonstrate harm.
“ This kind of thinking is woo. It’s right up there with acupuncture, spirit-talking, homeopathy, and (quite literally) reincarnation. It’s magical thinking, and it’s absolutely ridiculous. Belief does not equal fact, no matter what neurochemical biases are at play
.
There is no woo in describing how you feel regardless of reality if a person knows that their feelings and reality are not consistent. Did you see this part?
“ On one hand the elements that are religious and worth giving some criticism to are fine as long as it’s analogous to what we do with religion. But on the other hand I actually have a respect for what religion is in a naturalistic sense and it’s deeply tied up with experiences that matter even if the stories we create with them do not reflect reality.
I probably should have worded that “…the harmful elements that are religious…”.
If they are making comments about how their wings and tails are knocking things over criticize away. That does not make the reality of what they feel go away. If I use my Tourette’s Syndrome to gain insights into deeper aspects of human nature like authoritarian behavior it’s your obligation to demonstrate the woo. If I use my ADHD to more easily escape from a conceptual context in order to detect hidden connections it is your obligation to demonstrate the woo. If I use my social emotion-related intrusive thoughts to essentially construct and fuel an internal social simulation that I use to think about social things it is your obligation to demonstrate the woo.
Otherwise you are acting as if a whole group of people are like a stereotype. We have an otherkin right in here that has said they know they are not an animal but that does not matter to how they feel. If you are going to be rude, you will get criticized.
“ It has become very clear that one of the amazing things the human brain can do is convince a person they’re not human, but an animal (sometimes reincarnated, at that!). That’s truly amazing, but it shouldn’t be celebrated. It should be recognized as a cognitive flaw that we’re all susceptible to, and in extreme cases, should be treated appropriately.
Your word “convince” does not apply universally. Do not act like it does. MANY cultures around the world have actual respected and celebrated social roles for people whose minds do not function like the norm. You will lose this fight because we are not going anywhere and some of us are even psychologically advantaged when it comes to expressing criticism. I’m perfectly willing to use that in defense of other people like me and the only one that needs to celebrate that for it to mean anything is me.
Wanting people to refrain from socially isolating whole groups of people through assumed harm, mockery, and similar is not unreasonable. Criticism and mockery of specific manifestations of experience of reality that is not consistent with reality that harm people is fair game.Italian retail sales hit by biggest drop since 2001 Year-on-year fall of 6.8% registered in April
(ANSA) - Rome, June 26 - Istat gave another indication of how hard the recession is hitting the Italian economy on Tuesday when it said retail sales were down 6.8% in April compared to the same month in 2011, the biggest year-on-year fall since January 2001.The national statistics agency added that retail sales were 1.6% down in April compared to March this year.Small shops suffered particularly badly, with their sales declining 8.6% year-on-year, while the big retail networks were hit with a 4.3% drop.Food sales slumped, with a 6.1% drop on the same month in 2011, which was also the biggest fall in 11 years.Even discount food supermarkets, which up to now had fared well during the recession, saw sales diminish by 3%.Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly on Sunday said if the Justice Department legalized marijuana it would have no effect on current problems with illegal drug importation over the U.S.-Mexico border.
"Marijuana is not a factor in the drug war," Kelly told NBC "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd.
Instead, the former head of U.S. Southern Command said cocaine from South America and Mexican methamphetamines and opiates are his department's focus.
While keeping drugs out of the U.S. is a central concern for DHS, the bigger one for traffickers and cartels is exporting money they make in the U.S., which is where DHS can intervene.
"The trafficker's biggest problem is not getting drugs, till now, into the United States. The biggest problem they had was laundering the money," Kelly said.
What is the definition of "criminal" in the Trump administration? DHS Secretary John Kelly explains on #MTP pic.twitter.com/5NtKsJcDBh— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) April 16, 2017
On the other hand, America's greatest problem is drug consumption, according to Kelly, who offered a solution.
"The solution is not arresting a lot of users. The solution is a comprehensive drug demand reduction program in the United States that involves every man and woman of goodwill. And then rehabilitation. And then law enforcement. And then getting at the poppy fields and the coca fields in the south," Kelly said.
The DHS chief said his interest in fighting the drug cartels and improving Americans' lives is not newfound, but it is a long-standing passion.
"When I was in the Marine Corps people would often say to me, 'Marine four-star, why are you so involved in this drug thing?' And my answer is 'because no one else is,'" Kelly said. "I get almost no interest from the last administration, as much as I railed about it."2 Inmates Are Killed In Nebraska Prison Disturbance
Enlarge this image toggle caption Nati Harnik/AP Nati Harnik/AP
Two inmates have been killed during a disturbance at Tecumseh State Correctional Institution in southeast Nebraska.
No details have been released about how the inmates died.
The prison was placed on lockdown for roughly three hours on Thursday after inmates in a housing unit refused to return to their cells and a fire was started in a courtyard.
Officials say about 40 inmates in a unit with 128 prisoners were involved.
Prison spokeswoman Dawn-Renee Smith says the lockdown began around 2:45 p.m. and lasted until about 5:30 p.m.
No prison employees were injured.
In a statement posted on Facebook, Gov. Pete Ricketts said the incident was "swiftly resolved and public safety was never at risk."
The Associated Press reports:
"The incident took place at the same housing unit where two other inmates were killed during a May 2015 riot that caused roughly $2 million in damage. "That riot, which also left several staff members injured, involved several hundred inmates in three living units, a gym and a courtyard. "An investigation later found that prisoners were trying to air grievances about what they viewed as perks given to certain inmates and not others and disrespect by inexperienced staff members."
Ricketts also said that those responsible for the "loss of life will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law."After a scathing audit found the Valley Transportation Authority’s paratransit provider may have charged as much as $7 million a year for services it could not document, the transit board voted unanimously Friday to end its 23-year partnership with the nonprofit organization that serves disabled riders.
The audit also criticized VTA for a lack of oversight over Outreach & Escort Inc, which failed to supply data supporting its ridership figures in the first ever audit of its $20 million annual contract.
San Jose Councilman Johnny Khamis, a member of the transit agency’s audit committee who led the push for a closer review of the contract, said Outreach showed a “lack of oversight,” and faulted the agency for sloppy record keeping.
Outreach CEO Katie Heatley defended her nonprofit agency, which recorded numerous trips manually until converting to electronic record keeping earlier this year.
“Many things can be explained by technology,” said Heatley, who did not oppose Friday’s vote.
Outreach, which provides 720,000 trips for disabled riders annually, is one of the most expensive contracts VTA has with an outside vendor.
Despite Friday’s vote, Outreach’s contract will continue for a year under tighter scrutiny until a new provider takes over. No changes for riders are planned.
Outreach and VTA operate 215 white Prius cars and vans on South Bay roads and have become a familiar part of the Silicon Valley landscape over the past two decades. They provide specialized, door-to-door transportation for people with disabilities who are not able to ride buses or light rail independently. Those riders use the service for everything from dialysis appointments to trips to senior centers for lunch and shopping. The fee for a one-way trip for riders is $4, but each trip costs VTA about $25.
Auditors complained they were given inconsistent data. For example, Outreach reported 46,410 personal care attendant and 10,193 companion trips in one recent period. Yet, in a follow-up review in January, Outreach reported 112,441 attendant and 94,384 companion trips.
According to a VTA memo, Heatley indicated that the initial data was a “working copy.”
Auditors said the conflicting figures raise more questions about why there are two sets of reports and concerns about the reporting processes. “It’s highly unusual,” auditor Pat Hagen said.
During Friday’s meeting, former Outreach employee Priscilla Gonzales, alleged she been ordered to pad ridership figures, but did not say who told her to do so. “I didn’t feel that was right,” she said, citing it as the reason she quit in February.
The audit found that Outreach’s “complex and murky invoicing process cannot be easily or reasonably validated” and “could not provide reasonable assurance that VTA was being invoiced for services correctly or that performance or regulatory reports were accurate.”
Many records lacked the pickup and drop-off times necessary to validate trips, prompting auditors to question the authenticity of the trips. There are also indications that trip records were modified soon after VTA requested more data, the audit said.
The history of Outreach and VTA is long and complicated. Outreach was granted the paratransit contract in 1993, three years after the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law.
A few years ago, the VTA agreed to keep the terms of the original 1993 contract. But during a routine review of VTA’s overall contracts, Outreach’s billing issues surfaced when auditors did a routine review of VTA contracts. That review prompted the full audit.
While Outreach was the focus of the audit, the VTA also was slammed for not requiring routine competitive bids and failing to insist on independent access to Outreach’s systems to verify critical data.
“The current contract does not provide for adequate management oversight, record-keeping and billing practices, which represents an unnecessary risk to VTA,” said Cindy Chavez, chair of the 12-person VTA board and a Santa Clara County supervisor.
VTA general manager Nuria Fernandez promised more oversight.
“We’ve learned some important lessons,” she said.Protesters hang a banner from the upper floors of Massachusetts Hall on the second day of their weeklong 2015 blockade of the administrative building, which houses University President Drew G. Faust's office.
Divest Harvard plans to occupy Massachusetts Hall sometime next week in protest of the University's decision not to divest from the coal industry.
Members of the activist group, which protests Harvard’s investment in the fossil fuel industry, had originally intended the blockade for Wednesday, though the group cancelled the demonstration after The Crimson learned of the plans. Divest Harvard has postponed the blockade of Massachusetts Hall, which houses the offices of University President Drew G. Faust and other top University administrators, until next week, according to an email sent over the group's email list.
Until early Wednesday morning, the group had planned to blockade the building on Wednesday.
“Tomorrow, members of Divest are going to be blockading Massachusetts Hall from 6 a.m. until the end of the workday,” Isa C. Flores-Jones ’19, a member of the group, said in an interview Tuesday night. “We intend to disrupt the regular workday at Massachusetts Hall to call out President Drew Gilpin Faust as well as the administration for their inaction on divestment.”
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Divest Harvard has obstructed administrative buildings several times in the past. Last April, police arrested four protesters demonstrating at the Harvard Management Company headquarters in Boston. In 2015, Divest Harvard blockaded Massachusetts Hall for a week in protest of Harvard’s fossil fuel investments.
“We are prepared for the possibility of arrest,” Flores-Jones said.
According to a press release circulated to Divest members on Tuesday, the planned demonstration marks “a new push for coal divestment.” While Harvard does not currently invest in coal for financial reasons, it has not ruled out re-investing in the future. In the past, Divest Harvard has called on the University to remove its investments in all fossil fuel companies.
Faust has repeatedly stated that Harvard will not divest from fossil fuels, arguing that Harvard can help fight climate change through its research and that divestment would politicize Harvard’s investment practices. She has also argued that such a move could damage the endowment, which lost nearly $2 billion in value in fiscal year 2016.
“While I share their belief in the importance of addressing climate change, I do not believe, nor do my colleagues on the Corporation, that university divestment from the fossil fuel industry is warranted or wise,” Faust wrote in a letter to Harvard affiliates in 2013.
The group has called on HMC to engage in “sustainable investing” in the past. Flores-Jones said organizers planned the blockade at Massachusetts Hall as opposed to the HMC office because it is a “central site for administrative action” and “targets the key decision makers.”
A Massachusetts Appeals Court recently ruled that Harvard is not required to divest from fossil fuels following a lawsuit by student activists.
—Staff writer Graham W. Bishai can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @GrahamBishai.
—Staff writer Leah S. Yared can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @Leah_Yared.6 /10
What is this movie trying to say? I ask without a desire to be controversial or contrarian towards the vast ocean of critics and filmgoers who loved this film. I'm aware of the craftsmanship involved in a film like this, I'm aware of the feats it likely took to keep this film tasteful and lord knows that to some, this movie is going to feel like a satisfactory catharsis. In interviews director Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg have stated the film should be seen as a movie about a city coming together to fight evil. "The more research I did, the more I realized it really was an example of a community working together" said Berg. But despite good intentions and diplomatic words (or lip service depending on how close you are to this), at the end of the day I still need to ask myself, what really, is the point here?
The main story of Patriots Day needs no retelling. I'm sure a lot of Americans are acutely aware of where they were on April 15, 2013; certainly every Bostonian is. The dramatic arc of the movie and part of what makes the movie so "tasteful" is it bends and weaves through the lives of different people intimately involved in the terrorist plot. Such people include Patrick Downes (O'Shea) and Jessica Kensky (Brosnahan), a young couple injured by the first explosion; Officer Sean Collier (Picking), the MIT policeman who was shot and killed in the line of duty; Chinese national Dun Meng (Yang) who was briefly held hostage by the bombers and Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese (Simmons) who brought down the elder of the Tsarnaev brothers.
Then of course there's Mark Wahlberg who plays the very fictional and very chuckle-headed Tommy Saunders (Wahlberg); a Boston cop whose story, I think, is meant to serve as connective tissue. His character provides a very insidious discord; not only because his inclusion in everything from the bombing, to the shootout, to the final arrest is downright serendipitous, but because he pulls focus in order to rationalize vigilante justice. He waxes poetically about moral absolutes, gets in the face of investigative brass, jumps every preordained hoop that gets him closer to the bad guys and still has time to weep over the aftermath of the attack. Come to think of it, Wahlberg's not just connective tissue, he's the whole f***ing box and at some point in the film his mugging just stops becoming forgivable.
The other odious element of the film is the inclusion, exploration and exploitation of the Tsarnaev brothers played by Alex Wolff and Themo Melikidze. They are introduced amid a flurry of intros in the first ten minutes - the score bellowing in minor keys as Tamerlan (Melikidze) watches ISIS videos while consuming Cheerios. Now while there's no inherent problem with heavily inferring these guys are, in fact the bad guys, the movie is supposedly intended to be "about Boston". So why include these characters at all? What insights can be gained about the grit and determination of Beantown from a pair of sad, pathetic, anti-social wannabe terrorists? Nothing - unless the goal of their inclusion is to exploit our fears and make them something more than a pair of sad, pathetic, anti-social wannabe terrorists.
To that end the film does a pretty fine job being a taut, story beat conscious piece of bluster that elevates what was in reality a messy, painstaking investigation into a simplistic fight between good vs. evil. Meanwhile the Tsarnaev clowns and to a lesser extent the elder's wife (Benoist) are all portrayed as the apex of storybook evil. The kind of evil that only loosely wears a human face. It's a tact that despite being easily digestible is immediately complicated when you consider the younger Tsarnaev is awaiting an appeal of his death sentence and the wife (whom the movie heavily implies knew everything), is still around and bracing for a new glut of death threats.
It's interesting to note that Patriots Day is the result of two separate scripts combined to make one big compromised movie. And while you can tell great pains were exercised in the service of this film, the end result still feels like a tug-o-war. There's the fictional composite lead and the true-to-life ensemble. There's the genre clichés artlessly retrofitted with the honest human elements. There's the story of hope in the face of terror, shadowed by an agenda that cheapens the whole ordeal. What's truly lost in the smoke, mirrors and Markie Mark chest beating is the actual story of Boston. A story that could have yielded a rich civic mosaic. Instead what we got was a movie that just reeks of opportunism.This week on DineSafe two restaurant chains got red cards: Pizza Pizza on Don Mills was closed down for one very crucial infraction... failing to provide a main water supply. That one speaks for itself. Second Cup on the Danforth also got busted, but for not maintaining their food at the required temperatures. The other closure this week was Saigon Gourmet, which seemed to have a bit of an insect problem, as well as some issues with maintaining foods at the proper temperatures. Oh, and the iconic Vesta Lunch got dinged too, but with a yellow card. More details on this week's biggest DineSafe offenders below.
Cathay Wok (4841 Yonge St)
Inspected on: November 19
Inspection finding: Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 8 (Minor: 1, Significant: 4, Crucial: 3)
Crucial infractions include: Operator fail to wash hands when required, operator fail to ensure food is not contaminated/adulterated, operator fail to maintain hazardous foods at 60C (140F) or hotter.
New Ho King (410 Spadina Ave)
Inspected on: November 21
Inspection finding: Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 7 (Minor: 2, Significant: 3, Crucial: 2)
Crucial infractions include: Employee fail to wash hands when required, operator fail to ensure food is not contaminated/adulterated.
Pho Rex (6581/2 Bloor St W)
Inspected on: November 21
Inspection finding: Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 10 (Minor: 4, Significant: 5, Crucial: 1)
Crucial infractions include: Operator fail to maintain hazardous food(s) at 4C (40F) or colder.
Pizza Pizza (3040 Don Mills Rd)
Inspected on: November 18
Inspection finding: Red (Closed)
Number of infractions: 1 (Crucial: 1)
Crucial infractions include: Operator fail to provide main water supply.
Riverside Public House (725 Queen St E)
Inspected on: November 19
Inspection finding: Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 9 (Minor: 2, Significant: 6, Crucial: 1)
Crucial infractions include: Operator fail to ensure food is not contaminated/adulterated.
Saigon Gourmet (641 Dupont St)
Inspected on: November 18
Inspection finding: Red (Closed)
Number of infractions: 9 (Minor: 4, Significant: 3, Crucial: 2)
Crucial infractions include: Operator fail to prevent an insect infestation, operator fail to maintain hazardous food(s) at 4C (40F) or colder.
Second Cup (355 Danforth Ave)
Inspected on: November 19
Inspection finding: Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 5 (Minor: 2, Significant: 2, Crucial: 1)
Crucial infractions include: Operator fail to maintain hazardous food(s) at 4C (40F) or colder.
Vesta Lunch (474 Dupont St)
Inspected on: November 18
Inspection finding: Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 7 (Minor: 3, Significant: 2, Crucial: 2)
Crucial infractions include: Operator fail to wash hands when required, store hazardous foods in container at internal temperature above 5 C O.Over the last three years, growing evidence has shown that electronic cigarettes are not the harmless alternative to smoking that many proponents have argued. Now, a new study traces a large share of e-cigs’ toxic gases to a heat-triggered breakdown of the liquids used to create the vapors. And the hotter an e-cig gets — and the more it’s used — the more toxic compounds it emits, the study shows.
“There is this image that e-cigarettes are a lot better than regular cigarettes, if not harmless,” says Hugo Destaillats, a chemist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. But after his team’s new analyses, published July 27 in Environmental Science & Technology, “we are now definitely convinced that they are far from harmless.”
Electronic cigarettes draw liquids over one or more hot metal coils to transform them into vapors. ThoseLG is Being Sued Over LG G4 and LG V10 Bootloop Issues
It wasn’t that long ago when a class-action lawsuit was filed against Motorola because they weren’t honoring their warranties. Earlier this week, it was announced that a new class-action lawsuit was filed against LG over the infamous bootloop issues they’ve been having. We’ve talked about this issue here on XDA a few times in the past since it’s become a popular topic of discussion each time a new LG device is released. Even LG themselves acknowledged the issue, confirming it was a hardware defect.
The company promised to fix all devices that were impacted by this bootlooping problem, and this is where the lawsuit actually picks up. The lawsuit claims that even after LG acknowledged the issue, they still continued to manufacture smartphones with the defect. LG did not follow through with a recall to fix and repair devices that could be susceptible to bootloops, and the lawsuit claims that LG failed to replace devices under warranty with versions that did not have the bootloop issue.
One of the plaintiffs said they sent their LG G4 in to get repaired by the company and had one sent back to them. The one they received back from LG still had the bootloop issue too, which defeated the purpose of even sending it to them in the first place. Then they sent that one back as requested from LG, so they could send them one that worked. However, the plaintiff says that even the 3rd LG G4 had issues as the software constantly froze while they were trying to use it.
The lawsuit also lumps in LG V10 customers who had the issue as well, and claims the processors were not soldered to the motherboard properly. So when the device heats up, the contacts became loose and this resulted in the bootloop issue that so many people experienced. The lawsuit claims unjust enrichment, unfair trade, and various breaches of warranty laws, and wishes for LG to pay for consumer damages, legal fees, and would like a federal judge to order a “comprehensive program to repair all LG phones containing the bootloop defect.”WP-Cron, the WordPress task scheduler, is a common source of problems, from missed publish schedules and failed auto-updates, to broken garbage collection and cache flushing.
There are plenty of good tutorials on working with the scheduler, so in this post we’d like to focus more on performance, and why it’s a better idea to trigger WP-Cron exclusively via a CLI process.
The Problems
By default, WordPress spawns the cron runner using an HTTP request to itself. Such a request is quite a bit of overhead for the original user-facing request, usually about 1 second. This means that every once in a while (when cron needs to run), regardless of how fast your application is, the response time
|
D is all that is required.
Features:
Single pass nearest or bilinear filtering.
Two pass Trilinear
Mip mapping
Specular lighting
Gouraud Shading
Alpha blending and compare
Z buffering
Area pattern
Color expansion
Stipple mode
3D color keying
Backface culling
Triangle setup
This tier is currently undergoing bug fixing and we anticipate delivery Q1 2014.
$600,000 Performance improvements
The design has been optimized for current technologies, but it is missing some features (Bump Mapping, texture compression, higher speed, single pass trilinear) This tier will address that.
This is new design work and our anticipated delivery would be Q3 2014.
$1,000,000 Universal Shader
This is our ultimate stretch goal and requires a complete redesign. It's something we have been wanting to do for years, but didn't have the resources. This would allow us to create a complete open source implementation of a modern day graphics accelerator.
If we receive more than the above, it will allow us to devote more time and effort to the project and we'll be able to release code sooner.
This is new design work and our anticipated delivery would be Q2 2015.
Licensing and Deliverables
This is where we believe we are unique. Our deliverables are Verilog source code and testbenches. They will run on modern simulators and the design has been tested in both Altera and Xilinx. Unlike other open source hardware projects, you will have access to everything, including board design files for the 2D part. (3D would require rework).
Our licensing model is LGPL v3 as we treat this almost like a software linked library. If you improve or modify our code, it must be released under the LGPL v3 or later license. However, you are free to use the design as part of a larger design or system as long as you comply with the LGPL v3 or later.
Timeline
Dec 2013 - GPU will start propagating to our SVN server for Beta Access backers. This will be 2D. (3D should the stretch goal be met).
Feb 2014 - Source will be frozen and 3 month early access backers will get access to our SVN server. USB keys will go out to Beta and Early access backers.
May 2014 - General release. SVN will be open to the world and remaining USB keys will ship.
Q2 2014 - Should our stretch goal be met, generic Interface support will be added and released in the SVN.
Q3 2014 - Should our stretch goal be met, additional features and performance enhancements will be released into the SVN.
Q1 2015 - Should our ultimate stretch goal be reached, the Unified Shader Model SVN will be opened to beta access backers.
Q2 2015 - Should our ultimate stretch goal be reached, the Unified Shader Model will be released to early access backers.
Q3 2015 - Should our ultimate stretch goal be reached, the Unified Shader Model will be released to the public.New York, NY - When the recent Occupy movement emerged, I was hoping that it might sweep away the vestiges of the old, authoritarian left that had been a longtime fixture of the US activist scene. Unfortunately, however, this hierarchical left still continues to exert significant influence over both old and new media, and shows no sign of abating. That is a pity, as this particular political tendency - which some might even call Stalinist - has been dragging the rest of the left into the mud and giving fellow radicals a bad name.
"When the hierarchical left encounters a situation that doesn't fit into its normal frame of reference, it seeks to change the subject."
The lockstep left's retrograde tendencies have been placed on particularly vivid display when it comes to the Arab Spring. At the beginning of the revolt, in Tunisia and Egypt, it looked as if local populations might slough off dictatorial rule backed by Washington. The prospect of a breach with the US and its client state Israel provided little reason for the authoritarian left to protest, but as events unfolded further, prominent writers began to run into difficulties.
Unlike Mubarak, who maintained warm ties with Washington, Gaddafi had been at odds with the West until fairly recently. Thus, Libya presented something of a quandary for the authoritarians. When the hierarchical left encounters a situation that doesn't fit into its normal frame of reference, it seeks to change the subject. Take, for example, Robert Dreyfuss, a columnist for The Nation magazine, who sought to shift attention away from Gaddafi in an effort to focus the reader's attention on other issues.
The authoritarian left and the Gaddafi conundrum
To be sure, Dreyfuss concedes in one of his columns, Gaddafi's departure "can't be bad, as far as the long-suffering population of Libya is concerned". He then, however, seeks to discredit the Libyan opposition, implying that it is a mere pawn of NATO and Western interests. In another column, the Nation columnist goes yet further, calling out the Libyan opposition as essentially traitorous dupes who promise to "hand over [Libya's] oil resources to its Western backers".
Another Nation columnist, Alexander Cockburn, went much further than Dreyfuss (full disclosure: I once interned for Cockburn, and over the years I have occasionally published articles on Counterpunch, a website which he co-founded). Over the course of the Libya imbroglio, Cockburn sought to minimise the brutality of the Gaddafi regime while again casting aspersions on the opposition and its alleged ties to al-Qaeda. "Gaddafi was scarcely the acme of monstrosity conjured up by Obama or Mrs Clinton or Sarkozy," Cockburn rather questionably remarked.
In a bizarre twist, the veteran Nation columnist then proceeded to extol the Gaddafi regime for taking care of the Libyan people. "In four decades, Libyans rose from being among the most wretched in Africa to considerable elevation in terms of social amenities," Cockburn declared, perversely. The Nation writer might have stopped there, but opted to soldier on by calling his readers' attention to Libya's buoyant growth rate, literacy levels and life expectancy.
Moral jujitsu on Syria
Syria has also presented a slight moral quandary for the authoritarian left. It is one thing to support the plight of the Egyptian people up against pro-US Mubarak, but Syria does not fit the usual narrative of the hardliners. Though certainly a horribly repressive country, Syria is an Iranian ally and longtime opponent of Israel. In his columns, Dreyfuss sought to navigate the situation by again shifting the readers' focus away from Bashar al-Assad.
"Hugo Chávez has been dragging the rest of the left into the mud by coming out in support of despotism."
Charitably, Dreyfuss remarks that it is impossible "to deny that the government of Syria is conducting a brutal, no-holds-barred attack against a nationwide rebellion". Dreyfuss then, however, goes on to tar the opposition, much as he had in Libya. "Increasingly," he writes, the rebellion is being "led by armed paramilitary forces and, well, terrorists."
Cockburn, meanwhile, couldn't summon up much sympathy for the Syrian opposition or civilians getting shelled in the city of Homs. In an understatement, he declares: "There is no doubt that Assad's police state is corrupt and brutal". True to form, however, Cockburn then lays bare his sympathies by seeking to tie the Syrian opposition to al-Qaeda or Gulf sponsors who "are intent on slaughtering the ruling Alawite minority or driving them into the sea".
Chavez and the mud
Meanwhile, in South America, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has been dragging the rest of the left into the mud by coming out in support of despotism. For years, Chavez has sought to create a so-called multi-polar geopolitical order free of US influence. That is understandable, but if Russia, China and Iran were to dominate the globe, things would be just as bad - if not worse - for peoples around the world. It is unfortunate that Venezuela, a democracy that cannot be compared in the slightest with the various despotisms in the Middle East, has chosen to ally with such retrograde forces.
As early as 2009, Chavez embraced Gaddafi and remarked, bizarrely: "What Simon Bolívar [the great liberator of South American independence against the Spanish] is to the Venezuelan people, Gaddafi is to the Libyan people." As if these declarations were not preposterous enough, Chavez awarded Gaddafi the Orden del Libertador, Venezuela's highest civilian decoration, and presented the Libyan leader with a replica of Simon Bolívar's sword (to see a video of the sword-bearing ceremony, click here).
Libya responded in kind, awarding Chavez the "Gaddafi Human Rights Prize" and naming a football stadium in the Libyan city of Benghazi after the Venezuelan leader (anti-Gaddafi rebels were hardly amused by such tokens of esteem: When the Libyan government eventually lost control over Benghazi, the opposition scrawled over the stadium's old title in red graffiti and renamed the arena "Martyrs of February" in honour of the memory of people who died fighting to overthrow the country's dictator).
Venezuela amiss on Libya and Syria
Throughout the conflict in Libya, Chavez viewed the entire imbroglio as mere Western-led destabilisation and defended Gaddafi. Taking a leaf from the authoritarian left, the Venezuelan put down the rebels as "terrorists". Putting his foot in his mouth, Chavez declared: "I ask God to protect the life of our brother Muammar Gaddafi." Grateful for Chavez's friendship, Gaddafi sent his Venezuelan ally a letter thanking him for his diplomatic support. Digging an ever bigger hole for himself, Chavez proclaimed after Gaddafi's death that the deposed Libyan leader would be remembered as a martyr. Later, Chavez refused to recognise the new rebel government.
Chavez has been little better on Syria. Indeed, Chavez sent a message of solidarity to Assad, even referring to the Syrian dictator at one point as "our brother". What is more, Chavez has sent oil to the Syrian government. The shipment flies in the face of international efforts to isolate the Assad regime and to prod the dictator to step down from power.
Political correctness run amok
Taking Chavez to account for his ridiculousness is a no-brainer, but the left has been oddly silent on the Arab Spring-Venezuela debacle. In a rather tame interview with venezuelanalysis.com, a website sympathetic to the Chavez government, Venezuela expert Greg Wilpert almost seems to make excuses for Chavez's behaviour, noting that the Venezuelan likes to establish personal rapport with foreign leaders and "negative news reports about that leader leave him completely unimpressed because he knows only too well from personal experience how biased international media can be".
"Far too often, Chomsky is too timid and cautious when it comes to challenging the authoritarian left."
At another point, when asked about the political repercussions of Chavez's Middle East diplomacy, Wilpert notes dispassionately and matter-of-factly: "I think the danger of Chavez losing legitimacy, especially among the international left, is significant". While conceding that Chavez has overlooked "shortcomings" of foreign leaders, Wilpert himself does not put forth his own personal views on the Gaddafi-Chavez controversy.
Noted MIT professor Noam Chomsky, a foreign policy expert whom the left adulates, shares Wilpert's unfortunate penchant for excessive political correctness. Over the years, Chomsky has drawn the world's attention to the various misdeeds of the US and its proxies around the world, and for that he deserves credit. Yet far too often, Chomsky is too timid and cautious when it comes to challenging the authoritarian left. That is perplexing, given that Chomsky has stated that he personally identifies with the anti-authoritarian and anarchist tradition in contrast to the hierarchical old guard.
When discussing countries that have fallen afoul of Washington, Chomsky may make bizarre claims, even going so far as to imply that northerners simply don't have the right to hold an opinion. At other times, the academic may equivocate and nonsensically change the subject by comparing levels of injustice in the Third World to those in the United States. Another preferred Chomsky tactic is to argue that commentators on the left don't want to join the right in lambasting countries that are critical of the US. Quite right, but one need not agree with Fox News and its right-wing spin machine to bring independent judgment to bear on world events once in a while.
For far too long, the authoritarian left has been spouting its own interpretation of foreign affairs without much protest from other radicals. Such a state of affairs has always been undesirable, but now, as the left seeks to wrestle with the Arab Spring, matters have been brought increasingly to a head. Chomsky, who holds more influence than other commentators, could rectify the situation by wading into tricky debates. Perhaps, instead of publishing yet another analysis of US empire and imperial decline, the MIT professor will finally get off the fence.
Nikolas Kozloff is the author of Revolution! South America and the Rise of the New Left, and is the founder of the Revolutionary Handbook.Ralph Horsley, a fantasy illustrator from the UK has produced a stunning collection of traditional fantasy art. He has produced trading cards and novel covers for the following gaming franchises: Warhammer (Games Workshop), Wizards of the Coast, Magic of the Gathering and UpperDeck (World of Warcraft TCG)
You can view Ralph Horsley’s full portfolio over at deviantART, visit his official website or take a peek at his online store.
As always we would love to know which your favorite is in the comments below and if you have enjoyed this resource we would very much appreciate if you can share it with your Facebook and Twitter followers.
We are opening our doors to contributors! So if you love fantasy art, love MMORPG’s or want to recommend an extremely talented fantasy artist that we should feature, please� contact us!
All art work is © Ralph Horsley – All rights reserved.
TagsAuthor: Carl Minzner, Fordham Law School
China is experiencing the most sustained domestic political crackdown since Tiananmen Square. Much attention has been devoted to the increasing state repression being directed at lawyers, journalists and civil society activists. But there is a separate and more fundamental concern.
The authoritarian rules of the game that have held sway since the beginning of the modern reform era are steadily breaking down. For all of the problems associated with China’s existing system of authoritarianism, worse consequences will emerge as these rules give way.
Since Xi Jinping’s rise to power in 2012, there has been a strand of opinion that argues that Xi is consolidating China’s existing authoritarian system. Adherents of this position acknowledge that Xi is tough. That he is harsh. And that he is riding roughshod over state and society alike with a harsh anti-corruption campaign and political crackdowns. But, so this analysis goes, tough times call for a strong leader. They argue that Xi is addressing the dangerous weakness and ineffectiveness that characterised the Hu Jintao administration. He is centralising power. And he is building new institutions to govern China. Naturally, these will be highly illiberal and strengthened authoritarian ones.
Such trends are alleged to reflect a renewal of China’s authoritarian state. These arguments are not entirely without merit. With respect to the Party disciplinary apparatus, for example, one could single out recent efforts to strengthen the power of central disciplinary authorities by establishing offices in all central-level Party organs and state-owned enterprises, and strengthen their control over provincial disciplinary chiefs, as signs that Xi is bolstering China’s authoritarian institutions. With respect to the judiciary in China, one could point to recent efforts to establish circuit tribunals of the Supreme People’s Court in regional centres like Shenzhen and Shenyang and to vest provincial courts with control over local court funding and personnel decisions
One could argue that these developments reflect the evolution of China’s system of governance into a more centralised, more institutionalised authoritarianism. But this would be incorrect. The new trajectory of China’s governance is fundamentally different, representing a break with post-1978 practices.
Many of China’s centralising trends are not really about building up institutions. Rather, they are about seizing control of bureaucratic apparatuses for the exercise of personalised rule. Concentrating power in the hands of a single individual should not be confused with the institutionalisation of authoritarian rule.
Domestic security is one example. The new National Security Commission is directly responsible (via Meng Jianzhu) not to existing Party institutions, such as the Politburo Standing Committee, but to Xi himself. Since 2012, control of the Party disciplinary inspection apparatus has been similarly been centralised in the hands of Xi and Wang Qishan.
These institutions are also being steered in new directions. During the 1990s and early 2000s, Party disciplinary organs had been steadily professionalizing, focusing on anti-graft work rather than the rectification of political errors. Since 2012, this trend has reversed itself, with the disciplinary apparatus increasingly being used to go after not just corruption, but also sloth, failure to act, disloyalty to the top leadership and improper comments or political opinions. This represents a devolution away from institutionalised governance, not progress towards it.
China is simultaneously witnessing the breakdown of the partially institutionalised elite political practices that did develop during the reform era. The takedown of former security czar Zhou Yongkang, for example, was an obvious breach of tacit norms exempting current and former Politburo Standing Committee members from prosecution. Rumours currently swirling about age and term limit norms being potentially broken to permit Wang or Xi to stay longer in office suggest that other norms might be likely to fall as well. Veteran China watcher Wily Lam noted in a recent column that this would ‘constitute a body blow to the institutional reforms that Deng introduced in order to prevent the return of Maoist norms’.
The actual mechanisms by which the central state exerts power are also steadily sliding towards deinstitutionalised channels. Once more, these mechanisms represent a break with post-1978 practices. They include: cultivation of a budding cult of personality around Xi and a steady ideological pivot away from the Communist Party’s revolutionary socialist origins in favour of the ‘China Dream’, a revival of an ethno-nationalist ideology rooted in imperial history, tradition and Confucianism, and a revival of Maoist-era tactics of ‘rule by fear’ including televised confessions and unannounced disappearances of state officials and civil society activists alike.
Fear, tradition and personal charisma do not amount to institutional governance. As Max Weber pointed out, these are actually the antithesis of institutionalised and bureaucratic rule.
The Party-state’s reform-era efforts to build more institutionalised systems of governance are being steadily eroded. Beijing’s failure to deepen political reform when Party authorities had the opportunity to do so is now leading the system to cannibalise itself.
Carl Minzner is Professor of Law at Fordham Law School. His recent works include China After the Reform Era, Journal of Democracy (2015) and The Rise of the Chinese Security State, China Quarterly (2015). Follow him on Twitter @CarlMinzner.This article is part of a series Australia’s place in space, where we’ll explore the strengths and weaknesses, along with the past, present and the future of Australia’s space presence and activities.
Rockets, astronomy and humans on Mars: there’s a lot of excited talk about space and what new discoveries might come if Australia’s federal government commits to expanding Australia’s space industry.
But one space industry is often left out of the conversation: Earth observation (EO).
Read more: Why it’s time for Australia to launch its own space agency
EO refers to the collection of information about Earth, and delivery of useful data for human activities. For Australia, the minimum economic impact of EO from space-borne sensors alone is approximately A$5.3 billion each year.
And yet the default position of our government seems to be that the provision of EO resources will come from other countries’ investments, or commercial partners.
This means the extensive Commonwealth-state-local government and industry reliance on access to EO services remains a high-risk.
What is EO (Earth observation)?
You’ve almost certainly relied on EO at some point already today.
Australian Earth Observation Community Coordination Plan 2026
EO describes the activities used to gather data about the Earth from satellites, aircraft, remotely piloted systems and other platforms. It delivers information for our daily weather and oceanographic forecasts, disaster management systems, water and power supply, infrastructure monitoring, mining, agricultural production, environmental monitoring and more.
Global positioning and navigation, communications and information derived from satellites looking at, and away from Earth are referred to as “downstream” space activities.
“Upstream” activities are the industries building infrastructure (satellites, sensors), launch vehicles and ground facilities for operating space-based equipment. In this arena, countries such as Russia focus on building, launching and operating satellites and space craft. Others (such as Canada, Italy, UK) target developing industries and government activities that use these services. The US and China maintain a balance.
Australia spends very little on space
Although we rely so heavily on downstream space activities in our economic and other operations, Australia invests very little in space: only 0.003% of GDP, according to 2014 figures.
Other countries have taken very proactive roles in enabling these industries to develop. Most government space agencies around the world invest 11% to 51% of their funds for developing EO capacity. These investments allow industries and government to build downstream applications and services from secure 24/7 satellite data streams.
Historically, Australia has invested heavily in research and research infrastructure to produce world leading capabilities in the science of astronomy, space-debris tracking and space exploration communications.
In EO there are no comparable national programs or infrastructure, nor have we contributed to international capability at the same levels as these areas. This seems strange given:
our world leading status in applied research and extensive government use of these data as fully operational essential and critical information streams
all of the reports requesting increases in government support and enabling for “space” industry cite our reliance on EO as essential, but then don’t present paths forward for it
there are now a number of well established and growing small companies focused on delivering essential environmental, agricultural, grazing, energy supply and infrastructure monitoring services using EO, and
we have a well organised EO community across research, industry and government, with a clearly articulated national strategic plan to 2026.
P Tickle, FarmMap4D, Author provided
Building Australia’s EO capacity
EO plays a vital role in many aspects of Australian life. Australia’s state and Commonwealth agencies, along with research institutions and industry have already built essential tools to routinely deliver satellite images in a form that can be developed further by private industry and delivered as services.
But our lack of a coordinating space agency adds a layer of fragility to vital EO operations as they currently stand.
Read more: As the world embraces space, the 50 year old Outer Space Treaty needs adaptation
This places a very large amount of Commonwealth, state and local government activity, economic activity and essential infrastructure at risk, as multiple recent national reviews have noted.
Our federal government started to address the problem with its 2013 Satellites Utilisation Policy, and will hopefully build on this following the current rounds of extensive consultation for the Space Industry Capability Review.
Although our private EO upstream and downstream industry capabilities are currently small, they are world leading, and if they were enabled with government-industry support in a way that the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency/European Commission and UK Space Agency do, we could build this sector.
If Australia is to realistically participate in the “Space 2.0” economy, we need to act now and set clear goals for the next five, ten and 20 years. EO can be a pillar for this activity, enabling significant expansion of our upstream and downstream industries. This generates jobs and growth and addresses national security concerns.
That should be a win for all sectors in Australia – and we can finally give back and participate globally in space.
Data sources for figure “Proportion of space budget spent on different capacities”: NASA; ESA - here and here; JAXA; PDF report on China.The Xbox One might have a weaker hardware compared to the PlayStation 4, but according to the Xbox’s director of development, Boyd Multerer, the design of Xbox One is effectively a “Super-Computer Design,” and it will allow the developers to squeeze more performance out of the Xbox One with time.
In an interview with Total Xbox, Multerer commented on the resolution controversy that is usually associated with the Xbox One.
“Part of it is the obvious one where everyone’s still getting to know this hardware and they’ll learn to optimise it. Part of it is less obvious, in that we focused a lot of our energy on framerate. And I think we have a consistently better framerate story that we can tell.
Boyd then talks about how they prioritized the CPU performance on the Xbox One, in order to get the best performance out of the CPU. While it may have not resulted in better resolution in games, he placed an emphasis on the frame rate calling it “smooth” on the Xbox One.
The design of the Xbox One is held back by some bottlenecks like the ESRAM but according to Boyd, this is not the main reason. He calls the GPU as “complicated” compared to the – relatively easier to program to – Xbox 360 GPU, asserting that once developers are able to utilize the hardware pipeline without any potential bottleneck, they can expect improved performance on the Xbox One.
“The GPUs are really complicated beasts this time around. In the Xbox 360 era, getting the most performance out of the GPU was all about ordering the instructions coming into your shader. It was all about hand-tweaking the order to get the maximum performance. In this era, that’s important – but it’s not nearly as important as getting all your data structures right so that you’re getting maximum bandwidth usage across all the different buffers. So it’s relatively easy to get portions of the GPU to stall. You have to have it constantly being fed.”
He compares this hardware design to a “Super-Computer Design” and ensures that we should expect to see “fairly large improvements in GPU output” in the near future.
What do you think about the statements made by Boyd Multerer. Let us know in the comments below.Some 80 people came to Seed Gallery in Newark to help launch Converge, a pop-up coworking space that will be free on Thursdays during the summer. | Esther Surden
A key ingredient in creating a tech ecosystem in any city is developing coworking spaces that encourage entrepreneurs to rub elbows with one another, trade knowledge and bounce around ideas as they develop their startups.
Recently Newark took a big step forward in that endeavor, announcing the creation of Converge, a pop-up coworking space that will operate for free every Thursday. Converge joins MEDINA = CITY’s = Space (pronounced Equal Space), which has not yet opened for business.
Following the pop-up trend, Converge, located at Seed Gallery, a SoHo-like event space and gallery in Newark’s downtown, will operate Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. until October.
Thanks to a grant from Capital One Bank, entrepreneurs will enjoy free coworking and Wi-Fi. Free coffee will be provided by Newark’s own T.M. Ward.
Capital One has been a consistent supporter of Newark tech. Theresa Bedeau, director of community development at the bank said, “We love to see people connect, and we support you in your business … I’m really excited to see the programming and innovation that will come out of this space.”
For Newark and its tech entrepreneurs, this is an idea whose time has come.
Organized by Brick City Development Corporation (BCDC) in partnership with local tech groups like BrickCity Tech Meetup, Scarlet Startups, Code for Newark and Lean Newark, the space will provide tech entrepreneurs from Newark and other nearby towns a place of their own.
Converge will also hold events. A Code for Newark meeting has already taken place there, and Code Crew (New York) will be teaching programming classes at the space.
As Code for Newark organizer and Newark senior technology adviser Seth Wainer said, Converge will be a place to “do tech” and learn tech, to get your hands dirty. “We will run classes, and we will do it all summer in this spot,” he said.
An upcoming event at the space, entitled “Perfecting Your Investor Deck and Pitch,” will feature a free three-hour workshop with Yao-Hui Huang, managing director of The Hatchery (New York), an incubator founded on the principle that all tech companies have the right to access business experts and leading-edge information.
On June 19, representatives of Hipsters and Hamptonites, a New York web development shop, will be providing free mentorship and website advice to coworkers at the space. RSVP here.
The May 29, 2014 party celebrating the launch of Converge was attended by some 80 people, including many of Newark tech’s movers and shakers. Several VCs were on hand to see what all the excitement was about.
In attendance was Anthony Frasier, who had started BrickCity Tech Meetup and is also a founder of The Phat Startup (New York). He recounted how he had wanted to establish a coworking space a full year and a half ago. NJTechWeekly.com covered his early vision here.
Anthony Frasier speaking at the Converge launch party | Esther Surden
At the launch party Frasier recalled that when he had started the meetup, just five people would attend the gatherings. Yet the meetings began to gain some traction and drew the attention of Emily Manz, the real estate and business-attraction associate at BCDC.
Frasier said he had thought, “We have to think bigger. We have to have collaboration and more people working among each other.” He said he had gone to the BCDC office “with a 20-page deck. I had a lot of unnecessary details. Yet overall, they believed in the vision.”
Lean Newark organizer April Peters, along with New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA) senior venture officer Steven Royster, talked about “unlocking” Lean Newark on the Lean Startup website so the organization can run its third three-day intensive workshop.
Also speaking at the event was acting Newark Deputy Mayor Daniel Jennings, who said the coworking space was exciting on many levels.
“By bringing together VCs, BrickCity Tech Meetup, Scarlet Startups and Code for Newark, we are making it easier for budding startups to put their heads together and grow and form the innovative businesses that will grow Newark’s economy.” Cities, he said, thrive when they collaborate well.
“We are also excited about your commitment to inclusion … Many of you have expressed a commitment to exposing Newark residents to 21st-century technology,” Jennings told the attendees.
“We hope all of you will utilize the space to open and expand your businesses … We want you to succeed because you are great people, but from an economic development perspective, we want you to hire Newark residents and pay more taxes. We are also hoping that this coworking option will lead to a more permanent operation,” but all in good time, he added.
BCDC CEO Victor Emenuga also paid tribute to Converge’s inclusiveness. “We wanted to create a space like this where people can come not only to put some profit in their pockets but to improve the quality of life in Newark,” he said.
Many in the room spoke of the Converge pop-up concept as a way to test for an appetite for coworking in Newark.
Anthony Frasier said that popup coworking is a good way to test the market, see if there is interest. “When that is proven, we can take the next step and build on that,” Frasier told NJTechWeekly.com.
Royster noted that businesses want to be in an urban transit area accessible to New York. “There are many companies that need affordable space. This is a great location, so let’s test it out. We needed someone like BCDC to help prove the market.”
Wainer added that Converge is “a great way to pilot the idea in classic lean style. We’ll look at how this works and pivot if we have to. We want to see many coworking spaces in Newark over the next year.”
The Phat Startup cofounder James Lopez told NJTechWeekly.com he would be spending time at the coworking space. “What it means to me is a place for people to share … and bounce ideas off … one another. I started in a coworking space, so I know how much it is needed in our community.”
Scarlet Startups founder Clark Lagemann added that surrounding itself with community had helped prevent his company from making mistakes, so he was glad to see coworking in Newark.
After the event we spoke with Manz, who had coordinated the Converge project and led the program at the launch party. She said developing the pop-up coworking concept had not been easy. “We talked a lot with the entrepreneurs about what the model would look like,” Manz said.
BCDC wanted a creative space, she noted, one where the tech community could feel at home, in a part of town with easy access to transportation and near restaurants and other amenities. It also had to be an easy place in which to come and go, she said.
Manz said Seed Gallery, a light, airy space filled with art, wood and brick, would be an environment conducive to entrepreneurs’ working and mingling.
Converge is located on the street where launch sponsor Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, a new Chipotle Mexican Grill, Rita’s Ice and other local businesses are thriving.Federal political parties are stockpiling their war chests for a multi-million-dollar advertising blitz – part of what political observers say will be the longest federal election campaign in Canadian history.
The four main parties have been on fundraising blitzes in recent months as they sock away millions in preparation for the federal election scheduled for Oct. 19, 2015.
[np_storybar title=”Preparing for battle – by the numbers” link=””]
Conservatives:
$13.5 million: Donations to Conservative party in first three quarters of 2014.
$3 million: Amount received in first three quarters from taxpayer-funded per-vote subsidy being phased out April 1, 2015
NDP:
$5.8 million: Donations to NDP in first three quarters of 2014
$2.3 million: Amount received in first three quarters from per-vote subsidy
Liberals:
$9.9 million: Donations to Liberal party in first three quarters of 2014
$1.4 million: Amount received in first three quarters from per-vote subsidy
Greens:
$1.5 million: Donations to Green party in first three quarters of 2014
$291,768: Amount received in first three quarters from per-vote subsidy
[/np_storybar]
Election spending limits will only kick in for political parties once the campaign officially starts in September 2015 (if the government sticks to its fixed election date), so parties will likely unload huge dollars on ads over the summer months and early September when there are no expense caps.
“This makes the period before the election a money-spending free-for-all for the manipulation of voters,” said Robert MacDermid, a political scientist at York University in Toronto who specializes in political party financing,
The spending limit is expected to increase slightly in the 2015 election from the $21 million cap imposed in 2011, although the final numbers won’t be tabulated until the campaign. (The limit is based on the eligible number of electors, number of candidates fielded by each party, and is adjusted for inflation.)
The Conservatives, NDP and Liberals have been barraging donors in recent months with fundraising emails in an effort to help fill the kitty for the national campaign and the months leading up to it. The parties are also socking away millions of dollars in electoral district associations across the country, which can transfer cash to the national party.
Don Boudria, the minister in the former Liberal government who introduced political financing reforms, including the per-vote subsidy that’s now being phased out, said the spending limits won’t have much of an effect next campaign.
Assuming the government sticks with its fixed-date election, political parties will front-load a huge amount of spending on advertising before the writ drops and the expense limits take effect, he said.
“There will be an orgy of spending from about April, May, June of next year and it will go on right until election day,” Boudria said.
There will be an orgy of spending from about April, May, June of next year and it will go on right until election day
“It’s going to be the longest election campaign in Canadian history with the fixed election date. Without the fixed election date, that couldn’t happen.”
The federal Conservative party, which has been launching both online and broadcast attack ads against Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau for months, has millions in cash and investments.
The party’s 2013 financial statements said it had about $1.2 million in cash on hand, as well as another $8.9 million in “short-term investments” and $4.2 million in “long-term investments.”
The various investments consisted of guaranteed investment certificates maturing between one and one-and-a-half years. The party held an additional $4.2 million to be redistributed to new electoral district associations being created for the next election.
As well, the Conservative party raised about $13.5 million in political contributions in the first three-quarters of 2014 (to Sept. 30), and received an additional $3 million from the taxpayer-funded per-vote subsidy that is being eliminated April 1, 2015.
The Conservative party spent around $19.5 million in the 2011 campaign, short of the roughly $21 million limit, while the Liberals also spent roughly $19.5 million, according to Elections Canada.
The federal NDP, which spent the most of any party in the 2011 campaign ($20.3 million, according to Elections Canada), is planning to spend up to the cap in 2015.
“We have every expectation to spend the ceiling again,” said NDP spokesman George Soule.
It’s going to be the longest election campaign in Canadian history with the fixed election date
The Green party ran a national campaign on $1.9 million in 2011, while the Bloc Québécois nearly spent its limit in Quebec, at $5.3 million.
The NDP had approximately $1.4 million in cash on hand at the end of 2013, according to its financial statements, but it also has millions in equity with the Jack Layton Building in downtown Ottawa, which houses New Democrat headquarters and is owned by the party.
The party has also raised approximately $5.8 million in donations through the first three quarters of the year and received another $2.3 million from the per-vote subsidy.
The Liberals were sitting on about $4.6 million in “cash and cash equivalents” at the end of 2013, according to the party’s financial statements, and had another $4.5 million in term-deposit investments maturing between 2015 and
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important information that is not available on the Internet."
In a more general sense, the survey showed that Americans buy more books than they borrow, The Atlantic says. Out of the group that read at least one book in the past year, more than half said they prefer purchasing books rather than borrowing them.
What are your reading habits? Leave a comment below.Hollywood power couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt is no more.
Oscar-winning actress and director Jolie, who is also a special envoy for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), has filed for divorce from actor and producer Pitt, according to Robert Offer, lawyer for Jolie.
Offer said the decision was made "for the health of the family."
Jolie would "not be commenting at this time" and asked that her family be "given their privacy," he added.
PHOTOS | A brief history of Brangelina
In a statement issued to People magazine, Pitt also asked for privacy.
"I am very saddened by this, but what matters most now is the well-being of our kids," Pitt said in the statement.
"I kindly ask the press to give them the space they deserve during this challenging time."
Jolie and Pitt, referred to in entertainment media as Brangelina, have six children: Maddox, Zahara, Shiloh, Pax, Vivienne and Knox.
Pitt and Jolie met while filming the action comedy Mr. and Mrs. Smith, in which they played married assassins. (Twentieth Century Fox)
The two met on the set of the 2004 film Mr. and Mrs. Smith — an action comedy in which they starred as married assassins working for rival agencies — and officially became a couple in 2005.
After about a decade together, the pair married in August 2014.
Most recently, the two starred as a troubled married couple in 2015's By the Sea, which Jolie directed.
Jolie was previously married to actor Billy Bob Thornton and, earlier, actor Johnny Lee Miller. Pitt was previously married to actress Jennifer Aniston.
Jolie directed the 2015 drama By the Sea, which was a critical and commercial flop. (Merrick Morton/Universal Pictures/Associated Press)
Jolie and Pitt's relationship was one of contemporary Hollywood's most high-profile, tabloid-covered pairings.
Myriad articles debated whether they first hooked up while he was still married to Aniston, media around the world reported on the births of the globe-trotting couple's children (Shiloh, Knox and Vivienne) and their adoptions (Maddox, Zahara and Pax), while their alleged marital spats were regular fodder in U.S. tabloids.
Brad and Angelina. How am I supposed to go to work today? —@chrissyteigen
Breaking: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Brangelina?src=hash">#Brangelina</a> break up. Thousands homeless —@markcritch
Jen right now <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/brangelina?src=hash">#brangelina</a> <a href="https://t.co/T4O9NUqG6J">pic.twitter.com/T4O9NUqG6J</a> —@RyanJohnNelson
In recent years, Jolie has balanced her filmmaking with various causes, including working with the UN to highlight the plight of refugees and for increased awareness of breast and ovarian cancer, after her revelation that she had undergone a preventive double mastectomy (and, later, further preventive surgery).
PHOTOS | Angelina Jolie and other Hollywood stars who use their profiles to improve the world
They famously turned ravenous interest for the first images of their newborn daughter Shiloh into a philanthropic opportunity: after selling the exclusive photo and story rights to People and Hello! magazines, they donated all the proceeds to charity. They later repeated the practice, including upon the birth of twins Vivienne and Knox.
If a couple with millions of dollars, six kids and a brand of overpriced rose wine can't make it, we should all just give up now <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/brangelina?src=hash">#brangelina</a> —@Joannahausmann
"It was extremely revolutionary that they donated the funds from the photos of their [biological children's births] and their wedding to charities. I think that it led the way for other celebrity couples to actually do the same... That they contributed those funds to causes that really made a difference in the world was exemplary," Natasha Koifman, president of public relations firm NKPR and board member of the charity Artists for Peace and Justice, told CBC News.
"They were the Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor of our time, for sure," she said.
The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Brangelina?src=hash">#Brangelina</a> news is breaking the internet, if Twitter is anything to go by. <a href="https://t.co/ijDILhmJ6m">pic.twitter.com/ijDILhmJ6m</a> —@dwnews
Jolie and Pitt often travelled the world with their children for their various film and other projects. They shared a home in southern California, as well as an estate and vineyard in the south of France.Tools of the trade. Images Courtesy of Peter J. Carroll
Illustration from Liber Null & Psychonaut: An Introduction to Chaos Magic (Weiser Books)
There is a range of core techniques for inducing altered states of consciousness and achieving “sleight of mind.” Most of these techniques have survived since the days of ancient shamanism. In Chaos Magic we use these practices to achieve a gnostic state. They include yoga, tantra, psychoactive substances, sexuality, chanting, drumming, ecstatic dance, dreaming, and many others. The Chaos Magician concentrates on an abstract or analogical representation of desire, rather than on a direct representation of it, and then uses some form of gnosis to bring the much more powerful subconscious into operation, thus actualizing his or her wishes.My three best gnoses are sexual arousal—either auto-erotically or with a partner—anger—I love getting into a fury—and the apophenic state, which I enter through absentmindedness, half-sleep, or meditation.Back in the late 60s there was an occult revival driven by the republishing of works by people like Aleister Crowley, Eliphas Lévi, and Austin Spare. Also the medieval grimoires and the Golden Dawn books became widely available again and various authors started writing about modern versions of witchcraft. Out of this eclectic stew a series of new ideas evolved that put more emphasis on techniques than symbolism. Those days were pretty wild and experimental with fully robed and skyclad [ritual nudity] mystics, castles, caves, nights spent in the forest, strangely decorated basements, bizarre sacraments, banishing by laughter, serious work, and lots of fun. There were some great parties. It was a very creative and ecstatic time.Most Chaos Magicians would probably describe themselves as off-white magicians—neither black nor white but perhaps multicolored and prepared to experiment with everything from combat magic to love magic to the most elevated forms of mysticism.I’m still awaiting results to confirm my most grandiose divination experiment. About 18 years ago I led a group of 30 mostly German magicians in an attempt to send a servitor probe back to the big bang era. It then reported to us what it saw in our dreams later that night. At the time we all accepted the big bang interpretation of cosmological data. Astonishingly nearly everyone reported that his or her dreams depicted the universe as looking more or less the same then as it does now. I have spent the intervening years developing the math and interpretations to explain this result. It seems that if the universe consists of a vorticitating hypersphere then it may verify our findings. Perhaps we will see confirmation within a decade.I’d describe three-dimensional time as a deduction that I have made from observation rather than a belief. I can only account for the magical effects I have observed by assuming that probability lies at right angles to time as we perceive it.We have to remember that our past or pasts only exist in the now, at a particular moment of observation as physical evidence and memory. Any past that could have led to the moment of observation has to be considered, but we can only infer a change to the past when subsequent moments of present go off at an unexpected tangent. You cannot change the present moment, but you can change the “angle” from which the past approaches to modify the future.I joked to my eldest some years ago that if she were at the top of her class at university then I’d give her a starship principle for her 21st birthday. It looks like she will graduate as valedictorian now, but the starship project remains some ways off. Any useful starship will obviously need more than what current physics has to offer. Reaction-thrust vehicles and rockets of any type will never get us to other star systems. The new fundamental physics that I’ve developed in the past few years perhaps implies a feasible starship technology, but it cannot be tested yet. Nevertheless, the quest continues. Anything that can get to another star system and back with the crew still alive will resemble something more akin to a Tardis or a teleportation device than a rocket.The Apophenion: A Chaos Magic ParadigmWhen I think about how the Eagles will respond to Sunday's loss and the abrupt loss of their status as consensus GREATEST TEAM ON EARTH, I think back to last year and everything the Eagles dealt with.
Legal issues for Nelson Agholor, Josh Huff and Nigel Bradham. Sam Bradford going AWOL for two weeks of minicamp. The Bradford trade and Carson Wentz's sudden ascent from third-stringer to the starting lineup eight days before the opener. Lane Johnson's suspension. A mid-season five-game losing streak. Brandon Brooks missing a couple games with what he later revealed was extreme stress.
It was a lot for an NFL rookie head coach to deal with, and the one thing you kept noticing was that Doug Pederson always found ways to keep the thing on the rails and navigate his team through every challenge it faced.
Whatever chaos was swirling around the Eagles last year, you never saw things snowball. You never saw things get out of control. Pederson continually demonstrated a knack for dealing with whatever issues arose around the football team, and by the end of the season, they were playing pretty good football.
That's a unique skill and just as important for a head football coach as calling plays, making substitutions or challenging bad calls.
All those little mini-dramas can take a toll on a football team, but it seemed like with each one, the bond in the Eagles' locker room grew stronger, as did the respect the players have for Pederson.
All of which is why I'm not all too worried right now.
What this team went through last year has a lot to do with the success it's experiencing this year, and I don't think that's going to change.
The Eagles lost a football game Sunday for the first time since Week 2, and we've got to keep this in perspective.
They lost. Sometimes teams lose.
The Seahawks have the best home record in the NFL over the last six years. They've lost eight home games with Russell Wilson at quarterback since 2012. Yes, two of them were in November, but it's not the end of the world losing to an elite football team and Hall of Fame QB in a really tough stadium after nine straight wins.
Big picture?
Nobody in the NFL has a better record than the Eagles. And for a franchise that's been around for 84 years, they've had a better record after 12 games only three times.
No, they no longer control their own playoff destiny. They could conceivably win out and still have to travel to Minneapolis for the NFC Championship Game. (And if that happens, Case Keenum is not beating this team … but that's another story.)
But when you step back and take stock, this football team is sitting here 10-2 with four games left. Last time they lost? They won their next nine.
There are worse places to be than first place in the NFC East sharing the best record in football with one loss since Phillies season ended.
And if the Eagles haven't demonstrated over the past two seasons their ability to respond positively when faced with a little adversity, I don't know what else they have to do.
Teams lose games. Teams bounce back. This one is really good at it.
I don't think any of us had any idea what the Eagles were getting when they hired Pederson, but he's definitely got his finger on the pulse of the team in a very powerful way.
He gives the players leeway but trusts them to do the right thing, and they respect him for it. If they tell him practice is too hard, he adjusts. He leans on his assistants. He involves everybody in the organization. He listens.
This is as strong a locker room as I've seen, and Pederson is a big reason for it. It's a bunch of guys with a chip on their shoulder. Late-round picks. Undrafted dudes. Guys released by other teams.
They're hungry and they are unselfish and they are determined and want to win. They love to work hard, they love playing for Doug, and one loss isn't going to change any of them.
If anything, it will motivate them even more.
That loss Sunday night in Seattle doesn't change the fact that the Eagles are still one of the NFL's best teams.
It does put into focus a few things they need to work on.
They have to protect the ball at the goal-line. They have to find their offensive rhythm earlier. They have to avoid the defensive breakdowns that led to the Seahawks' big plays. They have to adjust when they realize an opposing quarterback recognizes a zero-blitz is coming. Big V needs to play better. Doug has to stay aggressive.
The Rams are very good, and playing back-to-back games on the West Coast isn't easy. Nobody is going to hand home-field advantage to the Eagles.
There are a lot of challenges facing this team right now, but facing challenges is something they've proven to be very good at.Astronaut shows how coffee is made aboard the ISS
Doing the simple and mundane things we do every morning here on Earth takes on a completely new challenge in space. The challenge in microgravity is that things just don’t work the same way they do here on Earth in normal gravity. For instance making a simple cup of coffee becomes a complex process that requires specially engineered systems.
Astronaut Tim Peake shows how coffee is made aboard the ISS. The process starts by digging a foil packet out of a storage container on the walls of the ISS. Since things just float around in microgravity, you can’t simply have shelves or cupboards for your food and drinks to sit on.
In space, you also can’t simply put water into a cup, in microgravity water turns in to floating globes rather than sitting in a cup waiting for you to drink it as it does on Earth. The coffee maker on the ISS is actually a hot water injection system.
The astronaut places the foil packet that looks sort of like a Capri Sun into the hot water machine and water is then injected into the foil packet. The water dissolves the presumably freeze dried coffee, cream, and sugar substitute and the astronaut then drinks the coffee from a straw with a one-way valve built in to keep fluid from escaping.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Oct. 12, 2016, 10:25 AM GMT / Updated Oct. 12, 2016, 10:25 AM GMT By Ken Dilanian
In a rare bit of good cyber security news, Chinese hacking thefts of American corporate secrets have plummeted in the 13 months since China signed an agreement with the Obama administration to curb economic espionage, U.S. officials and outside experts say.
Analysts say the success may hold lessons for how the U.S. should deal with Russia, which at the same time has stepped up a different sort of hacking campaign that officials says is aimed at undermining confidence in the American election.
The change in China’s behavior “has been the biggest success we’ve had in this arena in 30 years,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder of Crowdstrike, a cyber security firm that tracks computer network intrusions.
Related: Is China Militarizing in the South China Sea?
“And it wasn’t anything we did in cyber space –- it was the threat of sanctions and the impact on their economy.”
Alperovitch said his firm has observed a 90 percent drop in commercial hacking against U.S. firms attributable to Chinese government actors. U.S, intelligence agencies also have reported a sharp falloff, according to officials briefed on the matter.
To be sure, Alperovitch and others say, Chinese intelligence agencies are still hacking to steal national U.S. security secrets, including attacking defense firms. But those attacks are considered commonplace, because they are exactly what the National Security Agency does to China and other U.S. adversaries.
At issue in the agreement President Obama signed with President Xi Jinping in September 2015 was hacking to steal corporate intellectual property to benefit Chinese firms. The U.S. says it doesn’t do that, but China did it with impunity for years, in what a former NSA director called the biggest transfer of wealth in modern history.
After years of pressure, Obama elevated the issue and threatened sanctions on China. The U.S. also indicted five members of the People’s Liberation Army in 2014, accusing them of commercial hacking.
In the agreement, China essentially promised to stop doing it.
The dropoff actually began a year before the agreement was signed, according to a study released in June by the iSight intelligence unit of FireEye, a cyber security company.
“Since mid-2014, we have observed an overall decrease in successful network compromises by China-based groups against organizations in the U.S. and 25 other countries,” the report said. “These shifts have coincided with ongoing political and military reforms in China, widespread exposure of Chinese cyber activity, and unprecedented action by the U.S. government.”
In addition, a cyber hotline to facilitate speedy communication between China and the U.S. over hacking incidents is in the testing phase, U.S. officials told NBC News.
Instead of targeting U.S. firms, Alperovitch said, China has turned its hackers inward, probing Chinese companies as part of an anti-corruption campaign -- and also against Russia.
“We’re seeing a massive increase in domestic intrusions (by the Chinese government) against companies in China where they are using this for an anti-corruption campaign,” he said. “And we’re actually seeing a massive increase in attacks on Russia. They’ve stolen everything that Russia has in the defense space.”
Last week, the Obama administration formally accused Russia of a campaign of hacking designed to interfere in the U.S. election campaign, including an effort to steal and leak embarrassing emails by Democrats. So far, the U.S. has taken no observable action in response.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday that the U.S. is mulling a “proportional” response to Russia, but he declined to be more specific.
"The president has talked before about the significant capabilities that the U.S. government has to both defend our systems in the United States but also carry out offensive operations in other countries,” he said on Air Force One en route to a Hillary Clinton campaign event in North Carolina. "So there are a range of responses that are available to the president and he will consider a response that is proportional."(updated below - Update II)
Remember when, in the wake of the 9/11 attack, the Patriot Act was controversial, held up as the symbolic face of Bush/Cheney radicalism and widely lamented as a threat to core American liberties and restraints on federal surveillance and detention powers? Yet now, the Patriot Act is quietly renewed every four years by overwhelming majorities in both parties (despite substantial evidence of serious abuse), and almost nobody is bothered by it any longer. That's how extremist powers become normalized: they just become such a fixture in our political culture that we are trained to take them for granted, to view the warped as normal. Here are several examples from the last couple of days illustrating that same dynamic; none seems overwhelmingly significant on its own, but that's the point:
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After Dick Cheney criticized John McCain this weekend for having chosen Sarah Palin as his running mate, this was McCain's retort:
Look, I respect the vice president. He and I had strong disagreements as to whether we should torture people or not. I don't think we should have.
Isn't it amazing that the first sentence there ("I respect the vice president") can precede the next one ("He and I had strong disagreements as to whether we should torture people or not") without any notice or controversy? I realize insincere expressions of respect are rote ritualism among American political elites, but still, McCain's statement amounts to this pronouncement: Dick Cheney authorized torture -- he is a torturer -- and I respect him. How can that be an acceptable sentiment to express? Of course, it's even more notable that political officials whom everyone knows authorized torture are walking around free, respected and prosperous, completely shielded from all criminal accountability. "Torture" has been permanently transformed from an unspeakable taboo into a garden-variety political controversy, where it shall long remain.
Equally remarkable is this Op-Ed from The Los Angeles Times over the weekend, condemning President Obama's kill lists and secret assassinations:
Allowing the president of the United States to act as judge, jury and executioner for suspected terrorists, including U.S. citizens, on the basis of secret evidence is impossible to reconcile with the Constitution's guarantee that a life will not be taken without due process of law. Under the law, the government must obtain a court order if it seeks to target a U.S. citizen for electronic surveillance, yet there is no comparable judicial review of a decision to kill a citizen. No court is even able to review the general policies for such assassinations.... But if the United States is going to continue down the troubling road of state-sponsored assassination, Congress should, at the very least, require that a court play some role, as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court does with the electronic surveillance of suspected foreign terrorists. Even minimal judicial oversight might make the president and his advisors think twice about whether an American citizen poses such an "imminent" danger that he must be executed without a trial.
Isn't it amazing that a newspaper editorial even has to say: you know, the President isn't really supposed to have the power to act as judge, jury and executioner and order American citizens assassinated with no transparency or due process? And isn't it even more amazing that the current President has actually seized and exercised this power with very little controversy? Recall that when The New York Times first confirmed Obama's targeting of citizens for assassinations in 2010, it noted, citing "officials," that "it is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for an American to be approved for targeted killing." No longer. That presidential power -- literally the most tyrannical power a political leader can seize -- is also now a barely noticed fixture of our political culture.
Meanwhile, we have this, from the Associated Press yesterday:
Remember when John Poindexter's "Total Information Awareness" program -- which was "to use data mining technologies to sift through personal transactions in electronic data to find patterns and associations connected to terrorist threats and activities": basically create real-time surveillance of everyone -- was too extreme and menacing even for an America still at its peak of post-9/11 hysteria? Yet here we have the NYPD -- more than a decade removed from 9/11 -- announcing a very similar program in very similar terms, and it's almost impossible to envision any real controversy.
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Similarly, in the AP's sentence above describing the supposed targets of this new NYPD surveillance program: what, exactly, is a "potential terrorist"? Isn't that an incredibly Orwellian term given that, by definition, it can include anyone and everyone? In practice, it will almost certainly mean: all Muslims, plus anyone who engages in any activism that opposes prevailing power factions. That's how the American Surveillance State is always used. Still, the undesirability of mass, "all-seeing," indiscriminate surveillance regime was a given -- a view, in sum, that the East German Stasi was a bad idea that we would not want to replicate on American soil -- yet now, there is almost no limit on the level of state surveillance we tolerate.
In The New York Times yesterday, Elisabeth Bumiller wrote about the very moving and burdensome plight of America's drone pilots who, sitting in front of a "computer console [] in the Syracuse suburbs," extinguish people's lives thousands of miles away by launching missiles at them. The bulk of the article is devoted to eliciting sympathy and admiration for these noble warriors, but when doing so, she unwittingly describes America's future with domestic surveillance drones:
Among the toughest psychological tasks is the close surveillance for aerial sniper missions, reminiscent of the East German Stasi officer absorbed by the people he spies on in the movie "The Lives of Others.” A drone pilot and his partner, a sensor operator who manipulates the aircraft’s camera, observe the habits of a militant as he plays with his children, talks to his wife and visits his neighbors. They then try to time their strike when, for example, his family is out at the market. “They watch this guy do bad things and then his regular old life things,” said Col. Hernando Ortega, the chief of aerospace medicine for the Air Education Training Command, who helped conduct a study last year on the stresses on drone pilots.... "You see them wake up in the morning, do their work, go to sleep at night," said Dave, an Air Force major who flew drones from 2007 to 2009 at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada and now trains drone pilots at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.
That's the level of detailed monitoring that drone surveillance enables. Numerous attributes of surveillance drones -- their ability to hover in the same place for long periods of time, their ability to remain stealthy, their increasingly cheap cost and tiny size -- enable surveillance of a breadth, duration and invasiveness unlike other types of surveillance instruments, such as police helicopters or satellites. Recall that one new type of drone already in use by the U.S. military in Afghanistan — the Gorgon Stare, named after the "mythical Greek creature whose unblinking eyes turned to stone those who beheld them" — is "able to scan an area the size of a small town" and "the most sophisticated robotics use artificial intelligence that [can] seek out and record certain kinds of suspicious activity"; boasted one U.S. General: “Gorgon Stare will be looking at a whole city, so there will be no way for the adversary to know what we’re looking at, and we can see everything."
There is zero question that this drone surveillance is coming to American soil. It already has spawned a vast industry that is quickly securing formal approval for the proliferation of these surveillance weapons. There's some growing though still marginal opposition among both the independent left and the more libertarian-leaning precincts on the right, but at the moment, that trans-ideological coalition is easily outgunned by the combination of drone industry lobbyists and Surveillance State fanatics. The idea of flying robots hovering over American soil monitoring what citizens do en masse is yet another one of those ideas that, in the very recent past, seemed too radical and dystopian to entertain, yet is on the road to being quickly mainstreamed. When that happens, it is no longer deemed radical to advocate such things; radicalism is evinced by opposition to them.
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Whatever one thinks of the RT network, Alyona Minkovski, a host of a show on that network, is an excellent journalist and interviewer. Last night was her last show -- she's leaving to work on a Huffington Post video show -- and I was on last night, along with Jane Hamsher, discussing several domestic police state issues related to the topics discussed here:
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Over the weekend, in the column I wrote hailing the Internet's capacity to detect falsehoods and myths better than traditional journalism, I made reference to the "mass panic" caused by Orson Wells' 1938 broadcast of "The War of the Worlds." Numerous people -- in comments, via email and elsewhere -- objected by arguing that no such panic was ever documented. Journalism Professor W. Joseph Campbell makes the case here that this is nothing more than urban myth. He suggests that the widespread propagation of this myth on the Internet undermines my argument because it shows how the Internet can spread rather than combat falsehoods (Dan Drezner makes a related argument here), but (at least with regard to Campbell's argument) I'd say the opposite is true. Leaving aside that this "mass panic" myth was widely believed long before the Internet was widely used, I was quickly exposed to, and persuaded by, the likely mythical nature of my claim as a result of the interactive process of Internet journalism which I praised.
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UPDATE: In Mother Jones, Adam Serwer argues that "Congress is finally standing up to President Barack Obama on targeted killing" -- specifically that they "are pushing the administration to explain why it believes it's legal to kill American terror suspects overseas." Notably, this push is coming from Republican Senators, while leading Democrats such as Dianne Feinstein are attempting to impede these efforts to bring basic accountability and transparency to this most radical power. Note the debate here: not whether the President should have the power to order Americans executed without due process, but simply whether he should have to account to Congress for what he does and what the legal framework is that he believes authorizes this.
UPDATE II: Via BuzzFeed and Spencer Ackerman, here is the logo for the U.S. Navy's executive offices for its drone planes:
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Why do they hate us?Continue Reading
Shabu is so expensive because it is so pure — and therefore so powerful. Most of the home-cooked speed in Denver is only 10 to 20 percent actual crystallized methamphetamine, adulterated with toxic by-products of the makeshift ingredients used in crude manufacturing processes. While any tweaker with a hot plate can whip together a batch of bathtub speed, Shabu requires a trained chemist working in a fully equipped laboratory with uncorrupted components. The result is pharmaceutical-grade meth — 95-plus percent pure.
As much as the word can be applied to an illegal drug, Shabu is clean.
"There's no horse deworming medicine in this shit, okay? You can't make this kind of shit out of road flares and cold pills," says Nick, delicately unwrapping the Shabu demon atop the burnished steel of his Swedish designer coffee table.
"This is the shit JFK was getting jacked in his ass during the Cuban missile crisis. I shouldn't even be calling this shit'shit,' because it's disrespectful."
Nick peels away the last scrap of foil and positions the demon in the center of the coffee table, surrounding it with a careful arrangement of long-stemmed glass pipes, miniature butane torches and razor-sharp utility knives.
On this Thursday afternoon in late summer, Nick is preparing the second-floor recreation room of his fashionably appointed Highland home for what has become a twice-a-month ritual of extreme indulgence for a revolving group of five to ten fellow hip, young and successful citizens of Denver.
"Basically," he says, "we blast off Thursday night and don't pull the chute until Sunday."
During their 72-hour run, he and his friends will eat little solid food save fruit, so Nick's fridge and freezer are stocked with the makings for smoothies. Along with yogurt, organic apple juice and frozen blackberries, strawberries and mangoes are five bottles of Moët champagne, a dozen bottles of Italian sparkling water, four cases of microbrew, two bottles of chilled New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and a discount-warehouse carton of 400 Otter Pops.
Speed-binge supplies of a different nature have been cached in a master-bathroom medicine cabinet — one bottle holding ninety Valiums and another with forty tablets of ProVigil, the market name for the experimental drug Modafonil, a sleep suppressant the U.S. military tested on fighter and bomber pilots in Afghanistan and Iraq. Modafonil is now prescribed for cancer patients to combat the chronic-fatigue side effects of chemotherapy. Nick has laid in a supply because he claims he's found that combining Modafonil with Shabu takes the edge off the undesirable psychological whammies of sleep deprivation, including auditory hallucinations and paranoid delusions.
"One night without sleep is just staying up all night," he says. "People do that straight or just with coffee all the time. You feel a little zoned-out in the morning, but by midday, your natural rhythm kicks in. So long as you get some sleep that following night, you're cool. But when you ride the party train two nights in a row, or three nights, things can start to get a little odd, a little slippery. And if somebody spins out, it's no fun."
In other words, a sudden case of amphetamine psychosis really brings a party down.
"I consider this shit an excellent use of my tax dollars," Nick says, rattling a bottle of ProVigil. "It helps keep people from going werewolf around hour 50."
He buys his ProVigil from a psychiatrist friend of a friend who works in several Veterans Affairs hospitals counseling and treating terminal cancer patients. When the patients die, their families don't know what to do with their ProVigil pills, so they give them to the psychiatrist, who gives them to Nick's friend, who sells them to Nick.
All he'll say about this Shabu is that it comes from Hawaii and that he has a source — another friend of a friend — who flies to Honolulu once every other month, buying two or three statuettes at a time for resale in Denver and Colorado Springs. It's no big syndicate, just small-time narcotics smuggling where the payoff is a free trip to Hawaii, a little extra spending money and the rush of getting away with it.
The rush of Shabu itself is freakishly powerful. A single minuscule hit — about one-tenth of a gram, vaporized and inhaled — is enough to keep a weekend warrior like Nick riding the lightning for twelve hours.
The statuette on Nick's coffee table, cut into tiny pieces and smoked, holds about 250 hits.
Like opium, Shabu is relatively exotic in the United States (except for Hawaii, where it rivals cocaine in popularity), but in Asia, it's cheap and prevalent. The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency claimed earlier this year that 11 percent of the Philippine population uses Shabu. The drug is popular in Japan and Thailand and is so pervasive among the professional classes in Indonesia that the government of that country last year instituted mandatory Shabu-specific drug testing of all public officials.
Nick discovered Shabu during a 1999 vacation in Bali at a full-moon beach rave. He took one hit, danced all night, frolicked in the sand and surf the next day, and didn't do the drug again for more than three years — until early this year, when he learned of his amigo's Hawaiian connection.
Since then, he's become a Shabu vector in his social set.
Shabu is radically addictive. Yet Nick seems unfazed by his own estimate that in less than half a year, he has personally introduced the drug to more than a dozen people who now smoke it with him all weekend long at least once a month, if not twice. He and his party posse burn through a 25-gram chunk of Shabu every three or four weekends, which means they've each cultivated about a $300-per-month habit.
Nick doesn't see himself as a drug dealer so much as the self-appointed ringleader of his own private Cirque de Shabu.
He's thrown nine Shabu parties since March.
The tenth begins tonight.
HOUR 1
The seven eager speed smokers who converge on Nick's pad during the two hours before sunset defy the myth that crystal meth is a white-trash drug. They have cool hair and stylish attire. They have college degrees. They have all their teeth.
They do their lift-off hits upstairs, kneeling around the steel coffee table alone or in pairs, shaving flakes off the statuette, melting them in the pipes with a mini-torch, inhaling, holding, holding, holding and then blowing out colorless vapors that smell subtly of rotten roses.
Invariably, a second after they exhale they grin a wide, scheming grin, not unlike the demon's. And then they begin to jabber, free-associating at warp 9.
"Oh, my God, you know the fucking war, right? The liberation, the occupation, whatever? And the Palestinians, right? And the Israelis and the Muslims and Hindus and all the hate and the fucking guns and the bombs and the, uh, the, uh, you know, all the children with their legs blown off by land mines in Afghanistan, right? You see what I'm saying? I mean, you all know, you've all seen like a million times that one picture of that little boy from Afghanistan, right? And he's in his little purple robe, with his little white sheepherder's hat, and his little Christmas Carol, um, what do you call it? His Tiny Tim crutches, you know, right? And he's got these, like, you know, like these little sad, brown, puppy dog, fucking abused-animal, dog-pound, take-me-home-please eyes, right? I mean, God...okay, right now, let's get online, and let's find out who he is and where he lives and, and, and, let's find out what we need to do to buy him a new leg, right now! Who's got a laptop?"
Bonnie is 27 and a florist. She has her own business arranging and delivering flowers for high-end caterers. This marks her second weekend at Nick's. She's done cocaine before, but had never tried any form of speed until her boyfriend brought her to this place for an after-party the morning following Rave on the Rocks, the electronic dance-music festival at Red Rocks this past July. Shabu, she says, is "like sticking your brain in a huge pencil sharpener and grinding it and grinding it and grinding it until everything you see and think is just super, super sharp."
HOUR 5
The one-legged Afghan child was quickly forgotten.
Bonnie did, however, locate a laptop with a wireless Internet connection and has now been reclining in a black leather Eames chair, bug-eyed before the glowing sixteen-inch screen, chain-munching Otter Pops and Net-surfing, for more
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(identified) -- We want to make sure you're getting the best and safest learning experience -- We've got loads of experience in the air, but need some post production help to get the teaching elements just right
-- We want to make sure you're getting the best and safest learning experience -- We've got loads of experience in the air, but need some post production help to get the teaching elements just right Web site developers (identified) -- We like to think we know our way around a web site, but a web application? We wanted to call in the pros.
-- We like to think we know our way around a web site, but a web application? We wanted to call in the pros. New equipment for getting our videos just right -- So many existing drone instructional videos don't do a good enough job of keeping the production value high throughout the learning experience. We want to.
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F.A.Q
Do I need to have any flying, photography and video experience for this course? No! Our course starts with the basics and best practices of quadcopters, drones and UAVs. All you need is a passion for Aerial Film making, and we take care of the rest. We think hands-on experience is the best teacher so we've got packages complete with our favorite training software and even mini quadcopters to practice the methods we teach.
Will the course videos include captions/subtitles? Yes. And we aim to support multiple languages in our videos. Depending on user input, we will support a variety of languages.
Will you ship internationally? Yes! There is a small additional fee, but our Drones and training program are for everyone across the world.
Will the course itself cost anything when it's released? The video series basics are going to be free of charge and available to view on our website and a select few video hosting sites. Some of our more advanced piloting technique videos will be available for purchase from http://www.sparkaerial.com when they are released in December.
Is this going to be some series of product plugs with little actual training? While we're hardcore gearheads, this series is instructional. It is not affiliated with any specific manufacturer or vendor, although we do offer two vendor products in our packages. We've determined these to be ideal for training, and have no official affiliation with the manufacturers.
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-The Spark Aerial Team- The Canadiens held a morning skate at the Bell Sports Complex in Brossard on Monday before flying to Nashville ahead of Tuesday’s game against the Predators. Winners of their last three, the Habs now play a pair of games on the road – also visiting the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday – before returning home to Montreal for the weekend.
- Forward Torrey Mitchell was back at practice for the first time on Monday since suffering an upper body injury against the Islanders on March 14 which has kept him sidelined for four games. Head coach Michel Therrien hinted following practice that Mitchell could be in the lineup as soon as Tuesday.
- Therrien also confirmed that Carey Price, who is coming off back-to-back shutouts against the Hurricanes and Sharks, will be back in goal against the Predators. Rearguard Nathan Beaulieu will also be back in the lineup after sitting out Saturday’s 2-0 win as a healthy scratch.
- Tom Gilbert was absent from practice after suffering an upper body injury on Saturday. The 32-year-old defenseman did not make the trip to Nashville with his teammates, but could be ready to play at home this weekend against the Panthers.
- A significant portion of practice was dedicated to special teams on Monday. Max Pacioretty, David Desharnais and P.-A. Parenteau were paired on the first wave of a power play unit in Brossard, while Alex Galchenyuk, Tomas Plekanec and Brendan Gallagher formed the second wave during the morning skate.
OFFENSIVE LINES AND DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS AT PRACTICE
Pacioretty – Desharnais – Parenteau
Gallagher – Plekanec – Galchenyuk
Smith-Pelly – Eller – De La Rose
Prust – Malhotra/Mitchell – Weise
Flynn
Subban – Markov
Emelin – Petry
Beaulieu – Pateryn
Gonchar – WeaverHi Folks,
After one early BETA and two Release Candidates, it gives us great pleasure to announce the full and final release of FreeNAS 9.2.0
As implied from the series of pre-releases, this release has benefitted substantially from a great deal of public testing as well as several months of “living on” testing we ourselves have done on a wide variety of hardware. This is, without a doubt, the best release of FreeNAS yet!
Since 9.1.1 was released, we have fixed 268 bugs in the bug tracker, as well as countless others that were found and fixed independently of the bug tracking system.
We have also made a number of enhancements to the UI and generally done our best to bring more polish to the FreeNAS system, both in usability and performance. Those doing benchmarks against 9.1.1 should notice some measurable improvements on any reasonably capable hardware, particularly at higher loads. Those using encryption will be especially pleased at the performance improvements on AESNI capable processors - encryption is now effectively “invisible” given that speeds comparable with non-encrypted pools can easily be achieved.
The documentation has also been updated for 9.2.0, though the source code (see release notes) is still a useful reference for features like the new web API, which comes with several examples in the source tree.
Should you encounter any bugs in this release, or wish to submit enhancement requests, please visit http://bugs.freenas.org and by all means file a bug! We use the bug tracking system quite religiously and screen bugs on a daily basis, so filing a bug report is the best way of making sure that any issues do not get lost! Since no release engineering process is ever truly finished, we are already planning for 9.2.1 and will aim to fix any “fit and finish” bugs we deem appropriate for the next software update.
We also have the FreeNAS forums for general discussion and encourage everyone to use them. Finally, the FreeNAS developers also hang out in the #freenas IRC channel on FreeNode in their copious spare time should you wish to discuss things more in real-time.
We are very proud of this release and the hard work that has gone into it! We are also tremendously grateful to the many people who have taken the time to file bugs, fix bugs and send us pull requests, post helpful comments in the FreeNAS forums, or otherwise be a part of the ever-growing FreeNAS community.
Again, if you didn’t follow the link in the first line, the bits are in http://iso.cdn.freenas.org/9.2.0/RELEASE/ You can also get them via the FreeNAS download page ( http://www.freenas.org/download.html ) and also sign up for the FreeNAS newsletter at the same time!
Regards,
- The FreeNAS Engineering Team
Release Notes for FreeNAS 9.2.0-RELEASE
Version 9.2-RELEASE of FreeBSD with performance improvements, bug fixes, and updated software packages. For a complete list see http://www.freebsd.org/releases/9.2R/relnotes.html
USB 3.0 support is disabled by default as it currently is not compatible with some hardware, including Haswell (Lynx point) chipsets. To enable USB 3.0 support, create a Tunable named xhci_load, set its value to YES, and reboot the system.
The Kernel UMA allocator is now the default for ZFS. This results in higher ZFS performance.
ZFS will now alert the administrator for pools that are not 4K-aligned.
By default, FreeNAS will treat all disks as 4K sector ("Advanced Format") disks. This is a future-proof setting that allows AF disks to later be used as replacement drives for older, legacy 512 byte sector drives without compromising performance. The administrator can optionally disable this 4K-by-default behavior by setting vfs.zfs.vdev.larger_ashift_minimal to 0 in both sysctl and loader tunables.
Avahi (multicast DNS, aka Bonjour) registration of all services, include the web service, means you no longer need to have a head on the box to know its IP address, even for initial configuration, if the system your browser is running on supports mDNS (e.g. a Mac or mDNS-enabled Windows/Unix box). The default address will be freenas.local (or freenas-n.local, where n is the # of freenas.local instances already on the local network). This can be changed by changing the hostname in the FreeNAS system or network configuration screens.
The built-in admin user account is no longer used and the Admin Account removed. The first time the FreeNAS graphical interface is accessed, a pop-up menu will prompt for the root password. Subsequent logins to the graphical interface will require this password.
FreeNAS no longer sends daily emails when email reporting is enabled unless actual errors or issues of concern have arisen. Simply saying "all is well!" each and every day was causing email fatigue and obscuring actual errors. Those wishing for daily "all is well!" reports can simply add a cron job that does this.
The plugin system now offers in-place updates for plugins, also segregating installed plugins from available plugins to make the UI
less cluttered.
A complete REST API has been created for FreeNAS, allowing a FreeNAS instance to be controlled remotely. See examples/api in the FreeNAS source repository ( https://github.com/freenas/freenas/tree/master ) for some examples of this in action. Complete API docs are available in docs/api.
The "Permit Sudo" field has been added to the add and edit screens for Users and Groups. A column in View Groups and View Users now indicates whether or not "Permit Sudo" has been set.
HTTP and HTTPS access to the FreeNAS graphical interface are no longer mutually exclusive. The fields "WebGUI HTTP Port" and "WebGUI HTTPS Port" have been added to System Settings -> General.
An "Edit" button has been added to the "Hostname" field of SystemInformation to make the hostname easier to change.
The results from the latest ZFS scrub now appear in Volume Status.
Netatalk has been updated to version 3.1.0. See http://netatalk.sourceforge.net/3.1/ReleaseNotes3.1.0.html for a list of changes in this release. There are also a number of changes made to AFP sharing as a result:
The Add Apple (AFP) Share menu has been simplified and a "Default umask" option has been added.
The "Server Name" field has also been removed from AFP; in Netatalk 3, this value is automatically derived from the system hostname.
"Enable home directories" and "Home directories" options added to AFP.
The AIO options have been removed from CIFS.
Fourteen TLS-related fields have been added to the Advanced Mode of FTP.
An "IPv4 Address" column has been added to the View Jails screen.
A shell button has been added to Jails, making it easy to access the command line of the selected jail.
A "Create directory" checkbox has been added to the Add Storage function of a jail so that the user does not have to first access the jail's shell to make sure that the directory already exists. A "Read-Only" checkbox has also been added to this screen.
A jails templating system has been added, allowing the quick deployment of new jails from existing templates and the ability to create custom templates. Linux jail support has also been added and installation templates are included for Debian-7.1.0, Gentoo-20130820, Ubuntu-13.04, Centos-6.4, Fedora-19, and Suse-12.3.
A link to the online FreeBSD manual pages has been added to Help.
Added bxe(4) driver for Broadcom NetXtreme II Ethernet 10Gb PCIe adapter.Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
Delhi University says it will recognise transgender students for the first time next year.
Campaigners have praised the move calling it a step in the right direction.
Transgender students at Delhi have traditionally been forced to register as either male or female, but will able to opt for a third gender option.
A university official said the policy would be extended to undergraduate courses in the next academic year.
University registrar Alka Sharma said: “We had planned to start transgender admissions in undergraduate courses from this year but could not do so due to administrative reasons.
“From 2015-16 academic session, we will be introducing the third gender option in centralised admission forms and also make necessary policies for their admission.
The Times of India reports Anjali Gopalan, of the Naz Foundation, an Indian HIV support group, said: “It a step in the right direction. It really empowers people and makes them feel they are part of mainstream life. But there has to be a sustained campaign to understand transgenders, their issues and sensitise the society.”
She added: “DU has to involve the transgender community itself so that they are not made to feel like outsiders. Some mechanism has to be evolved for sensitization of the university community and also for the protection of the transgenders from harassment for which even the police needs to be involved.”
In April, India’s Supreme issued a landmark verdict creating a new category that allows transgender people to identify themselves as such on official documents.
Before the judgment, transgender Indians had to identify themselves as male or female in all official papers.
All documents will now have a third category marked transgender.
Overall, there are an estimated 3 million transgender people in India.
Unfortunately, India’s Supreme Court has refused to take the same progressive approach on other LGBT issues.
In December last year the court reintroduced Section 377 of India’s penal code banning sex “against the order of nature”, which is widely interpreted to mean same-sex sexual activity.
The Supreme Court threw out a 2009 New Delhi High Court decision that ruled the law was unconstitutional.
The Naz Foundation has since appealed to have the decision overturned, but so far with no success.MATT Phillips scored a goal in each half as a strong QPR XI beat Wolves 2-0 at the Harlington training ground on Friday afternoon.
The former Blackpool man opened the scoring in the eighth minute with a little help from a deflection, before doubling the lead in the 89th minute with a cool finish from just inside the box.
Meanwhile, the watching Harry Redknapp will have been pleased to see several of his players complete 90 minutes, including Sandro and Adel Taarabt, while Bobby Zamora played 70 minutes of action.
With no Premier League fixture this weekend owing to internationals, a friendly was arranged in order to provide valuable match time for a number of the QPR squad.
Alex McCarthy lined up between the sticks, with a back four (from left to right) of Yun Suk-Young, Clint Hill, Richard Dunne and Shaun Wright-Phillips.
Sandro and Michael Doughty played in the centre of midfield with Junior Hoilett on the left and Phillips on the right.
Taarabt played just off Zamora in attack.
It took less than three minutes for Taarabt to fire the first shot of the afternoon, with his 20-yard effort fizzing just wide of the right-hand post.
Five minutes later, the R’s took the lead. Doughty released Hoilett with a neat pass down the left, and the Rangers wide man picked out the on-rushing Phillips with a low centre.
As he arrived in the box, Phillips saw his goalbound effort take a slight deflection off a Wolves defender before ending up in the back of the net.
Mid-way through the half, Hoilett almost increased the hosts’ lead with a fine effort. Taarabt played the ball into his path and the former Blackburn man cut inside before curling an effort inches wide as he looked to pick out the far right corner.
In truth, there were few clear-cut chances in this game which was played in horrendous conditions with heavy rain affecting the play for both sides.
After the break, Suk-Young broke down the left and linked up well with Hoilett, with the latter picking out the former inside the Wolves box, but the South Korean international was unable to get his shot away.
In the closing stages, Bruno Andrade – who had replaced the impressive Zamora – nearly set up Phillips for number two. His corner from the right was headed goalwards by Phillips, but his effort clipped the top of the cross bar.
He wasn’t to be denied his second of the afternoon, however, and with just a minute of the game remaining, Andrade got beyond the Wolves full-back before sliding the ball into the path of Phillips as he arrived in the box. Phillips coolly took a touch to control before picking out the bottom corner.
QPR: Alex McCarthy, Yun Suk-Young, Clint Hill, Richard Dunne, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Junior Hoilett, Sandro, Michael Doughty (Trialist, 75), Matt Phillips, Adel Taarabt, Bobby Zamora (Bruno Andrade, 70).Who knew the 17th century could be so terrifying? At the Sundance Film Festival last year, a little period film, The Witch, emerged with major buzz. But for its newbie star, Anya Taylor-Joy, the experience took on an eerie edge, given the way audiences regarded her after screenings. “People were staring at me with a glassy-eyed look on their faces,” she says. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, it begins!’ ”
Taylor-Joy plays Thomasin, the eldest child of Puritan parents (Ralph Ineson and Kate Dickie) who establish a farmstead in the New England wilderness in the 1630s, 60 years before the Salem witch trials. After a sorceress steals Thomasin’s baby brother, the family descends into paranoia and religious mania.
First-time filmmaker Robert Eggers admits he was inspired by The Shining and imbues the film with a sense of dreadful isolation while also finding true horror in its rapidly disintegrating — and numerically diminishing — family unit. Eggers, a New Englander himself, further amps up the terror by painstakingly re-creating a time when witches were believed to be a genuine danger. “With the dialogue, I’m using things that people actually said in the period,” he says. “The family farm is made with correct building materials, and the costumes are hand-stitched based on patterns of actual clothing.”
Taylor-Joy (who had a recurring role on BBC America’s Atlantis) first read the script the night before her audition. Big mistake. “I completely panicked,” she says. “The words gripped my heart with an icy cold hand. I didn’t sleep a wink.”
The film was shot in very rural Ontario. “We’d drive two hours to set and there was no cell service, no Internet,” says Taylor-Joy. “[But] it made us bond in a way that we wouldn’t have if we had shot it in a place where we could have an outside life.”
WARNING: See the intense trailer for The Witch below
Perhaps the scariest part of the production was a goat named Charlie, who plays the malevolent Black Phillip. In real life, Charlie proved less than evil — except to actor Ineson, the film’s patriarch. “Charlie basically wanted to sleep, chill out, or attack Ralph,” says Eggers. “Charlie was a good guy, but he didn’t care that I was trying to make a film. Which I respect. He’s a goat.”
The Witch opens in theaters on Feb. 19.A man appearing to be a Donald Trump supporter violently attacked a leftist agitator at a campaign event for the Republican front-runner in Tucson, Arizona, on Sunday.
Upsetting the left-wing narrative casting Trump’s supporters as mostly black-hating KKK-style neo-Nazi white trash, Trump’s supporter in this incident is a black man, and the leftist agitator is a white man.
Wearing a white hood reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan, presumably as a political prop to further the narrative of Trump as aligned with the KKK’s vision, the leftist agitator was thrown to the ground, punched, and kicked by the Trump supporter.
Following the incident, the black Trump supporter was handcuffed and removed from the event by police officers.
Violent left-wing agitators are regularly descending upon Trump supporters and infiltrating his rallies. On Saturday, CNN described them as “protesters” blocking traffic on an arterial road leading to a campaign rally for Trump in Maricopa County, Arizona. Sheriff Arpaio, a supporter of Trump's and sheriff of the county, announced that three of the road blocking leftist agitators had been arrested.
UPDATE: Another angle is visible below. It appears that the white leftist agitator being attacked was carrying a Trump Nazi symbol but was not wearing a KKK-style hood. His fellow leftist agitator, however, was wearing the racially charged prop.
Went to the Trump rally just to see how crazy it would be........this is insane pic.twitter.com/QFwSwmNoI0 — Alex Satterly (@alex_satterly) March 19, 2016
Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter.Abstract
Ethnopharmacological relevance Cultures throughout the world give plants to their dogs in order to improve hunting success. These practices are best developed in lowland Ecuador and Peru. There is no experimental evidence for the efficacy of these practices nor critical reviews that consider possible pharmacological effects on dogs based on the chemistry of the ethnoverterinary plants.
Aim This review has three specific aims: (1) determine what plants the Ecuadorian Shuar and Quichua give to dogs to improve their hunting abilities, (2) determine what plants other cultures give to dogs for the same purpose, and (3) assess the possible pharmacological basis for the use of these plants, particularly the psychoactive ones.
Methods We gathered Shuar (Province of Morona-Santiago) and Quichua (Napo and Orellano Provinces) data from our previous publications and field notes. All specimens were vouchered and deposited in QCNE with duplicates sent to NY and MO. Data presented from other cultures derived from published studies on ethnoveterinary medicine. Species names were updated, when necessary, and family assignments follow APG III (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, 2009. An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG III. Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 161, 105–121). Chemical data were found using PubMed and SciFinder.
Results The Shuar and Quichua of Ecuador use at least 22 species for ethnoveterinary purposes, including all but one of their principal hallucinogens. Literature surveys identified 43 species used in other cultures to improve hunting ability. No published studies have examined the pharmacological active of these plant species in dogs. We, thus, combined phytochemical data with the ethnobotanical reports of each plant and then classified each species into a likely pharmacological category: depuratives/deodorant, olfactory sensitizer, ophthalmic, or psychoactive.Chris Calciano, an area scout for the Boston Red Sox since 2007, remembers it well: “I took a college catcher with a big arm and absolutely no bat in the back of the top 10 rounds and converted him to a reliever,” he says. “After three or four minor league seasons, he made his debut and he pitched to a sub 3.00 ERA for parts of five major league seasons. He peaked as a 7th inning guy for a year or so.”
He recalls another story that didn’t end so well: “I had a young phenomenal center fielder who flew through the system and was hitting in the three hole as a 21-year-old. He played for three weeks and was leading the team in every key offensive category until he collided with my right fielder … career-ending injury!”
Wondering who those players were and why their stories aren’t immediately familiar? That’s because Calciano is relating the highs and lows of managing a virtual team in Out of the Park Baseball, which has had him hooked since 2008, despite his day job for an MLB club. Like many OOTP players, he cut his teeth on Micro League Baseball during the 80s and later moved on to Pursue the Pennant before finally diving headfirst into a pair of online OOTP leagues, Pioneers of the Diamond and Major League Baseball Dreams.
“I enjoy playing OOTP,” he says. “The online league play is tremendous. It helps during that slow time of year from after the World Series until pitchers and catchers report!”
He adds: “The two online leagues I have been involved with keep things very close to MLB in terms of rules and the way financials are handled. There are ridiculous bidding wars on the international free agents at times. I know I got sucked into a #4 type starter who I believed would put me over the top — Instead, less than two years later, I was packaging prospects with him to unload the contract!”
Representing the Real World in the Digital One
So, how well does OOTP represent the scouting process compared to real life? “I like the basic structure of the tools, grades, and projection in the scouting system,” Calciano says. “I do, however, think a way of incorporating multiple evaluators giving reports and grades, as well as a deeper personality structure for prospects, would greatly enhance that aspect of the game. Make-up is critical in the process as far as a young player potentially reaching or even exceeding his ceiling. Increasing its role would enhance the true feel.”
Given the increasing focus on sabermetrics in recent years, we were also curious how Calciano feels about that trend. He explains: “When you look at the complete picture of the prospect, performance certainly needs to have its place. Data needs to be understood, but at the same time we can’t walk away from interesting prospects with tools, athleticism, and projection that may not have all clicked yet.”
He adds: “The stats compiled for high school and college players is a very small sample size and the competition many amateurs face is fairly weak. These are some of the reasons scouting departments trust their scouts’ guts, instincts, and evaluations when it comes time to make difficult decisions on player selection. More than anything, I think statistics help us ask questions that bring a focus to a particular area of a player’s skillset.”
Growing Up With the Sport
“I’ve been passionate about baseball since I was very young,” Calciano says. “I was fortunate to grow up in a great sports town at a time when all of the major sports teams were at or near the top of the league. Having a chance to see guys like Schmidt, Carlton, and Rose play so much was a true treat.”
He adds: “But I always appreciated the history of the game as well: Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig, Roberto Clemente, and Willie Mays were players I loved to read up on. The Philadelphia Phillies will always have a place in my heart as the team my entire family has had roller coaster rides with for decades, but my favorite team is the Boston Red Sox.”
Calciano played baseball too from a young age and made it as far as a utility infielder in an independent minor league, but when he had the chance to take a grad assistantship, he was happy to leave his playing days behind. That opportunity led to a Division I assistant coaching position, and he spent 12 years, five as an assistant and seven as a head coach, at the college level.
Along the way, he made connections with various people throughout the game, and eventually he decided to transition to scouting. He recalls: “When I walked into Fenway Park for the first time during the interview process and met the people running baseball operations, I knew instantly that was where I wanted to be.”Answer
First of all, it is not precisely known at what point during the Last Supper that Jesus gave his disciples Communion. For all that is known at this point, it may have been before the ritual Seder meal. But let’s presume for the sake of argument that it was after. The eucharistic fast is a discipline—not a doctrine—of the Church. It is meant to help Catholics prepare for the awesome privilege of receiving Christ’s body, blood, soul, and divinity. As a discipline, it can be modified or abolished. Indeed, just in the last century, the eucharistic fast was reduced from several hours to just one.
There is some scriptural evidence that the eucharistic fast may have been an early discipline of the Church. Paul writes this about the practice of eating and drinking during the liturgy:Kolmården 21st August 2016
My first trip to Kolmården took place in 2011, and it's fair to say that the place wasn't exactly an enthusiast destination at the time. There were just three rides in total, including a pirate ship, an off-the-shelf Roller Skater, and a lengthy cable car safari, and their location almost a mile away from the main entrance necessitated altogether too much effort for all but the most hardened credit whores. The European Coaster Club and Freundeskreis Kirmes und Freizeitparks both fit the park into longer Scandinavian itineraries, but no group made a dedicated trip, as there was really no reason for one.
There was considerable surprise in the community and quite a few raised eyebrows when a press release published in early 2014 announced the addition of "the world's best wooden roller coaster", a fifty-seven metre high machine with three inversions and twelve airtime hills that would be the fastest wooden coaster in Europe. The owner of the business was quoted as saying that this was the realisation of a long-term goal, even if it seemed to some (including this writer) that the plans were out of scale for a zoo that had until that point been targeted primarily at families with young children. Construction proceeded over the ensuing twenty-two months, despite a few minor hiccoughs along the way, and the new ride opened on June 28th.
It took us just over twenty minutes to walk from the main entrance of the park back to Wildfire (#2276). We were immediately impressed not just by the sight of the enormous structure, but also by the way that the track came into view no more than a minute before we reached the area, blending into its surroundings far better than those reading the press release might have assumed. An antique fire truck sat next to a themed souvenir shop and the ride station, both of which were roofed with rusted corrugated metal sheets. The general area was completed by a huge boulder that stood at the base of the lift hill giving a perfect vantage point for avid photographers, though every few minutes an operator leaned out of the control booth to ask those climbing on it to step down.
The staff on duty today were allowing people to wait for the front row, but all other seats were luck of the draw, and as a result our first lap ended up being in the third row from the back. There was a two pass restraint checking process for seat belts (done visually) followed by lap bars, but unlike the similar procedures at Six Flags New England there was no farting around, and as a result the train was ready to go about ninety seconds after it parked. (It's worth noting that the ride cycle time is marginally under two minutes, meaning that operations were easily fast enough to run a second train without stacking).
The lift hill runs at a fairly sedate pace when compared to other recent rides, taking of the order of thirty seconds to haul the train to the ride apex. Once at the top the remainder of the track comes into view, but the view of that pales in comparison to the spectacular landscape, which falls away rapidly to a bay located some one hundred and thirty two metres below. Though the ride drops less than half that height, the descent, taken at an 83° angle, is memorable for intense ejector airtime in all seats of the train, to the point that I'm tempted to label it as the best first drop I've experienced on any coaster, wood or steel; it really is that good. The ensuing climb out leads to the overall highlight of the layout, a superb inverted zero gravity stall that is negotiated effortlessly.
From that point on, however, the intensity is somewhat reduced when compared against other recent Rocky Mountain designs. The course continues with a sequence of turns, airtime hills, and two further inversions that are handled very well indeed, but the raw aggression of the initial few seconds never comes back. Worse yet, the final hill prior to the brake run is crested at a speed that would suggest the designers overspent their potential energy budget, constituting a definite dead spot in what is otherwise a well-paced ride. I'm still inclined to rate the overall experience as the best wood coaster in Europe based on the first few seconds alone, but were those taken away I think I'd probably leave Cú Chulainn in my number one spot.
We managed another eleven laps over the course of the day, including both back and front, and for me at least there was no clear winner between locations; the forces towards the back were stronger than those in the front, but not dramatically enough to offset the lesser visuals. As with everything from Rocky Mountain Construction there were no bad seats anywhere, making the inability to wait for specific rows less of an embuggerance than it might otherwise have been.
Megan was thrilled to be able to log the ride as her one thousandth credit, joining the four digit club in style with a brightly coloured handmade sign. After disembarking for the first time we spent about twenty minutes capturing the perfect photograph for her on the grounds that it is unlikely to be possible to move into the five digit club in our respective lifetimes, even allowing for hundreds of undiscovered rides in obscure parts of the world. Right now there are at least two enthusiasts in the running to be the first to three thousand, and I wish them luck with that; they're sufficiently far ahead of me at this point that there's no sense in wasting my life chasing down Jungle Mice just to score a meaningless record that nobody sensible really cares about anyway.
With the star coaster completed we hiked most of the way back to the main entrance for Godiståget (#2268), a Zierer family coaster added to the park last year. At the time the ride was announced I remember thinking it a strange choice, given that it was of a similar design and scale to the existing Delphinexpresen, but the physical distance between the two rides made the decision somewhat easier to understand; it was clear that park management had decided to invest in a second children's area to act as a buffer between the various animal exhibits. We also took the time for the Safari cable car, a thirty minute experience that remains an absolute must for all visitors to the park. The first portion of the course gave us some excellent shots of Wildfire and we found ourselves constantly switching between close-up views of animals and coaster porn.
This narrative began with a brief note about enthusiasts, and I'd like to conclude in the same fashion. In the roughly two months since Wildfire has opened, some one hundred and sixty four people have ticked the ride on Coaster-Count, and that headline number does not include the more sensible among us who choose not to count their credits. It's worth calling out also that just thirteen of those ticks have been from users in Sweden, a testament (as if one were needed) to the fact that the park is located in a remote location. Group visits have been made by CoasterForce, the European Coaster Club, and at least one group from the United States, and many more people have made private pilgrimages. During our visit we ran into several friendly people from CoasterClub Denmark whose company made our last rides of the day particularly memorable. Though the number of enthusiasts worldwide is not large (fortunately!) I rather suspect that inbound tourism to the Östergötland area will have been boosted by a measurable percentage in 2016. It'd be fascinating to see by how much.Nigerian pastor, Tim Omotoso, accused of child sex abuse and human trafficking, has been denied bail by the Magistrate’s Court at Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
Omotoso, the televangelist pastor of the Jesus Dominion International church, Durban, has been held in jail since April 20.
The court said there is a likelihood he would flee South Africa if granted bail.
Magistrate Thandeka Mashiyi made the judgement, and said that the pastor, a Nigerian whose family are all UK nationals, faced a sentence of at least life imprisonment.
“His family, wife and children are all United Kingdom citizens, his church has international branches, which he visits from time to time, he is regarded as an illegal immigrant [and] there is nothing tying the applicant to South Africa,” Independent Online quoted him Mashiyi.
“Based on the strength of the State’s case, the gravity of the offences, as well as if convicted, the applicant faces very lengthy sentences. I find that there is a likelihood that if he is released on bail he might attempt to flee and evade his trial.”
The case’s investigating officer, Warrant Officer Peter Plaatjies, gave testimony against the pastor.
Plaatjies said senior members of the minister’s church would draw “vulnerable” girls aged 13 to 15 into the church and have them perform sexual acts with him.
The pastor is charged with having trafficked more than 30 girls and women who were part of his nationwide church network.
He allegedly sexually abused the trafficked girls at a house in Umhlanga, near Durban.
Evidence was given suggesting Omotoso had the means to intimidate victims and witnesses and provoke them not to testify against him.
His child victims were reportedly told not to tell anyone what had happened or they would be “cursed and die”.
Mashiyi said: “I am taking into account that there is a public outcry about the explosion of these crimes of human trafficking, rape and sexual assault on young girls and women.”
The case has now been adjourned until July 21.Small surveillance drones are starting to be part of police departments across America, and the FAA will soon open up the airspace for more to come. This drone invasion has already raised all kinds of privacy concerns. And if you think that's bad, across the ocean, Russia seems hell-bent on outdoing its former Cold War enemy.
Russia's leading manufacturer of unmanned aerial vehicles, Zala Aero, has provided the Russian government with more than 70 unmanned systems, each containing several aircraft. According to an article published
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these organisms are using arsenic in their metabolism, it demonstrates that there are other life forms to that as we know it.”
Dr Dartnell went on: “There is no reason to expect that life arose just once on Earth. It could have arisen any number of times. The only reason that all life we have found so far has all descended from the same progenitor – the same mother of life – is because we’ve been looking for life in the same way.
“But if you start looking in extreme environments like Mono Lake, where our kind of life doesn’t survive very well, that’s where you find fundamentally different life forms with a separate origin. They’re aliens, but aliens that share the same home as us.” (Update: Just for the record, Lewis was not suggesting that a shadow biosphere would be announced by the NASA conference, simply that it was something biologists look for.)
Dr Wolfe-Simon has previously said of her research: “It may prove that there are other possibilities that are beyond our imagination. It opens the door for us to think about biology in ways we have never thought.
“We are going to look for life on other planets and we only know to look for that which we know. This may help us to develop tools to look for something we have never seen.”
Last year NASA revealed the detection of plumes of methane on Mars that offered compelling evidence that there might be life on the red planet.
British space scientist Professor Colin Pillinger, who has devoted his life to finding life on Mars, told Skymania: “If they have found anything which they can attribute to arsenic-based life then it is very interesting and obviously has connotations for other places in the universe where life forms other than the ones on Earth may very well have developed.”
• Discover space for yourself and do fun science with a telescope. Here is Skymania’s advice on how to choose a telescope. We also have a guide to the different types of telescope available. Check out our monthly sky guide too!High resolution textures, detailed models, long view distances, no loading times and a rich variety of shaders—the PC version of Skyrim has everything but a decent user interface, a problem easily remedied by playing it with an Xbox 360 controller.
Arguably superior—visually, in any case—to its console counterparts, the PC version of Skyrim can be played in a variety of settings: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra.
By now you're probably wondering what the game looks like in each different set of settings, and how much better Ultra looks compared to Low. We've just the screenshots comparisons for you to contrast and compare each setting.
Be warned that you'll need a monster of a computer to play the game on Ultra with a relatively smooth framerate. That's not to say the lower settings are any worse for wear. Far from it, Ultra simply offers you a chance to play an already beautiful game at a higher level of detail.
Be sure to click the images for larger, full-sized screenshots.
Skyrim on Low
Skyrim on Medium
Skyrim on High
Skyrim on Ultra
Source: Bethesda ForumsBackground: Salvia officinalis L. (SO) has effects on the central nervous system, including anti-addiction properties that may involve an opioid mechanism. Objective: Effects of a hydroalcoholic extract of SO on nociception and on morphine-induced tolerance and dependence were evaluated in rats. Methods: Tolerance and dependence were induced by injection of morphine (10 mg/kg, s.c.) or escalating doses of morphine (2.5, 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 40 and 50 mg/kg, s.c.) twice daily for 7 days. SO (400, 600 and 800 mg/kg, i.g.) was administered before morphine. The tail-flick and naloxone precipitation withdrawal tests were used to evaluate tolerance and dependence. Sedative effects as well as total polyphenolic and flavonoid were also measured. Results: The morphine-treated group showed significant decrements in the percentage maximum possible effect (%MPE) on days 5 and 7 compared to the first day, illustrating morphine tolerance. Higher doses decreased morphine tolerance. Furthermore, SO (600 and 800 mg/kg) attenuated almost all of the withdrawal signs including weight loss, jumping, penis licking, teeth chattering, wet dog shakes, rearing, standing, sniffing, face grooming and paw tremor and increased sleep duration (64.5 ± 9.7, 100.3 ± 4.7, respectively). Total polyphenolic and flavonoid content of SO was 138 and 69 mg per g of dried extract, respectively. Conclusion: SO has antinociceptive effects and may decrease tolerance and dependence induced by repeated morphine administration. However, to determine whether treatment with SO blocks tolerance by interfering with neurobiological mechanisms that mediate the development of morphine tolerance will require further studies.One-Hour Documentary-Style Film Produced by NFL Films and Gatorade Productions Chronicles Offseason of Redskins Quarterback Robert Griffin III
ESPN will present “RGIII: The Will to Win,” a one-hour documentary-style film produced by NFL Films and Gatorade Productions about Washington Redskins quarterback and 2012 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Robert Griffin III. The program will air on ESPN as a one-hour prime time special on Tuesday, August 27, at 7 p.m. ET.
“RGIII: The Will to Win” focuses on Griffin’s journey to return to the field for the 2013 NFL season. Divided into six acts, it begins with Griffin’s spectacular rookie season when he led the Redskins to their first division title since 1999. After sustaining a knee injury in Washington’s final game of the playoffs in January, the majority of the film documents Griffin’s offseason, both his rehabilitation and more personal off-the-field moments.
Filming took place over several months in multiple locations and will conclude at the end of the preseason. Steve Trout and Jay Jackson of NFL Films are co-directors. Griffin, an executive producer on the project, also shot footage using a self-cam that will be part of the film.
“I just want people to see me as me. Not everybody gets an inside look at who you are as a person. Yeah, I’m RGIII; I’m the Washington Redskins quarterback. But sometimes you need to know why people do what they do. I’m looking forward to putting it out there so people can know who I am,” said Robert Griffin III.
“ESPN constantly looks for new and unique content to present to fans across our various platforms, and “RGIII: The Will to Win” certainly fits that criteria,” said Julie Sobieski, ESPN vice president of programming and acquisitions. “The film spotlights one of the NFL’s rising stars and most engaging personalities, while providing an inside look at Robert Griffin III’s offseason recovery from knee surgery, one of the biggest storylines entering the 2013 season.”
“At Gatorade we believe that athletic performance is driven from the inside out and Robert is an amazing example of that, both on and off the field,” said Morgan Flatley, Gatorade Vice President of Marketing. “We’re looking forward to sharing Robert’s journey through “RGIII: The Will to Win” with not only his fans but athletes everywhere.”
Encore presentations of “RGIII: The Will to Win” will air on ESPN2 beginning Saturday, Aug. 31, at 9 a.m. and within the ESPN Sports Saturday block on ABC (Aug. 31, 2 p.m.).
In addition to the one-hour special, excerpts from the film will air on SportsCenter, NFL Live, Monday Night Countdown and other programs, including during halftime of the Monday Night Football preseason game on Aug. 19 (Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Redskins) and in the lead-up to ESPN’s regular season MNF opener on Sept. 9 when Griffin hopes to return to the Redskins’ lineup against the NFC East division rival Philadelphia Eagles (7 p.m.). Additional videos will also be available on ESPN.com and Gatorade.com.
-30-Largest economies by PPP GDP in 2018.
According to International Monetary Fund estimates.[1]
Top 10 countries by GDP (PPP) in 2018
This article includes a list of countries by their forecasted estimated gross domestic product based on purchasing power parity, abbreviated GDP (PPP).[2] Countries are sorted by GDP PPP forecast estimates from financial and statistical institutions in the limited period January–April 2017, which are calculated at market or government official exchange rates. The data given on this page are based on the international dollar, a standardized unit used by economists. Certain regions that are not widely considered countries such as the European Union and Hong Kong also show up in the list if they are distinct jurisdiction areas or economic entities.
GDP comparisons using PPP are arguably more useful than those using nominal GDP when assessing a nation's domestic market because PPP takes into account the relative cost of local goods, services and inflation rates of the country, rather than using international market exchange rates which may distort the real differences in per capita income.[3] It is however limited when measuring financial flows between countries and when comparing quality of same goods among countries.[4] PPP is often used to gauge global poverty thresholds and is used by the United Nations in constructing the human development index.[3] These surveys such as the International Comparison Program include both tradable and non-tradable goods in an attempt to estimate a representative basket of all goods.[3]
The first table includes estimates for the year 2017 for all current 191 International Monetary Fund (IMF) members as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan. Data are in millions of international dollars; they were calculated by the IMF. Figures were published in April 2018. The second table includes data, mostly for the year 2015, for 180 of the 193 current United Nations member states as well as Hong Kong and Macau (the two Chinese Special Administrative Regions). Data are in millions of international dollars; they were compiled by the World Bank. The third table is a tabulation of the CIA World Factbook GDP (PPP) data update of 2017. The data for GDP at purchasing power parity have also been rebased using the new International Comparison Program price surveys and extrapolated to 2007.
Lists [ edit ]
Click on one of the small triangles in the headings to re-order the list according to that category.
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]RICHMOND, Va. — The State Crime Commission will hold a public meeting later this month to discuss decriminalizing possession of marijuana in Virginia.
The meeting comes after the commission studied the topic earlier this summer, including gathering feedback from the public.
The public meeting will be held on Monday, October 30 at the Pocahontas Building, 900 East Main Street, in downtown Richmond. The meeting will be from 1:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. in the Pocahontas Building House Committee Room, which is located on the Ground Floor.
During the meeting, the Crime Commission will make a detailed presentation on study findings. After the presentation, public comments will be taken.
The Crime Commission listed the following public comment procedures:
Prior to the start of the meeting, speakers must sign in and receive a number that will be called when it is your turn to speak. Numbers will be organized in batches with 10 individuals in each group. The first 10 people will receive a #1, the next 10 people will receive a #2 and so on. Each group number will be called in numerical order to line up at the podium. A limited supply of numbers will be distributed that morning on a first come, first serve basis. Due to time limitations, we cannot guarantee that everyone will be able to speak at the meeting.
Numbers will be handed out beginning at 10:00 a.m. in the lobby area outside of the House Committee room in the Pocahontas Building. Numbers will be handed out until 12:00 p.m. or until all available numbers have been distributed, whichever occurs sooner.
The meeting room will open at approximately 10:00 a.m.
Speakers will each be allowed 3 minutes. There will be a timer set up.
Comments must be limited to the issue at hand – decriminalizing possession of marijuana. Please note that this does not include topics such as legalization of marijuana or medical marijuana.
Unless you already have a seat in the meeting room, speakers must exit through the side door once they have addressed the Commission. Seating space is limited due to fire code restrictions.
Speakers need to identify themselves and specify any organization or group they represent.
If there are a large number of speakers who are part of a group or organization, please designate a representative to speak on behalf of the organization or group.
Avoid repetitive comments.
Unruly behavior, such as booing, hissing or harassing remarks, is prohibited.
All cell phones and electronic devices must be turned off or on vibrate.Damien Woody and Mark Schlereth don't think the supporting cast will be enough to lead Jared Goff to a win in his first career start against the Dolphins. (0:31)
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- Cal coach Sonny Dykes learned everything he ever really needed to know about Jared Goff during Goff's freshman season, as a teenage quarterback for a program that won only once in 12 tries.
"He never blinked," Dykes said in a phone interview this week, days before Goff makes his long-awaited debut for the Los Angeles Rams. "I think we played Ohio State in Game 3 that year, and we weren’t very good, and we were playing with a ton of young players. Bunch of freshmen. Bunch of O-linemen that weren’t ready to be playing, I can promise you that. He got hit a bunch, and I learned that he was incredibly tough physically, incredibly tough mentally. He never complained one time. He just got up, dusted himself off, went back to the sideline and went back to work. And that’s the best thing about Jared Goff."
This won't be easy for Goff, the No. 1 overall pick in this year's NFL draft.
His own coaches have cautioned as much. Like Jeff Fisher, who warned against judging Goff solely on the merits of his first game -- Sunday, at home against the Miami Dolphins -- and said Goff is "going to have some moments, like all young quarterbacks do." Or offensive coordinator Rob Boras, who acknowledged that taking practice snaps is "different than actually playing." Or quarterbacks coach Chris Weinke, who talked about how the Rams "have to accept that there’s going to be some bumps in the road."
Jared Goff left a strong impression on Sonny Dykes, who praised the former Cal quarterback's toughness. AP Photo/Tony Avelar
Goff will be tested from Day 1, against a Dolphins team with a devastating front four and while standing behind an offensive line that has not performed well this season.
One thing that should help him, Dykes believes, is his footwork in the pocket and his willingness to absorb hits, a trait teammates have already picked up on.
"When they sat down and looked at all the quarterbacks, I think that’s what made him stand out, made him unique and made him the first pick," Dykes said. "It was his toughness, ability to stand in there and throw the ball with somebody in his face. Also, his ability to shuffle around and create space is pretty unique. The NFL game is different than the college game. Everything has to happen much faster than it does in college, but I’m sure he’s made that adjustment. I think he’ll do a great job."
The Rams waited to start Goff largely because he came from an offense in which he did not take a snap from under center and did not call plays from the huddle. Besides getting acclimated to NFL speed, those have been his two biggest adjustments. The system Goff ran at Cal was the pass-happy Air Raid offense that lends itself to gaudy collegiate statistics but traditionally has not produced successful NFL quarterbacks.
Goff ran a lot of run-pass options that mostly required two simple reads, but Dykes doesn't believe his progressions were much different from what he will now face.
"We asked him to full-field read all the drop-back passes, so he’s gone through a progression-reading system where he reads pre-snap one read, starts on one side of the field and progresses to the other side," Dykes explained. "Every one of our five-step passes he had a full-field read on. So he’s done a lot of that. I don’t know that the passing game stuff is going to be that much different. Maybe a little bit more play-action."
Dykes has his own season to think about, so he hasn't watched any of the Rams' games and he doesn't know a whole lot about their overall situation. But he and Goff constantly exchanged text messages throughout the year, even though the two teams work on opposite schedules. Dykes figured the Rams would be patient with Goff. Heading into the year, he guessed that Goff would debut by Week 10.
"This is Week 11," Dykes said, "so I wasn't too far off."
Dykes says Rams fans are getting a quarterback who is "going to be prepared" and "put the time in" and "be very competitive" and "make all the throws." But he also believes it is going to take time and that a lot of it will hinge on Goff's supporting cast. Dykes is glad the Rams took their time, even though Goff has felt ready for a few weeks.
"Jared just turned 22," Dykes said. "He’s a young guy. When you are the first pick in the NFL draft, there's a certain amount of pressure that goes with that. When you’re the face of the franchise that just moved from one city to the other, there’s a certain amount of pressure that goes along with that. And I think they were certainly aware of all that, and I think they wanted to make sure, before they threw him in the fire, that he was ready. And I think they were very wise to do that."Where ever we find water on Earth we find life. And so, it makes sense to search throughout the Solar System to find water. Well, here’s the crazy thing. We’re finding water just about everywhere in the Solar System. This changes our whole concept of the habitable zone.
Download the show [MP3] | Jump to Shownotes | Jump to Transcript
This episode is sponsored by: Swinburne Astronomy Online, 8th Light
Show Notes
The Habitable Zone — PBS
Cryovolcanism on Enceladus — BBC
Cryovolcanism on Titan — USGS
Evidence of Water Ice on Mercury — NASA
How to Keep a Venus Rover Cool — Universe Today
Herschel Discovers Water Vapor Spewing from Ceres — Universe Today
Where Should We Look for Life in the Solar System? — Universe Today
How Escaped Chunks of Earth May be Seeding Life in the Solar System — Motherboard
Ice Plate Tectonics on Europa — JPL
Transcript
Transcription services provided by: GMR Transcription
Female Speaker: This episode of Astronomy Cast is brought to you by Swinburne Astronomy Online, the world’s longest-running astronomy degree program. Visit astronomy.swin.edu.au for more information.
Fraser Cane: Astronomy Cast episode 352: Water, Water Everywhere. Welcome to Astronomy Cast, our weekly facts-based journey through the cosmos. We’ll help you understand not only what we know, but how we know what we know. My name is Fraser Cane, I’m the publisher of Universe Today, and with me is Dr. Pamela Gay, a professor from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, the Director of CosmoQuest. How are you doing?
Dr. Pamela Gay: I’m doing well; how are you doing, Fraser?
Fraser Cane: Good. Have you got anything interesting to say about CosmoAcademy?
Dr. Pamela Gay: We have a bazillion classes going on, so sign up now, please, please, please.
Fraser Cane: Yeah, I don’t think I’ll do the long version of this, where I, like, just, like, “Listen everybody. CosmoAcademy is the greatest thing you could ever want. And you get to have these classes with amazing PhD researchers, and they’ll teach you everything about black holes, and observational astronomy, and it’s the best. And it’s a reasonable price, and you can learn from these brilliant minds. So if you haven’t already, go sign up. Why wouldn’t you? All right. Cosmoacademy.org?
Dr. Pamela Gay: Yes.
Fraser Cane: Okay.
Female Speaker: This episode of Astronomy Cast is brought to you by 8th Light, Inc. 8th Light is an agile software development company. They craft beautiful applications that are durable and reliable. 8th Light provides disciplined software leadership on demand and shares its expertise to make your project better. For more information, visit them online at www.8thlight.com. Just remember, that’s www dot, the digit 8, T-H, L-I-G-H-T, dot com. Drop them a note. 8th Light: software is their craft.
Fraser Cane: So wherever we find water on Earth, we find life. And so it makes sense to search throughout the Solar System to find water. Well here’s the crazy thing: we’re finding water just about everywhere in the Solar System. So this changes our whole concept of the habitable zone. All right Pamela, you put this one on the docket. What were you getting at?
Dr. Pamela Gay: Well, so – it used to be – like when we started this show, when people started talking about habitable zones and stuff they were figuring, well, like that Goldilocks place where it’s not too hot, it’s not too cold, and you’re able to support liquid water on the surface of the world. Well, we’re now kind of finding liquid water everywhere in the solar system, and it’s appearing more and more that what’s actually required is something to prevent it sublimating away into the atmosphere, and a good case of gravitational squishing.
Fraser Cane: Right, which giant planets provide that in spades.
Dr. Pamela Gay: Yes. And then we’re also finding places with water that I know I never expected. It looks like the world Ceres, formerly known as a planet, now known as the largest asteroid, still getting called a planet by some –
Fraser Cane: It’s a dwarf planet.
Dr. Pamela Gay: It’s a dwarf. So Ceres is – it’s starting to look like, even though it’s not exactly undergoing tidal heating from anything, it looks like it might have cryovolcanism, which means maybe it also for some weird reason has sub-surface oceans. So it’s getting to be a pretty watery Solar System out there.
Fraser Cane: Right. So in the olden days, seven years ago – well, older than that, astronomers figured the water was on Earth; the Earth is where the water is, that’s that. Maybe Mars, but probably not. That’s the – we can see that Mars has some ice caps, so maybe there’s some water there.
Dr. Pamela Gay: Dry ice accounts for that quite nicely.
Fraser Cane: Yeah. But isn’t there, like, water – couldn’t they sense – detect water mixed in the atmosphere?
Dr. Pamela Gay: The atmosphere, yes.
Fraser Cane: Yeah, but that’s it. And then – but now – and then they know that there was icy moons around Saturn, and there’s comets and all this good stuff. But it’s all frozen snowballs. No water – no liquid water to be had. So what is our new understanding, and how are people sort of discovering this?
Dr. Pamela Gay: It’s really kind of shocking. What we’re now finding is Mercury doesn’t have liquid water, but it does have water in the permanently shadowed regions in some of its polar craters. We are finding Venus is still a nasty, acidic, don’t want to go there kind of place. We’re not gonna talk about it, because really it doesn’t have water.
Fraser Cane: Wait, but what about on the surface? I mean there’s more water on Earth below – there’s mountains and mountains of water below the surface – than we ever knew. And we’re finding these pockets ten kilometers down, mixed in with the rock. And so you get ten kilometers down on Venus, it’s a different place, right?
Dr. Pamela Gay: Well, and we don’t know. The crazy thing about Venus is it’s one of the weirdest surface in terms of not understanding its volcanic history. It looks like every large period of time that we don’t really know. It pretty much has a massive outbreak of volcanoes, the way a teenager might have an outbreak of acne. It just – the whole thing balloons up at once and resurfaces. Now the question is, in the process is it outgassing all of the volatiles that are stored deeper down? What exactly is going on during this massive process? We don’t really, totally, completely understand. So Venus, we’re gonna put into the “other” category. It’s not really well understood in that category, but covered in really gross, nasty gasses.
Fraser Cane: Put it in the “send more rovers” category.
Dr. Pamela Gay: I’m not quite sure we’re ready for rovers there, but balloons that circulate in the atmosphere, go for it.
Fraser Cane: No way, they – Geoffrey Landis came up with a sterling engine that could keep a rover going on the surface of Venus for months. Awesome idea.
Dr. Pamela Gay: Not planned to be built by anyone at the moment, though.
Fraser Cane: Yeah, but in my mind. In my mind, I’m speculating. Please continue.
Dr. Pamela Gay: Okay, so yes. So Earth we kinda know we’re kinda covered in water. The nearest asteroids we’re generally contending with, they rotate – they generally don’t have ices on them. You occasionally see evidence of volatiles have escaped, in the case of those that are really dead comets, more than they’re plain, old, rocky asteroids. But for the most part, near-Earth asteroids in the inner part of the asteroid belt is a dry place. This is because the sun baked everything dry.
I kind of bypassed Mars in there. Mars, liquid water is extremely salty, is what it appears. So it has briny water that is able to stay liquid at significantly lower temperatures than non-salt water can.
Fraser Cane: That’s good enough for life.
Dr. Pamela Gay: That’s – we sure have saltwater here on Earth that supports life, and so this salt water’s a bit saltier, more, I think, Dead Sea than Atlantic, but there’s potential there. So Mars has, it appears, sub-surface water in the form of briny water.
Then, moving outwards, as we move out through the asteroid belts, go past Vesta, past the – what we call the water line – the snow line in our solar system. This is that point in the solar system where the distance that you are away from the sun is such that things that formed during the early solar nebula formed with water and didn’t get baked to the point of not having water anymore. This is part of why we wanted to send the Dawn Spacecraft to both Vesta and Ceres, is they formed on either side of this line, we think.
Well, now it’s appearing that as we’ve been observing Ceres in the ramp up to getting the Dawn Mission there, it’s kind of looking like it may have cryovolcanism, which indicates water. That one’s kinda confusing. Then as we move out, we have Jupiter next. We already knew Europa has sub-surface water, ice on the surface. It’s kinda water in different phase states.
Fraser Cane: But it’s not the only one. I mean, that’s –
Dr. Pamela Gay: It’s not, no. It’s looking like Ganymede has water, Callisto has water, Io is another kinda baked kinda place, lots of nasty volcanism. Kind of awesome, but not really a watery kinda world. But then as we move out toward Saturn, we find the tiny worlds, like Enceladus, which actually appeared to also have these sub-surface oceans as well. and so it’s kinda like sub-surface oceans everywhere, and there’s the question of now what are we gonna find when we get to Pluto?
Fraser Cane: Pluto, right.
Dr. Pamela Gay: So Pluto and Chiron are certainly close enough that perhaps, maybe, sort of you could end up with some kind of tidal heating. Don’t know. Probably not, but wow, what if? So yeah, the solar system is turning out to be much more watery than previously thought.
Fraser Cane: So of all of those places, which one is the best candidate? Which is the best place for us to look, do you think?
Dr. Pamela Gay: The one that I didn’t name: Titan. So Titan you actually have massive organics already in place. This is a world that has methane and ethane at the transition point where they can go from vapor to liquid to solid. And with that triple point in play, you end up with a whole weather system. You end up with lakes that, depending on where they are, are either methane or ethane. Majority – it’s looking like the majority methane.
But there is also water in this crazy environment. And so you know we have all the organics. You have a complex water cycle, or liquid cycle, rather. You do have water. So that’s an excellent starting point. And, as has been noticed before, it’s atmosphere is actually out of chemical equilibrium for what you would expect for a system that doesn’t have life at that particular distance from the sun. so there’s already this weird – okay, there’s either chemistry we don’t understand, or there’s life.
Fraser Cane: But it would be underground. But the surface of Titan is cold enough to freeze methane, and to have methane snow. So you got ammonia oceans. So you need to go underground, under the surface, and that’s where you could have these reserves of liquid water.
Dr. Pamela Gay: Well, and you can also have – perhaps we don’t know, life that lives in the methane and ethane.
Fraser Cane: Yeah, that’s a whole other kinda life.
Dr. Pamela Gay: Yeah. And we know our planet Earth had methanogens in the past, so the idea of a more methane-oriented life form isn’t even alien to our own world.
Fraser Cane: Whoa. And so then there’s this idea of Pan Spermia, right? We did a whole show on this. This idea that life is moving around the solar system. And we know this for sure. We’ve found meteorites from even Vesta, right, and Ceres, and from Mars and the moon, and we find these in Antarctica. We pick them up off the ice, and something’s been traveling around the Solar System for three billion years, since it was blasted off.
And this idea that every part of this journey, life can survive it. It can survive being blasted off the world, it can survive being in space for a few million years, it can survive re-entry, and theoretically – and so you could imagine, right? You took a meteorite, it made the journey to Europa, somehow got into that ocean underneath where it’s probably gonna be rich organics, heat sources – it could be happy.
Dr. Pamela Gay: Well, I – and it could also be a death plague. And that’s the weird thing to think about, and it’s why we keep sending spacecraft into the atmospheres of first Jupiter, and now we’re gonna do it to Cassini in four years with Saturn. There’s the concern that life may be able to form through cold processes, and clays, and ices. And there’s been some really interesting experiments.
There was a Radiolab on this a while back. And it could be that life independently arose in more than one place, and if we send a rock from here to Europa, or a spacecraft, or an under-sea probe, that it could have the same sort of devastating impact that, well, Europeans had on the new world when they came here. Different biologicals carry different bacterias with different immunities. And this is a serious concern. So yeah, there could be life everywhere, and then we could successfully kill it. One of my favorite –
Fraser Cane: Replace it with our locally grown bacteria.
Dr. Pamela Gay: The replacing involves killing.
Fraser Cane: We’re terraform – we’re terraforming these worlds.
Dr. Pamela Gay: We’re killing.
Fraser Cane: But you can’t terraform without killing everything that’s there already.
Dr. Pamela Gay: My favorite Scientific American capture of all time – I’ve brought it up before – is one where it discusses the impact that killed the dinosaurs. It created a shockwave that flung dirt, plants, and dinosaurs at escape velocities.
Fraser Cane: Yeah, the impact that terraformed the dinosaurs.
Dr. Pamela Gay: And flung them to other worlds.
Fraser Cane: And flung dinosaurs to other worlds, yeah. Can you just imagine some dinosaur just landing – entering the Martian atmosphere and just landing on the surface? Isn’t that an episode of South Park, where there’s a killer whale on the surface of the moon? Anyway.
Dr. Pamela Gay: So that’s how the whale got there in Hitchhiker’s Guide.
Fraser Cane: Yeah. No, that’s a different story, that the whale was part of the infinite probability drive that would essentially create – because it’s a very unusual thing. but I see what you’re saying. I see what you did there. So okay, so we’ve got this idea that there’s water, water everywhere. So how on Earth, or in space, are we gonna be able to study this? I mean we’ve got this situation where this water is below ten kilometers of ice. You’ve got cryovolcanism; you’ve got Enceladus. That’s tough.
Dr. Pamela Gay: So with Enceladus, it’s light enough with the cryovolcanism to flight ice water – ice, which is a phase state of water – up into the lack of air, where spacecraft can fly through this. And that’s actually one of the planned orbital passages of the Cassini Mission during its final four-year phase. They are going to fly through where the geysers give off all of their particles, and they have onboard instruments that are actually capable of capturing the particles and measuring what they’re made of.
So hopefully they’ll be some nice, big ice crystals that are captured, and we can look at the salt, we can look at what other materials are in the water, look at all of the impurities, confirm that it is H2O and not something else. It’s one of those awesome things when space flings things up into reach of spacecraft.
Fraser Cane: Perfect. And we’ve got something a little similar happening – I guess that’s gonna happen with Ceres – it’s a little similar with what’s happening on Europa – there’s plate tectonics – ice plate tectonics on the surface of Europa. So you have a situation where the plates are going to crack open, or they’re going to be sliding over top of each other, and potentially, material is gonna be at the edges of these – at the subduction zones, you’re gonna have material from deep underneath being brought to the surface.
Dr. Pamela Gay: And it’s weird trying to understand exactly how Europa’s surface works, and Enceladus is, because it’s a different mass, even weirder physics in some ways. You have the tiger stripes on Enceladus, which appear to be where the water’s escaping, and then with Europa, we actually can see all of the organic materials that get sprayed down as the water particles come back down around the cracks. And with Europa, it’s this mix of tidal tectonics and weird hydraulic effects that we’re only learning to understand by studying how glaciers are interacting with the seas.
Fraser Cane: Yeah, it’s like the plate tectonics on Earth, but as you said, it’s hydrodynamic forces not rock, which has different physics. So okay, so – and then Titan, how on Earth would you get at the stuff on Titan? Or, as you said before, what if there is underwater reservoirs on Venus? I mean, that’s just – forget it.
Dr. Pamela Gay: So sampling materials with Titan is another case of you just need a spacecraft to pass through one of the ash plumes. We’ve actually been able to see those in silhouette; that’s less of a stress. It’s actually when we want to get deeper samples that it starts to become problematic.
Fraser Cane: We need a sailboat on Titan.
Dr. Pamela Gay: Well – yeah, that would work. I heard this great description: Titan’s surface is such that you could pretty much send anything you wanted, and ideally, you’d want something that can go back and forth from swimming to flying to roving. And you the winds, you have the lakes, you have the, we think, mostly solid surface. And so you’re in this amazing situation where any spacecraft goes.
Fraser Cane: Well, you could fly on Titan. You have wings. You could fly around with your arm strength. The gravity is so low, and yet the density of the atmosphere is so high. It’s, like, twice as dense as the atmosphere on Earth. You don’t realize that there’s this moon that has this dense of an atmosphere that you could work – of course, it’s cold enough to freeze methane, but don’t let that worry about it.
Dr. Pamela Gay: And the reason it’s able to retain this atmosphere is because of that cold. The atmospheric particles are moving so slowly that they’re not randomly colliding and hitting escape velocity with their rebound velocities. So Mars is just enough warmer that it struggles a lot more to keep its atmosphere.
Fraser Cane: Yeah. So I guess it sounds to me like you’re saying – and tell me if I’m wrong – you think we should send spacecraft everywhere.
Dr. Pamela Gay: Well, yeah. Why not? I mean it’s an awesome solar system out there. Every world needs its own spacecraft. We should have high-rise clones and sent to orbit moons.
Fraser Cane: Curiosities on every place with solid surface.
Dr. Pamela Gay: Yeah
|
of equal marriage’, adding she will work to ensure that religious protections are in place’.
Willie Rennie MSP, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said: ‘This bill represents a proud step forwards for equality in Scotland.
‘Equal marriage is the right and natural step towards the modern, tolerant and progressive Scotland we all want to see’.
Patrick Harvie MSP, out bisexual leader of the Scottish Green Party, said: ‘I’m delighted that Scotland will be pressing ahead with legislation which recognises the equal status of mixed-sex and same-sex relationships, and gives them all the same right to marriage.
‘I believe they should all have the same right to civil partnership too, and I’ll look forward to debating that in parliament.
‘Equality should mean equality for everyone, on their own terms.’
Over 14 Scottish religious leaders, from the Quakers, Episcopal, Unitarian, ministers of the Church of Scotland and Liberal Jeduasim have welcomed the bill and said they look forward to solemnise same-sex marriage.
Despite the bill ensuring opt out for religious bodies who do not wish to conduct same-sex marriages and guaranteeing religious freedom, some Scottish religious leaders said religious bodies are not ‘protected’ enough against the bill and called for ‘more safeguards’.
Archbishop Philip Tartaglia, president of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, said that ‘leading legal opinion’ has warned that the government’s proposals will have an ‘adverse’ impact on ‘religious freedom and a wide range of civil liberties.’ and may ‘discriminate unjustly’ against religious bodies.
Rev Alan Hamilton, convener of the Church of Scotland’s legal questions committee, said: ‘We have also expressed concerns about the speed with which the government is proceeding with this and what we fear will be inadequate safeguards for religious bodies and ministers and people of faith who view this as being contrary to their beliefs’.The media hype on Syria has reached fever proportions. There are daily reports of massacres by Syrian forces, all based on unverified reports of “activists” given wide coverage in western and Saudi/Qatari controlled media. The Report of the Arab League's Mission in Syria submitted in the last week of January, almost completely ignored by mainstream “international” media, does not bear out these tall tales. It talks of armed attacks of both sides – of the security forces and of armed groups. Amongst 5,000 estimated deaths in Syria, about 2,000 appear to be of security forces. It also talks about gross distortions by the media. While the international media reported that Arab League's Observer Mission failed to curb the Assad regime's repression, the picture that the Mission Report gives is quite different. It showed that it had brought down hostilities in towns such as Homs, helped in getting the security forces to go back to the barracks and lead to some normalcy, all within a scant 23-day period which is all that it had on the ground. The Mission had asked for an extension of its mandate, when the Qatar-lead League foreign ministers decided to pull the plug on the mission. Instead, the Arab League, now almost entirely in the hands of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, came out with its ultimatum of Assad stepping down, or it would move the Security Council. Arab League had already decreed sanctions, which the US backed UN resolution wanted to also be followed by all other countries.
The irony of the Gulf monarchies fighting for “democracy” is not lost on the peopl e. Neither is an Iraqi or Libyan style military intervention for bringing democracy to the region. No wonder that the US and other western countries rejected out of hand Russia's amendments, one of which asked for democracy, not just in Syria but for all of Middle East. As can be seen from the list of co-sponsors Morocco, France, United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Portugal Colombia, Togo, Libya, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Turkey – 6 are ex-colonial powers and 8 are still monarchies! So much so for their love for democracy in West Asia.
The US backed resolution with the Russian amendments are now widely available. All that Russia and China wanted is that peace be given a chance, and this be worked out within the country, while calling not only on the Assad regime for stopping armed attacks but also “for all sections of the Syrian opposition to dissociate themselves from armed groups engaged in acts of violence” and also urged “member-states and all those in a position to do so to use their influence to prevent continued violence by such groups.” It also wanted the Arab League's demands to be noted instead of being endorsed as NATO powers and the GCC had proposed.
that their people are fighting in Syria. Lebanon has become the major The reason why calling for attacks to stop is not acceptable is that there is a covert war that has been unleashed by the NATO and the GCC/Qatari combination. This covert war also has the support of the Islamist forces – Turkey is openly sheltering the Free Syrian Army near Iskendrun. The Libyan forces involved in the overthrow of Gaddafi have acknowledged that their people are fighting in Syria. Lebanon has become the major supply route for the rebels, as it has borders near the cities such as Homs and Hama.
We had earlier discussed about the importance of Syria in this region – unravelling of the secular fabric of Syria and unleashing sectarian conflict there as the NATO/GCC/Qatari combination is doing, is dangerous for the region as a whole. Then why this dangerous trajectory?
The US and NATO forces have looked upon West Asia as something that they need to control. Complete military dominance is vital to US interests, as President Carter proclaimed in his State of the Union Address on January 23, 1980, “An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America”. This has been the bedrock of US policies in the region, well before President Carter and has continued after as well. This is also the reason for its unwavering support for Israel, apart of course from its domestic Zionist lobby. The growing power of Iran was never a threat as long the Shah ruled there. The Khomeni revolution changed this equation. For a time, Saddam Hussein and Iraq balanced Iran with US help. The US invasion of Iraq and the subsequent destruction of the Bathist regime has removed the only serious opponent that Iran had within the region.
The consequence of the invasion of Iraq today is that Iran has gained enormous influence in Iraq. The Shia forces hostile to Saddam had lived in exile in Iran. Today, they are the major forces in the Iraqi government. As the US power winds down in Iraq, it is Iran's influence that is growing in the region. It is this rise of Irani power that the US wants to contain. Syria, Hezbollah are aligned with Iran. Consequently, the calculation that their weakening will also weaken Iran.
It in this context that the Shia Sunni card is being played – a policy of divide and rule familiar to all ex-colonial people. We today have imperial powers and Sunni monarchs in a tacit alliance with other Islamic forces – Turkey, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya – coming together to try and divide the region in Shia Sunni terms. If they succeed, they believe they can contain Iran. Otherwise, Iran's influence in the region can only grow – it is the biggest economy in the region and has also the largest population.
A Shia-Sunni divide has extremely serious long-term consequence for the region. We have seen what sectarian strife can do in Lebanon. The creation of confessional politics was a part of France's colonial strategy in Lebanon. It is this Lebanon scenario that the ex-colonial powers and the US would like to create all over West Asia. With of course, the help of the monarchies there.
What stands in the way of the US and the imperialist designs in Syria is that a majority of the people in Syria would prefer an Assad regime than hand the country over to the rag-tag opposition. Just as Russia and China will not fall prey to mission creep again as they did in Libya, the people of Syria know today the consequences of a civil war, external military intervention and sectarian strife. After “liberation”, Libya has a fragmented government and continuing armed conflict. MSF has withdrawn from certain centres as it was asked to medically treat torture victims who were promptly tortured again.
Assad has definitely weakened in the last 12 months, but his army stands relatively united despite rumours to the contrary. It has been under sanctions for a long time, and has a set of countries which would still supply it with what it needs and therefore not dependent unlike other Arab regimes. More the foreign intervention and armed attacks, more the likelihood of people turning away from the opposition. And the opposition still continues to be totally fragmented, surviving only due to Turkish and western support.
While the Bassad regime is still holding, the odds against it are mounting. The crucial issue is how the people react to the violence that is being unleashed on them. A lot will also depend on what happens in the struggle for democracy in Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, etc. A small shift in any country can change the geo-strategic kaleidoscope completely. Finally, Syria is only one piece of the larger West Asian puzzle; its is the larger dynamic that will decide its fate.
India's siding with NATO and the Arab monarchies is another example of its foreign policy deviating from the earlier independent position. As Syria continues to be linked to the Iran issue, this is a continuation of India strategically tailing the US in West Asia.
Image Courtesy: flickr.comKosovo’s Constitutional Court on Monday declared that the government’s request to change the constitution in order to transform the current Kosovo Security Force into a regular army was “acceptable”.
The proposed amendments to the constitution do not reduce any of the rights and freedoms guaranteed in Chapter II of the constitution, the court ruled.
Apart from the name of the force, the main change approved by the court refers to the duties and powers of the proposed Kosovo Armed Forces.
The main job of the Security Force is “to protect the people and communities of the Republic of Kosovo”.
Once amendments to the constitution are done, the new military force will “protect the sovereignty, territorial integrity, the people, property and the interests of the Republic of Kosovo and contribute to establishing and protecting regional and global peace and stability”.
The government’s plan to transform the current lightly armed Security Force into a regular armed force was announced earlier this month.
The new force “will change its mission, duties and structure, while the Ministry of the Security Forces will be transformed into the Ministry of Defence”, the government said.
The decision has angered Serbia, which said the proposed establishment of such a force was not part of the EU-led agreement between Serbia and Kosovo signed last April.
Serbia’s outgoing Prime Minister, Ivica Dacic, said if the armed force was established, Belgrade would seek guarantees from NATO and from KFOR peacekeepers in Kosovo that it should not be allowed to enter mainly Serbian northern Kosovo.
The current Kosovo Security Force has 2,500 lightly armed active soldiers and 800 reservists. The new Kosovo Armed Forces will comprise 5,000 active soldiers and 3,000 reservists once transformation is completed in 2019.Advertisement Maine elector can't vote for Sanders, casts ballot for Clinton Democratic elector David Bright intended to vote for Sen. Bernie Sanders Share Shares Copy Link Copy
A Maine elector who intended to vote for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was not able to fulfill his promise. Democratic elector David Bright said early Monday that he would vote for Sanders to acknowledge the efforts of the young supporters of Sanders, who beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in Maine's presidential caucuses. Originally Bright said he'd vote for Sanders only under the unlikely scenario in which Republican President-elect Donald Trump failed to get the necessary 270 votes. It appeared that with Bright's vote, Sanders would get one of Maine's four electoral votes. Bright cast his ballot for neither Clinton nor Trump, implying his support for Sanders. But his vote was declared improper and he was ordered to re-vote. Bright then cast his ballot for Clinton. She received three of Maine's electoral votes and Trump received one. "If my vote today could have helped Secretary Clinton win the presidency, I would have voted for her," Bright posted on his Facebook page. "But as the Electoral College meets all across this nation on this day, I see no likelihood of 38 Republican electors defecting from their party and casting their ballots for Secretary Clinton." In Maine, presidential electors are required to vote for the popular vote winner. But there's no penalty if an elector chooses to vote for a different candidate. "I cast my vote for Bernie Sanders not out of spite, or malice, or anger, or as an act of civil disobedience," Bright's Facebook post said. "I mean no disrespect to our nominee. I cast my vote to represent thousands of Democratic Maine voters -- many less than a third my age -- who came into Maine politics for the first time this year because of Bernie Sanders." MyNBC5.com is gathering more information on this developing story. This article will be updated as soon as more information is available.'I was asking them to get at least a C. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.' (Photo: Getty Images)
A boys basketball coach in Florida says he was fired because his “academic standards were too high,” according to The Orlando Sentinel.
Zach Anspach said he was let go after his first season at Tavares High with an 8-18 record because, “I was asking them [players] to get at least a C. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”
According to the Florida High School Athletic Association, athletes must have a 2.0 cumulative grade point average in order to play, essentially a C average. Anspach’s policy was that a student with a D or and F in any class on weekly progress reports could not play until his grade increased so a player could have a 2.0 average overall but not meet Anspach’s bar.
Thank you @TavaresHoops I will always have high standards & expectations-This is the only way to ensure success. https://t.co/GDJR7wPfo2 — Zach Anspach (@CoachAnspach) February 16, 2016
Two varsity players sat out a week before the returned with improved grades, he said. The JV season was canceled when too many players failed to meet the standards; the three JV players who did were elevated to varsity.
A school district spokeswoman told The Sentinel that Anspach was let go for not adhering to policy.
Anspach told The Sentinel that he had told the hiring committee of his plans and made the requirements clear to the parents and players before the season. He developed his academic system while working at Florida State in academic advising as a student. He previously had two stops as a JV coach at two schools in the area.
“It’s my understanding that in an effort to raise the bar and support his students, he had laid out some specific guidelines and was working with administrators to provide tutors and mentors for these young men,” Lake County School Board Chairman Bill Mathias told The Sentinel. “I believe what he was doing was in the right spirit — but he was too aggressive.”Recently my wife found me with my head in the freezer.
“What are you doing?!,” she asked.
I said, “I’ve just been watching the ice cubes to see if any have sublimated yet.”
“Oh,” she said.
What Is Sublimation?
“Sublimation” is when ice turns into a gas without passing through the usual intermediary liquid state.
If you leave your ice cubes in back of the freezer for a month or so, you might notice they start to shrink. That’s because they are sublimating: the ice is turning to water vapor even though it never melted.
Frost-Free Freezer
But I tried this experiment myself and my ice cubes never shrunk! All I got was a cold head!
Then a physicist explained to me that it only works if you have a frost-free freezer.
Huh?!
Why Is That?
It’s in the nature of sublimation. When we say that ice can turn into water vapor, what we mean is that fast-moving water molecules can actually fling themselves off the surface of the ice cube and into the surrounding air.
That’s what evaporation means. The more molecules that can free themselves of the ice this way, the more the ice has turned into vapor.
Molecules And Evaporation
But wait! In order to do that, the air around the ice cube can’t be saturated with water already. If it is, there’s no room for more molecules and evaporation can’t take place.
Frost-free freezers keep the air from becoming saturated so that it won’t freeze on the walls. But that also means ice-cubes can sublimate nonstop!Oppo. I’ve never heard of them before, but they’re a Chinese electronics manufacturer, if their Wikipedia page is to be believed. I was in the market for a cheap but decent Android phone, which doesn’t seem to be a common combination – you can either have cheap, or decent.
Luckily for me, I wandered into a Dick Smith store closing down and saw a few Oppo R7s’s in the cabinet:
Bargain!
After googling for a bit and seeing some positive reviews, I decided to go for it, at that bargain price of $317.40AU and I was impressed with the device contained within.
Opening up the box was a standard affair, with the handset itself, SIM card metal pokey device, USB cable and charger, headphones – and surprisingly, a clear soft plastic case. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a phone come with a case!
Oppo R7s box contents
Specs
This is a pretty beefy phone. From Oppo’s website:
Dimensions/Weight Height 151.8 mm Width 75.4 mm Thickness 6.95 mm Weight 155g Basic Parameters Color Golden, Rose Gold Operating System ColorOS 2.1, based on Android 5.1 GPU Adreno 405 RAM 4GB Storage 32GB (Expandable up to 128GB) Battery Typical Capacity: 3070 mAh (Non-removable) Processor Qualcomm MSM8939 Octa-core Display Size 5.5 inches Type AMOLED Resolution Full HD (1920 by 1080 pixels) Colors 16 million colors Touchscreen Multi-touch, Capacitive Screen, Gorilla Glass 4 Support for Gloved and Wet Touch Input Camera Main Sensor 13-megapixel Front Sensor 8-megapixel Flash LED Flash Aperture Rear: f/2.2 Sec: f/2.4 Other Features 720p/ 1080p videos Connectivity Frequencies International Version: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100MHz LTE Bands 1/3/5/7/8/20/TD-40 Taiwan Version: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100MHz LTE Bands 1/3/5/7/8/28/TD-38/39/40/41 US Version: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100MHz LTE Bands 1/2/4/7/17 SIM Card Type Dual-SIM: Micro-SIM Card and Nano-SIM Card GPS Supported Bluetooth 4 Wi-Fi 2.4/5GHz 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac OTG Supported NFC No Sensors Distance sensor Light sensor G-sensor E-compass In The Box OPPO R7s In-ear type earphones Micro USB cable VOOC Flash Charger mini SIM ejector tool Documentation Case
4GB of RAM and a nice Octa-core CPU make this a pretty high end phone. The screen is AMOLED which makes is very pretty to look at, and a 1080p resolution is enough for a 5.5″ screen in my opinion.
It’s running ‘ColorOS’ which is a modified version of Android. That normally is a bad thing, as manufacturers seem to bloat and slow down the user experience, but I found it really snappy to use.
ColorOS
The battery isn’t removable, but is easily big enough for a day’s usage.
There’s also VOOC Flash Charge – this gives you a really quick charging capability. If you use the charger and cable that comes with the phone, you can charge for 2 minutes to get 2 hours of talking mode power. 30 minutes of charge will give you 75% of your battery back, which is really impressive. You can still use a standard MicroUSB charger for slower charging times, so you don’t need to change over all your existing cables.
Another nifty feature of the R7s is the dual SIM option. You can either have two different SIMs in the device, or use one of the slots for added memory via a MicroSD card. A cool option I thought.
Oppo R7s Main Screen
I *really* like this phone. Compared to my Samsung Galaxy S6, I like this MORE, and it cost almost 1/4 of the price on sale. Even not on sale, it’s half the price. It’s snappy to use, there’s no bloatware from Oppo that I can see – they have designed this as a lightweight, easy to use Android phone with some cool features. The camera is really good too. I’m not sure there’s anything better about my Samsung Galaxy S6 compared to this. It feels nice to hold, is light and thin.
If you want a bigger screen, there’s the almost identical Oppo R7 plus which has a 6″ screen rather than 5.5″ and only costs a little more.
I can’t fault it, so if you’re in the market for an Android phone, this is worth checking out!
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SkypeMs. Dubuc said in a telephone interview that she attributed the company’s run of success to “remaining as close as possible to the creative community.” In her new position, she said, she will try to keep her hands on the programming decisions for the networks. “My heart has always been in programming and marketing,” she said.
She acknowledged that other quarters of the television business had expressed interest in hiring her, including the broadcast networks. “It is very flattering,” she said, “but I have never doubted that cable is the place I want to be.”
She also said that executives at the parent companies of A&E — the Walt Disney Company and the Hearst Corporation — had made plain that they were interested in retaining her. She said Robert A. Iger, the Disney chairman and chief executive, was “especially interested and generous” in his support, along with the head of the Disney Media Networks, Anne Sweeney, and Hearst’s chief executive, Frank A. Bennack Jr.
Ms. Raven, who brought Ms. Dubuc to History 15 years ago, praised her as a “terrific programmer” and said she was proud that A&E would continue a tradition of naming new chiefs from within. Ms. Raven said she expected to “explore new strategies and business initiatives” from her post as chairwoman.Notwithstanding his war-hero son’s genuinely patriotic example, Khizr M. Khan has published papers supporting the supremacy of Islamic law over “man-made” Western law — including the very Constitution he championed in his Democratic National Convention speech attacking GOP presidential nod Donald Trump.
In 1983, for example, Khan wrote a glowing review of a book compiled from a seminar held in Kuwait called “Human Rights In Islam” in which he singles out for praise the keynote address of fellow Pakistani Allah K. Brohi, a pro-jihad Islamic jurist who was one of the closest advisers to late Pakistani dictator Gen. Zia ul-Haq, the father of the Taliban movement.
Khan speaks admiringly of Brohi’s interpretation of human rights, even though it included the right to kill and mutilate those who violate Islamic laws and even the right of men to “beat” wives who act “unseemly.”
As Pakistani minister of law and religious affairs, Brohi helped create hundreds of jihadi incubators called madrassas and restored Sharia punishments, such as amputations for theft and demands that rape victims produce four male witnesses or face adultery charges. He also made insulting the Muslim prophet Muhammad a crime punishable by death. To speed the Islamization of Pakistan, he and Zia issued a law that required judges to consult mullahs on every judicial decision for Sharia compliance.
Read moreA new flotilla with humanitarian aid on board is going to help people in Gaza; the mission is beyond political polarization and in full compliance with international law, Osama Qashoo, member of the first flotilla to Gaza, told RT’s In The Now.
A flotilla carrying humanitarian aid has set out from Sweden on its way to Gaza which is under and Israeli maritime blockade. The ships are carrying pro-Palestinian activists aiming to break the blockade. Two other vessels are expected to join them later. The Foreign Ministry of Israel has described it an unnecessary provocation, saying the boats will be denied entry, and if you want to send aid to Gaza - do it via Israel.
Up to 10 people were killed 5 years ago when Israel tried to block the first flotilla bound for Gaza.
For more on that RT asked Osama Qashoo, filmmaker and activist, member of the first flotilla to Gaza.
RT:Were you aware of the danger when you decided to take this trip?
Osama Qashoo: Of course everybody who is taking actions and doing any kind of solidarity and humanitarian aid for Palestine is aware of the ugliness of the Israeli machine and the brutal and bloody heavy handed way of the Israeli Army and the Israeli government in general. We were all aware of that.
RT:Why did you take the risk then?
OQ: Somebody has to take the risk. I think we have a responsibility. We, as a civil society and as international society, must act if the governments are not acting and not doing well. We constantly watch the screens and see people being killed and butchered on a daily basis without saying anything. It’s our responsibility as human beings to stand side by side and try to communicate what we feel very strongly as wrong.
RT:Israel said that is was a self-defense from its side, that the flotilla attacked the Israeli commandos. How can you comment on that?
OQ: We said this millions of times - we were in the international water, we were absolute civilians. We had more than 700 cameras filming on board of that ship. None of these pictures were released to the public to make the public judge what happened on the ship. I can’t just understand how you can attack a ship in the middle of international waters by naval vessels and by the army that is the forth strongest army in the world, and also with helicopters and assume that they were attacked. That just doesn’t make sense. The definition doesn’t really get a fit in this kind of description. We were on the boat, we were cruising towards Gaza with aid and they landed on top of the ship shooting live ammunition and they killed ten of us. I don’t see how people can just have the cheek of saying that we attacked them.
RT:Israel says the flotilla 1 activists were closely linked to Hamas. Is it true? Were any Hamas-linked people on board of the ship?
OQ: Let’s just look at a bigger picture here. According to the Israeli laws every two Palestinians together are breaking the law are terrorists. The head of the Palestinian authority, Mahmoud Abbas, is in fact a terrorist under the Israeli definition. So I wouldn’t like to refer and to relate to the Israeli way of analyzing things. The Palestinian people who have been suffering the longest occupation, who have been scattered all over the world, who have been suffering injustices. We are the real victims…Palestinian people have different political factions … We are not affiliated with any political groups, that is not what we do as international society. We were basically going to Gaza to help people who are in serious need. The aid that we were taking with us was for the use of the people. I don’t think it’s a kind of a matter of who is going to benefit out of these things. We are taking them for children. I don’t think children have any political kind of vision, any political color there. We are beyond color, the religion and this political polarization. We were going there for a very simple reason – breaking and ending the siege that was imposed illegally by the international definition on the Palestinian people. And what we did, what’s completely complacent with the international law Israel violated that, they attacked us as an act of piracy. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) basically declared that what happened in the sea was a war crime but yet they won’t do anything about it…
RT:Is it the best way to get aid to Gaza if you know that Israel will take actions?
OQ: Let me just tell you something. When the Israeli ex-Prime Minister Ehud Barak with his gangs went to Tunisia and they killed the Palestinian leader Khalil al-Wazir and after their vicious techniques of killing Palestinian activists and Palestinian supporters all over the world, in Germany and in the UK, here and there, all over the world… He said in his diaries that the fact that Israel is not just going to kill but it’s the way they kill. So they are using the terror to scare the others. What happened in the middle of the sea in 2010 to us was to terrorize other people and prevent them from doing the same thing. I think the activists, my friends and comrades, who are now on their way to Gaza; they are not the last ones. They are all fully aware of the danger. We are not scared of the Israeli brutality and its terror machine. I think that if the international community would allow another massacre to happen, the international community is to be responsible…We know what is happening in Palestine and we should interfere, everybody has to put the foot down and say “enough is enough” because blood is not a product that we have to trade with. And that’s what Israel is definitely doing.
MORE:
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.Global temperature anomaly data from 2014. Image: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre
Last year was the warmest 12 months since 1880, according to analysis by NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists.
Nine of the 10 warmest years since modern records began have occurred since 2000, according to a global temperature analysis at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.
2014’s record breaking warmth continues a long term trend of a warming climate. The global average temperature has increased about 0.8C since 1880 with most of that warming during the last three to four decades.
The scientists say the trend is largely driven by the increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide and other heat trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere caused by human emissions.
This video clip shows a time series of five-year global temperature averages, mapped from 1880 to 2014, as estimated by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York:
John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, says ranking 2014 as the warmest year on record reinforces the importance to study Earth as a complete system, and particularly to understand the impacts of human activity.
While 2014 temperatures continue the planet’s long-term warming trend, scientists still expect to see year-to-year fluctuations in average global temperature caused by phenomena such as El Niño or La Niña.
Chart of the temperature anomalies for 1950-2014, also showing the phase of the El Niño-La Niña cycle. Image: NASA/GSFC/Earth Observatory, NASA/GISS
These weather events warm or cool the tropical Pacific and are thought to have played a role in the flattening of the long-term warming trend over the past 15 years. However, 2014’s record warmth occurred during an El Niño neutral year.
The latest analysis incorporates surface temperature measurements from 6,300 weather stations, ship and buoy-based observations of sea surface temperatures and temperature measurements from Antarctic research stations.
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The most complicated computational device you own is probably not in your pocket, not mining bitcoins in the back room or nestled by the TV helping the kids "frag" their friends in eye-popping video game HD.
It might be sitting on your drive, in the garage or on the street.
The it, in this case, is your car.
Modern vehicles are very smart. They can recognise that they are crashing faster than you can and prepare for the impact before you have time to think: "This is going to hurt."
They know when it is raining, when you are straying from your lane or are in danger of hitting the wall when you park.
"Cars today are not just computers on wheels," says security researcher Josh Corman.
"They are networks of computers on wheels."
And therein lies the problem, he tells the BBC.
Mr Corman is spokesman for a grassroots group known as I Am The Cavalry (IATC) that seeks to communicate the thoughts and fears of many professional security testers to the wider world. Of late, IATC has been getting very worried about cars.
Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Early attempts at hacking vehicles involved taking them apart to access their systems
A modern car, Mr Corman says, has up to 200 small embedded computers in it, known as electronic control units (ECUs), each one of which, in general, oversees one subsystem.
They all connect to a network that ships data around the car to co-ordinate what is going on as it is driven.
The embedded computers are typically not made by car manufacturers. Instead they come from other companies, which often do not - or will not - say how they work.
Physical hacks
Before now, that has not worried the carmakers who just want the black box to meet their specifications for such things as monitoring tyre pressure, measuring the angle of the steering wheel, working out how many people are in the car or that they are wearing seatbelts.
But the lack of transparency has vexed security researchers who, in recent months, have been taking a much closer look at in-car computer systems.
They have not been impressed by what they have found.
Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek of security firm IOActive led the way in hacking the computer systems in cars, says Andy Davis, head of research at NCC Group.
The early work on car hacking involved getting physical access to the vehicle.
Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Vehicles often contain computer-controlled parts made by several different manufacturers
Mr Miller and Mr Valasek literally tore apart the cars they investigated to get at the Controller Area Network (Can) buried in its substructure.
"If you can get access to that Can either physically or remotely you can essentially control the vehicle," says Mr Davis.
At the recent Def Con hacker conference in Las Vegas, the two IOActive researchers presented their latest work entitled, A survey of remote automotive attack surfaces.
It took a close look at the hackability of 21 separate vehicles. Everything from a Toyota Prius to a Range Rover Evoque.
The report found exploitable problems almost everywhere it looked - in wireless tyre pressure sensors, telematics controllers and even anti-theft systems.
Image copyright Chrysler Image caption A study indicated the 2014 Jeep Cherokee was more vulnerable than several rival models
The 2014 Jeep Cherokee topped the list of the most hackable cars and the 2014 Dodge Viper was the least hackable.
But the Jeep's maker, Chrysler noted that there had been "been no documented, real-world incidents of remote hacking".
"We have a team of engineers dedicated to developing cyber-security features in anticipation of emerging threats," it added.
"Further, Chrysler Group strongly supports the responsible disclosure protocol for addressing cybersecurity. Accordingly, we invite security specialists to first share with us their findings so we might achieve a cooperative resolution. To do otherwise would benefit only those with malicious intent."
Breakdown alerts
Many of the latest attacks seek to get at a car remotely via the communication systems now sported by many modern vehicles, explains Mr Davis.
"The reason this has become much more of a high-profile, ongoing issue is because of the way things are going in the car industry and the whole idea of the connected car."
In Europe and the US there are moves to set up so-called eCall systems that automatically contact emergency services when a vehicle has been involved in a serious accident.
An allied bCall system would ring for help in the event of a breakdown.
There is no doubt, says Mr Davis, that soon all cars will be connected cars.
Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption There are plans for cars to be able to call for help in the event of a breakdown
"That has made all the carmakers realise it's something they need to provide," he adds.
"But if they have to do this we have to ask what else can we do to it?"
Black box
NCC Group recently conducted a six-week investigation into the security of vehicles from one manufacturer, which it declined to name.
Mr Davis says a whole range of security problems was found, but the biggest failing in his mind only emerged when researchers questioned the carmaker about issues that had arisen during the tear-down.
"We let them know about our assumptions of how the ECUs could be abused and they said, 'This is a black box for us,'" Mr Davis recalls.
"So, they went to the third-party that made it, who said it was proprietary information and we will not tell you."
Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Mini-computers can spot potential problems at an early stage
That's a big problem, he adds, because it means solving those security issues becomes much more difficult.
This lack of clarity about the innards of in-car computers prompted IATC to publish a letter calling on vehicle makers to improve security.
Some steps have already been taken, says Mr Corman, thanks to IOActive raising the issue in the media.
That's led to it being discussed more inside car firms and, in particular, among R&D and engineering staff.
"They know what they need to do but they have been lacking the executive support to make it happen," he says.
He singles out Tesla as one carmaker that is setting good standards. It has an open disclosure policy and actively seeks help to squash bugs in the software and other systems used to control its cars.
Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Researchers say the car companies are becoming more aware of the risk of hackers
But he acknowledges that it will take time to encourage others to do likewise and demand more open and secure standards from their suppliers, Mr Corman adds.
"We're taking a strategic long view," he says.
"It has to be a long view given how long it takes
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of the store.North Korea’s successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile has brought to the fore the most consequential foreign policy question now facing President Trump: Should the United States go to war to eliminate the threat of North Korea’s nuclear weapons?
So far, the debate in Washington over preventive military action has centered on the nature of the threat. Can a more capable North Korea be deterred from using nuclear weapons against the United States and its allies? Will it engage in nuclear blackmail, sell weapons to terrorists or other rogue regimes, or try to unify the peninsula by force? These are important considerations, but not the only ones that matter. Any decision to attack North Korea must also take into account the extraordinary human, military, and economic costs the United States and its allies would bear for years to come. Odds are good that America would be signing up for a nation building project of epic proportions.
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The immediate human consequences of war on the Korean Peninsula would be stark. Even a limited military intervention could escalate into a larger conflagration. According to the nonpartisan
Congressional Research Service
, hundreds of thousands of civilians could die within days of the conflict. South Korea would face an assured artillery barrage on Seoul, if not a nuclear or chemical attack from North Korea, whose ballistic missiles can also range Tokyo, the world’s largest city, putting millions at risk.
A major humanitarian crisis would unfold in North Korea. Food supplies and basic health care would be scarce, exacerbated by massive refugee flows numbering in the millions. Hundreds of thousands of political prisoners and detainees would also need critical attention. Post-conflict security demands would be similarly daunting. North Korea has the fourth largest military in the world at over a million strong with more than seven million reservists. Even as foreign forces worked to seize nuclear sites and materials, stocks of chemical weapons would be scattered around the country, along with caches of conventional weapons in underground tunnels and facilities. Surviving factions could ignite civil war and insurgency. As a result, stabilization and peacekeeping tasks could require more than 450,000 troops.
Complex governance questions would instantly emerge: What happens to the existing North Korean bureaucracy, the ruling Korean Workers Party, and members of the internal security services? Knotty problems of unification, demobilization, and transitional justice will need to be answered. Meanwhile, someone will have to turn on the lights, pick up the garbage, and reopen the schools.
There would also be enormous economic costs for the region and the United States. Estimates for long-term reconstruction in North Korea top $1 trillion. Don’t expect China or the Europeans to pick up the bill. Colin Powell’s “Pottery Barn” rule of you break it, you own it, would apply. Add to that estimates by the RAND Corporation that a conventional war alone could cost South Korea upwards of 60 percent to 70 percent of its annual gross domestic product, or nearly another trillion dollars.
Finally, America’s prized position in the region would be thrown into disarray, with big outstanding questions about the future of the alliance between the United States and South Korea and the U.S. military presence on the peninsula. Particularly if Washington goes to war against Seoul’s wishes, as would be the case today, it could do irreversible damage to U.S. alliances in Asia and beyond. Further complicating matters, China’s military will almost certainly intervene into a destabilized North Korea, creating both military and political obstacles for the United States. Washington would need a strategy at the ready to advance long-term U.S. interests. Beijing most certainly has one.
There are no indications that the Trump administration has done the necessary preparation for these many challenges, nor has it leveled with the American people about the extraordinary costs the United States would bear if it breaks the North Korean regime. It is imperative that Capitol Hill step up and fill this void before the Trump administration makes any decision to take preventive military action. After more than 16 years of nation building in the Middle East and South Asia, the American people deserve nothing less.
Kelly Magsamen is vice president for national security and international policy at the Center for American Progress.
Ely Ratner is the Maurice Greenberg senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.Calling all Jurassic Park fans and hipsters: The remastered score of the iconic dinosaur movie will soon be available on vinyl.
The vinyl record will be released on two different LPs on June 11, which coincides with the 21st anniversary of the film's release.
Mondo, an art gallery devoted to film, art and music, is releasing John Williams’ score on vinyl. Two versions of the LP will be released, each with different artwork by two notable artists and limited copies.
“[This design artwork has] helped make the vinyl itself a piece of art,” a Mondo spokesperson told Mashable.
One LP will feature artwork by JC Richard, with only 3,000 copies on 180-gram black vinyl. The other 2,000 copies will be printed on Dilophosaurus-colored vinyl — a dinosaur in the movie that trapped the character Wayne Knight in a Jeep.
The other version of the LP includes artwork by Dan McCarthy and will be printed on translucent amber vinyl, with only 1,000 copies available for sale. Both copies will be sold for $35 apiece and will only be available for purchase on Mondotees.com.
This isn’t the company’s first foray into commissioning artists to recreate art from a movie. With a permanent gallery space in Austin, Texas, Mondo reimagined Disney movie posters at this year's SXSW.
In 2012, the company started to apply its same design aesthetic to vinyl, creating imaginative LP covers for movies like Gravity, ParaNorman and Drive. But perhaps none have been so iconic as Jurassic Park.
"Having grown up with Jurassic Park as a seminal moviegoing event not unlike the experience of seeing Star Wars for the first time, we wanted to do a soundtrack release for John Williams' incredible score ever since we began pressing vinyl," Justin Ishmael, Mondo's creative director, told Mashable. "The perfect opportunity came along last year when Universal remastered the score for a digital-only release and we knew in our dinosaur bones that there had to be an analog option for fans like us."
If you want more than vinyl, you'll have a little longer to wait: A fourth film is set for release on June 12, 2015. Steven Spielberg will not be the director, but he'll serve as a producer.Bin Laden raid reveals another elusive target: a stealth helicopter
Military aviation experts have been trying for decades to produce a chopper quiet enough to slip undetected behind enemy lines. Until the crash and destruction of a helicopter during the raid, none thought such a craft existed.
A section of the craft also survived intact, and photos of it leave no doubt in analysts' minds that the U.S. had modified a MH-60 Black Hawk into some kind of super-secret stealth helicopter — the likes of which have never been seen before.
But aviation experts are now convinced that the Pentagon may have developed such an aircraft. They say the U.S. military went to extraordinary lengths to protect its new technology by destroying a helicopter that had been damaged in the raid, either during the initial landing or in the subsequent evacuation.
The quest for a helicopter that can slip behind enemy lines without being heard or detected by radar has been the Holy Grail of military aviation for decades and until this week nobody had thought such a craft existed.
When a U.S. military helicopter was destroyed in the backyard of Osama bin Laden's compound, it left not only a pile of smoldering wreckage but tantalizing evidence of a secret stealth chopper.
CIA Director Leon E. Panetta has said that the only helicopters used for the operation were Black Hawks, and he acknowledged that one of them had to be destroyed.
While stealth jets are designed to evade radar, stealth helicopters are built to be quiet. Some experts have concluded that the military and CIA may have succeeded in their decades-old quest to develop a helicopter without the ear-splitting thump-thump-thump that has signaled the presence of rotorcraft from miles away.
Maj. Wes Ticer, a U.S. Special Operations Command spokesman, declined to comment.
Aerospace analysts say the surviving tail section appears nothing like that of the standard $30-million Black Hawk chopper made by Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. in Connecticut. Notably, the tail rotor was partially covered by a plate or hub, possibly part of a noise muffling system.
"What we're seeing here is a very different type of design than what we normally see in rotorcraft," said Loren Thompson, defense policy analyst for the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va. "It appears that the military went to great lengths to reduce the radar and acoustic signature of the helicopter."
The tail section hints at what other modifications might have been made to the far more important main rotor.
Farhan Gandhi, aerospace engineering professor at Pennsylvania State University and deputy director of the Penn State Vertical Lift Research Center of Excellence, said tremendous advances in helicopter noise reduction have been made in recent years.
"You can never have helicopters make zero noise, but there is a tremendous possibility to make them much quieter than they are now," Gandhi said.
To reduce noise, rotors can be slowed down. Advanced computation has enabled engineers to refine the shape of rotor tips. And research is being conducted into active controls that can make minute changes to the shape of rotors many times per second as they change position.
"The technology has been lab tested and flight tested, but it is not on any military aircraft that we know about," Gandhi said.
Jeff Eldredge, a UCLA aerospace engineering professor and acoustics expert, said helicopter noise is extremely complex and requires many approaches to controlling it.
"The idea of a stealth helicopter is something of a misnomer," he said. "It is very unlikely this is a helicopter you wouldn't hear coming."MMJ Patient: Faith Bodle, Beaumont, TX
With the extensive list of medical conditions that a woman like Faith Bodle has, many would find the biggest challenge of their being to get out of bed and face them all. And that was true for her until she was introduced to cannabidiol and medical marijuana. She was in mid-scream because of the pain that was riveting through her body, when her son had had enough of watching her double up on dosages of her prescriptions and seeing no signs of relief. “Here, mom”, he said. “Take a hit of this.” This is how she got her life back.
What medical condition have you been struggling with?
I am plagued by quite a few conditions, but am struggling the most with Trigeminal Neuralgia, Fibromyalgia, Arthritis, Diabetic Neuropathy, Severe Scoliosis, Degenerative Spinal Disease, and Osteo Arthritis. Trigeminal Neuralgia is by far the most painful condition that I have ever experienced in my entire life! And I’ve had 2 kids and 4 miscarriages, a broken tail bone from a Sky Diving 3 Point Landing and being rear-ended, (LITERALLY), by a drunk driver when my fiance, now husband, and I stopped to assist at an accident we had just witnessed back in 1988. All of that pain combined didn’t even come close to the pain of Trigeminal Neuralgia. A very debilitating Facial Pain!
How long have you been experiencing your medical condition?
All of the conditions that I mentioned above have been over the progression of my lifetime. I was born with scoliosis, so I have suffered from back pain all my life, but other than that, Fibromyalgia has been with me the longest. Since I was 13 months old.
In mid-November of last year I was struck with my first attack of Trigeminal Neuralgia. At first it felt like I had corn chip jammed into my gum under my upper plate. Then it progressed to feeling like a 6-inch long hypodermic needle was being shoved up into my gum, through my eye and into my brain. Then, it got really bad. During an attack, all I could do was scream!
Then, it got really bad. During an attack, all I could do was scream!
What do you believe caused this medical condition?
Trigeminal Neuralgia is an incredibly painful condition. It is the wearing away of the Myelin sheath. You essentially have an exposed nerve that is coming in constant contact with all your bodily fluids inside your body. So, every time something brushes by it, it fires a shooting pain. And of course the Fibromyalgia I believe was triggered by that traumatic experience I had as a child. My other medical conditions occurred over my lifetime and could have been triggered by a number of things, some even triggered by the medications the doctors had prescribed.
What medications have you been taking that were prescribed to you by your doctor?
I was prescribed a collection of pharmaceuticals including Hydrocodone, Gabapentin, Oxycodone, Morphine, and Tizanidine, to name a few. This in addition to the spinal injections.
What side effects did you experience from the prescribed medication by your doctor?
I went through an array of different prescriptions. One would work for a short time and then stop; so we’d switch to another and another and another. The doctor would raise the dosage, or even combine multiple medications. I had rashes, difficulty breathing, so, I had a medication for that! I had heart palpitations, chest pain, muscle spasms, and it was all just to take the edge off; they never succeeded in stopping the pain completely. I still felt like my toes were being sawed off and was in too much pain to even hold a pen or a piece of silverware. But, sometimes I would wonder if the temporary relief was actually worth it. I would sweat profusely, feel disconnected, and become nauseous more often than not.
My prescriptions made me exhausted; I would often unexpectedly fall asleep at times or places that weren’t ideal, like at a red light at an intersection. Yes, I would consider that to be a major negative side effect. While stopped at a red light, one day, I opened my eyes to the sound of car horns. Looking around I saw that the light was Green. So, rather than that happening while driving, I decided to take myself off the road until I was off my medications, which is easier said than done. When I’d try to lower my dosages, my body would dive into an even deeper turmoil. I began going through withdrawals and deep depression. You can’t go through withdrawals if you’re not already addicted, so my body was obviously already hooked. It’s a terrifying place to be in, when stopping the pharmaceuticals could hurl me into a cardiac episode or shut down my breathing or my liver or kidney function.
I knew that this was not how my story would end. God had a reason for me being here right now!
What type of alternative medicine have you tried aside from your doctor’s recommendation?
It was with much prayer and deliberation that I decided to try a hit of marijuana while in the middle of a Trigeminal Neuralgia attack! The pain was so bad! It was intolerable! I started using marijuana only during an attack and only when the pain subsided enough so I could draw on the pipe. I didn’t get a diagnosis until February of 2014. Two hits on the pipe and the pain from Trigeminal Neuralgia, the most horrific pain I had ever suffered, STOPPED! I heard about cannabis oil, or CBD, so I started using CBD Oil twice a day in January 2014. For the next three months I noticed a marked decrease in the amount of pharmaceuticals that I was using.
SEE ALSO: Shutting the Medicine Cabinet and Opening the Fridge
How long have you been using the alternative medicine?
In December, my son start noticing that the pain I was experiencing from my Trigeminal Neuralgia was worsening; when the pain would hit, all I could do was scream. I couldn’t even eat or drink because I was in so much pain. And finally, he came up to me with his pipe and said, “Mom, hit this!” and that was that, my pain stopped immediately. It was then that I realized how worthless my prescribed medications were. They weren’t helping me in the least and yet this plant that God created, could do everything for me that the medications were unable to do. It amazes me that with all the warnings on the labels of the pharmaceuticals that men would wake up and read the warning label on the cannabis plant or Kanneh Bosem as in the Holy Bible. Oh, wait! There is NO WARNING Label on the Kanneh Bosem. This is a GOD-GIVEN MEDICINE! I would also vape CBD oil which is legal in all 50 states.
How have you felt since you started using the alternative medicine? Compared to your prescribed medications?
I feel like I’m normal again. I feel like I can get up out of bed without having to spend an hour coaxing myself to get up for the day. I feel like a human being again. I don’t feel like an over-medicated blob of flesh anymore. I’m a space cadet on pharmaceuticals but a human being on CBD oils and marijuana. I have more of an inclination to do things… I can function! I don’t feel as limited by my disease anymore. Among many other Americans, I spend Sunday nights watching Dancing with the Stars and have been watching Tommy Chong and his partner Peta Murgatroyd perform. Tommy is a medical marijuana patient, but stated to Peta that he would stop taking it while on the show. If you watch his steps closely, you can see the pain in his eyes and it really hurts me to see society shaming him for his choice of medication. He is taking it to ease his pain and it’s unfair to take that away from him. It’s so much easier to judge when it’s not you that is the one suffering or being prescribed toxic pharmaceuticals.
It’s so much easier to judge when it’s not you that is the one suffering or being prescribed toxic pharmaceuticals.
Do you think you will continue with using alternative medicine?
Absolutely. When I was able to move from taking double dosages of my prescriptions to barely taken them at all… I knew medical marijuana and CBD would be a permanent facet of my health regime. The only reason I still have my meds in my cabinet is because finding accessible CBD is not always easy and I need to have a back-up in case I don’t have it. This is my medicine and I will continue taking it for the rest of my long life!
Are you a patient? If you are and would like to share your own testimonial on how alternative medicine has become a part of your treatment, we'd love to share your story with the CannaEffect community! Spread the message. Share your voice. Be an inspiration.
DISCLAIMER: The statements in this article are true experiences and real life medical scenarios of the patient. The shared results may not work for you as it varies based on each individual immune system reaction. The information regarding alternative medicine(s) mentioned herein have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Always consult with a medical doctor prior to starting a new relief program such as mentioned in this article. The information herein is not a recommendation, suggestion, or medical advice to simulate the patient's relief program. This article was published for testimonial purposes only.It seems that CCleaner, one of PCWorld’s recommendations for the best free software for new PCs, might not have been keeping your PC so clean after all. In an in-depth probe of the popular optimization and scrubbing software, Cisco Talos has discovered a malicious bit of code injected by hackers that could have affected more than 2 million users who downloaded the most recent update.
Editor’s note: This article was first published on September 18, 2017, but was updated on Sept. 21 with details about the malware targeting specific technology companies for industrial espionage.
On Sept. 13, Cisco Talos found that the official download of the free versions of CCleaner 5.33 and CCleaner Cloud 1.07.3191 also contained “a malicious payload that featured a Domain Generation Algorithm as well as hardcoded Command and Control functionality.” What that means is that a hacker infiltrated Avast Piriform’s official build somewhere in the development process build to plant malware designed to steal users’ data.
Cisco Talos suspects that the attacker “compromised a portion of (CCleaner’s) development or build environment and leveraged that access to insert malware into the CCleaner build that was released and hosted by the organization.” As such, customers’ personal information was not at risk.
In a blog post by vice president of products Paul Yung, he states that the company identified the attack on Sept. 12 and had taken the appropriate action even before Cisco Talos notified them of their discovery. Yung says the attack was limited to CCleaner and CCleaner Cloud on 32-bit Windows systems—fortunately, most modern PCs will likely be running the 64-bit version.
Yung assures customers that the threat has been resolved and the “rogue server” has been taken down. He also says Piriform has shut down the hackers’ access to other servers. Additionally, the company is moving all users to the latest version of the software, which is already available on the company’s website (though the release notes only mention “minor big fixes.”)
Most reassuringly, Yung states that Avast was seemingly able to disarm the threat before it was able to do any harm. The intent of the attack is unclear at this time, though Avast says the code was able to collect information about the local system.
Update: On September 21, Avast revealed that the malware was designed to deliver a second-stage payload to infected computers in specific organizations, and at least 20 machines across eight companies contacted the command and control server. “Given that the logs were only collected for little over three days, the actual number of computers that received the 2nd stage payload was likely at least in the order of hundreds,” Avast says.
Cisco Talos also studied the malware’s command server and reports that it was attempting to infiltrate PCs in technology organizations, including Intel, Samsung, HTC, VMWare, Cisco itself, and others. You can see the full list at right. Cisco Talos suspects the attackers planned to use the malware to conduct industrial espionage.
What to do about CCleaner malware
Personal users can download CCleaner 5.34 from Avast’s website if they haven’t already done so. Previous releases are also still available on the company’s website, but the infected version has been removed from the company’s servers. You’ll also want to perform an antivirus scan on your computer. If you’re affected, Cisco Talos recommends using a backup to restore your PC to a state prior to August 15, 2017, which is when the hacked version was released.
The impact on you at home: While personal users within the target area shouldn’t see any impact from this attempted attack, it’s still a scary notion. While Avast got in front of the issue and resolved it without incident, smaller companies might not be able to react so quickly. For example, earlier this year, it was found that a breach at Ukranian software company MeDoc was responsible for the NotPetya ransomware. Ransomware is becoming a troubling trend, and if hackers are able to infect infect update servers they can spread malware to as many machines as possible.Sorry for the length of this survey! This survey is based off of /u/wlhlm's survey made in March 2015. Make sure to check out the original survey below!
Why redo the survey?
It's been well over a year since the last survey was conducted, and I'm sure the landscape has changed a lot since then. The results from the original survey really captivated me, and gave me some insight on our small community that I didn't expect. Needless to say, I love seeing how wide and diverse the community is, so the results will definitely be interesting to see!
Some questions have been changed in order to be easier to go through, and I have read over all the notes made on the original surveys to try to improve on his work.
Reference:
https://wlhlm.github.io/rmk-march-2015-survey/Turkey, Syria’s non-Arab neighbor to the north, has seen its regional influence increase significantly in recent months. Once a staunch ally of President Bashar al-Assad, Turkey has come out strongly against the Syrian regime’s crackdown. It hosts the Syrian National Council and has deployed additional troops along its border with Syria.
Earlier this month, the Turkish army held military exercises in the southern Hatay Province, a symbolic prod at Syria which once possessed the coastal territory before it was ceded to Turkey by the French mandatory authorities in 1938. Turkey worries that the violence could trigger a civil war and turn the Kurdish-populated northeast Syria into a base of support for the PKK, a Kurdish separatist movement seeking a homeland in parts of southeast Turkey.
Syria has used the Kurdish card in the past against Turkey, almost triggering a war between the two countries in 1997. However, Syria yielded to Turkish threats and dropped its support for the PKK, ushering in a period of increasingly cordial relations which only ended with the outbreak of anti-regime unrest in March.A judge has ordered a psychiatric examination for a man who allegedly tried to pay a bar tab with a rock, and then made a bogus bomb threat.
Cops in Tallahassee, Florida say that on Wednesday, Jared Simpson, 24, visited the 4th Quarter Bar & Grill and rung up a $10 tab. When it came time to pay up, Simpson allegedly tried to get the bartender to accept a rock as payment.
When the woman decided that a stone wasn't legal tender, Simpson responded by throwing a ripped-up dollar bill at her and saying he "would pay [her] in other ways," according to the probable cause affidavit.
One witness said Simpson told people he was "shot up in the war," but would not reveal the military branch he served in because "if I tell you I have to kill you," according to Tallahassee.com.
Simpson left the bar and came back a short time later with a credit card that didn't work, so the employee told him to pay up or leave.
Simpson left again, but came back again, this time in a gray suit and carrying a briefcase that he set down.
After warning that "anyone who goes near this will die," Simpson allegedly ran out of the bar and across the street.
The bar was evacuated and police were called to the scene.
When Simpson was apprehended, he told police that the briefcase contained "maybe a bomb or a baby," WCTV.com reports.
According to police, the suspect sang a song about being a "rainbow man," and refused to answer any questions about the briefcase other that saying, "I am my own master, I answer to myself, no police have the right to ask questions."
A bomb squad investigator determined the briefcase did not contain a bomb. A vehicle search of Simpson's car did not find any other harmful devices.
Simpson was arrested on charges of bomb threats, a weapon of mass destruction hoax, petit theft and disorderly conduct.
Bond has been set at $30,500, but a judge has ordered that Simpson undergo a psychiatric exam before he's allowed to bail out.
Terrez Williams, a cook at the 4th Quarter, said he suspected Simpson might not be quite right even before the alleged bomb threat.
"He came in here and tried to pay for his drinks with a rock. So I figured something was wrong with him then," Williams told WCTV.
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Contact The AuthorCRIMINAL charges will not be brought against a controversial far right group that "invaded" mosques in Bradford last year, the Crown Prosecution Service has revealed.
On May 10, members of Britain First entered numerous mosques in Bradford, handing out British army bibles and urging worshippers to convert to Christianity.
They also made an uninvited visit to the home of then Bradford Mayor Councillor Khadim Hussain to discuss the issue of Asian grooming gangs and visited a local branch of Subway that serves halal meat.
West Yorkshire Police received several complaints about the incidents, but after "lengthy consideration" the police and Crown Prosecution Service now say there is "insufficient evidence" to pursue a prosecution.
Chris Hartley, Senior District Crown Prosecutor, CPS Yorkshire and Humberside told the Telegraph & Argus: "We have liaised closely with West Yorkshire Police on this matter, and a range of potential charges were considered.
"However we concluded, after lengthy consideration of all the available evidence that there was insufficient evidence for the CPS to commence a prosecution.”
Superintendent Vince Firth, partnerships lead for Bradford District Police, said: "We thoroughly investigated the incidents involving Britain First in Bradford and presented an evidence file to the CPS.
"They have fully considered this and concluded that there is no criminal case to answer. Throughout our enquiries, we have worked closely with local communities, partners, places of worship and the Council for Mosques to ensure they were fully informed.
"Each complainant has been personally visited by a police officer and updated about the result of the investigation. The actions of Britain First caused great offence to many, but the people of Bradford responded in the right way - by acting with the utmost dignity.
"Together, we continue to provide support and offer reassurance through our Neighbourhood Policing patrols and council warden teams."
After hearing about the decision, Cllr Hussain said: "I think the best policy now is to ignore them. I'm not interested in the negative elements in society."
Zulfi Karim, vice president of the city's Council of Mosques, said: "If there is not enough evidence for a prosecution, then there needs to be more protection for places of worship, not just mosques but all places of worship. I can understand they can't prosecute, but that is because the law is so open. You would hope there would be more protection against people coming into to places of worship like this. I understand no crime was committed and there was no damage.
"People will live in fear if places like this can be invaded." He said he would continue to push for stronger laws protecting places of worship.
Bradford West MP George Galloway had been highly critical of the party, and after hearing no charges were being brought, said: "I'm disappointed, but not surprised. Fortunately this group seems to have retreated back into its swamp, and let's hope they stay there."
And David Ward, Bradford East MP was also not surprised by the decision. He added: "They were quite clever, they might have pushed the law to the limits, but they didn't actually break it. But what took place was unpleasant and potentially very dangerous."JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri state lawmaker from suburban St. Louis says he'll appeal the more than $114,000 in fines he has been assessed for allegedly violating campaign finance laws, blaming the supposed misconduct on the theft of his debit card and campaign computer.
The Missouri Ethics Commission found that Democratic state Rep. Courtney Curtis of Berkeley kept at least 11 bank accounts for his re-election fund, potentially allowing him to use some of those donations for personal use, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/2tn6jVK ) reported.
The commission also said Curtis accepted cash donations in excess of state limits, deposited campaign contributions into a personal bank account and used campaign funds to pay for items already covered by the state.
Curtis has 45 days to file amended, updated records and pay 10 percent of the assessed fines — $11,400. The remaining amount would be stayed, unless he commits further violations in the next two years.
On Tuesday, Curtis denied any wrongdoing, telling The Associated Press that someone who stole his and campaign laptop computer and his campaign debit card, using that to make unauthorized transactions, were to blame. He also cited "two major bank errors," though he didn't elaborate.
"Obviously, I was late filing reports, and I take responsibility for that," said Curtis, whose 73rd House District encompasses St. Louis Lambert International Airport ad includes all or parts of Berkeley, Ferguson, Bridgeton and St. Ann.
"This will be appealed," he added. "I have the option of paying 10 percent (of the assessed fines) and not have any campaign violations but I'd still rather correct the record first and see where I am."
Curtis has faced ethics-related questions previously. In January 2016, he and a fellow Democratic state representative got in a fist fight in an alley outside of a Jefferson City bar. No charges were brought and no action was taken by the House Ethics Committee.
In 2016, three months after heading up hearings into election irregularities in St. Louis County, Curtis was fined for failing to file a report detailing how much money he has raised and spent in the weeks leading up to the Aug. 2 primary election.Image copyright Twitter/@Hamed_KOP
Faced with cold weather and a troubled economic situation, Iranians are organising spontaneous outdoor charity drives.
But the "walls of kindness" appearing in major Iranian cities have also generated a debate online about efforts to help the poor.
The idea seems to have started in the north-eastern city of Mashhad, where someone installed a few hooks and hangers on a wall, next to the words: "If you don't need it, leave it. If you need it, take it." Donations of coats, trousers and other warm clothing started to appear.
The person who initially set up what came to be known as the "wall of kindness" wishes to remain anonymous, according to a local newspaper. But the idea quickly spread to other cities, fuelled by thousands of Iranians on social media.
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The drive increased in popularity as severe cold weather recently engulfed the country. Photos of walls across the country have been posted by several users, who are asking their fellow citizens not to "let any [homeless people] shiver in the cold this winter."
"This is a great initiative. Hope it spreads across Iran," said one Facebook user. "Walls remind us of distance but in some streets in Shiraz they brought people closer to each other," said another, citing the southern city where the second such wall sprung up.
Image copyright Twitter/ @islanded_ Image caption The 'wall of kindness' in Shiraz
However, some have taken this spontaneous show of charity as a sign that the government isn't living up to its pledges.
"People are helping each other out in a country with so much wealth. Those in charge seem not to share similar concerns as that of the people," said one Facebook user. "If only we had wise and caring statesmen, we would not have a single needy person in this country with this amount wealth we have," another one complained.
Despite promises of a better future by Iran's President Hassan Rouhani and the government's efforts to bring the country out of its international isolation following the landmark nuclear deal in July, Iran is still grappling with a recession, the effects of sanctions and sluggish employment. Many ordinary Iranians are badly affected by the situation and reports say that the number of the homeless in major cities has risen as a result.
Image copyright Twitter/@_far_in Image caption This 'wall of kindness' sprung up in Esfahan City
Official figures suggest that around 15,000 are homeless in Iran, although other reports say there's that many in the capital alone and that the total figure is much higher. Various official organizations are in charge of providing welfare to the homeless, who are described in Iran as "cardboard sleepers."
But there are questions about how transparent and effective these initiatives are, which partially explains why people have decided to take the matter into their own hands.
"We need to do it ourselves. Life is too short. Be kind as much as you can," one Instagram user said. One comment on Facebook read: "We, the people, are the media. By sharing [photos] of these kindness walls, we showed that we make the news, if we are resilient."
The "wall of kindness" idea is similar to another citizen-driven initiative, called "Payan-e Kartonkhabi", ("ending homelessness"), where fridges have popped up on city streets so that people can leave food for the homeless.
Image copyright Twitter/Tehran Municipality Image caption A 'Payan-e Kartonkhabi' fridge on a Tehran street
Next story: Did Twitter take down 'affluenza' teen Ethan Couch?
Image copyright ABC News
In 2013 Ethan Couch pled guilty to killing four people after he crashed his truck while driving drunk. READ MORE
You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending.Lately, I’ve been thinking about “relative oddness.” I realize that I must sound crazy as a loon to the folks who do not perceive the world as I do. I mean, witchcraft?…seriously. I regularly question my sanity and do little reality checks with my peers, just to make sure I’m still on the rails. Some days I wonder if I’m the lunatic; other days I wonder if I’m the last sane person on earth.
It’s hard to forget that being a witch, seeing visions, and hearing the messages of the unseen hosts, as we do, was a capital offense not nearly long enough ago
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just read Game of Thrones and loved it. I’ll occasionally pick up the new Stephen King book, but my reading is all over the map and not usually horror. I just enjoyed Kevin Mitnick’s Ghost in the Wires, about his hacking career. I really enjoy American history and popular science. Steven Pinker is great at breaking down complex ideas. I just ripped through the full canon of Sherlock Holmes, because I got a Kindle and all of it is free! I guess my favorite authors are Charles Dickens, Ray Bradbury, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Mark Twain, Raymond Carver… a lot of folks who aren’t writing anything new, so I’m always up for a new recommendation.
When you aren’t looking into the lore of Deep Ones, what do you enjoy as a hobby and like to do for fun?
Chris Lackey: Like I said, I’m a big gamer. RPGs and Boardgames. I go to the movies as much as I can. But I don’t watch much TV anymore, though I do love some Futurama when I can get it over here (England). I read lots of comic books and I love a nice cup of coffee. Chad Fifer: I’ve been doing some form of acting or theater for most of my life. I met my wife at The Second City and we both spent a lot of time doing sketch comedy. I’m always hoping I’ll have time to get back and do some Shakespeare again. I write and direct here and there, but I have the best time when I’m just acting in a show, working with a group of people, focusing on doing my part.
What other Podcasts do you listen to in your spare time?
Chris Lackey: Well, This American Life and Radio Lab are big staples. But I’m a huge fan of Skeptics Guide to the Universe as well. Also, Point of Inquiry, Pulp Gamer, and Yog-Radio (I also do News from Pnakotus with Paul MacClean). My new favorite is WTF. Chad Fifer: I don’t listen to any, really, which is probably bad. But I’m usually writing and so can’t listen to people talking while I work. I’ll binge on This American Life and Radio Lab every couple of months if I have a long road trip.
What would you do if you found out that mooncats were real and they were totally willing to have your back in any kind of rumble?
Chris Lackey: Make a deal with NASA and do some moon missions. Also, I would start a cult. Chad Fifer: You’re making an assumption that this hasn’t already happened.
Are there any other HP Lovecraft Projects that you would like to work on in the future?My name is Michael Wolcott. My grandfather passed away four weeks ago. He was 78 years old. My family cleaned his house out three weeks ago, and one of the things we kept was the computer we gave him for Christmas two years ago. It was always running whenever we would go over to his house, and we never really knew what he spent his time doing with it. He would always talk to my cousin and me about emailing us, but we never received any email from him. Yesterday I decided to plug his computer in and look around to see what my grandpa had been doing with it, and I found this blog in his web history. I read through all of what he had written, and I read through all of the messages in his inbox. I also thought for a long time about what I should say here, if anything.
My cousin Amelia and I used to spend a lot of time at my grandma and grandpa’s house when we were little, because both of our families lived in the same city as them. But ever since our families moved to different towns 6 or 7 years ago, we began seeing less and less of grandpa. The last time either of us saw him before he died was this past Christmas, and I can’t even remember when I saw him before that. I’ve spent the last three weeks feeling really guilty about not spending enough time with him these past few years. And I’m sure I will keep feeling that guilt for a long time. But after reading through all of the messages he received from you all, I’m amazed at how many people out there – people who never even met him – were so interested in him and cared about him.
So thank you all for spending the last year of my grandfather’s life making him feel like he had someone to talk to. It was more than Amelia or I had been doing for him.
I also want to encourage anyone out there reading this to take a minute to call your own grandpas, or grandmas, or even mom and dad to say hello, and to let them know that you’re thinking about them. I wish that I had done the same.
Thank you, and goodbye.HOUSTON, Texas — Hurricane Harvey ended its nearly six-day reign over Texas as the now-tropical storm moved ashore in far-southwestern Louisiana Wednesday morning. As many as 30 people are suspected dead.
Harvey’s floodwaters continue to be the major threat to the upper Texas coast. Local officials claimed that at least 30 people have died, or are suspected to have died in the wake of the storm that made its Texas landfall last Friday night, the New York Times reported Wednesday morning. Many cities in Texas, including Houston, issued overnight curfews to keep people from drowning in the flooded roadways. Nearly all of the reported Harvey-related deaths resulted from people drowning in their flooded vehicles.
Breitbart News Network set up a link for people wishing to make contributions to the victims of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Harvey. The link takes donors to the American Red Cross. Damage estimates for Texas are expected to reach hundreds of billions of dollars.
Harris County Flood Control District Meteorologist Jeff Linder confirmed a new record rainfall total in the county. Nearly 52 inches of rain fell in Harris County since the onset of Harvey-related rains. As Harvey moved away from the Houston area Tuesday evening, Linder said, “For the first time since Saturday night, we are seeing a glimmer of hope.” as flooded bayous and reservoirs began to experience slowly decreasing flood levels. Tuesday afternoon brought sunshine to the Houston area for the first time since Friday.
The National Weather Service’s 4 a.m. update reports Harvey make its second U.S. landfall near Cameron, Louisiana, in the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday.The storm continued moving to the NNE (30 degrees) at 7 mph with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph. The storm is expected to weaken as the center moves back on shore and will begin to move more rapidly to the northeast through the lower Mississippi Valley, eventually reaching the Tennessee Valley on Thursday.
Heavy rains and flooding continue to be the major threat as the storm moves northeastward.
Police in Beaumont, Texas, reported they rescued a small child in a storm drainage canal as she clung to her mother’s floating, lifeless body, Breitbart Texas reported. The child suffered hypothermia but was otherwise unharmed. Rescue workers attempted to revive the mother but she had already died. The mother’s car stalled as she drove into a flooded parking lot. When she got out of the vehicle, carrying her daughter, the rapidly moving water swept her away.
A family of six people are feared to have drowned after a family reported a van carrying their family members washed away in a raging Greens Bayou on Houston’s northeast side Monday afternoon. While the driver of the van escaped with his life, two great-grandparents in their 80s and four children, ranging from 6 to 16-years of age, could not escape and are believed to have drowned.
Houston Police Sergeant Steve Perez, a 34-year veteran of the department, drowned in his patrol car Sunday morning. The sergeant is believed to have made a wrong turn and then drove into a flooded street where he was unable to escape.
Follow complete coverage of Hurricane Harvey and Houston Floods on Breitbart Texas.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX, Gab, and Facebook.This article is also available in: Shqip Македонски Bos/Hrv/Srp
Kemal Salaka and his son Faruk. Photo: Elvis Barukcic, AFP.
Newborn Faruk Salaka from Sarajevo was blissfully ignorant of the public debate he triggered when his parents won their victory against Bosnia’s ethnically-divided system.
As the first-ever child to be registered as Bosnian, he set a legal precedent which now allows other parents and their newborn children to follow suit.
The news didn’t only inspire media reports in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but all over the world – generally as a ‘believe it or not’ story.
“First Bosnian born 22 years after independence,” said one globally-syndicated article by the French news agency AFP.
When Faruk was born in April 2014, his parents Kemal and Elvira Salaka wanted him to be registered as a Bosnian. But in a country whose constitution recognises only three constitutive ethnic groups, newborn children can only be registered as Bosniaks, Croats, Serbs or ‘Other’.
Faruk’s father, 39-year-old Kemal Salaka, told BIRN that he mounted a legal challenge because he was a patriot.
He said that he volunteered for the Bosnian Army at the age of 16 when the war started in the early 1990s for the same reason – to prevent the country from being ethnically divided.
“I defended Bosnia and Herzegovina from ethnic exclusivity when Serbs were doing that. Now when Bosniaks are doing the same, I have to fight it,” he said.
“Is it possible that we who were born in Bosnia do not have anything in common?” he asked.
Elvira and Kemal Salaka with their children Tarik, Lamija and Faruk. / Photo: Elvis Barukcic, AFP.
The Salakas have been married for more than ten years and their two older children, son Tarik, now nine, and daughter Lamija, aged six, do not have any registered nationality because this only became obligatory in 2012.
After Faruk was born last year, the Salakas were obliged, like all other parents, to go to the municipality office and register his birth.
During the process, parents are asked whether they want to declare their child’s nationality or not.
Kemal Salaka recalled that when he said yes, and wrote down ‘Bosnian’, he was told that it was not acceptable and that the rules demanded that he must put Bosniak, Croat, Serb or ‘Other’ – the category usually used by ethnic minorities or those who reject being labelled by ethnicity.
But the Salakas persisted, and sought help from an attorney who specialised in constitutional law.
Eventually, at the end of January this year, Sarajevo’s Center municipality decided that there were no legal restrictions preventing anyone from being registered as a Bosnian.
The municipality said that in the weeks after this ruling, there had already been five more requests from parents for their children to be registered as Bosnians.
The story has highlighted how, 22 years after Bosnia gained international recognition as an independent state, many people in the country are still sensitive or confused about national, ethnic and religious identities.
Kemal Salaka said that over the past few months, he has received dozens of supportive emails – but there have also been many critical reactions.
“I don’t see Bosnians as a nation, but as a geographic description,” said one reader who commented on the story on Radio Free Europe’s website.
After his nine-month-old-son was registered as Bosnian, Salaka filed a demand for his own nationality to be officially changed, and now plans to submit applications for his wife and two other children.
He insisted that he was right to fight a system that is based on ethnic divisions.
“They [the authorities] agreed to divide our country, and they think that we are all fools and we don’t see that,” he said.Sharon Glotzer has made a number of career-shifting discoveries, each one the kind “that completely changes the way you look at the world,” she said, “and causes you to say, ‘Wow, I need to follow this.’”
A theoretical soft condensed matter physicist by training who now heads a thriving 33-person research group spanning three departments at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Glotzer uses computer simulations to study emergence — the phenomenon whereby simple objects give rise to surprising collective behaviors. “When flocks of starlings make these incredible patterns in the sky that look like they’re not even real, the way they’re changing constantly — people have been seeing those patterns since people were on the planet,” she said. “But only recently have scientists started to ask the question, how do they do that? How are the birds communicating so that it seems like they’re all following a blueprint?”
Glotzer is searching for the fundamental principles that govern how macroscopic properties emerge from microscopic interactions and arrangements. One big breakthrough came in the late 1990s, when she was a young researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland. She and her team developed some of the earliest and best computer simulations of liquids approaching the transition into glass, a common yet mysterious phase of matter in which atoms are stuck in place, but not crystallized. The simulations revealed strings of fast-moving atoms that glide through the otherwise frustrated material like a conga line. Similar flow patterns were later also observed in granular systems, crowds and traffic jams. The findings demonstrated the ability of simulations to illuminate emergent phenomena.
A more recent “wow” moment occurred in 2009, when Glotzer and her group at Michigan discovered that entropy, a concept commonly conflated with disorder, can actually organize things. Their simulations showed that entropy drives simple pyramidal shapes called tetrahedra to spontaneously assemble into a quasicrystal — a spatial pattern so complex that it never exactly repeats. The discovery was the first indication of the powerful, paradoxical role that entropy plays in the emergence of complexity and order.
Lately, Glotzer and company have been engaged in what she calls “digital alchemy.” Let’s say a materials scientist wants to create a specific structure or material. Glotzer’s team can reverse-engineer the shape of the microscopic building blocks that will assemble themselves into the desired form. It’s like whipping up gold from scratch — only in modern times, the coveted substance might be a colloidal crystal or macromolecular assembly.
Glotzer ultimately seeks the rules that govern emergence in general: a single framework for describing self-assembling quasicrystals, crystallizing proteins, or living cells that spontaneously arise from simple precursors. She discussed her eureka-studded path with Quanta Magazine in February; a condensed and edited version of the interview follows.
QUANTA MAGAZINE: Tell me about your famous 2009 Nature paper that linked self-assembly with entropy.
SHARON GLOTZER: Imagine if you had baseballs in a pool of water, and imagine that they had exactly the same density as the pool, so they didn’t sink, they didn’t float, they were just suspended, jostling about. Then you try to confine them all together. Self-assembly is what happens when the baseballs spontaneously organize themselves into a recognizable pattern. And if the particles are perfectly hard and have no other interactions, they will organize themselves to have the highest entropy possible.
So we were studying these tetrahedra, and it’s the simplest Platonic solid — the simplest three-dimensional shape, right? These Dungeons & Dragons dice. I had an inkling that it would be interesting to look at how they like to arrange with one another based solely on entropy, meaning they had no direct interactions between them — they didn’t want to stick together; there’s no charges; there’s no nothing; there’s just entropy. But I had no idea how interesting. I had no inkling that they would form the kind of structures that they did.
You showed that tetrahedra organize into a quasicrystal — this really complex, ordered structure. People normally understand the law of increasing entropy as the tendency of things to get messier, but you’re saying entropy leads to order. Why is that not a paradox?
You’re absolutely right that it’s completely counterintuitive. We typically think entropy means disorder, and so a disordered structure would have more entropy than an ordered structure. That can be true under certain circumstances, but it’s not always true, and in these cases, it’s not. I prefer to think of entropy as related to options: The more options a system of particles has to arrange itself, the higher the entropy. In certain circumstances, it’s possible for a system to have more options — more possible arrangements — of its building blocks if the system is ordered.
What happens is the particles try to maximize the amount of space that they have to wiggle around in. If you can wiggle, you can rearrange your position and orientation. The more positions, the more options, and thus the more entropy. So you imagine these baseballs in water. They are moving around — translating, rotating. They’re jiggling, because of the thermal motion of the water molecules. And what these systems want to do is space out the particles enough so that it maximizes the amount of wiggle room available to all the particles. Depending on the particle shape, that can lead to extremely complicated arrangements.
So particles like tetrahedra and baseballs evolve to states that allow them to wiggle in more ways and therefore have higher entropy. Did people know before that you could get order from entropy?
It’s been known that entropy alone can cause platelets and rodlike particles and spherical particles to align, but those ordered phases were pretty simple. It wasn’t really thought of as being such an important driving force for organization. When we did this tetrahedra computer experiment and got out what is still today the most complicated entropically stabilized structure that anyone has ever seen, that really changed the way people looked at this.
So then my group started studying every shape under the sun. We just started throwing all kinds of convex shapes onto the computer, and we just kept getting a crystal structure after another after another, some that were very complicated. In 2012 we published a paper in Science where we studied 145 different shapes and showed that 101 of them self-assembled into some kind of complicated crystal. Since then, my group has done tens of thousands of different shapes. We published one paper with 50,000 shapes in it.
What are some of the things you’re figuring out?
The kinds of questions I’m after now are: There’s this whole database of all the crystal structures that are known. And all these “space groups,” meaning structures that can obey all these different symmetry operations [rotations and translations that leave the structures unchanged]. There’s a couple hundred of those. Can I get every one of them just with entropy? With colloidal particles [like what you find in gels], even without interactions we’ve already been able to get as many as 50 of the known space groups. Are there any that aren’t possible just with entropy? And if so, why? We’ve also started looking at mixtures of shapes. We haven’t even talked about complicated crazy shapes, and concave shapes. So how far can you go with just entropy? And what does it mean that I can form the same structure in a whole bunch of different ways? There’s something much more fundamental to understand about the organization of matter, and by focusing on shape and entropy, we’re getting to the core of that.
One of the things we’ve noticed is that there are some design rules. For example, when your polyhedra have big, flat facets, they want to align so that their facets are facing each other — because this gives more wiggle room, more ways of arranging the particles. But if you have lots of facets that are all differently sized, then it’s harder to predict. You might end up with a glassy system or a jammed system instead of an ordered structure.
In the past couple of years, you’ve started working backward.
We’re basically doing alchemy in the computer. The ancient alchemists wanted to transmute the elements and turn lead into gold. But imagine that you had a particular structure and wanted to know what shape is the best shape to get the structure. That’s what many materials scientists are doing now — trying to turn the problem on its head. This “inverse design” approach is different from the way you might screen for compounds, for example, or find protein crystals. In that case you do simulation after simulation after simulation, where you’re just running tons of different molecules and saying: Which one gives me what I want?
Inverse design is more strategic. We start with a target structure, and use statistical thermodynamics to find the particle that solves the design problem. What we did is, we extended the way that these kinds of simulations are typically done to include shape as a variable. We can now do a single simulation where we let the shape of the building blocks change on the fly in the simulation and let the system tell us what the best one is. So instead of running thousands of simulations, I can run one and have the system tell me: What’s the best building block for the desired structure? So I call it digital alchemy.
You’ve also thought about how entropy might have played a role in the origin of life.
Most scientists think that to have order you need chemical bonds — you need interactions. And we’ve shown that you don’t. You can just have objects that, if you just confine them enough, can self-organize. So if you go to the question of: What was the first self-organizing of stuff, and how did it happen? You could imagine that you had these tiny microscopic crevices in rocks with water, and there were molecules in there, that they could self-organize just due to entropy for exactly the reasons that I was just describing. So it’s a completely different way to think about life and increasing complexity. They’re compatible with each other, but this is just saying: I know because I’ve done this, that I can take a bunch of objects and put them in a little droplet and shrink the droplet a little, and these objects will spontaneously organize. So maybe that phenomenon is important in the origin of life, and I don’t think that’s been considered.
When did you first become fascinated with emergence?
When I went to graduate school at Boston University, I joined an experimental lab. I spent the whole year basically designing a flange for a sputtering chamber. I was not inspired. I like puzzles, I like computers, I like math. One day the vacuum pump blew up on me and I was covered in pump oil. And I came walking out of the lab, and a professor, Gene Stanley, saw me and said, “You look like a theorist; come talk to me.” By the end of the day I had switched and joined his group and it was one of the most life-changing decisions I ever made. With Stanley, I was studying kinetics of phase-separating polymer mixtures. I was looking at, for example, what happens if the polymers are stuck to each other, or linked. What kind of structures could you get when there’s competing driving forces — one that wants polymers to separate and one that wants them to mix? What emergent phenomena come from that? Back then I didn’t use that language to describe it, but that’s when I figured out that I like this idea of unpredictable emergent complexity coming out of simple things.
You oversee (at last count) 27 graduate students, half a dozen postdocs and support staff. That’s rather a lot.
I started with two. Then I had four. Over time it got bigger and bigger because, well, I love working with students! When a student comes to me and they’re so excited to join the group, they’ve read our papers and they think it’s awesome, and there’s something about them that makes it obvious that they should be in the group — they’re nerds like us — I have a really hard time saying no, and so I try to find a way to support them.
Once you get beyond a certain size your group naturally develops a structure, and it almost becomes self-sustaining in that new people come in the group and the more senior students take them under their wing. The postdocs are working with graduate students, and you end up having teams. And I just love it because all the time, new stuff is coming out; it’s just magic.
Is that emergence?
That’s emergence! It is emergence! When the group gets big enough all of a sudden, and you have the right mix of people, it’s amazing some of the directions that are coming out that I never would have anticipated before.
Editor’s Note: Glotzer was named a Simons Investigator in 2012.
This article was reprinted on Wired.com.Today while scanning my usual personal finance sites I came across an interesting video (see below) on household gadgets that not only pay for themselves, but eventually end up saving you a little bit of money.
The video made me think of an interesting point, probably something which my much smarter readers have already thought of: when making a purchase, you should make sure you consider the long-term financial implications.
For example, if something costs $5 to buy now and ends up costing $95 to use over its life, you’ve essentially spent $100 on that item. However, if something costs $20 to buy but costs just $50 to use over its life, you’ve essentially spent only $70 on that item.
Long story short, you pay $15 more up front, but spend $30 less overall.
Anyway, watch the video I’m talking about:
For those of you who didn’t feel like watching the video, here’s the gist of it:
Power saving strips and outlets LED TVs Do it yourself soda machines Water filtration devices (think: Britta) Home brewing system for coffee fanatics Reduced flow shower heads
These are definitely very interesting tips.
If I were in the market for a TV, I would definitely consider an LED HDTV, but right now that’s a little too rich for my taste. However, I’m definitely going to check out the special power strips they reference in the video. It seems like a pretty small investment that will pay for itself in just a month or two.
What do you think? Anything in the video catch your eye? Leave a comment below and, as always, please share this post using the social bookmarking buttons below and at the top of the page – especially Facebook and Twitter.All woo woo notions aside – synchronicity is serious stuff!
The concept of synchronicity has eluded and yet intrigued human beings for millennia. Though it’s underlying process is anything but random, it can appear as arbitrary and disconnected to any relevance of thought or experience we may be having at the time. Here is an illustration worth noting.
On Monday, June 17, 2013, I’d been casually perusing a news website, just to see what was making headlines in the mainstream. I’d been surfing rather quickly – looking for a story that might peak my interest. As I quickly clicked through to different articles, I recall briefly glimpsing the headline, “Sopranos’ James Gandolfini Dead at….” I was moving so fast, by the time my brain registered this unexpected headline, I was off to the next article. When I attempted to go back, wondering, “Did I just see what I think I saw?” the headline about Gandolfini was not of his death but of some event he had reportedly attended. Confused by the clear mis-statement of what I thought I saw, I eventually let it go. Two days, later, on Wednesday, June 19, 2013, the actual breaking news came in – “James Gandolfini Dead…Sopranos Star Dies at 51.”
Although this could be viewed as a premonition, synchronicity like intuition all have common ties.
Once thought of as an emotional and subjective phenomenon, synchronicity has become a ubiquitous affair. Just ask anyone who constantly sees 11:11 on the clock!
Out of the millions of people (perhaps billions) who have been experiencing the 11:11 phenomenon for some time, few if any have definitive explanations. But what is worth noting here is that the Universe speaks a language. Though initially alien to our own, it is still familiar to us on some level. And here’s the real breaking news – We are all connected to it! Synchronicity is one medium by which it speaks.
The mass witnessing of 11:11, although a phenomenon to be sure, is just the tip of the iceberg. In fact it’s significance, and the multitude of meanings it may carry to each individual is perhaps less important than the notion that synchronicity, in all of its expressions is the language of the Universe that we must all eventually learn – and it may be beckoning us to do just that if we truly want to evolve.
I like many, have been witness to these anomalies of reality before – what Carl Jung referred to as “a meaningful coincidence of outer and inner events that are not causally related.”
Synchronicity, I’ve always maintained is a visceral though omnipresent mechanism by which to connect the individual with the Universal. We are all tethered to it, whether we consciously acknowledge it or not. Synchronicity will often emerge unannounced and uninvited.
Glimpsing a “pre-headline” about Gandolfini may be a case-in-point. A synchronous event can often be arbitrary in nature. And this can be viewed as a conundrum. Many people who experience synchronicities, or premonitions or intuitions will feel a sense of ambiguity, especially if the insight and its consequences are out of the control of the experiencer. While this may be so, synchronicities aren’t always there to intervene a process but to simply remind us that we are connected to the information. – ALL information – which exist on a quantum level outside of time and space!
Once we understand our absolute connection to this field, we can then contemplate the possibility of utilizing synchronicity, coupled with discernment to make choices that may even have drastic life altering implications. Here’s one example…
In Ann Bolinger-McQuade’s book, Everyday Oracles, she tells of the story of a physician who while driving on his way to the hospital to perform a scheduled surgery, noticed a dead rabbit on the road with birds feeding on its remains. The physician felt an inner prompting that there was some significance to his noticing this scene. Just prior to bringing the male patient in for the surgery, the physician watched as the man’s wife kissed her husband and said, “See you later bunny.” Immediately he canceled the surgery, acting on the inner prompting which surfaced in the form of a physical sign on the side of the road. During which time the surgery was to be performed, the male patient suffered a heart attack. Had he been in surgery at the time he would not have survived.
This physician made a decision to trust his intuition, initially being prompted by a synchronicity that he chose not to ignore and in the process spared the life of his patient.
Although not all synchronicities are as dramatic as this illustration, they are all significant. Whether it’s a phone call from a friend with whom you’d just been thinking of, or a fortuitous flash on your computer screen about an impending death two days before it actually happens, synchronicities are perhaps our best clue that all consciousness is connected to one grand field of reality. A reality whose language is truly Universal!
Learn how to recognize this language of the Universe and make it your own Personal Oracle with this video presented by Alexis Brooks
You May also like this article: Robin Williams, Connection, and the Synchronicity of ExperienceBernard Hopkins claims a bout against Floyd Mayweather is a possibility and that he has discussed the idea with "powerful people" in boxing.
At 48, IBF light-heavyweight title holder Hopkins is boxing's oldest ever world champion, while fellow American Mayweather is a five-weight world champion and unbeaten in 45 bouts.
Hopkins defends his crown against Karo Murat in Atlantic City on Saturday.
"No-one else is going to beat Floyd Mayweather," said Hopkins.
I just don't see it happening because Floyd is really a welterweight. For a fight or two he might be moving to light-middleweight but he's not a middleweight. Richard Schaefer CEO, Golden Boy Promotions
"That's the reason I threw my hat in there. Can you imagine the promotion for that fight? I keep reminding people, there's a possibility of anything.
"I'm not chasing anybody; I'm not trying to pick on the little guy. But if you can find somebody else that people want to see fight [Mayweather], good luck."
Mayweather, 36, is the current WBC welterweight and WBC and WBA light-middleweight champion and has barely lost a round in his last few fights.
He was last in action outclassing Mexico's Saul Alvarez in Las Vegas in September, and there has been talk of a match against Britain's Amir Khan next May.
While Hopkins believes he could slim down to fight at his old middleweight division, where he reigned for 11 years between 1994 and 2005, Mayweather has never fought as a middleweight.
"I don't think Floyd is going to be moving up to 160lb," said Richard Schaefer, chief executive of Golden Boy Promotions, of which Hopkins is a partner.
"I just don't see it happening because Floyd is really a 147-pounder [welterweight]. For a fight or two he might be moving to 154lb [light-middleweight] but he's not a middleweight."
Hopkins broke his own record as the oldest boxer to win a world title when he beat IBF light-heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud in New York in March.Neurobiology of Infant Crying:
Integrating genes, brain, behavior, and environment
Infants cry to seek and maintain their caregiver’s proximity and care. Caregivers also instinctively seek and respond to their infants crying. These early caregiver-infant interactions give rise to caregiver-infant attachment, which influences physiological and psychological processes by modulating brain sensitivity. Furthermore, the attachment between caregiver and infant influences infants’ cognitive and socio-emotional development, and subsequently the development of social, familial, and romantic relationships later in life. Successful attachment with a caregiver provides infants with optimal relational experiences that may also improve infants’ interactions with their external social environment later in development.
Caregiver-infant attachment shapes neural pathways involved in socio-emotional regulation. These patterns of socio-emotional regulation are thought to remain relatively stable over an individual’s lifetime, suggesting important links between early caregiver-infant attachment and health related physiological processes (e.g. stress) and vulnerability to risk-factors (e.g. the body’s capacity for managing stress-related metabolic demands). Attachment formation is influenced by multiple systems, including environmental factors, such as prenatal chemical signals from the mother to the fetal brain, as well as parenting and genetic factors, such as vulnerability to risk-factors and temperament. Current approaches to the study of caregiver-infant attachment should consider its multi-level nature.
We would like to invite empirical studies (either longitudinal or cross-sectional) as well as review and perspective papers that focus on either human or non-human mammals. Studies should investigate how genetic, hormonal, behavioural, environmental, prenatal and postnatal factors, as well as cultural contexts, regulate early interactional experiences, and how these experiences translate into relational patterns of attachment later in life.by
I recently received a package in the mail that I thought was worthy of sharing. I’ve got to give credit to Dutch from Texas for this awesome DIY Bug Out Meal idea! When I opened the box I found a couple homemade vacuum sealed food kits. UPS delivers here right before lunch so it was hard for me not to cut them open and gorge myself right then and there. The enclosed letter explained a really cool concept: DIY At Home Bug Out Meals Ready To Eat Kits.
My Opinion About Bug Out Meals
As many of you know, I am a huge fan of simple, “Open & Eat” Bug Out Meals. I like the idea of being able to eat on-the-go versus spending too much time having to prepare meals. Bugging Out is all about getting from Point A to Point B. In fact, I currently only pack high calorie energy bars in my BOB but this recent package is making me reconsider. Regardless, Bug Out Meals should meet the following criteria:
Long shelf life: ideally at least a year – minimum 6 months
Open & Eat: Nothing that takes too much time, energy or resources to prepare
Calorie Rich: Be sure to choose foods that are high in calories – our body converts calories to energy
As small as possible in both weight and size (remember, they have to go in your Bug Out Bag)
DIY At Home MREs
As Dutch mentions in his letter, traditional MREs can be very expensive and are jam packed with sodium and preservatives. In addition, one single meal is rather bulky. His solution is to gather meal items and snacks from a local grocery store and vacuum seal them into Full Day Bug Out Meal Kits.
Below is what Dutch puts in his meal kits. This is taken directly from his letter:
BREAKFAST: Qty 2 Kellogs Fiber plus breakfast bars. I also use Instant Oatmeal or Oatmeal Squares. Nescafe Tasters Choice Coffee, or if not a coffee drinker, throw in a tea bag. LUNCH: Crackers and SPAM or Kipper-Snacks or a can of Sardines. All of which can be eaten cold and on the march. Rspeberry Lemonade drink mix, just add to a bottle or canteen of water. SNACK: On grueling hikes, you have to keep your blood-sugar levels up, so these have 2 packages of peanut butter crackers and several packs of Peanut M&Ms to be eaten between meals. DINNER: I try to have a least one hot meal a day. I advocate Ramen Noodles. I also pack beef jerkey to break up and add to the soup.
*NOTE: The meals he sent me were almost 1 year old and they showed no sign of mold or spoilage. Good sign!
With traditional MREs and camp meals, the selection is fairly limited. And Dutch is right, they are packed full of salt and preservatives. Furthermore, if you’ve ever eaten MREs for very long they’ll back you up worse than traffic during mass exodus.
I’ll admit that these are pretty lavish Bug Out Meals but I really like this concept. It allows you a ton of creative freedom when prepping your Bug Out (or BUG IN) emergency meals. You aren’t limited to ‘stock’ entrees and each meal can be tailored to fit specific dietary needs. Gluten Free? No problem – pack non gluten items. Peanut allergy? No problem – your meal kits get plain M&Ms. You get the point. Vacuum sealing the meals not only helps to
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later addition to the text, hence I don’t mention it here–but not because it’s not interesting.)
Daily or SuperSubstantial Bread? Uniqueness of the Prayer.
Now to the bread. This may offer the most interesting bit with regard to the eschaton and the Lord’s Prayer. It may seem, to begin with, that it is difficult to fit the plea about bread into a last times orientation for the prayer. “Give us this day our daily bread.” The Greek word that is typically translated as “daily” at this point occurs just once in the whole available history of the Greek language. In all of the extant plays, histories, etc., only once does this word occur, epiousious (epee–ooo–see–us) and that single time is in the Lord’s Prayer (or in linguistic discussions of it). And since it doesn’t occur anywhere else in Greek, there’s no context to tell us what it means–we don’t know. If you break it up, EPI is “on” or “upon,” “super,” (a Greek preposition) and OUSIOS is related to OUSIA: nature, substance. If you know the debate over Christology in terms of OUSIA–Mormons tend to encounter this sometimes as missionaries, or when reading the missionary library — Nicea, Trinitarian theology and so forth, then you’ve heard of OUSIA.[9]
OUSIA–it’s relevant to the question: is there more than one substance among the Trinity? Do Father, Son, and Holy Ghost partake of the same “nature”? That was part of the Christological debate and it was important, given the cosmology of the time, and the resulting tradition without that early context makes it a bit strange to us now. In any case, EPIOUSIOS–upon substance, upon nature, super-nature, super-substance–what does it mean? There is a somewhat similar Greek word that supports “daily” on the principle that if you need it for your substance, you need it often, daily, and that’s what guided some early believers apparently, and it appears in old Latin–that is, early on it was translated as “daily.” They were guessing, apparently by logical analogy, that it had something to do with substance as support, say. So you probably need it all the time, and you get the Latin translation for it, QUOTIDIANIS, which means “daily.” But other Latin translations (for example, the Vulgate –Jerome) took it literally. Hence you get this really interesting word in the Jerome’s translation, “supersubstantialem.”[10] And there were groups of people who prayed for “supersubstantial bread.”[11] Precisely what “supersubstantial bread” might be is somewhat
mysterious but it’s a very literal translation and in the Catharian heresy much later, that use came back and that was one of the heretical tests, that they prayed for this “supersubstantial bread.” One might imagine that Cathar thought, (gnostic?) may see this as important perhaps. Swendenborg called this “the bread of the angels,” and the Manicheans had this–but all this is really beyond my pay grade.[12]
Jerome (ca. 340-420) evidently had an Aramaic Gospel[13], and he knew there were two different Latin translations of the text (“daily,” and “super substantial”) but in this Aramaic Gospel the prayer reads, “tomorrow’s” bread. That is in fact a Jewish expression (see for example, Jerome’s Commentary on Matthew). The manna fell six days a week. On Friday you collected not only today’s bread but tomorrow’s bread, so it meant the bread of the Sabbath. Some early Christian writers believed that this meant praying for the bread of the last times, that is, the bread of the heavenly feast (Matt 25 again?—this is mentioned in various ways in Mormon scripture, for example in D&C 27) and so in this light we may style all of the petitions in the Mathean Lord’s Prayer as being concerned with the eschaton (end times).
Summary and Pastoral Evolution of Meaning. The Interpretation of Scripture Through Time.
Thus, if God brings about his will, brings judgment, makes his name holy, then we ask for a share in the heavenly feast (Sabbath bread), we ask to be judged mercifully in the end, according to the mercy we show others, not to be put to the trial of the last times, but be delivered from the evil one at the end.[14]
In sum: the early context of the Lord’s prayer may have been very strongly attached to the eschaton.[15] Later, the prayer came to be read in a different way—no doubt from important pastoral motivations—and that’s very Nephite if you will—when the expectation of the last times grew less apparent. The bread became daily, the temptation became ordinary temptations of life, and it became forgiveness of sins all the time–every day–not just at the final judgment.
In the next part of this thing, unwritten as yet I’m afraid, there is a new Lord’s Prayer, and I’ll discuss that a little, along with some Mormon eschatology, and our periodic “the end is near” speech, and what that may mean.
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[1] A useful analogy for Latter-day Saints might be this. Think of the so-called “Manuscript History of the Church” composed essentially between 1842 and 1856 or so. It is written from a faith perspective, one that sees Joseph Smith’s work as divine, and is generally silent about Joseph’s human traits and his private life to a large extent (there is no polygamy in evidence for example). Imagine that this was really all we had to go on in terms of events of early Mormonism, nothing else from that period survived and no other eyewitness material ever surfaced, save perhaps extremely meager general information from indifferent distant cultures. Joseph had relatively little to do with its composition, and he wrote none of it himself. A work like Bushman’s Rough Stone Rolling could not exist in that world. There would be no church sponsored essays regarding various things like polygamy and Joseph Smith. What would exist would be discussions of that text, and discussions of discussions of that text, various hermeneutics applied to it and in general the historical landscape would be far different, almost impossible to imagine.
[2] 1 Cor. 16:22. The text of the (usually counted as seven authentic) letters in the Pauline corpus came before the Gospels in terms of composition.
[3] This time–not the sacrificial offering but the triumphant bringer of Israel’s glory.
[4] On Paul and the Abba prayer see for example, James D. G. Dunn, The Theology of Paul the Apostle (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 193.
[5] Byron Stuhlman, who was rector as Grace Episcopal Church in Waterville, New York at the time, gave a nice summary of the Prayer in Christian worship: “The Lord’s Prayer in Worship,” Word & World 22, no. 1 (Winter 2002): 78-83. And it’s online.
[6] It’s hard to determine Luke’s audience, he doesn’t seem to fight issues like Matthew, or Mark, in some ways. On Matthew’s audience, see Edwin Keith Broadhead, Jewish Ways of Following Jesus: Redrawing the Religious Map of Antiquity (Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010), 143. Broadhead styles the controversy as between Pharisees and followers of Jesus. But the dominance and later even existence of a group(s) that can be called Pharisees seems to be in question.
[7] And probably, in early Christian congregations, there were prayers/hymns (little difference) that were dialogic, like the shepards-angels counterpoint announcing the birth (peace on earth/peace in heaven). What was church like in the immediate years after Jesus? Probably something like this: you celebrated Sabbath (because you were likely a faithful Jew) and after sundown, or maybe the next day, you went to a fellow believer’s house to break bread and talk of the Lord and the stories about him maybe. Perhaps baptisms were done, or other liturgy, like prayers and such. You still went to the temple, you didn’t discount the temple priesthood. You lived the law. The struggle to separate Judaism and Christianity was a very long one, and no one figured it out easily, it just wasn’t obvious. How could you possibly believe in Jesus without believing in Abraham and Moses? And how could you believe in them without circumcision, and sacrifice, etc.? (Even Mormons have had their issues here.) You get the picture. By 200AD, Jews and Christians had developed their dividing traditions: Mishnah for Jews, Gospel for Christians, sort of. That of course was not the end or even the middle of it. On Jewish and Christian worship gatherings, see Valeriy Alikin, Earliest History of the Christian Gathering: Origin, Development, and Content of the Christian Gathering in the First to Third Centuries (Brill, 2009), 30-78.
[8] The underlying issue is the nature of revelation, inspiration, and scripture. I’m going to offer some thoughts on this at some point, perhaps in part II of this post, or in an intervening one. It’s an important matter.
[9] By the way, 3 Nephi 13 doesn’t mention the bread at all! This is interesting, and may even support what’s going on here, but tangential again. One thing I think it does NOT tell us: that the bread text was not present in the archetypal Mathean Gospel text (whatever that may mean).
[10] 6:11 panem nostrum supersubstantialem da nobis hodie. Origen does a bit about this. See Quasten and Plumpe, Ancient Christian Writers (Paulist, 1954), 94-98. Other opinions abound. See for example Westerfield, Studia Liturgia 35 (2005): 208-10.
[11] Cf. “Gospel of the Nazareans.” Ron Cameron, ed., The Other Gospels: Non-canonical Gospel Texts (Philadelphia, 1982), 97-102. The Nazareans were, according to Jerome and Augustine, Jewish Christians who still tried to observe the Law. Broadhead, Jewish Ways of Following Jesus, chap. 7.
[12] Anne Bradford Townsend, “The Cathars of Languedoc as Heretics: From the Perspectives of Five Contemporary Scholars,” (Ph.D. diss. Union Institute, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2007), 169-71. Also, Brown, Introduction (note 14 below). On Swedenborg, see his Apocalypse Revealed vol. 1, page 2.
[13] Helmut Koster, Introduction to New Testament, vol. 2 (Fortress, 1983), 61, 87. Also, see Jerome’s commentary (in the references in the following note for example).
[14] Raymond E. Brown, “The Pater Noster as an Eschatological Prayer,” Theological Studies, 22 (1961), 175-208. Koster, 2:70, 86. Broadhead, 140, note 42. Much of what I’m talking about here is based on my appreciation of Brown’s thought here and his later Introduction to the New Testament (Anchor/Doubleday, 1998), a very fine book and accessible to beginners–I think a highly useful book for Latter-day Saints interested in the New Testament. Brown’s untimely death was unfortunate.
[15] Scholarship on the origin of the prayer and its relation to Matthew’s Gospel is not settled. For a reasonably current discussion beyond the scope of my feeble attempt, see Broadhead, and my guess is that those people over at FPR have said something cogent.Republicans are struggling to make headway on their plan for an ambitious rewrite of the American tax code for the same reason they struggled with their plan for an ambitious overhaul of the American health care system — major, enduring legislative change is hard and Republicans mostly don’t care that much about it.
They ought to consider admitting to themselves that they don’t really want to do huge, difficult pieces of legislation. And they ought to further consider the possibility that that’s fine.
There’s no need to pass a giant tax reform package, and there’s also no need to run around Washington with a hangdog look or vague sense of shame about it. With the federal government under GOP control, the judiciary is filling up with GOP appointees. Regulatory agencies are in the hands of people who share the party’s mostly pro-business orientation. Appropriations bills are pouring money into the military and domestic security forces. Partisan control of the government is a big deal with or without major legislation.
But Republicans are mostly a party of cultural grievance-mongers, not ambitious legislators. That’s why Donald Trump is their president. That’s why they don’t seem to notice or care that Paul Ryan is a total fraud. They’d be a lot happier if they just owned it.
At the end of the day, mostly adhering the policy status quo while catering to the symbolic and social recognition demands of the ethno-sectarian majority is a perfectly plausible approach to the problems of party politics. One could even call it conservatism.
Republicans are totally out to sea on taxes
A year ago, the world was introduced to the Destination Based Cash Flow Tax (DBCFT) by Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) who, unlike a normal Republican, really is a policy wonk with big ambitions and strongly held views.
This proposal was so poorly understood in GOP circles that Republicans rapidly started calling it a “border tax” and then they dropped the idea once they realized that under Brady’s plan some people would pay more taxes than they do now. That’s a fine reason to oppose a change, but it’s also a feature of any conceivable tax reform plan. If you enact big cuts to tax rates then you either need to blow up the deficit — which means you can’t pass a permanent bill under budget reconciliation rules — or else you need to offset the lost revenue by making changes elsewhere. Some people pay less but others pay more.
Republicans didn’t like the DBCFT because they fundamentally didn’t want to do tax reform. But instead of admitting it, they kept flailing forward.
At times they manage to converge on a policy concept on the basis of pure identity politics and resentment. So they convinced themselves that scrapping the State and Local Tax Deduction is something they can get behind on the theory that it screws over New York and California. It turns out to also screw Utah, and more importantly a few House members in key swing districts in New Jersey and Virginia. But also they needed votes from House members from New York. So then they hit upon maybe modifying SALT so you can deduct property taxes but not income taxes, which more properly narrowcasts the plan as an effort to screw California.
But of course you can’t make conservative tax policy on this basis at all. California-based multinational companies will be huge winners under the GOP tax plan. And a program to raise taxes on the rich and use the proceeds to finance a universal preschool system would be a bonanza for red states. The doomed effort to turn tax policy into a venue for culture war politics just shows that Republicans should stick to what they care about — culture war politics.
Republicans should unburden themselves of dumb promises
One of the most pernicious things to happen to the GOP caucus today is that the party’s leaders seem to have convinced the rank-and-file that future electoral success hinges on delivering on the promise of major legislation. Actual Republicans running actual campaigns like Ed Gillespie know that the winning ticket is identity politics for white people and nothing to do with policy.
As far as policy goes, passing unpopular bills is not a great way to be popular. More to the point, every single House Republicans knows perfectly well that they didn’t campaign in 2016 on the promise of some wonky tax reform plan. The campaign was about how Hillary Clinton was a she-devil whose email server was going to get us all killed by Barack Obama’s buddies from ISIS. The chant at the rallies was “lock her up!” not “allow multinational companies to repatriate foreign profits tax free!”
Trump’s there in the West Wing, day after day, talking about how troops and cops are good and Black Lives Don’t Matter and immigrants are terrible (except the good ones) and we’re gonna say Merry Christmas and not be such sensitive snowflakes and celebrate our Confederate generals like all good patriots do. That’s what the party’s all about.
Democrats stopped caring about George W. Bush’s lawless perpetual war machine once Obama took over the drones, and Republicans have done the same for domestic policy since Trump took over. They should just own it and not bother trying. Their approach to their longstanding promise to repeal Dodd-Frank is a model in this regard.
The Dodd-Frank model
Republicans spent five or six years swearing up and down to anyone who listened that the post-crisis financial regulation law Democrats passed was strangling the economy. And they promised over and over again to repeal it. But not just to sweep away the new rules and bring back to the old system, but to usher in some unspecified new utopia in which bailouts would never happen and the grand awesomeness of the free market would fix everything.
After the election, there were even a couple of months’ worth of talking about maybe trying to find a way to actually do that stuff — or as much of it as possible — through the reconciliation process.
But then something funny happened. They just quietly gave up. All the key regulatory posts are now in the hands of bank-friendly Republicans, which is 90 percent of what the bank lobbyists wanted anyway. The economy is not, in fact, being strangled by Dodd-Frank, so Republicans have stopped pretending that it’s being strangled by Dodd-Frank. On a policy level, banks are probably now not being regulated as stringently as they should be, but that would be true under any legislative solution they could come up with. And of course with the Dodd-Frank framework in place, Republicans haven’t found a magic free market purist solution to the problem of how to handle a cascading wave of bank failures but they were never going to find one anyway.
The key thing is that rather than repeatedly beating their heads against the wall over this problem, they just quietly let it drop. No new bank regulations are in place, but the old ones are being gently eased rather than scrapped. And the GOP has worked itself into a similarly happy place on Medicare, abandoning Paul Ryan’s fanatical vision of privatizing the program while eschewing liberal plans for expanding it. For a party whose electoral base is now cranky old white people who are mad about the kids these days, it’s a perfectly reasonable solution. And the sooner Republicans own up to it, the happier everyone will be.This article is an exclusive Cageside Features Guest Column by: John S. Nash
When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.
- John Ford
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Professional wrestling... has no history, only a past.
- The Phantom of the Ring
_____________________________________
Precisely 101 years ago today, the most important match in professional wrestling history took place. There have been bigger matches in terms of money made, attendance and viewing audience, but no contest in the intervening century can match the impact that the meeting between Frank Gotch and George Hackenschmidt on September 4th, 1911, had on the sport of professional wrestling.
Never before, or since, has there been an event which not only signaled wrestling's ascension to the top of the sporting hierarchy, ahead of boxing, baseball and bicycle racing, but was also coincidentally the catalyst which transformed wrestling from sport into "sports entertainment".
The two participants of this most important contest, Frank Gotch and 'Georg' (or George, to the English speaking world) Hackenschmidt had dominated wrestling in the first decade of the 20th century.
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Hackenschmidt, or "Hack" as he was known, was not only the premiere wrestler of Europe but was viewed as perhaps the era's greatest athlete.
Born on August 1, 1877 in Estonia, which was then part of the Russian Empire, Hack was discovered at the age of 20 by the personal physician of the Czar, Dr. Von Krajewski, who brought him to St. Petersburg where he supervised his physical development along with his training in Greco-Roman wrestling.
By the fin de siècle, "The Russian Lion", as he became known, was labeled by some as ‘the strongest man in the world'. Renowned for his incredible feats of strength, being capable of carrying a small horse on his shoulders, with a single hand deadlifting a 660 pound stone, or lifting a 269 pound weight over his head using only one arm.
Nevertheless, his athletic accomplishments were not limited to strongmen tricks: he excelled at swimming, running and bike racing and once, on a bet, jumped onto a table 100 consecutive times while his feet were bound together. In addition, his intellectual prowess was equally impressive. He was a hyper-polyglot, who later in life would write several books, including those on philosophy.
As impressive as all these accomplishments were, Hack surpassed them all in the grappling arena. He won the 1898 Greco-Roman amateur wrestling championship of Europe in Vienna before entering the professional ranks where he ran off one of the most impressive streaks ever recorded, winning prestigious tournament after tournament (although the legitimacy of many of these could be questioned) across Europe, including those in Paris, Moscow, Berlin, Munich, Budapest and Hamburg.
In 1902, he went to England, becoming the greatest draw and highest paid athlete in not only the British Isles but in the history of the sport. He was a sensation facing "All Comers" (learning not to defeat his opponents too quickly, less the paying public get bored) at music halls, and one particularly famous match against "The Terrible Turk" Ahmed Madrali at Olympia Hall, triggered the largest traffic jam recorded at that time in the history of London due to the massive crowds attending.
George Hackenschmidt would eventually go on to become the first true "World Champion", unifying the American and European championships, along with the Greco-Roman and catch-as-catch-can heavyweight titles, by beating the American champ Tom Jenkins, first in 1904, in London, under Greco-Roman rules, and then the next year, inNew York City, under catch-as-catch-can rules. (The NWA has traced its belt's lineage back to this match.)
By 1911, Hackenschmidt was reported to have participated in some 3,000 matches (the number of legitimate contests is impossible to ascertain) with the only blemish in the previous decade being a loss to his upcoming opponent, Frank Gotch.
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Gotch, "The Iowa Playboy" was born only a year after his coeval Hackenschmidt, on April 27, 1878. He was raised by German immigrant parents in Humboldt, Iowa, where hard work on the family farm helped develop him into a rugged grappler.
In 1899, at the age of 22, he lost a close match to a "furniture dealer" in La Verne, Iowa. His opponent's real identity was that of American catch-as-catch-can champion Dan McLeod, who had come to town looking to sucker unwitting locals to wager on their hometown heroes. So impressed was he with his "mark's" performance, that he notified Martin "Farmer" Burns of the young grapplers presence.
Burns, a man who literally wrote the book on wrestling, immediately recognized Gotch's potential. Taking him under his wing, he began to mold him into the next great wrestling champion, teaching him each and every of his many tricks of the game, including those outside the ring.
He was sent to Alaska under the alias "Frank Kennedy" to learn the art of the swindle and then served as something of a policeman for Burns and McLeod, although he failed to stop the current champ, Tom Jenkins, in his first couple of meetings.
Eventually, Gotch would become as tough as "Rough Tom", developing a notoriety for cruelly punishing his opponents with "torture holds", the most infamous being his "toe-hold", with which he could break an ankle, snap a leg or cause serious knee damage. After finally managing to capture the American Title from Jenkins, Gotch and Burns immediately went to work arranging a shot at Hackenschmidt and the World Title.
The first Gotch-Hackenschmidt contest took place on April 3, 1908, in front of a reported 8,000 fans at the Dexter Park Pavilion located in the old Chicago stock yards.
Gotch entered the contest anywhere from a 3-to-1 to a 5-to-1 underdog, so confident were the "sports" in Hack's superiority to the Iowan (and based on their performances against their mutual opponent, Tom Jenkins). Little did anyone suspect the match would become infamous for Hackenschmidt quitting...
"Gotch, the American wrestler, severely punished Hackenschmidt at Chicago during a two-hour' catch-as-catch-can contest, and finally threw Hackenschmidt heavily. Though the referee disallowed the fall, Hackenschmidt refused to continue, thereby forfeiting the world's championship."
Hackenschmidt left the ring bearing the scars from his loss.
"While Gotch was still comparatively fresh and active, his opponent, with puffed and bleeding lips, half blinded eyes and the skin peeled from many parts of his body, appeared anything but the world's famous wrestling champion who had thrown hundreds of gigantic opponents during his career."
Hackenschmidt, used to the physical, but refined, game in Europe, had not been prepared for what American catch had to offer. Even his contests with Jenkins seemed rather gentile in comparison to those Gotch had with the "Rougher" (suggesting Jenkins had not given it his all).
The New York World ran off a litany of offenses that the paper and Hackenschmidt claimed were committed by Gotch during the match, stating:
"Gotch jammed his thumbs into Hackenschmidt repeatedly, [Hackenschmidt] complained to the referee, who declined to interfere. Hackenschmidt also declared that Gotch had oiled body prior to wrestling. The "Russian Lion" states Gotch dug his finger nails into his opponent's face, tried to pull his ear off, and, instead of wrestling, fought like a cat."
Many were offended by Gotch's tactics, and supporters rallied to Hackenschmidt's defense. Hackenschmidt himself, once safely back in London, joined in the chorus of critics demanding a rematch, a rematch that he and the public would have to wait more than three years for, before finally coming to fruition.
Hackenschmidt was quite blunt as to why this much desired rematch, as well as a contest between him and Swiss Champion John Lemm, was not being immediately made, explaining to Health and Strength Magazine in 1909:
"You must remember that a match with Lemm, whether I won or lost it, would not yield me any substantial financial profit. In any event, I should be compelled to sacrifice several weeks' engagements in order to train for the encounter, and by so doing, I should lose quite as much money as I shall receive for my share of the purse. In addition to which there would be, of course, my training expenses, to say nothing of the really heavy financial loss I should incur in the event of my being defeated. "Quite a number of people seem to fancy that a professional boxer or wrestler should always be willing to accommodate any rival who wishes to challenge him, without the slightest regard for his present or future career. They conveniently forget that a professional wrestler or boxer is quite as much a businessman as any tradesman or professional in any other calling, whether it be law, medicine, engineering, music or architecture. "Wrestling is my business and I have always tried to conduct it in a business like fashion. I am certainly very fond of the sporting element which enters into it, but should be absurdly careless if I allowed my tastes in that direction to interfere too seriously with my career in life."
By 1910, with neither side able to come to an agreement for a rematch, Gotch toyed with retirement; but was talked out of it by Jack Curley, who believed, according to Jonathan Snowden in his book, Shooters that:
"A Hackenschmidt rematch would be worth sticking around for."
"Curley, a genius promoter who had booked the speaking tour of William Jenning Bryan and performances by the Vatican choir, had gotten involved in the wrestling game when boxing was banned in many locales in 1909. Curley successfully promoted a Gotch title defense against Yussif Mahmout in April of that year, drawing 10,000 fans in Chicago to see Gotch whip a foreign foe who would later become his training partner and right hand man. "Curley had connections to seemingly every major wrestler of the era. He had promoted Gotch in several matches and a big money tour, managed Roller in the good doctor's bouts in London, and emerged in 1910 as the manager of George Hackenschmidt as well."
Curley was able to sign Hackenschmidt on for an American tour for $10,000, and another $13,500, to face Gotch in Chicago once again. The Iowan champ for his part would get $21,000 for the match and an additional fifty percent of all motion picture profits. Massive fortunes for any athlete at that time. Hackenschmidt also won an important concession for the upcoming contest:
"Special rules were agreed to for this match, which provided that the men should not make use of grease, rosin, or toilet cream, and that each contestant should have his fingers and toe-nails pared to the satisfaction of the referee. No holds except strangle holds were barred, and it was specially provided also that to gouge any portion of the head or body of the opponent with fingers, thumbs, toes, chin, or elbows, willfully to strike or kick the opponent to pull his hair or ears, or to put fingers under the opponent's nostrils was prohibited under pain of disqualification."
By all accounts, Hackenschmidt took the match very seriously, immediately setting up a camp in his Shoreham, England villa, where he studied the catch-as-catch-can game under Dr. Roller, Jacob Koch and Adolph Ernest, better known as Ad Santell. He retained Roller and Koch for his American tour and several weeks before the contest set up a new training camp in Chicago where he paid Wladek Zybyszko and "Americus" Gus Schoenlein to assist in his training. So focused was he on his preparation, Hack had brought to Chicago his own "special chef to cook his meals and ten barrels of French spring water, not wishing to take any chances with a change of diet."
For his part, Gotch retreated to his Iowa home for the five months before the contest, where he ran through the hills of Humboldt, while rolling with a rotating team that included Yussif Hussane, Henry Ordemann, Jess Westergard, Joe Rogers, Charlie Olsen and Fred Beell. The entire training regimen was overseen by his manager, Emil Klank, in conjunction with his longtime coach, the wily Farmer Burns.
As the day of the match approached, the public's anticipation, both in the United States and around the world, grew to a level unmatched in history (with the possible exception of Johnson-Jeffries). It was being labeled "The Event of the century"...
"It will be a battle of the monsters, the clash of two veritable man mountain marvels of speed, strength. And endurance; and - a fight to the finish. By sundown Monday, one of two things will be fact: A champion, raised on a pedestal of glory and lauded as never before has a champion been lauded, will have justified the admiration that has been his, or he will have fallen before one of even greater prowess, and with him the pride of the American people.
Percy Sholto Douglas, the 10th Marquis of Queensbury, covering the contest for the Chicago Daily American Newswrote in his report "Title Match Excites Country":
"Yesterday I was wondering in my mind what on earth sporting Chicago was going to do with itself after the big event of this afternoon was over. "
So great was the work done by Jack Curley, that Referee Ed Smith later recalled that:
"As a promotional effort, this second match will stand out in my memory as one of the world's greatest accomplishments in that line."
The match was held on a Labor Day Monday at the then newly built Comiskey Park in Chicago, IL. The baseball home of the White Sox drew a reported crowd of over 30,000 paying spectators, with another 40,000 left outside without a ticket to be had. It was not only the biggest match ever held in professional wrestling but, behind only the previous year's Johnson-Jeffries boxing match, was the biggest gate of the pre-Dempsey era. Camera crews were set up all around the stadium to record the event for a future theatrical run. The interest was so high that the AP (Associated Press) set up a special Morse telephone circuit to give out minute-by-minute updates across the country.
In the days beforehand, betting odds had been relatively even, but in the hours, leading up to the match Gotch had risen from a 5-to-3 favorite to as high as a 3-to-1 or even a 5-to-1 favorite. Rumors were floating around that Hackenschmidt had been injured, even skipping out on planned promotional appearances. When he finally came to the ring, it did nothing to quell the talk, for Hack came out in full tights where he usually wore shorts, had a noticeable limp, and was visibly nervous, even pale.
Worse yet, he looked out of shape, with a roll of fat where "The Russian Lion" had previously been all muscle. With whispers passing through the crowd, Chief of Police McSweeney stepped into the ring and declared that all bets were off.
With no money to be made wagering on the outcome, the spectators focused on the match itself, although it wasn't much of one:
"The story of the actual wrestling is soon told. Time was called at 3:15 o'clock. The contestants immediately locked heads and began feeling each other out. For five minutes, they tugged at each other's necks, wrists and arms, but neither obtained dangerous hold. "It was Gotch who first turned attention to the legs. Me [sic] made several fake passes at Hackenschmidt's knees before he finally obtained a knee hold at the end of the eight and a half minutes. Once the Iowan's massive hands were fastened on Hackenschmidt's left leg the Russian went down. He struggled out of them and a subsequent hold of the same kind and then became the aggressor. He got a body hold and put Gotch to the mat. But the American was down only a minute. "After 14 minutes of wrestling Gotch started Hackenschmidt down with a knee hold, faked crotch and then quickly worked the Russian into a half nelson. They struck the mat together, head to head. Then Gotch pivoted on his opponent's stomach, clamped on a reverse body hold, and the first fall was over. "The first five minutes of the second bout was a replica of that period in the first. But, all of a sudden, Gotch reached down his right hand, grasped Hackenschmidt's left ankle and unbalanced the lion."
With Hackenschmidt on his back, Gotch quickly applied his dreaded toehold:
"Referee Smith is authority for the statement that when Gotch secured the fatal toe lock, which won the second fall, Hackenschmidt cried out: "Don't hurt my toe!" And a second later "Don't break my leg!" and fell with his shoulders to the mat, frothing at the mouth."
Year's later referee Ed Smith recalled the end of the match in the pages of The Ring Magazine, an account that was reprinted by Nat Fleischer in his book, From Milos to Londos:
"The knee sank to the floor with a crash and Hack uttered a cry of pain. Gotch reached for, got a toehold, and started to twist. Hack howled again and, as he flopped to his left side, Gotch said very calmly, looking almost in his face, "Will you go down or shall I break it?" "Stop, I'll go down" shrilled Hack and the great match was over."
Not only had Hackenschmidt fallen again to Gotch, it was the first time he had ever had his shoulders pinned to the mat. Immediately after the loss the Russian Lion declared, "It was the cheapest world's championship ever won!",claiming he had entered the contest with an injured knee, the bandaging for it hidden beneath his full-length pants.
Hackenschmidt had a history of knee problems, even undergoing surgery in 1905. But he swore that he signed on to this match in complete health. Unfortunately, a fortnight before the contest, according to Hackenschmidt, they were finishing a day of grappling when he asked Dr. Ben Roller to make one more attempt at keeping him down.
"Let's do it once more," I said, and down I went again, with the doctor behind me. I jumped up to try and free myself, and this time he did not try to hold me. He went up with me. As we got on our legs, his right foot struck my right knee. I heard three distinct little pops, like small corks being drawn, and I dropped to the floor, to lie there like a log."
Later stories would arise that Ad Santell had intentionally injured Gotch after being paid to do so by Farmer Burns. The contradictory facts of the story indicating Santell worked with Hackenschmidt in England rather than Chicago, and Hackenschmidt, Roller, and Curley all having confirmed it was Doc Roller who had injured him, and perhaps the simple matter an injury could have forced a cancellation of the match as easily at it could have given Gotch the advantage, have done little to dissuade the tales.
Because of his loyalty to Jack Curley, and the money which his friend had riding on the contest, Hackenschmidt decided to go ahead with the event. Even so, he was despondent after the loss, visibly weeping in the dressing room.
Hoping to make up for the performance, Hackenschmidt posted $5,000 for a private return match with Gotch (private matches, because of the lack of money to be made off ticket sales or public wagering were more likely to be legitimate "shoot" matches) immediately afterwards. However, when Frank accepted, on the
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be able to make decisions for their children.
“This is something the government should not be involved with,” he said.
This story has been updated.
There appears to be no statistics keeping track of how many U.S. children fire a gun and intentionally or unintentionally harm someone. Yet, for many it feels like a month doesn't go by that we don't hear about a child pulling the trigger and killing someone with a firearm. These incidents have added fuel to the gun control debate. (Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post)
MORE READING:
Family of Arizona shooting range instructor killed by young girl urge her to move forwardImage copyright EPA Image caption Dancers performed at the opening of the trade fair on Thursday
A rocket has struck close to the entrance of a trade fair in the Syrian capital, Damascus, Syrian media say.
The Damascus International Fair is being held for the first time since the Syrian conflict broke out in 2011.
Syrian TV said the rocket had caused casualties. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said five people had died.
The fair, which has another 10 days to run, had been a key business event before the Syrian conflict broke out.
Its general director, Fares al-Kartally, told AFP news agency earlier in the week that holding the fair, which opened on Thursday, reflected "the return of calm and stability in most regions" and would "signal the start of [the country's] reconstruction".
State television reported the attack without giving specific casualties.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said about a dozen people had been injured in addition to the five dead.
Damascus has been spared the worst of the conflict, which recent de-escalation zones have eased further, but has suffered missile attacks from rebels.
Syria's war has left more than 330,000 people dead and has displaced millions more.Tina French will experience the new home of the Minnesota Vikings for the first time Thursday evening, but it’s her pregame plan that has her positively giddy.
The Columbia Heights resident will be sampling seafood, smoked brisket, salad fixings and the legendary chocolate fountain at the Golden Corral in Maple Grove that opens Thursday morning.
It’s the first reappearance of the giant North Carolina-based buffet chain in Minnesota, which had a small presence here years ago. It’s happening in one of the former locations of Old Country Buffet, a chain that started in Minnesota and became a regional force but lost direction and customers amid several ownership changes. And it’s made possible by a former Old Country Buffet executive.
“I’m thrilled to see the new stadium, but I definitely give the edge to Golden Corral,” French said. “I ate at one in Indianapolis that was 99 percent better than Old Country Buffet. Nicer atmosphere, nice people, fresher food and a better layout.”
Dale Maxfield, who was vice president of operations for Old Country Buffet for 16 years until he left in 2006, announced plans to open seven Golden Corral locations in the Twin Cities and a few more around the state. Since then, he said he has been fielding as many as 100 calls a day.
On Wednesday, he gathered trainers, employees, plumbers and electricians for a test run during the lunch hour. They also put finishing touches on the dining room, which Maxfield expects will serve 8,000 people in its first week.
“I know from my history at Old Country Buffet that there is a large number of customers looking for quality and variety,” Maxfield said. “If we can deliver on those with great service, we can be successful.”
After Maple Grove, Maxfield will open a Golden Corral in Maplewood on Nov. 1. Beyond the metro area, he is considering locations in Mankato, Duluth and Rochester.
The Maple Grove and Maplewood restaurants will be in former Old Country Buffet properties. But Maxfield said he plans to evaluate each prospective site based on size and parking. He is considering new buildings in some places. “I know how the locations were doing when I worked there, and I still have a connection with many of the OCB managers and employees,” he said.
The former Old Country Buffet in Fridley is now a Green Valley Buffet and the St. Cloud location became St. Cloud Family Restaurant. Other former OCBs in Richfield, Crystal, Roseville, West St. Paul, Woodbury and Coon Rapids remain closed.
How can Maxfield make a go of an all-you-can-eat concept that arguably seems dated and less than healthy? He said he gets that question a lot. The company has 28 rotating veggie choices, salmon and basa whitefish as entrees, sugar-free and no-sugar-added desserts and gluten-free options. “We provide options for every member of the family so they can all get their favorite choices,” he said.
The fall of Old Country Buffet, which was based in Eagan until 2012 when a series of transactions began that left it in the hands of a San Antonio firm called Food Management Partners, resulted from changes in its menu, Maxfield said.
“It was about fewer protein choices, raising the price and lowering the quality,” he said. “Our customers say ‘Don’t lower the quality if prices have to be raised. Don’t give us more breading and less chicken.’ ”
Maxfield said OCB was a good company that lost its way after being bought and sold too many times. “Golden Corral is 45 years old, the founder is still on board, and we’ve had a common vision that hasn’t changed with new CEOs,” he said.
Raleigh, N.C.-based Golden Corral has a reputation among customers as a provider of good value, said Darren Tristano, president of Technomic, a Chicago-based restaurant consultancy. The chain had outlets in Rochester and Faribault but closed them years ago and largely ceded the Upper Midwest to Old Country Buffet and others.
Tristano said it helps that the Twin Cities locations are former buffet restaurants, but Golden Corral always refreshes the interiors with a new look. The company requires franchisees to remodel every seven years.
“Golden Corral has done a good job of updating the interiors and the food to engage younger audiences,” he said. “Old Country Buffet was struggling financially and didn’t do that.”
Jerry and Louise Catt of Burnsville ate lunch on Monday at Old Country Buffet in Burnsville, the last surviving location in Minnesota. Despite the $5.99 Military Day special, the Catts said OCB’s quality has deteriorated. “They’ve lessened the value with fewer meat and fish choices,” Jerry Catt said. “We used to do family meals here, but the kids won’t eat here anymore.”
They said they will try Golden Corral when it arrives in the Twin Cities.
“We search for a Golden Corral when we travel. We’ve eaten there in Phoenix and Kissimmee. It’s 125 percent better than Old Country Buffet,” said Louise Catt.
Maxfield has sent a letter of intent to the owners to take over the Burnsville location, although it is still operating as an Old Country Buffet. He hasn’t received a response yet. Rob Anderson, a manager at OCB in Burnsville, said that he hasn’t been told of any changes in ownership.
The new Maple Grove restaurant will have one of Golden Corral’s latest features — a smoker on the premises for turkey, brisket, sausage and ribs.
What it doesn’t have is alcohol or late-night hours.
Only a few of Corral’s nearly 500 restaurants serve alcohol and nearly all close at 9 p.m. to maintain the family vibe.
John Ewoldt • 612-673-7633Though I’d had the image of parents photographing their kids at a school play in mind for a while, it was a line in Mary Zimmerman’s transcendently rejiggered “Jungle Book,” which my family and I attended this year, that prompted me to think it might make an O.K. cover. It’s not necessary to go into context, plot, or theme here, because the line (Zimmerman’s own) means exactly what it says: “Well, one’s own children are more important than the children of others.… Everyone knows that. The world runs on that.”
My daughter squealed and flapped her hands with pure, sincere glee throughout the production, and she wasn’t alone; some of the pleasure I’d taken in the performance up to that point was watching the children in the audience bobbing up and down in their seats, laughing and clapping—which made Ms. Zimmerman’s words all the more well-aimed (and, as we used to say in art school, site-specific). Predictably, her line zinged over the heads of the kids, but got a big laugh from the parents, hitting us all in the heart.
Steve Jobs, along with whatever else we’re crediting to him, should be granted the patent on converting the universal human gesture for trying to remember something from looking above one’s head to fumbling in one’s pants pocket. I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that most pre-industrial composers could creditably reproduce an entire symphony after hearing it only once, not because they were autistic but simply because they had to. We’ve all heard Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos hundreds of times more than Bach ever did, and where our ancestors might have had only one or two images by which to remember their consumptive forebears, we have hours of footage of ours circling the luxury-cruise midnight buffet tables.
Sometimes, I’ve noticed with horror that the memories I have of things like my daughter’s birthday parties or the trips we’ve taken together are actually memories of the photographs I took, not of the events themselves, and together, the two somehow become ever more worn and overwrought, like lines gone over too many times in a drawing. The more we give over of ourselves to these devices, the less of our own minds it appears we exercise, and worse, perhaps even concomitantly, the more we coddle and covet the devices themselves. The gestures necessary to operate our new touch-sensitive generation of technology are disturbingly similar to caresses.
This is the first cover of 2014. I drew the first of 2013 after chaperoning my daughter’s school class to a production of “The Nutcracker” and hearing about the Newtown shooting shortly after the school bus pulled into the parking lot. Like the other parents, I followed the story, listening to the radio and, hands shaking, scrolling through the news reports on my iPhone, all the while making sure my daughter heard about none of it. Now, a year out, it’s absolutely shameful that the certainty with which we all believed national gun-control legislation would be enacted has been met with nothing. Just this morning, I heard one of the Newtown families interviewed on the radio—they’d lost their only daughter that day—and they spoke of the foundation they’d established in her name, invoking the chilling phrase “so that no other parent would have to go through what they had.” And all they had left of her were their memories, and their pictures.Transocean Ltd. (RIG)’s drilling contract with BP Plc (BP/) promised indemnification for damages from oil spilled below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico and should be enforced for claims over the Deepwater Horizon accident, the rig owner told a judge.
Claiming the drilling contractor shares blame for the disaster, London-based BP sued Transocean in April to recover part of more than $40 billion in damages and costs from the 2010 spill. Transocean accused BP of breaching their contract by failing to defend the rig owner and hold it harmless against claims.
“What Transocean seeks is to hold BP to its promise,” John M. Elsley, a lawyer for Transocean, told U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier at a hearing in New Orleans federal court today. “BP does not want that to happen.”
BP has argued that Transocean’s conduct voided the agreement. Transocean, based in Vernier, Switzerland, denies willful misconduct and claims the indemnity provision requires BP to pay virtually all damages and cleanup costs because it was a subsurface spill.
The April 2010 Macondo well blowout and the explosion that followed killed 11 workers and set off the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. The sinking of Transocean’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and spill led to hundreds of lawsuits against BP and its partners and contractors.Why the Direct Action auction has a suspicious whiff of rubbish abatement
“The results of the first Emissions Reduction Fund auction released today clearly prove that the Coalition’s climate change policy is delivering real and significant abatement – just as we always said it would.”
- Environment Minister Greg Hunt
Environment Minister Greg Hunt is in a race against time. Next year an election will be held and by that time Hunt needs to have enough runs on the board under his Direct Action abatement auction scheme, not so much to conclusively prove it works, but at least enough to give the impression it might work in achieving the 2020 emission reduction target.
The 47 million tonnes of abatement acquired under the Government’s first Direct Action Emission Reduction Fund auction gave the impression of a significant result. That’s equivalent to more than half of the annual emissions from the transport sector, so on face value it seems pretty impressive.
Yet as I explained a few weeks ago, while 47 million sounds impressive, you need to remember it will be spaced out over up to ten years. Meanwhile, for the government to reach its 2020 emission reduction target its own numbers suggest it actually needs 47 million tonnes of abatement every single year, not over 10 years. Once you account for contract length it appears this auction has delivered just 5.4 million per annum to 2020.
But there’s a more fundamental problem -- does this 5.4 milllion tonnes per annum represent genuine improvement over business as usual or an accounting illusion?
In the prior article I highlighted doubts about whether the abatement claimed by stopping methane (a greenhouse gas whose warming effect is 34 times greater than CO2) from waste landfills escaping into the atmosphere represented a meaningful change. Landfill methane gas combustion accounted for almost half of the total abatement delivered from the first auction at 2.5 million tonnes per annum.
Since that article was published I’ve gone through a combination of data sources to identify the year each individual landfill project that was awarded a contract commenced operation or methane capture practices were instituted. This predominantly relied on data with the Clean Energy Regulator’s own registry of landfill gas power projects accredited under the Renewable Energy Target -- a scheme that began operation back in 2001.
The results are not good.
The table below shows the vast proportion of the supposed abatement is flowing from projects that were up and running many years ago. These projects stretch back to as far back as 1997. The lion’s share of the contracted abatement appears to come from projects which had been capturing methane for power generation before the first legislation for a national carbon price -- the CPRS -- had been tabled in 2009.
Establishment year for landfill gas projects awarded contracts under the first ERF auction
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This draws into serious doubt whether the ERF payments are making any significant difference, given many of these projects were established a long time before the ERF or even the carbon price came along, and most of these projects have strong commercial incentive to capture and combust the methane in order to generate power to earn revenue from both the underlying electricity and also renewable energy certificates under the Renewable Energy Target.
Now it is true that some of the projects above (which represent a small share of the quantity of abatement contracted) do not have power generation equipment installed and simply flare the methane. One could argue this flaring would not have any financial incentive to occur without the ERF.
This is certainly a valid argument, it appears, for small landfills, which before the institution of the carbon price almost never put in place any measures to control methane emissions because the gas they produced was never going to be sufficient to produce electricity, and regulatory authorities turned a blind eye to their lax environmental controls.
However, in many cases the flaring in larger landfills is just a preparatory step before power generation equipment is ultimately installed in order to be able to capture the value from using the fuel to produce electricity.
Also for most large landfills that receive above 100,000 tonnes of waste per year (which account for more than 70 per cent of solid waste going to landfill), state environmental guidelines tend to require the capture and combustion of landfill gas anyway to address safety and odour issues as well as mitigating climate change. NSW has required landfill operators to “...suitably utilise landfill gas”. Victoria requires landfills accepting greater than 40,000 tonnes per year to install a landfill gas control system, while Queensland requires a gas collection system for landfills receiving more than 20,000 tonnes a year. South Australia requires gas concentrations in monitoring bores to be limited to 1 per cent methane and 1.5 per cent carbon dioxide.
Admittedly these standards have not been applied with the level of stringency state environmental authority guidelines appear to dictate. But this had been changing. In Victoria a serious methane leakage from a landfill into a housing development in Cranbourne on Melbourne’s fringe, led the Victorian EPA to undertake a major review of landfills to ensure methane leakages were contained. According to one waste industry insider these requirements suggest the ERF funding to Victorian projects hasn’t made any meaningful difference to emissions.
The end conclusion from this is that almost half the abatement that the Environment Minister is brandishing as proof the ERF is working and Labor is wrong, is deeply suspect.
The incredible irony though is that it was Labor that made all of this suspect abatement eligible while they were in government.
In their fruitless effort to mollify all of the critics of the carbon price Labor agreed to continue a practice established under the NSW Greenhouse Gas Abatement scheme of allowing landfill gas businesses to double dip from two government carbon abatement schemes. This was even though the University of New South Wales had highlighted it as seriously problematic as early as 2005, and despite the fact the NSW Government had made a very clear statement in 2006 that implied eligibility to earn carbon credits from such abatement initiatives would cease once a national cap and trade scheme was established.
The world of politics is truly stranger than fiction, although the horse called self-interest is always hard at work in the background.
Setting the agenda for Australia's $150BN agribusiness sector The program for Australia's premier agribusiness conference - The Global Food Forum - is set. Hear from more than 30 industry leaders including PepsiCo's CEO, Danny Celoni, Jayne Hrdlicka, CEO of A2 Milk Company, Barry Irvin, Executive Chairman, Bega Cheese and Costco's Managing Director, Patrick Noone. Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park Book NowIntroduction
About GLFW
#include // Assume this is opened elsewhere. FILE *_log; static void onWindowClose( GLFWwindow* win ) { fputs( "The window is closing!", _log ); // Tell the main loop to exit setExitFlag(); } void initEventHandlersForThisWindow( GLFWwindow* win ) { // Pass the callback to glfw glfwSetWindowCloseCallback( win, onWindowClose ); }
The Problem
import std.stdio; // Imaginary module that defines an App class import mygame.foo.app; // Assume this is opened elsewhere. File _log; // private at module scope makes the function local to the module, // just as a static function in C. This is going to be passed to // glfw as a callback, so it must be declared as extern( C ). private extern( C ) void onWindowClose( GLFWwindow* win ) { // Calling a D function _log.writeln( "The window is closing!" ); // Tell the app to exit. myApp.stop(); } void initEventHandlersForThisWindow( GLFWwindow* win ) { glfwSetWindowCloseCallback( win, &onWindowClose ); }
Throws: Exception if the file is not opened. ErrnoException on an error writing to the file.
A Solution
// In D, class references are automatically initialized to null. private Throwable _rethrow; private extern( C ) void onWindowClose( GLFWwindow* win ) { try { _log.writeln( "The window is closing!" ); myApp.stop(); } catch( Throwable t ) { // Save the exception so it can be rethrown below. _rethrow = t; } } void pumpEvents() { glfwPollEvents(); // The C function has returned, so it is safe to rethrow the exception now. if( _rethrow!is null ) { auto t = _rethrow; _rethrow = null; throw t; } }
The first rule of Throwable is that you do not catch Throwable. If you do decide to catch it, you can't count on struct destructors being called and finally clauses being executed.
void foo() { try {... } catch( Throwable t ) { throw new MyException( "Something went horribly wrong!", t ); } } void bar() { try { foo(); } catch( MyException me ) { // Do something with MyException me.doSomething(); // Throw the original throw me.next; } }
try {... } catch( Throwable t ) { // Chain the previously saved exception to t. t.next = _rethrow; // Save t. _rethrow = t; }
class CallbackThrowable : Throwable { // This is for the previously saved CallbackThrowable, if any. CallbackThrowable nextCT; // The file and line params aren't strictly necessary, but they are good // for debugging. this( Throwable payload, CallbackThrowable t, string file = __FILE__, size_t line = __LINE__ ) { // Call the superclass constructor that takes file and line info, // and make the wrapped exception part of this exception's chain. super( "An exception was thrown from a C callback.", file, line, payload ); // Store a reference to the previously saved CallbackThrowable nextCT = t; } // This method aids in propagating non-Exception throwables up the callstack. void throwWrappedError() { // Test if the wrapped Throwable is an instance of Exception and throw it // if it isn't. This will cause Errors and any other non-Exception Throwable // to be rethrown. if( cast( Exception )next is null ) { throw next; } } }
private CallbackThrowable _rethrow; private extern( C ) void onWindowClose( GLFWwindow* win ) { try { _log.writeln( "The window is closing!" ); myApp.stop(); } catch( Throwable t ) { // Save a new CallbackThrowable that wraps t and chains _rethrow. _rethrow = new CallbackThrowable( t, _rethrow ); } } void pumpEvents() { glfwPollEvents(); if( _rethrow!is null ) { // Loop through each CallbackThrowable in the chain and rethrow the first // non-Exception throwable encountered. for( auto ct = _rethrow; ct!is null; ct = ct.nextCT ) { ct.throwWrappedError(); } // No Errors were caught, so all we have are Exceptions. // Throw the saved CallbackThrowable. auto t = _rethrow; _rethrow = null; throw t; } }
Conclusion
Changelog
When mixing multiple languages in the same project, there are often some subtle issues that can crop up from their interaction. One of those tricky cases is exception handling. Even handling exceptions across shared libraries implemented in a single language, like C++, can be a problem if different compilers were used to compile the libraries. Since the D Programming Language has exceptions built in, and they are always on, some special care should be taken when interacting with other languages. In this article, I'm going to explain a specific scenario I encountered using GLFW 3 in D and the solution I came up with. I think this solution can work in many situations in which D is used to create an executable interacting with C libraries. If it's the other way around, where a C executable is using D libraries, this isn't going to be as broadly applicable. GLFW 3 is a cross-platform library that can be used to create OpenGL applications. It abstracts away window and context creation and system event processing. The latest version has been pared down quite a bit to provide little more than that. It's a small library and does its job well. Events in GLFW are processed via a number of callback functions. For example, the following C code shows how to handle notification of window close events.All system events are handled in this manner. In C, there's very little to get into trouble with here. There is a warning in the documentation not to call glfwDestroyWindow from a callback, but other than that pretty much anything goes. When doing this in D, the restriction on destroying windows still holds, but that's not all.I've seen code from people using D who misunderstood the meaning of D's extern( C ) linkage attribute. They believed that this restricted them to only using C libraries and/or C constructs inside the function. This is not the case. Any D library calls can be made and any valid D code can be used in these functions. All the attribute does is tell the compiler that the function uses the __cdecl calling convention. I bring this up because one of the primary use cases of implementing a function in D with extern( C ) linkage is for callbacks to pass to C libraries. To demonstrate, I'll rewrite the above C example in D.This bit of code will work fine, probably very near 100% of the time. But taking a gander at the documentation for std.stdio.File.writeln will reveal the following.Now imagine that there is a write error in the callback and an ErrnoException is thrown. What's going to happen? GLFW events are processed by calling glfwPollEvents. Then, as events are internally processed, the appropriate callbacks are called by GLFW to handle them. So the sequence goes something like this: DFunc -> glfwPollevents -> onWindowClose -> return to glfwPollEvents -> return to DFunc. Now, imagine for a moment that all GLFW is written in D so that every function of that sequence is a D function. If log.writeln throws an ErrnoException, the sequence is going to look like this: DFunc -> glfwPollEvents -> onWindowClose -> propagate exception to glfwPollEvents -> propagate exception to DFunc. That would be great, but it isn't reality. Here's what the sequence looks like when compiling a 32-bit app with DMD on Windows: DFunc -> glfwPollEvents ->onWindowClose -> {} -> return to glfwPollEvents -> return to DFunc. The {} indicates that the exception is never propagated beyond the callback. Once onWindowClose returns, execution returns to a part of the binary that was written in C and was not compiled with any instructions to handle exception propagation. So the exception is essentially dropped and the program will, with luck, continue as if it were never thrown at all. On Linux, what happens depends on which compiler you use. If it's DMD, the app will just abort. If it's GDC, the exception will propagate up the callstack, but there's likely a risk of leaving the C side of things in an invalid state. Relying on compiler behavior only works if it can be guaranteed the code will be compiled with a specific compiler and platform. Otherwise, that's just not a reasonable approach. If the exceptions are going to be dealt with, they ought to be handled in a way that is consistent across compilers and platforms. The result of not handling an exception can be unpredictable. Sometimes, it's harmless. In this particular example, it could be that nothing is ever written to the same log object again, or maybe the next call to _log.writeln succeeds, or maybe it fails again but happens in D code where the exception can be propagated. In my own tests using callbacks that do nothing but throw exceptions, no harm is ever done. But it's not a perfect world. Sometimes exceptions are thrown at a certain point in a function call, or as a result of a certain failure, that causes the application to be in an invalid state. This can, sooner or later, cause crashes, unexpected behavior, and hard to find bugs. For a program to be more robust, exceptions thrown in D from C callbacks ought to be handled somehow.I'm convinced that there's a genetic mutation we programmers have that leads us all to believe we can be disciplined about our code. I know I've suffered from it. I've used C for years and never felt the need to choose C++ for any of my projects. I know all of the pitfalls of C strings and C arrays. I can manage them effectively! I don't need any std::string or std::vector nonsense! I've got some good C code lying around that mitigates most of those problems most of the time. Yet despite (or maybe because of) all of my confidence in my ability to properly manage the risks of C, I've still had bugs that I wouldn't have had if I'd just gone and used C++ in the first place. Coding discipline is a skill that takes time to learn and is never perfectly maintained. It's irrational to believe otherwise. We all lapse and make mistakes. Any solution to this problem that relies on discipline is a nonsolution. And that goes doubly so for a library that's going to be put out there for other people to use. In this particular case, that of GLFW event handling, one way around this is to use the callbacks solely to queue up custom event objects, and then process the queue once glfwPollEvents returns. That's a workable solution, but it's not what I settled on. I have an aversion to implementing anything that I don't absolutely need. It just doesn't feel clean. Besides which, it's a solution that's useful only for a subset of cases. Other cases that don't translate to the event-handling paradigm would require a different approach. Another solution is to is to wrap any external calls made by the callback in a try...catch block and then save the exception somewhere. Then, when the original call into C returns, the exception can be rethrown from D. Here's what that might look like.Notice that I'm using Throwable here. D has two exception types in the standard library, which both derive from Throwable: Exception and Error. The former is intended for recoverable errors, while the latter should be thrown to indicate an unrecoverable error in the program. However, the language does not prevent them being caught. Andrei Alexandrescu's book "The D Programming Language" has this to say about catching Throwable.Another issue is that any Error caught might be of the type AssertError. This sort of error really should be propagated all the way up the call stack. It's acceptable to catch Throwable here, since I'm rethrowing it. By making _rethrow a Throwable, I'm ensuring that I won't miss any exceptions, regardless of type. With one caveat. This implementation is fine if only one callback has been set. But if others have been set, glfwPollEvents can call any number of them on any given execution. If more than one exception is thrown, the newest will always overwrite its immediate predecessor. This means that, potentially, an Exception might overwrite an Error that really shouldn't be lost. In practice, this is unlikely to be a problem. If I'm implementing this for my own personal use, I know whether or not I care about handling multiple exceptions and can modify the code at any time if I find that I need to later on. But for something I want to distribute to others, this solution is not enough. Like exceptions in Java, exceptions in D have built-in support for what's known as 'exception chaining.' Throwable exposes a public field called next. This can be set in a constructor when the exception is thrown.Exception chaining is something that isn't needed often, but it can be useful in a number of cases. The problem I'm describing in this article is one of them. Given the information so far, a first pass modification of onWindowClose might look something like this.This appears to do the job, making sure that no exceptions caught here are lost. However, there's still a problem. If t has an existing exception chain, then setting t.next will cause any previous exceptions connected to it to be lost. To make the problem clear, what I want to do here is to save the caught exception, t and anything chained to it, along with any previously saved exceptions and their chains. This way, all of that information is available if needed once the C callback returns. That appears to call for more than one next field. Additionally, it would probably be a good idea to distinguish between saved Errors and Exceptions and handle them appropriately so that there's no need to rely on programmer discipline to do so elsewhere. Finally, it would be nice for user code to be able to tell the difference between exceptions thrown from the C callbacks and exceptions thrown from normal D code. This can be a useful aid in debugging. Given the above contraints, a simple solution is a custom exception class. Here is the one I've implemented for my own code.Generally, it is frowned upon to subclass Throwable directly. However, this subclass is not a typical Exception or Error and is intended to be handled in a special way. Furthermore, it wraps both types, so doesn't really match either. Conceptually, I think it's the right choice. This is intended to be used to wrap any exceptions thrown in the callbacks. I assign the caught exception to the next member, via the superclass constructor, so that it and its entire chain are saved. Then I assign the previously saved CallbackThrowable to the custom nextCT member. If nothing was previously saved, that's okay, since D will have initialized _rethrow to null. Finally, I save the new CallbackThrowable to the _rethrow variable. The modified callback example below demonstrates how this is used.Now, code further up the call stack can look for instances of CallbackThrowable and not miss a single Exception that was thrown in the callbacks. Errors will still be thrown independently, propagating up the callstack as intended. This still isn't quite as perfect as one would like. If multiple Errors were thrown, then all but one would be lost. If that's important to handle, it's not difficult to do so. One potential solution would be to log each error in the loop above and rethrow the last one logged, rather than calling throwWrappedError. Another would be to implement CallbackError and CallbackException subclasses of CallbackThrowable. Errors can be chained to the former, Exceptions to the latter. Then the loop can be eliminated. I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader.In Java, I see exceptions used everywhere, but that's primarily because there's often no choice (I still cringe thinking about my first experience with JDBC). Checked exceptions can be extremely annoying to deal with. Conversely, in C++ where there are no checked exceptions, I've found that they are less common (in the source I've seen, which certainly is in a narrow domain -- I wouldn't be surprised to find them used extensively in some fields outside of game development). In D, like C++, there are no checked exceptions. However, their usage in D tends to be pervasive, but in a way that is more subtle than in Java. That is, you don't see try...catch blocks all over a D codebase as you do a Java codebase. Often, in user code it's enough just to use try...catch only in special cases, such as file IO when you don't want to abort the app just because a file failed to load, and let the rest propagate on up the call stack. The runtime will generate a stack trace on exit. But they can be thrown from anywhere any time, particularly from the standard library. So in D, whether a codebase is littered with exceptions or not, they should always be on the mind. As such, cross-boundary exception handling is one potential source of problems that needs to be considered when using D and C in the same codebase. The solution presented here is only one of several possible. I find it not only simple, but flexible enough to cover a number of use cases.: Clarified the difference between Errors and Exceptions. Updated the CallbackThrowable solution to handle Errors differently. Added new information about how exception propagation interacts with C when using different compilers.Modelling approach
In-reservoir OC transformations and burial rates are simulated using a simple, biogeochemical mass balance (or box) model (Supplementary Fig. 1). The parameters of the kinetic expressions representing the in-reservoir processes are assigned probability density functions (PDF) that take into account each parameter’s inter- and intra-reservoir variability at the annual timescale. The PDFs are derived from available data on photosynthetic C fixation, OC mineralization and OC burial in lentic systems. A similar approach was previously applied to predict global-scale phosphorus and nutrient silicon retention in dam reservoirs27,28.
A virtual database of model reservoirs is generated by performing 6,000 MC simulations with rate parameters selected randomly from their corresponding PDFs. From this virtual database, global relationships are derived that predict burial, mineralization and photosynthesis rates from the reservoir’s hydraulic residence time. The global relationships are applied to a real-world database that includes existing reservoirs (GRanD)9 in 1970 and 2000, and reservoirs under construction or planned to be completed by 2030 (ref. 10). Together with the DOC and POC loads to reservoirs obtained from the Global-NEWS model, the burial, mineralization and photosynthesis fluxes in the reservoirs of all major watersheds worldwide are then simulated for four selected time points (1970, 2000, 2030 and 2050). The MC analysis also yields estimates of the uncertainties on the OC fluxes associated with parameter variability.
The Global-NEWS model is well suited for the proposed modelling approach: it differentiates between POC and DOC, it implicitly accounts for in-stream OC losses, and it has been used to hindcast nutrient loads to watersheds in the years 1970 and 2000, and to forecast the 2030 and 2050 loads according to the MA scenarios22,35. Global-NEWS predicts sediment, OC and nutrient yields based on land use and land cover (for example, wetlands, cropland and grasslands), climate variables (including temperature and precipitation), geomorphological parameters (including slope and lithology) and anthropogenic alterations (including consumptive water usage). The MA scenarios are storylines for a future world that will become either more globalized (Global Orchestration (GO) and TechnoGarden, TG) or regionalized (Adapting Mosaic, AM, and Order from Strength, OS), and take either a proactive (TG and AM) or reactive approach to environmental management (GO and order from strength, OS)35.
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it's an absolute no-win ballgame at that point. Tim's initial article was updated once VADA confirmed that the quoted press release was not from them.
We'd been given a lot of words (I don't know that I'd call it "information") from Genet after the article had gone up. And we could have written a follow-up, clarifying what he wanted clarified and explaining that they were not agreeing to the VADA testing and why. But he did not give us permission nor confirmation that what he was saying to us was on the record.
After that treatment the first time around, he then expected me to reach out to him to "fact check my opinion," as he put it, for an article where I used a direct quote from him.
First of all, it's an opinion piece on his statements. I don't need to "fact check" my opinion that VADA is clearly a better option than NSAC testing. Nor do I need to "fact check" my statements that VADA has been used in high profile, big money boxing matches prior to this fight, so they're not opportunistically trying to swoop in to the Nelson/Carwin fight for legitimacy. There is literally nothing in the post that lacked enough "fact checking" to have been posted.
Second, why would I think about reaching out to a guy who had already blown us off once before, and in a situation where he was the one that initiated contact anyway? I'm not going to bend over backward to make sure that a manager is okay with my having an opinion, that's not my job. His job is to make sure his public statements are something he stands by. If he can't handle criticism of those, then PR is the wrong line of work for him.
He could have handled this in so many better ways. He could have e-mailed me and asked me to work with him to get the information out that he felt needed to get out. That's something I'll do so long as the information a manager is asking to get out is able sourced to him and is reasonable.
Instead, he chose to go after me and the site in public. I am not going to stand idly by while a manager hurls about libelous statements, claiming that I was "lying" about our interactions. That has the ability to significantly harm how people view the site and myself if left unchecked. And that is why this story is being published.
This isn't just bad management by Genet (though, to be clear, engaging in public Twitter arguments certainly is that), it's inappropriate behavior. But behavior that is sadly all too common in the fight game.Building Bridges
“In order to obtain or create something, something of equal value must be lost or destroyed."
“Are you sure this will work? We are unconvinced.” Platinum Haze tugged at the hem of her dress with her magic, and I saw the fabric on her back shift when she tried to move her wings.
“It will if you stop doing that.” I reached up to pat her wings down. “And it worked before. Ponies see what they want to see.”
“And nopony wishes to see an alicorn?”
“Er.” I hope she didn't take offence to that. “I mean. Nopony would expect to see an alicorn. You're kind of rare… and mostly up north. It worked once, so it should work again.”
She nodded sagely. “If you are certain.” We were less than an hour away from an NCA encampment near the conflict at the Canyon Ridge Bridge. It was apparently the only currently functional route across the western canyon separating the Minotaur controlled territory from that controlled by the NCA and Dise. Going around was either impossible or would take weeks, and any other way across was dangerous at best so it had been a point of tension since the war reignited.
“We have another question to ask you,” Platinum Haze said with a nervous tinge to her voice. When I nodded she continued. “We have noticed… we… First we should apologize. On our trip here we noticed you… we do not want to say the word ‘sneaking,’ but it seems appropriate… sneaking off in the morning, and we—”
“You followed me and saw what I did.” Of course she did, and I knew she did anyway. There was a burning in my shoulder and I knew she was following me invisibly, but I didn't care. I had sort of hoped she wouldn't mention it out of embarrassment or something… “I'm addicted to Med-X,” I said. “I…” My brow furrowed as I tried to explain. “I didn't mean to. I get beat up a lot and it… helped…” It helped so much. “I have enough… It's not a problem. For now. I know I need to get myself clean. But… there's so much to do. Only so much time. After, I promise.” It was easier to say than I expected. I had known it was coming for a while, but somehow the words weren't as difficult to find as I had feared.
“We appreciate your honesty… While we cannot approve, we understand.” There was a pause as I breathed a sigh of relief. “But.” But was never good. “When we saw we… recalled an event. When you first discovered us and you were taken to the infirmary at the orphanage. Afterwards we noticed that some of our supplies were missing, specifically our supply of Med-X.”
“Uh…” There was a long pause. Platinum Haze technically didn't ask me a question, so technically I didn't have to answer. Loopholes are fun.
“Was it you?” Her eyes narrowed, staring at me with such an intensity I couldn't bear to look at them.
“Uh…”
“Silver Storm.” I hated it when people called me by that name. “Answer the question.”
I gulped. “It… I…” I lowered my head. “Yes.” Perhaps the problem was worse than I thought when I was stealing from orphanages.
“We see.” She said nothing else, but kept up the glare. “As soon as there is time you will be getting yourself clean. This is not up for debate, and if you resist we will be very displeased.”
See, I knew she would never hurt me, but just hearing the barely controlled anger in her voice was more terrifying than an entire legion of Steel Rangers. “Okay,” I said meekly, which is not something I do often. “Sorry.”
“If you do not do as we ask, we can assure you that you will be.”
Well, that was ominous.
There was a lingering tension in the air that was so thick you could cut it with a knife. It would have been a lot more awkward had Serenity not taken that time to come running over.
“Momma! Haze!” She was really fast. “Some soldier-y ponies are heading this way; they don't look happy. It might be because I threw a rock at them when they asked me my name. But it was a really small rock, I promise.”
“Serenity…” It was hard to scold her after getting a scolding myself, but I tried my best.
“Really small!” She assured me as two NCA soldiers ran towards us.
“Get back here you little runt!” one of them shouted, and I noted a small dent in his helmet when I saw him approach. “Whoa, wait.” The two of them stopped and looked at each other in confusion before pointing their weapons at us. “Travel is restricted in this area, what's your business.” Their guns, I noted, were pointed more at Platinum Haze than me. Even completely unarmed and wearing a dress, she made an imposing figure.
“And what’s with your mane!” the second guard said. His voice seemed higher pitched, and I swear I heard it crack. It seemed the NCA recruited young. “It's all… all floaty.”
“Er… we—” Before Platinum Haze could say anything I stepped forward.
“My companion's mother. She got irradiated while pregnant. It had… a strange effect.” I doubted either of them were experts in the field of megaspell byproducts, so that'd work until I could think of a better lie. “We're looking for the NCA base.”
The guards shared another look as if judging if my story made any sense. “Why?”
“Major General Hailstorm sent us. We're… mechanics.” I made a motion to my cybernetic leg. I'm not sure if that proved anything except that I was clumsy but they seemed to buy it because we weren't shot. “She was worried about your artillery. Wanted us to do some routine maintenance on it.”
“And I'm Celestia's grandson,” the older guard said with a sneer. “You're not getting into the camp with a story like tha—”
“I have proof.” They stared incredulously at me.
“Well what is it?” The older guard asked impatiently.
“What if they're spies?” the younger one warned, which was a bit weird because that's not something you're supposed to say in front of the possible spies.
“Then we're the worst spies ever,” I said digging out the note Hailstorm gave us and giving it to them. “Here. It says everything.”
The two ponies took turns reading over the letter and giving us dirty looks. “You'll have to speak with General Stand Fast; he's in charge of operations and he'll want to verify things. Follow us.” He turned to walk away as his younger companion continued to stare.
“If you run, we'll shoot you. Just to be safe,” he clarified, before turning as well, leaving us no option but to follow. Though we did so at a distance so we could talk somewhat privately.
Not that it mattered, because as soon as we started walking Serenity asked, “You guys took forever to get dressed, what was keeping you?” and that sort of killed my mood for conversation.
---
“So.” General Stand Fast was older than I expected, mostly balding and what wisps of mane he had left were white as snow. Not that I had ever actually seen snow. “Hailstorm sent you?” I noticed that he didn't call her by her rank, and nodded in reply.
We had been taken by the guards into the NCA camp, and it was much bigger than I expected. Set right on the edge of a massive canyon (Caledonia had so many canyons, I swear) it was a huge encampment surrounded by a monolithic wall of scrap metal and wood with a guard tower just about every ten meters. From the looks of it, it started off as a scattered camp, but tents were partially built over to form buildings in some places, while in other places the ageing tents were left to stand, marked by many patches and signs of constant repair. It gave the entire camp a sense of chaotic order. This was only magnified by the sheer multitude of ponies in the camp, more than I had seen in a single place outside of Dise. Nearly all of which wore some form of uniform, which made us stand out more in comparison.
“You know they passed over me for the rank of Major General,” he said with an indignant snort. “For some up jumped filly with barely any experience. I've been a member of the NCA since before she was out of diapers!” Maybe his age was part of the problem, but I wasn't about to suggest that. “Why should I let you have free reign of my base?”
“Major General Hailstorm is your boss right?” I asked slowly, trying not to overstep.
“Yes, but she is far away and her signature could be forged.”
“So, she gave you this position then? She must think highly of you. To give you command of such an important… er… base.”
He seemed to think about that for a second. “I suppose you are right. Though I am no friend of hers, it is not as if she had intended to jump over me. ” She probably had, but that was something else I wasn't going to suggest. “So you are here to… look at the artillery?”
“That's correct.” I gave my most reassuring smile. “We're the best in Caledonia. Taught my filly everything she knows. She even got her cutiemark in fixing things. Major General Ha-”
“You're a liar.” I was, but he didn't have to be so mean about it. Hurt my feelings. “You're too heavily armed to be a mechanic, and we already have our own mechanics. I don't know wh—”
“Right. I am a mercenary.” He seemed taken aback by my sudden honesty. “My daughter however,” I motioned towards Serenity who was grinning from ear to ear, “is a prodigy. We worked at the farm. Major General Hailstorm heard of her ability. One thing led to another and we were sent here. Serenity here thinks she can modify your artillery. Make it shoot further and more accurately.”
The General narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Then why lie.”
I gave him a good natured smile. “Nopony would believe what this filly is capable of. It was necessary. But you're a reasonable stallion. Imagine the glory if these improvements work. Nopony will know it was us. Or Hailstorm. Just you. You'll be a hero.”
He considered that for a second before nodding. “Yes. Yes. You and your entourage will be given room and board for tonight, and free run of the camp -- barring any high security areas. You may also not leave the premises under any conditions. This is a war zone you're in, and it's for your safety. Not that you could anyway, all entrances are locked and under guard.”
“Of course,” I said, giving him a small smile. “We're not crazy.”
---
“We are fairly certain that this plan is demonstrably crazy,” was the first thing Platinum Haze said to me as soon as we had been left alone in the small room we were escorted to. It was a small, cramped room made from scrap, and still had a dirt floor. The bed looked nice and soft though.
“What’s so crazy about it?” I thought it was a good plan.
“While it makes sense to use our invisibility to leave, our wings are too injured to fly over anything, not to mention carry.”
I was pretty sure she was calling me fat. “You don't need to. We'll use Serenity's sound absorbing spell to sneak to the gate.” I mimicked sneaking over to the door, “Then bang!” I gently kicked at the door. Obviously in practice it'd be a lot harder. “Lock broken.”
Platinum Haze stared at me, but her expression was unreadable. Or I was terrible at reading expressions. “We suppose that could work, though there is still a problem.”
I stood back up proper and looked at the door to make sure I didn't actually hurt it. “What?”
“Locks, as we understand it, exist for a purpose. By destroying their lock, we could be putting them in danger, which is not something we wish to do.” That… was a well reasoned argument.
“Well. We don't have a lot of options.” I shrugged. “We can't really stay here long. Serenity knows nothing about artillery. Our bluff will be called.”
“That much we agree upon, we must leave tonight or sooner.” Haze sighed. “But… we do not believe it is right to do so in a manner that puts others at risk.”
“Not much of one.” I was less sympathetic. To be honest, I had never found myself particularly enamoured to the NCA, and it wasn't as if a single lock would matter much. “They'll find the broken lock in the morning. And fix it.”
“If they notice, we are unsure they will notice.”
“Do you have a better option?”
“Well, no-”
“So it's settled,” I said firmly. “We need to leave. It probably won’t hurt anyone. Don't worry about it.”
“We still worry, unforeseen consequences of our actions may be dire, and we wish to-”
“I have an option!” Serenity was standing in the doorway. I hadn't even heard the door open, or noticed she was gone… “I was waitin' fer tha perfect time to come in. Dramatically. But ya'lls were boring so I'm doing it now!” She trotted into the room and jumped on the bed.
“Where were you?”
“Shh, Momma.” She put her hoof up to my lips to silence me. “No using the momma voice.” I don't know what she was talking about. “And close the door, it's worth it. Promise.” With a sigh I slowly closed the door. “Taaadaaa!” And floating out of her pack in an aura of pink magic was a key ring with a single key on it.
Platinum Haze looked shocked, and so did I when it occurred to me what she had. “We must confess, we never considered that option.”
“Where did you get that?” I put on my so called “momma voice” again.
“I found it.” I stared at her. “In a desk.” I kept staring. “In the general's office.” I didn't take my gaze off her and she squirmed under the pressure. “Past a few armed guards. They didn't notice me though!” Only then did I look away from her, and she let out an audible sigh of relief.
“That was dangerous,” I explained.
“But fun!” Was her counter, though at that point I think she was just trying to rile me up. “And it solved your problem. Everybody wins.”
“Except the general. Who you tricked and stole from.” I said, trying my best to sound disappointed.
“He'll get over it.” Serenity jumped off the bed and headed towards the door.
“We are wondering where it is you think you are going?” Platinum Haze interjected.
Serenity stopped and turned back, “Er, leaving? We can turn invisible, what point is there to waiting for night?” The fewer people around to see the magically moving gate for one, but she seemed to enthusiastic.
“Let’s go,” I said, following her.
---
It was an interesting experience walking around in what should be plain view, but having nobody notice your existence. Also a lot more work than I had anticipated. I was not a small pony (have I mentioned that before?) so trying to navigate the crowded base making sure I didn't touch anybody, or accidentally knock something over was fairly difficult. It also had the problem of me not actually being able to see Platinum Haze, so I guess I was once again lucky I could sense magic.
And wasn't that just a weird way to think of it considering.
Eventually we made it to the gate to find it locked and barred. Unlike the slightly slapdash wall of wood and metal topped with barbed wire, it was a huge metal sliding door that looked like they ripped it off of some warehouse. Which was probably exactly what they did.
Surprisingly, it was not guarded directly, but instead had two massive watch towers made from shaky-looking scrap metal that rose from either side of it. I suppose they didn't really expect anybody to sneak out, and certainly not in the middle of the day. We were rebels though.
We walked straight towards the door. I couldn't see, but I heard the click when the door was unlocked. I whispered as silently as I could, “Okay, slide it open quietly.”
“Momma,” Serenity said in her normal voice, “I'm magicking. Ain't nopony can hear us. Can do it on the door too, simple as cake…” She paused for a second before adding, “Oh! We should steal some cake before we go.” When I didn't answer she eventually said. “Or not.” And started to slide the door open.
It was a weird experience hearing the door creak open loudly, but not seeing who was opening it, and knowing that nobody would hear except me. Well us. When the door was open enough the three of us (I assume, I couldn't see them) slipped out, and the door was closed behind us. All and all it was much easier than I was expecting.
“We should hurry,” I said. “Haze, how is your magic holding up?” I didn't want to wear her out.
“We are fine, and shall be for many more hours. We possess an expansive magical reserve.” Right. It did make me glad she was on my side, though I supposed even if she weren't it wasn't like she'd try to kill me.
“Alright.” I continued towards the bridge, hoping our entire enterprise had been unnoticed.
“Hope it don't rain.” Huh. I looked up to the sky when Serenity mentioned that, and sure enough the sky was filled with thick clouds. I hadn't even noticed. I had lived so long with the cloud cover that it seemed normal to me, even though I probably should have noticed. I was still getting used to the sun. “Scootaborg doesn't like getting wet.” Serenity exclaimed. Probably because she was a cyborg. I could understand; I was very glad when I finally got water resistant cybernetics.
The bridge before us was a pretty fancy looking suspension bridge. Though it looked fancier from far away, when we got closer the effects of time showed in its rusted form. The top of it was cluttered with debris and old long-abandoned carriages. Also mines.
Serenity saw the first one, and thank Celestia she did as I was about to put my hoof down on one. Of course it didn't stop at just one, there were hundreds. From then on our progress slowed to a crawl. None of us were keen on being exploded, and I at least was worried about the mines causing a chain reaction. As cool as that would look (and I'm sure Flare would agree), I wasn't sold on being in the middle of it. Partway through the bridge I noticed the mines changed design, so I supposed that both sides were culpable in this frustrating endeavour. It did not help that the closer to the middle of the bridge we were, the more it seemed to sway in the wind. I was just thankful I wasn't close enough to see off the edge to see of it.
By the time we reached the other side I was drenched in sweat from the tension, and muttered. “Lets never do that again.”
“We have to on the way back, though we suppose it might be easier knowing where everything is.” Platinum Haze reminded me.
“I'll ride on you. Like Serenity did.”
“Not enough room for Momma.” Serenity explained. Did I mention how weird it was not being able to see the people I was speaking to?
“And you will probably need to carry the pony we are rescuing.” Right, I had forgotten about that. Dammit.
Since there was no point worrying about it, we moved on. The Minotaur camp was not hard to find, but it was thankfully less guarded. It lacked the massive walls of the NCA camp, had no gate, and only two large watch towers, both pointed towards the bridge. I suppose it wasn't as if they were going to get attacked from any other direction, so more advanced security was pointless.
The camp itself was a bit of a mess, but I suppose that made sense for a people that seemed to worship Discord. The centre of the camp was a giant three story building that I guessed was some sort of factory before the war, but now I imagined was the head quarters. Helping confirm this was the fact the camp, which was little more than a cluster of tents and prewar buildings, spiralled out from the centre point, slowly thinning in density until the buildings just sort of stopped. Compared to the organized chaos of the NCA camp, this was more of chaotic chaos.
We shuffled closer to the camp, keeping our movements slow so we didn't do something stupid like kick up a bunch of dust. It was stressful, to say the least, knowing we would probably be killed if we made the smallest mistake. I couldn't imagine the minotaurs took kindly to invisible ponies sneaking around their camp.
Once we got into the camp proper I felt the weight drop off a little though. Guards posted in guard towers were expected to look for trouble, whereas random folk walking around the camp would probably be less suspicious. It was still nerve wracking, just less so.
I suppose it helped that once we made it into the camp nobody was even so much as looking in our direction. I wasn't sure why, but it seemed like every minotaur in the area was heading towards the centre huge building. It did make me realize it was a mistake going in the day and not night, because regardless of how invisible you are if you bump into someone you're going to get found out.
But, it was what it was. “We should check it out,” I said under Serenity's spell, so nobody could hear but us.
“We had thought our job was to find the captured pony and return him unharmed.” Platinum Haze did not seem convinced.
“It is.” I said, watching as minotaurs passed close enough that I could count the hairs on their head. “But this seems important. And. He is probably in there.”
“We suppose…”
“Good!”
It was more difficult to get to the main building than I thought. The mess of tents and buildings got thicker the nearer they were to the centre building, and at least twice we made a wrong turn and ended up in a dead end. By the time we got to the factory everyone was inside and the doors were shut and barred, not that we would risk trying to open them with so many minotaurs inside.
Still, I was not about to give up that easily. I stalked around one side of the building, then another, looking for another entrance. I didn't find that, well not exactly. What I did find was a shaky looking metal fire escape clinging onto the side of the building, leading to an emergency exit.
“There.” I pointed to the fire escape’s collapsible ladder, but then felt like an idiot when I remembered I was invisible. “Up there, the ladder.”
A second later Haze's purple magic enveloped the sliding ladder and gently… pulled it off. Apparently two hundred years of rust left it very fragile. “Oh…” Haze gently placed the ladder down against the wall.. “We could fly up there…”
“No. Your wing is still injured.”
“Then how are yo—” I ran forward towards the ladder. It shook as I charged up it, and cracked when I pushed off backwards. Turning in midair I reached my hooves out and connected with the fire escape platform with both hooves. I dangled there for only a second before swinging my lower body to help pull myself up.
“I was an active kid. This place reminds me of home.” I explained, but I am not sure how good an explanation it was. “Don't think this will hold all of us…” It was shaky enough with just me. “You wait here. Serenity with me.”
“We cannot keep you invisible without keeping sight; if you are determined to do this, we pray that you will be careful.” I saw a ball of magic surround something vaguely pony shaped and float up to me, and a weight on my back a few seconds later confirmed Serenity was with me.
“We will.”
“We're ninjas!” Serenity explained as we headed up the rickety fire escape. Did I ever mention how much I hated heights? I hated them even more on rickety metal platforms, especially after that incident at the train station. Still, I had a job to do so I didn't balk, though perhaps I was a bit paler than usual.
This was confirmed for me when the magic surrounding us turned off revealing the two of us. I let out a sigh when the pressure on my shoulder was lifted. Well, partially, Serenity's magic was still around me… which was a bit surprising. Her magic must have been getting stronger, as I didn't think she could hold it for so long.
“Are you okay?” I asked quietly as we reached the top. “I don't want you to overtax yourself.”
“Fine.” Serenity said quickly, while at the same time hopping off my back to take a look at the door. It was old and rusted, and most importantly the wall around it had partially crumbled so it was easy to open. “What were you'n Haze arguin' about before?”
“Er…” That was an effective way to change the subject. I peeked through the crumbled wall to make sure the room behind was empty before opening the creaking door. “Nothing.” I stepped inside and coughed. Centuries of dust and decay hit my nostrils like a sledge hammer. “Ugh.” The places I've been, and the things I've smelled. They were going to haunt my dreams for years, assuming I lived that long.
“That's not an answer.” Serenity skipped into the room behind me. Other than giving a brief scowl she seemed unperturbed by the smell.
“Uh…” I said in my usual charismatic way. I walked forward into the room and looked around while I tried to gather my thoughts. The room was a dark and dusty office of some sort with much of the interior lost to time. Just rubble that sort of resembled desks and a few errant bones, but no full skeleton to be seen. “I guess the minotaurs don't use this room.” On one side of the room there was a huge glass window, but it was so covered up in dust and grime I couldn't see through it.
“Also not an answer.” Serenity walked towards the window I was looking at and pressed her face against it. I don't think she saw anything, and all it seemed to accomplish was dirtying her face. “You should answer.”
With a sigh I pulled Serenity close and used my barding to wipe the grime off her face. “It's nothing you should worry about.” I then used my barding to wipe at the window. It sort of worked. Through it I thought I saw figures below, lots of them, but it was so blurry as to be useless.
“Ah'm already worrying.” She said with a frown, squinting through the window. “You two like never fight, it's weird an' ah don't like it.”
“We're over it now.” Well, sort of. I was pretty sure Haze was still mad at me, not without reason. I looked around the room until I found a door on the same wall as the window. I pointed to it. “I promise. If anything serious happens. I'll tell you. Okay?”
She chewed on her lip for a few seconds before reluctantly sighing. “Fine.”
“Thank you.” I slowly opened the door and peeked outside.
True to what I had suspected, it was a rather large factory area. The door led out to a metal catwalk that snaked over the factory floor (it seemed like an odd design to me) before leading to stairs that led down. The floor looked to be partially cleared of whatever machines had been used here long before, though some conveyer belts apparently were too difficult to remove. Which I suppose worked for the minotaurs as they were using it as a soapbox of sorts, with a couple of them standing on it calling for attention.
The floor was absolutely awash with minotaurs; there were even more here than were at the train station. They were crowded in the building so tight it looked like it would be hard to move, and each and every one of them were carrying weapons. Though oddly none of them wore uniforms, and even the armour they wore tended to be vastly different in style.
“Quiet! Quiet!” The minotaur on the conveyor belt was walking back and forth. He was unarmed, and wore no clothing, but when he spoke the rest of them listened. “Today is an auspicious day. After the betrayal by the NCA, we have finally regained contact with our bases across the canyon!” There was a great cheer. “Our Prime Minister has returned, and he is here!” What.
Sure enough, across the catwalk the King himself walked out as if on cue, his gaze searching the room. He looked older than last time I saw him, and he seemed to be limping. His gaze passed over the door I was peeking out of, but he did not seem to notice me.
“The longer we wait here across the canyon, the longer the NCA has to rally forces against us. They are in talks with the Enclave, who now possess a great warship. If this deal is established they will not need the bridge, nor will they need to spend the time and money taking the long journey to us around the canyon and river.” His voice seemed strained, but he did what he could to put on a show. “We must strike, and now. Right now we have have spies in their midst, replacing and neutralizing their scouts and watchmen. In the cover of darkness we will cross the bridge. Maps have been made to avoid the mines, and if we go single file not a minotaur will be lost.”
Another cheer, this one louder.
The king rose his fist into the air to silence the crowd. “They have refused to capitulate, as they have in the past. Their words drip honey as they sharpen knives behind their backs. When they destroyed our farms and cattle, we tried to sue for peace, but they tricked our delegation and refused to release them. Even still they blame us for retaliating and burning Hoof Town. Still, we made peace. Once again they encroach on our land, and made false platitudes backed up by fire. No more. We gave them too many chances. Too many lives. Tonight chaos shall reign, as it should be.”
That was enough for me and I slowly backed out of the room, closing the door. Serenity looked at me worriedly, “It's not our concern,” I tried to say.
She replied, “It will be…” Soon it would be everyone's concern. It seemed to me nobody wanted this war, and each side blamed the other for breaking this truce and former ones. A misunderstanding, obviously, but one set up to happen. They had been enemies for so long, it was easy to jump to the wrong conclusion even when all the facts didn't add up. If only they spoke to each other, tried…
But I couldn't blame their mistrust, nor could I blame the NCR’s. Something had to give, and The Watchers knew where the weakest points were. If this war erupted in full, Dise would need The Watchers for stability, and when that happened…
I don't know. Something bad. “Lets go,” I said in a whisper. “The pony we're looking for. He's not here.” I left the room. It had started raining lightly, but getting stronger by the second. I wasn't a fan of the rain, it always reminded me of my mother.
We made our way down the stairs, and I could see Platinum Haze standing there. She must have been trying not to drain her magic. “Nothing,” I said jumping down beside her. “Just war talks. We need to keep looking.”
“We see,” With a painful burst of magic we were invisible. Just in time for thunder to crack and the rain to pour even harder. My mane was soaked in seconds, and it chilled me to the bone.
“Great,” I mumbled to myself and started walking with the others, following my magic sensing ability thing… We turned onto a side street as we heard the large group of minotaurs exit the factory. We weren't on a main street, just some back alley, and we waited as we saw a few minotaurs pass in front of us on the main road.
Then we heard footsteps behind us. I turned to see two minotaurs walking down the alley, guns ready. I turned forward and two more. This couldn't be good.
“We can see you.” One said.
Shit.
Shit shit. How could they… then I looked at Platinum Haze and realized I was an idiot. The rain. It was raining, but we were still stopping it in the air, how dense could I get? Apparently very.
“Serenity,” I said quietly and felt her magic fade, at the same time Platinum Haze's did. “What do you want?” I asked the minotaurs, my mouth ready to fire. I didn't though. I wasn't a fool, I couldn't fight an entire army. Well… I could, but I didn't want to. “We mean you no harm.”
“We don't care.” One minotaur grunted. “The prime minister wishes to see you. And nobody else is to see you. Come quickly. Or else.” Great, this was going great.
---
We were led quickly to an obscure building, being careful that no one else other than the four guards saw us. We were eventually shoved into a small empty building and told to wait. It took over half an hour for the door to open again, and the Minotaur King to walk through.
He did look older than before. Weary, and limping. I don't know what happened to him, and I wasn't sure I wanted to. “Hired Gun,” he said, his voice echoing, “you are not dead.”
“Not for lack of trying. I assure you.”
“I saved her! From a scorpion!” Serenity grinned happily.
“I am sure you did, little one.” His gaze fell on Platinum Haze, “We have not had the pleasure, though I am sure you have quite a story.” Platinum Haze nodded and stayed quiet. “Hired, what are you doing here? You are lucky it was I who saw you, and I still owe you for saving my life, and removing the scorpion problem.”
“We're looking for a pony. Dead Whisper. You captured him.” Might as well get down to business, I did not want to take longer than necessary.
“We do not usually. I was not here when it happened, and would not have approved, but the General wished it to be so. He told us about the Enclave, and not willingly. We have no more use for him, we planned to keep him locked up for now, why do you need him?”
“Can't you just take my word?”
The king shook his head. “No.” He leaned down to look me in the eye, “Do not play games. I am tired, and the night will be long.”
“He's a megaspell,” I said simply, which made the king visibly flinch. “Like the Laughing Stallion. Who blew up the train station. If you keep him… well…”
“How can you know this?” The shock turned into suspicion in his eyes.
“I don't. Not for sure. But do you want to take that risk?”
He seemed to consider that for a moment, crossing his arms and leaning heavily against the wall. “I trust
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enko after his inauguration as president in June. Deshchytsia is remembered for his attempt in June to placate an angry crowd in front of the Russian embassy in Kyiv by agreeing with the crowd that Russian President Vladimir Putin was “a dickhead.” Deshchytsia was appointed Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland on Oct. 13.
Andriy Deshchytsia was replaced as foreign minister on June 19. (dyvys.in)
Stepan Kubiv left as head of the Natinoal Bank of Ukraine on June 19. (Ukrainian News)
Sushko of the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Integration says that having no political sponsors shortened the government careers of other EuroMaidan appointees. He contrasts the fate of former Economy Minister Pavlo Sheremeta, who left his office out of frustration and who had no powerful political sponsors, with Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman, who is part of Poroshenko’s close circle. Sheremeta said he frequently felt paralyzed and undercut and was effectively replaced by Valeriy Pyatnitskiy, a former Yanukovych appointee, whose appointment as deputy minister Sheremeta resisted.
Pavlo Sheremeta quit as economy minister on Sept. 2. (Anastasia Vlasova)
However, Sheremeta does not consider his half-year tenure a failure. “We did what we could do in that short time,” says the former minister, including laws that adopt more transparent public procurement, simplify business permits and standardize technical regulations.
Sheremeta and others discovered in office what some of them call the “mid-level mafia” – long-time bureaucrats skilled at making money though corrupt schemes. Many serve as deputy ministers or heads of departments, often holding more real power than their formal bosses.
Oleksandr Piddubniy, a journalist who once worked at the National Security and Defense Council, calls those people a “bureaucracy caste,” the untouchables who have their roots in the Soviet nomenclature and who know each other rather well. They hold on to their jobs because their shady work is their primary source of income. “Bureaucrats created their own closed club and if someone new wants to join, they should play by their rules instead of trying to bring change. If not, they will squeeze a newcomer out,” explains Piddubny.
Without thorough administrative reform of the civil service, success in changing government will be limited, says Ihor Koliushko of the Centre for Political and Legal Reforms. Too much of the Soviet top-down, anti-democratic style of governance remains.
Sheremeta, who was often criticized for his heavy TV presence, says that – in a parliamentary democracy — a minister should communicate more with the public, while his role was often limited to signing endless papers. Moreover, he could not delegate the signing procedure to his deputies because that would make the signature invalid, according to the existing laws.
“I am not saying that all administrative work is stupid, but, in the case of Ukraine economy ministry, 80 percent is,” Sheremeta says.
And yet, Ukraine’s top political leaders are still talking the talk of change.
During a meeting with civil society leaders, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said that administrative reform was on the top of his agenda. But he never followed up, recalls Koliushko of the Centre for Political and Legal Reforms. A long-time government bureaucrat himself, Yatsenyuk makes a reluctant and unlikely reformer, Koliushko says.
Others see the same resistance to change.
“I was surprised that the government stood by the current system so much,” says Sheremeta.
Editor’s Note: This article is part of the Kyiv Post Reform Watch project, sponsored by the International Renaissance Foundation. Content is independent of the financial donors. The newspaper is grateful to the sponsors for supporting Ukraine’s free press and making specialized coverage ofreforms possible through this project.In a YouTube video posted by Elliot Rodger, he looks at the camera and says he is going to take his revenge against humanity. Rodger was a member of misogynist website PUAHate.com.
Elliott Rodger was criminal. He was mentally ill. But in his hatred of women, the alleged University of California Santa Barbara killer was not alone. He found plenty of like minds on the Internet.
They populate so-called “Pick Up Artist” communities, where men share tips — mostly tricks — on how to get women to sleep with them. They post rants on the Men’s Rights subreddit, and on a website called PUAHate, to which Rodger belonged. All of these sites are petri dishes of hate, where angry young men go to rail against women (and even self-identifying male feminists). And their moderators bear some responsibility for the culture that created this tragedy.
The users constitute a hive mind of twisted self-victimization that only gets amplified with every post. These sites are not a place for morale-boosting, back-slapping, get-back-on-the-horse camaraderie. Instead, they’re a hellhole of gang-style bullying, slut-shaming, rape jokes, and most of all, an attitude that blames women — never themselves — for the collective misery and loneliness of the members of the group.
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Somewhere along the line, the message that their failure with women might be their fault is lost. Because how could a women not love a “supreme gentleman,” as Rodger called himself on YouTube? After Friday’s shooting, a thread on the PUAHate subreddit asked community members, “Will American women become nicer after today’s attempt? I heard New Yorkers became a lot nicer after 9/11.” Meanwhile, over at a Men’s Rights Advocacy thread, Redditors complained about the post-shooting feminist hashtag #YesAllWomen, about being linked to the incident at all, and about feeling marginalized for being male.
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It’s nothing short of schoolyard immaturity, and that’s the least of what Rodger’s ilk are guilty of. By not monitoring message boards like the one Rodger belonged to, and by not standing up to this kind of content, website administrators are complicit in continued violence against women, and they have blood on their hands.
Amanda Hess at Slate dove into the forums to see how PUAs responded to news that Rodger was one of their own, and her conclusions were astounding.
“It would be wrong to pin the crime on Internet forums that indulge in self-hatred, then project it onto everyone else,” Hess wrote. “But they’re certainly not the solution. Misogyny and violence against women are social problems as well as individual ones. The fact that these men see ‘game’ as the remedy to all personal and social ills is perhaps the greatest indictment of the way they view the world.”
Even the founder of PUAHate.com, who uses the pseudonym Nicholaus, has said that lumping women together to label them is a mistake. Yet the posters on the boards maintain a macho preoccupation with bedding women, no matter the cost — and Nicholaus admitted in an interview with the website The Hairpin that he doesn’t monitor those threads. It’s obvious now that he should reconsider.
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It’s not surprising, after stories and comments on the boards get upvoted, shared, and responded to, how one troubled individual might feel he’d be validated by the community for murdering women. It was only a matter of time before one delusional misogynist took his hatred of women off the keyboard and into the real world.
Alex Pearlman can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @Lexikon1American coach Bob Bradley has two countries rooting for him as he leads Egypt into its final World Cup qualifying hurdle, against familiar foe Ghana.
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In the end, It just had to be Ghana.Of the five countries Bob Bradley and Egypt could have drawn in the African World Cup qualifying playoffs, none carried the same sort of context as Ghana could to the most compelling soccer story in the world involving an American. So maybe we shouldn’t have been all that surprised when Ghana emerged from the African World Cup qualifying playoff draw as Egypt’s opponent.It was Ghana, after all, that handed Bradley and the U.S. national team a bitter defeat in the 2010 World Cup Round of 16, four years after eliminating the Americans from the 2006 World Cup. The same Ghana that most recently humbled the U.S. Under-20 national team at the Under-20 World Cup.Ghana is every bit the bogey team of the USA, but if there is a team that just might help an American find success against the Black Stars, it could be Bradley’s Egypt team. Egypt has a good track record against Ghana through the years (a 10-6-5 all-time record vs. Ghana), and as much as the reaction in the USA to the draw was one of concern for Egypt’s chances, the sense among Egyptians is that Ghana was actually a good draw.That sentiment overlooks the fact that Egypt’s last meeting vs. Ghana was a 3-0 loss in January of this year (though Egypt fielded a weakened squad missing its European-based players in that match). It also didn’t take into account the success Ghana has had against Americans, and specifically Bradley.Realistically, it shouldn’t, because the team Bradley will put on the field in October to face Ghana will not be the USA, but rather an Egyptian team that has yet to lose in World Cup qualifying. A team fighting through the adversity of playing for a country embroiled in political strife. Where instability has led to the cancellation of the pro soccer league’s season and threatens to jeopardize the national team’s chances of having a true home-field advantage when Ghana visits Egypt in November for the second leg.“We are ready for the matches and I’m personally hoping that we can play the second leg in front of our fans,” Bradley told Egyptian media after Monday’s draw, referring to the national team’s recent trend of playing matches behind closed doors to avoid any politically driven clashes or ugly scenes.“The attendance of fans would really boost the team in such a crucial clash,” Bradley added.Though they won’t be in Egypt to cheer Bradley’s team on, Egypt has gained a legion of fans here in the USA, where Bradley’s story, and the way he has led the Pharaohs through so much adversity, has made him a folk hero (and the subject of two movies). As much as he had his share of critics during his time as USA head coach despite a strong record (one that included the 2007 Gold Cup title, 2009 Confederations Cup Final appearance and group victory in the 2010 World Cup), Bradley has earned international respect and admiration for the way he has led Egypt’s national team, and represented it off the field.Bradley has already accomplished more than most would have expected given the circumstances faced by Egypt, but his ultimate goal still lies ahead. Securing a place in the 2014 World Cup is seen as just what Egypt needs to unite a divided country, and would offer a measure of revenge against Ghana for both Bradley and the USA.The Egyptian national team will have two countries rooting for it when the playoffs take place in October and November, and as difficult as the task may seem, there is something that just feels perfect about the circumstances. What better way to cap a dream run to Egypt’s first World Cup since 1990 than by vanquishing the very Ghana team that has been such a problem for the USA, and handed Bradley that painful World Cup defeat in 2010.The scenario has the potential for a storybook ending, but the hard work remains, and chances are Bradley isn’t too worried about settling a score with Ghana. He has a nation’s hopes to worry about, and at least two more games to make Egypt’s World Cup dream a reality.Soon after the dust had settled following the USA’s World Cup-clinching win vs. Mexico last week, the attention turned to October’s World Cup qualifiers and just what Jurgen Klinsmann would do with them.Would he go the traditional route, forgoing calling in regulars in favor of staying local with MLS players on the fringes of the national team? Would he tap into the considerable amount of young European-based talent, and take on European clubs that wouldn’t be too keen on having their players traveling long distances to play in games that really didn’t matter?Klinsmann surprised most on Monday when he proclaimed that he would field the strongest possible team for October’s friendlies. The declaration sounded ambitious, if impractical, and we are left to decipher just how serious Klinsmann is about bringing in an “A” team in October.Don’t be so sure. In some cases, like with a Tim Howard, it would seem a bit unreasonable not to give a veteran a rest. Why not give the 34-year-old Howard some time off given the rigors of an English Premier League season, especially with Brad Guzan and even Nick Rimando capable of handling the goalkeeping duties?The same can be said for Jermaine Jones, who turns 32 in November and is playing through the heavy load of Bundesliga and UEFA Champions League matches. Players such as Geoff Cameron and Fabian Johnson, who are logging heavy minutes in top leagues, could also be left with their clubs to help them deal with the work load of a long season.This doesn’t mean Klinsmann can’t field a strong team for October’s qualifiers. He could absolutely have a team that would be significantly stronger than the teams we have seen play out the string after already qualifying in the past. Here is what one such team could look like:- Brad Guzan, Nick Rimando, Sean Johnson- Brad Evans, Eric Lichaj, Matt Besler, Omar Gonzalez, Clarence Goodson, John Brooks, DaMarcus Beasley, Edgar Castillo- Michael Bradley, Mix Diskerud, Kyle Beckerman, Sacha Kljestan, Graham Zusi, Landon Donovan, Alejandro Bedoya, Joe Corona- Jozy Altidore, Eddie Johnson, Aron Johannsson, Terrence Boyd-------------This roster would still leave Klinsmann with the potential for a strong veteran defense and solid midfield, as well as his top attacking options minus Dempsey.If Klinsmann does bring a squad this strong, or even stronger, the USA could definitely close out the Hexagonal Round of World Cup qualifying with a pair of victories, and some serious momentum heading into 2014.A phalanx of immigration judges will be temporarily re-assigned to 12 U.S. cities to help speed deportations of illegal aliens, the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed on Friday.
The full plan of the reassignments is still in the works, and the DOJ is looking for volunteers among immigration judges before going forward, according to Reuters.
Cities the DOJ want to staff up includes New York; Los Angeles; Miami; New Orleans; San Francisco; Baltimore, Bloomington, Minnesota; El Paso, Texas; Harlingen, Texas; Imperial, California; Omaha, Nebraska, and Phoenix, Arizona, the news service says.
This isn’t the first move to beef up immigration judge staff. Early in March the Trump administration also began sending judges to immigrant detention centers to speed up services.
The initial plan came on the heels of a Department of Homeland Security memo that requested the Trump administration allow federal immigration courts to use “expedited deportation proceedings” for any illegal immigrants living in the U.S. for two years or less. The process is currently limited to those only living in the U.S. for up to two weeks.
According to data provided by the Justice Department’s Executive Office of Immigration Review, there are up to 18,013 pending immigration cases in the cities targeted by the DOJ plan.
The plan serves as another plank in President Trump’s promise to step up the deportations that ground to a halt during the last years of the Obama administration. It also marks a shift from Obama’s practice of deporting only illegals convicted of serious crimes — and even many of those were never deported.
Critics of the plan claim that “reshuffling” the judges will only cause a backlog at the courts that lost one of their judges
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at [email protected] Mash Up Done Right
I know what you’re thinking. You’re wondering how ninjas, pirates, zombies, wizards, robots, dinosaurs, goblins, and aliens can all manage to fit within the same game and that it actually make some sort of sense. Well, it doesn’t but that’s the best part. Smash Up is a new “shufflebuilding” game from AEG for 2-4 players that’s all about crazy craziness. The game made a lot of buzz at Gencon last year but I’m just now getting around to checking it out, so I’m here today to give you the low down on this kick ass colorful (in every sense of the word) little game that’s all about screwing over your friends.
So What, I’ve seen This Before In Other Games!
Now, I know that the concept of a game where such high amounts of anachronism and absurd improbability come into play isn’t exactly a new idea, but the way Smash Up pulls it off is actually quite fresh. The thing that is truly special about Smash Up isn’t all of the wackiness or mixing of things that don’t belong, it’s that it does all of this more simply than I’ve seen any other game attempt to do it. Smash Up is accessible, fast, and most importantly fun.
How It Works
Smash Up is something I honestly didn’t think I would like at first. After all I do think ninjas are lame (There’s some comment thread bait for you!) so naturally any game containing them couldn’t possibly entertain me. Right? Also my opinion of deckbuilders started out a rather pallid one back when I had first played Thunderstone, though it did improve once I got a chance to check out Thunderstone Advance. It actually has been further improving lately since we’ve been playing quite a bit of Advance in 5 player groups lately. Anyway that is besides the point, what I’m trying to get to here is that this crazy “shufflebuilding” mechanic that Smash Up uses is quite fun.
The concept of shufflebuilding is that you build a deck right off the bat before the game even begins instead of each player starting with the same tiny pile of cards and meticulously acquiring new cards. Each player picks two factions in a draft-style selection round and then combines them, effectively making each player control something to the tune of “Ninja Zombies” or “Pirate Wizards”. WHO DOESN’T WANT TO SAY “PIRATE WIZARDS” on a regular basis? C’mon!
Anyway, this results in the action to start flowing immediately – on turn 1 you and the rest of the players will be making decisions and heading toward scoring victory points. To add to the shuffle-ness depending on the makeup of your deck you might be discarding a lot, or making other players discard a lot. When a player’s deck runs dry they just shuffle it back up and start drawing again. There’s also a lot of cards that will allow you to shuffle your deck too, and since each faction has its own flavor it makes for lots and lots of powerful combos and strategies as you play.
What It Is (Loads of Fun), What It Isn’t (For 2 Players)
The game is simple, first person to get to 15 victory points is the winner, which is done by sending your minions to the bases in play and by playing actions to either compliment them or mess with your opponents. Each base has point values for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place which are awarded when the base scores by having its target number reached by all the minions on it (explained in my video). Although Smash Up uses the term “Victory Points” I wouldn’t say it’s a euro game or even “eruo-like” for that matter.
Throughout the game ninjas will be ‘ninja-ing’ points away from you, pirates blasting all of your minions to hell, and aliens replacing themselves with your cards. The robots multiply, the zombies just keep coming back, and the dinosaurs gang up on you while the tricksters set traps and the wizards generally screw you over. Check out my full video review for all of my thoughts on the game and a chance to see all of the cards up close.
In closing I’ll warn you that Smash Up isn’t too great with 2 players, if your game nights usually only consist of a single friend to play with you might want to avoid picking this one up. Other than that, you have no excuses! Check out my video and ratings below for the full review. Also know that there’s already an expansion due this March that includes Ghosts, Steampunk, Killer Plants, and Bear Cavalry. Yes you heard that right – BEAR. CAVALRY. Thanks for reading/watching!
Update: Great scoring card / VP tracker for Smash Up from a reddit commenter. The game doesn’t come with any way to track your victory points so I was just using a 20 sided die before this was brought to my attention!
[Link to video for those using alternate reading methods]
Players: 2-4 Ages: 12+ (I’d say 8+) Setup Time: <2 min Play Time: ~45min-1hour Price: $24
Production Values: Great quality card stock, box has plenty of room for expansions, fantastic and vivid artwork that fits the wacky theme perfectly.
Pros:
Quick to play, usually finished within an hour.
Fun and light, the game doesn’t take itself seriously at all.
Rules are extremely simple which makes learning a breeze. Might even attract non-gamers!
Cons:
The game just isn’t that fun with 2 players, I’d recommend avoiding getting if it you typically only have one other person to play with.
Related
[info_box] Grab Smash Up on Amazon. ($24). Thanks for watching the review and be sure to give me your thoughts! If you decide to buy the game based on my review, please use my link![/info_box]Libraries make much use of spreadsheets. Spreadsheets are easy to create, and most library staff are familiar with how to use them. But they can quickly get unwieldy as more and more data are entered. The more rows and columns a spreadsheet has, the more difficult it is to browse and quickly identify specific information. Creating a searchable web application with a database at the back-end is a good solution since it will let users to quickly perform a custom search and filter out unnecessary information. But due to the staff time and expertise it requires, creating a full-fledged searchable web database application is not always a feasible option at many libraries.
Creating a MS Access custom database or using a free service such as Zoho can be an alternative to creating a searchable web database application. But providing a read-only view for MS Access database can be tricky although possible. MS Access is also software locally installed in each PC and therefore not necessarily available for the library staff when they are not with their work PCs on which MS Access is installed. Zoho Creator offers a way to easily convert a spreadsheet into a database, but its free version service has very limited features such as maximum 3 users, 1,000 records, and 200 MB storage.
Google Visualization API Query Language provides a quick and easy way to query a Google spreadsheet and return and display a selective set of data without actually converting a spreadsheet into a database. You can display the query result in the form of a HTML table, which can be served as a stand-alone webpage. All you have to do is to construct a custom URL.
A free version of Google spreadsheet has a limit in size and complexity. For example, one free Google spreadsheet can have no more than 400, 000 total cells. But you can purchase more Google Drive storage and also query multiple Google spreadsheets (or even your own custom databases) by using Google Visualization API Query Language and Google Chart Libraries together. (This will be the topic of my next post. You can also see the examples of using Google Chart Libraries and Google Visualization API Query Language together in my presentation slides at the end of this post.)
In this post, I will explain the parameters of Google Visualization API Query Language and how to construct a custom URL that will query, return, and display a selective set of data in the form of an HTML page.
A. Display a Google Spreadsheet as an HTML page
The first step is to identify the URL of the Google spreadsheet of your choice.
The URL below opens up the third sheet (Sheet 3) of a specific Google spreadsheet. There are two parameters you need to pay attention inside the URL: key and gid.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqAPbBT_k2VUdDc3aC1xS2o0c2ZmaVpOQWkyY0l1eVE&usp=drive_web#gid=2
This breaks down the parameters in a way that is easier to view:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc
?key= 0AqAPbBT_k2VUdDc3aC1xS2o0c2ZmaVpOQWkyY0l1eVE
&usp=drive_web
#gid= 2
Key is a unique identifier to each Google spreadsheet. So you need to use that to cretee a custom URL later that will query and display the data in this spreadsheet. Gid specifies which sheet in the spreadsheet you are opening up. The gid for the first sheet is 0; the gid for the third sheet is 2.
Let’s first see how Google Visualization API returns the spreadsheet data as a DataTable object. This is only for those who are curious about what goes on behind the scenes. You can see that for this view, the URL is slightly different but the values of the key and the gid parameter stay the same.
https://spreadsheets.google.com/tq?&tq=&key=0AqAPbBT_k2VUdDc3aC1xS2o0c2ZmaVpOQWkyY0l1eVE&gid=2
In order to display the same result as an independent HTML page, all you need to do is to take the key and the gid parameter values of your own Google spreadsheet and construct the custom URL following the same pattern shown below.
https://spreadsheets.google.com
/tq?tqx=out:html&tq=
& key= 0AqAPbBT_k2VUdDc3aC1xS2o0c2ZmaVpOQWkyY0l1eVE
&gid= 2
https://spreadsheets.google.com/tq?tqx=out:html&tq=&key=0AqAPbBT_k2VUdDc3aC1xS2o0c2ZmaVpOQWkyY0l1eVE&gid=2
By the way, if the URL you created doesn’t work, it is probably because you have not encoded it properly. Try this handy URL encoder/decoder page to encode it by hand or you can use JavaScript encodeURIComponent() function
Also if you want the URL to display the query result without people logging into Google Drive first, make sure to set the permission setting of the spreadsheet to be public. On the other hand, if you need to control access to the spreadsheet only to a number of users, you have to remind your users to first go to Google Drive webpage and log in with their Google account before clicking your URLs. Only when the users are logged into Google Drive, they will be able see the query result.
B. How to Query a Google Spreadsheet
We have seen how to create a URL to show an entire sheet of a Google spreadsheet as an HTML page above. Now let’s do some querying, so that we can pick and choose what data the table is going to display instead of the whole sheet. That’s where the Query Language comes in handy.
Here is an example spreadsheet with over 50 columns and 500 rows.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?
key=0AqAPbBT_k2VUdDFYamtHdkFqVHZ4VXZXSVVraGxacEE
&usp=drive_web
#gid=0
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqAPbBT_k2VUdDFYamtHdkFqVHZ4VXZXSVVraGxacEE&usp=drive_web#gid=0
What I want to do is to show only column B, C, D, F where C contains ‘Florida.’ How do I do this? Remember the URL we created to show the entire sheet above?
https://spreadsheets.google.com / tq?tqx=out:html &tq= & key= ___ &gid= ___
There we had no value for the tq parameter. This is where we insert our query.
Google Visualization API Query Language is pretty much the same as SQL. So if you are familiar with SQL, forming a query is dead simple. If you aren’t SQL is also easy to learn.
The query should be written like this:
SELECT B, C, D, F WHERE C CONTAINS ‘Florida’
After encoding it properly, you get something like this:
SELECT%20B%2C%20C%2C%20D%2C%20F%20WHERE%20C%20CONTAINS%20%27Florida%27
Add it to the tq parameter and don’t forget to also specify the key:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/tq?tqx=out:html &tq= SELECT%20B%2C%20C%2C%20D%2C%20F%20WHERE%20C%20CONTAINS%20%27Florida%27
&key=0AqAPbBT_k2VUdEtXYXdLdjM0TXY1YUVhMk9jeUQ0NkE
I am omitting the gid parameter here because there is only one sheet in this spreadsheet but you can add it if you would like. You can also omit it if the sheet you want is the first sheet. Ta-da!
Compare this with the original spreadsheet view. I am sure you can appreciate how the small effort put into creating a URL pays back in terms of viewing an unwieldy large spreadsheet manageable.
You can also easily incorporate functions such as count() or sum() into your query to get an overview of the data you have in the spreadsheet.
select D,F count (C) where (B contains ‘author name’) group by D, F
For example, this query above shows how many articles a specific author published per year in each journal. The screenshot of the result is below and you can see it for yourself here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/tq?tqx=out:html&tq=select+D,F,count(C)+where+%28B+contains+%27Agoulnik%27%29+group+by+D,F&key=0AqAPbBT_k2VUdEtXYXdLdjM0TXY1YUVhMk9jeUQ0NkE
Take this spread sheet as another example.
This simple query below displays the library budget by year. For those who are unfamiliar with ‘pivot‘, pivot table is a data summarization tool. The query below asks the spreadsheet to calculate the total of all the values in the B column (Budget amount for each category) by the values found in the C column (Years).
select sum (B) pivot C
https://spreadsheets.google.com/tq?tqx=out:html&tq=select%20sum%28B%29%20pivot%28C%29&key=0AqAPbBT_k2VUdHg4X08zMXFMeXRmdURJNUx5blpYUmc
This is another example of querying the spreadsheet connected to my library’s Literature Search request form. The following query asks the spreadsheet to count the number of literature search requests by Research Topic (=column I) that were received in 2011 (=column G) grouped by the values in the column C, i.e. College of Medicine Faculty or College of Medicine Staff.
select C, count (I) where (G contains ‘2011’) group by C
C. More Querying Options
There are many more things you can do with a custom query. Google has an extensive documentation that is easy to follow: https://developers.google.com/chart/interactive/docs/querylanguage#Language_Syntax
These are just a few examples.
ORDER BY __ DESC
: Order the results in the descending order of the column of your choice. Without ‘DESC,’ the result will be listed in the ascending order.
: Order the results in the descending order of the column of your choice. Without ‘DESC,’ the result will be listed in the ascending order. LIMIT 5
: Limit the number of results. Combined with ‘Order by’ you can quickly filter the results by the most recent or the oldest items.
My presentation slides given at the 2013 LITA Forum below includes more detailed information about Google Visualization API Query Language, parameters, and other options as well as how to use Google Chart Libraries in combination with Google Visualization API Query Language for data visualization, which is the topic of my next post.
Happy querying Google Spreadsheet!Terming the decision to devalue high-denomination notes a “pseudo war” against black money, anti-corruption activist Yogendra Yadav criticised the government for seeking to dilute the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), saying this would weaken the actual battle against corruption and help the corrupt.
“The point we are trying to make is that it is pseudo war against black money. Not an actual war. It is a very small step in the larger picture of corruption issues in the country. The (amendment) bill will help the corrupt. We are going to pose 10 questions to the government,” Yadav told IANS ahead of a demonstration by his political outfit Swaraj India Party on Sunday.
The Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, was first brought in 2013 and the Cabinet has approved the changes proposed by a select committee of the Rajya Sabha. The changes will dilute and defeat the whole purpose of the law, said Yadav, once a close aide of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal till he transformed into a full-time politician.
Various non-profit organisations and think-tanks are learnt to have made recommendations and suggestions to the government opposing the dilution of the act.
The Bill has a new section that bars investigating agencies from initiating an inquiry or investigation against a public servant without the prior approval of the competent authority, which means the political bosses, Yadav said, terming this the babu-neta nexus to protect the corrupt.
The existing law requires approval from a higher authority before prosecuting any public servant to protect honest officers from harassment, persecution and frivolous litigation.
The new Bill requires a court order to sanction prosecution against a corrupt public servant, which, Yadav said, would discourage victims of corruption and activists from prosecuting such individuals.
Priyanka Rao, a senior researcher with PRS Legislative Research, a not-for-profit outfit, termed the sanction before prosecution as “standard” but expressed concern over the proposed approval before inquiry or investigation.
“Is not the process of investigation (meant to establish) a prima facie case against someone? However, if at the start of an investigation, you need approval, on what basis will you get this approval? It is a big challenge. How will we strike a balance between allowing honest officers to work smoothly and (ensuring) investigation and trial do not take a long time,” she questioned.
The amendment has done away with the protection cover to the bribe-giver against prosecution and makes both the bribe-giver and the bribe-taker equally punishable, which would deter the former -- the victim -- from speaking out in cases against public servants, Yadav contended.
First Published: Dec 15, 2016 12:32 ISTThey perform mind-blowing stunts dressed in clothes as flimsy as paper doilies and are forced to meet Hollywood’s demands for ever-shrinking waistlines without losing the muscles they depend on for work. Meet cinema’s small but dedicated community of stuntwomen: because of the skimpy clothes they have to wear, they put themselves in more danger than their male colleagues.
But it’s all part of their day job. Tammie Baird is Hollywood’s go-to stuntwoman for car hits. She’s appeared in Fast & Furious, Chris Brown’s Next 2 You music video, and NCIS: LA. She’s been smashed into windshields, bounced off bonnets and slammed into the tarmac – more often than not wearing a tight dress and heels. When Baird got her first role, in Mr & Mrs Smith, she went shopping for stunt gear “like a guy”. “I bought the biggest, bulkiest pads, and thought, ‘Yeah, I’m protected, nothing’s gonna get me.’ Then I saw my wardrobe – I was wearing a miniskirt.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Role model … Tammie Baird at an awards ceremony in LA. Photograph: Albert L Ortega/Getty Images
Straight away, she says, she realised this was the deal. But there was never any question of it being a setback. She researched athletes who risk injury to their knees: female figure skaters turned out to be the best role models. Figure skaters perform pirouettes on one of the hardest, most slippery surfaces in the world, while balancing on thin blades and wearing minuscule dresses. Baird discovered they use crash pads made with gel to protect their hips, shoulders and knees from smashing against the ice. By dipping them in tea she matched the gel pads to her skin tone to make them invisible on screen. The idea has now spread throughout the stunt community.
Detailed statistics comparing the on-set injuries of stuntwomen and men are not kept. Andy Armstrong runs one of the biggest stunt facility companies in the world and has created gravity-defying sequences in some of the top action films of the last 25 years, including Total Recall, Charlie’s Angels and Thor. “There are a lot more men performing stunts than there are women,” he says. “It’s very disproportionate: on any movie you’ll end up with mostly men doing the action. You won’t get many movies where there are lots and lots of women.”
Women face extra risks because 'unless they're playing athletic nuns, they're going to be less covered than men' Andy Armstrong
Studios are wary of discussing the specifics of injury rates, but Armstrong stresses they employ safety officers whose job it is to make sure actors don’t fly around in cherry pickers without a harness. They recognise the extra risks women face because “unless they’re playing athletic nuns, they’re going be less covered than men”.
Baird says she was lucky to have veteran
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been waiting for. The Dolphins were 5th in the NFL in sacks last year, but you can never have enough pass rushers. Draft 2nd (42) Tyler Eifert TE ND - A Big physical TE from Notre Dame that can learn from Fasano (Also from Notre Dame). He can be a safety valve/Red zone target for Tannehill and can also be a seam threat.
- A Big physical TE from Notre Dame that can learn from Fasano (Also from Notre Dame). He can be a safety valve/Red zone target for Tannehill and can also be a seam threat. Draft 2nd (Indy) Cordarrelle Patterson WR TENN - 6'3" playmaking WR from the SEC. With him and Jennings, our previously weak receiving corps becomes a strength.
- 6'3" playmaking WR from the SEC. With him and Jennings, our previously weak receiving corps becomes a strength. Draft 3rd - Arthur Brown OLB KState - A 4-3 OLB that has good tackling and coverage skills. Misi has improved, but Brown has more potential.
- A 4-3 OLB that has good tackling and coverage skills. Misi has improved, but Brown has more potential. 3rd round pick surrendered for Sam Shields
Draft 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th - Oline Depth, Dline depth, Late round QB.
Depth Chart (Offense)
QB - Tannehill, Devlin, Rookie* RB - Bush, Miller, Thomas, Thigpen FB - Lane WR - Jennings*, Hartline, Bess, Patterson*, Mathews, Fuller TE - Fasano, Eifert*, Clay, Egnew OT - Martin, Loadholt* OG - Incognito, Jerry C - Pouncey
Depth Chart (Defense)
DE - Wake, Mingo*, Vernon, Shelby DT - Soliai, Odrick, Randall OLB - Burnett, Brown*, Misi, Kaddu MLB - Dansby, CB - Smith, Shields*, Marshall, Patterson, Carroll S - Jones, Moore*, Wilson
* indicates new to team.Zero to sixty. Horsepower per kilogram. Nürburgring lap times. All great ways of bench-racing cars in order to win arguments in the pub (or on an Internet forum). And if the latter is your go-to yardstick for performance, there's a new king of the electric vehicles in town: the NextEV Nio EP9.
NextEV is a Chinese EV maker, and it's going to launch a range of electric (and eventually autonomous) cars under the Nio brand (starting in China next year). As is now becoming the default (e.g., Faraday Future), instead of showing us a prototype production model, the company is making a splash with an EV supercar—the 194mph (313km/h) EP9—just six of which will be built.
The EP has been designed for the track-day enthusiast and so features rapidly swappable batteries. NextEV hasn't released the kWh rating for the batteries but says the range is 265 miles (426km) and that recharging takes 45 minutes (swapping the batteries for a fully charged set takes eight minutes apparently). The chassis is—as you'd expect—carbon fiber, and it has a motor-generator unit at each wheel, with a peak power output of 1,341hp/1MW and 1091 ft-lbs/1480 Nm of torque.
To prove the firm's engineering credentials, the EP9 recently spent some time testing at the Nürburgring, setting a new electric lap record on "the Green Hell" in the process. Previously, the fastest EV around the 12.9-mile (20.8km) track was Toyota's TMG EV P002 race car, which set a time of 7:22.329 in 2012. The Nio EP9 has shaved that down to just 7:05.120.
By contrast, there's no official time for a Tesla Model S, given that company's extreme disinterest in all things motorsport. Although there's a commonly held belief that a Model S can't even complete a lap of the 'ring (thanks to this Jalopnik article), that doesn't appear to be the case. The fastest Tesla lap we can find on YouTube is a little under nine minutes, although that is only a "bridge to gantry" time, set by a P85D on a rather busy track day in 2015.
Still, Tesla has bulging order books and an ever-growing model line, so we can't see the company attempting to wrestle this record away any time soon. Rimac, on the other hand...Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski talks about Deflategate and the punishment that was handed out to Tom Brady. (1:00)
NFL fans, by nearly a 2-1 margin, support the league's sanctions against New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and the team, and more than half think Brady himself cheated in what has become known as Deflategate.
Poll Results Langer Research Associates produced a national survey of 504 random Americans -- including avid fans -- asking them the following questions about Tom Brady, the New England Patriots and "Deflategate." Do you support or oppose the NFL's action against Tom Brady and the Patriots?
All fans
Support: 63% | Oppose: 26% | No opinion: 11%
Avid fans
Support: 73% | Oppose: 24% | No opinion: 0% Do you think Brady cheated or not?
All fans
Cheated: 54% | Didn't: 35% | No opinion: 11%
Avid fans
Cheated: 69% | Oppose: 29% | No opinion: 2% Do you think the Patriots cheated or not?
All fans
Cheated: 52% | Didn't: 38% | No opinion: 10%
Avid fans
Cheated: 63% | Oppose: 34% | No opinion: 3% Do you think this kind of thing is limited to the Patriots, or do you think it happens with other NFL teams as well?
All fans
Patriots: 6% | Others: 85% | No opinion: 9%
Avid fans
Patriots: 12% | Others: 80% | No opinion: 8% Is the Patriots' Super Bowl victory tainted because of this incident?
All fans
Tainted: 46% | Not: 49% | No opinion: 6%
Avid fans
Tainted: 42% | Not: 58% | No opinion: 0% Would you support or oppose Brady being elected to the Football Hall of Fame at some point?
All fans
Support: 63% | Oppose: 28% | No opinion: 9%
Avid fans
Support: 73% | Oppose: 24% | No opinion: 4% Do you think Brady is or is not a good role model for young people?
All fans
Good: 52% | Not good: 38% | No opinion: 10%
Avid fans
Good: 61% | Not good: 34% | No opinion: 5%
The ESPN/ABC News poll found that 63 percent of all fans surveyed, and 76 percent of self-described "avid" fans, supported the NFL's decision to suspend Brady for four games, fine the Patriots $1 million and take away a first-round and fourth-round draft pick from the team for its involvement in the using underinflated footballs during a January playoff game. In addition, 54 percent of all fans and 69 percent of avid fans think Brady "cheated," while 52 percent overall and 63 percent of avid fans think, regardless of Brady's actions, that the Patriots cheated.
The poll also found that 85 percent of all fans, and 80 percent of avid fans, think that other teams do similar things. Only 6 percent of all fans, and 12 percent of avid fans, think it was limited to the Patriots.
Editor's Picks Deflategate poll: Other teams cheating, too Eighty-five percent of respondents believe other teams do the same type of things the Patriots have been penalized for by the NFL, Mike Reiss writes.
While fans support the decision to suspend Brady, they also strongly support him as a Hall of Fame candidate -- 63 percent of all fans, and 73 percent of avid fans, say they support his eventual enshrinement in Canton. But only 52 percent overall see him as a good role model.
In terms of the Super Bowl, 46 percent of all fans, and 42 percent of avid fans, see the Patriots' last-minute 28-24 win over Seattle as "tainted."
The survey, produced for ESPN and ABC News by Langer Research Associates, interviewed a random national sample of 504 adults on May 12 on landlines and cellphones. The overall margin of error is 5 percentage points.
The Patriots, meanwhile, on Thursday issued a lengthy, point-by-point rebuttal of the Wells report on a newly created website -- wellsreportcontext.com. It claims the report's conclusions are "incomplete, incorrect and lack context," ignore scientific explanations for the drop in the footballs' inflation and the use of different air pressure gauges; ignores testimony given to investigators and misinterprets text messages between team employees that were meant to be humorous as a "plot to improperly deflate footballs."
The NFL Players Association officially appealed Brady's suspension Thursday afternoon. The case will be heard by commissioner Roger Goodell.A student who stabbed a man in the eye with a Christian Louboutin stiletto heel, leaving him with serious injuries, has avoided prison.
Shadiya Omar, 22, attacked Justin Lloyd, also 22, as they both waited for a taxi home after a night out in Manchester city centre.
Manchester Crown Court heard Mr Lloyd approached Omar's friend outside a hotel and offered the woman a crisp, but he attempted to pour them over her head when she knocked them out of his hand.
The court heard Omar reacted by rushing to her friend's aid and struck Mr Lloyd in the eye with the designer shoe in the incident on October 18, 2014.
"Looking in the mirror every day, he would be constantly having a reminder of the pain he has been suffering"
Jonathan Savage, prosecuting, said: "He was then struck a single blow to the left eye with an object. His next reaction was feeling that he has been hit in the eye and feeling a long object in front of his left eye, he had to pull it out."
The court heard there was a dispute between the women and Mr Lloyd's group of friends as she attempted to get in a black cab.
Police arrived and Omar, from Whalley Range, was arrested in a room at the Mercure Hotel where her boyfriend had been staying.
Mr Lloyd was treated at Manchester Royal Infirmary and later the Manchester Eye Hospital for injuries to his left eye. He was left suffering from bruising, cuts and bleeding to the lower lid, cuts to the upper lid and a fracture to the eye orbit.
The court heard he did not lose his eyesight, but still suffers with stabbing pains and the psychological after effects.
Photo: Manchester Evening News
A victim impact statement read out in court said he was forced to quit work as a labourer and has become conscious of his scarred eye.
Mr Savage said: "Looking in the mirror every day, he would be constantly having a reminder of the pain he has been suffering."
David Morton, defending, said Omar - who pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding - had only removed her shoes because they were hurting and was not intending to use them as a weapon.
He told the court she was only brandishing the heel to stop Mr Lloyd hassling her friend, with no motive to actually strike him in the eye.
He said: "She acted using excessive self-defence, describing the group as intimidating very tall young men who were clearly aware of their level of intoxication."
"I was worried I would lose my sight, at the time I couldn't tell I could just see blood coming out of my eye" Victim Justin Lloyd
Judge Lindsey Kushner QC sentenced Omar to 18 months imprisonment, suspended for two years. Omar must also complete six months of unpaid community work and supervision, as well as pay a £100 victim surcharge fee.
Judge Kushner said: "I know a shoe is a vicious weapon and you do know now clearly the heel is. I accept it was a moment of spontaneity - a spontaneous reaction.
"It was in a situation of hassling and ostentatious behaviour, as far as your friend was concerned, persistent irritation."
After the case Mr Lloyd, from Blackley, said he was enjoying his first night out in Manchester city centre for a friend's 21st birthday when the attack took place.
The 22-year-old said he was "only joking" with the girls when he went to offer his crisps. After the incident, Mr Lloyd spent 30 hours in hospital as his eye was stitched up, fearing he would lose his sight.
Mr Lloyd said: "I felt something in my eye, I felt the stiletto in my eye. I was worried I would lose my sight, at the time I couldn't tell I could just see blood coming out of my eye. It was blurred and even now it is not 100 per cent. It went pitch black. It was weird when I felt it in my eye, I was just in shock."
Photo: MEN
Since the attack, he said he has lost his confidence and no longer wants to socialise with friends. Mr Lloyd has also struggled to find permanent work as his eyesight problems make it difficult to work on a building site.
He said he believes Omar was just sticking up for her friend, but said it was a "crazy" way to react.
Mr Lloyd said: "It is just lucky I have got my eyesight to be honest. I am not happy about the sentence. It is quite shocking what she did.
"What she has done, it is a crazy thing, it is scary. She was looking at me, not realising - no remorse. At least it is done and I can get on with my life now."
• US woman who stabbed boyfriend to death with stiletto heel gets life in prisonHidden in New Highways Bill, ‘Stealth Attack’ Stuns Ship Unions
Liberty Maritime operates a number of ships specifically designed to carry food aid cargoes to developing countries and is one of the unionized U.S. shipping companies most endangered by recent changes to the cargo preference program. (Photo courtesy of the Seafarers International Union)
Unions representing the crewmembers aboard U.S.-flag cargo ships are reeling from a stunning setback in Congress that threatens to idle as many as 16 vessels and eliminate up to 2,000 maritime jobs.
One of the unions described the move by Congress as a “stealth attack” because it took place in the hurried atmosphere of final negotiations between the House and Senate over a new surface transportation bill. Signed into law by President Barack Obama on July 7, the broader law provides about $105 billion over two years for federal highway construction and related transportation projects.
But buried in the details of the legislation is a funding provision that shifts federal money away from a program that uses U.S.-flag cargo ships to transport food aid to poor countries and allocates the money instead to unrelated highway-spending projects. That shift threatens to divert 500,000 tons of cargo to non-U.S. ships, thereby eliminating some 2,000 job for American mariners and shoreside workers, according to the labor-management lobby group USA Maritime.
This “midnight maneuver will cause the loss of thousands of U.S. jobs at sea and ashore and the waste of millions of dollars in private investment in U.S.-flagged merchant ships and supporting landside infrastructure,” Tom Bethel, president of the American Maritime Officers (AMO) union, said in a statement.
The AMO, along with the Seafarers International Union (SIU), Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association (MEBA) and the Masters, Mates & Pilots (MM&P) union, admit to being blindsided by the move and are now working feverishly to repair the damage. Charlie Papavizas, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer who represents one of the shipping companies most directly affected, called the development a “debacle” and said all efforts are now focused on a legislative initiative to reverse the new funding provision.
Fortunately for the maritime union members, the attack on the food-aid program does not appear to be motivated by animus to the unions, or a specific desire to cut government support to U.S.-flag shipping companies, Papavizas said. Rather, in a rush to clarify the funding measures behind the broader highway bill, the food-aid language was hastily added to the law with no congressional debate and little formal consideration. That means it should be possible to have the measure reversed as part of some future funding bill as it makes it way through Congress, Papavizas said.
“This was not accomplished through hostile legislation filed in the House or in the Senate. There were no hearings…and there were no votes on this specific provision…before the language found its way into the highway bill conference report,” AMO’s Bethel confirmed.
But the job of repairing the damage is made more difficult by the complicated and politically charged nature of the food-aid program. Under the previous arrangements, food aid was shipped using U.S. vessels for 75 percent of the cargo, with 25 percent transported using low-cost “flag-of-convenience” ships. That system had been in place since 1985, when the Cargo Preference Act of 1954 was amended in response to complaints about the high cost of American ships.
The 1985 compromise has not quieted political controversy over cargo preference and foreign aid, and the issue pops up again and again on Capitol Hill. It has sometimes taken the form of an attack on the maritime unions, or on profiteering shipping companies, but at other times the government’s entire approach to foreign aid is criticized. In recent years, for example, some food-aid activists have pushed for the elimination of all food-aid shipping managed by the federal government in favor of direct cash disbursements to distressed countries. This has been steadfastly opposed by American unions because it would eliminate good-paying U.S. jobs in that sector of the economy.
It doesn’t help that foreign-aid programs seem inordinately complicated and confusing. Many Americans were surprised, for example, when a highly publicized piracy incident off the coast of East Africa in 2009 highlighted the vessel Maersk Alabama. The containership, crewed by members of SIU, MEBA and MM&P, appeared to be under the control of the Danish company Maersk, even though it was carrying U.S. cargo preference shipments to Kenya, Somalia and Uganda. The ownership arrangements of the vessel were entirely proper under existing U.S. law, experts said, but raised the question whether foreign shipping corporations were the real beneficiaries of the cargo-preference laws.
Such questions notwithstanding, maritime unions are turning now to their friends in Congress to push new legislation to restore full funding for the cargo provisions of the food aid program.
Among them is Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.). Cummings said he was concerned that the new bill “would reduce by one-third the percent of food aid shipped on U.S. vessels. As a former chairman on Coast Guard and Marine Transportation subcommittee, I have closely examined the state of the U.S. merchant marine…. Without our cargo preference programs, we would have no domestic merchant marine, leaving our military and indeed our economy completely dependent on foreign vessels. This provision should never have been included…and I will work to repeal it,” he said.
Papavizas told Working In These Times that there is significant bipartisan support in Congress for the cargo-preference elements of the food-aid program, resulting in some optimism that the law can be changed before lasting harm is done to the merchant fleet. But “we have our work cut out for us, that’s for sure,” he said.It’s been over 14 years since the original Xbox launched in North America, and there have been several different iterations of the Xbox 360 and the all-new Xbox One released within that almost decade and a half! Don’t speak a word of any of this to the marketing department at CVS, though. You will understand why after you check out their Black Friday ad for this year.
This is the picture of an Xbox that CVS decided to use for THIS YEAR'S Black Friday ad. pic.twitter.com/O6SDXtRbNc — Roller Derbflea (@Flea) November 25, 2015
The deal will yield $10 in Extrabucks Rewards to anyone who purchases the 3 month Xbox Live Gold membership that you wouldn’t have even been able to use on the console featured in the ad. Customers who trade in an original Duke controller can then treat themselves to three free bottles of CVS brand ibuprofen or the vitamin of their choice — not really.
Of course, there are a well-spring of other deals that involve current generation consoles. Check those out here. But if you are still rocking Fusion Frenzy on the OG Xbox, make sure to hit up your local CVS for more relevant deals.
More NewsMy thoughts on Bitcoin Gold and SegWit2x Hardforks
Trauzk Blocked Unblock Follow Following Oct 20, 2017
My main goal with this article is to inform people about the upcoming forks. If you believe there is any misinformation or mistakes, feel free to leave a comment or to contact me on twitter. I’ll be updating this post now and then.
I suggest the reader not to take this publication as advice. Try to inform yourself about the risks involved in a hardfork event prior to acting or making decisions.
HARDFORK
A hardfork stands for a substantial change to the protocol of a blockchain network, which results in a protocol replacement and a divergent break from the preceding chain. It enables to create a new version of the software (or a new blockchain). When a hardfork takes place, the previous blockchain is copied to create a second one with a different set of rules. All nodes and users will be able to follow the old path (Blockchain A) or the new path (Blockchain B) (Fig. 1). However, either paths requires user adoption and mining support in order to survive. Furthermore, to run the new version of the blockchain, users are required to upgrade their software protocol.
Figure 1. Hardfork chain divergence. Blockchain B is forked from Blockchain A. Note that both chains share the same pre-fork history/data (blocks I and II).
Hardforks are usually executed when part of the community does not feel contented with the current blockchain protocol, leading to the creation of a new one (with a new set of rules). They can also be used to add new functionalities or during emergency situations in order to replace a problematic or unreliable protocol.
Thus, hardforks can be used to change or improve an existing protocol (possibly leaving the old version behind) or to create a second independent protocol that runs in parallel to the original one. If both chains have sufficient users and miners support, there will be two active running protocols with distinct rules (and possibly distinct communities, coin name, developers, and so on).
2. REPLAY ATTACK
Considering the cryptocurrency blockchain context, the replay attack consists of a network attack where a valid (and signed) transaction executed on Blockchain A is replayed and validated on Blockchain B. In order to prevent replay attacks, any hardfork should implement a replay protection — negating any possible conflict between distinct networks.
Whenever a new protocol is created by a hardfork, the new blockchain will have the same ledger history as the old one until the exact moment of the fork. In other words, the pre-fork data is identical for both chains (Fig.1). Due to this shared history, the pre-fork existing data from Blockchain A will be cloned on Blockchain B, causing both chains to have the same copy of the ledger (identical past transactions, balances, keys and addresses). That is the reason why Bitcoin (BTC) holders got the same amount of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) during the hardfork of August 1st, for example. However, the shared pre-fork data is also the reason for some vulnerabilities that may arise when hardforks are not efficiently protected. Different hardforks deal with replay attacks in different ways. If a hardfork occurs without proper replay protection, post-fork transaction could be equally valid on both chains and someone could pick up a broadcasted transaction validated on Blockchain A and replay it on Blockchain B. Note that there is no need for the attacker to know your private keys, since both chains share the same pre-fork data and the transaction was already signed by you on Blockchain A.
For example, if Bitcoin Cash hardfork did not have a strong replay protection, any post-fork transaction using Bitcoin could be a target of replay attacks. If that was the case, sending 5 BTC from one address to another would create a valid transaction on BTC Blockchain that could be replayed and validated on Bitcoin Cash blockchain as well, causing not only 5 BTC to be sent but also 5 BCH (from/to the same addresses, using the same private keys signatures). Fortunately, Bitcoin Cash successfully implemented a Strong Replay Protection, greatly reducing the potential for disruption for both networks.
2.1. STRONG REPLAY PROTECTION
A Strong Replay Protection aims to make transactions valid on Blockchain A invalid on Blockchain B and vice-versa. This is done by adding some kind of marker on each transaction, ensuring that they can only be validated on their respective original chain. Taking Bitcoin Cash hardfork as an example, a Strong Replay Protection was implemented in order to make Bitcoin transactions invalid on Bitcoin Cash network and vice-versa. When this type of replay protection is implemented, both chains are automatically protected and there is no need for users to take any additional steps nor to be concerned about replay attacks.
2.2. OPT-IN REPLAY PROTECTION
Unlike the Strong Replay Protection, the Opt-In Replay Protection requires additional steps in order to prevent your transaction from being replayed. In other words, there is no automatically implemented protection. Any post-fork transaction would be vulnerable to replay attacks by default, unless you take the necessary steps to prevent them. In this case, it is up to the user/sender to make the required manual adjustments in order to be protected.
PS: Any address generated after the hardfork will be exclusive to its own chain and will not be duplicated.
3. BITCOIN GOLD
Bitcoin Gold (BTCGPU) is a hardfork of the Bitcoin blockchain scheduled to occur on October 25th. According to their official website and open source repository, the fork will take place at block height 491,407 — giving birth to a new cryptocurrency. The new network will probably go live in early November. The new protocol will change the proof-of-work algorithm from SHA256 to Equihash (taken from ZCash project), making specialized SHA256 mining equipment (like ASICs) inefficient for mining the BTCGPU blockchain. The idea is to allow miners of the new chain to mine Bitcoin Gold using normal CPUs or GPUs, possibly leading to a more decentralized mining infrastructure.
After the fork, all Bitcoin holders are expected to receive the corresponding amount of BTCGPU. Post-fork transactions might not be a problem, as the project plains to implement a strong replay protection (yet to be done). Recently, they started a bounty of 300 BTG for replay protection implementation.
Users are recommended to keep control of their private keys during hardforks periods — i.e., not leaving your coins on exchanges. In case you do, however, make sure the exchange you use is supporting the hardfork and try to be aware of their statements and procedures beforehand.
There is a lot of discussion around Bitcoin Gold hardfork. Some claim it to be a dubious premined coin, which supposedly forked already at block height 487,427. A premine consists of mining coins prior to its launch and allocating certain amounts of currency credit to a particular address before releasing the source code to the open community. It is often justified as a way to incentivize the team and to pay for future development costs, but the crypto-community in general does not seem to like premined coins — especially in cases where the process is not totally transparent.
On October 10th, the Bitcoin Gold Developers published a Response to Recent Misinformation, addressing some of these negative claims.
When comparing the official code repository (Fig.2) to their main developer’s forked repository (Fig. 3), there are divergent information regarding the blockchain parameters (e.g., block height activation and premine window). This might be due to constant updates and changes as their work is yet to be finished.
EDIT 1 (10/22/2017): They have now the same parameters for block height activation. Premine window is set to 8000 blocks (around 100,000 premined BTG).
Figure 2. Chain parameters (on 10/18/2017) from Bitcoin Gold master repository (BTCGPU/BTCGPU).
Figure 3. Chain parameters (on 10/18/2017) from h4x3rotab forked repository (h4x3rotab/BTCGPU).
Despite their statement that there is no premining ongoing, it is still unclear how exactly this hardfork will be executed and which parameters are going to be used. In addition, the major change from SHA256 to Equihash algorithm is yet to be completed and it seems they still have a lot of work to do until October 25th.
EDIT 2 (10/22/2017):
· h4x3rotab says: “Yes, we will have a premine”.
· Their official website says “Bitcoin Gold has implemented full replay protection”. As far as I know, this is not true (yet).
From Bitcoin Gold website.
EDIT 3 (10/23/2017):
Today, Bitcoin Gold Team published their roadmap. They also published a document in response to what they call Coinbase False Statement (referring to the recently published Coinbase Bitcoin Gold FAQ).
EDIT 4 (10/24/2017):
Apparently, what Bitcoin Gold Team called fork was actually a snapshot of Bitcoin’s blockchain (on block height 491,407). The launch will probably take place early November and they plan to implement SIGHASH_FORK_ID replay protection. You can find more info on their roadmap.
4. SEGWIT2X
On May 23rd, the Digital Currency Group published the Bitcoin Scaling Agreement known as the New York Agreement (NYA). It was made behind closed doors and signed by 58 companies (mostly big businesses and big miners) — it seems that no Core Developers were invited. The NYA was presented as a two-step plan aiming to increase the capacity of the Bitcoin Blockchain by addressing some technical limitations related to the rate at which transactions can be processed. The big debate around the possible ways to solve such limitations is known as the Bitcoin scaling debate. The NYA intended to reach a solution for this debate, since the community was divided between a group that wanted to scale bitcoin by increasing the block weight and a group that wanted to scale it by using SegWit.
“The stated intention of the New York Agreement was to reach a solution to keep the community together. It has become clear in the past months that this is not possible if Segwit2x continues on its planned course” — from Seoul Bitcoin Meetup open letter.
On August 24th, the Bitcoin Core Developers successfully activated SegWit on the Bitcoin network, setting a new way of representing the data inside a block. It basically reallocates the transaction signatures inside the block in a way it frees up some space, allowing more transactions per block. SegWit was a softfork (backwards compatible with all previous versions of the software; no chain-split; supported by the community) and it is not related to SegWit2x hardfork (incompatible change that will likely cause a chain-split), which is supposed to take place at block height 494,784 (probably mid-November).
SegWit2x (S2X) is another name for the NYA and it is considered by some as a contentious hardfork project that wants to change Bitcoin consensus rules, even though there is no clear support from the crypto community nor the Bitcoin Core Developers. The team behind the S2X is led by Jeff Garzik and is called btc1. The software client associated with SegWit2x is also called btc1. However, btc1 team is not related to Bitcoin Core and the btc1 software client is not the Bitcoin Core client (Fig. 4).
Figure 4. From Coin Dance. Bitcoin Nodes running different software clients.
Besides the technical discussion and the scaling debate, this controversial hardfork seems to be much more about control and power. However, Bitcoin is not ruled by miners. S2X is basically copying the original source code and making very little changes on it (e.g. naming btc1 where it was Bitcoin Core) — no innovations besides the block weight increase. It seems they are trying to take Bitcoin’s place, expecting to be the biggest blockchain (assuming they have the Hash Power) and behaving as they were the real Bitcoin (assuming they will have the majority chain). Some call it a corporate takeover attempt, since btc1 team is willing to take Bitcoin to another direction without Core Developers support. And they are trying to drag some people with them. Due to this controversial debate, some mining pools have already withdrawn their agreement on SegWit2x.
Some of the opposing arguments that claim SegWit2x to be a contentious and risky hardfork:
· NYA was forged by a small group at a closed doors meeting.
· No support from Core Developers;
· No roadmap;
· Lack of transparency;
· Intentional lack of a Strong Replay Attack Protection;
· Opt-In Replay Protection not user-friendly (users will likely lose money);
· Very small team (Jeff Garzik as the main active developer);
· Rushed hardfork right after SegWit activation (not really needed now);
· Hardforks are risky by nature and usually require much longer periods of tests (~1 year or more);
· Coin-split confusion: both chains claiming they are the real Bitcoin;
· Bigger blocks means increased resources requirements for operating a full node (may cause further mining centralization);
· Bitcoin’s consensus rules should only be changed with broad agreement from the entire community;
On the other hand, some of the arguments in favor of S2X are:
· Bigger blocks may lead to lower transaction fees and faster confirmations;
· Supposedly remove the power or influence from Core Developers;
· More than 80% of the miners are signaling support(not confirmed);
· Reneging on the NYA would be a betrayal;
· Opt-In Replay Protection is enough (if activated);
Regarding the replay attacks protection, btc1 developers initially decided to implement the Opt-In Replay Protection — it seems that it was recently removed and its implementation is yet to be confirmed. Unlike the Strong Replay Protection, the Opt-In Replay Protection requires additional steps in order to prevent your transaction from being replayed — which makes it non user-friendly for the vast majority. That means any post-fork transaction would be vulnerable to replay attacks by default, unless we take the necessary steps to prevent them.
In this context, the Opt-In Replay protection consists of manually adding an extra output to all transactions, making them invalid on SegWit2x blockchain network. The output was chosen to be a Pay to Script Hash (P2SH). In other words, anyone that want to send Bitcoins (BTC) on the Bitcoin Blockchain will have to simultaneously send a small amount to 3Bit1xA4apyzgmFNT2k8Pvnd6zb6TnwcTi in order to make that transaction invalid on the SegWit2x blockchain. It is not about sending coins before or after, but simultaneously (with multiple outputs for the same transaction). People may not be aware of it, but Bitcoin protocol supports multiple outputs for a single transaction and the Opt-In Replay Protection is based on that.
It is important to keep in mind, however, that this procedure of Opt-In Replay Protection is only valid after the hardfork, and we cannot be totally sure if it will be implemented. Time will tell. Be careful.
A couple weeks ago, Bitcoin.org website (not to be confused with bitcoincore.org), published two statements denouncing S2X and warning users about the risks of a contentious hardfork without strong replay protection:
S2X claims to have replay protection, but their version requires extra manual steps in order to prevent loss of BTC. If you use S2X software without careful engineering, you are likely to lose any associated BTC.
They are also warning users about Bitcoin’s possible incompatibility with some major services:
The signatories of this agreement wrongly believe that the currency created by adopting this contentious hard fork will eventually become Bitcoin. Therefore storing any BTC on services such as Coinbase, Bitpay and Xapo is strongly not recommended. By storing BTC on these services, you could find that after the hard fork, your BTC has been renamed to something else or replaced entirely with the new altcoin (…).
(…) If the coins on the contentious hard fork have any value, there will be methods you can use to “split” your coins and have access to them. Pay extra attention to major Bitcoin communication channels and media shortly after the fork so you stay informed.A Bach cantata manuscript has sold at Christie's for £337,250 (photo: Christie's Images Ltd 2012)
A manuscript of one of Bach's late cantatas has sold for a season-record price of £337,250 at Christie's in London.
The manuscript, which sold to a private collector in the US, is the Taille (tenor oboe) part for Ich liebe den Höchsten von ganzem Gemüte, BWV 174, and is the first example of Bach’s musical hand to appear on the open market for 16 years. It shows the script of two of Bach’s copyists - probably his pupil Samuel Gottleib Heder and another, known only as ‘Anonymous IV’ - in the early movements, with Bach’s own unmistakable handwriting appearing for the final chorale (the Passion chorale of Martin Schalling, used five years earlier in the St John Passion). It is a fascinating insight into Bach’s working practises, coming, as it did, in 1729 – mid-way through his period as kapellmeister at the Thomasschule, a job he combined with directing the music at the principal churches in Leipzig.
Bach manuscripts were previously relatively frequent performers on the auction stage: in the 1980s and '90s manuscript sales were known to offer three or more full autograph scores of Bach. Now, however, his appearances are far rarer, and this auction has been one of a shrinking number of opportunities to see the confident sweep of Bach’s handwriting on the page.
‘With all manuscript material, as with Old Master Pictures, there are fewer examples in circulation,’ says Margaret Ford, head of the Printed Books and
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is still under construction and is slated to open in 2015. But at 650 meters (which is 2,132 feet), it's the tallest structure in China and the second tallest building in the world.
There's not much info on either of them. They're apparently in their early 20s, and one of them is going by "Xiao Lin," but that's supposedly a pseudonym.
The video, which you can see below, was uploaded in China two days ago. So, obviously, the climb had to take place before that.
Have a look for yourself:
"We are Chinese dreamers," one of them said at one point in the clip. "We are here at China's tallest building at about 630 meters up in the air."
Both climbers made it safely back to the ground. That's good news, but this trend is bound to eventually end horribly.
2名中国90后爬上海中心 凌晨登顶摆拍惊险动作 [东方早报]
Eric Jou contributed to this article.By Jim Hogan
Every year there seem to be a few prevailing themes that emerge in chip design and EDA around the mid-summer /post-DAC timeframe. Usually they revolve around some high-level design tool concept such as electronic system-level (ESL) design, some aspect of SoC power optimization or design for manufacturing (DFM), or a wave of tools being introduced in some ‘new’ area. This year the chatter was the least tool-centric as I can remember in recent memory, which may not necessarily be a bad thing. In fact, it actually may be a sign of maturity that the EDA industry is focusing on the big picture challenges faced by IC and system designers.
In my mind, that biggest challenge is all about the tremendous shift toward true system-on-chip (SoC) design. A year sometimes can make a huge difference. Yes, we’ve talked about SoC design for years, but it’s really starting to evolve to become the next layer of design abstraction. One proof point alone should make that clear: Microsoft talking about its SoC strategy at CES earlier this year. Who would have thought that a consumer software company could even spell SoC? But that’s the key behind the push toward more mainstream adoption of what we in the EDA industry have almost taken for granted. It’s all about consumer markets and it’s all about software applications. Interestingly, it appears the systems companies have realized it is the way to capture more value for them and allow for differentiation and exclusivity in their system products. No one understands this better than Apple.
Growing up in Silicon Valley I have witnessed much of the electronic revolution firsthand. The Apple story has been told by many. I recall the Steves starting Apple and the Apple II being what I considered an interesting toy. Steve Jobs had another vision. Jobs has always been a one step removed from me in my network. Lots of my contemporaries joined Apple as it grew, but I never really thought of it as an innovator. It assembled interesting bits and pieces from elsewhere, like the mouse and graphical UI. Steve left and started NEXT and my brother-in law joined them from SGI. He raved about the UI and the graphics ability. I was using Sun and SGI workstations at the time and tried a NEXT. It was a great UI but slow as hell when I loaded a design. Again I wrote it off as a toy.
As everyone knows, Jobs returned to Apple and made the NEXT OS and UI the Mac. The Mac is and was a huge success. It got some horsepower and was actually a great graphics workstation for creative things like media. He also launched the Newton PDA. It was a good idea but you couldn’t make it work worth a darn.
Jobs showed us all that computers were as much a fashion statement when he launched the Mac in designer colors.
I know a bit about the development of the iPod and it wasn’t so much a technical masterpiece as a collection of parts that Jobs saw as a way of servicing the consumer. I finally had to say he was the real deal when he launched iTunes and showed us all what the Internet can do in terms of creating and servicing consumer needs through a more efficient marketing approach.
Thus, after dismissing Apple and Jobs as a toy supplier, I think I finally have come to realize why Steve Jobs is indeed the master. I think we can coin a Jobs’ Law, a lot like we have Moore’s and Amdahl’s Laws. I believe that Jobs’ Law is that the user experience is never compromised. In other words Apple will, for example, spend more of its bill of materials costs on a display; all Apple devices communicate transparently with each other (turns out so do Samsung products too, hmm?); the devices themselves are stylish and handsome; and they act as portals to all the things a consumer could want.
How does Jobs’ Law affect what we do in SoCs? Let’s start at the handoff to SoC (what I’m trying to describe as SoC 3.0) or System Realization.
With SoC 3.0 software is king and programmability is the key, a departure from the hardware-focused era of gates-and-switches chip design. Application software defines the differentiated value of the system for the consumer.
It seems the industry has agreed a critical requirement is for software that runs for 1.5 seconds at boot time. The real time bio (bare metal software) is what allows the hardware and software world to interact. There were more than a few comments around that this year. My guess is next year at DAC we will be seeing more than a few people talking about that as the discussion moves to up to System Realization. But today’s problem is SoC realization, or the bridge from system level design to Silicon Realization (or, as many of us like to call it, EDA Classic).
Of course, the software still requires the underlying hardware, which is what makes the EDA and IP industries still very relevant. Especially when you look at the massive costs and development times required to develop an SoC. Higher-level design methods and design re-use are an absolute necessity and the IP industry will flourish as a result. But what we have seen at this year’s DAC, and really in the past year or so, is a realization (no pun intended) that the SoC methodology, as traditionally defined by the EDA supply chain, still needs work in order to deliver on the promise of SoC, thus rich with opportunities.
On one end, the detailed process for implementing complex designs in advanced silicon is well understood and is served adequately by traditional EDA tools and their tight connection to device physics and manufacturing. That’s not to say there aren’t some interesting challenges, especially as you get closer to silicon, but the core design methodology is in place, trusted and understood. These new tools will complement the needs of smaller and smaller process geometries. This remains the perfect storm for five-man startups.
On the other end, the process of conceptualizing and analyzing designs at a system level, a high level of abstraction and without the restrictions of physical operating constraints, is also a well-proven, albeit somewhat less rigidly defined area. Ideally, this system-level implementation would be available to software application developers before the SoC is actually manufactured to test and debug the software and uncover any SoC architectural problems.
Operating at these two different levels of abstraction, most often performed by two (at least) different sets of operations, introduces a variety of risks and design management challenges. The most fundamental challenge is ensuring that what is intended at the highest level of abstraction actually gets implemented in silicon by the steps performed at lower levels of detail. Thus ensuring architectural intent or convergence, making sure nothing gets “lost in translation,” is a major issue within the current SoC design flow.
This void has emerged as an under-served and emerging link called SoC Realization, where important system level information must be transformed to the next level of abstraction and analyzed; and functions assembled (both hardware and software) and implemented in an optimized way in silicon. It is here where an SoC has more degrees of optimization and critical decisions are made on issues such as which building blocks are used, what operating characteristics the SoC will have, and whether it will work as intended once committed to a silicon device. It is the cockpit for guiding the design from concept to implementation and ensuring design fidelity from one level to the next. SoC Realization represents the next natural and necessary step up in abstraction from existing EDA methodologies, and a necessary bridge from the more abstract world of system-level design that is helping drive SoC-enabled products.
Business models will likely change, as well. It isn’t a foregone conclusion that the EDA time-based licensing makes sense in SoC realization. The use of cloud computing will evolve in the next year. We may actually start to see software as a service (SaaS) that will become part of the SoC realization story in the next year. I think there are some ideal design tools for an application of the cloud. The cloud solutions out there today charge you $5/hour/computer. They charge a lot for data transfer. So applications that are a relatively small set of constraints/and inputs are ideal. You transfer a megabyte of information, during run time you create a terabyte of data on the cloud, and then you transfer back a megabyte of results. Good applications, for example, are field solvers that generate a ton of run time data to solve Maxwell’s equations, and applications that require no proprietary information on the cloud. At least for now that rules out things like SPICE because of the need for proprietary data like process rules.
For some it’s difficult to admit, but EDA “classic” has become a commodity business, a tool replacement exercise that by definition has to keep pace with IC complexity and Moore’s Law, but is a technology treadmill of incremental performance improvements with incremental innovative breakthroughs. And it may well end up in the hands of the foundries that can derive more value by linking it even closer to their manufacturing processes. This is ASIC model déjà vu all over again.
SoC Realization, on the other hand, has the potential to dramatically change how companies can leverage the vast potential of design re-use and the capacity of today’s leading-edge semiconductor processes. It is the link between the consumer systems companies like Apple, Samsung, LG, Microsoft, Oracle and others now jumping into the SoC game, and the IC providers charged with expanding their portfolio of expertise to include vertical-market domain software and system platforms that can scale with each new market their customers want to address.
Meanwhile, designers are currently left with ad-hoc and DIY methods for taking system-level design concepts and trying to transform them into viable SoC designs. As we have seen in the fabless era, lowering the design methodology enables the democratization of SoCs, thus filling fabs and shortening the product lifetime in the consumer market. This is a large, and growing, gap that needs to be filled with better automation and more efficient ways to ensure design fidelity between high-level representations and silicon implementation. This is a gap that represents a huge opportunity to fill. The question is by whom?
As with any kind of capitalist-driven market, commercial companies will emerge to fill the SoC Realization need. The IP market is alive and well, and will continue to evolve. But it needs this critical infrastructure for it to really flourish. This is where growth is going to come from in EDA as a business and hopefully allow it to capture more value.
The success of Apple under Steve Jobs underscores the opportunity for EDA companies who can drive innovation and change the status quo. I think we need to tip our hat to Steve Jobs for the innovator he truly is. Thanks, Steve, for making things interesting and being true to your vision and Jobs’ Law.Rethinking The Rethinking documentaries follow the travels of a curious engineer to ancient sites around the world, where the claims made are compared to the evidence found.
Episode 1
Alex Mott visits Egypt, researching the pyramids and claims of ancient technology. The Darwinian theory of linear evolution struggles to accommodate some of these artefacts - and human history may need rethinking.
Episode 2
Alex Mott visits Bosnia, investigating the claims of pyramids and ancient structures. It’s possible the Valley of the Pyramids is the work of intelligent hands - but Mother Nature can also produce some fairly amazing things herself.
Episode 3
Alex Mott visits India on the trail of the Vedas and ancient stone working techniques. As with sites in Egypt and around the world, the physical evidence is right in front of you - but how they did it is still a mystery.
Episode 4
Alex Mott visits Peru, investigating precision joints in megalithic walls, Ica Stones and elongated skulls. The ancient Peruvians really knew how to work with nature - and a very old friend is found in the Paracas Museum.
Episode 5
Alex Mott visits Egypt again, continuing to research the stone working techniques of ancient civilizations and other mysteries. Known sites are revisited for a closer look and unknown sites explored for the first time. Egypt is a magical place – and there is still no shortage of questions.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tornadoes in the United States are increasingly coming in swarms rather than as isolated twisters, according to a study by U.S. government meteorologists published on Thursday that illustrates another trend toward extreme weather emerging in recent years.
A U.S. flag sticks out the window of a damaged hot rod car in a suburban area after a tornado near Vilonia, Arkansas April 28, 2014. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
Looking at tornado activity over the past six decades, the study in the journal Science found the total number of tornadoes annually remaining rather steady, averaging 495. Since the 1970s, there have been fewer days with tornadoes but plenty more days with many of them, sometimes dozens or more.
On the list of the 10 single days with the most tornadoes since 1954, eight have occurred since 1999, including five since 2011. That year alone had days with 115, 73, 53 and 52 twisters.
The meteorologist who led the study, Harold Brooks of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma, said emergency management agencies and insurers should be prepared to deal more often with days with lots of tornado damage.
The study analyzed the official U.S. tornado database for the six-decade period ending last year, excluding twisters below Category F1, with wind speeds of 73-112 mph (117-180 kph), on the Enhanced Fujita Tornado Intensity Scale.
Some experts have blamed weather intensity seen in recent years on global climate change they attribute to human activities. This study did not, however, offer a conclusion as to a cause.
“Knowing that the climate now has changed from that of the 1970s makes for a circumstantial argument in favor of a changing climate playing at least some role in the tornado changes,” said meteorologist Patrick Marsh of NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center.
“There are indications that heavy rainfall events are occurring with greater frequency globally, and given a warmer climate, this makes sense,” added Storm Prediction Center meteorologist Greg Carbin.
But “any trend in tornado events is much more difficult to discern,” Carbin added.
The average number of days annually with at least 20 tornadoes has more than doubled since the 1970s to upwards of five days per year in the past decade. For days with at least 30 tornadoes, there has been an average of three per year in the past decade, compared to 0.6 days per year in the 1970s.
Records for both the most and fewest tornadoes over a 12-month period have come in the past five years, with 1,050 from June 2010 to May 2011 and 236 tornadoes from May 2012 to April 2013. May is the month with the most tornado activity, followed by June and April.
Tornadoes, rapidly spinning columns of air usually spawned by rotating thunderstorms, can be among the most violent weather events. They have been reported on every continent except Antarctica but most often hit a U.S. region covering the Great Plains and parts of the Midwest and South.
Tornadoes can cause extensive loss of life and property damage like the May 2011 twister in Joplin, Missouri, that killed about 160 people and wrecked thousands of homes.Maths Scholars and PGCE What I wish I knew
Andrea Galinho Maths Scholar 2016-2017
There is more to teaching than meets the PGCE eye. What I am about to share are not regrets but rather information that would have put the PGCE year into perspective.
First and foremost, know what you’re getting into with the PGCE. Research how your course is run and assessed. I wish I had known that even though, you may pass the PGCE – which recommends you for Qualified Teaching Status (QTS) – only when you’ve actually passing your NQT year do you become fully qualified. Now, the NQT year is a pass or fail. Last time I checked, people are not able to retake this year, if you so happened to fail.
Having only realised this half way through my course it pushed me to into panic mode, thinking about the following year and what the demands of that year were going to be. Having this piece of information gave all my efforts more purpose, thinking not only about my teaching for this PGCE year but also for the following year. Had I have known, I could have built on ideas and resources from much earlier! Understanding the assessment process, put the course into perspective.
Top Tip: look out for scholarships and continuous professional development (CPD) opportunities that will build your teacher profile. The Maths Scholars scheme run some fantastic events throughout the year.
On the topic of resources, one of the main lessons I have learnt particularly from the transition from school placement 1 to placement 2 is to value your resources. Build a resource file. Being able to pull out resources from a file when you need to teach another lesson on the same topic, not only saves you time but allows you to gain insight into how the same activity can be adapted for different abilities and ages.
Top Tip: Take time making your resources first time around – organise your folders and save files with (correctly spelt) keywords from the topic so they are easy to find again! Another very important and key note on the topic of resources is ANSWERS. Finding a worksheet is often very simple, though more often than not there is not attachment with solutions and then you’re faced with a group of 30 students asking if their work is correct… Ergh.
If you have the time to work solutions out yourself then all the greater understanding you’ll have of what the activity demands of the students, if not search online for activities with solutions. Either way be prepared or be squared with having to do mental maths 30 times over.
Top Tip: If you have a chance to look over the curriculum, do so! Think how you would teach a particular topic and gather some resources.
Lastly, I wish I had known, how little I know. I have found myself learning topics, which I thought I knew really well and founding way more out about their intricacies. As much as you are teaching, you will be learning, so be patient and persevere!This interview with legendary Nintendo designer Gunpei Yokoi and Yukihito Morikawa of little known developer MuuMuu was a personal favorite of mine to translate. It was conducted in 1997, just before Yokoi’s tragic early death, and sees him opining about where games have gone while also indicating a desire to return to his toy roots. One can only wonder at what he would have created, and how his thoughts might have changed, had he lived to see where gaming has gone today.
Gunpei Yokoi x Yukihito Morikawa Console Gaming Then and Now – 1997 Developer Interview
Game and Gameplay
Morikawa: Yokoi, how do you feel about recent games?
Yokoi: There’s a huge variety of console games out now, but to me, the majority of them aren’t actually “games”. The word “game” means something competitive, where you can win or you can lose. When I look at recent games, I see that quality has been declining, and what I’m seeing more and more of are games that want to give you the experience of a short story or a movie.
This is most obvious with role-playing games, where the “game” portion isn’t the main focus, and I get the feeling that the developers really just want you to experience the story they’ve written. So when you ask what I think of games today, well, it’s a very difficult question for me. I end up having to say that games today just aren’t games to me.
The essence of games is competition, and I think that’s a remnant of our past as animals, and the competition of the survival of the fittest. I think you see it reflected all through human history, how people with wealth and power want to have harems, acquire women… that kind of thing is at the root of humanity.
Morikawa: It’s true, games have really diversified now, and that “pure gameplay” aspect of games has been pushed to the sidelines. You were very active in the era when games were all about gameplay; what do you think of the scene today?
Yokoi: When I ask myself why things are like this today, I wonder if it isn’t because we’ve run out of ideas for games. Recent games take the same basic elements from older games, but slap on characters, improve the graphics and processing speed… basically, they make games through a process of ornamentation. That’s where we’re at with console games today, but I believe there are still more basic varieties of competitive gameplay to be discovered.
I said the same thing when I quit Nintendo and started my own company, Koto Laboratory; however, when it came down to it and the staff asked me “well, what should we do then?”, in reality I found it to be extremely difficult to think of new things. But when we released the keychain game Kunekuneccho, which is really an old style game, and it was commercially successful, then I felt like my ideas were somewhat vindicated.
In 2010, there was an exhibit in Japan showcasing Yokoi’s lifetime
of creation. This case displays his Game and Watch series,
which epitomize the “gameplay first” attitude described above.
Morikawa: I think I might be one of the culprits responsible for this phenomenon you describe, of games no longer being games anymore…!
Yokoi: But the things you’ve made were never intended to be the kind of games I’m talking about. You created them from the perspective of what you think console fans want today, and I definitely don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.
Graphical Realism
Morikawa: Just as you said, the games which are taking basic gameplay elements and dressing them up with some novelity are the ones that are selling best today. And we definitely don’t want to make major, “big” games at MuuMuu, so in a certain sense we’re out of step with the trends ourselves. We’re making games which are the complete opposite of the traditional games you described, but I agree completely with the core of what you’re saying, that what is mainstream in gaming today is, in a certain sense, decidedly not “game”-like.
Yokoi: Yes, I think we understand each other. No matter how much CG approaches reality, it will never be able to overtake real visuals. There will always be an unsurpassable limit.
Morikawa: In Ganbare Morikawa-kun 2 Gou (known as “Pet in TV” overseas), we didn’t try to overdo the visuals—we left them kind of cheap and stylized. Photorealism isn’t always the best way to go. Nowadays consoles have gotten a lot more powerful, and you can display many things that were impossible in the past. You have many more colors to work with, you can use video, and sampling is available for music. Nevertheless, I don’t think there’s any future in pursuing photorealism. I mean, by the 17th century artists were already starting to abandon photorealism as a style, you know? I think pursuing it will only increase the amount of labor in games development, but I don’t sense a big future in it.
MuuMuu’s game Ganbare Morikawa-kun 2 Gou, aka Pet in TV.
As Morikawa explains below, the game (perhaps unjustly)
received negative reviews for it’s “cheap” graphics.
Yokoi: Do these playworlds really need to be that photorealistic, I wonder? I actually consider it more of a minus if the graphics are too realistic. There’s a similar line of thinking in the entertainment world—using soft focus lenses when women are filmed, for instance. When that is done, each person can project their own conception of “beautiful” onto the woman being filmed, and everyone will see their own personal Venus.
If things are too realistic, there’s no room for your imagination, and the reality of those faces you thought were beautiful will be revealed. Or to use another common expression, it’s actually more erotic when a woman leaves some skin covered. Even if a video game doesn’t have the power to display very complex graphics, I believe your imagination has the power to transform that perhaps-unrecognizable sprite called a “rocket” into an amazing, powerful, “real” rocket.
Morikawa: We must not steal from players the ability to add their own imagination to what they see. As designers, we show them the dotted lines where they’re supposed to cut, but we must leave it to the player to do the cutting. If we take that away then there’s no room for imagination. Unfortunately the trend today does just that. There’s too much fanservice and catering to the player, doing everything for them. RPGs are especially bad about this: they’re like those all-in-one vacations people take, where every last detail is neatly tied up and taken care of for you. They set you on one linear path and there’s no room for your imagination to roam.
Yokoi: Television has gone from black and white to color, and now that we’re seeing high-definition tv it’s almost too detailed. You get that problem I mentioned, of seeing wrinkles of beautiful faces. Since television is mainly a medium for information, I think it’s better for it to be more clear, but games don’t require that. I think the world of a game feels larger when you can use your own imagination.
Designing the Game Boy
Morikawa: Hearing you say that, I feel like I understand a little better why you chose to make the Game Boy monochrome. And it wasn’t a technological problem that made you choose a monochrome screen, right?
Yokoi: The technology was there to do color. But I wanted us to do black and white anyway. If you draw two circles on a blackboard, and say “that’s a snowman”, everyone who sees it will sense the white color of the snow, and everyone will intuitively recognize it’s a snowman. That’s because we live in a world of information, and when you see that drawing of the snowman, the mind knows this color has to be white. I became confident of this after I tried playing some Famicom games on a black and white TV. Once you start playing the game, the colors aren’t important. You get drawn, mentally, into the world of the game.
Morikawa: That’s a very bold decision. It reminds me of the first Macintoshes with monochrome screens.
Yokoi poses with the Ten Billion puzzle
toy he designed in 1980. Yokoi was
thinking about returning to toy design;
it would have been fascinating to see him
come full circle if not for his tragic
death shortly after this interview.
Yokoi: Actually, it was difficult to get Nintendo to understand. Partly, I used my status in the company to push them into it. (laughs) After we released the Game Boy, one of my staff came to me with a grim expression on his face: “there’s a new handheld on the market similar to ours…” The first thing I asked was: “is it a color screen, or monochrome?” He told me it was color, and I reassured him, “Then we’re fine.” (laughs)
Morikawa: Color screens also drained the batteries very quickly too.
Yokoi: When we were designing the Game Boy hardware, we took into consideration what kind of software was going to be made for it, and I think that approach resulted in a very efficient product. Hardware design isn’t about making the most powerful thing you can.
Today most hardware design is left to other companies, but when you make hardware without taking into account the needs of the eventual software developers, you end up with bloated hardware full of pointless excess. From the outset one must consider design from both a hardware and software perspective.
Game Design: Visuals vs. Controls
Morikawa: What is your process for making games, by the way?
Yokoi: I first take the character (or characters) which you’re going to control and replace them with a dot as a placeholder, then I think about what kind of movement would be fun. Basically I’m trying to put myself in the player’s shoes and figure out what they would enjoy. Also, when I make characters I try to design them in a way that teaches players how to play the game. In other words, if an enemy looks too pretty, they won’t seem like an enemy to the player. But if you give them an enemy-like appearance, then the player won’t need to read the manual or anything to know “oh, I’ve got to avoid this guy.”
Recently there’s been some amazing polygonal fighting games, but when you project anything onto a flat, 2D television screen, in the end we’re just talking about hitboxes. That sense of three dimensions is only for visual effect. Once you start playing the game that depth is unrelated to the gameplay: whether the sword your character swings actually hits its target is just a horizontal, two-dimensional measurement between hitboxes.
Cool featurette about Yokoi (Japanese).
Morikawa: My process is the reverse: I start with the visuals first, then figure out movement. In the beginning TV was only capable of showing live broadcasts, then VCRs allowed videos, and gradually the television absorbed more and more new media. Game consoles, too, feel like just one form of “television peripheral” to me. So yeah, when you think about it that way, there’s nothing especially novel about games: they’re just one more kind of image that televisions can display.
Current and Future Projects
Yokoi: When I was a kid, there were so many things I wanted to do that weren’t possible because they were too expensive or the technology wasn’t there. Now that 10 or 20 years have passed, those ideas I had given up on can actually be realized. The “My Puzzle” amusement machine 1 is one of those ideas from 20 years ago. Had I tried to make it then it would have cost around 30 million yen (roughly 300,000 USD). (laughs) There were no video printers back then either. So in that sense, I think we have a lot of opportunities today to fulfill the dreams of our youth.
Morikawa: I’m 38 now, and there’s a part of me that’s very tired, that wants calming things. I think I want the faces in my games to not be drawn realistically, but just to use black and white and simple lines. That way I can leave things to each player’s individual imagination. If I make the face a beautiful one, then players will only ever see what I intended to present, and all other possibilities are lost.
I think games today are undergoing a kind of inflation similar to what Hollywood films are going through, leaving behind interesting stories and just focusing on CG and visuals. Movies like Independence Day and The Lost World are totally uninteresting outside of their visuals, and I think people are going to get tired of it. I think the same is true of games: they’ll reach a certain point of visual impressiveness, but then what? For MuuMuu’s game “Pet in TV” everyone asked me why I only used 16 colors for everything, despite the capabilities of the Playstation to do far more. But I felt the game would not be improved upon if I used full color. Likewise, the Playstation can handle about 10 times as many polygons, but I wanted to make a bright toylike world, not something realistic. One of our qualities as Japanese is supposed to be our creativity within meagre means; when it comes to games and the new hardware, it seems like everyone has forgotten that!
Yokoi: Yeah, it’s like they want gyoza stuffed with caviar or matsutake. (laughs) In any event, I’ve been thinking about moving away from television with my future work. Imagine if I show you a toy on the table here, you’d see it and think “oh, that looks fun to play with.” But if I take the same toy and put it on a television screen, suddenly people think “wow, this looks dumb.” And that’s what I mean about reality having such a stronger pull than television visuals can ever hope to match. One never tires of the basic movements of a real toy doll or human figure. Now I’d like to create something real like that, even if it’s something simple and cheap. If people find it entertaining, they’ll play with it for a long time.
Morikawa: Personally, collecting rocks is my new hobby. I like touching and holding them in my hands. Until recently I’ve spent most of my free time playing video games, but video games only activate a certain part of your brain, and their sensory experience only extends to sight and sound. It’s been ages since I let my other senses have some fun! So I’ve recently gone back to non-game activities: going fishing, casting a line, feeling the body of the fish when it’s caught. Maybe I needed this to restore the balance in my life.Why Is HSBC Leaving Brazil and Turkey?
The world’s local bank is about to get a little less local. HSBC is going on a cost-cutting tear, trimming branches in major markets and selling off entire operations in emerging ones. The bank’s leadership says they’re narrowing its business to improve profitability, but there’s a much bigger message — and possibly an important twist — in its new approach.
To understand HSBC’s decision, it helps to think about its business model. Retail banks that serve consumers and businesses make their money primarily through loans and fees. For loans to be profitable, local businesses have to be strong and, if possible, growing; if that’s the case, then clients are numerous, demand for lending is strong, and default rates are low. Fees can evaporate as demand for lending rises, since the banks need deposits in order to make loans. But regardless of loan volumes, fees are more plentiful when banks have high-value customers doing a lot of transactions with different kinds of accounts.
Naturally, banks with lower overhead can charge lower fees and offer less interest on loans, which is why online banks have started to pick up market share in the past several years. So in part, HSBC’s push to slim down and tech up is a response to market forces. The reorientation of its business has much deeper roots, however.
In the past two decades, as the global economy has become more integrated, retail banks have been markers of expectations for growth. In Brazil, HSBC ramped up its operations with a series of acquisitions. First, it purchased Banco Bamerindus for $1 billion as part of a Latin American buying spree in 1997. Then it picked up Lloyds TSB’s operations for $815 million in 2003. The bank followed a similar path in Turkey, expanding holdings it acquired with Midland Bank in 1992 by absorbing a distressed Demirbank in 2001.
Now HSBC is leaving both of those markets. Once the darlings of investors, Brazil and Turkey have fallen into an economic rut of late. In Brazil, the vast inflows of capital that came seeking a safe haven during the global financial crisis have started to dry up, with the economy bogged down by corruption and bureaucracy. In Turkey, a similar spike in growth during 2010 and 2011 was followed by a string of comparative disappointments. This year, the Turkish economy — which felt the chill of the AKP’s continuing clampdown on basic freedoms (until the party lost its parliamentary majority this week) — may expand by less than 2 percent, adjusted for inflation.
In short, HSBC placed long-term bets on the growth of big emerging economies, and now some of those bets are being scraped off the table. But it wasn’t just the rates of growth in Brazil and Turkey that cut into their profitability for banking — it was also how that growth was distributed.
Brazil’s economic path has been remarkable, as one of the few countries able to globalize in recent times without increasing inequality. Though a rising tide may lift all boats, the rising tide of globalization has tended to lift some boats a lot more than others; poverty may have declined, but the change in the wealth of people at the top is much greater. In Brazil, assiduous redistribution by the governments of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff has, for all their faults, evened out the income distribution to a historic degree. In Turkey, income inequality is also lower than it was when HSBC made its big acquisitions.
In both of these countries, there are more potential customers for HSBC than ever before. The problem is that they’re not the most lucrative customers. People just starting to climb the economic ladder don’t need a lot of special services, and their savings are so small that their accounts are relatively expensive for a bank to maintain; most banks would rather manage one account worth $100,000 than 100 accounts worth $1,000. Moreover, with high benchmark interest rates in both countries, borrowing from banks is a tough proposition for most businesses.
None of those things are true in the high-powered economies of East Asia, where HSBC will now refocus its business 150 years after the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd. first put out its shingle. In Hong Kong, China, Singapore, and Malaysia, growth is steady, interest rates are low, and inequality is high — and may still be rising. Big companies are getting bigger, as are the services they need and the fees they pay — it’s a banker’s paradise.
But here’s the kicker: Chinese banks might be the ones to scoop up HSBC’s assets in emerging economies. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is reportedly negotiating for HSBC’s operations in Turkey, and China Construction Bank Co. may also be interested in the Brazilian arm.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Both banks are owned by the state, and the Chinese government has a much longer time horizon than HSBC or any
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Thank you so much for your support!
We're counting on you to give the energy required to boot Override!Experimenting with Babies: 50 Amazing Science Projects You Can Perform on Your Kid
Shaun Gallagher. Perigree, $16 trade paper (224p) ISBN 978-0-399-16246-6
While the title may give readers pause, former magazine editor Gallagher, a father of two who runs the site ExperimentingWithBabies.com, offers insights on infant development and parenting with a humorous twist. The experiments (testing cognitive, motor, social, and behavioral development) are perfectly safe for babies, with Gallagher advising that parents end an experiment if it causes their baby distress. Each experiment is explained in terms of age range, complexity, and research area; the experiment itself; the hypothesis; the research; and the takeaway. Occasional boxes feature “Tools of the Trade,” such as high-tech pacifiers or “Don’t Try This at Home,” like the Visual Cliff experiment. The author cites current research, much of it from the last decade, although classic work from practitioners such as Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky also appears. The heart of the book is not the experiments themselves, but takeaways that provide the new parent with developmental clues and suggestions for age-appropriate activities. Parents will appreciate these tips and Gallagher’s whimsical tone, whether or not they experiment on their own tykes. Agent: Laurie Abkemeier, DeFiore and Company. (Oct.)You must sign in or register to continue reading content.
EVERETT — There’s a lot riding on decisions about building a light-rail system from Lynnwood to Everett. And beyond that, there’s a long journey ahead.
New designs released this month show how Sound Transit’s Link trains might reach the heart of Snohomish County, in 15 to 25 years.
There are trade-offs.
A route that would reach Paine Field — a must-have for Snohomish County’s elected leaders — would come at significant cost and would lengthen commute times. That could complicate talks as Sound Transit board members try to balance the northern reaches of the system with proposed additions in Pierce County, the Eastside, Ballard and West Seattle.
Proposed tunnels under downtown Seattle could eat up billions of dollars, but also might make the entire system run more smoothly. Adding costs to create a better system also might mean pushing out the timeline an extra five or 10 years.
“Obviously, we’re going to have to negotiate a settlement on this because not everybody is going to get everything they want,” Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson said.
Decisions about light-rail routes will help the Sound Transit board craft a tax measure known as ST3 for the November 2016 election. The board expects to release more details in March and draft the ballot measure by June.
Specific routes, property acquisitions and better cost estimates for future expansion will be years in the making, if voters approve.
The agency is currently building out Sound Transit 2, which passed in 2008. It should bring rail to Northgate by 2021, and to Lynnwood and the Eastside by 2023.
Costs, trade-offs
Concepts presented by Sound Transit staff at a Dec. 4 workshop show the dilemmas for the 18-member board.
Reaching the southwest Everett industrial center around Paine Field and the Boeing Co. factory would cost nearly $2 billion more than going straight up I-5, planners estimate. Costs are pegged at up to $5 billion for that option, compared to a maximum of $3.1 billion along the I-5 corridor.
For Stephanson, it’s unacceptable to build any route that bypasses the state’s largest job center.
Others are on the same page. The three Sound Transit board members from Snohomish County issued a statement with Stephanson and County Executive-elect Dave Somers after the workshop.
“We think it’s important to build the right system, as opposed to the cheapest system,” said Edmonds Mayor Dave Earling, who serves on the board.
A Paine Field route also would make for longer trips to downtown Everett than following I-5 — up to 13 minutes longer, if Sound Transit planners are on the mark.
A one-way Everett-to-Seattle morning commute by light rail would take an average of 53 minutes if that future route were to head straight down I-5. That would grow to 66 minutes if the route passes through the industrial area around Paine Field.
By contrast, a person driving him or herself needed an average of 51 minutes to go from Everett to Seattle on I-5 during the morning commute in 2014, the state Department of Transportation reported. The trip took an average of 68 minutes by bus.
For elected leaders in Snohomish County, the added time was insignificant compared to the need of getting light rail to the Paine Field area.
Light rail is “a lot more reliable than the interstate system, so I’m not worried about adding a small amount of time,” said Everett City Councilman Paul Roberts, the Sound Transit board’s vice chairman.
Roberts also believes the I-5 route provides few options for transit-oriented development north of 128th Street.
There’s a middle option. It would branch off the freeway at 128th Street, like the Paine Field route, but follow Highway 99 and Evergreen Way before cutting over to Everett Station.
It could shave about four minutes off travel time and save perhaps a half-billion dollars, compared to serving the Paine Field industrial area. To Stephanson, that route won’t work because it fails to get close enough to aerospace jobs and would reach an area already served by Community Transit Swift buses. It also could cut through the lots at Evergreen Way car dealerships.
Paine Field doesn’t dramatically change ridership, at least according to the best guesses of Sound Transit planners.
Up to 58,000 riders would use light-rail trains through the Paine Field industrial area, Sound Transit estimates. That compares to a high-end estimate of 56,000 daily riders for the I-5 route and 54,000 for Highway 99.
A 2.1-mile line from Everett Station to the area around Everett Community College is treated separately in new plans. It would cost up to $764 million and carry a maximum of 4,000 riders daily.
The bigger picture
Leaders in Snohomish County realize they’ll have to make compromises, given what’s on the drawing board for other areas. Sound Transit’s district extends through much of Snohomish, King and Pierce counties.
A successful ballot measure will have to win over Seattle voters.
“The thing that’s so intriguing about this is that we in Snohomish County need King County and Pierce County voters as much as they need us,” Stephanson said.
A Ballard line might cost less than $2 billion, or more than $5 billion, depending on the route. The main variable in the price is pursuing a less-expensive design at street level versus spending more to punch another tunnel under downtown Seattle. The less-expensive version might carry up to 50,000 riders on an average work day; the costlier one up to 133,000.
A West Seattle leg would include elevated tracks and a tunnel into downtown at a cost of up to $2 billion. Daily ridership estimates range from 20,000 to 50,000 for competing designs.
On the Eastside, a segment from the Overlake neighborhood to downtown Redmond would cost an estimated $1.1 billion to carry up to 10,000 riders on an average day.
A segment from Kirkland’s Totem Lake neighborhood to Issaquah could cost nearly $3.4 billion and carry up to 15,000 people per day.
A 15-mile leg from the Kent-Des Moines area to the Tacoma Dome is estimated to attract up to 69,000 riders per day and cost a maximum of more than $4 billion.
How to pay?
To pay for ST3, the Sound Transit Board is considering a mix of property, sales and motor-vehicle excises taxes that are estimated to cost the average area resident an extra $200 per year, about $17 per month.
The taxes would generate an estimated $15 billion over 15 years, with another $11 billion coming from grants, bonds, fares and existing taxes. If completed on schedule, that would get light rail to Everett by 2036.
It’s unclear whether the measure would provide enough cash, though.
“I never thought we could really do what we could need to do with a 15-year package,” said Roberts, the Everett councilman. “I think we need to go to 20.”
Over 20 years, the budget would rise to $30 billion. Over 25 years, it could reach $48 billion.
Costs for the project are estimated 2014 dollars and are bound to rise with inflation.
Earling is an original board member from the early 1990s and is quick to point out that the original vision for light rail included Everett as a key destination, along with Seattle, Bellevue and Tacoma. The agency needs to keep that promise, he said.
“It’s our duty, as a board, to stick to that commitment from many years ago,” Earling said. “My commitment is to finish the spine.”
An initial measure failed at the ballot in 1995. Voters approved a scaled-back plan known as Sound Move in 1996, agreeing to build out the rail and bus system in phases. Former Snohomish County Executive Bob Drewel led the Sound Transit board when it crafted the successful measure.
Giving people up north in Snohomish County a stake in the process was crucial to winning the votes to pass the original package. Shorting the community on the light rail system would run counter to why Sound Transit was formed in the first place, Drewel said.
“This was a regional effort to build a core system for the central Puget Sound area,” he said.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; [email protected].
Twitter: @NWhaglund.
More information
Staff from Sound Transit have drawn up concepts for future Link light-rail routes to Everett and other destinations.
The information is being used to formulate a ballot proposal for November 2016. More details are due out in March.
Find more, including a library of documents, at www.soundtransit3.org.cityscape Cyclists Seek Help from on High at the Blessing of the Bicycles
The annual Blessing of the Bicycles is as much about community as it is about religion.
Dozens of cyclists came to Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church in the Annex on Sunday hoping for a little divine protection.
The Blessing of the Bicycles, as the event is known, started fifteen years ago at New York City’s Cathedral of St. John of the Divine. Trinity-St. Paul’s picked up the tradition four years ago at the urging of Martin Reis, a cycling advocate and box-office manager for Tafelmusik, a baroque orchestra and choir that has its offices inside the church.
“About five years ago, they said, ‘We want to do Earth Day celebrations, what can we do?’” said Reis. “They asked all around, and I said, ‘Well let’s do a guerilla garden,’ which they did. And then the next year they wanted to do something different, and I said that this had never been done in Toronto before, but they’ve been doing this thing in New York called the Blessing of the Bicycles. And they said, ‘Well, I’ve heard of blessing animals before. Why not bicycles?’ And it’s just been growing ever since.”
Reverend Vicki Obedkoff said that the blessing, which involves both a prayer and the sprinkling water on both bike and rider, twins nicely with the United Church’s focus on the environment and social justice.
“I found the liturgy online. I believe it had some Episcopal roots in the United States…and it has a really great scripture text from the prophet Ezekiel, all about ‘wheels are spinning, and the creatures on the wheels are in motion,’” she said. “It’s prophetic, but it’s also a lamentation about what we’re doing to the Earth.”
“It’s even more prophetic now,” she added, “because we know we need public transit, and we know we need cycling infrastructure.”
“I see [cyclists] as prophetic people, with the kind of spirituality that’s called for right now.”
Reis said that, whether or not you believe in the spiritual aspect of the event, things like the Blessing of the Bicycles help build a sense of community among the city’s cyclists.
“We know what it’s like to ride a bike in Toronto, whether you’re in the suburbs or downtown,” he said. “All the road space is for cars…That’s made very clear by the design. Anything I can do to fly in the face of that and show how great and wonderful bicycles are, I will do that. I couldn’t think of a better way to just say thank you to people who ride bikes in Toronto.”
Cyclist Dave Cronsilver, who brought his bike to be blessed, agrees. He thinks the blessing could, in a roundabout way, help with the fight for better bike infrastructure.
“People come by and get their bike blessed,” he said. “And then they meet other cyclists and can organize around being interested in the same things.”
While Trinity-St. Paul’s is the only church currently doing the blessing, parishioner Lyn Gaetz, who is part of the organizing committee for the event, is talking to other faith groups about doing something similar.
“A woman [from another church] came through today and said she’d be very interested in working on that with me,” she said. “I’m very concerned, as many of us are, about our Earth and climate change.”
“My only inkling of hope is that there are faith communities in every city, town and village around the world. If we could all be in solidarity with each other for the Earth, regardless of what else we believe, then we might be able to do something.”Peggy Noon today picks up a theme, recently invoked by David Brooks, which has become a relentless Republican talking point on the presidential stump: Barack Obama is a divider or, as Newt Gingrich inimitably put it to a crowd in Davenport, Iowa, which I report in my print column this week: “The President is a sincere believer in class warfare radicalism.”
This is hilarious, on its face. One thing that we’ve learned about Barack Obama over the past few years is that he is a flagrant, fervent opponent of radicalism of any sort. He has rendered himself a cream puff in his constant pursuit of compromise with the real radicals operating in American politics right now, the Congressional Republicans. His signature initiatives–health care, Wall Street reform, anti-terror policy overseas–either are Republican in origin (health care–I’m looking at you, Newt) or a continuation of policies favored by the Bush Administration (a soft hand toward Wall Street; a strong hand against al Qaeda and its allies).
And so it is sort of rich for Republicans to cry “class warfare” when their 30-year no-tax, deregulatory mania has slowly gutted the American middle class. And it is even more brazen for Republicans to reject the President’s civility and attempts at compromise at every turn, then screech when he finally, finally, begins to defend himself.
The guy just can’t seem to catch a break. The American people support his economic policies in the 60-70% range. They support his performance in the 40% range, in large part because he has been unwilling to really duke it out with the Republicans. This has been true for several reasons: First, he came to office in an economic crisis in 2009 and assumed that even Republicans might respond patriotically to the dire moment, joining him in a real national effort to avert a Greater Depression (although, it is true, that his willingness to allow the House Democrats to pad the stimulus package with their musty wish-list was a mistake). This desire for unity is one possible explanation for Obama’s unwillingness to go after the big banks as Paul Volcker and others not often mistaken for Marxists advised him to do. Second, he is very clearly a guy who does not like confrontation–he doesn’t get the visceral satisfaction that, say, Gingrich does from saying vicious, angry things. For a guy who clearly loves his sports, he seems to have an allergy to scoring points. If anything, this has been a plaintive Rodney King sort of presidency: can’t we just all get along?
And so I plant myself firmly in the camp of Norm Ornstein and Thomas Mann–hardly radicals–who believe that Obama’s most important job is to go out and make a convincing case for what he believes in the coming year, even if it means occasionally getting a bit testy. After all, his position on major economic issues like jobs and deficit-reduction are already as centrist as you can get; any further moves to the right and he’ll slip past George H. W. Bush on the political spectrum–in fact, Obama stands to the right of Ronald Reagan on issues like entitlement reform: no other President of either party has proposed raising the retirement age for Medicare.
Some perspective is necessary here–but, more important, some self-defense from the President. And a firm message to people like Peggy Noonan: What Obama is supporting are not policies that divide America, especially on the major economic issues, but a sane, moderate program of action that a significant majority of Americans favor. To ask the President not to support those policies, as forcefully as he can, defies not only reason and best politicial practices, but also the best interests of this country.One of the US Army's rising stars stands accused of obstructing an inquiry into widespread corruption and mismanagement of the Afghan forces he mentored. And if the charges are accurate, they could end the career of one of the military's top officers.
Lt. Gen. William Caldwell IV, until last year the US officer in charge of training Afghan security forces, allegedly blocked a Defense Department inspector general investigation into a pattern of misconduct exhibited by the Afghan National Army's medical division. Aided by his senior staff, Caldwell prevented that inquiry to spare his command embarrassment ahead of US national elections.
"How could we think to invite the DOD IG [the Pentagon inspector general] in during an election cycle?" Caldwell allegedly upbraided subordinate officers who favored an outside inquiry in fall 2010. Caldwell, supposedly in an "emotional" state, yelled, "You should know better!"
The accusations are laid out in a letter sent to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (.pdf), who calls the incident an apparent "cover up." The Wall Street Journal first reported the letter's contents.
President Obama "calls me Bill," Caldwell allegedly bragged, according to the letter. The general supposedly didn't want to spoil that first-name relationship with a messy inquiry into corruption and wrongdoing at Afghan hospitals.
Since then, Caldwell has assumed command of US Army North in Texas, following a series of plum assignments. The son of a prominent Army general himself, his career trajectory has resembled that of another prestigious, esteemed general – David Petraeus. Caldwell commanded an airborne division at war (the 82nd; Petraeus ran the 101st); then took a senior appointment to Iraq as chief spokesman there; ran the Army's big-think Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth (as Petraeus did before him); and then took a crucial job in Afghanistan running the training of Afghan forces (eventually under the command of Petraeus, who did the same job in Iraq). With a massive budget, Caldwell’s training efforts were considered the key to extricating the US military from combat in Afghanistan, a critical objective for Obama. Caldwell once told confidantes he considered himself fit to run the entire Afghanistan war.
Lt. Gen. William Caldwell briefs House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in Afghanistan, 2011. Photo: Flickr/Office of Nancy Pelosi
Many of the allegations against Caldwell come from Air Force Col. Schuyler Geller, who served as Caldwell's command surgeon when Caldwell ran the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan (NTM-A). A memo from Geller recounting Afghan corruption and Caldwell's reaction, dated 2011, was acquired by Danger Room under the condition we not publish it. He outlines "a significant level of corruption" by the Afghan military medical organization, which he helped mentor. That corruption, he charges, was "known to be present by NTM-A's Senior Army leadership."
"Scores of millions" of dollars in U.S. taxpayer aid to the Afghan Army medical corps disappeared from the official balance sheets, Geller charges, and into what looked to Geller like a criminal enterprise for selling pharmaceuticals meant for Afghan troops. Despite nearly $180 million in U.S. taxpayer money since 2008 for the Afghan medics, Afghan troops far from Kabul have reported a lack of medical support and supplies. "It was clear that financial management at the [Afghan National Army] surgeon general's office was known by NTM-A Programs leadership in March of 2010," Geller writes.
But it wasn't just financial irregularities and pill-selling. Physicians, including surgeons, went into the Afghan military based on political connections, since they could earn "five to eight times" in uniform what they could working for the Afghan public-health system. The result was "suspicions of fuel diversion" at the main Kabul military hospital, where Geller says "patients [were] horrendously neglected and abused." A medical colonel once had a student nurse beaten for requesting the colonel not be verbally abusive, going so far as to pull out his pistol and chamber a round – all in a dining hall.
Geller and his colleagues, all colonels and captains, took their concerns to Caldwell and his staff in the fall of 2010. They sought a top-to-bottom inquiry into the Afghan army medical organization from the Defense Department's inspector general. Initially, Caldwell's chief civilian deputy approved the request, calling it a "no-brainer." Then, allegedly, Caldwell thought otherwise.
Caldwell "directed a retraction of the request," Geller said. One of Caldwell's top officers, Maj. Gen. Gary Patton, had "concerns about the Congressional election next week," and suggested punting on the inspector general request until after the vote. "Three attorneys in the room" told Patton they "recommended against anything in writing to the effect that the decision was timed to the elections."
Caldwell personally reprimanded Geller and his colleagues, allegedly yelling "you should have known better" than to pass the inquiry recommendation to the inspector general, putting Caldwell in the awkward position of retracting it after it came to the inspector general's attention. According to Geller, Caldwell limited the scope of the request for an outside inspector-general inquiry to "pharmaceuticals, medical logistics and mentoring," instead of the "more comprehensive" inquiry Geller wanted.
Geller left Afghanistan in February 2011. "[T]o date no improvement has occurred" in the Afghan army medical corps' hiring practices, he writes in his memo. Caldwell runs U.S. Army North – the same unit commanded 35 years ago by his father. Last week, Patton, a two-star general, became the incoming leader of the Pentagon's sexual-assault prevention and response team.
Caldwell has previously faced accusations that he manipulated politicians and public opinion to make his command look better. The specifics of those allegations turned out to be less than met the eye – and Danger Room defended the general at time. But that doesn't necessarily mean Caldwell was squeaky clean. If what Geller is saying is true, then some of the corruption of the Afghan army medical corps rubbed off on Caldwell. It could well make him unfit for command. Generals have seen their careers ended for much, much less.
Caldwell is entitled to the same presumption of innocence as any American citizen, and the accusations against him are not proof. (He did not respond to requests to comment for this article.) Chaffetz is seeking a deeper Pentagon investigation of Caldwell, and demanding that Panetta dig into this "apparent atempt by senior U.S. military officials to delay the exposure of – or cover up – these atrocities for political reasons." At the Pentagon on Tuesday, spokesman George Little told Danger Room he was "unaware" that the accusations against Caldwell "were known prior to his most recent assignment." He didn't specify how this might impact Caldwell's until-now skyrocketing career.Revealing some of its messaging strategies for the election, the AFL-CIO released a video Monday painting GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney as "Mr. 1 Percent," contrasting the former Massachusetts governor with President Barack Obama, "the champion of the 99 percent," according to the ad.
Portraying Romney as the embodiment of Wall Street values, the video opens with a mashup of Romney's economy-related gaffes on the campaign trail, including his infamous statements that he likes being able to fire people and isn't concerned about "the very poor." The video also highlights some of Romney's anti-labor statements during the past few months, such as his accusation that Obama is "kowtowing" to "union bosses" and his pledge of support for Ohio's Issue 2 anti-union law.
In a statement, AFL-CIO spokeswoman Alison Omens said the video is meant to "educate folks about what Romney truly believes."
"Mitt Romney's attack on workers coming together in unions is a predictable refrain in a career of getting rich looting companies and destroying good jobs," Omens said. "If Romney spent time listening to working people instead of focus-group testing his beliefs, he'd realize that working Americans want a true opportunity to get ahead and don't celebrate the freedom to 'fire people' or outsource good jobs."
Somewhat incongruously for a pro-Obama ad, the video also alludes to the AFL-CIO's ongoing efforts to build an "independent movement" less tied to the Democratic establishment and better equipped to hold lawmakers of both parties accountable to the labor community.
"If we want our country to value what we value... then our job is to build a movement, an independent movement... not beholden to any party or any candidate," Richard Trumka, the labor federation's president, says in the ad.
HuffPost reported last week that the AFL-CIO's super PAC, Workers' Voice, was handing control of its $4.1 million war chest over to union and non-union members, rolling out a new incentive system to promote political activism.by BRIAN NADIG
The construction of two three-story residential buildings is being proposed for a longtime vacant parcel at 4812-18 W. Montrose Ave.
Alderman John Arena (45th) will hold a community meeting on the proposal at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 9, at Saint John’s Lutheran Church, 4939 W. Montrose Ave. Each of the proposed buildings would have six living units, and there would be an average of 1.5 garage parking spaces per unit, and access to the parking would from an alley.
The proposal calls for the 14,200-square-foot site to be rezoned from B3-1 to B2-2, which allows for ground-floor dwelling units in a business district. Under the existing zoning, residential construction would be limited to no more than five dwelling units on the site.
Project developer Noah Properties has been building homes and condominiums in Chicago since 2002. Noah builds some of the “more daring and contemporary buildings” in the city, according to the company’s Web site.
In 2010, the property was rezoned from RS-2, which is intended primarily for single-family homes, to B3-1 to accommodate the construction of a one-story retail center on the site, but the center was never built. In 1999, plans to build a 14-unit condominium project on the site were dropped after residents presented a petition opposing the proposal to then-alderman Patrick Levar.
The property is between a gas station on the east and an apartment building on the west. Over the years residents have complained about trucks and abandoned cars being parked on the site.Earlier today, we reported that the prestigious Stanford University quietly, but officially, changed its logo.
The question on many an alum's mind: Why?
Business Insider talked to Lisa Lapin, associate VP of university communications and the woman who oversaw the update, and it looks like the reason for the change was very Stanford-appropriate.
It turns out that the university — which is in the heart of Silicon Valley and has produced tech giants including the founders of Google, Yahoo, and Hewlett-Packard — was using a logo that just didn't work in the digital world.
"The other mark is very pretty and academic and classic, but it was designed specifically for print and stationery," Lapin said."The world has changed in the last 10 years."
Lapin explained that the previous font "didn't work digitally. It's too thin and fine. People were struggling with the mark online, and we were struggling even further when we were making mobile sites — It doesn't translate to an iPhone screen."
The previous logo also didn't translate well to signatures (like for the school of Engineering) and clothing, so the university primarily went with block letters that merely resembled the official font.
Thus, Stanford hired Bright, a design firm out of Marina del Rey, to create a new logo. Bright had previously done the mark for UCLA.
Stanford's arches. Stanford Law School "They spent a lot of time studying Stanford's architecture," Lapin told BI. "They did come up with a font that reflects the architecture of the campus, primarily the arches."
Since the logo is now a trademarked piece of original art, this solves another challenge of Stanford's old mark: Licensing.
The last logo was Sabon font, and Lapin explained that was expensive to license.
"Lots of units wanted to have it throughout the campus, so we were spending," she said.
Now Stanford owns the logo design, which means that it can also prevent others from replicating the school's likeness by just using Sabon art.
But don't worry, the emblematic tree and Stanford seal aren't going anywhere.Two more years each for Australian and Canadian at WorldTour team
Brett Lancaster and Svein Tuft have both signed contracts for two more years with Orica-GreenEdge, the Australian WorldTour team has confirmed. Both riders have been with the squad since its inception in 2012, and both were part of the Tour de France team that won the stage four time trial in Nice.
“The choice was simple,” said Lancaster. “I wanted to stay on the team. I wasn’t really thinking about going anywhere else. The last two years have been very memorable. I’ve achieved some incredible things. I’m looking forward to another two years with GreenEdge.
“The Tour this year was pretty awesome,” said Lancaster. “Winning the team time trial and standing on the podium with all the boys was really special. The team’s owner, Gerry Ryan, and his son Andrew were there to witness it all. That was definitely the highlight – the highlight from two years with many, many memorable moments.”
“We’re very pleased to renew Brett’s contract,” echoed directeur sportif Matt White. “He played a part in some of our biggest rides and secured some nice results for himself. This past year, he won a stage in Slovenia, rode consistently throughout the entire Giro with our normal sprint group, won the team time trial at the Tour de France and was one of the strongest performers in our silver medal ride in the team time trial at the World Championships.”
Tuft (pictured), one of two Canadians on the Australian team, began 2013 with victory in the time trial stage of the Tour de San Luis, as an eight-time national champion against the clock. He also took the time trial stage of the Tour de Slovénie, before being a key rider in the Tour de France team time trial.
“It was a pretty easy decision for me to stay,” said Tuft. “This is team is a home for me and the riders and staff are my family. I knew after the first season that this was the place where I wanted to ride out my career.
“My first Tour was an amazing experience,” said Tuft. “The team time trial was one of my best days on the bike. Winning the way we did and in the environment that we did is something I’ll remember forever.
“The first week of the Tour was huge for us,” Tuft added. “After that, it seemed like I was hanging on for dear life. I crashed more in the last two weeks than I usually do in an entire season. It was a special just to make through a very tough race.”
“Svein was one of the first riders I brought across to GreenEdge,” said White. “He left Garmin when I did and spent a year with SpiderTech before coming back to the WorldTour. When we began to assemble the team in the summer of 2011, Svein was one of the first riders on my list. He works very hard in every situation. We always know what we’re getting with Svein.”When it was first announced that Universal and director Peter Berg planned to adapt Hasbro’s Battleship to film, many wondered how they could possibly construct a compelling narrative around a game based on reading letter-number combinations and sticking pegs into holes. The answer: Throw $200 million at it, toss some aliens in there, and hope that the desire to see Friday Night Lights’ Taylor Kitsch and True Blood’s Alexander Skarsgard in uniform is enough to attract the key female demographic—that, or the curiosity factor of seeing Rihanna in her feature debut.
Unfortunately, the latter isn’t sated by this just-released trailer, which mostly sticks to setting up the dynamic between Kitsch’s rebellious soldier—his nonconformity telegraphed by the rock ‘n’ roll song on the soundtrack—and Kitsch’s commander and would-be father-in-law Liam Neeson, who approves of Kitsch’s romancing of his daughter (Brooklyn Decker) about as much as he approves of Kitsch’s rock ’n’ roll rebelliousness, which is to say not at all, mister. Then out of nowhere—in a parallel to the real-life brainstorming sessions for a Battleship movie—giant space aliens attack, and it’s all hands on deck for the standard operating alien invasion procedure seen in every other would-be blockbuster of late. About the only recognizable connection to the Battleship game are the aliens' peg-shaped bombs that insert themselves in a neatly spaced array. Presumably Neeson screaming, “You sunk my battleship!” is being saved for the actual movie.XFX Radeon R9 295X2 8GB with Liquid Cooling
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Run ultra settings in 4K with impunity. Or get two million pixels more than 4K by combining five HD screens in an AMD Eyefinity technology setup. Either way, the AMD Radeon R9 295X2 barely breaks a sweat.
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What It Is And Why You Need It:Jared Polec will miss at least eight weeks with a foot injury. Port Adelaide has applied to add Polec to the club's long term injury.
JARED Polec will spend approximately two months away from the playing field after further scans identified a stress response to the navicular bone in his foot.
Polec’s left foot has been managed for the last three weeks, and he was played as the Power’s substitute in Sunday’s Showdown win over the Crows, but the club has now decided to take him off his legs for around six weeks.
From there he will need to pass through around a month of training before he’d be able to return to AFL football.
“We identified a stress response in his foot, so we think it’s best to now take him off his legs for 5-6 weeks,” the Power’s head of high performance Darren Burgess told portadelaidefc.com.au.
“We’ll then see how that responds and hopefully he’ll be able to return sometime after that.”
The decision to place Polec on the long term injury list is one that has the long term interests of the 22-year-old at heart.
Polec is pencilled in as a player with a “big future” at Alberton so an extensive rehabilitation is in his best interests, and will hopefully avoid the risk of further injury, according to Burgess.
“We’ve managed him through the last three weeks pretty well, and we think we could have got him through this season with a pretty aggressive week-to-week approach,” Burgess said.
“But that wouldn’t be in ‘Polly’s’ long term interests and we have a duty of care to put our players’ health before the immediate needs of the club.
“This is consistent with our philosophy toward player injuries. We will take a long-term view of the management of Jared’s foot given his age and value to the team.
“We have sought numerous opinion both locally and internationally and we feel this is the best course of action for Jared and the club.”
Port Adelaide will submit paperwork to the AFL to add Polec to its long term injury list this week, no replacement from the club’s rookie list will be made at this stage.This is my letter of hope for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender teens.
Dear 15 Year Old Me,
That was Then…
Jack, what the hell are you doing? She’s a nice girl and all that but, really, you know you’ll never get beyond heavy petting. Come on, be true to yourself. You’re leading her down the garden path to frustration and disappointment; she deserves better. Just admit that you don’t like ‘it’. Her pretty bits are all in the wrong places, aren’t they? Okay, it’s 1975, it’s the decade that fashion forgot and you’re only fifteen, but you know you know. It’s not just a phase.
London may well have
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